"Jaune," Ghira said as he opened the door to his office. "Please, come in."
"Thank you, sir," Jaune replied, following the titanic man inside. "Sorry for disturbing you so late at night."
"Nonsense," Ghira replied waving away Jaune's apology. "After the report I read about how you handled that Beringel attack last week, I'm more than happy to speak with you. Now, what can I do for you?"
"I was wondering if you had heard about Gerard, one of the farmers, joining back up with the White Fang," Jaune said, taking a seat opposite Ghira at his desk.
"I had. I feel sorry for his family, as he's getting up there in age, and isn't as quick as he used to be." Ghira sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "But, I guess some people just can't stay away from the fight for equality no matter how hard they try. Why do you ask?"
"Just making conversation before getting to the real reason for my visit," Jaune lied. "Despite having fought off the Beringel, the fact that the same place was attacked twice in such a small timeframe suggests that there's most likely some sort of larger group of Grimm somewhere nearby."
"That's rather disturbing news," Ghira replied solemnly. "I take it, then, you are here to see if I will hire you to investigate this possibility?"
"I'll end up investigating regadless," Jaune declared. "I have a hard time just sitting by and letting people get hurt. That being said, not having to worry about funds while I do so would definitely make my life easier, that's for sure."
"Say no more, Jaune," Ghira announced, holding up his hand. "You've already proven yourself to be a rather upstanding young man, I see no harm in paying you to do your job. Shall I send the bulk of the pay back to your hometown like I did last time?"
Jaune nodded, scratching the back of his neck. "If it's not too much trouble, yeah, I'd appreciate that. I'd also like to see any records you have detailing other Grimm attacks here and in other places around Menagerie."
"Certainly," Ghira answered, despite his thick brow lowering in confusion. "However, I must ask why you would want to see them."
"I have a theory I'm working on," Jaune explained. "But I need more information about other Grimm attacks to see if it holds up."
"Very well, I will make sure you have access to everything you need." Ghira paused, his expression turning pensive. "Jaune, if you don't mind, I'd like your opinion on something."
"Uh, sure," Jaune replied. "What do you want to know?"
"What are your thoughts on what Corsac and Fennec said about the attack on Beacon being orchestrated by a rogue splinter group of the White Fang?" Ghira asked.
Jaune sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I think that as a human speaking to the former leader of the White Fang we're both too far and too close to the situation respectively for my opinion to do more than have me thrown out of your home at best, and lynched at worst were I to express it either way."
"So you don't believe it was caused by a splinter group?" Ghira pressed.
"I've never met the current leader of the White Fang, so I wouldn't know," Jaune replied. "The only conclusions I can draw are from observations I made while here and while dealing with them in Vale."
"And why do you believe that expressing any of these conclusions you've come to would land you in trouble?"
"Because I'm followed almost everywhere I go, and there are members of your personal guard that I'm fairly sure are part of the Fang," Jaune explained, watching as Ghira stiffened. "But I take it you didn't know this, did you?"
"I did not," Ghira replied. "What brought you to this conclusion?"
"I've been all over Kuo Kuana," Jaune elaborated. "Talking with people, helping out here and there, and, most importantly, watching. As biggoted as it sounds, the variety of faunus that live here make it a lot easier to keep an eye on someone in a crowd. I've seen where a lot of your guards go when they're off work, and watched as people I've confirmed are part of the Fang go there too."
"That is... most troubling," Ghira muttered to himself.
Jaune shrugged and stood up from his seat. "Well, thank you for the permission," he announced slightly louder than usual. "If it's alright with you, I think that I'll just turn in for the night." Ghira nodded and Jaune made his way out of his office towards the guest room he was staying in.
Once there, he did his nightly rituals then opened his scroll to find a new message and grinned. With the CCT network offline, sending messages even within the kingdoms was difficult at best. Thankfully, one of his sisters had managed to set him up with a program that would reliably send messages through means he was nowhere near smart enough to understand, but it took a long time just to send one, which is why he always did so, and had the recipient forward what he wanted to say to everyone else he wanted to interact with.
Thank you for the update on where you are. Will pass along information and messages to desired recipients.
Stay safe.
Attached to the message was a digital book entitled Grimm of Distant Lands: A Complete Bestiary of Grimm Found in Various Exotic Locations Around Remnant. Jaune smiled as he read the title. He knew that he had a hard time learning from just reading rather than doing, but he wasn't about to turn down any opportunity to increase his chances of survival while working in Menagerie. Opening the disappointingly short book, Jaune settled into his bed and began reading, trying his best to imprint everything he read into his mind and associate it with observations he made in the field before eventually falling asleep.
*(OoO)*
"You know, Blake, it's been nearly a month since we got here," Jaune called out, startling Blake from her hiding spot on the roof overlooking the guest room's balcony where she had been watching him train himself. "If you want to hang out, you could just say so."
Cheeks flushing with shame, Blake quietly dropped to wooden floor of the balcony and avoided his gaze as she looked away. "Sorry," she muttered.
Jaune shrugged and waved her off. "Don't worry about it. It's your house, you've more of a right to be running around on its roof than I do."
Blake smirked at his joked and watched as he returned to practicing with his sword. Despite having spent enough time watching him for even her to start finding it somewhat creepy, Blake was no closer to unraveling any of the many questions she had concering Jaune. Ever since the Beringel attack, he was spending more and more time in either his room or her father's office. This only made Blake more curious, as when her mother had asked him during dinner one night, Jaune had merely replied that he was doing some research into the Grimm living in the area. This added more fuel to her inquisitive fire, as Blake could distinctly remember Jaune having to be dragged to the library on more than one occasion, something that clashed with what she was seeing now.
"What happened to your old weapon?" She asked after realising that Jaune wasn't going to acknowledge her presence as he trained himself against imaginary foes.
"Was never really mine to start with," Jaune grunted, ducking an invisible attacker before stabbing the air and hopping back a step. "Put it back where it belonged."
"And where is that?"
"Where I found it."
"What have you been doing in your room all this time?"
"Reading."
"Really?"
"Really. You should try it sometime, I think you'd really enjoy it."
"What were you reading?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I'm just trying to make conversation."
Jaune snorted. "Sure, you are."
"You were never this frustratingly obtuse back at Beacon," Blake snarked, her irritation growing as Jaune seemed completely unfazed.
"You were," he replied.
"I had secrets worth keeping," Blake countered. "I couldn't risk people finding out."
Jaune snorted and slashed his blade through the air, a sharp whistling filling the air. "And that makes you special?"
"You don't know anything about me!" Blake hissed, her anger rising even further.
"I know that you used to be part of the White Fang," Jaune replied, his voice steady as he continued his drills. "I know that you were probably a member from the start, given your dad's former role as High Leader. I know that some of the tension between you and your parents stems from you having been away for a long time with minimal contact, which means the odds are in favour of you staying with the Fang when they started to become more radicalized. I'm willing to guess that's where you got your combat training, and that you left them to join Beacon. I know that you hid the fact that you're a Faunus while at school, but eventually told your team. I know that you four girls cared more for each other than anything, and I know that you hurt all of them by coming here without saying anything."
"Do you think I like the idea of leaving them all behind?" Blake shouted. "Because I don't! I don't like waking up everyday to the image of Yang lying on the ground, her arm severed because of me! Everywhere I go, people I care about get hurt! Why do you think I was so angry to see you on that boat!" At this point, the first vestiges of icy panic had begun creeping through her veins, and Blake responded in the only way she could think of by going on the offence. "And I don't see you doing any different! You were on that boat with me! You're just as much a coward as I am! No, you're more of a coward! You're just ashamed of having never been good enough in a fight. You don't have to live with the pain and guilt I do knowing that your best friend probably hates you because she lost her arm to your ex-boyfriend!"
"No," Jaune replied quietly, as a tense, oppressive feeling filled the air, and Blake suddenly felt like gravity was working overtime to bring her to her knees. "I don't, because my best friend is dead." Blake's eyes widened and she immediately wished she could take back what she had said as she watched Jaune reach down to his waist, where a strip of red fabric was tied to his belt, and run his fingers over it.
"I had to watch her go off and fight someone who had just killed one of the greatest warriors in the world while I flew away because she knew that I couldn't handle what we were up against. I had to look her parents in the eye after they had been told that their daughter - the girl they were so proud of, the girl they were so sure after everything she had already accomplished would go on to be one of the greatest Huntresses ever, the girl they couldm't even bury because she had been reduced to nothing more than ash on the breeze... I had to look at them and tell them that her leader, her partner, couldn't even be there with her in her last moments. That she died alone on a rooftop, fighting an impossible fight because I was too weak. Afterwards, I went home, spent a few weeks with my family before deciding that I wouldn't let her sacrifice be in vain. I started going from town to town, helping protect people caught up in the chaos. I let Ren and Nora know what I was doing, and they respected my wish when I said had to do it alone. Even now I send messages to them as well as my family and even the other members of your team to let them know how I'm doing, because I know that they would be with me in a heartbeat if I asked them to, and the least - the very least - I can do in return is help ease some of their worries."
"Jaune," Blake muttered as she watched the darkness behind his eyes slowly give way to fire. "I didn't know..."
Jaune snorted, turning to glare at her as he took a step forward, and Blake felt the first hints of something she would never have associated with the annoying goofball she thought she knew: fear. She was suddenly very aware of how much larger and more imposing he was than her as he towered over her, his blue eyes glowing with a hidden power.
"How could you?" He asked quietly. "As soon as everyone was safe, you took off without a word. You were so concerned with your own pain, that you never even considered the pain you were causing others. You think you have some sort of monopoly on suffering, and because of that, no one can understand you or what you've been through, but I have news for you Blake: you aren't as special as you think. You think you're the only one who understands the suffering faunus go through everyday? Look around at the people on this island! Your own father was a leader of the White Fang! Three of my sisters are faunus, you don't think I saw how they were treated like second-class citizens everyday? You don't think I was beaten up in the street at least four times a week having to stand up for them because they were too scared to stand up for themselves? You think that you're the only person who has made mistakes, or done things they're not proud of? Every other person in this city has had to break some sort of law to survive, and those that aren't have to join a group of terrorists who brainwash them into thinking they're fighting for justice! We both might be cowards," Jaune snarled, his aura flaring and covering him in an angry miasma of silvery light, "but you're selfish, Blake."
Without another word, Jaune turned on the spot and simply leapt over the balcony, sword in hand before marching right into the jungle surrounding the mansion, ignoring the guards calling after him as he went by.
"Well, that certainly could have gone better." Blake jumped in fright as she whirled around and found her father standing in the doorway of the balcony.
"Dad!" She yelped. "What are you doing here?!"
"I came to speak to Jaune about the work he's doing when I noticed you were spying on him again," Ghira replied, his deep voice rumbling. "It was hard not to overhear when you both started shouting."
"He's right," Blake muttered, her eyes stinging. "I am selfish. How can you not hate me after everything I've done?"
"Your mother and I could never hate you, Blake," her father's voice was and Blake found she couldn't look him in the eye as her own started to sting.
"But I was so mean! I shouted at you and fought with you!" A sob ripped its way through her throat, and Blake squeezed her eyes shut. "I called you cowards and abandoned you! I abandoned them! I'm the real coward."
"You never abandoned us, Blake," Ghira replied, walking over and wrapping his massive arms around her. Blake couldn't help herself as another sob broke free and she buried herself in the familar warmth and protection of her father's embrace, her tears falling freely. "You've always done what you think is right, and your mother and I couldn't be more proud of you for that."
"Really?" Blake asked, looking up into her father's golden eyes.
"Really," Ghira replied, nodding. "Your mother and I have always only ever been concerned for your safety." He sighed and tightened his grip on her as she buried her face back in his chest.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed.
"I know you are, sweetheart. I know you are."
The two of them stood there for an indeterminable amount of time as Blake calmed down and the guilt of what she had said to Jaune started to set in. "I really hurt Jaune," she mumbled as her father's large hand ran through her hair.
"Yes, you did," he agreed. "But that doesn't mean you can't work to fix what you've done."
"How?" She asked desperately. "I through the death of his partner in his face and acted like it didn't matter. How could he possibly forgive me for that?"
"I look at that young man, and I see a lot of things," Ghira said. "I see determination, and compassion. I see strength and intelligence. I see hope and I see pain. But do you want to know what I see the most of when I look at him?" Blake nodded and pressed herself closer to him. "I see loneliness. The same loneliness I see when I look at you."
"What do you mean?" Blake asked looking up into her father's eyes.
"I mean, maybe instead of spying on him like he's some sort of target for a mission, you could try to actually be the friend he claims you two to be," Ghira explained. "Then you might find that neither of you were who the other thought you to be."
Blake contemplated Ghira's words long after she had returned to her room and settled herself in bed. Could she really be Jaune's friend? Could she stop trying to figure out what had turned him from the boy in school into the man she met on that boat and just be there for him? Could it really be that easy?
Blake shook her head, chastising herself. Of course it wouldn't be easy, she was the least friendly person she knew after Weiss. But that didn't mean she couldn't try.
A/N: That was not an easy chapter to write. However, I think it was something that needed to happen for the both of them to start actually opening up to one another, considering what they've both been through and who they are. Hopefully the revelation that Jaune somehow has sisters who are faunus doesn't come too far out of left field for the observant readers, but I promise it will make sense eventually as I slowly delve into his backstory and what he's been doing since the Fall of Beacon.
Lastly, thanks once again for reading and reviewing. Nothing motivates me more to keep writing than reading what you all have to say about my story. See you guys next time!