(Should be slotted in the middle of Chapter 42, just after Two Wrongs don't make a right)
"So you're saying I should have let them kill Blake then? Is that it?" he asked, and the older Huntsman seemed taken aback by the question.
"No, I'm saying you should have-" Jaune fired his weapon into the ceiling, cutting off Qrow, before aiming it back at him, as small dust spilled around him. Cinder, standing beside him, seemed shocked by the sudden violence, but in that moment, she saw a chance and slipped around Qrow. The two men noticed her, obviously, but as she went down the elevator, neither reacted, still staring at each other.
"No, you're saying I should have run. That was my option, kill them, or run away, but they would have killed Blake. Don't EVER tell me we could have knocked them out, or taken them prisoner. We didn't have that kind of time, or ability," he countered whatever Qrow was about to say...which was in all honesty that, but as Jaune laid it out, he realized it WAS true. Neither of them were skilled enough to do that, it was kill, die, or run away, and that last meant only one of them would get away.
"Then you should have talked to them," he said, and this time Jaune shot at him, the bullet enough to drive him backwards, not hurt him at all, but Harbinger came to his hand, unfolding into a scythe on instinct, though only holding in ready position, as Jaune just stared at him, not angry...just...disappointed.
"And you don't think we did? You honestly think they listened to us? We tried to tell them, tried to explain, and they literally DID! NOT! CARE! We either killed them, or they killed us. Which is your choice?" he asked, and Qrow opened his mouth, about to argue, when Jaune reached up to his chest, and with his free hand, clicked a switch, the camera on his shirt going dead, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll.
"Let's test your morals, shall we?" he asked, and while it took a moment, he soon had a number dialed on the device, and it rang once, twice, the third time, as it rang, someone picked up, a female voice.
"Jaune? Are you in position then? The other guy just left, the tail says he's meandering around the edge of the town right now, obviously doesn't want to deal with what we set up for him," she said, her tone cold, hateful even.
"Yeah, Ilia, I'm in position. Snap me a picture, and I'll show him," he said, and there were some muffled voices, Jaune holding the scroll closer to him to make them out.
"Yes, I turned off the sound, but you're still getting video, right? Can you see the scroll in my hand? Good...oh my, that is a good shot," he said, and then thumbed something, before turning the scroll around. Instant, Qrow's hackles raised up, and he could feel every muscle in his body tense, as on the scroll, he could clearly see the girls, team RWBY, sitting in his...well Taiyang's really, but the living room of their home in Patch, watching something.
"So, as you can see on my screen here, we have people watching your daughters," he said, and Qrow gritted his teeth.
"Nieces," he informed him, and Jaune looked confused for a moment, then shrugged.
"Yeah, whatever, we have people, about two dozen or so, all with Aura, all with a grudge. You see, Blake left on some rather bad terms with the Fang. She abandoned a mission, and trapped one of the Fang's best in the middle of Grimm territory, which meant he wasn't there when the camp he was supposed to rendezvous with got hit by monsters," he said, pulling the scroll back to him, and then keying something into it, before bringing it back up, showing a timer...one counting down.
"We had thirty-two(Thirty-six supplied a voice on the call), yeah, that, we had those people in that camp, waiting for them for hours past time, and we lost twenty-one of them, and even those that came out...well, Ilia's missing a hand and an eye, another guy lost a foot, you get the message. And as White Fang, they don't get prosthetics or replacements. They've got wood and some carved images, and that's about it," he explained, like he was talking about the weather.
"That team had friends, and the survivors too. All of them want Blake dead. I do too, and Adam figured they'd have one or two less protectors right now. A quick call from the Patch city hall got the other guy, Tie-pay or whatever he's called, to head out to do some paperwork, not something anyone is eager to do, and after all, they're safe at home, or so he thinks," that last was said with a smile.
"Now, the team is ready to go in, gun them down, and burn the place. No need for anything fancy. One can't walk, one's on a ton of painkillers...along with a few sedatives snuck into them. The other two are a Schnee, so she's going to die too, and Blake, who could barely fight ME when I was new to all this. Against a few of the White Fang's best and some motivated by revenge? Well, I think we'll get a nice red paint job going on that home of yours. It'll look good in my opinion, wood finish hasn't been in for a few decades now, you know?" he was still smiling the whole way through, as Qrow's eyes went to the windows, but Jaune's gaze never left his hands.
"And before you say anything...don't bother trying it. Pull your scroll out, and I order the hit, right now. Before you can push a button. However...we can deal, I think," he told him, still smiling as he walked back into the corridor a few steps, allowing Qrow to move forward...almost enough to make a dash for the door, to get some distance, to try and get to Patch somehow.
"And what deal are you offering?" he asked at last...he didn't want to take it, didn't want to even hear it...but what else could he do at the moment?
"Aw, nothing much, not anything too bad I think anyway. At least for me, maybe for you though?" he said, smiling just sort of dancing around the point as he turned the scroll around briefly, and whispered something into it, before snapping it closed and putting it back into his pocket.
"What's happening to my sister?" asked the young man, as he snapped back on the sound on the camera, making it obvious that's what he was doing to Qrow, placing him in the spotlight.
"She's being held in a chamber, about half a mile down. Ozpin has her in a medically induced coma, to keep her down. Her power…yours is enough for Chivalric Arms to tear the Kingdoms apart to get it back…hers can kill gods, or at least, Ozpin thinks so," he admitted to the camera, figuring this was his price, as he pointed to the elevator. Jaune seemed taken aback by the statement, but got back into it.
"Good, good, she's down there. No ways out except the elevator then?" he asked, and Qrow actually had to shrug.
"Oz is paranoid, moreso now than ever, but I can't say I've ever seen a way out other than this," he admitted.
"What about the other girl? The one Cinder was so interested in? Is she down there too?" he asked, and Qrow nodded.
"Amber Autumn, but she's in a coma coma. She'd being kept alive by the stuff there, thanks to what Cinder did to her about a year ago. Your 'partner' is a piece of work, and she wants to destroy the world. Are you okay with that?" he shot back, figuring if he was going to be on camera, he might as well lay out who he was up against here, and why help Ozpin was a good idea.
"I…I don't find much in me to care. You don't become the good guys by simply opposing the bad guys. Now, for the deal," Jaune began, reaching up to flick the switch on his camera again, making Qrow suck in a breath. He'd figured there'd be more to it, even if he'd hoped not.
"I'm going down there, follow Cinder. You come with me, you help me get my sister…don't care if you help Cinder, but my sister is an innocent. We get her out, and we leave. Your 'nieces' go free. I'll get the Fang to hold off on Blake until she's alone," he said, and Qrow looked at him, about to say something, but Jaune held up a hand, he wasn't done yet.
"That's deal one. Deal two…give me your scroll. I'll shoot Blake a message, and get her alone NOW. You can walk away. I won't stop you, and the team will attack the moment she's away from the others. Your nieces will be safe. And all it will cost is the life of their friend…you can tell them whatever you want afterwards," he explained this and then stood there impassively, letting Qrow look him in the eyes.
In his mind, Qrow weighed his options. His power, the transformation, even some of his abilities outside it, they came from Ozpin. Could he even use them against him? Even if he could, there was no telling if he could make it stick. Oz was a monster, he'd come back, and this sort of betrayal…he'd make sure Qrow would feel his displeasure. He wasn't Salem, he didn't take revenge, but Qrow knew too much, and this wasn't the sort of thing he could overlook.
But just giving up Blake like that? He'd never be able to lie to Ruby about it. Yang maybe, but Ruby…the way she was right now, it would break her heart. She'd never trust him again. She'd be right to. He'd have killed men for making that sort of decision, even if she'd dug her own grave on this. He…he wanted a way out of this. This wasn't how this was supposed to go, he was supposed to talk the boy…the man down, not be talked into going along with it.
"I don't think they'll wait much longer," he added, holding up his scroll again, with the picture on it, and Qrow sucked in a breath. Time pressure, on top of everything else. Gods damn it all!
"Fine!" he said, and then reached into his pocket, pulling out his scroll. He placed it on the ground, and kicked the thing over to Jaune, letting the man look at it, and then sigh, dejectedly as he picked it up, and then opened it.
"You know…Ironwood said you'd help me. That if anyone in this damned school was a good man, it was Qrow Brawen. That he was a drunk, a loudmouth, a womanizer, a bum, a…well, you get the picture. But at the end of the day, what he also was, was a good man, one who knew how wrong all this was," he said idly, as he began to tap on the scroll's display, and then looked up towards Qrow.
"He never said you were stupid enough to let me get this close though," he said, and Qrow's eyes went wide as he realized that Jaune had been inching his damn way forward, all the time they'd been talking, with Qrow closing his eyes and trying to process all this, he just hadn't noticed. He tried to jump away, but Jaune had his weapon out, and even as Harbinger unfolded, it was too late. The first bullet slammed into his leg.
It was a dust round. Yellow. It sent a shock through his whole body, the jolt staggering him as tried to focus, but it was like a stun gun, and with no Aura to counter it, he flopped onto the ground, still twitching, as Jaune, finishing up with his scroll, opened it all the way up, and then lowered it down, so Qrow could see what was on his screen, and it made the man's eyes tear up, rage and sorrow conflicting in his chest.
"Yeah…see, I might have fibbed a little myself. Turns out, the White Fang on those planes from the docks had friends too. And Schnee? Well, they always have a price on their head. That team was made up of camp survivors, but the others…well, they weren't going to wait for their turn. Even if I told them to, probably. Sorry, not sorry," he said, as Qrow stared at the image, his heart pounding in his chest.
It was the same room, the same group…but they weren't there anymore. The Fang was known to be 'creative' when it wanted to send a message. Branding mine bosses, laying someone across a road and having them crushed by their own trucks. The girls…well, you could tell which ones were killed for hate, and which ones just because, as their bodies were done up in a variety of ways.
A moment later, he felt something press against the back of his neck. He wanted to swear, wanted to scream, wanted to do…anything. But instead he sat there, waiting, as Jaune laughed, not saying anything, just holding the gun barrel against the back of his head. Then, he heard the click, and the sound of something, before a brief moment of pain, drawn out for an endless instant, and then nothing.
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At the bottom of the elevator, the room was a warzone, and two bodies were laying there. One was Cinder…he honestly had to whistle, impressed with what had been done to her. She'd died by inches, and that took talent, you know? Still, she'd given her own back, and apparently killed her bitch too, given the...chunky salsa in a glass tube he assumed used to be a woman.
Ozpin had died, of course, burned to death. How? Jaune hadn't the foggiest. Cinder, for all that name, had some kind of glass semblance, as far as he knew. Still, dude was dead as a doornail, and he was glad for it. The bastard had been trying to drag his body closer to Amber. Luckily, whatever Cinder had done to him had kept him at least seventy meters away.
Still, Amber was not unscathed. Her bed had been knocked aside, into the far corner of the room, at some point in the brawl. Amber looked okay, despite this. A few torn open bags of…medical bullshit honestly. He had no idea, but she was already rousing, her aura, almost as much as his, slowly filling in her wounds, and when he stood over her, smiling at her face, tearing up a little, she leapt at him, hugging him, and crying on his shoulder.
She was weak, however, and Jaune knew it. He quickly bundled her up in the rags they'd had her wearing, not trusting anything else in here. Oddly, he thought he saw an orange flicker come over one of her eyes, before she fell asleep in his arms. Whatever, he had her back, and getting into the elevator, he was dancing on cloud nine, working his way up into the school, and then stepping out.
Ironwood was waiting for him, having a few ace-ops take Qrow's body off. Jaune let him speechify for a bit, let him get it out of his system that a good man had lost his life today, but Jaune…well, he no longer cared to listen to it, instead, as Ironwood kept talking, the ace-ops with their guns guarding their leader. Jaune wasn't about to roll over and die for him, however, and as he stood there, smiling, Ironwood finally stopped talking.
He approached the grinning man, and with a hand, waved it through him, the image shattering into pieces and vanishing, leaving him standing there, shouting orders to his men as he rushed down the wall, wondering what the hell had happened, and where Jaune had gone. He was down at the end of the hall by the time a wall was blasted inwards, a large mechanoid creature standing outside it.
At the same time, Jaune, Neo, and Amber stepped out of the elevator, and as Ironwood ordered his troops to seize them, it was too late, the airships of the White Fang had the sky, and soon, they were off, the mech literally running down the side of the cliff, into the woods, and vanishing along with the rest, leaving Ironwood standing there, wondering what the hell had gone wrong with the plan.
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Four weeks later, Ironwood was put to death by Atlas. He went to it quietly, hanging his head low, as the stream where Qrow had died…where Jaune had said it was Ironwood's fault, and there was no one on the Atlas Council willing to defend him now. He wept at the end, as he faced the abyss, and told those on the Council to be prepared, because their reckoning would not take long to find them.
He wasn't wrong either. The Fang raided the Schnee Estate that very night. Winter mourned the death of her entire family, and the man who had been her father for so many years when her biological one had proven so flawed. And it did not end there. A week later would find the Chivalric Arms offices destroyed, the Paladin, their most powerful war machine, tearing through the building, the pilot laughing all the while.
They pointed fingers at Menagerie, at the White Fang that led them, but their accusations fell on deaf ears. Menagerie was no longer listening, to anyone from the other Kingdoms. Trade suddenly cut off, as the Faunus isolated themselves, claiming their archipelago no longer had need of the others. At the same time, all sources of information on them, spies one and all, found themselves silenced, either by exile or worse.
A young boy with an old soul, one who fancied himself a leader of men, would try, time and again, to get inside the isolated nation, and when that failed, dejected, he would turn to the one companion who might still favor him...to her credit, she did, but he found no succor in her than anywhere else. A generation was lost to that old soul, who, after a few years, would fade away again, to wait for a new world to spin from this one.
And in her Citadel far from the lands of men, another old soul would lament the ruination of her own plans, dismissing her servants, both the mundane and not so. She did not weep, as such was not in her nature. This was, after all, merely a setback. And Time? Time was one of the resources she had in abundance, as she sat on her throne, and waited for the world to turn once more.