[REFINED Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note: Well, the wedding I was in came and went without The Rains of Castamere playing, so all is well that ends well.
Naturally, since I took a week off from uploading, life has decided to kick me between the knees in retaliation, so Turquoise, you don't even have to lift a finger this week. My work decided 'hey, we're behind; everyone is working a sixth day this week.' That's not so bad, but we had also decided to work 12-hour shifts.
Now, as a broke college student, I appreciate working over 60 billable hours in a week, because that overtime pay is nice. But it does make for a really crappy weekend.
Anyways, we're back with MoNT. Have fun!
Chapter 23: "Hell hath no fury like a Branwen woman in a marginally-decent mood." – Taiyang Xiao Long
Jaune's POV
Despite what I let Ren believe, I had a legitimate reason to arm myself that didn't involve protecting myself from a potentially irate Yang, though it would be a lie to say that had never crossed my mind. With most of our teams scattered around for the night, it would be my best chance to run into Vale and take care of a few things without any scrutiny. Honestly, I could have told Ren as much, because I was bringing my plate armor so that I could drop it off at a weaponsmith somewhere to have it reforged into more useful equipment. The shoulder pads were useful, but only covered down three-quarters of the way to my elbow and with my wrist bracers being too short, I left a lot of forearm exposed. Given my tendency to catch blows on my arms with my aura and counter-strike, I didn't have nearly as much need for a chest plate as I did for full plate or even scale armor for my arms. As long as I can find a high-end smith, I can get them forged light and smooth enough that my arm speed shouldn't be hindered much at all.
That was the part I could tell Ren, if I had thought I needed the excuse. The part I would not tell him was that I had asked Roman to refer such a weaponsmith, and would possibly work out other details with the criminal. Time is certainly not my friend here recently, and neither is luck, so I can't really afford to wait on things like this anymore.
"And speaking of being unlucky," I mumbled to myself as I finally spotted my target, standing off to the side of Beacon's front courtyard, leaning against the railing and staring out over Vale. Yang stood out, mostly because the only other person in this courtyard was the marble statue in the center.
"Alright Jaune, there's still time to back away and avoid this entirely," I mumbled again. In truth, there wasn't, and I knew that, but the joke settled my nerves…a little. Letting whatever happened stay unspoken sounded like a nice solution for me; after all, if Yang hasn't pressed the subject and hasn't told anyone yet, then it was likely she wasn't going to. That sounded good, considering the three main things that could have happened to put me in this situation, that being letting information about Torchwick slip, about her mother slip, or me being too 'friendly' while drunk.
What's bad is that at this point, I would rather it be that last one. If it is, then avoiding this talk would probably work out for the best; after all, if Yang was willing to forget and move on, there would be no benefit to me dragging it back up. It was the other two options that I need to confront her over. Even if Yang is willing to give me the benefit of the doubt and trust that I have my reasons, whatever she might know could come back to bite me in a serious way. She would then hold insight that none of the others have, and any excuses (read: lies) I give about any activities I partake in would run the risk of being seen through by Yang. If she knew I worked with Torchwick once, then every time I do something suspicious, she's going to put two-and-two together; even if that doesn't come to the correct conclusion, I would be playing with fire.
And that sentiment doubles when discussing Raven instead of Roman.
"Nice view," I called out softly as I walked up to the banister, taking a spot against the railing a few feet to Yang's side, far enough away to not be intruding. I made a point of keeping my eyes forward and not looking to Yang, hoping to let her settle in and get comfortable with the situation.
"You're…armed…" Yang pointed out, speaking slowly as she looked me up and down cautiously. "Expecting a fight?"
"I hope not," I answered back, making a show of taking Angau Glas off my back and leaning it against the railing on my far side. Without that absurdly long black blade protruding out from behind me, I didn't look nearly as menacing, or paranoid. Sure, my armor still suggested I was prepared, but it was minimalist in design anyways, and the fact it matched Crocea Mors' color scheme made it feel like I was dressed more like a casual Huntsman than one ready for a fight. Yang looked the same way, in her normal dress that was certainly functional enough to pass both as civilian clothes or training gear, not to mention the bright yellow bracelets on her wrists that I spotted. Not that it was any surprise that she was armed, given the design of her gauntlets. "Our teams keep repeating this stupid joke about why you're mad at me."
"I'm not—" Yang cut herself off, likely coming to the conclusion that it was silly to even try to deny that she is angry at me, or at least was angry. She seems much more reserved and wary now, but given her quick temper, that wasn't liable to last. "You don't believe them, do you?"
"Nope," I answered quickly, noting that she didn't ask what that rumor was and thus had already heard it from someone. Hopefully from her team and not from the rest of Beacon, but if she had heard it through the grapevine, I was liable to be a dead man. "I'm confident that I would never do something that stupid, even while drunk."
That was a lie, clearly, since I had done something stupid enough to land me in this situation, and I would have found the irony funny any other time.
"Then why the armor?" She asked, her voice an odd mix of distant and coy, like someone who was trying to not enjoy the banter. That, or someone who was trying to enjoy the banter but had other things weighing down on them.
"I think you know why," I answered back quietly and sadly, hoping that I could get her to play along and reveal what I had done without revealing that I didn't know. I made sure to keep my voice soft and my posture relaxed, just in case she took it as a threat, trying to come off as sorrowful or pensive rather than confrontational. Depending on which of the three options I was looking at, she was likely to react to my statement differently. If I had confessed about helping Torchwick, she'd likely take it to mean that I was going to help him again; if I had grabbed her drunkenly, she'd assume I was here to get my ass beat; if Raven…I'm not certain what she would think, actually. She might think I was here to bring her in to Raven or she might think I was just paranoid in general, so if she had a reaction that I couldn't explain, I would suspect she knew about her mother.
She reacted only by cutting her eyes at me, not maliciously or angrily, but nervously and suspiciously; her posture shifted to match as she slightly leaned away, both to get a more wholistic view of me and to slide a little farther away from me. She held that concerned gaze for a few moments, and instead of challenging her by meeting her eyes I went back to staring out over Vale, hoping to display that I was relaxed enough to take my eyes off of her. A sign of trust and subordination, sort of, but hopefully one that would help her relax too.
"I honestly do not know what that means," she spoke finally, "but I really don't think you want me to start assuming the worst. Blake already had to talk me off that ledge once…"
"Remind me to thank her for that," I joked softly, again trying to show that I was relaxed in the hopes that she would mimic it; at least, I didn't want to show how not-relaxed I actually was. It is hard to be mad or upset at someone who doesn't reflect and amplify that animosity. Not impossible though, because I remember Yang slamming me into the infirmary's walls while I was bringing Ruby cookies. Hopefully, if I kept everything apologetic and light-hearted, it would help Yang stay relaxed.
"I don't think you need to. She's just evening the score." Yang hadn't taken her eyes off me, but her posture softened a little—or maybe it was more accurate to say that she seemed to resign herself a little, because she appeared to be fighting herself to relax. "I'm sure she'd say that helping me reason through why you and Junior were fighting doesn't make up for what you've done for her."
So there it was. I took careful note of her words, locking in on all information she let slip. If she knew what it was that caused me to attack Junior, then she knew about me getting handed over to Torchwick. Judging by the way that she was angry, she likely knew that I agreed to help Torchwick escape our teams' trap, otherwise she would have just been concerned for me.
"After this, I'm sure that I'm back to needing to make things up to her." It was Blake's mission to get the White Fang, after all, and I had ruined it behind her back. I helped them all escape and keep their most dangerous weaponry, all by undermining Blake. And then she went and made Yang calm down about that; gods, I'm an asshole, aren't I?
"How much have you figured out?" I asked, staring down at the railing instead of meeting Yang's eyes.
"Not a lot," she answered back, eyes staring down in front of her as well. "What I do know is…it's hard to…" She stopped fumbling around with her words and went silent. "Why did you go after Junior?"
I took a deep breath, but kept my eyes down. "He put me in a position that I hated…one that he didn't expect me to get out of. When I did get out of it…" I trailed off, letting Yang connect the dots. That was about where she had walked in, anyways.
I spared a glance at Yang, who wasn't looking at me but was staring intently at the railing before her. All things considered, she took the answer well, even slightly nodding to herself.
Yang broke from her stare to look up at me, and before I could avert my eyes again she locked hers onto mine. I couldn't find it in me to break away from the roiling emotion held there, the depths of it shocking me for something as straight-forward as me betraying my friends for a criminal. I expected her to be furious over that information, or at least, to be more furious than hurt, but her eyes told the opposite story. "Did you know before he told you?"
"Did I…know before he told me?" I repeated, confused. Did I know that Junior was going to betray me before he told me? That didn't make any sense, least of all because Junior didn't tell me he was going to do anything of the sort. Junior had told me, what, that he had an information guy he was setting me up with? For an information dealer, Junior had provided me with shockingly little information, and in hindsight, that should have seemed suspicious.
Yang's face fell in disappointment, clearly not believing that my confusion was sincere and that instead I was trying a cheap ploy to divert blame.
"Did I know what before Junior told me?" I pressed, still confused. It was possible—it made sense, if I thought about it—that Yang wouldn't have a complete picture and might be focused on things I wouldn't be focused on, but this felt like she was referencing something specific that I don't even recall. Had Junior said something after I was blacked out? The bastard would, too, if only to make things harder for me upon awakening. At least Neo should have taken care of that headache once and for all.
"Jaune, please—" Yang cut herself off quickly as her voice cracked, taking a moment to get herself under control. "Don't make this any harder. Please." Her voice didn't crack again, but it was squeaking out with difficulty. There was a mix of pleading and fear in her voice that was hard for me to listen to, stirring guilt in my stomach that I struggled to ignore. Raven would hate that something as simple as a sad voice could get under my skin, but Raven would hate a lot of things I'm doing here recently; besides, it's long past time to stop caring what she wants.
"Yang, I…I don't know what you mean by that, honestly. I don't even remember you showing up at the club. If you ask me something, I'll answer it for you, but I have to know what it is you're asking." I was sincere about that offer, too, since I've already decided that having Yang hide what she knows from me could end badly. Having her know too much is a risk, sure, but being honest with her might mean something to her. Yang is extremely loyal and protective—one of the qualities that Raven worked to break me out of when it became clear that my ultimate loyalty would never lie with her—and if I could earn her trust, there are few things that I suspect she wouldn't tolerate. The risk was giving Yang enough free information so that she trusted me enough that said free information didn't upset her.
Yang still didn't trust my sincerity, if the way she cut her eyes at me was any indication of her suspicion.
"How do you know her?" Yang asked, steeling her posture and her voice and making no attempts to hide her frustrations and anger. Her voice rose slightly, her agitation clearly mounting.
"Neo?"
Unless Yang thought that Torchwick was a girl, Neo was the only female associated with Roman that I knew of. She was there, too, hiding off in one of her illusions and waiting for me to leave and establish an alibi so that she could kill Junior. If Yang knew about Neo and her role in my plan, then her anger stemmed from me agreeing to kill Junior, not just working with Torchwick. How she would have found out about Neo when the girl was hiding, though, I—
My thoughts were broken as I realized that Yang had gone from letting her anger slip through the cracks to letting it slip almost entirely, clearly not pleased with my answer. Her eyes hadn't turned red yet, but the way her fists were clenched and the muscles of her arms were straining showed me that she was about to cross that line.
Which didn't make sense to me, because Neo was the only 'her' that worked with Roman. Sure, there were White Fang, but only a fool would think that Roman actually cared about them. Junior's two body guards might have been it, but would have been 'them' as there was more than one. If I excluded Roman altogether, the only other 'her' would have to be—
Oh. Oh.
The realization dawned on my face, sending a shiver traveling slowly down my spine. Yang understood immediately what it meant when my face paled and my eyes widened, her control slipping and her eyes flashing red at me. Her hair hadn't yet lit aflame and she hadn't attacked me, which meant that she still had some fledgling of control over herself, but still…
Fuck.
"How do you know my mother," Yang spat out, her voice barely more than a hiss and her mother's eyes glaring me down, "and why were you keeping it from me?"
I only had a few moments to think before it would be obvious that I was stalling, and yet, all I could think of was how I was never getting drunk again if this is what Drunk Jaune does.
Knowing about Raven is bad for me, but that last part is even worse. That last part meant that most excuses I could come up with in the second or so that I had would fall flat, and only serve to through dust on the fire. If I was a more clever or devious man, I might could come up with a line on the spot that would get me out of this, but that was one skill Raven hoarded all to herself, the bitch.
It left me with one option. The worst option.
"I…work for her."
The damned truth.
Yang's reaction wasn't yet as volatile as I expected. Instead of blowing up at the information, she was surprised and confused by it, so much so that it shocked her out of her rage and her eyes reverted to their usual lavender as her mouth fell slightly agape. Her lips twitched, as if she was on the cusp of forming a question but couldn't quite get it out, or couldn't quite grasp what had just been said. Her reaction was a welcome one over her going ballistic, or at least, it was; once the shock began to subside, instead of the anger rushing back, it was replaced with confusion and hurt. It was that that sent another slow, agonizing chill down my spine and further tightened the knot in my stomach, made all the worse by the way she both couldn't bear to look at me and couldn't look anywhere else.
"You…you…what?" Yang asked in barely more than a whisper, her voice on the edge of breaking. Every now and then her expression would show a flash of distantness that would soon be overtaken by a flash of anger or of hurt as the gears in her head spun frantically, but mostly it was the utter confusion on her face that stood out. I knew that it was for the best that I explain as much as I can before she can come to any sort of conclusion about me, but I still found it hard to speak.
"Do you remember…when I said that I'm trying to break free from something?" I asked, earning no reply but a wary look as she turned her face away from me slightly, eyes still locked on to me. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes, wondering how in the world it was possible to have luck this bad. "It's her. Raven…" I steeled myself, seeing in her eyes that she was starting to put things together, and it terrified me that she might be getting things wrong. It might terrify me more if she gets them right. "Raven is the one I'm trying to break free from."
"H-How?" Yang asked, struggling to verbalize what she was struggling to wrap her head around, her own voice fighting against her as she did so. The shock had begun to subside and she was no longer paralyzed in one spot, instead fidgeting back and forth wildly as the weight of what I had said was beginning to fully crash down on her. "How is that possible?!"
She turned away from me and grasped the railing with both hands, and I did not miss how quickly her knuckles went white as she gripped it for support. It…it surprised me how much it hurt to see Yang like this, to watch her struggle while knowing that I was the cause. It hurt a lot more than I expected it to, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt I should be grateful that Raven hadn't fully broken me of empathy.
But that didn't matter right now, and it didn't make up for things, and it didn't help.
"Yang, I—" I reached forward and placed a hand on Yang's shoulder, trying to be either comforting or sincere. The moment my hand landed, Yang's head whipped straight to me and her red eyes bore into mine; she shrugged my hand off her shoulder violently, and both her red eyes and set jaw warned me not to try anything so touchy or personal again.
"How is that possible, Jaune?" Yang asked again, much more angrily than the previous time. "She just…happens to recruit one of my friends?! How could you do that to me?"
"I…Yang, you…" I fumbled my words as I realized that she had the order of events reversed. I'm not sure if she thinks it would be worse if I agreed to work for Raven recently, or if I worked for her since before Beacon. I have a suspicion she'd hate it either way. "Your time frame is backwards."
"What do you mean?" Yang asked dangerously.
"Your mom—"
"Don't call her that."
"Raven didn't turn one of your friends into her operative," I corrected, silently agreeing that Raven doesn't deserve that title anyways. Yang tilted her head to the side slightly, her wariness showing through her anger as she waited for me to finish. "You…"
"I what, Jaune?" Yang spat out.
"You made friends with one of her operatives."
In hindsight, phrasing it like that made it seem like I was blaming her, and by the way her jaw twitched, that was how she took it too. I tensed, waiting for whatever move Yang was about to pull and fully expecting her to try to attack me, but it didn't come. Her fists clenched and her arms shook slightly, but she held it in.
And walked away.
"Yang, don't go," I called out following after her. This was going poorly so far, but things hadn't derailed so badly that I had no options left; as long as I could keep her from leaving, my chances were good…or decent…
I at least had a chance.
She made a point not to respond to my callouts, but it only took a few hurried steps to catch up to her. I reached out to grab her left shoulder and yank back enough to spin her around, and was surprised to see her whip around much more quickly than I had pulled. Instinctively, my other arm came up to protect my face as Yang spun around, her right gauntlet unfolding and activating as she cocked back her right fist and held it there as a threat. As soon as I realized the blow wasn't coming, I put my hand down, mentally berating myself for flinching and making this more hostile than it already was.
"Answers, Jaune," Yang hissed. "Who are you?! Why—How do you work for my mom?! Why are you here?!"
"You know me, Yang; nothing has changed, I swear," I reassured as best I could, making sure to keep my posture relaxed and meet Yang's eyes. My words had little effect on her anger. "I'm still the same Jaune Arc who is in way over his head, and—"
"Is that even your real name?" She asked, making it clear how little trust I had at the moment.
"Yes, it's my real name," I answered, somewhat incredulously. "Nothing about me has changed, Yang, I promise; you've just…discovered some of the details I was hiding. I'm still the guy who wants nothing more than to be rid of my past. And that includes Raven."
"How do you know her?!" Her fist was no longer held up as a threat, but it was still balled up and hanging around at her sides, ready to be used on any whim. She didn't challenge any of my first answers again, which I felt was a good thing, even if I still had a couple of important things left to get through. Then again, that could just be because she was too distracted by thoughts of her mother to focus on them.
"She's the one who trained me," I answered slowly, knowing that there was no good way to explain any of this. "I… I've grown up in her Tribe, raiding and fighting for as long as I can remember." Her reactions were conflicted, with anger and hurt flashing across her face, but it was the uncertainty and confusion in her eyes that I noticed most. "Do you…what do you know about her? Do you know about her Tribe?"
Yang didn't answer or respond in any way, not even moving, but that made it clear that she knew very little about her mother. It figures that Qrow and Tai wouldn't tell her many details.
"Yang, your mother…" I trailed off, rubbing my forehead with one hand and letting out a small sigh as I tried to decide how best to explain this. "She leads a tribe of bandits, raiders, and criminals in Mistral, and she's obsessed with power. Everything she does is either to gain power, or to keep it. It's more important to her than…well, anything," I trailed of, deciding that saying more important than family would either hurt Yang, or enrage her.
"So that's why you're here? For power?" Yang asked with an edge that was starting to get under my skin. "Or is that just something to do when you're not spying on me!?"
"Spying on you!? I'm not—" I cut myself off, forcing myself to relax and ignore the frustrations and stress from this last week that was still built up. It was bad enough that Yang was on the edge of a meltdown; the last thing I needed was to lose my cool again. Despite my best efforts, I could still feel it welling inside me. "I didn't really have a choice in this, Yang. Raven isn't the kind of person to give away free favors, and she certainly isn't someone who would let a debt go unsettled. She views raising me as a favor, and one that I have no hope of ever fully paying back." Even if her raising me was more of a curse than anything.
"She what?" Yang asked, her voice dangerously thin and lower than it had been. Despite the edge and rage in her voice, her eyes and her slightly-agape mouth belied her shock and hurt, at least much more so than she had up to this point.
"She has me here because she wants to keep eyes on Ozpin and your uncle. Spying on you and Ruby wasn't…that wasn't part of my plan." It may have been part of Raven's original intentions, before she charged me with looking into Ozpin's Maiden situation, but my plan had been to stay away from everyone, for all the good that did me.
"How long?!" Yang hissed out, taking a dangerous step towards me. I looked at her slightly confused, the question not seeming to make much sense at first. Then again, it didn't make sense that she'd be angry about my objective above, well, anything else that I had told her, so I had to assume she was thinking of something else.
Given how furious she looked, it didn't take me long to guess why. A stupid slip of the tongue on my part.
"Yang…" I called out softly, trying to pad things and calm her down. It had no effect, or maybe even the opposite one.
She had focused in on the word 'raised.'
"How long have you worked for her?!" she asked, both her fists shaking at her sides from clenching them too hard. She didn't even have it in her to repeat the same term, but the intent of her question was obvious.
I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes, instead playing a dangerous game by taking my eyes off of her to stare despondently at the grass. I could see her growing ever-so-slowly closer to me in my periphery, as if I couldn't feel her presence approaching.
"Jaune!" she yelled, close enough to be within an arm's reach of me.
"Thirteen years," I answered quietly, nervously shifting my eyes back to her, if only because there was no predicting what might happen. "Give or take…" I mumbled that last part, the words lost in a mix of nervousness and a part of me that knew better than to try to say anything to lighten the mood.
Any response, any thing she had planned to say, any words, any thoughts…they all died on the spot, choked away in her throat as her breathing hitched. Through her eyes I could watch in real-time how she did the math in her, and when she began to put that timeline together.
"I was four when I was brought into the Tribe," I mumbled, not sure if I was trying to help my case or just help her get to her conclusions faster.
I could hear Yang's breathing still struggling—hell, I could almost feel it—and her lips were still open, twitching as if fighting for words to speak, or even the ability to do so.
I saw the gears turning in her head as she finally wrapped her head around it. We are the same age. I was four when Raven took me in. She was four when Raven left her. The only conclusion she could come to is that those events happened close to one another. She won't even realize that they happened almost simultaneously.
I knew the exact point in time where she understood those implications, not that it was hard. Her jaw set, hard, and if that was too subtle, her eyes flashed red and narrowed at me.
And if that wasn't enough, her right fist struck me in the chest and fired a shotgun shell into me.
My breastplate dispersed most of the damage from the blast and blocked the shotgun pellets, leaving me to deal with an insane amount of force spread across my chest. I was able to flex my aura to protect me but didn't have my semblance prepared, meaning that Yang's blow both knocked the wind out of me and knocked me on my back, but not before carrying me a few feet.
I let out a groan but rolled onto my chest and pushed myself on my feet. My instincts had kicked in and I knew being on the ground was a bad idea when Yang was your opponent, but I looked up to find that Yang wasn't attacking. Her fist was still extended, held in place ever since it had struck me, until she slowly brought it back to her side, staring at it intently the whole time. At her sides, her fingers flexed back and forth, trying to force herself out of her rage. The edges of her hair simmered, blazing up and dying down repeatedly as she fought back her rage.
We made eye-contact for a brief moment, her eyes still red and her face too conflicted to read, before she jerked her head to the side to break it, either unable or unwilling to continue looking me in the eye. She turned herself around as she did so, and began walking away.
"Yang…" I choked out as I fought to recover my breath. She made a point of keeping her head down and her fists clenched, but otherwise didn't respond to me at all; she just kept walking away.
I pushed myself to my feet and rushed after her. A knot in my stomach the size of an Ursa was tightening with every step Yang took and my overactive imagination was telling me just what it meant if Yang left now.
She would know about Raven and have to reason to keep that a secret; she would know that I was hiding from Ozpin and have no reason to keep that secret; she would hate me and have no reason to keep that secret… and I'm not sure which option scares me most.
"Yang, I'm sorry…" I called out as I nearly reached her back, my mind starting to scramble for how to fix this, or at the very least, salvage it. "I—"
I cut myself off as my fight instincts started to kick in again; Yang had stopped walking when she heard me right behind her, and her right fist was shaking violently now. Without warning, she spun around and launched another attack with her right fist and gauntlet, though this time I sidestepped the blow.
"Oh, you're sorry?!" Yang half-screamed and half-scoffed, pulling her fist back to her side but not putting her arm down, instead keeping it ready for another attack. I didn't even realize that my right hand had glued itself to the hilt of Crocea Mors during my sidestep until I flexed my fingers and found the hilt between them. I forced myself to relax my grip, because drawing my weapon on Yang would be a line that couldn't be uncrossed, assuming such a line hadn't already been trespassed.
"You're sorry, Jaune?! Is that supposed to make up for things!?" She more screamed than scoffed, eyes a vibrant and furious red and her hair smoldering at the least.
"Yang, I—"
"SHUT UP!" She screamed, hair exploding into full flames as she swung for my head with her right arm, a shotgun blast echoing from the spot my face had been just a split-second before I moved it aside. Unlike the other times, Yang either couldn't calm herself down after one swing or wasn't satisfied with one, because she continued to launch attacks at me. She fired at the ground behind her with her left arm to propel herself at me and all I could do was duck under most of her; her legs hit me in the shoulder and I pushed into them to cause Yang to spin and flip, but doing so negated her momentum and she landed the impromptu flip right behind me. All I had time to do was spin around and brace, but instead of landing a free hit, she grabbed the collar of my shirt.
"Do you think that any of this is okay!? Do you believe that you can just be forgiven!?" she yelled at me, her arm shaking from gripping my collar so tightly. "WELL?!"
"I didn't want any of this, Yang!" I pleaded when she made it clear she wanted me to answer, though I was still uncertain if she was just going to cut me off like the last time I tried.
"Oh, you didn't want any of this?" she repeated lowly, adding in a dash of mockery to the enraged glare I was receiving. "You didn't want any of this, huh?! In that case, all of it is fucking fine, I guess!" Yang punctuated her point by lifting me by the collar and throwing me across the grass. I flexed enough aura and semblance to ignore the impact and keep my wits about me, spreading myself out for balance as I skidded to a halt. I ended up face-first in the grass and had enough sense to roll to the side, with a Yang's fist and shotgun blast blasting the ground where my back had just been.
"YOU BETRAYED US!" Yang yelled, looking up from where she had just tried to punch me to the core of Remnant. "You betrayed me, you betrayed Ruby, you betrayed Blake, you betrayed your team…"
"No I didn't, Yang! I—" I wasn't allowed to finish. Yang refused to hear anything and made it clear that the time for me to try to explain things to her was over, which frustrated me, because it signified that my chances of staying Beacon were going up in the flames of her semblance.
Yang had cut me off by launching herself at me with another shell from her gauntlets, which this time I ducked and rolled so that I didn't repeat the same mistake as last time. By the time I had returned to my feet, the sound of another shotgun shell let me know that she had redirected and was coming for me again, so I spun and ducked blindly. Her fist went right over my head but her momentum didn't carry her nearly as far away from me as her other attempts, leaving her close enough to launch a combo of attacks.
"YOU CAME HERE TO SPY ON ME!" Yang screamed as she led with a powerful right hook towards my face. I ducked to the side to avoid the blow, and once it had passed, Yang fired her gauntlet to launch that same arm in the opposite direction, catching my cheek with her elbow on the way back. Stunned and too surprised to have used my semblance, I had no defense to her follow-up left jab to my gut. After that, I flooded my semblance through my whole body for a brief moment, long enough to block out all pain and regain my senses, allowing me to duck under the powerful strike Yang was throwing at me with her right elbow. I backed out of her guard and gained enough distance to keep myself safe, if only until she pursued.
With no options remaining, I grit my teeth and drew Crocea Mors, keeping the point facing Yang in a defensive stance. Drawing my weapon was the final line that couldn't be uncrossed and I silently cursed myself for letting things get this far, but dying here wouldn't do me any good.
Yang's eyes widened as I pulled out my sword, but only marginally, more as she regarded the threat than anything. She wasn't nearly as angered by the action as I thought she would be, though I should have realized that there isn't much I could do right now that would make her more angry.
Which gives me an idea. I reached out with my semblance until I found Yang's aura, distinguishable by the fact that it felt red from all the anger fueling her. If I could exhaust her aura and shut down her semblance, she would be much less dangerous and I might have a chance to get a word in edgewise. If nothing else, her temper usually flared hot and then burnt out, meaning that if I could force that to happen, she might not have it in her to be too angry to listen to me.
I had no more time to think as Yang charged in, unfazed by the sword pointing out at her. She tried to swat the tip away with her off-hand but I moved it down and grabbed the blade with my left hand, avoiding her redirection. She still launched her right fist at me and I brought the shaft of the blade up to catch the underside of her wrist and shove it up and to my right, forcing her momentum to spin her around until most of her back was showing to me. Instead of disengaging, Yang fired her left gauntlet and used that to completely spin around in the direction I had led her, letting her extended elbow lead the way. I had anticipated her going full-on berserker and hadn't capitalized on the last opportunity, so I was free to duck under this one as well, spinning as I did so in order to properly line back up when I popped up again. To finish things off, I used that spin and pop back into standing position to whip the hilt of Crocea Mors into Yang's stomach, causing her to groan and take a step back for balance.
I took a step back to match. It wasn't enough room for comfort, but it was enough to let me switch grips; using a sword, even a one-handed one like Crocea, was difficult when your opponent excelled at getting under your guard and boxing you to death. Instead, I went for a reverse grip and held it out behind my back entirely, not allowing the length of the blade to be any hindrance to my defense. It was risky, because it meant that I was going to rely on using one hand and dodging to evade Yang's attacks, but it offered the opportunity for powerful counter-attacks if Yang overcommitted. And Yang is certainly doing that a lot in her blind rage.
"YOU MADE ME THINK WE WERE FRIENDS!" Yang screamed, her eyes still red and her hair still in large flames, as she propelled herself at me with her gauntlets. This time, I leaped forward into the attack with my shoulder, interrupting her before she could get her fist in front of her. The force of the collision rocked Yang and threw her flat on her back, and it felt non-too-pleasant on my end, despite using my semblance.
Yang wasn't down long enough to try anything, hopping back up and rushing in on foot. Her first swing was sloppy, testing my reflexes with a long right hook that I stepped sideways to avoid. From there, Yang could smell blood in the water with me holding my sword behind me, settling into a boxer's stance and launching a barrage at me. A left jab at my face dodged, a right jab to my gut slapped away with my left hand, a left uppercut at my chin that I stepped to the side for. It was becoming clear from the rhythm of the fight that I was at least capable of keeping this up, so Yang mixed things up by trying a sweeping kick for my head with her right leg. It was the opportunity I was waiting for, ducking down and forward to pass under her leg and behind her. Along the way, I swiped out at Yang's left thigh with Crocea Mors, scoring a large hit that should stagger her long enough for me to get away.
As soon as the length of the blade had swiped across Yang, I dove forward and tucked into a roll to create separation. As I got to my feet, I heard the tell-tale sound of Yang's gauntlet alerting me that she hadn't been nearly as staggered as I was hoping for, likely her semblance and rage blocking out pain. It was bad news for me as I didn't have eyes on Yang, and instead chose to sidestep blindly to avoid any attack, turning around as I did so.
Just in time to see Yang fire her gauntlet again—forward this time, to reverse her momentum and come to a near-perfect stop right next to me, her other arm already extending out to grab me by the collar once more. My eyes widened and I couldn't react before her fist crashed into my stomach, where I had no armor, and a shotgun shell was fired into me pointblank. My aura tanked the shot, but it hurt like hell regardless. She pulled her arm back for another blow and I desperately brought my right arm up, trying to get Crocea Mors between us to slice at or distract her, but her knee came up and violently clashed with my hand, breaking my grip and forcing me to drop my weapon.
"YOU STOLE MY MOM!"
Another shotgun-boosted blow to my gut followed. My aura didn't break, but there was no way I was taking three of those in a row. I struggled to break free from her grip on my collar, but made no progress. Her fist pulled back, readying itself for another blow.
I looked up into her eyes, trying to look past their hatred and red tint for any hint of uncertainty, fear, or hurt; something that could be used to make her hesitate or think twice about doing this. I wasn't sure how much aura I had left and whether or not it would block the shotgun shot, or if Yang's next blow was going to eviscerate my intestines.
In desperation, I reached out with my semblance once more, forcing a connection between Yang and I and doing all I could to deepen it. There was no guarantee that Yang was in any state of mind to even notice our auras linking, and I certainly wasn't calm enough for my emotions to counteract hers, but I wasn't sure what else to do. Maybe she would feel my panic and pull back, or maybe the new sensation would be so foreign it distracted her.
Just connecting our auras was enough to make me angry. Not because I was loosing control over my anger like I had at Junior's, though that still wasn't as far behind me as I would hope, but because Yang's rage was bleeding through the connection so heavily that it was rekindling that same hatred I felt towards Junior. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that Yang being this upset was a bad thing, but that took backseat as I realized that there was something I could do.
As Yang's fist came barreling towards my stomach once more, I directed my semblance towards me, but used Yang as the source of the semblance, just like I had with Pyrrha. Yang didn't realize it, but her aura was being flooded and strained continuously to power her own semblance, and she was so focused on using it that it was even easier to access her aura than it had been to access Pyrrha's, like scooping water out of a stream. I flooded as much of Yang's aura into my semblance as I could, hoping to overclock it.
Yang's fist impacted a solid wall, powered entirely by her own aura. With my semblance overclocked, all of the strain was transferred to maintaining the semblance instead of maintaining the aura itself, meaning that Yang had in effect punched herself.
I had successfully stolen Yang's aura, and with it, I had also borrowed her anger.
Instead of trying to break her grip, I went the less subtle route and just clocked Yang in the side of the head with my right fist. Lost in my own anger now and fueled on by the aura connection I was maintaining, I put everything I had into the blow and successfully staggered Yang enough to break free.
"You don't know anything!" I hissed, stepping forward to press an attack. Yang had recovered and her semblance still burned bright, but there was a hint of surprise and uncertainty in her eyes for a moment.
I threw my right fist at her face and she ducked under it in a boxer's stance once more, delivering a powerful left uppercut to my ribs. My semblance flared to block the attack, and her aura paid the price for it. Without being staggered by her attack, I was left with a free opportunity and delivered a sharp jab to her nose with my left hand, forcing her to step back. There was a flash of confusion on her face, likely her feeling her aura going doing but not understanding why. Now a little more cautious, she didn't take any immediately openings I offered as I continued to pepper her with small jabs, instead letting me rack up small hits instead.
She grew impatient and launched her own attack, losing all control as she let loose shotgun shells with every punch she threw. I did my best to avoid them, but with the speed advantage she had amplified by the nature of her semblance, avoiding damage was impossible, technically speaking; someone was taking damage, just not me.
I sidestepped a right hook then flared my semblance to tank a left hook, leaning back to avoid a follow-up right uppercut, and then ducking down as soon as I regained balance to avoid a roundhouse kick. As I stood back up I was kicked in the chest with her other leg and flared my semblance again. Yang launched herself at me via gauntlet-propulsion once more, but this time, something felt different. There was no trail of smoke and fire creating a halo around her person as she flew towards me.
Instead of dodging, I reached out and caught Yang's fist in my hand, using what was left of my aura to avoid being thrown back by it.
Yang's semblance had cut out, meaning she was out of aura, burnt out by both how long she had been using her semblance and how much of her aura I had stolen. Red eyes went wide in shock, staring at her hand as if it had been cut off or stopped working entirely.
I twisted her arm back, forcing her to groan as her semblance no longer blocked out the pain, and sent her down to her knee.
"You don't know a damn thing about me, Yang. You don't know a damn thing about any of this, yet you think you have the right to be the one who's angry!?" I twisted her arm further, earning a whimper from Yang as she clenched her eyes shut and tried to deal with the pain. "Look at me, Yang. LOOK AT ME!"
Her eyes opened, lavender eyes staring out, threatening to glass over with tears; hurt; emotional; fragile.
Good.
"I didn't want to do any of this," I hissed, releasing her arm and watching as she immediately cradled it. "And I wasn't sent here to make friends with you! I'm not here to dupe you, or to spy on you, or to earn your trust!"
"But—" she tried to interject, her eyes flashing back and forth between lavender and crimson as she returned to her feet. "You—"
"—have tried to avoid you all since the moment I got here," I finished for her, still seething. "It's not my fault that you all dragged me into your lives, Yang. I did everything I could to discourage it."
"You…?" Yang fumbled her words, looking lost as she poured back over her memories of the start of Beacon. "Your spar with Ruby was…?"
"On purpose? Yeah." That wasn't strictly true, but I was so frustrated that I wanted to say it, if only because it would hurt more to hear it. The look on Yang's face told me I was successful, though it was still mixed with confusion as Yang re-examined what she knew about me at Beacon.
Yang's attitude shifted suddenly, her confusion being replaced by anger as her eyes shifted back to red once more and her fists clenched. "What about Raven?"
"What about Raven?" I mimicked back. "You mean the mother I stole from you? Is that the Raven you're talking about?"
"The one who left me when I was four, and who chose to raise you instead," Yang spat at me, her vitriol unaffected by her aura going out.
"Oh yes, the loving, tender-caring mother I grew up with," I spat back, dripping with sarcasm and vitriol of my own. "Believe me, if I could have switched our places, I fucking would have. Do you really think that being raised by your mom was a good thing?!"
Yang opened her mouth to answer, but closed it again without saying a word. She turned her head to the side slightly, giving me an uncertain, untrusting, but not disbelieving look.
"You don't know a damn thing about her, do you?! And you have the gall to accuse me of stealing her from you!? Do you even know who she is!?"
"She's—"
"A monster," I cut Yang off, pressing closer towards her. "We're not talking about some altruistic woman who decided to raise me out of the goodness of her heart or any such bullshit. We're talking about the woman who wanted to sharpen me into a loyal weapon, without a care in the world for what I wanted, since I was a child! Some days, I wish she would have left me to fend for myself instead of taking me in; at least then, life would have been easier."
Yang was speechless, shrinking back slightly and abhorred by the information she was apparently getting for the first time.
"Do you know why I'm here, Yang? I'm here because she wants me to spy on Ozpin, and Qrow. You don't enter into the equation; your team doesn't enter into the equation. I could have stayed far away from you and been fine, but no, you all had to decide for some reason to drag me into your group. Raven loved to have the chance to keep tabs on you as well, so do you know what I did?!
"I've did everything I could to keep you people out of this! I'm doing anything I can to try to break free from her, which isn't easy when she can create a portal to you at any moment! I'm betting my life on somehow beating her and her tribe—" and her Maidenhood, "—while at the same time trying to hide who I am from Ozpin and your uncle…"
"Betting your life?" Yang asked, almost scared to even say the words.
"Uh huh. What, do you think your mom is the type that wouldn't kill someone just because she raised them!?" Yang's silence was telling, and the way her face went white was even more so. "And what's worse is that I'm losing, Yang, and I'm running out of fucking options. I'm desperate and already crossing lines I never wanted to even approach, and things look bad. Despite all that, I haven't dragged any of you into this with me, have I?!"
I was only a foot away from Yang now, the glare I was sending her forcing her eyes to stay locked on mine. She seemed to continuously shrink away the longer I seethed at her, which was fine by me. Maybe she'd get something through her thick skull.
"I have all of this to deal with and I'm failing spectacularly, and you have the fucking nerve to be angry at me?! I didn't ask to be saved by Raven. I didn't ask to be sent to Beacon. I didn't ask to get close to my friends! I didn't ask to be betrayed by Junior, and I didn't ask to get involved with Vale's criminal underworld! But here I stand, somehow the bad guy, all because some bitch has mommy issues and doesn't realize that her mother abandoning her was the best thing to ever happen to her. Fuck you, Yang."
I turned around and stormed off, angry beyond my own comprehension and in desperate need of something to hit, repeatedly.
"Y-You can't go," Yang called out weakly. It didn't stop me in the slightest. "Jaune, stop!"
I did not.
"Jaune, stop!" she yelled again, unsuccessfully. "I'll…I'll tell uncle Qrow if you don't!"
My feet stopped, if only because I recognized the threat, as weak as it was. With how her voice was wavering, it didn't sound like she even believed that she would.
"No, you won't," I answered lowly, before turning around enough to meet Yang's eyes. "You won't tell Qrow. You won't tell Ozpin. You won't even tell your team, or your dad, or your half-sister. Do you know why?"
Yang met my eyes, but made no move to answer.
"Without me, you'll never find your mom."
Yang recoiled and looked like she was about to get angry by my threat, but I cut her off.
"What, do you think that Qrow is going to take you to her? Or Taiyang? They tried to hide how horrible she is from you; what makes you think that they'll ever let you meet her?"
"And…and you…would?"
"I don't want to," I answered back, enjoying the chance to throw salt in the wound. "But I didn't want to tell you about her in the first place, either. If nothing else, I'll tell you a lot more about Raven than anyone else is willing to; hell, I already have told you more than your family will. The only chance you have is if I survive."
I left it unsaid how un-fucking-likely that seems.
As we walked through the streets of a seedier part of Vale, the whispers from Team CRDL began to further grate on my nerves, distracting me from a mix of seething at Yang and running through plans in my mind. We were all safe from being caught or tracked down—I had made sure that all scrolls were completely shut-off and Team CRDL was too afraid of me to say no—so it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were whispering about me.
I hadn't exactly been in the mood to politely inform them that they would be spending their Friday night on another mission with me. I had barged in and drug all four of them out, whether they wanted it or not.
"Look, not that we would have been against it or anything," Cardin called out, apparently having drawn the short straw, "but did you have to just…drag us out here with no warning?"
"It's safer this way," I answered back without turning around or stopping. I didn't care if my anger was obvious from my voice.
"Safer?" one of his lackeys mumbled. I deigned to let it go.
"Safer for who?" Cardin asked.
"For me," I answered simply, taking a turn around an alleyway. I was mostly sure of where I was headed, but without a scroll, it was difficult to be certain; dealing with these buffoons didn't help my mental process. "If you have no idea that it's coming, there's no way you could have sold it out."
"What, do you think we'd do that?" Cardin chuffed, more out of indignation than guilt or nervousness; he didn't mean anything by it. Nevertheless, I stopped walking at his comment, and four pairs of feet nervously skittered to halt. I resumed walking, my point being made.
"We're here," I announced, matching the number on the door to the building with the one I was looking for. It was a small, rundown warehouse with a front office building. There weren't any lights on, but Roman had said we'd be meeting at an actually-abandoned warehouse, not one of his staging centers that looked abandoned.
"Who are we here for, again?" A voice, Russel maybe, asked. There wasn't any disrespect or snark to his voice, only hints of impatient or boredom.
"A business associate of ours."
"Uh…ours?"
"Our last little mission was set up by a business associate, someone who knew enough about the situation to set us up," I explained, only because of the necessity of keeping them somewhat in the dark. "That person is no longer capable of helping us, so I've found us a new one."
"No longer…huh?"
"Dead. He's dead. Someone killed him, and now we're going to work with someone else."
"Who are we going to—GAH!" One of the others yelled as a glass wall next to him shattered revealing Neo from out of thin air, who took pleasure in her victim's brief terror.
"Her."
With a satisfied and smug grin, Neo sauntered on between all four of them and made her way to me, where she handed me a manila folder without a care in the world.
"Who is she?"
"Neo Politan," I answered for the either mute or quiet girl, knowing she'd offer no real answer other than a coy look that wasn't as terrifying to those who didn't know her. "The single most ferocious and bloodthirsty woman I've met…in the last hour."
Neo did not appreciate that comment, but I wasn't in the mood to care.
"Is she…?"
"A Huntress?" I finished Cardin's question, redirecting it before he got onto the wrong (technically, the right) track. "Kinda. She works more with the gangs of Vale than the Grimm."
"So she's a cop?"
Neo was aghast by such an accusation, but did not voice her complaints.
"No. You think she'd let us impersonate cops if she was?" Cardin shrugged, conceding the point. "Look, she'll bring you appropriate targets and do all the planning; all you've got to do is execute."
"You're not coming with?"
"Not tonight," I answered, tossing Cardin the folder with their target information. "This is a test-run to see how you guys run things without me. Neo's going with you, but I'm not allowed." All eyes turned towards Neo, who waved one hand cheerfully and gave an innocent smile.
"Right… can she…?"
"She'll be fine," I assured them, trying not to laugh at the question can Neo fight. "You all should get going. I've got to try to find a weaponsmith that's still open this late."
I walked past Neo, stopping for just a moment to whisper to her.
"No blood. Not this first time."
With my problems pawned off to Neo, I took my leave and exited through the alleys the same way that I came, pointedly not turning around when confused members of CRDL called out questions. They certainly had plenty, not unfairly, considering I had drug them into the muck of Vale with no explanation and now was ditching them as soon as I could.
They would be fine with Neo watching them to ensure they caused no trouble, though. Roman volunteered Neo to act as their handler because, as Roman's vanishing-getaway specialist, she'd never been ID'ed or even seen by the Vale police or any Huntsmen. CRDL would never know the difference—okay, if they weren't stupid, they'd figure out a lot, but they'd not have any proof or anything so shocking as to sow disloyalty—and Neo would be free to use them without looping me in. That meant that I was somewhat insulated from any blowback CRDL earned, which was good; I'm tired of getting blowback on everything and if there is anything, anything, in the world that is certain to go up in flames, it's the secret excursions of Team CRDL. Neo would be able to vanish at nearly any time should something go wrong, and I would just have to start working on an alibi should CRDL try to give me up.
I also hadn't been completely honest about trying to find a weaponsmith. It only took me a few more turns, but I succeeded in finding Roman's other warehouse without getting lost. Again, this one had a front-office, but there were lights on here, and the whole property had been upkept decently well. In all likelihood, there was actually a business operating out of the location, though not at dusk.
The front door was unlocked, leading to a reception area that was well lit but empty. I could hear someone walking around just behind the corner, and in a few moments a portly man in his fifties came walking around the corner.
"Yep, you fit the description. Come on back," he called out gruffly after looking me over.
He lead me into some side room off in the back, where several bags of equipment were strewn about. The ones that were open had several types of hammers, prongs, and other assorted items that would come in handy for a smith.
"How are the arrangements, Gerald? I know it's not orthodox, but…" Torchwick called out, drawing my attention to his presence, off in chair on the back wall.
"Bah, I've built dust-powered lasers and embedded them in wrist bracers in the middle of Grimm-infested forests, all with a nurse's reflex hammer and a campfire. This place will be a cakewalk for a job like this. Now, hold still and keep your arms out," Gerald directed that last part at me as he pulled out a tailor's measuring tape. I shot Roman a confused look, more at the absolute ridiculousness of the man's statement, but Roman either misunderstood or chose to answer something else.
"Metalworks," Roman explain succinctly, referring to the building we were in. "During the business week, they form parts for cars. During this weekend, they'll reform your armor."
"I'll be the one reforming armor, jackass. This place is just going to get it hot for me."
"Ah, yes. That's what I said." Roman rolled his eyes but otherwise let the insult go. "Don't worry about Gerald overhearing anything. He's as professional as they come." Roman cut himself off to search through his coat until he found a cigar, lighting it and kicking his legs back. "Now, you had something to discuss?"
Closing Thoughts: What is that, Jaune isn't bending over backwards? He even avoided accidentally telling Yang about Torchwick? Huh.
Maybe after the week he's had, Jaune is going to do more than grit his teeth and try to wait things out. It's quite possible that it's time for Jaune to start taking chances and pushing his luck, instead of letting his luck push him. Will that work out with Yang? Well, the choice he left her with isn't the most ideal situation, but it isn't anything she can make an easy decision about, one way or the other.
I don't have anything else to say, really, other than addressing the fact that I'm bumping the story rating up to 'M' from here on in. I swear, no matter what the Comment of the Week below says, I'm not planning any strange sex scenes (or any sex scenes, but certainly not strange ones); this is more in response to the growing tone of the story. Junior's death was okay for its rating, but bumping it up is the safer option for the future. Plus, the language coming out of tense scenes fall under 'M' better, methinks. It's just a combination of where the story is flowing, how the story is flowing, and what I want to show down the road that makes it the safer option.
Comment of the Week:
"Change this story to an M rating, so that you can add some Jaune x Neo with cuck Yang. ;)" - Dumbass0
Counter-Comment of the Week:
"Don't...don't do what Dumbass0 said." - Josh Spicer
I'm getting some really mixed signals here, guys. Also, I just need to point out that Josh had already commented this week, but was so concerned about Dumbass's comment, that he went back and left this comment on Chapter 1 so that it would show up. That's dedication, folks.
See ya next week.