11

Lotus of Remembrance

Jaune dropped the map and started running. His heart pounding in his chest as he saw the devastation out before him.

The town of Shion was no more.

The attack seemed to have recently, building were burned out husks and corpses lay here and there. A crashed airship lay near the entrance with weapon scoring all over the hull. The others ran up to him and he barely heard Ruby say to look for survivors. The smell of charred wood and flesh assaulted his senses and he spun around at the sound of Ren's voice.

Running over to him the found Ren kneeling in front of a man laid with his back to a broken wall. He had a hand to a wound just below his ribs, his breathing was haggard with the occasional cough.

"What happened here? Who killed all these people?!" Jaune managed to choke out as he skidded to a stop in front of the man.

"Bandits. They attacked Shion and during the fighting. Came. The Grimm." The huntsman wheezed out the words, taking deep breaths in between some of them. His eyes were losing concentration. Ren had pulled out some first aid supplies and was attempting to dress the wound so Jaune and the others stepped away so as not to crowd the wounded man.

"We have to get him to help." Ruby was the first to speak, casting a glance back at the man.

"The next village should have a doctor. We could take turns." Even Yang looked uncomfortable in the ruins of the town.

"Right. Ren and I can take turns carrying hi-"

"Guys." A quiet voice from behind and they all turned towards the source. Ren stood and made a helpless gesture towards the man they had just been trying to save. He was clearly dead now, chin resting on his chest and his breathing stopped. Ruby felt a tight squeeze in her chest and Jaune put a hand to his forehead. Yang stood there with her fists clenched, frustrated like they all were right then.

"Should we bury him?" Nora spoke up first, eyes glued to the man.

Ren pushed past them, "We should go. It isn't safe here." The black haired man stood a distance away, head down as Nora went to him with a worried look.

With a cry of anger Yang splintered a nearby lamp post with her fist, she stood there voicing the groups thoughts by muttering dammit over and over again. Jaune put a hand on Ruby's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. She realized she felt something wet on her cheeks and hurriedly wiped her face before running over to give her sister a hug.

"We'll be able to do something next time Yang. We won't be helpless anymore."

Turning around, Yang embraced her younger sister, agreeing with the younger girl. Jaune walked over to the airship where he could see several dead. Some looked to be hunters but others had something that though it couldn't be called a uniform was definitely a theme. The bodies of what he could only assume were the bandits were dressed in similar colors of dark grey, black, and reds. The weapons they wielded were patchwork and looked to be held together by luck and maintenance.

Jaune held a hand over his mouth to staunch the queasiness he felt. Muttering a silent apology to the dead he began taking the dust from the bodies around him. The first one had a revolver utilizing dust cartridges that were of a standard make. It looked like the bandits all used very standard stuff.

"Jaune what are you doing?!" Turning back he saw Ruby's horrified expression, both hands covering her mouth as she looked at what her friend was doing. Yang was as shocked but definitely seemed uncomfortable with it.

"I know Ruby, I don't like it either but we're probably going to need the dust. Who knows what we're going to fight from now on. Besides. The dead aren't going to use it anyways." He placed several more cartridges into his pack while avoiding looking into the glazed eyes of the deceased.

"This is wrong Jaune. We can't just disrespect the dead like this." The blond man stopped again and looked over at the young woman, his stomach twisting at the pleading look she gave him.

"I won't ask you to do this Ruby, but we need this. And if we don't need it someone else would. We could help someone. Another hunter or a village. It's better than it just sitting here."

The girl just stood there, unable to decide on what she should do. Yang put an arm around her and whispered to her sister, "Ruby why don't you scout ahead a little bit. I'll help Jaune."

A wide eyed stare at the blond woman and a nod with weak reply and the girl left, observing the road ahead for Grimm. Yang knelt down near Jaune and began stripping the dust from the bandits.

"What made you decide to do this Jaune?" Without looking up from her grim task the brawler asked him her question.

"I dunno. Just kinda thinking about how we might not be prepared. I saw this one guy's bandolier and just thought 'what a waste'"

Yang merely hummed in thought at that and they continued the unpleasant job in silence for a few minutes before Ren and Nora came over to them. The unsaid question burned in the black haired man's eyes and Jaune stood up and told Yang they might as well move on before turning to his teammate once again.

"Just salvaging, Ren. You okay?"

Ren looked away, "We just need to move on."

Nodding Jaune called over to Neo who was standing in the same spot Ren had been, looking at the ground with her head tilted to the side.

"Neo is everything okay?" With that the small woman looked up at him and strode over and past him, following in the same direction that Ruby had gone in earlier. A quick glance showed some kind of large print, probably one of the grimm that had attacked Shion.

The group trudged through the rest of the town, taking in the devastation done by that bandits and Grimm. Jaune had been her a bit over a year ago with his family. They had hiked trails he could see from here. He even recognized a couple of the faces of the dead and bile rose up. His hand clamped over his mouth and he almost doubled over from the effort.

A flash of rose petals and Ruby arrived in a state of near panic, "Guys! There's someone still alive. I think they're trapped!"

I spike of adrenaline shot through the group as they began sprinting after the cloaked girl who led the way.

A small voice could be heard sobbing from a collapsed building. It looked to have been smashed to pieces rather than burned down and the young girl's voice was hoarse as she cried.

"Hello? Can you hear me? We're coming to get you out!" Ruby called out as she zipped around trying to locate where the young girl was. Everyone else began to lift debris up and aside while being careful not to shift anything that might crush the survivor. The girl was sobbing about her parents. Finally they sighted some bloodied cloth and began digging there, the voice just beyond.

Jaune's blood froze as he realized why the young girl had survived. The house had collapsed and the two parents and shielded their child with their bodies. A piece of lumber had pierced the mother and the father had his head caved in. As he and Yang moved the corpses aside Ren leaned in and gently scooped the girl into his arms, carrying her down to ground level.

Her crying stopped as the man used his semblance to calm the child who couldn't have been more than five years old. Sitting her down on some would he brought out a cloth and wetted it from his canteen. Slowly and gently he began to wipe the blood away, checking for wounds. As the girl began to come out from under the blood and dirt Ren released his semblance and she began sniffling.

"Hi there. My name is Lie Ren. What is your?" He tucked her hair behind her ears and continued cleaning her up. Luckily the girl seemed to only have cuts and scrapes. Probing with his aura he felt a weak force push back and he smiled faintly and the young girl. Her aura had become unlocked somehow in the crisis.

"Amaranth Teolin. Mister Ren where are Mommy and Daddy?" The girl's light pink hair shifted as she craned her neck searching for her parents.

"I'm sorry Amaranth. You're parents have died. They are gone." The girl looked at him with a curious expression on her face. Then she looked back at her ruined house. "We need to get you to the next village Amaranth. Do you know if you have any family nearby?"

"I don't know…. It's fine though. I can wait here till Daddy comes back."

"No. He's not coming back. I'm sorry but he is gone."

"Liar! Daddy told me to watch out for strangers! You can't trick me!" She suddenly lashed out at him, startling Ren and running for the ruined house. She only made it three steps when Yang scooped her up and held the hellion close as she screamed, kicked, and fought against the young huntress' grip. All the blond did was apologize over and over again as the girl's struggles slowed and eventually ceased. Now sobbing once again the young girl gripped onto her captor for dear life.

Nora looked fit to burst into tears and Ruby was already crying. Most in the party were no strangers to loss and this brought up memories for everyone.

"I like Mara better." The young child mumbled after finally settling down into Yang's arms.

"We'd better get out of here. I don't want to wait around and see if those bandits are gonna come by and see if there's anything left for them to get."

Nodding in agreement the party continued outwards along their original path.

Blake settled down at the outside table in a huff. Weeks of work finding information about Adam's White Fang and they'd barely been able to make any progress. Ilia interfered with them at every turn and vanished like a shadow in the night. Leads went dry and witnessed disappeared. They still had no proof that Corsac and Fennec held allegiance to Adam.

"As long as they publicly stay loyal to Sienna there isn't much. The Menagerie Guards are all loyal to my father, but the White Fang under Sienna have a significant presence here as well. Unless we can proof they are traitors, we can't touch them."

"But they're so creepy!" Sun exclaimed as the waitress stopped by, distributing their tropical drinks in front of them.

"Oh they're definitely schemers. I just hope Dad's people make some progress on Ilia's scroll."

Sun tried hard to be casual as he asked, "Yeah. You and that Ilia chick seem to have quite the history together. What's up with that?"

Blake rolled her eyes but nonetheless answered, "Ilia is a chameleon faunus that served the White Fang as an infiltrator agent, like me. We worked together on quite a few missions actually."

"So is she one of those true believers that Adam is collecting or what?"

"Hm, I don't think so. She always seemed lost to me. So angry and upset. It's not that she hated humans, at least not at first. Her parents died at a dust mine in Atlas, at the time she was attending a human academy there. When her supposed friends laughed at the tragedy she snapped."

"Whoa. That's….." Sun stared down in thought. The faunus prejudice had never been something he had been acutely aware of. He grew up an orphan on the streets of Vacuo, the kids then didn't have time for discrimination because their focus was on survival. He had seen more example of racism in these last few months than he ever had growing up.

He'd heard people's stories about why they want to live on their own apart from humans or why they hate them. But every time he couldn't help but think of his team, and his partner. He knew that a lot of humans were bad but the opposite was true. And even among the faunus there were good and evil and everything in between. For the life of him he couldn't see any kind of answer.

"Yeah. That incident made her angry. I don't think she knows what to do with that anger anymore."

"Wouldn't that have made her just hate humans?"

"I always thought so but eventually I saw her save a human child that was going to be caught in the crossfire. It was around then that I started having doubts about the White Fang itself. Innocents should never have been involved."

"Yeah. That Adam guy turned out to be a real dick."

She stared at him until he winced and then rolled her eyes but not refuting what he said. It was a conversation they'd had a hundred times before. She took a long sip from her drink and took a look at her scroll. Suddenly she stood up in shock, holding her scroll.

"Sun. Dad says they cracked the scroll."

Slowly the monkey faunus' eyes went wide, "Sweet let's go!" Dropping some lien on the table the pair took off heading for the Belladona Estate.

Jaune stared a the campfire the party had made that night. They were a number of miles away from Shion in a clearing they had found. Mara sat in Yang's lap with the older girl's arms wrapped around her. Ruby sat polishing and caring for her weapon while Neo sat in a tree, her legs swinging back and forth. Nora kept looking from Ren to the child they had rescued and the man in question himself sat in a more stoic silence then normal. He seemed to be brooding over something but refused to talk about it and while it was clear the red head knew what was wrong she was respecting his desire and not talking about it.

Young Mara was busing eating some of the dried meat that they had brought along. The girl had become attached the the blond during their trek as she was carried. Though she hadn't laughed Yang had gotten the girl to relax and open up a little by telling her stories, mostly embarrassing ones about Ruby causing the younger sister to complain loudly. Jaune had even chipped in with stories about him and his family camping near there.

"She really likes you, Yang." Jaune piped up, eager for something to break the oppressive atmosphere.

"Heck yeah Iam. I didn't raise Rubes for nothin'" She flashed her trademarked fearless smile.

"You raised her?"

"Huh? You didn't know? You remember how we're half-sisters right?" Jaune nodded. "So My mom, Raven, was with Dad first. But she just up and left when I was born. That's when Summer, Ruby's mom, came in to help raise me. Shortly after Ruby was born. I consider her my mom too and she never treated me any different either."

Yang's smile grew bitter at that and Jaune pieced together some of what happened but had to ask, "So what happened to her?"

"She was a huntress see? One day she left for a mission and never came back. Dad never talked about it, he was a mess actually. It's the reason I mainly ended up raising Ruby."

Everyone had stopped and listened to Yang. Ruby's hand hovered above her weapon with a complicated expression that melted into a small smile as she went back to what she was doing, feeling no need to comment.

"Ren and I grew up around here." Ren's head whipped up to stare at his long time partner with wide eyes.

"I was an orphan for a long time. I wandered from village to village getting chased out. I scavenged mouldy food and ate scraps. Eventually one of the villages I was in was attacked by Grimm. That night I met Renny and he saved us with his awesome semblance! You know the rest!"

"No they don't, Nora." Ren added with a sigh, now feeling the need to talk about it, "The village was Kuroyuri. My father was the village's best hunter, not a huntsman. My mother died when our house collapsed from a giant Nevermore and my father got me out of there. He gave me his knife and told me to save myself. Just after that I met Nora hiding under a house."

"What made you two want to become huntsmen and huntresses?" Ruby spoke up having stowed Rose Thorn back into it's carry form and holstered on her thigh.

"Nothing special really. I became a hunter because I didn't want to let anyone go through what I did. If I could help it."

"And Renny would be useless without me so I just HAD to become a huntress!" Nora added with her typical excitement causing Ruby to smile and everyone else smiled. Jaune paused to look up at their most mysterious addition sitting up in a tree. He met Neo's eyes as she was looking down at them with interest. She gave him a smile and leaned back, falling off the branch but her legs caught her. She spun down and flipped onto her feet with all the grace of a cat. The multi colored girl's hips sashayed as she walked into her tent.

Even then Jaune still knew next to nothing about the woman who was now a constant sight among their group. He got that she constantly angered Yang and even tested Ruby's patience but he still couldn't think of one good reason that the woman continued to accompany them. She was mute and only ever conveyed messages through her scroll if it was important.

Jaune looked back to the group to find Ruby with a pout and Yang looking irritated.

"What?"

A/N: So yeah another look at what Blake is up to as well as a tense time for team... RNJYR? I guess that works. Wait it's team NRNJYR. The N is silent.

I really wish I had more time to write. I have several fic ideas that would be great, some you already know and several you haven't seen yet.