Author's Note: Alright, here we go. The Unofficial Chapter 22, formally known as the Epilogue. It is shorter than most chapters, but not significantly so. It's been a fun ride, and Vol. 5 is almost here guys!

Author's Note 2: So about it being shorter... I wanted to hit that 100k mark, so I might have gone back an added some content here to get us there. Lolz.

Future

(Ren's POV)

"Alright, and the last spar for today will be training-swords only. Let's see… How about Ren versus…" Weiss trailed off, looking over the group assembled before her. I stepped forward without any fuss, despite not being very practiced at sword combat. That wasn't really the point of the exercise; it was more about adaptability and what you can learn about fighting than the fight itself. And that is something I am always interested in trying.

"I swear, if she picks me one more time for her stupid little 'lesson about fighting' drill, I will not be held responsible for what I do to her." Ruby grumbled, sass overflowing from her lips. She did somewhat have a point, as Weiss had singled her out for this same drill the past three days. At first, Ruby was fine with it, excited even; something about her uncle teaching her swordplay and how that guaranteed her victory. Until Weiss put her up against Yang, who to our surprise was also somewhat trained in basic swordplay by their uncle. While Ruby's skill was more technically sound, Yang had more than a few surprises for Ruby, not to mention raw power over her. Weiss had a field day after that fight, getting to pick over every little thing Ruby did wrong, from her stance to her mentality. On day 2, Weiss picked Ruby again, but this time to face herself, and Ruby did not stand a chance. While Weiss' normal form was truly fencing, it certainly translated to this exercise, leaving her with plenty to pick apart from poor Ruby, both during and after the fight. Yesterday, Weiss pit Ruby against Nora, and by this point Ruby was verbally annoyed at both the fact that Weiss was singling her out, and that she kept losing. And yes, Nora somehow used a weapon other than a hammer, which is something I have never seen her even think about doing. I suspect that Weiss struck a deal with her somehow.

"…And let's have Ren fight Ruby!" Weiss called out, feigning cheerfulness. Ruby didn't buy it, instead sending her a glare that could have turned Qrow sober.

"Can we just skip the fighting part and get to the part where you tell me that I didn't 'read my opponent properly' and I 'lack the focus to be putting my life on the line' and I 'need to work on better preparing for my opponents'? 'Cuz that seems to be the whole reason you're doing this!" Ruby objected, finally reaching a tipping point.

"I'm doing this…" Weiss shot back, "…because I need to know that you understand it before we go back out there, Ruby."

"Yes, I get it, Weiss, but you're going way overboard with this whole thing! Yang, tell her!"

When Yang didn't immediately reply, Ruby turned on her too.

"YANG! You can't be serious!" Ruby cried out.

"Actually, I don't think it hurts to be cautious…" Yang replied sheepishly, exchanging a look with Weiss.

"Cautious? Since when did you learn that word?" Ruby cut back. "Guys, don't think I don't know what this is about, okay? I get it, I got hurt once and you don't want it to happen again. But this is just ridiculous!"

"Is it? Is it ridiculous to drill it in you until you never underestimate an opponent again? Is it ridiculous to make sure you never get lazy in a fight again?!" Weiss answered back angrily, though she did a good job of keeping it in check.

"That doesn't count! I didn't lose to Jaune! He just cheated!"

"Cheated? Ruby, there's no such thing as 'cheating' in a fight." Yang countered.

"There is too! If…uh…If I…" Ruby fumbled her words, looking for an example. "NORA! If we're fighting, and I offer you a mound of pancakes and then stab you while you're eating them, isn't that cheating!?"

"Wow, that's the best example you could come up with?" Yang taunted back under her breath.

"Y-You would do that!? YOU MONSTER!" Nora yelled back, missing the hypothetical part of the situation. I held a hand out to my side to hold Nora back, and sure enough Nora impacted my arm on her way over to Ruby.

"Ruby, there's no such thing as cheating in a fight. You just underestimated Jaune and thought you would win, and when it looked like you did you stopped fighting." Weiss explained calmly, trying to settle things down.

"No, it didn't look like I won. I did win. He surrendered and everything!"

"Okay, so you won the fight, and then your prisoner got up and shot you when you weren't paying attention. If that's the case, we may need even more training to make up for it!" Yang countered, with just a hint of smugness in her voice.

"W-wha? No nononono. I meant that… what I meant is…" Ruby trailed off, as no new defenses came to her mind. "You guys suck."

"That sounds like we won." Yang added, her smugness growing.

"Look, Ruby, Jaune attacked you when you weren't expecting it and you still won the fight; no one is taking that away from you. But with the emotions and the adrenaline running, you lost your focus and let him take a chance that you never should have let happen." Weiss started to explain.

"But that's not fair!" Ruby tried to interject.

"No, but neither was Jaune attacking you in the first place. No one is blaming you for getting distracted by those; we just want to make sure you remember never to let your guard down again. Is that so bad?"

"I-It's not that it's bad. I'm just sick of being the only one being punished."

"You're not being punished for being shot, Ruby…" Yang replied.

"Actually, I have to agree with Ruby on that one." I interjected, causing the group to go quiet.

"What?" Weiss stammered.

"I think that it does look like Ruby is getting punished. I don't see you singling out anyone else for special training, Weiss."

"That's because no one else demonstrated a need for it, Ren."

"Really? As I see it, you are giving Ruby extra work and special training because Jaune took advantage of her blind spot and used it to play her for his own end. Is that accurate?"

"I…well, yes, if you want to put it like that, it is still accurate." Weiss admitted.

"Then I think you are singling Ruby out when the rest of us all are just as guilty of the same thing." I asserted.

"What do you mean, exactly?" Weiss asked.

"It wasn't just Ruby that underestimated Jaune, and it wasn't just Ruby that Jaune took advantage of. We all fell for it, Weiss. He made us all the fool with that whole 'drinking his problems away' mess. If I recall, you fell for that routine particularly hard, seeing as he manipulated you into helping his master plan, Weiss." Weiss stammered, but couldn't respond. "As far as I can see it, each and every one of us here underestimated Jaune, meaning that we all need just as much work as Ruby. And since you are only working Ruby harder, I must assume it's for some reason other than that.

"And the only thing about Ruby that is different than the group that I can think of, is being shot."

The group went silent, aside from Ruby walking over to stand behind me and stick her tongue out at Weiss playfully.

"Okay, fine. Maybe I'm being unfair to Ruby, but maybe that's just because her problem is easier to fix. I know how to drill someone to respect their opponents and take nothing for granted; it may take some work, but that's something easy that I can fix." Weiss replied after thinking things over. "But what you said isn't so easy to fix. We're not talking about a combat stance or a form correction here; we're talking about not letting our friends deceive us into helping them spiral out of control. How do we learn to stop that?"

"I don't know, Weiss. I've asked myself that question for a while now. I've been hoping that some distance between Jaune and I would help that, that maybe I couldn't learn from it until he was gone. That's why I couldn't ever come to terms with reforming Team JNPR so quickly. I just needed him to leave so I could figure out how on Remnant do I stop this from happening again."

"What have you figured out so far?" Yang asked quietly.

"I don't know. Nothing makes any sense to me. I should have seen that something was wrong when the whole drinking thing started that first time, and we did notice something was wrong, but we thought that it sorted itself out. Jaune didn't go drinking again and we even got some closure with Pyrrha's family, not to mention a new mentor to keep an eye on Jaune. Should I have confronted him then, when it seemed like he had learned from that night and moved on?

"I feel like that could have helped, that I could have stopped everything before it started, or at least been there to keep him from getting in too deep. Is that what we're supposed to learn here? Confront your friends at the earliest possible opportunity? Trust but verify?"

The group was silent, my unfinished thoughts hanging in the air. And hang they would, as that was as far as I had ever gotten, the conclusion still evading me. From the silence around me, no one else made any progress either.

"I don't know, guys, but one thing I do know: I can't face him again until I have the answer."

Future

(Pyrrha's POV)

"Do you mind telling me..." Neo called out, clearly agitated as she dove between the legs of a Beowolf, reappearing after she hopped on its back from behind. With a deep stab into its spine with her umbrella, the creature slumped over and Neo hopped off. "...why you thought the three of us were equipped to march through the heart of the Grimmlands to find the Queen of the Grimm's fortress?"

"Hey, you didn't have to come, Neo. I was expecting this to just be Pyrrha and me anyways..." Jaune replied from underneath an Ursa as he held it off with his shield.

"Can we talk about how stupid that plan sounds now?" I asked as I threw my spear into the Ursa's head, relieving Jaune of his struggle. "If Neo's is complaining about how hard it is now, just think how bad this would be without her..."

"I don't know..." Jaune countered as he countered a Beowolf's attack by severing its head. "If she wasn't here, I wouldn't be so distracted by all this chit-chat..."

Neo nevered verbally responded, but the sound of shattering glass followed by Jaune yelling out in surprise filled the air. "Oh, it looks like you were too distracted there. What'd you do, walk into a wall of glass?"

"You know..." Jaune called back as he started picking himself off the ground. "...for the mysterious assassin who doesn't talk, you sure won't shut up."

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash and turned my head in time to react to the wave of fire heading at me. I dove under the blast, landing on my shield, and used it to pivot on the ground and get my feet out in front of me as I popped back into a standing position. I wanted to move straight into a firing position but stopped myself as I remembered that I wasn't using Milo and instead had a simple spear and shield Neo acquired during our trip to Mistral. I settled for a braced position behind my shield, with the spear poking out over the top.

I froze up when I saw where the fire had come from. Walking towards me, clad in a longer crimson dress than I had first seen her in, was Cinder Fall. Smoke billowed off of her single long red sleeve as our eyes locked.

"What was that?" Jaune called out. "Oh. Neo?"

Neo hummed in response, confirming that she both saw the threat and was prepared to let Jaune lead an attack, as she unsheathed the blade of her umbrella.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked as he walked towards Cinder, shield held out in front of him, his eyes locked onto Cinder over the top of it. I didn't answer; my mind was too busy showing me flashbacks of my last fight with Cinder, and I was too busy trying to fight to maintain my focus.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune's hand reached out to rest on my shoulder as he walked by me.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." I whispered in response as some of the tension released. This wasn't the first time I had seen her since our battle, but this was the first time she was actively attacking me, so my nerves were getting the best of me. Being outmatched is not something I have much experience with.

As Jaune and Cinder closed the gap between them, Cinder summoned her two swords and Jaune sheathed his shield, replacing it back at his side. I crept around to Jaune's right as Neo circled the other way.

Jaune approached Cinder with his left arm folded and held parallel to the ground and his sword resting atop it, pointing towards Cinder. With a large swipe of her sleeve, Cinder sent a diagonal wave of fire at Jaune, who sliced through it, matching the angle of the blast with his blade. Jaune brought his sword back up to block his side immediately, catching Cinder's blind swipe and twisting to avoid her follow-up stab. With his hands already at head-level and his blade pointed down, Jaune parlayed his dodge into an overhead chop with his sword, forcing Cinder to retreat or lose the arm she attempted a stab with.

Cinder sought to step back in and take advantage of Jaune's slow recovery, but I leaped in and forced her back with a stab from her side that she had to step back further to avoid. Before I could recover, Cinder caught me in the side with a fireball that knocked me down, but didn't burn through my aura as Neo's glass wall formed to interrupt most of the continued stream until she could close the distance.

Having lost the element of surprise to protect me, Neo's attack was dodged by Cinder. Her counter-attack was ducked rather easily by Neo as the two fell into a rhythm of quick, low-risk attacks that were easily avoided, the two agile opponents feeling each other out. Neo broke off the engagement, backflipping away to create space and distracting Cinder by unfolding her umbrella, bluffing that something would shoot out of it. Jaune took the opportunity to charge in, catching Cinder in the side with his shoulder. Cinder began to fall but shot out a stream of fire backwards to regain her balance.

Not wasting his chance, Jaune swiped in an upwards diagonal with Cinder being forced to clumsily block the attack with her blades. Jaune feigned bringing his blade back to slice the same path in the opposite direction but instead tucked it close into his side to lunge with it, in a move that looked a lot like Weiss' combat style. Cinder fell for the feint and was caught out of position with her blades ready to parry and punish the feigned swipe. Jaune's lunge landed on her side, slicing into but her aura.

With a grimace, Cinder clamped her arm down to her side, pinning Jaune's blade as her aura flared to protect her. With a spin Cinder ripped Jaune's weapon away from him and prepared to use her spin to strike Jaune, but Jaune had already recovered and drawn his shield. As Cinder brought her weapons back around her, she was greeted with the flat of Jaune's shield as he stepped into her attack and knocked her backwards.

Clearly aggravated, Cinder launched flames in a circle around her, forcing everyone back. With a grimace, she sheathed her weapons and reached down to pick up Jaune's sword. She tested it out, feeling the weight of the blade and swinging it around, before slinging it towards Jaune. I moved to jump in front of Jaune and block the blow, but he reached out and held me back with his free arm, his shield arm hanging at his side.

Panic shot through me as I realized that he had no intentions of avoiding the blow, but those fears subsided as the blade lodged into the dirt in front of Jaune's feet.

"Is that how you welcome guests way out here?" Jaune mocked. His voice sounded glib, but his eyes were locked hard on Cinder, malice present in them.

"What are you doing here?" Cinder growled back, her voice still as raspy as the last time I heard her, after I had been resurrected here.

"I'm here to talk to your master." Jaune emphasized the last word, earning Cinder's ire as he knew it would.

"It seems you are in luck." Cinder responded, though clearly unhappy about it. Everything about her posture screamed that she wanted to keep fighting, but now that Salem had been brought up, she wasn't about to break orders. "For now."

"How did you know she would do that?" I whispered at Jaune's side. This had all been a glorified spar for Jaune and Cinder, who both looked like they wanted nothing more than to make it a real fight. Despite our numbers advantage, I don't think I would bet our lives on our odds against Cinder; I had only ever fought her after she defeated Ozpin, so I have no clue what she could be like at full power. On top of that, she's had months to train with her new powers. Even with the blow Jaune just landed, I would be willing to bet that she could handle all three of us if she wanted to.

"If she wanted us dead, she wouldn't have shot a big fireball at us." He responded. "Neo, would you shoot a fireball if you wanted me dead?"

"No. You won't see me coming." She responded.

"I don't like her future tense there." I added.

"She would have gone with an ambush, or some arrows while we fought the Grimm." Jaune concluded, still not taking his eyes off of Cinder.

"He's right. You should be familiar with my skill with a bow..." Cinder taunted with a malicious smile.

"I'm sorry, weren't you going to take us to Salem, or did you want to get turned mute by a 15 year old girl first?"

"I must say, you are extremely bold, Mr. Arc." Salem hummed with an amused tone, though with a tension only a fool would miss. It simultaneously put me at ease and put me on edge. "After you double-crossed me, you decided to show me that you know how to reach me by showing up at my doorstep, all to stand before me and tell me why I should not take revenge on you."

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds foolish."

"Foolish? Foolish? I don't think there is a word for how unwise that is." Salem scolded back.

I squirmed in my seat, not wanting to take my eyes off of Salem but also terrified that she might make eye contact with me. While I had to have known that she was capable of getting angry, I never thought it would be at Jaune and, by extension, me. Seated at the opposite end of Salem's long table from Salem herself was the boy in question, and from my seat next to him I could turn to see either of them depending on who spoke. Jaune, for what it is worth, didn't shrivel up at Salem's ire, though he had the good sense to be on edge.

"And yet, it worked." Jaune countered confidently.

"It did not work." Salem corrected venomously. "I had no intention of attacking you in direct response for you actions prior to this meeting. Your plan to change my mind had no chance of success as there was nothing to change. However, you tipped your hand and showed me that you are capable of locating my fortress, and that changes things entirely."

"Does it, though?" Jaune countered all too flippantly.

"Your arrogance annoys me, boy." Salem threatened, wiping the grin off Jaune's face. "I would kill you where you stand if your intuition didn't intrigue me. Indeed, coming here still changes nothing, as if you had any intention of using my location to plot an attack you wouldn't have come here to warn me ahead of time. I'm more interested in why you are so confident."

"Oh, that's simple, really. I figured out my semblance, and I think you have, too." Jaune offered smugly. "I think you recognize how potent it can be, and that's why you didn't want Watts doing the prisoner exchange; you thought he would be too curious—and get too close. In that, you were not wrong."

"I rarely am." Salem answered ominously as she studied Jaune in a new light, a grin spreading over her face. Her answer also indirectly gave Jaune's theory—and I stress theory, because that's truly what he bet our lives on—credibility. "And how would you know so much about your semblance?"

"Ironically, it was Dr. Watts who put the idea in my head, and it fit too well to be denied."

In response, Salem laughed, finding something funny that neither of us could discern. Her sudden shift in demeanor put me even further on edge.

"The depths of your ignorance amaze me, boy. What even is it that you think your semblance is? Luck?" Salem goaded over Jaune, chuckling all the while.

"No." Jaune responded calmly. "Fate."

Salem's laughs died down, though her bemused demeanor remained.

"Ah, so you figured that much out, at least. Consider me impressed." Salem commented, instantly confirming much of what Jaune had struggled with for so long. It was hard for me to believe that she accepted it so casually, so it must be all the more difficult for Jaune, but to his credit, he still hasn't wavered. "Tell me, why do you have this semblance?"

"I think the universe hates me." Jaune answered with a joke. Or, maybe a half-joke. "And I think my semblance is potent enough that you did not even want to provoke it if you could avoid it. That's why you were willing to give me Pyrrha; because going against me meant risking it against Fate. And if you could use me against Atlas? All the better."

With his cards lain on the table, Salem took her time examining him.

"Experience." Salem uttered to our confusion. "You are correct that it was only because of your semblance that I went along with your plot. Experience has taught me exactly how to deal with your kind."

"My kind?" Jaune muttered, surprised. "Experience?"

"Your semblance is hereditary." Salem announced with her grin having returned. "There was once a time when the Arcs were one of the most dangerous forces in all of Remnant, though given the sheer amount of work that had to be done to make you prevail, I suspect your semblance may be the most potent I've ever seen."

"There was what?" Jaune asked, hung up on that first part.

"Luck's Chosen is what they called it, the hereditary semblance of the Arc clan. They never showed too much interest in ruling, which is a shame, as no one could have stopped them." Salem stopped to give a small chuckle. "They kept a tight watch over all of their family members, since one runaway child could spawn a rival clan just as powerful. For a long time, no moves could be made in the world without the Arcs having a say in the matter. Legend has it that they guarded the world from great evil, and when they 'disappeared' the moon shattered without their protection. Legend is not always strictly accurate, but there usually is some basis to it."

Jaune was stunned into silence, and Salem reveled in his confusion and shock, taking part in that great pastime of all super-villains: monologuing.

"The Arcs decided how the world around them would work. If an Arc wanted something to happen, it would take an extraordinary, organized effort to prevent it from happening. Fate arranged for them to get what they wanted, and this made them a nuisance to anyone with any inkling of power. Kingdoms rose and fell, but none survived if they crossed the Arc Clan. "

"What happened to them, then?" Jaune asked.

"I happened to them." Salem answered fiercely. "I have only three scars, three separate instances where I was made to bleed. One of them came at Ozpin's hand. One, a combined effort of three Maidens. And the third came at the hands of a singular Arc."

"W-which one?"

"The one Ozpin built a statue to in front of his Academy. The one who used the very blade you have now."

Jaune reached down to feel Crocea Mors at his side, never taking his eyes off of Salem.

"It was the only Arc weapon I never acquired; all the others are locked away, deep beneath our feet. Ozpin and I raced each other for years to find your blade, and when he stopped searching for it, I assumed he had found it. It would appear that he just gave up."

"What happened to my family? What did you do to them?" Jaune asked, finally having come to his senses enough to ask real questions.

"I did what I did to all of those who wounded me: I weakened them until I could strike back. The last time that all four Maidens were at the same location at the same time, nearly all of them died, though one of them did fight for me. Since then, no two Maidens have met in person, allowing me to strike at them when they are alone. I don't think I need to explain how successful I can be at that.

"Ozpin's example is the most recent and took me the longest, but that takes nothing away from how I crippled him. So when an Arc wounded me, it set them all in my way. So I killed them all."

A chill ran down my spine, and a glance at Jaune revealed that he was visibly unnerved.

"H-How?"

"How else? I wielded one of their own against them."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The Arc Clan, when unified, was the most powerful force on Remnant, and their typical hands-off approach left them without a significant number of enemies to rally against them. Their greatest strength was their strong family hierarchy; they kept all their members in line and gave more power to those members of the family with the greatest battle acumen. A team of four average Arcs was virtually invincible in their day, and the only thing that could defeat an Arc was believed to be another Arc. That was why they kept such a tight thumb on all their members, because they were the only ones who could.

"This was how I brought them down. There was a young girl, Juniper Arc, with a rebel spirit and a Napoleon Complex; the black sheep of the family. She had the fight and the willpower to lead the Arc clan, but not the physical strength to back it up, and grew up resenting those around her for being better than her. When I got to her, I didn't even need to convince her to turn on her family; all I had to do was help her grow stronger. That is one of my greatest talents, after all…" Salem trailed off to let her meaning sink in. "Of course, the Arcs would never let a blood-relative leave the family, so I had to fake her death, but once we did, it was an easy matter of giving power to a girl more than willing to wield it."

"You turned her into a Maiden…" Jaune realized.

"To start with, but even that wouldn't be enough. One Maiden Arc versus over a hundred battle-sharpened, Fate-wielding Arc warriors? It would be a slaughter. Even with the power of a Maiden and a Relic, and with my assistance, that would not be enough. We needed more Arcs."

"You…what?"

"I never even had to suggest it. Before you knew it, Juniper had spent decades training herself, and her new children. She had 14 and we trained them all with the best powers I could bestow to them.

"Once the youngest was about your age, I tested if it would work. To fake Juniper's death, I pretended to have killed her before going into hiding, meaning the Arcs would hunted all across Remnant to take out the first person to assassinate an Arc. They were in a panic, after all; no one had ever killed an Arc before. Sure, lesser Arcs had been overwhelmed by Grimm and wars before, but never outright assassinated by a singular entity. Once word slipped that I might have resurfaced, four Arc Clan leaders came to 'investigate'."

"You set a trap for them?"

"And we slaughtered them easily. Without those four leaders, the Arcs were a lot less coordinated and much easier to pick off. They writhed like a headless chicken, doing themselves no favors. Some Arcs received false orders for suicidal missions, where my lesser agents were waiting to confirm their deaths; many were given conflicting or confusing orders to keep them away from the others while we picked them off. There were only 28 remaining Arcs when they finally decided that they should all stay in one place regardless of what orders they received. They were beyond scared—no one had ever seen one Arc be murdered, let alone most of them."

"How did you get the rest of them, then? Surely 28 Arcs were more than your 15 could handle."

"14 battle-hardened Arcs, each commanding an army of Grimm the likes of which were unprecedented, and a 15th Maiden Arc, aided by whatever powers I could give all of them, with myself marching at their side? We simply walked up to their door and kicked it in." Her response was very matter-of-fact, but with a hint of pride behind it. She was gloating now, flexing her strength in front of us very deliberately. But why?

"And that worked?" I asked, finally breaking my silence.

"Until I met Jaune, yes. Every Arc was accounted for, yet somehow, he is here."

"How did you account for every Arc?" Jaune asked quietly.

"With an Arc under my influence, mapping out the whole Arc family tree was a simple matter. From there, we only needed to identify the bodies. Do not take me for someone who leaves matters unfinished; we were certain that every Arc was accounted for. For those who did not have signature weapons, we took other trophies to ensure the kill."

"Then how do you explain Jaune?" I asked.

Salem paused, a frown on her face as she thought things over. For the first time, I saw uncertainty in Salem's eyes, even if it was only a small amount. This is the woman who knew the existential crisis I was having and exactly how to play into it even before I was resurrected, and yet Jaune's very existence confounds and defies her.

All the more reason to stay with him.

"The Arc patriarchs instilled strict rules on their sons, that there were to be no casual lays among them. Their semblance was too powerful for them to sire bastard children, but that can be the only way I can think of that the lineage would be preserved. A single mother might give her child its father's surname, thus leading down the path to an alternate Arc line." Salem answered slowly, still thinking it out as she went.

"Then how do I have Crocea Mors?" Jaune asked more confidently. "If I have Arc blood, an Arc semblance, and an Arc weapon, surely I can't have come from a one night stand somewhere."

"He's right. Maybe your Arc wasn't the only rebel in the family. Perhaps one of the boys had a secret family hidden from the others." I added. "And if his weapon is the same one that injured you, it wasn't a minor Arc, either."

"You're suggesting that Julius Arc, the Head of the Arc Clan, went behind his family's back to sire another child?" Salem asked incredulously, though with intrigue.

"Perhaps he just sensed something coming and wanted a back-up heir." Jaune responded.

"It doesn't matter how; what does matter is why." Salem countered, her voice having found its footing as it filled the silence with a newfound vigor. "Why did the bloodline survive? An Arc has a secret child just as I wipe out all the Arcs? That's too much of a coincidence."

"Maybe you're just stuck with me." Jaune taunted.

"Indeed, it would appear that we are at an impasse. The true question now is what happens from here on."

The room went still, nothing daring to interrupt. Salem's eyes set themselves on Jaune's, issuing a challenge that Jaune answered with his own stare.

"As it stands, even with your semblance, you are no match for me, let alone all of my forces. However, Fate has intervened to protect your line once already, and I do not wish to provoke more direct measures on Fate's behalf. What happens next depends on you."

"How do you mean?"

"From here on in, you are removed from my sights. If you go live your life elsewhere and avoid interfering with my business, then no assassins will show up for you and no Grimm will target you. You could live the life of a Huntsman protecting villages from minor Grimm and have a long life. You could choose to play peacekeeper between the nations, freely hunting down threats that have no connection to me…."

Salem stood up, and as she did so the doors that we had first entered through opened up. Jaune and I both stood up, not needing any more of a hint. Salem's voice called out to us before we made it to the door, however.

"Or…You could continue to oppose me, to fight Ozpin's war with your newfound semblance, and we will learn just how much Fate can save you from."

"So, what do you think of the new armor?" I asked as I rounded the corner and spotted Jaune. He was lost in thought yet again, but turned to see me. We stopped in Mistral to pick up the new battle armor and modified weapons that my father had ordered be made for me from the same smith who forged my last set. This time, however, I specified a few changes, but only to the aesthetics. Instead of a redish-brown color on the breastplate, I had it changed to white. I kept my red sash at my hip and the bronze trim.

It was obvious what the change was intended to do. Jaune had used the bronze metal from my old set to reinforce his, leaving his armor and weapon white with a bronze trim; my new change also left me in white with a bronze trim. Even the red sash tied us together, as Jaune had taken it upon himself to wear my old sash from his hip (which broke my heart once I realized what it was.) It was a symbolic gesture that I was quite proud of; Jaune lifted part of my color scheme, so I returned the favor.

After all, I'm dedicated to following him already. I might as well look the part. And making sure the two of us match as a couple had nothing to do with it, whatsoever...

"Uh, I like it. My color scheme looks good on you." Jaune teased slightly, though he did take his time to look up and down at my new set. I rolled my eyes, but can't say that I didn't like the attention.

"You do look good on me..." I mumbled back under my breath, hoping he didn't hear it, but also secretly displeased he didn't.

"You've been quiet." I stated quietly as I walked up to Jaune's side. The whole trip back to Mistral from Salem's lair he barely said a word, normally staring off into the distance like he is now. The view from the walls around the city is breathtaking, and was always a favorite spot off mine when I needed to think.

"I've been thinking." Jaune mumbled in response.

"I know; I can hear the gears spinning frantically every time you stare off into the distance." I teased. "Have you figured anything out?"

"I think I have." He answered, slipping his hand into mine without taking his eyes off of the view ahead. "I think I know how we fight Salem."

"O-oh?"

"I've been thinking about how Salem killed my family, about her strategy. How she raised an army against them."

"What about it?" I asked.

"We need to do just what she did, Pyrrha. We need to raise an army."

"So how do we do that?" I asked.

Jaune reached into his pocket and grabbed a small object, and handed it to me instead of answering my question. It was a small, velvet box with a hinge in the middle. My fingers fiddled with it until it opened, and upon seeing its contents I nearly dropped the box.

It was a ring. A proposal ring.

"We need to raise an army together, Pyrrha. It'll take more than an Arc Clan to take her down. It'll take an Arc Family. And I can only do that with your help."

Author's Closing Thoughts: Well, this has been fun for me. This story started out as two completely separate one-shots with no overlap whatsoever, plus an idea for a story that somewhat overlapped with one of those one-shots. There also is the theme of Luck/Fate vs. Jaune, which is not something I came up with originally but was inspired to do my own take on by Not this time, Fate.

The original idea for this story was that the first chapter would stand alone as a one-shot, which it does. I enjoy playing out scenes in my head about hard confrontations and drama (because of course I do), and for a couple days I couldn't stop thinking about Jaune taking Pyrrha's death too hard. The first thing to come from that was a simple one-shot about Jaune getting drunk, and as I sat down to write it I had the idea to have him drink with Pyrrha's father without ever knowing it. The original idea was to drag Qrow into it to because, well, Qrow is awesome, but that would have added some light humor where I wanted a heart-twisting one-shot.

The over-arcing story I had been thinking about at the same time did work its way into this story. My original thoughts were about Jaune agreeing to help Salem & Co. either attack Beacon again or take out Ironwood and his fleet. After that action had been performed, Jaune would be captured after an unlucky break where he ran into his team, who discovered he had betrayed them. The ensuing battle would have been hard for Nora especially, as Ren would have to take away her hammer so she didn't kill Jaune in her rage once he was subdued. From there, Jaune would be held in interrogation and Pyrrha would literally show up at Atlas' doorstep with no explanation or knowledge of Jaune's actions, and Jaune would be too ashamed to admit what he had done and why he had done it, leading to Team _NPR interrogating Jaune in a very emotionally-charged manner. I probably would have thrown Qrow in there too, just because he's awesome. And Irondaddy too!

The third aspect that worked its way into this story was a theory I wrote and submitted to a Ruby Theories blog on tumblr. Just after the end of Vol. 3, I started to see a lot of people upset that Pyrrha would even go fight Cinder, as surely that is not a decision anyone would make. It did appear like an irrational decision, because, I argued, it was based on Pyrrha's faith in her Destiny rather than her rational thoughts. In that sense, Pyrrha's faith was immense, right up until Cinder cheated-I mean Cinder won. In those moments, Pyrrha's entire world collapsed in on itself, and her final words ("Do you believe in Destiny?") weren't a F- YOU to Cinder, but rather a plea for help; she couldn't trust her own perception anymore, and she was so lost that she just needed someone else to help her understand, no matter who it was. That Cinder said that she did believe in Destiny would only serve to confuse Pyrrha and lead her down the path of concluding that Destiny had ordained Cinder's cause as the right one. At the time, I believed that meant if Pyrrha came back, she would serve Salem faithfully even if she couldn't honestly say she thought it was right; it was just Destined.

Can you see that I like darker tones? Other than 2 of my favorite 3 characters dying in it, I loved Vol. 3. (Pyrrha was #1, Roman was #2)

So I wrote the one-shot to get it out of my head, then I wrote a second-chapter to make it a two-shot because I found away to make it even more heart-breaking. But by the end of writing that second chapter, I was already thinking about how my over-arcing story idea could be modified to fit this story, and once I started thinking about that there was no way this story didn't happen. Once I realized that I could work both Jaune's aversion/hatred/helplessness towards Fate and Pyrrha's subservience to Fate, I was really glad I did.

Oh, and all those scenes with Jaune taunting Qrow during interrogation with double-meanings was just icing on the cake. It's so fun when you don't have to actually stick to a consistent pacing or setting and can bounce around. It's almost like all those TV cop shows where they interrogate someone and the screen cuts to show what really happened, except those visual cuts are a lot clumsier in writing.

Dammit, I'm like a few thousand words short of hitting 100k. If sometime in the near future, a second epilogue is posted, know that the entire reason behind it was me wanting to reach 100k so more people can find the story in the search filters... :D

Lolz I hit 100,000k after I went back and added both of the first two scenes after the above 2 notes were written. I left them up just to give you a glimpse into my maddening style of writing Author's Notes whenever I work on chapters, meaning that multiple notes from different stages of the process get written. Sometimes I leave them, just to mess with you guys a little. I kinda enjoy doing that, plus I feel like its my schtick at this point.