A Night To Remember

"I don't know!"

"How can you not know?" Yang shot back, glaring up at a burly bear of a man as the rhythmic pounding of club music beat in the background.

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here," the bartender replied gruffly before leaning over to point in her face, "He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever... came... back..."

At that, a slightly disheveled Pyrrha slid over quite awkwardly into their conversation, a nearly empty glass of amber liquid in her hand.

"Sshooo, Junior, right? Erm, w-where'd did they go? Hic."

To Pyrrha's credit, she actually struck Junior speechless for the first time Yang had ever seen... at least without literally striking him first... and he finally leaned back behind the counter to look further down the bar.

"Okay, who gave this kid a long island!? You forgot to make it a virgin!"

"Eh boss!?" a voice rang out from one of the henchmen further down, "You sure that girl's comfortable with ya sharing her personal info like tha-?"

"The DRINK, you idiot!"

Pyrrha leaned over and somehow managed to slur a chuckle in Yang's direction with a not so subtle whisper.

"Pffffft, he's not wrong tho..."

"Oh boy, you're seriously a lightweight with booze... Jaune will probably not appreciate this..."

"Oh don't even get me started on Jau-MMPF!"

Yang quickly covered the tipsy redhead's mouth with her hand when she practically replied at shouting volume, Junior turning to face her right as Yang suddenly shivered and cringed at a wet poke at her palm over Pyrrha's mouth.

"Yuck, dude!"

Her hand came down and Pyrrha immediately doubled over with a soundless chortle that looked more like a wheeze at her own antics, Junior raising a brow as Pyrrha's glasses started sliding down her nose but brought back to attention when Yang's fist loudly rapped the bar top in front of him.

"Y'know what, don't worry about her; worry about me if I don't find out what I want!"

Pausing for only a moment, Junior finally rolled his eyes and set himself to replying, "I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, which is something I can relate to!"

The last part was said loudly towards the henchmen behind the bar who simply grumbled and continued cleaning glasses, but Yang huffed anyway and grabbed Pyrrha by the wrist.

"Ow... ow ow ow..."

"Oh come on, ya big baby," Yang grumbled as she turned and pulled the stumbling redhead behind her towards the exit.

"Did w-we get everything we needed?"

"Well, we got everything we can," Yang groused, looking forward into the early evening as if to a faraway place, "And Turkey Boy will really have it in for him if he doesn't have the best excuse on Remnant for skipping out on us today..."

She took a single look back at her temporary partner who struggled to get onto the back of Bumblebee with a small belch before taking a deep breath to keep from igniting right then and there.

"Seriously... he better be either in bed at a hospital or in bed with the hottest mofo on this side of Sanus, or else..."

"Nnnnnnng..."

Cerulean eyes slowly cracked open in the dimly lit room, dim light from nearby derelict industrial streetlights coming in through the window next to the bed he was sprawled over. Leaning over toward the toppled over nightstand beside the mattress, Jaune idly realized how every single muscle in his body was sore before also realizing that the mattress itself had also collapsed to the floor at some point, sending pieces of the frame across the floor in all sorts of places.

It wasn't until he found Neo's scroll that was inexplicably on his side of the bed to check the time when it hit him... he'd practically been gone for a full twenty-four hours, without factoring in the several added hours from the loops in the earlier part of his confinement.

'Confinement?'

Jaune slowly turned to the pillow beside him, his eyes momentarily zeroing in on the light slender wrist propped above it with fresh bruises despite the Aura from the belt used not too long ago to keep it bound with its neighbor. With the memories of the past few hours before passing out for most of the afternoon from sheer exhaustion alongside his equally spent supposed captor coming to mind, Jaune let out a long slow breath as the beginnings of hormonal sobriety began clearing his head.

"That... was wild."

A slow mumble from the still very nude captor beside him laying face down on her side of the bed preceded the slender hand rising and absently reaching out to bop him on the head like some alarm clock before the young woman went back to snoring, evidently still asleep.

Before the body heat from his unexpected companion could lull him back to a nap that would likely turn into a late-night romp later, it was the distant crash of glass that vaguely caught his attention. Raising his head, he could see what almost looked like a young woman escaping from the window of a nearby warehouse.

'Maybe a burglar or something... kinda looked like Blake, though...'

However, it was the equally nearby crash of metal and masonry that returned him fully to consciousness, the sounds of whirring machinery and mid-scale destruction doing absolutely nothing to rouse the young woman beside him who turned out to clearly have less aural supply than he. As much as he didn't want to jump to conclusions, his state of half-consciousness somehow managed to remind him that the last time he experienced a second semester at Beacon, Team RWBY had indeed involved themselves with quite a few goings-on in Vale near the industrial district.

If the situation at the docks had served as a precursor to how the changes moving forward were to involve him and his team, now was no longer time to break that pattern. As he slowly slid out of bed and tip-toed over to the other side where his sweater lay discarded on the floor, he put it on as well as most of the remaining clothes he could find, hoping that whatever on Remnant had happened to those things - himself included - wouldn't be too obvious.

Taking Crocea Mors, his dead scroll, and her scroll for good measure, Jaune eyed the Aura-dampening shackles hanging off the side of the nearby container and gave them a once over.

'I've got a good feeling I'll regret it if I don't take them along...'

Unhooking them from the top corner, he was happy to see that they were retractable and that they easily fit slung over his belt. Opening the window, he took one last look at the wreckage of the warehouse area he'd caused and the sleeping partner in crime he'd caused it with, her bare bottom half still more or less covered by the bed sheets that were more off the bed than on. Jaune shook his head with a smirk at the view.

Well, at least her lower legs were covered.

Still reeling form the aftereffects of acts and trysts that frankly still had his brain muddled, he resolved himself instead to step out on the iron fire escape outside the window and track the trail of rising smoke and debris in the vicinity of the industrial area. Thankfully, it seemed the plume and destruction was doubling back more or less in his direction, and the cool evening breeze was doing wonders in bringing his mind back to full awareness.

Even more thankfully still was the fact that soon after Jaune reached street level from outside said fire escape, Neo's scroll began blaring loudly with an incoming call from none other than the Valean Thief himself.

'Gonna need ya, well, actually, I ALREADY DID AT THE RALLY YOU JUST FLAKED ON,' the pesky criminal cried out in what was luckily a pre-recorded video message, 'Kitty from the docks is back, and I don't doubt that blond bane of my existence won't be far behind her. So please, take this moment to remind yourself... WHAT ON REMNANT I'M PAYING YOU FOR!'

The message fizzed out suddenly with the screen jerking under the impact of what Jaune assumed was probably some form of masonry, so without a moment to lose, he began sprinting with healthy doses of renewed Aura aiding his acceleration.

What had happened over the past day was still fresh on his mind, yet oddly distant all the same. It wasn't exactly shame he felt, and while his body was more than happy after servicing and being serviced so thoroughly, he couldn't quite feel a sense of pleasure over it after the fact. So much tension, so much angst, so much suffering... whether he knew it or not at the time, the steam built up from months' worth of looping and failing had just been blown off like the top of a volcano.

Jaune shook his head, trying not to assimilate the metaphor with what had happened quite literally over the past day several times as well, both on his part and his incredibly eager captor's. Still, for the first time in who knows how long, he was able to breathe without that ever-present tightness in his chest at the thought of so much to do and so little power in him to achieve it. And as much as he hated to admit it, Neopolitan had given him something no one else had been able to at such a level since his first loop: primal, no-strings-attached, stress relief.

It was almost beautifully ironic how that young psychopath's criminal partner was going to be the first to taste the business end of his renewed vigor.

"J-Jaune!?" Blake cried out in pure shock, not even realizing that she'd been joined at some point during the past few bends through alleyways and buildings the Paladin chasing her simply blasted through without a second thought, "How!?"

"Kind of a lot to explain right now," Jaune replied curtly while they sprinted toward a larger warehouse building for cover, "Remember that day of the food fight? Mind activating your aura again like when we got tangled up?"

Blake nearly stuttered in her pace at the unbidden thoughts and emotions those recalled moments brought to mind, and she sent a glance in his direction before complying anyway.

"Thanks, it'll just be a moment. Gimme your hand."

"Now!?"

"Yes please!"

The two leaped over a bazooka blast from one of the Paladin's weapons before landing inside the warehouse area together, each grasping hands before going into a full sprint once more. The reaction was faster this time, much faster than he'd ever experienced before. Whether it was because his mind was more at ease due to his recent escapade or from clarity borne from repeated uses of his ability, the purple haze invaded the edges of his vision as the save point was updated. Jaune felt more than heard the Paladin crashing into the warehouse behind them, but took the few precious seconds left to thread along her Aura like he'd done before.

Heaving breaths. Flashes of light. Headlights. A highway. The Paladin, heavily damaged, facing team RWBY... but it was all being rewritten at a maddening pace, hazes of Aura and people he knew criss-crossing into that specific moment like a giant knot. A knot that unexpectedly went down in flames just as a nearby blast forced Jaune's and Blake's hands apart.

"Look out! He's trying to bring down the whole place on us!"

Jaune flexed his hand a few times, still warm from Blake's touch. The process had been completed, and not a moment too soon.

"Over here!" the young man cried out, dragging Blake by the arm from a derelict machinery line that was promptly crushed not a second later, and then between two columns that were hit with errant gunfire that peppered the entire place around them and would've hit them had they been anywhere else, "Stay close and don't leave my side! It's about to get really bad!"

Blake did as she was told, though she realized that under any other circumstances and from any other person her age who'd arguably be much less experienced than her in high-stress situations, she'd have questioned it immediately. However, after seeing Jaune at the docks, his resolution and spot on advice that always left them a step ahead of their opponents, she wouldn't even dream of debating compliance with him now. Still, questions arose and remained regardless...

She couldn't believe her eyes at how his directions were precise and constantly life-saving considering all the debris falling and crushing everything around them. Sword fighting and reading the movements of an opponent was one thing, but Jaune was weaving through every single random obstacle falling into their path without hesitation. Tracing couldn't possibly cover that, yet here they were, dodging death by inches with every second that passed.

Of course, she wouldn't have known that Jaune had already died a dozen times just getting them halfway across the warehouse floor so far.

Yet, even so, a question finally did escape her lips, though it wasn't one either she nor Jaune had initially expected after he had to bodily pick her up and spin them around a hail of gunfire piercing through several boulders of rubble already falling around them.

"Jaune, your smell," Blake blurted out without realizing after Jaune let her fly out of his arms for them to continue their escape, "What happened to you!?"

If she regretted asking such a straightforward question, the adrenaline coursing through her body as they ran overwrote it with its decisive finality. It was pungent, not helped by the suspicious stains spattered across parts of his short-sleeve sweater and pants, and unique to only very specific bodily fluids involved in very specific acts. She'd have doubted it under any and all other circumstance had it not been for the suspicious disappearance of the young man after their night at the library.

"Hate to say it," Jaune began as they rounded a large stone column that was nearly immediately blasted to bits behind them, "But those two at the docks? Yeah, they set me up and got me captured. It... wasn't pretty after that."

He pushed her at the shoulder without warning, forcing just enough space between them to be completely missed by the errant patter of machine gun fire that would've torn through them otherwise. Much to her shock, he hadn't looked back at all to guess when or where the gunfire would've come from, and he continued talking as if it were no big deal!

"They were gonna kill me, and almost did. Did a lot of stuff I'm not proud of, but I'm out now. Looks like I made it right on time."

Feelings of exasperation and realization invading the young woman's chest, Blake gulped between labored breaths as she put two and two together. Whatever he'd gone through, whatever had been done to him... these people leading the White Fang had evidently been resolved to utterly shatter him. To capture and torture someone was one thing, but if what she noticed about his smell were any indication... they must've tried to humiliate and completely break him! How he could be back like this with his composure and sanity intact only made her respect for him grow, but drew her compassion and righteous fury in ways even she hadn't thought possible before.

Sierra Khan would never condone acts of violation on humans, much less the White Fang's previous leadership... and not even Adam was yet so rotten for him to begin taking that route against those who would get in the way of his plans. Just who then was leading her previous brothers in arms, and for what purpose? Yes, questions arose and lingered, but they began fading away as she came to a new realization.

Jaune left, was captured, and judging by Ruby's later admission of having gone after him and reticence in discussing more about their conversation aside from his insistence in leaving quickly, he might've even known that he was in danger. He'd avoided keeping them too close so they wouldn't be collateral damage, and avoided unloading the details on her now so she wouldn't feel terrible about letting him leave the library so suddenly alone.

Whether her deductions were accurate or not, Blake had indeed realized one thing. If their roles were reversed... she would've done the same thing, even at risk of being atrociously defiled herself, to protect Jaune as well...

"Thank you," was all Blake could say as they neared the far wall of the warehouse, "For everything you've done for me. For all of us. I just wish there were anything I could do to even begin to repay you for your acts of abnegation to keep us safe."

Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors, using a single swing of the blade to cut an inconspicuous rope along a column near the wall that turned out to be holding up a scaffold full of materials and equipment... a scaffold that now emptied all its contents on the Paladin which had nearly caught up to them and had now given the pair a chance to escape unscathed.

"Y'know, I never got to compliment you about how sharp your intuition can be," Jaune couldn't help praising just before they each leaped up and through the fog-stained windows into what turned out to be a city street, "And normally I might've asked for a way to just start over... but believe me, starting over's not all it's chalked up to be."

Blake couldn't help a small smirk at the hint of sarcasm in his voice despite the danger they were in, each teen dashing around a nearby corner before hearing the Paladin crashing out onto the city block soon after.

"I think everyone wishes for something like that at one point or another, but you're right," Blake agreed as the streets were slowly leading into increasingly crowded avenues full of nighttime traffic, "We do not have the luxury for such wishes in times like these. However, I believe it's about time we called in some backup."

"Call away," Jaune agreed as the car honks and crashing vehicles behind them signaled Roman's Paladin was still hot on their heels. Despite the incredulous odds of such a situation coming true, Jaune still knew what he'd seen upon looking into Blake's aura.

Under the highway, he'd seen Ruby and her team, but even Pyrrha as well along with a few others...

Meanwhile, Yang, who had just gotten on Bumblebee and started its engines with Pyrrha in the rear, received a scroll call.

'Everyone! If you can hear me,' Blake's voice yelled out through the device, 'We need backup!'

'NOW!' Jaune cried out through the device as well, sending a fair dose of sobriety into his partner at the sound of his voice.

"J-Jaune!?"

'YES JAUNE!' he continued loudly as the sounds of honking and destruction blared in the background, 'Blake ran into Torchwick, I ran into Blake, and now he's tryna run into us both with a GIANT MECH SUIT!'

'Giant mech!?' Ruby echoed over the line, 'Oh, I am NOT missing this! Me and Weiss just left the CCT, we're coming over now! C'mon, Weiss!'

Not minding the heiress' complaints and liberal use of the word dolt, Yang went ahead and asked the question that really needed asking first.

"Well it's about time you showed up, Turkey Boy. But where are you guys?"

At that moment, Yang and Pyrrha each turned at the sound of screeching tires from a nearby intersection.

HONK HONK

CRASH

They were right in time to see Jaune wave at them in the distance before disappearing from view.

"JUST FOLLOW THE SOUNDS OF MAYHEM!"

Yang blinked again, unable to hold back the small scoff and smile at her fellow blonde who never ceased to surprise before kicking her bike into gear... and her tipsy passenger with it.

"Whoooo!" Pyrrha cried out freely as the acceleration sent the cool wind rushing by her alcohol-warmed face, laughing with the sway of the bike around the corner before she tapped Yang roughtly on the shoulder, "Hey waita minute, that... dat was Jaune! W-Where'd his armors go!?"

Yang groaned loudly, rolling her eyes before shouting back with hardly any patience left.

"P-Money! Just shake it off already, girl! You only had half a long island! Jeez."

Pyrrha fell silent and frowned apologetically as if struck, but promptly put a hand to her chin in realization, "Sho wait... does that make it a Short Island? Or like, juz a regular-sized island...?"

Yang actually did a few owlish blinks as she slowly shook her head at the preposterous question, her gaze regaining focus as she saw the Paladin down the avenue chasing Jaune and Blake onto what looked like a freeway on-ramp.

"Oh thank gods, there they are."

Further down said road, Jaune was currently cringing while he finalized debating whether or not to continue taking the mostly empty city avenues or take the onramp to merge into a much busier freeway. He found the entire thing quite aggravating, considering that the mere idea of luring a death robot onto a literal freeway full of traffic was the definition of lunacy, no matter which timeline it would've happened in.

"Jaune, he's catching up! Where do we go!?" Blake cried out with uncharacteristic panic.

He growled, looking up at the onramp above them and making the choice she likely hadn't made in the past nor wouldn't now... the only way they cornered the Paladin was in the untransited area underneath the highway intersection, and the only way to get him there was up.

"Alright, hoist me up! Use Gambol!"

Surprised how Jaune would've known about her weapon's name and kusarigama function, Blake remembered he'd traced it before the docks and linked him with the other end of her sheath to whip him up over the on ramp. She easily followed suit by rebounding upwards on shadow clones before she realized where such a strategy left them.

"You're putting us on a freeway! Jaune, there will be people up here!"

Jaune glowered, picking up the pace as the Paladin climbed up the entire ramp like a stepping stool to put itself on level with them.

'Rrgh, if you got a problem then well why don't you take it up with alter Blake then, HM? It was your idea after all!'

Not long after Roman had started pursuing the pair in earnest, Bumblebee's tires met the asphalt of the freeway and madly revved to head in the direction of destruction. It didn't take long for Yang to spot the pair in question, nor did it take long for Roman to realize he was being followed.

"We've gotta slow it down!" she cried out to no one in particular, but Pyrrha responded anyways after tilting her glasses down to focus on the mech better.

"I-I can do that."

"No, you can stay seated and try not to fall off-WHOA!"

Yang swerved around a sudden onslaught of flying vehicles that Roman had shoved into their path with the bulk of the Paladin, righting course only to panic again at Pyrrha's continued awkward attempts to stand.

"Nikos! Knock it off already!"

Sobered up enough by the whistling blasts of wind to the face, Pyrrha nodded as she finally gained enough control to center her concentration on the hulk of metal further down the freeway. Her response along with the dark glow now enveloping her hands, however, showed that she clearly hadn't sobered up completely.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Meanwhile, Jaune and Blake had leaped onto the back of a large freight truck before Blake's scroll began buzzing in her pocket.

'Blake? Blake! I'm in position!' Weiss' voice came blaring out, the heiress herself leaping down onto the freeway ahead of the mayhem and ready to counter the Paladin that had noticed her and already begun to pick up speed.

That is... up until it began glowing a suspiciously familiar shade of a certain Mistrali's aura before being bodily levitated and thrown off the freeway.

CRASH!

Yang stopped the bike near the edge of the freeway where it'd been flung, actually turning back to gawk at the redhead's feat as the redhead herself nervously scratched the back of her neck.

"Eheh... whoopsie!"

"Guess there won't be a need for that," Blake hedged aloud into her scroll as she too approached the side, Jaune glancing at his partner and back down at Ruby approaching the mech from ground level already before nodding his head. Everyone was present, accounted for, and more or less still safe.

'Welp, now's as good a time as ever to try updating a save point myself.'

He took Blake's hand over the scroll before she could hang up on Weiss, the ravenette unwittingly oblivious to the way his aura glowed on it as he turned his attention to her.

"Blake, you take Yang and Pyrrha and go back up Ruby. Leave me your scroll, I'll be right behind you."

Everyone traded momentarily hesitant glances, but Blake was the first one to leave the scroll in his hand and nod in affirmation. They simply couldn't question his decisiveness with those commands, and with him being the only team leader present for either team, no one was going to try.

He was happy for this as he put the scroll to his ear, mostly because no one would've ever believed that this was nowhere near the first time he'd been standing on that freeway.

"Weiss, can you hear me? It's Jaune, and I'm gonna need you to listen closely and follow every single thing I say in that order..."

"Pyrrha! Lock it down!" Ruby cried out, the new battle already well underway as Jaune landed next to the fray, "Ladybug!"

With that, Ruby shot herself forward to cut at the robot's legs, turning to give Blake purchase at the giant's feet as well. With coordination Jaune realized must've come from hours of practice, they both dashed forward and attacked at the same time, circling each other around the Paladin with each strike until they both launched themselves into the air and came down together on the shoulder. However, the mech was made of sturdy stuff, only several sparks of electricity showing the minor damage before the patter of gunfire took away the girls' ability to capitalize on the new weak point.

Pyrrha sighed out in exhaustion, the secret of her Semblance all but gone while Jaune covered her with an outstretched shield to deflect most of the errant bullets that were fired in their direction. Pyrrha had for some reason left Beacon unarmed and in a disguise, and she was apparently in no state of sobriety to explain, much to Jaune's chagrin. Lowering his shield, he stayed close to her side as he ushered her closer to the edge of the fray while Weiss jumped down and conjured a glyph right on time to deflect a rocket that'd been sent in the vulnerable partners' direction.

"Outstanding... just as he'd said," she muttered to herself with wide eyes before receiving directions from Ruby in the distance.

"Weiss! We need cover! Freezerburn!"

Ruby and Blake jumped out of the way to give Weiss a wide berth to create an ice glyph, the heiress herself leaping back to make way for the blonde brawler who jumped into the epicenter with perfect timing to unleash a blast with Ember Celica. Jaune watched the result dissipate the glyph into a wide cloud of mist that surrounded Roman, giving Ruby and Jaune just enough time to trade knowing glances at the sight of the damaged left shoulder.

Their joint cries rang out in the area as they pointed at one another dramatically.

"Lancaster!"

Immediately after that, the Paladin activated its laser sensors to make up for the lost sight, but was already being charged by the pair of team leaders who had ended up joining forces to train pair attacks during their mid-semester break. Jaune felt invigorated at the sight of the crimsonette rushing through a hail of gunfire, feeling the dull feelings that were settling upon him since waking dissipating once more.

No, he wouldn't let himself get caught in the nihilism of living and dying over and over without hope, nor get caught up with hate from the occasional loop where he saw one of his friends get injured or worse while trying to protect Pyrrha or himself from the relentless barrage of Atlesian gunfire. He would protect, and keep protecting, until the time came to strike.

With Ruby zipping behind him to be covered against another rocket blast that blew up against the shield of Crocea Mors, Jaune immediately righted his stance amid the smoky haze to literally throw his sword like a javelin right into the cockpit. After several repeated failed attempts, Jaune had realized it'd be hopeless to try for a bullseye like Roman's head, but the cry they all could hear from the compromised hull was music to his ears.

"Argh! Why you little-!"

"HEEYAH!"

SLASH

The entire Paladin lurched with Roman having failed to see Ruby's form launch up and over Jaune from behind his shield, the sword throw having served as a distraction to leave him standing in place just long enough for the girl to come down on the shoulder joint like a spinning disk of crimson blades. The laser sensors refocused on Jaune and Ruby, the scant seconds it took to do so giving her a chance to call out the next combination.

"Knightshade!"

Blake was already behind Jaune by the time she'd finished the command, the leaders already outpacing the following gunfire with either speed or shield. While she and Jaune had initially practiced combination attacks stylized after guerrilla tactics, Jaune easily caught on when he saw her hand him one half of Gambol that continued tethered to the other in her hands.

"Hold on."

"Always."

Blake couldn't help being a little flustered at that, considering all the times they'd ended up tied together or otherwise in each other's arms due to not letting go. Regardless, she seamlessly transitioned into a leap boosted by a shadow clone, Jaune feeling himself bodily lifted off the ground by centripetal force when she transferred the momentum over to his end of the tether. The result was the faunus girl twisting in midair and slamming Jaune over and down onto the mech like a human Meteor Hammer, the young man landing with a resounding crack over the cockpit glass and gripping the hilt of his sword to pull it out.

"Did ya miss me?"

Roman yelled in fury as a reply when he realized he'd once again been tricked, Blake landing and taking out the sensors easily with precise slashes of her weapon.

"Oof, guess not."

Roman swatted Jaune off the cockpit glass with his only remaining mech arm, smashing the ground with reckless abandon with speed and force that had killed Jaune in several a previous loop but had no success now. Every smash was dodged by a hair's breadth, the fourth one proving to be a feint to cover the gunfire that should've torn through his exposed midsection but was only met with the loud pings of the shield.

"Y'know, you really oughtta stop using the same old tricks. I thought I told you already I had your bait and switch style figured out ages ago~"

Roman cursed aloud, his voice heard to everyone outside as he shouted, "Seriously! What kind of arrogant prick are you, kid!? We've only really fought twice!"

Jaune grinned, lifting his shield higher to cover himself completely right as Ruby's voice called out in the background amid the guns all around the Paladin revving up to fire.

"Dragonslayer!"

Honestly, it wouldn't have been Jaune's first choice. But after repeatedly dying in the following moments, he soon came to realize that stalling for a few precious seconds with a little banter was exactly what Ruby needed to provide the perfect counter to what came next. Turned out that her intuition was truly equally formidable in the heat of battle, something Jaune respected greatly considering she never had needed to die to develop it.

Roman grit his teeth into a cruel grin, the entire area lighting up with so much gunfire onto the upheld shield that it cleared away all the mist from the previous combination attacks.

The grin slowly faded away, however, when the shield slowly rose again and was removed to reveal the bountiful golden locks of a certain red-eyed brawler.

"Guess you were right, Turkey Boy. Shieldy here does just fine transferring the energy to me without having to take a direct hit."

"Wha- HOW!?" Roman cried out, yelling in exasperation and pulling back the only remaining fist of the machine for a punch instead of waiting for a reply.

"Yang!" Blake cried out, only to be assayed by a soot-covered Jaune standing beside her who'd already seen it happen enough times to understand what was going on.

"Don't worry. Her Semblance lets her take the energy she absorbs from hits and deal it back twice as hard."

"It's what makes her special!" Ruby beamed with pride, both to her sister's skill and her fellow leader's accurate intuition.

The punch came down, just as Jaune had predicted, and was stopped by Yang's single upheld hand before she launched the entire mech against a distant column with a brain-meltingly powerful right cross.

With the group celebrating the victory except Jaune, their cheers stopped as they saw the Paladin slowly extricate itself from the column and plant both feet on the ground somewhat shakily.

"You kids fail to realize when a fight isn't really over," Roman taunted with malice, twin shoulder-mounted cannons coming up having already zeroed in on the exposed students.

However, his scowl only deepened at the sight of Jaune's determined rebuttal.

"And you fail to realize there aren't just six of us you're up against."

"Eh?"

"Renora!"

Roman pressed the button to launch the area-of-effect missiles with a growl only for the mechanism to not respond.

"What the-!?"

Roman looked up to see that the cannons had been sliced clean off the mech's shoulders already, a young man flipping to the ground right in front of him with a flourish of magenta Aura and upheld twin blade guns.

"Not today."

Roman might've shouted something about kids getting weirder, but was completely drowned out by the following bellow from a certain zany powerhouse.

"HEEEEERE'S NORA!"

WHAM

And with a mighty Magnihild smash, the entire mech was launched airborne with enough force to shatter both legs before it landed into a million pieces.

Roman emerged from the rubble, a bit banged up but otherwise unscathed, before leveling Jaune with a glare right across the clearing.

"Kid," he began with certain finality as he brushed some soot off his shoulder, "You're like a curse to me."

Jaune shrugged nonchalantly at that, annoying him even more.

"Believe me, you could be cursed with worse."

The young man let the one-liner coincide with Yang's firing of Ember Celica, the shot soaring through the air and apparently frazzling the thief who had to block it with a twirl of the cane at the last second. Jaune had eventually figured out what was going on behind Roman's furious glare at no one in particular as the man quickly turned to gauge the area as if he'd been waiting for another entrance.

One could practically hear the smirk laced in Jaune's words as he taunted, "Lemme guess... waiting for a certain someone?~ Tell me, what happens when you go down and there's no one else to save you?"

"Why you-!" Roman snapped with a growing glare of realization, but quickly regained composure lest he be known to have lost it in front of a group of meddling kids. Instead, he took a deep breath before idly flipping a scroll out of his pocket and dialing a few numbers, "If you'll give a moment, thank you ladies... and Ice Queen..."

"Hey!" Weiss shouted, offended by the remark.

Even more surprising was how that had been the very cue she'd been told to look out for before performing the final item in a certain list of instructions.

However, what no one expected as Roman waited for the dial tone was for a scroll in their vicinity to begin ringing loudly... a certain scroll currently inside a certain Jaune's pocket that drew Roman's incredulous and slightly scandalized gaze.

'Oh crap, silenced the wrong scroll this time.'

Before he could do anything, he winced with hesitation from what'd happened to all of them the last loop, explaining how that knot of aural destiny had gone down in flames. However, instead of an expected instant death, everyone was surprised to see Weiss already finishing casting a giant ice glyph over everyone's heads right on time to counter a veritable inferno that suddenly rained down from above.

"Oh my, a well prepared bunch, aren't we~" a voice unknown to everyone, including Jaune, called out as a bullhead appeared from above nearly out of nowhere, "But I'll be happy to tell you what happens... We move up Vale's expiration date, that's all."

Taking note of the unexpected intruder who was shaded under the shadow of the ship's hull, Jaune called out nonchalantly with full expectation that he was going to die and get to prepare for this unexpected encounter anyway, "Oh, hey! Y'know, I couldn't catch that last part... care to come down a little closer so we can hear you better?"

"Insolent brat," the woman whose red glowing dress seethed without any more of her previous charm before lighting a flame that a certain Ruby Rose was finding alarmingly familiar, "I see you're the one who's been giving Roman a difficult time. I'll send you a message you won't soon forget!"

"Jaune, look out!" Ruby yelled in a panic, "That lady, she can-!"

Jaune tuned her out while he willingly powered down his Aura. He didn't really care anymore, having learned all that he needed to already for the loop: the woman was trying for a surprise attack to rescue Roman in the presumed absence of Neo, who would've otherwise done it herself. The woman was a fire user, strong, and recognized by Ruby... not to mention the fact that she already knew of him and could be easily provoked. From this distance, the fireball she'd just launched would kill him instantly, a welcome occurrence compared to the suffering he'd have to endure otherwise if he didn't have her full ire behind her attack.

However, death was not what met him. Instead, it was the light mass of body from the only member of both teams with the speed and reflexes to tackle him out of the way before the attack could connect. The blast sent the pair soaring through the air from the shock wave alone, Jaune instinctively wrapping his arms around his inconvenient savior to brace for impact and nearly being knocked unconscious when he landed neck first on the asphalt.

Jaune groaned upon opening his eyes, plentiful locks of jet black hair splayed over his face and obscuring his vision as he watched the blurry firefight being played out in front of him. There was no doubt that the woman was still looking to eliminate him, but facing the unexpected number of decently trained Beacon students while simultaneously trying to extract Torchwick led to the obvious recourse - they took off and left before any more damage to the aircraft could be done.

"Ow," the young man eked out before realizing the warm body on top of him was coming to with hazy purple aura once again invading the edges of his vision unbidden, "N-No... that's bad..."

His eyes closed, not to open again until later where he realized he was being carried upside down by his powerful teammate... the short one. The other powerhouse in team JNPR was currently hoisted over Nora's other shoulder.

"Eh...?"

"Aw there he is!" Nora cried out happily from behind Jaune, his eyes flying wide open upon realizing he was slung over her shoulder with an eyeful of the girl's rear bumpers bouncing cheerily in his face with every step, "Nice to see you back, JC!"

'Um... a little less nice to see your back,' he hedged mentally, deciding he had had quite enough of seeing anyone's behind for the week. Or maybe year.

"Thanks Nora," he finally grumbled aloud, "You can let me down now. Where are we going?"

Nora let him down easily as if he'd weighed nothing at all, simply righting her balance with Pyrrha still slumped across her other shoulder before easily continuing her pace. Jaune was somewhat glad Pyrrha hadn't been caught in such a precarious position with her normal garb, as that would've left very little to the imagination from underneath the signature short skirt she always wore for her ensemble.

"Well Ren says there's a pretty nice Noodle spot in the area," Yang began, being the one to answer his question, "And Nora was pretty excited about it. With her being the one to carry you both for the past couple miles, we figured it was the least we could do. Besides, I'm starvin'!"

"You okay?" Blake asked simply from Jaune's other side, the young man easily catching the remnants of scuffs and cuts that'd come from her well-intentioned if not horribly timed act of unnecessary heroism, "Don't worry, my aura is patching up the last of it. It was worth it; it kept you safe... and you ended up shielding me from the fall, anyway. So there's that."

Jaune blinked, looking down at his hand and testing the aura flow around it before Ruby finished with the damning words.

"Blake spent some aura taking care of you both, but I topped you up just to be safe!"

'Well, crap.'

Before Jaune could say more, Rem pointed out the streetside stand, the banner reading A SIMPLE WOK fluttering above it where Nora happily approached before installing a still-loopy and slightly ill Pyrrha on one of the high-top seats.

"Need some food?" Ren asked from in front of Jaune, "You look sort of pale."

Jaune whined, realizing that the events of the loop had now been cemented into reality with untold effects... maybe everyone's attention span had been affected by the fight and the ample pull of teenage hunger afterwards, but the words 'Expiration Date' and 'Vale' still rung quite freshly in Jaune's mind. In the end, his gaze refocused on his female teammates sharing smiles upon Pyrrha's awakening that drew a sigh from him. They were safe, and in the end, that was all that mattered.

"Sure, I'll take a bowl if anyone wants to share."

In the end, everyone had settled with sharing. Yang and Weiss shared a large bowl of noodles when the heiress' request for low sodium options went flatly declined, Jaune and Blake shared a large noodle entry topped with plenty of fresh tuna, Ren and Ruby took turns picking at a medium noodle bowl, and Pyrrha tried to make her way through an extra spicy bowl in Nora's attempts to sober her up.

"Go Pyrrha, go!" she cheered with a smear of hot sauce surrounding her own lips before the Mistrali finally downed the last of it and loudly banged a fist on the counter top in celebration, "Woohoo!"

"Heh, can't blame her for being in a good mood," Yang mused aloud with a chuckle, "We did just hold back some of the greater threats to Vale and get some juicy info out of it... and noodles, too."

"You bet!" the bubbly ginger replied while Pyrrha simply crossed her arms in front of her to take a nap and stave off the impending headache, "Team RWBY was awesome! And not to mention us~ We've got a world-renowned drunken master on our team, one's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, and Jaune is a Tracer!"

A short beat of silence overcame the eight students with various levels of shock and passiveness depending on the recipient, interrupted only by the light snoring of a certain disguised Mistralian.

"Was... that not common knowledge already?"

"It is now," Ren noted aloud with a sigh as everyone turned to Jaune.

Jaune eyed the group, knowing full well why Ruby was the only one giving him a subtle deadpan before Weiss was the one who spoke up.

"If that's what a Tracer is capable of, then that's incredible," she began with what was certainly the first open expression of praise she'd ever given the blonde, or anyone for that matter, drawing a few looks of shock and pale faces from her own teammates before she continued while purposefully ignoring them, "I can see why you probably wanted to draw the final adversary towards yourself, so you could at least trace their skills and end goals..."

Jaune felt the pressure mount on him with that kind of praise when Weiss finished her sentence and everyone turned to look at him expectantly.

"...So, were you able to find anything that could help?"

A/N: Moment of truth, y'all! Does he roll with it, or does he spill the beans!?

Hah, look at me, writing this Author's Note as if I haven't just left this fic out to dry for like two years lol

In any case, I'm posting this chapter so as to not get eviscerated by people who may not have found my lil April Fool's gift as humorous as I might've imagined. 4(Four) Gatsu is April in Japanese; Bakara means Fools! Tada, April Fools! Heh, well at least I hope this improves ppls weekends and starts it off with some good plot stuff.

Here's the rub: the only things I knew about the LDR plot from the beginning was the first arc, the very middle, and the very end. Everything else has sort of been up in the air, and that's not good for motivation. Don't get me wrong, I was still writing the story even two years ago, but I was dealt a heavy blow when FFN deleted all of my drafts as well as brainstorming documents. It just... killed my will to write. At least, until The Elementalist gave me ideas strong enough to revive the embers of my writing spirit!

So here's what I did: I took the plot I've had so far, took the planned ending I've wanted to share with you all for the past four years, and shortened the final arcs to deliver it. I love this story... and I don't want to let it go unfinished. Yes, that means that a planned fic of 25 chapters initially will be shortened to about 20, meaning that the harem part will be left much more open and non confirmed - there will no longer be fully fledged Knightshade/Lancaster arcs. That's not too bad, considering they've each been fleshed out pretty well so far, and serve as a foundation for something... well, something else you'll know once I finally finish. And yes, you may have noticed that this chapter is about 20% shorter than the average for this fic, and I honestly doubt they'll get very much longer anymore. But hey, something is better than nothing, and it still means there's about 40k words left to this bad boy.

So thank you all for staying with this lil story of mine, I've been humbled by your patronage and support and please know that every single like and follow has counted in bringing me back to this story. Thank you, truly. Please take this note as my earnest proclamation to finish this story amid these trying times, and I hope this update finds you all healthy and well. Hang in there, everyone. Please feel free to Fave, Follow, and Review to help breathe some life and motivation back into this as it nears its closing arcs, and stay healthy out there. So take care...

And Happy Reading!