Ch 7

Arrival

Jaune

Faint white light streamed through the window, illuminating a small cabin in disarray. The bed across from him had been torn up. Sheets and blankets yanked and tossed aside randomly, a large wet spot roughly in the middle.

This brought his attention to the very, very warm creature that was currently clinging to his chest like a barnacle. He leaned down slightly and caught a whiff of… lavender?

Eventually he felt her begin to stir. He was still groggy, so he went with the first thing he could think of.

"Morning Vernal. You smell nice." He felt her suddenly freeze, then he felt her cheek warm up through the thin fabric of his shirt.

The worst part is that had probably been one of his smoother openings.

"Yang let me borrow her conditioner last night." Ah, that made sense then. He reached a hand down.

"She does have a good taste in those, doesn't she." He ran his fingers through her hair. It's texture was noticeably smoother than before. He felt the tension leave her like a deflating balloon.

That reminded him of something.

"Vernal, while we're here. While the subject's fresh. I'd like to talk to you about something else."

"What?" She asked softly.

"Vernal. I really am sorry. It's not going to happen again." She pressed into him further, forehead practically embedding itself into his pectoral.

"It'd better not" She huffed out. There was no actual venom there. I know.

"But while we're talking about apologies, I think you owe Yang one." She tensed.

"Yang got her pound of flesh. I think we're square."

"No, she got to hit you. Would you have felt better if you'd hit me?" She was quiet for a minute.

"A little."

"You haven't done a whole lot of apologies, have you?"

"No need. The strong do what they can, the weak do what they must. Don't like it, don't get your ass kicked."

"Vernal. I'm being serious."

"So am I. I owned her. I could do what I wanted." This wasn't working, he put a little steel into his voice.

"Now I own you Vernal. As you feel so inclined to remind me, and I think what you did to Yang was stupid, and petty. Moreover, I think you know that too. Don't you." She remained silent. He softened again.

"Why'd you do it? Any of it?"

"It was fun."

"Maybe that's what you told yourself, are you really going to keep that up now though?" He tugged on her collar.

"You really wanna know?"

"I'd like to understand, can you help me out here?"

"I wanted to, she deserved it…" She trailed off, gathering herself before forcing herself onward.

"She just up and strolled into camp one day and started throwing her weight around. She was actually Raven's daughter, and she just… spit in the Tribe's face. Then she ignored me." Ah.

He knew this song and dance. Seven sisters, and at least three of them had handled their first crushes the same way. He pulled Vernal away from his chest. She did her best to cling to him, she ended up with her fingers wound behind his back. Sitting on his lap.

"Vernal. Are you really going to tell me that you enslaved Yang and bullied her for nearly six months over a crush?" She refused to meet his gaze. He opted to continue.

"Vernal. What happened when somebody in the Tribe admitted they were wrong?"

"They don't, that's a sign of weakness." Well, that sounded healthy.

"Okay... but what did you think of me when I apologized to you?" He could see her make the connection.

"That's different?"

"Why? Hell, Vernal, I had less reason to apologize than you do. I did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. It wasn't enough for me to be sorry. I had to let you know."

Vernal chuckled at the reminder of his "apology". He continued anyway.

"I'm not saying you need to go that far. I am saying that you need to find the strength to make it clear you know what you did was wrong. She probably wants to hear it too." Vernal didn't speak at all.

She bunched his shirt in her hands a few times. Then she let go.

"Damn. You're gonna make me do this, aren't you?" Jaune nodded.

"It's for the best Vernal. Yang's a good friend. I've learned not to let these things fester."

She was still reluctant, almost petulant really. She knew he was right, but she needed a safe path to retreat, to convince herself she'd come out ahead.

Part of him was frustrated by this, but to be honest, it wasn't his problem to be frustrated over. Frankly Yang seemed to be doing just fine, however; he knew both from Ruby and personal experience that she was beyond merely adept at painting on a smile.

She'd helped him with his problems, or at least tried. He could do his damnedest to swing this for her.

He had an idea.

"How about another deal?"

"What?"

"A deal. Like in the tent." She perked an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side.

"I wont force you to do this. That defeats the purpose. I will though, offer an incentive."

"What is that?"

"One night, whatever you want."

"I could get some pretty embarrassing things out of that you know. You'd look good in a collar." He pulled her into his chest, rolling back onto the bed and on top of her.

She gulped audibly and blushed scarlet.

"Perhaps… I don't think you will, especially when there are other... things on the table." She refused to meet his eyes again. His new pitch was working.

"You told me a lot of things about yourself the other day. Yang told me about your old magazines too. Frankly, I don't mind at all. Keep it safe, play ball, and I can make it happen."

"You serious?"

"Deadly."

"Deal."

Well. In hindsight, that had been a little intense.

"We didn't start this morning off right, wanna try again?"

"What do ya mean?"

In an instant they were vertical again. She was seated on his lap again. Her blush turned into a fluster. She growled out a question.

"What are you playing at Ja-"

He kissed her.

"Morning Vernal, how'd you sleep?" She sputtered, blinked in bewilderment, then responded.

"Why do I even bother?"

"If you recall, I stuck my sword in you once. You haven't left me since." She made a show of rolling her eyes, but a smile returned to her face anyway.

"Twice now. Neither one hit the core. Third time's the charm?" He shook his head.

"Not until we get some protection, or until you apologize."

She harrumphed. Then stepped off of him.

"I am serious about that, if you can't name it, just look it up on your scroll." She shook her head.

"Don't have one, remember?" Oh yeah. That.

"That's still surreal to me. Everybody has a scroll. My little sisters have them and they can't even drive yet."

"Why would I need one? I lived out in the middle of nowhere, and nobody who lives in Mistral trusts electronic locks." He guessed that made sense, but it was still a bizarre thing to wrap his head around. Again everybody had a scroll, even if they couldn't get a signal.

"What about all of the other functions? What about the calculator? The measurements? Aura readings?" She shrugged.

"What about them? Best to keep track of aura by feel, it's a distraction otherwise. Have you ever used your scroll in any serious fight?" Fair enough. That didn't mean this was going to stand though.

"Soon as we throw our bags down at Saphron's we're going shopping for one." She made to interrupt, he shot her down.

"It's important to stay in touch with one-another. You staying alive is more important to me than you staying undetected." She let out a huff, but acceded. They'd technically discussed this last night, but he felt it was important to stay consistent on this point.

There was a brief pause as she turned over and leapt up onto her bed to collect her ruck from the luggage rack.

"You looking forward to introducing me to your sister Jauney-boy?"

Oh shit.

Jaune sat bolt upright, startling Vernal and causing her to slip on the loose sheets, her ruck landed atop her.

"Hey! What gives?" He shook his head.

"I need to call Saphron." He pulled out his scroll.

"You're telling me you didn't already call her! There's four of us Jaune, and- "She did a quick count in her head. "-nine of us when the rest get here, and you waited until now?" He stared at her.

"Vernal, the CCT towers at Mistral were damaged in the fight, and had probably been tapped by Spider anyway, even if they had been repaired in time for us to leave. We needed to get as close to Argus as possible."

"You really think your sister can fit us on such short notice?" He nodded.

"She has an awfully big house, her wife has a job working the CCT relay there. It's a pretty cushy job. They live very, very well for city-goers." Vernal's expression hardened.

"Must be nice."

"They are. Saph's going to love you." He wasn't entirely certain about that, but Vernal looked kind of like Terra in some ways, so she had a chance.

He pulled out his scroll and opened his contacts. Vernal opened the door.

"I'm going to go talk shop with Yang and the Hag, let your sister savage you in peace." She left the room so quickly he was surprised there wasn't a dust cloud in her wake.

How considerate.

He hit the contact, which highlighted blue and began to dial. It was answered on the second.

"Jaune! Where are you! The whole family's been looking for you since Vale collapsed. Dad's either worried or furious and I have no idea what Mom will do to you when she finds out you're alright. You are alright aren't you?" He nodded.

"I'm okay Saph. Me and a bunch of other students linked up with a teacher. We're on a mission, have been since the Fall. I wanted to talk to you in Mistral but there was a fight and the CCT-"

"That was you! Terra's been losing her mind trying to handle the fallout from that!"

"I'm sorry Saph, we tried to save it, we did. It was just too much." She sighed, running a hand down the side of her face. She spoke again.

"I'm just glad you're safe, but I take it that you aren't calling just to catch up. You said you were in Mistral earlier. With their CCT down you must be getting close to Argus. Just how many guests should I tell Terra to expect?"

Saphron had always been perceptive like that. It had made growing up under her rule a terror, but in all honesty had kept a lot of the Arc children out of the hospital or jail.

"Four of us. The rest of the party got separated when the train got attacked. Nobody was hurt" nobody he cared about anyway "-but the other five are going to have to walk the rest of the way. It's going to be awhile too." Saphron just nodded.

"We can make that work. It'll be cozy, but we can manage. You mind sharing a room?"

"Not at all."

"Then when can we expect you?"

"The train's supposed to hit Argus around eleven, so pretty soon now. We'll take public transport, I know your address."

"Okay Jaune. Love you."

"Love you too, see you soon."

He'd always been awful with scroll-calls. He much preferred in-person meetings, but his sister may have actually just killed him if he had shown up to her house with three strangers. She still may have just been biding her time to do so.

Fortunately the vacuum Papa Arc had raised them in regarding Hunter Culture meant that she didn't even know how ad-hoc the current situation was, or know what questions she should be asking.

Still was going to make introducing Vernal awkward. He was probably going to go with either 'friend' or 'girlfriend' rather than 'concubine'. Mostly because he still wasn't really big on the whole slavery thing, no matter how sexy Vernal proclaiming he owned her was.

She could call it what she wanted. Frankly she seemed to have enjoyed herself either way, least that's what the mess on her mattress told him.

Which brought him back to last night, and technically the night before.

Apparently he was killing people now.

This had always kind of been an abstract problem, but now he'd nearly killed two people, likely crippling one of them. It hadn't been easy, in fact it kind of sucked.

On the other hand Vernal was right, these were serious fights with serious consequences for losing.

Every ounce of aura spent on some dancer in a catsuit or random mobster was aura not spent keeping his friends alive. There was never going to be an opportunity to pull back his hand from the final blow, he'd gotten lucky so far.

It wouldn't last, there was a war on. They were losing, badly. He was going to sort himself the fuck out or he was going to get people close to him killed.

Again.

He tried to summon within him the feeling that had flowed through him as he had struck those final blows. How else could he force himself to do it again whenever the time came? Upon analysis, the answer came to him.

It was not some abstract anger at what they did to the people of their cities. They had wanted to hurt his friends, that had been enough. A potent cocktail of fear and rage, so simple in hindsight.

Looking back, it was more than enough.

He strapped his scabbard to his belt once more, pulling out and examining the blade within to make sure the mechanism still worked. Jaune grabbed-up his armor and slipped the chestplate over his head, before tightening down the straps.

He gave them each a final pair of tugs before he turned around and opened the door into the hallway. Jaune looked both ways before he stepped out and over to Yang's room. He knocked. Yang answered him.

"Come innnn!" Jaune obliged.

Yang was still in her increasingly iconic tank-top. Glynda was sitting on the bunk across from her, her hair down. She was mid tea-sip.

Vernal was sitting against the wall in bed next to Yang. A cup of tea was steaming in her hand. She ran her ring finger down the white enamel in a circuit.

She had her legs stretched out over the no-mans land just at the foot of the mattress. After exchanging greetings, Vernal moved aside to give him a place to sit. He did so, then decided to let everybody know the situation.

"I just got off the phone with Saph, she can swing all four of us for awhile. She seemed less confident about nine but I think at that point either we'll have found a way to Atlas or gone to somewhere we can make one."

Glynda nodded politely before she spoke.

"That's good to hear. I must admit I had concerns about imposing ourselves upon your family. I'm glad to see they were mistaken." Jaune smiled before continuing.

"Yeah, my sister and her wife are like that. They'd never leave any of us in a lurch if they could help it."

Yang spoke up next.

"Have you thought how you're going to explain Vernal to her?" Jaune gave a look to the girl in question, who was gazing very intently into her tea. He opted to speak in her defense.

"Do you really still think she needs the collar?" Yang stopped for a moment. He couldn't figure out what exactly she was thinking. She sighed.

"I think I'd be a lot more comfortable taking her out with civilians with the collar on. She should keep it" Jaune grumbled slightly at this, but nodded anyway.

"You've known her longest. That said we are going to have to take it off sometime." He turned to Glynda, who had placed her teacup in it's saucer. It was her turn to talk.

"If you really do worry about appearances, it is not unheard of for those with powerful semblances to wear these collars. Simply say she wears it to help control her semblance, it should do nicely. After all-" Glynda gave a death-glare to Vernal. "-we would not wish for a repeat of the incident with the customs inspector." Vernal said nothing, but she gave a familiar blush and took a long sip of tea.

For all her usual intimidation, Glynda's plan would probably work. Saphron and Terra would probably… not be super excited to let even a former bandit into their home. This was probably the smart way forward, if a little deceptive.

He left for the dining car, Yang stepped off with him. She shrugged on her jacket as she walked.

"Vernal told us you hated train-food."

"I do, but I'd like some coffee."

"Oh I bet you would, lover-boy." He turned his head, her signature grin had returned. He couldn't help a sigh.

"How much did you hear?"

"More than enough, Vernal's got some lungs on her."

"Is it going to be a problem?"

"Nah, I can share."

"She gets veto on this too."

"We talked last night, she says its cool."

Jaune stopped still. Then shook his head.

"The hair-products. I should have guessed that you'd get her to talk." Yang's smile widened while she stretched her arms behind her back. She gave a smug nod.

"Yeah, I can read that girl like an open book."

"Yet you're keeping her collar on." Yang's smile faltered.

"Yes. The collar stays on for awhile." This was delivered in an unusually level tone.

"Why? Is there a reason you don't trust her?" Jaune probed.

They came to the door of the dining car. Yang turned to him as she placed a hand on the push-bar.

"Can we talk about this later? Maybe after the next time we spar?" She wiggled her eyebrows. The intent was clear. She didn't want to talk about this in public, her distraction had a… mixed effect.

She was still looking to keep their arrangement going. It was probably time to make something clear to her.

"Yeah it can wait. I am serious about what I said earlier though. Vernal can say no to the 'sparring' anytime." Yang shrugged, and then it was time for coffee.

Jaune was no expert, but he guessed that if your coffee tasted more like acid mixed with motor oil, and left a black sludge in the bottom of the cup, it was not excellent. He chugged it down anyway though. He and Yang finished at the same time. Yang thumped her chest and belched loudly. She gave a conspiratorial grin.

It really was hard to stay frustrated with her.

He returned to his room while Yang went to grab some food.

Vernal was waiting for him on the bed. She offered to share a bag of beef jerky. He used the opportunity to wrap an arm around her while they ate. She leaned into his shoulder.

It was nice.

A couple hours later the Argus Limited pulled into the station. They were greeted by Atlesian soldiers, who swarmed the train and it's passengers as soon as the doors opened.

Jaune's hand was on his sword, Vernal did likewise, but the pair of soldiers assigned to their car took a look at them and then one-another. The men turned back.

"Is anybody in this car in need of medical aid." The other man pulled out a first aid kit and shook it invitingly. Glynda responded.

"No, gentlemen, we're all fine. Please feel free to examine the other passengers." The men looked at one-another again.

"Ma'am, we have also been instructed to search the train for suspicious persons. May I see some identification?"

Glynda's smile was polite, but the look in her eyes was murderous.

"Of course." They all withdrew their ID's.

One checked Glynda's and Yang's. The other man checked Jaune's, then moved onto Vernal.

He paused.

"This is new, isn't it ma'am?"

"Yeah, what of it?" The soldier kept scanning, then stopped suddenly.

"Never mind-sorry for the inconvenience. Congratulations, by the way." Vernal looked at the soldier funny, but he did an about-face and joined his partner on the way out of the door. Vernal grumbled.

"Fuckin 'boots"

Jaune couldn't bring himself to disagree with her.

Jaune guided them out of the train station and to the cable-car station. They used the head start provided by the soldiers shaking down the civilians and their long legs to beat the crowd. Less than fifteen minutes later they secured some cable car passes and one pulled onto the turn-table.

Yang perked an eyebrow.

"Can't help but notice there's no cables on these cable-cars Vomit-boy." Yeah, that had confused him too.

"There used to be, then they switched to hover-carts. The locals threw a fit when they tried to re-brand. You can see they kept the channels in the street." He pointed to them. At first glance they could be confused for gutters, but they were in the middle of both lanes of traffic." Vernal shook her head.

"That's dumb." He thought about pointing out the fact she was still hung-up on this concubine business, then held his tongue.

Let her have her little hypocrisy. Not like he was one to talk.

They came to a stop just outside the front gate of Saphron's neighborhood. He awaited Yang's commentary, Jaune didn't have to wait long at all.

"Wow Vomit-boy's gone and got us some Luxury Accommodations." She nudged Vernal. Frankly Jaune was just surprised Yang of all people spouted off the word 'accommodations' so casually. She really was putting on a front.

He sent a text to Saphron, who sent back a code to the foot-entrance. He wandered over to the foot-gate and opened it, holding it open for the rest of the party. Yang let out a giggle and shook her head slowly as she passed by.

They finally got to Saphron's house, he knocked on the door.

His sister answered almost immediately.

"Jaune!" She practically leapt at him. The hug wasn't crushing only because of his aura. He added this to his mental list of times he would have died without it.

She broke off a full ten seconds later.

"It's good to see you Saph, how's Adrian."

She deflated slightly.

"He's a demon, I swear. I've been up since four." She turned to the group at large. She smiled teasingly.

"You going to introduce me to your friends?" He ran his hand though his hair and chuckled.

"Saphron, meet my teammates. There's Glynda, Yang, and Vernal." Technically an improvised team, he hadn't lied to her. Saphron gave an odd look to Vernal.

"Why's she wearing a collar?" Jaune and Glynda spoke in concert.

"She wears it because… "

"It's for her…"

They looked at one-another, before he decided to take the initiative. Only fair, considering that Vernal was technically his problem.

"It's for her semblance." Saph nodded.

"Okayyy then."

She stepped into the doorway and waved them in.

Mercury

They had not had to walk back to Mistral. This was for the best, as the super-glue holding his legs together had failed after about six miles of his and Mel's combined weight. He had walked the rest of the way to the airship that Mil apparently had on call on his stumps. They were technically capped with metal, but it still meant that Mel had to ride on Mil's shoulders instead of his, which did not make him any more popular with a person whose emotional anchor was currently at risk of bleeding to death while clutched to her back.

Luckily they didn't feel the need to talk. He couldn't have thought of anything to say anyway.

They reached the airship, and a man in a red tricorner beckoned them in without a word. Mel and Mil had bragged that Spider owned every ship on water or land that entered Mistral proper. This information had been delivered as they dumped the bodies of some dockworkers who had wanted their union to be a little more than a front for organized crime. Mel had described their ownership of the airship network with a disturbingly satisfied tone. The last corpse-filled crabtrap had splashed into the water not long after that, then they'd turned back to port.

The pilot himself said nothing to them, not all of the Airmen who served did so out of loyalty or bribery. They still did what they were told, and the man let Mil borrow his radio for a message to Li'll Miss.

They were met at the landing pad by mercenaries and a pair of empty wheelchairs. Their airship pilot hadn't even tried to conceal his laughter before he pulled away. Mercury followed them without a word. Those mercs looked the wrong kind of happy.

He was taken to Little Miss's tavern, then he was taken through a door in the back room under the tavern. Mercury felt his life-expectancy shorten. Little Miss was waiting for them at her typical round table, she pointed and he was taken into a side room while she spoke to her still-conscious daughter. The other one had been wheeled away to places unknown. It was probably a lot more pleasant than where he was going.

His eyes did their best to bore a hole into the stone wall. No luck.

Roughly ten minutes later a pair of purple-clad mercenaries entered the room and collected him for what was likely to be a very short meeting with Little Miss. He forced himself to relax.

He was rolled right up to the table, Little Miss wasn't even using her fan. She said nothing, simply relaxing in her seat. When she pulled out a nail-file he opted to speak.

"I guess you want to know more about Salem?"

"That her name? Queen o' the Grimm?"

"Yeah, uh. I mean yes. Yes that's her name." He tried to ignore the feeling of sweat dripping down his back, it was technically a little cool in the basement. Somehow the humidity was still stifling.

Li'll Miss remained unmoved, filing her fingernails with the same casual disinterest as before.

"Don' really need to hear much from you. I already heard all I need to from Mil there." He gave a glance to the girl, who was standing near-perfectly rigid behind him. She didn't return his glance. He heard Li'll Miss set down her file on a saucer and turned to face her.

"I will admit that when I learned that one of my daughters had been near-killed while our… partner, tried to carry out her li'll vendetta I was most unhappy." She pulled out her fan and began to flap it. Mercury took the hint and held his tongue.

"Then here I learned that you had personally pulled the plug on your half of the mission. I jus' got off the horn with dear Cinder. She is not pleased." Mercury wasn't so much holding as biting his tongue now.

"Your… decision has cut off a major source of cash for us, although you saved my daughter's life, you have put our entire organization in jeopardy. Also… I will note that outside agents do not get to determine when a Spider mission ends-" The thugs that surrounded the table were all grinning now. Mercury felt Miltia step up behind him. The woman before him was clutching her fan hard enough to crease the paper.

"-Spider agents do, and you are not one of those Mr. Black." So she was going to make Miltia do it then? That was an ironic touch, he had to admit.

"Little rude having your daughter kill me don't you think? I'm figuratively unarmed and literally un-legged. Couldn't you let one of your goons handle it?" Li'll Miss let out a harsh laugh from behind her fan.

"Kill you?" She threw out a dry chuckle.

"Mercury I'm hiring you. Of course if you refuse I could always…"

His mouth moved before his brain could stop it.

"What! I just let one of your daughters get crippled! Why are you hiring me instead of skinning me alive?"

The woman's chuckling was getting annoying.

"Mercury sweetie, do you know what I value? More than anything else in the whole wide world?" Her tone had taken on the sickly-sweet tone usually reserved for children, her drawl did not help matters. Whenever Cinder did this it usually meant somebody was about to become a charcoal briquette. Mercury tried to keep the conversation rolling.

"Money?"

Li'll Miss laughed again.

It was a low, slow chuckle. It was disconcertingly similar to the ones Mel gave him in bed. A thought he would take to his grave.

The woman seemed to relish the idea of money almost as much as his discomfort.

"Close. I do like money, but what I prize even more than money… is loyalty. Personal. Loyalty. I don' want to have to constantly look behind me, waiting for a knife to appear. I've lived that life and had the sort of relationship before. That's why the Twin's no longer have a father."

"I ran away from my first boss at the first opportunity."

"You ran away from your 'boss', one of the most dangerous women on Remnant, the moment one of my daughters got hurt. I'd say that's loyal 'nough." She picked up a cup of tea from it's saucer. He used the opportunity to speak again.

"To Melanie and Miltia. That doesn't prove I'm loyal to you though." Miss Malachite almost spit out her drink.

"Did Miltiades tell you that was her name?" She turned to her daughter. "Dear what have I told you about that nickname." Said daughter half spat and half whispered a reply.

"Mom, not now."

Li'll Miss just smiled and turned back to Mercury. "You'll find loyalty to my daughters is just loyalty to me with extra steps. Well, there's the benefits too…" Mil sputtered again.

"Mooooooom." Miss Malachite's smile went nowhere.

"Oh hush dear, I know what you kids get up to. Now go and get your boyfriend joined up proper. His lumps, some spider-ink somewhere you and your sister won't mind seeing it… you know how this song and dance goes." Mercury tried to ignore the snicker that emanated from the girl behind him at these words.

"When you're done get him to the Broken Memory. He'll be needin' new legs."

Mercury felt Mil grab his wheelchair's handles. He was yanked out of the room and into the hallway. They rolled some distance in complete silence. He chose to break it.

"So… Miltiades… eh?" She just pushed the cart faster. Her footfalls echoing harshly on the wooden floor.

"We gonna skip the lumps?"Mercury chuckled, there was a snort from behind him.

"What do you think, Mr 'Queen of the Grimm'? " Mil passed, and then opened a door to a bare room, free of furniture and lit only by a single light bulb hanging on a string. She pushed him in, then dumped him out onto the floorboards.

He'd had worse beatings, that didn't mean he enjoyed this one.