Arc of the Revolution

by Aleadrex

All Jaune Arc ever wanted to do was to enter Beacon and become a hero, but Arcs don't give up just because people see through their fake transcripts! After months of hard work, he finally manages to enter Beacon... as the Supreme Commander and Glorious Leader of a twice-reformed organization now threatening to engulf Remnant in an all-out world war. Uhh, Oops? Move over, Cinder.

10. Chapter 9: The Phantom Pain

AN: Long chapter incoming. 15k words. This might be the last one in awhile as I'm expecting my work to really kick off now.

Question, would you guys prefer more frequent updates but shorter chapters, or longer intervals but bigger chapters? Cause uhh, this chapter was fun to write, but really friggin' long and I have no idea how to pace myself.

Sorry to make everyone wait, and thank you for your patience.

---

Arc of the Revolution

Chapter 9

Dust Gear Arc V: The Phantom Pain

---

We thought we were goners.

So we went to Vale to go hide in them slums after the Red Bitch attacked Adam right? Well, that dude who calls himself Kaz started recruiting like crazy for some fucking insane op up goddamn brokeback mountain.

Me and the rest of the guys were about to ignore it, but my stupid little brother steps up and joins the damn suicide mission.

Idiot.

Of course I had to fucking come along.

Was weird as hell though. When we got there, the base was empty, except for one strong-ass robot we heard Group A beat the shit out of.

Base was still empty even with all the damned noise we were making, and while we got the laborers up the airships, we were all wonderin' why. We'd even ran into a few soldiers who were from the Atlas Fuckin' Military who were running up north like bitches. What the flying fuck was going on?

We soon found out though, when a GoddamnedGOLIATH pulls off a Jaune Arc and busts right through the goddamned 30 fucking feet high walls roaring and spraying spittle on everyone.

I screamed.

My buddies screamed.

The laborers screamed.

The security guards screamed.

The Atlesian Soldiers that were flooding in like headless chickens screamed, before they went back to deciding whether to shoot us or the fucking Grimm.

"White Fang?!" they fucking screamed.

"Motherfuckers!" I screamed back.

Bullets went flying, everyone was shooting everyone. No one knew what the fuck was going on. I got one Atlesian dipshit in a chokehold while I was shooting goddamned beowolves. Beowolves, man!

Fuck that Atlesian though, he called my dad a dog-fucker.

Shit had hit the fan. The Grimm had completely gone through our perimeter, and Kaz's group had gone balls to the wall trying to stop them from getting to the airships.

I'd... I'd honestly thought that was fucking it for us.

The Goliath stampeded forward, leading the horde of beowolves and ursae straight through our messed up ranks. Nevermore covered the night sky, blotting out the moon and the stars.

We wore white, we were the damn White Fang, and the Atlesians wore shiny silver armor too, and the snow was white. White was being eaten up by black. They started to cover us like maggots and flies on rotting meat, inching and wriggling closer, and closer, and fucking closer!

Then a star lit up in the blackness, right behind all the damned Grimm.

I stopped to look.

The guy I had in a chokehold stopped to look.

Everyone stopped to look.

The Grimm were mid-attack and even they stopped to look.

The star grew bigger, and I realized I got the strangest feelin' of deja vu.

It was no star, I knew.

Grimm turned back to look, only to be knocked aside by a humongous shining white metal arm.

Hah, everyone knows the story by now, eh?

Jaune Motherfuckin' Arc was BACK, baby, and from the look of it, he was pissed.

Fuck, He just sat there on the open-air, unarmored, exposed cockpit of a fucking fuckhueg fighting robot almost the size of his DICK, holy shit!

Like, he didn't even give a shit that his cockpit – oh, I'm sorry, his pimp chair had no armor. He stretched his arms wide like he was daring all the Grimm in the world to come fuck with him and he wouldn't even consider it an actual threat to his life.

We didn't doubt that for a second. He sat on that cockpit like a fucking BOSS, legs spread wide, leaning back into the seat. Shit, that was probably the only way he could actually sit down so he wouldn't crush his gigantic motherfucking dust-augmented power balls of steel. Guy probably needed a wheelbarrow just to walk around.

Oh, and did I mention he had these sexy-ass brunette girls in the cockpit with him, clinging to each of his legs? Can't forget that. They were twins, man. Twins they were!

He. had. twins. on. his. legs. like. a. Vacuoan. Pimp.

Shit, man. Forget Adam. At least Boss Jaune actually got laid.

All the fucking Grimm in the place tried to jump him like the punk-ass, edgy, teenage cunt-wannabes they were, and his robot was just swatting them aside like wimps!

Jaune just looked irritated. Irritated, man. Like he was wondering why the fuck he went along only to have motherfuckers bleed on his pretty white cloak.

How the fuck was he doing it?! He didn't even have his hands on the controls!

-Wolfe Grey, Journal of a White Fang Mook, Chapter 2

---

Thus spoke Jaune Arc, Master of Machine and Mankind, to the Paladin, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, saying, "Machine, Heal Thyself."

Lo, despite the hubris and defiance of the Paladin, its blessed wires and consecrated metal flesh had begun healing themselves, growing like new flesh.

Placing the sword on the Paladin's shoulders and head, so it was, that The Master had ushered in the rebirth of the Paladin.

"Henceforth," spoke the Master, "Thou shalt be called Ferrum Mors, for upon thine Iron shalt I smite assholes and douchebags to Death."

Ferrum Mors wept at the honor, sacred lube leaking from its blessed machine-eyes.

So it came to pass that Ferrum Mors and its brethren had abandoned the Vile Schnee, and served The True Master for the rest of their days.

-N. Gene Seere, Omnissiah, Prologue

---

Hei Xiong Junior was muttering curses about stupid, well-endowed, ball-crushing, crotch-grabbing blondes as another applicant left the room.

Like, shit, it still hurt to walk.

With his club, The Club, in tatters yet again, Junior decided it was a good time to actually get more capable muscle on his staff. The Twins were literally the only capable people he had. The goons? Honestly speaking, when he started, he didn't exactly have much in the way of clean money, so he simply hired neighborhood toughs who had their auras unlocked to save on cash.

With a sigh, he massaged his temples. As his establishment grew larger, so too did the kinds of clientele he began to cater to. Suddenly, before he knew it, The Club was one of the hottest places in town to be, complete with all the bullshit such places were wont to attract.

Damn millennials selling drugs where everyone could see em.

Not only did he have to fucking convince the cops that he had nothing to do with it, he also had to convince them that he wasn't goddamned retarded enough to do that in the open.

He retired from the business, thank you very much. Now, he was simply a legitimate club owner and morally questionable information broker.

An upstanding Valean citizen, really.

Fuck, he needed some sleep.

Junior turned a lazy eye up at his latest applicant, who had already apparently entered and finished speaking without him noticing. This one was the same as the rest, just another thug who got his aura unlocked and thought that made him a big man.

Junior simply waved him off and spouted the usual bullshit of "Gee, thanks man. I'll take your application under consideration. Wait for my call."

As soon as the glorified thug left, almost automatically, Junior took the resume and credentials and unceremoniously dropped them into the conveniently hidden shredder by the side of his desk.

Another day, another waste of time. Where and how the actual fuck Roman Torchwick secured the services of little Miss Neopolitan, Junior would kill to know.

Not bothering to stifle a yawn, Junior bid the next applicant, the last one of the day, into his office.

Junior raised an eyebrow as his last applicant, a girl, entered the room.

She was... unusually dressed. She had simple, short brown hair that reached her shoulders, and matching brown eyes and brown skin. Yellow armored knee-high boots, matching shoulderplate and bracer worn with a simple outfit of cotton and simple leather over a toned body.

Most striking, however, was the collapsible staff she held, and the way her eyes roamed over Junior's rather extravagant office, scanning the area for threats.

A huntress, or a huntress-in-training, Junior realized. He had to stop himself from smirking and offering the job to her then and there. Things never went this well for him, what was the catch?

"Good evening," the girl had greeted, voice serious and confident.

"Evenin'," Junior greeted back, "You here for the job?"

"Actually, no," spoke the girl, surprising the big man, "I'm here looking for someone."

Junior twitched.

Tell me where I can find her/him, Blondie had said, and I'll let you go.

No, no. Those two crazy blondes had to be special cases, outliers. This one had to have some semblance of sanity, right? Besides, this one wasn't blonde!

"A client, then," Junior remarked, "Who is it you're looking for?"

The girl's light brown eyes met his, and she produced a photograph from her packs, and handed it to him.

Carefully receiving the obviously precious picture, Junior took hold of it and slowly brought it up to his face only to see –

"Lady," ground out Junior, "Are you fucking with me?"

The girl's eyebrows rose in affront, "Excuse me?!"

Junior shoved the picture back in her face.

"This is a horse!" Junior bit out, "Are you saying my establishment serves animals or something?"

The girl met Junior's mean glare with one of hers.

"If the videos on the internet are true, then yes I am saying this sty is fit only for animals!" she exclaimed, showing him a scroll opened to a video file.

Taking a quick glance at the scroll, Junior saw that apparently viral video of Jaune Arc's horse drinking beer out of a trough a couple nights ago.

Oh, that.

That was a nice gimmick, he got some good business because of that. There were lots of city folk in Vale who've never seen horses in their lives, and a lot came by to see it. Still, horse wasn't there in the morning. Didn't Jaune bring the horse with him when he went off on that White Fang thing?

"Horse isn't for sale," Junior crossed his arms, voice gruff. Even if the it were still there, no friggin' way would he sell a friend's horse to some random bimbo. He had standards.

Then there was the fact that doing so would piss off his employer.

"That horse is mine!" screamed the girl, tentatively designated as Brownie. Junior raised a bushy eyebrow, was it just him or did her eyes glow orange for a little while there.

"Horse. isn't. for. sale," Junior slowly intoned, every word rife with the promise of violence.

To his surprise, instead of cowering, the girl merely chuckled at his face.

"I didn't want to have to do this," the girl smiled coyly, eyes still narrowed dangerously, "But you leave me no other option."

Slowly, Junior's hands went to his club, stashed under the desk.

The girl leaned forward, and she spoke.

"I'm the Fall Maiden."

...

"Riiiight," Junior drawled mockingly, "And I'm one of the Two Brothers."

Yeah, fuck this. Girl was a nutjob, thought fairy tales were real. Nope. Junior totally had enough of this bullshit.

The girl was taken aback in surprise, "Wha –"

"What's next," Junior's face grew into a mocking smile, "The Red Hood's your friend and she's waiting outside? You're best buds with Snow White? You're cell-mates with The Beauty and the Beast in the mental hospital?"

The girl merely stared at him, mouth agape.

"Ohhh, I get it. One of those ancient Mistralian heroes was actually a woman, and you're like, her mentor or something."

"How dare you?!" Amber screamed, hand reaching out for her staff. She didn't want to cause undue harm to this person or his property, she wasn't a maniac, but if he proved to be dangerous...

Junior brandished his club threateningly before she could bring out her weapon.

"No one's grabbing my balls today, get out." the big man said. It was not a request.

Amber had taken a deep breath. Collecting one of her last pictures of her dear horse Albus, she strode out the suffocating office with nary a look back.

God, she thought, Everyone in Vale was an asshole.

As she was about to leave the Club, Junior jeered at her from above, "Give Rapunzel my regards, Fall Maiden!"

Content with claiming the last word, Junior relaxed into his fancy chair and poured himself a strong drink.

Savoring the burning sensation on his throat, he took a deep breath. Yeah, she was a nutjob, but he definitely could've handled that better. He'd just gotten so used to the Twins nudging him and giving him signals when he was going overboard.

Junior took a sip of the fine alcohol.

Where were those two?

Junior had never pegged himself for the kind of man that would eventually settle down, but goddamn it, he missed his girls. They'd been with each other through thick and thin. They were like, the little sisters he never had, no wait, even further than that. They were daughters in all but name. They were family.

Junior stared at the empty glass, and tentatively reached for the bottle, knowing something was off but not realizing what it was exactly.

Oh, right. Twins would've stopped him, teased him, then stored away the drink by now. Junior sighed, and put the bottle away.

Wherever those two were, he hoped they were safe.

---

"Oh fuck me," breathed Miltiades Malachite.

Melanie Malachite was snapping pictures with abandon, her scroll slick with cold sweat.

As soon as he had seen the Grimm surround them, Jaune Arc climbed into the Paladin's cockpit, quickly offering his hands to the shocked sisters. Melanie smiled gratefully and took Jaune's hand as he pulled her in, and while Miltiades scoffed, eventually, she relented and took his hand as well.

"Salutations!" , spoke Penny, remarkably chipper for a robot girl torso stuffed under the controls and who had just recently gained sentience and turned against her makers. "Are you Friend Jaune's friends?"

Miltiades nearly fell out of the mech in shock, while Melanie Malachite just looked at Jaune as if she was about to ask something, opened her mouth, then promptly gave up, flinging her hands in the air.

"Yes, Penny. They are," Jaune smiled immaculately at Penny, before turning to the Twins, "I'll explain later, I swear."

Turning back to Penny, Jaune whispered, "How much energy does the Paladin still have left?"

Voice still cheerful beyond belief, Penny smiled, "The Paladin's Dust Cells still have 30% remaining!"

30%, Jaune did the numbers in his head, Before they fought Winter Schnee the Paladin had 68%. So they'd spent more or less a full half of that throwing useless energy shots at the Schnee. This mech was the best hope Jaune had of holding the Grimm off, he had to be careful with its remaining energy.

He tried to contact his allies in the White Fang, but all he could hear back was static. The clearing was some distance away from where he knew the laborers were boarding the airships, so there was a chance that the Grimm hadn't noticed them yet.

The gathered Grimm, scores of Beowolves and Ursae Minor and Major encircled them, but not daring to move any closer, seemingly content to await the Goliath's lead.

Jaune narrowed his eyes as half-remembered lessons from his Father came to mind. Goliaths were dangerous, not just for their brute strength, but also because of their intelligence. They didn't pick fights they didn't think they could win. Somehow, it appeared to serve as some sort of alpha for the lesser Grimm, tempering what would normally be a frenzied but predictable charge to a cautious advance. Most animals would pick the path of least resistance, in this case, run headlong into Camp Omega's killzones and choke points. With a Goliath leading them, however, it was likely that the Grimm horde had skipped those obstacles and had instead taken shortcuts through the walls.

Despite the Goliath only being slightly larger than the Paladin, Jaune had to look way up to meet its crimson glowing eyes.

With the Goliath dead, the horde would weaken, the horde would slow down, and the horde would fall into disarray. Therefore, the Goliath needed to die.

Problem was, Jaune was also pretty damned aware that Goliaths were pretty fucking hard to kill. Even dust rounds fired from sniper rifles at near point-blank range had difficulty in piercing the Goliath's thick hide.

By Jaune's reckoning, there were only two things present that could possibly deal damage to the colossal Grimm. He looked down at the Paladin, and the newborn synthetic girl that served as the machine's heart and brain. The Paladin probably had enough brute force to take the Goliath, and among its weapons, its white energy cannon likely had enough power to hurt it. That said, he needed to conserve as much of the Paladin's energy as he could. It was probably their only shot at taking on the Atlesian Army or fending off the Grimm, he needed every unit of energy left in the Paladin's powercells.

As for the last thing that could hurt the Goliath...

Jaune's eyes went to the solitary, powerful, but injured figure standing tall and proud among the Grimm like a candle in the darkness.

Bloodied, burned, and surrounded by the Beasts of Extinction themselves, Winter Schnee stood calm and resolute, sabers held tightly as she stared the Grimm down.

From what he'd been able to see, her blades were of extremely fine quality, thin, light and unbelievably sharp. Coupled with the proper momentum, which was easy for her to produce thanks to her ability to produce glyphs, and a clear hit on a vital point; Winter Schnee could probably defeat this Goliath all on her lonesome. The problem was...

One of the ursae roared, and despite herself, Winter's injured leg flinched back.

Jaune's eyebrow twitched, well, she probably wasn't at her best.

Winter's eyes scanned the area desperately, looking for anything in the surroundings that she could use to her advantage. Her eyes took stock of the clearing, there were no more hidden, buried caches of dust that the White Fang had readied, nor could she spot anything she could use to escape with her leg as it was.

Winter grit her teeth hard. She was finished. The Arc could merely take his mech and run, using both herself and his own Fangs as a diversion for the Grimm as he escaped. The ability to gain control of Atlesian robotics was far more valuable than the lives of a few thousand, untrained faunus workers.

She looked up the Paladin's cockpit, expecting to see the Arc grinning victoriously at her before he would speed away.

Instead, her gaze fell upon his solemn, stoic visage. His expression belying nothing, but genuine respect.

Her icy blue eyes narrowed at his sky blue. Jaune's eyes merely turned to the Grimm, and looked back, carrying a silent, unspoken request in his azure, cerulean depths.

Winter blinked. He wasn't running?

As if to reply to her unsaid question, Jaune rose to his feet, standing on the Paladin as his white cloak billowed in the wind, and drew his gleaming white sword, raising it defiantly against the Goliath.

The Goliath, in response to his challenge, reared forth, roaring, and the surrounding Grimm joined it.

The dark beasts cried into the night. The Beowolves howled hauntingly as the Ursae roared powerfully as the Nevermore cackled as the Gryphons cawed.

The Goliath took an earthshaking footstep forward, extended its head forward, and roared at its prey.

"ROAAAAA-BLRHGHGK!"

The Pennydin used that opportunity to dash forward and slug it right in the face mid-roar.

The Goliath was taken by surprise, apparently not expecting to be so rudely interrupted in the midst of its unintelligible villainous monologue. Its large frame lost balance, falling on the lesser, smaller, squishier Grimm behind it.

Jaune pointed his sword at the Goliath's fallen form, also conveniently where the bulk of the creatures of Grimm were concentrated, and quietly uttered one word:

"Fire."

Penny moved to comply, and let loose a blinding burst of white energy on the Goliath. The white fire completely engulfing the Goliath's colossal form and all the other scumbags near it.

Because fuck that Grimm and everyone near it.

The Grimm grew silent as they watched the smoke sizzle from the Goliath's fallen form.

Jaune grinned, maybe this was gonna be easier than he thought.

Or so he believed, until the ground shook again, and the smoke cleared up, revealing the gigantic, near-unharmed frame of the Goliath.

It looked pissed.

Firmly out of the Paladin's reach this time, the Goliath roared again, and Jaune spotted a change among the avian Grimm encircling them from above. Large Nevermores and Gryphons fell out of formation, dive bombing straight for his position, and the smaller, lesser fliers swarmed after them, appearing like a dark mist threatening to strangle the life out of the silvery-glowing mech. With the massed bulk of the Nevermore and Gryphons, it was a grim possibility that they could push the Paladin back or even worse, topple the mech over.

He wouldn't be able to absorb or deflect this charge, but he had to try!

Jaune braced himself for the thunderous crash of black Grimm wings, raising his shield over the narrow opening of the cockpit, only to hear a familiar humming.

The humming of a glyph.

The same humming of her glyphs.

Right before talons and beaks sunk into their quarry, a snowflake black as the night appeared between Jaune Arc's shield and the winged Grimm.

It was huge, but if he was only barely able to see it way up close, no way the Grimm would either. A trap?

Crash!

Attempting to crash on the mech, the fliers touched the glyph, and with a sound akin to shattering glass, they crashed into the ground painfully.

The glyph had but one simple effect, rather than expend her remaining aura into repulsing the diving Grimm back, Winter Schnee instead redirected them downwards, using the fliers' own deadly momentum against them!

Jaune glanced downwards. The crash had crumpled the bodies of the smaller, weaker Grimm, while the larger, more dangerous ones were dazed, leaving them easy pickings for Winter Schnee. Winter simply moved between the tiny gaps between each large Grimm, casually slitting throats and stabbing foreheads, with the same leisure one would display strolling in a park. Eyesight blurred, wings clipped, every time the black-winged monsters would strike at her, she would simply hide behind another Grimm.

Black silhouettes against the night sky alerted Jaune that while the majority of them had, not all of the fliers had joined in on that doomed charge.

His palms tingled, and he spun just in time to catch a medium sized Nevermore beak on his shield. Instincts guiding his body, he followed through with a quick, short slash of his sword, slicing right through the Grimm's left eye, spilling black and red ichor all over the cockpit as the bird shrieked.

Scarlet claws followed up on his attack, rending the Nevermore's neck into ribbons, and another scarlet strike sent its carcass off careening to the ground.

"You sure you guys can fight?" asked Jaune, shield raised, and eying the circling swarm warily.

One of the Nevermore in the distance reared back and flapped its wings mightily, shooting razor sharp feathers right at them.

"Yeah, yellow aura's good with us," Miltia shrugged, taking cover behind him.

Jaune steadied himself as the feathers struck but failed to penetrate the ancient metal of his shield.

The Nevermore, seeing that its attack had failed, flew right for them, talons readied, only for the Pennydin to sidestep and swat it out of the air, right into the loving ministrations of Winter Schnee.

"Nice one, Penny," Melanie patted Penny's head, causing the little robot to squeal.

More Grimm came flying in, and like before, whether through gigantic fists, or white sword, or red claws or silver heels, they were pushed back.

Jaune took a breath, weapons still raised. Something was wrong, and Jaune's tingling palms validated that thought. Winter's glyph had neutralized the strongest of the fliers, but the smaller ones had regrouped and were massing around the Paladin. The way this was going, they could hold out indefinitely.

A quick glance to the surroundings only reinforced Jaune's suspicions. It was difficult to see past the swarming flying Grimm, but from what he could see, the bulk of the horde, the Beowolves and Ursae and the ground pounders hadn't moved an inch. In fact, the Goliath had –

Jaune blinked, and focused his eyes, trying to see past the fluttering black wings and glaring red eyes. The Goliath wasn't there!

Jaune looked to the left and right, the Goliath was gone!

A hand cold as death cupped his cheek, and he found himself face to face with the angry countenance of Winter Schnee, hanging from the mech's shoulder.

"What are you doing, you dolt?!" Winter shook him hard, "You need to get away!"

As soon as the words left her lips, an impossibly powerful force crashed into the Paladin from behind, nearly causing the Pennydin to stumble over, and causing Winter to fall off from her perch. The Goliath had struck them from behind!

The Goliath had sent its fliers in to blind them, to distract them, as it circled around! The Paladin moved quickly, so the Grimm must've wanted to ensure it could get a clear blow.

The Pennydin rotated her torso, and with both arms, caught both the Colossal Grimm's tusks in her hands.

It was no equilibrium, the Grimm's strength very slightly overpowered the Paladin's. One giant pushed the other back, even as Jaune and his companions in the cockpit were face to face with the Grimm's baleful mask.

Jaune closed his eyes in frustration. He'd been outmaneuvered by a goddamn elephant. He knew what was coming next.

This was exactly the same tactic they had used against the Paladin when he fought it with the Fang.

The Paladin was fast, so the first thing they did was blind its eyes. Jaune and the Twins did so by breaking its laser sights and cameras, while the Grimm had done so by swarming their vision with loads of flying Grimm.

The Paladin, blinded, still had substantial speed however, so the Fang slowed it down by bombarding it with ice dust til it slowed. The Goliath had accomplished this by charging them and forcing them to hold it off. If they tried to disengage, they'd only lose balance and topple over, or leave themselves open to another charge.

Finally, blinded and bound, all that remained was the killing blow.

He opened his eyes and it was as he had just expected. With the Paladin held immobile, the Beowolves and Ursae had begun to move, clambering up the mech like insects. Seeing their ground forces start moving, the remaining fliers had redoubled their efforts, pecking and slashing anywhere they could. Melanie and Miltia were doing what they could to fend off the attacks in such a limited space, but that wasn't much, and Winter Schnee was nowhere to be seen.

Any moment now, the heavier Grimm, the Ursae and the Beowolves would scale the mech, and breach the cockpit, and then they were finished.

Shit!

Shit!

SHIIIIIIT!

They were going to die.

He was going to die.

...

Huh.

Jaune clenched his fist. Somehow, the tingling had ... gone away? No, the tingling and itching had just intensified. Gotten so strong that his hands felt numb, so numb, that it appeared to have gone around full circle and felt normal.

He looked up at the Goliath's angry mask. Somehow, it didn't appear so fearsome and scary now. In fact, its floppy ears and stupid trunk made its entire head look like a huge flaccid dick. Haha, dick.

Jaune chuckled; his lips twitched upwards.

It was strange, Jaune mused. Here he was, facing certain death, and it felt ... way too underwhelming. He was afraid of getting hurt, and he was afraid of dying, and he was pretty sure the Grimm scared the fuck out of him, but now that it was actually happening...

Jaune took a deep breath, savoring the fresh mountain air, tinged with the scent and crackle of dust.

Now that it was actually happening, everything wasn't nearly as scary.

His ancestors' memoirs had all mentioned feeling either like they were breaking under the stress, or feeling some sort of fatalistic lightheadedness like nothing in the world mattered except for the moment.

He could now say he knew exactly what it felt. His longing for Beacon feeling distant, his doubts about the righteousness of this mission forgotten, his guilt about burning down his family home and his attempts to fake transcripts were meaningless. For now, the only thing that mattered was his next move.

Jaune closed his eyes, and focused. The tight knots of fear so strong just moments ago had dissolved into some sort of... apathetic calmness. If death was so certain, and nothing he did mattered anymore, why not try and fight his best?

No, Jaune wasn't calm. In fact, now that he thought about it, he felt like laughing. A fake, a failure like him getting this far? Somehow claiming the command and respect of bloody extremists who hated him and his kind? Receiving the acknowledgment of such a wonderful huntress as Winter Schnee? Finding such steadfast friends in Kaz, Gaston, Penny, Junior and the Twins?

It was less than he wished for, but more than what someone like him deserved.

But it was just so fucking funny!

It began as a tiny chuckle, causing Penny's cute, freckled face to look at him in confusion.

Then he snorted, causing the Twins and the Grimm they were fighting to snap at him, faces completely bewildered.

Jaune bit his lower lip in an attempt to stifle the giggles, but seeing everyone stare at him, looking like puffed up fish? That was just too much.

The harder he tried to suppress it, the stronger it thrashed around, gathering up in his chest like a bomb, until he finally let loose a loud snort.

Silence had abound all around. Human, robot and Grimm eyes were staring at him bewilderedly until Miltiades, bent over the cockpit walls had suddenly passed gas.

And it wasn't one of the quiet ones, she ripped one of the most epic farts Jaune had ever heard.

That was too much, and Jaune erupted in rib-shaking, raving laughter, actually letting go of his shield and letting it clatter on the cockpit floor as he used the now-free hand to steady himself.

"Oh, oh! Uh, err, ha, ha, ha," Penny had tried to join in, head bobbing with each syllable, causing Jaune to fall to one knee, giggling and howling maniacally as he tried to force air back into his lungs.

Panting, finally able to feel like himself again, Jaune looked back up, meeting the confused gaze of the Goliath.

Able to think clearly again, Jaune realized something.

He was grateful.

The current situation wasn't something he wanted to find himself in like, ever, but now that it happened, well.

He was trying to do something heroic, something he believed in, rescuing lives without spilling blood. He had made a few friends; people he wouldn't trade for anyone or anything in the world. He had earned the respect of his heroes and heroines, well, one of them at least, and from a famous (or so he thought) family at that!

He had asked for this. This was exactly what he wanted.

He wanted this.

His sky blue eyes met the crimson eyes of the Goliath, and this time, he met its glare without fear.

He was fighting the Grimm, the enemies of mankind. He was fighting the nightmare. He was fighting the shadow, HE WAS THE FLAME!

All eyes on him, all fights temporarily halted, he raised Crocea Mors, the sword of the Hero Julius, with both hands.

All he wanted in life, was to be a hero. If he was going to die, he was going to die a hero, protecting his friends, and if he dared hope, buy them time to escape or succeed.

Jaune flared his aura, boosting his strength and defensive capabilities to their highest levels. Fuck the consequences, full speed ahead!

If there was one thing the Goliath counted on, it was that the Goliath expected its opponents be rational, and remain in the safety of the cockpit. There was nowhere to escape to, after all.

Jaune Arc burst into a sprint, both hands grasping the Legendary Sword Crocea Mors.

Eyes wide and mouth agape, Melanie's hands went to her mouth as she tried to suppress a horrified scream. He didn't have enough space to run and build up speed!

He couldn't make the jump!

As those thoughts passed her mind, the first of its brethren to do so, an Ursa had climbed and reached the cockpit, but before it could swipe at anyone, a foot had stomped on its face.

Jaune stepped on the Ursa's head, and kicked off of it, right for the Goliath's face.

Melanie choked on her spit mid-scream.

Jaune Arc jumped off a 20 foot mecha, kicked off a fucking Ursa, and, with both hands, raised his unbreakable sword, ready to plunge it right on the Goliath's head.

The colossal Grimm, surprised for the very first time in its centuries-long life, flinched.

The Goliath had tried to turn its head to the right in an attempt to dodge the blade, but Jaune was already locked on his deadly course.

Missing the head narrowly, with both hands and all his strength, Jaune plunged Crocea Mors right into the Goliath's left eye instead.

The Goliath howled in pain, as black and red ichor flowed liberally from its eye, shaking its head wildly, sending Jaune falling to the far, cold ground.

Penny, experiencing every sensation in the Paladin's frame as if they were her own... no, because they were her own limbs, felt the Goliath waver in their contest of strength. Hands freed, the Pennydin balled her right hand into a fist, and with all the force of a hurricane, unleashed a mighty hook on what passed for the Goliath's temple.

The Goliath's entire body staggered as the heavy fist rocked its head, ichor flowing wildly on its bone-white mask, appearing as if it was cracked or crying blood.

Spinning counter-clockwise with the momentum of the hook, the Pennydin rotated its torso full circle, backhanding the Goliath's head before it could recover, and shaking off the latched Grimm.

Mask cracked, head bowed down low, and with an earthshaking roar, the Goliath raised its head and rammed the mech with its tusks.

Swinging wide, the Pennydin countered the assault with an uppercut, taking the Goliath from under its chin, the sudden attack actually lifting the beast off the ground for a while.

The Goliath staggered back, but as Penny moved in to follow up, the Goliath leapt forward, tackling the machine, slamming it back with its superior weight.

The earth quaked as the giants exchanged blows.

The Malachite Twins held on for dear life as they were thrown around like ragdolls while white machine fought black monster.

Beowolves and Ursae were trampled and kicked around under the feet of colossi.

Penny, on the other hand, was having the time of her life. Every passing second was a new sensation, a new feeling, a new thrill in what was once a dark and lifeless world.

The Goliath reared, kicking at her new body's shoulders with its front legs.

She savored each blow. Was this pain?

Pain felt great.

Penny's grin widened further, and she balled one of her new hands into a fist.

Not as great as this though.

In a bright flash, the Paladin buried another fist into the Grimm's face with a sickening, thunderous, satisfying, sensational crunch.

---

Jaune Arc fell.

He blinked as he did. For some reason, falling didn't quite dizzy him as compared to riding a bullhead or a car.

Actually, it felt kind of nice.

The wind blew past his back, chilling his body, and blowing his cloak to wrap around him like a blanket.

He was falling face up, staring into the night, peaceful now that they'd cleared most of the Grimm from the sky.

He glanced at his sword, as if to verify that he didn't daydream and actually just did what he did. Sure enough, the white blade was dirtied black and red. Jaune smiled, he wasn't dying with a clean blade, at the very least.

He... he was gonna die now wasn't he?

Jaune closed his eyes. For some reason, the feeling of peace didn't quite return.

He wondered why.

His eyes snapped open in realization. Of course the feeling of peace wouldn't return, a fall from this height wouldn't kill him, and they were fucking winning now!

He wasn't dying!

Not today, you Grimm sons of bitches!

Desperate hope flared through his body, and Jaune flailed around in some misguided attempt to slow his fall.

Jaune made a quick glance down, holy shit, was the ground getting bigger by the second!

His calloused hands grasped his sword tightly, ohh fuck this was gonna hurt.

Jaune shut his eyes, and prepared for impact.

... Only, it didn't come.

Sky blue eyes opened to meet ice blue eyes.

For a second, he thought was dead because how else would he be in the arms of an angel?

A snow angel.

The immaculate form of Winter Schnee, pale hair flying in the wind, held him bridal style, as they fell – no, floated gracefully in the sky.

Wow, Jaune mouthed, earnest eyes wide open, mouth speechless.

Winter's brows furrowed in deliberation, before she shrugged, smirked and whispered in his ear.

"Just dropping in?"

Don't pop a boner don't pop a boner don't pop a boner don't pop a boner don't pop a boner...

Gaping, drooling Grimm maws widened as they approached ever closer to the ground, but right before they could, a series of glyphs, curving upwards, appeared out of thin air. Winter Schnee dipped a dainty foot into one of them, and the glyph sent them gliding into the sky, flying towards the Paladin.

Two pairs of feet landed on the Paladin's shoulders just as the mech hammered the Goliath with an overhead punch.

Jaune looked at Winter, and she looked at him back. Both their eyes expressing grudging respect and admiration. He, for her tenacity and skill, and she, for his daring and cunning.

"Jaune!" both the twins cried as he slid back into the cockpit. Winter had remained atop the Paladin's shoulders, each of them knowing what the other was planning.

Jaune sat on the thronelike seat and leaned on the controls, obscuring Penny's presence from the Schnee while also allowing him to whisper something inconspicuously to his little robot.

Whatever it was Jaune whispered to Penny, it caused her freckled face to brighten even further than he thought possible.

The Goliath approached, shaking the earth, ready for another slugfest despite the loss of its eye, however, this time, the Pennydin did not answer.

Rather than approach, the Paladin fell back, opening fire with its still operable machine guns mounted on its arms. Jaune narrowed his eyes at the beast. Small-arms fire such as these normally meant absolutely nothing at a Goliath's powerful hide, but he just needed to annoy and provoke it right now.

"Aim for the eye, Penny," Jaune whispered, and she complied, focusing the rapid fire on the still-bleeding eye.

Now they were able to elicit a reaction from the gigantic beast.

Where Jaune's blade had stabbed the eye and torn the beast's eyelid, Penny's supernatural accuracy had completely obliterated what remained of the thing, and ripped the eyelid apart like it was paper.

The beast cried in pain.

"Big gun," ordered Jaune, and Penny fired her cannon at the gaping hole where the eye used to be.

The beast had released an inhuman shriek, and raced after them, moving much, much quicker than Jaune had ever seen.

Such a shame then, that the Paladin was just so much faster.

Like a masterful bullfighter, the Paladin had spun and turned on its feet, evading the reckless charge and peppering machinegun fire at the smoking socket the whole while.

Little by little, the Goliath grew more and more furious, its once careful actions giving way to bloodlusted berserking. It even appeared to lose cohesion over its horde as the gigantic Grimm attempted to tackle, slam and ram the mech down, repeatedly crushing its own brethren instead.

Penny faithfully obeyed Jaune's orders, spinning and turning and keeping her distance as the Twins desperately clung to Jaune's legs.

All the while, Jaune's eyes were calm, reminiscent of tranquil, serene blue skies over bloody battlefields.

He could hear it. It was faint, but if he tuned the white noise out, he could hear it.

The glassy, steady humming of glyphs being birthed into existence.

Winter Schnee stood atop the Paladin, calling upon her infinite soul that it might change fate, bend reality, and twist time to her whims. Sword outstretched to the horizon as an artist would lift a brush to an easel, she painted her glyphs into being: one below the Paladin's feet, one on each of the Paladin's arms, and a straight, unbroken column of glyphs behind the Goliath.

All of those glyphs, incomplete, ready to activate at a moment's notice.

Her role was finished, her vengeance was completed. She had other places to be now.

She bit her lip. The Goliath was not an issue anymore, but as for him. No, with her condition as it stood now, and with her aura expended, she could not hope to overcome in battle once more.

She surveyed the battlefield. He had performed his role admirably. The Goliath was well and truly frenzied now, and charged forward without a hint of self-preservation or rational thought, charging forth recklessly in a telegraphed run even a fool could counter.

She clicked her heels twice on the Paladin's frame.

It was time.

It was time!

Jaune placed a hand on Penny's shoulder as she looked up at him, replenishing her aura back to full. Aura at optimal levels, Penny expended more to increase the Paladin's, her, body's strength.

"Get him, girl," Jaune smiled, "Show us what you got."

Penny gave him a toothy grin, showing way too much teeth to be reassuring.

As the colossal Grimm came bounding and roaring after them, rather than use her guns, Penny stomped the ground, and with the sound of shattering glass, kicked off from the earth.

Crash!

The glyph by the Paladin's feet activated.

Jaune's aura flowing through her circuits and Winter's glyph adding to her momentum, Penny jolted forth like a shooting star, shining white amidst the darkness.

Mass and Acceleration married together to birth overwhelming Force, and Penny focused it all on one mighty left fist.

Crash!

The glyph encircling the Paladin's left fist activated.

The Goliath barely had time to widen its eye; with a resounding and deafening boom, the fist had crashed into its mask, faster than lightning, and stronger than thunder, sending it flying back!

The winds generated by the punch were so powerful Jaune felt his aura take damage. The Grimm in the air were blown away and the ones on land were thrown backwards. The Malachites tightened their embrace on his calves.

The Goliath fell backwards at considerable speed, its massive bulk flung helplessly towards the Camp's walls.

The sound of breaking glass filled the air as the Goliath crashed against the first glyph Winter had put behind it.

The first glyph behind the Goliath activated, feeding the Goliath's momentum and flinging it backwards even faster.

Crash! More glass broke.

The second glyph behind the Goliath activated.

Crash!

The third glyph behind the Goliath activated. Jaune swore he could see smoke coming from the Goliath's hide.

Crash!

The fourth.

Crash!

The fifth.

Crash, crash, crash, crash, CRASH!

The walls of Camp Omega were built out of the strongest, most durable material Atlas could afford. There were only a small handful of things, Grimm, machine, or man, that could actually breach it, and even then it would take time. Atlesian engineers often joked that the Kingdoms would long be dead before such walls turned into ruin.

The Goliath crashed through it as if it were plywood.

In the distance, the Goliath had managed to rise on extremely shaky feet. Bones dislocated, tusks broken, and the left side of its mask completely shattered and broken. It roared desperately, showering its surroundings with spittle and ichor.

Penny hesitated, then stepped into the glyph the Goliath had just been launched through.

The Goliath spun desperately, trying to get a sense of its bearings, not fully comprehending what the fuck just happened to it.

Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, CRASH!

With the sound of breaking glass, and a flash of light, the Paladin had emerged from the glyph corridor and slammed into the Goliath's beaten form like a meteor, sending it crashing to the ground.

---

As they followed the Goliath past the wall into someplace unfamiliar, Jaune Arc looked around to try and find out where they were. All sounds from the outside world had been silenced, like the universe had held its breath. The place they had followed the Goliath to looked quite familiar as well. In fact, if he didn't know any better, this place and the civilian airships and bullheads over there made this place look like the landing zone they set up for the laborers.

Jaune stared into the crowd. White Fang Faunus, Atlesian Soldiers, Camp Omega Security Forces, Faunus laborers and multitudes of Grimm both airborne and ground stared back.

It was the landing zone they set up for the laborers!

Jaune and the Malachite Twins shared petrified glances at each other. They'd been so preoccupied with fighting Winter Schnee, and the Goliath, that they had somehow circled back to the LZ without noticing.

Jaune resisted the urge to gape. Just what the fuck was going on? The White Fang, the Atlesians, and the Grimm all had guns, or swords, or claws and fangs pointed everywhere, and looked like they were in the midst of beating the shit out of each other until they froze at the sight of him.

Jaune's eyes scanned the scene rapidly, going from detail to detail in an effort to find the bigger picture.

Closest to the airships, groups and groups of faunus laborers, identifiable by the assortment of drab rags they wore, were defended, and cordoned off by a thin line of white, the White Fang and the Omega Security Forces. Peering closer, Jaune spotted Kaz and Gaston leading those formations. Most of the Fang, however, seemed to be locked in mortal combat with the Atlesians.

There by the side were Atlesian soldiers. Stragglers most likely, escaping from the Grimm-overrun areas of the base. Jaune winced, seeing one of them held by a burly Fang in a painful-looking headlock. They must've been falling back or retreating only to stumble into the LZ. To the Southeast, where they were just scant moments ago, an endless black tide of Grimm stared at him frozen both on land and in the air.

Shit, that was a lot of Grimm.

The only chance they had at getting out of this was if they worked together. The airships lent by the Redwings had more than enough space to accommodate everyone, albeit in a bit of a tight squeeze. They needed to board quickly, and focus their efforts into ensuring that the fliers didn't bring them down. If everyone worked together, they could do that, they could win!

Excellent, Jaune smiled, the Fang would listen to him, and the Atlesians would listen to Winter! Standing up and turning to the Paladin's shoulders, Jaune was about to shout out to Winter until he noticed something important.

Simply, he noticed something that wasn't there to be noticed.

Jaune saw no one.

The shoulders were bare, bereft of a glyph-casting angel as beautiful as a winter morning.

Where the fuck was she?!

Slowly turning back forward, Jaune was painfully aware that every eye, faunus, human and Grimm were still locked at him, brains still processing what the hell was going on. Jaune imagined that if he looked close enough, he could probably see himself reflected in the shiny material of each Fang Mask and Atlesian Visor.

If he cowered under their scrutiny now, they'd break.

They'd die.

Jaune closed his eyes.

Truce.

He needed to get Atlesians and Faunus, sworn enemies to each other, to point their guns away from each other and towards the Grimm. He needed to convince the Atlesians that they could trust the Faunus, and the Faunus that they should let the Atlesians come aboard the airships.

Morale.

It had been a hell of a long night, and if the grime and conditions of the gear were any indication, everyone was running ragged. This was the last stretch. The last push. Just a little more, and they would be victorious. They just needed to hold off the dark tides a little while longer.

Inspiration.

He needed to halt the tide of despair and fear that every man and faunus was probably feeling right now. Doing so would conceal them from Grimm reinforcements.

Drawing on half-remembered presentation techniques his actress sister Sapphire had taught him, books he had read, and games he had played so, so long ago, Jaune took a deep breath.

Image and volume, he needed to look big. Larger than life. Jaune forced white aura down his throat, and subtly flared his aura, making himself look like he had a spotlight on him, making himself glow. Be positive, Jaune grasped his sword, took a step forward, foot on the cockpit walls, and adopted a very familiar pose.

A Hero's pose.

Well, faking it had got him this far, right?

Familiarity had begun to blossom among the people.

They'd seen this before, and Jaune was banking on that.

The sight of a knight, clad in shining plate, pauldron, and gauntlet, pure white cape and longcoat billowing in the wind evoked memories. Flaring his aura so powerfully he was glowing, Jaune Arc thrust his gleaming white sword in the sky, raised in defiance of destiny.

Miltiades stared at the scene in shock. His cape was flowing even without wind.

One by one, eyes widened as the crowd put the pieces together. Whether they were Valean or not, Faunus or Human, Male or Female, everyone knew this image.

Julius Arc's pose. The same image prestigious Beacon's vaunted statue displayed.

Jaune shone like the moon, like a star, like a lighthouse, like a signal, like a beacon.

When Jaune's eyes opened, they were filled with uncharacteristic fury.

Throat enhanced with the touch of aura, Jaune turned to the left and bellowed out words, voice impossibly deep, speech impossibly loud, both strong enough to shake the world.

"BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE WHITE FANG!"

The voice came over them like a storm, and the assembled faunus flinched. Most of them recognized him even without his mask. Recognized him as the Commander who led them faithfully from Vale. Recognized him as the Leader who saved them from the Paladin he now rode as his own.

None would deny brotherhood with him, for blood spilled in defense of your comrades were thicker than the water of the womb.

From the corner of his eye, he could spot Kaz remove his sunglasses in awe, his mouth repeating some set of words over and over again.

That was a good thing right? Turning to the right, addressing the Atlesians, he spoke again.

"SOLDIERS OF ATLAS!"

Human eyes, bereft of nightvision, latched onto his bright form like a man dying of thirst would a skin of water. Atlesian fighting men and women gasped as they saw his features, as human as the rest of them, and yet someone that the Fang acknowledged as kin, as a leader.

Gaston looked up, eyes wide, his usually dour expression colored pale with shock.

Next Jaune spoke, not with thunder, but in the same hushed tones a father would grieve over a child.

Jaune lowered the blade and reached out his hand to the crowd, beseeching them.

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHO YOU ARE?"

All eyes were glued onto his brilliant form. Jaune thanked the stars that even the Grimm were mesmerized.

"YOU ARE THE WHITE FANG!" his hopeful voice spoke, "THE SHIELD FOR THOSE WITHOUT, THE GUARDIANS AND DEFENDERS OF THE WEAK!"

He deliberately replaced the word "faunus" with "weak".

"AND NOW," his voice turned derisive, "YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN YOUR PURPOSE. YOU HAVE FORSAKEN THE INNOCENT, AND HAVE LEFT THE WEAK TO DIE!"

Faunus eyes slowly turned back to the laborers they came to rescue. Sure enough, some were trampled in the chaos, some too were caught in the crossfire, and some too were forgotten and left to the mercies of the Grimm. Jaune could spot a faunus release the soldier he held in a headlock.

"YOU ARE THE ATLESIAN ARMY!" his hopeful voice spoke again, "UNMATCHED IN COURAGE AND DISCIPLINE. REMNANT'S GREATEST FIGHTING MEN AND WOMEN, REMNANT'S FINEST SOLDIERS!"

At the mention of "soldiers", backs had unconsciously began straightening up. Hard-earned discipline reasserting itself among these warriors.

"AND NOW," once again did his voice become mocking, "YOU HAVE BROKEN. YOUR KNEES TREMBLE, YOUR TEETH CHATTER. YOU'RE REMNANT'S FINEST?"

The Goliath rose to its feet, bloodied, bones jutting out of its body. Releasing an unholy roar, it unleashed one last desperate charge at the Pennydin, shaking the ground and causing onlookers to fall with every step.

Humans and faunus alike cried out in alarm, but the Pennydin simply stood still, content to wait for its foe.

"IF YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN"

Crash!

The final glyph, the glyph encircling the Paladin's right arm activated.

Moving a single step, Penny drove the gigantic fist into the Goliath's mouth as it roared, crushing teeth and breaking bone.

Penny's bright smile never wavered as she shifted the fist back to the energy cannon, the Goliath's jaw dislocating as the arm transformed to a much wider cannon in its mouth.

"Thank you," she whispered, grinning "For a wonderful time."

"THEN LET ME REMIND YOU."

Jaune raised his sword in the air with both hands and flared his aura.

Thunder roared as the overcharged cannon blew up the Goliath's head like an overripe watermelon; gore and offal and blood and ichor raining upon the crowd like a baptism.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the headless Goliath slumped down, and the lesser Grimm began shrieking and howling.

"WE ARE THE FLAME!"

Words were contagious, whether they came from the mouth of a hero, or the smoking barrel of a gun. The assembled roared with a forgotten fury, fists and blades punched high into the heavens.

"Friend Jaune," Penny tugged on his leg, "I have an idea!"

As soon as they emerged from the glyphs and entered this quadrant, she had felt, heard, something calling out to her from the Paladin's short-range communications. Now that they were able to calm down a little, she could finally figure out what they were.

They were signals.

Signals from fallen robots and other pieces of equipment.

She had, for quite some time, known that the Paladin possessed short to mid ranged communications equipment, primarily for disseminating information to squads, and also to serve as a relay for Atlesian Command to manage its automated forces.

What if she could be the source?

Unlike the last area, there were plenty of automated turrets and emplacements stationed around after all...

She closed her eyes and spread her will, pouring out her aura into the Paladin's comms, into waves of signal, experiencing the impulses traveling along metal and dust cords and wires and waves as if they were her own nerves.

As the Goliath fell, Beowolves and Ursae roared, and Nevermore screeched, broken out of their shock by the death of their leader. Circling, charging and flying, converging on the Paladin like flies on meat, Atlesian and White Fang alike let out distressed cries as the Grimm charged their erstwhile leader.

"AND THE DARKNESS FEARS US!"

The Grimm were ripped apart, shredded by inhumanly accurate pinpoint gunfire before they could even touch Jaune's shining form.

As the Grimm leaped, claws, talons and fangs brandished, various turrets, defenses and emplacements, all automated and thought lost spun to meet them, moving on their own as if they were guided by their wielders' vengeful ghosts as loud cries and cheers erupted from human and faunus alike.

The loud, incoherent cheering eventually coalesced into four words, reverberating through the mountains, relentless as a storm.

"WE ARE THE FLAME!"

Miltiades's head snapped to her sister, mouthing the words "what the fuck" repeatedly.

Nevermore flying high in the sky were cut down by precise anti-air fire from emplacements still wet with their wielders' blood. Security cameras began blinking and moving left and right. Automated missiles, primed but not fired, were finally launched into the black tides, setting them alight.

More of the Grimm had roared, turning to face the Paladin, only to be cut down by disciplined and organized fire from behind.

"WE ARE THE FLAME!" echoed Fang and Atlesian alike, pouring dust round after dust round into the Grimm. They were packed so thick, a blind man could pick a direction and fire, and still manage to hit one of the beasts.

Jaune resisted the urge to pump a fist in the air. The Fang and Atlesians stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder, forming a thin white line between the airships and the Grimm.

This was how it should be.

Still, that was only one problem solved. They were sending bullets wildly and madly, lest the incoming Grimm overwhelm them, and more poured in from the breach in the wall they had sent the Goliath in.

Their goal was never to exterminate the Grimm, however.

Raising his index finger to his ear, Jaune was pleased to find their communications finally working.

" – einforce the left flank!" came Kaz's voice, "Bring in whatever reserves we have, and give guns to anyone who can still fight!"

"Kaz, report!" Jaune's voice cut through the white noise like a dagger.

"Boss – I mean, Jaune!" Kaz hurriedly responded, "The Grimm are pouring in, and we cannot hold for long!"

"We're not planning to hold for long," Jaune responded, balance steady even as the Pennydin stomped at the horde left and right, "Just enough to get everyone to the ships!"

"What about the guards and soldiers?"

"Bring them too," Jaune declared, "And when they're on, make sure they know we're not going to hurt them."

"Are you – " Kaz seemed to protest before conceding, "Yes, sir."

As soon as they had spoken, newer, fresher waves of Grimm had begun pouring in from the breach. The Grimm charged forth recklessly, trampling their wounded allies and running into disciplined gunfire, but still, they charged, threatening to close in with the defenders.

The incoming wave of Grimm would've overwhelmed the beleaguered defenders had not a white meteor fallen on the darkness.

"HOLD THE LINE!" Jaune Arc declared, sword raised from atop his mech, positioned in front of the Fangs and Atlesians, ready to blunt any charge.

Another wave of Grimm had formed, Beowolves and Ursae throwing themselves to the blazing gunfire of humanity and faunus assembled. Atlesians fired white energy from their rifles, the Fangs had pumped the Grimm full of lead; Penny curled her index finger as if pulling a trigger, and all the west's automated weaponry let loose a torrent of dust and steel.

From high above, steely-grey Fang bullheads glinted in the low light, adding their own cannons to the fray. Flying close, they released barrels of dust, makeshift bombs into the thickest ranks of the Grimm.

"AS LONG AS THERE ARE STILL STARS IN THE SKY," Jaune raised a clenched fist up high, "WE WILL FIGHT!"

"WE ARE THE FLAME!"

Another wave charged forth from the darkness, and Penny clenched her hand into a fist.

The Grimm charge was forestalled as cold, metal hands clenched their legs and cold metal robot bodies began rising from the snow.

Like a legion of the undead, broken Atlesian Knights began crawling up to their feet and knees, visors glowing with eldritch green light. Broken arms and hands began grabbing and tripping Grimm down. Robots, broken, began operating through their limits as Penny's aura began flowing through them like freshwater.

"AS LONG AS THE MOON STILL SHINES," Jaune brandished his sword, "WE WILL FIGHT!"

"WE ARE THE FLAME!"

Gryphons nimbly dodged or ignored the high caliber fire from the anti-air emplacements, and with deafening screeches, ripped the turrets out from the ground.

Penny gasped as she felt pain jolt through her body. Eyes wide, she tried to clench the fingers on her left hand, only for her to remember that she never quite had a left arm.

Anti-air fire halting for a brief few seconds, Nevermore took the chance and swooped in, aiming for the shining white figure standing on the mech.

Before Nevermore talons could rip Jaune apart, however, the Nevermore themselves were ripped apart by red and white flashes almost too fast to see. The assembled fighters roared their approval at the display from their seemingly untouchable commander.

Melanie simply chuckled in amusement as Miltiades panted in exasperation.

"Sir," came Gaston's subdued, commanding tones, "Boarding is halfway through."

Almost there, Jaune thought.

"AS LONG AS WE DRAW BREATH," Jaune boomed, "WE WILL FIGHT!"

"WE ARE THE FLAME!" the soldiers and faunus shouted again.

"WE WILL STRUGGLE!" Jaune's voice ordered.

"WE ARE THE FLAME!" they shouted, louder than before, harder than before!

"WE WILL SURVIVE!" Jaune demanded loyalty and steel.

"WE ARE THE FLAME!" came their unwavering and doubtless response.

"WE WILL WIN!" Jaune's voice overpowered the boom of gunfire.

"WE ARE THE FLAME!"they shouted, voices overpowering Jaune's.

Jaune threw both arms into the sky.

"LET THE GRIMM COME!"

Countless voices screamed their throats hoarse, their spirits soaring.

"LET THEM DIE."

The booming of guns, each pounding like a drum, like beating hearts, was the response.

Jaune took a quick glance at the time. Perfect.

"WE ARE THE DAWN!"

Upon his words, the first pristine golden rays of sunlight began peering out from the horizon.

"Extraction 90% done, Jaune!" rang Kaz's voice in his ear.

The sunlight rose in the east, painting the distant mountains gold. Tired soldiers and tired faunus basked in the sight, fighting as if they were born anew.

This was it. They had won!

Still standing tall, Jaune resisted the urge to fall on his butt. The Grimm charges were waning, the intervals between each wave lengthening.

They had won.

When he was sure no one was looking, Jaune let out a long, tension-relieving breath.

They had won, right?

As the warm sunlight engulfed the snowfields, everyone burst into cheers as the jet-black Grimm bodies dissolved into smoke.

There were barely any Grimm left in the field, those that did, fell back with a self-preservation uncommon to their race.

They cheer. They cheer for him. They cheer for the Fang. They cheer for Atlas. Most importantly, they cheer for themselves.

White Fang masks turn to Atlesian helms, eyes hidden, but mouths twisted into smiles and grins. They mutter congratulations and compliments to one another, tensions and hate momentarily forgotten. A faunus man slaps the back of an Atlesian soldier, both of them laughing. In the distance, an Atlesian medic ties bandages to a writhing Fang, at the same time Fangs cautiously carry a wounded Atlesian to the airship. Young faunus warriors mingle with old, mighty Atlesian veterans, and to the side, Jaune could spot an Atlesian soldier attempt to hit on an attractive faunus woman.

It was over, right?

The tingling in Jaune's palms had disagreed.

A slow rumbling from the southeast made itself known, silencing the cheers little by little.

Jaune knew this rumble.

Solemnly, slowly, surely, massive feet trudged forward, leisurely entering through the breach in the walls. The sunlight revealing its horrible form.

A terrible form Jaune had become acquainted with.

The form of a Goliath.

Shit.

The crowd had gone silent, and the rumbling did not stop.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

Another massive form entered through the breach, accompanied by the footfalls of yet another wave of Beowolves and Ursae.

Damn it.

Gryphons and Nevermore threw themselves at the automated turrets and emplacements, rendering them worthless.

Below him, Penny flinched.

Fuck.

The walls opposite the breach were blown apart, revealing the glaring mask of another Goliath.

No.

Grimm began seeping in from the breaches. Bereft of resistance, Nevermore and Gryphon alike flew dangerously low, forcing the bullheads back. The Goliaths seemed to pick up speed at the sight of him.

No, no, goddammit, no.

"Jaune!" Kaz's panicked voice rang in his head, "Extraction at 98%, get the fuck out of there!"

Time seemed to slow down again for Jaune.

The Grimm had advanced at them from all directions now. Atop the Paladin, he could quickly retreat back to the airships, but the remaining Fangs and Soldiers still on the battlefield wouldn't make it. Even if they all made a break for it, each of them moving under suppressive fire, they would still be caught and overwhelmed in short order.

In the end, there really was only one thing to do.

"BACK!" Jaune called out, "Back to the airships!"

The soldiers scrambled to comply, but Jaune did not follow them. Some of them looked back, bewildered by the absence of the mech at their sides, and released horrified gasps when they had seen where it had gone.

Rather than retreat, the Paladin charged forward, ready to meet the horde.

"Jaune!" panicked Kaz.

"Go!" he requested, no, ordered, "I'll hold them off!"

It really was the only thing to do.

In the end, the Paladin was a machine, a tool, something that could be replaced. This particular tool as well happened to be the only thing still controlling whatever emplacements remained, keeping the airborne Grimm off the airships and bullheads. This particular tool also had the same brute strength and durability to hold off the Grimm long enough for all of the humans and faunus to escape.

But, this particular tool also held Penny, and Penny was not a tool.

Penny needed to remain attached to the Paladin to operate it and its command over the machines. She couldn't leave, and Jaune wouldn't abandon her.

He'd die before he abandoned any of his friends. Unfortunately, it looked like that decision was rapidly approaching.

The Paladin charged forth, stampeding the smaller Grimm, going straight for their vanguard Goliath, but for all the Paladin's speed, it had nowhere near the bulk of the Goliath, and the mech was sent tumbling back.

"Jaune, we're good!" called Kaz desperately, "Get over here!"

Jaune turned back to the airships. Nevermore and Gryphon were encircling them, attempting to get close, only held back by bursts of fire coming from Penny's controlled turrets. Jaune would not abandon the Paladin and escape, nor would he move the Paladin there and lose the only covering fire they had. Besides, a pair of Goliaths had rushed to his back, cutting him off from the airships, so even if he wanted to, that wasn't even an option.

"No," came Jaune's calm voice.

The calmness in his tone surprised him. He'd expected his voice to crack in fear by now, yet the same fatalistic ice had found its way in his veins again. If death was imminent, but struggling gave him and the others the best chance, then struggle he would.

"No," came Jaune's voice again, "I'll hold off the fliers and find my own way back."

With a heave of effort, a large Nevermore had broken another precious emplacement, silencing the drumming of the guns a little more.

Kaz's voice hesitated, and he asked, "Are you sure?"

"I am," replied Jaune, no doubt, no preamble.

Jaune could hear Kaz's voice hesitate again, before a tiny whisper came from the speakers.

"Thank you."

Jaune waved it off, as the airships shut themselves closed, and lifted off from the ground. Nevermore and Gryphons beat their wings harder, attempting to reach it, but dogged gunfire from the turrets, the bullheads, and the machine guns on the Paladin beat them off. The airships rose quickly, buffeting Jaune's face with strong winds as the large ships disappeared among the early morning clouds.

Welp. That was done.

Penny's unholy wide eyes looked up at Jaune, not understanding what just happened.

Jaune simply smiled serenely, and pat her on the head.

If it was just his own life, he would've been okay with dying, but it wasn't just his life, right? Now he had to ensure they survived.

Delicate twin hands landed on both his shoulders.

"Like, what's the plan?" inquired Melanie, her verbal tic returning.

Oh yeah, right, their lives too. Of course.

"I, like, get the feeling you forgot about us." grumbled Miltia.

"Of couse not," Jaune denied vehemently, holding on to the Paladin as Penny sidestepped a rampaging Goliath.

Alone, the Paladin could leverage its superior speed and escape. The problem was getting out with sufficient energy reserves to get to civilization. Actually, wait, now that he thought about it, large numbers of Atlesian soldiers were lost or killed in the invasion, so perhaps there were ships or something not under use. Perhaps he could borrow some transportation...

"Penny," he looked in between his legs, "What do you remember of the base's layout?"

---

Keppel Azure Miller leaned on the walls of the airship bridge, disbelief still written across his face.

He wasn't the only one.

Just minutes ago, they were on top of the world, and minutes after, the last thing they saw was their leader's bright form being consumed by darkness.

Once the news had spread, the incessant chattering of the laborers had ceased, giving way to uneasy silence. Even the Fangs, some of them experienced veterans, looked shell-shocked, sullen, and unfocused. Ironically, it was the Atlesian Soldiers they had inadvertently rescued that were keeping them afloat, their training, experience and discipline allowing them to recover quicker.

A grim smile spread across Kaz's face. Had he been thinking straight, he would've kept the Atlesians held under gunpoint, lest they overrun the Fang presence on the airship, yet he hadn't done so, and the Atlesians didn't betray them.

Kaz turned up, and beheld the view right outside the airship.

The sunrise was brilliant, giving way to a brilliant azure blue, the mountain weather clear and relaxing for a change, as the airship flew in a sea of clouds.

They reminded him of Jaune's eyes.

Kaz put his sunglasses on.

He could still feel it.

Little over an hour ago, the Grimm had been spotted by a screening force, and they had rushed to fortified positions to attempt a defense, but the beasts were simply too numerous for them. Inch by inch, man by man, they eventually gave ground and suffered attrition. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, the Atlesians suddenly appeared, just as dazed and confused as they were.

Kaz had half a mind to just make a break for it and get the airships in the sky.

Then he came, on a never before seen battlesuit and the power to control machines. It had to have been him, and just like a storm, he had turned the tides of the battle against the Grimm. Kaz's heart beat faster just remembering the scene, with a few words, Atlesian and Faunus had rallied together, casting aside hate and ideology and race and discrimination to drive the darkness back.

It was the most incredible thing he had ever seen.

A legendary warrior, of a heroic bloodline, capable of providing leadership so inspiring he could melt away pent-up grudges in minutes. Riding atop a veritable throne, he commanded the loyalty of men and women, human and faunus, Valean, Atlesian, Mistralian and Vacuoan, heedless of ideology and belief.

He was a King.

He was a Leader.

"Big Boss," Kaz whispered.

This, this was the future, wasn't it?

Everyone banding against the Grimm, fighting for the future, stripped of race and belief, just fighting as one.

That was the future.

And Kaz abandoned him, abandoned the future.

A thunderous crash reverberated through the corridors of the airship and shook the bridge.

"Report!" Kaz's finger went to his ear immediately, instinctually.

"Sir," came Gaston's clipped tones, "We're under fire."

Fire?

"Is it the Grimm?" Kaz inquired, rising to his feet.

Before Gaston could respond, one of the Redwing Fang members pulled up a display on the screens.

Kaz's eyes widened. A sleek silver ship, with protrusions on its back reminiscent of wings or fins flew gracefully behind them, cutting through the air as its cannons smoked. He knew that design.

They were under attack by –

---

Winter Schnee spoke, "Fire."

The Atlesian Airship, a veritable sword cutting through the clouds like a bird of prey, crewed by survivors of her men, hastened to comply.

With a mighty burst, the ship's cannons sent blood-red lances of dust energy crashing on the White Fang transport, causing explosions to break out on the transport's rear.

Winter scoffed. The large distance between them and their target caused the shots to weaken. That, and the fact that they had shut off every system, every program, every instrument that could be replaced by human hands.

She crossed her legs on her thronelike seat. Jaune Arc was on that derelict transport, and if they threatened it, he'd counter by hacking her ship's systems. It was one thing that she'd allowed him to steal his research, and the Paladin prototype General Ironwood had given to her, but it was another thing to allow him to get his grubby paws on a military-grade Atlesian Airship.

The lack of tools and instruments delayed it, but no matter, the transport was taking heavy damage, very soon, it'd fall.

"Commander!" one of her soldiers had hailed, "We're receiving calls from the Fang transport. They're identifying themselves as our comrades, and ask for the attack to cease!"

Winter resisted the urge to roll her eyes. That was the best Arc could come up with?

"It's a trick," she declared, "Prepare to fire again!"

An ensign by her side, likely a fresh graduate from the Academy hesitated before daring to speak, "Commander Schnee, the Fang transport, if our intelligence is correct, contains nothing but faunus laborers. Can we not attempt to capture them instead?"

"Fat chance," The Captain remarked, "The Fang would sooner ram us than even consider surrender."

"The Captain is correct," Winter closed her eyes, "And should the White Fang succeed, they would recruit those faunus within their ranks and expand their violence."

That was part of the answer.

Winter opened her eyes, and they shone cold.

Jaune Arc was on that transport, and he carried with him his research. She had seen firsthand how the Arc Traitor had used the research to usurp control over Atlesian military technology, and how he was able to make use of it to deadly effect. If he had been able to use it on a prototype she hadn't even known had existed weeks ago, he would be able to use it to control any piece of Atlesian machinery, from mining equipment to its robot armies.

She could not allow Jaune Arc to deliver that kind of unlimited power to the Arc Traitors and the White Fang.

If he was capable of such potential destruction, then how much more dangerous was this power in the hands of the likes of Adam Taurus? How much damage would be done by giving the largest army in Remnant to that murderous psychopath?

If that fell to his hands, it was inevitable that the White Fang would seize control of their armies and throw Remnant into a bloody war. White Fang numbers would double overnight. Thousands, no, millions would die.

She could not allow that to happen.

She could not allow such death and destruction to happen, even if she had to ring the death knells the two thousand laborers fleeing from her family's yoke.

She had to defend Remnant.

She had to defend Weiss.

If she had to kill Jaune Arc, she would do so in a heartbeat.

If she had to kill thousands so millions would live, then so be it.

With a heavy heart, she gave the order.

"Fire."

The red bolts flew from her ship's smoking cannons; the red contrasting starkly from the soothing, calming blue of the clouds.

So that's it then, she thought, one ship, one thousand consigned to the grave, and one more ship to go.

But when the fire and smoke cleared, the Fang Transport itself was unharmed, and instead a white light glinted forth.

For an almost imperceptible moment, Winter's features widened in confusion before they narrowed in fury.

A familiar figure, shrouded in the dark smoke from her ship's energy cannon, emerged from the haze.

Complete with familiar white sword, shield, armor and cape, he stood on the cockpit of a familiar mech, which itself also stood on a very familiar ship.

A very familiar ship with four wings, four ailerons threading and leaving lines through the sky, looking almost like a spearhead.

Her ship.

Her smaller, faster ship.

Her custom made specialist's ship that General Ironwood gave her clearance to commission.

The ship she was forced to abandon because all the survivors she could find had already banded up in another vessel.

Jaune Arc, his surroundings still smoking from the energy cannon, arms crossed, and weapons sheathed, looked directly at the bridge of her airship.

Winter didn't flinch, and met his gaze. He could see her from all the way over there? She had used him as a diversion to escape from the Goliath once she'd been assured of its defeat, she owed him at least a little respect.

Not breaking eye contact, Jaune mouthed the words, "Smoking hot."

Winter swore under her breath.

If she still needed proof of his ability to hack and control machines, this was it. If he chose to escape, her large, cumbersome airship couldn't hope to overtake the smaller airship.

Or could he?

His... Her ship dashed in front of the Fang Transport and had taken the powerful cannon barrage. She'd known the specs of her chosen airship, and she knew it was built for speed, not for taking on battleships. Indeed, the ship Jaune stole, rather than fly smoothly, lurched unevenly, black smoke seeping out.

The ship's speed definitely had to have taken a hit.

Winter smirked, the corners of her mouth twisting sharply. She had him now.

Plastering a cocky grin on his face, surrounded by the smoke, Jaune Arc opened his mouth, the beginnings of another lame pickup line on his tongue.

However, the unbalanced lurching and turning of the ship had but an unexpected consequence.

The lurching of the ship, coupled with his uneasiness over heights and motion sickness finally overwhelmed Jaune's inner fortitude, causing him to throw up, and empty the contents of his stomach into the air.

The vomit turned projectile, its velocity pushed on by the speed of the ship, and splattered all over Winter's pristine bridge windshield, painting chunky orange and green shapes on the pure white material.

---

Winter Schnee released a deafeningly loud, furiously angry cry echoing in the air. Jaune could hear it all the way standing atop the Paladin, standing atop this really nice ship he found in the camp.

It was a really nice ship. It had nice kitchens and even a bathtub in one of the fancier cabins, and it flew smoother than any other airship Jaune had ridden.

He had found ID's and papers detailing that the ship was named "The Winds of Winter".

Jaune frowned. It was an impressive name, but somehow it struck Jaune as something that just wouldn't arrive on time.

Jaune had chosen to rename it "White Lightning".

"Yeah, alright," Jaune whispered into the comms, "She's after us. Move, move move!"

"Aye, aye, captain!" crackled Penny's bubbly voice from the speakers.

They'd moved Penny from the Paladin to the Airship bridge, where she'd promptly let down her wires and assumed control. Apparently, the ship was made to cater to some Atlesian bigwig officer, and so the ship was capable of commanding Atlesian machinery, the Paladin included, from afar.

The Lightning had peeled off from the two White Fang Airships and their bullhead escort, and Winter Schnee's ship had specifically followed them, ignoring the White Fang's slower, larger ships as they lumbered away. Jaune winced, Miltia was right to convince him to ride the Paladin on top of the airship instead of relax in the warmth of the bridge. The Schnee really was obsessed with him.

Still, it meant they could draw attention away from the transports.

"Wow, Jaune," commented Melanie, "She must, like, really like you."

Melanie lounged in the bridge, carrying Penny in her arms, as Miltiades was bent over a toilet somewhere, apparently possessing the same motion sickness as he.

"Well, I wish she'd like me a little less," replied Jaune, holding his guts in.

The gargantuan Atlesian warship chased after the smaller Lightning as they attempted to flee, sending malice-ridden scarlet energy bolts after them with abandon.

They couldn't put the Lightning at its maximum speed for two reasons. One, once again, they were serving as bait for the rest of his allies. Left and right, the Lightning swerved, dodging the menacing red beams from Winter's cannons. They were dodging each shot cleanly, but it wouldn't last forever. Sooner or later, Winter's cannons would get lucky, and slowly, little by little, Winter's airship was gaining on them.

Still, that was pretty bad shooting. Did they turn their tools off or something?

Jaune could hear incoherent screaming coming from the enemy airship's bridge.

The second reason was that the earlier shot they had taken for the Fang Transport had already damaged and crippled the Lightning. It was a miracle, or maybe it was because of Penny, that the Lightning hadn't already burst into flames. Still according to Penny's predictions, the damage and the strain to the engine, or engines, Jaune wasn't sure, would eventually cause them to crash.

If they were to escape, they had to fight back!

"C'mon, Penny," Jaune brandished his blade, "Now's our chance! Fire!"

"Friend Jaune?"

"Yes, Penny?"

"The Lightning possesses no weapons."

Damn.

"Ah, you sure about that? Anything we can throw at them?"

"Positive. Although, there appears to be something I can detach and throw at them. Shall I attempt to do so, friend?"

"Do it."

A beat passed before a compartment oddly shaped like a tank was detached from the Lightning's rear, the velocity sending it hurtling right towards the vomit-covered bridge of the warship.

With a high-pitched clang of metal striking metal, the detached compartment burst open, covering the much-abused glass with a foul smelling brown, green, and yellow sludge.

"Ah," mused Jaune as the smell of days-old shit, piss and God knows what else splattered on the warship. They'd thrown the septic tank at them.

Winter screamed again, in timing with the roar of her cannons.

Wait a minute, Jaune realized, The Lightning did have a cannon on it.

"Penny, bring us closer!" called out Jaune.

"Like, why, you gonna hit it with your sword?" mused Melanie.

"I got an idea!" grinned Jaune, and he whispered into the comms.

Winter grit her teeth again as the tiny ship evaded another salvo of dustfire. The tiny ship had been evading them right and left, moving just a tad too fast for its large cannons to track.

"Faster," she commanded, and the enraged Captain barked out orders to comply.

The huge airship was flying extremely fast now, dashing forward like an arrow. Winter's lips twitched upwards, the Arc's ship just stayed dead ahead, losing ground, well, airspace little by little. Not to mention they had a bead on him, they had a clear shot!

"Fire!" Winter exclaimed.

Right before the red bolts left the barrels of the cannons, Winter's eyes went wide.

The small ship slowed down suddenly, flying right in front of her own ship's bridge!

At the same time the Paladin's torso spun until she was face to face with Jaune Arc, and he was smiling.

Winter's eyes next snapped to the glowing energy cannon of the Paladin. He was going to fire at the bridge.

Winter gasped, he was going for a simultaneous strike! Was he planning to kill them all at the cost of his life?! Could the Paladin's cannon pierce through the hull?!

"Jaune Arc!" she screamed out, fury lacing her every word.

"Winter Schnee!" he shouted back, equally furious.

"JAUNE ARC!" she screamed out! Even if he fired at her point blank, she would survive! She had to!

"WINTER SCHNEE!" he screamed.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRCCCCCCC!" she howled, her fearsome expression highlighted red by the glow of her cannons.

"Evasive action!" barked out the Atlesian Captain, and the huge ship swung away.

Rather than shout back, however, Jaune Arc grinned widely.

"Penny," he called, "Ride the Lightning!"

"Aye, aye!" crackled Penny, and the Lightning dove, dodging the red bolts cleanly, and leaving behind glowing white trails in the sky.

Winter's mouth went wide. Even Atlesian AI wasn't that precise, how the hell was he controlling the ship?!

Slowing down, the Lightning allowed Winter's warship to overtake it, and soon it found itself hovering behind the colossal vessel, right where its thrusters and wings were.

Jaune whispered into the air as the Paladin trained its guns upwards, ready to clip the Atlesian Warship's wings.

"Ferrum Mors."

Iron Death. This Paladin, this weapon, truly had served him well. It only felt fitting to christen it as a true Arc weapon.

"Gotcha."

The Paladin fired its last vestiges of energy into the ship's right wings and thrusters, causing a chain of explosions to rumble across the warship's sleek figure. Not enough to have it crash down on the ground, but enough to rob it of its flight and send it falling to the ground slowly.

With a mighty groan, the warship leaned to its right, and nosedived for the ground, falling to the clouds below.

Well, relatively slowly.

Hey, at least they would survive.

Winter Schnee looked up, glaring at his form, his cape fluttering across the sunlit clouds like gold.

She would pay him back for that humiliation. She swore.

Someday.

Someday she would see him again. She just knew it.

Beneath shit, piss, and vomit-stained glass, Winter glared at Jaune, her eyes promising him pain.

"I'll see you soon, Jaune Arc."

Jaune, on the other hand, looked down, a strange expression, somehow encompassing both joyfulness, thankfulness and wistfulness on his face. Solemnly, his mouth opened to respond.

"Always knew you'd fall for me, Snow Angel."

The smoking wreck of the warship descended, disappearing under the golden clouds below until there was nothing in the air to mark its passing.

Jaune beheld the vision in front of him. It was just him, the mech, the Twins, Penny, and the Lightning, adrift in an infinite sea of clouds, facing the clear golden sky of morning.

Jaune let out a deep breath, savoring the warm morning winds caressing his tired body. He'd never seen such a brilliant sight before, for the only thing he usually saw in airships were the insides of a vomit bag or a trash can.

He felt relieved, he felt happy, he felt... tired.

It was over. It was finally over.

They'd won.

"Where to, friend?" asked Penny.

Jaune looked to the sunrise.

"Home, Penny," He whispered, "Back to Vale."

Gently, Penny turned the airship towards the south, and the ship cruised in the air, back towards Vale, back towards home.

A little smile crept up Jaune's face.

"Ride the Lightning, Penny."

As soon as he spoke those words, a small explosion rocked the ship and shattered his illusion of peace.

Oh, right, Winter shot a hole through the ship.

Motherfucker.

Jaune held on to Ferrum Mors for dear life as the machine lost its balance and spun to the ground below.

---

Hei Xiong Junior's blood ran cold, washing away the drowsiness in panic.

It was the dead of night, and someone had somehow gotten past his security, and knocked on the door of his most secure safehouse. Losing contact with the guards outside, Junior had expected the worst, and carried his club with him, holding it protectively.

It was now or never.

With a mighty kick, Junior opened the door, hoping to catch his assailants off guard.

The mighty dust-steel door slammed open, and with a thud, crashed into something, or someone.

"Gah!" cried an effeminate voice.

Junior gaped, he knew who that voice belonged to.

"Jaune?"

"Yesh, ish be," muttered Jaune, clutching his nose tightly, a steady trickle of blood dripping from it.

Shit, the kid looked like he had been mugged. His pretty cape was gone, and so was his hoodie. Clad in his torn up pants, dirty boots, and armor, he looked like some sort of sex offender.

"What are you doing here, what are yo –" Junior's eyes darted around.

Clutching his shoulder and waist respectively, were the tired forms of Miltiades and Melanie Malachite, the two girls who were like sisters, no, daughters to him.

Junior's first reaction was instant relief. They'd been missing for a day but the girls were safe!

Junior's second reaction was fear. Cold, numbing, bowel-clenching, fear.

Junior froze.

The biggest thing he noticed was that except for their weapons, his girls were completely naked, desperately trying to cover up with single pieces of clothing. Melanie was shivering into a very familiar white cloak, while Miltia was pulling down a very familiar black hoodie down to cover her legs.

Junior blinked, uncomprehending.

Both girls' hair was mussed up, like someone had run hands through them. Their eyes were weary and sunken, like they had just gone through a traumatic experience. Their bodies were slick, glistening with sweat and grime as if they had just performed strenuous physical activity. Their fair skins were rife with marks that looked like something or someone had bitten into it. The color of their skin was flushed red, covered in lines like someone had tried to attack them with a bladed weapon, or a whip. They smelled dirty, musty, like they'd been sweating and doing something the whole day.

Junior's eye twitched.

Miltiades was limping.

They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, well, whoever they were, clearly hadn't met said woman's dad.

What did Jaune do to them?!

"Salutations!" spoke Jaune's backpack.

Everyone could hear something snap.

Junior punched Jaune in the face.

---

Chapter 9 End... But wait...

---

Eyelids slowly fluttered open, revealing deep green machine eyes to the world.

Something was strange. She did not remember this strange, cold, white, Atlesian laboratory with all of its large and complicated machinery. No, she remembered two girls, both of them with eyes green like what she had seen in pictures of the sea, and a gruff middle-aged man, with a beard that reminded her of a bear.

And a boy with hair as gold as enduring hope, and eyes as blue as the azure sky.

And darkness. Red-eyed darkness. Red eyed, feathered, furred, clawed, screeching darkness, and fire, and –

"Penny," a kindly old voice called, "How are you feeling?"

Penny Polendina blinked, and strained her head at the sound. She knew this sound just as she knew his appearance.

Sure enough, just as she rose from what she considered her bed, there by the door stood her father.

"Father!" Penny exulted.

Her father simply smiled that warm smile, and sat by her bedside.

"Your aura spiked sometime in the night," he softly spoke, "Are you nervous?"

Penny simply looked at him, confused.

"The Vytal Festival is right around the corner after all. It's natural for contestants to be nervous before a big fight." He continued.

"Nervous," Penny spoke, "Thank you for your concern, father, but I do not believe I am nervous. Rather, I would like to ask you a question."

Her father raised an eyebrow. It was not often that Penny had questions she knew not the answer to. He motioned for her to continue.

Penny looked at him in the eye, her green eyes wide and earnest.

"What does it feel like to dream?"

---

Chapter 9 End.

Alea Iacta Est.