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Once the police were done interrogating him, they offered him an air-car to the nearby Vale General, where Pyrrha had been taken for treatment. It was a good place, he knew by long standing reputation. One of the better in all Vale, which had some of the better medical care of every Kingdom aside from Atlas. And even then, they competed, so long as cybernetics weren't brought up. Still, for what Pyrrha needed, he had absolute confidence that all would be well.
It did bring up one problem, though...
"I recognize that you're a Lord, and a Hunter-in-training, but this hospital doesn't care about either." The desk-runner explained wearily, meeting his eyes with that exhausted, firm air of someone used to arguing with people they knew they'd overrule.
Or call security on.
"I get that, I just…" Jaune waved his free hand at himself, and his dirty, battle worn armor. "We were just ambushed in the middle of town, Ma'am. So I- It doesn't feel… Safe, going unarmed like that right now, is all."
"The VPD has put a veteran Hunter on their roll on guard at the door, Lord." She countered, "You're as safe as can be."
"Oh please!" He snapped loudly, waving a hand at himself. "I'm twice the Hunter that some asshole that needs to stay in the city and work for the police would ever be. And I lost!"
"Lord-"
"And Pyrrha is a gladiator!" He went on, slamming a fist onto the desk. "She lost too! How many desk Hunters do you think could handle a Mistralian Arena champion like here? Huh? Because I don't-"
"Jaune, I will Calm you again if you don't calm down your damn self." Mort cut in, making him slam his jaw closed with a click and a snarl. Sighing a hissing, eerie snarl, they said, "Go, visit your partner. I'll rest while you're gone. That fight… Took a bit more outta me than I'd like to say."
"Fine." He finally snapped, to the woman and his oldest partner. Unhooking his sword-belt from his armored waist took some doing, but after a minute, he laid the weapon, along with its armored, attached girdle rigging, on the desk and threw his hands out to either side. "Well? Can I go in now?"
The silver-haired woman didn't say anything until a silver-uniformed guard came to take his weapon away, but after he had, she pointed to his right down the crowded hallway that came off intake, "There's an elevator just down there. Floor twenty five, room five-twenty-three. It's in Convalescence, and should be the only one with an armed guard on it, so as long as you don't get too lost you ought to be able to find it."
"Thank you." He growled, turning and taking a step towards the hallway before he paused and turned to look over his shoulder. "Coming?"
"A-Ah, well, I didn't know if you would… Want some time alone." Weiss stammered, still just as dirty as she had been when she came back for them, police in tow. He turned on a heel and raised an eyebrow and she looked even more anxious, shifting from one foot to the other and gnawing on her lip. "After everything, I figured you might-"
"Oh come off it, Schnee." He chuckled, turning and heading up the hall with the blinking woman behind him, "Pyr will wanna know you're alright, so let's just go."
"V-Very well, then…"
Vale General Hospital, like every damn hospital he'd ever been in, was a veritable maze of departments, specialist lines, and waiting and rest areas. Also like every hospital he'd ever been in, it was very nearly swamped by people that worked in the hospital, from doctors to simple workers and their assistance drones and visitors coming to see the patients. Still, the intaking nurse's directions worked out well enough to at least get Jaune to the right section of the massive hospital. Looking out a window, he could see several other towering buildings that made up part of the hospital-complex and, beyond them, the rest of the city.
It was quite the sight… If a bit oppressive, for the grey concrete and black stone statues scattered around its windows and roofs.
"Thank you very much, Sir." Weiss said as the nurse she'd grabbed shuffled off with a huff. Returning to his side, she explained, "Down this hall, left, then down another, and make a right. It's right there. I do not know why the intake nurse didn't think to tell us this."
"No idea." He sighed, waving for her to lead the way. "After you, then. You seem to have this handled."
"As you like it, My Lord, as it shall be." She smiled, turning and strutting away with that ever-present, practiced air of ease she always put off. Waving a hand out the window she offered, jokingly, "If my Lord would look out this window, he would see pristine Mantleian architecture dating back to before the Great-"
"I will throw you out that window, Schnee." He sighed, shaking his head as he followed her. "And be warned, it doesn't open."
"Oh, please." Weiss chuckled and waved him off, "As if you could handle me so readily, du arsch."
"I speak a little Atlesian too." He pointed out wryly, grinning when she gave him a look, "Auch ziemlich gut, wenn ich darf."
"You sound like someone on Net-Translate, Arc." She tutted, flicking her ponytail ruefully, "Nowhere near the refined, cultured approach my lovely language deserves."
"To be fair, I don't know a lot of it."
"Obviously." The Schnee huffed, "After all, we can't all be so well reared, can we?"
He only rolled his eyes, looking out the window at the skyline as he followed the small woman through the maze-like halls. If only he'd had Mort with him, he wouldn't have had such a problem… It made how naked he felt without a weapon to hand even worse than it already had been.
It felt almost lonely in a distant, aching kind of way he couldn't place…
Pyrrha had been given a private room, based on how and why they'd been attacked, and it was smaller than the standard three bed hospital rooms Vale General used. Its door was a heavy metal block of dull blue with a small window Jaune could see the foot of the bed through. There was even a boxy old television set on a little table across from the foot of the bed, which was… Nice, he supposed, for the patients stuck in these solitary rooms for weeks or even months on end.
"Show ain't free." The man beside the door grunted. He was an older man, with a thin scar that warped the side of his bald head and one of his cheeks, but otherwise stood and dressed as an officer. He held out a hand and grunted, "Got I.D. on you?"
"Yeah." He grunted, offering his while Weiss pulled out her own. "I'm her partner."
"Mhm." The man grunted, handing it back and waving Weiss off with a little snort when she offered her. "Just chill out, everyone on the planet knows you're you 'less they're some kinda bumpkin from the middle o' nowhere."
"You don't say…" Weiss smirked, turning to Jaune and asking, "Hey, aren't you a-"
"Do not start." Jaune cut her off, pointing up the hallway. "There's a window right there."
"Typical brute…"
"Yeah, yeah." Jaune sighed, following her through the door when she stepped forward and pushed into the room. Taking a breath he put on a smile and stepped past the corner where the bathroom took up its space and said, "Hey, Pyr."
"Pyrrha." Weiss added, nodding as she took a seat beside the bed.
"H-Hello, my friends. M-My Lord." The woman nodded, tugging her blanket up around her shoulders. Smiling that thin, forced smile of hers, she said, "It is… Very good to see the both of you well, in spite of my failure. At least neither of you-"
"Oh we are not doing that, Nikos." Weiss beat him to the punch, folding her arms over her chest and making a haughty show of crossing her legs. "Jaune, do you have any idea who Roman Torchwick even is?"
"No." He answered, leaning back against the wall that hid the bathroom in the corner of the room. Crossing his arms like Weiss had, and guessing she was going somewhere with this, he asked, "I'm going to assume you're going to tell me?"
"I asked the officers about him, since I felt you would both be interested." She smiled even wider when Jaune nodded, and huffed. "Well, I suppose you can thank me later then."
"I should prefer to thank you now, Weiss." Pyrrha smiled warmly, chuckling when Weiss flushed ever so slightly and waved her off.
"Yang was right." Jaune muttered, smirking, "Weiss is far too easy to fluster."
"W-When did she even tell you that?!" The Schnee squawked, shaking her head and sighing wearily. "Nevermind, forget I asked. Probably on that damn chat-app again… Regardless, Roman is a relatively well known name in international law enforcement circles. Inside Vale, he's known as a master thief. And someone that even professional Hunters from Beacon have been beaten by regularly."
"How regularly…?"
"Apparently, in the first year he was here, six times." Weiss answered quietly, turning to look out Pyrrha's window. "Since then, two or three try to bring him down every year. Some have gotten close, but typically, he escapes in due time with whatever he wanted in the first place. Some even believe that such captures were all a part of his plan..."
"In other words." Jaune grunted, turning a pointed look on Pyrrha, "None of us could have hoped to actually beat him."
"I didn't fight him…"
"No." Jaune raised a brow, "You fought someone he trusts enough to treat as an equal. And if he's the master thief, what do you think her job is?"
"Muscle." Weiss answered for the Mistralian, "She's the one that handles his fighting. He's had a handful of partners like that, over the years. They come and go, but he always has a trusted right hand with him to handle the more bloody aspects of the job. Funnily, there are almost no actual killings attributed to him personally."
"I'm guessing his partners have had plenty, though…"
"They have, yes, Lord." Weiss murmured quietly, tapping a finger on her forearm, "Though he does seem to dislike it… Well, whatever the case, that we all escaped with our lives is a testament to luck and nothing else. No one here ought to have been able to stand up to either of them."
"And yet," Pyrrha murmured, "we did. And only I fell."
"I was on my way, Pyr, no doubt." Jaune pointed out, rolling his shoulder and grimacing. It was tight and sore still, but the worst ache was in his back, where the disks had landed. "Something else was going on here. Something more important."
"That is…?"
"That was an ambush, Pyr." Jaune explained quietly, "They knew when we left Beacon, knew where we were going. How?"
"Someone must have told them." Weiss filled in, having apparently already thought through the same line he was on. "Teacher, student, faculty- Someone told the White Fang where we would be, and they set that trap to… Well, to take me."
"I wonder who that could have been." He already had one particular, mace-wielding idea in his head.
But even for Winchester, working with the White Fang was… Out there, to say the least. It made him doubt the idea all on it's own. Winchester racism ran deep, after all, so the Fang weren't likely to be his first call. Or let him live after, in any case.
"Why they would want you is obvious, even to one as ill-informed as I." Pyrrha noted quietly, drawing his attention back to the two of them. "But why are we even alive right now? As you said, Roman dislikes killing, but his partners never have."
"I don't know." Jaune answered simply, "I have a feeling there's more to all of this than we know. A lot more. And we need to be ready when the next thing comes along to surprise us. Which means none of us can dwell on this."
"Of course not." Weiss sighe through a grimace, like she'd smelled something sour. "What do I have to dwell on? I only ran away, leaving my two friends to fight and nearly die, fell into a damned trash bin, and found the cops."
"Wait." Jaune snorted, "You fell into a bin?"
"Shut it, Arc."
"Make me, little Schnee." He smirked, and then frowned as a thought occurred. "You know, they ran just before the police showed up in force… Almost like he'd known that they were coming."
"He's known for that as well." Weiss nodded, finger tapping away irritably on her arm. "It makes me wonder if he has some asset or other in the police, letting him know when they're coming."
"It's likely he does, yeah." Police and corruption went hand in hand almost as much as Arcs and their swords did, as his father used to say. "But the point I was trying to get at was that losses happen, and I hope that we're all okay going forward. Pyrrha."
"I-I may not have lost often, but I know what losing is like." She stammered, grimacing and tucking her legs up under her. The beaten champion hissed at what he guessed to be the cut on her thigh aching, but she ignored it, "I'm just angry that my first time defending you, I lost so handily… It shames me."
"As long as that anger is directed outwards." He nodded, pushing off the wall, "I've got plenty of experience with it going the wrong way."
"Problems you wish to discuss, Lord Arc…?"
"I wasn't talking about myself." He dismissed her easily, turning to leave. "I'm going for food. Weiss, watch her for me?"
"I'm not a child that needs a minder, Lord…"
"I don't think you can afford my rates, Arc, but rest assured I will have her tucked in by ten." He heard Pyrrha's embarrassed groan and laughed as he pulled the door open and stepped out, into the passageway.
And nearly straight into Headmaster Ozpin, who blinked as he slipped to the side to dodge him and chuckled, "Lord Arc."
"Lord Headmaster." He began to salute only to frown when his hand fell through open air where his pommel ought to have been. Shrugging it off, he asked, "What brings you here, Lord Headmaster? If I may dare to ask, that is."
"I'm an open book to all who want to look, my Lord Arc. Never be afraid to speak your mind to me." The Headmaster chuckled, gesturing with his cane-hand at the guarded door Jaune had just stepped through. "And I came to inquire after MissnIkos' health. But as you're here, I suppose I can just ask you."
"She's well enough, given everything that happened, Headmaster." Shaken and upset, but that was better than he'd expected from her. He'd half-expected to need to drag her out of a depression for her loss, or worse, something bloody and frustrating from her Arena days, but she was blessedly alright. "Weiss is sitting with her while I go for something to eat, if you'd like to join her."
"I just might do that." Ozpin nodded, holding up a little bag to show it to him and smiling. "Given what happened, I picked up your package for you, to deliver to Miss Nikos. That is, if you don't mind?"
"No, no, I'm grateful actually." Jaune smiled, "That's one more thing to worry about off the list."
"Happy to be of service." Ozpin nodded, stepping aside so Jaune could take his leave. He was a few steps away when the man called after him, "Ah, and by the by, you have quite the potent Semblance, my Lord. The damage you did… So much fire is impressive in its destructive potential."
"I hope it wasn't too bad…"
"Insurance will cover it all, have no fear." The headmaster waved him off, turning and paying the guard a smile. "Ah, Philip. How good to see you again, after so long. Tell me, how has the department been treating you?"
Jaune was gone before the Hunter responded, and grimaced as he went. Why did everything Ozpin said sound so… Layered? As if he was trying to catch Jaune out on something. But what could the Headmaster possibly have been trying to catch him on?
Jaune still had no idea… And more important things to think on.
Such as who had tried to get Weiss killed… And possibly Jaune himself as well, even if that hadn't quite worked out. But then, why had that woman not killed Pyrrha when she had the chance?
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Oooh~
Mysteries abound~
Who tipped off the Fang? Why did Roman go himself? What did Neo mean last chapter? Oooh~!
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Astute Guest (Guest) :
That was jaune's conclusion, and confusion, not a mistake on my part. He's assuming she relies on sign language for the 'normal' reasons people tend to. He's wrong, of course, but yeah.
Logan Hunter :
Hope you liked it! Lol.
Also, one, why would you back out over a ship? Das weird to me so long as said ship isn't, like, Adam x Yang, or Tai x Yang or something outright disgusting like that. Two, being bi literally wouldn't affect what gets shipped. And three, I don't pre-plan the pairings like that most of the time. I prefer to grow it organically. Except in actual romance plot stories.