[RWBY] The Great Temporal Step-Sibling War!

[AndrewJTalon]

Radian, Vale

Eight Years After Salem's Defeat

---

The front yard of the Arc farmhouse was a chaos of small running feet and late-afternoon light. Petra chased little Neptune through the grass with single minded intensity. Somewhere inside, Jaune's voice rose and fell as he wrangled dinner and their newest baby, Kazuma.

Arslan sat on the porch steps with her hands folded in her lap, watching it all with that same unshakable calm she had carried through war and wedding and every long night since. Pyrrha sat beside her, too still, eyes on the children and not quite on her oldest friend.

"Pyrrha," Arslan said quietly. "You still love my husband, don't you?"

Pyrrha's shoulders tightened.

"It's all right," Arslan continued. "You can admit to it."

Pyrrha was still hesitant to admit such a thing, but she knew when she had been had. She let out a thin breath.

"How long have you known that I was still in love with him?"

"That's not important." Arslan's gaze stayed on the yard. "What is important is that you admit it."

Pyrrha sighed. "Yes. I'm still in love with Jaune. I have never stopped being in love with him… nor will I ever."

Arslan nodded once. "I understand…"

She almost looked amused.

That, more than the words, irritated Pyrrha. She narrowed her eyes.

"You do realize you're not pregnant anymore, right? Which means I'm more than okay with fighting you right now."

"No, no…" Arslan's mouth curved, just slightly. "I mean… Pyrrha. If I made the offer, would you join us?"

Pyrrha answered with zero hesitation.

"Yes. Absolutely."

Arslan studied her for a long moment. "Would you be willing to join the Church of the Tablebreaker? Genuinely. Not live a lie?"

Again, without hesitation. "Yes. Absolutely."

Arslan's eyes warmed with something that might have been triumph. "…So you finally admit I am right about your paganistic gods failing you and being false?"

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. "You realize I only argued with you on that because my publicist told me to, right? I haven't been inside one of those temples since I was eight."

"I know." Arslan's voice was almost fond. "But you are most becoming when you are pouting."

Pyrrha crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm not pouting."

Arslan smiled. "You are."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes, the fight going out of her in a playful huff. "Okay, fine then. I was pouting. Now, what else do I have to do?"

"Marry Jaune," Arslan said simply. "With a ceremony involving myself. Then… we are a true family."

Pyrrha quirked an eyebrow. "And you're fine with me moving in as a result of that?"

Arslan turned to look at her fully then, calm and serious and kind in the way that had always made Pyrrha feel comforted and outmaneuvered at the same time.

"Pyrrha… I am all right with expanding our family and sharing so that one of my oldest friends doesn't die alone and miserable."

Pyrrha clicked her tongue. "Tsk. I hate that I can't argue against that. Still…" Her gaze drifted back to the yard, to Petra wrestling Neptune into the grass, to Isabelle and Nick tumbling after them. "What do we tell your—our kids, let alone our family and friends?"

Arslan did not hesitate.

"The truth."

She watched her children laugh, sunlight caught in their hair.

"We did save the world, after all."

Pyrrha shrugged, a small, helpless smile tugging at her mouth. "Fair enough. We are afforded some amount of leeway after all."

"Agreed," Arslan nodded. "But I am still glad we will be in the same afterlife, now that you admit I am right."

Pyrrha scowled.

"Pride and gloating are a sin, you know."

Arslan smiled gently.

"I will do penance later."

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Vacuo City, Vacuo

One year, nine months after Vytal

---

The walls of Vacuo shook under another barrage.

Smoke hung over the city walls. Grimm screamed in the dunes beyond. A Hydra reared above the outer line, three throats glowing as it gathered fire.

Jaune stood between Sun and Ren in battered gold and rust-dark plate, the Rusted Knight's cloak snapping in the heat. He was older than the boy who had fallen into the Ever After. But that didn't mean he was wiser.

The first fireball swelled in the Hydra's left mouth. Then the other heads glowed with fireballs. All pointed at the three Huntsman on the wall. The regular troops fled. They stayed put.

Jaune tilted his head. "…Guys? First one to dodge the magic fireball is a chicken."

Sun's grin was immediate. "…You're on."

Ren closed his eyes for half a second, as if privately asking the universe why he was like this... Then said: "…Very well."

Below the wall, Glynda Goodwitch stared up at them.

"What."

They stayed still.

The fireballs came closer.

Closer.

Closer.

All three tensed.

All three leaned back, just a fraction, like men preparing to look cool while dying.

KABOOM.

The blast took the battlement apart. Jaune, Sun, and Ren were launched off the wall in three separate, undignified arcs and slammed into the packed sand at the base of the fortifications. Dust exploded outward. A chunk of battlement followed them down.

Ruby, Glynda, and Blake stared at the three craters in utter disbelief.

"ARE YOU ALL STUPID?!" Ruby shrieked.

Yang's voice carried from further down the line. "YEAH! I WOULD'VE WON THAT!"

"SHUT UP YANG!"

Glynda was already striding toward the impact zone, riding crop in hand, Aura crackling around her like a storm front. "Honestly! What were you thinking?!"

Jaune groaned from the bottom of his crater and lifted one gauntleted hand. "Urgh… Wanted to impress you, Glynda."

Glynda's eye twitched.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU DID IMPRESS ME DOESN'T MEAN I'M NOT STILL ANGRY!"

Sun popped up from his own hole, hair full of sand, triumphant. "DIDN'T DODGE AT ALL! HA!"

Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. "Idiot…"

Weiss arrived at a run, took in the scene, and stared in disbelief.

"What happened?!"

"First one to chicken out... And dodge the fireball... Lost," Sun reported as Blake fussed over him.

Weiss gaped.

"WHY?!"

"Just... Felt like acting like a young fool," Jaune chuckled, his Aura going back to full strength and healing the other boys instantly.

Weiss's eye twitched.

"Why is everyone I know insane?"

Ren sat up slowly. "Ow… Why did I do that…?"

Nora vaulted the rubble, eyes shining. "For kisses from me, winner!"

Ren blinked. Considered this. Nodded, faintly beatific.

"Ah."

"Please, I totally won," Sun scoffed.

"I'm the one who healed you," Jaune huffed.

Glynda hauled Jaune to his feet by the front of his breastplate.

"You are never doing that again," she said.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And if you make another bet like that, I will levitate you into the next fireball myself."

"Yes ma'am."

Jaune saluted and went back up to the wall. Sun was already climbing, shouting that he had technically won. Ren followed, because Nora had promised kisses and that, apparently, was enough.

Ruby stared after them, then at Glynda.

"…You're going to marry him, aren't you."

Glynda straightened her glasses, cheeks pink, and refused to look at anyone.

"That," she said, "is neither here nor there. We have a war to finish."

 

[digcat]

Thanks for all the updates today Andrew.

 

[TheFabulousCustodes]

The first fireball swelled in the Hydra's left mouth. Then the other heads glowed with fireballs. All pointed at the three Huntsman on the wall. The regular troops fled. They stayed put.

Jaune tilted his head. "…Guys? First one to dodge the magic fireball is a chicken."

Click to shrink...

Jaune groaned from the bottom of his crater and lifted one gauntleted hand. "Urgh… Wanted to impress you, Glynda."

Glynda's eye twitched.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU DID IMPRESS ME DOESN'T MEAN I'M NOT STILL ANGRY!"

Click to shrink...

Yang - "You just nearly got cooked by a fireball while trying to impress Goodwitch, you know what this means, VB?"

Jaune - "I'm gonna be stuck peeling potatoes, and getting a lectured on maturity by everyone under the sun?"

Yang - "That too, but mostly the fact that now you're official hot for teacher!" *finger guns*

 

[zMADLAXz]

Yang - "That too, but mostly the fact that now you're official hot for teacher!" *finger guns*

Click to shrink...

A good Yang Pun? In this economy?!!