[RWBY] The Great Temporal Step-Sibling War!

[AndrewJTalon]

From Yang to Arslan right at the end?

Click to shrink...

I have two drafts of babies being born and got confused between them. I realized my mistake and edited it up.

 

[Stormfury]

I have two drafts of babies being born and got confused between them. I realized my mistake and edited it up.

Click to shrink...

Dang, was hoping it was worlds/timelines colliding shenanigans going on

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Khalisah Bint of the Easternwind News looked up and down the street festival while occasionally taking pictures with her camera. They were all good shots the travel section would love, but that fluff wasn't the reason she had endured the long airship flight from Mistral to Vale. The fluff was more of a way to kill time as she contemplated how to gain access to her true objective: Pyrrha Nikos. The Invincible Girl was here in Vale and there were hard questions that the champion needed to answer.

And so the Easternwind News sent Bint, because Bint was willing to ask questions that other reporters were afraid to broach. As she continued taking photos a reminiscing smirk grew on her face as she remembered the look on the Invincible Girl's face as when she had landed interviews with Pyrrha in the past.

"So what do you think of Atlas?" Bint had asked Pyrrha at the announcement of her latest brand deal involving a clothing company based in the northern kingdom.

"It's a great place to visit," The redhead replied with a smile. "The weather's really pleasant in the middle of summer."

"And what do you think of Argus partnering with Atlas when the rest of the Hellenic cities go with Vale for their foreign investment? Doesn't that smack of the kind of division that Mistral has used to keep the Hellenic League subservient to the Dragon Throne?"

"Uh," Pyrrha's smile became brittle while her eyes looked like a deer's in headlights. "Well, I'm not a politician, or an economist, so I don't have any strong opinions on that matter."

"But you just pioneered a fantastic brand deal, and that does require a good head for economics," Bint objected. "So surely you have something to say about Argus growing apart from the rest of the League as it grows closer to Atlas? Is sacrificing the ancient ties of brotherhood worth the increased GDP?"

"Ahh…" Pyrrha squirmed while looking towards her mother who was distracted via an interview with a different reporter a few yards away. The redhead deflated a bit with the realization that there would be no easy exit from this grilling.

Bint chuckled as she remembered how The Invincible Girl didn't seem to live up to her name as she tried and failed to bumble her way through a politically neutral response. And that wasn't the only time Bint had managed to catch the redhead off guard…

Making the rich and powerful squirm with just one or two well placed questions like that was always exhilarating. In many ways the opportunity to do so was the whole reason Bint had become a reporter.

And now she had the chance to make the so-called Invincible Girl squirm again. The young champion had a secret engagement, which opened the door to many questions that would undoubtedly make Pyrrha very uncomfortable. For instance Bint could ask her about how she could betray her fans like that? Pretending to be single only to break the hearts of so many of them! How callous of her!

Bint continued to formulate questions for her potential interview as she kept moving through the festival grounds, while also contemplating how she would gain access to Pyrrha to conduct said interview. If the Invincible Girl refused to talk to the press to avoid hard questions Beacon might honor her request, which meant Bint might need to resort to more underhanded means to…

…Or Pyrrha could be across the way from her right now at this very moment, exiting a diner with the man she was engaged to on her arm.

What luck.

What Luck!

A wide grin split across Bint's face as she moved through the crowd to get a better angle. The plan for now was simple: take a few photos and then casually approach at the right moment where she could catch the champion within the web of societal convention, making it impossible for Pyrrha to refuse the interview without an embarrassing loss of face.

Bint raised her camera once she had the right angle and-

Her camera was pulled out of her hands by an unseen force. Squawking in surprise, Bint tried to catch it and then chased after the expensive piece of equipment as it bounced and rolled along the ground away from her target…

- - -

Xander watched as his parents left the Just Right Bakery & Café with smiles on their faces. It was a relief to see that things were going well so far, especially since he had only just arrived to keep watch. Personally Xander had wanted to keep an eye on the whole production, but convincing his grandfather that he should be allowed to do so was… challenging.

"Look, I'm just saying Theodor and August were able to keep tabs on their moms' dates with dad, so I'd only be fair if the rest of us also have the opportunity to do so," The redhead reasoned.

"It would be fair," His grandfather allowed.

"So can I go now?"

"If you can escape, you can go," The elder Arc grinned before charging with an ancient warcry…

That might have been the third or fourth most difficult thing he had ever done. But he had done it, and he was here now. He just needed to keep a watchful eye out to make sure nothing interfered with his parent's time together…

…And almost straight away he saw a potential bit of interference in the form of Khalisah Bint, a reporter from the Mistrali sub-kingdom of Rostram that had beef with his family. Xander wasn't sure when the beef had started, all he knew was that his father and mother had ended every interview with Bint by punching the woman out and that her dentist sent them a gift basket every New Years.

At the moment Bint was scanning the crowd with an expensive camera in her hands, clearly looking to take candid photos of something or more worryingly someone. Then she saw his parents and started grinning like a shark as she began to make her way through the crowd to get a better angle on them.

That was something Xander wasn't about to allow.

He reached out with his variant of Polarity and seized upon the metals in Bint's camera, tugging it out of her hands and sending it bouncing across the ground in a deliberately calculated route. Bint of course chased after the camera in panicked alarm failing to notice that it was leading her to the volunteer line of a Dunk Tank game.

A Dunk Tank game he had observed long enough to know that the people working it were recent immigrants still learning to speak proper Vytalian and didn't speak any of the other languages he knew Bint could, making it theoretically possible to trick them into thinking that Bint was volunteering to get dunked.

Xander approached to make sure that happened…

- - -

The first game Jaune and Pyrrha stepped up to play was good old Whomp-a-Mouldiwarp, one of the oldest arcade machines devised and put into a carnival. There was a screen that tracked one's score and a waist level playing area with several circular holes that small plastic and cartoonish Mouldiwarps would pop out of. Players were given mallets to bonk the Mouldiwarps with, scoring points as they sent the molelike Grimm back into their holes.

Jaune paid for the game before picking out a pair of round mallets for himself and Pyrrha. He handed Pyrrha her mallet and readied himself for the game to start.

The first Mouldiwarp popped out. Jaune delivered a mighty whack.

The second popped out. Pyrrha landed a precision blow.

The Whomp-a-Mouldiwarp machine kicked into high gear and the two of them fell into a rhythm. Whacks, thwacks, and smacks filled the air as the two partners moved in near perfect harmony, pushing the machine to its limits as they slowly pushed it to its highest speed. Ten minutes later they had beaten the old high score and five minutes after that they had finally slipped up enough times to get a game over.

Laughing, they collected their prize tickets and then used those tickets to purchase a funnel cake and a pair of sodas from a nearby concessions stand. Pyrrha fed bits of the funnel cake to Jaune, and so Jaune fed bits of the funnel cake to her. It didn't take long for the dessert to disappear between them and they were soon looking about for the next attraction.

A Hook-a-Duck booth caught their eyes. It was a simple enough game on its face: a flock of seemingly identical rubber ducks with little hooks on their heads floated in the current of a circular trough, and players were given little fishing rods with hoops on the end they could use to fish the rubber ducks out of the water. Each rubber ducky had a number on the bottom that would tell the man running the stall if the players had won a prize or not. With the sheer number of rubber duckies the odds of a player winning a big prize through the right combination of winning numbers was slim, especially since the standard price to play only let you hook three ducks a round, but the basic challenge was interesting enough to make it worth it for some people.

Pyrrha paid for the game this time and the two of them were moving their fishing rods around the circular trough in short order. Pyrrha hooked all of her duckies first, as she may or may not have subtly used Polarity to guide her hoop to the hooks. Jaune took twice as long to hook all of his ducks, yet he managed to land a trio of numbers that earned a small prize while Pyrrha's numbers didn't win her anything.

For his prize Jaune picked out a pair of plastic bracelets of a green shade that complimented his partner's eyes. Pyrrha grinned widely as he slipped them onto her wrists, and wanting to see that grin again Jaune scanned the other game stalls for a prize worthy of his redheaded date.

He did a double take at the prizes of a shooting gallery, "Pyrrha, I think that grand prize is supposed to be you."

"Hmm?" Pyrrha turned and looked at what he was pointing towards, and her train of thought came to a halt to process what she was seeing. As the train of thought started up again she observed; "...Well, that isn't a licenced use of my likeness."

The unlicensed likeness was a large plushy of Pyrrha in her normal arena attire. However, unlike most plushies of people it wasn't chibified in any way, shape or form. No, the plushy had mostly realistic human proportions that caused it to tower over the other plushies in its weight class, with a serenely placid expression that contrasted the cutesy expressions the chibi plushes bore.

"I'm going to win it for you," Jaune declared with confidence as he approached the shooting gallery. Pyrrha followed him to the booth's counter with a smile on her face and a fond shake of her head.

Jaune paid for a go and the carny handed him a pneumatic pellet rifle before starting up the machinery of the gallery. Jaune took a centering breath, shouldered the rifle, and got to work.

Pyrrha found herself raising an impressed eyebrow as Jaune sent his shots down range. Every target that popped up, slid along the tracks or dropped from the roof was hit. Most of his shots weren't bullseyes and any professional shooting judge would be shaking their head, but they were all sufficient to knock the targets down and score a point in this simple carnival game. A few minutes later Jaune had downed every available target and the carny was obligated to give him a prize.

Jaune pointed to the off-brand Pyrrha plushy and as the carny moved to collect it Pyrrha turned to Jaune.

"That was some good shooting," She congratulated her partner. "With just a touch of practice I think you could get to a professional level. Where'd you learn to shoot?"

"Oh, you know, around the farm," Jaune provided with a somewhat embarrassed shrug. "Everyone was expected to lend a hand every now and then and when I was sick I could still sit in a watchtower with a rifle and pop anything coming after the ducks and chickens that the cats and dogs couldn't chase off."

Pyrrha could picture the scene in her head, the image of Jaune keeping a watchful vigil over his family's lands tickled her imagination. Still, that raised the question; "So why didn't you bring a gun with you to Beacon?"

"Well, practically speaking it was easier to steal the family sword and shield without anyone noticing. On top of that a sword can't run out of bullets and with less moving parts it seemed easier to maintain while I traveled," Jaune explained. He then rubbed the back of his neck as he went on, "On top of that… I wanted to be a knight like most of the heroes in my family's history, and being a gunslinger on top of that didn't really mesh with the image I was aspiring to in my head."

"I see," Pyrrha allowed, then asked; "So why didn't you pick up a gun once you arrived at Beacon? It would have been an easy enough way to raise your combat scores right off the bat."

"Well, I could make excuses about the hassle of switching between weapons in a fight, or how adding a gun to my kit would have distracted me from getting better with a sword," Jaune elaborated in an embarrassed tone, "But those are just excuses. The real reason is that I didn't think about it, and the reason I didn't think about it was because I didn't want to think about it; I had already committed myself to being a knight and I'm just being stubborn about it."

"Maybe you were being stubborn, but that's the kind of stubbornness that brought you into my life," Pyrrha's fond smile put Jaune at ease. "I like it."

"Alright, I have your prize right here," The carny arrived back at the counter with the Pyrrha plushy and held it out to Jaune before blinking in surprise. The carny looked at Pyrrha, looked at the plushy, looked back to Pyrrha, handed the plushy to Jaune while their jaws worked up and down and no words came out.

"Here you go Pyrrha," Jaune gave the plushy to his partner which the redhead accepted with a demure giggle.

That giggle broke the carny out of whatever spiral they were going through long enough for them to squeak out; "Can I take your picture?"

Pyrrha and Jaune looked to the carny with inquisitive gazes, and the carny felt the need to justify their request.

"Sorry, it's just my sister makes those and she'd never believe me that you showed up and got one without a picture and she'd never let me live it down or…"

"It's alright," Pyrrha reassured the carny before they ran out of breath. "You can take a photo of us." As the carny pulled out their scroll and snapped a photo Pyrrha looked at the other prizes on display and asked, "What else did your sister make?"

"Oh, well there are a few more plushies she made besides you…" The carny pushed a few prizes to the side giving Pyrrha a glimpse of more plushies that defied the chibi standard and would look just right next to the prize Jaune had won her.

"Jaune, I'm winning that white knight for you," Pyrrha announced as she slapped some money on the counter, and the carny rushed to reset the mechanisms of the shooting gallery…

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Arc Farm House, Radian, Gallia

Six years after Salem's defeat

- - -

Jaune was flitting about the living room, packing and unpacking supplies into suitcases scattered about the floor and furniture. He checked and unchecked check lists. His eyes were wide, despite the bags under his eyes.

"Okay! Okay, we'll bring this set of clothes-No, that set! No, that doesn't go with the baby's eyes-We don't know what color the baby's eyes are yet!"

Arslan sat on the couch, nine months pregnant, deep in meditation and prayer. She opened up one eye.

"Darling, this panic is unproductive," she said calmly. Jaune stopped in front of her.

"But we have to get everything ready! You're going to give birth any day now!"

Arslan nodded.

"I am. There's no use worrying about it," she pointed out.

"Of course I'm going to worry!" Jaune insisted. "Why wouldn't I worry?! I should worry! It's what husbands do!"

Arslan winced. Jaune dropped to his knees next to her, holding her tightly.

"What?! What is it?! Water breaking?"

"No, she merely kicked," Arslan said. "She's becoming more active." Jaune pulled away... Then Arslan grabbed his head and pulled him against her stomach. "Now listen and sense her. Focus on her Aura. Focus on my Aura."

"Arslan-"

"Do it," Arslan commanded, still calm but with a decided edge to it. Jaune sucked in a deep breath and nodded. He rested his head against her stomach. He closed his eyes.

He could feel their daughter kicking and squirming. He could feel the strength of her Aura, like a small star shining in the night. He could feel his wife's Aura thrumming against his, warm, calm. His shoulders sagged a bit, and he sighed. He looked up into her eyes and smiled.

"Sorry," he whispered, resting a hand on her belly. Arslan smiled back, rubbing the top of his head.

"Don't be. This is not something to worry yourself ov-"

She paused and winced. Her Aura fluctuated. She grit her teeth. Jaune was back on his feet, hands on her shoulders.

"Arslan?! What is it?"

"I... Oh dear..."

He smelled moisture. Saw liquid drip from beneath her onto the floor. His eyes widened.

"Did your water just-?!"

"Yes."

"Contractions?!"

"Very close together," Arslan managed, still sounding calm despite her clenched teeth. "I believe it's time..."

Jaune rushed to the Scroll. He called the hospital.

"Mom! Mom the baby's coming!"

He called Ruby.

"RUBY! THE BABY'S COMING! GET EVERYONE HERE!"

He called his sisters.

"BABY'S COMING! GET HERE NOW!"

He grabbed the overnight bag and the other supplies, and dashed out the door. He tossed it all into the back of the pickup truck, opened the door, and slid into the driver's seat. He started the truck, taking deep breaths.

"It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay...!"

He put it in gear, headed towards the driveway... His Scroll rang. He saw the caller ID: Arslan-Wifey.

He looked over at the passenger seat. Entirely empty. He slammed on the brakes, put it into park, and dashed out the door. Arslan was already hobbling to the front door, holding her Scroll, when he burst back into the farmhouse. She raised an eyebrow.

"Forget something?"

Jaune picked her up, carried her out, put her into the passenger seat, buckled her in, shut the door, and rushed around to the driver's side. He slid in, all smiles.

"Sorry! W-We're good! We're good! Everything's going to be great!"

"Yes it will," Arslan said, squeezing his hand.

They made it to the hospital, Isabel and a few nurses already waiting with a wheelchair. Jaune put Arslan into it, and stayed by her side as they entered, Isabel marching on the other side.

"Time between contractions?"

"A few seconds," Arslan managed.

"Rate your pain level?"

"7," Arslan blandly said.

"That's a 10 to anyone else," Jaune added helpfully.

"All right," Isabel recorded it on her Scroll, "I'll have the appropriate Healing Dust and sedatives ready. Anything else?"

"Sedatives for Jaune," Arslan said wryly, "He's going to need them."

"I DO NOT-Okay maybe one!"