"The Outlier Regions are not known for their own Hunting Lodge as the Kingdoms are. Vale's Beacon Academy would not survive in the far more rustic landscapes of Remnant as the loose collection of villages would simply not see the point.

In the cities and to the villages close by, convenience is the word that flutters onto everyone's lips. Shops hold everything one could dream of or could easily trade for it given a little time. Food is bought from stores instead of painstakingly harvested and counted for the possible harsh winters that ramshackle houses can't keep out.

My journeys, quite naturally I feel, take me on long strolls through these little patchwork villages and I wondered something, as I often did:

Why doesn't that technology, that way of life, spread further than the bastions that they are born in? Why is it that the small villages that could sorely use larger stores or a guard post with greater armaments or even just basics like Dust powered lights do not get them?

The answer, as one particularly dull Mistrali official informed me, was complex. "Networks," she said, the word rolling off her tongue like a boulder. "The amount of time and effort that it would take to reinforce the locations would be inefficient. Especially considering the Grimm situation and the lack of Hunter recruitment from them." She flicked her ponytail over her shoulder as we walked slowly through the Hall of Administration in her town. Her officials garb, all blue and purely designed without flattery, was loose against her in the hot summer sun.

But why?! I voiced my frustration only to have it aggravated by the response. "They're simply not worth it." She replied. "If they had any use beyond more potential additions to any Grimm cults that get formed then maybe it might happen. Did you know that the majority of those asinine groups begin in the Outliers? Or that they just about produce enough food to feed themselves alone?" Her eyes shut closed as she took a small calming breath. "The Outlier Regions aren't all like that of course. But by the Bureaucracy, they cause people like me a larger headache than they should."

I decided to sympathize with the woman. Her slightly greying hair along side her youthful face revealed as much to me as her shouting rant had. Surely there are positives to living in the Outlier Regions?

"Oh, certainly." She sighed. "Less or no paperwork. Laws are more… flexible to an extent and it's far more of an independent place than the cities or larger towns." She paused in her walk for a moment, leaving me to spin on my heel to face her. "But it just isn't safe. Even if they were able to attract some retired Hunter or Huntress to play defense for them, so many of them fall to the hordes that they don't even really have a proper chance to set up in the first place. Some survive, by location or luck, but most…"

I placed my arm around her, letting her grief and distressed anger flow into me as best I could. We walked on in calming silence for the remainder of that sunny afternoon.

Tatar of the Wandering Tribes "Marvels of Remnant - The Hunting Lodges."


The gentle hum of the bulkhead engines provided background music to the journey over. The surprisingly large cavern held Jaune and Pyrrha on either side with neither one wanting to meet the eyes of the other.

"I think I've figured out my Semblance." Jaune's voice cut through the air.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow and nodded for Jaune to carry on.

"So, I got to thinking." Jaune said. "When I touched your arm before and then the whole incident back at the warehouse…" He smiled slightly. "I think I can shield people."

Pyrrha smiled in return. "That's pretty cool, Jaune. You tried using it on yourself?"

"Yeah. It's harder though. Takes more out of me. Almost collapsed in my room when I tried earlier. But when I reach out to you... " His hand reached across the seemingly vast gap between them. "My Aura seems to want to latch on or stick on to you. Like glue or something." Jaune just shrugged. "Still, not much compared to yours."

Pyrrha paused, her eyes widening slightly. "Oh?"

"Yeah!" The enthusiasm filled the bulkhead. "I think you've attuned yourself to your weapons. Make 'em hit harder or more durable. I haven't seen you do any real maintenance on them and that whole ricochet trick you did-"

"Which one?" She smiled back.

"The one where you throw your shield and it springs around like it's made of rubber. That and I once saw you pull your weapons towards you by flexing your Aura at them. Barely felt it though." His eyes were wide with admiration at her apparent skill.

Pyrrha just stared back. "Sure. It's quite handy." Her awkward smile seemed to go unnoticed by the blonde man sitting across from her as the bulkhead touched down.

"Mr Arc, Miss Nikos, we're gonna need you to get moving ASAP." Went the tinny voice of the pilot over the intercom. "From our intel, this base'll probably notice us if we take too long."

The two warriors sprinted out of the open bulkhead door even as the huge airship was taking off above the canopy of the forest below.

As the engines roared to life, both Jaune and Pyrrha landed with a gentle thump against the muddy ground. The smell of ozone wafted faintly into their nostrils as they stalked towards their given coordinates.

"Storm shouldn't hit until after we're out." Pyrrha said, her shield held defensively up as she walked forward.

"You think they know we're coming? I know that the operative who fought us might have warned them but they can't know we're here now." Jaune whispered back.

The two continued in relative silence with the only real sound being the occasional clank of plate mail armor against the ground.

After a brief walk, the walls of the daunting base came into clear view through the dense forest. The stark metal walls seemed to absorb the light around them as they dominated the skyline. The silence hung in the air like a piece of rope.

"That's not good." Pyrrha whispered back to Jaune. "There should be something by now. A patrol or a guard tower." She shook her head as she dashed to the walls.

Jaune followed suit, leaning up against the walls with his partner. "What's the plan?"

"We split up. Explore as much of this base as possible and then get out. If we encounter any resistance, we fight our way here. You alright?"

"Just fine." With a bright smile, Jaune felt the Aura pool in great amounts in his leg muscles as he leapt straight up and over the wall.

His landing, while unrefined, was whisper quiet as the surrounding silence wrapped around him like a sheet. Faintly, off to his left, he heard a soft thump as he took a moment to take in his surroundings.

The base was sparsely developed. In contrast to the high walls that surrounded the base, every building was no more than a storey off the ground. No one building stood out as larger or more obvious than the others.

Sighing, Jaune flicked out Crocea Mors to full shield and drew his sword as he walked towards the closest building. A minutes or two passed before he got within touching distance of the walls of it. The concrete dullness felt rough even through his new gauntlets.

New construction. He thought to himself. Well, that or no-one's used it since it was built.

The storm rumbled off in the distance as he extended his senses to the building itself. Feeling his awareness stretch slightly further, the silence pierced his ears once again. No motion, no sound nor even an echo filled his ears as he shook his head once more.

What's going on here?

He opened the door of the building to find it completely empty. The floors were simple concrete just as the walls were, a whisper of dust coating them.

Jaune retreated from the building frowning. He closed his eyes for a second and began to focus his newly empowered senses again.

A tugging at the base of his gut led him towards a building that seemed to inhabit more ground than its' brothers. The walls felt different to the touch even as a small sound of breath danced through Jaune's ears. Weirdly, at least to Jaune's mind, there was no smell to accompany the breath.

Everything has a smell. Jaune thought, puzzled. Even if it's a Grimm, I should be able to smell the blood on their teeth or something…

The door opened easily as its' rusty hinges squeaked open to reveal a single caged section of the room. The walls gleamed with an orange tinged pattern that weaved across the walls like spider silk. The sound of breath still whispered to Jaune's ears, even as he saw no obvious movement or object in the cell.

"Hello?" He said, holding out his shield in front of him.

The breath abruptly ceased.

"Hello? I know you're here!" He shouted back to the now silent darkness.

A flicker of motion, so small it made him doubt he'd even seen it, passed his eyes as a low voice growled back. "You wear a new face today, thief."

"What? I assure you, I've had this face for a while no-" Jaune replied

"LIAR!" The voice roared back. "You always lie. Not a single sound passes your lips that is not tainted by your falsehoods. And now you want to steal even more? I will tell you nothing." The hatred in the voice was mixed with what seemed like longing. "You were leaving me to die last we talked. Why have you come back?"

"I'm not the man who captured you, whoever you are!" Jaune shouted back.

"You have made no attempt to free me. The room glows in response to your presence, thief. Or did you think I was blind as well as stupid?" The voice settled into a dull cadence.

Jaune's shoulders tensed as he sheathed Crocea Mors and stomped over to the cell bars. He pushed his Aura through his arm muscles, taking a second to reinforce his back muscles, as he pulled against the bars.

The resounding crack of concrete hitting metal echoed through the room, piercing both occupants' ears even as Jaune picked himself up.

"You think I haven't tried that?" The voice droned back. "You must think me a fool."

Jaune stomped his way out best he could while still maintaining his stealth abilities as best he could. He held a hand to his stomach, still feeling that sense of wrongness that he had before.

What in the hell were those markings?

"Pyrrha!" He shouted into the wall of silence that surrounded him. No response came even as he stalked towards another building. The walls were the same as the others surrounding it even as the entrance way was clearly made out of something similar to…

Obsidian? Who the hell would build anything out of obsidian?

The room inside was a mesh of bunkhouse and office block. Rows of filing cabinets lined one wall with papers strewn all along the floor. Drawing his eyes across the room, Jaune noted the rather cheap nature of the desk that inhabited the centre of the room. Again, the disordered nature shone through on the desk with papers all over it and drawers left half open. The row of beds on the other half of the building were all in disarray. Pillows were stacked on some beds even as blankets were hoarded on others. All in all, the room gave off the impression of having been run by a horde of unruly children.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted again as he walked over to the papers on the floor. The storm outside rumbled even louder before as he leaned down to pick up one of the strewn sheets.

"Dear Mother, progress on Teddy Bears project is slow. My Shiny doesn't work like it used to. I'm going to find some more friends."

What in the hell?

Jaune picked up another piece of paper and could barely make it out the content through the scrawled writing.

"Dreams getting worse. Which one am I? The user or the used?"

Jaune started to rip through the different drawers of the desk, hoping to find something sane in the heap of paper madness that surrounded him.

"Dear Mother, my powers are getting better…"

"The Shiny is talking again. Why won't it stop?"

"Not the real me. Some sort of echoed form…"

"The base is still functioning well along with..."

"Part of a gestalt. Not one mind…"

"Dear Mother…" One letter caught his eye. "I fought a man today. Well, not a man exactly. More like a boy playing a man. He felt like me. His blonde hair and blue eyes weren't mine but the Shiny glowed and tried to reach out to him when he got close.

Why did it do that, Mother? I thought you said it was mine. If it's mine, why does it want to play with others?! I had to stop it but even then I think it tried to talk to him.

Jaune Arc is a problem, Mother. He's like me but not me. Why is he like that?"

Written in a far neater script below was an addendum

"The Project progressed as expected. The Arc boy has clearly been enhanced by Professor Dove's sorcery and now has ample reason to seek me out."

Jaune stood still as ice as his mind roared through the possibilities.

He was here. What does he mean by "Shiny?" Why are so many of these written like children but just as many written like adults? What in the hell does he mean by the "Teddy Bear" project?

He rushed around, picking up any papers that mentioned "Mother" or any projects similar to "Teddy Bear." The storm outside thundered close as Jaune ran to the door.

His newly enhanced senses hadn't picked up on the new person in the room. The gleaming red eyes pierced through the room even as he pulled his short white jacket off and cracked his neck. The physique underneath was heavily sculpted with every muscle on show as if carved from pure marble. A crack of the knuckles was all the preamble that the man needed before a toothy grin tore its' way onto his face.

"Well." Outis drew out the word, savouring the word on his lips. "Wouldn't expect to see you here. Tell me, who cracked? Who's been telling stories?"

Jaune said nothing even as he flicked open Crocea Mors and drew the sword once more. The papers were hastily stuffed into a gap in his armor as he warily stared Outis down.

"Not gonna tell me?" Outis laughed. "Oh well, doesn't matter anyway. Nobody'd send you here if they had any brains at all so they won't be missed…"

"You're insane!" Jaune shouted.

"Oh, indeed." Outis kept smiling. "But I still do good work. After all, haven't you been spending so much time trying to catch me and my band of miscreants? Or did you just enjoy the thrill of hurting all those bad bad people?" He mocked.

"You wanted me here? Why?"

"Oh please. I couldn't care less if you were here. You've been running around like a headless chicken from base to base. Why should I care if you take one more? Even if I do have a fondness for this location…" The grin stretched a little further, almost painfully, before a small giggle of laughter rippled through the room again.

"Where are the other people who work here? The others who wrote these? Where are you keeping the children?!" His sword pointed directly in line with Outis' throat as his anger ripped through his voice.

Outis tilted his head in slight confusion before bursting out into laughter once more. "Oh, Jaune…" He laughed even louder this time. "You think I'd keep children alive here!"

A small pause slithered through the room before Jaune considered the implications of such a statement. Even as the laughter echoed, Jaune lunged at Outis screaming in rage at the muscled man.


(rwbyfan5 is still awesome.

Many Thanks to franck259146 and Qatzol for favouriting the story!

Hey, readers! It's that time again. As I celebrate 3,000 views, you should feel free to ask a question about the story. Or heck, what about the Marvels of Rwby Series as a whole? I'm always happy to answer.

Thanks for reading!)