"You're nothing but a monster!" Calista yelled. Her voice echoed as if they were in a cave, yet sounded louder after each echo. Jaune turned around to see nothing but darkness as flashes of his sister came haunted his vision. Each flash had an image of her screaming at him.

"Stop it!" Jaune yelled but nothing came out. Another wave of flashes overcame the scared blonde, but these were filled with fire and a familiar burning town. Screams enveloped the poor blonde as he looked at the scene. People running as the inferno engulfed them, causing them to burn into nothing but dust. The panic filled screams and the burning corpses rotted his mind.

The flashes stopped on a familiar woman, who had her mouth hanging open. Blood was pouring from her mouth like a water fall, the drips of the red liquid echoing with each splatter. The blood that hit the floor began to form a word as the splatters turned into precise lines.

"MURDERER"

Jaune gripped his head and shut his eyes as tight as he could. Tighter than bark on a tree, tighter than stink of crap, tighter than the bone masks on grimm. He turned and ran from the sight but stopped when he bumped into someone. He opened his eyes to see Jade staring at him, a furious look in her eyes. Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but the moment he did his twin took a defense stance with a knife in her hand. Jaune was going to put his hand on her shoulder but her stance got aggressive, causing him to stumble back.

"Come near me, and I'll kill you!" Her voice rang out. Jaune blinked rapidly and when he looked back, she was gone, nothing but empty darkness took her place. Jaune looked back and forth for any of his sisters. After looking around him and searching for a couple of seconds, his eyes stopped after seeing a smaller person looking up at him.

It was Joli.

She was shaking with fear, staring at Jaune like he was a grimm. Like he was a monster. He bent over to be eye level with her, to calm her down, but the minute he did, she broke down and cried. It wasn't crying like she was upset or angry, it was filled with fear.

"P-P-Please don't h-h-hurt me!" she whimpered. She fell back and tried to scurry away, having one arm over her as if to protect herself from him. Seeing his own little sister, his youngest sister, scared of him was the breaking point.

He collapsed to his knees, and as he did flashes popped up again. The bandits he murdered, the bandit camp burning, his sisters, wary, angry… scared of him. His friends, every one of them, pointing their weapons at him with the same look as his sisters. It was too much.

He screamed.

Jaune wakes up screaming as if he was being attacked. He fell from his bed with a thud, still screaming in horror. His breathing was sharp and fast, as if he was on the edge of hyperventilating. When he realized the worst of it was over his hitched breathing steadily went back to normal.

As he took deep, calming breaths, he looked over at his clock. It was five in the morning. He didn't remember what time he went to bed at night, but it didn't matter. Even if he only got two hours of sleep there was no way he was going back. Not to that.

He swallowed the lump of fear in his throat and slowly rose from the ground and sat back on his bed. He put his head in his hands and took a couple of deep breaths. He mumbled "It was only a dream…" to himself a couple of times to remind him that he wasn't in his poisoned mind anymore.

When his heart wasn't at risk of bursting out of his chest, and he wasn't going to hyperventilate, he dug in his corner stand for the familiar texture of his journal and pen. He remembered his psychologist to write down anytime the nightmares came back.

The sound of the pen scribbling in his journal was all he heard in the shadowy, but lightly sun lit room. His eyes moved with every word written and every stroke of the pen.

"Wednesday:

For the first time in what I think's been in a week I had a nightmare again. It probably had something to do with my sisters coming to visit me.

What does that mean? Am I stressed from what happened yesterday? Or… am I scared I'll… hurt them? The looks they gave me in the nightmare… it was as if I was an animal. Like I was a monster. That I had to die or I'd hurt them.

I would never hurt them. So why did I have that dream? Why was it so detailed? Why? Why?"

Jaune's hand was shaking at he wrote that last part. His pen was also at risk of penetrating the paper with how much pressure he added to the instrument. He took a deep breath again and released it from his vice grip. The writing utensil clacked on the ground as Jaune set his journal on his bed. He just stared at the ground as that one single question kept circling his brain.

Why?

The poor boy had no answers for the question. He just hoped his psychologist would. He'll probably make an appointment with her sometime this weekend, assuming his sisters don't want to do anything.

Recalling his family made Jaune remember something. He got up from his bed and tried to find the pants he wore yesterday. As he saw his other clothes spread across the ground, he made a mental note to put them all in his hamper before he brought his sisters over. He didn't need to hear them nagging him about keeping his room clean again.

After searching the many piles of clothing, he found what he was looking for. He dug out his wallet from the pockets, and searched for the hotel card Calista gave him. He examined the card once he found to see if the room number was on it. Unfortunately, the blue card had nothing aside from the name of the hotel, and the barcode to unlock the door.

"Guess I'll ask once I get there," he thought. The blonde student had finally calmed down and was ready to get on with his day, if a bit begrudgingly. First thing he was going to do was tidy up his room a bit. After that it was head over to the hotel his sisters were staying at, help them move into his room, and get to the headmistress's operators-in-training class. A bit of a busy morning, but at least it will keep him occupied and out of his head.

With the plan set, he began to get the ball rolling for the day. As he did, another group had a set plan today as well. Only there's was a little more… aggressive.

Tuesday night:

Jamison looked at the report one of his gang gave him. He eyed the scout who stood tall, calm, and unwavering. If what the report said was true, this would be a big chance for the group to gang some supplies.

"Are you sure this true mate?" Jamison asked his member.

"I'm positive Junkrat," the scout replied. The flaming haired bandit hummed as he read the report again. This was big, but would it be too big too soon?

"All right, good on ya. I'll talk with the others and hopefully we'll plan a raid soon. Relax and catch your breath" With a nod, the scout dismissed himself as Junkrat pocketed the report. He took out his scroll and opened up the group chat for the leaders. This included his right hand Roadhog, his third in command, Julian, and finally, the leader of the Tior bandits, Adam Tior.

He called a meeting for them to meet up in an hour at the board room they set up. This could be the next step for them to attack Shade. He just had to make sure he could convince them this would be worth it.

One hour later:

Adam walked into the room, leaning on his cane, and causing all three heads to turn to him. Roadhog was sharpening his hook while sitting on some crates. Meanwhile Julian was on his scroll while sitting at the end with his feet kicked up on the table. Finally, Junkrat turned back to the table while drawing on a piece of paper.

"Good evening gentlemen," Adam greeted. Julian gave a wave, while Roadhog grunted. Junkrat waved Adam over to him.

"Now that you're here, we can get started," he said. This caused the leaders to stop what they were doing and go up to the blonde-haired bandit.

"I was about to head to bed so let's get this over with quick yeah boss?" Julian commented.

"Stuff it," Jukrat chuckled as he slapped the bartender in the chest. "All right so I got some good intel on a Schnee Dust Company caravan that's heading to the city soon. They'll be using trucks for transporting the Dust."

The SDC often trades with the villages and Shade itself in Vacuo all the time. They sell Dust to miners who need to meet their quota or buy the Dust from them if they got surplus. Anything to get bread on the table. The thing was…

"Why wouldn't they just come by bullhead?" Julian asked.

"Ever since the White Fang and grimm attacked Vale, the so-called leaders of Atlas put a stop to international trading," Adam explained. "After all, it was their little metal soldiers that did some of the damage as well. It's easier to sneak past people on the ground than in the air."

"So why stop Dust trade?"

"War," Roadhog grunted. Adam pointed his cane at the large man.

"Exactly. With the bots that attacked Vale guarding the Dust, Atlas officials think a lot of people are untrusting of them. For good reason."

"Still why stop international trade?" Julian asked. "It makes them look more suspicious to me."

"Who cares what a bunch of high and mighty drongos think?" Junkrat said. "If they're dumb enough to stop legal trading, and do it illegally, well I say we rob them blind."

"Are you sure we're ready for this?" Adam asked the pyromaniac. "We need to make sure we got enough people from recruiting. If we get caught doing this, or worst, we lose too many men, our efforts will be for nothing."

"We can't just keep recruiting," Julian told the older man. "We were able to convince some people to join us, but if we don't have supplies, numbers won't mean anything." Silence filled the room as Adam thought about it. It was true that recruiting was going well. They weren't expecting towns to join in destroying Shade, at least not yet. The villages may be angry at Shade, but the city still had its grip on them. Once they get enough people, they might be able to loosen that grip, but not right now.

Despite that, they were able to convince quite a few miners to leave the villages and join up with them. They have people joining, but is it enough to warrant a raid on an SDC caravan? Julian made a good point, ammo and dust was running low, so they needed supplies. Not to mention, a raid could just be what everyone needs to boost morale.

"All right," Adam submitted. "If you think we can pull this off without getting caught, they'll I'll let my boys know." Junkrat smiled and nodded his head with that settled, they began to plan. Junkrat motioned to the giant map on the table.

On it there seemed to be markings of where the caravan would be stopping. It seemed to be stopping at as many towns as it could before reaching Shade. Anything to get the most profit.

"Now then," Junkrat started. "When they get to Shade, they'll most likely dump all of their Dust off there and take the money back to Atlas as soon as possible. We'll need to hit the truck before it reaches Shade. I say we hit just outside of the last town, get the post Dust possible from it."

"It's too risky," Adam objected. He pointed to the town on the map. "Look how close it is to Shade. They'll send word to Shade halfway through the robbery, either that or the guards at Shade will see a raid happening. We'll need to hit it earlier than that."

"So how about the halfway point?" Julian suggested. As the planning continued, every one of the leaders gave their opinions on where to strike the caravan. It was hard to choose a spot because they had no idea how much Dust they were carrying before they entered the first town, and how much dust they'll be trading at each stop. They also had to pick somewhere where they can take the most Dust, but also so it's far away from the villages and Shade that they won't be caught.

After an hour of discussing and planning, they all came to an agreement. They double checked and triple checked the plan to make sure everything would go as planned. When the leaders agreed to it, they made an announcement to everyone in the camp. If they wanted to join the raid, they had to pack soon, because they were leaving at dawn.

As the sun peaked over the horizon, the many buggies, vans, and motorcycles continued to roar in the sandy dunes of the desert. Junkrat had about a quarter of his men with him. They were the ones that filled the Vans and buggies. Junkrat didn't trust bikes and found them to be under protected from… everything. Inside the vehicles most of his men were outfitted with leather armor, and dusters. Their weapons they had on them ranged from short melee objects, like a baton or pipe, to assault rifles and shotguns.

The ones that were on motorcycles were Adam's boys. All of the bikes had two people on them, yet none of them had a side car. They were outfitted with helmets that covered their faces, and basic shirts and jeans. The drivers either had pistols or small SMGs on their person, while the passengers had an SMG, and a chain with what looked to be spikes at the end attached to the small of their back. Junkrat had no idea why they would have chains, but he knew better than to question Adam.

They were just about to reach the caravan's path, and everyone was getting excited. Junkrat got on his radio and made sure to connect to everyone.

"Right, everyone know the drill?" he asked on the radio. "We get in, kill everyone, grab the dust, and book it before they know what hit them. Those SDC pricks should be coming up shortly, so make sure your locked and loaded. We get one shot at this, and I don't want them to get one over on us, got it?!" With various yeses from the vehicles, Junkrat grew a wide crazy grin. "And remember boys, it's the perfect day for Mayhem! So let's start some!"

As Junkrat hung up the mic, a couple of cheers could be heard over the radio. Everyone was psyched up, it's been a good while since they had a raid. This would be the perfect stress reliever. It would also be a good test for the newbies. A good chance to see if they have the stones to do this.

In the driver seat of the buggy Roadhog grunted as Junkrat took out his grenade launcher and began loading. The flaming hair leader just groaned in annoyance.

"I can't help it if I enjoy what we do!" the giant man just shot a look at the skinny man which made his partner groan again. "I'm not an idiot! I promise I won't blow up our prize." The pyromaniac shook his big friend's shoulder. "Besides, you enjoy this as much as I do!" Roadhog looked away, but his friend knew he was right.

After a couple more minutes of tense silence, the caravan reached the bandit's view. There were about five white trucks with the SDC logo holding large crates, with a bunch of cars and motorcycles, all with the SDC logo, protecting it. Some of the bikes had two people on them, while others only had one. From what little they could see, it looked like half of the protection was human, and the other half the robots. The cars seemed to have been outfitted with turrets to the tops of them.

They might as well have put a giant "Rob me!" sign. Still they seemed confident enough that due to them being heavily guarded, and Atlasian, that no one would be dumb, or crazy, enough to do so.

They were wrong.

Junkrat howled as they zoomed in closer to the vehicles. He picked himself up from the buggy and grabbed onto the edge of his door and leaned out holding his grenade launcher in hand. When the gang was close enough to hit shots, they began to fire at the caravan.

Bullets whizzed back and forth as they grew closer to the trucks. They saw a bunch of the motorcycles veer away from the caravan and over to them. Junkrat laughed manically as they got closer. A bandit van with a turret began to fire at the bikes, but as it did, the bikes decided to show off some new Atlasian tech.

A light blue shield enveloped the front of the bikes, causing any bullets to ricochet off of them. This caused a lot of the bandit cars and buggies to swerve away and to the side, hopefully to get a better angle. However, a couple of bikers decided to take a risk on taking out these guys.

While the drivers of the bandit bikes continued to shoot at the shields, the passenger of the bikes grabbed ahold of the chains they brought with them.

Soon one of the bikes got into a chicken match with an Atlasian one. The Atlas driver had a pistol on him and was trying to take potshots at the driver, but his aim was abysmal. Meanwhile, the passenger of the bike began to twirl the chain around his head.

"Left!" the passenger yelled. The driver followed through with the instruction and turned just enough to be left of the Atlasian bike. By the time the SDC driver figured out the plan, it was too late. The passanger leaned over to the right a little bit, and swung his spiked chain into the head/neck area of the driver. A loud scream was heard, but was then silenced as his head flew clean off his shoulders. The Atlas motorcycle began to swerve without its driver and eventually flipped over to its side and remained as such.

Meanwhile, one of Junkrat's vans was being chased by an SDC bike, with a robot passenger shooting at the van. A bandit got up from inside of the van and into the makeshift gunner position and turned the turret around to fire at the driver.

Unfortunately, the driver activated her bike's shield, and the bandit kept hitting nothing as the bullets bounced off the blue shield.

"Dammit!" the gunner yelled. Unfortunately, the robot behind the driver sprung up just enough for their rifle to peak over the shield and plant a couple of rounds into the gunner's chest.

"NO! Jonesy!" the passenger of the van yelled as his friend dropped over dead.

"Shit!" the driver yelled. "Liam, take his place, and get that bike off of us!" The passenger nodded his head and tried his best to get in the gunner positions. However, with his dead friend in the way, and the fact that the robot was still shooting, it was hard. Liam knew what he was getting into, he knew that not everyone would make it out alive, that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Especially with what he was going to do next.

Liam knew he needed to clear the gunner's position, and he also knew he needed to protect himself from the bullets. There was only one option he was seeing.

"Gods forgive me for this," He mumbled. He ducked under his friend's legs and lifted the body onto the roof. He made sure to keep a grip on his deceased friend as he poked his head out.

The robot tried to fire at Liam but kept hitting the dead gunner's body. Liam, while still praying to the brothers, lifted his friend, and tried to throw him in the path of the SDC bike.

The driver screamed as a huge two-hundred-pound body was thrown into her path. She swerved out of the way so she wouldn't crash into the corpse. As she did though, Liam was able to grip the turret, aim it at just the right angle, and pulled the trigger.

The robot was the first to go flying off. The metallic ping of the bullet hitting its body echoed in the driver's head, before she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She cried out and gripped her shoulder, trying to put pressure on the wound. This caused her to swerve enough for Liam to finish the job.

The driver felt more pain throughout her body before the bike lost all control and shook her off. She tumbled in the sand a couple of feet before stopping. No matter how much she tried to move, her limbs weren't responding. She felt herself go cold, and the lights slowly began to dim.

Roadhog and Junkrat were being chased by two cycles. Junkrat leaned out of his seat and pointed his grenade launcher at the cycle that was right next to them. As he fired, he noticed that his bombs weren't hitting the target and falling back.

When his barrage failed, the driver decided to take this chance to unload a clip into the bandit leader. Junkrat activated his aura to absorb the bullets, but still grunted in pain. He glared at the driver, who realized their attack did nothing. The biker tried to turn away from them in order to reload. Unfortunately, Junkrat predicted that.

Making sure to lead his shot, and to aim a little bit upwards so his grenades will go further, Junkrat fired a couple more times. This time, his grenades landed right on the money. The driver couldn't even scream as his bike, and the grenades, blew up the instant they made contact with each other. A fiery explosion was heard and all that was left was scrap metal. Junkrat laughed sadistically as he saw the flames engulf the motorcycle.

Roadhog tried to get his partners attention, as he saw the other bike was closing in. The SDC soldier sped up again so they were in front of the buggy. The soldier stood up from the seat and turned his torso towards the buggy. Roadhog had to admit, he had guts.

The man jumped from the bike and onto the hood of the buggy. The jump caused the entire buggy to shake and made Junkrat snap from his laughing. As he saw the soldier on the hood of his buggy, he screamed.

"Get him off of us ya big lug!" He yelled at his partner.

Roadhog was trying to do that, as he had started to dig for his shotgun, but it got caught on something. The soldier took out his own pistol and pointed at Roadhog. The large man concentrated his aura around his head, as he continued to try and grab his shotgun. The soldier pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened.

The man looked at his pistol and saw that it had jammed.

"Shit!" was his final words as Roadhog had finally got his shotgun loose. He put it pointblank at the man's torso and fired.

All that was left was the legs of the poor man as the rest of his body was now a fine red mist. A fine red mist that splattered all over the buggy and the two passengers. Roadhog turned the vehicle to chase down the trucks. As he did, he turned towards his idiotic partner.

"Why didn't you get rid of him?!" he grunted.

"What and blow us up with him?!" Junkrat retorted. "I already lost an arm and a leg, I ain't losing anything else because of carelessness." Roadhog knew he was right. He just hated to admit it. He was too full of adrenaline to think clearly at that moment.

"Idiot!"

"Shut up and keep driving!" The smaller man grabbed the mic of the radio again and called out to everyone that was still alive. "Don't forget the reason we're here mates! Once you got rid of your shadows chase down those trucks!"

The leader slammed the mic back into space and reloaded his weapon. With some of the defenses down, they were getting that dust, one way or another. They weren't turning back now.

Denton was panicking. He was told that this would be an easy job. Just transporting some dust! Sure, it was illegal, but it wasn't the first time he's done illegal trading. It was good money for an easy job. Those Atlas guys told him he didn't need to worry about anyone robbing him.

Well, apparently, they were wrong!

He could hear the booms and whistles of bullets and explosions around him as he and the rest of the caravan tried to get away from the bandits. The chatter on the radio was buzzing with life, but it was nothing but white noise to him. His heart was pumping so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest, all he could focus on was getting to the village. If he could get them, the huntsmen and people there should be able to defend themselves from the attack.

As he kept driving, he began to think about his brother. The two of them were working together on getting enough money to get a bullhead out of Vacuo and get a small apartment in one of the other countries. Somewhere away from the constant moving, and fear of being attacked by anyone. They saved enough for one of them leave, but they just needed a couple more jobs for both to leave.

This was going to be the job that got them that. He was getting out of this, one way or another.

The caravan continued as the battle waged on for another few minutes. Once the explosions died down, Denton thought he was in the clear. That was until he felt his truck shake after a bunch of sharp pops were heard. He slammed the brakes before he skidded out of control.

When he finally stopped, he noticed a bunch of buggies, vans and motorcycles chase down the rest of the trucks in front of him. He was hoping that they would come back for him later. His hopes came crashing down when he saw a bunch of bandits pointing guns at him went in front of his windshield.

The bandits to his left was wearing a motorcycle helmet motioned for him to get out of the truck with the gun. He nodded rapidly, and opened the door. After he did, he put his hands out of the door and in the air.

"Don't shoot!" he yelled. "I won't do anything!"

"Shut it!" the one with the helmet said. Denton slowly got out of the truck, hands still in the air. He dropped to the ground and felt rough pain from the back of his head. He collapsed to the ground and felt a boot on his back.

"Move, and you're a dead man," the bandit said. The voice sounded feminine. Denton just groaned in response. As his vision cleared the stars, he moved his eyes to see if he could recognize any of the bandits. Once he got away from here, he needed to tell the villages, Shade, anyone, what happened.

His eyes laid upon the one wearing the helmet. He seemed to be barking orders to everyone, telling them to get the dust and get it packed. He looked closely at what he was wearing. Basic tees and jeans weren't a lot to go on, but the helmet was a dead giveaway.

On the side of the helmet was a picture of a lion spewing flames. It was the Tior bandit's logo.

"What the hell do the Tior bandits need with this much Dust?" Denton thought.

"Quit squirming around!" the girl on him threatened. He put more of his weight on Denton's back causing the man to groan.

"Oi," another voice called out. "Vans are stocked, let's get out of here. Junkrat wants us out of here soon!" Denton's eyes widened when he heard that. Why was Junkrat's crew a part of this? Bandit groups don't work together, not unless they absolutely have to. "Kill this piker and let's piss off!"

"You heard him lets go!" the Tior bandit yelled. Denton then felt something poke his head.

"See ya in hell," the girl taunted. Denton knew this was his only chance. If he was going down. He isn't going down without a fight. He grabbed the gun and shoved to the right just as the bandit pulled the trigger, causing his right ear to ring loudly. He squirmed as the gun went off, throwing the bandit off balance and into the ground.

The two began to struggle for the gun. Denton was able to shove the gun away from the bandit and him. The bandit tried to crawl towards the gun but as he did, Denton was able to climb on top of her, and wrap his hands around her throat.

Just as he was about to add extra pressure, a piercing sound was heard. Denton felt a warm trickle in his chest, as well as feeling very weak. The girl coughed and shoved him off to the side as his breathing grew shallow.

"Fucking cunt!" she sputtered after she was done coughing. She got up with the help of the bandit who shot him. She leered over to where Denton lied, bleeding out. A soul wrenching scowl was on her face. As she began to walk over to him, he only began to think about his brother. They were so close to leaving, so close to escaping this wasteland. Now, all of that was out the window, as he laid in a pool of his own blood with his vision getting darker.

The only silver lining? He was positive his brother would have enough money to leave this hellhole. After all, bullhead tickets, food, furniture, and apartment utilities would be cheaper with one less body occupying it.

Tears streamed down the man's face as he prayed to the gods that his brother would leave this place. Prayed that once he heard about this that he would get on the first bullhead out of here. The last thing Denton saw, as a giant boot heading right for his head.

At the Bandit camp:

Adam and Julian waited in the meeting room for the call. It had been fifteen minutes since the plan was said to have ended. They just needed the confirmation from Junkrat and Roadhog to call them and tell them it was a success.

The buzzing of Julian's scroll caught the attention of both leaders. Julian answered the phone call with anticipation.

"Boss?" he answered.

"Who's ready for some fireworks when we get back?" Junkrat chuckled proudly. Julian looked up at the older bandit with a smile and nodded his head. Adam's face split into a grin. The raid was a success.

To be Continued.

Betareader: TheShadowOfZama.