Heart to Heart
Chapter19: Splitting the Party
The train had left the station and everyone was enjoying the trip. They had managed to get rooms on the train that were fairly close to each other. Team RWBY of course had their own, JPR had a room with an extra bed while Qrow and Oscar/Ozpin were in a double for themselves. Qrow had gone to get a drink while Oscar was just sitting by a window watching the world go by.
It was somewhat relaxing to watch the countryside go by, the snow had started to come in now an hour into their trip north. They were going up a mountain track as they made their way to Argus. It was strange, not too long ago he would have been on his aunt's farm and would be helping out around the farm before school started up.
A part of him missed his home and his aunt it had taken him forever to think of what to put into a letter for her. He had mailed it before he left on the train but still, he couldn't tell her everything he just hoped that what he did tell her she would one day understand.
Still it was somewhat nice just watching the world go by as it was as if he wasn't one some very important and dangerous mission to help save the world.
'Yeah…no pressure there,' He sighed. He was thankful at least he was with a group that knew what they were doing but also nice to a new comer like him. He knew that they all had gone through a lot and he kind of wished he had that kind of bond. He still felt like a bit of an outsider and it wasn't a good feeling.
Living with your aunt on a farm you didn't get the chance to make many friends. Most of those he only saw when school was going on in the village. He wondered what they would think when he suddenly didn't show up for the first day. Maybe it was odd to think about little things like this but in this moment he felt it was the first time in weeks he had the chance to really think on things.
While Oscar was reflecting on his life, Jaune, Nora and Ren were in their own room just relaxing.
Jaune was on his scroll just going through it, he was pretty sure his sister's information was accurate but he wouldn't know until they got closer to the city for his scroll to pick up the local network. If the CCT network was still up and running he would have been able to call from Mistral but until they could get Beacon fixed the world was cut off from each other.
A part of him was starting to wonder if this had been part of the plan, to cut off the world. It would make it easier to attack the other schools and try to either gain access to the other artifacts or at least hold them until the right maiden could be found. It made a tactical kind of sense to him but he frowned at it all. It just spoke of a ruthlessness he never really understood, to cut off the entire world would send panic all over the place.
Cities would end up being fortified to fend off the surge in Grimm from all the negative emotions and all the villages that couldn't defend themselves, well he only had to think of the last two he had seen. The desolation of two whole villages were not happy memories and to think of more villages out there most likely already facing or had faced the same outcome was depressing.
Jaune thumbed his scroll over to the picture section he needed something to take his mind off these kinds of thoughts. He found what he was looking for and a small smile grew on his face. It was a selfie of him and Yang on one of their dates. He felt his mood lift seeing the smiling face of Yang on his scroll, he could just go over and see her but he didn't want to smother her. It was a long trip and they would see each other soon over dinner with everyone else.
He cast a look to see that Nora had bounced onto Ren both of them on the lower bunk across from him as she grinned down at him playfully. It made Jaune feel good seeing them like that, he always did think that there had been something going on with them, they had just seemed too close for there not to be.
Going back to his scroll when a violent shake rattled the entire train. For a moment no one said anything, maybe it was normal? Neither of them had been on a train like this before and they were in the mountains.
When people started to panic outside that's when Jaune knew it wasn't normal.
"Weapons!" He shouted out as Ren and Nora quickly got up and got their own weapons ready.
Jaune led his team outside seeing people running and panicking. His first thought was to meet up with the others and then figure out what was going on. He ran into the next car to see Oscar looking out a window as he ran into the young boy.
"What's going on?" He asked hoping to get a clue but then he could hear it. The sounds of gun fire and soon followed was the scream of a Grimm outside. "Never mind I think I know."
"What do we do?" Oscar asked him.
He looked down at the boy with a serious look. "What we train to do. You want to sit this one out?"
Oscar would be lying it a part of him wanted to sit this out but that wasn't him. He had been training all this time with them so he wouldn't be a burden to them all, so that he could help fight. His heart was racing and he could feel some sweat already forming but he gripped the weapon at his side.
Looking up at Jaune with conviction, he said. "No, I'm going."
Jaune had to smile, Oscar reminded him a little of himself when he first started out at Beacon. "Good, stay close and remember that we're a team."
"Right," he followed behind them as they ran to between the cars to get up on the roof.
"You can do this," Oscar whispered to himself.
'Yes you can, I'll be here if you need me but remember they are also here for you too.' Ozpin's voice told him.
Jaune could hear the telltale sounds of Ruby's sniper rifle firing now, what must be Blake's gun and of course, he knew Yang's shotgun blasts anywhere. Weiss' weapon wasn't as loud but he thought he heard something that might have been it. He got to the roof to see that they were under attack by a group of flying Grimm and one large one.
"Oh man what are those?" Jaune really wished he had paid a bit more attention in the Grimm Studies class.
"The smaller ones are Manticores," Ren told him. "I believe the larger one is a Sphinx."
"Thanks," Jaune saw one of the Manticores flying at him. "Ren, wings!"
Ren took aim and fired his weapons as he aimed for the creatures wings, he was able to damage it that it lost control of its flight. That's what Jaune needed as he put his training to use he sidestepped it, spun around and with his sword cut its belly open. It roared once in pain as it slowly vanished into the black ash that all Grimm turned into.
"Hey welcome to the party!" Yang said punching one of the creatures.
"Well someone forgot to send us an invite so we decided to just crash it," Jaune got his shield up to deflect the claws of one of the Manticores that flew by and tried to slash at him.
"Well you're more than welcome," Ruby told them firing several rounds they aimed true slamming into the heads of each Manticore. The problem was for every one they killed more just seemed to take their place.
"How many of these things are there?" Nora asked over the wind as she fired several grenades into the air. She was trying to act as a type of anti-air defense for the moment since shooting her grenades too low might hit the train.
Before anyone could say, anything the train seemed to transform as armored sections emerged covering windows and weak spots along the train. The top had turrets come out of small domes as they fired on the Grimm with some kind of auto-targeting feature.
"Well that's helpful," Nora, grinned she only had a limited supply of grenades to help keep them at a distance.
"Damn it," Qrow cursed.
"What's wrong?" Blake asked firing at one of the Grimm that flew by.
"Those damn turrets are just going to draw the Grimm right to the people, we need to turn them off!"
"I got it!" Oscar shouted as Jaune watched the young man rush off.
He couldn't afford to keep his eye on him much longer as he had to duck to avoid getting grabbed by one of the Grimm.
The others were doing just fine, even if they were outnumbered. Yang jumped up letting the train go forward as she 'rushed' towards one of the Manticores letting the train basically bring the Grimm to her as she punched it with her weapon, firing it at the same time.
It flew back as Roby swept in and sliced it in two, Yang turned to face the next one. She saw Weiss fending off one of them as another was going to her blind backside. She noticed that Blake saw it two as the two shared a look and moved forward without a word. She leaped forward as she turned, just in time to catch Blake's weapon that had been thrown at her.
Gripping Gambol Shroud in its gun form, she used the momentum of her movement to twist herself and basically throw Blake who held the other end. Blake sailed through the sky and buried the cleaver/sheath half of her weapon into the back of the neck of the creature going for Weiss.
Yang had to admit this was their first major fight since they all got back together and it felt good, it felt natural. She was a bit worried that there might be a little loss in teamwork or cohesion but there didn't seem to be any. It was like the past months hadn't happened as they worked together, not even needed to call out to the other for help.
They knew how each other fought, they knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and they would almost on instinct work together to combine them or cover for them. Yang had to admit, it felt good, really good in fact.
If the situation wasn't so dangerous for all the people below, she might have laughed during the fighting.
She did notice that Jaune, Nora and Ren were fighting just as well, in fact they seemed better than what she remembered back in Beacon. Although she couldn't help but notice the absence of one of their members, despite this Jaune seemed to be doing well to compensate.
Yang hadn't really thought before how much of a leader Jaune was as she had only ever really seen Ruby take the lead. She couldn't focus too much but she could notice how Jaune took charge of his teammates and helped when he could.
Standing there with the wind blowing around him, his sword swinging around and giving orders, Yang was surprised by something.
He was kind of hot in that moment.
A large piece of ice flew by Yang and impaled into a Grimm that she hadn't noticed. Yang's eyes widened as she looked to see a slightly annoyed Weiss looking at her. The girl didn't have to say anything as her look simply said 'get your head back in the game'.
Yang nodded her head as she mentally chided herself for getting distracted. She would mentally keep that image in her head but for later. Now she had to help and kill all these damn Grimm.
Jaune looked around, the guns were still firing but the number of Grimm didn't seem to be going down anytime soon. They could only fight them off for so long and it wouldn't take long before one of them decided to try and tear into the train. If that happened they could detail the entire thing.
"Tunnel!" Oscar's warning came and Jaune looked to see they were heading right for a tunnel as his eyes widened. There wasn't much time and if they didn't get to safety…
"Everyone back inside," Jaune shouted as they made their ways to the closest sections they could to get to safety. Jaune jumped down as he opened the door and looked back. He saw Ren and Nora jump down next and Blake and Yang were after them.
"Where's Ruby, Weiss, Oscar and Qrow?" Jaune asked looking around as the darkness of the tunnel enveloped the train.
"I saw Oscar and Qrow already safe," Yang commented and looked to Blake as she had been last to jump down.
"I'm pretty sure Ruby went to help Weiss down," Blake answered as she had last seen Ruby use her semblance going for Weiss.
When went forward to where the passengers were and quickly found their entire team. It made Jaune feel a bit better seeing everyone there but the one hunter looked badly hurt in the arm as he and Qrow were yelling at each other. Jaune couldn't understand all of it, he thought he heard something about the guns on top of the train.
Jaune wasn't sure what to do at this point, the guns were helping to keep them alive on top but there were people here that needed to be protected. If the guns were putting the passengers in danger, they should turn them off but it would only make things more difficult for them fighting the Grimm.
It was a hard position to be in and he could hear how frightened the people were, that was another problem. All the fear would just draw in the Grimm and might even bring more to the train in the area.
Then before anyone knew it Ruby came forward and softly asked him to turn them off. Jaune went up next, Ruby had the right idea shouting at each other wouldn't solve anything.
"Trust us, we know what we're doing," He gently said to the man as he used his semblance to help heal the damage to his arm. It looked like it might have been broken internally so he hoped this would work. He hadn't helped a body to fix a broken bone yet. He still wasn't sure just what the limits to the 'healing' aspect to his ability were. As far as he guessed as long as it was something aura could heal, he could help it along.
The man seemed to consider things before finally giving in pulling out his scroll to deactivate the weapons.
"Fine," he said as the fight went out of him.
Nora suddenly had an idea as she looked to Ren. "Hey you think you can use your semblance to hide all of us? With the guns gone and all the emotions hidden they might lose track of us."
Ren considered her words, they did have merit but there was just one problem. "It might work but I've never tried that before with so many people with something this large."
"What if you had a boost?" Jaune offered.
Ren nodded. "It might work."
"Yes with your aura amplified it might just work," Weiss nodded liking the plan so far.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Qrow grinned glad something was going right.
As they were talking, Ozpin knew that there was one problem. One that would make this plan fail, as he took control of Oscar for the moment and walked into the center of the group. He had hoped that this part wouldn't have been a problem, that the train would get to their destination before the issue came up. He should have warned them that the relics attracted the Grimm.
That was another reason why they were hidden away the vaults shielded whatever property it was that kept the Grimm from sensing them. He never figured out why they did, only that there was a range he had to worry about with them. It was why he wanted them to travel by train, it was much quicker and if they were on foot, the Grimm would have been on them the entire way.
"There is on small complication," Ozpin admitted as he gestured to the relic. "I don't know the reason but the relics attract the Grimm."
"What's that?" Dudley the Huntsman asked looking at the item in Oscar's possession.
"Never mind that," Qrow simply told him looking a little hurt at Ozpin. "Oz are you serious?"
"Why didn't you tell us this?" Yang demanded she thought that there would be no more secrets and yet here was a damn secret, again. Was this the reason the train was attacked? She was really starting to hate all the surprises and secrets that came out to bite them in the ass.
"I…" Ozpin tried to search for the reason but even he wasn't sure why. He was so used to keeping secrets, keeping people at arm's length that it had become a habit over the centuries. Too many times he had taken someone in confidence only to be betrayed. Too many times people died because of what they knew, of the secrets he told them.
His mind flashed to young Pyrrha, her death weighed on his soul as countless others did. He had so much hope for her, that she could have been someone to help the next generation in this long and bloody war. But it all ended as it always did, in death.
"It doesn't matter," Ruby stepped forward she could see the tension and yes she wished he had told them but they could deal with that later. They had a bigger issue to deal with now and people to save and they came first.
"The longer we're on this train the more we're putting people here in danger," Ruby explained and looked to Ren. "If you move all the passengers to the front and mask them and kill the turrets. We just can't come with you, we'll stay behind and detach the other cars and fight off the Grimm while you get away."
Jaune heard this plan and he felt a sliver of ice enter his heart as he looked at them. He knew that he would have to stay behind since he was needed to help Ren mask everyone. He looked at his friends and then his eyes landed on Yang and for a brief moment, he was back in that locker at Beacon banging on the door as Pyrrha sent him away.
He closed his eyes and shook his head clearing his mind. He checked to see if he was done with the healing. The arm looked good so he stopped using his semblance as he walked over to Ruby. He looked down at his friend, she always seemed to brave these days and knew exactly what to do. He looked up to her in moments like these, she made being a leader so easy at times but he still hated this.
He hated how this had to happen and once again, he was powerless to do anything about it. He just had to have hope that she and the others would be okay.
"Only if you promise me you'll make it to Argus." He told her.
Ruby smiled up at him, "I promise."
Jaune could see there was no doubt in her eyes he wondered how she did that all he felt was doubt sometimes. He nodded to her as he looked over to see Yang he had to say something to her before they left as the others started to file past him.
Jaune went over to Yang looking into her eyes. "Please make it back."
She flashed him a small smile, "You got it."
"I'm serious Yang," He said softly.
She looked into his eyes and saw the worry in them. He wanted to come with them but knew he couldn't. He looked so pained in his big blue eyes and she didn't like to see him like this. She gently took his face in her hands as she gave him a soft but loving kiss. "Promise, just like Ruby said, we're all coming back you make sure to get these people safe and wait for us in Argus."
"Promise," He said his thumb caressing her cheek looking longingly into her eyes.
"Come on you love birds we got to go," Qrow told them as they parted.
Jaune sighed as he steeled himself before he turned to Nora and Ren. "Come on we got our own job to do."
The two nodded as the three of them started to move passengers to as far front of the train as possible. Although Jaune was going to be boosting Ren's ability, they could only push things so far. They needed to get everyone as close together as possible for this to work.
They did their best to get people along as they could hear the sounds of fighting on the roof. Jaune looked up now and then wishing he was up there to help but the people came first. He waved people along and he was a bit surprised not one person argued or questioned anything they were doing.
Perhaps it was just how sure they seemed no one else knew what to do or was telling them anything after all.
After everyone was sent to the front cars, his team got onto the roof. By this point Jaune saw Team RWBY and the others fending off the Grimm. Nora pulled out her scroll, as she would let them know when to start. Ren and Jaune stood together waiting for the signal.
"Ruby says now!" Nora cried out.
Ren knelt down and placed his hand on the roof as he felt Jaune's aura flowing into him. This was the first time they had tried something like this and feeling it. It was as if his own aura flow was a river and suddenly a dam had burst up stream flooding said river. He looked up as he focused his semblance forward, he could feel it wrap around the train and everyone there.
It was difficult and if it wasn't for the aura from Jaune, there was no way he could do this, he was sure of it. He felt the train jerk, as it seemed to pick up a little more speed.
"Jaune?" He asked, as he didn't dare look he needed his concentration for this.
"They're away," He told him as Jaune closed his eyes and hoped they would be fine. He just focused on the task, using his semblance to help Ren's. They would keep it up until the Grimm were no longer a threat. He had no idea how long he had been there, he just concentrated on the task at hand trying to push all other thoughts away.
He didn't feel the cold air around him, he wasn't thinking about Ruby and the others or the people under their protection, he wasn't even thinking of the Grimm. He just let his mind go blank and focused on putting his aura into Ren.
Ren for his part was doing the same he could feel the strain on his body now. He had no idea how long he had been at it but there were no Grimm so far. They had to be sure, with only the three of them they didn't have the numbers to fight off a large group.
"Guys, I think we're good." Nora told them. She had been looking out for anymore Grimm but so far, nothing. She looked at her scroll to see that the others were well out of range. Not only that but she checked the time, the boys had been at it for five minutes and given how fast the train went they had to be far enough away now.
Ren let go of his semblance as Jaune did the same, Ren suddenly felt tired as his own aura pool had to be pretty low at this point. He could feel his sweat starting to freeze in the open air he hadn't even known he was sweating until now.
Jaune looked back the way they had come the train had taken a turn here and there so there was no sign of his friends. With a heavy heart he turned away, he had to have hope because it was the only thing he had at the moment.
"Come on let's see how everyone inside is doing," Jaune told them as he moved to the edge of the car. Ren and Nora gave a silent look of worry to each other before silently following him.
TBC…
Well here we go, next chapter will be more focused on Jaune and what happened after they got to Argus. Also please leave a review, there was a drop in them with the last chapter and it makes me think I either was doing something wrong and turned people off or it wasn't that good. The chapter was a little shorter than I would have liked but I think I'll make up for it with the next one.