AN: Hello, and welcome to the eleventh chapter of "The Assassin Known as Paladin"!

I am terribly sorry for the long wait, but I had school and other things going on in my life that I had to take priority first. But, since my schedule is slightly less occupied, I might be able to update a bunch of my stories until later on.

Now, just to recap what happened in the last chapter: Jaune and Blake decided to stake out a Dust heist, where they were trying to figure out whether or not the White Fang was behind these acts. As it turns out, the White Fang was behind these robberies, much to Blake's disappointment. However, not only did they find out about the robberies, but they also learned who was leading the robberies: Roman Torchwick - a human criminal working with Faunus. Trying to learn more, the two ended up fighting against Roman, the White Fang, and Neo - another assassin like Jaune. In the end, Roman was forced to leave the area, and Jaune gets arrested.

With that being said, I was unsure how to continue after Jaune got arrested, but I think I have something that can progress the story, with chapter thirteen or so being the chapter that we enter Volume Two of RWBY.

I'm planning on reintroducing Lucas, only for this chapter, and introducing two new OC's: one of which being Lucas' father and the other being a bit of surprise until the middle-to-end of the chapter.

Not only am I introducing a bunch of new OC's, but I am also using this chapter to try and expand more on the thoughts of Jaune being this assassin from both Teams (J)NPR and RWBY. A few months back, right after I uploaded the tenth chapter, I noticed that one of you guys found Weiss not forgiving Jaune for his past as an assassin being hypocritical; considering Weiss forgave Blake for her past in the White Fang.

I completely agree with you, which why I am trying to sort that out in this chapter.

Anyways, enough of my rambling, time to get this chapter started.

HERE WE GO!

Pyrrha's P.O.V. -

Oh Oum, Jaune...

Just what did you get yourself into this time?

As soon as Weiss and Blake reconciled for Blake's hidden heritage and background, Weiss suddenly treated Jaune as some sort of criminal! I mean - technically Jaune is a criminal - but that's not the point: Jaune is a good guy! It's completely hypocritical for Weiss to forgive Blake, but not forgive Jaune. Not only that, but Jaune just stands there, accepting the verbal abuse he was given! However, that's not the worst of it, because two police officers walked up to us, and accused Jaune of attempted murder!

...It would've been an accusation, if not for Jaune saying something that didn't help him completely at all.

And now, Jaune's friends and I could only watch as he's being hauled into the back of some police cruiser! I immediately turn towards Ren and Nora - the former restraining the latter from doing anything drastic, and told Ren,

"I'll call Professor Ozpin, maybe he could - "

"We can't. If we tell him, then we're basically telling him of Jaune's background. Maybe we can - "

"You're helping him?"

Both Ren and I turn towards Weiss, who had a look of disbelief on her face. Not only did I nod my head, but so did Nora and Ren, all of us signifying that we're serious about helping out Jaune.

Jaune...just wait a bit until we think of something.

Jaune's P.O.V. -

Well...shit.

Right when Weiss was in the middle of lashing out on me for being an assassin, these two maiali showed up, knowing about what I did to Lucas awhile back. Pyrrha was about to lie for me, but I wasn't going to let that happen - if word got out that Pyrrha Nikos was acquainted with someone like me? Well, that kind of info could run Pyrrha's name into the mud, and there was no way in Hell I was gonna let that happen to her; so I allowed myself to get arrested.

Anyways, here I am, handcuffed to the back of a police cruiser, the two cops just driving towards the precinct, both avoiding eye contact with me. I look down at my handcuffs, noticing that these things were doing something to my Aura. I'm not sure why, but it feels like my Aura is...weaker than before.

"Those cuffs have Aura-dampeners built into them."

I looked up at one of the cops who just described what these cuffs were capable of, so that was useful. But, these were still handcuffs, so if I dislocate one of my thumbs, I might be able to slide one of my hands out of them, but what to do afterward is what's stumping me -

The sound of a ringtone threw me out of my little train-of-thought as I returned my focus to the cops, one of which pulled out their Scroll and began to speak to whoever was calling them. I wasn't able to hear what was being said, but that's when I noticed that the driver took a turn that took us away from the precinct.

From that action alone, I immediately knew what was going on.

These were crooked cops.

I immediately dislocated my thumb and slid one of my hands out of the handcuffs, only for the cop in the passenger-seat shoot me with a taser, causing me to scream in pain from the sudden attack. As all that electricity ran through my body, I was starting to lose consciousness, but I managed to get a glimpse of the Caller-I.D.

Luther Marengo...

Thirty Minutes Later...

Driving up to a two-story building, the two cops that arrested Jaune parked in front of the building. One of them was holding the door open for the other to drag the unconscious blonde into the building. They both took a staircase that leads them into an office, which had a modicum of class when it came to the floors and furniture. Apart from the two cops and Jaune, there were other people in the office as well.

There were four guards, all dressed in black suits with red ties and black sunglasses, all carrying handguns in shoulder-holsters.

There was Lucas Marengo, who has dressed in business-casual; a gray suit with a white dress shirt underneath, which had a few buttons undone. When Jaune was done beating the shit out of him, Lucas' face was bruised, bleeding, and swollen. However, that was weeks ago, so most of his injuries were healed, though Lucas now sported minor scars on his face. As soon as he saw Jaune's unconscious body enter the room, and zip-tied onto the chair in front of him, he had a shit-eating grin as he thought of his payback.

"Don't even think about it, boy."

Lucas scowled as he looked at the last person in the office. This man was middle-aged, with black hair that had both sides shaved, and wore a gray suit similar to Lucas' suit, but it was pinstriped and had a dark-red tie as well. He sat behind an eloquent desk that allowed him to look at Jaune directly. This man looked at Lucas, and questioned him,

"This is the person who beat you into an inch of your life, son?"

"He may not look like much, but that's him, Dad."

Luther Marengo, the father of Lucas Marengo.

Luther snapped his fingers, and one of the guards walked up to Jaune's body, and pulled out smelling-salts, placing it right between his nostrils, and Jaune immediately woke up. As he did, he noticed the situation he was in and remained silent as he was looking at Luther. The older man introduced himself,

"My name is Luther Marengo. I believe you know my son, Lucas?"

"...Mierde."

Beacon Academy -

"...Jaune's a good guy, Weiss! I mean, didn't he stop Cardin from bullying Velvet?"

"True. But, one act of good - which is a small act, by the way - doesn't change all the bad he did! Which reminds me: How can you three hide this from us? I thought we were friends! And why would you hide this from us? Jaune's an assassin! He could've been a danger to you three!"

"Oh, you mean like the kind of danger you believed Blake was when you found out about her past!?"

"Blake didn't kill anyone, Nora, and don't try and compare her to Jaune, who also admitted that he assaulted some stranger before entering Beacon!"

Ever since Teams (J)NPR and RWBY returned to Beacon, immediately heading for Ozpin's office, both Weiss and Nora were at each other's throats. Weiss was still wondering why Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha would go to such lengths for someone like Jaune Arc. While he did possess good qualities, he was still an assassin: meaning that he has killed before. Weiss shuddered when she remembered the day Jaune drew his gun at Cardin, how Jaune was prepared to pull the trigger. Even though Cardin was a bully, it didn't mean that she wanted to see him dead.

Nora was starting to get mad at how Weiss was being mean to Jaune, who was nice to everyone - even her! So she looked Weiss dead in the eye, and growled,

"You know something, Weiss?"

"What, Nora?"

"I will never - EVER. - understand why Fearless Leader would be nice to you, considering you're such a cold-hearted - "

"ENOUGH!"

That was when Yang shouted at the two girls, her eyes were red as the two girls backed away from the blonde. The reason why Yang intervened all of a sudden was how all the constant arguments was upsetting Ruby, who was desperately trying to get everyone to get along with each other again. That was when the blonde sighed,

"Look...I'm not defending Jaune, but I honestly don't care that he's an assassin."

"Yang! You saw what he - "

"I know. But still...Jaune protected Ruby back during Initiation, remember? How can someone like that be bad?"

"Yeah!"

Ruby was also quick to agree with her sister. Ever since she met Jaune, she didn't see some cold, ruthless, killer as an assassin should be; rather she saw a nice, caring, guy who saved her life. Back at the trip to Forever Falls, Jaune had the chance to kill Cardin, but he didn't pull the trigger. That alone showed that there was hope for Jaune.

"Look...all I know is that Ozpin might be able to help us - "

"But in the process, we might have to tell him everything about Jaune..."

Before any of them could think any further, the elevator doors opened and they were soon face-to-face with both Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch. It was obvious that Goodwitch was still mad at what happened at the docks; but Ozpin raised his hand, signaling Glynda to not say anything yet. As they all slowly walked into his office, neither Teams RWBY nor (J)NPR had yet spoken to the Headmaster about what to do concerning Jaune and his background.

That was when Weiss managed to speak,

"S-Sir, we have something to tell you."

"I take it has something to do with Mr. Arc, considering that he's not with you currently?"

"Yes...a few days ago, we learned that Jaune was formerly an...he was an assassin, Professor Ozpin."

As she got the truth out, Weiss immediately closed her eyes and waited for the Headmaster's reaction to it. She wasn't the only one though, for everyone else had waited for what Ozpin was going to do now. However, the Headmaster had the same look on his face, and looked at the young heiress, as if she had something else to say. Seeing as that was not the case, Ozpin simply sighed,

"It appears that Mr. Arc had finally told you of his origins..."

"Wait, you knew?"

"Of course I knew. Otherwise, I'd be doing a poor job as Headmaster. In fact, I was the one who insisted that he should join Beacon."

Pyrrha released a breath she didn't know that she was holding onto, relieved that Ozpin wasn't going to have Jaune arrested or expelled. It was the same for Ren and Nora, though the three members of Jaune's team were surprised to hear that the headmaster of Beacon allowed someone like Jaune to enroll. It wasn't just them, because Team RWBY looked at Ozpin with shock as well, wondering why he would go to such lengths for Jaune, though Weiss was more vocal about it.

"W-why would you allow someone like Jaune into Beacon!?"

"Why would I allow someone like Ms. Belladonna into Beacon, considering that she lied about her heritage AND her background?"

Blake's eyes widened as she realized that the headmaster knew who - and what - she truly was, but that shock turned into confusion as she did wonder why he would allow her into Beacon, knowing all of that information. That was when the headmaster explained his actions,

"Ms. Belladonna has proven that she is not like the others in the White Fang, how Mr. Arc is not like other assassins I came across in my time. Not only that, but both Ms. Belladonna and Mr. Arc had the opportunity to kill anyone of you, yet they didn't go through with it. Instead, they both use their talents to do some good...despite how they went about when doing said 'good'. My point is is that just like Ms. Belladonna, Mr. Arc is trying to forget his past. So can you try to forget about his past as well?"

The ones who immediately nodded their heads were Ruby and Nora, neither caring of Jaune's past. Ren, Pyrrha, and surprisingly Blake, were the next to accept what the headmaster was saying, all three with obvious reasons to let the past stay in the past. Yang was the second-to-last to agree with the group, for even though she was mad that Jaune lied about the whole 'assassin' thing, she knew that Jaune wasn't a complete bad guy, but she was still gonna punch him as soon as he returns.

Then there was Weiss, who apparently became the center-of-attention to everyone in the room. Weiss...she had no idea whether or not if she could truly trust Jaune, especially knowing of what he is capable of and how he nearly tried to kill her after Blake's secret was out. But then again, everything that happened was because of her biased views towards the White Fang and the Faunus.

She was nothing like her father!

...Right?

Then, she remembered how much of a bitch she was to Jaune right after forgiving Blake for her past. Not only was it hypocritical of her, Jaune just stood in front of her and didn't even get mad at her once during her entire verbal-lashing towards him.

But that was when she remembered the words Jaune told her a few hours ago.

"...I won't let my past decide who I am, Weiss, you of all people should know that more than others!"

Weiss...

...she nodded her head, and whispered,

"I can't trust him like before...but, I'll be willing to forgive him."

Just like that, both Ruby and Nora got Weiss into a massive hug, shouting how both Teams RWBY and JNPR were reunited. While Weiss was shouting for the two to let go of her, she was also relieved that they were now able to get past tonight's events.

Seeing that he had to bust Jaune out, Ozpin pulled out his Scroll and called the police department,

"Hello, this is Professor Ozpin...yes, I am here to bail out a student of mine...Jaune Arc... What? Are you sure?... Can you track them at least?... Thank you..."

At the end of that very concerning conversation, Ozpin hung up and looked at the two teams, who also noticed the shift in the headmaster's conversation with the police. He took several moments to regain himself, and told them,

"Mr. Arc didn't make it to the precinct."

Jaune's P.O.V. -

"...Mierde."

Oh fucking Hell, I knew that I had to eventually deal with Lucas, but I didn't expect his old man to be involved! Then again, after what I did to his club 'Revelation', I shouldn't be surprised that the owner would want a piece of me as well.

After Sylvia left Lucas with me that night, I heard that she began to spill the beans on all the illegal shit that goes down in 'Revelation' to Junior, who in turn 'anomalously' told the police. Within a couple of days 'Revelation' was busted by a lot of cops. Most of the guys that worked at that club got arrested, but both Lucas and Luther were lucky enough to have lawyers to defend themselves before any of the heat were on them during the raid.

Speaking of which, 'Revelation' was basically a front to all of the Marengo's illegal operations.

Arms Dealing.

Drug trafficking.

A fucking Faunus-Slavery ring!?

After all that shit they found in 'Revelation', how in the Hell did neither Lucas or Luther got busted for that shit? I mean, it was in their basement for fuck's sake! But once again, it is a fucked up lesson I learned back when I was an assassin: 'Those with money can do whatever the fuck they want when they want'.

Luther snapped his fingers and all of his goons left the room, leaving me with both him and Lucas. Luther asked,

"Do you have any idea what you have done?"

"I have several theories, though something tells me that making Lucas my bitch isn't your biggest concern."

I turned to Lucas, a massive shit-eating grin was on my face, and Lucas was about to lunge at me, if not for his father stopping me. Lucas looked like he was about to argue with his old man, but one look from Luther was enough to have Lucas stand down. He continued,

"You're right. My son's injuries didn't concern me at all. What did concern me was how my club was shut down in a matter of days. Thanks to you, I lost my men, my operations, my money, but worst of all...I lost my reputation thanks to you. "

Reputation.

I can understand why he values reputation above all else. When it comes to money, men, and any other shit being lost: you can regain all of that, Hell, you could even gain more than what you lost. But reputation is something that can never be redeemed. People will lose faith in you once that happens, people will see you as weak, people will think that you're easy-pickings for them.

"I spent what little resources I had left to hunt you down. And now that you're here: I'll watch you die a slow, painful, death."

"...Seems a little cliche, don't you think?"

"Lucas, you can have your fun now."

That was when Lucas then threw a right hook at me, the hit made my fedora fall of my head as I suddenly felt like I was seeing double. I just remembered that during the ride here I was wearing handcuffs that were messing with my Aura, so basically I wasn't able to recover from that. Then Lucas threw another punch, this time I got hit in the stomach, making me nearly puke out what little food that was in my stomach. Then a third punch was delivered.

And a fourth, fifth, sixth...

...I stopped counting as soon as I spat out blood.

Anyways, as I was suffering from possible head trauma, Lucas removed both my Colt 1911's, my S&W .38 and my dagger, placing all visible weapons on the table in front of Luther. Speaking of which, the old bastard grabbed one of my Colt's and examined it.

It looked like he was gonna keep them.

Like Hell, I was gonna let that fuck keep my guns.

Lucas was about to resume beating the shit out of me, he stopped and looked back at the table. Specifically, he was looking at my dagger, and I could tell he found his payback. He grabbed the dagger and brought the blade towards one of my eyes. From the sadistic grin on his face, it looked like he was going to have too much fun with this.

He told me,

"After I'm done with you, fucker, I'm gonna take your car. And then, I'm gonna take back my bitches, and I am going to fuck their brains out in your car."

That got a reaction out of me as I suddenly thrashed about, snarling like a madman. As an assassin, I knew that someday, some bastard was gonna do me in, and I was alright with that. But, if some fucking, inbred, piece-of-shit was gonna hurt the people I care about, then like Hell I was gonna die without a fight.

Lucas was about to stab the blade into my eye, but that was when the sound of gunfire was heard from outside.

Luther immediately pulled out his Scroll, calling any of his men to report in, but to no avail. As the gunshots got closer to the office, Lucas immediately went behind the table with his father and grabbed the other Colt, aiming it at the door. I managed to turn my head a bit, trying to see what the Hell was going on, and that was when I heard one of the cops that abducted me scream in pain. He was begging whoever was out there to stop, but that was when I heard the sounds of bones breaking and more screaming.

Afterward, three gunshots came behind the door and three bullet holes formed on the door, with blood trailing down each hole.

The door slowly opened, and both Lucas and Luther was about to pull the trigger at whoever attacked them, only to slightly lower my guns as soon as they saw the person. When I saw the person, I felt my eyes - well, my one eye, the other was swollen shut - widen in shock as to who it was.

The person was a Chinese female, who seemed about my age, with jet-black hair that was done in a small, sideways ponytail and sharp, brown eyes that were behind black-rimmed glasses. Even though she was small, like a head shorter than myself, she had some impressive curves on her. What she wore was a black, long-sleeved shirt that had both the sleeves slightly rolled up to her forearms and black, leather gloves were on both of her hands. On her lower-body, she wore dark-blue jean shorts that were above black leggings, as well as black boots, and a holster was on her right hip.

In her right hand was a Sig Sauer P227 handgun, with a nickel-plated slide, a skeletonized hammer, a mounted flashlight, a reflex sight, and an Osprey suppressor. In her left hand was a simple combat knife, but the blade appeared to be covered in blood.

Both Lucas and Luther were still shocked that someone my age just killed their men, and I looked at the girl, who seemed happy to see me. That was when I managed to mutter,

"L-Lily...?"

Pyrrha's P.O.V. -

We immediately looked at the building that was in front of us, as well as the bodies that seemed to surround it. I turned towards to Ren and Nora, both looked a little uneasy around the corpses, and hoped that this wasn't Jaune's doing.

Professor Ozpin told us that apparently, the two officers that arrested Jaune were working for this person named Luther, who happened to be the father of this 'Lucas'. As it turns out, Luther was the owner of some club which got shut down for all the illegal activities that operated there. It was obvious that this Luther was going to get his revenge on Jaune, so we had the police track the car that Jaune was in, which led us to whatever crime scene we just entered.

Even though Jaune had the right to do so in self-defense, it was still unnerving to see how these men died.

The police were the first to enter the building, then it was me and the others that quickly followed them up the stairs, and into the office, where most of the officers stopped and looked at each other in confusion and concern.

I managed to get past them, and I too stopped at what I saw.

Behind a table were two people, an adult male and an adolescent male - Luther and Lucas Marengo - who looked like they had a close encounter with Death. I mean, Lucas was clutching his right hand with his left, and it was due to how three of his fingers were cut off. Luther was barely conscious, considering that his nose was bent at a very disturbing angle, blood was splattered all over his face as he was muttering something that I wasn't able to understand.

That's when I noticed Jaune in the middle of the room.

Jaune's face was somewhat swollen, and there was a small trail of blood escaping from his mouth. I was about to come to his aid when I noticed that someone was already beside Jaune, tending to his injuries. At first, I thought it was one of the officers that helped us track Jaune, but it wasn't. Jaune's head was resting against the lap of a girl my age, yet she somewhat reminded me of Ren, as the girl was carefully wiping away the blood of Jaune's face with a handkerchief.

Before I could even speak, Jaune looked at me, and - Oh my Oum. - managed to smile, despite how bloody his teeth were.

"Hey, Pyrrha..."

"J-Jaune...what happened to you?"

As Jaune was about to speak, the girl that was aiding Jaune spoke, a small accent was heard in her voice,

"Jaune here got the shit knocked out of him."

"Shut...up...Lily."

Jaune then realized something and introduced the girl to us.

"Guys...meet Lily Zhao."

"Sup."

AN: And that was the eleventh chapter of this story. Tell me what you guys thought about this chapter in the reviews.

Anyways, you might be wondering just who is Lily Zhao?

Well, as you all know, she is an OC that Jaune is apparently well acquainted with. Not only that, but she is - you may have guessed it - an assassin just like Jaune. Now, do not lecture me about this turn of events, because I decided a long time ago that I was gonna add a character from Jaune's past as "The Paladin".

Also, before you ask why I made Lily the same age as Jaune, just know that I somewhat based the criminal-underworld off of John Wick films. I don't know why, but I liked the idea of how assassins seem to be more civilized than expected. Not only that but remember how Jaune was trained by his grandfather at a very young age, and that he became an assassin when he was a kid? I wasn't sure if I added it, but no one questioned why someone so young was an assassin.

Then again, Jaune did become like the "John Wick" of this story, so no one would really question him about being an assassin.

So basically, Jaune isn't going to be the only assassin that is much younger than other assassins. After all, you all know Mercury Black is an assassin, so do not judge me about this decision because if Rooster-Teeth did it first, why can't I?

However, Lily wasn't the only young assassin to have apparently entered Remnant.

The next chapter will reveal a small bit of Lily's background, from how she became an assassin to how she became friends with Jaune, and most importantly: how she entered Remnant. Also, note that in the next chapter I will also give you guys a sneak peek of the next OC that I will add to this story.

Anyways, I got to work on the rest of my stories.

See ya later!