Velvet's job is actually pretty exciting. It was about 8 AM and Velvet had decided to take a small rest from watching the cameras, so Jaune had volunteered. He'd already called Ruby and Weiss 6 times to tell them where to find survivors, and now he was watching as the two fought a chef in his restaurant. I wish these cameras had sound. I wonder what led up to that.

His thought process was cut off when he noticed movement in the camera watching the underground. The underground was locked off... He watched as heavily armored men appeared in view moving equipment into a train. He would've called Ruby and Weiss if one of them hadn't turned around to show the logo on his back. That's the White Fang! He turned around and saw that Pyrrha and Yang were there.

"Hey Pyrrha?"

"Yes Jaune?"

"I've got a lead I want to investigate. Can you take over here?"

"Yes, but Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful, okay? I'm not going to stop you, but that doesn't mean I won't worry."

"I'll be fine Pyrrha. I'll have Yang covering my back. If you want to watch, it's this camera, the underground under the Palisades mall."

She accepted that response and moved to take Jaune's place at the cameras. Jaune and Yang, with no need for words, grabbed some aura pills, ran through the air ducts and were at the Palisades as fast as they could possibly go.

"Okay, I have the shield, so I'll take point in case something goes wrong. I want to record first, so we have as much evidence as possible against them, so stay out of sight as long as possible." She nodded and they opened the maintenance door that used to be locked.

After going down a flight of stairs, they were in a warehouse type place. Yang, as instructed, stayed back as Jaune moved forward, staying as hidden as he could with his scroll in hand. He watched as several White Fang grunts moved boxes around a train, but didn't catch anything incriminating until someone stepped out of the train.

It was RT.

"Alright, listen up you mutts! We're on a schedule here and you're slowing us down! So give me my money's worth and get it over with!" With Jaune still recording, he started to walk back to the train, until he stopped. Jaune just watched as he turned around, aimed his cane, and fired straight at the shelf he was behind. Jaune stopped recording and moved to a different hiding spot as fast as he could.

"Well, would you look at that! Little Jauney boy's trying to play hero. Kill him, boys!" With that, he walked onto the train, and before Jaune could do anything it was moving away.

With five grunts converging on his hiding spot, he readied his shield and leaped into the center of the room, shield in front of him. The grunts all fired their weapons at him, but they either missed or hit the shield. When they stopped shooting to reload, he ducked...

And Yang used his back as support to leap over him and sucker punch the grunt in the middle. Before any of them could react, the one to the left was down as well.

The two on Jaune's right were about to fire at Yang, but Jaune was attacking them first. He slashed the one on the left across the face, sending him backwards, and before the other could react Jaune had spun around and shield bashed him from the side. With them down, Jaune looked and saw that Yang had finished her grunts as well.

They were about to run after the train when they heard a motorcycle revving. Jaune, immediately getting an idea, grabbed Yang and pushed her right next to the shelf he was behind earlier and hid behind it, grabbing a nearby 2x4 with both hands.

Yang figured out what was going on and backed up to the back of the warehouse. As soon as the motorcycle came around the corner, she did her part. "Hey you freak! You just gonna sit there or are you gonna come over here so I can kick your ass!" This riled up the guy enough to drive straight at Yang, who backed up slowly. He got closer and closer...

Until Jaune swung around the corner and bashed him off the bike.

The bike, now driverless, skidded to a stop right in front of Yang, who immediately jumped on it and started driving away. As she passed Jaune, he jumped on the back as well and they were off.

"I swear to god if you try to cop a feel!"

"Didn't we already talk about this?"

They followed the underground path until they could clearly see the train. They were catching up quickly. Unfortunately, any chance they had of sneaking up vanished when one of the soldiers saw them and started shooting. Soon enough, another soldier had joined him and started shooting as well, making Yang drive erratically and Jaune try to block whatever shots he could with his shield. After about 5 minutes of dodging for their life, Jaune noticed something that could help right ahead of them.

"Yang! Right side!" She looked to the right side and saw what he wanted: a ramp. She swerved over to the right and hit it at an angle that made the back of the bike swing towards the train. Jaune took advantage and jumped off the bike, managing to land on the train shield down (after a lot of fumbling) and knocking the two shooters off the side.

Yang wasn't as lucky.

She wasn't able to correct herself in the air and ended up not being able to get off the bike. After hitting the wall, she crashed and rolled about five times before coming to a stop a few feet away from the bike. Jaune would've been worried if Yang hadn't immediately gotten up, hair on fire, and started running towards the train. She got left behind quickly, of course, but he at least knew she was okay.

If only I if I knew the same for me. I still have to get to the front. With that dark thought out of the way, he began the fight to the front of the train.

Team NPR couldn't be more excited about how their leader was doing.

As soon as the fight had broken out, Blake had volunteered to take Pyrrha's place at the cameras so she could watch, and she'd gratefully accepted. Now, having seen Jaune's fighting abilities from out of the field, she was beginning to realize how much Jaune had changed. I guess he was right: I do need to "let him off the leash" as he said. She was lost in her internal musings and pride until Nora broke her out. "He still needs you, you know."

"Are you sure your semblance is bio electricity, Nora? It seems that you are just as good at mind reading." Nora laughed, but didn't say anything, waiting for Pyrrha to continue. She sighed. "I know he still needs me, but... I suppose I never realized that there would be a point where he would be able to be on his own."

"Still, you see all these awesome things he's doing? That's your work. He knows it, I know it, everyone knows it. He wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for you. You're always going to be close. I don't think even he will forget you easily."

Pyrrha smiled. "Nora, where did this wisdom come from? It's not like you at all."

"It happens when you're friends with Ren for so long."

Ren just gave a questioning "hmm?" as he was too busy eating popcorn he'd gotten from who knows where to either listen or respond properly.

"You know, if you acted like that more often, Ren would find you irresistible", Pyrrha said in a whisper.

Nora's face became the shade of her hair. Whisper shouting, she responded "That's not the problem and you know it. We're just not together-together and I'm not gonna force him, even if I want to."

Ren cleared his throat and looked at them with glowing ears and a red face, signaling his aura was there and he'd heard everything. Nora's face flushed and she looked away in embarrassment. "As flattered as I am Nora, that's a conversation between us. However, right now, Jaune has almost reached the front of the train."

Pyrrha and Nora were in front of the cameras before Ren could even see they'd moved.

Two slashes and a kick were more than enough to finish the last grunt and move on to the final train car, where he'd hopefully be able to learn what RT was doing with the White Fang. Looks like Adam wasn't alone when he decided to go off the deep end. Hopefully there aren't too many to deal with. He walked through the door in front of him and was greeted with the sight of RT and another White Fang member standing in the train car, clapping.

"Well done, Jauney boy. Maybe you aren't completely harmless after all."

"What the hell are you planning RT!?"

"I'm not planning anything! But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"What does that even mean?"

"My hearing isn't as bad as you think it is, Jauney! I heard you in the warehouse when I was talking to Adam". Jaune froze. He knew I was there? "I was hoping that you'd die in the outbreak, but noooooo! You just had to be stubborn, and here we are! You know, everything would be a lot easier if you'd just die already!"

Jaune didn't let what he was saying get to him. "Why did Adam agree to work with you? He despises humans!"

RT laughed at that and clutched his cane a little tighter. "You think I wanted to work with that cow? He was just a means to an end. Him and his pets. But, enough with the talking." And with that, RT lifted his cane and shot at him.

Jaune immediately blocked the bullets using his shield, but before he could do anything else the White Fang member ran up to him and punched the shield. The strength was unexpected: Jaune was sent careening into the back of the car. He quickly stood back up and took in his opponent: RT was already long gone.

Ridiculous levels of strength, seems to have a chainsaw... sword... thing, unknown combat ability, but presumably above average. Wait a second... Didn't Weiss mention someone exactly like this?

He was cut off as the man was charging straight at him: knowing he couldn't break the charge, Jaune sidestepped to the left. He expected the man to simply charge right by, but instead he was grabbed by the side of the head and shoved into the floor of the train car so hard he left a dent. That confirmed his suspicions:

Yep, this would be the Lieutenant. Yay...

Yang wasn't stupid enough to think that she could keep up with the train on foot. No matter how much she charged her body, she wasn't Ruby, able to hit Mach 10 whenever she felt like it. So it didn't take long before she grabbed the bike. She was also quick to realize how fast the train had been, so she formed a plan.

Okay, so the tracks down here are on a loop. Don't know what he really thinks he's accomplishing here. But, if I go the other way, I should reach the train soon enough.

With a plan in mind, she turned the bike around and started driving. Following the tracks wasn't difficult: the only issue was that with the underground opened, even from just one place, zombies were now filling the tunnels, creating a lot of unnecessary speed bumps.

She tried her best to take it all in stride, but with each zombie she hit she gradually lost more control of the bike. It was clearly having trouble taking the hits that it was, with the way she was having to compensate it's broken suspension.

Ironically enough, her rescue came in the form of the train screaming down the tracks towards her.

There was no hesitation this time around; without having to worry about Jaune behind her, she was keep her course and throw herself off the bike and straight through the window. Of all the things to hit her off her course, she didn't expect it to be a cane.

The strength of the hit her back took brought her to the ground, but she managed to correct herself enough to roll into a crouch. Standing there, of course, was none other than RT, looking more exasperated than anything.

She was about to shoot herself forward, but he held his hand up. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He pressed a button on the console behind him, opening the door behind him.

Revealing none other than Jaune with a sword at his throat. Her heart skipped a beat.

Based on the bruises left on his skin, she could tell his aura had run out. Though, based on the way his captor seemed to favor his right side over his left, he hadn't gone down without a fight.

The only problem was the fact that they were a whole compartment away; if she tried to save him, RT could disconnect the train and disappear.

He seemed to read her mind and laughed. "You have a choice. Save your precious boyfriend, or stop me. Pick wisely." He sounded like a parent lecturing a child. It was infuriating. The only thing even more angering was Jaune's response.

"Yang, go! I'll be fine!"

YOU WON'T BE FINE YOU DUMBASS! She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, only stopping from he look in Jaune's eyes. He knew what he was asking her to do, and simply didn't care.

That made her choice for her.

She snarled at RT and made it look like she was about to attack, but turned around at the last possible second and shot towards Jaune and the Lieutenant instead.

She could hear the sound of RT's laughter as he disconnected the front of the train, disappearing as the train started to slow.

Stupid brat. You had the perfect chance to end it all and you didn't take it. Shame on you.

He simply couldn't understand what she could've been thinking in that moment. He had literally given her the opportunity to at least start a fight with him, and the mistiming would've thrown everything else off. It would've ended everything that was to come. And yet, she'd chosen the boy.

It confused him to no end. The interactions he'd seen during the tournament suggested that they barely talked to each other, yet here she was risking letting him get away to save his pathetic ass.

He was no closer to figuring out her reasoning when he felt his satellite phone ring.

The phones were his idea, one of the few that the crazy woman agreed to. They were so outdated, so primitive, so useless, that they were perfect for this operation. With the CCT down, no one would be able to use their scrolls for long distance communication. But with phones that skipped the CCT altogether and used the satellite directly? Flawless communication.

"Hey hey, Mercury! How's it going?"

"Cut the shit, Roman. How'd it go?"

"Well, it was pretty simple, really. The animals were surprisingly easy to work with. The only thing is, did you know Arc and Xiao Long were a thing?"

"What the hell do you mean a 'thing'?"

"Well, I literally had her choose between fighting me and saving Arc, and lo and behold she saved his ass. I didn't stay long enough to see what became of that."

"Of course you didn't. That would imply you weren't a coward."

RT rolled his eyes. "You don't see my point, do you?"

"No, not really."

"We can use this. All we have to do is target one of them and the other comes running. Tell that to your fire bitch."

Yang had no idea where things went wrong.

Maybe it had been when Jaune had managed to sneak in an aura pill without the Lieutenant knowing. Maybe it was when she still shoved him aside, thinking him too weak to survive the upcoming fight. Maybe it had been when she'd let her guard down, letting the Lieutenant have an open shot.

But wherever it had went wrong, it had ended with Jaune stabbing the bastard straight through the heart.

She'd expected him to break down. To be guilty for what he'd done, even if there was no other option. To call himself a monster or something like that.

But all he'd done was walk away with empty eyes, like he'd done it before.

A/N: There's the latest chapter. Reviews are much appreciated, and hope you enjoyed!