Jaune's heel dug lightly against the broken pavement. His muscles tensed with the coiled instinct to move, to act, to do anything other than just stand there while Yang had a blade resting against her throat. The thought flickered through his head like a spark thrown against dry tinder. If he teleported behind Neo, he could potentially get one clean kick in. Maybe he could knock her off Yang before she slit anything open. But the moment that hope flickered, he saw the distance between the girl's blade and Yang's neck. It wasn't even a full handspan width between the two.
Neo would... most likely be faster.
Faster than his teleport and follow-up. Faster than any of them could react while Yang's aura stat sat at zero. Well, it probably wasn't at zero anymore. Closer to half a percent by now, probably. Still equally useless, however.
He grimaced quietly. It wasn't defeat so much as acknowledging the reality of the moment. One wrong move and Yang would bleed across the ground before he even resolved into view.
Roman flicked his wrist and made a humming sound of pretend boredom as he shifted the unconscious girl he carried. Neo adjusted her stance minutely but never removed the blade from Yang's throat. Her posture was relaxed, playful even, but the tension in her core betrayed an unmistakable readiness to strike. Her eyes flicked sideways at Roman in a silent little signal, one eye narrowing, the other tilting toward Jaune.
Roman caught whatever message had been exchanged, nodded, and then looked straight at Jaune.
"By the way," Roman said in a voice that pretended kindness, "my associate would appreciate it if you removed that little meta rune trick that you stuck to her. She finds it extremely rude."
Jaune's teeth clenched as he felt Ruby tense behind him. He met Neo's eyes. She watched him like a predator watching prey that had temporarily stopped running. Her blade pressed deeper to Yang's neck, in warning.
He didn't have a choice.
He lifted his hand, dissipated the condensed Weakness, and watched the invisible haze around Neo evaporate.
Neo gave him an amused smile. As if she found Jaune's compliance adorable. She even tilted her head a little, as if giving him a silent mocking thank-you.
Trying to stay ahead of whatever Roman might be thinking, Jaune cleared his throat. "Who's that girl? And why are you carrying her like that?"
Roman's eyebrows rose, as did Neo's which sharpened with interest. Both of them looked at Jaune as if he had just spoken in some alien language.
Then Roman gave a soft incredulous laugh. "Oh, I see. You're trying to buy time for your little kamikaze friend to recover enough aura to use her pretty explosion trick again." His eyes slid towards Yang with an expression both amused and condescending. "Darling, even if she got enough back, it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't do anything to Neo."
Ruby's glare sharpened at his words. She lowered her stance slightly, only to stop herself as Neo shifted the blade again against Yang's skin with perfect precision.
"And before you ask something stupid," Roman continued pleasantly, "I am not revealing anything about her runes. So do not bother guessing and don't bother bluffing. Just remember that if your friend tries anything, Neo will split her throat before any of you can blink. Understand?"
Jaune grimaced. Ruby's jaw tightened as she stepped free of the rubble, dust falling from her shoulders. Neither of them answered at first.
Roman's eyes narrowed with exaggerated impatience. "Got it?"
They both nodded reluctantly.
Yang glared, furious and silent, her teeth grinding behind her lips. She may have survived being stabbed thanks to her rune, but surviving was not the same as fighting. One cut from Neo would eliminate all chance of a comeback.
After rank zero, stats began to matter. But runes began to matter even more. Jaune remembered Professor Goodwitch explaining how each rank changed the dynamics of combat and Roman and Neo were demonstrating it with terrifying clarity.
Roman finally sighed and walked over to a chunk of rubble near where he had originally fallen, reached down, and fished out his bowler hat. It was scratched, bent at the brim, and dust clung to the surface.
He carried the unconscious girl over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing and brushed off the hat lightly before placing it back on his head.
"Now," Roman said while patting the hat into shape, "to address your earlier question. The one about the girl." He looked at Jaune. "What exactly do you mean by that? Is this supposed to be a joke?"
Jaune's brow furrowed. Ruby and Yang looked equally confused.
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked. "I'm not joking. I asked who she is. Is she part of LUCID? Are you planning on using her for something?"
Roman stared at him for a long moment, then tilted his head slowly. His mouth twitched.
Then he burst into laughter.
A full-bodied, shoulders-shaking, almost-tears-at-the-corners laughter. The kind of laugh someone has when the punchline to a joke is so impossibly stupid that it loops back around to being hilarious.
"You mean to tell me," Roman said, wiping at the corner of his eye, "that you do not even know who she is?"
Jaune's frown deepened. Ruby's eyes narrowed. Yang's expression twisted in frustrated confusion.
Ruby stepped forward. Her voice sharpened with a cold edge she almost never used. "Stop playing around and spit it out."
Roman raised an eyebrow, clearly enjoying the coldness in her tone. "My, my. The sweet one grows fangs."
At their uniformly unimpressed stares, he lifted his hand lightly. "Alright, alright. No need to get snippy."
He shifted his grip on the unconscious woman again and gestured around them. The street painted a picture of ruin. Dragon Gang fighters clashed with LUCID operatives in the distance. Sparks of rune light flickered across the battlefield. Explosions echoed near and far. And up in the sky, so far above that the figures were little more than silhouettes against the night, Qrow, Raven and Evergreen were unleashing shockwaves that rattled the clouds.
Roman let the moment breathe.
Then he looked Jaune dead in the eye.
"This girl," he said calmly, "is the reason all of this is happening, kiddos."
The words landed like a drop of cold water striking molten metal.
Roman continued, "The Dragon Gang. LUCID. The Rank 2's currently painting the sky red and black with explosions. The ridiculous little war breaking out across half of Belmont's dream realm tonight."
He tapped the unconscious girl's back with two fingers.
"All because of her."
Yang whispered hoarsely, "What? How does that even make sense? Is this another one of you dumb jokes?"
Roman shook his head once. "Hand over heart, kamikaze girl. I'm telling you the truth... for once."
Jaune swallowed hard. "So... who is she?"
Roman smiled a smile that was not a smile at all.
Someone screamed in the far distance. A shockwave cracked the pavement beside them. The night wind carried the scent of smoke and panicked shouts.
Roman met their eyes. His tone dropped into something low and final.
"Come on, now, you're telling me you guys really don't even know?"
He gave them one last long look, as if still trying to puzzle out how three smart kids could be so utterly, spectacularly out of the loop.
"Well," he finally said, dusting off his hat again, "that is… quite curious, isn't it? You don't know. Of all people, you defenders don't even know what you were supposed to be defending." His gaze sharpened.
"This entire circus? The explosions? Dragon Gang raids? The Rank 2s redecorating the sky? All of LUCID scrambling like headless chickens tonight? Every single lunatic thing happening in Belmont's little dream bubble right now?"
He tapped the unconscious girl twice. "It's because of her. And because Evergreen kidnapped her right from under their noses."
Ruby's eyes widened in shock. A thousand thoughts hit her at once and Jaune felt it too. Puzzle pieces slammed together behind their eyes with violent clarity.
It was a dawning—horrifying—understanding.
He stared at the unconscious girl with something between shock and disbelief. But under all that, confusion threaded through his expression.
Yang shifted uncomfortably against Neo. "Wait, what? Could someone explain this to me?"
Jaune exhaled slowly, brows tightening as the gears spun in real time.
"When I asked Raven whether permanent imbuing was a device or a machine, she had agreed but... the way she said it— it was like she didn't meant tech. It wasn't a machine. The way she phrased it… it was weird."
His gaze narrowed. "And the secrecy. Qrow, Raven, Evergreen—they weren't hiding a device or a method. Rather... they were hiding his dirty deed."
His eyes slid back to the girl and he swallowed almost painfully. "They were hiding her. Or rather, her runes, weren't they?"
Jaune raised his eyes to Roman. "What is it?"
Roman's face brightened with something like pleased vindication.
"There he is," Roman said. "Smart kid. Figured it out faster than half the scientists LUCID's got locked in their shiny labs."
Ruby stiffened beside Jaune.
Roman lifted a finger, swirling it lazily as if drawing a sigil in the air. "This girl's rune is a special one. A meta rune—one that's only ever been theorized to be able to created. The kind researchers wrote entire books about without ever managing to reproduce."
He smiled slyly. "But she did. All by herself."
His voice dropped with dramatic weight.
"Perpetuity."
The word alone carried a pressure. Ruby and Jaune felt something cold pass down their arms.
"The only rune in current existence that can make imbued runes permanent."
Roman went on, tone almost reverent.
"And it's not just the rune. It's her. She hit comprehension and mastery in a matter of months. That's why Perpetuity is so strong—it's tied to a monstrous prodigy that surpasses all monstrous prodigies. Her existence, is not a theory."
Yang shifter even more against Neo, who smacked the back of her head in warning. Yang growled but stilled in response as she felt the knife digging even deeper into her flesh.
Roman stared at Yang and moved closer to her and Neo. He talked over her gently.
"Evergreen heard about her creating Perpetuity, and snatched her from her father. Figured she'd make for the perfect little tool to siphon, stabilize, and mass-produce permanent imbuements for LUCID."
The three teens stomachs twisted.
Roman shifted the girl's weight on his back with surprising care.
"And here's the fun part," Roman added. "She's the daughter of Arias, the displacement user and our boss. The guy currently carving holes in the sky with Qrow and Raven and Evergreen."
Another distant shockwave boomed overhead as if on cue.
Roman's grin widened.
"Now you see it, kiddos? That's why Arias hired us—to retrieve his daughter safely. The Dragon Gang softened LUCID up with guerilla hits and dream erosion. Then, once they're nice and exhausted…"
He snapped his fingers. "We swoop in and collect her. Clean, neat and simple."
His eyes gleamed.
"And lucky us—today, things went really well."
Jaune let Roman finish. Let the weight of the revelation settle across the ruined street like a fresh layer of dust. Let Ruby process. Let Yang glare in confused frustration. Let Neo keep her blade perfectly poised against Yang's throat. Let the distant shockwaves ripple overhead like the angry pulse of a wounded sky.
Then he drew a slow breath and stepped forward a single pace.
"That explanation makes sense," Jaune said. "But I'm inclined to believe that there's more to the story than how you're painting it."
Roman's brows lifted in theatrical offense. "Kid, I am practically a fountain of transparency."
Ruby snorted under her breath and Yang would have rolled her eyes if the blade near her skin had not reminded her to stay very, very still.
Jaune did not smile. He did not glare either. He simply kept his eyes on Roman as if the lanky thief was a puzzle piece he had finally begun to understand.
"Don't think I forgot what you did earlier," Jaune continued. "How you used your words to shape our entire fight. You pretended that conversation was just conversation, but every time you opened your mouth you were manipulating something."
Roman placed a hand over his heart in a dramatic display of innocence. "Manipulating? Me? What a terrible accusation. I am deeply wounded."
Neo tilted her head in silent amusement, giving Roman a look that wordlessly said she agreed with Jaune.
Jaune continued anyway. Now that he had the space to think, now that the lull in the chaos granted him clarity, the insight felt sharp and undeniable.
"You were weaving everything," Jaune said. "Every little line and pause. You were pushing the situation exactly where you wanted it to go."
Roman blinked. For just a fraction of a second his expression cooled, as if the mask slipped enough to reveal a flicker of honest interest.
"Go on, kid," he said softly. "I am curious what you think you noticed."
Jaune nodded.
"When the Dragon Gang started fighting LUCID, you saw me take down that brute. The big guy with that strength-type rune. You watched me fight him and you saw what I could do. You understood rune interactions and the stat differences that my rune could make. Especially how dangerous I could be if I got involved in that larger battlefield."
Roman said nothing. The flash of interest in his eyes deepened.
"So you stopped me," Jaune said. "By using both your words and skill in battle. You picked me as a target and used me to drag Yang and Ruby away from the battlefield as well. You forced our attention towards you. You made it impossible for me to leave, especially after you stole my blades."
Jaune pressed on.
"You dragged the fight out and shifted the location just enough to separate us from the main conflict. You kept us occupied while something else was happening. You kept us talking and reacting. You used your runes sparingly, never enough to overpower us, but just enough to make us waste time figuring out what you could do."
Roman tilted his head and smiled a small, quiet smile that held none of the flamboyance from earlier.
"Not bad," he murmured. "Keep going."
"Then, when we did figure it out..." Jaune said, "you lied. Not just a normal lie either. A well crafted one that was hidden in truth. You said you were the strongest Below Rank Two, and to a degree, you might have been right. But those words... they were only meant to intimidate us. To confuse us and make us think you were on a different level. But Ruby figured out your real limitations. She broke your bluff and made you admit it through how you reacted when she figured out how Steal worked."
Ruby's cheeks flushed slightly, though her eyes stayed hard.
Roman shrugged with a grin. "I thought it was a wonderful bluff but... apparently not wonderful enough."
"It was wonderful," Jaune said. "Just not for the reasons we thought. It was not meant to trick us into thinking you were powerful. It was meant to distract us. It was meant to make us focus on you. To make us waste time analyzing your capabilities while you maneuvered everything around Neo."
Neo's smile brightened as if the compliment pleased her.
"For your partner to do what she needed to do," Jaune said, staring at the petite girl holding Yang hostage, "you made sure we never noticed her. Every time she moved, every time she positioned herself, you made sure our attention was on your theatrics. She saved that girl. Or kidnapped her back. Or retrieved her. Whatever word you want to use. The point is she accomplished her job while you occupied every neuron in our heads."
Roman slowly clapped.
The sound echoed in the ruined street. One hand clap at a time, almost gentle, almost appreciative, almost mocking.
"You get it now," Roman said. "Took a while, but you finally caught up."
Jaune's eye twitched. "You played us."
"Of course I did," Roman replied cheerfully. "What do you think I do for a living. Sell girl scout cookies? I am a criminal, blondie. A confidence man. A strategist. A professional liar. I lie the way little red over there breathes air and the way kamikaze girl makes explosive decisions. It is natural to me. It is who I am."
Yang tried to lift a hand to flip him off, then remembered the blade at her throat again.
Roman lifted a finger.
"But here is the fun part, kid. You are wrong about one thing. I didn't merely parlay with you using words and actions."
Jaune frowned. "What do you mean?"
Roman tapped his temple lightly.
"Well, I can't be giving away all of my secrets now, can't I?"
Ruby felt a shiver crawl down her spine. She had known Roman was tricky. But hearing his methods so plainly, made it feel like they had been playing tag with a chess grandmaster.
Roman continued.
"You three are strong. Perhaps even too strong for your ages and experience. But you are also new. You are raw. You fight with instinct, talent and heart. That will take you far. But against someone like me, instinct is predictable. Talent is readable. Heart is exploitable. I knew exactly what you would do because you knew exactly what you should do."
Jaune slowly nodded.
"So everything you said earlier," he murmured, "everything about Perpetuity and the girl and Evergreen kidnapping her and Arias hiring you.... it was true, but the way you told it was still a tactic."
Roman shook his head.
"No, that is where you're wrong. I have no need to lie anymore. We've already won, after all. So all I've said is the truth. There's probably a deeper layer somewhere, but I couldn't be bothered to understand it. I'm just here to get paid, after all."
Jaune drew a long breath.
"I see..."
While Roman basked in his own performance, the world itself interrupted him.
A deep, concussive boom cracked across the sky like the heavens had torn in half. The shockwave that followed was strong enough to rattle shattered windows and send half-broken streetlights swaying. Dust drifted from unstable rooftops. Pebbles jittered across the asphalt.
All five of them instinctively froze and looked upward.
Even Neo, whose blade had never once wavered from Yang's throat, tilted her head slightly. The pink and brown segments of her eyes narrowed in shared alarm.
Roman stared up and muttered, almost beneath his breath, "That... doesn't look right..."
Jaune silently agreed. His skin crawled and his heart stuttered. Whatever was happening above them felt like an ocean bearing down on a grain of sand.
Far above them, so high that the black clouds looked like shadow cotton beneath the battling titans, a monstrous shape eclipsed the fractured bloody moonlight.
A colossal avian with two heads, each one shaped like a massive corvid with serrated beaks of obsidian, grappled with something incomprehensible. The avian's wingspan was so wide that it cast shadows over entire districts. Shadowy arms grew from its torso, each limb clawed and violent, grasping and tearing at the writhing mass before it.
And the mass. The mass was almost impossible to comprehend. A ball of flesh as large as a skyscraper, pulsating and heaving like a living wound in the sky. Dozens of mouths formed and dissolved across its surface. Every time a new mouth appeared and began to scream, shadow-arms erupted from the corvid monster to clamp them shut or rip them away. Tendrils lashed outward in impossible arcs, wriggling and twisting like serpents trying to envelop the bird-like monstrosity.
Around the central conflict, smaller but still building sized monstrous crows attacked the eldritch ball in coordinated bursts of violence. Their cries echoed like the wails of broken metal.
Yang's jaw dropped. "Holy shit. Is that Uncle Qrow and Raven? What kind of unholy combination is that...? What the hell are they fighting?"
Roman slowly shook his head. The grin had long since vanished. Neo was visibly tense now, shoulders coiled, eyes scanning every corner of the sky as if expecting the battle to crash down upon them.
Jaune pushed his vision farther, narrowing his focus with practiced intensity. The air distorted like shimmering heat haze in one distant corner of the heavens. Flashes of jade green streaked across the cloud layer. Something there was warping space, bending it, twisting it like fabric pulled in multiple directions.
He recognized Evergreen's Jade constructs, massive spiritual animals slamming into invisible distortions. And in turn, those distortions snapped back into place with deadly precision. The air folded inwards like origami under impossible forces.
That had to be Arias, the displacement user.
Evergreen and Arias were at each other's throats while Qrow and Raven were facing down some type of eldritch nightmare.
Yet even with two Rank Two's at their peak working together, the monstrous flesh-ball seemed to be overwhelming them. Its tendrils wrapped thicker and thicker around the corvid creature. The smaller crows were trying to peel them off, but every tendril torn away regrew twice as fast.
A low curse left Roman's mouth, soft but filled with a dark understanding that chilled Jaune more than the eldritch thing did.
He spun toward Neo. "Launch the signal. Now."
Neo did not hesitate. Her free hand rose, creating a swirl of impossible colors that danced and twisted like liquefied glass. She flicked her wrist, and the kaleidoscopic energy shot upward in a spiraling arc.
The air cracked and bloomed with a giant lotus made of light.
The petals unfolded slowly, deliberately, each layer revealing another inner glow. The signal shimmered with an ethereal beauty that felt completely wrong against the backdrop of destruction above.
Roman exhaled. "That will have to do."
Before anyone could respond, another shockwave rippled downward as the eldritch horror suddenly tore a chunk of shadowy flesh from the corvid titan's side.
The monster screamed, and the scream sounded like the sky tearing apart.
Everything was spiraling out of control.
.
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AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon