[#8]


With heavy bags under her eyes, Blake scrolled down on a webpage detailing another score pulled by the notorious White-Fang.

It was a peaceful morning at Beacon's library, with dozens of students roaming about, either checking in books or just passing by. But to Blake, they were nothing but a bunch of shadows lurking along the aisles without purpose.

None of them understood her struggle. She sacrificed many hours of sleep trying to impede a terrorist cell from bringing Vale to shambles. So what if her friends were getting worried? So what if her grades were going down the drain? So what if her constant vigilante patrols around the city were causing way more collateral damage than the White-Fang alone?

Then again, it wasn't like she was getting anything done at the moment. Try as she might, she couldn't read a damn thing. The whole article was downright illegible thanks to her state of mind. Turns out that fighting terrorism while sleep-deprived was bad for you. Who would've thought?

"Hey Blake!" Came in the voice of Jaune, the leader of Team JNPR. "What a coincidence, I was just looking for you."

"I'm busy…" She tried to pay no mind to him and continued to focus on the holographic screen. Blake didn't know much about the boy except that he was head-over-heels for her teammate Weiss. He was probably going to ask for tips on how to ask her out, much to her annoyance.

"Oh, you were looking into that White-Fang stuff?" He observed. "That's cool. So hey, I was wondering if you were still up for our half-week anniversary."

She ignored him. Whatever gibberish he was spewing couldn't be more important than her task at hand. Yang probably put him up to this, yet another one of her ploys to get Blake to pipe down.

"Blake?" Jaune insisted. "Blake, you there?"

"What…?" She snarled at him, hoping that her raspy voice and tired eyes would spook the idiot away.

"Our half-week anniversary? The one we discussed the other day?" Said the boy with the short spiked blond hair. "I even made reservations for this restaurant at Vale to celebrate."

"Umhum… Sure you did." Blake went back to the article-

Wait a minute.

Blake slowly looked back at Jaune. She had to double-check on something.

"…When did you get that haircut?" The Faunus pointed at his blond tips.

"Uhm, this one?" He brushed a hand over his hair. "You cut my hair, remember? You did it in exchange for me cutting yours."

"What are you talking about, you didn't cut my-" She tried to reach for her long hair to no avail. In its place was the short bob cut she had gotten from him. Even her bow was absent, her Faunus ears standing atop of her head instead.

"You're feeling okay, Blake?" Jaune looked worried. "If you want, I can reschedule our date for another day."

"No, I'm not okay. Something's not right here." She stood up from the chair. "Wait, what did you meant by date? We are not even dating."

"Heh. Okay, now I know you're messing with me." Jaune had his hands on his hips. "We've begun dating since the day we cut our hairs together. You said so yourself! Heck, you even cut my hair to pay homage to a character from that erotica you love so much."

"I-It's not an erotica! It's an action-romance best seller- HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW THAT?!"

Rounding the book shelfs, Velvet and Coco passed by the duo.

"Oi! Congratulations you two!" The bunny Faunus chirped happily.

"Congratulations. Lookin' stylish, by the way." Affirmed Coco.

Blake watched perplexed as those two walked past them.

"What was that about?"

"Oh, they're just happy because of the news of us two confessing our undying love for each other." Stated Jaune. "I'm surprised at how fast things like these tend to spread out around Beacon, don't you think?"

"No, that's not a thing. WE are not a thing." She emphasized by pointing at each other. "You and I are not boyfriend and girlfriend, you hear me?"

"Well, of course we aren't."

Blake sighed. "Glad we could stablish that-"

"We are fiancés!" Jaune exclaimed, causing Blake shriek internally. "What did you think our half-week anniversary was for?"

She was about to rebut that, but then her entire team materialized themselves in front of them.

"Ohmigosh, ohmigosh!" Ruby was awestruck. "Is it true?! Did Jaune propose to you?!"

"Yeah! Show us the ring!" Weiss demanded angrily for some reason.

"Wha- Wha-" Blake was gradually losing her grasp on reality. "No, No! He didn't propose to me! I don't even have a-!"

Attached to her left hand rested one shiny engagement ring with an amethyst gem shaped like her and Jaune's symbols combined.

"…You've gotta be kidding me."

Ruby jumped closer to see.

"GASP!" She actually said gasp. "This is amazing! Can I be the maid of honor?!"

"Uh-uhm~" Yang took a hold of her sister. "As the bride's BFF and fellow blond of the groom, that position is mine and mine's only."

Weiss pushed the sisters aside. "You dolts wouldn't know the first thing about being guests at a proper wedding, much less how to behave as maid of honor. Luckily for you Belladonna, I can arrange a venue here in Vale for a reasonable price. So long you allow me to take care of everything, that is."

Blake was handled a business card from Weiss. The SDC logo was enough to make her irk.

"RENNY, IT'S HAPPENING!" Nora popped in along with the rest of Jaune's team. "I knew it all along! It's Totally the Haircut! It's even in the title!"

"I for one, weep in the name of all the Milfs who lost their chance." Preached Ren.

""Congratulations!"" Pyrrha clapped alongside Oscar. The presence of those two together caused so many continuity errors I couldn't even begin to put it into words. Along with them there was even a Green-Lantern looking girl who joined in on the clapping.

Blake trembled in confusion as the entire student body had flooded the library. She begged for them to stop with the cheers and constant clapping, but she couldn't get a word out.

"Why is this happening…?" Mumbled Blake. "Why is this happe-!"

She was taken by surprise as Jaune cupped her hands with his own. Her cheeks changing into a more reddish hue.

"Blake, I know this is all so sudden, but there's a reason I had to propose to you this early into our relationship…"

"Jaune…?" Her breathless voice was filled with panic.

"Blake…" Jaune gulped. "I'm pregnant."


Blake shot up from the bed with cold sweat all over her.

'It was all just a dream… All just a dream…' She chanted in her mind while containing her frantic breathing. 'There's no way Jaune would ever end up like that. Not unless he was a seahorse Faunus.' She blinked. 'Shit, I hope he isn't.'

Reconvening herself from that weird funk she went through, Blake took a notice of her surroundings. She had woken up in a small room in what appeared to be a standard inn. The bright window next to the bed shone as the sun just emerged from the cold horizon of Solitas.

She was about to force herself out of bed when someone came knocking at the door.

"Pardon my intrusion. I thought I heard screaming." A large man welcomed himself in. "You feeling alright, lassie? Do you have a cold?"

"Oh, it's you sir." Blake finally made it out of bed. The person who had come to check in on her was the head of Essen town himself, Russet Ka. Her memory of their encounter was still fuzzy.

"I heard you were found passed out in the snow during a bloody blizzard. Lucky you that our town is quick to act whenever there's news of a barfight."

The barfight… Memories from yesterday came back one by one. Once everything was pieced back together, she panicked.

"JAUNE! Where is he?! Did anyone see him?!"

Russet was taken aback from her outburst. "I am sorry to say, miss. But we couldn't find that lad anywhere. And if word out there is to be believed, he was taken away by Team BRIR."

So it was true then. She let Jaune get kidnapped by some backwater group of Huntresses. If only she had gone alone, if only she had been more careful, none of this would have happened. How was she going to explain this to all their friends?

"Hey lass…" Russet spoke. "I know this is a bad time, but there's someone I would like you to meet. He may be of help."

"Really?" Scoffed Blake. "Who could possibly help me with this?"

"Well, for one… He is my boss."

Heavy boots were heard from the hallway.

"Ms. Belladonna?" A tall man walked into the room. His whole attire was comprised of a militaristic red jacket with golden accents over a two-piece suit and a tie, adding to his strictness. He also had a long light-brown mane of hair and a short beard.

Blake stared quizzically at the newcomer. "And you are…?"

"Bram Thornmane. Chief Captain of the Guardians of this town and all other communities outside of the jurisdiction of Mantle and Atlas."

He made a hand gesture to Russet to give them some privacy.

"Go easy on her, eh? Be talking to you later, old friend." The other Guardian walked out the door.

"I was made aware of your encounter with Team BRIR yesterday. It is bad enough already that they pretend to be Huntresses, but attacking actual licensed Huntsmen? Unacceptable."

"Technically, I'm an honorary Huntress by trade." She said. "I never really did graduate at any of the Academies, so…"

"We all heard of Beacon." Said Thornmane. "I must say, it is commendable that you are still in this line of work even after all you must have experienced. I have been told a lot about your team's exploits from James himself."

"You work for Ironwood?" Blake asked.

"Used to." He responded. "He was actually my long-time mentor before he became General. I trained under him and even worked my way to the line of succession for the Ace-Ops."

"You trained for the Ace-Ops?" She questioned. That would imply he was among the best of the best in Atlas. "How did that work out?"

"Well, that's… All in the past." The captain let out a small cough. "As you can see, I have long retired from the force and formed my own business. Namely, my network of Guardians, responsible from protecting the people from the outskirts all over Solitas. And everything was going well until they came along. Those wannabe Huntresses have been nothing but a thorn on my side ever since they showed their faces around."

"Given their team's name, I take that's a common occurrence?" Guessed Blake. Those girls were indeed like a briar-patch, if their affinity for thorns was anything to go by. "There's also this name I recall their leader boasting it off to me before running off with Jaune. They called themselves 'Keepers of Arrowfell'? Does that make any sense to you?"

Thornmane wandered around the room, all pensative like. "There was once this place known amongst the highest-ranking officers and elites at the time. Fort Arrowfell. A research facility responsible for many of the Kingdom's greatest breakthroughs long before Atlas rose to the skies. No other place in the four Kingdoms could rival the marvel of engineering stored in that facility."

"Until…" Blake felt like adding, having a slight idea as to where this was going.

"A few decades back, the board of directors at Fort Arrowfell had unanimously decided to expand their researches to an entirely different field. A far less ethical one. Rumors were that deals were struck behind the scenes. Arms-dealers, revolutionaries, even Council members. By the time Atlas found out about it, the entire facility had to be permanently shut down to avoid creating tensions with other Kingdoms."

"So in short, it's where Atlas keep all their war-crime toys locked away." The 'Greatest Kingdom of All' sweeping their mess under the rug as a way to atone for corporate greed? Color her surprised.

"In a perfect world, any form of war would be considered a crime of the highest order." He stared out the window. "Not ours, evidently. But while we are on the subject, one of those toys just so happen to be the blueprints for a prototype designed to remotely attract Grimm to any assigned location. Sounds familiar?"

Her ears perked up. "You mean the orbs? You heard of those?"

"James sent me a memo about your mission. Warning me to keep an eye for any strange Grimm activity near my villages." Thornmane frowned, no doubt thinking about those orbs. "What sick thoughts must have lied in one's mind to conceive a weapon capable of using the very monsters that haunt us against our own kin… I'm sure this fact must bring some distraught to you as well."

"My team has faced one or two individuals who tried to weaponize the Grimm in the past." A certain mad scientist came to mind. "While this is nothing new to me, I can't deny how twisted that is. Even more so if used for personal gain."

"And that is why BRIR must be stopped at all costs." He turned to her. "There is no denying that these attacks must be their doing."

That much made sense to Blake. If they did have access to Fort Arrowfell somehow, they could easily get their hands on those prototypes and cause havoc around Solitas.

However… "There's one thing I still don't understand. Back at the bar, they accused me and my friends of stealing something from them. Does that correlate to the orbs' blueprints or…"

"You cannot believe a thing they say!" Thornmane exclaimed, his body language turning aggressive all of the sudden. "Those women are nothing but frauds! They are bandits! They are NOT to be trusted! AM I CLEAR?!"

"…Crystal?" She responded back with caution at the man who had spontaneously lost his cool. He clearly had a sore spot for that team.

"And let us not forget that they still have your partner locked away somewhere. Most likely planning to use him as leverage against us…" He stroked his beard. "And as Huntsmen, we mustn't abide to their demands. No matter how much that poor boy has to suffer under their clutches."

'Speak for yourself…' Blake wasn't about to let anything happen to Jaune. Not if she had something to say about it.

"Alas, I have already contacted James about our state of affairs and a warrant for BRIR's arrest has been approved by the military on the grounds of kidnapping and treason." Said Thornmane as he began making his leave, hands behind his back. "An airship is waiting for you outside to take you back to Atlas. We must stop at nothing until those bandits are apprehended. For in the end, justice shall prevail..."

Blake watched as he quietly marched out of the room, his last words looming over the silence that followed through.

"…Ominous?" Was all she had to say.

Her scroll then ringed, breaking away the silence.

The caller ID showed Ruby's name, but Blake had a gut feeling it was more than just her. Either way, she pressed the green check-mark on her scroll.

"Blake!" "What happened?!" "There was a blizzard!" All of her teammates' voices came at once.

"Hey- Hey, slow down!" Blake pleaded to the device. "Look, something seriously urgent happened. I need to speak to you all about it."

More commotion ensued. A fourth voice screamed in the background as the others fought over their end of the line.

"WHERE'S JAUNE!" Nora asked calmly.

Blake nervously stared at her scroll. "Uhhh…"


These past several hours were not kind to Jaune.

He had started the day by breaking his favorite (and only) stop-sign and botching his one job at Mantle, then he was pulled into a secret operation involving Grimm-attracting Orbs, and at some point he had to, eh… 'Empty his bowels' after ingesting tap-water from a madhouse of a bar. Two out of five stars, would not recommend.

The only saving grace of his day was that he got to accompany Blake on that mission. To him it was worth it so long he could spend more time with her, as more and more Huntsmen jobs begun piling up, leaving them with far less free time to enjoy their stay in Atlas.

Jaune found himself genuinely enjoying hanging out with Blake for the brief moments they had, getting to know her on a more personal level, listening to her stories and seeing her act in a laid-back manner for the first time since he met her in Beacon. He still laughed to himself over the fact that they bonded over brand-new haircuts.

And after a whole week of them seeing each other, the boy eventually confessed his feelings for her. Things haven't panned out as expected, but hey! She didn't say no. More or less? They were testing waters, so to speak. Whether they were going to become an item or not was up in the air, but Jaune took it as progress. Optimism always thrives!

Then he was kidnapped by four rogue Huntresses. Hooray for optimism?

Everything seemed to happen in a blur too. All he saw was white from the blizzard and next thing he knew, they were in an underground cave. There was an entire underground caves system that ran across the continent. The whole foundation was held together by iced rocks along every path. Team BRIR's hideout was no different. They had stationed themselves in a section filled with dead ends, with all their stuff littering the place.

Jaune was given a 'room' with a Dust-fueled heater, a mini-fridge and a comfy mattress. Strangely enough, he wasn't being held by ropes or chains, nor was he locked in. Bianca, their leader, even stated that he was free to go if he wished to.

Which would be a good thing if it wasn't for the fact that those caves went on for literal miles. And without their help, chances were that he would freeze to death before he could make it to the surface. Jaune Arc was many things, but a spelunker wasn't one of them.

So yeah, he was essentially stuck there until they could reach an agreement. Which became less likely by the second.

"What does Ironwood want with the orbs?"

"Where is he keeping them?!"

"Are you free this Saturday night?"

Bianca and Roane stared at Ivy.

"Oh, like I'm the only one."

Jaune shuffled nervously on his plastic stool in front of those three, but did his best to keep things concise.

"Uh, I don't know, I have no idea, and my schedule is fully booked for the week. You know, with the whole 'being held hostage' stuff."

Bianca pushed the lamp aimed at his face away. "Aw, don't be silly~ You're not being held hostage. You're more like a… An involuntary contributor."

"Still a hostage." He said.

"Oh, you wanna play coy with us?" Dreadlock pigtails dangled as Roane leaned over him with a sultry tone of voice. "We have ways to make you talk~"

"That would imply I have something to talk about, in which case, I don't."

Jaune may have given away some details of his mission, but it wasn't like it mattered much to them. They kept accusing him, Blake, her team and Ironwood of stealing some blueprints from a place called Fort Arrowfell. He knew there had to be a misunderstanding somewhere.

That aside, their interrogation wasn't much of an ordeal to him. Their methods weren't torturous or anything, just… Mildly uncomfortable? Some winky eyelashes here, some cleavage close-ups there…

He was sure all of those things were part of some kind of advanced interrogation technique, but that wasn't gonna fly with him. Not in a million years.

Bianca groaned. "Look handsome, we ain't got all day. Either you tell us what you and that mead-spilling wench were doing, or you'll be stuck here for a very long time."

"I already told you!" He responded. "Blake and I were investigating an incident involving those orbs too. We didn't steal them from you."

"Well, someone within your ranks must have done so." Bianca crossed her arms. "Fort Arrowfell is completely inaccessible to the commonfolk."

"How come?"

She pulled out some shiny electronic card. "See this? It's a Nexus key. Me and my girls all have one. The only way someone is getting into that fort is with these. Unless of course someone from the almighty Atlas Military could have the means to bypass the heavily fortified security system…"

"I know this isn't any of my business, but may I ask why you girls have the keys to an abandoned weapons facility?"

"We were entrusted with these." Said Ivy. "By none other than the previous general before Ironwood took over."

"Mainly to prevent power-hungry giants like him from using those weapons against the innocent people of Solitas and all other Kingdoms." Said Roane.

"Hence why it is our duty to find out who's been smuggling weapons from out of there." Bianca shone the stand-lamp towards him again. "So you're gonna quit covering up for your superiors or what?"

"I-I don't know what to tell you!" He averted his eyes away from the lamp. "Look, I get that you have beef with Ironwood, but I'm sure he isn't the kind of guy to hurl Grimm all over his own Kingdom."

The sound of drills echoed from the caves behind them.

"Guess who's back, back, back~ Back again, gain, gain~"

"Ruda." Bianca turned to their dedicated driller. "Any news from Atlas? What's the sitch?"

"On a scale from 'not good' to 'turbo-fucked'?" Responded Ruda. "Ehhh… Somewhere in between?"

"How bad exactly is it for us?"

"Try Atlas' most wanted."

"Ayo! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Roane raised her hand for a high-five, at which Ivy smugly retributed.

"No, no, no! That's the last thing we need right now!" Bianca massaged her temples. She loved her teammates as if they were her own sisters, but sometimes they were just unbelievable. "I swear, we've done nothing but help the people from all those villages, and this is how Atlas repays us?"

"We did kidnap one of their guys though." Offered Ruda.

"Yeah, no shit." Bianca huffed. "This is gonna throw a wrench in our plans. Unless…"

They all stared at Jaune.

"What do you want me to do? Go to Atlas and clear out your names?"

"Yeah, nice try blondie." Their leader smirked. "Let's just say we need to run some errands in Atlas, and I was thinking your mop-haired kitty might be perfect for the job."

"Y-You leave Blake out of this!" Jaune angrily shouted at the rogue Huntress. And how dare she insult Blake's hair?! He was the one who cut it for her!

"Relax, we ain't gonna start dropping bombs on the cities. What do you take us for?" She joked. "No, we just need her to conduct a search for us somewhere in Downtown Atlas. Small thing, really. All you need to do is provide us with a password."

Bianca then offered Jaune a scroll. His own scroll.

It didn't make much sense as to why BRIR would take away his scroll (Good luck finding signal while sixty feet underground), but he guessed they weren't taking any chances.

He thought long and hard about it, and reluctantly grabbed the device and unlocked it for them. There wasn't anything too vital in his scroll anyway. Just some pictures of him and his friends, selfies of him and Blake, the numbers of the mothers at Mantles, the numbers of the Happy Huntresses, the numbers of students from Atlas, the numbers of-

'Wow, I sure have a lot of contact numbers. I wonder how that happened.' He returned the scroll to Bianca.

"That'll be all for today." She said with a grin smug on her face. "Do try and make yourself at home in our absence. C'mon, girls."

Bianca left his room and the rest of her team followed suit.

"See ya later, big guy~" Waved Ruda. "Oh! I didn't get the chance to say it before, but sick hairdo bro. Really rocking those bananas."

The top-notched ginger skipped away, leaving one bemused blonde in her wake. Jaune swore, every time...

'Why always pick on my haircut?'