Auras and Alibis
Chapter 5
Jaune let out a wide yawn as he slumped against the window of the bus, doing his best not to let his eyes close and allow himself to drift off to sleep.
It had been another early morning, with Cinder's nightmares waking them both up again. As usual, she hadn't told him what they were about, but they must have been pretty bad, since immediately after they'd both been awoken, she'd grabbed onto him and hadn't let go for quite some time.
Eventually, though, he'd had to leave for work, much to her chagrin. It was unfortunate, but a Monday was still a Monday.
Of course, now, it left him sitting on the bus, doing his best not to pass out from exhaustion. He loved Cinder, he truly did, but sometimes he wished she'd swallow her pride and seek some kind of professional help for the things that haunted her. Why she refused to do that, he had no idea; he made a note to try and gently nudge her in that direction when he got home.
"Excuse me," he heard a man say from the aisle. "Is this seat taken?"
Jaune blinked in surprise, then turned towards the voice. He found a tall, gray-haired, bespectacled man in a green suit and sweater standing there, holding a steaming thermos. Jaune stared at him for a moment, then shook his head.
"No, it's empty," he offered, moving over a bit to allow the man entry.
"Thank you," he replied, settling into his seat. Once he was seated, Jaune went to look out the window again, only to find himself interrupted once more.
"I couldn't help but notice your outfit and badge," the man told him. "Do you work at the hospital, by any chance?"
"Yes, I do," Jaune replied. "Vale General; I'm a nurse there."
"Ah, I see. You do good work, I'm sure."
"I do my best," Jaune offered. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason. I was simply headed there, myself."
"Oh, are you not feeling well?" Jaune asked. He bit his lip. "I don't think I can really help until we get to the hospital, but I can see what I can-"
"No, nothing like that," the man replied, giving him a warm smile. "I simply have a meeting there with some people in a bit. I feel quite fine, though I appreciate your concern."
"Just doing my job," Jaune told him.
The man's warm expression faded a bit, and he looked up ahead. "Say… since you work at Vale General, you would have been familiar with the patients caused by the latest villain attack a short while ago?"
"You mean the incident at the warehouse?" Jaune questioned. "Yes, I'm familiar. I worked on some of those people."
"It's a shame, what happened," the gray-haired man said without looking back to him. "None of those people deserved to be injured, or even killed because of the desires of a villain."
"I'm sorry, did you know someone who was victimized in the attack?" Jaune asked, confused.
The man shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I just find it shameful, what this city is becoming. This used to be a haven away from the Grimm, a safe place for people all over the world to come and live without fear of needing to defend themselves or their families from the forces of darkness. But it would seem, as it always does, that the real darkness is that which lurks in our hearts."
Jaune's brow furrowed. "...You're not wrong," he said quietly. "I just don't understand what would drive someone to do something like that, for something as simple as money."
"That is the difference between a Hero and a villain," the man answered. "The world is a cold, uncaring, scary place; we all stare into that particular abyss at some point, whether we are ready for it or not. The difference between a Hero and a villain is simple – a villain is faced with an uncertain, uncaring world, and wonders why they shouldn't be evil; a Hero is faced with the same, but they instead wonder why they shouldn't be good."
Jaune nodded in understanding. "That's… a good point, I guess; I've never really thought about it that way. But what would drive someone to favor one option over the other?"
"A variety of factors, I am sure, but unfortunately, that is not something we presently have time to discuss." The man checked his watch. "It would seem our stop is coming up, so I suppose this is where we part ways for now. It was good talking with you, Jaune."
"Yeah, same to you," Jaune answered.
The bus stopped and the doors opened. Both men stepped out, and with a nod, they both turned and went their opposite ways, heading for different parts of the hospital. It was only when Jaune had made it to his assigned ward that a thought crossed his mind.
"Wait, how did he know my name…?"
The work day continued as normal, thankfully – the worst thing that happened was a few armored car drivers showing up with minor injuries from a small-scale villain robbery, though the perpetrator hadn't made it far before being captured by a passing Hero. It wasn't a villain Jaune had recognized, but it still left him a bit unnerved – the city really was getting worse by the day, with more and more villains popping up out of nowhere.
"Place is going to hell…" Jaune muttered as he watched the armored car guards be treated for their injuries. He shook his head, then turned and began to walk down the hall when the intercom suddenly came to life. He winced, expecting to hear something about a priority call come in, but instead, it was something completely different.
"All available medical staff, please report to the main lobby for a quick meeting."
That was all that was said before the intercom turned off. Jaune blinked, surprised at how mundane the call was, but knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. In any case, he wasn't currently busy with a patient, and that meant he'd been included in the announcmenet.
"Wonder what this is about…?" he muttered as he rose from his seat and began to move towards the main lobby.
He got his answer upon stepping out into it for the first time since arriving that day. The entire lobby had been set up as some kind of makeshift speech podium – there was a small table in the back, at which several of the hospital's chief staff and donors were seated; Jaune could see Doctor Gray sitting among them, which gave him pause.
Whatever was going on, it had to be something important if they'd dragged Gray out of the operating room for it.
There were already loads of people milling about in the lobby, so Jaune stepped over to the crowd, settling in among some of his fellow nurses. No sooner had he joined them than did one of the hospital's directors step up to the podium and take the microphone.
"Thank you all for coming," he announced, silencing whatever stray chatter was still going on among them. "We will keep this brief, as we know you're all very busy, and because that is the request of our guest… or should I say, new board member?"
A small murmur went through the crowd at that. The hospital's board had been stagnant for a while now, so the announcement of someone new joining in was certainly a shakeup of sorts.
"Anyway, in the interests of time, I won't keep rambling. Please welcome our new board member and majority shareholder, Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy."
Jaune's eyes widened in surprise as the man from the bus stepped out from in back, and took his position in front of the microphone. A round of applause erupted throughout the crowd, and Jaune was quick to join in.
He hadn't recognized Ozpin on the bus, but he'd heard the name before, and knew what it meant to the people of Vale.
Ozpin suddenly held up a hand, quieting the applause. Once that was done, he gave the crowd a warm smile.
"Thank you all for the warm welcome," he announced. "Now, some of you may be wondering why I decided to partner with Vale General so suddenly and without much fanfare. But to better understand that, I believe it necessary to bring up my qualifications first. I was a Hero for several decades before publicly retiring and unmasking in order to staff Beacon Academy for Heroes. It was my belief that we would need brave men and women to help fight the tide of not only Grimm, but also the increasingly-common villains that have claimed Vale as their own."
Jaune pursed his lips, nodding along with what Ozpin was saying. He was speaking sense so far, that much was for sure.
"However, I can see now that my plan was more than a little short-sighted," Ozpin continued. "In so fostering the Heroes who help defend us, I neglected to do the same for the equally as brave men and women who keep us alive when our Heroes cannot always be there. That ends today, however – as your new board member and majority shareholder, you all have my word that I will do everything in my power to support you, the same way you all have supported the city so much. I seek to create a partnership of sorts between Beacon and Vale General, between Heroes and the medical staff who help them. And in doing so, most of all, I hope to help make Vale a much safer place for everybody. Thank you."
With that, Ozpin stepped away from the microphone as another round of applause went up through the crowd. Jaune couldn't help but join in, a big smile on his face.
To him, at least, Ozpin seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and everything he'd said made perfect sense – Vale was going to need some kind of partnership between Heroes and the medical staff if they wanted to more effectively police Vale.
Well, that and it gave him a chance to get closer to the Heroes he admired. But that was beside the point.
He couldn't wait to get home and tell Cinder the good news.
"So, have you decided on a name yet?"
Cinder grit her teeth beneath her mask. She'd come back out into the forest to try and blow off some steam on some Grimm, but naturally, that little brat had been there, too. Not only that, but she'd been so distracting that Cinder hadn't found even a single Grimm so far. Even worse, as much as Cinder wanted to blow up at her, she knew she couldn't – after all, she couldn't risk doing anything that would expose her as who she really was.
"I have not," Cinder replied as evenly as she could.
"Oh. Well, my friends and I could help with that, you know," Scarlet offered, hefting her massive weapon onto her shoulder with practiced ease. "Nightshade is pretty good at coming up with names. Must be because of all the books she reads, come to think of it…"
"I appreciate the sentiment," Cinder told her, a vein pulsing in her forehead. "But this is something I would prefer to do on my own."
"Ah, I get it – you're one of those lone vigilante types, huh? I can respect that. A lot of people don't, but I do – you may not have gone through the official channels or anything like that, but you're still out there doing good work, which means a lot to the city. You're good people, in my eyes."
Scarlet flashed her a grin, one that Cinder didn't even bother to return. It lasted for just a moment before Scarlet suddenly perked up.
"Ooh, it's still pretty early!" she said. "I can take you to meet my friends, they should be out here right now!"
"That's quite alright, but-"
"Nuh-uh!" Scarlet said, shaking her head. "I'm not taking no for an answer!"
Then, before Cinder could react, Scarlet reached out and took her by the hand, then began to run. Before Cinder knew it, they were both moving faster than humanly possible, rose petals trailing behind them as they went – her heart sank into her stomach, and her world began to turn as nausea started to overtake her.
But just as soon as it had started, it was over. The two of them came to a stop in a nearby clearing, and Scarlet let go of her. Cinder immediately doubled over, dry-heaving and gasping for breath, both hands on her knees. After a few seconds, she looked up to glare at Scarlet, who gave her a sheepish grin in return.
"Heh, sorry," she offered."My Semblance is always a bit of an adjustment for people when they experience it for the first time. At this point, I've learned that it's best to sorta just rip the bandage off and go all-in right from the start, you know?"
"No," Cinder snapped. "I do not." She looked around, frowning as she stood up straight and dusted stray rose petals off her clothes. "Where are we?"
"Right in the middle of the Emerald Forest," Scarlet offered. "My friends should be here right about… now."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than did several figured emerge from the treeline. Cinder took all three of them in as one – there was a white-haired girl about Scarlet's height, dressed in some kind of military officer's outfit and carrying a rapier with a revolving Dust cylinder; she had on a white domino mask to conceal her face. Next to her was a tall blonde girl, her hair trailing down her back like a wild lion's mane; her outfit was the most plain of the bunch, consisting of little more than a yellow bodysuit topped with ballistic plates and adorned with spare shotgun shells, with the arms left purposely bare to show off her muscles – the most striking part was the dragon-print,Vacuan-style luchador mask she had on. Finally, there was the last girl, who was just a bit shorter than the blonde, and was dressed in a black catsuit – fitting, given the Faunus ears atop her head. She had eschewed body armor and any kind of fancy design, instead opting for a battle belt that held several spare pistol magazines, plus an individual first aid kit. A black half-mask covered the lower part of her face, and was styled like a snarling cat.
All in all, they looked as ridiculous as Scarlet did, but that was par for the course for Heroes.
Not everyone could be as practical as Cinder's design was, after all.
"Great, you're here!" Scarlet cheered. "Guys, let me introduce you to… um… well, she doesn't really have a name picked out yet."
"A new Hero, huh?" the blonde asked. "That's cool."
Before Cinder could back away, the musclebound woman approached her and offered her a hand.
"Nice to meet you," she said. "Call me Golden Dragon."
Cinder hesitated, then took the girl's hand. It had been a long time since she'd touched anyone except Jaune; it made her feel uncomfortable.
"Charmed," Cinder forced herself to say.
"Heh. I'm sure."
"Don't mind her," the woman in black said as she approached. "She's just a bit overzealous when she meets other Heroes. Must run in the family, given how her sister acts."
Scarlet puffed out her cheeks. "I am nothing like Dragon! For one, I'm way cuter than she is."
"If you insist, sis," Dragon replied, crossing her arms.
"Anyway, I'm Nightshade," the woman in black said. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Uh, it's Deadly Nightshade," Dragon interjected.
Nightshade sighed tiredly. "Dragon, we talked about this."
"Yeah, and we never came to a proper conclusion. I still say Deadly Nightshade sounds way more badass than just Nightshade."
"I'm not trying to sound badass, I'm trying to be heroic. Having 'Deadly' in my name does not indicate heroics, it indicates vigilantism." She paused, then looked over to Cinder. "Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course… provided you're not killing people like that one guy was a while back."
"Oh, you mean The Finisher?" Dragon asked. "Whatever happened to him, anyway?"
"Didn't he die?" Scarlet asked quietly.
"Did he? Could've sworn he was still around… maybe someone else took up the mantle…"
"You're all getting off-track," the girl in white said. She nodded towards Cinder. "Ice Queen. Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine," Cinder replied. "Now, I must ask… what are you all doing out here?"
"Eh, killing time, mostly," Dragon explained, running a hand through her hair. "We'll be graduating in just a few weeks, and once that happens, we'll be patrolling the streets."
"It'll be a good crop of heroes coming out this year," Scarlet interjected. "The Red Huntress is part of our graduating class."
Cinder frowned at that. The Red Huntress was probably the most famous Hero-in-training in Vale; she'd never lost a fight while in school, and everything about her was a very closely-guarded secret, even more so than other Heroes, who tended to be a secretive bunch by nature. If she was even half as good as everyone made her out to be, then she would be a force to be reckoned with on the streets of Vale.
"Say," Dragon suddenly cut in, interrupting Cinder's thoughts. "If you're just a newbie, then why don't we show you a thing or two? You never know, it could save your life."
Scarlet blanched. "Dragon, please-"
"Oh, don't be a killjoy, sis," Dragon said. "Come on, I bet she'd be down for a quick spar, just the two of us."
"You can't just introduce yourself to someone by fighting with them-"
"I accept," Cinder announced, cutting her off. Scarlet turned to her in surprise, but Cinder was unperturbed. "I have been meaning to test myself against a real Hero for some time now. This will be a good chance to see how I stack up."
"Yes!" Dragon said, pumping her fist. "I knew you were cool!"
Ice Queen sighed tiredly, bringing a hand up to rub at her face. "This is going to be a disaster… Dragon, just promise us you won't set the forest on fire again."
"Yeah, yeah."
Beneath her mask, Cinder smirked as the two of them took up their positions in the clearing across from each other. This was going to be a great way to let off some steam, with just one caveat.
She was going to have to be careful and hold herself back.
"Fighters ready?" Nightshade called, earning a nod from each. "Standby… begin!"
Cinder was ready when Dragon launched herself at her. She'd known just by looking at the blonde that was an overzealous, shoot-first-ask-questions-never kind of fighter. That made her predictable, and so it was child's play for Cinder to parry her incoming attack, then lash out with one of her own, which bit deeply into her opponent's Aura. Dragons' eyes widened behind her mask, and she hurriedly back off.
"Whoa…" Dragon breathed. "I expected that attack to flatten you, what with you being a newbie and all. I didn't think you'd be ready for me."
"Perhaps I'll be the one teaching you a thing or two," Cinder mused. "The first being… never underestimate your opponent."
Dragon's eyes narrowed, and Cinder had to suppress a smirk. She was a hothead, too, then – excellent; that would make blowing off some steam even easier.
She just needed to keep reminding herself that the goal was supposed to be a friendly spar, rather than one of them taking a trip to the hospital.
Dragon suddenly angled her gauntlets behind her, then fired off twin payloads of explosive buckshot that sent her rocketing towards Cinder. Cinder held her ground, however, tensing and waiting for the exact moment to strike; it came when Dragon had just about closed the distance, one fist cocked back for what would no doubt have been a devastating blow. But at the last minute, Cinder pushed all her Aura into her own legs, forcing herself to move just in time to avoid the incoming shotgun-powered punch. Dragon's fist cratered the ground where she'd been standing just a moment ago, and Cinder was quick to follow up on her opponent's over-extension, striking her with a flurry of blades before darting back.
"Hm," Cinder grunted. "Is that the best you've got?"
Dragon tensed. "Oh, believe me, I'm just getting-"
She suddenly paused, her eyes widening as she stared at something. Cinder squinted, trying to see what she was looking at, and after a moment, she saw, it too – a single strand of golden hair, delicately floating to the ground below. Cinder blinked, unsure of what to think or do, when she noticed Dragon had started to grit her teeth, and her whole body had begun to tremble.
"Oh, no…" Scarlet muttered from the sidelines.
Cinder had no time to ask what what was about to happen before Dragon exploded. Flames erupted all around her, and with a manic yell, she again launched herself at Cinder, but something was different – she had given up all measure of control, instead turning more into some kind of feral beast fueled by pure anger. The change was so sudden that Cinder had not time at all to react, and was forced to try and parry the incoming blows as fast as she could. She managed to block three of them before Dragon broke through her defenses, scoring a devastating hit on her chest. The explosive shotgun blast coupled with Dragon's Aura-enhanced fist sent Cinder flying backwards, and she collided back-first with a nearby tree.
There was no time to languish, however, as Dragon was upon her just a split second later. Cinder managed to keep her at bay with a few wild slashes, which bought her some time to put some distance between herself and her opponent. They stared each other down, both of them panting heavily.
This was no going according to plan. It should've been an easy fight for her – Dragon was far from the most skilled opponent she'd ever fought, or even defeated, for that matter – and yet, she was suddenly on the backfoot.
Dragon advanced upon her once more, and Cinder was just a split-second away from using her Semblance to literally fight fire with fire. She caught herself at the last minute, however – at this point, everyone knew what Queen Malevolent's Semblance was; if she used it here, it would expose her for who she really was.
And so, despite her pyromania bursting at the forefront of her mind, Cinder forced herself to quell it, and jumped back into the fray once more.
Just a few minutes later, Cinder and Dragon separated, both of them breathing heavily, their Auras flickering. Cinder had held herself back, like she'd planned to from the start, but Dragon had proven herself to be a far more capable fighter than she'd expected. In the end, she'd had to push herself a bit more than she'd wanted, and even then, it still wasn't an outright win – in fact, there was no winner, as far as she could tell.
"Well, that's… disappointing," Scarlet said. "Dragon, I thought you were better than that."
"What can I say, except that she's good?" Dragon offered. She stood up straight, shook herself off, and then marched over to Cinder and offered her a hand. "Good fight."
Cinder stared at the offered appendage for a moment, but then accepted the handshake. "Yes, good fight." She looked up into the sky, frowning when she saw the position of the sun between the clouds. "I need to go."
"So soon?" Nightshade questioned. "We barely even got to know you-"
Cinder didn't wait to hear more, instead turning and beginning to march away. It was almost the end of Jaune's shift, and she wanted to be home to greet him.
"Bye, Camouflage!" Scarlet called after her. "Ooh, that can be your name! It fits you really well!"
Cinder did her best not to grit her teeth as she walked away, and failed miserably.
As soon as she was completely out of sight, she began to snap her fingers, sparks flying from her hands as she walked.
Hey hey people, Minaris here. Back from my work trip, figured this one needed an update since it's gone the longest without one.
Now then, I do have something I want to say, which is that I'm honestly feeling pretty fucking burned out on fanfics in general right now. Not just this one, but all of mine. They're rapidly becoming less and less fun as time goes on. Originals are still fun, but fanfics are losing their luster pretty fucking quick for me.
This is probably understandable on a certain level, since I've been writing RWBY fanfics for about four years now, and I've really increased my pace over the past year or so. Burnout was inevitable, and in fact it's something I've dealt with before, but it was nothing a week or two off couldn't fix. Not this, though – this time it's different. I hardly worked on fanfics at all during those three weeks in London, and I was still feeling pretty burned out when I made it back stateside and tried writing them again.
At this point, I'm not really sure what to do except take a step back and slow the fuck down. Maybe make my originals the focus for the time being, since they're what really has my attention. I can still update my fanfics a bit for you guys, but they'll probably be updates I've been storing in reserve rather than newly-produced chapters.
I don't know if this is me entirely quitting fanfics in favor of originals or not. It's probably too early to tell. I think the smart thing to do would be to take a step back, take a deep breath, and reevaluate. So I'll probably take the month of October off of writing fanfics entirely and see how I feel afterwards. If I'm still feeling pretty shitty about them, then I guess I'll have my answer.
I'm going to keep updating through October, like I said. They'll be intermittent, and they'll be old chapters I've stockpiled rather than anything newly-written, but they'll still be updates in the end. But once I'm out of stockpiled chapters for everything… I don't know. Hopefully by then I've got an answer.
Thanks for reading, and thank you all for the love and support you've shown me over the years. I owe you all so much, and I'm super frustrated that the burnout has hit me this hard. I'll see where I stand after about the end of October. Even if this does have to mark the end of my fanfic writing, I guarantee you all I'll still be around in some form, whether that's just lurking or getting my originals published, and I'll be in touch with all of you as best as I can.
Thanks again to all of you,
Minaris