A Day to Remember Part 1

"Thank you" Jaune said, nodding to the hovering stylist that had just finished attending to his hair. The man, very obviously proud at having been thanked by the son of General Arc, smiled and bowed himself out of the room.

"One down" Jaune said, smiling resignedly at Velvet as he stood up and straightened his suit. "Just over a hundred to-"

"For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's a jolly good fellow~" Cardin sang in a deliberately off-key manner as he waltzed into Jaune's changing room. "For he's a jolly good felloooooow!"

"Which no one can deny!" Jaune joined in, automatically putting a smile on his face and a spring in his step. Looking at Cardin, he feigned surprise at the medical eyepatch he wore. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" Cardin said, attempting to tap the eyepatch nonchalantly and failing as he winced. "Just took a nasty hit during boxing practice yesterday."

"Ah" Jaune said, patting Cardin's shoulder sympathetically. "Damn shame. Have you gotten yourself checked for a concussion? You sure you're alright to attend this party?"

"I'm always fit to party" Cardin scoffed, grinning. "And yeah, I got checked. Apparently I got lucky and my aura took the brunt of it."

Now that's a shame... Jaune thought to himself, making a mental note to tell Yang to up her game. "Well, you ready for this shit? I know I'm not."

"Relax!" Cardin said, throwing his own arm around Jaune's shoulders and steering him towards the door. "You have the easy job, just go around and shake hands for awhile before getting super drunk and doing something embarrassing and newsworthy so you can get yourself excused early. I'm the one who has to clean up your mess."

"I guess that's true" Jaune laughed. "And I'd better get my kicks in now before I have to be your best man. I can only imagine the debacle you'll cause."

"I like the way you think, Jaune" Cardin merely laughed, knowing it to be true.

"Ah, one second" Jaune said, pausing by the door and looking over his shoulder. "Velvet, take my calls for me, will you? Let me know if something important comes up."

Velvet nodded and caught Jaune's cellphone in her cupped hands, bowing as the two boys left the room and closed the door. She let out a deep sigh and leaned against the window sill, glancing up at the ceiling. She knew why Jaune wanted her to sit here and play the waiting game, even though she could be following him around the party. To amuse herself, she debated back and forth about which was worse, sitting behind and waiting to do a job that might never happen, or going out into a detestable environment to pander to the crowd and maintain a lie. She had to admit, it was a tough call.

Jaune felt the vibrations of heavy bass before he heard the music proper, and he steeled himself for the inevitable wall of sound that assaulted his ears as he stepped out of the back hallway and onto the dancefloor. A quick glance around told him that there were perhaps half a hundred guests of similar station to his own, another half hundred at least one step below him on the social ladder, and about twenty servants either circulating with drinks and appetizers, manning the bar, or attending to their employers' needs. DJ Deadbear with his iconic black bear hat and suit presided over the dancefloor, and he nodded to Jaune as he and Cardin emerged. Jaune nodded back, and DJ Deadbear turned down the music as Cardin jogged up to the table.

"Ladies and gentlemen" he proclaimed with the aid of a microphone. "Fellow socialites and trust fund children, I present to you the man of the hour, Jaune Arc!" Jaune waved politely as the crowd clapped and cheered.

"And so it begins..." he muttered, putting on a polite smile and reaching out to shake the hand of the first guest that approached him. "Yes, thank you for coming..."

[Vale PD]

"Sir" Ren said, saluting as a somewhat disheveled General Arc burst into the barracks that the VCT officers shared.

"All here, good" Damien said, instantly drawing the attention of Neptune, Sage, and Yatsuhashi. "Listen up, just now Qrow Rose has been responsible for obstruction of justice and potentially treason. As such I have issued an APB and warrant for his arrest." He looked around as the VCT officers, now joined by a recovered Coco, glanced at each other.

"He is a highly dangerous individual, and almost as well versed in tactics as me" Damien went on. "Coco, you and Yatsuhashi will lead a SWAT raid on his home. I highly doubt he's there, but dig up whatever you can find anyway. Lie, you will go to Jaune's bachelor party and act as his personal bodyguard until Qrow is apprehended. Your assistant, Nora, will do the same for Miss Schnee. I don't want Qrow taking hostages."

"Understood" Ren nodded, already pulling out his scroll to notify Nora of the new assignment.

"Vasilius, Sage. You'll be with me" Damien continued. "You have five minutes to gather your gear and meet me on the rooftop. Any questions?" There was a universal shaking of heads. "Then hop to it!"

As Damien stormed out and the other officers began scrambling to get their gear in order, Ren calmly rose and straightened his uniform. He hadn't thought to bring a dress uniform with him, and he didn't have time to go rent a tux. Still, his uniform was clean and at least somewhat classy, and he tapped out a command on his scroll for his hoverbike to be waiting for him in front of the Vale PD. He had a party to attend.

[Dressing Room]

"Hel-" The usual greeting was barely out of Velvet's mouth when Ruby's frantic voice exploded in her ear.

"Velvet? Where's Jaune?!" Ruby demanded, a furious clicking noise faintly audible in the background.

"At his party" Velvet replied, taken aback. "Why?"

"Party?" Ruby said, confused for an instant. "Okay, good. Keep him there, don't let him leave!"

"He wasn't going to... Hey, what's going on? Ruby?" Velvet asked as the phone beeped twice and went silent, the result of Ruby cutting the call. Perplexed, she selected Ruby's name from Jaune's contact list and hit call.

"C'mon..." she muttered, tapping one foot impatiently against the ground as the call tried to connect.

"We're sorry, the number you ha-" Velvet instantly hung up and scrolled down to Yang's name.

"Go" Yang replied almost instantly, her voice a little stuffy and mechanical.

"Yang, what's going on?" Velvet demanded, dead serious. "Ruby called and gave no details."

"Damn" Yang swore. "I'll give you the short version. Qrow lost his shit and said a few too many things he shouldn't have in front of Damien. We're not certain, but our whole group could be compromised."

Velvet's face went deathly pale as her active mind instantly grasped the fullest and worst possible implications of that statement. She was already starting to move towards the door before she replied.

"I'm telling Jaune" she stated, shouldering the door open and glancing down the hall.

"That's not the best idea" Yang replied.

"Why not?" Velvet asked, her stride lengthening.

"He needs to be able to deny all involvement with us" Yang explained. "Unless he's caught red-handed, he will survive any scandal, and someone needs to be there to take care of the faunus we've already saved."

"So what?!" Velvet demanded hotly. "I keep this from him, and tell him later that his friends are all arrested or worse?"

"I hate to say it, but yes" Yang said. "That's exactly what you'll do."

"No!" Velvet said as the door that would take her to the party floor came into view. "I'm not giving you all up!"

"You WILL" Yang stated flatly. "We all agreed to this long ago, Velvs. Jaune will understa-"

"NO!" Velvet exploded, fighting the urge to kick the pushbar of the door as she put her weight behind it. "Just, just stay on the line, okay?!"

"Velvet-" Velvet never heard what Yang intended to say as she took the phone away from her ear and frantically swept the audience with her eyes. She needed to find Jaune now.

Somewhere inside her mind, she knew that what Yang had said was true, that someone needed to come out of this situation, and that Jaune was the most likely to do so. She knew that without him, the faunus already freed would be found and sold back into slavery, and that was if they were lucky. She knew all that, but she couldn't bring herself to do as Yang said and let go. They were her friends, her family. They had given so much to her and asked for nothing in return. They had picked her up when she was at her lowest and protected her from the vile world they lived in. She loved each and every one of them, and she wouldn't, couldn't, leave them to Damien's mercy. Jaune would have a solution, she was certain, he always did. And there he was, just ahead in the crowd, only a few more paces and...

"And then I said..." Jaune smiled, evidently in the middle of a joke.

"C-Call for you sir!" Velvet squeaked, thrusting the phone into Jaune's shoulder with both hands.

"Hmm?" Jaune said, his smile wavering for only the briefest of instants when he saw Velvet's face. "Excuse me, this seems important."

Taking the phone from Velvet, Jaune politely extricated himself from the crowd.

"Who is this?" he asked politely.

"GODDAMNIT!" was the violent response he received.

"Yang?" Jaune winced, somehow managing to keep a straight face. "What..?"

"Ugh!" Yang groaned, and Jaune could almost hear her eyes rolling back in exasperation. "Just stay at your party and play dumb!"

"I'm missing something here..." Jaune prompted, moving even further from the crowd.

"We're taking an unexpected vacation to Atlas" Yang said dryly. "Because Qrow let a few choice words slip when talking to your dad."

"Okay" Jaune said calmly. "Are you in any immediate danger?"

"No" Yang replied curtly. "Everyone's on their way to the airstrip right now. We'll be out of Vale proper in less than an hour. Out of Vytal territory in three."

"Good" Jaune said. "Best of luck."

Yang cut the call, and Jaune stood quite still for a few seconds as he processed this sudden turn of events. Part of him, the calm, logical part that his father had created and Qrow had perfected, told him to stick to the plan. He would go about his daily life as usual, react with stunned disbelief at Qrow's "betrayal", and covertly warn the faunus at the Lodge to erase their presence and move to the mountain caves. He'd be able to take over the property in a few months and…

As that part of his brain methodically went over the steps needed to handle damage control, the rest of his body seethed. He didn't have time to be mucking about with parties when his friends were in danger! All he had to do was find an excuse to go back to the dressing room, he could easily slip out and steal a car…

But what of his gear? Him storming off on a stolen vehicle, no matter how drunk he pretended to be afterwards, would still implicate him if he drove directly to Qrow, and then where would their efforts be?

Slowly, Jaune lowered the phone and dropped it into his pocket. He took a few breaths to level his head and center his thoughts. As much as he hated it, he knew the rational side of his mind was right. Now was not a time for brash action and heroics. He smiled, then worked his jaw a little and smiled again to ensure his facade was as impenetrable as possible. He turned, his mouth already forming gilded lies to smooth over the sudden phone call and resume the idle, empty conversation that dominated the party.

What stopped him wasn't a sudden change of heart, a flare of passion to disregard safety and security. It wasn't that he found himself wracked by indecision after he had made up his mind. It was an icy chill running down his spine as his eyes, sweeping the hall, found themselves staring directly into a pair of cold pink eyes framed by black hair and a military uniform.

Ren wasn't impressed by the party put on by the Arc family, he didn't allow himself to be. He had more important things to focus on than the pounding music or whatever high-class creations passed for food. A flash of his credentials had gotten him past the front door, security had been told he was coming. He took in the entire party with a quick sweep of his eyes. Revelers, caterers, servants and slaves passed his initial test. Nobody had any overt hostility, so he took a longer sweep back across the room. He paused as he caught a sky blue gaze, Jaune's, the young socialite frozen in the midst of delivering some sentence or other. He felt Jaune's gaze also hold onto his for the merest of moments, then the blue eyes slid to the side, and he resumed whatever conversation he had been a part of.

Shrugging, Ren made his way across the party at a measured pace. Jaune was in no immediate danger, and there was no need to unduly alarm the partygoers with a sudden dash for the most important person in the room. He politely refused a caterer who offered champagne, two invitations to dance, and another to join a very political discussion about the Atlesian military buildup. He was almost at Jaune's group when he noticed the faunus attendant at Jaune's side, hidden by both his body and his personality. She was quiet and very obviously nervous about something, but what bothered Ren the most was that she seemed somehow familiar…

Ren's concentration was interrupted by a sudden, gentle yet insistent cough at his side, and he turned to face its source. It was a tall, aging gentleman in a green and black suit. A cane was held immaculately in one hand as a tray of drinks was balanced on the other.

"Champagne, sir?" the man, clearly more important than a caterer, asked with a smile.

"I…" Ren began, intending to politely turn down the offer.

"Well, hello there!" Jaune's voice rang in Ren's ear, cutting off his reply. "Military? Wow, you must have been a last-minute addition. Here, Ozpin, give this man a drink on me, eh?"

"I don't drink" Ren stated firmly, a passable imitation of a polite smile on his face.

"You do now" Jaune insisted with a smile, swiping a glass from the tray and pressing it into Ren's hand.

"I'm on duty" Ren protested, attempting to put the glass back on the tray.

"Nonsense" Jaune scoffed, his grip on Ren's wrist surprisingly difficult to shake. "This is a party, everyone deserves to be a little drunk!"

"Sir" Ren said, as quietly and civilly as he could. "I was sent here on orders from your father to be your bodyguard."

"Yes" Jaune stated, his businesslike tone at odds with the smile on his face. "And you stand out like a sore thumb in those fatigues. People have already seen the security here, and they'll get suspicious of a sudden addition. So take the damn glass. I don't care if you drink it or pour it in one of the plants, but at least try to blend in."

Ren finally took the glass, somewhat surprised that Jaune had been so attentive to the mood. Perhaps it was because he had fled his father's home to work as a bartender, but Ren had assumed that Jaune wouldn't have been skilled at this sort of social event. He took the tiniest of sips from his champagne as he shadowed Jaune, the young socialite floating back to the conversation he had abandoned. He swept the room again, pausing for a moment when he realized that the rabbit faunus was gone. He was almost certain that he had met her before, somewhere…

[Vale Airspace]

"Nothing's on the scanner, sir!" the pilot called, his voice rising above the dull droning of the bullhead.

"Give it another sweep!" Damien ordered, grabbing the inside edge of the bullhead's side bay door. "He has to be here somewhere!"

The city shifted beneath him as the bullhead went into a long turn, giving Damien an excellent panorama of Vale's skyline. At the moment, however, Damien couldn't care less about the view. Somewhere down there, in the Red-Light District no doubt, Qrow was hiding. The old fox was waiting with sniper-scythe in hand for him to come and ruin both of their days.

Too bad, Qrow… Damien thought grimly, eyeing his VCT agents and the squad of scrambled SWAT officers sharing the back of the bullhead with him. We've come a long way since the War, we'll find your aura long before you have a chance to spot us, and then you'll be in my inescapable grasp…

"We're picking something up, sir" the pilot reported. "Rooftop, at our ni-"

"BRACE!" Damien roared, cutting the pilot off and throwing himself back from the door. He had seen the merest spark, a fractional second of reflected light from the roof, but it had been enough. He simply knew that it had been Qrow, and he cursed as he realized that the bullhead's turn gave the old sniper a perfect shot at the…

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the bullhead, and the ungainly craft shuddered for a second before the copilot took control. Then another explosion of glass, and the bullhead tilted into a steep nosedive. Damien threw himself forward, scrambling into the cockpit. The wind tore at his face through the ruined canopy, and Damien grabbed the controls from over the dead copilot's shoulders. Hauling back hard and to the side, he prayed. The bullhead's engines responded with a grand roar, and the whole craft strained as it fought to pull itself back up.

Damien grit his teeth as one side of the craft ground against the side of a building, shattering windows, walls, and supports through sheer force as the bullhead slowly stabilized. Damien gently eased the craft off the building, and held it level for a few moments. A thrill ran down his spine, and his heart sank. He noticed the tiniest of jolts as a booted foot touched the wing of the bullhead, a momentary blur of shadowy blackness that streaked over the craft.

"HOL-" Damien began, but was cut off by the sound of metal shearing through metal. The bullhead lurched as one of its engines suddenly found itself in multiple pieces, and Damien fought the controls as he heard Neptune yelling at the SWAT to bail out. He wanted to swear until his throat was raw, to order the men not to leave because to do so would put them right in Qrow's sights, but he never had the chance as the bullhead finally gave out, crashing headlong into a building.

Neptune was overwhelmed. In the span of just seconds, they had gone from hunter to hunted. Their bullhead was gone, crashing into a building even as he and Sage and the SWAT flared their auras and leapt for safety. He cringed as two of the SWAT jerked unnaturally in the air, crimson exploding from their chests. He and Sage hit the ground running, trying to direct the SWAT into a nearby building. Once inside, he felt the bile rise in his throat. Of the twenty men Damien had secured for this mission, fully half were already gone. Three dead or dying in the street, three more with injuries from the crash that prevented them from moving any distance, and four more that had vanished under the rubble from the wrecked building and bullhead. Neptune flinched as he felt a strong wind tug at his cheek and another of the SWAT collapsed, screaming as his leg crumpled beneath him.

"That came through the ceiling…" Neptune marvelled, his body moving on autopilot deeper into the building as his mind raced to play catch-up. "He shot through the ceiling…" His mind finally put two and two together, and he almost locked up.

"He's in here with us" Neptune breathed, finally finding time to retrieve his rifle from his back. The SWAT looked at him, silent. They, like Neptune, had all heard the stories. They had heard of the legendary Qrow Rose, the Reaper, the commando capable of eliminating entire bases by himself, the warrior who was untouchable in combat, the Demon that had single-handedly breached the stronghold of Fort Castle and brought it to its knees…

From two floors above, Qrow nodded in grim satisfaction. They were scared, all of them. Fear was good, it made them jumpy and erratic, slowed them down. He turned his attention from the SWAT below to the crash that was settling across the street. He knew Damien had gone down in the bullhead, but that was nowhere near enough to stop him. If he was lucky, Damien might have been forced to block the brunt of the collision on his aura, a devastating blow even for such a ridiculous man, but Qrow never relied on luck. Straightening up, he stowed his sniper-scythe beneath his cloak and flickered off, leaving black rose petals to drift lightly in the wind of his passing.

"Shut up..." Damien growled, pointlessly telling off the warning system of the bullhead that continued to insist that the dead pilots eject immediately. He shifted, causing a small pile of debris to slide off his body. A quick glance up told him that the bullhead was on the ground, which was better than having it stuck precariously in a building wall. He heaved himself back onto his feet, grabbing the edges of the ruined canopy and hauling himself onto the surrounding rubble.

He could feel the roiling tension across the street, the panic setting in among the SWAT. He growled in annoyance, quickly climbing the rubble and taking shelter in the building. He knew Qrow was here somewhere, using the confusion to his advantage as he had so many times in the past. He just had to remain calm, communicate with the Vale PD and scramble additional units. From there, he would contact the VCT and update the situation. With his priority clearance, he could have a full strike team at his disposal in just under an hour…

Damien threw himself to the side, landing in an awkward roll. Wind whipped across the back of his neck, a reminder that it could have been tempered steel instead. He rose in a crouch, his rifle leveled and his finger hugging the trigger. Before him stood Qrow, his black cloak twirling as he followed through on his deadly stroke. Even as Damien squeezed off a shot, he knew it was too late. An explosion of black rose petals met the flash of his gun, and again he threw himself aside. This time the scythe was much nearer its mark, Damien could feel the wind tugging at his fatigues. Letting the rifle drop, he unsheathed his sword. It was a simple weapon, simply one meter of forged steel, but all the more deadly for that. This was a weapon that, like Qrow's, had bathed in the blood of countless grimm. It had been hefted in victory and gripped tightly in defeat. It was as natural an extension of Damien's body as his own hands.

Few had ever witnessed a duel between elite huntsmen, and even fewer had the words to describe it. To call it brutal would be an understatement, for the participants came at each other with the bloodlust of alpha predators. To call it controlled would be a lie, for the only semblance of control was in the skill with which the participants conducted themselves. To call it terrifying would be accurate, if the speaker added every adjective they could think of to describe the utter, pervasive, soul-chilling violence that characterized such a fight. It was an experience few ever saw, but one that would never, could never, be forgotten.

Qrow, with his black cloak and burning hatred, fully embodied the Demon he had been called. His scythe sang through the air in endless arcs, a net of steely death that slashed, ripped, and bludgeoned away all who stood before it. An unstoppable force only improved by his signature mobility, blackened rose petals drifting in the wind of the duel like ashes upon a desecrated town.

Damien, the Devil incarnate, stood with his head held high and his blade ready. His defense was flawless, his counters vicious. He stood immovable, meeting Qrow's every advance with his own. His aura flared, a bastion of strength and healing and raw power that matched the pure destructive force he faced. White fire danced atop his blade and in his eyes, the spitting image of a crusader absorbed fully in his cause and his wrath.

The building they were in crumbled before their fury, indeed, there were few arenas ever built that could withstand the destructive force of two hunters turned loose upon each other. Walls were smashed, ceilings fell, rubble piled about them. The sun shone down uncaring through the dust and debris, impartially illuminating the duel below…

[Abandoned Airstrip, edge of the Red Light District]

Sun pulled up to the edge of the airstrip in a skidding stop, kicking his door open almost before the vehicle was done moving. He moved around to the back, where Blake was already opening the doors. Yang blazed past on her bike, making for the decrepit hanger not a hundred feet away. With the doors open, Blake and Ruby both grabbed a box of evidence and began jogging towards the hangar. Sun sighed and heaved Roman up onto his shoulders, slowly making his way after them. He could hear the slow, angry grumbling of the hangar doors as they protested at being opened.

His keen eyes picked out Yang's lithe form as she jumped from the catwalk, landing in a roll on the broad back of an old bullhead. Sun wondered how Qrow had gotten his hands on such a craft, but he had never gotten a straight answer. It was a hunk of junk, to be sure, but it still flew and that was what was important. Yang lowered herself into the cockpit as Blake and Ruby brought the evidence on board, and Sun took his mind off of Roman's weight by watching the engines slowly spin up with a slow, deep roar. While the sisters cajoled the craft to life, Blake came running back to help Sun. Together, they dragged the former criminal mastermind into the cargo hold.

Telling Blake to wheel Yang's bike inside as well (Yang would never forgive him if he forgot to save Bumblebee), Sun dashed back to the van. He did a quick check of the interior, nodded when he saw that they had left nothing behind. He pulled out his scroll and punched in the code to detonate the thermite, then backed away as the fiery substance went to work. Switching over to the phone app, he pulled Qrow's number from speed dial as he jogged back towards the bullhead.

"C'mon…" he muttered, growing tense as the scroll rang.

"You've reached Qrow" came the answering machine, and Sun cut the call.

"What news?" Ruby asked, looking back from the copilot's seat as Sun reentered the bullhead.

"No news" Sun replied, nodding at Yang, who fed more power to the engines.

"Don't worry" Sun said to Ruby, her face suddenly far more tense than his own. "He's just busy right now. He'll make it out and join up with us when he can, right?"

"Right" Ruby said, and Sun could tell that she was trying to convince herself that it was true.

"Okay" Sun replied, realizing that he was also trying to convince himself. "Yang, get us in the air."

Yang, who had been maneuvering the bullhead gently onto what was left of the tarmac, paused. She knew the right thing to do was to take off for Atlas and hole up at the Lodge. She knew that Qrow was more than capable of handling himself. She knew that Jaune would be able to smooth all the ruffled feathers caused by their sudden disappearance. She objectively knew, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Qrow certainly wouldn't have hesitated, she told herself. The old soldier would have put the mission first, cut his losses and salvaged what he could of the situation.

But she wasn't Qrow, a combat hardened veteran of both the Great Hunt and Second Human-Faunus War. She, for all her nightly escapades and training and bravado was just a young adult with some martial arts experience and a temper that easily burned hot. And what of Ruby? Yang glanced back at her younger sister and felt what little resolve she thought she had crumble. She was sitting reluctantly in her seat, her worry written all over her face. Yang had never known her birth mother, and though she had loved Summer, her pain was nothing compared to Ruby's, who had lost both her parents to the horrors of war. Yang could lie to herself, claim that she was an adult, ready for the responsibilities the world would throw at her, accept the pain of losing loved ones in a mature and steady manner.

But she couldn't lie to Ruby. Ruby knew just as well as she that they needed Qrow. Leaving him behind was leaving him to die, if not at Damien's hands then at the hands of the law. Yang looked back at Sun, the monkey faunus busying with securing the cargo and refusing to meet her gaze. She sensed that he too didn't want to leave, but was masking it in an attempt to stick to the plan.

What the hell am we going to do? She demanded of herself.

Author's Note:

Hey guys! This is the first officially new chapter of Rebellion, as in a chapter that wasn't posted before this fic was originally taken down. From here on out updates will occur every 1-2 weeks until the story is finished.