How many weeks had it been since Jaune revealed his identity to his sister? Three? No more than four. In that time, she would come to his temporary home just outside Beacon about every other day. They would go to the back and out of the sight of Beacon and he would continue to teach her swordsmanship. He had her use only one of her two swords for the time being, no point trying to teach her dual wielding if she didn't have much skill with both hands. He was only having her use her dominate hand for the time being, once she got that, they'd move onto her other hand then dual wielding.
The actual training had gotten to the point where he wouldn't just instruct her. She would swing at him and he'd parry or block her swings. It wasn't all that difficult for him but you were comparing ten years of experience against less than a year. He had shown her many different sword stances and swings but he left it up to her on how she would use them. He would then point out flaws in her stance or choices. Then they would usually begin again. She was coming along nicely but she still had a ways to go.
Aside from that, he was spending more time with RWBY and JNPR. Qrow had left Beacon to continue his work for Ozpin not long after he knew Jaune would alright without him around. Though Jaune did promise to rejoin him as soon as he took care of the Draco running around Vale's territory. With Void taken care of, it was starting to feel like things were going back to how they were before the Fall. Well, not exactly. With them knowing the truth now, a lot of things were shown in a new light to them. But when those nine were together, just laughing and hanging out, it was like all that was in another world all together and they could just be happy. Complete.
None of them more so than Jaune. With Void gone, he had nothing left to hold himself back from being in their lives. He still couldn't tell the rest of his family, besides Olive, because he didn't want them to be targeted by Salem. But having Olive, Ren, Nora and Neo helped with that.
That wasn't the only thing to go back to the way it was. Yang, Pyrrha, Ruby and Blake had easily retaken their positions as his girlfriends. But some would argue they never lost that in the first place. He still felt like he betrayed them and didn't deserve to be with them. Those four were having none of that. They all but said, 'we are your girlfriends whether you like it or not.' Besides, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't happy that they still loved him as he loved them. He couldn't explain just how right it felt to have one of them close. To hold any of them in his arms. It was as if he had a piece of himself back after losing it for so long.
The only difference was Weiss. She was still distant from him. Not in a cold way. It was more like there was this tension between them. It was like she didn't know how to interact with him anymore and he had no idea on how to even try to approach that subject. But he wasn't sure if he should in the first place. Weiss had placed a lot of trust in him and had opened up to him in ways she hardly ever did. He had hurt her, even if it was to protect her. She had every right to not want to be with him anymore. And if that was her choice, he'd let her go. Just like he had been prepared to do so with the others. Their safety and happiness was still his number one priority.
He had also got his Semblance back to the control he had before he had obtained Void. But he found out that not having to use Dust as a catalyst came with a tradeoff. He had come to realize that he had completely lost the ability to send his aura into his elements, which meant 'Stage Two' was gone. That didn't bother him too much, he rarely used it anyways and it was dangerous to use it more often than not. But it did save him in a few situations, so it was sad to know they were gone.
Along with that, the more troubling realization was that he couldn't combine the elements anymore. He had gotten back to the point where he could use two elements simultaneously again, if only for a short time. That's when he tried to fuse his elements again to form Advance Elements, but every time he tried, it failed. Instead, his Semblance would refuse to do so and he would get a very familiar sensation. A sensation that worried him. The sensation of creating Void. He may've been freed from its grip on his body but it wasn't gone. His body and soul were still capable of using it.
What would happen if he ever used it again? Would he go back to how he was before coming back to Beacon? Trapped and being killed by his own Semblance once again? And to be perfectly honest, that frightened him. He could only hope he didn't ever have to rely on that power again. But was that possible with the war going on in the shadows and the Drakes surfacing? Only time could tell.
Jaune was currently sitting in his living room. He was on the couch with the back to the door and in front of him was his coffee table, filled with a map of Vale's territories and papers. And a mug of coffee that he had refilled twice by now. Jaune had gotten paper copies of all the information he had on the Drake, possible Draco, that was going through Vale's territories and any document that could hold any similar information form Beacon's systems.
He had already marked the settlements he personally knew were destroyed on the chart along with the approximate date of when he believed the destruction to have happened. He then started the slow task of reading through all the documents and if he was sure it was possibly his target, he would mark the location and date in a different color. If the information turned out to be unrelated, he'd place it off to the side and promptly move on. His hope was to get a grasp on where this Grimm had been and maybe, even if it was low, figure out where it would go next. Or the general direction it was traveling in.
And yes, he could've done this on his scroll and glasses, but he didn't need any more eyestrain. He wore them enough in public, he didn't want to use them any more than he had to.
He had been at it for two hours now and he finally got through the last document. He marked the location and date before he put the document to the side. He then sighed and gently started to massage his eyes. He pulled his hand away and reached for his coffee to take a long and calming sip from it. Luckily it was still warm. Room temperature or, Oum forbid, cold coffee were just awful in his opinion and that would be the last thing he'd want right now.
He placed the mug back down on the table and grabbed his marker as he started to go through all the locations he marked on the chart. Starting with the locations he knew were from the Drake/Draco, he started to look over the others and started to eliminate some. Some were just too far away from the them to be related or just didn't fit within the timeframe of the others. He had crossed off almost two dozen but there was still a dozen or so left. He couldn't whittle them down anymore though. Using them, he did get a general direction on where it was heading in, south. Directly towards Vale.
Jaune looked over the chart again while chewing on the end of the marker he was using. He started to mumble to himself, "This helps but the area to search is too big for me to search by myself. And Qrow is somewhere in western Sanus, so he won't be able to help me out. And even if he could come back, by the time he did, there's no telling how close to the Kingdom it'll be."
He groaned and tossed the marker onto the table before he leant back into the couch. He ran his hand down his face and just kept his eyes closed. He had no idea on what he should do now. Sometimes it seemed easier to live out in the Badlands. It was easier to track them down and he didn't have to worry on where he fought them when he did find them.
He just sat like that with his eyes closed. Trying to figure out something while he let his eyes rest. He suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around his chest. His eyes shot opened and he looked upwards just slightly to see the upside-down face of Yang smiling ta him, "Did I startle you?" she asked with a tiny grin.
He just returned it, "A little. Wasn't expecting you."
"I did say 'hi' when I walked in but you seemed distracted." She looked away from him then to the table. She raised an eyebrow as she still held him from behind from standing behind the couch. "What is all this?"
He looked at the table again and sighed, "A giant mess."
He heard her chuckled before he felt a pair of lips on the top of his head. "Well, you can tell me about it after I raid your fridge." She let him go and he saw her walking away from him and into his kitchen, with a noticeable sway to her hips. She looked over her shoulder with a knowing smirk and winked at him before she disappeared into the other room.
He just grinned and rolled his eyes. He sat there and took another sip from his coffee. Then he realized she was still wearing her Beacon uniform and that brought up a question, "Sun Fire? Please tell me you aren't skipping class."
She answered from the kitchen, "Please, would I do that?" He didn't answer, letting the silence do that for him. "Okay, okay. Maybe I would. But I'm not, Goodwitch would know I would hide here and I'd be screwed. My class got out early and I have a free period, so I decided to come down and spend some time with my favorite guy in the world." She answered in a sing-song voice.
Jaune just smiled at that before he gained a smirk, "Wow, I'm above your dad? And Qrow? Damn, I had no idea."
"Eh, it's a tie. Love you all a lot. Just in different ways." She answered and walked back into the living room with two plates in her hands. She sat down next to him and handed him one of them. He took it and looked down at the sandwich she made for him.
He looked over to her as she took a bite of her own. "You didn't have to do this."
She shrugged and spoke after she swallowed, "How many times have you cooked for me?" she asked rhetorically. "That is the least I can do. Besides, I have a feeling you haven't eaten anything today. And no, coffee doesn't count."
He just smiled at her sheepishly before he took a bite of his sandwich. The two of them ate their food as Jaune started to tell Yang what he had been doing for most of the morning. Yang listened intently to what he was saying and was nodding repeatedly. They eventually finished eating as he was ending his explanation, "And this is just a general idea on where it could be heading. But again, this could all just coincidence and I could be way off."
Yang just looked over everything again, the map, the documents and all the marks he had made. "Well, with all this work you put into this, it'd be a shame for it to go to waste, right? Besides, I'm confident you know what you're talking about. You are the only Drake specialist in the world. "
Jaune just sighed, "I love the faith, Yang, but it just not possible. It could take me weeks to search the entire area by myself. And if I'm wrong, then we wasted resources and would nowhere closer to this Grimm." He crossed his arms and just glared down at the map, "If only I could just reduce the area."
Yang just looked from him then back to the map. She understood what he meant and seeing how powerful they could be firsthand, she agreed they couldn't waste time. She looked back to the ones he had confirmed with his own eyes and titled her head slightly, "Why did it do that?" she asked out loud.
Jaune turned to her with a raised eyebrow, "What?"
She pointed down to the marks she was focusing on, "It attacked these settlements but there are other ones in between them. So, why did it avoid them or leave them alone, instead of attacking them?" She started to trail her finger over the marks, "There are at least one or two between each of these marks but it constantly avoided them."
Jaune just stared as her words sank in, "You're right. How'd I miss this?"
She shrugged, "Sometimes you need an outside perspective to see the obvious."
He started to look over his original marks again, looking at the dates as well and saw a pattern. "These are only a few days apart. No less than two but no more than four. So if I were to guess, after each encounter it had, it didn't attack for whatever reason. Or maybe it couldn't."
"Why would that be the case?" Yang asked confused.
Jaune just shrugged helplessly, "I don't know. Again, I know next to nothing about these Dracos because I rarely encountered them. But their goal may be different. Drakes always targeted Grimm to make themselves more powerful. This Draco however seems to be only attacking humans." He started to tap his index finger on the table as he just looked off in thought, "I'm getting more questions than answers."
He was pulled from his thoughts when Yang grabbed his shoulder in a reassuring manner. He turned to her and she was giving him a small smile, "You can focus on that later. Let's worry about this now." She let go and picked up the marker he was using before. "Let's eliminate the ones that don't fit into this new pattern and see where it goes."
Jaune watched as she did so and any of the ones that did fit into the pattern, she left a question mark beside them. After a couple of minutes, she was done and they focused on the three settlements that were closest to Vale. "So, these three would most likely be the Draco's latest target." Jaune said out loud.
He then gently took the marker from Yang and started to circle more settlements. "And these would most likely be its next targets, if we are right. They are close enough to fit into its time frame. Still too many to check though. If we're right, it will attack in the next day or two. Not enough time."
"Well, maybe Ozpin can help with that." Yang suggested. "Now that we have a clearer picture, he may have an idea on what to do."
Jaune just nodded, "You have a good point. No point in banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out. The old man may have some idea on what we should do." With that said, he started to roll up his map and walked to the door.
Yang was a few steps behind him, "You're just going to leave this mess?"
He was putting on his boots, "I'll clean it when I get back. This is a priority. Besides, it'll take me ten minutes to clean it." He then threw on his cloak and pulled up the hood before finally slipping on his sunglasses that quickly deployed into his mask.
He walked out of his place with Yang walking behind him. They made quick time back to Beacon and were soon in the elevator heading up to Ozpin's office. They stepped in to see that Ozpin was a his desk, doing work on his holo-screen. He looked up in time to see Jaune pull off his glasses and drop his hood, "Jaune, what do I owe this visit to?" he asked.
He held up the rolled up map in his hands, "May've had a break through in the Draco case, Oz." As he got closer, Ozpin shut off the screen and let Jaune roll out the map on his desk. He then started to explain what he and Yang had figured out so far while pointing out the marks on the map. Ozpin, the entire time, was just listening with his usual stoic expression. "If we are right about this, these four settlements would most likely be the next target."
Oz took a sip of his coffee before he answered. "How long would you think we have until it attacks?"
Jaune shrugged, "If we're right, a day or two at most."
Ozpin hummed to himself as he thought. "The best course to take would be to evacuate these settlements. Once the people are safe, we can put Huntsmen and Huntresses with a team to keep an eye out for it."
Jaune looked at the headmaster, "Are you sure, Oz? I mean if this was a Drake, we could come up with a strategy. But I have no idea on what a Draco can do."
"It is not ideal but it is the only option we have. We can send them and leave a Bullhead nearby each location. If the Draco does attack the settlement, the team can call the others and they can use it to rendezvous with them as back up. Plus, we'll have an ace out in the field." He looked into Jaune's eyes, "You and Team RWBY."
Jaune's eyes winded before they narrowed, "Care to explain that?"
"Jaune, you have taken down many of these type of Grimm, your expertise will be invaluable out there. But, you can't be at all four locations. So, I'll ask you to go to the one in the center, it'll be the closest to the other three. Meanwhile, Team RWBY has the fastest bullhead Atlas has to offer. That'll make it easier for you to get there in time to help deal with this Grimm, while minimizing the risk. On top of that, if you are the one to encounter it, you'll be able to hold it off until backup comes. Or even manage to kill it outright. And Team RWBY is the only team to have any experience against a Drake. It's the safest strategy."
Jaune just stared at Ozpin for almost a minute before he looked at the ceiling and groaned, "I hate when you're right."
Ozpin just had a smirk, "Well, that tends to happen." He then looked from the Swordsman to the other person in the room. "So, Miss Xiao Long, do you think you and your team will be ready for this mission?"
Yang just smiled, "Are you kidding? Ruby would be furious if you left us out of this mission, sir."
"Good to hear. I'll leave it to you to pass this onto your team and JNPR. I have a feeling they would want to be on this mission as well." He looked back to his desk and brought his holo-screen up, "Now if you two will excuse me, I need to get everything in order for tomorrow morning." With those words, the two blondes nodded and made their way to the elevator, with Jaune slipping back into his Rien persona. When they reached the bottom, Yang went to go tell their friends while Jaune went back to his place to clean up the mess he left.
The next morning, Jaune got up an hour before dawn. He got out of bed and did his light workout before jumping into his shower. When he was done, he threw on his clothes and armor before he grabbed a light breakfast and coffee. When he went to the door, he threw on his cloak and sunglasses.
Right before he left, he went back into his room to grab his new weapons. They weren't anything fancy, just five APSs: All Purpose Swords. They were a series of swords created by Atlas. Durable, mass produced and cost officiant. They created hundreds of them a year and they usually made back more than what they spent to make them. He ordered them to have a weapon since Void was no longer an option. It looked like a steel grey longsword but without the guard. In compact mode, the blade would compress into itself, like a telescope, so it would only be a third of its usual length.
He went over to his bed and pulled out a silver briefcase from under it. He opened it and revealed five swords in their compact forms. He pulled two out and attached them to both sides of his hip. He then closed the case and slid it back where it was before. And with that, he left to go meet up with the others at the airfield.
When he got there, he saw the four teams and the three Professors going through their final preparations before leaving. Professor Port was at one side, going over instruction with Team CRDL. That was a mild shock until he remembered that they were the third ranked team of the third years, right behind JNPR and RWBY. Doctor Oobleck was near another bullhead with Team CFVY. It was nice to see them after so long and Jaune found it hilarious to see Coco drinking as much coffee as Oobleck did. She was not a morning person apparently.
Jaune walked past them, giving them all nods, before he stopped next to Glynda with JNPR and RWBY next to her, "Morning, everybody." They all returned the greeting, some with more energy than others, and Neo as Jasmine gave him a hug. Which he had no problem returning.
A few minutes after he had gotten there and everyone was finally ready, Glynda cleared her throat, "With everyone ready, let's go over the guidelines for this mission. When you touch down in the area, your Professor will radio into the rest of us. Once everyone is in position, we will keep in contact and brief the others every half an hour. If you encounter the Grimm, the Professor will immediately call it in and the rest of us will get on the bullhead and go their position as quickly as possible. If for whatever reason they cannot contact us, the team leader will be the ones to call it in. Is that clear to everyone?"
Everyone nodded before Jaune stopped forward, "Just one last thing. This Grimm is an unknown to everyone here. I recommend not taking any chances out there. Keep yourselves alive until you get back up. That is the only advice I can give right now."
Again everyone nodded and the Professors lead their respective teams onto the bullheads. With Glynda being in charge of JNPR. Neo gave him one more hug and when the other teams were on their respective bullheads, the rest of JNPR gave him their own hugs as well. They then made their way onto their bullhead while Jaune joined up with RWBY on their Quicksilver.
When the door closed, he pulled down his hood and removed his mask. He relaxed as they took off and prepared himself for the flight. It would take an hour or so for them to get there but it would take the others an hour and a half to two hours. He was getting the feeling that it was going to be a long day.
The settlement they landed in was, in all honesty, a simple ranch. The only buildings they had was the barn and three houses that belonged to the families here. They had open fields for farmland and for their cattle but that was pretty much it. Jaune was currently on top of the barn and that allowed him to see the entire area and the tops of the forests that were almost a mile from there.
Him and RWBY had landed there just after seven in the morning. They started to prepare themselves and scout the area. They eventually heard Glynda and Oobleck check in. Then Port twenty minutes later. With everyone in position, Jaune and RWBY came up with a rotation. One person would be on the barn for an elevated position. The others would partner up and scout the perimeter of the ranch. They would check in on occasions through their scrolls. But so far, there was nothing besides younger Grimm on the rare occasions.
It was already midday and they had gone through a full rotation so far. It would almost be time for Blake to take his position again. She was the first because of her night vision and the fact the forest was still dark when they had arrived. He sighed and gently massaged his forehead trying to relieve the headache that was surfacing. He had forgone his mask since he had no need to hide his face out here and he had a similar voice distortion program on his scroll to hide his voice when he called in. Besides, the girls preferred to see his face and not the metal mask.
At that point, his scroll went off, "Rien, this is Glynda, how is everything on your end?"
He put his scroll to his mouth, "Same as before, Glynda. Nothing, just the occasional Beowolf."
"Same here." Port joined the conversation. "Please keep us in the loop, Rien."
"Always." Jaune replied. "How about you, Doctor?"
"I'm afraid to say we have had nothing but the more common variety of Grimm over here." Oobleck rattled off.
"Alright, everyone stay on guard. Report in in another half an hour." Glynda chimed in.
The three men gave their affirmative and ended the call. Jaune looked down to see Ruby and Weiss coming from the south while Blake and Yang were doing the same from the north. As they were approaching the barn, his eyes shifted to light green and he jumped off the barn roof. He used his wind control to form a small vortex below him to slow his descent and landed gently on his feet. "So, I take it that everything is clear?"
They all nodded before Ruby spoke up, "Only thing we've seen are just some Beowolves." That's when her stomach started to growl loudly, causing the reaper to blush. "I guess I'm hungry."
Jaune just smiled, "Why don't you all take a break and eat lunch. I'll keep an eye out while you do."
Yang had a different idea, "Or we could take Bumblebee and do another quick perimeter. By the time we get back, they'll be done and we can eat before getting back to it."
Jaune thought it over before he looked at the RWB of RWBY, "Are you three okay with that?"
They looked at each other before they nodded and Blake spoke up, "That should be fine. Besides, I don't know about these two but my feet are killing me."
That caused him to chuckle, "Alright, you three rest. Yang and I will be back soon. And please keep an eye out, just in case."
As Jaune and Yang made their way behind one of the houses, where the Quicksilver was parked, the three girls started to relax in the shade of the barn as they ate. Yang walked into the cargo section and soon wheeled out Bumblebee. "So, do you take it with you every time you go on a mission?" Jaune asked.
She shook her head, "Not always. I just thought it may help us cover some extra ground. But anyone not partnered with me wouldn't be able to keep up and it would just ruin the rotation." She quickly got on her bike and tapped the seat behind her, "Come on, we're wasting time." He didn't argue and sat down directly behind her while wrapping his arms around her stomach. She kicked the engine into life before the two took off to start checking the perimeter.
As they drove, both kept their eyes open for anything out of the ordinary but saw nothing. Both did take silent enjoyment with the opportunity to being able to ride with the other. But they tried not to let it distract them.
When they were at the northern part of the perimeter, which just so happened to be the furthest from the ranch, Jaune noticed something on their left. He thought for a second that he saw a flash of red. But when he looked he saw nothing. He was about to ignore it when he noticed the shadow below them was quickly growing. He quickly looked up and saw something about to land on them.
"Yang!" he shouted before he stood up on the seat. He kept his arms locked around her stomach as he pulled her from the seat. That was when he jumped backwards, to her confusion and shock. The two landed ten feet back and Bumblebee kept going forward before the lack of driver caused it to veer to the right, just missing as the massive Grimm landed beside it.
That's when they saw it in its terrifying glory. The Grimm had to be twelve feet tall and was quadrupedal. Its arms were twice as long as it's hind legs. It had a hunch back, similar to a Beringel, and the front legs were twice as thick as its hind legs. The hind legs bent backwards, similar to a Beowolves and ended in three talon-like claws. Two in the front and the third on the back, each about a foot long. Its back, arms, legs and most of its chest were covered in white bone armor with glowing red markings. Going down its spine were a dozen curves spikes, which curved away from its head. Its front legs ended in four claws that were also nine inches long but what stuck out were the two spikes that stuck forward from the back of its hand/claw, one on each. The were two feet long and were bone white. Finally, its neck was elongated and the head was very similar to a Drakes, except it only had a single horn that came from the top of its head and curved forward, kind of like a Mohawk. Its blood red eyes glowed with bloodthirst and possible intelligence.
One thing was confirmed though. They were right about where the Draco would strike next.