Arslan's scroll buzzed as she paced through town. She was looking for a six foot something, tall, lanky and gray huntsman that looked more like a homeless person. Arslan was still stunned that he had managed to escape her notice. She really shouldn't have been, considering Jaune's tendency to disappear into nothing. Frankly, it was impressive. Made keeping an eye on him a pain in the ass, but impressive nonetheless. She whipped out her scroll, checking what made it buzz.
It was a message from Reese. Found him By the tiny cafe on the west side. The message said. Arslan, when she had met Reese, was concerned that she was going to use a ton of emojis instead of words.
Turns out that was the Sun. Sun was the person who spammed emoji's like no tomorrow.
Arslan remembered that bakery, but only vaguely. She turned, briskly striding to the side of town. She would have to have a word with him about that. She was responsable, or at least felt like it, until she got Jaune back to school.
She was sure, on a basic surface level, that Jaune wouldn't cause any trouble. Or not intentionally at least. But still, there was some deep seeded fear that he would inevitably do something terribly stupid.
Maybe she was projecting Bolin and Nadir onto the strange ranger. They always seemed to get into trouble, for completely different reasons.
Arslan could feel her sandals clopping against the cobblestone roads, laid either only a decade ago, or some centuries. One or the other, as was common for these small towns.
At least they were small enough that navigation was easy, and directions were simple. All it took was a single question as to where a bakery was by a native stranger.
Apparently there was only one bakery in town anyway.
Arslan approached the bakery, expecting to see Jaune sitting drinking coffee.
She instead saw him ushering two children, laden with a massive amount of bread, out of the store. One of the children lingered, appearing to be uncertain about something.
Jaune looked down at them. "Yes child?" He asked the small boy.
"Mr. Jaune?" He asked, sounding timid and shy. "I have a question."
"Yes?" Jaune asked, letting the child speak their piece.
The child swallowed. "Am I a bad person?"
Arslan blinked. That was not a common question to come out a child. She leaned in, silently intrigued as to what Jaune's answer would be.
Jaune was an enigma to Arslan. Which was odd in itself, as Arslan was a pretty good judge of character, in her own opinion. She could often spend a couple hours with someone and get a good grasp of them.
Which is why Jaune was so incredibly interesting to her. Like a puzzle that just sat there, teasing her to try and pry apart the quiet ranger's brain.
Perhaps another key, as small as it was, to the complex and impenetrable lock that was the gray ranger. Arslan remembered a lesson she had at the temple: You cannot judge a man by their interactions with you, but with those of children and animals.
Now was time to see how he interacted with children. Arslan watched as Jaune's face fell, the words clearly having a deep impact on the ranger. That something so terrible, so awful, could come from something so innocent. A child.
Arslan watched as Jaune fell to one knee, grasping the child by the shoulder. It was a light touch, as to not harm him. A gentle touch made by rough hands.
"Tell me, child." Jaune said, his voice just above a whisper. "What makes you think that could be?" he asked them. The child sniffed, reaching for their eyes.
"I-I." They said, changing the composition of their words. "You said that Thomas was kind, and that was his gift." He sniffled, making a comparison to his lighter friend that Arslan had seen flee from her sight. "I wasn't kind, not kind." He corrected those words. "Or else you would have said so, right?" He pleaded, looking up at Jaune, hoping that Jaune would say that he was kind. That he was as good as Thomas.
Jaune waited for a moment letting him continue speaking. The child continued to blubber. "I-i've done things that I'm not proud of. Does that make me a bad person?" He said, his eyes welling with tears and his voice cracking.
Jaune gave him a tender sigh, his hands rising up to wipe at the child's tears. Arslan watched, tentative and curious. But silent all the same.
"I've done things I regret." Jaune started, looking down at the ground for a moment. He forced himself to look back up, to meet the child's eyes. "Does that make me a bad person?"
The question sounded like blasphemy to the child, who abandoned his pitiful sadness for an inflamed anger.
Jaune continued, cutting off the child's protests. "I've done things I'm not proud of. I've cheated, lied, even killed to do what I wanted, to get what I wanted." He said, with a soft somber tone. That tone sounded like it held all the burdens in the world.
Arslan supposed that it did, that it must have.
Another layer to the increasingly impossible puzzle.
"Does that make me a bad person?"
The child, seeing an opportunity to unleash their protests, opened their mouth. "What-no! You almost died on the fishing boat to protect them! You save those people in cages! You're a huntsman, you can't be a bad person!" They practically yelled. Jaune gave them a small smile, seemingly pleased at the praise.
"You might even be right. But I too have done things no man should be proud of. Everyone has or will." he said, still kneeling for the child. Putting himself as equal, no, perhaps even in service, to a child. To that child.
It could have been anyone. Arslan realized. Jaune would have done this for anyone. Comfort and care for, impart wisdom, and perhaps even entertain if the dark child's words were anything to go by. Not out of any humbleness, although that could have also played a part.
But out of this subtle desperation to connect with people. To feel human.
He and Nadir are not that different. Arslan mused to herself. Her attention was grabbed again as Jaune started to speak.
"I have found that, for the most part, there are no good people. There are no bad people. People are just people, imperfect, flawed, and often afraid. And there is no shame in that. There has never been any shame to being afraid, to being angry, to being sad, to being imperfect. The only shame there is is not striving to be better. It's ok to fall, but you must try, try with all your might to get back up." He said. Arslan blinked at the wisdom. It was unexpected, particularly from someone that was her age.
The child, emboldened and comforted by his words, wiped away his tears. Then they seemed to come to a realization. "That's why you're afraid of falling down." He said. Jaune gave him a small nod.
"That is why I am afraid." He whispered, before rising from his knees with a grunt. "Now, off with you." he said, shooing away the child. "Your mother is expecting your well earned bounty, I am sure."
Arslan, seeing that Jaune was done with his conversation, walked toward him. "That was kind of you." She said.
Jaune jumped at the sound of her voice, wheeling on her. She noticed that he was gripping the handle of his knife. He relaxed upon seeing that it was only Arslan.
"Oh, it's you." He said, his hand returning to his side. "Don't scare me like that." he said in a jovial manner, the intent was still clear however.
Jaune does not like being snuck up on. Arslan noted. Another thing to add to her list, and something to keep in mind for future reference.
Arslan stood by the ranger, sitting in an awkward silence for some time outside that small bakery in the middle of nowhere.
"What made you want a coffee?" Arslan asked, if only to break the silence.
Jaune shrugged. "It's been a long time." Jaune admitted.
"You could have told me you were breaking away from us to get coffee." Arslan said. "We could have joined you."
Jaune gave a slight humming sound, almost imperceptible in the ambiance of the small town. Arslan pulled out her scroll, giving a text to her team.
I found him. The circle spun for a couple minutes, before the message finally sent. Curse this place's shitty CCT connection. Arslan thought as she started to walk towards the inn. Jaune trailed behind her silently, more akin to a shadow than a person.
Arslan looked behind her constantly, making sure that Jaune was still there. He remained faithfully behind her. The duo stopped outside of the inn, where the rest of team ARBN was sitting. Reese rocked on her chair, tapping away on her phone again.
Nadir sat in front of a wooden chess board, etched into the table. He nervously fiddled with the black side of the board, a dark oak wood an interesting contrast to the pale pine white pieces. The pink gunner palmed the king piece, inspecting the woodwork.
Jaune gave him a nod, sitting down in front of the rifleman. "Good day." He said. Nadir perked up, looking at the grey ranger.
"A game?" He offered. Nadir gave a nod, straightening up at the prospect of the game. Jaune moved the queen pawns forward, taking control of the center.
Nadir's knight moved forward, protecting his future prospects. Jaune moved his own knight forward as well, moving towards the center. Nadir's pawn moved forward to the contested square. Jaune's hand hesitated over his bishop, considering putting the long range piece into play.
He moved his hand to his other knight and moved it forward, removing the option of taking his advanced pawn. Nadir's queen moved, standing in front of his king's bishop pawn.
A squinted at the board. Why did he do that? The figment asked, trying to figure out the future moves that Nadir could use.
Queen takes knight on F3, queen on any square on that black diagonal, shutting down his own black bishop's capacity on the left side. It was a surprisingly aggressive move, all things considered, as the normal route to check was blocked by Jaune's knight. Perhaps it was a show of force? Like a suffocating move, designed to remove options that Jaune could make.
Jaune shrugged. The next move for him was pretty clear for him. His left knight moved forward once more, threatening the curiously placed Queen. Nadir fled his queen to the side of the board, choosing to keep it in play rather than retreat it back to its starting position. Jaune grasped his bishop, gliding it across the board to sit behind his knight. Nadir, almost the moment his hand left the piece, moved forward to adjust the piece. Jaune raised his eyebrow, his head tilting in a curious manner.
Nadir thought that such a movement was unnatural for a human being, more associated with that of birds, or perhaps dogs. But not to human kind. Nadir looked down, retracting his hand away from the now centred bishop. "Sorry," he muttered. "It wasn't right."
Jaune was silent, his head still tiled to the side. But his eyes were no longer on him, but at the board below.
"It is your turn." jaune said after some moments of tense silence. Nadir nodded.
"I know." he said, instantly regretting the words. Was that to blunt? To harsh? He wondered has his hand reached for his king. Shaking his head, he instead moved his knight forward, attacking Jaune's own kingside knight. Jaune instantly knew how this exchange went, moving to take the offending copy of his own piece. Nadirs pawn took the knight, bypassing the roadblock that stood before it. Jaune took a moment to consider the board. He had a single move with guaranteed value, knight to C7, but it all but removed that piece from play for some turns.
Well, what else could we do? B asked. No other move has any particular purpose. Jaune grimaced at that unfortunate fact. Sure, he could move a pawn forward, perhaps even bring his queen into play, but for what reason? There was no follow up for those moves.
And so his knight leaped forward, bringing both Nadir's king into check and threatening his untouched rook. Nadir sighed, moving his king forward to bring him out of check.
Jaune took the rook without a second thought. Nadir moved his queen back to its original position on F6.
Jaune castled in response. Nadir gave a humming sound, his brain seeming to not be thinking about the next move, but rather recalling something. He moved his last knight into play, carefully placing it on the side.
Jaune leaned forward, looking at the board with interest. Nadir had an interestingly strong control of the left side of the board, mostly with his queen in such a strong position. Jaune returned his knight from the corner it had taken the rook from, hoping to bring it back into relevance. Nadir's eyes narrowed, as though he was witnessing some trick of the light or other magical illusion. His white bishop moved forward, landing on the left side to strengthen his position there further. It was also a dangerous piece that threatened to take Jaunes unmoved queen. Jaune rested a hand on his queen, considering saving the piece. He almost did, moving to the left. He almost moved his hand, sliding the piece away from the aggressive bishop.
But for some reason he couldn't. Not that he tried, and there was some invisible wall. But that it didn't feel right, moving that piece. A different piece felt right. His hand shifted forward, resting on the pawn in front of his powerful queen.
Jaune moved a pawn forward, to block Nadir's forward most pawn, and, more importantly, to open up a path of attack on the left side with his black bishop. The powerful white piece had a straight line against Nadir's last knight. Nadir should have looked surprised, he supposed as he took the queen with this kind of resigned finality, as though he knew how this entire game ended.
Jaune moved his own bishop, taking the last black knight on the board. He seemingly didn't care at all about the loss of his queen.
Nadir sighed as he stood. "I would like to surrender." he said, bowing his head and staring at the board in no small amount of disbelief. Reese, who was watching from the side with a bored kind of interest. The one someone gave when there was nothing else going on.
"What?" She asked, confused and almost insulted at the easy surrender. 'Why? Nadir, you were winning!" She exclaimed, gesturing to the board. In particular his newly taken queen and strong left position.
Nadir shook his head. "Because this game has already been played before." He said. Reese blinked.
"What?" She asked, her face shocked blank.
Nadir moved his hands, slowly moving the pieces through. "Thirty nine years ago, at the international championship semi finals, this exact game was played." he said as the black and white pieces danced around eachother. Rook takes bishop, pawn takes bishop, Rook moves to the opened file, bishop moves forward, rook advances on the white king. This went on as nadir monologued. "It was Arnold Karpathy of Atlas versus Romeo Whui of Minstral. Whui played the white pieces for this match." nadir continued to move the pieces, this time they had firmly entered the end game.
King captures queen, bishop takes knight, rook to open C file. "While Arnold Karpathy would go on to win the semifinal best of three, it was Mr. Whui who walked away with this match by surrender at this point." Nadir stopped at a rather interesting board. The white king was on the run from the black rook and bishop, while his own white bishop was working on forcing moves out of the black king, and the white rook trying to play both offence and defence. Jaune saw the natural progression of this board, and understood why Mr. Karpathy had surrendered here. Black would lose their rook for the sake of saving their king, and their bishop would be rendered useless on its own. "The game was never finished, as a mate was never found. But I think that it would have looked something like this." Nadir continued to move the pieces. White pawn was promoted, and soon after that forced black into a standard ladder mate.
"How did you know that Jaune was going to play this game?" Reese asked, a little lost but she understood the general idea of what was going on.
Nadir shrugged. "He had played the game perfectly so far, matching Kerpathy V Whui without more than a moment of hesitation." he sighed in defeat. "I had assumed he knew the game."
Jaune smiled, standing up. "Congratulations." He said, tipping the white king over.
Nadir and Reese blinked. "You earned your victory well."
"I don't know what's going on anymore." Reese groaned.
Nadir looked down at the board, and then back to Jaune. "But I lost? Right?" Nadir asked the ranger. "I surrendered?"
Jaune smiled. "You said you would like to surrender. But your king is still standing, and mine is not." he said.
Bolin scoffed at the scene. "Weakness." He whispered to Arslan, as though the insult was something to be laughed at, like some poorly executed joke at the expense of others.
Jaune raised an eyebrow, holding back all emotion from his face. Namely A's rather aggressive growling.
Weakness. He calls us weak? I'll show him weakness, COME IN THE RING WITH ME A FEW ROUNDS AND I WILL SHOW YOU WEAKNESS SO FAR UP YOUR ASS-
Jaune sighed, standing once more. He had just sat down too. "What do you believe the point of chess to be, Bolin?" Jaune asked him.
"To win." Bolin said simply, already revealing how wrong he was. "To obtain checkmate."
Jaune shook his head, sighing with no small amount of disappointment. "You're wrong already. You have identified the goal of chess, the end of the rules of which we are bound by. But you have completely missed the point of chess." the grey ranger said.
Bolin crossed his arms, giving Jaune an aggressively sceptical look. Jaune continued to speak, ignoring the blue monks seething.
"The point of chess is to prove your skill. To find the beauty in the game." Jaune said as he moved to the inn's entrance. "The game can end, yes. But when it ends, did you really win?"
Jaune closed the door behind him, its creaking the only sound that was heard in the silence.
Jaune shifted, feeling the weight of his armor. It wasn't a heavy weight to him, but once he had taken it off, its mass was suddenly rather noticeable.
Jaune's grey cloak came off, draped over the lone chair in the room. His armor, the cracked and stapled plate piece followed it, along with dark steel vambraces and bronze grieves. They made a soft clunking sound as he set them at the chairs feet. . Jaune let out a breath, collapsing onto the chair. He took a moment to enjoy the lonesome silence. It had been a while since he had last had a moment in silence, a moment alone.
It wasn't quite the silence he was used to, but was still silent. A human kind of silence. The forest had a different kind of silence. The forest was never quiet, alive and abuzz with small creatures.
Nor was it the silence of The Dream, with nothing inside it to dare disturb the silence. Nothing but him, anyway. Jaune contemplated the silence, distant calls of man and their shuffling lives became the buffering white noise. Jaune had at some point taken out a cube of wood, only a little larger than a rubix cube. He took his knife to it, carving out small divots and chunks from the unidentifiable wood. It was shaping up to be… something. Jaune wasn't quite sure yet. The scraping sound slowly faded into the distant bustle and busyness of the average life.
So very loud, unlike the silence Jaune stewed in.
The silence was broken as team ARBN entered. "Ah, that's where you went." Arslan said, seeing the quiet ranger. Jaune gave them a greeting nod, returning his focus to what was starting to suspiciously looking like a tree of some kind.
"Awww, damn." Reese said, noticing that something was wrong with her phone. "Hey, Ars?" She asked, looking up. Arslan turned to the skater.
"Yes?"
"My phone's dying. Can I borrow your battery pack?" The green girl asked. Arslan nodded, reaching into the nightstand. From it, she pulled out a massive, brick sized plastic box. It had a multitude of charging ports. Jaune counted six of them. He carefully put his carving down, standing up.
He strode over to the leader, shuffling through his pockets for his long abandoned scroll. He found it after a moment. "Ahem." he pronounced, causing for Arslan and Reese to spin on him, wheeling around at a surprising speed.
"Is there enough charge for mine?" He asked, holding out his battered and aging scroll, as if it were some identifying document. Arslan blinked, surprised at the fact that jaune even had a scroll. It really should not have, considering that Jaune was a huntsman from beacon.
She nodded. "Yeah, sure." She said, taking the scroll from his hands. It was plugged in, the screen glowing to life for the first time in some significant amount of time.
Jaune gave them an appreciative nod, retrieving his little project and sitting down on the bed. The scraping sound continued, disappearing into the ambient silence of the world.
After a few moments, jaune picked up his scroll. The screen flickered to life, a plain blue lock screen unaltered from the first day Jaune had gotten it, some half years ago.
Jaune swiped up, tapping in the remembered passcode he had dredged up in the back of his memory. The screen blinked, showing Jaunes homescreen. Jaune stopped, staring at what he had set as his background.
A total of eight smiling faces looked back at him. He recognized his own face, as strange as it was. Unscarred, unbroken. So very soft, untouched by the terrors of the world.
Those blue eyes sparkled brightly, all the hopes and dreams that one could have just barely contained within blue pools.
Those were the same eyes that the lone boy shared with his sisters. Vibrant blue, framed by golden blonde. He stared at the photo, carefully taking in their faces.
How could I have forgotten that Rose hated having her photo taken? He thought as he looked at the smallest of his sisters, who was pouting at the camera. Poppy was smiling from ear to ear, practically hanging off the Jaune. Alma and her twin, Asper, sat off to the side, pressed cheek to cheek together. How could he have forgotten that Rogue had that small cut on her lip? Or that Bridgette put flowers in her hair? His vision blurred their faces as he felt the wetness from his eyes grow.
How could I have forgotten? He swallowed, his face contorting for the first time into emotion. An ugly, hurt, raw and terrible painful kind of emotion.
He put his phone down, gripping at the bridge of his nose. "How could I have forgotten?" He whispered, feeling his hands get wet from his tears.
The question was unbearably heavy, crushing him under its weight. He stood, staring at the scroll. He felt the tears start to fall down his face.
He needed to escape this terrible weight. He turned away, seeking some kind of refuge. The door closed behind him, the sound deafening to the watching residents.
"What got him tied up in a knot?" Bolin asked. Reese gave him a wide eyed, shocked look.
"Bro." She said, astounded at his audacity.
The wind was bitingly strong on Jaunes face. He couldn't tell if it came from the world, or the speed of his gait. Little smiling blonde faces danced around in a taunting manner. Little laughs around a wooden dinner table, a soccer ball in seemingly endless fields of grain.
And another memory, unbidden by his grief, floated to his mind. A memory that was not his own, not one he recognized.
Jaune stood in front of a deep hole. No, not a hole. A grave.
Jaune tugged at his raven black hair, his eyes dried from his weeping. He looked down at the grave, a plain oak box in the hole.
"I am sorry to hear about your sister, Warden Arnold." A voice came from behind him. Jaune turned, his long black hair flipping around in the soft wind.
"High Archon Savune." He forced out, going to a salute.
The general shook his head. "At ease, warden." the commander said, raising a hand. The two stood in silence as the general walked over to the grave.
"Your sister, she died of the sickness, did she not?" The general asked, although he knew the answer. Everyone knew the answer. It was the only thing anyone died of anymore.
Jaune nodded. "She did." Everyone did. At least Jaune could guarantee she went easily.
The general stood there for a couple moments more, and turned to leave.
Jaune sat down, on the ground by the grave.
The sudden feeling of some fallen log, and not the fresh hallowed ground he expected, snapped Juane out of his remembrance. He looked around the forest he found himself to be in.
He looked around, steadying himself from a memory that was not his own. A memory about a sister he never had. And the memories of sisters he was afraid to forget.
He sobbed, collapsing into his hands. "I don't know anymore." he choked. "I just want a break."
Jaune sat there for some time. He had taken a bottle of some foul smelling spirit, holding it with shaky hands. What was worth a moment of rest? A moment of peace?
"I just want to rest." He sighed, uncorking the bottle and putting it to his lips. The glass started to drain in between both sips and sobs. There was no one around to judge, so who the hell cares?
The bottle fell out of Jaune's hand as he sank to his side, sliding off the log. Exhausted and drowsy, Jaune closed his eyes. And prayed that he may be given a break.
Because no one was around to care, no one noticed the spreading greyness, like a leeching fog, spreading from the drunken dreamer. Grass turned to ashen sculptures under him, altered and greyed fragments of a dream, cheap imitations of what they once were. Bark turned to plastered ash, and the air itself lost all fragrance but the color grey. As though Jaune were dreaming.
And yet Jaune still closed his eyes. But soft, to sleep.
So, more angst. yay.
But more importantly, we get to move back into the dream. Thank god. And don't worry, we only have a couple more chapters of angst before Jaune starts moving uphill.
I understand that this chapter was rather boring in comparisonto other chapters.
This last scene was actually not originally going to be in there, but one of the comments mentioned that it didn't make that much sense that he would forget, and I agreed in hindsight. So i decided to address that in a way that I think Jaune, in any variation, would react: with unimaginable guilt and grief. Jaune has always been a family oriented man, which is odd considering how unimportant Family seems to be to Cannon Jaune in his actions. They're mentioned like once as a whole, and the interaction between Saphron and Jaune felt a little lacking to me. (And yet I completelytry to avoid bringing up his family if possible)
This chapter mostly served as a Segwayinto the next dream sequence/ internal conflict set up with Jaune, and for a little more insight for team ARBN. I'm really excited for the next dream sequence. it's going to be a lot of fun for me, and hopefully you.
Anyway, please leave a comment. Your words of encouragement, questions, headcannons, scenes you would like to see or character arc ideas. They are fantastic to read and I cannot overstate how much joy they fill me with.