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Death Daddy

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So yeah, I've heard the news.

Yeah, I'm upset.

To all the haters - I hope you're happy.

To all the fans - mine and RWBY's - I ain't going anywhere.

And to those that know me - why yes, I have progressed past the depressed phase into the 'pissed right off' phase lmao.

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He spent the next few hours drinking with his men at the little cookery up the road from the chapel, where a family of five had been more than happy to take their gold and silver in exchange for hot meals and decent drink. Admittedly most of the meals were made out of their own stock, but having dried meat broiled with brine and pitched into a vegetable stew was a far cry from gnawing at it until your jaw ached. The wine, though…

The wine was just their wine.

"Brother…" He turned as Cardin joined him where he sat at the back, at the top of the slope of soil that ran up against the wall of their little venue to help fight drafts.

Cardin was, for once, unarmored aside from his heavy boots. Instead he wore his thick blue gambeson in the open, more for warmth than anything else Jaune expected, and had his cloak drawn close around him. He'd shaved though, Jaune noticed. Not enough to lose the short bear running along his jawline, but enough to clean and sharpen the edges all the way up the sides to his hairline. Which took him from 'rugged wild man' to something a bit more respectable, at least.

And had Jaune's hand drifting to his own chin, where hair too long to be called stubble but too short for a beard itched under his fingers.

"Lily." Cardin grunted, snorting when Jaune's brows furrowed under the rim of his helmet. Unlike his brother, he was armored even now which, he knew, could tip off whoever was at play here to his paranoia - but, he had decided, that was better than an opportune knife in his ribs. Ignoring that, he listened to Cardin explain, "Little girl, not even a woman yet, out towards the docks. She was surprisingly adept with a knife and scissors. Uses fish oil for lather, though, which… Eh."

"Oh really?" Jaune smirked, "Here I thought that was natural odor ala Winchester."

"Oh, go for a swim." Winchester grunted, shaking his head and smiling thinly. That smile died after a second, though, and he asked quietly, "What do you think is going on here?"

"I don't-"

"Be straight, Brother." He muttered, keeping his face flat and even smiling and raising his little clay tankard when someone called over to him. When he waved the other Knight off, he sighed and said, "I know something is going on, and you suspect something…"

"The priest." He confirmed after a long, quiet moment, "Or his Chastened."

"My money is on her."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure…" Jaune sighed, grimacing when the man only shrugged unflinchingly, acknowledging Jaune's insinuation and not even bothering to argue it. Shaking his head, he said, "We don't have proof. Until then, she's-"

"A Chastened." Cardin argued, turning to point a finger at him and growling. "You take her out the gate, strip her down, and flog her. If she's innocent, the bastards out there won't do anything. If not…"

"Wrong or not, they fight for their people." Black Cat had taught him that, at least - why else would she have listened to Ember's requests, or risked coming to help someone who could never reasonably know enough to justify it? Cardin only shrugged again, so Jaune shifted tactics and argued instead, "I can't act without proof, or every Chastened in our camp and the settlement will turn against us."

"And do what…?"

"I don't know." He cocked his head, "Slip poison into the food stores?"

"Where would they get the poison…?"

"Do you have any idea how many poisonous mushrooms there are just a mile away from us in any direction?" Jaune argued, gesturing around them with a lazy finger, watching the other Knights and the locals that had come to join tentatively join them for any hint of their gaze on the two of them. "Or the kinds of poisonous animals fishermen and net-sorters have to clear out every day? It'd be easy. Even if they only got a quarter of us, there's hoes, fishing spears and axes here. Enough to deal damage."

"Fair…" He sighed, going quiet for a moment before he added. "You've thought that all through?"

"Of course." He nodded, "It's my job, isn't it?"

"I suppose…"

"Besides," Jaune cut in before Cardin could say anything else, "I… Have someone looking for clues."

"Adel…?" Jaune nodded and Cardin's brow furrowed as he thought about it. He knew where she was, of course, and what she was supposed to be doing. It didn't take him long - Cardin was sharp, for all he wasn't adept at long-form planning. "She's checking her wounds…"

"For foul play." Jaune nodded, looking up as someone else joined them, wrapped in a clean gray cloak with a hood drawn low over their head. They caught Jaune's gaze as they came into the light and Jaune pursed his lips. "Speaking of…"

"Lord Arc." The woman called out, voice tense but in an ever so slightly… Off sort of way. The kind that made him feel she was faking it, but so well that if Jaune hadn't known they were up to something underhanded he was sure he'd have missed it. She cocked her head back the way she'd come and said. "Can we… Speak? I feel I owe you an apology."

"An…" He blinked as several of the Knights ooh'ed theatrically and one of the locals, the same one that had helped him up earlier, smiled thinly and he realized what she was doing. Standing, he nodded awkwardly in what he hoped was a real play at nerves and stepped around the others, muttering, "Right, sure…"

"Best of luck, First!" Cardin called after him as they retreated up the road.

He just hoped Cardin was sharp enough to know what he needed the luck for, just then…

Instead of back to the alley, or near the chapel, Coco lead him down towards the docks, where the night air was sharp even through his armor and unders. But Jaune didn't mind, struck by the view out, past the docks and moored ships and storehouses. Where the inlet twinkled with a vast expanse of stars and the broken moon that held them all in place, beyond Remnant, where they could do no harm to the world or its people - a duty whose price had already been paid once, scarring the moon for eternity. Mostly enclosed by frigid hills covered in forests that stretched around the inlet to either side, and out beyond, it was…

"Stunning…"

"I'm going to presume that wasn't meant for me." Coco said with a chuckle, joining him looking out at the water for a moment. Quietly, she said, "You're certainly not wrong, though…"

"The Gods show their glory at the strangest times…" He murmured, thinking to himself. Did this mean they were approving his actions? Suggesting that he'd done right, so far? That Alicia's death hadn't been a waste…?

He couldn't know until he knelt before them and asked, he supposed.

"Beauty aside…" Jaune finally said, breaking the moments of quiet as he turned to the Knight beside him. "What did you find? And… What's with the gray cloak?"

"I cleaned a corpse, aside from defiling it somewhat." Coco shrugged, raising an eyebrow but explaining regardless when Jaune's brows only furrowed in confusion, "It's customary, in my home, to wear black or gray when you do that. It's a means of showing respect for the dead."

"Ah…" That was interesting, at least, if a bit useless - he doubted he'd ever need to go to Coco's home and care for a corpse, after all. Still, he filed the tidbit away and asked, "What did you find?"

"I spoke to Gala, one of the other women who helped Alicia in when they retreated." Coco said quietly, stepping closer and wrapping an arm around his shoulders to hold him close - playing into the roles they'd taken for this little ruse, he figured. Just as quietly, she said, "She was struck by three arrows, but one hung loose in the armor. One in the leg, and two in the chest, counting the one that didn't pierce."

"And…?"

"And she had three stab wounds." Coco said quietly, "One in her side, into the ribs. And the other right below her sternum. I… Checked it- It punched up, into her."

"From below…"

"Exactly." Coco nodded, "So she didn't die to the arrows. She died to-"

"Someone's knife." He nodded, understanding it all perfectly. She'd been killed on the operating table he'd sent her to. Stabbed to death.

She hadn't even died in battle…

He felt his knees buckle and Coco's arm around him suddenly became a lot firmer as she took his weight and gasped, "Woah, w-what the hell? My Lord, are you-"

"I'm fine, I just…" His head had filled with fog, all of the sudden. Fog and fire, burning behind his eyes and filling up his brain. He shook both off and stepped away from her, shaking his head twice more and pinching the bridge of his nose to collect himself. Quietly, he said, "I'm sorry, Adel, I-"

"It is perfectly fine, I promise." She cut him off, flicking him a look up and down as he turned to her. Finally she shrugged and said, "It's… A lot, to realise. And I know you didn't grow up with this, so I can imagine it's hard."

"Yeah…" He sighed, mind already racing to formulate a plan as he asked. "Who do you think did it?"

"When I asked, the priest said that they'd both tended to her together. The Chastened cleaned up the blood after, but…" She shook her head, frowning deeply. Not just at the loss, though, he was sure - but also the situation she explained, "They both have to be involved, Lord Arc. She could never have slipped the stabbing into the surgery without his notice, nor would he have missed a new, bloody wound even if she had."

"I see…"

"My Lord, we should-"

"Hold a ceremony for her tomorrow." Jaune nodded, turning to Coco and scowling deeply. "I will ask Peter to perform the rites."

"But he-"

"You," he cut her off, "will have Cardin prepare the men to come, armed and armored. And to be ready for anything.

Coco blinked, understanding dawning across her face for the briefest moment before she nodded and turned to leave. Jaune stayed, though, and turned to look back out on the sea, where the stars continued to twinkle and the moon drifted brightly.

"Gods…" He murmured, "Guide me."

With a bow of his head, he left the prayer in the wind and left.

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By mid-morning, his men had arranged a long stack of wooden planks, old lumber and loose sticks. Whatever they'd managed to find around the settlement that could be spared. They couldn't go outside the walls, of course - not without needing more pyres - but there was a nice enough space down by the water Yatsuhashi found for them. It was a wide, open, clear area with a few houses a few yards away from a split between two docks with only a couple of feet between them, crossed in places by planks nailed down by wooden spikes, nails or even simply tied into place, swaying in the chill wind.

The wind was bad today, blowing cold and hard, and he'd very nearly not bothered to do anything about it before he said something to Cardin and the man pointed out that 'a trap only works if they don't know it's a trap'. An obvious point, in hindsight, but…

He was a smith, not someone who'd been hunting, like Cardin had when he was growing up.

For a funeral, they'd made wind-shields to keep the fire from going out before it could catch. They were simple, just layers of furs, rugs, blankets and whatever else they'd found to lay out over long, thick fishing line. The kind made for sea-fishing. Yatsuhashi had made sure it worked well enough, but didn't block entry and, standing inside, Jaune could tell it was good work.

The tremor in his hand wasn't related to the cold, after all…

"Lord-Brother Arc." Cardin grunted as he joined him, standing beside him and watching Coco and a few other women lay Alicia out on the wood, wrapped in her cloak and dressed in her gambeson. When Jaune clasped his trembling, armored hands in front of himself, Cardin asked, "Are you all right, First…?"

"Am I all right?" He scoffed quietly, shaking his head. "No, not really. I'm here to capture a murderous priest. One probably involved in this siege…"

"Priests are men." Cardin offered gently, "Even they are flawed. Able to… Fall."

"Mhm…" Jaune hummed, "I suppose so."

"Where do you want me?" Cardin asked quietly, "For when it all happens."

"With me." Jaune answered simply, "We'll stand with Peter, to speak when he's done. Like Rouge did in Ansel."

"Right."

"Have Coco and Yatsuhashi to either side, with the Knights spread out in a circle around the pyre." He went on quietly, "When I give the word, you seize Peter and order them to move for his Chastened."

Cardin nodded, but that was all he had time to do before one of the improvised walls of hide and fur peeled aside and the priest stepped through, dressed in a finer white robe than he'd been wearing before. His Chastened followed behind him, offering a worn leather book and a blue shawl he wrapped around his shoulders for warmth before she stood quietly at the other end of the pyre, with the two other Chastened who had come.A couple dozen Humans had come, too, scattered around the edge of the clearing and Jaune frowned on seeing it.

"Please." He smiled as Peter joined him and Cardin returned, standing just behind the two of them. Beckoning with a hand, Jaune said, "This is for us all. Come closer, where we can share the space and my Knights can protect you."

Some muttered but his Knights followed Cardin's standing orders and dispersed, forming a loose ring around the onlookers and Chastened. And around Jaune himself, Peter, and Cardin. The Priest's Chastened looked just the least bit more wary, for a moment, once his Knights had them enclosed - but she calmed swiftly enough. Or at least appeared to.

He couldn't know - to yet, at least.

As tradition taught, a torch was passed up the line and ended in Jaune's armored hand. Soaked in oil, it had a smoldering stick tipped in charcoal stuck to the bottom for lighting, but he held off for the moment. Instead, he handed it to Cardin who pursed his lips, took it, and nodded as Jaune turned to step forward.

"Today, we are gathered for more than just the ceremony of it all." Jaune started, pacing halfway around the pyre and then coming back, to meet Alicia's closed eyes. "Today we honor a sister. Someone I… Admit I did not know overly well. A woman who died on my orders. Not to Grimm, or in honorable combat, but… In a ruse. A ruse none of you were aware of."

He heard the villagers mutter at that and frowned thinly, letting them chatter as his words sank in. They all knew about his ploy outside the gate, with his disguised Knights. So the idea of another had them all flicking glances between him and his Knights, some of whom had hands on their weapons, ready in case anything happened. But controlled enough to stay still and silent, eyes sharp and watching the crowd.

All while Peter had gone still, gripping his book tight enough his hand was shaking.

"Forgive me, however, for your confusion." Jaune said, "Because I do not mean my ruse. No, I mean a far longer one. One that ended not in death in battle, but in murder. Isn't that right, Peter?"

For a moment, all was quiet, before the priest leaned his head back and pursed his lips.

"You dare?" Peter said quietly, "You dare accuse me? On what evi-"

"It was him!" Jaune flinched and turned, half-drawing his hammer on instinct at the sudden shout as the priest's Chastened shot towards him. Coco met her halfway, grabbing her arm and locking it behind her. The Chastened didn't struggle, though, instead shouting, "I-I didn't want to let him, but he killed her! It was all him, I swear, I-"

"Aster!" Peter snarled, "What are you saying? S-Such nonsense is-"

"Coco checked Alicia's body." Jaune cut him off, "The wounds don't match how many times she was shot, or from where. Only you two could have done this."

"Then it…" Peter scowled, shot her a look, then snarled and yanked a dagger out of his sleeve. Cardin leapt for him, but Peter turned to him faster than he'd ever moved since Jaune had known him, slashing Cardin across a cheek.

"Damn it!" The large man bellowed as Yatsuhashi and several other Knights rushed him. Cardin moved quicker, though, backhanding the man and sending him reeling to the ground.

"Run, Aster!" Peter bellowed, scrambling with the knife and rushing towards Jaune. He blinked, surprised at the attack, but his hammer came around on instinct and drove into the man's arm as he lunged at Jaune.

The bone broke and Peter stumbled, but kept coming, blueish eyes wide and almost feral.

And that was when Jaune realised it, as Cardin grabbed him by the back of his cloak and pivoted on a heel, hurling the priest bodily into two Knights waiting for him. They caught the man and shoved him into the dirt, but Jaune ignored them and the man's swearing. Instead he turned, taking in the same blueish eyes on the Chastened and frowning.

"You two…" He murmured, "Are brother and sister. Aren't you?"

For a moment, all was quiet, until Aster let her head drop and answered, "Our fathers are different, but…" She looked up at him, eyes wide and pleading, and said, "Please… I never- He made me- I am loyal!"

"I see." Jaune closed his eyes, sighed quietly and turned to leave, saying over a shoulder, "Cardin, Coco, I leave their sentencing to you."

"For murder and treason," Cardin growled, "there is one sentence. Give it, First."

Of course, in the end, it fell to him… And Gods, he felt sick to say the words, "The sword. I leave it to you, Cardin. Or whoever takes vengeance for Knight Alicie."

"No!" Peter snarled while Aster went limp in Coco's arms, "You can't! She-"

"Hang their heads over the gates." Coco added quietly when none spoke up and Cardin nodded. Turning, she let Yatsuhashi take the woman, wrapping a powerful arm around her and lifting her up by a few inches. "An announcement to their cohorts that we have discovered their little trick."

Jaune only nodded, stooping to take the fallen torch that he'd dropped when Peter came for him. Moving back to the head of the pyre, he said, "I have no words. Only actions. Your killers face justice. That's… All I know that I can do, I'm sorry."

As he lit the torch, and the two condemned were dragged away, he only hoped that this would be enough for her.

Because he wanted to throw up…

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