Distortion

General Ironwood was currently sitting at his desk in his private quarters on his flagship. He was on his terminal, going through the usual tasks he had to do while organizing his troops to search throughout Vacuo and the neighboring desert. He sighed as he worked. He had been hoping to get some information from Shade Academy on possible whereabouts on the Branwens. But just as he arrived, their computers systems were being attacked by an unknown virus or program. It was almost identical to the one that effected Haven over a month ago. The General decided to help the local Huntsmen by using his Knights to help with the search efforts. Although, there was no sign of the culprit. He just got done going through all his squads checking in, all except for one group further out in the desert, but that made sense, all still had nothing. Besides the knocked out third year Shade student, that was found near the Kingdom's limits with a short-circuited scroll, they found nothing.

The biggest slap in the face of this whole situation was that the program was originally a program the Atlas military was working on. But it was stolen and modified after the Branwens broke into the facility. That along with their only batch of Black Ops scrolls and a few other experimental prototypes were gone and any record of them were erased from their systems.

Ironwood leant back in his seat and gently rubbed his eyes, they were sore from staring at the screen for so long. He was tired. Not from his usual duties but from his search for Jaune Branwen. It had been over a month since Glynda's funeral and as soon as it was over, he started this manhunt. He came close to finding him several times, but every time he was close, he'd slip through his fingers. It was maddening and exhausting. He wasn't the only one running out of steam, Winter and Aaeron had been doing everything they could to help him. Both knew why he was doing this and were willing to do anything to bring the two Branwens in. But it just seemed to be an impossible task. If it wasn't for the fact that he swore on Glynda's grave that he'd bring them in, he would've cut his losses.

Just then, his terminal lit up with an alert. Ironwood looked to see it was the last squad reporting in. He took a deep breath to calm himself before answering it, "Report, Omega Squad." He waited a few seconds, but no sound came through. "Omega Squad, report." He said again. Still no sound. "Lieutenant, what's going on?"

"He's a bit…. indisposed right now." Came a very familiar masculine voice.

"Branwen!" Ironwood shouted and stood up so quickly that his chair flipped over. "What did you do to my men?!"

"Calm down, General. They're all fine, hurt but alive. You have their coordinates, so you can retrieve them. We just needed a way to contact you." Jaune said seriously but with a slight mocking tone behind it.

Ironwood growled slightly, "What do you want?"

"To put a stop to this." He responded simply. "You've been hounding us for too long now. So, I'm going to give you a chance to settle your grudge against us." Ironwood was stunned but Jaune didn't let him speak, "I'm going to keep this scroll for you to track us. We'll be at that location for twenty minutes. You have that long to meet us there before we leave."

The general was still stunned before his eyes narrowed at the screen, "Why would you do this? What's your game?"

Jaune sighed, "I really hate repeating myself. My game is to get you off my back. Twenty minutes is no where near close enough for you to recall all your soldiers and fly your flagship to our location. But, if you were to gather a small group and a smaller ship… you may just make it." He could practically hear Jaune smirk, "Although, will you be able to stop us with so few soldiers? Well, that's up to you to figure out. Time's ticking, General." The call ended with that.

Ironwood just stared at the screen. It was a trap, obviously. Him and Raven had been avoiding him with little issue, there was no point in them offering themselves up like this. His best option would be to gather his troops quickly and go after them. But, he was right, he wouldn't get there in time. He clenched his robotic hand on his desk, cracking it, as he glared more at the screen. 'I can't let them slip away. Not again.'

With that, he used his terminal to call two individuals. The two picked up almost instantly, "General Ironwood, sir!"

"Winter, Aaeron. Gather all available Knights on the ship and meet me in the vehicle bay, immediately." Ironwood commanded.

"Yes, sir!" the replied before the call was ended.

Ironwood turned away from his desk and made his way out of his quarters. "For you, Glynda."

Jaune was leant against a palm tree, relaxing in the shade it provided. Jaune along with Raven, Onyx and Gil, had moved to this small oasis after the defeat of the Death Stalker. Luckily, it was only a mile or so away and where Gil was going to send his coordinates, if not for the giant Grimm that attacked him. He opened his eyes to look around the small oasis. Gil was at the spring, drinking and splashing some of the water against his face. Onyx was sitting against another tree close by, he was resting and going through his quiver, taking stock of the arrows he had left. He looked around for Raven, until he saw her move from behind his tree to stand next to him. "The time's almost up."

Jaune just nodded, "Yeah. Let's get out of here then." He tossed the scroll he took from the Atlas soldier into the spring as he pushed off the tree. Raven was about to open a portal when they all heard the sound of engines. They all turned towards the direction of Vacuo, to see a smaller ship flying towards them. "Looks like he's set on bringing us in." Jaune smirked slightly before getting serious. "Gil, Onyx, get your masks on! We don't need them knowing your faces." The two were already walking towards Jaune, putting their respective masks on and their weapons at the ready.

The ship touched down twenty feet from where they stood. It opened to reveal Ironwood, Winter and Aaeron, along with a dozen Altesian Knights. They stood across from Knightingale and the two groups just stared each other down. "So, you actually showed up." Jaune broke the silence.

"When a criminal gives themselves up, its my duty to bring them in." Ironwood said coldly.

Jaune just shook his head, "You can drop the whole 'upholding my duty' act. We both know you're doing this for revenge, it just so happens to line up with your duties." Jaune removed his hands from his pockets, "Although, you can't really blame me for killing Goodwitch. If I didn't she would've been a vegetable or so broken you wouldn't recognized her. What I did was a mercy." A bullet came flying towards Jaune, but he used Distortion at the last second to reflect the bullet into the sand before it could go through his eye. Jaune just smirked as he looked at the irate General pointing his revolver at him. "You should watch that temper of yours."

"Don't you talk about Glynda. You have no right to even speak her name after what you did!" Ironwood shouted, to the shock of Winter and Aaeron.

"I told Ozpin what would happen if he kept coming after us. He didn't listen, so I had to show him I was serious." He stated matter of fact before sighing, "Honestly, I had nothing against her. But she would've kept coming, so I had to stop her. She was an amazing Huntress and woman, that's why I didn't let her suffer." He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. When he opened them again, his emotionless mask was back on. "But enough of that. This is your chance to stop this, General. We aren't your enemy. We want the same thing as you, to stop Salem."

Ironwood flinched at that, "So, you know."

"Of course, he does." Raven spoke up. "He's my husband after all. I told him everything I knew, and he agrees with me."

"Makes sense that he'd agree with a traitor like you." Ironwood spat.

The wind started to pick up as Gil's red aura came to the surface. "I would show her some respect if I were you. Unless, you wanna be more machine than man." He growled with his axe at the ready.

Aaeron pulled his spear from his back. "You'll never get close enough."

Onyx had his bow drawn with a red tipped arrow, aimed directly at the visor of Aaeron's helmet. "That before I put an arrow through your eye?"

Winter drew her saber and pointed it at Onyx. "If you can get past me first, that is."

The Knights all readied their guns and had them aimed at Knightingale. Ironwood still had his revolver aimed at Jaune, but what was odd was that him and Raven were still perfectly calm. Jaune then spoke up again, just as calmly as before, "She's no traitor. She disagreed with your way of 'fighting' her and sought another way to do so. And she found it."

"What do you mean by that?" Ironwood questioned.

"Salem wants the relics, so Ozpin's solution was to hide them in the Academies with the Maidens acting as the keys. It was clever, but it is not a solution." Raven said as she took a step forward to be just in front of Jaune. "Salem is patient and has numerous assets at her disposal. She has been preparing and slowly whittling your defenses down. Eventually, they will be weak enough for her to make her move and she will win then." Raven then put her mask on, "Ozpin forced the world into a defensive stance while Salem continues the offensive. A defense only works as long as one can outlast their attacker. The Grimm don't tire or falter. The only way to win a war, is to attack back."

Ironwood was just staring at disbelief at her, "We can't attack her. That would be suicide!"

Jaune stepped forward, "As it is now. But, we can cripple her forces." Ironwood's eyes widened. "Raven has found the other option and with it, we can give the people of Remnant the edge we need. To win."

"That's impossible. If there was a way to do such a thing, Ozpin would've found it." The General argued.

Raven shook her head, "Ozpin knows a lot, but not everything."

"So, what is your plan then?" Ironwood ventured.

"A commander is only as strong as their army." Jaune replied cryptically. "We are not about to tell you everything. Just know we are fighting against the same enemy."

They all stood there, in a deadlock. All waiting to see who would make the next move. Ironwood never lowered his gun, "You've killed numerous people for this plan of yours, I can't just let you get away with that. Especially, after Glynda."

Jaune sighed, "You were right. He only trusts himself." Jaune spoke to Raven as he slowly lifted his mask to his face. "We need to be strong to stop her and only the strong survive. That's nature. But, you all seem dead set to stand in our way. Nothing left to do now."

Jaune drew Tourmentage Tordu and that set off the powder keg. Aaeron shot forward with that, clearing the twenty feet in a second. His serrated spear, Wolk Priem, aimed at Jaune's chest. Jaune used the flat of his blade with his left hand supporting it, to deflect the spear, sending sparks flying, that was before he used Distortion to send him flying from Jaune's right. Aaeron skidded backward and was about to stop himself before he realized he was headed towards Gil who was already swinging horizontally at him. Aaeron spun and shot off at Gil, catching him off guard. Wolk Priem caught the blade of Dunkel Axe, causing it to be deflected as Aaeron flew over Gil. Onyx still had his sights trained on Aaeron, until he saw Winter charge towards him with the help of her Glyph. Her saber was about to make contact when it was deflected by Raven's blade, who charged towards Onyx to cover him. Raven planted her feet and pushed Winter away from Onyx as he was still waiting for the best possible shot.

Jaune witnessed all of that before he turned back to the General, in time to deflect another bullet with Distortion. He would've charged him, but he had to quickly reach back and deploy Désespoir to defend against the salvo of bullets from the Atlesian Knights. They were marching forward, six on each side of Ironwood as he walked forward with them. Jaune stood against the salvo for a few seconds as he channeled Distortion through his blade. When that was done, he slashed his sword across the sand as he swung upwards. That sent the sand forwards in a wave directly at them. "Onyx!" Jaune commanded.

Onyx turned towards Jaune and saw what he had done. He quickly hit the switch in the fetching of his Fire arrow, activating its secondary effect, and released. The dust was slowly being released and lit the entire arrow on fire. As soon as the arrow was on its way, Onyx quickly drew a light green tipped arrow and flicked its switch as well. He fired the arrow and its wind dust was slowly being released, causing it to fly faster. The Wind arrow went through the Fire arrow, destroying it and lighting the arrow on fire. The arrow was flying fast with now hotter flames, the wind amplifying the fire. Ironwood jumped away from the sand wave as it crashed into his Knights. As soon as that happened, the arrow hit the sand and melted it. The wave of molten glass stopped the Knights long enough for Jaune to plant his sword into the sand and draw Sommeil Eternel to fire a Distortion enhanced bullet as Onyx fired a Gravity arrow. The explosion caused the molten sand to explode outwards before rapidly cooling it. Now stood a glass sculpture of said explosion with the pieces of the androids stuck inside.

Jaune nodded to Onyx as he holstered his gun and drew his blade from the sand. As that was done, he charged towards the General. He waited until Jaune was close enough before he charged forward and punched with his robotic arm. Jaune raised his shield but the force behind it jarred his arm and pushed him back. As he was struggling against him, the General aimed his revolver at Jaune. Luckily, Jaune had enough time between the charging towards Ironwood and now to switch his Semblance from Distortion to Telekinesis. He flicked his index and middle finger of his shield arm towards the revolver. It was covered in a black aura and was pushed away enough for the bullet to miss Jaune. As the General was stunned, Jaune swung at him with his blade but he had enough time to catch the blade with the barrel of his revolver. The two were now in a power struggle until Jaune used his Telekinesis to send Ironwood off him.

The General crouched and used his mechanical arm to slow himself down. As he stood, he had a look of restrained anger. "So, its true. You stole her Semblance." He growled.

Jaune rolled both of his shoulders. "Yeah." He spoke seriously, too focused to have a joking façade. His eyes flicked over to see Raven fighting against Winter and a few of her white Beowolves. She was having little issue with dealing with the four-on-one odds. His eyes moved more to see Gil and Onyx dealing with the spear user, but it was very even.

Jaune charged forward again, this time his shield in front of him. Ironwood fired two more shots, but they were easily deflected off Désespoir. Jaune used his aura to rocket towards Ironwood for a shield bash but he was able to use his arm to protect himself from most of the impact but still had him off balance. Jaune quickly spun clockwise, his shield scraped off the General's arm as he spun a full three-sixty to cut across his chest with his blade. It cut his coat and did a number on his aura. To keep up the pressure, Jaune pulled his left arm back and went for an uppercut with the sharpened edge of the shield. Jaune caught him in the solar plexus and could feel his aura weakening, along with his Negative Aura still siphoning his aura.

Jaune was shocked when Ironwood knocked his shield away and punched him in the chest with his augmented arm, while still winded. Jaune gave a choked cry and he flew backwards. He skipped off the sand twice before he smashed through the palm tree he stood against.

Onyx and Gil were having a hard time with Aaeron. He was skilled to say the least. Every time Gil went for a swing, he would strike him in the inner shoulder to weaken his swing. He also stayed close to Gil, making it dangerous for Onyx to fire any of his dust arrows and he was low on his normal arrows after the fight with the Death Stalker. That's when Onyx saw Jaune go tumbling across the sand and into a tree. He was absolutely shocked. He never saw Jaune take such a hit. He was concerned until he saw Jaune stand up before he went to a knee, clearly winded.

That's when Aaeron ducked under another of Gil's swings and caught him in the head with the end of his spear. Gil was dazed and fell to a knee. That's when Aaeron spun his spear through his fingers, the two ends of the spear collapsed inwards to be a third of its original length. The spinning stopped, and the spearhead folded in half to be a one-sided blade. It then slid down the side of the spear until the point of the head was at the tip of the pole, revealing a barrel. That's when a gun handle came out of the middle of the pole. Aaeron took hold of the handle and placed his left hand right behind the blade to help hold the semi-auto rifle. He brought it up to his shoulder before he aimed at Jaune and fired.

"Jaune!" Onyx shouted. Jaune turned and raised his shield just in time to not get eviscerated by the bullets.

Onyx then drew his last Gravity arrow and fired at Aaeron. The spearman turned in time to see it coming and tried to dive out of the way, but the arrow released a large concussive blast as it hit the ground. That sent Aaron tumbling across the desert before he stopped himself by digging the blade of his rifle into the sand. He slowly stood to show that the visor of his helmet was heavily cracked. He quickly pulled it off and threw it away, releasing his long blonde hair and revealing his cold and calculating light blue eyes. He repositioned his hand, so his thumb was on the back of the gun while the other four fingers were still on the gun handle. He squeezed his hand to slam the handle back into the pole and the rifle extended back into its spear form. He pointed his spear at Onyx before shooting off again. Onyx had no time to react but luckily, Gil was able to block it with his axe. Aaeron started to stare into Gil's masked eyes.

Jaune lowered his shield to see that Gil was now engaged with Aaeron once again. He quickly turned to see that Ironwood was back to standing and was reloading his revolver. Jaune saw the large trunk of the tree he smashed through. He grinned evilly as he used Telekinesis on it. It rose with a black glow before the tip twisted and shattered into a sharp point. It started to spin faster and faster until Jaune sent the impromptu spear at Ironwood.

Ironwood had a flashback of Glynda using that exact tactic and froze. He came back to his senses just in time to grab it before it would burrow into his chest. The velocity behind it pushed him back as the spinning shredded the glove that hid his metal hand. As he finally slowed down, he gave a shout of exertion and threw his arm to the side to send the trunk spinning into the distance. He turned back to see Jaune already on him and attacking him with a flurry of slashes from his sword and his sharpened shield. Ironwood was being pushed back until Jaune was soon swarmed by a flock of white Nevermores. As he was defending himself from them, Ironwood turned to see that Winter had sent them as Raven was busy with her entire pack of Beowolves. Ironwood nodded to her before he aimed his revolver at the distracted Branwen.

Jaune saw the General aiming at him and was about to defend himself until he saw something in the corner of his eye. He quickly used his Telekinesis to raise a sand shield between the two of them. Ironwood was confused by the tactic; the sand wouldn't be able to protect him from his bullets. That's when he saw two arrows coming towards him and raised his metal arm. That's when the arrows exploded into flames as the fire dust was released. Ironwood screamed as the flames covered him while Jaune was sent back a couple of feet from the explosion, but the sand protected him from the flames as he intended. It appeared that the Nevermore were also dealt with in the explosion.

Jaune collapsed his shield back into its sheathe form and attached it to his back before he drew Souffrance Eternelle and charged again. Ironwood threw off his burning coat to reveal his muscular and mechanical upper body. He charged at Jaune and the two were quickly engaged once again. Ironwood was blocking Jaune's swords swings with his arm or dodging them while Jaune was either dodging or deflecting the General's punches. Both tried to aim their revolver at the other, but they would either move out of the way or smack the gun away before they could fire. The two stopped when Ironwood grabbed Jaune's gun by the barrel and Jaune locked the General's gun barrel with his blade. The two were trying to overpower the other, with Jaune using his Telekinesis to help him in his endeavor. That's when Ironwood saw a familiar shadow on the ground and grinned.

Aaeron had managed to get away from his opponents. He managed to daze Gil when he went for a powerful swing and he managed to disarm Onyx after he fired his arrows at the General. He was running as fast as he could towards Jaune and the General, Jaune with his back to him. When he was at the correct distance he used his Semblance, Luchtstaking, it allowed him to jump about a hundred meters in any direction. He used it to jump straight up into the air. When he was at the correct height, he angled his body at his target and was about to use his Semblance again to finish this. No one saw the sadistic grin spread across his face as he went flying towards his target. His spear met his target, their aura shattered and tore clean through their arm. The man was shocked especially when he heard Aaeron speak, "Sorry, General."

Winter was just shocked by this. She saw Aaeron running to assist the General but just as he went to attack, he hit the General. His mechanical arm was severed from the rest of him with the distinct sound of metal on metal. There had to be some mistake, this couldn't be real. "General!" she shouted in disbelief.

That was the worst thing she could've done. When she was distracted, she saw a series of red slashes and her Beowolves fade out of existence. She turned to see the still masked Raven in front of her. Before she could raise her weapon, Raven slashed upwards. Her aura was shattered, and her hair came loose from its bun. She just stared in disbelief before she fell to her knees then collapsed to the ground. As her vision went black, she saw Raven sheathe her sword and walk towards Jaune and Aeeron. "General…" she said weakly before she lost consciousness.

Jaune just watched as Aaeron tore through the General's mechanical arm. He grinned before he aimed his freed revolver and fired into the General's knees. He fell to the ground and Jaune kicked his gun away. Jaune was breathing heavy until he turned to Aaeron, "Good job. But that gunfire was a bit close for comfort."

He just shrugged, "I knew you could handle it. Besides, we had to make it look convincing. Although, the new guy really did a number on me with that arrow."

Jaune nodded, "Sorry about that. We had no time to tell him, mostly because we didn't know you'd be here."

"Aaeron! What is the meaning of this?!" The two turned down to General who forced himself onto his knees. He was glaring at Aaeron. "How could betray your Kingdom like this!?"

Aaeron started to chuckle and gave his former superior a sadistic grin, "I never betrayed Atlas. My loyalty has been with Jaune and Raven from the beginning." He said that as he pulled something from his small pack on his back. It was a Grimm mask but this one was in the motif of a Death Stalker. "Since Raven saved me after I was left for dead by my former team."

"Impossible." Ironwood said in disbelief.

Aaeron just shook his head, "Oh, it's very true. Raven helped me get back on my feet and to repay her, I agreed to infiltrate and spy on Atlas for her. I proved myself over and over and they rewarded me with this." He gestured to his mask. "Then I started to follow Jaune after he proved himself worthy of being our leader. After he gave me this scar." He said as he pointed to it.

Ironwood just stared up at him, "It was you. You were the one that helped them break into the facility, to steal our prototypes!"

"Yup. Better in our hands then Atlas'. Being your subordinate allowed me to gather all kinds of information for the tribe and allowed me to give you delayed information on finding them. And you were none the wiser. I'm just glad I can finally give up that charade." He put his mask on and finished his speech, "Tearing you apart was almost as good as killing those bastards that abandoned me so long ago." That's when he punched him across the face and sent him to the ground.

Aaeron shook his hand to ease the pain as he placed Wolk Priem on his back. He then pulled out his Atlas scroll and activated the program that sent all the files he liberated to Jaune's scroll before it short-circuited and he dropped it like trash. Jaune looked over the files and nodded, "Good job, Aaeron. Let's go home."

They were about to walk away but something grabbed his ankle. He looked down to see Ironwood holding onto it with his remaining arm with a death grip. "You won't get away." He said, deadly serious.

That's when his arm was cut off at the shoulder. The General screamed in pain as Raven resheathed her sword. "Do not touch my husband."

Jaune just sighed, "Raven, come on." he said frustratedly and knelt to look at the Generals wound. He pulled out a fire dust crystal and used it to cauterize the wound. The General screamed in pain and was about to pass out when Jaune slapped him awake. Jaune grabbed him by his throat, so he could look into his eyes. "The only reason I don't kill you is because that would just draw more attention to us. The Councils will be more wary to try to attack the people who brought down the 'Great' General and you will serve as another example for Ozpin. But, interfere again and all bets are off." He dropped the General to the ground as Raven opened a portal. "The Revolution is coming, General." That was the last thing he said before walking through the portal.

The General could only watch as Jaune and Knightingale slipped away, yet again. But he now realized, he had no chance of catching them with Aaeron by his side. He was played like a fiddle and by someone he trusted no less. But, now he had more reasons to bring them down. And he would do it, even if he had to go through hell to do it.

A/N- Well, what can I say? I screwed up, plain and simple. I don't know why I can't seem to update this more than once a month. Literally, I'll say to myself, I have time to work on it and next thing I know, it's next month. It's frustrating.

Anyways, I hope it was worth the wait. This was a chapter I had planed for a long time and I'm so happy it is out. Also, shoutout to justjustin3099! Aaeron Calis was another character submitted by the legend. His first actually. I had to wait to give him the shoutout or it would've given the twist away. With that, I hope you all enjoyed and I can only hope you can be patient with me when it comes to updating. See ya all in the next update!