Jaune
The sunlight bleeding through the crack of his closed curtains awoke him, hearing the soft muffled tweets of birds outside. He turned to the side to see Pyrrha snuggled up to him, his arm still around her. He carefully sat upright, pushing his hand through his white hair. Pyrrha moaned softly, not wanting to get up just yet.
He got up from his side of the bed and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him, throwing some water in his face. His eyes glanced up at the mirror again, seeing Thaddeus staring right back in the reflection. "Did you truly think you can escape me?" He asked with a sinister smile, grinning maniacally. He couldn't help but gasp loudly, staggering away from the window, but as he blinked, the hallucination of the monster was gone.
Only silence filled the room, but he knew she heard him react. "Honey?" Pyrrha softly spoke up, rubbing her eye and flicking her red hair from her eyes, sitting forward with the soft bed sheet still against her chest. "What's wrong?" She asked him. All she could see of him was his shaking hand, and he was staring motionlessly at the mirror. She got out from her bed and walked over to him, and she gently held his hand, resting her chin on his shoulder, smiling lovingly as she kissed his cheek. "It's okay... I'm here." She promised.
Jaune exhaled shakily, clenching her hand, hanging his head as he relaxed the tension that just went through him. "Been a while since this has come up for so long... wanna go see Dutch about it later?" She asked, but he just smiled at her.
"No... I'd rather spend my day with my family, not focusing on something I know is dead." Jaune stated, kissing Pyrrha lovingly. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she kissed him, then hugged him tightly.
Despite such a harrowing way to wake up, things were so normal, just a normal family morning. The two showered and got dressed, Pyrrha putting on her makeup whilst Jaune sprayed on his deodorant. Once dressed, they both walked into the living room, opening the curtains and getting things ready for the morning. Pyrrha approached the door and found an enormous amount of mail just rammed through the letterbox.
It honestly impressed her that the delivery man got that many in there. And of course, most of them were annoying adverts they weren't interested in, some were mail redirected by Dutch to help protect their address, usually more mail related to their jobs, that sort of thing. Sometimes they thought they could just drop the whole secrecy of their home from the public, yes people they trusted and were friends with could know, especially people who did not know the truth.
But there was always that thought in the back of her mind. What if the Followers of Salem come searching for her or her family?
She played a role in the death of their Queen after all.
Pyrrha shoved most of the adverts in the recycling bin, and kept the important ones, slapping them on the table, then sitting down. Jaune walked around and started brewing the kettle for a morning coffee, turning to see she was sitting rather curiously. "You okay?" He asked, walking over to her and sitting down whilst the water warmed up.
"I didn't wanna say anything, with Misty still being awake last night... but when I went to her home to get those things she wanted?" Pyrrha whispered, and Jaune raised a brow as he listened. "Those bullies were there, trying to get in. So they could ambush her in her home because she was alone." Pyrrha said, his eyes widened.
"Are you serious?" He questioned.
"I hope I scared them enough to never go near her again." Pyrrha stated, which made Jaune chuckle nervously.
"What did you say to them?" He asked with a morbidly curious smirk, making her giggle softly.
"I just reminded them of who I am, and that Misty is very important to me and my family. So if they mess with her, they mess with me. I guess being the Invincible Girl still has its quirks... even if the reason for that title is different these days." Pyrrha sighed, shaking her head.
"So many kids... they just don't really understand how close things were to being destroyed not that long ago..." Jaune sighed, shaking his head. "I always hope my history lessons help them understand. The last thing I ever want is for the memory of all those we lost to be forgotten."
"Well, with Oz gone, I guess that's up to us to keep their memory alive now, right?" Pyrrha said, and Jaune nodded.
"Well. I would've loved to have seen the colour drain from Janice's face." Jaune chuckled as he got up. Pyrrha laughed as well.
"It was pretty priceless. I'm not gonna lie." Pyrrha said, hearing Jaune chuckle as he filled up their mugs of coffee and tea. "Although... it did make me think about when I was little. With what my mom did to Dandelion's family..."
He paused and looked back at her. "It made me so scared of my mom, seeing what she was capable of. But now that I'm in her shoes, in a way... I think I understand why she did it. A mother would do anything for her children. Doesn't mean I now agree with my mom doing what she did. She definitely went a bit far. But I understand." Pyrrha explained.
"You should call her when the C.C.T is back up." Jaune said, and Pyrrha nodded.
"I think I will. I know things between us have been better over the years since I was a teenager, but... I think she should get to hear that." Pyrrha said. Jaune smiled and nodded at her, walking over and bringing her tea over. He sat down, then looked at his watch, and glanced back at the stairs leading up to Oriana's bedroom, where Misty was asleep as well.
"Should I do it?" Jaune asked with a cheeky grin on his face. Pyrrha paused mid-sip.
"Do what?" She asked.
He gestured at the stairs with that grin still on his face. "You're gonna give her PTSD one of these days, y'know that, right?" She asked.
"Hey, we had to put up with Nora every morning. And RWBY had... well... Ruby. She's getting it easy." Jaune said with a chuckle, making Pyrrha roll her eyes.
"Fiiine." She sighed, and like an excited kid, he giggled and got up, quietly approaching the stairs.
Oriana
Curtains still drawn, the two girls were still fast asleep, Oriana on the floor with Misty on her bed. And instinctively their hands were so close to touching.
It was so peaceful.
They had no idea that Jaune was about to shatter their peace with so much glee in his voice. The door erupted open, and he switched the lights on suddenly. "GOOD MORNING, LOVE BIRDS!" He cheered, making both of them yelp with shock. Misty hiding underneath the covers, peering over as she rattled. Oriana sighed, pushing her tongue against the inside of her cheek, glaring at him with a deadpan expression, also blushing nervously at him, referring to them as lovebirds.
But he just grinned audaciously at his daughter. "I hate you so much." She groaned.
"I know." He chortled, suddenly vanishing and slamming the door shut.
"Does he do that every morning?" Misty asked nervously, with a slight laugh in her voice.
"Not every morning... but quite a lot. He loves it... way too much." She groaned.
Misty started giggling. "Your parents are so cool!" She laughed, falling back onto the bed. They awkwardly got dressed, using the bathroom one after the other to do so. The tension of attraction between the two was so thick you could cut it with a knife. As Ori got dressed, she checked on Smee, who was sitting on her desk, and she tweaked some dents in his little metal frame. Once done, his blue lights flashed on, and he booped happily to see his best friend. His excited boops pained a joyous smile on Oriana's face. Then she hugged him tightly.
Misty came out of the shower, dressed and with her hair tied back in a ponytail. She still had some bruises on her face, alongside a couple cuts which were stitched up, but Oriana had already healed her injuries. Oriana smiled softly at her, then Misty sighed. "I wish I could do that." She said.
"Do what?"
"Heal as quickly as you do." Misty shrugged, clearly self-conscious about her bruises.
"Well... maybe we can teach you how to start unlocking your aura?" Oriana suggested, but Misty actually looked a bit afraid of that suggestion.
"But... wouldn't that be against the law?" She asked.
"Nah, it's not a crime to use your abilities anymore. It's just not legal to rebuild the Academies to make new Huntsmen and Huntresses. Which is stupid, if you ask me... our Aura and our Semblances are part of who we are. The fact so many people still voted against all that every single year makes me sad..."
"Yeah. Shows that Salem's influence hasn't gone away just yet." Misty sighed. "But... yeah... okay. That'll be fun." Misty said with a bright smile.
"I wonder what you're semblance will be? I mean, I wasn't expecting mine to be... ELECTRO PUNCH!" Oriana enthusiastically cheered, swinging her fist in the air with a big smile.
Misty giggled, covering her mouth tenderly with her hand as she laughed. Her laugh was always enough to give Oriana butterflies in her stomach. "I dunno... maybe super speed? I always like to run?" Misty suggested, shrugging her shoulders.
"Well, that's the fun part, we don't really know." Oriana said. "I heard Auntie Ruby's activated during training one day, whilst Pyrrha said hers activated from anger. And Jaune's was in desperation. It's completely random."
Misty shook her head. "Different times..."
Even now, it was hard to believe the stories they heard. Of course, they never believed the more ridiculous ones. Like the Brothers Grimm being real and fighting alongside them, Pyrrha being a dead woman walking, Team R.W.B.Y and J.N.P.R breaking apart and trying to kill each other?
None of those could possibly be real.
The two got ready and walked down the stairs together, Oriana sliding along the railing, immediately catching a motherly glare from Pyrrha. "How many times have I told you..." She sighed.
"One day I'll listen." Oriana squeaked.
"Yeah, when you hurt yourself." Pyrrha sighed, rolling her emerald eyes as she started making them sandwiches. Misty's eyes widened as she stared at all the food.
"Whoooa..." she gasped.
"You two had a rough day yesterday, so we thought we'd cook you a really tasty breakfast." Pyrrha explained with a beaming smile. Bacon was cooking on frying pans and they had toasted buns ready, alongside a wide assortment of tasty vegetables and other things they all enjoyed. "It was your dad's idea, actually." Pyrrha said to Ori.
"Really? That's so selfless of you." Oriana sarcastically gasped.
"Such a wonderful dad, aren't I?" He sarcastically replied with a smirk, making Ori roll her eyes.
Together, the pair sat down with Jaune as he turned on the television, putting on some early morning movies.
Ruby
They've been tracking the Hound for so long now, and the more they followed the tracks, the less it would make sense. Tracking it through the night, they were all tired, but not unmotivated. End of the day, it was a Grimm, so they had to find it and slay it before it would kill anyone.
It was a miracle that nobody had been killed yet.
But also... that was what concerned them. Why was it avoiding people so much? Even the oldest Grimm would attack people, eventually. It was in their nature. As Ruby and Penny followed the clawed tracks, both of them slowed to a stop, staring at a nearby park with fear in their eyes.
Winter and Oscar both slow down, noticing the change in their demeanour. "Hey? Ruby? Penny? What's wrong?" Winter asked.
"Penny... you remember where we are, right?" Ruby asked with fear in her eyes, praying to the Brothers Grimm that her thought was incorrect. Oscar glanced at Winter with concern, hearing Penny's worried voice as well.
"Yes... without a doubt." Penny answered.
"What is it? Where are we? Just looks like some park?" Oscar asked.
"Exactly. When Ori was only five years old, we took her here, right here, to this park. I remember us holding her hands and swinging her up and down, playing with her in the dirt and kissing her knee when she hurt herself on a swing." Ruby explained, with fear remaining in her large silver eyes.
"We were so worried that we'd upset Pyrrha, but when we got her home, she was bouncing with joy after the fun day we gave her. It was one of the best memories of my life." Penny explained.
Winter and Oscar's eyes widened with realisation as their eyes followed the tracks which were running right past the park.
Not changing direction at all.
"It's headed directly for Jaune and Pyrrha's house!" Ruby yelled, transforming into a flurry of red rose petals and dashing ahead. Penny did not hesitate either, activating her thrusters to keep up with her wife.
"Ruby! Penny!" Winter called out. "Shit." She sighed.
She held out her arm and Oscar held on tight, and she formed a long line of glyphs to skate swiftly across.
If the Hound had this much of a head start on them, it was most likely already at the estate.
They were out of time.
As Penny flew forward beside Ruby, she pulled out her scroll, trying to call Pyrrha, only for nobody to pick up.
The C.C.T had just come back online?
Why weren't either of them picking up?
"Come on, guys... please pick up..." Penny begged with worry in her voice.
Pyrrha
It was going to be such a normal day...
Mere moments earlier.
She drank her tea that Jaune made her earlier, waiting for the bacon to finish cooking for everyone whilst they chatted away, watching a movie together. They were planning on heading out together, to go shopping with Misty and Oriana, and then maybe even give Misty some lessons on how to unlock her aura. It always made Pyrrha happy to see the younger generation having some kids who want to learn about their aura and how to unlock it.
Considering the world still looked at Huntsmen and Huntress as some kind of taboo subject because of the indoctrination from Salem and Killian, it felt like they were outnumbered more than ever.
Pyrrha then thought about Juno, and reached across to her scroll, and she typed in her mother's credentials to talk to her about what happened with those bullies, just as Jaune suggested. And luckily for her, the C.C.T had just now come back online.
Pyrrha went to hit enter and call her until a new number started calling her.
It was Blake.
She smiled and put Juno on hold for now, since she hadn't chatted with Blake in quite a while, so they had plenty of girl talk to have. She answered and held the scroll to her ear. "Hey, Blake. How's it going?" She brightly answered.
"Pyrrha?" Blake gasped with a very serious tone, something Pyrrha caught onto immediately.
"Blake?" Pyrrha softened her voice and walked away from the kitchen. "You okay?"
"Are you in your home?" She asked her.
"Ye-Yeah? Why?" Pyrrha asked.
"Get out of there now! You've been compromised by the–"
Suddenly her voice crackled away, and then the phone signal went silent. Pyrrha's green eyes widened with fear, left with just static. "Blake?" She repeated, but there was nothing. She stared at the scroll and was greeted with No Signal.
But she knew in her bones that Blake would never call like that out of the blue, especially when it was immediately after the C.C.T came back online. Her heart rate increased with fear. Looking around, then she found her courage and walked back into the bedroom. "Hey mom! It's the new Mighty Huntresses movie!" Oriana squeaked.
"That's great!" Pyrrha acted, touching Jaune's arm and giving him that worried look he only ever got if something was seriously wrong. Suddenly the television cut out as well, the signal to the C.C.T completely cut off there as well. Now she knew this was no coincidence. Someone was blocking their signal specifically.
"Awww, c'mon! Stupid C.C.T." Oriana groaned.
"Give it a sec, kids. I'm sure it's fine." Jaune lied, getting up and walking with Pyrrha into the room next door. "Okay, I know that look. What's wrong?" He asked her.
"Take the kids and hide. Blake just called me in a panic. I think she's been trying for a while. We've been compromised. Someone is coming for us, Jaune. She wouldn't have called in such a panic like that if it wasn't serious." Pyrrha explained, when suddenly they both felt and then heard the sound of a Military Airship roaring overhead.
"What's that?" Misty's voice called out. He nodded at Pyrrha and walked to the kids.
"We've got a surprise visit, kids. Pyrrha's gonna have a chat with these people, so let's keep out of their way, okay?" Jaune asked, hoping to keep the girls calm. Pyrrha was panicking inside. Not only was her family here, but someone else's kid was here as well, giving her extra responsibility. The Airship landed nearby, but Jaune took Oriana and Misty somewhere safe.
She then turned to Milo and Akoúo which were on the wall, however her armour was upstairs, too far for her to get to. She exhaled, then opened her hands, pulling her iconic weapons into her hands, spinning Milo through her fingers as she approached the door.
Suddenly, three heavy bangs knocked on the door, and she heard footsteps move away.
And then an unscheduled storm appeared, bringing heavy rainfall down, alongside dark clouds darkening the sky, filling it with lightning. Pyrrha approached the door, then opened it swiftly, staring ahead to see him stood in the rain. He wore his hooded cloak, the hood draped over his helmet, but his glowing green visors and grill were all she could see. Lightning exploded into the grass behind him as he stared her down.
With Eryka, Cardin and Neo stood beside him, all in the rain, Eryka's eyes aflame with blue fire, and Cardin clad in his armour, visors glowing gold. And Neo stood with her hand on one hip, and the other holding Hush in its open Umbrella form, her ponytail of pink and brown hair blowing in the breeze.
Her eyes widened when she saw the leader's companions, Neo especially, then she stared at the man in the middle.
"WHO ARE YOU?" she yelled protectively.
Then he revealed himself to Pyrrha, pulling his hood back, letting the rainwater fall upon that familiar helmet of the Deacon. Her eyes widened when she saw the Deacon standing before her, then he crossed his arms.
"Hello Pyrrha... sorry to appear unannounced. I was hoping... we could talk?" He asked, glaring at her, his fists clenched.
Pyrrha stared back, exhaling through her nose.
This was it.
The Day of Judgement she had feared for so long had finally arrived.