Oh, I'm sorry, did I say the last chapter was a long one? This better not become the norm. I don't think my laptop or myself have the capability to survive that.

"The main thing is to make history, not to write it"

Otto von Bismarck

Chapter Ten—Respite

"Jaune, m'boy," roared Bounty, racing out of the trees. Once he reached Jaune he picked him up and squeezed him in a back-breaking bear hug. "That was quite the trick you pulled off."

"Air," wheezed Jaune, "can't… breathe."

"Sorry," apologised Bounty unapologetically, releasing Jaune rom his death grip, "I'm just incredibly pleased your suicidal strategy didn't get you killed."

"Jeez, such faith," complained Jaune. Bounty just laughed, an act which made his beer belly bob up and down. By this time the others had caught up to Bounty.

"Never doubted you for a second Sergeant Arc," lied Terry.

"Uh, thanks Terry, but, just call me Jaune."

"Yes, Sergeant Jaune." Jaune just sighed.

Jaune looked around to make sure Buzz was alright after playing hostage to the enemy, only to see Naomi holding him in a tight embrace, to which Buzz was half-heartedly protesting. When Naomi finally released him, Cat came forward. She punched him on the arm, hard.

"Ouch!" yelped Buzz.

"What were you thinking getting caught and held at gunpoint like that?" demanded Cat. Before Buzz could even attempt to answer, Cat quickly pulled him into a tight hug. "Don't ever scare me like that again," she hissed. Bounty awwwed, and Cat aimed a kick at him.

Last came Phil. His red armour was scorched black in some places, and his black hair was even messier than usual. But he grinned nonetheless. "Jaune! Your plan worked."

"We couldn't have done it without you," replied Jaune truthfully, "speaking of which, what was that thing with your weapon back there?"

"Oh, that," grinned Phil, "that was-"

"Oi! Love birds!" yelled Cat. "You can make out later. For now, we need to deal with these losers." She indicated the Atlas soldiers, all of whom still had their hands in the air and were watching Beta section's exchange with a mix of curiosity and anxiety.

"Right," said Jaune, taking charge, "Bounty, Cat and Naomi, you take the prisoners and put them in their command centre," Jaune indicated the patchwork hut of metal and wood. "Make sure they can't get out. Buzz, you collect all their weapons and ammunition, Phil and I will see what we can do about those fires."

"Wait," piped Buzz, "where's Aiden and Finn?"

"The Flea's run again!" roared Bounty.

"Wait, wait, wait!" yelped Jaune, halting Bounty mid stride to racing off into the woods and throttling Finnegan when he found him. "We need to deal with this outpost first. Need I remind you it's on fire. We'll deal with the others later."

"Fine," grunted Bounty, "but if Flea's betrayed us again I retain the right to shoot him on sight."

Finnegan was pissed. He watched the others hug and celebrate and kiss each other's butts at their miraculous survival, too wrapped up in their own little self-congratulations to notice that Finn hadn't followed them out of the forest.

Idiots.

One victory here meant nothing. They might be able to gather enough supplies for a while longer, but ultimately, they were still abandoned in a Grimm infested forest with no way to get home except walking. The trek back to Vale would still take weeks, and every meter of that journey was bursting with all kinds of unnamed dangers, most of which started with a G and ended with a section of dead humans. But the fools seemed too preoccupied making out with each other to realise that.

Finnegan considered running away. It might be more dangerous on his own if he came across a Grimm, but he certainly wouldn't be running head first into another firefight, something his companions seemed intent on doing. The question was how likely he would be to come across a Grimm, versus how likely Jaune would get them all killed. It was a close one.

He'd promised Jaune he wouldn't abandon them again, but he'd made a more important promise long before that one, and to a much more important person. It wasn't really breaking a promise if he did it to fulfil a different one. Was it?

Finnegan was still debating his course of action when he felt a presence by his side. They couldn't leave him alone for five minutes without a bloody babysitter? Without looking, he said, "You were the sniper." It wasn't really a question.

"I was," answered Aiden anyway. "Jaune decided he might need a backup plan."

"You were hiding somewhere on that rock?" Finnegan indicated the cliff face that overlooked the clearing.

"Yes." The two men lapsed back into silence, watching the others move around the base.

Finally sick of being silently judged by the wolf Faunus, Finn spat, "Aren't you going down to help them?"

"You need my help more than they do," Aiden replied. Finn scoffed. Aiden said nothing more. He didn't need to.

"How can you just trust Jaune with your lives?" Finn finally exploded. "He's not even an adult yet, and he clearly has no idea what he's doing. How can you just blindly follow him?"

"Jaune's heart is in the right place," answered Aiden, his tone measured and his words precise. "I know he will do everything within his power to keep us safe."

"What, like taking on an Atlas outpost?" scoffed Finn.

"It was necessary to gather the supplies we needed."

"Buzz almost died," retorted Finn.

"And the moment Jaune realised that, he himself entered the base, risking his own life to save Buzz's."

"He had a plan," grumbled Finn bitterly, "he was hardly giving himself up to the Beowolves freely."

"True," conceded Aiden, "but even if he did not, I have no doubt he would still have gone into that base and done whatever he could to save Buzz. Jaune is a good leader."

"He's barely been one for two days. What makes you so sure you're right?" asked Finn.

"Because he cares about his men," answered Aiden. "He would lay down his life for any one of his friends, you included."

"No one's my friend here," Finn muttered.

"If that is true, then it is by your choice, not theirs." The trouble was Finnegan couldn't even argue with that. After a short while, Aiden sighed. "If you really want to leave, I won't stop you. I might even be able to throw them off your trail for a while." Finn regarded Aiden suspiciously.

"What do you get out of it?" he challenged.

"Nothing," answered Aiden, "but… let's just say I know a little bit more about you than the others do."

"What are you talking about?" Finn demanded, instantly becoming guarded. "Nobody here knows anything about me because nobody here gives a shit about trying to find out."

"That is not true," countered Aiden, "you simply push them all away the moment they try."

Alright, fair point. But Finn wasn't here to make friends with these people. If it was in his power, he wouldn't even be here at all. Getting attachments to these people would only make it harder when he eventually had to leave them. And he did have to leave them.

"Finnegan, I know why you want to get home so badly," revealed Aiden, so quietly Finn might have imagined it was just the swish of the wind. "The others may have forgotten, but I still remember the calls you used to make back before all this started. Every evening, without fail, you were on your scroll talking in hushed whispers to someone. They must have been very important to you for that kind of dedication."

"I was talking to my mother," Finn stiffly lied. He didn't like where this conversation was going, and he certainly didn't like what Aiden was implying he knew.

"Finnegan, we both know that is not true."

"How do you know?"

"I… I may have overheard some of those conversations," Aiden admitted. Finn snapped his head to the wolf Faunus. Aiden had suddenly found his shoes incredibly interesting to look at. A sudden heat flushed through Finn's system and his hands curled into fists.

"You were eavesdropping," he accused.

"I did not do it intentionally," Aiden tried to clarify, "I just… well, Faunus ears… it was hard not to overhear…" he finished lamely. Finnegan considered the merits of punching Aiden in the face right there and then. He wanted to – he would have done, except for the fact that Aiden had had this information for at least a while and hadn't yet told anyone. He was clearly keeping it for blackmail, and Finn didn't want to upset that balance just yet.

"If you tell anyone…" Finn warned.

"I do not intend to share this information with anyone, Finnegan. That was not the point of this conversation." Yeah right. "I was trying to say that I understand why you want to leave," Aiden continued, "and to be perfectly honest, if you are going to stab us in the back eventually, I would rather you did it now, when no one's life is on the line, rather than later." Finn didn't grace that with a reply. "Or," Aiden went on, "if you do feel like sticking around, then we can go down into the clearing and join the others. You did help us capture this outpost, after all. It is only fair you receive your dues."

Could Finnegan go down there among the others again? Half of them wanted him dead, and the other half only seemed to tolerate his presence on Jaune's orders. And now Aiden knew the one thing he'd hoped to keep a secret from everyone else. Going back sounded like something from his worst nightmares.

But then again, the alternative made even those seem like fairy induced dreams. Jaune may lead them into another crazy mission, but just hoping he wouldn't come across a Grimm in miles of travel? That was even more suicidal. At least there was safety in numbers. More meat shields to put in front of him.

"Fine," grumbled Finn, and together with Aiden, they walked down into the clearing.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA," roared Bounty, leaning back so far he almost fell off his chair as his mirth rocked his entire body. Buzz grinned sheepishly next to him as his comrade laughed his bearded face off at Buzz's story. "You mean you… you mean to say…" Bounty managed to get out between desperate gasps for breath, "that you had to do odd jobs for the enemy!" Bounty fell back into a cascade of cackles, and even Jaune smiled. It wasn't every day he saw his team in such good spirits.

The members of Beta section minus Terry (who had insisted on taking first watch on the prisoners, despite Cat and Bounty's reassurances that they'd reinforced the makeshift prison and that nothing was getting out), were sitting around one of the burning tents, adding logs of wood onto it and using it as a campfire. Most of the fires had been too wild for Jaune and Phil to put out, so in the end they'd simply made fire breaks on either side of the burning huts and tents, preventing the fires from spreading any further and left the blazing structures to burn out.

Now, after a quick scavenge throughout the base, Beta section were sitting with pockets stuffed full of ammunition magazines, a collapsed tent folded next to each of them, and enough food and water to keep them going for at least another fortnight.

"That is too good," chuckled Bounty, wiping his eye. "Then what, you blew up their generator?" Buzz nodded.

"Well I think that was a stupid and risky move," sniffed Cat. "You should have just tried to sneak out. There was no need to put yourself in danger like that."

"No, I think it was clever," disagreed Aiden, "you realised we could not have done anything with those lights still on and used your ingenuity to figure out a way to shut them down."

"Yeah, with the biggest bloody lightshow this side of Remnant!" laughed Bounty.

Cat huffed and Bounty patted Buzz on the back, but Buzz's eyes weren't on either of them. They were locked onto his sister's. "Naomi?" he implored, "did I do good?" Naomi stared at Buzz for a while, her eyes shining with emotions Jaune couldn't even begin to decipher. Then she smiled.

"You did well, Buzz. You would have done 'good' if you'd helped the poor." Buzz beamed. Bounty slapped him on the back again, then said something that cracked Buzz up.

But even though she smiled along with the joke, Jaune noticed that Naomi had a faraway, vacant look in her eyes. He scooted over so he was sitting next to her.

"Are you feeling alright?" he inquired.

Naomi sighed. "I don't really know what I'm feeling anymore, Jaune."

"What's wrong? Aren't you proud of Buzz?

"Of course I am. It's just… every day, for the last sixteen years I've looked after him, Jaune," she explained. "I was the one who first helped him to walk when I was only three years old. I was the one who protected him from bullies at school. And when he got the crazy idea in his head that he wanted to join the army and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise, I was the one who dropped everything and joined him, just so I could keep him safe."

"Wow," whispered Jaune. He'd had no idea how far Naomi had gone to look after her brother. He knew she was eighteen, so that must have meant she'd only just left school when Buzz decided to join the army. She'd had her whole life ahead of her, but she'd given it all up immediately to go with Buzz. If Jaune's respect for Naomi had been high before, it just sky rocketed after this revelation.

Naomi smiled sadly. "You probably think I'm crazy. And yeah, sometimes it was hard to see it through. But I'd have done it all again in a heartbeat if it meant protecting Buzz."

"So what's bothering you," asked Jaune.

"That is," whispered Naomi, indicating with a jerk of her head. Jaune followed where she'd nodded to and saw Buzz telling a joke that had Bounty in stitches, and the rest of the group at least grinning. "He's growing up, Jaune," Naomi continued, "soon, he's not going to need his big sis to look after him anymore."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know Jaune. It's always just been him and me. I guess… I guess I'm a little scared for change," she admitted. Jaune nodded. He understood that feeling well enough.

"Change can be scary," he agreed, "but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad." Jaune thought back to how big a change it'd been to go to Beacon, and then an even bigger change to leave it. Both times had been terrifying, but both times he'd met some incredible people. Jaune's heart still ached for his friends back at Beacon. Sometimes the throbbing was so small he could ignore it. Sometimes it came out of nowhere, pouncing on him like a Beowolf and crushing his heart in a clamp so hard it was difficult to draw in breath. He wished to the cracked moon that he hadn't done what he did to his team, but then again, if he hadn't left Beacon he'd never had met his section. He wouldn't be sitting around a camp fire listening to Bounty's raucous laughs, or watching Cat try to keep a stern face, or speaking to Naomi about her brother-slash-surrogate son. Things hadn't gone the way he'd wanted, or even the way he'd expected them to. But somehow, despite all that, Jaune could have been said at that moment to have been almost… content.

Jaune realised he'd gone silent on Naomi and hurried to finish his line of thought. "Buzz isn't that much younger than you are, Naomi, and you can't protect him forever either. One day you have to accept he's going to need to make his own way in life. You can be there for him. But you can't decide his choices for him. You have to let him go sooner or later."

"Let him go," repeated Naomi wearily, "a week ago that would've been unthinkable. Buzz, all on his own in the world? No way. But now? After he's just infiltrated an enemy base, fooled everyone there, identified a weakness and taken advantage of it, and all within half a day?" Naomi sighed, but this time it seemed like less a sigh because she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and more because she was releasing all her apprehensions in one breath. "Thanks Jaune. I needed this talk."

"No problem." Jaune rose to his feet. There was one more thing he had to do tonight. "Oh, and good work today Nuke," Jaune called, walking away. Naomi just smirked.

Jaune left the others to their celebrations and walked over to Phil, who was sitting a little way away from the group. During Beta section's inventory check of the outpost, they hadn't found any scrolls (apparently even Atlas soldiers didn't want to risk smashing their devices in the field), but they had found a single box-shaped, long-ranged transmitter in the command hut. It didn't work after Naomi had blasted the radio mast to which it was attached to smithereens, but Phil had excitedly told Jaune that he could make his own antenna for it. The squad only needed it to broadcast as far as Vale, rather than all the way to Atlas, so Phil had assured him it wouldn't need to be as big as the radio mast had been. Jaune had left him to it, partly because Phil was the only one who knew anything about electronics, and partly because Jaune hadn't really understand what he'd been saying at the time. But now Jaune decided to see how Phil was doing, and perhaps get some of his questions answered.

As Jaune approached, he saw that Phil was sitting down. The device was in his lap, and cluttering the ground around Phil was a wide array of electronics, wires, and odd bits of metal, all ripped off — sorry — salvaged from the outpost. Phil was crouched over the device, a spanner gripped loosely in his hand, clearly in deep concentration. He must be working hard.

"Hey Phil!" he greeted. Phil jerked upwards, his hands flying out and hurling the closest thing to him at the startling voice. Unfortunately, the closest thing to him was the priceless transmitter, and the startling voice belonged to Jaune.

With a shriek Jaune hadn't been able to produce since he was eleven, the transmitter landed against his chest. Fortunately, his hands instinctively wrapped around the device. Unfortunately, that meant he had nothing to break his fall with, and he slammed into the ground, his breath exploding out of his chest.

"Oh crap! Jaune? Is that you? Are you ok? Oh man. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. Are you hurt? Do you need help?" Jaune just groaned. "Right, you need help. Obviously. I'll get onto that." Jaune finally found the weight on his chest lifted and was soon hauled to his feet. To his immense relief, the transmitter wasn't broken. Apparently, he made a better pillow than he'd thought.

"You were asleep weren't you," Jaune managed to groan. Phil at least had the grace to look sheepish.

"Sorry Jaune. It's just, trying to adapt this is harder than I thought. I mean, much harder. This was designed to transmit a signal to the radio mast, but, uh, well, we kinda blew that up. I'm trying to redesign it to send out short range signals, but it's hard. It doesn't help that I don't have the right tools on hands. Or reliable materials. I've literally had to rip some of these pieces off other things. Nothing fits as it should. I'm having to improvise on most of this stuff. I might be able to crack it eventually, but it's gonna take a hell of a lot more time-"

"Phil," interrupted Jaune, "it's alright. You can call it a night. We don't have to send a message right now. We'll do it another time." Phil visibly slumped.

"Thanks Jaune. I needed a rest anyway." Jaune sat himself down next to Phil and handed him a chocolate bar. Spoils of war. Phil's eyes lit up, and he snatched the treat out of Jaune's hands, wolfing it down like a starving man, before moaning in pleasure. Jaune just laughed.

"Actually, can I ask you about something?" Jaune asked.

"Sure," mumbled Phil through a mouthful of chocolate.

"What happened back there with your weapon? We were trapped against those burning tents, and then out of nowhere I saw Aeron Wasp. Except it was… flying." Phil just grinned, revealing chocolate stained teeth, then pulled out said yellow weapon from where it was attached to his back and began stroking it affectionately.

"I did say there was more to her than meets the eye. She's amazing, isn't she? Aeron Wasp is, I mean. I designed her so she can hover above the ground. Like a drone. That's where I got the idea actually."

"A drone—? Phil, what… why… how can that thing even fly?"

"See this cross? Around the ammunition drum? That can spin, creating upthrust. Making it fly. Well, not completely. She's too heavy for her weight to countered by just that. So there's also some gravity dust encased inside her armour. Makes her light enough to fly. And light enough to swing if I need to melee."

"But how can you even control that? Do you have a remote? A controller?"

"Even cooler," grinned Phil, "it's my semblance." Jaune's mouth plopped open like a fish. "It allows me to communicate with machines. Control them, y'know. The more familiar the device, the easier it is to interface with it. That's why I can control Aeron Wasp from so far away."

Jaune considered what he'd learnt, mentally sliding the jigsaw pieces into place. No one would ever call Jaune perceptive, but the aura, the weapon, and now a semblance… Phillip Blitz had without doubt been at least a Huntsman-in-training at some point, even if he wasn't one now. Just like Jaune. So what had happened to him?

"You went to a Huntsmen academy, didn't you," said Jaune.

"Yeah…" began Phil uncomfortably, "I went to Beacon. Like you, I'm guessing." Jaune blinked. He hadn't realised his time at Beacon was written so plainly across him.

"Why didn't you become a Huntsman?" he enquired.

"Decided that kind of life wasn't for me. Joined the army instead as a combat engineer, as that's all I seem to be good at."

"But why? You had the chance to be in one of the highest regarded occupations on Remnant. You could have been a hero. What on Remnant caused you to give that up?"

Phillip glanced down. "That's, uh… that's a touchy subject. I don't really want to talk about it right now." Jaune didn't want to drop it. When he'd left Beacon, he was sure he'd been cutting off all ties to his old life. But now it turned out that Phil had been in a similar situation to Jaune only a few years ago, and Jaune was dying to know more.

But Phil was first and foremost his friend, not some encyclopaedia. If Phil didn't want to talk about it to Jaune, then he had his reasons, and Jaune would respect those.

So instead Jaune switched decided to ask Phil about another of his burning questions. "How much do you know about aura?" he enquired.

"Not a huge amount. I mean, no one really does. It's a shield-type thingy that can protect you from blows. And heal wounds. But apart from that, we don't really understand it. Some say it's connected to the soul. Some say it is the soul. It's connected to semblances, but again, no one's really sure how."

"Why don't all people just have aura? I mean, if Grimm are such a threat, wouldn't it make sense for ordinary people to have it?"

"Well, yeah, that kinda makes sense. But I think it's a psychological thing. Most people don't want to think about how unsafe their lives are. They'd rather the Huntsmen and military deal with the Grimm, while they can go about their normal lives, pretending that nothing is amiss. Aura would just kinda ruin that illusion."

"But still," argued Jaune, "it seems kind of pointless not to have it."

"Yeah, maybe. But don't forget not everyone can activate aura. You need another Huntsman to do that, and even then, not everyone is able to do it. Frontier towns tent not to have a Huntsman to activate their auras. And lots of Huntsmen charge money for it anyway, so most people don't bother."

"What about in the army then?" questioned Jaune. "Surely it would be an advantage to have people immune to bullets in it. Why doesn't everyone have it?"

"Well… most people who have aura end up as Huntsmen or security guards. The army doesn't appeal to a lot of people."

"But why don't people who join the army have their aura unlocked for them?"

"They try," stated Phil. Jaune looked at him, confused.

"Then why don't the others have aura?"

"Well… remember, we don't really know a huge amount about aura but… for some reason, a person's aura becomes irreversibly locked away if they don't get it activated before a certain age. The closer to that age the person gets, the harder it becomes to unlock it. The cut off's normally around sixteen. That's also why so few people have aura."

"But... I got mine unlocked at seventeen," admitted Jaune.

"Really? Huh, that's late. Still, it's not unheard of." Jaune sat back and mulled over what Phil had revealed. He'd never heard that aura couldn't be unlocked in adults before, but then again, he'd also never even heard of aura until he went to Beacon, so he supposed it wasn't that farfetched. Was that part of the reason why people were trained to be Huntsmen and Huntresses at such a young age?

After a short pause, Jaune asked, "What about Buzz? He's only sixteen. Could we unlock his aura?"

"Already tried it," Phil informed him. "Or at least, the army has. Everyone who joins the military gets tested for unlocking aura. Buzz's aura must've been locked away slightly earlier than most people. It kinda sucks, but what can you do?"

"Yeah…" Jaune trailed off. Learning that he and Phil were the only people in the section with aura somehow felt… wrong. How was it fair that he should have his own personal forcefield whilst the others could be taken down in a single lucky hit. That wasn't to say he was invincible either, but at least he had a better chance of surviving if, say, he was shot. The others meanwhile wouldn't even stand a chance. That bothered Jaune.

Jaune fell back into contemplative silence. Eventually, Phillip asked him a question about his personal life, and Jaune decided to put aside his mulling for another time. For now, he just talked to Phil, like friends were supposed to do. They didn't talk about the long trek they still had to complete, they didn't talk about how their plan had almost failed, or how Buzz had almost died, or how any of them might still die yet. They talked about something random and inconsequential, simply enjoying each other's company like normal people were supposed to do. Jaune had to be honest; compared to fretting about leadership or worrying about what he should do next, just chatting about nothing was a refreshing change. Jaune decided to enjoy it for just a little longer.

Back around the campfire, Aiden finally began to relax. With the exception of Finnegan, the squad were in a better mood than they had been in for an age, and Aiden was content to simply sit back and watch the others trade banter.

Though having said that, ever since Buzz had replaced Terry on sentry duty things hadn't been quite so… well…

"I've got another one," Terry gleefully announced, and even Aiden cringed in preparation. "What did the vegan zombie say? The vegan zombie. Anyone? Graaaaaaiins! Get it? Grains. Like brains. Ehhh?" A chorus of groans was Terry's only applause.

"If I hear one more god damned joke out of your bloody mouth, Terrier, so help me…" warned Cat.

"What's wrong with my jokes?" complained Terry.

"Except for the fact that they're deader than a rotting sardine in a bag of salt, you mean?" sniped Bounty. "Why're you trying so hard to make a joke, anyway? I thought you were the kind of guy who wouldn't recognise a sense of humour if it bit you on the arse."

"That's not true," defended Terry, "and besides, at least I'm trying to be more fun."

"Don't know about that," mused Bounty, "it's kind of creeping me out. I think I prefer the version of you with that rod rammed up your arse."

"What!" squawked Terry. "I don't have a rod rammed up my arse!"

"You do play by the rules a little much," offered Naomi.

"You are a bloody arse-kisser," contributed Cat.

"You sucked up to Sergeant Cole real nice and snug, and now you're doing the same to Jaune," pointed out Bounty.

"That's not… I don't… I'm just trying to do well in the military, that's all."

An idea suddenly came to Aiden. He had once overheard a conversation – he had good ears, alright – between Sergeant Cole and Jaune, where Sarge had told Jaune he liked to know everything he could about his men. They were not all commanding officers, but knowing more about each other could surely only help to tie them closer together as a unit. He decided to push a little further and see if he could get his comrades to open up around each other.

"Why?" he asked Terry. "Why are you trying so hard to impress the section commanders?"

Everyone around the campfire suddenly became very interesting in where this was going. They leaned in expectantly, surrounding Terry with a wall of curious faces. Terry glanced left and right at the inquisitive faces pinning him to the spot, none of them offering any sort of relief for him. His face began to burn bright red and his hands started fiddling with the toggles of his combat jacket.

Bounty, sensing his discomfort, immediately leapt on his prey. "Come on. You can tell us."

"It's… it's a stupid reason really…" Terry mumbled.

"But…" prompted Cat.

"I'm… I'm trying to impress my dad."

His father? Interesting. "Why do you want to impress him?" enquired Aiden.

"Well, he was in the military too, an—"

"Your dad was a soldier? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, now does it?" joked Bounty.

"Was?" asked Naomi, instantly picking up Terry's use of the past tense.

"Yeah. He got injured early in his career. Lost his hand to a Creep. He was fine, but he couldn't use a rifle after that, so the army discharged him. Honourably, of course. He even got a medal for his service."

"So what, you decided to follow in your old man's footsteps or something?" asked Cat.

"Not… not quite." Despite Terry's hesitancy, Aiden sensed this story went deeper. He did not want to force Terry to open up, but if he could persuade him to tell the tale, it might bring him closer to the rest of the group.

"What happened with your father?" Aiden pressed gently.

Terry looked at him for a while, perhaps trying to judge if Aiden's intentions were true or not. Eventually he sighed and continued. "When my dad was forced to leave the army he… he didn't take it so well. Even though he was injured, he still thought he should have been protecting his kingdom. He… kind of became distant. He didn't really want much to do with me. It wasn't so bad," Terry quickly added as Naomi made to say something. "I still had my mum. But nothing I ever did seemed to impress him, or even make him notice me. So… I decided to make him proud by joining the army myself and doing what he always wanted to do."

A stunned silence fell around the campfire, broken only by the crackle of the burning tent between them. Slowly, quietly at first, Bounty began to chortle. The chortle became a chuckle, then the chuckle became a laugh, then the laugh became a full-blown fit of hysteria.

"What's so funny?" demanded Cat.

"You joined the army… to impress your piss-poor father!" cackled Bounty. "Now that's an admirable reason if I ever saw one. I'd drink to that if there were a drop of alcohol around this place."

"You're crazy, you know that?" dismissed Cat.

"That I am, my dear," smirked Bounty, tipping an imaginary hat in her direction. Cat made a retching action.

"Why did you join the army then, Bounty?" asked Aiden realising he'd gotten everything he was going to get out of Terry for one night.

"My life before the military was shit, so what the hell did I have to lose?" Bounty shrugged. "There's not much more to it than that. What about you, Cat?"

"They said to me I couldn't join the army; I said fuck you, and did."

"The cat's got claws I see," grinned Bounty. He dodged as Cat's foot swung out towards him. "Who's 'they', anyway?"

"My family, my friends, society. Whoever and whatever tried to tell me I wasn't good enough or strong enough or worse, wasn't allowed to do what I wanted to do. I've got no time for someone telling me what I can and can't achieve. Your turn, Nuke."

"Simple. I joined to protect Buzz of course. Do you really think I'd have let him face the world alone?"

"Or let the world face him!" laughed Bounty. "You ought to be careful when you take your eyes off him, he might feel the need to blow up something again just for kicks!" Naomi frowned, then paused, as if uncertain how seriously to take Bounty's words, before finally deciding better safe than sorry and hurrying off to where Buzz was standing sentry.

"You're an ass," scolded Cat to Bounty, who was now besides himself with laughter at Naomi's reaction. "Anyway, you're up, Aiden."

The wolf Faunus smiled. This was working perfectly. "I couldn't find work anywhere else. Not everywhere would accept me for… well…" Aiden indicated his silver tail with a swish. The group shifted uncomfortably, and he knew why, but Aiden had grown used to it a long time ago. It was a simple fact of life. Birds flew, fish swam, and people were racist to Faunus. That was not to say all people were racist to Faunus, or even that those who were should be punished. It simply was what it was. "The army seemed like my best chance of making an impact in the world, however small or insubstantial," he finished. Now for the real challenge. "What about you Finnegan?"

Finnegan looked up at the others for the first time that night, and his face slid into a sneer. "Keep me out of your little games."

"Oh no you don't, Flea." Bounty smiled with a shark's viciousness. "We all had to tell our reasons for joining the army, now it's your turn."

"Like hell it is," Finn muttered.

"Was it for someone?" pressed Terrier, "a parent, a friend, a lover?"

"A lover? Of Flea?" scoffed Cat. "Not likely."

"Piss off, Cat," Finnegan growled.

"I bet you haven't even been on a date before," she taunted, driving her knife deeper. "You'd have to be blind to even consider meeting someone like you for dinner."

Uh-oh. This was not going the way he had wanted it to go at all. "Take it easy guys," Aiden tried to intervene.

"As a matter of fact, I have been on a date before, thank you very much," retorted Finnegan, utterly ignoring Aiden's plea for peace.

"Ha! As if," goaded Bounty. "Where's your proof?"

"I don't have to prove anything to you," countered Finnegan.

"Just as I thought," baited Bounty, turning to Cat and pretending to ignore the enraged Finnegan. "He's never been in a relationship."

Finnegan's fingers were crunched into fists so tightly his knuckles seemed to creak. "That's enough, everyone," Aiden warned. "This isn't go—"

"Fine!" Finnegan yelled. "You want evidence? Here!" From one of his pockets he yanked out a photo and held it out for Cat and Bounty to see. The colour was faded, and there were two, well-worn creases crisscrossing the little square of paper, but the thing on it was unmistakable. It was a brown haired, very pretty, young woman. The person he'd been talking to each and every evening.

For a moment, the two doubters sat in silent disbelief, while Finnegan lorded over them triumphantly.

"How much did you pay her?" scoffed Bounty.

"We'd better head back to the others soon," said Phil. "They might think we've died if we stay any longer."

Jaune nodded his head in agreement. "Come on then," he said, leading the way back to the others. As the two of them made their way towards the fire, raised voices drifted over to them. They were still too far away to make out what they were saying, but it was clear those voices weren't happy. Jaune hurried to see what had caused the commotion.

As he got closer, he saw Finnegan on his feet, his fists raised in fury and his face red with rage. He looked ready to throw himself at Bounty, but was barely managing to contain himself. Bounty, for his part, was still seated, his face a mask of cool indifference, but Jaune could tell by the tension in his body that he was ready to leap to his feet at a moment's notice.

"Don't you dare talk about her like that!" screamed Finn, jabbing an accusing finger at Bounty. "Don't you fucking dare!"

"You're a fucking idiot Flea, if you really believe the shit they tell you about love," growled Bounty.

"What on Remnant is going on?" demanded Jaune, stepping between the two of them. Jaune didn't like Finn's rabid look, or the way Bounty's hand was inching towards his rifle.

"That bastard called Jasmine a whore!" accused Finn, spittle flying.

Bounty just laughed cruelly. "Do you really think your precious Jasmine is going to remain faithful all this time you've been away?" he leered. "Women wouldn't know the meaning of faithful if it bit them on the tit."

"What the fuck, Bounty?" demanded Cat, leaping to her feet, but Bounty ignored her, instead focusing his attack on Finn.

"You think you've found true love, Flea? Well guess what; there's no such thing. It's a fairy tale made to shut children up. If you think otherwise you're just kidding yourself. Your girlfriend is probably sleeping with another man right now."

"Shut up," spat Finn, so tense his whole body was shaking. "Just shut up! You don't know anything about her. Anything about me. None of you do!"

"Oh yeah?" sneered Bounty. "And what makes you think you two are different? What makes you think you're not going to break up in a month's time, heartbroken for a week before you move on and forget about her? What makes you think your girlfriend will ever want to spend her life with someone like yo-"

"She's not my girlfriend!" screamed Finn. "She's my wife!" The entire camp went dead silent. Even Finnegan looked surprised to have said that. The sudden statement shut Bounty up for all of three seconds, before slowly, he shook his head.

"Then you're an even bigger idiot than I thought," he said.

Finnegan snarled, his face contorting into that of a wild animal. Jaune saw his hands rising as if in slow motion, twisting to resemble claws. Jaune knew what would happen next: Finnegan would leap at Bounty, regardless of whether Jaune was in the way or not. Bounty would retaliate in kind, and the two of them would degrade into a fistfight not even Jaune would be able to stop.

Finnegan crouched down, ready to pounce…

And suddenly a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Finnegan, stop. Fighting won't do us any good, and it won't change his opinion. Take some time to cool off before you do something you'll regret later." Aiden's smooth tones froze the seething Finn in his place. He took a shuddering, deep breath. And then another. And then a third. And soon his breathing no longer rasped out of his throat in tearing pants and his dark face lost some of its feral quality. He knocked off Aiden's calming hand, shooting everyone around the camp with a scything glare.

"Stay away from me," he growled. "All of you." With one final, detesting glance in Bounty's direction, he spun on his heel and stomped away, muttering something that had the words "bloody", "son of a" and a host of other swear words following it.

The camp collectively sighed in relief, and Jaune nodded his thanks to Aiden's tactful handling of the situation. Bounty rose to his feet and began to walk away.

"Hold on," demanded Cat, "where do you think you're going?"

"Away," grunted Bounty, without stopping. "I need to think."

"I'm not done with you yet, you misogynistic pig!" Cat tried to yell, but Bounty didn't even look back. Eventually, Cat gave an almighty huff, crossed her arms and plonked herself back down into her chair. "The fuck was that about?" No one had an answer for that. "I've had enough of talking for one night. I'll relieve Buzz of sentry." The squad watched Cat trudge away from them.

"I apologise, Jaune," said Aiden. Jaune looked at him in surprise. "It was my fault we were talking about why we all joined the military. I had hoped it would bring us closer together. I did not expect it to go the way it did. I am sorry."

"Don't worry about it," brushed off Jaune. "I don't think anyone could have expected it to go that way."

The squad lapsed into uncomfortable silence. Finn and Bounty's argument had clearly shaken the team up, and more so Jaune. They'd just accomplished an incredible feat and had taken the first steps to actually surviving this nightmare. Jaune had hoped that would have strengthened the bonds between his squad, but three out of his eight men had just stormed off. That wasn't an encouraging sign.

After a while of tense silence, the squad heard Buzz bumbling back towards the bonfire. "I leave you guys for ten minutes and you're already trying to kill each other," he joked, "I thought we were fighting the war against Atlas, eh?" Buzz's humour slammed against the sombre atmosphere surrounding the group like smog and dropped dead faster than an electrified fly. Buzz faltered, as if he hadn't expected the crew's merriment to dry up so quickly. "Um, are we still telling jokes around the campfire?"

"Sorry Buzz," apologised Naomi, getting to her feet. "I think I've had enough for one night. I'm going to turn in." The others mumbled their agreements and began to disperse to their hijacked tents. Buzz squealed in horror as his audience rapidly disappeared before his very eyes.

"But, but I've got a really good one," he tried, chasing after the retiring troops, "did you hear about the hungry clock? Anyone? He went back four seconds! Get it? For seconds. Guys come on…"

Jaune was soon left sitting alone at the fire, smiling. Even if the night had taken an unexpected downturn, things were still finally beginning to look up. They had food. Water. Ammunition. Even tents for everyone. At some point he'd have to decide what to do with the prisoners he'd captured, but that was a problem for tomorrow. For tonight, Jaune was content to simply lie back against the ground and close his eyes, the fire warming his side and the starry sky sheltering his head.

For the first time in what felt like weeks, Jaune fell asleep smiling.

Funny story, when I first wrote this chapter, it was maybe half this length. I just couldn't leave a good thing be, could I...?

So this chapter is much calmer than the last one, and definitely very dialogue heavy, but there's actually a hell of a lot of content in here. We see a little bit into the reasoning for Finn's behaviour, we see a bit of Phil's backstory, we get Naomi's motivation etc. etc. But what I think is the most important part of this chapter is simply the conversations between the characters. Some of my favourite moments in the RWBY show aren't the massive, loud, in-your-face fights (though those are awesome), but rather when there's no immediate danger and the protagonists just talk, or chill out, or trade stories, basically just being friends. The first two examples which come to mind are in volume 2 when team RWBY plays a board game and in volume 5 when Yang and Weiss reunite with RNJR and they just relax together around dinner. For me, it's the chemistry between the characters that really make me enjoy watching them, and it makes the loud, action sequences even better by having those quiet moments to contrast them with. That's the essence of what I was trying to do with this chapter. No fights, no near-death encounters, just some friends(?) spending time with each other.

I don't know, do you agree with what I'm saying, or am I just going crazy? Leave a review to let me know if you enjoy these quieter moments and want more of them between the epic fight-filled chapters, or if you'd rather I stopped rambling and got on with killing things.

Now, onto what I'm sure is going to be a controversial issue; aura. I know I went ahead and added a bunch of law that is technically non-canon, but the explanation of aura in the show is so vague I kind of had to fill in the blanks myself. They never do explain why normal civilians don't have aura (which would be the logical thing for them to have), so I just gave my own reasons as to why they don't have aura in the show. For now, we'll stick with what I believe to be the mechanics of aura, at least until the show undoubtedly comes along and retcons it. Sigh. The trials of being a fanfic writer...

Let me know if you guys are still enjoying the direction this story is going in, and if you have any extra information or ideas about aura or anything else that might help me write this story, feel free to share them with me either by PM or a review. That would be much appreciated.