Saphron heard the airship before she saw it, the wind slowly picking up as Raven and Jaune started their approach back to the camp.
The ball of nervousness residing in her stomach hadn't disappeared in the last several hours. Even when the airship touched down in the center of the camp, Saphron's nervousness didn't disappear. In fact, it got a little worse.
Raven got out first, followed by Vernal. Saphron expected Jaune to follow shortly after, Raven usually making sure he didn't go too far away from her. But instead, a bandit that clearly wasn't Jaune jumped out. She couldn't remember his name, but that didn't matter right now, her attention turning to the next person, and finding it not to be Jaune as well. With every person that jumped out, Saphron's heart dropped lower and lower.
Not Jaune.
Not Jaune.
Not Jaune.
At least her stomach didn't seem to be roiling with nervousness, she thought to herself.
Her mind came up with the thought in hopes to calm her down, but it only made Saphron angry. Looking at the other bandits, she found the answer to her unspoken question in the way all of the other bandits looked away from her, all of them finding a path that took them away from the enraged girl. Raven slipped into her tent, leaving only one target for Saphron's intense stare.
Vernal's stance was uncertain, something Saphron hadn't seen before, and would've commented on if it was any different situation. Saphron stood in front of the frozen girl, hands to her side as she watched Vernal, waiting for her to say something. Vernal glanced away from Saphron, both hands clenching and unclenching the weapons looped onto her belt.
Her silence only seemed to feed the anger burning inside of Saphron. To be honest, there wasn't really a response that wouldn't have been thrown into her silent rage. It was a far better option than letting the horrible feeling build up behind Saphron's throat.
"Where is he?" Saphron's whisper pushed roughly past her clogging throat, the words choked. Vernal flinched at the words, opening and closing her mouth, no explanation leaving.
Saphron grabbed Vernal's arm, tugging it harshly, bringing the girl's gaze up to hers. There were so many emotions flitting through her eyes, some pity, some sorry, some indignation, but Saphron didn't care about her emotions, and she didn't care about Vernal right now, and where was her brother!?
"I-" Vernal started.
"Where. Is. He?"
Vernal cut off what was probably some weak excuse, looking away from Saphron. She didn't even try and pull away from the blonde's grip, just closing her eyes instead.
"We don't know."
They didn't know? What the hell did that even mean? Saphron looked at Vernal with wide eyes, waiting for another word. How could they not know where Jaune was? What could've happened that there was enough confusion for Raven or Vernal to lose sight of him?
"Don't fucking lie to me," Saphron snarled, causing Vernal to look up again in alarm. "How could you not know? Did Jaune just magically disappear from existance? Did Raven just let him prance off after they landed in Atlas? Did you guys kill him?" Saphron's voice dropped at the word, hands tightening on Vernal's arm hard enough for the other girl to wince, pushing Saphron away on reflex.
"No! That's not what happened!"
"Then what fucking HAPPENED?" Saphron roared, shoving Vernal back a few feet. Vernal grit her teeth, her voice escalating to match the question.
"We got attacked, alright?" Vernal got back in Saphron's face, shoving her twice as far. "And don't you fucking dare push me like that!"
"I'll push you however I want, you killed MY BROTHER!" Vernal actually had to lean back to dodge the punch that Saphron threw, surprise written on her face as Saphron attacked her. Vernal backed away, trying to get some space in between them, as well as protest her innocence.
Saphron didn't care enough to listen to the protests though, and stepped forwards, wildly swinging another haymaker at Vernal.
Vernal didn't take any more chances, jumping backwards for more room, accidentally goading Saphron into a charge. Unfortunately for Saphron, with enough space, Vernal turned the tables quickly, knocking the fist away with ease, grabbing the other hand as it rose and spun the smaller girl around and kicking a foot away, dropping her firmly onto the ground.
Saphron continued to struggle mightily, screaming threats and other incomprehensible words, tears finally flowing freely.
Vernal bit her lip, but made sure to keep Saphron on the ground, firm, but taking extra care as to not hurt her.
Minutes ticked by as Saphron continued to rant and rave, desperately flinging herself back and forth in hopes that she could either loosen Vernal's grip or force her to hurt Saphron.
She hoped it was the latter.
But Vernal knew what she was doing, and didn't mind moving and shifting so that the anger and hurt could bleed out of Saphron.
And it did, finally.
Vernal released Saphron a couple minutes after she stopped struggling, the blonde not even bothering to pick herself up afterwards. She just laid there, tired.
"I failed as a sister."
Vernal wasn't sure if she was supposed to hear that or not, uncertainty playing visibly on her face. Saphron covered her face with her hands, shaking a little as another sob built up against her will. Vernal knelt back down, a hand hovering above Saphron, the bandit trying to figure out how to comfort Saphron.
Seconds ticked by before Vernal let the hand drop down uselessly, a sigh leaving her.
"There's a chance he could still be alive." The excuse was weak, and Saphron wasn't in the mood for hopefuls. She turned her red-rimmed gaze towards Vernal, hate clearly written on her face.
"You promised me."
Vernal didn't want to admit how much those words hurt her.
"I—"
"Just leave me." The words were miserable, but firm, no room left for Vernal to argue. They made her mad, somewhat, at how much it sounded like Saphron was giving up. During the three or so years that they had known each other, Vernal had never seem Saphron look anything but driven and capable.
Seeing her like this caused a pang in an area Vernal hadn't thought could feel anymore.
No more words passed between them, Vernal standing up slowly, eyes never leaving the still form. Every few seconds Vernal opened her mouth, trying to find the right words to say, before closing it uselessly, frustrated that she didn't know how to deal with this.
"Whatever." Vernal tried for her best bitchy tone, hoping that it would spur something out of Saphron. But it didn't. If anything, Vernal saw her curl into herself a little more with those words.
With one last look at Saphron, Vernal left her, hoping that time would help her heal.
"Jaune…"
Blake's Aura finally seemed to noticeably be making a headway on her injuries.
The throbbing that originated around her ears seemed to be fading, as well as the high pitched whine that made it hard for her to listen to her surroundings at times, which didn't help with her paranoia.
It was another reason why she trailed so far behind Jaune, she supposed.
How could he trust her so quickly, Blake wondered. She had attacked him, shot him, and basically did nothing that would endear her to him. All he knew was that she was a White Fang terrorist, and yet he was comfortable with showing his back to her.
Her hand gripped Gambol Shroud tightly, the thought of attacking his back flitting through her mind, disappearing just as quickly.
What kind of person would she be if she attacked the boy who saved her?
Jaune looked over his shoulder at her, the timing too coincidental to her loosening her grip on Gambol. His eyes flickered up and down, cataloguing her in a way that reminded her of Adam. Guarded and aware of every danger that was being presented to him.
She had a feeling that if she had tried to attack him a second earlier, it wouldn't have been as much of a surprise as she was hoping it could've been.
Blake shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts again. They had been hiking up beside the road for several hours now, and while she was used to living hard and rough during a mission, even she needed a rest after a while. Frustratingly enough, Jaune barely looked affected, His breathing controlled and steady, his pace almost robotic, with the only indication that he was tired was the sweat that dripped off of him.
Jaune stopped suddenly, glancing at the setting sun before turning to regard Blake.
"We should probably hunker down for the night," The blond said softly, brushing the bangs hanging over his eyes. Blake didn't bother arguing, giving him a short nod before sinking into the ground, letting out a sharp exhale that was half pain, half relief. Jaune sat down as well, making no noise as he did so.
One of Blake's cat ears flicked in annoyance. How was it that a human her age was quieter than her? Was he actually human, or was he some sort of stealth faunus with an easily hidden trait?
"Is there something on my face?"
The question jolted Blake out of her rude staring, her eyes quickly moving away. Luckily enough, Blake couldn't really get any redder than she already was, what with all of the exertion that she had just went through.
Jaune continued to watch her, probably waiting for an answer, which Blake wasn't in a hurry to give. Shrugging to himself, he sat hunched over against a tree, closing his eyes.
She could almost see the Aura pulsing around him as he sent it into overdrive, the last of the cuts and bruises healing before her eyes. There was no telling how much Aura the boy had to have to do something like that after tanking such a violent Dust explosion. Several hours later and Blake was still scrambling to try and dreg up enough Aura to protect herself from a solid hit or two.
She was lucky enough to be alive, to be honest.
A noise startled the girl, making her almost jump, before she realized that she was the one making the noise. Placing a hand against her stomach, she forgotten how long it's been since she's eaten. Regenerating Aura also burned an obscene amount of calories too, and she only found herself getting hungrier and hungrier at that thought. Glancing up, Blake found Jaune with a small grin on his face, the boy shifting and procuring a couple granola bars, tossing one of them towards her.
"It's not much," Jaune said through the crunch, having already torn one open, "but it should get us through the night."
Nodding her thanks, Blake peeled the bar open, the granola disappearing far faster than she wished. It wasn't her first time having to survive off of hard rations though, so Jaune wouldn't hear any complaining from her.
"Are you going to take first watch?"
Blake stared at the boy, wondering why he would volunteer her up like that. She'd take offense, except... Jaune wasn't doing it to be mean, or lazy.
Did he know that she didn't trust him enough to take first shift? Was this his way of telling her that he trusted her, even though she didn't trust him? Or was he doing that so that she would think that, so when she lowered her guard he would strike against her?
No, that was stupid. If he wanted her dead, he could've just waited for the Atlas soldiers to finish her off.
Another nod was all Jaune needed, the boy drawing his knees into a ball, his head tucked in between his knees. It didn't take much longer before Blake could hear his breathing peter down into something steady.
Looking out towards the setting sun, she let out a sigh. Four hours to go.
Hopefully she wouldn't fall asleep with how tired she was.
Jaune woke up to noises in front of him.
It didn't take much to wake Jaune up these days. Raven had taken to making it a habit to attack him at all times, and sleep didn't mean anything to the Bandit Queen. Sometimes, he would even wake up to Saphron changing her breathing patterns when they had the occasional sleepover.
That's apparently what woke him up, as his vision cleared up, finding Blake fast asleep.
Falling asleep during her watch, Jaune noted with a frown. Raven would've beaten him up and down the camp if he had fallen asleep.
Whatever, Jaune thought to himself. Blake was tired, Jaune could definitely tell. He was tired too, but tired was a constant for him some days. Picking himself up tiredly, Jaune rubbed the rest of the sleep out of his eyes, checking his knives.
Looking at the bearing of the shattered moon and twinkling stars, Jaune checked the time.
"Six hour watch isn't horrible," Jaune muttered, more to convince himself than anything else. Casting another glance at Blake in hopes that she had woken up, but she was tired enough to sleep through the rustling Jaune had done.
Resigning himself to six long hours of staring into the trees, Jaune decided to climb up onto one of the thicker trees, wanting a good view of the sky if he was going to have to go through with this. Finding a sturdy branch that he could rest on, he leaned back, letting out a small exhale as he settled in, scanning the dense forest twice, making sure to vary the way to watched so his mind didn't start regularizing anything unusual. After making sure they were safe, Jaune looked up at the stars again, watching and trying to recall their positions in the skies. Constellations, Jaune remembered, something Saphron loved to teach him about. He wasn't super into it like she was, but he could appreciate knowing about them. It especially helped him get his bearings, even if the placements were a little different than they were when him and Saphron studied them floating over the Branwen camp.
He continued to alternate his position and attention, knowing that he wasn't making enough noise to alert anyone while he was sitting so far up. Every ten minutes or so he switched his attention from the skies to the trees, going over them attentively, putting all of his efforts into spotting anything strange. It helped him stay away and ignore the fatigue that seemed to be constantly threatening to overtake him.
The third hour in, Jaune noticed movement in the lower left of his field of vision, clearing the haziness out of his mind. Scrambling up onto his knees, Jaune narrowed his vision, trying to see what was happening.
It was dark, but the light of the moon glinted off of whatever was moving. Too uniform to be Grimm. It couldn't be an animal either, not with how it was shining in the light. There! Another glint had Jaune turn to find the movement coming closer. Drawing a knife, Jaune waited, hoping that it would circle around their slipshod excuse for a camp without noticing Blake.
A particularly loud snap of twigs broke from underneath one of the Altesian soldiers.
One of Blake's faunus ears twitched as she woke up with a start. She didn't make much noise, but Jaune saw one of the men turn slightly.
Taking no chances, Jaune dropped from the tree branch, landing feet first on top of one of the soldier's shoulders. Ignoring the cracking of bone underneath, Jaune bent his knees and rolled, springing up to silence the second Atlas soldier, second knife piercing deep.
Blake appeared a second later, Gambol Shroud in hand.
Jaune ignored her, turning to the soldier that he had incapacitated earlier. Twirling a knife, he knelt down, lifting the mask off of him. Green eyes flashed in fear as the man tried to squirm away, only to find his legs trapped underneath Jaune, who sat there as casually as if he was sitting on a bench. With both shoulders broken, the man wasn't able to do anything else but whimper, half in pain and half in fear at the boy sitting in front of him.
Jaune lifted the knife up to the moonlight to inspecting the razor sharp edge, eyes flat and lifeless.
"Does anyone know you're here?"
Jaune's voice was dangerously low, bringing goose bumps up and down the man's arms. It sounded like someone who wasn't afraid to kill him if he told him the wrong answer. It sounded like a man who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty to get what he wanted.
Jaune shifted a little to avoid getting his pants wet as the other man physically showed how scared he was.
"Does anyone know that you're here?" Jaune asked again, placing the tip of his blade against the man's thigh, his tone exactly the same as it was before.
The man shook his head, stammering out an answer.
"N-no, well, not exaclty," The man gasped as Jaune slowly dug into his thigh, drawing blood. "They! They told us to scout the general area out, but they don't know exactly where w-we are, no."
Jaune watched to make sure that the soldier was telling the truth. Seeing no deception, Jaune glanced at Blake, who was trying her best not to look horrified at what was happening.
"Get your stuff," Jaune whispered, "We're leaving."
Blake nodded slowly, hesitating for a moment.
"You're... you're not going to kill him, are you?" She asked tentatively. Jaune tilted his head a little, not noticing the tiny whimper the man let out when she asked the question.
"Why wouldn't I?" The question wasn't a challenge or anything. Jaune simply wanted to understand the reason why she would want the man alive. "I don't think there's any information that he could give us that would help us in this situation. If anyone found him alive, he could tell them where we're heading." Jaune laid his knife against the man's throat, cutting off his hasty promise of not revealing where they were. Blake hesitated again, eyes wide as she watched the emotionless boy in front of her.
"But it would be wrong." Blake murmured.
Jaune tensed up, eyes narrowing. For a terrorist, Blake was a little too soft-hearted for her own good. He didn't know if that was a good thing or not for the situation that he was in at the moment.
"Fine." Jaune said, shrugging.
Some of the tension that had built in Blake's shoulders dissipated, a small smile forming on her face. She nodded once and turned around, heading towards the camp before she heard a gurgle behind her, her head whipping around again to find Jaune's knife bloody red, blood spilling out of the gash on the man's neck.
"W-what..." Blake covered her mouth in horror, watching the man's life slowly fade out of his eyes, Jaune wiping the blade off with the Atlesian soldier's shirt and stowing it away, standing up.
"What did you do that for!?" Blake cried out, rushing towards the dead man. Jaune stepped aside, crossing his arms as she fell on her knees.
"He was a threat."
Blake glared at Jaune, standing up. "A threat? How was he a threat? He couldn't hurt us if he wanted to!" Jaune looked at her levelly.
"He could've told them where we left. It's too much of a risk." Raven always drilled it into his head to leave no witnesses. Their line of work was too dangerous to have any first-hand accounts.
"We would've been long gone by the time they got here! It wouldn't have mattered!"
Jaune kept his arms crossed. "It was too much of a risk." Jaune glanced at the dying man, shoving the emotion that tried to well up inside of him.
"You've got no sympathy at all, do you?" Blake hissed out, turning her full anger onto Jaune. "You'd find any excuse to kill anyone, wouldn't you?"
"It was necessary."
"That was not necessary." Blake ground out, getting into Jaune's face. Both of their eyes hardened, their stubbornness clashing against one another.
"You're a monster."
Jaune closed his eyes, his heart panging for a moment. He could remember all of the times he looked like Blake, watching Raven as she did some unspeakable thing. You're a monster, Raven. Jaune had promised himself that he wouldn't ever be like the woman who kidnapped him.
"Yes."
Blake took a step back, emotions stirring as she gripped her weapon tightly. Then the walls came up, hiding whatever tiny progress they had made a few hours before. She turned away, heading back towards the camp to grab her things.
Jaune stood there for a moment, wondering how much more Raven had to push him before he became exactly like her, before following Blake.