Chapter 12: Reconnaissance

Two Weeks Later…

Jaune Arc looked into the mirror. There he was, in all of his "glory." That was the correct expression to convey a warrior who was at their peak, or some romanticized term associated with warriors.

All he saw was a broken and crippled Human being.

The prosthetic arm was shaped to be exactly like his regular arm. If he was was to wear clothing over it, one would not be able to tell it was even prosthetic at all. And it wouldn't lessen his aura, nor his semblance. The only reason he was alive was that robotics and cybernetics could manage aura more effectively and without any danger.

Jaune had checked his own aura levels on his scroll, and discovered that he had experienced a 50% increase in aura, which was an astounding amount considering it was higher than most huntsman and huntresses even before this.

But still the blond lamented further at his condition, because it wasn't just his arm that was different about him. His body had actually been implanted with bio-organic cybernetics, which further increased his feats of strength, speed, agility, and thought process. The most obvious sign of cybernetics was his left eye. Gone was the organic look replaced with an obvious cyborg look. It may be generally shaped like an eye and his iris may be still the same color, but there was no mistaking organic for cybernetic.

According to General Ironwood, the cybernetics were also needed in order for the prosthetic technology to operate at its best and for Jaune to be able to access its full capabilities. The boy suspected that was only partially true, but at this point, it was not worth over thinking about. What was done was done.

Everyday since that day, he stared into the mirror and forced himself to reconsider his capabilities. This should have never happened if he was strong enough. Artificial enhancements, however effective they were, just made Jaune feel ineffectual in many ways. One could argue that overall, his abilities were far greater than his fully organic body could ever be.

But not matter the assurance that he was better, Jaune carried a minuscule amount of anger at himself. It was like he was holding out hope that he could retain just a semblance of normality, but as it was, he wouldn't even be able to appear normal. Once again, wishful thinking was gone, replaced by a cold reality.

Then he calmed down his emotions. They would not serve him. He was prepared to sacrifice what was necessary, and his own emotions needed to be disciplined further if he was still capable of emotional outbursts even after six years. It wasn't his place to make a fuss about this; it was brash, selfish, and without reason.

This was for the betterment of myself, Jaune mumbled to himself. And despite a less than Human appearance, I will persevere, and I will find a way.

It had been an eventful two weeks of even more intense training and practice. Jaune had already torn through an entire legion of training robots, decimated an entire force of Grimm, and won match after match against Penny and Lieutenant Jennings.

His reaction time had been multiplied so effectively that he was reacting to attacks long before they would strike. This was due to the cybernetics working in synch with his already-impressive intelligence to increase his processing power.

His cybernetic worked with his own physical body and his aura to make the most effective fighter out of him. Jaune still used his aura in a very conservative way, using only bursts of strength in order to unexpectedly take the advantage or end the battle quickly.

Due to his enhanced senses, he could now aim and fire with pinpoint accuracy. Really, he had a very small chance of ever missing with any gun regardless of the model or type.

Jaune clipped Crocea Mors to his belt, gun sheath and shield sheath attached, and briskly exited his own room. He was due for a briefing for his first field deployment in approximately twelve minutes.

It took him only two minutes to actually reach the briefing room, and there they were: General Ironwood, Jennings, and Penny. The girl gave him that same look she'd been giving him for two weeks. He hated it because it was a look of pity and sadness. Jaune didn't want pity, nor did he want her to mourn over his condition.

Refocusing on the task at hand, he saluted crisply, shoving down any further stray thoughts.

"Sirs," he called out.

"At ease," Ironwood said. "You're early, so let us begin."

The room darkened as the shades were closed and then the room was relit with the mission table displaying a hologram.

"This first mission is a preliminary scouting mission," Ironwood began. "Our job here is not to cause damage, but to assert the White Fang."

"An infiltration mission," Jaune deduced.

"Correct," Jennings said. "We've already gotten reports about rather violent behaviors from the White Fang as of late. It's nothing of any particular danger, but just the same, we want to be sure."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

Jaune glanced at the table before pulling a stray question from his mind.

"The White Fang is centralized in Vale. Their hold out in the other kingdoms is rather weak. Why are we this concerned?"

"Not quite correct." Ironwood tapped a control. "Over the past seven years alone, their numbers have grown to include Faunus from all kingdoms. Vale is simply where they are most concentrated. They can be found everywhere on Remnant."

"I see," Jaune said. "What am I to be searching for?"

"Correspondences," the general listed. "Documents, private videos and transmissions, anything that we can use to implicate the White Fang. We can only strike back directly when we have sufficient and concrete evidence."

"There are no specifics," Jaune asked. "This seems extremely risky to do considering that we are attempting to locate evidence that may or may not exist that will implicate illegal or immoral actions committed by the White Fang."

"Which leads to our next point, trainee," Jennings adjusted the hologram to display a picture of what appeared to be the city of Vale.

"You won't be able to strike directly yet, so we will have to strike from the shadows, find sources that can point us in the right direction."

"Information, from who?" Jaune still didn't understand what was to be done.

"There are many information brokers who would know of such information," Ironwood turned to face Jaune. "For a price, they are willing to give out any information."

"Are they trustworthy?"

"They have to be, otherwise they wouldn't have made it this far."

"And who am I to meet?"

The general handed him a scroll, and Jaune skimmed the page. It was a tall man, black hair, and proper dress uniform. Apparently, he was a bartender somewhere in Vale City, and he knew everything going on in the city as well as in the underworld.

It wasn't much to go off of, but it was a start.

"So when am I being deployed?"

"Tomorrow at 05:00 hours," Jennings replied. "Further mission details will be explained at a later time."

Jaune stuffed his questions away. There would be no questioning superior officers.

"Understood, sirs," Jaune said. "Will that be all?"

"There is one more thing."

A pause.

"That will be all. You are dismissed. Penny, we need to discuss some matters."

"Right away, general," the girl chirped.

Jaune left the briefing room, closing the door, not even wanting to look back as he made his way to the training room. It was a day for aura training, so his weapons weren't needed.

As he entered the training room, he took in the sight of swept-up robot parts everywhere. This was his mess, and he'd made a big one. There was no challenge in training anymore it seemed. He would've preferred to be stranded in the Grimm wilds and fight real live Grimm rather than the simulations. These robots were pathetic now that he could outdo them in all ways.

And despite knowing this, Jaune activated the main controls and scrolled through a list of simulation scenarios and enemies. His eyes searched for something that was worth a challenge. His eyes went over each and every spec of the models.

The first minute was wasted going through mediocre stats and uninteresting challenges. These were robots he had fought in his earlier years, hardly challenging now that he could defeat them on instinct, just as he wished.

Then his eyes fell onto something very interesting. Atlas Military technology was always growing and developing, and whenever something new came out, Jaune would know about it. He knew because each new piece of tech was tested against him. It was meant to force himself to adapt to any and all possible forms of combat.

So it was with at least some interest that Jaune stared intently at the stats of something in the prototype stages, something called the Atlesian Paladin-280.

It stood at about 5.5 meters tall or about 18 feet tall. It was meant to be piloted by a single person. Due to its size, it was meant to be used a battlefield juggernaut, clearing huge paths for soldiers to move in. It could also be used for anti-vehicle and anti-aircraft purposes.

The armor it used was mainly steel of at least several inches in thickness. The metal was also aligned with special properties that prevented potential destruction on a molecular level, so aura wouldn't be useful in that regard.

Physically, it was more than capable of smashing through objects of all sorts. Even a huntsman or huntress's aura would be hard-hit by the force behind the kinetic energy.

The cockpit was very small, and afforded little chance for exposure. There would be no cheating by taking out the pilot to stop the fight. The canopy was designed to withstand barrages that would be made against it.

Without giving much thought to it, Jaune inputted this new piloted mechanoid as an opponent.

When asked how many he wished to face, he once again didn't put much thought into it, simply putting in three.

Once he stepped into the center of the room, the technology began to activate. Standing completely still and staring straight ahead, he waited.

Then the sound of mechs moving prompted him to take a look around him.

Jaune's enhanced senses detected incoming fire, and he instinctively raised an aura barrier around him. It was a dangerous, as using a aura shield while more effective at blocking and deflecting projectiles, could leave a user exposed.

The boy quickly began to sprint, using his cybernetics to enhance his speed. Even with two weeks to practice, he still had a hard time adjusting to the technology in his body. His brain had to adjust to his new physical condition and the few bad spots he'd been in were the result of his body being faster than his brain.

Right now, he didn't care if he could slow down effectively, because right now it was saving him from the pain of gunfire being rained on his head. But try as he might, running laps couldn't go on. He needed to get up close and personal.

Using his cybernetics, Jaune began to plot an exact route that he'd sprint across. Paladins were powerful, but predictably, with their massive size, they were incapable of moving faster than a fast walk.

The three hulking mechs had gotten into a formation and were firing upon him with thunderous suppression. Through sheer speed, and subtle aura shielding, he was able to avoid being gunned down. Quickly closing the distance to one of them, he leaped onto its back. The Paladin responded by trying to shake him off.

The remaining two trained their weapons, but did not fire. The program knew enough to not try and chance firing upon an ally. It was expected, and that wasn't going to be much of a problem in the big scheme of things.

Jaune's cybernetics began to take scans of the Paladin he was on. Because he was now closer, he was able to a bit more information in regards to potential weak points and design flaws that came with the mechanized suit of armor.

He gripped the Paladin harder as it spun around. Activating his aura, he quickly lashed out with a punch from his mechanized arm to a section of less-armored plating. The punch was actually able to cave in that section of the armor. So maybe he had underestimated his own strength the past two weeks. Self-restraint be damned.

He felt a few cables and wires, and the slight shock of electricity. His cybernetics registered the shock, but there was no pain.

Recalling the trick that Raven had showed him, Jaune called upon his aura and quickly created an aura bomb, leaving it within the now-exposed hole in the armor. With that, he quickly climbed the Paladin he was on and leaped to another one.

It wasn't a critical system that he had, but nevertheless, the aura explosion left a smoking mech trying to cope with the injury. Jaune latched onto the arm and swung around so that he was balancing perfectly on it. With its free arm, the mech tried to slam into him, and Jaune simply let the blow fly over his back before grabbing the flying arm and using its momentum to leap to the next Paladin.

Deciding to test his aura's augmentations to whatever peak he could, Jaune poured a heavy amount of aura into his prosthetic arm and raised it high in the air. Then he used his aura to increase his speed.

All of these factors created a punch that managed to not only penetrate the metal, but allowed the blond to punch a clean hole through the center. The mech let out a groan before collapsing.

Using the fallen Paladin as cover, Jaune quickly assessed his newfound power. Clearly when he was getting an aura overhaul, Ironwood and Jennings were not overselling it. If he tried to do this challenge before the transformation, he'd be pressed to do even-more planned and strategic methods to take the Paladins down.

It was time to play smart now that he knew he could do this.

The second he knew he could, Jaune leaped from the wreckage and sprinted between the two Paladins. The first was still wounded while the other was trying to get a lock on him. It was a game of cat and mouse as the boy continued to remain untouched by the much-larger enemy.

And then Jaune purposely "slipped up." A slight decrease of speed in which he was evading allowed him to be pinned to the ground.

In the face of defeat, Jaune stared back, not at all phased by this rather threatening position.

Because the whole time, he had not merely running in circles for no reason. He had taken accurate and thorough scans of all patterns of attack, assessing weak points, and predicting methods of attack.

Such as the joint between that was called the wrist.

Jaune allowed himself to disperse a wave of aura, enough to heavily damage said weak point before he deftly sliced the hand off with a single strike.

Now with only one weapon left to fight with, its rockets, it fired at him. He once again brought up an aura shield in front of him to deflect and reflect. The ensuing haze of rockets returned to his enemies, pushing them back further.

With his new-found targets, for a final time, Jaune aura-sped from both enemies quickly, dropping off more aura bombs at various locations that one never thought to attack a large opponent.

His efforts were a complete success as the bombs left exposed mechanical and electrical parts. The already-wounded Paladin was utterly destroyed. The remaining one was no longer in any position to fight.

Knowing he had won, Jaune moved to end the match before he wasted any more time. First, he disarmed it to make sure it couldn't fight back. Then, he struck at its core power source housed nearby the canopy of the cockpit.

Looking at his work, he began to assess the Paladins in pieces now. They were certainly of a different challenge, but if one knew how to fight them, it was a matter of exposing the rather unthought-of weak spots and exploiting predictability.

Regardless, it was a new fight, and it provided him with something of a challenge. He now wondered if perhaps Penny would be willing to fight him now.

And speaking of his partner, Jaune quickly turned to see the girl coming into the simulation room. The holograms faded and the stark room reappeared.

"Impressive display," Penny said. "It appears you are quite formidable."

"It was adequate," Jaune shrugged. "I assume you came here for a reason."

"I did," she nodded. "I am deploying with you tomorrow."

That was unexpected to say the least.

"Why tell me this now?" He tilted his head. "Why was I not told during the briefing?"

"I insisted," Penny replied. "I am your partner, and we were both made to protect the world."

"Did General Ironwood put up a fight?"

"No, General Ironwood didn't, but my father did."

Jaune knew that Penny had this person she called a "father." It was likely her creator, but however she put it, this man had unwittingly given him a friend. The blond was certain that Penny's creator was unaware of him.

"And how did you accomplish this?" He crossed his arms.

Penny's attitude shifted to a more nervous one, like she was ashamed of what she was doing. It was noted by Jaune because she did this when he asserted her. As both of them were close friends, the ginger-haired girl had a tendency to want to not make him angry, even if she was more than capable of fighting him.

"I provided the argument that without any sort of missions to gauge my effectiveness, all the training in Atlas could be for naught."

It was a fair point, Jaune agreed. Training could only do so much. A day out there was worth about a week or more in here. Live experience was a far greater teacher than any textbook or combat module.

But one thing Jaune knew to do well was to gauge when the full truth wasn't revealed to him. Ironwood and Jennings didn't know it, but whenever he was left in the dark with certain details, he knew something was omitted. He simply didn't acknowledge all the time that he knew of this.

And Penny's nervous stance was a dead giveaway that something else was driving her to go with him.

"What else," Jaune urged.

She looked like she was trying to come up with another explanation. Jaune waited, trying to soften his features and appear less menacing to her.

"Penny," He lowered his arms. "I am not displeased with you, so I will ask as your friend, why do you really want to go with me?"

"For that reason," Penny immediately answered. "I want to make sure you come home safe and sound."

"I will be okay," Jaune sighed. "I spent six years training for this. I can handle whatever comes at me."

"You are not invincible," Penny pointed out.

"I am not. What of it?"

"You would put your life on the line so blatantly and not even be afraid of death. I only have you as a friend. I don't want to lose that."

Now that the truth was out, Jaune considered for a moment how to react. He should chew her out for putting emotions before duty. It wasn't fitting for the usually calm and cheerful robot girl to be worried about him like this.

"Penny, I will be fine. Do you consider me ineffectual in combat?"

"No! You are more than capable."

"Penny, one day, I will not be your only friend."

"But right now, you are."

"I have a duty to protect Remnant."

"And I have a duty as your partner to ensure you come back alive."

Jaune opened his mouth before realizing what he was doing. This was another example of emotional outbursts. By having this disagreement with Penny, he was subconsciously contradicting his own logic of remaining detached. Penny's safety was a priority to him, and she was putting herself on the line to see him through the mission with as few injuries as possible. With this in his mind, he quickly reorganized his thoughts before responding again.

"If you deem your presence necessary, then come. The mission will be completed more effectively with you working with me."

"Splendid!"

She grabbed him into a crushing embrace. The air from his lungs temporarily escaped him before he sucked in another breath, and then awkwardly putting his hands to her back, but he couldn't deny the feeling of assurance.

"We should get ready," Jaune spoke. "Or I should at least. Do you need to prepare?"

"I am already prepared," Penny answered. "You need not worry about me."

(X)(X)(X)(X)

Jaune and Penny both had been provided with the location outside to meet General Ironwood and Captain Jennings. With what little they both possessed, the friends made their way to the landing strip.

What they didn't expect was a ship that the two of them had never seen before. Ironwood and Jennings stood by a lowered ramp.

"Sirs," the both saluted.

"At ease. There is one more thing before you two go."

Jaune folded his behind his back while Penny kept her hands to her sides.

"Jaune, you performance for the past six years have greatly exceeded all of our expectations. And Penny, you have also done an admirable job. And as such, you are both ready to handle the responsibilities of having a personal ship."

That totally blindsided both the children. They both exchanged glances, having put together the unsaid part of what Ironwood had said. He hadn't

"Thank you sir," Jaune managed. "I will put it to good use."

"From this point on," Ironwood gestured to the two. "We will not be providing aid to you two. You have both been given the tools and the training necessary to complete this mission."

"Understood, sir," Jaune said. "We will accomplish it."

"Good luck to you both," Ironwood saluted. "Be swift. Be safe. Be strong."

It was in that moment that Jaune felt a strange feeling befall over him. He couldn't explain it, and the only reason he knew it existed was because it was different from the norm, and his list of normal things was a short one.

Nevertheless, as the two of them descended the ramp and onto the ship, neither of them looked back at the place where they both had called home for a long time.

(X)(X)(X)(X)

The first thing that came to mind as the two of them carefully inspected the new ship was that it was meant to be piloted for a crew of at least five. They had immediately headed to the cockpit in order to get off the ground.

Despite having taking some courses in simulated flights, Jaune was nowhere near the skilled pilot as Penny was. She was programmed with the knowledge and had likely spent time not only practicing, but also developing her own maneuvers.

As they took off, Jaune felt his stomach begin to flips again, and he called upon his aura to soothe himself. If there was one thing he could never seem to be rid of, it was the damn motion sickness. His many attempts to try and quell had so far resulted in failure. Still, he didn't give up trying to find a way to quell the sickness without his aura. If he could, it would be helpful.

As it was, he watched as Penny carefully maneuvered the craft into a normal flying pattern, Jaune watched his partner as she kept her eyes on their flight path and her hands on the controls. There was a hum that sounded as the ship flew.

The sound of a repeated beep caused his eyes to narrow at a blinking control. Taking only a second to look at what it was, he realized it was a call. Pressing the button, a holographic display opened up to reveal something.

Enclosed in the message was the full details of the mission.

"Engaging cloaking device," Penny reported. "Best to strap in, partner."

(X)(X)(X)(X)

Weiss Schnee sighed deeply before calling upon her semblance. This was harder than she initially believed it to be, but as a Schnee, she couldn't afford to give up so easily when things weren't right the first time.

She had been aura training for the better part of several years now, but still her semblance was relatively new to her. It was only in the past several months that Weiss had been able to summon her semblance more willingly. Nobody knew why this was, but now that she could control it, it was time to hone it.

And who better to train her than her elder sister, Winter Schnee, an already deadly warrior in her own right.

"Keep yourself composed and calm," Winter coached. "Do not stray in thought. Remain focused on creating the glyph."

Winter was having Weiss start off with a simple but recognizable glyph of ice. Weiss had been doing this exercise many times over because she needed to be able to execute the basics by instinct. Learning through repetition was very much effective, but that didn't make it any more fun to do.

Weiss watched as her glyph flared up, and an ice block formed. Without waiting for her sister to tell her, she quickly called upon her aura to dispel the ice. The fragments shattered and fell to the floor.

"Again," Winter said. "But use less aura this time."

"Can we not do something else," Weiss asked. "I have been doing this for two hours."

"Are you executing these moves on instinct or by concentrated thought?"

Weiss didn't both to try and stifle the groan of annoyance that left her.

"Weiss Schnee." The elder sister's eyes narrowed. "Groaning is unbecoming of you."

"Can't we do something else," Weiss griped. "Anything but this."

"No. You must do this until you can perform this by instinct."

The girl in the dress scowled to her discontent with the necessity of doing this glyph so many times. A staring glare ensued between the two of them. Both were more than capable of giving what many had dubbed the "ice queen" stare. They were both masters at it, even Weiss as young as she was.

"You do realize that if I have nothing to report to father-"

That only served to rile her up more, as both sisters loved their father and also hated him at the same time. Right now though, the hate was more evident.

"Father." Weiss interrupted. "I sometimes question everything he does. It's all for our wellbeing."

"And it is," Winter insisted. "But you will never exceed by giving in. You must persist."

"And what if I can't," Weiss challenged. "What if I don't want to do this?"

"Do you want to become a huntress or not?"

Of course Weiss wanted to become a huntress. To her, being a huntress was something that wasn't merely a dream, but a destiny. To be able to control her own path, to not be restricted to merely be the heiress to a legendary bloodline, to be able to become more than what many thought of her, it was just too tempting.

Of course Weiss never really any doubts that it would be a long road to become a huntress. Even if she had been preparing for combat long before this goal, Winter pushed her to the limit then. And she was doing the same now.

Perhaps if the young girl had understood that aura would entail arguably a greater deal of work, she would've given anything to begin aura before physical conditioning.

And even with all combat aside, there was an even higher purpose to be fulfilled by Weiss. She had a family name to uphold, a family that had been under much scrutiny for the past several years. It was her duty to restore what honor she could for the Schnee name.

Both sisters, although never definitively stated it, they both were rebels in one form or another, at least in their father's eyes. They didn't wish to sit back and simply indulge in what he wished for them. They were both daughters of action and intelligence. Coupled with a strong will and there was no stopping what both of them desired in life. They would fight in the name of what they stood for, but they would do it not by his rules, but by their own rules.

When all of these thoughts came back to her, and thus coming to terms with her foolhardy and irrational anger, she didn't bother to argue any further.

"Yes," Weiss murmured. "I'm sorry. I'm just… finding this more difficult than I thought it to be."

Winter watched the crestfallen expression on her siblings face. It was not a sight she cared to witness for long. With a speedy dash forward, she quickly wrapped her arms around Weiss.

"I understand what you are going through, Weiss," the older girl said. "Monty Oum, do I understand."

The small arms of Weiss with some effort returned the same gesture of affection. Only in privacy and in the company with each other did the two of them ever show even a slight trace of sisterly love.

"But I see that glint in your eye. I know you desire greater control over your life."

Still holding each other, Winter looked Weiss in the eye.

"But you listen here. You don't ever give up. I don't want you to give up. I wish I could give you more than words to push you forward, but that's all I can say offer. The decision has to be yours."

Looking up at the same blue eyes that reflected her own perfectly, Weiss felt the connection to Winter. Her sister believed in her, and it was clear as day that the elder wanted the younger to succeed at this.

To give up would mean to admit defeat, to say to her father that she was only capable of going on the path he had set for both of them. One sister had already said no. Maybe this was his idea of a cruel and unfair way to get her to turn to his way of thinking.

But more important than her own pride was the faith and hope that Winter held for her. If that disappeared, it would likely cause a fallout between the two of them.

That was not acceptable.

So time to suck it up and press forward.

"Can we continue," Weiss asked.

Winter didn't immediately jump to answer that question. She instead asked her own question.

"Are you sure this is what you want?"

"Yes. I will do this."

No words came for a long moment. Just calm breathing in and out.

Then Winter left a small smile out.

"Okay."

The two of them resumed the lesson, Weiss no longer complaining. This was only a scratch of the surface of her semblance. In the next few years, it would only grow further with her own growth and training.

Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, closed her eyes and focused once again.


This is coming out a little later than I would've liked, but sudden assignments from college and studying hours are really starting to creep on me. Because I spend arguably as much time on writing as I do studying, I find myself with even less time than I know it.

But enough about my plight in life. Character progression is moving along quite smoothly. I'm not one to do to reveal story details much, but I think I can afford to let this one slide. There will be Beacon Academy, but one thing's for sure, it won't be anything like in canon.

It may even be appropriate to say that the characters themselves may not be canon completely. I'm taking a lot of risks doing this, but this is an AU story, so go figure.

If you guys loved this chapter, leave a review. If you hated it, tell me why. And feedback and criticism is appreciated.

Thanks to all the readers. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and remember, three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Peace out!