A/n

The chapter is un-beta'ed so sorry in advance for all mistakes and typos

Nikosia, the highest office in the highest tower,

The weather was foul, the rain pounded heavily against the glass and the clouds hung so low that the usually great view was now obscured by gray mass. In the middle of perfectly white room with golden ornaments sat Jaune Arc.

The most powerful man in the whole world, both literally and metaphorically. With one swing of his sword he could level down a building. With one move of his pen he could do the same with whole city...

SIGN!

"Send this to General Scarlatina, I reject her plea to increase the carrots supply to her post." He told his aide that happened to be an old man that may or may not had dust shop in past…and for some strange reason seemed to stop aging.

"Mmunmmuuhuhu." He mumbled in a language that did not sound like any human one but Jaune happened to understand it.

"I have a semblance that makes me invincible don't worry I'll handle it." He waved him off.

As the forever old man left his office Jaune sighed turning to look out of the window. He really did not to do it since the whole floor was designed for his office and all walls were made out of glass.

He did not know whenever it was the weather or something else but his mood has been really bad ever since the morning.

His gut was telling him that something went horribly wrong somewhere and it was just a matter of time before it blows in his face.

Maybe he should give Velvet her carrots after all…

The doors of the lift leading to his office slid open and a rhythmic sound of heels echoed through the room.

"Jaune..."

"Yes Weiss?" Jaune welcomed her warmly, feeling his mood improved at the mere sound of her voice. After all his wife had that effect on him. Turning around he was about to embrace her.

The CEO of the Shnee Dust Company was perfect as usual. There was not a single fold on her snow white uniform. She gained a bit in height since the times of beacon but much to her dismay Ruby at some point out grew her leaving her, the very shortest of the former teams RWBY&JNPR.

Just like everyone from her generation her face wasn't free from scars. To the one running down her eye another one running vertically down her cheek joined the collection.

Yet that was not was drew Jaune's attention. It was the look of deep worry on her face..

Weiss Shnee the General of the Protectorate's Army was worried.

Well that explained Jaune's gut feeling.

"What happened Weiss?" He asked leaning on his desk.

"We got a serious situation Jaune..." Weiss spoke, her voice tight."Vacuoan facility has been sacked..."

Jaune closed his eyes feeling the massive headache coming.

"They took Winter's Maiden… and Cardin…Cardin is dead." Weiss breached feeling the oh so similar pain of losing a friend. Jaune similar to her clenched his fists.

Despite their rough start Cardin turned into one of his most trusted and steadfast allies, they fought, they bleed, they drank, they laughed.

Like friends they were.

"Who...who did that?" Jaune's voice was hoarse filled with boundless fury promising painful death to whoever did that.

Weiss for the first time in a really long while was lose for words. The scroll she was carrying was weighting heavily in her hands as she herself barely believed what she was seeing on the feed recovered from the facility.

"Jaune there's something else you need to know...Fall Maiden died yesterday"

The Great Protector was happy that he was sitting right now. Those news were catastrophic, after so much sacrifice to contain those...things. Two of them were set free to roam the land.

"How they were even able to localize the facility? There are only handful of people who knew of the location and I'm sure there is no traitors among them."

Weiss finally sat and with thoughtful expression handed him the scroll.

"Here's a feed we recovered from Cardin's armor...there's the assailants..." Weiss looked deeply into Jaune's eyes." You won't believe who were there, because I still can't..."

Jaune pressed play and watched the battle that went in the facility. He instantly recognized His daughter, Xi. Thor and Cao accompanied by robo-bitch Penny.

Yet his brain simply skimmed over those information focusing entirely on the last member of the group.

His eyes saw her but his brain refused to process it. Because what he was seeing now was surely some sort of sick joke on the rebels part. Yes they have seen a lot during the war, a lot of things that escaped reason and logic. Yet what he was seeing was even beyond that.

The warrior in red and bronze with crimson hair and piercing emerald eyes moving with the grace of tournament champion...

Yet Pyrrha Nikos was dead.

There was no way for dead returning to life.

"I never have thought that they would fell so low." Jaune growled feeling fury boil inside him." To sent their own children on such dangerous mission and even make a mockery of Pyrrha." He bailed his fists.

Weiss moved her hand and placed it at top of his giving him a gentle squeeze. He looked up at her knowing that there would be more

"Jaune please watch till the end..."

So he did feeling worse and worse with every second passing. The moves, the style, hell even the mimic were spot on. Who ever this imposer were had Pyrrha pegged down to the smallest of details until one detail became too much to not believe…

The eyes of not-Pyrrha started to glow alight with power…

Wit the power of Fall Maiden power.

"Weiss..."Jaune's voice was dry." When the Fall Maiden died?"

"Yesterday exactly at eleven twenty three PM" Weiss where he was going she went there.

The results were devastating.

"What's the exact date of this recording..."

"The logs date suggest yesterday the moment her eyes started to glow is eleven twenty four PM"

"One minute..." Jaune ran his hands through his hair." One minute...what are the chances?"

"I'm afraid close to none...I spent whole night on that running simulations." Weiss broke the eye contact." Everything is almost a perfect match, the fact that right after Fall Maiden death the power went to her means..."

"That this is real Pyrrha..." Jaune closed his eyes. The thing he dreamed, the thing he begged, the thing he yearned have finally been granted.

And it frightened him now.

Unknown location

Pyrrha was floating though the nothingness. She could barely recall what happened before. She fought some black monster and won.

Maybe.

'Am I dead? Again?' For some reason that thoguht was funny to her. She probably held the world's record in dying.

"You're not dead." Suddenly she was out of darkness and found herself sitting under enormous oak.

It's leafs were falling down surrounding the whole area in red and yellow. The sun was shining brightly yet the cold winds sent a chill down her spine.

After a second or so she realized that she wasn't alone.

Next to her was a woman. She had short navy blue hair , and dull sapphire eyes. Her face had nice round shape with small nose. She was dressed into Protectorate standard gray uniform.

"I don't think we met before..." Pyrrha began.

"We did I just looked different." She offered her small smile." You knew me under the name of Amber. You can call me that if you want."

"I don't understand." The Red head replied confused.

"Each time Maiden's power pass onto another host the previous one comes along with the power to guide the new maiden in the responsible use of power." The girl chuckled." Well most of them. Cinder wasn't the stablest individual around."

"Cinder?!" Pyrrha gasped.

"Yes even if her way to acquire power was...unorthodox that still made her a maiden. Boy that was a ride." The maiden snickered." It was always destroy that or use him or her. But she happened to be quite good teacher."

Pyrrha looked at her with disbelief.

"Yes after what she did to you I would doubt it too but death can chance an individual… to a certain point."

A silence fell between the two. Pyrrha had so many question that she did not know which one to ask. Aside from one…

"D-Did you...die because of me?" The Champion blurted out. The girl offered her a kind smile.

"I died the day Protectorate captured me and locked me in the facility very much like the one that held my Winter sister. You just offered me a way out of that hell."

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, instead of spending my remain days whitening away there I'm able to be of some use to you." She grinned." Now I guess it's time for you to wake up, your friends are worrying."

Everything started to fade into black.

"Wait I have so many questions!" Pyrrha shouted to the darkness.

"Don't worry I'm not going anywhere." The maiden's voice sounded from distance.

"At least tell me your name?!"

"Maya, My name is Maya"

Pyrrha awoke with a gasp sitting uptight. Like days earlier it wasn't the brightest idea when the wave of pain hit her.

She moaned feeling her whole body ache like there's no tomorrow. After the initial wave passed she looked around seeing that she was in some sort...dusty old room. It had dirty yellow walls and was rather spartan when it came to furniture. Aside from bed there was only a nightstand and a small wooden chair next to it.

Pyrrha furrowed her eyebrows trying to recall how did she get there but nothing came to her mind. There was the fight, the maiden...Cardin.

Cardin.

Killed right in front of her eyes by Penny. She did not know what occurred between him and rebels but to see him in such mangled form was heart wrenching, she did not like him but even Cardin did not deserve what happened to him.

Or to be killed killed like that.

Again the gap between past and present made itself painfully visible. Just how much history did she miss?

'Where is the rest?' She thought getting up with grunt. She went to the doors and pulled them open.

Her body tensed when she noticed a man that could only be described as desert bandit. He was wearing a dusty brown coat, with white cloth wrapped all over his face with pair of goggled on his neck.

"Calm down lass." He spoke in gruff voice." I'm no foe, I'll tell your friends that you're awake."

"Are they ok?"

"Yeah little roughed but they'll manage." He replied without turning back." Follow me I'll take ya to them."

Pyrrha nodded yet she was still wary. The mam certainly did not project the trustworthy vibe. After a few minutes of walk through narrow corridor they entered a large magazine/mess hall where more of rather questionable individualists were hanging around. The place was filled with various conteners boxed and other contraband with old wooden tables and chairs placed randomly around.

"Pyrrha!" She heard Summer shout from a nearby table, the kids were there and just like her they were bandaged from head to toe.

"I'm glad that you're ok." Pyrrha said mustering a smile.

"You have a funny definition of okey, Champ." The mummy that turned to be Cao said.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha apologized instantly making them laugh." Anyways I wanted to ask how did we get here?

"It was so weird!" Thor explained." After Xi kicked me back to life we took you and that lady from the tube out. We fought some robots on the way out but nothing major. But the strangest thing was out side! When we got out we saw like whole protectorate fleet coming at us! But then a massive sand storm came out of nowhere! But that's not the strangest part." Thor paused dramatically." We were like protected by some...force field!"

"Excuse me?"

"He's not joking for some reason neither the wind or sand affected us." Xi confirmed her brother's words." All the way here us and our ship were surrounded by buffer zone that shielded us from the storm...unlike the protectorate ships that were stuck in it."

Pyrrha briefly wondered if the Maidens had something to do with that.

"Where is Winter?" She suddenly asked confusing the kids.

"Who?" Summer no pun intended asked.

"The woman from the facility." A round of ohhh went around the table.

"She's awaken but refuses to speak to anyone but you, Pyrrha." Xi told her. " Do you know her?"

"Yes, she's Weiss older sister..." She told them slowly seeing shock on the faces of gathered.

"Weiss like the White haired, so cold that it's hot, the Protector lover Weiss?" Cao asked accidentally breaking Pyrrha.

"L-L-Lover?!" The Spartan chocked with utter and utmost disbelief." Weiss!?"

"CAO!" Summer exclaimed." Mom told to not mention that to Pyrrha!"

"Gah! I forgot!" Cao lamented knowing that now he will get it.

"Weiss and Jaune...lovers...Jaune and Weiss." Pyrrha droned looking like she was on verge of mind break."Together-Together."

"Mom is going to break your legs Cao." Thor felt pang of pity for almost crying Cao.

"But Summer told her that Her mom and Arc were a thing too!" Cao protested lamely.

"Ruby Jaune Weiss..." Pyrrha registered that information too."White Lancaster..."

"CAO!" The trio shouted in outrage.

By this point every individual in the mess room was staring at them with faint amusement.

The should seemed to reboot as she sat heavily beside them with blank expression on her face.

"Food..." She said looking at Cao in a way that eerily reminded him of the bar…

"S-Sure thing! I'll be back in minute!"

Very uncomfortable silence fell on the trio as Pyrrha was processing what he ust heard. Somehow the fact that Weiss and Jaune were lovers somehow shook her even more than the fact that she was now a full fall maiden.

'You really have your priorities straight Pyrrha...' Maya's voice startled Pyrrha out of her skin.

"Ahhh!"

"HIII!"Summer and much to everyone's surprise Xi yelped at Pyrrha's scream. The later blushing fiercely at her own outburst.

"What? What?" Thor asked perplexed.

"I'm not sure..." Pyrrha said slowly certain that she was losing her mind." I think I'm going insane..."

"You're perfectly fine my sister." A velvet like voice sounded through the room. It was familiar yet so alien at the same time.

Mostly because it lacked years of strict upbringing and military discipline.

Winter Shnee was currently walking towards the supported by Penny which had bandages over half of her face and lacked an arm…

"Salutations! I'm ecstatic that you're alive Pyrrha!" Penny grinned projecting actual happiness. Yet it wasn't returned by the Champion as she still could see Penny's inhuman look when she killed Cardin.

Pyrrha ignored the perpetually positive robot and focused her attention on Winter. Somehow the woman did not change much. Maybe it was her Snow white hair or the Shnee's natural beauty but she did no look like day over thirty.

"It's good to see you again, Pyrrha." Winter said offering a warm smile." I apologize my my interruption but we have a lot to discuss, mind if we borrow Pyrrha for a while?"

Despite asking the kids knew that it wasn't a request. Pyrrha reluctantly stood up and followed the two women.

They lead her to quite spacious and well furnished room with projector and large table with numerous pads and documents on it. Not t mention a place full of steaming meat and a large cup of some unspecified liquid.

Pyrrha felt her mouth water when the delicious smell reached her nose.

"Indulge yourself dear you look starving." A voice snapped her from her trance. Pyrrha look to the far side of the room seeing a tall blonde woman with her back turned to her.

Pyrrha did not need anymore encouragement since she was starving. She sat at the table and dug in annihilating the roasted meat with vigor.

After the record time the plate was empty and Pyrrha was sipping Vacuan cactus juice feeling alive again.

"Well Well my little brother failed to mention that you were such a glutton." The woman turned around." But Jaune wasn't lying when he said that you were beautiful"

The comment make Pyrrha choke on the juice.

"Brother?!" She managed to choke between coughs.

"Oh yes how impolite of me, my name is Jean Arc." Only now Pyrrha took her features in. The shade of blonde was exactly like Jaune and her sky blue eyes had the same spark as Jaune used to have.

One would call Jean a stunningly beautiful woman if not for three deep gashes that marred her face.

"A memento Ursa left me when Cinder attacked my hometown."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to stare!" Pyrrha's face matched her face earning a small chuckle from the woman.

"It's ok it takes a while to get use to it." She waved her hand." Anyways how about we begin. She took a seat a the top of the table with Winter on her right and Penny on her left." Winter if you would be so kind?"

"Yes, I guess you're familiar with how the Maiden's powers are passed?" The Red head nodded." Along with Maiden's power comes something else, the previous Maiden soul comes along too."

"Maya..."Pyrrha mumbled.

"Yes Maya is now with you and will tutor you on how to use your power properly passing all her experience and knowledge onto you...sadly she wasn't allowed to use her powers for long, making her experience very limited.

'Hey! I resent that!' Maya snapped.

"She's rather unhappy at that assessment." Pyrrha told them.

"Facts aren't supposed to bring joy just describe reality, closing yourself to the facts just because you don't agree with them is foolish." Jean said."Maya was the last one to be captured and that only happened because she was dumb enough to try take on my brother, alone."

"Jaune's power is something that even a Maiden cannot underestimate." Winter told them. " That is why we need to make sure you are prepared to fight Pyrrha, you on your own are a very formidable warrior despite your young age but with Maiden's power you might quickly become one of the most powerful people on the Remnant."

"I still don't understand how you were able to bring me back?" Pyrrha asked surprising Winter and Maya.

"How did you figure it was us?" Winter asked with small pleased smile. Intelligence was a useful trait in maiden.

"I had a feeling I knew this voice, this power that I felt in the darkness...it was the four maiden power wasn't it?"

"Yes it was, now I will tell you something only select few knows…tell me what do Maiden's represent?"

"Err the seasons?"

"Yes the obvious answer but what does the seasons represent?" Winter pressed. Pyrrha hummed furrowing her eyebrows in deep thought.

"Change? Passage of time…."

"The cycle of life and death" Winter spoke stunning her into silence." You see we weren't completely powerless in our confinement despite the horrible lengths Jaune went to keep us locked we managed to gather enough power to bring you back to life."

"But why me? I'm sure that there were stronger people than me who could help you more..." Pyrrha replied.

"Because we felt that you are the key for defeating Jaune and his protectorate." Winter said simply.

.

.

.

.

The silence was defeating as the words hung in the air. Pyrrha just looked at the white haired woman with mouth agape. How could she a mere first year student be a key to defeating a man that ruled whole world.

How could anyone think that she could do that.

How could anyone think that she wanted to do that.

"I know that this might be a lot to take but I also want you to realize something." Winter continued as the silence stretched." What Atlas military did to you with that machine was a...perversion of nature. No one should be able to transfer one aura to another for that process is reserved only for selected few and humans should not be able to use it...it's trespassing into Gods territory."

"Gods?" Pyrrha parroted.

"That's the story for another time, anymore revelations and you might faint." Jean told Pyrrha." I called Ruby and told them that you're all safe and sound, that way we avoided dramatic rescue mission from her."

"We'll rest for the rest of the day and then we will travel back to the Beacon along with Winter." Penny stated." After all it's been three days already..."

"What?!"

Replay

That seemed to be a theme of the day for Jaune Arc. He canceled all his meeting and appointment just to re-watch the accursed video hundreds times.

He looked for something, anything that would deny the fact that the red headed girl on the vid was Pyrrha.

Yet each time he watched it his hope was diminishing.

You could fake your look, sound of the voice, even mimic combat style to a degree but what he was seeing how was impossible.

And that was coming from a man that killed an incarnation of darkness.

It wasn't just the fact that her style was spot on. It was all the little things that mattered. The slight tilt of her javelin when she went for low attack, the left foot slightly forward when she was about to went for a thrust or when she unconsciously bit her lip when she was facing a serious problem.

How could anyone master those little tidbits belonging to a girl that that was killed two decades ago was simply beyond Jaune.

Unless someone tampered with video and he knew from five different analyst centers that it was genuine material.

The girl on the screen had to be Pyrrha Nikos.

Jaune closed his eyes finally turning off the screen. He had enough for today. He would think about ramifications tomorrow.

Now all he wanted was to return to his wife.

Well technically his wife was still Ruby since they hadn't got through proper divorce but that was only on paper. In secret from everyone Weiss and him held a small wedding ceremony few years back with only very small group of friends they had left.

Jaune felt that the edges of his lips curve into a smile as he recalled how stunning Weiss looked that day.

Not to mention slight tremble of her chin as she barely held it together. He sat inside his armored air car and along with his escort flied back to their mansion just twenty five minutes of flight outside the city.

The rain was pounding against the hardened glass as his mood worsened. His thoughts traveled back to Pyrrha again.

The rebels had her. By now she probably thought that he was a power-hungry tyrant that gets his kicks from oppressing people...at the least that's how the rebels portrayed him.

If matters turns to the worse he would have to fight her...and with her maiden's power he would not be able to go easy on her…

A shadow of a smile passed through his lips.

Going easy on Pyrrha. Who would have thought that he would ever think of that. He sighed as the weigh of the gap between his Beacon times and now hit him for unkempt time this day.

It's been so long since he puked over Yang's boots on that goddamn dust ship. Luckily for him now the medicine was advanced enough to provide him with pill for his motion sickness…

The air-car gently landed almost right in front of his doors. Jaune stepped out looking at his house or rather a mansion.

Unlike most of Nikosia this one was built to imagine of his house in his home town of Norreta. The walls were made of bricks with roof having an earthly brown color. The wall were thick keeping the inside warm.

Seeing it he felt that a piece of his now burned down home managed to survive...in size dozens time the original.

His butlers opened the door welcoming him inside. He took off his coat and handed it to his servant welcoming the warmth of his home.

The polished wooden floor shined as usual, and there was not a speck of dust anywhere. Living with Weiss quickly made the staff learn the true meaning of pedantry quite quickly.

Since it was already late Jaune decided to miss supper and went straight to their room. He was expecting Weiss to sleep already but he found her awake in their bed.

Looking less then pleased.

"I know I know I promised to be back on supper..." He began undressing.

"Which was six hours ago..." Weiss said seemingly off-handily but experience told Jaune that she wouldn't let that go for a while." Before I start go get a shower."

Jaune sighed and did as he was told, cementing the gossips that it was Weiss Shnee that truly governed the protectorate…

After few minutes he came back clean and hooped into the bed. Now he was ready to get and earful from Weiss and end this shitty day.

"Oh don't make the face as if you're going to get executed..." Weiss told him folding her arms. It was never a good sign when she did that, especially in bed.

That meant a long and rather unpleasant conversation.

"So how was your day." She asked.

Another telltale sign of aforementioned conversation.

"Weiss I know that you're angry that I came back so late...and I promised you a dinner."

"If you think that's the reason Jaune Arc then you're as dumb as you were at Beacon day one!"

Ouch that stung.

"Then why?" He relented.

"You canceled all your meetings, every single appointment, not to mention you bunker yourself in your office to do what exactly?" She glared daggers at him." To watch a video all day long! I know it's important and had impact but you have a country to run mister! You can't watch Pyrrha look alike all day long!"

Click.

Jaune blinked looking at Weiss with mouth agape. He did not believe that something like that just happened.

"Weiss...are you by any chance jealous? " Jaune barely kept the mirth from his voice." That I watched video of Pyrrha all day?"

"Don't be absurd! It has nothing to do with that!" Weiss instantly denied even the slightest possibility of that.

Jaune looked at her with incredulous look on his face before bursting out with mad laughter.

"That is not funny!" She shouted with cheeks growing so ever slightly red at being caught. That was not the way she planned this conversation to go.' Men your age tend to do stupid stuff!"

Jaune wrapped one arm around her and pulled her into a hug still laughing. Weiss tried to free herself but her husband was just too strong so with massive pout she gave up.

After he stopped laughing they fell into semi-comfortable silence. Weiss leaned into his warm embrace snuggling at his side.

"You know...everything is spot on." Jaune finally spoke with heavy sigh." That girl is truly Pyrrha."

Weiss did not ask how would he know it. She learned long ago to trust Jaune judgment. She hugged him tighter feeling that he needed her support.

"I really did try to find anything that would point otherwise, I went though all the instruction materials she left me, commercials, hell I even racked my memory to find any inconsistency...but I couldn't find any."

Jaune closed his eyes focusing on a feeling of his wife's body pressed against his.

"I'm…scared Weiss."

Well that was something she did not hear often anymore from Jaune.

"Of fighting Pyrrha?" Weiss asked tenderly.

"No, of having to kill her."

A/N

Well slower chapter this time but now the dice has been cast and Jaune is on the move! Till next time and Merry Christmas guys!