I don't own anything related to the RWBY franchise
Chapter 21 - The Prodigal Son - Jaune Freeman
Author's Note:
Those of you that read the original of this chapter will recognize a lot of it, as there are several aspects that I left unchanged. On the other hand, I did change the direction that the story is heading in, removed some themes that weren't well-received, and smoothed out some of its rougher edges.
I am alive, I am writing (a lot), and I have several stories on the go, some of which I will begin submitting on this site.
Flashback Scene…
Saturday Night, Vale Colony…
Ruby's Perspective…
After a Saturday night spent clubbing in downtown Vale Colony that was even more fun than she'd thought possible (and she'd always assumed it'd be fun), Ruby followed the lion's share of her Platoon, her team, her friends, into a little deli off of Main street, where she dug into a heavily loaded chicken shawarma meal that came complete with a small bag of cookies.
Perfection…
Admittedly, Ruby's current euphoria could've easily been a bad case of the spins and a violent trip to the bathroom if it weren't for John detoxing some of the alcohol out of her bloodstream (at least once, maybe even twice). The chances were pretty good that she (as well as everyone else in her Platoon) would be stumbling around like baby deer by now if their Platoon Captain didn't have a healing touch (and it felt sooo freaking good!). Instead, Ruby felt toasted to perfection right now, and she was leaning into Penny's side simply for the hell of it as she indulged her new love affair with tzatziki sauce.
Yep… Life was good. Ruby's partner Penny was the bee's knees, her Platoon was the best in the school, and her Platoon Captain…
Well…
Her Platoon captain was John Freeman.
Suffice it to say, Ruby was a fan, and she felt her cheeks warming up just thinking about the man…
Then a thought struck Ruby, and she cast her eyes out the various windows of the shop. Where was John anyway? Until just a moment ago, he'd been standing a few meters outside the doorway…
"Food down Platoon number one," Penny suddenly hollered out as she bolted to her feet, threw aside her wrap, and began dashing towards the door. "The group that John's been running away from this entire time just snagged him off of the street, and they're heading South on Main Street towards the Economy District. I'll explain more on the way!"
By the time Penny finished moving across the shop's dining area, Ruby was moving to catch up because she could see the urgency in her friend's eyes and she had no reason to doubt her words.
"How do you?" A few meters to Ruby and Penny's right, Weiss's mouth suddenly snapped shut, when she saw a hologram of the alleyway outside of the deli being displayed over Penny's scroll, saw a group of spider-esque robots gas Jaune unconscious, and then saw them scurry off with his body carried on their backs. Then she saw a translucent red line leading in the direction that Jaune was taken and she knew exactly where they needed to go.
"You have a tracking device planted on John's body," Blake pointed out in a flinty voice, as she eyed the 3D map being projected atop Penny's scroll.
"Yes and no. John's armor bands give off a faint signal that my software can track," Penny immediately replied in a curt and no nonsense tone of voice. Then she preemptively answered the next question that she saw Ruby opening her mouth to ask. "Yes. I have John's consent to track his location on an ongoing basis."
"Who is it that makes all of these precautions necessary? Who are these people," Pyrrha questioned, even as the entire Platoon rounded a pizza parlor at Penny's back and began aura dashing down the sidewalk to the South-West.
"It's the Arcs. The Arc family's found our Captain," Penny explained while turning into an alleyway so suddenly she almost slid beyond the gap in the shops before her shoes caught purchase on the sidewalk.
"The Arcs... like... the statue in the middle of Beacon's front courtyard, the Arcs," Yang asked even as she backpedaled to the right to bounce off of the alleyway wall.
"One and the same," Weiss added as she used a rebounding Glyph to redirect her momentum down the alleyway and then used a slowing glyph to slide gracefully to a stop at Penny's side.
"You were told everything then," Blake immediately asked Weiss, with a hint of jealousy growing across her facial features.
"I only know what's happening because I figured out what nature of man John really is, and I confronted him about it," Weiss responded diplomatically.
By this point it was obvious to Ruby that Blake also had a pretty good idea what was going on, and she didn't want to be the odd person out anymore. "Will someone please just explain what the Arc family wants with John," she asked, a plaintive quality growing into her voice.
"They're trying to take their son/heir/prisoner back," Blake, Weiss and Penny all answered at exactly the same time, their voices overlapping each other.
"They want to take our John, Jaune Arc, away from us by force," Penny continued even as she tore a sewer grate out of the ground and then threw it aside so hard it crashed eight inches deep into the brick wall on the left side of the alleyway.
"Our Platoon Captain, Jaune Arc... is the prodigal son," Lie Ren breathed out, his voice heavy with sudden realization.
"I can definitely see it," Yang allowed with a wry sort of amusement on her face. "The Arc's are world famous for being corny, wholesome white-knight types since way before the dawn of time."
"They're also famous for both their military and humanitarian contributions, their enormous wealth and political influence, and the fact that Jaune's seven sisters constitute what amounts to a full platoon of high level Huntresses," Weiss added with a sigh and a small shake of her head. "The head of the family, Johnathon Arc and his wife Juliet are both "S" ranked Hunters that have several Platoons of mid-range Huntsmen and Huntresses under their command… Don't misunderstand me when I say all of this… we are definitely going to retrieve our Platoon Captain, but I think it's best that you all understand the stakes before we go in there. Jaune Arc's family problems aren't going to end simply, easily, or without a fight."
"Why is John on the run from his family in the first place, and why are they so determined to abduct him back," Ruby asked into the stony silence that followed. Even as she asked that question, they all followed Penny down into a rather large, clean and well-constructed sewer system.
"They're mentally ill," Penny announced, her voice no more than a furious whisper.
"They're paranoid and delusional," Weiss confirmed just a single second later.
"Until Jaune finally managed to break out of Arc Castle two years ago, his family kept him captive with his strength forcibly suppressed using an aura draining collar device," Penny furthered even as Platoon number one began dashing down the dimly lit tunnel heading towards the South.
"According to Jaune, his family firmly believed that they were saving his life by keeping him captive away from the world. Unfortunately for Jaune, what they were really doing was forcing him to endure nearly a decade of extreme social isolation while force-feeding him every aristocratic skill known to man…" Weiss's tone was ice cold by this point, and her hands were balled up into tight little fists at her sides.
"John… Jaune had no conventional aura control at the beginning of the week," Pyrrha remarked as she and the Platoon aura dashed off of the walls of the tunnel to bounce around a ninety-degree turn. "He never received any aura manipulation or martial arts training growing up… He's had to figure it all out as he goes along… He's a…"
"Genius," Blake finished.
"Jaune might be gifted, yes, but he's also trained desperately from sunrise to sunset every single day since I first met him," Penny growled out from the head of their formation. "If these deranged cultists that call themselves his 'family' think they're going to just lock him away again, then I'm going to cut that little castle of theirs to teeny tiny little pieces..."
In the silent seconds that followed Penny's noticeably bloodthirsty words, Ruby took in the rest of her Platoon, and she was gratified to find that every single one of her friends had expressions of steely eyed determination on their faces.
Platoon number one hadn't slowed down for even a second at any point during Weiss and Penny's explanation. They weren't hesitating in the slightest. They were committed, which had Ruby feeling both elated and terrified at exactly the same time. She was completely thrilled that the members of her Platoon were so brave and loyal. On the other hand, just the very thought of having John… Jaune Arc, taken away from her, had Ruby's eyes tingling in a way that was completely impossible to describe… Ruby's blood was boiling…
Ruby wanted her friend back, and she wanted him back right this very instant!
Rounding a sloping corner that led into a massive domed room with a ten-meter-wide circular water basin in the middle, Platoon number one found well over two-dozen Spider-esque robots spilling into the space from dozens of side tunnels and holes, where they began clacking their metallic mandibles at them in a threatening fashion.
"Atlesian seeker-bots," Penny immediately called out even as a series of neon green laser swords grew out of her hands and flew away in every direction. "Watch out for the grapple hook launchers hidden within their backs, the Red Dust torches concealed within their claws, and the fact that they can release a paralytic gas to render their target unconscious. Take a deep breath and then hold it until they're all rendered down to scrap!"
The only response that the members of Platoon number one gave to Penny's warning were nods of understanding, because they'd all already started holding their breaths. Less than a second later, they all careened into a thick green gas cloud that was filling the entire room and the fight for Jaune Arc had officially begun. With their blood oxygen levels steadily decreasing with every single second that passed, everyone broke apart in an expanding fan formation, leapt over the water basin in the middle of the room, and flew towards the metallic catwalk containing their mechanical adversaries.
Due mostly to how her speed Semblance had her in the leading edge of the attack, the first grapple hook that was launched by a seeker-bot came flying at Ruby's neck, only for her tiny hands to strike out like lightning, catch the outside prongs of the clawed hook, and then use the metal rope attached to the hook to heave her body down towards the attacking robot. A split second later, when her body made contact with the seeker-bot, it wasn't with either of her fists… No… She smashed feet first down into the spider-bot's metallic carapace, and she squished the robot against the nearby wall hard enough to crush it into dozens of pieces. By the time Ruby was leaping out of the seeker-bot's cratered corpse, she was holding the metallic grapple hook that it'd fired at her, and she was swinging it as fast as a weed whacker to carve massive holes into all of the enemies at her sides.
Off to Ruby's right, Pyrrha had retrieved the sewer grate that Penny had embedded into the brick wall of the alleyway, and she used it to deflect away several grapple hooks even as she landed on the metal catwalk amidst all of the seeker-bots. Soon enough, Pyrrha was lifting a nearby robot one handed as if it weighed nothing and she was using its newly broken body to slam a second enemy down into the water in the basin.
On Ruby's left, Blake continuously popped out of existence in bright flashes of light as she scrambled atop various seeker-bots and ripped out the wiring that allowed them to see, move, and attack. Likewise Lie Ren was striking the IR sensors and cameras protruding from the robots' bodies as he slid and slinked this way and that throughout their numbers.
Nora had a caution sign complete with concrete fixture ripped right out of the ground, and she was using it in place of her hammer to smash Seeker-bots right and left in an extremely impressive display of wanton chaos.
Weiss was using a mixture of rebounding and double gravity glyphs to force over half a dozen seeker-bots underneath the water even as she used a vacuum glyph near the domed ceiling to draw away the paralytic gas.
As the only member of Platoon number one that could never be completely disarmed, Penny Polendina was tearing apart massive swaths of the Seeker-bots with a brutal brand of efficiency, and she had six of her swords floating in a circle where they were firing a thick beam of bright green aura power into a nearby metal door. She wasn't playing around. She was a force of nature that was wreaking havoc all around the room.
Within just fifteen seconds of their entry into the water basin, Ruby and the rest of Platoon number one completely decimated over forty seeker-bots, and they gathered around a burnt out hole where a metal door used to bar their way forward. Then they were all holding their breath again as they stepped into the darkened room beyond, because they didn't know what they were going to find.
In the days that followed, Ruby Rose would try and fail to adequately describe the wild tangle of emotions that she felt when Platoon number one found their Captain whole and healthy and screaming his defiance towards a nearby holo-recorder. The elation, joy, relief and growing determination that she experienced was easy enough to explain, but there was also another feeling that was far more… visceral… far more physical. It was a need, a sense of urgency that drove her further into the room. One aspect of the emotionally charged scene that Ruby would never forget, was the change in perception that she experienced as she stepped up to stand at Penny's side and stare down at the Arc family's holo-recorder.
John… Jaune Arc… He was Ruby's friend… He really, truly was… and yet, for the first time in her whole entire life, friendship wasn't what she had in mind…
Sunday Morning, 7 Am, Arc Family Castle…
Olivia Arc's Perspective…
As Olivia Arc sat with her arms tightly restrained to the armrests of an ultra-fortified metallic chair in the Arc Family Boardroom, she stared at the rest of her family and found herself nearly hyperventilating in a growing fit of rage and indignation. She was… she was furious… At the same time, she was hurting. She was a mass of red, raw and oversensitive nerves that had both her thoughts and her emotions cascading into a chaotic domino effect.
Contradictorily, Olivia could see the reality of her current situation with a picture perfect clarity for the first time in well over a decade.
Jonathan Arc, Olivia's father, was using all of the members of his family like he would pawns in a chess game…
The events that led to Olivia's current situation began a little over three hours earlier at 3:55 Am, when the Cross Continental Transmit System finally finished relaying the holo-camera footage collected by her various seeker-bots clear across the Abyssal Ocean, and then pinged her scroll with a very loud and deliberately unique variety of alarm klaxon.
Within just a split second of this very loud, shrill and piercing alarm going off on Olivia's scroll, her eyes snapped open, she drew in a dramatic gasp of air, and she scrambled across her bed to grab up the little flashing device. Then her upper body fell off of her bed and she dropped directly onto her head even as she waved her finger through the holographic button that would activate the captured holo-footage.
For the next fifteen minutes, Olivia Arc experienced an outpouring of emotions so immensely powerful, she ended up drenched in a truly disgusting mixture of sweat, tears and snot.
Olivia Arc saw a black haired Jaune Arc, dressed to impress, tall and confident, standing at a bar in the middle of downtown Vale Colony, immediately causing a torrent of elated tears to well out from Olivia's eyes and drip down onto the bedsheets that she was nesting within.
Next, Olivia saw the light brown scar that was trying (and failing) to mar her brother's far too adorable features, and she bit her lip in a mixture of concern and rising anger at whoever had caused him such an injury. The more she looked at the faded little scar, the more she realized that her brother made the look work for him, but that didn't mean that the cretin who dared to hurt her brother could ever be forgiven!
The rising anger that Olivia was feeling only sharpened over the next few minutes, when a lineup of knuckle dragging imbeciles suddenly hemmed her brother in against the bar that he was standing at, visibly disrespected him, and then a swarm of red-tied goons created a circular perimeter to keep him from escaping. By the time the two twin skanks leading the aggressors moved in to attack her brother, Olivia was alternatively punching her pillow and curling up into a tight little ball with her knees tucked in under her body.
But that was the moment when Olivia saw something that she'd always thought was completely impossible…
Jaune Arc started moving with the speed and coordination of a Huntsman as he bobbed, weaved, slid and turned his way through the two girls' perfectly coordinated attacks, and he was so damned calm about it all, it looked like he was dancing with the girls rather than fighting with them.
As Olivia watched Jaune force his attackers to move exactly where HE directed them to move, as if their attacks had been choreographed well ahead of time, her mouth started hanging open and her scroll dangled limply in her newly boneless fingers. The holo-footage only grew larger in the air directly in front of her face as she dropped the holo-device flat on the bed, and she found herself laying flat on her back with the entire scene pressing down upon her from above.
It wasn't as if the fighting that Olivia was watching was all that out of the ordinary or special, but the psychological impact of what she was currently witnessing was absolutely devastating…
Jaune Arc wasn't weak, helpless, fragile, or in need of her protection... and in that realization... lay Olivia's ruination.
Everything… every single little thing that Jaune had always repeated about Olivia and the rest of their family was true… They straight up refused to see just how unnecessary and evil their so-called 'protection' truly was… They were incapable of being rational where his safety was concerned… They were delusional… They were fanatical… they were twisted… they were paranoid… they were wrong…
And they were hurting him.
Years… They'd kept Jaune prisoner for over seven whole YEARS with an aura draining collar locked around his neck and no options beyond whatever activities they spoon fed him… Of course he'd run away… Of course he'd come to hate them all.
Of course he'd come to hate her most of all…
Over the following twenty minutes, Olivia Arc watched a large group of Jaune's friends arrive in the bar and offer to help him deal with his twin attackers, only for her brother to unleash some kind of next level transformation instead, and completely destroy the two girls all by himself. He worked the two brunette's over until they were in aura shock, bleeding, and begging him for mercy, and then he gave them a series of harsh, terrifying ultimatums that assured they'd never threaten him again. Her brother made himself hard, he made himself cold, he made himself brutal…
It was ingenious… and an explosion of pride burst forth within Olivia's heart, along with a wellspring of helpless tears that dripped down all over her bed.
When the barroom brawl finally came to an end and the footage suddenly came to a stop, Olivia knew exactly what the next scene was going to contain, and she hoped beyond all hope that the seeker-bots would fail. She didn't want to see it happen. She didn't want to witness the moment when her brother was caught, bound, and dumped in front of a holo-recorder…
And then her wish came true, because she never got the chance.
A squad of Jonathon Arc's Hunters suddenly broke down the door to Olivia's bedroom, trussed her up with dozens of metallic nets, and then dragged her thrashing body down the various hallways in the direction of her father's command center. Olivia screamed. She struggled, she demanded to know how these men dared to treat her like some kind of prisoner… and then she stopped speaking altogether, because of course they dared. The actions of these Hunters were nothing new to them. Catching and imprisoning members of the Arc family was something that Johnathon's vassals had a TON of experience doing.
As she was dragged down into the belly of Arc Castle, one thing became increasingly obvious to Olivia. Her father knew all about the squads of seeker-bots that she'd been programming on her off time, and he'd been spying on her efforts the whole entire time. Now he was securing the data on her data scroll before she could delete it, and he was forcefully bringing her back in line. The man was a spider on a web. He was a snake in the grass…
He was smiling down at her in approval as if she'd done what she'd done specifically to please him.
Then Jonathon was dropping an oxygen mask attached to a gas canister atop Olivia's nose and mouth, and he was cooing into her ear as if she were a baby with a fever. "Not to worry Olive. Everything will be alright. I don't want you to hurt yourself struggling, so have a nap for now while I gather everyone together"
For the next three minutes, Olivia struggled and strained and glared hatefully at her father as she desperately tried to hold her breath, but her body eventually forced her to draw in a new lungful of air, and the world slowly but surely faded to black…
The next time that Olivia opened her eyes, she was sitting at the bottom end of the Arc family's boardroom table, directly across from her father. It was a spot at the table that was usually reserved for either her mother Juliet, or her eldest sister Petunia, so under normal circumstances her current placement would be considered quite the honor, but considering the size, thickness and weight of the metallic throne that was restraining Olivia's movements, she figured they didn't really have much of a choice in the matter…
Across the table, on Jonathon's right hand side, was Juliet, Olivia's mother, silent and smiling beautifully as if nothing at all was amiss. For all that the floral dress-wearing woman was generally a very warm and affectionate mother figure, she was also an exceedingly ethereal and mysterious existence as she almost never spoke aloud… All of the members of the Arc family knew how to understand sign language so that their mother could communicate with them. They went to these lengths despite the fact that the woman had a fully functional set of vocal cords.
On Jonathon's left hand side, Petunia Arc didn't seem all that bothered by having her usual spot taken by Olivia. No… As per the norm, she sat tall, straight-backed, stern, and imposing, like the confident and self-possessed young Huntress that she was… It had to be said that Petunia was the quintessential elder sister type both in character and in fact. She was the leader of an active team of high level Hunters as well as a provisional Platoon Captain if a large-scale Grimm war did indeed end up breaking out.
Arrayed around the table starting on Petunia's left hand side, was Daff, Daisy, Mari and Lilly, all of whom were sitting tall in their chairs with completely indifferent looks upon their faces. They were poised. They were dutiful. They were going about the motions just like they did during all of these little meetings. They visibly had no idea why they were being gathered around the table.
The only exception to all of the bland looks that everyone was sharing, was Juniper Arc, Olivia's second eldest sister. The woman was currently curled forward over the table on her elbows so that she could stare at Olivia's tightly restrained body with a laser-like intensity. Juniper wasn't smooth and professional like most of Olivia's other sisters. She was aggressive, impetuous, and almost recklessly kind, and she was clearly wondering just what in the hell Olivia had done to get herself in so much trouble.
Olivia scowled and looked away from Juniper's gaze even as she recognized one thing that all of her sisters currently had in common.
They were clueless…
Jonathon hadn't explained anything yet. None of the Arc sisters knew why their youngest sibling was trussed up like an A ranked criminal in Jaune's old restraint chair… Then again… judging by the look on the Arc family patriarch's face, this wasn't a state of affairs that would last for very much longer.
After sitting up ramrod straight in his seat as if enjoying a really satisfying stretch, Jonathan tapped lightly on the boardroom table to draw everyone's attention in his direction. For several seconds in a row, he merely scanned the amassed young women with his eyes. Then his smile grew wider as he drew a hologram stylus out from under the table, and he drew in a very deep breath... "I have bad news and good news for you all… At least one member of the Atlesian government has betrayed our trust, tampered with the facial recognition software within the seeker-bots that we've been using, and concealed the activities of the Arc family heir... Jaune Arc lives… He lives and Olivia here found him."
Even as Olivia drew in the air required to tell her father to choke on a dick, a stampede of blonde haired young women suddenly exploded in her direction so that they could hug her from every side imaginable. Tears poured down into her neck and shoulders as every single one of her sisters unraveled into an inconsolable mess of overwhelmed emotions and began apologizing to her over and over again for losing hope, for giving up, for betraying their brother…
"Giving up on him was the best thing that any of you psychos ever did for Jaune," Olivia loudly barked out, causing all of her sisters to flinch back and stare at her in a mixture of shock and confusion.
"Now, now Olivia, none of that,'' Jonathan called out as he clicked a button to dim the boardroom lights and superimpose a large high definition hologram throughout the middle of the table. "I'm willing to bet that even you will want to see what I have to show you, so save your angry ranting for afterwards... Now that we know the name that Jaune's been operating under, my technical team has tracked down just where he's been and what he's been up to…"
Unfortunately for Olivia, Jonathan was right… She did want to see what Jaune had been doing… She really, really did… She scowled at her father even as she found herself quieting back down.
With a nearly silent click of his stylus, Jonathan Arc cued up a picture of John Freeman's military ID, complete with black hair and a swipe access lanyard around his neck… "Within just a few days of escaping Arc Castle, Jaune Arc managed to convince world famous scientist and engineer Pietro Polendina to hide him in his lab and hire him on as a lab assistant. A position that he was qualified for because of the math, science and engineering classes that we provided for him…"
Olivia opened her mouth to protest… Then she didn't… Everything Jonathon had just said was technically accurate.
The next hologram that Jonathon cued up was a tech assessment of the aura armor that John Freeman learned to make use of in a wide variety of ways, using a Semblance that was enormously complex in nature and relied upon an extreme familiarity with both science and nanotechnology. Once again, Jonathan pointed out how this application of his Semblance would be completely impossible to achieve without the sophisticated education that the Arc family provided for their heir… Once again, Olivia really did want to argue but found that she couldn't.
The next series of scenes that Jonathon cued up came as part of a mission assessment for the Atlesian military. In this mission assessment, it was explained how Agent Freeman infiltrated the stage prep staff of heiress Schnee's concert series, where he displayed a superlative level of both cunning and leadership in order to protect his target without ever alerting her would be assassin. The mission assessment described Agent Freeman's actions as flawless despite the fact that his spy status was revealed when he shielded the heiress from taking a Dust round to the face. As an aside, the military described the defensive strength of John Freeman's aura armor as being nearly miraculous, describing the Dust-artillery round that hit him as being powerful enough to blow a hole straight through the body of a Goliath.
Jonathan didn't have to say a word this time… Once again, everyone knew that Jaune wouldn't have survived that particular mission without the tech knowhow that was provided by his very closeted upbringing…
Over the next half an hour, Jonathan Arc revealed more and more holo-videos of Jaune Arc completing dangerous and or technically difficult missions that would never have been possible for someone that didn't have the extensive education and or sophisticated upbringing that they provided him in spades. Over and over again, it was revealed that Jaune's specific skill-set and unique abilities made him far, FAR more versatile than even a highly gifted Hunter could ever hope to be.
Even as the Arc sisters wept a torrent of overwhelmed tears all over the boardroom table, they gasped in astonishment at the lengths that their brother would go to to create a new identity. They watched their brother capture rogue Hunters using cunning and guile, exterminate highly dangerous Grimm in unconventional ways, and grow visibly stronger as he carved out a niche for himself.
When Jonathon's presentation finally caught up to more recent events, the Arc sisters leaned into each other for support as they watched holo-footage from the Jango's camera system. Over the next couple of hours, they squeaked and whimpered as their brother fought off pirates, flew a nearly crippled Airship through an endless series of mountain peaks and airborne Grimm, and then fought it out with a pair of Gryphons with nearly zero aura to call upon. They flinched violently and cried out when the beast's claws ripped through the skin of his face and then they called out in excitement when he slammed his feet down on the sword's cross-guard and pierced its blade into its heart.
By this point, all of the Arc family sisters were sweat soaked and trembling in a moment of extreme relief, as they realized something that should've been obvious the whole entire time. Their brother managed to survive the day. He won. He lived. He was alive to this very day.
Of course, that was the exact moment when Jonathon Arc produced yet another hologram that his vassals managed to hack directly from the Vale Military database. It was Holo-footage that featured a Grimm swarm attacking a small colony called Croftlan…
While it couldn't be said that any of the Arc family sisters had been watching their brother's adventures with anything even resembling calm, their reaction to Jaune's defense of Croftlan Colony Airfield's barrier wall was nothing less than explosive. They cried out in alarm when he first slid down the cliffside to drop atop the under-strength barrier wall, they cheered long and loud when he pioneered the very first Gravity barriers, they stared at the overly familiar black ribboned girl with open suspicion upon their faces, and then they whimpered in alarm when the grimm made it to the top of the wall.
Over the next twenty-five minutes, Juniper screamed for Jaune to hack, slash, shield and kick, and even Olivia found herself muttering along as she flexed her fingers against the thick steel of her chair. The battle for Croftlan Airfield was in a constant state of crisis right from the very beginning, but their brother proved to be up to the task as he orchestrated the use of improvised explosives, provided direction and support to his partner, and proved himself to be an honest to Oum Arc family hero… Then he also proved himself to be an exceptionally charismatic leader, when one Huntress after another arrived on the scene to provide him assistance, support, and the time required to enact his plan…
Needless to say, the gigantic explosion that Jaune managed to create in the killing field outside of the Airfield's barrier walls was nothing short of miraculous, and the Arc sisters stared slack jawed at the wanton destruction that it created in the Grimm swell's ranks.
In comparison to the battle for Croftlan colony, the barroom brawl in Junior's nightclub was almost anticlimactic, excepting of course, the fact that in little over a week's time, their little brother had more than quadrupled his movement speed and refined his fighting technique in the extreme. The Arc sisters were happy. The Arc sisters were proud…
But then the holo-footage finally arrived at the scene recorded in the sewer pump-house, and any excitement that the Arc sisters were feeling was squashed under the weight of their total dejection…
"I, Jaune Arc, hereby renounce my family name! I'm emancipating myself, and I'm assuming the name John Freeman from this point forward! The Arc family has no say in what I do, where I go, or what occupation I have! I'm a Beacon trainee both accepted and Initiated, which makes me legally an adult! I have an aura! I have a Semblance! I'm a Platoon Captain in only my first year! I'm not weak! I'm not helpless! I'm not going to be a prisoner to the Arc family's fear and sickness ever again! Never! Whoever you are on the other side of this holo-recording... Feel free to fuck yourself!"
In the silence that followed Jaune's angry and defiant rant, followed by the passionate intervention of his Platoon, Olivia began sniggering and then laughing with a manic quality to her voice that echoed all around the hall. "That's right," she finally barked out with a nod towards the newly stationary hologram. "We, the Arc family… We're crazy, we're deranged, we're delusional and dangerous. Those Beacon girls are prepared to fight us tooth and nail! They're prepared to PROTECT Jaune from US! And do you know why?!… It's because we - are - the - PROBLEM! Jaune Arc was never weak! He was never defenseless! He never needed us to lock him away! We imprisoned and isolated our brother for seven whole years for nothing! We selfishly, senselessly sealed him away, and we lost him forever in the process!"
Every single one of Olivia's sisters bodily flinched at Olivia's words. Then their eyes widened and their pupils dilated to twice their normal size as if they'd just taken a blow to the head or were exposed to a brilliantly bright light. They gasped, they stuttered, they visibly attempted to figure themselves out… and then they turned towards their father because they suddenly knew exactly what this had to mean…
With every single Arc family sister staring in his direction, demanding answers with their eyes, Jonathan Arc slowly rose up to his feet and rounded the boardroom table to look down at his youngest daughter from extremely close range.
"One… Name just ONE of Jaune's deeds that he could've accomplished without the sophisticated education that his upbringing provided him," Jonathan quietly demanded of Olivia, with his right hand curled around her shoulder and his stare piercing down into hers.
"Jaune's genius is in SPITE of us… You used your Semblance to make us little more than prison guards," Olivia countered in an outraged tone of voice.
"I did what was necessary to mold Jaune into what we need, what REMNANT needs," Jonathan loudly countered as he cued up camera footage from Croftlan Airfield again and then pointed at the man affixing gravity sleds onto the wall. "Jaune's the ONLY man on Remnant who could've strung together those defenses, in that situation, while instilling hope in the terrified civilians that he had to work with. The high class upbringing that we provided him allows him to view problems from multiple angles… to create simple and streamlined solutions to extremely complex problems… to think DIFFERENT rather than harder."
"Why did you do this to him though?," Olivia choked out in a completely miserable voice. "Why our Jaune?"
"Because I said it was necessary," a tri-toned and ethereal feminine voice suddenly offered.
Juliet Arc, the REAL authority of the Arc family, was finally joining the conversation.
2 Hours later, Sunday Morning, Housing Arrangement Number 7, RPBY's barracks room…
For several minutes after Jaune woke up in the RPBY barracks room with his body completely covered in scantily clad Huntresses, he simply lay where he was and attempted to come to grips with his current situation. Penny knew that he loved her, which was both a very good thing, and a very bad thing… but then that new development needed to be put on the back burner in order for Jaune to focus on something far more… pressing…
The Arc family knew where he was.
Jaune needed to go speak to Ozpin ASAP. He needed to begin armouring up. He needed to prepare for the worst.
But then, very suddenly, Jaune's thoughts ground to a halt, when an infinitely soft set of silky smooth lips began pressing in against his neck, and Penny Polendina was squeezing her every curve flat against his body. The woman was awake. That much was obvious. She also had no interest in breaking away from his body. Her arms were tightening around his stomach and her face was burrowing further into his neck and shoulder with every moment that passed. Then the orangette woman was biting gently on the lobe of his ear, and Jaune was releasing an involuntary shiver that he feared would wake the girls.
After snapping open his eyes, Jaune gave Penny a very meaningful look. He tried to convey his thoughts with his eyes. He WILLED the woman to understand… Not only was Yang hugging him tightly from the side with her impressive breasts sandwiching his entire upper arm, but Blake was curled up atop his lap (like a cat) with her right cheek laying flush against his stomach muscles, and Ruby was snuggling his right leg where she was using his upper-thigh as a pillow.
Jaune Freeman could NOT afford to become aroused under the current circumstances.
Penny seemed amused even as she nodded her understanding into his shoulder. On the other hand, she still didn't move away, and her lips never really drew away from the flesh of his neck…
"Ahem… Good morning Platoon number one," a calm but bemused sounding female voice suddenly announced from the door to the RPBY barracks.
And that was the moment when all hell broke loose.
Blake, Yang and Ruby woke up all at once to find themselves cuddling against and or sleeping atop their Platoon Captain in front of their Professor Mentor, at which point they yelped and stuttered, blushed down to the roots of their hair, rolled away from Jaune's body, and exploded up to their feet with their hands in the air.
Pyrrha and Weiss likewise woke up spooning each other just a foot or two to Jaune's right, but unlike everyone else they seemed untroubled by their current arrangement. It was completely obvious that there wasn't anything the least bit romantic happening between the two of them beyond a rather comfortable night's sleep, so they merely nodded a good morning at each other and then slowly rose to their feet.
Nora smiled cheerfully as she stretched her arms to the sky, and then slapped Ren awake in a movement that looked extremely well-rehearsed…
Penny didn't move, like, at all. She was visibly unwilling to let go of Jaune's body.
"Last night, at around oh three hundred Hours (3:00 Am), every single one of you either called or emailed me in a frenzy, to let me know that Jaune's family, the Arc's, had found him, and attempted to abduct him," Glynda explained as she scanned the room with her eyes. She appeared to be interested in the tiny little halter tops and panties get-up that all of the girls had stripped down to (except for Weiss who was wearing her usual nightgown).
"Thank you and my apologies," Jaune immediately offered as he rose to a seated position and gently pulled Penny's arms away from where they were cinched around his ribs. "My Platoon was worried for me. They… Well… I'm sorry…"
Glynda merely nodded at Jaune's apology, as she didn't appear to be all that upset with any of them. "Yes, well, please get dressed everyone, and then come with me. We must speak to Ozpin about what needs to happen from this point forward, and I imagine you'll all want to know what's going on."
With a nod of his head in return, Jaune slowly rose to his feet, at which point he finally noticed that he was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts, and he couldn't find his clothing anywhere... He shook his head at himself because his memory was still a foggy patchwork of events, but he vaguely remembered being stripped by a large number of feminine hands. Then Jaune was fighting off a blush even as he moved down the hall towards his room and the wardrobe contained within.
Jaune had never been in Ozpin's office before, but he had heard of its appearance because of how ostentatious it was… Hundreds and hundreds of cogs twisted and turned within the translucent walls, as if the entire building that they stood in was an impossibly complex clock or machine.
"Well, we all knew that this was coming eventually, but I'll admit that I expected you to make it through at least one semester before your identity was outed," Ozpin began when Platoon Number one stood in front of him.
"All of the seeker-bots back in Atlas were tampered with by General Ironwood on my behalf," Jaune began. "I don't know who did it, but someone reprogrammed those robots, and then removed them from the system that governs their use."
"I see…" Ozpin mused. "Well, I just got out of an International communication call from Atlas, and can you guess who it was that I was speaking to?"
Jaune only nodded. He didn't have to guess. He knew exactly who called, and he knew exactly what the man wanted.
"I'll admit that I was very surprised during this call, Jaune. Your father is, for the most part, a very reasonable man," Ozpin began. "He wasn't being at all reasonable today though… He was making several very inconvenient demands of me, the least of which was for me to immediately return you to him."
"I trust that you… politely… refused," Jaune slowly asked, his voice eerily calm and his features robotic.
"I told him that doing so is impossible because you're quite famous for your heroism and ingenuity over here in Vale," Ozpin agreed with a small but meaningful nod.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean, sir. I've never allowed my actions to become known by anyone, let alone the general public…" At the tail end of these words, Jaune's eyes suddenly widened and his mouth bobbed open like a fish.
"Someone, and I don't know who, leaked the holo-footage of the rescue of the Jango, and every single moment of the defense of Croftlan Airfield's barrier wall," Ozpin revealed with a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "As we speak, the Vale News Network is creating a very long and very thorough holo-production featuring you, your names both old and new, your face, your pedigree, your deeds, your Gravity Barriers, the lien that you've accrued, your acceptance into this school, and the fact that you've become a Platoon Captain of some exceptionally capable Hunters. If you end up in front of a holo-monitor this afternoon, you will find that you're currently being made into something of a celebrity, which, I trust, will make it very… awkward for the Arc family to simply… take you."
"I… I see," Jaune breathed out, his voice under very tight control. "I never would've imagined this happening, but I can see why it has..." Even as he said those words, several feminine hands dropped onto his shoulders from behind in solidarity, and Glynda smiled at him from off to Ozpin's right hand side.
"What can you tell me about your sisters, Jaune," Ozpin suddenly asked.
After blinking in surprise several different times, Jaune drew in a breath. "They are… They're wonderful people whenever I'm not involved."
"Petunia, Daffney, Daisy, Mari, Lilly, Juniper, and Olivia Arc are going to be arriving at Beacon on Monday, presumably to attend the opening ceremony of the Vytal festival, of which the youngest four are all going to be taking part as a newly formed squad... I don't have the Political clout to deny the Arc's such a simple request in regards to a highly qualified group of young Huntress trainees." Ozpin looked like this outcome was bothering him far more than anything else that the Arcs had done. It appeared that the man hated being forced to do anything at all…
"This… is going to get a little ugly," Jaune admitted.
"Yes… I can see that it will," Ozpin allowed with an indifferent nod of his head. "Please keep property damage to a minimum while you prove to your siblings that you're not a baby in need of defending…"
Jaune could only nod at that. It appeared the headmaster could see exactly where this was heading, but was powerless to do anything about it.
The walk back to housing arrangement number seven felt like it took forever, but only because the students that they ran into along the way stopped everything that they were doing and stared at him with an unblinking intensity. The reaction that these students were making made sense when Jaune really thought about it. John Freeman was a nobody who just so happened to land a Captain position with the best Platoon in the school. Jaune Arc, on the other hand, was Atlesian nobility, born from two "S" ranked Hunters and with a pedigree dating back hundreds and hundreds of years…
Even as Jaune walked across the campus with his back straight and his eyes trained forward, he could easily hear the enthusiastically whispered conspiracy theories growing and evolving all around him. These people thought that it made perfect sense for him to act weak and slow in their combat classes, because he was trying to move around incognito. They also thought that he'd avoided using the massive explosions that he could make with his Semblance, because doing so would be far too flashy and distinct.
All around Jaune and his Platoon, Huntsmen and Huntresses glanced back and forth at each other in what they thought was understanding, and then gawked at him in their interest and growing curiosity.
Jaune wasn't a fan… His newfound notoriety was going to make living his life more difficult… It was going to cause him drama that he didn't need. It was going to inconvenience his Platoon…
Pyrrha and Blake both looked sympathetic for reasons all their own. Pyrrha knew exactly how it felt to receive the notoriety that Jaune was being subjected to, and Blake visibly hated being in the public eye.
On the other hand, Penny was visibly preening because her brother was the coolest and now everyone knew it. Similarly, Weiss looked smug, Yang looked amused, and Ruby was staring up at him as if he was a knight in shining armor from a fairy tale or something.
Nora and Ren were visibly and noticeably willing to act the same as usual, and Jaune wanted to hug them for it. They didn't seem to care about his social status, and they'd always known that his upbringing was unusual.
"Will you tell us your story when we get back to the house," Pyrrha moved up to ask with a hand resting gently on Jaune's forearm.
Jaune merely smiled at Pyrrha and nodded his head.
Which name do you want to go by," Ruby added as she bounced up to Jaune's other side and linked their arms. "Jaune and John both sound the same to me, but I figured you might have a preference."
"I'll probably go by the name of Jaune with an a-u-n-e and the last name Freeman from now on," Jaune explained after a few moments passed. "Jaune has always been my first name in my head. I've done a much better job of mentally adopting Freeman because the name Arc always upsets me."
Everyone on Platoon number one nodded their understanding, and then lapsed back into a thoughtful form of silence.
It's a lazy Sunday guys," Yang suddenly piped up. "After we all listen to Jaune's story, let's order some pizza, play board games and watch movies all night."
After a few seconds passed where Jaune thought that either Weiss or Blake would opt out of the activity, they both visibly decided to cooperate, causing him to smile in a moment of intense satisfaction…
The future was uncertain... It was important to take enjoyment from the little things…
All throughout the day, Jaune Arc, 'the Prodigal Son,' featured in the news, his exceptionally well-recorded and cinematic exploits on both the Jango and in Croftlan's airfield lending a sense of heroism and nobility to a character that had always been shrouded in mystery.
Long story short, in less than twelve hours, Jaune Freeman, formerly Jaune Arc, went from being a total unknown in Vale to being a household name.
A process that completely overshadowed yet another news segment that was also being played throughout the day. The White Fang Terrorist group was becoming increasingly active in vale, stealing Dust, buying up property under several corporate aliases, and making attempts to hijack all of the local crime organizations.
The White Fang was moving into Vale, and Blake Belladonna knew right away that she was another item on their agenda…
Sunday Evening, Housing Arrangement Number 3, Platoon # 2's living room…
By the time the Vale News Network finished airing holo-footage of the rescue on the Jango and the defense of Croftlan Airfield (again), news anchor Trisha Young was finished explaining just who John Freeman actually was…
Jaune fucking Arc… The Prodigal Son himself…
Needless to say, both Miltia and Melenie Malachite were ready to smash their heads against the nearest solid surface in their surprise and rising frustration. They hadn't known… They'd had no fucking clue just who it was that they were messing with… and now their lives were in the hands of an unbelievably strict Atlesian lordling…
What's worse was that Jaune Arc didn't have a single Godsdamned reason to be the least bit charitable with them.
This was quite literally the worst possible outcome. In the first place, Melenie and Miltia were only attending Beacon as spies for Junior because of all the war talk that was going around. The word on the street was that the Grimm were spawning at unprecedented rates, and that the world was about to spiral into a full on Grimm war…
Truth be told, neither Melenie nor Miltia had expected the rumors to be true, so now they had no idea how they should react to their new reality. The only thing that they did know for sure was that Junior's nightclub wasn't going to be able to protect them from millions and millions of Grimm.
Of course the chances were pretty damned good that the twins were about to be expelled from school either way. Just the night before, they'd surrounded and then attacked Jaune Arc, outing their involvement with Junior's gang in the process, and his orange haired teammate had recorded every single second of their actions for posterity purposes…
One thing was completely obvious… If the Malachite sisters managed to remain at Beacon at all, they were going to need to lay low, low, low.
Speaking of which…
Across the living room from the twins, leaning forward in an easy-boy chair that he'd claimed as his own, Cardin Winchester was currently tearing the cushions off of his armrests in his out of control rage and indignation.
"We're not going anywhere near Jaune Arc outside of sanctioned matches or training exercises," Miltia immediately called out. "He's too high profile now. He's too visible for the usual bully boy tactics to work against him."
"Rising to his feet, Cardin slowly stalked across the room to stand over the twins and stare down at them with an overtly threatening expression on his face. "Say that again… I dare you…"
"We're not helping you attack Jaune Arc anymore," Miltia immediately reiterated. "Even if you threaten us, we refuse to help you. We're not denying that you're stronger, but that boy can ruin us ten times over, and we're not poking the bear anymore."
"Cowards," Cardin loudly snapped as he stormed back across the room and slammed his hand down into his chair. "So what if he's Atlesian Nobility! I'm Vale Nobility, my authority is far more relevant!"
"We're not concerned with his nobility," Melenie immediately pointed out. "We're concerned with his intelligence, fame, cash resources, and absurd technical capabilities. You clearly don't get it Cardin… That boy outclasses us.. He outclasses you… If you don't stop..."
"Get out of my sight or we're having it out right here right now," Cardin suddenly yelled so loudly that his voice echoed all over the house.
"You're fucked in the head, and we warned you," Miltia barked back as she rose to her feet and drew her sister out of the room.
8 Pm, Downtown Vale, Junior's Nightclub…
Junior's Perspective…
When his scroll started ringing, Junior turned on the trace and recording device attached to his scroll intending to try to blackmail his way back out of dodge.
"Turn off the recording and tracking device right this second, or I might decide you're too much trouble to keep around," Jaune Arc's voice explained from within Junior's scroll. "Don't forget that I have a far superior tech team than you can ever hope to attain…"
"Yeah, it must be nice to have a fleet of vassals with technical training," Junior muttered even as he turned off the recording and tracking device.
"I suppose it would be, but I have no vassals with me, and I don't have need of any," Jaune corrected with what sounded like a sigh in his voice. "Now… I'm going to give you a few minutes to think of anything that you know about the following groups, and then I want you to list off any that I didn't mention…"
"Go ahead," Junior bit out.
"The White Fang, Roman Torchwick, The Arcs, the Skulls, Harlot A's…"
From there, Jaune Arc listed dozens and dozens of criminal and humanitarian organizations, terrorist cells, famous assassins, noble families, criminals, mercenaries, and bandits, until Junior was scrambling to write it all down.
After ending his scroll call to Junior within the relative privacy of his bedroom, Jaune nodded his thanks directly into Penny's hair, as the woman had just flexed her technopathic skills for him from her spot atop his lap.
On the one hand, this level of physical intimacy was nothing new to Jaune and Penny, as they'd always been free with hugs and casual contact. On the other hand, Penny was very thoroughly sitting in Jaune's lap at the moment, and she was going well out of her way to make sure that he was thinking about it… She was leaning her back flush against his chest. She was sliding her cheek against his jaw. She was pressing and rubbing her butt down into his thighs. She was curling her arms back behind the two of them to pull him tighter against her body…
Penny was doing absolutely everything in her power to remind Jaune that she was a woman, that she was in love with him, that he was in love with her, and that he couldn't continue to act as if they weren't romantically involved.
And she was driving Jaune right up the wall!
Suffice it to say, Jaune Arc was well-aware that he and Penny were an item now. He was NOT attempting to ignore their newfound status as lovers. On the other hand, he also knew that his bedroom was NOT a private location, any one of the women in his Platoon could, (and likely would) barge in through his door at any given moment, and he could NOT be having his way with Penny's gorgeous body if and when that happened…
But Jaune was just a man… so he was having a really hard time focusing on anything that wasn't Penny Polendina, and the way she was squirming in his lap.
A preoccupation that allowed Jaune to feel Penny's twitch of sudden realization as well as the rapid indrawn breath that she completed.
Something is happening," Jaune quietly prompted.
"Blake's making a run for it," Penny quickly breathed back.
"How do you know she isn't getting some air," Jaune asked.
"I put a nanobot tracking device within all fourteen of her ribbons, and she just boarded an Airbus to Vale with her entire collection in hand," Penny explained with a sigh. She's more than likely carrying a suitcase full of clothes, Jaune… She's not coming back…"
"The camera footage of Croftlan's Airfield Wall revealed Blake acting as my partner in the Beacon Initiation Test," Jaune brainstormed out loud. "The White Fang will know that she's attending this school and that she's a member of this Platoon… I need to go…"
"I'll come with and act as overwatch," Penny offered with an immediate nod of understanding. Due to the fact that she could track Jaune's movements through his aura armor using her cybernetic components, she was perfectly suited to acting as long range back-up in a pinch. This would allow her to follow the programming that was demanding she follow her asset, Blake, to track down the White Fang, while at the same time providing Jaune and Blake all of the privacy they needed.
The man was very, VERY persuasive… but her presence would likely get in the way…
With a flex of her cybernetic brain, Penny opened a brand new GPS app on Jaune's scroll before programming in a translucent red line that led in Blake's direction. By the time Jaune finished slipping on his foundation suit, clipping his reactive armor bands around his wrists and ankles and throwing on a gray sweater blue jeans combo to hide it all, Penny was neck deep in his scroll and prepared to help him navigate.
"Ready for a run through the woods," Jaune asked with a smile.
"Can we hold hands while we move," Penny asked in return.
"I will if you contact our team on their scrolls to let them know that Blake, you and I have urgent business to attend to over in Vale," Jaune offered as he leapt out his bedroom window and settled down onto the grass.
The man sure knows how to play hardball, Penny mentally grumbled as she followed Jaune out the window and across the twilit courtyard. She was going to have to duck and dodge like a quarter million questions over the next couple of minutes, and she knew it.
Still...
Penny was the only one out of the two of them that could send and receive text messages using only her mind, which made her the person best suited to act as a messenger…
Without another word, Penny reached out, took Jaune's hand, and moved at his side, as they sprinted through campus and into the woods.
To Be Continued
Author's Note:
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