Author's Notes:
-Alright, now that we've finished up the Beauty and the Beast Arc, focus is not going to be on Blake or Sun for quite a while. Don't worry, I still have interesting things planned. They've been in the spotlight for quite a while, time to mix things up!
Now then, let's get this show on the road!
The shadow leapt away from the Belladonna Family Home and jumped into the forest before landing on the ground. As the shadow ran through the forest, the spy's skin changed from black to a fair tone, the darker spots on the arms, legs, stomach and face were more easily seen. The camera angled upwards from the forest to the shattered moon in the sky before transitioning to Fennec and Corsac at the shrine. The spy's shadow was seen on the ground as she entered the White Fang shrine.
"Sister Ilia." Corsac greeted her.
"Glad to see you have safely returned. What news do you bring?" Fennec asked her.
Ilia Amitola removed her mask, showing her light grey eyes with a faintly blue tint. "Blake was not present at the Belladonna Manor. Her parents are worried about her, so much so that I could hear Ghira pacing about his study."
As she answered, the camera zoomed in to a special ear communicator microphone designed to hear sounds far away in her right ear before zooming out to Corsac. He nodded in understanding. "I see. Somehow I predicted that Blake wouldn't be present there."
"Ilia." Fennec began. "I know you just got back from spying on the Belladonnas, but we have another task for you. If you are willing."
The Lizard Girl looked at them curiously. "And what might that be?"
"We want you to find Adam Taurus and aid him in his mission."
"Unfortunately, we don't know exactly where he is." Corsac forewarned. "However, from the letter we have received from him, we can deduce that he is heading towards Mistral. We believe that's where you must go."
She mused to herself, Hmm... Looks like a new adventure. A new kingdom. Who knows? Maybe I'll find Blake. But... do I even want to see her again?
The spy answered aloud, "I'll do it."
"Glad to hear your willingness to partake such a difficult task. How long until you're ready to leave?"
"I believe I can be ready within an hour's time."
Fennec stated, "Excellent. We'll set up a boat to take you to southern edge of Mistral, where Miss Celandine's hideout should be. Perhaps if she is there, she can aid you on your quest."
She bowed her head to them. "Thank you, Albain brothers."
As Ilia went up the steps, she stood in a hallway.
I know Blake betrayed us, but is it bad that I want her to be okay?
The chameleon faunus slipped her hand into her left pocket and took out a folded up photo of her and Blake as twelve year old girls. They were smiling as they stood in front of a blue wall and Blake was giving Ilia bunny ears with her fingers.
I miss you, Blake... Dah! She mentally slapped herself. Come on, Ilia! Get your head together! You know what the traditional punishment for desertion is- death. But does Blake really deserve death? And does Sienna even know? And what is Adam even up to anyway? Maybe he needs more specialists. But why? Ilia, you're thinking too much. Just find Adam and wait for his orders.
Ilia folded up the photo and pocketed it before walking away.
Rolling around at the speed of sound, Ruby was able to reach the wreckage before her friends. As she stopped, standing on the cracked street, she could feel the heat of the fire along with a cold chill of fear. Four different buildings were on fire, the first one completely ablaze and three that were partially burning and well on their way to burning completely. Once again activating her semblance, she ran into the first building and searched for civilians. The apartment contained a living room, kitchen and dinning room as well as a carpeted arena with a china dishware set in a glass display case.
After scanning the first floor and finding no fire, she heard a young voice, a young boy, cry out, "Help!"
"It's getting closer!" another voice, a girl, added.
Ruby immediately dashed up the stairs in a flash of red and found several of the doors in the hallway ablaze. With aura surging through her legs giving off a small red glow, she kicked down the nearest door on her right. Nothing. She did the same to the second one. Still nothing. She came to the last door on the right side of the hallway and kicked it down. As the aura disappeared, she ran forth to the terrified children, took their hands and activated her semblance again. As she exited the house in a flash of a red dot and two smaller black dots, she set the children down a few feet from the fire.
The boy smiled cheerfully. "Thank you for saving us!"
The girl smiled in agreement before she realized, "Oh no... Mom! Dad! They're still in here!"
"Don't worry." Ruby said to the children before turning away. "I'll save them."
She ran off into the building. As the fires raged on, team JNPR was shown running towards the scene. They arrived as Ruby came out of the building, arms linked with a black haired woman and man. As the parents ran to their kids, the team saw two Nevermore circling the building like vultures as Beowolves and Ursa gradually came in from multiple directions.
"Oh crap!" Nora yelled while panting. "This is really bad!"
The parents held their terrified children in their arms, watching as Ruby ran off into the second building as another building caught on fire. "This is extremely bad." Ren corrected, before firing at an incoming Beowolf that was then destroyed by Nora's hammer bonking it on the head. "Last I looked, none of us have water dust, Vale's fire department has been diminished and unless mother nature gives us a miracle, there's no easy way of stopping these flames from spreading."
Ruby returned, carrying a young man in her arms. Pyrrha, who no longer wore her cloak, turned to her partner and asked, "What do we do, Jaune?"
He looked at Ruby, setting the young man down and running off to save more civilians. "Ruby's already saving people. Since she's the fastest, she'll able to save the most civilians. Just let her do her thing. Ren, get these civilians to safety. Cloak their negative emotions with your semblance and help them to find a professional hunter. Nora, fight off the Grimm. If you can, see if you can't get them away from the fire. Pyrrha, you and I have to find a way to extinguish those flames."
Ren gestured for the young man to come with him, went up to the family and held the woman by the arm, letting herself and her family be covered in grey energy. The grey cloak was extended to the young man as well. Surrounded in a calming embrace, Ren swiftly walked away from the scene with the civilians following his lead.
Meanwhile, Nora charged towards the Grimm, barely avoiding the first Nevermore's talons. The talons scraped the edge of a building and nearly got her, but she ducked her head down, swinging her hammer around her in a full circle, her hands and fingers working in sync to spin Magnhild rapidly to weaken the Grimm coming towards her. Jumping on the heads of the Grimm creatures while charging up pink lightning around her, she made her way up to the first Nevermore, destroying it as she brought her hammer down on it.
Pyrrha noted a fifth building catching on fire as well as a sixth. "That fire is spreading really fast. We have to stop it before the entire city burns. But how?"
Breathing to try and stop her panic, she looked around. There were no fire hydrants. "Look, over there!" Jaune cried out, pointing in the direction of a small water tower on top of an apartment building.
Jumping forward, the Arkos duo went to the tower, which was about a hundred feet away. The gladiator girl didn't see any other metal pieces and trying to create a pathway for the water would take too long. She'd have to move the tower with her semblance. Pyrrha breathed in to steady her focus and began moving the small water tower closer to the fire. "I sure hope this works."
"So do I."
Using her semblance to set the water tank down, she was about to lift the top off it when a voice yelled, "Hold it right there!"
The two turned to see who was trying to stop them. The person was a man with unkempt blondish white hair and sunken light brown eyes. His face had a white poorly groomed mustache on it and it looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, maybe even months. Standing at 6'2 in a muscular build, he wore a yellow suit with a brown coat and a dandelion colored tie with faint brown lines on it. He wore brown military combat boots with black laces and held a revolver type gun in his right hand.
"Charles Mustard?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune blinked before looking back at his partner. "You know him?"
"He's a teacher at Beacon Academy. He graduated from there over twenty years ago, possibly the same year as Qrow and his team." Pyrrha began her explanation. "But why would he...?"
"Shut up, you murderess!" he yelled, glaring at her.
"Excuse me?!" Jaune asked, malice slightly seeping into his voice.
"You're supposed to be guarding Beacon! What are you?..." Pyrrha tried to ask.
"Beacon is a lost cause. In the time I've been here guarding the ruins of Beacon, I've had my scroll stolen, hallucinated and been kept in the dark. I'm through trying to help them." The huntsman turned to look at Pyrrha, his glare intensifying as he aimed his gun at her. "And you, you're the one responsible for all this! I knew you were a murderess, hiding from your crimes and everyone who wants to see you behind bars. If I had known that setting the city on fire would have brought you out of hiding sooner, I would have done this a long time ago."
Jaune widened his eyes in shock as Pyrrha tried to say, "But I wasn't...!"
Charles shot his revolver at her, the attack foiled by Pyrrha summoning Akouo in the nick of time for the bullets to hit the shield and explode in bursts of fire dust. Her eyebrows rose in fear as she heard the sounds of wooden boards and stone collapsing. She looked at the scene below- seven different buildings were ablaze and the first one had burned to the ground, completely destroyed. Her blood turned cold as the fires behind her got hotter and spread farther.
The Nikos warrior found herself lost in thought. He's lost his mind...
"Pyrrha, extinguish those flames!" Jaune ordered. "I'll handle this guy!"
Regaining her senses, she put her shield on her back and ran off to where water tank was.
As the fight between Jaune and Charles began, the former charged forward with his shield up and his sword ready to swing down on him, only for Charles to move back as Jaune swung his sword downward as the latter evaded the attack. He swung to his left, then to the right and rolling out of the way as Charles fired a warning shot. The huntsman grabbed Jaune by the collar and threw him to the ground, his sword and shield falling out of his hands, landing on the rooftop as he bounced up for a bit before sliding back to the rim. "Out of my way, boy. You're obstructing justice!"
Jaune glared at him as he sat up. "Justice? Pyrrha was framed!" He rose from the concrete ground and retrieved his weapon. "What don't you get about that?!" In anger, he swung his sword at his head, only to miss and slash his coat right off him.
Charles raised an eyebrow at the former huntsman trainee. "Framed? There's no way she could have been framed! This isn't a movie set, boy! It's reality! The truth is that she tore Penny Polendina to pieces! For that, she must and will be punished!" He kicked Jaune in the gut, forcing him to bend over in pain. "I do not wish to kill you boy, for you have no part in her crime, but if you obstruct me from giving this killer the punishment she rightfully deserves, then I will have no choice but to eliminate you as well."
Jaune stood up straight, venom seeping into his voice. "Leave her alone. She's done nothing wrong!"
The huntsman frowned at his response. "Okay. I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, but you leave me no choice."
The knight found himself cartwheeling backwards to avoid Charles's gunfire as fire dust bullets blazed past him. Rolling to avoid the bullets aimed at his head, Jaune dodged them all before Charles noticed he was out of ammo. He quickly reloaded the gun with more bullets but before he could do anything else, Jaune swung his sword in a downward diagonal strike, forcing the huntsman to tumble over onto the ground to avoid decapitation. Once on the ground, he put one leg in front of Jaune's left knee and the other behind him, then twisted his legs, bringing Jaune to the ground. The knight growled as he got on his knees and tried to bring down his sword upon the huntsman, but he grabbed Jaune's wrist and twisted it in pain, causing him to scream and forcing him to drop his sword.
Charles grabbed him, dragged him up and threw him across the rooftops. As Jaune laid there holding his hand to his head in pain, the rogue huntsman focused concentration on his target. At four seconds, the knight got up and charged towards him, and after another three seconds, Charles's eyes flashed gold. The huntsman smirked as he ducked to avoid Jaune's sword. "My, my. You've been a bad, bad, boy, Jaune Arc."
The blond knight was startled, but quickly regained his focus. "What are you talking about?!"
Charles continued dodging his sword swings. "You're hiding a lot of secrets. "
Jaune stammered. "Y... you're bluffing!"
The rogue huntsman smirked. "Really? Let's see..." He held up seven fingers. "You have seven sisters. They are, in chronological order- Rouge, Tangerine, Acacia, Emerald, Azura, Indigo, and Amethyst." He loaded more ammunition into his gun. "You are in between Acacia and Emerald, making you the 4th oldest sibling." He gestured to the sword in his right hand. "The sword you use belongs to your great-grandfather and before Beacon, it was a wall decoration that you stole." Jaune's eyes began to widen in terror. "You forged your transcripts for Beacon since you never went to a primary combat school, and you stole money to pay for your tuition at Beacon." By this point, Jaune's mouth hung open in terror. "You have been bullied and forced into subservience twice, once by Cardin Winchester and again by your own sister Rouge." He dropped his sword and shield in shock, the sound of them hitting the roof echoing for a few seconds. "And if that's not enough, here's one thing that no one else in this world knows; You're truly, madly and deeply in love with Pyrrha Nikos and you've had sex with her three times."
Jaune quivered in fear, his courage failing him when he needed it most. "No... this... this can't be possible."
"I'm afraid it is." He fired more gunshots at him, and he barely dodged them. As Jaune dodged the bullets, he saw Charles throw his sword off the roof.
"Not so tough without your weapon, are you?" Charles taunted, getting up from the ground.
"What do you know about strength?" Jaune retaliated.
As Jaune finished dodging the bullets, Charles picked up his shield and tossed it aside, discarding it along with his sword that he thrown away moments ago. "I must admit, for a student with only a year's worth of combat experience, you're good. But you're not quite good enough."
He fired at Jaune again, only this time, his aim was slightly off and the bullet hit his armor, sending him flying in a fiery explosion as a piece of his armor chipped and broke off. He landed on the rooftop, only twenty feet away from Pyrrha, who was finishing dosing the flames. But he payed no attention to her as his thoughts raced like a train.
He knows everything. How... how is this possible?
Charles jumped from rooftop to rooftop to meet back up with him and resume the fight. Realizing he was out of ammo, he swapped his gun for a dagger. "You're through, Jaune Arc!"
Dagger in his right hand, the rogue huntsman charged towards Jaune... only to be knocked out from behind. As he fell to the ground, Pyrrha's shield levitated with a black outline before going back to its owner, Jaune turning to her as the shield returned to her. She took her shield and manually put it on her back as she set the water tower down with her semblance. As she did this, he noticed that the fires behind her had been extinguished. They had succeeded in their mission.
Jaune smiled at her. "Thanks Pyrrha."
"Are you alright? And where's Crocea Mors?" Jaune pointed down below him where his weapon was. "Oh." Pyrrha used her polarity to put them back into his hands.
"Thanks again." He looked at the unconscious huntsman and he noticed he had a cross drawstring bag on his back. "Let's search his bag. Maybe there's something we can use to bind him before he wakes up."
As Jaune took his bag, he examined it for items and found, among other things, a candlestick, lead pipe, rope, and a wrench. Taking the rope from the bag, he swiftly tied the unconscious rogue huntsman up, binding him tightly with the rope, leaving a small loose end to pull him along.
I can't believe he betrayed Beacon. Has he lost his mind or is he truly malevolent? Pyrrha thought to herself as her boyfriend finished tying him up.
"Alright, we've got everything." Jaune said. "We better take him to the nearest professional hunter who will know what to do with him."
Suddenly Pyrrha and Jaune's scrolls went off and they both answered them promptly. Ruby was making a group call.
"Are you guys alright?" Ruby asked everyone.
"We're fine. Jaune's with me." Pyrrha answered. "How about you?"
"I've rescued the civilians. My aura's pretty taxed from using my semblance so much, but I managed to save them all. Ugh!" The sound of her falling over was heard. "I'm okay!"
"I'm fine. A brief brush with death perhaps, but otherwise uninjured." Jaune answered.
"Glad to hear you're still alive. Nora, Ren, do you read me?" Ruby asked.
"A bit hurt, but only a few scratches." Nora admitted.
"I'm unharmed. I've successfully gotten the civilians to a refuge. The same warehouse the students were taken to be precise." Ren answered specifically. "Where exactly are you guys?"
"I'm over nearby Dust til Dawn." Ruby answered. "I was knocked away from the inferno by a Grimm. Did you guys stop the fire from burning the city?"
"We did. Or rather, I did." Pyrrha answered. "Could you meet up with us at the fountain? Over nearby Love Square Plaza?"
"Sure thing!"
"See you there!" Nora agreed.
"Got it." Ren responded.
"See you soon." Pyrrha said. Everyone hung up and the call ended. She stood on the rooftop, looking at the night sky, musing to herself.
"Is something wrong?" Jaune asked.
She turned back to him. "Oh, it's nothing. Let's go."
The scene transitioned from Pyrrha and Jaune running, the latter with Charles in his arms, to the heroes meeting up at the fountain nearby where team JNPR's apartment was. Pyrrha and Jaune arrived as Ruby, Ren and Nora stood there waiting for them.
"Oh... What a day..." Nora said.
"You mean night?" Ren asked her.
Ruby was the first to notice the unconscious Charles in Jaune's arms and looked at her friends, horribly confused. "Uh... Who's this?"
"This is Charles Mustard." Jaune answered. "He's the one who set the buildings on fire." Ren raised his eyebrows in shock as Ruby and Nora gasped. "Yep. He endangered others, disregarded their safety, abandoned his duty as a teacher and guard at Beacon, and to top it off, attempted to kill Pyrrha because he believes she meant to kill Penny and start the Battle of Beacon."
Nora glared at the unconscious huntsman with fury. "Can we wake him up so I can break his legs?"
As if on cue, the rogue huntsman began to stir. "I think he's waking up." Ren told her.
"Ugh... Oh..." He stared at Ren, Ruby and Nora as his eyes slowly opened. "Oh crud. More accomplices to the murderess." He looked at himself, noting how his arms were bound. "And I'm tied up. Great."
"You have a right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be against you." Jaune said.
Ruby concluded, "So we have a prisoner on our hands."
"Temporarily. At least until we can him to the authorities. Or a huntsman or huntress that can bring him to the police." He groaned. "Unfortunately, this guy is really heavy." He dropped him on the ground as his arms collapsed from exhaustion. "Gosh, what have you been eating?"
Mr. Mustard looked at the blond former huntsman trainee, horribly offended. Ren took the loose end of the rope from Jaune. "Alright, Mr. Mustard. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which way is it going to be?"
Charles frowned and stood up. "Well, it's not like I have much choice." He looked at Jaune. "Lead the way."
With their prisoner in tow, the quintet found Glydna Goodwitch, trying to repair a destroyed building, only for it to come apart as her aura flickered with a purple glow. As they saw her, they saw her blond hair was in a loose, messy bun. One of the eyes in her glasses was broken, leaving a hole in it as her real eyes looked sunken and sleepy. At first, she didn't even notice their presence.
"Jaune?" She blinked and saw the others. "What are you doing here?"
"Well we were just passing through..." Ruby began.
"Until we saw that part of the city caught on fire." Pyrrha added.
"Luckily, we saved the day and caught the person responsible." Nora finished.
Ren pulled on the rope, bringing Charles Mustard into her view. "Charles?" Glydna looked surprised upon seeing him, but she blinked and became more awake as her shock quickly turned to anger. "What is the meaning of this?!"
He chuckled. "You're too blind, professor. Don't you see that Pyrrha Nikos is responsible for the Fall of Beacon? For all of this?!"
"Oh no..." She looked down at him solemnly. "He's lost his mind."
"So, do you think you could take him to the nearest prison?" Pyrrha asked.
She looked at the red-haired warrior and her allies in regret. "I'd love to take him off your hands, but unfortunately, I can't."
The five heroes were disappointed at her response. "What? Why not?" Ruby asked sadly.
Glydna sighed and turned away from the group. She slumped her back against the wall, folding her arms while still holding on to her crop. "Ever since the Fall of Beacon, crime has increased rapidly. Despite Roman's downfall or disappearance..."
"He was eaten by a Griffon." Ruby mentioned.
"Really?" The former teacher raised an eyebrow. "Well that would explain a lot." Her expression calmed. "Anyway, despite Roman's downfall, or perhaps because of it, crime has increased dramatically. From what we've been able to gather, a new head of the criminal underworld has emerged in Roman's absence. She is known as of the Queen of Thieves, and her name is Neo Politan."
"Neo Politan?" Nora scratched her head. "Wasn't she on Cinder's team, team CMSN?"
"She was, with the alias of Neopolitan Glace." Pyrrha answered. "She was never seen or heard from again after the first round in the tournament. Is it possible that she still works with her?"
Glydna backed away from the wall and shrugged. "From what we've gathered from one of her underlings, Neo has the semblance of creating illusions. Because of this, no one is sure what she really looks like, which makes hunting for her very difficult. It's also possible that she may have fled the city or is in hiding somewhere while her henchmen do all the work." Glydna explained. "Anyway, back on point, crime started to increase rapidly after the Fall of Beacon. Within two months after Beacon's fall, the entire police force was decimated. Everyone's been captured, killed, horribly injured or ran away scared." Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby were shocked. Ren and Nora however, did not look surprised. They were just depressed. "As a result of the police force being dissolved, all of the jails and prisons have been destroyed and this city has become a near ghost town."
"So you pretty much have no way of taking prisoners?" Ren asked.
Goodwitch nodded grimly, giving the lotus ninja his answer. Jaune looked at his former teacher. "So, what now?"
The huntress sighed. "Well, unfortunately, you only have two real options; kill him, or take him to the nearest prison far from this city."
"I say we kill him." Jaune said.
"I don't think that's such a good idea." Pyrrha responded.
His partner glared at her. "How can you say that?"
"Jaune..." Ren began.
"There's no point in dragging him with us. It would be a hindrance to our mission. It would be easier to kill him now." He turned to Pyrrha with a more worried expression. "Heck, he wanted to kill you. How can you still want him alive after that?!"
"But if we just kill him ruthlessly, that'll only reinforce his point." Pyrrha answered. "I want him to believe that I'm not the murderer that he thinks I am."
"But if we don't kill him, won't he just spread his false word about you while he's behind bars? Or worse, what if people actually believe him and he starts a man-hunt? What if a kingdom actually declares you as a wanted fugitive?!"
"Jaune." Ren firmly began, stepping in between them to prevent the minor argument from escalating further. "You are blowing it out of proportion. He seems be legitimately insane and with that in mind, who would believe him?" Ren responded. "Also, he is not an immediate threat and therefore, there's no need to kill him."
Charles smirked. "Can we at least break his legs?" Nora asked.
"No, that would just make transporting him even harder."
She groaned in response. "Aw..."
"Come on, bastard." Jaune angrily said, pulling the rope along. "Let's go."
There were no words said as the heroic quintet left the city with their prisoner. An hour had passed as they went into the night, and the six of them found a camping site in the woods. There was no snow on the ground, but it was still chilly. Alas, it was not enough to keep everyone wide awake.
Nora yawned in a moderately loud tone. "Can we go to sleep now?"
"This should be far enough from the city." Jaune said to his teammates. "Pyrrha, you keep an eye on that prisoner as you watch out for danger and tend to the campfire." She nodded. "Considering that it is now... 1:55am. Oh god... We should get to bed immediately."
Pyrrha quickly set up a pile of wood for a campfire as everyone set up sleeping bags and in Jaune's case, his shared tent with Pyrrha. As Nora immediately crashed in her sleeping bag, the red haired warrior lit a match. As she dropped it into the fire, she had a flashback to Cinder ascending to power, orange energy and glyph symbols surrounding her.
Do we really stand a chance against her? she silently asked herself.
"Pyrrha? Is something wrong?" Jaune asked.
"It's nothing." Pyrrha answered. "Goodnight everyone."
"Goodnight."
"Sleep well." Ren said.
Ruby said nothing as she curled up under her sleeping bag. And so, everyone, save for Pyrrha and the prisoner, went to bed and were out like lights. The red haired warrior saw Jaune crawl into the tent, Ren and Ruby quickly succumbing to slumber and Nora softly snoring. As the red haired warrior sat there on the log by the fire, she looked at Charles and softly sighed.
This is going to be a long night.