Empyrean

by Cold Daylight

This is Jaune's journey, and only he will save the world. No one else is good enough. No one else deserves it, especially not those traitors at Beacon. (De-emphasized gamer system, OP Jaune, Goes off-canon from the get-go.)

6. Chapter 6 - First Interlude

Okay so it's been a while since I updated, but I have three good reasons for why I was away for so long

1 - I took a holiday, went on a motorbiking trip to the mountains with my friends. Incredible time.

2 - The new Destiny 2 expansion launched and it was pretty great. Plus, it was the end of a 10 year long story, so i couldn't miss it. Plus i had to earn my raid jacket.

3 - The Elden Ring expansion. You'll understand.

So, to make it up to you guys, here's another double chapter. This is an interlude chapter, ending the first arc and starting the second arc. Jaune's going to come into his own in the next arc, but it's not going to be a long one.

With that out of the way, hope y'all enjoy this chapter!

---

Time Till Reboot: 0 H, 0M, 0S

The System Has Rebooted

Welcome Back : Jaune Arc

Jaune silently sat up in bed, wondering where he'd found himself. The smell of acetone and the pure-white walls reminded him of the Beacon infirmary, a place he'd found himself in often. Yet, this room had only one bed and was far too large and well-equipped to be in Ingress. It was far too well-heated, well-maintained, and by the looks of it, too well-staffed to be anywhere else but Atlas.

He stood off the bed, removing the IV drip from his forearm. No weakness compelled him to stay in bed, but one look at what he was wearing made him realize that maybe - just maybe - it would be a good idea to wait for the nurse and ask for some clothes before walking out in a hospital gown and being arrested for indecency.

He lay back down, rang the bell next to his bed, and lay back to wait. No one seemed to be in a hurry to turn up, so he took the chance to check the updates the system had gone through.

New Class: Empyrean

He who walks the path of godhood, walk the path of death. The Empyrean understands the soul, and through it, the world.

Class Trait : Soulbody : You can sacrifice some of your HP or Aura to massively boost your spells.

Class Trait : Untiring : Removes all stamina consumption.

Class Trait : Consolidation : Passive skills that fall under similar categories will be grouped together. The more skills get consolidated, the higher the overall percentage gain.

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been getting quite a few skills that were similar in function, and while they were passive, keeping track of them would become a chore along the way. This was simpler, it was nicer.

He gave it a once-over. Most of his skills had now been cut down to four skill categories.

Skill : General Mobility

Unobstructed movement and movement speed increase.

20% Speed Increase

Skill : General Awareness

Your ability to sense and react to enemies, as well as general awareness of your surroundings.

30% increase to reflexes.

40% increase to detection at ranges greater than 15M

Skill : General Combat

Your mastery over combat, be it with weapons or not.

30% damage increase from all sources

Skill : Recovery

Your MP, HP, and Aura recovery rates

HP - 2% per second

MP - 1% per second

Aura - 2% per second

The passive benefits were… world-changing, for lack of a better word. While he'd have to get into a fight to test out the majority of the skills, the sensory upgrade was massive. It was like having a zoom lens attached to his eyes that he could control on command. His skin was far more sensitive, he found, as he rubbed his hand against his bedsheet. He could feel every singular fiber his hand passed over. Most importantly, he could sense things through sound. It was almost like echolocation, but on a much grander scale, unimpaired by obstacles.

Combined, it functioned as a sensory suite that allowed him to gauge every person within a hundred meters around him accurately, and why he knew that he was the only patient in this entire hospital.

That didn't mean there weren't people around—quite the opposite.

The entrance to every single door leading from the entrance to his room was flanked by two trained Atlesian soldiers, each armed. Even the buildings surrounding the hospital were swarming with soldiers. One was posted on the roof of a building across the street, overlooking the window of his room.

Cheekily, he waved at the soldier who no normal person would have been able to see, only to see him taken aback, scrambling for his radio.

Within seconds, all the soldiers in the building left in a hurrier yet orderly fashion, as Winter walked into the building. Someone must have called her the moment he woke up.

"Didn't expect you to be the first person I saw after waking up. I would've dressed a bit nicer." Jaune spoke as Winter walked into the room, took one look at his half-naked body, and squeaked before running back out and closing the door.

"Put some damn clothes on you d-dirty philanderer!" She yelled.

"I would if I had any!" Jaune yelled, listening to Winter as she rummaged around in a closet in another room, the door opened slightly, and a white t-shirt and pair of denim jeans flew at him with unerring accuracy. The door closed again.

"Not quite my style, but thanks, Winter. I appreciate it." Jaune spoke, slipping into the fit. It wasn't quite his size either. He wouldn't be caught dead in such an oversized tee and a pair of jeans this tight, but taking a look in the mirror, it seemed that his newly upgraded body could make any fit look good.

"We'll go shopping after we visit Atlas. General Ironwood wants to meet you. Plus, we gotta pick up Jade." Winter answered, finally walking into the room. Jaune didn't miss the light dusting of pink on her cheeks, though.

"Sure. But are you sure you're feeling well?" Jaune asked, walking closer to her. Maybe a bit too close, considering her entire face went red.

"Y-yes! I'm perfectly well, thank you!" She stammered, quickly turning away and walking out of the door. "We S-shouldn't keep the General waiting!"

Left alone in the room, Jaune heard her speedily descend the stairs to the entrance, much faster than she'd climbed them originally. Was it something he said? Then again, she did see him half-naked. Maybe the awkwardness was making her act out.

He put it behind him for now. She said she was fine, so he had no reason to doubt her. Still, his outfit wasn't one he'd like to meet a General in. While it couldn't be helped, he had to make sure the General took him seriously. It was about damn time someone did.

Thankfully, he had just the skill to make sure to impress the gravity of this meeting on the general, his outfit notwithstanding.

He'd spent his entire life being a clown. In school, at home, at Beacon. He was the comedy relief, the goofy guy who was and would never be a threat.

He would never be a joke again.

---

Ironwood was tense.

He didn't like being tense. He was okay with being terrified. He was okay with being put in tough situations, his semblance was tailored around it, allowing him to strengthen his resolve. It had got him through some of the most difficult situations he had ever been in. In a world of huntsmen who could shoot lightning, or perform telekinesis, his simple semblance had served him well enough.

But mettle did not dispel tension. As he sat on his chair, in an office which served as a culmination of everything he'd worked for his entire life, he couldn't help but be nervous about meeting the man who had - overnight - become the most important man in the world.

It wasn't hyperbole. Jaune Arc was the legal owner of the world's largest untapped dust deposit. He was the owner of miles and miles of land that even with his vast army, he wasn't sure he could have liberated.

That, plus the millions of lien they owed him for taking care of both Lau and that… creature. He was set for life. Some part of him wanted that to be the end of it, for him to take the money, maybe set up a nice deal with him regarding the mines, and usher him into retirement so early it would make salarymen the world over cry.

It wouldn't happen, though. Over his long, arduous climb to the top, he'd met many strong people. Men and women who could burn the world had they the inclination or the willingness. They were only limited by age, and because it threatened everything they'd built to get to that point of power. For a huntsman, age begets power. 'Fear the old man in the profession where people die young' was more a rule than an exception when it came to men like him.

Jaune was neither old, neither did he have anything tethering him to sanity. Not to say the boy was insane, a quick perusal of his records - provided generously by Ozpin - proved that by all accounts, he was a boy who wanted to play hero.

That was the problem. Theirs was a cruel world and a naive teenager like him was still susceptible to being sold a delusion. He'd lost young and powerful huntsmen to the queen before. Centuries of life could turn anyone into a master manipulator, one just had to talk to Ozpin once to learn that little factoid.

However, the reports made by the members of the Ace Ops and Winter had given him some hope regarding that. The kid was tough. Not many people could kill as many as he had and not simply… break down.

Still, that was a problem for later. One he knew he couldn't solve. The more immediate concern was the dust deposit. He had plans for the deposits, and by the brothers, if he could get Jaune to cooperate, he could get rid of one of the most problematic aspects of Atlesian high society.

That cursed Schnee was doing more damage to public morale than a full-out Grimm migration. Had Atlas's public relations team not been the most funded branch of government, the city would have been bombarded by Grimm day in and day out. His monopoly on dust production was the only reason he'd been given such leeway by the powers that be.

Take that way from him, and they could coast off the good press for decades to come. And there was nothing that kept Grimm away better than high public morale.

The logistics of it would be… rough. Sure, Winter was in his court. She'd be his woman on the inside. He could link up with the old heads of the fang and get Menagerie involved. The knock-on benefits of this… corporate heist would be incredible for the entire world.

And it all hinged on one man. A man who was currently taking the elevator up to his office.

He straightened out the collar of his uniform one last time. No, he was not fretting. He was General James Ironwood. He was beyond things like that. Still, no harm in one final self-check. It would be… unbecoming of him to not be presentable.

His thoughts were put on hold the moment the elevator opened. Winter walked in first, she was fretting, which was not common. Not common at all, considering he'd never seen her present herself as something less than perfect. The reasoning became apparent though, as Jaune Arc finally walked in.

He had an aura around him. Not the 'light of the soul' aura, but a presence. It felt like the most important man he'd ever met had walked into the room. He was wearing a simple white tee and jeans, but he could have walked into the GET gala wearing the same getup and no one would be able to look away. Such was his presence that It wasn't till he'd walked up to Ironwood's table that he was finally able to form words.

"Ah, Jaune Arc, I presume?" He asked, trying to play off Jaune's presence as a minor event in a packed day. Yet, the unmistakable tone of reverence in his voice made the words sound like he'd been waiting all day for this one meeting.

Which was true. He'd cleared out his whole day the moment he heard the boy had woken up.

"That would be me, yes." He replied, taking a seat in front of his table. Even the way he sat down without prompting made it seem like it was his office that Ironwood had accidentally walked into instead.

His very presence made Ironwood feel like a foreigner in his own seat of power.

"Well, quick introductions. I'm General James Ironwood, headmaster of Atlas Academy." He spoke, getting an acknowledging nod from Jaune. There was an ethereal grace to even his simple movements. It was captivating.

"Thank you for taking care of Jade while I was out. Also, my apologies for startling the soldier guarding my room's window. I might have had some fun at his expense." Jaune spoke. The incident wasn't something his soldiers reported, but he'd sent some of his best men to guard Jaune when he was comatose. The fact that one of them was discovered was… not surprising, considering what Jaune had accomplished recently, but informative nonetheless.

Was this his subtle way of telling Ironwood that any attempts at assassinating him were foolishness? There was no way to be sure.

"I'll be sure to forward your message. For now, I believe we have some rather pressing matters to discuss." Ironwood veered the conversation back into his court. Jaune was kind enough to not interject.

"By the law of conquest, You own all the lands between the border town of Ingress, all the way to the western coast of Solitas. You own a third of the continent, which makes you the fifth largest nation in the world, strictly speaking." He spoke, and for the first time, he saw an expression of surprise on Jaune's face.

"Huh… that is a lot of land. I assume most of it is useless considering both Grimm density and the cost of settlement." He answered quickly. He'd lived in Ingress for a short while, so of course he knew that the value of the land itself was next to nothing. That said, the land itself would become crucial if the dust deposit was to become a dust mine.

This brought him to the hardest part of this conversation, broaching the subject of the dust deposits. It was better to create some goodwill before dropping the proverbial bomb and bringing up the money he'd earned by taking down Lau would have helped with that, but his original idea of paying Jaune a lot and getting him out of the way had vaporized when Jaune first walked into his office. Now, it was time for a more… straightforward approach.

"I assume you understand well enough why this 'useless' land has made you into the most wanted man in the world, correct?" He asked.

Jaune sighed. "Yeah, really big dust deposits. Lots of prime dust, could revitalize the dust economy. I get the gist of it." He crossed his arms over his chest. "My question is, what do you want to do with it?"

"General, would you allow me to take it from here?"

Jaune's draw was so great that Ironwood had forgotten that WInter too was in the room, sitting right next to Jaune, at that. He gave her a quick nod. It was her plan, after all.

"Thank you, General." She spoke, turning in her chair to face Jaune. He didn't miss the blush on her face. It seemed young Winter had a crush. Good for her. Under normal circumstances, he would congratulate the man who'd caught her affections. One look at Jaune told him there was no need for it. He was more than a match for Schnee, after all.

"My… father, as you know, is the head of the Schnee Dust Company. He's sullied the name of our family. He's ruined what my Grandfather created, all on the back of indentured faunus servitude, and he's been getting away with it his whole life." She started. "We want your help to strike back at him, to depose him of his power, put him where he belongs, in a cell."

"Okay, sure, but if he's such a problem, why haven't you dealt with him yet?" He spoke. There was no humor on his face, but no judgment either. It was a simple question, yet, it was clear that his association with them depended on the answer.

"Because there was no alternative. Think for a second. We take him down, the company goes into public management, and there would be a gap in dust production while we fix all the rotten processes that he'd put into action. For weeks to months, the world's total dust production would grind to an absolute halt, not to mention that he could have any number of failsafes in place to take down his entire operation were he ever to be taken down. We had no second option." Winter spoke, taking shuddering breaths. Her hands were balled into fists, her knuckles white.

"Knowing all this, how could we take the chance?" She finished, and a silence dawned over the room. Jaune was stunned by the sheer amount of thought Winter had given it. Ironwood, meanwhile, was given pause by the sheer venom in Winter's voice.

"No… I guess it goes to show how much you have thought this through. I also assume that it wasn't feasible to kill the Phoenix?" He asked, prompting Ironwood to answer.

"Not even remotely. While we do employ the largest army of huntsmen in the world, the sheer loss of life made it an impossibility. Attacking it from the sky was also out of the question, considering…" He tapered off, but he knew Jaune understood.

"Okay. Let's say that I'm in. What's your plan?" He asked.

Winter calmed herself before continuing. "Firstly, we'd have to ease up on the public relations we've been running for the Schnee Dust Company. Let the ugly bits show." she took a deep breath, "We then send the ace ops to video the mining camps, and get irrefutable proof of his… misdemeanors. Then we let public sentiment bubble for a while while I embark on the hardest part of the mission."

"And what would that be?" Jaune asked. Ironwood already knew what came next, and he was not looking forward to it.

"I'll have to convince Mother to divorce him, and take back the Schnee name." She whispered. "It… won't be easy, but if I succeed… he will have to rename the company. And once the new name settles in, we drop the evidence." She finished.

"Won't… won't that cause extreme civil unrest? It could attract a lot of Grimm." Jaune countered.

"Well, that's where you come in, Jaune," Ironwood spoke, clicking some buttons on his console to bring up the video of Jaune fighting the Phoenix. It wasn't the original cut, instead, it was professionally edited. They'd even gone far enough to remove any scenes in which his face was visible. He'd worn a mask into battle, after all, and had been at the heart of an entire media narrative centered around nepotism in Beacon before that. Ironwood knew the only way to make sure he'd sign off on this video was to keep his identity secret at all times.

"Not to say I'm not flattered or anything, but why are you showing me a supercut of my most recent fight?" Jaune asked.

"Jaune. What you did out in the frontier was the stuff that heroes are made of. And in my long life, I have found that nothing inspires hope better than a true flesh and blood hero." He finished.

"You… want to broadcast that video?" He asked, genuinely shook.

"On every platform possible. What you did will set the benchmark that every aspiring huntsman will fall short of. You will, through this video, proclaim to the world that the next champion of humanity is here. You will peddle hope, and that hope will afford us time us to fix this broken system. So, Jaune Arc, allow me to use you to give hope to this world." He finished, the gravitas of his overly-hammed-up speech was not lost on Jaune, or so he hoped.

"As long as my face is not shown in the video. I'm okay with that." Jaune acquiesced, and had Ironwood been just two decades younger, and not a General, he would have invited Jaune out for a round of drinks just for that.

"The second part is the deposits, we want to make a deal with you regarding those, but that would be the next step in the plan. We want to establish a collaborative effort between the Schnee and Arc families and create an Atlas-sanctioned company to replace the Schnee dust company.

"That… would be hard. I'm not currently on any sort of amiable terms with my family. Hell, last I heard, they were hunting for me." Jaune spoke,

"Guess we both have family matters to sort out." Winter commented, getting a sage nod from Jaune.

"I should be able to convince one of my sisters to tack on her name to the company's leadership for now, but something on this scale will require me to deal with my family." Jaune spoke, "Which should be the next thing on my agenda anyway, considering I have to talk to Mom about Jade."

"Speaking of young Jade… she has been living with Winter since you returned from Ingress. It has been eye-opening to see the kind of skill she has at her age. Would you be opposed to allowing her to join Atlas?" Ironwood asked.

Jaune grimaced at that, "She's twelve, General. I think it is a bit too early to consider something like combat school for her."

"Most kids join preparatory combat schools like Signal at this age, Jaune." Winter commented.

Jaune took a second to respond to that, Ironwood noticed hesitation, something Jaune had not shown ever since he walked into the room.

"I want to get her inducted into the Arc family, if possible. From there, I'll ask her if she wants to go to Atlas to become a huntsman." He spoke, his words measured. "She is her own person, and while I see myself as her elder brother, I won't make her decisions for her. I'm better than that."

"That's understandable. I hope I get to see her at Atlas sometime in the future. Talent like hers should not be wasted." Ironwood finished.

"Would that be all, General?" Jaune asked.

"For now. I need to slowly start sowing the seeds of this endeavour, while the two of you have your own demons to deal with." He spoke, eliciting a chuckle from Jaune.

"If only they were demons, General Ironwood, they would be easier to deal with. For now? I believe It's time for my homecoming."

---

Skill : Presence

There is divinity inside you, show it to the world

Active

For a skill that described itself so badly, it sure seemed to work wonders.

He was on guard the moment he entered the room. He had been expecting Ironwood to be a no-nonsense military man, and in all honestly, that is what he was. Yet the moment Jaune activated Presence, it had flipped the script completely. Ironwood couldn't demand anything from him, only request for help.

Help that he originally didn't want to give. He didn't want to be dragged into the politics of a nation he wasn't even part of. But between Winter's plan and the video, he'd come to realize something.

His actions had, and would continue to change the world.

He'd left the meeting first. Winter and General Ironwood stayed back to discuss their next move and offered him the chance to go and explore Atlas instead. He'd leaped at it, and now, he was aimlessly roaming the halls of the academy.

It was ridiculous how different Atlas was to Beacon. While Beacon was built like an old-school academy, complete with towers and arches, Atlas was… modern, for lack of a better word. He couldn't find a wall without a screen. The classrooms were state-of-the-art, with the desks doubling as computers. He guessed they didn't even want their students to deal with the hassle of carrying notebooks for their notes.

He wouldn't have made it a day here, which was good because he'd never applied for it either.

It was too detached from what he considered a good learning environment. It was too militaristic, too clean, too mature. He could see why even though they had enough funding to feed an entire country, Atlas was always beaten by Beacon when it came to the quality of graduates.

He pulled his new scroll out of his pocket. Winter handed it off to him on the car ride over to the academy. His old one had been been in his pants when he fought Lau, and what little of it was left would need to be scraped off the ground back where he and Lau fought.

He'd already caught up with recent events. Things had been pretty lukewarm worldwide since the Vytal festival ended. Other than the capture of some White Fang bigwig in Vale, there wasn't all that much. He checked the placements of the Vytal festival and couldn't help but smile as he saw that Citron and team NPR had won. It was heartening to see that Citron was keeping up his end of the bargain, but a pang of sadness hit him when he saw the winner's photo.

He didn't begrudge Citron. One couldn't choose who they fell in love with, or how far their partner would be willing to go just to be with them.

That aside, It was weird having a scroll with no notifications on it. His last scroll hadn't stopped beeping till he'd travelled halfway to Ingress, where the CCT connection finally cut off.

His finger hovered over the RemChat app. He needed to log in to message Saph that he'd be dropping by, assuming they hadn't moved out yet. Last he heard, Terra had landed a pretty lucrative job somewhere at an Atlesian port.

Plus, he should congratulate Citron on his win.

He logged in, marveling that he even remembered his password. The wonders of having high INT. The app opened, only to close instantly. Surprised, Jaune went to open it again. Before he could even tap the icon, his phone started going off at full volume.

It wasn't a call. Just an endless barrage of message tones. His time in Ingress flew by so fast that he forgot he'd spent over a month there. Now, back in CCT range, all the messages he'd missed were being delivered to him, all at once.

He quickly cut the phone volume and waited as the phone kept vibrating for a good half a minute. He gave it a few more seconds, just in case it had any last-second jumpscares left for him. He then gingerly picked it up, treating it like an unexploded IED, before opening the app.

There were the usual messages from all three of his mothers. A few from dad. A few hundred from his sisters. There were even a few from Grandma, even though she could barely use the app. Citron had sent a few, and he decided that's where he would begin

CitrusChef: Bro if u've gone nd died, I'm going to find u and kill u

CitrusChef: Okay I lied bro r u ok?

CitrusChef: Why tf is this not delivering?

CitrusChef: Jaune! Respond dmmit!

Jaune got a chuckle out of that. There were around fifty messages before this salvo, scrolling up, it became clear that Citron had sent a message daily. He felt a bit bad about not replying, but in his defense, back then, he either didn't feel like it or was out in the middle of nowhere and couldn't physically reply even if he wanted to.

JauneDaMan: Yo.

CitrusChef: YO?

CitrusChef: U BEEN INCOMMUNICADO FOR TWO MONTHS AND U REPLY WITH YO?

CitrusChef: BITCH YOU OKAY?

JauneDaMan: Yea man I been thru sum shit.

JauneDaMan: Was out of coverage area my b.

CitrusChef: Dafuq, where did u go?

JauneDaMan: U'll know soon enough

There was no doubt in Jaune's mind that Citron would know it was him in the video. His entire style of swordsmanship was taught to him by Citron. He'd practically beaten his style of swordsmanship into Jaune. Even now, enhanced by all his skills and stats, the core of his swordsmanship had yet to change.

CitrusChef: Das fucking cryptic.

CitrusChef: R u in jail? Did u kill sum1?

CitrusChef: Do I have to worry?

JauneDaMan: Nah, I did something stupid.

JauneDaMan: Definitely better thn ur Vytal win

JauneDaMan: Gratz btw

CitrusChef: I made a promise.

CitrusChef: Cudn't break it.

CitrusChef: Also, no way you did sumthing cooler

CitrusChef: Am literally MVP

JauneDaMan: Dw, u'll see.

JauneDaMan: It'll be fun

JauneDaMan: Dnt tell anyone when u find out.

CitrusChef: HELLA cryptic.

CitrusChef: But yea I'll keep it secret

CitrusChef: Shit's been weird since u left.

CitrusChef: Blake Sun nd Yang dating

JauneDaMan: How does that even work?

CitrusChef: Fuck if I know.

CitrusChef: Started after the ball.

CitrusChef: Lots of alcohol involved.

CitrusChef: I barely patched things with Pyr.

CitrusChef: Team is dysfunctional in evrythng but fighting.

CitrusChef: U really were the glue

CitrusChef: Shouldn't have said that.

JauneDaMan: Na it's okay.

JauneDaMan: Can't say I'm over it, but

JauneDaMan: Time heals all wounds.

CitrusChef: That's fucken BS

CitrusChef: Nora misses u

CitrusChef: U visiting next Vytal?

JauneDaMan: Yea, I made a promise u see

JauneDaMan: Gotta show u up

CitrusChef: Hah, good luck.

CitrusChef: I beat Pyr in sparring.

CitrusChef: best in class

JauneDaMan: We'll see

CitrusChef: Gtg, Oobleck lecture

CitrusChef: keep in touch whore.

JauneDaMan: Noted, bitch.

He couldn't help but smile after that chat. He hadn't expected the drama dump, but it definitely cheered him up a bit. It was nice to know that Blake was out of the slump she'd fallen in after the docks incident.

The message about Nora missing him hit him hard. While Ren was very openly in favor of getting him kicked, deep inside, he knew it was because he couldn't afford to have a weak link on a team that had Nora in it. She was all he had left.

Unfortunate. He'd make it up to her when he visited Beacon in two years.

He then moved on to the other person he had to chat with.

JauneDaMan: Hey Saph, u still in Atlas

JauneDaMan: Need to discuss sumthing with u

JauneDaMan: Can I drop by for dinner? I'll get us sumthing nice.

DeadlyDahlia: JAUNE!

Furyschia: U LITTLE SHIT!

UltraViolet: WHAT THE FUCK

It was then that Jaune realized that he'd sent his messages in the siblings group chat instead of the private chat.

In his defense. The last person who'd responded in that chat was Saph, and every chat around it was just a cacophony of unread notification.

He sighed as he looked back at his scroll. The chat was moving so fast that he could barely keep up.

NightZinny: He's in Atlas!

Prim: Mom's getting the bullhead ready!

Cerooolest: Which one?

DeadlyDahlia: Which mom or which bullhead?

Cerooolest: Both! Any! Idc! How did we miss Jaune in Atlas?

JauneDaMan: Tbh I've only been here a day.

SuperSapphic: Yeah Jaune I'm still here.

Cerooolest Lock him in a closet till we get there.

JauneDaMan: Not going anywhere sis.

NightZinny: We got orders 2 drag u home

DeadlyDahlia: Ur so cooked bro.

JauneDaMan: Eh, wanted to visit home anyways

Furyschia: Visit?

UltraViolet: VISIT?

Prim: Jaune, stay there. We'll be there in a few hours. We're taking u back home.

JauneDaMan: Got sum shit to do before u do.

JauneDaMan: Got sum1 I wanna induct into the family.

Cerooolest: ... did u fucking make us all aunts?

UltraViolet: WHAT!

Furyschia: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID U DO TO OUR LITTLE BABY BOY?

JauneDaMan: Nah not a daughter.

JauneDaMan: Like a lil sister

JauneDaMan: She's 12. U'll luv her

Prim: Hey Jaune. I don't think you understand what kind of shit you're in.

Prim: The elders want to put u on trial. Might exile u.

Prim: Dad's not opposing it.

Prim: Plz don't do something stupid.

JauneDaMan: Bit too late for that.

JauneDaMan: I'll deal with the council if needed.

JauneDaMan: Need to get back at them for Saph anyways.

Cerooolest: Holy shit.

NightZinny: His balls finally dropped.

Furyschia: Our little boy's become a man.

Prim: Jaune. I don't know where u got this false bravado.

Prim: They're the council.

Prim: Plz don't antagonize them.

JauneDaMan: We;ll see.

JauneDaMan: They been acting up since dad stopped caring.

JauneDaMan: I'll be at ur place at 8, Saph.

Furyschia: So will we! Mom 1 and 2 are already packing!

Cerooolest: We'll keep property damage to a minimum I swear!

SuperSapphic: Please… we haven't paid off the mortgage yet.

Jaune put down his phone even as the messages kept coming, He'd said his piece. If the council wanted to deal with him, he'd deal with them.

Five years ago, when Saph was going to marry Terra, they tried to cut her off from them. If the entire family hadn't come together at the last moment, there was a real possibility that Saph's marriage would have been annulled.

The Arc Council was an outdated concept, especially because two generations worth of people currently held power in the compound. If needed, he'd take care of it, permanently.

He would not let Jade come to harm, he'd bet his life on that.

"Friend Jaune?"

He was broken out of his thoughts by a familiar voice. It was a tiny orange-haired girl who he'd met with Ruby around the time the docks incident happened. Days after he revealed his secret to Pyrrha, and days before he'd been expelled from the academy.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone I knew. My apologies." The girl spoke, meanwhile, Jaune was racking his brains, trying to remember the girl's name.

"Oh, no, I am Jaune. We met at Beacon. I'm sorry, I don't remember your name." Jaune answered.

"Ah! Yes! We only met for a moment when I was with friend Ruby. Salutations, my name is Penny!" She spoke, bowing in the most robotic way possible. Because, well, she was a robot.

It wasn't easy to fool Jaune, especially with his new sensory upgrades. Whoever had assembled Penny did an incredible job with her. None of her mechanized joints were visible, but the human body didn't make mechanical sounds with every minute movement, no matter how quiet.

"I was hoping you weren't friend Jaune!" Penny spoke, confusing Jaune.

"And why would that be?" He asked.

He got his answer when Penny's back opened to reveal half a dozen blades on wires. He barely got a warning before the blades flew at him. He noticed how each blade was aimed to minimize damage but incapacitate him enough to capture him with ease.

It was far too slow and weak to pose a threat to him, however, as he easily leaned out of the way of the incoming blades.

"Friend Jaune, you are a wanted criminal, Apologies, but I must uphold the law!" She spoke, trying again.

Jaune didn't even give her the chance. He knew she was a robot, but he still didn't want to go overboard. He made his way past her blades, batting them aside with enough force to break or bend them. In his perception, it felt like they were moving in slow motion. He grabbed her face before she could even register the shock of him slipping through her attack with such ease, and with minimal effort, he smashed her down into the ground, destroying her aura in one blow.

He took a second to look at his handiwork. His movement speed was surprising. In conjunction with his new sensory update, it felt like time moved at whatever speed he wished it to move at because of how extremely upgraded his processing time was, a byproduct of having high INT.

Penny, meanwhile, was getting up, even after having her Aura destroyed. He guessed it would be too much to ask her to faint like a normal human. His attack had done some real damage to her. Parts of her dress were frayed, revealing wiring and circuitry. Still, she stood there, her destroyed blades did not obey her commands, but she was unwilling to let him go.

"I won't let you go, friend Jaune! You must answer to the law!" She exclaimed, though her voice sounded distorted. The internal damage was greater than the external. He was lucky he'd ended up in a fight with her before he'd used his power on a human. He'd have to tone it down a bit.

"Penny, just step aside. This isn't a fight you can win." Jaune retorted, standing across her. There was a small group gathering. Some of them, Jaune recognized from the festival. He couldn't name any of them, but from the looks of it, they also didn't know who he was.

The greater issue was that some of them were pulling out scrolls to record.

Jaune's body moved before he had time to process his next move. He moved so fast that the floor cracked with every step he took, He caught Penny on his second step and then accelerated as much as he could.

Which was enough to cause a sonic boom, and enough to blow out every single screen in the hall. The sparks and plastic flying around were enough to make the gathering students move to protect themselves. By the time the commotion settled, Jaune was long gone, and Penny was gone with him.

---

"You do have my apologies for this, Jaune. We haven't updated her database in a month at Doctor Polendia's insistence."

James was doing all he could to hold it together. The first meeting with Jaune had gone off without a hitch. He wasn't just receptive to their plans, he wanted to be helpful. The conversation had already done wonders for his morale. He was about to wind up for the day early, a rarity for someone of his work-ethic, when Jaune entered his office at speeds that would give the fastest huntsmen an inferiority complex, carrying the heavily-damaged body of Penny Polendia, his greatest gamble, and Pietro's 'daughter'.

Over a small but informative exchange, he learned that Penny had attacked him due to his previous status as a wanted criminal. Outwardly, he gave Jaune one of his famous political apologies, but inwardly, his heart sank.

Jaune Arc, the only man who could push his plans forward, had been accused of being a criminal and attacked in his very academy. If that wasn't bad enough, Penny had been outed as an android in front of the students. Not only did this have a chance of ruining his only chance at deposing Jacques Schnee, but it also ruined any chances Penny had to assimilate into society.

It was a disaster on both fronts, and it looked like it would be getting worse.

"Could I try to heal her?" Jaune asked.

"Beg pardon?" Ironwood blurted out. Jaune could see the wiring hanging off Penny's frame. He knew full well she was a robot. What in the brothers' name did he mean by healing her?

"I recently learned that my semblance allows me to heal others. I'm curious how it would work on a robot who has a soul. Best case scenario, you can avoid some costly repairs. Worst case scenario, nothing happens." He spoke with a shrug. "It's a win-win."

And it was. He wasn't asking for reparations or going back on his promise to help. He was offering to help the very person who had just tried to capture him over a small error. Just what kind of life had he lived to be this uncaring of his own self?

An insidious thought crept into the back of his head. It was very much possible that to Jaune, this was the norm. To have mercy for those who would brandish their sword against him. He quashed it immediately. Even a hero complex has its limits, and he knew very well that Jaune was capable of killing those who deserved it.

He already had the blood of hundreds of legion members on his hands, after all.

It gave Ironwood new perspective on Jaune Arc. He had been merciful because - in his mind - Penny was not a threat. The pristine condition of his clothing was proof enough of this. The greatest weapon that the smartest minds of Atlas could come up with hadn't even managed to nick Jaune.

This was how he viewed the entirety of Atlas. They were no threat to him. He was offering help so openly because he believed that if they did end up double crossing him, they would still be no threat to him. In his mind, he could visualize Ozpin chuckling.

After all, it was him who first told Ironwood that mercy is a privilege of those who are strong.

"Go ahead. If it's as harmful as you say, then I have no objections." Ironwood said.

Jaune crouched down next to Penny's unresponsive form and put a hand on her head. The pupils of his eyes glowed bright gold, and an aura of white energy surrounded Penny for a few seconds. It slowly unraveled, revealing a fully healed Penny.

Jaune took his hand off Penny, and scratched the back of his head.

"Uhhh. General, I think I might have fucked up." He spoke, and Ironwood's heart sank.

"What happened? She looks perfectly fine from the outside." He replied. Even as he did, he realized what Jaune was talking about.

Penny's perpetually pale face, made from the most skin-like rubber they could find, was no longer pale. It looked… real.

"Please don't tell me you turned Atlas's most complex robotics project into a human being." Ironwood spoke, exasperated.

"Okay, I won't" Jaune answered back with a straight face.

---

"I leave you alone for fifteen minutes and you somehow end up creating what can only be described as a divine miracle," Winter spoke as they sat in the back of her chauffeur-driven limousine. "Honestly, I should keep a tracking chip on you at all times. Just in case."

"Did you really give birth, Jaune?" Jade asked, looking up at Jaune, who was trying his hardest to sink into the plush leather seats and disappear.

"Please don't put it that way, Jade. I just tried an ability on… a rather unique individual, and it had an unintended outcome." He tried to explain what he'd done without really explaining it. In all honesty, winter wasn't even sure he could explain what he'd done even if he wanted.

"No Jade, he didn't give birth, he gave life to a literal robot." Winter spoke, half irate, half amused. "Are you trying to start a new religion?"

"Honestly? No. But now that you've mentioned it, think about how funny it would be. You think I'd look good as a statue?" Jaune asked, grinning ear to ear.

The thought that he was already chiseled enough to be a statue passed through her head unbidden, causing her cheeks to flush. It was bad enough that Jaune had no idea what he was doing to her, but the fact that he was succeeding where countless others had failed was what really put the nail in the coffin.

Winter had never had a crush before. She was privately schooled, so the only boys she'd met growing up were the snobby, irritating sons of other businessmen being courted by her father. The reason she chose to be a huntress was originally to escape being married off to one of those ponces. After that, she had to make sure he was the best of the best at Atlas. Given that she was in an all-girls team and that she did not bat for the other side, no one had any chance of actually trying to woo her.

It had come to a point where Winter had considered trying online dating. Either that or just giving up.

Then in comes Jaune Arc with his disarming smile, looks that a supermodel would kill for, kindness that bordered on naivete, and strength beyond what a mere mortal should possess, and grinds her resistance into dust.

She observed as he caught up with Jade. it was heartening to see how they behaved around each other. He'd met Jade less than a month and a half ago, and yet they behaved like family. It was easy with Jaune. Talking to him was… nice. He was interesting, yet respectful. He knew when to speak, and when to listen. Most importantly, he was neither a lecher who lusted after her looks, not a gold digger trying to marry her for money.

After all, he looked better than her, better than anyone she had seen, bar none. He was also going to be richer than her, and if things went to plan, her long-term business partner.

Which left Winter with a dilemma. There was a simple policy she subscribed to, something she'd observed every living day of her life. When something seems too perfect to be real, it generally is. She grew up thinking her father's company was a fair place, a place where people came to work because they wanted to, because they saw a future there.

Only to learn that it was anything but.

She'd been around Jaune a while now, and yet, she couldn't find it. She couldn't find the duplicity that had to be there.

Sure, he had a hero complex so devastating it could end up killing him, but he was also strong enough to live through anything short of a meteor strike. That couldn't be all…

"Lien for your thoughts, Winter?"

She was startled out of her thoughts by Jaune's voice. He was leaning towards her, close enough that she could feel his breath as he whispered into her ear. Instantly, the blush returned. Still, she kept her cool, switching gears so fast it surprised even herself.

"Just… the plan. I'm trying to take down my own father, you know? What kind of daughter does that?" She spoke words that came to her unbidden. In a way, she was trying not to think about it, and thinking about Jaune had made an easy distraction. Now? Her mind was back on the railroad towards some very very dark thoughts.

"A good person. That's who." Jaune spoke. Winter tried to reply, but he put a finger on her lips, shush-ing her.

"Good and evil are not objective things, Winter, but sometimes, people take actions that can be put in one of those two categories without a shred of doubt. Your father's actions firmly placed himself into the latter, and you are a better person for putting aside that relationship to be in the better category." He finished, taking his finger off and allowing her to speak again.

"That makes it even worse. I still have to convince mother. Weiss is in Beacon, so by the time she learns about this, it'll be too late. Whitley is too young right now, what effect would this have on him? There are too many variables, Jaune, and it all hinges on me convincing mother to leave the man she once loved." She retorted, trying her best to keep her voice low, to keep her emotions muted.

Just as her father had taught her.

"Hey, you got me on this wild ride. If you can convince an absolute stranger like me to participate in all this, I'm sure you can get your mother to cooperate. You've known her your entire life, after all." He replied.

"If only it were that simple." She finished, allowing silence to fall on them. Jaune put an arm around her shoulder, a sign of solidarity, and it did help. He was a warm person, and he was willing to do this for her. She leaned into him, soaking it all in.

Maybe having a crush on someone like him wasn't all that bad.

---

"I still can't believe she lives here."

Jaune muttered to himself as he knocked on the rickety door leading into the tiny townhouse that Saphron called home. There was no bell, so he knocked again. Instead of getting a response, the door just… creaked open. A cursory check revealed that the latch was hanging off a single screw.

Abysmal security aside, the house was rather well-decorated. He could feel Saph's designer touch all over the house. For someone with a degree in management, she always did have a soft spot for interior design.

That said, neither she nor Terra were home. He'd only met Terra a handful of times, but he was sure he'd be able to pick her up with his enhanced senses if push came to shove. He sat down in one of the three sofas and elected to wait.

He didn't have to wait long, as the door creaked open once again. He watched as Terra walked in, a grocery bag held in each hand. She passed by him completely, dropping the bags in the tiny kitchenette located right opposite of where he was sitting.

It wasn't till she turned around that she finally noticed him.

"Yo."

She screamed so loud it caused Jaune to wince. Enhanced senses and shrill voices did not go together well. It took him a second to recover, and by that point, Terra had somehow procured a gun from under the kitchen counter.

"H-hands up where I can see them!." She spoke, and it was then that Jaune realized that because of the recent changes in his body, she could no longer recognize him.

What also didn't help were the clothes Winter had given him earlier. Jaune Arc did not dress like this. Between the change in looks and the change in fashion, Jaune wasn't surprised that someone who wasn't a close friend or long-time family member wouldn't recognize him.

"Sure, sister in law. Anything else? Maybe a drink would help?" He spoke, jokingly raising his hands. He saw as realization struck and she lowered her gun.

"JAUNE?" She all but yelled. On cue, Saphron entered the room, holding Adrian in her arms. She's stayed out the moment she saw Terra draw her gun. From her position outside, there was no way she could have seen Jaune.

They had something of a safety code in place. He had to give his kudos to Terra for packing heat. With a house like this, they needed it.

Not that it would stop someone who really wanted to cause them harm. He'd have to deal with that at some point.

"Jaune. Holy shit, you've grown." Saphron handed Adrian to Terra, who was still shell-shocked by the fact that she'd pulled a gun on her brother-in-law. With Adrian handed off, she jumped at him. Glomping him like she used to. Except, he wasn't the soft, gangly teen he used to be.

"Wow! That's uncomfortable. Did you spend the last two months locked up in a gym?" She asked as he let him go. She gave him a playful punch, only to wince. "Are muscles supposed to get that hard?"

"You're punching my Aura, sis." He replied, not commenting on the fact that even if his Aura wasn't there, it would have still had the same effect.

"Huh, keep forgetting they unlock that when you go to a huntsman academy." She replied.

"Not exactly, but let's stick with that." He shot back. It was better than telling her that he got his aura unlocked by Pyrrha after almost becoming a blood splatter on a tree in the Emerald forest.

"So, you know that our entire family is hunting you, right?" She asked.

"Yep. Heard it when I was out on the frontier. Works for me, I had to visit home at some point anyways." He replied nonchalantly.

"Okay. Did you just say you were at the frontier?" She asked. "And why are you so casual about this?"

"You read the chat, sis. I kinda picked up a little sister on my travels. Gotta get her inducted into the family." He replied with a shrug.

There was a second of silence, only broken by Adrian gently snoring in Terra's arms

"Terra, dear, I think I'm going to need a drink tonight." She spoke, slowly sitting down.

"Let me just tuck Adrien in. I think we'll need more than one drink tonight." She answered, walking into one of the rooms with Adrian.

Jaune and Saphron sat across each other, Jaune with a shit-eating grin on his face, while Saphron held her head in her hands, probably nursing a migraine.

"Soooo. Nice house you got here." he tried to start a conversation, only for Saphron to give him a withering look.

"Oh bite me, Jaune. Do you know the prices for properties in Atlas? This shithole cost me and Terra our entire life savings, and this place doesn't even come with a fucking lock!" She seethed.

"Eh, I'd say this place is a cool hundred grand." He spoke, quickly doing the mental math. "Maybe closer to ninety, considering just how run-down it is."

"That's… surprisingly accurate. When did you become a property dealer?" Saphron asked.

"Oh, I just took an educated guess. So, you know that I can't let you raise Adrian in a hovel like this, right?" He spoke, the grin disappearing from his face.

"Unless you've got a cool half a million your sis could borrow, this is the best we can do right now. We're already down to one job between the two of us, and even though I could earn more than Terra, she's so bad at housekeeping that I don't understand how she functioned before we met. With her being between jobs, we're barely making do." She retorted.

In response, Jaune picked up his phone. "You still use the same account?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah, didn't see any point in changing it. I Got Terra added as my partner to help with taxes, but the account number should be the same."

"Got it." Jaune spoke. He checked his balance once. The account was new, opened for him by General Ironwood himself so that he could deposit the bounty money Jaune was owed. Even now, the sheer number of zeroes on his balance page looked unreal to him, someone who had never had anything more than four digits in his account, ever.

"If you're trying to send me a request for the last ten lien in my account, don't. Cerulean already made that joke. It wasn't as funny as she thought it'd be." She complained weakly. It was weird seeing Saphron this tired. She was the second eldest of the siblings, and all her life, she'd been one bright ball of sunshine. To see her so… defeated, hurt Jaune more than he could express.

He increased the amount he was about to send her by another zero, just to be on the safe side, clicking send soon after.

"Alright, sent you some Lien. Should tide you over till Terra starts her new job. Speaking of which, aren't you two supposed to be moving soon?" He asked.

"Yeah, she got a job in Argus. You know, that port city in Mistral. We went there to scope out the place this summer." She sighed. "It's a fucking military base. It's no place to raise a child."

"Huh, then why not just stay here? The money I just sent should tide you over for a pretty long while."

She rolled her eyes. "Jaune, we're a married couple with a kid. I don't know how much you sent us, but we really can't live on a packet of ramen a day like we used to when in university. Unless you've somehow become a multi-millionaire and oh-so-generously decided to share your endless wealth with us, it's not going to help us." She took a deep breath. "Look, I know you want to help. I appreciate it. I appreciate the fact that I have the most caring brother ever, but let us figure this out. Trust your sis, we got this."

Her spiel was interrupted by another familiar shriek. This time, a joyous one. It stunned Jaune nonetheless. He made a mental note to find a way to deal with loud noises. Something like this could be debilitating in combat.

"SAPH! CHECK YOUR PHONE!" Terra flew out of her room at such speed that Jaune was surprised she was just a civilian.

Without complaint, Saph picked up her phone. It had vibrated when Jaune sent the money, but she'd ignored it. He saw in real time as her eyes glossed over. There were multiple seconds of silence as reality set in. Her gaze then flicked over to Jaune, then back to her phone, then back to Jaune.

"You'll find, sister, that a multi-millionaire has oh-so-generously decided decided to share his wealth with you." He parroted her words back at her. "Still think you can't coast off this for the foreseeable future."

The shock had subsided at this point, and was replaced with a pointed, inquisitive gaze. "Jaune, you just wired us ten million lier from a government account. I'm going to rule out the possibility that you are a drug baron. You also don't have the lying skills to be the mastermind behind some large-scale wirefraud. So, where did this money come from?"

"I did someone a good deed, and ended up with more money than I know what to do with. Don't worry, you'll find out what I did soon enough." He spoke, his shit-eating grin refusing to leave his face.

"Okay. I'll buy it. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." She said, getting up. "But I know you, brother dearest, and I know that look as well. You want something from me too. And while I'd do heinous things to get that kind of money. It can't be something illegal. We're on thin ice with the council already, and I can't jeopardize my family, no matter what amount of money you're offering." She spoke, sitting down next to Jaune.

"Well, yes. I do need your help." He spoke. Saphron opened her mouth to retort, but Jaune cut her off. "Let's just say I'm starting a business. I've recently come into the possession of some valuable property that the Atlesian government is very interested in. Now, I'm not the managerial sort, so I need someone from the family to join the company, keep the family name in there, so to speak."

"Are you sure this business of yours is going to be fully above board?" She asked, doubt coloring her tone.

"One of your partners in this venture will be General Ironwood himself. If you want, I can call him to confirm." Jaune cooly answered.

"The fact that you have the most powerful man in Atlas on your speed-dial aside, what will I need to do?" She shot back.

"At most show up for one stakeholders meeting every financial quarter. That, and collect your monthly paycheck. Pay's going to be pretty great, I promise." Jaune answered.

There was a moment of silence. "So what you're telling me is that you, who is being hunted by all our sisters, dropped by just to give me ten million Lien and what sounds like a dream job?"

Jaune shrugged. "When you put it that way, yeah, I gues-"

He was cut off as Saph practically tackled him off the sofa. She wrapped her arms around him, and before he could as much as reciprocate, he heard her sobbing into his shirt. He embraced her back, patting her back.

She'd done the same for her too many times to count, after all.

"Jaune… I don't have words to thank you." Terra spoke, still reeling from shock. Jaune shot her a kind smile as he continued to console Saph.

"Just take good care of her and Ardian. And for god's sake, please move to a safer place." He spoke, matter of factly. "That gun wouldn't stop a huntsman. It wouldn't even stop a motivated civilian. I entrusted you with my sister, don't let me down." He spoke.

"Speaking of a lack of security. I must leave now." He said, slowly removing his arms from around Saph. She leaned back, trying her best to compose herself. She quickie wiped her tears, giving him the happiest smile she could muster. Just like she used to back when they were kids.

"Y-yeah, you should leave before the family gets here. I'll try and hold them here for a while, buy you some time." Saph spoke, trying to gather herself the best she could. Jaune just smiled at her.

"Oh Saph, they surrounded the house ten minutes ago. The only reason they haven't broken in was because they didn't want to intrude."

He got up from his sofa, giving Saph one last quick hug. He gave one to Terra too, who reciprocated just as well.

"Please Jaune, don't do anything stupid. The council is many things, merciful is not one of them."

Jaune turned around one last time to look at Saph. He saw the hurt in her eyes. The council had almost ruined her life. She didn't want that him to go through what she went through.

"Don't worry about me, sis," Jaune stated, never letting his smile fall.

"They couldn't do shit to me even if they wanted to."

---

He could sense all eight of them, each in a different vantage spot around the house, The moment he exited the house, he saw them all shift.

They thought he didn't see them. They wanted to follow him till he was in a place with no witnesses. This was a snatch and grab mission, and he was the target.

Of course they didn't know how much the last two months had changed him. How could they? Sure, he looked different, but that was a given when teenagers were involved. They were all veteran huntsmen, each with hundreds, if not thousands of missions under their belts. There was no way a greenhorn with a few months of training could detect them.

So when he looked straight at where Claire Arc, the first wife of his father was hiding and gave her the universal signal for 'follow me', he liked to think she was quite shocked.

Of course, he didn't stay to find out. He took off for the outskirts of the floating city. He'd scoped out an area earlier. A construction site, abandoned by the builder. Whether due to lack of funding or other matters, he could care less.

It was out of the way, and there was no surveillance. That's all he cared about.

He got there pretty quick, even though he was limiting his speed to a point where his family could keep up. He had to wait less than a few seconds before they all landed around him in a perfect circle.

They kept a distance of six feet as if accounting for a weapon. It was standard procedure. At this distance, he couldn't escape without being intercepted and couldn't attack without being blindsided. No wonder it was their go-to.

"Took you two months and me messing up and sending a message in the group chat to find me, huh? Oh, how the illustrious huntsmen of Arc have fallen." Jaune spoke, looking straight at Claire, who was leading this hunt as she always did.

She was a tall woman, standing at an easy 6'3. Even in her late forties, she was beautiful, with her long red hair done up in a high ponytail. Dad's teammate, his teenage sweetheart, and the closest huntress to him in terms of skill and ability, even though it wasn't much of a comparison.

His father was a monster, after all.

"I still call bullshit on that. We tried every lead we could find. After leaving Vale, your trail just disappeared."

It was Cerulean who piped up. The youngest sibling after Jaune, she had a good two years on him and one year as a professional huntress. She was the closest to him after Saph, what with the two of them growing up together.

"Skill Issue." he replied, two words enough to tick of the sister who'd grown up losing to him in every videogame they ever played. It was the easiest way to rile her up other than joking about her height. At 5'3, she was the runt of the litter, and extremely violent when that particular factoid was brought up.

"My my, my dear little Jaune's become such a stud! And so cocky too! I'm not sure whether to be proud or surprised."

Jaune's smile became forced when he turned to face his third-oldest sister. Fuschia arc was the school idol back when she still went to school. She was tall, beautiful, with long violet hair. She was considered the most popular person in school when she went to Beacon.

She was also a raging bro-con.

Not to say she'd ever done anything to him except crack very inappropriate jokes. But there was this one time a senior had hit Jaune back during recess in middle school. As a highschooler, when she'd heard about it, she found the bully after school and what transpired next could best be described as 'borderline manslaughter'.

She loved him, maybe a bit too much.

"What can I say, sis, I'm a slippery target." He responded, instantly realizing he'd messed up.

Thankfully before she could add another inappropriate one-liner to the conversation, Violet and Zinnia decided to intervene.

"Okay, let's be realistic, Jaune. There are eight of us here. You already want to visit home. Just come quietly." Zinnia spoke, worry etched on her face.

"Yes! Please Jaune, don't make us beat you and stuff you into a bag for the fight home! Those things are terribly hard to breathe in!" Violent continued, getting a horrified reaction from Zinnia.

The twins. Inseparable since birth. Both were born from Juniper, Father's second wife, and they both took after her in looks. Not too tall, not too short, cute as a bun, with long, Blonde hair and violet eyes. They were hard to tell apart even for members of the Arc Compound.

That is, until they opened their mouths.

Zinnia was a peaceful soul. She preferred doing gardening in her free time and helping out at the local pet shelter. She was the flower of the household. She was gentle, kind, and physically strong enough to lift a school bus with one arm.

Violet was the polar opposite. All she ever wanted to do was break stuff. It got so bad that at one point, Dad forbade anyone from gifting her any toys. To their horror, she responded by unlocking a semblance based around building micro-weapons that resembled toys… without any pre-requisite materials needed.

The peace-lover who could hit like a truck and the violent brute whose semblance turned her into an incredible support huntsman. The ironies of the brothers truly know no end.

Finally, Prim stepped up.

Primrose Arc. The pride of House Arc. The first flagbearer and heir apparent to the position of clan head. At six feet tall, she was the tallest of the sisters. She wore her long red hair in a messy bun, and on her face was a look of grim determination.

"Jaune. I'm sorry, but the orders of the council are clear. You are to return to the Garden of Blades immediately and face a trial for besmirching the name of our house." She spoke, pointing her spear straight at him.

"Huh, you really have settled into your role as the council's little attack dog. If the first flagbearer is already in their pockets, maybe all hope is lost." Jaune shot back.

"They're our elders. The brothers and sisters of out Grandfather and Father who couldn't become clan leaders. Treat them with respect, Jaune."

This time, it was the second mother that spoke up. Juniper Arc finally stepped up. With her Blonde hair and dark blue eyes, she often got mistaken for his mother. To some extent, it was true. She raised him just as much as his birth mother did. Still, that could be said for any of them. They'd all raised him, cared for him, protected him. Maybe a bit too much, but all the same.

Which is why it angered him so much to see them controlled by the council. It was a symptom of a larger issue. The only person in the family the council could not control was father, and with him always being off to kill some legendary grimm or fight off an incursion, there was no one to oppose them.

That would not do at all.

"They're simply men and women who failed to gain power when it was their time. Now, they're trying to gain it through controlling you, and none of you have the balls to oppose them." He spoke. As much as it hurt him to be this rude to his own loving family, it was something that needed to be said.

"Oh dear Jaune, there's a line where cockiness stops being cute and ends up being ugly. Are you sure you want to cross it so brazenly?" Fuschia spoke. Her tone was still playful, but it was strained enough for Jaune to see that his words had hit a nerve.

"It had to be said, no offence, but someone's gotta do something about it, and you guys don't seem to want to take the initiative." He shot back.

"And you can?"

He moved out of the way as Cerulean attacked him. It was fast, faster even than Lau's punches. What it lacked was the strength. That's how her semblance manifested. Incredible speed, beyond what even someone like Ruby could attain.

Yet to Jaune as he was now, it was sorely lacking.

"Why not? After all, they did want a trial. It can go both ways, you know?" Jaune spoke, easily dodging another flurry of blows, noticing as Cerulean got more and more exasperated with every miss.

This was how the Arcs spoke to each other. Combat was their lifeblood, and till now, he'd always been denied it.

"To lead the family, you must be strong." He spoke, maneuvering gracefully around another of her blows. "You must be exceptional." Another quick slip past a panicked haymaker put him behind her, and he leaned down next to her ear.

"You must be the greatest of the great. That's what it means to be the patriarch."

She replied with a roundhouse kick, which he leaned out of the way of. Seeing a free opening, he finally capitalized. He landed a heavy left hook into her flank, and saw her aura shatter in one blow. He caught her as she fell, noting that he'd controlled his strength perfectly. No outward damage.

That was good. He didn't want to hurt the people he loved. Only their egos.

"If I need to be the next patriarch to change our family, then so be it." He spoke, cracking his knuckles while enjoying the shocked expressions on his family's faces.

"I'd recommend you attack me all at once. It would take too much time otherwise."

---

Life after the Vytal festival had returned to its usual monotonous pace. Wake up, go to class, train afterwards, maybe go into Vale with his team or Pyrrha. It was simple, it was nice.

For Citron Arvess, it was stagnant.

Citron was from a huntsman family. Not an old or storied one, but prominent enough that he had never been left wanting his entire life. Still, his parents had never pushed him to be a huntsman, or anything for that matter. It was his choice, and they respected it.

That - in turn - made him respect them further.

It also made him sympathize more with Jaune. Unlike him, Jaune's choice was stripped from him all life long. He'd come into Beacon barely able to hold a sword properly. Unfit, untrained, but not unwilling.

Jaune's mind was sharp, sharper than anyone else's. He absorbed knowledge like a sponge. It only took a month of training to get him up to snuff with the general Beacon entrant.

Had he been on any team other than JNPR or RWBY, Citron was sure Jaune would have grown into an incredible hunter. Other teams were normal. They worked their asses off to survive Beacon, slowly shedding their excess baggage and evolving into great huntsmen.

His team and their sister teams were… the polar opposite.

There was enough natural talent on these two teams to be truly generational. Ruby was a young prodigy with the mental capability of, well, a very sheltered sixteen year old. Yang was a masterful brawler with a hairpin trigger, blake was the very essence of finesse, and Weiss had both a hereditary semblance and years and years of private tutelage.

Not to discount his own team. Nora was a monster. A little, loveable monster, but a monster nonetheless. Ren was both fast and elegant, with a keen mind and complete control of his emotions.

Then, there was Pyrrha.

Pyrrha had been his goal ever since he met her. She was a complete fighter. Offensively, defensively, strategically, every move she ever made was the perfect choice. It was like she was put on this planet to redefine the meaning of war.

And yet, over the course of his time with them in Beacon, he realized something… staggering.

They refused to grow.

Combat was not a solved art. It wasn't science. There was no be-all-end-all method of winning every fight. Yet, they refused to adapt. By the time the Vytal festival had come around, He'd gone from being weaker than all of them to Beacon's great hope.

And he had won the festival. He had beaten all comers. His stratagems had not failed him once, because he knew that every single huntsman he went against was as one-dimensional as they could be.

Meeting team RWBY in the finals was a given, and in his mind, so was beating them. They were his friends, so they needed to realize that just doing the same thing over and over again would not get them victory, not against a superior foe.

Yet, even a month after the festival, there was no adaptation, no change in the way they fought. Sure, they made promises to get him next time, the usual bravado, but nothing came out of it.

He could visualize them as fully-matured huntswomen one day, still doing the same thing, still fighting the same way, still falling for the same tricks.

The academy was supposed to be a safe space, somewhere they could grow and learn before the world decided to teach them its painful lessons unprovoked.

His last hope had been Pyrrha. Surely someone of her caliber would evolve when dethroned? Yet, when he finally defeated her in Miss. Goodwitch's class, she wasn't frustrated, she didn't take it as a weakness.

She was happy he'd won, because it took some of the hype away from her.

She'd become even more sedentary after the loss, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Sure, she was the perfect girlfriend, and he loved her dearly, but he couldn't help but realize that to her, excellence was a burden. Sure, she went through the motions, still trained hard, but there was no variance in her forms, no change in her methods.

It almost felt like the only reason she wanted to be there was to be with him, and that scared him deeply.

How could someone with so many advantages in life want so little out of it?

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. It was not his place to intervene. He would have to be strong enough for the two of them if push came to shove. It was a source of motivation, and to him, any source was good enough if it motivated him to grow.

Still, he couldn't help but feel that he'd rather have Jaune on his team over anyone else. And why wouldn't he? Jaune had, over the course of a semester, gone from being an absolute novice, to someone who could beat Cardin in a spar. The same Cardin who was ranked right below team RWBY and CNPR on the rankings.

Had he stayed for all four years, he would have been generational, maybe even beyond those who had led to his expulsion in the first place.

He sighed, resting his arm against the door of his dorm room. It was a sigh of relief. He'd been worried about Jaune ever since that day they last met. Getting a reply from him had been a massive weight off his back. Just learning that his best friend was safe and healthy was enough for him, for now.

He entered the room to find his team huddled around the big TV they'd using the prize money from the Vytal festival, and instantly froze.

"As you can see, not only was our mystery huntsman able to take down the great beast of the Frontier, we also have exclusive clips, courtesy of the Atlesian government, of his fight with former terrorist leader and recently deceased criminal, Lau Ka Long."

And what clips they were. The blond huntsman was like a streak of lightning. Incredible with the blade, and incredible without it. The speed he and his opponent moved at was barely capturable by the camera. It was breathtaking.

It was also completely unfathomable that these were human beings.

Yet, it all felt so familiar to him. A clip of the huntsman fighting the big fuckoff bird played, and Citron was sure he recognized the huntsman's style of swordsmanship. Even in the clips where he brawled with the big man, the way they both fought was reminiscent of Yang's style.

It wasn't till a clip of the huntsman cutting open a massive gash in the bird played that he recognized the style of swordsmanship.

It was his style. A style that he had created and curated over his lifetime. A style built for infinite versatility, with no hard and fast rules holding it down.

A style that only two men in the world knew.

The clip paused at the end of the fight and zoomed in. The recording was from pretty far away, so the final image on the screen was a still of the blonde huntsman from the back. His shoulder-length blonde hair blocked off most of his side profile, but it was enough proof for Citron.

Jaune did ask him to keep it a secret, after all.

Jaune had grown, just as Citron had predicted. What he hadn't predicted was the degree by which Jaune would grow. It had scarcely been three months since his expulsion and here he was, trading blows with monsters so dangerous that their defeat could be seen as divine intervention.

"Currently, we lack any details about the huntsman except that he is a collaborator of the Atlesian government. By the law of conquest, this man is now the lawful owner of all Solitas land past the frontier, all the way to the ocean."

Just as Jaune has said, he'd done something stupid, but as per the promise they had made to each other that fateful day, he'd gone and become a hero.

"The community buzz around him has been increasingly positive. We believe that a huntsman of this caliber working with us, working for us, can only mean good things for the future."

Now, the ball was in Citron's court, and he had to make sure to keep his end of the bargain before they met again.

"We expect great things from him, and we believe this outlook is unanimous. The new generation of huntsmen is here, and we cannot wait to see what changes they bring to our world."

He looked at his team as they watched the broadcast, enraptured by it. Yet, he saw the look of realization dawn on Nora. She turned to look back at him.

She knew, and she knew that he knew.

Brothers, it was going to be one hell of a conversation when Jaune did turn up to Vale next.

---

"That's how he did it, right?"

Blake watched as Yang hit the heavy bag in front of her, trying to emulate what she'd seen on the broadcast the day before.

"Yeah, you're getting close. Keep at it!" She responded, not because Yang had replicated the move she was trying to learn well, but because there was no way she could. She didn't have the explosiveness, the speed, the power. No one did.

Except Jaune Arc, apparently.

It didn't shock her that no one recognized him from that distant, blurry video. But she did. It was hard to fool the gaze of a faunus, especially one who had spent her life growing up around the Fang.

Blake knew how to read people. She had to. She met a hundreds of people every rally. She had to learn because it was a necessity. Even later, as she fought alongside the Fang, she had to learn how all her companions fought. They all wore masks, and she needed to know whose skills she could trust in a sticky situation.

And that's why she knew the person in the video the moment she saw him fight. It wasn't just that, it was his behavior when he was talking to the large man, who was apparently part of Yang's family tree, though quite far removed from her immediate family.

The worst part was that she couldn't tell anyone.

How could she? Ruby had started worshipping him as an idol. He was the hero she wished to become one day. She was still young, still naive. Her dream had to be protected. Learning that the hero she looked up to was the man she helped kick out of Beacon would kill her.

She couldn't tell Yang either. While she had not been antagonistic towards Jaune in his final days at Beacon, she hadn't been supportive either. She'd never thought of him as a threat, and that was part of how her ego worked.

She was strong, yes, but her confidence was what made her unique. A lot of her confidence came from her public perception, and how she saw herself. She'd never cared about Jaune because - in her eyes - he was harmless, miles down on the pecking order.

She'd already been hurt when Citron had overhauled the sparring rankings. The fact that she was trying to emulate the style of someone who she had always seen as below her would cripple her confidence.

Plus, it was obvious that he wanted his identity hidden. The video had been edited well, to the point that she could barely tell it was spliced, yet at no point was his face shown clearly. Sure, there was no mosaic filter, they wanted people to be curious about him, but not give enough hints for anyone to figure out who he really was.

At least not now, when he'd so recently been part of a global controversy regarding nepotism in Beacon.

It was mind-blowing to her that there were so many layers to the PR behind this video. In a way, it was also safeguarding them. They were the most vocal proponents to Jaune's removal from Beacon. If everyone knew it was him who had suddenly emerged as a generational huntsman, they'd become pariahs in Beacon.

The worst part was, Jaune could very well do that. If Jaune was petty, if he truly wanted revenge, he could have revealed himself. It would have caused a complete re-evaluation of his earlier situation, and there was a possibility - however slight - that the people who initially outed him would be investigated in return.

And she, by association, could be outed as an ex White Fang agent.

Yet, he hadn't done that. He had solved the matter as diplomatically as possible. And for that, she was grateful. Maybe, if they were ever to meet again, she'd be able to express her gratitude to him.

She just hoped it would be after she graduated Beacon, for the sake of her own future.

---

Cerulean woke up with a start, only to wince in pain.

She took a deep breath, calming herself. Her Aura was slowly recovering, that was good. Her left flank hurt like a motherfucker, telling her that she hadn't been out long enough for it to heal fully.

"Oh, you're up. Great." She heard Prim speak, walking into her room. In the darkness, she could barely make out it was her. Her spear was missing, she noted.

"Did… did anyone get the number of the truck that just hit me?" She joked, but Prim didn't laugh, which was odd. Any of them would take any chance to laugh at each others' injuries. It was sisterly protocol, after all.

"Same one that hit all of us. The Jaune express has hands." Prim spoke, switching on the light to reveal a black right eye.

"Oh. Guess little brother really has grown up, huh?" She asked.

"He bent my spear into a pretzel and punched me in the face. Yeah, he's done quite a bit of growing up." She spoke, taking a seat next to Cerulean's bed.

"Did mom get involved?" She asked.

"Yeah, both of them. They still haven't woken up. They took quite a beating." She answered, no mirth in her voice. "It's going to take a few days before we can go home, if it's still standing by the time we get back."

"We really should have jumped him together. Fighting him one-on-one was a mistake." Cerulean commented. While it was still hard to imagine Jaune defeating any of them, the fact that he'd taken her out of commission in one hit was a reality check.

All six of them were close enough to each other in matters of strength and skill that if Jaune could beat one of them with such ease, he could probably do it to them all. Both their mothers were a different matter, but the gap was not quite so big that it could offset the kind of skill and speed Jaune had shown.

"We did. We couldn't even touch him. It was like fighting dad. Hell, it was worse, because with dad, at least he uses his sword." Prim stated grimly. "Jaune didn't even break a sweat fighting all of us at once."

"You're pulling my leg, right? And he's gunning for the council?" Cerulean asked.

"Yeah. He still hates them for what they tried to do to Saph. Them sending us to capture him for a trial was the straw that broke the came's back." Prim answered, and Cerulean felt a chill crawl up her back.

"Was… was he right? Have we truly become slaves to the wishes of the council?" She asked, and for a second, Prim didn't respond.

"The council… it's not weak. Two generations of huntsmen from out family, even if they aren't strong enough to become the clan head, are a veritable army, the likes of which you can't find anywhere in this world." Prim spoke. "Their influence has been increasing as dad's become more distant. I had hoped to deal with them once I become clan head, once the rest of you joined the council, but it seems Jaune's not one for the insider approach."

"Does… does he stand a chance? I don't want to see him exiled. He's my brother, for fuck's sake!" Cerulean shot back, taking Prim by surprise.

"That's… not my worry. For all their unwarranted ambition, the council is vital to the clan. They are our seat of power, our standing army. They are useful, which is why they are still around." She spoke, hesitating for a second.

"I just hope Jaune doesn't go overboard, else things will not end well… for the council."

---

Wow, FFnet really loves to fuck up chapter formatting. In the original drafts, the chats were left aligned for others and right aligned for Jaune's messages. FFnet doesn't support that... or double spacing. Honestly sometimes this site makes me want to just move to a better site.

Either way. That's the chapter. I had to leave out a 4k chunk because it just felt out of place in this in-between chapter.

Also, so that I don't leave you guys in the dark again regarding my schedule, i've been thinking of starting a discord server. That way y'all can ping me if the chapter is running late, as well as get notified when a new chapter is about to release. if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, be sure to let me know!

Hope y'all look forward to the next arc, as well as my next fic, which should be out by the next weekend!

BTW, STILL LOOKING FOR A BETA READER, DM ME IF YOU'RE INTERESTED.

- Cold Daylight