Chapter-65: Epilogue
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Ten Years Later
The room was dark but for the dappled sunlight slowly stretching across the bed, piercing the curtain as it swayed in the gentle sea breeze. As it crossed his pillow and then his face, Jaune felt it penetrate the veil of sleep, lifting him from his rest. Blue eyes blinked open blearily, staring at the ceiling for a moment as he tried to recall his dream.
Whatever it was, it had been nice.
A warm, soft body was spooned against his side, a slender, toned leg thrown across his hip. With a smile, he leaned down and kissed her on the head, enjoying the way her soft, woolen hair tickled his face as he did so.
"Mmm," Fiona Thyme mumbled, curling against his body.
A quick glance at his bedside table showed that it was still early, though it was quickly approaching breakfast time in the Arc household. Carefully untangling himself from the sheep faunus, Jaune stood and stretched, basking in the cool spring breeze that washed over his nude form.
There was nothing quite like waking up next to a beautiful woman after a night of passion to start the day off on the right foot.
Collecting some clothes, Jaune made his way into the bathroom. After reliving himself, he had a quick shower and brushed his teeth, spitting the frothy toothpaste into the sink and rinsing his mouth clean. When he rose, he spied Fiona standing behind him in the doorway, her pale skin marked by his eager lips and hands.
He never got tired of admiring her naked form. Everything from her trim waist to her perky, tiny breasts made him want to remove his clothes and ravage her all over again.
"Morning," she chirped, eyes alight.
"Morning," he replied, drying his mouth. "Breakfast?"
"Mhm," she approached and he turned gladly, catching her lips in an enthusiastic kiss. "Let me wash up first."
"Sure, I'll go wake the kids."
Leaving the bathroom and then bedroom, Jaune made his way down the hall and to the other side of the house where his children slept. This hallway was lined with several doors, and Jaune even saw that under a few of them, he could see light peeking out.
Some of them were awake, then.
He knocked on each door as he walked by, calling their names.
"Dawn. Lilac. Olive. Ash. Hunter," he rattled off, fist pounding particularly hard on the doors for some of them, knowing they were deep sleepers. "Lavender. Gray. Jade. Violet. Scarlett. Pyrrha."
"Coming, dad~!" some of them replied.
From the rest, he only received groans.
When he entered the kitchen, it was already filled with the aroma of eggs and bacon, a stack of toast growing ever higher. Jaune took a moment to admire the woman moving back and forth between the stove, the fridge and the dining table, her bathrobe fluttering in her wake. Leaning against the door frame, he just watched.
It took her a while to realize he was there.
"Jaune!" she scolded, hand pressing at the base of her throat as she stepped back in surprise. "Don't do that! You know I hate it when you stand there silently like that."
He grinned roguishly. "Sorry, you know I can't help myself. You just look so beautiful, I don't want to interrupt."
Cerise glared playfully. "Oh? I'm beautiful slaving over the stove, am I?"
"You're beautiful doing anything," straightening up, he walked over and gave her a peck on the lips. Her robe was open in the front, showing off her breasts cupped by a lacy purple bra and matching panties shielding her mound. "I woke the kids, they should be coming now."
She quickly tied her robe closed.
One by one, the little brats appeared. Dawn, Lilac, Olive, Ash, Hunter, Jade, Violet and Scarlett were all ten, the last two twins. Thankfully, the only twins he'd had. Dawn looked like a copy of her mother, right down to her silver eyes and the red hued tips of her black hair. Lilac had Yang's eyes but her blonde hair was closer to Jaune's than her mothers, kept relatively short around the shoulders. Olive had long, straight blonde hair but Fiona's lambs ears, making her beyond adorable. Ash had all of Blake's coloring from her pale skin to her pitch black hair and cat ears, though his eyes were Jaune's vivid blue. Hunter looked the closest to Jaune in the face, it was almost like looking at a clone of him when he was ten, the same eyes looking back at him – that was, if Jaune had snow white hair. Jade inherited her mother's tail and general disposition, her hair a mixture of Neon's own and Jaune's, giving it a more reddish, rustic appearance with blonde highlights. Violet and Scarlett reminded Jaune so much of Amaranth and Magenta, their older half-sisters, Cerise gifting the world with two more bundles of joy.
They hadn't tried for children after the initial batch since they already had far too many but sometimes things just happened. Lavender, Gray and Pyrrha were younger, eight, seven and six respectively. Unlike Lilac, Lavender had Jaune's eyes though Yang's hair, and her face. There was little of him in her features. Gray had a black tail instead of cat ears, his black hair messy like Jaune's used to be, and like his brother, Jaune's eyes. Pyrrha…
Well – Pyrrha looked just like a miniature Weiss. When she had proposed that name…
He didn't think his love could still grow. Shows what he knew.
Having so many children in one room was always one step away from becoming a circus but this morning, they behaved themselves, eating their breakfast as they chattered away aimlessly. Fiona joined them soon after, and cradling a cup of coffee, Jaune sipped at his drink as he watched his family.
At least, those that were present.
Yang and Blake spent most of their week at Beacon, though typically they alternated between visiting during the week before both coming home for the weekend. Patch was close to Vale and it didn't take much for them to pop over, their large home built on the waterfront, only a short walk from Ruby and Yang's childhood home. Soon after the Huntsman Academy was back up and running, Headmistress Goodwitch had recruited them as Combat Instructors. From all accounts, they were doing a bang up job, though he had heard Glynda complain a few times about how some of Yang's more bombastic personality traits were rubbing off on their more impressionable students.
He had also heard that several students had confessed to her over the years. Blake had not been as amused as Jaune had been.
Ruby was still working as a full time Huntress, and was currently on a job though she wasn't too far away. Mindful of the fate of her late mother, she took missions close to home, in and around the Kingdom of Vale. From her scroll call the previous night, she was thinking she'd be home in two days. She had already exterminated several nests and was working on the last few; packs of troublesome Beowolves that had firmly entrenched themselves and had been harassing merchants and traders traveling between some of the towns and villages along the road to Vale proper.
Neon was also a teacher, though she worked much closer to home at Signal, helping to train the younger generation. She was currently in Atlas, however. Flynt and his wife were expecting their next child any day now, and Auntie Neon was visiting. She wouldn't be home until the end of the week. It was some much needed vacation time. She'd been working herself to the bone lately and needed some time to blow off steam that wasn't just fucking in the bedroom.
Weiss was heavily involved in international operations of the Schnee Dust Company. After the arrest and sentencing of Jacques Schnee, ownership of the company had fallen back to Willow. Much to Jaune's surprise, when offered the CEO position, Weiss had declined, stepping aside for her brother to take over. It hadn't been immediate considering his age but Weiss, Willow and even Winter had worked with him until he was ready to take full control, undoing the years of damage Jacques had wrought. When Jaune asked why she hadn't taken the reigns, Weiss had admitted that the time required would take her away from their children far too often and she did not wish to be an absent parent. Her current position within the company could be completed from Vale, and she often worked from home. She was head of logistics and mostly coordinated the movements of mining equipment, staff, and organized and authorized geological surveys to identify new dust deposits.
The only reason she wasn't home right now was because a brand new mine was opening near the old failed Mountain Glenn expansion site, and it was a big occasion not just for the Schnee Dust Company but for Vale in general, generating a number of jobs for the local economy. There was going to be a ceremony and everything; the first Schnee dust mine on Valean soil in a generation.
Fiona still worked for Robin Hill but now in a more official capacity. Instead of a Happy Huntress, she was now the head diplomat between Mantle and Vale, helping to strengthen ties between the old Kingdom and their once enemy from the Great War. Unlike the others, their relationship was a little different. They weren't 'together' in the traditional sense, though there really was no traditional about any of Jaune's relationships. In the early days, Fiona still operated out of Mantle and Olive was with her. Back in those days, he visited as often as he could and called almost every other day. It hadn't been until she'd been appointed to Vale that things became how they were now, with Olive living with the rest of her siblings and Fiona falling back into bed with him.
Jaune had a feeling her appointment had been at Fiona's urging but she'd never said and he'd never asked.
As for Cerise, well – she was the stay at home mom. Someone had to do it and she had the most experience. And Jaune – he was mostly a stay at home dad these days. He occasionally took missions when timetables lined up, and sometimes he accompanied Ruby on her jobs but for the most part, he raised his children.
Life was… good. No, it was great.
Salem had been silent. Ozpin believed she had already moved on to her next plan, viewing this generation as a failure. With her existence well known now across the globe, it made things more difficult for her when everyone was united against her. Hazel, Mercury and Emerald had reemerged months after Cinder Fall's death, though not on any orders from the Queen of the Grimm. Taking matters into his own hands, Hazel had come for revenge.
It had been Oscar that managed to talk the hulking man down. It had been a tense situation but it had ultimately solved itself. For their involvement in the attack on Vale, Mercury and Emerald had been arrested but set free soon after – so long as they worked on Ozpin's behalf. They had invaluable intel on Salem, and they had been all too eager to spill the beans for their own freedom. With Cinder dead, they held no loyalty to Salem.
Emerald did her best to avoid them at all costs. Cinder's death had been a blow that she had not fully recovered from, and Jaune didn't bother pushing the issue. As long as she didn't hurt people, he had no reason to interact with her.
But some loose ends still remained.
The Grimm hybrids still existed and one of their number remained absent. Grimm Cerise had been spotted many times over the years, and it soon became apparent that her intelligence was much higher than that of her siblings. While the rest of the group remained in a child-like state, she had integrated into society seamlessly, living amongst human and faunus. Whenever they managed to find her, she always got away, vanishing without a trace before reappearing years later in a completely different city under a different alias and with a brand new life.
She was like a ghost. How did one catch a ghost?
The people that knew her, worked with her, interacted with her on a daily basis had no idea about her true origins, about what she truly was. Her unusual appearance – pale skin, white hair and red eyes – were explained away as albinism, further enforced by her apparent dislike for direct sunlight. In many of the photos of her that Jaune had seen, she was always wearing wide brimmed hats and long, flowing dresses and gloves.
Why she was so different from the other hybrids remained a mystery. It was unsettling – but as far as they knew, all their investigations revealed a somewhat shy introvert who kept to herself for the most part, and no matter how far they dug into her various lives, they discovered nothing more untoward. No attacks, no deaths.
She wasn't eating people. At least that was something.
The other hybrids called Patch home, living deep in the interior forests. They still listened to Jaune without question, still called him father, and they were under constant surveillance. Matter of fact, they were the reason why the Grimm population on Patch had dramatically decreased. They had no qualms about fighting and destroying Grimm, and it was often a popular past time for them to hunt their dark brethren. It was a sport to them, and it helped keep their more violent impulses in check.
Patch was without a doubt one of the safest places to live in the entire world, and it wasn't just because several Huntsmen now called it home.
Checking the time, Jaune finished off his food before wrangling his children like an expert, getting them washed and dressed and ready for school. The younger ones still attended ordinary elementary school while the older ones were in their first year of Signal. They'd all shown an interest in becoming Huntsmen which wasn't a surprise when practically all of their role models were Huntsmen. Cerise had been holding out on the hope that their twins might follow in Amaranth and Magenta's footsteps, the pair attending medical school in Vale but he somehow doubted that would happen.
It was still possible – but highly unlikely.
It wasn't that Cerise had anything against their profession. She had allowed Jaune to train Amaranth and Magenta, even going so far as unlocking their aura. They didn't attend any combat institutions and weren't pursuing the career, but they were more than capable of handling some Grimm. Cerise just hated the idea of her little girls putting themselves in danger.
Jaune understood the feeling all too well and had a better understanding of what his parents went through when he expressed his own desires to become a Huntsman when he clearly had no idea what it entailed.
Amidst a chorus of groans, Jaune ushered his hoard of children out the door.
"Be good~!" Fiona called happily.
Now dressed in a cute white summer frock, Cerise walked by his side as they escorted their children to school. The elementary school was fairly close to Signal and so they followed the same path. Cerise would take the younger ones while Jaune would deliver the older kids to Signal and their Grandpa Taiyang.
It was a little funny how all these years later, he was still taking kids to school. Only now it was his own.
"You were very loud last night," Cerise commented cheekily when the kids were sufficiently distracted, arguing about petty slights that seemed world ending to a child.
Jaune rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Sorry, Fiona was… uh, pent up."
Cerise giggled, covering her mouth. "You certainly knew what you were doing when you built the children's rooms so far away."
That hadn't stopped the handful of times their kids had walked in on them.
"It was very frustrating, hearing you two all night. I had to take care of myself."
Jaune swallowed, feeling his cock twitch. That was an alluring thought, imaging Cerise furiously masturbating as he fucked Fiona rotten in the next room over, her cries of pleasure spurring Cerise on.
"You could have joined us, if you wanted," he said.
"I thought about it but Fiona has a lot of time to catch up on. She deserves some one on one action," Cerise then pinned him with those hauntingly beautiful eyes. "When we get home, you can make it up to me."
It wasn't a suggestion.
Jaune grinned.
Patch was small enough that there was only one real town on the island, though the residents were spread out around the coast on all sides. The town itself contained a handful of streets lined with stores, entertainment venues like a cinema, arcade and leisure center, and other typical amenities found in most towns. It had grown a lot in recent years, the population steadily increasing. Nearly seven thousand people called Patch home now compared to the three thousand that lived here when Yang and Ruby grew up.
Signal was the first school along the current path. Cerise pecked him on the cheek and with a look of promise, continued onwards with Lavender, Gray and Pyrrha.
"Bye daddy~!" Pyrrha called out happily, waving enthusiastically. Lavender and Gray joined her, and Jaune continued waving until they were out of sight.
"Okay, guys – be good for your teachers," Jaune turned a stern eye on Ash and Hunter who were snickering. "Uncle Qrow is back in town, so if you mess around, you'll be spending a week with him."
Ash and Hunter flinched, their sly grins quickly falling from their faces. The last time they'd been forced to stay with Qrow, they'd come back crying after he put them through the ringer. Five days and nights of survival training more suited to Beacon attendees, not first year Signal students. They'd been traumatized for months afterwards.
"Yes, dad," they muttered, abashed.
"Lilac, I don't want to hear about any bullying, do you hear me?"
Lilac shot him a look of outrage. "I didn't bully anyone!"
"Not everyone likes being the butt of a joke or prank," he scolded her lightly and she wilted, scuffing her boot around the ground. "It's good to have fun but not at the expense of others."
"Sorry," she said softly.
"Right," he said warmly, mussing her hair to show he wasn't truly angry. She squawked as she struggled with his hand, scowling furiously as she attempted to fix the damage he'd wrought. "Go on, then. I'll see you all this afternoon."
"Bye, dad," Dawn said before sprinting off, as hyperactive as her mother.
Jade gave him a brief hug before running after her sister.
"Bye," he waved and watched as they all made their way into the building before turning to head home.
Jaune took two steps and stopped cold.
Red eyes watched him from beneath a wide brimmed hat, the woman dressed in a long, flowing dress reminiscent of the summer frock Cerise had chosen for the day. Elbow length gloves covered her lower arms and hands, slender fingers clasped together in front of her belly. A gentle breeze buffeted her hair, the snow white strands dancing through the air.
Things were about to get complicated.
"Hello, father," Grimm Cerise greeted, her voice smooth, cultured. "I've decided to come home."
She gestured behind her and a small woman stepped forward from her shadow wearing a shit eating grin. Even if her hair and eyes hadn't been a dead giveaway, even if he had somehow miraculously forgotten her face which he hadn't, there was no mistaking that smug smile.
A little older though no less beautiful, Neopolitan smirked at him.
By her side was a young girl. Long, wavy brown hair tumbled down across slender shoulders and all the way down her back, almost long enough to reach the ground. A pair of vibrant blue eyes peered up at him curiously, her head tilting to the side in an action that reminded Jaune too much of her mother.
Fuck .
"I've brought guests," Grimm Cerise continued placidly, as if she hadn't just delivered a bomb right to his doorstep. "Family."
Yeah, things were about to get real complicated.
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The end...?
So... I started thinking about this story and planning it sometime in 2022, and began posting it at the beginning of 2023, before Volume 9 aired. At the time, the story was going to follow canon a little more closely then end with the attack on Atlas, and them either defeating Salem's forces or falling into the void like at the end of Volume 8. At the time, we didn't know about the Ever After.
I can't remember when I started to craft a different ending but it was pretty early on. The harem was originally meant to have three more women involved; Winter, Penny (super obvious) and Harriet from the Ace-Ops, the latter two of which I even had things in story for set up, but I decided to cut Winter and Harriet since I felt I already had more than enough girls, and Penny was a casualty of the plot shifting away from the more canon-orientated ending to this one. Since she never became human here like she did in the show, she ended up missing out -- though I'm sure many wouldn't have cared if she'd joined in as an android. :)
I hadn't meant for this to be a fix it story or anything like that, but it kinda ended up that way in some respects? At least, things turned out remarkably well for the good guys. I had many different ideas over the months that I discarded. One of them was where the children were all infected, though they didn't know it -- even the reader would only find out in the epilogue.
But this may not be the end...? I do have some ideas about where I could take a potential sequel but this would be something I write far in the future, if ever. I left it open for a continuation, though. And who knows -- maybe some of those discarded ideas could become a reality.
I hope everyone who read this enjoyed it, if only a little bit.
My next story will be a AU Beacon volume 1 - 3 story. I'm going to be away during all of June, so expect it at the start of July sometime. You can find more information about that story on my linktree.
If you wish to find out more about author's writing, you can visit him here: https://linktr.ee/erisedfiction