Yo.

I'm posting this chapter a few days early as a sort of apology. Because...

So, bad news, my computer broke. I am sending it in for repairs, but in the meantime, I have no way of writing this story. So, for the time being, Cinderella and Paved will be taking a few weeks off. Not terribly long, but I felt you'd rather know than not.

Start Chapter 13

"Jaune Arc," An Atlesian officer speaks, his voice loud and booming, making Jaune's own leg bop up and down over and over and over again as his nerves play fits. "You stand accused of freeing Cinder Fall, of abetting a terrorist, and a murderer. How do you plead?

"He pleads not guilty." His 'lawyer', aka Qrow, says from beside him, putting both his feet up on the table in a mockery of the few officers and guards with them in the room."Security cameras were down, and the guard that was knocked out didn't see anyone. Something like that probably falls to one of her little followers. Simply put, I fail to see what evidence you could possibly have on the kid, other than your typical Atlesian dickriding."

Jaune really wishes Qrow would be a little more polite, but then again, this is Qrow, and he'd knowingly asked for the man's help, so really, he only has himself to blame.

The three of them – well, it's more like the seven of them, if the guards that stand at the four corners of the room are to be counted – sit in a small, windowless room, with a long desk in the middle. It is dull and gray, utterly expressionless. The entire room is, really. To Jaune, a bit cynically, it comes to mind that he might liken the entire space to that of the Atlesian officer in front of him.

Faceless. Dull. Gray. Though perhaps in his case white, given his wardrobe.

It's a different officer. It always seems to be a different officer. Never the same one twice.

Jaune might know why if he had more experience in these things, but he doesn't, and so he doesn't.

"He's by far the most likely suspect." The Atlesian Officer speaks, and Jaune keys back into the conversation. "Yesterday, he managed to throw off his tail out in Vale, and slipped back into Beacon while he was–"

"Throw off his tail?" Qrow makes a sound in mockery of a laugh. "More like your guards were too bored to do their fucking jobs! They chose to give up the tail, believe me, I was watching. And I was watching Jaune the entire day. He was out and about repairing homes and roofs in the city nearby. I can call a few witnesses who'd attest to that if you'd like."

Jaune is honestly impressed at just how easily Qrow lies. It seems as if he's already fabricated an entire story for him, and Jaune… well, he's not exactly proud of the fact that he's totally going to follow along with it and lie to Atlas Intelligence, but at the same time, he'd also himself forged his transcripts into Beacon, and is Soulmate to one of the most dangerous women to ever live, so perhaps he's more the type than he'd initially thought.

"Yes, I'm sure all of them owe the oh so grand Qrow Branwen so much that they'll spout any garbage story he feeds them." The officer sneers. "How about more direct evidence, then. The bug in Mr. Arc's room."

Jaune initially questioned just what kind of insect would be a part of his guilt, before he managed to shake off his own density enough to understand that 'bug' in this context meant 'camera' or 'listening device'.

"And? What of it?"

"Don't play dumb, Qrow. When one of my men went to check in on Mr. Arc, they found the alarm clock that housed said bug completely destroyed. We are not idiots, we know what–"

"You want the truth?" Qrow sits forward, sneering. "I destroyed it. I felt like shit spyin' on a fucking kid–"

"You destroyed Atlas military hardware–"

"How bout' you ask Jimmy himself, huh?" Qrow says, taking his feet off the table and standing now, leaning over the cold metal and getting right in the intelligence officers face."I have a bit of an addiction to destroyin' your fucking scrap. It's what gets me up in the morning."

The officer doesn't back down at all, his jaw clenching so hard that Jaune briefly wonders if his teeth will simply shatter in his skull.

"…This child…" He hisses out. "Is an accessory to the most dangerous criminal on the planet. Even if he didn't break her out, and in all good conscious you aren't going to be able to pull off convincing me of that, if we could leverage him, we could force her–"

"Ah, yeah, right, good plan, dicklips, use the only thing the most dangerous criminal in the world cares about as bait, and see how that ends up." Qrow says, before his voice raises a few more decibels, and now he's yelling."When it's your skeleton being turned to fucking ash, when half of Vale burns for a second time, I promise I'll drop by to tell you I told you so!"

"P-Please! Stop!"

Both of the arguing men, and the guards who'd been gradually inching towards the table to separate the two, all turn towards him. Jaune himself takes a panting breath as he feels his heart, which had begun to beat wildly and furiously, begin to steady somewhat.

"…Please… Can we just… not…"

"Not what, boy?" The officer scowls. "Argue? Yell? This is not some trifling matter that can be swept under the rug. This is a criminal offense! And one, might I add, that comes with an awfully harsh sentencing!"

Jaune flinches, backing away from the man, even as Qrow grabs the intelligence officer by the collar and forces him to look his way.

"Hey, you're not talkin' to him, you're talkin' to me!"

"Protecting him, are you? We'll see how long that lasts once we can get him in a room on his own. I can tell, he's the type to sing at the slightest–"

"ENOUGH!"

The voice is loud enough to stun them all into silence. Jaune is the first in the room to turn towards its source, which is the door just behind them. In the frame of it stands a giant of a man, his hair slicked back, yet with an obvious unbalanced shape. It had clearly not been put together with as much care as normal.

What draws Jaune's eye next is the way that the man steps into the room. Cold, calm, calculating; like his every step is measured. He takes a look around at his surroundings, at the guards who've all taken to standing at attention, at the intelligence officer who is doing the same, albeit angrily.

General Ironwood ultimately looks… different. Changed in a way that Jaune's not entirely certain is for the better.

The last time Jaune had seen him, he'd not even really been there. It had been over video call while he'd been told the truth of Salem. Of the wicked witch that torments the world. Even then… even while talking about a grand evil that threatened them all…

He'd looked more composed than he does now.

"I'll handle things from here, Agent."

The intelligence officer opens and closes his mouth in rapid succession, evidently having more than a few problems with the man's words. He doesn't voice them, though, and in the next moment, he salutes.

"…Yes, General."

The man exits the room, and the door closes behind him with a hissing woosh of air.

"Uhm…" Jaune feels like he should say something. "Thank you, sir."

"Do not thank me yet, Mr. Arc," Ironwood speaks, shaking his head with a sigh. "I'm afraid that I've only sent the officer off because the two of us work for different factions in Atlas. Politics that do not concern you. I am here under much the same circumstances as he was, and arguably, with worse news for you."

Jaune feels some hesitation enter his body, more so given the fact that Qrow hasn't so much as moved to sit back down in his seat, despite the way that Ironwood has pulled out the officer's chair and sat down in it.

He seems to be showing a peaceful front, at least to Jaune, and yet clearly Qrow doesn't believe that.

"The hell are you planning, Jimmy?" His 'lawyer' questions. "What'dya mean 'worse news'?"

Ironwood takes a breath then, and then Jaune watches as the man's body goes eerily still.

It is hard to really describe, since it doesn't look like much, and yet it would be an obvious thing if one had seen it up close. It's as if all the tiny little imperfections of motion that the body partakes in, the little jitters, adjustments, unnecessary actions that the human body simply chooses to do, fall away.

In the next moment, Ironwood looks up.

His eyes are lifeless.

"Mr. Arc." Ironwood speaks. "You will lure Cinder Fall back here."

Jaune feels a chill down his spine, subconsciously shrinking in his chair, even as Qrow slams both his hands down on the desk in front of them, once again drawing the attention of every guard in the room.

"And how do you expect him to do that!? What, you think he can just call her, make her come back? I highly doubt he's got any way of tracking her! Nor is she stupid enough to take him at his word after breaking herself out of prison!"

"No." Ironwood's face is utterly expressionless, despite the way his lips move, and words come out. "But there is one way the two of them can communicate, isn't there?"

Qrow seems to realize something that Jaune hasn't caught onto, for his face morphs into one of horror for a brief moment, before his eyes harden.

"James… don't do this…"

"Were I had any other choice, I would not." Ironwood says, still unmoving, unfeeling. "As things are, however, I do not."

Qrow growls, shaking his head as his arms vibrate with apparent rage.

"You're letting mettle control you, you idiot! You have to focus, you have–"

"Control me?" Ironwood interrupts, still entirely emotionless. "No. I am simply allowing mettle to make the decision that I know I must make. That I myself," He says, gesturing to his left breast, directly over his heart. "Am not strong enough to make. For the safety of Remnant, Cinder Fall cannot be allowed to walk free. I will do what I must to make sure she cannot. That is all."

Qrow's eyes soften, then, and for a brief moment, Jaune sees an almost vulnerability in there. It's slain in the next second, mercilessly cut down as Qrow reaches for the weapon on his back.

Jaune's blood runs cold.

"And do you think I'm just going to let you do that?"

Ironwood shows emotion for perhaps the first time. The smallest down turn on his brow. The tiniest indication that this is perhaps not what he'd have wanted.

But he'd said it himself. He feels he has no choice.

"No. I do not."

And then Qrow is just a blur of red, and black, and gray.

/

"Ma'am!"

Cinder does her best not to react as Emerald wraps her arms around her, squeezing her rather tightly and just in general aggravating the multiple injuries she now possesses due to Ruby Rose's… something.

She'd still yet to find out exactly what that had been. Perhaps she would ask Salem herself. A boundless immortal would likely have the answers she seeks.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll survive." She mutters. "Mercury?"

Emerald looks away, evidently not wanting to tell her something, and for a moment, Cinder simply assumes that Mercury had seen his chance to flee and taken it. She cannot find it in herself to blame him for that. Not truly. Not with what she is. With what he's now done in her service.

But apparently, no.

"He uhm… he didn't believe it was really you." Emerald speaks. "He thought it was a bait message to draw us out. That they'd gotten to you… interrogated you and… well…"

Cinder nods her head, subconsciously glad that Mercury hadn't run off on her just yet. She might not need his help to acquire the tools they'll need to return to Evernight, but he'll certainly help.

"It's fine. I can't blame him for that. He was being realistic."

"Uhm…" Emerald seems almost guilty. "R-Right."

…Why is Emerald…?

Oh.

Suddenly, it makes sense to Cinder.

Because to say that Mercury had been smart, been realistic by not coming…

Is inadvertently calling Emerald foolish for coming.

It's almost humorous. A month ago she'd have thought no further about any of this. Just gone about her way and told Emerald to follow along behind her silently.

And yet now…

She sees azure blue eyes, and straw blonde hair, and a bright white smile.

And she frowns in annoyance, because everything's gotten so much more complicated.

"…I am…" She sighs. "I am glad you came, regardless. It is… appreciated."

Emerald is shocked. That much is evident. Cinder thinks it might be best to simply ignore such a thing for right now. She's not…

Well, she's not equipped for something like this, she can't help feeling.

"O-Of course, ma'am!"

She nods her head, even as she moves past Emerald, pointedly avoiding the girls gaze.

"So, where's Mercury, then?"

"He should still be in the inn the two of us were renting out," Emerald says, shrugging. "It's a frontier town that hasn't gotten any news from Vale yet, other than, y'know, that it's been attacked."

"So they shouldn't know us?" Cinder asks as she walks along, Emerald following close behind.

"No, they shouldn't."

"Hm. Excellent, Emerald." Cinder says. "You've done quite w–"

And then a pain like fire wracks her body.

Cinder had been pretending like her little joyride into the Emerald Forest hadn't done much to her. That she'd pulled off such a maneuver with no real trouble.

The truth is that she's not exactly doing too well at all. Her muscles ache. She hasn't slept in the day or two since she's been trekking through the woods to get here, and her body is running on fumes, having only consumed two energy bars that she'd found in her pocket, probably shoved in there by her little light.

And speaking of him…

All that being said, that pain hadn't come from her body.

It's a part of the reason why her eyes widen so much as another bout of it flows through her, as she lets out a yell and curls up on the ground, as her body briefly seizes.

Idly, she wonders if this is what it had been like for him, on the other end of the shocks.

Even still, another hits her, and then another. Perhaps two or three more later, and the pain abates. It is only then that she keys into Emerald's voice, keys into the panic in it, and looks up into those crimson eyes to see tears dripping down her lieutenant's face.

"C-Cinder?"

"…I'm fine. It's stopped." She says, panting.

"W-What was that? You just suddenly started convulsing, screaming… are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Cinder reiterates, though before she can even begin to speak again…

"Gah!"

It hits again.

And yet, it is only now, as it happens again, as her body retains some more control of her faculties this second time, that she manages to pick up something unexpected in the torturous experience.

It's…

A pattern.

"Emerald… do me a favor…"

"W-What!?"

"Write down… what I say…"

Emerald does as commanded, even as Cinder convulses again.

"Dash… dash…" She seethes out between clenches of her teeth. "Dash… dot…"

Emerald keys into what she's doing a moment after, her eyes widening.

"Wait… it's… the pain's in Atlesian Morse code!?"

Cinder's teeth grind together as the message repeats. It comes again, in the same configuration. And then, finally, it abates for good.

Cinder forces her still reeling body to its feet, panting, yet otherwise fine. She looks over at Emerald and sees her staring blankly at the piece of paper she'd dug out of her pocket and written upon.

She hands it to Cinder without a word, and Cinder takes but a moment to translate the message.

Cinder's blood runs cold.

Even as the fury inside her ignites.

'H-I-M-O-R-Y-O-U'

/

"I am sorry, Mr. Arc."

Jaune snaps back into consciousness in that moment, at the sound of that voice. He forces himself to look around, to take in the room he's been locked in, and sees it's the same interrogation chamber he and Qrow had been within earlier.

The fight… the fight had been…

He turns towards the door, where a singular guard stands, though now flanked by a far more intimidating figure.

General Ironwood stands there.

"Leave us."

The guard simply salutes, before following orders.

Jaune takes in that time to truly examine the man now alone with him in the room.

Ironwood is bruised and beaten and bloody. His face is covered in bandages for scratches, and bruises, including a particularly bad one where Qrow had managed to knee the man right in the eye. His right arm, apparently robotic, had been entirely severed from his body. Even now, the man is standing before Jaune with just his human left arm, with gauze over one eye, with enough bandages to wrap a fully grown stallion, and yet…

And yet here he is. Standing over him regardless.

"Where's…" Jaune tries to speak, and though he finds it quite difficult, he forces himself to continue. "Where's Qrow…? You didn't…"

"In a jail cell." Ironwood says, and Jaune lets out a breath of relief. "Do not worry. I will not harm him any further than I was forced to earlier. Though I would be remiss to tell you that your friends will be joining him as well."

Anger floods through him. "My friends have… nothing to do with this…"

"On the contrary, I believe they have everything to do with this." Ironwood says, still with that complete lack of any emotion on his face. "In fact, I believe they played a rather crucial role in Fall's escape."

Jaune looks away from the man.

"…They didn't."

Ironwood pauses a moment.

"You are not a very good liar, Mr. Arc."

Jaune bites down on his lip, but otherwise says nothing.

"I must say, I came here mostly to apologize for what we had to do to you today. For the pain we inflicted on you." Ironwood sighs out, though the exhaustion within sounds feigned. Perhaps that's caused by whatever that 'Mettle' thing Qrow had been talking about is. "Know that the pain we caused you was only that. Pain. The device we used upon you has been tested and utilized for this exact purpose in the past. All it is doing is sending a message to the one on the other end of the link."

Jaune finds so much wrong with the man's statement that it's all he can do to allow his jaw to hang open, to allow himself a moment to be truly, completely, and utterly flabbergasted by the man's words.

"A device to…" He swallows, trying to bring some moisture to his desert-like throat. "To torture a soulmate?"

Ironwood nods robotically.

"You are not the first to be in a scenario like this one, Mr. Arc. Nor, I imagine, will you be the last. This device has been in use for over twenty years by governments all over the world. It can be used to communicate with spies in enemy territory by sending messages over an infinite distance, thanks to the… I hesitate to say magic of soulmates, but perhaps that is the only thing to call it. And, as you've been forced to discover… it can also be used to remind someone what they have to lose. Suffice it to say, this particular device has not been publicized, but… well… you get the idea."

Jaune can't muster up the energy to express the disgust he feels then.

"Like I said, it does no harm to you. Merely flexes and bends the aura to cause what your nerves then contextualize as pain." Ironwood explains casually, as if explaining why bees pollinate flowers, or why bats don't have very good eyesight. "But Aura recovers where the body does not. You should feel fine tomorrow."

Jaune bites down on his bottom lip as he shakes his head weakly, trying to muster up some kind of defense, something he can say to get them all out of this. He's supposed to be the leader, right? The person who guides, and the person they'll follow…

He has to do something. He has to.

"You can't… do this…" He settles on eventually, deciding to try his hand at lying, despite his lack of skill. "You think we were responsible for breaking Cinder out… but we weren't…"

Ironwoods face morphs briefly, before the man lets out a sigh, and the robotic veneer he'd been wearing truly falls away.

The man behind it has returned. Mettle, whatever that is, has gone away for now.

"Mr. Arc… We do not suspect that you were responsible for Ms. Fall's escape. We know you were."

"…What?"

Ironwood just shakes his head, an almost disappointed expression on his face. Like an angry teacher, someone who truly wants the best for him, has been presented with subpar work.

"Mr. Arc, did you truly not question why your escape was so easy? Did you not question why there were so few guards watching the most dangerous prisoner the world has ever seen? Why you were able to escape your tail out in Vale so easily? Why a single Beacon-trained student was able to distract my finest men? Why another was able to break into my server room, and delete the security feeds without being seen?"

"What… how do you…"

Ironwood shakes his head. "Because we knew we had her. Because you were here."

Jaune just shakes his head, because that explanation doesn't make any sense, and more than that, there's so much off about all of what he's just said that Jaune finds himself reeling. So much of that had been… had been…

"How could you know she'd come back…?" He forces himself to utter.

"Because she protected you." Ironwood says with a sigh, using his singular hand to reach up and rub the bridge of his nose, briefly wincing in pain from the wound upon it. "Because she shielded you from Qrow on that day you first met. Qrow, whom when it had been the three of them, her, and her accomplices, she'd still not felt capable of truly facing. And yet for you, she was willing to."

Jaune's blood runs cold.

Because there's no way he should be able to know that. Not unless Cinder or Qrow had happened to share such a thing. There hadn't been a camera or a listening device in the operating room. Ren had confirmed that. So… so he shouldn't have been able to know that.

"You… knew?"

Unless… unless…

"We've known all along." Ironwood confirms. "We knew when she first spoke. We knew when she told you she was going to be killed. We knew when Qrow destroyed the alarm clock in your room. We knew when you made your plan to help Cinder escape."

And even though Jaune has a feeling, a horrible dreadful feeling like he already knows just how they've accomplished this. He can't help but ask…

"…How?"

"Mr. Arc, please give us some credit. You were out for quite a while after the Fall of Beacon."

And Ironwood steps forward. With his single remaining arm, he reaches down, to the top of Jaune's shoe. And then, from a tiny, almost invisible crease in the material, he pulls a tiny, black device that'd blended right into the surface of the material.

Jaune's spirit breaks.

"You…"

"It was meant to be a simple precaution." Ironwood explains. "To listen in on the Soulmate of Cinder Fall. Just in case he was told something the rest of us didn't hear. Just in case that information was important." The man sighs. "I regret that it all came to this."

"You… you… put a listening device on me?"

"Mm. From the very moment we figured out just who you were. I had one of my agents place that on you a day or so after you were brought in by Qrow. It has remained there ever since." Ironwood says. "It pays to take precautions, Mr. Arc. This was merely one such case."

Jaune looks down at the ground beneath him, feeling utterly overwhelmed by the feeling of defeat inside his heart.

"Assuming she's gotten our message, soon, Cinder Fall will come." Ironwood states, sounding entirely sure of himself, completely confident in his plan. "And when she does, we will give her our ultimatum. Either she dies, and you go free…"

Jaune's throat is entirely dry, even as Ironwood's face reverts back to its robotic nature. As his emotions die.

As Mettle takes over.

"Or it's the both of you who'll pay the price."

Jaune's lower lip trembles.

"P-Please…"

"I am sorry, Mr. Arc." Ironwood says without an iota of sorrow in his voice, even as he turns around, towards the door at the back of the room.

He steps towards it and places his single hand on the doorknob.

"Know that I do this for the good of Remnant."

"Wait, please!"

The man says nothing. Just steps out into the hallway beyond, turns around and shuts the door behind him.

Jaune is left alone.

And in the cold, callous dark, he weeps.

End Chapter 13

Jaune's having a rough go of it.

Anyways, like I said in the preword, my computer is broken at the moment, so I have no way of writing up new chapters. So for the next few weeks this story will be taking a break. It probably won't be too long (think like a week or two) but I felt I should probably let you all know.

See you all then!