EDIT: Wow, the feedback I got from this chapter was... less than stellar, and I can see why. Holy hell, I made some big mistakes in this one. To make up for that, I've posted a chapter BEFORE this one, as well as smoothed this chapter out a little, tried to pace this right. Thank you everyone who reviewed and told me about the mistakes, I really appreciated it. Please let me know if the 'last' chapter is up to par.
I'm also thinking of taking on a beta if anyone's interested, so that they find a way to fix my idiotic mistakes BEFORE I make them. PM me if you're interested.
Thanks again for everyone who pointed the mistakes out to me!
A/N: And another chapter! Yay!
For the sticklers to detail, before you say anything after you read this chapter, yes I know Emerald and Mercury kill Tukson before the introduction to the Vytal Festival in the show.
However, this is mah story, and I'm moving that to replace the Dust robbery that the group witnesses, cause it'll be important!
And much more fun to write!
Yay!
:D
I know how many of you guys don't like when I railroad the story so... sorry for the beginning.
'nyways, Onwards!
The door opened to admit two customers, ringing to notify the man working there.
"Hello there, welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun," Tukson said, setting down the large pile of books in his arms. He turned to the customers. "How may I—uh,"
Standing in front of him was a dark skinned girl with green hair, smiling politely at him, although her red eyes seem to be showing a different story. Behind her was a taller guy, sifting through his books. Tukson hesitated for only another second before continuing.
"How may I help you?" He said falteringly.
The gray-haired boy barely even turned to Tukson when he replied, "Just browsing," in a conversational tone. The girl on the other hand, leaned forward onto the counter.
"Actually, I was wondering if you have any copies of The Thief and the Butcher?" She said. Tukson kept his shaky smile and nodded.
"Yes we do." He said, drawing out the sentence in an almost somber fashion. This was getting a little dangerous Tukson thought to himself. Casually he leaned forward as well, resting his hands on the edge of the counter, with his fingers underneath.
"Would you like a copy?" Tukson asked, before the girl shook her head, telling him that she was just wondering. The boy slammed shut another book, placing it almost delicately back on the shelf.
This was repeated a few more times, with the girl asking for a book, Tukson replying, and the boy finding a way to add something into the conversation. Finally the pattern was broken when the girl asked for the Third Crusade. Tukson stopped short, tensing a little under the watchful eyes of the two kids.
"Uh. I don't think we carry that one." Tukson said. The pair turned to look at each other, both sporting a mask of surprise.
"Oh? Huh. What was this place called again?" The girl asked casually. Tukson was starting to sweat a little at the unusual questioning.
"T—Tukson's Book Trade." He said.
"And you're Tukson?" She asked, to which he nodded.
"So you're the one that came up with the catchphrase?"
Tukson understood what they were implying, his hands tightening under the counter.
"It's just a saying." He muttered.
"It's false advertising!" The boy declared. The girl looked at him slyly.
"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson."
While that was happening, the boy moved to the side a little, casting a hand to the side to lower the shades and darken the inside of the building.
"I hear you're moving away." The green-haired girl continued, her tone taking on a slightly more menacing edge than before. "Moving all the way to Vacuo. Your brothers in the White Fang wouldn't be happy to hear that."
"And neither are we." She added. The lights grew dimmer and dimmer.
"You know who we are, don't you?" The girl asked. Tukson's eyes narrowed a little.
"Yes." Came the short reply.
"And you know why we're here?"
"Yes."
"So. Are you going to fight back?" The girl had a smug look on her face, knowing that any amount of resistance could be handled with by the two of them. Tukson's hard smiled, knowing that they were sent to kill him.
Luckily, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.
"No."
The girl tensed up for a second before the word registered in her mind. A brief pause of confusion held as the pair weren't expecting him to say something like that. Before they could move however, Tukson was finally able to locate the intricate circle he had carved underneath his counter and touched it, sending a little bit of aura in to activate it.
In a sudden moment, the counter exploded into millions of pieces of shrapnel, blinding all the pair of kids in the store.
Blindly, the gray-haired boy started to kick, blasts shooting out from his feet while the girl tried to concentrate above the pain to locate the mind of the fleeing Tukson.
Tukson let out a grunt of pain as a few hits grazed him while he was fleeing out the backdoor.
The girl's red eyes sharpened into a scowl as she signaled the boy to chase after the fleeing faunus.
Emerald limped a little into the White Fang base, held up by Mercury, who was sporting a bruised side.
They came to stop in front of a flamboyantly dressed criminal in a black bowler hat, who gave them a huge grin as they approached.
"Oh look, she sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce." Torchwick said, grabbing the two of them. Both of them winced and pushed out of his grasp, Emerald shivering a bit.
"Spare us the thought of you procreating." Emerald said in exasperation. Torchwick walked past the two of them.
"That was a joke," He said, holding up a piece of paper that he had snatched after grabbing onto Emerald. "And this might tell me where you two have been all day getting beat up." He said.
Emerald's eyes widened as she pat her sides, surprised that Torchwick was able to steal from her. He waved the slip of paper in front of her face and gave a smug grin.
"Professional thief, kiddo, don't look so put down." He said while reading the slip of paper. His eyebrows raised higher and higher.
"Tukson? The animal that owns the bookstore? He's the one who got you two to look like you've been in a warzone?" His tone was incredulous, with a hint of laughter. "You must be slipping."
Emerald scowled and crossed her arms.
"It was unexpected. He had a few tricks up his sleeve." She said. Mercury grunted as he set Emerald down on a nearby chair and straightened up.
"Yeah. Apparently he stole a few tricks from the White Fang." Mercury said.
"Tricks?" Roman said questioningly. "Like…" Emerald and Mercury just nodded, knowing what Roman was trying to ask. Roman stopped moving for a second, thinking about the implications of that.
"Huh." Roman said, "Well that can't be good."
"No, it most certainly is not."
Roman and the two kids turned to see a beautiful woman step out of the darkness, her eyes glowing softly like burning embers. She placed a hand on the crates next to her, trailing along slowly towards them.
"So. Tukson used alchemy didn't he?" Cinder asked slowly. Emerald nodded respectfully, wincing in pain as she stood up. Cinder slowly tapped a finger rhythmically against a box, making a slow clicking sound.
"I see." Cinder murmured. "You did take care of him?"
Emerald and Mercury nodded frantically, jumping to the chance of reassuring her that they hadn't screwed up too badly. Cinder gave a small sigh.
"Well, at least I have that going for me. Very well. Bring him in." Cinder said casually. Emerald and Mercury headed out of the room to fetch the trussed up Tukson. While they did so, Cinder turned to Roman, who pretended not to be listening in with great interest.
"Roman." Cinder said slowly. "This was supposed to be your job. Why is it that I have to send in my people to deal with something so inconsequential?"
Roman puffed his chest up and kept the grin on his face, gesturing to the boxes that surrounded them.
"What do you think Cinder?" Roman said grandly. "Sorry I've been too busy stealing every speck of Dust in the kingdom to deal with something as inconsequential as that. I simply thought that you needed one more than the other."
Roman gave an unmanly shriek as an arrow pierced the wall right next to him. Cinder lowered her bow and looked at him carefully, no emotion showing in either her voice or her face.
"What I need is someone who is competent enough to handle everything I tell them to handle, when I tell them to handle it. Tell me Roman, am I giving you more than you can handle?" Cinder finished the sentence with a fake-sweet tilt of her voice, causing Roman to shudder in fear.
"What? No! Of course not!" Roman said, trying to laugh it off, but sounded more like he was crying. "No, right, I simply… overlooked him? Just a little? I was going to fix the problem, I swear Cinder." He said. The bow in Cinder's hands dissipated and she dropped her arms into a more passive position.
"Well, see to it that it doesn't happen again." Cinder turned as Emerald and Mercury returned, dragging in a semi-conscious Tukson.
"Ah. Well at least I will have something to entertain myself for a little longer. Oh and Roman, you'll be glad to know that after one more raid, we will done with the Dust." She said.
Roman looked at the two kids, who looked just as clueless as he was.
"Okay, so what now?" Roman said.
Cinder held up her glove, which was inscribed with an intricate circle. Snapping her fingers, she conjured up a flickering flame, grinning a little while she did so.
"We're moving on to phase two." Cinder said, before disappearing into the night.
"Ah, the Vytal Festival! This will be absolutely wonderful! A festival that's dedicated to the cultures of the world with dances, parades, a tournament!" Weiss was practically hopping and skipping around in excitement, which quite frankly freaked out everyone that was walking with her.
After Jaune revealed his secret of alchemy and explained what had happened to him, the group was just as quick to accept him as they did with Blake, only asking more questions because of their curiousity about the lost art. For the next week, Team RWBY and Team JNPR popped in and out of Jaune's room, asking questions about the art, which Jaune readily answered, happy to talk about the thing that he loved.
With the comraderie that they all were feeling, both teams decided to hang out with each other on one of their free days, walking towards the docks.
"You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." Yang said, crossing her arms. Jaune snickered a little before Weiss turned to him with a glare, effectively shutting him up. He's had enough run-ins with that glare from his sisters to know that it was time to tuck that tail in and hide.
"So what are we doing here Weiss?" Pyrrha asked, walking alongside Jaune. Nora and Ren were hanging out in the back of the group, with Nora literally hanging off of Ren as she laughed gleefully. The two teams arrived at the docks, a few of them wrinkling their noses at the smell of fish, while Blake's pupils shrunk in at the smell, practically salivating at the thought of fish. Weiss turned to Pyrrha.
"I heard that the students from Vacuo will be arriving here by ship today." She said. "And as a representative of Beacon, it is our solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom."
"She wants to spy on them." Blake said shortly. Weiss scoffed at the accusation, turning to Blake.
"You can't prove that." Weiss said haughtily.
"Woah." Ruby said, pulling the group short as she directed their attention towards a group of policemen that were surrounding a store. Blake gasped quietly and broke away from the group, walking up to the policemen. One of them took notice and blocked her way.
"Sorry girl, you can't cross here. There's an ongoing investigation." He said.
"What happened here?" Blake said, a hint of urgency coating her voice. Jaune looked at the sign hanging above the store. Tukson's Book Trade. Jaune's eyebrows rose in curiosity. Something felt weird about the place. A feeling gathered in Jaune's stomach, familiar, but… different. Jaune took a step forward.
"The owner of the store's missing. There're signs of a struggle, but no bodies yet, so we aren't exactly sure what happened." The officer said. Blake only looked more and more worried as the officer spoke.
"Do you know the owner?" Weiss asked softly, touching her elbow. Blake turned away, taking note of the officer, not speaking until he was out of range.
"He was like me." One of the White Fang, Blake meant. Weiss didn't react, waiting for her to continue speaking. "I told him that it would be a good idea to get out of town, but… "
Everyone could agree that it didn't look as though Blake's friend had left very peacefully.
Jaune kept a frown on his face, taking another step forward. And another. And another.
Before anyone could stop him, Jaune was able to get a glance of the inside of the shop, where thousands of pieces of shrapnel seemed to be embedded on every inch of the store. If Jaune didn't know any better, he would have guessed that it was from one of the circles that he wrote when he was younger, designed to transmutated enough of the substance it was written on into propellant and causing the object to explode. Jaune didn't use that transmutation anymore, having long refined it and created a different, more streamlined use of it. The earliest ones Jaune had created were very volatile and tended to have a backlash on the user.
What else could make something like this happen?
This couldn't be alchemy though, could it?
"Hey kid, you can't be here." The officer returned, placing a hand on Jaune's chest. Jaune looked up at the officer, briefly contemplating on just pushing him aside so that Jaune could have a closer look at the store.
Giving a small smile, Jaune apologized and stepped back, turning to face Blake and the rest of the group with a worried look.
"Is there something wrong Jaune?" Ren asked, his arms holding onto Nora's legs as she piggy-back rode him. Jaune nodded slowly.
"I think whatever happened in there had something to do with Alchemy." Jaune said.
"Alchemy?" Yang asked. "You mean your super secret super power?" Jaune waved a hand in annoyance at how Yang had phrased it.
"It's not a super power. It's physical knowledge." Jaune said quietly. Blake placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder, her expression mirroring Jaune's.
"Tukson was White Fang." Blake said.
"Do you think…?" Jaune asked, stopping himself from asking the whole question.
"That he learned it there?" Blake asked. Jaune nodded.
"I think so." Blake said quietly.
There was a quiet consensus between the two of them before they faced the group again.
"I think we're going to go back to Beacon to look over some things." Jaune said. Blake simply nodded along. This didn't seem to sit well with the rest of the group.
"Then we'll head with you guys." Pyrrha said. "After all, we can help you with this." Jaune just shook his head.
"No, you guys are out here for a reason, we don't want to ruin your days with this. Besides, it's just a little research is all." Jaune waved his hand casually. "Nothing dangerous."
"And if you guys find something?" Ruby asked, uncharacteristically stern.
"We'll tell you guys about it before we do anything else." Blake said. Jaune nodded in agreement, raising his right hand.
"Promise."
The other six looked at each other uncertainly, not sure they really wanted to let the two most mysterious people they know try and collude with each other. But reassured by the promise, they decided to reluctantly let Jaune and Blake go.
After all, what's the worst that could happen?
Jaune and Blake were completely surrounded by White Fang who were headed by Roman Torchwick.
"You know, for someone who reads a lot of books, you sure don't think things through very well, do you?" Jaune said quietly. Blake didn't bother saying anything. Roman walked in a circle around them, casting an amused expression while he twirled Melodic Cudgel around in his hand.
"So kids, what am I going to do with you two?" Roman's cane pointed towards Blake. "You're quite pretty, kitty. It would be a shame just to kill you. You, on the other hand." Roman said with a hint of distaste, looking at Jaune. Jaune promptly ignored Roman, instead keeping his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie, seemingly fiddling with something inside. Roman gave a sigh.
"Well, it really doesn't matter. This operation is kind of important, and we really don't need any more upstarts like you two. Actually, you guys should be grateful I'm just killing you two. I hear my boss tends to like to… play… with her food." Roman said. Jaune, again just ignoring Roman, sighed.
"Something on your mind kid?" Roman asked irritably. Jaune looked at him.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, see, I got a little bored of you gloating so I was trying to make this," Jaune pulled his hands out of his hoodie pocket to reveal a cylinder. "but I'm having a little trouble with the fuse. Luckily, it's really good for throwing!" As Jaune said that, he tossed the cylinder at Roman, who simply raised his cane and shot at it.
"Do you really think—" Roman started to say, before the hot bullet pierced the cylinder, allowing aluminum and potassium perchlorate to mix under the heat, creating a blinding light as well as a large clap of sound, effectively blinding and deafening every surrounding Jaune and Blake.
With his quick thinking, the moment Jaune threw the improvised flashbang he knelt down onto the ground and transmutated a wall that would block both his and Blake's line of view from the grenade.
Without a second thought, Blake sprung into action, making use of the time where the White Fang and Roman had their senses deprived. Quick as lightning, Blake dispatched three of them, creating a small gap that allowed for her to slip through and wreak havoc on the sidelines.
"Argh! Kill them!" Roman said, still trying to regain his vision.
Jaune clapped his hands, once again transmutating the ground, this time into the shape of a fist, rising quickly up and smashing into Roman's jaw.
"Maybe that'll make you shut up." Jaune muttered before pulling out Crocea Mors and facing the circle that surrounded him. For the first time in a very long time, Jaune decided to expand his sheathe into the full shield, to protect his side.
While that was a way to protect himself, Jaune never really practiced fighting with a shield, and that made for very clumsy maneuvers, which led to Jaune promising himself to practice fighting this more.
While Jaune was being tossed around like a ball by the White Fang, Blake quickly dispatched more and more members. Things were starting to finally even out a bit… until the Bullheads appeared and started to fire on them.
"Oh wonderful," Jaune gritted out, getting peppered by bullets and hit by swords and the like. "You know, I was starting to feel that this was getting too easy anyways. Why not bring the Bullheads? Heck, find a few horde of Grimm while you're at it, I'll wait." Jaune lunged forward with his shield, bashing another White Fang member back who got a little too close, but was rewarded with a hailstorm of bullets raining down on his back.
Jaune cried out in pain and collapsed, mind in shock and unable to focus enough to stand up again, much less try and fight his way out. Blake was also getting cornered by the suppressive fire coming from the Bullheads, preventing Blake from taking open engagements with the other fighters.
Please, why can't these things just blow up already? Jaune thought to himself desperately.
Which they then, of course did.
Jaune blinked at the sight of several Bullheads careening to the ground from explosions which rocked the White Fang off their feet as well. Jaune blinked again in surprise before looking up to the sky.
Can you drop a ship on Cardin while you're at it too?
"I am combat ready!" A voice said confidently. Jaune turned to see a cute girl wearing a pink bow saluting at him. Ruby stood at her side, jaw agape. The girl hopped down off of the crate that she was on top of and pulled out several swords from her backpack and started to fling the swords around, tossing the White Fang around.
While that was happening, the rest of RWBY and JNPR filtered in and started to fight as well. Weiss landed beside Jaune, glaring at him.
"I thought you promised you would wait before you did something stupid." Weiss bit out angrily. Jaune smiled as disarmingly as possible.
"No," Jaune said, "we promised we would tell you before we did something stupid. So we found out about this suspicious shipment arriving soon, and decided to run off and see what happened before they took off with it. And we messaged you about it, so it's not like we were really lying anyways."
Weiss gritted her teeth.
"And how did you guys end up like this?" She asked.
"Oh, you mean trapped in a circle with a bunch of White Fang members?" Jaune asked casually. "Well, Blake saw Roman working with them, and she couldn't help but spring down there and helpfully point out that the White Fang would never work with a scumbag like him." Jaune winced as two Whte Fang members flew past him, hitting a nearby wall. "And because of my bleeding heart, I couldn't help but go into the fray because she was surrounded by people because, surprise surprise, the White Fang do work for Roman. Quite a story right?" Jaune said, grinning.
Weiss scoffed in disgust. "We'll talk about this later." She said before joining into the fray.
Roman knew he was beat at this point.
"I really need to put up a few 'no trespassing' signs every once in a while." Roman muttered. "Neo! Time to go!" Roman turned as Neo popped in from nowhere, grinning at the group of kids. With a brief wave, Neo latched onto Roman.
"No!" Blake said angrily, rushing towards Neo, trying to catch her before both Roman and Neo shattered into pieces and disappeared.