Spending the day looking after my parents' horses while they go out for a father's day romantic dinner. The nanosecond they are gone, a horse gets tangled in its rug and goes insane in the field. Yay! Got it under control, lol, but I've had so many minor injuries from horses in my life it's just funny.
Cover Art: Mystery White Flame
Chapter 35
It was ironic that he'd gotten into Atlas by lying, confessed to Atlas, been accepted despite it, and now employed by Atlas to lie for them. Ironic, and just a little funny. At least now, he didn't have to feel guilty about it.
"Run me through what happened," requested the headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin, while his deputy Goodwitch stood menacingly nearby. He didn't think she meant to be menacing, but she would have fit in with Atlas well for that gaze of hers.
"My team and I were out in Vale on Friday night." Jaune kept his eyes on Ozpin, his voice relaxed, and his posture slack. There technically hadn't been any lessons on deceit in Atlas. That might have worked in his favour. "We'd basically been going out every weekend at this point. Beacon's rooms are… well, they're nice, but we have some crazy-good ones back home."
Ozpin smiled faintly. "I have had the pleasure of seeing them in person. I only wish our budget could stretch to the same lengths. What were you up to in Vale? Shopping?"
A trap. Malls had cameras and witnesses.
"No. We've had a look around the shops before but it's kind of hard to buy anything when our cases are already full. We can maybe squeeze one or two souvenirs in at the end, but to be honest we can order things from Vale online if we want. It's not like our kingdoms are under an embargo or anything." The man grunted once and waited for him to continue. "Mostly, we've been going out to cafes and restaurants through the day and clubs or bars at night. Neon and Flynt have this rock vs jazz thing going on, and Penny and I are trapped as the judges. And, again, not to be offensive but the food here is… well, it's not bad, actually, but after a week of it, we're kind of dying for something different. There are some really good Mistralian restaurants around the landing zones."
"Vale is an international hub. We do have several prominent chains. When did you spot the White Fang?"
Jaune hummed and looked upward. "I wasn't keeping a very good track on the time, but it was after we'd been clubbing. Real late. I want to say one in the morning, but I don't think any of us were checking. We crashed out the club, got a kebab and some fries from this place nearby – can't remember the name; can't remember if I even ate it, or what it tasted like – and we were stumbling our way back."
Goodwitch clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes, while Ozpin chuckled. This, Jaune expected, was a story they'd heard ten thousand times or more from their own students. Team JCKP had done their research, even if they'd never actually been out properly clubbing before. He had enough stories from his sisters, as well as from Neon, on what it was like.
"Penny saw them first," he lied. "It was the masks, of course. It sobered us up quick, but not quick enough to feel like we should chance an engagement. They were armed, we were drunk, and we had no idea how many of them there might have been. It would have been mind-bogglingly stupid for us to attack them."
"More than a little reckless, yes, so you reported it to Winter Schnee? Why not the authorities?"
"I kind of assumed Miss Schnee would," he said, shrugging. "I mean, she is the authority for us from Atlas. We're taught to report to a commanding officer and that's it. I did that." He hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I'm sorry if that's not the way things are done here."
"No. It's fine. As you say, you told someone and believed they would alert others. And you were later instructed to go down and investigate?"
"Yeah."
"What did you think of that?"
"Not much, sir. Being given tasks like that is normal in Atlas, and our job was just to poke around and report what we found. It's not like we were going to be fighting anyone"
"Did you think it odd you were given the job instead of the police?"
"I figured it was because only we knew where we'd seen them. We don't know Vale, so we couldn't give proper directions or coordinates when we were drunk. We had to trace our steps from the night before to find it, and then we found the tunnel entrance." Before they could protest, he said, "And we reported it yet again. We immediately told Winter what we'd found."
Professor Goodwitch grunted unhappily. It was easier to track her reactions for an idea on how the meeting was going than Ozpin's. The man had a poker face and a half. Winter had been clear that the goal was to redirect any and all blame her way, not because she wanted to martyr herself, but because it would force Vale to go through "official channels" to lodge a complaint or enact discipline, and that could be stonewalled. Whereas, with sufficient evidence, they could request Team JCKP be expelled from the tournament and returned to Atlas.
It deviated somewhat from the original plans of complete ignorance, but plans were fluid by nature, and Warden had decided to change tack. It was no doubt fuelled by decisions back home from people above all of them in rank. Atlas was apparently rather pleased with what happened, and how one of their teams had foiled an attack on Vale, and so they could afford to own up to some of it because Atlas was prepared to fight tooth and nail on their side.
Being recognised like that was a novel experience.
"So, upon finding this tunnel, you decided to blow it up?"
"Those were our orders," said Jaune. "But they were pretty clear that we should make sure it was away from Vale, and that we should retreat on any sign of terrorist activity. Winter told us they were the tunnels to Mountain Glenn, so we knew they were supposed to be sealed up. What happened there, anyway? How did they get opened without anyone noticing?"
"I'm not at liberty to say," said Ozpin. "Please continue."
Jaune shrugged again. "Fair enough. We travelled down for ages, found a weakened spot and set the tunnel to collapse. We then called back to radio job done, when penny felt vibrations. It shouldn't have been possible for a train to be there, so we didn't expect it. We'd have died if it came fifteen minutes earlier. The train crashed, we reported it, help was sent, and we broke through to perform first aid on anyone inside, where we found Team RWBY and Doctor Oobleck. How is he, by the way?"
"Alive and well," said Ozpin, smiling genuinely for once. "He complimented your professionalism."
"I'm not sure about his if he risked his life to save a dog's, but I can't complain about the heroics, I guess."
"I'll tell him that. Bart loves animals, so it doesn't surprise me he'd be so reckless." Ozpin sat back. "Thank you for recounting the story to us, Mr Arc. A question, if I may, on what you would have done differently could you go back in time?"
"Uh." He hadn't expected that one. "I mean, I guess I'd have called and forewarned Team RWBY? Not that I could have even known they were out there. Sorry, but we didn't do all that much for me to feel regret over. Maybe I could have found Xiao-Long quicker but failing to blow the tunnel would have meant our deaths, and that train hurtling toward the city."
"I see. Thank you for answering my questions. You may leave."
/-/
Winter and General Ironwood were no doubt going through their own interviews, or dealing with the political fall-out in a similar way. The public were practically ignorant of what happened, as it was far enough outside Vale that there were no witnesses. Most of the news was about the festival as was the usual, and Team RWBY hadn't had time to talk.
He found Ruby waiting for him outside his dorm of all places, and the girl approached with a skip and a smile. "Hey. I wanted to thank you again for being there for us. I know we said it before, but if you hadn't cut through to Yang then she might have died."
If they hadn't sealed the tunnel, she wouldn't have been like that in the first place.
"How are they?" he asked.
"Both stable. Blake had to have stitches in her head and she has, like, six cracked or fractured bones that need to recover. Yang was basically battered and bruised all over but, amazingly, not that injured. Concussed, dangerously low aura, and her body is blue and purple in places, but I guess she had a lot of padding when she hit the walls." Ruby motioned over her chest as she said that, and Jaune snorted. "She's more upset because she lost to someone before it happened, and it's kind of ripping her up inside. She thinks it makes her weak."
"You're first years…"
"So are you."
"Yeah, and we have zero expectations for ourselves because of it." Jaune pointed to his team's door. "We know we won't win the tournament, we know we'll lose fights, and we know we have a lot of time to get better. I don't want to sound harsh or anything, but your team is kind of… arrogant? I guess."
Ruby looked horrified. "I'm… I'm arrogant…?"
"Not you necessarily!" he hastened to say. "And it's probably not intentional. I just… What does your sister expect? This is literal terrorists. Yes, they're going to have a lot of regular people with weapons, but they're bound to have some huntsmen and huntresses too, and you're first years. Their huntsmen will have been through more training than you."
It reminded him of the assessment in the quarry with the hidden team of huntsmen. The assessment they'd been expected to fail. That had taught them not to get cocky, and to always be prepared for things to go wrong. It felt like Team RWBY hadn't experienced that yet. He wasn't sure this would count, as only Yang had really lost, and as a team they could consider it a success.
"You girls are really strong, Ruby, but there are bound to be people stronger. There must be! If there isn't, then what is the point of Beacon at all? People have four years here, and then however many more they have after honing their skills in life or death situations."
"I guess…" Ruby kicked at her feet. "What could we have done better?"
"Not let Yang stay to fight someone one on one, I think." It was his immediate reaction. "You're a team of four – five with Oobleck – and he should have been the one to stay if anyone. But if it were my team there then I'd have left two people. Split the team. You remember how our team beat yours because of teamwork? You kind of made the same mistake again. Yang is strong, but she'll be three times as strong if she has Blake covering her weaknesses and supporting her. The whole one-on-one honourable fight thing is…"
"Dumb." Ruby said it, sighing. "Yep. I see that now. Wow. Why did we let that happen? No. Why did I let that happen. I won't next time!" Ruby looked up at him, smiling confidently. "Next time, I'll tell Yang she's stupid and order Blake to stay and look after her."
"That's the spirit. I feel like this tournament, and the academies, get it into your head that fights should be fair. One on one, or team on team, but the reality of things is that you should take unfair fights if you can get them." Again, he jerked a thumb to his team. "We certainly will be at the festival. If you end up against us, you better expect us to gang up on you individually. Four on one, if we can pull it off."
"We'll be ready." Ruby giggled, then stepped up and hugged him. It was a friendly thing, so very platonic in the way she gripped him tight and then let go. And yet, for some reason, she still looked embarrassed. That felt like a Ruby thing. "Thanks again! I'll see you later!"
"See you later." Jaune waved after her until she was gone, and then let himself in his dorm. His team were waiting for him. "I'm back."
"How did it go?"
"Well enough. I think Ozpin and Goodwitch were satisfied enough with what I said. I just hope Winter can stay here. If they push for her to leave, then it'll be bad."
"We can still get orders from her remotely if she does," said Neon. "And it's Winter Schnee. You think she's going to care? She's unflappable."
"I don't think they can risk it," said Penny. Her eyes were shining lightly, illuminated from within. "I'm checking online and even though the news hasn't covered it yet, there were people who commented on Atlas leaving and returning, and there are rumours of Roman Torchwick's death. He is infamous online. If Vale try and punish Winter, and by extension Atlas, then they can come back and reveal that they stopped a White Fang attack on the city."
"Vale would have egg on its face after that," said Flynt.
It was all politics. They couldn't pretend they knew the ins and outs, or what went on behind closed doors, but they could piece bits together, and it was obvious that punishing a kingdom for saving your bacon wouldn't go down well with the populace if they found out. Vale would need to express their displeasure very diplomatically, and also very subtly. If they chose to at all. Maybe this would be the wake-up call they needed.
"I have even better new, though," said Flynt. Neon clapped her hands, clearly in on it. Penny just smiled. "Warden called the three of us while you were busy and gave us our marching orders for tonight. We have an important mission – given to us, specifically, in light of the fact that our movements might be watched by Beacon for the next few days."
Jaune hummed, but Flynt wasn't done.
"This mission, should we choose to accept it, involves extreme levels of subterfuge and will see us infiltrate Vale and Beacon more wholly, establishing our cover and reinforcing the masquerade we're playing. It will be a difficult mission, and expensive, but we're being covered by Atlas' purse tonight!"
"And our mission is…?" asked Jaune, already able to tell they were leading him on.
"To get black-out drunk on a night out clubbing!" cheered Flynt and Neon as one. They exchanged a high-five, and Neon added, "Because if they're suspicious of our story that we saw the White Fang on a night out, then we need to be seen going on more nights out."
There was no arguing with that.
/-/
The "Club" was an aptly named placed popular among several of Beacon's teams. It had good music, good drinks, and the place wasn't as stringent on age and ID as it legally should have been. They were of age, of course, and weren't too worried, but Neon thought it'd be best if they went to the kinds of places the other students did. What surprised Jaune more was a picture of Yang Xiao-Long strapped beside the front doors, with black writing underneath reading "BARRED".
Flynt took a selfie under it with his hands in the peace sign – and no doubt planned to show it to her later. The club was already heaving when they arrived, but it was mostly on the dancefloor and at the bar, letting then snag a table when a group of guys thought they could reserve it with a couple of drinks. If it were just him, he'd have let that happen, but Flynt and Neon were much more familiar with all this.
"There are no manners in a club, Jaune. It's push and shove. About the only thing you do is help someone if they're about to collapse and call them a taxi."
"And not be an asshole at the bar if you know someone has been waiting forever to be served," added Flynt.
Neon laughed. "Not a problem for me when guys are always buying me drinks."
"Yeah? Then why have we never seen any of your many boyfriends, huh?"
"Because I'm not as easy as you are."
Jaune laughed and took a drink. Neon had taken it upon herself to "break him in" when it came to going out, which meant she had control over what he drank. That came about after he'd told her to "just get him a beer or something" and she'd looked disgusted at him. Since then, he'd sampled spirits and cocktails a plenty, and found a particular taste for rum and whiskey mixers. Not neat, though. He'd made the mistake of ordering a whiskey because he liked the taste of the whiskey and soda and assumed it'd taste as good on its own. Big mistake.
They were four or five drinks in when Neon eventually dragged them to the dancefloor. It took him that long to loosen up. He felt bad for Penny not being able to get drunk, mostly because he'd heard how awful nights were as the only sober person. Penny seemed to enjoy it, though. She kept giggling at their slurred words and the stupid stories Flynt and Neon told. Maybe it was only bad if you had hoped to get drunk. Since she knew she never could have, she didn't feel angry at everyone else going on without her.
Dancing as four was an interesting experience. He knew how to dance, thanks to his sisters, but that was one-on-one dancing. Romantic and slow. This was closer to a mass of people bouncing around together. There were some couples in there, most grinding up against one another or full-on making out in the middle of a hurricane of elbows and arms, but there were also a lot like them. Groups of three or four or more just roughly arranged in a tight circle and flailing their bodies around. It was less dancing and more jumping up and down with their arms in the air, as far as he could tell. At least the music was good.
Being able to de-stress was good, too. Even if none of them would admit it, they all felt tightly wound after the day before and seeing all those dead and injured people. They might not have blamed themselves, but that didn't make a train filled with corpses a fun experience. Jaune was surprised he hadn't had nightmares, and he blamed it on the exhaustion, but tonight he knew he'd be too drunk to have any as well, and that was a relief.
It might have been around midnight when Flynt and Neon started making out. Jaune just stared at it, then at Penny, who shrugged back at him. He knew for a fact they didn't like each other that way, so this was probably an atmosphere and booze thing. Should he interrupt? Maybe, but they were just sucking face. Jaune looked for a table instead, but found they'd all been stolen by now, including the one they'd vacated, which had a group of six girls chatting away at it. A more confident man than he might have tried to approach a table and befriend them so they could sit down, or flirt, but he had a feeling Ciel would take a dim view on that. Plus, he wasn't that confident in his ability to flirt with complete strangers.
"Jaune, it's your round!" slurred Neon, hanging off Flynt's neck.
"Yes. I mean yes. I know." He smiled at his own stumbling words. "Penny, keep an eye on them and make sure they don't become teenage parents."
"I'm responsibible!" said Flynt. "And Neon's ugly anyway."
"Fack you."
Penny giggled, somehow not at all upset with being left to look after them. It must have been something about her being a robot, because any person would have groaned and tried to pry them off one another by now. Maybe Penny just liked seeing people in different states, or maybe she had a childish curiosity that turned an awkward situation into a humorous one.
He couldn't tell, and he certainly wasn't going to complain.
The crowd at the bar had thinned out as the night went on and people left or got too drunk, going from at one point a hundred strong to about thirty now. Few enough that he could slide his way to the front after a few people got served, and to the point that no one was fighting or elbowing one another anymore. The wait was either that much more manageable, or everyone was a lot more patient after a few rounds. Jaune slid in next to a girl in a red dress, who was chatting to what looked to be her twin in white. They ignored him, and he flagged down the bearded man behind the counter.
The drinks were mixed quickly, and he slid over the lien, waving away the change. He'd gotten good at pinning the glasses together between two large hands so he could carry all four at once. Or he was drunkenly confident, but hey, he hadn't dropped any! The glasses had apparently stopped being glass as well, because he could tell they were hardened plastic. That must have been a lot safer on the dancefloor especially.
It was as he was turning that he bumped into someone. Not too heavily, not enough to make him spill or knock them over, but a gentle bump that dragged an automatic "Sorry" out of him before he could think. His eyes met one of pink and one of brown, before they blinked and switched places. That's a neat trick, he thought, as the eyes widened in recognition.
Something hot struck him in his stomach and his world twisted.
Pain blossomed in his gut, deep inside, and even through the haze of pain and inebriation he slammed his aura down, instinctively embracing it as the knife was pulled out and thrust in again, this time skittering off his chest. The four glasses tumbled from his fingers and he shoved the girl away, stumbling back himself. The sound of the glasses hitting the floor drew eyes, and some immediately saw the red spreading out over his white shirt, dying it a horrifying colour. Someone screamed.
The one who'd stabbed him was smiling wildly now, viciously, and she yanked out a handgun and shot him. Jaune angled himself without thought, trying to present a smaller target. The first shot hit his right pec, but, thanks to the way he turned, it ricocheted off his aura and went into someone behind. A civilian. There was a scream and a thump as the woman was thrown to the ground. Then, there were more screams. Many of them.
He had no time to process them as the handgun barked again and again, unloading a full clip into him. They hit all over his body, driving him back, denting his aura but never penetrating. That didn't stop them making him tear his own stomach wound open wider, arms coming up to shield his face as people rampaged around him. At least two more had been hit by missed shots or ricochets, and he suspected more. Sobriety had already come crashing into him by then, but there wasn't much he could do without putting everyone at risk.
Help came from an unlikely source. One of the twins, the one in red, lashed out with crimson claws and almost tore the shooter's face open. At the last second, so tight that he could have never pulled it off, the girl with pink hair ducked under the claws, twisted on one heel, and agilely drove a heeled foot up into the twin's stomach, kicking her back over the bar. She then swayed around the other twin, who slashed at her with boot-mounted blades, before unloading the last shot into Jaune's left leg, knocking him down on one knee, and rushing in with her knife again.
A whole spray of buckshot caught her in the chest and knocked her out of it, sent her staggering as the barman had apparently had enough and revealed his own hand, wielding a shotgun at her. "The next goes into your face!"
The girl snarled, baring her teeth like a wild animal, then snapped her head to the side. His team. They were on their way. It was taking them time as they had to wade through panicked people rushing for the doors, but they were coming. His would-be killer hurled the knife at his face, but he managed to catch the blade on his wrist and deflect it to the floor with but a small hit to his aura. His other hand was clutching his bleeding stomach. He had to apply pressure and stop the bleeding.
Luckily, she'd had enough. Her assassination foiled, the girl twirled and sprinted away, sending people crashing to the ground. His team were there a second later. "Jaune!"
"P-Penny," he groaned, forcing himself to let go of his wound so she could get in close. "L-Look me over. Flynt, Neon, let her go." They turned to him, aghast, but he jerked his head. "Others were hit. Stabilise them. S-Someone call this in."
"Already done," snapped the barman. "Police and ambulances are on their way. Miltia? You okay-?"
"I'm getting sick of having my ass continuously kicked by teenage girls, Hei."
"You'll survive. Melanie, help the wounded. Fuck my life." He swiped a hand down his face. "I only just got the fucking place repaired and open for the festival and now this? My insurance is going to go through the fucking roof."
Jaune couldn't bring himself to sympathise as Penny peeled his clothing back to reveal the wound in his abdomen. The first stab had caught him completely unawares, completely relaxed with his aura down. He might as well have been a civilian. He'd gotten it back up before she could twist the knife or do worse, but getting shot at wouldn't have made it any better.
"I've got no pulse!" yelled Neon, panicking as she wildly tore open a woman's blouse and started to press down on her chest. There was blood everywhere. "Penny! Help me!"
Penny looked up, horrified.
"S-See to them," Jaune gritted out. "Help the civilians. I'll last."
The screaming and the crying blurred together as the minutes tucked on. People sobbed, begged, and there were clearly more injured, trampled in the rush, who were calling out for help. Jaune groaned and slid against the underside of the bar, his face covered with sweat. Their actions, it seemed, had brought on consequences. He resolved to inform Winter, seconds before darkness swept in.
Neo may have taken Roman's death personally.
Next Chapter: 24th June
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