Chapter 3
A/N: Alright so there's been a lot of flak about this so let me clear this up. Jaune isn't stupid or dumb. He is however slightly dense BUT that will change as he grows in the story. The reason for his actions in the last chapter is because he was MASSIVELY hungover and the whole chapter happened in the morning of one day. Keep in mind he was drinking with Ren before Willow even sat down and they drank several even stronger drinks, which I like to think are similar to one of the strongest drinks I know. These things combined with the fact that he hasn't drank much before, (Vale just lowered the drinking age as he stated), and isn't used to monster hangovers, something Willow does and is, explains why he was so out of it as one would say. On a better note my father has recovered so thank you everyone for your support. I also had a big test today which is why I'm just got done with this at 3:30am *sigh* Anyways sorry about it being a little late. Anyways with that let's get on with Ch 3 hope you enjoy it!
A/N Pt 2: Grammatical errors fixed and some small plot details have been revised to help with details and flow of chapter. Also shout out to the guest who left a review of the whole age thing. That's very helpful and appreciated!
Beacon Tower
As the elevator doors opened Ozpin was the first to step out as he made his way to his desk. Following closely behind him was Ms. Goodwitch and then out stepped Jaune and Willow, with the former of the two looking a little nervous. Ozpin sat down at his desk and took a sip from his mug before he placed it on his desk and began to speak.
"Firstly, Willow, my condolences for your late husband for what he was worth."
"Wasn't worth much besides a headache." Willow mumbled under her breath.
Clearing his throat, Ozpin began again, "Regardless, I feel we have an important matter to discuss that pertains more to the present."
"Our marriage." Jaune said, as he spoke for the first time since the walk up to Ozpin's office.
"Precisely Mr. Arc or should I say Arc-Schnee? Which would you both like to be referred to as?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Arc-Schnee is fine, Ozpin. Now let's get on with this already." Willow replied.
"Well Mr and Mrs Arc-Schnee let's start with some information from you Willow. Who knows of Jacques' death? Have you announced it to anybody?"
"No one besides me, my daughters, and the staff knows. We have yet to release it to the public or shareholders but they are probably going to get suspicious soon as Jacques wasn't ever fond of vacations, so they will eventually notice his disappearance."
"I see, and Mr. Arc-Schnee, do you have plans in this grand scheme of things?"
A little shocked Jaune by the question Jaune recollected his thoughts before he began speaking, "No sir. I just went to a bar with Ren and well one thing led to another and I gave him a pep talk and he ran off. Willow then appeared and we talked, drank some more and well you know the rest."
"Indeed I do, although your story does help explain the JNPR door being busted in more the "It just flew off its hinges." explanation Ms. Valkyrie told me." Ozpin said before rubbing his temples, and moving back to Willow. "Willow, have you told James at all about Jacques' death or your recent marriage?"
"Not yet, personally anyways, I assumed Winter would tell him, so I saw no need."
"Hmm well you will need to talk to him sooner than later. In fact," Ozpin said before leaning forward and pushing a button before suddenly General Ironwood appeared on the screen.
"Hello James, how are you?"
"Ozpin now is not the time for pleasantries, I need to talk to Willow. I know she's in Vale and I would appreciate it if- oh." Ironwood stopped mid sentence before noticing that Willow was in fact already there in Ozpin's office.
"Hello General, I'm assuming you wish to discuss the passing of my former husband?"
"Yes, Winter told me as much, my condolences to you for that, but um Ozpin who is the boy sitting by Willow?"
"James, this boy is Jaune Arc-Schnee, he's one of the students here at Beacon Academy."
"Arc-Schnee?" Ironwood said with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, he's my new husband. Any other questions?" Willow said in a very matter of fact tone.
"WHAT!?" Came a shout from Ironwood's side of the camera but it wasn't Ironwood that spoke. It was a very irate and upset looking Winter Schnee who appeared on screen soon after the outburst.
"You took a husband this early and on top of that he's a student? What the hell are you thinking mother!?"
"WINTER! That's enough." General Ironwood said, snapping the irate Winter out of it.
"Sorry General. That news came as quite the shock and I lost my composure for a second." Winter said before stepping back to her post.
"Sorry about that Willow, but like Winter said this is quite shocking. Can you enlighten us on your newfound marriage?"
"Well I went to deliver the news in person to Weiss and well you can imagine her delight in seeing me. Afterwards I was upset and so I went to a bar to have a drink to help myself with the pain of my youngest daughter shouting in my face. I sat down in an empty seat next to Jaune and he realized something was wrong and after a little talk and a short crying session, we continued to drink. We both don't remember what happened afterwards but we found a marriage certificate and rings the next morning in my hotel room, where we both woke up."
"Oh for the love of." General Ironwood said before turning his attention to Jaune. "Boy you've been awfully quiet throughout this. Is there anything you'd like to say?"
"Uh no sir, I just wasn't addressed so I decided to wait and not try to butt in as this conversation is pretty serious." Jaune said with a sheepish half smile.
"Indeed. Regardless, I will still wish to speak with you sometime in a more," the general said, pausing for a second before continuing "private setting." The general said
This caused Jaune to gulp before Ironwood continued. "Well, now that this marriage is out there in the open for our discussion, the important thing still remains. What are we going to do about all of this?"
"Well General sir, Willow and I talked and well since I was still a little hungover she reminded me of something I had forgotten in my hungover state. I'm an Arc and an Arc keeps their promise. So a divorce isn't something I can do."
"Yes I'm well aware." Ironwood said as he rubbed his temples. "Regardless, Willow, you now realize that with Jacques' passing you are going to have to assume the CEO position of the SDC. Especially since you now likely know the most about the SDC compared to any other person now."
"Yes, I have thought about that as I am used to seeing the business and earning reports. This is why I wanted to see Ozpin so I could request a week or so off for my new husband."
"And that brings us to our next problem. You realize the press are going to have an absolute field day with this when they find out. Also there's the question of what Mr. Arc-Schnee is going to do. Surely he'll have to have some role in the company with this marriage now a thing."
"You needn't worry he will be ready in time." Willow said with a smile before continuing, "After all I'm sure his test scores reflect that intellect. Once he shows his brilliance I'm certain the press will die down and well if not the lovely General here can just silence them, it's not something Atlas hasn't done in the past." Willow said with a now distasteful look as she stared at General Ironwood's projection on screen, before she continued. "Jaune might be dense when hungover, but we all start somewhere when dealing with hangovers, especially when it's our first hangover, so I doubt I'll be disappointed. That was your first hangover wasn't it dear?"
"Yes, that was my first hangover, and I never want to have another." Jaune added, causing a slight laugh to come from Willow. "Don't worry though Willow, your faith won't be misplaced. Tactics and leadership class are the only ones I'm good at here anyway." Jaune said with a sad smile.
"Well don't worry we'll fix that too. I know quite a few hunters after all, it's the reason I even knew the Arc code to begin with. I'm sure one will be able to help you." Willow said a loving smile as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Aw thanks Willow. Wait, how do you know my parents?" Jaune replied with a confused look.
"Well I don't know them personally, we aren't like best friends or anything but I did meet them once a while ago at a charity gala. That's where your father mentioned the Arc promise along with some of his more entertaining stories regarding promises he gave out." Willow said with a slight laugh as she remembered the events of that night.
"Damnit Willow, this isn't something to be so casual about! You are married to a man younger than your eldest daughter!" Ironwood shouted, finally having had all he could take of the couple.
This outburst in turn triggered a chain reaction of not only Willow getting upset but Jaune as well. Sure he understood the age difference was a big deal, but they were wed now and he would do everything he could for her knowing she probably felt the same way. At least that's what he thought because of her actions. Before he could say anything however, Willow beat him to it, and well it made Jaune never want to see her angry, after all Grimm hath no fury like an angry wife.
"I don't want to hear this from you General! For the first time that I can remember I spent a morning being happy. Legitimately happy, not some fake façade I had to put on to appease the Atlas high society. I didn't get hit, slapped, or anything of the sorts like I have spent YEARS enduring. I actually enjoyed a trip shopping, then had a lovely breakfast during which I had a pleasant conversation. I went around town and enjoyed the company of someone who was also enjoying my company and showing me compassion. That's something not even my own daughters do!" Willow said as the beginnings of tears began to form at the corner of her eyes.
Following that remark Winter visibly flinched in the background of General Ironwood's screen. Ironwood also let out a slight flinch before he tried to butt in only to be cut off as Willow continued on her tirade.
"So yeah, he might be years younger than me but he's not physically or verbally abusive, like Jacques was so you can take your opinion and stuff it up your tin can. Both you and my compassionless daughters. You knew the truth about the things Jacques would do to me yet YOU. DID. NOTHING. I have every right of mind to take MY company and MY husband and go off to somewhere else. Come on Jaune we're leaving." Willow said before standing up and grabbing Jaune's hand and pulling him towards the elevator.
Jaune, seeing the beginnings of tears, wrapped one of his arms around her in an effort to comfort her as soon as he was able to regain his footing, when they had reached the elevator. With the other he pushed the button sending the elevator back down to the ground floor.
"Willow wait I-" General Ironwood spoke before Ozpin cut him off.
"Let her go James, she was sadly right though. We all knew about Jacques' behavior over the years yet we didn't do anything to stop it. Some for less than moral reasons than others." Ozpin said with a sad expression on his face.
"Oh please Ozpin, you know if I ever so much as tried anything he would've hid or destroyed the evidence and sicked the army of SDC lawyers on the me. That would have had me paying large legal fees and straight back to square one."
"Wait, father beat mother? So that means all the times she said she accidentally fell when she was drinking was… oh no, what have we done?." Winter said with a gasp as everything slowly set in.
"General!" Winter all but shouted before Ironwood motioned for her to speak.
"I would like to request time off to go await my mother's and my um, step-fathers return so I can try to make up for the way I have treated her." Winter said with newfound determination.
"Go ahead Specialist, it's the least I can do to start making up for my outburst." Ironwood said as he began rubbing his temples once again as he watched Winter rush to and out the door.
"He'll be good for her, James. He can help bring a new light to that broken family and hopefully be able to mend it completely. Maybe even help establish the SDC as a respectful, moral, and ethical company again." Ozpin said, taking another sip from his mug.
"I agree with Headmaster Ozpin. While Jaune does lack in my combat class he is surprisingly skilled in more tactical and strategy based areas. He also has this thing about him which seems to usually brighten up his friends whenever he is around them." Glynda commented for the first time, finally having mulled over the things that were said in the meeting.
"We will see about that. However, I will still be talking to the boy later." Ironwood responded before shutting off the video call on his end.
With a sigh Ozpin got up from his chair and went and stood by the window. "Glynda, please excuse Mr. Arc-Schnee from class for the rest of this week but don't tell anyone the real reason. If asked simply say he had a family situation come up and had to go back home for a week or so. I have a feeling Mr. Arc-Schnee is going to be busy." Ozpin said as he saw Willow and Jaune going to presumably board a bullhead on the other side of the courtyard.
Willow was trying so hard to hold it in, but as soon as her and Jaune made it into one of the SDC's private bullheads Willow stopped trying to hold it in. She began letting it all out as she began crying over all the events that had transpired.
Doing the only thing Jaune could think of he gently put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug trying to comfort her. They stayed like this for several more minutes before eventually Jaune noticed that Willow had stopped crying and had fallen asleep. Deciding it was time to return the favor he gently laid her head down on his lap in an attempt to be a comfier pillow than the seats they currently sat on.
As Jaune sat there his mind went over the recent events in his life that had led to this craziness. The seemingly innocent drinking with Ren, then his now wife sitting down next to him and them getting much stronger drinks. Before ultimately waking up in a hotel room with her and being married. Then the confrontation Willow had with General Ironwood which led to Willow pulling him onto her private bullhead as she hurried to get away from the campus. Which led to the million lien question, where was this bullhead going?
Realizing they had been flying for a while now, Jaune decided it was probably a good time to wake Willow up and ask a few kind of important questions. As he gently nudged her he spoke, "Willow, Willow can you get up please? I have some questions I need you to answer."
After a few seconds Willow began to stir as she slowly opened her eyes to find herself staring up at Jaune. A complete reverse of the last bullhead ride where it had been him in her lap. Slightly embarrassed but doing her best to hide it, she gave a slight yawn and a little stretch as she sat up before moving to speak. "Yes Jaune, what is it?"
"Well um, kind of late to ask this now, but uh, what bullhead are we on, and where are we going?"
"Well firstly this is my personal bullhead. I sent a message to my pilot as we were walking to Headmaster Ozpin's office as I thought something might happen. And to put it simply, we are going back to Atlas, well I am going back anyways. This might be your first time there, but I digress."
"Wait Atlas? Didn't you just get done yelling at General Ironwood?" Jaune said with a confused expression on his face.
"Well yes, even after that um, exchange, I still have to go back as that's where Whitley is, not to mention the manor, and the SDC in general."
"Oh, that makes sense, but now that that's answered I have another question."
"Well I have another answer, you first." Willow replied with a small grin.
"What am I going to do about clothes? I mean I have what I'm wearing, as well as Crocea Mors, but that's it. I didn't get the chance to grab anything else."
"Don't worry dear, we can get you some clothes as well as some new armor, as that set looks like it's seen better days."
"Yeah it has definitely seen better days even if it does still work but yeah, I should probably upgrade in the future."
"Like I said dear, we'll fix that. I know some of the best armorers and weaponsmiths in Atlas, so we'll get you up to spec on everything."
"Wow thanks Willow, I really appreciate it. It was hard enough just getting this."
"You're welcome, Jaune. I'm happy to help, oh but when we get back I'm going to give you some papers to start studying too. We'll need to make sure you have a good understanding of the material so the board doesn't think you incompetent."
"Ugh not school work outside of school." Jaune said with a defeated sigh.
"Well you did marry into one of the biggest businesses in existence, even if it was a drunken event." Willow said with a small laugh.
After that the duo sat in a comfortable silence just enjoying the ride for a while before the pilot came over the intercom with a frantic panic in his voice.
"Buckle in quick! We got rockets flying at us! Be prepared for impact just in case!"
Jaune and Willow frantically managed to get buckled in before the bullhead lurched to the left then back to the right. Then up, then down before a hard blast shook the bullhead and the pilot came back over the intercom.
"WE'VE BEEN HIT! WE'RE GOING DOWN! BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The pilot screamed.
There's a reason a crash landing is called crash landing and Jaune got first hand experience why. He also learned he never wanted to go through one again. With a groan he lifted his head up and saw the bullhead had come apart and they had crashed in what seemed to be a forest. Realizing Willow wasn't next to him he quickly moved to unbuckle his seatbelt and began frantically looking around trying to find Willow.
He didn't see her but he saw the path of the rest of the wreckage as well as the pilot's body laying limp in his seat. Quickly checking his scroll he saw he was at around 75% of his aura. "Damn that crash must've hurt more than I thought. Thank Oum for my big aura reserves."
After putting his scroll away he slowly began to make his way over when he began hearing voices coming from up ahead. Only it wasn't Willow's voice. Realizing this was more than likely the enemy that had shot them down, Jaune quietly drew Crocea Mors from his belt and began sneaking towards the voices.
"Boss we got her, we got the Schnee. We shot her bullhead down then nabbed her. There was a pilot and another passenger but both died upon the vehicle impacting the ground."
"Thank Oum they didn't check too thoroughly." Jaune thought to himself as he peered around the piece of wreckage he was hiding behind.
The voice that responded was a bit more silent and Jaune could only assume it came from a scroll "Excellent, Adam will be pleased with this development. With this he can probably push Sienna to take a more aggressive stance and if not he could ride this momentum and take over. You've done well. Bring her back to base soon and in ONE PIECE." This was followed by a click signaling the end of the call.
As Jaune moved up to another wreckage piece he peered around the wreckage piece again and he saw seven soldiers standing next to an unconscious Willow who was laying on the ground beside them. She had some blood covering her face and part of her right side but overall didn't look too bad from what he could make out from here. He also saw one of the grunts moving towards Willow and fidgeting with his belt.
"What are you doing moron?" One of the other soldiers questioned.
"What? We were told to bring her back in one piece, they never mentioned anything else." The soldier responded with a maniacal grin.
Realizing what the grunt was about to try to do Jaune quickly smacked his shield on the side of the bullhead debris he was hiding behind creating a loud bang.
"What was that?" One of the grunts asked, as they all went on alert, making the one approaching Willow stop in his tracks.
"I don't know, I'll go check it out, wait here." Another responded as he drew up his gun and began walking towards the debris.
Hearing him coming Jaune found a small crack in the debris and ducked down in hopes he could get a surprise attack in. As the grunt rounded the corner he was greeted by sparking wires and a few flames but he couldn't locate the source of the sound.
With a shrug he turned back around and was about to start walking back towards his comrades when Jaune's shield slammed into the back of his head knocking him out cold, while Jaune's other arm caught him and gently lowered him to the ground.
"Hey Russet, you okay man?" One of the grunts called. Upon receiving no response the remaining six all drew their weapons and aimed them at the debris as they slowly began walking towards it.
Taking a small peek Jaune saw all them coming and grabbed the grunt's gun before he began moving backwards to quickly get behind the trees so he could try to get another attack in. Sadly this didn't go unnoticed by one of them as one of the grunts started shooting in Jaune's direction as he ran. Amazingly none of the bullets even clipped Jaune as he ran, but now they all knew where he was, at least before he hit the tree line anyways.
After moving into the treeline, Jaune dropped down into a squat so he could try to use the plant life to his advantage as cover and slowly inched forward till he could see the remaining grunts looking around for him.
Lifting the gun as he had seen others do he looked down the sights and aimed it at one of the grunts. "I've seen people use guns before, it can't be that bad." Jaune thought as he placed his finger on the trigger. "This is for messing with my family." Jaune thought to himself, not even realizing he was already calling Willow family, as he pulled the trigger and managed to fire off 7 rounds before the gun malfunctioned.
The first round struck true hitting the grunt he was aiming for in the torso, causing him to stumble backwards before hitting a piece of the wreckage and slumping against it as he went limp.
The gun's recoil however, was stronger than Jaune had expected it to be, which resulted in the follow-up rounds missing their mark.
Knowing his position had been given away Jaune dropped the gun and quickly began moving to his left, managing to avoid the gunfire that was shot at the spot he had previously occupied.
Deciding it was time to make use of his shield he positioned himself in a favorable line against one of the grunts and charged them. Bullets began firing from every direction, some missed him completely, some were bouncing off his shield, while others did manage to clip him in the shoulder or leg draining his aura down to 70% before he was able to swing at the grunt he was aiming for with his sword. His swing managed to connect with the grunt and down went the grunt.
Jumping behind some more debris for cover, Jaune began trying to figure out how to proceed. "All right, I've taken down three. Now there's just four more left. Come on, think Jaune, think."
Looking around he saw the gun of the grunt he shot first laying by the grunt's body that had slumped against the wreckage. Deciding to chance it he broke into a sprint before diving behind the wreckage and grabbing the gun, ripping it from the grunt's lifeless body.
Quickly going over the simplest of basics in his mind again, he'd have to remember to thank Ruby and all of her weapon geek knowledge, he leaned around the wreckage and began crudely aiming for the four remaining White Fang grunts who were approaching him. Letting out a breath he pulled the trigger and held it there, unleashing another hail of bullets. This time however, he managed to control the recoil a little better as he dumped the entire mag in the direction of the grunts. Thankfully managing to take down one of them before the gun began to click, indicating the magazine was empty.
Looking back towards the grunt's body he did a quick once over trying to look for more ammo, only to find the grunt had none. "Don't they teach you idiots to keep backup ammo? I know my teammates and Team RWBY does, heck even I know that and I don't even use a gun." Jaune said angrily before letting out a sigh and continuing, "Oh well the gun was fun while it lasted." "Hmm you know what I wonder if this will work." Jaune thought before he leaned around the corner and threw the gun with all his strength, before ducking back and praying it would do something.
"Ow, dammit! He threw the gun! Who the hell throws the gun!?" He heard the grunt shout.
Deciding now was as best of time as any, he charged towards the remaining three grunts with his shield raised. Just like last time some bullets missed him, others hit his shield, but unlike last time these grunts were more accurate as more bullets connected, dropping his aura to 55%.
With a shout Jaune smashed his shield into the closest grunt's face before swinging his sword to connect with the grunt who stood beside him. Knocking them both out in one fell swoop.
"Just you and me now." Jaune quipped a maniacal looking smirk, as he stared down the last remaining grunt. The same one Jaune saw moving towards Willow before all of this began.
The grunt seeing both his remaining comrades go down ignored Jaune's quip and quickly pointed his gun at Willow before saying "If we can't get her back to base she won't make it to any base!"
Seeing this Jaune went into full panic mode knowing Willow couldn't activate her aura if she was unconscious. He began racing towards the grunt only for a click to be heard as the gun was seemingly out of ammo. Letting out a frustrated cry the grunt pulled out a knife and began charging towards the unconscious Willow trying desperately to injure her more.
Jaune pushed and pushed. Pumping more and more aura into his legs to try to reach Willow before the grunt did. Jaune managed to get right behind the grunt but, unfortunately he was a second off as the White Fang grunt managed to plunge the knife into Willow causing blood to splatter upwards getting on both the grunt and Jaune.
Seeing this happen right in front of him, Jaune grabbed the grunt and threw him against the nearby tree before he lunged at the grunt. Jaune's sword connected, shattering the grunts' aura, and piercing right through the grunt, pinning him to the tree.
"Still *cough* worth it." The grunt said as he looked up only to find Jaune had already rushed back over to Willow, choosing to ignore him.
"No, no, no. Come on, stay with me Willow!" Jaune said as he began trying to put pressure on the wound to stop blood from coming out. "Please, please, oh dear Oum. Come on Willow, don't die on me." Jaune willed as he kept his hand pressed firmly down on her torso but blood kept seeping out. "There's got to be a way to save her." Jaune said as tears began to well in his eyes.
"That's it, I can use my aura. I saw a book in the library on aura transfer, dammit I just wish I read more of it. Damnit, here goes!" Jaune said with newfound determination as he began to pump his aura into her. As the wound began to ever so slowly close he began forcing more and more aura into Willow as he desperately tried to save her.
After pumping 30% of the remaining 55% of his aura into her Willow was still not looking good. The wound was barely halfway closed and blood was still rushing out. Pushing his body to try to pump even more he closed his eyes and concentrated, unaware of the bright light forming around his hands as he forced more aura into Willow's body. The Knight was in fact so focused he didn't hear the roar of an engine overhead, which if he would've looked up he would've seen an Atlesian military bullhead landing in the clearing the wreck had inadvertently created.
Out of said ship jumped Winter Schnee, who began racing over upon seeing her mother covered in blood. As she was running a pair of medics got out as well and began racing over before moving closer to Jaune. "Let her go." One of the medics said.
"No, I'm not going to let go. She can't die yet."
"Let her go so we can help stabilize her son." The other medic said, putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder.
Coming down from his panic, Jaune understood what the medic was saying and nodded as he let go and the medics began their work. He sat there the entire time watching, something that didn't go unnoticed by Winter. Something she also noticed was the sword sticking out a grunt who hung limp pinned to a nearby tree with a bloody knife in his hand.
Putting two and two together Winter figured out what must've happened. "Jaune killed him. He killed the White Fang member who stabbed mother." Winter softly said before she looked around taking in more of the surrounding area seeing the other six grunts lying on the ground. Two showed signs of bullet wounds whilst the others showed no such wounds. "He must've fought them off too, probably grabbing a gun from a downed Fang and shooting those two before he knocked out the other four." Winter said to herself as she observed the battlefield around her.
Slowly she walked over and pulled the sword out of the grunt before slashing downward at the ground to get the blood off of it. She then turned back to see the medics putting Willow on a stretcher and moving her towards the bullhead.
She walked up behind Jaune and put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, we have to get on that ship too before more show up."
With a nod, Jaune stood up and began making his way to the ship only to fall flat halfway as he had passed out from exhaustion. Seeing this, Winter quickly grabbed the blond knight and carried him to the bullhead where the medics began evaluating Jaune as well.
"He's out of aura Specialist Schnee. He probably used up all of it in the fight and then by trying to heal Willow. He risked his life to save her." One of the medics said with a serious look on his face. "He'll be fine in a little bit but he needs to rest. We'll put him in a room next to Willow's when we reach the hospital."
Sitting back, Winter let this new information sink in as they flew back.
"Uh, my body hurts all over." Jaune said as he groggily woke up before the events that transpired all came rushing back and he sat up with a shout of "Willow!"
"Calm down Mr. Arc-Schnee. Your wife is safe, that aura you gave her more than likely saved her life." Came the voice of a nurse besides him
"Oh. Oh, thank Oum." Jaune said before he collapsed back into the hospital bed.
"There was a um, side effect though." The nurse said nervously.
"Oh no. What happened?" Jaune asked, the panic clear in his voice.
"Don't worry your wife is perfectly healthy, a little too healthy actually." The nurse responded.
"I'm sorry but I don't follow." Jaune said with a very confused look on his face.
"That's okay we figured you might not. It appears when you were pumping your aura into her you awakened your semblance and well it may have restored a few years to her."
"Restored a few years to her?"
"Yes. Your wife is a perfectly healthy old young adult woman in her mid to late 20s."
"I'm sorry, what now?"
"Mr. Arc, do you know when the body truly begins its aging process?"
"No, no I don't."
"Well for the average person that usually starts around the age of 25, for some it may come a bit later."
"Ok? What's your point?" Jaune asked as he was very confused.
"It would seem due to you using up almost more than half your aura, as well as activating your newfound semblance you unintentionally mixed your aura with her aura and on top of that it boosted it. Basically you took your aura and after mixing with hers, yours overpowered hers, and to put it simply you reset her to the beginning of that cycle."
"What? How? Doesn't Aura usually just mean she should've started to heal faster? That's what I read in Beacon's library."
"Usually yes that is what it means. However with your newly discovered semblance it seemed to add another effect. You seemed to supercharge her aura causing her to effectively de-age not only the outside with her looks but internally as well. This was probably caused by you not knowing your semblance was awakened and or having no control over it. In fact it's very likely you could've killed yourself in the process. There's a bunch of medical terminology I could use to explain it better but to put it simply, your wife now has the age of a young woman around 26 or 27 instead of being in her early forties."
"So she still looks younger than she did before and she's healthier now too?"
"Yeah, that's the short simple version of it. We'll want her to remain a few nights to monitor her and make sure everything is alright just in case as this is the first we've seen of this."
"So what IS my semblance?" Jaune asked, still not fully knowing what it did.
"Forgive me for that. It would appear your semblance is something like a supercharger. It gives you the ability to greatly increase other things, such as aura and possibly other semblances."
"Oh ok. Um, will something like this happen again if I try my semblance on someone?"
"Probably not as it did require you using a lot of aura this previous time and the person had basically none of her own aura left. I'm just happy she had her aura unlocked, it was probably unlocked for a reason like this now that I think about it." The nurse said as she began thinking of what else could've gone wrong before this incident.
"Yeah I'm thankful she did too. We haven't spent too long together but I don't want to lose anyone I know." Jaune replied.
"Anyways you're free to get up now. You should be fully recovered and I'm sure you want to see your wife. And don't worry General Ironwood has ordered this a top secret incident so no word of any of the events that transpired will get out. If something does come to light it will more than likely be a trashy gossip magazine saying Willow got horribly hurt in the crash and will say she had to have surgery or something of the sorts." The nurse said as she moved to the door.
"So, what's the chance of that happening?"
"I do not know but probably not very likely. People will probably just assume she got some new fancy advanced skin care / restoration thing done to her." The nurse as she stood at the door.
Letting out a slight hmm as he went over the nurse's words Jaune got up out of the hospital bed and walked towards the door before following the nurse to the next room over. After opening the door he saw Winter asleep in a chair next to the bed with her head resting on an empty part of the bed. As he turned towards the bed's occupant his eyes went wide as he took in the sight of Willow. Just from looking at her face it indeed looked like Willow had de-aged as the youthful glow shone through. In fact she looked more like an older sister of Winter more so than she did her mother. Jaune was really going to have to thank Ironwood for classifying this whenever he saw him. If word of this got out it would be chaotic, although probably not being the chances of replication were low and it could affect both parties. Either way though better safe than sorry.
Jaune was pulled from his thoughts as the nurse spoke up. "She's been by her bedside the whole time, she must really love her mother. Take care now." The nurse said as she began to close the door.
"Uh yeah. Thank you for escorting me here." Jaune replied, before moving over towards the bed. He grabbed one of the chairs by the bed and pulled it closer to the bed. The chair however scratched on the ground and made a loud scraping noise waking up Winter in the process.
"Jaune? Well it's good to see you up and moving again." Winter said groggily as she began to wake up.
"Uh, yeah. It's good to be up. Honestly though I'd have thought you'd been a little more upset with me." He said as he sat down.
"Well the news was quite shocking but regardless I saw your aftermath of fighting the White Fang at the wreckage and I gained some respect for you."
"Oh, thanks I guess." The blond knight responded as he scratched the back of his head in his trademark nervous gesture.
"Well it's good to see my daughter and her step-father getting along." came a voice from the bed.
Cries of "Willow"/ "Mother" came from the pair as they turned towards the woman in bed.
"I'm so happy you're okay mother. Stay here with her, Jaune, I'll go get the nurse." Winter said before she rushed to the door.
"Jaune, I can remember a little bit of what happened and let me just say thank you. I know this has been a crazy past few days but thank you." Willow said as she took one of his hands in her own.
"You're welcome Willow." Jaune said with a smile on his face.
"Now then Jaune I'm about to say a lot so please don't interrupt." Willow said and after seeing Jaune give a nod she continued.
"Originally I thought about just letting this marriage thing continue because of your family motto and well it was nice being in the presence of someone who treated me with compassion and kindness who didn't work for me. Though now I think something truly good can come of this and I'd like to really be your wife. If you'll have an older woman like me as your wife."
"You already are Willow, you already are." Jaune said as he took hold of one of her hands with his before the other moved to scratch the back in what Willow already knew was a nervous tick, before continuing speaking. "But uh, I wouldn't worry as much about the age anymore, my semblance kind of did something when I saved you." Jaune said.
"Your semblance did something?" Willow asked with a curious look on her face.
"Well this might seem like some unbelievable stuff so uh just bear with me here but the doctor said I kind of de-aged you. It's, well it's complicated." Jaune finished with a sigh.
"What do you mean 'de-aged' me? How is something like that even possible?" Willow questioned.
"Well just take a look." Jaune said as he handed her a handheld mirror that was on a nightstand by her bed.
"Oh my Oum." Willow said, voice full of shock. "Jaune I look amazing. I mean I'm almost glowing, I haven't looked like this since I was 27. This is amazing. What in the world did you do?" Willow asked as she stared at Jaune's face showing signs of confusion, happiness, and shock all at once.
"Well this is just what I was told but," Jaune said as he went on to explain everything the nurse had told him.
"That, that's remarkable. That would definitely explain why I feel rather well for my condition right now. However, let's agree though to never try it again alright dear?" Willow said with a smile before she let out a small laugh and leaned her head on Jaune's shoulder.
Suddenly the door opened to reveal Winter and the nurse standing there as Jaune tilted his head towards Willow's and whispered to her, "You know Winter was here the whole time right? She apparently wouldn't leave your side." Before he got up and said a bit louder, "I'm going to get something to drink, I'm sure you two have something to discuss."
Before walking towards the door and grabbing the nurse on the way out telling her the two needed to talk privately.
"Mother" Winter began "I-I I'm so sorry." Winter said as she flung herself towards the bed and wrapped her arms around her mother.
Willow wrapped her own arms around her daughter trying to comfort her, "It's alright Winter, It's alright."
"No it's not alright. I treated you horribly and when you tried to come back around I treated you even worse. When you said those things to General Ironwood it hurt. Then as I was waiting for your bullhead to arrive so I could apologize, the emergency signal activated and we saw your bullhead went down. I-I was so scared mama, I thought I was going to lose you before I could ever apologize and you'd die hating me. B-but Jaune was there and he gave you all of his aura and he managed to save you."
"I could never hate my own daughter dear. As angry as I was in Ozpin's office, I could never hate my children." Willow said, as she wiped the tears from her daughter's eyes.
Trying to regain what little poise she could, Winter sat up, before saying "Mother, while I don't like how your marriage came about, I will give Jaune a better chance. He seems like a good guy who actually cares for you."
"Thank you Winter." Willow said before bringing her arms up to wrap her daughter in a hug, something Winter returned in kind as the two shared a loving hug for the first time in years.
Outside of the room, Jaune watched all of this from the small window in the door with a big smile on his face knowing that a once fractured mother-daughter relationship had been healed.
So there ya have it. Winter's thawing has happened. Don't worry she's not going to disappear from the story now that she's had her little arc she'll stick around and pop up again in the next chapters. See y'all in two weeks!