/==/ Prologue /==/
Nathaniel Arc and his daughter Violet were busy taking inventory during one of the few days that Ansel Dry-Goods was closed for business. The medium-sized general goods and feed store was the second of the businesses the family of ten owned and ran in the well defended Hamlet of Ansel. The first was the Grimm-head tavern and Inn. A quaint and comfortable, safe place for the weary traveller and the locals to relax and enjoy good company. All in all, the tight-knit family was doing well for themselves.
The blaring of the town's alarm, caused the pair to drop what they were doing to rush outside. The community wide alarm only went off for a couple of reasons, the first was approaching grimm, the second was fire. While the walls that surrounded that hamlet were composed of mine debris coated with imported concrete, most of the buildings contained within were made of locally harvested timber. An out of control fire would be as disastrous, if not more so, than a large scale grimm attack.
Once outside, Nathaniel saw the smoke, and broke into a dead on sprint. The distance wasn't far, but it felt like miles for him to cover. The fire brigade was already at work, hosing down the structure in an attempt to keep the flames from spreading further. He forced his way through the small gaggle of onlookers, ignoring any complaints; all which died when they understood who had shoved them aside.
"Jasmine!" he bellowed, hoping his voice would carry over the noise of people, water, flames and sirens. "Jasmine!"
"Nat!" drew his attention to the side, and forced a sigh of relief, at least until he closed, and noticed that his wife of 20 plus years face was a mix of fear and dread.
"Jas, what's…" as he spoke, he took a rapid head count. He knew the twins were on wall duty today, Violet had been with him at the store, and Saphron was in Argus. That left four to be at home, and he only saw three. His three youngest. "Where?"
"She's still inside." Jasmine choked out, barely keeping herself composed as her daughters clutched at her clothing, seeking the security only she could bring them through contact. "I tried… but it was too much… too fast…"
"Where was she?"
"Where's Jaune?" Violet yelled as she finally caught up to her father, and noticed the missing form of her twin sister. "Where's Jaune?"
"She was in her room… I heard her screaming…"
Nathaniel didn't wait to hear anymore. Grabbing Violet's wrist, he pulled her over next to her mother and raised a single finger. The universal fatherly symbol for stay and wait. He didn't wait for her to acknowledge before he released his grip and twisted about on his heels and dashed for the front door of the family home that sat attached to the inn. The flames were already starting to spread into the structure of the family's second business. Calling on his partial huntsman training, he pulled on every ounce of his aura, coating his body in a protective barrier. A shield he hoped would allow him to find his missing child. He didn't even reach the path to the door, before four members of the brigade intercepted him.
"Nat no!"
"Jaune's still fucking in there!"
"There's nothing you can do!"
"Like fuck, there isn't!" Nathaniel cursed and struggled, but even as angry, desperate and aura empowered as he was, the combined hold of four men, who were also aura using members of the Town Watch, he made no head way. "Let me go! I have to get to…"
Before he could finish, the family home fell. Collapsing in upon itself, in a shower of soot, ash and sparks. All the fight fled Nathaniel at that point. He could hear the wails of his wife and children, as his own heart broke, and if it hadn't been for the men who had been holding him back, that were now holding him up, he would have crumpled to the dirt. He felt hollow as the flames continued to eat through the timbers that had once been the home of his family. Even with seven safe, he felt like a failure. What type of father would let one of his own die alone, when he could have prevented it?
"Nat, go see to Jas and the girls." one of the men, holding him up, offered, "Let us do our job."
Nathaniel Arc just nodded, his body heavy and unwieldy. He stumbled several times over his own feet as he crossed the short distance to his waiting and stricken family. He wrapped his arms about his daughter Violet as she launched herself at him, her small hands closed into fists, and ineffectually bouncing off his wide chest. Nathaniel would weather her anger, it was all he could do. His sorrow filled blue eyes sought out the equally hurting, sharp greens of his beloved. She was clutching the three youngest to her. Doing her best through her own pain to comfort their confusion and hurt.
/=/
The fire continued to burn into the night, gutting the family's inn and tavern, in addition to completely consuming their home. As the now family of nine tried to come to terms with their loss, the town guard assembled in force. This was just the type of event that could draw the grimm, and they wouldn't allow themselves to be caught unprepared. It would be a long night for them, as it would be for the Arc family.
Taking shelter in the store, Nathaniel, with some help from Violet and the twins Vert and Jade, had cleared out part of the back storeroom. Making enough room for the family to sleep within proximity of one another. Though both Jasmine and he knew there would be little in the way of sleeping this night.
"You have to call her." Jasmine told her husband. "She needs to know."
"How am I supposed to do that? How do you even start that conversation?"
"I don't know." Jasmine replied, "But Jaune is… was special to her. She needs to know, needs to hear it from one of us."
"I know." Nathaniel sighed, as he attempted not to move much and disturb the sleeping form of Juniper, who had nestled into his chest. "I get it, just how?"
"Just be straight with her. Tell her what happened…"
"If I hadn't been stopped, I could have…"
"No you couldn't, you know that. If you had gone in there for her…"
"She's going to want to know, how…"
"Not right away." Jasmine reached over the sleeping form of Violet, who was firmly fastened to her mother's waist, and patted her husband on his knee. "Call her, and I'll take care of telling Saph."
Nathaniel just nodded, and carefully transferred the sleeping form of Juniper to a space near her mother. The young girl whimpered, and for a moment he paused in his motions. But then he relented. With the utmost care, he placed the youngest of his family down next to her mother, before rising to his own feet, and pulling out his scroll. With a nod to his wife, he stepped out of the back room, walked through the darkened interior of the store, and out into the street. At the best of times, the link to the CCT, made video calls choppy.
It didn't take much for him to locate her contact info, with her being near the top of his list. His thumb hovered over the call icon, and after a deep and pained sigh, he tapped it. It rang twice before being answered. The video was like he had figured, a little choppy and delayed, and with the time difference between Ansel and Vale it was going to be early for Glynda.
"Nat, what's…"
"I know it's early Glyn, but there was a fire…" Nathaniel paused, out of all of his children, Jaune in particular was special to Glynda.
"A fire? Is everyone…"
"I'm sorry Glyn… I tried, but…" Nate felt the tears start to roll down his cheeks. All his bottled up emotions finally starting to seep out.
"Nat?"
"We lost… we lost…"
"Nat, you're scaring me. What happened? Is every…"
"I couldn't save her… I tried, but they held me back… I couldn't…"
"Nat?"
"Jaune… Jaune was trapped inside…" Nathaniel couldn't hold it in anymore and openly began to sob. "We…"
"No… no… no… it has to be a mistake…" Glynda's voice was breaking up and Nat knew it wasn't from the poor connection quality, "She can't…"
"I'm so sorry, Glyn… I tried, I really…" Nate couldn't continue. The sight of Glynda, his sister-in-law, finally breaking down, was the final piece, and he fell completely apart. "I tried… I tried…"
Glynda said nothing as her emotions were written all over her face. Shock, despair, disbelief, and horror. It was her tear filled sharp green eyes that were the most telling, as they were filled with absolute and utter grief. So caught up in their shared grief, Nathaniel didn't notice the head of the fire brigade rushing towards him, shouting.
"What?" Nathaniel asked as in confusion when the man grabbing him by the shoulders. "I…"
"We found her!" the man, who Nathaniel remembered, was Alex Hawthorne. "We found Jaune!"
"Do I have to…"
"She's ALIVE!"
"What?"
"We found her ALIVE!"
"Where? How?"
"I don't have a fucking clue how, but we found her in the basement, she must have fell through the floors when the place collapsed, but she's alive, Nate, she's fucking alive!"
"Take me to her!" Nate snapped as he dropped his scroll to the ground and grabbed Alex by the shoulders.
"Nat, what's going on?" Glynda shouted out over the poor connection of the scroll. She had heard some of what had been shouted, but not enough came through clearly enough for her to understand. "NAT!"
"Jasmine and the girls! Someone has…"
"I'll take care of it. Get your ass to the clinic." Alex ordered the confused father, as he shoved him down the road towards the town's medical clinic. "Get there, I'll tell Jas."
Nathaniel nodded numbly, as he took a couple more stumbling steps, and then a thought shot through his mind. He nearly tripped in his haste to grabbed his dropped scroll, and as soon as his hand closed about it, he snapped it up to his face.
"They found her and she's ALIVE!"
"She's…"
"She's alive, Glyn. She's alive."
"I… I…" Nathaniel watched as Glynda wiped her eyes on her sleeve, taking the moment to collect her thoughts. "I'll be there in six hours."
/=/
Glynda, Nathaniel; and Jasmine were in the waiting room, leaving their daughters, in the recovery room with Jaune. Juniper and Blanche curled up on the bed with Jaune, while Noir and Violet stood close by, holding her hands. The final two, Vert and Jade, stood at the door, almost as if to guard their sister's tear filled reunion.
"Her leg is broken, she has a sprained wrist, and a possible concussion. The doc thinks every injury was a result of falling two stories into the basement. There is no sign of any burns, or indications of smoke inhalation." Nate reported to his haggard looking sister-in-law while his wife hugged her tightly. "No one has any clue how, and we're not going to question it. It's a miracle… a fucking miracle."
"How did the fire start?" Glynda managed to get out as she was fighting to keep her swirling tempest of emotions under control. "Do we know?"
"No." Nate replied, as the brigade was waiting for an official inspector to come in on the next commercial flight. "All Alex, he's head of the brigade, would say is he never saw anything like it. A fire getting that hot, that quickly."
"Jas, did you?"
"I heard Jaune screaming, and when I tried to rush upstairs to check on her… flames just started rolling down the hallway." Jasmine bit her lip. "I could have pushed through it with my aura, but I had Noir, Blanche and Juniper to get out."
"What is it, Glyn?" Nate asked, as he noticed the look that was replacing the one of relief that had been etched on Glynda's face. "You're thinking about something, what is it?"
"Could she have activated a semblance?" Glynda offered.
"Doubtful, unless she can do it without her aura unlocked." Nate replied.
"Maybe it spontaneously…?"
"Again doubtful… but we can have it checked for." Nate replied, "It would be a plausible explanation for everything… or at least most of it."
"Do you think I can get some time alone with her?" Glynda asked as Jasmine finally released her grip on her older sister. "Do you think the girls will mind?"
"Not for their favourite aunt." Jasmine replied with a relieved grin.
"I'm their only aunt."
/====/
So like the COMPLETE rewrite of two other stories of the same name.
Why, because those stories were unplanned chaos, and just got away from me.
So I decided to dial it back, and try again.
Big thank you to GeraltRex and Cyperink for working with me to help weave what I feel is a much more cohesive story.
But I'll leave that for you guys to judge.
Hope you enjoy.