The dream remains grey. Jaune was never sure why he expected a change when he entered it. He supposed that he expected some amount of change after each miniscule eternity that passed. He made the long, arduous journey back to that magnificent library. He was tempted by the door, locked tight with arcane power and signet glyphs, but he had an invasion to prepare for. He gathered the books, delving into long forgotten forbiddances and cursed pages.

Calcikenisis is the manipulation of minerals containing- wait, this is just terramancy. A complained. Why are we reading this drivel?!

Jaune was about to respond when a thought came to mind. His head slumped into his hand, facepalming as a rather obvious thought came to mind. I could have used terramancy to build some walls during fortification. God I'm dumb. He lamented to himself.

It would have made putting up those levies much easier. B admitted, before quoting one of their favorite saturday comics. But in the words of Mr. Calvin's Dad: Suffering builds character.

Jaune grimaced at that, like a child that was offered vegetables. I've had enough suffering, thank you very much. He pushed the terramancy book aside, turning to another tome of pages. "Let's hope this is worth something."

There were times when Arslan was envious of her strange friend. She watched as he laid down and closed his eyes, a single death rattle escaping his chest before going limp. He seemed to just go to sleep on command, as suddenly as dying. Meanwhile she was left lying in bed, awake staring at the ceiling. Tomorrow was going to be almost equally as backbreaking. Dr. Cortez had said that they had two days of preparation. The wall they had constructed at the outer gates seemed rather sturdy, but Arslan seriously doubted its ability to hold off an incursive force. So she just layed there, looking at the ceiling, unable to close her eyes.

She was blinded as her scroll was illuminated. Blinking, Arslan fumbled for the small device. She squinted at it as she read her notifications.

Sun Wukong has invited you to an Accordion Server, "JCAB-HQ".

Arslan closed her eyes, wanting to groan out loud. This had better be good, Sun. She thought to herself as she hit the accept button. She was greeted with a rather stock standard Accordion set up. A list of members in the server on the left, a list of channels in tabs along the top, and a very sparse chat block dead middle of the screen. She looked at the welcome chat:

Welcome to the Jaune Arc(?) Conspiracy Board. It read. Arslan reread it, just making sure she knew what words were.

"Sun. What in the name of all gods is this?" She texted in as she scrolled through the tabs. The seemingly centerpoint of the server. A digital corkboard with several post it notes loosely organized. Three dots appeared as Sun prepared a response.

"What do you mean? It's a chatboard."

Arslan closed her eyes. "Yes. Why does this exist?" She asked the server's creator. There was a long pause of dots as Sun continued to type.

"Well, there were so many weird bits and pieces about Jaune we decided to categorize and preserve them all."

Neptune also chimed in with his two cents. "Like a museum."

"Again, why?" Arslan typed in, and wandered off on the server. There was a surprisingly large amount of space for future bits and pieces of information that would be added to Jaune's profile. There was a channel listed as "Backstory" and another listed as "Powers", each with hotlinks to their little section on the cork board. There was, of course, an entirely separate section dedicated to things that were not stalking Jaune. Memes, general, and various other small microcosms of the Jaune Arc Conspiracy Board's members. There was even, under a channel labeled as Nadir's Nook, a folder file.

Album 1.0, J.

Arslan did not have permission to chat in this channel. She tapped on the folder, taking a look as to what was inside. It was a series of sound files, songs Arslan had no experience with. At least Arslan assumed they were song files. They are here, listed as follows: The Way, Miami, VOTPW, TCTLDM, Soldier, Brass Brothers, TMMSOTI.

What does any of that mean? Arslan thought, not recognizing any of them. Of course, in a fashion that fit Nadir perfectly, he had acronymized some of the songs. And had forgotten, or decided it would be unnecessary, to label what those acronyms ment. She thought it was rather cute that Nadir made Jaune a playlist. There had been some developments on some other channel, as one of the taps had turned white. Arslan ignored it, instead fishing out her earbuds. She wasn't getting any sleep anyway, might as well. She tapped on one of the acronyms, not really caring which one.

It started with an audible tape hiss, covered by the major key guitar rift. It rose up in notes before dropping down what Arslan assumed was a half octave? before repeating the pattern. Sue her, she wasn't a musician by any stretch of the imagination. She closed her eyes, and rested her head back.

Jaune had a headache. Mountains of books and scrolls, ancient tomes lost in a subspace that should have never been found. Nearly a century had passed to some, to others a mear blink of an eye. And to some, it was a time in between the two, almost enough to listen to a song, perhaps. Leaning back in his chair, Jaune looked down at his hands. They were caked and scorched in the efforts of his learning, his desperate search for something to save them all. He was still not sure if his search had yielded results.

We have expanded our catacomb of spells by nearly four fold. Surely we must have some key to our lock. A commented as he looked at the long receipt on the mind couch.

B tilted his head at him. Don't you mean Catalog?

Nope.

Jaune closed the book infront of him. "I… Let's take a break. There are still fortifications that need to be made." he sighed as he leaned back in his chair. He looked over at the miniature model of the town and surrounding areas. The dreamer had gone through a thousand thousands in variations, each one an approximation of a reality he could not confirm. He thought this current model was close enough, and had formulated countless battle plans based on it. Exit strategies, flanks, escape routes, trapped areas, routing routes, positions to hold, positions to die. Where and how to take out as many enemies as possible in a worst case scenario. There were too many worst case scenarios.

"Do you think that cart will be there tomorrow?" He asked the figments of his mind.

No, why does it matter? A asked. It's not like its moving would change anything.

Jaune shrugged. He figured he could have to worry about there being a slightly better movement route if it was moved. He shook his head, knowing it was being overthought. He wondered if he should wake up. He decided that he had sat here long enough, pondering his orbs and contemplating his navel. Standing from his chair, the dreamer stretched his stiff limbs.

"Well, up and at'em." He groaned. Admittedly, he was looking forward to seeing the sun rise.

Jaune never quite got used to the morning chill. The stars in the dark night were sparkling, the entirety of the gas nebulas visible in the blatant lack of light pollution. It would soon be gone as the orange glow of the sun tinted them into a blue oblivion.

That would be a good name for an album. A thought as Jaune grunted, thrusting a wall of stone and dirt into existence. Really he was just taking large amounts of the earth beneath him and reshaping it into a six foot tall slab. Actually changing the matter in the space into stone would have been exhausting, not even to mention the possibility of just creating the matter. The light crested over the mountain, shedding light onto the beaten and rough hewn path. The ranger squinted at it, his eyes quickly adjusting to the burning star. "Yeah, good morning to you too." He grumbled as he took several paces. Turning to face his previously constructed wall, he cracked his knuckles. He closed his eyes, and felt his senses shift. It was like having the focus of a microscope shift, but in an extrapolated space instead of a flat dimensional plane. He could feel the flow of mana under his feet. He could feel the strings that he could pluck and pull, coaxing the very mountain to shape. It was like a river and its ever powerful flow, or a boil under pressure and ready to burst. It was a structure firm in its creation and layering. The ranger grabbed hold of the streams, pulling them up. With a great deep groaning coming from stone as it breached the surface, ripping and crawling its way skyward, as if being dredged up from the bottom of the great seas by massive chains. Jaune turned to look at the path behind him, and how much more was left for him to go. By B's estimation, it must have been some half mile or so. Jaune sighed, really starting to regret being so gung ho about the safety of this town. His teeth crushed that thought between his jaws, smashing the foul betrayal into dust. Redoubling his efforts, he plowed through the milage, walls like dominoes lining up in a soldierly fashion. It was late in the morning by the time Jaune had made it back to the gates, and he was exhausted. Altering the physical world around him was effort. Running around in the heat of the midmorning sun in cloaks and armor was exhausting. He wiped the pooling sweat from his brow.

"Damn it is hot." he sighed, looking up at his compatriots. "How is it looking up there?" He shouted at the mop of blonde hair.

"Like one of those weird modern art pieces!" Sun shouted back down. Jaune nodded, figuring it would be enough. He wiped his brow again, looking at how the salty liquid glistened and ran down his metal covered hand before falling like rain to the ground. He grabbed his cloak, pulling the thin square threaded fabric off. He folded it over his arm as he strode to the water cooler the priest had been so kind to provide them with. A massive clay jar that sat on a wagon, an equally rustic looking clay cup that doled out the luke cold water.

"Mind if I set my stuff here?" The ranger asked. The woman serving the life giving liquid nodded. Jaune tucked his cape behind her, and following it was his chestplate and gauntlets. "Thank you." he nodded, before returning to the gate.

Arslan watched as Jaune wove his way through the crowd of people moving building materials and shuffling around, making themselves busy. Arslan didn't have the heart to not let them help, and she appreciated the extra hands to help. It was a rarity that anyone got to see Jaune without his armor.

"Huh, I didn't know Jaune was a pumpkin pete fan." Reese said, looking at his tattered and ratty looking hoodie. Arslan shrugged, tying the rope in her hands down. They had made good progress today, although having another two or three dozen hands to help made things a lot faster. They were done with the gate and putting up an actual wall around the town, instead of the wooden picket and wire fence that had been there before. It was a rush job, and if Arslan was lucky, it would be for nothing. Arslan was feeling less and less lucky as the days went on. Arslan was aware that Jaune was climbing up the ladder to reach her only because of her semblance's gentle notice of his bleeding color approaching. It was tinged brown.

"Jaune. I see you've been busy." She said, not looking up from her ropework.

"Ms. Altan." The ranger greeted. "And it's all in a good day. Do what we can and all that."

Arslan hummed, looking down at the knot she had just tied. "I would be impressed if anything got past that." Nodding towards the domino set of walls

Reese gave her partner a flat look. "You realize now that you've said that, they're going to have a battering ram now, right?" Arslan sighed, sincerely hoping that the gods did not have a sense of humor.

Jaune looked over his shoulder at the dozens of busy people, milling about and trying to look useful. "What do you suppose they think they are doing?" Jaune asked his fellow hunters, gazing over the throng with a leveled and cold gaze.

"Making themselves useful." Arslan said, tossing Jaune a bundle of ropes. "Like you should be doing right now."

Jaune looked behind him, then at the ropes, behind him again and then to Arslan. "As you wish." He nodded, hopping down the little fortification scaffolding. (It was a wagon, but Arslan was willing to ignore it. Reese, on the other hand, was googling wagon puns to torture the lioness with.) Arslan continued doing whatever it was, Reese wasn't paying attention. Instead she was cursing the slow connection speed. "God damn it, why do we always get stuck with the missions that have the shittiest scroll service?" She grumbled, pocketing her device. "So, what are you doing, Ars?"

The blonde looked at her green haired partner, pulling the rope tight as it fitted two large wooden pillars together. "Was that a question you really needed to ask?" She snipped at Reese. The skater raised her hands in mock surrender. "Feisty today, eh Arsy?" She smiled, leaning on the wall. Arslan clenched her jaw, letting her head fall onto the wooden palisade. If she kept doing that, she was bound to get a headache.

"I just wish that it would happen already." She grumbled, looking at the horizon. Reese nodded.

"Yeah, I hate the whole waiting thing. I mean, how much more waiting and preparing can we do? Wall's built, Jaune's done his thing, hell, Jaune's probably done a lot of things." Offering her leader an apple, Reese looked over the busy group of people. She raised her eyebrow, seeing something that she was pretty sure she was not supposed to be.

"Are they supposed to have spears?" She asked. Arslan shook her head. That didn't sound right. Perhaps Reese ment pitchforks? She turned to look at the throng of people. There were actual spears in their hands, long ironforge pikes with stone grey shafts in the hands of untrained peasants. And at their head an ashen man stood, directing their movements as best he could. Admittedly it wasn't going great, but no one had gotten anything more than a minor knick so far. There were many things Jaune had expected, but having to say "Don't touch the sharp bit." was not one of them.

Arslan could feel that headache coming on. "Pardon me, I have an eddie to disrupt." She sighed, marching down the ladder and up to her fellow blonde. Reese frowned at the ground.

"An eddie to disrupt?" She asked the wood below her. It said nothing back.

A very loose square of people shuffled around, bumping into each other as Jaune futilely tried to instruct them. "No, guys, please just, just stop for a moment. The whole point of the square is that you made a multi layered line of pikes. Layers, people, layers. Like an onion." Apparently the metaphor went over their heads, as one man named Jacob scratched his head.

"Wouldn't that make us a circle then, sir?" Jacob asked. Jaune squinted at him.

"Did I say circle-" He started, but was interrupted by the approach of someone who appeared to be either angered or unimpressed. He wasn't sure which one would be more crushing. Turning to see Arslan approach him with vigor.

"Ah, Ms. Altan. How kind of you to join us! I was just instructing these fine gentleman on the proper implementation of shish-kabobing grimm."

The Lioness sighed, putting her hand on the rangers shoulder. Pushing down, she bent him to be at roughly eye level. "The whole point of this is to keep them safe, Jaune!"

"This is keeping them safe! This way, they know how to stab something, should something come close." Jaune argued. Arslan's head tilted, as though it had been hanging from a recently cut thread.

"That's… that's the point of the wall, Jaune." She said, "That's the point of all of this!" Jaune nodded in agreement.

"Yup. henceforth the spears." He countered.

"This is what guns are for, Jaune!"

Jaune looked legitimately confused at that. "But it's not?" His head tilted to the side, like a puppy. "They hunt rabbit and wild pigeons. The largest animal they have probably ever shot at would be a fox. Rifles at that low caliber don't pierce Grimm hide. That's why I use a sword." It sounded like the most natural thing coming out of his mouth. Arslan gaped like a fish for a moment, shaking her head.

"It- that's not the point! The point is that they shouldn't have to fight. Period." Arslan was sharp, and seemed rather determined to put this whole debacle down.

"But ma'am-" one of the townsfolk said. They were quickly shut up with a glare from the Lioness. She returned her gaze to her scarred friend.

"This is a bad idea. It would absolutely, one hundred percent be best to not give them the Dunn Kruger effect and let them fight grimm. I am telling you this is a bad idea." Arslan was somewhere between snarling, hissing, and gritting her teeth as she had Jaune's hoodie in a deathgrip.

"But they will need it! We both know things are absolutely going to go to shit. Everything else on this mission has, why not this?" It was Jaune's turn to retort, evidently. He managed to keep his voice a little more level than Arslan, but she could still hear the uneased tenseness in his voice.

"Way to be an optimist buddy!" Reese called from her high perch. Jaune and Arslan turned their heads to look at her in unison.

"Shut it, Reese." Arslan's was laced with a growl, while Jaune appeared to be more bored than anything else. Reese shot to attention, saluting the two.

"Yes, moms." She said before scampering off to avoid the searing gaze. Jaune raised his eyebrow before refocusing on Arslan.

"Where were we?"

"Civilians, in combat. Bad idea."

Right. Disaster scenarios. Number 44157 ran through his mind. Fire in the west end, church collapse. Escorting whatever was left of the town's population. Alone. Always alone. Everyone else had fallen. Blood in a forest path, shieldless, gasping for breath. A failed spear, wielded by an unskilled hand. Jaune shook his head.

They would need spears.

"They will need spears. Shields. Weapons that can kill the Grimm. I do not trust our preparations." He said, then he saw the look on Aslan's face. He recognized that look from his time as an older brother. Backtrack! Backtrack! A warned him, waving red flags. "Trust me, I do not want them to see combat, or our foes. But I… allow me to be honest: Fate will not be that kind to me."

Arslan was going to respond. She really was, but fortunately for Jaune, and unfortunately for his therapist, she was interrupted by a rather winded looking Nadir.

"Guys!" the darker toned hunter said, stumbling into some unfortunate child. The two bounced off eachother, taking a moment to ensure that they were both ok. He stopped infront of the two blondes. "So, I have bad news."

Arslan was unenthused by that statement. "What." She spat, setting her jaw.

"The grimm are a little ahead of schedule, we can expect them by tonight."

The two blondes gave each other a look.

"Don't you say it." Arslan growled, pointing a finger at the ranger. He had somehow donned his armor and cloak again. No one was sure how, and he had most certainly not put it on any time previously. Arslan let it go, for the moment. She had bigger fish to fry.

Jaune didn't say it, but he most certainly thought it. I told you so. "So, should I abandon trying to train them, or-" he was cut off by Arslan grabbing a spear.

"I'll do it. Just… go do your usual bullshit or something. Get ready." She sighed, marching to the group of concerned looking men.

Jaune watched her leave. "She seems…"

"Yeah." Nadir agreed. "This mission has been rough on her."

"Yeah." Jaune trailed off. "... welp, I am going to get up some bombs. Wanna join?"

Well, I am finally back! And I promise, one more chapter before this arc is done, and then we will be diving headstraight into the Vytal Tournament. So timeskip there after I deal with the Dream section. I know this has been really dragging on, but it will continue to drag on further! This effort is still profitable!

I do know I messed up the pacing a little, as I think that Sun and Neptune were supposed to be at Beacon by the time the Breach happens, and that Roman's dust heist happens before that. I'll be honest, I am not going to bother to review the timeline, as it's messed up anyway.

Something I hope to get across with Jaune's character is that, despite his alienation to the human race, he still very dearly loves them. This shows itself by a compulsive and asinine level of preparation and worry for when things like this happen and civilian lines are on the line. I hope to make this more of a tension point in the character, give him a more cryptid philosophical vibe to him because of it.

As for the end of this story... I don't know. origionally, this was going to extend into 3 books (3 volumes covered per book, and ending it at volume 9 ish) but I will be honest, that is not happening. I might extend it to volumes 4-6, but likely I am going to tack on an additional 20 some odd chapters to the ending and actually wrap it up there. I don't know yet, and I'll let the story take me where it goes.

Thank you so much for your patience, I appreciate it very much. Please feel free to comment, review, and reply.

Best regards