SAPR

by Scipio Smith

In This Manner Accused (New)

In This Manner Accused

It might have looked as though Jaune was sitting on the porch swing doing nothing, staring blankly out into space, but he was actually deep in thought.

Specifically, he was thinking about what to do about Crocea Mors.

He had to get it repaired or refashioned in some way; he needed a weapon for the Vytal Festival — he needed a weapon for the next three years at Beacon — and if he got any new weapon, any weapon other than a sword — and a sword that could be used in conjunction with a shield, at that — then all of Pyrrha’s instruction would be wasted, and he’d be starting from the beginning again.

He could always just have the sword reforged, exactly as it had been before, but that seemed … well, Dad had advised him not to do that, pretty much, and Jaune could see why. He had an opportunity now to do things a little differently, to come up with a weapon that, yes, fit the style that he’d been trained in, but which was also his, not just a hand-me-down from his family but something which played to his own strengths and allowed him to forge his own style along with the weapon itself.

It was the exact nature of what those strengths were and what that style might be that Jaune was trying to figure out.

Yes, Ruby would probably have some ideas when they met up again, but since this was his weapon, Jaune thought it would be no bad thing if he were to at least try and have a few ideas of his own before that.

So, while he was alone, he took the opportunity to think about it.

The fact that he was starting with the shards of Crocea Mors meant that anything excessively complicated was probably out. It was cool to imagine having something like Pyrrha’s Miló, where the sword also turned into a rifle or a shotgun or something like that, but he was almost completely certain that would require a lot more metal than was found in just an ordinary, untransforming sword. If that was what he wanted, he might as well start from scratch.

Starting from scratch was certainly an option; there was nobody to say that he couldn’t just throw the shards of Crocea Mors … okay, there were probably people who would have something to say about that, but he could leave the shards of the broken sword at home and pick up a new weapon at Beacon. Dad might even give him the money for it if he explained why.

But that … that didn’t sit right with Jaune; even if it was an option, then it wasn’t an option that he wanted to take. Crocea Mors might not have been the perfect weapon, or even the perfect weapon for him, but it was still his family’s sword, his great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather’s sword. As Sunset had just been complaining about, he didn’t have a lot of family history, but he did have this sword and the things that it had seen and been a part of.

It felt right to honour that, even while making it his own.

Besides, if he wanted a gun, then he could always just buy a gun.

Or … or maybe he could have a gun as part of his new Crocea Mors; after all, Dove had a gun built into his short sword, and it didn’t just transform. He just pointed the blade at his opponent and pulled the trigger. Jaune wasn’t sure how big of a gun it was — probably not a very big one, judging by the size of the sword and the fact that none of the gun parts were visible — but then, he didn’t actually think Miló was a particularly large-calibre rifle either. In fact, of the three members of his team who used guns, only Ruby’s Crescent Rose was what you might call a big gun. So maybe he could have something like a pistol built into the hilt, and it wouldn’t have a huge amount of stopping power, but it would give him options before the enemy got too close.

Alternatively, because just having options was only as good as the options themselves, could he use dust somehow? That wasn’t something that he would even need to change anything about the sword for — Soteria was just an ordinary sword, like Crocea Mors, but Sunset managed to infuse the blade with dust and light it on fire just fine all the same — but were there changes he could make that could give him more versatility than Sunset possessed? Sunset was limited by the fact that Soteria was, like Crocea Mors, a venerable old sword — and by the fact that Sunset and Lady Nikos would both have kittens at the thought of altering it in any way — but Jaune was being given a chance to alter his old sword, so why not … alter it? Maybe something like Weiss’ Myrtenaster would be a little much — and heavy at the back — but Russel’s daggers had some pretty small and discrete dust compartments in them.

Jaune wasn’t sure how much dust he could fit in them — probably not a huge amount — but, again, he would have options.

He would still be a swordsman first and foremost, but if the need arose, then he would be able to be a little more than a swordsman if he had to be.

While he was on the subject, although it wasn’t broken, there was no actual reason why he shouldn’t be able to upgrade the shield, too.

“What are you doing, Jaune?”

Jaune looked up into the face of Kendal, who had come to stand over him; he had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t even noticed her casting a shadow over him.

“Just … thinking,” Jaune said.

“Thinking, huh?” Kendal said, a touch of amusement entering her voice. She walked in front of him and sat down on the empty seat next to him. “What about?”

“What I could do with my sword,” Jaune told her. “Dad said that I shouldn’t just reforge it the way it was; I should take the opportunity to make a weapon that works for me. I’m thinking about what that might look like.”

“Ah,” Kendal said. “Well … I can’t help you with that. I’m not sure that anyone around here can, although … where is Pyrrha, anyway?”

“She’s with Sunset, upstairs in your room,” Jaune said.

“Doing what?”

“Pyrrha’s helping Sunset with her semblance,” Jaune said, deciding that it would be safe to tell the truth; ordinarily, he would have been wary of doing so, considering that Sunset’s semblance was supposed to be the magic that she already used expertly, but there was little need or reason for any of his family to see that.

Kendal nodded. “Do either of them have any ideas about what kind of weapon you could come up with?”

“I’d like to at least try and have a few of my own,” Jaune replied. “My friends will help, and whatever I come up with, they’ll help me make it too, but since it’s my weapon now, I feel like I should have the ideas, rather than relying on Pyrrha or Sunset to tell me what kind of weapon I ought to have.”

“That makes sense,” Kendal conceded. She paused for a moment. “So, what’s your team leader dug up? Are we secret big shots? Are we going to come into colossal wealth and fame?”

Jaune laughed. “Hardly,” he said. “Sunset hasn’t been able to find out anything past the founding of the town by great-great-grandfather.”

“That’s pretty much what Sky said to Pyrrha about it,” Kendal agreed. “It’s like great-great-grandfather sprang out of the earth, ready to found Alba Longa, and before that … before that, he might not even have been called Arc. He might have changed his name to hide where he came from and who he was.”

“If that’s the case, I’d rather not know,” Jaune muttered.

“Really?” Kendal asked.

Jaune nodded. “What if the reason he did that was because … I don’t know, he was a crook or something?”

“Why would a crook found a town?”

“Why would anyone change their name and hide their past?” Jaune replied.

Kendal shrugged. “Even if there was something shady about him, something that he’d done wrong in his younger days, then so what? It doesn’t change who you are.”

“Pyrrha’s mom might not see it that way,” Jaune reminded her. “The whole reason Sunset came out here was to find something that would make me … more acceptable to her. I’d rather she didn’t find something that worked the other way.”

“From what I understand,” Kendal said, “Pyrrha’s already told her mom to get stuffed once when it came to you.”

“Yeah, but…” Jaune hesitated. “That doesn’t mean that I want her to … the fact that she chose me over her own mother is so … but I don’t want her to have to make that choice. She’s the only family Pyrrha has.”

“She has you now,” Kendal pointed out. She paused for a moment, looking away and putting her hand to her face, as though she was about to start chewing on her nails.

“Kendal?” Jaune asked. “Are you okay?”

Kendal snorted. “No,” she said. “I haven’t been … but I’ll live.”

“Kendal—”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Jaune,” Kendal said. “You’ve got enough to think about, getting through Beacon … and Pyrrha.” She frowned. “Listen, Jaune … you like her, right? I mean, you love her?”

Jaune nodded. “With … with all my heart,” he said. “With everything that’s in me.”

“Then don’t let her go,” Kendal urged, reaching out to put her hand on Jaune’s shoulder. “Don’t let her slip away from you, because … because if you do, you’ll regret it, for years, maybe forever. If you really care about her, then for god’s sake, stick with her.”

Jaune stared into his sister’s eyes. “Kendal…” Who are we talking about now? He didn’t know anything about Kendal having lost someone, or even having a break-up; his knowledge of her romantic life was absolutely nil. Had she … what had she suffered in silence?

“You don’t need to worry about me, Jaune,” I guess that means she doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Trust me,” he said softly. “If anything comes between us, it won’t be my choice.”

Kendal drew in a deep breath. “Yeah, Pyrrha told me that she…”

“Left me behind?” Jaune supplied. “You were … talking about me?”

“You’re her boyfriend and my little brother, what else were we going to talk about?” Kendal asked. “It’s not like we have a whole lot in common.”

“And she told you—”

“How she got into a fight without you, because she felt like she had something to prove,” Kendal explained. “Though from what Terra says about her, it doesn’t seem as if Pyrrha has anything to prove to anyone.”

“You’d think,” Jaune replied, wondering how he could explain without giving away any of the secrets to which he was privy. “It’s true that … Pyrrha’s reputation is a hundred percent deserved. She’s strong and fast; when you see her fight, she … she’s incredible. But lately, with the things that we’ve learned … Pyrrha’s been starting to wonder if that’s enough.”

Kendal snorted. “If it’s not enough, then what hope is there for any of us?”

Jaune didn’t reply to that directly. He took a few seconds to gather up his thoughts before he said, “I think … it’s not a problem that I’ve ever had to deal with, but … I think that when you’re that good, that young, like Pyrrha was — like Pyrrha is — then the problem is that you start to think that you can do anything, that there are no limits to what you can accomplish. And I’m not saying that Pyrrha’s arrogant — she’s one of the most humble people I know — but when you’re that good, you don’t need to be arrogant; you can be justly proud of your skill and your accomplishments, and that’s valid because you really are just that good, and especially, when you grow up like Pyrrha did and have practically an entire city blowing smoke for you, then it’s a miracle that Pyrrha isn’t full of herself. But … now that she’s found out that … now that it turns out that there are things that she can’t accomplish, as much as she wants to … I’m not sure that she knows how to deal with it.”

“Well, with your expertise in reaching your limits, I’m sure you’ll be able to help her with that.”

“Kendal!”

“I’m allowed to tease you a little bit, come on,” Kendal insisted. “And that’s why she fought this other girl?”

“And because she was dangerous, and she was worried about me,” Jaune said. “That … that was harder for me to forgive.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I get why she feels the way she does, about … about her place in all of this. I don’t agree with her — if she’s not good enough, then what does that say about me? — but I get it. And I get why she wanted to win that fight, what she wanted to prove to herself. It’s not something that I’d need to do, but after spending a little time in her home city, I get that too. But the fact that she left me to stand and watch, pretty much told me to stay back, because she didn’t trust me to stand by her side even after we’d already talked about that, about how that wasn’t what I wanted, even after she promised … that was harder for me to get over.”

“But you did get over it,” Kendal said.

“Well, yeah,” Jaune said. “I mean, I still love her, after all. And after we talked, I think … I think she understood better why it hurt and why … she won’t do it again.”

Kendal smiled at him. “So,” she said, “when are you going back to Beacon?”

“Tomorrow,” Jaune said. “Sunset can’t learn anything else here, and Pyrrha and I … there’s no point in hanging around.”

“You’ve got your sword to remake, after all,” Kendal said. “You told Mom and Dad?”

“Not yet,” Jaune said. “I’ll tell them at dinner tonight.”

Kendal nodded. “By a coincidence, I’ll be leaving tomorrow as well; I got a call from HQ about a job.”

“They want you to head out and do some surveying?”

“Well, yeah, that is my job.”

“Where?” Jaune asked. “Did they say?”

“Southeast.”

“'Southeast'?” Jaune repeated. “That’s—”

“There’s more to the southeast than just Mountain Glenn,” Kendal reminded him. “Vale’s a big country, after all.”

“Yeah, but … I mean, it worked out so well the last time,” Jaune muttered.

Kendal sighed. “I get what you’re saying, but the thinking is that so many of the grimm that inhabited that area were killed off recently that we should take the chance to set up new settlements in the region while we can, before the grimm come back.”

“But they will come back,” Jaune said.

“If we took that attitude, we’d never build any new villages,” Kendal replied.

“I guess, but … that area is crawling with grimm,” Jaune said. “Maybe not right now, but it always has been; I mean, Mountain Glenn—”

“Nobody’s talking about a new Mountain Glenn,” Kendal assured him. “I mean, I’ve seen some plans that are overambitious, for a whole line of fortified settlements stretching from the mountains down to Alexandria to act as a breaker for when the grimm do return, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen. It would cost too much, and there aren’t that many people who would want to move to those kinds of places; no, what we’re talking about is a few surveyors like me heading down that way and seeing if there is anywhere that we could put a couple of villages or small towns: modest places, defensible places, places that we can hold onto when the grimm come back.”

“Be careful,” Jaune said. “Just because a lot of grimm were killed doesn’t mean—”

“I may not have gone to Beacon, but I know what I’m doing,” Kendal declared. “I know how dangerous it can be out there.”

“Right,” Jaune murmured. “Are you going to hire a huntsman?”

Kendal grinned. “It’s a pity that you’re still in school; I could hire you and Pyrrha to protect me. But … I don’t know; I’ll see what particular area I’ve been assigned to scout when I get to HQ, see whether the budget will stretch for me to afford one. Anyone you’d recommend?”

“All the huntsmen and huntresses I know are either students or professors,” Jaune said. “And anyway, it doesn’t work like that.”

“No,” Kendal acknowledged. “No, it doesn’t. The huntsmen get a choice; we don’t.” She hesitated. “Although I’ve got to say, that seems kind of weird; like, I’m the client, why do I not get to pick my own huntsman?”

“Because huntsmen are supposed to be independent,” Jaune replied. “Nobody gets to tell us what to do.”

“Don’t your teachers tell you what to do?”

“Not as often as you’d think.”

“Huh,” Kendal said. “Maybe I’ll get the train back with you. Or would you rather I didn’t embarrass you in front of Pyrrha and Sunset?”

“No,” Jaune said. “I mean, sharing a ride, that sounds great.”

Kendal smiled with her mouth closed. Her eyes flickered away from Jaune.

Jaune looked around in time to see Ruben approaching, his steps thumping upon the wooden boards of the porch as he leapt up onto it and made his way towards them.

“Jaune, hey,” he said, in a voice shorn of his usual false cheer, the enthusiastic mockery of Jaune that usually dripped from every word.

In fact, Ruben did not look cheerful at all. He was rubbing his stubbled chin with one hand, and he didn’t look directly at Jaune, but rather past him, down at the wood of the porch, as though he were finding it uncomfortable to be around Jaune.

“Ruben,” Jaune said. “Is … is everything okay?”

“No, Jaune, no, I’m afraid it isn’t,” Ruben said. “No, everything is … everything is not okay.” He scowled and rubbed his chin and cheeks some more. “Is, uh, is Pyrrha around?”

“She’s upstairs,” Jaune said. “Why?”

“Because…” Ruben hesitated. “Jaune, I have thought long and hard over whether or not to tell you this, because god knows you seem pretty happy with that girl, and I don’t want to hurt you, believe me, but … I believe that you deserve the truth. And the truth is … the truth is that she’s cheating on you, Jaune.”

“What?” The exclamation flew from Kendal’s mouth, not Jaune’s. “Are you…? Wow, Ruben, just … wow. Even by your standards, that is a terrible, terrible joke.”

“I’m not jokin’,” Ruben insisted, holding up both his hands. “I’m just—”

“What?” Jaune demanded. “If you’re not joking, then what are you doing?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger, Jauney,” Ruben cried. “I’m just tellin’ you what I saw. And what I saw, was Pyrrha and Red makin’ out. And they were gettin’ pretty into it too.”

“Ugh,” Kendal muttered in disgust. “Seriously? Jaune, you can’t honestly believe this crap.”

“'Crap'? 'Crap,' is it?” Ruben repeated. “You think I’m lyin’?”

“I think that I’ve got a pretty good idea of how Pyrrha feels about Jaune,” Kendal insisted.

“Well, maybe she lied to you, just like she lied to Jaune,” Ruben suggested.

“No,” Jaune said, shaking his head. Kendal was right, Ruben was lying; this was all a big and very unfunny practical joke, this was all a way of trying to get him to panic or to cry or something like that; Pyrrha was … Pyrrha would never behave that way; she was too kind, too gentle, too … too in love with him. He remembered the night of the dance; he remembered Dad’s birthday party from just a little while ago, how perfectly she fit in his arms, the way that she leaned against him, the way that she kissed him, how determined she was to impress his family. “No, Pyrrha wouldn’t do that, she wouldn’t—”

“Wouldn’t what?” Ruben asked, getting down on his knees so that he and Jaune were closer to a height. “Wouldn’t see you for what you are?”

“Ruben—”

“Wouldn’t recognise a real man instead of a no-mark boy who ain’t good for nothin’?”

“Ruben!”

Jaune looked away from Ruben, his hands coming to rest upon his knees. He found himself staring down at his hands. Soft hands, not the hands of a farmer or a warrior. He wasn’t good enough to fight alongside Pyrrha, he wasn’t really good enough to satisfy her either, he certainly didn’t deserve her.

But Sunset says that love has nothing to do with deserving. And Pyrrha … Pyrrha loves me; I mean why would she pretend like she did if she doesn’t, why would she even go out with me in the first place?

“I’m sorry, Jauney, but you didn’t really think that a fine girl like her was gonna stick by you, did you? I mean, look at you.”

“Ruben, shut your god-damned mouth!” Kendal yelled. She reached out and grabbed Jaune’s hand. “Jaune, don’t listen to him. I don’t know what he’s playing — well, I can kind of guess, but that doesn’t mean you need to listen to him. Remember what you were just telling me, about you and Pyrrha; please don’t tell me that you’re going to throw that away just because Ruben says so.”

“I have worked for this family my whole life!” Ruben cried. “And I—”

“And you are the last man alive who should be accusing anyone of cheating,” Kendal growled.

Ruben swallowed, his neck bulging for a moment as it flushed a bright and vivid red. “I am trying,” he declared, “to do the right thing by Jaune.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Jaune said. “Maybe … maybe it was stupid to think that I could … could make Pyrrha happy. Maybe she has found someone better than me. But even if that were true, Pyrrha would tell me first; she wouldn’t sneak around behind my back.”

“I have proof!” Ruben yelled. “I have pictures!”

“'Pictures'?” Kendal repeated. “What do you mean, how can you have pictures?”

Jaune’s eyes widened. “What … that’s not possible!”

“What’s going on out here? Why is everyone yelling?” Rouge demanded as she strode out of the front door and onto the porch, with Saphron and Terra following closely behind her. “Ruben?”

“I am doing something which I knew would not be popular,” Ruben said, “but it has to be done, for Jaune’s own good.”

“Jaune’s … own good?” Rouge murmured. “What do you mean?”

“I have pictures,” Ruben said again, “of Pyrrha cheating on Jaune with Red Beauregard.”

“That’s impossible!” Terra cried. “A … a princess of the old blood would never behave in such a way.”

“I don’t know about no princesses, but I know what I saw, and I know what my scroll shows.”

“Then let me see,” Jaune said.

Silence fell amongst the gathered Arcs.

“Jaune,” Kendal said. “You don’t have to—”

“Let me see,” Jaune repeated, “so that I can say that you’re wrong.”

“I wish that you could, Jauney,” Ruben said. “Believe me, I wish that you could.”

And yet, despite his words, it almost seemed that Ruben smiled.

---

“There seems to be a lot of shouting going on downstairs, doesn’t there?” Pyrrha murmured.

“Yeah, I suppose there is,” Sunset agreed. “That’s uncommon, I take it.”

“Indeed,” Pyrrha replied. “There are disagreements, of course, but rarely such volatile ones. The last such concerned … well, Jaune returning to Beacon, and even that, even being in the room, it didn’t feel so … loud. Perhaps we should go down and—”

“Best not, if it’s a family argument,” Sunset said. “Do you really want to get in the middle of something like that? No matter what side you take — and if you go down there, you’ll almost be forced to take sides — you’ll upset some of Jaune’s family. Best to stay here, and wait for it all to blow over.”

“That … is very wise, I’m sure,” Pyrrha replied.

While it might involve abandoning Jaune — although she couldn’t imagine why Jaune would get involved in an argument like this — it was the sensible course to not offend any of his relatives, not after she had so recently become accepted by them. Best to say here, until it was all settled one way or another.

It really wasn’t any of her business.

But to the sounds of raised voices coming from downstairs was added the sound of footsteps coming rapidly up the stairs, and then along the corridor.

Terra appeared in the doorway, a little out of breath. “You need to get down there right now,” she insisted.

“Why?” Pyrrha asked. “What’s going on?”

“Ruben has pictures he claims are of you kissing another man; everyone’s arguing over whether or not to believe it. You need to come down before they make a decision.”

“'Kissing another—'” Pyrrha gasped, one hand flying to her heart. “But … but I would never—”

“Don’t tell me, tell them,” Terra insisted, gesturing downstairs. “Quickly.”

“Of course,” Pyrrha murmured, leaping to her feet almost upon instinct, picking up the folds of her skirt with one hand to lift them out of the path of her feet. Behind her, Sunset was pulling on her gloves.

Pyrrha walked to the doorway. “Thank you, Terra.”

“Anything for the Champion,” Terra said. “Now quickly!”

Pyrrha moved, but as she passed by Terra, as she walked the short distance down the corridor, as she descended the stairs, it was almost as though she did so in a fugue state, in a fog of disbelief and confusion.

She hadn’t kissed any other men, not in her life and certainly not in this town. Jaune was her first and only kiss, as he was her first and only love.

How, then, could Ruben have pictures of that which had not happened? What was he showing them downstairs, and did Jaune believe it?

That was the thing that she feared most. If the rest of Jaune’s family, if mother and father and sisters all turned against her, if they all became more hostile than they had been when they first arrived, then she could live with that. If they banished her from their home, then she would … she would be content if only Jaune left his home beside her. But if Jaune did not believe her, if he was convinced by these photographs of Ruben’s, if he thought her capable of such faithlessness and cruelty, then … then she did not know what she would do.

She did not know if her heart would bear it.

Said heart was beating rapidly in her chest as she came down the stairs.

All the Arcs were gathered in the dining room, save only Aoko. All the rest were present: Gold and Honeysuckle, Rouge, Ruben, Saphron — Terra was behind Pyrrha, with Sunset — Kendal, Sky, River, Chester, Violet. And Jaune, Jaune, standing by the dining table, with his face pale, not looking at anyone.

“I don’t know what you’ve done or how you’ve done it,“ Sky was saying, “but I know that you’ve done something.”

“You’ve changed your tune, haven’t you?” River asked.

“So have you,” Kendal muttered.

“Look, I’m not happy about this,” River declared. “I like Pyrrha, or at least I liked Pyrrha, and I’m sorry that things have turned out this way, but you can’t deny what we all see with our own eyes.”

“It does look like her,” Chester agreed.

“Photos can be faked,” Kendal said. “My boss in Vale has a picture of himself that looks like a selfie taken with an ursa major, but I hardly need to tell you he wasn’t actually posing for a picture with a grimm standing right behind him.”

“I didn’t like Pyrrha when she first showed up,” Sky said, “but she has never been anything less than honest, even when I didn’t like what she had to say.”

“Thank you, Sky,” Pyrrha said. “I appreciate that.”

The dining room fell silent. Every Arc turned to look at her.

Every Arc but one.

Pyrrha tried to gauge their judgement by their expressions. River looked upset, while Chester looked more concerned about his wife than he did about the truth of the accusations — which was fair enough, she supposed; Jaune’s parents looked wary, uncertain; Saphron’s gaze was hard, for all that Terra had shown that she was unambiguously on Pyrrha’s side; Violet was scowling at her; Rouge looked uncertain, a frown creasing her forehead. Sky and Kendal, standing on either side of Jaune, smiled at her.

Jaune did not look at her.

“Jaune,” Pyrrha said, her voice so soft that it was barely more than a whisper. “Jaune, I…” Please look at me. Please say something. Please, give me a sign that you have faith in me.

“Don’t talk to him!” Violet cried. “After—”

“Violet!” Sky growled.

Jaune looked up at her. “I … I’ve always thought that you could do better than me,” he said, and Pyrrha’s heart quailed to hear those words pass his lips.

“No, Jaune, I—” she began.

“But I’ve always known,” he went on, “that if the day came when you figured that out for yourself, I would be the first person you would tell.”

A sigh of ragged relief escaped from Pyrrha’s lips, setting her whole body momentarily a-trembling. “That day will never come,” she insisted, “for I am yours, as you, I hope, are mine. But I swear to you, by all that I am and all that I have and all that others are pleased to make me in their good opinions, I did not do this. I would not, I could not.”

“I know,” Jaune replied. “I know.”

Pyrrha … Pyrrha didn’t care what happened now. They could all hate her, they could all believe Ruben, they could all think whatever they liked of or about her because Jaune believed her, and that was all that mattered.

She walked towards him, without hesitation; she would allow none of the rest of the family to stay her progress, and they all made way for her until she was standing by Jaune’s side — even Sky had gotten out of the way so that there was a place for her beside him.

She felt Jaune’s hand close around hers, and despite the circumstance, she smiled.

“Well done, Jaune,” Sunset said. “It’s good to know that there are still some guys out there getting it right.” She took a breath and scowled around the room. “Now, which one of you is Ruben?”

Ruben straightened his back. “I am, and who might you be?”

“Uh, everyone,” Jaune said. “This is—”

“I’m Sunset Shimmer, and I can speak for myself,” Sunset said, cutting him off. Her ears were drooped down so that they disappeared into her hair — a sure sign that Sunset was not in the best of moods — and her tail was rigid behind her. “I’m Sunset Shimmer,” she repeated, her green-eyed gaze fixed on Ruben. “Leader of Team Sapphire.” She paused for a moment. “Apparently, there is something that passes for proof?”

“I have it,” Ruben said, raising his hand with his scroll in it. “Right—”

Sunset raised her hand in turn, enveloped by the green glow of her magic as, with her telekinesis, she yanked the scroll out of Ruben’s hand and pulled it across the room into her own grasp.

“Hey!” Ruben cried.

“Silence, trash,” Sunset snapped as she looked down at the scroll that she had acquired.

Her eyebrows rose. She jabbed her finger at the screen, swiping first one way and then the other. She stared down at the screen, at the pictures that Pyrrha hadn’t seen, at the pictures that had convinced some of the Arcs, if not all of them, before she derisively threw the scroll away.

“Fakes,” she pronounced. “You can’t even see her face!”

Jaune added, “And did you notice that she’s not—”

“Wearing Pyrrha’s circlet, either, yes,” Sunset agreed. “That’s more visible from behind than it is from the front, but there’s no sign of it on those pictures.”

“I saw—”

“I said silence, you lowborn dog!” Sunset roared. Her voice dropped, becoming sharp as Soteria’s edge. “Silence, you cur, that dares to slander Pyrrha’s name, that name which cannot be blotted with any just reproach, yet you, with the stench of…” She sniffed the air. “Is that perfume I smell on you?”

“What?” Sky asked.

“Yes,” Sunset said. “I can smell it with my equine faunus nose, you smell of perfume.”

“Rouge doesn’t wear perfume,” Kendal said.

“We aren’t talkin’ about me,” Ruben yelped.

“Maybe we should; it is more proof than you have offered,” Sunset said. “Or I could just box your ears for temerity. I might do that anyway.”

“But she’s wearing Pyrrha’s fancy clothes,” River pointed out.

“Clothes can be worn by people other than their owner,” Sunset said.

“Which dress is being worn in the picture?” Pyrrha asked.

“The red one,” Jaune said. “With the cape thing with the sleeves—”

“The bolero,” Sunset supplied.

“But that’s the dress that’s missing!” Pyrrha cried.

“What?” Gold Arc said. “'Missing'?”

“Yes, sir,” Pyrrha said. “If you go and check my luggage, you will not find my red dress there, and as you can plainly see, I am not wearing it.” She paused. “I understand that some of you believed what you saw, but I hope that none of you will think so ill of me that you believe I would discard the dress to hide the evidence of my misdeed.”

River blinked. “So … someone stole your dress, and wore it, to pretend to be you and kiss Red Beauregard? Why would anyone do that?”

“Why indeed, Ruben?” Kendal asked, folding her arms.

“You think that … that I set this up?” Ruben demanded.

“You know, it’s kind of hard to have a nap upstairs when you’re all being so loud down here,” Aoko said, as she ambled down the stairs. She blinked owlishly as she looked around the room. “Did I miss something?”

“Either Pyrrha cheated on Jaune, or Ruben tried to fake it so it looked as though Pyrrha cheated on Jaune.”

“It’s the second one,” Jaune said.

Pyrrha squeezed his hand gratefully.

Aoko was silent for a moment. “Wow, jackass move … whichever of you it was.”

“Hey, Aoko,” Sky said, “you’re good with computers and stuff, right?”

“I’m a software engineer. So … kinda,” Aoko said.

“So, you can pick up Ruben’s scroll — it’s over there on the floor — and tell us if those pictures are fake or not, right?” Sky asked.

Aoko was silent for a moment, but she did begin to shuffle across the room. “Where?”

“Here,” Sunset said, and her hand glowed with magic once again as, for the second time, she picked up the scroll and levitated up into Aoko’s hands.

“Thank you … whoever you are,” Aoko said. She looked at the pictures — Pyrrha was glad she couldn’t see them; she had no desire to do so — for a moment. Like Sunset before her, she tapped at the screens, although not swiping; rather, her fingers played across the device as though she were typing something.

“I haven’t conducted a full analysis, but I don’t think these are fakes,” Aoko said, “because they were only taken forty minutes ago, and I don’t think that’s enough time for an amateur to create a convincing fake.”

“You can tell when the photo was taken?” Sky asked. “Wow, you really are good.”

“Not really, I just looked at the date and time stamp of the file in ‘properties,’” Aoko said. “As Sheriff, shouldn’t you know how to do that?”

“The important thing,” Jaune said, “is that Pyrrha was on the porch then, with me and Sunset, so she couldn’t have been with Red then! Thanks, Aoko, you’re the best!”

“Am I really the only one who knew how to do that?”

“Pyrrha,” River murmured. “I … I’m so sorry, it just, it really looked like you, and they were wearing your clothes—”

“I understand,” Pyrrha said. She wasn’t incredibly happy about it; she would have rather been believed, but on the assumption that it was a convincing fake — she wasn’t about to ask — then she could understand why these people who didn’t know her very well might have been taken in by it. “You were only looking out for Jaune, I’m sure.”

“And doing a poor job of it, again,” Rouge said. “It appears we owe you another apology, Pyrrha; I beg your forgiveness.” She glared at her husband. “And as for you, Ruben, how could you?”

“Honey—”

“Don’t 'honey' me!” Rouge yelled. “How could you treat Jaune that way? I … I know that I have not always been a good wife to you. I know that … that my condition has made it impossible for me to be a good wife to you, to perform the foremost duty of a wife, to render to you that which a wife should render to her husband, and so I have ignored … I have ignored the other women. I have ignored Jolene Parton—”

“Jolene Parton!” Sky cried. “That’s who it was in the photo, isn’t it? She’s got red hair just like Pyrrha!” She paused. “And she wears perfume too; have you been sleeping with Jolene Parton?”

“Yes, he has,” Rouge said quietly. “For some time now.”

“You … you knew?” Ruben gasped.

“You deserved to find what happiness you could, even if you were stuck with me for a wife,” Rouge said. “And so, I … looked away and slept in another room. But this … to do this to Jaune? To try and break his heart, to lie about Pyrrha, to try and break her heart … why? How could you be so cruel to someone who has done you no wrong?”

“Do you really need to know?” Sunset asked. “Can’t I just hit him already?”

“You’ll have to get in line,” Sky growled.

“Sky, Miss Shimmer, wait,” Rouge urged. “I would like to hear what Ruben has to say for himself.

Ruben took a step back towards the corridor that led out towards the front door. All the eyes that had been turned on Pyrrha were now affixed on him, and this time, not even Sky or Kendal were not hostile.

“You … you have no idea,” Ruben said. “You treat me like garbage—”

“Because you are, seems like,” Sunset said.

“You all treated Jaune just the same way that I did, but when I did it, you decided that I was too hard on him, I was the bad guy, you looked down on me so that you didn’t have to look at yourselves!” Ruben yelled. “And you kept on looking down on me, even though I stuck around, I worked for all of you! And then Jaune runs away, steals from his family, but then he comes back, and it's all smiles and isn’t it great and what an amazing girlfriend you have, Jaune. He comes in swaggering, acting like a man now. Yes, I wanted to break them up, I wanted to make him cry. Why should Jaune have a beauty like that, when I’m stuck married to half a woman—”

“Okay, now someone hit him,” Gold said.

“Gladly,” Sunset growled.

“Sunset,” Pyrrha said, in a voice that was at once gentle and yet firm enough to fill the room. “Wait a moment, if you please.”

She let go of Jaune’s hand and stepped forwards, her heels tapping on the wooden floorboards of the Arcs’ dining room, her red skirt swishing around her, rustling a little as she advanced on Ruben.

She stared into his eyes. Her own eyes were as hard as the emeralds they were so often said to resemble.

“Mister Meade-Arc,” she said, “although it may be only Mister Meade soon enough … in my culture, you have given me cause to challenge you to a duel to the death.”

Ruben’s eyes widened. “The … to the death?”

“Quite,” Pyrrha said. “You should think yourself fortunate that we are not in Mistral. Instead, I will answer your offences in the Valish way.”

She hit him, her fist snapping out and upwards to strike his nose with a sickening crunch. Ruben’s head snapped backwards as a cry of pain escaped from between his lips. He reeled backwards, but Pyrrha caught him by the arm before he had gone more than a step. She twisted his arm, spinning him around and pinioning him with it.

“I sympathise with your feeling trapped and unhappy,” she said as Ruben groaned in her iron grasp. “It is … not a pleasant situation in which to find oneself. But that does not give you the right to vent your frustrations upon Jaune nor meddle with ill-intent in mine and Jaune’s relationship! How … how dare you?”

“I think this is the angriest I’ve ever seen you,” Sunset observed.

“That I am patient does not make me endlessly so,” Pyrrha declared. “I am not an ass, to bear without complaint ever more slights and insults, one upon the other, and never cast them off. Call me a liar, call me an adulteress, call me such things that I will not repeat, try and snatch from me the…” — she took a deep breath — “the best thing that has ever been mine.”

She shoved Ruben away, towards the wall, and stood there, in the dining room, with all the Arc family looking on. Her chest rose and fell.

I hope I didn’t go too far. “I … I am sorry, sir,” she said. “I am not … I know not what came over me.”

“I don’t know why you stopped,” Sky muttered.

“I will keep friends with you, Pyrrha,” Sunset said. There was a flash of green light as she teleported the distance between herself and Ruben, appearing behind him and grabbing him by the arm that Pyrrha had only just released. “But you, you wretch, you knave, you insolent dog,” Sunset growled. “You … you fool.” She shook her head. “What are we going to do with you?”

Ruben looked around desperately. “Rouge,” he said. “Rouge, I—”

“Divorce proceedings will begin shortly,” Rouge said softly. “What you have done to me is unimportant, but it will serve as a fitting pretext. In the meantime … go. You’re not welcome in this house anymore.”

“But where am I supposed to go?”

“To Jolene Parton, if she’ll have you!” Rouge cried. “Anywhere you like!”

“Everywhere,” Sunset said.

“Wh-what?” Ruben asked.

“You’re going to go everywhere, across this whole village,” Sunset said. She released Ruben from her grasp. “You’re going to go to everyone, to every door, and you’re going to tell them what you did, and you’re going to tell them that your wife has thrown you out, and you’re going to show everyone what a pathetic worm you are. And I’m going to follow you and make sure you do it.”

Ruben said nothing. He half turned around to stare at Sunset, eyes wide with disbelief.

Sunset raised her hand. The green light of her magic crackled between her fingertips. “Quick march,” she said.

Ruben did more than march. He scrambled for the door, his footsteps thudding as he ran towards the door. Sunset followed him out, her pace a little slower but infinitely more steady.

Within the house, silence reigned.

Without a word, Jaune walked to Pyrrha’s side and once more took her hand.

“Rouge, sweetie,” Gold murmured, “you … you knew that he was cheating on you? And you didn’t … you didn’t say anything?”

“He … he wasn’t wrong,” Rouge said. “We didn’t treat him well.”

“We treated him like he deserved,” Sky said.

“Did we?” Rouge asked. “We did treat Jaune badly, but we then judged Ruben for doing the same. It isn’t only Pyrrha that we owe an apology too. Jaune—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jaune said quickly. “I mean … if I hadn’t … if I hadn’t been the person that I am, if I’d been someone else, not the person that you all made me, I wouldn’t have met Pyrrha or found my team, so … so it all ended up okay for me, in the end. But you … that doesn’t excuse what he did.”

“But the fact that I cannot—”

“Rouge, dear, don’t say that,” Honeysuckle said, stepping forward to wrap her arms around her daughter. “That isn’t your fault.”

“Maybe not, Mom, but it’s a fact anyway.”

“You should have told me,” Gold said. “You shouldn’t have had to … I liked him.”

“It’s okay, Dad; we’ve all made some bad judgements lately,” Sky said, looking at Pyrrha.

Rouge glanced at her. “Nobody would blame you if you gave up on us.”

Pyrrha shook her head. “Everything you have done,” she said, “you’ve done because you love Jaune.

“I understand that perfectly, because after all, I love him too.”

Comments

[Tsuguri]

“I don’t know why you stopped,” Sky muttered.

I was wondering the same thing myself.

And Sunset's reaction is also fairly tame by my expectation. I honestly thought that her threat of Everywhere meant she was going to spread pieces of him all over the village. And the scary thing is that it wouldn't even take her five seconds to do it!

[Lancerguy]

Please keep the same first line from the next chapter because with this update it is too funny not too. In all seriousness, this went about as expected, with the exception of a wild Aoko appearing. I am still not sure if the payoff was worth the several chapters of buildup but it was satisfying nonetheless. Sunnykins, I get it, but I am still debating if this is overreach or not. You are more powerful than him. If you truly want to make sure he never forgets this, remind him constantly that Jaune was the one that one-uped him in several departments. That is more in line with what I expect from you.

[Web of Hope]

11372712
I kinda hoped the same thing 🤣🤣

[Boltstrike58]

Well, that went precisely as expected.

[Mastermind4892]

That was marvelously vindicating. I too feel great pity for Ruben’s own past, but what you do with your grief and hardships is your own choice. And Ruben chose to do ill, instead of building himself up. And now he will rightfully reap what he has sown. In a small town where everyone knows everyone, his shame will follow him forever. There are few punishments as everlasting as that.

As for Pyrrha, this is the first time she has intimately understood the sentiment behind the Mistral tradition of challenging such a foul trespasser to a duel to the death.

On another note, I really hope that Rouge noticed what Sunset’s magic really is. That will be very interesting…

[Kiue Jin]

11372907
It has to be said, telling the whole village about what happened might have minor repercussions for our main cast.

Namely, all it takes is one person to spread the story outside of the village and suddenly it's going to hit a newspaper. Not saying it would be headline news (it's not a world shattering event) but Pyrrha is a celebrity and some farm hick daring to try and break up her relationship and sully her good name is going to draw attention. Hell, Cinder might have Pyrrha but even she would read this and go "Pyrrha is many things, but she is not a whore. Fuck this loser for trying to drag her down in this pathetic manner."

[ChaosDX1]

While Ruben getting punched in the face is definitely the highlight of this chapter, I wanted to instead say how nostalgic the part about Jaune redesigning his weapon made me. I'm sure most RWBY fans have brainstormed their own crazy melee weapons to slap a gun onto, and what kind of things they can do with it. And I'm no exception.

[RedDog5207]

11372907

On another note, I really hope that Rouge noticed what Sunset’s magic really is. That will be very interesting…

Huh, you're right. That would be a nice addition to help cap the Alba Longa story arc. More so for both Rouge and Sunset since Equestrian magic is involved and the geodes are used for something noble rather than serving as an example of the nasty sides of Equestria being dumped into Remnant as it's often seen by Sunset so far. For Sunset, this represents something like a good reminder/piece of home so to speak. As for Rouge, well considering the recent...... events, maybe some nice small talk with Sunset might help a bit?