"Sir!" another one of Ironwood's office staff came running up as he was making his way to the hanger.

"Report."

"The target is starting to act out, sir."

"Explain."

"He's throwing some of our men around, sir "

"Casualties?"

"None, sir."

"Then why is he?"

"Maybe he's frustrated, sir."

"Frustrated?" then it dawned on him, "They've been leading him around in circles."

"Yes, sir."

"Order it stopped. Give him a direct line to the hanger. Now."

"At once, sir."

"He's gaining more and more control." Ironwood spoke as soon as he was once again alone.

/=/

Watts stood in the middle of his partially wrecked computer centre. At least a quarter of his equipment lay ripped free or smashed. He panted out of exertion and anger; while his mind tried to come up with a solution to the mess he now found himself in. He couldn't return to Lady Salem; not now at least. He had to prove his theory correct. Show her that Jaune would be a useful weapon for her plans. Sitting down among the remains of his equipment he took several slow and deep breaths. He knew Atlas would still have him; he was confident of it. Maybe with luck they would contain Jaune in a more mechanical settling. One where interactions with him would be controlled by computers and mechanical means. Yes if that was to happen, Watts knew he would have a way in. A way to interact with him, and sway him to Lady Salem's side. A way to redeem himself into her good graces.

/=/

Winter was waiting a team of ACE-ops standing just behind her, when he entered the hanger. She waited as he wandered about the expansive space, almost as if he was confused or lost. Winter knew it was a gamble, that her chances to succeed where low; but it was worth the risk. If Jaune wanted to go home, she would send him home. She just needed to get close; close enough that he wouldn't be able to react in time. Regardless of what he had done, she was determined to make it quick and painless. Straight through the heart, put down the threat he was; like one would a maddened animal.

Slowly she began to walk forward, semi-confident that the family resemblance would give her the edge she needed. As she did more troops filled in the area. She could tell what units they belonged to. Spec-Ops and RRTs. General Ironwood had called in his best units; the ones if lost; he would be the least able to recover from. It proved to her just how serious the General was taking this all. Out of the corner of her vision she saw Ironwood appear. She tuned out his voice, putting all her focus into the task she had to complete.

/=/

Jaune stopped shuffling about and focused his attention on the figure approaching him. He could see she was doing it slowly, cautiously; the movements causing memories to well up in his mind. He gasped as vivid images filled his mind.

"I just want to go home." he almost moaned as his eyes squeezed shut, "She can take me home."

"Jaune?" it sounded almost like her, just more authoritative, commanding in tone.

"Weiss?" Jaune asked as he slowly allowed his blue eyes to open and focus on the one who was approaching him.

"No, I'm Winter." she responded before adding, "I'm her sister. I'm here to help you?"

"Sister?" Jaune could see the resemblance, it was close, so much closer than that girl from before.

"Yes, Jaune. Her sister. I'm here to help you."

"Will you take me home?"

"Yes I..." her words were cut off by the sounds of a landing bullhead. Slowly she turned her head from her intended target. Her eyes grew wide as a familiar figure was escorted down the loading ramp.

"Weiss." Jaune whispered as he took a slow step forward.

/=/

Weiss was still in the dark about why she was being escorted to the military base, and as her mind idly wandered between possible different reasons; she strode down the ramp. Around her the team that had been sent to get her; the same men and women that had forcibly subdued her father. She had no doubt that her father would be letting General Ironwood know how he felt about that. Almost giggling she turned, and saw him. Her eyes grew wide as the memories flooded fresh to the front of her mind. The smell, the warmth; the screams. She had nearly collapsed from exertion by the time she had gotten Ruby; her leader, her teammate; her friend to medical help. The memories of that night had kept her up for weeks, and it was only through assurances that he was gone; and liberal doses of sleeping aids that allowed her to start to regain a semblance of order to her life.

Even as far away from as she was, she could still see the brownish stains that splattered the medical scrubs he was dressed in. Panic gripped her; causing her heart to pound in her chest, the sound of blood rushed in her ears. When he stepped forward in her direction she screamed. Knocking her escorts aside the white boartusk materialized and charged forward, followed by a second then third.

/=/

Her screamed caused Jaune and Winter to recoil. She watched as Jaune took a couple steps backwards as if he had been physically struck. Preparing to move, and end it all before things fell even further into chaos, she coiled her legs beneath her and prepared to use her own semblance. She ignored the on rushing boartusk constructs; in fact part of her hoped they would reach the young man. As she put her plans into motion she caught the decimation of simulated creatures.

/=/

Memories that he had been reliving over and over in the dark; overwhelmed him. Pain ripped through his mind; causing him to react, violently. His blue eyes focused onto the forms charging upon him, and he watched as they fell apart as if they had been sliced in half lengthwise. Then they snapped in the direction of Weiss and her armed escort. He reacted as a voice in his head screamed "No!"

/=/

The RRT reacted to the threat instantly. One yanking Weiss roughly to the side, dumping her to the hard ground as another pushed her; stepping forward into the space she had just been. Weiss felt wet warmth splash across the right side of her face and body. She knew the feeling, she knew the smell. Overcome, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed as if every bone in her body had suddenly been removed.

/=/

"Weiss!" yelled Winter as she charged forward drawing her sword with her right hand. She made it three steps when his head snapped in her direction. Not wasting a second she unleashed a torrent of white birds, and dashed to her left abandoning her forward path. A sudden blossoming pain in her right arm and the clattering of her sword hitting the cement floor, told her she had made the right choice, just not fast enough. She fell forward sliding to a stop on her knees. She reached across with her left hand as she forced all her aura into her right forearm; as the sound of gunfire thundered to life around her.

/=/

"Fire! Fire!" Ironwood shouted as he pulled his own weapon and unloaded. He had made a terrible mistake in bringing Weiss here. He should have known better; but right now he had to get control of the situation; before it unravelled further. "Suppressing fire, keep him too occupied to attack!"

ACE-ops rushed forward and extracted Winter, pulling her away as the Spec-Ops teams did what they were trained for. What they were known for. With practised ease they switched from all firing to alternating bursts; keeping a constant flow of projectiles focused upon the target.

"Flash Bangs!" Ironwood roared as he reloaded his own weapon. He could see none of the rounds were reaching Jaune, but he could also see the growing amount of bullets floating in the air around him. Whatever his semblance was; Ironwood had guessed right. Jaune needed to focus in order to protect himself, and with the pure amount of lead being thrown in his direction there was no way for him to focus on anything other than protecting himself. That was why he only ever seemed to act after the gunfire had stopped, or before it started.

The gunfire stopped when the flash bangs went off. The sound echoing about the hanger, the bright flashes causing everyone to avert their eyes. They all held their fire as they watched Jaune stumble about, blinded and confused. He weaved and wobbled his hands pressed to his face.

"Secure him!" Ironwood ordered.

There was no delay as two RRT and a couple Spec-Ops charged forward and hit Jaune like linebackers trying to plant a quarterback into the turf. Jaune went over like a bowling pin, his head bouncing off the cement floor with a sharp crack; followed by his body going instantly limp. As the Spec-Ops guys held him down the RRT guys went to work; hog tying him with zip-ties, before wrapping several layers of duct tape around his head, over his eyes.

Seeing that Jaune was secure, Ironwood walked past his men towards the bullhead. He took in the sight as a medic rushed over and began looking over Weiss. Laying in a pool of crimson was the woman that had stepped into Weiss' place, pushing her out of harms way as the others pulled her to safety. General Ironwood made sure to burn the sight of the bisected body into his mind. It was going to be a vivid reminder of the mistakes he had made here today. Turning about he made his way to Winter. Her right forearm was encased in a compression chamber, sealing off her wound.

"Winter..." Ironwood was unable to finish as a wad of spittle splashed across the bridge of his nose and into his eyes. He recoiled from the impact, turning his head to the side and closing his eyes reflexively.

"You had no fucking right!" Winter snarled at him, "No fucking right."

/=/

The fallout of the incident was swift; Ironwood had no doubt that was at Jacques Schnee's insistence. Sitting at his desk he quietly shuffled some personal affects around as he waited. All his other projects had been shuffled off to other ranking officers; now he just waited for his replacement, in regards to all activities dealing with Jaune Arc. That officer would be arriving shortly. The last official thing he was able to do in regards to the young man was review the medical report on him. His aura, which he had apparently massive amounts of; prevented his skull from being split open upon impact with the cement floor. He had a concussion, and would be suffering headaches for more than a few days. Other than that he was fine, with no other injuries. That was it, he had no clue where he was, or how he was being secured. He looked up and regarded her as she opened the door and she entered.

"General."

"Winter." Ironwood replied in greeting, taking in her dishevelled condition. It was obvious to him that she had been not only dealing with her own injuries, but the state of her sister as well. "How is Wei..."

"That is none of your concern. General." Winter snapped in reply.

"Well," Ironwood rose from his seat and adjusted his uniform, "I have been officially relieved of duty until such time a military tribunal can be arranged to review the incident."

"What did you expect, sir?"

"Things to have turned out differently."

"They almost turned out for the worse, sir."

"I made a choice Winter."

"The wrong choice, sir."

"I have been instructed to turn over all materials regarding Jaune to you." he took a moment before continuing, "I take it you are here to confirm that you have received all that information?"

"I am." Winter paused before adding, "I am also here to formally inform you that you are hereby confined to your private quarters, except for meals or in the case of a medical need. In those instances you will be escorted by security to and from the relevant destinations, sir."

"Understood."

"Is there anything else, General?"

"No."

"Security waits for you outside to escort you to your quarters, sir."

General James Ironwood, took a deep breath; nodded to Winter before stepping out around his desk and out his office door. He nodded to the two officers that would be his escort and walked off down the hall. After a couple of minutes Winter turned on her heels and walked out of the office. She reached for the door knob with her right hand only to stop partway through the action. She looked down and for possibly the hundredth time; since it happened, considered the implication that her missing everything from the midpoint of her forearm down meant. Taking a breath she reached out with her left hand and closed the door.

/=/

Jaune hurt; he hurt all over but the throbbing pain in his head was by far the worse of it all. Weakly he attempted to open his eyes only to squeeze them shut at the brightness of the lights shining down upon him. He attempted to move and found he couldn't. He was once again trapped. Still squeezing his eyes shut he squirmed and twisted about, only to feel cold metal pressed against him. From behind the observation window a nurse watched, as the nearly naked figure strained against the metal restraints locking down his limbs and body. Reaching down he picked up a data pad and began to type in information. Noting the all the details of what was happening, and when. Jaune continued to twist and thrash, causing the dull throb in his head to suddenly become a sharp spike. Taking in ragged gasps of air, Jaune ceased his movements.

/=/

"Yes?" Winter responded to the knock at her door.

"Ma'am, we have more information from medical in regards to what went wrong with the sedation."

"Well, let's have it."

"Examination of the syringe and vial, prove that the sedation practice was indeed sabotaged. The medication that was being used on the subject had been switched to a stimulant, ma'am."

"So when he received his scheduled dose, he was woken up rather than kept under."

"Correct, ma'am."

"Do we have any suspects?"

"Security started to scan all surveillance, as soon as the issue of tampering was raised. We have two likely. Their credentials were further examined, and appear to be faked." reported the soldier before Winter, as she handed over a data pad with four images on it. "Security took the liberty of doing a capture and reconstruction, as well as forwarding it to all agencies involved with overall Atlas security, ma'am."

"How long ago?"

"Several hours ago, ma'am"

"And I'm only being informed of this now, why?"

"You were engaged in other matters; and the actions taken by security fall within the sphere of their mandated duties, ma'am."

Winter set the data pad down upon her cluttered desk and ran her left hand down her face. She was only a couple hours into everything that was linked to her new duties in regards to Jaune and she was already feeling like she was going to be overwhelmed. Of course security would have followed established protocol. They didn't need her okay to follow up on leads and attempt to locate suspects. Removing her hand she took another look at the images shown on the data pad. For some reason they looked familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"I'll leave the handling of this issue to the security staff. If there are any further developments please inform me."

"Yes, ma'am."

Once again alone in her office,Winter regarded everything before her. The amount of information she need to review was staggering. She wondered how her former commanding officer was able to deal with it all. She made a mental note to have everything on her desk, and any new information presented in a digital format. Why Ironwood liked working with paper files was beyond her. Standing, she fished her scroll from where it sat partly buried under the piles of paperwork. Thumbing through the office contact list, she stopped on the switchboard number; and hit the connect icon.

"Sir?" the call was answered after the third ring.

"Connect me with the Headmaster of Beacon Academy."

"Right away, ma'am."

/=/

Watts had gained complete control of himself, and he studied the damage he had inflicted to his equipment. It was all repairable or replaceable. He luckily had not touched his servers; so all his data was intact. Picking up his chair, he moved over to one of the few still intact keyboards and sat down. Taking a minute to organize the multitude of thoughts and ideas in his head, he just stared at the keyboard and blinking cursor. Letting out a quick snort he leaned forward and started typing. Lines of code started rapidly appearing on the screen. They built upon one another and slowly Watts was forming his next plan. As he worked he checked off ideas in his mind.

He would need to be fast, discreet and surgical. If Jaune was still alive; he knew Atlas would start testing him at some point. There would be no way that Atlas Council would allow someone so powerful to just walk away. They had tried it when the had him at site 51. He had the proof of it on his servers. If they wanted a new weapon, he'd help them get one, and then he'd turn it loose on them.

/=/

"Winter? What do I owe the pleasure?" Ozpin stammered as he answered the call from Atlas.

"This an informal and formal call Headmaster."

"I see. Informal and formal?"

"Yes. I'm first calling to let you know, General Ironwood has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of a military tribunal."

"How? Why?"

"I do not have the time or clearance to discuss that with you at least currently; however it does have to do with Jaune, and his recent activities."

"Jaune? What happened?"

"Headmaster..."

"No. You're calling for help, and if you want it. I need to know what the hell is going on in Atlas."

"There was another incident with him."

"I thought he was sedated and restrained?"

"He was, but we have evidence that suggests sabotage; by person or persons interested in seeing him free to roam Atlas."

"I see, and James?"

"He made a questionable decision that council is holding him accountable for."

"Okay, so what do you need from me?"

"All the information you have on Jaune Arc."

"All?"

"Yes, everything. We need his school admission records, report cards, medical information, anything and everything you have."

"While I would like to assist you, I have misgivings about allowing Atlas access to such confidential information. Why do you want it?"

"We're trying a different approach in regards to dealing with Jaune."

"Different? How so?"

"Seeing as everyone keeps wanting to wake him up. We're going to keep him awake, and talk with him."

"I see. So you want this information, because?"

"So we can have an accurate picture of his abilities and personality before the original event took place."

"If I may ask what are you plans for him?"

"I have no plans for him, aside from either finding a way to contain him, or providing him the ability to control himself."

"Control himself?"

"Some of my staff..."

"Your staff? Are you now in charge of Jaune, Winter?"

"I am."

"Because of what happened with James?"

"I didn't ask for this."

"I didn't say you did. Be honest what happened? James trusted me, openly. You know this. I can help, if not physically; at least as a sounding board for ideas."

"General Ironwood involved my sister."

"Things did not go as planned I take it."

"No they did not. I had it under control. This whole problem would have been over with."

"What do mean under control?"

"I was close, so close."

"Close to what?"

"Sending him home." Winter replied flatly.

"You mean killing him. You were going to kill him, and then Weiss showed up. What happened?"

"Weiss reacted badly, and Jaune reacted just as badly, if not worse."

"Is your sister okay?"

"She is being transferred to a private facility. Physically she was unharmed, but..."

"Say no more. I understand. So I take it he has been secured again."

"Yes."

"Do you still plan on sending him home?"

"That is no longer my decision to make."

"But you made it once before. What's stopping you now? James? Council? Weiss?"

"In a combat scenario it could be justified. That is no longer the situation we are in."

"So now you want him to gain control over his ability?"

"It is a theory being pushed forward that he is currently reacting by reflex or instinctively to threatening situations. It is felt that if we can get him to face what has happened, that he can gain control and no longer just lash out."

"Sounds like council is trying to complete what they started with him prior to his last episode."

"Currently I do not care what Council is or was trying to do. I currently care about getting control of this situation; preferably before another incident can happen. So will you help me?"

"I will, but I want you to consider one thing. Will you?"

"And that is?"

"Jaune is not the monster you are hoping he is. He's a young man who is probably suffering a hundred fold more times than anyone else is."

"He committed those acts."

"And do you think for one second he doesn't know that? Do you think he has any ability to come to terms with what he has done? I've known soldiers, huntsmen and huntresses that have fallen completely apart over seeing things that could not be unseen. Just imagine what it is like for him."

"So what? You want me to feel pity for him?"

"No."

"Than what?"

"Just try and understand."

"He murdered people. Many, many people."

"I know."

"So what are we just supposed to look the other way? Feel sorry for him? He murdered people, and if you had seen the footage I had, you would say it was in cold blood."

"Yet you just pointed out, earlier in our conversation, that he acts on reflex to hostile situations. It sounds to me like he is not in control of his actions, at least currently."

"So that excuses what he's done?"

"No, what I means is, until he is in control; you can't expect him to take responsibility for what he has done. From what I know of Jaune, I can assure you he will take responsibility, but only if, and pardon the phrasing; you can wake him up to what has been happening with him."

"As if it will be that easy."

"It won't be, I can promise you that."

"The records?"

"I will have them compiled and sent to you before tomorrow evening."

"Thank you for your assistance."

"Winter."

"Yes?"

"Just as I was with James. If you ever need to talk, I'm here."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Ozpin took in a slow breath after the call ended, before turning to the contacts in his own scroll and searching for the one he needed.

"Glynda." he spoke as the call was answered, "We have some work to do."

/=/

Mercury and Emerald were holed up the cheapest and seediest motel they could find. As fast as they had moved, it seems Atlas moved faster. They had bailed as discreetly as they could from the ticket line when Emerald had noticed the growing number of security personnel starting to wander about the station. She had even at Mercury's instance used her semblance to get close and catch a peek at a the scroll one of the stationary officers was looking at.

"They have our pictures." Mercury turned from the window he had been sneaking a peek out of. "How do they have our pictures?"

"This is Atlas, or have you forgotten they are THE kingdom of techo-geeks."

"Still seems a little fast, to me."

"How long do you think it took us to get down to the main city?"

"Couple hours without being seen, give or take."

"And what the fuck do you think they started to do when that bastard woke up?"

"Going through security footage."

"SO is it a fucking surprise now, how they have our pictures?"

"Well what are we going to do. They have this place closed up tighter than your..."

"Don't even think about saying it." Emerald hissed.

"We can't get out. At least through normal means."

Emerald moved and took her turn to peek out the window, as Mercury sat down on the lone double bed that practically filled the room.

"You know anyone here?" Emerald asked as she turned from the window and let the shabby curtain fall back into place.

"No. How about you?"

"No."

"What about the local syndicates and gangs?"

''Shouldn't be too hard to find 'em, but what then?"

"See if they can smuggle us out?"

"You got a huge stash of lien on you that I don't know about?"

Mercury rubbed his face with his hands before falling back and laying on the bed with his feet still on the floor. They were stuck. There was no easy way out, and staying just increased their chances of being eventually caught. It was supposed to be a quick in and out job. Simple, just switch a vial, and it was done.

"What about her agents?" Emerald asked as she returned to once again peek out the window.

"What about 'em?"

"They could get us out."

"And would take us straight back to her."

"We could try and explain."

"As if."

"It could work."

"You think that two timing shit, Watts hasn't already burned us."

"He might not have."

"Even if he hasn't, he would; and who do think they'll all side with? The two expendable street rats, or the Doctor?"

"So what then?"

"I haven't a fucking clue."

/=/

As Watts feverishly built his creation; Winter returned to her private quarters. She had stopped at her office first and noticed all the files had been gathered up and removed. She knew why. Before she had decided to take a walk to clear her head and digest everything Ozpin had spoken to her about, she had requested that all the files in regards to Jaune be digitized; and that any further information in regards to him also be presented in such a manner. Removing her coat and hanging it over the back of her desk chair, she moved into the adjoining bathroom. Stopping at the sink she took a long hard look at herself in the mirror. She was haggard looking, her bun messy and almost undone. Her eyes tinted red with held back tears.

"You are unpresentable." she chastised herself as she moved her hands up and tried to fix her white hair. After a minute or so she gave up and returned to the main room. Stripping off the remainder of her uniform, down to her underwear, she moved over to her bunk and climbed in under the covers.

"Let's see if everything is more manageable in the morning." she muttered to herself as she closed her eyes.

/=/

Even as every turn of his head caused him sharp pains, Jaune couldn't stop thrashing. The images, and memories, came back to him in vivid detail. He saw every face, every terrified look. Remembered ever splash of crimson, and watched again and again ever horrific injury. Even as his conscious mind was reviled and attempted to suppress everything he had done, his unconscious mind pushed the images forward.

"This wasn't me." he muttered, "It wasn't."

A slow replay of Ruby crashing to the ground as her leg sailed out behind her, was replaced with one of Weiss collapsing to the ground as a curtain of blood showered. He even saw Winter, Weiss' sister as her arm fell to the floor; still clasped around her sword to flop like a landed fish.

"It wasn't me." he muttered over and over as he squeezed his eyes shut even tighter. "It wasn't me."

While he struggled and moved; the on duty nurse recorded everything she saw.

/=/

Winter rose refreshed, and after a quick shower she made herself presentable for the day. Stepping out of her quarters she made he way first to the officer's mess for a bite to eat before heading to her office. As she approached her receptionist rose from behind his desk; a data pad in his hands.

"These files just arrived from Beacon, ma'am." he informed her as he passed it to her.

"That was faster than I expected." she commented as she accepted the file, "Anything else I should be made aware of?"

"All the files have been digitized and are on your desk. The night shifts observations should be arriving shortly, ma'am."

"Thank you."

"Will there be anything, ma'ma?"

"No that will be all." Winter replied as she made her way into her office.

It was just as he had said. There neatly arrayed on her desk was a set of four data pads. Each she knew would hold a different set of data related to all the incidents being attributed to Jaune. Correction that Jaune had done. Moving around her desk she set down the pad containing the requested information from Beacon and took a seat. She took a moment to compose herself again before picking up the Beacon files.

"Those are obviously falsified." Winter commented aloud as she reviewed the first of the records she opened. "Why would you let someone into your school with such forged records?"

/=/

Jaune was exhausted, from the images that invaded his mind, and his struggles against the unyielding metal straps that held him in place. Like multiple times before he attempted to open his eyes only to instantly squeeze them shut against the glaring lights bearing down on him. Despair settled in the pit of his stomach. The images kept rolling through his mind clouding any other thoughts, aside from one. He just wanted to go home. Tears dribbled from his squeezed shut eyes to run down the sides of his face.

The sound of a buzzer, a door opening; followed by the clack of heels upon the floor drew him partially out of his spiral of thoughts. With his eyes squeezed shut he was unable to see the young fox faunus, draped in a lab coat, and wheeling a small metal table containing neatly arranged medical instruments.

"Jaune?" came a soft feminine voice. In response he turned his head towards it and slightly opened one of his eyes "Hi, I'm Amanda. I'm here to get some vitals and draw a little blood okay?"

"I want to go home." he croaked.

"Sorry hon, I can't help you with that." she replied with a sweet smile, "Is there anything else I can help you with? Are you in any pain?"

"My head."

"Well you did take a nasty knock several hours ago." she spoke as she opened his eye and shined a light into it. He flinched. "So what type of pain is it, hon?"

"Dull, throbbing, sometime sharp."

"Well I can give you a little shot of pain killers. It wont take it all away but it will make it less noticeable. How does that sound?"

Jaune just nodded. Amanda prattled on making small talk, and getting some responses from Jaune; as she went about her duties. She took all his vitals, and a couple vials of blood before giving him the shot to ease his pain.

"All done. Anything else hon?"

"Thirsty. Hungry."

"Someone will be down in a few minutes to take care of that for you, and I'll be back in a few hours to check up. Okay?"

Again Jaune just nodded as he turned his head back to face the ceiling. He heard the receding clack of her heels, the buzz and swish of the door, and once again he was alone. In the observation room a second nurse jotted down notes on when and what was done.

/=/

Winter was at a loss for words when she set down the Beacon file. Anyway you looked at the information; Jaune Arc should not have been at Beacon, period. Ignoring the fact of the forged transcripts, his History and Tactical scores were slightly more than above average, his Grimm Studies was barely breaking even. Then there was his combat scores, they were so subpar. If it had been Atlas he had sneaked into instead of Beacon; those scores alone would have washed him out with in a week.

"WTF Ozpin." Winter muttered under her breath as her receptionist entered with a new data pad.

"These are the over night observations, and I've been asked to inform you that medical has given him a quick work up. He is mentioning head pain, but there seem to be no other ill affects." he reported as he handed the pad to Winter, "The kitchen staff have also been to his holding area, and seen to his needs in that regard, ma'am."

"What are they feeding him?"

"It will be in the next report, ma'am."

"Humour me."

"Until he is released from his restraints, the PMC feels that all of Jaune's meals should be in a meal substitute format, ma'am."

"And his... waste?"

"Adult diapers, at least for the time being. Again it will be in the next report, ma'am." her receptionist informed her as he waited to leave.

"Dismissed."

"Ma'am."

Once again alone, Winter set down the newest report and rubbed her eyes with her left hand. The remains of her right forearm she placed upon her desk. Her uniform sleeve neatly folded and pinned up to cover the stump. She took in a slow breath, she had no idea how her predecessor handed all this. The amount of information passing across her desk was inhuman, and General Ironwood had multiple projects on the go; where she was in charge of only one. Taking another slow breath she returned to the files before her. She needed to understand more about him before the onset of the initial event. To know him, before she confronted him.

/=/

Cans of energy drinks scattered his workspace. Watts hadn't stopped for a moments rest after his wave of creation had set in. Already with in the Atlas infrastructure he had several programs embedded and running. Everyone of them tailored to help him monitor Jaune; to siphon each and every tidbit of information about him that the military servers in Atlas were processing. His latest creation was a piece of art. Brainwashing was such a crude term; he preferred to Cerebral Conditioning himself. Stopping for a minute to pop open another can, he downed it before returning to his keyboard.

Watts knew the procedures and protocols that Atlas would be following. He in fact had helped shape many of them. For now, and most likely for many more days possibly weeks his masterpiece would sit idle. That was why he created so many other Trojan programs. He could already see out of the corner of his eyes his other monitor, showing the download of data, multiple feeds of data. After he was done here, with his current project he would look into spreading his creations out further. He would know everything about Jaune, everything Atlas discovered and then some, but for now he needed to focus.

It was only a matter of time, and even with his recent failure to enact the wishes of Lady Salem; Arthur Watts was confident he had all the time in the world. No one in Atlas knew he was alive, and no one in Lady Salem's inner circle knew where he stashed his little hideouts. He was perfectly safe for the time being. Safe to create, and follow through with his own machinations.

/=/

Emerald and Mercury felt and looked about as good as Jaune did. They were exhausted, sore and looked as though a boartusk had rolled over them, backed up and did it again. It had been a long night of taking turns watching out the single window, while the other attempted to get some sleep. Neither had. While they had fears of Atlas swooping in and subduing them; they had other darker more terrifying thoughts. They had failed her, and once she found out, she wouldn't be looking to capture them. She would be seeking out their punishment.

"We have to move." Mercury muttered as he turned from the window.

"But to where?"

"Another one of these shitty little places. Spend an night and go to another one. You know the routine."

"We don't have the lien to keep doing that."

"We can get lien." Mercury responded as he returned his attention to the window.

Emerald just nodded. Mercury had skills, as she did. Skills that lent themselves to keeping them from totally being without any resources. Still the thought that they could only play 'hide 'n sneak' with in Atlas was troubling to her. They needed to find a way out. A way to one of the other kingdoms, a place were they could really vanish.

"What if we stowed away?"

"On what?"

"SDC. They have transports in and out. Dust pick ups, shipments. We could try and hitch a ride."

"You think they don't have security? It's probably better than Atlas'."

"I doubt the guys watching over the loading and unloading of dust crates will be standing around or searching with our pictures in front of them."

"So what sneak on and hope we go somewhere other than a mining camp?"

"I'd take a mining camp over this any day. It's an idea, at least."

"It is."

/==/

While I have other stories I should be working on, this one is front and centre in my mind. So I'm driven to expand it more. A BIG thank you for all the reviewers who pointed things out, and made suggestions (IE Weiss being traumatized – the thought hadn't crossed my mind before it was mentioned.)

To be honest this chapter WAS originally going to be the end of the story, but as I'm writing, the story is evolving.

Again THANK YOU for the comments, critiques and suggestions. Without them I couldn't attempt to improve.

Hope you enjoyed.