Rewrite the History Books

"Look, this is a shitty situation and we all know it." He looked around, seemingly looking into the eyes of his entire army. "I'm not gonna sugar coat anything... people think we're screwed, they think we're done. And I know deep down inside you guys think that as well."

He stopped. Staring at his newly acquired army with a hardened look—a look of a man who has seen too much.

"The ultimate enemy to all of humanity is right out there. Nobody expects that today is the day in which the fate of the Remnant will be decided—the day in which we look at the bitch who's trying to take the world and she looks back. Draco was created by the blood of brothers fighting each other for petty reasons... a false baptism of blood."

He was glowing slightly with power.

"We will baptize Draco again. This time with the blood of our enemy. We will win because we not only have the enough heart for a billion men, but because we carry the hope of the entire world as well. They may think we're done... but deep down inside they want us to win—they want nothing more than to see a miracle."

He took the revolver of the deceased commander and started to load it.

"But we don't need a miracle. We're better than she is. We don't need a miracle because we're gonna walk up to that monster and show her that true strength isn't from fear or thievery—it's from the blood and tears of people who refuse to back down! I'm gonna walk into the battle with a smile on my face, and I hope that you guys will follow me with the exact same smiles as well!"

Power was radiating off him.

"I want to ask who we're fighting, but I fear you guys don't know the answer yet." He paused and looked around. "If ask who, many of you will say 'Cinder Fall'. But that's not who she is. When I ask who! We are NOT fighting a person! We are fighting a corpse! Because Cinder Fall will be nothing but a corpse when we're done with her! Am I mistaken!?"

There was a resounding cry of 'NO!'

"Then I, Commander Jaune Arc, am going to march into Draco with my head held high and my sword buzzing with excitement! Because I know that today is the turning point in this damn war! Today is the day the world fights back and shows that corpse exactly what it can accomplish!"

Nobody was going to argue on how the commander self appointed himself—they supported it.

Because Commander Arc was the hope and dreams of the entire Remnant embodied.

-A recounted tale of the Battle of Draco

Tale of One City

"You know, why do we even have a safe house in Nord? The city has never been infiltrated before, and that kinda ruins the point of a safe house."

Qrow stared at me for a moment, before shrugging. "I don't know," he said. "This place was probably made before the city wide security system was added. Look at it, it looks pretty damn shitty."

I collapsed onto a couch, watching as dust erupted from all around me.

"Does a safe house need to be not shitty?" I asked.

Qrow walked over to a cabinet in the kitchen—we were in an apartment—and started to rummage through them.

"Joan, we just fell two and a half miles. I want a fucking hot tub and enough cookies to feed all of Patch."

Well... I knew where Ruby got her cookie addiction from.

"Oh shit," I picked up something from the floor, "Qrow look. It's an ancient fossil! It's a newspaper!"

He glared. "Joan, you know newspapers were around in my time."

"You're a dinosaur!"

"You shithead!" he retorted. "The Scroll hasn't been around forever! There was a time where you couldn't get information instantly or be able to check Aura levels on the fly. We had radios to communicate with each other!"

"You know, that only makes you older and older."

"I'm not old! The Scroll only came out around a decade ago!"

"We have a Triceratops wandering around here! Is this a pet friendly safe house?"

"Piss off, Joan."

"Did you smoke tobacco on your pipe as well? Huh? Did you have an extra nickel from your five dollar pay check and decided to go over to the local haberdashery to shoot up some cocaine—cause it was legal back then?"

Qrow slammed his hands down on the kitchen counter and seethed silently.

It was magical... who knew the great Qrow was sensitive about his age?

"Could Faunus vote back then? I don't think they could... women couldn't vote either, right?"

"Joan... you better stop."

"Oh Qrow! Were you an early adopter of electricity? I know Dust seems pretty magical—and we all know how skeptical you guys were back then... with the witchcraft and all."

"It wasn't like that! I had electricity!"

I smirked. "You don't even have a driving license, do you? You didn't need a license when the original car came out! I bet you have Yang drive you aroun—" my voice got caught in my throat.

"Yang?" Qrow's eyes narrowed. "How do you know about my niece?"

I chuckled nervously.

"Oops...?"

"Oops indeed. Now talk... or else."

I thought for excuses.

"You mentioned her while drunk."

"I would need to be completely fucked to do that. I haven't been that drunk in weeks."

"At breakfast?"

"The last thing I would do is mention my family to Winter."

"After we fell out of the plane?"

"Why would I think of my family?"

"Your life flashed before your eyes."

Qrow gave me a bland look.

I opened my mouth, and then closed it. "Maybe your—ah fuck it. I'm the supreme leader of the army in the future and came back in time to stop the world from going into chaos... and I might have hooked up with both future Yang and future Ruby before but at separate times... but I'm not a player since it was both years apart and both Yang and I agreed to not mention it to anyone because while we were together in the army—we weren't together together—only partners. And I was going to propose to Ruby but I got sent back in time by a crazy bitch who is way too attractive."

Qrow stared at me.

And stared.

And stared.

And after almost a minute, still stared.

"What the hell?"

Qrow was taking it a lot better than I thought.

"One more time for me... this time with more clarification."

I nodded. "Well, I entered the army at—"

He cut me off, "I don't give a shit about your life story. I payed practically no attention to how you entered the army, or how you became commander and all that shit. The only thing I want to hear about is Ruby and Yang."

I stared, meekly. "Well," I started weakly, "I went to school with the both of them... Ruby got in two years early after stopping a robbery."

"Typical Ozpin," Qrow said lowly.

"We were all pretty close friends at Beacon—I was completely shit at fighting and they watched my back. When the war started I grew a pair and together us seven ascended up the ranks."

"Seven?"

I frowned. "Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren... we were Team JNPR. Cinder took out Pyrrha during the Battle of Beacon."

"Pyrrha Nikos? That one prodigal girl from Mistral or something?"

"The one and only," I said with a nostalgic smile, before sobering after a few moments. "Anyways, they decided I was going to be the leader of our little team—with my Semblance and, according to them, I was a pretty decent tactician."

"That doesn't explain the term 'hooked up.'"

"I uh... well uh..." I swallowed a lump in my throat. I did NOT have to have this conversation with any of my girlfriends... well girlfriend since I only ever went official with Ruby. I had no clue how to talk to my significant others parents—I could barely talk to my own parents.

"Talk," he ordered.

"Well... I was a heavy hitter. I had a lot of Aura and could use it to take hits and receive hits. Yang was the same with her Semblance, so we would fight the bigger targets." I looked at him for confirmation.

"Make sense."

"We had just managed to take out a White Fang base when we ran into our worst enemy... Neopolitan and Emerald. Emerald is the only person I know of who can create basically an illusion so powerful that not even pain or being unconscious can stop it. She can take the sensory inputs to the brain and warp it into her own fantasy."

"So she can control the targets perception."

"Yeah," I said tiredly. "She was tough on her own, but Neopolitan was the bad one. She is the craziest assassin, and person, who probably ever existed. She's short, mute girl who's a possible dual Semblance user."

Qrow actually looked surprised. "An actual dual Semblance user? The last recorded one was..."

I nodded. "Yeah, and she's wickedly loyal to Mr. Torchwick—it's the reason he's so confident. Her ability to create Illusions can affect an entire stadium, and she's considered a prospective dual semblance user with teleportation."

For a while we thought that Neo could just run away by making us fight an illusion, but that was seemingly debunked when she vanished on camera. Her ability at illusions was incredible, but could she trick technology as well?

Qrow put two and two together. "You two were incredible front line fighter, but against assassins..."

I nodded grimly. "We couldn't beat the two best assassins of the time. The fight started in the basement of a base we just cleared. It was dark and we had to fight silent foes who would hit and run. As you know, Yang catches on fire with her Semblance, and I glow like a stupid lamp. We stuck together and tried to corner them, but Emerald soon made Yang think I was Adam Taurus."

"The White Fang member?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah and the person who..." I couldn't speak.

"What is it?"

"He..."

Qrow looked worried. "What did he do?"

I hesitated.

"Qrow... remember that this hasn't happened yet. We still have time to change this."

"It depends what you say and if I decide to believe you," he retorted.

"Qrow, Adam cut off Yang's arm." I winced as I said it. "At the Battle of Beacon Yang lost her arm, but she got a prosthetic so she could continue fighting. Yang was literally obsessed with finding him at the time—which Emerald knew and took full advantage of. We both used swords and were both around the same size, so Yang could barely tell the difference in her anger."

I took his silence as a cue to continue.

"We had an objective. Cinder was creating a weapon of mass destruction... it was a single, hand held rifle. When fully charged it fired a blast powerful enough to go through the walls of Haven and into it's power supply. That thing blew up one of the most secure places in the world with a single bullet... and it was recharging in the other room."

Qrow nodded stiffly.

"You uh... you actually died sabotaging the weapon. You managed to sneak into Cinder's base and destroyed the blueprints to the weapon. You uploaded a virus that wiped Cinder's entire research and development division before assassinating the man who created the initial designs. The man was an insane tinkerer from the desert... I wish I knew how Cinder recruited such powerful people."

"I... killed him."

"Yup. That guy was crazy, and was a massive loner. The only person who new how to make the weapon was a corpse in the ground because of you, and all that was left of it was a half finished prototype. Cinder was pissed, to say the least, and sent the strongest people in her army to kill you—and I mean the strongest. Adam was pretty instrumental in your demise, which didn't help my case with Yang at all."

I paused, trying to think of the best way to tell the story.

"It... it was a tough battle. Anyways, you wanted to know about how we got together, so I'll skip what happened in the base. In the end, I managed to destroy the weapon and make the two bitches retreat... but I didn't do it unharmed. Yang felt horrible for what she did to me, but I insisted it was Emerald's fault." I let out a deep breath. "It was Emerald's fault..."

"What did she do to you?"

"Nothing."

"She did something more extreme than beating the shit out of you, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"I'm... no."

"I want to know."

"You want to, but you shouldn't know."

"Joa—"

"I'm not going to say."

"Jaune," he used my real name, "I want to know what Yang did to you in the base."

I sighed. "I was beaten pretty quickly, but Emerald kept the illusion up. Yang, thinking I was Adam, enacted the payback she was thinking about for years."

Qrow stared and I looked at the ground.

"Are you going to tell me?" he asked.

"Qrow... do you remember how I landed on top of the Gipfel building?"

"Uh... yeah." I couldn't dare look him in the eye, but I could tell he was a bit confused by his tone. "You used your shield and bounced off the tip of the building, before grabbing me out of the air."

"Yet my arm is perfectly fine. Aura or not, that's one hell of a blow to take without even a bruise."

"So your shield arm is jacked? What's the—" Qrow's eyes widened "—no."

The safe house had a pretty good view, I decided.

"It was Emerald's fault," I said quietly. "It's Emerald's fault I lost my arm, not Yang's. That girl is way too nice for her own good... it wasn't her fault... Emerald made her do it."

"That's how you know Dr. Polendina," he breathed out.

I nodded. "I was familiar with his work, but the first time I met him was when he outfitted me with a prosthetic. The parts he gave Yang and I were pretty regular looking compared to Ironwood's, so it's practically impossible to notice since my sleeves are always long."

"She..." Qrow licked his lips, "she actually did that?"

"Again, it was Emerald," I clarified. "In Yang's eyes, she took the sword of Adam Taurus and amputated Adam Taurus, not Jaune Arc. There's no way I could blame her for something like that. We were in war... we all knew that horrible shit could happen." I sighed again. "And that's the answer to your question... Yang felt bad for amputating me and wanted to make amends."

There was silence.

"I need a drink," Qrow said.

"We can't go out, but the last team to be here must have hid something."

"Qrow," I drawled sloppily, "does booze expire?"

"You ask that after we got shit faced?"

"Yeah." I looked at the bottle of... of something and squinted—what did those letters say? "I just figured that since alcohol can kill bacteria that it's like... sterile or something."

"That just means only the strongest shit can grow in it."

I stared at the bottle... before taking another swig. "I have Aura, so why the fuck not?"

"So Ruby was a shitty teenage love story?" Qrow asked slowly. "She just liked you because you're somehow more awkward than she is."

"Hey!" I yelled back, throwing a half finished bottle of vodka at him, "We had a great relationship! I was so smooth around her! She's the first and only person to call me cool!"

Qrow caught it and took a swig before talking, "That's not a good thing, dumbass!"

"Screw you, Qrow!"

"Stay away from my nieces!"

"I said 'Qrow' not Yang or Ruby! And come one man!? There's no way in hell I'm dating a girl ten years younger than me!" I suddenly sighed deeply. "All my friends are a decade younger than I am—"

Qrow was caught off guard. "Jaune..."

"—so now I'm stuck with your bum ass!" I pointed and laughed heartily.

Qrow was about to retort, but the radio started to emit static.

"Joan, Qrow!" the voice of Ironwood rang from the machine. "The Semblance machine is being transported to another facility off country! There's practically no chance we can retrieve it if it leaves Atlas!"

"Shit." I could already feel the sobriety seep into me body.

"We're on it, Jimmy!"

We geared up and stumbled up three flight of stairs onto the rooftop.

"Okay okay," Qrow muttered before turning to me. "Joan, once we get one of the targets the other will be put on maximum security. I'm a better infiltrator so I'll break into MaxLabs and... well I'll find the machine." How the hell he would get it out was another situation.

"Good luck," I said as he jumped away.

I looked down at the street below. "Let's see... there!" I pointed at a dark square in the middle of the sidewalk, remembering all the information I had from holding the city. "That black panel leads into the Dust reserve for this block..."

When the Dust got low they would open it up and dump more inside of it; it was a funnel that led to a giant reserve. So theoretically, I could fire a concentrated blast of Aura down there and (maybe) ignite the Dust used to power the entire block. It would knock out all cameras in the block and could, without a doubt, derail a convey protecting a valuable machine.

But getting down there was the issue.

...maybe I could take inspiration from Miss Fall.

A stringless bow appeared in my hand, it's body translucent and glowing somewhat brightly. I frowned as a string formed, but instantly dissipated into thin air—making a bow string was tough.

I usually only channeled my Aura into blast or shockwaves to accommodate for my obvious lack or range. Ren taught me quite a bit after Cinder tore me apart with fireballs and arrows. It made me into a short range demon with a surprisingly good medium range game. However, shooting into a vent from on top of a building was a bit too much for a Aura fireball.

Ren could, and did, hit a bullet out of the air while being thrown around in the air by a tornado. Cinder could, and did, shoot an Aura arrow from the top of her fucking airship and hit Ruby Rose while she was running full speed.

Those two were masters of Aura manipulation; however, Ren was a lot better since he could do it all without Dust as a medium for stability. Cinder was an expert in Dust manipulation who used it to modify her Aura manipulation—it was an absurd combination that not even Ren could crack.

I didn't carry Dust (I blew myself up one too many times), so that left me with the worst possibility. This was a pinpoint target that needed the speed, the finesse and the aim to be able to travel hundreds of feet from the sky right as a well armed convey drove above.

How did Qrow do this in my timeline? There was no way he went into this city, stole two valuable pieces of machinery, and then escape without being caught by a single camera.

Wait...

Didn't Qrow say Doctor Polendina knew about this entire debacle? Was it possible... was it possible that in a few months Polendina would create the machines instead?

If my memory serves me right, the machine Ozpin wanted to use on Pyrrha involved transferring AURA, not Semblance...

It all made sense. Without me, Ozpin and his crew decided that the mission was impossible and had Polendina create the machines instead. That was why they were so rushed to use Pyrrha—Amber was still dying while they were making the machine.

So now, with me, another person who could join Qrow, they're enacting a plan that didn't happen in my timeline.

Shit was changing. I was changing the events before the other Jaune even entered Beacon—that was bad.

If the transfer was faster, than perhaps Pyrrha would survive... but was it worth it? Cinder could attack nextVytal festival, or Ruby may not decide to go shopping late at night when Torchwick was out. This robbery might delay the train mission that Adam and Blake were going to do, making Blake stay in the White Fang.

Qrow could DIE in this mission! This wasn't good! There's too many variables that even a fucking time traveler didn't know!

This machine could potentially make Pyrrha the Fall Maiden, and if that happened then the entire decade of information I had would go to waste. Was her life worth the information that could save thousands?

Or perhaps saving her life could prevent all of this? If Pyrrha lived and became a Maiden, then there would be no way Cinder could beat Ozpin, or even me.

Was one life worth making me useless? I needed to not only stop Cinder, but Salem and the White Fang as well. I can easily say that without Cinder, beating Salem would have been impossible. It took a three Maiden Cinder and a fully powered Commander Arc to take that witch down—and we both barely made it out.

The convoy was approaching, armored and speeding... I had to choose.

Was Pyrrha Nikos, the girl who was at one point my best friend and crush, worth it? To me, of course! But could I afford to jeopardize the entire future of The Remnant in order to save one life?

I realized it now. I realized why Cinder lost in the end... no human should have so much power. Humans are selfish, and greedy, and they don't ever want to give away the power that they have... because power is everyones dreams of at night.

Information was power, and I had too much of it. I came back trying to stop the deaths of all my loved ones, but who was I to play god? How could I decide to stop one thing and let another thing happen?

I could have stopped Cinder from ambushing Amber. I could have stopped Cinder Fall before she attained the Maiden power and saved an innocent life... but I wanted to make sure my girlfriend got accepted into Beacon early.

And now, I could save the life of Pyrrha Nikos, the girl who believed in me when nobody else did... but I want to leave this place and possible doom her because I wanted power. I want the power this information gives me.

"Fuck!" I cried as I fired an Aura arrow. It traveled into the black square and down into the street right as the first truck of the convoy drove over. There was a few seconds of nothing as the arrow traveled down the pipes into the main Dust supply...

I jumped off the building as the street exploded.

There was a reason time travel was impossible... it was exactly like how no human can be all four Maidens—it made a person a god. Humans can't be gods, they can't handle the power... power corrupts.

I was playing god with my power. I was thinking about making my life better instead of stopping the root of all evil at its bud. I was about kill an entire group of guards because Pyrrha Nikos befriended me in a future that will never happen.

Whatever was left of the street shattered as I landed on it. My sword glowed with power as I charged the dazed convoy.

Just like Cinder Fall, I was going to do whatever it takes to achieve my goal... and just like Cinder Fall it wasn't a just goal.

I wanted the younger me to never feel the pain I had to go through. It was selfish, it was greedy and it was without a doubt the wrong thing to do.

With Ironwoods help we could have had the entire Remnant ready to strike down Cinder at the first reason—that reason being the attack of Beacon and Pyrrha's death. Pyrrha Nikos should use the machine Doctor Polendina created and die fighting Cinder, then we would have the government support needed to take out Cinder and the White Fang forever. That was the perfect plan—I thought it was flawed because Pyrrha would die—but my thinking was the only thing flawed.

I was potentially dooming the entire damn Remnant because I wanted one person to live... I was an idiot.

"Kid!" Qrow's voice rang from my radio as I smashed my sheathed sword into the stomach of a guard. "The fuck did you do?"

"What!?" I let out as I dove out of the way of gunfire and fired a blast of Aura at the assailant (I wanted to keep my shield a sheath to keep my blade from killing).

"You took down Codex! The company that made the fucking Scroll and basically the entire fucking internet! Nobody can communicate with anyone!"

I looked to the building to my side and noticed a ruined 'DEX' hanging from it.

"Oops?"

"Not oops! Good job! Without the internet nobody can communicate with each other, and those cameras are wireless as well! We blinded the most secure city in the world!"

I punched the driver of one of the vehicles in the stomach, he had no padding and was sent flying into a wall.

"Wait... did I knock out the entire Remnant!?"

"Yes... oh shit."

I just took down the internet. It wasn't just looking up stupid videos or definitions, Codex was everywhere. Their technology controlled streetlights in a lot of modern cities, they has private networks for governments that allowed cops to scan license plates and monitor terrorism.

Codex was like the Schnee Dust Company—unstoppable. If those two suddenly shut down then the world would simply stop spinning.

And I just stopped one of the two. Codex boasted being unhackable, and it was... but they didn't expect a person to basically pull the plug on the intricate web they created.

I looked around the street, there was pandemonium everywhere. There was nobody on the street (thank god) when I blew it up, but the convoy was scattered all around.

A few meters away was a massive armored truck on it's side. It was the truck in the middle and was by far the most protected—that had to be the one.

Most of the men defending the machine got thrown around in the initial explosion. If they were wearing their seat belts they would be fine, since all of the trucks were pretty beefy.

I walked over to the truck and examined it. It was facing drivers side up, so all I had to do was knock it onto its wheels.

Which was easier said than done—it weighed twenty tons? Thirty tons?

But I had physics! The higher up I hit than the easier it would be. I just had to hit the part of the truck closest to the sky (I got rejected from Signal, but I was pretty certain I was right).

With a running start, I extended my shield and channeled all of my Aura. I was glowing like a light bulb as I jumped and slammed into the truck, feeling my bones shudder at the impact.

Luckily, the truck slowly started to tilt over and landed on top of another car—wheels down. I ran over to the drivers side and pulled the unconscious driver out (and checked to see if the tires were still intact). There was a little window in the cockpit that looked into the back; in the back was... was a machine.

It looked complicated, so I assumed it was it. It's not like I could take out my Scroll and send Polendina a text.

"Kid?"

"Yo."

"What's up?"

"I'm just driving a massive ass armored through the city, without a seat-belt... one sec," I actually buckled up, "Okay! I have my seat belt on! Which is good because every cop in the city is about to be chasing me."

"...wanna pick me up?"

"Do you have the casket? Because this Semblance thing is massive."

"I found it... and there's an old lady in it."

"What?"

"Remember me mentioning the grandmother?"

"Take her out or something!"

"Everyone here is freaking out cause of the internet being gone, so I'm casually talking to you. I can get the machine out, it has wheels, but the issue is what to do once I get it outside."

I frowned as drove.

"Hey, don't you have a sister that can create portals?"

"Raven?" Qrow snorted. "The only way she'll help me is if I'm with Yang and we're both about to be killed. Not me, really, Yang."

"Ruby?"

"Maybe Ruby. Actually probably Ruby as well."

"Can you say I'm Ruby's sorta boyfriend?"

"Kid..."

"What if we used a shit ton of Gravity Dust and E.T our way out of here?"

"Our best bet it to secure it," Qrow said, completely ignoring me. "We get both machines and hide them somewhere, and then run away with all the heat. We blow some stuff up, get the entire attention on us, and then come back for it later... or have one of us be the distraction."

"I'm a big flashy guy. I can distract, but escaping is the issue... well Ironwood can handle that."

"Dude, you blew up Codex. Ironwood can't do shit to save you."

"You volunteering?"

"I have a job. The kids back at Signal need me."

"Asshole."

"Oh shit, they're moving the casket. Looks like they're gonna drive it somewhere."

"Wait! That's good! You need to become the driver! I'll stash the Semblance machine somewhere and take the truck on a joy ride. While I'm doing that you drive your truck somewhere quiet and take out everyone in it. Then you drive over to where I hid the machine, pick it up, and boom! Scheduled delivery in all this chaos!"

"That's... well that's the best we god. Fucking Jimmy, leaving us to do this shit. I'm gonna need time to find out who the driver is and become him, you get that machine stashed."

"The government has to chase us and fix the destruction I caused—it'll take at least two hours to fix the damage to the Dust system. And that's if those poor workers decide they want to bust their ass for the minimum wage they might not get. So we have at least two hours to get both machines and escape before the cameras come back online."

"You got a place?"

"Don't worry, in the future I secured this place and evacuated pretty much all the residents. I know all of Draco pretty damn well. MaxLabs is by the Schnee Draco sector, and that's gonna be filled with people trying to get the Dust to fix the internet. So I'm gonna go..."

My head raced.

"...by the Vacuo embassy. Nobody goes there since this is the Atlas part of Draco, and there's a pretty secluded parking lot. I'm not too far, so I can get there before the cops get their heads out of their asses and come after me."

"They're passing me, you got maybe two minutes until they get to the crash, and they'll be looking for the truck soon afterwards.."

"They can't track the truck without the internet, so I'm good for about five minutes."

"Shit! The driver is a Charlene!"

I laughed despite the horrible situation I was in. "Have fun, Charlene!"

"I'm gonna say it's long for 'Charlie'... fuck. Kid, I can't have the radio going off while I'm driving with other people, so I'm going lights out. I better see your ass at the other side."

"Are you still drunk? Because your ass sounds soft!"

"Yeah I'm still drunk! My breath alone can make a person intoxicated!"

"I can smell it through the radio. I'm going to destroy the radio once I secure the machine, if I get caught I can't have anything tracing me back. Good luck and be careful."

"I will."

And then the radio went off... I was alone.

Four minutes.

It took me two minutes to get to the Vacuo embassy and two more minutes to unload the machine somewhat safely. I did it so fast not even Ruby could beat my time (she doesn't even have a time because she never had to take a stolen machine to a parking lot, so I automatically win).

Qrow was still silent, so he was probably still trying to convince people that Charlene could be a boys name. That left me to get far away from this place and make a big enough distraction for him to get through.

I couldn't even communicate with Ironwood for support, since it would go off on Qrow's end as well.

Sighing, I threw my radio onto the ground and smashed it with my foot. Getting back into the truck, I floored it.

After about a minute, I could see the flashing sirens behind me... good. The one minute it took them to find me was hopefully long enough that they didn't see me pull out of the embassy.

I shoved my foot down as hard as I could—I wasn't going to use the breaks. I learned how to drive from Yang, so I was pretty confident I could win a high speed chase in a regular car... but this was a giant armored truck.

I couldn't out speed or out maneuver a regular car in a behemoth of a truck... but I could use the size to my advantage.

A cop car pulled to my right, so I veered in it's direction, making it swerve off the road.

There was a hard right turn coming up, with wall in front of me.

I didn't turn.

I went straight through the wall. I knew there was a playground on the other side (it was Sunday, so there wasn't school) and ended up on another street. The cops following me had to stop and wait until the rubble was cleared to pass through.

I swore as a Bullhead flew right above me. There was another news Bullhead higher up as well (it was recording film since it couldn't stream it live without the internet).

"STOP THE CAR!" said a voice from the Bullhead; a loudspeaker.

"It's a truck!" I yelled even though they couldn't hear me.

I swerved left and winced as my truck clipped a cop car, sending spinning way. My own truck would have lost control if Yang hadn't hammered all the unorthodox driving techniques she knew into me.

A car pulled to the left of me, I leaned out the window and fired a blast of Aura at it. It wasn't much, just enough to make it go of road and into a tree.

I noticed a blinking light coming from the Bullhead—were they using Morse Code? By the looks of it, the cops weren't listening, they probably didn't even know Morse Code... that's what happens when their Scrolls go out.

I once heard an old person say that youngsters were too reliant on technology. I never realized how right he was until now—thank you Professor Port, you taught me how to make the most secure city on the planet look stupid.

A spike strip was blown away with a blast of concentrated Aura. I could feel bullets slamming into the back of the truck, but luckily it was armored enough to not be pierced.

There was a police roadblock ahead. I gritted my teeth and slammed into it—feeling my insides jump at the force of the impact.

My truck swerved, but I steadied.

That's when I made my biggest mistake.

I went on a highway.

There's only a few ways off a highway, Yang used to say, and the cops can block all of them. On a highway, you're trapped.

I realized my mistake a few seconds after I went on the highway. There was nothing I could do—escape was useless now.

Shit was not going my way.

And then I noticed a side door of the police Bullhead open and a sniper crouch down inside of it.

I swerved right as a bullet came at me. The seat next to me exploded as the pure force of the bullet made my ears ring.

They weren't aiming to capture... I was a terrorist.

No worse than the White Fang.

The second bullet hit right in front of me. The dashboard exploded, sending glass and plastic flying into my face. My Aura automatically flared up to stop the damage, but I was blinded and swerved into another cop car.

I yelped as I grabbed the wheel as hard as I could.

Winter was right, I should have stayed in bed...

I looked in the rear view mirror—nothing but cops. I absolutely needed to face away from the sniper, but there was nowhere to go.

I kept driving forwards, taking a deep breath as I tried to compose myself.

Ren preached that a clear head could get me out of any situation. I just needed to clear my head... clear my head and—

The third bullet hit its mark.

Blood erupted from my mouth as one hand clutched my bleeding chest.

Damn it!

Bleeding out in the back of a police cruiser was NOT how I was going to die.

The fourth bullet hit the engine block, there was a ominous black smoke coming from the truck as I drove.

"You better get the hell out of here, Qrow," I muttered as I slumped down in my seat. There was a turn approaching, but I wasn't going to do anything about it.

The truck broke the highway wall and sent me careening in the air towards the sea.

The truck exploded before it could hit the water, however.

I felt almost all of my Aura instantly vanish as I flew into the water. I didn't even try to emerge as I swam as fast as I could away from the scene.

The cops would have to get off the highway and drive under it to where the truck was. They would search for me starting from the wreckage, which gave me maybe five minutes to get as far away as possible.

Hopefully, they thought I was dead—vaporized in the explosion.

I felt my lungs burn, but I willed myself to got a little longer before slowly rising up. I peaked my head out and noticed the Bullhead, hovering above the wreckage with a searchlight. The cops hadn't arrived yet, good.

Taking a deep breath, I kept going, ignoring the hole in my chest.

I managed to emerge from the water two more times, the frequency between them shortening. The blood loss was getting to me, and I could barely make out where I was.

Crawling onto the shore, I placed my head face first into the sand.

Alcohol, adrenaline and massive blood loss did not go well together...

"Joan!" I let out a groan as someone grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me away.

"Qrow," I managed to hack out, "what?"

The bastard looked smug as he smiled at me. "I was taking a detour and saw a homeless man resting on the beach. My charitable side decided to give the bum a ride."

"Fuck... you..."

"I'm not interested."

"You... bastard."

Qrow chuckled. "Don't thank me just yet."

"I... I got... shot."

"I can tell." He was sounding carefree. He was probably trying to make me feel calm. "Just hold on until we get to the truck. It has a first aid kit in it—which will hopefully stop you from dying."

He dragged me to the truck and threw me into the back. I stared at at the two machines as he went to the front to get the first aid kit.

"We really need to get the hell out of here," he said as he threw me the kit. "So I'm gonna start driving. In ten minutes we're gonna get to the security checkpoint at the edge of the city. Your gonna have to hide in the casket while they check the back."

"But... but there's a grandma..."

"Yes Jaune, you have to hide with the grandma. I've smuggled contraband all the time, and there's no other way to get out of this city with unless you get in that."

I weakly raised my middle finger, before opening the kit and pulling out some morphine and plastic gloves.

Qrow stared. "Uh... kid. Are you going to pull the bullet out?"

I injected the morphine. "Yes, yes I am."

"You really shouldn't. You're gonna bleed out."

"I have... bandages."

Qrow continued staring, before shrugging and slamming the door.

"Yeah," Qrow raised his let hand, his little finger covered in bandages, "I crushed my hand on that big ass machine. Stupid thing made me bleed everywhere, but this delivery pays a shit ton, so I'm not dropping it cause of a cut."

"I feel you." The checkpoint manager looked back at his booth. "What's happening over at the city? We all heard this big explosion but the TV went out. Our Scrolls didn't even work."

Qrow shrugged. "I heard some terrorist targeted the Codex building, took down the entire internet. TV's, Scrolls, my god damn audio system doesn't even work without it."

"Was it the White Fang?" the manager asked.

"I'm not sure. The boss called me over and made me drive this valuable shit away right after it happened—I have no clue who did it."

"It was probably the White Fang. Those fucking animals think they're proving a point."

A checkpoint worker came from the back of the truck, closing the doors.

"It's all good, boss," he called. "A bunch of expensive looking tech, and that blood stain."

Qrow glared at the bandage on his hand. "That's what I get for being a loyal worker. My bosses stupid ass yells at me to keep going despite the fountain of bloods comin out of me. I get compensated for this, right?"

"Hell yeah you do." The manager patted the side of the truck. "Well man, you're all good. Hopefully the whole system comes back up soon—this job is shit without a TV or Scroll."

Qrow laughed. "I'm gonna be driving in silence, someone kill me already."

With that, he waved and drove away.

After a few minutes he tore the bandage of his hand.

"Stupid Joan, bleeding all over the fucking floor... at least he got in with the grandma."

Authors note: This is the last you'll hear of the grandma, she irrelevant from this point onward. Also, I want to mention that RWBY's internet is a lot more... inbred than our own. There's no Firefox or Chrome, there's Codex and there's Codex. That's it. Imagine if someone turned off the entire internet in our world... that would be bad, very bad.

And, as always, I write these things late at night. If you notice any misspelling, grammar mistakes (I know I use a lot of em dashes) or a plot hole feel free to mention it to me.