Cardin was dragged to the bookstore's basement, and roughly had his hands cuffed behind his back, before being tossed into a chair. From the edge of his vision he could see Tuckson seated similarly beside him. He wasn't bound though, the gapping slash through his throat not warranting it. The briefcase that had started this mess resting at his feet.

"The fate of all who stand against humanity." Marsten commented.

Cardin looked to his brother. "Didn't know we got to decide who that was."

"We? Marsten snorted. "You had your chance to be forgiven. There is no we." Three men, besides Marsten, were in the basement, all looking to the two siblings in curiosity at the reunion.

"Forgiveness?" Cardin questioned. "Our old man's idea of mercy still coming from the belt?"

Marsten didn't answer, but the slight flinch was proof enough. The scars that criss-crossed the brothers hadn't all been at the hands of faunus. "Discipline is needed if we are to push the animals from our streets." Maststen settled a hard look at Cardin. "You used to know this."

"Get fucked."

"You used to know this better than any. Back when we were on the streets together you were the most vicious of us. What happened to you brother?" Marsten stepped forward and slapped Cardin. "Have you forgotten what those animals did?"

Cardin looked to his younger brother, memories of a sensitive young boy pulling deep guilt from him. "I haven't forgotten a damn thing."

Another strike. "You would abandon us."

"I didn't abandon the clan." Cardin took a moment to spit blood from his mouth. "I wasn't going to take anymore beatings from Dad. Fanus be damned, he had me chained to a radiator the night I bolted. I was fucking done." His eyes stared hard at the face that looked so much like his own. "The only person I abandoned was you Marsten. For that I'm so sorry brother."

The other men looked to Marsten, a hand or two resting on weapons.

"Shut up!" Marsten yelled with a punch. "I don't need your sympathy." Stepping back the young man took a breath, anger still on his face. "Dad told me he called you after you ran off to Beacon, said you were striking it out on your own. You may have left the clan, but you still were fighting for what was right for our kind. The old man said you were training to hunt Fanus. What the fuck happened to that?! We could have fought together, Dad be damned!"

It had been the plan. Cardin hadn't thought his family and clan were wrong in their goals when he had left. He just had enough of the beatings. Back then his aspirations to become a huntsman was to have the power to take leadership from his shitty father and run the clan as he saw fit. "Things change."

"I heard, got yourself an animal gal now." Marsten cruelly snickered. The humor and insult in the statement, once obvious to the eldest Winchester, now only brought shame and revulsion..

"I'm sorry brother. I should have never left you behind." He waited for another blow.

It never came.

Marsten let out a sigh, and for the first time since Cardin had seen his brother he saw pain on his face. "Have you forgotten what those animals did to mom? Murdered in that alley."

"I haven't forgotten. I remember the days when we were a real family." Cardin let his head lower, unable to meet his brother's gaze. "I remember every gash I put on those bastards when we caught them. Every broken bone Dad inflicted." He looked back to his brother, the memories contorting his face into a mask of hatred. "I'll never forget taking their scalps and nailing them to their family's doors."

Marsten wore his own hatred on his face. "And still you abandoned us."

Other memories ran through Cardin's mind, memories of his own violence at first, then more pleasant ones; memories of his boys at Beacon, his partner Jaune, the faunus he'd met at Beacon. "We are animals. Kicked dogs, eating our own kind while deluding ours by saying they are different."

A switchblade flicked open. The cold steel brought to Cardin's neck. "We're nothing like them." Marsten snarled.

"Do it."

The two's staring contest was brief, both with looks of hurt on display for the other. Both shaken at what the other had become.

The blade left his throat.

"That's too easy." Marsten turned and started to walk out of the basement. "The old man is at the house. You have until he gets here to think about your fate." Looking back to Cardin he offered a sad simile. "I would have given you a chance."

Cardin smiled back weakly. "I know."

"Fuck, why do we gotta take out the trash?" Terry complained. He'd joined this gang to get some dirty animal blood on his hands, not to take out meat.

"Cause you bitch about everything." Mark commented as drove the van the two were in.

"Fuck you." Terry cursed. "I wanna see what they do to that traitor."

"Nothing good."

"You don't think his old man will let him off easily? I mean he set this whole crew up way back, it's not like anyone would give him shit for just smacking his kid around a bit."

Mark let out a chuckle at his partner's ignorance "You haven't been around long, but old man Winchester don't take kindly to slights; blood or otherwise. I once saw him beat his kids bloody when they were ankle biters for lookin at a animal the wrong back ."

"Shit." Terry remarked.

"Yeah, I've heard the boss personally beheaded a guy who left the outfit and displayed him on the wall."

"Gotta be more to it than that."

"Ehh, maybe." Mark shrugged. "Guy might have settled down with an animal or something."

"Speaking of animals." Terry commented as he hooked his thumb to point to the back of the van. "What's those two's deal?"

"The bitch was a bonus, the corpse was the kid's partner."

"He the guy that smoked our boys in front of Juniors?"

"So I heard. He's connected too, that's why we gotta make him disappear."

"Violent fucker. If it wasn't for him making most of the guys have to drag our wounded off to back alley docs we'd have more guys on this crap." Terry looked back to look at the blonde face down in the van. He looked pretty gone, but his unbound hands still had Terry uneasy. "You sure he's dead?"

"Fucker didn't have a pulse when I checked." Mark confirmed. "If he is alive, he ain't getting off the floor. Besides we only had two aura rated cuffs for this. That shit ain't cheap." He clarified, sensing his partner's unease. "The bitch might still be breathing."

"So kill her."

"Nah, I like em warm." Mark sickeningly remarked.

"No, not one for bestiality myself." Terry chuckled. "That being said, you always gotta keep one alive to dig the graves."

"Fuck you." Blake weakly spit past her bloody lips.

"Well she's up, and looks eager for you." Terry cracked.

"Bummer, I like a bit of a fight." Mark chuckled.

Any insult Blake had was kept to herself. She knew she was at their mercy for the moment and antagonizing them was definitely not her best knew their type; merciless supremacists worse than any Atlas security. In the White Fang she had her fair share of encounters with this kind of trash. The names charged, but the hallmarks of racism and violence, so despicable even regular racist cringed, were the same from one kingdom to another. As the understatement of the century she could certainly say that she was in a bad spot. She'd been testing her body silently after waking a few minutes ago, and the picture wasn't good. Her hands were bound in the type of cuff that held full huntresses, no that she had an ounce of aura to use. She certainly didn't know where her weapons were. In comparison those were the smaller issues; her left leg and arm were broken. Any weight she had put on them, no matter how slight, had shot agony through her mangled body. Blake knew she couldn't run or fight like this. Silently she cursed herself for not telling anyone where she had gone. Loner energy for the win and all that crap.

She wasn't out of this, she reminded herself. She was alive, all she needed was an opening. Her captors seemed sloppy and undisciplined, and it was only the two. They just needed to…to do what, she internally screamed in frustration. Those two could go get lunch and she wouldn't be able to get far enough to get away. She was fucked.

Blake forced herself to take a breath. Painicking wouldn't help anything, even as bleak as the situation felt. If there was a way out she'd take it, and if not…well, it was just something she couldn't control. It wasn't worth thinking about what would happen.

With a herculean effort she moved her head to look at Jaune. It wasn't a pretty sight. Blake was no stranger to death. She'd seen some pretty bad stuff as a terrorist. Probably why she had a hard time getting on with her team; ignorant as they were to the horrors of combat. Even with all that Jaune was not something she wanted to keep looking at. She didn't really know the boy outside polite hello here and there, but he still couldn't help but feel bad. From what she could work out Cardin and Jaune had pissed off the wrong people. It seemed the pair had gotten in way above their heads. She couldn't bring herself to feel much for Cardin, but Jaune wasn't someone she wanted to see face down in a pool of his own blood. If only the poor boy hadn't always pushed his way into things he wasn't cut out for.

Forcing herself to look away, Blake couldn't help but think that Jaune should have taken the hint at Beacon.

A pulse beat. Weak. Too weak.

"Weak."

"What." Jaune asked in surprise.

"Dammit, son!" The eldest Arc shouted. "You want to know why I won't train you. You can buy into every BS superhero comic you read, but the grimm will eat you all the same. You can't stay focused enough to do more than barely hang on in school. I've never seen you do a push up in your life and you can't push past and adversity when I do try with you. So, just drop it."

"I can do it Dad." Jaune pleaded.

"Fine!" the man screamed, at his end. He walked up to the mantle and grabbed the family relic. With a solid thrust he shoved the sword into his only son's arms, the momentum sending his falling to ground. "You want to make something of yourself? Do it. You'll never make it to the grimm at this rate."

"Come on Johnny Boy. Don't tell me you're too weak for this. I ain't even using my aura." Cardin sneered as he held Jaunes head in the toilet bowl.

Jaune didn't even try to lift his head.

"Please I can do this." Jaune pleaded.

"Mr. Arc, I could make an exception if your scores in your classes were better, but you are struggling to maintain even a below minimum performance.

Jaune hung his head. "I'm too weak."

Ozpins didn't answer. He didn't need to.

"Too weak."

"What?' Jaune asked as he found himself dressed in his Beacon grab looking back at himself. His surrounding melding between Beacon, his family home, and the alley he'd slept in. Looking down he saw he was also wearing his school clothes.

"I said you were too weak, again." His duplicate repeated.

For a moment it took Jaune a moment to figure what the hell was going on. Confusion drifted to somber realization as he remembered the fight in the bookstore. "I'm dead."

"I'd peg it more as us getting there." The other Jaune casually remarked, looking at the impossible shifting landscape.

"Guess everybody was right." Jaune remarked as he hung his head in shame, or at least hung his head. He always had the shame.

"Fuck em."

"What." he asked himself in surprise. Jaune figured his alternate self would be caring on the ride of shitty moments he'd been reliving.

"Nah, I don't really feel like being an dick to myself." The other Jaune remarked, reading Jaune's mind. Unless he was him too. It made Jaune's head hurt a bit thinking about it.

"Smoke?" He offered, materializing a cig and light for them both.

Jaune took it and lit it up. "Fuck it" he said before taking a draw. If he was dying at least he could enjoy the delusion of smoking. It wasn't like cancer was a problem now.

For a moment the two smoked in silence. Jaune considered just finishing his cig and walking into the door that had appeared before him at some point. Not for a moment did he not know that that was death. He considered asking himself if there was a way out, but something stopped him.

"Too weak right?" His alternate asked.

"Yeah." He confirmed, his alternate's ability to read his mind now fact to him.

"You're just a coward and liar. Not weak."

Jaune shot him a glare. "Thought you weren't gonna be a dick."

"I'm being a good voice in your head."

He snorted in disbelief. "Could have fooled me." He took another drag. "If you wanna give me crap I'm just gonna check out at the door."

"That's the spirit." His copy chuckled.

"Suicide?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Not taking crap."

He starred himself down a bit longer before the question he had on his mind continued to go unanswered. "So you gonna tell me how I"m a lying coward but not weak, or you just gonna stand there looking smug?"

Suddenly the setting of his mind changed to a still scene. He was in the house of the first job he'd pulled for the police. Officer Dan was picking up his mangled badge and a bloodied Cardin was laying on the ground.

"Doesn't look like weakness to me." The duplicate commented.

"I did what I had to to survive." Jaune replied.

"We still did it."

Their surroundings changed again. This time it was the alley were he'd bagged his last mark was the setting; the crying man cuffed and on the ground. "We bagged enough guys to be covered for awhile. Hell, we know we could have applied to another school or training program by this point, but we haven't. Why is that?"

"I can't."

The duplicate frowned a bit. "See, this is what makes you a liar. You tell yourself we are too weak to do it. That's what makes you a pussy. All those assholes that have made us feel like we were weak, all the people I've shown you, you're too much of a coward to ignore them. You let them make us weak."

Jaune searched his mind for a comeback, searched long and hard. It wasn't hard to come up with an excuse. Problem was he knew they were all excuses. Finally after what felt like an eternity he decided on his next words. "Maybe."

The bastard in front of him just smiled. "You aren't going to apply to another school. Not for a long time at least."

Jaune could feel his anger rise at that. "Isn't that why you're giving me this pep talk,to get me off my ass?"

"I don't need you to get off your ass." The voice in his head and in front of his eyes explained. "I need you to stop lying to yourself and grow a spine for yourself. You don't want to go back."

"Yeah." He admitted.

"Out here on the street a man lives and dies by his strength. No rules to bind him, no teachers to coddle weakness, no metric of success except seeing another sunrise." He took another drag. As he let out an exhale of smoke Jaune noticed that his clothes had changed to be Jaune's investigator get up, when it had changed, he had no idea. Turning to look Jaune in the eye the duplicate spoke with a fire in his eyes.

"You love being on these streets."

In that moment, Jaune was truly a mirrored image; from the trench coat and clothes to the look in his own eyes. As he spoke, no doubt existed. "You're goddamn right."

The other smiled with determination and pride. "I'll take that as the end of the lying and cowardness."

"Well, this has been good and all. Real confidence booster. Still dying though." It was a cruel twist that he'd find some grit when it didn't matter.

"We'll get to that." The duplicate said, waving away that not so small issue. "One last thing." He pressed as he produced Blake's gun from his pocket and held it, but towards Jaune.

"You think I couldn't pull the trigger." Jaune stated, not making a move for the iron. "I'm guessing that is a problem for you."

"We are one in the same. Nothing I've said is anything you don't know." The copy responded. "We will make the hard choice one day, maybe sooner rather than later. We don't know if the hard choice is to do what needs to be done to survive, or if we should fight what the world is pushing us to do. Either way we need to decide, or risk losing it all when the moment comes."

No other Jaune existed. It was just him with a gun in his hand. When the other had left he couldn't tell. Maybe he had always been like his throat was very dry.

Before he could delve into any of that though, a vibration in his pocket made him aware of his scroll. Putting the gun in his pocket he pulled out his scroll to see a notification. Looking down at the screen a wicked smile formed on his face.

AURA 200%

Cardin looked on from his chair. It'd been about thirty minutes and it'd thankfully been enough time to recover some aura. Not that it did much good against his cuff. He'd settled on watching his captors for the time being.

The three had turned to one, with the other two heading upstairs. It seemed that most of the clan had shown up to take them down, but with him handled and Jaune down the bulk of the group had left to go back to their other duties. Remembering how bad of a shape his partner had been in, Cardin worried if he was even alive. Jaune was, yeah he's say it, a friend, and he didn't want his death on his own hands of all things.. No that he could do anything about it at the moment.

"You gotta be a real bastard to walk out on your family." His lone guard commented, pulling Cardin from his thoughts.

"Fucked up family."

The guard turned away, a shotgun strapped to his back. "Yeah that's what every weak piece of shit says." The guard said as he went back to categorizing whatever illegal stuff Tuckson had been holding in his basement. "Everyone wants the monsters gone, but freeware strong enough to get down and fight them. People like your father have the actual strength to see that."

Cardin chuckled. "My father is just a sad old man grasping for control."

The man kept checking boxes. "Your acting pretty chill for a guy about to be tortured."

"I'm practiced."

"HA, you think you're tough taking daddy's belt?"

"I remember the night I left. Didn't ice some faunus kid that pissed off my old man somehow. I wasn't gonna kill some kid. So I got beat to an inch of my lift and was left chained to the radiator at home. The good stuff too, aura proof cuffs. So I just laid there, the only thing I could do was keep some aura up so I didn't get cooked."

"Bo-who" the guard sarcastically added.

Cardin continued. "But then someone came and showed me a trick. My brother actually."

"How to be less of a bitch?"

Hands warped around the guards head. Before he could even register them they swiftly pulled, the man's neck snapping; his lifeless body falling to the ground.

"He showed me how to break your thumb to get out of cuff." Cardin finished.

Marsten slid into the driver seat of his car. Momentarily he stretched his palms against the steering wheel to relive the tense nervousness he felt. Everything was to plan, but it still didn't mean he felt any less anxious; a combination of fear for his life running against the tantalizing prospect of being free from his old man. Cardin wasn't the only one who could only take so many beatings at the hands of the old bastard.

For a moment he let his hang in exhaustion. His brother, once the man he had looked up to his entire life, was gone. Weeks he's dreamed of reuniting with his brother and taking over the clan together, all dashed now. Cardin had changed, he'd forgotten his way. What the hell had happened to the man that had protected the streets from the faunus that had terrorized their neighborhood..

Marsten forced his mind to put those thoughts away for now, he still had work to do. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out an auto-injector and tossed it into his glove box. It was empty now, but an hour ago it held a potent blend of narcotics, adrenaline, and pure dust. Illegal and dangerous, it was still a damn good way to get a heart going again while topping off wouldn't have been any good for his brother to have died in the attack. He knew better than most the brutality of their gang. Lucky for Cardin's partner that his brother hasn't needed it. Maybe it would be enough to save the guy he wondered to himself.

As much as he would have loved to have done this alone, you didn't topple an orgnasion by yourself. Not even Cardin and his mysterious partner could pull this all off. Pulling out his scroll he tapped an unlabeled contact, his anxiety growing with every ring.

"Hello." a voice answered.

"The play is good." Marsten confirmed. No other words followed and the tone of the call being ended was heard.

A swift kick sent Blake slamming onto the forest floor her captors had driven her out to.

"Damn animal, can't even dig." Mark sneered.

Blake had been digging her own grave for about ten minutes now, but with her broken bones she hadn't been going quick enough for the bastards. Now she watched in horror as one started to undo his belt. She had separately been trying to keep herself calm, but now she could only hear her heart in her ears as her vision started to tunnel.

Run

She started to crawl away. Another kick put her back down.

Fight

With every ounce of strength she lunged at her attacker. A lazy backhand had her tasting blood and once again on the ground.

Mark laughed at her weak resistance. "You damn animals never learn. Always need to be put in your place." Before he could continue the van where his partner was grabbing the corpse lit up like a stadium light had been turned on inside. "What the fuck?" Mark questioned as he shielded his eyes. A gunshot rang out from the van.

"Shit." Mark cursed as he pulled out a gun; one of Blake's to be exact. The edges of his vision cleared as the light died. A pang of fear shot through him as he saw the corpse in his van step out of it. He'd been a bloody chunk of meat a few seconds ago, but Mark clutched his gun tighter as he saw the man had no injuries on him anymore, only the bloody clothes proving he'd been hurt at all. A deranged smile was plastered on his face and he lazily held the 44. revolver Mark knew to belong to his partner. With no hesitation Mark unloaded his clip into the figure's chest until it clicked empty, his own crazed smile stretching his knew that even if the blonde had somehow used his aura to heal back it must have been near empty.

The only thing that died was his smile as he watched every bullet ping off the man as he started to slowly advance on him.

Quickly Mark tossed the gun to the ground and pulled out his captives' other handgun. He planted his foot on the animal's chest and aimed her gun at her. "DON'T MOVE!"

Jaune stopped, his demented smile lessening.

Mark's fear relented as he took control of the situation again. "You take one more step and I'll ventilate this bitch's skull!"

Jaune raised his hand-cannon to take aim, his face no longer smiling.

"I saw you in the store. You had a bead on me and you didn't take it. You're too much of a pussy to pull that trigger." Mark challenged, his confidence starting to return with the initial shock of the boy's resurrection dissipating. He'd seen a lot of hard men on the streets in his day, and he knew this boy wasn't one; regeneration or otherwise. For a moment he watched the boy's face twist with internal debate, Mark's own mantle stealing itself.

The deranged smile returned.

Jaune took his aim off Mark, and for a second the supremist let out a sigh of relief. The revolver's cylinder swung open and the bullets fell to the ground. All except the single round held in place by Jaune's thumb. With a flick of his hand the cylinder went back into place, and with another motion he spun it. Once again the gun rested with a bead on Mark. "Your move creep."

"You don't have th-"

Click

The fear once again descended on Mark; the smiling visage the only thing he could see before him. "Just hold on!"

Click

"Fuck this!" he yelled as he swung his gun to point at the revenant.

"AHHHHH!"

Blake slammed the blade of her discarded gun into the monster's leg again and again, an insane mixture of fear and righteous retribution propelling her. Blood sprayed onto her as the man screamed bloody murder. He attempted to bring the gun to bear on Blake, but she had used the blade to pull herself up his body with every strike. As he finally pointed the weapon at her face she slammed the blade into his wrist; the gun falling to the ground. With their weight and his injuries, Mark fell to the ground with Blake atop him.

"You wanted an animal!" She screeched, adrenaline and fear pushing her to her limit. "YOU GOT ONE!" With one final thrust she brought the blade down onto his throat to end the miserable creature's life.

The blade stopped an inch away from the carotid artery. Jaune's hand gripped on Blake's arm.

"You don't have to." He assured.

"I want to!" Blake yelled.

"No you don't." Jaune spoke calmly.

"What the hell do you know about me Jaune! Monsters like him have treated us like we aren't even people. These people see my people like cattle!"

His face formed into the goofy grin Blake knew to always be on the boy's face in Beacon. "I know you have a crippling porn addiction and are a closeted weeb in the highest degree."

"S-Shut up." Blake sputtered, of all the things that idiot could have said. For a moment she was taken from the horror of the situation as embarrassment flooded her brain. Just for a moment; it wasn't enough to erase a lifetime of horrors inflicted on her people. Steel entered her eyes and ice formed on her words. "I need to do this, Jaune."

Jaune's goofy smile was gone. "Don't be the monster these people want to make you to be."

He couldn't have known it, but those were the same words her parents had used when she had called them weak for not agreeing with the White Fangs last fight before she'd ran away. She closed her eyes for a moment as adrenaline started to wear thin. Internally she cursed as she felt the weight of her exhaustion and injuries weaken her resolve.

Jaune watched as Blake took her eyes from the sobbing mess of a man below them and finally looked at him, her face a mask of pain and hurt; tears forming at the edge of golden eyes. Her hand still resisted his as it had the entire time, just needing a moment to finish the kill. "I've done this before." She spoke weakly.

"You don't need to anymore."

She went limp and fell into his arms; tears falling freely into his chest. Gently her pulled her off the bloodied man and just held her. He didn't know Blake at all, but in that moment he was all that could be there for her. Picking her up with care not to exacerbate his wounds, he set her down in the back of the van.

"I'm good." She said with a sniffle, pulling away. "I just need a minute."

He stepped away and went over to the first man he'd knocked out when he'd awoken. Tossing him to the ground he pulled a scroll out of the guy's pocket and two speed loaders for his new gun. Jaune had absolutely no idea why he was alive, or seemingly unharmed after his ordeal, but for the moment he had more important to contend with. It was a bit concerning how jittery he was though. So jittery he almost dropped the scroll when it rang. It didn't have any caller ID but he couldn't help but thank any gods out there that he recognized it as Cardin's number.

"Cardin! Are you ok?"

"Jaune?" Cardin's confused voice answered.

"Yeah man. Who else.?"

"I thought you were in trouble. I remembered one of the guy's numbers from my time before Beacon. I escaped and was looking for you"

As happy as Jaune was to hear Cardin he felt his suspicion grow. "You just knew one of the dozens of guys' that jumped us phone number?"

A growl was heard from Cardins end before a moment of silence. "I used to run with these guys."

"Makes sense." Jaune commented nonchalantly.

"That's it?" Cardin asked in surprise. " That's like my big dark secret man and all that gets is a, makes sense? Kinda thought you were gonna hate me."

"Eh, you gave me a pass on ruining the apartment this morning." He joked. It wasn't like this was really a big deal. Jaune always knew Cardin was violent, racist, and an asshole, knowing he had been a violent racist asshole before wasn't really that different. "So how was calling my kidnapper going to help you find me?"

"I was going to disguise my voice and use my understanding of the gang to get the info." Cardin explained.

"Can you change your voice?" Jaune question.

"Of course." Cardin assured before spouting off a line in the most fake, annoying, and aggressively racist accent Jaune had ever heard in his life. "Pretty good right?"

"Well, me and Blake are free so you don't have to do that." Jaune paused, "Ever."

"You looked pretty banged up when they dragged you out, Jaune. Can you make it to a hospital?" Cardin asked with concern.

"Actually, and no idea how, I'm doing great." Really great he thought as military grade narcotics flowed through his veins.

"Ok…" Caridn said with a hint of disbelief in his voice. "Gonna trust you not to let yourself bleed to death."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Thanks partner."

Cardin dropped the matter and got down to business. "I left the case Junior wanted in the bookstore's basement. Heads up, a very dead Tuckson is down there too. Nobody else is there either, so pick it up and give it to Junior."

Jaune frowned. "Why can't you?" Silence was all the response Jaune got. "Cardin?"

"My Dad runs this gang. He'll just keep coming, " Cardin finally answered. "I've gotta do this alone."

"Bullshit!' Jaune yelled. "Don't give me that crap. We're partners! I can back you up man."

"Sorry Jaune, I don't think we can pull this one off. Even together." Cardin sighed. "Thanks Jaune, you've been a good friend."

"Don't give me some self-sacrificing bulls-" The phone clicked dead. "That asshole hung up on me." Jaune said in disbelief as he looked at the phone.

"We need to go after him." Blake interjected, alerting Jaune to her eavesdropping the entire conversation.

"You don't need to. I'll drop you off near a hospital."

If looks could kill Jaune would be the one in the hospital. "I'm a huntress." Blake stated with fire, her words all the explanation for her motivation to help. "If you think for a second that I'm some weak girl because of my tears," Her eyes were locked onto Jaune's own with that intimidating glare that kept most of the trained warriors of Beacon steering clear of her. "You'll regret making me prove otherwise to you Jaune." Her hand slapped another magazine into her gun.

Jaune had stared down crooked cops, violent criminals, and powerful crime bosses, so he considered himself pretty good at handling scary people. "Nope, no argument from this guy." He said with hands razed and a bead of sweat trickling down his neck. Turns out Blake was a lot scarier when she wanted to be.

Blakes face softened before she spoke again. "Jaune."She said with her voice soft and surprisingly vulnerable.

"Yeah?" He asked, suddenly more nervous for some reason.

The vulnerable look was replaced with determination, and Jaune wondered if he'd seen it all. "Thanks." She said simply.

"Oh, no problem." Jaune replied, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Anyone would have done it." He added, stupidly. Blakes deadpan facial expression told him that he'd somehow messed that up. Turned out confidence in one's resolve and blackout anger sex didn't necessarily equal confidence in talking to women. Ah well, next out of body experience, Jaune mussed.

"If you tell anyone about any of this, and I mean any of this." Blake's intimidation was back to full force once again. Seriously, was there any version of Blake that had him at ease, he wondered?" "You'll regret it."

As scary as Blake was, Jaune couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry Blake, no one would believe me if I told them you cried." For a second he expected some more of Blake's lethal looks, but instead she smiled and laughed a bit herself. Huh, guess that was the part of Blake that had him at ease, he noted.

As much as he wanted to just enjoy this and make sure Blake was ok, he had work to do. Couldn't exactly help Cardin not be a dumbass without knowing where he was going. "Get the car keys off the other guy and search the van for whatever might help us." He ordered as he turned towards Blake's would-be rapists.

Stepping towards the man he watched as he clutched his wounds. The criminal had at least the presence of mind to use his belt to staunch the bleeding in his leg and plug other stabs with clothing. Standing above the man Jaune took his time lighting up a cig.

"Goddamnit," Mark growled. "Get me to a hospital man."

A few hits off his cig later Jaune finally spoke. "Gonna need you to tell me where Cardin's old man lives."

"Fuck you. I ain't saying shit." Mark sneered. "And you ain't gonna let me die. All that pussy ass shit you were saying to that bitch."

"Forest is a good place to dump bodies. " Jaune complimented. "Close enough that grimm aren't thick here; being culled every month or so. Still get the occasional beowulf, something that would keep people from digging around here without a real good reason."

A howl was heard somewhere far off in the distance.

"Grimm are attracted by negativity." Jaune reminded.

Mark weighted his situation for a second. "Fuck," He cursed. "he's at Grovestreet 1407, the whole block is loaded to the gills with our boys."

Without a word Jaune stepped off and walked back to the van.

"Wait, there are grimm out here. Don't leave me!' Mark shouted. "You aren't a killer!"

Mark watched as Jaune slowly turned and looked upon him. The blonde's face was nothing but hatred, colder than any Atlas night.

"I won't kill you…" He turned back and continued walking back to the van "But I don't have to save you."

OK did not intend this to be to be so intense when I plotted this out but ah, well. Honestly I feel pretty competent making comedy and action but I hope this more drama/character heavy chapters goes well. Hopefully, this was a good implementation of some of the serious elements of noir while advancing the characters. Thanks everyone for the support, and hope you enjoy.