At the shores of a grey beach, walking through the sand was a young blonde, with his usual grey blazer on his hoodie complete with black slacks and leather wingtip shoes with rubber soles, his mask calmly hanging from his hip. This youth's name was Jaune. He had no last name to remember but it was on that same beach that he was saved by Cinder.
I had nothing 7 years ago. I owe my life to Cinder. Salem gave me an identity and a treated me like family.
He looked up at the imposing red sky as he remembered the events that happened 7 years ago.
/-/
Jaune was found by the shores of the beach by Cinder during one of the walks she had whenever she had a break. She found Jaune washed ashore and resuscitated him. He awoke dazed and fainted only to wake up days later while being tended by her and checked upon by Watts. The doctor established that the boy had amnesia, most specifically other than his name, Jaune forgot everything else about him. And weeks after that he was introduced to Salem.
Apparently Jaune was the spitting image of the Warrior King of Vytal. Whose history and future was lost in the annals of history. And according to Salem, the Warrior King was her indirect descendant through her twin brother. She revealed this to the young boy who had nothing. During the weeks before meeting with Salem the boy was like the dead with nothing to him but his name.
He had lost hope.
But Salem had other plans. The great queen offered Jaune a choice. To go back to his family or to serve her. Jaune pondered.
The weeks when he tried remembering, when he was recuperating was hard. To say that the ordeal was like hell to him was an understatement for his 10-year old self. He was lost in the darkness.
He didn't know what he was, is, nor what he wanted for the future. Not even a reason to live.
During that ordeal, there was one person who served as a light for him. He stared at her in that desolate throne room.
Cinder Fall.
During those weeks Jaune was staying on one of the castle's balconies staring at the red sky above him. Lost on what to do. But then Cinder came to him with a slight irritation on her, she held his hand and pulled her towards the library and had him study with her.
"Studying alone while you laze around irritates me. You are gonna suffer with me." She said as she gave Jaune a book on history. Perhaps it was then and there that he had an interest in reading. Since he had nothing else to do.
Nevertheless, at that time he decided that he didn't need to know where he came from. Salem is willing to give him a reason to look forward to the future. Cinder saved his life, he internally swore his life for the benefit of only Cinder.
Jaune got more than what he thought. He was given a family he never thought he could ever had. Salem was someone akin to a grandmother to her. Cinder became a special person to her. The three other men were like uncles to him. He owed himself to them. That's why upon deciding, Jaune kneeled on the spot and swore an oath of loyalty towards Salem.
"I, Jaune, shall serve the great mother of the Grimm and offer myself and my everything towards your will." He said with an earnest look on his face.
Salem smiled and nodded. "I understand. Then you, Jaune, shall be a vessel of mine. But you cannot have a seat in my inner circle. Not yet." She sat down and gestured towards her servants.
"You lot shall train Jaune and help him find out how he can better serve us and be of use. Dr. Watts, Tyrian, Hazel make sure Jaune is not incompetent, And my dear Cinder, I entrust you to teach Jaune proper knowledge of the world and the use of Dust. I entrust my kin to you all, do not fail me." She ordered.
The four knelt and swore their success
"Your will shall be done."
For 1 year Jaune was taught by the four of the Queen's vassals.
Arthur Watts made sure that the boy knows proper dining manners, gentlemen etiquette, how to dress properly, and the most important teaching that Jaune could learn was the art of seduction. In all the things Jaune went through Watts' teachings were the hardest since they all always required for him to have confidence, in which Jaune had a hard time to achieve. The doctor also taught Jaune basic first-aid.
Hazel beat into Jaune how to refine his body. From his stamina, up to his strength. He had to be flexible to avoid damage from the man's fast strikes. He had to be stronger to break through his defenses, he had to rely on tricks fight against Hazel's own. Hazel made sure that the boy is strong enough to take on the average huntsman.
Tyrian introduced Jaune to the glory of weapons, to which he introduced the blonde to three weapons based from watching Hazel whip him to shape. Knives, Wires, and guns. Tyrian taught him the number one weapon used against humans; Fear. By putting your resolve, hate, and anger into your will to kill the enemy you can easily have them fall in their knees by mixing those with one's Aura. Jaune was proficient with the use of the Knife and the Gun. Though he had a hard time with the use of wires he eventually came around and was good enough to warrant the crazy faunus' standards.
And then the two had a joint class to teach Jaune a secret technique lost to remnant. Aura arts. Its when one uses their Aura to change the flow of battle. There is the commonly used and known semblance, but Aura arts are something only a few people know and can do. They tested Jaune if he can do it by having him fuse his aura into a knife that he had which he did easily. And from there the training started on the usage of Aura.
Then there were the study sessions with Cinder. The girl, who at the time was still a teen, taught Jaune everything a kid should know before entering combat school. Other than that she trained the boy in tactics by playing with him different games, From chess, to checkers, to Othello. By far their favorite game was the political tabletop game, Remnant: the game.
While playing Chess Jaune opted to ask "Hey, Cinder. What made you want to be a part of all this?"
Cinder paused, eyes still intent on their match. "Simple. Its Power, Jaune." She made a move.
"But, why? Aren't you powerful enough?" He moved his bishop.
"No. that's not it. I was weak once. Weak and pitiful" She moved a pawn. "I don't want that to happen again."
"I see." Jaune ate the pawn with his rook. "Then whattabout' now? You're already strong. What else is there?"
"No, its still not enough." Cinder moved her queen to eat a pawn. "Check."
Jaune moved back the rook to protect the king. "I see." Their match continued and ended with Cinder's victory.
"Jaune, you never moved your Queen. You even had the king protect the Queen at one point. Why?" Cinder asked.
"I like to see myself as the king whenever we play, it helps me focus." He scratched the back of his head with a slight tinge of red towards his cheek.
"You're so naïve Jaune. If you want to win you must use everything. And everyone." Cinder stood up.
"Does winning make you happy?" The blonde youth asked.
Cinder smiled at him and left. Jaune stared at the chess table. His king in front of his Queen surrounded by the pieces of Cinder's forces.
I gotta be strong enough that my 'queen' doesn't need to move. Or better pawns. I need power above all else.
In the year that came, Salem treated Jaune like a family to the point where an accidental dinner where Jaune called Salem 'Mom' made it a permanent thing for him to do so when they are not alone. Jaune saw Salem as his provider; As Cinder as his savior, to whom his life she owes to her. If the woman wanted power like a queen's then Jaune would have to be as powerful a king as her, nay, he had to be more, more powerful that his queen would need not move. He would be the king that will remove the pebbles on Cinder's road for her desires.
/A year Later/
Jaune stood in the forest, wearing sweatpants and a tracksuit. His left hand up to his forearm was covered by black steel and in his right, he held a custom Beretta 92FS Inox also known as the "Vacuo Sword Cutlass Special". And on his hip a modified Colt Walker Model revolver filled with 6 specialized Dust bullets.
And in front of him was Tyrian in his combat outfit.
"Oh, what fun is this, if you pass you can still be our goddess' favorite, and if you fail" He gave a giddy laugh "I'll be the new favorite!"
Jaune gave no response, he looked at the castle balcony where Cinder and Salem were watching them from above. He nodded at Hazel
The huge man nodded as well and gave the signal for them to begin.
The two ran towards the forest while firing their weapons at each other and Jaune hoped on a tree's trunk with both legs and kicked to bring himself closer to Tyrian. Tyrion foot met the blonde's face to which the blonde took hold with his left and striked the side of the faunus' knee with his gun. The faunus pulled back his leg and attacked with his weapons, slicing at jaune to which he dodged or blocked with his left hand.
After a few exchanges of bullets and blades the blonde shot at Tyrian's face with his gun to which was dodged as well by pulling his head backwards, Jaune took the moment to gather aura around his left hand which made yellow sparks and strike the middle of Tyrian's chest with an open palm. The attack is what Hazel taught him called 'Flow Distortion'.
According to Hazel's teaching, one's aura is the manifestation of one's soul. But the way it manifests is like water flowing around the body. Aura arts is manipulating that said flow to create numerous phenomena with it. From strengthening the body to sharpening the mind. One hidden technique is the flow distortion, wherein the user would inject their own aura into their opponent and have it act as some sort of dam that would distort the flow of their aura. Of course, this wasn't without its disadvantages. For one is unless the enemy has yet to experience this kind of attack the effects won't last long.
Which is why Jaune attacked Tyrion relentlessly. He expended his bullets trying to damage his opponent's body which Tyrion deftly dodged one by one. He then proceeded to close quarters combat; he returned his handgun in her holster behind his lower back and pulled out a dagger from his right foreleg and attacked Tyrion. The faunus grinned while dodging, and Jaune failing to notice an opening to his defenses was struck by Tyrion with a headbutt to his nose causing Jaune to loosen his grip on his knife ultimately losing it, and from there Tyrion assaulted Jaune when he flinched backwards.
It took Tyrion 15 minutes until Jaune fell towards the ground face first due to the absence of his already depleted aura. The faunus grabbed jaune by the neck and lifted him up in the air.
"Is that all you have boy? Do you yield already?" Tyrion smiled like a beast
Jaune gave a maniacal smile of his own. He then grabbed Tyrion's arm and opened his mouth, three small metal spheres falling out of "Checkmate" he said before an explosion occurred and they were covered in smoke.
Hazel huffed and gave his assessment. "Mini dust bombs. Clever, but a bit unrefined."
Cinder's face was filled with concern since Jaune's aura was already depleted.
Salem, upon seeing the expression on Cinder's face held her shoulder. "Do not worry Cinder. This is not the first time that the boy made it look like he lost." She smiled.
Cinder nodded. She knew all too well what her master meant. After that talk about Cinder's reason for wanting power a sudden change occurred in the young boy. He took Hazel's teachings seriously to the point that he'd be filled with anger each time the young boy and Hazel would spar, all the while being able to adjust the mad teachings of Tyrion himself, and dare she say his greatest weapon is his cunning wit. Where he would always make you believe you've won only to find out there would be something hidden within his plans. Not once have Cinder lost to Jaune but she feared that he just let her win.
When the dust cleared it was seen by everyone that Jaune, his features perfectly in place, was pointing his revolver behind Tyrion's head while the faunus' stinger was pointed at Jaune's stomach. Another kind of surprise since Tyrion has never used his stinger at the master's kin.
The match was ended by Hazel as a draw but both fighters had a menacing smile on their face.
/-/
later their training finished and they had a meeting and it was Jaune's first time to be a part of it. That time there were still only four seats at the table. None for him. He had yet to prove his worth.
"I see, so it was a draw. I'd had thought you'd lose, Jaune." Watts said as he fiddled with his scroll. He was told about the result of the testing by Hazel since he wasn't present.
"My training was supervised by good teachers, Doctor." Jaune said with a humble bow.
"That or the quality of service around here has gone… Rusty." He said as he smirked at Tyrion.
Tyrion laughed "Oh, that's sweet. Tell me how's your other job going? You're just sour cause' YOU'RE the one who's getting rusty." He chuckled "Or maybe cause you neither won nor loss the bet? Is your 'eyesight' getting bad?"
The doctor glared at Tyrion and huffed.
Salem then entered the room and everyone came into a silent attention. After a few reports Salem asked;
"Jaune, if you are to be involved in my inner circle, allow me to ask, what can you offer to be of use?"
Jaune stood straight. "If I may be so bold, I believe that I can be of better use as an information broker. And report any noteworthy discoveries to everyone present."
Salem raised an eyebrow "Are you telling me that dear Watts' performance lacking?"
Jaune closed his eyes. "Yes. I could learn from him how hard it is being a politician, one that must go through the four kingdoms of remnant daily. So, I believe it would ease his burden and increase efficiency for the whole group if I become the primary source of information." Jaune opened his eyes with a determined look on his face.
Watts' face was skeptical at first but found the logic behind Jaune's words. "Sadly, I must agree with the boy. Information gathering is not my greatest feat. But I do believe I speak for everyone when I say that is also not the strongest point everyone here has." He gestured to his colleagues.
Salem on the other hand grinned. "To expose the weakness of everyone in the table and use it as your own. Interesting. Interesting indeed. Truly you have been taught well, Jaune." She gave a slow clap.
Eh? Seriously?! I just pulled that out of my ass and it worked!? WHAT?!
"Then, 5 years. I will give you 5 years. Establish yourself as a well-renowned broker and we shall see if you are worthy enough to be a part of my circle. Travel Remnant. Establish contacts." She smiled
"And with that you are all dismissed. I shall see you off tomorrow Jaune. For now, prepare yourself for the travel ahead."
Before everyone could leave Jaune fidgeted.
"Oh? Is there anything else?" she asked.
Jaune took a deep breath and looked at Cinder. "I just wanted to get this off my chest, milady."
"Is this about your attraction towards young Cinder?"
Cinder froze.
Jaune looked down with his face red up to his ear.
"Yes. Um- Wait, you know?"
His surrogate mother chuckled "It was fairly obvious to me that you harbored such an attraction to her." Salem said nonchalantly to which everyone but Cinder agreed to. "If that's all there is to it then I'll just leave the two of you here. Have a good talk. You won't be seeing her for 5 years after all." She left along with her male subordinates.
Jaune scratched the back of his head. "so… That was a thing" he shackled dryly
Cinder sighed "Jaune, look. I appreciate your feelings but you're still young. It's all a misplaced feeling of appreciation that you have for me since I saved you."
Jaune opened his mouth to retort but no sound came out. Cinder made a compelling argument.
"See? You can't even talk." She gave a small smile as she ruffled the young boy's head.
Jaune bit his lip and pushed Cinder's hand away. "Then, when I come back. I'll show you. I can be a king as powerful- more than powerful than you!" He took a few steps back. "I swear Cinder, I'll be your king." He left the meeting room.
Cinder sighed. She doesn't want a king. She then remembered the way Jaune always played his pieces. It's always the king before his queen.
The next day was the first day of Jaune's journey. In his bag were a few clothes and a mask given to him by her Master. Only Salem was there to see him off. Not even Cinder came when he left for Remnant.
His master's final order to him was "Under no circumstances am I allowing you to kill anyone. Is that understood?"
Jaune nodded and with that a Grimm known as a Griffin landed beside him he took off. For one-year he worked under many different names without his mask all of which did not garner any attention.
But his work as the Shadow Seer, the broker with reasons, could earn many connections from doing odd jobs to simple tasks, he met with people who were going to be big names, he met people who would be infamous for their deeds but there were a few most renown people in remnant that came into contact and became his own allies. Roman Torchwick and his associate Neopolitan, Adam Taurus the hero of the white fang, the murderous twins with a PhD Frank and Stein, and a mysterious masked woman who leads a tribe of powerful warriors
/-/
In the case of Roman Torchwick, the shadow seer invited him for a heist that would not only yield him a lot of money from the masked broker but would give him fame and fortune enough to be his own man. In order to win Roman and Neo's trust Jaune had to show his face to them to which he agreed.
They were going to steal, which was Roman's forte, but the gist is they were going to steal from one of Atlas' weapon base. And they were going to steal a prototype airship that can outrun a Bullhead and be able to fight an airship head-on.
The plan was as followed.
Jaune came forward the entrance of the base battered and bruised with his face in a disguise, his eyes being brown and his hair black with a prominent beauty mark beneath his lips, He comes to the guards that stopped him.
"Please, there was an accident, my family is trapped inside the car." The two patrol guards nodded and approached the boy before they were struck from behind by Neopolitan with her umbrella.
"Beautiful" Jaune complimented to which she gave a curtsy bow. Jaune then proceeded to change into his outfit; A dress shirt, necktie, a formal vest, an open chester coat, a pair of formal slacks all clothing weaved with dust-threads for easy movement and durable cloth that can withstand attacks, leather shoes with rubber soles, he only brought a tranquilizer gun, for reasons and of course from his left hand up to his forearm covered with black metallic armor.
Next, Roman took their uniform and wore it while Jaune, who intercepted the communications system of the base beforehand gave proper responses to the coded messages sent to them which he memorized by heart.
While Neo waited outside in case of an emergency situation, Roman walked the halls like a soldier would and Jaune gave instructions while he was inside the vents, his small body a proper fit through it.
Their first destination was the control room. Jaune opened the vent silently and pulled out a tranquilizer gun to put the 3 soldiers maintaining the controls and the camera to sleep. And then Neo was to use her semblance to hide herself and sneak inside and take control to make sure the next phase goes well. Next was the base's data hub.
Usual Atlesian protocol was, according to Jaune's findings, always putting their files and data on the move. From one base to another it's a secure idea but their pride in their defenses wasn't prepared for a small hidden backdoor virus for Jaune to have easy access to everything Atlas had from the comfort of his lap-scroll down to the portable access he can have with his Scroll.
Then came the best part.
Jaune and Roman entered the hangar where the prototype airship awaited them. As expected, the engineers were drunk and knocked out from celebrating the completion of their revolutionary airship. The two of them marveled at the newly made airship Jaune nodded at Roman.
The usual airship was slow with its four wings that imitated that of a turtle's flipper. But this particular beauty had only a pair of wings but it is said that it can go faster than a bullhead because of its particular engine and it had lighter armor compared to the usual Atlesian airship
"You ready?" The disguised information broker asked.
"What are you asking me that for? It's basically ripe for the taking." He snickered.
"Neo can handle the special thing, right?" Jaune started walking nonchalantly towards the airship along Roman by his side.
"Of course, just pitch in if things go south."
"That's not really assuring Roman." Jaune deadpanned before wearing the mask given to him by his master.
"Yeesh, that mask always gives me the creeps." Roman's face paled at the sight of the mask
"Really? I actually think it looks nice."
"Which is why some people thing YOU'RE a creep." He chuckled.
"Yeah, that's coming from a man wearing eyeliner and a bowler hat."
"It's called aesthetics kid, you should understand." Roman rolled his eyes.
The two individuals kept bickering until Neo got tired of the exchange between them in their radio that she pressed the red button that turned off the lights, which started the next phase of their plan.
Roman and Jaune nodded, the former head straight for the airship's bridge while Jaune climbed up the top of the airship and stood at the center of a viewing platform. Seeing Jaune in position, she nodded at the camera and opened the roof doors of the hangar and smashed the controls and went on to Roman with a skip in her steps.
The moon lit on the hangar and illuminated the visage of the Shadow Seer which was then greeted by the special bonus that he talked about. The new Specialist that recently graduated from Atlas Academy. Winter Schnee.
"And who the hell do you think you are? Do you know what you're doing!?" She asked with her weapons pointed at his masked form.
"Okay, first, rude. Introduce yourself first. And second." He connected to the base's speakers with his scroll and spoke on it. "My name is the Shadow Seer. I've no business with you all but I must thank you for this fine piece of work. I need it for my business." He disconnected.
"There are two things I hate the most in remnant." She said with a calm angry look in her eyes.
"And those are?" The masked man asked
"Businessmen and thieves. And obviously, you're both" She lunged herself at the shadow seer but suddenly, a woman with a three-colored motif on her hair appeared beside her and kicked her stomach. Winter doubled over and a foot from the masked Jaune met her face and she fell backwards in a daze staring at the starry sky.
"I don't think you've met. As courtesy calls, Winter meet Neo." He gestured towards Neopolitan and she gave a curt bow with her parasol unfurled behind her. "Neo, your bonus reward." Neopolitan grinned.
The Shadow Seer turned around "Well, as much as I would like to stay here, duty calls. Ta-ta" he said as he entered the airship.
Neopolitan was going to enjoy making Winter scream
/-/
Moments later the airship was fully outside the hangar, floating majestically over the whole base. And after a while Roman and the Seer who were inside the bridge bear witness to an Atlesian Specialist falling down back to the hangar from outside their window. Screaming and cursing at them.
Roman took that as a signal to leave before any reinforcements could come.
"And that's a wrap." Roman said as Neo then entered the bridge sitting on one of the chairs and spinning it around like a child.
"Good job you two." Jaune congratulated them as he removed his mask.
"So, ready to do your end of the bargain?" Roman asked.
"Yep, already uploading the whole heist to the underground holonet." Jaune fiddled with his scroll.
[Oooh ooh! Send it the Atlas military too!] Neo texted Jaune.
"You sure?" He asked Roman.
Roman nodded "Eh, sure why not. Always hated those pricks anyway."
"okay then. Done. With that you two are officially famous criminals" He clapped.
Neo hugged him from behind and typed in his scroll [Thanks Jaune! We got more than we deserve from this heist.]
Jaune laughed. "Oh no, I think I'll be getting more. This airship is an investment anyway."
"What do you mean?" Roman asked as he navigated the ship.
"Well, Do you guys know the name Raven Branwen?" Jaune gave a menacing grin.
/Chapter 2 end/
P.s. If you want reference on Jaune's smile refer to Tanya the evil's smile whenever she gets excited.
HOLY FUCK. THIS IS THE BEST THAT I CAN DO. GODDAMMIT I'M SO MAD AT MYSELF. Idk why but It feels so lacking… that or maybe I'm rushing the story too much to get into the actual Volume 1. But of course I wanted this to have a proper foundation. So a proper foundation you'd be receiving.
If umm things don't go well in the upcoming chapters I promise you guys, my dear readers, that it would only get better. So please give your reviews. I won't mind if its bad. I want to know where I went wrong and how I can get better.
Anyway hope you liked the actual prologue. It was not easy. I lost a lotta sleep trying to fix this because it was so well received than I hoped for.
The reason why Jaune didn't get to converse much here is because I'm kinda going for this prologue to be nothing but a summary. So, if this bit is bad (The heist) then please say so and I'd summarize the foundation of the story and dive in to the canon parts…. If its bad please say so : )
Anyway please (for the nth time) give a review, if ya liked it give a follow and a favorite. It only takes 2 seconds. ;3
