Jade awoke in his bed and jumped to the ceiling to not wake Pyrrha. He crawls out of the room and went downstairs.
Once down there he walks over and knocked on the guest room door.
Summer: come in.
The lock unlocks thanks to Mina being everywhere in the house and Summer was sitting on the bed.
Summer: I thought I would let you see me one last time, you know... so you won't think all of that was a dream.
Jade: well, I'm glad I'm not insane.
Summer: but I must leave now. You'll see me never soon though.
She walked over to the window then turned to Jade.
Summer: I will always love and protect you and your sister. Remember that. I love you.
Jade: I love you too. Goodbye...
Summer smiles and jumped out the window a white Raven flies past and Jade figures it out immediately.
Jade: she can turn into a bird...!
He looked on a bit shocked but does leave the room after a few seconds. He heads to his lab and sees the Penny model standing in one of his suit containers.
It was a basic Penny model but her dress was black while her undershirt was still white. All the green was replaced with red as her eyes were also red with black hair as well.
Jade: it feels weird with her just, like, in here... like she has emotions and all that... am I a bad person for keeping her in here...? .....Penny, activate.
The glass opened itself and Penny 2.0 walked out.
Penny: hello Jade! What is it that you need?
Jade: let's just head out for a bit. All Atlas personal should ignore you from the order I sent out not long ago.
Penny: wait! I get to go outside!
she makes a bright smile.
Jade: wow, you make me sound horrible.
He grabbed the back of his neck and looked down for a few seconds. He looked up and Penny was in his face making him jump back.
Penny: you okay Jade? Your heart rate just spiked!
Jade: your the reason! Don't scare people!
Penny: hm, I'll try not too from now on!
He does a little salute and he just shakes his head as the wall opened up.
Mina: are you sure it's smart to take her out? The original Penny's match is happening right now. .........she just won actually.
Jade: eh, it'll be fine. I kinda want them to meet just to see what would happen....
He smiles.
Mina: no Jade!
He pulls out his scroll.
Mina: Jade!
Jade: too late!
———
Over with the original Penny, who was talking with Ruby.
Penny: Ceil, something wrong?
Ceil: we have somewhere to be.
Penny: but I thought-
Ceil: the time just ran out. It also requested you to come with.
She points to Ruby.
Ruby: me?
She gets a text on her scroll which was just a thumbs up from Jade.
Ruby: I guess I'll go?
Ceil: good. Let's go.
———
Jade: they should be here any moment now.
Penny: what are we waiting for exactly?
She was gazing out the window obviously wanting to go out.
Jade: you wanna wait outside?
Penny: really?
She looked to him with another bright smile.
Jade: your like a puppy!
A knock on the door takes his attention to his humanoid android puppy.
Mina: you know who it is.
Ceil, Ruby, and Penny walked in his house and Jade just stares at Ceil.
Ceil: your not the general!
Jade: and you shouldn't be here. Hey, I'll give you a bunch of Lien to leave for like two hours.
Ceil: deal.
She walked out the house as Penny and Penny 2.0 noticed each other.
Ruby: uh, what's going on?
Jade: nothing much.
The Penny's walk over to each other and mirror the other goofy movements until both laugh and almost headbutt each other.
Jade gets up.
Jade: well, Penny meet Penny 2.0.
Penny: she's better than me?
Jade: no it's just there to make it easier to talk about you two.
2.0: that would make sense! Jade, you're a genius!
Jade looked at his wristband and turned on the tv as Weiss and Yang's match was going on.
Jade: I almost missed it! Mina, I'm gonna get rid of Mercury and Emerald. Set that up for the match after this.
Penny: are you... rigging the matches?
She stepped out and walked over to him.
Jade: basically, yes. There is a much deeper meaning behind what I'm doing though. Don't even worry. You three stay here and chill for a while.
He walked upstairs while mumbling about taking care of them permanently.
2.0: Jade has a reason for everything. Please trust him, me?
Penny: but that's cheating!
Ruby: Penny.
They both look at her.
Ruby: uhhh...
She points to the original.
Ruby: if Jade's doing this, then he must have a good reason. Let's just trust him on this. besides I can't sense any lies behind his words.
she doesn't know that spider-sense doesn't exactly work on family.
Penny: but- ...alright. If you say so...
————
A few hours go by and it Jade and Ruby were coming back from their doubles match. They walk in his house to see Penny and 2.0 sitting watching tv.
Jade: I'm glad they didn't do anything dangerous.
2.0: Jade you were amazing out there!
Jade: uh, what? I wasn't out there?
2.0 makes a confused face then her eyes slowly open.
2.0: ooooh... alright.
Penny doesn't know what they mean.
Ruby: where's Ceil? Shouldn't she have cake back by now?
Jade: oh. I paid her off for the entire day.
Mina: oooh! Look at this!
A camera feed of Pyrrha getting into an elevator going up to Ozpin's office.
Jade: what? ....OH, WHAT?!
He left the house again.
2.0: what's that about?
Ruby: I have nooo idea.
Ruby just shrugged.
Ruby: you wanna play Jade's Xbox?
————
Jade arrived at beacon and dashed to Ozpin's office going up the elevator. Once the elevator opened he retracted his mask.
Jade: what do you think your doing?
Ozpin: I think she would be the best candidate for it.
Jade: do you know how much you are about to put on her? At a time like this as well? Give me a bit more time and I'll find out who's here!
Ozpin: we need someone to inherit her power. She's the best for the job. Give her a choice in the matter, Jade.
Jade looked over to Qrow while Qrow averted his eyes.
Jade: damn it. ...Fine.
Pyrrha: Jade? What's going on?
Jade: Ozpin will explain everything. I'll just be here.
(Author: one long explanation later!)
Ozpin takes a deep breath and looked Pyrrha in the eyes.
Ozpin: we're telling you, Pyrrha Nikos, because we think you are next in line to receive the fall maidens powers.
Pyrrha: we?
The elevator opened up and Ironwood and Goodwitch walk in.
Pyrrha: I'm still confused. What is any of this supposed to mean?
She looks to everyone in the room.
Pyrrha: who are you?
She asked to everyone in the room.
Glynda: you know who we are. Especially him.
She looked at Jade.
Glynda: we're the same teachers, headmasters, and heroes you know.
Qrow: we just got a little part time job.
Pyrrha looked at Jade.
Pyrrha: you knew about all of this?
Jade: yeah... I know it's a lot to take in but... I don't know. Take it at your own pace and don't rush yourself. Get on with it.
Ozpin: I'll keep it short. We need your help.
Pyrrha: m-mine?
She puts her hand to her chest along with keeping the confused expression she's had since she came in here.
Ozpin: let's go.
All the adults got into the elevator and motioned towards Jade and Pyrrha.
Jade: let's go.
He walked over and grabbed her hand. They both get in and he feels her grip tighten on his hand.
Pyrrha: where are we going?
Jade: well, definitely not the bathroom.
Glynda: can you be serious?
Jade: we're going to a vault under the school.
The elevator starts to move and once reaching ground level the doors open and Ozpin and Glynda step out. Jade and Pyrrha follow.
They eventually lag behind a little because he could tell she was super uncomfortable with the others around her.
She looked around with Jade guiding her.
Glynda: don't lag behind to much.
Jade: we're not. Keep going.
Glynda turns back around and continues walking.
Pyrrha: they said I was the next in line to receive the Maiden's power. What do you mean by that?
Jade: well, skipping over the boring stuff, the Maidens have a certain set of dumb rules that the power has to follow. They can't transfer to a man or an elderly person then they discovered that whoever the Maiden thought of last, gets her power. But like I said not long ago, it won't go to a man or an old person. Then the power just goes to some random girl.
Pyrrha: I'm still confused on why your telling me all of this now? Why not wait until I graduate?
Qrow: because we don't have that type of time. I'm not sure if you noticed, but things have been getting a lot scarier in the world. Tensions are high, Grimm are growing stronger, more prevalent, and it's not much longer before the peace we've all been enjoying goes out the window.
Pyrrha: does he mean a war?
Ironwood: not a war between nations.
Qrow: we'll fill you in on the details later. Even though I'm sure your boyfriend over there will tell you everything once you're out of here.
Jade: don't diss me. Annnyyyway, a Maiden was attacked and half her power was stolen.... she was also left disabled.
Ozpin: she's not disabled.
Jade/Qrow: shes pretty much disabled.
They stop at a machine that had two pods on it with one of the pods holding the Maiden.
Pyrrha: is that her?
Jade: yeah. She's still alive but disabled.
Ozpin: she's not-
He sighs as he knows he's not going to win this battle.
Ironwood: Jade and Lily developed these pods.
Jade: why you gotta throw my name in there? These things were made in short notice so I doubt we could keep her alive forever. There's also the fact that we have no idea what's gonna happen when she dies.
Qrow: we don't know if the power will find someone new, or seek out the other half. There's also the fact that her last thoughts were most likely of the attacker. It doesn't help that we've never seen anything like this happen before either.
Jade: that's why... we're keeping her alive like this.
Pyrrha sighs and lets go of Jade's hand. She walks over to the pod and put her hand on it.
Pyrrha: if all of this is true, why keep it a secret?
Jade: simple. No one would take it seriously. It's all right in front of you and your still having a hard time believing it, right?
Pyrrha: ah, your right...
Jade: besides. That would probably cause unnecessary panic. Which would lead to our demise. Also.
Qrow: from what we know, it was common knowledge waaay back. That's how legends and fairy tales get started right. What was that one thing? Oh, behind every tale is some truth. Or however the hell it goes.
He takes out his flask and gets a hard glare from Jade. He rolls his eyes and put it away.
Goodwitch: our group was founded in order to protect both mankind and the maidens. Those hungry for power hunted them with the hopes of inheriting their strength.
Qrow: as you can imagine, the ones that were successful weren't exactly very good people.
Ozpin: you don't have to give us an answer right away, please take your time in thinking.
Pyrrha: I'll do it.
They all look at Pyrrha.
Pyrrha: if you think it'll help humanity... I'll do it...
Jade: wait! Think about this! Think about us! We could possibly happen if you were to accept all of this!
Pyrrha: Jade. If I have the possibility of helping people, I'm going to take it.
She's saying all this but was looking at the ground with an uncertain expression.
Jade: but-
Pyrrha: Jade! Believe in me. We'll be fine. There's no way that both of us could go down.
Qrow: I wish that boy would get his eyes working.
Jade: what's that supposed to me?
Qrow: nothing...
Jade looks to Pyrrha and grabbed her hands.
Jade: I swear. I won't let anything happen to you.
Pyrrha: we'll protect each other.
she lets go of his hands and looked at the adults.
Pyrrha: I'll do it. I'll become the Fall Maiden.
The adults look at each other.
Pyrrha: that's what you wanted right?
Jade: well, uh, the thing isn't all the way functioning right now...
Pyrrha: you have her in some experimental equipment? is that what you're doing?
Jade: it's either that or death. I haven't exactly had time to get everything to properly work.
Pyrrha: what does this thing do exactly?
She turns to it and looked at the panel then up to the wires.
Jade: well, you can't exactly get Amber's power without killing her. But! I figured out a way of giving you the power without shanking this woman. ....well, I've figured out how to take her aura and jam it into something else.
Pyrrha let's go if his hand and back up a little.
Pyrrha: Jade! That's... horrible! How could you do something so unethical!
Jade: desperate times call for desperate measures.
Pyrrha: but still, you don't have any idea what could happen to me or her!
Jade: that's why I didn't want you doing this! I have no idea on what this thing will do to you! But Ozpin said there's no one else and you were perfect for this. I have no choice but to follow him.
Pyrrha looks uncertain once again.
Ozpin: you've had a long day. We don't need an immediate answer. But we will need one before the festival is over. Please, take your time in your decision.
Pyrrha: al... alright... Jade, lets go.
Jade: alright. You aren't mad at me, right?
Pyrrha: no, I'm not. Let's just go...
End of chapter 10 volume 1