Hope y'all enjoy. REVIEW pls so that I can get better.


POV: 3rd Person

"How long have you know he was alive?" Nicholas ground out as he regripped his sword anger flashing across his face as she stared down Aedon. He didn't question what Aedon had told him, he's known the man long enough despite absences to know that he wouldn't lie to him. Not about something like this. Plus, Aedon has always been straight forward with Nicholas.

"Only a couple months but I've known him for a about six years."

"What… How, where?"

"Found him wandering in the Grimmlands outside of Vale. Didn't know who he was and started teaching him everything I could with my team helping," Aedon took in Nicholas' shocked expression with a small smile on his face. "He's got Kate's brains Nick. Your strength too. Kid's strong."

"Is… Is he okay. Safe, eating healthy?" Ah there it was thought Aedon. The father shining through the broken surface of the man. Tears building in the corner of the man's eyes.

"Yes to all but he is in the wilds so how safe I don't know. He's smart enough not to pick a fight with anything he can't win though so don't worry about that. As for where he is exactly though I have no idea. I know he's still in Mistral but beyond that I don't know."

"I'll find him… I… I can't thank you enough for telling me this Aeodn. Truly."

"Think nothing of it Nicholas," Aedon waved the thanks off. "You deserved that much and if I had known he was your son at the beginning I would've brought him to you immediately."

"How did you connect the dots anyways? You never knew Jaune, the last time we met was when Kate was pregnant with him," Aedon knew he should lie here for Nicholas' sake but couldn't. The man needed to know.

"He opened Crocea Mors," Nicholas breathed in a sharp breath at hearing that. Knowing the implication of what that meant.

Crocea Mors is an old, old weapon dating back over 1000 years since the sword was named. Having seen empires rise and fall, leaders change, rebellions, Wars, everything through that time Crocea Mors was always involved and so too were the Arcs. The family known as a clan of warriors for a reason having fought in every major conflict since Crocea Mors appeared.

Adding to that the weapon was also finicky in who wielded it. There were a few times in the past people thought the blade was possessed. Which all things considered for Aedodn made a decent bit of sense. Possessed by what though he had no idea nor cared as long the sword stayed passive.

As for why the sword was finicky was simply because it would never open for anyone but an Arc. Seemingly demanding that an Arc wield the blade. Even times when handed to friends or grabbed by enemies the shield would not open. Even if the shield was open rarely would it stay that when when in the grips of someone not an Arc. Something that meant that Jaune was truly an Arc. Irrefutably.

"I need to call my daughters," Aedon nodded to Nicholas who pulled out his scroll and placed the call. Opening a three way call with his daughters. Saphron in Argus and Jade at Beacon. The calls going through after a couple of rings and both daughters answered.

"Dad? What's the call for?" an olderish voice asked as Saphron answered the call. Her sister Jade joining immediately afterward.

"What's up dad?" she asked as the man looked down at his scroll unable to hide both his smile.

"I have some great news for you girls… Jaune's alive," the gasps of shock were audible to Aedon as he listened to the call. Then he heard one of them crying through the phone… He missed having a family. Maybe it's time for another one, even with War on the horizon having someone to care about would be good for him.


One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps. Jaune had been traveling for over a month now since he met Ren and Nora. All across Mistral heading towards the border of Vacuo. He'd accomplished a few contracts here and there for some Grimm and some bandits. The Grimm hadn't given him much trouble as they were easy to deal with to him. Bait them into a trap and go from there.

He had killed a pack of 20 Ursa and their Alpha by whittling them down over a week and finally baiting the Alpha to run after him. He had the Grimm fall straight into a massive pitfall trap that took him a whole day to make. The beast impaling itself on the pointed sticks on the bottom of the pit. With a single shot of Jaune's AK to the head to finish the grimm off.

As for the bandit contracts he's taken the hard part was actually finding the bandits and not killing them. None of the bandtis he killed had their aura unlocked so killing them wasn't hard to him even though they were older and, in some cases, more experienced than him. One of the groups he just walked in and started killing indicriminately and with vigor. That was a group known for raping their captives and had slaves so he didn't care about being subtle. He just wanted them to hurt and die and they did, he made sure all of them did. Guiding the slaves back to the town with the contract so that they could find their homes once again.

He didn't care about the extra money he got for bringing home the slaves but he wouldn't complain about the extra money. Helped him have a roof over his head for longer and pay for the extra ammo he needed for his guns. He also did the maintenance on his pitol, grinded down his sword and replaced the handle of his ax with that money. Making sure that all his weapons were in pristine condition.

As for Jaune now he was walking through the Mistral forest about three weeks of a walk away from the border into Vacuo at the rate he was going. He didn't mind the distance or time it would take to get there. He had been doing this since he was six and walking hasn't bothered him since before his town was destroyed and his family killed. One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps.

The only thing that had Jaune on edge during his travel over the past month was the Raven. It had been following him and showing up every couple days. Never went after any of the shiny objects he offered the bird in complete contrast to what Ravens did normally. Nor did the bird take any of the food he offered. The animal unsettled Jaune because it did not act in any way like an animal should. Acted more like a human than an animal.

Something that him more on edge than normal as with the weird Raven still hanging around he found that the Branwen tribe was in the area. He had found that rumor while had been staying in the village he had left two days ago. The rumor being that the Tribe had attacked two caravans over the last month not 30 miles from the town. Which, distance wise, was extremely close out in the frontier towns.

They were one of the few bandit groups in the world that Jaune would actively avoid if he could. Even Aedon took his time to avoid them stating that they weren't worth the effort that would be needed and that at this point there leader was a known evil. Taking her out would create a power vacuum in the tribe and the groups and territory they ruled. At this point leaving her alive was the lesser of two evils. Jaune believed Aedon had another reason as well but he didn't push Aedon for that answer.

As for the leader of the Tribe, Raven Branwen, was a scary bitch from everything that Jaune had found out about her. Bounty coming out to around 5 million last he checked by no one bothered to try and take her head. Last time someone did they set out with a group of 10 A class and two S class hunters. All of them were found hanging from they feet outside a frontier town alive. Some broken bones and a few concussions but alive.

To do that expressed a type of power that was hard to come by. Fighting people of that level who had probably ambushed the woman and fought on their terms was scary that she survived at all. That she did so and they all returned alive and not maimed either was a whole other leve. Killing in those situations was easy, fighting and leaving them alive and almost completely fine was scary. She basically mocked the entire world in that simple action.

The situation with the Tribe was not helped that of the five lieutenants she had all of them were former hunters. All with sizable bounties on their heads but like Raven they never strayed far from the Tribe and knew how to fight together. Scarlet Francene, Samuel Evergreen, Cardinal Lipent, Singret Occulate, and Clementine Rose. All but Cardinal being A class criminals who joined the Tribe while Cardinal was B class but his semblance could heal.

In other words he'd leave them alone for a long while and possibly forever. Fighting them would probably take several groups of S class hunters with SS or SSS class hunters there as well. Wasn't just them and Raven they would have to fight, they'd be facing the entire Tribe as well. A good 200 strong on the low end.

Leaving those unpleasant thoughts away Jaune proceeded to continue what he had been doing. Collecting the roots of the Blue Cherry Blossom Flower. He didn't need much but having the roots was always a good thing. You could eat them as a substitute for food when absolutely needed but that wasn't the reason he wanted them. Cooking and then crushing the roots and drinking them with water created an extremely powerful painkiller.

Dangerous if overused as the concoction was basically a narcotic. An overdose would kill you and overuse will get you addicted to the concoction. Still, having some on hand was always a smart thing to do. Never knew when you or someone you're helping could use a powerful painkiller. Especially in frontier towns without regulated medicine people used that concoction for surgery recover and dealing with broken bones to name two of its uses.

Once he had finished getting 10 roots he placed them in his pack and left, resolving to cook them and crush them into power when he stopped for camp. Which wouldn't be for a few more hours as there was still sun in the sky. The nearest town a good 15 miles away so he wouldn't get there by the time night fell unless he rushed. He didn't want to though as he was enjoying the scenery of Mistral.

As corrupt as the city of Mistral most definitely was at least the landscape of the kingdom was nice to look at. A mix of rolling hills followed by scattered forests with the vibrant colors of fall beginning to settle in. Another reason to head to Vacuo soon for Jaune, Mistral never truly got cold but nights in Mistral were terrible during the winter. With usable shelter hard to come by that wasn't being used by various groups already, that included Grimm. Which was why when Jaune was with Aedon and the group they spent all of their winters in Vale's territory.

As he walked he spotted a few more flowers that could've been useful later and decided to harvest the correct pieces. The Mistrali Thorned Rose, the stem of the rose had a powerful paralytic that when squeezed out of the stem could be used to numb whole areas of the body. Perfect for when treating wounds on yourself. He grabbed twenty squeezing out the paralytic of all 20 into a small vial barely filling it halfway. That was of no consequence though, didn't take much of the stuff to work.

The second one he collected was the Clematis. A vine that would bloom on trees and arguably the most important flower in all of Mistral. The reason being that they were the forests answer to wildfires that had apparently once ravaged Mistal and incredibly useful for hunters. See when the petals were set on fire they released smoke cloud that could douse fires and create smokescreens to escape from Grimm. He grabbed as many petals as he could fit into a small plastic bag.

Not long after collecting the Clemantis petals that he decided to call he journey over and find camp. Picking a small clearing of trees with discernable tracks or marks by them as his place of rest setting up his traps first and then starting a fire. Cooking the roots and then crushing them into a powder before pouring the powder into a plastic bag and zipping it shut.

Not a moment after he had finished putting the powder away the Raven returned and sat on a branch at the edge of the clearing. Jaune offered it a bit of dried meat he had but like always the bird did nothing and didn't react to his offering. He sighed at that still suspicious of the damn bird. Not that there could be anything really malicious about the animal, it just didn't act like any other Raven he'd seen. A puzzle to solve and he's gotten nowhere for that in the past month.

Sighing he ate the piece of meat he offered before getting out his blanket and settling down to sleep. The Raven flying off at seeing him prepare for sleep but the moment the bird left one of his traps went off. Snapping up from the ground and bringing out his ax and pistol he grabbed his bag and other weapons before crouching. Slowly backing away into the forest on the opposite side of his trap. No growling or announcement of a presence meant that it wasn't an animal or grimm, whoever disturbed the trap was human.

Grabbing onto a tree he hoisted himself up onto the branch and up into the thick leaves of the branch. Waiting for a few minutes someone finally appeared on the edge of the clearing. A man and woman probably in their early 30s judging by their faces. What caught Jaune's attention though was their gear and the raven stitched into their armor. These two were part of the Branwen Tribe but they didn't look like part of the raiding group, they looked more like scouts.

"Boss said there was something over here, guess he was right. Fire's fresh, maybe only an hour cold," the woman said as she looked over his fire.

"What you thinking then Bree? Hunter camp or just a camper?" the man asked as he started looking around. Jaune slowly bringing out his AK and aiming at the man's head in case the man spotted him. He'd rather not kill them because that would set the whole Tribe on him while currently in their backyard. No thanks, that's a death sentence. Best outcome would be him becoming a slave.

"I wanna say hunter because that trap you tripped was a professional one. I didn't even spot it until you tripped the damn thing. There'd be no point though; there's no active contracts in a 30 mile radius," the woman shook her head as she stood up.

"Could be Leaders brother Qrow. He's shown up a couple times over the years to talk to her. You think it's him?" again the woman shook her head.

"Nah… Qrow wouldn't be this subtle. He'd show up right in the middle of camp like normal," the woman adopted a snarl on her face. "Fucking drunkard. How he and Raven are related is a mystery to me."

"Well, if it's not a hunter there's no point in saying anything to boss. We'll tell him it was a camper or something that moved on."

"That'll send Grey out here in search of them. Sick bastard that he is," that caused the man to scoff.

"Like you're any better than he is. Or the rest of us for that matter," the woman shrugged her shoulders at the accusation.

"Not saying I'm not but he likes to make them suffer while he rapes them. He gets off on it. I prefer that doesn't happen, no point in damaging the merchandise when you could use it again or sell'em."

"Point. Let's just get out of here and tell boss about this. Grey will fuck off for hopefully a couple days and we won't have to deal with him. Win - win."

"Fair enough, let's go," and with that the two of them left and Jaune breathed a sigh of relief.

So he was about to be hunted by a tracker, what fun. It's been a bit since he was the hunted and not the hunter. Skilled tracker with the Tribe would probably spot any traps he left for the man. In his backyard too Jaune knew he wouldn't be able to escape and the closest town was probably the next target for the tribe. What to do, what to do… he made up his mind.

"Fuck me," he spoke to no one as after an hour of waiting in the tree he climbed down and consulted his map. Finding the nearest town he began to make his way there unaware that the Raven watched him walk off.

Raven, in her raven form, was both surprised and disappointed that the boy did not kill her two scouts. He was completely hidden and would've gotten away with the kills rather easily, her scouts did not have any aura and no others were close enough if he were to use his rifle. That was information he did not have however so she couldn't judge him for being cautious.

The way he stiffened when he noticed the emblems on the scouts armor told her he knew exactly which group they belonged to. A group that he had no hope of taking on or truly avoiding if they decided to track the kid. Especially on their own turf. Kid made a solid decision not to kill the scouts with the little information he had.

Grey would definitely go after the kid, the man liked the hunt and was a good tracker. If the kid got caught Grey could have his way with him, Raven didn't care. The kid was still young and had yet to show her strength enough that she would hold Grey back. She wanted to see what would happen, the kid was smart and took out grimm through his brain and not braun. Then again, not many people the kids age could do what he was doing regardless. Raven could practically feel the boys aura every time she was near; potent would not to its description justice.

She decided to speed up this process and flew to where she knew Grey was camping and appeared in front of him as he stoked the fire. He looked on curiously at her before giving him a short description of the boy and that she wanted him to hunt the boy. She didn't care what Grey decided to do to the boy. The man gave a wicked grin before standing up and walking in the direction of the camp. Having been there when the scouts boss gave the orders to the other two he knew where to go.

While this was happening Jaune was heading to the nearest town at a fast pace. The night being a full moon showing him the way so he still had light to guide him. Dancing though the trees as he ran a couple miles into his run he came out of the forest where the town should be visible. The moment he did he swore.

The town was burning, little less than a mile away, he could see the smoke. The light of the flames evident even at the distance. Not to mention the shapes of black running around and across the flames. The screams couldn't be heard but he knew there were some. The raiders had probably hit the town and in the resulting suffering the Grimm were there now.

There was nothing for him to do and trying to fight the grimm in the town wasn't going to happen. Too many and in an unfamiliar town without preparation was begging to die and he'd rather not. He also knew he couldn't go back the way he came right into the arms of a tracker, probably trapper as well, was almost as bad. He knew nothing of the man now definitely tracking him. No information on his skills, aura, weapons or experience. Jaune did not take fights unless he could stack it in his favor.

If you are in a fair fight than you have failed. As Aedon always said.

So Jaune avoided the town at the beginning skirting the far edges of the clearing around the town. Making his way to the far side occasionally going into the woods some ways to make his trail harder to follow or just weird. Using some of the trees when he could, jumping between them to throw off his trail as well. He doubted his actions would actually throw the tracker off but they would give him some extra time to plan.

One already forming in his brain as he saw the total number of Grimm in the burning town once he got closer. There wasn't an overabundance and most were lesser grimm that after they realized there was nothing more for the town to offer would move on. How long that would be was not an exact science and could vary from hours to days and possibly a week if an alpha emerged. Thankfully, he hadn't seen any alphas so that was a good thing.

As night dragged on and morning started to peak out over the horizon some of the grimm began to wander off. Most of them being Creeps, Beowolves, and Slinx's. Slinx's looked like puma's and unlike beowolves hunted alone. They were best known for being ambush Grimm and were often hunted down with impunity. An alpha Slinx was a bitch to deal with and if the monster became and Elder Grimm the less said the better. Elder Slinx's were known to be able to hunt groups of A class hunters and kill them efficiently. Regardless they moved off.

Eventually by the time the sun was fully up in the sky most of the grimm had moved on. Only a few stragglers of Creeps remained and they wouldn't stay long either if there wasn't protection from a larger group of grimm. Seeing this for what it was Jaune vacated the tree line and went into the town.

A few of the Greeps coming his way as they saw him approaching. Grabbing his sword and extending his shield he met the group of five creeps head on. Slamming the shield into the first Creep and tossing the grimm to the side as it jumped at him. Swinging his sword as he did so and bisecting the second airborn creep.

The third charged Jaune and he simple sidestepped at the last moment letting the Creep charge harmlessly passed as he brough his sword down on their neck. Jumping backwards away from the remaining three to keep them in front and not allow them to surround him he looked at the Grimm and waited. He didn't have to wait long as they charged together.

Simply stabbing forward as the middle Grimm jumped at him and impaled themselves on his sword. Kicking out with his right foot at the same time catching the grimm in the face as they tried to bit his exposed side. A crack was heard on impact showing the grimm's head at an unnatural angel while he kept his shield high. The final Creep jumping at the shield but without moving the shield the force of the hit almost made Jaune loose his balance.

Regaining his balance at the hit he focused on the final Creep with his eyes barely above the shield before dropping his sword and grabbing his pistol. Putting two bullets in the Grimm's head before it could do anything else. Jaune knew what he had done with using his gun having alerted everything in a decent radius from himself but that was the plan.

Almost all of the Grimm in the town had left with the five who had attacked him being the bulk of the remnants. He had no reason to fear the grimm still in the town but the use of his pistol was for the tracker. The sound of the gun was meant to lure in the tracker. Make him think that Jaune had run across Grimm and had taken refuge in the town. Which, was by all accounts accurate.

The second part of the plan was to stay in the town and hide. Create traps and killzones for the tracker to find unknowingly. The tracker might be the best in the world in Mistral but that wouldn't matter in a terrain he did not know and so changed than what it had been mere hours or days ago. Essentially Jaune had evened the playing field and Grey's advantage was no more.

Jaune did not like how little information he had on the man but that was fine with him for now. With hours to study the landscape of the destroyed town set up traps he had given himself the advantage in this situation. So, without preamble he began setting up his traps all over the town.

Most of said traps wouldn't kill someone outright with how little supplies he had in the way of that. However, all of them would allow for Jaune to know the mans location if their fight turned into a game of cat and mouse in the town. Not to mention there was a decent few that would maim someone without aura and be painful to anyone with aura. Aura may block the actual damage but the pain will still be there.

The few traps be banked on the most working to his benefit were the small snatch snare traps he had. Used for hunting rabbits and other small animals the snatch snare would cripple those animals. On a human they would hurt a lot but not be crippling unless everything went his way and bit into the man's achilles by sheer luck.

Finishing setting up his traps he climbed up onto one of the destroyed houses that still had some infrastructure to stand. The remaining bits of the roof giving him cover and 360 degree coverage around the town. The destroyed walls and other homes being the only reasons that was possible. With him in place and waiting he got his AK out, checked his ammo count and simply waited.

When the sun was finally starting to go down Grey emerged from the edge of the trees. The man following the faint traces of aura all around him to follow Jaune. Having his aura and Semblance unlocked, Tracker as it was called, Grey was looking forward to this. Raven had given him some information on Jaune including what he had been doing the last month.

Grey was excited not only because the kid was strong but because he was smart as well. He knew the moment the gunshot sounded what the kid was going to do and Tracker proved it too him as he could see Jaune in the town. He wouldn't have an exact location until he got closer but Jaune was definitely there. Probably with traps all over the town but that was to be expected from Jaune.

What surprised Grey though was how close Jaune let him get before anything happened. Being only a couple hundred feet from the ruined down he heard a shot and it splashed against his aura right at his head. Doing a decent chunk of damage to his aura as he lazily blocked the next shot with his scimitar.

Ahh, thought Grey. Jaune let him get this close so that he had a guaranteed kill shot if he didn't have aura. A smart, if bold strategy because as Jaune now found out; Grey did have aura and had experience with using his.

That didn't seem to deter the boy though as shots started coming in fast. Not as accurate as the first or second as Grey took off towards the town sighting the partially destroyed house the shots were coming from. However, enough landed on Grey that Jaune believed his blan to be at least a marginal success.

Jumping out of the house he was in Jaune ran as quietly as he could towards another section of the town reloading his AK on the way. The moment he got into his new position and looked towards the entrance Grey had been running towards he set up his AK on a fallen piece of house and waited. Silently cursing that the man had his aura unlocked and definitely knew how to use said aura. Hoping his initially barrage had done enough to the man's aura to make the fight more cat and mouse than anything.

Taking calming breaths he waited and watched the area around him for the man only for nothing to appear. He had expected and hoped for that though, cat and mouse now and he knew where his traps were. Slowly getting up from his position he started moving towards the part of the town with more destroyed buildings. More cover for him to work with even if there were less traps of his in the area, too obvious to see from the possible placements.

Stalking around the area he spotted movement on the other side of a pile of rubble. Softly clicking his AK to full auto he poked hiss head out with his gun leading the way and saw the man looking the other way as he disabled one of the few traps Jaune had in the area. As he aimed and pressed the trigger he got the worst sound imaginable at that moment. A resounding click, the gun had jammed.

Grey heard the noise and spun on his toes to face Jaune who had already put away his AK and levelled his pistol at the man. Not bothering to aim properly Jaune just began firing as fast as he could possibly could while grabbing his sheath. Six shots rang out before the man was on Jaune having blocked four of the shots on him before swinging at Jaune's head with his sword.

Grey did not expect for a shield to expand out of nowhere blocking and subsequently parrying his scimitar leaving him completely open to Jaune. Not having enough time to do much with the opening Jaune fired another two shots with his pistol landing both shots on Grey's chest before the man's fist connected with Jaune's head. The hit sending him turmbling away as he rolled with the blow to dampen the damage on his aura.

Jaune now understanding that he was outclassed in the fight if it had been straight up but that was the point of planning. To make advantages. So he ran, Grey hot on his heels as he seemingly misjudged an aura assited jump tumbling a bit as he landed on a piece of fallen house. Grey saw this and smiled. Not intent on making the same mistake Jaune had made and took exactly one more step. Right onto a snatch snare trap.

Shouting in pain as the trap bit into his aura he reached down to rip the small trap but that was exactly as Jaune planned. As Grey reached down Jaune had spun around, unjammed his AK and started firing at the man. Aura flickering under the assault Grey understood he couldn't take the time to get the trap off his foot and instead ripped the trap away with it still connected to his foot and jumped into cover.

Grey was now furious as he realized he had both been outsmarted by Jaune and severely underestimated the kids resources and mind. Raven had given him enough information on the kid but seeing what he had already seen he knew what this really was. It was a trial by Raven against Grey, win and you live; loose and you die. A fact made all the more insulting that it was a kid he was up against, and the kid was winning. Snarling at this he decided 'fuck it' and brought out the grenades he had in his pack. He was going to make this kid suffer.

Pulling the pin as he focused his Semblance he pin pointed where the kid was and tossed the grenade towards him. Jaune had taken the time to run and find a new position. Only to widen his eyes as he saw a grenade flying towards him. Seeing the grenade he spun around and sprinted away as it exploded 10 or so feet above and behind him. The shrapnel of the grenade splashing against his aura as the explosion rattled his ribcage.

Snarling at the new development Jaune began running away in earnest from Grey. Putting as much distance as he could away from the man taking up positions he might be able to get an angle on the man as he approached to fire on him. Every spot he came to a stop to didn't matter as a grenade found him. Many he was able see coming and avoid but some he was not using his shield to the best of his ability to block the shrapnel and in most cases he did well but was not perfect. The shrapnel splattering against his legs and sides and occasionally scraping against his head.

The worst coming when the grenade's would hit solidly and send Jaune spinning. When those happened Grey seemed to appear and slammed a punch or sword into Jaune before disappearing. Only Jauen's high reserves of aura seeing him through the fight at the moment. That's not to mention that in his scramble around the town he ran into his own traps triggering them to locate his location and one of his snatch snare traps still stuck in his foot as he ran.

Then another came just as he rounded a corner to get to a new position. Landing right at his feet he never had a chance to do anything at it exploded ripping into his aura. Not breaking his aura but making his aura flicker showing that it was close to breaking. Still, the grenade sent him flying a few feet and landed on his back with the world buzzing around him.

Slowly getting up, groaning as he did so, he saw Grey running at him with his scimitar at the ready. Jaune pushed through the pain and pulled back the slide on his AK and opened fire on the man as he ran forward. Blocking most of the shots as a few got through and the man closed the distance. Eight shots rining out before the gun clicked empty and Grey was upon Jaune.

Jaune dropped the AK as he brought his shield to bear only for Grey to drop kick into the shield. Something Jaune didn't expect and was sent sprawling backwards onto his back. Before he could do anything Grey was on top of him with his hands around Jaune's throat choking him.

"Oh, I am going to enjoy this," the man snarled with a disgusting smile on his face. Jaune's answer was to slam his shield arm into the man's side. His aura fizzling and visibly sparking around him, almost completely out.

"Not today little man," he punched Jaune across the face dazing him before pulling Jaune's arms down and putting his knees on them as he continued choking Jaune.

Jaune struggled but knew there wasn't much he could do then in his current position with his weapons. He wasn't out of the fight yet though and realized that Grey had pushed himself up to get the most leverage on Jaune's arms and neck. Eyes dimming as the strangulation was nearing it's end Jaune put all of his aura into his legs and rammed his knees towards his chest. Nailing Grey with both knees into the man's balls as he shattered the man's aura and he felt both the pain and the damage an aura infused knee could do to a man's balls.

Grey screamed bloody murder in pain in a high pitched squeal as he fell off Jaune to the side clutching his balls. Jaune coughing as clarity returned to his side and he pushed himself up. Dusting himself off he pulled out his pistol noting the bloody part of Grey's uniform that was once his groin. Jaune didn't care though and levelled his pistol at the man still holding his balls and pulled the trigger putting a bullet through the Grey's head.

"Ugh," Jaune groaned as he took deep breaths his throat definitely bruised as he softly ran a hand over it. Even with aura sustained injuries like strangulation or hitting a single spot repeatedly can leave damage. Pushing that out of his thoughts he started looting Grey.

The man's scimitar was well made and looked to shift into a torch. Not a terrible weapon for a tracker but Jaune had no need for it. Everything else on the man wasn't surprising. Being some camping supplies Jaune didn't bother with, food and water he did take and a bottle of whisky. He kept the whisky as well because he could use it to clean wounds if he needed to.

With his looting done he took out one of the two bottles of water he had and poured a little of the crushed root into the bottle. Drinking the water like a dying man he caughed as he finished the bottle. The painkiller affects of the crushed root taking effect immediately as the pain he was feeling from the beating he had taken disappeared. Now to assess himself.

Taking out the snatch snare trap out of his foto he was happy the trap hadn't penetrated his boot. That's not to say his foot wouldn't be bruised for a couple days because of the sustained pressure from the trap. Nothing was broken that he could tell so that was a plus which went the same for the rest of his body. Multiple bruises all over from the fight but nothing life threatening or broken.

Checking over his weapons and ammo he found that he only had half a mag left of the AK. He might be able to salvage some ammo out of the town but that would take time and that was something he didn't have. No doubt at least a few grimm would head this way after that fight. Which meant he'd have to wait until he got to the next town to replenish his ammo… if he even had enough money on hand to do so. Ammo was more expensive on the frontier and the contracts he had done weren't the highest paying. He might have to do riskier jobs.

Pushing that out of his mind he had a mag and a half left for his pistol. Better than the AK but nowhere near where he wanted his reserves to be. His would have to conserve ammo for now and buy more when he had the opportunity. The rest of his weapons were in working order and in good condition too so there was that going for him at the very least.

His further thoughts were interrupted when the raven flew down from the sky and landed on the body of Grey. Jaune looked at the raven and just laughed.

"That makes too much sense. You have a taste for human don't you," he spoke to the bird which cawed at him in response making him laugh harder. "You little scavenger… I hope you understand me because the next time I see you I'm killing you ya weird bird."

Jaune flipped off the bird before heading into the woods. Suppressing his emotions to the best of his ability to not attract unwanted attention from the grimm. Unaware and unseeing that a few minutes after he crossed the treeline into the forest the Raven on Grey's body transformed into Raven Branwen. She looked the direction Jaune had went before looking down at Grey.

"A kid Grey. A fucking kid," Raven spoke as she looked down at Grey's dead body in disappointment. "I knew you weren't the best fighter we had but that is just pathetic. Oh well, at least we have your weakness out of the tribe now." *


"Aedon is back near civilization Ozpin," was the first words through Qrow's mouth the moment his call connected to the headmaster of Beacon Academy. The narrowing of the man's eyes at the possible implications of why Aedon would do so. A multitude of possibilities and none of them good. Especially the ones where he became the third player on the board.

"Have you been tracking him?" Ozpin asked.

"Lost him three days ago, first time I've had good enough service to call."

"And where did you loose him?"

"Near Aplyter," Ozpin hummed at the answer. Nothing of note in that area but then again, Aedon knew more about the frontier and their people than Ozpin would ever admit. The man had a habit of finding things and people that shouldn't work but did.

"Search the town if you can but don't stay long. Your job is to make sure Amber is travelling safely for the time."

"Got it Oz," and the line went dead. Ozpin leaning back in his chair sipping his favorite coffee as he thought about the implications of everything. The last time Aedon had played on the board with him and Salem he had torn down our groups giving us both a black eye and bloody nose. Then disappeared for 40 years without a trace as an added 'fuck you' to the situation.

The reasons behind his actions still unknown to Ozpin. The frontier towns had been shaky at best and needed to be more centralized like the Kingdoms. Make the world a safer place without all the disorganization of the frontier towns. If a few had to go for the greater good of the people that was something he was willing to do. He knew Aedon saw the reasoning too.

He needed more coffee and time to think.


Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. Again, still working a bit on the 3rd person side of things because it personally isn't my stongsuit.

*1: I'm not particularly a fan of Raven's character. She's like that one super edgy person that never grew out of it. Still I'll try and be faithful to the original character but I will be changing some things with her.