Chapter 81

Abandoned Schnee Dust Company Mine

'You guys were incredible!' Jaune gushed, all over the Ace Ops leader as he spoke at a machine gun pace. 'Oh, the way you took down that Geist without needing to plan your tactics out, you just knew exactly what to do!'

'Well, Ace Ops are hand-picked to perfectly complement one another, so we can focus on our assets and leave our liabilities behind.' Clover explained, raising an eyebrow at the dog boy who appeared from off screen.

'Some of us are all asset, zero liability.' Marrow said, tapping his fingers to his forehead in a salute. He zipped over to Elm as she sniggered at him. 'Wha-yeah? You think I've got some liabilities Elm?'

'Your brains for one.' She said, turning away with the group to pace off. Marrow slumped his shoulders in defeat.

'You did ask.' Vine said, as if trying to be consolatory but not really managing to be because he didn't intend to. The Ace Ops turned away from them, and a curse erupted at full volume from the group. Harriet swore loudly as a gauntleted arm wrapped itself around her waist and flinched away as a blade was extended across her neck. Jaye's face peeked over her shoulder, staring down the rest of the group with what could only be described as murderous intent.

'Familiar scene isn't it, Clove?' The raven-haired boy laughed, and Harriet struggled against his grip with a huff. He pressed the blade deeper into her neck, warning her to stay still. 'Now unlike you, I'm not a good guy. I won't hesitate to slit her throat right here and now, so you'd best not make any false moves.'

'Jaye!' Blake yelled, more surprised than anything else at his sudden appearance. The rest of his friends surged forwards, and he glanced at them briefly out of the corner of his eye.

'Wassup.' He said, adjusting his grip on the rabbit-like woman. Harriet made a sound of disgust as he pulled her a little tighter into his chest, and a not particularly inconspicuous blush rose around her cheeks. 'Just stay there alright?' He turned his attention back to Clover, who had his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. 'Now that I have your attention, I think it's pretty clear what I want from you. You're going to let my party get on that ship over yonder.' He jerked his head at one of the airships across from them, where Kamina was already waving to them from the pilot seat. Artemis and Apollo appeared atop the roof of the ship, bows drawn and poised to fire. 'And you're not going to chase us, hear me?'

'Okay hold on a minute.' Clover started, falling silent as Jaye wiggled the blade against the rabbit-like woman's neck. He raised his hands a little higher, halting in his path towards the boy as two arrows embedded themselves in the snow a breath away from his feet. He glanced briefly at the twins perched atop the ship, subtly impressed with their incredible accuracy.

'I said shutty, Clove. For a military man you sure seem bad at following orders.' The boy snorted. 'So General, what say you?'

James Ironwood turned to the boy, a somewhat conflicted look on his face as he watched the boy. 'I'm not holding your friends prisoner, Jaye.'

'So you say. But more than likely they're not free to leave as they please.' He scoffed. 'I know you military types well enough.'

'No Jaye, it's alright.' Yang called, stepping forwards and taking the blade out of his hand. He gave her a look that said, "I am confusion", and she took his arm off Harriet. 'Nothing happened. We're not being restrained or anything. What happened down in Mantle was a miscommunication, nothing more. Ironwood didn't even know we were here until we passed him by accident on our way through the academy.' She grinned at him, and Harriet stepped away from him quickly, adjusting her uniform and patting her cheeks rapidly. Yang raised an eyebrow at the blushing woman, and she turned pointedly away from the pair. 'It's good to see you.'

'It's good to see you too. I see everyone got new threads. Looks good on you.' Jaye said, accepting a gentle kiss from the blonde. He turned suspiciously to the General, who had paced over to the two. Kamina and the twins hopped down from the ship, walking over in equal amounts of confusion and bemusement to greet their friends. Ironwood cleared his throat, placing his arms behind his back.

'I'd like to sincerely apologize for the mis-arrest that occurred down in Mantle. I've cleared things up with your team, and it's likely that they'll have some details of the plans ahead to share with you.' He said. 'I've withheld the order for you and your companions' arrest, so you can rest assured this isn't some elaborate ploy to get you locked up. I promise that.'

'You'll forgive me if I have some doubts.'

'Of course. Judge me by my actions, not my past deeds.' The General said, holding his hand out to the boy. 'Just like I will judge you by yours from here going forward. Ozpin accepted you, knowing who you are and what you've done. That means something.'

Ironwood kept his hand outstretched to the boy, and Jaye gave it a skeptical look. He finally took the General's hand in his, shaking it begrudgingly. The man gave him a warm smile, and Jaye turned away from him abruptly. The other three, having heard the exchange, patted the still irritated boy on the back.

'Well isn't this good for us? We're finally on safe grounds for once.' Artemis said, stretching out her back. 'I sure as hell appreciate it after being on the move for so long.'

'What Jaye gets a handshake, but all I get is a nod? What's with this discrimination? I was just as big a criminal as he was alright.' Kamina said, acting cross at the General. Unsure how to deal with the situation, Ironwood simply held his hand out to the fox boy, who burst into peals of laughter. He clapped the tin man on the shoulder, shaking the hand anyway. 'I'm just messing with you Jimbo. Looking forward to working with you!'

'Guess that means we're allies. For now.' Jaye said, catching Harriet glaring at him from across the way. 'Sorry about that Hare.'

'Don't you dare call me by that name like we matter to each other.' She spat, folding her arms under her ample bosom as she continued to glare at the boy. 'You disgust me.'

'Oh, come on Hare, there's a limit to this.' Jaye rolled his eyes at the woman. 'It's been damn near three years will you get over it already?'

'Easy for you to say.' The woman spat. 'Wasn't you.'

'I mean, I was involved. It kinda was me.'

'That's why it's so disgusting.' She pushed her way past him, shoving him in the back. 'I can't believe I ever liked you.'

'Hey now that was your own fault!' Jaye yelled after her, muttering a curse as the woman ignored him. 'Sure, make this shit awkward why don't you.'

'Uh, what's going on here?' Yang asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy, and Jaye sighed in response. 'How do you know her? I mean, aside from the obvious.'

'Yeah, I'll tell you in private.' He said, catching the eye of the entire group of onlookers who had clearly heard the exchange. 'Or I guess now I have to tell everyone. Wonderful.'

'I can tell em.' Kamina chirped, appearing from nowhere in a flash of orange. 'I wanna tell em.'

'Don't you fu-!' Jaye swore as the fox boy flashed away. 'MINA!'

'What do you guys want to do when we get back to Atlas?' Ruby asked, attempting to distract them from the present issue. 'Sightseeing? Oh, what should we visit first!'

'How about our beds?'

'Oh come on guys, this is a great time to go exploring! We haven't done that in so long!'

'Ruby, we just explored a whole continent on foot before flying to this one.'

'Well yeah, but it was only the boring parts.'

'We almost died.'

'Pffft.' The smol girl said, waving her hands at her sister. She watched her team go quietly towards the airship, turning to Jaye. 'Jaye how about you?'

'No thanks, already seen it.' He said, turning to the airship. Ruby pouted, hanging her head down as she paced back to the ship. Qrow jerked his thumb over at the General, who was currently discussing something in hushed tones with Clover.

'Hey, heads up.' He said, and as if on cue Ironwood called them over.

'Can I get the team leaders over here please? Qrow and… Jaye's team too.'

They paced over to the glum General, Qrow folding his arms as they approached. 'New problems in Mantle?'

'More of the same, unfortunately.' Ironwood pulled out his scroll, projecting a holographic screen before them. 'Someone in Mantle is taking out public leaders who speak out against Atlas. Specifically, people who speak out against me.' He sighed heavily. 'It didn't look like a pattern at first, but this is the third murder of this kind in the last week.'

'Wait a minute.' Jaune said, pacing forwards to squint a little closer at the floating panel. 'That's the guy that rode with us after we were arrested.'

'He died?' Ruby flinched backwards, and Jaye put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Qrow scoffed almost sarcastically. 'Your opposition in Mantle dropping dead isn't exactly a good look for you, huh?'

'Not really worried about my public image, but it is causing unrest.' Ironwood said, putting away his scroll. 'I think someone's trying to frame me, and by extension, Atlas. And it's working.'

'Well if it wasn't for the embargo making everybody so mad, people probably wouldn't be so quick to blame you for everything else.' Jaune said, almost cheekily, flinching a little as Ironwood made a face at him. 'Umm, ah, sir.'

'No. No, you're right.' The General admitted. 'Things in Mantle have been… hard to manage lately. I'm not blind to its issues; in fact, that's what I want to talk to you about.' He cast his eyes to the floating arena in the sky, heaving a sigh as he watched his massive project floating high above their heads. He turned back to the group, addressing the raven-haired boy in particular. 'Jaye, you and your companions were assassins. Do you think this was done by the same group you were from?'

'Not likely.' He said, shaking his head. 'The Faction, that's what they're called, likes to keep a low profile. They wouldn't get involved in such a public and political act, at least not in this manner.' He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at the General. 'No offence, but this is a little low level for them. It could possibly be the work of someone tied to The Faction, but it's more likely they're operating independently from the major body. We don't really keep track of our individual members' jobs; we're free to do whatever we want, though most of the higher ranked members wouldn't bother taking jobs not given to them by the Council.'

'Sounds like a pretty messy system.' Qrow commented, and Jaye laughed.

'Sort of.' He grinned. 'To be honest, the Faction is a lot bigger than you think, but smaller than what you know. The number of people who are technically tied to us is huge; probably hundreds of them in every kingdom and continent. But those guys are Faction members in name only; their operations and activities don't matter to the Council in the slightest. It just affords us a network of crucial information and manpower in every area of the city; can't be relying on information organisations all the time.' His face turned serious. 'Only a few hundred who've proved themselves ever meet the upper echelons; the ones that give out official Faction hits, and barely a few tens of them have met the Council. To get to the point where you're receiving jobs from the Council is an incredible honor and signifies you as a member of the inner circle.'

'And a Faction member of that level wouldn't be involved in low time jobs like these.' Kamina finished. 'These might have been done by low time members hired by outside people; disposable manpower. Wouldn't matter if they got caught and considering their status it would be easy to make it look like a simple mugging or some other petty crime turned serious.'

'Which means catching one of them would afford us next to nothing. They're all just pawns in a game. And their strings are being pulled by someone else.' Jaye narrowed his eyes. 'I'm thinking Salem.'

'A possibility, but no way to prove.' Qrow sighed, scratching his head. 'Nothing we can do about it for now than try to catch the perpetrators, though we likely won't get anything significant out of it.'

'So in other words we're back to square one.' The General sighed, rubbing his eyes. 'Morbid matters aside; with the launch of this mobile communications tower, and tensions down in Mantle, I think there's a lot of good your teams can do there.' He touched a finger to his ear, frowning at the snow below his feet. 'What? Already? Here? No it's fine, let him land. I'll deal with him myself.'

Qrow exchanged a skeptical glance with his niece. 'More Mantle problems?'

Ironwood's eyes followed a gaudy airship gliding through the clouds with a mixture of trepidation and disdain as it glided down into the snow. 'No, this one's an Atlas problem.'

'Oh I recognize that airship.' Kamina said, and Jaye nodded in response. 'Schnee.'

'What?' Weiss said, and the two boys gave her a confused look. They blinked at each other for almost a whole minute before Jaye made a face like he remembered something.

'Oh right, you're a Schnee. I forget that sometimes.' He slapped a hand to his forehead, pausing again. 'I don't know if that was a compliment or not.'

'I felt pretty complemented.' Weiss clarified, patting the boy on the arm. 'Thanks.'

'Well in that case you're welcome.' He grinned. 'Come on, let's go greet good ol daddy issues himself.'

The airship cruised down into the snow, turning around slowly to point its doors towards the group waiting below. The Schnee dust company logo was emblazoned across the doors and sides of the ship, marking the already gaudy and fancy ship with an even bigger symbol of wealth and depravity. The doors slid open, and with nary a moment to breath a rant ensued from the angry and extremely unpleasant man stepping out from behind them.

'So let me get this straight James.' Jacques Schnee hissed, pacing as menacingly as he could out of the ship. 'In addition to this nonsensical embargo of yours crippling my business, you've also decided you have the authority to commandeer private property?'

Weiss still involuntarily flinched back at the sight of her angry father, a souvenir from her childhood traumas. Jaye placed a hand in the centre of her back, halting her backward movement, and he felt her breathing quicken beneath his fingers. Jacques Schnee jabbed a threatening finger into Ironwood's face.

'When the Council hears about this, you will never-!'

'Actually, I've already informed them.' General Ironwood said coolly, displaying impressive impassiveness in the face of the furious business mogul. 'As this is now the site of a classified military operation, it didn't even require a vote.'

'Didn't require a vote!' Schnee yelled, and a smile tugged upwards on the corners of his mouth.

'You might want to brush up on Council law before you lose this upcoming election Jacq. Now, I've allowed you to land here once as a courtesy; the next time it won't be a friendly reception.'

'Lately you seem to forget who your friends really are. I'm going to get that council seat James, and then maybe you'll-!' Jacques Schnee's eyes descended past the General and settled on the blue clad girl standing defiantly behind him. He pushed past the General, placing him directly in front of the ex-heiress. 'You… you roped my missing daughter into these schemes of yours too! How long has she been back in Atlas? Does Winter know about this?'

'It was my decision to come here!' Weiss interrupted, feeling Jaye push her gently in the back, and she stormed forward to confront the man who'd made her life hell. 'Just like it was my decision to leave.' She raised an eyebrow at the man she considered practically a stranger to her. 'Or have you forgotten all about that?'

'If you think I'm one to forget anything, girl, then you've misjudged the man your father is.' Jacques began, but the defiant girl cut him off.

'Believe me.' She scoffed. 'I know exactly the kind of man you are.'

'How dare you speak to me that way!' Jacques snapped, looming over the unimpressed girl. 'I have half a mind to-!'

'Half a mind to what, Jacq?' Ironwood interrupted, and the businessman reigned in his temper, adjusting his suit as he went switched tactics for a moment.

'You know, your mother was devastated when you left.' He sneered, placing an almost sarcastic hand over his heart in mock concern. 'Didn't leave her room for days. You know how she gets when she's upset.'

'Yeah you'd know.' Jaye snorted. 'I'm sure upset is the definition of her interactions with you.'

The businessman ignored the raven-haired boy, turning back to the General and managing to offend the boy without saying a word. 'I knew one day you would over-extend your reach. I didn't come here to beg for an abandoned mine. I came here to thank you; for personally handing me the noose to hand you!'

Blake took Weiss's hand in her own, squeezing it tightly as the girls crowded protectively around her. Weiss managed a small smile, nearly flinching back again as Jacques Schnee continued to speak.

'You'll regret this.' Jacq sneered at the General, turning his attention to the group of girls again, with just the top of Jaye's head visible behind them. 'So these are the little friends you threw everything away for?'

'Not friends.' Weiss corrected. 'Family.'

'Something you've never been.' Jaye barked a laugh, and Jacq finally turned his attention to the boy. 'Something to say?'

'And who's the street rat?' The business mogul said, smirking at the boy. 'I was under the impression Beacon had standards; or were they just taking their pick from the pavement when they found you?'

'Says the bitch with a stick up his ass who doesn't realize his place.' Jaye scoffed. 'I'm curious though, how do you manage to sit down?'

'Crude and brash.' Jacques blustered. 'That's all you commoners are.'

'You know, my testimony would incriminate a lot of the things you and your company have done. Even one of which would be enough to put you away for life.' Kamina said, folding his arms over his chest. 'And they call US criminals.'

The white-clad man turned abruptly away from the group, stalking back into his airship without another word. The gaudy ship moved away from the group, and Weiss let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Jaye patted her on the back, and she hugged the boy wordlessly. He patted her on the back, staring awkwardly around his vicinity as she squeezed him.

'Well, this isn't awkward at all.' He muttered, patting her on the back. She punched him in the body.

'It isn't awkward if you don't make it awkward.' She huffed, releasing the boy. 'Thank you. For giving me the courage.'

'Wasn't just me. Everyone else was here too.'

'You were the first to notice.' She said. 'And if I'm being honest, probably the only one who can kind of relate.'

'My parents are dead.' He laughed. 'Not much to relate to there.'

'He might as well be dead to me.' Weiss grinned, earning another barking laugh from the boy. They turned as a military truck rolled up, the heavy metal door squeaking open as Winter stepped out of the vehicle. Weiss raised an eyebrow at her fashionably late sister. 'Oh, now you show up Winter. You just missed father.'

'I wouldn't say I missed him.' She said, jumping as a familiar android girl slammed down into the ground between her and the group. Penny threw her hands up above her head, a massive holographic "CONGRATULATIONS" appearing above her head as a party horn went off.

'Surprise!' She yelled, glancing between the confused girls and the exasperated Winter. 'Uh, did we not start yet?'

'Apparently we haven't.' Winter replied, watching the girls pick themselves up from the ground. Ruby popped out from the snow, raising an eyebrow at the military personnel.

'Start what?'

Amity Arena

'It goes without saying that this arena holds a significance to all of us. It's only fitting that we should be able to reconvene here.' Ironwood gave his speech, pacing languidly across the repaired arena floor. 'Now. When the world needs to be brought together more than ever.'

Penny bounced in excitement, squeaking in her heels against the smooth floor of the stadium. Winter placed a hand on the android's shoulder to stifle, but not snuff out, the squeaking, as Penny continued to bounce.

'The road you travelled from our first meeting hasn't been easy.' Ironwood continued. 'You fought for your school and your friends at Beacon. You fought for the world and the innocent at Haven Academy and beyond. You faced down terrors people can't even fathom; that's not the behavior of students. That's the behavior of Huntsmen and Huntresses.'

Ironwood gestured to Penny, who paced forwards to prod her screen in front of each of the huntsmen in training. They pulled out their scrolls as she passed, watching as their licenses changed before their eyes.

'Wait, what is this?' Ren asked, and Winter addressed the crowd to answer his question.

'You are being granted your huntsmen licenses. Today.' She said, a small smile breaking across her face.

'I know this is coming a little ahead of schedule, but Brothers know you deserve it.' Ironwood finished. 'I only regret that I couldn't do something a little more ceremonious for the occasion.'

'I… we're honored General Ironwood.' Ruby stuttered, nearly lost for words at the gesture put forth by the leader of Atlas. 'But you really don't have to do this.'

'Please.' Ironwood stopped her gently, resuming his stressed pacing across the stadium floor. 'With the threat of Salem still out there, and tensions rising in our kingdom, I certainly could use more trustworthy fighters by my side. I should be so lucky to have all of you.' He gave the group a smile. 'It's okay; it's a big moment. And what better way than to celebrate here? When this tower is ready, and communications are back up and running, we'll tell the world about Salem and face down whatever comes at us after that. Together.'

The group of now Huntsmen and Huntresses glanced across each other, the reality of the situation just beginning to set in. Ironwood sighed heavily.

'That's just about all the pomp I have in me.' He said. 'If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to running this operation. Um… well then. Enjoy the cake.'

He turned awkwardly to leave the stadium, Winter following closely behind, and Penny popped out from off screen to call after him. 'Your speech outros are improving sir!'

Yang looked down at her scroll, where her license was staring back at her, just as surreal as it had sounded two years ago. She glanced over at her partner. 'After everything we've been through, I almost forgot this was what I wanted in the first place.'

'When Beacon fell, I didn't think this would even be possible.' Blake said, and the group gathered around.

'It almost feels trivial now.' Weiss breathed, and Qrow let out a chuckle.

'Geez guys, lighten up a little. Enjoy yourselves for a change! You've earned it.' He said, and Nora groaned as loudly as she could.

'Finally! Someone said it!' She grinned. 'Let's kill some cake, huh? Because I can eat two slices before Ren even eats one! Who says I can't! Who says it, huh!'

Ren leaned in from off screen. 'Nora, nobody is arguing with you about this.'

Up on the bleachers

'I guess we're not included.' Jaye said, leaning his face on his fist, and Kamina shrugged absently.

'Eh, a huntsman license is hardly a privilege for people like us.' The fox boy said, playing a game on his scroll. 'Official records only make it harder for us to disappear when we need to.'

'We should just be glad you two didn't get arrested on sight.' Apollo scoffed, leaning against his sister. 'If you lot were tried in court, they'd give you capital punishment.'

'Not like they didn't try though.' Artemis laughed. 'Those Ace Ops really had it out for you.' She grinned as she remembered something. 'Speaking of which… you still haven't told us what happened between you and that Harriet chick.'

'Yeah I wanna know too!' Nora yelled, appearing out of nowhere at the bleachers. The rest of the group followed along behind, as if magnetically attracted to juicy stories, and Jaye sighed to himself again.

'Seriously? Why am I always the one spilling my guts huh? Mina never had to do that; these twin bitches never had to. This is my third time!' He crossed his arms and put the biggest pout on his face he could manage. 'I call discrimination!'

'Quite stalling and tell us already!' Yang demanded, slamming her hand down on the railing in front of him. She leaned in close to his face, eyes transitioning into Yandere mode. 'And if I don't like the answer, you know what's going to happen to you.'

Jaye sighed, shaking his head at the floor, rubbing a hand across his eyes. He swore at the group, flipping each of them off in turn, before finally relenting and punching Kamina in the arm.

'It was three years ago back when we were at the peak of our success.' He explained. 'Right before Kamina got caught and sent to the dust mines. We infiltrate the Kingdom of Atlas, hiding out down in Mantle. That's why we knew where everything was.'

'Our mission was to assassinate General Ironwood.' Kamina cut in. 'And to confirm his custody of a woman named Fria.'

'Which we now know is the winter maiden, thanks to Qrow.' Jaye said, nodding to the surly man. 'Atlas security is airtight; the only way in and out is to find a break in the seams. Infiltrating the kingdom itself wasn't hard, but getting to Ironwood's inner circle? That was the task of a lifetime.'

'Our options were limited.' Kamina continued. 'In the end after a lot of digging and fruitless endeavors, we finally figured out that the only potential breaks in Ironwood's airtight security was going to be those closest to him.'

'Winter was as cold as her name, so that avenue was a lost cause.' Jaye explained. 'Kidnapping her would never go unnoticed, and even if we did it we doubted she would ever give up anything Ironwood didn't want released to the public.'

'In the end, it was clear our best shot was the Ace Ops.' Kamina chirped. 'More members meant more avenues of enquiry, regardless of what method that took.'

'Out of all the members, there were only three who were considered viable targets.' Jaye listed them off on his fingers. 'Marrow, Alexius and Harriet. Marrow visited an arcade frequently, while Alexius and Harriet had a habit of hanging out at a pub twice a week for drinks and R&R. People with habits are easy to track.'

'So, our options were simple.' Kamina said. 'Kidnapping was a last resort since it would raise suspicion and alert Ironwood to our presence in the city. Instead, our best means was espionage.'

'And that meant getting as close to them as possible.' Jaye said, grinding his teeth as he got to the part he was dreading the most. 'While Indigo went to work on Marrow, the three of us tried our hand at the two girls.'

'And though Damian was shot down, gloomy bastard as he was, we had some success.' Kamina grinned, now a little embarrassed as well. 'We each hit it off with one of the girls; I had Alexius, and Jaye got good with little old rabbit girl.'

'Alexius was a little more guarded, though we did get some pieces of crucial information from her.' The raven-haired boy said. 'I dated Harriet over the course of four months we were here in Atlas, playing the part of loving boyfriend to a girl too caught up in work to find a suitable partner.'

'I wasn't really dating Alexius, though we did occasionally meet up for meals.' Kamina clarified. 'She was a little more wary and I guess I wasn't really her type, but we got along well enough as the best friends of the couple. That meant it all banked on Jaye getting some solid information on his end.'

'That led to a few… unsavory aspects of the relationship.' Jaye said, being as vague as he could, but Yang thrust her face into his.

'And what exactly were those "unsavory aspects", hm?' She hissed, and Jaye raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. Kamina cleared his throat from behind the boy.

'He means we slept with them.' The fox boy admitted, flattening his ears against his head as the group shouted in surprise. 'Damn come on, I have sensitive ears!'

'Not at the same time!' Jaye yelled, holding out his hands to calm the group. 'Separately! Each with our own okay!'

'That's not the point Jaye!' Weiss hissed, placing a hand over her bosom in shock, and the boy dropped back into his seat. 'The problem is that you SLEPT WITH HER!'

'Hey, pillow talk pays the bills alright.' The boy justified. 'We got the hints we needed to damn near pull off that assassination from that alright. It was a necessity through and through.'

'She admitted to having a secret way in and out of the Academy where Ironwood works, being the headmaster and all.' Kamina said. 'That corroborated with some information we obtained from a broker and gave us a way in to kill him.'

'The two also told us when and where their next mission was going to be, allowing us time to stage our infiltration and assassination.' Jaye elaborated. 'A few innocent questions making it seem like we're interested in their jobs awarded us with info on where their records are stored, which allowed us to confirm the existence of an unspecified special ops member named Fria. Our client had an interest in her, and I'm guessing it's because at the time they knew she was the Winter Maiden.'

'Their mission was cut short, unfortunately.' Kamina shook his head. 'An unlucky situation had the Ace Ops return sooner than we expected, cutting our time short and raising an alarm before we made it to Ironwood. They pursued us through the streets of Atlas, where we fought and defeated five of their members before disappearing.'

'That explains a lot.' Qrow said, scratching his head. 'I thought the way she acted towards you was strange.'

'She must have been crushed to see you.' Jaune said, staring at his hands as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'I don't doubt you held nothing back when you fought her.'

'Damn straight I didn't.' Jaye said. 'She didn't matter to me, alright? Whatever she remembers, however she feels, that doesn't matter to me. It was a necessary sacrifice; nothing more.'

The group went quiet for a minute, and Kamina slapped a hand into his face. He punched the boy in the arm, and Jaye swore at him.

'What?'

'You could have at least tried to word that better you moron.' The fox boy said, and the assassin scratched his head.

'Yeah, well it's true.' He said. 'I went through those four months playing a part, acting like I cared about her to gain her trust. You did the exact same thing! In another life, in another time, I might've actually been happy with her. But that was the job, and that's all it was. She might as well be a stranger to me.'

'And that's it?' Yang questioned, glaring at the boy, and he sighed. He seized her by her cheeks, kissing her gently as she attempted to continue glaring at him. She kept her icy stare on, and he kissed her several times more before she relented and pushed him away. 'Dammit Jaye I'm trying to be angry!'

'And I'm trying to make you NOT angry.' He said, taking her hand and pulling the blonde towards himself. 'Is it working?'

'A little.' She admitted, letting him kiss her again. Their conversation was cut short as a loud sniff sounded out from the entrance to the arena, and a familiar wagging tail appeared in the doorway.

'Hey, you guys smell that?' Marrow grinned playfully from the door, flanked on either side by the Elm and Vine pair. 'Smells like… fresh meat.'

Vine took a deep sniff. 'That's odd. I don't smell meat.'

'Neither do I.' Ren corroborated, and Marrow sighed heavily.

'You know what, never mind.' He grumbled, and Elm caught sight of the mission board the girls had been fiddling around with earlier.

'Let me get this straight.' She asked. 'You've only been official for an hour now and you're already looking for huntsmen work?'

'To be fair we've been official for a whole-.' Weiss pulled out her scroll, face falling. 'Fifty-seven minutes.'

'I'd like to remind you all that the real mission here is ensuring the successful launch of the communications tower.' Vine reminded, and Ren nodded in response.

'True, but we can also continue training and improving by helping out where we can.' The quiet boy said, and Marrow shrugged helplessly.

'Well, it's hard to argue with that.' He grinned. 'Okay, let me show you how it works. Oh, here's an important one, who wants to volunteer?'

Jaye and his team watched quietly from the bleachers, a small smile breaking across his face as he watched the girls excitedly scrubbing through the mission board. The blonde's face was lit up like the sun as she looked up ways to potentially get herself killed, and he couldn't help but chuckle as she continued. Kamina elbowed the boy, a sly grin on his face.

'Wish you could be down there with them?' He grinned even wider, though it didn't seem possible. 'I know you do.'

'A little, yeah.' The assassin admitted, eyes not leaving the blonde to so much as glance at the fox boy. 'Honestly, it's like watching the life we could have had if fate didn't take us for the most effed up lifetime ride.'

'Yeah.' Kamina said shortly, eyes glued to the group as well. A familiar pang shot through his chest as he grabbed the locket under his shirt. He noticed out of the corner of his eye the gauntleted fist fiddling with his own, turning the locket around in his hands, and patted his best friend on the back. 'Yeah it is.'

'That could have been me if I still had parents.' Artemis chirped, leaning against her knees, face cupped in her hands, and the two boys raised irritated eyebrows at the cat girl. 'I'm just saying, my life would have been a whole lot better.'

'Go away.'

End of chapter 81