'Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat.'- Scottish Proverb


Thick black smoke was still rising from the Geist's remains when the dust finally settled. With a sigh of relief, Jaune collapsed back into a heap on the floor and tried to bring his breathing under control while he waited for his friends and teammates to come and join him. His cerulean eyes wandered over the destruction that their latest opponent had wrought with a saddened look. Trees had been uprooted and masonry converted to dust. In a way, it saddened him a great deal to see that the park which had lain undisturbed for well over a decade had been utterly destroyed and left unrecognisable in a matter of mere minutes.

His friends settled themselves beside him with tired groans as they set about tending the variety of cuts, scrapes and scratches that they had accumulated during the fight. He looked them all over with a feeling of relief as he confirmed that none of them had sustained injuries beyond those of a minor nature. Yet, despite the fact that they had made it through relatively unscathed, he had a nagging feeling that things were to get infinitely worse before it was all over.

"We should really get moving and try to find the others." He said in a low voice once they had all caught their breath again. "We are strongest when we are all together, and we need to find somewhere safe to camp before nightfall."

"Never knew you cared so much Vomit Boy!"

Wheeling around with a hand on the hilt of his sword, he was greeted by the sight of Yang and Weiss entering the clearing. Both of them offered cursory glances at the damage around them before turning back to their friends and finally settling on the blonde. For the second time in as many minutes, Jaune felt relief was over him.

"Glad to see you all made it down safely. Sorry we couldn't help out in dealing with that thing, but we had issues of our own to deal with." Weiss apologised before sitting herself down beside her partner.

"Have you seen any sign of Blake or Ren?" Ruby asked, bringing their conversation back onto the task at hand. But Weiss only shook her head in reply.

"Not since we made the jump. I saw them both heading towards a landing just a short way north of here but after that I ran into Yang and we saw the huge explosion and that was where we headed. I'm sure that they are doing just fine though; they are both excellent fighters and more than capable of keeping a low profile. I have no doubts that they will find us before long."

Jaune nodded and felt somewhat reassured to know that Ren was likely already with Blake, although he couldn't deny that he would much have preferred to have all seven of his teammates by his side in case their assignment should take a turn for the worse. Regardless, he dismissed it, they had a job to do and it wouldn't do to get sentimental about it.

The six of them took a quick stock of their supplies that had survived the jump and redistributed the weight out amongst themselves. Once contented with their kit, they set out towards their objective using a digital map that Ozpin had compiled for them as their guide. Despite all of the technology that Beacon had available, the map itself was little more than the original city plans with a large circle drawn over it to indicate the area in which they would have to search for their main objective. As they walked, Jaune couldn't help but wonder at the state of their two missing persons. He hoped that they would seize the initiative and head towards their end goal in hopes of meeting up further down the line.

As it happened, they found both Blake and Ren much sooner than expected. The two stealthier members of their contingent materialised from a darkened side alley not five minutes after the six had left the park in which they killed the Geist. The reunion was swift, but despite its speed, it was a simple matter to spot the relief on the teenagers' faces at seeing their friends alive and well.

"This whole area is crawling with lesser Grimm of all types. If we wish to avoid them, then we would do well to stick to the backstreets and alleyways where it is harder for them to go." Blake explained, marking an alternative route upon their digital readout of the city. A yellow line appeared from their current location and led straight to the search area. It twisted and turned like a snake and avoided all of the major streets and avenues in favour of back alleys, side passages and smaller roads.

"I don't understand. The city has been abandoned for years. Why are there still so many Grimm here? Why do they stay?" Yang asked, her lilac eyes expressing a sense of confusion that they all felt. All of them save for Ren.

"Well, when the Grimm got into the city it was a slaughter. Everyone who lived here turned on each other for any chance at an escape, but ultimately it led to them all being hunted down one by one. The Grimm are drawn to negative emotions and the negativity that this city exhibited during those days was like a shining beacon to them. I guess that even now, after all these years; enough negative energy still remains to draw them in. It is the ultimate defence for the council to hide their deepest secrets behind." Ren explained with a cold look to his eyes that Jaune had never seen before. It sent chills running down each of their spines as images were conjured in the mind of the panic and desperation that the city had been drowned in.

Not wishing to dwell on it any longer than he had to, Jaune was the first to set off again. Following the new path that Blake had plotted out for them, they turned off of the main street and headed down an alley between what appeared to have been an old arcade and florists. Peering through the remaining filthy windows, Jaune could see the video game cabinets still standing there as if waiting for someone to stroll in and pick up their game where it had left off.


Jaune could feel frustration rising within him as the eight of them made their way down the various alleyways between the crumbling buildings. Their progress had not been so much as half of what he had hoped it would be. They had decided early on that it would be wisest to avoid confrontation with the myriad of Grimm occupying the city and instead save their energy for whatever perils awaited them at the vault. More often than not, this meant that they would find themselves ducking behind walls or dumpsters to stay out of sight of unfriendly eyes.

Blake and Ren went ahead, their stealthier demeanour making them the ideal scouts. Jaune watched the two of them with awe as they moved, marvelling at just how silent and inconspicuous that they could be. They drifted from shadow to shadow, rarely staying in plain sight for more than an instant at a time. Where possible, they routed around any Grimm that served to block their way but in the rare instance that they were seen, the two fighters would swoop in and put an end to their foe long before any alarm could be raised.

By nightfall, they had made what Jaune saw to be a disappointing amount of progress. Ever present in his mind was the fact that their window of opportunity was rapidly coming to a close. Their pick up would be arriving in little over a day and a half, and during that time the eight of them not only had to fight through a city of monsters, but also break into a highly secure government installation guarded by gods only knew what, and then fight back across the city to their evacuation point. It seemed an almost insurmountable task.

He sighed and put those thoughts from his mind as he lay out his bedroll. There was no secret that it would be an uncomfortable night. With the evening chill rolling in they had made the executive decision to forgo a fire in favour of trying to maintain as low a profile as possible. While there were of course still the Grimm to contend with, they had no way of knowing what security precautions that the Vale council had set up throughout the city. Looking out over the city, Jaune felt a chill roll down his spine and shivered uncomfortably. He couldn't help but feel as though they were being watched by some unseen individual, though whether it was benign or not he simply had no idea.

They had settled upon making camp on the fourth floor of an old residential building. The thinking had been that by elevating themselves, they would be shielded from any unfriendly eyes at the street level. Any Grimm which did get too inquisitive could then be dealt with at any one of the many chokepoints leading up to their hiding spot. It seemed like the ideal place to set up for a night of what was likely to be fitful sleep.

They drew lots for the first watches of the night and both Jaune and Blake drew the short straw. Gathering up a second hoodie from his bag, Jaune moved to join her at one of the windows where she was already sat on an old writer's desk, staring out at the world below. The blonde gave the outside world a quick glance but couldn't see anywhere near as much in the failing light as Blake could with her enhanced vision. Instead, he settled himself on the floor beside the window and kept his eyes focussed on the doorway.

The night was veiled, with a black moon and only a handful of stars peeking out from behind the clouds to provide them with any kind of light by which to see. Chill winds rolled through the dead city, howling eerily as they passed through the broken shopfronts and gaps between the buildings. Beside him, Jaune heard Blake audibly shiver and turned to face her. Her pale skin seemed to glow by what little light the stars provided and her eyes shone like fire in the gloom. She was sat completely still and unmoving; indeed the only proof that she was still alive was the light puffs of steam as her breaths met with the cold evening air.

He held up his reserve hoodie in the gloom and looked it over for a long minute and made sure it was clean before holding it out to her. The movement out of the corner of her eye seemed to catch her attention. Turning to face him, she looked first at him and then his offering. Golden eyes seemed to bore right through him to his very soul as though suspicious of his motivations. Minutes passed and Jaune was contemplating retracting his offer when at last she reached out and tentatively took it from him. It was almost as though she seemed afraid that he might snatch it away from her again before she could possibly put it on. For a moment in the gloom he could have sworn that he heard her mewl softly as she slipped the garment over her head.

Pulling at the strings by the neckline, Blake drew the hoodie in as close around her as she could and savoured the warmth which it provided. In a rare display of favour, she gave Jaune a quick smile before turning her gaze back to the city below and watching for any signs of movement heading in their direction. Sighing softly to herself she knew it was going to be a markedly long night with very little to break the tedium. Where normally she might have turned inward to her thoughts and pondered some of the greater problems within her life, for once she chose not to, with their situation seeming so much more tenuous than usual, she opted for something entirely out of character; she opted for social interaction.

"Jaune… Do you think we are really the best people for this task?" She asked softly, keeping her voice scarcely above a whisper so as to avoid disturbing their sleeping teammates. Jaune looked at her in surprise and paused in his actions, his oiling cloth hovering over the cold steel of his ancestral weapon. He pondered her question for a long moment, mulling it over and trying to decide how best to reply.

"Honestly Blake, I don't know" He began slowly "But If I had to guess, I would say that Ozpin wouldn't send us out here unless he truly believed that we were the right people for the job. I mean he is betting a lot on us to achieve this."

"I know that, and it's not that I don't trust his judgement, it's just… We aren't professionals. We're students, and only halfway through our training at best. Why would we be the ones that he would send?"

Again Jaune was silent as he collected his thoughts on her new question. Admittedly it was a quandary that he had asked himself a number of times since their mission had begun, and it was one for which he was still fumbling for an answer. All he had were theories.

"I suppose it had to be a team of students. He wouldn't have sent us if there was the option to use a professional. It would be noticed if any of the teachers at Beacon disappeared for any length of time, and most of the freelance hunters hold allegiances to one or more of the kingdoms. He needed a team that he knew was loyal and reliable while still being a group whose absence could be believably explained. I guess that would mean us, after all we have a pretty successful track record."

She mulled over what he had said with a degree of surprise. With his bumbling exterior, it often proved easy for Blake to discount him as being the same loveable goofball that much of Beacon had come to know him as. Yet when one looked closer, Jaune definitely had his finger on the pulse of current events and was more in tune with his surroundings than people gave him credit for. The faunus felt a wave of embarrassment as she realised that she had been all too quick to corral the blonde into his stereotype like everyone else. She had often prided herself on being able to read and assess people well, but had seemingly overlooked Jaune in his entirety. Looking at him she felt a newfound degree of respect for him. He was certainly not a goofball when it came to the crunch, no indeed she thought, when it came to matters involving risk to his team the blonde was as serious as they came.


The two hours of their watch passed uneventfully as the two sat and shared quiet conversation with one another. For Jaune it was an eye opening experience as he finally got to see an aspect of Blake's personality that had otherwise always been shielded from him. Once the two hours of their watch had passed, Jaune sheathed his sword and stiffly pulled himself up to his feet. He paced for a moment and sought to shake the numbness from his legs after so long sat on the hard floor of the gutted apartment. Behind him, Blake gave a slight sigh of disappointment that took her aback. She was surprised to find herself disappointed at the prospect of cutting short her conversations with Jaune, now that she had come to know a new side to him. Moving over to their sleeping friends Jaune gently shook the next watch, Pyrrha and Nora, awake.

"Sorry to wake you both" He whispered to the two of them "It's your watch."

Blake watched him with an odd degree of fascination as he interacted with his teammates. It was clear to her that there existed a bond between the three of them that could not be put into words. It was a strong feeling of mutual trust and adoration that no amount of hardship could ever put asunder. It was just alike that which Blake herself shared with her teammates, and yet in a way she couldn't help but envy it. To her it seemed as though there were no secrets held between them, that they knew all there was to know of one another. That much Blake knew she couldn't have. There was simply too much in her past for her to comfortably share. After all, her years among the white fang had led to her doing a number of unspeakable things that still brought her feelings of crushing shame.

With the new watch having been woken, Blake retreated from her position by the window to allow them in. Laying out her weapon beside her bedroll, she was about to retire for the night when she noticed that she was still wearing Jaune's hoodie. Her first thought was to return it to him, yet when she saw him already asleep she dared not wake him. Looking around, her eyes landed on Pyrrha. The champion was sat beside the window where Jaune had been mere minutes before hand. As an icy breeze swept through Blake saw her shiver ever so slightly. To anyone around the movement would have gone unnoticed given its nigh on imperceptible nature, but not Blake.

Shuffling over as quietly as she could, the faunus removed the hoodie; immediately feeling the drop in temperature and held it out; passing it over to the redhead with a slight smile. Pyrrha took the hoodie and looked at it with an expression of recognition before slipping it on and over her head in silence.

"Jaune gave it to me, he noticed I was cold and handed it over without as much as a second thought." She explained with an easy smile. Her eyes flashed as she spoke. "He is a great guy. He may put out there that he is this clumsy goofball that we all know and love, but behind that he is something else, something indescribably… Jaune. You're lucky to have someone like him looking out for you."

Slight colour rose to Blake's cheeks as she spoke in a manner so far outside of her usual character. It was an unusual feeling for her to speak so candidly, and while she had no idea what had brought on the desire to do so, she felt as though it were the right thing to have done in the moment. Besides, she held complete belief in what she had said, and that conviction bolstered her courage in sharing such thoughts.

"We really are…" Pyrrha replied with a proud smile, her emerald eyes travelling to where her partner lay asleep only a few scant feet away. Blake chuckled softly before turning in for the night; of course Pyrrha knew how lucky she was. She had seen Jaune for what he truly was long before any of them had thought to give him as much as the time of day.

As she finally closed her eyes and the fatigue of the days events washed over her, Blake drifted off into a deep sleep. Her last thoughts were of the blonde and just how wrong her perceptions of him had been for so long. Something inside her felt as though Jaune would be the key to them all surviving the wars to come. It was a gut instinct that came from nowhere, and as she lay there she swore never to underestimate him again.


Morning broke across the city and pulled Jaune from the realms of his dreams. Opening his eyes and cringing at the bright light of sunrise, he frantically rubbed his eyes. Looking around he saw that save for Ren and Yang, who were on watch, he was the only one awake. The night had been a rather uncomfortable one as the floor was unyielding and the cold winds of the night had kept him shivering, no matter how hard he tried to ward them off. In total he estimated that he had managed to get perhaps four or five hours of sleep at best and in a city swarming with savage monsters, that was not good.

Climbing from his bedroll, he gave them both a nod by way of greeting before moving around their makeshift camp and waking the others. They came to fairly quickly, having clearly suffered a similar set of problems throughout the night. Pyrrha crawled from her sleeping bag and Jaune was surprised to see her wearing his spare hoodie still. It practically swamped his lover's slender form in a way that could only be described as 'cute'. She shot him a quick smile before stretching out the cramps and numbness brought on by a night sleeping on the hard floor.

Their group ate a hurried breakfast of gruel made predominantly of oats and luke warm water. It was far from pleasant, but given that they couldn't afford to risk having a fire, it was the best they could do. Jaune shuddered as he spooned another dose of their meagre breakfast into his mouth, wishing fervently for a simple pinch of sugar, anything to make the gruel that little bit more enjoyable. Around him, the others seemed to be having similar thoughts; not least was Nora who looked as though she had to fight the urge to gag with every bite that she ate.

Once their breakfast was done with, the eight of them climbed back to their feet and broke camp. They hurriedly packed away their supplies and ran a quick inventory before shouldering their bags and preparing for another day's march. Jaune looked on at the process with a watchful eye. He made a mental note of the levels of both ammunition and dust that they had and frowned. It would not be enough were they to find themselves in any real trouble.

Blake and Ren led the way down through the apartment block and out onto the streets again. They painstakingly made sure that the road was clear before making a break out into the open and ducking into an alleyway once again. Jaune and the others followed after at full tilt, the blonde anticipating an attack with every step he took away from the old building. Yet, aside from a small nevermore that circled overhead, there were no Grimm in sight.

Opening up their map of the city, Ren and Blake debated a route for a few moments before reaching an agreement on the best path available to them. Sharing it with the others and receiving unanimous approval, the two led their party out into the city again.

This time, they progressed much faster having learned from the previous day's mistakes. By the time of midmorning, they had covered seven miles and Jaune was pleased to note that they were more than half way towards their destination. He followed the main group as the rear guard with one hand permanently resting on the pommel of his sword.

By late afternoon Ren and Blake came to a stop and turned to face their friends with sombre expressions. Up ahead the alleyway continued on before taking a ninety degree turn to the right and heading off to areas unknown. Jaune pulled up his map quickly and was surprised to find them well within the indicated circle for their objective's search area. Seeing such data he looked at the two stealthier members of their group with curiosity and wondered why they had seen fit to halt their momentum.

"We have put us well within the search region for the Vault." Blake explained as curiosity spread throughout the group as to their unplanned rest stop.

"That's good, so when do we start looking for it? The sooner we find it, the sooner we can get out of here." Yang said.

"We shouldn't rush into it just yet. We should come up with a plan before moving on out again. We can't just run around inside the search area without a strategy, it would end up wasting far more time than it saved." Weiss retorted, trying to temper the brawler's eager nature.

"I agree." Blake stated in a blunt manner. "The area we have to search is nearly three square miles and we don't even know what we are looking for. If we want to have any chance of making it to the evacuation point in time, we need to come up with a decent search plan."

Listening to their points, it was Ruby's turn to join the conversation. The tiny reaper stepped into the centre of their group and moved to stand beside Blake and Weiss. Her silver eyes passed over the group, looking at each individual one by one.

"It will be getting dark soon." She said "Let's get inside and come up with a plan. We are too exposed to stay here long without trouble finding us."

With that, the conversation was put on hold and their group hastily moved out and began scouting for a suitable shelter in which to establish a basecamp for their search. Using her new prosthetic arm, Yang easily broke the lock on the back door to one which they all determined to be sufficient for their needs.

Steel shutters were drawn down over the windows and provided them with some degree of protection from enemies outside. The inside looked as though the owner had only popped out for a few minutes and could be back at any moment. Tables were still set out across the serving floor in an orderly fashion almost as if they still waited for customers to stroll in and take their seats. A wide solid wood counter was set up against one of the back corners of the room, behind which were stacks of white crockery covered in thick blankets of dust. Bags of coffee beans still lay stowed under the countertops in readiness for grinding. It was a sad sight indeed.

They pushed a number of tables together in the centre of the room and gathered round while Jaune placed his scroll on the table and tapped some commands into the screen. There was a brief pause before the device displayed a digital map of the city across the tables. Tapping a few more commands in, he zoomed in on the map so that it only displayed their search area.

"Okay, this is where we are." He said, pointing to an area of the map indicated by a pulsating red dot. Continuing, he gestured to a wider swathe of the display "And somewhere around here is the Vault, which means that we are going to have to search for it and infiltrate it, all within a very limited timespan."

"And how is it that you propose we cover all of that ground in time to make our ride home? The only way we can properly cover it all is if we each took off in a different direction. The problem then isn't just finding the Vault; it's also fighting any nasties we meet along the way." Yang said dismissively, her violet eyes boring into her fellow blonde.

"That might not be entirely necessary. The Vault must be built in a fairly large installation, and that can potentially narrow down our area of search by quite a bit." Weiss interjected, stepping forward to lean over the table and study the map a little more closely.

"How can you be so sure it's so large? It could be built underground and predominantly out of sight from both the air and ground." Blake countered, she was sat in a nearby corner and watching the exchange intently.

"We can be sure because of what it is. Ozpin himself said that the contents of the Vault were of such import that the Vale council were willing to build it way out here in an area that is completely overflowing with Grimm. Following that, we can also be sure that the council will have manned such an installation with live soldiers as opposed to Atlas tech robotics so as to avoid any potential leak of sensitive data to the other kingdoms." The heiress explained with a knowing smile.

"That would make some sense. It could also explain the continued presence of such numbers of Grimm within the city, even so long after everyone living here was reported as either missing or killed. I mean, no soldier in any military is likely to be happy about being stationed in such a monument to failed ambition, especially not when it is packed to the rafters with monsters that want nothing more than to eat them." Pyrrha continued the argument.

"Exactly. This would also rule out the Vault's installation being built underground as it would need resupplying by air, and as such, there has to be space to land aircraft within the base." Weiss continued. "No military in the world is keen to lose either an aircraft or its crew to the Grimm out here. It would raise too many questions back in the kingdoms. Therefore the landing pad has to be completely secure and within the base itself."

Jaune looked on in amazement as she spoke. It all seemed so obvious now that she explained it, so much so that he felt nought but frustration at not having realised it sooner. Even as he watched, Weiss tapped away at his scroll and outlined two squares of land in gold on the map.

"There." She said with a smug grin "Factoring in the requires space to land and refuel a standard bullhead aircraft, we can say for certain that the base must be in one of these two areas."

Ruby stepped up to the table and quickly glanced over the map. The bright blue display reflected in her silver eyes as she quickly calculated a course of action.

"Well thanks to Weiss we know where we have to look." She beamed with pride "There are two places to look and we have two teams. We should split up and head out to investigate one of the two zones. Once one of us has found the target, message the other for back-up. We will have to wait for darkness if we want the best chance of getting in without being spotted. We don't have long so we will need to move quickly and quietly before running back to the pick-up point through the night; any questions?"

She paused for a long moment and scanned the seven of them stood around the room. When no questions were forthcoming she drew her weapon and looked at them with her most mischievous grin and deactivating the map.

"Alright then, lets go!" She cheered excitedly.

Jaune climbed to his feet and collected his scroll from the table with a sense of resignation. Whatever happened from this point on was completely at mercy to the whims of next few minutes were spent sifting through their kit and choosing only the supplies that they would most need for the night ahead. They each went over the plan one more time and assigned a search area to each of the teams and straightened out any final issues with the plan. With the task ahead plotted out to the detail, he looked over his teammates and gave them all a quick nod. Leading the way with his weapon drawn, he and his team slipped out the back door to begin their search; they slipped away and became mere spectres in the gathering gloom.


So there it is, the next chapter in line. You may be happy to hear that I have already written the next chapter and that it will be published as soon as I have proofed it all. I am trying to introduce an OC that ties together the various plot strands that I have cast about so far. I really hope that you will enjoy it when it is posted and published. But for now, thank you all ever so much for reading. If you enjoyed this chapter, please favourite and follow. Leave a review and let me know what you thought.

As always, I will see you all in the next chapter.