So I definitely underestimated the amount of free time I would have. I thought after having the baby home for a bit, things would fall into place. Don't get me wrong, having multiple people able to help me care for him is a blessing, but it doesn't change that things are far from as simple as I thought they'd be.
Plus, I'm dealing with postpartum depression and have had a hard time getting out of bed, let alone typing anything. I'm getting a bit better and getting a few sentences done here or there, but for now, I can't promise to be back to a good posting schedule, even for something like this that is supposed to be just for fun.
So I hope you all enjoy this chapter, as short as it is. Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and I hope you all have a wonderful 2024!
There was a time when Ren thought that there was nothing that could surprise him. After spending most of his life with Nora and admittedly performing some unsavory acts to survive the wilderness of Anima and the streets of Mistral, Ren believed that minor shock was all that awaited him.
That belief had been thoroughly destroyed.
Life at Beacon hadn't been anything he couldn't predict. Ending up on a team with Nora was an inevitability to him. Pyrrha being on their team was a welcome shock. Jaune being on their team was a welcome coincidence. Life with Team JNPR had been nothing out of the world either, with Nora being the main driving force for many antics that arose.
Nope, Beacon life was well within his expectations.
Then Jaune went and changed. The others didn't notice immediately, but Ren did. Always the observant one, he noticed Jaune become quiet and somewhat cold for a week, before somewhat returning to the lovable goofball that he was. However, his mannerisms changed completely. He seemed more intelligent. More focused.
When he stopped asking Weiss out suddenly, Ren knew something was wrong. It would be another week before Jaune started distancing himself from the teams again. This time, everyone else did notice. Ren hadn't thought it was that much of a big deal; whatever Jaune was dealing with, he'd come to them and talk about it eventually.
However, with prodding from both teams, Ren was forced to go confront his leader prematurely. So after classes one day, he asked Jaune if they could go have a chat, just the two of them.
Jaune looked at Ren with an appraising gaze that made his skin crawl. It was as if he were determining if Ren were an enemy or not. It was a calculating gaze Ren wasn't used to seeing from the blonde.
"Yeah...you should do nicely…" Jaune mumbled. Ren was confused at his words but Jaune just turned and started walking. "Come on Ren." His commanding tone definitely sent warning bells off in the taoista's mind.
Jaune led them deep within Beacon, to a building Ren had never been in. His nerves were getting the better of him, wondering what was truly going on…
Until they reached a hall of music studios. Ren's eyes widened.
"I didn't know these were here…"
"Not many people do. Beacon has a lot of extra curricular activities that many people don't take part in. Everyone just wants to fight." Jaune smirked and pushed open the door to one of the studios.
It was a big room with a mixer and provided computer. There were even two separate recording booths as well.
"These are all purpose studios. You can even do some voice acting." Jaune called as he sat in the chair in front of the mixer board. "So what's up Ren?"
Ren got out of his initial shock and looked at Jaune's big grin. "So this is where you've been going?"
Jaune rose an eyebrow. "Yeah."
Ren sighed. "We all thought you had some big secret, but you were just making music."
Jaune smirked. "Actually, I do have a big secret. Have a seat Ren." Jaune motioned for Ren to sit in a chair that seemed to appear from nowhere behind him.
The raven haired boy just thought he hadn't seen the chair and sat down. As soon as his butt hit the chair, he felt a surge of electricity go through him. However, instead of shocking him, it felt as if a shot of adrenaline had just surged through his body.
"What the…" He groaned and grit his teeth.
"Sorry about not warning you. But this is the only chance I'll get. She's not watching right now but I don't know when she'll start observing me again." Jaune said as he stood from his chair, his eyes beginning to glow with an eerie bluish tint.
Ren's mind was racing. Though he wasn't in pain, the energy coursing through him was intense. Yet, it seemed like his mind was becoming more clear.
"Alright, the next step…" Jaune mumbled before moving and picking up a mic.
Ren couldn't explain it, but it felt as if his mind was wide open. Like every thought he had was on display, and almost making room for more.
"Bah bah black sheep, have you any soul?" Jaune sung.
On instinct, Ren continued. "No sir, by the way, what the hell are morals?"
As soon as the words left his lips, it felt as if more knowledge suddenly filled his mind. Memories came flooding back. They rushed into his subconsciousness for only a few seconds before everything stopped.
Jaune stood over Ren with a bated breath. "Ren? You there?"
His response was his teammate taking deep breaths, sweat covering his body. For a moment, Jaune frowned, thinking it hadn't worked…
"You unbelievable ass hole." Ren breathed out, glaring up at his leader. "You told me I wouldn't be the first guinea-pig!"
Jaune sighed and flopped into the recording chair again, holding the bridge of his nose. "You weren't…" Jaune sighed.
Ren rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean you didn't get all the memories you were supposed to get if you think you were the first. This was the new method we agreed on, but it didn't work."
Ren frowned at Jaune's words. What had just happened was Jaune trying to give memories to Ren from another...life? Timeline?
"So this isn't the sixtieth world?" Ren asked warily.
"Try six hundredth since I tried to bring your memories with." Jaune groaned. "I'm starting to think mom really does know about my memory transfer and has been blocking me from progressing with it. I feel like there are still gaps in my memory as well."
Ren's eyes widened at that. "So how many years have you been trying to bring our newer memories in?"
"A few hundred years give or take." Jaune shrugged.
Ren grit his teeth as his leaders plight.
Jaune had explained to Ren, some long time ago in another life or world or whatever, that he was the son of a mischievous goddess known as Pandora. Hard to believe at first until said leader begins to create things from thin air, rip entire mountains from the ground, and decimate the entire species of grimm and their queen on his lonesome. Makes you a believer real quick like.
However, Jaune also explained that no matter how many times he saved the world, destroyed the world, or even just tried to exist, his mother would reset him at a whim. It could happen at anytime. On top of that, the woman was powerful enough to trap Jaune's memories and even take his powers at any time as well. So many times, Jaune would live his life oblivious to his own existence until his mother saw fit to let him remember.
It had been going on for eons as far as Jaune was aware. To make matters worse, Jaune had seven sisters whom were all experiencing the same fates in their own versions of Remnant.
But as powerful as Pandora was, she wasn't completely omnipotent. She couldn't observe each of her children's reality at the same time. Jaune could feel when she was watching him every now and then. Some odd millennia ago, when Jaune knew she wasn't watching him, he started trying to create ways to keep his memories between his mothers shenanigans.
He was only able to leave an etching on his soul that would allow him to retain memories from that very moment. Eventually, he attempted to do the same for his friends. Though he was able to bring some memories over, he had never been able to bring them all. Some memories would even get lost.
Even when etching code words or actions on their very beings, he could not get a perfect recollection to come through and he didn't understand why.
Ren had about four resets worth of memories. He knew Jaune had been doing his best to bring everyone along, but for some reason, he could only return the memories of three or four people per reset. Something about using all his power to do just that much.
"So what are you planning on doing then?" Ren asked with a sigh, watching Jaune actually fiddling with the recording equipment.
"I mean, it's back to the drawing board I guess." Jaune shrugged. "Since I couldn't bring your memories from the previous reset, I guess we'll just have fun for now. This reset seems a lot more peaceful than the last few dozen."
Ren nodded but was frustrated as well. Even with just four resets worth of memories, he was exhausted from the shenanigans of Jaune's mother. He couldn't possibly begin to understand what Jaune was going through.
"Do you know who else you're going to bring along?" Ren inquired.
Jaune shrugged again. "Pyrrha most likely. You'll want Nora I bet, so our whole team. Maybe Ruby or Blake. Both if I can do four this time."
The blonde was clearly despondent, not really seeming to be all there at the moment. Ren frowned but put a hand on his leaders shoulder. "Hey. Like you said. Let's just have fun this time around. We can worry about your bitch of a mother in another life."
Jaune smiled wryly and agreed. "Alright. Let's head back. I'm pretty sure the others have gotten more than a little suspicious about what we've been doing."
Ren shook his head. "How about we actually make use of all of this." He motioned towards the recording stuff.
Jaune's eyes lit up, as Ren knew they would. At least things could return to some form of predictability.
From then on, Jaune and Ren would actually go to the recording rooms to make music. They were still brainstorming on what to do about bringing everyone's memories over, but it was put on the backburner when it became too stressful.
"So...think the girls are going to have enough of our absences?" Jaune asked.
As soon as those words left his mouth, his scroll began to ring.
"Speak of the devil." Jaune mumbled before picking up. "Hey Pyrrha, what's up?"
"Hello Jaune. I know this is sudden, but do you think you and Ren can come back to Ruby's room? We're about to play a game and we want everyone here for it."
"Sure thing, we'll be there soon." Jaune nodded to Ren and the dark haired boy just rolled his eyes before mouthing the words 'Debauchery Kingdom'. Jaune smirked and confirmed.
"Alright, see you soon." Pyrrha called before hanging up.
The two shared a look with wry smiles. "Bet on who's going to end up naked first?" Jaune offered.
"Cosmic irony would make it Weiss…" Ren pondered.
"1000 lien on Ruby." Jaune smirked.
Ren rose an eyebrow. "Why do you think that?"
"Weiss and Pyrrha have barely been holding themselves back from jumping her bones. They'll definitely target her during the game."
Ren nodded, realizing Jaune was probably right. However, he smirked. "I'll still place my bet on Weiss. Nora will most likely do everything in her power to embarrass her."
"True enough. Well then, let's go have some fun!"
Neopolitan was used to stake outs. With her semblance, she was Roman's number one go to when it came to any type of stealth mission or building case. However, she was also used to those type of missions taking no more than a few days at most. What she wasn't used to was being stuck in a dorm room in a college combat school for several weeks as a freak of nature storm battered the entire region.
Said young woman continued to bang her head against a desk as the rest of her current 'companions' sat about in silence.
She was mute and even she couldn't stand the silence for so long.
Thankfully enough, her antics of boredom finally got on someone's nerves.
"Will you please cut that out?" Emerald growled, tossing her scroll aside. It wasn't like she could get a signal on the damn thing for long anyway.
Cinder looked up with a bemused smile, setting her own scroll to the side. Mercury ignored them all, simply playing a game on a handheld that didn't require internet.
Neo looked up at Emerald with a pout. The dark skinned young woman flinched at the defeated look of the mini assassin. "Don't give me that look! We're all in the same boat! Until that storm clears, we're stuck inside. And Cinder wants us to lay low until the Vytal Festival."
Neo whined before going to bang her head on the desk again. Before she could start, however, Cinder cleared her throat.
"There may be a change of plans." The woman stood and straightened her nightgown. With classes canceled and everyone stuck inside the dorms, the woman had begun to get comfortable in her temporary 'home'. No special dresses, no uniforms. Just casual lounge wear. "I admit, I'm running out of fanfiction to read. Maybe going and mingling with the weak sheep will be a welcome change of pace."
With her words, Neo's eyes lit up and the shapeshifter darted from the room at the speed of sound.
"Won't that compromise your plans though?" Emerald asked with worry.
Cinder shook her head. "I've thought about it and it may be more beneficial to gain the trust of our 'peers'. Endearing ourselves to them may take accusing eyes off of us once we set our plan into motion."
Emerald couldn't refute that logic. As much as she hated the thought of playing nice with the naive children of Beacon, she hated being stuck in their dorm room even more. "Then what should I do?"
"Whatever you want. You don't need me to hold your hand all the time." Cinder waved Emerald off before picking up her scroll and heading out as well.
Mercury finally paused his game and looked to Emerald. "So we're just going to ignore the fact that she said she was reading fanfiction this whole time?"
The mint haired girl paused at that. "Fanfiction...about what?"
In her rush to get out of the dorm, Neo uncharacteristically didn't pay attention to her surroundings. Not even ten feet down the hall did she run into someone as she were rounding a corner. She bounced backwards, going into a backflip and landing in a fighting stance, out of reflex. However, she noticed the tall, blonde, and admittedly handsome dork standing in front of her with a raised eyebrow.
She wondered how he didn't even flinch from their collision, but soon chalked it up as him just being sturdy.
"Sorry about that. Wasn't paying attention." Jaune offered. "Are you okay?" He asked.
Neo relaxed, seeing that it was the hapless team leader of JNPR. A clueless waste of space that would probably be one of the first to die when their plan for the Vytal Festival started. With a smirk, she began to do Valeian sign language.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Your stupid handsome face distracted me is all." She signed quickly, rolling her eyes as she assumed Jaune wouldn't know what she was saying.
"Oh, sorry about my stupid handsome face then. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" The blonde smirked himself, waiting the small woman's reaction.
Neo began to sign on instinct. "Anything to cure my boredom-" Her fingers stopped mid movement as her jaw dropped and she looked up at the amused smile on the blonde's face. A blush began to spread across her cheeks as she became mortified.
Jaune snickered before signing himself. "Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the fingers. Ladies love it."
Ren rose an eyebrow at the two before tapping Jaune's shoulder to let him know he was going ahead. Jaune nodded and gave his attention back to Neo.
"N-Neopolitan…" Neo signed back. Jaune was confused on how she stuttered with her hands but found it cute anyway.
"Nice to meet you Neo." Jaune spoke again. "So, you say I can make this up to you by curing your boredom?" He asked with a smoldering grin.
Neo once again blushed, but tried her best to push it down. She was just caught off guard, which was a rarity. However, she needed to get her footing again. She held a hand up towards Jaune, asking for a moment, before beginning to sign. "As interesting as it is that you know sign language, I doubt you could surprise me again. What could you possibly do for fun besides video games or masturbating?"
The woman tried to take the lead in the conversation by being vulgar, but she wasn't expecting the blonde to smile deviously.
"Well, I've got plenty of hobbies, but masturbating isn't one of them. If that's your thing, I wouldn't mind lending you a hand though." He towered over the small woman, backing her against a wall. "But I was just going to invite you to play a drinking game with my team instead."
Neo was caught off guard again, but not as much as before. She blushed at his implications, but entertained the idea for a moment. Getting her rocks off did sound good after not being able to do so for the past two weeks. However, she was even more interested in hearing that this dork played drinking games. Even more so with the thought that Pyrrha Nikos partook as well. The bonus was that a drink sounded amazing right now, and depending on how drunk this blonde dork could get, maybe she could still have fun with him later.
"A drink sounds great actually." She signed with a sultry smile. "Play your cards right, and maybe I'll let you lend me a hand later." She winked and walked in front of Jaune, swaying her hips.
'Yeah, she's sexually frustrated.' Jaune chuckled in his mind. 'I may need to change my bet with Ren to myself…'
The two approached Team RWBY's dorm to see Ren standing in front of the door waiting for them. He gave Neo a questioning gaze before looking to his leader. After a few resets, Ren was aware that Neo was currently working with Cinder with plans to cause havoc at the Vytal Festival. However, he had also seen the few times Jaune was able to turn Neo, Roman, and even Cinder good. He figured this would just be one of those times.
"She's a new friend. Don't worry, she'll fit right in with the game tonight."
Ren could only roll his eyes before knocking on the door. An excited Nora answered and all but drug Ren into the room. Neo blinked at the group in the room and felt a bit out of place for a moment. Jaune placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her inside.
"Don't be nervous. Everyone here is super nice...except Weiss."
"Hey!" Weiss called indignantly.
Neo rolled her eyes at Jaune and gave everyone a confident smirk. However, her smirk shrank a little as she noticed the amount of alcohol in the room. She drank on occasions and had even gotten drunk a few times, but it was always on smaller amounts of drinks.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ruby!" The young reaper darted towards Neo excitedly.
Neo prepared to sign but Jaune beat her to respond. "She's mute, everyone. If you know Valein sign language, that would be appreciated."
"Do you know sign language, vomit boy?" Yang asked. Jaune signed yes. Pyrrha, Yang, and Ruby's eyes lit up.
Yang excitedly began to sign. "Well that's another secret revealed!"
Pyrrha happily joined in. "I can't believe none of us knew we could sign like this! I know Mistrali sign language as well!"
Before the small group could continue, Blake cleared her throat. "Want to let us in on the conversation?"
Jaune, Yang, Ruby, and Pyrrha looked at Blake with deadpan stares before signing the same thing. Neo silently began to giggle.
"I don't know what you all said but I'm still somehow offended…" Blake groaned.
"What did you all say?" Nora asked.
"Curiosity killed the cat." Pyrrha giggled.
"I hate you all." Blake called halfheartedly.
"Regardless," Weiss interrupted. "It's a pleasure to meet you Neo. But for your sake, you may want to run away while you still can. The absurdity of my 'friends' may very well be contagious."
Neo pulled out her scroll and began to type quickly. She held up her scroll for Weiss to see. 'Meh, I'm pretty sure you all are more tame than my usual teammates.'
"Is that a challenge?" Nora asked with a deadly smirk. Yang and Jaune shared a look and nodded to each other. Neo would be in for a crazy night.
