[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 officially 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?!!

 

[Muramasa]

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

Click to shrink...

We all know he didn't say "coward."

 

[AndrewJTalon]

The trip back to campus had been fairly uneventful; Penny's virgin alarm being on edge making sure they had sat with a responsible amount of distance between them during the airship ride home.

The walk back to the dorms from the airfield was similarly uneventful, though the evening breeze was a touch unpleasant on their still damp clothes. Penny had hosed them both down after the White Fang scuffle—efficient, thorough, and completely unconcerned with dignity. Blake's dress clung to her in a way that would have been mortifying if she weren't still a little tipsy and very determined not to show it.

They paused outside RWBY's dorm.

Blake looked up at him, posture straight, smile composed in that careful Nadeshiko way she sometimes slipped into when she wanted to look collected. "Thank you, Jaune. I had a very nice time."

"Me too…"

She was still a bit tipsy. Still a bit wet. She tugged lightly at a damp section of her dress, smile turning just a little sultry.

"It's a shame we don't have somewhere private so I could hang this to dry… while we have some tea." Her eyes flicked to his soaked clothes. "And you as well, of course…"

Jaune's brain short-circuited. "Ahh… W-Well…"

Penny raised her water cannon.

"Woah woah woah—Penny. Flirting is okay."

Penny's head tilted. "But Friend Mrs. Belladonna instructed me to be extra vigilant with Friend Blake!"

Blake's ears flattened. "And what do you mean my mom warned you? She's the one that told me to—!"

She stopped. Took a breath.

"No. That's fine. I—I think I'm good."

Jaune lifted a hand, voice gentle. "Easy, Blake. Easy. Penny? Please give us some privacy? I don't think we'll get attacked in here."

"Would that not be in violation of my orders?"

Blake's eyes narrowed. "And what are your orders, Penny? The exact wording."

"To safeguard Friend Jaune Arc as a Very Important Person Vital to Life on Remnant."

Blake gestured toward the window. "And what if there's someone wanting to… shoot a bazooka through the window? And it's a proximity fuse? In that case, giving us some privacy while you go on patrol would…?"

Penny froze, processors visibly wrestling with the hypothetical.

Jaune jumped in. "How about you sweep outside and give us some privacy? Just for a bit?"

"Okay, Friend Jaune!"

Penny bounded off down the hall. Blake watched her go, a small, fond huff escaping her.

"…She's nice. Strange, but nice."

She rose onto her toes and pressed a quick peck to his cheek. "Thanks again, Jaune."

"You're welcome, Blake." He swallowed. "Um… listen. You're absolutely stunning. Honestly I don't think a single Huntress is bad looking and you're all gorgeous. I'm… it's ridiculous how lucky I am."

Blake's smile turned wry. "Good to know water doesn't ruin the look."

"But… I mean… ugh. Did you see I Have a Scroll in Another World? I feel like that guy. Totally unworthy of all this attention."

"Well, you aren't a bad catch yourself, Jaune." Her voice softened. "We all were… either too wrapped up in our own issues, or too immature, to notice until recently. Besides, I think Weiss saw your dad and realized you're an investment or something."

Jaune's ears went pink. "Well… I saw your mom and, well… I'm glad to see the future."

He cupped her cheek. Blake's smile turned genuine. She laid her hand over his.

"I look forward to next time."

She rose onto her toes again and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips.

Jaune kissed her back a little more fervently, arms tightening around her. Blake wrapped her arms around his neck and guided his hands to her waist. When he scratched behind her ears she made a small, squeaky moan, one foot lifting behind her like something out of an old movie.

"Mwah—"

They pulled back for a moment to take a breath, and then Jaune closed his eyes as they leaned in for another hungry kiss…

There was suddenly nothing in Jaune's arms. He opened his eyes and looked about the empty hallway, blinking in confusion as Penny returned from her perimeter sweep.

"Area secure!" Penny proudly announced. Then she joined Jaune in looking up and down the hallway, "Where's friend Blake?"

It would take a moment before either of them would be able to answer that question.

Blake in turn was also wondering where she was. She remembered Jaune closing his eyes to lean in for another kiss and she remembered eagerly leaning for it, and then the entire world was rose petals.

Up was rose petals. Down was rose petals. Left was rose petals. Right was rose petals. Forward was rose petals. Back was rose petals.

When the world stopped being rose petals Blake found herself in an unfamiliar room seated at a table under a painfully bright light that focused its illumination in a small circle around the table, obscuring the rest of the room in shadows.

"BLAKE BELLADONA!" Ruby Rose slammed her hands on the table across from Blake with a furious gleam in her eyes. "You tried to drag Jaune into a sleazy love hotel!"

"No I didn't!" Blake's answer was reflexive.

"Then why did your scroll's GPS put you within a hundred yards of Domina's Desire Den?" Ruby accused with a dramatic pointing of her finger. Yang stepped out of the shadows and opened her own scroll to reveal a map displaying the evidence backing Ruby's claim.

"You guys were tracking my scroll?" Blake's voice was more surprised than accusatory.

"Don't be surprised," Weiss stepped out of the shadows; "You made me track Winter's scroll during their date. Turnabout is fair play."

"Your sister's an agent of a foreign government!" Blake protested, "She could have carted him off to Atlas without anyone noticing before it was too late with all the resources at her disposal!"

"Blake, your parents rule Menagerie, you are a foreign government," Yang observed. "On top of that from what all our future kids have said, your middle name's currently flight risk."

Blake opened her mouth to object again, then closed it as she thought better of her kneejerk rebuttal. Her teammates weren't wrong per se, what with eleven out of eleven different futures saying she would in fact be a flight risk. Any argument for the contrary 'I wouldn't disappear on you guys' position would have a massive silent 'yet' on the end that would echo in everyone's ears. Only time and trial would remove that 'yet' from the equation.

Deflection was a losing game, and Blake cursed her reflexive response for starting it. The only way forward was to face her friends' original accusation head on.

"I hadn't planned on taking Jaune to Domina's Desire Den, or any other love hotel," Blake began her defense. "If I had I would have tried taking him to either Hanna's Honeymoon Honeypot or Beatrice's Backdoor Boudoir. Ending up in the vicinity of the triple-D was just how events panned out."

"And when you just so happened to end up near a love hotel," Weiss layered an impressive amount of disbelief in the three words she had emphasized, "You didn't try to get him to follow you inside."

Blake reminded herself that deflection was a losing game and bit the bullet; "I'm not going to lie to you. I tried to tempt him into a visit."

There was an almost immediate reaction where her teammates and several other young women still in the shadows either yelled her name or mumbled disappointed and disapproving phrases that were indecipherable thanks to the yelling. Blake raised her hands in a placating gesture that did little to quiet the cacophony at the moment, but it didn't take long before she could continue without having her voice drowned out by the noise.

"He didn't go for it," Blake could vividly remember the look in his eyes and the feel of his lips and hands. The desire she stoked had been palpable in his gaze and touch, yet there was restraint there. Sexy, sexy restraint. A restraint that might have wavered yet hadn't broken even as she upped the ante with her most salacious proposal. That restraint was something the rest of the girls would like to hear about. "I hit him with my best and he stayed in control; and since none of us are going to have a chance to wear him down I don't think we have anything to worry about from each other."

"That's what someone wanting us to drop our guard would say!" Ruby challenged. The other women in the room all vocalized agreement with that sentiment.

Blake opened her mouth to further argue her point when the door to the room swung open and a switch was flipped, dispelling the darkness and silencing everyone as they looked to see who had stumbled upon the interrogation. As Blake's own gaze turned to the doorway she confirmed the girls that had remained in shadow were the other future brides aside from Winter and Glynda, and relief flowed through her as she saw Jaune standing there.

"What's with the film noir setup-" Jaune didn't finish the question before Blake used a shadow clone to get out of the chair and arrive at his side before the others could react. The other girls tensed as she placed her hands on his shoulders but didn't do anything else so as to not cause a scene in front of the blond boy.

"The girls were just a little overeager to find out the details of our date," Blake explained even as she traced her hands down his arms. "They didn't mean to interrupt our farewell kiss."

Jaune raised a somewhat skeptical eyebrow, "Well, if you say so…"

"And since you're here we can finish it properly," Blake reasoned before going in and Jaune found himself swept up in a wild ride.

"BLAKE!" Ruby squawked at how brazenly her teammate went at it.

"HOW! HOW! HOW DARE!" Weiss sputtered as her hands clenched into fists.

"SERIOUSLY?!" Yang fumed as she crossed her arms and her eyes danced between lilac and red.

"BLAKE!" Pyrrha wailed as she wrung her hands together.

Pyrrha's distress made Blake feel just a little bit bad, but if they were going to make this whole thing work they were all going to have to get used to seeing Jaune being affectionate with the others.

And so Blake turned up the heat, figuring now was as good a time as any to get started on that, in spite of the way Emerald had started growling.

May in turn shifted awkwardly. "Blake, um… well… I guess this is…"

Arslan's voice was prim and strained. "You could at least wait until you're properly married for that kind of behavior."

Blake's ears flicked as that comment grabbed her attention, causing her to finally pull away and leave Jaune in a dazed state while she fixed the lioness with an incredulous expression and asked; "…Really? You can't even kiss your boyfriend before the wedding? Are you for real?"

"You're literally dry humping his leg in the middle of a doorway," Arslan pinched the bridge of her nose while her other hand gestured towards Blake's hips.

"Whut?" Blake glanced down. She was, in fact, straddling his knee. "…Okay. That was not a conscious decision," the obsidian haired faunus muttered in genuine surprise.

"Jaune…" Pyrrha looked hurt as she saw him coming out of the daze Blake had left him in. "We barely got to make out."

"I-I'm really sorry, Pyrrha!" Jaune apologized with a sincerity nobody that heard it could doubt.

Blake looked at the redheaded champion as an idea popped into her head and a Cheshire grin split across her face, "Well he has another leg; get in here!"

Everyone gaped at Blake's suggestion for a moment as all of them were caught off guard, then Pyrrha scrambled forward and Jaune suddenly found himself on another wild ride.

"P-p-Pyrrha!" Weiss sputtered again as her checks flushed crimson.

"P-MONEY!" Yang cried out as her hands went to her hair. Then her eyes finally went fully crimson, "BLAKE!"

"BLAKE, DON'T DRAG PYRRHA INTO YOUR DEGENERACY!" Ruby slapped her hands over her eyes, opening the fingers of her right hand to peak through. "ABSOLUTE! DEGERNACY!"

Arslan started rubbing her temples while heaving a disappointed sigh and muttering an impromptu prayer. "Emperor Above, please grant me patience and a forgiving heart lest I harm some heathen harlots."

"Umm…" May's hesitant whisper was just the right tone to cut through everyone else's voices to be heard by all; "Can… could I have a turn?"

The room was abruptly silent as an unconsidered possibility was suddenly considered.

Blake and Pyrrha pulled back from Jaune who was clearly trying to process what had just happened. Pyrrha flushed in embarrassment from having acted so shamelessly in front of her friends while Blake looked out into the hallway.

"Sorry, but I think we're going to have to cut this short before Penny and her Demon Fire Hose get here," Blake did sound genuinely apologetic.

Yang blinked, her eyes lilac again. "Demon what—?"

"I'm sure you'll find out." Blake tried to dismiss the question.

"Oh," Ruby gestured at Blake and Jaune's clothes. "Is that why you're wet?"

"…Yes." Embarrassment entered Blake's voice for the first time since the date ended.

Emerald's smirk was vicious. "Because you were getting too hot for TV and she decided to treat you like a misbehaving cat?"

"Yes." Blake's shoulders slumped a bit.

It was at that moment Penny rounded the corner and saw where everyone was.

"FRIENDS!" Penny happily called out as she hurried down the hallway to them. "I see you've found Friend Blake after her mysterious disappearance!" Ruby coughed. Penny didn't seem to notice as she continued; "What happened?"

"Uhhh…" Ruby shared a look with the other women in the room as she looked for a way to answer that question. Blake in turn decided helping her team leader out was a good start towards defusing some of the tension between them.

"It's a long story, and it's fairly late," Blake smiled at the ginger android. "Which means we can't get into it now if we're going to get a full night's rest."

"It is late," Penny agreed. She then turned to Jaune, "We should return to your dorm and set up the defenses for your slumber."

"Right," Jaune agreed, having finally collected himself from Blake and Pyrrha's joint assault. "I'll just say goodnight to everyone and we can go."

Blake stepped back from him with practiced grace. "Thank you again, Jaune, for tonight. Until next time."

"Sure, Blake. Next time." Jaune smiled at her before turning his attention to Pyrrha, "Until next time, partner."

"Until next time, Jaune," Pyrrha gave him a small smile that was equally fond and bashful.

"Ruby, Emerald," Jaune looked to the two girls he addressed, "Are both of you ready for tomorrow?"

"Yes!" Ruby responded quickly as a bit of a blush dusted her cheeks. "I'm ready and looking forward to everything!"

"I'll also be ready," Emerald answered with more confidence than she was actually feeling in her bones.

"Good, I'll show both of you a good time then," Jaune promised. He then went down the line wishing each lady a good night's rest before turning from the room ready to depart with Penny.

That was when Hex Skvader came jogging up the hall.

"Hey! Hey, guys!" The rabbit boy called out with the clear intention to start a conversation.

Penny tensed and took a somewhat defensive posture between Jaune and the approaching faunus. Hex slowed and held up both hands in the common 'I mean no harm' gesture.

Blake's voice went flat. "I don't know why you are here, but if it's not a message from the faculty, staff, or our families, you can just turn around and leave."

"No no no, I just… I heard you guys got attacked by White Fang, and I'm really sorry to hear that! It's all over social media!" Hex explained his presence, "The videos are all pretty crap and you can't really tell what went down, so I-" The rest of Hex's words were drowned out by the collective gasps of everyone that hadn't been there.

Jaune paled. "Oh geez…"

Blake facepalmed. "Oh no…"

Yang's volume jumped. "WHAT?!"

"YOU WERE ATTACKED?!" Weiss shrieked.

Arslan stepped forward with grave concern in her tone, "Are you injured?"

"We're okay!" Jaune said quickly and firmly. "It was just three members of the group—they were arrested—"

Hex pressed on, all concern and too-bright sincerity. "I'm just saying, I'm really sorry, Princess Blake! And Jaune. I'm glad neither of you were hurt," The rabbit boy then focused his attention directly upon Blake, "Also, I'm really sorry for not recognizing you for who you were sooner! Your disguise was so amazing!"

Blake's smile was thin. "I'm sure you are. Thanks for the concern. We're good. You would be amazed at what can slide past notice if you aren't expecting it."

Weiss deadpanned, "It was a bow over her ears."

Ruby frowned. "I mean… did any of us notice that?"

Silence. Awkward, heavy silence.

Blake gave Jaune a small, awkward wave and closed the door, leaving Jaune alone with Penny and Hex in the hallway.

Wanting to end the awkward silence Hex tried to restart the conversation with Jaune. "Well… She's brilliant, huh, Jaune? I guess all of them are, but still… eleven women is a lot. What's your plan to handle all of that? I know you said you wanted all of them to be proper wives, but the roles of consorts, concubines and handmaidens are all still recognized by the legal system for a reason you know?"

Jaune didn't even look at him. "…Good night, Hex."

He walked off with Penny.

Hex stood alone in the hall for a moment before running his hands down his face and muttering some self recriminating words to himself before heading in the direction of his own dorms; "Wrong time wrong place Hex, wrong time wrong place."

Inside the room, Blake turned to face the assembled women. Expressions ranged from suspicious to concerned to murderous.

"…So I should get changed into some dry clothes." Blake tried to delay the inevitable.

Ruby killed the lights again and snapped the spotlight back on.

Weiss kicked a new chair behind Blake so she sat down hard. Yang looped a rope around her with practiced speed.

May squeaked. "Ah! Th-that seems a bit much—!"

"Tie her more tightly!" Emerald snapped.

Weiss sniffed. "The perverted cat would just like that!"

"Good," Pyrrha interjected as she tried to slide back into formation the lot of them had agreed upon before they had grabbed Blake. "It will distract her from lying."

Blake stared at them as she and the chair she was tied to were dragged back to the interrogation table. "Is this really necessary?!"

"Yes!" Most of the women agreed in the same breath.

May followed in a smaller voice, "A little."

"What? You kissed him happily, Pyrrha!" Blake tried to look for help. "And you joined me!"

Pyrrha flushed as some of the other girls gave her the stink eye. She then grabbed a chair and sat at the interrogation table as if she was going to submit to the same impending verbal shellacking Blake was about to face.

"Pyrrha?" Blake questioned, surprised that the redhead apparently decided being on Blake's side meant taking the same imminent dressing down.

"We all agreed to court Jaune fairly," Ruby returned to her position across from Blake as chief interrogator.

"Yeeesss?" Blake acknowledged trying to figure out where the others thought she had been unfair.

"A fair courtship means you can't set a pace where half of us can't follow," Ruby explained with a slight growl in her voice.

"A pace you can't…? Did inviting Pyrrha not make it clear you're all welcome to join?" Blake asked.

"There are several jurisdictions where Ruby is not yet considered legal," Arslan stepped forward with a scowl. "As a Princess of Pandu there are several legal ramifications connected to May losing her virginity."

"There are?" May whispered in surprise as her eyes widened.

"As Jaune's teacher Glynda could face serious social ostracization if they get too handsy before he graduates," Arslan went on. "As for myself? I have taken several vows concerning chastity, which I explained to you only a couple of days ago." Arslan took a calming breath before continuing, "So taking things to the precipice of sex risks crossing several lines that we are better off keeping our distance from so there aren't any accidents before those lines can be crossed without consequences. So yes, you just tried to set an unfair pace where almost half of us can't follow for one reason or another."

"....oh…" Blake now saw the shape of the problem.

"So we're going to have a nice long chat about the appropriate pacing of this courtship in the interest of keeping this from happening again," Arlsan finished as the rest of the girls gave supportive nods.

Blake looked at the rest of her prospective sister-wives as she processed what Arslan had said. Her eyes drifted to Weiss and saw how the heiress scowled at the wall behind Blake, reminding the cat faunus of the kind of romances she had seen the Schnee girl read. There were only one or two bodice rippers, the rest had been proper chivalric things and slow burns. Her white haired friend was more than capable of matching her energy, but if she had a choice she'd want to do things the 'proper' way first.

"Alright," Blake settled into the chair and her bindings and tried to get comfortable for the undoubtedly lengthy upbraiding she was about to go through. "Lay it on me."

And so the other girls vented while Blake contemplated how to move forward in her relationship with Jaune without turning things up to eleven at the earliest possible moment.

It was a harder puzzle than she was happy to admit.

 

[zMADLAXz]

And so the other girls vented while Blake contemplated how to move forward in her relationship with Jaune without turning things up to eleven at the earliest possible moment.

It was a harder puzzle than she was happy to admit.

Click to shrink...

Embrace your inner adventurer and bring Jaune along whenever something sufficiently troublesome brews in the horizon is my suggestion.

She has the optimal combination where the WF are a legitimate enough threat that need attention, have an emotional connection with her but lowkey enough to not demand greater effort than her, Jaune and Penny.

What each girl is missing is that Jaune is a shonen-harem protagonist. You do not get to Ride the D-dragon before going on an adventure to slay a dragon first.

That approach directly gives an advantage to Ruby, Blake and Yang. Cause these three have a knack of getting into trouble and they just need the ability to get Jaune in trouble alongside them to deepen their bonds via shared experiences.

 

[digcat]

Ruby on Blake duty.

Spoiler

 

[QuestOverlord]

In a microcosm, they are now experiencing a large scale societal issue.

Unless all of the women agree to withhold any sexual favors until receiving proper commitment to the relationship, any that violate the pact will receive a significant leg up, at least in the short term.

The more appealing those that violate the pact make it seem, the more likely other women will break and decide to offer themselves as well.

Penny has her work cut out for her.


Also lmao at Blake getting reality checked multiple times. While Winter is a member of a foreign military, she is a foreign princess, meaning she is actually an agent of her nation's government (though her parents would stop her from doing anything too damaging back at home). Additionally, she is by far the flightiest of any of the women, even more so than the one with a semblance allowing her to dematerialize and teleport…Truly, Blake only had a happy ending in spite of herself in her timeline…

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Radian, Gallia

One Week After Vytal

---

Radian looked too peaceful for the week they had just survived.

The farmhouse sat in late summer light, the garden table already set for lunch. Jaune's sisters were all away, which Emerald had initially taken as a mercy.

Then she met Isabel Arc's eyes and realized there was no such thing as a mercy where Jaune's mother was concerned.

There was some in Nick Arc's eyes though, which surprised her.

Isabel had fussed over him the moment they came through the door—hands on his face, on his shoulders, checking him for injuries he had already healed. She had been terrified for him. Nick had crushed him in a hug that lifted him off the floor and told him he was proud. Isabel had said it too, quieter, like a vow.

Then Jaune had put a hand on Emerald's back and said, "Mom, Dad. This is Emerald. She's my girlfriend."

Nick had beamed. Isabel had been polite.

Both of them had looked at her the way Huntresses looked at an unknown Grimm: not unkind, just measuring.

They sat in the garden for lunch, which looked so perfect and pristine it felt like mockery of her entire life. Jaune lasted through the first round of questions before he excused himself for the bathroom, pausing just long enough to murmur, "Be nice to her," at his parents.

She loved him for that.

The door closed.

Emerald felt Isabel's scrutiny settle on her like a weight.

"So…" Isabel said. "You are… very serious about Jaune?"

"O-Oh… Um… Yes!"

Nick leaned forward, interested. "Oh?"

"Extremely?" Isabel asked.

Anger flickered first. Then it died. Emerald understood. They cared about him. Deeply. The same way she cared for Jaune—except they had earned the right to ask, and she was still waiting to be thrown out.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, I—I care for him."

"Really? That's great!" Nick grinned.

Isabel only hummed. "Hm…"

Fear took over. Old habits reached for the next paragraph and built a castle out of lies before Emerald could stop them.

"Yes! I—I mean, at first it was just sex sex sex, all the time! Any chance we could! Any room at all! He'd take me all the time and I could never tire him out! And then we formed a deep, spiritual connection of love and trust and he saved me from my former mistress who abandoned me! With more sex forming an even deeper bond!"

Isabel stared.

Nick's eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. His grin shined in the noon day sun.

"…That's my boy!"

Emerald, committed now to the disaster, kept going.

"In fact I'm pregnant and he's going to marry me and I'm very happy about it! Glowing! I'm glowing!"

Isabel's fork had not moved.

"Please accept me as your humble daughter-in-law! I—I bet it's twins!"

The back door opened.

Jaune came back out, drying his hands on his jeans, and sat down between them without a care in the world.

"Hey…" He looked at his parents' faces. Then at Emerald. "…What?"

Emerald stared at her plate. "…I… may have panicked a little…"

Jaune's smile faltered. "…What did you say?"

"Um…"

She explained. Briefly.

Jaune went white.

"What?!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Emerald's voice cracked. "I'm so used to lying I got carried away!"

Silence sat over the garden table like fog.

Isabel set her fork down with surgical care. "Emerald."

Emerald flinched.

"Are you pregnant?"

"…No."

"Are you getting married?"

"…No. I-I mean... Not now...?"

"Was the rest of that—" Isabel made a small, pained gesture, "—accurate?"

Emerald sank in her chair. "The part about him saving me is. The part about caring about him is. The rest was… my mouth. Running. Without permission."

Nick burst out laughing. It started as a cough and became a full, helpless roar. He slapped the table hard enough to rattle the glasses.

"Oh, I like her," he wheezed. "Izzy. I like her."

Isabel pinched the bridge of her nose. For a long moment she looked like a woman calculating how many years of her life this lunch had just cost her. Then she looked at Emerald again, and some of the ice thawed into something more complicated.

"You were a thief," Isabel said. Not a question.

Emerald's throat worked. "Yes."

"You worked for the woman who tried to burn Beacon down."

"Yes."

"And my son brought you home anyway."

Emerald nodded, miserable.

Isabel exhaled through her nose. "Then we are going to eat lunch. You are going to tell us the true version. And if you ever use the phrase 'sex sex sex' at my table again, I will personally toss you out."

"Yes, ma'am."

Jaune dropped his face into his hands. "I was gone for two minutes."

Nick clapped him on the shoulder, still grinning. "That's my boy."

"Dad."

"What? I'm proud of you. And your… stamina. Allegedly."

"Dad."

Emerald risked a glance at Jaune. He looked like he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him. She looked like she wanted to help it.

Isabel poured more tea, because tea was the only thing still behaving.

"Eat," she said. "Both of you. Then we will discuss what 'girlfriend' means in this house, and what it does not mean."

"Yes ma'am."

 

[zMADLAXz]

Emerald: Yeah so Jaune is just basically Blasting me crazy style. I am talking about straight doggy, reverse hyper wheel barrow at least thrice a day, mating press by the sink, carrying around like a front sack straight through and genuinely making me look like an overblown balloon daily, fingers interlaced and clenched, lights and blinds wide open and I am pretty sure I am 50% Arc genetic material by volume with how much he has been giving it to me.

Arcs and the Beacon friend group: .......

Jaune: WE ARE TRYING FOR A BABY!

Everyone explodes in cheer and congratulations.

 

[QuestOverlord]

Emerald getting nervous and telling outrageous lies once she no longer has the backing of her powerful mistress makes a lot of sense. Presumably as she grows more comfortable in the presence of the objectively Kind people that are the Arc family, she won't feel the need to utilize that 'skill' any more.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

The Ever After

---

The Forest of the Lost did not keep time.

Jaune had stopped counting loops. He fought until the path dissolved. He ran until the trees rearranged themselves. He woke in the same clearing with the same ache behind his eyes and started over. The Mind Trap was exhausting in a way armor could not blunt. It ate effort and gave him nothing back but Salem's laughter, thin and pleased, as if she had all the years in the world and he had already spent his.

He sat with his back against a tree that might have been a wall a moment ago.

The air shifted.

Pyrrha stood in the leaves as if the forest had never mattered. White cloth. Polished bronze at her brow. The same calm she had worn the morning she died.

"Hello, Jaune."

He stared at her for a long time.

"Well… now I know I'm going crazy," he said. "Because you shouldn't be here…"

"I'm here," Pyrrha said. "I just don't have a body. Just my consciousness is here."

"Oh, yeah." A cracked laugh escaped him. "That makes it seem less insane."

He looked her over. "You look good, for a dead woman."

"I was dead… sort of." Her smile was small. "I'm back."

Jaune picked up a rock and threw it.

It passed through her chest and hit the trunk behind her with a dull, useless sound.

"See," he said. "You're not here."

"I am." Pyrrha did not look down at the place the rock had gone. "I'm here in spirit."

"So I'm going crazy."

"You're not crazy."

Jaune leaned his head back against the tree. "Why are you here?"

"To be with you," she said. "So you don't feel alone."

"…I am alone."

"You have Blake."

His throat worked. "…I'm not going to see her again. Not her, not RWBY... Nobody."

"That's no way to think, Jaune."

He sighed. The words came out flat, worn smooth by repetition. "…I just fight… I get lost… I fight… I get lost… I keep going and… I don't know why… And then I see… others. I see Salem… mocking me…"

Pyrrha's voice hardened, just a little. "I know, Jaune."

"She tells me that. All the time. That my love for Blake is… nothing. That there's no hope… I'll never escape."

"You know that's not true, Jaune."

He shut his eyes. "…I'm afraid, Pyr…"

"I know. That's never stopped you."

The next part tore on the way out.

"…Why did you have to leave me? Why did you… I should have died in your place—"

"You know that's not true, Jaune—"

"You would have won this. No problem. Saved the world—"

"And you aren't?" Pyrrha stepped closer. She could not touch him. She stood as if she could. "You will, Jaune. You just have to think about your love for her…"

His hands were shaking. He hid them against his knees.

"…I'm trying, but… every time. Every time I'm in here… when I see Salem… I feel like I lose more of myself, Pyr. I lose a little more…"

Pyrrha knelt in front of him, white against the dark of the trees, eyes bright and impossibly kind.

"You won't. Just hold out… a little longer. And I promise… you will be okay."

Jaune wanted to believe her the way he had believed her at Beacon, when she told him he could be a Huntsman and made it sound like a fact instead of a kindness.

He reached out.

His fingers passed through her cheek.

He left his hand there anyway.

"Don't go," he whispered.

"I won't," Pyrrha said. "Not until you don't need me."

Jaune's voice frayed. "…I needed you. The world needs you."

"It needs you more."

"I'm a punching bag. Medic. They're going to save the world without me… or maybe I can give up my life for it—"

"Don't." Pyrrha's tone left no room. "Don't think your life is so cheap."

"You did. You thought yours was—"

"That had to happen, Jaune. If you'd fought, you would have died. You wouldn't have saved Weiss. Or anyone else."

"You could have still lived… saved her—"

"You did." She held his gaze as if she could pin him to the world with it. "You have to stop torturing yourself. You have to let this go, Jaune."

He sighed. The forest whispered around them, rearranging paths he had already failed.

"…I just don't know how we beat her…"

"You will. You'll figure it out. You just need to hold out a bit longer… I promise…"

Jaune's mouth twisted. "You promised you would be there for me too."

Pyrrha did not flinch.

"And I am."

 

[digcat]

Pyrrha always with Jaune.

Spoiler

 

[QuestOverlord]

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."

Click to shrink...

I just realized, that is actual confirmation that the timelines are beginning to converge, as Petra WOULD HAVE mentioned Pyrrha sharing her dad. That would have been a very important thing to share.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Ruby slipped out before most of Beacon was awake. She told herself she was clearing her head. Maybe she was hoping to catch Jaune on his way to breakfast. Maybe she just needed air after yesterday's training with Arjun.

She ran into Saia instead.

"Good morning, Ruby!" Saia beamed like the sun had personally endorsed her.

May was already at her side. "Good morning, Mother!"

"Morning, dear!" Saia hugged her daughter, then pulled Ruby in too before the redhead could dodge. "Sneaking out early to see Jaune?"

Ruby's eyes went wide. "N-Nooo…"

She looked anywhere but at the Queen of Pandu.

May's Aura Sight flicked on. "He's still sleeping."

Saia's smile turned sly. "Oho? You know him by Aura now?"

May flushed. "Ummm… w-well…"

"Ruby, can you pick him out with your Silver Eyes now?"

Ruby activated them. The world sharpened into light and shadow and living color. She found him immediately—and froze.

His Aura was strange. Powerful. Bright like the sun. And something about the shape of it was…

"Y-Yeah, I think so, but…" Ruby squinted. "Is it supposed to look like that? His shape is all weird. There's this huge bulge just below the—"

"R-RUBY!" May went scarlet.

Saia chuckled. "I see… you've finally realized that you can effectively see people naked."

Ruby had not put that together until that exact second. Now she was bright red, mortified, and still staring.

"Sweet Cookies, how is that even going to fit?!"

"R-RUBY!" May was looking too.

"Don't tell me you're not wondering the same thing! We're both small, dang it!"

Ruby's gaze drifted, envious, toward May's figure. Saia's amusement only grew.

"Let's burn off your energies in a more productive way, shall we? Ruby, would you like to train like your mom did with me? Maia, would you like to watch?"

May's flush deepened. "Y-Yes… very much so…"

Ruby's grin turned wicked. "Now who's got their mind in the gutter~?"

"RUBY!"

Saia laughed. "You're just as crass as her, too."

It was, somehow, a nice thing to hear.

They moved to the training field. May watched her mother take up her staff with a kind of hungry curiosity.

"Mother… I haven't seen you fight a lot."

"I wasn't fond of it," Saia admitted. "But I was good at it." She turned to Ruby. "Now… I've learned a lot about you. You fight very well. But I do worry you're a bit too direct with combat."

Ruby blinked. "Eh?"

"If you might not consider fighting in less direct ways?"

"But I'm a striker. How else would I fight?"

May stepped in. "Mother… um… aren't you being unfair? You haven't seen her fight."

Saia inclined her head. "You're right. I haven't. I'm sorry, Ruby. That's unfair of me. Show me what you can do."

Ruby beamed. "Sure!"

"Then you should attack me with the intent to kill me." All smiles.

"M-Mother!"

"It's all right, May. I will be okay."

Ruby scrunched her face in thought. "Hmm. So you want me to hit you with everything I've got?"

"Yes."

"…Okay!" Ruby shrugged. "I gotta build up some speed first, so give me a minute."

"Well then," Saia said pleasantly, "let me encourage you a little."

Her staff flared. A beam of Fire Dust lanced straight at Ruby.

"AH!!!"

Ruby petal-burst away and kept bursting, circling at range, trying to build momentum. Saia answered with more Dust blasts, then stamped a Gravity sigil beneath herself and lifted into the air, firing from above. Ice followed—shrapnel-like shards that forced Ruby to keep moving.

"My Defensive Aura is very weak, Ruby!" Saia called. "One hit from you would do me a lot of harm!"

Ruby started zigzagging—short spins at the end of each "jump," the pattern borrowed from a song stuck in her head all week. On the longer leaps she rematerialized just long enough to fire Crescent Rose, then burst again. Saia's spheres snapped into shields. Fire answered. Then a Burn Dust beam split in two and came at Ruby from both sides.

Instinct took over.

Ruby split.

One stream of petals dove under the twin beams. The other arced over. They passed through empty air where she would have been.

May's eyes went huge.

HOLY CATS?! Ruby thought, staring at her own petal-hands. How'd I do that?

"WONDERFUL, Ruby! Incredible!"

"MOM!"

Julian hit her like a missile—also petals—and knocked her out of Semblance. They tumbled. Ruby's eyes went spiral.

"Oooh… um… oh…" Julian winced.

Ruby patted his head, still dazed. "Sweetheart, I love ya, but ya gotta watch out for Mommy, okay?"

"Sorry, Mom…"

Saia landed. May and August hurried over.

"You all right?" Saia asked.

Ruby smiled. "I'm okay. A little head injury never hurt anybody!"

Julian groaned. "Geez… you say the opposite. In the future."

August nodded. "My mom says the same thing… guess it's because of Dad."

May blushed. "W-Well… he is rather hardheaded. But I like that about him."

Ruby shrugged. "Eh, it's a give and take. Sure, I love that single-minded focus to protect the people he loves, but I could do without that mindless obliviousness to his soon-to-be wife's needs!"

May scowled. "He's my husband too, y-ya know…"

"Of course!" Ruby said brightly—then narrowed her eyes. "Of course."

"Now now, girls," Saia soothed. "Play nice."

Both pointed at each other.

"She started it!"

Saia sighed. August and Julian hurried to her sides.

"Mom, it's okay…"

"Really!" Julian patted Saia's arm. "If it's any consolation, they do get better."

"Well they're not fighting over Jaune in your timelines."

Julian grimaced. Yesterday's meeting with Raven still sat in his stomach like a stone. "Y-Yeah, thank—" He swallowed. "Goodness for that, am I right?"

August, trying to be helpful, said, "Well they can't… Mom isn't alive in your timeline."

May went still. "I-I'm not?!"

August winced. "Oh…"

Julian seized the escape hatch with both hands. "Cool, let's focus on that and not on my mom potentially getting it on with both her sister and my dad—DAMMIT!!!"

He buried his face in his hands.

"What?!" August.

"WHAT?!" Ruby.

"Oh my," Saia said.

Julian dropped to his knees. "Curse my social awkwardness!"

Ruby's voice climbed. "But—but—but—how—?!"

May whispered, "Oh… oh my…"

"If it's any comfort," Julian mumbled, "the same thing apparently happened in Xia's timeline too."

"WHAT?!"

August's brain caught up a second later. "Oh… wow. I don't know how to think about that. It's like those times when Aunt Ruby visited and Uncle Abi married Aunt Orchid and then Ruby had a kid who…"

He fell over and rolled in horrified realization.

"AH! AUGUST! SWEETIE!"

Julian grabbed his brother. They rolled together.

"Oh thank Aslan, we're not alone!"

Ruby's face was on fire. "Am… am I just a total pervert in the future?!"

Isabel chose that moment to walk up and raise an eyebrow.

"…Saia, what did you do?"

"Nothing at all. They did it to themselves."

August seized Julian's shoulders and shook him like a maraca. "We need to find out if anyone else has had similar experiences. I refuse to think we are the only ones!"

"UWAHUWAHUWAH—NO! I'M FINE NOT KNOWING!"

"I'M NOT!!!"

May made a small, helpless noise. Saia, unhelpfully delighted, said, "Now now… this is good! It means you can get along with other women in a group relationship!"

"M-MOTHER!"

Ruby covered her face. "Oh no! I-I'm a loose woman!"

Julian stretched a hand toward her. "MOMMA NO—" Then, in a hush: "You're faithful…"

"Yes!" Saia agreed. "There's no shame in it."

May huffed. Isabel sighed.

"Let's deal with this drama later, shall we? Time for physicals."

August and Julian exchanged a look.

"Jules?"

"Way ahead of ya."

Julian vanished in a flurry of petals.

"You too!" Isabel called after August. She smiled at May. "You can call me Isabel, sweetie."

"Oh. Thank you…"

Ruby, still scarlet, mumbled, "Yes, Isabel…"

---

Blake was still smug as hell the next morning. So was Pyrrha.

Weiss scoffed at the sight of them. Almost everyone else—minus Nora and Ren—tensed.

"Good morning~!" Pyrrha sang.

Yang folded her arms. "Yeah… sure… so! Why is Isabel making us do this?"

"To make sure nothing is going wrong with us due to time travel," Glynda said.

Dorothy nodded. "It'll be fine! I mean, we could use it. Poor Moses is having constant headaches. Who knows what time travel might be doing to us!"

Nicholas frowned. "I'm more concerned about spacetime itself. It might turn out like that Professor Paradox episode where all of time happens all at once."

"Spoilers!" Amethyst yelped. "I'm not that far ahead yet!"

"No, that episode came out during our time!" Julian said.

Xander shook his head. "No, you're thinking of the first revival series. The reboot had that plot too."

"Well I'm not caught up yet, so it still counts!"

Xia snorted. "Geez. You're bad at being a nerd."

Amethyst planted her hands on her hips. "Not my fault some of us actually work for a living."

"Hey! We're all in training to become Hunters!"

"I have an officer's commission!" Xander added.

"Same," Theodore said. "Heck, I have a job now."

"Which is bullshit, and you know it!" Nicholas shot back.

Theodore's smirk was insufferable. "And yet you let me be our leader."

"Because you were, technically, the eldest," August said. "Not because you were the most qualified."

"It's definitely because I'm most qualified."

Ash rolled his eyes. Ashley did the same.

Isabel arrived with Jaune and Penny.

"Morning, everyone!"

The greetings hit like a wave.

"Morning, Dad!" Julian and Nicholas.

"Sup, Pops!" Xia.

"Heh, and good morning to you too!" Theodore, knowing smirk included.

"Mewornin', Dad…" Leander and Leandra, still half-asleep.

"Sir." Xander.

"Good morning, Daddy!" Amethyst.

"Hey, Dad." Ash and Ashley.

"Father." August and Petra.

"Mornin'!" Dorothy.

Then the women.

"Mornin', Stud!" Yang.

"Morning, Jaune!" Ruby.

"Good morning, Jaune!" Pyrrha.

"Good morning, Jaune." Weiss.

"M-Morning, Jaune!" May.

"Hello, Jaune." Emerald.

"Good morrow, Jaune." Arslan.

"Ahem… good morning, Mister—Jaune." Glynda.

Winter's smile was warm. "Good morning, Jaune."

Blake hugged him tightly. "Good morning, Jaune."

"BLAKE!"

"MOM!!!" Leander and Leandra wailed.

Blake blinked innocently. "What? It's just a hug…"

Then she stole a kiss.

"Mmph!"

Theodore's smirk widened. "Wow!" He turned to Winter. "You gonna take that sitting down, Mom?"

Winter grabbed Blake by the ear and yanked.

"Owowowowowwow!"

"Enough of that."

Glynda nodded. "Hm. Well done."

Blake twisted. "Okay, but why by my ears and not the scruff of my neck?! That's what every other cat does!"

"I'm not a cat."

Arslan produced a ruler. "Allow me. Blake? Show me your knuckles, please."

Blake paled, then spun back to Winter. "I take it back! Grab me by the ears all you want! Heck, I'm even starting to like it so—"

"Blake." Jaune's voice was quietly disapproving.

It did things to her. She still obeyed.

"Yes, Daddy—I mean, Mnyaster—I mean, Jaune!"

Leander and Leandra looked like they wanted the floor to swallow them.

Jaune escaped into the infirmary with his mother. The door shut.

Theodore burst out laughing. "HAHAHA—by Aslan's mane, it's never a dull day in this family!"

Xander frowned. "Isn't that blasphemy?"

Petra considered. "Technically no. To take Aslan's name in vain is more to swear oaths you do not mean in his name. However…"

Winter dopeslapped her son.

"Ow! Mom!"

August hid his smirk behind a coffee cup. "Pride cometh before the fall."

Nicholas smiled. "I oh so love when they get humbled."

Weiss and May smacked their shoulders in unison.

"AH!!!"

They rubbed the bruises, looking only slightly repentant.

 

[digcat]

Love that wonder what Yang is going to think when she finds out she's sleeping with her sister.

 

[zMADLAXz]

Love that wonder what Yang is going to think when she finds out she's sleeping with her sister.

Click to shrink...

It happened once when she was in a bar, drunk and sulking after another failed relationship.

Ruby offered her a sisterly shoulder to rest head on, Yang broke down into tears because even after all the time she has neglected Ruby, her sister, in chase of others; yet, despite that she still loves her.

Then Jaune came looking mighty fine, carrying multiple barf bags and bottles of water along with anti-Nausea pills. Cue Yang vomitting her guts out.

Next thing Yang remembers waking up in the master bedroom of Rose-Arc cottage, which quickly got changed to the Rose-Arc-Xiao Long 6 months later, when she walked down the aisle towards Jaune.

Sporting a baby bump.

That's my interpretation at least. This interpretation is based on the moment in future when the timelines finish merging.

 

[QuestOverlord]

"Really!" Julian patted Saia's arm. "If it's any consolation, they do get better."

"Well they're not fighting over Jaune in your timelines."

Julian grimaced. Yesterday's meeting with Raven still sat in his stomach like a stone. "Y-Yeah, thank—" He swallowed. "Goodness for that, am I right?"

August, trying to be helpful, said, "Well they can't… Mom isn't alive in your timeline."

Click to shrink...

So if I'm reading this correctly, May dies in the Ruby timeline?

August's brain caught up a second later. "Oh… wow. I don't know how to think about that. It's like those times when Aunt Ruby visited and Uncle Abi married Aunt Orchid and then Ruby had a kid who…"

He fell over and rolled in horrified realization.

"AH! AUGUST! SWEETIE!"

Julian grabbed his brother. They rolled together.

"Oh thank Aslan, we're not alone!"

Click to shrink...

And if I'm reading this correctly, Ruby gets some in the May timeline?

That makes the fourth timeline where Lancaster is canon? (Ruby, Yang, Blake, May)

Blake twisted. "Okay, but why by my ears and not the scruff of my neck?! That's what every other cat does!"

"I'm not a cat."

Arslan produced a ruler. "Allow me. Blake? Show me your knuckles, please."

Blake paled, then spun back to Winter. "I take it back! Grab me by the ears all you want! Heck, I'm even starting to like it so—"

"Blake." Jaune's voice was quietly disapproving.

It did things to her. She still obeyed.

"Yes, Daddy—I mean, Mnyaster—I mean, Jaune!"

Leander and Leandra looked like they wanted the floor to swallow them.

Click to shrink...

Jaune uses Dad Voice, Blake develops a spontaneous leak, hopefully a handsome handyman will swing by and…plumb her depths…

Petra considered. "Technically no. To take Aslan's name in vain is more to swear oaths you do not mean in his name. However…"

Click to shrink...

Once again, you are probably one of the fic authors with the best general understanding of Christianity, and you use it to write a RWBY fanfic. Better than turning people into dinosaurs I suppose.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Vacuo City, Vacuo

Three Days after Salem's defeat

---

Vacuo had not stopped cheering from the moment the military forces had returned from Salem's castle.

The streets outside were a living thing: banners, Dust-sparks, music fighting music, soldiers from four kingdoms drinking like the sun might not come up if they sat still. The little bar on the side street had been mostly ignored. That was why they were in it. Just enough quiet for the people who had saved the world to sit together and remember how to be people.

Jaune stared at the table for a long time before he spoke.

"…It's… done."

Ruby's fingers were laced around her glass. "…Yeah…"

Nora leaned back until her chair creaked. "…It's like… nobody's trying to kill us. Or eat us. Or steal from us. Or anything else."

She frowned at the ceiling, genuinely lost.

"…How do you get used to that?"

Yang tipped her bottle and chuckled. "Oh… I'm sure somebody else will try to kill us eventually."

"You think so?"

Ren's voice was calm, almost fond. "Strength invites challenge."

Weiss exhaled, posture perfect even in a chair that did not deserve it. "Well… I think the world is exhausted after all that. Not much energy for fighting… for a time."

Nora twisted toward the table at large. "So… what's everyone gonna do now?"

Only the sounds of the party outside were heard for a while. Jaune leaned back in his chair, and sighed softly.

"I guess... we rebuild. And we make sure nobody else gets the bright idea to dunk themselves in a Grimm Pool."

"Yeah, silly, that's everyone." Nora pointed between him and Ruby. "But I mean you and Ruby?"

Jaune looked at Ruby. He took her hand. She went pink to her ears.

"Well—"

"Ah ah ah!" Yang waved both hands. "I don't need to know!"

Ruby squeezed his fingers, words tumbling. "I just… I mean… we're heroes and we saved the world and… the stories rarely talk about what happens after and… I don't know what we're gonna do… aside from the obvious…"

Jaune smiled, tired and soft. "Everyone talks about the party. Nobody talks about the cleanup."

He shifted in his seat. "But… you know… seeing as the world is saved… um…"

He searched his pouches.

He pulled out a ring.

Ruby's jaw dropped, as Jaune cleared his throat.

"Um, Ruby... I... I'd been thinking about this for a while but... Well... Would you-?"

Ruby moved in a blur.

The band was on her finger before Jaune had finished lifting it. Her eyes were already wet as she hugged him tightly.

"Yes, I'll marry you, Jaune! But I thought you were holding onto that thing so Ren could propose to Nora!"

Jaune blinked. Then he laughed, helpless. "Well… I have two rings…"

In the background, Nora tackled Ren to the floor with a sound that made the bartender glance over and then wisely decide not to.

Ruby was already spinning about frantically, ring flashing every time she gestured. "We need to start planning! The cake! The location! Tell my dad-! Oh. Crap. Does Yang do the Mother of the Bride thing or the Maid of Honor thing?"

Yang's eyes rolled back.

She went down like a cut tower.

Jaune shot to his feet. "Medic!"

"You are the medic," Blake pointed out dryly with a small smile.

Jaune froze.

"…Oh. Right."

Ruby giggled into both hands.

At the end of the table, Sun cleared his throat. "So… Blake…? Since the subject has come up, would you… marry me? I… I've only got this."

He held out an onion ring.

Blake looked at it. Then at him. Then at the onion ring again.

"Sun… don't propose if you're not ready to."

He opened his mouth.

"It completely ruins the romance," she added.

Sun's tail went flat. "I've been ready for a while but I lost the ring."

"Probably when fighting Tyrian, jerk set us all on fire," Ruby observed.

Blake considered this with the gravity of a woman who had dated him long enough to believe it.

"…Yeah. That makes sense."

"So…?"

"The answer's yes," Blake said, cuddling up to him. "But if anyone asks, I made you find the actual ring before I said so."

Sun's grin came back crooked and bright. "Heh… mum's the word."

Weiss sighed, looking jealously at the two happy couples... And Jaune still checking on the unconscious Yang.

Nora, still sitting on Ren, pointed at her without looking. "There's someone for everyone, Weissy!"

"Yeah!" Ruby grinned, "And you'll be my Maid of Honor!"

"Oh... Thanks," Weiss managed.

 

[digcat]

I'm sure Ruby will let her get Arced

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Hastinpur, Pandu

Five Years After Salem's Defeat

---

The palace courtyard in Hastinpur was supposed to be the easy part of the day.

May had cleared her schedule. No council. No petitions. No guards hovering closer than she allowed. Just her and August and the shade of the old trees, a pillow on the stone bench, and the rare luxury of being a mother instead of a queen.

August did not care about any of that.

He screamed.

He had been screaming long enough that May's arms ached from rocking him and her eyes were wet. She paced the courtyard in circles, whispering, humming, checking his wrap, offering the bottle he had already refused. Nothing touched it. The cry was thin and furious and endless.

"I've got you," she murmured. "I've got you, I've got you—"

The side door opened.

Jaune stepped into the courtyard still loosening the collar of his uniform, meeting-tired and immediately alert. "Hey, Love! Sorry, my meeting ran late…"

He took in the scene in one look: May near tears, August red-faced and rigid in her arms, the abandoned pillow, toys and bag on the bench.

May's voice broke. "I've been trying everything I can think of to get him to calm down! I… what do I do?!"

Jaune crossed the stones without hurry.

"Here. I've got him."

He set August down on the pillow May had brought, on his back, and put both hands on the small, tight belly. Firm. Gentle. Circles.

August grunted. Gasped. The screaming hiccupped into something less sharp.

"He's just colicky," Jaune said. "His new digestive system isn't sitting well with him… Here, just a gentle massage, then…"

He lifted August's little legs and moved them in slow circles.

"There… just like a bicycle… and then…"

Knees up together. Pull back. Up again.

August farted. Loudly. More than once.

Then he went slack on the pillow, blinked up at the leaves, and smiled happily.

May's whole body sagged. She pressed her fingers to her temples and let out a breath that had been stuck in her lungs for an hour.

"Oh… I—I'm so sorry, Jaune… I just… ugh…" She rubbed her forehead. "I've tried to balance being a queen and a mother and… and I…"

Jaune looked up from their son, still rubbing one last easy circle. "Hey… I only know this because I had to help with my little sisters and all my neighbor's babies. Don't feel bad."

"I just… I did all this at the orphanage when we had babies but… I spaced it. Just it being my baby…"

He stood, crossed to her, and hugged her tightly. May folded into his chest like the crown had finally come off.

"We're both figuring this out, May. It's okay…"

Her voice was small against his shirt. "I just… I managed to get nations to sign off on a treaty but my baby…"

Jaune picked August up—warm, loose, smelling like milk and farts—and set him in May's arms.

"Because it's our baby, May. It's always going to be different."

May chuckled, soft and wrecked, and kissed the top of August's head. He cooed and burrowed into her like he had never been angry in his life.

"Yes," she whispered. "It is…"

 

[AndrewJTalon]

The City of Atlas

Two Years After Salem's Defeat

—

Although it was the height of summer the wind still sent a chill down Jaune's spine. This wasn't unusual when you considered Atlas' usual altitude and his proximity to the city's edge where there were only a few buildings to break up the wind made the windchill worse.

The memorial was empty as he approached, which wasn't surprising when you considered the time of day and the fact that this spot wasn't as well known by the public at large.

The crater below was the obvious place for a pilgrim or tourist to go to pay their respects to Nick Arc. The location of the final impact the Paladin had left upon the world was suitably dramatic for the man who had been larger than life, and so the more intimate location where Nick had chosen to sacrifice himself for his family and the world was frequently overlooked.

Perhaps the fact that only a small handful of people had actually witnessed the man suplex Cinder Fall over the edge of the flying city prevented the place from becoming as iconic in the mind of the public as the crater. In any case Jaune was glad about the relative obscurity the memorial had maintained: the simple statue of his father and the circle of benches where he could be alone with his thoughts was more inviting than the collection of shrines springing up around the crater.

As he entered the circle of benches Jaune zeroed in on the bench directly in front of the statue. He sat down with a heavy sigh, and looked up at his father's face recreated in metal. The familiar reassuring smile was perfectly captured, forever sharing the man's warmth with anyone that wished to seek it out.

Time stretched as Jaune looked upon that face and did his best to recall the laugh that accompanied that smile. It had been a deep thing, coming from the very bottom of the man's chest with a power that could be felt as much as heard. A sad smile crossed Jaune's lips as relieved tears danced on the corners of his eyes at how easily the memory of the sound returned to him at this moment.

After what had happened a few days ago part of him had been afraid the memories would be hard to reach.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there trying to expunge his last hunt from his mind with those more pleasant memories, but it had apparently been long enough for his friends to come looking for him.

Ren sat down on the bench to Jaune's left, and Nora in turn sat on Ren's lap. The two of them joined Jaune in his silent contemplation of Nick's statue. This companionable silence hung in the air until Nora looked towards Jaune and asked:

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Jaune answered, "I don't." He was silent for a moment, then sighed, "I don't, but I should. I should."

More silence hung in the air as Jaune looked for the right place to begin. Eventually he found a suitable spot and the words began to flow:

"We had tracked the thieves to an off the books compound along the border of Midgard and Senda. It didn't take us long to figure out the place had been taken off the books years ago by Doctor Watts for his own personal use, and as it turns out his understudy fled there after the fall of Evernight…"


—--------------------


The sound of aura enhanced steel cutting through metals that didn't benefit from spiritual bolstering echoed through the abandoned factory. This shrieking slicing came in a quartet and was accompanied by the sound of aura enhanced fists denting metal. Old military surplus robots kept flooding in alongside off the shelf civilian security drones and the odd custom model to replace the droids the furious five hunters were mowing down with frightening efficiency.

"These things are definitely using Watt's combat algorithms," Ruby observed from Jaune's right as Crescent Rose decapitated a formation of battle bots.

"How many of these things got squirled away here?" Blake complained as she used a series of shadow clones to trick the more long ranged robots into shooting at everything but her friends.

"Doesn't matter," Yang boasted as she punched one of the bigger robots so hard that it summersaulted through the air and landed on a formation of smaller droids, "So long as Vomit Boy keeps us topped off we can do this all day."

"This better not take all day," Weiss objected as she conjured a small firestorm with her glyphs while skewering the robots that still managed to get close. "We've been away from home long enough!"

"Well, let's see what we can do to wrap this up quickly," Jaune answered as aura blazed around his sword before he unleashed it in a devastating slash that took out dozens of robots as it cut through the air.

And so the quintet worked their way deeper into the facility, blasting and slicing their way through the machines that moved out to oppose them.

Deeper and deeper they went; past fabrication bays, assembly lines, foundry yards, maintenance garages and prototyping cradles. Each layer contained legions and legions of mechanical defenders programmed to fight to the last bot, whose efforts impeded their progress just enough to qualify as a decent warmup when compared to the last days in the war against Salem. Then things changed when they entered a new chamber.

It was a massive space with an open floorplan and a dizzying array of crisscrossing catwalks suspended in the air above them. Unlike the previous chambers they were not immediately met with violence from defending automatons, setting the five of them on edge as they looked for the machines that weren't attacking.

They spread out enough to make all of them getting caught in the same surprise attack unlikely while remaining close enough to still support each other when the inevitable attack arrived. Said attack didn't come when they expected it to, in its place a woman's voice echoed through the room in contemplative disappointment.

"Team RWBY and their Knight," The voice came from above fluttering between the catwalks. They looked up to see a faunus woman only a few years older than them buzzing down to a lower catwalk on a set of insectoid wings. "I had hoped my little stunt would have drawn out the Winter Maiden, but I suppose the lot of you are enough to bring her here sooner or later."

"Fee Clochette," Ruby narrowed her eyes at the malicious mechanic that had served under the Queen of the Grimm only to vanish during the last days of the war. "If this trap was meant for Penny you've been out of the loop for too long: nothing in your arsenal can touch her!"

"Trap?" Fee tilted her head in surprise, "I have no intention of trapping her. My security was programmed to just let her in. The thefts were supposed to be an invitation so we could have a civil face to face discussion about a potential collaborative effort."

"Well if you want to talk, talk," Jaune demanded as he kept his sword in a ready grip. His friends spread out a bit more trying to find better angles on Fee while Jaune tried to keep her attention. "What do you want Penny to do?"

"I suppose telling you won't hurt anything," Fee shrugged before looking to the doorway on the wall the catwalk she stood on led to. "Wanda! Come out here so I can introduce you!"

The door swung open and what appeared to be a woman Fee's age marched out. Appeared to be being the operative term, as the woman moved in a manner that was just off. The way she walked was simultaneously too fluid and too rigid to look right. As this Wanda arrived at Fee's side she turned so they could see her face clearly; her eyes stood out the most. There was a subtle mechanical edge to those eyes they might not have noticed if they weren't so familiar with Penny. Those mechanical eyes were soulless, unlike Penny's.

"Wanda and I go way back," Fee explained as she slung an arm over the gynoid's shoulders. "Me and Piers met her on our first day at Second Star Academy, and Piers fell head over heels for her right away. Of course younger me was jealous, stupid and shortsighted and so I didn't like that at all."

Fee's face became somewhat regretful as she continued, "In my shortsightedness I arranged a little accident for Wanda that thoroughly flatlined her original body, and that hurt Piers to the point that I could never completely soothe his heart while we were together. Then Lillian figured out what I did and I had to leave Piers in her hands."

Fee gave a sad sigh, "It didn't take long after that for me to figure out that I needed to fix my mistake, actually fixing things took longer." A grin replaced her frown, "But now I've done it! I've restored Wanda so I can now be forgiven and the four of us can be together like we could have been if younger me hadn't been so shortsighted and jealous."

"That isn't really Wanda," Blake protested in the hopes of keeping the rogue roboticist talking.

"I understand why you'd think that," Fee admitted before she made her case; "However I can assure you I've accounted for everything. I spent years looking over Wanda's genetic code to figure out all of the potential phenotypes it could produce and compared it to every picture I could find of her adult relatives. This is what she would have looked like if she had grown up."

Pride filled Fee's voice as she continued, "After thousands of hours simulating combat against every opponent I had data on I refined her fighting style into what it would have been if she had finished her education. The language models I possess have analyzed all of her diaries and family home videos, she talks the way she would have talked if she still lived. Wanda here lacks only one thing, and one thing only to be her original self returned: her immortal soul."

"The methods used to give Penny her soul won't help you there," Ruby guessed at the reason Fee had wanted to bring Penny to this place.

"That is true," Fee allowed with a nod, "But I'm not looking to create a new soul. I'm looking to acquire Wanda's soul. As the Winter Maiden Penny has access to magics capable of piercing the veil between the mortal and eternal worlds. With just a little trial and error the two of us will be able to locate Wanda's eternal self and place her within the vessel I've perfected for her."

"Medling in such things is insanely dangerous," Jaune warned as his grip tightened on his sword. "And Penny knows it's dangerous. Why would you think she'd be willing to cooperate with this?"

"If I was just doing this for Wanda I don't know if she would, but I'm not just doing this for Wanda," Fee raised her hands and clapped them together like a conductor signalling the orchestra to come on stage. "I'm doing this for other people the world misses too."

At the sound of her pronouncement more doors opened up granting entrance to a large procession of more androids built to closely resemble the deceased like the Wanda android. Team RWBY and Jaune all tensed as faces they recognized in the crowd stood out to them. A replica of General Ironwood stood at the front, to the General's right stood a replica of Sienna Khan, and on the General's left stood Nick Arc and Pyrrha Nikos amongst many others.

"Everyone that was lost shall be restored through our efforts," Fee boasted as she looked down upon the only other living people in the room. "And the lot of you will help me get Penny onboard one way or another."

"What makes you think that will happen?" Yang challenged as she pointedly didn't look at a quartet of androids fashioned after old friends that had died in the war.

"Well, either you agree to help me persuade her, or I get started on your new bodies," Fee sneered. "Penny might refuse to help me with the restoration of all of these, but she wouldn't refuse if it meant restoring the five of you." Fee pulled her weapon from behind her back, a massive adjustable wrench that could mechashift into a rifle. "So which way are we doing this?"

Silence hung in the air.

The soulless androids adopted combat stances that clearly emulated the styles of the departed they were modeled after.

Fee's eyes narrowed.

Team RWBY and Jaune narrowed their own eyes back.

"So be it," Fee sighed. "EVERYONE ATTACK!"

The androids charged. Team RWBY and Jaune counter charged. They met in the middle and everyone lost track of each other in the scrimmage.

The androids were tough, but they lacked aura. Hits that Penny would have shrugged off were devastating to these machines, and Jaune found himself cutting through dozens of the things whose combat algorithms weren't up to par with his skills. Then the inevitable happened and he found himself facing a pair of androids whose combat algorithms were on par with his own skills, and fate was cruel as the two androids in question were the ones modeled after his father and Pyrrha.

By that point the room had cleared enough for Jaune to catch what his friends were doing in his periphery vision. Blake was grappling with the Sienna android while Yang boxed with the Ironwood android. Weiss with her glyphs and summons were doing an admirable job clearing out the flanks. Ruby had ascended to the catwalks above, doing battle directly with Fee and her Wanda android.

Jaune focused on the facsimiles of his dead father and partner. It galled him to admit it, but Fee had done some impressive work. The facsimile of his father struck with the fury of a giant and moved with the economy of motion that made that strength so lethal. Just like how he remembered training with his father. The facsimile of Pyrrha moved with a certainty of purpose and precision at a level of deadly fury that was a perfect match for his dearly departed partner's style.

With the two of them focused on him Jaune found himself more on the defensive than the offensive. Block, feint, dodge, deflect, dodge, block, block, feint, deflect was the rhythm of his life for the next few moments which was fine as it meant the two most dangerous androids had their attention on him instead of anyone else.

If it was just the way they looked, if it was just the way they fought he would feel less disturbed. Unfortunately they talked too, and Fee had not been lying when she boasted about the language models she had used.

"You've come so far," The false Pyrrha warmly praised as he blocked a strike aimed at his head with lethal intent. If it wasn't her voice it was close enough that he could not tell the difference after all these years. "Nobody in their right mind can object to you being my partner now!"

"It's good to see you're still so light on your toes," The false Nick cheerfully laughed as Jaune jumped over a slash aimed at his legs. "Now let's see if you've been practicing Galahad's Defense!"

And so it went on, with the two androids yammering away as if they were the long lost, showing up out of the blue to train him instead of trying to run him through with their blades. A sickened rage began to build within his chest for a simple reason: nostalgia wasn't supposed to feel so slimy.

Fortunately in spite of how that wrongness soured the familiarity his tempo was not disrupted. In some ways Fee had made her replications too well and the cadence of the fight inevitably reached a beat he knew would arrive, a small flaw in his opponents styles a less faithful imitation wouldn't have had. A flaw Jaune knew he had to capitalize on with no hesitation.

The machine wearing his father's face and speaking with his father's voice pressed the attack with a string of slashes known as the Percival Pattern. His father always overextended by half a step in the third slash; and so Jaune sidestepped and brought his own sword up, removing the android's hands in the process. Knowing how dangerous a machine like this could be even without a weapon Jaune further pressed the attack, splitting the robot in twain from head to groin.

"Fa-fan-fan-tastic wo-o-rk-k son," The android's speakers ground out as it lost all power.

Now it was just him and the machine wearing Pyrrha's face, giving him her smile. Not the one she wore at public events or for the camera. Her real smile. The one only her true friends had ever seen.

Their swords crashed against each other from one bind to the next, their shields bashed against each other in deafening booms. The whole time the machine smiled Pyrrha's secret smile as it did its best to cut off his head and cave in his chest, whispering words of affirmation to him with every strike and blow.

Then the inevitable came. A flaw in her stance only he ever knew about thanks to the long nights they had spent training on Beacon's rooftops. Jaune stepped into her guard and plunged his blade into her sternum pushing an overwhelming amount of aura into his opponent. This overwhelmed and fried circuits unprepared for the energy washing through them, and the artificial spartan fell.

"I-I-I all-al-ways knew-ew-ew you-yew-u-d be ab-ab-le to be-be-eat me some-sum-some-day-ay-ay," The voice too close to Pyrrha's sputtered and skipped. "I'm-I'm-I'm so proud-proud offffff y…"

The light in the android's eyes flickered out.

Jaune dropped his sword. His shield joined it on the ground before he slowly sank to his knees.

The battle around him was wrapping up, and his hands would not stop shaking.


—--------------------


The winds around Atlas slowed for a moment, and footsteps Jaune was intimately familiar with approached from behind. Weiss came around the bench and sat down to his right joining him, Ren and Nora in silent contemplation.

The silence stretched and stretched in a way that was more peaceful than the other stretching silences that had hung in the air between them the last couple of days. Weiss slowly and smoothly took his hand in hers as she turned to gaze upon his face. Jaune appeared peaceful as he looked upon his father's memorial, but his hand subtly trembled within hers.

"I was able to speak with Athena," Weiss began once it felt right to talk. "She's coming to collect what's left of the android… She's decided that Pyrrha's grave shouldn't be left empty, and she's invited us to the burial."

"Right," Jaune managed after taking a deep breath. "We… we should go. Closure will be good. It will be good."

"Did this help?" Weiss vaguely gestured to the statue of Nick.

"Yes… but not as much as I hoped…" Jaune admitted. "I guess the next step would be to bring my sword here. See if I can stop thinking about cutting him in half when I'm holding the sword with his unmarred image in front of me…"

Weiss rotated so she was no longer sitting beside him but rather straddling his lap. She cupped his face in her hands and gazed into his eyes with the most gentle and reassuring look she could muster.

"Jaune…" She began, looking for the right words. "Jaune, the world's been saved. We saved it and it's staying saved. You don't need to pick up your sword again; no one will think less of you if you retire from the hunt."

He looked back into her loving eyes and let her words sink in. He had been moving non stop since the day Pyrrha died, going from one thing to the next again and again with no true rest in between. Now he had been given permission to stop. He could stop. Put away his sword unless the world was ending again…

"...Alright," Jaune relaxed as a tension he didn't know was in his shoulders just vanished. "I can give it a shot. Don't know what I'll do with my time though."

"Well… I might have a good idea…" Weiss ventured. When Jaune raised an interested eyebrow she continued, "Argus is lovely during this time of year, and since I thought you'd agree to go I found this nice little villa with a beach, and I figured…" A faint blush started to grow across her cheeks, "I figured with everything sorted out right now it would be a good opportunity to try and grow our part of the family…"

"I.. I like the sound of that," Jaune whispered to her before gently pulling her into a kiss.

Ren gently squeezed Nora to contain her sudden excitement at their friends' decision, knowing the two of them would probably follow suit in short order.

As Jaune kissed his wife he briefly glanced over her shoulder to his own father's statue, and it wasn't hard to imagine that the sculpted smile looked more approving than it had been a second ago…

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Julian Arc-Rose was three months old, dressed in a fluffy bunny onesie that made him look like a very serious cloud, and he had no interest in language.

Ruby sat cross-legged on the rug with him in her lap, silver eyes bright, leaning in until her nose almost touched his.

"Come on… Mama…"

Julian cooed. It was not a word.

"Say Mama…!"

More coos. Mostly silence. A fist waved at nothing.

Jaune, coming in from the kitchen with two mugs, chuckled. "You know babies don't usually say their first words till about nine months, right? And that's early."

Ruby huffed. "Hmph! I was an early bloomer! I was saying stuff around this time! Come on, sweetie… Mama! Mamaaaa…"

Julian turned his head and gave his father a look of pure, baffled solidarity.

Ruby melted anyway. "Awww…" She pulled him in and cuddled him until the bunny ears flopped against her cheek. "I just… you know… I want him to talk to us. Really talk."

Julian made a small, damp noise against her collar.

"…But I also want him to stay cute and small! Ohhh…!"

She set him down on the rug in the onesie and braced him under the arms, gentle, hopeful, ridiculous.

"Come on, Julian… you can do it… you can sit…!"

Julian managed it. A little sit. A few proud, wobbling seconds.

Then he flopped over.

"AHHH!"

The onesie saved him. He bounced once, face-first into fluff, and giggled like the floor had told a joke.

Jaune set the mugs down and hugged her close as she scooped Julian back to her chest, still half-laughing, half-mortified. "It'll come in due time. Let's just enjoy each day as it comes."

Ruby leaned into him. "Yeah… you're right…"

She smiled. The smile shifted.

"Hnnn… I just… I had a dream and—"

Her eyes glowed.

Her voice changed into something older, warmer, and not hers at all.

"Hello… Hello, Jaune? Oh, there you are."

Jaune blinked. Swallowed. The farmhouse was still a farmhouse. His wife was still holding their son. The woman looking out of her face was not his wife.

"My Lady," he said. "How may I assist you?"

The Blacksmith adjusted Julian's bunny ear with Ruby's hand, perfectly calm. "Oh, it's… nothing too bad. Just checking in on you. Don't worry, I asked your wife in her dreams if I could borrow her body just for a moment."

Jaune's mind went to the usual places. An epic quest. Salem stirring. The Brothers causing trouble. The Rusted Knight and the Red Reaper called back into the dark.

"No… crazy events?" he asked. "No need for the Rusted Knight and the Red Reaper?"

"Oh, there will always be a need for a Rusted Knight," the Blacksmith said. She looked down at Julian. "But that need is currently being fulfilled by this little one right here."

She started pinching his cheeks.

"So cute!"

She coughed, trying to resume some dignity, and failed almost immediately.

"Besides… you're not the only one I can count on."

Jaune frowned. "Hm?"

"How are you, My Rusted Knight?"

He looked at his son, at the rug, at the quiet house that had not been attacked in six years. A smile found him before he meant to let it.

"Oh… I'm… I'm great. I'm happy."

"I am pleased to hear that."

The Blacksmith kept cuddling Julian, Ruby's arms careful around the small weight as if she had done this a thousand times and still found it new.

"Such a wondrous thing," she said. "A new life full of beauty and innocence and grace."

Jaune watched her face—his wife's face, not her eyes. "…Did you ever have children?"

Her countenance softened with grief.

"Once… two beautiful boys. Boys that I loved and raised in Truth and Harmony. Or at least… I tried to."

Jaune had a theory. He did not voice it. "I'm sorry."

"It is no one's fault but their own. They have made their own choices. They will understand the consequences of such one day. But I appreciate the sentiment, My Rusted Knight."

She looked back at Julian, one finger tracing the curve of his cheek.

"There will come a time, Jaune Arc."

Jaune froze. It was the first time she had ever used his name.

"There will come a time where your children will undergo great trials. Trials that you will not be able to guide them through."

He sighed. "I understand. Part of them growing up, right?"

"In a manner of speaking. However, be assured. That I shall watch over all of your children, across Time and Space and all the Eternities."

Jaune's hand found Ruby's shoulder, careful, as if he might startle the guest out of her.

"…Thank you, My Lady."

The glow faded.

Ruby blinked, back all at once, Julian still warm against her chest and very unconcerned about having been inspected by a god.

"Woah," she said. "That was… freaky…"

Julian cooed.

It still was not Mama.

Ruby kissed the top of his head anyway, and Jaune sat down on the rug beside them, and the farmhouse stayed quiet in the way only a saved world ever managed.