So, the internet yesterday offed itself. Fun times. Sorry for the delay and all, but I couldn't bring myself to rewrite everything that had been done already. In a rush, too. I wrote the second half yesterday luckily and just used a pen drive to transport it.

God, pen drives. It's been a while since I ever thought those were necessary.

Cover Art: Z-ComiX

Chapter 35

"Damn it!" Jaune cursed as he pulled himself out the reservoir and fell on his back on the bank. Water clung to his clothing, dragging him down, and the cool and relaxing depths called to him like a soothing lullaby. It would have been easy to lay on the bottom and forget all the chaos above.

Too easy.

Pulling out his mobile, he cursed again. While he may have been essentially waterproof, electronics were not. The thing wouldn't be working anytime soon. Probably not at all. "Shit!" No calling Ozpin, no making sure Ruby was okay. "Shit, shit, shit!"

Cussing up a storm didn't help as much as he thought it would, but it let him focus his anger, born of frustration, and that let him drag himself up out the water and stagger to his feet. He'd come out several hundred metres further down, away from Beacon. The spectral lighthouse burned in the distance. A quick glance up revealed a starry night sky, slightly overcast but otherwise normal.

"At least it's not a Nightmare. Could be worse, I guess."

The lilting tone of sirens in the distance pushed him on, forcing him away from the reservoir's bank and up a steel ladder onto the stone boulevard. The police must have called in someone jumping into the water. They'd be combing the area, either for a body or some sod dragging himself out. Someone soaked to the bone and looking all the more suspicious for it.

That was his call to get out of the area.

Beacon is out. I can't run the risk of taking the police back there, not to mention they might already be interviewing Ozpin. My apartment is burned to the ground and… that's it, really. I don't have all that many other options.

A hotel was possible but risky. If he showed up like this, there'd be questions. If the police then released a statement saying he'd jumped in the river, it would be a handy paper trail back to him, especially since he'd have to give a name at the hotel. Using his power, he strained the water out of his clothing, drying it at an accelerated pace and causing liquid to run down his body in rivulets to the floor. Even if it dried him, it didn't hide the evidence of his dishevelment. It would only buy him time on first glance.

Shoving his hands in his pockets and pulling his scarf down to show a little more of his face, he hunched his shoulders like an anti-social teenager would and stomped his way into the city. It was tempting to go back the way he'd come and act natural, but he wasn't sure that was a good idea. Ruby was the professional here and she was on the run.

"Can't call anyone for help. Can't get a taxi or hotel." He checked his wallet and winched. While some of his money had survived, a few notes had been reduced to putty. It wasn't just the water itself, but the fact he'd been moving through it at speed. "And I should really invest in a waterproof container if I'm going to keep doing this. Would have saved my cash and my phone. Ugh." He groaned. "Lessons learned."

As he stepped out onto the main street away from the boulevard, he paused at a road to watch two police cars scream by, lights flashing. They were on their way to where he and Ruby had been spotted. Moving in the opposite direction, he kept his head down and tried to act unconcerned, pushing through small patches of people out at night.

Ruby's old house might make a good place to stay – and a convenient way to meet her. The one he'd found her crying at after Yang died. It was abandoned and in disrepair, unlikely to be in use even by squatters, and there was a fair chance Ruby would head there herself. It was also far, far away from the Beacon, giving him some cover from the police sure to be swarming the area.

All I've got to do is avoid attention.

Ahead of him, a mist-like form half-wafted, half-stepped, out onto the pavement.

Jaune stared at it. "You've got to be kidding me…"

It was four-legged but moved on two. A large, lupine shape that reminded him of a werewolf. One of the more recent Hollywood ones that could run on all fours but also stand on two. It wasn't corporeal yet, not fully. People walked through it and the Grimm paid no attention to them in kind. It was looking for one who could perceive it, and who it could perceive in kind. An Awakened.

Him.

"How?" he hissed. "It's not a Nightmare."

The answer came to him a second later as he ducked into an alleyway and pressed his back against a wall, hiding. It hadn't been a Nightmare when he first Awakened, nor had it been the day or two after when he'd begun to see shadowy shapes and figures moving among people. If the Grimm only came out on Nightmares, Hunters wouldn't need to hunt.

Left unattended, it would roam about in search of prey. If it found any, it would attack. If it didn't, it would dissipate in time – probably during the day.

But there was a risk it could Awaken somebody.

Jaune's eyes fell to his side, to the machete hidden underneath.

No way. He wasn't as afraid as he had been before but going out there now would tell everyone where he was. What were the police going to do when they got a report of someone swinging a bladed weapon at thin air, shouting at the top of his lungs? They'd be all over him. If I could through the back of the alley and away, I can probably avoid it. Get away to Ruby's place and wait this night out, see if the police are less of a problem during the day.

It was the safest option.

The easiest…

Not the best.

If the Grimm found someone and caused them to Awaken, they were dead. Just like him on his first night when he'd found that body, their only chances for survival would be for a Hunter to be close and to intervene. That was his job, his responsibility. Ruby hadn't shirked it. She'd saved his life.

Yang wouldn't shirk it…

"Talk about timing." Jaune groaned, gritting his teeth. "Now, of all times? You couldn't have waited until I was somewhere less populated?"

Wait. That was it.

Looking out again, Jaune found the monster easily. It seemed interested in a group of women talking by a bus stop. None of them were Awakened; he knew because it didn't attack. It was looking at them in confusion, like a dog presented with something it had never seen before. Was one of them close to Awakening? Was one of them partially visible to it? Possibly. Wincing and clenching one hand into a fist, Jaune stepped out of the alley and began to jog towards them. Towards it.

The Grimm moved forward cautiously, eyes focused on someone in that group of three. It reached out a clawed hand, snout tilted to the side.

Jaune jogged into it.

Not into the Grimm, but its arm. Intangible to everyone else, it was very much the opposite to him and he grunted as he slammed into inhuman muscle and coarse fur. As Leviathan, he had mass and might aplenty, but here he was just a regular person. The Grimm hadn't been expecting it though and its arm was knocked aside.

Its eyes focused on him. Saw him.

"Rarrrrrggghhhhh!" it howled.

"Hm?" One of the girls turned. "Did someone hear that?"

"What? I didn't hear anything."

Jaune burst into a sprint. He pushed past one person and then another, ignoring their shouts and tearing his way out of the crowd, onto the main street and then across the road. Behind, lumbering beats of the Grimm giving chase echoed in his ears, the monster roaring and snarling as it chased after him first on its hind feet, then falling to all fours and moving so much faster.

I got its attention. Now to take it somewhere less visible.

Any old alleyway wouldn't do. Not unless it was deep. The high street was too bustling, cars coming and going. It was also where a lot of the beggars and homeless did their craft, begging in alleyways and outside nightclubs. Jaune looked back.

The Grimm was gaining, moving through pedestrians and obstacles without impact. At least most of them. One or two staggered, exclaiming in surprise as they weren't quite bowled aside as they would have been if it were real to them, but they were surprised by something. Felt something. Maybe a gust of wind or a sudden chill.

They're close to Awakening, he realised. The whole city is!

Storm after storm, unnatural occurrences like freak hurricanes, floods and buildings that bled – now combined with arson attacks and mysterious terrorists. The people were becoming suspicious, paranoid.

Open to new ideas.

Vale, and the people in it, was closer to Awakening than it had been when he first did. Leviathan had crossed over, appearing in the Quabbin Reservoir, if only for a moment. How many had looked toward the water that day and seen some indistinct shape? How many had been like the police officer who shot Yang and then died to the Grimm? In times of chaos and pain, people turned to religion, or so the saying went. Couldn't it work the other way around? Once you accepted God, you accepted Satan, devils and hell.

The Grimm weren't too far removed from that.

What would Ruby do? Probably kill it somewhere quiet, where she could fight and show her abilities without other people seeing and Awakening. If he controlled water with even a single witness, that was something that couldn't be explained away. They'd Awaken immediately. Turning off the high street, Jaune ducked down an intersecting road and sprinted on, pushing past a few more people with the Grimm in hot pursuit.

The docks were out thanks to the police, who had no idea how much danger they were putting everyone in. Eastfield was too far away. The park? The place where it had all begun? It wasn't too far from the docks itself, being his old jogging route. Jaune turned off onto it without thinking, crossing the road and glancing back, watching as a parked car suddenly earned a dent and was pushed aside by the Grimm. Nearby people shrieked in fear as, to their eyes, they saw a car mysteriously shunt on its, door caved in, and its alarm began to wail.

Even that was a risk of Awakening, if they couldn't explain it away. Jaune cursed and kept moving. The Grimm was becoming more real the more it chased him. It was coming into this world to hunt him and the risk was growing ever higher. Even if he wanted to stop and make sure those people were okay, he had to get it out of public.

A police car pulled along the road, responding to the disturbance and driving past him.

The stench of ash it left behind stopped him where he stood.

Cinder.

Cinder was in that car!

It trundled on without stopping – as far as he could see, with two people in the front, probably officers, and no one in the back. Jaune took a step forward, only to cry out as his vision was filled with big, black and monstrous fur.

The Grimm's arm caught him in the stomach and launched him back. He crashed through a trio of trash cans, scattering rubbish out onto the floor and earning wide-eyed looks from locals. "I tripped!" he screamed, lying through his teeth to justify his flight. "S-Sorry." Body aching, he was aware of the Grimm charging in. He ducked aside in time to dodge it, masking his sudden movement as a stumble.

The impact of it against the wall sent him rolling forward, selling the act better than he ever could.

"Shorry!" he slurred loudly, hoping it sounded convincing. "Too mush to drink!"

The police car was pulling up alongside the road accident. It was too far away to see their eyes, but the smell was unmistakeable. She was there. Not just threatening a person but fully possessing them. The soul inside one of those bodies had been devoured.

He still had the machete. His hand fell to the handle, caressing it. There was a hydrant nearby, too. One `accident` and he could kill her. Rob her of another body.

But which was it?

Did he dare risk killing the wrong person?

Did he risk the act resulting in retaliation, and a fire versus water fight taking part in a street full of people, Awakening every single one of them?

Damn it.

Angry tears in his eyes, Jaune whirled away. The Grimm gave chase. He was sure Cinder had seen it – she couldn't miss the Grimm, and she could smell him as easily as he could her. Deal with the Grimm now. Find Cinder later. What could she want in the-? Of course. If she can personally arrest Hunters, she can try and possess or frame them.

Why rely solely on instigating chaos in the name of the Hunters, when she could also influence the people investigating them? She could point them in the right direction, aim them at choice targets.

Fear ran through him.

Cinder knew who he was. She knew his name, his family, where he went to school, what he looked like and how to find him at almost any time of the day. Jaune looked back one last time, weighing that possibility against risking everyone there. What was to say the police hadn't already gone to his parents? What was to say his sisters weren't taken, or dead? Cinder didn't need evidence. She could just make something up and have him `brought in for questioning` then kill him. Sure, her body would be arrested, but she could commit suicide to scrap it, then find and use another.

Ozpin had to know. Or Ruby.

Cinder had to die.

Again.

The treeline of the public park was approaching. Stone gave way to grass, then a flowerbed that he charged through, then a walking path and finally into the wooded area itself. The trees were sparse on the outskirts but even those caused the Grimm to slow in its path. Further in, along the routes he liked to jog, the woods were thicker. Denser.

Moisture on the air drew him towards a pond in the centre. He turned to the left, ducking low as a claw swiped overhead. One hand on a tree trunk, he pushed on and held his arms before him, bursting through thick brush and into a small clearing beside a pond with two benches beside it. There was a single old man there throwing bread into the water.

Jaune tore out his machete and brandished it before the old timer. "Get going or I'll kill you!"

The elderly man leapt to his feet, cried out and fled with haste belying his years, throwing his wallet behind him as a distraction. Jaune only had a second to feel guilty before something struck him from behind with the force of a truck. He was thrown forward, crashing down into the lake and sending fish scattering in every direction. Through the water, the hazy shape of the Grimm shimmered as it lumbered forward, splashing down into a pond that was less than two metres at its deepest.

But it was still water. His Domain.

It rushed and swirled around him, coalescing into a whirling torrent that stopped the Grimm in its path. It lashed out and down, almost trying to dig through the water that frothed up and over it. It didn't understand, or couldn't, and that proved fatal. The water that had been frothing before it rushed up suddenly like a tsunami, crashing down and onto the beast and carrying it into the water.

Currents that came from nowhere swept it down and held it there, while water rushed in from every angle, pushing through its nose and mouth and into its body. The beast didn't suffocate, however, even after two minutes of that.

It's not real, is it? In our world, it's just a soul. Like when ours is in theirs. It doesn't need to breathe.

That was why guns were so useless against them – no organs to shoot. Sure, bigger guns would tear off chunks as good as a cleaver ever would but smuggling an M60 under one's coat wasn't exactly subtle. Drawing out his machete, Jaune urged the current to bring him closer, and to hold it down flat.

It fought against him. Its muscles were powerful – or whatever it had instead of muscles, soul-juice maybe. Jaune had to struggle past that and bring himself over its chest, where he raised and brought his machete down. Swinging through water was as slow as one might imagine, but when you could control it, there were ways around it. Starting by surging water behind the blade to make it swing faster, he soon shifted to making water part before it, creating what was as close to a vacuum as he reasonably could. It dragged the blade down, helping it bite into flesh.

Down and down, he hacked, slicing away like a Hollywood slasher going at a cheerleader. Water bubbled and thrashed above him and his hand, and the machete, would leave the water occasionally, then come splashing back down to carve into its neck.

Sever the head and the thing would die? Zombie logic seemed more than enough for now.

Its claws buffeted him as he worked, but much like him, it couldn't generate much force underwater and it was like a someone swimming into you by accident, enough to distract him but little more. He worked the machete up and down, again and again, until the beast began to slow and tire. Even then, he kept at it, not stopping until he'd worked through the last bit of gristle and flesh. The snarling, lupine, head fell to the side, pushed to the bottom of the pond by the raging current.

Moments later, the body began to break down into motes of black dust, wafting away unnaturally – against the current, no less – and vanishing a few seconds later. Until it was only him and his machete stuck on the bottom, avoided by all the fish.

I did it. I… I actually did it. And without making anyone Awaken.

He'd done what Ruby had for him, what Yang had for others. Pride welled up inside him but was doused quickly as the situation with the police and Cinder came crashing back down. Pushing off the bottom of the pond, he surged up to the surface and broke through, thumbing his scarf. There was no one around and he left it down, trudging to the shallows and then up onto the bank.

Exhausted, both physically and emotionally, he collapsed into the wooden bench by the pond. He even tossed some of the bread the old man had left into the water.

The fish weren't biting.

/-/

It was a thoroughly exhausted and bedraggled Jaune that made his way into the abandoned house of Ruby's parents. Vines and flowers had begun to take it again, a remnant, perhaps, of her power, for he knew she wasn't inside. Her smell wasn't there. He let himself in by pushing through the plant life and standing in the foyer, then making his way up the creaky stairs, if only so that he'd have warning if anyone – or anything – entered behind.

He hadn't come across any more Grimm since the one in the park. Plenty of police, though. They were out in force and all making their way toward the Reservoir. Without his scroll and with the house understandably lacking a working computer or TV, he had no way to know what was going on or if Beacon had been found and taken.

What was he going to do if it had been? If Ozpin and the others were captured, soon to be killed by Grimm while unable to defend themselves? Was he supposed to save them? Storm the police department and fight against armed men and women of the law?

That was what Cinder probably wanted.

A powerful smell hit his nostrils. His muscles tensed, then relaxed in a heavy sigh.

Flowers. Rotting flowers.

He could pick out Ruby's actions – how she, too, paused, scenting him. How she continued after, content with who she'd found and happy enough to enter the house. The dead vines beneath him grew, sprouting bright flowers that reached up and then wilted, curling and dying around me in a matter of seconds.

With a creak, Ruby made her way up the stairs and to the room he was in.

"Ruby, I'm glad you're-"

Blood. Blood all over her.

"God, Ruby. Are you hurt-? Did they shoot you?"

"I'm unharmed. This isn't mine."

That didn't do as much for his nerves as he might have liked. Ruby looked like she'd come walking out an abattoir. "Then whose is it?"

"An officer's." She grimaced and then quickly said, "And no, I wasn't the one who killed him." She made her way over and slumped down beside me, drawing her knees up to her chest. "They were persistent. Too persistent. Ran me straight into some Grimm, and then saw it."

"Awakened? Just like that?"

"The timing was almost too convenient," she agreed. "Someone knew she was about to Awaken and sent her after me. When she saw it…" Ruby shook her head. "I ran in to try and kill it, but she panicked and shot at me instead. I had to dodge. By the time I got back on track, it was too late. Stupid," Ruby hissed. "Why would you shoot the person with that thing coming at you?"

I grimaced. "The officer died, then?"

"Her throat torn out." Ruby made a slit-throat motion. "I tried to save her. It's why I'm covered in so much blood. I thought I could staunch the bleeding but… I might have made it worse."

"It gets worse?"

"It does when someone finds you over the body of a dead policewoman trying to stop her bleeding to death. They couldn't see the dead monster, so all they saw was me, her dying and my scythe, which just so happened to be covered in blood."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what that looked like. "Shit."

"Yep. There goes any hope of convincing people we're on the good side." Ruby sank down. "Go me."

"You didn't-"

"I did mess up, Jaune," she said. "Please don't try and sugar-coat this. I'm wanted for murder."

"Did they see your face?"

"No. Thankfully. But it doesn't really matter. They'll be hunting for someone that matches my description. That's going to make life pretty difficult, especially when they find out there was a girl who signed up to stay at a certain apartment block, like, one or two days before it was burned down by terrorists. Terrorists she's allegedly a part of."

"Shit. That's bad. And Ozpin signed for you. Wait, do you know what's happening at the Beacon!?"

"Hm?"

"My phone died. I can't check the news at all."

"Oh." Ruby drew out hers and flicked through to a news page which was being updated real-time. "Terrorist attacks, sightings, murder." She grimaced. "Two people resisting arrest and… oh, shit."

"What!?"

"Ten arrested so far. Two killed."

"Kill-!? Why would the police shoot them!?"

"Think about it," Ruby said. "They come across a madman waving a cleaver around and ignoring all efforts by the police to calm them down. The man won't listen to them and keeps making aggressive gestures. Suddenly, he lunges."

"And is shot. Fuck."

The Hunters couldn't not fight or they'd due, but they couldn't surrender to the police either or the Grimm would cut them down right there, and the police would all see someone spontaneously torn to pieces in front of them. Instant Awakening risk.

"What's going to happen to those arrested?"

"They'll be kept in cells for certain. They'll likely die there due to `suicides`." Ruby made air quotes with one hand. "I don't see Ozpin on the list or any mention of the Beacon. And I don't think anyone would give the others away. Ozpin is going to be furious."

"I'm furious," Jaune hissed. "I smelled Cinder. She's among the cops."

Ruby's head jerked to his. "One of her agents?"

"No. Her. The stench was too strong to be anything else. She's walking among the police force right now."

"Damn it." Ruby cursed and put her phone away. "That's bad. Real bad. We can't kill her or we confirm everything and the whole country will be up in arms. But if we let her go free, she can do whatever she wants."

"She knows my name," he said. "And where my family live."

"She doesn't know where Ozpin is," Ruby said. "If she did, we'd have faced a raid before we could do anything. Ugh." Ruby gripped her head. "I don't know what to do. She's outmanoeuvring us at every turn. I – I have to stay here," she decided. "I can't go back to Beacon. It's too risky if someone sees me there. I'll talk to Ozpin and explain it."

"What about me?"

"I don't know, Jaune. You have to go to school, people will notice if you don't, but you'll almost certainly be followed afterwards. Maybe you shouldn't go back to the Beacon either."

"Then I'm essentially homeless."

"You could stay here?"

"I appreciate the offer, but your house is lacking a few amenities. Like, all the amenities. Running water among them. I can't bunk with friends, either. Even if Nora's parents would allow it, I'd be drawing Cinder to her."

"The mall?" Ruby suggested. At his look, she expanded. "It's where most homeless people sleep."

"I… was kinda hoping for a suggestion that didn't leave me homeless."

Ruby shrugged apologetically. To be fair, she was distracted enough as it was with what had just happened, so he let it go. He needed a new phone, a new home and, possibly, some way of staying hidden from Cinder. All of those were going to be difficult when she could just point the police at him with some excuse of having found some evidence, then have him followed.

He wasn't strong here like he was in the Grimm world. Cinder had chosen to strike at him where he was weakest, as befitted her. If he had Leviathan's body, he could just crush all opposition before him and do as he wished. None could enter his Domain.

Jaune groaned.

"What is it?" Ruby asked.

"I think I've figured out where I'm going to be staying from now on."

/-/

To put it lightly, the sewers under Vale stank. They stank really bad. The water was still water and he could control it, but there was no denying it was contaminated and horrid, even where he was on an outlet, where the water was `apparently` clean enough to re-enter the water system.

He called bullshit on that. American propaganda. Even if it looked clean, his Grimm nose, not to mention his power, told him otherwise. There were traces of feces in that water.

Big traces.

"It's… homely," Ruby said helplessly, also squeakily with her fingers pinching her nose.

"It's bad, I know." Jaune sighed. "But it leads straight out into the reservoir, so I'll be safe at any time and able to escape. The smell is also bad enough to mask mine, and the fact I'm surrounded by water will mask it further."

"There is that," Ruby allowed. "I hope you don't expect me to join you."

"No. I'm not that cruel."

There were other benefits to living in the sewer, none of them hygienic or particularly pleasant. He could access it from just about anywhere, travel under the city if he had to and even lose any followers by jumping into the reservoir and using the currents to bring him to the pipe he'd clambered in through. Given that Beacon was out on the waterfront, he'd even be able to check in with Ozpin without leading anyone there. The only way someone could follow him was to be in the water with him, and he'd sense them the moment they tried.

A quick freak current and they'd be swept far away and safely thrown onto a bank.

"I need a phone to use – maybe multiple to avoid trouble – and also a watertight container for them. Some camping supplies, too."

"Air freshener," Ruby opined.

"And air fresher, yes. Other than that, it's… well, it's shit. But it's home."

"And this is better than the mall how?"

"It's safer. Cinder won't dare challenge me in my Domain."

"All hail Jaune, Lord of Poop. Long and nuggety shall he reign."

"Ass." Jaune sat on the dry – relatively so – patch of stone that marked the walkway beside the flow of water. It had been installed in the event of maintenance, though it didn't look like there had been much to speak of. "At least I can bring a gas stove down here and cook food. Your place is a fire hazard waiting to happen."

"Hm." Ruby sat with a wince. "This doesn't solve the big problem, though. You have school."

Jaune grimaced. "Yeah…"

"The police are going to be there. She'll find a reason. Or make one up."

"I know."

"She's coming for you, Jaune. It's you she fears. Or more specifically, Leviathan."

"Yeah."

"So…?"

"I don't know, Ruby. I don't know. But if she threatens my family…" His hand closed into a fist. "I'll do what I have to."

Ruby's phone beeped and she pulled it out and read the message. "Ozpin is calling a meeting," she said. "Two hours from now. There are people calling for us to storm the police station and to hell with what that ends up with us doing. People have friends and family members in those cells." Ruby closed her eyes. "If it were Yang, I'd be there right now, cutting through whoever dared get in my path."

They both knew what that meant, and what the end result would be. A bloodbath.

But if Ozpin chose to do nothing, to let those captured be kept until the Grimm killed them, he'd lose the support of many among the hunters, and risk fracturing everything he and they had worked for. Lose if he did, lose if he didn't.

Cinder had been busy.

"Tell him we'll be there," Jaune said. "And that we'll support him, whatever he decides."

Lord of Poop.

Cinder is back, again, like a bad rash. Except this time she's infiltrated the police. She's like a recurring boss in some twisted game. The one that keeps escaping through increasingly stupid means.

Actually, I'm now imagining her as Napoleon Bonaparte from Resident Evil 4.

Next Chapter: 9th June

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