#jaune x gillian

[rocknroll7575]

The Lonely Arc

Nora watched as Jaune sat away from everyone, away from all of their friends and allies, and away from all the noise, he was simply looking at the night sky and the stars that came with it.

She knew why he was alone, why he was away from all the happy people... because they all had someone, even her.

Jaune, meanwhile, had given up his love, his dreams of a future and a family, for them...

"Do you love him?" Nora asked her.

Gillian looked up at Nora with sad amethyst eyes. "I do..." she began. Gillian then looked down as she sniffled. "Please don't take him away from me..."

Nora eyes widened with shock before she became confused, "What do you mean?" She asked.

"He love you all, he do anything for you, he'd give up everything if you or Ren, or that Ruby girl told him to stay away from me, that it wouldn't be safe or right to love someone like me... You can do it, you know that don't you? All you have to do is say the words and he'd never see me again..."

Nora was taken aback by Gillians words, "Jaune... Jaune wouldnt do that..."

Gillian nodded, "He would," She replied. "He doesnt care about his own happiness, only thise around him, you know that, you've seen it, he took that mission to be undercover to protect Ren, he didnt care if he branded himself a traitor, or if Ren or you hated him, as long as you were safe and happy, he would be fine... know I've never given you any reason not to do it, but please don't do that to me... don't take him away from me..." Gillian told Nora, as tears finally fell from amethyst eyes.

Nora walked up to Jaune, and stood next to him, "Hey," she greeted.

Jaune seem to jump a little as he turned to face her, a small and soft smile on his lips, "Hey, Nora," He greeted back.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"I'm..." He began. He took a deep breath in before letting out a heavy sigh, "I'm fine," He said.

Those words struck Nora's heart like a knife and she could feel that Jaune said those words with such sadness that it could be mistaken as the final words of a man who would never see a loved one again.

"You should go to her," Nora told him

Jaune's head snapped to her, "what?" He asked with a confused and shocked tone.

"Gillian," Nora said. "Go to her, see her, tell her... tell her you love her Jaune, and that no matter what, you won't leave her,"

Jaune’s eyes looked at her with worry, "But what about-"

Nora set her hand on his shoulder, stopping him from finishing his sentence as she looked at him with a gentle smile. "I'll support you, I'll back you up when it comes to her and you, so go to her, and don't think about what the others will say or want... just do what you feel is right in your heart," she told him.

Jaune was shocked, "Nora... why?" he asked.

Nora's gentle smile didn't waver, "Because you deserve to be happy, Jaune," She said

Jaune's expression turned sad, and without a moment of hesitation, brought her into a hug, which at first, shocked her for a few seconds, but she reciprocated it.

At that moment, Jaune had regained his sister, and Nora got her brother back.

[howlingday]

Gillian: What do you want?

Nora: We've been thinking about you and Jaune.

Gillian: DO NOT THINK ABOUT ME AND JAUNE!

Ren: No, no! In a nice way.

Gillian: DO NOT THINK ABOUT ME AND JAUNE IN A NICE WAY!

[brokentrafficknight]

Is it possible to get some Jaune x Vernal or Jaune x Gillian?

Weiss: Either he completely forgot the ass whooping she gave me at Haven or they're actively laughing about it behind my back. I refuse to believe anything else!

(I've never seen art of Gillian so I haven't commissioned a chibi of her yet)

[bestworstcase]

Just found your post about gillian x jaune and I enjoyed it very much! Could you elaborate gillian being anti-theme ozma? Is it like, she’s committed not to GoL and his religion war but the people she loves and she acts in ozma’s manner on this issue? Thank you <3

when i say a character is anti-theme what i mean is they either don’t know or don’t believe the narrative themes. this is a broad / high-level way of thinking about character arcs in terms of a character’s relation to theme. for example, a lot of fantasy protagonists have character arcs about learning and embracing the story’s themes; think “hero discovers the true power of friendship” type of stories. 

one of the characteristics that makes rwby so interesting is that this theme/anti-theme paradigm is decoupled from narrative role, most notably in the case of salem and ozpin. 

salem understands the narrative themes. in fact, she articulates them at the beginning of the story with such precision that fans regularly describe what rwby is thematically about by quoting or paraphrasing her: “even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change,”  “there will be no victory in strength,” and “your faith in mankind was not misplaced: when banded together, unified by a common enemy, they are a noticeable threat.” salem also describes mankind as “strong, wise, and resourceful” and praises humanity’s “passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity.” these are ideas that salem truly believes. 

meanwhile ozpin professes to have faith in mankind, but in reality he is beholden to a god who explicitly views modern humans as inferior shadows of their predecessors and has commanded ozma to “redeem” them before the gods lest they be found unworthy of existence and destroyed. ozpin himself is also paranoid, deceitful, manipulative, and distrustful, because he has no real faith in people. 

and, if you listen to what salem actually says to and about him (including in ‘sacrifice’ and ‘divide’) it’s obvious that most of her fury is motivated by this: salem believes that humanity is worthy and that the divine mandate should be refused, and ozma’s dedication to his task of “redeeming” humanity enrages her. she’s angry both for herself and on humanity’s behalf.

her belief in the themes is also evident in her strategy and the scope of her war: she is very narrowly focused on the huntsmen academies and seems to be making an effort to minimize collateral damage, i.e. pulling grimm out of vale quickly while holding beacon, the surgical strike planned on haven, not attacking mantle (and having the hound send wild grimm out of the city), leaving menagerie in peace. salem is both desperate and ruthless, but her faith in remnant’s ability to survive and rebuild after she knocks the academies down is ironclad.

so, with that laid out, before discussing gillian i want to first elaborate on jaune being anti-theme salem. 

salem’s own story is defined by striving for freedom and justice: she escapes her tyrannical father’s tower; challenges the brothers, who are unjust; leads a rebellion; possibly brings humankind back and may have created the faunus through her transformation in the pool of grimm; rejects the divine mandate; and now she seeks to topple the huntsmen academies and create a ‘new world’ free from the divine threat of annihilation. 

connected to that, one of the central thematic conceits of her character is the power that storytellers wield over their audiences: ozpin explicitly uses fairytales as propaganda to control the narrative about her, framing her as an inhuman monster who cannot be trusted and desires only annihilation. fairytalesare not real, and the truth is hard to come by. salem is well aware of this and remarks upon it in her V1 soliloquy (“legends, stories scattered through time” that obscure “the forgotten past”). she does not, particularly, seem to like fairytales. 

as with hope and faith in mankind, this is another case of salem knowing the theme versus ozma believing the anti-theme. rwby values fairytales because they can express emotional truths, but the whole truth—the reality—is always more complex, and fairytales can also be weaponized as propaganda or tools of condemnation. it is important to understand that fairytales aren’t real, and treating real life like a fairytale only leads to pain. 

yes? okay.

jaune and pyrrha reflect salem and ozma; she’s the renowned celebrity athlete with a heart of gold, he’s the self-described “damsel in distress” and “lovable idiot stuck in the tree.” she helps him down from the tree and trains him to a level of competence, and like the original ozma, she dies tragically young. simple. 

but,

unlike salem, jaune is not motivated by a longing for freedom or anger at injustice. he comes from a line of soldiers and he wants to prove to his doubtful family that he’s good enough to uphold that legacy. he doesn’t want to be the damsel in distress; he wants to be the hero. he doesn’t want to be saved; he wants to be the one saving others. so he fraudulently enrolls in beacon academy and pretends to be something he isn’t. the tree is his tower—“i’m tired of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives,” he says, pointing wildly at beacon tower—but the thing is, he put himself there. during his character arc in V1, jaune is trapped in a cage of his own making, one he built out of childish fantasies about being the fairytale hero. 

further, if we compare jaune’s reason for wanting to be a huntsman against the rest of the kids:

ruby wants to help people and feel closer to her mother by being like the heroes in the stories summer read to her when she was small

weiss wants to atone for what her father has done in her family’s name and make things right

blake wants to make a stand against corruption and inequality for her people, even though she’s not sure how to fix it

yang craves adventure and self-discovery, and she wants to pursue it in a manner that will make the world a better place

pyrrha believes it’s her destiny to be a huntress in order to protect the world

nora doesn’t have a clear idea of what she wants, but she’s an intensely compassionate person who, like blake, stands up to injustice and advocates for people in need. 

ren wants to become the huntsman his village needed, someone who could have saved his parents and his home, and he’s following his father’s final advice to take action

jaune wants to prove to his family that he is good enough to become a warrior like his forefathers. 

jaune is the odd one out. he’s fiercely loyal to and protective of his friends, but he’s the only one who came to beacon for purely self-centered reasons. his arc in V1 is about jaune learning not to be craven and self-serving, to shelve his pride, let go of his cowardice, and do the right thing. 

all of this is anti-theme—or at least, the absence of belief in the themes. 

and that comes to a head when he’s stranded in the ever after in V9. see, salem’s belief in the themes—in the power of hope, the worth of mankind, and the importance of truth—is not just an abstraction. these beliefs are what drives her. for salem, emotionally, hope and righteous anger are one and the same. when she loses her hope, she remembers her anger; anger motivates her to act, and so reignites her hope. she has never given up because she has taken every horrific hope-shattering experience as a reason to get back up and keep fighting. every cruelty the gods inflicted upon her strengthened her conviction that resistance to their design was worthwhile. 

so

what happens if salem lacks that conviction?

salem believes heart and soul that change is possible and that these humans—this world—are better off without the brothers. in the present, she is hopeless and wrathful, and her desperation drives her to catastrophic extremes, but she is not stagnating: she’s fighting to change the world, freeing herself from exile and everyone else from the threat of annihilation. 

in contrast, jaune does not really believe in anything. not in the way salem does—he believes in his friends and he believes in doing his job as a huntsmen, sure. but where is his faith? where, after he’s stranded in the ever after, is his reason to act? after the moonfall, salem curses the gods and wanders the face of remnant alone until she reaches the pool of grimm, then throws herself into the darkness with the hope that it will change something; rather than fall into despair, she holds onto her conviction and searches for a way to keep moving forward. 

jaune… sits on a beach for years, passively waiting for something to happen. when alyx and lewis find him, he tries to be the storybook hero and his obsession with making sure that the story happens as it’s “supposed” to freaks alyx out so much that she poisons him. then he lives with the paper pleasers for years, playing pretend as their hero while he runs in circles. he’s trapped. he has no real purpose or direction. the tree is, once again, his tower—that tree is death! it erases you!—and just as before, it’s a tower of his own making. 

tellingly, his stagnation in the ever after transforms him into a resemblance of ozpin: paranoid, distrustful, manipulative, controlling of the very people to whom he has appointed himself a guardian. he finds himself in a world completely unfamiliar to him, convinces himself that it’s cursed and bad because it isn’t like the world he remembers, and rots. 

so, he’s anti-theme salem: a fractal repetition of her unmoored from her unshakable belief in the themes, who stagnates and is corrupted like ozpin because of his lack of faith. 

the natural converse of anti-theme salem is an ozma who does believe in the themes, because that’s the reversal of ozma’s relation to the theme.

presuming that i am generally anticipating gillian’s presence and role in the vacuo arc correctly, there are a few solid reasons to think that her thematic ties to ozma will mirror jaune’s to salem.

first, as the summer maiden—the maiden of destruction—her “moral” (per the fairytale) is “don’t view the world at a distance; take an active part in it,” and destruction itself has been consistently portrayed as a catalyst and agent of change. ozpin fears destruction and views it as the enemy of life itself—anti-theme. being the summer maiden, gillian would embody the thematic refutation to that idea.

second, the crown repeats the ozlem kingdom: both authoritarian cults founded and led by a pair of leaders claiming divine right to rule (ozlem on the strength of their magic, the asturias twins through their claim of royal blood), and both collapse when ozma / gillian are forced to choose between love and their cause. but they choose in opposite directions; ozma sacrifices salem and their daughters for the sake of the divine mandate, but gillian turns against jax at the last minute to save  his life (and her own) once it’s clear that he intends to go down fighting. unlike ozma, when the chips were down, gillian sacrificed her cause to save her brother.

third, the whole backstory between gillian and jax—as i’ve pointed out before—revolves around gillian’s absolute rejection of the idea that her brother’s frailty made him inferior. everyone else, even jax himself, sees jax as a parasitic weakling, pitiable at best and repellant at worst, but gillian is glad to share her aura with him and not only treats him like her equal but comfortably follows his lead. 

gillian’s semblance makes her terrifically powerful, with or without the maiden powers, and she was raised in a culture that worships power and abhors “weakness”—and yet. she mainly uses her power to support her brother and at one point during the climactic battle she even reflects that the power she grants her forces also leads them to be overconfident and reckless, to their detriment. her attitude toward power is very reminiscent of salem’s—and quite unlike ozma, who seeks out the relics in the hope of using them to overpower salem and goes to extreme lengths to try to keep the maidens and their power under his control. 

so while she clearly repeats ozma, gillian does not put her faith in power and chooses to follow her heart rather than let herself and her brother die for a doomed cause, and she might be the maiden who embodies destruction as a force of active change. all of this puts her thematically opposite to ozma in much the same way that jaune is thematically opposite to salem. 

and,

if she and jaune do wind up being narratively intertwined (romantically or otherwise), there is a lot of compelling reverse-ozlem ore here. a heroic anti-theme salem in juxtaposition with a villainous ozma who knows (some of) the themes. when jaune is at his best, he’s a healer; gillian loves her medically fragile brother. there’s an obvious narrative opening to bring these characters into orbit with each other and helping jax is an obvious step to healing what’s rotten in the state of vacuo. in the broader thematic sense, gillian as an ozma repetition being motivated to complete a villain->hero arc because they’re helping her brother (and because she’s been given a reason to question whether there’s any real truth or value in her “royal bloodline”) would also elegantly precipitates ozma’s apostasy arc. and then you have the possible ozlem reversal of jaune finding something to believe in through gillian just as ozma found something to live for in salem. 

[gorillageek27]

Why does dinbo give off potential jaune x gillian vibes?

[sparkwolf7]

Is there a ship name for the most powerful Rwby ship Jaune Arc x Gillian Asturias?

If not my idea would be: Aura Infinity because of their semblances Aura Amp and Aura Siphon.

[harostar]

Before the Dawn

Okay, so a summarize of key points from the novel.

Theodore is the greatest thing ever. Just...I need this flamboyant, middle-aged Shonen Idiot hero in the series proper already. His glee at wanting to PUNCH THINGS is just amazing.

Rumpole is very interesting, in terms of being so incredibly secretive that not even Theodore knew her first name. I know it’s primarily about her inspiration, but at the same it’s interesting that she is such a secretive and mysterious woman. Bad Bitch Club with Glynda, you know it.

Yatsuhashi is a precious soul and must be protected at all costs. He’s going to hold Velvet’s flower while she breaks faces.

Team NDGO are the Mean Girls in every school, bitchy and catty and petty. I noticed that indeed, we never see them in scenes during the Battle of Beacon. So yes, those bitches heard Ironwood’s rousing speech about fighting to protect the people......and then got on the first fucking transport out of there. They ran and they aren’t even remotely ashamed or apologetic about it.

Nolan x Scarlet when?

Man, Nolan’s situation is just....really dark. Like we knew people died at Beacon and saw one of his teammates get carried off by a Grimm. But to find out his entire team DIED fighting, and he’s just a broken wreck over it is painful to watch. 

Honestly, I was surprised that The Crown had nothing to do with Salem. At least not directly, as they are oblivious to all that. They’re compared to the White Fang, in terms of being a terrorist group that wants REVOLUTION.

In this case, we get a stronger picture of how Vacuo views the rest of the world. Their kingdom was strip-mined by Mantle, completely devastated and then further destroyed by the Great War’s final battle. The kingdom harbors so much resentment towards the other 3 kingdoms for exploiting them. This translates into resentment towards the Refugee Students, who are seen as not committed to Shade or Vacuo. They’re outsiders that just want to use Vacuo, to get strong enough to go home.

That seems to be a major theme throughout the story: Home. What is home? The Crown represents a colonized people that want to return to the “old ways” through violent revolution, as taken advantage of by a delusional asshole with a complex. But their primary victims are their own people, who they exploit as brainwashed foot-soldiers or kidnap to use as Aura batteries.

Jax and Gillian are.......a piece of work. And honestly kind of scary, but in a way that it’s good Salem didn’t manage to make use of them. Jax’s Mind Control is very scary stuff, and his abusive relationship with Gillian is so tragic. He kinda honestly deserves what he got, being mind-wiped by Yatsuhashi and Gillian.

Gillian....oh girl. She has a lot of parallels to Jaune that are really interesting, and I wonder if we’ll meet her during the Vacuo arc. She believes in the stories of her royal lineage and feels called to honor that legacy with heroism. But it’s corrupted by her brother’s ambitions and jealousy. And her Semblance is a very dark version of Jaune’s Semblance -- Aura Amp, having a vast pool of Aura to share with others for healing or support vs Aura Siphon, a psychic vampire that can steal Aura and transfer it around. She can empower others, and for this her brother uses her as basically a living battery. Even her finally turning on him and stopping him for good is still ultimately about loving the abusive prick, because she doesn’t want him to die.

So Neptune’s hydrophobia is no longer funny. His Semblance allows him to control water by touching it, but he nearly drowned himself and his brother when they were children. So he’s genuinely terrified of touching water, because he’s afraid he won’t be able to control it. 

Okay so Vacuo Arc villain is the Nome King? Yes?

We have “Dorothy” with his Ruby Gloves, Silver Boots, and the Silver Belt that in the books belongs to the Nome King. We have Ozma and the Scarecrow coming to Vacuo. And we have a kingdom that resents the theft of its mineral resources. AND! AND! In the books, the Nome King was once an ally of Santa Claus -- aka Nicholas Schnee. 

[rocknroll7575]

Smooth

Jaune: I was sure you'd sleep in and forget to meet me this morning

Gillian: Wouldn't have forgotten if I was sleeping with you~

Jaune: But look at this- *blushes* O-Oum!

[rocknroll7575]

Silver and Bronze

Pyrrha looked at Gillian with a teary expression, "Why did he choose you?" She asked.

Gillian looked at her, her face unchanged, because she cared little for how the champion felt. "You don't know why he chose me, over you?"

Pyrrha nodded, "I-I know I left them behind, but I... I had too... I had to take the responsibility of being the Maiden-"

"You didn't," Gillian said. "You could've refused or could've come to Vacuo with them instead of leaving them behind... don't lie, you became the Maiden because you thought it was your destiny, you thought that you'd be the hero who'd save the world and get the happy ending with the man you love... but that's not how the world works," Gillian told her.

Pyrrha looked at her, "Would you have refused?" she asked.

"I did," Gillian told her. "When Theodore offered me to be the Summer Maiden, I had thought about all the things I could accomplish with that power, how I could be the hero I always wanted to be, how I could use that power to shape my ideal world... I thought that it would help me fulfill the Destiny I had for myself..."

"But?" Pyrrha asked with a raised brow.

"But then... I thought about what that power would cost me, what I'd give up to obtain it, and that's when I saw a future where there was no Jaune, no Carmine, no Emilio, no Ashara, no Nora, no Ren, and no Mercury... I saw a future without them and I didn't want that future, I didn't want to give them up, so... I said no,"

Pyrrha was baffled, "Just like that?" Pyrrha asked.

Gillian nodded, "Just like that," She told the Champion. "We both believed in destiny, but destiny has a great cost, and I didn't want my "destiny" to cost me the people I loved, so Pyrrha Nikos, the reason Jaune chose me over you, is simple... I chose him, over my Destiny... while you chose destiny, over him," Gillian told her.

[rocknroll7575]

Gillians Bow Problem

[rocknroll7575]

James: You don't just fuck your enemies into being good.

Jaune: (with Cinder, Emerald, Vernal and Gillian behind him) I beg to differ.

Jaune: That kids, is how I met your mothers!

Jeanette: *Mortified* Dad... I didn't need to hear that...

Solana: *Covering her ears* Damn it, old man! Why the hell did you tell me that!?

Apollonia: *Disappointed* Father... my god...

Jade: *Confused* What's sex?

[rocknroll7575]

Return of the Traitor

Jaune stood in front of the Xiao-Long house where he waited for the two to come out, a few feet behind him were Nora and Ren, both with their bags packed and ready to go.

Finally coming out of the house were Ruby and Yang, Yang looked a lot worse for ware, not that Jaune could blame her.

"Jaune?" Ruby asked with a raised brow, "What are you doing here?" She asked.

Jaune let out a sigh, "We're leaving for Shade Academy, Ruby," Jaune told her.

Ruby's eyes widened with shock, "What!?" she cried, "Does Pyrrha know?"

Jaune shook his head, "No, and... we're leaving it like that," Jaune said.

Ruby was confused, "But-"

"Ruby," Jaune cut her off, "She's made it clear that whatever it is she's doing with your uncle and Ms. Goodwitch, it's more important than us," He said.

"You can't believe that," Ruby said, "Pyrrha... she... Jaune she loves you," Ruby said.

Jaune looked to the ground, he could feel the tears forming in his eyes, however, he tried not to cry and pushed the mess of emotions he was feeling to the back of his mind. "I know... but with what's happened and everything that's going on, we've been worried about her, Oum sakes she almost died, and yet ever call, every text... she doesn't answer, not Nora, not Ren, not me... so to us, as much as we hate to say this, she's made her choice," Jaune said sadly.

Ruby couldn't help but look upset, she wanted Jaune, Nora, and Ren to stay, to keep trying to get ahold of Pyrrha, but even if she tried, she felt that it wasn't going to help, she felt that everything around her was not how it was before. However, she had to be strong right now, she needed to be strong because she felt that if she faltered even once, she'd break. "So... this is goodbye?" Ruby said.

Jaune smiled sadly, "For now," He said, as he looked at Ruby, "But think of this more as a 'See you later' CraterFace,"

Ruby smiled sadly as she looked at her fellow team leader, "Yeah... see you later, VomitBoy," Ruby said.

the two hugged each other tightly for a minute before breaking apart and Jaune walked away, turning back to face his team and Ruby watched as he left.

As Ruby watched the blonde leave, she couldn't help but feel this would be the last time she would see him as she still remembered him...

"Ruby...?" came the voice of Nora.

Ruby was taken out of the memory as she looked at Nora with a dumbfounded face. "I...I don't believe it," She said.

Velvet sighed, knowing this was tough to hear for Ruby and the others. "I'm afraid it's all true," She told them, "Jaune... he's turned his back on us and... he killed Coco," Velvet said.

Pyrrha was aghast as she sat down to take a few breaths, unable to believe that the man she had loved, had done such a terrible deed. Weiss too was in shock and she looked down, unable to come to terms with the man whom she'd come to forgive for his persistent courting, who had done something as terrible as turn his back on his team and even kill a friend.

Yang was furious, knowing that someone she had once seen as a good person and deemed a rather good friend, had betrayed them all, Blake herself felt a bit of conflict, wondering how someone like Jaune, who she remembered being just as brave and optimistic as Ruby had taken such as dark path.

"It's my fault," Ren said, being able to read their emotions.

Yang looked at him with a glare, "Don't say that! The only person to blame here is Jaune!" she growled.

Ren shook his head, "No, I'm to blame for some of what made Jaune turn his back," Ren said. "I... I turned my back on him, I blamed him for the team's failures, for the deaths, I put all that on him, and I didn't even think he was already blaming himself," Ren said sadly.

"We're all to blame for Jaune turning his back on us," Nora said. "I should've been there too, I should've put an end to all tension between the three of us," Nora finished.

Pyrrha let out a long sigh, her face covered in sadness, "I never should've left," She said.

Nora nodded with a bit of a glare, "Yeah, maybe think about others before yourself,"

Ren looked at her, "Nora-"

Weiss glared at Nora with a raised brow, "What is that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"It means that maybe instead of running off with Ruby's uncle, ignoring our calls and texts, and following some sort of "destiny" she set out for herself, running off you all playing fucking hero, our team wouldn't be like this! I wouldn't have to be the only one trying to hold the team together! Ren wouldn't have given up so easily! Jaune would still be around!" Nora cried.

"Nora, that's enough!" Ren pleaded, not wanting the situation to escalate.

Nora nodded, "You know what Ren, it is enough!" Nora cried, "I'm sick and tired of you all acting like your the fucking heroes of some story, like just because Pyrrha got some magic powers now, or the fact that our headmaster is now in some kid's head, you think you all are some fucking heroes in a fairy tale!"

"Last time I checked, we saved Atlas-"

Nora rolled her eyes and chuckled, "Right, you fucking saved it! Then why are the people of Atlas and Mantle here? Where's the Military? Where's Ironwood? Oh, that's right, they're all gone! All of it's at the bottom of the fucking ocean!" Nora cried, "So good work "heroes"!"

Yang charged at Nora and Nora was quick to charge at Yang too, but Blake, Ruby, and Ren got in the middle of them.

"That's enough!" Ruby cried, "There's no time for this!"

Blake nodded, "Ruby's right, what we need to do is start preparing for Salem's arrival," Blake said.

"We may not just have to prepare for Salem and the Grimm," Rumpole said. "If Salem is looking for allies, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that she or those that follow her, will try to find those that will join her cause, and right now, that would most likely be the crown,"

"Are they really that powerful?" Weiss asked.

"Most of southern Vacuo has joined them because the Crown provides protection, however, from what I hear, the crown is somewhat split," Sun said.

Ruby looked at him, "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Some are following the original leader of the group, Jax Asturias, who claims to be the rightful king of Vacuo, however, some have seen past Jax's false bravado and claim and instead have been trying to name Jaune their king, even calling him "The should-be King" of Vacuo,"

"So there's a possible civil war going on from the inside," Weiss said, "This could work to our advantage,"

"Maybe, but it doesn't matter, because if Jax kills Jaune and keeps leadership over the crown, he sides with Salem, and if Jaune takes control, he may side with Salem as well,"

Sage shook his head, "I don't think he will," Sage said, "Look, he may not be the same person who all knew him as, but from what I saw when I was his prisoner, he cared for the people around him, he cared for the villages they occupied, he still cares about people,"

"He killed Coco," Velvet said with a glare, "He doesn't care about us," she said.

Sage nodded, "Ok, yes, he cares little for us, but even then, I doubt he's going to side with some immortal Queen of Grimm bent on humanities destruction," Sage finished, "We don't have to forgive him, and I doubt you could, but perhaps, for now, we ask for his help," Sage said.

Yang glared, "And then what, we shake hands and go our separate ways?" She asked, "I don't care if he helps us in the end, he's going to pay for everything he's done,"

Velvet nodded in agreement, "I'm with Yang, he's not getting off scot-free after what he did,"

Sage shook his head, "No, I'm not asking you to do that, but-"

However, before any more could be said, Neptune burst into the meeting room and looked at them all with a shocked face, "Come out all of you! Quickly!" He cried.

Rumpole looked at him, "What is it!?" She cried.

Neptune looked at her, "It's Jaune!" He cried. "He showed up at the City gates on a camel! He's being taken to the infirmary!"

Nora looked worried, "Why!?" She asked as she followed Neptune outside.

"He's got three arrows in his back and he's out cold!" Neptune cried.

Rumpole looked at Ren, "Get Headmaster Theodore here! He needs to be informed about this quickly!" She said.

Ren nodded and ran for his office while the others all raced over to the infirmary where they hoped to see what state Jaune was in and hopefully, get answers from him about all that he's done...

[rocknroll7575]

Gillian did you know jaune is rusted knight * hands her picture,*

Gillian: If you're the rusted knight, then maybe I could be your Corroded Consort~?

Jaune: ...you've been spending too much time with Yang

Gillian: Maybe~

[rocknroll7575]

I'm Tired...

Gillian and Jaune sat in the jeep, both feeling a little exhausted just escaping some of Jax's Crownsmen and stopped on the side of the road to take a break.

Jaune's head rested on the steering wheel and Gillian could see his breathing slowing down.

Gillian glanced at Jaune, her concern evident in the furrow of her brow and the gentle tilt of her head. "You ok?" She asked.

Jaune shifted slightly, as he let out a sigh before sitting back up, and combing his hair back and out of his eyes, cobalt blue eyes that were dull and tired.

"I haven't been sleeping, Gill" Jaune replied. "I've been... thinking about what we lost... thinking about my friends"

He took a deep breath in and then let it out in a long sigh once more, his shoulders sagging and his posture deflated. Hearing the heavy and long sigh, was like hearing the final intakes of air you'd hear when someone was on their deathbed.

"I've been seeing their faces... Ashara, Emilio, Fox, Cardin... Aurora..." Jaune said with a slight shift of tone in his voice.

Gillian could hear the breaking in his voice when he had mentioned Aurora, and she too felt an immense pull on her heart, as if someone was inside of her body and yanked on it as one would a string to a curtain.

Tears formed and felt like a foreign substance in his eyes as Jaune took a deep breath and slowly trailed down his cheeks. "I... I'm tired, Gillian, so... so... so tired," he told her.

Gillian slowly nodded in agreement. The war between them and her brother had taken its toll on them and many others, because not only did they need to deal with the pain of everything that was happening around them and the loss of the young girl who was like their daughter, but they were also worried about what the outcome would be with Salem's 2nd attack on Vale and Beacon and the fear of what would happen to team RWBY, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren.

Gillian squeezed his hand, her touch a comforting anchor in the storm of his thoughts. She knew all too well the toll their war had taken, the scars it had left on their souls. "Just a little bit more, Jaune..." She told him. "We have just keep pushing a little bit more and then... We'll make sure the world Aurora wanted comes true,"

Jaune nodded slowly as he closed his eyes. The moment he shut his eyes was the moment that they felt too heavy to open, it felt like he would have to push all of his strength into opening his eyelids which felt as heavy as a garage door.

"Just a little more... just a little more..." he told himself.

It was almost over.

[rocknroll7575]

Jaune watched as Neptune approached Weiss and asked her dance, he watched as she took his hand and they walked over to the floor and they danced, and while Neptune fumbled here and there, Weiss was helping him, and she looked so happy. He smiled, happy that she was happy, but on the inside, his heart broke.

"I once loved a Maiden with hair as white as snow and eyes like ice... but her heart was never mine,"

Jaune looked at his scroll to see all the messages and calls he had sent Pyrrha’s way, yet none of them were read nor answered. He felt his heart break more, wishing she would pick up so that could talk, but there was nothing, and his heart broke again.

"I once loved a Maiden with hair as red as Fall leaves and eyes as green as summer grass... but I wasn't part of her Destiny,"

Gillian wrapped her arms around Jaune as she slowly drifted off into sleep, and Jaune couldn't help but feel safe in her arms, and he kissed her forehead as he too, drifted off into slumber.

"Now... I am in love with a maiden, whose hair is as dark as the night and haunting purple eyes as bright as amethysts"