Chapter Text
It's 5am in the morning and Oscar frankly has no idea how he could possibly be back in the whale in Atlas. He rubs his eyes and stares ahead, just to find a bloody gloopy mess in front of him, knowing somehow that he could have changed it all if he had just been better. He looks down at their remains (is it Hazel? It feels like it's someone else this time) and looks back up to stare into the eyes of death. The hound is in front of him, teeth crushed together, growling like the sort of wretched monster it is, and its breath warm still smells just like he remembers it. Senses so vivid that they might as well be real. He hears Salem's feral scream behind him and turns to see her claws ready to dig into him again. Her hand shoots towards his chest and digs into his flesh. He looks down slowly to watch the blood spill out hopelessly, and all the tension leaves his body.
But before he collapses, he wakes back up in Ozpin's guest room, with Jaune sleeping soundly next to him, Marrow practically smothering the rest of the bed, and Emerald curled in a corner on the floor. The ringing in his ears drifts away, and he wonders how she can sleep like that. It can't be comfy, he thinks, as if he isn't being pushed towards the edge of the bed.
There's still a rapping in his head, and he can still feel his heart thumping out of his chest, but it's almost as if knowing she's not there anymore calms him down.
Everyone's asleep, but he still feels like he has to put on a brave front and pretend that nothing is wrong, that he's like the rest of them, that he's a leader.
He's just a scared kid.
He stands up and creeps towards the door. Maybe a glass of water would calm him. He may never get back to bed, but he'll be able to add to their shopping list from last night. Might make a coffee too. Oh well.
The blinds are left open, so when Oscar enters, he is greeted by the glorious glow of Remnant's moon. He watches it shine down over Beacon, like some wise guardian.
He hopes they're okay.
The rapping starts again, only this time Oscar is convinced the noise isn't in his head. It's almost like someone's knocking on the door. The lift door. There is someone in the lift. And they are knocking on it. Is this normal?
He attempts to go find Ozpin, only to realise the man isn't in. At 5am, Ozpin is already up in his office, preparing for lessons. Like a weird cryptid. His scroll isn't charging in its port so he must be out. That means Oscar has to answer the lift door himself.
It's a fucking lift, what is happening?
He walks towards the door, and scans a card. Oz had left it in his "emergency booklet" (the emergency services and his favourite pizza parlour) for him to use. In case of an emergency. The doors part slowly, as lift doors tend to do.
"Salutations, friend Oscar!"
"What the fuck, Penny."
The android wanders past him into the apartment, "I LOVE the decorations here! I didn't know pupils could live in apartments!"
"Penny-"
"Oh, the moon looks BEAUTIFUL! And it's absolutely stunning, the way it illuminates the room!"
"How did you get here???"
"The lift! Gosh, it smells lovely here! Are those cinnamon candles?"
"No?? It doesn't matter- why are you here??"
Penny stops. She blinks slowly at him, like a cat.
"I'm saying hi to a friend!"
"How did you know I was staying here???"
"I didn't!"
…
"Are you going to say how you found me-"
"Nope!" She grins at him.
"And you're just here to say hi? That seems like a lot of effort for such a small action."
"I want to get to know you better, and this is the only way to do it."
"Do your teammates know that you're here?"
"Ciel is asleep, Oscar. It's 5am."
"Were you just going to knock on the lift door until I woke up?"
"Yes!"
Oscar feels like he's going to explode.
He leads her to the sofa and they both flump down. Oscar hasn't touched the coffee pot yet and he feels exhausted, but Penny shows no signs of exhaustion. Of course she doesn't, she's a robot. She grins at him again, her smile is blindingly shiny.
"... Did you have something you wanted to talk about?"
She pauses and puts a finger to the side of her face, confusion crumpling across her features, "I suppose I just want to find out more about you!"
"And knocking on my door at 5am is a normal way to do it."
"I've actually been here since 3.30."
"Okayyyyy," Fuck it, he needs a coffee, "Don't move, I'm going to be right back."
"Okay!" She beams again. He leaves as quickly as possible.
There's a coffee machine on the kitchen island, across the room. He shuffles over to it, desperately trying to keep his eyes open. One espresso shot, too much milk, chocolate shavings and a singular marshmallow. He hits the power button and turns back to-
"Watcha doing?"
Yelping, Oscar must jump eight feet into the air. He accidentally backs into the kitchen counter, guaranteeing a bruise on his hip. He grunts, but attempts a pained smile at Penny.
"I am very clearly making coffee," he winces. There's a pop behind him.
"That's so cool! I love baking!"
"You do?" Ignoring that coffee is not baking, he reaches towards his drink, absentmindedly constructing it. He doesn't know why, but he's eager for Penny to go on.
"Ah yes!" She straightens up and holds a finger up, as if she's had some sort of genius thought, "I enjoy following the instructions I can find online! It's much easier than art or writing, but sometimes the recipes make mistakes and my food gets burnt."
He holds one of Ozpin's mugs, filled with the pungent liquid, between his hands. Steam swirls out of it, and the warmth helps settle his nerves. "You sure you didn't just add too much sugar, or something?"
"No, I always follow the measurements down to the molecule. The recipes must be wrong. I have emailed multiple companies with corrections though, so nobody else ruins their cooking. I am more than willing to provide a demonstration if you want one!"
"Well, I haven't had breakfast yet, and it would be rude to fall asleep in company, no matter the time they come knocking." Although he knew as well as she did that he wouldn't have been able to fall asleep again anyway.
Oscar likes to think he's handling this whole thing very well. What are you meant to do in these kinds of situations anyway? He flicks through his scroll for a recipe and shows it to Penny. The android's eyes glow with recognition and he watches her eyes scan all the cupboards. How she can tell what's inside he has no idea, but she must know somehow because she starts moving towards cupboards and grabbing ingredients. Great, Penny knows where everything is here better than I do.
Not a few seconds later, Penny has all the ingredients out for a batch of flaky croissants and Oscar suddenly feels like he could eat a cow.
"I take it that you know the recipe?"
"I have it memorised! Let us begin!"
The two end up spending three hours cooking together. After prepping the pastry, they play a good few Uno matches while waiting for it to chill (until Oscar finally loses his mind after losing yet another match). Oscar teaches Penny some of his favourite camping trip songs while they fold the croissants together and she shows him how to solve a rubix cube. He tells her he's excited to show it off to Jaune, but in reality he's already forgotten the patterns. And while they wait for the croissants to bake, Oscar quite nearly dozes off on the sofa.
It's just past 8am when they pull the croissants out of the oven together. Oscar will admit, he isn't starving anymore. After waiting long enough for the dough to rise, the duo made themselves toast. But smelling the warm, homely scent of pastry, his mouth is drooling.
"They're finally finished!" Penny holds up her tray triumphantly before gliding over to the tea table and setting them down. She beams for what must be the 60th time in the night, and hands him a pastry.
By then, the gentle sunrise is illuminating the office. The team are meant to meet Qrow at the tower entrance at ten, which gives him enough time to eat and get rid of Penny, but not enough to plan his meeting in the evening. Hopefully, he can make some notes in the afternoon. He takes his mind off the ordeal by eating. It's too early to be scared. He's safe.
"Do I smell croissants-"
Emerald walks out of the bedroom and down the corridor, towards them. When her eyes land on Penny, they don't leave. She reaches over, picks up a croissant and sits in an armchair opposite them without looking away.
"Morning Emerald. I hope you don't mind us baking so early, I couldn't sleep."
"No, I gathered that, but what is SHE doing here???"
"Uh, she kinda just appeared. I can't be mad though, Penny's a great cook." Penny waves at Emerald from next to him.
"Right." Emerald chews slowly. "I mean, it's not the weirdest thing that's happened recently.
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Miss Emerald, but I must be going. My teammates will be worried about me!"
And with that, Penny exits with another small wave. A little too quickly for Oscar's liking. He raises his eyebrows at Emerald who shrugs.
It's then he notices her change in outfit. While he had just removed some layers to sleep, much like Jaune had, Emerald was wearing a completely different set of pyjamas. She's in a grey, baggy turtleneck that runs down to just past her hips, and some black shorts. Her hair is inexplicably tidy, for someone who has just woken up. He has yet to tell if she's manifested some new clothes, or if this was some illusion. He's a little jealous of her semblance, if he's being honest.
"Well… that was weird. Anyway," she pulls her scroll out, "Do you wanna see a pic of Marrow and Jaune cuddling?"
-
"I'll be up in five minutes, so you all better be ready. And no funny business. Just because Oz trusts you doesn't mean I have to. I do, but I don't have to."
Qrow folds his scroll back into his pocket and flies off for another lap around the tower. He's resisting the urge to peek into Oz's window, just to make sure they're not scheming. He wasn't lying when he said he would trust them as long as Oz did. But even then, he would snoop on Oz to make sure he was taking care of himself plenty, although not always unnoticeably. Did that justify observing these new kids?
The team (specifically, the blond boy) had mailed him a shopping list so that everyone has a copy, and he has access to their scrolls so he can check their aura. Oz says that those kids are as much at risk as they are a threat, and Qrow has no doubt that Salem will be after them as soon as she knows they exist. Ergo, Qrow has to go full dad mode today.
When his watch reaches 9.58, Qrow ducks behind a bush and morphs back into his human form. He feels his posture change entirely as he regains his balance. Energy surges through him as he re-emerges, back to his human state. He walks up the steps, into the foyer of Beacon tower... just to find that the team is all already gathered there, bags and all. Except-
"Girlie, did you forget to get dressed, or what?" Qrow pokes at Emerald. His smirk vanishes, replaced with a gaping mouth, when she clicks her fingers and suddenly she's in a white jacket and flared combat trousers. Unsurprisingly, she seems to want to rub her semblance into his face as much as possible, and he'll admit he deserves it after their encounter the day before. "Touché," he mutters, and they leave the tower.
The team wanders off to the docks, navigating through crowds of new students. He keeps an eye on them, of course, but his mind is already wondering.
Ruby and Yang are meant to be in this crowd. And they have no idea what nonsense is happening in the school right now.
It's their first day at Beacon. The girls are all grown up, and for what? A bunch of time travelling nonsense that might be related to the end of the world? Sure, this kid might be some weird future reincarnation of Oz, but that doesn't mean he's automatically on Qrow's side. Who knows what will happen in the future.
Does… does he really know anything about Oz at all? His girls, what are they getting themselves into at Beacon? One second of thinking, and he's gone stupid with anxiety. Frantically, he continues to scan the crowd for them, with little success. That damn bastard, signing Ruby up early because of her eyes. If he gets her out of here before term starts, maybe Qrow can avoid another Summer incident and get her away from the unexpected visitors in the crowd ahead of him. Maybe he can-
Oh, they're by the waterfall again. That would do it.
The old man shakes his head. Of course Ruby wasn't going to end up like Summer. He'll give his life for her safety if he has to. No teenage, Ozpin-scented brat is going to mess up his nieces' first year of school.
They huddle onto an airship. The mii theme plays between Qrow's ears, dazing him as their plane swoops through the skies above Vale. Tufts of silvery clouds brush by, pushing the tension out of Qrow's body and through the floor.
He turns to look at his escortees, who seem to be having a good enough time without his input. Oscar is teasing the faunus, while the green girl chuckles beside him. Blond responsible boy is looking out the window. If he didn't know any better, Qrow would say that he's reminiscing about something, or someone.
See Qrow, they're harmless.
The ship touches down.
The bustle to get off of the ship is harrowing, but not nearly as bad as the queue to get back on seems. There are students galore at the bay, all eager to get their first glimpses at Beacon. Qrow remembers that feeling. His sister was never so eager, but Qrow? Every glimpse of the school he could get. He had told her it was because he was looking for immediate threats, but actually he was just in awe. He doesn't think he fooled her. The tribe never had that kind of architecture, it had made him want to fly around it. He still does.
The kids are just to his right in the bustle of people (notably, a lot of concerned parents leaving their kids) and they seem to be shifting their eyes through the crowd too. Qrow doesn't remember much from the night prior, he had tried to drown out all of the nonsense afterwards by de-grimming some of the smaller forests of Outer Vale… and admittedly a few shots after that, but if he recalls, at least one of those kids was due to attend Beacon this year. The question remains if they intend to find their former self, or avoid them. Not that it matters though, because he's intent to avoid anything that could cause a problem. Including even more kids with weapons.
The last thing that this bird needs is another surrogate child.
Not a few minutes later, and Qrow is standing in Vale. It's initiation day tomorrow, so naturally the streets are crammed full of paranoid parents hunting for gear for their kids, and others looking for school equipment for whatever classes they may be starting in other schools. Tai was just like this when Yang and Ruby started school. Personally, he never understood the rush.
It did make it easy to lose people though. Qrow is already beginning to lose sight of Oscar. The kid seems to have wandered towards a huntsman gear store, looking through the glass at the equipment. Oz gave the boy his cane back, Qrow wonders what he could possibly want in this store. While the crowds remain busy, he does manage to make his way through them, to the store that Oscar and his friends wander into. Upon falling past the doorstep, the group are at the counter.
"Excuse me?" The Faunus in the military uniform (Qrow must be the only person to see the irony in that) steps towards the desk, "Is anyone here?"
An old lady pops out from behind a wall, "More customers! It sure has been busy today! And what might your name be, poppet?"
Her grey hair, plaited down one side, leads directly to her belt, where a set of knitting equipment sits. Qrow wouldn't call her the pinnacle of huntsman gear, but the experience that she radiates is unmatched. That's before he sees the throwing knives attached to her waist. He isn't even sure that she can see.
"My name is Marrow, Ma'am. I was wondering if you have any huntsman gear specialised for faunus with tails?"
"Of course we do, darling!" She gets up, and hobbles towards him. Marrow shuffles backwards when she approaches him, nearly backing into Jaune in the process. It's only after the lady pulls out a measuring tape that he realises what she's doing.
The following few seconds are a flurry of measurements and styling. The lady flings herself in and out of the stock room behind her, gathering fabric and tools. "Were you looking to purchase?"
The team glance at each other, before Emerald shoves Marrow forward. Qrow chuckles to himself while watching the exchange. The way they seem like siblings, it's heartwarming. He's a sucker for found family dynamics. Marrow nods his head, hesitant to say anything but clearly interested. Qrow blinks, and the woman has sewing tools out and push pins and mannequins in fabric around Marrow's frame. Watching her work puts Qrow's work ethics to shame, she's flawless, but messy and rough. It's when she pulls out her knives that he begins to worry. One of the chrome knives slices the air on the sides of his 5 o'clock shadow, and he swears he can feel the blade against his cheek. He even watches Jaune boost Oscar's aura in fear.
"Alright, I can have this done in about three days, or with a tip I can have it done in two hours. Your choice." The lady grins, pulling her equipment away. She tosses her notepad through a door into the back room and trudges to the counter. Qrow is about to pay for the three day timer, but just as he's pulling out Oz's wallet, he looks up to see all four kids making puppy eyes at him. Sigh.
"We'll be back by one this afternoon." He slams the lien cards onto the desk and turns to face the team, "And if any of you need to buy something else from here, you better order now." And with that he heads towards the door.
He didn't realise how warm it had been inside the shop until he steps back into the cool autumn air. The crowds are beginning to die down as it approaches lunchtime and he feels his stomach yearning for some carbs. Out behind him, one at a time pop Oscar, Blondie, Marrow and Emerald, the latter of which pulls her phone out and flicks to the shopping list, "Right, now that Marrow doesn't look like a dipstick anymore, we can move on. It says on here that Oscar needs more shirts, Jaune's scroll got lightly damaged in the whale explosion… which he seems to blame Marrow for-"
"He took my scroll and broke it!"
"It was Winter's fault for blowing up the whale! Your scroll wasn't even broken that bad!"
"Will you morons stop arguing for three seconds? Anyway, I need more nail polish and some dust refills. And if you don't keep quiet while I'm talking, you'll be at the end of them." She clicks her scroll back together and slides it into a pocket which isn't there. Qrow has to wonder what she's actually wearing beneath her illusions. Surely this must be draining her aura?
Oscar raises his hand.
Qrow swears he watches Emerald's glare soften, "What is it, kid?"
"Proposition to get lunch first?"
"We had pizza last night, Oscar. And you had Croissants this morning."
"That's because I hadn't eaten since Jacques' party. Besides, as an Ozcarnation, I get the final say anyway. So we're going to get lunch. I want sandwiches and I'm going to get sandwiches."
"Oscar, we-"
"You condoned Hazel attempting to murder me, you don't get a say."
If it's possible for Emerald to groan louder, Qrow is sure she would have broken the sound barrier. He rolls his shoulders and stretches, "Sounds like you're outnumbered. Lunch time it is, then we get back to shopping. Deal?"
-
"SOLEIL!"
Ciel's morning starts with a workout, like always. Unlike Atlas, Beacon has a lush green campus, beautiful for cycling and running and walking around. Today, Ciel hops onto her bike and goes riding around the planes and buildings surrounding Beacon tower. It's just as she finishes her route that a booming voice causes her to break suddenly, nearly flipping forward off of her seat. Ciel shoves her bike to the side of the path and bounces into a salute for her boss.
"Yes Sir!"
"Would you care go explain to me, why the fuck am I hearing of Penny out on adventures with crooks and thieves? I gave specific instructions that Penny was not to leave her room, unless attending course based events, without my permission first. How could you possibly mess this up?"
Ciel is getting fired. She knows it.
"Sir, I wasn't aware of Penny's rul-"
"That's Miss Polendina to you, Soleil."
"Right. Well, I wasn't aware of Miss Polendina's rules regarding foreign locations, sir. I'll make sure to keep track of her location more accurately from now on."
"I want a full report of everything that happened yesterday. Type it up and leave it with Winter this evening. I understand that you're settling in to Beacon today, so understand that I'm being incredibly generous with your report deadline. Now…"
Ciel knows what's coming next. She understands what she has to say to avoid getting shot on the spot. And she knows just as well what she's getting herself into by saying it.
Would Ironwood shoot her? That's probably just an exaggeration. Probably.
"Could you tell me where I'll find Penny? I'm rather interested in having a private conversation with her. Do you know where she is?"
"Penny has gone to interact with the student body, sir."
"And you didn't inform me of this because?"
"I wasn't aware of her absence until not long ago sir. I'd suggest you don't go to find her. Socialising is very important to Penny, and she needs to make a good first impression."
"Is she accompanied?"
"Of course she is sir. I wouldn't let her go unaccompanied." If Ironwood saw Penny alone, she was dead meat.
"Good. Don't fuck up again, Ciel. I can pull you both out of this exchange just as easily as I allowed you in it."
Ironwood leaves and Ciel swears she can feel her pulse hammering. Thank god he didn't realize she has no idea where Penny is.
-
The explosion is impressive, even for someone who spends most of their time around two teams of pyromaniacs. Even for someone who had just watched two nukes blow up his best friends, and half of Atlas with it. He'd be shocked if it hadn't been the fourth explosion in the last twenty four hours.
Ren feels, rather than sees, Yang lift her head from the prison floor. It's funny how explosions barely warrant a reaction to them anymore. He does, however, notice the change in expression when she sees who it is.
Through the smoke and flames, not the first flames there in recent days, Ren watches as the unmistakable silhouette of Harbinger slices through the smoke like melted butter. The cool ease with which Qrow wields Harbinger, combined with the burning fury in his scarlet eyes, makes for quite the impressive show. At the back of his mind fog, Ren takes notes.
"Uncle Qrow?"
"Yang, fucking hell, you okay?"
"Impressive show, dude."
Qrow's lips twitch through his anger. He busts through the control panel, and the dust barriers flutter down. Ren finds himself enamoured by the combination of grace and ferocity.
"Good to see you kids are still alive. Where's everyone else?"
Yang glances at him and looks away. There's silence for a few seconds.
"We split up after the General declared martial law. Nora, Ruby, Blake and Weiss took Penny and sent out Amity's message. The rest of us stayed down in Mantle until…"
Qrow nods, "Go on?"
"Salem came for Oscar. We ended up travelling back to Atlas to get him out of the whale. We managed to infiltrate it and get him back but she found us. Oscar and Jaune got blown up."
The silence drags on. Qrow stands with an emotionless face, his mouth slightly ajar. Ren watches all the muscles in his face strain to keep his composure.
"We've not heard from Ruby's team, but they got the message up, so they're probably okay." Yang continues.
Qrow doesn't speak. Just stares right through them both, past the wreckage of their cell, out into infinity. Ren can't remember the last time Qrow had spoken to either huntsman.
"Uncle Qrow?"
…
"Are you okay?"
"Robyn has a ship ready in the port. We should make it there quickly."
"Are you okay, though?"
Ren doesn't need to ask. He can barely see Qrow past the flurry of petals surrounding him. Pain and anger and overwhelming guilt. Not having a good time in general.
"Come on," He urges, "Do you really want to encounter the Ace Ops again?"
-
Marrow almost feels bad about leaving Oscar upstairs, in Ozpin's apartment, but the kid insists that he needs the time to prepare for his meeting, so Marrow doesn't bother him. He just follows Jaune and Emerald as they manoeuvre through students, in an attempt to find the balcony staircase.
He can't quite remember agreeing to this, but he doesn't complain as Jaune pops out of the crowd, ahead of him. Marrow cannot fathom how nobody has noticed that he’s not student-aged. Even Jaune, who he knows is younger than some of the third years, sticks out like a sore thumb in his shiny armour. They tower over the first years, with their nervous energy, and squeaky voices.
Jaune pulls him out of the crowd and onto the staircase, and they climb up the steps, sorting through the children below them. He recognises Yang and her voluminous, bouncy hair from the opposite side of the room. He can’t see who she’s talking to, or see her sister anywhere, but he’s hit with a sudden pang of guilt when he sees her waving two functioning arms around the room. Suddenly, he's very glad to be given a second chance, even one that undoes everything he’s ever worked for. The Ace Ops never actually did much anyway, he thinks.
He has a better view of Yang from the top of the balcony. She shines bright, like always. In the dim interior of the auditorium, Yang’s hair stands out from every angle. She’s having a conversation with two other pupils. Marrow can’t see them from this angle, so he follows the balcony around to get a better view, Jaune following him.
When he reaches the other end of the balcony, he sees them both. Ren and Nora, looking far friendlier than he remembers them being in Atlas. Nora seems to brighten the room around her, bouncing energy off of Yang, as Marrow watches what he realises must be their first meeting. Ren stands, solemn as always, but with an extra hint of affection that he doesn’t recognise from before. As he watches them, he feels Jaune stiffen with shock beside him. His old teammates. He has no way to know if they're okay, back in Atlas. Marrow almost feels guilty for wanting to save Beacon. How could he overlook that he was practically removing Jaune’s team and friends from existence? All of their memories together would never have happened. That's what Marrow was committing him to.
But when he follows his friend’s eyes, they’re not looking back towards Ren and Nora like he thought they might have been. They're following another pupil as she wanders through the crowd. Marrow had known of the star pupil back in Atlas, where the General had used her sacrifice in an attempt to recruit more soldiers. In fact, everyone had known of the star pupil, after her face painted the news on that fateful day, along with so many other innocents. He hadn't realised that she was Jaune’s partner. Never thought about it really. Pyrrha looks just as young as the day that she died. Jaune continues to watch her as she reaches the front of the crowd and stops. That confidence. The kind both of the hunters shared. Had he gotten it from her? Marrow finds himself suddenly feeling very inadequate, watching Jaune’s eyes scrunch and blink.
“Jaune?”
“Mm?”
“We can go to talk to her, if you want.”
“I… Don’t know. Sounds like a bad idea.”
That feeling of doubt. What you’d do differently if given a second chance. Marrow could go through his life with a highlighter and mark off every change he’d make if he could. Here, Jaune is with a chance to ctrl-z everything, and he didn’t know where to start. Marrow looks back to the younger pupils, watches as the doors swing open, and more walk in, reared off by Ruby and Jaune himself. He’s not sure the man next to him even notices. When he puts a hand on his shoulder, Jaune flinches and jumps out of his stupor.
“Let’s sit down a second and then go find Emerald. Then you can go talk to your old friends?”
“Okay.”
-
As she watches Ozpin stride upon the stage (like a ghost, maybe?) Ruby gets the unsettling feeling of eyes trailing the back of her head, like the intuition she uses to tell when there’s a grimm behind her. But when she shifts her head to look around, all she finds is other sweaty pupils, excitement dimming down into exhaustion and resignation.
Still, there’s something not quite right in the room. Something that isn’t meant to be there.
Could it just be the entrance of the professor? He walks like a haunted man does, tentatively and silently. Not the silence of a gentle school teacher either. More so than he did in the acceptance and entry video. When he reaches his microphone, their eyes lock for a second, before his flicker back to the rest of the crowd. Hers stay a bit longer. She thinks back to his playful smile at their interview a few weeks ago. Did something change? Maybe it's just how he treats students.
Qrow did tell her that he’s an odd guy.
But he’s definitely not the person watching her. Even if his eyes do flicker back to hers every so often.
So who is it?
After Ozpin exits, she scans the pupils around her again, to no avail. Yang is bickering with Weiss again, and Ruby wishes she could turn them both off for a second, just to focus. There’s something ominous going on at Beacon, and it's making her skin crawl. She could swear there’s a pupil across the room playing boss music. Good music taste.
It occurs to her, suddenly, that her choice of job, and at such a young age, makes her a much larger target suddenly. Qrow spends months upon months away from home, and comes back with new scratches every time. Ruby won't have Yang to protect her forever. How long until she's coming home with those scratches? She has to fight her own battles now.
If she can find them first.
With one last scan, she follows Jaune out of the auditorium, with an uncanny sense of foreboding following behind her.
-
Red leaves the room not a second too late. Emerald can feel her aura beginning to stutter while watching her.
She disappears back up onto the balcony before letting her semblance down. The only people left up top are the exact two idiots she's looking for. They're sitting on the rail, talking about Pumpkin Pete's, of all things. Emerald, for the life of her, cannot decipher the conversation.
"Do I even want to ask what you two are going on about?"
"Oh, we were just about to go looking for you! I need to borrow your semblance to help Jaune."
"God, I don't do this stuff for free you know. What could you possibly want to disguise yourself for at Beacon?"
"Eheh…"
Emerald sighs and rubs her hand down her face. She can already tell the kind of thing Marrow wants. Following around Jaune's friends without being noticed, so Jaune can talk to them alone.
"I'm not helping you stalk teenage girls without a good reason, you'd be better off trying to hire Neo."
"I'll get you bubble tea?"
"You can't buy my help."
"Bubble tea, and I'll order Sushi takeout for you this evening."
And that's how Emerald, low on aura, finds herself cloaking Marrow as he follows Jaune around. She sits on the balcony and reads away on her scroll, enjoying classics from a few years ago that she wished she had started reading sooner.
That is, until she hears, "Hello there!"
"Oh uh… hi there!"
Emerald puts her scroll away when she hears the conversation start. Over the balcony, she watches Jaune stumble over words for a few seconds. It's painful. Like Mercury when he sees a pretty boy. She's almost tempted to put him out of his misery, to kick off her redemption arc.
"Hey, it's okay. You might not believe this, but I tend to get people stammering over me a lot…"
"Oh my gods!! I'm so sorry Pyrrha, I didn't mean to be disrespectful."
"No, it's quite okay, Mr…"
"Arc! Jau- OW! I mean Jamie Arc. Third year. I have a cousin starting at the school by this year."
"And he wants an autograph, or such?"
"Actually, Jaune's a bit of an airhead. I don't think he knows who you are. Just thought I'd let you know, in case you need a friend in your year, yano. Not that I'd think that's a problem for you of course!"
Emerald looks up at Jaune's face. She's trying very hard to cover a sincere smile with a polite one. "That's very considerate of you, Jamie. I'll see if I can find him at some point."
"It's no problem. Don't be concerned if he passes right over you at first though. I don't think he even knows that I exist, and we're related. Do you want me to show you to your locker room? Unless you're waiting for someone, of course."
"Surprisingly, I'm not. It's nice to have someone down to earth to talk to actually, instead of someone putting me on a pedestal. You looked a little nervous earlier, are you okay?"
Jaune smiles as they walk out the auditorium together, "I'm doing better now."
"He's a moron." Marrow says, behind her.
"Let him have this, Marrow. He's not gonna get many chances after she meets this time's Jaune. You can date him then if you want." She winks and heads back towards the balcony staircase.
"I wasn't- HEY!"