Ch. 99 Vault of Vale
"Yeah… uhuh… that's what I said, Glynda. I'll ask Arc but I suspect he wouldn't appreciate his exploits being televised… Yes, I know they have the footage, it might not have been live when they showed up but they were still recording. Well see about having them suppress the footage anyway. I know the huntsmen saw, doesn't mean we should advertise her ability… do you want Qrow to quit, cause that's what he'd do if you put her in danger like that…"
Qrow stood next to Roman, listening to half of the call he was having with Glynda. Roman had the idea to hide the kids' abilities from the world at large soon after the first of Jaune's Aura constructs landed and since the battle seemed to be wrapping up Qrow decided to listen in.
"Wait… I see Arc coming here… yes, I'll ask and let you know asap… you know you love me."
Qrow smirked as he noticed Roman hastily pull the scroll away from his ear as Glynda's voice got loud enough to be audible from a few metres away for a few seconds before Roman ended the call.
He chuckled and walked away, passing Jaune and giving him a reassuring pat on the back before turning into a bird and flying off to help the cleanup efforts.
"Arc!" Roman exclaimed and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture. Instead of a hug however he got a tired stare from Jaune. "Alright, I can see you're in no mood for pleasantries… you look like you lost some weight." Roman jokingly pointed to Jaune's missing arm.
"I need you to contact my father, Roman." Jaune said, completely ignoring Roman's poor attempt at a joke. "I'd do it myself but I can't let go of the staff otherwise the weapon spirits disappear."
"Is that what you call them? Well you can let them go you know, the huntsmen around here can pick up the slack."
"No, I can't, not until you call my father. I need to know my family is safe and doesn't need them anymore before I let them go."
"...and your wife?" Roman asked, curious as to why Red didn't make the call for him.
"Busy cleaning up the Grimm liquid with her sister."
"Fair point." Roman conceded and started dialing Doré's scroll.
=O=O=O=
Doré sat on a stump, his axe leaned against the remnant of a fairly large tree, and watched as several of the settlement's men worked together to fix the hole in the sealed pass.
The hole through which the Grimm came wasn't there just a day prior and it was clear that something had driven the Grimm to breach the walled off passage. Whatever it was though, its interest in the valley caused more than just this breach. The Grimm swarmed in through just about every entrance to the valley, no matter what difficulties each path laid in their way.
Now that most of the Grimm were dealt with Doré was tasked with making sure that as many of those paths as possible were sealed again. He had felled a great many trees with his axe and set the men to the task of building temporary palisades, both here to reseal the pass and at every other minor path to the valley.
Normally he would hesitate to leave his family alone considering there might still be Grimm that escaped their efforts lurking the valley. He needn't worry about them today though.
He'd seen the seven figures of light patrol around his family's home, Jaune's colour unmistakeable in their glow. They were pale and seemed almost see through now, though Lavender swore they looked a lot more solid when they first appeared.
He wasn't sure how Jaune achieved that, since he was fairly sure it wasn't his semblance, but perhaps it was better he didn't know the details. After all his son's unique constitution nearly killed the boy.
Of course a silent whisper in the back of Doré's mind kept reminding him that he didn't know how well Jaune's plan worked. He hadn't even seen his son after and the only reassurance that he was alright we're the ghostly figures in the shape of his son.
He was supposed to come back in time to hold the ceremony this evening, but that seemed unlikely now. Not that they could hold the celebration anyway. Not with how much damage the settlements sustained.
He was pulled from his thoughts when a young man, only slightly older than Jaune, approached him. "Hey, boss? Your scroll's been ringing for a while now."
He hadn't even noticed…
"Hello? Arc speaking…"
"Hey, it's me again."
"Torchwick? What do you want?" Doré asked a bit apprehensive.
"Got Jaune here, he wanted to talk with you, let me put you on video call."
As Doré pulled his scroll away from his ear and looked at the screen he gasped. His son stood in front of the camera, looking like he was barely standing, leaning on a cane that looked like a skeletal hand made of crystal with his one intact hand, his wife's red cloak fluttering in the wind, drawing attention to his missing left arm.
"Hey dad…"
"Jaune! Are you alright?" that was the only thing Doré asked. So many questions bounced around his head but in the end he didn't ask any of them. Not about what happened at the Amity crash site, not about the Aura specters, and most certainly not about if he was coming back in time for the ceremony.
"No… but I will be. Dad, is everyone safe? Mom and my sisters?"
"Yes, Jaune. They're healthy and unharmed, in no small part thanks to you."
The broken man on the other side of the call smiled at that and Doré nearly burst into tears. He had been a huntsman for over three decades and yet his son, who had only began his journey on a huntsman's path just over a year ago stood before his eyes with the same look Doré's father wore. Donatien Alphonse Arc had gone through a war, the Faunus revolution conflict, yet Jaune had the same tired look to him.
"I'm going to release the weapon spirits guarding the house now. Please take care of them… I'll come back around as soon as I can, I promise."
It was only then that Doré realized the distance at which Jaune maintained those spectral protectors and how much strain it must have been putting on him. "Of course. Can you give me a few minutes? I'll be heading over there now so that they aren't left unprotected for too long. Can you hold them for much longer?"
June shook his head before speaking "I don't think so. The ones close by, maybe. But the ones I left at home… they feel like my connection to them is a rubber band, stretched and ready to snap, and I'd rather not discover what happens when the connection snaps."
"Just release them then…" Doré spoke as he quickened his step towards his home "And Jaune? Take care, okay?" he added.
June smiled at him weakly before letting the gruesome staff dissipate into sparkles of Aura that rejoined his.
Then, abruptly, the call ended and but a moment later Doré felt a warm and familiar feeling pass by him, brushing against his Aura briefly.
=O=O=O=
Roman stood stunned as he watched the spectacle. Moments after Jaune let that staff disappear and rejoin his Aura, so did the constructs.
As each weapon spirit lost its form one after another it became clear the Aura wasn't just about to disappear. Streams of white gold light flowed over the battlefield and the huntsmen present watched as the remaining Grimm fell one by one, burned to ash by the sheet amount of Aura in the air.
Even the formless liquid of the Grimm spawning pool didn't escape the fate, the light of Jaune's soul evaporating it as it flowed over the battlefield.
Finally Roman turned back to Jaune, intent on saying something. Instead however he saw the man with an expression of immense pain as the Aura around fluctuated.
As the last of the light joined the cascade, the entire field of white gold rushed into June, fanning a spark of something more.
More and more of Jaune's Aura fed the spark, making it shine ever brighter.
Yet as the spark seemed ready to ignite, the influx of Aura stopped abruptly. All of the weapon spirits returned to Jaune, yet all of their Aura wasn't enough to ignite the spark. And the spark, ever hungry, burned June up, feeding on his Aura until there was nothing left.
Yet as Jaune's Aura shattered, so did something else as well.
Roman stared ahead as Jaune fell to his knees, his heart stoping abruptly.
He didn't even notice Ruby sprinting across the battlefield as the only thing he could pay attention to was the odd crack that shone in so many colours it could be mistaken for a pure white. It grew until it was taller than a grown man, reaching up from the ground, opening and showing the silhouette of Beacon through it.
Just as Ruby was about to reach Jaune's body a pulse of electricity jumped across Arc's chest, restarting his heart with a scream from the blonde man.
Yet Roman simply couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the improbable window.
Why?
Because the Beacon inside that view was nothing like the one he was familiar with, instead replaced by a fortress flanked by four tall spires of rainbow glass.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Ozpin having extra protections on Vale's vault is a known thing basically since vaults were introduced so I thought up something special.
The servers being a little whack as of late means I'm writing this minutes before uploading the chapter, so I'll keep this brief.
Thank you so much for reading and thank you for getting this far. If you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 100 Heist of several lifetimes