AN: Motivation is hard to come by being stuck at home. Hopefully y'all are doing better!
Enjoy the story!
Jaune Arc
Jaune's eyelids felt heavy and his mouth dry. His body felt numb, heavy, disassociated. The feeling was neither familiar nor pleasant, but it was receding. Restraints dug into his joints, leaving the skin sore.
No aura, still. Fuzzy feeling. Anesthesia? Have I been drugged? Soft sheets imply hospital bed. Surgery?
"Patient is responsive. Signs of minor concussion but scans indicate no permanent damage." The voice was clinical, precise. Professional. A doctor of some kind?
"Is he conscious?" The new voice was rich and arrogant. He had heard it somewhere before. "He is taking an awfully long time to rouse."
"He is, but I cannot fathom how. He has suffered multiple fractures, lacerations, ligament tears, not to mention an almost fatal amount of internal bleeding. His body is also riddled with microtumors which made surgery more difficult than expected. That is not to mention the extensive cybernetic and Dust-based enhancements the patient has undergone. I have never seen anything like it."
"I had a feeling you wouldn't have. Thank you, doctor. You may leave now."
The arrogant man remained silent as the sound of footsteps receded followed by the closing of a door.
"You can open your eyes now. We have much to discuss."
Jaune cracked an eye open winced as bright light sent searing pain through his retina. He blinked, trying to get rid of the afterimages. The brightness of the light was compounded by the clean white surroundings he found himself in, white tiles gleaming almost as bright as the lights themselves. He couldn't move his head and resigned himself to staring at the ceiling.
He opened his mouth to speak but only a croak escaped. His throat was parched.
"Here. Drink." A glass of water was held to his lips and the cool wetness almost made him shudder as moisture returned to his throat and his vocal cords regained the ability to speak. The glass was empty before he knew it and he groaned in disappointment.
"Where…where am I?"
"Allow me to formally introduce ourselves." Jacques Schnee stepped into his vision, hands steepled in front of his suit. "I am Jacques Schnee, owner and CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. You are currently being treated by one of Atlas' top medical teams at one of the SDC's research outposts."
His tone was anything but apologetic. "Pleased to meet you Mr. Schnee." Jaune managed to get out. "How…who brought me here?"
"The pleasure is all mine. As for your escort here…" The man pulled a chair over and sat down, posture upright and cold blue eyes fixed on his own. "I humbly apologize for the method employed. A forced extraction was not something I was hoping would be necessary, but neither my… backers nor I wished to risk distractions on your way here, you see."
Silence reigned for a minute as their impromptu staring match continued before Jaune blinked.
Jacques smiled. "You must have many questions. Rest assured; I, we, desire a wonderful working relationship with you. You are a remarkably interesting person and I hope we can satisfy each other's curiosity today. If everything goes well, this will be a start to a great journey that will change Remnant forever."
Jaune remained silent. Jacques's words were dripping with sincerity, but Jaune knew better than to trust them. The doubts Raven had planted in his mind had taken root after he had seen the SDC researching the entrance to that…pocket dimension in the mine. It wasn't enough for him to condemn the SDC, but the fact that Jacques Schnee had ordered his 'forced extraction' from Vale made his intentions even more suspicious. Not to mention the 'backers' that Jacques had mentioned in passing. It was clear there was a cabal who desired his cooperation and he desired information.
His capture had made his lack of a plan obvious. In hindsight, he had been rash and shortsighted, lashing out at easy targets like Emerald without attempting to step back and look at the larger picture. Why had Vale been attacked? Who were the hidden players? What is their next target?
He raged at himself for pushing forward into action. You were supposed to regroup and lick your wounds after a defeat like that, not rush in solo blind!
He would play their game; he had little choice otherwise.
"Ask away. I have nothing to hide." A blatant lie. They both knew it.
"You are more reasonable than many your age, Mr. Arc. Or should I call you Jaune?"
"Either is fine."
"Excellent. I shall volunteer some information you are no doubt clamoring for." Jacques leaned forward slightly. "You are here, Mr. Arc, because we believe your talents can help us enact a paradigm change upon Remnant. A change that will bring about a new age of prosperity onto Remnant and free us from the tyranny of bloody evolution under the Grimm threat."
This was something unexpected. He had been expecting deals with the devil, power to conquer Remnant, to subjugate the masses. Selfishness was what he had expected; this was altruism. Unexpected from Jacques Schnee, to say the least.
His mouth was dry once more. "You know how to end the Grimm threat?"
Jacques laughed out loud. "Yes, we do. This is a plan that has been in the works for centuries and we are those chosen to push it to completion."
"Centuries?" This must go deeper than just Jacques and the SDC.
"You must understand, this is a plan that is of the utmost importance. The planning, maneuvering, the politics, the absolute effort that has gone into this is breathtaking. Unnamed heroes have given their lives fighting to ensure its success and we are on the cusp of greatness. All we require is you." Jacques's eyes gleamed with conviction as he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Or so I am told."
"Told by whom?"
"That is something you will experience for yourself, once you have pledged yourself to the plan."
"I can't pledge myself until I know what this plan is."
"And we won't let you until you have proven yourself to us." He waved a hand. "You have shown potential, but I have been given the responsibility of ensuring you understand the stakes and to confirm your loyalty to the cause."
"How will you do that?"
"We will have a discussion. A simple, but honest one. I realize the last few days have been especially draining for you but take it as a sign of the importance of this discussion that I could not wait to entertain you in the comfort of the Schnee Manor itself. I have been more than forthcoming with the context of our meeting here. I am hoping you are just as honest with your answers, Mr. Arc."
"I will be as honest as I can, Mr. Schnee." They both knew what he meant.
Jaune's mind whirled as he pieces together a tentative plan. If Jacques was telling the truth, and it was a big if, then they would be celebrated as heroes. If there was a plan in place that ended the threat of the Grimm, then they would be celebrated as heroes and find no end of support. They would be remembered till the end of civilization as saviors. If they solely required his technological expertise, they could've contacted him at any time after he had gone public. The fact that they hadn't muddled everything further.
Why approach him after what had transpired on Beacon Tower? Why kidnap him and suppress his aura? Why the secrecy? The only way this all made sense was if Jacques believed it to be the way forward, but the rest of Remnant didn't. It was something that the public would rail against, something that required a conspiracy. Something they believed he might fight back against. Something that required individuals not beholden to petty things like morals or ethics.
Shit.
"Good. Honesty is the first step to trust." Jacques nodded self-assuredly, as if the entire conversation were a foregone affair. "For example, you were never honest with dear old Ozpin about your history, were you?"
Jaune froze, eyes wide. Did he know? How could he know?
"Surprised?" Jacques laughed. "We have had our eye on you ever since you arrived at Beacon. Ozpin has centuries of experience finding talent to support his cause. Every student he admits personally has turned out to be extraordinary, a true agent of change. A true pain for whoever would oppose his tyranny."
"His…tyranny?"
"Come now, it's your turn to be answering, not mine. Did you tell Ozpin the truth about who you were?"
"No." No harm in being honest here; an answer in the negative was what he seemed to be expecting anyways. "I didn't trust him."
"Any great plan has its detractors. Ozpin was one such voice. I'm pleased to hear your intuition was not impaired in the slightest."
"Should it have been?"
"No, forgive me, I was assuming things based on my own limited point of view. For someone like you…" Jacques twitched a finger in his direction. "I'm sure your mind operates differently."
Jaune was getting a feeling they were no longer on the same page. From Jacques's tone it was clear he wasn't simply complimenting his intelligence. There was something more there.
For someone like me? Could this be related to that thing I found in the SDC mine? The one that called me Aurawielder?
Silence stretched for a beat before Jacques spoke again.
"If you never trusted Ozpin, why did you maintain your cover at Beacon? It seems it would be easier to strike off on your own rather than be bound by the chains of school life. Any of the Grimm-maker's caches would be more than anything you could've possible made with the tools available on this planet."
The tidbit of the Grimm-maker's name was very interesting, but it was filed away for now. It was clear now that Jacques thought he was something well past a human. Jaune had to know how he was so convinced.
Jaune considered his wording carefully before replying to Jacques. Empty words with hidden layers that Jacques' arrogant preconceptions would fill. Jacques already assumed Jaune knew more than he did, which made this reverse-interrogation far easier. It was simple to get information out of someone who thought you already knew something; it was one of the most potent tricks in a parent's handbook.
They went back and forth like this for a while, with Jaune giving vague, unconvincing answers that Jacques nodded along to. He asked about his stay at Beacon, Jaune handwaved an answer about a secret hidden therein. He asked about his going public with his creations, Jaune told him that his speech was not meant just for the people attending. With each question, it was becoming more apparent that not only was Jacques not as knowledgeable as he postured, but he was also too arrogant to ask for clarifying questions. Any interrogator worth their salt would do anything to get their target to talk even if it meant coming off as ignorant. Jacques simply would not stoop to that level and Jaune could see the frustration mounting in his eyes.
It was about 20 minutes later that the door slid open with a hiss and a tall, thin man wearing a bristling moustache and an antagonizing smirk walked into the room. Jacques didn't rise to greet him but the two simply stared at each other before Jacques stormed out of the room.
"My apologies. I was supposed to be informed immediately when you woke up." The man took the recently vacated seat. "I hope the Schnee has not been too rude."
"No, we were getting along better than expected. You know, given the traumatic kidnapping and all."
The man simply laughed at that. "He can be over eager sometimes. Rest assured, he will face the proper, "His sneer deepened. "Disciplinary actions for that."
Jaune inclined his head, unsure what to say to that.
"Our employer gave us the task of ensuring your security and facilitate your coordination with our own plans. While we would normally allow you to experience the full hospitality of the Schnees, we do not have time. Something tipped off the Atlas Military and under the guise of a routine patrol they will be investigating this base soon."
Jaune smiled easily. "Neither of us want that."
"Indeed. Can I count on you to cooperate with me while we evacuate to a safehouse outside of Atlas jurisdiction?"
"Only if I can get some actual answers and not thinly veiled bullshit."
The man laughed out loud at that. "As is your right. Jacques is a pain isn't he?" The sneer returned to his face, but it was less patronizing now. "I will let you out of these barbaric restraints and we shall proceed to the hangar. Any questions you have will be answered freely then."
"Deal."
While the doctor was called in to remove the IV drip and electrodes from his body, Jaune planned. The new man clearly possessed more authority than Jacques in whatever shadow group they were recruiting him for. He may even be one of the aforementioned bosses, given how he was offering to freely provide information without expecting anything but cooperation in return.
Jacques's questioning was for his own benefit it seems. He might be afraid of being left out of the loop. Could he be low on the hierarchy? How far up does this go?
It seemed despite being trusted enough to be walking free, his aura was still being blocked somehow. Once the doctor was finished with his duties, the slender man motioned Jaune to follow him into the bright white hallways outside.
It seems that the Schnees love for the color white was not just limited to their personal items. I'll have to ask We… Jaune bit his lip as the thought of the Schnee heiress popped into his head. She had been on that same Bullhead as him. It was unlikely they were recruiting her, which meant she was likely being taken back to the Schnee Manor in Atlas. That was huge: she was the only one he knew the location of, and she was close enough for him to attempt a rescue mission.
They boarded a non-descript Bullhead on the same pad he had been delivered to Jacques on. In stark opposition to the exterior, the inside of the Bullhead was fully customized. The wall of the cargo hold was knocked out, creating a large room with velvet stitched onto the walls and a lush carpet covering the floor. The side walls were covered with bookshelves and the back wall contained a sizeable clutter-free desk and a workstation side-by-side.
"Comfy." Jaune said, as the man directed him to one of the leather armchairs in the middle of the room, seating himself in the other.
"But of course. It is my home away from home away from home. Atlas won't have me and so I must make do the best I can." He tapped a finger onto a holographic display that emanated from one of the rings on his right hand. The door to the Bullhead closed on its own and the pressure of a swift takeoff settled on Jaune's shoulders.
"Welcome aboard, Dr. Watts." An automated voice emanated from an unknown source. Jaune twitched at the name and stared at the man who preened at the attention.
"You're…"
"Dr. Arthur Watts. I am the brains of our operation, as you probably have guessed." He bowed his head slightly. "The only brains until now, it seems like."
Jaune faked a laugh at that. Narcissistic tendencies? "I was going to say you're the guy whose textbook I committed about 3 felonies in Atlas to acquire."
"Dust Applications in Integrated Design?"
"Aura and Its Implications in Cybersecurity, rather."
Watts' pleased smile grew even wider. "A cultured mind, finally! That is one of my finest works. If you enjoyed that, I'm sure working with me will help you learn quite a bit indeed."
Jaune grinned back at him, for a different reason. He had heard of Dr. Watts obviously. His research was where Jaune got a lot of ideas for the Penny project after all. Anyone in his field knew about his research and the fantastic heights he had managed to attain in academia. But with twice the success came twice the price and therefore twice the fall. One day he was suddenly struck from every record in both the Atlas University of Dust Science and the Atlas Citizen records with every single text written or credited to him either embargoed or erased entirely. That was the problem with a system such as the CCT: permanent storage required Dust to be actively fed to keep the volatile memory alive. Remnant simply had not developed cheap mass-storage technology due to the reliance on and availability of Dust and thus only the CCT towers contained the large, bulky, and expensive physical storage systems. Even scrolls only contained enough permanent storage to store config, authentication, and identification data while streaming everything else directly from the CCT network.
It was one of Jaune's first forays into international crime. He had managed to deliver a trojan into the Atlesian military's permanent data cold sites via a shipping manifesto from a cargo ship outbound from Argus. All that to get his hands of what was one of the most controversial topics in electronic engineering in Remnant: the application of Aura inside of a computer system. The text was standard for the most part but where Watts had earned the ire of contemporary academics was in his implication that it might be possible to create a self-sustaining computer system that relied on Aura to compute rather than pre-printed Dust circuits. At best, he was talking about aura-operated machinery. At worst, he was dealing in synthetic life.
Atlas had begun to come around to accept the less controversial parts in the decade following, but the name of Arthur Watts was still on the Atlesian Most Wanted list. No one knew where he had disappeared to after Atlas had cracked down on him, but it seemed he had managed to find an organization that didn't mind his controversial research. In fact, they probably encouraged it. Could the aura suppression he was experiencing a result of his research? He would have to play his escape card swiftly and deliberately. He couldn't risk further capture, not with his potential alliance being the only reason he was allowed to move around and talk.
The guy is a massive narcissist. I can almost feel it dripping off him. Jaune faked another laugh at some backhanded compliment Watts sent his way. A plan started taking shape in his head. I can work with this.
Cinder Fall
There was something about staring into the unnatural vapors inside a Seer Grimm's head that made one rethink their life choices. She had been trying to resist it as she waited to report to her Queen, but it was futile. As futile as resisting the Queen herself.
Cinder Fall was a woman who knew what she wanted and what she would sacrifice to get it. The answer to both was everything.
It was what led her to her first kill to free herself of the shackles of slavery and the hell she called home. Her first Huntsman kill was soon after, her own mentor, leaving her free of any emotional shackles. Killing came easily to her after that. It wasn't because she enjoyed the act, but the clarity she got from taking another's life was exhilarating, the power intoxicating. The look of despair in their eyes as they were forced to acknowledge through the brutal laws of nature that yes, they were less worthy was unmatched.
She wasn't a murderer. She never killed anyone beneath her, nor did she go out of her way to find victims unlike many of her associates. Unlike the deranged scorpion faunus Tyrian or the diminutive assassin who worked with Roman, she never would deign herself to spill the blood of anyone not worthy of her attention. That's why she had underlings to that for her.
Or had, rather.
Mercury had been sent to infiltrate that surprise addition to Beacon's student body. Jaune Arc. He had appeared suddenly, with no identity or records, with the explicit permission of the headmaster and special privileges to boot. Rumors had spread like fire from Beacon of a student who was given their own personal lab and Dust supply on the explicit orders of Headmaster Ozpin. This special treatment was highly unusual. The other special admission that had surprised her was the Silver Eyed freak, Ruby Rose. A sheep being groomed for slaughter, but even she was being treated ostensibly as if she was just a prodigy.
The situation continued to get stranger ever since that blonde bastard had shown up. She thought she had left Vale's underworld under her indirect control but the sudden appearance of a third party called the Prometheans that played by their own rules had thrown a wrench into her well-oiled plan to topple Vale. The timing was suspicious to be sure. An entirely self-sufficient paramilitary group with Huntsman level training and Atlas level tech? This was fishy.
Her curiosity had been piqued by his display at the weapons fair Beacon had put on. A lone individual, capable of designing weaponry to surpass even Atlesian mechanoid infantry in terms of sheer ease of use and effectiveness? Madness. It was once-in-a-lifetime genius. She was only interested in him because of the threat his weaponry proved to her plan. If Ozpin was willing to give him the funding and resources required to put on a weapons showcase, there was a good chance he was contributing more to Beacon's defense than his Huntsman skills. He was a variable that could directly interfere in her plans, and she delighted in the challenge. She would win in the end of course, and his death would further affirm her position.
During her stay at Beacon, she had tried to get a read on his character, but outside of his laboratory he seemed like an average Huntsman in training. Her attempts at hacking Beacon's file systems showed no committed changes nor any 'misplaced' resources. After a week of unfruitful attempts, she had swallowed her pride and asked Watts for help. The pathetically arrogant worm had needled her every step of the way but eventually he managed to get her the information she required buried 3 levels deep inside Beacon's private storage servers.
Defensive embankments, automated turrets, rendezvous points, even artillery. Every file was new, dating to after Jaune Arc's miraculous appearance at Beacon. It was a hell of a coincidence and Cinder's mistress did not believe in coincidences. While Cinder had made last minute alternations to her plan to take the new Beacon defenses into account, she had been given the assurance that her plan will be successful. She had also been given certain knowledge to reveal to him, knowledge which had only further justified her commitment to her Queen. She was to convey this to the boy and the only potential obstacle in her path would be removed.
Her Queen had asked her for faith, and how it had been rewarded! The invasion went off without a hitch. The White Fang had managed to breach Vale while the students had been away for their training missions and the city's defenses were nowhere enough to stop an invasion of Grimm of that size. By the time Beacon had managed to recall the teams, the city had fallen. There had been a moment of panic as some sort of giant missile was launched from Beacon, only to drop off dozens of Prometheans over the city. It was clear however that they too were simply no match for the sheer power of the Grimm wave and were simply distractions to allow civilians to escape.
An altruistic private military? She had chuckled. As unlikely as Beacon surviving tonight.
True to her mistress' word, it had been a decisive and complete victory. Adam Taurus had died, killed in a suicide attack by a Promethean by the looks of it, she had received the Maiden powers, and half the Valean Huntsmen were dead.
What was by far the most surprising was Jaune Arc, almost unsurprisingly. He had displayed near-precognitive abilities as he commanded and fought through the Grimm and White Fang. He seemed to know every attack, be it a rearing Ursa or a crashing Bullhead. It was unnerving but her faith in her Queen's omnipotence kept her steady through the fight on the Beacon Tower.
Her surprise at his knowledge of the Fall Maiden's powers was shortly surpassed by her shock at his sudden betrayal of his partner. Not that she had let it be seen; her mistress had given her clear instructions and unlike her contemporaries, she was perfectly capable of executing them.
It was only the next day that the price she had paid became apparent. Mercury had yet to return from his infiltration of the Arc kid's laboratory from a week ago and Emerald was found lying in a puddle of her own blood in a White Fang base with no witnesses. Unfortunate losses at best, consequences for their mistakes at worst. If they were the price to be paid for such a successful plan, she would pay it a thousand times over. They were just pawns after all, right? There was no reason to feel empty.
None at all.
AN: How is it August already?! Time flies when you're procrastinating writing your thesis I guess...
Anyways, this chapter continues the setup for the second arc of this story. Jaune is getting answers at the cost of being directly exposed to Salem and her gang. What exactly is Jacques hinting at? What will Watts' sales pitch to join the Evil League of Evil be? Will Jaune ever get his aura back? Probably. It's possible.
I do have a bunch of action and plot planned out since I last updated. Since a lot of the stuff in the first arc was written before we got all the backstory of the world, it's been difficult finding a happy medium between respecting canon and forming my own continuity. I have added a short notice to the first chapter to clarify my position on this but it is essentially that I'll maintain canon as long as it doesn't contradict the overall plot and characterization I have established or hinted at in any published chapters. So stuff like Ozpin and Salem's identity and their fight obviously cannot be the same as the show (for obvious reasons) but it will be as close as I can make it. That's why stuff like Cinder's backstory can be the exact same as the show but because of plot divergences her characterization might not be. This is just rambling but hopefully it clarifies that my divergences from canon will be in service of the plot and will be as minimal as I can make them.
So, yeah. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any suggestions or feedback, PMs and reviews are appreciated and encouraged. Your messages really do carry more motivation than you'd expect and I try to respond to every review I can to generate feedback and discussion. Thank you all, and have a good day!
