This chapter is the definition of what it means when I get serious. Also you've probably noticed by now but I decided to use my laptop for this chapter so the writing might look a bit different then normal. Anyways I hope you enjoy this latest chapter and if you've got something to say, the comment section is there for your wanted complaints or praises.
Daylight was still out when jaune saw his sister leading his partner away. He wished saphron the best of luck on her end before heading to the library where he promised to meet blake. On his way to the library the intercom in the hallway came to life "would jaune arc please report to the headmasters office; I repeat, will jaune arc please report to the headmasters office". Jaune came to a stop and let out a sigh "can't I go one day without having to visit that old man".
He corrected his route and headed to the old man's tower, all while typing to his girlfriend on why he was going to be late just in case she for some reason didn't hear the announcement. Her return message consisted of a simple word "ok" with a cute kitten face set in a small frown. Another sigh escaped his lips as he put his scroll away. "Trust me blake I'd rather be there with you then stuck in ozpins office" he complained as he entered the elevator. The ride up was pleasant enough...that was until the doors opened and he came face to face with a man he really wished he could have avoided.
Ironwoods face was set in a large frown the moment jaune stepped out of the elevator and in to the large office. The blonde stood a few feet away from the general but none could miss the cold glares each man sent to the other. "You called headmaster" jaune asked without breaking eye contact with the general.
Ozpin smiled at the blonde before putting his hands together "the reason I called you here Mr arc was to have you and james put aside your differences for the sake of the up coming vytal festival". The general turned to his fellow headmaster and leveled his best glare "your asking an awful lot, especially where this fugitive is concerned".
"Says the kidnapper".
Ironwood stood the very next second, face filled with fury as he turned to the blonde "I have never done such a thing"! Jaune raised a brow at his response " really? Then I guess I must have imagined getting shot in the back and lock away by another crazy general from atlas". The general growled at the blonde and only grew more angry when jaune shot a smirk in his direction. "Regardless of what you might think I acted in the best interest of the people of atlas when I struck you down".
"Save your excuses for somebody who'd actually believe them" the blonde said before turning to Beacons headmaster "as much as I hate to agree with the iron erection over there I don't think having us in the same room will be good for anyone". Glynda, who had been standing as still as a statue and as quiet as one, finally moved after hearing jaune talk badly about atlas's headmaster. "Mr arc I don't think you understand the severity of your words". Jaune rolled his eyes at the elder blonde, despite the fact that he was unarmed and that she could probably snap him in two with her semblance if she wanted to.
Ozpin picked up his steaming mug of coffee and took a small sip to wet his throat before looking to the young man in front of him. "Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, this is an event that is meant to bring the four kingdoms together so I am expecting you both to act as adults instead of children. I doubt people are going to look kindly on a general who has it out for a teenager who - to the public of vales knowledge - has done nothing wrong".
Any restraint the general had went out the window the second ozpin finished speaking "are you mad?! This boy not only has a criminal record but he's also proven to be a cold blooded killer and you thought It'd be best to hide that fact from the people he could most likely hurt?! I've overlooked a lot of your mistakes but if your expecting me to go along with this you'd better think again old friend. Next thing your going to tell me is that I was right and he is working for salem".
The entire office became so quite that you could hear a pin drop from one end of the room to the other.
That small bit of confirmation was all the general needed to be pushed over the edge. Ozpin held his hand out and tried to speak, only for his words to be drowned out when ironwood reached under his coat and drew out one of his handguns before firing at the blonde. Glynda held her crop out and deflected the bullet away from jaune with her semblance but couldn't stop her fellow blonde from returning fire by tossing his chair at the general.
"Stop both of you"!
Glynda's words went ignored as jaune rushed forward while the general was busy knocking the chair away. The younger blondes hand slipped into ironwoods coat for barley even a second before the general brought down his arm and elbowed jaune in the back, knocking him to the floor. Jaune rolled on the floor the second he hit the ground before taking a knee and aiming the stolen handgun at the general. Ironwood did the same in the brief second after he knocked the blonde down. Neither of them were able to pull the trigger in time to shoot each other because glynda used her semblance to force both of their guns to aim downward before creating two spheres of condensed air in front of the two.
The force from the air spheres was enough to blast the two fighters to the opposite ends of the office. Once both ironwood and jaune hit the walls, glynda used her semblance to yank their weapons away from them.
The two quickly rose to their feet but froze in place at the sheer power behind ozpin's voice when he spoke. "That's quite enough"! The air in the surrounding area sparked with magical energy that seemed to radiate from Beacons headmaster. His eye's glowed with an emerald green as he looked over the two who saw fit to fight in his office. The wizard held his hand out and used his magic to flip the chair that jaune had thrown into an upright position before looking to the general and motioning for him to take a seat.
Ironwood did as he was instructed and took a seat. Ozpin looked to jaune as well and motioned with his left hand for him to do the same. Just like with ironwood, jaune made no move to disobey or argue and instead did as he was told and took a seat quietly. When both were seated, ozpin withdrew his power and let out a tired sigh "james" his words came out slowly "there is much that has happened that you are not entirely aware of. Mr arc was an agent of salems that's true, but with current events his loyalty has shifted and has been helping us deal with the current threat we face".
"How are you so sure this isn't some ruse concocted by her"?
Ozpin could understand his old friends skepticism; so in order to truly convince him, the elder wizard decided to reveal info about the young man that he'd kept hidden for awhile now. "Mr arc has done more then just share info to get into our good graces james. In fact he's been fighting even harder and longer to keep the peace then we initially thought" he said as he stood from his chair with mug in hand. The elder wizard walked over to the window and took a small sip before looking back a jaune with a knowing smile.
"Tell us jaune, what have you managed to uncover in your time as...jekyll was it"? Jaunes muscles tensed at the name. "Your probably trying to figure out how I know, but let's just say a little bird I know is good at finding people their close to".
That wasn't exactly much to go on and if ozpin already knew about his activities as jekyll and still hadn't arrested him, then there wasn't any point in keeping it hidden anymore. With the beans already spilled as is, jaune went into great deal explaining his work in pushing back the white fangs influence within the city. Although there was some things he still kept hidden as best he could, there were other things that wouldn't have made sense without giving full details. When he had finally finished the three adults in the room were completely silent.
Ozpin took a small sip from his mug before letting out a sigh "it seems a lot more has been going on behind the scenes then I realized". Ironwood stared at the elder wizard like he just realized the old man was a senile geezer instead of an all powerful huntsmen. "That's your response to finding out the white fang had nearly usurped your position at Beacon and took control of half of vale from you"? Ozpin looked down at his mug for a moment in thought before responding "your right, maybe I need something a little stronger the coffee at the moment".
Ironwood was anything but amused.
"I agree with james" glynda said from ozpins side "If these terrorists are working with salems agents and have pull enough to have you ousted from your position then I think we need to treat this with a more serious attitude then that". Ozpin walked over to his desk and placed his mug on the table before looking over to jaune. "Your report sounds as if the situation has changed recently, am I correct in that assumption"?
The younger blonde nodded once in response. "Would you care to explain what has changed for us" ozpin asked. Jaune nodded once more before rising to his feet "what I've told you so far has been true but as of the last few days I've gotten word that the white fang has been pulling back most of their forces out of vale. The reason for this is still unknown to us but we've taken the opportunity to reclaim what territory we could to keep them from falling under cinders control if the white fang is no longer working with her".
"And we're suppose to just let these criminals do as they please" ironwood asked.
"You can't eliminate crime, no matter how much you wish to" jaune answered. "Our best bet is to control what we can and to have the lesser of two evils handle the dirty work, which is why junior an the xiong family are the best option we have". Ironwood crossed his arms in clear disagreement "we know the worst this city has to offer, I say we wipe them all out at once while we have the chance". Jaune glared at the older man "you do that and you'll leave a power vacuum that cinder or remnant forbid adam taurus can take advantage of".
"When that happens atlas will be standing by ready to assist in whatever capacity is necessary" the general argued.
"Military might doesn't make right, you can solve the worlds problem with just the barrel of a gun" jaune fired back.
"Then clearly you've never seen how well atlas is protected" the general said as he rose to his feet. If that declaration was suppose to intimidate the younger blonde it obviously didn't have the effect the general was hoping for. Jaune stood his ground and even returned the glare ironwood sent him before speaking "what I've seen is a kingdom one click away from all but destroying itself without any work from salem, or have forgotten how easily I brought atlas to it's knee's on my own"? The reminder drew an angry growl from the general but he refused to take the bait.
Ozpin looked back at his mug "I'm really going to need something stronger then this" he mumbled to himself.
Back with ironwood and jaune, the two continued their glaring contest until surprisingly the general backed down and let out a sigh "as much as I don't like agreeing with you, even I can see you've been doing more for the people then I could have ever expected of someone like you. While I don't like the idea of relying on criminals to protect the people or to help us deal with our problems for us, it's worked so far and if it's not broken why fix it". The words were unexpected to say the least but what came as a surprise to even ozpin himself is when ironwood extended a hand to the younger blonde as a peace offering.
Jaune was hesitant at first but eventually he took hold of the generals hand with a bit of confusion on his face. "So long as your working to protect the people I'll consider you an ally" the generals grip became ironclad the next moment as he continued "but make no mistake, the second you show any sign of double crossing us I'll kill you myself". Jaune nodded to the general before his hand was finally released.
"I for one am grateful you both were able to put aside your differences on this matter" ozpin commented "now with that out of the way we can move on to another matter that requires our attention". Both jaune and Ironwood looked to the elder wizard as he walked around the desk and headed to the elevator with glynda in tow. When the elevator door opened the headmaster and deputy head mistress entered and waited for the general and arc to follow after them. Jaune and ironwood stepped into the elevator and made space for ozpin to reach the floor buttons.
Jaune couldn't see what the elder wizard did but before he knew it the elevator started to move at a brisk pace until it reached it's destination. When the door opened the first noise to fill the room was ironwoods voice when he practically screeched ozpin's name. Honestly jaune couldn't believe the generals voice could reach such a pitch. Ozpin on the other hand placed his pinky in his ear before wiggling it to try and recover his ability to hear. "James, there's really no need to yell when I'm barely a few inches away from you" he complained.
Ironwood opened his mouth to continue to yell but at the last moment he snapped his mouth shut and pushed passed the elder wizard with glynda following close behind. Jaune shrugged his shoulders and followed after the two when ozpin did.
Glynda walked up beside ironwood and asked something that had been bothering her since earlier. "James" her words were nothing more then a whisper that only they could hear "you don't really trust ozpin to have the young arc boy under control do you"? Ironwood looked to his old colleague with a small frown "with all that's happened in the span of this meeting alone I've never felt more in doubt of ozpin's ability then now and then he brings us here of all places. This place is where the relic of choice is located, along with the very maiden that's needed to open the vault door".
Ironwood looked away a moment later and release a frustrated sigh "I just don't know what's going through that man's head anymore". A hand rested on the generals arm causing him to look into glynda's emerald green eye's. She wore such a soft and beautiful smile that he couldn't help but feel his spirits lift. "Do you trust me james"? His answer came without even having to think about it "of course I do, that will never change" he said as his hand came to rest on her's. Glyndas smile grew slightly from his unconditional trust in her "then trust me to do the right thing if anything happens" she said softly.
Ironwood hated when she did this to him, but just like every other time he conceded to her words. His hand slowly removed itself from her's as they continued onto the maidens aura transfer machine.
When ozpin and jaune finally caught up with the other two, ironwood had to ask "what are we doing here oz"? Ozpin smiled and motion for glynda to do what they had discussed before hand. She nodded before proceeding to open the maiden transfer machine to reveal the woman within. Jaune was speechless as he watched the elder wizard lift the young woman within and placed her on the ground in front of him. Once ozpin stood back up, he tapped his cane on the floor which caused a platform to rise out of the ground and lift the comatose woman to just bellow his stomach.
Jaune looked down at the woman in front of him and saw that her dark skin was pale and riddled with scars across a face that he could tell would have been beautiful once upon a time. If that was all that was wrong with her then she could have recovered on her own, but with his training in aura manipulation he could tell what the real damage this woman possessed was. The younger blonde looked up to the three across from him and asked "who is this"? Ozpin shared a quick look with ironwood before looking to jaune "this is as you might have guessed, the fall maiden".
When jaune made no movement against the comatose woman, ozpin continued. "Amber was attacked by your former colleagues in an attempt to steal the maiden powers from her, by such means we are not entirely sure of but...".
"I know how" jaunes words cut through ozpins explanation, and earned the attention of every on in the room. Jaune cleared his throat before pointing down at the marks on ambers face "this web like patter matches one of the insect variety grimm salem and I worked on back when I was a kid". Ironwoods eye's narrowed dangerously as he spoke "we know it was used to steal a portion of the maidens power but we don't know what this grimm has further done to the host of said power". Jaune passed a hand through his hair as he tried to get his thoughts in order.
"Alright" he said as he looked at the three adults in the room "but keep in mind that this was an idea that came to mind when I was only eleven at the time". when the three adults nodded he continued "from what salem learned over the years is that the power of the maiden transfers from one person to another when they die. The problem is that when those powers transfer there's not a guarantee that it'll only go to the attacker, which is why I asked salem if there was a way to funnel a persons thoughts to only the taker of the power. That's when the slow process was created to ensure that the person being attacked would only focus on their attacker".
"It was a start but salem had said it wasn't good enough because in order for someone to keep the focus of an individual being attacked they had to be incredibly powerful and have enough time to toy with their enemy before killing them. That's when we came up with stealing aura. At first we tried using tech first but unfortunately we ran in to a dead end there because we weren't exactly smart enough to pull that off" he said with a small sigh.
Those words alone brought a proud smile to ironwoods face.
Jaune face took on a more serious expression as he explained what came next. "After which I thought there wasn't anything more we could do about it when salem suddenly had an idea. She said she had a way and that the grimm within her was the answer. I didn't really get it but she started getting to work on creating grimm that could siphon energy like batteries. The problem with those grimm was that they couldn't handle the full power of the soul because they had none of their own. After which I saw salem create several smaller grimm that could act as a one way door for aura to be led to another person and that's where I saw these markings".
"If all that is true, then salem would have needed people whom she could experiment on" ironwood said angrily
Jaune nodded "she had plenty of test subjects and all of them had silver eye's if I remember correctly". Ozpin's hands tightened around his cane before he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Is there anything more we should know jaune"? The younger blonde was silent for a moment before nodding "since you cut the connection only part of her soul remains, there may not be any way to actually save her at this point".
"I believe that's not entirely true jaune" ozpin said has he walked around the platform. The elder wizard placed a hand on jaunes shoulder and looked over ambers sleeping form "I believe your semblance maybe exactly what we need to remedy this situation". The younger blonde pulled away and stared at the wizard "do you know what your asking of me"? Ozpin nodded "I've witnessed your ability to restore a persons aura before and I believe you can do so here". Jaune shook his head "the difference there is that the aura of the person I restored is weakened and beaten, not broke like this. What your asking me to do is essentially play god and try to repair something that I don't entirely know is repairable"!
Ozpin let out a sigh before looking jaune in the eye's with great determination, the next moment the elder wizard bowed his head as one would do to plead for something. And that was exactly what he did. "Jaune, I know what it is that I ask of you but I beg that you try nonetheless. This young woman has done nothing to deserve the fate that's been thrusted upon her, so please if not for me then try for her".
Jaune didn't know what to say, what could he say? He'd never expected ozpin of all people to bow and beg for another like this in a million years and yet here he was. Jaune ran a hand through his hair as he sighed deeply "alright" he conceded after a moment of reluctance "I can't promise anything but I'll give it my best shot". Ozpin stood upright with a relieved smile on his face "that's all any of us can ask".
The younger blonde rolled up his sleeves and took his position on the side of the comatose woman with his hands stretched out over her body. Jaune let out a breath of air before starting. The second he started the world around him vanished and all that was left was but him in a white world.
Stepping into the domain of the gods jaune?! Are you mad! You've seen what they've done to salem and ozma right?! Right?!
This chapter was pretty fun to write despite the headache it left me. That being said I felt it was about time that I brought iron daddy back into the story since we were getting closer to it's finally. Kinda sad really since I've dedicated a good deal of time into this story. But it's like they say "all good thing must come to an end eventually". Honestly I'm not sure if I'll write another story after this but if I do I'll get me a beta reader first and I'll start by having at least five chapters ready before anything else. But I suppose that's a possible future. No promises and as alway thanks for reading salems knight.