{Author Notes/Important Announcement!}
HAHA! I LIIIIIIIVVVVEEEE!
Hey guys, sorry this one is late again, I'm slightly busy this summer, and recently, I have this aching body part that will not go away around my jaw. For those curious, it's inflammation of my muscles due to an ear infection. Feels weird to tell you guys that, but don't really see a reason not to say it.
Also, I had a hard time trying to write this chapter. Had to scrap some beta versions of this several times before getting it right.
I' am surprised some people actually thought Jared was blonde, when in the first chapter I already said that Jared has black hair.
The heck people?! I try to simplify my sentences so they don't look to chunky to read!
Sigh.
But I have to be honest, I'm actually surprised that people are commenting about Jared's hair right now even though I mentioned it earlier.
I'm going to say it here since Jared himself won't have much time in story to say it, but
Jared's Black Hair and Red Eyes are recessive genes.
I was actually told the chances of Jared having black hair in all of the current futures combined is already a huge 2^23 by a avid reader, you know who you are.
Regardless, there is a reason for why I'm having Jared's hair and eyes be these specific colors is for an up and coming event. It's one of the things I planned when I first wrote this story up.
Well anyway here's the next chapter.
"Pffbbbttt!" Nine year old Jared played with the toy cars, making them go up and down the old sleepy Zwei.
"And the racers are going up mount Zwei! An ancient mountain said to have been lit on fire! But it's OK, he got better." A smaller, five year old boy with blue eyes and red and hair cried out as he and his older brother continued playing with toy cars over the deep sleeping Zwei.
"Jared, Lanny. Stop playing with Zwei. You might make him swallow toy cars again." Jared placed his hands over eyes to block the sunlight in his eyes. He looked up to see a fifteen year old with a surprisingly mature body, silver eyes with waist long blonde hair and red highlighted edges.
The three of them were at a park, the two boys and dog laid down on the slightly prickly grass under the clear blue skies of Patch.
"I thoughts that we came here to walk Zwei." The youngest of them wondered out loud.
"Zwei speeds most of his time asleep. Then again, he's pretty old even for his age. I haven't really heard of a dog living past the age of thirty before."
"But he can be lit on fire!" The smallest child cooed.
The eldest sister sighed. "We shouldn't light up Zwei just because he was once used as Mom's ammo."
"How did she do that again?" Jared asked while rubbing the stomach of the old corgi.
Lanny answered with the mental capacity of any five year old, "Mommy says she shot him."
Jared excitedly pumped himself. "Wow! I can't wait to be a hunter!"
"Why?" The young one titled his head.
"So I can defy all forms of physics laugh at my science teacher's face!" You could see the pure and honest look with a mix of extra light in his deep red eyes as he said that in a way that sounded like a heroic promise.
The older sister sighed and rubbed her head, fight down the urge to smack her middle borhter in front of their youngest. "Jared that is not what being a hunter is about." She scolded with an air of maturity.
"Oh come on, Autumn! You're fifteen, but you're sounding like Auntie Weiss!" One should note he did not say nor think to say his Mommy as an old and mature figure in their family.
Autumn huffed before sitting down and rubbing her fists on both sides of Jared's head. "Someone has got to tone down the craziness of our family. Mommy is Mommy and Dad gets distracted to easily. Lanny's too innocent to notice, and you've already been corrupted by Auntie Nora and Xia."
Funny enough, she felt her fists having a harder time being rubbed, and noticed the purple hue around her brother's head.
"Stop rubbing your fists, you're pulling my skin in ways that my skin must not be pulled!" Jared whined as he grabbed his sister's arms. "And you're freaking using your huntress strength you fruitloop! It really hurts."
A dark smile formed on Autum's face. "Tehee~ How else are you supposed to learn silly?~"
"By stealing information and seeking it out! School is just a ploy used to brainwash the mindless lambs until college they realize it is too late to back down from the clutches of Society's iron grip!" Jared somehow screamed.
"Wrong Answer! You get more punishment!" Autumn cried as she put her younger brother in a dead lock.
Lanny bounced in joy. "Ooh! Ooo! I wanna join in the fun!" Ignorign the cries of both his older siblings in saying they weren't playing, the youngest jumped on both of them and all three of them strated struggling in the grass.
Zwei groggily opened his eyes and looked at the loud children that were supposed to take care of him. How could he ever sleep with these three always making so much noise?
"Get up!"
Everything hurt. Not just his muscles, or his arm, or his leg, but also his heart and emotions. He really wanted to stop, it hurt to even move stay still, much more if he even tried to move. He just wanted it to end, but he knew if he let thoughts like these rule his mind then he would really get it.
"Are you crying!? No son of mine dares show weakness! We are from a proud line of hunters, and showing the tiniest form of weakness means shame! Are you weak boy?"
"N-no…" He sniffed and wiped away his tears and snot. He struggled to stand up, but readied the practice sword anyway, even when the other blade smacked him back down again.
Cradin's eyes shot open and he gasped for breath. It wasn't like him to have nightmares now of all times. He clenched his fists on his blanket hard. He hated feeling weak.
He hated being seen as weak. He loathed what Resh Kolc did to him very early on, and he was going to enjoy wiping that smug smile off his face.
"One of these days, Resh, I will wipe that smug smile off your face—oh come on!?" Jaune cried as Jared put down a royal flush down on the table.
Jaune groaned as the rest of team JNPR folded and Jared took all of the gambled jelly babies. "I'm sorry what was that? I couldn't hear you over my smug smile."
"How'd you keep doing that!?" Jaune asked.
"Sir, besides Ren, everyone else here has a terrible poker face. And as for how I knew Ren's hand… well…"
Ren took his share.
"You traitor!" Jaune accused the silent man.
"He drives a hard bargain." If one was paying attention, you would see the tiniest and quickest of smirks on the eastern boy's lips.
"Oh right!" Jared said as he bent down the chair and gave a brown plastic to Nora. "Here it is."
"My Chalupa!" Nora cooed as she placed a mirror on the table to get the exotic food.
Jaune, sitting right next to Nora, realized why there always seemed to be someone looking over to him that wasn't Jared during the game. He also realized why there seemed to be some kind of odd twitiching in Jared's eyes, was it because he made Nora show him his cards?"You cheated!"
Jared casually ate a Jelly baby. "I know. It's fun playing house. They always seem to win," He swallowed. "But Sir, mind telling us what you really called a team meeting for?"
Jaune rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "Well do you guys remember Team CRDL?"
"Yes?" The resident red head, Pyrrha, acknowledged.
"Oh?" Jared raised his brow as he recognized where this was going.
"Well, I was talking about this with Resh."
"And I called him stupid over several occasions during that conversation."
"OK, fine I admit. Trying to change someone's opinions is probably harder than it sounds especial since it makes me sound bias," Jaune started off. "But I thought it would be a good idea to I dunno, convince Cardin that what he thinks is wrong. I mean… he actually seems like a decent guy, but I think he shouldn't do those things."
Ren looked over to the knight. "Jaune, it seems to me that his hatred towards Faunus is more personal than just stereotypes. We probably shouldn't barge into something personal."
Jaune looked down, Ren did have a point. If he probably just went in and told Cardin what he was doing was wrong, then he would certainly sound like a biased jerk forcing his own ideas on to him.
Silently Jared looked on and after a few seconds, spoke out, "You do have a point Ren. But that also doesn't mean there isn't something we can do. We could at least try small first. Maybe get to know him better, and maybe learn why he dislikes Faunus."
Nora's eyes widened. "Wait! Sky said something about the White Fang killing his uncle!"
"Exactly, it's hard to change someone's opinion about something so personal and traumatic like that." Pyrrha reasoned.
However, Jared's mind started cranking. "Wait a sec… his uncle was murdered?"
The Rest of JNPR looked over and remembered that Jared wasn't actually there.
"No, I was told that by Sir here," He motioned to the blonde boy. "It's just… hearing it a second time…"
Jared struggled to recall something from some vague empty feeling he knew. He didn't know why but he felt like he was forgetting something important.
Come to think of it, what exactly did he know about the Winchester family in the future? He did hear before there were some influential people in that family, but it was if he heard from someone close that something about this Uncle made him more than what he sounded to be.
"Hey guys, mind if we check something out about Cardin's Uncle?"
It was true they heard about Cardin's uncle being killed. But it wasn't until Jared looked it up personally that Team JNPR would be surprised to see the information in front of them.
At first it seemed like a silly idea to simply type in 'Cardin Winchester's Uncle' on a search engine. Jaune and Nora thought it was a fine idea, but they were Nora and Jaune, so their opinions were accepted and placed into a mental file.
It amazed them to see the search engine pop up with decade old recorded news articles on politician and Councilman Rook Winchester.
"Cardin's Uncle was a Councilman in Vale?!" Jaune cried out in surprise before Ren and Pyrrha Shushed him. They were in the Library after all.
Jared looked closer into who Rook Winchester was, it gave some basic information like where he was from and when he was elected with noting how he was before this period of his life. But what got everyone interested was the fact that Rook Winchester seemingly was one of the corrupt politician types.
There would be shady cases around him where some accused men mentioned his name during the political scandal in the LiquidGate scandal, an infamous political dispute some few decades ago. And that was only one of the things, he was accused off.
It was odd to think Cardin felt bad for losing this type of uncle if the media and maybe others suspected him of being dirty like this.
Jared finished some of the more basic information before turning back to the team. "I think it's time to check out how he died."
JNPR crowded around Jared as he opened up the newspaper article about his death.
"Alright, 'Rook Winchester brutally butchered!' Well a bit gimmicky in alliteration, but I see why they put that." Jared said as he moved the page lower.
"It says here he was decapitated and had his head placed on one of the spikes of his entrance gates." Ren read out loud.
"Oh Monty that's brutal." Jaune felt his stomach turn.
Jared however saw something of interest in the news article. "Hold up; hold up. … Something doesn't look right. According to this article, the two murderers were caught and put to death after admitting they were from the White Fang and committing the deed."
Pyrrha looked like she read along as well. "What do you mean something is not right?"
Jared looked back at his team mates and pointed again. "He was killed in his office, and he's a politician. Shouldn't politicians like him have heavy security, especially if they are involved in dirty politics in case some people put their noses where they shouldn't be?"
"I placed my nose in a tub of honey, but I enjoyed it anyway!" Nora cried out.
"Hmm…" Ren mumbled.
Their leader looked at him oddly. "Where are you going with this Resh?"
Jared pointed to the screen. "Back at the article, they say these two White Fang Members killed him. Just two. Two of them; somehow bypassing all the guards, security, and etc. just to kill Rook Winchester so easily? Don't you think that's a bit suspicious? And if Rook Winchester really was a dirty politician to hide from the law for his entire career, why would he be suddenly caught out by two random terrorist in his home turf?"
"So you suspect foul play?" Ren inquisitively asked.
"Gimme a sec let me open a new tab…" Jared said as he did what he said he would and typed down one of the names of the accused and condemned.
"Hold up… one of the guy's names was… Rellay Hawkward …?" Jaune read out loud in disbelief.
"Didn't you read the other one? Alpaca M'Baggs? No wonder those guys joined the White Fang." Jared clicked on the computer.
Nora laughed. "I don't get it." She stopped suddenly.
"Huh," Jared responded. "Apparently, neither did I. There's barely any information on them. I think they've been sealed from the public."
"Wait, can they do that?" Jaune asked.
"I don't think that they can. Let me check something about the Case itself… odd… the only thing I can find about their court hearings is a summary of them being convicted of murder, and sentenced to death."
"That is strange. Something looks withheld." The black haired, magenta eyed boy noted.
Jared placed his hand on his chin and leaned back into the seat. Then he noticed something. "Hey. According to this, the court murder case was held within Vale's Court House uptown." The temporal wanderer didn't say it, but maybe there were records of the case kept there if they weren't allowed to the public.
Jared turned to his dad's team. "Who wants to do Jury duty?"
Team JNPR were on their way out of School… in a dust plane.
"Oh Monty…" Jaune complained as Pyrrha tried her best to comfort him.
"You know sir, we could open a window. When I was on a boat ride, I noticed my friends staying around the fresh, open air places that made their stomachs feel better."
"Does that really work?" Jaune looked hopeful as Jared just opened up a window.
Seeing no harm in trying, Jaune stuck his head out. He deeply inhaled the fast blowing sky winds fill his lungs and ease his stomach.
He didn't notice a shadow growing to his side. "Whoa! Hey it's workKKKRAHHGH!"
Jaune stumbled back in and fell into the floor as he started chocking on something.
"Crap! I think something flew into his mouth!" Jared called out quickly, but Nora reacted faster than all of them.
"I got this!" It's just that she just happened to have her war hammer ready for some reason and motioned it behind her.
"NORA, NO!" All other three teammates screamed too late.
The dust ship shook a little.
Jaune moaned in pain as Ren and Jared helped him up out of the public bus.
"Nora, we've talked about this, we can't always use Magnhild as an answer. Though I am glad you didn't unleash a chamber when you made contact." Ren finished. He supposed that it was something though; the small victories counted.
Jared looked ahead to the court house they were visiting and saw all the people in suits and formal attire walking in and out at the entrance. "I can't believe you coughed out a small insect, only to fall back on to your stomach recoiling form the impact, and then throw up due to the fast and sudden shaking of the plane." Jared said as he did his best not to smell his dad.
"Why does the world hate me?" Jaune asked out loud.
Jared chuckled. "You make it too easy sir. Now come on, let's go."
The Team entered into the busy hallway. They couldn't help but look out of place with all the groups of people wearing formal attire walking around down the crowded hallways. There were many Faunus and Humans, along with some though looking gangsters wearing suits. It was funny to see the large pool of varying people all in one place.
Seeing the front desk recently cleared, Team JNPR made their way towards it. "Uh Hi." Jaune started.
"How may I help you?" The male attendant asked.
Jared stepped in. "We're looking for the court case and trial documents of Alpaca M'Baggs and Rellay Hawkward?"
"Pfft hahaha!" Nora burst out to laughter. "I still don't get it."
The male attendant looked at them strangely. "Are you joking?"
Jared rolled his eyes. He gave a serious look into the man eyes before saying, "Fine let me try again. Case Name: 'The People of the Kingdom of Vale V.S. Ralley Hawkward and Alpaca M'Baggs' The charge was for the brutal voluntary manslaughter and first degree murder of councilman Rook Winchester ten years ago on the month of (July 16) located in court room 12 of this very building, which is located on the east wing of this building."
The attendant stared a few seconds before blinking once. Those were a lot of specific-sounding details the young red eyed boy explained. "Umm right ok… let me look those files up. … Oh sorry those files are sealed. You can't look into them without a Court Order."
"Wait what?" Jaune asked out.
"It basically means we can't access those files without consent from a judge." Pyrrha explained.
"Why is that?" The blonde questioned.
The attendant looked over the computer. "Well according to this, it was to protect the identities of all those that trialed against the defendants."
"You mean like how some cases are sealed due to witness protection programs?" Jared inquired and the man responded by nodding.
"Is there anything else you need?"
Everyone turned to Jared, and the wanderer looked slightly surprised. But ultimately, "Yes. Thank you for your time."
Jaune went after the boy. "So what now?"
"Dunno. I do have other plans and ideas, like checking the crime files on it, but I think we'll run into the same problem."
"Oh oh!" Nora cooed. "Maybe, we could check out what Cardin's Uncle was doing before he died!"
Team JNPR stopped and stared at Nora for a few seconds.
Ren surprisingly, didn't look surprised. "Good thinking Nora."
Jared looked to Pyrrha and Jaune who both just shrugged their shoulders. "I guess that works. And it would be a shame to come all the way here for nothing." He said.
With that, the team left the court house and went down the steps.
None of them noticed two ravens with green eyes staring down at them before one of them looking at the other and both flying away, one after the team and another in the opposite direction.
The one flying away kept going for a while, up towards a large radio tower where a figure wearing a large mantle that covered their entire body was standing on the very top tip of it.
A hand stretched out, and the bird landed on the hand.
The strange glowing bird opened its beak wide.
"Fine let me try again. Case Name: 'The People of the Kingdom of Vale V.S. Ralley Hawkward and Alpaca M'Baggs' The charge was for the brutal voluntary manslaughter and first degree murder of councilman Rook Winchester ten years ago on the month of (July 16) located in court room 12 of this very building, which is located on the east wing of this building."
Surprisingly, Jared's voice came out of the bird as if it recorded everything it heard.
"…" The cloaked figure nodded before the raven… seeped into the arm's skin… and turned into a tattoo.
The figure pulled out a scroll, and talked in a mechanical voice. "The Son of Dagarud and his team have stumbled upon the Rook Winchester incident. What is my next move?"
Listening intently, the mysterious person made heard the order. "Understood. As of now they are unable to find anything worth noting, the court systems are preventing them from truly digging deeper. However, the teammates are surprisingly resourceful. It may be a matter of time before they find out."
The unknown being waited again. "Very well, I will continue the surveillance."
{Author Notes.}
OK, if anyone hasn't noticed yet, I'm a fan of crime related shows. CSI, Criminal Minds, Sherlock, Psyche, and another crime drama you can get me hooked on, I'm there. (I don't care what you people say, I count Batman among here!)
Plus I have to apologize for the short chapter, but once more, some things in my life have been rather occupying. I'll do my best to make sure that the next chapter comes soon as possible. I just had a huge problem and for this one, it hopefully won't happen again!
Sorry and thank you if your still reading this!
But speaking of Batman, In honor of the new Batman Game, (Minus the whole issues of it killing every toaster and non-super graphic computer out there) here's a new skit!
[The One shot FFN deserves, but the one it doesn't need right now.]
A long time ago, on a dark winter night, Entrepreneur and CEO of Schnee Industries, Weiss Schnee and her Husband Jaune Arc were walking out from a movie called the Gray Ghost. They were with their young son Jared Arc, who was so stoked about having seeing the movie and being in awe like any six year old boy would be.
However, the young boy's life was forever changed when he and his parents walked down an alleyway.
He would never forget the sounds of two gunshots taking everything away from him.
[Years Later…]
Jared Schnee Arc was a billion dollar playboy who had mysteriously vanished for some undisclosed time after his tenth birthday following the four year anniversary death of his parents.
One drug cartel was in the middle of a heist, two thugs were out there watching out for them.
"So…" One said to the other as the others hurried with their work. He continued to stare into the distance and ask, "You ever wonder why we're here?"
However, he didn't hear anything in response.
He looked over to his fellow thug. "I mean why we're under a street light insteadOH SHI—"
Suddenly a loud and familiar scream was heard.
"Was that Wilhelm?!" One of the other thugs asked before they all ran up.
One of them cocked a gun and pointed around. "Hey! Where are they?! They were just here!" He turned back to see two guys that were trailing behind them were suddenly gone. "And where did Larry and Moe go!?"
A sound came from back in the crates, and they all ran back to see the driver hanging upside down with a horrified and beat up expression on his face.
"Spread out! Find the sucker that did…"
The rogue who said that had his voice slowly die off as he saw there was no one anymore behind him. His heart pumped fast. He didn't notice his gun was shaking as he potined it anywhere around him, and he backed off towards the car, trying to somehow calm his beating heart that felt so loud, he swore he it would bust out.
"W-Who ever come on out and fight!"
"Who am I?"
A voice called out from the darkness surrounding the last rogue, he would have wet himself if he wasn't feeling so dry.
"I am Vengeance..."
The thug spun himself faster, looking worriedly around himself and even shooting at nothingness when he thought he saw something. He then decided to screw it and shot the entire place with holes.
The gun fired off, breaking every box, car, anything around him, but then his gun ran out of ammo.
"I am the Knight."
The thug's heart almost stopped beating since he heard the voice directly behind him from a towering figure.
He slowly, but foolishly looked behind himself.
"I am Dust Knight!"
The last thing he saw was the flash of purple followed by horrible and hellish red eyes.
"Another excellent show, Mr. Arc." She said as she viewed the scroll from a fancy office. "I'm sure you are liking the new and improved Stealth Unit in your armor?"
"Thank you Ruby."
The Armored figured answered the current CEO of Wa—Schnee Enterprise and head of the Weapon's division.
"No thank you mister Arc! I get to have the best job in the world with all those… ahh~ beautiful weapons! But still nothing compared to my Crescent Rose!" She quickly added that later sentence after having such a heavenly look.
The man behind the armor smiled.
"See you later, Ruby. I have other cartels to bust."
"Commissioner Vasilias."
The blue haired commissioner snapped his head back in surprise to the figure standing on the roof top he swore was not there a second ago.
"Monty, dammit Dust Knight, one of these days I'm going to have a heart attack from you appearing like that."
"You could stop smoking."
The police chief rolled his eyes.
"Let's get down to business. Some of my men have reported odd sightings of The Roman placing bombs that have strange riddles written on them around looks like he's still sore after you insulted his wardrobe and overall broke his ego."
"He's an egotistical narcissist. If he's allowing even the police to see his works, he has something up his sleeve."
Neptune scoffed.
"Narcissist? This coming from the guy who wears a giant purple, knight mech suit and drives around in some kind of high speed tank that also based off said armor?"
However, his smirk died down when he realized no one was up there on the roof with him.
"I swear he does that just to spite me."
"Ahh, Master Arc, welcome home. I trust your knightly routines have satisfied you?" The old family servant, Sebastian said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Oh ha ha. Funny, Sebastian."
In the national Museum, a beautiful woman was seen stealing a cat themed jewel in the ruins section.
"Purrrfect…"
The woman purred as she held the crystal into her palm.
"Return the Jewel, Belladonna."
The woman looked up to the purple knight with a coy smile.
"Ahh, Dust Knight…. So nice of you to drop by. Ready to play our usual game of cat and Mouse~?"
"Stop! No more!"
Jaune Arc pushed the pretend script back to Jared Arc, his son from the future who was currently posing as a student named Resh Kolc.
"But you didn't get to the part where I make a necromancer brings your body back form the dead and forces you to break dance in front of kindgartners."
His son impassionate said.
Jaune's face was flushed as he looked horrified at the script.
"I can't believe you wrote about all that about our friends! What the heck was that Blake one all about?"
"Simple Sir, she fits that villain the most in any situation."
Jared smiled evilly.
"Besides, the only reason you even read further was because I wrote about how you and Weiss were married."
The blushed that appeared on the blonde's face was priceless.
"N-No! I-I was just interested to see what kind of super hero you wrote! But don't you dare make yourself our kid! I would have horrible nightmares if someone like you was my child!"
'I'm hurt father.'
Jared noted in his mind dully.
"Alright Shakesword. Why don't you come up with a story? I'll be glad to read it since I just wrote this to see your reaction to it."
He taunted the blonde lightly.
There was a defiant smile in Jaune's face. He puffed his chest and scoffed with pride towards his friend and secret son.
"Watch and be amazed, Resh! I call it… Super Jaune!"
Oh, he was amazed alright. But at how great of an impersonation his dad could as professor Port.
{Review Response}
Cerberus13 (Ch14): He doesn't have many mothers. He only has one, but has different Mother's Days since his memory has been split.
Serfius (Ch 3): Oddly enough, no has brought that up until recently in one of my newest chapters, when I have been lightly mentioning throughout the story that Jared is indeed Raven haired. Also, as I said at the top of this, there is more to his outward traits than meets the eye.
THE-Twilight-BlazeKnight (Ch 14): Actually, before you said that, I did have an… interesting… plan with the groups later on. I'm trying to wrok on everyone before the first semester ends (Has no one noticed that they skipped the finals or Mid terms? I WON'T! MWAHAH—!)
But thanks for the nice compliments.
dracohalo117 (Ch 14): Thank you for that. But that "…" made me wonder, were you feeling alright around that time? I dunno, a simple period would have been fine, but I can't help but over think and see that as you being tired.
dark habit (Ch 14): "You see, time isn't one straight linear path. It's more of a wibbly wobbly—"
*Gun Cocks*
As much as I love that, I'm going to have to ask you to stop.
…
But yeah. I do love time travel stories and the BS you can pull sometimes.
THEREADINGADDICT (Ch 14): HE. WAS. RAVEN HAIRED. SINCE. CHAPTER. 1.
Why is that suddenly so surprising people!?
readerdreamer5625 (Ch 14): Let me just say the Pandora Grimm are just a few of the very strange and surreal Grimm I plan to make.