New chapter! Probably this chapter and one more chapter will be the last two chapters of the year 2017! Really depending on my muse.

This story has been beta'd by UGX7, Jauneforever, and TheMischieviousPuppy. Go check out their stories, they got some decent RWBY fics. I believe TheMischieviousPuppy is also being the cowriter for another story called Jaune the Overlord: Rewrite. I've also enjoyed UGX7 RWBY:Destiny of Remnant.

Important Notice: For those who wanted a react story to this story, you got your wish! dirtrevor has kindly volunteered to do such a story, and has published it onto the website. I'll be sending him some chapters to do the react fic to make his life slightly easier. Give him a round of applause for doing so, and go check it out!

Story Title: Reading Jaune Ryu-Long:Dragon contractor

Author: dirtrevor

Story ID: 12736548

At camp on Dark lands, north of Shade. North of Sanus

Team NDGO were at a campsite in a large area that hadn't been mapped or fully explored, they weren't alone, as there were several other teams and a decent amount of civilian personnel. The huge land mass just northeast of Shade. It was technically counted as part of Sanus, but no humans were known to live there and if there were then they were maintaining an isolationist policy. Shade was planning to take the first steps into the region and explore more of it. There had been several expeditions on the said land by other kingdoms, but none of them had even attempted to make a settlement. Most of the transport was by air, but there were several sea ships also there to help.

"This is pretty exciting," said Nebula as her team patrolled the area for any suspicious signs.

"It's risky," argued Dew, "Nobody has any real idea what's over here, only that there's more Grimm in size and variety than any other place."

"That's why the settlement is being built right on the beachfront," replied Octavia, "That way, they only need to focus on the front half. The people can use the boats as a quick escape route. Not to mention there are large-scale defense constructions going on."

"Need I remind you that aquatic Grimm exist?" shot back Dew, "What if they attack? Then we'll be surrounded with no way out! If anything, we should've gotten all four kingdoms on this, and after Vale finished their reconstruction."

"It does seem a bit hasty to expand," nodded Gwen, "But apparently the heads decided Vacuo was strong enough to start off first. I heard your Aunt was against it, but there weren't enough votes on her side."

As Headmistress of Shade, Gale had influential power over the votes in their government, but even she could be overruled if the other heads banded together against her. Said heads was the head of Patrol, Defense, Agriculture, and Commerce & Trade. The four heads had to vote together to overrule Dory. If even one of them agreed with Dory, then it was her choice they had to follow.

"Figures," sighed Dew as they all returned from patrol.

So far, there hadn't been any trouble. A few of the older and experienced teams, along with actual Huntsmen and Huntresses, went out a bit farther out to exterminate any Grimm they could find, as well as gather intelligence. Second-year teams were stuck on patrol duty only. There were no first-year teams, due to the danger of the mission and the fact they were still in their first semester.

Days passed as there had been no sign of trouble. Everything seemed to be going well as teams explored a bit further and eliminated threats to the settlement. Thick walls made of strong bricks had been constructed, while turrets were placed at key positions with a person manning the station.

"Thank Oum this is almost over," sighed Dew, wanting to get back to Shade. She didn't like this place, and she was missing out potential chat time with Jaune. The others were of the same mind, wanting to head back. With all the defenses set up, all that was left was to set up the port so ships could easily come and go. All second and third-year teams on this mission would be sent back to Shade, free to do other missions. Some of the fourth year teams opted to stay to ensure the safety of the village, while others were heading back to swap places with some other teams.

As they gazed out into the waters, Nebula felt something was wrong, she remembered what Dew had said about aquatic Grimm as she looked out to sea. She caught something flashing red in the water far off in the distance.

'Maybe it's just some random red fish or the glare in the water,' thought Nebula, hopefully, but she knew it was wishful thinking. She quickly ran to one of the ship captains and asked for a radar scan of the sea.

"Nothing here," shrugged the captain as he looked at the radar.

"Can't you increase the intensity and range?" asked Nebula.

"Ma'am, we're already scanning at 5 nautical miles. I doubt there's anything else there," replied the captain respectfully.

When all of team NDGO showed their best puppy faces, the captain sighed and caved in.

"Oh very well. Do any of you girls have a lightning Dust crystal?" asked the captain, "I'll need more power to expand the range."

Octavia and Dew quickly ran off to grab one from the school's temporary Dust storage, which only Huntsmen and Huntresses were allowed in there. After grabbing one and giving it to the captain, the captain had his men hook up the crystal into the system. The captain looked at Nebula, who nodded her head, before cranking up the machine. The radar increased to 12 nautical miles for just 4 seconds, draining the crystal's power. But it was enough. For on the radar, just on the very edge of the scan, showed a large number of aquatic creatures gathering up. The captain visibly paled at this.

"Sir?" asked a crew member, "There's a lot of things out there, but it could just be the aquatic sea life and a school of fishes passing by."

"Sound the alarm!" shouted the captain, trusting his gut instinct screaming at him that this mass on radar was dangerous, "Ready defenses! I want full evac out now!"

The crew members were confused, but one of them obeyed the order and slammed the button.

Everyone froze as they heard the wailing noise of the alarm for full evacuation. It wasn't the ringing noise of come back or the beeping noise for warning. Instead, they all recognized it as drop everything and get to the ships. Luckily, there hadn't been any excavations to explore the land further in that had been executed, so all combatants were inside and accounted for.

"Why is the alarm ringing?" asked one of the workers.

"Don't know, but let's head to the ships. There's got to be a good reason for it. No way it's a prank," said another.

As the civilian workers headed towards the airships, there was a huge roar from the forest beyond. Soon, a flood of Grimm came shooting out towards the settlements.

"Man the turrets! Fire at will!" shouted a Huntsmen.

As the Grimm came closer, it was obvious there was a wide variety of them, including ones they never saw before. And within the horde, there were also Grimm with green markings, signifying the mutant versions.

The turrets rumbled to life and fired, blasting hundreds of Grimm into dust, but the Grimm adapted to this and sent the stronger and durable versions up front, blocking the bullets. Explosives went out to delay the Grimm as long as possible.

Back on the boats, the radars themselves started to beep. Underwater creatures were heading towards them at astonishing speed.

"Prepare for battle!" shouted the captain, alerting all the other boats. Just as the first airship was fully loaded and lifted off, a giant tentacle shot out to wrap around that airship.

"Shoot that tentacle!" screamed Nebula as her team went at firing at it, along with several others.

Luckily, the tentacle was forced to release its prey. The airship quickly took to the air and flew to safety. Unfortunately, a Grimm sea dragon rose from the sea, roaring in anger.

"FIRE!"

The boats fired at the Grimm, hoping to kill it. But another tentacle came out from the depths of the sea and wrapped itself around the boat before crushing it. The sailors were forced to jump into the sea, only to encounter a huge family of Characi, small looking Grimm fishes with scales on the head and very sharp teeth. The unfortunate sailors were torn to pieces by them within minutes.

Soon, a dark shape rose up from the depths of the sea to reveal a huge Grimm Kraken. Its head was utterly gigantic, bigger than all the ships in both height and width and covered in bone plating, looking like an armored octopus.

"Focus on the Kraken!" shouted a captain of a ship, "Fire the main cannons!"

Each boat complied and fired, hoping to take down the Grimm Kraken, but it's thick plating protected it from being killed, although it took heavy damage.

"Full retreat!" shouted the leader of the Huntsmen group, "Get your asses out of here! That's an order! Get to the airships and tell 'em to fly off when cargo is full. All ships get out of there!"

Suddenly, out from the shores came out thousands of little Grimms. They were bipedal, fishy looking creatures with Grimm masks, sharp dorsal fins on their back, webbed feet and sharp fingers. They were Grimm Marluks.

With a yell of "BLEERRUAAA!", they charged towards the people still on the ground.

The Grimm Marluks were easy to kill, but their strength lied in overwhelming numbers. Even as five were shot down, it seemed like ten more took their place. The Huntsemen and Huntresses made a defensive line trying to drive them back when they heard someone from the turrets yell. Several looked over to see the Grimm climbing over. They were shocked, as the wall they made was at least 15 feet tall, the outside layer smoothed so climbing it wouldn't be a possibility.

On the other side of the wall, the Grimm were not climbing it, but rather making a huge pile of themselves to crawl atop each other until they made it to the top. The turrets fired, trying to dissuade the pileup, but there were just too many. Once on the wall, they charged for the turrets and within minutes the turret to exploded and the surviving fighters jumped off the wall, but one of them was unlucky to be caught by a King Taijuta that snapped forward, grabbing the man before tossing him over the wall into the score of Grimm. Screams of pain could be heard for a moment before it was silenced.

"Get to the ships now!" shouted an older Huntsman, buying time for them all by charging forward, along with several other soldiers. Everybody else booked it for the airships. Some of the airships already started to lift off, leaving the bottom door open for people to hop on.

"C'mon!" shouted Nebula as she fired another arrow into a Marluk. Team NDGO ran, firing back at the oncoming Grimm as they retreated. Gwen was firing as many daggers into the fray as possible while Octavia was sliding around, picking people up who had tripped.

"Get ready to fly!" shouted Dew as she summoned a tornado right before a hovering bullhead.

Nebula jumped into the tornado, which shot her up into the sky before landing on the Bullhead. The rest of them followed, with Dew being the last one. Dew looked back and gasped as she saw one of the bullheads being pulled back down by overwhelming numbers of Marluks. The people inside quickly escaped, but now there were a lot of civilians in danger.

"Dew, can you make more tornadoes?" shouted Nebula.

"I'll try my best," replied Dew as she concentrated and used all the Aura she had in reserve. Soon, tornadoes were forming before the hovering Bullheads. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses immediately understood what it was for, and started tossing the civilians at the tornadoes. Other people on board were reaching out to help others into the Bullhead when they were shot up into the air. However, she could sustain six of them at once, and she wasn't going to last long.

"Just focus on those tornadoes! I'll make more!"

Dew looked to see a Huntress waving her weapon, which was a fan, and creating even more tornadoes. She recognized her as part of team KASS, the fourth year team. She had pinkish red eyes and slightly pointed ears. She even made some that would shoot some of the others right at the ships in the sea that was leaving.

Gwen was firing as many daggers as she could make while Nebula was helping others get in with Octavia. Soon, team KASS could no longer avoid it and ran towards the tornadoes. Each one of them was sent flying into the air, landing safely in the Bullhead. Dew became exhausted and let go of her Semblance.

With no choice, the Bullheads began to fly up into the sky, heading back to Shade as soon as possible. Some were still in the danger zone, but they had all decided to give up their own lives to allow others to escape.

As the Bullhead flew, it suddenly shook as several Nevermore began to attack, now flooding the sky and slamming feathers into the Bullhead. The ship held, but the impact made the passengers lose their balance.

"Oh shit!"

The A of team KASS fell off board, his orange hat dropping down to the ground. As if in slow motion, team NDGO watched helplessly as he plummeted towards the ground.

WOOSH

A long furry rope suddenly flew at him, to which he grabbed.

"PULL!" shouted the team leader of KASS, the dog Faunus. Helping him, they managed to get the unlucky passenger get back in.

"Oh Oum, I thought I saw my life flash before my eyes!"

"That would've been awkward to tell our little brother what happened."

As they sighed in relief at the near death, they all looked at the last remaining defenders who sacrificed their lives to let them live, slowly being overrun by sheer numbers. Another airship blew up from the Grimm sea dragon as it blasted it with its lightning breath.

Salem sat upon her throne, sipping her drink. It was made from the finest fruits, fresh water, and the most important ingredient: fresh human blood. It had been a fine day. When she learned of Vacuo trying to make a settlement on HER lands, she sent her beloved pets to slaughter them all. She had gotten word that it had been quite successful, but there could've been more fatalities if they didn't get lucky and suddenly increase their radar intensity. The underwater Grimm had been staying twice the distance of Vacuo's radar zone and didn't expect it to suddenly catch them. But still, many lights went out that day. And with all the fear and horror, her Grimm would grow stronger.

Another piece of good news was that the artifact the Blood Fang had found was something useful for Adam. She was intrigued to see him walking in the air, and made plans to add him to the team that would fight Jaune Ryu-Long. How she hated that boy! He had single-handily ruined everything at Vale! Her plan to take one of the Maidens, kill Ozpin, bring about a new age of fear, and most importantly, lose the chance to find one of the legendary relics left by the brothers. With the four relics in her grasp, she would be able to control everything! At least until she found out that the Dragon Clan had not gone extinct. Blessed by the dragons themselves, they were on a higher level than normal humans. Meaning the relics would not affect them, which was why she had been adamant about stamping them all out.

She leaned back on her throne to muse more about her... new allies. She was not blind. She could see that these people had their own agendas, and was merely allying with her to get rid of a common foe. After Jaune was dead, she suspected they would turn on her, maybe even try to kill her. After all, they worshiped some other dragon, but they never said anything, merely stating that they were dragon slayers. And if she stood above them all, they would not accept it and kill her, and perhaps bring their beloved dragon to rule. She didn't quite understand what or why there were two sides, but she pieced together that this dragon they worshiped was most likely a traitor to its own race.

Still, they proved most useful for now. She would exploit them for everything they were worth before killing them. She was sure they had the same idea, but she had far more resources at her disposal, and she hadn't lasted this long for nothing.

Moments later, a whirlwind came rushing into the entrance hall. She lifted her eyebrow in interest to see her candidate for the Winter Maiden bleeding, with her right arm cut off. Tyrian himself was suffering burns from his stomach, and several of the dragon slayers were missing.

"Mistress!" cried out Tyrian, quickly running towards Salem and bowing to her, "Please, forgive me!"

Salem frowned as she saw Daki stumbling forward to bow to her. Lifting her hand, she called her Grimm to guide Daki to Merlot. With enough time, perhaps they could get her arm reattached.

"Tyrian, the mission was obviously a failure. What happened?" Salem asked coldly.

"I'm sorry," cried Tyrian, "But hope is not lost! The Winter Maiden had several guardians with her, and we killed them all. The last one was poisoned by my stinger! The Winter Maiden herself sustained serious injuries! We would've won!"

"Then how did you lose?"

"They weren't alone. Team RWBY, the ones that fought at Beacon. They were with them, most likely by accident! They managed to get an SOS signal out, getting help from Atlas. But even then, we would've won, if it hadn't been for the power of that little brat's silver eyes!"

Salem stopped for a second and thought. Silver eyes? So the young girl did have the power, after all, something she had thought had been lost forever.

"I believe that would be Ruby Rose, then." Watts said, announcing his presence as he waltzed in. "When Tyrian told us about Qrow and how he claimed Tyrian killed his wife, I looked into the records. They were very well hidden, most likely due to Ozpin helping to keep it a secret. Ruby Rose is indeed the biological daughter of Summer Rose, the last known silver eye user, and Qrow Branwen. I only found out quite recently. Not to mention, my latest networks tell me how there was a bright flash of light in Atlas. Our young associate who was in contact with Cinder was using a Grimm when it activated. I only got the news just now, as it had been sealed."

"I see," murmured Salem, "So when Daki had the glove on, it froze her."

With that, Salem started to walk away. Before she reached the door, she looked over to Tyrian for a second.

"You disappoint me."

She walked away while Tyrian screamed and shouted in sadness and sorrow.

"So, the silver eyes still exist," mused Salem to herself, "How many more legends have we missed?"

"So, the thing you were looking for got stolen?"

Jaune was sitting in the History of Remnant class with Sun, whispering to each other. They had gotten back from their missions and was giving each other the summary of what had happened.

"Yea, it sucks. Apparently, Neptune described it as being able to walk on air. Not sure how that works, but it would've been cool."

"Mr. Wukong!" snapped Doctor Horton, the Haven's history teacher, causing Sun to sit up straight,"I'm glad to see you're actually here in class, but this is no time for idle chatter. Tell me, what year was it when Fort Tower collapsed in the Great War."

"Ummm..." said Sun, trying to delay while looking around for an answer, "425 A.D. (After Dust)."

"Quite close, but it's actually 426 A.D.. Mr. Wukong, it would help to pay attention to detail. Perhaps some extra reading is in order."

Sun grumbled and sat back down, remaining silent for the rest of the lecture until the bell rang to dismiss them.

"Mr. Ryu-Long? Can you stay behind for a bit? You're not in trouble, just want to speak with you."

Looking at his team and shrugging in confusion, they left and waited outside the classroom.

"Mr. Ryu-Long. I have something very serious to discuss with you."

"Umm, okay?"

"You see, Doctor Oobleck and I go way back, when we both earned our Doctorates in History. We were contemporaries, friends, classmates, and most importantly, rivals. So imagine my surprise when he calls me and brags how he's transcribing an ancient book from an ancient clan."

"Umm, yea?"

"So my question is... WHY HAVEN'T I GOTTEN ONE! WHY HAVE YOU NOT THOUGHT TO GIVE ME ONE TOO!? I CAN'T LET HIM GET ALL THIS KNOWLEDGE FOR HIMSELF!"

At this, Doctor Horton threw himself at Jaune's feet, begging for something from the Dragon Clan to study from.

"All right," promised Jaune as he tried to pull the good doctor off, "I'll see what I have that you can study! I didn't bring anything with me."

After 10 minutes, Jaune was finally able to pull Doctor Horton off and ran out. Team JNPR and SSSN were laughing at what had just happened, enjoying their lunch before heading to their next class about Dust and the lab built in. Nora used this time to experiment with her new hammer and was delighted to find that she could use more Dust and explosives in her hammer to make a bigger boom due to the stronger materials. That gave Ren chills, as Nora was already destructive with it. Soon, they were back into training with Wong, who had found more inventive ways to train their muscles and techniques.

"You girls okay?"

Teams JNPR and SSSN were sitting in a room for group conferences, taking in calls from RWBY and NDGO.

"Yeah, we're fine. Took a beating, but luckily we're all alive. The Winter Maiden is okay and so's her husband. They're going to stay at Atlas for a while to recover," reported Yang.

"Clodwal's going to help me with my summon," smiled Weiss, "Maybe I can develop something else unlike my family in the past."

"What about you guys?" asked Ruby to team NDGO. She had heard about the failed attempt to create a settlement at the Dark Lands.

"We're fine," sighed Nebula, "We're going through a bit of therapy at what happened. It wasn't easy to see those people die right before our eyes. I know we're supposed to be trained for this stuff... but it wasn't pretty."

"Aunty is pretty pissed," commented Dew, "She repeatedly told the others that attempting such a task was foolhardy and a waste of resources. Now she's rubbing it in."

"Anything else happen?" asked Octavia, trying to change the subject.

"Junior sent me a message, saying that he needed to see me once I've returned to Beacon," mused Jaune, "Not sure what's it about. Said it was important, but not enough for me to hurry to Vale."

The group talked for about another hour before logging off and to head back to sleep. Back at Shade, team NDGO curled up in their beds, wishing their boyfriends were right next to them, or rather in Nebula's case, wishing she had a boyfriend to curl up to.

"Sssso, you want to hire me," hissed Cobra, his eyebrow raised as he stood in front of the man who contacted him.

He was at a certain patch of land north of Vacuo, quite familiar to Jaune. In fact, it was where he grew up. The Arc lands.

"Yes," nodded Vlad. He had dismissed both Aurelian, Boyd, and their mother, his current wife, to somewhere else for the day. He wanted this meeting to be private, and after Aurelian's little hint of morality, he couldn't risk his heir finding out and letting his newfound conscience get the better of him

"Sssso who issss it?" Cobra asked while reaching into his vest pocket and pulled out a small piece of funny looking cooked meat and chomped down on it while waiting for his answer.

"Drop this hissing bit, just because your name is Cobra doesn't mean you have to use the snake speech gimmick." Vlad snapped, rolling his eyes.

"Tch…" Swallowing the piece of meat, Cobra glared at Vlad for a few seconds before answering him. "Fine..Ruin all my fun why don't you old man...Whose blood do you wish to be shed?" asked Cobra clearly annoyed by the man's demand but he was curious about who his target would be. He had taken some assassination jobs before, so he was quite experienced in the field. However, he made sure his name wasn't relatively known to the world. So what made this man so desperate to find an assassin of his caliber? Hopefully, it was someone worth his time.

"I want this damn boy dead!" Vlad said harshly as he slammed a photo down onto the table hard. Cobra slowly picked up the photo to see a smiling Jaune Ryu-Long. His eyes narrowed slightly, but a lick of his lips clearly showed he was interested.

"Ah, I recognize him from the news. What has this boy done to you?" The Assassin inquired.

"He exists! That's sin enough!" Vlad snapped.

"...You're going to have to give me a little more detail than that."

"... He is my pathetic son that should not have lived. I tried to have him killed. I locked his aura and banished him into the wilds, but still he lives. I tried to kill him myself, but the stubborn cockroach just won't die!" Vlad snarled furiously.

Cobra was looking intrigued, staring at the picture. This was the same person that he had failed to kill earlier! Clearly things got a lot more interesting.

"So tell me; are you the reason he is so powerful?" asked Cobra, wondering if this man was foolish enough to tell him, but he couldn't blame him, after all, he didn't know the wonders and dangers of their leader Drac.

"Hmph. Of course! All that power belongs to the Arc family!" boasted Vlad, "Yet he never showed it when he was still a part of my family. He was just so damn weak and useless… until I tried to seal him. Now he's a loose cannon, and he needs to be dealt with. He needs to die."

Cobra couldn't help but let out a low chuckle, placing the photo in his pocket. "My team and I will accept this job on one condition. The reward." Cobra said as he began to smile softly his eyes closed.

"Of course. What is it you want? Lien? Fame? Women? I can easily get you it. In fact, I'd recommend that bastard's girls.."

"Oh no, you're mistaken. We don't care about that. All I want …... is your life." It was at that moment, Cobra's eyes snapped open, and his smile became resembled a Cheshire cat, only one that would clearly smile at its prey due to the razor-sharp teeth within Cobras mouth. Clearly, the two top fanged teeth looked natural, while the others looked like they had been filed to make them as sharp as the could be.

Vlad sat there, shocked silent for a second before reacting and trying to move. His old wound that he got from Jaune flared up, and soon had a snake bite right onto his shoulder. Yūdoku had pierced right through his Aura and into his flesh.

"Bastard!" growled Vlad, trying to grab his weapon.

"Oh, we accept your contract," grinned Cobra, "But you see… your son is a dragon contractor, and we can't allow the chance that you'll spawn another. Don't worry, we know your other two sons didn't inherit it, so we won't go after them. But you, as the enemy of Drac, must die."

With a flick of his wrist, the glowing blue eyes on Yūdoku changed green as poison seeped into Vlad, paralyzing him. But Cobra wasn't done yet. Walking over to the shaking body of Vlad because of the poison, Cobra bared his fangs and bit into Vlad's neck, enjoying the lush warm, coppery blood spouting into his throat as he heartily drank Vlad's blood while injecting even more poison into Vlad. Cobra's eyes glowed with power as Vlad's eyes faded.

Deciding to add an extra precaution in case Vlad somehow magically survived, Cobra ripped off a chunk of Vlad's neck with his teeth, delightfully eating the bloody chunk of meat he pulled off Vlad. "Weren't you just a treat. You were simply delicioussss," grinned Cobra when he finally finished his messy meal. Picking up the bloody body on the wall and driving stakes into various parts of his body to support it before deciding to add something special, using his teeth.

Looking over his masterpiece, Cobra turned around as he took out the photo of Jaune, staring down at it, his eyes showed nothing but an internal sadness that was sealed away within the Faunus. "To think, he had a passsst like mine." Closing his eyes, the room was silent for a brief moment before a small chuckle came from Cobra, that chuckle simply grew into full on laughter "It's a shame he was never exposed to the glory of Drac. How unfortunate, we could have been blood brotherssssss!" Cobra laughed maniacally as he puts the photo away and reaches into his vest pocket and pulls out the blood red ring places it on vanishing without a trace.

Why in Oums name was this psychotic monster born? The answer, people aren't born evil, they are made, driven to the wrong path from others influence, a human or Faunus can only hold off so much until they break or driven off the edge… sometimes, they experience it far younger than they would have liked.

Ezekial Liu-Wang looked up to the sky, snarling at the cloud above. So far, he was no closer to finding any hints of Drac and her minions. He had scoured through Anima, but there was no hint of them, they seemed to all have moved somewhere else. Ezekial was tempted to just break into Haven and kill Arc, but it was too risky. Too many Hunters there that could stop him. Ezekial merely wanted to kill the dragons, enemies of humanity, not humans themselves if he could avoid it. Plus, Jaune Ryu-Long so far hadn't done anything that caught his attention. Though that would not prevent Ezekial from slitting Jaune's throat when he had the chance to.

The Grimm was secondary to him, as they left him alone well enough. Although a few attacked him, he easily dealt with them. His guns, all scratched and faded, was still powerful to block an Alpha Beringal's blow. Of course, they weren't made from normal metals. They were created from the scales of the dragons that he had gathered after the fight against Drac's mother was finished.

"You will not hide from me forever," growled Ezekial as he continued his journey. He decided if Anima wasn't working, then it was time to head East to the continent of Sanus.

The semester continued for Jaune and the others without much excitement, which they enjoyed. They dealt with the usual search and destroy missions along with various investigation missions, but for the moment it seemed like Salem and her faction was laying low.

"You know, it's been awhile since we went on a date," piped Jaune as team JNPR was eating lunch.

"Where would we go?" asked Pyrrha, "We'd be mobbed on the streets if we went out in public."

Although she had to admit, she wanted to go on a date with Jaune. But with training and school, they had been too busy.

"Mmmm how about a movie and dinner?" asked Jaune, "Ren, Nora. Wanna come with us to make it a double date?"

"I wouldn't mind," nodded Ren, "Although dinner has to have a place where they serve pancakes. I can use my Semblance to sneak us through the crowds."

"Oooh, we should still wear disguises, like a secret agent," piped Nora before going off on a tangent again.

"She says yes," interpreted Ren.

"Sweet. Let's go watch... Ducking Lion, Invisible Lizard!" said Jaune as he was scrolling through his Scroll, "Heard that one was a good one. Something about humor and comedy mixed together, along with some action scene, though that's something we don't need more of."

The others chuckled in agreement before making plans for the day.

"Hey. Where's team JNPR?" asked Neptune as team SSSN was balancing themselves on some poles that would shift every now and then. Below them was water infested with leeches that would latch on if they didn't escape fast enough. Of course, Wong was there to supervise.

"They went on a date," said Wong as he sipped his tea, "I decided to allow it."

"What?" said Neptune, only to lose concentration, slip, and fall into the water below, taking Scarlet with him. A second later, both of them were rushing out of the water, trying to dislodge two leeches on their arms.

"They made a convincing argument," shrugged Wong, "Now, jumping squats, four sets, fifty each while maintaining balance."

As they began to start, Wong added, "One more thing. Lose balance, redo all set."

Needless to say, team SSSN would not be leaving for the next two hours.

Jaune was humming as he went to the library to check out some books for a project his professor had assigned to each individual when a staff member came up to him.

"Jaune Ryu-Long? You have an urgent message. Go to room one to take the call."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at this and went to the room to receive the call. He was surprised to see the caller was.

"Hello… brother." Said Aurelian Arc.

"Aurelian? Since when did you consider me a brother? What do you want?" asked Jaune coldly.

"Relax, Jaune, I bear no ill will against you." said Aurelian, raising his hand, "I called to give you a warning."

Jaune rolled his eyes before saying "Not buying it, brother. What is this crap? One of Vlad's traps?"

"No. You don't have to worry about father anymore. He's dead," said Aurelian bluntly, causing Jaune to blink in surprise, "And no, this isn't a trick. I have photos taken by the police to prove it. He was murdered while Boyd and I were with our mother. He was alone, and his death was rather... gruesome. We can't figure out the culprit, or the motivation for who could have killed him. There's you, of course, but you have a rock solid alibi, and the fact you have no desire or reason to even return to these lands."

"Why are you warning me?" asked Jaune, "What do you have to gain from this?"

"...Would you believe me if I said I was doing this because I'm worried for you?"

"I'd say go see the doctor."

"Fair enough," chuckled Aurelian, "But be careful. I'm sending you the photos, but fair warning, they are not pretty. And for some reason, the letter D was carved into father's chest, but the execution of it, from what I've been told, was done by someone using their own teeth. I'm upping the precaution for my mother and brother, and I've already sent the same message to your sisters and mother. Hopefully this maniac won't come after any of us."

With that, Aurelian said his goodbyes and logged off. Jaune received the files of the investigation and decided to just get it over with.

Aurelian was right. It was very bloody and very disgusting to see the letter D carved into Vlad's chest, while a good chunk of Vlad's neck was missing, clearly if you look hard enough you could see a piece of the windpipe showing. He looked at the photo, staring at the photo of his now deceased sperm donor. It felt weird, seeing him actually dead. He had wished ill will against Vlad for sure, but he never thought that his wish would come true so soon and so unexpectedly. Why did he die like this?

As he scrolled through the photos, he saw the reason why. On the floor of the crime scene was the familiar badge of Drac's worshipers.

"So, they wanted to make sure to get the root of it," growled Lung Wang, "To make sure he didn't pop out more the Dragon Clan."

"They do realize they got the wrong one," offered Othim.

"But why were they there in the first place?" mused Alaerth.

"Who knows. But luckily, your mother is in a safer situation," commented Aryz, "Your sisters live with her, and several of them are trained Huntresses. Not to mention, they live in a populated area while Vlad lived in a secluded one."

"I'd feel better if they lived closer to me," grumbled Jaune, "Or at least in Beacon. I could have Junior and the others help watch out for them."

"Something to tell them, then," advised Ryo-Wo.

"Still, the fact Aurelian cared to tell us that is surprising," mentioned Fafnir.

"My sisters did tell me he seemed to have a change of heart lately, even testifying against Vlad," said Jaune as he switched back to look at the photo of his father's body. He felt very numb and slightly guilty.

He stayed in the room, just staring at the photo until Pyrrha went to look for him, slightly worried about him. He had failed to show up for dinner, so Pyrrha went to the library to ask if they had seen Jaune.

"Jaune?" asked Pyrrha as she entered the room just to gasp as she saw Vlad's body.

"He's dead," said Jaune dully, "And I don't know what to think or feel."

Pyrrha slowly walked over and hugged him, pushing his head to her chest, comforting him. Even though Jaune hated his father, she knew he never wished him dead. As she patted his head, Jaune found tears come out of his eyes before he started to cry.

"Why am I crying? After everything he did to me I should be happy… but I… I…" Jaune said through sobs.

"He was a cruel man, but had it not been for him, you would have never met the dragons… or me." Pyrrha told him calmly as she kissed his forehead.

The couple continued to sit there in silence, Pyrrha comforting her lover as much as she could.

Atlas

"Are they alright?"

Team RWBY was at the Atlas hospital checking up on Clodwal and Ales. They had been treated and deemed to be back in full health, ready for missions. But they were worried about those two, as they had the most grievous injuries out of all of them.

"Both have suffered life-threatening attacks, but Specialist Schnee got them here just in time and they are expected to make a full recovery," announced the doctor treating them, looking at the charts.

"That's good to hear," sighed Weiss, "We were pretty lucky my sister made it in time."

"Good thing, too," piped Ruby, "We were close to being wiped out. We need to invest in some earplugs so we don't get hit by that again."

"I'm bringing mufflers next time," said Blake, her sensitive cat ears twitching from the memory.

"Can we go see them?" asked Yang.

"Only for a few minutes," said the doctor, "After that, General Ironwood wants to move them to a secret and secure area."

"Figures," mumbled Ruby, "Well then, Team RWBY, let's go visit them!"

They soon arrived at the room where the Frosts were and entered to see Ales sitting up, feeding a cup of soup to her husband.

"It's good to see you're alright, girls," said Clodwal as he gulped down the soup, "Nice of you to visit us again."

"Sooo..." started Ruby, "How is it that you have someone with you? We didn't ask last time as it was too hectic, but from what daddy Qrow said, the Maidens were supposed to travel alone. How is it that you have guardians?"

"Well..." Ales began, a blush on her face, "Clodwal was very stubborn."

"She saved me one day, and I fell in love with her," Clodwal told them bluntly, "She tried to tell me that she wasn't interested, but it was obvious that she was. Not to mention, I could tell she looked so terribly lonely. So, I chased after her. At the time I didn't even know about the Maidens."

"He kept chasing me, village after village," sighed Ales, "I had to save him quite a few times before he managed to finally worm his way through my heart. By then, I accepted him as someone who was going to be with me. Our other two friends..."

At this, she stopped to keep herself from crying, allowing Clodwal to take over with a somber tone, "They were also other people who found out about the Maidens. They knew about Ales, and declared themselves protectors. They tested me to see if I could be useful."

At this, Ales let out a sad smile, "They were harsh on him, trying to break him. They weren't trying to steal me from him, so to speak, but they said that if he truly loved me, then he'd better be able to help protect me."

"It wasn't easy," chuckled Clodwal, "I got tossed around so many times by them before I proved myself. Fast forward a few years, and we had our secret marriage ceremony. Obviously, we didn't tell Ozpin and the rest, as we feared they would demand us to split."

"And that's pretty much it," finished Ales, "We've been hiding since Ozpin gave us a warning that Salem was actively hunting us now, and apparently, there's also a new group on the field now."

Team RWBY nodded before Ruby added, "We think Jaune knows what this last group is about."

"You've mentioned this Jaune fellow quite a few times now," questioned Clodwal, "Is there any chance we could meet him?"

"He's at Haven right now," replied Blake, "Though he could make a trip up here if he wanted to, but I don't know if he would have the time to do so."

"Not to mention you'll be going back into hiding soon," reminded Weiss, "Though I'm sure if you requested it, Professor Ozpin could find a way to make it happen."

They talked for a bit, with Weiss asking some more tips about summoning when Ales wanted to ask about Jaune.

Before she could ask, the door opened to reveal General James Ironwood with Winter and another soldier.

"Ladies. I'm sorry to say, but visiting time is over," said Ironwood gently, "We need to move you to a secure position until further notice. Our group has discussed it, and we feel it may be safer if we moved all the Maidens together so they can watch each other's backs for now. This may disrupt your regular work to help others, but we have no choice."

Ales twitched at this, she didn't like staying in one place for too long, much less contained. One of the things in common with all the Maidens was that they enjoyed being able to travel Remnant, so the thought of being stuck in one place was a bit unbearable.

"It's temporary, honey," said Clodwal, knowing his wife's thoughts, "Until it's a bit safer. You have to admit, we would've died if it hadn't been for Team RWBY."

Ales sighed before turning to Ironwood to agree, although with a few conditions of her own.

"Understood. Please, follow me," gestured Ironwood.

As Ales stood up and walked out, Clodwal groaned before getting out of his bed, landing on the wheelchair, and wheeled himself to follow when the soldier stopped him.

"Only her. We're not taking anyone else."

"But I'm her husband!" shouted Clodwal.

"No exceptions. Her safety is paramount. You will only serve as a weak and exposing link."

"Listen, either you move, or I'll roll my wheelchair over your ass!"

The soldier stood there, not letting Clodwal through the door while thinking he could take care of some insane invalid. Growling in annoyance, Clodwal grabbed his staff and hooked the soldier's leg from under him, causing him to land on his butt. Clodwal then proceeded to roll his wheelchair right over the soldier's chest, causing the soldier to lose his breath from the pain. Clodwal paused after passing him before deciding to reverse back and run over the soldier a few more times back and forth before wheeling himself to chase after Ales. The soldier groaned before getting up to follow.

"Wow," said Yang as they witnessed Clodwal kicking the soldier's ass, "Guess he didn't want to roll over for him."

"I think we should catch up to make sure the guard doesn't do anything drastic," warned Weiss as she ran out the door, followed by the rest of the team.

"Halt! You're under arrest!"

"Just give it a rest, idiot!"

Ironwood and the others turned to see a soldier wrestling with Clodwal. The soldier had grabbed hold of the wheelchair and tried to steer him away, but Clodwal slammed his staff into the ground and froze the wheels.

"Soldier! What's going on?" barked Ironwood.

"Sir!" saluted the soldier, letting go of Clodwal's wheelchair, "Just trying to get rid of this interloper. He keeps making ludicrous claims, saying he's the VIP's husband."

"He is my husband," said Ales coldly, Aura brimming in her hands, "Were you trying to separate him from me?"

The soldier gulped but continued forward, "My orders were clear. Make sure nobody follows Ironwood and the VIP. This man could be a leak and expose your position."

"I'll give you five seconds to retract that statement before I decide to make an ice sculpture out of you," hissed Ales as she raised her Aura infused hands.

"Stand down," sighed Ironwood before turning to the soldier, "Head back to your original position, soldier."

The soldier nodded and ran back to his duty.

"He's just overzealous," sighed Ironwood, "But speaking of which, I thought you Maidens were supposed to travel alone. I thought he was just a mountain guide who happened to be there with Team RWBY."

"It's advised but not a law," huffed Ales, "Anyways, he comes with me, or I take my chances out in the wild again. No alternatives. I won't be separated from my husband."

Ironwood merely put his hand to his nose to stave off the oncoming headache, "Fine. Just a warning, the place we were going to put you in was originally designed for all females only. Having him there may make the others... uncomfortable. It might offend their convictions."

"They'll just have to get used to it," said Ales, waving her hand off, "Any chance we can know where you're taking us?"

"No," said Ironwood stiffly, "The less you know, the better. All I can say it's a safe and secure location. Even I don't know where it is. Only Ozpin knows."

"Well, that's something," sighed Ales as she boarded the Bullhead with her husband, where they would be taken to who knows where. As they lifted off, Ales gazed out to the beautiful mountain ranges one last time, knowing it would be awhile before she returned. He looked down to see team RWBY waving goodbye, to which she and Clodwal responded. Her gaze lingered at Weiss and Winter for just a bit longer.

Oooh what could that gaze mean? Anyways, hoped you've all been enjoying the story. Review if you can! Anyways, all four missions are done, so going to put the focus back on Jaune again. Also, Vlad is dead! Who saw that type of death coming!?