All Stations All Stations, Guess who's back? This is MarchWarden with the quickest post he's yet done. Anyway. Hope you enjoy. Request Review. OVER.


Jaune Arc's office is just one of the nearly 300 rooms in Schnee Manor. Among the high-ceilinged ballrooms, comfortable drawing rooms, and vast kitchens, infinite bedrooms, boudoirs, artisan bathrooms, and an olympic sized indoor swimming pool, it really wasn't much to see. Klein called it the Second Master Cabinet, and at some time it had been the drinking room of Willow Schnee.

Jaune had since converted it. A painting of Nicholas Schnee hung on the wall, as ever, but this time he had company, in the form of a portrait of the Arc family hanging on the opposite wall, often replaced to keep up to date with both the growing size and bodies of the many members of the Arc clan.

The blue and white color scheme that had completely taken over the manor in previous years was not popular with the current master of the house and so the furnishings of the room had been replaced to better fit his tastes. The room's blue carpet had been replaced with a lion and sable one and the floors had been redone in a lighter color. Three upwards projecting hard light screens had been implanted in the floor a few feet in front of the desk for the master to work on when he did not feel like sitting at his desk, which he seldom did. A small library of books had also been compiled for his pleasure, and these were displayed along the walls of the room, ranging in type from fairy tale compilations, to the latest journals on Grimm behavior. There was also a small wood stove that sat next to his desk, that he had requested personally, and would feed on the colder nights when his only desire was to sit with this guitar and stare out the massive window behind the desk, overlooking the bleak waste of Solitas.

A few discreet panels hid some choice Huntsman tools from softer eyes, but other than that the office was a state of the art, modernized, picture perfect example of what kind of office the husband of Weiss Schnee should have.

Jaune watched missions flash across his displays as he leaned against his desk sipping his morning coffee. His favorite news channel prattled on distastefully in the still of the early morning, informing him of the developing situation with settlers of the land previously occupied by Salem, Menagerie's new developing military due to opening up trade with the SDC and Mistral's reaction…

The readouts told him still more about the modern situation. Vacuo's rampant protectionism problem led to almost no missions at large in the country. Or at least that was how it looked from his position.

Jobs at ranches and dairy farms in Vale were reopening, as all the previous generation of cowboy-Huntsmen retired to their country homes at the rich old age of fifty. It always happened at the beginning of fall when the animals were being taken inside, a time that the owners found ideal for training up new huntsmen, and letting the old ones off without causing too much pain or loss of life.

Menagerie was opening itself up to global messaging boards. As Blake worked to ease the tensions between humans and faunus, bounties and requests were becoming much more common from that corner of the world. Oscar may need to create a new assignor's office soon.

Jaune took all this and more in a glance at the rapidly shifting global situation readouts on the right screen and the scrolling mission lists on the central and left screens.

Jaune took another sip of coffee, and took a deep breath in through his nose, soaking up the early morning light. Blue dawn forced itself into his office, filling it with godstreaks and the austere positivity and motivation of the sunrise.

There came a knock at the door.

"Enter!" He called, putting his coffee down and turning off the displays.

The stiff mahogany door opened and Weiss walked in, bouncing baby Cressida in her arms and smiling.

"What's happening?" She asked, as positively as she could. The child had been keeping her up at all hours of the night. Cressida was not the most tame of infants, and her mother was definitely done with that song and dance.

Jaune crossed the room to his wife, "Nothing super interesting. You know, Vacuo in flames, cattle ranches in Vale are hiring… What did you have planned for today?"

Jaune stepped towards the door. Weiss stepped in his way.

"What's happening?" She asked again, this time a little less joyfully, "It's not normal for you to do this on your first morning back. I was expecting something a little different than the night I got. Did something happen? Is everything okay?"

Jaune looked at her for a few moments, formulating his response, "Atlas is making a move against the Greater Horde. I don't think it's anything to worry about, but it may cut profits for a few weeks, and I'm kind of bracing for the inevitable Tyrant that they miss. It's kind of an anxiety thing. It's pointless to worry about. I'll shut down in here." He made a dismissive motion with his hand.

Weiss looked at him a little harder a little longer. "If you say so, Jaune." She bumped Cressida again, "I was thinking that maybe we would hit the zoo today– when your mother comes over? How does that sound?"

Jaune turned back towards his desk, walked over, and began flipping switches to shut down his screens, various monitors, and harddrives, "That sounds great, let's do that. I'll tell mom the plan, set up an appointment with the Zoo, tell security about what we're up to so that they can make a plan," He hit the main lightswitch in the room and grabbed the door for Weiss, "After that I'll call Sara about her Mafia problem she wants me to fix and tell her–"

"Stop," Weiss snapped.

Jaune pulled up short, "Huh?"

"Stop avoiding us." She said, "You're home for once. Be home." She shifted the child again.

He closed the door, plunging the room into shadow, "It's my job, Weiss." he whispered, "I have to help these people."

"That's not what you're doing." She said, glaring in the dark.

"Ok?" He said.

The child gave a little yell.

"You're trying not to be here. For whatever reason I don't know, but we need you Jaune. You need to be here." She stormed.

"Ok?" He said again.

"Maybe you don't understand how little time we have. Maybe you feel immortal because you've fought things out of childhood nightmares, but I know that you're not. And you need to know that too. Jaune, how did your grandfather die?"

"He was killed in an attack on Vale." Jaune said quickly, and forcefully, happy to have something to say in this conversation.

"And how did your father die?" She asked. Cressida burped.

Jaune drew back from this, "I don't know if you still have the security clearance to know that," He flinched even as he said it.

Weiss opened the door, "I hope I have the security clearance to know how you die," She said and shut the door.

Jaune cursed and reached for the door.


Jaune had thought that the close air support was a bit much, but Winter had offered and so he accepted. The worst part of all this was having to t-pose in the middle of the tundra with nothing but red moss and stones and small hills in sight.

It wasn't even the fact that he was bait. That he could live with. It wouldn't be the first time and it definitely wouldn't be the last time.

It was definitely the not moving part that sucked most.

"Jaunie!" Cardin sang into his earpiece from beyond the horizon, "any signs of the itsy bitsy spider?"

"Next time, you're doing the bait thing." Jaune growled back.

Jaune boosted his aura again, hoping whatever blind and deaf Spook had been sent his way wasn't too busy fumbling its way out of a paper bag to notice the big crunchy hunk of Aura out here alone in the middle of the Atlesian tundra.

For being the antennae of the most powerful superpredator Atlas had ever seen they certainly didn't seem good at finding things.

Jaune stamped his foot impatiently. A nearby rock was suddenly pushed off its perch by an invisible force, ripping the moss that had accumulated in its time there and tumbling down with a bash and a rolling clatter. The clatter traveled quickly and emptily across the long flat plain. Their quarry had arrived.

The skin of a Spook, or Swarm Hound as they were formally known, was like a cuttlefish's, it bent and changed color with its surroundings, rendering it nearly invisible to the eye as it prowled across the tundras of Solitas.

But this one had just made a mistake. The noise of a falling rock was not concerning to the ordinary trucker or conductor who was taking a little rest stop by the road. It was even less concerning to the small towns that were this monster's true prey. However, it was this Spook's unlucky day: it was something that ACRN was looking for.

Jaune remained completely still, tracing with his eyes the unique indents it's mantid forelegs left in the ground as it moved. It's more hooflike rear legs left a less noticeable indent in the moss. It's taloned middle legs must have been kept close to its body, since no scratch or trace could be made out on any of the rocks or moss.

The Huntsman still managed. Occasionally the predator's upper body would leave the ground far enough that it exposed its own shadow. On these occasions both the huntsman and hunted, predator and prey would shift their positions.

This waltz of death continued for a moment. It was a breath of time. Less than a minute.

They both struck in the same instant. Jaune rolling under the mantid leg, and thrusting up towards the monster's head, the monster stabbing at its hunter with all its might.

Jaune won. The monster reeled from the impact, immediately remembering its primary mission and retreating out of sight.
The huntsman would not touch it again. But he didn't need to. His work was done.

His earpiece crackled, "Good stuff, chief." Neptune's voice rang in his ear, "We'll take it from here."

Jaune couldn't see or hear the Manta moving in pursuit, but he didn't need to. His boys would get there. Anchorfall was waiting for him to the east. He better get moving.

He set his bearing to 90 degrees, and started trekking. Long yellow and green hills and rocks were his only visual palette for miles and miles of stride after stride after stride. Red coated pebbles skittered out of his path as he trudged along, eating protein bars from his pockets to keep his energy up, his aura wicking away the worst of the cold.

Still his feet moved, as the sun sank in the sky, watching him crunch up low hills and still his feet moved. He rolled his shoulders feeling the straps of his armor for the first time in a long time, as his boots pushed pebbles down the impromptu path he made up the short draw, and still his feet moved. The horizon stretched as far and as distant as the earth-sky rift, and Anchorfall still did not rise, but still his feet moved. The sun fell through the rift, and the sky turned to blood, and the grass to yellow, and Anchorfall still did not rise, and still his feet moved.

His face felt heavy with numbness by the time Anchorfall rose, and the stars stared from the sky. Jaune felt his age keenly in his boots and on his shoulders. Never had twenty miles felt like that, never in his life. He didn't even remember checking out a room in the hotel or even the flight of stairs up. Only three days in the field and he couldn't remember what a chair felt like.

The huntsman put his head against the desk and felt for the glass of water he had ordered. It tasted like gasoline. Not a good choice. Where was the water?

Jaune pushed his eyes shut, The horizon wouldn't leave him alone. He just wanted to think for a moment.

He reached for the straps on his shoulders. He didn't want to think about it right now. His fingers found their purchase on the ribbon of leather. In a few swift motions and an unheard clang he was forty pounds lighter.

He reached for the room phone and the gasoline.


The wall was very uninteresting. So was the room he was in. So was the bed he was in. All that was uninteresting. But the ceiling was especially uninteresting.

And so Jaune looked at that.

Neptune was calling. Maybe he should answer that. Maybe he shouldn't. His hand held the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" Neptune said.

"Hello." Jaune intoned. He didn't feel like saying it.

"I was just calling to tell you that a Ripper got loose. The dumbass Captain let loose with the 16 inchers first and now we have smaller grimm all over the place. Lazy dog bombs and panic flak abound. Now the superlarges are getting out... We won't be there for a couple… Hanging up now." The line went dead.

Jaune put the phone down.

He turned his head and saw the window. Someone else got out of bed, but he was standing.

His armor had been kicked into the corner last night. He walked past it to the bathroom.

Something was beginning to come off his eyes. He pulled his nose.

The toilet seat was cold.

He decided that his shower would be too.


Cressida clutched the stuffed leopard close to herself, and stared at it in wonder. Weiss stared at her in wonder.

Excited children milled about the exhibits looking at, yelling at, and chasing the swans and peacocks that were allowed to roam the aviary uncaged.

They had decided to have lunch in the aviary, and it looked like things were just wrapping up. Dark haired Ragnfrid was bossing the other children into some kind of organized setup, she was getting ready to move on to the next exit and wanted her parents to know that they were ready to move on.

Weiss looked over at her husband, who was staring wonderingly at the IMAX off in the next exhibit, while chewing absentmindedly on his plastic silverware. The spoon lay on the table destroyed.

"Jaune," she said gently, he looked over and raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry for snapping at you this morning, I just get a little nervous and it wasn't–"

"No," Jaune cut her off, "I haven't been doing you right. I've been…" He looked away, unable to go on.

"It's okay, I understand. Sometimes it feels lonely– but"

"No." Jaune said, he had to say this, he could taste the blood seeping from his lip into his mouth. He hoped it was just from the fork. "I'm not a good person. I haven't been faithful, emotionally, or… I haven't been true, and I've been running from that…" Here he petered out, blinking rapidly, "I'm ruining our first day back– I-"

Weiss shushed him with a kiss to the knuckles. She rubbed his hand between her fingers.

"We'll talk about it." She promised. Then she looked out over the Zoo at the IMAX.

"Grandma and Ragnfrid are likely to leave us here to go see the zebras if we don't get a move on."

Cressida burped happily.


The groundskimming maneuver would have been impossible for a lesser man. Ren was not a lesser man.

Hitting the grimm would have been possible for a lesser man. It seemed that it was also possible for Ren.

Outside Ren, smaller Magan's wormlike bodies splattered across the nose of the Manta while Ren wove between the larger ones, which Cardin destroyed with a swing of his mace as they passed. Neptune was on the comms in the co-pilot's seat cussing out the Captain of the Numinous Fist, the Battleship they were supposed to be operating in support of.

To paraphrase Neptune: it was more like the Battleship was operating in support of them, and incompetently. He didn't put it so nicely.

Thousands of kinetic drop penetrators fell on and around the Manta killing all the grimm closest to them. Neptune's screaming increased in intensity.

Inside Ren there was a long meadow in a shallow valley in the backwoods of Mistral. There was a bicycle, something he had never driven before, and there was Nora, a girl he wanted to impress. He wanted her to trust him and think he was cool. She was his only friend, after all.

He grabbed the handles of the bicycle, put his feet on the pedals and…

The Manta accelerated hard. Hard. Cardin braced himself against the door.

"Ren, WHAT–" Neptune began, before the ground all around and behind the Manta exploded in a hail of dirt, clay and stone.

Ren moved as a bumblebee moves in a rainstorm. The bumblebee tumbles and swerves and ducks and weaves around chunks of natural terror twice and three times its size falling torrentially, uncontrollably from the crying heavens, only to get home to its honey and kindly yellow combs. So Ren tumbled between chunks of hyperacellerated earth.

The Titan Eiskau crawled from the pit beneath them, its bulk shaking the earth, its crenelated back bleeding Grimm, its eyeless face opening and closing a dozen mandibles in a gaping jaw. Three sixteen inch cannons fired at once, drawing the beast's attention, and it fired back a volley of Lancers, each as large as a fighter jet, shaking the half-kilometer-long Atlesian battleship.

A quick glance at his sensor suite confirmed for Ren that everything was still in its proper place. The Manta still climbed vertically.

Cardin was yelling from the troop compartment, trying not to fall out while changing the dust crystal in his mace, "Ren! Nep! I can kill it! I just need a plasma leader! Jumping now!" And he tumbled out of the ship and spread his arms.

Neptune threw his headset at the windshield, only to have it smack him in the back of the head as he twisted sharply, and emptied an entire lightning dust magazine in Cardin's direction.

Cardin was no larger than a fly would be to a bear or a plane might be to a city in comparison to the hulk who now writhed beneath him. But the lightning bolt building behind him was. It was already longer than four football fields, and growing with every moment, attracted by the lightning dust in the head of his mace, which he now raised over his head with both hands. The math had already been done in his head. He knew when he needed to swing.

Ren looked over his shoulder, then at Neptune, then pulled the tightest 180 degree turn the manta could sustain.

A cloud of lancers buzzed between them and Cardin. Nothing stood between Ren and his friends. The Manta fired all 84 of its anti-tank minimissiles. Flame and ash flowered in symphony in the path of the was already putting on his goggles. Ren was already lowering that absurd feat of overengineering that is the overhead entrance to the Manta Air Transport Craft.

800 mile per hour windspeeds is not healthy for your hair. Neptune would only think of that after the battle was over, now he was busy engaging and destroying each Lancer that got past the door guns' thundering barrage with calm, directed, and precise fire. The state of his hair didn't even register with him.

Ren pulled the Manta into a tight barrel roll, and back on parallel with the ground once they got past the lower jaw of the Eiskau, just in time to see Cardin hit the monster in the face with the heat of a million suns. The superinsect's armored body crumbled away in the ensuing flash like the night before the dawn, and Ren slammed back on the steering yolk, just in time to not cut Cardin in half as he fell into the hatch Neptune had just ducked back in from.

Ren closed the hatch.

Inside Ren, he was still pedaling in circles around that little, giggling, red haired girl. It was good to see her smile after such a long time spent wiping her tears. She was all he had left now. He should take care of her.

Ren could hear another volley of kinetic penetrators hit the ground by the thousand at the exit point to the cave. The captain had started talking his sixteen inchers now. Things were going to be calming down.

Neptune was back on the headset, requesting to be patched in to Rear Admiral Schnee. Ren turned the Manta around and began to make transmissions to the Numinous Fist requesting permission to land. Things were calming down.

Ren traced a MicroManta launched from the underbelly of the Fist with his eyes. It looked to be heading towards the hive entrance.

Neptune stood and tracked it too. His requests to get in contact with Rear Admiral Schnee started to become much more desperate.

Inside Ren, he was still driving the bicycle for Nora. The task just got more complex.


Wilbur was the black sheep of the compound Arc-Ren family. He was the only child who did not enjoy sleigh rides.

However, he did enjoy Bast Belladonna. And Bast Belladonna was a big fan of sleigh rides. It didn't snow in Menagerie, so she only got the ride when she visited her friends up north. The twelve year old was not under any circumstance going to give up her sleigh ride. Even to keep Wilbur company.

Ren looked at the situation and had to keep himself from laughing. It was too funny. The Arcs were at the zoo for the day so the Belladonnas and the Rens had collectively decided to play in the snow. The rear courtyard was perfect for twelve children, a baby and their parents to engage in this activity. And, as was apparently custom at this point, the Schnee War-Sleigh, a family heirloom only Jinn knew how old, was left out. And everyone wanted to ride in it.

Wilbur's floppy ears twitched a bit at the sight of the rocket-propelled aircraft. Bast shrieked in delight. Ren snorted.

The squad of children all raced towards it, some understanding and desirous, others imitating and curious, but all interested in one thing: the War-Sleigh.

Four year old Aodhan was trying to keep the others away from it, babbling about how daddy would come and help. Bast ignored him. Ren fulfilled the child's prophecy, by stepping in at the last second and physically hoisting the kitten from the sleigh, all of her limbs elongating to their as she tried her hardest to stay in, eventually being overcome by the superior height and length of Ren.

"C'mon, Uncle," She whined.

"I'll get it ready. You can ride after that." He said.

He pulled the hatch on the door and stepped into the sleigh, giving the controls a quick once over. Hopefully Nora would be occupied with Blake for a little longer, and wouldn't stop him. One could only hope. Sun started laughing loudly, causing Ren to worry internally. The monkey king was shaking so hard that he spilled his beer all over his pants. They were both going to have to give a reason for that later.

Ren reached for the controls and gave the worried Aodhan a reassuring look, "Daddy's gonna give it a little try out first. Then I'll come back and let you try."

A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that Wilbur was watching. Another confirmed that no one was standing in the path of the sleigh. He gunned the throttle to its maximum and the sleigh plunged forward. Within a second he was traveling at 200 miles per hour, within three, at 400. He could feel the wind in his hair, blowing his long braid behind him, he could hear it in his ears, funneling around the ridges, into his eardrums and back out. He could feel it in his squinted eyes, trying to keep the worst of the wind out as it pushed his contact lenses across his eyes, and…

Ren really felt like saying a bad word. That wouldn't take as much explaining, they weren't really necessary, but they kind of helped things stop being blurry after a good dose of neurotoxin when he was younger, and…

For the first time in years Ren couldn't see where he was going. He tried to slow the sled down, but soon realized that he wasn't really sure what good that would do. He was clearly somewhere out over downtown Mantle, but unable to see shit.

There was that bad word. Anyway, what good would it do? Eventually a warship would pick him up on radar and help him out. But he would have to explain that to Nora.

Ren jerked the yolk and the war-sleigh complied, turning around. He had been traveling in a mostly straight line, he estimated. It would be simple to find home. It was the largest house in Solitas. He looked over the side door. He couldn't tell the difference between a cow and house. He wouldn't know when he got over home. He wouldn't know when to decrease altitude. He had no depth perception. He reached into his pocket with one hand, and with the other he sent the sleigh into an easy, slow, stable spiral. He took note to be able to retrace his steps.

The scroll rang once, rang twice, rang three times, and a fourth and Sun picked up,"Eyyo," Sun said.

"Give the scroll to Wilbur,"

"Sure thing,"

Ren could hear the grin in Sun's voice.

"Hi, Dad, what's going on?" Wilbur sounded a little nervous, "I'm not first, am I?"

"Maybe," Ren said, laughing again, "I need you to look for me in the sky, okay?"

"Okay?" Wilbur said, looking up, "What's going on?" He asked again.

"Trust me. And do not tell your mother." Ren growled, pulling the sleigh out of its spiral and returning to his path.

"I need you to find where I am in the sky for me and tell me to come down until I'm only a little bit above the roof of the house, okay?"

"Dad, can you see!" The twelve-year-old almost screamed.

Ren hung his head. He could hear Sun laughing hysterically through the scroll.

"Send Marius to distract your mother, send Met with him. Make sure he does not mention the sleigh. I'm going to start cloverleafing soon. You should see me then."

"O-okay." His son warbled. He was scared, Ren realized.

"It's gonna be okay Wil. Call Aur if you need to. That kid of Jaune's is something else."

"Okay, Dad… I can see you. It's only for a moment though."

"Good. I'll pull back on the throttle a bit. Can you give me a sense of where the house is?"

"It's directly to your left on the cloverleaf to my right."

Ren did a little mental geometry.

"Alright. How far away?"

"I'm not sure."

Ren did a little mental trigonometry, and gave up about halfway through.

"Yell really loud if I'm about to hit something." Ren said and dove hard out of his holding pattern.

Wilbur screamed in panic. Ren correctly identified it as such.

"It'll be okay!", He said, with more force this time, "You need to help me here!"

He crashed through the top branches of a tree.

"Uhh, Dad, that was a tree." Wilbur said. Ren couldn't hold it in anymore, and started laughing same as Sun, as he semi-crashed the sleigh into the ground, and slammed the parking break into place.

He was able to see enough to tell that Wilbur the first one to reach him. He reached out his hand and pulled the surprised faunus into the sleigh with him, tousled his hair and ears and whispered in his ear, "Take Bast for a ride in this thing. I think that she'll appreciate it,".

Then he push kicked the door open and slid out of the main carriage. He turned around a few times, unable to tell which way the house was, until a hand clapped him on the back.

Sun snorted. Once. Twice. Then he fell to wheezing.

"I'll tell them I peed my pants. It isn't far from the truth."

"What about the sleigh?"

They both fell to laughing.


All Stations, this is MarchWarden. Such fun. To be continued... Soon. I promise. Not Home time scales. Probably in the week. OUT.