All credit to respective owners.
-Y.A.R.N.
Saphron drank in the sight of her younger brother.
He had been a teen when she had last seen him.
Taller, just as tall as Jonathan.
Muscular but not overly so, no doubt keeping in shape.
Golden hair that he kept in the same wild mop he always favored as a kid.
The blue eyes that — when they both had been young — had been so honest and bright.
He'd grown into a young man, but somehow was still the exact same as he had always been except for the utter blank surprise in his eyes.
And she bitterly regretted being the reason that look was there at all.
Jaune was frozen.
Cold.
Empty.
Hollow.
Lost.
His big sister.
Practically his mother.
She was here.
She had seen him.
She called out his name.
Why?
Why was she here?
What was she doing in the park?
How long had she been here?
The blade of light in his hand fizzled out into motes of light, and in a passing — instinctive thought — motion, had a swirl of light pinning the beaten conduit down, causing the man to groan in pain as the powers crushed his already shattered body. He would've been worried about leaving the guy alive, but all he could feel was empty and his thoughts spiraled in uncontrollable waves.
He took an unsteady breath, tilting back as he couldn't bear to see her.
So why couldn't he look away?
He had snapped.
Gone insane.
That was it.
His rage and fear was making him hallucinate.
Maybe he was dead?
This guy had struck him down and he died so fast that he was in hell without realizing it.
Seeing people who ripped apart his heart and cut gashes into his soul; shouldn't he be seeing his whole family though?
"Jaune…" Saphron said softly, slowly approaching him as though he was a scared animal.
He may have well have been.
He wanted to run.
Turn away and escape.
But his body would not move.
His eyes wouldn't even look away from the blue eyes of his sister.
She finally stood in front of him and gently cupped his cheeks, "Is it really you?"
The warm and gentle touch sent tingles through his body, like his whole body had fallen asleep and was waking.
He tried to say something, but his lips wouldn't move, each breath seem to get stuck somewhere in his throat and not quite getting to his lungs.
"Jaune…" His sister implored softly, "Say something. Anything. Please."
A weak whisper leaked through parted lips, "Why?"
She blinked and her face crumpled as tears filled her eyes, "Oh Jaune…"
"You… didn't come back. You promised you'd come back." He gulped softly, too empty to even try to sound accusing.
"We wanted to. We wanted you back. We tried. I'm so sorry." She apologized softly.
Jaune's vision blurred as hot tears forced their way down his face despite his best efforts to hold them back, "You left me. You abandoned me."
"No Jaune." Saphron whispered, tears trickling down her face as she gently rested her forehead against his, "Oh no. We would never abandon our baby brother. You mean too much for us to do that."
"Then why did you never come back?" Jaune whimpered, "I waited. I waited and waited for you, for anyone, but you never came back. No one came."
Saphron scowled through her grief, "When Jonathan and Estelle found out where we had been spending our vacations, they demanded we either find a new place to live or abandon you. It was an easy choice for us when they asked, we would never leave you behind."
Jaune breathing hitched at the mention of his mother and father's names — and a sort of vindictive thrill as his older sister not referring to them as their parents — was it not enough for them to throw him in jail? Why tear away the people who loved him, wasn't he tortured by living enough already? Why did his parents have to try to break him down when he was already so broken? What sick pleasure did they get from his pain?
"We all moved out. But it took time Jaune, we had to gather money and find homes in cities away from Seattle, we all assumed you wouldn't want to stay there. By the time we came to Seattle to get you, you were gone. But we never stopped looking for you when we had the chance. We never could forgive ourselves if we didn't find you."
Jaune had always been incredibly intuitive when it came to his sisters, he could always tell when they lied, or whenever they were holding something back.
And Saphron radiated nothing but honesty.
Jaune closed his eyes and leaned his head more fully against his sister's, how long had they both been wrong about each other? How much time had he wasted hiding from them when all they wanted was to show them they still cared?
"Jaune. My precious baby brother." Saphron cooed as she hugged him and pressed his head into the curve of her shoulder, "I missed you so so much. I love you, we sisters all do, we all never stopped. Thank you for living, thank you for letting us raise you, and thank you for being our little brother."
Jaune couldn't help it, he burst out sobbing as he crumbled to his knees; Saphron slid down with him, lips pressed to the top of his head.
One of the biggest wounds in his soul finally began to knit itself back together.
They didn't hate him.
His sisters were still his family.
"Freeze! Put you hands up!" A voice called.
Jaune blanched as he realized the CCS had arrived, he lost track of the time he had meticulously planned when he saw his sister.
Saphron tightened her grip on her younger brother.
No.
Oh lord no.
God please no.
She had just found him, she couldn't lose him again.
Not again.
Yuma scowled at the blond who completely dismissed him to talk to the admittedly beautiful girl who stopped him from being murdered. He tried to get up but the swirling light pinning him kept him from lifting his body up, and the pressure it put on his battered body wasn't doing any favors. Thinking on how he could've lost this fight so badly, he thought back and realized the boy had let him push him back while making sure they were heading to the parks. With the general lack of concrete except for the paths and the generally wide area, Arc had played him into an area where he wouldn't have as much material to draw on if he needed to. On the other hand, the entire park was bathed in light from the street lamps and moonlight, making it one of the most favorable battlegrounds for the light-wielding conduit.
Yuma cursed in his head.
The boy strategic approach to this was brilliant.
Yuma had been cocky, thinking that because he was a 'King' conduit, he was automatically going to win this battle. He knew the boy had wielded some pretty potent abilities, but was restricted because he was worried about the collateral. They were in a city! Concrete was everywhere!
But any smooth-brain idiot would've seen that too.
Jaune assumed that Yuma wouldn't care about any innocent people hurt and made a plan to make sure there was no collateral — aside from the damage that they caused left a very visible path to the park — in the case Yuma attacked again; also, Jaune had probably made sure to review what he knew about concrete conduits. Yuma didn't account for the fact that the boy had probably been more than aware of the limits to both of their abilities as he was incarcerated at Curdun Cay during its prime and was there to see it fall. He would only have to worry about being in a power match or even a disadvantage against a prime conduit, and Augustine was the only prime conduit in regards to concrete. Sure Yuma was 'King' class and was quite capable of generating concrete but he needed a source of concrete to draw from to be as mobile as he could, so Jaune had known he could outclass him provided he had the power supply. But with the reduced amount of concrete in the park to pull to empower himself, his mobility had suffered, and he couldn't just gather all of it around him to create his concrete storm to keep him moving without using ALL of it at once.
Then the damn CCS had come and surrounded them.
No.
He wasn't going down for this.
Not like this.
He closed his eyes as he pulled at the concrete debris and paths all around the park.
He would not go down alone and he had one last trick.
His crooked his fingers.
The CCS all stilled when a rumbling sound echoed through the park, they trained weapons on the trapped concrete conduit, who eyes were closed and his mouth drawn into a focused scowl as he seemed to try to try something.
"Freeze!" One of the CCS forces shouted, "Don't try anything."
Yuma eyes snapped open and he sneered, "Too late."
His fingers dug into the earth and all the concrete spires he created and the paths along the park began crack and crumble, turning into a vicious sandstorm that sheared at the CCS forces. They cried out in pain as bits of rubble dug into them in a spray of blood, knocking them into the floor as they bled from numerous wounds. The storm centered around Yuma, bullets fired from the CCS unable to penetrate the sheer amount of concrete that was swirling in the air. The CCS soldiers drew back momentarily as they were unable to get too close, several of the pseudo-conduits were already trying to use their own powers to create concrete shields to defend themselves as they tried to get to their fallen comrades.
The storm coalesced into a jagged spire that pointed at the two blonds, launching with deadly intent to impale both of them.
Saphron screamed in a fearful panic, seeing the approaching projectile.
Jaune was already moving.
He twisted on his knees and raised a hand as light erupted from his palm, catching the spire an inch from it stabbing through his hand. Jaune wasn't worried with what Yuma could pull off, the concrete king was already done with how depleted he was. The concrete storm he had formed was nothing compared the storms he had been riding when he chased Jaune across the city but was more than enough to make sure Jaune had to intervene before he hurt anyone else. Light seared through the air and burned right through through the construct, vaporizing the structure that was still dripping red from the pieces that had cutting into the CCS. Jaune threw out his other hand to launch a convergence rocket at Yuma. The blast of light split into three separate blast that honed in on Yuma, blasting him senseless and stopping another storm of concrete as the focus was lost. Jaune didn't hesitate to dissolve out of his sister's grip and reform next to the fallen soldiers, kneeling next to them.
He ignored Saphron's sharp cry of distress.
He didn't have any reason to hide anymore, the CCS now knew what he was and he was out of time. Running would only make him seem guilty, so he might as well do what he did the first time he was imprisoned. Plus, he needed something to keep him from killing Yuma for his actions, because Jaune fully intended to kill him and it was only Saphron and the CCS' intervention that was preventing it.
Either way, he needed to do something and he decided helping others was more important than vengeance.
He drew on his powers and held out his hands towards one of the dying soldiers, as a soft stream of light flowed out of his hands to surround the body. The CCS watched in fascination as the Conduit used the well-known ability of Conduits being able to heal other people as the soldier's wounds sealed shut and his labored breathing became less strained. Jaune didn't pause to admire his handiwork and quickly moved onto the next person who had been injured, quickly patching him up with his powers. Jaune pushed every other thought but getting to another — just one more, please just one more — person and healing them aside, and he just couldn't stop. By the time he managed to heal the last person, the park was utterly silent as the CCS force were all staring at him in uncertainty.
Jaune knew it was time to own up to all this.
Jaune slumped back to his knees and held his arms out in front of him, offering his wrists to the CCS forces. He kept his head down and refused to look up as he felt his eyes burning with tears over what was about to happen again. He closed his eyes for a moment as he heard Saphron scream for him to run before two CCS guards were in her way and holding her back. Jaune heard other people coming from around the park, all of them staring and whispering as he waited patiently. Yuma groaned as he began to shake off his disorientation and Jaune knew he had to spur on their arrest before the Conduit gained consciousness fully. Jaune glanced at his hands and paled as he realized they were still stained with Yuma's blood from when he had pummeled him into the earth.
"I'm sorry." Jaune finally murmured, "Just take me and the other conduit. No one else was involved, no one else needs to pay for this but us."
The men who had been healed by his powers looked uncomfortable as they approached him, cuffs jangling in their hands. Everyone else focused on Yuma, who was just beginning to clear the ringing in his ears from Jaune's last attack. Jaune slowly waved a hand and the light encasing Yuma dissipated and allowed for the CCS to quickly cuff the man in heavy gauntlets and thick anklets that would keep him restrained and unable to effectively use his powers. They weren't going to take chance with a man who tried to kill as many of them as possible as some sort of last desperate hurrah. He was going to be thrown in a deep hole and hopefully never get out again short of a mass breakout.
"Look… you will be held overnight at least, unfortunately we can't get around it." One of the men informed Jaune as he use a simple handcuff to bind Jaune's hands, "Your actions in saving lives will definitely be taken into account, okay? Don't be afraid. We will have to take your testimonies into account and we will make sure that you were more interested in saving lives than running or fighting."
Jaune didn't say anything, his incarceration had robbed him of any solace that the man could have given.
The agent seemed to be able to tell and simply gave Jaune a pat on the shoulder before gently guiding him towards a van. Jaune hesitated and turned to his sister who was still being gently held back by two agents, giving her a weak grin. His sister's tear redoubled at the sight of his false bravado and Jaune felt a tug on his arm, sighing as he turned away. The man leading him looked at him and his sister before he sighed and waved at to the two men that had been keeping Saphron from coming close. They hesitated and stepped aside, allowing Saphron to bolt over and hug her brother tightly one more time.
"He will be out soon, probably in the morning if all the testimonies line up." The CCS agent offered kindly, "Then you can meet again and probably grab a bite to eat."
Saphron glared at the man, "I haven't seen him in years because of this, he even saved some of your agents from death, he shouldn't have to go through this again."
The agent noted that but shook his head, "And while that will definitely be taken into account, this is the best I can offer. Let me do my job and this will be done sooner and you'll be able to see him a free man faster."
"It's okay Saph." Jaune managed, giving her a wan smile, "It's already happened once. I can deal with it for just one more day. At least I know my family is waiting for me this time."
Saphron pressed a kiss to his cheek, "Get out soon, I want you to meet your nephew. I'm sure you'll like him."
Jaune gaped — momentarily stunned — before his eyes lit up in a joy and he grinned.
The CCS agent sighed and rolled his eyes.
Blake was currently choking.
And as valiantly as she struggled, her assailant would not let go.
"Yang…" She wheezed, scrabbling at her best-friend's arms, "Air…"
Yang mumbled something vaguely resembling an apology before slightly loosening her embrace around Blake's neck. The black-haired girl gratefully began breathing again and she gently hugged her best back. Yang had burst into the shop the day after the Conduit combat alarm had ended, eyes wild and expression frantic as she looked for Blake. She had no doubt seen the trail of destruction left behind by Yuma and Jaune Arc's battle and assumed the worst, growing more and more horrified the closer she got to her best-friend's home. The CCS had done all they could with what conduits they had on hand, but Yuma wasn't gentle in his aggressive chase of Jaune. The visceral cry of relief when Blake was still seated with her parents in the cafe talking to a police officer caused them all to jump but both Kali and Ghira both relaxed fully realizing it was Yang and allowed her and Blake to get some privacy in Blake's room while they handled talking with the officer.
"I was scared." Yang whispered.
"I'm sorry." Blake offered.
"It's not your fault." Yang sighed, finally pulling away to look over Blake, "Are you okay? I saw the residue and it was leading to the cafe…"
"Right…" Blake mumbled quietly, "That…"
"What happened Blake?" Yang inquired, "You haven't looked this miserable since those bullies back in school tore a book you were reading."
"Jaune's been arrested."