All credit to respective owners.

-YARN

Weiss Schnee looked at the sheet of paper that listed cafe's in the city late in the evening.

"Aura's Gift." She mused, "Good reviews and decent variety…"

Bars were no longer a viable option for Weiss and Whitley as being an attractive girl made her a prime target for flirt and Whitley's looks weren't anything to scoff at either. It was maddening to simply want to be by herself and some of the more drunk suitors not taking the hint. Restaurants were better as there was more decorum, but sitting alone there in some high end restaurant made it seem like you were stood up by some date since the tables were all normally prepped for two or more people.

Weiss was not the person to suffer any pitying looks, she was a Schnee.

She sighed and place the paper on her desk and padded over to her bed before flopping onto it with a lace of grace that would have made her father growl in disapproval.

She smiled at the thought of his face turning puce.

She would check it out tomorrow and maybe even drag Whitley along as well. To be honest, neither of them had much of a plan beyond living in Empire City and that wasn't even their choice. They were both educated in business and networking but they needed to be doing something. Training their powers and making sure they didn't lose control took a decent chunk of time, but more than left time for other things. Whitley preferred training until he was to tired to even think, trying to not think about his depressing situation of being loved and then cast aside. They both needed to reintegrate into society sooner or later, and apparently getting an alcoholic beverage wasn't really in the cards considering how that always seemed to end.

The last thing she needed was to be inebriated when being hit on.

A cafe would do nicely.

Yuma had finally repaired all his gear and made sure there were no lingering aches and pain from the scar that decorated his waist. He scowled as he recalled the pain that screamed in his side as he and Arc fell out of the sky after trading blows. If it wasn't for the CCS coming he was sure that fight would have continued and evidence and reviews of the fight showed that everyone knew he was the aggressor. He grumbled and looked up the apartment that Arc Senior had rented for him as his base of operations to plan how to kill Jaune. With the current sway of public opinion, it was too dangerous to take the cautious approach, he needed to cast aside all subtleties and just kill the brat. He cracked his neck and walked out the door to his temporary apartment, he would attack the boy's home, kill Jaune and flee the city before the heat came down.

He slipped out of his apartment and smiled.

Fights were always fun when he'd just go full throttle from the start.

Arriving in Empire City was almost euphoric.

They were so close.

Jaune Arc was here. He walked these street, almost everyday.

They could run across him just while getting to the hotel they booked!

The Arc sisters couldn't wait to go searching, but they had to stay as a group, no wandering off.

They'd meet him.

As a family.

Pyrrha Nikos was smiling at Jaune who was acting as though most the weight of the world he was carrying had finally been taken. His grin was bright and eager as he handed out drinks and chatted with his customers with an enthusiasm that he had never displayed before. Blake hovered, arms crossed as she waited for him — no doubt looking like she had a full tirade to say — to finish so she could speak with him. It was good to see the barista happy again, willing to talk and listen instead of a strained mask of happiness. Pyrrha had seen too many masks on people and Jaune's was clearly forced and unpracticed, not used to being anyone but himself around people.

She had been more than a little worried for him, but it seemed he had managed to overcome his problems.

Jaune was feeling a lot better after finally getting a quite a few 'good night's rest' since the stress that had been plaguing him had finally abated. He skirted Blake as best as he could as let the last few days as he wanted to get as much rest as possible that wasn't restless tossing and turning before speaking with her (Jaune knew he would get an earful but at least it wouldn't be anywhere as bad as he had before). And it helped now that he knew Blake, Ghira, and presumably Kali were firmly in his corner when it came to his powers. He would have been perfectly happy but there was still one niggling problem in the back of his mind that worried him.

Whoever attacked him wasn't caught.

He was not willing to completely relax until he was arrested or stopped.

Jaune didn't want to consider how to stop him though, but he knew all the same how it would have to end. The guy had been trying to kill him, and that meant he wouldn't stop until either Jaune was dead or the attacker was arrested or dead himself. Sure he hadn't attacked recently but Jaune was not one to think the matter was dealt with after one scuffle, the masked attack had been more than willing to continue until the CCS' sirens had intervened midway through. No one kills unless they have a reason, and it doesn't have to be a good reason, but a reason nonetheless. The thing was, his masked attacker knew Jaune had powers and almost nobody would hire a Conduit to kill another Conduit unless they were aware of his abilities. Usually only military forces or other Conduits would be sent to kill a Conduit, and usually the Conduit would be violent and attract enough attention that it required a aggressive response. Jaune had never showed off his powers and that narrowed down the list of people who could have hired the assassin. Jaune kept the fact he was a Conduit under wraps to everybody except for Blake, Ghira, Kali (and they only learned about that days ago and he assumed they were okay with it as the CCS hadn't stormed his apartment). Sure he had occasionally run across the odd conduit down in the underground where he practiced, but he never shared even a casual greeting as he would hurry away when they arrived.

The only people ho knew were those he implicitly trusted — the people he loved — or people who — hopefully — didn't care about it as they were the same.

But there were people he HAD loved with all his heart who knew.

People who now hated him.

His thoughts turned to his once-upon-a-time family and his blood chilled.

They wouldn't.

'They would.'

They had no reason to.

'You're alive.'

He hadn't even tried to come back!

'But you still live.'

What could've he have possibly done to deserve an assassination?

'Survive.'

No.

He was safe.

At least from them, he had to be safe.

He was NOT an 'Arc' despite his last name.

They would not go after him after all this time.

'But…' A snide voice whispered in the depths of his mind, 'You will always be the freak to them. And freaks don't deserve their lives. You running away will never work for as long as you carry the name of 'Arc'.'

Jaune shivered.

He couldn't be sure but he had to believe in something positive about the life he once lived as a child.

Blake had cornered Jaune at the end of his shift and 'sat him down' before he could leave or escape. He knew it was coming, so he didn't protest too hard as Blake practically manhandled him into a chair, threatened him with a glare so severe he cowered, and proceeded to quietly close down the cafe. He could've easily just phased out of her grip in the beginning but he knew that it would only piss her off and he figured he at least owed her this. He knew if he so much as twitched from his spot Blake would make him regret it and he sighed. He ran through as many conversations as he could think as she quickly closed everything down.

What should he start with?

An apology sounds good.

He did leave before she woke.

Okay, maybe she was angry about more than that?

No, she was definitely angry about more than that.

Maybe play dumb?

No.

Most definitely no, that would not go over well; he had done that and it only made things worse the last time he tried that.

Jaune bit back another sigh, he really hoped she would start just so he could wing it like he usually did.

Blake turned to see Jaune waiting nervously as he sat and a spark of satisfaction purred in her chest. At least he was willing to face everything without running, that was a step in the right direction.

She sat down at the table and stared at him until he was squirming in discomfort.

"You left without waking me." She accused.

"It was a tough moment. I wasn't ready for anymore." Jaune sighed.

"You were ready to talk to my dad though?" Blake inquired.

"Not really." Jaune replied, shoulders slumping, "He was in the office and I couldn't exactly sneak around him."

"Even with your conduit powers?" She countered.

"They aren't exactly quiet Blake!" He said defensively.

It was exactly as he said that as he remembered he could literally turn invisible by bending light around him and it took an extreme amount effort not to visibly slump in his seat, why did he never think about that until days after it would've been useful?

Then again, Ghira had already seen him and he couldn't just up and vanish after being noticed, Ghira was too aware and sharp to ignore that.

And then again, he could've just used that immediately after he left Blake's room after passing out.

Blake wasn't able to argue as she had seen Cardin and Yang manipulate their abilities and they weren't exactly easy to miss. Cardin literally lifted chunks of concrete out from the earth and could generate it at will while Yang literally blazed with her powers, if Jaune's powers were even remotely as visible as what she had already seen, it would too hard to hide. If he had been suppressing himself, it would explain why he never seemed to draw towards any particular power sources. He hid so that no one could call him out and out his secret, which must have been horribly restrictive and suffocating.

Like Tantalus from greek mythology.

Blake sighed and let it lie, she didn't want to grill Jaune on his abilities, that wasn't her intention or desire, "So why do you hate your powers?"

Jaune stiffened, "It's… a long and complicated story."

Blake softened, "Are you okay talking about it?"

Jaune looked to the side and Blake saw the conflict on his face, "To be honest, I don't think I am. But that's because I haven't faced it, I just shoved it into a corner and refused to even look at it. Maybe I should talk about it. At least I know I can trust you."

Blake settled herself in her seat and made herself comfortable, "Okay. Whenever you are ready."

So Jaune began to talk.

"I was born to a big family, seven sisters and a mom and dad. As the youngest in a family, I always assumed that I wouldn't be able to be as cared for as I needed to. As it turns out, my sisters took the role that my parents didn't have time for and I had a great family. A few years into my childhood my powers manifested and I literally face-planted into a tree."

Blake had to smother her amusement and Jaune gave her a deadpan look. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up. It's not like you were playing tag and next thing you know you moving too fast to stop yourself from giving your first kiss to a tree."

Blake burst out laughing and Jaune rolled his eyes as he waited Blake's fit of laughter to end.

"My parents hated conduits." Jaune finally said quietly, "They would've never accepted me despite being their only son."

Blake's mirth quickly abated.

"I was a freak, a monster waiting for my chance to kill." Jaune went on, "I knew that I could never let them know. Not ever."

"Jaune…" Blake said, suddenly wanting him to stop, to say she had heard enough.

The hazy look in Jaune's eyes were filled with an immeasurable sorrow, and his voice carried a deep and lingering pain.

"My sister helped me hide it, loved me enough to do that." Jaune continued distantly, as though he didn't hear Blake as tears filled his eyes, "They covered for me when there were incidents because I needed to learn how to control myself, so I didn't accidentally show my powers. It was all fine for years, my parents never caught on, so I lived with them for as long as I could. I was happy. I was normal. I was loved."

"You don't have to—" Blake tried to cut him off.

"Then one day there was an incident and the world I had for so long came crashing down around me. There was an accident on the bus heading to school, when I came to, my body was already unconsciously drinking in all it could to heal me. I could feel it and people were already dialing or recording for the DUP when they saw me healing. I wanted to run and hide, but there were still people who were trapped in the bus and it was overturned. They would've been hurt if the bus caught fire and it was still toppled, and I couldn't stop myself. I used my powers to lift the bus and I knew there was no more hiding. I ran to my home, it was exactly my smartest decision but it was the only place I felt safe. My sister was home and she understood what happened, she held me until the DUP came, my parents in tow. My sisters tried to stop it but it was too dangerous so I told them that I would be okay and that I loved them."

He took a long and slow breath as the tears finally began to slide down his face, trying to forget the way his sisters had looked as he was carted away (which made their betrayal and abandonment twist the knife lodged in his soul all the more painful).

Blake didn't know what to do, she had never seen the blonde like this, even when he was suffering under the stress of breaking down. How long had Jaune been carrying this pain? How many years had he been shoving this down so he didn't have to think about it? How long had this wound in his soul had festered and gone untreated?

"Curdun Cay…" Jaune forced out through gritted teeth, "It was hell… No freedom. Nothing but tests and training. The taught me how to fight, and I never had the choice not to. They tested how much I could heal from. They tortured and broke me down. They pushed me to the limit of my sanity and kept going. I can't go back, I'd rather die than ever go back. The only thing that made it bearable was my sisters visiting, they made it a point to visit every time they could. Then one day they they just stopped."

Jaune let out a sob and Blake couldn't help it and wrapped the boy in a hug. His head fell against his shoulder and he clutched at her, embracing her like she was the only thing that he had left.

Blake tried to convey as much support because that may very well be true in a very depressing way.

"They abandoned me Blake, they didn't care anymore and left me in the dark." He whimpered.

Yuma rolled his shoulders back as he watched the blond in the cafe while the black-haired girl was holding him. He frowned at her being there but shrugged, he doubted Arc senior would mind some collateral, besides the old coot might be glad that those people who were kind to the kid were dead too. Yuma didn't much care about how he was perceived, he only cared about the quality of his life and how well it went. So what if a few people died? He would be handsomely rewarded and life a cushy life for the rest of his days. He didn't have to worry about outliving the Arcs as he was a pseudo-conduit and didn't have their abnormally long life-spans.

Rocks lifted from the ground as he raised a hand.

Jaune's skin prickled and he stood up in alarm, feeling a nearby conduit gathering their power. The chair he was in clattered loudly as it hit the floor and Blake jumped from him with an undignified cry of shock. She stepped away to see Jaune scanning the street and mouth drawn in a distressed glower, body taut like a bowstring drawn. His eyes stopped on a point and he blinked as his mouth dropped open and his eyes snapped to her. Blake flinched from the naked horror in his face and eyes and she followed his gaze to the street outside.

Her eyes grew wide in fear.

Rocks outlined in the hues of the evening hovered and shifted into the air and were compacting together boulders that would crush her like a grape under a boot.

A heartbeat as the world seemed to hold its breath.

Jaune tackled her as the rocks came down; she screamed and closed her eyes as she raised her arms to shield herself. Jaune's eyes blazed as he half-turned to face the barrage, arm outstretched as he gathered all the light he could drink in.

Jaune stopped holding back.

And light screamed as it erupted.