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Bit of a sad one, this, at least towards the end, but some stuff needs to be done.

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"So…" Robyn started once the man, and a lot of his Minions, had left, headed off towards their apparent new mission. Leaning against the wall by the library door, she smirked when Fiona turned, ears flicking nervously, and asked, "Got somethin' to tell us, Fi?"

"N-No?" She blinked, cocking her head to the side cutely, and confusedly. "I-I don't?"

"Really?" May chuckled, leaning against the wall beside her and playing right along with her. "Big, strong man came along. Tall, dark and broody, and nice enough to run off to help people just 'cus you asked? And come on, Rob, you saw what I did, right?"

"Mhm." Robyn looped a hand around her waist and gave her hip a squeeze where Fiona could see it. She caught the message and flushed, ears flat against her head, as Robyn said, "Had his hand on you. Just like this."

"T-That doesn't mean any-"

"Fiona." May chided her, "Remember what you told me when I got all shy about Robyn?"

"M-Maybe?"

"Mhm. 'We could die any day'," May repeated, smirking at Robyn and then finishing, "'so better not waste any Time' eh?"

"I hated that pun when I made it…" She sighed, turning and sliding down to sit on the ground, picking up her notebook now she had it and setting to work copying over bits from the scroll in front of her. She frowned as she worked, and Robyn did, too, worried a she went on. "But it's not like that. Can't be."

"Why not?"

"You've seen him." She shrugged, flicking Robyn a look and shaking her head as she turned back to her work. "He's… Got priorities."

"So do I." Robyn pointed out quietly, pulling May just a bit closer. Fiona didn't turn to them, but Robyn knew her. Well enough to catch the way her ear flicked towards them, and her hand slowed down its work. "Mantle, the Huntresses as a whole, the Faunus, workers' rights… I have priorities, too. Doesn't mean I don't have time for a cute gal to cuddle up by the fire with."

"R-Robyn…" May murmured, "C-C'mon."

"He's different."

"Different how?"

"He just is." Fiona sighed, "A-And besides, I'm just-"

"Adorable." Robyn cut in, eyes narrowing as the woman's ears flattened against her head anxiously. "Have you even let yourself think about it?"

"Why would I?"

"You need someone, Fi." Robyn said, frowning, "Life isn't meant to be lived alone."

"I'm not." She argued, "I have you guys."

"That's not the same and you know it." Robyn said, "I saw the way you looked at him. The way you leaned into him when he held you? Don't tell me you don't-"

"What I want doesn't matter." She snapped finally, turning to glare at Robyn. "He's not… Interested."

"How do you know that?"

"If he was, wouldn't he have…" She shrugged and grimaced, unsure suddenly. "Tried to do something? Like, romantic, I mean?"

"Like what?" May asked, brows furrowing in confusion as she chuckled. "Letting you into his library full of all the nerdy stuff you adore? Sent you freshly-hunted deer and fish, just for you? What else does he need to do, throw you a-"

"Ahem." May flinched and jumped away from the door just as Robyn did, both watching the fuzzy, wrinkled little creature, Gnarl, pad into the room. He was leaning on his cane and toting something wrapped in leather, but turned to raise an eyebrow at the two of them. "Greatest apologies for interrupting, ladies."

"It's… Fine." Robyn sighed, straightening and frowning. "What do you want?"

"Just to make a delivery." Gnarl answered quietly, turning and padding over to Fiona who stood to meet him. Then, he held out his little package and said, "A gift, from my Master."

"A… Gift?" Fiona blinked, taking it and giving the Minion a look. "Why?"

"You are, of course, free to leave." The Head Minion explained, leaning more heavily on his cane with a sigh. "As such, neither he nor I can be certain you will all be here when he returns from this most recent vainglorious bout of, blegh, heroism. So, he asked I go ahead and gift this to you."

"Okay…" She pulled the little strap holding it together away and Robyn watched her tug the leather wrap aside and blink, eyes widening and ears going ramrod. "W-W-Wait is this-"

"The whatchamacallit original." Gnarl nodded his head, smiling thinly as she pulled it out, inspecting the stiff spine and thick leather backing on its outside closely. "He noted how very enthused you were to see it, and so asked me to… Fix it up, as it were. Not my best work but-"

"I-I can't accept this!"

"Or just interrupt me." Gnarl sighed as the woman bounced around in a small, excited, nervous and anxious circle. "Fine, I'll ask. Why not?"

"T-T-This is a Kant original!" She squawked, "I-It's worth-"

"An original?!" Robyn squawked just as shrilly. "Fi, you sure?"

"Yes!" She shouted back, bouncing over excitedly, hair jostling with each excited leap as she came over and turned it around, shoving it into her face. "Look! The language is so old! A-A-And the pages are y-yellowing! And the notes penned into the margins are-"

"Fi, love you, but you know we can't read that." May chuckled, slipping away and around to wrap and arm around her shoulders and keep her still. "Still, you're sure?"

"I-I mean, as much as I can be without ink-testing." She nodded, turning as Gnarl shuffled over and smiling sweetly. "I-I appreciate this, but I can't take something so valuable. I-I just-"

"The Overlord doesn't do 'No', girl." Gnarl grunted, pushing the book back towards her and frowning deeply. "Don't insult us, girlie. We know how valuable this could be, if you're right about it. Yet, Master wants you to have it, as thanks for the work you agreed to do for us."

"This is way too much…"

"We disagree." Gnarl said, turning and pausing. "And besides, our Master is… Something of a soft heart, when it comes to cute things."

"C-Cute?!"

"Well, according to him, at least." Gnarl shrugged, leaving without another backward look.

After a long moment of silence, May snorted and turned, "So… About that big romantic gesture I was gonna-"

"May." Robyn chuckled, watching the Faunus redden and hold the book against her chest, staring at nothing and slowly collapsing to curl up on the ground, ears flicking wildly. "This isn't the-"

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"-time." Ren murmured, standing in their dorm and looking down at the curled up form of his partner, curled up under her covers. Kneeling at the head of the bed, he sighed and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Please, Nora. It's time."

"I can't go, Ren." The girl murmured, sounding so… Absolutely dejected that it made his heart throb painfully in his chest. She shifted, rolled over, and her messy head of hair poked out just enough to meet his eyes. "I just- I don't deserve to be there."

"Of course you-"

"I killed him." She cut him off, "How can I face them? His family will be there…"

"I know, Nora." He frowned, "But… You didn't kill him. It was an accident."

"I knocked him off." She said, "I knocked him off and he fell and he died. Even Headmaster Ozpin has given up on-" She choked on her words and he saw her starting to cry, "I didn't even leave a body for his f-family, Ren!"

"Nora…." He reached out, running his fingers through her hair and smiling sadly.

"Please." She said, hand snapping up to hold his, trembling as it did. "D-Don't make me go, Ren. I-I can't face them. I just can't."

"Nora…" He sighed and stood up, leaning over to press a kiss to the side of her head before he tugged his hand free and nodded. "Okay. I won't force you. Just… Try and feel better. Okay, Nora? We've come too far to let it end here. And… I don't think Jaune would have wanted that, anyways."

"O-Okay." She nodded, "I'll feel better soon. P-Promise."

"Okay." He nodded, "Tomorrow, then. We'll… Get into the kitchen and make a mountain of pancakes. Just like you love."

"Yeah." She nodded, rolling back over. "T-Tomorrow."

With a sigh, he turned, pulled on his uniform jacket, and slipped out of the room.

"She's still in bed?" Pyrrha asked as he stepped into the hall. He nodded and she smiled sadly, brushing a hand through the hair she let flow freely behind her. Shaking her head she murmured, "Nora feels so very deeply… I don't envy her that, right now."

"She's convinced she's a murderer."

"I know." Pyrrha nodded, leaning against the wall beside RWBY's dorm-door, hands clasped across her stomach. Her fingers laced together and she sighed, face tightening before she took a shaky breath to collect herself and pushed ahead, "Her move was reckless, yes, but… She killed no one. It was merely a quirk of destiny. To be partnered with 'the invincible' and yet to fall so quickly."

"It isn't your fault, either." Ren smiled weakly, reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder. "You understand that. Right?"

"I was his partner." Hard, dark green eyes met his and she scowled. "It was my duty to protect him."

"It wasn't-"

"'By my shoulder, I protect thee'." She cut him off, tears threatening to break free before she turned, wiping at her eyes with the back of her sleeves. Quietly, she said, "That was our vow. A vow I failed. Nora may be no killer. But me?" She scoffed and half-turned to just barely meet his gaze past her hair and her shoulder, "I am a failure, Ren. And I will live with it."

"We…" He sighed and shook his head, avoiding her gaze and saying, instead, "We should go. The ceremony is due anytime soon."

"Go ahead." She sighed, nodding her head at a boxy package and murmuring. "I have… A delivery to make, first."

"Alone?"

"Alone." She nodded, turning away from him. "I failed one duty. Let me attend to this one, at the least. As small a comfort as it may be, it is all I can do. And so, I must do it."

"Very well." He hesitated, for a moment…

And, finally, turned away from her.

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Pyrrha hugged the package to her arms and stared at the floor of the lift as it rose, slowly but inevitably, to Beacon's highest end. The trip was scarcely a minute but, to her, it felt so much longer. And the burden, only a pound at best, felt heavier than her own shield and spear might have. She'd read about this all before, of course. In Mistral, there were more than a mere few dramas about soldiers carrying their brothers' and sisters' burdens home, and she'd always had a resignation, deep down, that she would have to see it through.

Never had she imagined it so soon, though…

The door opened just in time for her to catch the Headmaster, voice quiet, say, "-for your loss, Missus and Missus Cotta-Arc. But, I assure you, had we known-"

"You can save it, respectfully." The blonde sitting across from him cut her off as the lost looking brunette turned and met her eyes, brows furrowing in confusion and then raising in recognition, before depressing in realization, all while her wife went on, "I don't believe for a moment he passed your supposedly extensive background checks."

"Miss-"

"Or that he would have passed the physical." She cut him off, voice heavy and hot and so pained that it made Pyrrha's shame rise ever higher, "Or that he had the funds for a full four years! How dare you sit there while my family waits- While my parents explain to our youngest, and to our son, a baby, that he's gone. Forever. Because you and your supposedly incredible-"

"Saph." The woman said quietly, finally cutting her off as the blonde turned to her, shoulders heaving for breath. "Jaune's… Partner is here."

The blonde turned in her seat, red-eyed and cheeks puffy, and Pyrrha smiled thinly, "Hello."

"Pyrrha Nikos…" A lot of emotions flashed across her face, then, and Pyrrha's thin smile fell instantly. Anger was there, clear as day, but her wife laid a hand on her shoulder and she nodded, letting out a long breath and standing. She even managed a small smile, as Ozpin stood, too, and her wife stood to wrap an arm around her shoulders. Quietly, she said, "I… Well, I can't say it's a pleasure to meet you. I'd be lying."

"As would I." She nodded, pacing forward until she could hold out the box. "This is… All we have. I'm sorry."

"All you… Oh." The woman murmured, reaching out with shaking hands to take the box and tucking it against her chest. Shakily, she said, "T-Thank you. It may not be- It isn't much but- I-I'm sorry, suddenly I can't think very straight…

"Crocea Mors?" The other asked quietly, "That isn't big enough for it, surely. It… Has a shield."

"It could collapse." Pyrrha answered on instinct, grimacing at the hope that flared up in their faces, for a moment, before she opened her mouth to say. "B-But… No. We couldn't find anything down there, even after… Weeks and weeks of searching."

"How could you not-"

"The chasm is wide and long." Headmaster Ozpin interrupted sharply, stepping around the desk and to their flank, casting them all in a long shadow born from the sun setting behind him. Gently, he laid a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder as her arms crossed and, just as gently, he said. "Mister Arc has been missing for two months. Of that time, Miss Nikos has, cumulatively, spent two and a half weeks out there, looking for him. Two and a half entire weeks of search. We nearly lost her when-"

"Sir." Pyrrha cut him off, "Please. Don't. That isn't-"

"No." The blonde cut her off in turn. "Finish."

"Miss Nikos nearly died when a Beringel slipped the net and mauled her two weeks ago." He murmured, "She suffered a broken rib, a dislocated knee that nearly required surgery, and a concussion. Which, I wager, is the only reason she didn't reach three weeks. Is that not right?"

"I…" She sighed and nodded, "Y-Yes. I wanted so badly to go back out, but the Nurse-"

Suddenly, the blonde surged forward, hurling her arms around her and dragging her, squawking in surprise, into a trembling hug. Pyrrha froze, unsure of what to do, but the woman only hugged her tighter. Then she choked a sob and said, "Thank you, f-f-for caring about him. About my baby b-brother."

"I…" She returned the hug as best she could and sighed. "I only regret I could not find him. Or… Protect him."

"I'll leave you for a moment." The Headmaster said, "But don't tarry long. Your parents' eulogy won't last much longer, I'm afraid. And as important as returning this was for your family's rather tight schedule… I have my own speech. And the presentation."

"We won't be long." The blonde, Saph, said from where her face was tucked into Pyrrha's shoulder. "Just… Right behind you."

"Right." He nodded, "Of course. Pardon me, then."

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Ozpin watched Miss Nikos find her seat in the same few moments the two young wives did, too, and frowned deeply, leaning against the door out of the auditorium, where most of the ceremony had been held, and out into the lawn beside Beacon's Fountain of the Lost. Long wooden benches had been hauled out of the cafeteria and laid in neat rows across the grass and path as far as they could. As ever, the space was tight. Tight enough that the few Second and Third years, and some of the First even, stood to either side and one enterprising young man had even climbed a tree to sit at. Not merrily, he noted, watching the young Hunter's frown deepen as he spotted him.

"Headmaster." He barely turned his head as the Headmistress joined him, "How are you?"

"Fine." He frowned, "I didn't lose a friend. A loved one. A partner."

"You and I both know one of those isn't true…"

"A dozen generations." He murmured, "And I still… Well. I suppose it doesn't matter."

"It does to you." Goodwitch said, "That is enough, I think. Enough to put your faith in the young man. Enough to grieve him."

"That is fair enough, I suppose." He murmured, watching the sun dip lower and nodding curtly. "It seems it's time, Deputy Headmistress. I trust all is ready?"

"Yes, Headmaster." She answered quietly, the picture of professional decorum on the turn of a dime. As ever. "All according to protocol."

He nodded and stepped out, onto the promenade the fountain had been built on. Without turning to the audience, he made his way to the microphone on its stand, right behind a small metal torch with a little conical shelter on four thin legs. Standing there, he watched the crowd patiently until the idle chatter and aggrieved murmuring died out.

When it did, he spoke, "I am not here to give you any manner of lengthy speech of memory and sorrow. We, all of us, understand the loos here. The tragedy. Talking on it more would… Well, it would be a waste of time suddenly shown to us all to be oh so very precious."

"Instead, I will speak to hope." He said quietly, clasping his hands on top of his cane and leaning on it. "The hope I see before me, and the hope we commemorate. The hope of a young man to be a hero. A protector. A shield, to all those around him. A hope that burned so brightly, so stunningly, that even the gods were jealous of it. A hope stolen from us, from the world, far, far too soon… A hope I failed, and not for the first time, to my life-long shame."

"Alexander Alabaster. Terra Rose. Craig Copper. Artoria Crim. Sieg Snow. Torrent Crimson-Russet. Gretchen Rainart." He spoke each name softly, turning his gaze over all of them. "Huntsmen, Huntresses- Hunters, one to the last. All lost here, in this Academy, for the hope this young man, this young hero, Jaune Arc embodied and carried to the same end each one of those who carry the same fire he held face."

"Death." He murmured, "Finality. An ending. A last step on the long journey we all face. For some, shorter than others, but… We burn. Each of us. Beautiful and lasting in our own right. Each one, a work of art. Every scar. Every pain. Every misstep, mistake, misbegotten mentality. We humans are diluted by our failings… But beautiful for it."

"As beautiful as the blaze that Jaune Arc has left for us." He answered, gesturing with a hand for the Deputy Headmistress to press the button that sparked the torch to life. He gestured at it with a hand and said, "A blaze which will burn here, for seventeen days and seventeen nights, until the eighteenth morning. At which point the metal of it will be melted down. Engraved with his name. And emplaced in Vale's Hall of Memoriam, beside so many of Jaune Arc's fellow heroes."

"He is in good company." He finished quietly, "And has left us his hope. May we, each of us, strive to be the bright, warm light on this world. To chase away the shadows, so that we need no more torches. That is all. And thank you."

He watched the family huddle together, hugging, and then turned to watch young Miss Rose be wrapped up by her own team. Even the icy young Miss Schnee offered her a hand to hold and a soft smile. She wasn't crying, though. Not now. Miss Rose had cried more than enough, he supposed, to be tired of it. Even the young, brash men beside them, team Cardinal, offered them gentle words as they left, heads low. A sight, to be sure, from them, according to their background checks.

He smiled softly and turned away, just barely murmuring, "A light to us all, Mister Arc… A light to us all."

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Anonymous :

About 'how Beacon is handling it' lmao.

And team JNPR is team JNPR still, just without their fourth. A sort of 'in memoriam' decision made after they'd been partnered and collected Relics, thus forming the team. Which is when I headcanon Oz starts naming them.

Powerball Wiz :

For the first bit - yeah, by design. For the second? Good ideas, actually hadn't considered the aesthetic yet, lol. XD

Emeraldfireblade :

Not just Blake, lmao.

Dr Kilinger :

Others will appear, though not NECESSARILY any specific one. Most likely, original ones will emerge.

Lea Rosenwulf :

Cliche is good. Its cliche for a reason lmao.