Ascendancy

by Titanmaster 117

War never changes, merely the adversaries. Jaune Arc's dream was to be a hero, not a soldier. But now, as the Grimm rise up under a new master, he finds that he has little choice in the matter. Darkness will flood over Remnant as the Second Great War begins, and not everyone will live to see the light at the end of the tunnel... (Dark RWBY fic. Minor and major character deaths)

38. Jaunedice part 11: Kings Rising

Main theme: Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden
Arc Theme: Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)
Theme: Deep Stone Lullaby from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack

---

The Sleeping City sleeps once more, and has now been abandoned, its imported goods and people shipped away towards the city of Vale once more, homeward bound.

The Choir of Silver, meanwhile, has scattered. The majority of its population are now dead, and what's left of it has fled into the wild, either trying to re-join our Ascendant Court, or fight against us.

They will not win this fight.

But, now, we spend our time hunting down these pockets of traitors across the northern territories of this continent. We turn these lands into a warzone to burn away these heretics against our cause, bloodying and breaking them as we hunt them down, cleaving them from this world like chaff from wheat.

It shall be a fun crusade.

As long as it doesn't interfere with our invasion of Mistral, of course.

Personal journal entry of a Disciple of the Ascendant Court, written in Valerian and recovered by Altesian agents

---

"They are all okay?"

Ozpin looked at the scroll in his hand as Ironwood's image flashed as he spoke, "Yes they are, Ozpin, and they're on their way back to Beacon now. Unfortunately, Glynda and Arthur were rendered unconscious by a faction of Grimm known as the Choir of Silver, and several other first years are injured, so be ready for them."

There was a pause from Ozpin, before he asked, "Have any of them... Fallen?"

"Mr Arc and his allies did not say, so it is a safe bet that no one on their side has died."

Ozpin let out a sigh of relief, pleased at the fact that no one has lost their lives in the Sleeping City, before recomposing himself, and asking, "'The Choir of Silver'?"

"A Grimm faction, according to Mr Arc and Ms Rose."

"They are both okay?"

"I didn't have any visual from them, but from the sounds of it, they seem to be fine. Of course, that is not a complete reassurance."

"Yes yes, of course," Ozpin nodded to himself as around him, the forces of Beacon continuing their work in loading themselves and their gear into the bullheads at the landing pads around him, "But a 'Choir of Silver'... A Grimm faction called the 'Choir of Silver'... You know what that means, don't you?"

"I have a few ideas, yes," Ironwood added in, "But I'd rather not ponder on them," there was a long pause from him, before he added in, "Years ago, when Summer Rose was in Beacon... You remember him, right?"

A pause from Ozpin this time, before he finally uttered, "Templar..."

"Yes," was Ironwood's response.

"I had hoped that he was..." Ozpin didn't finish his sentence, "I had hoped, for his sake, that he was long gone," another pause, and then, "But then again, we cannot know anything for certain. This could be Templar, or this could be an entirely new element. This wouldn't be the first time in the last few months that we have had to respond to an entirely new threat."

Silence reigned between them for a long while.

"...Are you still sending your forces over to the Sleeping City?"

"A few auxiliary to relieve your students while they secure the city, and several flights out to chase down a rogue cruiser that they reported to gone on the run as well. The rest of my men will be busy in the city, breaching a number of suspected Grimm hideaways near key locations in Vale."

Ozpin was taken aback, "There are Grimm in the city?"

"According to Ms Rose, there are around a hundred spread across Vale, but my men are moving to deal with it now. Ms Rose was kind enough to reveal their possible hideaways and safehouses to us."

Ozpin was once more taken aback by all of this, "Well then... If this is true, then Ms Rose has just saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives," he smiled warmly at that, "I will have to congratulate her upon her return."

It was all that he could do, in response to all of this. Thanks to Ms Rose, hundreds of lives had been saved within the city of Vale, and perhaps Vale itself as well. And on top of that, she had come through and saved all of her peers and even her teachers as well.

A wonderful outcome. He had made the right choice in picking her as the next hero of Remnant.

It saddened him that he was, by all accounts, forcing her into this role. A role that she, and the rest of her team, weren't ready for at all. Depriving them of any choice in this situation.

But, as they say, desperate times called for desperate measures. Qrow had died above in the Valerian plains during the Initiation Massacre, depriving him of one of his best agents, and there most likely were no other Silver-Eyed Warriors out there in the world. He needed Ruby Rose to be ready, and he needed her to be able to use her eyes, now more than ever.

He wished that the circumstances were different, but alas, such was not the case.

"Well, in that case, I will let you proceed with your missions," Ozpin said, sparring a moment to disapprovingly look over to the cruiser hanging over Vale, casting a shadow down on the city below. He had long since disliked the usage of armies, and while he saw their usefulness, especially now in times of war, he still didn't have to like them, "I trust that you and your... Soldiers will be able to handle this situation with a certain degree of subtlety."

"You know, you don't need to sound so untrusting when you talk about my men," Ironwood call out on the other side of the line, but didn't say anything else about it. The two of them had both lost count of the amount of arguments that they had had about the purpose of armies, as well as Ironwood's tendency towards more heavy handed approaches, but the both of them didn't have the energy to repeat this argument once more. Ironwood continued, "And I'll try my best, but I can't promise anything about subtlety. Not when these supposed safehouses are scattered within the city itself, with a high density of civilians in the possible combat zones. You and I both know this."

Ozpin didn't say anything about this. Merely sighing, and looking outwards to the distance, he went, "Of course."

"Don't worry. I won't allow any of those civilians to come to harm. That, I can promise."

"Of that, I know that you won't, James," Ozpin smiled at that. If nothing else, James was loyal to the hearts and minds of not just the people of Atlas, but of Remnant as a whole. He could trust the general to do whatever he could to protect the general population, so he knew for certain that those innocents would be safe from harm, "Now then, if you shall excuse me, I must reorganise the Hunters up here, and... Hm."

"Ozpin?"

"Is that a flock of Dragons in the distance?"

Indeed, flying over the mountains, and rocketing across the city of Vale, all the way towards Beacon Academy, was a flock of several Dragons, all of them squaking their beaks and flapping their wings through the sky as they moved, as ahead of their group, they were lead by-

Ah. A Thunderstorm Dragon. Almost mythical by today's standards.

It had been a long time since he had seen one of those.

On the other side of the line, he could hear panic in Ironwood's voice as he, presumably looking out of the window at the Dragons in the sky, then called out, "I-I'll have the anti-air guns bring these creatures down, and-"

"Wait, James. Look at who is riding the Dragons."

"There are people riding those things? Who!?"

"Take a look for yourself."

"...Is that-"

"Yes."

"Are they-"

Ozpin smiled once more, "Yes... Yes they are."

Atop the Thunderstorm Dragon, was Ruby Rose. The girl had taken the mythical, three headed creature as her steed.

Yet more proof that he had chosen right.

Behind them, the Dragons that followed them also held riders atop them. One Dragon, rode by a burnt and battered Melanie Malachite and Lie Ren, held several wounded first years- Such as Jolie Kobal, Nora Valkyrie, and Voltage- On their backs, as well as Miss Goodwitch and Mr Watts, both unconscious. With a silent message between her and Ruby Rose, Melanie patted her Dragon on the beak, and it turned downwards and towards the city, presumably towards the Greater Valerian Medical Centre below.

Three other Dragons, meanwhile, held prisoners atop their bodies, all of them cuffed and chained together as they looked down in misery.

Prisoners.

Grimm prisoners.

Ms Rose had captured Grimm prisoners.

She was the right person to save Remnant for sure.

The Dragons landed on the edge of Beacon's cliff, depositing their cargo onto the ground before them as Ozpin said into his scroll, "Try not to shoot down the Dragons, James. I have reason to believe that they are more than friendly."

On the other side of the line, with an impressed tone in his voice, Ironwood said, "Yeah, I bet," before going, "I'll speak to you again soon, then. Send my regards to Mr Arc, Ms Rose and the one called Eri, will you?"

Ozpin chuckled, "Of course," and hung up. Noting the looks of shock and surprise that adorned the faces of the Hunters, official and in training, around him, as he approached the flock of kneeling Dragons as the first years aboard them- The ones that referred to themselves as the Vultures- Offloaded the Grimm prisoners on the back of those Dragons, whilst Ruby pointed to the tower of Beacon and said, "Get those prisoners into the old holding pens and lock them up. I know that Professor Port will be happy to be able to use some actual Grimm again, instead of those old AK drones. Well, provided that any of these guys aren't going to be, hm, 'Interrogated' in the first place."

The Grimm shivered at this, and the Vultures nodded as they began to lead their chained up prisoners of war away, whilst nearby, Ms Yang Xiao Long hopped off of her Dragon, the skin on one of her arms burnt and red, as she looked to her little sister and asked, "Where did this super badass Ruby Rose come from? Why happened to my adorable little sister?"

"Besides the obvious?" why did Ms Rose feel the need to point to her shrouded eye? Did something happen? Did she use her silver eyes- Silver eye- Again? It wouldn't pay to ask, "I don't know. I guess it was just time."

The Thunderstorm near them snorted, and rested one of its head down for Ruby to pat it. It retched its head away, and Ruby looked disappointed at the motion.

She didn't let that bother her though, as, with awe in her voice, she then said, "I still can't believe Jaune and Melanie were able to lead a giant nest of Dragons," ah, so it wasn't Ms Rose who had brought the Dragons to heel? Well, it's not like it changed his perspective of choosing her to be one of the next saviours of Remnant. It just meant that there were more possible champions that he had under his gaze.

"Yeah, I can't believe it either," Ms Xiao Long responded with, "They still never said how. Thanks for bringing me along, by the way."

"Yeah, well, I was neglecting you, and I need someone to watch my back," Ms Rose finally noticed Ozpin walking towards them, and narrowed her eye, "Especially now."

What was with that reaction?

"You going to be okay?" Ms Xiao Long asked, "You know... With the whole... Yeah."

"I'll be fine."

"You know, the offer is still open."

"To join your team?"

"Yeah."

"...I'll think about it."

She blinked. So did Ozpin, as Ms Xiao Long continued, "You serious?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "I'm serious."

Before their conversation could continue, Ozpin reached them and coughed into his hand, getting them to turn their attention towards him, just as Ms Rose began to walk up to him as Ozpin began, "Hello there, Ms Rose, Ms Xiao Long. It is good to see that you are-"

Ms Rose jabbed her finger into his chest, "When were you going to tell me about Templar?"

…

What?

"What?" Ozpin asked.

Ms Rose- Ruby- Scrunched up her face as she continued, "In the Sleeping City, we were captured by the Choir of Silver, and they were led by a Techion named Templar. He was a- He was a fanatic. Deluded. Mad. A raging narcissist who believed that he was owed the world. And he- He said that he knew-"

She took in a sharp breath.

"He said that he knew Summer Rose."

Yang turned sharply to her- "What?"- And Ozpin couldn't help but take a step back.

"Is this true?"

"I-"

"Is this true, Ozpin?"

Not his title, just his name.

"...Yes, Ms Rose. It is true."

"So he- So he really was on my mother's sister team? He really was expelled from your council? He- He really was in love with mum?"

"What?!" Yang cried out in shock.

Ozpin paused once more, before finally responding with, "Yes. It is true."

Ruby glared at him.

"Templar was mad, Ms Rose, like you said. He believed that-"

"That by worshipping Silver-Eyed Warriors, he and his cult of Grimm would grow more powerful?" Ruby interrupted with, "Yeah, he did."

"Ms Rose, I do not believe that we should be talking about this here."

"I don't care. I'm too tired to care. We're having this talk right here, right now."

"Ms Rose-"

"Templar began to worship Summer Rose whilst in Beacon, and got kicked out for it. He tried to start up a church to worship Silver-Eyed Warriors, but it was destroyed. Did you do that, or did Sal-"

"Yes!" Ozpin interrupted her with, a frantic tone of panic in his voice, "Yes..."

"'Sal'?" Ms Xiao Long began as she narrowed her eyes at him, "You mean 'Salem', right?"

Ozpin looked to her, eyes wide.

"She heard her name when Weiss and I were fighting in the auditorium yesterday. So did everyone else. Everyone in our year already knows her name."

Ozpin internally winced. He already knew about this, but still: It was a pain to be reminded.

"Templar tried to worship me," Ruby continued, "Gods above, he was already worshipping me! Him and the rest of his Grimm cult! They were going to go on a grand crusade in my name- In the name of the Silver-Eyed Warriors!- If they weren't stopped!"

"And for that, we are all grateful for-"

"Grateful!?" Ruby threw back the hair covering the left side of her face, and-

Oh.

He understood what she meant.

Where her left eye had once been, there was now a shining red mechanical optic, glowing a crimson hue that covered her bloody and burnt face.

"I lost my eye to that psychopath!" she called out, much to the gasps and shock of the other Hunters nearby, "I was tied- Confined- Whatever! I was held against a cross, and that madman used my own scythe to take out- To scoop out my own eye! And you have the gall to say that you're 'Grateful' for what happened!?"

This time, Ozpin was the one to narrow his eyes, "Ms Rose, that was not what I was meant and you know it."

"I don't care. I'm tired and I'm cross. I have a right to be angry at you."

"Ms Rose-"

"So when were you going to tell me about him?"

He didn't answer.

"Were you ever going to tell me about him?"

"I was hoping that I wouldn't have to."

"And why is that?"

"Because I was previously under the assumption that Templar was dead."

"Well, you don't need to worry about that anymore, then."

He blinked, "Yes, I gathered."

"And you don't need to worry about him anymore."

"You have him prisoner?"

"No."

Ozpin stopped. His mind began to drift to one impossible, yet only conclusion, "Is he-"

"I killed him."

He took in a deep breath. That was so... For Ruby to kill someone... That wasn't something that he had expected from her in a million years. It was just... It was just too radical of a decision. It was something that he had never considered to be in her character.

Ruby looked him up and down for a response, but he kept his exterior as cool and calm as ever. She continued, "When me and Attis were confronting him and his goons, he wouldn't go down. I tried to take him down nonlethally, but he wouldn't stop, and I... I had no choice."

Ah, now that made more sense.

However, there was one question now lingering in him now, "Ms Rose, before I say anything else, I must ask... Who is this 'Attis' person?"

This got Ruby to look away from him, and down to the side, "Attis was... He was my... He was my friend. A Grimm. A Techion Grimm," Yang gasped at this, but Ozpin was much more subtle in his surprise, "He saved me... Twice. Three times. He was the one who got my message out to the rest of the Sleeping City. He-"

She took in a deep breath.

"He gave his life to save me. He could've done anything with his life, and he... He threw it away to save me."

Another shaky breath.

"Because he... Because he believed in me."

"...Ms Rose... While I am thankful that you are... I am thankful that you are alive, and can only wish that I had the chance to extend my gratitude to this 'Attis' fellow... He is a Grimm. You cannot place your trust in such a creature, even when-"

"Don't."

Ruby shoved a finger in Ozpin's chest.

"Don't you dare make light of his sacrifice. Attis died for me. I won't disgrace his sacrifice by thinking- By believing!- Him to be a liar trying to get me killed!"

"I- Of course, Ms Rose. I didn't-"

"Don't say anything else, Ozpin," Ruby shook her head as she and Yang climbed back onto the Thunderstorm once more, Yang grabbing hold of Ruby's shoulders from behind her as the red and black themed girl looked down at him, "There's nothing else to say."

"Ms Rose, I-"

But it was too late. The Thunderstorm spread its wings, and lifted off into the sky, its metal skin glistening against the rays of the setting sun as it flew downwards, to the city below, its fellows following shortly afterwards, the flock travelling downwards to Vale, looking to join their creature of magnificence down below.

Ozpin hid the frown that he felt, keeping it buried inside as everything continued to crumble and fall between his fingers.

("Hey guys?"

"Yep?"

"She nicked our Dragons."

Shadestep looked to Afterburner as they and the rest of the Vultures continued to escort their prisoners down the walkways of Beacon, "What?"

"Ruby nicked our Dragons."

The both of them looked upwards, to see their Dragons following the Thunderstorm to the city below.

"...Bugger.")

---

Two days later...

---

"You can't keep doing this to yourself."

"I didn't have a choice."

"I know," Velvet said as she sat next to the bed that Melanie was laying down in, fiddling with the IV drip connected to her arm as she continued, "But you should still know your limits."

"I know," repeated Melanie to the nurse in training.

"I'm being serious."

"So am I."

"Not nearly serious enough," Velvet said to her as she gestured to the black haired girl's arms, "Because if you keep doing this- If you keep using your semblance like this, then I'm sorry, but we're not going to be save them next time."

Melanie looked down at her arms on instinct, gauging the damage done to them by her own semblance. They were covered in bandages, and both of them were connected via needles to a blood bag and an IV drip each, but she knew what they really looked like underneath.

Red, and boiled. Oceans of bubbled and withered skin, flaking off of her arms like snow, leaving islands of healed skin underneath, grown and regrown thanks to the donation of aura that Jaune had given her during the Battle of the Sleeping City. Serous fluid covered her still fresh and raw wounds on both her arms and her back like yellow mucus, sticky and repugnant and coating her smarting wounds in a golden shine as they continued to heal under her own regenerating aura. Caverns of missing flesh covered her arms, spine, and the rest of her body like canyons, cleaned of dry blood and drained of disease via suction tubes, and punctured by needles that had injected the painkillers into her after her surgery, when she had woken up from being put under for them to operate on her.

Operate. They had cut her open and stitched her back up.

That wasn't something that she liked to think about.

She looked up to her shoulders, and saw glowing cyan lines across her shoulders, travelling down her back, and towards her spine.

Her new Techion upgrades.

Her new nervous system, considering how her previous one had been burnt to a cinder, leaving her without any feeling in her arms at all.

Fun times.

Jaune's aura had been a great help in healing as much of her body as it could, but still, the fight her with some seriously debilitating injuries. Most of them made by herself.

She winced as she moved them, almost hearing the mechanical motors that had been sliced and grafted into her arms, the blue lines shining through her bandages and casts as she flexed her fingers, "Again, I didn't have a choice."

"I know."

"If I hadn't used my semblance, then Jaune and I would've died."

"I know," Velvet repeated as her eyes narrowed underneath the dim glow of the lights above, almost shining underneath the moonlight of the evening outside that swam through the windows, the white room around them coloured grey by the dark hue of the nightly world beyond the GVMC's walls, "But this-" she gestured to Melanie's arms once more, "This can't go on."

"What do you want me to do?" Melanie asked impatiently. She was tired, still slightly high off of the painkillers, and was starting to not like it when people dragged on conversations for no reason, "If you have a point, then please just get to it."

Velvet stared long at her, unblinking and unmoving as she looked down at the black haired girl in the bed beneath her, draped in a hospital gown as she grew more and more uncomfortable underneath the rabbit Faunus' gaze, before the nurse in training closed her eyes and sighed, and revealed her point to her.

"I want you to stop using your semblance."

Melanie blinked once, twice, thrice, and then moved to sit up, but winced in pain as she stopped herself and sat back down, the needles in her arms, wormed underneath her casts like gnawing snakes, as she called out, "What?! How am I- What the hell does that mean?!"

"It means that I don't want you to keep using your semblance anymore," Velvet continued as she ghosted her hand over a cast, "I don't have the authority to stop you, but I've already forwarded my concerns to Headmaster Ozpin-"

"You can't do that!"

"-The head medics of Beacon, and the heads of the hospitals aura therapists, for you to begin-

"Are you even listening?"

"-Intense extra aura and semblance training, in order to lessen the crippling side effects of using your energy absorption."

Melanie narrowed her eyes, "You're putting me on the bench, then?"

"Until you can use your semblance without almost killing yourself, yes," Velvet added, gesturing to her wrapped up arms once more as she continued, "By Azul Primus' name, Melanie, I know that you didn't like the physical therapy sessions before, but you're not going to be doing yourself any favours by burning your skin off underneath your own semblance! Until you can learn how to channel your aura and refocus it into protecting you from your semblance's power, I don't want you to use it anymore. Again, I know that I can't force you to not use it, but I know that the others will agree with me on this."

Melanie bit her tongue, and looked down at her lap. A split second urge to unsheathe her semblance overtook her, but she swallowed it downwards, and stayed laying on the bed beneath her.

"How am I supposed to fight without my semblance?"

She shrugged.

"Without it, I'm nothing."

Velvet queered her head, her rabbit ears swaying against the motion, before she picked herself out of her seat, and moved to the door.

"Then become something."

She opened the door, and spared but one last glance at the girl on the bed.

"Become something more."

And with that, she walked out of the room, nodded to someone standing in the brightly lit hallway outside, and then trotted off, leaving Melanie on her own once more.

A few seconds later, someone else walked into the room.

Someone Melanie was happy to see again.

There stood Ruby Rose, dressed in the same white and pale cyan hospital gown as she was. The stitches in her head were visible through her hair, of which was still covering the left side of her now cleaned and prettied face.

However, through the the gaps in her black to red faded hair, Melanie could make out a slick flat black plate where her left eye once was, with a crimson red outline stretching across it, and three horizontal glowing red lines slit across the metal.

An eyepatch. A Techion modification from the looks of it, hiding an advanced optic underneath. A product of Atlas' science, no doubt, seeing as Jaune had some sort of connection to the leading Atlesian figures in Vale, and no doubt could've pulled some strings to get her the best treatment possible.

Or maybe she was just overestimating him.

Maybe, maybe not.

No matter what, at least Ruby wouldn't have to worry about loosing any depth perception any time soon.

Not again, at least.

Ruby stepped forwards, "Hey."

Melanie nodded to her, "Hey yourself."

Ruby blinked, and then pause, "I'm, um... I think I need a... A mirror, to... Yeah," she stopped talking, and rubbed her hand against her arm awkwardly.

There she was again, There was the Ruby Rose that Melanie knew all too well. Sky, awkward, and completely unsure of what to do with herself. None of that badass superhero stuff that she had pulled off in the Sleeping City.

It still startled her how much of a juxtaposition that had been, from shy, nervous, and unfrightening, to confidant, strong, and willing to do whatever it took to win. Melanie wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it.

It unnerved her, and made her realise things about the girl.

Things she should've known long ago.

Ruby walked over to the chair next to her bed, and sat down, "You've got cybernetics in you?"

"Yeah," Melanie rolled her head to her shoulders, "So do you."

Ruby nodded.

…

"You're a lot more like Yang than you think."

Melanie looked at her, "What?"

Ruby just gestured to her.

She looked down at her shoulders again, "The glowing bits? I guess that's cause for a connection."

Ruby just sighed.

"That's not what I meant."

Melanie frowned, "Then what?"

"..."

Ruby didn't answer.

…

…

…

…

"I'm sorry."

…

…

…

…

"Me too."

---

Around a week later...

---

"We all set?"

"Yep," chirped Skipjack as he pooled all of his tools into his metal claws, and scuttled along into the Bullheads, "I've got my gear. Everyone else is prepped up. In my eyes, we're all good to go!"

Jaune smiled as he and the rest of the team leaders of the first year gathered and readied to make for the slums in Vale below, the Bullheads prepped and ready for their journey down below, and Jaune prepared with his own tools in hand (And some painkillers for his lower side, and nausea pills for obvious reasons), "Alright then, let's get a move on, and-"

"Hold it!"

Everyone looked behind themselves, and saw a crowd gathering behind them.

A crowd of first years and more.

Aqua, Sayber, Uma, Tessa, Neon, Scrapster, Mixer, Afterburner, Weiss, Jolie, Velvet, Steam, Yang, Leadpipe, Voltage, Ren, Toil, Esper, Trouble, Nora, Omega, Ciel, Sora, Rancor, Akuma, Leo, Kayble, Mini, Alexis, Sky, Lavendar, Russel, and everyone else.

(No Pyrrha.)

And in front of the crowd, was Gretchen Rainart.

Everyone paused, and looked at each other in silence.

And then, Gretchen smiled.

"You mind if we tag along?"

And to that, Jaune smiled once more.

---

"Aaaaaaand... There we go!"

Jaune finished hammering in the last nail in the hut before him, as he leaned back and patted the metal sheets connected to a wooden frame, testing its strength as he smiled to himself, the moonlight overhead commingling with the strung up lamps and lights around them as he found the makeshift hut to be of a good strength to hold a family of four.

"All prepped up, and ready to move into," he smiled to himself at the results of his handiwork, as he looked to the side to see one of his co-workers walking up to him, hands full of LED string lights, "They all working right, Perry?"

The spectacled, floppy eared Faunus walked up next to him, and began to untangle the string lights in his hands, "Yep. All working fine over here. Plugged them in to test them, and every single one is A-okay," Perry then looked to the side at the other member of their five man team, "What about you, Deery?"

The antlered girl, pushing along a shopping cart filled with belongings to another family, nodded, "Got them all," and handed them over to the last two members of their team- A married pair of men with two adopted children, one a human boy, the other a Faunus girl with a fox tail- "Keep the change," she joked.

One of them- A brown haired man with glasses- Blinked, "Um... We didn't know that we were being charged for this."

"Oh, er, you're not, I- That was a joke. That was a joke."

"Oh... Er, okay."

"Please ignore my husband, he doesn't do well with humour," the other man- A white haired man with a beard and moustache- Added as he put his hand on his husband's shoulders, and went, "Thank you so much for this. We won't ever forget what you've done for us today."

"Ah, it's alright," Jaune said to them as he rubbed the back of his head with a smile, "I don't want the praise."

"I kind of do," Deery pointed out with a raised hand, "Just saying."

"Again, she's just humorous," Perry added in as he and Jaune began to hang up the LED string lights up on the top of the shack.

"No I'm not."

"Yes she is."

"I like praise."

"I'm sure that you do," Jaune laughed to her as he trailed around the hut with the string lights, before he and Perry connected them together, plugged in the cord to a protected plug socket, and-

{BLIP}

-Switched on the lights, and joined it with the shining lights of the other constructed and constructing huts and shacks around them in a rainbow of colour,.

"There we go!" Perry cheered as he threw his arms up, "Hut complete! Now all that you need to do is move in, and you'll be safe and sound!"

"Thank you, thank you so much!" the husband with the white beard said to them as he shook Jaune and Perry's hands with his own, and went, "Seriously you have no idea how much this means to us!"

"Ah, it's alright!" Jaune smiled as he shook his hand, "Just try not to bring the place down on top of you at night-"

Perry looked at him, "Ew."

Deery looked at him, "Heh."

"-And you'll be all right," pulling away, Jaune then went to pick up his tools and move on to the next hut, "Now then, if you'll excuse us, we've got a few more errands to run before the night is-"

""Mr Arc!""

Jaune looked down at his feet, to see the two children that the married couple had adopted looking up at him with sparkling eyes, the boy with the brown hair holding his hands together in front of him, the girl swinging her fox tail behind her excitedly.

"Um, Mr Arc," began the boy, "Are you and Ms Malach... Mala... Malachit..."

"Are you and Ms Malachite going to sing again?" the girl with the fox tailed asked him with a wide smile on her face.

Jaune chuckled, "Well, I don't know. I might not be feeling like it tonight?"

""Pleeeeeeaaaassssse?"" slowly went the two children as they looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

"...Aw, alright then. Maybe I'll play later," Jaune smiled as he put down his tools and patted the children's heads softly, "I can't say anything about Melanie, though, but I'll do my best."

""Yay!"" the children cheered and threw their arms up as they jumped in place, giggling to themselves as they turned to each other and cheered once more.

"Now go help your parents into your new home! Can't expect them to do all of the work, can you?"

""Okay, Mr Arc!"" the children smiled, before the both of them ran to their parents, gave their final thanks to Jaune, Perry, and Deery, and went to help their fathers unpack their belongings into their new, unfortunately spartan, but certainly robust, home.

Jaune felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and he looked to the side to see Gretchen Rainart looking at him with a smile of her own, "What?"

"You," she said, "Going around, making shacks for refugees and strays, and being all nice to kids like that!"

"Hey, it wasn't all just me, you know," Jaune went as he gestured to Perry and Deery, "These guys were a big help too."

"Yeah, I'll have you know that I did all of the work, by the way," Deery waved a hand and puffed her chest out smugly, "This was all me. All me. No one else. Everyone else was just slacking off on the job."

"Er, actually, all you did was push around a cart," Perry interjected with, "We were the ones that put up the shack and-"

"Hush, slacker! You have not earned the right to speak!"

Gretchen laughed, "Ha! You two seem like the lively bunch!" before she turned to Jaune and asked, "How did you meet these guys, anyways?"

"Oh, it's, er, it's a bit of a long story," Jaune once more reverted back to his famous tick and rubbed the back of his head (Serious, he was going to rub it raw one day), As he thought back to when he had first met Perry and Deery, during the riot in front of the police station, back during the vigilante serial killings and all of that business with Harriet Bree. He was cool with them now, especially when they had working together to build and raise four shacks for refugee families in the last two hours, and, in his mind, that meant that all was forgiven, even if he was still a little sour from all of that, though he didn't let it show.

Besides, he had been a bit of a bother to them back then, and he would really like to make it up to them.

"Er, not that long of a story," Perry went, "In fact, I would reckon that it would at least be a third of a chapter. No wait, maybe a fourth or a fifth, but I'm leaning more towards a fourth... Maybe."

Deery looked at Perry, "What? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know. Sometimes I like to imagine as a series of written intervals spliced up into multiple sections released bimonthly by a writer who's too lazy to get off of his arse and actually do any work on his stories."

"...That's dumb. You're dumb. Stop being dumb. You're making me dumb by association."

Once more, Gretchen laughed, and patted Jaune on the shoulder, "Yeah, these guys are a real riot, alright," before smiling to him and going, "Hey, I'll do the rest of your jobs for you, yeah? You go grab a guitar, or bongo or whatever it is that you use, and go make some music."

Jaune blinked, "Really? Are you sure? I don't want to have to burden you anymore than I already-"

"You don't burden me at all, Jaune. You don't burden anyone at all," Gretchen's smile softened for a second, before going, "Go. Go make music for the kids. I've already done all of my jobs anyways, so it's no skin off of my teeth."

He paused, and then nodded, "Alright then," before looking over to Perry and Deery, and waving to them, "Thanks a lot for helping me out tonight. You guys going to be okay for the rest of the night"

"Ah, hell yeah. I ain't just all made out of sugar and spice, humie," Deery chuckled to him, "Any racist asshole tries anything with us, we'll smack them down. Guaranteed."

Jaune paused at the human and racism comments, before remembering what Deery was like back during the conscription riots, and nodding to them, "Alright then," before walking off with a wave once more, and going, "Thanks, guys. Stay safe!"

"You too," Gretchen called back as he walked off, leaving him to his own thoughts once more.

---

"You think we should've told him?"

Derry looked to Perry, and whispered, "What? About us joining the White Wolves?"

"Yeah," he whispered back, "I mean, he seems like a good enough guy. We could-"

"What? Incriminate ourselves? Expose ourselves to another bunch of racists?"

"I don't think he's-"

"Exactly. You didn't think."

"Remember the riots outside of the police station? He was nice to us."

"For a human, I guess, but we don't know for sure. For all we know, he was just putting on an act."

"Do you really think that he would lie to us- Fake kindness to us- After witnessing a murder right in front of our eyes?"

"Do you think he wouldn't?"

"..."

"It's us against them, Perry. That's what it always been. Two sides against each other."

"..."

"And hopefully, by the end of this, we'll be the ones on the winning side."

---

As he walked through the streets of the Valerian slums, Jaune looked at the assembled huts and shacks that spread themselves throughout the streets and populated the roads and pavements of Vale's residential district like a flood.

When the Second Great War had begun around two months ago, it had sparked a massive refugee crisis that send throngs of people, numbering in the hundreds and thousands, from out of the Grimmlands and into the city walls. Rental homes and official centres quickly overflowed with new arrivals, and entire families were forced to live on the streets, increasing the already present homeless population by the hundreds.

In response, the people of Vale, in unison with the refugees banded together to create the Valerian slums, a wide spanning district of camp cities, tent towns, and rows of shacks and huts for these displaced families, creating pathway gardens and alleyway restaurants and shelters for this new population of immigrants and castaways.

Jaune, Melanie, Ruby, and the rest of the first year team leaders had thrown themselves at this task with eager vigour, helping to prop up huts, run electricity through the streets and between the ramshackle homes, and provide some sort of relief for the children that had lost their homes to the armies of the Ascendant Court.

He looked to the side, and saw a pair of children helping a group of first years, including Uma and Mixer, plant another street garden in what was slowly becoming a sort of miniaturised commercial district within the slums, with Alexis and Sky helping to set up a soup stall with a pair of workers, whilst Russel stood off to the side with his arms crossed, near DJ and Skipjack as they worked over a generator filled with cables and motors.

Everyone was working hard and well, it would seem. That was good. That was great.

These people deserved that much.

"Um... Jaune?"

He knew that voice.

Call it selfish, but he really didn't want to have this discussion.

He looked behind himself, to see Nora looking up at him, Ren standing off nearby, doing his best not to look uncomfortable with the situation. The girl in question was not wearing her armoured suit, and instead was dressed in a more comfortable looking T-shirt and shorts, bandages wrapping around her arms and legs as a ever presence badge of his failure.

No Pyrrha, of course. She was probably up in Beacon, training even more than usual. Eri must be with her, trying to make sure that she didn't burn herself out.

Good girl, Eri was.

"Um..." Nora began, twiddling her fingers together as she spoke, "About, um... About... Everything."

"..."

"Everything that... Um... Happened..."

"..."

"...Um... I..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...You can go now..."

…

…

…

…

Jaune walked off without saying another word.

---

"You kept it?"

Ruby held the book, The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant, in her hands, "Yeah, I did. Took it away with me the night that me and Weiss-"

"Weiss and I."

"-Weiss and I- Sorry- Had our argument," Ruby amended as she and Melanie stood next to each other, their hands freshly washed cleaned after having spent an hour squeezing and slicing up fruit and vegetables for the refugees around them, their fingers still sore from it all as Ruby clutched the book closely to her chest, "I know I haven't done much with it, and I haven't talked to you about it since then, but... Yeah."

Melanie queered her head to the side, and let Ruby continue.

"...Figured that we'd be getting around to this conversation sooner than later..."

'Well, it can still wait for a a little while longer," Melanie said as she spotted Jaune and a group of kids waving at the two to join them, guitar in hand. Melanie smiled back to them, and said to Ruby, "C'mon, let's go join them."

Ruby nodded happily, and the both of them moved to go, but were frozen in place by-

"Ruby?"

-The sound of a hated voice calling out to the red and black themed girl.

The two of them looked around, and Melanie looked to the speaker with scorn as Weiss stood as still as possible, her hands to her sides and her feet firmly held in place, but with a face that continued to fidget and move, unsure of what emotion to conjure onto itself in order to express the cocktail of emotions that she felt within her.

Though if Ruby had to put her money on the most prominent emotion that she displayed, it would be one simple, yet strangely complex thing.

Regret.

"What do you want, Schnee?" Melanie asked as she took a step in front of Ruby, and-

"Melanie," Ruby said as she put her hand on Melanie to stop her, "Let me handle this."

"Ruby-"

"Melanie. Please."

There was a long pause on her part, but eventually, Melanie sighed, and took a step back, allowing Ruby to handle this fight on her own.

"...But she's right," Ruby swallowed the fear and nerves in her gut, and looked at Weiss with the most intimidating glare that she could muster, "What do you want, Weiss? You're not going to yell at me for having this book again, are you? God knows that was a whole episode and a half."

This got the Schnee to stutter and looked away for a moment (Ruby selfishly relished in the discomfort for that amount of time), Before she finally looked back and said, "I just- I just wanted to talk to you... About that night-"

"You mean that day?"

"Huh?"

"That day where you slapped me, then ratted out our biggest secret to your bodyguard, betrayed my trust, usurped leadership from me in all but name, and then called me a- Ah, what was it, again?"

"...I-"

"I wasn't being rhetorical, Weiss Schnee. What was it you called me again?"

Next to her, Melanie blinked. There it was. That sudden change again. Just like in the Sleeping City. From good girl to bad. It was a chilling juxtaposition then, and it still was now.

"I... I..."

"Oh yes!" Ruby snapped her fingers and then pointed one up into the air, "I remember now!"

"Ru-"

"You called me a mistake, didn't you?"

"Ruby-"

"A walking disaster of a mistake, didn't you?" her eye narrowed into a razor thin dagger line, "Did you think that I had forgotten about that?"

"I didn't-"

"You didn't mean it? Is that what you're trying to say?" Ruby found the strength within her to scoff, "And yet you still said it. Sounds to me like you very well meant it-"

"I'm sorry!"

Ruby blinked, Melanie blinked, and the both of them looked at Weiss as the would-be-princess nervously twitched in place, rubbing her arm as she winced, and then continued.

"I just... I... Yeah... Yes, I mean... Look, Ruby, I-"

She bit the insides of her cheek.

"-I was stupid. Stupid, and bratty, and- And spiteful. I wanted what I thought was meant to be mine, and I was stressed from the truth about- About Salem," she said that last word as a whisper, "And about how we're supposed to be the ones to save the world, as well as everything that happened in the Emerald Forest, and... Look, I'm not going to pretend that I deserve forgiveness for what I said. I mean, that would be- I would be foolish for thinking so of myself. But, I do want to atone for what I've said, and- And I believe that the first way, and maybe the best way, that I can start, is by saying that-"

"I can't."

Weiss looked to Ruby, as did Melanie, and saw that her head was tilted downwards, her remaining silver eye hidden by her hair.

"I'm sorry, but I can't... Before, I would've forgiven you, but now..."

Her shoulders hunched up, and she turned herself around.

"I can't... I'm sorry, but I- I can't."

…

"I'm sorry."

…

Ruby nodded.

"I know."

And with that, she walked away.

Melanie blinked as she watched Ruby walk away, her mind going from left to right as the girl with the lost book in her hands marched off, pondering on what to say or do in the situation presented to her before her eyes.

And then, she turned herself around, and saw them.

And they saw her.

Ciel, now at Weiss' side, and Neon and Flynt, helping to create a new pathway garden nearby.

Her team.

Her old team?

Maybe.

She looked at them, they looked at her, and none of them said a word.

…

Melanie turned herself around, and walked away.

---

"Well, that could have gone better for her."

Leadpipe looked up from stacking boxes together and pushing them into a proper order (No intruding edges, no unaligned angles. Everything had to be done in a certain order, and everything had to be angular), And at his needlessly smug partner, "Blake, can you just- Can you just not, please?"

"Not what? Not be myself? Not state the obvious? Like that? Like how the Schnee failed to garner even more false sympathy for herself?"

"Blake, you and I both know that what you just said is a big fat lie. you know for a fact that she was genuinely trying to make amends.

"And look at all of the good that that did her. Far as I can tell, she got what she deserved."

"And what do we deserve?"

Blake looked at him, "What?"

"We didn't do anything to help Ruby against Weiss-"

"She should've looked out for herself, then."

"She's our team leader."

"If she can't fight for her position, then she doesn't deserve it. That's the rule of life."

"Blake-"

"Besides, she's a human. About time someone knocked her off of her pedestal, for all that I care."

"Blake, I was a human once."

"..."

"Blake?"

"You're different."

"How am I different?"

"You just are. You're better."

"How does that- You know what? I've got an idea."

"What? What does that-"

Leadpipe reached out, grabbed Blake's cat ear underneath her bow, and twisted it.

"OW! OW OW OW OW! WHAT ARE YOU-"

"What do we say?"

"What?!"

"What do we say?"

"I'm sorry I'm sorry OW OW OW OW LEMME GO!"

And Leadpipe did just that.

"Huh, if I had know that it was that easy to make you nicer, I would've done it ages ago," he paused, and then looked at Blake, "That was a joke, by the way. That was a joke, I..."

"..."

"I'm sorry."

"..."

"I'm just going to..." Leadpipe went back to his boxes, "I'm just going to get back to my boxes."

And with that, he left Blake to her own devices.

…

…

…

…

"Not you."

…

…

…

…

"Not again."

…

…

…

…

"Never again."

---

Jaune watched as a group of adults prepared a little stage for him and the others not too far away, the kids gathered around helping them to set everything up as not too far away, Sora and Tusks helped to cart a pair of trolleys filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, grown in the pavement gardens by eager would-be farmers, to the growing commercial district of the slums, passing by Toil and Trouble as they worked with the local security volunteers to patrol and guard the bustling streets of the city within a city.

A community within a community.

A kingdom within a kingdom.

Jaune smiled to himself. It really was amazing what people could build together when they put their minds to it.

"Indeed it is, Mr Arc."

He jumped in place, and whirled around defensively, before seeing who it was that was speaking to him.

"Miss Goodwitch?" he asked uncertainly as he took a step back, the woman in question readjusting her glasses and letting her black and purple cape flow behind her. There was something wrapped around her wrist, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Her injuries from the week previous, acquired from being knocked out in the Sleeping City, were now all gone, as if they had never been there in the first place.

Real handy thing, aura was. Real handy thing, indeed.

He blinked as he looked up at the always stern teacher, unsure of what to say to her as he fidgeted in place, before finally asking, "What are... What are you doing here?"

"Just enjoying all that you have helped to build here, Mr Arc," she said to him with that familiarly even tone, keeping herself at the corner of the road near him as she continued, "You have done a lot for the people of Vale, I can see."

He blinked again, and then looked away, "I don't... Oh, I haven't done much for these guys down here. I haven't- That's all these guys. That's all everyone else's work."

"I wouldn't say so," she said as she pointed out the gathering of kids nearby, "Those children seem to have taken quite the liking to you, it seems."

"Oh, well, I wouldn't say so. That's just with Melanie, and Ruby, and what they've done for them. I just hang around with them, and the kids must've just figured that they can get closer to them through me, is all."

"I wouldn't say so."

"Still the truth."

"Mr Arc."

He looked back up to her.

"Why are you so adamant about not accepting a compliment?"

…

He didn't say anything.

Miss Goodwitch sighed, and looked to the side for a brief moment, before continuing with, "Well, if there is nothing else left to be said, then I owe you my thanks for-"

"I'm sorry."

It was her turn to look at him in surprise, though she didn't let it easily show.

He winced, and then continued, "I mean... Back in our session last week... The night before we were sent off to the Sleeping City, I... I hurt you, and I shouldn't have, and I... I'm sorry... I'm so so sorry..."

"You have nothing to apologise for, Mr Arc."

He paused, and looked at her in shock, "But... But I..."

"Mr Arc," Miss Goodwitch closed her eyes- "Jaune."- And then reopened them, "It was obvious from what I could see that you were going through a severe traumatic breakdown, of which left you incredibly vulnerable and irrational. To try and blame you for suffering from a mental breakdown in a place where you clearly didn't feel safe. Rather, it is I who should be apologising, as the blame is mine to bear."

He didn't say anything once more. He just looked at her, confused, which gave her the prompt to continue.

"Not too long ago, someone- A student- Asked me if I thought that I was your friend, and that made me realise that I could not- Cannot- Be both student therapist and combat instructor at the same time, as the latter would push uncomfortable expectations and pressures on the students for the former. I cannot be trusted with the weaknesses of students, in a time and place where those same students believe that they should have no weaknesses, especially after a major collective traumatic event that all of you have suffered through, thereby doing nothing to foster trust between myself and a student, or between yourselves and your teams."

He was still confused, not sure where she was going with this.

"Jaune... It was my failure as a teacher to foster trust with you, and it was my failure as a friend to provide you with a place that you could feel safe and trusting in. If I am to succeed in helping you and your peers, then I must be either a teacher or a friend. I cannot be both. As such, I have decided to help you as a friend, and resigned from my position as head combat instructor of Beacon, and focus myself on studying for psychiatry and therapy, so that I might be of better assistance to you and your peers in the future."

"What?!" Jaune almost yelled out at her in a flurry of sudden emotion, "But- But who'll teach us how to fight in Beacon?!"

"Professor Hazel Rainart is more than capable of filling in that role for me and you," Miss Goodwitch said to him, before tilting her head to the side with a soft look atop her stern features, and said, "Jaune... Mr Arc... It was my failure that was unable to help you as a teacher. This is my earnest attempt to make up for it as a friend."

He paused once more, unable to properly understand what she was saying. He didn't know what to say in response.

Miss Goodwitch, at least, seemed to recognise this as she gently placed her hand on his shoulder, and said, "Don't say anything if you don't want to, Jaune. You don't have to say anything about it."

"...I-"

"Woof!"

He jumped in place once more, looked down to the ground, and finally realised what it was that Miss Goodwitch had wrapped around her wrist.

It was a dog lead, connected to the panting corgi below.

"Zwei?" Jaune began as he knelt down to the doggy below, teetering his head to the side in confusion as he continued, "What are you doing down here?"

"He needed to go on his daily walk," Miss Goodwitch answered in Zwei's place, "And since I wanted to see how things were getting on down here, I figured that he would like to come back down here again, like the last time that you took him down into Vale."

Jaune couldn't help but chuckled as he remembered Ruby allowing Zwei to play with the children of the slums, before looking to the dog with shaking hands, and going, "H-Hey, Zwei... You're not... I mean, I'm not..."

He hadn't forgotten how scared the little dog had been of him during their disastrous session together.

However, Zwei appeared to have forgotten it entirely, as the corgi let out a happy bark and leapt up at him, planting his front feet onto his legs and panting joyfully.

Forgotten, or forgiven.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Jaune couldn't.

He just couldn't...

Sensing that Zwei's presence was making Jaune deeply uncomfortable, if unintentionally, Miss Goodwitch gently pulled on his collar, pulling the corgi away from the boy, before looking to him and saying, "I shall... Leave you to complete your tasks then, Mr Arc. A good night to you."

After a long moment's pause, he finally said to her, "Good night to you too."

She nodded to him, and with that, she and Zwei were gone.

Jaune almost slumped down completely to the ground, and let out a loud sigh to himself, thankfully hidden away from everyone else in sight. He didn't know where everyone else got their energy for all of this, because that had just zapped all of it from him.

His scroll vibrated in his pocket (He hadn't worn his armour out tonight), And he pulled it out to see who had sent him a message.

Eri, all the way in Beacon, texting him over their teams group chat.

Best Child: (●＾o＾●) *^3^)/~

Jaune smiled to himself. At least that was reassuring for him. He didn't know what he would do if it wasn't.

Minion#1: Hey Eri. How's it going in Beacon?

Best Child: (_) (｀^´)

He raised an eyebrow.

Minion#1: What's going on?

There was a long pause.

Minion#1: Is it Pyrrha?

Best Child: ( ..)φφ(..) ...φ(・∀・＊) ┻━┻︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻ ＼| ￣ヘ￣|／＿＿＿＿＿＿＿θ ( *o*)/

Minion#1: She's still training and working? Seriously?

Best Child: (°◇°)

Minion#1: And she hasn't stopped at all?

Best child: (－‸ლ) щ(ﾟДﾟщ) (屮ﾟДﾟ)屮

Yep, that sounded like Pyrrha alright. If she hadn't been running herself ragged with all of her training and studying before the Sleeping City, she certainly was now. The woman was determined to destroy herself entirely in order to become stronger than she already was. Thankfully, Eri was keeping her somewhat down to Remnant- Well, as much as she could for a droid- But sooner or later, she was going to break.

It was only a matter of time.

Jaune frowned, and messaged Eri once more.

Minion#1: Are you sure that you'll be able to take care of her for the time being?

Best Child: ┐('～`；)┌

Not good. That meant that she wasn't sure. At least Eri was honest with him about it.

Unlike some people that he knew...

Minion#1: Well, alright then. Just do what you can, but don't let yourself get hurt. If she needs to cool off, then get her to cool off, but leave her to herself if that's better for the both of you, okay?

Best Child: (｀-´)

Minion#1: Heh, well, that's great. Goodnight then, Eri.

Best Child: お(^o^)や(^O^)す(^｡^)みぃ(^-^)ﾉﾞ

And there was her sendoff, using elements of one of the old Mistralian languages, if he was reading that correctly. At least she was putting some variety into her sentences.

Saying one last goodbye to Eri before he left, he pocketed his scroll and walked over to the now finished stage where Ruby and Melanie were presently standing, a group of children and a few adults watching them nearby as the two team leaders looked over something on Ruby's new scroll, and then let out a loud, echoing guffaw, almost doubling back on themselves and falling onto their bums on the floor as they laughed to themselves.

Jaune paused at this, and then walked over to their side, "What're you guys laughing at?" he asked with a healthy degree of curiosity.

Ruby took a second to compose herself, and then asked him, "What? Did you not see the recent post on Beacon's online bulletin board?"

He looked to her in confusion, "Er... No? I was just messaging Eri about how Pyrrha was doing back in Beacon."

"And- Sigh...- And talking to someone else on top of that as well," Melanie said as she finished recomposing herself, before pointing a finger past Jaune, and going, "That was Miss Goodwitch back there, right? What was she doing down here?"

"Oh, er, she just wanted to see how everyone was doing, is all," Jaune stopped himself for a moment, and then continued, "And then she told me... Well, she told me that she's going to try and be more our friend than our teacher."

"..."

"Melanie? What's up?"

"Huh?" Melanie shook her head and regained herself, "Oh, it's nothing. I just remembered something, is all," she waved it off- "It's not important"- And then patted the seat next to her as she sat down, Ruby following suit and taking the chair to the other side of her, the two of them sharing a look and a smile before turning to him, "C'mon, we don't have all evening, do we?"

"Hm? Oh yeah," he nodded, and took the seat right next to her, prompting all of the children around them- Human and Faunus, black and white, boy and girl alike- To gather around them, eyes wide and eager to hear and see the show unfold before them.

Jaune reached for the guitar on the other side of his chair, but, surprisingly, was stopped by Melanie as she firmly grasped one of his wrists, causing him to pause as she looked down at the group of children before them, and said, "Okay then, boys and girls, usually we start this off with a song, but before we do that, we thought that we might have a little story time together."

'Story time'? What does that...

No.

"No," Jaune's eye twitched as he looked at the girls next to him.

They just giggled in response as Melanie continued, taking the scroll that they had been sharing for her own. and going, "So, with that in mind-"

"No, don't you dare!"

"-With that in mind!- Let's begin with the latest edition of The Hunters Tale, written by Cipher himself, 'The'-"

"No!" Jaune reached over to grab the scroll, but was stopped by the laughing Melanie, as she-

"Take the scroll, take the scroll!"

-Quickly chucked the scroll over to Ruby, who caught it quickly in her hands, and laughed in turn.

"Now introducing the latest instalment of our mysterious Ciphers written accounts of our adventures, The Hunters Tale, entry 9-"

"No!"

"-'The Waking Wings of Vale, and the Dragon Riders of Beacon'!"

"NO!"

"'For in time's passing, when our minds were fractured and our loyalties severed from one another, our great leaders came forth to deliver us from succour once more, upon the wings of Dragons and legends past!'"

"No no no no no!"

"'And it was our luscious leader, Jaune Arc, who delivered us from evil, and pulled us through the screaming skies of the Sleeping City, back into the light of hope!'"

Jaune finally ceased his relentless assault to try and grab the scroll, rested himself on Melanie and Ruby's laps, and buried his tomato red face in his hands, "I hate it I hate it so much I am not luscious oh god why?"

Ruby and Melanie just laughed once more, and the children joined in as well, filling the world around them with the joys of humour as they continued to make merriment throughout the night, much at the expense of Jaune.

But of course, that was a worthwhile sacrifice.

(And nearby, the one whom used the alias of Cipher placed their hands to their chest and watched, happy that their hero- Their crush- Was listening to the words that they had crafted lovingly for him...

And saddened immensely by his lack of love in turn for them.

"Neon? Are you alright?"

The cat Faunus blinked, and looked to her partner.

"...Yeah... I'm okay."

But she wasn't okay.

Maybe this was what she deserved.)

---

"Are you sure that you're alright?"

"Before? I wasn't sure at all-"

"Well, that was obvious. Still is, in fact."

"-But now, now I'm alright. I know I am."

"Thinking that you are alright and being alright are two different things, Jaune. You and I both know that."

Jaune eased the scroll from his ear as he dangled his legs over the roof of the building underneath him, his bottom placed firmly on the ground- Er, roof- As he talked to his elder sister, Viola, on the other side of the line. The night sky was clear and twinkling with stars as the shattered moon hung overhead, each moon piece like a dim sun, shining their collective light onto the ground below, like dim flames from a candle, as in the streets below, rows of huts and tents gave off their own sources of light, from clear white to soft rainbow colours, commingling together into a dim hue that flooded the streets like rivers, the people down below looking up at the boy and his companions as he continued to talk to his sister on the scroll.

"I know, I know, but, I mean, I'm a lot better now," he said to Viola as he readjusted himself on the floor beneath him, "I've been through a lot, but it's nothing that I can't recover from."

"Jaune, from what I can tell, you were locked in a gladiator arena and forced into a fight to the death. That's not something that you can easily recover from."

"Well, yes, but-"

"But what?"

"-But I really am better now, trust me."

"I do want to trust you, Jaune. I really do. The problem is that when you go off on all of these adventures and nearly get yourself killed, it's kind of hard to not worry about you."

"Hey, it's not like I intentionally let these things happen to me, you know."

"I do know, but that doesn't make me feel any better."

"Look, I'll try to do my best to stay out of trouble, okay, but I can't make any promises-"

"I repeat, that doesn't make me feel any better!"

"Ah, it wasn't supposed to," Jaune added, before chewing on his bottom lip and going, "Hey, Viola, I'll be okay. I'll be fine, yeah? I know that I said that last time, but, really, I'll be okay. I've got some good people with me to help with that."

To his sides, Ruby and Melanie smiled and blushed.

"Well, I just-" on the other side of the line, Viola caught herself and stopped. Jaune could practically hear her tweezing the bridge between her eyes as she then said, "Just... Just try not to get yourself killed, Jaune. Please."

He couldn't promise that, but he didn't let it say, "I'll try my best," he finally responded with.

"Arc's promise?"

"..."

"Jaune?"

"I can't promise anything."

There was a long sigh on the other side of the line, before Viola finally answered with, "Fine," and then said nothing more.

"...I love you."

"...I love you too."

And with that, the call disconnected, and silence reigned once more.

Jaune sighed, and tilted his head back, "Yeah," he began to himself, "Like before, that could've gone... So much better."

"And yet it also could've gone a lot worse," Melanie said to him, "At least your sister was a lot more understanding this time around."

"I don't know about that," Jaune said as he pulled his legs back from over the edge of the building, "Maybe she was just being nicer for my sake, seeing as the last time that I called her, I was... Well, I was kind of going through a mental breakdown."

"What?" Ruby peeked her head up at him, "What? When was that?"

"Erm… The night before the Sleeping City trip?"

"Wha- Jaune!" she shoved his shoulder in frustration, "Why didn't you tell either of us about this?!"

"What- I mean, it didn't seem like a big deal! Not at the time!"

"Jaune, I hate to tell you this, but suffering from an emotional and mental breakdown, just before a very stressful trip to a death city, is kind of a big deal!"

"Yeah, she's right, Jaune," Melanie began in turn, "You can't just shuck off your own mental wellbeing like that. It isn't healthy."

"I know, but-"

"I don't think you do," she interrupted, before looking downwards at herself, and going, "Hell... I don't think any of us do."

Jaune and Ruby gave Melanie a soft look, before in turn looking downwards at their own feet.

"...Can we just... Can we just promise not to hide these things from each other anymore?" Melanie asked, "Please... I don't know how I'd cope if you two weren't doing well at all."

They paused in turn, and then nodded as well. It was as flimsy as could come.

"And speaking of secrets," Ruby brought the book that had started the whole of this mess with their teams, The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant, onto her lap, "I think it's time I started spilling some of mine."

She looked at them with a soft glance.

"About Salem... And about my eyes."

She blinked.

"Or eye, for that matter."

"Ruby," Jaune began, "You don't have to talk about this if you don't-"

"You both wanted to know about these things right before the mess with Templar and the Choir of Silver," Ruby stopped him with, "Badly. Immensely. Who am I to not give you at least some kind of satisfaction in that quest?"

"..."

"Besides," she could do nothing but shrug, "It would make me feel better, I guess."

There was a long silence, before a loud snort echoed off from behind them, and drew their attention to the unobserved creature of beauty behind them.

"Before we do that, though," Melanie said as she got up and faced the creature to their backs, Jaune and Ruby following shortly after, "I think we'd best see these guys off first."

The Dragon that had saved them snorted and let out a chirp from its beak, before resting its head down on the roof beneath them, and giving them the chance to pet its beak and ruffle its feathers once more. Around them, the other Dragons rested themselves on the roofs and buildings around them, observing with spread wings and tilting heads. The Thunderstorm Dragon, however, merely made itself content to sit and watch, observing where the tamers and riders of its pack would go, and what they would do, next, each of its three heads locked onto the leaders below.

Melanie smiled as she patted the gentle beast that had once been their would-be executioner, and ghosted her hand over an unhealed chip in the Dragons beak, "You really are something, you know that?" she said with wonder in her voice, "A real curio, aren't you?"

The Dragon, surprisingly, then snorted loudly once more, fluttered its wings, and let out a cheery chirp from its beak.

Melanie took a step back, blinked, and then looked at Jaune. The boy, in turn, smiled, and then said to the Dragon, "Hey, did you... Did you like that word? 'Curio'?"

The Dragon let out a happy chirp in response.

"Do you want that as a name?"

Another happy chirp.

The three team leaders smiled in unison, and Jaune patted the Dragon once more.

"Well then," he happily finished with, "Curio it is, then."

The Dragon- Curio- Then raised its- His- Head and spread its wings, letting out out a loud cry of confidence found once more as its wings fluttered and swayed in place. Around it, the rest of the Dragons spread their wings in turn, joining Curio in his song as they came together for their grand crescendo.

The Thunderstorm, in turn, raised all three of its heads and

{FWOOSH}

{FWOOSH}

{FWOOSH}

-Released a stream of fire from each of its heads, throwing heat into the air and lighting up the dark world around them, forming a miniature triad of suns in the sky as it continued, continued, continued, and then-

{FIZZLE}

{FIZZLE}

{FIZZLE}

-Ceased its grand display, reducing its flames to nothing more than white-hot and cooling air.

Jaune, Ruby, and Melanie just smiled at it all, and then looked back onto Curio with happy, accepting eyes.

"Well then," Jaune said, patting Curio on the beak once more, and then moving to ruffle the feathers on his head, before finally saying, "I think that it might be time that you and the rest of your family are off, then."

Curio looked down at him, and peeked his head to the side, confused as to what he was saying.

"You're free now," Jaune quietly continued, "There's no Tock, and no Undertakers that are holding you down. You're free to go wherever you want, whenever you want."

The gentle beast let out a quiet chirp of its own, and knelt its head downwards to the floor beneath it, allowing the three leaders to approach it and place their hands gently on its head.

"Go. It's a big world out there. Go make it your own."

Curio looked Jaune in the eyes, and let out a chirp in reply.

"Don't worry, we won't forget you. Not now, and not ever."

If Curio could smile, he was sure that he would've.

And so, the three leaders stood back and allowed Curio to reach his true height, spreading his wings as wide as they could go, and-

"CCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA}

-Letting out a king-like rallying cry, the rest of the Dragons around it, including the mythic Thunderstorm, all of them spreading their wings and answering his call to action.

The mighty Dragon looked back down to the three leaders below it, thanking them for saving him from certain death.

The three leaders nodded, and waved in turn, showing that the feeling was very much neutral.

And with that, the Dragon that was now known as Curio whipped its wings through the air, and-

{SOAR}

-Took off high into the sky, passing underneath the moon and soaring over the city of Vale, as one by one, the Dragons surrounding them atop the buildings of the city giving off their own cries of acknowledgement once more, before spreading their wings once again, and, one by one, taking off after their king Dragon, including the Thunderstorm, as soon, every single Dragon took to the sky and followed after their leader, imprinted in the sky through the light of the stars, before finally fading away into nothingness through the darkness of the night.

And with that, the Dragons of Vale were gone, off to choose their own destiny once more.

Jaune, Melanie, and Ruby watched them go for as long as they were visible to the naked eye, and then looked downwards into the bustling and busy streets below, watching the crowds below as they looked onwards to the Dragons flying away in the sky, and smiled at the work that they had put into this place, and all of the lives that they were helping to rebuild as well.

(Ruby couldn't help but want to accomplish so much more...)

"...Kings Rising."

Jaune looked to Melanie, "What?"

"That's what the people below are calling the slums," Melanie said to him in response, "They're calling this place 'Kings Rising'."

"..."

"Makes you think, doesn't it?"

"...A coincidence, I say."

Melanie nodded, "Yeah... I hope so."

They shared a long look, and then turned their gazes to Ruby.

And Ruby, after a long pause, spoke...

And told them everything.

(And down below, as he worked, DJ continued to monitor the transmissions coming in and out of Beacon Academy, his suspicions growing more and more by the day...)

---

"I would've liked it if Miss Goodwitch was here with us."

"As would have I, James. As would I," Ozpin said as James gathered himself around his desk in the office, eager to see what his talk with the Atlesian council would be like when it began, "But she wished to see how the first years down in the slums were doing, especially whilst she is learning for her new chosen role as school therapist, so who am I to deny her that?" he paused, and then looked at James, "How is Vale doing, by the way?" it was a redundant question: He already knew. He just wanted to hear it from his old friend's mouth.

"Not good," James replied truthfully, "While we haven't had a repeat of the Specialist Bree incident- At least, not to my knowledge- There is still too much corruption within Vale's police forces, and with the council continuously bloating them with new recruits thanks to the conscription laws, we're not going to be able to weed out all of that corruption any time soon. Plus, with the fears of resources running out thanks to the Grimm armies, gangs and criminal groups, including the Jack-O-Lanterns and other syndicates, are beginning to take power within the city's underworld. If we allow this to continue on, than sooner or later, Vale could fall into lawlessness."

He tweezed his nose and furrowed his eyebrows.

"If we're not careful, it'll be the Wild West all over again... Only a lot less civilised."

Ozpin nodded in agreement, but then sighed, "Unfortunately, we cannot focus on that now. For now, we must keep our focus on the present situation."

Atlas was being awfully quiet.

Ozpin and Ironwood had warned the Atlesian council about the ship that the remnants of Templar's (Templar... He still winced at the thought of him) Choir of Silver had taken for themselves, its path calculated to be heading for the floating city itself. However, these reports had been replied to with a certain lack of haste or care. Of course, this could just be standard issue Atlesian arrogance (To which even James found to be exasperating at points), But still...

It just seemed like there was much more going on.

None of this was helped at all by recent reports and intelligence being gathered from loose documents recovered from members and agents of the Ascendant Court...

Concerning a planned invasion of Mistral.

Ozpin frowned to himself. Part of that intelligence had come from scattered documents found across Vale, but the rest of it had come from the prisoners that the first years of Beacon had stolen away from the Sleeping City and the Choir of Silver.

How did they get that information?

Through rather... Unpleasant means.

Ozpin loathed torture. It was cruel and horrific, even if it was being conducted against the Grimm itself.

But, in the end, it was a necessary strike against his conscience for the safety and protection of Remnant and its people, and it had delivered onto them the best intelligence on the enemy that they had received since the beginning of this war.

From what they had learnt, the Ascendant Court had sent spies and agents into the main cities of Mistral, being Wind Path, Kuchinashi, and Mistral City itself, with orders to stir up the criminal populations of the city, incite violence in its poorer elements, spark a conflict between the kingdom and the Bandit Confederation, and then launch a massive invasion of the continent of Anima once both sides had weakened each other through a jumping off point in Argus, taking the entirety of Anima for themselves. From there, after a long and gruelling war, they would then move on to invade Menagerie, and then the north of Vale afterwards in a long war that humanity would not be able to easily survive.

It was a devilish plan, and one that Ozpin and Ironwood were eager to see stopped.

Already, Ironwood had deployed his Specialists and Ace-Ops (Excluding Winter Schnee, who remained at his side in Vale) To Mistral to try and weed out these hidden agents (So far, they were finding no such luck, but given time, they would be found), Whilst he began to send resources, ships, manpower, and material to Argus to gather and spread out across the continent of Anima, ready to repel an enemy attack, hoping to lull the Grimm armies into a false sense of security as they hide their armies away, and then catch them out in the open and wipe them out. Meanwhile, Ozpin was deploying as many Hunter teams and individuals as he could muster to Anima, hoping to use them to ease the potential political fallout between Atlas, Mistral, and Raven Branwen's Bandit Confederation, that was surely to come when all of this was over.

(Of course, they were also going on the added hope that they could stir up elements within Raven's pseudo-kingdom into attacking the Ascendant Court's armies when they landed, in order to draw off heat from Atlas' forces as well, but no one else needed to know that, did they?)

And so, Vacuo had been contacted, with much of its protective forces moving away to Mistral, and many soldiers in Vale leaving for Anima as well, all of them readying for a fight as Mistral was contacted and told to prepare itself.

All that was left now was Atlas, but they were being suspiciously quiet about it.

Ozpin and Ironwood had decided to contact the council privately, away from the Valerian council's prying eyes via Ozpin's personal connections. Something was going on, and they didn't like it. They needed the vast swaths of resources from Vale in order to make this plan work, and they needed it now more than ever.

Soon, a holographic screen flickered into life, with a direct call to the Atlesian council.

After a long silence, the screen finally changed, and came into a camera view of the council room, with only one person in view.

The newest elected leader of Atlas and Mantle looked at the two men on the other side of the screen, and smiled a wicked, smug grin, her amber eyes burning like fire with ambition that were impossible to put out, her hair as black as charcoal and smouldering ash.

"Well," went Cinder, "Isn't this a surprise?"

---

Soundtrack:

High Command/Big Three (Jaune, Melanie, Ruby):
Problem Kids by Konrad OldMoney ft. Taelor Yung & Young Kenny
Army by Besomorph, Arcando, Neoni

Choir of Silver:
Heretical Omen from the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep soundtrack

Templar:
You're Mine by Oscar and the Wolf

Attis:
Loyal by PARTYNEXTDOOR, ft, Drake

Ares:
Bloodlust by Killsonik

Adonai:
Ice Queen by Within Temptation

Hephasteus:
Opportunist by LongLife 16

Malcom Croft:
Mercenary by Panic! At The Disco

Undertakers:
Wannabe Soldier by Oma Da Pro ft. N'ergi

Tock:
The Hunter by Adam Jensen

---

Reviewer response time:

rarrarshark: Thank you as always for taking the time out of your day to read this chapter!

Richy1991: Thanks! Glad that you think so!

Guest: Wither and Blossom are just regular swords painted black and red. Silver Bloom are her wrist guns and blades. And yes, Yang will be used in the future, just much further down the line.

avatarlopes: Templar took out Ruby's eye with her own Crescent Rose, and Attis replaced it with a red bionic optic. And yes, Attis was one of the best bois of this fic. Like a loyal doggy, he was.

---

And with that, comes the end of the Jaunedice arc, one of my weakest arcs to be honest.

Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, the beginning of this arc wasn't exactly consistent with the rest of its content, and this ending chapter was me finally pulling in those threads from the beginning of the arc and tying them into the end.

The reason that this arc was so flimsy for me was because I didn't plan ahead of it. At the beginning, I had sort of a good idea of where it was going, but then suddenly the idea for Templar and the Choir of Silver (Where it was originally going to be just Tock and her lot) Came in, and threw that all out of the window, and then I had the idea with the book but that didn't make much sense to me in the end, and then...

Yeah, I really should've put my ideas to paper before I began this arc instead of just writing it at the seat of my pants.

But, fear not, my readers! You shan't be seeing the same drop in quality in my next arc, for I am planning ahead! I've already got all of my ideas in my head! All I need to do it put them down into a feasible order and timeline, work out the logical steps and patterns, and then write it all out for you to enjoy! With that, we won't be seeing anymore of these messes of ideas and plot threads like we have now, so rest assured, this story's future is in safe hands!

And, as a side note, one of the biggest sources of inspiration for me late into this arc was Star Wars: The Clone Wars, with the Escape from Kadavo episode really helping me to sort out a potential plot hole that I was digging myself into.

Again, always remember to plan ahead. That's what I've learnt now.

Oh, and if you thought that the resolution of the teams wasn't very satisfying, don't worry: It was meant to be like that. Team JNPERs fragile relationships are really going to be put to the test in the next arc!

Yeah, I really don't give these kids any break, do I?

For now, expect a slew of short stories to follow now as I sort out all of my university work (Such as assignments and essays and stuff) As well as work out my plan for the next arc, and with that, leave a review, follow, favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!

Titanmaster117 out!