Here we go – man, I just say this when I have nothing to say. I suppose I could say nothing, but then the line break below would look weird at the top of a page for no reason.

Cover Art: Jack Wayne

Chapter 147

"Most of the systems are down," the pilot said. "I've patched an SOS through to Atlas, but this thing won't be flying anytime soon."

"Not like we'd want to with someone wielding anti-air," Harriet said. "What now, sir? Do we wait for reinforcements or try to make it back to Argus? We're still technically in Mistral."

Jaune knelt and leaned Watts against a tree, propping him up in a seated position and leaving him there. He wouldn't be going anywhere fast with his hands bound.

"Going back to Argus would place them in danger. I've a feeling whoever is after us is trying to rescue this prick. Probably don't want their secrets getting out if he talks."

"Probably." Harriet looked at Watts and snorted. "He looks like the type to sing under a little pressure. Offer him a reduced sentence, tell him what happens in prison and he'll be babbling answers so quick you won't be able to shut him up. I've seen his type before."

Cowards. Not coward in the way people had called Raven, but the worse kind, the kind that thought they were hot shit until they weren't, who would bully and pick on this weaker than them, then cry victim the moment the tables were turned. At least Raven had been consistent with her fear. At least being afraid of an immortal and potentially all-powerful monster made sense.

"Our best bet is to wait for Atlas to come rescue us," Jaune said.

"Were you able to warn them about the anti-air?" Harriet asked the pilot.

"It was an automated SOS signal. They'll know, though. It's not like our birds go down for any other reason."

"That'll still make bringing new aircraft in dangerous…"

Jaune sighed and cracked his neck. "We'll need to locate and deal with the shooter, then. One of us needs to scout for them and the other needs to guard Watts," he said, indicating himself and Harriet. "Which do you want? You know your capabilities better than I do."

Harriet looked between the pilot, Watts and Jaune. Technically, her semblance of speed would make her best for scouting. He pretended he wasn't aware of it, even if he was sure she'd pick that.

"I'll stay and guard the prisoner. I'm good for it."

Really? Jaune nodded and buried his surprise, tugging his coat shut and turning to survey the nearby trees. Harriet should have chosen to scout with her speed and leave him, the more static combatant, to guard Watts and the pilot. Had James spoken to her beforehand and warned her against leaving Watts alone with him? It wouldn't have surprised him.

Only reason for her to pick this way around…

"Alright. You stay here and keep an eye on him. Shout if you need me."

/-/

Harriet watched Ashari go and breathed out quickly. General Ironwood had been firm on his instructions that Arthur Watts was not to leave her sight, nor be left alone with Jaune Ashari. The reasons weren't given to her, but she wasn't so stupid that she couldn't figure it out. Hacking all the electronics in Argus was similar to being able to hack that aura-based power generator. The same one that put Winter Schnee on life support.

She wouldn't fault him wanting revenge – most people would in his shoes – but she had her orders, and the military part of her brain knew it was better in the long run to bring Watts back and grill him for information. Whatever this group were, they'd attacked Atlas personnel. They had to be identified and dealt with.

Idly, she watched as their pilot tinkered about with the Bullhead, trying to repair what he could. Most pilots in the force were also trained to enact battlefield repairs, but she doubted anything short of a team and a fully stocked hanger could get that thing back in the air. The thick armour had saved its passengers though, so it'd done its job.

If the crash had been harder, she and Ashari would have certainly survived. The pilot might have, too, depending on his aura control or the speed at which he ejected. Watts, however, would have surely perished. As was so often the case, it was the prisoner who was most vulnerable, and he certainly was now while unconscious. He couldn't control what limited aura he had, meaning a stray bullet, blade or even a hungry wolf would be his end.

Not much I can work with to set up a perimeter. Harriet looked around the clearing. If the full team were here, we could set up sentries, but I can't leave his side in case someone swoops down to nab him.

Harriet scratched her arm nervously, bouncing on her heels to keep her body moving. Maybe it would have been best to ask Ashari to stick around. Two people would let one of them play lookout and distraction if needs be. Right now, she was feeling more open than she ever had before.

"With any luck, Ashari will find the bastard and put 'em down. Damn it, Clover, since when did I get used to relying on your luck to even the odds?"

The trees rustled loudly in reply, shaking suddenly and violently, so much so that their pilot looked away from the Bullhead and up. Harriet did as well, half expecting a huge Nevermore to come flying out, except that it was all the trees and branches shaking.

"That's a sudden turn of weather," the pilot remarked.

Yeah. Sudden. That was a good way to put it. The wind was picking up sharply, first blowing the branches inward and then kicking up loose leaves and dirt, whipping them past her legs.

"That's not a good sign…" Did she know of any Grimm capable of manipulating wind? No. But Semblances came a lien a dozen, and this definitely wasn't the one Ashari was pegged as having. "You might want to find some cover!" she called to the pilot. "I think we've got company."

It was like a switch being flicked. The wind went from gale to hurricane in a second, slamming the pilot back into the hull and sending Harriet skidding away. Watts slumped onto his side but was spared the assault, something she didn't miss.

Her Fast Knuckles whirred and clicked into place, the exoskeleton connecting down her arms as she dug one into the ground and used it to steady herself. Looking up, she caught the cloaked figure appearing from the trees and dashing toward Watts.

Oh no you fucking don't!

Golden light whipped around her feet as she blurred forward, cutting the attacker off and slamming her left fist forward. The figure leaned back with incredible speed, dodging by an inch and slicing upward with a curved grey sword that appeared to be moving in slow motion to her. Harriet batted it away, stepped into the person's guard and tried to grab their throat, only to curse as a second sword came up to threaten her arm.

Two swords. Quick. Thin. Not Ashari – the build was too different. Harriet ducked back and planted herself between Watts and her new foe, watching as the woman – she was sure it was from her figure – hopped back. She wore a dark brown robe from head to toe, hooded and cloaked, with a strap of cloth across her nose and mouth. Only her eyes could be seen, and those caught her attention. Burning like golden fire.

"What the-?"

The woman raised her hand and suddenly Harriet was struggling to stay standing. The wind buffeted her from every direction – up, down, left, right. Whenever she got used to one angle, it seemed to change and hit her from another, making balancing close to impossible. When she put her weight to the left and it suddenly went with her, she was nearly sent flying.

Wind Semblance. Damn, that's annoying for my speed. I can't win standing still. I need to close the distance and hope she's not as good in melee.

Harriet waited for the wind to change from front-on to the side, then kicked off with a burst of her semblance. Golden sparks flew as she dashed in, cocked her fist back and thrust with all her momentum behind it.

Though the woman dodged to the side, the force of her speed and exoskeleton caused a small shockwave, allowing Harriet to stop, twist and change direction on the dot. Her knee crashed into the assailant's side, deflecting off aura but knocking her off balance. She followed up with a duck into an uppercut, then two blows to the stomach to drive the air out of them.

Her third punch was caught on the flat of a sword. It diverted and then slid up the inside of her arm, cutting toward her armpit and the tendons there. Harriet pinched her elbow into her side, catching the sword between her Fast Knuckles and her ribs and twisting her body to the left, ripping it from the woman's hand before she drove the flat of her other hand into its side, sending the sword scattering away. One down. One to go.

If she'd expected the fight to get easier with her foe a weapon down, she was wrong. The woman took the remaining sword in two hands and instantly became more skilled for it, almost like she wasn't used to using two at all. The cuts came in so sharp and fast that even with her Semblance, she had trouble dodging. The constant wind didn't help. Always changing direction, intensity and angle to threaten her footing, to push her punches off an inch at a time or whip her back foot away. It was like fighting in the middle of a tornado.

What is this semblance? I can barely stay standing.

A gunshot echoed from the left. Harriet panicked but the shot struck the woman on her left shoulder. The pilot! Harriet grinned and felt the wind drop. She took the moment to steady herself, shoulder the woman away to create some space and then snap a devastating blow into her solar plexus. The force of it sent the woman skidding back and down onto one knee. Aura or not, she'd feel that. The woman clutched her stomach, panting for air.

"You have attacked an officer of Atlas," Harriet said. "Surrender and you shall be granted fair trial. Resist and we will use force to subdue you."

The woman clicked her teeth and slowly stood. Off to the side, the pilot circled, a handgun held in both hands and aimed at her opponent with more than a passing proficiency, especially to nail a shot like that mid-combat. Someone had spent time at the range. Harriet smirked, confidence rising.

That didn't last.

The woman raised one hand toward the sky and the world darkened. Harriet looked up, blood draining from her face as the very clouds in the sky circled and coalesced above them, for a moment causing the sun itself to be concealed and dim. W-Weather control-?

The implications of a semblance so powerful were staggering. Floods, draught, hurricanes and other natural disasters could all be caused by someone with even the slightest control over the weather. Did this person really have that much power? It was terrifying.

"I-Impossible. N-No one could have a semblance that powerful."

The woman made her first sound of the fight, a smug "Hmph" before she flung her hand down and toward Harriet.

Thunder cracked.

Lightning did, too, but it was the thunder that rang in her ears as she was flung backward. Light travelled faster than sound, explaining why she heard the strike after she felt it. If it weren't for her aura, she'd be dead. Instantly. As it was, she was flung back and into a tree, smacking into it with enough force to shatter the trunk and topple it backward.

The world went black.

/-/

General James Ironwood jumped off his aircraft before it had even fully landed, covering the distance between the rescue party and Ashari's in seconds. They were alive, that much he took in at a glance. Specialist Bree looked the worse for wear, shaking and burned but awake and supported by Ashari's hand behind her back, the rest of her laid on the floor. The pilot was alive as well, sporting a hastily made sling for what appeared to be a broken arm or shoulder.

Ashari was fine.

"Report!" Ironwood demanded.

"T-They took Watts," Harriet rasped out.

Ashari silenced her. "Shush. Let me speak. Our Bullhead was brought down here. I went out to try and find the perpetrator while Harriet guarded Watts. In my absence, they were attacked. I heard and made my way back as quickly as I could, but by the time I was here, these two were out cold and Watts was gone."

"Damn it!" Ironwood roared.

"I-I'm sorry, sir-" Harriet whispered.

"Not you, soldier," he said hastily. "The situation."

"James, you have to hear this." Jaune said. The look on his face made the severity clear and he nodded for the man to continue. "Harriet, tell us what you saw about the person who beat you. Slowly. Don't rush it if it hurts."

"I-I'm fine," she stammered. "T-The shakes are, ugh, nerves a-are rattled. Electricity." Closing her eyes, she grit her teeth and forced herself to be still. It seemed to work because her words came out clearer, if slowly delivered. "It was a woman. Weather control. I thought it was wind at first, it was all she used, but then she made the clouds themselves gather and summoned a lightning strike. I-I couldn't dodge it. Never even saw it coming."

"You're fast, Specialist, but not faster than light." Ironwood touched her arm.

"Her eyes," Jaune pressed. "Tell him about her eyes."

Eyes-? Alarmed, Ironwood focused on Harriet once more. He feared the worst, even before she spoke.

"They were shining. Gold. The edges burned, almost like they were burning flares. Wispy, like gold smoke or dust. I-I've never seen the like, sir. Never seen anything like it."

A maiden. Ironwood's blood ran cold, but he thanked Harriet for her report and instructed the medical teams to take her on board when they landed. Her injuries were mostly superficial thanks to her aura.

"I gave her some of my aura to speed up the healing process," Jaune said. "As best I can tell, she'll be back to full shape in no time. Probably a few days off to get herself in order."

"Not here." Ironwood said. "My cabin. Private."

Jaune nodded.

They were airborne within five minutes, detonating the crashed Bullhead so as not to give away valuable weaponry to whomever came across it. Harriet and the pilot had been taken to the medical wing while Ironwood brought Jaune to his private quarters, locked the door and de-activated the cameras within. Ashari waited patiently, hands behind his back.

"That was a maiden," Ironwood finally said. "Can you confirm?"

"I wasn't there to see the fight, but I heard the wind and saw the weather phenomenon. I'm sure plenty of other people in Mistral did, too. From how Harriet described it, it's definitely a maiden. You have the Winter Maiden secure, don't you…?"

How did he know-? Never mind. "Yes. We do."

"Fall and Spring are in Beacon." Jaune said. "Qrow and I killed Summer."

"Could she have survived?"

"No. Qrow confirmed the body, and she was definitely a maiden."

Ironwood nodded. He'd received the full report from Ozpin, and everything added up. "Then this means Salem located the new Summer Maiden before we could. What a disaster. I've no idea how she could have found her so quickly, let alone swayed them to her side."

"It also means Watts is still important to her…"

"Yes. I'll have every CCT on Remnant checked and scanned by our best people. If she's planning some kind of cyber-attack, I'll make sure it fails. Damn it. We had him. We had him to rights."

Jaune scowled. "You think you're mad…"

"I should have sent more people with you. Perhaps the whole Ace-Ops." Ironwood shook his head; it was too late to think on that now. Hindsight was 20-20. "If nothing else, we should be grateful we located and stopped whatever it was Watts was planning. We've also confirmed that Salem has the Summer Maiden. Valuable information. I'll pass it onto Ozpin. The Summer Maiden will be kill on sight from now on. I'm sorry we couldn't interrogate him for a way to save Winter…"

"It's… well, it's not fine, but I'm not sure I would have trusted him with Winter's soul anyway. He's the type of person to kill her just to spite me. I'll find my own way to save her. If not through technology, then by magic."

Magic. Whenever he heard the word uttered unironically, he winced. It was so unscientific, so random, and yet he wouldn't fault Ashari turning to it to save Winter. "I wish you luck. Take some rest. We'll land in four hours. Will you be staying in Atlas once we return?"

"I'll go see Winter. That's all. I'll be straight back to Vale after."

"Wish her well from me. I'd visit myself but I have anti-cyber campaign to organise. Luckily, with what nearly happened in Argus, I don't see anyone on the Council arguing against it."

A terrorist attack that threatened to take out an entire settlement, maliciously targeting the hospitals, tended to put people in favour of a big security push. After all, if it could happen in Argus, it could happen in Mantle.

/-/

Winter looked so soft and vulnerable in her hospital bed. She'd been bathed recently and dressed in a white robe, while fragrant incense had been left on her bedside table gently burning away. Jasmine by the smell. A bouquet of white lilies stood in a glass vase nearby, while numerous blankets covered her body. In complete ruination of all that, a feeding tube was connected up her neck and through her nostrils.

"I'll fix you," Jaune said. "I promise I'm close. Very close."

He ran a hand across her cheek. Her skin was still warm, hinting at life, but knowing what he did about souls, gods and the afterlife now, that meant little. Her body was alive, but without a soul, it was just a corpse that hadn't realised it was dead yet.

"I won't let that happen. I will do whatever I have to." He drew his hand back, fingers shaking and curling into a fist. "Whatever I have to, no matter how wrong it is, to save you."

Sighing, he turned away.

"I hope you can forgive me that."

The red portal swirled to life before him, Jaune walking through and out of Winter's room, into a clearing in the middle of a Mistral forest. The cold air rushed over him, though it thankfully spared Winter as the portal closed behind him with a loud snap.

The hooded woman before him pulled her cloak back. The twin swords had been tossed away, abandoned as the trash they were, and Raven was back to her single nodachi, standing against a large rock with arms crossed. At her feet, Watts' eyes widened, his body shaking with mirth.

"It was you behind this," he said. "I knew it! Oh, Ashari, I misjudged you – I misjudged you so badly. You really are a loyal servant of our wonderful patron." He laughed, hysterical relief pouring through. "I doubted you, more fool me, but we both know you wouldn't dare go against her."

"Watts." Jaune stalked forward, face hard. Eyes harder. "You've caused me a lot of trouble."

"I have, haven't I?" Watts chuckled. "I apologise for that, I do. Forcing you to stage a rescue after capturing me to keep your cover. Well, I can't say you don't go all the way when you need to. How about a deal? I'll forget all about the fact you interfered with the task Salem gave me, and in return we let this little debacle go, hm? Sweep it all under the rug as one big misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding, huh…?"

"There appear to be a few of those swimming around," Raven said dryly.

The scabbard of her nodachi came down over Watts' throat, startling him as she pulled him up and onto his feet. The man struggled but was no match for her strength, forced back and then thrown down onto a slab of rock. Raven kept him pinned by his neck, holding back his feeble attempts to escape and choking away his words.

Jaune came around and took Watts' left hand, looping thick rope about it and tying it down, then repeating the process with his other hand and his feet, until the man was tied down and spread out across the rock like a sacrifice on the alter. Only then did Raven release him.

"Ashari!" Watts cried. "W-What is the meaning of this? Salem will-"

"Salem will find out about this far too late to do anything to save you, Watts." Jaune strode around to the man's head and peeled his glove back. The sigil on the back was already glowing. Watts' eyes widened. "You're going to help me with a little research. That should be right up your alley."

Hovering his hand over Watts' body, Jaune watched the sigil glow and dim with brighter intensity until it began to glow at its brightest over the man's right chest. Using a knife, he cut open Watts' ornate coat and the shirt underneath, exposing skin and the black mark of Salem etched onto his skin.

"This lets Salem manipulate our souls," he said out loud. "Mostly to cause pain and ensure loyalty, but the point remains. It lets her twist, move and pull at our souls. It might even let her rip one out our bodies. Which might, in theory, also let someone put one back in…"

Blue light spanned out from his hand as he held it close to the mark. He could feel something from it – the mark, not his hand. Something warm and wet but also rotten, like the texture of fruit gone bad.

"H-How!?" Watts gasped. "Is that-? No. Only Salem and Ozpin have magic. No one else should be left with the power to use it. No one!"

"Should. Shouldn't. You should know that a researcher doesn't work on those terms, Watts. I doubt you ever did with your experiments." Jaune looked down at the notes Ozpin had provided, balanced in his other hand.

Raven came up with the tome collected from the temple, holding it out for him to read from. Or to read his translations of the dead language. Everything was vague and put together as best he could, or as well as Ozma could remember. That kind of faulty information could well mean the difference between life and death, which was why he could never experiment on his younger self or anyone else he cared about.

If these notes were correct, the mark on Watts' chest was already doing most of the work. It was the magic already applied, which meant that all he had to do was pilot it. Sort of like a vehicle. Driving a car without knowledge wasn't easy by any means, but it was much easier to drive a car than it was to try and make one from scratch. Someone – in this case Salem – had already done most of the heavy lifting for him.

All Jaune had to do was… meddle with it.

Give it a little twist.

"Arghhhh!" Watts shrieked loud enough to send birds scattering from the trees. His body arched up, face burning red as he screamed and screamed and screamed. "Aieeeeeeeee!"

Jaune blocked it out.

Okay, so by reaching into the mark I can give his soul a twist and that causes pain. I suppose the degree to which I do it intensifies…

"Rarghhhhh!" Watts' screams reached a new pitch of agony.

As he'd thought. He let go, and the man slumped down, sweating and heaving for air. Had it been anyone else – even if that someone was Hazel Rainart or Tyrian Callows – then he might have felt some sympathy. At least they were redeemable in their own ways. One was clearly insane and the other had become lost to grief after losing someone they loved.

Watts was just a bastard. He was a demented bully playing with people's lives because it made him feel strong. Because it helped him to feel superior compared to other people.

"P-Please!" he begged. "I-I'll talk. I'll tell you whatever you want!"

Jaune paused. "Can you tell me how to put Winter's soul back in her body?"

"W-What…? N-No, I…"

"Can you tell me how to take out a soul or implant it into someone?"

"I-I can try. I-If I had access to my tools, my research-"

Liar. Watts must have thought him an idiot. Or the man was desperate and grasping at straws. Probably the latter. "Don't worry," Jaune said. "You have everything you need right here. Or I do, anyway. We're going to learn how to put a soul back into someone together."

He watched the panic play across Watts' face, the abject fear. Jaune looked away, disturbed by it despite being resolved to what he was going to do. What he had to do. This could well be the way to end Salem once and for all. A way to free Ozma as well, potentially without harming Oscar.

"The first step of that is to learn how to take one out. I need you to stay still," he said, knowing Watts wouldn't and aware that the man was already thrashing in blind panic. It didn't matter. There was nowhere to go, and Watts had made his grave the moment he targeted Winter.

He brought his hand above the mark, concentrating and watching the light from his own sigil spin out like a circle, forming the shape he was copying from the tome. It reached to his intent, to thought, but it took concentration. He had to visualise the shape and what it was supposed to do, think of a vessel, a container, a bottle.

Imagine the soul being as water. Water drawn from a tap, poured out from a living creature into a vessel. The light glowed brighter, suffusing Watts' body in a calming glow. Calming for him, perhaps, not for the man whose eyes were rolling back in terror.

"This is not an exact science." Jaune said. "It may hurt a little."

Watts' scream echoed over the forests of Mistral.

It was deadly silent mere moments later.

The end of Watts.

Ignoble, maybe, but then again it IS Watts. I've had a few people ask me my thoughts on Season 8 and I'd just like to confirm I haven't watched any of it. I've been so down on the recent seasons that I stopped watching. Seasons 4-6 were just torturous, and I've not been enjoying any of it.

That said, I've been hearing some decent things now, apparently the show is trying to portray the darker side of things, which is something I've been wanting forever. Always been such a weird contrast that this world is literally on death's door and the show never made it look that way. Still, if it does get good reviews then I'll consider watching it and catching up.

Not been watching any series recently. Well, other than Helluva Boss. Enjoying that. Not enough to write fanfic of it, ofc, but just in the sense of it being fun.

Although… I wonder if a story would work wherein Blitzo adopts Jaune as well as Loona, or where Ozpin asks IMP to kill Salem and the crazy shit comes from that. I could see a crack idea in there. xD. Personally, I'm more invested in seeing if Stolas x Blitzo can become a thing, and if there isn't some genuine feelings there hidden beneath the smut and Blitzo's obvious efforts to push him away.

Next Chapter: 27th March

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur