Here we go.


Cover Art: GWBrex

Chapter 48


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Atlas expands military investment in response to White Fang threat; begins recalling soldiers from bases in other kingdoms.

Atlas Times

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Council of Vale promises the Vytal Festival will not be cancelled "whatever" Atlas decide.

Vale Daily Tribune

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Mistral to accept faunus refugees choosing to flee Atlas.

The Mistral Review

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Gillian Asturias promises Vacuo's doors are open to anyone who wishes to leave Atlas.

Vacuo Today

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Mistral and Vacuo side with White Fang over isolationist Atlas.

Kuo Kuana Express

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"He wants to hire us as his personal security?"

Cinder leaned back, honestly quite surprised at the idea, and also at how mindbogglingly useful Mercury was turning out to be. She'd taken him on as a consolation prize after not being able to hire his father and hadn't expected much more from him than muscle and obedience. It hardly helped that Mercury was a sociopath with little she could use to buy his loyalty beyond the promise he'd be able to do whatever he wanted. There had been plans in her head of how to get rid of him if she needed to, how best to ditch him, but now she couldn't countenance such a wild idea. Mercury was, in no uncertain terms, carrying this mission of theirs.

"Atlas isn't shafting him so much as worried they'll be drawn away," Mercury explained. "And he's got to look somewhere for people to have his back. I figured we could do a better job than some random hired firm that'd turn on him if someone paid better. Plus, you know, it lets us have our own access if we need it."

"To kidnap him," said Emerald.

"Do we need to?" asked Mercury. He held his hands up at Emerald's hard gaze. "Hey. Hey. I'm not having second thoughts or going soft. I just mean, do we need to kidnap him when he's on the verge of wanting to leave on his own. And who better to help him than his loyal allies? Nikos might even be on board, and you were saying she might be Ozpin's candidate. No need to worry about that if she's on our side. I'm just saying that Jaune will be a lot more willing to try and use his Semblance for our mysterious boss if he's coming along willingly."

"But the plan-" began Emerald.

"Can be changed," said Cinder, stepping in not with a frown but a small smile. It wouldn't do to make Emerald feel less appreciated when her Semblance might still prove invaluable. "Mercury has a point, Emerald, and I have to admit that after speaking with Jaune I'm of a mind that he can be won over to our cause naturally. Let's be honest, Neo would rather stay here with Roman, and I'm sure Roman would rather not risk his life with our original plan anyway. Isn't that right, Neo?"

The mute girl would have normally ignored her but for once was sitting up and alert. Cinder knew there was no love lost between them; Neo was important to her plans, but her loyalty to Roman was absolute. Familial, in a sense. Neo would betray them in an instant if she felt Roman was in danger, which was why Cinder had done her best to be forgiving with the irritating man's failures. If it weren't for Neo, she'd have gotten rid of him long ago.

Neo knew that, and that was why she'd grudgingly agreed to come infiltrate Beacon with them. Tit-for-tat. Neo and Roman were no doubt afraid she might dispose of them once she was done with them, however, and Cinder had done her best not to give off that kind of message. Even if a part of her wanted to.

"We'd still use the dust but we could skip some of the hardest parts of the plan," she said. "Spare Roman the need to infiltrate the flagship. Why, there might not even be a flagship to infiltrate if Atlas really are called back. Roman can watch the festivities from the comfort of his living room for all I care. Does that sound appealing, Neo?" The mute nodded quickly and even flashed an "okay" sign with her fingers. "Good. I'm sure Roman has smuggling routes out the city as well. Those might prove useful for getting Jaune out. Would he be amicable to that, Neo?"

Another nod, confident this time. Roman had probably smuggled people in and out before as well.

"Then are we abandoning the whole plan?" asked Emerald.

"Not abandoning. Amending. It would have to be anyway if Atlas left; much of it relied on them being here after all. Not to mention that Adam has decided to ghost me." Cinder smiled sarcastically as she said it. The White Fang's assistance wouldn't be needed anyway if Atlas left. "The broad strokes will remain. The Grimm will attack and we shall make use of the chaos – only that instead of striking at Beacon, we might be striking our way out with Jaune."

The Fall Maiden was something she could come back for. It wasn't time sensitive. Cinder despised leaving power there when she could take it, but Jaune's was a power all of its own, and as much as he hated using it, she was confident he would on his close friends and allies. He simply hated other people thinking they had a right to it.

"Speaking of," said Mercury. "What are we going to do about this boss of yours, Cinder? I get that we don't need to know and we'll meet them when we're ready, but if they want him for his Semblance then he isn't going to get along with them. Also, I'm getting the feeling it isn't going to be that simple."

"It won't be. Our… employer has family that are long dead." Thousands of years dead. "And she's unfortunately of the desperate group that believe Jaune is holding back somehow or has made up his limitations."

"He hasn't, ma'am."

"I know that. It's going to be a bridge we'll cross when we get there. I'll explain it to him once we're far away from Vale. He'll make the attempt, tell her it's impossible and that will be it. I can convince her not to react badly – there's always the small chance Jaune's Semblance will expand in scope if he comes into his power. Semblances are known to evolve."

The chances of it evolving enough to bring Salem's family back were slim, but Salem couldn't afford to take the risk of killing him when that might happen. A possibility, no matter how small, would be enough to justify Jaune being spared.

Cinder expected he would be upset about that and their duplicity, but that was the point of telling him the truth when it was too late to matter. Besides, they could fulfil their end of the bargain regardless. Jaune would be free of his work, free from expectation, and he would be free to live a normal life wherever he pleased, on the understanding that he should respond to them if needs be. They could help him live a life with people far away from anyone who might recognise him, and if his Semblance never did evolve, well, Salem would forget about him in time.

Better to ask forgiveness than seek permission.

"Tell Jaune that we would be thrilled to take on this duty. He has us at his disposal – and make it clear that is for whatever he might wish to accomplish. We will protect him from terrorists, and, if needs be, from the people of Vale as well."

Mercury grinned. "He'll like that."

"I'm glad to hear it." Now to take care of Emerald so she would stop pouting. "Emerald, dear, I could use your assistance in adapting our plans to account for the lack of both the White Fang and Atlas. There's going to be much that needs to change – and you and your Semblance are a key part of it."

Emerald sat just a little straighter, face flushing. "Y-Yes ma'am! I'm at your disposal."

"One question," said Mercury, already at the door. "It might tempt him even more if he knew just how good we could be at sneaking him out. I know Emerald's Semblance is to be kept a secret and all, but if Jaune knew what it could do…"

If he knew how trivially easy it would make him sneaking out of Vale, he meant.

"Get a promise he won't talk first, but then tell him. He's an honourable sort from what I can tell, and he doesn't have a team in the tournament to support. Make it out that we're keeping it hidden for that reason."

"Cool. I'll get on that now."

/-/

Jaune spent most of the day on his scroll reading news stories online. He hated it, and yet for once the focus wasn't wholly on him. A lot of the papers were reporting on the worsening situations in both Atlas and Menagerie, and the possibility of conflict. No one called it a war because they didn't want to suggest Menagerie (or the White Fang now in charge of it) was a legitimate player with the authority to declare a war. At best it was terrorist action, but everyone knew what that meant despite the flowery wordplay.

It was looking more and more like the White Fang would make a play on Atlas, and that General Ironwood and the rest would be recalled. The political situation over there was… volatile, for lack of a better word. Toxic might fit better. People were screaming at one another in comments and slotting everyone into boxes and ignoring anything they said if the box had a different label.

were "isolationists" who wanted to lock the doors and ignore the world; "corpos" who wanted to make money and protect the economy; "apologists" who was the term given to anyone who tried to take a peaceful or pro-cooperation approach. It was all ridiculous. The terms were designed to be inflammatory and belittle the other party, and all it did was end up with a tribal mentality that the White Fang were all too happy to exploit. There's no way I caused all that. Gave it a little push, maybe, but these problems go way deeper than me.

The White Fang were trying to legitimise themselves too. Operative word – trying. Not everyone was letting them, but that didn't stop Sienna Khan making proclamations, and it didn't stop the world having to pay attention. When she made a formal request to Mistral to accept faunus refugees wishing to leave Atlas, Mistral was put on the spot. To accept the refugees even if they didn't acknowledge Sienna would make it look like they agreed, while rejecting them would make it look like they were siding with Atlas. It didn't matter what choice they made; they were screwed either way.

Sienna had also expressed her well wishes to Vale for the Vytal Festival and suggested that Menagerie might send a singular diplomat to attend. Technically speaking, Vale couldn't say no. The whole point of the Vytal Festival was international cooperation, and the only way they could actively refuse would be to arrest the person who came. Sienna had to know that, which was she'd almost certainly be sending someone without a criminal record. It could be an actual diplomat of Menagerie (the island, and not the White Fang) and then Vale wouldn't be able to do a thing.

But the second they hosted them, Atlas – or the more militant parts of it - would lose their minds.

"How is the world in this bad a shape?" Jaune asked the empty room. Elm was out in talks with Ironwood, no doubt trying to find an eleventh-hour solution to the absolute shitshow going on. "I always thought it'd be the Grimm that threatened the kingdoms, but they're ripping themselves apart."

And you'd really think the threat of monsters inimical to all life would unify people.

A knock came at the door, followed by a voice. "Yo. It's Mercury. You in?"

"The door is open."

Mercury tried it and walked in, then closed it behind him. He raised a single hand in greeting, then eyed the scroll in Jaune's lap. "Don't tell me you're reading the news, man. It's not worth it."

"The world is in chaos."

"Yeah, and it's not your job to fix it." Mercury strolled over and tossed himself on Jaune's bed, making the mattress jump. "Anyway, I talked to Cinder and the team. We're in."

"You are? Just like that? Don't you want to discuss rates?"

"Ah, you'll pay us well." Mercury waved his hand. "I mean, we're students. We're earning nothing right now, so anything is a profit. Cinder likes you, too." He winked. "Though not in the worrying way. Kindred spirit sort of thing. Or maybe it's an enemy of my enemy deal."

That was good to hear. Jaune thought he rather liked Cinder as well, but again in a strange way. He'd call her a friend, but she wasn't like Pyrrha. It was closer to an ally. Someone who shared many of the same opinions you did, and who you found a strange middle-ground with. He'd call her a cynic at best, but the world had made him fairly cynical so that balanced out.

If it weren't for him and Pyrrha already being friends, he'd have probably not been interested in her as she was now. That sounded horrible to say, but "friendly" people weren't what he was looking for. He found more in common with people like Mercury and Cinder, though he was obviously happy he still had Pyrrha in his corner. It was just hard to agree with her sometimes when she was so… so nice. He wondered if his own fame hadn't spared her a little. The Champion of Mistral might be a big deal, but she paled in comparison to the boy who could bring back the dead, and that might have protected her from some of the more intrusive media outlets. They were all too busy hacking his and Weiss' messages to care about Pyrrha.

"I've got some other good news too," said Mercury. "But you've got to promise to keep it a secret."

"Huh?" Jaune was snapped back. "Why?"

"It's something that'll be super useful to you when we're being your bodyguards but it's Semblance-related, which means if anyone knows about it – Pyrrha especially – she'll counter our team and we'll be knocked out the tournament."

"Oh. Right. A lot of teams are trying to keep their semblances secret, aren't they?"

He'd almost forgotten the tournament was a thing to be honest. It was too public for him to be excited about, and he was expected to attend – which meant he'd have to go as himself and sit in the VIP boxes where everyone could see him. Not fun. A lot of people, the students here especially, were looking forward to it, though. He couldn't blame them wanting to have an edge.

When you might end up against Pyrrha Nikos, you needed every chance you had – and the best part was that Pyrrha had confided in him that her semblance was a secret as well. He knew what it was because she'd shown him, and he knew why she didn't want to advertise it. It wasn't cheating any more than a combat semblance was, and those were allowed, but tabloids would run with the angle anyway, if only to farm readers. If someone on Cinder's team had a valuable semblance then it wasn't a surprise they'd want it kept secret.

"Fine. I promise not to tell anyone. You're saying this is a semblance that'd be useful for your job as bodyguards?"

"That and more." Mercury was grinning now. He leaned in. "It's Emerald's. And it's all around illusions."

"Illusions?"

"Sort of. Maybe hallucination is better. Cinder could find the right word, but she doesn't create an illusion that everyone can see; it's more that she can make one person see whatever she wants them to see. Or two people if she risks draining her aura and getting a killer headache. We use it in fights to make them not notice us doing things. Miss details, or completely miss us sneaking up behind one of them."

It sounded strong. It also sounded more like hallucination rather than illusion, since the latter should be something everyone could perceive of. He could also see why it'd be good in a fight, and why it had to be kept hidden. If even one person on the enemy team knew about it, they'd know not to trust their senses, or to focus on Emerald first and take her out. It was the kind of thing that would trick everyone repeatedly, until they found out, and would then never work again. Or be of very little value.

"It sounds good but I don't see how it's better for me or anything."

"You're not thinking about it the right way then. Imagine a paparazzi comes up and is about to corner you. Emerald can make them see someone else, convince them they have the wrong person. Or if someone gets it in their head the guy in disguise is Jaune Arc and comes over, she can make them see the real Jaune Arc across the street. Send them the wrong way. Better yet…" He leaned in. "Emerald can make someone see whatever she wants them to. And it's limited by the number of people she's using it on, not by how many changes she makes. You want to take a holiday out of Vale and bring Pyrrha along? The border guards will see totally different people – or no one at all. Or a family of two with a bunch of dogs."

Or his death. Mercury didn't say it, but Jaune knew what he was hinting at. Emerald's Semblance could make someone see anything – and if he did decide to take the plan to run away seriously… well, it'd be helpful to have a witness who could attest to having seen Jaune Arc die. If it was in a way that left no body, like an explosion from those terrorists that wanted him dead, then no one would think to look for him in some nowhere village.

It was so damn tempting. He couldn't stop himself planning it out in his head. They'd be out in public on the way to meet with someone. They'd do their rounds, work at the hospital or something else – something that would leave his aura nice and low for the sake of plausibility. Then they'd take a drive back with a single driver. Someone hired for the job. On the way out, when it was just them and the driver, Emerald would imprint into the driver's mind the image of a masked man rushing forward with a suicide bomb and shouting something. Cinder would react to shove the driver away, and Mercury to try and protect him, but it would be too late.

The world would lament the cost of Jaune Arc having entrusted his safety to friends instead of "trained professionals" and they'd write it off as Cinder's team not being as prepared as they thought they were. The terrorists might know they hadn't done it, but would they bother to correct it? Even if they did, they might think it a rogue agent or no one would believe them. Atlas was too isolated already for anyone to care, and they'd soon have enough on their plates with the White Fang. Meanwhile, a group of travellers would leave via a back gate of Mistral, hooded, but revealing themselves to the border guards and being registered as unrelated people. They'd vanish into the wilderness and never be seen again.

It was a plan – but it wasn't a good one. Cinder and her team might prefer their lives not effectively be over, but it was just a fantasy made up on the spot and a real plan could be better amended to let the others survive. It would just be him who died, with a trusted witness – or many. If Cinder's whole team testified, and an unrelated witness did as well, then that'd be five people who saw him die. Hard to argue against that, especially if Emerald's Semblance wasn't known.

If it wasn't…

Like their chances in the tournament, his own chances of using it to escape would be cut to zero if it was found out. Jaune Arc "dies" with a single witness but there's a documented Semblance to make a single person experience hallucinations on the team? You didn't need to be a hardcore conspiracy theorist to pick up on that! Even more so when they checked and found he'd started siphoning and splitting his bank accounts before the "tragic accident" ever occurred.

"That's an interesting look on your face," said Mercury. "I take it you're interested, eh?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I definitely am. And I definitely think it's best her Semblance remains hidden forever. You're not planning to reveal it at the tournament, are you?"

"No. Cinder wants it subtle. Little tweaks here, little failures. Stuff people can write off as nerves, adrenaline or a moment's inattention. The plan is to come out with no one knowing, and once it reaches the single rounds it won't be Emerald competing at all. Too much attention on her at that point, and people will start asking why her opponents saw things no one else did."

Good. That was good. Very good. Emerald's Semblance would let him- Wait, was he really doing this? Jaune bit his lip, suddenly filled with doubt. He'd known he wanted to, but that was in the same way you might want to punch someone you didn't like or scream at people in public, a guilty fantasy to amuse you in your down moments.

Taking things this far felt closer to making his final plan.

It'd be good to have a plan, though. Wouldn't it? But what of everyone else? What of his family thinking him dead? What of Weiss? He'd spent all this time thinking of how he'd do it but put no thought into what his freaking fiancée would think or do. Or whether she should know at all. And it was probably a bad sign for the sake of their relationship that he hadn't thought of her.

Are things that bad between us? Oh, who am I kidding – they've been that bad for ages. He liked Weiss, he really did, and he was sure she liked him, but he was no longer sure if either of them loved the other. Or if they were attracted to one another at all. I feel like I have to keep at it for her sake and because Jacques is looking after my family, and she must feel like she has to do it for the same reasons. I'm sure we could marry and be cordial to one another, probably better than Jacques and Willow, but I'm not sure we'd be in love.

But was that reason to fake his death without ever telling her?

"I… I need to think."

Mercury grunted. "About accepting us as your guards?"

"No. No, that's a given. I absolutely accept if Atlas leave." He saw his friend grin and give him a thumbs up. "It's other things. And don't worry about Emerald, I'll keep it a secret." He'd kept Pyrrha's semblance secret from them, so he doubted she'd mind him keeping one of their semblances secret from her. It was only fair. "Tell Cinder thanks – and that I'll pay you all as best I can. I guess we'll worry about the details if Atlas actually leaves, though."

"Yeah. Sure. No point sorting it out when they might pull their heads out their arses and stop trying to hide behind their walls." Mercury pushed himself off the bed. "And I mean, if it happens, then you might need to move into our dorm. Or maybe we can get given sweet dorms next to this one. That'd be cool."

Theirs was smaller than this even when it was for four times as many people. A perk of being able to live in the VIP guests' section of Beacon. A perk that he was sure Ozpin would extend to them if they were taking on a role beyond students. "I'll talk to the headmaster if it happens. I think he'll be fine with it. It'd just be taking over the room Elm has to vacate. I'll talk to you later, Mercury. I just need to consider things."

"Sure. Talk to you later, man. Drop me a text or a call if you want to talk." Mercury let himself out a moment later, and Jaune laid back on his bed.

Everything was falling into his hands perfectly. Cinder must have known it would, which was no doubt why she'd hinted around the idea before. She'd known Emerald's Semblance would be perfect for this. And it was. It was the perfect way out.

But only for him. Not for Weiss.

I agreed to marry her. I should… I should do something. It isn't fair if she's left a widow… but it would also free her up to find someone she really loves… but what about my family? Would Jacques continue to look after them if they were no longer joining? Maybe he would. Maybe they'd have a symbolic union. Maybe…

"I have to decide on something. If I don't take this, if I don't take my life into my own hands, then Vale will decide it for me. Or Mistral, or Vacuo, or Atlas. Or even freaking Menagerie." They all wanted their chance with him. "It's my life." He closed his eyes, drifting off. "It's my life…"

/-/

Elm couldn't find the words, and neither could General Ironwood. They stood before Glynda and Ozpin, everyone silent, no one knowing what to say. There was a deep frustration that hung in the room, and yet no one was an outlet for it. No one among them was the fault. It was all laid to blame on those responsible for the document on Ozpin's desk.

Their recall orders had come.

Atlas was closing its borders.

Elm felt sick.


Next Chapter: 15th June

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