Chapter 3

Pride

"There is a Mistralean fleet coming our way," Kaz spoke with urgency as if his voice was the only thing that would spur the five in the room to move into action. Though as he looked around the tent he could see that three of the five were still just sitting there looking at him, albeit the blonde one's eyes seemed to be ready to pop out of his skull. The other two just looked at him with calm, and controlled gazes that soon turned to the other two that had been in the room. Turning his gaze as well his eyes met that of his majesty Jaune Arc. His eyes gave off even less then the two at the table, they were cold eyes as if no emotion could touch them, and as quickly as their gazes met Jaune's went to his belt as he started to adjust it.

"We heard you the first time you said that Kaz," Jaune spoke with a coolness of his voice giving no sign that the current news had any effect on him. "Also you shouldn't just come barging in to someone else's tent like that" Jaune looked up from his belt adjustment, he knew the belt was fine Cinder always did a fine job at preparing his weapons, in fact she was the only one besides himself he would even let touch the sword. "Besides, what if we were naked, or worse you could have walked in on Adam trying to tell a joke," as he spoke his voice gave no change in tone, having the simple effect of wondering whether if he was being serious or telling a joke.

At the sound of his name Adam removed himself from his chair, and started to make his way across the tent towards Kaz. Standing in front of Kaz he spoke in a calm a voice as he could muster "Do you know how large of a fleet, or who is commanding it?" he quickly snapped his head towards Jaune and narrowed his eyes as he could make out Cinder standing slightly behind him turned around with her shoulders shaking laughing to herself, "also what is wrong with my jokes, there fantastic."

Jaune just shook his head and shrugged "of course they are Adam," his voice now giving off a sarcastic tone. He looked up to Kaz "well man you might as well answer him," his voice taking the same cool tone it had once before.

Kaz stood straight, and rose his chin up slightly as he gave the information, "Exact number of men are currently unknown, though we can say they have around four gunships, two transports, and," he gave a pause and looked towards his king with flashes of worry streaking across his eyes. "They have a battlecruiser sir," he then turned his gaze towards Adam "We also don't know who commands the fleet at the moment."

At the mention of a battlecruiser the final two at the table stood up, and quickly looked towards Jaune with frantic eyes. Kari was the first to speak up.

"Your majesty four gunships alone would spell trouble for us, as we only have two ourselves, and two transports," she took a deep breath as if she was holding it in the whole time she was sitting and continued "but a battlecruiser." Kari crossed her arms over her stomach, and leaned slightly forward as she gave her final statement "a battlecruiser would decimate us, we don't have the man power or machines to take on such a fleet." She paused waiting to see if Jaune would give any statement on these facts when he made none she opened her mouth to continue only to be stopped by a raised hand.

"I know good, and well what a battlecruiser could do to our forces Mrs. Belladonna." Jaune looked towards her eyes narrowed, "we simply have to make sure they don't get the chance to make that happen." As he was speaking he made his way towards the entrance of the tent, once there he stopped and waited for Cinder who followed close behind him to open the flap of the tent.

Sun made his way around the table and spoke up in an even more frantic voice then Kaz had, "where are you going, shouldn't we be making plans or something?"

Jaune turned his head towards Sun, "Plans only work after you know who you are fighting against Wukong, and that means knowing who commands them." On his last word he slipped out of the tent with Cinder quickly following behind.

It took the last five in the room a couple of seconds looking between each other before the turned and followed behind Jaune closing the tent after themselves.

Once outside Jaune could see how chaotic the situation had become, as he looked around the field he could see his men milling about like chickens with their heads cut off, his men. This irked him beyond reason, he turned his head and started to bark out orders "Kaz get these men in their columns, and make sure to have the pilots get their gunships ready to move, but do not take off." At his orders he saw Kaz quickly give his bow and run off to perform his tasks. Jaune rubbed at his temples "if this happens every time we come to face a large force we won't last the year." A hand touched his shoulder, he looked down to see Cinder staring up at him amber eye looking up giving a comforting glare. She always did seem to know what he was thinking. Dropping his hands he moved towards the front of the forming columns.

Having made his way to the front of the columns he faced the destroyed village, looking towards the coming force, as he waited for the others to arrive beside him. It didn't take long for the final three to come Adam taking a spot to his right with Kari standing beside him, while Sun took the final spot standing to Kari's right. In all honesty he could have done without Sun there, he was a good fighter yes, but when it came to tactics well.

"That looks worse then I wanted to believe it would," Adam spoke up with a keen edge to his voice.

"Hmm, it does seem to be that way doesn't it," Jaune replied still looking towards the coming force, hand rested under his chin while he thought. It took about another ten minutes before the man he wanted came to stand behind them to his right.

"Everyone is in position, and ready to move at your command, your majesty," Kaz spoke with a confident, and pleased voice.

Jaune inclined his head towards him, "great also would you mind handing me your spyglass, I would like a better look at that battlecruiser."

Kaz quickly reached into his belt pouch and brought out his spyglass quickly handing it to Jaune with a slight bow.

Taking hold of the spyglass Jaune extended it, and brought the glass to his eye. "Mrs. Belladonna how well do you know of the Mistralean forces?" He asked gazing towards the battlecruiser moving at the center of the fleet.

"I know the forces well your majesty, it wouldn't be wise not to know of the army of stood on the continent north of you." Kari spoke with a surety to her voice as she turned her head to look at Jaune as he peered through Kaz's glass.

Jaune stood quiet for a breath scanning the ship till he found what he was looking for. "What would you know of 'The Master of Intrigue'?" Jaune asked not bothering to look towards the woman or to drop the glass down from his eye.

Kari's face started to pale at the sound of that name. "The Master of Intrigue?" her voice gave a slight nervous shake as she spoke. She looked towards Jaune to see if she had heard him right, hoping that she didn't, and when he simply nodded his head her heart sank to her stomach. "I only really know of the man who commands that ship," she spoke trying to regain confidence back into her voice. "He's one of the four pillar generals of Mistral," she looked at the people besides her gauging their thoughts. Adam, and Cinder seemed to have paled at the mention of a pillar general, Cinder seemed even whiter then Adam. When she looked towards Sun he just stared back.

"What is a pillar general?" Sun asked with a raised eyebrow.

She sighed, "A pillar general is one of the top generals of the whole kingdom of Mistral, there are only four of them." She turned he head towards the fleet, "and Mistral has sent one of their strongest to deal with us, for the man who commands that ship also holds the crossed swords pin."

At the mention of the crossed pin Adam stiffened even more, he turned his gaze away from the ship to look at Kari, "You're telling me that this commander is one of the only five blade masters of remnant?" at the simple nod from Kari, Adam turned his eyes back towards the fleet, which now stood still in front of them. "Who is this man?"

Kari turned her gaze towards the ship as well, "his name is Ada-"

"Adama Nikos!" Jaune spoke with a tight authority to his voice, eyeglass still up gazing at object he had been looking for after the name. The shield and spear of the Nikos family stared back at him through his glass. Once he had enough of looking he lowered the glass, "The great pillar general Adama Nikos has come to grace us with his presence." As he spoke he inclined his gaze down toward Cinder who was as white as a ghost, her left hand had her right arm in what seemed to be a vice grip. Sighing he turned his head towards his other companions and spoke up, "well now that we know who we are dealing with let's see about that plan."

Jaune stood at the village center looking towards the bar that not too long ago Kari and him walked out, and figured out who or what had caused the incident that was Kurokame village. Looking at the bar Jaune made a mental note to come back for all the wine, and bourbon he had left behind. Sighing he turned his mind over to the task at hand, overall it took up to an hour and a half to come up with a proper plan of action, and then another thirty minutes to put it into action. "First things first" Jaune thought closing his eyes, and taking slow and methodical breaths he conjured up a flame in his mind. His father had tried and failed to teach him the flame and void, an Arc technique passed down from generation to generation. It wasn't any semblance, really anyone could learn to do it if they were prepared for the trails it took to gain the technique, and he had faced his trail, he had faced the hell that gave him his flame.

With the flame held in his mind, Jaune began to put all of his emotions inside the fire feeding it allowing the flame to burn the emotions away, leaving him with a clear and focused mind. Of course it came with added benefits, his senses were heighted exponentially, and his body felt lighter allowing for quicker movements, but all of these things paled in comparison to the control it gave to his own aura, control that would normally take a life time to achieve, and even then one hardly ever did.

Once finished with his task he turned from the bar to the table, and chairs that he had set up for the meeting that was to take place, a parley of sorts, a chance to remedy a situation before it came to bloodshed. Standing slightly to the right of the table stood Kari who had insisted on her coming as it would show that Menagerie is not a part of the current situation by force, but is her willingly. Shaking his head he turned back around to look at another building, this one seemed larger than the rest, and had a dome shaped roof, "this must have been the villages' town hall," keeping himself in his own thoughts till he heard the footsteps coming in.

Adama Nikos was never a man for brutality, but when he had figured out that it was the Fang who had destroyed, and was now occupying this village he couldn't wait to eviscerate every last one of them. These people held responsibility for what had befallen his beloved daughter, his little flame. When news of his daughter's death had reached his ears he couldn't eat, or sleep he had just simply thrown himself into his work, all in hopes for a day like today. Yes Adama Nikos was ready to bring righteous fury down upon the Fangs heads, but before he could even give the order to fire he had received a hail by short wave asking for a parley. Angry he had no choice but to accept, as Mistralean military doctrine stated that if any solution can be reached without the use of force it must be taken. Oh he was sure his men wouldn't say anything if he took his revenge, but he could not he had his pride as a Mistralean, and he wasn't about to let these Fang have that

Stopping to look across the village square he saw a table sitting at the center with two chair across from one another. Standing to the right of one of those chairs was a Faunus woman with black hair "I've seen that woman before, but where," shaking the stray thought out of Adama looked past the table and saw a man garbed in black with his back turned seemingly looking at what he could guess was once the town hall. The man had blonde hair, and was quiet tall from what he could see, probably reaching his own height of 6'4. Shrugging he stepped forward making his way towards the table, his ever so silent steward following close behind.

At the sound of the footsteps Jaune turned around to see the man that he would be battling today. Adama Nikos was a tall man probably around the same height as he, his red hair was cropped short in a military fashion, he wore bronze colored armor with a red cape attached by one gold, and one steel pins. He had a sword clipped to his side "a weapon to a parley, though I'm one to talk I brought mine as well." He barely noticed the other behind the general, as he seemed invisible when standing near the man, but this one was a great deal shorter in fact he was short by most standards, he had short curly brown hair, and seemed to walk with a rather dignified grace. Nodding to himself Jaune made his own way towards the table.

Once Jaune had reached the table he stood in front of the general, looking at the general for signs. It was one of the other perks of the flame, being able to clearly see someone's aura, and how it moved about. Yes aura moved, most people have a belief that aura is a force that constantly surrounds a person statically. The surrounding part was true, but aura was not static, it flowed about, and flared or dimmed based on a persons' heaviest emotion, and Adama Nikos was not a happy man, in fact he was wreathing with anger, and fury. It was a wonder the man was able to keep a straight face like that, but he doesn't command a ship called 'The Master of Intrigue' for nothing.

"Ehm, if you two are done size each other up, we should get started," Kari was the first to speak up, her tone slightly nervous, but giving off a strong commanding tone as well.

Shaking his head slightly Jaune gave a small smile and spoke up as well "yes, we should get started please general have a seat," Jaune gestured towards the chair and waited for the general to sit. Once he had sat down, Jaune then sat down himself.

"First things first boy," Adama spoke with a deep authority in his voice. "What business does the Fang have attacking, and occupying an Anima village?"

At the generals words Jaune's brows shot up "this man thinks we were the ones that attacked this village, well anyone would think that though." Sighing Jaune looked at Adama eyes before speaking, "we did not attack this village, we were just passing through when we noticed the smoke from the buildings not two days ago."

Adama rested his hands on top of the table, "and if not you, and your Fang then who I ask attacked this village?" his eyes narrowed at the man "I have seen this lad somewhere before."

"We have an idea of who are responsible for the attack, but before I tell you we need to have context." Jaune stated leaning back in his chair.

"And what context would that be?" Adama asked still eyeing Jaune, "where have I seen him, I know it is important, but where?"

Closing his eyes Jaune took a deep breath, "this could make or break the parley on the spot if I'm not careful." Opening his eyes he looked into the generals and spoke, "we need to discuss what happened to your daughter Pyrrha, and why it happened."

At the mention of his daughters' name Adama nearly made to jump out of his chair, and lunge at the man across from him. He stopped himself when he suddenly realized who he was speaking to, "You're him aren't you, you're that boy Pyrrha messaged us about, you're he partner, ah" he started to snap his fingers trying to place the name.

"Jaune," Jaune answered for the general "Jaune Arc, and yes I was your Pyrrha's partner at Beacon." Jaune gauged the general's aura, he was still angry, but his fury was replaced with confusion.

Adama looked at Jaune, and narrowed his eyes "then why are you here with the Fang, did you betray my daughter, did you?" he could bring himself to finish his questioning, but his voice guaranteed one thing, and that was death.

Jaune narrowed his own eyes at the general, slips of anger escaped from the flame before he could will it back. "I had nothing to do with Pyrrha's death, and I dare you to say otherwise," his own voice giving a sharp promise.

There was a long deadly pause before Adama spoke up again, "Very well, then what do you have to say of what happened, and what does it have to do with this village."

Jaune released a breath he had forgotten he was holding, the flame burning his emotions away once again. Looking up from his hands he gazed into the general's eyes, "what is your favorite fairy tale?"

Kaz always had upmost faith in his king, no matter what he was asked of him he would do it without question knowing that whatever it was he was helping his king, but this was ridiculous. Brushing snow that had fallen onto his should off, he turned to his five companions that had come with him on this ridiculous endeavor. He, and these five along with Adams own squad who was coming around the other side of the forest was supposed to capture the giant ass battlecruiser without killing any of its men. Honestly he would call it impossible if it wasn't for the fact the Cinder was one of the five that made up his team. With her weird powers maybe it was possible.

Kaz, and his men stood at the forest edge gazing at the clearing where two Mistralean soldiers waited for their generals return so they could take him back up to the ship. Smiling to himself he turned to Cinder, who looked back at him with her ember eye. He could never get used to that look, "well it looks like you're up."

Griff shivered in the cold, turning towards his companion, "Man this sucks, why couldn't we just blow those White Fang people to kingdom come?"

Simons just sighed and turned to face Griff, "don't be stupid you know good and well that to break a parley is considered a war crime to the council."

Griff just threw his arms up, "So it's not like anyone of us is going to tell, I mean they're responsible for killing little Pyrrha," Griff wiped away a stray tear that had gathered from his eye, "she was the only one who truly seemed to appreciate the fine art of taking it easy."

"Yea, we all miss her, and I can only imagine how the general feels," Simons was about to clasp Griffs shoulder when he saw a person in black run across the clearing, "Hey who's that?" he pointed towards the person running.

Griff turned to look towards where Simons had pointed, seeing the person he turned back and shrugged, "I don't know."

Simons raised his gun, and shouted towards the runner "Hey you stop right there, hey I said stop."

Cinder did not stop she grabbed the edge of her hood, and hoped that the soldiers could not recognize her with her short hair, and covered eye.

"It's a girl," Simons exclaimed, shock etched in his voice.

"Yea, I can see that, but what is she doing here?" Griff asked confused.

"Maybe, wait look," Simons pointed toward the tree line of the forest as multiple figures dressed in black and wearing the white masks of the Fang.

Griff looked towards the trees, and saw the same thing, he turned towards Simons. "She must be an escaped prisoner." Turning the both moved to intercept the escapee. Once they had reached her. The girl dropped to her knees with tears streaming down her face. She had one good eye, and seemed to be clutching at her throat, and pointing towards the forest.

Simons grabbed her by the shoulder and moved the girl behind them, "don't worry you're safe now." He pointed his weapon toward the tree line, "Griff message the ship, and tell them we have an escaped prisoner of the Fang."

Griff nodded, and made to radio the ship only to fall over unconscious.

Simons seeing Griff fall over turned around to face the girl only to receive the same punishment as Griff.

With both of the soldiers knocked unconscious Cinder looked towards the tree line, and wave for the others to come out.

At seeing Cinders wave, Kaz gawked for a moment, "well I'll be damned, I can't believe that worked." Regaining his composer he motioned for the rest to follow him out into the clearing. As they made their way down towards Cinder, he could make out six more bodies come out from the opposite side of the clearing. "There's Adam and his group, looks like they got here without a hitch."

Having made it to Cinder's location at the same time, Kaz looked towards Adam, "did you run into any trouble on the way sir?"

Adam looked down at Kaz, and then looked towards their ride that would put them inside the giant cruiser. "We ran into a few scouts, but it was nothing we couldn't take care of, we are good to go if you are?" he asked looking back towards Kaz and his squad.

Kaz rolled his shoulder, checking his revolvers at his sides, he looked up towards the large ship and spoke, "well no time like the present I guess, let's get going shall we." He turned, and made his way to the small personal transport motioning for the others to follow.

Surprisingly they had made their way onto the ship without much issue, Adam scowled "this is what happens when you become used to peace, you get reckless." Adam turned toward the others as they removed themselves from the ship, as Cinder continued her docking procedure, being one of the few who actually knew how to fly the small transport. The controls were different then of the Valean ships he was used to. Shrugging he motioned for the rest of his squad before calling over to Kaz, "Me, and my squad are going on ahead."

Kaz looked up from one of the maps of the ship he had just picked up off one of the unconscious bodies that made up the transport hold of the ship. "Very well, we'll make our way to the bridge from right side of the ship, if you don't mind taking the left."

Adam looked over his shoulder as he moved, "knock yourself out." He gripped the hilt of his sword making sure to remind him to keep it in its sheath.

Kaz turned back to the map nodding to himself, folding the map back up he turned towards his five, as Cinder had finished docking the small transport, and had joined the rest. "Alright we are heading to the bridge from the right side, if you see anyone knock them out, we can't have any alarms raised or this whole operation fails." The team nodded at his words, even if they were obvious.

Hugging the left side of the wall Kaz took point with Cinder behind him hugging the right side of the wall, with the rest following in behind in a zipper formation each close to one side of the wall. It was quiet for the most part, in fact he hadn't seen anyone moving through the halls "everyone must be at their own stations, but come on there should be some patrols going on for Pete's sake." At that moment he wished wanted to shove a foot into his own mouth, as two Mistralean soldiers rounder one of the branching halls, and moved to face him, and his squad. The two paused, one quickly raised his weapon to fire only to have his weapon knocked into the air by a fast moving Cinder, as she quickly slapped the rifle from the soldiers hands and slammed his head into the left wall. The second turned and raised his own weapon towards Cinder.

Kaz moved in flash bringing a knife he kept in his belt, and threw it towards the weapon. The knife threw through the air before jamming itself into the weapons release chamber.

There was an audible click and clang as Cinder turned to face the other soldier and saw the weapon pointed right at her face. The soldier looked confused as he pulled the trigger once more only for another clicking noise, the soldier looked at his weapon, and Cinder saw a knife protruding from the weapon ultimately jamming the rifle. Taking the opportunity she swept the legs out from under the soldier, and as he fell back she quickly brought her hand down grasping the soldiers face and slamming the back of his head into the ground. Standing up she looked at the two now unconscious soldiers then looked towards Kaz, and the others motioning them to come on.

Kaz quickly moved ahead only stopping to remove his knife from the rifle, and putting it back in his boot sheath. He allowed the others to move the bodies into the nearest broom closet before they continued on their way towards the ships bridge.

Ultimately they encountered three more patrols similar to the last, only this time neither had the chance to even raise their weapon before Cinder had them on the ground down for the count.

It took them twenty minutes before they finally made it to the closed door of the bridge. "Hmm, and no sign of Adam or his squad yet," he made his way to open the door before he paused. "Wait a minute, shouldn't there be some guards outside the door or something," at the realization he groaned to himself before he opened the door, and stepped inside only to be greeted by Adam, and his own squad standing over multiple knocked out bodies, and a few conscious ones each tied, and gagged.

Adam looked up from one of the ships monitors addressing Kaz, and his men he smirked. "What took you guys so long? I was starting to get worried."

Jaune sat at the table across from the great pillar general in silence waiting for what he had to say. He had been busy telling the good general about the maidens, and how Ozpin, and his little group had decided to use Pyrrha as their next fall candidate, even if they were unsure of the consequences.

Adama just sat there hands clasped on top of the table, as he looked down at the wood, "its good solid wood, mahogany maybe." He shook himself out of his trance to look at the man who had told him such, an outrageous story, why should he believe him maidens, Ozpin, Ironwood, Glynda, even Qrow Branwen. It didn't make sense, and the council supposedly knew about it all, including the esteemed Lionheart, headmaster of Haven, but the footage he had seen of the attack, and that dragon like Grimm whatever it was, it was so much like the fairy tales he had heard when he was a kid, and the worst thing was when he looked into Jaune's eyes there was no hint of a lie there, nothing. For the best of him, he believed the man.

Bringing his hands up to rub his temples, Adama sighed "Alright say I believe you, and this Salem lady is trying to do Gods know what to Remnant, that still doesn't explain why you're here."

Scratching the back of his head Jaune spoke up, "well you see, after the attack Ruby, me, and the remainder of my team made our way to Mistral, and once there Ruby, and I came under attack, Ruby was able to get away, but I was not so lucky," Jaune paused in his speech to look at his scroll which had just vibrated indicating the missions results. "If you would excuse me for a sec," Jaune pulled his scroll out to look at a message following a picture of the bridge of a ship the message read

"Battlecruiser captured ready whenever you are."-Adam

Placing the scroll down face down onto the table Jaune continued his speech. "I ended up being captured, and brought to an unknown location, I would guess it to a few days to get there, I couldn't tell I was bagged the whole time, but when I arrived what awaited me." Jaune gripped at his chest, closing his eyes he took a deep shaking breath "The flame holds, it does not waver, it holds." Releasing his breath he looked at the general recognition crossing his face, "he know what I speak of, he understands." "Well let's just say that what awaited me wasn't a vacation."

"I see, so I guess you escaped, and somehow gained control of the Fang in the meantime, am I wrong?" Adama asked head resting on top of his clasped hands.

"Yes, that is exactly it, I gained control of the Fang, and decided to use them to help protect Remnant from Salem, and her group." Jaune finished with a slight nod of his head.

"Very well, but I can't have an army of Fang on Anima soil, move them back to Menagerie, and I could get you an audience with the council to discuss your findings with them." Adama suggested in a voice that didn't seem to say that it was any kind of suggestion, but more of an order.

Jaune just leaned back into his chair, and smiled. "General I do believe we should head back to my tent for further discussion."

Adama narrowed his eyes at Jaune, "and what is there to discuss besides what happened here, which we could easily do here or on my ship?"

Jaune flipped his scroll up, and slid it towards the general before once again leaning back into his chair.

Adama grabbed the scroll, and looked down at the picture, and the message that followed suite. He clenched his fist ready to break the scroll in his hands before he looked up towards Jaune eyes ablaze. "What is the meaning of this?"

"We should head back to my tent to discuss the terms of your surrender further," Jaune said in a cool voice, he eyes giving no sign of emotion, as he looked towards the general and saw his aura swill rapidly, and flare about in anger, and frustration.

"You attack my ship during a parley, do you have any idea what that entails?" Adama asked through gritted teeth.

"To attack during a parley is considered a war crime by the council, but you see," Jaune said leaning forward, his face a mask giving away nothing. "My kingdom is not a part of your council, and therefore your rules doesn't apply to us." He leaned back once more, and clasped his hands over his lap, "Now about that surrender, I mean if you don't want to I can always have you own cruiser destroy your fleet for you."

Adama's shoulders shook with rage, his fist, and teeth clenched, he could barely make the words come out, "We surrender."

The walk back to the tent was a quiet one, Jaune strode ahead of the group with Adama's steward taking up the rear. The general didn't seem to make any sound, though once or twice Jaune notice him rubbing the hilt of his sword, but doing nothing more.

Adama wanted to gut the boy then and there, but he knew that if he moved his own ship would fire upon his fleet of unsuspecting soldiers. So he just idly rubbed his hilt as they moved along towards the boys' camp. Angry as he was there was still a small part of him that held admiration towards the boys' thought process, he took a council war law, and warped it to his advantage. For he was right while Adama himself couldn't act during a parley, Jaune had no such commitments as he, and his new found kingdom was not a part of council law, and even if the council didn't recognize the kingdom, the Fang was considered a terrorist group, and terrorist groups simply didn't follow protocol.

They continued in silence for another eleven minutes before they made camp, Jaune walked through the milling people nodding his head towards solutes, and bows, many of the men giving a small shout of victory. Jaune didn't bother acknowledging the shouts, he just continued on till he made it to the front of his tent. Turning to face the general he spoke up, "If you wouldn't mind I would like to discuss the terms privately," he looked towards the steward as he spoke.

Adama shrugged, "very well" he motioned for his steward to stay put outside.

Nodding Jaune opened the tents flap, and motioned for Adama to step inside. Turning to grab ahold of Kari's arm he whispered a quiet order into her ear before he turned and walked inside closing the tents flap behind him.

Once inside the tent Jaune motioned for the general to take a seat at the table. Once the general took his seat, Jaune moved to take his across from the general. "Now on to business, first things first I will guarantee the safety of all your men as long as they do not cause trouble."

"You will have no trouble from my men Mr. Arc, so I ask what is it you want from us?" Adama asked with curiosity in his voice, all traces of the anger that he held seemingly dissipated once he stepped through the tents threshold.

"I would simply ask you to leave two of your gunships, and one transport, I would also ask for one more thing, but we'll get to that in a minute." Jaune stated while rotating his head to crack his neck.

"Is that all, you don't want the battlecruiser?" Adama asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Hmm, oh no, no I don't want the cruiser." Jaune stated in a seemingly tired voice, "even if we did keep it, we simply don't have the man power to run it at the moment, at least not until we gather the rest of the Fang gathering back at Menagerie." Jaune brought out paper, and pen, "are those terms agreeable?"

Adama paused to think, "and you swear that none of my men will be harassed while here?"

"As long as they don't cause any problems themselves, you have my word, and an Arc always keeps his word." Jaune stated in a tone that gave no reason for doubt.

Adama just nodded, as if that was to be expect, still what kind of commanding officer would he be if he didn't guarantee the safety of his own men? "Alright those terms are acceptable, now what is this other thing you speak of."

"Ah well that would need something extra," Jaune remarked, tapping his chin eyes closed trying to figure out the best way he could ask, hoping for what he asked of Kari to hurry up, "I mean how long does it take to get here, you're in a giant airship after all." No sooner that the thought crossed his mind then in walked the person he had been waiting for.

Adama, and Jaune both looked across the tent towards the intruder, Adama took in the sight of a woman dress in black, with short hair, an ember eye with a patch covering the other. Adama frowned narrowing his eyes trying to place the woman.

Jaune didn't give the general time to think, nor did he give time for Cinder to turn tail and run out of the tent. "General Nikos may I present to you, Cinder the one from Beacon."

At the mention of the woman's name Adama's eyes widened, and his pupils seemed to shrink. He quickly stood sending his chair flying across the hall, and lunged towards the woman his right hand bringing out the sword that he would plunge into the heart of the very woman who had killed his beloved daughter.

Cinder's eyes widened when she saw who was in the room, she stood frozen trying to figure out what to do, and coming up with nothing "run you fool, get out of here he won't understand, he won't believe you," but before you could turn to run Jaune had spoken up exclaiming who she was, she looked at him in utter shock. She quickly brought her gaze toward Adama, who had moved to attack her, she stumbled back fear clutching her throat, he was so fast, nearly upon her with his sword out of his scabbard she flared her aura and threw her hands up.

Adama had his sword poised, and ready to bring the point of his long sword down through the woman's beating heart only to stop. Well more like he couldn't move, as much as he strained he couldn't move his legs, arms, or his gloved fingers. Moving his eyes down to look at what could have stopped him, his breath got caught in his throat at the sight. All along his armor sat a glow a black aura. He moved his widened eyes to look at the girl who looked to him with fear, and sorrow marring her eye.

"General Nikos, you really need to let people finish," Jaune said calmly. "I was trying to say, I would like you to meet Cinder Nikos, or Pyrrha Fall however you want to call her."

"What are you talking about? My daughter is dead, and it was this woman that killed her." He said voice shaking, his throat was dry, but he could feel the stinging of tears making their way to his eyes.

"Did you not listen to my story general? I said Pyrrha went through with the transfer, but it failed when Cinder shot Amber." Jaune exclaimed, standing up from his chair he made his way to stand next to Cinder, and clasped her shoulder reassuringly, "and when Cinder Fall killed Pyrrha she didn't take into account the connection that had been established during the transfer, so when Pyrrha 'died' her aura and conscous moved into Cinders body."

"That doesn't make any sense, you're telling me that she is my daughter my Pyrrha?" Adama asked angrily though there was something else in his straining voice a sense of hope that Jaune was telling the truth, that he could once again hold his daughter in his arms again, at least one more time just to tell her how much he loved her, and needed her to be okay, to be alive.

Jaune could see the wanting Aura swirl around the general, and his heart went out to him. How much did he question when he found out those many months ago. "Yes, general I am telling you the truth, she is your daughter, but she is also not her for both Pyrrha and Cinder's aura swirl around her."

Adama couldn't believe what he was hearing, "you can see auras that vividly?"

"Yes, and I can also place them with who they belong to, and I would never mistake Pyrrha's, never." Jaune stated as he looked down at Cinder seeing the two auras swirl about, not struggling with each other, but moving in harmony with the other, in perfect sync. The auras were melded together, giving one person, one with two sets of memories, and a melding of both person's personalities.

"She is your daughter, why not ask her something only Pyrrha would know? Anything will do." Jaune said eyes focused on the general, "Cinder release him."

At his word Cinder released Adama, and waited nervously for what he would say or do.

Adama simply sank to his knees, head bowed, and eyes looking at the ground. When he spoke his voice was a whisper, it was a plea, "I don't know if it's true, but if it is answer me this, when Pyrrha was still a little girl we planted she wanted to plant a flower garden with her mother, she begged for me to help pick flowers for the garden, and plant them laughing I agreed to let her drag me around the flower shops looking for flowers, once we had purchased the flowers we got busy planting them, we each had picked a flower, and I had picked one which I thought represented my daughter the best, what was the flower, and why?" When he was finished with the story, and question Adama just kept his head hung in silence waiting.

A thick silence clung to the air wanting to choke out everything, and everyone in the room, before it was cut. It was cut by a voice, a voice unlike any other, for this voice held the sound of what seemed to be two women talking at once, it was a light yet somehow heavy voice, the two voices sang in harmony with each other. It was Cinder's voice, the voice she used to give her answer. "When we planted that garden, you and mother fused over what fertilizer would be best, she won the argument of course, but you got back at her by slinging a scoop of it from your hand shovel at her, which she responded in kind laughing as she brought me into the fray, honestly that flower bed took longer than it should, but it was fun."

At the sound of her voice, and the story that she told, Adama looked up towards the girl, eyes wide tears streaming down his face. He choked on the words, "What flowers?"

This time it was Cinder who's eyes started to tear, as she smiled down at Adama, "They were Amaryllis's, you said they stood for pride, determination, and radiant beauty. You always did call me your little flame." Cinder couldn't help it anymore the memory was to strong for her to hold in, the color of the flower, her father, and mothers laughter, it was one of the happiest memories of the life.

Adama raised his hands to him mouth, while tears continued to stream from his eyes as he looked up at the girl, as he looked up at his daughter. "Pyrrha," he choked on the name barely able to speak, he shockingly stood too his feet, as he moved his hands towards his daughter, "is it really my baby girl."

Tears streaked down her eyes, as Cinder reached up to the patch that covered her other eye and removed it, revealing an emerald green eye wet with tears, "Hello again, Papa." She choked, she couldn't control her tears as they just streamed from her eyes down her checks.

Adama didn't wait for permission he rushed forward and swept his daughter into his arms, he embraced his little girl. "I'm so happy, my little girl, my little baby girl." He shook as he spoke

Cinder's arms circled around her father, and she place her forehead against his chest, as she cried tears of joy as the fear of her father not believing her, that her family would not know her melted away.

Adama kept his hold not wanting to let go, to never let go again. "I just want to tell you how much I missed you, how much I love you, my little flame, my pride."

End of Chapter 2

A/N: Man this one was a hard one to right, I wanted to make this chapter not as long as the last, but as I kept writing I just felt like it couldn't stop just yet, that the chapter just wasn't finished.

Again I would like to thank all of you who has favorited, and followed my story, and please leave a review, I do enjoy reading those, yes even the harsh ones.