Jaune Arc

Jaune trudged into the camp after twenty minutes of jogging down the mountain. He walked through the collection of empty tents to reach one of the two tents his team had been assigned.

He opened the door to his tent and stepped in. Ren was sitting on his sleeping bag, legs crossed and eyes closed. On hearing the zipper, he opened his eyes, which widened when he saw who had stepped in.

"That was incredibly stupid Jaune." Ren's voice was calm as usual, though there were undercurrents of concern. "But I understand why you took the risk. That avalanche would've gotten to us all if you hadn't done whatever it was you did."

Jaune nodded, acknowledging the stupidity of facing down an avalanche by himself. He appreciated Ren's understanding of his motives and not berating him. The only reason he hadn't gone to Pyrrha and Nora's tent yet was to avoid being yelled at. He had no strength in him for that.

Ren pulled his scroll out and typed something, then put it back in his pocket. Jaune groaned. All his good thoughts towards Ren evaporated like water under a summer sun. The only people Ren would be texting were the people he didn't want to see right now.

"Ren, I'm just going to sleep now. Don't wake me up till tomorrow morning, under any circumstances. That's an order." Jaune didn't wait for a response. His body slipped into the sleeping bag and his mind blanked upon contact with the pillow.

He woke up in his tent, feeling a million times better. He cast his hand out to the side for his scroll and paused when it splashed into something liquid. He furrowed his eyes. Had Ren spilled something? Whatever it was, it was definitely more viscous than water.

He sat up, bringing his arm forwards to examine his hand and nearly jumped into the side of the tent in fright. His hand was covered in dripping, thick, red blood.

His head shot left, to where his hand had encountered the blood, and his eyes widened unconsciously. A pool of blood was gathering in the middle of the tent, a red trail leading to Ren's bed.

Jaune would've shot up and ran over if alarm bells hadn't gone off in his head. Blood didn't stay liquid for long in contact with air. There wasn't any sign of a struggle, so whatever it was that had hurt Ren had a way to get past aura and was nearby.

Jaune moved to Ren's unmoving and silent bag, holding his breath. He touched the cold and clammy hand hanging out of the bag, the fingers bloody. He unzipped the bag and saw Ren's calm face staring up at him. His eyes were wide and shocked, staring up at the ceiling.

He continued unzipping the bag, uncovering a massive chest wound. It was an understatement to even call it a wound. It looked as if the attacker had scooped his chest out with a shovel. The organs were all mushed up and the blood vessels lining the gaping hole were full of blood.

Jaune turned away from the boy, equal parts repulsed and confused. Something had obviously surprised Ren and shredded his aura like tissue paper, but had made no noise. The blood was still moving slightly, which definitely shouldn't have happened. The tiny amount of blood in the veins should have become a gel within seconds, yet it hadn't.

Something is really wrong here, and it's not my dead teammate.

Jaune moved back to his side of the tent and picked up his scroll. It was out of power. That definitely shouldn't have happened, he would've known if the Dust inside had run out.

Jaune unzipped the tent, making as little noise as he could. He stepped out into the open mountain air and glanced around at each tent. None of them seemed damaged in any sense, appearing much the same as they had yesterday.

The sky was red now, which was in itself not that weird. It was indeed early morning. Though there was definitely something off about it. Unnerved, he walked to the girls' tent and unzipped it, stepping in.

Here he saw much the same scene, blood oozing from the bags. Jaune decided not to look at them, one bloody corpse was enough for a day.

There was something else wrong: his reaction. He felt eerily calm about the entire scenario, as if having your entire team murdered in their sleep was an inconvenience. He tried to summon any emotion forth, anger, sadness, grief, even happiness. None came. Even his confusion was muted, as if he was merely interested in the cause of the murders, not the actual deed itself.

He exited the tent, trying to figure out what was going on. He looked up as he exited and almost froze. He wasn't on the mountain anymore, but rather in an airship. Spinning around, he saw only an empty wall where he was sure the tent had just been.

He still felt no surprise, just a mild piquing of his interest. The airship seemed to be flying based on the clouds streaking by, though he couldn't hear the sound of any engines or even the wind.

He looked out the window as the buildings, for that's what the blurs were, moved past, each one missing large chunks of itself in different locations, not unlike the scene in Mountain Glenn.

Not unlike the first vision I had, way back when.

He spoke into the air, "Alright, what's the deal this time? Want to show me more death and destruction?"

A mirthless laugh filled the airship. The ship seemed to slow slightly and the buildings flew past slower.

"That took you entirely too long, though I think it can be taken as a compliment. First time in millennia I've had to actually concentrate on forming the illusion you know."

"Look, I really don't care whether you worked hard or not, I want to know why you brought me to the apocalypse. Again." Jaune could feel slightly more emotion, as if the presence of the voice had given him that ability back, if only slightly.

"I was right about you, it seems. You really are quite feisty. Reminds me of why I spent the effort on this little chat." The words' effect was changed considerably by the harsh, cold, and hard voice that spoke the words. It seemed as if each word was created from ice, their only intention to stab and torture.

"So what do you want to talk to me about this time? Last time was all those chess analogies and anti-Ozpin banter. Heads up, I didn't buy it. Ozpin seems like a good guy, and I really don't trust you, what with all the 'death and gloom' theme you have going on as the background to our chats."

The voice stayed silent, but Jaune could feel that the owner was scrutinizing him silently.

"Honestly, why do you even care about Ozpin? If you're so powerful that you can contact me and create these illusions, why not carry out whatever plan it is you have? On that note, what is your plan, your point? Why are you contacting me? Who are you?" With each word, Jaune's voice rose, emotion flowing back to him.

"Who I am is of no concern to you Jaune. Knowing my identity will not help you prevent the scenarios that I show you. Vale will be destroyed in the upcoming war. Your teammates will be killed in worse ways than what I showed you. Atlas will be overrun, its army being naught but paper in front of the armies of Grimm. Everyone you know will die. Preventing that is your goal Jaune."

"Hey, alright, let's say what you say is true and there is an apocalypse coming. How do I know you're not the one behind it? You're the only one who seems to have any knowledge of this potential future."

"As I said last time Jaune, that is the whole point of me putting my time into this. You can't trust anyone on their word, no matter how genuine they seem. How much do you really know Ozpin? He just sent you and your team away from Beacon for an indefinite length of time, possibly months. Do you really think he's doing this for you? Do you think his entire gambit with giving you a lab and getting your name in with Ironwood was a kindness? Jaune you are naught but a pawn in this game of his, being ordered around by the King. Manipulated and pushed, eventually sacrificed."

Jaune stood silently, absorbing and reflecting upon the voice's words. All the doubts that he had been harboring about Ozpin came rushing back to him. The voice's words were reasonable enough, and worse, they made sense. Every action of Ozpin's could be traced to a desired outcome. Was it too much of a leap to think that all of the kindness he had shown was a sham to manipulate Jaune?

"I see I have made my point. There is no one in this world you can trust but yourself and your power, which is where your problem lies. You have grown complacent at Beacon, thinking you have the world under your thumb. But your team only barely managed to defeat one Ultra Nevermore before starting an avalanche. Does that fact not worry you?"

Jaune had to admit the voice was right. He had grown complacent and overconfident in his abilities over the past couple months, not making any real improvements other than regular practice. Even his weapons were only tweaked. His Dust use was still frighteningly basic, not having explored or practiced it extensively.

"What are you suggesting?"

"It's simple. Practice. You show potential with your aura, your ease of Dust usage is rare. Not many people can manipulate their aura with the ease you show. This potential intrigues me, and I will not see it go to waste. I will contact you once more Jaune, and we shall begin our practice sessions here in illusions of my creation. I shall teach you things that no one in Remnant can. You shall grow as powerful as you deserve to, under my tutelage. Be ready Jaune, I shall not tolerate mediocrity. Farewell."

Jaune processed this information as the world melted around him in a swirl of color. He fell backwards into something soft as the world went black. The voice was going to train him and teach him things that 'no one in Remnant' could. That wording seemed to suggest she was somehow from outside Remnant, which intrigued Jaune. Was she similar to him? Someone who was sent to Remnant from afar?

Whoever she was, she was the one in power. She could trap him inside the illusion for as long as she wished, and Jaune had no plan of saying no to someone like that. Plus, she was offering him free training in Dust and Aura, and who was he to refuse her? The whole deal was fishy as hell but there was nothing he could do.

He opened his eyes and cast them around the inside of the tent. Ren was up and packing the sleeping bag up. Jaune's eyes lingered on the bag, the same bag that Ren's mutilated corpse had lay in. Jaune understood why the voice had shown him that scenario, and what its significance was.

Jaune hadn't felt much during that point, but the lack of emotion had solidified those images in him mind, and he wouldn't forget them anytime soon. As the images played back in his head, he realized that his choice had been made for him as soon as the vision had started. If his teammates died because he wasn't strong enough to protect them, he would never forgive himself.

"Can I call Nora and Pyrrha over now that you're awake?" Ren's voice brought Jaune back to the present.

"Yeah, sure. Let's signal Major Ashe for pick up." Jaune stood up, stretching the soreness from his limbs as he stepped towards the zipper of the tent, grabbing a flare from his backpack on the way. He tossed it out, activating the Dust inside. He started packing as Ren messaged Nora and Pyrrha, who arrived within seconds, as if waiting for Ren to send the message.

"Jaune! You've had your sleep, so no excuses. First question, are you okay?" Pyrrha's voice was full of genuine concern as usual, and Jaune couldn't help but feel guilty about not talking to them yesterday.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bit of Aura exhaustion that sleep took care of, nothing to worry about." Jaune stuffed his sleeping bag into its carry case.

"That's good. I was worried when you didn't show up after we were hurled forward. That was you wasn't it? You're the one who threw us off the mountain." That was a statement.

"Yeah, I needed to get you guys away from the avalanche as fast as possible. Sorry if you guys got hurt from the fall, but I had to buy you guys time." Jaune moved around the tent, making sure nothing was left behind.

"How did you manage to get away from it? It was gaining fast and you somehow managed to stop it from running us down." Nora sounded worried, but excited at the same time.

"I simply created a very large barrier of superhot air using Dust. It melted and evaporated the snow and ice as it passed through." Jaune turned to face his team, who didn't even look shocked at the declaration. They had come to expect these types of things from Jaune and took it in stride, which was slightly disappointing.

"Jaune, you really need to start telling us when you're going to be doing this sort of stuff." Pyrrha just looked at him with a resigned look on her face.

"Yeah! We want to do cool stuff too!" Nora threw her hands in the air.

"Nora…"

"Sorry Ren!" Nora put her arms down with a slightly guilty look on her face.

Jaune and Pyrrha both smiled at this exchange. This was how the team was normally, and Jaune wanted it to stay this way.

The four were standing in a briefing room with Major Ashe and two other soldiers, having been brought there immediately after the Bullhead extracted them from the mountain.

One of the soldiers turned on the projector in the room and dimmed the lights. A video started playing, showing Jaune's team climbing up the mountain from an aerial point of view. It made sense for a surveillance vehicle to be posted to observe them, this was supposed to be a test mission for the team.

They watched as they took cover under the overhang while Ren scouted, then they watched as they took their positions to fight the creature. Ashe decided to comment on at this point.

"Excellent positioning Jaune, putting Ren behind the Nevermore and Pyrrha in front was a good tactic"

Jaune simply nodded as everyone continued to watch. The attack started and Ashe kept commenting on their attacks.

"Pyrrha you let your shield dip slightly in the air there, letting the beak get slightly further closer, making you abandon the attack. Keep an eye on that in the future."

"Ren you need to work on your offensive, it is quite useful as a distraction against such targets, but that's all it is. Any bigger and your attacks will be nothing but an annoyance to the Grimm."

"Nora, you need to show off a little less. I counted at least 12 times that you could have landed a hit on an enemy, but you missed because you decided to add flair to the attack."

"Jaune, you need to participate in the battle more. You're a four-person team, not three and a leader."

Jaune noted this feedback mentally. Ashe was right, and he was going to be focusing on these topics during practice.

Ashe had given off an air of strict disappointment when Nora had triggered the avalanche and the orange haired girl had shriveled slightly. They watched as they fled down the mountain, the dissolving bodies of the Grimm quickly covered by the flood of snow.

They watched as Jaune stopped and closed his eyes, and as the other three were hurled forwards. The camera tracked them for a few seconds, making sure they were okay, then turned back to Jaune.

He simply stood there, eyes closed, hands slightly raised. Glowing Dust crystals surrounded him as the avalanche got closer. The air started shimmering around him, the effect occurring in a wider and wider range as time went on. Jaune stood there unmoving as the air continued to shimmer as if it was a mirage, extending for hundreds of feet all around him.

The avalanche got closer and Jaune started glowing as soon as the avalanche came in contact with the shimmering chunk of air, the snow melting and evaporating. His aura was now fully visible, tendrils swirling all around him. The tendrils formed loops between him and each crystal, pulsing to a constant rhythm.

Goddamn, so happy someone recorded that, it was pretty amazing. Should I ask for a copy? Would that look bad?

The video continued, catching him flying through the air, crashing, and then walking back to camp. The video ended and the lights came back on.

"Jaune, report to the Research Wing immediately. The rest of you are dismissed. Report to the practice fields at 1500 for individual exercises."

Jaune had left his team to go to the Research Wing of the facility, unsurprisingly a huge grey rectangular building. He was allowed inside by a robotic soldier standing guard. Jaune had first been impressed by the fact that Atlas could produce such advanced robots, but then realized that even the most advanced one could only do the most basic things like shoot at a predesignated target. Human soldiers were still needed for anything that required thinking. Obviously either Atlas didn't have the ability to program such AI, or it couldn't miniaturize the technology needed to run the AI.

Jaune was directed to the third floor by the assistant, to 'Lab 2'. Jaune took the elevator up, humming a merry tune. This was where he was most comfortable, the clean, precise environment of a lab. Nothing that could kill you except your own stupidity and the laws of nature. No stupid screaming huge birds, no rushes of snow and ice threatening to swallow you, just you and your work.

Jaune knocked on the door and waited. There were sounds of two people speaking, one's voice a bit low and the other's higher pitched, like a young girl's. The conversation stopped when Jaune had knocked and now footsteps approached the door.

The door swung open and Jaune took a look at the man who had opened the door. He was thin and balding, around middle-age. He was wearing a lab coat that went down to his mid-calf and had small instruments in each of his pockets.

Overall, he looked like a stereotypical scientist, but what startled Jaune were his piercing blue eyes. They were shrewd and seemed to stare right into you, as if deconstructing you and finding out what made you tick.

"You must be Jaune Arc. Welcome, welcome. Come on in." The man gestured into the lab. Jaune walked in and the man closed the door behind him.

"I am Victor Polendina. I must admit, I have been quite taken with some of your designs, especially that motion tracking sentry gun. I have seen and built some similar designs but none have managed to get the accuracy you have managed. Mind sharing some of your secrets?" The man spoke fast, guiding Jaune past piles of parts and various machinery, deeper into the lab.

Jaune was taken back by the man's directness but quickly recovered. "I'm glad you liked my designs Mr. Polendina. I would love to work with someone of your renown." Jaune had heard of a Polendina during his research into Atlas. From what little the Vale CCT had, Polendina was one of the top scientists in Atlas, leading multiple teams at once, while also working closely with Ironwood.

"Glad to hear it." Victor led him into a small-ish room that contained two couches and a TV. Jaune took the seat that Victor gestured at. Victor produced two glasses of water and a jug from an adjoining room and offered it to him.

Jaune took the glass and waited for the older man to start talking. Victor took a sip and looked at Jaune. "So I saw the stunt you pulled off on the mountain. I must admit, seeing that level of control over Dust as a first year intrigues me. How long have you been working with the material?"

"Less than a year, around 9 months actually." Jaune said, trying to appear nonchalant. He really didn't want Victor to start questioning about his life prior to Beacon, it was tiring having to build and maintain a convincing web of lies.

Victor almost spit his drink out at that. Wiping his mouth, he managed to croak out, "Less than a year?!" He coughed and seemed to calm down slightly. "Most people don't have the level of skill you have with Dust even after ten years of practice."

"Well, Mr. Polendina, most people don't manage to impress world-renowned scientists and companies with their handmade weapons, now do they?" Jaune smiled, and Victor laughed, throwing his head back.

"You're goddamn right they don't!" He continued to chortle for a bit. Jaune awkwardly took a sip of water. It wasn't that funny Victor.

"Now, I needed a laugh. There have been way too many negative vibes lately, what with the increased number of Grimm and White Fang attacks. You do know about them, don't you?"

Jaune nodded. Rumors had been spreading that the White Fang were gearing up for something big, either this year or the next. Grimm attacks had been gaining more air time on the news. People had been moving into Vale from the countryside at an increased rate, no doubt scared that they would be the next targets of an attack. This had spread Hunters out over a larger area, having to patrol more villages and protect the influx of refugees.

"Atlas has been trying to make autonomous robots for ages now, anything from sentry turrets to fully robotic soldiers, though we haven't managed to create any AI sophisticated and efficient enough to work on a battlefield. That is part of the reason why I requested this meeting."

Sounds easy enough. I mean I already built one functioning semi-human robot already, I could help this plan along quite easily. But then again, I have to deal with budgets and making the design easy to build. Should be fun.

"That would be an interesting challenge Mr. Polendina. When can we start?"

Victor had a gleam in his eye. "As soon as you're ready."

Jaune found that working with someone like Victor Polendina was some of the most fun he'd ever had. Victor was one of the only people Jaune had seen that had some truly unique ideas and wasn't afraid of sharing them. It helped that he had the brains to turn those ideas semi-plausible.

They spent the rest of the day talking about drawbacks and advantages of different ideas. Six pages were filled with notes and diagrams by the time they were done and Jaune had left.

Jaune described his activities to his team mates, who had spent the day on the practice field sparring. They didn't seem jealous of him going off alone into labs while they had to practice, but then again they hadn't been jealous the entire year.

Jaune had just climbed into bed when he realized he still hadn't contacted Raven. He groaned and shot her a message about his position, hoping that she wouldn't reply for a long time.

No such luck for him as the reply arrived within the minute.

Meet me at the attached coordinates.

The coordinates she had sent were inside the camp. If she could get into the camp, why not just give him a portal while he was alone? He said his goodnights and slipped into the shell of Prometheus I, deciding to question her in person.

He opened his eyes, getting used to the cramped surroundings. He had labeled the box as fragile, knowing it would be kept on the ground with no crates on top. He pulled a latch near his hand and the top of the crate was detached from the rest, allowing Jaune to climb out. He was fully armored and ready for combat and had his sword ready to go beside him. This sword was different from the one he usually wore. It was shorter and leaner, and could fold down into a dagger for when things got too close for comfort. The sword had Dust in it, as did all the Promethean swords.

Instead of the railgun his usual sword had, this one was outfitted with microneedles along the blade that could inject or squirt the chemicals hidden inside the blade. Jaune had stocked the insides with everything from anesthetics to pressurized gasses. Pressurized air may not seem to be very deadly, but when the air gets injected in your blood stream, everything from nausea to death has the chance of occurring. The human body is pretty scary that way.

He also had a silenced pistol outfitted with both knockout rounds and lethal rounds. The silencer was a prototype he had built himself that would not only absorb the sound of the gun, but also the gasses emitted. The silencer would then spread the heat over its entire surface area, making it difficult to spot him on thermal camera.

He was wearing complete black that would help him blend into the background when seen by normal vision or infrared. The cloth was infused with small amounts of Ice Dust that were connected to aura crystals. They were put in equilibrium with the average temperature of Atlas's air before Jaune had left Beacon. What that meant was that whenever the temperature of the aura crystal got too high, it would spontaneously start leaking aura into the Ice crystal, which would absorb heat from the body suit, which would in turn off the aura crystal when the temperature got to the correct amount.

Jaune stole his way out of the warehouse and through the compound, avoiding patrols and open areas. He reached the indicated building and stood in the shadows in between it and the next one. He messaged Raven and managed not to yelp when her portal appeared mere milliseconds after the message was sent.

"Raven! Give just a little bit more warning next time!" Jaune hissed at her. He subtly activated some wind dust to create eddies around them. They would distort and dampen the sound slightly, making their voices sound less prominent among the ambient noise.

She just stared at him balefully with her mask's four eyes. After all this time, she had still never taken that mask off in front of him. He felt slightly perplexed at that. Did she not trust him? That didn't seem to be the case since she was pretty open about their plans and such, never keeping things to a need to know basis.

He decided to pursue the matter later and instead focus on the present. "Sorry, just a little tense sneaking across a large military base. Anyways, you said you had something planned?"

She looked away from him, contemplating something. Jaune leaned on the side of the building, watching her. She finally seemed to come to a decision and turned back to him. "Jaune before I tell you, I want to give you fair warning."

"Oh? Where was this warning before Mountain Glenn?" Jaune grinned.

"Jaune, I'm serious. This mission, it's not just going to be dangerous while we're carrying it out. If we're caught or recognized, it has the potential of permanently altering our reputations." Raven paused for a second. "Or yours, rather."

"That doesn't seem very bad, the Prometheans are already infamous. How could we change their reputation from a bunch of criminals who sell weapons? That's all they do, and I've worked to maintain that."

"They could be regarded as terrorists."

Raven said this so matter-of-factly that Jaune had trouble believing she was serious. Terrorists? What the hell were they going to do that would give them that title?

"You're not suggesting helping or joining the White Fang are you? Because if so, I'm out. It's one thing to sell them weapons, it's another to actively help them in their battles." Even the CIA weren't bold enough to do that.

"No, it's not that exactly. It's more about destroying a corrupt company that abuses its workers. I think you know the one I'm talking about."

Jaune's face whitened under his helmet. Raven had an entire plan for taking down the Schnee Dust Company? How long had she been thinking about this? Jaune couldn't imagine the amount of international attention they were going to get if they even took one step in that direction.

"You're saying, let me get this straight, you're saying that you plan on taking down the most influential company in all of Remnant, with just you and me. We're going to be blowing stuff up and killing people and all sorts of shenanigans, all to take down a company that reportedly keeps its workers dependent on it for survival?"

He ranted on before Raven could speak. "And when we have gone and destroyed their towns, their mines, their literal armies, we'll have the entire Atlesian army on our tails, not to mention half the hunters this part of the world. The Prometheans are going to be attacked on sight if they were seen by any law enforcement in the kingdoms, their reputation will be down the drain after this, especially after being seen with someone of your reputation, no offense."

Raven raised a hand to interrupt him, but Jaune ignored her. "And if we even get anywhere close to somehow cripple this giant, how is the world going to supply itself with Dust? If supply cuts out for even a day, the kingdoms are going to grind to a halt and there will be mass hysteria! Machines and power will go out like a fused bulb, most transportation will be down, hoarding will be massive, and most people wouldn't be able to afford any amount!"

Raven put her hand over his mouth, shutting him up. Her four red eyes glared at him, like a wolf staring down a sheep. He stared right back, refusing to be cowed. They stared like this for a bit before Raven decided to respond.

"Do you not think that I've thought of all this? Do you not think I've not planned against all the scenarios you have mentioned? When everything goes wrong, your little imaginary band of clowns won't be the only ones affected. Most of the world's first impression of me would be me committing acts that would cause me to be dubbed as an extremist. I won't be able to live in society anymore even if we manage to pull it off. And I see the question in your eyes Jaune. Why am I doing this? I'll tell you why I'm doing this."

Raven stepped away from him and pulled out her scroll, pulling up the photos app. She opened a picture and showed it to him. It was a small faunus child being beaten by a guard with a baton while someone who looked like her mother was being held by two other guards.

"The girl didn't mine enough Dust for the day, so the guard reached to hit her. Her mother stopped him, and then the two other guards held her and forced her to watch as they beat her daughter." Raven's voice was emotionless, which made it even angrier-sounding.

She swiped to the next picture which showed 10 scrawny, haggard looking faunus in a room that looked like it was only meant for two. They stood over one of their own who was curled on the ground in immense pain.

"The living conditions are absolute filth. Dozens die every weak from preventable diseases, all because the SDC doesn't have an ounce of humanity in it."

The next picture showed a massive hole that had large white bundles being dropped in by a crane. Some of the bundles were split open in the pit and Jaune could see limbs hanging out of the cloth.

"Mass graves for those who die in the mines."

This continued for ten minutes, with Raven showing him picture after picture of atrocity, each at an angle that suggested that the picture was taken hastily and sneakily. Jaune couldn't tear his eyes from the screen as image after image of what would be considered 'crimes against humanity' on Earth flashed by. He was flabbergasted. All the Dust he had used, the Dust he relied on in his fighting style, all of it was mined in this way? Slave labor? Jaune felt sick.

He closed his eyes, trying to forget the face of a little boy who had been shot as he tried to run away. That had been the only video in the bunch. The boy had managed to climb up a guard wall when a guard's bullet found his back. He had fallen right in front of the cameraman and had stared into the lens as if cursing the world.

"Now do you see why I risk it all for this plan? Some people say that there is no evil in this world other than the Grimm. I say that what they are doing here is worse than the Grimm! When I was a young huntress, all I wanted to do was slay Grimm and save people. That was what I even told you when I met. I still do think the same thing, because I think I know why they are called the creatures of Grimm."

Jaune glanced up at Raven. He was curious to hear where this was going.

"Humanity has been calling them that for millennia, the term being translated from language to language as time went on. Etymologists have agreed on one thing about the meaning of the phrase, and that it literally means that these all come from one place of pure hatred and destruction. Many names for this theory were proposed, with Grimm winning out."

Jaune could see where this was going. "So you're saying, you think that the SDC could be influenced by whatever is in Grimm?"

"It's the only reasonable explanation. I have gone undercover into the company, I told you I've been planning this for long. Get this, no one knew where the actual orders were coming from. I was shunted around from help desk to help desk, from department to department. I went as high up as I could, trying to figure out who was giving the damn orders! It couldn't have been Schnee himself, that man is a coward and if he had given the orders himself, there would've been a trail leading to him. Instead, there was an entire branch inside the Schnee HQ in Atlas that is top secret and off limits. No one is ever seen leaving or entering, but with the orders coming from nowhere else in the company, where else could they come from?"

"You're making quite a leap there, Raven. The company may be committing some of the most heinous crimes committable by humans, but saying that it is somehow connected to a theoretical location that is the source of all evil? Isn't that a little farfetched?" Even with his doubts, Jaune knew that there was some element of truth in Raven's theory. The acts committed were terrible, terrible acts. Jaune had heard of some of the horror stories told about the conditions in places like North Korea's prisons, among many others throughout Earth's history.

Could that have some influence from this place of Grimm? Jaune had read about the philosophies behind many of the world's religions. Many of them had creatures of some kind that were the face of pure evil: devils, demons, rakshasas, Satan, Apep, Chaos, etc. He had originally attributed that to the fact that humankind was built on conflict, on the battle of us vs them, and was trying to create two sides in their philosophies in order to live their lives more easily.

But now he was not so sure. If Raven was right, if there really existed a place such as this Grimm, then that was bad news.

Raven saw the changing expression on his face as he came to the realization. "I see you answered your own question. There must be something in that division that is connected in some way to the Grimm. I don't know how or why it's specifically using the SDC, but I don't think I'm going to let it continue to happen, not while I can still do something about it. So now the question is, are you in?"

Jaune shut his eyes before replying. Was he ready? Was he ready to commit fully to this hare-brained conspiracy to bring down a company that had the backing of the most militarily advanced kingdom in Remnant? Faces flashed before his eyes, the little girl, the man in the room, the little boy. The answer came to him easily then.

"Yes, I'm in."

Raven's stance loosened visibly. "Thank you Jaune. Thank you so much. I knew I could count on you."

Jaune simply smiled in response as Raven stepped backwards through a portal, disappearing from view.


Obligatory AN: What'd you think of the chapter? Anything I can fix? Anything you especially liked? Please review and PM me with this stuff, I love to get them and it helps me write better. Thanks for reading!