The ride back to Vale proper felt both longer and shorter than the one before, at the same time. He knew that something had happened. It was fairly obvious, given the state of the place, the over abundance of Grimm and presence of the Turned. But this… not this.

His thoughts swirled inside his head, trying to pointlessly make sense of what he had heard from Ozpin's phantom. Salem almost won. His friends from team RWBY were corrupted and turned to the enemy. The Relics were lost, his other friends like Ren and Nora were out of everyone's radar and his family was somewhere in Vale, not having any idea of what was happening.

And furthermore… his path was drenched in blood. So many people he had to kill… he didn't think he'll ever be able to make peace with himself after this.

He clenched his fist underneath his chin. And now he was heading to one of the last places he wanted to be, freaking Mountain Glenn, to kill somebody else and to… be Roman Torchwick's errand boy he supposed. Just what he needed. A fetch quest in one of Vale's most dangerous areas. Why the hell not?

He stepped out of the bullhead when it eventually reached its destination, bearing once more witness to the city's ruined remains. It made him sick to his stomach, but he had to soldier on, at the least for the moment.

From what Roman had told him, the big hole that had been blown in center Vale halfway through his first year at Beacon had been reopened by… something. Or someone. And with it, a direct access to Mountain Glenn. He should be counting his lucky stars for it this time around, but somehow, he didn't really feel like doing it. That place was a tragedy… but now, it represented salvation. Or at least, one of the proxies of it.

He reached the place weirdly unscathed and with no enemies in sight, either Turned or Grimm. Someone must have already been through here and cleaned the place up. But who?

He got his answer right away when, right in front of the hole, Taiyang Xiao Long stood, arms crossed, observing the deep darkness in front of him. He looked angry and focused. Determined, more like. He really was scouting the entirety of Vale.

The man turned around, hearing his footsteps, and smiled at him.

"Jaune, hello! I see that you made it! I'm glad to see that you are okay. Where have you been?"

Jaune proceeded to tell him about his trip to Beacon, leaving some details unsaid, like team RWBY corruption, not really sure how he would take it.

Taiyang nodded, an intrigued look on his face.

"I see. Ozpin has been keeping even more secrets than I thought. So, you are on clean up duty then, as far as I understood. You must eliminate this… Turned as you call them. If you are here, it must mean that some of them are on Mountain Glenn as well. And you are going there, for this "special Aura" that you require, correct?"

Another nod from him was the man's answer.

"Then, I have a proposition for you. Divide and Conquer. Whatever has reopened this hole also created another tunnel inside, which means that there are two ways in. I'll go through the main road, following the railway. You will go inside the second tunnel and see what's inside. I'll wait for you at the end of my road and meet up there. What do you say?"

Another nod. It sounded reasonable enough to him.

Taiyang chuckled in approval.

"Very well then, we have a plan. You can go ahead, I'll have a look around here first, make sure that we are not forgetting anything. May we see each other again soon".

Jaune waved goodbye and entered the hole, determined to see this situation through. Even if he had a terrible feeling about it.

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NEW AREA: THE BREACH

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The moment he stepped inside, he noticed that the main path was blocked by rubble and rocks. He briefly turned his head back to warn Taiyang, but the man was already gone. That… was fast. Damn.

Scratching the back of his head, Jaune wisely decided to ignore the situation and move on, quickly spotting the alternative path that had been mentioned to him.

Getting in, he was immediately greeted by a corpse. A White Fang member. His eyes narrowed dangerously. Checking it out quickly, he noticed that the death was fairly recent, meaning that he probably wasn't the only one.

Good. He had a score to settle with those bastards. He rainsacked the corpse and moved on, now more motivated than ever. He briefly noticed that the terrorist was a normal faunus, nothing unnatural about her.

Obtained: Refined Red Dust

Not a bomb, just some normal, Schnee Dust Company approved dust. Curious… he wondered why this soldier had it. He wouldn't have to wait long for the answer.

His previous theory was swiftly proven when he came face to face with more White Fang, four of them to be exact. All of them had short swords, and since the mask didn't cover their lower faces, he quickly realized that they were Turned. The terrorists spotted him and wasted no time jumping him, no regards for their lives.

Jaune hid behind his shield and blocked the first strikes, slashing the first member into ribbons. Then he jumped backwards to avoid a stab and blocked a bullet shot by another one, who had taken out a gun.

With his shield still risen, he rushed forward and impaled a second White Fang, then parried the third one and used him as a meat shield against the fourth, who indiscriminately shot, uncaring about having killed an ally. Not wasting anymore time, Jaune waited behind the now corpse of his meat shield until the empty clicks of a spent magazine sounded, before rushing on once more, bludgeoning the White Fang's face with his shield and then fishing the faunus off with a downwards stab.

Quick and easy, as he expected. These people were nothing more than cannon fodder. Checking their bodies they had nothing, making him sigh lightly and prompting him to keep going, knowing that the road ahead was probably still long. Fortunately, it wasn't extremely dark, as he was still fairly close to the entrance.

That didn't last long.

A couple hundred meters ahead, there was another crossroads. The first one on the right continued on into the darkness, as the light from behind him had started to dwindle and eventually die. On the left there it was a moderate sized hole, and on the other side another corpse, holding a torch.

Ah, now he gets it. The members were probably supposed to bring torches and fire dust, but some of them became Turned and everything went to shit. They were probably splitting the job, which is why the faunus at the entrance had the dust while that one had the torch.

It's… efficient he supposed, but it really bit them in the ass this time around. With a small run up, he easily made the jump and collected the item from the White Fang's corpse. He wasn't going to need it anymore.

Obtained: Torch

Going back, Jaune used the red dust to light the torch, allowing him to continue down the path, ditching the shield in favour of holding the sword with his dominant hand and the source of light with the other one. Further combat encounters could prove to be tricky without any real means of defense, but he could still dodge. He just hoped to not meet more ranged fighters.

Luckily, the road ahead had few enemies, all of which had melee range weapons, until he met the last two. They came at him at the same time, forcing him to leap sideways to avoid taking damage. Using the torch, he shoved it in the face of one of the terrorists, momentarily blinding him, while he blocked a sword strike from the second member with his own weapon, staggering his attacker and giving him time to stab him under his ribcage, before freeing his sword with a flourish and slashing the head of the former opponent, who didn't had the time to recover from the torch to the face.

By now he was starting to get bored, these guys were pathetic, and having to keep the torch up was getting annoying. Fortunately he arrived at a larger room in the tunnel, with torches alongside the wall, allowing him to put down his own.

Taking out his shield once more, he noticed some movement coming from the opposite sides opening to where he came from, and a bunch of terrorists came out, all Turned, followed by a big guy with a chainsaw in his hands.

Jaune smirked and got ready. Things were finally getting interesting. And he would make sure that none of them made it out.

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BANESAW

WHITE FANG EXTREMISTS

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Chainsaw guy shouted a war cry, prompting his minions to run ahead, aiming to turn him into swiss cheese. Not on his watch.

He leaped backwards, avoiding the first wave of sword slashes and then raising his shield to block the second, staggering them and giving him time to transform his weapon in its greatsword form and unleash a mighty swing at three of the terrorists in front of him, cutting them down.

Quickly he separated his weapons once more and parried another member, using the momentum to go into a roll to avoid a stab from a sword behind him, that hit the terrorist that he had previously staggered.

He could even make them friendly fire each other. These people had lost all sense of strategy. Not that they had much of it in the first place anyway.

He got back up on his feet, hearing the sound of a chainsaw revving up. He looked forward, barely managing to leap sideways to avoid Banesaw, who saw it fit to rush forward with the deadly weapon, barely missing him and impaling one of his allies.

Jaune cursed, having been severely spooked. This guy was NOT messing around.

Ok, here's the plan. Eliminate all the small fries, while poking Banesaw whenever possible, then take care of the big guy. If he played his cards right, he could even use Mr Chainsaw to indirectly help him. He was Turned as well, meaning that he wasn't going to use his brain too much. Just gotta watch out for the saw, no amount of Aura could save him if he got hit by that thing.

Having made up his mind, Jaune quickly counted the remaining foot soldiers. There were six of them, two of which were taking out pistols.

Well shit. That made things a lot more complicated.

He barely managed to raise his shield to block four consequential sword strikes, but the fourth broke his guard, allowing four gunshots to hit his chest and stomach. He rolled away backwards, evading another chainsaw rush in the process, and taking an Aura Booster, which unfortunately left him open for another sword slash, which he was forced to tank with his body.

In retaliation, Crocea Mors cut a wide arc, killing off the soldier that hit its master, right before having to dodge another two gunshots. He heard the chainsaw revving up once more, and positioned himself properly.

He dodged at the last second, being slightly nicked by the deadly blade, but his plan brought fruition, for Banesaw slammed mercilessly in the body of one of the shooters, in a terrible spectacle of gore. So much that he winced slightly. Damn, he felt kinda bad. But then again, they shot him first, so not really. Thinking quickly, he took one of the Fire Dust Bombs and threw it at the big guy. The small object detonated on impact.

Banesaw released a pain-filled scream, forcing him to stop fighting to put out the flames, which devoured his flesh. He was out of the games, at least for the moment, while the remaining three melee soldiers moved like one. But this time, he was ready.

He jumped sideways to evade the strikes and ran forward, towards the last gun wielding soldier, and cut him down quickly.

Deciding to go all out, Jaune transformed his weapon and pounced on the remaining enemies, slashing one to pieces. He dodged a stab from the second soldier on his right and used the momentum for another powerful slash, cutting off the leg of the third soldier who was about to attack. Maintaining the offensive, Jaune followed the arc of his sword and slashed once more toward the second soldier, hitting him right on his collarbone, eliminating him quickly, before finishing everything off with a downwards stab to the amputeted terrorist, finishing off the last of the small people.

Now, for the actual threat.

Said threat made himself known with another chainsaw run, that Jaune dodged effortlessly. He didn't even bother turning his weapon back into a shield, it wasn't going to help against that monstrosity.

The worst had passed thought, for the man was clearly struggling to even lift his massive weapon, probably tired at this point.

So the Turned had improved stamina, but they weren't immune to fatigue. That was very good news.

The terrorists swings were sloppy and slow, giving Jaune plenty of time to dodge and counter, until, with one last shout, Banesaw grew desperate.

He raised his saw with both hands and swung the weapon towards him, again and again, in a rage induced frenzy.

Jaune was not expecting that. So much that one of the swings actually connected, even if only for a second. He was shot backwards, with a cry of pain. The damage had been massive.

He got control of himself quickly and rolled away, avoiding the follow up that would have been fatal. Getting back on his feet, he produced and used another two Aura Boosters, his heart beating wildly in his chest. That was the closest he had ever come to a second death, and he had no intention of going down here.

But luckily for him, that frenzy had been Banesaw's last resort, for he eventually stopped and collapsed on the ground, exhausted, giving Jaune plenty of time to walk back and repeatedly stab him, until the White Fang lieutenant was no more, disappearing in a shower of blood, just like the Malachite twins.

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CORRUPTION ERADICATED

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Obtained: Frenzied Revolutionary's Aura

Aura belonging to the faunus known only as Banesaw, lieutenant of the Vale branch of the White Fang.

Having failed in eliminating the former Schnee Dust Company heiress, Banesaw was punished and eventually killed by the new High Leader of the White Fang. The Turned infection gave Banesaw new life and brought him back to the place of his biggest failure, maybe in a misguided hope of fixing his fatal mistake.

Use this Aura for a superior purpose and save Remnant.

An… infection? This Turned situation was an infection. That's why only some people were transforming instead of everyone. Interesting… he wondered what were the ideal conditions for this… sickness to take over. Not even the dead were spared apparently. What a mess…

Shaking his head, Jaune put all of these informations in the back of his mind. He had obtained the Aura, but he had one more objective to accomplish. Meet up with Taiyang and hopefully find the courage to tell him what happened to his daughters.

Fucking hell, that was going to be even harder than fighting Banesaw, he just knew.

Before heading back though, he decided to reach the end of the tunnel and see if there was something else. Traversing the room and going through the opening on the wall that the White Fang previously passed through to stop him, he reached a smallish room, with torches on the wall and boxes, full of weapons and ammo. In there, Jaune found something very interesting.

Obtained: Ice Dust Bomb X3

Ohhhhh, now he was getting somewhere. He smirked and picked the explosives up, happy with the White Fang's forced generosity, when something else caught his eyes.

Obtained: Roman Torchwick's Scroll

Ah, right, his fetch quest. He had completely forgotten about it. Good thing he stumbled on the thing, otherwise he would have left without it.

Pocketing the scroll, he finally turned around and backtracked all the way to the entrance of the breach, before turning towards the main road and the railways. His jaw promptly hit the ground.

The way forward had been completely busted open. All the rubble in between was gone, replaced with a clean, wide corridor to pass through.

Taiyang did this? Jeez, remind me to never piss him off, Jaune thought. But still, convenient as all hell, so he walked the new path towards his ally.

As he had expected, the way had been completely swept clean, no more enemies or obstacles. The older man had been meticulous, that's for damn sure.

He eventually reached Mountain Glenn proper and quickly spotted Taiyang, leaning against a wall, waving at him with a smile. Jaune reached him, in time for the older man to speak up.

"Jaune, there you are! You finally made it! What held you back?"

He briefly explained what happened on his path, including both his big fight and Roman's request.

"I see. I'm glad that you succeeded in your mission here then. I am unfortunately still lost. There's no trace of either Yang or Ruby in here. I'm starting to run out of places to look…"

Taiyang looked at him, seriously.

"If you knew something… anything… you would tell me, right?"

Jaune gulped, but eventually made up his mind, sighed and spilled the beans on what happened to the entirety of team RWBY.

He was interrupted when Taiyang punched the wall in anger, making him jump backwards.

"That damn bitch! So that's what happened! Salem again! I should have known…"

Seeing him scared, the man was quick to reassure his younger companion.

"Do not worry, I am not angry at you. I don't like how you kept this information to yourself, but I understand why you did it. I would probably have lost control, and it wouldn't have been pretty…"

Taiyang sighed and went back to his crossed arms position, now with a lovely fist shaped hole on the wall behind him.

"Thank you Jaune. For letting me know, even if you were afraid. Here, let me give you something to reward you for your help. That crook Torchwick said that he traded with these stones, correct? Please, take them, as a token of my gratitude".

Obtained: Precious Stones X2

"This isn't our last meeting, Jaune. You are heading back to Beacon I presume, to deliver these Auras of yours. There is a chance that one of my daughters is here, in Vale, and if that is the case, I want to help you confront her. You'll need all the help that you can get. This is non-negotiable. Go ahead, I'll meet up with you when you are done with the ritual. Safe travels, my friend".

Jaune nodded, knowing that he definitely couldn't say no to him, not even if he wanted to.

Heading back the way he came, he made his way once again to the bullhead that would bring him back to Beacon.

This was it, he was about to learn the position of one of his friends. He couldn't wait to know… but at the same time, the thought terrified him.

He had no idea which member of RWBY was in Vale, but one thing he knew. This would be a true test. Both of his strength… and his will.

Hello? Is this thing on?! It is? Noice.

And here we go again, Auraborne is back late for the week (bear with me, my ass is heavy), and with it, some more action packed adventures… kinda.

And here we are, Jauna obtained his second powerful Aura of the Kingdom, and he is ready to face off against his greatest challenge yet. Poor bastard, I would not like to be in his place. And now, Taiyang also knows the truth and wants to help, like it or not. Whatever he will actually help or not… is a mystery.

Review responses!

Merendinoemiliano: Glad to know that the exposition was well built, it left me a bit anxious to know. Salem will not appear for a very long time, so strap yourself in, it will be a bumpy ride.

Ultimate Kuuga: That is correct my friend. The most ungrateful of jobs, easily, but someone has to do it. Torchwick is reminiscent of Patches, I can definitely see it, but that is not the intention of his character, no worries. No kicking off cliffs… probably.

j-j-j man: Man, Patches left some traumas on a lot of you folks uh? Kinda funny now that I think about it.

Thank you to everyone that followed/favorited/reviewed/read, you guys are growing each day and it's honestly overwhelming to think about. So I'll try not to do it. Much.

That's all folks!

Ta-ta for now