Chapter 21 - Arc of the Covenant

Qrow just stood outside of the door, fuming at the events of the last fifteen minutes. How can anyone be so stupid? Somebody frames your military to make it look like you're invading Vale, so what do you do? Mobilize your fleet and put the ground units on high alert. Brilliant. Atlas is playing right into our enemy's' hands, and they don't even realize it. Ozpin was right the whole time and we all knew. And still, Ironwood insisted that his show of arms would deter any form of attack. His greatest strength became his greatest weakness. I won't fault him for not seeing that. He's just… never really been proven wrong. Poor guy… his first real chance to use his show of force, and it all gets turned against him. They'll probably roast him back in Atlas too. He's too proud to kick and scream.

The time Qrow took to gather his thoughts also allowed him to cool down a bit. Part of him wanted either Winter or Ironwood to emerge from the door behind him. He wanted another crack at them, even though it was abundantly clear that trying to stop any part of this process was a fool's errand. He began the walk back to the room where his nieces were staying. So… looks like I need to start thinking about an exit strategy. The units under Ironwood's command aren't quite what I would call life support for the safe zone, but the sight of them pulling out is gonna do a number on the morale of everybody putting themselves in harm's way for the greater good of this city.

Before taking the left hand turn into the stairwell, Qrow looked back down the hall one more time. When the briefing room remained closed, he resumed his march upstairs. He only made it to the landing halfway up the stairs before the door at the top swung open revealing Jaune, with Weiss in tow. When they saw one another, there was an awkward silence. Neither of them was really sure how to start a conversation with the other. The words they had spoken to each other were very few, and really only of consolation and support.

It was at the front of Qrow's mind that the last time they spoke, he had asked Jaune to come find him when he thought he was ready to move past his loss. The implication of his request was to find out what the young huntsman had seen… how much he knew about the things that no one was supposed to know. It was interesting timing, in his opinion.

Jaune was as driven as he had been since waking up inside of that rocket locker. The words that this mysterious, hardened huntsman had said to him the day before were still etched in his memory. Even though it felt like it had been years since they first met in the doorway of Ruby and Yang's room, Jaune remembered every word. He'd gone over it in his mind countless times over the last day and a half. There are some things you need to know... some things that are going to make this picture a lot clearer. When you're ready, come find me, and we'll talk. He had passed through each stage of grief, on his way to the final one, acceptance. For him, there was no way to find comfort in acceptance without understanding. Qrow had promised that to him.

Ironically, neither of them was the first to speak. "Where's Winter?"

Qrow groaned at the mention of her name. "I could tell you a whole sob story about the last fifteen minutes, but I might become interminably depressed if I have to relive that."

Weiss was clearly alarmed by the tone and the choice of words he had chosen. "What are you talking about? Did something happen to her? Where is she?"

Qrow wanted nothing more than to just deflect the entire conversation. He was so far beyond finished concerning himself with the court martial that it actually made him cringe to think about it. "Slow down there princess. We just had… kind of a rough conversation in that forsaken briefing room."

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds, expecting more information to follow his short summary. When he remained silent, Weiss became irritated. "Is that it?" Sarcastically, she asked, "Could you be any more vague than that?"

"Yes?" he quipped. Then Qrow remembered that the Schnee family did not handle snark particularly well, so he did his best to both inform and warn Weiss at the same time. "Listen, I'm done talking to your sister. We're not seeing eye-to-eye on something, and that's not going to change. I would tell you to go talk to her if you want to know more than that, but she's kind of… gone off the deep end. Long story short, your dad is here, and by some Atlesian wizardry, he's in command of every one of Ironwood's units in Vale. Including Ironwood. And he's leaving with them. I don't know how else I can really advise you other than to say that you need to be careful around your family. They're more or less acting as puppets for the High Council in Atlas."

It was a lot of information for the young girl to take in, and it wasn't even the whole story. Weiss had spent so much time in Vale that she had almost forgotten how mechanical the people of Atlas could be with their rigid military structures. She understood the cold, calculated way her father had acted all too well, and even Winter could be very regimented when she was on duty. Weiss just wanted to believe that the good in people would supersede all of that. The harsh reality of what she was hearing left her with no clear understanding of what benefit might possibly come out of a military withdrawal. "They're taking everything and leaving?"

"That about sums it up, yeah." Qrow paused long enough that Weiss began to descend the staircase as quickly as she could. As she passed him, Qrow grabbed her firmly by the shoulder. The force of his grasp startled her, but got her attention. "Weiss, you've been through a lot over the last few days. I can tell you're a good kid. You're smart, caring and a hell of a fighter. I don't think there's any easy way to tell you this, but I think you're going to have to make a choice between your family and your team. I can't fault you either way. But in case this is it, I need you to know that you're... alright in my book... for an ice queen in training…"

During their conversation, Jaune had made his way down to the landing at the halfway point of the staircase. He now stood with Qrow and Weiss. "Wait, you're leaving? Now?"

She looked at Jaune as if he was crazy. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going anywhere. If Winter and my father want to go back to Atlas, then that's their decision. I have another family here in Vale to take care of, and I'll never abandon them… or anyone that I consider a friend. There's just some loose ends that I need to tie up, and that means I have to face my father, no matter how much I don't want to." Weiss removed Qrow's hand from her shoulder, and faced him. "And don't think that just because you said nice things to me that I've forgotten about the incident with the pudding. I'll have my revenge." She smiled, turned, and made her way to the bottom of the stairs, stopping short of walking through the doorway. "Oh! If Ruby wakes up before I come back, make sure to tell her that she owes me… like, big time for dragging her down from that tower."

They watched as Weiss disappeared around the corner before once again, establishing an awkward silence, which lasted until Qrow broke it in the most direct way he could come up with. "So, you ready?"

Jaune's answer was immediate, but his voice was shaky and uncertain. "As ready as I'm gonna be."

"Good. Come with me," Qrow said as he continued his path to the top of the stairs. The walk down the hallway to room 226 seemed to take an eternity. Both men remained silent. Jaune was contemplative and a little bit nervous about the conversation he was about to have. Qrow was still upset at the way his day had gone since receiving his gift, but otherwise maintained his usual hardened exterior. As he stepped up to the door to enter the room, he thought for a moment, then declared aloud, "Nah, better not." Qrow turned around, and walked across the hall to the now vacant room 225. "We're going to need some privacy for this."

A million thoughts raced through Jaune's head. Who is this guy… really? What's he gonna say that can possibly explain the stuff that I saw back at the school? What's the deal with the secrecy? The door opened in front of him, and Qrow escorted him in, before shutting it behind them, and sitting down on the edge of a table.

"You'd better get comfortable, kid. This could take some time." Jaune nodded, and moved across the room to take a seat on the bed that had previously belonged to Blake. "So, let's get this out of the way before I say anything else. I need you to tell me that you're absolutely sure you want to hear this. It's not going to be easy to swallow, and you're probably never going to look at the world in the same light. But more importantly, I need you to swear to me that you will never tell another soul about this without consulting me first."

Jaune considered the words that were said, but he had already made up his mind. His resolve was clear from the intense look in his eyes. "I'm ready. And I won't tell anybody. I just need somebody to explain what in the world I saw down there..."

"Good. I've been in the market for a new ally. Looks like you're it. I'll start with the basics. The Name's Qrow. I-"

Jaune cut him off, "Is that a first name or a last name, because… I have this teammate, and we just call him by his last name, but it's-"

He was clearly irritated by the lighthearted banter. "First name. Qrow. Like the bird. But with a Q. Feel better now?"

"That makes no sense at all, but I guess, yeah." Jaune noticed the palpable impatience on the face of his counterpart. "Sorry, keep going."

Qrow rubbed his hand against his own forehead. It had now been dark outside for some time. Between the arguing with Winter and staying awake for entirely too long, he was exhausted. He let out a long sigh before continuing, "I'm here because your headmaster, Professor Ozpin has trusted me with the responsibility of gathering information about the enemies of the civilized world. There are people out there who look at the peace we've maintained for so long, and choose to see it as something else. I think of it as more of a Yin and Yang, where peace is in constant flux with the forces that conspire to disrupt it. In the last eighty years there has been an imbalance, and our enemies now strive to correct that by toppling the status quo."

"So… these people… are trying to start a war or something?"

"You could say that, yeah. I don't know all of the details. Ozpin could tell you more than I can, but I have no idea where he is." Qrow inspected the cane of his missing ally, causing Jaune to perk up.

"That's Professor Ozpin's cane! Where did you find that?"

"Weiss found it down in the vault. After she… saved me from a giant griffon, she handed it to me." Qrow raised an eyebrow, "Wait a minute. When was the last time you saw Ozpin?"

Jaune hesitated, "We- Pyrrha and I were down there, in the vault with him. He told us to go find Glynda, Ironwood and you… and to bring everyone back. He was pretty much at a standoff with this flying witch lady."

With this little bit of information, Qrow had pieced together that Jaune and Pyrrha would have been the last two people to see Ozpin before he disappeared. This meant that the things he could possibly learn from Jaune might confirm some of the theories he had about what happened. "When you were in the vault below the school, what else did you see?"

"I saw… a machine. There was a girl already inside when we got there. Not a young girl, but not old either. She was sleeping or something. Ozpin told Pyrrha to get inside the other part of the machine, and then he turned it on. I didn't see where she came from, but out of nowhere, another woman appeared in the vault. I recognized her, but I thought she was just a student from a visiting academy. She fired an arrow at the sleeping girl, and this light shot out of her, and into the woman who shot the arrow. After that, she kinda just started to float in the air, with this fiery sort of… aura all around her. I tried to attack her, but she brushed me off without an effort. Then Pyrrha tried to fight back, but Ozpin stopped her and told both of us to go find you."

Qrow paid close attention to the story, and his expression became increasingly grim as it went on. By the time it was over, he had cupped his hand over his eyes, as if rubbing them would somehow make it all go away.

His lack of a verbal response was eating away at Jaune's hunger for information, "Did I say something wrong? What does all of that mean?"

He dropped his hands to his sides, resigning himself to laying everything on the table for Jaune to consume. "It's all wrong… Well, it's all bad, anyway. The girl you saw die, her name was Amber. She was one of four unnaturally powerful individuals in the world that we know as maidens."

The disbelief in his voice was easily discernible by the high pitch he used to ask, "Like the fairy tale?" Qrow nodded affirmatively. "But...that doesn't make sense. That's a legend… a bedtime story…"

"An unfortunate reality, I'm afraid. You saw it with your own eyes. If she could fly, and fought with fire like you say, then you've seen a small sampling of a maiden's powers. Specifically, the Fall maiden. If you're as familiar with the story as you say, then you know that there are four of them… and that's as far as the children's story goes. But there's more. When a maiden dies, her power transfers to the last person in her thoughts, within a set of rules." Qrow tried to think of how to condense the selection process. "It's gotta be a reasonably young girl, basically. The problem is that at some point, someone figured out that if you are able to kill a maiden, you're probably going to be the last one she thinks about, and that power then goes to you… again… as long as you play by the rules."

Jaune's familiarity with the PG version of the story made the R-Rated version a lot easier to follow. "So, what I saw was the transfer of a maiden's power. That makes sense. But I don't understand… You called the maidens 'unnaturally powerful individuals'. Why didn't she fight back?"

"What you saw was… something new. For a short time, there were two people splitting the power of one maiden. Amber was attacked once before, which explains why she was unconscious… not sleeping. If I had to guess, I'd say it was the same girl, but I couldn't get a good look at her when I interrupted the first attempt to steal her power."

Jaune was anxious to steer the conversation in the general direction of the answers that he wanted. "Alright, so far this all makes… some sense. But where does Pyrrha fit into all of this? And what was that machine?"

"After the first attack, we brought Amber to the vault. It was safe. It was close, and no one really even knew that it existed. As far as the machine she was in... it has two purposes. One was to keep her alive. I'll get to the second one later. Ozpin believed that the powers of a maiden needed to transfer naturally in order to maintain balance in the world. If someone was to… steal the powers, then they could manipulate them in ways that they were not originally intended to be used. His goal was to find a candidate to receive the powers of the Fall maiden if… when she died, and instill in her the values that are expected of a maiden. The good news is that he found a candidate. The bad news is that it didn't matter, because there are no absolutes when it comes to these transfers. In other words, it's not an exact science. We had our theories, but there was no way to tell whether the power would seek out its other half, or pass on to the next person in line normally. Sensible people don't just experiment with the lives of others… and that… brings us to Atlas."

"What? How does any of this involve Atlas?" Jaune asked abruptly.

An almost painful smile overtook Qrow's face. "I don't have enough fingers to count all of the things I hate about Atlas, and once again, I don't know all of the details. But… I can tell you with absolute certainty, they've done their research into the science of Auras… morally or otherwise. The machine keeping Amber alive was also designed to kill her… in a manner of speaking."

A look of horror overtook Jaune's face. "Pyrrha got into that machine… and when Professor Ozpin turned it on, she was screaming!" His expression shifted to anger, "What was he doing to her?!"

"Slow down," Qrow said calmly. "I don't know anything about how the machine works. It's like I said, Atlas developed it. As much as it was explained to me, Pyrrha was in no danger. But this is the part where I tell you that the second purpose of that machine was to transfer an Aura. It doesn't directly kill anyone. Instead, it's supposed to be capable of moving a life force from one body to another. The body with no soul left to inhabit it is effectively dead. But the power of a maiden is allegedly attached to that person's Aura."

Jaune's anger became confusion. "I don't get it... you wanted to put two Auras into one person? Into Pyrrha? Why?"

Qrow grimaced, "I hate to say it, but the whole plan hinged on the power of the Fall maiden behaving like we expected it to. Ozpin hoped that one half would seek out the other in the event that either girl died. So he chose his candidate, or in his words, guardian. That's where Pyrrha comes in. She was strong, smart and most importantly, she was of exceptional moral character… all things that a maiden should be. It didn't take much to convince her to become the Fall maiden, but when she found out what she would have to do to gain the powers, the conversation changed. We told her all of the same things I just told you, and gave her until the end of the Vytal Festival to make her decision."

Jaune developed a disgusted look as he began to relive every moment that he shared with Pyrrha since the beginning of the tournament. He tried to pick up the pieces of the shattered girl he had known in her last few days. Her every action began to make sense. The mood swings, the sadness and the outbursts… Everything was starting to come together. "Do you even understand what you asked her to do? You think she just had to make a decision? You asked her to decide the fate of a girl she didn't even know. To play god."

Qrow kept a level head despite the accusations. "We didn't ask her to kill anybody. We told her that Amber's aura would be merged with her own. No one knew what would happen after the transfer. She just wanted to help, Jaune. You said it yourself, she attacked the woman who had just acquired the complete power of the Fall maiden. Before that, you said she got into the aura transfer machine. No one forced her to do that. At some point, Pyrrha made a choice. I don't know when or how she made her decision, but it couldn't have come easily for her…"

His disgust persisted, "Yeah. No kidding. I know it wasn't easy for her. She was never even the same person after your little chat. I'd catch her staring off into space… eyes glazed over. Even when she seemed really happy, she was only a split second away from a total breakdown. It was like the girl I grew so close to was gone. It sounds a lot like you're telling me that she knew that her decision wouldn't end anyone's life. I get that. But it seems like whatever the result of this transfer was supposed to be… it could have made her into a different person entirely."

"I could tell that she had a lot of reservations about the transfer. Most of them were in regard to the immorality of it all. Maybe it was our best option, but that didn't make it a good option. Ozpin said that Pyrrha's life would become intertwined with Amber's, and that terrified her... She was absolutely afraid of losing who she was, I- we could all see that in her eyes." Qrow tried to be as understanding as he could. "Looking back, I'm sorry we put her through that. I really am. She-"

"-was afraid of losing me…" Jaune finished the sentence with his own words. The interjection created a momentary void, where both men tried to attach meaning to the new train of thought. "When things got as bad as they did that night… she must have made the decision that it was better to lose herself than to lose me. I can see that now. But… even after the transfer didn't work… her resolve was never broken." Jaune was, for the first time since hearing about Pyrrha's fate, fighting off tears. "I thought… I knew she fought the maiden to protect me… but I just never understood that she was more scared of losing me than losing herself."

Qrow could see that the young huntsman was beginning to accept that Pyrrha's death was of her own volition. "It's like I said before. Whatever she did on top of that tower… it bought us enough time to save Ruby and Weiss. And you're still here too, Jaune. We're all part of her legacy. You shouldn't be sad. She achieved her goal." The wily old huntsman waited for a few minutes while Jaune collected himself.

By now, it was well after midnight. Qrow decided it might be best to call it a night. They could reconvene in the morning to tie up any loose ends, if necessary. But Jaune had one more thread that he wanted to follow. "So… where do we go from here?"

Qrow laughed, "We? I don't know where we go from here. I know where I'm going. And I know where you need to go." He reached across the table he had been sitting on, for a piece of scrap paper, and a nearby pen. It only took a moment for him to scribble something onto it. He then walked to Jaune's position on the bed, and held the paper out in front of him. "Do some research on Haven. And spend a few more weeks here. Take care of your team, your friends, Weiss. Then, go to that address. "He handed the paper to Jaune, and began to walk towards the exit.

Jaune inspected the note for a moment, "This is in Patch, why did you tell me I needed to know about Haven?"

Qrow stopped in the doorway, "Because you're not going to Haven alone. Ruby's going to wake up one of these days. I have a... pretty good feeling I'm right about that. When she does, she's going to want to find answers. Just like you did. She doesn't need to know about maidens, but she'll need guidance from someone who does. Bring a team, but save a spot for a pipsqueak in a red hood."