Yang awoke early the and opened her eyes to see that Jaune was still laying in his hospital bed asleep. that was a little strange since he normally woke up before her but she guessed that dying and then be resurrected was an exhausting process so she let it slide, this time. she still didn't know how Jaune got a pulmonary edema but she was sure that it wasn't good.
she clung a little tighter to him as she kept on thinking about all the friends she had lost in the last two days. first Pyrrha was gone and Luke had run off.
The thought crossed her mind that Suzanna had been murdered as well. The realization that she hadn't even given her a thought until now brought a sick feeling to her stomach. She may not have liked Suzanna but that didn't mean that she should have died. All the same, she also knew that nobody was thinking clearly so she tried not to beat herself up too much about it.
She looked up when she heard the door open. When she looked at who had opened it she saw a small boy who had what looked like what seemed like mouse ears and a tail. That almost touch the ground. When Yang noticed that he hadn't been to one to open the door and almost didn't believe what she saw.
Yang wasn't a military expert but she was relatively certain that General James J. Ironwood certainly wasn't supposed to be showing small faunus children around the Beacon infirmary.
"Here he is. Do you want to stay here?" the general said as he gestured to Jaune. The little boy stood for a moment and then nodded his head to say yes. And with that General Ironwood left the boy there and quickly walked away. Which made sense to Yang. after all, he was probably a busy man so he couldn't afford a long time to this errand.
The boy stood in the doorway for a time until Yang realized that he was waiting for permission to come in. "you can come in." she said trying her best to both smile sweetly and slip a little charm into her voice. She knew that this boy was afraid and she wanted to change that. Besides, this would prove to be a suitable distraction.
He walked over to her and sat down next to her in a chair that Yang had brought over for him. "Is he gonna be okay?" the child asked. His voice showed that he was nervous about Jaune. And extremely so even though Yang had no idea who he was.
"Yeah, he is gonna be okay. He got hurt pretty bad on his mission but he is okay now." as Yang answered she caught herself from trying to put her hand on Jaune's forehead. She wanted to just feel the warmth of his blood but she stopped herself. She needed to exercise some manner of control. If not then she may never be able to leave the side of his bed.
"But he was fine when we…" the boy stopped himself and clamped his hand over his mouth as though he had said too much and was now trying to keep himself from saying anything else.
"When you what?" Yang questioned. Now she wanted to know what the boy was hiding. He seemed like he was ready to crack so she asked again with a bit more authority. "When you what?"
He opened his mouth to say what he was hiding when his eyes focused on something behind her. He quickly leaped past Yang and began yelling. " mister, you're okay, you're okay." he was rather violently hugging Jaune who seemed to have just woken up.
"Hey Walt, how is it going buddy. I thought I told you to wait with the pilot until a man I sent got you?" as Jaune asked he sat upright showing no signs of discomfort.
The answer was fast and clearly, one that the boy had been getting ready to give for some time now. "I did and he came but he told me you were hurt so I asked if we could come and see you and we did, then he left."
Jaune smiled and said. "Well, in that case, why don't you and I go see the rest of my team for a little while, would you like to do that."
Walt nodded aggressively and said. "Are they like her,?" as she asked he pointed at Yang. "she's nice." then he leaned in and tried to whisper. Despite his best efforts, he was still heard by Yang. "she is also very pretty."
This earned a laugh from Jaune. "Yes they are like her, they are all nice and yes they are all pretty."
Upon having his whisper openly revealed Walt began to turn various shades of red. "Ohhh, you really think I am pretty," Yang spoke/yelled as she wrapped her arms around him and lifted him up. And held him close. Much to Jaune's surprise, Walt found a way to actually get redder as Yang carried him away.
Once they had left the room Jaune lifted up his gown and looked at his chest. When he saw the spot that Jorge had healed he placed his hand on it in shock. He still knew not how it had happened but he was impressed that the scars and bruises were now gone.
Quickly getting dressed in his usual clothes having to do without his shirt since it had been cut off of him. He made his way to team RWBY's dorm and slowly opened the door and saw that the girls had surrounded Walt and were all talking to each other as they took turns holding him in their lap before they passed him to the next one.
"All I am saying is that the only time he could have gotten that kind of injury was on his last mission. At no point after that did he undergo anything that would cause a pulmonary edema of that level. But there still had to be something that accelerated the process otherwise he would have died much sooner." that one talking was Blake the team medic for lack of a better term.
"But we still don't know what happened on that mission. And the only thing that has ever caused that kind of injury on a huntsman is a massive explosion or maybe a huge blunt force impact." now it was Weiss offering her opinion.
When she spoke Walt's eyes grew in what seemed to be shock and horror and he ran across the room to Jaune with tears in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." he wrapped his arms around Jaune and buried his face in his side. This muffled his cries but he still seemed to be begging for Jaune to forgive him.
This was a little confusing to the rest to the team since they still didn't know who Walt really was.
Recognizing this and seeming to put all the pieces together Jaune reached down and scooped up the still crying Walt saying. "Hey, buddy that wasn't your fault okay, you did nothing wrong. And I am fine. Why don't we go find Cardin I think you may like him." as he turned to leave he looked back at the team and quietly told them that he would be back soon.
After he left the girls waited for a few minutes in silence, with Pyrrha dead the air wasn't right for small talk and none of them actually knew anything about what Jaune was going to say when he got back.
When he did return Jaune was without Walt. "before you ask he is currently at team CFVY's dorm." When they heard this they all nodded in understanding. The relationship between Cardin and Velvet was one of the schools worst kept secrets. Thankfully no one who would object to it had the balls or bravado to confront either the 6 foot 6 and still growing giant of Cardin and they definitely weren't picking a fight with Velvet since her partner was 7 feet even and looked like he could rip a tree out of the ground.
"Okay," Jaune said pulling a chair over to where team RWBY was sitting. "While Luke and I were on our last mission we were temporarily separated from each other. I secured the landing site of the bullhead and Luke waited in the woods in order to be able to surprise the last wave of combatants we needed to face. After their first wave of attackers found themselves on the receiving end of my barrel,"
While he spoke he gestured to where his C.A.S.A.C.O.M. was propped up against the wall. He would need to check that back into his locker soon. Students weren't really supposed to have weapons in their dorms. ( not that anyone had ever enforced that rule. After all the staff knew that these kids needed to feel trusted. And being told that you needed to master a weapon you couldn't normally have with you didn't help.)
"After I dealt with them they tried a different approach, they tied two anti-personnel mines together and then hung them on the shoulders on a child. I guess they thought that I wouldn't shoot a kid and since the bullhead had just arrived they needed to act fast. That child was Walt."
Now Jaune looked passes them as though he was remembering what he had seen. "He was so scared, the people he thought were his friends just strapped bombs to his chest and told him to go run at the guy with the gun. I had a choice to make shoot him and ensure my on safety, or try to find another way to handle the situation."
After a pause Jaune crack a smile and said: "so naturally I waited until he reached me and then took off the mines before my own stupid instincts kicked in."
As his grin morphed to the smile that showed he was guilty of something. Yang soon suspected what it was. "YOU DIDN'T!" she said her own annoyance showing through.
The grin growing into an awkward smile Jaune said. "Yeah, I did," looking around he realized that no one else had understood what he meant. As a result, he had to tell them outright. "I may have thrown myself on the mines."
With that said he looked around the room once more and was greeted with several faces ranging from shock and awe to horror and dismay.
"You did what!" Blake yelled clearly just as mad as Yang. how could he have done something so reckless?
Weiss was shocked beyond words and Ruby looked at him as though an immortal badass had just become more immortal and badass.
Realizing that he needed to handle this fast Jaune said. "I know it was stupid but I was wearing armor and I had all my aura. If I just threw them away then I risked them going off and hurting Walt or damaging the bullhead. It wasn't the right choice but it was the best one."
That seemed to placate their collective anger and hero worship. So he continued. "After that, I killed all the fang that I could see and put Walt up in the cockpit with the pilots. I told them to get him to my Nesmer street safe house and that a friend of mine would get him from there." Jaune briefly took a thoughtful pose. "That reminds me I need to get the key back from Walt at some point." shaking his head to focus back to the moment. "After that, I called Jorge and told him what had happened. He said he was sending someone."
"Yeah, General freaking IRONWOOD!" Yang declared. "How did Jorge manage that?"
Jaune could only shrug. He had no idea how Jore did it but it seemed to have happened.
"Then I got back and…" at this point Jaune seemed to get lost in himself. It was after he got back from his mission that he heard that both Pyrrha and Suzanna had died. He was still processing it. They all were.
"Well, uhm," Jaune was trying to keep his focus. If he allowed himself to get lost in his feelings now it would control him for the rest of the day. "After that, I wound up training with Professor Port where I received a good hit to my side. I think that is what pushed my injury to near lethal levels, but hey I am still alive so, no big deal."
It was at this point that team RWBY realized that no one told Jaune that he had actually died. Not that Yang cared, what he had said was the perfect combination of ill-timed humor and self-deprecation that she lost all control and slapped him before storming out in a anger and sadness fueled outburst. She was soon joined by Weiss and Ruby. both of whom neglected to slap their leader but were equally unhappy with him.
That left Blake. She was the most emotionally resistant of the bunch so she simply stared at Jaune. "You did in fact die, it was who Dr. Taft declared you dead. Then Jorge did something, we don't know what and he seemed to bring you back to life. He said that there would be Hell for him to pay but that he made your dad a promise."
Jaune needed a moment to process this. Then his eyes grew in shock. "Oh," he said understanding just how bad his choice of words was. "I think I owe them an apology don't I?"
Blake opted to answer with just a nod instead of words.
With that Jaune got back to his feet and went off to look of his team. He had just made it out of the door when he heard a rather loud ruckus around the corner. It sounded like yelling.
"You need to get the hell away from me and my sister." it sounded like Yang… and now Jaune was running.
"I don't want to see you two get hurt, he is a hazard to be near. He has already gotten one of his teammates killed and three others have all run off, please I am worried about you." it sounded like Sky from team CRDL. and he seemed to honestly be worried.
"Seriously, death follows him everywhere he goes. His first op almost got two of you killed, his second got a civilian killed. And now half of his team has either died or deserted. He will get the two of you killed, please I am begging you. I don't like any of you but I don't want to you to die because of that fool's incompetence." the new voice sounded like it was Dove.
"I SAID THAT YOU NEED TO GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME AND MY SISTER!" now Yang seemed to be mad enough to start crushing skulls. And she was about to have help from Jaune. When something occurred to Jaune. They were right. He had been getting his friends killed left and right. First Gypsum and Bud and now Pyrrha and Suzanna. He was a danger to all of them.
Soon Jaune found himself staggering down the halls of Beacon like he had almost four months before. That time he had found Suzanna and Jorge had worked to control the darkness he now felt. This time it was worse, it was so much worse.
…
Yang was furious, although that seemed to be her default state recently she didn't care. Jaune just seemed to not care about his own safety in the slightest. He had DIED not even a day ago and now he was making jokes about it. She and Ruby went one way and Weiss seemed to head the other.
Once they rounded the corner they were meet with Sky and Dove. the two boys seemed shocked to see them but quickly composed themselves in a way that made Yang think that they had been meaning to talk with her and Ruby and were in fact on their way to their dorm.
"Listen, uhm. We heard about Pyrrha. And we're sorry for your loss. We may not have been the best of friends but still. No one deserves that." Sky said. He seemed to be the one who was leading this pair. And they were tense. Too tense to just be here to offer their condolences.
"I am going to cut to the chase here," Dove said. "Me and Sky think you need to adjust your team, Arc is bad luck. You need to remove him from your team or something, just get him away from you. We don't want to see what happened to Pyrrha happen to you too."
Now Yang was beside herself these dirtbags were telling her to abandon Jaune, sure she was pissed at him but he was still her friend and whether she liked it or not she loved him.
"You need to get the Hell away from me and my sister" as she spoke Yang stepped ahead of Ruby and began to place her arm in front of Ruby. It was a little much but right now she was feeling overprotective so neither of them cared.
"I don't want to see you two get hurt, he is a hazard to be near. He has already gotten one of his teammates killed and three others have all run off, please I am worried about you." sky said
"Seriously, death follows him everywhere he goes. His first op almost got two of you killed, his second got a civilian killed. And now half of his team has either died or deserted. He will get the two of you killed, please I am begging you. I don't like any of you but I don't want to you to die because of that fool's incompetence." Dove followed.
As he spoke his words were filled with so much sincerity that if Yang wasn't of angry she may have to start thinking differently of the boy. Sure they started out as assholes but losing a pier can change anyone, even them. That combined with the fact that their team leader had under a very serious change himself. And that Yang rarely spoke to team CRDL anyway. They may have honestly meant this and she would have cared more if she wasn't growing more and angrier.
"I SAID THAT YOU NEED TO GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME AND MY SISTER!" now Yang was mad enough to start crushing was reaching out to grab ahold of them when the anger she had been feeling was suddenly been drowned out by a feeling of sadness that she had only felt once before. Next, she was assaulted by the sound of heavy and fast footsteps on the hallway heading away from her. She did a quick step around the corner and saw Jaune as he rounded the opposite corner. He was going faster than anyone she had ever seen with the one exception of Ruby.
She tried to give chase but he was soon way too far away for her to catch him. So she went back to her room got out her scroll and started calling. Her friends. All the ones she had made at Beacon and Weiss. She was for lack of a better word putting out a BOLO on Jaune.
She wanted to be out looking for him but she knew that he may come back soon and even if he didn't if she was running around looking for him she may not be ready when he was found. So much to her own displeasure, she would wait.
Yang had been waiting and waiting for what felt like forever when she finally got a call from… Jaune.
When she answered it she was meet with the face not of Jaune but of Junior. "Hey Blonde come get your boy-toy," he said as he pointed behind him, Yang when to ask who her boy-toy was she saw Jaune sitting at the bar with a half-full bottle of some amber colored liquid in his hand.
Yang managed to catch herself from saying his name out of shock. "What is he doing there?" she asked. Her voice caring equal parts anger and worry.
"At the moment he is drinking himself into an early grave, he has already drank half my stock. The only thing that may stop him is the vodka since he dislikes clear alcohol. Either way get over here and get him home." after he finished he went to hang up when Yang spoke
"Why, why are you doing this? The last time you saw us we were destroying your club."
She didn't know what she was expecting but it wasn't what she got. "Romerean was an old friend of mine. He was on my team, that was how I knew about Jaune's vest when we first fought… it used to be mine. Now get over here."
The call dropped and Yang rushed to the Bullhead bay, she needed to either bribe or threaten a pilot but she needed to get down to vale as soon as she could. When she arrived she found a pilot waiting for her.
"You heading to Vale Xiao Long?" it was Chad Hajullaf
"Yes, but how did you know?" Yang said as she boarded the shuttle.
"Word travels fast and I owe Arc more than my life. So when I heard that he was missing I camped out down here since I am a licensed pilot I figured that I could be of some use to you. I guess I was right."
Buckling into the seat behind the pilot she sat back and waited for the ride to end.
…
Chad landed the bullhead as close as he could and Yang ran the rest of the way to the club. She was meet at the door by one of the twins. She didn't know the name but she knew that it was the red one.
"Hey, you may want to be careful in there. You blonde friend is in a mood," she said as Yang passed.
Yang offered a nod to acknowledge. She didn't think that she needed the advice after all Jaune was her friend and she was going to go in and get him out but she understood that the red sister was trying to be helpful.
She opened the doors and heard what sounded like an angry shouting match. "I SAID I AM PAYING YOU FOR WHAT I AM DRINKING, NO LESS." it was Jaune and it kinda made sense that he would be telling the bartender to let him pay his tab.
The other being involved was the white-clad twin. "I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU, YOU DRUNK FOOL. I HAVE BEEN TOLD TO NOT CHARGE YOU I CAN'T ACCEPT THE MONEY DUMBASS."
Yang made her way over to them and when the twin at the bar saw her she seemed to be washed in relief. "Finally someone this moron will listen to get him out of here please."
Yang nodded once more as she reached out a hand grabbed Jaune's shoulder. "Come on big guy let's get you back to school," she said as she tried to turn him away from his stool.
She was more than a little shocked when he shook his shoulder free from her hand and said "no way."
After a moment she tried again this time she was going to use one of his weaknesses, guilt.
"Jaune come on, ruby and the others are worried sick about you. Not to mention me. We need to get back to Beacon before Ruby starts crying." once more she tried to grab his shoulder and turn him out of his stool.
And once more he shook his shoulder free and said in an exhausted and frustrated voice. "You just don't get it do you," he paused for a moment. Before getting out of his seat and turning to face her. His eyes burned with an anger Yang had only seen once before. "I have tried to be nice and just play it off but you lot are just too naive to figure it out, hell I even died once to try and get out of dealing with you people. I mean seriously how can you be so stupidly foolish as to think that any of you actually deserve a friend like me, after all, I have done for you. Well, WHAT'S THE MATTER DON'T CHA HAVE ANY DUMB ANSWER."
there was a pause. When Yang felt her eyes begin to tear up. If anyone else had said that to her she would have burst into a ball of fiery vengeance and set about tearing their shit up. But this was Jaune, she loved him and he was telling her that he hated her. She opened her mouth but the words were robbed from her throat by a sinking feeling that was slowly creeping through her entire body
"YOU KNOW WHAT!" Jaune yelled as she put on his jacket. "I AM OUT OF HERE, YOU LOT ARE ON YOUR OWN." as he finished he stormed out of the club throwing a handful of wadded up lien at the bartender.
It was several minutes after Jaune had left that Yang managed to stagger out of the club herself. She needed to get back to Beacon, she didn't know what else to do. Jaune had just… he had just broken her heart. Even if he didn't know how much she loved him he still burned any kind of friendship they had.
"Hey little girl you seem lost." the voice that spoke to her was rough and came from a man who was standing in the mouth of an alleyway, he was flanked on both sides by men who seemed to be looking at her a similar way.
Not wanting to get into a fight and just wanting to crawl into bed Yang stuck her hand in her pocket and activated her scroll. She chose to call their bluff and she removed her scroll and sent Chad a text.
"My friend is on his way, but thank you for your offer." she found it remarkable how the serious nature of her current engagement managed to completely override her emotional pain
They took a collective step forward when she said that and she too shifted her left foot in front of her right adopting her usual fighting stance. She braced her right foot and prepared to throw a stiff right straight to knock out the leader. She brought her hands up to her face and then.
"HEY, I am counting to three. If anyone is still her other than her when I get there I'm gonna beat the piss out of you. One " Yang took a step to keep her hands facing the men and still being able to see the new voice.
She thought that she recognized it but was confused to see a face she had never seen before. He was about six foot two in height and looked to be about a hundred and ninety pounds. He had a beard that looked like he had been growing since the day he was born it was almost five inches long.
The three men who were about to fight Yang stopped in their tracks when he spoke. "Well, we uh. Didn't know you were in town Mr. Hansen…. I mean Mechanic, sir" the one who spoke looked absolutely horrified at the man before him.
"Two," the new man continued. As he spoke he kept walking towards the men his pace was aggressive but also seemed timed to have the three men time to run before he reached them or the number three.
He and one of the others ran as fast as they possibly could. The third man the leader of the group stood his ground, however. "I heard about you, they say where some kind of killer, said you dusted a few assassins around vale, but you know what. I ain't buying it, I never seen you fight. I never even seen you do anything more than standing a look like a fuckin dumbass."
"three,"
The final would be attacker quickly threw out a wide right hook obviously meant to end the fight as soon as he could. This was countered when the bearded stranger brought his left hand up to grab the back of his own head. This protected him from the strike and also put him position to wrap his left arm around the vagrants back and hooking his left armpit.
Then the stranger fired off a quick right hook to the scumbag's groin. He followed this up with a scooping action where he lifted poor sap's left leg up over his own head and then dropped to his left landing the sucker who choose to fight the stranger square on his head.
Before this attacker turned victim could regain his bearings the bearded man planted his right foot on the inside of his victim's left thigh. And hooked over it with his left leg. He then twisted his legs to torque the almost mugger's legs to his own left.
The final move came when the bearded stranger grasped the mugger's chin with his left hand and the back of his head with his right hand. In one swift movement, the stranger jolted even more torque on the mugger's legs and quickly snapped his head to the right. There was a disturbing crack and the man went limp. The stranger easily pushed the man off of him and got to his feet.
This left the man laying on the ground. "Did you just kill him?" Yang asked the mysterious man
"If I didn't, then the streets of Vale will, he has made me his enemy and everyone wants to kill my enemies." after he answered he looked up from the man and back to Yang. he covered the distance between them in two easy strides and stopped just far enough away that Yang wasn't going to try and move back but still as close as he could get.
"I heard an unknown girl at beacon was killed, please I am begging to take back there. I need to find out who killed her." the more he spoke the more Yang seemed to recognize his voice. He sounded like Bud but Bud was dead, he had been killed by a sniper months ago when Jaune and a few others shut down the white fang F.O.B. (Forward Operating Base for the non militarily inclined) in Vale.
Whoever he was Yang wasn't sure she could stop him even if she had a reason to. Whoever he was he was very determined. If she didn't help him then he would find his own way to get to Beacon and that way may not involve two trained students being right next to him.
After a moment of nervousness, Yang said, "sure, follow me Mr."
"Hasen," after he answered her she was actually more confused than before.
"Do you have a brother named Bud? She asked him. Wondering if he was one of Bud's siblings.
"Yes," he answered. "My name is Coby Hansen. I am the one who came by to look at your sabotaged technology. Bud was my brother." when he finished speaking he looks to the ground as though in shame.
"Well," Yang said looking him over. "You've changed. The last time I saw you. You were three and a half inches shorter, and you had no facial hair. So what gives?"
"This," he said as he reached into his satchel and pulled out a book that looked to be very old and very damaged book. "This is a handbook for the martial art known as Metalikato. It is the only thing I can think of to explain my new changes."
Yang found it odd that he would experience such a drastic change after reading a book but thought better than to argue with it for now.
And now that the adrenaline had died off the soul-crushing misery she had been feeling began to return. She leads Coby to the Bullhead in silence and that was how they spent the rest of the trip. But right now that was okay with Yang. she didn't want to talk either.