Jaune arrived in Mistral for his interview with the security firm. He was nervous about it. He had written off to twenty organisations in the last month and this was only his second interview. Most had written back with polite responses saying that he did not fit their requirements at the moment or that they were not recruiting currently. A few had said that they would keep his name on their books, but the message was that for the next three months it was a case of don't call us, we'll call you.

It had been six weeks since Professor "Tallyho" Pink's visit to Kulsa and five since the headmaster at ACS had confirmed that he could not join in with the second-year class next term as the vacancies had been filled by Evelyn and the two transferees from Redoubt Combat school in Mistral City. He had been very apologetic but said that his hands had been tied. Jaune saw that it was true. Evelyn was clearly a strong candidate of the right age. The two transferees had already been attending combat school and the Governor of Ansel province had made it clear that he needed their parents to be seen to be committed to Ansel. Debo had explained the political significance of this and jaune had understood the reasoning behind it. Mother going along it was only her duty.

It was clear now that his family had been treading on eggshells around him. Well apart from dad who had started on a monologue one evening which was of a count your blessings type and lauding the excellent work which mother was doing in the Local Grimm Defence Force. Mother had caught the tail end and had tried to change the subject.

The twins plus their two teammates had come to work with mother for part of the holiday before going off to their Grimm clearance job in Argus in September. Nancy had referred to him as Jaune and not Joannie and they generally did not tease him in the same way as they did dad and Lavender. Lavender kept casting glances at him, and she and dad chose his favourite meals. Mother had been busy but had said to Jaune if he needed to talk she was there for him.

Oddly, it had been Lily who had been the most direct with him. She and David had been off to Mistral for an early holiday that summer and had come round to see the family before setting out. Mother was working late at the office but had sent him home to entertain Lily while Lavender and dad prepared the evening meal. He had brought Lily out a cocktail when she had said to him, "I heard the news. Don't take it out on Lavender."

"Pardon."

"You're going around like you have a personal thundercloud above your head. You shut her out for two years and she doesn't want to lose her big brother again."

Jaune blushed, "I know it's not her fault, it's just that I am still working things out in my own head. I had dared to hope that I could attend ACS next year. My aura's still as strong as when Amber unlocked it."

"She won't ask you directly, but it would help her if you could tell her that it's OK for Evelyn to come and visit here."

"I'm not stopping her." Jaune paused and thought about it. "How much of a jerk was I during those twenty months before I joined the LGDF?"

"More than you realised at the time, less than you fear now. It's just that you pushed everyone away when we tried to help last time you felt sorry for yourself. It taught us to be cautious about offering help."

Jaune was puzzled and it must have shown on his face. She laughed, "I'm away for three weeks from tonight and when I get back we can both pretend that we did not have this conversation if you prefer. Your mother and sisters will help you if you let them know that you are willing to be helped. They may not know how you feel, but if you give them some clues they can work something out."

Jaune blushed. "Thanks Lily. I'll not and push people away again. This sounds more like the conversation I would expect from Amber."

"Well, she and dad still aren't on speaking terms again yet, so I'll have to do. Look, Amber and Debo really helped me when I needed advice on speaking to dad and mother about not going to Refuge, sorry ACS. I was scared that I would be despised for not wanting to go to combat school. The only of us who hadn't was Saffy and she never came home. I worried that the family would reject me."

Jaune started to protest, and Lily held up her hand. "I know it was silly, but I was thirteen and I thought pashes for other girls was just a phase everyone went through until boys became civilised to talk to." She blushed. "Amber enlightened me that the reason Saffy stayed away was because she could not be herself with the people she had been to school with, not because mother and dad had rejected her. Debo then went with me to speak to mother. She told me that I had her blessing not to unlock my aura if I didn't want to."

Lily laughed, "You may remember. You had a cast on your arm after breaking your arm jumping off the garage roof. You were pretending that Amber was a Grimm and tried to surprise her. She was startled and flared her aura."

Jaune laughed, "I'd forgotten that."

"Anyway, mother then sat down dad with me, and they both told me that I had their support. Mother told me that it was my life and reassured me that it was good to have two children who she did not have to worry about each day. She told me about her and dad's brothers and dad's teammates and how hard it had been to lose them all by the time they were thirty."

She stroked his face. "It may not be true for all families, but it is for this one. They will help you do what you want to do and will try and understand even if they don't get it."

"Is there anything else I should be careful about?"

"You went into a sulk whenever people talked about combat school or the Mistral Regionals or becoming a hunter. Until you started with the LGDF, Lavender had to be incredibly careful about talking about applying to ACS."

Shortly afterwards dinner was ready, and the family ate al fresco. Jaune had slept on the conversation and talked to Lavender the following weekend. They cleared the air and hugged. They agreed to spar regularly over the holidays and practice shooting together.

He'd also spoken to the twins and mother. He'd told mother that he would be happy to spend time with the two Haven teams doing work experience this summer and that he would not sulk. She had taken him at his word, and it was interesting watching the twins coach Team ABRN about Grimm hunting. Neither of the twins were quite as strong as Amber and tended to work on double teaming larger Grimm rather than fighting solo. Arslan Altan seemed a god if very driven student. He suggested to the twins that they should talk to her about Amber's strategy of taking out the Alpha Grimm first. It was interesting watching the twins teach the soon to be first year team. They adapted their normal joking style to being more matter of fact and stressed that despite the temptation to rely on the fighting styles they had developed at combat school, taking Grimm out at long distance using rifles or dust grenades should be the first tactic. Even if it merely softened the Grimm up, the fewer risks taken the better.

It had been interesting watching the team dynamic and the twins had remarked on to mother it before the family dinner one evening when they sipping beers waiting for dad and Lavender finish of cooking the meal.

Nancy said, "See if you can get them as regular secondees, mother. They learn quickly and Arslan is good with her people."

Jessica said, "Perhaps too good. They are used to her making the decisions, especially Reese. We've recommended she delegate more and force the others to make suggestions. She's trying to do so."

Mother asked, "How much are they Grimm fighters as opposed to arena fighters?"

"Better than most. Actually, two of them are stronger against the Grimm than in the arena. Nadir's gun is good at taking them out from a distance. Reese, the Hoverboard girl is rather good at sniping from the board. Arslan's going to make Reese and Bolin practice more together and take it in turns to be the tactician. It will teach both of them to take more responsibility."

Later on, Jaune collected the plates and loaded up the dishwasher in the kitchen while dad put the finished touches to the cheese and pate board and cut up the bread.

When they returned to the table, Lavender was enthusiastically discussing Team ABRN and the other teams for Haven next year with the twins.

Nancy said, "Of course, no one knows which team she will be joining."

Lavender said, "Surely she will be with friends from Sanctum?"

"She's always been a solo fighter throughout her time at Sanctum. I am told that normally she fought handicap matches two or more against one because she was so much better than everyone else at the school. She always competed as an individual in tournaments and the promotional obligations meant that she did not socialise much with her classmates and most of her practise was done with special trainers rather than fellow students. Everyone likes and admires her, but no one really knows her."

Jessica added, "I think the professors were hoping that she would make a choice earlier as the uncertainty is unsettling the other new students. The rumours are that more or less every established team is offering to ditch their perceived weakest or poorest member if she joins them, and the richest parents are offering her agents substantial amounts of money for her to join the team on which their child was a member."

Mother grimaced. "Where did you hear this?"

"It's common knowledge at Haven. It's not helped by the fact that three of the strongest fighters at Redoubt are going to Beacon."

Nancy said, "Nadir and Reese got drunk a couple of nights ago and informed us of how grateful they were to Arslan for making it clear that the four of them would be sticking together as a team at Haven and that she would not be looking for replacements. According to them virtually every other grouping from Redoubt are hardly on speaking terms at the moment."

Lavender said, "I've heard that there are two unknown pairings coming to Haven this September."

Nancy laughed, "That's really added to the feeding frenzy. One of them is a member of the Vassilias family who has been living in Vacuo for the last six years and his best friend from there who is allegedly a Faunus. He can both afford to pay any signing fee which may be required and because she comes from Argus there is a group which thinks she will virtue signal by joining a team with a Faunus foreigner on it."

Jessica joined in "The other pairing are two unknown orphans who seem to be replacing the known orphans."

Dad scowled, "Can't say I blame those two for going to Beacon."

"Apparently everyone at Redoubt were relieved that they did. They are a formidable doubles pairing and would have been a very tempting buy in for the parent of a rich mediocrity to ensure that his child was on a Vytal Festival winning team."

Mother changed the conversation at that point. She clearly took the view that there was a limit to how much discussion oof next year at haven Jaune should be expected to put up with.

The other thing that the twins had helped with was a list of the better security firms for him to apply for a job with. They had also arranged for him to meet up with Jules and Sandy this evening to discuss why his applications were getting nowhere and also where else he should consider applying. He had met the two mustangs in a bar with the twins when he had first come to Haven to meet Professor Pink and they were apparently in Mistral City tonight. It turned out that they knew the person who was interviewing him today and suggested that he drop their names.

Bill Periwinkle was around fifty. He admitted to knowing Julian and Sandy and said that they had been good employees. He had started off by going through the CV. He then looked at Jaune and said, "You've probably been told this before, but you don't fit in any of the normal profiles for joining the security industry. We either recruit at 14 or 16 people who have left school early and for whom it is their first job. Most people we recruit at 18 are Combat school graduates who decided not to go or were turned down by Haven. They are semi-trained and tend to be put on our equivalent of boot camp to see if they are management prospects. Again, it is their first job, and we know what they have to learn and unlearn to work in the industry. You puzzle me and no doubt everyone else who will interview you. First, you only unlocked your aura recently. Second you have spent two years working for the LGDF and I don't know what you know and what you need to unlearn. Third, you sound as though you are on the management track with the LGDF and frankly the money, job security and lifestyle are better with the LGDF than for eighty percent of security operatives."

"I want to become a hunter and it looks as though I cannot join Haven through the combat school route. I therefore am investigating the Mustang route."

"You do know how few mustangs are recruited each year by the academies."

"I do. It looks like being my only chance."

The man then asked about his experience with the LGDF. He looked at Jaune, "Actually you're tempting me to apply to them. Fine I see that you can deal with the administrative side of things and obviously you could liaise with the local LGDF's in Mistral and Vale and the militias or military in Vacuo."

Periwinkle asked about how his aura had been unlocked and had seemed to frown when Amber's name was mentioned. At the end of the interview he said, "You are a triangular peg when I normally only have round and square holes to fill. I can't offer you a job at present, but I will keep your records on the file."

There was a pause, "Are you meeting Julian and Sandy tonight?"

"Yes, around eight."

"Pass on my best wishes to them."

Periwinkle walked him out of the interview room and to the foyer. He then said to the receptionist, "I'll be back in ten minutes. Just need to get something from the shops."

He escorted Jaune out of the building and accompanied him to the traffic lights. He turned to Jaune and said, "Could you let me have Jules's scroll number? I'd like to say hello to him again. Do talk to him and his friend Sandy tonight. What they will have to say is worth hearing."

A pause as Jaune passed over the details. "I hesitate to suggest this and don't even think about doing this without reading up fully on the dangers of either hellhole. A disproportionately large number of Mustangs have traditionally been discovered working in the far north wastes of Atlas or in the deserts of Vacuo. Jules knows about Vacuo. Sandy did a stint in Atlas."

Jaune was puzzled by this advice and arrived a little early for the evening out with Julian and Sandy. They met in a tapas bar known as the Arana Negra. It was rather a dark set of premises but obviously popular. The tablecloths were red with a black spider motif in the middle. The table had been booked in the name of Julian Salsaverde. He was not asked for ID and was shown straight to a table on the upstairs balcony and a bottle of white wine was produced without Jaune having to order. Clearly the two friends were well known there.

Actually, the bottle of white wine was lucky to make it to the table. The waitress slipped as she approached the table and the tray with the glasses, wine bucket, and bottle fell out of her grasp. The glasses fell to the ground and shattered loudly while the ice bucket disgorged the ice and icy water over Jaune. A hand reached out of nowhere and caught the bottle and another caught the waitress before her face could facepalm into the broken glass. A storm of sarcastic applause echoed round the bar.

A rather gravelly voice said, "Sorry about that, kid. Are you Ok? Add the cost of the glasses to my bill. Either add to the suggested tip if they take it out of your wages on principle"

"But you didn't get in my way. I just tripped. I'm so sorry sir." The waitress was clearly highly embarrassed.

"Things like that have a habit of happening around me. Don't sweat it. Is the divine Miss M here yet? She knows me and will accept it's not your fault."

"I can't say whether she will be here tonight, sir."

"No sweat darling. It's good to remember your duty to your employer. Just let her know when she arrives that a dusty old bird from the Badlands is here for the meeting. Bring me a large whisky and soda while I'm waiting."

Another waiter had come up with a dustpan and a mop and started to deal with the broken glasses and the puddle. The man put the bottle on the table and looked at him. "You're tall and blonde enough to be an Arc, but you're a bit flat chested for them. Is this your bottle?"

Jaune looked at the man and guessed that he must be in forties. He couldn't quite place the accent.

"You know my sisters?"

"Call me Dusty. Is this your bottle?"

"Yes, Dusty. I'm Jaune."

"Oh yes. I've heard about you from Amber. I may see you next week in Vale, worse luck for you."

"Are you a friend of her's?"

"I suppose I count. We trade insults which we can pretend are affectionate."

The waitress returned with the glasses, a new wine bucket, the whisky and soda and a towel. The man seemed to concentrate.

The waitress was sill rather flustered and made as if to pat Jaune's trousers dry. The man laughed and said, "He will probably prefer to do that himself. Well certainly his big sister would prefer that he did. His slightly older ones would sell tickets."

The waitress blushed and handed Jaune the towel. It was clear that the man knew Amber and the twins. Dusty took the whisky and soda and said, "Be seeing you." He then must have winked at the waitress who was by now blushing. "Is there anything more I can do for you sir, sir?" she said to Jaune.

Dusty snorted from behind them, and her blushes deepened. Jaune said, "Perhaps some menus for when my friends arrive."

"Right away sir."

Shortly afterwards the two mustangs arrived, but luckily after the clean-up had finished. Thinking about it they were now licensed hunters as well as they had been in the same year as his sisters. He congratulated them and passed on Periwinkle's best wishes. They smiled and started drinking and recommending what dishes they should share from the menu. Apparently the twins had sent then through money to cover Jaune's third of the likely bill which they said was more than adequate. It was clear from what they said that they were being paid well as licensed hunters.

After the cold tapas had arrived and been eaten, they started discussing the things he was most interested in. He remembered that they had told him the stories of how they had proven themselves to be good enough to be admitted as mustangs and they spelt it out more clearly. Jules said, "Most mustangs only get recommended because someone in charge fracked up and hunters and huntresses turn up just in time to see us fighting for our lives before we die for someone else's mistakes."

Sandy added, "I get that you need to follow your dream and we will help you. Just bear in mind that we think that the odds are that the best thing you can do from Mistral's point of view is to continue working for the LGDF."

Jaune nodded. He knew better than to argue and Sandy had made it clear that he understood if jaune did not take the advice.

Jules said, "We're not going to pretend that we haven't spoken to Bill and that some of the things he said to us will be incorporated in his advice. What I should make clear is that the harshest messages we will give you aren't from him but reflect his and our knowledge of other firms in the security industry. Bill's one of the good guys."

Sandy said "Well, he's all right and that counts for good in our old business."

Jaune said "I understand what you are saying."

Jules said, "Don't bother applying in Mistral. The only ones who are likely to employ you won't put you in situations where you can prove yourself good enough."

Sandy said, "Some of the better firms won't employ you because they are worried that you want to be a hero and will get other people killed. The fact that you are only looking for a job in order to become a student at haven will freak them out. We know the twins and they are at most calculated risk people. They know they when to retreat and how long to leave it."

Jules continued, "Look me and my friend Sandy are delighted to be mustangs and now hunters. When we started we just wanted to earn a decent wage and see Remnant. A few years in when we had seen enough second-rate hunters to say to ourselves that we were at least as good as them, but neither of us started out with becoming one as our objective."

Sandy said, "The next problem you've got is that you are too well connected, and your family is known to be honest by Mistralian standards."

"Why is that a problem?"

"Your father is a minor, if half forgotten, legend, your mother is respected, Amber is the best huntress out of Haven for a decade even if she lost to Winter Schnee and the twins are box office. If you die because someone mucks up, the death will be investigated, and heads will roll. Far better to employ poor orphans with no family like the two of us were when we started who know no one powerful enough to ask awkward questions."

"Seriously?"

"How would you react if you saw a superior abuse a Faunus subordinate just because they were a Faunus; Ignore all the safety protocols because they cost money; have one person monitoring surveillance cameras which should be looked at by four people? Would you sit back and say that's life, or would you make a fuss?"

Jules added, "Even if you would let it ride, no one would want to rely on you not whistleblowing when it all went wrong. There is a reason your big sister Amber only gets called into jobs in Mistral where the risks are high, and the costs of failure mean that everyone accepts that they have to be done properly."

Sandy said, "The twins came back from Awkney before the end of term. They and your father spent days going round the county spelling out that your mother would come down like a ton of bricks on anyone who thought it was business as usual and that if corners were to be cut they needed approval from her or one of her deputies."

"Most security businesses like rather more flexibility than that."

"Periwinkle suggested that I go to the north of Atlas or to Vacuo."

Jules said, "Human Mistralians aren't that popular in Vacuo at the moment. Besides which you will need about three months to get used to Vacuo. You will need to have your aura lightly on all the time not because of the Grimm but because of the animals."

Sandy said, "Even the sand tries to kill you and as for some of the plant life, spiders, and insects.

Jules said, "Your accent is pretty neutral and if you spent two months in Vale you could probably soften it enough to pass as one of them."

Jaune said "And Atlas?"

"The northern mines are in such a cold part of the continent that it's hard for a Mistralian to tolerate them. There was a reason so many Mistralians were employed by the multi-Kingdoms in Vacuo."

At that point, the hot tapas started to arrive as well as two more bottles of wine and the three of them started eating. Jaune heard the waitress tell Dusty that Little Miss was willing to see him and the man asking her when she got off shift. Apparently another hour was the answer, but she said that they needed the table back.

Sandy turned his head as the man went down the stairs and nudged Jules, "Is that who I think it is?"

Jules looked round and said, "Probably yes, but let's not speculate what he is doing here."

"Curiosity is indeed bad for the health."

Jaune said, "He seems to know my sisters. Well. Amber at least. Is he based in Vale?"

Dusty said, "One of Ozpin's troubleshooters."

A piece of paper was passed to Jaune with a name written down which was not Dusty. He looked at the Rhinoceros Faunus, Sandy who nodded at him. "Nobody ever says his name. A bit like Amber. Everyone intellectually knows he is on the side of the good guys but prefer that he only turns up for absolute emergencies."

The discussions continued as did the wine consumption. Jaune could have sworn that he could see a black bird sitting on the beams above their heads and at that stage considered he should call it a night. He had a long flight ahead of him tomorrow and his motion sickness was a problem.

He managed to get the hunters to order some water for him while they ordered a fourth or was it a fifth bottle of wine. His motion sickness did not need the encouragement of a hangover and he need to write down the advice he had been given tonight.

Anyway, while he was in Vale he needed to buy himself a false identity, write himself a fictitious CV, take two years off his age and learn to speak posh.

Sandy had come up with a second suggestion which was to transfer to the Argus LGDF and volunteer to work on the forest clearance project. There were plenty of Grimm around, the twins would be there between September and the end of November, and he could stay with Saffy. Mother would probably be OK with him transferring within the LGDF on the basis that it would be easier for Chief Flax to promote him rather than her. Besides which the reclamation project was dangerous enough for the fact that he had a strong aura to be an advantage.

The third suggestion was to work for the safari firms in Vacuo. They would not recognise him if he applied and apparently being six foot, blonde and having a strong aura were rather good qualifications. Jaune was just drunk enough that Jules saying that the fact that he was eye candy for the women meant that provided he liked cougars as well as kittens, then he would have a fun time and be a strong selling point. He only realised just before he boarded the plane to Vale the next morning exactly what Jules had been getting at and the significance of Sandy teasing Jules about how Jaune was better suited to take advantage of the possibilities.

Jaune was flying cattle class and wondered whether he had spotted Dusty in business class as he passed through. However, this thought deserted him when the plane hit what the pilot later described as "unexpected and unprecedented turbulence." Luckily Jaune had learnt to always travel with sick bags and ta least he unlike most of the passengers had not unfastened his seat belt before the turbulence hit.

/-/

In the business class section, Qrow Branwen swigged from his flask. He hoped that this had exhausted his semblance for the rest of the trip. He would have taken the train to the coast and used his Crow body to cross the ocean, but the Old Man had called an emergency meeting back in Vale. He half suspected that he really wanted Qrow there to avoid having to tell Glynda what he had been up to without an audience to cramp her anger.

Not for the first time he compared the Ice Queen with GG. He was not certain who would be most upset at the fact despite the similarities, he preferred dealing with Glynda because of her sense of humour, tolerance, and care for others.

He had rather liked the young Arc. He also thought that the old man might appreciate him as well as he would often sound off about wanting students with more honest souls. The fact that the boy had still not identified who was responsible for his aura not being unlocked showed that he was a less devious and suspicious soul than Qrow was used to dealing with.

Until the last few paragraphs this has been a single POV story. It's just that I think we need another viewpoint to deal with Jaune's admission into Beacon and Qrow's seemed an appropriate one.

The two Mustangs appeared back in chapter 8. I could have added another thousand or so words about why working for a security firm in Mistral wouldn't work but decided it would mostly have been repeating the same basic problems. If anyone feels that I should have fleshed it out more let me know.

I am now into the end stretch of this story. Maybe two or at most three more chapters. I am toying around in my head with two new stories. One is a follow up to The Branwen Republic between six to ten years afterwards with Raven being the central character. Probably multiple POVs, but only one POV a chapter. The other is a story about Team FNKI based in Mantle fleshing out Flynt and Neon's back story and what happened to Flynt's father's store. It also would present Ironwood as thinking and acting as though Mantle was a core part of Atlas. Probably just Flynt's POV. Does anyone have any preferences or comments?