Chapter Five: A Meeting

His mother had not been happy when he told her about how he got fired.

Neither was Cyan.

"Thanks, bro. Now I'm up shit creak with Mom and Dad because you blabbed!" She glared. "They think I'm a fucking criminal now."

"Hey, that is not my fault." He folded his arms and glared back. "You should have told me the place was a criminal's cesspool."

"A 'criminal's cesspool'? Seriously, Jaune?" She lit up a cigarette, her movements jerky and full of anger. "Was that why you destroyed the place? Because it harmed your delicate sensibilities?"

"N-" Jaune stopped himself before he told her the truth. His sister was already mad. There was no telling how pissed she would get if she found out that he did it on accident. "Yes. Yes it did. And because Junior was trying to kill me."

Cyan was too angry over the loss of her favorite hang out spot to call out her little brother on his obvious lie. "You are so fucking glad that I didn't give him your name, or else you would be paying for the damages right now. Ugh, now where else are you gonna work?"

"Well-"

"You are not working as a janitor, Jaune! I won't allow it; it's too lame. No, you need something more exciting than what you got going on now." She took a drag of her cigarette and blew the smoke into his face. "And as soon as I figure out what that exciting job is, I'll let you know."

He wrinkled his nose and went to open up a window. "Can you not do that in here? I don't want my apartment smelling like smoke."

"Don't worry, I'm leaving." She stood up and headed out the door. "Just wait until tomorrow. I'll find you a good job. Just don't fuck this one up like you did Junior's, yeah?"

He rolled his eyes. "Okay."

"You promise?"

"I'll - try my best?"

She stared at him for a minute, before sighing. "Yeah, I guess that's good enough. Bye, bro."

"Bye, sis."

"And get rid of that suit," she gestured towards his uniform. "Anyone sees that and they'll probably connect the dots. You don't want anyone coming after you so you can pay the damages after all."

Jaune looked down at his suit before looking back up at his sister. "Oh come on. It's just a suit, it can't be that distinct."

"You'd be surprised. Just get rid of it."

Jaune sighed as the door closed.

Peace at last. Now he could finally tend to his plants without any distractions.

As of right now he only had a few dozen plants and flowers in his apartment. Most of them were flowers; shrimp plants, some flowering maples, orchids, clivias, a few roses here and there. He had at least two cacti in the kitchen, and a fern near the bathroom. The bonsai tree he kept near his bed, since he liked tending to that one the most. He liked the way the plant looked when sun just peeked out from his bedroom curtains. So majestic.

Now that he got a good look at it, the mini trees has been getting a bit unruly lately. He should trim the leaves a bit.

Rummaging through his closet, Jaune took out a sleek black case. Opening up reveled a wide variety of gardening supplies, all shining clean and razor sharp. He always tried to maintain his tools, and made sure to clean and polish them at least three times a week. He didn't want them getting rusty and dull after all. Taking out a pair of hedge trimmers, Jaune -

Knock, knock, knock.

Goddammit.

"Who is it?" he called out. No one answered for a moment, before the knocking cam again, this time much more insistent.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming." He grumbled a bit before opening the door. "What do you - Amber?"

A cloaked hand roughly pushed him back and he went with it, too confused to even protest. The door was quickly shut before the cloaked figure removed her hood, revealing brown hair, a single brown eye, and a deeply scarred face. "Jaune. It's been a while."

"What are you -"

"Look. Jaune, I-I need your help." She was visibly shaking as she removed the rest of her cloak before setting it down on a nearby chair.

She looked like she hadn't gotten any rest in a while. She was pale, had bags underneath her single human eye, and her scar looked fresh, as though she had been attacked recently. She was also incredibly thin, too thin to be healthy. Which made the metal device on her chest stand out all the more against her skinny frame.

It was located right where her bellybutton used to be. It was a small, metal hatch just big enough to fit a fist into. It was sunken into her skin, making it slightly inflamed around the edges where her skin and the metal had fused. The hatch radiated heat, hot enough to burn anyone who touched it. She wasn't affected of course; she never was when it came to fire. Not really surprising considering what she was.

Her left eye was gone, replaced with a robotic one that stared at him in a way that he found to be slightly creepy. It reminded Jaune of the Grimm in that it was bright red and never blinked. It didn't help that the tar like scaring around the eye only highlighted how inhuman it looked when compared to the rest of her face.

"Amber, what are you doing here? I thought you were hiding out in Mistral?" She looked as though she were going to collapse any second. He helped her sit down in a nearby chair. "You do not look good."

"Well, thanks for being honest," she said, giving him a shaky smile. She rested her metal arm on his table, making a clanging sound against the wood. He noticed how rusty some parts of it were. Clearly she hasn't been taking good care of it. Or herself.

"Do you need me to get you something to eat, or..?"

"No, I'm fine." She noticed the look Jaune was giving her and tried to assure him. "Really, I'm good. I know I look a bit bad right now, but that's only because I'm runnin' out of Dust."

"What?" He sat up, peering down at the hatch in her stomach. "I thought the old man supplied you with some? Said it would last you a few years until he could figure out a solution."

"Yeah, well, it turns out the doctor's calculations were off a bit." She tapped the hatch on her stomach with her human hand and gave him a rueful smile. "I burned through the stuff faster than either of us would have thought. Only lasted me a few months before I started to burn out. Had to pick up a few jobs here and there to make ends meet."

"Amber, why are you coming to me with this now? If you'd have told either of us earlier-"

"I didn't want to bother you two," she interrupted. She stared down at the counter, and wouldn't meet his eyes. "You and the doctor... already did so much for me. Got yourselves involved in my mess. The doctor can't defend himself and while I know you can... your family can't. I woulda just brought trouble. Besides, it was my problem. My fight to win. I wanted to be the one to give that bitch what's coming to her and I didn't want anyone else gettin' involved. But now... I got no choice."

She took a deep breath. "There's a train that's gonna be runnin' through Forever Fall in a few days that's carryin' load of Dust. I wanna know if you'll help me steal it."