Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY

Chapter 16: Monster

The airship cut through the night sky silent as a ghost, all aboard were asleep save the pilots and the Asturias siblings. They occupied a well-furnished stateroom but only Jax was at ease with their surroundings, Gillian herself was pacing uneasily.

"Should we just adjust our plans? With Rosa… gone and so many of our bases hit, there's a chance our plans might have leaked somehow," Gillian asked, a hint of worry and frustration sneaking into her tone. Receiving word of Rosa's severed and heavily mutilated head dumped outside one of their bases in broad daylight was one hell of a message to get while they were away.

"Nonsense, our losses are inconsequential. And even if our original plans leaked somehow, it doesn't matter anymore. Without the illusion semblance, it wouldn't have worked anyways." Jax reassured his sister confidently. "Shade couldn't stop us, Rumpole herself tried and failed. Some upstart from Vale will not deny us our birth right… even if he is proving to be an annoyance."

"But why now!? When we're so close, he just picks now of all times to strike at us? Why the hell is he even here!? He's Valean," Gillian swore. "He has no right to be here!"

"You can't see it? I thought it was quite obvious actually," Jax replied evenly.

"What?" Gillian rounded on her brother, wondering what was it he saw that she didn't.

"You're overthinking it sister. He came to power two years ago during the Vytal festival's chaos. If it worked then, why wouldn't he try it again here?" Jax shrugged. "Power is what he wants and he doesn't want to share. It really is that simple. What a shame he's Valean, if he were born in Vacuo, he might have made an excellent asset."

"He needs to be stopped, by any means necessary," Gillian growled.

"Hmmph, don't underestimate me Gil, the trap is already set. He'll walk right into it because that's just who he is." Jax huffed and rolled his eyes.

"He will?" Gillian blinked in confusion.

"Yes." Jax nodded. "I looked into his past with the Vale mob after his… statement. The mongrel's too human for his own good. Fool, one who wishes to rule has no room for petty compassion, alas that's the difference between us."

"I don't understand," Gillian admitted.

"He's an idiot who cannot stop himself from being provoked into stupidity. Especially when collateral damage is involved. Relax, he will walk into the trap of his own volition, helps us clean up loose ends at the same time too," Jax stated confidently. "I expect him to die but even if he doesn't, it's irrelevant. Atlas is already in our hands and nothing he can do will change that."

"And what if he tries leaking our plans beforehand? What if Ironwood doesn't show? As long as the general remains free, we have nothing. I don't like this." Gillian shook her head in dissatisfaction, unable to buy into Jax's confidence.

"Ah but the General will, he's predictable like that. His stubbornness won't allow him to back down no matter what warning he gets. Just look at how Atlas deals with the White Fang, he'll come, he'll come." Jax grinned and chuckled to himself, as though enjoying a private joke only he knew about. "And at the end of the day, Ironwood is just a means to an end, hardly the only one. Even if he somehow evades us, he can always be replaced by another puppet later on."

"That's true enough, I guess." Gillian's frown deepened, some part of her still refusing to accept her brother's optimism. "I'm just worried something will go wrong."

"I expect it to, that's why I have contingency plans that are already in play, ones Rosa wasn't even aware off. Bertilak will handle the rest, we just have to sit back and enjoy the fireworks." Jax's grin turned sinister, eyes brimming with barely concealed malice and anticipation. "Everything is already in place."

"Haah…" Gillian sighed in resignation. "I suppose you're right. A direct assault on the Atlesian delegation will cost a lot lives, but with their sacrifice, the world will change."

"Yes. It will," Jax agreed. "It will…"

"You think I can make a weapon out of this?" Jaune asked, fiddling with Grey's taser and glancing at the unconscious bodies littered around them. "I need a better non-lethal solution than just kicking people."

"I'm sure you can, but I don't think it'll work with a gun or a sword," Grey replied without looking up away from the monitor.

"Yeah, I was thinking… knuckle dusters. Maybe with lightning dust in them for the extra kick. Easy to conceal and use too," Jaune muttered before shaking his head. "Never mind, it can wait till we get back to Vale. How's it coming along?"

"Almost there… done. The lodgings are settled," Grey replied and stretched tiredly. Manually switching out the hotels for visiting council members and other dignitaries at the last minute had taken awhile but it was finished at last.

"Good. That's our end of the bargain, Shade better keep them safe," Jaune said, hoping the last-minute switch up would stymy any plans to snatch up the VIPs while no one was looking. With Shade on the alert, Jax would have to fight through a literal army to get to them.

"I hope so. I think they'll be requesting additional security from Atlas too. The AKs won't stop the Crown if they try something, but they should help raise the alarm and slow them down," Grey said.

"Mmh, to be honest, I don't they need to ask. It is General Ironwood we're talking about." Jaune shrugged. His scroll buzzed in his pocket and Jaune frowned. "Who's calling me now?"

On seeing the screen, his face fell immediately. "Oh no, it's Roman. Shit, never mind. Grab whatever ID data you can, then we're out of here. I gotta take this." Jaune winced and held the scroll to his ear.

"Jaune Arc you fucking son of a bitch!" Roman's angry yelling blistered his ears immediately.

"Ahg! Hey Roman, how's it going? Doctor's visit went well?" Jaune bit back a curse and barely managed to avoid dropping the scroll.

"Don't you 'how's it going' me! What the fuck Jaune!? I was gone for two weeks! Two weeks! Why the fuck is my house the scene of a horror movie!?" Roman roared at the top of his lungs.

"That bad huh?" Jaune winced.

"That bad!? That bad!? There's blood all over my dining room! It's fucking everywhere! Even in the fridge! Do you have any idea how bad it stinks in here!? And Neo has a finger collection. A finger collection! Why does she have one!?" Roman screamed. "You were supposed to keep an eye on her!"

"Umm, yeah. About that, it's Neo." Jaune shrugged before remembering that Roman couldn't see him. "Keeping an eye on and stopping her are very different things."

"That's not a bloody excuse!" Roman retorted. "Fucking hell, so help me if I find out you fed some poor sap to her just so you can slack off…"

"Of course not! I'm a professional, what do you take me for?" Jaune retorted.

"A two-bit lying slacker who can't even keep a single house clean while I'm gone." Came the frustrated reply.

"Ahm, fair, fair enough. Would it help if I said Neo was getting payback on one of the people that tried kidnapping her?" Jaune asked.

"No."

"Ah well, oh I think I've got cops on my tail. Gotta go," Jaune snickered silently.

"Jaune Arc! Don't you dar-" Roman's voice cut off with a click as Jaune promptly hung up on him. "Um, I think we should avoid going back to Torchwick's for a bit. He's not very happy right now."

"I told you leaving Rosa with Neo was a bad idea." Grey shook their head. "We should have handed her to Shade for interrogation instead of leaving her to Neo."

"It's Neo, either we gave her Rosa or she finds someone else to play with, probably someone innocent," Jaune said, his excuses sounding hollow to his own ears. He hadn't the stomach to stay and watch Neo work, but he knew whatever she'd done to Rosa hadn't been quick, easy or painless.

On the one hand, it worked. Rosa cracked under Neo's tender loving care like an egg and gave up everything she knew. On the other, leaving the interrogation to Shade might have been just as effective.

"Maybe, but are you sure that's why you did it?" Grey asked, their piercing gaze palpable even through the featureless mask.

"…No, to be honest, I just wanted her to suffer. I… I don't really have any mercy left in me for people willing to use brainwashed slaves to fight." Jaune admitted after a moment of silence. "Is it weird that I don't feel bad about it?"

"Very much so," Grey replied. "Don't become someone who revels in the suffering of others. It's a slippery slope you don't want to go down."

"Haah… I'll keep it in mind," Jaune sighed.

The Crown Bunker's hallways were filled with activity as Crownsmen rushed about carrying weapons and supplies needed for Atlas's imminent arrival. All of them too busy to notice the insects that weren't insects flying overhead.

"Alright, marking targets now," Jaune whispered, angling his drones such that they managed to capture the faces of every Crownsmen present. "Feed transmitting and… we're live. I hope this works."

Jaune rubbed his hands together in anticipation and bit his lip, waiting to see if his gamble would pay off. With both the drone footage and data extracted from Vacuo's servers being routed to Atlas through several backchannels, Atlas and Shade would soon have the names and faces of everyone they needed to arrest in one swift strike. Just a few hours to go now before Ironwood's arrival and the start of the operation.

A grin spread across his face when his scroll buzzed. "We're in the money! Rumpole has the intel, hoo… now we just have to wait for them to pounce." Jaune exhaled and slumped into his chair, staring at the ceiling.

From here on out, things were mostly beyond his ability to influence. He was just one man in a foreign kingdom after all. Neo was off doing Neo things and no longer available for favours, Grey was on station near the airport for additional security, which left him sulking alone in a dingy motel room.

The waiting gnawed at him from the inside, Jaune itched to go out and do something, anything at all, to further impede the Crown. But fact of the matter was, blindly rushing in now would only backfire. All of his drones had been requisitioned for scouting out the Crown's forces, which left him completely blind and deaf inside the city.

Jaune grimaced at the reminder. Jax and Gillian were still unaccounted for and definitely up to no good. Bertilak was missing as well, only Carmine had reappeared in the bunker to direct the Crownsmen. Biting his thumbnail, Jaune wracked his brain, trying to spot any pattern or clue he'd missed, anything to give him insight on the Asturias's plans.

"Damn it, what am I missing? Come on, I've already given you the middle finger so many times now, are you really not going to react?" Jaune wondered aloud. It didn't make sense to him, according to Rumpole, Jax was a narcissist with an ego the size of the sun, one who couldn't take any kind of perceived slight lying down. For him to just ignore the repeated attacks and insults didn't fit the mould, was he really that driven by the prospect of global domination that Jaune just didn't register to him?

"Did I make a mistake? Could there, could there be another target? One that isn't Ironwood or the other VIPs?" Jaune frowned in consternation. According to Rosa, the original plan was an assault on the Atlesians to create an opening for Jax, but now the plan had changed to something unknown, something Rosa hadn't been in the loop for.

"They want the world, and they want to conquer it through Atlas's army, right? It's why they need Ironwoo-need? No, the general is just the fastest way there, not the only one." Jaune sounded out his thoughts slowly, rearranging the puzzle pieces in his mind to paint a new image. "Rosa didn't know where Jax and Gillian were, and neither of them ever responded to my challenge. What if… what if neither of them was even in Vacuo? A… a shell game, while we're looking at the Vytal festival, they're already… oh fuck me! There's no way-but they wouldn't know to look for… aw fuck."

Jaune shot to his feet instantly, knocking over his chair with a loud bang. Cold sweat formed on his brow and he quickly wiped it away. His paranoia was rearing its ugly head again, whispering poison in his ears, that he was already too late, that the Asturias had played him like a damn fiddle without even being aware of his existence.

"No. No, we're not done yet," Jaune growled and reached for a burner scroll. The blue light stung his eyes and he hesitated for a few seconds before gritting his teeth and dialling in an old number. Holding the scroll to his ears, the ringing went on for a full minute before someone finally picked up.

"Weiss Schnee speaking, who is this?"

Jaune exhaled quietly. "An old friend."

"Wha!? Jau-"

"No time," Jaune interrupted. "There's a good chance the council has been compromised and brainwashed, check their auras. I'm sending across several names, check for their presence anytime in the last few weeks."

"Wai-"

Jaune hung up with a click and immediately forwarded the details on Jax and Gillian. Sighing once the message had been sent, he dropped the scroll to the floor and promptly stomped it to pieces. Sweeping up the broken scraps into a dustpan, he dumped it all into the toilet and flushed it all down. The warning had been sent and it was out of his hands now.

With any luck his paranoia was just that, but if not, he'd left things in the hands of those who could actually do something about it.

As Jaune settled in to wait again, fate had other ideas for him. His scroll started buzzing as Roman reached out to him on the emergency line, bad news in tow. "Bastard! The fuck you doing vandalising orphanages!?"

"Excuse me? I did what?" Jaune blinked in surprise, not expecting the vitriol from Roman.

"It's on the news now. Your bloody insignia is painted all over the walls of an orphanage, and the Crown are trying to burn it down to scrub out your mark. Some Shade students are fighting them, but I'm not sure if they can hold. Fucking hell, what did you do!?"

"I didn't do shit," Jaune retorted, quickly switching away from the drone feeds to a random news channel on one of the monitors. A familiar street and a familiar run-down orphanage filled the screen, only his symbol had been splattered all over one the walls in dull yellow paint. And in front of the building, several huntsmen from Shade were fighting against masked assailants with the tell-tale silver bands marking them as Crownsmen.

Jaune swore under his breath before switching through several more channels, all of them were displaying the same thing. So, the airwaves had been hijacked by Jax to deliver this message to him, that was the only explanation.

"Then explain! I didn't think you were the kind of asshole to drag bloody kids into a fight, so what the fuck is this!?" Roman snapped furiously.

"Come on, you know me Roman, I got better things to do then petty vandalism, this is a setup, they're trying to lure me out with this display," Jaune cursed under his breath.

The Crown's orphanage was back to haunt him again, his surveillance hadn't revealed anything up to the point he had to redeploy his drones to the Crown bunker. In any case, the orphanage must have served its purpose or the Crown had decided sacrificing it to bait him into the open was worth it. Neither option boded well for the inhabitants.

"Fuck, they're trying to pin this shit on me, the Crown are largely unknown, with my symbol there, it'll be 'Jaune Arc' who burnt the place to ashes, not them," Jaune voiced his conjecture.

"Oh great, so either you walk into their trap or let the kiddies burn alive. What the fuck did you do to piss them off? They've never done anything this blatant before," Roman said.

"They're beyond hiding, those nutjobs are picking a fight with Atlas too. Shit, I'm heading down." Jaune rose and grabbed his coat and weapons, buckling all of them on as fast as he could. "The children are safe at least. I know they're on a field trip to the zoo today, there shouldn't be anyone left inside."

"You better be right Jaune, you know my stance on things. I don't give a fuck about adults, but you fucking leave children out of it. Tch, whatever, I'm gonna go crack a few skulls, maybe give Neo a few more fingers for a collection." Roman said before hanging up.

"Not if I get them first." Jaune muttered and shot out the door, making a mad dash in the direction of the orphanage.

By the time Jaune arrived, the place had been cordoned off. The would-be arsonists had vanished into the ether and only a handful of cops and Shade students were in the area. Jaune frowned and looked around, searching for any sign of the trap waiting to be sprung and finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Side-eyeing the Shade students and cops, Jaune gave them a wide berth and snuck around back. If he were a betting man, he'd put good money on them being part of the Crown and thus part of the trap. If not, they wouldn't take kindly to a random individual sneaking around a crime scene anyways.

"So, where's the trap? Inside the building?" Jaune whispered quietly and inspected the rundown structure. The boarded-up windows provided little in the way of clues as to what awaited inside and the backdoor had been chained up with a rusty chain and padlock.

After mulling it over for a few seconds, Jaune approached cautiously, making sure to keep his aura defences up in case of an ambush. He'd concede that walking right into a trap without Grey around to watch his back was monumentally stupid, but he was reasonably sure he could escape if push came to shove. With the Atlas-Shade joint assault about to go down, tying up Crown resources here by risking himself was an acceptable trade-off.

Making sure no one was watching, Jaune darted over to the back door and gripped the chain. With a grunt of exertion, he twisted as hard as he could, snapping the rusted metal and unlocking the door. Giving it a little push, it opened with a small squeak, revealing the darkened interior. All the lights were off and the only illumination came from the shafts of sunlight coming through the windows and the doorway.

"Encouraging," Jaune muttered sarcastically and slipped on a pair of shades, palming a flashbang in his other hand. With all the children and their caretakers out for their field trip, there shouldn't have been anyone left inside, anyone present could be marked down as hostile.

The first thing he noticed inside was how messy the place was. Aside from the usual clutter, multiple unmarked crates had been stacked against the walls. Keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any sign of trouble, Jaune edged over to one of the crates and pried the lid off.

"What the hell is this, clay?" Jaune hefted a brick of white coloured putty in confusion. Whatever it was, it was inert and didn't react to his prodding or aura. It was strangely familiar to him though, like he'd seen it before, but for the life of him he couldn't place where. Dropping it back into the crate, he backed away and shook his head, investigating it could come later.

As he continued to investigate the rest of the orphanage, he found the place completely deserted save a single Shade student waiting in the main office. Seated on a table and picking at her nails, a look of boredom was plastered all over her face.

Without any other leads to go off of, Jaune shrugged and decided to announce his presence. Emerging from the shadows, he rapped on the door to the office and pushed it open. "Good day, I was invited here I think."

"About time, I thought you weren't going to show," the huntress drawled.

"Sorry, got caught in traffic." Jaune shrugged and offered a disarming smile. "So, how can I help you today?"

"The boss wants a word with you." She chuckled and withdrew her scroll, calling someone on it. "Yeah, he's here. I'll put you on."

Jaune folded his arms and waited for the huntress to connect her scroll to a projector, careful to keep the flashbang out of view. His breath caught when the projector finally sputtered to life and an image of Jax appeared on the wall.

"Mr Asturias, I presume, here I thought I'd be meeting you in person, I'm not that frightening you have to hide behind a screen, am I?" Jaune greeted.

"Regrettably I have more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. And you, are Jaune Arc. You've been quite the thorn in our sides recently." Jax frowned at the lack of respect towards him. "But I am a magnanimous man, if you kneel and pledge yourself to us, I'll forgive your transgressions."

Jaune grinned and leaned against the doorway, glad that his shades could keep his eyerolling from being seen. "Why would I ever kneel to a nobody?"

"I am the rightful king of Vacuo and future emperor of the world, peasant!" Jax snapped in fury before catching himself. "Ah, clever. You're trying to provoke me into making a mistake. Tut, tut, that's not very nice. Hmph, in another life, we might have been friends you know."

"Somehow, I really doubt that," Jaune replied, shaking his head.

"Is it that hard to believe? We're not so different you and I." Jax held out his hands in a welcoming gesture. "Both of us were let down by a system that failed to recognise our greatness, our destinies denied by those who can't comprehend our greatness."

"Is that so?" Jaune's grin faded slightly and the corners of his mouth quirked downwards.

"Isn't it? You know just as well as I do, they expelled you from Beacon because they feared your potential, your transcripts were just a convenient excuse. It's a huntsmen academy, the only thing that matters is if you can perform, those scraps of paper aren't worth a handful of ash. No, they tried to put you down because they were afraid of you, just like they tried with me." Jax waved dismissively and sneered. "Men like us, our place is above the common rabble."

"That's… quite the claim," Jaune grunted out.

"And it's the truth, look at us! They cast us down, tried to stomp us out and then what happened? We clawed our way to the top despite their efforts. You've made your mark on Vale just as I have in Vacuo, tis a shame we have to be enemies." Jax laughed quietly and folded his arms.

"Mmhmm, I don't like sharing. I want the world, and you're competition." Jaune shrugged.

"Fair enough, if I were in your place, I'd be the same way. You know, I admire your will. You started with less than I had, when I left Shade, I had my team, but you? Your team abandoned you, left you with nothing. And still, you managed to backstab and murder your way to the top, even killing off that Mistralian whore. Impressive." Jax gave a round of applause, missing the deepening frown on Jaune's face. "So I'll give you one last chance to join me, I suggest you take it."

"No." Jaune spat to the side and glared at Jax's projection. "I kneel before no one. Give up Jax, I know about your semblance, I know you're planning to brainwash Ironwood, and I'm pretty sure you've already paid the other Atlesian council members a visit. You won't succeed, I won't let you."

"Hoh? So you actually managed to figure out I'd go after the council in Atlas? Heh, truly we are the same. But you are you wrong on one point." Jax's shoulders heaved with barely suppressed laughter. "The Atlesian council are already my puppets, why would I need Ironwood after that? He's useless to me now."

"So you'll what, launch a frontal assault on the general's delegation? Good luck getting through security, there are easier ways of suicide. Oh wait, your men are expendable to you. Either way, you're not getting to him," Jaune shot back.

"Frontal assault? Oh no, no, they're just going to walk right up to him and no one will even notice. By tonight, General Ironwood will be dead. And his death will mark the beginning of a new war, one that shall crown a new emperor." Jax sniggered at a joke only he knew.

"You're delusional," Jaune snapped.

"No, just willing to do what needs to be done. Ah, there is one thing I hate about you Jaune Arc. Your meddling two years ago kept a great war from starting. Because of you, this insufferable false peace got to go on for longer than it had any right to. But this time, you won't stop it from happening. War will come again, and this time! Vacuo will reign supreme!" Jax roared.

"Don't you mean Atlas? Even if you control the council, it's Atlas that'll win in the end. And the council is replaceable. You own nothing." Jaune said.

"Atlas? Win? Oh, you misunderstand me Jaune Arc. I don't intend to win using Atlas's troops. I just want them to start the war. And once it's begun, I'll have the mechs execute every Atlesian in existence." Jax whispered the last bit and smiled beatifically.

"What." Jaune blinked, thrown off balance by Jax's words.

"Did you think I was going to rule those idiots with their heads in the clouds? Hmmph, I have no use nor desire for those insects in my empire. They lost! They should have been crushed in the great war! They bore their fangs against Vacuo and lost! So! Why! Are! They! Still! On! Top!?" Jax thundered, unchecked fury breaking through his calm façade.

"They were vanquished! So how is it Vacuo that's suffering now thanks to their exploitation!? How is Atlas the greatest kingdom!? They have no right! It should be Vacuo! We won! They lost! Then Atlas have the audacity to feign cooperation in order to rob Vacuo of everything we have!? How dare they. How fucking dare they!? Ahhh… and Mistral, Mistral's no different. They'll get theirs too." Jax bared his teeth in a grin. "Then Vale, our allies, now Atlas's bootlickers. All of you have betrayed or hurt Vacuo, and you will all pay for it."

"…" Jaune's mouth shut with a click, unable to interject anything as Jax continued his spiel.

"No, Atlas and Mistral have no right to exist, they are weak, and this world is the domain of the strong. Once the war begins, I won't let it stop until every last man, woman and child of those two accursed kingdoms are Grimm food. Subhuman vermin have no place in my world."

"…You're insane. You're completely insane." Jaune shook his head in disbelief.

"Pity, I thought you of all people would share my vision, you too have seen the rot infesting the world. No matter, the strength of the Crown is proof enough that I am right. My word is the only truth that matters." Jax sighed in faux disappointment.

"You mean the people you brainwashed into being puppets!? Hrrhgh… you're a lost cause. I'm going to kill you, nice and slow." Jaune had had enough of Jax's prattle. First, he'd have to take out the huntress and then he'd go hunt down the Asturias personally.

But when he tried to move, he found himself immobilised and rooted to the spot. It was only then he realised the huntress had removed her glasses and had locked eyes with him. 'A semblance!? Fuck!'

"Naïve, the Crown is more than just a collection of puppets. There are many among us who have come to the same conclusion I did on their own, like Umber here." Jax gestured to the huntress whose arrogant smirk only served to piss Jaune off more. "That this world is a joke, where the strong are suppressed and the weak coddled. Is it any surprise mankind continues losing ground to the Grimm every year? It's not the Grimm getting stronger, it's us getting weaker."

"So… you think… killing… half the world… will… change… things?" Jaune fought through Umber's semblance to speak, every word an uphill battle that relied on his own semblance powering through whatever paralysis was afflicting him.

"On its own? No." Jax shook his head. "But it's a beginning. Only the worthy have the right to exist, all other leeches will be expunged by our righteous crusade."

"Fuck… you… who gave… you the… right… to decide… who… is… worthy and who… isn't?" Jaune growled, boosting his aura defences to the maximum in anticipation of the inevitable attack.

"The blood of Malik the Sunderer flows in my veins, he who first united Vacuo and brought order to a world in chaos." Jax held up his hand, revealing a crown shaped mark on it. "Kinghood is my birth right, and I'll finish what he began a thousand years ago, bringing the world under one banner."

"I… won't… let you." Jaune grit his teeth and forced himself to move. Umber's semblance had to have something to do with eye contact, if he could just trigger the flashbang in his hands, she'd have to blink and he could break free.

"Let me? You still don't realise your place it seems. Ah, there is… one difference between us." Jax raised a single finger. "You lack the stomach to make the difficult choices. Compassion is your greatest weakness, I've read your file, you can't sacrifice 'innocents' or your men, in fact you go out of your way to save them. That is why you've lost to me, and why you will die here."

"Heh… killing me… won't be… that… easy. Once… I can move… again… I'll be… coming… for… you."

"No, you lost the instant you stepped into the orphanage, you'll be going out with a bang. Goodbye Jaune Arc. And Umber? Your king thanks you for your sacrifice, I hereby discharge you from service." Jax nodded his head and cut the connection, the projection fizzling into static.

"Wait what?" Umber frowned and glanced at her scroll in confusion, breaking eye contact and freeing Jaune from his immobilisation.

Jaune staggered backwards and raised the flashbang, ready to throw before he froze in place. Jax's parting words triggered an old memory, weapon practice with JNPR back in the day. Nora had been going through her grenades and other explosives, including a certain pack of white claylike substance.

Eyes widening in recognition, Jaune boosted his aura's defensive might to the absolute maximum and launched himself towards the window, bringing his arms up to shield his face.

A split second later, everything vanished in a flash of white.

Grey blended in with the crowd, staying a good distance away from the stage. Ironwood's arrival had been surprisingly low key. Several Crownsmen had launched an attack but they were quickly and effortlessly repelled by the mechs and huntsmen on watch. There hadn't even been a opening for Grey to intervene.

Glancing at their watch, they wondered if the assault on the bunker had already commenced. With Ironwood as bait, the Crown wouldn't be ready for a sudden assault on their main base. With Rumpole and the Ace Ops present, they should have enough power to sweep aside any defenders and rescue the aura batteries.

Grey cast their eyes about, searching for any sign of trouble, a frown marring their face behind the mask. The attack at the airport had been too easily repelled to be anything other than a diversion of some sort. If there was going to be another attack, it'd be here. Theodore and the Vacuo council receiving Ironwood was as juicy a target as possible.

So far, no news had come in from Jaune and given that this was Vacuo, there were too many weapons around for them to pick out any sign of hostiles. All they could do was keep a sharp lookout and react at the first sign of trouble. Hardly a perfect solution, but the only one available, although with the sizeable security presence, they might not even be needed at all.

A slight commotion near the stage drew Grey's eyes. A group of children carrying heavy packs had pushed through to the front. General Ironwood had noticed them and one of them reached out to him, as though looking for a handshake.

Just as the general knelt to address the child, the bombs in their packs went off… along with all the others scattered among the audience.

Author's notes: Yep, I'm twisted, definitely twisted.