Reintroduction

The Games We Play

Reintroductions​

There was a long moment of silence following the words. Bianca tilted her head to the side, eyes flicking up and away from Gou for a moment to focus on a spot on the ceiling for a moment before she turned her head towards me, gauging my expression. Shani, for her part, furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, hand still petting Gou even as she frowned slightly. She contemplated my dog quietly, just…considering him, and I could almost hear gears turning. Neither said a word for nearly a full minute.

I suppressed a smile at the sight before realizing I didn't need to. Instead, I kept my illusions face perfectly straight and smiled as much as I felt like inside, waiting.

"So, uh…" Shani began. "I don't suppose you've been getting into ventriloquism, Jaune?"

"Nope," I said promptly. "He actually talk."

"Yeah," She nodded at me. "That's what I thought."

She considered Gou for another long moment, still scratching the happily panting dog behind his ears before shaking her head, leaning back on the stairs, and spreading her arms wide.

"Yeah, okay," My third oldest sister said. "I'll bite. What's up, Jay?"

"What do you mean 'what's up'? He's a dog that talks," I explained slowly. "I'd say it's pretty self-explanatory."

She snorted, kicking her legs out as she made herself somewhat comfortable. Before she could continue, though, Bianca rolled her eyes.

"You know what she means, Jaune," She chided. "How is your dog able to talk?"

"How are you able to talk?" Gou said and if not for the tone of his voice and the taste of his emotions, I might have thought he was being sarcastic—but no, he was actually curious. Bianca seemed to notice that too, because she answered promptly.

"By passing air from the lungs through the vocal cords and shaping the resulting sounds with our mouths," She said matter-of-factly.

"And that's not how I do it?" He asked.

Bianca looked at him critically, glancing him over before shaking her head.

"You have lungs, naturally, but you shouldn't possess either the vocal cords or mouth parts necessarily to form the same sounds as a human." She stated before pausing. "Though, you are doing so anyone, so perhaps you do? That would require some rather spectacular surgery above and beyond what would be needed to give you the intelligence of a human, however."

"Oh," Gou said without any particular movement of his lips, blinking slightly. I realized belatedly that in the chaos of the last few days, I hadn't had time to truly sit down and talk to him about his new existence as a Celestial Dog, whatever that meant, just as I hadn't been able to spend much time with Autumn. I felt rather bad about both of those facts, despite the necessity, and the thought killed my smile.

"When I found him, he was in a sorry state," I butted in. "So after I fixed him up a bit, I awakened his Aura, too. The talking thing is new, though—as in, it only started a few days ago—but that's probably why."

There was more to it than that, both in regards to why he could talk and why he'd started to a few days ago, but…it didn't matter right now. I wasn't sure what I should or was allowed to tell them and it's not like I really understood how Gou was able to talk, either.

"Oh, so it's an Aura thing," Shani said, just accepting the explanation at face value. Well, but my Aura had done far weirder things—hell, it was even responsible for this particular weird thing—so I suppose that was understandable. It was an explanation that reeked of 'it's magic,' but until I figured out more of what Babel had known about the soul, that's effectively was it was to us. I wasn't sure anyone had enough knowledge of the soul to claim they knew more than that, except maybe whoever had created Penny, and even then I doubted they truly understood the process or I imagined it would be bigger news. Even so, it was one of the things I'd need to discuss with either Ozpin or Raven.

"Is it his Semblance, then?" Bianca wondered aloud, pondering Gou. "I suppose it would make sense for man's best friend to develop along those lines, to some extent or another. I can't say it's something I know much about, but I suppose it makes sense."

I shrugged at that. I knew the answer was no, but it was as good an explanation for any—and between the fact that he was my Familiar and also a, well, dog, I wasn't sure how the whole Semblance thing was going to work with him regardless. Either way, though, this seemed like a good time to move this conversation along.

"Like I said, I don't really know how it works," I said, which was true enough. "But I have an even bigger surprise, so let's all just agree that Gou's the best dog in the entire world and, really, isn't that what matters?"

Bianca smiled slightly at that, inclining her head in concession as Gou panted happily at the praise, but then frowned again.

"An even bigger surprise?" She repeated.

"It better be something, Jay," Shani said, pulling Gou into her lap without bothering to rise. "Because the talking dog is gonna be hard to top."

I chuckled slightly at that because, really, I'm pretty sure I could come up with an entire list of things to surprise them with if I wanted to. Shaking my head to dismiss the thought, I pulled my hoodie over my head again, fully revealing the vest of vines beneath. Touching a finger to the blossom at my collarbone, I smiled.

"This is my daughter, Autumn," I told them. "Your niece."

There was another long moment of silence. Bianca looked at me expressionlessly while Shani's lips parted slightly as she squinted at me. Neither said a word or moved or…anything—in fact, I think their brainwaves may have briefly flat-lined.

"Okay, so apparently I wasn't paying attention," Shani recovered first and made a show of cleaning her ears. "There, that's better. Say again?"

"This is Autumn," I repeated. "Around the time I awakened Gou, I started wondering about what might happen if I awakened a plant, too—so I did. And well, after growing up a bit, she turned out to be sapient. I couldn't very well ignore that fact—as the one who awakened her, I have to take responsibility for the life I effectively created, right? So, I did and…she's my daughter now."

Shani nodded as I spoke, but her eyes were blank as she did so and she kept nodding even as I fell silent. Bianca, for her part, shut her eyes, the middle and ring fingers of both hands on her temples, and began rubbing small circles. After a moment, she shook her head, clapped her eyes, and opened her eyes to look at me.

"You know what?" She said, smiling. "Fine. Okay, sure, big sis can roll with the punches. I thought I might have to have this conversation with one of you someday, though I can't say I expected this. I'll skip a few bits, but that was very mature of you, Jaune. Though doing such things on a whim, without proper care and consideration, and at such a young age was rather questionable and perhaps reckless, I'm proud that you took responsibility for the results of your actions and what you brought into this world and I want you to know that I support you. Despite the…circumstances involved, I am sure we are all glad to have a new member of our…pretty messed up family, so it seems congratulations are in order, little brother. Just remember to take proper protective measures the next time you start screwing around with nature or science or souls or whatever else you've been up to. Okay?"

"Will do, sis," I saluted good-naturedly.

"Wait a minute," Shani said, rising. "What do you mean you thought you might have to have this conversation with one of us? Are you trying to say that—"

Bianca put her hand in Shani's face, pushing her away and then ignoring her completely.

"You said she was sapient," My oldest sister continued, taking a step closer as Shani stumbled and sputtered indignantly. "Can she hear me, then?"

"Not in the conventional sense," I shook my head a bit sadly. "Even though she gained a mind by awakening, that doesn't mean she got eyes or ears out of the deal. I've been working on that lately and we've made some progress, but I mostly communicate with her using my Aura—like sign language, but for souls. She can feel that, at least."

"Then…" Bianca hesitated before shaking her head. "Can you tell her about me?"

"Sure," I said, guiding my aura easily. I explained that Bianca was my sister, that that meant she was a close relation of mine, and how that meant she was part of Autumn's family. I'm not sure how much of that my still very young daughter understood, but she got the general idea, at least. I asked her another question ad waited a moment for her reply before smiling. "You can touch her, if you want?"

Bianca considered that for a moment, still looking uncertain, but slowly lifted a finger and touched it to my covered chest and let her Aura flow into the point of contact. At once, small white flowers erupted around the point of contact, blossoming in the color of my sister's Aura. That seemed to make Bianca smile and grow a bit more confident, because she placed the rest of her hand on my chest and I was soon covered in blossoms.

"Oh!" Shani said, sounding jealous. "That's not fair! Can I touch her, too, Jaune?"

I took a moment to check, explaining who my other sister was and taking the time to tell Autumn that her other Aunts and Great-Grandmother would be arriving soon. Then, I asked her the same question I had for Bianca and gave Shani the okay. Deep red petals stood out against the white and soon a blanket of them covered my daughter's vines like a shirt. I was glad to see that the two of them weren't all that bothered by the whole plant niece thing.

Still, a glance at the clock reminded me that I still had a lot to do.

"Hey, actually, I was about to head into town when you arrive," I brought up. "Forecast says a Mistrali Horde is soon to befall my humble homestead. Need to pick up enough food and stuff to keep them all happy until they go away—"

Bianca flicked my forehead for that but still snorted at the image.

"—You guys want to come with me?" I continued by asking. "We can hang out, you can see how things have changed some, and you can help me pick up what we need. I already made your beds and stuff, but I'm sure there's a lot of stuff we just don't have in the house. What do you say?"

They glanced at each other and shrugged with matching smiles.

"Sure," Bianca said. "Why not? It's been…well, a long time."

"Absence and the heart and all that rot," Shani agreed. "Wouldn't mind checking out the old stomping grounds—or stomping on them again, as the case may be. Let us put all this stuff away and we'll go."

XxXXxX

Within the hour, we were leisurely walking through the streets of Vale. Autumn had reabsorbed her petals and I'd hidden her under my hoodie once more, but Gou had decided to remain behind to watch the house. None of us were in any particular hurry, so we'd walked slowly, which I suppose was just as well since it gave me time to grow used to hiding within an illusion. Still, we were all familiar with the city and didn't have any problems reaching our destination. Once we were in the Commercial District, we talked a bit and agreed to split up to cover more ground and then meet again for lunch. Shani went one way and Bianca and I went the other.

I didn't miss the looks Bianca and Shani exchanged or the undercurrents of emotion that passed between them, but I went along with it. Years ago, I'd have been confused, but I was pretty sure I knew what this was about. And indeed, mere moments after Shani was out of sight, Bianca spoke.

"Are you okay, Jaune?" She asked.

"About Dad," I asked, giving her an out if she wanted it. She didn't take it.

"Not just him," She said. "Everything."

"I suppose," I answered slowly, giving the question some honest thought, because I knew how serious this was for her. "I…like myself better now than I did before all this began, but everything turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. I mean, I guess I never thought it would be simple, but…"

"That's life for you," She muttered, smiling ruefully. "More complicated than anticipated. But you know what I was asking, I think."

I nodded.

"The present first?" I asked. "I know a lot about what's happening now, but it's gotten increasingly obvious I have idea what happened in the past. I'll fill you in and then you fill me in?"

"Sounds fair," She exhaled, feeling exhausted, worried, and yet somehow relieved. I wasn't sure why; emotions were complicated things. "Are you okay with talking about Dad?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Then do you know if he…" Her voice faltered and she trailed off. "Do you know how?"

"I do," I said, understand both the question she asked and the one she couldn't. "I was there."

Her eyebrows went up at that and I assumed Ozpin hadn't mentioned that. That was fine—I didn't intend to tell her about the stuff that needed to be kept secret, just about Dad. I was on record for that mission, anyway.

"You where there?" She asked, sounding horrified even as her eyes darted over me as if making sure I was okay. "Why?"

"I went along as a healer," I explained, which was true.

"You're a healer, now?" Bianca asked, surprise on her face. "When'd that happen?"

"A few months ago," I said. "Turns out I have a knack for it."

She squinted at me for a moment, as if gauging me, and then snorted.

"My little brother, the healer," She said, smiling suddenly even as she shook her head. She looked pleased. "That's damn good work, Jaune. I'm impressed; I'll have to brag about you if I go back to Vacuo. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Not everything," I shook my head. "Ozpin's orders. But I can tell you some stuff; it was supposed to be a routine mission and I was going to basically follow Dad around to get experience in the field. Ozpin okayed it and I went to heal any of the civilians. Turns out things were a lot worse than expected. Dad got involved and I…I did everything I could, but it wasn't enough to save him. Mom got badly hurt, too, and some of the others died, and…"

I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Oh, Jaune," She said, putting an arm over my shoulder. "I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have had to see that."

"I wish it had never happened," I admitted. "But since it did, I'm glad I was there. I was with him at the end. I like to think I made things easier for him, at the very least."

"Did he…when he died, was he…" She paused before frowning in frustration as she could find the words. I understood what she was trying to say anyway and so I looked her in the eyes and told her the truth.

"He died bravely," I said to her. "As bravely as ever the way he would have wanted to, I think. I don't know if he was happy, per se, but I think he was content, at least. I got to listen to him at the end and that's how he sounded."

"Good," She exhaled, nodding slowly. "Good. That's…that's good. I'm…I guess I'm glad. And I'm glad you're okay, at least."

She paused for a minute and I thought she might ask me about what he'd said, but she didn't. Instead, she took a deep breath, looked up at the blue sky, and smiled sadly.

"But I guess you know now," She said. "About everything. About our family. You must have some idea, at least."

I nodded wordlessly.

"We don't have to talk about it," She offered. "We—the rest of us—we discussed it, you know. We promised we could pretend nothing had happened, that everything was perfect and all right for all of us. We can still do that, if you want. I can smile and lie pretty well, you know? I think I could fake it okay."

"Probably. But I'd know," I replied. "And it's okay. You don't have to suffer for my sake."

She put a hand to her eyes for a moment and took three quick breaths before removing it.

"I saw you fight," She said, smiling a bit sadly at me. "In Mistral, I mean—against that Nikos girl. I don't really keep track of the tournament scene any more, but I heard she was supposed to be something special. You must have trained hard to beat her."

"I suppose." I answered. "I had to. My career isn't exactly safe for those who can't defend themselves."

She nodded.

"I've seen a lot of good men die because of that," She replied. "Because being a good man and doing good work and risking your life to save others doesn't mean some monster won't take it. I'm glad you're strong, that you can defend yourself. But…"

"You can ask," I said gently when she trailed off. "It's okay. I understand, see?"

"Did she make you do anything you didn't want to?" She did, nodding slightly my way.

"No," I answered quickly. "Mom's training…honestly, it didn't make much difference to me. I was training hard for weeks before she got involved, she just gave me some tips, some help, and a person to practice against. I didn't have to hide what I was doing anymore, either, but other than that, she usually just let me be, honestly. She and dad let me drop out of school and really, that was the biggest thing, since it gave me more time to train and all, but…I wanted to be stronger, to help people. Whether she was there or not, I'd have trained as much as I could."

Bianca looked at my face carefully, searching for any signs of a lie before nodding.

"She never hurt you?"

I shook my head before pausing and shrugging.

"Nothing worth mentioning," I said. "I'm lucky enough that most training isn't a big deal for me. Anything that happens, I can just heal from or brush off. But you…"

It was my turn to look at her and I'd say I saw a lot more than she did.

"It must have been hard for you," I whispered. "I'm sorry I never knew."

"You weren't supposed to know," She swallowed. "I never wanted you to know. Are you sure you want to?"

"Not really," I admitted. "Even if it was just a lie, I always thought everything perfect and a part of me—a big part—wants to keep things that way. But this is my family we're talking about—and whether I want to or not, I need to know, or how could I do anything to help. What happened to you? To all of you?"

She sighed slowly, looking ahead of us before slowly closing her eyes.

"A lot of painful things," She murmured. "We all started about the same age, six or seven years old, and she trained us until we were ready to go off to Signal. That's what she always called it, making sure we were ready. That's what she said when she hurt us. I…I was the oldest, so it happened to me first, but even when she broke my arms, it didn't hurt as much as watching it happen to the others. I was nine when she started on Violet and eleven when she got to Sienna and Shani. She was just starting on Azure when I was leaving for Signal and I remember how it felt to leave them behind, knowing what they'd go through without me. There was nothing I could do, I know that, but I felt like a coward, like I was abandoning them. I hate to do this to you, because I know how she was like with you, but she hurt us so bad, Jaune—and when you hurt one of us, you hurt all of us. For six years, I came how knowing that she was waiting for me, for all of us, and that there was nothing I could do to stop her."

"Do you hate her, then?" I asked, feeling an odd lack of emotion behind the words.

"I did," She said. "For a very long time, I despised her. I thought about running away, I thought about killing her, but I couldn't do either. I could leave the others alone to save myself and I'd never have defeated her in a fight, so I just…kept going. What she did, what I saw her do, to me and all of our sisters…I hated her, but I kept going no matter how much she didn't want me to. She hated that we wanted to become Hunters, to help people even if it meant sacrificing our lives, and she made that obvious from day one—whatever she says, I know that's part of why she always hurt us so bad."

"And did," I mused, watching her closely. Talking about it all, she looked…numb. No, that wasn't quite it—she looked…cold. "You became Hunters."

"Yes," She replied. "And I did it, in part, with the skills she passed on to me—but not because of her. She messed us all up, Jaune. Do you know how many years it took to recover, what it did to my ability to work with others, to trust authority? No one helped me—I told people, teachers, the police, and nobody ever did a damn thing, because Hunters can do whatever they want when it comes to training their kids and maybe even beyond that. I couldn't believe in any of the people who were supposed to be there for me, because I knew they weren't, that if I was less useful then someone who hurt me, they'd cast me aside. And whenever I saw people hurt the others, when I saw them harm Violet and Shani and Sienna while we were at school together because they were jealous or because they were upset at me…"

She growled, a sudden, furious sound before taking a breath and calming in a flash.

"I knew then, that if that was how this system worked, so be it," She continued. "I sure a lot of people would like to take credit for me, but I trained constantly, day in and day out, to be the best and the most useful, so I could protect all of them. And you know what? I did. And I kept going and training until I was the best in my class, my year, my school. And the others did the same, one by one, until everyone figured out how to get with the program. That's why I'm strong now; for them, for you, for the others like us. And it was hard because I was a mess, but I got better even though it was hard, because I had to. She gave me strength, but neither she nor what she did to me are the reasons why I'm strong."

She took a deep breath and let it out, brushing blonde hair back calmly.

"So yes. I hated her," My oldest sister stated. "For years and years, I despised her. If I'd found her dying in the street, I'd have pulled up a chair and watched, for what she did to us. There were so many times I wanted to fight her, to defeat her and save my sisters, but I was never strong enough. For years, the only thing I wanted was to be stronger than her and anyone else that tried to hurt us. And eventually, I was strong. Stronger, maybe, than even her. I'd run and I hid and I tried and I suffered to get there, but eventually I climbed to the top. And looked around and saw that my sisters were safe and then I made sure you were safe, and felt I could keep you that way, at least from some things. I was happy then, content, and I still am—and I just had to laugh at everything and everyone that ever held me back. I don't hate her any more, Jaune. Because I don't think about her, at all. She's not worth my attention, much less my anger."

I looked down at the ground for that, sad but not really surprised. I suppose that was understandable, but…

"What about Dad?" I asked. "Where does he fit into all of this? Did you love him or…?"

She sighed wistfully and looked up. She looked at me for a moment, debating with herself whether or not to tell me, but finally answered.

"Dad loved us," She said. "He was even there for us, at times. He was the nice parent while mom was the horrible one. And I can say I loved him for that, at least. He wasn't perfect, wasn't always what I needed him to be, but he was what I had in those days and that has to count for something, doesn't it? But he had is flaws, even if I love him despite them—because he never stopped her. Not really. They argued about it a lot; I don't know if you remember some of the fights they had. Probably not, because you were so young and whenever they knew we were watching, they made sure to seem united. They were, really; they loved each other, truly and deeply, even when they disagreed. But there were times I thought they might break up, that dad would take us all away and we'd live happy ever after. Stupid, I know; we'd have probably ended up with Mom if that happened, anyway. But some days, I dreamt of it, wondered what it'd be like to have had a home that wasn't a place of pain and fear and quiet hatred."

She shook her head again, as if shaking the thoughts away, and looked at me.

"Dad wasn't perfect. He tried to be, sometimes, but he wasn't—and sometimes, he wasn't even great. He was gone a lot and however much he may have disagreed with Mom's methods or tried to hold her back, he never really stopped things. I love him, for being there at all, but I remember that, too. Some days, I even hated him for not saving me."

"Then why are you here?" I asked. It wasn't an accusation, just curiosity shining through. I could feel it in here, knew it was there, but—

"For you, obviously," She bumped my shoulder with her own. "Whatever happens, I'm your big sister, right? I'm not perfect either, not even great, and kind of messed up at times, but I'm here for you, at least. If all I'm good for is keeping you rug rats safe, then I'm okay with that."

I nodded, leaning against her slightly.

"You said before," I began before pausing briefly. "That if you went back to Vacuo, you'd brag about me. What do you mean 'if'?"

"Sometimes," She began slowly. "When things like this happen to Hunters—losing children or lovers or such—they put them on probation or paid leave or whatever they call it. A lot of Hunters have snapped in the past, gone crazy or rogue or both. The people in charge can't have their best soldiers running off or turning on them or killing themselves, so they make you sit down and take therapy and whatever. A lot of the times, they have the Hunters move in with family members, so people will look after them and make sure they don't do anything rash."

I nodded. I'd heard that from Onyx, if not phrased quite that way. But…

"And you think they'll do that with Mom?" I asked.

"I'm almost certain," Bianca said. "They'll probably ask me, since I'm the oldest, most successful, and just generally perfect. They'll probably either request that I move back here and buy a place or bring the two of you with me to Vacuo."

"Then…why were you talking like you'd never see it again?" I wondered, reading her emotions and tilting my head to the side. "After everything you just said, you'd take her in just like that? Give up you worked for and move back here?"

"For her? No. But for you? Yes." She said. "Big Sis has to take care of you losers, right?"

XxXXxX