Chapter 24 – Hungry Like The Beowolf

In which Jaune Arc's shirt is covered in feces after breakfast and his pockets overflow with beans during dinner.

Breakfast in the village was a quiet affair. Raven was taking her own in her stolen office and had forced Team JNPR to go into the village for theirs. The townsfolk were all afraid to interact with the team, and the team was too upset with their situation to realize that they were being consciously ostracized. Only Jaune knew the truth: that Raven had kidnapped their sheriff and was holding the town hostage, and that his team had no idea this was happening.

While the others wallowed in their misery and porridge, he'd snuck around to a quiet spot to pull out his scroll. He'd pieced together a quick summary of the events that had led up to this, and he decided to run it by Amber to see if she'd had anything to add.

"So Raven Granolawhy portals me to–"

"W-What?"

"The fake sheriff lady – Yang's mom."

"But her last name is…perfectly accurate. Please continue to call her and her progeny that. Now, go on."

"…okay? So, she portals me to somewhere by accident when she was trying to reach Yang, and somehow mistakes me for one of Ozpin's workers, probably because I said I was from Beacon. She tried to intimidate me with her maiden powers, but it didn't work because I didn't realize what they were."

"Even so, you should have known that she was more powerful than the average huntress," cut in Amber. "How did you seriously believe that the ability to control the weather and open portals was normal?"

"Go easy on a poor boy, okay? It was my first week even knowing what aura was, and the idea that everyone had just one semblance hadn't fully sunk in yet. It's ingrained into everyone else because you hear it so often and see proof of it, but I didn't know it at the time and rationalized her magic as best I could. She did it so casually that I just assumed I'd misunderstood how semblances worked or something. I had no frame of reference to what was magic as opposed to aura, so it all just seemed like 'invincible hunter abilities' to me. Honestly, I still don't see that much of a difference."

"It's a simple distinction. Magic is the power to…to…to do magic. You can control the elements, bend nature to your will –"

Jaune wasn't buying it. "Wasn't Cinder's semblance already the control of fire? That's elemental control. Plus, anyone with Dust has control over just as many elements as what you described magic to have. Come to think of it, is there any difference between maiden magic and semblances, or just having a ton of Dust?"

"You can only do one thing with a semblance, and Dust runs out."

"Weiss' Glyphs can summon all sorts of things, like walls and ice and wind and speed and even a giant hand once…basically whatever she wants. Plus, Yang can make fire with her hair and also gets super strong. As for Dust, you do run out of it, but you also said there were limits to how much magic you could use before you got tired, so it runs out too. I just wanna know: what exactly is magic?"

"Uhhhh…"

"Amber, you used to be a magical girl. Please tell me you know what magic was."

"L-Let's get back to Raven. She bamboozled you with her maiden powers, but then why did she come to Iyun and impersonate a sheriff?"

"She said she knew that I would choose this mission somehow, and she got lucky that I did. I think she just wanted a way to lure me out here without having to go directly to Ozpin. I take it that she's like you and doesn't want to be under his control."

"She despises the very ground he walks on. I don't know how she got the maiden powers, but she values strength above all else and doesn't care much for duty, honor, or sentimentality. That's why she ditched that kid of hers."

"Kid?"

"Yeah, when her baby was freshly birthed, she ran away from it. From Oz, too, and her husband, and her team, and everyone."

Jaune guessed that explained why Ruby and Yang were so different. If Yang had her mother's influence and Ruby didn't, it was no wonder the elder sister was more physically strong, not to mention so…how to put it kindly…bold and brash in terms of personality. Ruby was talented, no doubt, but she certainly couldn't do ten trillion push-ups like it was nothing.

"She wanted to meet me under the radar and get my help fighting two people who were chasing her. Raven mentioned their names: Callows and Rainart."

"Holy mother of…g-go on."

"They know she's a maiden. I pieced it together from what she said after the fact. When she used her powers to 'scare me off,' they must've seen it and figured out, and some…some person sent them after Raven. Saul? Sally? Sealant?"

"Was it Salem?"

Jaune snapped his fingers. "That's the one. You know her?"

"Ohhhhh, Jaune," Amber weakly whispered. "You weren't supposed to be in this deep. I know of her. It was one of the things Ozpin was trying to hide from me. She's the reason he keeps the maidens so tightly controlled. She's always trying to steal their power, and she's Oz's sworn enemy."

"So what do we do? Go back to Ozpin? Help Raven fight these two? You know the lay of the land here way better than me, so I'll defer to you on this one."

Amber paused for a minute, thinking it over. "I think it would be best right now for you to…no, that's not…it wouldn't…"

Jaune waited patiently for her to finish. If she could give him any advice on what to do in this situation, he'd gladly take it. The proud part of him that wanted to be an independent leader had died when Cardin forced Jaune to rely on Nora, and he'd learned a valuable lesson that day: accepting help didn't make you weak. Refusing it, however, did.

"I don't know, Jaune. If Raven went through all this effort to drag you out here rather than treat with Ozpin himself, she clearly wants to deal with you, not him. Leaving might offend her, and you do not want to offend this woman. On the other hand, if she needs Team JNPR's help handling Salem's minions, that means she can't take care of them on her own. The thought of you going up against Hazel or Tyrian without your aura fills me with dread. I can't tell you what to do on this one, Jaune. I'm sorry. You're going to have to make the call."

Jaune re-entered the small tavern to find his three teammates sulking about. He dismissed the terrified townsfolk with a wave of his hand, receiving no resistance as they eagerly fled. It was clear that the distinction between his hunters and Raven the rogue hunter was not large to these folks. Jaune couldn't find it in himself to blame them.

Standing before his troops, mustering up the best air of authority he could. "Breakfast is ending early, you guys," he ordered. "We're shipping out. Now."

"What?" said Perry. "Sheriff Granolawhy said –"

"I've made my choice. Beacon said they can have an airship at our location in less than two hours. We're going to catch it just north of the town, so we need to get moving."

"The mission isn't –"

Jaune cut Nora off. "We're not going to be doing the mission."

"Jaune, we can't desert our–."

"Nora. We're leaving. That's final."

Jaune wasn't sure if he even knew what a 'leader voice' was, but if he did, that was his best impression of it. The Junipers frowned at his commands but complied regardless of their obvious misgivings and set aside their food.

He wished he could explain what was going on to them, but he knew that he had built up enough trust with his team that they would listen to him without a full understanding. If he took precious time explaining the situation while Raven was distracted with her meal, they might miss their window of opportunity to escape.

They didn't need to escape to Beacon in the brief time she took to consume her food, they just needed to abscond into the tree cover. Amber had known the details of Raven's semblance from secondhand accounts, and apparently she needed a deep emotional connection to track someone, the likes of which she lacked with all four of them…but not the fifth.

I really hope she can't sense Amber's presence in my scroll and open a portal to that.

Jaune was taking a risk here, fleeing from a maiden, but this was the best choice of the limited options he had available at the time. The enemies she needed fought were hers, not Ren's or Perry's or Nora's. He refused to risk their lives fighting the battles of a rogue huntress – a criminal. They were hunters, not mercenaries.

And if Raven caught them, it was unlikely she would blame the others for Jaune's backstabbing.

Jaune held out an arm and blocked the others from leaving. Sticking his head out the doorframe, he peeked both ways. No sign of Raven Granolawhy in either direction.

"Okay. Go out, but immediately go to the right. Pass through the crawl space between the tavern and the next building over, and don't stop until you make it to the village wall behind the tavern. I'll cover our flank. We'll boost one another over the–"

"Wall? Why not access the front gate?" asked Ren.

"Because I said so," Jaune demanded authoritatively. There was no time to give them the full history of his decision-making choices. "Okay, now go. And stay quiet."

Jaune patted Nora and Ren as they went out, but Perry hesitated before going into the thin alleyway. Jaune grabbed him and started dragging him, trying to control the strenuous heart palpitations his partner was giving him by stopping in the most exposed spot.

"But – hey, I left one of my – Jaune, don't–"

"Perry, we can't go back for anything, no matter how important. Trust me."

Perry's eyes widened, and he slid into the alleyway. Jaune waited until his Faunus partner was all the way in, inching along, before following him. It was slow going, as the buildings were spaced apart by only about a single foot.

"Speed it up if you can," Jaune whispered.

"I'm going as fast as possible," said Ren. "Nora, what's taking so long?"

"M-My epic rack is stuck!" she wailed. "I'm too well endowed with sick tiddies to make it through this tight space!"

Jaune heart nearly beat its way out of his chest when a noise came from behind them, but it was only a ground squirrel knocking over a wooden board. Turning forward, he assessed the situation with Nora in front of him. She was wedged between a particularly narrow point in their path, with a pipe sticking out and blocking her from going any further.

"Do any of you have a lien chip? Give it to Nora."

Ren took one out, handing her the fiver.

"Nora, see if the flat of the chip is thin enough to undo the screws."

"B-But the pipe will –"

"We don't have time. It's fast, and it's quieter than our weapons. Our lives are in danger. Just do it."

Nora took the lien chip and began to use it as a makeshift screwdriver. Jaune alternated between keeping an eye on her progress and turning back to make sure Raven wasn't standing in the street, watching them. After about twenty seconds of painstaking rotation, the screw popped off. The second screw, now bearing the weight that was meant to be distributed between two, shot right off. The pipe immediately popped free, and sludgy liquid began to pour onto Nora. She ran past it and started to brush the icky fluid off of her jacket, but she was ushered along by Ren, who was ushered along by Perry, who himself was being ushered by Jaune.

They made it out of the alleyway, all four of them coated in a streak of sewage water. It smelled repulsive, but they were almost safe now. Once they made it over the wall, they could disappear into the forests and put this literally crappy business behind them.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT! FIND HIM, YOU STUPID PEASANT!"

Jaune cursed. That was Raven's voice, and it sounded like it was coming from two buildings over from the one they were hiding behind. Jaune was pleased that he hadn't taken the easy choice and gone to the front gate. Even though they would be outside by now, the cowed villagers would have seen it and reported the direction they'd gone to Raven.

Still, they weren't out of the woods, yet. Or, rather, into the woods. Ren had given Nora a boost up the wall, and she was helping him up from the top, but Jaune could hear the sounds of the townsfolk milling about as they searched.

I'm really rolling the dice here. It'll be difficult for her to find us in the forest, but if she does…hmmm. Best not to think about it.

Jaune shook his head.

…except I do need to think about it. I'm the leader of Team Juniper, and it's my responsibility to make the tough choices to keep the others safe. There's a slim chance Raven will find us, and I need to prepare for that as though its 100%.

"Jaune," came a whisper. The Mistrilian partners had helped Perry up the short wall, and he was offering Jaune a hand up.

Jaune reached for Perry's hand, but he stopped.

If Raven finds us…

He'd made plenty of tough but necessary choices today. Choosing to abandon Raven's quest was tough but necessary. Choosing to keep his team in the dark and rush them out was tough but necessary.

Jaune knew the next choice he had to make was going to be the toughest of them all, but it was just as necessary.

Pulling back his right hand, Jaune gave Perry his left one. The Faunus made to take it and hoist Jaune up, but Jaune placed his scroll in Perry's fingers instead and retracted his hand.

"Amber will tell you where the bullhead is. Raven…s-she thinks it's my help she needs, not yours."

"Jaune, what are you–"

"Get Ozpin. Get Beacon. Get help."

Jaune gripped Perry's wrist and pushed him. His flailing arms knocked Ren and Nora, and all three of them tumbled over the wall.

Racing through the alleyway in reverse as quickly as possible, Jaune exited out the other side just as he began to hear the others picking themselves up and calling for him. He stepped out of the thin space, dusted himself off, and leaned against the tavern door.

"SHERIFF!" Jaune screamed at the top of his lungs. "I'M OVER HERE!"

She appeared almost instantaneously, barreling out of the door of the next house over. "Where were you?" she growled through gritted teeth.

"Taking care of business," Jaune said lackadaisically. "Pardon the smell."

"Fine. Just gather your friends and pack your things. We leave in five."

"Yeah, about that." Jaune picked at his fingernail. "Kinda got rid of them. See, teams – they slow me down. The guys aren't as strong as I am, and I really don't need that kind of dead weight. I'm sure you know the feeling."

He was sure, because Amber had told him that she'd done the exact same thing to her own team, and that it was part of her philosophy to not rely on anyone but yourself. Raven's eyes narrowed menacingly, but she made no move against Jaune.

"Just follow your end of the bargain. I don't care how or how many you need to do it, but Hazel Rainart needs to be taken care of so I can deal with Tyrian Callows. And if you can't handle him on your own…" Raven drew her sword, which glinted in the sunlight as she tore open a portal. "…I'll be sure to pay Beacon a visit. Perhaps your team will have better luck where you failed. Though I doubt it."

Right now, Jaune was really wishing that he'd paid more attention when Raven had laid out her plans. Heck, he wished he'd brought a pen and paper to take notes.

The portal had taken them to the deserts of Vacuo.

Raven either took pity on him or decided to reiterate herself from before. "Full visibility in all directions – the deserts offer no cover. Vacuo is where we make our stand.

"Did you perchance bring anything to drink?"

Surprisingly, she had. As Raven handed Jaune a flask, she looked around. "We'll likely be here for several days, until our pursuers find us."

Until your pursuers find you, but sure.

"It was a smart move to rid yourself of the dead weight, Citron. Their rations will now be ours. Well played."

"I do my best," Jaune said, trying to wrap his mind around the thought of spending days in this blistering heat.

"I'm going to scout out our surroundings. Will you stay here until I return?"

"I've nowhere to be," Jaune said, digging into his backpack to pull out his weapons cache.

Raven nodded and turned off to HOLY DUST HOLY DUST SWEET DEAR MOTHER OF THE GODS ABOVE SHE'S A BIRD NOW!

Jaune nearly choked on the air in his lungs.

So…that was something.

R-Raven the raven flapped off into the skyline, and soon the black dot that had once been a bird that had once been a person was no more, swallowed whole in the infinite ocean of yellow sand and blue skies. Jaune shook himself out of it – probably more maiden BS – and started taking stock of his weapons. He had all the time in the world, and he was going to make use of it.

Two dirks, mixed blades that were somewhere between a short sword and the kind of dagger most men bragged about having. Sharpened, sheathed, and stuck to his belt. Check.

One spring-loaded net gun, primed for short range capture. Check.

One Wind Dust crossbow, locked and loaded with three bolts. Check.

One full bandolier of ten Fire Dust grenades, ten Lightning Dust grenades, five Plant Dust grenades, five Hard Light Dust grenades, and two multi-Dust grenades. Check.

Enough Lighting Dust loaded into his taser for three uses, and more in reserve. Check.

I hope Nora is doing okay, Jaune thought upon seeing the familiar taser.

The realization hit him that he was in Vacuo now, which meant that it was incredibly unlikely that his team would be able to recruit help from Beacon and rescue him like he'd ordered. They had no clue where he was, and even if they found out, it would take ages for them to fly here the old fashioned way.

Guess I'm all alone facing certain death. He sighed. Again. I wonder if this Hazel fellow is going to be the one.

He'd crushed everyone he'd ever fought before like the ants they were compared to his majestic might, but aside from the Boarbatusk in Port's class, it had always been luck and chance that he'd walked away unscathed. Roman had simply let his guard down the first time, and the second time he'd simply been struck by a rocket locker swerving off course. Cinder had been arrested by Ozpin and the hunters, and the fact that she happened to explode her clothes and he had a coat was what kept Jaune alive, not any skill or talent. Cardin had tripped outside the ring at full aura, giving Jaune the win on a technicality that didn't matter in the real world. Even during initiation, it had been his lack of aura that had saved his life, turning the Grimms' attention to the more attractive hunter prospects nearby.

Vacuo was an empty desert for miles on end. No cover, no place to hide, no way for Jaune to escape, no help for miles, no way for Jaune to manipulate his opponent into surrendering, no surroundings for him to exploit, no tricks to pull out of thin air, no nothing. It was an entirely even playing field, which was the exact opposite of what Jaune needed.

Perhaps Hazel Rainart truly would be the end of Jaune Arc.

Jaune scoffed and continued to rummage through his backpack arsenal. I doubt it. Velvet would probably burrow through Remnant's core just to block the killing blow and try and use that as a bargaining chip to guarantee another interview. I need to stay focused.

One temporary Hard Light shield, single use only. Check.

One emergency Rock Dust portable barricade developer. Check.

One SMG-knife copy of StormFlower, courtesy of some 'borrowed' schematics from Ren. Check.

Three grapple-deploy sickles. Check.

Wait, three?

That was weird. Jaune reached deeper into his bag as it lay on the sand and felt a third sickle that he didn't recall packing, or even buying in the first place. Tugging on it, he found himself unable to pull it out. Jaune yanked harder and harder on the extra sickle until he realized that it felt softer than the other two that he'd already pulled out. Almost as soft as the fabric of his backpack.

Jaune lifted up his pack and realized the mistake. A white, pointy rock that resembled his sickles in shape and size was sticking out of the sand, and he'd mistaken it poking against the bottom of his pack for being inside it. Out of curiosity, Jaune brushed away some of the sand around the white rock.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

There was a second white rock, just as long, thin, pointed, and curved as the first one. The tip of a third was also visible, and two more on the opposite side.

In mounting horror, Jaune kicked himself away from sticking out ribcage and fell ungracefully backwards, rolling down the sand dune hill. It hadn't been a rock, it was the remains of a person who'd been buried in the sand, and he'd touched it. Jaune furiously rubbed his fingers in the sand, hoping that the dead person touch would rub off as well.

When he eventually managed to regain his composure, Jaune gathered up the weapons he'd scattered in his frenzy, scanned the horizon for Raven, and tried to stop hyperventilating. In that order.

Jaune had never seen a dead body before, and he was feeling a mixture of shock, confusion, and unsureness of how he was supposed to react. He felt like he was supposed to be gagging from the grossness, but it wasn't a rotting corpse with mean and skin or anything, just a few bones sticking out of what Jaune assumed was a skeleton below. He was scared solid from how close he'd been to it, but the innate revulsion, the sickness, wasn't there.

"Coriander. A good woman."

Jaune turned around to see Raven standing behind him, a red rift in space closing behind her.

"You…?"

"She was a strong member of the tribe, but not stronger than a Beringel. Tribal custom is for the dead to be laid to rest where they fall, so that those who go on never forget their struggles."

Raven stepped over the skeleton and kicked some sand back onto it, covering the protruding ribs.

"Raven custom is to ignore tribal custom and be smart about it. I need to open my portals, and she was a bonded one."

Hey, wasn't that what Amber had said about…wait…

"You scatter your dead…as jump points?"

Kneeling down next to Jaune, Raven continued to shove a heap of sand over the remains until they were entirely hidden from view. "Turns out death doesn't stop my emotional links to those around me. Perhaps that says something about the eternal flame that is the human spirit and how our memories endure even after we pass, but I can't be cared to bother with that syrupy garbage." She licked her lips, and he couldn't tell if it was from dustiness or violent bloodlust. "All I know is I now can flee to seventeen different spots all over the globe at a moment's notice."

Jaune didn't know what to say to that. On the one hand, she was right about the ultimate outcome. Practically, the dead wouldn't be aware of what happened to their remains, and Raven wasn't hurting them from beyond the grave or anything. On the other…

"These are – these were people you cared about so much that you formed a semblance bond with them," Jaune said. "They mean that much to you, and you don't even bother giving them proper burials?"

Raven kicked some more sand onto her fallen comrade, not even looking up to answer Jaune's question. "Uh huh."

"Remind me never to be emotionally bonded to you."

That made Raven look up.

"Kid, do you have any idea how stressful these past few weeks have been for me?" She drew her katana and advanced towards Jaune. "Do you know what it's like to be hounded across the four kingdoms and beyond? To never have a waking moment's rest, not to eat, not to sleep, not to relieve myself? To never be able to lower my guard, lest that be the moment a knife is plunged between my ribs and I find myself joining Coriander in the realm beyond?"

"I…I…" Jaune began to retreat as Raven approached him, fire in her red eyes.

"And who do I have to blame? Who was the one who forced me to out myself as a maiden and bring Salem's hammer down upon me?"

"I…"

"Correct. You. Now, answer me this, Citron. What happens when I have weeks and weeks on end spent in solitude with nothing but my festering hatred of you for company?"

Jaune tripped over his own feet and landed butt first in the sand. "Y-You attract Grimm?"

Raven laughed heartily. "Oh, I attracted Grimm, and I put them all to the sword one by one, hundred by hundred, thousand by literal thousand. But that's not the point. All that bitterness, all that fury, all that raw pain condensed into the single most powerful emotion I've ever felt for any single human being to have ever walked the globe."

Her arm shot out sideways, tearing open a portal to her left. Simultaneously, an identical portal came into existence to Jaune's left.

"So no, Citron, you will not, in fact, have the luxury of a proper Valean burial. When you eventually die chasing Ozpin's broken dreams, I'll be there to pick up the pieces. Your bones will be scattered from here to the Grimmlands, left to rot and decay wherever I choose to drop them. Or perhaps I'll grind them into a fine power and deploy it from the sky as a raven, allowing me instant access to the world at large. Either way, the end result is the same: in death, you will serve me."

Jaune's mouth moved faster than his brain, and he somehow shot back at the rogue, "Unless I outlive you."

That garnered another response in the form of a guttural laugh from the fake sheriff. She raised an eyebrow and looked down at him as he sat in the desert sand.

"Unless."

Raven had been right about one thing. With the rest of Team Juniper sans Jaune (or, as he liked to call them, Team National Public Radio) back home in Vale, the two of them had far more rations to split between them. Raven still took the lion's share – she spouted some nonsense about strength, shoved Jaune down a sand dune when his back was turned, and stole the bigger portion when he was picking himself up – but Jaune was eating a lot nicer than he had in Iyun.

"How long until they find you?" he asked, downing a spoonful of campfire-warmed beans.

"It's never been an exact amount, but I think we can expect a visit tomorrow or sooner."

"Ah. Sleep in shifts, take turns on watch, then?"

Raven shook her head. "Not happening. We're both staying awake until our adversaries arrive. I don't trust anyone without the last name Branwen to watch me when I sleep."

"…what last name?"

Raven rolled her eyes as she sipped water from her flask. "Very funny. Now, we must both remain vigilant. If either of us begins to nod off, we can't hesitate to wake them. Rainart may not be one for stealth, but Callows is a monster, and the dark is his element."

"Then why not fight him in the daytime?"

"Well, I can't rightly choose when he attacks me, now can I?" Raven shot back sarcastically.

"Can you tell me more about these two?" Jaune asked.

Raven eyed him curiously, so he elaborated.

"If we've got to pass the time somehow, I'd like to know more about Callows and Rainart. It's that or ghost stories."

She sighed. "I'm surprised Oz didn't tell you their specifics down to the blood type."

Jaune thought of the maidens that Ozpin barely had under control, of Cinder waltzing into Beacon like she owned the place, of Amber languishing stories beneath oblivious teenagers' feet. "There's a lot Ozpin doesn't tell people."

Raven smiled the first genuine smile Jaune had seen at that. She'd smiled before, but it had always been bitter or challenging. If a simple critique of Ozpin elicited that kind of reaction from her, Jaune figured that she must really not like the guy.

"Tyrian Callows is a scorpion Faunus that's as fast as Qrow, but without the garbage misfortune semblance. His venom will kill you if a single drop enters your bloodstream. Weapons are circular blades with double barreled firearms each. Deadliest of Salem's enforcers in single combat – even I'd skip out on a solo duel if I had the option."

"And Rainart?"

Raven sat up and looked right past Jaune. "The man can tell you himself; he's right behind you."

Jaune jumped at least two feet into the air, spilling his food all over his pants. He turned around, his hands frantically failing to locate any of the weapons that covered him, but there was no one there.

Raven nearly rolled into the fire laughing. "HA! You fell for it! Oh, you really must be green if that worked. I'm surprised Qrow never tried that one on you; he taught it to me."

Great. Now my shirt smells like poop and my pants smell like baked beans.

They had more than enough food due to the absence of the others, so Jaune got up and took some replacement dinner out of their stores. She'd mentioned that name, Qrow, twice, and Jaune felt like he was supposed to understand who that was to know the context of these little references. "Can you tell me about Qrow, too?"

Raven's expression soured. "Look, kid, don't even try with that. We're through, him and I, and no do-gooder is going to get the old team back together, so save your breath."

"I suppose I shouldn't even bring up Yang and Ruby, then?"

He knew it was probably a bad idea to rile her up, and nothing could rile up a deadbeat more than injecting a mention of their abandoned kids into a conversation, but Raven had yet to actually do him any harm besides just threatening to steal his bones when he died. She hadn't even said she would kill him or anything, just that she would wait until he got killed by someone else. Maybe it's because she's afraid killing me would merit retaliation from Ozpin. Still, either way…

"Yang's strong enough to take care of herself. As for the brat…"

"She has a girlfriend, you know. Ruby, that is. In case you're curious."

Jaune had no idea why he brought up that particular detail about Raven's daughter. Perhaps he expected her protective maternal instinct to kick in and urge her to rush to her daughter's side in this time of need. Perhaps she might have been interested in the prospect of having a daughter-in-law.

"I'm not. I don't care about any mini-Summers, regardless of who or how many they've bedded."

"Summers?"

"I thought you said you didn't want to tell ghost stories. You wanted to know about Rainart?"

Jaune finished collecting his food and sat back down. "If you would," he replied politely.

"Hazel Rainart might be Salem's most lethal enforcer. His aura regenerates almost as fast as you can lower it, and his semblances lets him numb pain. It doesn't sound like much, but he injects raw Dust into his body to empower himself. He's built like a brick wall, only he's a whole lot more durable. No weapons to speak of – he's the weapon."

"Injects raw Dust? What, like, with needles?"

"No." Raven mimicked stabbing a Dust crystal directly into her arm. "Sploot."

Jaune shuddered.

"I know, Citron, I know. I believe in sacrificing whatever one needs to in order to become the strongest, but his method is a tad much, even for me."

So, I'm supposed to fight a monster like that on my own. Maybe I shouldn't have sent the others away…no, that was the right call. Whether or not this is my fight for involuntarily exposing Raven as the maiden, it certainly isn't theirs. I just hope what I brought will be enough.

tl;dr Jaune puts on a Chewbacca sash with a hearty payload of Dust nukes

Next Chapter: We Died Up In The Desert

In which Jaune Arc forgot to pack his metal armor and his plot armor. All stories come to an end.

Author's Notes

We're back! And so close to the end, too. Regular updates resume, for all of them that remain.

One of the things I liked about this Raven is that for all of her brusque personality, she's still respectful to Jaune for his (admittedly fake) strength. She doesn't ignore him, she answers his questions, she lets him move at his own pace – her worst trait in this chapter is that she's kind of rude. Of course, she'd kill Jaune if it benefitted her, so he's lucky it doesn't.

BY THE WAY: there will be a curt 26th chapter. Next week will be the epic conclusion of Jaune's ultimate tale, but after that comes a short Velvet article outlining her take on his adventures. Due to its small size, it will be posted shortly after the Tuesday update of next week.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!