Author's Note: "Present" indicates that the story takes place one month after the events of the first two chapters (last chapter, the interrogation set-up was in present time). "Past" means one month prior to Present Time, or when the prologues took place.

Past

(Jaune's POV)

Jaune was not certain of his ability to defeat any of team RNJR, so it should not come as a shock that he was terrified of fighting all three of them simultaneously.

Alright, calm down. You can't win this, so don't worry about it. You just need to put up a good fight, maybe disarm or knock down one of them. That's good enough for a victory, right?

Try as much as I might, I cannot talk myself into feeling confident about this at all. I held my stance rigidly, shield up in front with my eyes barely able to see over it, sword held straight out behind me. The sword part was new, just a new stance I had decided to try out, and of course now is the first chance to put it to the test.

Directly in front of me is Nora, gripping the shaft of her hammer a grinning from ear to ear. To my right is Ren, standing straight up with his dual guns aimed at me. He was slowly trying to flank behind me, which would end this fight in a hurry. To my left Ruby, who had her scythe in a ready stance, with the bulk of the weapon behind her.

Alright, Jaune, THINK: what's everyone's first move going to be? It was the first question that I had learned from Mr. Nikos to ask when I was outnumbered. That, and to decide whether you want to stay on the attack the whole time (like Tyrian had done to us) or if you want to stay defensive the whole time (Pyrrha's go-to tactic in outmatched spars). It hadn't taken my long to decide that I was no good trying to attack several people at once, meaning defense was my better option. Besides, I have a shield; might as well use it as such.

Okay, okay…Ren's trying to get behind me. He's going to want to be a finisher or mid-fight distraction. I slowly backed up and spun myself so as to keep Ren within my sight without losing Ruby in my blind spot.

Nora…Nora likes to attack, but a hammer is not an agile, first-strike kind of weapon. Her grenades are a good smoke-screen, though. Nora feels like the final blow to any sort of combo attack from the group. I made sure to keep my eyes on Nora, only shifting my gaze to keep track of Ren and Ruby.

Ruby is the obvious choice for a first strike. Her speed and her scythe's potential hitting power make her the best opening strike. I just need to figure out if she is going to go with a light swipe with her scythe fully extended or if she thinks she has enough speed to go with a full blow from the normal scythe.

I shifted my eyes to Ren and then Ruby, but when I shifted them back to Nora she had switched her weapon to its grenade launcher form, and was firing a round at me. She aimed for my feet, intending to make me roll to a side, and under normal circumstances I would do just that. But I had a plan that—hopefully—would work out this opening move in my favor. If nothing else, the plan looks really cool inside my head.

I stepped forward twice so as to intercept the grenade with my shield before it made it to the ground. I swung my shield to the left and drop-stepped my right foot to the left; my shield deflected the grenade WITHOUT it blowing up on me and sent it in Ren's general direction. Since my back half was already spinning clockwise thanks to my drop-step, I took my sword from its position outstretched behind me and begun swinging it towards Ruby's direction. If my prediction is correct, she should try to use the grenade as an opportunity for a strike.

The sound of Ruby's scythe firing a round confirmed that suspicion, and I turned my head after spinning all the way around to find Ruby heading towards me, with her scythe still in a scythe configuration held behind her head, ready to strike. She swung from her right, which was the same side that my already-swinging sword was coming from. With a little maneuvering, I caught Ruby off-guard as my sword from purchase on her scythe. During my spin I had raised my sword to head-level, and now I was swinging down, so when it parried Ruby's scythe it sent it—and Ruby's arms, which held the scythe—to the ground. However, Ruby's body was not thrown from its course directly at me, so sending her weapon downwards only forced her to start spinning midair.

As Ruby approached, I brought my sword back in tight with my body and spun faster until my shield had made it all the way around to face Ruby. Just as Ruby arrived, so did my shield, and I used it to slam against Ruby and shove her somewhat in Nora's direction. I winced at the force of the collision that I felt through my shield, but didn't have time to think on it.

Where's Ren? If my hunch was still right, he would have charged to attack me after Ruby, potentially peppering me with bullets and a few light scratches to distract me from Nora's finishing blow.

Ren didn't use his weapons to bolster his speed like Nora and Ruby, so I had to make my next move based solely on the hunch that he would be charging from behind me. After my shield bash on Ruby, I was left facing Nora again, so I used my left foot to push into a spin then extended it backwards while crouching, allowing me to spin low to the ground and swipe at the feet of anyone approaching with my sword.

Ren had been approaching and leaped over my swipe, leading with his feet with the intention of kicking me over in my unbalanced state. I raised my shield, and as Ren's feet collided with my shield I rolled onto my back, then used the ground beneath me as an anchor as I shoved my shield up. The combination of the roll and the shove threw Ren off of my shield a good distance and would cause him to take time to land into a proper roll.

Move, Jaune. You know standing still means something is going wrong. I didn't remember what was coming next, but I knew the only person ready to attack was Nora. I rolled backwards over my neck, and landed on one knee. Somewhere in that roll I heard the distinct sound of Nora firing her launcher, likely for a speed boost.

I looked up just in time to see the outline of a hammer block the light above me. I was able to get a shield up, and was forced to take the blow from above on one knee.

The sound of the collision rung throughout the training arena, and immediately I regretted coming to training today. The shockwave made all of my extremities tingle, and I could feel vibrations reverberating throughout my chest for a good ten seconds after the blow. Not to mention, the loud percussion that took place directly above me was going to give me a killer headache.

However, I felt deep down that I hadn't been beaten by the blow. I could feel my aura: weakened and strained, but still strong enough to fight.

With every ounce of strength I had, I forced myself to stand up much sooner than everyone would have anticipated. As I rose, I used the leg whose knee I had been resting against the ground with—by the way, that knee was going to be sore for weeks now after absorbing that blow—to kick out and leg sweep Nora. As she fell, I dropped my sword in place and reached out to grab her hammer's hilt.

Nora hit the ground, and I swung her hammer one-handed in a large arc behind me before bringing it down on her. She had crossed her arms and balled up her legs to absorb the blow, but I landed a huge blow on the ground next to her, indicating that I was pulling short of a lethal blow (or close enough to it to disqualify her from the spar).

Holy SHIT. I actually did that. It's just a 2v1 now…

Unfortunately, those two remaining were still better fighters than me. I was distracted with my success with Nora, and didn't look up until Ruby had sniped Nora's hammer out of my hand. I instinctively dropped down to the ground and hid behind me shield; while doing so, I reached down to recover my sword. However, Ren had reflanked behind me and shot at my sword until he knocked it out of me reach. Without an offensive weapon, Ruby charged me and kicked against my shield as I stood up, and Ren slid in behind me to take out my legs. This combination launched me backwards and the fall on my back lowered my aura to below the 25% threshold considered "auraless" for spars: the next blow or bullet I took would officially disqualify me, simulating that I was out of aura.

Knowing this, Ruby had launched her own version of Nora's strike with her scythe, and came down with her scythe next to me body, cutting into the floor. Even though I had my shield up and would have blocked that blow in a life or death fight, even a blocked blow was enough to end the fight.

"Bravo! BRAVO! A good fight all around!" Called out Mr. Nikos, who had been spectating our fight; Qrow was there with him, though with a sour look on his face.

"So tell me again why I had to be the one to fight all three of them?" I called out as a got up and stretched. I immediately regretting stretching, because it reminded my muscles of that ear-shattering blow I took from Nora, and everything started aching.

"Because Qrow and I made a bet last night…and I just won!" Mr. Nikos called out extremely cheerfully. It would explain Qrow's sour expression, too.

"What'd you lose Uncle Qrow?" Ruby called out eagerly, but with a hint of friendly mockery thrown in.

"Just a couple rounds of drinks that I've gotta pay for…" Qrow answered, hiding his bitterness behind nonchalance.

We all walked over and joined the group. Nora was silent the whole time, probably still stunned. I can't say I blame her, I'm trying not to think about it.

"What exactly did you bet on?" Ren asked suspiciously.

"We bet on whether or not Jaune would get KO'd without taking one of you down first. If it had been Ruby that he took down, I would have won the round of drinks AND Qrow's favorite flask!" Mr. Nikos explained joyously, with Qrow just grunting in acknowledgement.

"UNCLE QROW! You bet against Jaune actually doing well!?" Ruby shouted out with offense, but again with a playful mockery underneath.

"What do you mean actually?" I asked Ruby, pretending to be offended by her defense.

"I—uh…I didn't mean…you know…" Ruby trailed off quietly, earning a laugh from the whole group. Even Qrow, who poked Ruby as if to show off that she was the one who got caught. Ruby just squinted and growled at him in return.

"Well, ice up, gang. Meet me in the film room in five minutes and we'll go over how you did today…" Mr. Nikos announced as he motioned us over to the med-kit and—Nora's favorite—the snack bar.

Yes, their academy had a snack bar, and as one of their part-time teacher's guests/private students, we had access to it. Nora and Ruby always went straight for the deserts (which for some reason they provided as snacks for training exercises), Ren was usually content with fruit (an apple today), and I went with my usual: pretzels. A snack just good enough to hit the middle ground between a treat and a healthy snack. Normally, I went for those or peanut butter and crackers, but someone had eaten all the peanut butter when they decided to try them with pancakes…

And yes, at Nora's request, they stocked this place with pancakes. Why would anyone ever want to leave this school?

Actually, that's a good question. Pyrrha chose Beacon over this place, where her father was even a part-time training instructor. Why did she leave?

Present

(Ren's POV)

Ren watched the interrogation through the glass, barely daring to blink so as to not miss anything. There already was clearly a lot of things he was missing, and he couldn't afford to add to that by missing some detail here.

Winter had gotten nowhere during her short ten minutes with Jaune so far. He hadn't as much as moved, much less spoke a word, and none of Winter's taunts or baits changed that. For a moment, it looked like he was about to do something when Winter tried playing Pyrrha against him, but he still resolved to do nothing. It was as if he was just…taking it all. He was taking anything she wanted to throw at him. She threw out multiple theories, each painting Jaune in a better or worse light with the hopes that he would latch on to one in order to get a plea deal, but he just seemed to solemnly accept them all.

He wasn't fighting back. He wasn't here to fight, it seemed; he was just here to take punches. And if he didn't give Winter something soon, that's exactly what he would get when she'll let Qrow loose in there.

Frustrated (though hiding it), Winter gathered her files and walked out of the interrogation room, shortly reappearing in the observation room. She was visibly angry and very obviously done with the situation.

"QROW!" She snapped out, with Qrow closing his scroll and looking up immediately. He knew what that tone meant. "He's all yours. I've got too many things to deal with; just leave him alive."

Silently, Qrow took the file from Winter and walked out the door, only to quickly reappear in the room with Jaune. Jaune's head tilted slightly to get a look at the newcomer and his eyes followed Qrow as he set the files back on the table in front of him; other than that, Jaune still hadn't moved.

Qrow slowly and intentionally walked behind Jaune and stopped. I could see Qrow's fists clench as he was fighting himself over whether he was prepared to go through with it.

He was. Without warning, Qrow reached up and grabbed the back of Jaune's head by his hair and slammed his face onto the table violently.

"GAhhh!" Jaune whimpered out, as his hands shot up as far as they could (still handcuffed to the table) and he grabbed his nose.

Qrow walked over to the other side of the table and sat down calmly, then reached over and struck Jaune across the cheek.

"Okay. Now that we've been acquainted, you're going to tell me where my niece is, and we both are going to pretend that I'm not planning on killing you either way."

Jaune—still recovering from the punch to the face—opened his eyes wide in surprise, but still didn't respond. If anything, it looked as if the promise of death was unexpected more than anything else.

"Fine. We'll do this my way then…" Qrow stated ominously when Jaune didn't respond, and began fiddling with his rings. One by one, each ring spun as if adjusting some internal mechanic before they sprung and allowed a spike to pop out.

"This one…" Qrow said as pointing to one of them, "…is laced with a chemical that slowly makes the area around the puncture feel like its burning. And this one…" Qrow trailed off extremely ominously, as if really excited to share it dramatically.

He never got the chance.

"Qrow, come to the observation room immediately." Winter's voice over the comm in the room interrupted.

"What?! I haven't even started yet!" Qrow shouted angrily!

"Now!"

Qrow mumbled something that sounded like "yes, mother" as a sat up and gathered his file, before coming back to the observation room.

"They'll brief you. I've got to deal with this."

Indeed, while Qrow was attacking Jaune, a text had come in to everyone's scrolls.

Weiss Schnee: FOUND HER! She was in surgery at the General Hospital. Apparently, she was dropped off in the ER and nurses were told she was a Huntress that needed immediate attention. The man left without any nurse getting a good look during the chaos after the attack.

Yang had immediately locked Qrow up in a hug the moment he got back in the room, and by the time the situation was explained to Qrow the room was no longer burning hot.

However, rather than celebrate, I watched Winter curiously as she walked back into the interrogation room and sat down across from Jaune.

"Shortly after Beacon fell, I lead a team of Atlas specialists to return to Beacon Tower and find any information we could that would help explain how Beacon fell. There were a lot of personnel files recovered from the archives, including all the applications to Beacon from the last five years. I took the liberty of looking up yours, Jaune, and it was probably the worst fake I've ever seen. I have no clue how you got into Beacon."

Jaune rolled his eyes at the mention of how bad his fake application was.

"Yours isn't the only fake application. So far, I've identified three other fake applications—transfer students for the Vytal Festival—that belonged to Cinder Fall and her two lackies, Mercury and Emerald. That puts you in interesting company, Jaune…According to our records, earlier today you actually captured one Mercury Black and brought him aboard to be processed and locked up, and yet he never made it to a cell. Now Ironwood is dead and our files were hacked, not to mention the attempted sabotage of the engines. Sounds like a job for more than just one man, doesn't it?

"And we already know that Cinder and her…allies…targeted Ruby Rose once, unsuccessfully. So as best I can figure, you and Mercury—both students under fake applications at Beacon—came aboard together just before Ironwood was assassinated, our servers compromised, an attempted sabotage on our engines, and an attempted assassination of Ruby.

"The only thing I have to ask you, Jaune, is how long have you worked for Salem?"