Unraveling the Knight

Ozpin was sitting in his office, his chair spun to look at the setting sun with a somber expression on his face. It had been a hard week at Beacon. He had lost eight potential Hunters but above all else, eight young lives were cut short because of his negligence. More so, a young man with more potential than he had ever seen had been suffering for so long and he had been too blind to see it.

Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha had told him everything that Jaune, no the Ghoul, had told them. And as ludicrous as it seemed, he knew about the existence of Ghouls oh too well. He had been the one to bring them to the brink of extinction in one of his past lives. They were going to align themselves with Salem and if that were to happen, Remnant would've stood no chance.

Maybe he could've helped Jaune before it went as far as it did but he didn't. And because of that, the same tortured soul had killed himself to protect the few people that he still had in his life. That had been a few days ago and those three young ladies may blame themselves, but it was all just misplaced guilt. The blame was solely on his shoulders.

"Ozpin. Ozpin!" came the disgruntled voice from the screen on his desk.

Ozpin gave a near silent sigh as he turned back around. "Yes, Councilman?"

"We need to know what the hell has been going on at Beacon! The public has been hearing rumors and we need to stop them by giving them the truth."

Ozpin took a sip from his nearly cold coffee, "As I've said before, an unknown assailant, that we originally thought was a Grimm, had managed to infiltrate Beacon and managed to kill the first year team, CRDL. The assailant managed to kill four other students before we were able to capture Jaune Arc. We believed it was him because of circumstances and his recently discovered Semblance. We were wrong however and we released him to help bring in the real killer. It finally came to an end when the remaining members of the two teams found and fought him. The other three of them were injured while Jaune sacrificed himself to bring the threat to an end."

This was the story the Professors had agreed on once the three students told them everything about Jaune. They all agreed that they didn't want to drag the young man's name through the mud due to circumstances he could not control. The three students had also agreed. Since only the professors and the three of them knew of Jaune's capture and the fourth years that found him after the death of Yang never saw his face, it was easy to keep the truth hidden and give everyone this partial truth while letting Jaune be the hero he always strived to be.

But, that didn't seem to be enough for the Councilman, "Well, who was this assailant? Could you not identify him by his body?"

Ozpin just shrugged, "We never had the chance. By the time the students had shown us where the body was, it was gone. Most likely devoured by Grimm. And they could not give us a description of him since he had his face always covered."

"Well, what about these students? We can question them." The Councilman growled out in annoyance.

Ozpin just shook his head, "That would be impossible. They are no longer at the Academy. Those three have lost close friends and teammates. Along with one of them losing a sister. I agreed to let them return home to mourn and grieve with their families."

The Councilman seemed to seethe for a bit before he took a calming breath, "Very well. It seems like we can do nothing else at this time. We'll send this off to Miss Lavender so she can start spreading it. I just hope something like this doesn't happen again, Ozpin." He threatened mildly.

Ozpin just raised an eyebrow, "You and me both. But for now, I have some students that have gone through hell and need assistance. So, good bye, Councilman." He cut the feed before he could reply. He turned back to the sunset and sighed sadly, "Hopefully, this is the right choice. Those four have been through enough."

In a seedy part of Vale, a young man was going through his apartment, his temporary home. He was going through collecting the supplies he needed and putting them into his knapsack. It had been a stressful couple of days to get them and figuring out what to do next. Along with getting a new outfit. He was wearing black pants and long sleeve shirt. Along with matching gloves, boots and belt. To finish it was a knee length, black trench coat with a high collar that extended up to cover his face from his nose down.

He looked up from his bag and looked into the mirror on the wall. His appearance was changed now and it was still a shock for him. His normally blonde hair was returning and from the roots to about halfway down was blonde again but from there to the tips was still stark white. Aside from that, his right eye was now a milky white and, now, blind. He sighed and took a black eyepatch from his trench coat pocket before placing it over his head and cover his eye. This was the new appearance of Jaune Arc.

He didn't expect to survive, he shouldn't have. But by some miracle he did. After he had impaled his heart, destroying it completely, everything went black. Next thing he knew, he woke up in the infirmary a day later with Ruby in the bed next to him. Weiss and Pyrrha were there and after tearfully crying on him, explained what happened.

After he fell to the ground, the three had run to him. They checked his pulse and felt none as his Kagune disappeared. Next thing they knew, Ruby screamed in anguish and a bright silver-white light came from her eyes. When the light faded, the two saw Ruby had passed out before Jaune's aura surrounded his body and his wound healed instantly in front of them. Jaune's unconscious body took a shuddering breathe and he was back to the world of the living.

A confused Jaune started to panic, what if the Ghoul took over again. That was when Ozpin stepped into the infirmary. After calming Jaune down, he had explained what he believed to have happened. The Kagune of a Ghoul had an even greater recovery rate than the rest of their body since it was their weapon. On top of that, being a half-Ghoul meant that Jaune's aura had funneled into it, making it highly saturated with aura. He then explained that Silver eyes were an extremely rare trait with many near mystical properties. His hypothesis was that when Ruby's Silver eyes activated, it remotely activated the remains of Jaune's Kagune still inside his chest. The Kagune attached itself to the pieces of his heart and with the help of the high amounts of aura, created him a new heart along with restarting his system.

Jaune was still looking into the mirror and pulled his shirt down enough to see the massive scar that took up half his left pec. There was an identical scar on his shoulder blade, the only reminder of what he did to himself. Aside from that, Jaune had found that Ruby's eyes had purged the other personality and weakened his Ghoul-half's grip on his body. He could still form his Kagune but it was severely weakened, he could only create a single tail now. His physical attributes had also weakened but were still high enough to be considered sub-superhuman. The best thing that came from it was he no longer had to eat flesh, he could eat normal food again. Although, it did severely damage his right eye. He was no longer just a half-Ghoul, he was something else. Instead of being more Ghoul than human, he was more human than Ghoul. Ozpin had been coining the phrase, Quinx.

Jaune sighed before letting go of his shirt. He reached down and threw his knapsack over his shoulder and looked down at the weapon on his bed. Crocea Mors. He gently ran his fingers across the sheathe before he picked it up. "I'll do it right this time. I swear." He said out loud before attaching it to his belt and closing his trench coat.

He left his apartment and out into the streets of Vale before walking away. He stopped and sighed as he picked up some familiar scents, "I thought I gave you all the slip."

He turned around to see Ruby, Pyrrha and Weiss standing behind him with their own knapsacks. "You did. Until Professor Ozpin told us where you most likely were." Pyrrha said with a small smirk.

His shoulder's sagged slightly, "Of course he did. Let me guess, he wants you all to keep an eye on me if I lose it again."

Weiss shook her head, "The Headmaster gave us no such mission. He just suggested we take some time to process what happened away from Beacon. So, we decided to accompany you for a while."

Jaune looked away in shame, "Why do you even want to be around me? I killed our friends. Ruby, I killed your sister."

He then felt two arms wrap around him and looked down to see Ruby staring up at him, "No, you didn't. He did. You're just as much a victim as the rest of us and we should've seen how much pain you were in before any of this happened."

Jaune was having trouble meeting her eyes, "How can you just forgive me so easily?"

He felt someone else wrap a supportive arm around his shoulder before it turned into a hug. He turned to see Pyrrha hugging him as well. "Because you didn't do anything wrong. You did everything you could to stop what happened from becoming a reality. You went as far as killing yourself." Her grip on him tightened with those words.

He turned away from her as well, "I don't deserve this…"

He felt someone holding his hand and looked to see Weiss, "You've been in so much pain and so alone for too long. You looked so broken by what he did. Even if you have nothing to make up for, you're hellbent on doing this. So, we're going to stick by your side."

He looked at the three of them in shock before tears started to slide down his cheeks, "Why are you all doing this for me?"

They looked at each other before Ruby was the one to speak up, "You told us you loved us, remember? Well, truth is, we love you too."

Weiss continued next, "Like you, we aren't sure if its familial or romantic. But its love nonetheless."

Pyrrha finished the thought, "You're not exactly ready for anything and frankly, we aren't either. But we have all the time to figure it out."

Jaune looked at all of them and he slowly grinned before pulling the three women into a hug. "Thank you."

They stood like that for a few minutes before they separated. They then started to make their way to the airfield for a flight out to a village in the countryside. They were quiet for a while before Pyrrha spoke up, "So, what should we call ourselves?"

Ruby thought for a bit, "What about JWPR (Jupiter)?" They all looked at each other for a bit before all agreeing. They didn't know what the future would hold for them. But they would deal with it, whatever it was. The four of them were broken, in so many ways but with each other, they'll be just a little less broken every day. By being together.

A/N- And with this, Unraveling the Knight is done. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I liked writing it. I'd like to thank you all for the support along with the two legendary Betas for this story, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh and Jauneforever. I doubt this would've been as good without them giving me ideas and suggestions. Check them out if you haven't already. With that said, I hope to see you all around later!