Feeling back on my feet yesterday, but also exhausted for reasons explained at bottom. It's not even ME in hospital this time xD
Cover Art: GWBrex
Chapter 55
.
Atlas arrests condemns whistleblower faunus for criticising military procedure. Pushes for life sentence.
Atlas Times
.
Council of Vale promises explosive finale.
Vale Daily Tribune
.
Rumours from Beacon suggest Pyrrha Nikos closer to Jaune Arc than Weiss Schnee.
The Mistral Review
.
Violent extremists murder opposition leader. Gillian Asturias condemns the violence and calls her former rival a great man worthy of being honoured.
Vacuo Today
.
White Fang welcomes faunus AND HUMAN refugees fleeing Atlas. "We have a common enemy," says Sienna Khan.
Kuo Kuana Express
.
The speed at which Cinder and her team adapted to the idea of helping him run away suggested his request had not come as a surprise. In fact, he suspected they'd been angling him toward it for a while. He didn't know why, but Jaune found that he didn't care either. As long as he was away from all this then he'd be happy.
Was that selfish?
Maybe, but he'd saved the lives of over 15,000 people by now.
Didn't he deserve to be a little selfish? Didn't he deserve a break? If he didn't then no one did, and the world and its petty expectations could throw themselves off a cliff. It was this or he ended up taking his own life in a year or two. Or his aura imploded from all the mistreatment and killed him. Whichever happened first.
Cinder's first set of instructions for him was to start syphoning more money out. "You've already done a little, but the more you can draw on the better. All of it is going to be seized and essentially lost when you die. Oh, they'll send some to your family, but I guarantee Atlas will try and reclaim most of it. Just because you're running away doesn't mean you didn't earn that money. It's yours, and you might as well live comfortably."
Getting it all out would have been too suspicious and much too big a warning for the banks, so he instead started spreading them around new accounts, and also gifting rather heavily. No one would look askance at him depositing a lot of pay in advance to his new bodyguards, and Pyrrha also agreed to accept several million and keep it on his behalf. Cinder also knew several people in Vale who she promised could be trusted to get money out and handled a lot of it on his behalf.
It would have been another red flag if he wasn't so tired of things. He saw it, catalogued it, but he didn't care. Red was a good colour. Speaking of red, and help, he was less surprised with how Pyrrha instantly agreed to help, but still touched. The fact she didn't bother trying to make him change his mind or try to guilt trip him was enough, but, when he told her why, her response said even more.
"I think this is the right decision. I don't like it, but… I've seen the way the news is going. The way the world is going. I've already had officials from Mistral asking me to get closer to you. They're acting like they don't want you, but they do. They're already planning out offers involving less time in the hospital to win you over, and my agent has told me there's a ten million bonus in it for me if I can convince you."
They knew he couldn't, or wouldn't, go back to Atlas while the blockade was on, so the three remaining kingdoms were waiting for him to choose his new home. Vacuo was playing it nice, with Gillian Asturias always there, never pushy, but gently reminding him she could help cover his aura problems with her own Semblance. Mistral were going the other way, leaning on people to influence him and trying to dress themselves in roses. Vale, meanwhile, acted like he already belonged to them because he happened to be born in a village within their borders, and they'd already lodged a diplomatic protest against Mistral for what they saw as poaching.
As if his mind was already made up and they had the right to call him their own.
He wouldn't be surprised if Cinder had her own reasons and goals, but those couldn't be as bad as what the other kingdoms did. If she wanted him on tap for unlimited resurrections of her, Mercury or Emerald, then he'd gladly do that. He would have anyway. If she wanted money, she could have it. He had plenty to spare.
On the specific plans, Cinder was vague.
"We'll have to play it by ear and look for an opportunity," she said. "Emerald's Semblance can make sure a single witness sees what we want them to see, and Pyrrha can further confirm it. With two witnesses, one of whom knows you personally, they'll be no doubt as to your death."
"But how do we get out?"
"You'll be smuggled out. I've reached out to someone. That's what I needed some of that money for. They won't know who you are, only that you're paying to get out, and we'll meet you outside the walls and help you away." Cinder hesitated, then. "As for what happens after, that might require more planning, but it's probably a better idea to get you out sooner than later. The Vytal Festival will provide a lot of chaos and disruption. Vale is already overwhelmed with so many people. Once things are calmer, they'll be in a position to dig deeper into things."
"That's fine. I can stay at any small village or two. I don't really care. And I can always move again if I don't fit in, can't I?"
Cinder nodded. "As long as you don't reveal yourself or go near any of the big cities, yes. Travelling would be dangerous because your ID and face would be seen and even a fake ID can fail. It'd be best for you to alert us so we can move you. It might take a few days but—"
"But it would prevent my identity being found out," he finished. "I can handle a few days, Cinder. Don't worry." He took a deep breath. "And I know there's probably more to your cooperation than just helping me, too." He watched her, but her expression didn't give anything away. "I'm telling you now that I don't care. As long as you can promise me that you'll get me out and let me live in peace, and that you won't hurt my family, I'll let it go."
"I can promise you that," she said. "I can also promise not to harm your friends, though you'll understand if I have to make an exception for self-defence." Cinder took a breath. "There is more to this. You're right. There's someone who wants you to try and use your power on their children."
Jaune sighed. "I knew it."
"It's just one," said Cinder. "Well, one woman. Four children. It won't matter anyway," she said. "They've been dead for longer than you or I have been alive. Your Semblance won't work on them, but she's desperate. All you'll need to do is make the attempt."
"And if I fail? How dangerous is she likely to be?"
"Semblances evolve. There's always a chance, slim to impossible as I think it is, that your Semblance will evolve to let you bring people back regardless of time spent dead. I'll pitch that to her, and you'll promise that if your Semblance does evolve to that level you'll immediately return and resurrect her children."
And that would convince this mysterious benefactor that the best option would be to leave him be, let him live peacefully, and see if his Semblance changed. If it didn't, then she would just have to be more and more patient, until she died of old age, or he did.
If it ever did evolve to that then resurrecting one woman's children to have a life of seclusion would be worth it anyway. Things were bad now, but he couldn't imagine how much worse they'd be if he could bring back everyone's parents, old heroes, every fallen huntsman who ever existed, and all the children of the world who died in the last twenty years.
It would kill him. He'd never have any peace.
And Semblances did evolve. The chances of it evolving in that way were slim to none, as Cinder said, but it was almost certain to evolve in some way, and whatever way it did would doubles become another reason for him to be coveted by every kingdom. Maybe he would get the ability to cure diseases when he brought people back or bring them back younger. Eternal youth on top of eternal life. Yeah, he couldn't see Vale letting go of him if he gained that ability.
"Fine. I'll trust you, Cinder, but—"
"Even if I weren't on your side, Jaune, it would be in my best interests to have you being sweet to me," she pointed out, wearing a sarcastic smile. "So that you'd keep using your Semblance to protect me. There's nothing for me to possibly gain in having you harmed or killed, and everything for me to gain in having you owe me favours. And I meant what I said before. I may not be a good person, but the way you've been treated reminds me of how I was. Forced into service for the benefit of others, with our wishes and wants ignored. I hated that. I despise it. Have I manipulated you a little?" Cinder shrugged. "Perhaps. But I wholly believe that manipulation to be in your best interests."
"And did you manipulate Pyrrha as well?"
"The girl had her feelings for you, as you well know; all I did was encourage her to stop sitting on them and hoping they'll go away."
A little push, then. Jaune blew air past his lips. Cinder was being more forthcoming than she ever had before, but that was probably because she knew he was committed now. And he was. Even if she turned out to be a monster, that wouldn't change the fact that he wanted to leave. Even if she ceased to exist tomorrow, he'd continue looking for a way.
"I'm going to spend time with Weiss today," he said, watching her reaction. Cinder offered nothing. "I don't want to have any regrets later, and I want to at least give her something nice to remember me by if she's broken up by my… death."
"She will be," admitted Cinder. "We always look at people who are gone through rose-tinted glasses. When you are out of her life, she will remember the good moments and forget the bad."
"Does that mean she'll remember me or her ideal of what I could be? The man who would gladly spend every day of his life at the hospitals?"
Cinder shrugged. "That's for her to decide. Does it matter? Grief is for those who survive to deal with, and if believing a lie brings them peace then perhaps the dead would be happy to let it stand."
He supposed so. He'd technically be dead, so if Weiss wanted to think of the version of him that had only existed in her imagination then maybe that was for the best. If it made her happy, and brought her peace, then he should let it happen.
But, for now, he wanted to spend the day with her and give her something to remember him by.
Weiss deserved that much.
/-/
"Do we have to do this now?" asked Weiss, huffing and crossing her arms to make her displeasure abundantly clear. "The last rounds are tomorrow. It's going to determine who is in the final, and we need to train."
"Weiss, you're not even the one going into the one-vs-one round," said Jaune. "Last I checked, it was Yang. And we've not spent any time together since the tournament started. You do realise we're engaged to be married, right?"
"I'm aware of that, of course, but the Vytal Festival only comes once every two years. It's selfish of you to demand my time during the event."
Selfish.
It was selfish of him to demand her time but not selfish when she wanted him to work more in the hospitals. Jaune opened his mouth to argue, then closed it with a click. This was supposed to be about giving Weiss a happy memory of him to hold onto, not an argument.
"I just wanted to spend a little time with you. You're not even answering my calls or texts, and let's not pretend you and your team are training 24-7. You have time off. Pyrrha manages to find the time to talk."
"Pyrrha is the tournament favourite."
"That doesn't mean she isn't training herself, only that she's capable of balancing her training with her personal life. Come on, Weiss, we both know you have free time. Are you choosing to ignore me? Are you avoiding me?" He sighed, annoyed at himself for failing to keep things happy. "If there's an issue then we should get it out into the open."
Weiss looked away. "It's arrogant to assume everything revolves around you."
"When you're pointedly ignoring me then I think it's fair to assume I'm the problem. This is the first time we've spent more than two minutes together since Blake's family were killed, and that was over a week ago. This coming from the person who literally said we should fake more time together for the cameras. What happened to that?"
"The tournament is more important."
Jaune grimaced. "Than us?"
"Than whatever issues we have right now," groaned Weiss, rolling her eyes. "Jaune, look, we do have problems. You know that. I know that. Those problems can be dealt with later. Right now, I'm focused on what matters. The tournament. If my team can reach the finals then it will be a huge deal even if we lose to Pyrrha."
"That's not—"
Weiss placed a finger on his lips. "We will continue this discussion after. You agreed that we would be partners in this. That means you must understand when I am busy and respect that. How can we be partners in life if you're going to demand I drop what's important to me just to keep you company? That simply isn't reasonable."
I could die tomorrow, he wanted to say, but he couldn't, because it would give everything away. Even so, he couldn't believe she'd just brush him off like that. It hurt. Even though he'd admitted their relationship was flawed, it still hurt, because, even if they had fallen out of love, he liked to think they were good friends. Or that she cared.
And she did.
Only… she cared more about how her team did in this silly competition.
"Weiss, seriously, all I'm asking for is an hour of your time—"
"And then what?" she replied. "If I give you an hour here, will it be another tomorrow? Three the day after? You asked me to compromise on you doing your job at the hospital."
"My job!? It's not my—"
"And I agreed," she interrupted.
"Because I was literally dying from it, Weiss. You agreed because the doctors made it clear I was in grave danger!"
"You're doing it again," she said. "You're making everything about you."
His lips sealed. Maybe he was. Maybe she was right. If he had more time, he could afford to take it, but he didn't. Cinder could spring their plan any day now. It could even be tomorrow. That didn't change the fact he was being pushy, and that she knew it, but he couldn't afford to back off now.
"I just want to spend some time with you, Weiss. I just want you to know I care. Things haven't been going well between us, we both know that, but I wanted to at least make the effort and show you I'm trying."
Her face softened.
He dared to hope.
"That's sweet, Jaune, it really is, and I promise you we'll spend time together." His eyes closed. "But it'll be after the festival. Until then, all I ask is that you support me and my team. That's all I want from you." Her hand squeezed his before she let go. "You don't need to push yourself to do more. We'll sort our differences out. We'll make this marriage work – as a partnership."
He couldn't leave it at that.
"I love you, Weiss."
It was true, even if it wasn't in the way an engaged couple should love one another. It was closer to admiration and fondness, because even if things hadn't worked out and even if they hadn't fit together, he didn't hate her, and he wouldn't have wanted her to walk out his life and never return. Weiss looked surprised by the words, and then smiled back at him.
"I love you too, you silly fool. Cheer for us tomorrow."
Weiss walked away.
It hadn't been perfect. It hadn't even been good. Still, when the time came, she would have those last words from him to remember, and she'd know she returned her own. In time, she wouldn't remember that it came at an argument. She'd remember something warmer, softer, with more heartfelt whispers and longing glances.
And that was fine.
Because they'd said their goodbyes now.
I was in the hospital Tuesday night for an altogether different reason, too. My nephew got into a car accident basically near my house since he was coming to visit. Luckily, he was okay, and the other driver (an old man) admitted all fault and said he blacked out when he hit my nephew, but he went right into his door, shattered the window all over him and drove his car into a ditch. My nephew "looked okay" but the ambulance there said if his arm swelled (had a massive bloody mark all over it) he'd need to go to the hospital.
It swelled, so I took him around… I think it was 7-8pm on Tuesday night? He was obviously going to stay at mine since he no longer has a car and was understandably shaken up. Anyway, went to the hospital about 7-8pm.
We were there until 4am Wednesday morning and then my nephew had to sign himself out because there was just no indication we'd ever get to see anyone. They did some CT scans but couldn't get a specialist to look at them due to being overburdened with other patients. It was appalling.
Next Chapter: 3rd August
Like my work? Please consider supporting me, even if it's only a little a month or even for a whole year, so I can keep writing so many stories as often as I do. Even a little means a lot and helps me dedicate more time and resources to my work.
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur