Hope y'all enjoy! Please REVIEW to help me get better. On with the show.
"Well… shit," was all Jaune could really think to say as Aedon explained everything to him.
Still, without ever admitting that Jaune still had family alive and well. Aedon wouldn't tell Jaune, that was something Jaune needed to find out himself. Though he would help Nicholas by telling him where Jaune was.
"I honestly expected you to react a little more harshly than that," Aedon responded silently making sure Jaune wasn't in a state of shock. Surprisingly, he wasn't.
"I always suspected that there was someone or something behind how the Grimm acted but that it was this widespread and long lasting was completely beyond me. How old is this Salem bitch?"
"Don't know exactly but she's several thousand years older than me and I'm roughly 2000ish years old."
"That's another thing, how the fuck did you manage that? You didn't really explain," Jaune accused with narrowed eyes. Not in suspicion but in a sort of defiance against not being told something like that.
"It's an Aura technique. One of the oldest and a forgotten ability that I will never teach anyone. Do not think you will ever get it out of me; I'd rather be tortured for over a thousand years than ever reveal it. Not even Ozma or Salem know how to do it," Aedon responded with a serious tone looking dead into Jaune's eyes. Jaune accepted the answer without preamble.
"I understand. What's your plan exactly then for all of this then? Just stick around a generally screw over both of the whenever it catches your fancy to do so?"
"More of less in all honesty. Salem wants to combine the relics to resummon the brother gods while killing as many people as possible. Which will probably result in teh death of everything. While Ozma wants to keep them sequestered away which lets us all live at the cost of slowly dying. I just prolong the time frame whenever possible."
"Why not just combine the relics then? Ozma has the ability to do so without letting Salem dictate how it's done," Aedon chuckled at the words.
"I've been arguing for that for ages. Just get everything over with, they either decide to kill us all or just fuck off once again. Simply put, after I got three of them once Ozma brought an army to my door and stole them while we fought. Killed the man for the second time but his people were able to get the relics. After that he started hiding them and they're only accessible through a maiden and a specific one at that for each relic.
I may be able to get one but by the time I'm able to find the next maiden the relic has either been moved, my relic stolen or the maiden is outright killed. By either Ozma to deny me or Salem because she's petty," Aedon responded.
"You ever consider creating your own team like Ozma or Salem? Become the third player in the game."
"Of course. Don't really have many people to follow me about this though. Ozma lies through his teeth saying it's about protecting the world. Salem lies through her teeth and tells her minions that they'll live past it all. I got nothing to unite people and nothing to make them believe me. I'm more of drifter than anything and the few people that know of anything I'm more of a ghost story than anything.
Only S ranks know of me and maybe only 1% of them ever actually meet me. Less than that know of my actual nature in the grand game."
"Well, you got me now. Like it or not Aedon your side, at least from what I can tell, is the only one that actually gives a shit about the whole of Remnant. Salem wants death, Ozma wants us to live until we're basically cattle behind walls just waiting to die and you… you want freedom," Aedon was silent for a few moments tapping his leg with a finger as he began thinking. After a few minutes of silence he looked back at me.
"Who would you suggest I gather first?"
"I assume you have a network of spies already so that's done. After that I would gather the team you picked me up with. Either them or people that they would recommend. Once done there I would recommend going after people that both Ozma and Salem would go after. Deny them people they could get or make them double agents. With that done… I'd go after people around my age."
"The prospects. Get them before Salem or Ozma can ever get to them," Aedon nodded along. "They're both big players in the world, I'm decidedly not and can approach them. It'll be hard to narrow down specific people but as a general term it's a good idea… Know anything about that Nikos girl? I know she wants to go to Beacon and with her skill already Ozma will go after her," Jaune smiled at Aedon's words.
"She train's with Sky's husband and she's not bad. Has to learn that actually fighting is a lot different than tournaments but she's good," Aedon raised a skeptical eyebrow at Jaune's words.
"You fought. How'd that go?"
"I won. Vacuoan style spar, I won the regular way as well but it would be a lie to say it wasn't close. Her semblance, if trained well, will make her the single deadliest person in the world to fight against," Aedon's eyes widened before silently telling Jaune to continue. "Her semblance is polarity."
"Dear Oum… That's overpowered as all hell, especially in this day and age," Aedon took a few moments before snapping his eyes back to Jaune. "Why the hell… Oh, it's because she's a tournament fighter. Isn't it."
"Like I said, she needs to learn that an actual fight is vastly different than tournament fighting. Already gave her that lesson by starting the fight before it officially began and by tossing her around by her hair," Aedon chuckled at Jaune's words and nodded along with them.
"Good. I assume Nikos goes to Sky's to train in the morning if she's training with Sky's husband," Jaune nodded. "I'll swing by tomorrow morning. Introduce myself and also talk to Sky."
"Okay, I leave in two days but I'll be there tomorrow," Aedon nodded at Jaune's words. "Now… you and Glynda. Never would've guessed you liked the disciplinarian type. Old man likes to be tied up huh?" Aedon threw his head back and let out a loud cackle but recovered after a few seconds.
"Okay, 1: don't knock it till you try it; on both sides. 2: what makes you think that a disciplinarian doesn't want to be disciplined?" the words took a few seconds to register for Jaune but when they did he was the one throwing his head back in laughter.
"Oh, I needed that. Don't forget to make sure the ropes are sterile then old man," Jaune stood up from the bed still chuckling a little as he went to the door. "See ya tomorrow."
Jaune left at that making his way outside before wandering around. Trying to find a good place to grab a small snack. Didn't take him long when he spotted a small sandwich shop four blocks over from the hotel he had talked to Aedon at. Entering he looked at the menu and got in line.
By the time he was up he was still looking at the menu and was still looking it over. Not because of indecisiveness but because he didn't recognize some of the words and didn't know what they were. Jaune took so long that one of the customers behind him tried to go around him and skip him in line. To which he responded more on instinct than anything else.
Lashing out his left hand Jaune grabbed the man's shirt, around his stomach, and shoved said man back. The man and several customers then began to voice their displeasure at that quickly becoming loud in the small shop. All of that stopped the moment Jaune turned his head to look at them.
They didn't see anger, hatred or even annoyance. All they saw when his eyes looked at them was complete indifference like he couldn't be bothered with their continued existence. In a mere second they were cowed like cattle and shut up letting Jaune continue to look upon the menu. Unaware that a certain woman was watching all of this from the edge of the places window, just outside of Jaune's vision.
"Uh… Sir, is there something I can help you with?" Jaune's gaze snapped to the diminutive girl behind the counter. Jaune was now just a bit over six foot and she didn't even come up to his neck.
"What's 'feta cheese' and 'fondue'?" those things were on a couple sandwich's that he recognized most ingredients and looks good. He wasn't about to eat something if he didn't know everything in them however.
"Seriously?!" someone shouted behind Jaune but he paid them no mind and instead stared intently at the girl.
"Uh… Fondue is melted cheese, chocolate or other things but we only do the melted cheese here. As for Feta Cheese it's cheese from animals other than cows and usually more in a square form then the normal slices you would find," Jaune nodded along to her words not exactly following along but doing well enough to understand what she was saying.
"What are you! Some type of bumpkin?" the same man who had tried to cut Jaune before stated loudly for the entire shop to hear. In response Jaune turned around completely and stared down at the man who was a few inches smaller than he was.
"Yes," that was all Jaune said to the man and he backed down like a kicked puppy. With the man sufficiently cowed Jaune turned back to the woman behind the counter. "I'll try the… Glenn Sheep sandwich. Just the sandwich, thanks."
The woman nodded her head as Jaune decided to go with the sandwich that had Feta Cheese. He just didn't like the sound of melted cheese, didn't trust that one bit. Either way he went to the corner of the shop and waited for his sandwich to be ready. While he waited however he saw Glynda Goodwitch enter the shop. However, instead of getting in line to get a sandwich she went straight over to him.
She looked at the seat across from him with an expectant look. Jaune answered by kicking out the chair far enough for her to sit down and she did so without preamble. As she sat down and looked at Jaune he took the few moments he had to look at her and he'd be lying if he didn't understand why Aedon had gone for her. Beautiful in almost every facet with a body many women would kill for. Then again, huntresses and hunters tended to have bodies many would kill for.
"Who are you?" Jaune just gave her a skeptical look but he understood the question. How did he know Aedon but he wasn't about to answer until she actually asked said question. He was at a severe disadvantage here and he needed a powerplay, even if minor, to ensure to her that he wasn't some helpless person. Didn't take her long to realize this either as she sighed.
"How do you know Aedon."
"He found and trained me about… six or seven years ago now. I'm not exactly sure on the timeline. Never really kept track of it."
"Ah, s-"
"Can I ask who's the one being tied up?"
"Excuse me?" Glynda looked both flustered and confused at Jaune's question.
"Well, you're well known for being a disciplinarian and as far as I know Aedon is the definition of a wildman and I'm curious. Who ties up who for time in the bedroom?" Glynda's eyes went wide and she tried to voice any words for a few seconds before giving up and gave Jaune a deathstare. One that might've affected him if he hadn't seen worse from Aedon and faced down groups of grimm far out of his league normally and took them all down through careful planning. Seeing Glynda's patented stare was next to nothing for him.
He would quietly admit that if he hadn't gone through everything life's thrown at him so far her stare would've terrified him. She had the look down to the best possible degree. Though, he would never admit that to her… or Aedon. Aedon mostly because Jaune would be lying if he didn't find the look kinda hot. That was also the moment he realized he had the same taste in women as Aedon. Strong women with attitudes… Jaune didn't know if Glynda had an 'attitude' but he'd bet everything on that being the case.
"I'm not going to answer that question," Glynda stated with narrowed eyes at Jaune. He just shrugged at that. Never having expected her to actually answer regardless. Just wanting to throw her off, something she realized when he didn't follow up questioning her after her denial.
"He really did train you. Asshole. Should've tak-"
"Taken me to an orphanage in the Grimmlands?" She shut up at that and stared at me with wide eyes. "That's where he found me, I was wandering for years before he found me there. Learned a lot before meeting him and learned even more afterwards. I've survived a long time on my own and Aedon has contributed a lot to that. I've taken on C, B and A rank missions and walked away alive. C and B by myself, though taking longer than normal I still did them by myself. That's all Aedon and what his team taught me."
"How old are you?" were her immediate words to Jaune.
"15 and a half… maybe 16; I don't honestly know," Glynda was dumbfounded at that. C or B ranks for someone of that age, even if they took days was not something anyone should be able to pull off. This kid… was a monster in the making and who even knows about his semblance and what it could be. Being in those situations for most of his life almost demanded a powerful semblance.
Before she could continue with her questioning someone brought over the sandwich Jaune had ordered. Once in front of him he stopped paying attention to Glynda and started eating. She was slightly put off by the casual dismissal of her presence but with Aedon as his teacher she wasn't terribly surprised with food in front of him.
Instead of staying longer than necessary Glynda said her goodbye's and thanked Jaune for the chat and left. Hoping the conversation and been quick enough that most, if not all, hadn't recognized her. Forgetting that she had forgotten to ask Jaune's name. Only realizing such when she was half a block away from the shop but by the time she went back, Jaune was already gone.
Jaune ate his sandwich quickly and left afterwards satisfied and continued to walk around Argus without a plan. There were plenty of places he visited from the souvenir shops, which he bought nothing at, to some of the weapon and dust shops. At which Jaune bought plenty of ammo for his weapons along with an improved reapir and maintenance kit for his weapons. The kit Jaune had been using hadn't brought up any problems so far but was running low on oil and other standard maintenance essentials. Something the new one had in spades and with higher quality tools for cleaning.
Reselling his old kit which he had on him reduced the price but not terribly so. Regardless, it was enough to make a difference for him and the reserves of lien he had on hand. Jaune wished he had more on hand but all the bounties on Argus would take him from the city and he couldn't afford to take that chance with his ship leaving in two days.
Regardless once that was all done the sun was beginning to set and Jaune made his way back to Sky's. Upon arriving Sky answered the door with semi-formal attire eliciting an arched eyebrow from Jaune but he didn't press the matter. Instead following her into the house only to see another woman at the table along with Umber. Sky's kid presumably in bed already.
The new woman had jet black and deeply dark brown eyes and red rimmed glasses. She looked surprisingly calm at seeing Jaune and didn't say anything to him besides a nod of acknowledgement; to which he returned.
"This is Terra. My husbands younger sister," Sky introduced. "Terra, this is Jaune. A friend and apprentice of sorts. Don't worry, he's a good kid."
"I'm sure it would be okay if he joined s for dinner. Afterall, Sky and I made enough for four and your wife couldn't join us," Umber asked Terra in a kind voice. Terra didn't seem to need much convincing though as she nodded her head without an argument.
"Why couldn't she make it?" Jaune asked sitting down across from Terra not bothering to ask for the name of the wife.
"She's been a bit sick the last couple days. We had an appointment yesterday to make sure the baby was okay; thankfully her being sick wasn't affecting the baby," Terra answered as she took a sip of her drink. Though everyone noticed Jaune's confused look.
"Um… baby? How do two women manage that?" Terra adopted a confused look and Umber looked contemplative on how to respond while Sky sighed. She should've seen this coming knowing that Jaune has spent most of his life in the wilds. Deciding to bite the bullet for the other two Sky answered his question.
"It's a procedure Atlas invented a couple years ago. Relatively expensive but has helped not only lesbians have children but also couple's who have a hard time getting pregnant," Jaune nodded along to her explanation and accepted it for what it was.
Though Sky noticed the barest hints of confusion when she had mentioned 'lesbians'. Not that surprising to her, he'd probably never heard of the word or the concept before today. Homosexuals didn't exist in the frontier, or anywhere outside of the kingdoms or the select few places like Argus. There was a multitude of reasons for this but mostly because if you couldn't or wouldn't contribute to the population to help with the settlement or town you weren't worth anything. Even if you were a good laborer you weren't worth being accepted. Hell, last Sky heard from Lizzie Karachi and outlawed homosexuality on the grounds of banishment.
That wasn't all that surprising to Sky however. Despite Karachi being in just a good a position as Argus if not better in some cases it was both more isolated and in Mistral. Mistral was notorious for being extremely conservative in regards to sexuality. Almost as bad as Atlas was who still had arranged marriages and select breeding programs in their military, which Umber confirmed for her. Vale was extremely progressive in this area and no one cared what happened in Vacuo for the most part. Regardless, it all just how rare and disregarded homesexuality was. In a world where they were constantly hunted they would always need numbers.
Slightly shaking her head of those thoughts Sky looked back to her husband, sister in law and Jaune. All three of which seemed to be in a polite conversation about both Umber and Terra's jobs. Umber being a trainer and Terra being one of the engineers on the CCT array in the city. While not as strong or as important as the towers in the major capitals the array allowed for good communication, if a bit spotty at times.
While Jaune listened to the Terra speak about her job and what she did he didn't pay too much attention. Enough to be polite but simply put a lot of what she was talking about went completely over his head. She was speaking in technobable that he simply didn't have the education to understand. Though he was glad to notice that Sky was the in the same boat as him while Umber seemed to be slightly understanding. That made sense knowing Umber was her brother and was a Atlas Specialist for a number of years.
While they talked Jaune would try and jump in every now and again to either get clarification of something or put his two lien in. Terra seemed to enjoy talking about her job and did humor him on explaining some things. She did say she couldn't tell him everything but she gave him a crash course so he at least understood how the system worked. While Terra was giving him the crash course a timer went off from the kitchen and Sky go up going over to the kitchen. Two minutes later she walked back into the living room and put a pot or lasagna in the middle of the table.
Jaune waited until both Terra and Sky had taken food before looking to Umber and getting a nod from the man. Jaune then reached out and took two slices for himself leaving three left. Umber took all three and then they proceeded to eat. Sky and Terra held a polite, if tense, conversation. Jaune could tell that it wasn't overly hostile but the two women definitely didn't like each other very much. A brief exchange of looks with Umber had Jaune more or less okay with leaving everything alone.
While the women talked Jaune poked Umber's brain about his time in Atlas. His time there, any places to visit, places to avoid, people to avoid, the environment, the military, everything that Jaune could think of over the next 45 minutes as they ate dinner, talked, and had some type of chocolate desert.
In that time Jaune would find out that for the most part Atlas was a peaceful place to live, if incredibly stringent and uniform. Not much was true self expression besides the size of your wallet. People in Atlas were powerful, nepotent, arrogant and wealthy so it was best to avoid them if possible and always act like you were below them if you had to interact with them. The military was good and extremely pragmatic in it's views over the last 40 some odd years.
Human, Faunus, broke family, rich family; it didn't matter, if you were good at your job you got promoted. Apparently General Ironwood and Gracus, the current and former Atlessian head Generals, were extremely important in spearheading that way of thinking in the military. Of course, there were some consequences to this but more on personal nature that Umber wasn't willing to share. From the rumors about Atlas Jaune assumed that the consequences had something to do with personal freedoms and such.
As for places to visit and avoid there were plenty of places to visit but, in Umber's opinion, Mantle was better. He was the people were nicer, less haughty, more reliable and less likely to stab you in the back. The food was also far cheaper and better in his opinion. On the flip side you always had to be paying attention to where you were and the people around you. Mantle was crime riddled and while daily military patrols kept relative peace they couldn't be everywhere at once. Most criminal elements memorized the ever changing patrol routes by the end of the first day and would strike when the patrols were the farthest away.
Honestly, to Jaune it sounded like a heaven to practice situational awareness. Along with practicing enhancing his senses with Aura. Jaune didn't particularly want to visit Atlas as he had grown accustomed to the warmth of Mistral, summertime Vale and Vacuo's desert. He didn't want to buy more clothes and gear for dealing with the cold of Atlas and Mantle. An environment that Umber had no problem admitting would require specialized gear if he were to head outside of the walls of Mantle and Atlas. Maybe in a year after saving up some money for the trip.
When the dinner and desert finally came to an end Umber walked his sister to the door after exchanging goodbye's with both Sky and Jaune. As soon as they were out of whispering range Jaune turned to Sky.
"Why don't you two like each other?" Sky sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"I was hoping you didn't notice that."
"Wasn't that hard to tell Sky."
"For most it would've been ya perceptive little shit… I won't tell you though, just know its personal and her being a fa- I mean a homosexual doesn't help," Jaune wondered what she was going to say first but didn't push it. As Sky's disdain for homosexuality it wasn't terribly surprising to Jaune. Sky was a farmer, in the frontier, in Burke's area which was Mistral, until her mid twenties. For her to not like those people wasn't surprising at all. The fact she was cutting back for her husband was impressive though.
"Y'all taught me to be perceptive. That was literally the first lesson the group collectively focused on teaching me," Sky shrugged her shoulders nonpullsed. "By the way, Aedon's in town and he plans on visiting tomorrow."
"Nice of him to say something. Haven't seen him in a couple years," the sarcasm was palpable in her voice. "Any reason why he's coming to visit? Never does anything without reason."
"He's got a good reason but it's his to tell," she gave Jaune a side eye but didn't push. "Also, if you guys ever made any bets on him and Goodwitch it's confirmed."
"Bullshit," she snapped, snapping her head to look at him.
"Nope. Now, I'm going to bed," with that Jaune left Sky and went to the room she had provided. Instead of going straight to sleep however he opened up his scroll and began looking up the White Fang. With him going to Meangerie in two days familiarizing himself with them was good.
What Jaune found was slightly disconcerting. Mistral wasn't their first violent act, Mistral was just the first on outside of Atlas. They had been steadily getting worse in Atlas before Mistral happened. Almost all of said violence was against the SDC and after seeing what was allowed in Vacuo Jaune couldn't imagine what Atlas allowed in the face of pragmatism. The SDC was the practically the only one who could mine dust in the world. They could get away with basically anything if they wanted.
To err on their side for the sake of his own concious Jaune couldn't believe that the highest people in the SDC would be okay with what was happening in the mines. On the flip side most probably didn't care at all as long as the mines turned a profit. Which of course allowed anyone with halfway decent management skills to go on a power trip the moment they control a mine. A few pictures of branded Faunus on some White Fang forums painted a bleak picture of that. Denied by the SDC of course.
Which, seemed to only escalate from there. A video of an SDC representative pleading for his daughter and wife back from the Fang; he got the daughter, not his wife. Wasn't hard to understand what happened to her. Then a video of a public execution by the SDC at one of their mines of 30 Faunus workers who aided in a failed White Fang raid. Just a back and forth between the two that looked to be escalating to the extreme.
What Jaune had seen on that scroll in Vacuo highlighting this to the extreme. Mistral being the act that had spilled it outside of the SDC and into the civilian population. Something that in the time since he had been three the White Fang had escalated beyond acceptance. Attacking civilians who weren't fully supportive, raiding businesses and destroying lives regardless of if they sold to Faunus or not, a few counts of rape of human women, execution of surrendered SDC employees regardless of their position in the company.
To Jaune the White Fang were quickly becoming like the SDC. People looking for power trips in any place they could find with little oversight from the top as long as they got results. As of now there were two big differences between the two. The SDC seemed more of a centralized group, at least with their guards and soldiers. The White Fang were more than willing to involve and hurt civilians not involved with the SDC.
Jaune just hoped that they wouldn't be willing to kill him outright while he was in Meangerie. Hopefully, the favor owed to him from Mistral would keep him safe. Regardless, he would have to be on high alert on the island. Staying in Kuo Kuana would help as Ghira Belladonna, the chieftain of Meangerie, was fairly neutral to humans. While he wouldn't let them own any land on the island they were welcome to visit as long as they registered themselves. Only human huntsmen were allowed to keep their weapons which would help me.
Now, while Jaune mildly trusted Belladonna not to allow something to happen to him while on the island. The Faunus was the former head of the White Fang but had stepped down a few months before they became violent in Atlas. Plus if he could get a meeting with the man he might be able to find out if the Fang operators all answer to a single leader or do the cells act by themselves. Would help to find out whether or not what happened in Vacuo will stay there or spread.
Sighing and finally putting the scroll down Jaune rubbed his face after taking in all that information. Processing everything as best as possible for the moment he shook his head before getting under the covers and passing out.
Waking up the next day Jaune got dressed and made his way downstairs to the kitchen. Surprised to see that Aedon was already there, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in hand with Sky next to him. They were speaking in low whispers but from how Sky was acting Jaune knew what they were discussing. Grabbing a cup and some coffee Jaune sat in the open seat on Aedon's left.
"How far along are you?" Jaune asked the pair taking a sip of his coffee. Grimacing as he hadn't expected the coffee to still be so hot.
"You knew?" Sky hissed. Her anger understandable to Jaune.
"I had theories but nothing proven until he told me," she nodded at his words.
"As for where we were. We were just discussing the logistics behind creating my group," Aedon cut in. "Mostly what I want the others to do starting with Sky is to be the eyes and ears everywhere. Ozma and Salem focus too much on the capitals and big cities while we've made a living creating contacts all over the wilds and frontier. Where the fighting, rumors, general craziness, and movements actually happen."
"Our goal will be to get the information and act on it whenever possible. Salem is more of a priority than Ozma and we may work with his group from time to time but by no means are they actually allies," Sky jumped in. She was awfully accepting of it all but it did make some sense if I was right. She was Aedon's number two while the worked together.
"You've been travelling more than either of us over the last year or so," Aedon voiced. "Can you tell us anything?"
"Not much as far as rumors or sightings go but I can tell you two things for sure," Sky and Aedon nodded at Jaune's words motioning for him talk. "Something is going on in Mistral. Knowing about Salem now I think she has an agent somewhere highup in Mistral's government or Haven. Who, I have no idea, but someone is manipulating the environment there to make it as volatile as possible."
"Been following that since the White Fang riots. Mostly calmed down now but Hunters are dying at higher rates than normal the last few years… Though nothing of it to be honest but if that's the feeling you got there I got some people there that owe me some favors. They'll poke around and see what they can find," Aedon stated.
"And the second thing?" Sky asked.
"The White Fang are officially a problem. I would be lying if going to Meangerie didn't have something to do with what I found while in Vacuo," at their curious looks Jaune pulled out his scroll and selected the video before turning the volume off and showing it to them. When the video ended Sky was fuming and Aedon was pinching the bridge of his nose muttering to himself.
"Who elses knows about this?" Aedon asked recovering before Sky did.
"Myself, Theodore and Argent," that got both of them to give Jaune a curious look. "Argent was observing the mission to get his teacher's liscense re-upped."
"Let's keep it that way. This would reignite the Faunus war all over again and we don't need that right now," Aedon stated getting begrudging acceptance from Sky. Jaune didn't respond, he's kept it quiet till now; no point in changing.
"I'll let you know whether or not the Fang as a whole is doing this or if its a rogue commander. Should be easy to find out. Especially with the Belladonna being the Chieftan of Meangerie and in Kuo Kuana."
"Good enough for me," Aedon stated. Before he could continue Umber's voice joined us.
"Hello Aedon," narrowed eyes and clenched fist Umber looked about ready to start a fight the next moment. His eyes snapped between Aedon and sky for a moment before settling on Aedon. "So, this was 'Aedon' your boss."
"Yes. I told you that," Sky said slowly recognizing as I had that these two had definitely met before. Not on friendly terms either.
"How long have you known exactly who he is?" Umber asked while still looking at Aedon.
"About 20 minutes, he started explaining an hour ago," Jaune took a look to the clock on the oven at her words. Seeing 6:03 blinking Jaune assumed they started talking at five in the morning. Sky must've gotten ahold of Aedon to come that early. Regardless, at Sky's admittance of just finding out exactly who Aedon is Umber deflated slightly.
"At least you never knowingly lied to me… And you Jaune?"
"Yesterday." Jaune shrugged as he answered.
"How do you know of Aedon?" Sky asked, looking between the two men and Jaune would be lying if he said he wasn't also interested.
"Atlas protocol for all specialists who reach the rank of Commander or Vice Commander of the Specialists to be briefed by the top General and Academy Headmaster of Atlas."
"I am truly flattered," Aedon got unimpressed stares from the others before holding his hands up placatingly. "I'm not being sarcastic, kinda… It really is a compliment for them to have that high of a classification for me."
"Why are you here Aedon?" Umber asked taking his eye off of Aedon to go and make a pot of coffee.
"I was in the area with Glynda accompanying some of her students and ran into Jaune yesterday. We talked, I told him who I was on his insistence and he told me he was staying with Sky and I owed it to her and the others to come clean with them."
"That's it?"
"No. I heard from Jaune you're teaching Nikos and that she has quite the interesting Semblance," when Umber turned and opened his mouth Aedon already had his hands up. "I'm not here to influence or take your student, just to introduce myself. Polarity is one hell of a Semblance in this day and age. She gets good enough with it and she'll be one of the deadliest individuals on the planet."
"Why would you want to teach or train her in any way?" Umber asked looking between the three.
"Been on the sidelines watching for long enough. Time to get back into the swing of things," Aedon answered getting a nod of agreement from Jaune and Sky just stared at Umber. A silent conversation happening between the two.
"I'll let you talk to Pyrrha and want reveal your intentions to anyone. In exchange I want a cut of any and all money you bring in along with a promise that you will never bring any of your nonsense into our home,"Aedon looked mildly surprised at the easy way everything went.
"Didn't expect you to be this amicable. I fully expected to have to fight you on this," Aedon admitted freely getting narrowed eyes from Umber. The coffee machine signalling that it was done in the background.
"Why do you think I left the military?"
"Lintarri. Heard about that and what happened. I found out you where in charge of that and when you got no rewards or accolades and instead left the military a month later… Well, wasn't that hard to figure they were trying to shaft you."
"Wanted to Court Martial me," Umber answered with a nod. "Would've too if we had failed."
"Would someone mind filling me in?" Jaune asked getting a death star from Sky for his insensitivity but blank stares from both Aedon and Umber. Of which Umber sighed after a moment.
"Lintarri was an Atlas settlement near the border of Mistral. I was in charge of a training platoon at the time near there going through exercises. We were about halfway through them when Lintarri sent out a distress call saying their walls had been breached and were pleading for any help available.
I made the call to end the exercises and go help. We were about halfway there when Ironwood called and ordered me off, that it wasn't the recruits to try and save what he had written off as a fallen settlement. Told him to go fuck himself before telling the trainees if they wished to back out they would not suffer from doing so. No one did so we went into the settlement.
Lintarri held around 20 thousand people and by the end of the day when we evacuated all we could on every bullhead we could scrounge up there was maybe three thousand left. Of the 40 trainees plus myself and a squad of specialists only 22 of us returned. We… I lost 22 trainees and a specialist but saved three thousand people."
"You ever keep tabs on what happened to the people you saved?" Jaune asked getting a genuine smile from Umber.
"Seven have graduated from hunter academies across the world. Two are now specialists, 30 are in training to be specialists or hunters at other academies. And a couple dozen are now in Atlas' military. Had to make sure my people's sacrific meant something."
That somber note was the one in which Pyrrha had the misfortune to walk in on. Letting herself into the house as per usual for her training. Stopping as she entered into the room as four pairs of eyes locked onto her, all with varying degrees of sadness. Getting the distinct feeling that she had intruded on something deeply personal and froze in awkwardness.
"Sorry," she squeeked getting a chuckle from Umber and Sky while Jaune and Aedon exchanged amused glances. Not having known Pyrrha for long.
"C'mon Pyrrha. Let's make some breakfast," Sky announced and took the girl to the kitchen. With them gone Jaune walked over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup. His last thoughts before starting the day being that yesterday had been long and this one looked to be about just as long.
Hope y'all enjoyed. A lot of worldbuilding and talking in this chapter. Sorry if that ain't what ya'll like and I do definitely understand there. Just, RWBY made a massive world but never really took the time to truly develop in certain areas. That's what this chapter especially focused on.
There will be chapters in the future like this one as well but I'll try and make them few and far between to keep y'all interested and involved.
REVIEW. That's the only way for me to truly get better, feedback.