Ozpin sat in his office watching the screen of his terminal intently as Glynda and Ironwood sat nearby in silence. Two days ago a team of students went out on a field trip to investigate the ruins of Mountain Glenn, a failed attempt by Vale to expand out it's borders. The trip on paper was to serve as a field trip as part of their education.
At least that's what two of them were led to believe. The truth of the matter was that one student, an "Agent in training" and his chosen Maiden candidate were sent in to hopefully follow up on a lead they had about the white fangs plot in Vale. One they had hoped could be stopped in its tracks.
It's been two days. for a trip that should have lasted barely the evening...
Ironwood broke the silence "I should consider informing Ms Schnee's family..."
Glynda spoke up "It's to soon James... Oobleck was with them after all."
"Oobleck was kept in the dark..." James countered.
"Give them one more day, then we'll make a public announcement of the missing team." Glynda glanced over at Ozpin. "That is standard protocol for Huntsmen. If a team is three days overdue, then it's time to plan the funerals for the lost."
Ozpin never took his eyes off the screen. on his screen he watched the grayed out names of Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Bartholomew Oobleck as he waited for them to light up to show they were back in range of the CCT network.
Elsewhere in the school Ruby sat with a forlorn look on her face as she thought of her missing friends and sister. Her team had a simple assignment near the school in light of Ruby's weapon still needing repairs after it's destruction at the hands of her unknown attacker a few days before.
Next to her sat Pyrrha Nikos who gently rubbed her partners back "Hey Ruby, it'll be okay, Your sister is part of one of our school's best teams, and Jaune is only second to you in leadership, he'll pull his team out no matter what happens."
Ruby sighed out "Yeah I know, I just can't take my mind off of it... The assignment was supposed to be at worst an overnight stay out in the wild and then return."
Nora and Ren looked at each other Nora spoke up "Ren and I once went a week out in the wilds alone, we turned out okay. I'm sure they are are going to be just fine."
Ruby still couldn't shake the feeling she had a couple days ago. The one where she felt like she wasn't going to see them again.
For the third time that evening Jaune got slugged in the face. he would have done something about it if he wasn't tied to a chair. Gritting through the pain he spit out blood onto the floor and looked at the large white fang guard standing in front of him and grinned through bloody teeth "My answer is still go fuck yourself."
"That's funny because we didn't ask you any questions Huntsman" Said the large White fang thug as he cracked his knuckles. "But since your so damn chatty, and you've been in here for half a day, maybe you could finally get around to telling us how many more of you are wandering around here?"
"You already got the only answer your getting out of me." Jaune chuckled out.
The larger White fang member leaned back and slugged him in the face hard enough to send his chair stumbling back and causing his head the hit the flower.
"Well that hurt." Jaune said to no one in particular as two of the White Fang goons lifted Jaune up off his back and back into a sitting position.
"Feeling more chatty now? Or do I have to send my ugly friend out to get a spare car battery and Jumper cables." The White fang member smirked as he spoke to him.
"Oh.. No... Anything but that, please, I'm begging you." Jaune said in a completely flat tone.
The white fang member nodded the two others out of the room and pulled up a chair in front of Jaune and sat on it. "You should consider cooperating with us Huntsmen, or else your not leaving this room alive." the White Fang thug chuckled "Well that was never really an option but I'll make your death a whole hell of a lot cleaner. I might even leave your corpse somewhere where they can find it."
Jaune heard someone outside of the room mention something about one of their outer patrols not responding back. He looked right into the face of the White Fang and said with a smile "Well that is mighty generous of you. I'll tell you what buddy, your right, I'm not here alone."
His captor spoke up "Well that's a lovely start young man, keep going and tell me more."
Jaune noted that he and this guy was alone. "You see, I'm actually leading a full team, were here looking for this very base. For the last several hours I've been listening to those assholes talk outside of the big plan involving that train I saw on those freshly rebuilt tracks nearby. What's going to happen now is that the second I get out of here I'm going to link up with my Team, and were going to stop you."
"I would love to see how you plan on doing that, your bleeding all over my floor and your chained to that fucking chair." The White Fang goon scoffed amused at Jaune.
"Well it's simple, I'm going to break your neck, take that knife strapped to your chest kill the two guards outside, sneak across the compound to where my gear is stored, then I'm going improvise from there because that's just what I'm good at." Jaune said matter of factually.
"Yeah well you forgot about how your currently chained to that chair." The White Fang soldier laughed.
"Actually no I didn't." He held up his very much free and scaled covered arms for him to see before he pulled the guard into a choke hold "I broke them when you punched my chair over."
2 days before...
"So that about sums it up for our briefing" Jaune said holding his scroll and reading from it while wearing his reading glasses. "Were going to pack for a two day expedition and-"
Weiss interrupted Jaune "Why two days? it's an overnight trip."
"Rule one of camping Weiss.." Jaune said with a smile.
"Carry twice as much as you think your going to need.." Weiss said nodding her head. As she loaded an extra pair of socks into her bag.
"Well if that's the case, Blake can you come help me get a few more ration packs for our trip?" Yang said with a smirk to Blake.
"Of course Yang, It'd be my pleasure." Blake said as she stood up.
As if on queue Yang and Blake stepped out of the room. Jaune caught on to this kinda quickly and said as he packed his box of dust into his bag "So there's something we need to talk about?"
"I had a talk with Ozpin the other day..." Weiss said flatly.
Jaune stopped loading his bag. "Weird, I normally hear about that sort of thing."
"Yeah I guess you would have... Gods Jaune you could have said something to me about it." Weiss said as she faced away from him still packing her own bag.
Jaune shook his head and stood up straight "No I really couldn't have…" Jaune turned around and rolled up his sleeve to show the small wrist scar "I have this thing in my wrist that would have told them if I did."
Weiss rolled up her own sleeve and showed Jaune where she had a similar scar now.
"Why did he bring you in?" Jaune asked "It wasn't because we hooked up."
Weiss walked over and sat next to where he was standing on his bed. "No it wasn't the only reason Jaune." Weiss shook her head "He wants me to take over the role of the Fall Maiden... As in right after this trip."
"Hell of an honor he's bestowing on you, but I can't think of who else he'd find for the Job." Jaune said with a half smile.
"Jaune I love you... But... He warned me that there was risks involved." Weiss paused and folded her arms around herself. "He said that there was a chance that this Amber girl. The previous Fall Maiden might partially... or completely overwrite my personality..." Weiss hugged herself tighter "This could kill the person I am now…"
Jaune exhaled out "Of course it wouldn't be risk free. That's just not that old bastard works." Jaune put an arm around Weiss and pulled her close. "I'll support any decision you make you know that right?"
Weiss smiled and rested her head on his chest. "It impacts us both! If it was just me I'd say yes in an instant, but..."
Jaune rubbed her back as he finished her sentence "Your worried what would happen to me if I lost you..."
"I'm worried that I will come out of this, and not be me anymore. I'm worried that you'll end up being the protector of my shell and the person that took it over. I'm worried about you having to spend the rest of your life knowing that the girl you loved died and your now the protector of her body's puppet master."
Jaune's stomach churned thinking about it. "I think I could do it." He looked at Weiss. "I mean if the roles were reversed. Because I know that even if I wasn't me anymore, that I would still be in someway helping protect the world." Jaune leaned in and kissed Weiss on the forehead "Granted I'd be willing to do it even if was just for you alone... So take that for what it is."
Weiss smiled and said "Just promise me that you won't mourn me okay?"
"I won't promise that." Jaune said.
"Please... Promise me that you won't bury yourself in your rage if I don't come out of this as me." Weiss said as she held his hands. "I can't do this otherwise, I won't be another dead girl you spend your days mourning over."
"Weiss your asking for to much..." Jaune said as he traced her thumbs with his own.
"I saw what losing your sisters did to you. It's not fair that you should go through that again, I don't care what it takes for you to not fall down that hole for me. I don't care if you sleep with half of the school to forget me." Weiss took his face in her hands as tears welled up in her eyes. "If I die... forget me, forget me with everything you have!"
Jaune broke eye contact and reached "It won't come to that. I don't care if I have to kill the Gods with my bare hands! It will not come to that!" Jaune stood up and paced.
"Stop thinking that way Jaune, eventually you're going to have to accept that you can't save us all." Weiss said with a sad look on her face. "I'm going to die someday, It might be in the field, it might be from old age... but when that time comes..."
"I promise..." Jaune said looking at the wall "Not to forget you... There's nothing in creation that would make me forget you... But I promise that if anything happens, that I will try to learn to live without you."
Weiss looked at Jaune and smiled a sad smile "I'll take it."
Oobleck greeted Jaune and his team at the bullhead bays an hour or so later, speaking at a pace faster than most would find comfortable he greeted the team "Students! Excellent your all ten minutes early, I am quite impressed by your initiative and enthusiasm in this exercise!"
"Well you wanted to get this show on the road. You haven't actually mentioned to us where this little trip is taking us." Jaune had a coy smile on his face when he asked with his travel bag slung lazily over his shoulder, he knew where exactly where they were going after all.
"Oh? Well that's quite surprising, I thought you were all informed already." Oobleck said a bit to quickly to be clearly understood. "We are going to no less than the spot of Vale's greatest failure in its history."
Oobleck took his glasses off to clean them "Students, we are going to Mountain Glenn."
Two days later...
Jaune Choked the life out of the White fang guard who struggled in his grip until his body went limp with a faint crackle from his neck. Jaune shook slightly as he lowered the now very much dead White Fang Interrogator down to the floor and pulled the man's knife from it's sheath on his chest.
"You were such a dick..." Jaune said quietly as he flipped the knife around in his hands. His team was breaking in to the Fang's base, and he needed to make life as easy for them as he could.
"I will not let them do this." Jaune said as he walked behind a yawning door guard with knife at the ready.
Elsewhere in the compound Roman Torchwick smiled as he watched the young Dust Eater work. "Well you will make my evening interesting won't you?"
So this chapter was a bit overdue due to some life issues regarding me needing to paint a room in my house my daughter drew on the walls in. so here we are almost two weeks after the last chapter. Just in time to kick off the Endgame of volume two.
The canon version of the Breach was... to not to put to fine of a point on it. Mediocre. It was built up as the culmination of two volumes of work for the White fang, and something like 12 students stopped the breach in about 15 minutes...
That is... absolutely *not* how I intend on playing the aspect of the story in Dust Eater. The Kingdoms are supposed to be scared absolutely shitless of the mere possibility of the walls of a Kingdom being Breached by the Grimm, and up to this point I'd like to think I did a fair job showing that the Grimm are something to be feared.
the Breach in V2 was 8 teenagers not even old enough to drink. Frankly dabbing on the Grimm as a threat, I never personally felt a sense of urgency, or fear during the breach. It was that sort of disappointment that kinda lead to me taking up the keyboard to write in the first place. Now here we are. So I'll say thanks for reading as allways, and I'll see you all next time.
