Jaune's first instinct upon waking was to remain silent. Perhaps that said something about how he'd developed as a person, or maybe the experiences he'd been through. Either way, paranoid caution had saved his life on numerous occasions and it didn't cost him anything if there was nothing wrong. With eyes held shut, he strained his ears. He was just about able to pick out the muffled conversation of his parents - and then the rhythmic beeping of hospital equipment.
He was alive, then... that was good.
He could vaguely remember the final words before darkness had taken him. An incantation that was altogether too familiar, yet also new. His father had never unlocked his aura before… the first time it had been Pyrrha. After that, whoever he could pay to unlock it. Usually some wandering Hunter he might cross in the wilderness. It didn't matter when and where he unlocked it… he just always made sure it was active before he reached Beacon.
After all, he hadn't needed to fake his way into the school for a long time.
"- said might still sleep, but that he's stable now. There shouldn't be any risks, not unless something goes wrong." That was his father, the deep timbre of his voice was tinged with exhaustion. As though sleep had not been something he had been able to attain.
"Something already went wrong," Juniper hissed, "Two Grimm not only got close to the house but nearly killed us all! What the hell happened with the watch?"
"I don't know," that answer didn't seem to please his mother, for Jaune could feel her anger from where he lay, "but I will be finding out, rest assured. If anyone was slacking, I'll personally roast them over a fire."
"I don't like this Nicky. I thought you said you didn't train him – where did he learn to fight like that?"
"It was probably instincts. Fear can do a lot to give a person motivation and inspiration. Don't think on it."
"How can I not? I almost died, only to find my son rushing at a huge monster with nothing but his bare hands." Jaune felt a small flicker of some emotion, but buried it down – doing what he could to remain still and keep his breathing deep. Did his mother not even imagine what it was like for all of them as well? To see her standing there with that loving smile as she accepted death so that they might live?
It was too cruel.
"Shhh… you're alive, he's alive. The worst didn't happen." Jaune heard the two of them kiss. And had to squash the instinct to cringe at it – seriously, right next to his hospital bed? "Why don't you go see to the girls? They're probably just as worried as you and you're better at comforting them than me."
"Tell me when he wakes up?" Another kiss - another frantic desire to be somewhere else.
"Of course," the door opened and closed as footsteps receded from the room. "Are you going to keep being lazy, or was there some other reason you're pretending to be asleep?"
"I was trying to sleep," Jaune yawned as his blue eyes opened. There was a rush of artificial light, the room a terrifying shade of pristine white that seared his retinas. But a few moments later it started to come into painful focus. It was a small, white room – lacking a window, but fitted with a painfully bright light above his bed. Beside the bed he lay in was a table, covered in potted plants and vases of flowers – as well as a few boxes of sweets. Nicholas sat in a wooden chair towards the end of his bed. "It's not my fault my parents decided to get frisky right next to me."
"Idiot," Nicholas shook his head as he rose to his feet to walk beside Jaune's head. He didn't particularly like being laid down when someone was nearby, but the moment he tried to move a sudden pain lanced through his stomach. "Don't move – you've only been out for two days or so, you need time to recover."
"Did mum's leg heal?" It had been a nasty wound… nothing compared to his own, but then again he was used to receiving such. Watching her, a complete civilian, dragging herself across the floor towards him had been agonising.
"She's fine, a bit of dust medicine and some stitches. She's on crutches right now, but they should be gone in a week or two." Nicholas reached down to flick his nose, causing Jaune's face to scrunch up in displeasure. "You should be more concerned about your own injury. You were nearly disembowelled."
Jaune tried to shrug, only for the motion to come across as simply shuffling in the bed, "Well I'm alive so I guess I know it's not that bad." It would be suspicious for him to act too blasé however, "How did I recover anyway – it doesn't make sense that I could survive something like that and be up so soon when mum is on crutches?"
"That would be because I unlocked your aura," his father's eyes closed with a soft sigh, "you do know how that works, right?"
"We learned a bit in school," Jaune nodded, pleased that he wouldn't need to feign ignorance and go through some long conversation about it. It was hardly uncommon knowledge in Remnant, but then again Jaune hadn't been the most attentive person either. There was one thing though, "Why don't you just unlock Juniper's then? Hell, if she had aura she might have been able to make it through that fight without getting hurt!"
Why didn't everyone have their aura unlocked, why was it not something they did to all children like immunisation? It worked along the same lines too, and while it did take some energy from the one doing it - that was related to how much aura the recipient had. Surely with kids it would be less?
"I suppose they wouldn't have taught you all the intricacies," Nicholas sighed. The man pulled the wooden seat from the edge of the bed, scraping it across the floor so he could sit down near Jaune's head. "There are a lot of good things about aura. The defence, improved healing – even more strength. But that doesn't mean it comes without problems. What do you know about aura, specifically?"
"It's the manifestation of the soul. That's all I know other than what it does for people – for Hunters."
"It's enough in this case. Keep in mind that not many people know much about aura at all, the soul isn't something that is easy to measure or experiment on, so a lot of this is guesswork. Simply put, when we unlock a person's aura we enable their soul to manifest as energy outside their body. The analogy isn't exact, but you might imagine a normal soul as being a jar locked deep inside the body, while an opened soul can travel and expel all the way to the skin – it infuses the entire body and protects it."
Nicholas sighed, rubbing one hand against his face, "The problem is that the Grimm hunt humanity through our emotions, and what they lack is a soul. When we unlock your aura, all of a sudden your soul is not just locked away inside you, but sometimes even visible on your skin. We have more than enough evidence that this makes you more appealing to Grimm as well. It might be something to do with your emotions being more vivid, or expelled from your body with aura."
"Ah…" Jaune glanced aside. That made a certain amount of sense… and also painted quite the cruel picture. So the reason the auras of normal people went unlocked was because doing so only brought more Grimm to them. They would be ticking time bombs, unable to defend themselves, yet drawing Grimm towards them and their families.
Didn't that also mean that retired Hunters would forever be at risk?
Maybe that was why so many of them had banded together in Ansel, and continued to patrol its borders even into old age.
"And now you have this burden," Nicholas intoned.
And by my hand, place this burden upon thee.
"So what, I'm going to attract Grimm forever?" Was his father suggesting he leave so that he didn't endanger their family?
"It's not that dramatic. You should be safe within Ansel anyway – there are a lot of Hunters living here after all. But it is customary to offer at least some training to anyone who unlocks their aura, even if it's just enough for a civilian to stall until help arrives."
Ah… so that was the issue.
"And you don't want to train me." The accusation seemed to hit his father deeply, the man leaning back in his seat as though struck.
"I have no qualms training you if it's to defend yourself. We can start as soon as you're recovered." What the… so after all he had been through, now his father was willing to help train him? "But I have to ask - you said your ambition was to become a musician. Has that changed?"
"No."
Nicholas frowned and leant forward, "So you have no intention of becoming a Hunter?"
"I said I wanted to be a musician, and I do. There's no way I could actually get enough training in so short a time to actually become a decent fighter."
"I don't know," Nicholas sighed, "it looks like you already have a good foundation if you were able to kill a Beowolf not only unarmed, but without aura. I can count the known cases of that ever happening on one hand – and most of those were plucky people leading them into traps or machinery. They used the environment to their advantage for traps or obstacles... I don't think I've ever heard of someone achieving what you did."
"It was just instincts," Jaune tried, only to get a snort from the man.
"Don't give me that bullshit I fed your mother. No amount of instincts can let a child beat a Beowolf into submission like that. You need at least some training."
"I saw it on television."
"Try again. You can't pick stuff up like from just watching it on a screen."
"Time travel?"
Nicholas rolled his eyes, dismissing the truth in an instant, "Jaune, I'm not angry at you, please understand that. Your mother likely will be for risking your life, but I've never loved you more for saving both yourself and her. Thank you, thank you for that."
"I watched people train and followed the steps myself. It wasn't enough to ever get good – but I only had to keep beating it over the head with a pipe." What else was he supposed to say? The truth was unbelievable – as it always was.
The older man didn't look like he fully believed it, but he closed his eyes and accepted it nonetheless. "And yet you still don't want to become a Hunter?"
"I used to, that was why I trained and watched. But I don't anymore. Why are you so hung up over this? Why do you get upset whenever it's mentioned, why act so relieved when I told you I wanted to be a musician two years ago?"
"You remembered that?" Nicholas sighed and looked away. "I suppose you would, ah… it's not something I've really talked about to anyone other than your mother."
"You don't have to then," Jaune wanted to know, but not enough that he would cause problems over it. At the end of the day the whys weren't nearly as important as what and how. His father didn't want him to be a Hunter, what did the reasons matter?
"I'll tell you," his father shrugged, "you earned it for looking after your mother and it might give you a better idea of why I've been holding off on you so much." He paused, one hand coming to his chin as he thought of how best to explain. "I suppose I'll keep it simple… you know that the Arc family has a long history of being heroic warriors?"
"Yeah, I've come across a few mentions of our name in history books." It had been one of the reasons he'd wanted to become a Hunter in the first place. Nowadays they weren't as famous as families like the Schnee, but go back a hundred years or so and they were easily on that level. Jaune had once dreamed of restoring the family name to that level... a name to be respected and loved.
With a statue of him in every city of course... heh, what a fool he'd been.
"Well a reputation like that isn't achieved easily." Nicholas crossed his arms and leaned back as he began the tale, "The family was rigid and unforgiving, both in terms of what you could and could not do. Every child of the family had to become a Hunter – there were no exceptions allowed. You could only date other Hunters, and under no circumstances could you marry or have children with someone who was not also a Hunter of some renown. The bloodline needed to be kept pure, and evolution shows that stronger parents make for stronger children."
"So you hated it because they wouldn't let you date mum?" It sounded like something out of a cheesy romance, but at the same time it was so very them. No one who saw the two could deny the love between them.
"You're jumping ahead a little actually. My family never met your mother, and I wouldn't have introduced them either way. What I wanted to cover was that from a young age I never had a choice of what I wanted to be – neither did my sister."
Jaune had an aunt? That was the first he'd ever heard of such a thing. He wasn't naïve enough to not realise what that meant…
He had an aunt.
"My sister was Sylver Arc and she was three years older than me. I had looked up to her ever since I was young, because she was the only to play with me. My parents felt play should be disguised as training, and thus the only games I knew would be things that could help that – dodging balls, hand-to-eye coordination games, the like… but Sylver would play silly little card or board games with me. Things we actually liked."
"Anyway, she graduated before I did and went off to do her missions. She was a rising star in the Kingdoms, someone to watch out for. Our parents were thrilled and kept pushing her to take difficult missions. I always used to make her promise that she would come back."
"And she didn't?" Jaune guessed.
"Worse," Nicholas growled, "she did come back. It was a mission to protect a research convoy deep into the Grimmlands, an attempt at finding out more about how the Grimm live in the wild. It was a doomed idea but she went along because it was what our parents wanted. When the Grimm struck and she realised it was lost… she remembered her promise to me - and fled." Nicholas ran a hand through his hair, looking agitated. "She came back alone and near death, collapsing in the hospital the moment she arrived. There was a scandal initially – people thought she had left them all to die, and with Sylver recovering in a coma, her side of the argument wasn't coming to light. Eventually the Council decided it was no one's fault, just a bad idea in the first place. No one was to blame... but that wasn't enough… not for my mother and father."
Jaune had never met them… not in any of his lives, and he was beginning to see why.
"Dishonour, coward, scandal - that was all they could hear. When I came rushing from Beacon to finally see her, to make sure she was okay…" there was a loud crack as the wooden armrests of the chair gave way beneath his fingers. "They were standing next to her bed… all the equipment unplugged."
Holy… that took a turn for the dark all of a sudden… he'd expected a tale of a sister long lost that had turned his father away from the profession, but to hear his own grandparents had effectively murdered their child? "Tell me they didn't get away with that?"
"Things were different back then," Nicholas sighed – making Jaune's eyes go wide. No way… "The Council didn't want any panic. Sylver was a famous figure and she might have died of natural causes anyway. They released a statement saying there were complications - that her injuries were too severe. It was all swept under the rug."
"That's… insane. Did they at least get arrested?"
"Old war heroes like them?" his father laughed, "No, they didn't get arrested. I never saw them again. I refused all contact and disowned myself in everything but name. They might still be alive for all I know – I simply don't care so long as they never come near my family. The point of this story is why I didn't want any of my children to become Hunters. Though it seems with you that I ironically followed in my father's footsteps."
Jaune understood those words. By seeking to ensure that his own children never became Hunters, in some small way he'd been as manipulative as the father he hated. Where grandfather Arc had sought to enforce his will in making Nicholas a Hunter, Nicholas had done the same in denying Jaune that goal.
In every other life that would have been true… but for this one time, he could give his father some real comfort.
"I don't want to be a Hunter." Jaune could see the man's shoulders tense. As though he still didn't quite believe it, "I don't know how many times I need to tell you. I wanted to, but not anymore. So you don't need to train me or feel bad about anything, because I'm not interested in it."
Even when I did though, I don't think I ever hated you for denying me. I was always a bit annoyed, but I did wonder if you had a reason. And as flawed as that reason might be. It was nowhere near as bad as those of his father's parents.
"I'm glad," the older man smiled then. The first true smile Jaune had seen since he woke up. "I'll still be training you though. Now that your aura is unlocked you need to know enough to defend yourself, and if you're going to be travelling a lot you might as well have some training."
"I guess that's fi-"
The door slammed open, "Nicholas Arc! You told me you would let me know when he was awake!"
"Ah sweetie, we were jus-" Juniper was having none of it, sweeping into the room and pushing the man aside so fast he fell from his chair. Before Jaune even knew what was going on she had her arms around him, cradling his head beneath her chin.
"I was so frightened, I thought you were going to die, you shouldn't have come back, I told you to run, I love you, you were so stupid!" She leaned back with an expectant expression, "Well!?"
"Were any of those questions?" Jaune managed, still a little woozy from being pulled up so quickly. "I'm sorry?" He wasn't, but it was what usually worked when he was in trouble.
"I forgive you," his mother sighed, "but only if you never risk your life like that again."
Not a chance. If she or any of his sisters were in danger, then there was no way he wasn't going to act to save them. Just because he'd decided to not become a Hunter this time… just because that meant he was going to abandon his friends…
He wouldn't abandon them too. He just couldn't. Nicholas seemed to notice that resolve, giving him a subtle nod from behind Juniper. The scene was quickly made all the more chaotic by the arrival of seven other girls, crowding into the room as they all fought to get some sight of him. As the youngest Amber was allowed to push her way forward, each of the older sisters giving way for her.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" the small girl yelled, slapping down on his arm with one hand, even as Jaune raised his brows and looked to the ceiling for aid. They all acted like the correct choice was to abandon their mother and run away… maybe for a normal person it would have been.
But he knew his limits. Sort of… he hadn't expected to actually survive, but with how his semblance worked it wouldn't have mattered in the long run.
They couldn't understand that though… all they knew was that their brother had almost been taken from them. That the boy they'd grown up with had nearly died.
"Sorry," he said, reaching out to stroke the top of her golden hair. Something wet pushed against the hand she was holding, and he noticed Sapphire step forward to rest her hands on the shoulders of the softly crying girl.
"Everyone's been really worried about you," Sapphire said, voice even and calm. She always stood the tallest among them, a pillar of strength among the household, whose word was second only to their mother. Or that was how it had always seemed… right now she looked like she might fall apart at any moment, her calm facade just that. I was worried, her eyes seemed to scream.
It was all too much for him… too much emotion, too much love and concern. Whenever he'd been hurt before everyone at Beacon was concerned, but never to this degree. They trusted him to recover, trusted his aura to keep him going.
This was different. If only because not one of them had expected him to survive. They truly thought they had lost him. He could see it in the desperation in their eyes, the awkward silence that permeated the room - even how some couldn't meet his gaze - perhaps distressed that they hadn't fought alongside him.
He needed something to distract them – anything that could make the conversation less awkward, before everyone – including him – turned into a blubbering mess of tears and apologies.
"So are all these flowers from you girls?" he laughed out loud, pointing to the myriad plants and looking for any blushes. "I didn't realise I was so popular."
Sapphire winced, "Ah… they're – uh… not from us."
"Oh, these?" his mother cooed, with a voice so filled with sugar that it almost made his teeth rot. The girls backed away from the bed slightly, Nicholas following them as his mother clasped his hand in two of hers. "Fancy us bringing flowers only to find that you already had all of these! There's Mrs Green from the store, Miss Robinson from next door, as well as Amber's primary teacher Miss Marron!"
Oh dear…
"Not to mention my best friend Grace," Hazel growled from the crowd. The tell-tale sound of cracking knuckles letting him know what would be coming the moment he recovered.
"Eh," Jaune laughed – feeling more than a little faint – "who knew I was so popular, eh? Ha ha… heh…" his mother looked unimpressed, as did just about every other girl there. Over the top of her heads his eyes met with those of his father - only to receive a consolatory shrug. That treacherous bastard!
"Crud…"
Things settled down for the next few days. Jaune was to be kept in the hospital a little longer than strictly necessary, just to make sure there weren't any complications. His aura had been unlocked in time to heal most of the damage – a miracle, some of the doctors claimed. Jaune knew from Pyrrha though that his aura had always been much larger than average.
It hadn't been able to repair everything however, not as it would have done were it unlocked from the start. Jaune would forever have a grisly scar across his stomach, the skin there darker in colour, a jagged line across his abdomen. All in all, it wasn't a bad trade from his point of view. What was a scar at the end of the day, compared to the life of another?
It also wasn't anywhere obvious, so no one could even really see it.
His family visited on most days, either in groups or as individuals. His mother alternated between fussing over him, rebuking him for risking his life – or sometimes just staring at him in an effort to prove he was still alive. His sisters on the other hand worked to keep him entertained, reading books or chatting about what was going on – even sneaking games in for him to play with them.
It was never really needed, and all he really wanted to do was sleep - but he could tell it was as much a comfort to them as it was for him. His absence from the household was clearly affecting them after such a trauma. It made sense they would take what chances they had to make sure he was safe.
He wouldn't ever deny them that.
So it was that on the fourth day Jaune found himself playing a game of checkers with his oldest sister, Sapphire. The board rested across his knees as they each moved pieces along. Jaune stifled a yawn behind one hand, idly wishing he could catch some more naps... he was a recovering young man after all, which meant he needed at least eighteen hours of beauty sleep.
"Are you coming home soon then?" Sapphire asked as the game came to an end. "There's a lot of homework that's been piling up for you."
"Don't I get out of doing that?" he sighed as he reset the pieces. Really, it was just like Sapphire to focus on something like that. She'd always been the second mother of the family – something that was probably a necessity when there were just so many children. Juniper couldn't do everything on her own and Sapphire was the oldest by a good three years. There was probably a story there too, as to why they had one child the a three year gap - before spitting out kids so fast it wasn't even funny.
Jaune wasn't sure he wanted to hear that story though... lest it scar him for all eternity.
"A well-rounded education is a valuable gift," the girl sniffed, pushing back her bright blonde hair, which she kept in a long braid. "Not that you would know it, considering how poor your grades are."
That made him wince. What an embarrassing concept, to be behind in grades. Considering he was old enough that he really shouldn't be scoring less than children. If Pyrrha could see him now, she'd shake her head. Really… he imagined she'd get on well with Sapphire. They both had that mothering personality, along with a tendency to adopt anything weaker than them.
"You need to put more work into things," the woman sighed, "you can't just sleep your way through life, no matter how lazy you are." It was a regular argument between them, but it had never sounded quite so personal before. There was an underlying frustration and anger in her voice.
"That's not what this is about though, is it?" Jaune prodded that mass, "You've been off ever since I got injured – let's not beat around the bush Saph, what's the problem?"
"The problem?" Sapphire went still, the board in his lap rattling lightly as she gripped the edges. "How can you ask me what the problem is after what you pulled?"
This again, hadn't he said sorry enough lately? He wasn't even apologetic about making the decision at all. Juniper had been in danger, he had been there. What about that was difficult to understand? It was a single Beowolf.
"And that!" she accused, pointing at his face, "I see you rolling your eyes like this isn't even something worth talking about. You nearly died!"
"But I didn't," he tried to reason. She was right, he could definitely stand to sound a little more effected by it all… no one should be as blasé about it as he was, but his body and mind were tired in equal measure, the recovery taking it out of him. "The worst didn't happen. I'm fine – just relax a little, okay?"
"I'm the oldest," Sapphire shook her head from side to side so fast that her braid nearly slapped him in the face. "It's my responsibility to look after you, not yours to rush in like that!"
"You're angry because I took that away from you?" Jaune frowned, "That seems like a fairly childish way of acting for one who claims to be the oldest. I'm a little surprised to be honest."
"You bastard!" his sister cried out as she reared to her feet, "You damn bastard! How dare you – I don't care about that. I'm angry because you made me choose!"
"Choose wh-?" she didn't give him time to speak.
"You just pushed Amber into my arms and told me to get them all to safety – and suddenly I was responsible for all their lives. But mum told me to get you out too, and you went back in. What was I supposed to do!?" Tears welled at the edges of her blue eyes, threatening to spill out as Jaune stared at her woodenly. "Was I meant to rush back to help you, and place all six of them in danger? Or get out and abandon you to die?"
She had gotten them to safety - and for that he loved her.
"You made the right decision." There were six of them and only one of him, it was the obvious choice to save them – especially since they would have been utterly defenceless and lost without Sapphire's guidance. "You made the right choice."
"Yeah, well I don't want to make the right choice! Not if it's as stupid as that. I abandoned you. I chose to leave you behind to die!" her breath came out in great gasps, the girl struggling to bring herself under control. "It doesn't matter if you survived or not… that doesn't change the fact that I had to make the choice to let you die. That's not fair."
"It's not," Jaune leaned back in the bed, allowing his eyes to drift shut. It wasn't fair… and yet ironically, it was exactly what he was doing right now, wasn't it? Making the choice to let his friends die so that a better result would occur?
It wasn't the wrong choice… in the same way that Sapphire's choice hadn't been wrong.
But it still hurt.
"I don't know what to say," he admitted after a few long moments. "I don't hate you, if that's what you mean. There wasn't anything you could have done, not with the resources you had available. You can't fight – none of you can, but you were able to keep everyone calm and get them out. Not everyone could have achieved that. I don't hate you Saph, I love you."
I wanted to save everyone, her face seemed to say. To which he desperately wished he could stand up and hold her.
Me too, Sapphire… he thought instead, me too…
"I'm sorry, I'm being selfish."
No, you're not…
"I'll leave you be. Get well soon, Jaune." The door slammed shut behind her, leaving him alone in a room he couldn't leave. Damn it… that Grimm had really messed everything up.
Why had it been there in the first place? Events like that – ones that weren't governed by random chance – they didn't happen. There wasn't ever a case in which Cinder randomly had a change in heart, or Ruby was at a different dust store and thus failed to get into Beacon.
Similarly, if he didn't change anything – and he hadn't – then something like that shouldn't have happened. Was it his negativity, had the Grimm been attracted by him specifically because of the emotional turmoil of abandoning his friends?
Maybe… but also unlikely… if that had been the case then surely it would have focused on him instead of going for his mother. Similarly, when he'd gone to save her – there had been another up top waiting for his sisters. Nicholas had killed that one, judging by the angry shout he could remember.
But it still didn't make sense. Any negativity he might have caused was surely balanced by his happiness in other areas. He was at peace. He enjoyed learning the guitar – not to mention he was genuinely happy to spend time with his family. He didn't feelnegative enough to warrant Grimm appearing like that.
So why?
Why had a Beowolf appeared when it never had before? Even if he couldn't remember his original life – even if it was so far back as to be nothing more than a distinct feeling. One thing he knew for certain, was that he hadn't ever encountered a Grimm before Beacon.
Because if this had happened, his mother would have been dead the first time.
But what changed?
Jaune hit the grass hard. For a moment he considered staying there too. It was cool with the early dew of morning, soft like the most wonderful pillow – and the scent of it was a breath of fresh air down his lungs.
The whistling sound above him soon changed his mind however.
"Time out," Jaune cried as he rolled away, staggering to his feet just in time to raise the practice shield before him. Turned out Nicholas Arc didn't really understand the concept of timeout… judging from the way his blade struck Jaune's shield, lifting him from his feet and sending him back down to the ground.
"You've got some fancy tricks," his father sounded utterly casual, as though the effort of twenty minutes constant sparring was lost on him, "but you need more strength to make them work. I'm surprised how fast you were able to pick up the forms though."
A few tricks… he'd bled and died to learn his fighting style, and his father was able to tear them apart in a few short exchanges? No, that wasn't a fair approximation at all. If Jaune were as strong as he was normally around this time – given a full year or more to train to his utmost, then he was confident he could hold his own, maybe even win.
But as he was now - with two years of a sedentary lifestyle? There was no chance…
No amount of fancy footwork, skill or experience would be enough to uproot a Hunter like Nicholas. Not when he had comparable experience and skill… maybe a little less of the latter, Jaune was older after all – even if that was a major technicality. But it still didn't matter.
Pure skill did not always trump conditioning. That had become alarmingly obvious when he'd actually gotten the edge on the man, twisting his sword in such a way that Nicholas had to fight to keep hold of his own.
But he'd just brute forced his way through it, kicking Jaune away with enough force to send him into a tree.
"Whoo! Go dad!" A voice called from the side lines. Jaune glared at the three girls sat there. Sable and Coral grinned back.
"Fight on, Jaune," Coral echoed, sketching something down into a notepad as she watched the spar.
"And why are you two watching this anyway?" Jaune growled as he staggered up. His body was already fighting against him, letting him know that sleep would be a welcome thing right now. "Damn it Coral, are you writing me into one of your stories again?"
"Just the fight scenes – this is good for inspiration," the short girl defended, biting down on the end of her pen as she looked at him. "I took your name out after you complained the last time."
I complained because you wrote me into some boy on boy smut… as the submissive too. He didn't say that out loud though, not when she would hear him and get her own revenge – likely by writing him into something particularly humiliating. It was a small mercy that his sister was an amateur writer at best… she'd sell some of her works to the local shops, and she had a small following in Ansel. But it wasn't going to reach Vale or anything.
Hooray for small mercies.
"By the way," Sable cocked a grin as she pointed behind him. Jaune didn't have time to see what she was referring to – but he certainly felt it. All six and a half feet of it, delivered through a shoulder-charge.
"Don't take your eyes off the enemy." Nicholas chided his son, who currently was laid flat on his ass staring at the sky. "The Grimm aren't going to wait for you to finish a conversation."
"That's not very polite of them," Jaune groaned. "Are we done yet, like you said – I've already got the forms down. It's not like I need training to become an actual Hunter." If he'd hoped throwing that reminder out there would help influence his father, then he was sorely disappointed. The man was an absolute slave-driver, and had been in the month or so since he'd come back from the hospital. They'd been training nearly every day for three weeks now… and there didn't seem to be any sign that he would be stopping soon.
It was only about an hour each day, nothing compared to how much effort he had put into previous lives – hell, even compared to how much training he normally did in a day, this was nothing. But it was painful for someone still recovering.
If this was supposed to be his rehabilitation, then he wanted to talk to a doctor.
"You need to learn your limits. We'll be continuing until we find it."
"I'm fairly sure we've just found it…" he pulled himself to his feet nonetheless, arranging the sword and shield before him. Since they each had aura unlocked they used real steel, though the edges were blunted to prevent any mistakes. That only made it hurt all the more then it struck however.
At least he'd gotten a few good hits in on his old man – something a person his age would never have been able to achieve. It was those red marks and bruises across his father's arms and shoulders that gave Jaune the confidence to continue.
Or maybe it was just the catharsis, that satisfying look on Nicholas' face when Jaune managed to land a particularly cruel blow. He wasn't bitter about all this training – honest!
On a skill level I'm probably far above most of the people who are headed to Beacon, Jaune thought to himself as he deflected the first strike, turning his blade just enough to ensure his father's was locked against his own. Nicholas fought to disengage as Jaune struck with the shield – only for the man to take it on one shoulder and back away warily. That's not difficult though… I've had decades training with the sword and shield.
On pure skill and technique alone he outclassed even Pyrrha.
But that was only half the story. Counters, versatility – semblances and fitness, they all played a dangerous part. If he were for some reason locked in a life or death struggle with Pyrrha, then it would almost certainly end in his death, unless he managed to get the drop on her. As he was now she was likely faster, stronger and had more stamina. Add onto that the ranged options she had thanks to her weapon and the contest was even more unbalanced.
And then there was her semblance… which could literally disarm him at any moment.
Nicholas didn't have anything like that, but the man's conditioning alone was too great for Jaune. He was barely able to block the next attack, taking it on his shield. He wanted to cut down with his sword, slam the edge into the man's fingers to make him drop the blade – but Nicholas had already retreated by the time Jaune's blade struck. It didn't matter what techniques he knew, if his opponent was too fast for him.
"Gah!" Jaune's shield was knocked aside, Nicholas barging into his guard. A step back, an instinctive move to secure better footing – Crocea Mor- no, just a training blade – came up in time to parry the first strike. His forearm met the next, a move which would have resulted in agony – but thanks to his aura likely not have cost him the arm. Jaune's fist skimmed his opponent's cheek, Nicholas just managing to get out of the way in time.
Before a knee struck Jaune directly in the stomach, bending him over as he collapsed to the floor.
"Good, good!" his father praised, somehow able to ignore the sounds of Jaune retching into the grass. "I like that you're adaptive. Too many people seem to think the sword is their only weapon."
"I hate you," Jaune groaned into the grass, biting a few strands and chewing them in his mouth to remove the taste of vomit.
"Eh," Nicholas shrugged, "Love, hate – they're not mutually exclusive."
"Jaune's might soon be," Sable teased as she helped drag the young man over to the logs they were sat on. Jaune mumbled some quick thanks as she held a bottle of water to his lips for him to greedily drink from. "Aw… this brings back memories – is baby thirsty?"
Jaune tried to glare… but the pain and thirst were too great. Instead he just lay there in abject mortification as his older sister bottle-fed him. He would have vengeance.
"Looks like you're lasting a lot longer than you used to," Coral closed her notebook with a small slap of leather on paper. "You almost made it through an hour today, as opposed to the forty minutes or so when you started. I guess all this training is doing something for your stamina," her green eyes took on a teasing edge, "though I've heard from some of the women round here that stamina isn't usually a problem or you."
"Ew," Sable dropped him like a rock, sending him spilling to the floor – water sloshing across his shirt. "What if I catch something from touching him?"
"Depends in what way you want to touch him."
"Ew, Coral!"
Jaune sighed as the two got into another fight. One he chose to ignore as he lay on the ground by their feet, occasionally holding an arm up to stop one of their feet stamping on him by accident. If he could just close his eyes for a few seconds… then he could get some slee-
"Sapphire!?"
Or not… seriously, was nowhere sacred? That he couldn't even fall asleep on the floor without someone finding a way to interrupt him?
"W-What the hell," Sable's voice was choked. And when Jaune pushed himself so that he was sitting up, he could see why. "What did you do to your hair!?"
"It was just going to get in the way," the eldest of them was stood before them – dressed in some tracksuit trousers and a white tee. It wouldn't have been anything unusual… were it not for the conspicuous absence of her two-foot long braid. In its place was a sloppy cut that barely reached her shoulders.
"Sweetheart," Nicholas sighed, "did you cut that yourself? I think I should take you to a hairdresser." Sapphire flushed at the insinuation, though even Jaune could see it was a rough and uneven cut.
"Later. I- I want to train as well. Teach me to fight!"
Jaune froze. Nicholas too, even as Coral and Sable gasped and looked towards one another. None of the girls had ever shown a desire to learn anything related to fighting… hadn't Sapphire always wanted to be a teacher?
This never happened either…
"I won't unlock your aura," Nicholas stood firm, "You know what risk that would give, Jaune's was a necessity and this is a result of that. You don't need to fight."
"Don't need?" Sapphire laughed, "How can you say I won't ever need to fight? I don't care about my aura, I don't even want it unlocked." Her blue eyes narrowed, fists clenched by her side. It reminded him of a few weeks ago… their argument in the hospital room. "But I refuse to have no options again. I refuse to just sit there and let someone die because I'm too weak to even try and do anything about it."
"It could take years," Nicholas warned, drawing wide eyed stares from both Jaune and the other two girls. He was going to agree to this? "I refuse to unlock your aura, since it will place you in danger – that means the training would take even longer."
"I don't care. Train me."
"Saph," Jaune stepped between the two. Nicholas allowed it by stepping back, but his sister looked incensed by the intrusion – that dangerous look she wielded whenever discipline was about to be invoked. "Look, this isn't something you need to do. I know how you feel, but there was nothing you could have-"
"If I knew how to fight, then there would have been something I could have done. Do you think you're the only one who should have the right to protect those they love? Are you that arrogant?"
I'm not being arrogant, Jaune wanted to say, I just know that there's no point. Because this life wouldn't exist long enough for her to make a difference. The Arc family would live a relatively peaceful life, before Cinder Fall's machinations swept across the Kingdom. It would be one of the final places to fall… and by that time, no amount of training would let Sapphire stem the tide.
Was he… was he being arrogant? That reasoning made it sound like their efforts would never matter, because at the end of the day he was the only one with the knowledge and time to stop Cinder's plans. This run was supposed to be about him spending time with his family… and he didn't want training and war to interfere with that. To force that lifestyle onto them however, to deny them that choice… did that make him as bad as his grandfather?
He stepped aside.
"We'll start with conditioning. I want you to start building up some muscle mass and-" Nicholas kept speaking, laying out a training regime for the girl. Jaune walked back to sit with his other two sisters, both of them watching in silence as Sapphire began her gruelling sprints.
Would this change things? Probably… such was the nature of all decisions. Every move you made, every choice you took caused the world to alter and shape itself around you. Maybe the changes would be good – perhaps they would be bad.
They could only stick together… as a family.
The start of Beacon was an auspicious event for Jaune. It had been in the multitude of lives he'd lived before, and probably would be long into the future. Until he somehow brought a victory and presumably ended this torture. Even now - when he had no intention of attending, he couldn't help but keep an eye on the date. If only out of paranoia that something might happen to mess things up. There was a little over a week left until Beacon began... and as the days ticked by Jaune had found himself slowly relaxing.
Which was why what had just been announced was such a shock.
"We're going to Vale!?" Amber cheered loudly, hands clutched before her tiny chest.
"We're going to Vale…?" Jaune whispered, leaning back in horror.
The other six girls were somewhere between – though most of them leaned on the side of joy and excitement.
"Only for a long weekend," Juniper giggled as she sat at the table beside Nicholas. The entire family had been called in for an impromptu announcement by the pair – and there'd been a fair bit of whispering over what the reason might be. Coral's jokes that Jaune had probably gotten someone pregnant had earned her a soaking mess of hair courtesy of his orange juice. But now, with this new announcement, she didn't even seem to care - eyes wide as she smiled, lank hair dripping thick, orange liquid. "Three days to be precise, think of it as a holiday."
Jaune allowed himself to breathe once more. Three days, a long weekend… that was fine. For a moment he'd actually dreaded that this might be something related to Beacon, maybe that his father had decided to enrol him after all.
But that was a stupid idea, surely? His father hated the idea of him learning to be a Hunter.
"What's the occasion?" Jaune asked before anyone else could interrupt, "And can I skip it?"
"Denied," Juniper's hand slammed down on the table with the force of a sledgehammer. Despite the wide smile that was firmly affixed to her face. "This is a family holiday, but also something to celebrate your full recovery – so no skipping."
Balls… if there was one thing she would never shift on it was their family trips. Even recovering and injured he'd been bloody wheeled out to the lake each month.
He loved it for sure… but right now that same determination for them to spend time together as a family was only causing him strife.
He didn't want to be anywhere near Vale.
"How can you not want to visit Vale?" Amber shrieked into his ear. His little sister had started to fill out a little in two years, gaining an extra four inches of height. Despite that, or maybe because of how they continued treating her, she still acted like a little child.
Probably his fault there – since he continued to spoil her rotten.
"It's just a city," Jaune rolled his eyes, "It's not like going to somewhere like Vacuo or Atlas."
"Funny you should mention Atlas," Nicholas spread some pieces of paper out across the table. Like Beowolves to a manic depressive, his sisters flocked around to look. Jaune waited for them to finish gasping and grabbing before he came over.
"Tickets to Weiss Schnee's final concert?" Jaune read aloud, "This must have cost some serious lien." As much as he hadn't recognised her originally, Weiss had been quite the famous little prodigy – and for more than just her family name. Now that he thought of it, he'd never actually heard her sing.
Asking her to at Beacon would have been a risky proposition.
"I know someone who was able to do me a favour," Nicholas grinned, "saved the venue owner's brother a while back and he was happy to sell me ten tickets for the price of five." Juniper leaned over to press a kiss to the man's lips, the third through eleventh wheels in the room groaning and looking away.
Even five tickets though… that must have cost a lot of lien, even more so if it was publically advertised as her final concert. The connection was obvious… this was to celebrate his recover and he wanted to be a musician. Weiss was a musician his own age who had hit it big.
They had splurged all of this on something they thought he would like. Something they could do to help and inspire him…
"I've always wanted to hear her sing," Jaune smiled down at the tickets. He could hear their relief in the way they both relaxed. And he could imagine the small smile they shared between themselves – happy that they had been able to make him feel better.
It wasn't a lie anyway… so long as this wasn't anything to do with being a Hunter – and clearly it wasn't – it would actually be pretty cool to see what she sounded like. Plus, it wasn't like he was going to actually be anywhere near her… the concert hall would be packed. He'd be one among tens of thousands of faces.
What was the risk?
"This is going to be fucking awesome!" Hazel cheered, ignoring the automatic rebukes from Juniper and Sapphire. "Vale is like… the sh- the place to be." Apparently Hazel had noticed the look their mother was giving her.
"So when's the concert anyway?" Jaune's hand flicked out to steal the ticket from Coral's hand, reading the details as she tried to snatch it back. "Whoah, this weekend? Like – tomorrow?" That didn't leave much time for any kind of preparations… though maybe that was for the best. This way they would at least be in and out before Beacon even started.
"I've booked us on a passenger train tomorrow," Nicholas said, "It'll take us in the morning and we'll be in Vale after a three-hour journey. From there we'll have time to get to the hotel, find our rooms and get ready. The concert will be that evening, then you lot will have the following day to explore around Vale as you wish."
"Oh my gosh, we have to visit the library. I hear it has ove-"
"- museum is famous for-"
"-see what the clubbing is like and-"
"Jaune~" Amber's voice dragged his attention away from the huddle of girls discussing their plans. His youngest sister wasn't quite so cute and innocent any more… in fact, she was starting to look a little bit more like Juniper.
He wouldn't be beating the boys off her with a stick… he'd need a crowbar.
"Hmm?"
"We have to visit the arcade in Vale – imagine all the games!"
Heh… glad to see some things never change.
The train rattled as it ran across the tracks, shaking the carriages almost rhythmically. A constant ka-chunk, ka-chunk that was surprisingly relaxing once you got used to it. Nicholas had never really travelled by train much before… most Hunters needed to be shipped around in a hurry, and so used Bullheads.
It was also amusing watching his daughters alternate places at the windows, staring out at the scenery as it whizzed by. The red trees native to Forever Fall were always a beautiful sight, despite the danger they also presented.
Still… on a vast piece of metal moving at great speed across the landscape, it wasn't like the Grimm would have enough time to locate them. And he pitied any which tried to stand on the tracks to stop the train.
"Where's Jaune?" his beautiful wife asked, cutting into his musing as he looked back to his left. Wait, hadn't he just been sat there…?
"I saw him talking to some young girl in the hallway," Lavender helpfully reported.
Nicholas' head fell into his hands as his wife's teeth started to grind.
God damn it…
/-/
"Your head is in the clouds," her partner criticised, slowly sheathing his crimson blade as the SDC droids around them fell dead. The wind from the nearby forests whipped through her hair, bringing with it the scent of nature tinged by spilled dust and oil. "Better bring it back down to Remnant while we're on the job." He didn't wait for her response as he turned away, leaping a few carriages deeper through the train. He never did wait for her…
Adam was changing.
Or was she the one that was changing? It wasn't so easy to figure out anymore.
"I'm fine," Blake Belladonna lied as she caught up with her partner, dashing alongside him as they burst through a defence droid and the door it was guarding. Another transport carriage, filled with labelled metal containers.
Dust… the very fuel for the economy, machinery and even weaponry. But more than just that, this was dust mined by their oppressed brethren. Faunus had suffered and perhaps even died for this. Would destroying it vindicate them? Blake wasn't so sure... but it would send a message to the SDC.
No matter how bad things are getting… I can't argue with the results. The SDC had never paid attention to them before… what was a bunch of disgruntled animals up in arms, to a company as powerful as they?
Even if she hated the direction they were going. It was worth it to be noticed, right?
To be feared...
"Keep an eye out," Adam ordered as he swept into the room, long blade flicking left and right as he stalked towards the centre of the room. The entire frame of the carriage shook as the train rumbled across the tracks, but for trained fighters such as they it was nothing. "Watch the door while I se-"
His words cut off as a sound came from nearby. Blake rushed to stand beside Adam, Gambol Shroud in gun form as she aimed towards some nearby crates. The unmistakable sound of something shuffling behind it – too big to be a simple rodent. Too organic to be a robot.
"Get out here and I might be merciful," Adam called. Blake's ears twitched as she kept her weapon trained on the containers, ready to take the shot should a soldier's weapon appear over the top. Or maybe even a Grimm who had managed to leap onto the train. It could even be-
... a naked woman?
"I-I'm s-sorry!" the girl cried as she appeared out from behind the crates, wearing not a stitch of clothing – but holding a few crumpled articles in such a way as to hide her breasts and crotch. Short with mousy-brown hair and grey eyes, she couldn't have been older than twenty – and was clearly neither soldier nor Grimm.
"Wai-" Adam made to grab the woman and stop her, only for his hands to freeze as he realised exactly what that would mean grabbing. That small moment of shock gave the woman the chance she needed to dart away. Neither of them made to follow. Not that Blake would have done so anyway. The girl would likely be unwilling to speak about what she had done, and it wasn't like either of them would be sticking around to get arrested anyway.
That the White Fang had done this would be obvious.
"Well," Blake coughed, feeling a small sense of amused disbelief despite the tense situation. Not to mention the flustered look on her partner's face. At the very least, it helped to calm her frayed nerves, "I can't say I expected that."
"Damn humans," Adam didn't seem to see the comedy, "why didn't you stop her?"
"Why didn't you?" Blake shot back. Adam's mouth opened then closed, before he glanced away with a muffled grumble and sheathed his blade. Blake sighed as she did the same with Gambol Shroud, leaning against a nearby container as he went about setting some packages across the carriage. Once upon a time Adam Taurus had laughed and joked with the best of them... even when times were difficult.
She missed that.
"This will destroy the dust, right?" Blake asked, watching as Adam keyed in some codes into the case before him. She trusted him to set the timer, as he had done the last few carriages they had been through.
"It will be more than enough for that, yes." He sounded amused, which raised all kinds of alarm bells in her head. More than enough - what did he mean by that?
"Adam… you realise the first few cars of this train are for passengers right? What about all the civilians?" He couldn't mean to place them in danger. Not when they didn't have anything to do with the oppression of the SDC.
Not when they weren't involved in any of this.
Adam didn't even look at her as he answered, "What aboutthem?"
"Adam, no…" Blake whispered, already firming her resolve. "You can't do this Adam."
"Yeah Adam," a voice that was decidedly not hers or Adam's said, "don't be a dick."
Blake froze. Adam however, roared into action, tearing his blade from its sheathe with a mighty rasp of steel.
"Who's there!?"
Blake was a little slower to react. Partly due to the shock she was going through at hearing what Adam was willing to do to all these innocent people, partly through general shock that someone had managed to sneak up on her! Even so, by the time she'd gotten Gambol Shroud out, the new figure had revealed himself.
And Blake promptly fumbled and dropped her prized weapon.
"Oh for the love of-" Adam groaned, holding one hand up against his mask.
"Cover yourself!" the girl cried as she snatched Gambol Shroud back up, trying to hide the flush on her cheeks. What the hell was with this mission!? Listening to her, the young man brought his hands down to cover his… well, his penis.
"Oi – hands in the air!" Adam's blade lanced out, tickling the underside of the man's chin as the hands rose back up. Blake's eyes went wide as she looked away from his package.
"I'm getting some conflicting messages here," the man said. With more calm than he had any right to, given the situation. Despite having a blade beneath his chin, he still looked down it to raise both brows to Adam. "I'm not armed... but if you don't trust me you could always give me a strip search."
The blade clicked as Adam brought his other hand to the hilt. Clearly prepared to pierce the naked man's throat.
"Adam, no," Blake said again as she pushed his blade aside, "and you – cover yourself, please." Her redheaded partner snarled as he slammed his sword back into place, but at the very least it was a step away from murder. When had her partner become so violent?
Had he always been like this?
"Wow, he's kind of an ass, isn't he?" And of course, there was that…
"Where did you come from?"
"Where did I come from...? That girl, earlier." Blake's nose wrinkled. "She kinda took my clothes to shield herself when she left. I think your friend killed the mood."
Great… so she was stuck with her partner, who even now was arming a bomb that would kill all the people on this train – and a naked teenager they had caught… well, fornicating with some girl in the dust containment room.
Why the dust containment carriage, of all places!?
"Get out of here," she ordered the idiot, pushing him away by placing one hand on his chest. She rigidly kept her eyes above his neck, even as she tried to ignore his bare skin against her palm. This was not awkward, she tried to remind herself. "Forget what you saw and go back to your carriage."
"Yeah... about that," the man reached up to cross his arms. Blake's eye twitched dangerously as she refused to look down. Didn't he have any modesty whatsoever? "I couldn't help but hear your friend say something about killing everyone on the train. I'm going to have to say no to that since my family is on here."
"Blake," said partner called, "what are you wasting time with? He knows our names, kill the human and be done with it."
Kill… him? A defenceless innocent who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? His only crime was wanting to protect his family... how could Adam ask her to do something like that? How could he want to do something like that?
They were supposed to be revolutionaries working for equality… not – not monsters!
"I'm also going to have to say no to that as well, if you don't mind?"
"Stop talking," Blake hissed, trying again to push him away. He wasn't helping to calm Adam down in the slightest - or her, come to think of it, since yet again her eyes automatically glanced down before remembering what he wasn't wearing.
"Enough of this," Adam sighed as he pushed the final button. Loud beeps heralded the countdown of the device as he turned and drew his weapon one final time. "Step aside Blake, if you won't do this then I will."
"Adam please, let's think about this..."
"I'm not sure I'm ready to be penetrated by something so big and red," Blake tried to signal the suicidal fool to be quiet. What did he think he was doing antagonizing someone like Adam? Unfortunately, the teen didn't seem to understand the message she was trying to convey.
"Do you think this is a joke?" the redheaded faunus laughed.
"I think that is a sword. I also think it's compensating for something. Don't worry though, I'm sure when the lights are off some women might mistake it for the real thing."
Oh Gods, this was not happening... Adam's jaw hardened, a clear sign of impending violence, even as the naked man - who clearly had no weapons - also readied himself. What he intended to fight with, Blake didn't want to know. Either way, this was going to be an absolute disaster unle-
"Intruders, identify yourselves." the automated words cut into the confrontation as four different Schnee droids finally caught up with them, bursting through the back of the carriage before aiming weapons towards them. Adam tsked as he turned away from her and the strange man, levelling his blade towards the robots.
Blake didn't think she'd ever been so relieved to see something from the SDC. Taking the opportunity to slip away from Adam, she sidled up to the person who would get to live another day.
"Show them your train ticket," she whispered, "that will make them stop and you can escape."
The blond turned to her, blue eyes filled with sarcasm, "And where do you think I'm hiding that right now?" He held his arms wide, allowing her amber gaze to roam up and down… enough to note the lack of any kinds of pockets sewn into his skin.
Ah… right…
Well, this day had gone downhill pretty fast.
"Eliminating intruders."
Adam flew into action, Blake into the person beside her. She managed to knock the civilian aside before the security droid could shoot them, the two crashing behind a container as bullets ricocheted off metal, sparks flaring close enough that she could feel the heat. With discipline that would have made a soldier proud, she managed to ignore the penis poking her cheek andthe slight damp on the floor, which happened to be where the two had been having their little rendezvous - don't think about it.
"Come on, we need to get out of here." He didn't resist, stumbling after her as she dragged him behind some cover, slowly making their way across the room as Adam decimated any foe he reached. She couldn't be here when he finished… if they were, then he'd kill this man – and she'd lose her only chance of getting away.
Was she really about to do this? After they had spent so long to get to this point?
"You might want to concentrate."
"Wh - ah!" Blake gasped as the man pulled her face to the side just in time to dodge a swipe from a robot's arm that would have taken her head clean off. If he hadn't done that...? Okay, lesson learned. The middle of combat was not the right time to be having an identity crisis.
The choice was simple. Side with Adam, and watch a train full of innocent people die… or save them - and leave him forever...
The answer was obvious… but that didn't mean it was an easy one.
I'm sorry Adam. I can't do this anymore.
This blond man would be her first act of redemption. The first of many if she had her way – she'd work towards equality the way it should be achieved.
"Intru-" Gambol Shroud bit through metal as one of the SDC's pets tried to impede their path. Sparks flew as it fell hissing to the side, the two of them stepped over its remains as Blake pulled the teen towards safety. The door gave way as she slammed a shoulder into it, bringing the two out into the crisp air. The wind alone was enough to have the door slam shut behind her, whipping raven locks of hair to the side as red trees blurred by. But there was no time to enjoy the sights.
"We need to uncouple the cars!" she shouted to the blond, raising her voice so he could hear over the noise the train was making. "Stay back while I handle it!"
She didn't hear his response as she grappled with the lever. This was her last chance to go back… to take the path Adam had presented her. Pulling it would forever sever those ties… make her an enemy to those she had once called friend. But it would also save so many lives.
"Eliminating Intruders." Golden eyes widened, glancing up in time to see the barrel of a rifle pointed at her face – the black robot looking down it at her. Her lips parted, a scream about to tear forth as her life was snuffed out in a moment - before she could even attempt to do the right thing!
Before, with a gurgling whirr, the rifle dipped.
The robot fell down a moment later, slipping off the side of the train into the trees. Blake didn't move for another few seconds… still wondering when her life would stop flashing before her eyes. A pair of bare feet stood before her, and it was instinct that had her eyes trail up to his face. She quickly purged the image of what she'd seen en route from her mind.
"H-How?"
"Eh," the blond stifled a yawn with one hand, the other behind his back – and he still didn't seem to want to cover himself up in any way. "I just reached in and hit the off-switch on the back."
An off-switch, on the back? Why wou- no, never mind. The day was already ridiculous… she wasn't sure she wouldn't wake up any moment now to find that it was all a case of some tuna that had gone off. She didn't want to think about naked men, killer robots with switches on the back – or her imminent, yet now averted death.
Instead she thought about the lever in her hand, and the sound it made as she pulled it.
Gears and metal grinding, a loud clunk as something gave way. Before her she could see the axles parting as the carriages they were on continued at the same speed, but friction and air resistance exerted their toll on the dust containers that would be left behind.
Adam stepped out then… and for a moment, their eyes met.
I won't say sorry, she tried to tell him. She wouldn't ask for his forgiveness… nor did she believe he would ask her for it. Perhaps her old love would hate her. Perhaps he would feel betrayed…
She only hoped he would understand.
As the last vestiges of her former life drifted awa-
"Cold out here," the figure beside her quipped, "my nipples are like icicles."
The words were enough to cut into her thoughts. A stark reminder of not only the temperature, but the fact that the two of them were currently stood outside at a point where two train cars had been decoupled. Two train cars that really shouldn't have been decoupled... when no doubt the driver had already noticed, and was sending security over to have a look.
It also reminded her that her new companion was stark naked... and now stood directly behind her.
"Argh," Blake pushed the door open as she stepped inside the warmer passenger carriage, trusting the idiot to follow. She didn't want to hear about his nipples, his penis – nor him at all, damn it. This was the biggest moment of her life, the changing point that would determine her very future!
"Sorry, did I interrupt an existential moment there? My bad…" Yellow eyes narrowed as she glared at him. That was just a little too specific to be accidental… he actually was teasing her, wasn't he? A naked fool who had almost been eviscerated… was taunting her.
"Look…" she struggled for a word to express what she thought of him, yet couldn't find one, "you. This didn't happen – okay? Out there, nothing happ-"
"Young man!" a feminine voice almost hissed. Blake's eyes widened, as did the blue of the guy with her. She didn't fail to note it was the first time he'd shown any real fear, but she could forgive that, because the woman before her did look fairly terrifying.
"Uh… hi, mum."
This was his…? So that meant the other girls arrayed behind her, all with varying degrees of blonde hair?
"Eww, my eyes!" one girl cried, holding her arms up before herself. "Where are your clothes?"
"Brother…" another sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose.
Blake's mind whirred for an excuse, for a reason – anything she could say to prevent the obvious question of why she'd been in the restricted area and how she definitely wasn't a terrorist, despite being a faunus and armed. But the chance never came… instead the older woman reached forward to grab the man she'd rescued by his elbow, pulling him into the group of blondes.
Some of the girls made disgusted noises as they backed away, trying not to touch him. A taller one pushed some jeans into his hands as he started to get dressed in the middle of the corridor. To Blake's half-broken mind, she noted he still didn't look overly fussed. Even when there were people watching him from nearby rooms!
"And you," the woman hissed, turning to Blake this time and grabbing her by the shoulder. Every muscle in the girl's body tensed as she prepared to break free, to flee and escape – throw herself off the side of the train. "At least make my son work for it next time. I swear, we never did this in my day…"
And a second later they were gone… leaving her alone in the corridor.
Wait… had that woman just accused her of…?
…
What the hell is with today?
/-/
"And we are asking for any passengers who noticed anything suspicious or unusual to come forward," the uniformed man called out to the assembled people. Blake hid near the back of the group, the bow from Gambol Shroud wrapped around her ears. Damn it… of course the driver had noticed the cars being uncoupled – and had no doubt sounded the alarm so that there would be law enforcement waiting at the station.
This was bad…
She could break through, escape into the crowded streets of Vale… but that would leave her hunted and alone. She couldn't return to Mistral… not when the White Fang was strongest there. Atlas was also out of the picture, mostly due to the SDC.
And Blake hated sand… but it would be preferable to life imprisonment – or worse.
Golden eyes strained as she tried to pick out the guy from earlier. With all the chaos and embarrassment of what had gone on, she hadn't actually gotten too good a look at him. At least not his head... the top one, that was. But any moment now he would step forward and rat her out… of course he would. The fact that she'd saved his life wouldn't matter. Not when she had also been the one who had put it in danger in the first place.
She was a terrorist, a faunus… those were reasons enough for a law abiding citizen.
It was only when she felt someone staring at her that she finally found him. Only to see blue boring into her with an intensity she could feel despite the distance between them. Any doubt fled in an instant… that he might not have remembered (somehow), that he might have mistaken her in the crowd.
He was looking right at her… and he knew full well who she was and what she had done. Blake's hands clenched into fists, legs tensing as she prepared to run.
And then...
He looked away.
"No one?" the soldier sounded bored, holding a clipboard before him. Another minute passed, another sixty seconds of tension piling down on her. "Thank you then for your co-operation, it is more than likely the terrorists escaped into the woods. Please be about your day and welcome to Vale."
She… she was in…? B-But how? Why!?
Blake kept her eyes firmly locked onto the floor as she passed through the checkpoint, half out of genuine confusion, half to prevent her distinctive yellow eyes catching their attention. But as the crowds spread out and the faunus renegade found herself along in the streets of Vale, she was forced to accept it.
She was free.
She had done it... she'd saved all those lives. It felt… it felt good.
And as the faunus girl melted into the crowds, the choice of what to do for the rest of her life was answered.
She never noticed a pair of blue eyes watch her leave.
/-/
You're on your own now, Jaune mused. The girl slipped away into the darkness, hiding among crowds of pedestrians as she made her escape. Interfering… he hadn't wanted to do that. But when it was his family on the line he wasn't going to take chances. Blake did this alone all the time, or so he heard – but there had always been the small chance that she might have failed.
Jaune wasn't willing to gamble his family on that... he'd have fought Adam before that happened.
And almost certainly died for it.
But this would be the last time. He wasn't going to get involved with everyone… this was just bad luck. Something he'd had to do to protect his family. There was no way he could change his mind now anyway, nor even get into Beacon without forged documents. He was weaker now than he had been for god knows how long. Even if he had a sudden change of heart, he wouldn't even be strong enough to change anything.
This was for the best… for everyone.
"Jaune," Juniper's voice cut into his thoughts as she turned to grasp his arm. He winced as she looked at the nasty gash on it, which was slowly dripping blood onto the floor. It was closing, aura taking its time sealing the wound. "What caused this – what happened!?"
He took it back with a small smile, a low laugh escaping him as he looked back to where he'd last seen his old friend.
"Oh..." he looked up into the sky, "I found a small kitten in trouble and had to reach into some machinery to help it."
Good luck, Blake...
"Is that a euphemism for something?" Juniper growled, "Wait, kitt – pus… for the love of – I don't want to hear anything about what messed up sex games you were playing!"
…
Damn it, Blake…