Yo!

Not a ton to say at the moment, other than that I'm always glad to hear from people who read my stories. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback lately and its made me want to write a lot more haha.

Anyways, let's get into it!

Start Chapter 27

It is roughly fourteen hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, perhaps two or three, when the first signs of something being off reach the Belladonna mansion.

It isn't much. Simply a notification from one of their guards that they've spotted movement off in the jungles surrounding Kuo Kuana, coming from the direction of the White Fang's base. Without their advanced notice, it likely would've gone unnoticed, but due to Jaune's vision, they're more than aware of what it is that's coming their way.

The guard shore up, those capable of fighting draw weapons, and the civilians – well, really just Kali – hunker down in a defendable location. Cinder is the one organizing this defense, alongside Ghira Belladonna and the guard captains of his personal defense force. She comes up with the idea to narrow the guards defensive ring.

Given that they know the White Fang is coming, it is not as if having advanced notice of their arrival from one particular direction will mean everything in this fight. Likewise, having one of their guardsman picked off before the battle begins means a lower fighting force for them.

Ghira's captain follows Cinder's orders, pulling the ring in. It is another thirty or so minutes, punctuated occasionally by an eerie quiet that seems to echo across the entire mansion, before the first flare is fired by their own.

The enemy has arrived.

The call is simple. The guard is to pull back to the mansion itself, and hold it as best they can. Their singular goal for the night is for them all to survive. The key players that the White Fang will be after most, Sienna Khan, Ghira Belladonna, and Blake herself, will all be clustered in the middle.

There's a part of Jaune that he's not very proud of that points out that he's not really all that tough, and that perhaps he shouldn't be on the outside ring, ostensibly the front line of defense, but then...

Well, he looks to his left, sees Cinder standing there, arm gripping one of the proto-Midnight's that she has begun to grow quite adept at creating with the Maiden's fire, and realizes that there is perhaps no one safer in this entire place than him.

And then the combat truly kicks off.

It is a loud thing, the first fired shots. Jaune has half a mind to race there himself, to try and back up whoever it is that's being attacked, but Cinder's earlier words to them all stop him.

"This is a defense. It is important to remember that." She had said. "More than that, however, this is a rather simple operation for us. We have something that they must take. All we must do is defend it. We keep a tight perimeter, we do our best to not let any leaks through, and Adam and whatever force is behind him will struggle to put a dent in us. But that means you must not be distracted from your true goal. Hold the line where you have been placed, and do not rush to the defense of others unless explicitly called upon. Trust in them. If you do not, you leave another portion of the guard underhanded, and weakened. Believe me when I say that the White Fang is not an opponent we need fear head on. They have never been an organization based solely in brute force, but rather in hit and run, guerilla warfare. Do not give them more opportunity to use it upon us than strictly necessary."

So Jaune holds himself in place, despite the sounds of Nora's grenade launcher beginning to sound out across the hills behind the mansion. That is where they've determined the bulk of Adam's forces will be coming from, given that assaulting the Belladonna mansion from the front is tantamount to political suicide.

Even if Adam were to somehow succeed, the people of Kuo Kuana would see him doing this.

And that would not be very good for him.

Jaune doubts that someone won't attempt to flank them using the front door at some point tonight, but it is, perhaps unexpectedly, the least reinforced position in the entire base.

There is another bright light shining down, yet another flare, and Jaune swallows, recognizing what this one means.

"Enemies have broken through. Brace yourselves."

He holds Crocea Mors just a bit tighter than he had a moment prior.

Cinder almost immediately rebukes him for that.

"Do not panic." Cinder speaks to him, and to her credit, her voice is the very definition of calm. "The White Fang are a terrorist organization. They are not soldiers. It is important to remember that. They will have some soldiers among them, but ultimately, they are not as strong as any of the people you yourself have had to face before. They are not even close to the level of the average Beacon Student. I imagine there will be some among Adam's force that are, but they will be my job. You focus on the chaff."

Jaune... he takes a breath, then. He hadn't been making a joke when he'd said that leadership suited Cinder. The relative ease with which she's prepared him for what's ahead has his nerves steadying, his sword arm untensing.

And then, of course, all hell breaks loose as the sound of shattering glass fills the mansion.

They're here.

Cinder immediately looks upwards towards the large windows set at the back foyer of the house, facing out towards the jungle. They'd already identified it as the weakest, and most pregnable point along the back of the mansion. So Jaune isn't surprised to see that multiple White Fang are pouring in from there.

Jaune recognizes a single person among that group. It is the man with the bat wings that had been among Adam's personal guard. Cinder seems to know that man, too, for she immediately shoots a flaming ball of rock and metal at him, forcing him to tank the hit along his aura.

The rest of the force, or, as Cinder has referred to them as, the chaff, are his job.

There are four of them. Each armed with a saber that looks sharp and some form of SMG in their off-hands. Jaune knows, immediately, that being at range is to their advantage.

And even if some part of him shies away from combat, from the heat of battle...

He pushes down on that, and charges in.

The first White Fang, a woman with wolf ears, doesn't attempt to use her gun, and instead charges at him, swinging with a fury that Jaune is initially intimidated by. That is, of course, up until the blow hits his shield, and the force of it is transferred down his arm.

And... Jaune barely feels it.

It is hard to remember, sometimes, the truths that Cinder had laid out for him. That these people, these terrorists, while the best of the best of the White Fang, are still, at the end of the day, far below the ranks of any of those who might be accepted at Beacon. This woman's strike is far softer than anything even someone like Weiss might muster up, and he'd regularly taken hits from fighters like Cardin, Yang, and Pyrrha.

He knows what it's like to tank a hit.

This is nothing like that.

The woman across from him seems to realize the same thing, for her eyes widen behind the mask, just before Jaune rams his right fist into her gut, causing her to stumble forward. Jaune knees her in the face, knocking her backwards, and into unconsciousness.

And all of a sudden, the paradigm of the scene that has been set, with the White Fang as the confident assailants, and he the one on the defensive...

It shifts.

Two White Fang charge him next, and while they roar in an attempt to put him off balance... their voices are missing the same edge that the first woman had possessed. He takes a step forward, and swings down with his blade, slamming Crocea Mors into the saber of one of them, and knocking the man back a pace. It is enough to stagger their approach, and make it a one on one when the other gets to him.

He blocks the blow, pushes into the others guard, and smashes his shield into the man's face.

He crumples like a sack of potatoes.

And Jaune smiles as the last two suddenly look a lot less sure of themselves.

He decides to take the initiative, charging forth with his shield up and using it like a battering ram. He hits the agent closest to him, staggering the man, and then follows up with a pommel strike to the man's temple. It's dodged, but Jaune isn't all that concerned. The few rounds that the man manages to squeeze off before Jaune kicks him in the face are caught on his aura, and while the drop isn't exactly welcome – a good fifteen percent taken from that small burst alone – it's not a huge deal, either.

The final agent looks just about ready to fully retreat, up until Jaune blitzes into the woman's guard, and without much effort manages to knock her to the ground, striking her along the back of the neck and causing the woman to let out a dull groan as her face impacts the wood.

The entire group is dealt with.

Jaune turns back towards Cinder, feeling rather proud of himself and incredibly energized. He sees that Cinder has already neutralized the bat-wing guy, his hands tied behind his back and his body slumping, completely unconscious.

Or, well, Jaune hopes he's unconscious.

"...You didn't, uhm..."

Cinder looks up at him, before shaking her head. "He's alive."

Jaune finds himself smiling, despite the situation. "Thanks."

Cinder gives the tiniest, most absent smile at that, before returning to her serious veneer. "We should bind their arms and legs. It's the best we can do in short notice."

Jaune can't help but feel that Cinder is likely doing this for his sake. He doubts she would hesitate to kill enemy combatants in a normal scenario, especially given that the White Fang are the ones assaulting them. She'd be justified to do such a thing, in a way.

But no. She draws a length of rope from out of her pack – something they'd gathered during the day for a multitude of reasons – and begins to tie the assailants up, as she'd suggested. While she's doing such things, the sounds of combat are beginning to erupt in full force all around them.

Jaune understands the plan, he really does. He knows that their best bet to maintain the security of the Belladonna mansion is to stay in that one little spot, and wait in case anyone else attempted to infiltrate from here, but he can't help but be nervous knowing that right now, everyone else is fighting, too.

It is agony, to hear the sounds of Nora's grenades, to hear the shouts and screams of many people, not knowing who exactly it is letting out such noises. He would know if Pyrrha, or Nora, or Ren, or Blake shouted out – he'd heard such things before, and more than that, he's simply more familiar with their voices – but for all he knows, someone is in trouble, and he's not able to–

"Calm yourself." Cinder speaks to him, placing a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Everything is going according to plan. Do not fret, or throw it all away out of worry. If they need help, they will alert us."

Jaune... he forces himself to nod, to accept what Cinder's saying as truth. It isn't like they hadn't considered the chance that one part of their defense might be overwhelmed. They have a signal, a flare of a different color that every little group has been given. This one the color of–

A crimson flare shoots into the air, and Jaune's breath catches.

Because that's the signal.

Cinder's hand on his shoulder tenses at exactly the same moment, and Cinder snarls under her breath.

"Damnit. Someone's been overwhelmed."

Jaune turns to her without hesitation. "Let me go!"

Cinder looks at him with no small degree of shock, and he can tell there's a good deal of reluctance there, too, but at the same time...

"If someone like Adam showed up here, I wouldn't be able to hold him on my own." Jaune explains his reasoning. "On the other hand..."

Cinder sighs as she sees his point. "If we both left to assist, we leave a sizable breach in our formation. If only you go..."

"Then that breach is miniscule." Jaune completes the statement, already moving. "I'll be careful. I'll jolt the link if I need you."

Cinder nods her head, and he tries not to focus on the way her single arm is shaking with nerves, how he can feel that worry course through him.

It is an odd sort of feeling, seeing such a thing affect Cinder as well. She has played herself so steadfast, so unrelenting, but in this moment, when it comes to his safety, she is well and truly scared.

He feels horrible for her, but he knows he has to go.

And so he's running through the winding halls of the Belladonna mansion. He has a feeling he's not alone in traveling towards whatever squad it is that's been overrun. Some of the others will have to have seen such a thing.

He knows by direction that he can cross any of those inside the house off the list, given the flare had come from outside. So that eliminates Sienna, Ghira, or Blake. It also isn't Nora, given that he can still hear her grenades coming from the opposite end of the building.

Ren, he believes, is stationed at the front of the mansion, alongside Ilia and a few of the more stealth-oriented folk among their number. Pyrrha is holding the left side alongside a few of the guards.

Which means it's either the guard captain he's rushing to the rescue of, or one of their scouts.

The latter is more probable, Jaune supposes. The guard captain had been quite the tough cookie at a glance. And their scouts had been put in more compromising locations by nature of their tasks.

So Jaune hurries as best he can as he pushes open one of the side entrances, looks to see where exactly the flare had originated from–

And his eyes widen as he sees who's fired it.

It is a White Fang operative with a smirk on his face.

And then a weight slams into Jaune.

He's flung back into the Belladonna mansion with the wind entirely knocked out of him. He lands hard on the polished wood, and frankly, he has a feeling that such a thing will be enough to summon Cinder to his location on its own, but as he'd said he would, he sends a signal across the wire of their link, letting her know that something hadn't gone right.

And as he looks up, he realizes he can scratch that. Something hadn't just not gone right.

Something had gone wrong.

"Well, well." Adam Taurus glares at him from underneath his mask. "If it isn't Sienna's miracle healer."

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Adam Taurus is a good five feet in front of him, letting his left arm casually balance atop his weapon's sheathe.

Jaune swallows, even as he forces himself to stand past the crying of his ribs and gut, which are still doing their best to simply take in air.

He is briefly caught by the sound of an explosion behind him, which sounds like it's come from Cinder's direction. He is even more caught when a burning pain courses across his skin that definitely isn't his.

Cinder is in combat, then, and if he has to guess, then that explosion had something to do with her.

"It seems my men are doing their jobs." Adam speaks, cracking his neck idly as he advances on him, and Jaune backs away at the same pace. "I doubt they'll last very long, but at the very least, they'll buy me enough time."

That... Jaune wants to know exactly what it is that Adam has planned, but unfortunately, he doubts he's going to get a chance to ask. Or, well, that would be the case, but then, Adam says something else to him.

"Where is Blake?"

Jaune almost laughs. "You think I'd tell you that?"

"Your chances of survival would increase drastically if you did."

Jaune refuses to even entertain the thought. Instead, he decides to ask a question of his own. "You fired off one of our flares. Was it random, or–"

"That sequence of flares," Adam cuts him off before he can say very much. "Humor me. Who was it who taught it to you?"

That... Jaune thinks for a moment, remembering back to their strategy meeting. It had been Cinder to come up with the larger plot, but a good majority of the logistics had actually fallen to Sienna. When Jaune thinks about that, it makes sense. She had, after all, run a terrorist organization for a good long while. It had made sense to trust her judgement, irrespective of her moral position.

Jaune isn't going to say any of that, of course. The less information Adam is working with, and subsequently, the attacking White Fang, the better their plan will likely go.

Unfortunately...

"I'd imagine it was Sienna, no?" There must be something on his face, for Adam sneers in the next moment. "Hah. She always did have an obsession with the old war."

At Jaune's confused expression, Adam actually elucidates.

"Ah, I suppose I should explain. She used an older system of flare signals. It's nothing that the current generation would recognize, but she must've thought I hadn't done my studying on the White Fang's origins. This series of flare codes was utilized by the Faunus during the last years of the Revolution."

Shit. That means that Adam had known the code, and had used the red flare – which they'd set up to mean a location needed assistance – to bait them into this.

"I hadn't thought it would be you of all people who'd arrive," Adam sounds uninterested, almost bored. "But I suppose eliminating a healer before they can be of any use will be a reward in and of itself. It will certainly make our prolonged assault much easier."

Adam takes an aggressive stance, but just before Jaune imagines he is about to close the distance between them, an explosion goes off somewhere behind them, and Jaune again winces as Cinder's pain courses through him.

It isn't much. A searing burn that flows across his arm, and while it hurts, he can tell it is far from a debilitating wound, or even something that Jaune thinks could halt Cinder. Still, it is enough to cause Adam Taurus to purse his lips, and pause, seemingly trying to get a read on something.

"...Ah, I see. You're Fall's soulmate, no?

Jaune stiffens, and unfortunately, that motion seems to be enough for Adam, who laughs.

"I had thought she was oddly protective of you. I see now. Then this has worked out even better in our favor. I had planned to simply barricade Fall inside of the mansion to limit the scope of her abilities, lest she bring the entire thing down upon herself, but a bargaining chip of your caliber... that is far more useful."

Jaune makes an immediate judgement call in that moment that in a straight one on one, without any extenuating factors – like Adam being out of aura from fighting Qrow Branwen and Glynda Goodwitch, for example – he doesn't stand much chance.

He could try and kite the man back towards Cinder, and hope that the two of them together – or really, just Cinder – could handle the combined group of Fang, but he also has the feeling that Adam's not going to allow such a thing.

He does have one other idea, though.

Keep Adam Taurus talking.

"Too afraid to face Cinder on your own?"

Unfortunately, that statement does not send Adam Taurus into a berserker rage as some juvenile part of Jaune had hoped it might. No, instead, the man simple breathes a laugh out through his lips, flicking his sword once or twice. Evidently, he does not see Jaune as a threat.

Which, rude, but also fairly accurate.

"That woman... I think of myself as a rather powerful duelist, but she was able to hold off the entirety of my forces back inside of our base. A year ago, she was able to break into my camp, and make it to myself in the center without breaking a sweat. She took down Beacon Academy, made Atlas look like a joke... I am not a fool to think that I would win against her without anything to aid me."

Huh. Jaune actually hadn't expected Adam to be that smart. Or that cautious.

Really, he's learning a lot about the man. A shame he'd have sooner learned nothing at all, given that Adam's a piece of shit who'd cut the arm off of one of his best friends.

"But then... I realized something back inside of our base." Adam remarks as the sounds of combat around the mansion intensify. "She was awfully protective of you. Furiously so. She nearly burned the skin off my shoulder through my clothing. I hadn't felt such searing pain in..." Adam pauses. "Well, either way, it was a reminder. I'm not going to let her run amuck and decimate my forces. No. I will keep her controlled. And you... I think that you will do just fine in aiding me in those efforts."

Adam looks at Jaune through the slits in his mask, and he finds himself swallowing nervously as the man advances on him slowly, taking careful, calculated steps, like a predator approaching his prey.

"Do yourself a favor and go down easy. Hell, you might even survive the night."

"...And let you hurt Cinder?" Jaune forces himself to stand tall, regardless. "Not a chance."

Adam just sneers.

"Yes. I figured as much. It's always soulmates who think their love is oh so pure, isn't it?"

Jaune senses a tiny, almost absent weakness, there. Something to exploit, something to perhaps buy himself another thirty seconds.

"Did you ever know yours?"

Adam actually seems surprised, his posture straightening briefly.

"Hah. No. I didn't. Nor do I believe in such nonsense dictating my life. The gods have brought enough pain and suffering into this world. They have allowed the suffering of the Faunus to continue. They have allowed the wicked and powerful to prosper. I will not allow them to further control me with such drivel."

Jaune doesn't say a thing, and though he hopes that Adam will simply continue talking, perhaps explain more about himself, give Jaune just a moments more...

He has a feeling he's said his piece.

"Ah, but you've kept me monologuing long enough." Adam Taurus states, shaking his head with an amused air. "I suppose it's time to rectify that."

And in the time it takes Jaune to blink, the small distance between them is gone.

End Chapter 27

Sorry about the cliffhanger. Now, I might (don't hold me to this, but I might) release another chapter here within the next few days, or perhaps next Saturday instead of two weeks from now, but like I said, that's a might, not a will.

So I'll see you all when I see you!