Watcher Curse

Chapter : 11

Artist : RachiePieUwU

"A Hunt ?" Sun asked in confusion, his hold on Jaune lessened, but his eyes narrowed on the Headmaster.

"That is correct, Mr Wukong. As you four going to stay in the academy, I thought you would like a Hunt, a little mission, so you won't get bored or slack-off."

"You students always take your vacation to waste time, and before you know it, your skills will get rusty." The voice inside Jaune's head growled.

"Sure, that sounds like fun, just let me and Jaune have our little conversation in private." Sun eyed the Headmaster dangerously, the atmosphere was tense, but the Headmaster didn't show any discomfort.

"Now Now, I'm sure I would be able to give you more information about your team Leader, that of course, if you agreed to join my Hunt."Jaune felt Sun's grip disappear as the monkey faunus lunged to the Headmaster for answers.

"Where do I sign ?" He asked with a smile that split his face. Blake sighed, and Weiss rolled her eyes.

"First, I would like to discuss the events of your fight against Roman torchwick and his allies." Sun expression immediately turned grim, no doubt thinking about his Team Leader.

"Miss Goodwitch told us not to tell our teams about it, is there a reason for it?" Blake asked, she didn't give that decision much of her thoughts, focusing more on the fight against Roman and her bonding with Weiss, but now she felt like something was up.

"It was at my request, yes, rest assure mis Belladonna, you will understand soon." Weiss and Jaune looked at each other, they knew Ozpin was planning something.

They followed the Headmaster not to his office but to the basement of Beacon.

"I didn't realize there was a basement here." Blake said in awe, she wasn't alone, both Sun and Weiss too.

Jaune however, had his stomach turning, this place where he helped Cinder escape, here, she was imprisoned and left hopelessly while her evil self-killed her parents.

He clinched his fists in anger, a hand touched his, he looked up and saw Weiss with a sympathetic look.

She wrapped her hand around his, comforting him, she knew about how Cinder got to his head, she knew about the horror Fake Fall made them live through, she knew the risks, yet she stood beside him, he gave her a genuine smile.

"You would find a lot of things not commonly known about Beacon, it was once a stronghold for humanity against grimm, and now it's an academy to teach huntsmen and huntresses how to push back against the creature of darkness."

They followed the Headmaster to a room at the end of the corridor; the lights were dim, which wasn't a problem for Sun, Blake and Jaune, but Weiss, who didn't know the place very well, the Headmaster opened the door.

"Students, I would like to introduce you to a Huntsman who will be accompanying you on your hunt." The Headmaster gestured inside to the lone huntsman in the room.

He had dark black hair, red eyes, and smelled like alcohol. Jaune and Weiss didn't recognize him immediately, they both never met the man. White and Rusty, however, knew this man very well.

From the outside, he was a cruel, irresponsible and arrogant man child, but when you get to know his other side, caring, looks out for you, and ready to lay his life on the line to save them, he was a good person.

"The name is Qrow Branwen, pleasure meeting you brats." He smiled at them with a cocky grin, but it didn't make a good first impression.

Qrow was on the couch upside-down. He pointed at The Headmaster with one hand and held a bottle of alcohol in the other, his cheeks were rose-red.

"Qrow…" Ozpin sighed.

"You left him in a room full of alcohol, what did you expect?" Weiss said, out of character, but a glance told Jaune that White was the one who said it.

"Quite. I'm not sure why I left him to make a wine cellar with the spare space myself, but, he is quite handy and would be shadowing you for this hunt." Ozpin glance at Weiss, surprised by her remark.

"H- hey mini Ice Queen, H- how's my nieces?"Qrow barely made a sentence.

"They are doing quite well, despite having an adult with your quality, I pity poor Ruby." Weiss answered this time.

"Wait, he knows Ruby and Yang? Don't tell me..." Blake asked, her face twisting in horror when she realized the truth.

"Yep, your partner and your team Leader are my nieces." His grin only extended.

/-/

"So, what is the hunt exactly?" Blake asked.

They all sat around a rounded table, each with apple juice in hand, while Qrow had his flask and Ozpin his broken mug.

"It's quite simple, actually," Ozpin sipped from his coffee. "Your fight at the Docks of Vale attracted many attentions, that's the reason why I picked you four."They all looked at each other.

"You four and Qrow going to hunt down Cinder Fall and bring her dead or alive." He sipped again, but this time to hide himself from the Storm, Which came at full force.

Both Jaune and Sun stood up, objecting. While Weiss raised her voice to complain, the only person who didn't react was Blake.

"We are not killing my team Leader. "Sun spat venom with his words, sending a death glare at Ozpin.

"We can't kill her, she needs to pay first." Jaune said, and Sun looked at him, not really knowing if that was with him or against him.

"Calm down, you too, let the Headmaster finish." Blake tried to calm them down.

"Let me be more clear, your job is to hunt down Cinder Fall. Currently, we have an almost precise location of her, you will strike her position and try to capture her, she must be stopped no matter what."

They all were taken back with the information, but Sun didn't back down.

"And why is that exactly?" He asked.

"As you saw while fighting her, she was like a different person, with different semblances and different fighting styles, and above all of that, she didn't know you." Sun nodded begrudgingly.

"Her firepower is called maiden, it's different from semblance, you could consider it magic." Sun raised an eyebrow, while Blake sat in silence.

"The maiden power can be transferred to another person when the holder dies, which gives the new holder those power, there's four Maidens in the world at all times, and Cinder is one."

"So you want us to take that power?" Blake asked.

"No, when we studied those powers, we found out they could only transfer to women of a certain age, and Cinder was one of them."

"We suspect that something happened to the last Maiden, and she used her actual semblance to get in Cinder, pushing her soul out of her own body." Sun eyes widen.

"You're saying that this Cinder isn't Cinder, but a random woman who stole her body?" Ozpin nodded. "So where's Cinder now?" his angry tone made it clear he wanted a serious answer.

Ozpin only looked Jaune's way, and he growled.

"What?" Sun asked, confused.

Fucking Ozpin

"Now I have to convince my teammate I'm inside some random kid in Vale, lucky me." Cinder said sarcastically.

"You're lying." He accused Ozpin.

"Ask him anything only Cinder would know."He said simply.

Sun turned to Jaune, his hand on his chin, thinking.

"Back at the dance, what did you tell me when I didn't have anyone to come with me?"

"So, Cinder?"Jaune thought.

"The fuck is he on? He… oh."

"Cinder, words."Jaune tried again, but more panic when he saw Sun started to get impatient.

"Tell him this, word by word, got it?"

"Listen here, Monkey brat, what did I tell you about lying, or did you brush off the fact your gorgeous team leader took pity on you and went with you?" Jaune said, trying to get as close as he could to Cinder's voice tone.

Weiss chuckled in amusement, she knew Cinder, and she knew Cinder would say that, while Blake looked more confused than ever.

Ozpin and Qrow shared a look. Qrow nodded once and relaxed into his chair.

Sun stood there, stunned. He knew his team Leader, he knew how she acted, her tone of voice, and this?

"C- Cinder?" He was unsure, his eyes widening slightly.

"Who else? I thank you, Sun, for taking charge of the funeral. I saw the report. I will make that bitch pay." Jaune placed a hand on Sun's shoulder. Tears gathered in his eyes, but he wiped them.

"I- I don't understand."

"Me neither, but for now, we need to stop her and get my body back." Sun nodded.

"This is great and all, but you expect us to believe magic, Maidens from fairy tales? Yes, of course the story you told us was the four seasons, and Sun's team leader's soul is stuck inside Jaune's head, you agree too, right Weiss." Blake looked at Weiss for support., she only shrugged.

"Seriously? How?" She was in disbelief.

"Regardless of whether you know it or not, we have information that we must act on. Using Intel from Rusty and White, Qrow was about to find Fake fall location." He saw their confusion on the names but chose not to elaborate.

"Listen, Brats, we will train today, and launch an attack in two days. I'll be testing each of you in the meanwhile, so when we fight her, you won't be holding any punches." Qrow took over.

"Oz here will give you each of the Intels we have, this is not a small hunt, she would have both Roman torchwick and his White fang, another team would be taking care of that."

"Our ideal scenario is to capture her, Roman, and his little pshyco friend, any questions?"

"Can I join the one team that is going against the White Fang?" Blake raised her hand to ask.

"No, this team was picked specifically because you already fought Fake fall, the team fighting Roman and the white fang is qualified enough, trust me, those Bastards could take down a whole kingdom with the right equipment and Intel." She didn't look happy with the answer, but she stayed quiet and opened the file in front of her.

"How exactly are we going to capture her? She's too strong for the four of us, and no offense, you won't make much of a difference." Jaune asked.

"Ouch, kid, that hurts. Don't worry, we have a plan, which I won't be sharing now."

"Is the Headmaster coming with us?" Weiss asked.

"I'm afraid I won't be, I would have other business to attend to, but don't worry, huntsman Branwen is capable."

"That is all. I hope everyone has a successful hunt." The Headmaster stood up and left them with Qrow.

"There's a fighting arena down here you know, five minutes, change and get ready for sparring, I'm gonna kick you into shape." He gave them an evil grin.

/-/

Qrow stepped back, dodging the staff aimed for his head by an inch, but he couldn't relax as the attack kept pressing on.

He parried the other staff attack and disarmed him, creating an opening. He took advantage of it and swung his sword, but the rain of fire made him fall back.

"Not bad, although one of the melee attacks should press on." He looked in Jaune's direction, and he scowled.

Qrow decided it would be more fair to let the four of them fight him at once, so they came up with a plan to keep him in check. They needed their revenge after he had beaten them all one-on-one.

"Using the cat and the monkey agility to attack both from range and close distance is smart, while using the Schnee for support with her semblance, and their joker." Qrow thought as he dodged another attack from the two faunus.

"Who would have thought the boy's semblance could be that useful? Healing is a rare semblance, but also boosting, we could have used that in my time." He thought as he used harbinger in scythe mode to cut the Black hair girl, and pushed the monkey away.

It was a bad idea. As the other two decided it was time to attack, the girl used glyphs to jump in the air, preparing more glyphs, while the kid went straight after him.

He prepared himself, parrying the boy's attack, he expected the boosting, and was correct, the hit felt much heavier than his normal one. He kicked him in the stomach and turned to the other.

Just in time to see tens of ice shards, fire, and electric balls in the air, he made to get out of the way. But he was stuck in his place. He looked at his legs and saw the blonde boy smiling.

"That's for pranking me in Atlas." Rusty said in a whisper, but he saw Qrow's eyes widen in realization.

"He can take the hit?" It was what Qrow thought, as he was hit by everything Weiss threw at him.

"Fucking brats." Laying on the couch with Jaune besides him boosting him, Qrow growled at them.

"Come on, Don't be like that, you have already beaten all of us, at least, our team work is good." Sun gave everyone a thumbs up, smiling at them.

"It's late, go to sleep, we have another busy day tomorrow." Qrow said, shewing Jaune away with the rest.

"Be here at 8am, tomorrow more training, and we'll be going over our Intel. And probably make a plan too." He told them.

They left him on the couch, complaining, and entered the elevator.

"Hey Cinder, how's things... there?" Sun asked, and Jaune spaced out for a minute before talking.

"Well, not bad, I think, I'm technically not inside his head, but another place called everafter, I can talk to Jaune and see what he sees, that's it." Jaune, or Cinder, answered.

"You can also use your semblance." Sun added Cheerfully, unaware of the panic look both Weiss and Jaune had.

"Y- Yeah, how did you know?" Jaune asked nervously.

"While watching the movie, you fixed Weiss's dust vial." Weiss massaged the bridge of her nose.

"So it's actually true?, you have another soul inside of you?" Blake perked up.

"Yeah, I guess, Cinder became a friend."

"Sounds like a story from my books." Blake said.

"No, Blake, it's not one of your smut books." Weiss warned.

"N- Not that, I mean the story of the man with two souls." It was Both Jaune and Weiss who perked up at the name.

"It's the story of a man who got another soul inside of his body, they fought for control until they had a common goal to achieve, and after many hardships, they overcame everything and achieved their dreams." She explained.

"Huh, I may give it a read." Weiss said, interested.

The elevator doors opened, and each of them went to their room, tired after all the fighting.

Sweet dreams Jaune." Weiss gave him a fake smile, and it was understandable after all the things they'd been through in his dreams.

"You too, Weiss, and you, Blake." He added hurriedly, and Blake only rolled her eyes and waved to him.

He closed the door behind him and sighed. He looked at the empty room, his team only took a small amount of their stuff with them.

He laid down on his bed and got his scroll out.

When he turned it on, a ton of messages, ranging from Ruby taking a picture of her home and sending it to him to his parents asking why he didn't come back for the holiday.

He sighed and knew what was coming. He dialed his mom's number and waited, it was that late, but it was better than leaving her on read.

I haven't seen Mom in a while

Jaune felt the sadness and regret from Rusty, so he asked.

"When was the last time you saw her?"

The same as you, after the fall, I only focused on my revenge, I didn't even think of my family.

Jaune winced at that, his mom must've been worried sick.

"Jaune ?" the voice came from his scroll with video. He saw his mom on the other side.

His mom's emerald eyes looked at him with concern, her golden hair was a mess, and he could only conclude that his youngest sister was doing her hair.

"Hey mom, how've you been? Is everyone ok over there?" he asked. After hearing Rusty's situation, he needed to be more aware of the people who cared about him.

"We're fine, what happened to you?" Rusty winced at the concern in her voice.

"Oh that, I just got out of intense training with a professional huntsman." He smiled to reassure her, but it had the opposite effect.

"Don't dodge the question, young man, I saw the news, now tell me everything." He was puzzled at first.

"The news… the Docks incident—oh shit, she must've seen it on the news." He panicked.

"Everything is fine, mom, I just helped my friends who were in danger." She eyed him for a moment, then sighed in relief.

"Thank God, then why didn't you come back? The girls miss you.

Hey, can you switch for a sec.

"Hey mom, I'm sorry I didn't come back... I had something to do, it was important to me and my team, I couldn't let it go, but I shouldn't make excuses, I should have called you, dad, and my sisters, I was so lost, I didn't think at all, I should've known that you would be worried." Rusty's tears fell, and Jaune didn't have the heart to comment on it.

"He lost so much, yet he keeps moving forward to help me, to help my world." Jaune thought as his mother started to comfort Rusty, which led to him sobbing even harder.

"You shouldn't worry too much about us, Jaune, we are your family, and you should know that no matter what you choose or do, we will support you." she said gently.

"B- But I left you without a word, I took Crocea Mors and left to achieve my dump dreams, I didn't even have my aura unlocked." he protested.

"And that was our fault, if you felt the need to run away to achieve your dreams, then we weren't understanding enough". She took a long breath and continued.

"You know your father is a huntsman, well, what you don't know is that I was also a huntress." she chucked at Jaune's gasp.

wait what? Did you know? Rusty shook his head.

"I was the team Leader of my own team, I'm sure Ozpin had a good laugh naming yours."

"JNPR ?" he asked.

"Close, JNBR, we were a good team, until we weren't, we lost a lot of people Jaune, we saw what Huntsmen were truly about, we didn't want that fate for you all, but, we also shouldn't have suppressed you that much. I'm sorry, i know we should've said this earlier. I'm proud of you, jaune, and i love you."

Eventually they said goodbye and went to bed.

"… you have a good mother."

I know I'm lucky to have her.

/-/

"Jaune wake up, it's the utmost importance to be awake early, especially when you have guests." The voice waking him up was familiar.

But something more concerning, he was in a dream, and he knew this because the fact Cinder and Weiss were also sleeping besides him in a different bed.

Weiss opened her eyes to the ceiling, they widen, then she slammed the pillow back on her face.

While Cinder got out of bed and stretched her body, they weren't wearing their pajamas, but their combat outfits.

"Jaune, Weiss, it's a pleasure to see you guys again." She smiled at them, she was more Cheerful than usual.

"I don't mean to be rude, Cinder, but kindly shut the fuck up." The three people were stunned at the heiress's words, but she looked them dead in the eyes and said.

"White won." They all nodded.

"A- as I said, you lads need to be up and running, Juniper already made breakfast, and your sisters won't leave you a thing if you don't hurry." Jaune attention was drawn back to the man in his room.

"Dr. Oobleck?" He questioned.

"Now, what did I say about using my title outside the class? Call me uncle Bart." he smiled at him, then before he could even blink his confusion, the man left his room.

His room, it was his Room back in his parent's house, not Beacon.

"So, any idea what this place is? I take it you know him.? Cinder asked.

"His name is Dr Bartholomew Oobleck, he's a huntsman and our teacher in Beacon, but where are we exactly?" Weiss looked around, noticing the action figures on the shelf alongside comic books.

She saw one of the action figures still in a box. She went to grab it and get it out, but a hand stopped her.

"Hey, do you know how much this costs? If you remove it from the box it's gonna lose all its value." Jaune hissed, putting the figure back.

"This is my room, this is my house. I'm not sure why Dr Oobleck is here, but I guess we're about to find out."

"Hmm, the last dream was about a knight of the everafter, so this one is probably the same, I think your teacher is the one." Weiss nodded her agreement.

"We will see, but for now, let's go have breakfast, might as well see why we are here."

They went down the stairs, noticing the many rooms in the house. They knew Jaune had seven sisters, but seeing it in person was something else.

"Who's that Juniper, anyway?" Weiss asked, "He said Juniper made breakfast, is she your sister or mom?"

"My mom, which is what I found weird, why does my teacher know my mom."

When they reached down, they saw a large table decorated with all sorts of foods that would make Nora blush.

Everything that you would want or need was on the table, and already all of his sisters were sitting down.

"saph?" He asked, surprised.

"Hey Jaune, you finally showed up, huh?" She smiled at him teasingly.

"Jaune..?" Cinder cuffed into her hand to get his attention.

"Right, introduction, this is saphron, my oldest sister, and the order is Sable, the one with long hair, Hazel, the tomboy, Jade, the quiet one, Coral, the nerdy one and Blake should never meet, lavender, literally angel here, and Amber, the youngest." Each of them waved when their name got mentioned.

They were all already sitting on the table when they noticed five empty chairs. They took the three beside each other and waited for something.

"What's now?" Weiss whispered to him.

"I don't know, wait for my dad, I guess? We can bring the everafter after breakfast." He answered.

"I'm telling you, it's better to be feared and respect, that way, no one will dare move a muscle." They heard a familiar voice coming from the next room.

"Yeah, until they decided they had enough and rebel, didn't I save your sorry ass in that same situation? You need to dial down your undercover missions." Two men entered the room.

Jaune's father, both Weiss and Cinder immediately recognized him, he looked like a copy of Rusty with small differences, while the other man…

"Come on guys, we've been waiting for you two, take a seat an eat, that's an order."

"Easy, Juni, I won't steal your husband away, I'm more interested in dust anyway" Roman responded with a smirk.

Roman torchwick, the famous criminal in Vale, the one who almost killed their friend Blake, was sitting next to his father, chatting like old friends.

Jaune froze in his seat, same as Weiss and Cinder took it better, not knowing him personally.

"So, how do you guys know each other?" Cinder cut their conversation short with her question, and the whole table went into silence.

"Oh, well well well, young lady, you're about to hear the great story of team JNBR, led by our mother, Juniper Evergreen, or more Lamely, Arc." Roman announced, making a show out of it, bending on one knee in front of Juniper and lowering his head, Jaune's father snorted.

"We were a team in Beacon, we made a strong connection and have stayed together ever since." Jaune's mom smiled at her.

"Well, then, what went wrong?" She asked again, but not looking at Juniper or Roman, but at the man who had been quiet the whole time.

"Quite, Miss Fall, a lot has happened." The doctor replied.

"You're the knight of the everafter?" Jaune asked, snapping out of his thoughts about Roman.

"I haven't heard of that place in a long time, but yes, I knew the moment I saw you that this was a dream. Forgive an old fart like me, but I rarely see those scenes anymore."

"This isn't how your world is? Weiss asked.

"I'm afraid not, even though I was blessed with everafter knighthood, I wasn't about to put my team back together." He stood up and took off his glasses to clean them, then looked them in the eye.

"It's a long story lads, would you mind an old man telling you about his failure?" they nodded, and the room changed.

Note: The next knight is… Oobleck.

I'm using my own Canon on this one. If you don't know, my first story, "the soul of a huntsmen" follows team JNBR and STRQ while also having Jaune discover the mystery of why Roman became a criminal.

It changes a lot and explains a lot, but for now, it won't be technically canon to watcher Curse, his family is a normal one there.

Anyway, the next chapter would be Oobleck, and after it fun with the new team, and after that the hunt begins.

Thanks for reading, please leave a review.

Free palestine and goodbye.