Ch. 49 Lunatum Cor Rosae

It was the middle of the night and the broken moon's glow reflected off the snow provided an ethereal feeling to the training ground. The clearing surrounded by trees all around gave the impression of being a space entirely disconnected from the outside world.

Neither Jaune nor Taiyang were armed or armoured at the moment but it mattered little to Tai. After all he was a brawler, so he was in his element.

"Are you going to fight me unarmed?"

"Oh, I'm never truly unarmed."

Jaune took a deep breath. It wasn't like he was going to propose right now. Except that was pretty much exactly what he was about to do.

"Lunatum Cor Rosae!"

Ruby's eyes widened and then started watering. There was no way she would mistake that weapon for anything else. She was as beautiful as the day she lost her.

"The Crescent Heart of a Rose, forged from the shards of Crescent Rose. The weapon, once broken, reforged."

The scythe was sleek, less blocky and with curves that seemed as if they had grown on their own. The red metallic finish with silver accents was beautiful, but it was overshadowed by an emblem.

Two golden arches wrapped in thorny vines with a single burning rose blooming in the centre.

Even if one didn't know about the traditional meaning of a weapon like this, it was rather obvious what Jaune was trying to communicate. At least to Ruby it was, and she would have said yes if she wasn't so overwhelmed at that moment.

Taiyang was stunned. He knew the history of this custom better than Jaune did. What Jaune didn't realise was that within the kingdom of Vale this custom was still nested within its laws. If Jaune won, Ruby would be a kiss away from getting legally married to Jaune.

"You've overstepped the boundaries here, lad."

"Nescit amor habere modum."

"You're not the only one who knows ancient Valean. If you think I'll let you have my daughter you're mistaken."

"Ruby, if you'd please count us down. I promise not to beat up your dad too badly."

"Don't hold back on my account Jaune! Three, two, one, fight!"

The moment the fight started Taiyang moved forward to step into Jaune's guard. Jaune saw that coming and folded Lunatum Cor Rosae into its most compact form and extended the blade originally protruding from the bottom of the shaft, to act as a bayonet for the high calibre rifle.

Using the bayonet, Jaune was able to guard against Tai's jabs and even got a few shots in.

Ideally Jaune would distance himself, but Tai was used to training his daughter, thus making doing so difficult.

Jaunt couldn't help but smile. It was time to show off one of the upgrades he made. He flipped the switch that originally controlled modes of fire and set it to a new position. This completely disconnected the firing group and instead engaged a group made of a combination of gravity, burn and air dust alloys.

This was one of the ideas from Ruby's notes she originally decided were impractical due to the expected wear of the parts. But in combination with Jaunes high dust alloys and being completely saturated in aura it would last around a thousand shots before needing to be repaired. Which still wouldn't be viable for a normal weapon, but thanks to Jaune's semblance it would be easy to maintain it in perfect condition.

Jaune jumped and angled the barrel down at the ground before pressing the trigger. The recoil was designed to launch Ruby into the air and though Jaune was much heavier it still worked. Jaune fired the propulsion several more times in quick succession before taking advantage of the gained height by unfolding the warscythe and engaging his aura to increase the weight of the variable gravity alloy while simultaneously slashing in a spinning motion.

Taiyang has seen the move before, but neither Qrow or Ruby had this much mass behind it. He guarded against the attack with his forearms crossed and infused with aura. And while a proper stance allowed him to transfer most of the impact into the ground he still took a decent amount of damage to his aura.

While from an outside perspective Jaune had the upper hand, he was using a weapon specifically designed to be used by someone lighter and much faster than him. In order to compensate Jaune was pushing his body beyond its limits. It was only thanks to his massive aura that he could keep this up for any prolonged amount of time.

His ligaments tore with every step and every swing but Jaune worked through the pain and pumped his aura to quickly repair the damage. As a result Jaune was essentially bleeding aura and for every hit Jaune managed to score he paid dearly.

Jaune needed to end this as quickly as possible. Every advantage gleaned from the modifications Taiyang didn't expect was lost the moment he first used them.

It was time to use his trump card. It was something Jaune didn't intend when he was reforging the weapon but Jaune had his theory about how it came about. He didn't have time to muse about that though, he needed to concentrate, the feature didn't register with his semblance after all.

With no guidance from his semblance he could only rely on the element of surprise. So Jaune feinted a move he tried multiple times before and aimed Lunatum Cor Rosa at Taiyang's legs and jumped.

Instead of shooting down Jaune changed his aim at the last moment and instead of gaining height he shot himself away from Tai. This move was luckily surprising enough for Tai, that Jaune managed to land horizontally, feet first on the trunk of a tree.

The next moment Lunatum Cor Rosa started pulsating with red aura as Jaune poured every remaining drop of aura he had left into this last attack.

Jaune could feel the heartbeat of familiar aura underneath his hands. However the aura didn't belong to him.

Taiyang didn't have time to react, all he could do was widen his eyes as a familiar storm of rose petals assaulted him unexpectedly. Then he was battered away by the blunt side of Lunatum Cor Rosa.

As Taiyang's body hit a tree at the other side of the training grounds his aura broke and he fell down into the snow.

Jaune wasn't fairing much better himself. While his aura didn't break, he was running on empty. He was leaning on the shaft of the warscythe and was about ready to fall unconscious. There was only one more thing he had to do that night.

"Ruby, could you come here for a moment?"

That broke her from her haze. She took several steps towards him. She wanted to ask so many questions, but she took one look at him and decided to postpone it. He looked so tired and yet so determined.

"Could you do me a favour?"

"Yes?"

Jaune took her hand and placed it on the Crescent Heart of a Rose.

"Hold onto her for me, would you? Preferably till death do us apart?"

"So long as that isn't any time soon… till death do us apart."

They kissed. It wasn't passionate. It wasn't particularly long. But it did express the love these two shared.

=O=O=O=

Jaune woke up in an unfamiliar bed. At first he was a bit confused, but when he smelt the familiar scent of roses the memories of the previous night came back to him. He did it, he proposed to Ruby Rose and she agreed! Then they kissed and after that… nothing.

"Finally awake?"

Taiyang was standing in the doorway. And of all the expressions he could be wearing he had this knowing smirk on his face.

"Mister Xiao-Long!… what happened? How did I get here after last night?"

"Well, first of all, call me Tai. Or Taiyang if you want. None of that mister stuff, you're not my student. As for what happened last night… from what I gather, your wife dragged us both to bed. Well she dragged me on the couch, but I guess I deserved that."

"My wife…"

Jaune wore a wide dumb smile as he repeated those words.

"Right, your WIFE. Not fiancé or anything like that. Your stunt yesterday means according to Vale's law you two are legally married as of last night."

Jaune's smile got wider. It was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Then his expression turned sour.

"Oh, mom's going to kill me when she finds out she wasn't there when I got married."

"Serves you right. Invoking ancient hunter traditions like that."

"I assume Ruby knows?"

"Oh yeah, this stuff is taught at Signal. You know, to prevent teenagers from accidentally getting married."

"Good."

"Is that all you got to say?"

"For now… Actually I have a question. Where is Ruby?"

"In the workshop. She was there when I woke up. I wouldn't be surprised if she's been there since yesterday night."

"I'll go get her. I think we need to talk, the three of us."

"Got that right."

Jaune got up and noticed he was currently missing a few articles of clothing, most importantly his pants. Luckily Tai has already gone downstairs. After a bit of searching he found them hanging in Ruby's bathroom. They were dry now, but when Ruby brought him here they must have been covered in snow.

Jaune briefly contemplated if Ruby left her dad on the couch covered in snow and wet clothes, but quickly discarded the thought in favour of fetching his newlywed wife. The thought brought a wide smile to his face once more.

Jaune walked downstairs and outside. The workshop was more of a shed but entering it he could feel the care and attention that went into it. Ruby was standing by a workbench examining Lunatum Cor Rosa. Some of the covers were removed and many of the mechanisms exposed. Ruby was currently scribbling something on a loose sheet of paper.

Jaune wasn't particularly stealthy, nor was he trying to be at the moment. However Ruby was so immersed in her work that she didn't notice him until he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"AH! Jaune!"

"Yes Ruby?"

"What are you doing here, shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Ruby, it's already morning. You've been here all night haven't you."

"Ugh…"

"You know you could have just asked me instead of trying to figure everything out on your own."

"But I just couldn't wait! There is so much that you've done here. Some of it shouldn't even be possible!"

"I had some help figuring them out. I'm here now, though we should get back inside, your dad wants to talk with us."

"But I have so many questions!"

"And I'll answer them eventually. I'll only answer one right now, so pick the most important one."

Ruby thought for a bit with a serious expression on her face before her face flushed red. She quickly replaced the missing covers and folded the weapon into its compact form. Then she pointed at the joint Arc-Rose emblem, or rather just below it.

"This inscription "Semper Fidelis" what does it mean?"

Jaune was a bit surprised that this was the most important question for Ruby, but then smiled. His wife was so cute.

"It means "Always faithful". Seemed fitting for a weapon that was reforged in order to return to you, as well as what she represents for the two of us."

Ruby smiled at him.

"I like it. It feels real, not like one of those "together forever" promises that end up breaking up after a month…"

Jaune smiled back. Tenderly at first, then teasingly.

"Well your one question is spent, let's get going."

"Meanie."

"Your meanie now."

She giggled at the silliness. For the first time in weeks she forgot all about what happened. Just for a little bit she was just happy.

=O=O=O=

Taiyang was a mess. Not only did he discover that Ruby was dating her partner the day he met him, he was also there when Jaune effectively proposed to her and then married her through an ancient law that was in effect since the kingdom was founded. Without Jaune having any knowledge of said law mind you. And all that happened within just a few hours.

But then again, when was the last time he saw his daughter this happy. He wanted to say when she got accepted to Beacon, yet somehow that didn't feel right.

Then it hit him. A memory of a three year old Ruby wearing Summer's cloak and playing with her mom.

Tai damn near started crying. Nostalgia and bitter memories of loss. But he knew he had to hold on, there were important things to discuss right now.

So he grit his teeth and determined himself to hold it together for a few more hours.

"Dad! We're back."

"In the kitchen!"

Taiyang straightened his posture to appear as composed as he could. Soon all three were once again sitting at the kitchen table, though this time Ruby settled with sitting in the chair next to Jaune's and holding his hand.

"Well now that you're both here I suppose congratulations are in order. As of yesterday you two are lawfully wedded. Now my responsibility as a parent and technically the one who ordained the two of you is the official paperwork. There really isn't much I need from you other than your consent and a decision on who's surname you'll take."

"Can we go with Arc-Rose or Rose-Arc? My sister Saphron did something similar when she married her wife Terra."

"Ooh, what's their surname now?"

"Cotta-Arc."

"Hmmm, guess that works for them. Personally I'm leaning towards being Ruby Arc-Rose."

"Jaune, how do you feel about taking the same joint surname? Frankly it would be perfectly acceptable for you to stay as just Arc and for Ruby to be Arc-Rose."

"Personally I don't care either way, but the Arc family is kinda old and my father is rather traditional in this sense."

"Well you are kinda his only son. You should keep your name as is."

Tai smiled at the both of them making their first joint decision as a married couple. To think he was ready to kill the boy barely a day ago.

"Now that that's sorted out, I have a few questions. It's not every day a huntsman in training beats my ass. First of all, do you have some sort of a storage semblance? I don't remember you using it during the festival. You didn't even use a scythe, you used a black bastard sword if memory serves me well."

"Well, I'm not keen on having my semblance known by the public. Only some of my friends, their teams and some of the professors know. And of course my family and master, but that's about everyone. My semblance is called Arsenal and what it does is allow me to integrate weapons I've made into my aura. This in turn guides me on how to use them and increases my total aura capacity by the amount of aura the weapon can hold."

"I see, now it makes a bit more sense how you got into Beacon with a mastery in smithing. You'd have to be some kind of a genius to manage both in that amount of time."

"Yeah, I had a total of two weeks of training from my dad when I did the entrance exams for Beacon. Still beats the no training I had when I attempted the Signal entrance exam. "

"We do occasionally get the odd kid who thinks having their aura unlocked is enough."

"Oh I didn't even have that, Yang beat me to a pulp and I spent a week in hospital."

"THAT WAS YOU? I was there when it happened, but since I was busy with the exams I had Qrow deal with it back then."

"Yup, he was the one to unlock my aura. Saved my life."

"By the gods Jaune, I'm having second thoughts about my daughter being married to someone so reckless."

"I'd like to think years of honest manual labour had beaten some sense into me."

Jaune was about to say more but Ruby interrupted him.

"You're going off topic. I wanna know how you used my semblance yesterday."

"Right, that is the question. How? Truth is I'm not entirely sure of the mechanics of it, but I have my theories. It happens when I channel a large amount of aura into Lunatum Cor Rosa. When I do that I can feel a sort of heartbeat of aura, Ruby's aura to be specific. And together with her aura I can use her semblance for a limited amount of time. Currently when I channel all of my aura I can sustain Ruby's semblance for about a second."

"That's… that's weird. How is something like that even possible?"

"See that's where the theories come in. The leading one is that when you made Crescent Rose and during the following years of you using it a piece of your soul got embedded in it. Or an echo of it anyway. If this theory is true then channelling a large amount of aura into Crescent Rose before it was broken would have the same end result."

"Ok, how come this isn't a documented fenomena? I can't possibly be the first to do something like this?"

"Well it would come down to the amount of aura. When I unlocked my semblance I already had a lot of aura. The moment I first activated my semblance with Atra Aurora that amount effectively doubled and I've since added even more. It is quite possible nobody ever discovered it because there were very few individuals even capable of it."

"Ok, plausible. What are your other theories?"

"Well this next one isn't mine, Cobalt actually came up with it. He says that where he's from it's believed that names have power. So essentially when I named the reforged Crescent Rose the Crescent Heart of a Rose I may have inadvertently created some sort of connection to you and your heart, whether physical or metaphorical."

"That… sounds kinda like superstitious nonsense."

This time it was Taiyang, who had so far only listened in silence, who interrupted.

"It certainly sounds like it, but with Jaune naming his weapons in ancient Valean it gives the theory something to stand on. Summer used to say there was a hint of truth in every fairytale. There might be a reason for so many fairytales to reference magic being spoken in specifically ancient Valean. It's believed that Vale is the cradle of humankind so even as far as Atlas some fairytales reference ancient Valean as the language of magic."

"Yeah, Cobalt mentioned that, specifically the tale of the Frost Spire Mage who supposedly froze the entirety of Mantle by speaking a few sentences in Ancient Valean."

"I've read that one. So superstitious, but based in historic belief. What else do you have?"

"Well, one of the theories is that my semblance did it. But that is unlikely, since my semblance doesn't recognise your semblance as a part of Lunatum Cor Rosa. My semblance taught me how to do acrobatics with a scythe by pushing my muscles beyond their breaking point and then rapidly healing them with my aura. If my semblance made Ruby's aura a part of Lunatum Cor Rosa, then it would likely teach me how to use your semblance."

"So unlikely, bordering on debunked. Next?"

"A combination of some of or all the above. Maybe it's because you literally put your soul into creating Crescent Rose and then I named her in ancient Valean. Maybe it's the name and my semblance? Your soul, my semblance… you get the point."

"Well that complicates things, it will be harder to figure out when the most likely theory isn't exactly replicable."

"Actually it might be. Ruby… think about Penny."

Ruby gasped and widened her eyes.

"You don't mean… do you have her body?"

"No, but I happen to know there is a retrieval operation planned in a month. The retrieval is taking place at the location of the crashed Amity. Atlas was forced to completely withdraw from Vale after some of its knights went rogue so the time scale would make sense. I happen to know about it from Port since he wanted me to be a part of that operation. Frankly I think that should be our next move. Help retrieve Penny and take a ride with her transport to Atlas. There are several reasons to go. First Penny and her father doctor Poledina. Second Weiss."

"Weiss? Why? Is she in Atlas?"

"Her father sent an armoured transport for her. Literally took her from the hospital against her will. Cocra and Maroon were furious and nearly got themselves arrested when they tried to prevent it."

"And Blake?"

"Gone, presumably to Menagere. Luckily we have the ever reliable Sun Wukong following her there. I spoke to Neptune and Scarlet before they left with the other students from Haven. Apparently Sun thinks Blake wants to do something about the White Fang at the source. I'm inclined to trust Sun on this. He may act silly but he isn't a team leader for nothing. Though Scarlet is placing a bet with one to four odds that they just eloped together and will return as Sun and Blake Wukong."

"Why not both? Usurping the White Fang in a wedding dress?"

"What a sight that would be."

"Back to Atlas though, anything else we could do there?"

"Well I'm hoping to build some mode of transport my semblance would recognise."

"That's… would that work?"

"One of the first things I considered when I unlocked it was if a bullhead counts as a weapon. It would also make it easier to get the team back together once we're done in Atlas since we would have a reliable way to get to Haven."

"Okay, I'm convinced. We'll be going to Atlas when the option presents itself. But! You have to let me help design the airship. With some of the things you did with my Rosa I could probably figure out an aura powered engine."

Ruby was already putting together concepts inside her head. Jaune however was stuck on a different part of the conversation.

"Your Rosa?"

"Well, saying Lunatum Cor Rosa over and over is going to get old soon. Figured I'd shorten it."

"I concur the name is rather long. Though I have a feeling I'll eventually have even longer names. I've already started numbering some weapons so I didn't use up all the cool names for prototypes."

"Prototypes! What prototypes? Show me, show me, show me!"

"Well, showing you would be difficult since they are quite clunky. I made them to test out the mechanisms for Lunatum Cor Rosa, since I only had one try to get it right when working with shards of Crescent Rose."

"Fine, but you'll show me when we have time."

"Sure."

"What are they named?"

"Testa Cordis Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, Sexta and Septima. Meaning the First through Seventh Shard of Heart. Or when combined together into a prototype sniper scythe they are Testae Cordis that is the Shards of Heart. "

"Ohh! What are the parts?"

"I'll keep that as a surprise for now."

"Hey! Not fair!"

"Okay fine, I'll tell you one. Choose a number between one and seven."

"Seven."

"Septima is the sniper rifle. No propulsion, just a foldable anti material sniper rifle to test that I can even build a gun like that without it exploding in my face. And the first two prototypes did. Septima is the successful prototype."

"What's the First Shard?"

"Ah, ah, ah. You've already had one."

"Fine, keep your secrets… for now."

Taiyang was once more smiling. The two bounced off each other nicely. Jaune even figured out how to placate Ruby when she wants to do too many things at once. The art to give in just a little. Maybe the two would be good for eachother.

"Ok. Now onto the last thing I wanted to discuss. Since we got married and are leaving for Atlas soon and won't be returning to Vale for who knows how long, I should make sure to let my family know. There's also the distinct possibility my mum will beat my ass for not inviting her to the wedding when she gets her hands on me. Honestly my mum would probably try to throw an impromptu ceremony for us."

"That… you know I would actually like that. A hunter's wedding was something of a dream come true for me, but… a proper wedding ceremony sounds nice too."

"Then I better make sure you get both one day. Unfortunately I don't think we'll have the opportunity any time soon."

Ruby was a bit downtrodden, though she recovered in record time and turned to her dad with wide puppy eyes.

"You'll lead me down the aisle when it happens right?"

"Guess I kinda have to. I'll be honest I don't get on particularly well with you dad, Jaune, but I'll endure it to lead Ruby down the wedding aisle."

"Father has a way to antagonise almost anyone. He doesn't mean it most of the time though."

"Well you two better let the Arcs know. It may be a while before you two can have a propper wedding, but they deserve to know you two are married. Use the communication centre at Signal. It's no CCT but it works well enough across the kingdom of Vale. Ruby, do you still remember my access code?"

"Yeah. You should really change it by the way, it's been the same for years."

"Right, right. I'll do it at some point. I teach classes in the afternoon anyway so we may as well go soon. We can grab a bite on the way."

=O=O=O=

Author's note:

Well it happened. This is the development I was alluding to for two chapters now. Again, grim-dark world, huntsmen culture, yada yada yada...

Either way, Jaune and Ruby got married! These past tree chapters are ones written a while ago and this wasn't some spur of the moment decision on my part, it was planed and will have consequences (especially when Yang finds out.)

On the IRL front, my beta-reader has been busy with his exams, and so didn't have time to check over this chapter or the last one, so hopefully I didn't miss any mistakes.

Anyway I hope that you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.50 Signal