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"That was crazy, and awesome, and-and crazy!" Ruby cheered as they left the theater a couple hours later, the small girl bouncing around the sidewalk excitedly as they walked away from the little theater, where Ruby had picked out her movie for them to watch, mostly alone and curled up near the back together.

Miming the guy from the movie spinning his spear around her neck she turned and beamed a bright smile at him, walking backwards away from her hooded company and letting the smile turn sheepish, "Sorry, Jau- John. I always get excited and bouncy after a good action movie, especially the new Rings and Prohpets series. S'just really close to me and Crescent Rose, you know?"

"I know." She'd told him a few times. Or, well, more than a few times if he was honest, when she'd been bouncing beside him like an over-caffeinated rabbit waiting for her ticket.

Pulling his black hood tighter around his head to ward off the cold - and stifling some envy in Ruby's direction, since her Aura helped with it, even though it didn't ward it off entirely - he added, "I told you already, Red, it doesn't bug me that you get over-excited. Just you being you."

"I hate that nickname, and you know that. Stop teasing me!" She responded with a faux-pout, earning a good natured snicker from him and a shrug, metal fingers drumming on his leg as they walked. Peopled passed by and looked at him, eyes snapping from his Gauntlet to his eyes, their own filled with judgement, and Ruby chimed in, "Ignore 'em."

"What?"

"They stares, just ignore them." She said, just a bit louder than necessary as an old man turned an anxious gaze on his jeweled appendage and she bounced in between them, cutting off the stare with her back and turning to walk beside him as they went.

All to keep herself between the man and him, to stop him staring at his arm or whatever was on his face.

"Hunters get used to it, growing up. Hunter culture makes people stand out, be unique, and normal people… They don't get it." She shook her head as they walked, headed towards the park and, past that after, to the Bullhead docks, to catch their ride back for the night. Bumping her arm against his, she added in a quiet voice, "So don't pay attention to them, okay? You're a Hunter now. Hunters get stared at. As part of the job as killing Grimm and using fancy weapons."

"I guess, yeah… Just takes some getting used to, I guess." Not a part of the whole life of a Huntsman that he'd particularly known about, going in to all this, but… He'd adapt to it at least half as well as he'd adapted to death. Stepping onto the path into the park, he spoke in a quieter voice, "I'm heading out for the mission from Oz tomorrow. Fight the White Fang outside the Walls, maybe try and figure out whatever they're planning."

"I know. You've told me about it." She answered quietly, watching the scenery pass by as they walked the circuit around the park's center, a great, massive oak visible over the tops of the younger, smaller trees anywhere in the park you were. In the dark, he caught bright, silver eyes glint as they turned towards him for a second, and Ruby asked, the beautiful orbs looking away as she did, "No secrets between us, and I like that."

"Yeah." He nodded with a small, satisfied smile at the simple idea. "No secrets. I like that."

"Good." She chirped, giving him a sidelong glance and asking, "So, since there's no secrets… Are you nervous?"

"A little, yeah." He flexed his Gauntlet and grimaced, feeling a spike of anxiety shoot through him. And then followed by iit, caused by it more like. He felt angry at himself for that anxiety, and the way he, for a second, reconsidered the 'no secrets' approach with Ruby. Which he quickly quashed, going on instead, "Gnarl said he had… Stuff for me that will make me stronger. But they… They're going to have guns, you know?"

"Do guns scare you?" She asked innocently, voice full of quiet concern. He nodded slightly, and he felt her hand grab his free one, the one not covered in armor, and tug him to a stop by a memorial bench, little iron plate in the center worn and rusted. Sitting on it, she pointed beside her meaningfully and grunted a short, sharp, "Sit please."

"Uh, sure thing." He shrugged, taking a seat on the weathered looking bench, a little brass nameplate he didn't pay any mind to in the middle. The girl turned, laying her head on his chest, and he chuckled as he put an arm around her shoulder to hold her, "You wanted cuddles before we head back, huh?"

"And to, you know, talk. Alone. No dad or Yang to… Help." She murmured, only as loud as she had to be so he could hear. The wind blew by and she shivered, her hands diving into the pouch on the front of his hoodie, but otherwise she ignored it. "I'm scared."

"Of the mission?" She nodded after a second and he hummed, sliding his hand up to play with her hair gently, and then waiting to see if she'd like it or not. She curled into him further, legs tucked up under his for warmth or closeness - or both, he guessed that was possible too - but didn't say anything so he went on. "I'll be fine, I promise. I'm stronger now than I was before, and I'll have your dad nearby out there. And the Minions, of course."

"But one shot, or-or several, and you could die out there, Jaune." She argued, sitting up beside him so she could look him in the eye, her own, now hard and narrow. Not out of fear, but instead out of something more complicated than that. Like fear and acceptance mixed together, and not in a way that was actually any good. "You don't have an Aura, and they have guns. Automatic, military, weapons."

"I have my magic." Injected Jaune weakly, hoping to assuage her fear and his in the same, flailing gesture.

"It didn't help last time." She pointed out, hands balled into fists on his stomach. Fists that shook slightly, he noticed. "Last time, you almost died."

"I know." He nodded, pulling her head back against his chest in the hope that she'd calm down a bit if he did. She didn't, so he added in a quiet voice, "I'll be careful."

"My mom said that to me, too, before she… Didn't come back." She murmured into his chest, voice tight with emotion. Stress, fear, and other things that made him happy and set and ache in his chest to hear at the same time. "There's a name on this bench from a Hunter that probably said the same thing, a-and another one back on Patch just like it for my mom, and she said she'd be careful too."

"...Shit." He sighed, hand on her shoulder rubbing small circles through the sweater she'd worn. Trying, and he knew he was only trying, to comfort her as best he could. Until, finally, he promised simply, "I won't die, Ruby. That's a fact."

"How do you know?" She asked quietly, sitting up next to him on the bench and looking into his eyes, faces so close together their noses almost touched. Smiling stiffly, disbelievingly, she went on, "How can you possibly know-"

He silenced her by stealing a sudden, deep kiss the way he knew she liked. The girl squeaked and tensed at the sudden closeness, enough he almost thought she'd push him away, before she finally melted into the affection and accepted the comfort in it. He held her there for a long moment before pulling back with a smile, the woman tense in his arms but unable to resist the affection he offered.

When he finally pulled away, she nearly followed after him, and he had to hold her back to ask in a quiet voice, "Because, Ruby, don't you know? The one rule I live by?"

"I... I don't think I- Oh." She blinked a couple times, eyelids fluttering as she realized what he meant and lips quirking with a small smile for a moment before she let the thin, anxious smile spread across her face. "An Arc always keeps his word. Right?"

"Exactly." He nodded, leaning in to give her another kiss, this one even more chaste than the first and far shorter, enough he caught the pout in her eyes when he pulled away. He raised his Gauntlet, wreathing it in Mana and sending the energy sparking along his fingers for her to watch in brilliant hues of blue, and added simply, "I have a girlfriend, power, and a throne to get back to, Ruby. I don't plan on dying yet, not a second time, and that is a promise that, as an Arc, I will just have to keep. Okay?"

"I…" He could still see the fear in her eyes, and feel it in the tenseness of her shoulders, but she nodded shortly instead of arguing and simply said. "Okay. I believe you, Jaune." She leaned up to give him a peck on the cheek, which somehow felt even sweeter than the kiss before, and added in a quieter tone, "When you come back… I have something to tell you. Okay?"

"S-Sure." He nodded, with a very good idea of what, exactly, she'd have to say. The thought sent thrills of fear and anticipation through him, turning the blue sparks red and orange, like ruddy fire. He extinguished them with a curling of his fist and smiled, "Now, let's get home, Ruby. I have a day tomorrow. Lots to do, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." She snickered before something caught her gaze and she blinked, flinching. At what he couldn't see, but before he could say anything she clung onto him and kicked off the bench, and his sight blurred for a few seconds before he felt the ground under his feet and staggered away, the girl between him and someone and far more stable, rose petals raining round them while she demanded, "What do you want? Neo, right?"

"Ruby?" He asked, summoning Mana to his Gauntlet and stepping up beside the girl who herself stood in an awkward, unsure boxer's stance. A facsimile of Yang's style, he could tell at a glance.

"She's Roman's partner." She said simply, clicking the pieces into place for him. With a snarl he made to step between them, sending Mana spiraling around them in a circle to ward off any shots from the diminutive girl, idly spinning a parasol on her shoulder but otherwise not moving. Before he could attack, Ruby added in a hushed tone, "Wait, Jaune. Let her answer the question."

"...Fine." He grunted, letting the Mana swirling around them die out, the fallen, orange leaves mixing with rose petals as they landed on the ground around them. With a point of the clawed thing on his arm, he added, "Try anything, and I will rip your throat out with my hands. You understand?"

She nodded and then took a step towards them and he tensed warily, before Ruby explained, "She's mute." He looked over her shoulder, and Ruby explained, "She never talked when they… Had me. Just made shapes with her fingers, an-and I think Roman mentioned that she couldn't talk, but I don't remember."

"Fine." He grunted for a second time, hard eyes turning on the woman in front of him. "Leave the umbrella over there though, I know Hunters and their… Bullshit weapons, so I won't fall for those kinds of tricks."

With a roll of her eyes, she turned and tossed the weapon a few feet behind her. It clattered heavily across the paving, and Jaune felt validated and justified to smirk when she turned back to him. The mute only offered another shake of her head, though, and approached with both hands held out, one with an… Envelope and the other with her Scroll in hand. He didn't like either of those but her her step in front of him and the smaller Rose just behind him and, when she held out the envelope to her, he let Ruby take it.

"From Roman." She explained, an electronic voice chiming in odd, autotuned words as she typed them. "Said if I saw a way out, I should take it."

"Out of what?" Ruby asked quietly, to which the woman simply pointed at the small envelope meaningfully. When the young woman looked back to the mute, she mimed opening it, and Ruby grimaced. "Fine, fine..."

"Well?" He asked after she'd opened it and had a few moments to read the contents. "What's up?"

"It says-"

"That she's decided not to behave." A voice intoned sharply, deep and angry sounding, from behind them. He turned as a man in black stepped out from behind a tree, wearing a white mask and smiling thinly in a vicious, animalistic nearly, way. Two horns suck out from his fiery hair and he bent his head, almost as though threatening to gore him with them, as he continued "I happen to be something of an expert, in women not behaving and doing what they're told."

"Who are you?" He asked, Mana burning within him from being held too long, without being allowed to either flow freely or lash out as it wanted. "Why are you here?"

"Who I am doesn't matter to either of you, Human." The man answered sharply, off hand resting on the sheath of his sword, under the guard and lower than it normally should be. Why, he couldn't tell. Not in this darkness, the park only barely lit by the occasional lamppost. "But since you asked, I'm here because I… Lost my cat, and she loves parks. Likes to sit in them and read."

"You, girl," he grunted with a wave at Ruby, Neo joining their trio on her other side now, a rapier in hand held warily in front of her, "might know her. Might be able to help me get her back, too, with a little motivation."

"Neo, get on Overlord's other side." Ruby ordered lowly, but no less sharp as his claws. The mute snapped mismatched eyes to the woman in confusion, and she snarled in a way that was very unlike Ruby, "Now. Trust me."

That seemed hard for the woman but, regardless, she stepped past them and came to stand on his other side, giving his razor sharp Gauntlet a wary look before turning her eyes back on the Faunus. The Faunus who, it seemed, was rather amused at their formation building in front of him, standing lazily with his sword-hip cocked and hand tight on the sheath. Mockingly so, even, like he didn't consider any of them even remotely threatening.

And that set a fire of fury in his gut, as he demanded, "What do you want?"

"Blake, eventually." He grunted simply, offering a shrug when the Overlord before him tensed and Ruby hissed in a breath of fears being confirmed. "But for that, I need a few things… Starting with the mute traitor's head, if you don't mind."

"Not happening, jerk." Ruby swore, and just like that Jaune channeled his Mana, sending wind swirling around them gently in a distraction veiled as a threat, and then ignored by the arrogant man in front of them. "You won't touch her without going through us."

"Convenient, since you are going to bring Blake to me." The Faunus smiled, a vicious look in a knowing, predatory sort of way. He'd seen it on Gnarl a few times, and could tell evil when he saw it. "I'll take her head to that woman, deal with that traitor Perinius, and leave him," he nodded at Jaune, flicking the sword with a thumb and baring the barest inch of red, "in a bush, and send a piece of you to the little runaway's room."

"Jaune?" Ruby whispered, quiet and afraid, "Are you ready?"

"No." The man interrupted lowly, sliding a leg back and moving his other hand to the handle of his sword at the ready. "None of you are ready.

"Gnarl will send Minions to watch over Perinius." He said, loud enough for the watching Gnarl to catch the message and, hopefully, send some protection for the Faunus. If this man was meaning to kill him for what he'd said to them, then it was unlikely he was lying about it. Louder, as though threatening their sudden opponent, he added, "Three's a lot to deal with, you know. Takes time."

"I'm fast." The man assured him, red on his clothes seeming to glow warningly. "Don't worry about that, Silver Eyes." He smiled then, as though realizing something, "Your eyes are pretty… Maybe I'll send one of those to my runaway."

"No," Jaune snarled, "you won't."

"Why not?" The Faunus asked, mocking him obviously. "Do you have a preference? Maybe a hand? A leg? I take requests, sometimes."

"You may be fast." The former blonde said as answer, smiling widely as he felt the familiar surge of Mana in his fist and around it, turning and bringing the armored limb back. "But most importantly? You're arrogant."

"I am?" He smiled and snorted a laugh, giving a derisive shake of his head, "If you say so… I guess there's no accounting for taste."

"Yes you are, and that just won't fly, buddy. Not at all." He grinned, spreading the sharp, armored fingers and coalescing the swirling Mana into his fist where the man couldn't see. "But for an idiot, you'll fly pretty good."

"What-" The man didn't get anything else out before Jaune sent Mana surging forward in an explosive ball of wind, haphazardly melded together by the mystical energy that swirled, the wind snapping up leaves, rocks, sticks and rose petals like shrapnel and carrying them with it as it went. Surprised but trained, the man shot forward faster, almost, than Jaune could see, sword whistling through the air to connect with the dense ball.

It detonated with a dull whump, and Jaune spun on his heel, armored had grabbing Ruby by her upper arm and bare on grabbing the stranger by the hilt of her sword as Mana once more surged, the reason he'd taken so long in preparing. The man behind them snarled in rage and he looked over his shoulder, a scythe of red cutting through the air towards him and the two girls.

He realized what it was with wide eyes, knowing that he needed another second to teleport them and knowing it wouldn't give him that. Seeing the attack coming and his panic, Ruby wrenched her hand free and leapt behind him, back pressed against his to keep the contact and let the magic work. The energy slammed into her a hair's breadth before he felt and saw the world spin around them, but he heard her scream regardless of her protective Aura and his teleportation.

"What the fuck?!" Tai shouted as they stumbled away from the door to his room, the man standing shirtless in the middle of the room, a hand lashing out to catch him and the strange woman on one side, and Ruby on the other. "What the fucking fuck?!"

Jaune pushed off the man and turned to look at Ruby and Neo scrambled away from them all, looking scared and confused. He didn't care though, seeing the blood washing down her back from her wound. The gash was large and steamed from the blow, from her shoulder and down across her chest, all the way to her hip on the opposite side from where it started. Her Aura sparked along it, fighting the damage, but she didn't move.

"Get help, damn it!" Tai ordered him, cradling the woman and turning her onto her back to lay her on the ground while the Overlord raised his Gauntlet and shouting Gnarl's name into it in a demand of the creature to do something. The door slammed open just as Tai demanded in a low snarl, "Who the fuck did this to her?"

"You!" Yang snarled, glaring daggers at the stranger huddled on his bed and storming towards her, "Did you do this, you half sized little bitch-"

"No!" He shouted as he stepped between them, catching Yang across his chest as she leapt. Angry and animalistic, she lashed out, a fist crushing into his chest and driving the wind from his lungs, turning his next sentence into a staggered slur, "Guy wif a sword. Red and horns." He coughed and fell aside, feeling the broken rib shift, but Weiss heard his words and caught the blonde in a glyph, black and swirling as it pulled her down and he added with an awkward wave towards her, "S'a friend."

"She teleports, she couldn't do this!" Weiss shouted, sliding in front of the bruiser who struggled on her knees, hair alight like a flame and eyes red as the energy that had done this. Weiss grabbed her face and hissed at the burning Aura, but held fast regardless and pressed her face close to Yang's to take up her field of vision. "Look at my eyes, Yang. Just like you used to, focus on me, not the problem. Okay? Breathe."

"Gah!" Yang snarled, shaking her head and heaving, but listening and staying where she was as the glyph flickered out. Finally, she pulled Weiss' hands away and looked at the red digits with renewed anger, snarling as she turned to Jaune where he leaned against the wall, armored hand clutching his wound while the other pulled at his hair in anxiety and pain, watching Ruby's bleeding slow. "The hell happened out there?"

"A guy with a red sword attack us." He repeated, this time clearer as he turned to look at Blake, kneeling beside Ruby with a towel dabbing around the edges of the wounds to catch the blood, hands moving mechanically as though on auto-pilot while she stared wide-eyed at the wound. "He wanted you, Blake. Why did he want you?"

"...Adam." She murmured, hands finally stilling as Ozpin arrived, slamming shoulder first into the wood of the door frame to stop himself, so fast he'd been running. The amber eyes woman turned an eye on the man and shook her head, "He's come for me… I never-"

"No matter right now, Miss Belladonna." He said, joining them in kneeling beside the downed woman and pressing a hand to her chest, between her breasts where the flesh had been seared and torn. "Miss Xiao Long, a fresh shirt. Miss Schee, Tai, outside, keep the students back and away, they must not see in her. Draft JNPR for the job, they are out there already."

"Got it." The two blondes answered at the same time, leaping for the door in their haste and nearly knocking aside his axe.

"Yes, Headmaster." Weiss added, moving to join the older man in blockading the door, pulling the thing shut in spite of its broken hinges while Blake staggered to Tai's bed in shock.

"Overl- Jaune," Ozpin amended, looking up at him with a small grimace of displeasure. "You don't have healing magic, but you have Mana to spare, correct?"

"Y-Yeah, I have plenty of it. And I can channel more, if I need to, I just have to rest, but..." He nodded, kneeling by the downed Rose as her Aura began to flicker around her, wounds still oozing blood and nearly bare chest fluttering weakly as it flickered around her. "I can't heal, damn it!"

"I can." The man assured him gently, meeting his eyes levelly, "But you have to trust me completely." He held out his hand, then, the one not on Ruby's chest, "I can siphon your Mana and heal her, but only if you let me take from you. I won't lie, the process is… Painful. Even in my time, the experts in it couldn't do this painlessly."

"I don't give a fuck." He snapped with a nod, "Just tell me what to do."

"Put your Gauntlet over my hand, on Miss Rose's chest." He instructed, Jaune quickly laying the armored appendage over the man's smaller hand. Like a viper, Ozpin lashed out and grabbed his free hand, smiling thinly, "Forgive me for this… I think you're a better man than I thought, and I don't like having to-"

"Just do it." He ordered, watching Ruby's face screw up in her unconscious state as her Aura finally gave out.

The pain started in his forearms, like a blazing fire set around his bones, and he had to grit his teeth not to do more than hiss in pain. Then it lanced up his arms and into his chest, feeling like fingers that closed around his heart and robbing him of his breath, and he couldn't just hiss anymore in the pain. Instead, he choked out the first of many sobs, the pain so great he couldn't even catch his breath to scream.

All he could do was sit there, burn, and let the tears flow. Tears that scorched angrily across his face, to match the tempest beginning to stir inside him.

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"Good morning, Master." Gnarl greeted him when he awoke in his bed back at the Tower, looking as displeased as he'd ever thought the creature could be capable of. "Must you continue trying so very hard to die?"

"Is Ruby-"

"She's fine, and at Beacon, Master. Recovering from her wound incredibly well, I rush to add, before you blood fling yourself from the Tower to get to her." He groaned and sat up, shaking off the heaviness he felt from sleeping for what felt like days, and Gnarl explained what he knew Jaune would demand to know, "The Headmaster, that old bastard, he siphoned most of your Mana for his magic. You had to be brought here to rest and recover, but you ought to be fine now."

"My strength?"

"Back up to where you were when you went on your date, Master." Gnarl assured him, offering a small flask of water. "You've been resting for a day only, now, and I do wonder what you will want to do now?"

"What else?" He asked, taking a sip of the cold water and letting it sit for a moment before growling, "I have a fight with the White Fang to get to, after all. I'm already late, and that just won't do. Did you get Minion to Perry?"

"Yes, but they were killed to the last." Gnarl reported uncaringly, "Along with your newest attempted adopted pet, I fear. By the same man that struck down your Mistress, I add with quite a bit of venom."

"A new target, then…" He murmured, throwing aside his blankets and standing over the Minion imperiously, "I need my armor, Gnarl."

"I would say some pants as well, Master. Evil's sake, that wasn't a sight I wanted to see." The Minion grumbled, shuffling away while Jaune looked down and realized how little he was wearing. He flushed and the Minion sighed, "Get dressed, Master, and head to the armory to get ready. We have vengeance to reap!"

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A new Overlord in Town.

AKA, Blake Has a Really, Really God Damn Bad Time.

I like Blake, I swear. This is just, for her, a really shitty part of this story. Just happens, sometimes, where circumstances shaft a character. I knew I wanted the White Fang to be a center point of conflict from the get go, but until later in the writing process, I didn't realize quite how slagged that left Blake.

So in lieu of early accusations of 'Jaune Bashin' let me assuage some fears. I'm not bashing Blake. Later on she'll have a much better day in this story, when the White Fang are largely dealt with. This is only temporary, and I apologize to any Blake fans rolling their eyes at her getting royally fucked.

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Mister Cuddlesworth :

Glad you're enjoying it. Achieving a mix of funny, sweet and intense is hard. This chapter had all three, and the second was… I feel meh about it, but it seems fine to me.

Zen-Aku :

I don't know about you, but I bounce around between a joking drawl and meme-y references basically all day. Sorry if it doesn't resonate to you, genuinely, but that's all Yang is doing. When things are chill, she memes a little and fucks about. When it's serious, though, you can see the same phrasing and characterization.

Razmire :

I forgot about it, but hey, I'll look at my plan and see what I can do.

Dirt Revor :

Well, one of those already happened. XD

The other Hives are coming, but I wanted it to be a minute, so Jaune didn't spike into godhood too early on. And as for Ozpin… Well, developments on that end too, it seems. Eh?

Mike :

I know, but it's the terminology I use, at least. Sorry if it didn't land. XD