Here we go.


Cover Art: Mystery White Flame

Chapter 37


There was no hope of stopping most of the school finding out about the second assassination attempt. The first one had been bad enough, but the second causing weapons to be fired inside Beacon's halls couldn't possibly be missed. It probably didn't help that a team had been assigned to him either and add onto that the teachers asking questions of a few key teams (most noticeably those with a member who had pink or pale-coloured hair) and it was a lost cause. Such a lost cause, in fact, that the headmaster deigned to hold a speech to the school in the crowded auditorium.

"Last night, someone attempted to murder one of our students in the infirmary." There were gasps, except for Jaune, who winced at how blunt Ozpin was being. "I am pleased to announce that no one was harmed, and that our allies from Atlas were able to scare them off. What remains is that there may yet be someone, either within these halls or capable of sneaking into them, who might wish harm upon the student body."

"You are not being told this to panic. On the contrary, you are all capable young men and women with aura and combat skill, and I trust each and every one of you can defend yourself in the event of an attack, at the very least to retreat and seek help. Why we have made the decision to tell you is so that you can all be aware of the danger, and so that you know to contact a member of staff immediately should you see anything suspicious." He clicked a button and a picture of Neo appeared on the screen. She wasn't in Beacon on it, so it must have been a shot taken by the police, or maybe even a photo they'd found elsewhere. "This is the suspected individual. We ask you all to keep your eyes out for her – either in Beacon or in Vale – but to exercise caution, as she is known to be dangerous. First and second year teams should, under no circumstances, challenge her. Third and fourth year teams should exercise their own judgment, but still be very careful."

Everyone was dismissed soon after, in a slow huddle leaving the hall. There was murmured chatter all around them as people processed the news. A few people looked his way, and some even pointed, having heard or pieced together from other sources that he was the victim. It didn't help that, under his uniform, he still had bandages across his stomach, and faint bruises that were very small yet pronounced on his face and neck. The difference between a bruise left by a fist and one by a bullet on aura was distinctive.

By the end of the day, he was sure everyone would know it was an Atlas team that had been attacked, and then by midday tomorrow they'd probably know it was his team, if not have his name entirely. There was no hope otherwise.

"Cheer up," said Flynt, patting his back. "At least it's not all over the newspapers. Teachers must have wanted to keep it quiet."

"Well, they've told everyone now and it'll only take one person leaking it…"

"Yeah, but that'll be two-day old news at that point. They're still feasting on the nightclub incident."

Flynt did his best to sound jovial, but there was an underlying tension to it. A simmering pot of anger ready to boil over. People had died, and they'd died because someone thought it'd be okay to target their team in public. As much as being stabbed had hurt, Jaune hadn't had to cradle dying people and tell them it would all be okay. He'd been spared that.

"The whole city wants to find her," said Neon. "Atlas, too. General Ironwood and Winter now have the perfect excuse to force Vale to house specialists and operatives from back home. Agreeing to let them handle the White Fang in-house is one thing, but no one gets to take a crack at Atlas citizens and get away with it."

"I'm glad all that took was me nearly being killed."

It made him wonder if Atlas needed them anymore. They had their excuse to bring people in now, and their team had mostly scuppered the White Fang's plans. The fact they were now under active attack meant they'd never have the chance to catch the enemy off-guard again, and that sending them out at all was a risk. The best choice might be just to let their team go and start using another one. Not to let them die, of course, but to tell them that their role in the operation was over, that they'd done their job and completed their mission, and that they should just play it safe and compete in the tournament for the rest of their stay.

Winter hadn't summoned them to say all that, but he expected she'd be in meetings with General Ironwood for a while yet. They were still dealing with the whole "attempted murder" thing, and orders for their undercover team were a lesser priority. Other than the obvious ones given that they shouldn't, for any reason, leave Beacon in the coming days.

"Penny, you were hanging out with Ruby at breakfast. do you know if Team RWBY does our warning seriously?"

"Friends Ruby and Weiss took it seriously," said Penny, smiling. "Yang complained that they could take anything that came their way, and Blake seemed to be angry that Ruby had told the teachers of the danger when they could have dealt with it on their own, but Ruby was very stern and very official when she told them that she was team leader, and it was her decision. Weiss supported her."

"That's good. I'm glad to see she's taking the leadership role seriously."

"Their team still needs a medic like ours," said Neon, hooking an arm around Penny's shoulder. The android girl smiled happily and did the same. "I mean, two of their number were downright ruined at that crash, and if Penny wasn't there then they might have been seriously hurt."

"I mean, if Penny wasn't there then we wouldn't have been there and they wouldn't have crashed," said Flynt.

"Shush."

Jaune laughed quietly. He agreed that every team should have a medic, but that wasn't their choice to make or force on another team. And besides, it wasn't even their decision. It was something Atlas had told them they'd have to do, and something they'd come to realise the value of later. Beacon was a different school with different values. It was bound to be stronger and weaker in different areas compared to Atlas, and this was just one of them. Maybe there just wasn't enough budget to go around. Atlas seemed to have the attitude that no cost was too great when it came to education, as evidenced by their dorms, while Beacon was a lot more frugal.

Then again, the average citizen of Vale wasn't used to paying high taxes for their military, so they would have balked at any increase. Jaune had to imagine taxes here were a lot lower than they were in Atlas.

"Any news from Warden?" asked Jaune.

Flynt shook his head. "None. I reckon they're scrambling like Beacon is. We're pretty much on our own." He lowered his voice. "And we still don't know if the White Fang have a team in here or not, or whether they're just informants or a legitimate threat to us."

"Can they afford to make a move if they're the latter?"

"Not right now they can't," said Neon. "It'd be suicide."

"We'll play it safe then," said Jaune. "For now, we're just a regular team minding our own business."

/-/

The regular team plan lasted for a full week and a half, ten whole days, with nary a peep from the White Fang, Neo, or anyone who ought to be out for their blood. There were no further attempts on his life, though Beacon kept to the rotating rooms plan even so. The reason for the reprieve might well have been because of that, and it would be stupid to stop it and watch them be attacked the very next day.

Moving rooms would have probably been a pain for a team living here, but they were transfers and only had a suitcase each anyway, so packing and unpacking was easy, even more so when they learned not to unpack at all and just take what needed from their cases. School lessons in Beacon had ended a few days ago, in preparation for the tournament, which was days away now. The news in the city had inevitably gravitated towards that, leaving behind even the fallen at the nightclub.

Warden kept in contact over that time but didn't have much to give them. The White Fang had been quiet, leading them all to assume that they were either neutralised, scrambling for new ideas, or going through a power struggle now that Roman and their main group had been killed on the train. Either way, there hadn't been so much as a dust robbery in the last ten days, and there probably wouldn't be any more with Roman not there to organise it. The Paladin had been destroyed, too, on the train. It was hard not to feel like they'd won, and that Neo's attack was just her trying to get vengeance for Roman's death.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, he had his stitches removed and was given a bill of clean health, and Winter met with them to confirm – had there been any doubt – that they had no leads on the White Fang, if any of them were even alive, and that they should focus on the tournament. After that, they could return to Atlas, and Neo wouldn't find it so easy to reach them there.

As far as Jaune was concerned, it was mission accomplished.

/-/

The whole team was going stir crazy by the time the tournament hit. They'd been cooped up in Beacon to the point of a mental breakdown, waiting for an attack that never came. When it was finally time to leave Beacon for Amity along with the other teams, it was like being told your sentence in a prison was over. Warm sunlight, hundreds of stalls and carnival games, massive crowds and music and commentary belting out over the top.

"This your first Vytal Festival?" asked Flynt, noticing Jaune's stunned expression. "I've been to two of them before – both in Atlas."

"It's my first, yeah," said Jaune. "I think I saw one or two of them on TV, but when you have seven siblings, it's kind of expensive to buy tickets for the whole family. Dad isn't a massive fan of the huntsman life, either."

"He a civvie?"

"No. He's a huntsman." It didn't look like Flynt or Neon knew what to make of that. Honestly, Jaune didn't either, but he'd always just written it off as his father being overprotective. It was a dangerous job after all. "There must be thousands of people here. Is it normally this busy?"

"This is a little busier than usual," said Flynt. "Last one in Atlas was maybe like 80% capacity. This has to be 100%, if not a little over."

"There are a lot of people here from Mistral ready to wave the flag for Pyrrha Nikos," added Neon, pointing to a group of teenage girls who proudly wearing t-shirts with said student on them. Two of them had hair dyed the same colour, and one had a huge foam version of Pyrrha's weapon in her hand, with Invincible written on it. "Looks like the celebrity is drawing the crowds."

"You think we'll ever be that big?" asked Flynt.

"The world couldn't handle the size of your ego if you were, so no."

"Mean. I wonder what our odds are." He moved over to a betting booth, leaving them to follow. Jaune would admit he was a little curious himself, though he didn't imagine they would be good. Sure enough, Pyrrha Nikos was the favourite.

Can a first year really beat fourth-year students? That's just insane. It basically means an education at the academies is close to worthless.

It took Flynt a while to find their team on the list on the interactive screen. That was because they were right down near the bottom. "Six hundred to one!" he shouted. "What the hell! We're not that bad!"

"It's not just us down here," said Penny. "Team RWBY are five hundred to one odds. In fact, the only first-year team with odds better than two hundred to one is Pyrrha Nikos' team."

"We're really being underestimated," said Neon. "And look at this rot! There isn't an Atlas team in the top five. Talk about home city bias."

There weren't a lot of teams outside of Atlas that Jaune recognised. He'd seen Team CFVY once or twice, and they had odds of eighty-to-one. Respectable. Well, respectable for them, but a big insult to say they were going to be smashed by Pyrrha Nikos' team. Her odds were four-to-three. The people betting on her to win the whole thing weren't even going to double their money.

"You think I should bet on us?" asked Flynt.

"No."

"No."

"Gambling is an unwise investment."

"Geez. Talk about having no faith in our abilities." Flynt didn't bring out his wallet or make a bet, though. "You've got to have some more confidence in us. It's half the battle. If we go in thinking we'll lose, then we will."

He made a good point, but it wasn't just that they were an inexperienced team at a tournament for all years; their team had also been distracted with the White Fang business while other ones got to train and prepare for this moment. They hadn't even won their right to come here fairly. I'm proud of what we accomplished against the terrorists, but there's no point pretending we have a chance here. The worst part was that their biggest edge was their teamwork and planning, and that was only going to matter for the first two rounds. Once they were out of the 4v4 and 2v2 stages, teamwork would cease to exist.

Unless they sent Penny ahead.

That was a risky thought. Jaune eyed his partner, who was still chatting with Flynt and Neon about the odds they'd been given. There was no telling just how strong Penny was, maybe enough to challenge even Pyrrha Nikos, but if that ever happened and was later found out then everyone would rightly accuse Atlas of cheating in an international event. After all, you wouldn't send a robot to run a race against humans, and you shouldn't send one to win a fight against them either.

It'd probably feed Pyrrha's legend, too. The girl so strong that Atlas had to engineer a military superweapon just to beat her.

"Team Jackpot. There you are." Winter Schnee strolled toward them with hands linked behind her back. "I've been looking for you."

"Ma'am!" they saluted.

"At ease. At ease." A tiny smile showed its face. She, General Ironwood and even Beacon's teachers had been in good moods of late, likely thanks to the lack of any enemy action. "I only wanted to have a quick word about the tournament. Some last advice as it were. I'll show you to the changing rooms while we talk."

"Aw, but the carnival," whined Flynt.

"It'll be there every day of the tournament," said Neon, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. "And it'll be less crowded, too. Come on. Sorry, ma'am."

"It's fine. You're all here to enjoy the event. This won't take long." Winter brought them through an area checkpointed and guarded by Atlas soldiers, then inside the stands. It was silent there, in the areas reserved for competitors only. Winter moved a way down that so that they could see anyone coming a good distance away. "This is far enough. I've not had chance to debrief you, but General Ironwood asked me to today."

"New orders?" asked Penny.

"No. Or not orders so much as guidelines. There's been no sign of the White Fang. Warden thinks they've pulled out after you ruined their plan, but we can't ignore the fact the festival is still a target. Their attempts to cause a scene will be clumsier, but they might still happen. Ironwood wants you four on your toes just in case, though obviously it'll be our job to act in defence of the people here."

"What do you need us for then? Amity is crawling with our troops."

"Amity is, yes, but Beacon isn't. I've not been told why, but General Ironwood believes Beacon itself might be a target – and with everyone in Vale here? Well, it'll be an easy target. I wasn't convinced of that at first, but the fact Roman's accomplice could get in so easily suggests they planned in advance for her to do so."

"Meaning they have an interest in Beacon," said Jaune. "Or someone or something there."

"The White Fang would be cutting their own throats if they attacked Beacon," argued Neon. "Grimm don't discriminate, and the academies are our biggest shield against them. Attacking one is akin to declaring war on every kingdom at once. They'd never do it."

Winter sighed. "Were this Sienna Khan I might agree, but then we know for a fact more radical elements in the White Fang have been pushing for armed conflict. If they can spark that now, then the White Fang will be dragged into a war regardless."

"One they won't win."

"That doesn't matter because our stance is that we want to avoid another Great War. Whether we win it or not won't change the damage it causes. That's why we're here." Winter took a deep breath. "And what's why we want you at Beacon, not here on Amity."

It took Jaune a second to piece that together. "You want us to lose our fight…"

Flynt and Neon hated it, he could tell. None of them expected to win, but they wanted to give it their all and try, if only for their own self-respect. But, if this was to prevent a war, then they had to follow those orders. It was for the greater good.

"Nothing so drastic." Winter interrupted his thoughts. "Even if you win today, it'll be 2v2 tomorrow. That spares two of you to keep an eye on Beacon." Flynt and Neon instantly relaxed. "And there'll be three of you the day after. I'm not asking you to throw any matches, only that you trade sitting in the stands watching for staying in Beacon watching remotely."

"That's… not bad…" Jaune looked to his team, but they all seemed okay with it. It would be a shame not to be able to cheer one another on, but if they knew what it was the case then there wouldn't be any hard feelings. "I take it we're having some soldiers stay at Beacon too."

"We are, to a degree, but we can't station many there and have people asking why we're guarding a mostly empty school instead of a floating colosseum filled with innocent civilians. That's why we need you there."

"Will we be expected to stop an attack if it comes?"

"No. Simply stall and call for aid. Let the enemy into Beacon if you must. We'll return and trap them there. But, after the attack on the CCT right under our noses and then an attempt on your own life, we expect our enemies to have easy access to Beacon. Enough to be able to slip past our few stationed soldiers without tripping the alarm. Penny is capable of forcing a signal through to us even if something does happen to the CCT."

"Does that mean Penny isn't going to be allowed to go past the 4v4 stage?" asked Neon.

"It does. I'm sorry, Penny." Winter nodded to her.

"It's fine, Miss Schnee. I never really cared about the accolades."

Winter smiled, and then said, "Originally, the plan was to have Penny compete to better understand how to fit in among other people and limit-test her in safe combat environments, but, in all truth, the four of you have done a spectacular enough job on that on your own that Dr. Polendina doesn't require any more data. Now don't worry," she added, "Penny will be staying on your team. We're only saying that we no longer need to test her. Penny's time interacting with you all has been more beneficial to her social and combat skills than any tournament will be."

"And it'd be a huge stink if Penny competed and was found out," said Flynt. "No offence."

"That too. There's no need to take risks by making her fight people, and she'll be much more useful in Beacon helping to detect infiltrators. Do you accept the task?"

Jaune looked to his team, and they all nodded. "We do. Penny and I will drop out if we advance past the 4v4." He saw Flynt and Neon's surprised expressions. "You two care more about this tournament thing, and in all honesty you're stronger individually than me anyway. Plus, you have more synergy than I would with either of you."

"You sure you don't mind, man?" asked Flynt. "You sure?"

"It's just a tournament. And besides…" Jaune grinned. "I feel like I don't have anything to prove anymore. I came clean about cheating my way into Atlas and you all accepted me. My job is to be the strategist. I'll help you both come up with ideas before the fight if you like, but you two were always going to be the ones going through." He chuckled. "And let's not get cocky. We could get put up against Pyrrha Nikos first round, and then it'll be all four of us sulking in Beacon."

Flynt laughed. "Don't jinx us, man."

"I'm sure you'll all perform spectacularly," said Winter. "I need to go double-check the men. Good luck out there and remember that however much the world might hype up this event, it's still nothing more than a show. What's truly important is stopping chaos overtaking Remnant, and in that regard your team deserve the titles of champions more than almost any other team here."

That meant a lot coming from her.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"No. Thank you." Winter saluted them. "Atlas is stronger for your service." She dropped it. "I have to go. Good luck." Winter walked swiftly away, already speaking into a headset. It was a busy job holding her position, it seemed.

"Damn," said Flynt, rocking on his heels. "You hear that? Us. Champions. That speech gave me goosebumps."

"I mean, we are in a way. Aren't we?" Neon, too, was smiling. "We broke the White Fang's back, destroyed the Paladin, and protected Vale from a whole tunnel of Grimm pouring out into the city. Sure, they might not know it, but Atlas does. We're heroes."

Heroes.

Jaune smiled, unable to find any argument against it.


I don't know how it took me 5 hours to write this chapter. My head is very spaced out today; not tired for once, but just not quite all there.


Next Chapter: 8th July

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