And now that we've gotten that reunion out of the way, prepare for three chapters of absolutely nothing!! Urgh... probably the most boring chapters in this book to work on... Thanks, RWBY Volume 5, for so much content to work with! That was HEAVY sarcasm, by the way.
_______________________________
That night, the dinner table was abuzz as the currently present members of Team RWBY, the remaining members of Team JNPR, and all of Team SHDW were all talking over each other indistinctly. The mood was quite cheery, with the children all smiling and laughing.

Everyone was currently laughing at Jaune, Yang saying, "So Skyler actually pranked you by taking the map right from under your nose?! I feel so proud."

Skyler smirked, "Thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jaune retorted, "We're all impressed.

Everyone laughed while Jaune smiled and chuckled sheepishly, Nora then speaking up, "Hey, but you made up for it, Mister Muscles! You shoulda seen this guy take a giant Grimm head on!"

"I couldn't have done it without Ruby, Skyler, and Rose wearing it down."

"Uh, us?" Ruby exclaimed, "Did you see Ren during that fight? He was out of control!"

"I'm sorry," the quiet man apologized, "I may have lost my temper momentarily."

"No, no!" Ruby corrected, "'Out of control' as in 'awesome'!"

"Oooohhh," Ren smiled, "Thank you."

Everyone at the table burst into laughter. As dinner continued, Weiss then finished telling her story about how she accidentally summoned a Boarbatusk during the Schnee charity ball.

Hazel gasped, "You did not!"

Weiss put her head in her hands, "Yeah, right in the middle of the party."

Hazel grinned and patted her on the shoulder, "I'm starting to like you now."

"Please tell me you let that lady have it," Yang said.

"Of course not!" Weiss responded, "Even if I did really want to..."

Walker smiled proudly and put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, no shame in that. I'm pretty sure we would have all done the same thing."

Weiss smiled gratefully at the remark, a little red in the face. The others caught that look and all raised an eyebrow at it.

But before anyone could speak up on the matter, Nora crossed her arms, skeptical, "No way, I don't believe it."

Suddenly, Weiss' summoned Boarbatusk appeared right next to Nora. The Grimm summon growled, causing Nora to yelp and fall on her side. Weiss, Yang, Jaune and Ren all laugh. As dinner came near to its end, Yang showed off her robotic prosthetic arm to the rest of the group, all of them reacting in awe.

"It's not a replacement for the real thing," Yang said, "But I'll make sure to make good use of it."

"That's amazing..." Skyler murmured.

"Incredible," Ren complimented.

Ruby, ever the fanatic, got all starry-eyed and quickly zoomed over to her sister's side to admire her arm, holding it up, "And it's just as strong?"

Yang smiled proudly and nodded, "Sure is."

Suddenly, there was a loud bang on the table. Everyone turned to see that Nora had her arm out on the table, ready to arm wrestle.

"Wanna bet?" Nora grinned maniacally.

"Nora, please," Weiss protested, "Now's not the time-"

But despite her words, Yang had already sat down and begun to arm wrestle Nora. Jaune and Ren cheered on their teammate while Ruby, Skyler, and Dante cheered on for Yang. Weiss and Walker looked, the former looking disdainful while the latter looked amused by all this tomfoolery.

"Don't let her beat you!" Jaune cheered, "You can do it! Come on!"

"You can do this!" Ren added, "Show them what Team JNPR's made of!"

"C'mon, sis!" Ruby exclaimed, "Aw, you can't lose to a girl in a skirt!"

"You wear a skirt, Ruby," Weiss replied.

Ruby just shook Weiss, who was still frowning, but now looked like she was trying to hold back a smile, "Weiss, you're not cheering loud enough!!"

"It definitely feels like the original," Nora strained, but refused to give an inch, "I'll give you that!"

"Yep," Yang grinned, "But, it does have some new features!"

Nora scoffed, "Oh yeah?"

Suddenly, a robotic sound was heard coming from Yang's arm, and Nora was knocked back to the wall, holding Yang's detached arm in her hand. Nora groaned in pain while the others looked on in concern, except for Yang, who had a smug grin on her face.

"Did she... win?" Dante asked.

As Nora came to, she realized she was holding Yang's robotic arm, causing her to scream and throw it away from her and at its owner. Yang laughed as she caught her arm. Dinner wrapped up, Jaune helping clean up the dishes.

"Gyah... We ate it all..." he said, picking up the pot holding all the bowls, "Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick..."

"Easy there, Vomit Boy," Skyler teased, "I believe in you."

"Oh, we're doing nickname throwbacks now," Jaune replied sarcastically, walking away with the dishware in his hands, "Wonderful."

Weiss giggled, but Nora responded to that, saying, "I mean, the Ice Queen seems to like it."

Weiss stopped giggling while Ruby burst into laughter at Nora's remark. But Weiss smiled nonetheless and rolled her eyes.

"I so did not miss you people," she replied.

Nora gasped, "Oh my gosh, she really does like it! What went and warmed your heart while you were gone?"

"Hey!" Weiss exclaimed, "You make it sound like I used to be terrible."

"Nah," Hazel retorted, "Just a lot to deal with it once."

Weiss scoffed and Hazel playfully stuck her tongue out at her old rival. Walker then spoke up.

"Not to ruin the joke," he said, "But I think she's heard enough of the nickname and teasing from me on our plane ride over here."

"Speaking of which," Dante said to his partner, "I had noticed the new Atlas-like getup. And a pilot? What happened?"

Walker proceeded to tell them his tale, all the way from getting back to his family, getting a job as a cargo pilot, reuniting with Weiss, and finally to where he was where they were when Yang and Dante inadvertently helped bust them out of Raven's camp.

When he was done, Dante grinned, "Look at you, going and becoming a working member of society! Now I just feel bad for doing nothing but watch Yang mope."

Yang gave her friend a stink eye, "I prefer to think of that as 'going through physical and emotional rehab'."

"Tomato, tomahto," he waved off, "I'm not mocking what you went through, but my gods, woman, you were an edgelord and a half even after you put on the arm. I was scared you were gonna end up a Karen."

Skyler winced, "Don't ever say imply Yang becoming so disturbing ever again..."

Walker chuckled a bit before saying, "I've missed this. Before Weiss showed up, all relationships I've had with other people have been strictly professional. I'm glad to see that we haven't let our experiences change us negatively."

"It's been a long time," Ren agreed, "We've all grown in our own ways."

"You really think so?" Ruby asked.

"Well, think back to when we were all at Beacon," Ren replied, "Would you say you ever did anything foolish or embarrassing? Or do you think you were perfect?"

"Oh gosh," Weiss said, burying her face in her hands again.

"I think we can all agree that I was a bit of an idiot," Dante admitted.

"I may have been a little too gung-ho from time to time," Yang admitted.

"Heh, you?" Ruby scoffed, "I tried to one v one a Nevermore on the second day of school."

"I'm sorry," Skyler put in, "But who was the one that literally ran on top of a rampaging Goliath and burnt it to death from the inside out? Oh yeah, me."

Jaune walked back into the room, "Yeah, well... don't even get me started."

"Get you started?" Hazel raised an eyebrow, "I think we can all agree that we were all saints compared to ATUM, specifically Auriel. Agreed?"

"AGREED." Pretty much everyone replied at the same time.

"Well, that embarrassment, that desire to go back and tell yourself not to be so stupid," Ren continued, "That just proves you're not the same person you used to be. You're smarter, you're kinder, you're stronger, and you're not done growing yet. None of us are."

There was silence for a brief moment before Ruby stated, "Yeah, turns out Ren gets real deep when he feels like talking."

Everyone giggled until Nora said, "Well, hold on, I thought I was pretty great in school!"

"Even at the dance?" Dante smirked, "When you spilled punch all over yourself in front of-"

"Yes, especially the dance!!!" Nora yelled over him, "Thank you, Dante!!!"

"How can ten kids possibly make so much noise eating dinner?!"

Qrow, Rose, and Oscar were standing next to Jaune. Oscar gives a small laugh.

"I think you just answered your own question, sir," Skyler retorted, "We're ten teenagers who haven't been together like this in ages. You gotta expect a little rowdiness."
_______________________________
Everyone relocated to the second floor living room, with Weiss, Walker, Dante, and Yang having finished being filled in on what everyone else knew so far. After the information processed, Weiss took a breath.

"So, the Maidens," she said, "Magic. Salem. It's all true?"

Qrow nodded, "Uh-huh."

"Miss Xiao Long," Ozpin spoke, "Is this more or less what your mother told you?"

Yang didn't respond, still having her arms crossed, so Dante answered for her, "For the most part."

"You forgot something," Yang then chose to speak up, "You forgot to tell everyone what you did to Qrow and my mother."

Ruby gasped while Skyler raised an eyebrow and asked Qrow and the headmaster, "What is she talking about?"

"Oh, great," the drunkard sighed.

"Hm, that's not a secret I thought she would give up so easily," Ozpin mused, "Your mother must trust you a great deal."

Yang only scowled at him, but the reincarnated man continued, "My ability to reincarnate, though a curse, isn't without a few key benefits. Much like the Maidens, I too possess a certain... 'magical' power."

He stood up and walked next to Qrow, "Using this power, I was able to gift the Branwen twins the ability to 'see' more, to move freely and be unburdened by their natural bodies. I... well... gave them the ability to turn into birds."

He chuckled, "Rather ridiculous sounding out loud, isn't it?"

"Uncle?" Ruby said confusingly.

"You turned them..." Hazel muttered, "Into birds?"

"Alright," Nora said, "Now you're just messing with us.

Jaune spoke angrily, "What else is new?"

"He's telling the truth," Walker responded, "I was probably the most skeptical of us. But we saw it. Yang's mom... changed, right in front of us."

"Why would you do something like that?" Yang questioned, "I mean, what is wrong with you?"

"Yang, that's enough!" her uncle scolded, "We made a choice. We wanted this."

Yang relented and Ozpin said to Qrow, "May I?"

Qrow nodded and Ozpin addressed Yang, "Granting this power to them was no trivial task, and I can assure you it was not done frivolously. I required assistance in gathering information on Salem's plans, as well as searching for Maidens when their hosts became unclear."

"Okay, so, have you done this with others?" Ruby asked, "Like General Ironwood? Or Professor Goodwitch?"

"As helpful as that might be, unfortunately, it is not that simple. My power is finite, and if I'm being honest, dwindling. The amount that I gifted to Qrow and Raven was, all things considered, rather miniscule. You see, centuries ago, I sacrificed a great deal of magic to four young women, who I hoped would use my gift for good. They were the first Maidens."

Everyone was silent for a moment before the headmaster continued, "Miss Xiao Long, it was never my intention to lie to you. To any of you. There are just some matters that I prefer to... 'play close to the chest'."

He looked at Qrow, "I believe that's how you phrased it?"

Qrow chuckled, "Yeah."

"Everyone has a choice. The Branwens chose to accept their powers and the responsibilities that came with them. And later, one of them chose to abandon her duties in favor of her own self-interest. Now, all of you have a choice. If anyone wishes to leave, now is the time. There's no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat."

Everyone was silent as they ponder Ozpin's words. Skyler turned to Rose and his teammates, who all had the same look: determination. They weren't backing down. And Skyler knew that no person or team, not even Salem or EBNE, would discourage them.

"Very well, then," Ozpin said, but then Yang suddenly stood up.

"Yang?" Ruby addressed her sister nervously.

"If Ruby, Dante, and Skyler stick around, then I will too," the blonde said, "If there's one thing I know about them, it's that they somehow always knows the right thing to do. No matter how crazy we get at times.

She smiled at her childhood friends, who responded in kind before she continued, "But, if we're going to help, if we're going to keep risking our lives, no more lies. No more half-truths."

Everyone remained silent at that proposition. Ozpin and Qrow exchanged a brief look with each other, the former pondering Yang's words for one last moment before replying.

He smiled, "Understood."

Yang sat back down, satisfied, before Jaune then said, "So... what now? I mean, what can we do?"

Ozpin considered that, "That is a difficult question. One that I believe is best answered tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Hazel asked.

"The road ahead is undoubtedly filled with hardships and peril. However, it's been far too long since you have all been together."

He puts his hand on Yang's shoulder, and she smiled, "Please, take tonight, enjoy this moment."

Suddenly his eyes glowed, with Ozpin giving Oscar back in with his body. The boy realized he had his hand on Yang's shoulder, and quickly took it off and nervously held his cane in his hand. Yang and Weiss laughed at him, before everybody heard a noise from Nora.

"Oooohhh!!" Nora suddenly realized, "Raven?! Qrow?!"

She looked around at everyone's confused faces, "They're birds!!!"

She leaned back and folded her hands behind her head, proud of herself, "Cracked it!"

Ren shook his head at Nora being slow on the uptake while everyone else laughed.
_______________________________
Sometimes I wish I could just ignore these three chapters entirely and just skip to "The More the Merrier", ESPECIALLY next chapter, but alas, I must keep up with the show. Gonna be completely honest here. Next chapter's gonna take a LOT longer than usual to finish, due to me taking a few liberties in order to fit my characters into the narrative, as well as write some original stuff. But I think the wait will be worth it. Till next time guys!