Yo! Back from break! Schedule's still up in the air atm, I'll talk more about that after the chapter. For now, shall we get into it?

Start Chapter 4

There's a beat thumping in Jaune's ears more loudly than anything he's ever heard.

It's a constant, rhythmic thing, so hard and heavy that he feels like his own heart is beginning to conform to those powerful pulsations. All around him, people from all different walks of life are jiving, dancing, and just in general gyrating to the music that's eclipsing any possible hope of conversation.

Idly, when he can make out his own thoughts from the ringing in his ears, Jaune wonders just exactly how it is he's ended up in this situation.

…Oh, that's right.

/

The knock he gives Ren and Nora's door is tepid, nervous; something he is, again, not at all proud of.

Still, it's progress he hasn't been able to make since coming back from the Ever After. He's not been able to spend any alone time with them; all of them being far too busy to afford as much. But…

Then again, Jaune also hasn't been trying to make time, either.

He's going to change that.

It's Nora who answers the door, her eyes widening as she realizes it's him. He spots Ren inside of the room on his own bed, looking up from the book he'd been reading with some small surprise himself.

"Hey, guys." He says, for lack of anything more intelligent-sounding to say.

"Hey, yourself." Nora's smile is somewhat put upon, but there's an element of genuine happiness there as well. "Come on in, big guy."

He nods his head, and steps into the room as Nora gently closes the door behind him. He's… honestly, he's not really sure what it is he wants to say here. He's never been all that good with carefully laid plans. Better to wing it, and count on his ability to adapt.

It's biting him a bit here, however, as he swallows on nothing, and tries to come up with something to say to them.

"I uh… I talked with Blake and Yang a bit. We went out to get something to eat, and they told me you guys had been worried about me."

The other two react to that, seemingly not having expected him to know. He's grateful that Blake and Yang had told him, even if they'd, seemingly, gone behind Ren and Nora's backs to do it.

"…Yeah. We did." Ren speaks, his voice calm, but somewhat unsteady. "It's been… hard, recently. You're back, and you're healthy, but you're not…"

The silence stretches on for a second too long, before Nora coughs into one hand, looks up at him with earnest eyes, and says, "You're different. With RWBY, it's… it's odd, because they're the same; like exactly the same as we remember, because for them it's only been a few days. But you for…"

For him, it had been twenty years. Two decades.

Quite a bit of time more than for anyone else.

Jaune sighs, running his hand up and down the back of his neck, trying to make some sense of what he should be saying or doing. This is, so far, going pretty much how he'd expected. Ren and Nora are saying what he'd thought they would.

So, what can he do to assuage them?

He's not sure. Short of just… going back to the person he used to be, he's not sure he can assuage them.

And obviously, that's not happening.

"I uhm… I'm not really sure what it is I can say to make you guys feel better." He admits aloud, and Ren and Nora turn to watch him, curious as to where he's going with this. "But at the same time, I'd like to try. That's why I came here after all. I wanted the three of us to try and… I don't know, do some stuff together."

Nora and Ren share another look, and it feels like an entire conversation goes by in simple eyebrow gestures, ones that Jaune is entirely oblivious to. When they finish, Nora turns to him, with a wry smile on her face, and Ren lets loose a tired sigh.

"In advance, Jaune, I'm sorry." Ren speaks.

Jaune doesn't really know what the heck is going on, but he feels like that's probably not a good sign.

/

And so, Nora's plan for the three of them to get some good old-fashioned team bonding in had been to…

Attend a rave, apparently.

The end of the world has, it seems, a funny way of taking away people's inhibitions. While the old, abandoned underground building they're currently blasting music out of is probably still technically owned by someone, it seems as if no one's going to be calling the authorities today.

This had, Nora had told him just before they'd arrived, been put on by Team CFVY. That feels like something Coco would attempt, but also feels like something that the more level-headed members of her team would then normally circumvent actually happening.

Huh. The fact that Salem could be at their doorsteps any day now probably helps everyone let go their normal hang-ups.

Honestly, the fact that Jaune's here in the first place, and not outside nursing his eardrums, is pretty much the same thing. He's only going to live once, or something to that effect, and he might as well actually attend one of these things while he's got the time.

He looks around, trying to get his sense of sight to focus on anything in the sea of bright, neon colors and glowsticks and people dressed in outfits that could, conservatively, be referred to as lingerie, and finds that he's lost Ren and Nora.

Nora he's not all the surprised about. She'd pretty much acted like a bat out of hell the moment she'd gotten here, putting her hands up, screaming, and then leaping into the fray.

The fray, in this case, being the dance floor, which is populated by what looks like a few thousand people, but which is realistically closer to seventy or eighty.

Still, it feels like they've been stuffed into the rafters of this place. Jaune doesn't envy anyone trapped in the middle of that nightmare.

He is, currently, parked in one of the corners, making no noise and hoping that no one will notice him if he just… remains still.

It's going so-so.

"So," The young blonde girl who's just walked up to him bats her eyelashes at him, and even he can catch those signals. "Here with anyone tonight, hot stuff?"

"Uh, no, not technically, but I do have a date this weekend."

"Oh, I see." The girl's eyes light up, and her grin grows even more devilish as she leans up, and whispers – well, shouts, but with the music it sounds like a whisper – "Well… I won't tell if you don't."

Jaune feels like nineteen-year-old him would've had an aneurism around here. Forty-year-old him is only somewhat better.

"Thank you, but I'm alright."

The girl's face quickly morphs into one of annoyance, and she groans, even as she turns around, and moves back into the undulating mass of people on the dance floor.

Jaune lets loose a sigh of relief.

That girl had looked younger than him, which means she'd been at least, in reality, twenty or so years his junior.

A bit outside his age-range, even if he'd not had a date this weekend that he's rather excited about.

His date with Willow, while he's on the subject, is in just a few short days. He's really looking forward to it; despite the fact that he feels a bit guilty about looking forward to it. His lunch with Yang and Blake yesterday had given him the very unneeded reminder that the woman he's currently finding himself infatuated with is Weiss' mom.

Which is just… yeah, again, the longer he can avoid that conversation, the better.

It's as he's thinking this that he feels a tap on his arm, and he turns to see Ren standing beside him with a soft smile.

"Hey," Jaune shouts to be heard over the music, but Ren shakes his head. "What?"

Ren motions off somewhere to the left with one finger, and then begins to walk that way. Jaune assumes that means he's supposed to follow behind, and figures ah, what the heck.

He follows, and Ren leads the two of them into what seems to be an old supply room. There's a closet that still has a rather dirty-looking broom inside of it, and a few containers of very expired cleaning solution.

More importantly than anything else, however, the music has been reduced from mind-shatteringly-loud to a more bearable head-achingly-loud.

"I figured it would be easier to have a conversation somewhere we might actually be able to understand one another." Ren speaks, and Jaune laughs, conceding that point. "How are you doing, Jaune?"

"Ah, well… I don't think this is my scene, if that's what you're asking."

Ren smirks. "That was, in fact, what I was asking. And if it helps, it's not at all my scene, either."

"Somehow, I had a feeling." He jokes, and he's surprised at how easy it feels. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to speak with you one-on-one."

Jaune supposes that makes sense. He's itching to try and patch things up with Ren and Nora, but managing such with one of them is the first step in managing such with both.

"But there was one thing in particular," Ren smiles knowingly. "I may or may not have heard from a certain blonde-haired woman we both know that you have a date this weekend."

Yang, you traitor!

"Er… yeah." He scratches at the back of his neck, trying to think of how much he wants to tell Ren, how much he should be divulging; hell, if he should be hiding anything from his best friend in the first place.

"Well… would you tell me about her?"

"Sure, sure…" He trails off, wondering how to start. "Her name's Willow."

"Yang said as much."

Note to self; never trust Yang with anything ever again.

"She's an older woman, probably around forty or so years old? We met at a quiet bar in this part of town, actually," By this part of town, Jaune of course means the further-out sections of Vacuo, separated more from the Ziggurat's towering figure.

"You went to a bar?" Ren raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it was uh… kind of a spontaneous thing. I was…" He'd been looking to dodge having to talk with any of his friends, looking to dodge their pitying looks, or judgmental eyes. "I…"

"You were trying to avoid us?"

He probably should've guessed that Ren would be able to read him so easily. He's always had a sort of sixth sense for others' emotions, and that had been before his semblance had evolved to quite literally allow him to see them.

He probably could've noticed the guilt pouring off Jaune with his eyes closed and his semblance deactivated.

"…Yeah." He admits, looking anywhere but at Ren himself. "I uh…"

"Things are difficult for everyone right now, Jaune." Ren says, and his voice is level despite what must be a hard truth for him to parse. "I don't blame you for wanting somewhere you could clear your head on your lonesome. Although it sounds to me like you didn't remain alone long."

"No, no…" He laughs somewhat stiltedly. "I uh… I met Willow that first night, we talked, and then we both showed up again the second night. She invited me to her home–"

"I think I can gather what happened from there," Ren rolls his eyes. "I assume you used protection?"

"R-Ren!" He can't help feeling embarrassed.

"I'm only worrying for my leader's safety." Ren teases rather obviously, a side of the man he's rarely seen.

"Ugh, you're becoming more and more like Nora by the day." He groans.

"Yes, I suppose I am." Ren's features morph, suddenly, into one's sullener and more sunken in. "I… Jaune, would you mind if I discussed something rather difficult with you?"

His eyes widen, but he doesn't hesitate to nod his head. "Sure, what's up?"

Ren seems at a loss as to how to start this. His features change a few times as he gears himself up to begin, and halts every time.

"This is… more problematic to speak on than I'd anticipated."

"I'm not going to judge you, y'know. No matter what you say."

"What if I said I was planning on joining Salem?" Ren arches an eyebrow challengingly.

"Alright, admittedly, I'd judge you then."

Ren smiles, and it seems that gives him the energy necessary to come forth with what he has to say.

"The moment the portal closed, the moment that Winter came out and told us what had happened, that RWBY, Penny, and you had all fallen in getting everyone to safety… I don't think I've ever experienced something so horrible in all my years. Losing my and Nora's village was hard, yes, but we were young, adaptable… this was something worse. I felt as if I'd had my guts strewn out across the sands. The only saving grace of the entire affair was that we were immediately thrust into combat with desert Grimm, attracted by all the fear."

Jaune nods, the account already quite harrowing.

"We fought, and eventually slew every Grimm that dared to approach us. Having Winter helped immensely, but… we lost a few civilians. Several of them parents, grandparents, others just trying to protect their families. It…"

Ren shakes his head, and his voice grows shaky.

"There was a young girl, with blue eyes and red hair just like Nora's… her mother found her after the battle bleeding out into the sand. I found the woman wailing over her daughter's body, but in the girl's eyes… it was all I could do to see Nora there. And that… I don't really know how to describe it. It broke something in me, I think."

Jaune just listens. For now, that's all he's going to do. Listen, and hear, and process that which Ren is communicating to him.

"And so… despite Nora's wishes for the two of us to try and find ourselves apart from one another… I stuck even closer to her. Together, we mourned you, and our friends, and everyone we lost back in Atlas. I don't know if you'd heard, but Vine…"

Jaune nods his head. "I did. He was killed saving Mantle from the bomb, right?"

"Mm." Ren hums in affirmation, shaking his head. "It was Harriet's doing, and… well, I wasn't in a very forgiving mood at the time. I wasn't the only one. Instead of allowing the blame to come down on Harriet, it was Winter who ultimately took the brunt of it all. She claimed the decision to bomb Mantle was her call."

Jaune knew that wasn't true, but then, the average citizen of Atlas or Mantle probably didn't.

"It didn't stop Harriet from attempting to take her own life just a week or so after we got here." Ren speaks quietly, his energy fraying. "The only reason she's still here with us is that Elm randomly decided to check in on her one night. She… stopped her, brought her to someplace where she could get the help she needs. Those two have been inseparable ever since."

Jaune understands that Ren's rambling right now, not really sticking to any one topic, but he's not going to interject and try to bring order back to the conversation, either. He owes his friend more than this; letting him dump some of the traumas he's experienced these past few months upon him.

The least Jaune can do is let him share that burden. To take some small portion of it for himself.

"Qrow was a mess. I can understand why. He'd already lost so much. He was in such a bad state that… well, I assume you've heard that Raven has been in and out of Vacuo?"

He had. She isn't currently present within the city, apparently using her own corvid form to scout out the Grimm lines, seeing where it is Salem intends to attack them from. With her semblance, she's far safer a scout than Qrow could ever be, especially with his bad luck to contend with.

"Well, I think her presence, her being there and just… letting him take all of that anger out on her… that was what got him through. Qrow screamed and screamed at Raven until his throat was hoarse the first time, then… he broke down. Shouted at Raven and asked her how she could let Yang and Ruby both die, and do nothing."

Jaune hadn't even thought about that; the fact that Raven could probably have helped them at any time with a portal from halfway across the world. But then, there's a reason he'd not thought of it, why all of them hadn't thought of it.

Because they'd considered Raven a lost cause.

She'd proven them wrong it seems.

"After that, Qrow and Raven began taking on joint missions to clear out bandit camps from here to the edges of Vacuo, and if I'm to understand, it was a rather permanent method of removal they chose."

That doesn't surprise Jaune too terribly much, but it does paint a picture of just how bleak things had been.

"As for Nora and I… We mourned you. All of you. It was hard. The first month, especially, was… I don't like to think very much about that. It was a dark time, and I, like many others, was in a rather dark place. I took solo clean-up missions on my own that I had no business attempting. Ones that often left me coming back battered, and bruised, and bloodied. Some people never came back at all. I think the only reason I did was because I had Nora to come back to."

"And we… we sought comfort in each other. Despite the fact that we'd agreed to wait, and try and figure things out, let the both of us discover what our lives could be on our own, separate… the opposite ended up happening. We fell into old habits, Nora and I shared a bed, we didn't let one another out of sight. And the two of us… we entered a sexual relationship without thinking of the consequences."

"Oh…" Jaune voices, more surprised than he might admit to hear Ren just come out and admit as such.

"Yes…" Ren laughs weakly, running a hand down his face before leaning back against the wall behind him, and sliding down it, letting his elbows rest atop his knees. "The day we saw you again was the best moment of my life. Unquestionably. But it also… forced us to confront what we'd done during the time we'd assumed you all dead. Forced us to realize how what we'd done was the opposite of what we'd wanted to. And ever since… Nora and I have had a somewhat… uneasy relationship towards one another. Not cold, just… distant."

"I… didn't even notice."

Ren chuckles. "Jaune, I mean this in the nicest way, but you can be somewhat dense in social situations."

"I've been told that on occasion." He admits.

"But yes, despite sharing a room, at this point, that's mostly because we only asked for the one, and every other room in Shade is full." Ren explains, and Jaune nods.

"I uhm…"

"You don't have to have a solution." Ren speaks, and Jaune closes his mouth. "Honestly, getting to talk with you like this at all has been… refreshing. Very much so."

Jaune smiles, but there's an undercurrent of sadness to it, sadness he gives voice to with, "That you trust me like that, even still–"

"I've realized something." Ren cuts him off, preventing him from saying anything further.

"Hm?"

"You're the same." Ren says it like it's a shock, but also… not. "No matter what it seems like, or feels like… when I talk to you, when I tell you things… it feels the same way it used to. You're level-headed, and calm, and talk things through logically, whilst still keeping in mind other people's feelings. It's the same, even after all that time for you."

Jaune laughs, and it's a free thing. "That… makes me really happy to hear."

"Same here." Ren jokes. "But… for now, I suppose we should get back out there. Knowing Nora, despite being off doing her own thing the entire night, she'll suddenly notice the two of us are gone and come looking for–"

"Aha! Found you!"

"Speak of the devil." Ren sighs, but it's rather fond. He turns towards the door, which has just sprung open, and meets Nora's excited gaze. "Oh, no. I know that look."

"I!" Nora announces with all the weight of a queen addressing her kingdom. "Have been drinking alcohol!"

"I can tell." Ren says. "I have a feeling Jaune can, too."

"Oh, Jaunie!" Nora runs up to him and nearly displaces his ribcage with a hug. "I didn't see you there! You're soooo tall!"

"Thank you, even if I'm fairly certain I haven't grown any in the last few hours?"

"Nora, on the other hand, may've shrunk," Ren speaks as he comes up behind her, and helps her out of the frontwards slouch she'd been trapped in. "Nora, you know we have work to do in the morning, don't you?"

"Ah, work, shmork!" Nora rather articulately argues. "Who cares, not like anything we do actually matters. One day Salem's gonna' walk right up to our doors, and…" Nora mimes an explosion with her hands. "Lights out."

Jaune's not the only one a bit disturbed to hear something so dark and ominous from out of Nora's lips. He looks over at Ren out of the corner of his eye, and sees his friend looking back at him, almost as if in need of guidance.

"Nora, are you okay?" Jaune offers, and Nora just laughs.

"Whaat? Me? I'm fiiiiine!" She exaggerates, to the point that Jaune feels like she's probably very much not fine. "Nothin's wrong, got everything going right!"

"Nora, uh… you don't sound okay."

Nora stutters briefly, then, her breath hitching, and before she says another word, tears fall down her face.

Jaune has a feeling a large majority of that sudden emotional change is due to the alcohol coursing through her system, which, judging by the smell of the stain on her blouse, had likely been something strong.

"No…" She pushes out through a clenched jaw. "I'm not okay."

Before Jaune can do anything, Ren's there, taking Nora and pulling her against him, seemingly without thought. She doesn't make a sound as she buries her face in Ren's jacket, just quietly cries.

"I just…" She recovers enough to begin speaking again. "You came back! I should… I should be happy, right? Team RWBY came back, and everyone's okay, and… and…"

Nora takes a deep, ragged breath.

"And you weren't back. Not how you left. And RWBY came back exactly as they were! Without having seen any of the things we've seen. Without… without having lived through the months we sobbed for you all, where I would wake up every morning, and look over, trying to find your bed, Jaune, and there wouldn't be one, because you…" She shakes, her breath catching.

"You came back from the dead," Nora speaks, and it sounds so fragile. "But… that doesn't mean we got over you dying. That… that hurt within me, it's still there. I thought it was gone, but it isn't. I… now it's different. I wake up, and I see the people we couldn't save in Atlas, and here in Vacuo. I see people being blasted into the Ever After, people who didn't come back, or… or people being carried off by the Grimm into the desert sands, and hearing them scream for help, and not being able to do a thing, because there were fifty more people behind me who still needed me, and…"

Nora breaks, then, and Ren wraps his arms tightly around her.

"It's okay." He whispers.

"It doesn't feel okay!" She screeches, and it almost eclipses the booming EDM still blaring in the background.

"No, that's…" Ren hesitates, before shaking his head, and answering, "You're right. It's not okay. I… a lot of what you were saying… it's the same as what I've been thinking, Nora. You and I, we distracted ourselves, forced our minds not to process the things we dealt with, mourned our friends, but… we didn't consider the other bits and pieces of trauma we were picking up along the way until they hit us square in the chest."

Nora hiccups against Ren's chest, but nods in agreement.

"And… instead of dealing with those feelings, it's a lot easier to focus in on the thing I seemingly can worry about…" Nora admits, sniffling as she rather unhygienically gets snot all over Ren's jacket. "But I mean… What am I supposed to think when my friend comes back from the dead as a forty-year-old man who's constantly talking about how it's weird to not have a crick in his back anymore!? I've yet to hear a good answer!"

"Yeah, I… I get that." He concedes, before frowning. "But I really don't think I mention the old back aches I used to get that much."

"Jaune, you mention the fact that you're surprised your back doesn't hurt anymore daily." Ren speaks, deadpan. "Oftentimes more so."

"Really?" Jaune raises an eyebrow.

"You do." Nora half-speaks into Ren's jacket.

"Huh… I didn't know."

Nora pulls away from Ren's jacket, sniffling but smiling all the same.

"Most people aren't aware of the flaws in their character."

Jaune nearly breaks into a fit of giggles, despite it all.

"That's a character flaw in your books?"

Nora hums in affirmation, and Jaune snickers below his breath.

"Alright, well…" Ren offers to help Nora walk, but she shakes her head. "I think we've all probably had enough rave atmosphere for the evening. Perhaps we make our exit now?"

"I think that sounds good. Nora?"

"Mm. Yeah." She leans into Ren, closing her eyes and getting some small delight out of the warmth he's radiating. "Let's go, then."

/

Their trip out of the rave is, surprisingly, not entirely uneventful.

This comes, mostly, because Jaune has always been a busybody, and his time in the Ever After has only enhanced those qualities.

"Thank you again," The dark-skinned blonde woman before him smiles as she adjusts her teammate on her back, who's far, far too drunk to be making any kind of trip back to the Ziggurat on her own. "She told us she was going out shopping, if you can believe it."

"Somehow, I can." Jaune laughs. "Take care, you two."

"We will."

The two, including the very drunk girl who Jaune had been too worried about to leave stranded in the middle of a rave, depart, and he turns to see Nora and Ren both smiling at him.

"What?" He asks.

Ren chuckles. "You really did become quite the mother hen while in there, didn't you?"

"I resent that."

"Can you deny it?"

"I didn't say that."

Ren and Nora both laugh at that – the latter more than the former, who is still recovering from the drinks she'd ingested a half hour or so ago – and Jaune finds himself just… watching them.

He sees the easy smiles on their faces, the way they're not shying away from him, or avoiding him, and…

And then it hits him.

This is the first time since he's gotten back that he's felt like talking with Ren and Nora had been… normal.

Obviously, what they'd discussed had been rather heavy, and he's pretty sure he's going to be talking with Nora tomorrow morning about perhaps going to therapy, given how it seems she's suffering from some form of PTSD. From the sound of it, Ren is too, and while he's at it… hell, he might as well go.

This isn't over. Their issues haven't been solved. If anything, this is just the first piece of the puzzle, the first part in a longer story.

But even so… it's funny.

The thing that had ultimately bridged the gap, that had allowed the three of them to speak with one another on even terms once more, had been…

Honesty.

Hah… who could've guessed?

Jaune smiles a private little smile, all to himself, even as he leads his team, his team, back with him towards the Ziggurat, laughing and joking all the way.

End Chapter 4

Jaune, Ren, and Nora finally find some even footing. The road to reconciliation is paved a single brick at a time.

Next chapter will be the date with Jaune and Willow! Hope you guys look forward to that.

Just wanted to note that this story will be ignoring RWBY beyond, and the volume 9 after credits scene, mostly because it was being planned before they came out. I actually like it a lot, just kind of doesn't fit with what we have here.

In terms of when that chapter will come out... I don't actually know. I'm thinking about keeping this story on a more... unscheduled schedule. Chapters will just sort of come out when they're ready. This is how most people write stories, but I've usually stuck to weekly or biweekly uploads. As for Who We Used to Be, that will stay on weekly updates, just because I have a more concise plan for that. As for when that's coming back, I'm not terribly sure yet. We'll see how I'm feeling regarding all of this in the weeks to come, but for now, I'll see you all when I see you!