Coming to terms

Chapter 3

AN: Read the AN at the end of the chapter if you want a very long read into my thoughts behind this chapter and an important question about the future of this story. This chapter we might see Ozpin's for dubious side. Thanks for the reviews as always.

"I'd like my cane back?"

"It's… you?"

Ruby was already confused, then her uncle Qrow started laughing and didn't say much of anything for about a minute. He just kept laughing.

She had no idea what that meant. Jaune had been acting weird the last few weeks. She had talked to Nora and Ren about it, and they didn't know what was going on either.

She still remembered catching Jaune training that night. Listening to Pyrrha's recording. She knew she should have said something, but she didn't. It was her fault he was hurting. If she had just been quicker, Pyrrha would still be here.

She still remembered Jaune's cries over the scroll call, to get the tower and save Pyrrha. She had failed him

Pyrrha's death had been keeping her up at night, But Jaune was the closest to Pyrrha. If she felt like this about her death, she couldn't imagine what he was feeling.

Jaune had changed. She could tell. They all had after the fall of Beacon. But Jaunes was the worst. At least Yang wasn't pretending to be normal like Jaune was.

His smiles stopped reaching his eyes. He joked less, and took things more seriously. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just felt wrong.

When Qrow collected himself, he nodded, and handed Jaune something. It looked like a handle of sorts. When Jaune grabbed it, it extended out into a cane? She thought it was a bit familiar.

It came to her, that was professor Ozpin's cane. Why did Qrow have it? More importantly, why did Jaune say it was his? She couldn't resist.

"What's going on?"

Jaune turned and made eye contact with her first, before she saw his eyes roam over to Nora and Ren. His face shifted to a… odd emotion. An in between of doubt and regret.

"Look, you guys know something's been going on, right?"

They all nodded.

"Well, a bit into this whole journey thing, I heard a voice talk to me. It was Ozpin's voice."

She didn't know what to think about that. It's not everyday someone confessed to hearing voices.

What were they going to do, If Jaune was hearing voices then…

"But I swear I'm not crazy." Jaune shouted out.

"I thought I was losing my mind at first, to be honest. I mean, hearing your dead headmasters voice in your head doesn't really happen all that often. He told me he was cursed, every time he dies, his soul reincarnates into the body of a like-minded person."

"Is that why you've been fighting without your shield?" Ren spoke up.

Jaune nodded, "he told me too, as 'training'."

Ruby thought back to the fight with the faunus man. Jaune was acting very strange, then he was suddenly making the man who had knocked her aside like it was nothing back off.

"Back during the fight… was that?"

Jaune looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, that was him, he took over my body to fight that guy."

That was something. Kinda scary, she thought.

"Ok, now that explanations are done." Qrow walked in front of them to make Jaune look at him. "Kid, we need to speak to Oz."

Jaune looked to the side, like he heard someone call his name, before he nodded and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, she swore she saw a flash of green light behind his eyes, only for it to vanish.

"It is so good to speak to you again, students."

It was Jaunes voice, but it was slightly off. Like there were 2 people speaking, but one was quieter than the other.

Jaune- or Ozpin, walked over to the nearest log, using his cane. He sat and looked towards all of them.

"I am sorry that I hid my presence for so long. But I didn't want to alarm you, and make you think your friend had lost his mind."

That was probably true. If Qrow wasn't here, they would probably think Jaune was just crazy. Ozpin looked down at the ground.

"As Jaune said, I have been cursed by the gods. I have walked on this planet for thousands of years. Forced to live and die, over and over again. To be reincarnated into another like-minded soul as punishment for my failure of stopping Salem. But, we must stop her now."

Ozpin was interrupted by Qrow handing him a mug of… something. Which he took gladly.

Ruby and the rest of team RNJR knew next to nothing about Salem. She had no idea where to even begin with stopping her.

"How do we even do that?"

Ozpin looked back up at them.

"We start, by going to Haven academy, and insuring the safety of the relic of knowledge."

Jaune was exhausted. Letting Ozpin take over the fight wore him down. And then he had to let him take over once, Jaune was beat. The murmur of conversation from his friends at the campfire were a low hum to him. The noises of the forest, even more so. All background noise to the object of his attention.

He played around with his scroll. It was almost useless thanks to the CCT being down, but it still had a few functions.

He had paused on a frame of Pyrrha's video, just to see her face. Ozpin had suggested he delete it, but he couldn't. He wouldn't use it to train, nor watch it every night, but it would feel disrespectful to get rid of it.

Jaune had sat a bit away from the rest of the group, his choice. Just to brood a bit, before the non-stop tidal wave of questions from his friends that he knew was coming.

He was no longer angry at Pyrrha, her death had lost some of its sting after his talk with Ozpin, but his anger had found a new target. Cinder Fall.

If he closed his eyes, he could still see her smug face. Throwing him aside like it was nothing, because he was nothing. He could see her, standing over him as she killed him.

What? That didn't happen. …Was that?

"That's something I had been meaning to speak to you about."

Jaunes heart sank.

"Oh yeah. About the memory, with Qrow, what was that. Was that real?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. As my host, you will experience some memories of mine, and i of yours."

"And… that's all that will happen? Just some memories will bleed over?"

"...yes."

Jaune let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Jaune?"

His head shot up to see Ruby standing in front of him.

"Oh, hey Ruby."

He tried to hide his scroll but Jaune was pretty sure she saw what he was looking at. Ruby looked down at her shoes and, kinda, squirmed? Jaune pat the space next to him, telling her she could sit. Was this about the Ozpin stuff? Of course it was, why was he even asking.

She sat without as much as a word. They sat like that for a while. Ren and Nora went to bed first, Nora had started to walk over to them, but Ren stopped her. Jaune was thankful. Qrow went next after checking in with Ruby, he also sent Jaune a peculiar look. Maybe pity for him having a person share his body. When it was just him and Ruby, she eventually opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry."

This threw Jaune for a loop.

"What are you sorry about?"

Ruby looked down, he hands curled into fists resting on her knees.

"It's my fault Pyrrha's dead."

That sentence sucked the air out of Jaunes lungs. Hearing someone talk about her always made him flinch a bit.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He couldn't see her face, it was covered by her hair as she hung her head low. But he could still see the tears falling.

"You asking me to save her. I was supposed to save her. My semblance is super speed and… I was too slow."
Ahh. She was blaming herself for Pyrrha's death. Weird, it was more his fault than Ruby's. Although he now knew that it wasn't his fault. Fully. It was Cinders. But he knew how Ruby felt, so he was going to have to set her straight like someone did for him.

"Ruby, don't be stupid."

Her head jerked up to level with his. They were red and puffy, with tears still actively falling.

"W-wha-what?"

He slid a bit closer to her.

"It's not your fault Ruby. Its Cinders. She killed Pyrrha, not you. And if you got involved in the fight, who knows what could have happened. You might have died, both of you. Ruby if you both died, I don't-" His voice cracked at that part. He didn't mean to get this emotional, but just imagining what he went through with Pyrrha, that happening with Ruby dying along with Pyrrha was hard.

"But, i-"

Jaune didn't know what to do so he cut her off by hugging her. He heard a small 'eep' but she was silent after that. He still felt his hoodie getting wet from her tears, but they eventually stopped.

"It's not your fault. Ok?"

He felt her nod against his chest.

They just sat there for a while. Basking in each other's comfort was nice. Jaune hadn't felt like this in… he didn't know how long.

When they broke apart Ruby had a small smile on her face. She got up and spun around to face him.

"Jaune, thanks."

She then walked off towards camp to head to bed. Jaune watched her leave with a smile of his own.

"Try not to fall in love please, we are on an important mission and I would rather you be focused on the task at hand."

Jaune felt his face heat up a bit.

"What are you talking about? Ruby's my friend, I'm not- i wouldn't- shut up!"

He could feel the man in his mind smile. Jerk. He could never think about Ruby like that. Right? He shook his head and pulled out his scroll again. Seeing Pyrrha's smiling face.

"Cinder." The very name made his blood boil. She would pay. He would make sure of that.

AN: (There is a reason this chapter is so short btw. Read till the end.) This was actually very hard to write, not really the material in the chapter itself, but the nature of what it represents. I feel like with this chapter, I'm locking myself into finishing this story. Which, on its own, isn't a bad thing. I wouldn't really mind writing a longer story. But I know that I would have to follow the plot of RWBY post volume 3, and that is something I am just simply not interested in. I can barely get through watching volume 4, having to write it? Jesus… I'm not going to keep it a secret. I don't really like RWBY volumes 4-9. Shocker I know, only hot takes here that you have totally never heard before. And no, this won't be a rant about how bad RWBY became after Monty passed. I don't think RWBY was great to begin with, I think it was always rotten to the core because the writers were just not great. Amazing fights and a fantastic soundtrack. But the story was never that good. I don't really think Ruby, Weiss, Blake, or Yang are interesting enough to be the protagonists of the show either. Ok, maybe Ruby and Blake. Sure. Ok I'm ranting. I'm actually really passionate about RWBY, hence why I'm writing fanfic.

Now for my question.

I could just make this a rewrite of RWBY but with Ozpin in Jaunes head instead. I wouldn't like it, having to alt tab to watch episodes of RWBY to make sure I'm right is annoying, but I could do it.

OR, I could just do my own thing. Change things up, basically an AU and take the events and characters in a different direction.

I could do the first one. God, I hope not. But I am a servant of the people, so I guess I would have to suck it up and write.

So. Let me know which one you would like.

Also, I wish I could just… reply to reviews on the chapters, like, almost every other website with comments. Because MAN some of your guy's reviews have helped me a lot. I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU 'GreenEyesOrigamiDragon' I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOU. Anyway, that's all for now. -NeroCaus