I own nothing
"Damn it!"
"Run!"
"No! Guys!"
"Jaune! Jaune please!"
"No... please stop," a weak and pleading voice asked.
Red eyed narrowed onto the source of the voice.
"No," a cold female voice answered. "I am not wasting my time on you, Arc."
Jaune Arc could only grown as the foot of his mentor crashed into his face.
"Why?" he could only ask weakly. "We already trained today, Raven, there's no point-" he was kicked in the ribs before he could finish.
Raven Branwen only glared. "I have to go do something, people I need to talk to."
"Are you sure?" Jaune couldn't help but ask with a little bit of sass. "It seems like I'm the only person you have talked to in ye-OW!"
It wasn't that he didn't believe her, Raven had more mystery to her than Jaune's brain could ever comprehend, but he knew she was a rather big recluse—who detested human contact for whatever reason.
"I am leaving," Raven said sternly. "I am leaving you to spy on Roman some more, maybe you'll learn something."
And with that she was gone.
Jaune groaned loudly at the thought. Raven decided that he had to be somewhat useful to her—so she somehow managed to trick Roman Torchwick into taking him in as some sort of protege.
It wasn't that Jaune didn't like the idea that his spying could lead to the criminal's demise—it was just the act that killed him. Trying to pretend that he was in debt to Roman and respected the man when he actually wanted nothing more than to put him behind bars... now that was tough.
"This sucks," he said out loud. "What do you think, Say?"
'Deal with it, Jaune,' a rather gentle voice spoke in his mind.
It took his a while to realize that the voice in his head actually wasn't him going bat shit crazy, but an actual person. Salem, the name the voice gave him, was his guiding light. She helped him out after he left Beacon, she kept him alive—constantly teaching him new things to survive.
And then he ran into Raven, who made it so he ran into Roman, who made him feel dirty on the inside.
So in a way it DEFINITELY wasn't his own fault for the shitty situation he was in.
"Well," Jaune started as he started to get up, "off to Torchwick then... yaaaay..."
"I'm in position, over."
"Hello? I'm in position..over"
A sigh.
"Roman, are you there? How about you Neo?"
No response.
"Neo? Neoooo... why did I expect you to answer? Roman! You better answer ri-"
"What do you want kid!? I'm trying to blow the wall!"
"What!? What about the pla-"
An explosion rang throughout the city.
"You better hurry, we got two minutes until the cops come."
"To steal Dust!? How are we going to... never mind... I'm coming."
Jaune Arc wasn't good at a lot of things. He was never accepted into any school—his brief stint in Beacon aside, he was never good with a sword, and he never got a girl despite all his father's advice.
But one thing he could do was work under pressure.
"WHY!?"
Or at least he would like to say that.
"Don't drop the dust, you fool!"
"Shut up Roman!"
"What did you say? You know we're face to face now..."
"I... I uhh... oops?"
Yeah... he was great under pressure.
He felt like he had some slack though, robbing a Dust or a decent amount of product in under two minutes was tough. And the fact that Roman was doing nothing but sitting on the front counter wasn't helping.
Jaune grunted as he threw another crate into the getaway Bullhead (that Neo just happened to drive THROUGH the wall to enter the shop) and looked at Roman.
"You gonna help?"
Roman just looked at him and twirled his cane around.
"Why would I move the dust?" he said confused. "I have you to do that."
Was he serious? The sirens of the police was basically blasting in there ears!
Jaune grit his teeth as he through another box inside the Bullhead.
"Roman let's go!" he said as he jumped into the Bullhead.
"What about that one?" the criminal asked, pointing to a small box.
"It's basically nothi-"
"Seems like something to me," Roman cut him off before he could finish.
Jaune let out a quite string of curses as he had to get off the Bullhead, just to take a single box and get back on the aircraft.
Roman was an asshole.
Jaune jumped back into the Bullhead and banged the side wall while Roman merrily strolled in.
"Neo!" he yelled as he banged. "We need to go!"
The police rounded the corner as their Bullhead finally managed to take off. Jaune felt his stomach lurch from both his motion sickness and the sight of cops following them.
"Roman! What do we do!?" he yelled distraught. "I can't make it in prison! They're gonna-"
"Please stop," Roman said sharply, before shaking his head. "Kid, if you want to be a pro criminal like me, you got to follow some creeds. One of them is to NEVER lose your head in an operation."
And with that Roman walked over to the open cargo doors of the Bullhead, lifted his cane, and fired a single shot.
The police shop started to shake, before spinning towards the ground without control.
He had hit the engine with that lone shot.
Now Jaune was going to throw up. Roman just took the fucking police down.
"I-" he gasped at his sudden nausea, "-Roman... I can't do this..."
Roman sighed as he closed the cargo doors and sat down.
"Kid, where were you two months ago?"
"Huh?"
"Two months ago," Roman said again, "What were you doing?"
Jaune thought for a moment to make sure he stuck to his cover story.
"I mean... I was doing really noth-"
"Yes!" Roman cut off. "You were doing nothing. You were—and at the moment still are—nothing... but I saw something in the hungry, homeless boy about to be eaten by Grimm. I saw the eyes of a man who wanted to survive, so I gave you a chance."
Jaune wanted to roll his eyes—Raven set the entire thing up. It was an elaborate ploy to get him in with Torchwick.
But why?
Jaune snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed Roman's expectant look.
"And I'm really grateful for that but-"
"But nothing! I am the only reason you are alive. I guess you can say that I own you."
Yup Roman, you keep thinking that.
"And kid," Roman continued, "I might be abusing that fact. But only because I am going to turn you into what you always wanted to be—a man who changes the world."
"And someone who will benefit you in the end, right?"
Roman laughed and poked Jaune with his cane.
"Right about that too! See? You got a decent head on your shoulders!"
The first thing Jaune did when they got to their current safe house was run to the bathroom.
Criminal operations involved a lot of holding it in.
The next order was to sleep.
"Hold it kid!"
Of course... sleep would have to wait.
"Yes Roman?" he asked, his annoyance not even hidden in the slightest.
Roman looked at Neo, who looked at him, before gesturing to the door.
"We still have plans, remember? We were gonna get ice cream."
Jaune stared at them. And continued to stare for at least a minute.
"You know," he started after thinking for the right words, "I thought the plans to get ice cream ended when you looked at a Dust shop and yelled, 'Let's rob it.' And then insisted we do the entire robbery in under five minuted to, and I quote, 'Break the record for the fastest large scale robbery.'"
"And I think we did it!" Roman yelled triumphantly. "Right Neo? he asked the presumably (Jaune wouldn't be surprised if she was lying) mute girl.
She gave a thumbs up.
"That means we should go celebrate! And guess what the best thing to treat ourselves with is..."
Jaune twitched in annoyance.
"You are suppose to be criminal masterminds," he muttered. "Not children."
A cane hit him in the head, sending him sprawling onto the ground.
Damn you Raven.
