Heart to Heart

Chapter 3: Plans over Breakfast

Jaune stirred in his bed as the light of the sun woke him up. Blinking the sleep away from his eyes, he looked around. It always felt strange to sleep in strange rooms, it took him time to get used to it. He could see Nora sleeping on her bed, sprawled out like usual. Sun was no better with his long monkey tail twitching. He noticed the Ren's bed was empty but hearing sounds coming from the small one-person bathroom he figured Ren was already up.

He and Ren were always early risers so Jaune wasn't surprised by this. Slowly stretching out he got his clothing for the morning ready just as the door opened and Ren stepped out already fully dressed.

"Morning," Jaune yawned moving towards the bathroom for a morning shower and change.

"Good morning," Ren politely said to him in passing.

Jaune felt better after the warm shower getting him fully alert and feeling refreshed. By the time he got back into the room now changed into his usual clothing Ren had already finished making his bed. The two silently left the room not bothering to wake the other two. Nora was a heavy sleeper and apparently so was Sun so they left them to it while they worked on breakfast.

The two of them had usually been the ones to make the meals on their travels here, at least for breakfast. While Ruby was full of energy in the morning the poor girl's cooking skills were lacking. As long as she had someone helping her she was fine but after the first week it was silently agreed upon that she was not allowed to cook on her own.

As they made their way downstairs, they heard someone already in the kitchen. When they got there, they found Blake's mother already looking through the cabinets. The dark haired Faunus woman was bent over the counter looking at the items she had pulled from the cabinet.

"Mrs. Belladonna?" Jaune said as the woman jump with a start.

She had been so focused that she hadn't heard the boys arrive unfortunately when she jumped she banged her head on the open cabinet door. She hissed in pain as her hands went to her head.

"Are you okay?" Both boys urgently came to her aid.

"I think so," She winced gently touching the spot on her scalp checking her fingers. "No blood at least."

"You want me to get some ice for that?" Ren offered.

"No no, I think I'll be fine," Kali Belladonna gently rubbed her head. "My fault for not paying attention. Honestly there was a time no one could have snuck up on me like that."

Jaune suddenly got an idea. "Mrs. Belladonna if you don't mind I think I can stop it from hurting."

Kali was curious at that, "How so?"

"Well if you let me," He offered his hand to her.

She stared at it for a second not sure what he was getting at. She gently reached out and grabbed his hand, she nearly let go in surprise when suddenly a white light enveloped his hand and into her own. It took her a moment to realize she was seeing the boy's aura and not only that it looked to be going into her own.

Then the pain in her head suddenly started to fade away. When it was gone she reached up and did not feel any pain, in fact the injury wasn't there anymore.

Jaune let go with a shy smile. "It's my semblance."

"Well that is certainly a rare but very useful one," Kali rubbed her head in surprise. "Thank you. Now I believe you two are friends of my daughter's?"

"Oh right we didn't get to introduce ourselves with all the craziness last night," Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "I'm Jaune Arc."

"Lei Ren but you can just call me Ren," He nodded his head to her.

"Kali Belladonna," she smiled warmly at them. "What are you boys doing up so early?"

"We're kind of early risers," Jaune shrugged. "We were going to start breakfast for everyone."

"Well seems like we have the same idea," Kali sighed looking at the kitchen. "Although I was in the middle of trying to figure out where everything is."

"We can help with that," Ren smile at her. "We recently had to restock and know where everything is. We would be glad to help you out."

"Plus you're going to need it," Jaune smiled. "Some of our friends kind of have near bottomless pits for stomachs."

"Well then let's get started then shall we?" Kali make her way to the kitchen.

As they worked she noticed something that she couldn't help but see. They weren't uncomfortable around her, well maybe a little but she got the feeling that was because she was Blake's mother and had nothing to do with being a Faunus. The boys were eager to work with her and she came to opinion they were nice boys.

Given some of the harsh treatment some Faunus got at the hands of humans and even her own less than stellar experiences, these boys gave her a bit of hope that one day human and Faunus relations could reach a point where this was the norm. Where the two species could just live in harmony with each other, she knew that not all humans were bad. With recent events she knew first hand that not all Faunus were good either given the assassination attempt on her and her family.

"So you boys went to school with Blake?" Kali asked.

"Yes, our team and hers were very close," Ren told her as he worked on a stack of pancakes for Nora.

"We were right across from them in the dorm and we all pretty much hung out all the time," Jaune smiled remembering those simpler and fun filled days at school. He missed those times when the world was a lot less scary and painful.

"I'm glad my daughter made friends," Kali sighed. "She always did have a hard time socially."

"Well we were all and I think still are good friends," Jaune offered.

"That's good," she paused for a moment as a grin grew on her face. "So tell me, what can you tell me about how Sun and Blake met?"

-Upstairs-

Yang groaned feeling someone shake her.

"Go away, still sleeping," she said turning over hoping to back to enjoying the bed.

"Yang breakfast is nearly ready, I can smell it from here." Her little sister said.

Yang groaned as her stomach decided to put its vote on either staying in bed or going to eat. She tried to refuse it but food was too tempting. Plus Ruby was still here trying to get her up, when she got like this it was hard to tell her to go away. So she got up wiping her eyes and yawned taking a moment to look around. Weiss and Blake were already getting dressed so at least the bathroom would be open.

"Alright I'm up just give me a few minutes to shower and change." Yang swung her legs to the other side of the bed and walked to the small bathroom. By the time she got out she found Ruby and everyone had waiting for her.

"You guys could have gone without me you know," She said putting on her arm and getting her clothing.

"It's been a long time since we went to breakfast together," Weiss shrugged she was wearing a set of sweat pants and workout hoodie and looked to be hating every second of it. She couldn't wait to get her dress repaired so she could wear something that was at least more to her standards.

"It will be kind of like old times," Blake smiled.

Yang smiled back, it felt so good to be back together. As soon as she was ready Ruby was out the door quickly, apparently her patience had run out. It was a good thing she hadn't used her semblance as she had nearly ran into Oscar in the hallway.

"Ahh!" Ruby cried out as she nearly collided with the boy. "Sorry! Sorry I wasn't watching where I was going!"

"It's okay," Oscar assured her. "I was just heading down, your Uncle said he needed a bit more time to rest though."

"Yeah that's Uncle Qrow," Ruby laughed. "He's not really a morning person."

Oscar walked in step with her as the group filed in behind them. "I'm surprised I wasn't up already. I grew up on a farm so I'm used to getting up early but after last night I haven't felt so drained. I think I went to sleep as soon as I hit the pillow."

"Oh my god last night was insane," Ruby sighed still feeling some aches from the fight. "But hey, we all came through and we won."

As they finished coming down the stairs they saw the food was already on the table for everyone to grab. What they also saw where Jaune and Ren sitting down and talking with Blake's mother as she was laughing at something the boys had just told her.

Kali was facing the stairs as she saw them all arrive and smiled at her daughter. "Blake what's this I hear about you and Sun going to a dance together?"

Blake paused as she sent a glare to her two (possibly ex) friends, just how much have they been talking and what else had they told her mother? At least the two looked a bit bashful from Blake's glare.

"Ugh don't remind me," Ruby groaned. "I hated that dress I was in, plus how in the world do girls walk around in high heels all the time!?"

"Practice," Blake and Weiss said at the same time.

"Are the others up yet?" Jaune asked them as they heard the sounds of more feet moving above them. It was soon followed by Sun who rushed down the stairs.

"Oh nice I didn't miss any of the good stuff," He grinned. "Wow nice spread."

"Well these boys were so helpful," Kali gestured to Jaune and Ren.

Heavy footsteps came as Ghira Belladonna came down, the large Faunas man yawned as Kali got up and got a cup of coffee she had prepared for her husband.

"Here you go dear."

"Thank you Kali," He took early took a sip, before he sat down focusing on his cup.

"My husband needs his morning caffeine," Kali explained to everyone. "He'll be functional once he finishes it."

It wasn't too long before everyone was sitting down and enjoying breakfast. Everyone was talking catching up or getting to know one another. All except for one girl that felt someone awkward being at a table that not too long ago she was fighting nearly half of them and would have been the enemy of the rest.

Ilia shifted wishing she could turn invisible instead of other colors at the moment. She just stared at her breakfast and focused on that.

"So you're one of Blake's friends right?"

Ilia internally winced as she looked up a bit nervously at the young girl across from her with the red hood. "Uh, yes I'm Ilia."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ruby. So if you don't mind, what kind of Faunus are you?"

"Ruby!" Weiss chided her.

"I just meant that she doesn't have any cute ears like Blake or a tail like Sun!" Ruby defended herself. "I was just curious I didn't mean any offence."

"I'm a chameleon Faunus."

"So does that mean you can turn into other things?" Ruby innocently asked.

Weiss sighed and rubbed her temples. "It means she can change color, not her shape."

"Oh thanks Weiss," Ruby turned back to Ilia now looking very interested. "Can you turn into any color? Like any color at all?"

Ilia blinked it was a bit odd for her as the girl seemed actually interested. She remembered how when she had been passing for a human at her school everything was fine. But the moment her colored had changed when she saw that news report about the horrible accident with the Faunus. After it was shown that she was a Faunus those co called 'friends' had abandoned her and everyone was hostile to her after that.

However, looking into the silver eyes of this girl she didn't see any of the malice she was used to from humans.

"If I know it I can change into it," Ilia shifted her skin tone to a light blue before changing it back.

Ruby's eyes got huge as she had on a surprised and yet eager look on her face, kind of like a child that found a new toy on her birthday. "That's so cool, can you turn into more complex things like polka dots or plaid?"

"Why would anyone want to be plaid?" Weiss's face scrunched up like she had smelled something horrible.

"Why wouldn't you?" was her partner's reply making Weiss roll her eyes.

"Uh…no it has to be a solid color." Truth was she had never tried but she was pretty sure she couldn't do something that complex.

"Well at any rate it's nice to meet you," Weiss nodded to her. "I'm Weiss Schnee."

Ilia jerked back out of instinct, "Wait…Schnee?"

Weiss sighed, "Yes that Schnee but I promise you I'm nothing like my father who controls the company nor do I hold the same views he has on Faunus. Frankly his handling of that issue has been barbaric and has caused nothing but problems for everyone."

"Oh," Ilia thought she could not get more stunned if she was hit on the head at that moment. Right there across from her was a member of the family that the White Fang have a kill on sight order for. As far as that group was concerned, a good Schnee was a dead one. She had started to feel a bit more open with this group but now she was feeling all tensed up again.

"Hey don't worry," Ruby could see the girl was getting uncomfortable. "We're all friends here and since you're a friend of Blake's that makes you a friend of ours."

"You do know that I was in the White Fang until recently right?" Ilia told them.

Both of them shrugged it off as Weiss spoke up. "So was Blake, we accepted her despite her past. She wanted to change and do something different with her life and regrets her past actions, plus she's proven to be a great friend."

Blake smiled seeing her old friend start to warm up to her new ones, she knew that Ilia had a lot of bad history with humans so it was good seeing how everyone was getting along.

After breakfast, everyone was in the living room it was time to get down to business it would seem. There weren't enough seats so some chose to sit on the floor or up against a wall. Blake's parents took the couch as her father started to speak with everyone.

"First I just wanted to say that I'm glad to finally meet the three of you," He said to Blake's team. "Blake's messages home always spoke about you three and I wanted to thank you for being such good friends with her."

"It is nice seeing her find such good friends," Kali smiled at them.

Ghira then got a bit more serious as he looked around. "Now we came here to stop the White Fang but the fact that they were working with humans is odd enough but it seemed you all were fighting this other group. I believe that there was a lot more to last night than what I and the authorities believe was going on."

It wasn't a question so much as a statement. There were too many unanswered questions and he believed that his daughter was mixed up in something dangerous. Call it instinct of a parent but if his daughter was in trouble to going to be in trouble he wanted to know.

Everyone looked at each other until it was Qrow that spoke up. "Okay I'll be blunt, I know the girls here filled in Blake last night on things. There is a lot of stuff you don't know but you should know that knowledge like this is damn dangerous. If you want to know I got to warn you, you can't go back after it."

"Blake are you getting involved in whatever is going on?" Kali asked her daughter.

Blake took a moment. "After what the others said and what I saw, yes. My team needs me and honestly this is so much bigger than I thought. The entire world is literally at stake mom."

"That settles it then," Kali took her husband's hand in hers and looked at Qrow. "We're in it if our daughter is."

"Hell yeah," Sun grinned getting a glare from the father but he sighed and let it pass.

Everyone looked to Ilia who was the only new member who wasn't told what was going on. "I'm in, if only because I feel I need to make amends plus the White Fang was used and I want to know by how and why."

"Alright," Qrow shrugged and looked to Oscar. "You're up."

They looked confused at the young boy who pulled out the cane weapon that had been used by Professor Ozpin. It was only Sun in the group that recognized it as he had been the only one that had seen the man with the weapon. He silently wondered how the kid got his hands on that when the boy's eyes flashed in this unnatural light as his whole demeanor changed.

"This is a long story," The boy's voice was strange like two different voices were talking at once before going back to normal but the style of how he talked was different. He sounded like someone so much older now. "You know me as Oscar Pine but I am also Professor Ozpin."

"Whaaaaaa…." Sun's eyes widened as it really did sound like Ozpin.

The whole story was laid out for them, the two gods that created their world, the bet between them and how people and the Grimm fell into it. He told them about his curse of reincarnation, the story of the Four Maidens and how he had been that old man that had given them their powers in the story, how it wasn't a story and in fact had actually happened.

Then he told them about Salem the leader of the Grimm and her desire to kill all live on the world for the dark god. How she used others like pawns in a secret war that had been going on so long it might have started before even recorded history. He explained how she manipulated others from the shadows, which allowed her agents to move freely. How they had been behind the fall of Beacon and had been behind the events of last night.

He explained everything.

"This can't be real," Ghira turned to his daughter. "Is it?"

"I haven't seen a lot but Emerald used an illusion of Salem to escape," Blake wanted to shuddered at the memory of that. The tall monstrous woman with pale skin like a Grimm's mask and those eyes, an image she knew that would be forever burned into her mind.

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order?" Ozpin looked to Qrow.

The man sighed, "I guess seeing is believing." He muttered.

Then in a split second where stood a man he had changed instantly into a small black bird. It flew around the room before making a circle and suddenly a man stood back there again.

"Oh my god," Kali covered her mouth. "You really did give him the power to turn into a bird."

"I see it but I don't want to believe it," Ghira sat back as the weight of if all slowly started to fall onto him. "Magic is real, fairy tales that are true, the Grimm have a leader this entire time, it just seems so much."

Ilia turned a shade of green, literally turned green that it. "I…I think I'm going to be sick, I feel dizzy."

"It is a lot to take in but please take your time," Ozpin told them. "Everyone has different reactions but I find taking a moment and letting your mind slowly accept it helps."

There was silence in the room as everyone tried to come to terms with everything. Blake noticed that Sun was looking and acting strangely. He was oddly quiet as he looked down at the floor. This was very uncharacteristic of him. Suddenly he got up and walked to the door leading out.

"Sun?" Blake asked him.

"I just need a moment," He said quickly as he just left. Blake blinked at this, this wasn't the Sun that she knew. Was something bothering him about what he had learned? It was a lot to take in but Sun was usually so carefree she would have thought that he would have just shrugged it off.

"Blake," Her mother said to her getting her attention. "I think you should go see him, something is obviously wrong."

Blake took a moment to think about it before getting up and following him. When she left the room got more silent until Ghira finally spoke up looking at the young man with two souls.

"So what do you plan on doing?" He asked.

Ozpin sighed and he closed his eyes thinking before saying anything. "At the moment we won a crucial battle and we've earned some breathing room. We will have to make our way to Atlas but with the boarder closed that will be difficult."

"Since we'd be picked up immediately if we flew we're thinking getting there by water," Qrow offered. "I'm going to have to check in with some contacts I have to see if we can get smuggled in."

"What are you odds of that working?" Kali asked.

"Honestly? Given the space of water between the northern tips of Mistral not that great," Qrow scratched the back of his head thinking of taking a sip of his canteen. "The larger the area of water the more of a chance we will have to being seen."

Ozpin nodded, "I do have a couple of alternatives. One being we try on Vital Island, the most northern island in Vale as it is closer. We could gain a boat there and have less travel time across the ocean."

"What's the other?" This time is was Ruby who asked. She and the others had stayed silent because they already knew everything going on but now that they were making plans for the future, she felt she needed to know. As the leader of her team, she felt responsible for them all so she wanted to know everything before going out again.

Ozpin sighed, as he looked like he liked the idea. "The only other place that is closer to Atlas would be on the north eastern tip of the Unclaimed Continent."

"You're talking about crossing the 'Dragon's Wings'." Weiss' eyes widened at that. The continent to the west of Atlas was usually referred to the 'unclaimed continent' because that's exactly what it was. The continent was the shape of a dragon with its chain of islands making 'wings' that nearly touched the continent of Solitas which Atlas was on.

"Has anyone actually gone that far there?" Kali asked worried. "There is no kingdom there and all the villages and larger settlements are on the southern area. The north is just mountains containing nothing but snow and ice."

"That is why it's a last resort," Ozpin told her. "While no one would expect to cross there it might be too dangerous a route to take. We would have no supplies but what we take, even if we take a boat along the edge if we ran into trouble we would be on our own. That area is still largely uncharted other than the coastal areas so we have no idea of the Grimm situation."

"Yeah which is why we'll shoot for here first and then Vital where we might have better luck." Ozpin told them all.

"What if we can't find someone to take us?" Jaune asked next.

"Well then we'll simply purchase a boat," Ozpin smiled at him. "Thankfully I have experience in sailing."

'Wait we do?' Oscar mentally asked.

'I have lived a long life, there are many things I've tried and learned in that time.' Ozpin answered back. 'Plus a few of my past hosts were sailors.'

'Oh…makes sense. Were you ever a farmer like me?'

There was a mental chuckle before his answer. 'Oh a few times.'

"Well that's cool and all but do we even have the cash for that?" Yang asked him. "Those aren't cheap."

Ozpin chuckled looking at her. "In all my time reincarnating Miss Xiao Long, I have set up certain accounts. Those that I could access under different names, after all after my third…or was it my fourth life? Well it was a long time ago, the point is I quickly learned how hard it was to regain certain assets when I died and came back with a new body."

"At first they were secret stashes hidden among the world. Some of these still exist to this day but when banking was invented I switched to that."

"How did you hide accounts like that?" Ren was curious. There had to be some kind of trail, after all if he was using secret bank accounts since the beginning of banking there had to be some kind of trail or evidence until now?

Ozpin smirked, "well given that I helped create the banking system I made sure there were certain 'blind spots' I could use."

There was a moment of silence for that as it really just hit home just how old he was to do something like that.

"Does that mean I can get a raise?" Qrow joked, well half-joked. He hadn't gotten paid since Ozpin's death and had been using his own accounts to get them here.

Ozpin chuckled. "Maybe so, since we're in Mistral I can use the tower here to access the accounts I have, well the ones in Mistral at least. In fact it might be helpful to give you all some spending money, use it to help gather any materials you might need because you will need it for what's to come."

"Awesome!" Nora jumped up. "I smell shopping trip coming on!"

Ozpin turned to the three faunus in the room. "What are your plans?"

Ghira leaned forward as he interlocked his fingers thinking hard on it. "This Salem you said works in the shadows by manipulating events and people. She manipulated the White Fang to do her dirty work while they took all the credit for it. So she's been using them as a piece in this twisted game of hers."

Oz nodded as Ghira sat back up.

"I believe that there is only one course of action. We have to take back the White Fang, we were going to do that anyone but now we have another reason. We have to take it back from her so she cannot use it against anyone else. We have to remake it back into what it was, an organization for faunus rights but now I believe it should also be an organization to also help heal the rift between human and faunus."

Kali smiled as she held his hand, this was the reason she fell for her husband. He was a man that wanted what was best for everyone and he would move the mountains themselves if he could.

"Well you won't do it alone." She told him.

"An excellent goal," Ozpin nodded his head to them and then turned to Ilia. "What of you young lady?"

"I…I don't know yet…" she answered truthfully. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around this all."

Ozpin nodded his head again. "Then take your time, search your heart for the answer and follow it. It usually leads to best results."

"So now that we got a plan when are we leaving?" Jaune hesitantly asked.

"Not for a bit," Qrow sighed. "The authorities are still asking questions about last night and don't want anyone involved leaving just yet. Plus it will take time for me to see if any of my contacts can get us a ride and if that doesn't work we'll have to plan our next route out of here."

"In the meantime we should strengthen ourselves," Ozpin said to the young hunters. "We will face greater threats and we must be prepared for it. Young Miss Rose still hasn't unlocked her full potential of her eyes for instance and we all could use time to sharpen our skills."

"Cool," Yang smirked. "I was planning on helping Jaune with his hand to hand. Oh Weiss you think you and Blake could help him with his swordsmanship since I know nothing about swords?"

"I don't see a problem with that and I doubt Blake would either." She replied.

"An excellent start," Ozpin smiled at the idea. "I believe we call can learn a lot from each other in the time we have."

TBC…

I couldn't find what that continent on the north west of Remnant is so I just made one up for now. If there is a canon name please let me know and I can edit that into this chapter.