Author's Note: Excerpt from my original Author's Note that I thought needed to be preserved:
Jaune really strikes me as the type to enjoy/create/distribute self-deprecating memes (see Tumblr page Jauneisms) and that's exactly the kind of person to continuously change the names in his phone to even more ridiculous titles.
Present Day
(Qrow's POV)
((Mostly Sober))
As I sat here and stared down Jaune Arc, my mind quickly and methodically went over everything I had gleamed from my interrogation so far. There weren't a lot of big details—nothing that would stay Winter's hand when it came time for more advanced questioning—but I had uncovered a lot of small details in the way Jaune handled himself. It was quite impressive, especially for someone's first time being interrogated, and that alone gave me more clues. Was he trained to recognize bluffs? It was possible, certainly considering his one confirmed accomplice and the crowd he ran around with. If Jaune somehow came to work for Cinder, then he could be a lot better at this whole game than we realized.
I took a mental step back to examine what had happened so far. We had been treating Jaune like he was…well, Jaune Arc, Beacon's Most Improbable Student™. That alone gave him advantages early on, and an operative of Cinder's—or Salem's, if he had connections that high—would have absolutely capitalized on those opportunities.
If Jaune had been trained for this—if this was their intent, to have him captured—then he would be doing an even better job. He's been good, but more through willpower and stubbornness than through finesse and preparation.
No, this wasn't part of his marionette's plan. That means that Jaune has resisted everything so far because he was inspired to do so, whether through stubbornness or willpower. There is some motivating factor that we haven't considered, some reward or goal Jaune is fighting towards that is so strong that it has turned…well, the epitome of a pushover into a man willing to shoot Ruby and then stare me dead in the eyes.
I took a new look at Jaune, eyes washing over him with a renewed perspective; one with a little more respect, if that was possible. He had found something so worthwhile that he's gone against everything he's ever stood for—more importantly, everything that his friends ever stood for—and has done so seemingly without doubt.
At least, that is the option that I chose to believe. It paints the boy in the best light possible, true, but it also does feel the most likely. The other two options—that he is being blackmailed and that he has always been on her side—don't make sense to me.
Sure, the kid had forged transcripts, but they were pretty bad forges. I mean, for 'Birthday' he filled out 'Not Yet.' Ozpin always did have peculiar admissions, usually one or two per class, much to Glynda's dismay. I mean, he offered Ruby a spot while she was being interrogated; is it really that hard to believe that he personally allowed Jaune in his school? Because that's the only way such obviously bad transcripts would pass. Most likely, whoever first examined his transcript thought it was so laughable that it was passed around the Admissions Office as a joke, and from there made it to Ozpin. Just a joke. "Ha ha, look at this fake transcript, Headmaster Ozpin." "I want him admitted." Yeah, that's probably more or less how it went down.
If nothing else, Arc's transcript was clearly not part of Cinder's group. Their fakes were flawless, to the point where some of them might have been real lives that had pretended to live for that sole purpose. Jaune's is so terrible that it rules out any chance of his involvement.
And as for blackmail, what does the kid have that would be held against him? He ran away from his family for Beacon, so clearly that isn't a strong tie. His girlfriend died already, so no one is pulling a classic threat against a loved one. Perhaps he was informed that his team would be targeted if he didn't, and he's too scared to lose anyone else? It could explain why he still hasn't broken, but that's not a very credible threat. He would have shown doubt already if that were the case. And it isn't as if they're threatening to oust him for his fake transcripts, seeing as those already came out.
No. Nothing else fits. There is some goal, some reward, or some achievement that he wants more than his own life. What could that Witch have promised him?
Jaune had been staring back at me this whole time with the same intensity and same look in his eyes. He's been sizing me up as well, feeling out the situation and how far he has to make it before he's won this interrogation. So far, he's doing a hell of a job, and he knows it.
Suddenly, the power cut out, leaving the room pitch black for a few moments before the emergency lights cut on in lower power mode, casting a faint light on the floors and illuminating all exits. I sat completely still and focused on my senses, unsure of what I would find.
The engines never sputtered. Only the lights went down.
That makes this a targeted act. Equipment malfunction wouldn't have so specifically crippled only the lights. On a whim, I turned my head towards the camera in the back corner of the room. The red light that indicates video being recorded was off, and the camera was facing the floor, indicating it did not have power.
"So…I take it Ruby made it on board, then…" Jaune stated softly and ominously, a grin spreading across his face.
As soon as his words registered within my head, I shot out the door, already screaming orders into my scroll.
"I NEED FIRST RESPONDERS TO MEDBAY ROOM 43, REPEAT ROOM 43 ASAP!" I shouted, already sprinting down the hall for the stairwell. I heard footsteps behind me, likely the other members of the Observation Room.
As I reached the stairs, I took a swan dive over the rails and down the hole in the middle of the corridor, morphing into my Crow form as I fell. Medbay was only three floors down, but it was all the way across the ship, so as I landed on the proper floor I morphed back to my normal self, slammed the door open, then launched back into flight down the hallways.
I hit stroke of luck, as the double-doors to the Medbay were being opened as a man in a lab coat walked through. I shot over his shoulder and cut across the Nurse's deck, flying down the hall as I counted door numbers.
40
41
42
43
The door was closed, so I brought myself to land as my normal self the checked the handle. If it showed even the slightest resist, whether from being locked or just being a crappy handle, I was prepared to throw my shoulder through the door. An unlucky day for this door, and whoever has to fix it I absently thought.
The handle opened smoothly, and I charged in and scanned the room. Somewhere during my flight the power had come back on, and the room was illuminated by the fluorescents.
A massive weight relieved itself from my shoulders as I saw Ruby sitting up, curiously watching the people around her. The room had six Atlas soldiers already searching every inch of the room, and after a few moments they announced that they had found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Who was the first responder here?" I asked, out of breath and still quite angry.
A young woman stepped up, dressing in a standard Atlas Uniform and helmet/visor. Her weapon, also standard issue, strapped to her back. I carefully examined her, wanting to be absolutely certain that I wasn't being deceived again.
"State your name, rank, and ID number…" I commanded sternly.
"Natillo Pohen. Airship Gunner, Second Private First Class, 2nd Fleet. ID 6967654826."
I punched the ID code into my scroll and searching it through Atlas's database.
"Miss Pohen. Graduated high in your class. Specialize in…night stealth flights with the 2nd Fleet?"
Atlas's 2nd Fleet was unofficially where all of their enlisted Faunus served. No other Fleet had its own ground forces, and no other Fleet flew nearly as many night missions. The 2nd Fleet was almost Atlas's way of making a separate army where all their Faunus could serve discretely.
It was also where a lot of the Special Ops forces were classified as. Quite frankly, Special Operatives preferred fighting with Faunus because of their night-vision capabilities and the occasional use of whatever other traits they inherited. The 2nd Fleet was also largely Winter's responsibility.
"How did you get here so quickly?" I asked.
"I was stationed nearby as a standing guard. Commander's Orders."
Ah. So Winter stationed some of the forces she was familiar with nearby. I'm going to have to thank her for that. Someday.
"Post yourself outside of this room. I'll speak to your Commander on your behalf."
She did as told, and as she left the rest of the soldiers followed her out. I finally turned my attention to Ruby.
"You okay, kiddo?"
"Yeah. I'm…good. Still have some bullet holes though…" I felt like I could finally breathe again, knowing that the threat—if there was a threat—subsided.
"I can't stay long. I've got to…well, keep the pressure on Jaune. Have you…?"
Ruby pulled up her scroll, and on it was the security footage from the interrogation room.
"Weiss set it up before she left. Don't tell Winter that Weiss guess her password so easily."
"Hmm…and what would that be, exactly?" I asked jokingly.
Ruby just stared me down.
"Worth a try. You women always seem to stick together…"
"What does that mean?" Ruby asked, feigning offense.
"Nothing, nothing…" I answered with a chuckle. "I'm gonna get back to it. Don't you hesitate if you need anything. I'll have my scroll on me."
I turned to walk out the door, but stopped as Ruby's voice floated over softly and…nervously.
"U-uncle Qrow?"
"Yeah, kiddo?" I answered in a lower, softer tone, recognizing her shift in mood.
"I…the nurse said that I am okay to move around in a wheelchair. I can even walk short distances with some help."
"That's great, Rubes."
"I want to speak to him."
I remained silent, thinking things over while focusing on making sure my eyes stayed soft. The last thing I needed was to look like I was angry at Ruby when I was thinking about Jaune.
"I want to talk to him…off record."
Past
(Jaune's POV)
Ren ducked under my right hook and popped back up behind me before I could reset myself. He yanked back on my shirt, forcing it to choke me out in the front and stumble backwards, before he stepped forwards and yanked my shirt over the top of my head then pulled down, taking my head with it. Now I was bent over with my shirt over my head, and I was so distracted by finally being able to breathe again I forgot to throw my arms up for the next blow.
It came swiftly. Ren roundhouse kicked me, knocking me sideways to the floor.
"And that is why I never wear a shirt during a fist fight." Ren called out, mocking me in return for my comments earlier.
It was true; today was the first day of training in Mistral with both Yang and Weiss, and I had just thought that he was showing off his ridiculous ninja body. Seriously, marble statues envy Ren. He's easily on par with Sun if it came to just abs, but there wasn't an inch of Ren that hadn't been methodically chiseled away by years of training and a strict, healthy diet of…
Well, those weird health shakes, for one. I just prefer the old-fashioned way: eat a lot of meat and lift a lot of weights. It was simple and time-tested.
All around us, the others were engaged in similar spars. Ruby and Weiss had what looked more like a slapping contest—everyone had agreed no Semblances—and Yang and Nora were… is there a word for the cross of boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and sumo? It's a sight to behold, let me tell you.
Ren offered me his hand, and I accepted. As I got to my feet, I decided to give in to Ren's logic and get rid of my own shirt.
"Alright, let's see how long it takes you now…" I called out to Ren, half mocking him and half mocking myself.
Because we were just throwing punches—and whatever Nora and Yang are doing—it doesn't take much Aura upon impact, meaning we can go several rounds without really endangering anyone. It's a great combination of a cardio workout and instinct training.
I took a boxer's stance, arms out in front, waiting for Ren to make a move. He adapted a similar stance, and after a few moments he broke the stalemate. He came wide a right hook that I leaned to my left to dodge, causing his right arm to go past my right side. I thought I had pulled one over on Ren, but apparently he was baiting me, as he took the arm that had just missed and brought it back towards my head.
His elbow smacked my temple with a loud crack, and I stumbled once to my left. There must not have been any weight behind that punch. He just wanted to throw that elbow. As if to add insult to injury, while I was still dazed Ren reared back with his right hand and launched it towards me. The moment I regained my awareness from that elbow I looked up just in time to see Ren slap me into tomorrow. The sound of the clap reverberated around the training arena, and before I knew anything I fell to my side, cheek first.
Ren started celebrating in front of the rest of our friends, who if they didn't look over when they heard me get slapped then they definitely looked over when they heard me hit the ground. Ren held is arms out and pretend to rile up crowds, as if we were fighting like gladiators.
Ren, of all people, mocking me and acting goofy? How hard did I get slapped?
I quickly pushed myself to my feet—too quickly, as I felt woozy again and started to tilt. I caught myself just in time, and now with sure footing I shook my head, trying to regain my focus.
You'll pay for mocking me, buddy I thought, not maliciously but with a healthy dose of competitive spirit bubbling up.
"Let's go again!" I called out to my gladiator brethren.
"You sure? It's hard enough to fight one of me, but when you're seeing double or even triple…" Ren tsked at me, enjoying his brief window of gloating. He never did it often, and certainly only around those he was most comfortable with, and he made sure that he only did it to those he knew could handle it. Despite all that, he could still be an ass. But I wouldn't have done anything different in his spot.
"Just means my victory counts double!" I called out as I adopted my stance once more.
Ren came in from my right side, swinging with his left arm and I blocked it with my right arm, elbow bent vertically in good form. I used the opening to throw a punch at his gut with my left hand, but it not being my dominant hand it was sloppy and Ren was able to spin all the way around he. He parlayed the energy from that spin into a spinning kick aimed at my other, left temple, but I ducked under it.
An idea came to mind. It was really more of an instinct, but it was a plan to use Ren's arrogance against himself. If I can learn to make my opponents pay for being better than me, then that's a skill that I can use in pretty much every fight…ever.
As I ducked under Ren's kick, I dropped my right foot back to plant off of and lunged towards Ren. He was prepared for this, and continued his spin into a true roundhouse kick that allowed me to pass under him as he spin above me, with the tail end of his kick allowing his foot to connect with my butt and knock me forwards.
But I counted on this. In truth, I had intentionally dove down and away from Ren, making it an easy choice from him to go with the roundhouse. I changed my dive into a roll and used Ren's kick to give me more momentum as I spun mid-roll to face Ren. My feet found their footing, and their sudden opposition to my momentum created tension in my legs. I was in a sprinter's starting position, facing an opponent who was still in the process of landing his airborne maneuver.
I leaped at Ren and landed a nasty right hook across his cheek as he landed, and if it weren't for his stupid ninja reflexes and balance he would have been knocked to the floor. As such, he stumbled backwards but stayed upright. Good, I can hit you some more now. He still hadn't recovered, and so I began my offensive.
A left jab to his gut, forcing him to keel over. I followed that with a powerful strike from my right arm, concentrating all my force into my right elbow as I swung it into the side of his head. Ren was even more dazed, so I walked up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders and brought a knee into his diaphragm, forcing out any air he still had. I gave him a good shove.
Come on, Ren, fall down. You don't want to take this next one.
Beaten, certainly, but not broken. Ren's instincts and footwork kept him upright, meaning the fight had to continue. Ren had no guard and was still keeled over, gasping for air. I balled my fists together and swung them to my right side, then crow-hopped towards Ren. As I landed, I transitioned all my weight from behind me into my arms as I swung them together and knocked Ren upside the head, almost as if I was using my fists as a baseball bat.
Ren flew backwards and landed square on his back, a muffled oomph escaping his lips.
"Damn." Yang called out from somewhere.
As my adrenaline wore off, I realized the room was silent. No one else was fighting. They had all congregated in one spot, watching Ren and me. After a few moments, I realized why.
Ren is a walking marble statue, and I'm over six feet tall and can stop a Grimm horse. And we're both boxing shirtless.
A quick scan of our spectators' faces confirmed my suspicions. Yang clearly wasn't hiding how much fun she had watching our fight. Nora, though upset Ren just got smacked across the room, still seemed to smirk at the other girls. Ruby was clearly enjoying the fighting part of our fight, but the slight blush suggested she wasn't planning on looking away regardless. Even Weiss seemed impressed and almost a little skeptical, like she didn't believe what she was seeing.
Never one to miss a moment, I began pumping up Ren's imaginary crowds from earlier specifically to mock him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ren stir and lean up, just in time to see me flexing my biceps and posing for the fake audience. I wonder what our real audience is thinking.
I walked over to Ren and helped him up, then we both walked over to the group.
"You think we should start selling tickets?" I asked with a devilish grin. In fact, I was doing my best Yang impersonation.
Yang matched my grin as she realized my set up. Weiss noticed Yang noticing, and tried to shut it down.
"Please. For the love of god, you two. No one respond to him!"
After a few moments, Ruby's curiosity couldn't be helped.
"Tickets for what?"
A quick glance to Yang told me all I needed. With no rehearsal whatsoever, she knew exactly what to do.
"For the Gun Show!" Yang called out dramatically, as I turned to Ren and brought back my biceps-flex pose to be even more obnoxious.
Ren refused to move his head or turn his gaze my direction, taking it all with a disappointed frown.
"Alright. You've made your point." Ren stated flatly.
"Are you sure? Need me to write it down for you?" I asked obnoxiously, not even waiting for a response. I pantomimed writing on my hand, then handed the invisible note to Yang.
"That can't be right. All this says is Jaune Kicked Ren's Ass!" Yang shouted.
I gave Yang a big high five. Ren still hadn't moved deemed me worthy of him moving his head to look at me.
"Oh my god Ruby, what have you done? There are two of them now!" Weiss called out, straddling the line between being horrified and pretending to be horrified.
"Oh hush, you're just mad that Cape Girl mopped the floor with you." I called back quickly.
Weiss's eyes went wide as dinner plates as if she had never expected me, of all people, to shut her down.
"Literally, if I recall correctly…" Yang added on, prodding Weiss's arm with her finger.
"Ugh…" Weiss huffed. "It's just that…"
"Ugh, it's just that this makes no sense. When am I, Queen Weiss Schnee, ever going to fight without a weapon?! What am I, a peasant? I have people who fight without weapons for me, thank you very much!" I cut Weiss of by doing my best Weiss impersonation.
In all honesty, it was a really mean (and terrible) impersonation.
But like, it was also really funny to everyone there not named Schnee.
As we all walked off to the snack room—because be honest, that's the most important thing about training—I grabbed my scroll out of the temporary lockers. For a moment, I thought that Weiss had sent me a text, until I read the name more closely.
Ice Cream: Nice fight. Bring those moves tomorrow night and you just might pull this off…
Me: how did you
Me: Are you here right now?
I spun around, scanning the area for anything suspicious, but didn't see anything. Over on the far side of the gym were other students using the work out machines, but they were too far away to discern identities. Neo could have watched from over there and already been gone by now.
Ice Cream: If you smack Mercury like you smacked Ren, then I think we could be good friends…
