Chapter 24: Reactions and Consequences

Soft.

That was the only thought running through Jaune Arc's mind as he was overwhelmed by Blake's soft luscious lips. All other thoughts were blown away as Blake ran her hands through his hair.

This kiss is so different from any of the kisses they have ever shared before. Unlike the ones she gave him last night that were meant to teach him and increase his arousal, this kiss is full of worry, comfort, and relief.

As Jaune simply enjoyed the feeling of Blake's lips against his, he does not notice the reactions they are garnering from their friends. He only remembers that they are not alone when he is suddenly being pulled away from Blake.

Fuck.

Looking into the emerald eyes of his girlfriend who is suddenly kneeling beside him, Jaune knew he fucked up.

"Pyr-"

Before Jaune could even apologize with a pale face and wide eyes, Pyrrha is suddenly pulling him into another kiss.

"Renny! Oh my Gods, Renny! It is happening!" Nora mutters loudly as she excitedly shakes Ren who is already so dizzy that he can no longer take in the scene happening in front of them.

"...Nice." He hears Sun state out loud once he manages to get his bearings from the enormity of the situation..

"Okay! What the fuck?!" And it takes another moment but Yang's voice sounds out again from right beside Blake which causes her to flinch in surprise.

Yet Jaune has no time to process all of that because he is suddenly meeting Pyrrha in a hot act of passion.

Relying on instinct, Jaune opens his mouth and battles Pyrrha's tongue for dominance, causing her to let out a moan. Just that sound alone is enough to rouse his blood up and cause the kiss to deepen.

And almost all too quickly for Jaune's tastes, Pyrrha pulls back with a heavy pant before staring straight into his eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't want to be left out." Pyrrha says sheepishly at him with a small smile.

Looking at his girlfriend currently squirming nervously in front of him, Jaune Arc only has one thought.

Adorable.

Overwhelmed by his girlfriend's cuteness, there's only one way Jaune Arc could respond. He leans forward to kiss her.

As of right now, to Jaune there is only him and Pyrrha. It wasn't even a full 10 minutes ago that he almost died so he takes this moment to release all his pent up emotions.

He doesn't hear Nora's muttering or Yang's indignant squawking. Nothing gets past through Jaune's mind as he continues to kiss his girlfriend

If the previous kiss was full of passion with tongues battling for dominance, this kiss is slow and full of comfort, apology, longing, and love.

Slowly, but still too quick for Jaune, the two lovers separate from each other. Leaning their foreheads against each other, Jaune whispers to her lovingly.

"I'm sorry…I love you."

"I love you too. I'm glad you're safe." Pyrrha replies back with a reassured smile.

Jaune moves to embrace Pyrrha but before he could pull her into his arms, she suddenly pulls away and turns to Blake. Which actually manages to snap him out of the illusion that there is only him and Pyrrha here.

Jaune's heart leaps to his throat at the memory of what he just did with Blake. Both girls are then locked in a staredown charged with tension.

Emerald green eyes look flatly against amber eyes filled with nervousness. It is Blake who folds first by tilting her head down and trying to apologize.

"Pyrrha! I'm sorry! It was the adrena-hrk!" Blake tries to apologize first before suddenly being assaulted. Assaulted by Pyrrha's hug that is.

"I'm glad you're safe too, Blake." Pyrrha says out loud, holding on to Blake tightly.

The words make Jaune sigh in relief. If Pyrrha isn't mad then maybe everything is alright.

"I…uhm…Thank you. You're not mad?" Blake replies, grateful and confused at the same time.

Jaune would also like to know the answer to that question.

Is she really not mad?

Pyrrha's answer to that is a shy smile and words that would blow Jaune's mind away when he hears it.

"As long as you let me know next time, then it's okay." She answers Blake's question with a shy smile.

Next time?! What?!

"Ne-next time?!" Blake shouts incredulously in a loud voice, which Jaune thinks is an appropriate response because he is thinking the exact same thing.

"Of course, I mean you already kissed him impulsively, right?" Pyrrha asks back, her smile growing confident as she moves past her shyness.

"Ri-right." Blake answers nervously, unable to fully refute Pyrrha's statement.

"So I fully expect something like this to happen again. Who knows maybe you'd both share more than a kiss." Pyrrha continues slyly, referring to what they did earlier this morning and even last night.

While that statement causes Jaune to gulp at what the hell his life is turning into, that actually makes Blake feel relieved and happy. Still, Pyrrha isn't done yet.

"But just so you know….I was here first." Pyrrha gives her a competitive smile which causes Jaune to blush at the implications. First means there's second.

"...Of course." Blake's answer to that statement is to stare at Pyrrha and smile slowly.

At that moment, both girls reach an understanding as they both move to hold each other's hands.

"Welcome to the family." Pyrrha greets Blake with a blush which is also infecting Jaune right now.

Family, what?

"Thank you for having me." Blake responds in kind with a blush of her own.

And what? Just like that? Does Blake like me? Since when? How? What?

Both girls then turn to look at Jaune expectantly. The same Jaune who is now currently glowing red at implications of what just happened.

If he isn't reading it wrong, Pyrrha, his girlfriend, has just accepted Blake as his friend with benefits? mistress? or 2nd girlfriend? in his stead. What? How? Why? Jaune has so many questions.

As far as he knew he only cared for Blake as a friend. But what does he know?

Friends don't just kiss each other. They don't sleep with one another. They don't clean your cock with their mouth after a round of sex with your girlfriend either.

So really, maybe they're just really good friends? Jaune doesn't know either but it looks like Pyrrha has already answered for him.

But is he really gonna complain if his girlfriend wants this to happen too? It's not as if being with Blake is a bad thing for him either. She's smart, caring, beautiful, and strong. Weren't those traits he found attractive in Pyrrha in the first place?

Looking at the two beautiful women in front of him, Jaune is overwhelmed by confusion and emotion. He doesn't know how the hell his life turned into something straight out of Blake's books but he'd be stupid to turn the both of them down right now.

Still, just because he knows he's not that stupid doesn't mean he automatically knows what to say to two beautiful women looking at you expectantly.

Luckily, he is saved from responding to them immediately by an unlikely source.

"Again! What the fuck?!" Yang shouts out from right beside Blake for the third time.

"...Holy shit.." Sun states with wide eyes before being grabbed by Nora.

"I was right! Fearless leader is building a harem!" Nora exclaims as she shakes both Ren and Sun this time.

"A-a-a-a harem?!" Weiss yells in shock, unable to process what the hell is happening.

All those loud reactions actually snap Jaune, Pyrrha, and Blake from the atmosphere they've surrounded themselves in.

Not being in the middle of a kiss finally lets Jaune see what his friends' reactions are to what is currently happening.

The closest to the action is Yang, having a front row seat lets her see every single detail of each kiss she has been witness to. Jaune could already see her blushing red while gawking at the scene.

The next one is Ruby who has covered her red face with her hands to avoid looking at them while repeatedly muttering "filth". Though, it doesn't escape Jaune's notice that she's also peeking through her fingers to watch the action.

Then there was Weiss, staring at them with a pale face and her jaw dropped in surprise and a hint of….disgust? fear? Out of all the reactions, that probably hurts the most.

Considering Jaune was just proclaiming his love for her recently, he can see how his current situation would look like for Weiss.

"Wait, Weiss. It's no-!"

Standing up to explain the situation to her, Jaune is interrupted before he could even fully start.

"Zip it, Arc! I don't want to hear it from you-you-you degenerate!" Weiss shouts loudly with a red face.

Degenerate…

That comment actually causes Jaune to freeze and slump in defeat with a pale face.

Degenerate…I'm a degenerate?

Seeing that her boyfriend took emotional damage, Pyrrha rises up to his defense. She stands up quickly and frowns at Weiss.

"Wei-"

"Nope! Nuh-uh! We are not talking about that right now! You've had your fun, Pyrrha! Now it's my time to talk! You, Belladonna! Do you know how worried we've been for you?!" Weiss cuts off Pyrrha, unprepared for the sudden interruption she lets her continue to point at Blake.

"I-uh…Weiss. I'm sorry. I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. And the thing with Jau-" Blake, who is starting to stand up and is caught flat-footed.

She tries to apologize first before she attempts to explain the situation but is interrupted by Weiss again.

"Stop! Nope! Nope! We are not talking about him! Do you have any idea how long you were gone? 48 hours. That means I've had 48 hours to think about this. In that 48 hours, I've decided….."

"That questionable taste in males aside…."

"Hey! Jaune is not questionable!" Pyrrha responds but is promptly ignored by Weiss.

"That I don't care!" Weiss finishes while pointing at Blake.

"..What? You don't care?" Blake asks with a confused face.

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right? That you're no longer part of the White Fang."

"I-I haven't been one of them sinc-"

Blake starts to answer only to be interrupted once again. It seems Weiss is making a habit of interrupting people right now.

"Ah-bahp-bahp-bahp. I don't wanna hear it! All I want to know is that the next time something big comes up…you will come to your teammates and not….someone else." Weiss finishes and looks at Jaune at the end of her speech.

To be honest, Jaune is a bit offended at that. He's not that unreliable that Weiss should warn Blake away from him right?

It seems Blake and his team feel the same way as him because they all frown a bit at Weiss.

To her credit, Weiss feels the growing animosity and even her teammates disapproval. She sighs and moves to clarify the situation before any more misunderstandings happen.

"No, not like that. What I mean is you come to us first…..We're team RWBY, aren't we? We're supposed to be there for one another." Weiss says with a bit of blush at the end.

That actually gets everyone to smile at Weiss' words. It doesn't take long for her to crack under the pressure of everyone's stares though.

"Well! What's your answer, Belladonna?!" Weiss shouts with a glowing red face, embarrassed at her own words from earlier.

Looking at Blake, Jaune could see her looking worriedly at him. He gives a supportive smile and a nod back to show her that it's okay, he's not jealous or anything foolish like that.

He isn't the jealous controlling type…..Well maybe a bit jealous if how he felt when Sun tried to flirt with Pyrrha yesterday is anything to go by. But still, that's different! This is a totally different situation from that.

As a leader, Jaune could understand that a team should be the first to know if any member has a problem. It doesn't mean that she couldn't share the problems with others though, just that her team should be the first to know.

With Blake relieved at the fact that there wouldn't be any issues with her current beau, Jaune sees her smile at a red-faced Weiss, a giddy Ruby, and a grinning Yang beside her.

"Yeah, of course I can promise that. We're team RWBY after all, right?." Blake finishes to the delight of her whole team as she walks forward with Yang to gather their whole team.

"Oh Yeah! Team RWBY is back together! Group hug!" Ruby exclaims, waving her arms wildly and using her Semblance to get all of Team RWBY together.

Just as they are watching Team RWBY bask in their group hug, Jaune hears Nora Ren, and Sun walk to his and Pyrrha's position.

Looking at Sun's grinning expression, he already knows what he's going to ask. Luckily he is saved from answering how the hell did he get both Blake and Pyrrha by a familiar voice.

"Well, well, well if it isn't my recent favorite kids. We really should stop meeting like this."

"Captain Roger!" Jaune exclaims, turning towards the gruff voice.

Captain Goldy Roger, in all his grizzly police uniform glory approaches the group.

"You know I could arrest you for vigilantism right now, right?"

That actually gets Team RWBY to break their hug with Ruby approaching the police captain as the rest of her team stands together with them.

"What?! But we didn't do anything!" Ruby pleads.

"Yeah! It was those White Fang mooks!" Nora adds.

"That might be true, but you still tried to take justice into your own hands. Which is still a crime if you aren't the authorities." Captain Roger rebukes.

That actually makes Blake flinch. The original plan they made at the club was that after confirming the White Fang were working with humans, they would call the authorities.

It only devolved into fighting when she went in to talk down the White Fang. Still, it's not as if Jaune's gonna tell anyone that. Faced with a situation that hasn't devolved into a fight, Jaune does what is increasingly becoming familiar to him. He lies, he bluffs, he cheats.

"...Sorry Sir…We didn't think this would happen. They found us before we could call the police." Jaune lies like the liar he is.

"Uh huh, a likely story. Are you sure you didn't pick a fight with them? The first time we met was when you were involved with the White Fang too." Captain Roger snorts back at him.

Damn. As much as Jaune likes using Captain Roger against criminals, it doesn't feel as good when he's going for Jaune himself.

"We promise Sir, we weren't really doing anything bad. You can ask Pyrrha over here." And in one stroke Jaune has both bluffed and cheated his way to victory against Captain Roger.

He just bluffed his way into sticking that they didn't do anything illegal and he just cheated by using Pyrrha, or more specifically her reputation, against the poor captain.

After all, trying to counter a celebrity's statements will always give anyone a hard time. It's just not worth the effort. Pyrrha must have realized the same thing because she backs Jaune's statements up even if a bit more stiffly..

"Yes, Captain. I, Pyrrha Nikos, confirm that we didn't do anything bad." Pyrrha says woodenly, which almost makes Jaune want to facepalm. As amazing as his girlfriend might be, it seems that acting innocent is not one of her skills.

"Hmmm. Welp, you're not my problem anyway." Captain Roger shrugs, smiling as if he knows something they don't.

Confused at that reply, it is Ruby who asks the important question.

"Uhhh…What do you mean by that?"

"Unfortunately, Miss Rose. It means you're my problem." A voice that makes Jaune's spine shiver says from beyond Captain Roger.

Lo and behold, Professor Glynda Goodwitch has arrived.

""""Professor Goodwitch?!""""

Looking at the stern visage of the disciplinarian of Beacon, Jaune Arc gets the feeling that they should have just gotten arrested by Captain Roger. He'd take a jail cell with his friends than the disappointed frown of Professor Glynda Goodwitch.

Sunday night, the last few hours of rest a person can enjoy before they go to work on the morrow again.

Usually Glynda Goodwitch would spend the last few hours of the weekend relaxing before being subjected to the hell that is teaching hormonal teenagers for five consecutive days straight.

Unfortunately for her, she would have to spend these last few hours handling the debacle at the docks.

It isn't a hard rule, but it has been a common enough occurrence that if any incident happens in Vale there's a high chance students of Beacon are involved. Then there's a 50/50 chance that the students themselves are the instigators or just unwittingly stumbled through a criminal operation.

The Gods know how many times that has happened during her own time as a student. Which is why she isn't surprised to find herself currently standing at the docks and staring down her errant students.

""""Professor Goodwitch?!""""

"Yes students, me." Glynda replies with a straight face, not letting any of her students see the twitch fighting to break out of her face.

"Well, Glynda. Here are your students in the middle of a crime scene. Now what do you want to do with them?" A voice pipes up from beside her.

Captain Goldy Roger, one of the few huntsmen that has managed to reach his age greets her view.

It is a common enough occurrence that those who live long in a profession as dangerous as theirs eventually take positions in law enforcement as a form of soft retirement.

While most choose to become sheriffs and protectors in the frontier towns against the Grimm, some veterans do take positions in the City of Vale to keep the peace.

Nodding her respect to the elder huntsman, Glynda keeps a straight face as she glares back at her shaking students.

"Detention with Professor Port, for all of them except Mr. Wukong."

That actually gets all her students to groan, which almost brings a smile to Glynda's face, not that she'd ever admit to relishing in her students' misery. And all the while Mr. Wukong is whooping in surprise.

"Sweet! Sorry, guys." Sun Wukong exclaims in relief of not being in detention while looking at the betrayed looks of his new friends.

Though Glynda couldn't have that. Haven student or not, Sun Wukong was still involved in the incident and needs some form of punishment. She promptly moves to burst Mr. Wukong's happy bubble.

"Instead Mr. Wukong will be confined with his team inside their ship." Glynda continues glaring solely at Sun.

"...Awwww man, more boats." Sun pouts.

"Haha. Sorry kid, but business such as this is serious enough that we have to double check everyone coming to Vale in the next few days. We arrested some of White Fang coming from the docks, that warrants tightening some security measures. So that means staying with your team who will be arriving soon." Captain Roger adds with a small smile to Sun.

"Indeed. Now can any of you tell us what happened here?" Glynda adds sternly, looking at her students who began to glance at each other.

Glynda didn't actually need to ask what happened, she only asked that to see how the students would react. After all, Ozpin already showed her the footage and gist of what occurred.

Having an immortal for a boss really has its perks when said boss has a surveillance network able to monitor important parts of Vale.

Granted it's not omniscient, but the network is good enough to react to any disturbances and immediately show Ozpin what is happening. Unprofessional he might be most of the time, but Headmaster Ozpin really takes it seriously when it comes to the safety of his students and city.

Glynda has no idea how Ozpin built his surveillance network but she's all too happy enough to take advantage of it when needed.

Looking back at her students, Glynda sees that they've finally decided on who to sacrifice, or more specifically who will talk to her. Jaune Arc steps forward to face her.

"We…uhhh.. Found the White Fang with Roman Torchwick smuggling Dust into Vale. There was a short woman too, Roman's accomplice maybe. We think he called her Neo."

"Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan, together with the White Fang. Damn, this just got bigger. Up until today, we haven't actually seen them in the same heist. Good job kids." Captain Goldy replies, not letting Glynda question her students on why they were even at the docks in the first place.

Though Glynda thinks that it was probably at Ms. Belladonna's request that they were at the docks in the first place.

Sighing internally to herself as she leaves the questions to Captain Goldy, Glynda settles in observing two particular students of hers. Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna specifically.

Thinking back to the footage Ozpin showed her, she resolves to give these two any help they might require.

Jaune Arc's performance during the incident was admirable when he led his friends and adapted quickly to a changing situation but it rapidly devolved into inadequate when faced with an opponent much weaker than him.

Looking back at the moment that Mr. Arc cut off that poor Faunus' hand sends a pang of pain through Glynda's chest. Lessons about fighting people without Aura are taught during Combat School, but without having attended one, Mr. Arc was not prepared to engage them safely.

Still, the cruel lesson he learned today was something all huntsmen-in-training will eventually go through. It is a sad fact that Glynda could not shield them from the inevitability that sometimes it is not only the Grimm a huntsman needs to hunt.

Looking at him right now, Glynda could see nothing wrong with how Mr. Arc is acting. Unfortunately, she saw how he froze against the one fighting Ms. Belladonna.

Glynda would have to give Mr. Arc some special attention these coming days.

Perhaps a visit to a therapist will be beneficial.

Now moving on to Ms. Belladonna, her problem is different in that she charged alone against the enemy without waiting for her teammates.

While she might be more experienced and better at fighting than Mr. Arc, she did endanger her friends by going forward on her own.

Hmmm. More emphasis on teamwork and keeping your head cool in the heat of battle would be appropriate training for the girl.

Still, those are problems for the near future. Right now, Glynda Goodwitch needs to impart a lesson now.

Finding that Mr. Arc has finished answering all of Captain Goldy's questions, Glynda moves to reprimand the whole lot of them.

"I hope all of you have learned that this is not a joke. If we arrived a little bit later then who knows how bad this could have gotten." She says sternly, hoping the lesson sticks with the children.

That gets all of them to flinch, especially both Mr. Arc and Ms. Belladonna. They were probably thinking about the moment Mr. Arc almost died.

Good, they should remember this experience and make a valuable lesson out of it.

Though to be honest, that certain moment scared Glynda too. It is always unpleasant to see your students be harmed when there's nothing you could do about it.

"Thank you Professor Goodwitch. If you didn't take out their reinforcements then it probably would've gone badly." Mr. Arc says in gratitude, though there is something that disturbs Glynda about his statement.

"Reinforcements? We didn't take out any of their reinforcements." Glynda arches an eyebrow at him.

Ozpin did not show her how the reinforcements got taken down, only the parts focusing on her students. Though that in itself is a mystery since she never saw any of her students move to intercept the White Fang reinforcements.

"We thought you did. We only arrested the passengers." Captain Goldy adds, looking at her students.

"...Well if you didn't do it, and we didn't do it. Then who did?" Ruby Rose asks the important question.

"That's a good question indeed, Ms. Rose. But it's certainly not yours to answer. Let the authorities handle that while we return to Beacon." Glynda answers as she leads her students except Mr. Wukong back to Beacon.

It would seem I would have to explicitly ask Ozpin about this. I just hope he isn't playing another one of his stupid games.

Inside a limousine driving away from the docks, a shadowed man and a dejected girl face each other in conversation. The sight of the two would give any person watching them the impression of a child being reprimanded by her father.

"Penny, I thought I told you to only observe." The shadowed man inside a limousine says to an apologetic orange-haired girl.

"...I'm sorry, Sir….My friends needed help." Penny replies dejectedly like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar.

"...Your time will come Penny, just be patient…..But you did good." Sighing, the man comforts Penny.

"...Thank you, Sir." Slowly but surely, Penny's frown turns into a smile at the compliment.

With the dejected air blown away between the two, the man leans forward revealing the visage of General James Ironwood of Atlas giving Penny Polendina a small smile.

"Good…Now tell me about your new friends, Penny."

"Gladly, Sir. There's Nora, my first friend. Then there's Jaune Arc, he's good at making friends!..."

As Penny continues to regale General Ironwood with details about her friends, the limousine continues to drive away as General Ironwood takes note of people he would put under observation in the future.

Meanwhile, inside an office atop the Beacon Tower, Ozpin watches a live feed of the docks through his scroll.

Training his eyes on the young people who are Remnant's future warriors, he begins to calculate how tonight's events will affect his plans.

He is disturbed from his musing by the sounds of his scroll notifying of a message.

Qrow: The Queen has Pawns.

"Hmmm…"

Inside a warehouse in another part of Vale, a cane taps the ground as its wielder walks to stand beside a large table. Looking at the people already on the other side, Roman Torchwick sighs and decides to get it over with.

"How disappointing. And you call yourself a master thief." Cinder Fall, the fire bitch herself smirks to him in greeting.

"Don't blame me. The snag was from their side. A former White Fang operative." Roman deflects, pointing his cane at the mutt beside him.

"...Belladonna." The mutt growls out, not offering any other explanation.

"I don't care. You promised to deliver more than this Roman, are you sure you can keep that promise? If you can't…I might be forced to look for alternatives." Cinder chuckles darkly at the last part, as she lights a fireball in her hand.

Fuck you, bitch.

Of course Roman doesn't say that. He thought it though. Ever since this woman came to Vale, his life has just been one Dust heist after another that he's running himself ragged.

Still, Roman Torchwick did not survive this long by mouthing off to people who could kill him. Instead, he gives a smirk of his own even if it's not as confident as Cinder's.

"...Yeah, I can keep it. Just make sure no leaks happen again." Roman answers, affirming his usefulness and deflecting the blame to the White Fang again,

"Emerald, Mercury, why don't you talk with the lieutenant over here and plug some holes." Cinder responds back, pointing her goons to the mutt who just growls and walks away.

"Sure thing Cinder." The green-haired girl says reverently before following the mutt.

Ugh..a fan. How could that psycho have a fan?

"Whatever you say, boss." The gray-haired young man answers flippantly, slowly trailing behind the green-haired girl.

With everyone out of the way, it is only Cinder and Roman left standing around the table.

"Now, do you have anything else to report?"

This would be his chance to tell her about the kids who ruined their operation. This is his chance to make her aware of possible threats against their big plans going by the track record.

The chance to tell her of Pyrrha Nikos running around Vale and busting operations. Or even of Jaune Arc, the young man who's good at leading his group of wannabe crimefighters.

Still, Roman Torchwick did not also survive this long in the underworld by offering information freely. Especially to people who would have no qualms with killing him once he's outlived his usefulness.

"...No."

I think I'll keep you kids to myself for now. Who knows, you might help me and Neo get free of this bitch.

A/N

End of V1! We finally reached it! Thanks for bearing with me this long guys! I hoped you liked it.

I'll be taking a break from posting next week just to write a few more chapters for my pa tr eon and kofi and get the whole V2 plot wrapped up in my outline.

The return would be on Nov 13.

P.S. The first chapter of Thy Rusted Knight is up and posted in Pa t reon. I'll be posting it here on Nov 10 once I've written a few more chapters for it.

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