Author's Note: In this chapter, there's a section in the middle that's formatted differently than anything else so far, so I thought it fair to warn you ahead of time. I've built up that Roman would finally be getting Jaune those files about his family, and tah-dah, you get to read one of them!

Anything that is written with several dashes - - - - - - - indicates that something has been redacted. FF won't let me upload any sort of punctuation in a row without spaces, as it just chops out all the extra ones so avoid people spamming the site.

Example:
My sister read - - - - - - - - - - - - and thinks that I am - - - - - - .
My sister read the outline for V3 and thinks that I am a sadist.

That's actually not a new development, though.

On that note,

Enjoy.

Chapter 35: "Kaboom?" – Nora Valkyrie
"Yes, Nora, Kaboom." – Jaune Arc

Pyrrha's POV

Once Jaune left dinner, no one was really all that talkative for a few minutes, not that we could be blamed for that. Things had gotten a bit heavy there for a while, and sorting out how I felt about things now wasn't a simple task; I have a feeling that everyone else felt much the same way.

Maybe it was inevitable that as Huntresses and Huntsmen, we would be forced to take someone's life, or at the very least, be confronted with the opportunity. All of us at least believe in what we're doing firmly, which is why there wasn't any doubt around the table that Nora did the right thing, nor was there any hesitation to support her. But there's a difference between knowing you did the right thing and being okay with having to do it. From the lingering silence around the table after Jaune left, it was pretty clear that everyone was thinking about it.

How would I handle it?

The rational part of me wants to say that I would not handle it well; after all, I did nearly kill someone earlier this semester, and to say that I fumbled things following that would be…fair. Just to make me more worried, I proved to everyone and to myself that I am capable of killing someone during the heat of combat, which is not a good feeling. That's only made worse because it was Jaune, my partner and decidedly not someone that I wanted to kill. Since that day I've focused more on self-disciplining myself and keeping a level head at all times, which is never a bad thing, but it still unsettles me to think that there's a dangerous aspect to me.

But that's the rational side of me, the side that wants to overanalyze things. I have not let that part of me control my life, and I can't say that I regret it. After all, the rational thing to do with my life would have been to stay home and attend Haven, or forgo an Academy altogether and cultivate my fame from tournaments until I was one of Remnant's premiere celebrities. Everyone has always told me that I'm destined for greatness, and with what I already had, that was the obvious path forward. That was the rational path.

I would rather pursue a different kind of greatness, though. I'm much more idealistic than I am rational, at least in how I handle my life, and I accept that about myself. It was a shock to those who followed my career that I retired from tournament fighting to attend Beacon—though, I suppose the Vytal Festival throws a wrench in that—because I never let it slip what my goals were. When everyone told me that I was destined to be great, they meant as a duelist or a celebrity, a girl elevated on a pedestal too great to be among the people. My idea of greatness, what I am really destined to do, is to help people, to protect them, and I can't do that if I'm elevated above them on a pedestal. I have to be in front of them, between them and danger, to be of any use.

And I'm going to be more than useful. I've been blessed with incredible gifts, and I am going to make them count. I've never let myself just 'get by' on my talent or my Semblance, but instead worked to be so good that I don't need to use it. That way, when the day comes that more is required, more is needed to protect people, I'll be more than prepared; I'll have been waiting on my destiny.

It's that side of me, the side that says that this is what I am meant to do, that thinks that I would handle the trauma of ending someone's life. I trust that if I did do that, then it was absolutely necessary to protect someone, and that I would find strength in that knowledge. Of course, having the experience of almost killing Jaune in a spar shook a lot of that faith in myself, but I won't let that happen again. If anything, perhaps it was good that it happened when it did, because it let me find a new weakness to fix before things really counted. I would be stronger—better—because of that.

I felt good about what I would do in Nora's situation, and honestly, she was already looking like she getting through it, though she might have just been taking advantage of having Ren hold her. I guess I can't fault her for that.

No, what bothered me wasn't what I would do, it was what Jaune did do, and maybe what he's still doing.

I know that I shouldn't be hung up on that, too; Jaune has always been so avoidant and weary of sharing anything about himself, and the fact that he felt comfortable enough to do so for all of us is huge. And even more than that, he did it to help Nora, both by letting her know that he knows what she's going through and by distracting the rest of us from Nora. That's a huge improvement from the guy who we first met, and I want to say that it's the reason that I've been looking for him now. I want to tell myself that I'm looking for Jaune so that I can build upon this, and reinforce that behavior; that I want to show him that it's okay to trust us more by supporting him when he does.

And, I am going to do that, but deep down, I'm more worried about what he said—or what he didn't say—that I let on to the others. Morally ambiguous, Jaune had said, making me recall the chills the words had given me. If that weren't the two most loaded words I've ever heard, then I don't know what were. The way he seemed almost ashamed to say them, the dispassionate way he described the White Fang he killed… I don't know what it means, but it feels like it can't be good.

With all of that going through my head, I am not really sure what it was I expected to find him doing. It's been about two hours since he left dinner to go 'think'—and to give him the benefit of the doubt, I didn't decide to come look for him until after I had some time to think, too, so I can't hold it against him that I found him doing something other than clearing his head.

I just didn't expect to find him sparring with Team CRDL, of all people.

"I swear, it's like the three of you don't even understand how fights even work!" Jaune berated at Russel, Dove, and Sky—basically, everyone who wasn't Cardin. All three were picking themselves off the ground as I showed up, and it didn't take long to figure out that they had done poorly. I'm not sure how long they've been sparring, but everyone's Aura is being displayed on the wall, and Jaune is still in the low 90s.

"We've won fights before, asshole," one of them—Russel, maybe?—growled at Jaune.

"No, you've won brawls before," Jaune dismissed, showing off a temper that was rare for him. If he was trying to blow off steam, then seeking out CRDL made more sense, though why they would accept such terms did not. "You've ganged up on people and beat them into submission, sure; it's what you're good at. That's a useful thing, even, since more often than not, that's how things go down. But you have not," Jaune emphasized, tapping Crocea Mors on the ground twice before pointing it towards Russel(?) in a fencer's salute, "won a fight."

"Oh yeah? Then what's the difference?" Cardin called out, uncrossing his arms and picking up his weapon as he stepped forward to challenge Jaune.

"If you can win based on nothing but brute strength, then it's a brawl," Jaune answered, shifting his stance towards Cardin as the two began to circle one another, silently accepting Cardin's challenge.

Without warning, Jaune charged forward, putting Cardin on the defensive by swinging for Cardin's left leg with his sword in his right hand. Cardin slammed the head of his mace on the floor in front of his foot, effectively blocking Jaune's sword, but Jaune's charge had been to Cardin's right side and the swipe with the sword had been a lazy one thrown to make Cardin think he was going for his left. Jaune used his momentum to leap into a cross-hook to Cardin's face with his free hand, disengaging and retreating to safety before Cardin knew what had happened.

Cardin took the blow much better that would be expected of him, wiping his jaw and rolling his neck to cope with the hit. "I don't know, that felt like brute force," he called out, his toning making it clear that he believed his own words.

Jaune was visually exasperated by Cardin's bad analysis, and I was right there with him. Cardin had somehow missed the cunning and strategy involved in the design of the attack and had only taken away that a punch was thrown, and clearly punch equal brutishness. If Jaune was going to try to beat Cardin on brute force, he would have just let loose a series of plain strikes thrown with all of his power behind them, not manipulated Cardin's (admittedly poor) defense into a free slug to the cheek.

"You guys are hopeless. I don't know why I try," Jaune let out, his frustrations obvious and unchecked in a way that I have never seen. He made a show of throwing his sword off to the side, Crocea Mors clanking on the ground unceremoniously. He pulled his sheath off his hip and attached it to his left forearm, before it suddenly expanded into a kite-shield that I had never seen before. "Let's make this simple. You have a giant mace, which is a weapon designed for blunt trauma; it's very existence screams 'brute force.' The purpose of such a weapon is to wreak havoc against armor and to make shields useless. As such, I will use only a shield, and if brute force could win any battle, it would be a massive mace versus a shield."

Cardin growled once, recognizing that Jaune was both dismissing and taunting him, and charged in with his mace. He swung it horizontally, forcing Jaune to backpedal to stay out of range, and Cardin gave chase and continued to swing the mace in horizontal arcs to keep Jaune on the defensive. Eventually, Jaune planted his back foot and leaned back to let Cardin's swing pass over him, before charging forward to crash into Cardin shield-first. He didn't have the momentum to knock Cardin down and would probably have been bowled over himself if he had hit straight on, but Jaune angled so that he slapped Cardin's chest with his shield and then bounced off to the side, forcing Cardin to carry past him. Cardin planted his heels and forced himself to come to a full stop, turning around just in time for Jaune to smack him across the face with the flat of the shield.

Enraged, Cardin shook off the blow and raised his mace over his head with one hand to smash at Jaune while he was still within measure, only for Jaune to punch Cardin in the gut with the top ridge of the shield as he did so. Cardin's blow lost momentum and Jaune was able to slip under Cardin's arm before it came down, getting back to back with Cardin before dropping his elbow into the man's lower back. Cardin swung his mace in a wide arc, aiming to get Jaune upside the head with the extra momentum from twisting around, but only for Jaune to be waiting for it, parrying the blow up and over him by swinging his shield to catch the underside of the mace and knocking it up. Jaune could have struck him with the shield again here, but instead settled for shoving Cardin in the back and knocking him down.

Cardin didn't stay down, slamming his mace on the ground in frustration as he picked himself back up. At this point, I wasn't even sure what Cardin's plan was, seeing how nothing else he did worked, but the man was nothing if not persistent. He rose off the ground and went straight into an overhead, two-handed smash, hoping the suddenness of his recovery and strike would catch Jaune off-guard.

The attack itself was so ill-advised that I winced as I saw it come out, and did so even more when Jaune punished it. Jaune drop-stepped his right foot to the left and spun his hips to the right, throwing up his shield to parry Cardin's blow much like he had just done. The shield impacted the mace from the side and then led it down to crash into the space that Jaune had just vacated, leaving the back of Jaune's shield-arm side facing Cardin. Jaune yanked his shield arm up as if he were going to elbow Cardin in the face, catching him right between the eyes with the pointy end of his shield.

Cardin dropped his mace entirely and yelled out in shock and pain, stumbling backwards and holding his face in his hands. In his stupor, he tripped over where Jaune had tossed Crocea Mors, stumbling to the ground in a heap of graceless flailing appendages.

"There," Jaune called out satisfied. "Does that settle it?"

"Well, I am certainly convinced," I called out, stepping out from the doorway that I hadn't fully walked through yet. I had been leaning against it this whole time, content to watch.

"I was wondering when you were going to say something," Jaune called out to me, confirming that he was hyperaware of his surroundings like always. Especially during fighting. "That looks like it's going to be it for me, boys. Thanks for the spars." Jaune made a show of waving to a set of grumbling Huntsmen-in-training as he gathered his weapons and walked over to me. "So, like anything you see?"

"I can't say I'm a fan of this whole Angry Jaune thing, but I did enjoy watching them get smacked around a little," I answered honestly, keeping my voice low enough to not be overheard. I hadn't easily forgotten what CRDL had done to that Faunus, Velvet, in the cafeteria. "Even if I'm a little confused why you'd go to them for anything."

"Why's that?" Jaune asked, leading the way out of the training room.

"You aren't exactly on 'friendly terms' with Team CRDL, if I recall," I answered back flatly. It would have been easier to just straight-up accuse him of bullying Cardin and his team, but it was more dramatic this way, and when Jaune and Nora are your teammates, you pick up a little flair for the dramatic.

"And that makes me less likely to beat them up when I'm upset?" Jaune asked with a laugh as he lead us outside to Beacon's open grounds. It was dark, with only enough moonlight to see where we were walking, but as my eyes adjusted, things became clearer. "We're actually on better terms than we let on. That whole 'bullying' thing is just a cover…"

"Cover for what?"

"Me," Jaune answered simply. "You think I want people knowing that I'm friendly with CRDL?" Jaune asked with another laugh. I wasn't convinced because it still stuck out as odd to me, but I decided to let it go for now.

"But you were angry with them just now."

"I was frustrated with them," Jaune corrected, finding the edge of Beacon's grounds and leaning his back against the railing there, with Vale in the distance behind him.

"You were angry, Jaune," I cut back forcefully, with maybe a bit of my own frustrations seeping through. Jaune's features hardened at my accusation. "I've seen you frustrated, and that was more than frustrated."

"Fine. You're right. I was angry," Jaune conceded, his voice a little colder and more distant now. "I was upset before I found them, and getting angry at them was a good distraction."

"You were upset?" I asked, my voice hitching once as that uneasy feeling settled over my stomach once more. I knew I was overreacting, but how could this not warrant that? "You're not the one whose partner just admitted to being a murderer over dinner! Do you know how hard that is for me?"

"No, I—" Jaune cut himself off with a shake of his head. "I never said that I murdered anyone, Pyrrha."

"You didn't say that you didn't, either," I answered back, watching Jaune's reaction cautiously. He pushed off the railing with a huff, a little agitation showing as he bristled. He paced around for only a few seconds before returning to grip the railing and stare out into the distance, purposefully remaining silent the whole time.

"It's not that simple, Pyrrha," he finally said, his voice quiet. "Could we…please talk about this some other time? I'm too distracted to focus on this right now."

"You're distracted?" I repeated incredulously. "My partner might be a murderer and won't talk to me about it! You do get that I'm worried about you, don't you? You've been suspicious the whole time you've been at Beacon and I've been worried about you this whole time, Jaune. I'm trying to help you, Jaune, and I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but what am I supposed to do now?"

"Do you think that I wanted to do it?" Jaune asked lowly, keeping head bowed while he stared down at his hands.

"What?"

"You know me, Pyrrha. Do you think that I would want to murder people?"

"I… do I know you, Jaune?" I asked back, my voice fragile. I thought I did, sure, but that was before tonight at dinner. Maybe I always suspected that his 'dark past' meant having done that, but I certainly haven't ever looked at him through that lens before.

"That's fair. That's fair," Jaune repeated with a low, dark chuckle, almost as if trying to convince himself, or as if I had said something he was familiar with and didn't like. It felt like he was trying to convince himself not to hold anything against me, and failing, which sent another lurch of panic through my stomach. "You do know me, Pyrrha. I haven't changed anything about myself, and you've felt my Aura, my soul. Do you really think that I am a bad person? Because if so, why are you even here?" Jaune trailed off, his demeanor growing cold and bitter.

I wanted to challenge him on that, to point out that Auras and souls have never been proven to be the same thing, but I had felt his before and I understood his point. Jaune is protective, right down to his Aura and his Semblance, and it wasn't a stretch to imagine that being so could have gotten him into trouble. It wasn't an answer, but it was enough of a reminder that I do need to trust Jaune enough for him to trust me, if I'm ever going to help him.

What really struck me was his last line, and the way he delivered it. After a few moments to calm myself down and look past my uncertainties, I recognized that I've never heard Jaune sound so bitter and cold before. He was pushing me away, and not like early in Beacon when he didn't want us to get close to him; this felt like he was reacting out of fear or confusion, curling up on himself. It took me a moment longer to realize that it sounded like he was hurting, and it took me so long to realize that because it was the first time I had ever seen him like this. Even when he was physically in pain, he didn't show even a glimpse of this.

It was that sobering thought that overrode any other concerns I may have had beforehand, because what could possibly have happened in the last two hours that would have hurt Jaune like this? There will be plenty of time to sort everything else out, but if Jaune is hurting and I fail to help him, then that could strain things between us. It could do more than that.

"Jaune, what's wrong?" I asked, my voice tense and fragile, doing my best to convey my concern and care.

"It's nothing," Jaune dismissed, still not looking up. I can't say that I blame him for not wanting to open up to me; I did just try to force answers out of him without stopping to realize something was wrong. In hindsight, it should have been obvious from how Jaune was taking things out on CRDL that something was bothering him.

"It's not," I countered gently. After a few moments, it was made clear that that line wasn't going to work. "Jaune, something is clearly distracting you, and…I want you to be able to trust me. I want to know what it is I can do to help you."

Jaune looked up slightly, glancing at me out of the side of his eye for a few moments, his expression mixed.

"And what if it's more people I've murdered?" Jaune asked, with a hint of humor returning to his voice, just enough to tip me off that he was mocking me. Dark humor, but humor nonetheless.

"Well…trust is a two-way street," I answered, not taking his bait. It was his normal way of trying to deflect things by making you react to something else, and with a little determination, it could be ignored easily. "Maybe this is how we both start trusting one another. I'll trust you enough to accept that you had your reasons," I offered, my voice tense at how difficult the prospect would be for me, which he noticed, "if you can trust me with what's wrong."

Jaune looked up at me properly now, a bit of nervousness in his eyes that was so foreign to those blue orbs. He looked over me for a few moments, before dropping his head back down and shaking his head slightly, chuckling softly as he did so.

"If, huh?" he asked with another glance towards me out of the corner of my eyes. "My own partner wants to blackmail me into trusting her…"

"Does that reflect more on me, or on you force making this necessary?" I asked back, finding it in me to tease him back now that he had initiated it.

"Fair enough."

"Besides, I like to think that this makes us a good fit as partners," I half-accused, crossing my arms and leaning against the railing.

"A normal life," Jaune mumbled while shaking his head and reaching into his pocket. "All I wanted was a normal life…"

"Yeah, well, that was ruled out when you landed Nora on your team."

Jaune laughed at that, which did wonders to melt away the nerves that had been building up. The fear of handling this wrong and saying the wrong thing had settled in without me noticing, and with it receding, I realized how tight I had been. I know Nora's strategy for me when talking to Jaune was to be bold and take risks, but that hardly meant that I wouldn't be practically shaking at the risks I have to take.

Jaune pulled a scroll out of his pocket, opening it up and scrolling down through long spaces of text, skimming through it before finding whatever he was looking for and handing it out to me.

"What is it?" I asked as I reached out and took the scroll.

"Information. Intelligence files, to be more accurate," Jaune answered. "And no," he cut me off as I opened my mouth, "you probably don't want to know where they came from."

"Jaune…"

"Just…read, okay? We can discuss my other shortcomings as a person later," Jaune reassured, and even though I knew it was a joke, it wasn't too reassuring.

"What are the files over?" I asked, giving in. As long as he wasn't afraid of sharing the information at another time, I could give him the benefit of the doubt. I could trust him…

"My family."

Operator: James Ironwood

Designation of Operator: Specialist; Atlas Academy Headmaster

Report Type: Intelligence Compilation – CLOSED

Subject: Arc

Security Level: Atlas Academy Headmaster's Eyes Only

Tags: Arc; Foreign Espionage Agents (FEA); Mistral; Haven; - - - - - -, - - - - - -; Grimm; Vale; Archived; Assassination; - - - - -; Great War, the;

Persons: Wit- - -, the; Wiz- - -, the; Lionheart, Leonardo; Arc, Julius; Arc, T- - - - - - - -; Arc, Kat- - - -; Arc, R- - - - - -; Arc, S- - - -; Arc, V- - - - - -; Arc, Jo- - - -; Arc, B- - - -; Arc, Kai- - - -; Arc, Ja- - - -; Unknown #1; Unknown #2; Unknown #3; Unknown #4; Unknown #5;

This report is to serve as the sealing document for the entire topic of 'Arc,' in accordance with Atlas protocol. This document will be redacted heavily, as needed to protect sensitive information.

The first verified use of the term 'Arc' as a designation was around 200 years ago , although common theory speculates that the term is older than that. It is known that 'Arc' is a family line dating back to Vale's earliest protectors, to the time where knights served in roles occupied by Huntsmen today; it is speculated that the Arc - - - - - - - - - - - related - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the Wiz- - -, though unconfirmed.

As knights were phased out of use, the Arc clan largely disappeared from the public eye, and strong intelligence suggests that this was to form Remnant's oldest active espionage society. This is speculated to have happened 60 to 70 years prior to the Great War, and seeing how very little is known about the Arcs from the inception of their espionage society until the Great War, it can be assumed that they were successful. Common speculation puts it that the Arcs were the greatest spy ring Remnant has ever seen, and that they worked as - - - - - - - - - the Wiz- - -.

During the Great War, one man with the name 'Arc' emerged into the public eye to play a significant role for Vale's forces: Julius Arc. Julius Arc's weapon has been the subject of much exaggeration, but most accounts of it confirm the double-crescent symbol used by the Arcs in the time of knights, providing the only definitive link between the Arc clan symbol and the descendant Arcs.

After the Great War, the Wiz- - - focused his energy on building four - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - across Remnant; during this time, early Mantle intelligence reports document a break between the Arcs and the Wiz- - -. The cause of this development is unknown, but from this point on, the Arcs refused to work with the Wiz- - -, and were then susceptible to - - - - - - - - the Wit- -.

In the 65 years since the erection of the Huntsmen Academies, Mantle and Atlas intelligence reports tracking the Arcs show a record of dwindling numbers, leading up to four years prior to this report. After that point, Atlas has no further record of any Arc activity. It was known that the Wit- -'s forces had increased their efforts to hunt down the remaining Arcs, and conventional wisdom suggested that the Arcs had gone completely underground in hiding.

At the time of their disappearance, nine Arcs remained in one family unit: T- - - - - - and Kat- - -, and their seven daughters, R- - - - -, S- - - -, V- - - - -, Jo- - - -, B- - - -, Kai- - - -, and Ja- - - -.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - their disappearance - - - - facilitated partially by - - - - - - - - Leonardo Lionhart - - - - - - - - - - - . Despite his connections - - - - Wiz- - -, Lionhart worked - - - - - - - - - - - - - disappearance of the Arcs alone. - - - - - suggest - - - - Lionheart's - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - V- - - - - Arc, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lionheart's - - - - - - - - - keep his involvement with the Arcs hidden.

It is unknown at this point how the location of the Arcs came to be compromised.

On - - - - - - - - - of the year - - - -, Atlas was notified by - - - - - - - - - - - - the Wiz- - - that the Arcs - - - - - - located in - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mistral, and aid was requested - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . On - - - - - - - - , two of - - - - -'s agents arrived on location to find a cabin burnt to ashes, with 13 corpses found in varying states:

The bodies of T- - - - - - - -, R- - - - -, and S- - - - were found on the ground surrounding the cabin; analysis of their wounds indicates death by impaling.

The body of Kat- - - - was found on the ground surrounding the cabin; cause of death is confirmed as beheading, with her leg and arm severed before this.

The bodies of three unknown persons, designated as Unknown #1, #Unknown 2, and Unknown #3, were found on the ground surrounding the cabin. #1 had been eviscerated, #2 had been impaled through the throat with his arm severed, and #3 had been cut in half at her waist.

Six sets of charred remains were recovered from the burnt cabin. Three are confirmed to be the youngest Arc girls by their small size, with two more assumed to be the middle Arc twins, V- - - - - and Jo- - - - Arc. The sixth set of remains is assumed to be a fourth assailant, designated as Unknown #4, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - still pinned upright against a stone fireplace by a - - - - - - - - - - - - blade, - - - - - - - - - - - - - -.

It is important to note that no DNA records of any Arc member exist, so verification of identities of the charred bodies is not possible. Neither V- - - - - nor Jo- - - - Arc are confirmed dead because it cannot be determined which body is which, though it is the opinion of this organization that they are. Unknown #4 did not match any records also.

The lack of survival of any Arc, in tandem with tracking evidence from the scene, suggests that at least one assailant survived, designated Unknown #5. It is possible that Unknown #5 could be more than one entity.

No evidence from Atlas or - - - - - - - - suggests that - - - - - - - - - - - - - - have been captured by the Wit- -; - - - - - - - - - - - believed to be random, - - - - - search across Mistral has been enacted - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - all Kingdoms.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - inordinate surplus of high-level Grimm were found within the area, - - - - - - - are suspected to have interfered in the attack, but any involved Grimm evaporated - - - - - - - - - - -.

It is the opinion of this agency that all members of the Arc family lineage have been killed. As such, this topic has been officially sealed as a closed matter, pending further redactions.

Jaune had remained silent while I read through the report, though I could feel the weight of his eyes on me a couple of times; mostly, he stared out in the distance patiently, painfully aware of what I was reading.

"That's…"

"It gets worse," Jaune called out without looking back at me. His voice was distant. "If you keep scrolling, you'll get very detailed coroner's reports on them."

I looked up at him concerned and his eyes never looked up from staring off over Vale. After a few moments, I looked back at the scroll in my hands and nervously began to scroll down, stopping as I came across the first coroner's report.

"Why are all their names redacted if Julius Arc wasn't?"

"I don't know," Jaune answered, his voice still distant and quiet. "This report was written by Atlas Academy's Headmaster and is only viewable by Atlas Academy's Headmaster for…reasons," Jaune said after a slight pause, making it clear that he suspected he knew those reasons, "and yet, it was still heavily redacted. I don't know why they'd hide the names of dead people, especially when there's no one alive who cares to learn them."

"But you do," I pointed out gently.

"They didn't know I was alive when they wrote this report," Jaune countered back softly, taking care not to lash out at me. "My mother must have had me in that four-year gap where we were hidden."

"If that's true, when…when it happened, you would have been—"

"Four."

"H-How…how did you…?"

"Escape?" He asked, finally looking up to meet my eyes, confirming that was what I was asking. Jaune broke eye contact and looked away before he could answer. "I guess there was an Unknown #6 that took me away."

Unsure what I should say, I let the words hang in the air as I thought about what sort of life Jaune would have had to have lead to survive this long, especially if there was something out there hunting him. Stakes like that could weigh down on someone's soul, especially if they grew up knowing nothing else. The fact that he was here at Beacon at all suddenly seemed like a small miracle, and the details of his past started to fall into place a little better.

With Jaune still staring out over Vale, I took a moment to appreciate him a little differently. He was still clearly hurting, but he gave off more of a hardened and tragic aura than he had before. Where I had come here confused and scared that he was a murderer, I now saw him as more of a victim, a survivor; someone who shouldn't be alive, and who should hate the world. And yet, he doesn't. Sure, things were rough with him at the beginning of Beacon, but no one who's been through this should be able to adjust to Beacon's lifestyle. The fact that he's here, and he's trying, are much more remarkable that I gave him credit for.

"T. Arc?" I asked, finally breaking the silence by reading off the name on the first coroner's report. "What does the T stand for?"

Jaune looked back over at me again with a sad, almost ashamed, look, holding it for a few seconds before shrugging.

"You…don't know their names?"

"I just learned their initials," Jaune answered, indicating that he learned them when he read through the same file. "I've narrowed down that T was my father, mostly because he was the only male. Couldn't tell you a single thing about any of them that isn't in those files…"

"You don't remember anything?" I asked, my voice on the edge of breaking.

"I was four," Jaune defended, his voice cracking slightly. He took a breath to steady himself. "Anything I might have remembered, I'm sure that I've repressed by now. My only memory was… I remember blonde hair. The files at least confirmed that all the bodies that weren't burnt were blond like me. We had a very distinct look."

Again, unsure of what to say, I decided on nothing, instead going back to the files on the scroll.

"These are…horrifying," I stated absently as I began reading through the first coroner's report, the one over Jaune's dad. The report indicated that his death was caused by being impaled through his upper spine by a curved spike, speculating that it was a pick-axe or the back of a war-hammer. His right lung had been collapsed by a combination of blunt force and spikes, likely a flail or spiked mace. The tendons in his left ankle were severed, his right thigh had a deep slice, his left eye had swollen shut, and chunks of hair had been ripped from his head. On top of all that, there had been a dust round fired into his forehead post-mortem, with the report stating that it was done likely to ensure death.

And the pictures included for documentation were thorough. It made Jaune after our spar look like he scraped his knee. They weren't something I could bear to look at for long.

"Yeah," Jaune mumbled, unsure of what else to say. "It's ordered by age, so the first few are rough because they were old enough to fight back. After that, it's not as…bad," Jaune trailed off awkwardly, likely aware of how strange it felt to consider being charred alive as a better death.

Jumping down a few pages revealed him to be correct, as those reports were much shorter, mostly because there was less to tell. Each of the burnt bodies were significantly smaller than the 'fighters' who had died outside the building, which made it even harder to read their reports. Any thought of a more merciful death was wiped out when I read that each of them had slices and notches in their ribcages, suggesting that they had been killed with a blade prior to being burnt. It seemed that burning the place down was just to confirm their deaths, much like what had been done to the ones outside.

"Why are these two reported together?" I asked Jaune, showing him the joint report for the twins, V and J-O Arc.

"As far as I can tell, they were both close enough in size that Atlas doesn't know which one was which," Jaune answered. "They were both around ten years old anyways, so I doubt it matters much."

"Except that one of them took their own life," I pointed out softly, reading through the file further. There were the remains of a dagger still in the torso of one of them, and the coroner commented that the upwards angle of the dagger indicated that it was self-inflicted. Given the chaos and pain surrounding her, it would be hard to hold such a choice against her. It was possible she held out until it was clear that she was alone with her assailants.

Would I have had the resolve to do that?

"Yeah, it seems like I come by my stubbornness honestly," Jaune said darkly, chuckling at the end to signal that it was an attempt at humor. "Her death was on her terms…"

More than anything, the way Jaune trailed off scared me. It almost sounded like he was inspired by the idea.

Without even thinking about it, I walked over and wrapped myself around Jaune from behind, resting the side of my head at the base of his, with my arms wrapping underneath his, which were still gripping the railing in front of him. I wasn't sure if I was doing so to help him cope with how horrible those files had been, or to help me.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked softly, deciding that I wasn't very good at saying comforting things, and was better off with this more direct route.

"No, I…" Jaune trailed off, and I could feel him chuckle softly to himself and drop his head down. "I think you're already doing it."

I was glad that I was wrapped around Jaune from behind, because it meant that he couldn't see me fighting not to get flustered. That is, if he didn't notice me tighten my grip on him.

"You got this idea from Ren at dinner, didn't you?"

"…shut up."

Jaune's POV

"Alright Jaune, care to explain why you're bringing me into the forest, alone?" Nora asked loudly. "Or are you just going to keep saying that it's a 'surprise' for me?"

"Well, it is a surprise for you, so don't see a problem," I answered back, leading us out of the tree line and into a clearing. It was the same clearing that Yang and I had met Raven in, but that was only because I knew how to find it easily. "We're here, by the way."

Nora walked on ahead and scanned the clearing, noticing that there was only one thing in the field of grass, and giving me a strangle look for it.

"A watermelon?"

"On a pike," I added on. It held the watermelon about six feet in the air, and looked as unassuming as a mounted watermelon could. "Go ahead, shoot it."

Nora gave me an extremely strange look, before cautiously shifting Magnhild into a grenade launcher and aiming at the 'target.'

"Wait!" I yelled out from right next to her, making Nora jump and nearly swing at me. "I forgot something."

Nora gave me a flat yet suspicious look as I pulled out my scroll and summoned my locker. We waited for about thirty seconds before it landed to our side. I strolled over and opened it, revealing a lot of ammunition and explosives.

"Uh, where'd you get that?"

"Do you remember when we all stocked up in the supply room before our mission?" I asked leadingly.

"I remember Qrow and Winter having a hard time keeping you from taking everything," Nora answered back sharply, with a fair bit of sass. "Even though you don't even have a gun."

"Right, which meant they didn't really pay attention to Beacon's resident weaponsexual speedster…"

"…Ruby?"

"Bingo," I answered, giving Nora finger guns to accentuate the point. "We agreed to split the haul evenly."

"Should I ask why you need dust, Mr. 'my swords turn into more swords'?"

"Well, I was going to use it for pirate business," I drawled out, cutting my eyes at Nora, "but I decided this was just as good of a use for them. Here," I called out, tossing Nora an ice round for her grenade launcher. "Use that."

Nora caught the cannister and loaded it quickly, all the while giving me a suspicious look. Clearly, she was not used to someone else being the spontaneous and reckless one.

With her weapon loaded, Nora took aim at the watermelon, closing one eye and tilting her head to line up the shot, before dropping her weapon back down to her side once more.

"Okay, what exactly are you trying to do?" Nora asked suspiciously, with maybe a hint of stress in her voice. "Is this about…what I said at dinner last night? I'm telling you guys, I'm okay. You were right, I just needed some time alone to think."

"And having Ren wrapped around you didn't hurt, either," I pointed out.

"Care to run that by me again?" Nora threatened teasingly while pointing her weapon at me, her cheeks just barely tinged red.

"I said, melting into Ren's tender touch was the antidote to all your problems," I responded, doubling down with a grin.

Nora yanked her weapon to aim at my head and pulled the trigger, causing me to flinch and throw my arms up, my Semblance activated to protect me. Nothing happened.

"Safety's on, idiot," Nora called out, her cheeks more flushed than before. "Is that really why we're out here, though?" She asked, a little disappointment in her expression.

"Nah, I've been meaning to find some excuse to hang out with you for some time now. I'd be a pretty crappy team leader if I only did things with Pyrrha and Ren, after all…"

"There are a lot more reasons that you could be a crappy team leader," Nora quipped.

I pushed on, letting her have that one for free.

"And I figured that everyone is probably stepping on eggshells around you, trying not to upset you after last night…"

"Yeah," Nora confirmed softly. "It's sweet, but it's—"

"Annoying."

"Yes."

"I figured that after last night, what you could really use is a distraction." And for someone to treat you as if you were still the same person. "If I'm right, then go ahead and shoot the watermelon."

"…and what's going to happen if I do?"

"You will be sufficiently distracted, that's for sure."

Nora gave me a sideways glance, but the ghost of a grin began to creep up on her face. She turned back towards the watermelon and aimed Magnhild, lining up her shot for a second and not hesitating to pull the trigger.

The dust grenade struck near-center, exploding in a cloud of ice that was immediately shattered and blown apart by the fire dust that I had completely filled the watermelon with—the back half of the watermelon had a hole and I had hollowed it out, filling it with a lot of fire dust.

The resultant explosion was a massive display of fire that sent snowflakes shooting off in every direction. The flakes sparkled and shone as they reflected the explosion's light, creating one of the more photogenic explosions I've ever seen, with just a dash of watermelon bits thrown in for good measure.

"Okay, not bad."

"Just wait."

As the explosion winded down, the makeshift powder trail I had created leading down the pike and back into the trees ignited, and a few moments later, several smaller explosions spread throughout the tree line went off nearly simultaneously, with a mix of fire, ice, and lightning dust splintering over a dozen trees.

"Man, I sure hope that all that noise doesn't attract any Grimm," I drawled, tossing Nora a belt of grenades and shooting her a coy smile. "It sure would be unfortunate to have to slaughter some, huh?"

Nora caught both my meaning and the grenades, shifting her weapon into a hammer and her lips into a grin.

"Yeah. That sounds awful."

Closing Thoughts: Oh, I pulled a sneaky on ya! For the Atlas file, I actually wrote out the whole thing with real information that could very well contradict what Raven has told Jaune. Sadly for him, Ironwood saw fit to redact it, even if no one else was going to see it; he is a prudent man, after all, and quite thorough.

This means that there does exist a copy of that file that is not redacted, and I'm thinking that if you guys are still interested by then, that I might release it as part of an epilogue once this story is concluded. We're still a ways off, but I already pretty much have my epilogue planned out; now if only I had everything between then and now...

The names of some of the Arcs are semi-significant, or so I am contractually-obligated to tell you; I borrowed my sister's name for Jaune's mother, and she wants my readers to be made aware of that significance. To get back at her for this, I gave her a terrible, no-good, terrorist ('s name) for her Arc husband, and I even got to use a color as a name. You won't need three guesses for that...

I will give a key to the redactions for everything that Jaune would understand: Wiz- - - means Wizard (Ozpin's incarnations), Wit- - - is Witch (Salem). You can see why Ironwood would redact this information, even if no one outside of the Atlas military could potentially access it. Some of the other redactions aren't necessary from a spoiler perspective, per say, but from Ironwood's perspective. Example: the two agent's that come across the burnt building are "Beacon's agents," but Beacon is redacted because Ironwood wouldn't want to put on paper a link between the Wizard and Beacon; someone could figure out Ozpin's secret if that was leaked.

This all assumes that Ironwood has been in the loop for at least 15 years or so (it's been 14 since Jaune's family died), which I think isn't a stretch. Ozpin calls him an 'old friend' often throughout the early volumes.

Oh, and Pyrrha. So close. You almost started asking the questions you need to, like 'am I too distracted to see that Jaune and I have different views on the world?' I can't blame her for that file distracting her; it was meant to be a shockingly dark thing, and seeing Jaune react that way for the first time would only have made things worse.

Also, that intro quote is 100% stolen from the Penguins of Madagascar Christmas short from the Madagascar DVD. I have no shame in alluding to great works of art.

V6 has been bowling forward full steam ahead on the exposition and revealing a lot of stuff about Ozpin and Salem. Fortunately, all of this is information that takes place so far in the past that, for the purposes of this story, not much is changed. The stakes in the show have not changed, just been given context, and none of my plans for this story have been compromised.

Of course, if information in the show did end up contradicting how I've been building this story, that would be the point at which I would say "yeah, this is a Fanfic, we're going to continue as planned." Technically, all fanfics are AU, so...

Comment of the Week: by A reader (guest)

"Really like the plans within plans aspect of this story. Jaune is playing *so* many parties, ranging from authority figures like Oz and Ironwood, criminals like Roman, his friends, and of course, potential romantic partners.

And yeah, the whole situation with Pyrrha is messed up. I just get the feeling that Jaune tolerates her because he *has* to not because he *wants* to - especially after she tried to kill him back in the first spar. If Pyrrha wasn't a key component to his plans, Jaune wouldn't be so forgiving or at the very least, letting thing slide so easily. IIRC, in the reconciliation chapter, Jaune says in his internal monologue that whatever he's doing is ultimately for his freedom.

Going to be interested in how badly Jaune reacts when he finds out Pyrrha has been going behind his back."

My preferred analogy is that Jaune is trying to juggle balloons while riding a unicycle across a tight-rope, except beneath the tight-rope is an alligator, he's wearing pants made of steaks, the unicycle is on fire, the tight-rope has been greased, the balloons are actually filled with gasoline, and someone is shooting him with paintballs.

I'll let you decide which one of those corresponds with which things Jaune is facing down. Personally, I think Raven would be the one shooting him with paintballs.

As far as Jaune's feelings towards Pyrrha, I haven't been trying to make it feel as if he merely tolerates her. My goal was for Jaune to clearly build up an attachment for his friends during the first two volumes' events, that way he's grounded and has stakes going into V3. Being forced to beg your way back into Raven's service isn't as bad if Jaune didn't care to leave Beacon anyways. As such, Jaune does like Pyrrha and wants to grow closer as partners, but he doesn't exactly see Pyrrha the way Pyrrha sees him. That in and of itself is an awkward situation, and the fact that Pyrrha is clearly the biggest holdout when it comes to his past is discouraging also.

He does recognize that if his plan to steal a Maiden is to work, he's going to have to change that.

If the Jaune/Pyrrha angle still feels weird, then I've got some real estate with which to work on it in the near future. V3's events center around Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha, with Yang and Pyrrha's plots related to Jaune, directly or indirectly.

Also, I get a lot of questions asking if Jaune is going to find out that Pyrrha is going behind his back.

Duh.
I do realize that it's been building in the background for a while, but that's because I didn't expect V2 to last so long.
Hell, Yang wasn't really supposed to find out about Jaune and Raven until, like, the ass-end of V3 at the earliest, but that had to go out the window because what we have now is so much better. Sometimes, it just be that way when writing: all your careful planning isn't as interesting as half-baked idea that pops into your head.

Anyhow, the real question is this: how long will it take Jaune to find this out, how will he find out, and how much damage might be done by then?

"T is for Turquoise Moonlight in the pale shade of dusk" - Turquoise Leaf

Oh, good. You're back. Yay.

Okay, so I just want you all to know, that the other day I made a horrible discovery.

For some reason, I thought to myself, "I wonder what sort of team I could make out of Turquoise?" After all, that is a color, and it has some decently strong syllable breaks in there. It would be challenging, I thought, because of the Q mudding things up.

But we have a character whose name begins with Q: Qrow.

Then I spelled it out.

Turquoise.
Tuh-err-Quio-se.
TRQS.

Taiyang. Raven. Qrow. Summer.

FML. Turquoise has the dream team coming for my ass. I hope Taiyang Entire Team Xiao Long doesn't impregnate me. That would be weird, being a guy and all that...