Once again
Jaune knew they were okay, he knew that team RWBY would be fine just like last time, however.
Jaune saw Ruby standing alone, looking at her friends reunion, then she met Jaune's eyes and smiled.
She gave him a hug, he returned it, squeezing her closer.
"J- Jaune? What are you doing?" Ruby asked, embarrassed, but it quickly changed to concern.
"You're safe." He didn't face her, his face dug deeper into her shoulder, and she could feel the wet spot on her clothes.
She smiled and gave him a pat on the back. She saw the rest of her team and friends coming around her.
"Oh vomit boy, should I be concerned about you and my sister?" Yang teased, but it was clear she was happy with the reunion too.
"Y- yeah sorry, I think I got a little emotional." Jaune sniffed and wiped the tears, pulling away from Ruby, only to get hugged by the rest of the team.
"We missed you too, Jaune." Blake said to him, and he returned the hug and smiled.
"So, how was your camping trip?" he asked, knowing the answer, but he still enjoyed the groaning sounds that came from each of them.
"We found a village full of dead people by a grimm that feeds on their will, and Ruby may or may not just destroyed half of the village." Weiss explained in a quick recap, team JNPR looked confused and impressed.
"I hope you weren't slacking-off kids. Did you find a way to Atlas?" Qrow asked, giving them a warm smile despite himself.
"Well, kinda." Nora said.
"We made a deal with the one in charge of the Atlas base." Ren said.
"The problem is that we need to capture some dangerous criminal, and be a backup for them if a grimm attack happened." Oscar said.
"Well, that's not so bad, we can capture criminals." Yang said with a grin.
"The criminal in question is Tyrian, Hazel, or Adam Taurus." The smile on Yang's face fell alongside Blake's.
"So, you guys, where have you been staying here?" Weiss asked after a long moment of silence, they already started walking to their destination.
"We've been staying with Jaune's sister, she offered to help us until we find a way to Atlas." Oscar replied when they reached the door.
It was unlocked, so Jaune just walked in without knocking. He heard his sister's voice talking to someone, and when he got a glance at that person, he stopped midway, making Ruby and Oscar slam into him.
"Hey." Ruby said, looking in front of Jaune, only to freeze in her place.
Neo sat with a tea cup in hand, gesturing to Saphron, who was happily gesturing back and talking, until she noticed them.
"Oh hey Jaune, one of your friends just came in, oh, are those the rest of them? Welcome." She smiled brightly at them, but none of them gave her attention because Neo was smirking at them.
"Miss Arc, get behind me." Oscar, or Ozpin dragged his sister behind him, raising his cane in a defensive position.
Everyone had drawn their weapons, ready to fight, even though there wasn't enough space.
Neo sipped from her tea, placed it down, and then gestured to Jaune.
"And here I thought I would have a civil conversation with you about me joining in." She gave him a wink at the end, while the rest were puzzled.
"What the hell Jaune, you want her to join us?" Everyone looked at Weiss surprised, which made her blush a little.
"You can also understand me." Jaune could see the excitement on Neo's face.
"Of course I can. Who do you think you're talking to, what about her joining us?" Weiss gaze turned to Jaune.
"She was on the train, we fought, I tried to convince her to fight alongside us for her revenge instead of trying to kill Ruby." Everyone was shocked, they all started to look at each other.
"If you want, I can come back later?" She had a confused look, like she didn't understand what was so hard to believe.
"How about you all lower your weapons and talk this through?" Saphron stepped in the middle, not caring about all the sharp objects everyone held.
"NOW." Her tone made it clear there was no arguing, and they all lowered their weapons.
"Let's start again. Hi, I'm saphron Arc, the older sister of this blonde idiot, you are his friends?" She looked at Team RWBY.
"Oh yes, I'm Ruby Rose, his bestie, this is Weiss, Yang my sister, and Blake, this is my uncle and the huntsman we are following, Qrow." Ruby made a quick introduction, each of them waving their hands.
"Nice to meet you all, now, why did everyone want to fight Neo?" saphron asked.
"It's a long story, can we have a private talk, sis." She got the hint and left to get some groceries, leaving them to talk.
" I would say I'm in danger, but for the fact I can kick all of your asses," Neo looked smug, gesturing to them. Everyone turned to him and Weiss.
"You wish." Weiss scoffed.
"Let's start again, Neo, after this, you will be joining us?" He asked and got a half half gesturing.
"If you convince me, I will help you kill that 'Salem' if not, then I'll take little Red Head with me." Weiss's hand traveled to her rapier immediately, but Jaune stopped her, shaking his head.
"Oscar, if you mind putting Ozpin for a moment." Oscar nodded, his eyes glowing a faint green. Neo noticed the change.
"Miss vanille-" Ozpin didn't continue, getting a glare from Neo.
"I apologize, miss Neopolitan, I understand that you want to know about Salem and the circumstances that led to your former partner demise." She nodded.
The next half an hour was spent explaining to Neo about magic, gods, grimm, and Salem.
Of course, she didn't believe it, until Ozpin used an actual magic, and then Qrow turned into a Crow.
Neo was stunned for a while, she barely signed anything, yet Ozpin could understand her.
"So, after hearing all of this, are you with us?" Jaune asked after Ozpin finished explaining, he wouldn't mind Neo helping them, but he didn't want her to stab them in the back.
Neo took a look around, her eyes locking on Ruby for a while, making him, Weiss and Oscar tense, only for her to turn to his sisters picture.
She looked at it intensely for a moment, then the sound of shattered glass echoed around the house.
"Well, that was a thing, I need a drink." Qrow walked to the kitchen looking for alcohol.
"That's it, we tell her everything, and she just leaves? We couldn't even ask her about Pyrrha." Nora scream.
"It is a heavy truth, Miss Valkyrie, not everyone is ready to face it." Ozpin replied
"this was a long day." Weiss complained throwing herself at the couch, the move was copied by both Yang and Blake, collapsing on top of Weiss, who yelled at them.
"I can show you your rooms now if you want too?" Oscar offered and they were too happy to agree.
"Hey rubes, mind taking a walk with me, I need to talk to you about something." Jaune whisper to her.
"Sure?" She was confused, but didn't argue. He made an excuse for them going to get snacks and coming back, and Jaune took her to a nearby park.
/-/
""So, what did you want to talk… about." Ruby's words trailed off, seeing the statue in front of her, and tears threatened to come out.
A statue of her friend Pyrrha, the one she failed to save, stood in front of her.
"Why, why here?" She whispered.
"She grew up here." He said simply, he guided her to a nearby bench.
"Is that what you wanted to show me?" She asked, not looking at him.
He took a deep breath. This was the important decision, the one that may screw up everything, but he trusted Ruby.
He told her.
He told her everything, the truth about Ozpin, the truth about him, about what's going to happen in Atlas, the everafter, Vacuo, and how they lost, only for the Tree to give him a chance to win.
"… that's a lot to take in." She said, after a few minutes to collect herself.
"I know."
"You suffered a lot, didn't you?"
"Same as you, my only regret is that I didn't notice and helped you sooner."
"Why tell me? Why only me?" She looked at him, her eyes pleading with him, he could see the confusion and the hurt too.
"Because I can't hide it from you, if I tell Ozpin, he'll either use it on himself, or think I'm lying."
"We can use the relic." She argued.
"About that, remember the brothers, they're kinda not thrilled with my whole purpose here." He laughed awkwardly.
"Jaune, what did you do?"
"I may or may not have told them if they didn't like it, they could come here and stop me, then they said they will stop me somehow, so I guess if I use the Relic, it would tell him to kill me or something."
"Dammit Jaune." Ruby growled.
"Hey, look at the positive side, we can stop Salem now. I have a plan, kinda, but we need to keep this away from Ozpin."
"I get your distrust of him, he did ditch you all for a while there, but are you sure this won't explode in our faces?" Jaune didn't respond, which made Ruby worry more.
"That is why I told you, we are team Leaders, we support our teams, but most importantly, we support each other." He gave her a smile, and she returned it.
She looked at the statue one last time before standing up.
"I'm going to Maria to help me with the silver eyes thing, if you need anything Jaune, you tell me, got it?" He nodded and she ran off.
Jaune stood up too, making his way back, only to slam into his team.
"Jaune, we've been looking for yo-" Nora said, her eyes traveling behind him, spotting the statue.
Ren and Oscar followed her gaze, and they immediately went silent.
They all walked to it, all of them playing memories of their lost teammate. Jaune pulled out Pyrrha's headpiece, her crown, and smiled.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? A voice came from behind.
Nora and Ren turned and gasped, Oscar's eyes widen, and then Jaune turned to her.
"It is, although I'm sure she would be embarrassed of it." He said chuckling, she did too.
"She would. Thank you, for looking after her, I'm her mother, May Nikos." She extended a hand, and he shook it, but Nora grabbed the strange woman and gave her a hug.
"I- I'm sorry." The woman returned the hug and smiled at them.
"You guys are available, why not come and visit me for a little.
They all nodded, walking behind her, Oscar however, was walking way behind them.
/-/
The Nikos household was big.
Scratch that, it was huge, it was away from the busy streets with a backyard that was the size of his sister's home, with even a separate building he could see in the distance.
Back then, he couldn't even ask who she was, she looked so much like Pyrrha. He was stunned, he still didn't know if he should have agreed to this.
He just told Ruby the truth, her reaction was muted, which worried him. He probably gonna need to talk to her again to make sure she's OK.
"I can't let what happened in the everafter happen again, I won't let Ruby suffer under the pressure." He thought as May let them in.
"It's a little embarrassing, but most of this was earned by Pyrrha, her tournament fights and her fame earned her quite a bit, even more than the income of my husband and I get from huntsmen work." She chuckled as she guided them through the room.
They could see on the wall pictures of Pyrrha when she was a kid, smiling at the camera with a lot of bruises on her face.
"That was her first ever tournament, that she also won, she was so happy too." May held the picture of her daughter and smiled at it.
Jaune's eyes traveled to the other pictures, one of them showed Pyrrha's surprised face upon receiving her weapon, which May noticed.
"It was her 12 birthday, we decided to give her a good weapons, made it from a rare metal, it cost quite a lot actually." Jaune grimaced.
"I'm sorry Miss Nikos. When the fall happened, the only thing we found of her was her broken weapons, and we made our way to Mistral, and I had to use the metal to enforce my sword and shield, I- I'm really sorry." Tears fell as he spoke. Nora's hand held his shoulder, while Ren held the other.
"I- I want to say it's fine, but it's not. I have a replica of them, she used it for training." She held off her own tears and showed them Pyrrha's room.
It was the same size as their dorm room back at Beacon, it had tournament posters, with a lot of weapon magazines and books about fighting.
May gestured to a door inside the room, there, they saw the blueprint of Pyrrha's weapon, Miló.
"She liked to work with it, to know her weapon in and out." The solemn expression she wore told him how much being here hurt her. He bit his lips and pushed his hand to his bag.
May Nikos gasped, her reaction was the same as that of team JNPR was, yet, she broke down in tears immediately.
"Someone we knew found this, I'm not sure how or why, but she thought it best we have it, but, I feel it's best you get it ma'am." Jaune said, holding the last piece of Pyrrha that they had.
Her mom held it gently, afraid to damage it. Her finger traced the emerald gems on it, then held it close to her chest.
"T- Thank you, Jaune." She managed, her tears falling to the floor.
Nora went in and hugged the woman, while the rest just stood there, all sharing the sorrow of losing a loved one.
"There's something else for you." She said, after wiping the tears.
She stood up with the help of Nora, and opened a drawer in Pyrrha's workshop.
She pulled out three necklaces, she took a long breath and said.
"Before the fall, she called me to commission those, she wanted to give them to you." She passed it on to Ren, Nora, and him.
It looked like a normal heartlock necklace, but when he opened it, his eyes widen.
It had two pictures, one was of team JNPR laughing together after the food fight with team RWBY, the other one was a selfie that Pyrrha took after their training session.
He looked at his team's face, Nora's tears were visible, while Ren gritted his teeth.
"She sent me four pictures, asked me to put the team one in each, then the individual for each of you.
He glanced at Nora's, it held a picture of Nora and Pyrrha making pancakes and screwing it up badly.
He chuckled at the memory. He glanced at Ren's, he saw a picture of them studying in the library. Ren noticed his confused looked and sighed.
"While you and Nora were hanging out with team RWBY, we were looking for a way to beat them on four vs four, while in reality, she just complained about how she couldn't confess to you." Jaune blushed and looked away.
May chuckled, the trace of tears still visible, yet her smiled helped them.
"Are you sure you want to give this to us." Nora asked, her normal smile gone.
"Yes, that is what she would have wanted after all, besides, I have this now." She held the crown close to her chest.
/-/
This entire time, Oscar has been silent. When May Nikos pulled out the necklaces, he quietly left them alone, feeling it would be best.
He walked without a purpose, and found himself in a clothes shop, buying a new jacket for himself.
Are you okay?
"Yes Ozpin, why wouldn't I?" He thought to himself, Ozpin didn't reply, which made him annoyed.
When he joined Team RNJR, he felt like an extra, like he didn't belong.
But when he went with team JNPR, it felt right, like he was part of the team, he didn't know or wanted to replace Pyrrha, but each time she got mentioned, he felt like an outcast.
His feet took him to that statue of said person, he couldn't hate her, he didn't even know her for that, he just sighed.
"I just feel like a replacement, first for you Ozpin, then for Pyrrha. Who am I? Oscar Pine is a nobody, everyone would be better off having Headmaster Ozpin and Pyrrha Nikos." He said it out loud, his eyes on the floor.
"You're not a nobody Oscar." Oscar's head snapped up, meeting the eyes of Jaune, who breathed heavily.
"You're not a nobody." He repeated.
"J- Jaune?"
"You're Oscar pine, you are our friend, we're not replacing Pyrrha with you, you are your own person, you're not Ozpin, you're yourself." Jaune said, still out of breath.
"I'm fine Jaune, I swear."
"Listen Oscar, I know our situation isn't ideal, I know you're scared of what will happen to you when you merge with Ozpin, but trust me, we want you with us Oscar, you matter too." Oscar's eyes watered, as he crashed into Jaune's side.
He didn't complain, he told his team to stay and talk with Pyrrha's mom, he knew they had a lot to unpack, he had his time.
He looked at the statue, smiling at it.
"Just watch Pyrrha, I'll do it."
/-/
They walked back in relative silence, but Oscar seemed happy so he didn't complain.
When he opened the door, it was to the laughter of team RWBY, no doubt about his baby pictures that his sister loved to show.
"Hey Jaune, I know you just came in, I forgot to get some dessert. Would you mind getting some?" He groaned, but nodded. It was better than facing Ruby right now, he didn't know what to say to her.
He walked through Argus, the city lights were dim, the streets were empty, and it was already late, which made sense.
"Today was a roller-coaster of emotions, first the reunion, then telling Ruby the truth, and visiting Pyrrha's mother, not to mention the whole Oscar deal." He thought.
"I suppose it's better that way, I can help everyone deal with their problems before going to Atlas and getting more of them."
He still needed a way to save Atlas, and prevent the general from going crazy, which would take a lot of work, not to mention saving Penny
Let me choose this one thing.
Jaune shook his head. He walked into the store absently, picking up a cake and some ice cream. He paid for it and got out.
He tried to clear his mind, tried not to think of anything, what happened in Atlas, in the everafter.
He felt sharp pain from his arm, Reflexively, he used his aura to protect it.
Neo stared at him with a questioning look, her blade poking his arm lightly.
"Neo! What are you doing." He snapped at her, surprising himself and her as well.
"I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." She eyed him worriedly and gestured.
"Are you ok?" It felt strange, a person who tried to kill him, not long ago, was concerned about him.
"If you die here, I won't be able to find and kill Salem." Jaune sighed in relief, thinking it still made some sense.
"So, I take it you join us?" She made a so so gesture.
"We have the same goal, doesn't mean I have to play by your rules, or you playing it with mine, I'll help you with things to progress, in turn, you won't get in my way." He nodded. Better have her on her own side than his enemies.
"I have a question, why did you have Pyrrha's crown?" His eyes were locked into hers, waiting for an answer.
"I didn't, I found it on a bitch fall dead body, same as this." She nodded to her hat, which Jaune just realized it was Roman, he didn't question it because when he met Neo the first time, she already had it.
"That bitch took them as a souvenir, where is it anyway." She looked all around him.
"I gave it up to her mother, she deserved it more, besides, Pyrrha is still with me." He showed her the heartlock with the pictures.
And Neo gave him a genuine smile.
"I'll give you my number, I would be trailing you from the shadows, you know, it's best they don't know I'm with you and act at critical moments." After she finished gesturing, she waved him off and shattered to pieces.
"Great, I really hope I know what I'm doing." He reached the house and opened the door.
He heard the laughter and the teasing, strangely it was Ruby with Weiss.
"Jaune, what did you get us?" saphron asked.
"Chocolate cake, your favorite, and some ice cre-" He looked down, only to see the ice cream bag missing, he groaned.
Neo.
Note: And here, we just ended the whole emotional scene, and now we are going to action, I don't think I handled Neo in the best of ways, but I think she and jaune would have some common ground, and I don't think she would fit with the other, that's why she'll be in the shadows somewhat.
The next chapter would probably skip immediately to action, or have a one-on-one talk, then action, and here we would see jaune discover things he didn't quite know.
Anyway, there should be a good plot twist in the next chapter or the one after, if you watched the show, you may realize it too.
You can skip this, but I rather everyone reads it : I saw some people complaining why I put Free Palestine at the end of the chapters, and why I involved politics in fiction. Well, works of fiction do have elements of the real world in them, and the show tried to handle racism but gave up on it when V7 came. Now I mostly add it as a way to share it and spread awareness about what's happening there. If you have any ounce of humanity in you, you would know how inhumane things are.
I'm just doing my bare minimum for them.
Anyway, that's out of the way. Thanks to everyone who read the story and read all of this, I really appreciate it.
Free Palestine.
And goodbye.