bianca, rose, Brun, lily, Mary & Anne, Jasmine
'Are you sure about this?' Archer asked me from his lounging position opposite me in our shared passenger compartment.
'No.' I replied bluntly, staring out the window of the train. Oh I had an adhoc sort of plan, or rather, a number of available options and tools I could apply in any given situation that might pop up during my visit. But to say I had a 'plan' would be a joke, which meant that voicing anything even vaguely resembling confidence in said hypothetical plan would be likewise laughable. A few months ago I would have prepared... I don't know, maybe a single option, thought it halfway through, and left the rest up to chance. Or worse yet, made an entire highly meticulous plan.
There wasn't anything inherently wrong with either of those choices but to my experience... they wouldn't work. Not because my plans rarely do, but because I had about a dozen conflicting memories between myself and Archer that told me that plans only worked when they were simple and hard to foil. Nothing about my present situation was resolvable in a simple manner, which meant that any plan I might construct to handle it would be pathetically easy to foil by even the tiniest variance.
So I did what Archer had been apparently doing for most of his life, and assumed everything was going to go to hell ahead of time - then prepared accordingly.
Which brings me to now. It had been two days since my impromptu conversation with my Mother, and one since my most recent conversation with Velvet at the shopping mall. To say I was nervous would be an understatement.
'Then why are you so calm?' Archer asked quizzically, raising an eyebrow just in case I couldn't figure out how dubious he thought all of this was.
'Because at the very least it's unlikely that I will die.' I answered absent-mindedly, letting my hand stray to the pouch of dust crystals on my belt for what must have been the thousandth time that day. Some quick testing in the morning had told me in no uncertain terms that my circuits were - for lack of a better word - fried. It wasn't that Magecraft hurt more so than usual, because actually it was the opposite. Running prana through my circuits was practically painless for me right now. The problem was, I was still very much injured from our fight with Caster, and a quick structural analysis was all I needed to confirm that doing too much with my circuits right now would only worsen my physical condition the longer I did it. It just didn't feel that way. I guess I could chalk that up to the magical nerve damage thing Archer was talking about.
'That's... surprisingly cold of you.' Archer pointed out his eyebrows rising slightly - whether in pleasant surprise or shock I couldn't quite tell.
'It's... I mean I think I've got enough prepared that my friends can get away. If my Mom has the same concerns as Ozpin over their peace treaty thing, then she'll probably let my friends go once she has me.' I began, putting into words thoughts that had been swirling around in my head for the better part of the last day and a half of furious preparation.
'But?' Archer prodded, swirling his finger in a get on with it motion.
'But what I can't guarantee is that I'll be able to get away. My parents have being doing this whole Magecraft thing for a while now, and I definitely can't handle them and my sisters with my current limitations.' I finished with a frown, turning back towards the window and the scenery passing me by at blinding speeds. And there was the rub of it really. Archer and I figured that with my current condition, I could host him for maybe a solid minute before the burn on my circuits started to kill me. Even odds were that, I would either come out the other end of that experience as burnt up looking as Archer or not at all. And that meant that, for the moment at least, I pretty much wasn't a Master - which was my primary advantage over my family in the first place.
'So? If they aren't likely to kill you, and your friends aren't likely to die, then everything seems to be coming out in your favor.' Archer said with a shrug. He had been... oddly relaxed for the last day or two. Granted, I had more or less told him I was going to be trying to achieve True Magic in my lifetime, and true said Magic may or may not let me yank him off the throne and slap him in a body, but it was still... really weird. It wasn't just that he was relaxed, he was also just... generally wistful. After he had said his two cents about Arturia he had taken to stopping and getting this far away look in his eyes every now and then, like he was remembering something. And it was creepy because the more he did it the more 'Archer' started to act like 'Shirou Emiya'. Oh he was still pretty apt to dismiss anything below a certain level of danger as a problem, and he still definitely preferred to point out lethal ways to solve my problems, but it almost felt like he was just going through the motions.
Basically, he was acting like an actual person and not a perpetually bitter watchdog. And it was weird.
'I... actually no, I can't let it go. What the hell is up with you?' I said, completely derailing the conversation, and turning back to look at him with my brows furrowed. Archer froze like a deer in the headlights for a second before sneering at me the way he always did when he thought I was being a pain.
'What does that mean?' He replied in an annoyed voice.
'You're all... I dunno, happy almost. Sometimes you just stare at a wall or something for fifteen minutes then start chuckling to yourself for no reason. It's creepy.' I explained completely seriously. My Servants mouth opened and closed a couple of times like he wasn't sure what to say to that before shrugging nonchalantly at me and easing back into his seat as though he wasn't just an intangible phantom.
'I was just remembering some things is all.' He said nonchalantly. I felt my eyebrows make a slow climb up my face until they were practically touching my hairline, an expression Archer obviously didn't appreciate because he scowled at me again.
'What?' He bit out.
'You... I mean has anyone ever told you that you can be surprisingly terrible at lying sometimes?' I retorted incredulously. Once more Archer looked lost for a response, (Two in one day. Go me.) but then quickly got a thoughtful look on his face and chose to explain himself - which in and of itself was bizarre for him.
'I don't - as a rule - have an amazing grasp of my own memories when I get summoned. My Master's apparently have a habit of doing it wrong.' He started, giving me a pointed look that I could only grunt in response to. He definitely had me there. Our situation would be a lot easier if I didn't have to let him fight using my body all the damn time.
'Even when I do manage to remember things, it's fragmented, and often contradictory. I've done this whole thing so many times I don't even really know which version of 'me' ends up as 'me'.' He continued, gesturing towards himself with a thumb for emphasis.
'That doesn't really explain anything though.' I pointed out cautiously, assuming he was going to get to his point sooner or later.
'No but... ever since you summoned Saber it's like... all those fragmented memories are snapping into place. For the first time in a while I can consistently remember the course of my life.' He stated somewhat uncertainly, like he wasn't sure if I quite grasped the significance of his statement. Weirdly, I sort of did. I mean, I'd been sifting through the memories of various versions of 'Shirou Emiya' for a few months now, so I knew better than most how weird his life and times were regardless of what... timeline I guess would be the word... he was in. In the back of my head I started to hypothesize that maybe the reason Archer was such a dour and efficient killing machine was the lack of those memories, but I chose not to actually mention it to him until I had further proof to that end.
'Besides none of that really matters. You didn't answer my question.' Archer said, waving at me to get my attention away from my own pondering.
'Huh? Oh right. Well even if they don't kill me they could probably keep me locked up indefinitely. Or at least until my circuits heal enough to summon you again.' I explained, still chewing over my newfound revelations with regards to Archer as a means of distracting myself from my current problems. I didn't have to explain to Archer how bad that would be after the fact. Even if I could eventually get Archer to bail me out, there were a lot of ways a Magus could make a person miserable without killing them, and unfortunately I'm pretty sure my parents had invented most of them.
Damn. Now I was thinking about it again.
Grimacing at that thought I once more turned towards the window. Today was going to suck.
-ooo-
As it turned out, my family apparently trusted me about as far as they could throw me. Which, while quite far in some of my sisters cases, still wasn't enough to leave me unchaperoned from the train station to the house. Or at least, that's the logic I assume went into the decision to have my father waiting for me on the platform, happily waving at me like a normal parent greeting a child returning from school.
"You know, I'm not an invalid right?" I grumped at him as I approached from the doors of the train, not even bothering to try and hide from him. As always there was basically no one else getting off at Ansel - mostly because it was so close to the last stop as made no difference and there wasn't really anything of particular note here except for my family. A situation I was starting to think was more by design than by coincidence give how far away Ansel was from Beacon and consequently, Ozpin.
"To be fair kiddo, the last time we spoke most of your ribs were dangerously close to coming out your back." My Dad pointed out, wiggling his eyebrows at me in a way I'm sure he thought was disarming or friendly.
"Aura Dad. Aura." I said, rolling my eyes and choosing to ignore him for the most part - that is, until my eyes caught on the sword casually hanging at his hip.
"Aura that you've only had for a few months and have no idea how to use properly." He chided me, awkwardly cuffing me on the back of the head to prove his point. I think he expected me to somehow fail to reduce the damage with my Aura or something, but at this point I was so used to being halfway beaten to death that I didn't even bother flinching away from the strike. My Dad's hand just bounced off the back of my head with a tiny flash, after which I leveled an annoyed stare at him before returning my gaze to his sword like nothing had happened.
"...Huh. Guess you did attend Beacon for a while there..." Nicholas said, his ever present grin fading only slightly before it immediately brightened again at my interest.
"Do you like it? I don't usually wear it around town but some kids tried to break into our house the other day. Can never be too careful." He said chipperly, patting the simple short sword in its leather sheathe affectionately. I wanted to scream just seeing him touch the thing. I had no idea what the hell it was made of because I couldn't cast structural grasp on it without physically touching the thing, but it fairly radiated prana. It was like watching someone strolling around town with a nuclear warhead attached to their hip. That's how much power was rolling off the damn thing.
'Archer? Do you see the sword?' I asked my Servant over our link, even as I struggled to keep my face unenthused and my attention less noticeably on the weapon. Archer was - largely due to concerns that my Father might be able to detect him - presently standing on top of the Hospital, a vantage point from which he could allegedly see all the way to my house.
'It's. Made. Of. Philosopher. Stones.' He bit out, saying each word like it physically pained him to do so.
'And a Philosopher Stone is?' I asked him at the same time as I said; "Crocea Mors is better." in a sulky tone to my Father who smirked at the statement like I had just told a funny joke.
'Magical stone created by a famous Alchemist that's supposed to grant eternal life and the ability to transmute any material into any other material.' Archer state matter of factly.
"Eh, that old thing barely even works. I'm surprised they let you use it at that school of yours." My dad said, elbowing me in the side companionably as we continued our slow walk through the streets of Ansel.
"It saved my life." I said bluntly, ignoring the way Nicholas blinked in surprise at me for a moment after I spoke.
"So where is it now? Did you leave it at school? I can have them send it over for you if you want." He offered after a seconds thought. I snorted, ignoring the fact that he obviously didn't expect me to be going back to school to get it myself, he obviously wasn't aware that Crocea Mors had been broken for a while now, a fact I found secretly hilarious.
"No it's fine. It's not like it's going anywhere. Just needs some oiling and it works fine for me." I said instead of actually explaining any of that. I had no doubt that he was probably aware of the Elemental that once lived inside the sword, which meant telling him I broke it would set alarm bells to ringing in his head. Silence fell between us for a couple of seconds as the familiar streets of Ansel fell away and we traversed the forested path up to our home on the outskirts of the city. My dad looked like he was trying to find a way to say something and I had a good idea of what so I ignored him in lieu of checking in with Archer.
'Are we good?' I asked worriedly. For a second I spared a thought for Penny, who I'd gotten to stay behind by the simple expedient of giving Ironwood one of my Arcdust vials to study. Or use. I didn't really care. There were other reasons I had to make that trade however. Such as...
'The Bullhead still hasn't arrived yet no. I'll keep you updated.' Archer said, then fell silent.
Yeah I realized pretty early on that one of the easiest ways to get away from my sisters if they decided to stop me from leaving was flight. If my parents cared at all about keeping me alive they couldn't just blow my ride out of the sky, and I was pretty sure none of my sisters could fly so unless one of them happened to be capable of traveling great distances at speed (hint: they couldn't) then I - at the very least - had at least one means of getting away in an emergency.
"Kiddo... you know you aren't going back to school right?" My Dad finally said, breaking me out of my own thoughts and drawing my attention to him just as we reached the edge of the yard. I took one look and stopped, causing my Dad, who had gotten a bit ahead of me, to turn and give me a quizzical glance.
"I don't know dad. I'm learning tons of useful stuff there." I said innocently, stretching a hand out to rest against a nearby tree seemingly at random. With quick, practiced ease, I directed my will and a safe - fairly tiny - amount of Prana towards the rudimentary ward anchored to the tree. If I was trying to break into the house without anyone knowing this wouldn't have worked. Disabling the word in such a sloppy way would send a warning to whoever made it just as easily as walking through the thing would. But I wasn't trying to be sneaky. I was, as a point of fact, trying to do the opposite.
"Alllllll kinds of stuff." I repeated, stretching out the word 'all' smugly before turning to observe the look on my Fathers face. I was surprised to find that - rather than annoyed or worried - he was practically having an apoplectic melt down. On the one hand, this meant that showing him a tiny, sloppy bit of Magecraft had achieved it's goal of distracting him from the ward I had taken down so Assassin could get past it. On the other hand, my Dad had practically teleported in front of me to slap his hands down on my shoulders in an overly aggressive manner that actually caused my Aura to glow slightly in response to the impact. His eyes were wide with outrage, and he was flushed red and breathing hard like he had just been screaming for hours despite the perfectly level conversation we had been having until that moment.
"Jaune. This is very important. Tell me you didn't start learning that subpar excuse for a parlor trick Ozpin calls Magecraft." He said hastily, his eyes wide and manic as they searched my own.
"Nope. I'm self taught. Did you know great grandpa had this journal full of spells in it?" I deflected calmly, taking note of the way my Dad relaxed the moment I had refuted him. For whatever reason the idea of learning Magecraft the 'dumb' way that Qrow used it seemed to really distress him, though I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.
"Good. That's... good." He breathed lowly, before looking me in the eye again.
"Listen Jaune, I know we've been sort of rough on you, but there are some things you just don't know about okay? Once we get you trained properly it'll be easier to understand." He said in what I guess he thought was a reassuring tone of voice. The problem was, the way he said it sounded so close to the way he would deflect me when I asked about Hunter training that it immediately set me on edge. I don't even think he realized it, because despite my suddenly terse look at him, he just smiled and returned to walking up the path to the house like the conversation was settled.
"Dammit Dad..." I mumbled under my breath after him. The worst part about this whole thing was I kept wanting to give my family the benefit of the doubt. Hoping beyond everything my past experiences had told me, that maybe they did have a really good reason for everything they did. But so far all I was getting was more of the same. 'Maybe when you're older'. 'It's too much for you right now.' 'You wouldn't understand'. I'd been getting platitudes like that my whole life in one form or another. Now that I actually had what I wanted, they just didn't hold the same sway over me that they once did. As in, none at all.
Still apprehensive about this entire endeavor I started forward once more towards the front door of my house, only to be halted by a black and red missile blurring through the front door and past my dad before slamming into my stomach and sending me sprawling onto my ass.
"Jaune!" Ruby cried happily, having somehow managed to hug me and disengage before I finished falling and thus, avoided following me to the ground as I did so.
"Hey Rubes. How's tricks?" I said with genuine happiness, feeling some of the tension leave me once I had visually confirmed that she was more or less okay.
"Great! Your Mom and Dad are really nice! And they made cookies!" She exclaimed, flinging her hands into the air triumphantly. I was just about to chuckle at her obvious joy when I noticed something highly disturbing about the smaller girls outline and decided to point it out.
"Hey uh... where's Crescent Rose?" I said curiously, pointing to the spot where I would usually be able to see her weapon peaking out from behind her back. Her eyes glazed over for a second and she froze in place like a video game character that had glitched before she returned to motion, pulling my up with both hands and pulling me towards the door.
"Common! Everyone's waiting!" Ruby said, completely failing to answer my previous question. I pursed my lips in response to the obvious display of weirdness, and sent a subtle glare towards my Father who just shrugged at me as though to say 'Not my idea'.
"Okay, okay. I can walk on my own you know?" I said, shaking my arm free of Ruby and following behind her with a strained chuckle that I had to really work at not allowing to turn into a growl of frustration. Obviously I shouldn't have really been surprised at this development - it didn't make a lot of sense to let your hostages keep weapons on them - but something about Ruby being separated from her baby and not caring about it struck me as such a perversion of her character that I immediately wanted to punch somebody over it.
"Hey everyone! Jaune's here!" Ruby yelled into the house the second we passed through the front door. At first nothing happened, but then - like a tide of humanity - all of my sisters, friends and teammates began to pour out of the house, coalescing into a vast mob of people filling up the entryway, the stairwell, and part of the hallway leading to the kitchen.
"What's up vomit boy." Yang called raucously from near the back of the crowd.
"What's the story on that one?" Lily asked curiously from where she was leaning against a nearby wall.
"Oh man. Our first day of school he practically died of motion sickness on the Bullhead. It was hilarious!" Yang replied, before the entire hall devolved into a huge mix of people greeting me and firing anecdotes and jokes off at each other. It was super weird. Like all of my friends had just been absorbed into the rest of my family and had somehow assimilated while I wasn't looking. It was only when I looked closer did I realize the awkwardness of it all. The way my sisters were clearly overacting their responses, or handing out easy openings for my friends from Beacon to speak. More so than that, the way Pyrrha was slowly shifting to put herself closer to me, or the way her eyes subtly tracked everyone in the room as if preparing for a fight. Or the way Ren and Nora were sticking together. I mean, they were always 'stuck together', but right now it was less in a clingy Nora way and more in a scared animal huddling together way. It wouldn't be very obvious to anyone else but I had spent a fairly decent period of time getting to know the two, if only because Ren took some work to really understand.
"Hey guys." I said easily into the din, greeting everyone at once and then sidling up to pull Pyrrha into a huge hug. She, of course, went entirely rigid at the contact, but I just couldn't help myself. I really missed my friends, and even if I hadn't exactly been running in circles and screaming about it, the idea that they were being held hostage was so anxiety inducing that I could count the number of hours I'd slept these last two days on one hand.
"I have a plan." I whispered stealthily into Pyrrha's ear as we drew closer, even as she slowly relaxed long enough to reciprocate the hug, giving me a single squeeze in return.
"Jaune I -" Pyrrha started to reply but was drowned out by a loud faux cough emanating from somewhere to my left.
"EHEM. You know Jaune, keeping us all waiting was exceptionally rude." Weiss' haughty voice rang out, causing Pyrrha to hop away from me in surprise. I didn't blame her. We were friends but not really 'embrace each other for long periods of time' friends. It must have been awkward for her.
"Ahah... sorry. I'll uh... make it up to you?" I tried, not really sure why she was staring at me so intently after Pyrrha had disengaged herself from me. For a little while we just sort of stared at each other, like two gunslingers getting ready to draw, and I almost gave up and just asked her what she wanted when Pyrrha jumped in to save me, face still slightly flushed with embarrassment.
"Why don't we all give Jaune some space? I'm sure he's tired from the trip." She said, causing the mob to begrudgingly start to break up as my sisters began to slowly move away to do... whatever they were doing before I arrived. Team RWBY and the rest of my own team milled about for a bit longer, but Pyrrha and Weiss just sort of locked gazes for a bit before turning away from each other. I watched the exchange go by with a quizzical expression on my face before chalking it up to 'girl stuff' and promptly filing it away for later consideration.
"You guys go ahead, I'm going to talk to my Dad for a bit." I said, waving my friends away for a minute before walking past all of them to head towards the kitchen.
"Oh? News to me." My Dad said with a strained laugh, apparently still just a bit rattled by his little bout of mania out in the yard. I ignored him, slightly annoyed by how easy it was to fall into normal patterns with him now that I was home again. My dad had pretty much always treated me as the straight man to his comedy act. For reasons I couldn't quite fathom he seemed to love saying stuff that was going to annoy people, just so I could correct or refute him seconds later. It was a dynamic I used to enjoy as a child, and then got bored of as I got older - mostly because it seemed like he was only doing it because he couldn't think of a better or more intimate way to handle me. Still he... sort of tried I guess.
"Mooooom! I'm hooooome!" I yelled up the stairs to where my mom was probably relaxing in her bedroom reading a book or something. Or... doing Magecraft possibly. Honestly, I had always sort of assumed my mom didn't have a hobby until recently. Now all the time she seemed to spend in her room with the door locked was beginning to take on a distinctly Magus-y feel to it when I reexamined my memories on the subject.
"Coming dear~" I heard my Moms whimsical voice call back to me.
Five minutes later and I found myself in a awkward huddle in the kitchen with my father sitting at the table across from me. His expression was still somewhat distressed as a result of his previous freak out, but he was doing a good job of keeping a lid on it. My mother meanwhile, had breezed into the room and immediately set a kettle to boiling. She leaned easily against the kitchen counter in stark contrast to my father's obvious tension, and directed knowing smile at me as she did so.
It was jarring enough that I found I could only grimace in response to the provocation. My Dad might be worried about what to do next, but Juniper Arc clearly had no such issues. As far as she was concerned she had already won. A notion I wasn't yet planning to disabuse her of.
"So... when are you going to send my friends home?" I said, opening up the conversation. My Dad snorted at the question before wincing sheepishly at the sharp glance my Mom shot him in response to the question.
"First why don't you tell us about how you know them dear. You don't have a lot of friends." My mother said diplomatically.
"They're in the same year as me Mom. We share classes. Half of them are on my team. At school. That they're missing." I said bluntly. I took a subtle glee in the slightly taken aback expression my Mother shot me when I spoke. It was an expression that immediately warped into one of distress when she finally replied to my statement.
"Well yes I gathered, I meant, how many of them are you sleeping with." She said.
"What!? None!" I screeched after a second to process.
"But... you live with them." My Mom repeated, obviously not comprehending the statement.
"That doesn't - you hypnotized all of them, why not just ask!" I retorted, noting the complete lack of any sign of guilt at the accusation.
"Kiddo, I love you, but there is no way I want to hear about your sex life." My Dad said, answering for both himself and my mother at once.
"Then why are you asking now!?" I fired back aghast.
"You have to know that we're a Magus family by now dear. We obviously aren't as strict as we could be but-" my Mother started, trailing off after a second.
"Our lineage matters to us, is what your mother is trying to say. We just want to leave you a world that's better than this. We thought if you had taken a fancy to one of those girls we could make well... arrangements." My dad said delicately. Or rather, he was probably aiming for delicate, but he ended up landing somewhere closer to sinister - at least to my mind. Even more so than that, the specific way he had said 'leave you a world' was so text book super villain I almost cringed when I heard it.
"...arrangements. Right. Can..." I paused not really knowing how to phrase what I wanted. Honestly, despite having come here with a plan and all the will in the world to raze this place to the ground if I had to, I was feeling decidedly... small. Even though I had been verbally firing back at my parents since returning home, I hadn't really seen the clear opportunity to lash out I had been hoping for. Or rather, an obvious justification. Even now, I was sitting in my kitchen and getting more attention from them than I had gotten since I was ten years old.
Intellectually I knew most of what they had said and done had a much more villainous background context than what it appeared but even still... I felt very much like old Jaune. The Jaune who would grumble about it but eventually cave to his parents demands, or quietly shut up when looked at askance.
If it came to it, I would do what I had to, but that actually made it worse. It made it so I was sitting here, floundering around the topic of girls instead of denouncing the bad guys like I should have been.
With a quick glance upwards I realized my parents were staring at me expectantly, waiting patiently for me to continue my rogue thought. Then I thought of Nora and Ren, huddling at the back of my family like caged animals, watching each others backs as though they were deep in the Grimmlands, and my resolve firmed.
"Yeah about that. I found your book in the library at school." I said as calmly as I could though I'm sure the slight tremble in my voice didn't go unnoticed.
"My- Oh! That old thing. I was only just learning then. Was it helpful?" My Mom asked, her expression turning to one of frank interest.
"Helpful? Mom, I didn't even get to read it. Some upperclassmen had the thing. The first thing they tried to do when I got on campus was kill me - because your book said to." I pointed out firmly, and was gratified by the awkward and sour expression that crossed my Mothers face as she listened to me.
"But surely Ozpin-" My Mother offered after a moment of consideration, only to be swiftly cut off by my Dad when he had another one of those weird mood swings of his.
"What were the names of the little pissants?" He said coldly, his gaze narrowing and his hands flexing around something only he could see.
"I'm not-" I tried to reply, intending to refuse his question if not outright ignore him, but was interrupted by the sound of Nicholas Arc slamming his fists down on the kitchen table so hard it more or less blew apart like a very weak shrapnel grenade. Hunks of wood and screws sailed past me, with several larger hunks bouncing off of me, draining my Aura in the process. I could see flashes of light coming from my Mother telling me roughly the same had happened to her. My Dad though... there was no Aura flash there. He just weathered the storm of projectiles like it wasn't even there, allowing his clothing to become slightly torn by the barrage even though the skin underneath was almost entirely undamaged.
"This isn't a game Jaune! We are this close to finishing what your Grandfather started. If something were to happen to you then I don't-" He ranted at me, his expression becoming more and more manic the longer he spoke.
"Nicholas." My Mother cut in, clearly intending to stop him from getting too heated. Unfortunately he ignored her to continue his tirade.
"I don't even know how long it would take to recover! Do you even know how valuable you are!? How much work went into making you!? Years of-"
"CASTER!" My Mom hissed, causing both me and my Father to freeze in place. She looked somewhere between annoyed and disappointed by the sudden outburst, and turned an apologetic look on me after staring my father down hard enough to force him to turn away from her petulantly.
"I'm sorry dear. There's just a lot you don't understand right now." She apologized, turning a critical eye on the damaged kitchen.
"Then explain it." I said bluntly.
"I'm not sure you would really understand if I did." She admitted with a dismissive shrug, still not actually looking at me.
"Oh you mean like I wouldn't understand how to be a Huntsman, or how to wield Magecraft, or how to do anything other than what you tell me? I'm not a robot Mom. I've fought, and I've bled, and I've killed to get what I want. And if you hadn't kidnapped my friends I'd still be exactly where I want to be, which is as far away from here as possible." I growled, my ire reaching it's peak.
"So just... tell me why." I pleaded, all the rage draining out of me only to be replaced by a bone deep tiredness.
"You want me to tell you why we've spent your whole life trying to keep you safe? Trying to keep you away from dangerous magic and scary monsters? We're your parents." My Mother said pointedly, turning towards me and leveling a stare at me that screamed 'you are about to become grounded'.
"You know Mom, I might actually believe that if I didn't have a fairly decent grasp on what kind of amoral psychopath the average Magus was. You know, the kind that writes books about ripping peoples nerves out for fun." I answered, my hand dropping to the pouch of shape stones at my hip - just in case. I wish I could have brought my shield but it was extremely conspicuous, and - more importantly - would tell my parents exactly how good I was at Magecraft with just a glance.
"Ah, so Ozpin has been filling your head with his lies." My Mother said dryly, her eyes flicking down to my hand where it rested and then back up to me sadly.
"Sure. Let's go with that. Way to not answer the question by the way. Also, I don't think Dad means the same thing as anyone else might when he says he made me." I opined, making sure to keep one eye on the man in question, who had an extremely complicated expression on his face.
"If we tell you, there's no going back." My Father said, breaking the tension between my Mother and I. His expression was both fiercely determined, and subtly sad at the same time. As though he truly did consider explaining things to me to be bad for me over all. For just the briefest of moments I felt a flash of memory flicker past of a moonlit night with a father not my own. It was followed immediately by a tremendous headache that did nothing to lessen my stress in the moment.
"You literally tortured people. While you were in high school. Unless you're about to tell me the goal is world peace I'm about this close to giving up my last name." I said with a frown.
"It's cute that you think Arc is actually your last name." Nicholas grumbled in annoyance, all traces of my amiable moron Father gone from him.
"Well I'm not going to be a Flamel either." I answered, almost reflexively to the jab. Nicholas winced slightly at that but forged onward with his point.
"Nope. Not that either. See, Arc wasn't your grandpa's name. It was the name of the man he killed when he got here." Nicholas said with a chuckle that was completely devoid of any mirth. I glanced at my Mother for confirmation, and though she was still clearly in the mood to punish me for my insolence, she merely rolled her eyes at me the way she always did when Dad got a little too theatrical with one of his stories.
"What the hell does that mean?" I said, my hand easing away from my shape stone pouch now that it seemed like I was actually getting somewhere.
"Well your Great Grandpa was, if his frequent complaints are to be believed, something of a failed apprentice to a man named Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg." Nicholas said, pausing to check my expression for recognition. I didn't know the name but just in case, I tossed it to Archer.
'Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg? Ring a bell Archer?' I surreptitiously sent to my Servant.
'The Kaleidoscope. Is he in the room with you? If so, you should run.' My Servant answered me seriously.
Archer's answer left me significantly less than pleased. The Kaleidoscope... why did I recognize that from somewhere? Not recent but... no, wasn't it Archer that mentioned it that one time? Something to do with the moon?
'Isn't that the guy who killed the moon on your planet or something?' I asked.
'Yes.' Archer answered calmly and succinctly, which scared the shit out of me. Mostly because instead of correcting my obviously exaggerated statement, he had merely agreed to it. As though 'killing the moon' was such an obvious achievement that it didn't bear thinking about. Which was... nuts.
My father must have noticed me pale slightly as all the implications settled in, because he nodded at me approvingly - although I have no idea why.
"Your grandfather was apparently such a tremendous disappointment to his master, that he was stranded here and given the task of mastering enough of the Kaleidoscope to return. Obviously..." My Father said, pausing to wave a hand around us, "... he failed."
"That tells me literally nothing about why you two are such terrible parents, and why my last name is fake." I said carefully.
"I'm getting to it. You see, your grandfather knew he had no possible chance of returning home by using the Kaleidoscope. If True Magic was so easy to master, then everyone would be doing it. So instead, he resorted to his own families magics, using a liberal application of Hypnotism to ingratiate himself into a relatively wealthy family to fuel his efforts." Nicholas said, his face twisting into a cruel smile. I felt my gut twist into a knot as he spoke, feeling somehow as though I really didn't want to know what he was going to say next.
"You see, the Einzbern family that your grandfather hailed from specialized in just one thing. They were fantastic at making Homunculi true, but that wasn't their goal - it was just a step along the path to reaching it. No, the Einzbern family dreamt of one day achieving a True Magic of its own. One that your old man was much more familiar with. The Heaven's Feel." My Dad said gleefully.
"You uh... sound like you were there." I said carefully. By this point it was obvious what his answer would be, but I had to know. I had to confirm, what I already felt to be the truth.
"That's because I was." Nicholas said flatly, his eyes turning misty and distant.
"You know, they teach you kids about the Color War, but Ozpin was very careful not to allow why that war was fought into any textbook." He said hazily.
"The Grail." I said weakly, closing my eyes in annoyance. Great. So now I knew that every bad thing the Grail had caused, every person who had been murdered by Caster - My wars Caster, not my Father - was, in some way, my families fault. Peachy. It wasn't like sleeping wasn't already hard for me.
When I opened my eyes again, my mother wore a shocked expression on her face and my fathers was shifting quickly back into a hardly restrained snarl.
"How do you know that word?" Nicholas said with a scowl. I quickly did a quick run down of my options here. Sure I could just come out and tell them my Servant had explained it to me, but that would entail explaining that I had a Servant in the first place, which was an advantage I wasn't willing to give up yet. So, quickly formulating the best response I could, I lied.
"I went to Mountain Glenn for a mission. I know a spell that lets me read an objects history and well..." I trailed off, noting that my Mothers face had become even more shocked and pale, while my Fathers looked strangely relieved if anything.
"Sweetheart we didn't... we had no choice you see?" My Mother offered weakly. I didn't see, because I was lying and therefore had no idea what she had done there to be so ashamed of. The only clues I had were the curse that apparently saturated the whole city and the simple fact that everyone who lived there was obviously dead. Which meant that once more I found myself having to bullshit my way through something.
"I get it. Kind of. Magi are bastards. Unlimited Power is a huge incentive to be a bastard. Things... happened." I said, keeping the statement so completely non descriptive and vague even I could hardly believe it when my Mother gave me a relieved nod of her own in response to it. Silence reigned in the kitchen for a little while, but eventually I decided to keep the conversation moving.
"So..." I said, gaze flicking back and forth between my parents.
"Why couldn't you tell me any of this before?" I asked. Sure, now I had slightly more context for my parents actions in the past but that didn't really mean much to my present.
"Because you and your sisters are the key to everything. The plan won't work unless you're all together." My Dad explained feverishly, clearly trying to come across as convincing.
"Then why do they all know what's going on and I don't. What plan?" I said acerbically.
"To stop the Grail." My Mother and Father said as one, turning to shoot each other that creepy smirk they always did before keeping me up all night with their squeaky ass bed and too thin walls.
I wanted to tell them to knock it the hell off, to quit deflecting from my actual question and tell me why I couldn't have been told any of that, but at that moment Weiss chose to glide into the kitchen, taking one step over the threshold and freezing in place when she took in the wreckage of kitchen table we had been sitting at.
"Ah, , I was just coming to ask... about..." Weiss said, trailing off and then sending an accusing gaze towards me of all people.
"I didn't do it!" I whined, pointing a finger at my Dad who was still way too riled up by his spiel to be acting normally yet.
"Really Jaune? 'It wasn't me' is the best you can do?" She replied to me in exasperation before striding over the wreckage and grabbing me by one arm to drag me bodily out of the kitchen.
"What? No it really wasn't me! Seriously!" I shouted, beginning to get actually annoyed by the interruption.
"My apologies Mr and , I'll have him better trained by the time he's introduced to my Father." Weiss said absentmindedly as she pulled me along, causing my eye to twitch as the weirdness of the statement came through.
"Why would I-" I tried to ask but was talked over by my Mother who had shifted back into being an overly affectionate older woman all of a sudden.
"Oh I like her." She crooned after us as we left.
"That's because she's like you." My Dad grumbled, his voice fading as we got further away from the kitchen.
"Weiss! Weiss stop dragging me I can walk just fine!" I yelped as the forward momentum of the tiny woman in front of me began to make walking without falling over progressively harder.
"Then why didn't you walk here? You could have done it in time I assure you." She hissed at me as we reached the living room before shoving me down onto the couch and taking a seat beside me.
"Weiss, I never agreed to meet you here." I said tiredly.
"So you forgot. You are a terrible boyfriend." She answered sourly, jabbing a finger into my chest that sent all the air wooshing out of me as though I had been hit by a sack of bricks. Not so much from the force of the jab but of the words.
"Weiss, hold still for a minute would you?" I said in sudden, stark, terror as I grabbed hold of the sides of her head and turned her to look at me.
'Archer! Hypnosis! Break! How!' I screamed to my Servant.
'Jolt of Prana should do it if it's just normal Hypnosis. If her actual memories have been modified then you're out of luck though.' He explained quickly, before adding on;
'Also, the Bullhead is here. Just a little bit out of town.'
'Thanks buddy.' I said, already completely focused on making sure Weiss was going to be okay and, more importantly, not skin me alive for leaving her like this. With a minor exertion of my will to move my Prana, and a much greater exertion of my will to ignore the embarrassed puckering of Weiss lips as I drew closer to her, and sent a shock of my own mana rushing through Weiss' body. Her Aura snapped into place for a second, and for the briefest of moments I could feel it the same way I could feel my own, but the sensation quickly vanished, leaving me holding a slowly reddening Weiss. Only now it was less embarrassment and more... well if I had to hazard a guess I'd say 'homicidal rage'.
"Don't scream!" I said quickly, removing my hands from her head and leaping about a foot away from her and consequently off the couch. I watched as Weiss' face turned from bright red, to dark red, to a pallid pale hue that made even her pure white skin seem sickened and unhealthy. Her expression likewise worried me, morphing from angry, to scared, to panicked in nearly no time at all. By the time she had managed to resume something approaching conscious thought, she had already turned a gaze that was half worry and half despair towards me.
"Jaune?" She said after a few seconds, her eyes darting around like she was expecting my parents to come out of nowhere and re-hypnotize her.
"Yep. I'm thinking of losing the last part though. Jaune without the Arc you know? Short, sweet, rolls off the-" I began aiming to bring some levity to the conversation but getting blindsided when Weiss rushed forward to envelop me in a hug very reminiscent of the one Pyrrha had given me when I first arrived, if a bit more shaky.
"Tell me you have a plan." She said quietly, in a haunted tone of voice.
"...I have a plan." I offered, patting her loosely on the back a few times purely because I didn't know where else to put my hands.
"Good. That was... unpleasant." Weiss said sniffling once as though she wanted to cry. If she did shed any tears she must have gotten over it pretty fast though, because by the time we separated, the unimpressed and calculating visage of the Ice Queen had slammed down around her like the ultimate defensive measure.
"What was it like?" I asked curiously.
"Like being a passenger in my own body. I knew I was behaving strangely but I couldn't act on it." She said coldly, her hands balled up into little fists.
"Yikes. Okay. First thing, lets get everyone in one place so I can break this spell." I said, shooting a glance over my shoulder towards the kitchen just to make sure my Parents hadn't followed us out into the living room.
"And then?" Weiss asked, her eagerness for some kind of revenge temporarily trumping her impressive self control as she leaned forward with a fire burning behind her eyes that I was glad wasn't aimed at me for once.
"Then, I'm going to do what I do best." I said with a crooked smile as things started to come together in my mind.
"I'm going to go be a big dumb distraction."
-ooo-
Weiss, as it turned out, wasn't the only person slightly traumatized by her experiences with my family. Things went fairly smoothly at first, with Ren, Nora and Pyrrha not really needing to be freed since they weren't hypnotized in the first place. Blake was the first person I tried to work my magic on, which turned out to be a pretty good idea because if nothing else the Faunus girl was damn quiet. Which was useful when we were trying to stop anyone else that was home from noticing what was going on, but was sort of a pain when the first thing she tried to do when the spell was broken was strangle me to death. Luckily everyone else who was present had managed to wrestle her off me long enough to explain the situation and calm her down, even if she continued to send extremely hurt and betrayed glares my way for the rest of the process.
After that, we had gotten smarter about it. Weiss used a Glyph to prevent sound from leaving the room, and everyone else held Ruby down on my bed while I worked. Ruby didn't try to kill me but unlike Weiss or Blake she did cry. Like, a lot. It was kind of cute actually that even while wailing like a child she had been asking about whether or not the rest of her team was okay. It had been less cute when she had calmed down for a second and asked about Crescent Rose, then immediately launched into another wailing fit. And then there was Yang. When I broke the spell over Yang she stared at the ceiling of my room for exactly one second, and then started screaming for a solid minute - proving that Weiss' glyph was very much necessary.
Now it was the late evening and all eight of us were sitting in my room with a oppressive silence filling the space between us.
"I'm really sorry about this guys." I said for what must have been the thousandth time.
"Don't worry about it Jaune. It's not your fault." Ruby said tiredly from where she sat in the corner of the room.
"It... kind of is though right? If I had told you about my family then-" I tried again only to be quickly shut down by Blake of all people.
"You didn't ask us to come here Jaune. And... you can't really be blamed for what the rest of your family does." She said after a second in a begrudging tone. She shared a meaningful look with Weiss for just a moment before returning to face me.
"We probably wouldn't have believed you if you told us anyway." She added with a shrug.
"She's right. I tried to explain it to them shortly before they were... ah, brainwashed." Pyrrha put forth. Out of everyone in the room she was the one that seemed the most stable. I guess that since she had managed to avoid being 'brainwashed' as she put it, plus the added security net Rider could provide for her meant that she was in the least danger out of everyone here.
"Still..." I hedged, still feeling immensely guilty about all of this.
"Shut up Jaune. It's annoying." Yang growled, pacing back and forth across my room like a caged tiger.
"R-right. Okay. Here's the plan. I'm going to go distract my parents. While I do that, you guys make a run for the Bullhead okay?" I said, changing gears and trying to ignore whatever it was that had Yang so pissed off for the moment. Obviously part of it was the situation we all found ourselves in, but even Ruby seemed confused by how angry her sister was. A sentiment she had stated quite plainly several times in the few hours we had been here to the same response each time - an apologetic look and silence.
"That doesn't sound like a very good plan Jaune. You're just telling us to run away." Ren pointed out calmly.
"Yeah! We can't just leave you behind!" Nora chimed in.
"Your sisters also have to be accounted for." Pyrrha stated, her lips drawing into a thin line at the thought.
"I have a plan for that too. Just trust me on this one. With Rider backing you up you should be able to get away as long as my Dad is busy. People just aren't made to fight Servants." I explained, hoping they didn't push me to elaborate further. Mostly because I definitely couldn't explain it to them.
"Why does your Mother called your Father 'Caster'?" Blake asked suddenly, eliciting a wince from me that must have been visible to everyone in the room.
"That's... a long story. It's not relevant to the plan. Just... Caster is more of a designation than a name. I already kil- beat. I beat the Caster from the Forever Falls." I provided, quickly changing my sentence when I realized what I was about to say. Even if objectively I knew that Servant's didn't really 'die' it still felt wrong to talk about killing one so calmly. It made the act feel almost impersonal, when it had really been anything but.
"But you just said that people couldn't beat Servants." Blake continued accusingly, apparently not quite as willing to trust me as she had seemed just a bit earlier.
"That's also a long story." I ground out, through gritted teeth.
"Then tell it." Blake growled at me. We locked eyes and contrary to the obvious antagonism she was displaying Blake didn't look like she was angry at me. Just... disappointed. Betrayed possibly.
"I... okay you want the cliffnotes? I summoned my Servant wrong. Now he possesses me whenever I need him. I'm like... half Servant now or something. I don't know how to explain it any better than that." I said quickly, not wanting to spend more time on this than was necessary.
"So your explanation is basically something impossible to ascertain for anyone but you." Blake said suspiciously.
"Well yeah but Pyrrha has a Servant too so at least that's verifiable right? Look I'll answer any questions you want later. When everyone is back home. We still have the Vytal Festival to prepare for right?" I said, trying to put on a fearless smile.
"Will you tell me how your face got like that?" She asked, and I could feel Pyrrha tense next to me at the question. We had so far managed to avoid the topic of my discolored skin but I knew that couldn't last. Even if right now it was completely unrelated to the task at hand.
"Yes." I replied woodenly. Blake seemed to weigh my statement for a second before nodding and falling silent. Which was a blessing because my nerves were starting to get to me.
"Okay. Give me fifteen minutes then... run I guess." I said, taking the time to look everyone in the eyes, and waiting for each of them to nod at me before moving on. They all had to run. If even one of them stayed then the chance existed for them to be captured again, which was the last thing I wanted. There was no telling how merciful my family would be if they were captured a second time.
With a slow deliberateness I rose from my position sitting on the edge of my bed, and walked out into the hallway, shattering the silence glyph on my door as I did so.
A quick glance around the house with what passed for my Magical senses showed me a whole host of magical defenses and wards that had been hastily erected in the time since I had run away from the hospital and now. On the one hand, I was curious why such defenses didn't exist in the first place if I was so important to my parents master plan. On the other, I didn't really care.
With the same belligerence I had brought to bear against the perimeter ward around the property, I stretched a hand out and began to shred the magical defenses of the house. Every step I took was another bit of the over arching tapestry of spell work that no longer functioned. It was a strategy that wouldn't work if the Magus that had made the defenses had put something lethal into their bounded fields. A curse or an attack that would target anyone caught tampering with them. But knowing what they did about me, it made sense that my parents had opted to avoid that kind of thing. Wouldn't want their precious baby boy sticking his finger somewhere it didn't belong and getting fried by the resultant magical backlash after all.
By the time I had made it down the stairs and most of the way to the front door the whole house was alive with people yelling. My sisters called out in order, immediately determining that everyone was okay, with my Parents answering each call with their own hurried yells. By the time I had made it to the front porch, most of my family had spilled forth to beat back their perceived invaders, none with more fury than Rose.
"Jaune! What's going on!" She barked at me as she approached, only half dressed and twirling the chain of her weapon in one hand in preparation for a fight.
"Someone broke all the wards on the house." I said sarcastically, enjoying the way Rose didn't seem to even register my tone of voice as her eyes bounced around the yard like an attack dog trying to find a target.
"And why exactly would they do that." My Dad asked me as he pushed past the rest of my sisters to cuff me on the back of the head.
"Come on Jaune, Magecraft isn't a toy." He said seriously.
"Oh I know. Walk with death and all that. Hey Dad, what is the plan for stopping the Grail." I said casually, turning to face the rest of my family in various states of dress clumped up in the middle of our front yard.
"Tommorow Jaune." My Dad said with some exasperation. I opened my mouth to say something pithy in return but never got the chance to do so, as the back half of my Family home exploded outward in a gout of flame that swiftly disgorged all my friends into the surrounding forest. More so than anything else, my Dad just seemed annoyed by the disturbance, like the sudden lack of a functioning house was barely even a deterrent to him.
"Rose, Brun, Lily, go get them." He said with a roll of his eyes.
"Assassin, now!" I yelled the second my older sisters turned to follow their orders. At which point, several things happened at once. For one, every weapon in the area rose to readiness, which I kind of expected. My Father didn't withdraw a weapon of any kind - mostly because he was wearing nothing but his boxers and therefore had nowhere to hold one - but his face twisted into one of pure confusion at me.
And every single one of my Sisters started to freaking glow.
For several tense moments it seemed as though nothing was going to happen, until the rest of my Family turned their attention back to me, finally realizing where the stealthy Servant of the Dagger had turned up.
"Now. Assuming I matter to your master plan and all that. This-" I said, pointing to the rusted dagger Assassin presently held to my throat. "- ignores Aura."
"You summoned... Assassin?" My Dad said, still more confused than anything else.
"Who was I supposed to summon, Archer?" I asked pointedly.
"You were supposed to summoned Caster!" My Dad decried suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at me.
"Dear. Shut up." My Mom cut in, shooting a worried glance behind me to Assassin, who hung behind me like an angry, quiet ghost. Or well, one of him did. The rest of him were ransacking the remains of the house for anything useful. Not that I was going to tell anyone that.
'For the record, I highly disagree with this.' Archer said from wherever he was watching events play out.
'That's the beauty of it. He really does want to kill me.' I replied with far more confidence than I actually felt.
'I fail to see how that helps.' Archer answered bluntly.
'...it adds authenticity?' I tried, before turning my attention back to the people in front of me.
"So. Just for the record I'm pretty interested in destroying the Grail myself. I just don't trust you to do it." I provided to my obviously confused family.
"You little piece of-" Rose roared then froze when Assassin jerked slightly, drawing a thin line of blood across my throat. It was only enough to break the skin and not much else, but it definitely made his point for him. Whatever else, the dagger worked as advertised.
Even if I couldn't figure out why it worked that way.
"I love you too Rose." I joked, not really feeling any actual joy as I did so.
"He won't do it." My Dad said, shaking his head and wiping his hand across his face as though he was beyond exasperated with this whole thing.
"I assure you, he will. This guy hates me." I said testily, sort of annoyed at how easily my own Father was willing to gamble with my life.
"Yes, but will he do it when he finds out you're the Grail?" He asked almost rhetorically.
"That is a terrible lie." I said, actually laughing at the stupidity of the statement. There was no way I...
I glanced up at Assassin, his expression perfectly hidden by the skull mask he wore. Was it just my imagination or was he actually starting to look a little hesitant?
"No lie at all. We didn't manage to shut the Grail down in the second war but we did recover it." My Mother said, edging closer to me along with the rest of the Arc, or no, I guess the Einzbern clan.
"So you shoved it in me?" I asked incredulously.
"Among other things." My Mom replied dryly.
"Besides, the Homunculi grandfather made always started to die when the Grail became active. It was so short sighted I had to wait for him to die himself to test my theory." She continued, waving a hand at my sisters as they fanned out to surround me.
"And what theory would that be." I ground out nervoulsy, leaning back into the gangly Servant behind me. I still didn't really believe what they were saying but as far as stalling tactics went it was definitely working.
"Split the burden up of course. Seven Servants, seven containers, zero losses. The hardest part was getting a hold of the materials we would need to mold each of you correctly. You really should be thanking us, your Father and I. As far as genetics go you and your sisters are basically the cream of the crop." She continued, stepping every closer to the invisible line that would allow her to reach out and simply grab me.
I really, really didn't like where this was going. And not just because I was actually starting to believe my Dads crazy bullshit.
"But there are eight of us?" I said weakly, gesturing towards Mary and Anne specifically.
"Funny story that. The Second Wars Rider was actually-" My Dad began with a chuckle before being cut off by a blinding flare of white light ripping it's way across the forest and to my side so fast that a casual observer would liken it more to a two ton comet than the person it actually was.
"Hah! Well this wars Rider is on... my... side..." I trailed off, turning towards the horse that had appeared next to me and walking my gaze up it's impressive armored form to the buxom blonde woman who sat atop it. The buxom blonde woman who most certainly was not Rider.
"Good evening. I, am Sa-Lancer." The woman said regally, coughing just before she declared herself as Lancer.
"They don't care." Groused a woman in red banded armor that traipsed out of the forest behind her. She was pretty in a familiar kind of way. Her black hair winding down to her waist in thick rivulets that reminded me of Yangs. She would have probably been a lot prettier if she didn't have clear rings under her eyes from a lack of sleep, but I definitely wasn't going to be the one to point it out. Not right now anyway.
"Are they not the family of the boy you described?" She asked crisply, ignoring the looks of confusion sent her way by everyone else present. If I had to hazard a guess my family didn't know who she was any better than I did, and so the both of us were merely waiting for her to show hostility before doing anything.
"So what if they are?" The black haired woman said tersely.
"Raven? What's going on?" My Mom said nervously, her eyes flicking back and forth between the new Servant and my twin sisters so quickly that her pupils were almost a blur.
"This bitch-" Raven began but paused when Lancer looked down at her serenely.
"...is the new leader of the Branwen Tribe - for now." She continued bitterly.
"By your own laws no less." Lancer added, a hint of mirth in her tone.
"We don't have-!" Raven growled at the figure before falling silent after a single glance at the massive silver lance she carried.
"Regardless. I have come seeking Jaune Arc." She said. I felt my tension ease slightly, at the statement, slowly lifting my hand to indicate that I was one Jaune Arc.
'Jaune?' Archer said with a pained undertone to his voice.
'Oh good. Can you see the spear thing? Who the hell is this?' I asked him, hoping for slightly more background on this woman than 'probably on my side and also rides a horse'.
'Jaune. You need to run away right now.' Archer replied, not answering my question. I would have questioned him as to why but the answer presented itself shortly afterwards, when the woman turned towards me in response to my own movement. I kind of felt bad for Assassin honestly. The guy had like no presence, and he hadn't spoken a word since arriving here. It was so easy to forget about him that I almost knicked my throat on his knife when I turned my head to face Lancer.
"You then? Yes, I can see the resemblance." She said with a self assured nod of her head.
"Thank you?" I said in confusion.
'Jaune! Right now! Run! That's Rhongomyniad! The fabled lance of King Arthur!' Archer continued urgently.
'Weren't you like... dating King Arthur? Isn't that good?' I asked.
'It's not the same woman Jaune. She won't remember me. But she will kill everyone here if she feels like it.' He answered coarsely.
"Truly. Now! Summon the Servant of the Bow that I might defeat him!" She declared haughtily.
'ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?' I sent, feeling sweat roll down my back at the way my family was suddenly paying attention to me again.
"I... ah, my Servant is Assassin actually... uh, Ma'am?" I stated.
"I was told your Servant is a tall man with white hair and a red coat. I trust that my retainer did not lie to me." Lancer said with a bright and friendly smile that was completely at odds with the way she lowered her weapon to point at me as she spoke.
'Can you think of any reason why she might fucking reincarnate to kill you?' I asked desperately, and was obliged by a mental montage from Archer of the sheer number of times he had tried to kill 'Emiya Shirou'.
"Well. Shit." I muttered.
And then all hell broke loose.
-ooo-
I'm not one hundred percent happy with this chapter. I feel like my dialogue tags get kind of repetitive after a while, But I also don't just want this fic to be one drawn out fight after the other (Even though that's pretty much status quo for RWBY.)
I also could have probably broken this up into two smaller chapters but I decided against it. Seemed like it would cheapen things a bit to have Jaune show up to his home and then learn / achieve nothing by the end of the chapter. With regards to Larturia, Jaune and Archer are sort of unreliable narrators here - neither of them can reasonably discern what Larturia actually wants so they're just going with the most obvious answer they can think of. This chapter doesn't really fully explain the deal with the Arc family, but it does confirm some things a lot of reviewers have posited since like, twenty chapters ago. Next chapter is pretty likely to turn into a huge clusterfuck of a fight so theres that I suppose. I'm trying to keep to a fastish update speed now that I'm back to this fic after my vacation, but I can't really guarantee anything, especially when I keep getting ideas for other stories I want to right...
Oh, and for anyone who isn't sure what the current status quo with regards to Servants & Masters is, user yournameoften posted a helpful list in the reviews that I'm just going to copy and paste here; (Thanks by the way)
Saber of Roman - Julius Caesar, First of the Triumvirate Lancer of Vernal- Artoria Pendragon, King of Knights Archer of Jaune - EMIYA, Hero of Justice Rider of Pyrrha - Boudica, Queen of Victory Caster of Cinder - Charles Babbage, Seeker of Steam's Future Assassin of Velvet- Hassan of 100 Personas, Hassan-i-Sabbah Berserker (Beloved Darling) of Qrow - Kiyohime (Amber), Dragon Maiden of Fall Other Servants and Masters Caster of Juniper - Nicholas Flamel, Immortal of the Philosopher's Stone Lancer of Vernal - Leonidas I, Spartan of 300 Arthur - Veteran of a Previous War
Introduced himself to Jaune - Chapter 8
Mistakenly sent by Jaune to Vernal - Chapter 32
Summoned into Jaune's body - Chapter 1
Called for Jaune's rescue - Chapter 14
Harvested and tortured Jaune for his prana - Chapter 14
Overheard arguing with Arthur by Jaune and Qrow - Chapter 23
Attempted to murder Jaune and Pyrrha - Chapter 11
Fought Jaune and Archer - Chapter 19
An opportunity caused by Jaune that Ozpin took - Chapter 17
The surname of his father - Chapter 20
The relationship of his parents - Chapter 26
Overwritten by Jaune's shenanigans - Chapter 32 (Author's note)
Overheard arguing with Cinder by Jaune and Qrow - Chapter 23
As always, questions in the reviews should be more or less answered by the next authors note I write. I just noticed how stupidly long this story is getting, which boggles the mind.
So as always,
Thanks for Reading.