The journey towards Menagerie passed without much excitement. Neither Jaune or Ilia bothered trying to strike up a conversation and the worst that they had to deal with were some small aquatic Grimm, easily dispatched by both of them.

When the island of Menagerie came into view, the chameleon faunus walked up to his side.

"We're just a couple of minutes away. Where is Blake hiding exactly?"

He thought about it for a moment and described what the portal showed him.

"Big house, massive dojo… it's probably the Belladonna household. Do you see it? The big one over there, close to the center".

He could indeed see it, even if he had to squint his eye a bit. Damn eternal night… it had been several hours since everything started and the sun refused to rise up again. Last time he saw it, he had just exited Ansel. He was doubly grateful for Ilia's presence then, since she could see in the dark.

"That will be our final objective… but before that, we have a couple more things to do".

What else? He was willing to bet that it was going to be a "search and destroy" kind of mission.

"She's not alone on that island. Many of my former White Fang allies and friends have likely been revived by the infection… I would like to go and… give them the rest that they deserve. Besides, it's always better to cover your own back, we wouldn't want to leave enemies in a position where they can easily ambush us".

Jaune nodded, seeing the logic in her statement. Better to be safe than sorry and all that.

"You're going to accompany me? Thank you, I appreciate your help. We're gonna have to trek around most if not all the island, but I promise it will be worth it".

Finally, the boat docked at Menagerie's port, allowing the two of them to enter the fated island.

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NEW AREA: MENAGERIE

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Ilia sighed, casting a somber look at her former home. She didn't grieve for too long, not having the time to do it properly.

"All right then, we're here. Before we reach Blake, these are the people that we have to take care of: Yuma, Trifa, Corsac, Fennec and Sienna. The first is a bat faunus, he can fly, so we have to be careful. Trifa is a spider faunus, on top of being a skilled assassin, better to always watch our backs. Corsac and Fennec are twins, so we'll likely find them together. They're fox faunuses, not exceptionally skilled in combat, but their weapons could be annoying. Sienna… she is the former leader of White Fang, before Adam killed her. I don't need to tell you how dangerous she is".

That… was quite a lot of people. But still, doable.

"And on top of that, we should keep an eye out for Kali and Ghira Belladonna, Blake's parents. They should still be somewhere around… let's just hope that they're still alive".

That could prove to be more difficult. Survivors? Here? Unlikely. But not impossible, all things considered. If his sister, her wife and their son made it out alive from their own hell, the same could be for them as well. The question now is one: where to?

Ilia gestured for him to follow her.

"Yuma and Trifa are somewhere on the island, no idea where exactly… but I'm willing to bet that they'll come to us. Taking into consideration what you told me about the Turned, Sienna is likely in the White Fang headquarters, while Corsac and Fennec should still be at the Belladonna household… or at least, Fennec is. Corsac was imprisoned after the battle, so maybe he's still there. Might be worth checking".

O…kay, that was a lot to keep track of. But again, doable.

The two started heading towards the White Fang headquarters, while Jaune swept his gaze everywhere he could. So much death… it was all too similar to both Ansel and Patch. Many of the doors and windows of the houses were cleanly smashed through, probably by the Turned that hunted down their victims…

Or maybe it was a similar situation to Port, where the infection rendered him unable to distinguish people from Grimm. Just one more addition to the list of sins that Salem needs to pay for.

While they walked, a weird sound reached his ears. Something similar to… flapping? He looked around, stopping together with his chameleon partner, who also heard the noise.

"Yuma is close by… from above!"

He didn't think. He acted. As fast as he could, he threw himself forward into a roll. Not even a second later, a heavy object impacted the ground where they once stood, now replaced by a masked figure with massive bat wings on his back.

The man was completely unarmed. No weapon to speak of. Was he a martial artist? Maybe he lost it after everything that went down here?

He had no idea. The only thing that he knew was that he was Turned and in their way, as such he needed to be dealt with.

"He's fast and agile, capable of gliding… but he's not very tough. A couple of good hits should be enough to bring him down".

He nodded at Ilia, readying the blade of Crocea Mors on one hand and Mors Renata on the other, before charging ahead, swiping with sword.

Yuma dodged without too much effort, which didn't last for very long once Ilia joined the fight, the crackling of her whip intimidating even him who was on her side.

The battle quickly became a war of attrition. One that the bat faunus had no hope of winning. It started when Ilia grazed his side, sending electricity into her former ally's body. He flapped his wings, sending a gust of wind that briefly took her off her feet, before going airborne. For all of the two seconds that it took Jaune to ready his pistol and shoot twice.

Both the bullets found their mark in Yuma's wings, sending him crashing back down on Remnant, where Ilia easily dispatched him, with a powerful stab on his chest.

Yuma disintegrated, like all the other Turned, without a single noise.

"One down… four more to go. Come on, we're doing good so far".

Jaune grunted his assent, taking the time to loot every useful item he could find. Maybe once he would have felt bad about stealing from the dead, but by now, he had told himself multiple times that he needed these items more than the deceased.

Obtained: Scrap of Metal X6

Obtained: Dust Bullets X3

Obtained: Aura Boosters X2

A thought reached him. Yuma and Trifa were both imprisoned at the end of the… mini civil war or something like that? Anyway, they were, allegedly, both free. Which meant that Corsac was likely out as well. He referred the hypothesis.

"That's… almost a certainty, now that I think about it. Guess that means we can cross the jail out of our list. If Corsac is out, he will surely have joined Fennec at the house at the end of the road…"

Reaching the White Fang headquarters was smooth sailing from there. Trifa was still around, but she apparently decided to bide her time… or maybe hide and avoid them, but he doubted that.

The inside of the building wasn't particularly big. Not anymore at least. Any alternative road that they could have taken was blocked by debris, leaving the only possible way the one straight ahead.

He opened the doors leading to the… throne room? Really? A bit pretentious or was that just him? She was the leader of a terrorist organization, not an actual queen, damn it.

But still, inside, Sienna Khan was standing at the center, apparently staring at the throne with something that closely resembled longing.

The place of her greatest failure… not being able to see Adam's treachery ahead and getting killed as a result. Dumbass.

Almost as if she heard his thoughts, Sienna turned around, staring right at them blankly, before readying her own weapon. A chain, with a spear head attached to the end of it.

"Her style is similar to Yuma's. She is fast and agile, but not particularly strong or durable. Be careful with her weapon, she can shoot the point of her chain and give you a nasty shock".

Ilia is just an encyclopedia of her former teammates, isn't she? Makes sense, she fought with these people for basically all her life, but he was still mildly impressed.

Well, if she was fast, then was simply going to have to be faster. This time he kept the shield of Crocea Mors up, paired together with the blade of Mors Celeri.

Sienna was done waiting for them, twirling her chain around herself and launching the tip towards him. He quickly raised his shield, making his enemy's weapon bounce on it harmlessly. Ilia capitalized on the distraction to close the distance and stab repeatedly at her former leader, forcing her to give up ground.

Jaune moved fast, positioning himself at Sienna's flank and bashing her with the shield, leaving her vulnerable for one more stab from the chameleon faunus. But she endured it.

She twirled the chain again, smacking him in the face with it and forcing Ilia to jump backwards to avoid the dangerous tip.

He massaged his jaw. Okay, now they were getting somewhere!

Sienna seemed to have found her rhythm, for she was keeping up with both of her opponent's, showing just how fast she was. But, like Ilia said, she wasn't durable at all, and it started to show when she started slowing down.

Not even the Turned had infinite stamina then. They had more than usual, but they would eventually run out of it. That was their chance.

He got inside her guard, faking another shield bash. The bait worked, making Sienna defend an attack that was not coming, leaving her vulnerable to another attack from Illa's whip. This time she seized up, sparks running up and down her body. He finished her off after that, stabbing her in the chest with Mors Celeri and ripping the weapon out with violence.

The former leader of the White Fang also disappeared, just like those that she thought she was above of.

Jaune sheathed his weapons, breathing in and out to even it. Slightly more challenging, but still nothing special. Better, they really needed to keep their energies for Blake, at the end of it all.

"Do you want to take five? Take a look around and see if there's anything around that we could use?"

Good idea. He nodded at her and they split, searching for useful items, if there were any. You never knew, some other asshole may have already looted the place long before them.

But before that, he offered a Booster to her, to top her off. She took it with a nod of thanks, before starting their search.


Obtained: Scrap Metal X2

Obtained: Fire Dust Bomb

Nothing much. Barely even worth the effort, for him, but he would never say no to some upgrade materials. Ilia got a little luckier, having found some lightning dust to replenish her weapon.

Having accomplished their objective there, the two moved on from the place, starting to head towards the Belladonna household, hoping to also bump into Trifa on the way there.

Neither of the two companions spoke a word, well aware of the spider faunus' stealth mastery. All was quiet for a couple of minutes… then, when their objective was within direct eyesight…

Ilia raised her head, turned towards an alley directly to their right and lashed out with her weapon, causing the object of their thoughts to jump out and stand in front of them, once more staring blankly.

"Same deal as the other two. Main difference is that she's much more strategic than the others. Not by much, but she's definitely going to attempt some dirty tricks. Also please, do try to not be sprayed by her webs. Those things are a genuine pain to get rid of…"

This time he transformed Crocea Mors in its greatsword form, in order to better cut any webbing Trifa may throw at them, while keeping Mors Renata at ready in its holster.

The opposing faunus opened the dance with a string of web towards his hands, likely to try and disarm him before the fight even properly started.

As if he was going to let that happen. He leaned sideways, letting the web pass by him, and sprung into action, followed by Ilia. Trifa was quicker, jumping backwards and sticking to one of the walls of the many houses. Well… that's annoying. He didn't want to waste more bullets. He had around thirty still, but they could be useful later on. No, he wasn't hoarding items, how could you think that?!

Fortunately, Ilia was there to pick up his slack, elongating her weapon to reach the spider faunus, who did her best to avoid the electric pointy stick. But that brought her in range of his own weapon. He waited a bit for the perfect opportunity…

There! With a massive downward slash, he broke a small section of the wall where Trifa was about to stick her hand. Finding nothing to use her abilities on, the White Fang assassin tumbled to the floor, where both him and his companion finished her off with a double downward stab.

There's the third. Only the twins are left… and they were going to be a pain in the ass, he could already tell.

The rest of the trek was uneventful. Grimm hadn't reached the island, it would seem, unlike Patch. Which is curious, since they should be attracted by the Lamp of Knowledge…

Maybe Blake came up with a countermeasure? But how? Wasn't magic necessary? Or maybe not?

More questions… he was honestly starting to get tired of them. No matter, not the time to be thinking about them.

The door to the Belladonna household was wide open… or more like, busted open completely.

Stepping inside, they eventually found themselves in the open courtyard, where both of their targets were located. Corsac had his hood down and was clutching a key, while Fennec had his weapon drawn… or what was left of it. He doubted that useless piece of metal could be used for much. Both of them were looking around, seemingly scanning around and looking for something. Or someone.

Their fox ears twitched in their direction when they heard them, turning around in a similar manner to how Sienna Khan did it before.

"Broken weapons, incapable of speaking… the Albain brothers are truly over at this point. But don't underestimate them, they're both strong enough to go toe to toe with Blake's father. You take Corsac, I'll deal with Fennec".

Jaune agreed, drawing both the blade and the shield of Crocea Mors this time around. Better to start with a somewhat balanced build and then adapt when needed.

Corsac decided that he was done waiting and lunged forward, punching his shield and making him slide backwards. Okay, Ilia was right, this guy is bloody strong…

Sounds of fighting reverberated behind him, but he could only trust the chameleon faunus to hold her own. He had his own fish to fry.

This time it was his turn to attack, starting with a simple three hit combo. Corsac tried to block with his forearm, but the third hit shattered his guard which allowed him to use what he had now dubbed, the Visceral Attack.

Kind of edgy, but damn it he liked it and he was sticking to his guns. Corsac got back on his feet and he switched to the greatsword form of his weapon, thinking that he could simply dodge and dish out more damage that way.

He was wrong. The Fox faunus seemed to almost smell blood and bounded up to him, faster than he could blink, but successfully parried a punch with his face, blocked another with his stomach and got so bored that he decided to lie down and take a nap. Yes, that's exactly what happened, are you doubting him?

Deciding that he played with his food for long enough, he got back on his feet and feinted a strike, which made Corsac cover his face with his arms, obscuring his vision, which allowed Jaune to draw his firearm and shoot point blank at the older man's abdomen.

The faunus accused the hit and folded, holding his stomach, which allowed him to raise up the sword and stab down through the man's throat. The man rasped for a second, before dying.

A quick glance backwards showed that Ilia was also done with Fennec. He took an Aura Booster and sighed in relief. The White Fang was officially out of commission. This time for good, he hoped.

Obtained: Key to the dojo

And now they could move on. At least all this fighting was worth the effort.

"We still haven't found Kali and Ghira…"

Ilia's voice reached him, making him wince. Oh yeah, them. He almost forgot. But still, he preferred dealing with Blake first. If her parents were alive, they could find them after clearing out the island in its entirety.

The chameleon faunus reluctantly agreed, seeing the logic in his words, and quietly guided him to the locked door that led down, towards the dojo. Towards their final target.

Used: Key to the dojo

The Doors slid open with a mighty push from him, finally finding himself in the room that the portal showed. Fairly large, with traditional Mistralian sliding doors, the place was… completely empty.

All the dummies and sacks used for training were destroyed beyond repair, the walls were scratched and with bullet holes all around. The Shadows were thick and oppressing, almost as if…

His eyes widened and shouted at Ilia to get down, narrowòy avoiding the spray of bullets that riddled the place where their heads used to be.

Gracefully, a slim figure descended from the dark ceiling.

One beat

The dark black weapon that always confused him so much on how it was used came into view, a pale hand clutching it.

Two beats

Cat ears standing proudly atop a mop of black hair, twitching in their directions and pinpointing their locations with unmeasured precision.

Three beats

Those eyes that used to be that, in his opinion, cool and intriguing golden color, now reduced to dark red, peered down at them with barely concealed contempt.

Jaune Arc and Ilia Amitola nodded at each other, steeling their resolve. The final battle of Mistral was about to begin.

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BLAKE BELLADONNA, THE BEAUTY

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

Welcome back, dudes and gentleladies, to another episode of Auraborne, the show where the extermination of the White Fang is a mere side objective. Take that Adam.

Yuppers, here we are my friends. The fight against the second member of Team RWBY is about to start. Which means that the Mistral Arc is about to end. Which means that the Atlas Arc (spoiler, I know, but come on, it was obvious) is gonna start soon.

Which means that now I have to actually go back to the show and watch volumes 7 and 8. Can you sense the enthusiasm in my voice? Cause I don't. I really should have thought all of this through…

Review responses!

Merendinoemiliano: Thanks my friend. Hope that this one was to your liking as well!

Essiter1987: Yeah, I had to add a gimmick. Jaune here is a lot stronger than canon, but still nowhere near the level of someone like Adam fricking Taurus. For Neo I got plans, no worries… Yup, the Port thing that I did was original. Mostly so that using the auras has a point, since there are no souls to collect to level up or other weapons to forge using them. Might have been cool, but then too many would become confusing… mostly for me. So, now auras offer a massive boost to combat abilities for a short period of time.

randomguy9005: You got that in one. This story is basically a "what if Bloodborne had a RWBY themed mod?". The idea popped into my head and wouldn't leave no matter what. I looked a bit, found nothing that I liked and decided to go full Thanos "Fine. I'll do it myself". It's a silly, self indulgent story that pretends to be nothing more than what you see. But I'm happy that you appreciate anyway, I will gladly take your applause.

That's all folks! Ta-ta for now!