Once again
Jaune walked through the hall flashing his New huntsman ID to the guards along the way. It was useful, it allowed him to go into places that usually aren't allowed to any normal people.
"Sir." One of the two soldiers who guarded the door said to him with a salute, Jaune tried to mimic it awkwardly.
"No weapons allowed after this point, please, surrender your weapon before entering." Jaune nodded. Taking off both Crocea Mors and Wilt and Blush, he still had it, he didn't know why, but he did.
The soldier nodded, taking a step to the right to allow Jaune to move through the heavily guarded door, he expected to see a long hallway with a lot of doors.
Instead, he was met with a single door, with bright white light illuminating the room, too bright, in Jaune's opinion.
Jaune looked through the hard-light glass to see the terrorist, and madman, Adam Taurus sitting on the floor, playing with a rubber ball. Bouncing on the wall and the ceiling.
He didn't give him a glance, he just kept on throwing the ball, Jaune made his way and sat on the chair close to the door of the cell.
"Isn't it a little too bright here?" Jaune asked.
"Faunus has night vision, to combat that, Atlas decided to make the room too bright, so my eye will always hurt me, too bad for them, I'm better with my other senses." He looked at the corner of the room and smirked, no doubt for the hidden camera.
"What brought you here, Jaune?" the man in question looked surprised.
"How do you know my name?"
"You told it to me, and I'm pretty sure that's what Yang and Blake called you, you made an impression on me, so I had to remember the name. So, why did you come?"
"Why did you help us?" The ball missed his hand rolling away, Adam stood up to catch it, then started again.
"I just did."
"Bullshit." The sudden raise of the voice made Adam miss again, and made the guard run in, weapons drawn.
"STAND DOWN." One of the soldiers said, his weapon pointed at Adam.
"Stand down, I just got a little emotional, sorry." Jaune waved them off, then looked back at him.
"I know what you wanted Adam, you wanted to kill Blake and Yang, you even tried to kill Weiss, why? Why did you suddenly surrender and help us in Argus." Jaune gripped the iron bars in the middle.
Adam was silent for a while, Jaune only sighed and walked away giving up, only when he reached the door did Adam spoke.
"When I was a child, the monsters of the SDC decided it was time to give me a brand on my eye. When they did, it hurt. Metal boiling my skin, then the pain when they removed it and skin still stuck to it. My blood started to drip, and the next thing I knew, a white hair woman ran to me with bandages, telling me everything will be alright." He was looking at the ceiling, reliving that painful memory.
"I don't remember much from then, I just felt comfortable, safe in her arms, I didn't know who she was, I didn't know that Willow Schnee decided to take pity on me, my parents were dead, and I was sent to menagerie, where I met Blake and join the white fang. Soon enough, the memory was replaced with hate and resentment for them."
"But when I saw the Schnee react to it, and when I saw what I did to my comrade, I took a step back and saw what I turned to, I realized that I turned into those monsters, and at that moment, she jumped in to save my life." He laughed bitterly, Jaune couldn't read his expression.
"The family that I wanted to murder for years, and they saved me not once, but twice, I thought I had to repay it somehow, that's all." For the first time, Adam looked at Jaune.
He could see the pain and loneliness in his eye, he could only pity him, his actions, no matter how noble he thought they were, won't justify the death on his hands.
"Thank you." Jaune said instead.
"That's all I wanted to know." He turned back, walking away.
"Please, take care of Blush, it is a dear weapon to me." Jaune didn't face him, he only nodded his head and left the man to his eternal suffering.
/-/
"Thank you all, I know it wasn't easy to assemble on such short notice, but as huntsmen, you need to be ready at all times." General Ironwood said, standing in front of his desk facing them.
Everyone stood at attention, from Qrow to Oscar were present, all ready for combat.
"Now, after a long talk with Robyn Hill, she agreed to help with our plan with communication tower, she is in the know about Salem, not the other part." The General explained, pulling out a hologram map of Atlas.
"Somehow, Salem got wind of this, because the grimm attacks Intensified since them at an alarming rate." He pointed at The wall to the east, which had a lot of red dots, presumably grimm, there was a lot of them all around the map, like an invasion.
"You all know the truth, so you will be tasked with commanding the walls defenses, just in case you see the Queen herself, and if you do, report it immediately and wait for backup."
"Each of you will go to a set location to either protect it, clear the grimm, or to take land back. This job won't take long, hopefully. Worse case scenario, it would take a day, or Salem will decide to show up, any questions." He looked at them, and was happy to see few raised hands.
"How many soldiers each of us will have?" Weiss asked.
"Not much, about four to none, depending on who we are sending and to where." Ironwood looked to Qrow
"Why the hell are we doing this, don't you have your Ace to use?"
"Yes, the Ace-Ops has another classified mission that they need to take care of, the mission may take days or weeks." Qrow wasn't impressed.
"You're not telling us everything James." Jaune, Ruby and Ironwood winced, but Ozpin didn't notice the first two.
"Yes, I rather not say now, because it may not be something important, but if it turns out to be, I'll inform you." He said, eyes meeting Ozpin's, he nodded.
"As I said before, you all have access to the winter maiden area, however, none of you is allowed to meet her face to face, it's only a security measure, so we can somewhat control where the power goes next."
Jaune didn't know how to feel about the winter maiden being in a prison till her death, but knowing her fate, he accepted it was necessary, yet another person he needed to save.
"Penny will be with miss Rose, in case Salem tries to take back the maiden power." A buzz from Ruby's scroll alerted her, it was the location of her mission.
"Your mission is clearing grimm, it shouldn't be hard, and it's a perfect opportunity to test your powers without any damage." She looked happy with the idea.
"Weiss, you will be leading team FNKI on an escort mission, it will be the materials to Amity, remember, you are there to make sure none of Salem's agents are their to hijack it, or worse, hack the system." Weiss nodded, understanding the responsibility.
"Yang, Blake, and Nora, there was multiple murders in Mantle, it's driving the negativity high, I want you three to root the problem out, I suspect Tyrian, so be on your guard, you will also have a team ready to support you with one call." They looked anxious, but they didn't complain.
"Qrow, I want you to fly over the city, help the girls to find what's happening, and Oscar, I want Oz to help me with some plan for our immortal problem." They both nodded.
"Jaune and Ren, I want you to guard the wall on the east, you will have each squad of soldiers, anything get close to the wall, kill it. The place behind the wall is a testing facility, we can't lose it." They both shared a look and nodded.
"Good, I know this isn't the best situation, but we need to play with what we have and win." Ironwood dismissed them, all going to prepare for their own mission.
He collapsed on his chair and sighed, he clicked a button on his desk, showing multiple files on the fairy tale 'The girl who fell through the world'.
He opened one of the files, to find he wasn't the only one looking into it.
He wasn't surprised when he saw the person who was looking, Arthur watts, who's supposed to be dead.
"What the kid said was the truth." The realization didn't make him happy. Sure, now they have an actual advantage on Salem, with someone who knows the future.
On the other hand, he was the reason Atlas got removed from the map in the future, his arrogant, his pettiness, his semblance, resulted in the death of millions of innocent people.
No, this time will be different, with Jaune's help, he will make sure it will be. He scrolled through his contact and dialed the number he wanted.
"Doctor, I have a proposal for you that I think you'll be interested in."
/-/
The east wall was empty.
They could see white as far as the eye can see, there was no grimm, no nevermore, no human nor faunus.
It was a desert but on the cooler side.
"This is a waste of time." One of the soldiers said, they were all sitting in the control room, hiding from the Frosty weather in the warmth playing cards.
"It is our job, no matter how boring it is." Another soldier said, playing his card.
Jaune sat watching the cameras, making sure nothing was out of the ordinary, while Ren sat next to him, eyes close.
"I'm going to do a spin around the area, make sure nothing is there, you guys keep your eyes open." He instructed, they mumbled a response, but Jaune didn't care and got out.
The freezing wind hit him first, making him shiver in the cold, but he used his aura to protect himself from the cold and moved on.
His eyes traced the area, he didn't see anything, but he continued anyway, until a voice called him.
"You're stressing." Ren said, going straight to the point.
"What makes you say that?" Ren gave him a deadpan stare.
"Jaune, there's literally nothing here, I would say Ironwood gave us this mission to relax after what happened in Argus, everyone noticed how on edge you are." He looked at him with concern which surprised Jaune.
"Wait, really, I thought I changed the future again." He said the last part in a whisper, Ren didn't hear it, but saw the surprise look Jaune had.
"Ever since the fight in Argus, you've been more on edge, you know, Yang told us what happened." Jaune felt a cold sensation go through him at the memory of the fight they had.
"I want you to know I completely understand your decision Jaune." He looked surprised and Ren continued.
"You're a good person Jaune, even though you wanted to kill Cinder, you got overwhelmed with guilt, and you didn't want Yang to go through it too." Jaune didn't say a thing.
"I won't lie and say I know how it feels to take a life, but I have you know, team JNPR is ready to fight an Army for you, you're our leader, you're our friend, you're my and Nora's family, so no matter what. We won't give up on you."
His eyes locked on to Jaune's, his eyes widened.
"Listen Ren, I really appreciate you saying this, you have no idea how much this means to me, I had to Kill Cinder, the thing she could have done, the people she could have hurt, I couldn't just let it be." He took a moment to sigh.
"I don't know about Adam, I saw Weiss standing there, and my body moved on its own, I couldn't let him die, even though I should." He murmured the last part.
"It doesn't need to make sense, the mind does this sometime, it's a good thing you didn't want to kill him, it shows you that you still yourself, and me and Nora wouldn't have it any other way." He smiled at him and he returned it.
They stared into the distance, content with each other's company, until Jaune broke it.
"So, you and Nora…?" He trailed off.
"Yes." He said simply.
"Fucking finally."
"How long have you been waiting for us to get together?" Ren asked amused.
"Ren, Pyrrha and I had a bet for when you two would hook up, I said in our next year, she said after the festival. Looks like I won technically." Both men laughed, their arms held each other's shoulder.
"So, you and Weiss?" Ren said.
"What about us?" He asked, confused.
"Aren't you planning on dating her?" Ren asked raising an eyebrow.
"No? Last time I asked her out, she threw me into the emerald forest, not to mention the whole Neptune thing." He dismissed the idea, not noticing the deadpan stare Ren gave him.
He would have loved to go out with Weiss, but knowing what's coming, he couldn't afford to do anything that could screw things up.
"I hope the others have more fun than us." He thought, walking back to the warm control room.
/-/
"Fuck." Nora yelled, crashing through the building brick wall, she tried to get out, but her aura was too low to protect her and passed out.
"Shit." Yang glanced back at her, but her eyes quickly came back to her target, she shot in front of her, barely dodging the mechanical stinger by a hair.
"Oh, one is down, two to go." The man in front of her cackled, his pink eyes moving between her and Blake.
"Who's next, who's next, I wonder." He lunged at Yang, but at the last second switch his trajectory to Blake.
He caught her off guard, taking down her aura then used his blade to cut her arm off.
Yet he couldn't, he rushed back, dodging the blade coming to his head.
The blade started to move backwards, turning into a scythe, that swung towards his face immediately.
He flipped back, dodging the blade with the experience he built from killing hundreds of huntsmen.
Yet a fist caught his jaw, sending him flying farther into the Alleyway.
"Uncle Qrow!" she called with naked relief in her voice.
"The situation, now." He ordered.
"Nora is down, our backup team is in critical condition, and my arm is bleeding." Blake answered, holding a piece of clothes on the wound to stop the bleeding.
Qrow glance at the soldiers, who will no doubt die if they didn't get treatment immediately, he cursed and turned to them.
"Get the wounded out, I'll drive that asshole far enough."
"We can beat him."
"No we can't, look at you, the only one who can fight him is me and you, and one of us need to protect the wounded." He sighed.
"At least we have information on who did all of this."
/-/
Ruby was having fun killing grimm.
Of course, it was for training, but her new powers made killing grimm so much fun.
She tested fire, ice, wind, earth, and many more powers the maiden has. With Ironwood giving them access to the Winter maiden, she helped with some details about how to use the powers, how to draw it, and how to aim it.
It wasn't that much different from her silver eyes, they worked together quite well if she said so.
At that moment, four Ursa came from behind her, she turned her head, eyes glowing silver, and with a flash, they were gone
"You are getting quite well with your powers, friend Ruby." Penny complimented her, she was also flying next to her.
They flew above the area, it was bigger than Beacon was, yet without any of the building, it made it easy to kill this amount of grimm without any real effort.
"Thanks, I didn't expect to have such powers, I mean, I already had my eyes, but the maiden power is unfair." She smiled at Penny, her friend that she thought was dead was back.
Jaune did tell her that Penny is alive, but seeing Penny in front of her once again filled her with hope, hope that they can save Penny again.
Jaune didn't tell her that Penny died in the future, he just told her that Penny was alive, she couldn't miss how his expression changed, she suspected it, but when they reached Atlas and seen how he acted around Penny, it was clear.
Penny will die one way or another, she didn't know how or why, but she won't let her friend get killed again.
"Looks like our ride is here." Penny pointed to the bullhead that was coming their way, but her expression changed a little.
"Strange, we still have 10 minutes before we have to leave"
"Maybe we did such a great job that they came early?" Ruby suggested, and Penny nodded once.
"That's a possibility, let's go." The bullhead landed with a little distance from them, they chatted as they walked there.
The bullhead rear opened for them, there wasn't any soldier waiting to greet them, they just walked and took a seat next to the window.
"We are ready." Penny said, looking at the cockpit, but when no response came, they started to worry.
Penny released her seat belt and walked towards the cockpit, she heard the bullhead rear door close with a hiss, she looked back to Ruby, then back to open the pilot door.
A cubic case was on the seat with a handwritten letter that says 'Burn Red'.
Penny processed it immediately and ran the other direction to Ruby.
"Hey Penny, put the seat-"
"Run Ruby-" her voice was cut off, as the explosion pushed her forward, crashing into Ruby where she sat.
Ruby on the other hand was strapped in, and barely had anytime to undo her seat belt before she also got hit by the explosion.
A figure watched from a far the explosion with scope, a smirk came to her face as she saw the bullhead go to pieces.
Note: oh what an end, I wonder who did this, hmm?
Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter, next one will be less deadly and more rebuilding.
Please leave a review, so I see what I need to improve, and also to see in anyone can predict what's coming, I won't spoil what the brothers talked about so you still have room to guess who's gonna fight off Jaune.
Free Palestine.
And goodbye.