Chapter 9
Weiss felt her eyes water as the stench of rusted iron filled her nose, even as Knight seemed to step out of the air to stand beside her. His eyes glowed blue from within his helmet, his eyes flicking over her team first, before landing on team JNPR and their escort.
Those cerulean flood lights only stopped when he passed by Pyrrha, locking into her shoulder. The redhead tensed, shuffling away from the tall armored figure. Jaune and Ren subtly placed themselves in front of the Servant of the Mount.
Slowly, the cerulean flood lights glowing from Knight's eyes dimmed to the power of fluorescent lights, their source shrouded in the darkness of Knight's helm.
"I see that your servant survived her encounter with the Queen's servants."
Weiss watched with wonder as white wisps of light congregated into a figure only slightly taller than herself. It was the silver eyes that she noticed first, with small rounded cheeks, and short dark crimson hair that Weiss would consider a sketch artist's interpretation of her own partner.
Her clothes were her partner's favorite shade of red and black, but while her Partner preferred a plain black dress with red highlights, the woman standing in front of her wore a mistralian designed combat skirt. It was primarily red, and completely made of leather and stain resistant fabrics that Weiss herself had considered for her own dresses before deciding on a different material. It was sleeveless, leaving her shoulders bare, but her custom full arm gloves covered her arms.
In short, the woman looked like a more mature version of Ruby, and she wasn't surprised when Blake was shoved into Weiss's own personal space to make room for Yang Xiao Long.
"Mom?"
Silver eyes darted away from Knight's imposing figure to look towards, Pyrrha's servant flicking her attention between her daughter and Weiss' own servant. Ultimately, after an uncomfortably long pause, Lancer fully turned to Yang.
"Hi sweetie."
Yang stared at the woman, mouth open in slack jawed shock. For a moment, Yang seemed unable to form words.
"What- How? How are you here? You just formed out of lights… and you're pyrrha's… Servant."
Yang's eyes sparked with understanding, her lilac eyes falling on Pyrrha as Lancer flinched. As Lancer stepped back, bits of light drifted off her form, and the edges of her figure seemed to blur into the night. Weiss felt the twinge of annoyance coming across her bond with Knight a second before he spoke.
"Lancer. Touching reunions can wait until you have enough mana stored to not fall apart."
Lancer looked ready to protest, but she let her eyes drift down to her hand which seemed to be flaking off the lights with increasing regularity. Silver eyes flicked back to Yang.
"We'll talk later sweetie. I promise."
"But-." Knight cast his gaze onto the blonde brawler, and she stopped herself, taking a step away from Knight and Weiss. "You better."
With a nod, Lancer broke into silver rose petals scattering herself into nothingness once more.
"Master." Weiss turned her eyes to her guardian, his rusted figure looking away from the docks and directly into the city proper. "Get everyone aboard, and signal for the captain to take off. We need to leave before the avian grimm are done picking through the city."
Weiss nodded, stepping next to the elder huntsman, preparing to offer to help with Nora.
"Can't we wait for more people? With this many of us ..."
Weiss turned around to face Blake, her mouth opened to protest how dangerous such a thing would be. Weiss was surprised when Jaune beat her to the punch.
"Blake. We need to go."
All eyes turned to Jaune, his exhausted frame still standing upright between Pyrrha and Knight. Ren nodded sagely, agreeing with his leader. Blakes eyes widened as who she thought would be her biggest supporter besides Ruby inverted her expectations.
"Jaune?"
His eyes drifted over towards Vale, the sound of fire echoed across the docks, broken up only by the sounds of the Grimm advance through the city. When they turned back to Blake, his eyes were hardened steel.
"...You haven't seen the monsters that are leading this invasion. Trust me, we need to go while we have the chance."
"But-"
Blake looked torn as her eyes flicked from one face to the next, and Weiss could only guess at what she saw. When Blake's amer eyes sought her out, Weiss shook her head gently before Blake focused on the tall figure beside her.
"Knight…"
"The Kid is right. I'm low on aura, and Lancer can barely keep herself together. If either of the enemy servants find us, they'll bring down all of the Grimm in Vale on our heads. It's better we save who we can now, rather than die trying to save people who won't make it out even if we do wait."
Knight shrugged, walking over to Nora on the Huntsman's shoulder and slung her into his arms before making two massive jumps, landing feet first onto the deck of the ship.
Weiss turned back to her black haired teammate.
"Blake…"
Blake flinched as Weiss said her name, and didn't look her in the eyes as they made their way to the ship.
"Let's just go."
Weiss cringed as Blake walked past her, making her own way up the ship by scaling the nearby shipping crates with Gambol Shroud's assistance. She was followed closely by Yang and her Uncle, the man turning into a bird to keep up with her brunette teammate.
It left Weiss and the rest of team JNPR to make their way up to the ship individually. Suddenly, there was a tense silence as Weiss realized that Knight had left her alone with another Master, Servant, and the remnants of their team.
It was paranoid. Weiss knew it even as she turned to face RWBY's sister team, Myrtanaster placed between them. The tip pointed at the ground, but everyone left knew she could flick it up at the drop of a hat.
"Hey, Weiss. Mind giving up a hand up? We're not really in a position to climb up there."
Jaune tried his best disarming smile, but Weiss could hear the underlying message. They looked ragged, and Weiss knew they were pushed to their limits. Even if they were a threat, she wouldn't have to work hard to force them away from her.
Weiss nodded, and she forced her muscles to relax and for her to sheathe her blade. With a wave of her hand, a staircase of Glyphs seemed to appear before her, and she stepped onto the first platform.
Silently, she led the way up the staircase up onto the freighter, her heels softly clicking across the mana platforms. She could feel the weight of team JNPR on her glyphs, and heard Pyrrha's greaves clack with every step. Weiss held herself in check until her feet finally found purchase on the metal deck of the ship.
"Pyrrha!"
The red haired champion found herself under the weight of Weiss' red clad team leader. Weiss felt an irrational twinge of irritation as Ruby ignored her entirely and hung herself across Pyrrha's shoulders.
"Can I see mom? Can I? Please? PLEASE?"
Yang smiled uneasily as Ruby assaulted the mistalian champion with kindness. Weiss herself found a small smile on her face despite the grimm situation. At least something good came out of this mess.
Ren on the other hand seemed unaffected by the mood. He seemed to be bleached of color when he approached Weiss.
"Where did your Servant take Nora?" His voice was calm, but she could hear the threat of violence in his voice. Luckily, Knight's voice echoed through her mind before she found out how valid the violence would be.
"Nora and I are in one of the rooms. I pulled the Anti-venom from the first aid kit, and am almost done administering it. Start walking towards the front of the boat, and I'll meet up with you and take you here."
Weiss thanked her servant before focusing back on the increasingly worryingly calm visage of Ren.
"Knight is in the infirmary. He's coming to bring us over." Ren nodded and turned back to the rest of his team. Pyrrha was in a conversation with Ruby and Yang, answering the questions they had as quickly as she could, all the while looking extremely off balance. Jaune on the other hand clapped his hand on Ren's back."
"We can fill Pyrrha in on where we're going. As soon as she escapes, she can meet back up with us in the infirmary."
Weiss wished her sympathies to the now abandoned member of team JNPR as she started walking in the direction Knight had instructed. The boat jolted forward as the exhaust began belting out a cloud of superheated steam, and the docks began to churn beneath the hull.
Emerald taped the gauze down over the wound, her blood covered fingers smearing blood across the man's face. The man in question scowled as blood dribbled from the now secured gauze strapped to his nostrils.
"Leave me be. I can handle this myself without my face becoming the canvas for Remnant's least talented finger painter."
Emerald rolled her eyes, removing her hands from him, wiping them across the nearest surface, in this case the doors of the elevator.
The streak of blood looked like something found on one of those movie posters she used to see around. All it needed was a number and she could almost imagine herself back in the marketplace.
She looked around the empty atrium of the Central Communications Tower. The entire building was empty, every single person who may have been present had been cleared out or thrown out. Emerald found that she very much liked this place a lot more. It was almost perfect, except for the present company.
"Completely worthless. It's a wonder what Cinder even saw in a street rat like you."
Emerald turned back to Arthur Watts, and jabbed an accusing finger into his fancy suit.
"You can shut your mouth. I'm not the one who needs to be hauled around like a cripple."
This time Watts rolled his eyes, and Emerald found herself seething. How dare this spoiled ass question Cinder's faith in her? She had done everything she had asked of her without complaint and to the best of her ability. All this man did was complain and boast in increasingly irritating ways.
"I can say that I actually fought and bled for Salem. What can you say?"
Emerald bristled, and she felt a growl ooze its way out of her lips. She tried not to think about that little slip up, as she twisted his shirt into her hand, locking him in place.
"I used my semblance on them. It. Didn't. Work."
Honestly, Emerald had tried. From her vantage point on the second floor, she had watched the battle. Her first efforts had been focused on the servant. It had given her a headache to even try, and even though she had shown him Cinder's servant leaping into the air, he had still attacked the beast as though he weren't seeing double.
Even after a few seconds of a searing headache, it seemed that he was working just as efficiently as before. She then did her best to target the headmaster.
Where the Servant was mostly immobile, meeting strength with strength, the headmaster used and abused speed. He was constantly bouncing across the battlefield, always putting his servant between himself and the enemy servants, while outmaneuvering Hazel and Chasing down Watts who was a liability in melee combat.
Trying to keep the headmaster in his line of sight was a challenge, and her sporadic semblance usage had probably given the game away. As soon as she started messing him up, he became more passive, waiting to make sure he never threw off his balance even if he was striking at air.
It was a minimal contribution that did not protect Watts from being ejected from combat or from stopping the giant of a man from sacrificing himself to Assassin's blade, but what else was expected of her? There was nothing else to do.
The smug bastard scoffed, apparently thinking otherwise.
"You have Aura, do you not? You have weapons. What is your excuse for hiding in Cinder's shadow?"
Emerald widened her eyes. Actually going down into the middle of that fight?
"You expected me to go into that melee. I'm not the son of an Assassin. That's Mercury."
Watts kept his eyes flat, and tried to keep his eyes unaffected by her threatening posture. No, he was unaffected. Emerald had learned long ago the difference and why that difference mattered.
"Fascinating Observation. You seem to believe that I am different, but I am no Tyrion or Hazel. We just needed half-able bodies with aura to throw at the problem."
Emerald didn't bother to stop the growling this time. She knew she sounded feral, just like Watts believed her to be. She jut didn't care. She may as well let loose. He wouldn't treat her any better if she didn't.
"Just shut up already. Who would be patching you up right now if I had died in the melee?"
The doctor rolled his eyes, as if he were arguing with a child.
"Fine. Let's get this over with, and finish your last meaningful contribution to this war. The sooner we finish, the faster your usefulness runs dry."
He reached out his hand, and she grabbed it, lifting the doctor to his feet. His arm around her shoulder felt heavy, and she began carrying him towards the elevator.
She stopped when they reached the elevator controls, allowing Watts to hijack the controls, smearing his bloodied fingerprints into the controls. He typed out a short eight digit code before the light flashed blue and the elevator doors parted to them.
It was only after the doors shut again that Emerald thought of a quip.
"I thought that criminals weren't supposed to leave any evidence behind. DNA and fingerprints? What would your queen say?"
Watts sighed and muttered something under his breath about something short of bite. Emerald didn't get whatever he was referencing.
"You think you're so clever. Nobody will be searching the tower, and even if they do, this whole bloody mess will be over with. You on the other hand still have yet to contribute beyond helping Cinder get something she should have been able to acquire on her own."
Emerald ignored the comment about the battle with the maiden. He would not talk in such a way if he had been there. Still, she thought it best to remind him that she was the useful one of the pair of them.
"I'll be useful the next time we face a servant. I might not be able to affect servants, but there is no way that the Nikos girl won't be affected."
Watts opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off as the elevator dinged, opening up to a series of terminals, each one lit up with a red queen piece. Slowly, she helped him to the nearest terminal, a sort of receptionist terminal, with an accompanying stool to sit upon. As soon as he was comfortably seated in front of the terminal, he wiped his hands on his jacket and began typing.
Emerald was about to walk away and occupy herself on her scroll when Watts voice called out to her.
"A word of advice: learn something from Tyrion's death. That man thought he could get between Servants, and look what became of him, and he was an actual threat."
Watts met her eyes, without a hint of sarcasm or bite. She could almost believe he actually cared. "You're just a street rat." Almost.
That comment was the tipping point. Emerald snapped, stomping right back to his terminal.
"What's your big contribution then? After all, what have you done besides get knocked out and turn on a few cameras?"
Watts looked like he had been physically struck when she said that, his bushy mustache quivering as he bit his lip and tried to keep himself in check. Emerald's hand found its way to her back, grasping at her weapon in case he actually struck back.
Luckily for him, he didn't.
"As if I only turned on a few cameras. Even you must understand the magnitude of what we're doing here."
Emerald shrugged. She hadn't really paid attention to any technology on the streets. It hadn't helped her get food on the streets except for selling off stolen bits of tech. Even when she joined Cinder, she hadn;t really cared except to watch the occasional video. Still she could guess.
"I don't see how messing with the robots will help us. They're not going to bring down servants any more than the grimm will."
As great as Atlas flaunted its technology to be, Cinder's monster could tear and rip through any number of targets faster and could overpower even the strongest of Huntsmen, something that no hunk of metal could claim equal to.
"That's why I am not going to be touching Atlas and its toys. I have a better way to serve my Queen."
Emerald stalled as she ran out of ideas. Sure, there were things that could be done with technology that she thought could be done, but nothing that would really contribute in any meaningful way to the queen of the Grimm. Watts noticed her hesitation.
"Have I left you floundering? I suppose I shouldn't expect much more from one of Cinder's pawns."
Emerald rolled her eyes, preparing herself for more self-overgrandizing.
"Well, since you have this all planned out, are you going to share your brilliance or are you going to shut up?"
Watts once again muttered under his breath. This time Emerald caught the insult, something about how youth is wasted on the ignorant and some other things. Emerald paid it no mind. He could spit hot air all he wanted. Only the result mattered.
"Tell me child, what is our opponent's greatest strength?"
Emerald paused for a second looking for the trick to such an obvious question. When none put itself forward, she answered with the easy answer.
"Their servants. Obviously."
Watts sneered up at her, with such concentrated loathing that Emerald had seen time and time again on the streets. She sneered right back at him.
"Yes, obviously. And what is their greatest strength?"
Emerald raised an eyebrow. Clearly the man was trying to lean into something, but the man's intentions were about as clear as mud.
"The fact that they are magically empowered?"
This time the smug bastard puffed up like a balloon, his smug superiority written all over his face. Emerald felt her finger clench against the trigger of her weapon, and she really wanted to wipe that smug grin from his face.
"No. Their strength won't allow them to survive against the hordes of Grimm forever. No, it's their ability to stay hidden that keeps them alive."
Emerald conceded the point. She had only lived as long as she did because she could hide. Her semblance had saved her too many times to count to not recognize the ability to hide as a valid strength.
"Fine. They can keep their heads down. How are you planning to stop that?"
"Simple, we make them the center of attention anywhere they try to hide."
Watts swiped his hands across the console, and a miniature video expanded to the full screen. It was a familiar sight, one where the Nikos girl had used a command seal. The red light clearly pulsed from her hand before a torrent of white blinded the camera. Watts finally paused the video when Berserker's eyes began to glow, him standing protectively in front of the Nikos girl and her team.
"All I have to do is show the world some hope, and they'll do everything they can to find it. They'll do the work for us."
Slowly, the video began to saturate, the blue of his eyes being altered to the same red as the command seals. Emerald had to admit that the plan had merit. How many times has she caught Mercury watching videos on his scroll, or a student in the hallway talking about a video they were sent.
Still, the method rubbed her the wrong way.
"What did I expect? Getting someone else to do your work for you?"
The bastard laughed in surprise, but didn't even look offended.
"Now, now. The mind behind the plan gets the reward while the hands toil without reward. You best hope that the Queen grants you another attempt to work for her cause."
His grim was cruel and mocking as he looked her up and down.
"After all, I doubt layabouts will be given her mercy, just for staying out of her way."
Emerald rolled her eyes as he turned back to his terminal She would have her chanceto prove herself. She wouldn't bother with fighting Nikos. She had admitted to Watts that she was no fighter. That didn't mean she wouldn't be fighting.
"Oh, now this is interesting…"
Emerald spared a glance at the terminal. A new video was pulled up, with the stereotypical metallic and white color pallet that had become more and more familiar as the days until the Vytal festival had grown less and less.
Soldiers piled themselves into firing lines as blasts of color danced across the screen, causing devastation to the firing line. The weird part was that they weren't dust explosions.
One beam seemed to turn mid flight, impacting against a soldier who was sent flying directly into a wall. Another hit the ground beneath a few men, and they all fell to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. Another hit a man in the face, and suddenly he collapsed to the ground, arms shaking and a brown stain slowly spreading itself across his white trousers.
"That's from Atlas, right?"
Watts nodded, his eyes still focused on the screen.
"Yes. it is. It seems we found our Caster, and his little master too."
The line had collapsed, and standing in its place, raining spells down from his staff was an elderly man, tall, pale, and what looked like one foot in the grave. That didn't stop Emerald from noticing the determination burning in his eyes. He pushed forward, one step at a time, staff in one hand and an unconscious older woman slung across the other shoulder.
"It looks like you're in luck. I think that Salem will be in need of a negotiator in the near future."
Jaune sat beside Ren as he gripped Nora's hand with both of his. His eyes were closed as if in a prayer, and Jaune wondered if that wasn't what it was.
He didn't know if Ren and Nora believed in the brother gods, or in the spirit guardians that bowed to the Animal God, or even if he didn't believe in any gods whatsoever. He hadn't thought to ever ask. Now, because of him, he might never get to Ask Nora that.
Weiss had excused herself from the room after a quick look at Nora's wounds, and Jaune wondered if he shouldn't follow her example, and leave Ren alone with his partner for some privacy.
"Jaune."
He twitched as he heard Ren's voice break the silence and he turned his head to his teammate. Ren gently lifted Nora's arm as he stood up, his right hand still clutching Nora's as if she would disappear the second he let go. He stayed standing in place, right beside Nora's bed as he faced Jaune fully, before bending at the waist into a bow.
"Thank you."
Jaune felt his hand place itself on Ren's shoulder, and both of them looked at the hand in confusion, as if neither of them could figure out how it got there. Jaune was the one who recovered from that small shock first.
"Don't. It's not… I'm not… Look. It's my fault she got hurt. You shouldn't be thanking me for that."
Ren quirked his eyebrows at Jaune, tilting his head slightly as he examined Jaune's face.
"Jaune. You did everything in your power to help Nora. You even blocked an attack from that Grimm that Pyrrha's servant fought, and you were knocked out first when that madman attacked us. How is this your fault?"
Jaune felt his breath hitch as he let himself run through the slew of bad decisions he had made tonight. There were too many of them, and now Jaune saw the results of those choices lying on a bed in front of him.
"We shouldn't have been there in the first place. I shouldn't have followed Lancer. That is on me."
Ren's voice was calm, and slow. Jaune tried to focus on the words, and the sound of blood pumping filled his ears.
"Jaune. Lancer is Pyrrha's servant. She was always going to follow her. What were you expected to do? Leave her behind?"
That was only one mistake. Maybe his choices were limited there, but there were other choices that weren't so muddled.
"Then, I shouldn't have gotten knocked out so soon. I could've-"
Ren cut him off, with a shake, the man's hand gripping the edge of his breastplate to get a good enough grip to perform so with one hand. His other hand remained steadfastly entwined with Nora's.
"Jaune. Listen to yourself. We both know that you were the weakest among us when you got to beacon. We all knew that."
"But-"
"Jaune."
Jaune shut himself up as a wave of forced calm rolled over him. The world seemed to fade in color as all his panic and guilt fled him.
"We all decided that you made the correct choice as you made them. We chose to follow you without complaint. You didn't attack us, nor did you try to kill Lancer. You aren't the reason Nora is here. Those that attacked us are."
Jaune's brain felt fuzzy as it tried to muster some emotions. Instead, logic dictated that Ren's argument was a good one, and let his tensed muscles loosen up. Jaune collapsed bonelessly into his seat, the move letting him escape from Ren's grasp.
As he did so, the world sharped back into contrast.
"Oh wow. Your Semblance really is something isn't it."
Ren shrugged, sitting down again beside Nora. His second hand once again found itself
"It's kept Nora and I safe, but it's not really something that I like using. Nora's and Pyrrha's are more combat oriented."
"Still, I bet it takes less aura to…" Jaune stopped as a thought crossed his mind. Aura. He frantically checked his pockets for his scroll before his eyes caught sight of it still attached to his arm.
His eyes completely ignored the number of messages in the corner of his scroll in favor of pulling up JNPR's aura meters. His aura was barely out of the red, hovering at only a quarter. Pyrrha was in the same boat, hers just below the red line, so a little under a fifth. Ren's on the other hand was the largest, with his just under the halfway mark, his aura about to enter the green.
Nora's was only a sliver, so slim that Jaune couldn't determine if it was completely empty or just dregs. Next to the bar was her icon. It blinked back and forth between her face and a red exclamation point, a symbol of how critical her aura was.
Under the curious and watchful eyes of Ren, he moved to the other side of the bed, and grasped her other hand. He remembered the feeling he had with Weiss, and then Penny, and flexed his aura.
He saw his hands glow in the golden light of his aura, and saw Nora's electric blue aura dimly light up in response. He felt her aura greedily eat up everything he was willing to provide, only stopping when the scroll on his arm started beeping and a hand reached to pull him away.
"Jaune. You need to stop."
Jaune looked in astonishment as Ren pulled him away from Nora's bedside, and the flow between them was cut off.
"What? Why did you-"
"Jaune. Look at your aura."
Ren's tone held one that could not be argued to, and Jaune glanced at the screen tied to his wrist. The screen flashed in warning, something about a warning beacon being sent.
Jaune looked up to Ren to see his own scroll with a warning about a teammate being in imminent danger. Nora's aura hovered a bit under the red danger line, and was draining slowly. His face on the other hand was being blocked out intermittently by a red exclamation point.
"Janue, you need to be careful with your semblance. While it is extremely helpful, you need to pace yourself. Nora wouldn't want you to put yourself into a critical condition to remove her from one."
"I… yeah. Sorry." Jaune tried to back away from Ren only to find his legs weak. Ren stepped back to guide him back to his seat.
"I appreciate the thought, but please don't do that again. Nora is strong, and the Anti-venom was administered as soon as possible. She'll pull through, and I'll need you on your feet ready to help me keep her in bed while she needs rest.
"Yeah… sorry. I wasn't really thinking there."
"These things take time. Nora certainly didn't master her semblance the first time that she used it, and I can guarantee that Pyrrha is in the same boat. They take time to master."
"Uh… that wasn't my semblance."
Ren raised an eyebrow at him, and for a moment, Jaune felt as if he were a child being humored by his parents all over again.
"...It wasn't?"
"Yeah. It's an aura technique."
"Mmm…."
Ren sat in contemplation for a second as he processed those words. When he turned to face Jaune with a blank face, Jaune could tell that Ren didn't believe him. Still, his male teammate didn't bother to argue the point.
"I see. Once you have more aura, maybe you can demonstrate it to the Huntsman or to one of the servants. It would probably help in the long term for all of us if we can learn it.
Jaune hummed noncommittally. There was no point in arguing. Ren believed that it was a semblance and Jaune knew that it was an aura technique. After all, Semblances were unique and the guy who had taught him had known exactly what to do to get him to use it the first time.
He… never got around to thanking that guy, or even getting his name. Hopefully he made it out of Vale before the Grimm swarmed the city.
Hopefully…
Jaune was brought out of his silence by the buzz of his scroll against his arm. The screen flashed up his team's aura reading again, before the number in the top right incremented up to twenty-three missed messages or calls.
Idly, he closed the aura meter, taking the scroll out of combat mode, and allowing the civilian features to come through. Jaune winced as he saw the missed calls from Saphron. Ren once more raised his eyebrow, and nodded at his phone.
"Need to make a call or two?"
Jaune sheepishly scratched his head.
"Yeah."
Ren nodded, turning back to Nora. Jaune caught the implied message, standing on uneasy legs, and let himself out of the room to give Nora and Ren some privacy. As soon as he made it out into the hall, he saw a bench, and he allowed himself to collapse into it.
For a moment, he let himself stare at the log of missed calls, and he wouldn't let himself read the unread messages. Instead, he hit the call back button on the most recent call, and waited.
It was only the second ring when the line connected.
"Jaune. Jaune?"
Jaune winced at her demanding almost frantic tone. Jaune just hoped she wasn't too pissed.
"Hey Saph. I'm here."
"Jaune, you Stupid asshole. Where were you? You made me worried to death."
Jaune mentally steeled himself. Saphron had wound herself up over him. Rightfully too. He had been ignoring her calls even before tonight. Now, that was coming to bit him in the ass among everything else.
"Sorry I couldn't answer. I was evacuating from Vale."
There was silence across the line as Saphron absorbed that nugget of information.
"So, you really did run off the vale and lie to get into Beacon."
He had. Jaune wasn't proud of how he had done it, but he couldn't say he regretted his time in Vale, nor his team. He was now Jaune Arc, a huntsman-in-training and leader of team JNPR. He had killed Grimm and survived the largest invasion of a city by the grimm in recorded history. He didn't have to deny how he had gotten there in the first place..
"I did."
Jaune's voice was as level and sure as he could muster it. That only seemed to set of Saphron even more.
"What the hell were you thinking? You never got training from Dad, and you certainly never went to a preparatory school. How did you even make it into Beacon in the first place?"
Jaune remained silent as Saphron ranted. To speak now would just give her more ammunition to throw at him, and he didn't have the energy to argue nor the patience. Saphron didn't care, as she continued.
"Of all the hair-brained stupid moronic ideas. You have no idea how worried I was." Jaune heard Saphron huff as she took in breath after finishing her tirade. Jaune took the lull in insults to ask his own question.
"Sorry for worrying you Saph, but uh… did you tell anyone else?"
Jaune waited with baited breath as his question was met with silence. Finally after a long pause, Saph came back with his answer.
"No. I didn't tell them, although they might know. You did fight in a tournament broadcast to every corner of Remnant. One that ended in the invasion of the city."
Jaune doubted that they did. If the tournament ended normally, they might have seen a replay of the first round, especially if Nora won the whole thing. Now, there wouldn't be any replays. Those channels would be dedicated to warnings and news, and nobody in his family would want to watch fights that were so connected to the fall of a kingdom.
"Thanks Saph. How are you? How are they?"
Saphron snorted in disbelief and Jaune let a bit of the tension drop.
"You can ask them yourself buster. As for things in Argus… Well, things aren't too bad. There was a larger than normal grimm incursion on the walls, but the military dealt with them without the Grimm breaching the city limits. It's safe."
Jaune felt a weary sigh escape his lips.
"Sorry Saph, but I need to help out a teammate. I don't think we'll be stopping by Argus any time soon."
Jaune waited for the explosion of Mt. Saphron. He wasn;t waiting long.
"Wait, you're serious? Forget your teammates, you don't even have a year of training under your belt, and you think that you can help actual Huntsmen in training? Jaune, please. Tell me you're going somewhere safe."
Jaune couldn't lie. Not now. Not to the only family that knew where he was.
"I can't. Not anymore."
"So you are going to go back out there? Jaune. You. Will. Die."
Jaune laid his head against the cool metal wall of the ship's corridor. He was well out of his depth. His team was out of their depth. Even veteran huntsmen would be out of their depth against the monstrous strength and speed of the Servants. He probably was going to die.
That didn't mean that he should go crawling back to his family. Someone had to do something, and he was pretty adept at being out of his depth by now.
"Maybe. I'll call you if I'm going to stop by. Just keep this between us. I don't want the rest of them worrying too much."
Saphron's outrage was expected, vitriol spewing from her lips.
"Are you daft? They're worried for you regardless. If you think for one moment that I'm going to keep this from them-"
"Sorry Saph. I need to go. Take care of yourself."
"Hold on, you son of a-"
Jaune hit the end call button cutting his sister off. It only took another minute to silence all incoming calls before he reattached his scroll to his arm. He rose from the metal bench, and began walking back to the room his team had been assigned.
Jaune Arc had become the leader of JNPR. Even if he was a fraud, even if he was weak, he had sworn to lead them. Jaune shuffled through the door, and was greeted by the still form of Nora, and the silent nod from Ren.
He had made mistakes, but this wasn't going to be one of them. After all, Jaune Arc was a man who kept his word.
It's been about a month. I've been a bit busy with life, and then Baldur's Gate 3. Great game by the way.
This chapter is Weiss, Emerald, and Jaune POV, with the follow up to last chapter and a very interesting look into how Jaune is thinking. Of course, we can't pass by Watt's media campaign or
the introduction of another servant, Caster. He is someone that I have been waiting to introduce for a while. Any guesses about his, Cinder's Lancer, Assassin, or any of the not yet introduced servants identities are welcome.
As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and as always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to review the story or PM me. I'll try my best to answer. Until Next Time.
