As Pyrrha stood guard over the campsite and the rogue huntsman, Jaune laid down alone in their shared tent. Despite this physical exhaustion, sleep didn't come to him as easily as he hoped it would. His mind kept him awake.

He knows. He knows all. He knows everything... At least, everything about me. But who's to say that he wouldn't use this ability on the others? And what if he reveals all my secrets to the others? No, he wouldn't... Would he? How can I be sure he won't reveal my secrets? I can't just tell them about his ability, or he might reveal my secrets then and there. I have to prevent that. If the others find out, they'll never want to help us face Cinder. And they'll hate me forever. But if I can't kill him, how am I going to do that? Jaune, slow down. You need sleep. Come on brain, let me sleep... Ugh... Inconsiderate brain.

Eventually, he found sleep. But his dreams were not kind to him. The dream began with him in the backyard of the Arc family home. He looked around and saw six of his sisters standing nearby the glass door.

"Oh hey girls. What's up?" Jaune asked. Amethyst hissed at him and he noticed that they were all glaring at him. "Hey, hey, what's that for?"

Amethyst, Indigo and Azura broke off to the right as Acacia, Tangerine and Rouge broke off to the left, letting a familiar face come forth. Emerald glared at her older brother as she came up to him. "We know what you've done."

Azura looked at him with a fierce glare in her eyes that held back tears. "How could you Jaune?"

Tangerine folded her arms. "I know that forging transcripts for Beacon was wrong, but this?! This has gone too far!"

"What... what's this about?!"

"Don't lie to us, Jaune! You know what you've done!" Acacia yelled.

Rouge looked at her enclosed fist before releasing it and twisting her wrist to let her palm face outward. "Honestly, I'm not surprised."

"I know I've lied before, but you? You're a real sinner!" Indigo added.

"We know you stole the money to get into Beacon!" Acacia exclaimed.

"What?" Jaune felt his blood turn cold. "How... how... how do you know?"

"Let's just say, a little birdie told us." Amethyst answered.

A flash of gold eyes was seen on the screen in front of Jaune as a familiar voice asked, "Do you really believe that you can hide the truth from them forever?"

The golden eyes vanished, along with the Arc family home and all of his sisters, in a blur of color. His sisters faded, disappearing into small wisps of black mist and the Arc family home was replaced by an image of him falling into an abyss. He screamed as he fell before he crashed onto the ground and everything went black.

As his eyes opened up, he found himself in a pit of black and orange volcanic rock with braziers of fire lit around him. His head spun, his muscles ached and he felt himself burning up. The knight soon realized that his arms were tied behind him with snakes. He struggled to get free, but it was no use. His arms were bound too tight by the fanged reptilian creatures. After he stopped struggling, he saw Charles Mustard standing in front him with a smirk.

"You claim that I'm the evil one, but have you looked at yourself?" Charles asked him. "You're a liar, a thief, and you don't deserve to be where you are now. I'm just trying to bring justice by bringing a killer to her end."

Jaune glared at him with tears in his eyes. "Don't you dare touch her! She's completely innocent!"

"Aren't you in a bind?" He growled at the madman. "You're in no position to try and stop me. And even if could, you can't protect her forever." An image of Pyrrha Nikos appeared in a mirage of gold light. "One way or another, your lover will meet her end." The image faded until nothing was left. "You will be powerless to save her. And how can you protect her if you can't even protect yourself?"

The snakes slithered up his arms while still keeping him bound. The knight screamed as one snake bit him in the upper right arm and the other pierced through his armor on the left. Charles laughed at the sound of his screams. "No, no, NO!"

He woke up, gasping for air. He looked to his side and sighed with relief. Pyrrha was not there, which meant that he hadn't woken her up in his awakening from his bad dream. Part of him wished that she was actually there to comfort him, tell him he's not a sinner. So far, today had not been a good day... or night, for that matter.

Hopefully, the next day will be better. Jaune thought to himself.

Alas, it was not a good day for team JNPR and Ruby. After Ren finished his guard shift and woke up his friends, they packed up camp and tried to make their way to the nearest village. Charles Mustard, their prisoner, was being held in Jaune's arms. The day had started out alright, but things went from bad to worse. It had been about two hours since they got up and left their campsite.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Ren asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. The village of Sumire should be... within a few days of here, just past these mountains." He gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh boy, dragging this prisoner through this terrain... This isn't going to be fun." He groaned. "Why can't we just kill the prisoner?!"

"Jaune...?" Pyrrha tried to inquire.

"We're wasting time and valuable resources on getting this guy to prison!"

"Jaune..." The gladiator girl sighed. "I know you're not too happy about carrying this prisoner, and him traveling with us, but you have to bear in mind that if we didn't agree to do this, that he could have escaped with Glydna and the other huntresses and huntsmen being too preoccupied with Vale's chaos to stop him."

"He's a dangerous criminal who set the city of Vale on fire, endangered innocent lives, and tried to kill you and me, Pyrrha! Why did Glydna have to push this burden on us? If it was up to me, he would have already been dead!"

"I can understand where you're coming from, but don't you think that the death penalty is a bit too harsh?" Ren interrogated him. "I mean, he's tied up with no way of escaping. We've confiscated his gear and he is not trying to hurt or kill anyone. Charles is not an immediate threat, therefore there should be no need to execute him. In fact, I've actually been thinking that it might be a wiser option to put him in an asylum."

"But killing him would be faster and a lot easier on us." Jaune reasoned.

"Also the prisoner's too dangerous for a mental hospital." Nora elaborated. "What if he breaks free?"

"Alright let's put it to a vote." He set the prisoner down against a tree. "Who wants to see this prisoner be killed?" Jaune raised his own hand and saw no one else raise theirs. He sighed as he put his hand down. "Who wants to put him in an asylum?" Ren raised his hand and Ruby then raised hers in agreement. "Who wants to put him in prison?" Pyrrha raised her hand, quickly followed by Nora. "Well, I'm obviously outnumbered." He groaned. "Alright, we continue to Sumire. But can someone else carry him? My arms are getting kinda tired."

Nora gave a frown. "I'm on it."

She picked up the prisoner as if he weighed no more than a sack of flour. The group continued their trek as they moved closer to the base of the mountain. With Pyrrha and Jaune in the front, and the other four in the back, they made progress towards the mountain they were about to traverse through.

"We're awfully silent." Ruby noted. "Hardly anyone's spoken in two hours."

"Well between the fact that we have a rogue huntsman as prisoner, and our delayed start due to us oversleeping, we're trying to make up for lost time." Ren elaborated. "And we still haven't figured out whether or not we're taking him to an asylum or throwing him in the slammer."

"I would rather see him dead." Jaune said. "But between an asylum or prison, I'd say the stoney lonesome would be a lot better."

"Do you really want me dead that badly? Do you really think I'm a criminal?" Charles questioned, looking at Jaune. "Or is it because I know everything about you and your past?"

He stopped, his heart beginning to pound in fear. Nora quickly defended him as the leader moved onward. "Jaune has nothing to hide! So shut up or I will drop you and break your legs!"

Charles did not seem intimated by his threat. "Does he? Do you really believe he's completely innocent?"

Nora angrily answered, "Yes!"

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but he's not innocent. I know more than you think."

Ren gave him a skeptical look. "And how so?"

"For starters, Jaune Arc cheated and lied his way into Beacon. He forged his transcripts because he never attended primary combat school and stole his great grandfather's sword to become a huntsman."

Nora widened her eyebrows, stopped in her tracks along with everyone and dropped the prisoner in shock. "What?!"

Everyone turned to face the prisoner before Ren looked at his team leader in disbelief. "Jaune?"

Ruby looked at him sadly. "Is this true?"

Jaune looked down, ashamed. "Guys..."

Charles laughed. "That's not the only secret he's been hiding from you. Not only did he forge transcripts, he stole a briefcase of money to pay for his education. He's a liar and a thief."

Gasps were heard all around. "Jaune... How could you?!" Nora asked, outraged.

Ren and Ruby exchanged disappointed looks. "But wait! There's more!" Charles exclaimed.

The valkyrie clinched her fists, trying to hold back her anger. "More?!"

"One more. And oh, are you gonna hate him for this..."

"No, please... don't..." Jaune pleaded.

"What else has Jaune done?" Ruby dreadfully asked. She gasped. "Did he murder someone?"

"Fortunately he has not, unlike his girlfriend." Jaune gaped at his contempt. "It doesn't have anything to do with him, but it does involve the true ability of an enemy."

The Arc warrior gulped. "True ability?" Ren wondered. "Does it have something to do with Mercury?"

"No, but good guess." Charles looked at Jaune. "So, are you going to tell them, or do I have to reveal the truth about Cinder?"

"The truth? What are you talking about?"

"Jaune..." Nora angrily hissed.

"Please... don't make me..." Jaune began.

"Either you tell them... or I will." Charles threatened. Jaune looked extremely guilty. "You failed to confess your sins. The least you could do is fess up the truth. So go on, out with it!"

Jaune sighed, closing his eyes. "You remember what I told you about Cinder taking possession of a sword called the Sword of Fall?" He opened his eyes as they reflected sorrow. "Well... I'm afraid that was a ruse." The other three stood speechless. "The truth, or at least, what we know, is a bit more complicated than that." Mr. Mustard smirked as Jaune sighed once again. "There was a girl, named Amber, who had amazing magical powers. Unfortunately, half her power was stolen. How, I have no idea. The other half was supposed to be given to Pyrrha, but the transfer was not completed before Cinder assassinated Amber. As a result, Cinder is the new Fall Maiden."

Ruby looked at the ground sadly as Ren and Nora gasped, the latter very loudly. She exclaimed, "I can't believe you! You've been lying to us this whole time!"

Her partner in crime gave him an unamused look. "So, we're pretty much going up against a very powerful sorceress?"

"Pretty much." Jaune scratched the back of his neck. "Are you upset?"

Nora exploded in anger, "What kind of question is that?! Of course we're upset! You've lied to us! You kept us in the dark!"

"You don't look so surprised." Ren said to Ruby.

"Well, I had my suspicions about Cinder's power from the beginning."

"What? Then why didn't you say anything earlier?!" Nora asked.

"I wasn't sure." Ruby looked at Pyrrha, who wore her cloak with her hood down. "I've also been wondering why Pyrrha wears that cloak, but... I think I know the answer to that."

"With maniacs like Charles after her, what choice did she have?" Jaune defended.

"Oh, shut it you liar!" Nora demanded.

"Hey, it's not his fault for keeping quiet about Cinder's powers!" The others, especially Nora, looked at Pyrrha completely confused. "It's mine." All eyes were on her. "I was the one scared of saying the truth. Ozpin asked me to be quiet about it, but since Jaune was there, and he saw Cinder's ascension to power, I couldn't lie to him."

"You should have told us!" The orange-haired girl focused her glare on Jaune and pointed her right index finger at him as she angrily approached the team leader. "Also, it doesn't change the fact that you forged transcripts and stole money for Beacon! You could have put all of us in danger!"

"Look, I know, I messed up, but I'm not the same guy as when I entered Beacon."

Nora gave her team leader a skeptical look. "Are you?"

"No, I'm not. I'm being honest!"

"You're a liar and a criminal!"

Ren came up to her and calmly yelled, "Nora, stop it!"

Aggravated, she responded, "What? That's what he is!"

"Look, I know you're mad at him. I'm mad at him too, but we can't let our emotions get in the way of our mission."

Ruby stood there in worry as team JNPR began to fall apart. She went up to them nervously, as Nora retaliated, "Our mission? This is Pyrrha's burden, not ours!"

"Uh guys..." Ruby began.

"I mean, magic?" Nora questioned. "We don't stand a chance against her, so..."

Wait, who's keeping an eye on...? Ruby began to think.

Ruby realized something in horror as she spoke again, slightly louder. "Guys!"

"... maybe we should just leave!" She folded her arms and turned away from the group. "The three of you can handle Cinder and her cronies by yourselves!" She angrily began to walk away in a huff of anger. "Come on Ren, let's get out of here."

Ren reached his hand out towards her. "Nora, we can't just abandon them!"

"GUYS!" Ruby got their attention. "He's gone!"

"What?" Jaune and the others looked around and saw that the ropes binding the madman were torn and Charles was nowhere to be found. "Aw man, he got away!"

Pyrrha questionably looked at her very angry orange-haired teammate. "Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on him?"

"Hold on." Ren ordered. "Something doesn't make sense. Why would he run away if his goal is to kill Pyrrha?"

The valkyrie suggested, "Maybe he's being selfish and only looking after himself like Jaune is."

"Nora, could you please stop?!" Jaune asked, exasperated and frustrated to no end. "We've got a bigger problem on our hands. A criminal who tried to burn down Vale is loose and we have to find him before he hurts someone!"

"Would that even work? If he really is trying to escape, he could be anywhere by..." Pyrrha began.

Suddenly she felt something pierce her skin, and she gasped before falling down.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune quickly caught her, holding up her back as he heard malicious laughter. The rogue huntsman stepped out of the shadows with another gun in his hand. The Arc Knight turned to face him with daggers in his eyes. "What did you do to her?!"

"Sadly the darts won't kill her, but it will make her completely defenseless."

Everyone turned to see that a tranquilizer dart had struck Pyrrha in the shoulder from behind. Jaune removed the empty dart and gently set her down as he felt his blood begin boiling in anger. "But how is it possible?!" He threw the dart away. "We confiscated everything he had!"

Charles spun his gun around, smirking. "You didn't look hard enough after you and Pyrrha defeated me." He stopped and pointed the gun to the group. "Rookie mistake."

"But... where?" Ruby's silver eyes blinked in realization. "You kept it in hidden in your boots!"

He gave an even bigger grin. "There you go. Alas, little girl, you figured it out too late." He fired his darts at the group. Ruby spun her scythe to form a fast-spinning shield, Jaune quickly shielded himself, Ren used an aura shield and Nora quickly backflipped and dodged the darts as they were fired. "Surrender, little villains!"

"Well crud!" Jaune exclaimed. "This is the opposite of good!"

Ruby spoke to her teammates, "At least he's out of darts."

"Oh, there's plenty more where that came from!" Charles corrected.

"Huh?!"

He fired off more darts, only for them to all miss as Ruby jumped up high into the air, Ren and Nora ran off to the side, and Jaune ducked and shielded himself to avoid them.

"Curses!" the huntsman grumbled under his breath. As Ren came for him, the huntsman kicked him down with his left leg as he bent down and retrieved two darts and reloaded them into his dart gun and kicked Jaune in the gut as he came towards him. Charles grabbed more darts as Ren came back and tried to stab the lotus warrior in the arm with one, only for him to form a small aura shield, breaking the dart on impact. Realizing that he couldn't inject it manually into him, he looked away from the ninja and tried to find a new target.

First, Mr. Mustard looked to Jaune. Not him, I want to torture him before I end him. He kicked him down, preventing his sword from striking his chest as he looked towards Ruby as she got out Crescent Rose and began to fire gunshots at him, only for him to dodge them. Not her. She's super fast and wouldn't be an easy target. He then turned to Nora, who furiously charged towards him with pink electricity around her. Perfect.

Jaune ordered, "Quickly, all of you, go for him at once!"

Charles responded, "That would never work." Ruby and Ren charged towards him. "Jaune's trying to trick you." He easily dodged Ruby's scythe and Ren's incoming punch by grabbing his wrist and tossing him aside. "If he's such a bad fighter, he has to be a terrible leader as well. Heck, if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be in this situation right now."

Nora stopped in her tracks and turned to Jaune, who was silently shaking in fear as she gave him the most hateful glare she had ever given him. "I can't believe you Jaune! Lying to us, deceiving us! This is all your fault! If it wasn't for you, we would be..."

With one of the darts in his hand, Charles stabbed Nora in the upper part of her right arm with the other dart mid-rant, knocking her out.

Ren looked horrified as she fell to the ground. "Nora!"

Breathing in quickly to try and not succumb to the boiling anger within, Ren glared at Charles and fired at him with Stormflower. The blue energy gunfire was dodged by the rogue huntsman with little effort. Unfortunately, he was not able to dodge the gunfire from Crescent Rose and was knocked into a tree. Of course, with his aura protecting him, he was not down for the count.

"How did you guys defeat him?" Ruby asked Jaune as she moved frantically to evade the gunfire of tranquilizer darts.

"He got lucky." Charles answered, picking up more darts and reloading some of them into his gun. "He had Pyrrha to help him." He turned to Jaune. "But this where your luck runs out."

"Surrender Mr. Mustard." Ren commanded. "You are outnumbered. You will not win this duel."

"You may have me outnumbered, but do you have me outmatched?"

Charles proceeded to fight Ruby in hand-to-hand combat, dealing a series of punches to chest. She formed her arms in the shape of an X to try and block them.

As this happened, Jaune said to Ren, "I hate to admit it, but he may be right. Do we really have a chance against him? And if we can't stop him, how will we stop Cinder and her allies?"

"If you and Pyrrha beat him the first time, I think the three of us can take him down." Ren optimistically stated to boost morale. Ruby was heard gasping. She was manually hit with a tranquilizer dart in the right shoulder, and she too, fell unconscious. At this point, Ren and Jaune were left to face the rogue huntsman. "Or maybe just us two..."

Jaune charged towards Charles and swung his sword down on him, only for it to be countered by his gun. He tried to break the gun into pieces with his sword, only to be punched in the face and thrown back-first into a tree. "We're not out of the woods yet."

Charles smirked and began fire once more.

"Aw crud." Jaune dodged the tranquilizer darts again. "How many of those darts does he have?!"

"And importantly, how does he know everything about Jaune?" Ren asked as he jumped into the air to evade the darts.

"Glad you asked." He dodged their gunfire. "My semblance, Insight, allows me learn everything about a person within a matter of seconds."

"So that's what the golden eye glow was..." Jaune answered back in response.

"You actually noticed?" Mr. Mustard asked him. "I didn't think you were smart enough to notice." Jaune growled.

Ren put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let him get to you."

Jaune retaliated at the huntsman, "You think you'll win just because you're a professional huntsman. May I remind you that I have beaten a professional before?"

"You only won that duel because of luck. Luck won't save you a second time! You fail to see how outmatched you are, little boy!" Charles reached for something in his right boot. He pulled out a dagger that with the touch of a small green button on the side, turned into a sword with two thin red lines, filling it with fire dust. "I'm afraid that playtime's over!"

"He's been toying with us?!"

"Yes. Yes, I have." He smirked maliciously. "So tell me- how does it feel, knowing that soon your girlfriend will be murdered?"

Jaune looked at his unconscious girlfriend and then looked at Ruby and Nora. If he and Ren failed to stop Charles, they could all be killed, simply for being friends with the accused. His thoughts raced. This is bad. Everyone but me and Ren is down. I still don't have complete control over my semblance...

"Surrender now, and perhaps I'll spare you two and the other two ladies." Charles offered.

I can't count on luck to help like it did with my duel against Rouge and Pyrrha knocking him over the head with a shield. I need a plan. But what?

"So what will it be?"

"We'll never surrender, you tasteless condiment!"

He growled in response to Jaune's insult. With his fire dust sword in hand, he swung at them four times, releasing fiery waves in their direction. Jaune was hit in the head by the third wave and knocked to the ground. Ren was hit with several waves of fire dust and as he was thrown back-first into a tree, the same one Jaune was thrown into earlier, his aura began to flicker. His head began to spin as Charles stood with his sword held by both hands.

"Rouge had several daggers of dust, yet I only have the one sword." Mr. Mustard began taunting. "You are losing even harder now than you were back then. Tell me, Jaune Cornelius Arc, do you deserve to be where you are now?"

Jaune didn't answer as he felt himself succumbing to fear and despair. What do I do when he knows every fault? Every mistake I've ever made? Every sin I've committed?

"Your time is over!" Charles ran towards him, his sword ready to kill him.

As a tear escaped his eyes, the images of Rouge and Charles came to his mind. Are they right?

Ren called out his name in desperation. "Jaune!"

He feared it was all but too late. Charles charged forth and swung his sword at his best friend as the scene cut to black.