The screen began clearing up and everyone sat in place waiting for and steeling their nerves for whatever came next.
"I got a weird feeling about this one.." Ruby held onto her mother tightly, scared of what might appear. Yang ruffled her hair, grinning at her.
"It probably won't be so weird."
The screen faded in, revealing a closeup of Jaune's eyes. He has a bruise on his left eye, and bags under his right from nights of unrest. The camera pulls out to reveal a gun in his mouth.
Yang opened her mouth and closed it, not being able to find any words. Everyone else stared worriedly.
Ren, looking very different with blonde hair and dyed pink tips, is sitting on Jaune's lap, smirking uncharacteristically while holding said gun with his left hand.
They where both disheveled, Jaune more so than Ren who had no traces of physical harm or tiredness of any kind.
He checked the watch he had on his right wrist. "Three minutes." He looked out the window. "This is the beginning. We're at ground zero. Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?"
"...I... ann... iinn... ff... nnyin..." Suddenly, a voice spoke out to the viewers.
'With a gun in between your teeth, you only speak in vowels'
Ren pulls the gun away, amused. "Come again?" Jaune, clearly disoriented, responded.
"I can't think of anything."
'I could feel the rifling in the barrel with my tongue. For a second I totally forgot about Ren's whole controlled demolition thing and I wondered how clean that gun is...'
"Ew..." Weiss shuddered.
Ren stood up and walked to the windows behind them, revealing that they where inside a large building, possibly still under construction. He checked his watch. "Two and a half. Getting really interesting now."
'That old saying, how you always hurt the one you love, well, it works both ways.'
"I don't see how that relates to this." Ruby said, tilting her head in confusion. Yang smirked and glanced over to Nora and Ren.
"Maybe Ren and Vomit boy's bromance dropped the 'b'?" Ren's eyes went wide while Nora hummed at the idea.
"I can see it happening." She stared.
"Nora!"
Jaune turned his head to see that they where in fact 31 stories high. The camera zoomed out slightly before rushing down to the ground, through the floor and into the garage of another building, revealing a white van.
'We have front row seats for this theater of mass destruction. the Demolitions Committee of Project Mayhem wrapped the foundation columns of ten buildings with blasting gelatin. In two minutes, primary charges will blow base charges, and those buildings out there will be reduced to smoldering rubble. I know this because Ren knows this.'
"Look what we've accomplished!" He checks his watch. "Sixty seconds."
'Somehow, I realize all of this - the gun, the bombs, the revolution - is really about Nora Valkyrie.'
The scene shifted to an image of Nora, who had a cigarette in her mouth, and a pair of sunglasses. She looked unamused and bored.
"WHAT!?" Nora stared in shock. Would Ren really do something that crazy just for her? And why would he get Jaune involved? What the hell were they watching?
Yang cringed a bit. "Please, never become that Nora. I prefer you as you are right now." Nora only nodded, still trying to take in the fact that this was about her. Pyrrha could only stare worried that maybe her fellow teammate had snapped, while Ren tried to not think about it.
'This really should take a back seat for a moment. I got some explaining to do...'
"Please do." Ruby groaned, worrying for her friend's safety. Pyrrha clenched her fists and tapped her leg nervously.
The scene cut to Jaune in bed. The clock next to him read midnight, and he was wide awake.
'I was an insomniac. I worked a desk job for a car company that made garbage cars; leather seats cured in in third world countries with chemicals they know cause birth defects. Break linings that fail after a thousand miles, and fuel injectors that burn people alive.'
All eyes were wide. "H-how could a company do that?!" Nora screamed, disgust and horror filling her.
"And why's Jaune so calm abou this?"
"The kid's probably worked there for way too long." Qrow answered. "You see enough horrifying things, and they just become second nature."
Tayang nodded. "That's probably the reason he can't sleep either. Some sort of Shell Shock."
The camera cut to a burned out car, and panned over to the inside.
"You see those bits of yellow, red and hard black stuff sticking out of the shit leather seat? That's what's left of the poor bastard who bought this car. Caught fire with everyone stuck inside.
"The sad thing is, I can't do anything about this. If the ammount of cars is less than the cost of the deaths, the cars keep coming."
Weiss flinched at his statement, knowing well it was the truth. She couldn't do anything about her own family's company. And she had heard more than one reason to do so, from labor conditions to poor equipment and other life threatening items, but until she actually owned the company, she could only watch in silence.
The scene changed to an office space. Jaune sat on a cheap leather chair, smirking, and wearing a dirty white button-up shirt with three buttons undone, and a bandage wrapped around his hand. An older man was just across from him, and he looked really familiar.
Weiss' eyes widened in disbelief. Yes her father was a bastard who put hard working people in danger and occasionally chuckled whenever a poor faunus died on the job- Yeah this shouldn't have been anything shocking to her. She just groaned and rubbed her nose while Blake's bow twitched.
"I'm not surprised..." She groaned. "Not surprised whatsoever."
"This was my asshole boss. At that moment, I told him what I just told you. He responded by calling security."
Jaune looked down at his fist and grinned.
"I am Jack's Smirking Revenge"
He punched himself hard enough to be sent flying back. He continued to beat himself and throw himself around.
"Why the hell is he doing that!?" Yang asked, slightly panicked by the sudden events on the screen.
"This wasn't anything new. I already knew what getting the crap beat out of me felt like."
Jaune continued to beat himself senseless around the office until part of the front of his shirt was covered in blood.
"But for some reason, that reminded me about my first fight with Ren."
"What?" Ren asked, more curious than conserned, but only for a split second.
The camera cut to both men standing outside of a bar. Jaune's face had confusion written all over it.
"What?" Ren hummed tossed his cigarette away.
"I want you do hit me!" Jaune scoffed, and felt nervous.
"Are... are you serious?"
"Yeah man! Can't go through life without some battle scars!" He began jumping up and down.
"He's not entirely wrong." Qrow said as he took a sip from his flask. Weiss unconsiously reached up and felt her own scar.
"So you just want me to... punch you?"
"That's right!" Ren rubbed his hands together and braced himself. "Alright. Go ahead." Jaune flexed his fingers and swallowed.
"Where?" Ren shrugged and leaned in a bit.
"Surprise me." Jaune braced himself and threw a punch, hitting Ren on the ear."
Everyone flinched lightly.
"Ow! Fuck!" The taller blonde rubbed his ear and chuckled. "Not bad!"
Suddenly, he sucker punched Jaune in the gut, winding him.
"This was just the start.Eventually people noticed us. And to my lack of surprise, it grew."
Suddenly the screen cut to dilapidated house with over a hundred of bald men with the same black outfits
"Project mayhem. Homemade explosives, vandalism, assaults, trashing corporate coffee shops and losing your name where some key parts of joining. You had no identity here."
While everyone was quite uncomfortable with the idea of giving up their own identity for a group, Blake couldn't help but notice how closely this was to the White Fang. It sent a shiver down her spine.
"Who'd be stupid enough to do that?" Ozpin looked over at Ruby, who looked more confused than anything.
"Allot of people tend to gravatate towards something that might give them a purpose in life." He stated, then gave a quick glance towards Blake.
"Ren did have one interest outside of this. Nora. I hated her. Before I met Ren, I couldn't sleep. I went to support groups for cancer patients, and other fatal ailments. I could finally let go and cry my eyes out. Baby's never slept like I did afterwards.
But good things had to come to an end, and Nora was that end. She was just like me. We liked being part of something that was bigger than ourselves, but that we couldn't understand. I hated her for stealing the one good thing in my empty life. And I was more than happy when she called, telling me she'd taken one too many pills."
Jaune was staring dead ahead, with his ears covered, while loud moans and screams could be heard just next door to him.
"I just wished they could be quiet."
Everyone went wide eyed at the scene. Their faces burning and glowing red. Nora had to focus as much as she could on not fainting while blood ran down her nose. Ren was... Well
Error 404. Ren Not Found.
"That was going on for a good while. But suddenly, one night, Ren was gone. I was alone with members of this crazy project for a while. And then the question came up; why where they calling me by his name? What was going on?"
"Who the hell was Lie Ren?"
The camera cut back to the beginning, this time Ren was standing.
"This is where you came in..."
"Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?"
"I... ill... ann... iinn... ff...nnyin..." Ren pulled the gun back, repeating the his line from the beginning.
"Come again?" Jaune pants, heavily disoriented.
"I still can't think of anything..." Ren chuckles and goes over to another chair.
"Flashback humor." He grins and looks at Jaune. "Look what we've accomplished. Out these windows, we will view the economic collapse. One step closer to global equilibrium. And I'm very glad you're here with me." Jaune pants, his breathing becoming labored.
"Please... call it off..." Ren's grin disappears as he looks at the helpless boy.
"It's out of your hands." He looks outside as a bus pulls up.
"Just hours ago I put Nora on a bus to get her away from here. I confessed my feelings to her and she told me off.
"Just twenty minutes ago I got the shit kicked out of me by Ren for disarming one of his bombs.
"Around a week ago, I realized who he really was. All the formal ways people I've never met spoke to me, how secretive they acted. How they laughed whenever I asked something so damn obvious..."
'I am Jacks's unchecked aggression.' Ren's voice spoke through, and the screen quickly cut to him staring straight at everyone with a sinister grin. Jaune suddenly replaced him, wearing his clothes and still smiling sinisterly before cutting back to the present moment.
Realization slowly dawned on everyone as the pieces formed, and images of who was really in that room with Nora. Ren looked at his longtime friend and recognized the look she had.
BLUESCREEN
Jaune's eyes widened in horror. "Nora..." Ren chuckled.
"Tying up loose ends." Jaune began panting, and scooted the chair closer to Ren.
"I'm begging you, please don't do this, Ren. It doesn't have to be this way." Ren glared at him and stood up.
"So what else are we gonna do!? Go back to a shitty job!? Sit in a worthless condo and watch sit-coms all day!? Fuck that!" Jaune stared at him, eyes full of horror.
"You're not real... I know this... That guns not in your hand... It's in... in... in mine..." The gun suddenly appeared in his hands. Ren stared at him, disinterested. He shrugged and and cocked an eyebrow.
"So what? That doesn't change anything." Jaune looked at the gun and pointed it at his head. "You're threatening me by putting a gun to your head?" Jaune breathed calmly, his eyes no longer showing fear.
"Not my head; our head." Images of Jaune in Ren's place flashed across the screen, and an a short clip of Jaune punching himself outside of a bar with a few people watching played. "And I got something you should know..."
"Yeah?" Ren crossed his arms, his face blank. Jaune smiled at him.
"My eyes are open." He put the gun in his mouth and immediately pulled the trigger.
"JAUNE!" Both teams screamed out in horror as blood shot out of his head. They saw him slump on the chair as the blood fell down his neck and stained his shirt, but his eyes where opened and he was wide awake. Pyrrha was shaking, crying but internally happy.
"Holly shit!" Qrow chugged the remaining contents of his flask in one go as he kept his eyes on the screen. Ruby had silent tears falling down her face as she held onto her mother, while Nora did the same thing with Ren.
"W-what the hell... just..." Weiss managed to mutter out.
Ozpin tightened the grip on his mug. He couldn't believe what he just saw. "Dear gods..."
Goodwitch could only stare with wide eyes. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn't make a sound.
Ren stared at him, smoke slowly coming out of his own mouth. He looked up, hypnotized. "What's that smell...?" Slowly, the camera moved to show the back of Ren's head, which was blown out. He slumped to the floor, disappearing as he did. He sighed in relief and heard cans and bags hit the floor. He looked over and saw three of the Project Mayhem members run up to them. He couldn't hear what they where saying because his ears were still ringing.
"I'm fine, I'm okay..." Shouting came near them as Nora was being dragged up forcefully.
"LET ME GO ASSHOLES! YOU FUCKERS!" She thrashed around, trying to get free until she spoted Jaune. "You...!" Jaune gave her a weak grin and stood up, leaving the gun on the chair.
"Hi, Nora... You guys can leave her with me. Get your things and go, I'll meet you all downstairs." His voice was very raspy and all nodded and did as they where told. Nora glared at him, and stomped up to him shouting as he held his blown out cheek.
"You asshole! What kind of game are you playing, putting me on a fucking bus- Oh my god.." She brought her hands up to her mouth and stared at his cheek. Jaune grabbed her hands and turned to look at the Project Mayhem members.
Jaune turned to a single remaining member. "Go find some gauze."
He nodded quickly and rushed off. Nora, now snapping out of her shocked stupor, reached up and hover-handed his injury.
"Who did this!? Are you okay?!" He smiled at her and nodded.
"I did this, but it's okay, everything's gonna be okay-" An explosion caught their attention. As they looked outside, they witnessed four buildings crumbling to the ground.
"Ren actually did it..." They watched with utter shock at the screen. Jaune couldn't stop it from happening. Ren won.
Jaune slowly reached over, grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. She turned to look at him, surprise written on her face. He smiled at her, his tired eyes expressing happiness.
"You met me at a very strange time in my life..." They both slowly turned to look out the window as the last of the buildings crumbled down as the screen cut to black , and the song playing got loud enough to heard clearly, as thecredits started rolling.
The credits continued to roll as the music played. Ruby voiced their thoughts.
"What the fuck!?"
"Ruby!" Her family shouted.
"Wish I'd recorded that."The author then appeared before everyone. "Alright everyone, I think it's time for a little break. I'll bring you back whenever the hell I feel like."
He snapped his fingers and they dissapeared.