An: The hiatus is over! Thanks for everyone being patient with me I know it's been a long time coming, but before we begin there's been a few changes. For one this story now has a beta. Big thanks to ShadowMester234 for volunteering. Hopefully this means faster updates and better chapters. Lastly, I've been working on the new cover art for this story of Jaune's two Pumpkin Pete charms. It should be posted some time later today so keep an eye out for that.
Beta: ShadowMester234
"James, would you mind telling me why you felt it necessary to bring an entire atlesian fleet to Vale?" Ozpin asked taking a sip from his trusty mug.
"You know why." General Ironwood respond without a hint of regret.
"I suppose I do. I just had hoped you would have discussed this with me beforehand and not go to the council behind my back."
"I had no choice, Ozpin. You wouldn't have approved."
"And for good reason. What do you believe will come of this? The people are already asking questions. They're scared."
"As they should be. Better to be scared than dead."
"We are in a time of peace. The citizens shouldn't be worried about anything more than workplace anxiety and what they're going to eat tonight."
"How can you say that?" Ironwood grunted. "It's clear to everyone that something's wrong."
"Helped along by the presence of several Atlas warships," Ozpin challenged.
General Ironwood slammed his hand on Ozpin's desk. "My fleet isn't the cause of this growing tensions, it's the response."
"An overblown and heavy handed response. In times like these it's best to be precautious."
Ironwood looked ready to explode. "Amber was attacked, dust robberies take place daily, a serial killer stringing up faunus corpses still hasn't been caught, the White Fang is growing and more active than ever, your own students engaged Roman Torchwick at the docks in his most blatant heist yet, and who knows what else has been going on that I don't know about. Do you really think this is the time to be passive?"
"I'm well aware of what is going on." Ozpin replied as calm as ever. "It is not ideal, I'll admit, but it will be handled."
"Who better to handle it than professionally trained soldiers?"
"The professionally trained huntsmen and huntresses who have been keeping the peace since the war."
"That's what worries me. They're effective at hunting and killing grimm, but it wasn't a grimm who put the Fall Maiden into a coma. Do you really think your children are ready to fight a war?"
"I'm doing everything in our power so they won't have to."
"I hope so, Ozpin. I hope so."
The bullhead did not shake or rumble. Apparently, Whitley spared no expense even for a rental. Despite that, Jaune's stomach still tossed and turned, but at least he had company. Like any good partner, Emerald was sitting as far away from him as physically possible just in case his lunch decided to relocate from his stomach to the bullhead floor.
He didn't feel sick enough for that, but he didn't blame her for being cautious.
"Jaune, can you hear me?" Whitley's voice said.
"Yeah you're coming in clear." Jaune replied bringing the object, he was holding, up to eye level examining it one more time. The person piloting the bullhead had given it to him when they boarded before disappearing back into the cockpit.
If it had been anyone else they would have had no idea what to do with it, but for Jaune it was obvious. This was how he and Whitley were going to be able to communicate without the use of scrolls, so he wasn't the least bit shocked when Whitley's voice came through. That being said, what he held in his hands looked nothing like a communications device, so much so that even Emerald had been skeptical to its purpose.
What Jaune held was a knife made entirely out of glass. Jaune's reflection danced around it as he rotated it around. "I should have known you'd repurpose your sister's mirror."
"It wasn't doing any good shattered on the bathroom floor," Whitley said probably with a grin. "It was the prefect object to start messing with. You like it?"
"Why a knife though?"
"Like I said, I was just experimenting seeing if I could use it as a weapon, felt like a good place to start, so I hired a glassblower to mold those scattered pieces into proper blades. Unfortunately, the testing didn't really work out, the knife shattered when I hit a training bot just as any other glass-crafted object would. You're actually holding the second iteration of that knife. Well actually, the third if you count the one I'm holding as the second. I'm still working on a way to use these as weapons, though, so don't fret about that. I'm looking through what's left of Grandfather's stuff and I even have guys keeping an eye on auction houses to see if anything unnatural comes up. Getting anymore of this glass would be great, every "scientific" machine or test I put it under shows it to just be regular glass even though we know that's not true. If I had something to compare it to then—"
"Whitley, you're rambling," Jaune said cutting him off.
Jaune thought he might have upset him when a couple seconds passed without a response, but Whitley responded soon enough if a little more awkwardly.
"Hehe, sorry I'll get back to the point. When you called me about this mission, I realized that it might be possible to use these things to talk to each other. It wasn't a huge leap in logic to make. The grimm that were let into the mansion had to come from somewhere. Either the mirror somehow created them itself or, and I thought this far more likely, the glass connected to some other place, some people do say that mirrors are portals to other worlds. I decided to test if each individual piece connected to each other, and wouldn't you know it, they do. A way of communicating without having to worry about distance or signals. No image though, only sound, I think it has to do with how much glass is actually stuck together. It would explain why we could see imagines in Weiss's mirror and why, when you smashed it, we didn't hear hundreds of little echoes of ourselves as we talked."
Jaune was impressed. He wouldn't have thought to even try half the things Whitley did. Hell, he didn't even think to bring the broken mirror back with him. Whitley didn't even have a caretaker manual to help him. He was doing this all with a scientific methodology. If there was any doubt that Whitley's dive into the unknown world was only a passing insert, it had been dispelled.
Although that lead to a different problem, "Is it really wise to be messing with this stuff without knowing what will happen?"
Jaune promptly ignored Emerald's mutter that he was one to talk while Whitley explained. "Of course, it's wise, no progression would ever be made if people weren't willing to poke around into things they didn't understand. Safety, on the other hand, is bit more uncertain. I'm fully aware that pushing to far might get me hurt or worse, but I'm being as careful as possible. It's just harder since I don't know what dangers to look out for."
"So, using these knives to talk to each other is safe?"
A few moments of silence passed. Something Jaune had realized Whitley did whenever he was nervous about his response. "They are safe, right?" he repeated.
"As safe as they can be."
"Whitley."
"Listen it's not like they're dangerous. There's just some potential issues with them."
"How big of issues?"
Whitley gave in. "It's just a precaution but we probably shouldn't be talking through them for an extended period of time. For one, it's not like the original connection to wherever the geist came from was broken. I've noticed some, let's call them, distortions during my testing. Nothing has ever come through, and I don't think anything could, but well, you know. Secondly, we aren't exactly on a private channel. If anyone else has something like this they could probably listen in on us, and we'd have no way on knowing."
"I guess it could be worse. How do I turn this thing off anyways? I don't see a button."
"The pilot should have given you a case along with the knife." Jaune looked to his side where there was indeed a narrow wooden case with a cushioned interior. "You can just put in there. Mirrors reflect light, so no light means no reflection. It appears our magic glass follows the same rules if you throw it into darkness, it doesn't work. That said we're going to have to set times when we want to communicate with each other. I suggest that every day at noon and 8:00 P.M., your time, we check in with each other. That way you can let me know when I should send for your pickup."
"Sounds good to me." Jaune said.
A speaker buzzed above him. "We're are approaching Mt. Glenn, please prepare for departure."
"It appears, we're out of time." Whitley said. "Do your best out there. I want to hear about every detail when you're done."
"Sure thing," Jaune replied before placing the glass knife insides its case before putting that inside one of his side pouches. Then he turned towards Emerald giving her a wide smile. "You ready for this."
"Please, I've already made it through the hard part, surviving a flight with you without get barfed on."
Jaune felt his stomach twist and his intestines burn. "Why'd you have to say that. Talking with Whitley made me forget about it. He's been a better partner than you recently."
"You know I'm sure if I shove a blade into your gut you'll forget all about you motion sickness," Emerald said, radiating some seriously dangerous aura.
"And it's not too late for me to give you a shower."
"I swear if even one particle of your breakfast lands on me all, I'll—"
Emerald was interrupted by the pilot's announcement, "We have arrived." The bullhead doors slid open and Jaune couldn't get out fast enough. Grabbing his monstrous backpack that held the majority of their supplies, he leaped outside followed closely by Emerald.
The moment their feet were on the ground, it was clear something was amiss. It wasn't the eerie surroundings of the abandoned city, nor was it the pack of grimm who had been drawn in by their bullhead and were now surrounding them. No, it was something much more intangible. The air felt wrong, it felt heavier than it should have, and there was this smell. Jaune didn't know what it smelled like. It just went away if he tried to focus on it.
The grimm weren't going to wait for him to figure it out either. He and Emerald cut down a few before deciding that putting distance between them and the drop zone would be a better idea. Who knew how many grimm were on their way to investigate the strange noise of roaring engines?
Once they felt they were far enough away, they dispelled the grimm that had followed them and took shelter inside a building that looked reasonably stable. "You know it's not as bad as I thought it would be," Jaune said even though he was still panting from the run. Damn this backpack sure is heavy.
"It's only because all the grimm are focused on the leaving bullhead," Emerald said. "When it's gone completely, the grimm should go back to normal and spread out a lot more. I doubt there'll be a single street without at least one pack of grimm prowling it
"Then we need to look around as much as we possibly can before that."
"I would like that idea more if you had a clue as to what we're looking for."
"Don't act like you didn't know what we were signing up for, and it's not like we're in any worse shape than normal," Jaune said trying to lighten the mood. He already knew that this was going to be a rough job. He realized that they didn't have a plan, Emerald didn't need to remind him. "Why don't we start here?"
The building they took shelter in was some kind of coffee house. It was a place Jaune could easily see friends and coworkers coming in to relax and chat. Some of the tables even still had glassware on them. Now, a thick layer of dust showed that neither human nor grimm had been in here for a long time.
Walking behind the counter, there was a trash can fill with crinkled receipts and plastic cups. There were a few dishes still in the sink that would never be cleaned. Behind a partition and away from any customer's view was a bulletin board with a heap of personal and business items tacked on. There was shift schedules, a procedure list showing how to operate some machine, a flyer for some event, and a calendar with the birthdays of two people circled in black.
Jaune wondered how much warning people had gotten before the grimm descended. Had they been pounding at the walls for days before finally breaking through, or had the grimm just suddenly got in. The café offered no answers. There didn't appear to have been a mass panic but then again then there were the things that seemed to have just been left behind in the middle of the work day.
Exploring a little more Jaune found a set of stairs leading to the second floor. Letting Emerald know where he was going, Jaune ascended, testing each step before putting his full weight on it. The second level was a nice sized apartment.
The living room didn't offer anything of interest, so Jaune went to one of the connecting doors. It took a bit of force to get it open, but when he did, he arrived in a very messy bedroom. Clothes were rotting on the floor, posters of bands and celebrates were barely hanging to the wall, and a vanity dresser piled high with tubes of makeup took up an entire side of the room.
Jaune couldn't help but chuckle, thinking how similar it was to some of his sisters' rooms, before it died in his throat as he realized what had probably become of this room's occupant. He walked around a bit looking for…well hadn't Emerald already said it. He didn't know what he was looking for. Roman said he needed find a happy memory. How was he going to find one of those here? He had no connection to this place, yet he felt bad just standing here.
What he was really looking for was inspiration. The hope that a solution would just pop into his head and he and Emerald could get out of here.
"Jaune, I found something," Emerald called from downstairs.
Not really wanting to spend another moment in this room, Jaune went back down to see what she had discovered.
Turned out that behind the counter, in a back room, there was a trapdoor. Jaune only glanced inside that room so he had missed it, but Emerald had obviously been more thorough. The trapdoor had been opened to a steep set of wooden stairs leading down into a pitch-black void. "What do you think is down there?" Jaune asked after looking at it for some time. He was just waiting for a monster to jump out from it.
"Probably just a storage room, but if you're going to investigate this place we might as well do it right."
Jaune didn't have an argument for that. He really doubted he would find any inspiration down there, but ghosts—sorry echoes—would probably be right at home down there. Resigned to his fate, Jaune dug around his backpack for two flashlights and handed one to Emerald.
Testing the stairs leading down even more rigidly than the stairs leading up, Emerald was sent down first. If they broke under her weight, Jaune could pull her back up. The reverse likely wouldn't have gone so well. Jaune followed once she got down without issue. He considered leaving his backpack up here worried about the extra weight, but he decided against it. Call him paranoid but it would be just the thing for their supplies to have disappeared once they crawled back out.
Emerald was right, the under space was a store room. Shelves full of boxes and cans of what had likely been food for the restaurant took up the entire space. Rats scurried about trying to avoid the beams of their flashlights. "It smells awful," Jaune said, trying not to gag.
"There are rats. Rats poop, a lot," Emerald stated matter-of-factly. "With all this food and no people this must be paradise for them." To prove her point, Emerald quickly ran her flashlight along the floor. Jaune caught at least ten of the furry rodent run away.
"Oh, I suppose you'd be a little more experience with this than me," Jaune said feeling a little bad for even bringing it up.
"Living on the streets meant living and eating where no one else wanted to although nothing ever this bad," Emerald said her own nose wrinkling.
"Let's just take a quick look around and then we can get out of here."
"Haven't we already?" Emerald asked. "There's nothing down here. It's just storage."
Ture the room wasn't very big. The ceiling was low enough that Jaune was worried about hitting his head and he could see the back wall. They should have been able to see everything for where they were standing, but that was only if the room had been fully lit. As it was now everything was mostly blurry shapes and shadows. "I don't what to be here anymore than you, but like you said, we should do this right."
"If you say so. I'll let you know if any rat droppings start to float." Emerald said going off to the right.
Jaune shock his head. Emerald was not in the best of moods today not that he expected her to be. A trip to Mt. Glenn forced on them by none other than Roman Torchwick wouldn't be taken well by anyone. Still this small amount of snark was far better than the total bitch she had been when they first met. Hopefully she would calm down after a while.
Jaune slowly walked father in, noting the loud squeaks and scuffling that accompanied every step. He didn't know what he's do if he squished one. Better to just not think about, rats were smart they would avoid him.
Even with his snail pace, Jaune easily made it to the other side of the room. Emerald was right, there wasn't anything down here, just more boxes and cans. It was probably time to leave.
He turned around to do just that when his flashlight buzzed over something in the corner. Jaune had barely seen it, but now that he knew something was there he couldn't ignore it. Unsteadily bringing his flashlight back around, he illumined the object—and it was exact what he feared it was.
Yellowish-brown in color, covered in bits of cloth that were once clothes, slumped into the room's nook, laid a human body. Rats and time had taken care of nearly all the flesh but that didn't make it any less gruesome. Jaune thought he might scream but the sounds didn't come out. All he could do was stare back at the empty eye sockets that seemed to be asking who had woken this dead man up.
"Jaune are you done yet?" Emerald said, sliding in next to him before noticing what he was looking at. "Oh." Her own flash light examined the corpse much more than Jaune's did. A pack of those filthy scavengers had made their nest inside the man's rib cage, and unlike the rest of their kin, they weren't keen on moving. Dozens of little red eyes judged them from their bone fortress.
"Are you okay?" Emerald asked, nudging Jaune's hand.
Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After counting to ten, he opened them back up surprised to find that he actually was okay. The skeleton didn't look like something that would come alive a moment's notice anymore. It was just a pile of bones, and the creatures that inhabited it were just little mammals that were just trying to avoid the two giants who had invaded their land. "I'm good."
"Are you sure? We can leave if you want."
"No, I'm fine. It just caught me by surprise is all." After all what was this compared to what came before. Bury had been filled with corpse that were still fleshly and recognizable. Jaune had seen a faunus strung up by his entrails, eyes ripped out, and left to bake in the sun for hours. As much as he hated it, he was become desensitized to this stuff.
Emerald seemed to look him over trying to see if he was lying. Once she was stratified, she returned to acting like she hadn't been worried at all. Jaune smiled just a bit, going unseen in the darkness of the room. For all of Emerald's hard talk, she really was a caring partner. He wondered if she even realized what she was doing. This wasn't the place to bring that up, though, for now he'd keep that information to himself.
"What do you think killed him?" Emerald asked, mostly just to fill the silence.
"I'm sure he hid down here when the grimm invaded," Jaune reasoned. "Probably thought he could wait it out. There's plenty of food down here but I don't see any water. Poor guy probably drank all there was, holding out hope for help that would never come."
Emerald looked like she wanted to say something. Likely something along the lines of taking his chances with the grimm instead of wasting away down here. Instead she held her tongue either for some residual respect for the dead or a because of a more personal experience. Sadly, Jaune knew which option he would bet on.
This time it was his suggestion to leave, and Emerald agree. They headed back up the stairs without looking back. In an ideal world, Jaune would have liked to bury the unknown man, but with grimm prowling around every inch of the city and that wouldn't be possible. A funeral also wouldn't give them the happy memory they were looking for. If anything, it would only reinforce the negative memories the echoes already had.
Unfortunately, whoever that was would have to stay down there with the rats until someone else came around to give me a proper send off. Jaune guessed he would be waiting for a long time.
From his perch, Jaune could see hundreds of grimm prowling below and several goliaths roaming the horizon. Hard to believe he and Emerald had been in the thick of it. Not that they had anything to show for it. They were no closer to solution than they were when they landed.
Controlling his emotions so he wouldn't attract grimm, not that it should matter since supposedly there should have been thousands of echoes to mask their presences, Jaune sat next to the fire where Emerald already was. Currently they were on the 4th floor of a half-destroyed office building. High enough to avoid all the grimm wandering the ground, but low enough to not risk be caught by a nevermore. The stability left something to be desired, but it was the best they could find. At the very least they wouldn't have to take turns keeping watch. Barricading the only entrance with desks, chairs and other supplies would alert them to anything trying to get through.
It had basically been a requirement for their temporary shelter because looking at either of them made it was clear they needed sleep. An entire day of fighting grimm and searching decaying buildings really took it out of you.
"Did Whitley have anything to say?" Emerald asked, fighting off a yawn.
"No," Jaune replied, "I just told him we didn't need anything."
"We do though."
"Not anything he can get us."
Something collapsed in the distance, and the stampede of grimm going to investigate shock the entire building. A particularly concerning crack in the ceiling grew even large. The fire continued to dance, illuminating the room. Their only source of comfort in this dark, cold place.
"We aren't going to be able to this," Emerald said curling her knees under her chin.
"Come on it's only been a day," Jaune laughed off. It wasn't normal for her to be to despondent. "We knew we might be here for weeks."
"We're not going to survive here for weeks. Grimm are everywhere, civilization is an entire bullhead flight away, and we don't even know what we're doing. Roman sent us here to die."
"You don't need to go that. He isn't that bad."
Emerald scoffed, "sure he isn't."
"You don't even know him."
"I bet I know him better than you."
"How so?" Jaune asked, tilting his head to look at her.
She continued to gaze into the fire offering him a halfway broken smile. "Went on a heist with him once. Back before he was Vale's most wanted. It wasn't anything huge, but it was bigger than anything I could have done on my own. He promised riches that would keep me feed for a year if I joined his little crew. The heist went off without a hitch. I played my part perfectly, but when I went back to the safe house to collect my reward, Roman wasn't there. He had taken the money and ran leaving me and all the other hired hands behind. I got to starve that night."
"Roman doesn't strike me as the type of guy to go back on his word," Jaune said.
"I bet a lot of people thought the exact same thing right before he robbed them blind." Emerald threw a pile of papers into the fire causing the flames to roar outward before settling back down. "It's what makes him such a good thief. He has a talent for getting people to trust him despite knowing he's a criminal. They think that they're different, that for whatever reason he's decided to look out for them."
"But what about honor among thieves," Jaune said continuing his defense for the person who gave him his new life. "Wouldn't it be bad for his reputation to betray his workers? Maybe something happened to him where he couldn't deliver the money."
Emerald head swung so fast in his direction that the shockwave seemed to stroke the flames. Red eyes dug into him. Jaune felt sweat drip down the back of his neck. He didn't think he'd ever seen her this mad. "I see he's caught you too although I guess I'm the fool for not realizing that the moment you mention him. Listen to me, Jaune, Roman is only out for himself. He doesn't care about anyone else. He betrayed me because he knew he could. What would the words of a street rat matter to him or anyone else."
Her voice came out cold and chilled him worse than the night air ever could. Jaune really had to same something. "Alright maybe Roman was like that back then, but not anymore. Someone who doesn't care about other people wouldn't become a caretaker in the first place. It's even in the name. Also, he saved Blake," the very event that caused them to be here in the first place, his treacherous mind pointed out, "that has to count for something."
The look Emerald was giving him told him that it didn't. She hadn't grown any angrier. She just looked so frustrated. "I know you're grateful to him and everything, but this whole caretaker thing was just him dumbing all the work he didn't want to do onto you."
Jaune didn't have a comeback for that and even if he did, Emerald didn't want to hear it. Signaling the end to their conversation, she turned her back to him and entered her sleeping bag.
With no more reason to stay up, Jaune laid down on his own and slowly drifted off the sleep listing to the grunts and growls of the grimm below.
Every day it seemed that the cost of booze rose and the quality plummeted. One day those greedy bastards would go too far and he would stop paying.
"Hey, I'm out over here! You going to get a me refill?" he shouted.
The barkeep came over and examined him. "Do you have the funds to afford another drink, sir?"
"Just put it on my tab."
"I'm afraid we can't do that, sir."
"Smug bastard," the man sneered looking around the rest of the bar. He spotted one of those business types all dressed up in a suit and tie with an arm around a fine-looking piece. "Put it on his card."
"Are you two friends?" The barkeep said, asking stupid questions.
"Does it matter, he's clearly got money to burn."
The bartender didn't answer, nor did he get him a drink. It was a standoff. One that ended almost before it began. Having had enough the drunk slammed his hands on the counter and went to confront the rich snob.
The pair of tits in a purple dress saw him approaching and tugged on the man's sleeve to get his attention. The well-dressed mogul turned towards him. "What do you want?" He said probably thinking how he was too good to be talking to the common folk.
"Be a buddy and spot me a couple lien," he said, wobbling. "I know you've got it. Come on, little help for a guy down on his luck."
"Leave us alone," the mutt barked while he very obviously pulled his date closer to his side. Was he trying to pull some white knight garbage, protecting her from the big bad world. Please, that skank would be way better off with him than that corporate sheep.
"How about you loan me her too. I'm sure she'd appreciate a man who knows where to stick it."
"What did you say," the man yelled taking a stand, face bright red and bursting with rage.
So, the dog had some bite after all, but he was far from done. "You heard what I said, but I'll put it in terms your kind can better understand. Let me mate with your bitch." If an attack was going to come it would be now, but the moment it did the fight would be over. This guy didn't know who he was messing with. No matter what happened aura would protect him.
The punch cam fast and hard. Aura did not protect him because he didn't have aura. Blood squirted from his nose and a tooth loosen as he tumbled to the floor. His vision had already been a little blurry but now he couldn't tell up from down or brown from blue. The only thing he was aware of was a lifting sensation before crashing down.
The ground felt different and everything was warmer. He eyes hurt and his eardrums felt like they might explode from the sudden increase in noise. "Would you all shut up," he gargled through the blood he hadn't spit out.
No one did and the noise continued to grate on his mind.
It took him while to realize he had been thrown out and even long for him to get to his feet. Wiping away the blood from his upper lip, he descended deeper into this shit stain of a city looking for a bar that would recognize his greatness.
One day he would rule this world. His chance was coming he could feel it. This aimless life would soon come to an end and everyone who had ever messed with him would come to regret it. He just had to wait a little longer.
His scroll vibrated in his pocket which was strange since he couldn't remember the last time he had gotten a message from anyone. Pulling out his scroll, he noticed that everyone around him were doing the same.
The message he received was simple:
Grimm have breached Mt, Glenn. Please remain calm and seek shelter.
Not a moment later a siren that put any other noise to shame blared to life. It took less than a minute for the whole city to fall in chaos completely ignoring the second half of the message. People were screaming and running in every direction like animals let loose from their cages.
In the middle of it all he stood there, completely still. This was his chance. A crisis was occurring. If he could stop it he would be hail a hero. The knowledge that he had no training or weapon didn't even faze him. All he could think about was the rewards and the fame. So, enamored by his illusions of grander that he didn't even notice the car that swerved off the road.
He was back on the ground, but this time he couldn't feel it. All he was aware of was the warm feeling across his entire body. He tried to get back up and found that he couldn't. He tried to bring his hand to his face and found that he couldn't. He couldn't do anything but watch as the warm red liquid continued to leak from his body.
Confusion gave way to anger.
He trashed around trying to dislodge himself from the twisted metal that trapped him, but stopped only seconds later after the pain became too much to bare. "What the hell is this!" He was the goddamn hero. He would be the one saving people not the one being saved. It was his destiny.
Anger gave way to sadness.
He couldn't die here. He couldn't die as some nameless loser. His life was just getting started. There was so much he wanted to do, so much that he hadn't even attempted to do. This wasn't fair.
Sadness gave way to despair.
His vision grew darker. This wasn't fair. His life didn't have any meaning. He had done nothing of value. Even now he wasn't going to die fighting off grimm or saving a life. He was going to die because of a damn accident. The grimm had breached the walls and he wasn't even going to see them.
But, as if answering his last pray a single beowolf wander into his vision. It didn't seem to have noticed him, but surely it would sniff him out soon. If he was going to die he wanted to at least be killed by a grimm. At least then he would have gotten some dignity.
His vision grew even darker. There wasn't much time left. He did everything he could to get the Grimm's attention: thrashing against the metal that trapped him, slapping the ground with his arm and calling out with the little amount of strength his voice possessed.
It worked. The grimm's snot angled towards him. The beowolf examined him, easy prey that would have been no challenge for it to take down. It would be over soon, but then the unthinkable happened.
He could have sworn he saw the grimm smirk before it turned around and headed in a different direction denying him even the death he wanted.
Fingers clawed against the ground, spilling even more blood as the hard-concrete cut into his skin. His one life couldn't end like this. He refused to let it go to waste. He didn't care how unreasonable he was being. He deserved another chance. He would survive no matter what.
His vision faded to nothingness.
"Hello sweetie, what's your name?"
"Emera—Azula." Why had she almost said Emerald? That wasn't her name and yet for a second it had felt like it was.
"And who's this little man?" the ice cream lady asked again bending down to greet her little brother.
"This is Jade."
"Oh, how cute. Are you two here on your own."
Azula puffed out her chest. "Yes, we are." Their parents had finally let her and Jade go out on their own. Granted it was only to the ice cream parlor and back, but it was a chance to show how mature she was. "I would like a scoop of strawberry and Jade would like…"
She turned to him letting him make his own choice. Poor Jade looked so nervous with his fingers twisting along his lips. He kept looking at her wanting her answer for him, but being a good sister meant helping your younger brother become a grownup and grownups spoke for themselves.
"Vanilla," he finally whispered.
"Coming right up," the nice lady said plopping a scoop of ice cream into two different bowls.
Azula handed her some lien and made sure to stuff the change deep into her pocket. "Thank you," she said as she took her brother's hand and lead him outside. If they were gone long, mom would start getting worried, and if mom got worried, then Azula wouldn't get to go out by herself for a long time.
"Slow down, I want to eat my ice cream," her brother complained.
"You can eat it when we're home," she snapped back. Jeez, their house was only a couple blocks away. Couldn't he just be patient?
There was a lot of people walking around today. Normally Azula would have slipped between them, but with her little brother and the risk of bumping into someone with their ice cream, she kept them with the flow.
It only got worse when a loud crashing sound echoed in front of them causing the foot traffic to grind to a sudden halt. Jade jumped at the sudden noise and only barely held onto his ice cream. "What was that," he whined.
Azula could only roll her eyes. This was a city loud noise happened all the time. If Jade didn't spend all day in his room playing video games he might have known that. "Someone probably just had an accident. Don't worry about it. Let's just get home."
The people in front of them didn't move, however. This just stood there like they were bolted to the floor. Seriously, didn't these people have more important thing to do than admire a car crash. Azula knew she did, and she didn't even have a job.
Eventually the adults did move, but not in the way she wanted them to. It started with them slowly taking one or two steps back. Azula was forced to pull her and her brother back as well not being able to see what was going through all the legs.
Then a deep growl sounded farther up. That was all it took for crowd to lose it.
Azula was knocked around as the adults stampeded backwards. She lost her brother's hand and was sent to the ground. She landed painfully on her knee, skinning it. Panicking, she tried looking for her brother who had been carried off somewhere—and then she saw it.
Past the forest of legs was a furry black creature with white plates sticking out of it. It wasn't alone either. Azula thought she saw at least two others in the few glimpses she got, and all of them were running her way.
Azula got to her feet and desperately searched for her brother.
How had grimm gotten into the city? It was supposed to be safe.
The hard edge of a suitcase cut into her cheek and sent her to the ground again. She had to continue the search on her hands and knees.
She had to find him and then they had to get home. Dad would know what to do.
A siren had sounded at some put, but Azula ignored it. The crowd was beginning to thin, and there he was! Her brother sitting on his knees, crying. Azula raced towards and grabbed his arm. "We've got to go!"
"But my—" he said pointing to where he had dropped his ice cream.
"That's not important!" she yelled pulling his arm. She didn't know where she was taking them. Their path home had been cut off and Azula didn't know any other routes.
Seeing a small alley between two buildings two building Azula shove her and her brother into it. "Azula, it smells bad," Jade whined.
"Shut up." She finished her scroll out of her skirt pocket trying to pull up a map. "Come on, hurry up." The map app opened but it was so zoomed out. She zoomed in as fast as she could but it was faster than her scroll could handle. She hit a loading screen as her scroll tried to retrieve the details.
"Azul, I'm scared!"
"I said shut up!" Her scroll slipped from her hand from a combination of how sweaty they were and how tight her grip had been. Her scroll didn't go far but it went far enough to end back up on the main street.
Azula went to grab it but before she could do much more than reach out, a black paw stepped on it. Yellow eyes indented into a white mask regarded her. Pushing her brother behind her and feeling urine run down her leg, Azula slowly backed away.
The grimm sulked towards her matching her step for step. This went on until her back collided with something. Azula glanced behind and saw that it was a solid wall. The alley they had entered didn't exit out to the other side. They were trapped.
The grimm kept creeping closer. There wasn't any choice. "Jade you have to run," She said stepping forward to shield her brother.
"No," he howled, "I can't leave you."
"You have to!" Azula screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks. The grimm was so close now she could have reached out and touched it.
Her legs were shaking and body felt like lead. She kept telling herself she wasn't scared. As long as her brother survived it would be okay. She just had to protect him. He had to survive no matter what.
The grimm's jaw clamped down.
Emerald woke up in a cold sweat. Immediately, she looked around for Jade before realizing that Jade didn't exist. No, that wasn't right, Jade was real. That wasn't just a dream. Never had she had dream where she membered ever detail. What she had just gone through was a memory. An awful, horrible memory about the people who died here. It was the only explanation.
She noticed that her partner was up too. There was a haunted look on his face as he sat up in his sleeping bag looking off into the distance. "Jaune," she said.
Her voice seemed to snap him out of whatever he was thinking about. "Oh, you're up too," he replied before realizing what that meant. "I'm guessing you had an unpleasant dream as well."
"You didn't tell me these echoes can make us relive their memories?"
"Trust me, I didn't know either."
"So, this is just Roman's idea of fun."
Jaune didn't think Roman knew either, but he didn't want to get into another fight. He already had enough on his mind. "Let's just go back to sleep. Now that we know about this we'll be better prepared. Maybe we'll even be able to keep them out." It was clear for the sound of his voice he didn't believe that, but Emerald didn't say anything, waiting to believe it herself.
Settling back down into her sleeping bag, Emerald knew sleep wouldn't come easily. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking and there was this feeling in the pit of her stomach like she had ingested pure ice. It was very unpleasant and the knowledge she would likely have to experience another when she finally did get to sleep didn't help. Staying up until morning wasn't an option. It wasn't even midnight yet. If she didn't sleep tonight, she would be risking drifting off sometime during the day.
But, getting to sleep was easier said than done. Almost an hour passed and she was still very much awake. Every time she closed her eyes she saw the widening jaw coming down on her and Jade. It really shouldn't have affected her, but there was a difference between a nightmare and actually living through someone's finals moments. It shook her like nothing else.
The scuffling from nearby informed her that Jaune wasn't doing any better. They had to do something.
"Jaune."
"Yeah."
"Can we sleep together?" Emerald didn't know if this would change anything and it was kind of embarrassing, but she had already slept with his onesies. This was really only one step up.
Jaune would have never suggested doing this probably because of some masculine pride or the fear of making things awkward, but Emerald didn't care. If doing this could offer any sort of comfort it would have been worth it. At the very least it wouldn't hurt.
"Sure," Jaune said after a bit of processing.
Emerald moved her sleeping bag next to Jaune's and he rolled over so he was facing her. The poor boy was blushing like mad and looked as stiff as a board. He obviously wasn't going to do anything, so Emerald took the lead and nestled her head right under his neck so when the echoes came they would see his head first, and just maybe to hide her own tint of red.
It didn't fix the problem, but she did feel a little better.
Letter to the headmaster of Beacon
Dear Ozpin
I would first like to apologize for the unexpected arrival of Sun Wukong. I understand that he has already gotten himself into some trouble beyond that of illegally entering Vale by boat. Rest assured he will be given a severe punishment upon his return. Until then I do ask you to provide him accommodations as he is a registered member of the Vytal Festival and while the suggestion of disqualifying him was brought up it will not be taken in the interest of not punishing his team for his lack of judgment.
As for the rest of team SSSN and the other teams Haven has chosen, they should be arriving soon. I hope they will be well accepted at Beacon.
Also, I know some security concerns have been raised and talk about postponing the festival or even canceling it have been floated, but I believe it would be unfair to the students if they were not allowed to demonstrate their skills in the Amity Colosseum just as every generation before them. Absolute safety at huge events like the Vytal festival can never be guaranteed. As headmaster of Haven Academy, I strongly recommend the festival continue as planned.
Signed
Leonardo Lionheart