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"Uncle Qrow? Hey! Over here!"
"The hell? That you, kiddo?" Qrow shuffled over, looking confused. "The hell is this about. You here seeing Team CRXN in secret?"
"I mean, I figured if I saw them on campus I'd say hi, but no. Just visiting someone in the infirmary. Helped fix up their legs a few days ago, and since the Vytal Festival is in two days and they'd be in it I was just doing a follow up check to see they were ok. Turns out she's the older sister to a classmate. Small world, right?" Jaune laughed, only getting a small, odd look of contemplation from Qrow.
"The girl's just a classmate, so is her sister." Jaune added, reading Qrow's worry over Yang and his situation. Even though Jaune was sure Yang had told Raven (her smirking could be unbearable) and not Qrow, he had the feeling that the older man just knew things anyways.
Jaune supposed that was a valid worry as he was at Haven in disguise while Trivia and her team were at Haven.
Jeez, what did they even expect him to do? He'd known Trivia and Neo almost as long as Yang. Honestly, he was at a loss of what to do too, sort of dreading the inevitable confrontations that would occur when he was fully an adult of seventeen.
Still, he kept explaining regardless.
"It was a favor to an old upperclassman of mine, Kamina Hitenmaki, formerly Aomaki, from Sanctum. They're the ones that caught up in northern Animus and got rescued by Auntie Raven. And judging from your lack of Harbinger, I'm-"
"Hey, hey. Ok, you got me. But seriously, worry about getting involved in our shit later, ok? You're still a kid. We adults will protect you guys while we still can." Qrow held up his hands in defeat, his emotions and mind trying to pull Jaune's attention away from the bigger issues at hand.
Still Jaune didn't stop observing his uncle. He apologized mentally, but he didn't want to leave anything to chance.
"I've dealt with mo-"
"And you shouldn't have had to. I- Not knocking you, kid, but fuck. You deserve a much better childhood than what you got, so just let old uncle Qrow and his friends tackle this one, eh? The adults can hold down the fort until you become a full fledged Huntsman, you know. Let us do so, for your sake." Qrow leaned over to put a firm hand on Jaune's shoulder.
Jaune frowned. As much as Qrow's genuine desire to see Jaune have a more normal life (which was something he craved, despite his desire to be a Huntsman, a hero) gave him a sensation of warmth in his gut, something big was brewing.
He lacked information, but even Jaune could see there was something strange building up.
Was it a part of growing up that made him worry about things constantly?
When he was young, he'd merely thrown himself into every problem, regardless of the consequences. And aside from his failure in Kuroyuri that he'd never allow himself to forget, he'd been successful. But now he had to think of everything, observe all the angles. It was the smart thing to do, of course.
But sometimes he worried if it was cowardice. If he was just afraid of losing too much to do what had to be done. If he was just making excuses and wanting to believe in the dream that he could still sometimes be normal.
"I'm not good at sitting still." Jaune admitted with a frown, his wig fell in his face with a dusty brown color, a pair of thick half moon glasses on his face. "And things weirdly have a way of finding me anyways."
It wasn't a threat, but a reminder. Sometimes Jaune wondered if he was cursed.
Qrow looked strained, out of concern. He wanted to tell Jaune something, but felt it would hurt him to know. Not something directly personal, but important to Jaune. Something about armor, allies and enemies. Had he fought… no. His demeanor look different if it was Tyrian Callows. There was another Armor out there.
Oh.
Qrow had damaged his weapon fighting one of the Queen of Grimm's lieutenants. Arthur Watts was making MORE weapons based off of HIS technology.
Guilt gripped Jaune's heart. If he hadn't been sloppy about handling his tech-
"Look, as long as you back off enough to give us adults some peace of mind. We're working on it, and while we might not be some kind of mini Herlock Sholmes like you, we've got some experience under our belts. Let us take care of it, yeah?"
He hadn't walked away with a victory. It seemed that somehow the Black Knights might have gotten involved (perhaps? There was a focus on armor, so he was guessing), and if that were the case the odds were that Qrow had helped protect them. But he must have learned something or made some realization, because there was a faint concern Jaune would lose faith in the Faunus if Qrow told him what he knew.
Did Qrow figure out that the Black Knights were linked to Menagerie via the Fang? Hmmm. It was sort of awkward that he'd have to fake his surprise if that were the case. Mmmm. No. Menagerie, sure, but Qrow didn't suspect the Fang yet.
It was buried pretty deep under the other thoughts, all clouded by Qrow trying to think of anything he could to try to throw Jaune off his scent. Lots of boobs. Dirty old cheat. But ha, that wouldn't work unless it was the boobs of someone Jaune personally cared abou- actually better to stop that line of thought.
"...ok. Nice boo-ts. They're new."
His eyes glanced down only to be pulled out of his thoughts by Qrow.
"Ok, stop fishing for more information, ya little brat." Qrow laughed as he rubbed his palms against Jaune's temples in a friendly manner, a much softer noogie than Raven would ever do. "If you must know, I had to leave one behind for a marker, but it got ruined, so I had to get some new footwear."
So not a win, but he'd broken off something potentially useful from the enemy Armor. Something worth losing his boots over in anycase.
Shame that it was probably on its way to Atlas through secure channels and he probably wouldn't be consulted for a while, if at all.
Maybe he might still weasel into the good doctor's lab and beg his sort-of grandfather for the details anyways? Ugh, no, that felt manipulative and a breach of trust. Jaune didn't want to do that even if he was curious. He could do something similar to strangers, but not people he knew and liked.
"Ah, the old muddy boot in the wilderness trick, eh? Just admit it, Uncle Qrow. You just don't like shoes."
Qrow didn't seem like he'd been at Haven for very long. Looked like he slept indoors, so he must have arrived sometime in the night. Probably got a spare room from Headmaster Goldcap of Haven. He'd woken up late, not because he was too tired, but because Qrow just liked to sleep in and he didn't have to teach class today.
"Shoes are great! It's just that being barefoot's neat as fuck."
The Headmaster had leant Qrow his current boots, not expecting or wanting them back in the slightest.
"That's gross."
Qrow wasn't wearing socks again. Ugh, he wanted to get something more directly useful. Focus on Harbinger, or the lack thereof.
Ruby. Qrow was worried about Ruby finding out he'd damaged his weapon. Hmm. Not for the obvious reason of it being broken and her being a weapons nut either. Odd.
"Not with Aura, it's not. No foot fungus, no dirt sticking to ya, no cuts or scratches. Hell, if Aura couldn't run out, everyone would just be barefoot."
Jaune's eyes caught the floating spirit of his brother floating in the air. His time awake had been cut in almost half again in recent years, only being able to maintain wakefulness with four hours a day at a time. Honestly it was already close to three nowadays.
It worried him and he'd offered to burn a SSR Rarity Consumable: Class Card Heroic Spirit Summoning (Saber) on him to restore him to his peak state and burn all the endless fatigue he was enduring from being unable to truly sleep over the years, Juniper had refused. He felt it was still too important to use just for his own peace of mind.
"If Big Brother Juniper was awake right now, I'm certain he'd call you a wild child."
Qrow was worried about an incident to come.
One so mighty and terrible that he was afraid to tell Jaune about it. Jaune had known of it for years, never admitting that he'd become aware of some looming potential threat on the horizon. It was why he'd compromised on his ideals and taken control of Vale's Underground. Why he was building contingency after contingency.
Why a certain pair of SSR Rarity Equipment items were now at the forefront of his Inventory at all times, in front of all of his most powerful emergency trump cards.
"I mean I grew up raised by bandits, what do ya want?"
He had a feeling it wasn't now. Not now, but still soon.
Getting a ride from Raven to go from Haven to Patch and then flying to Vale had become a normal experience in Qrow's life again.
Something he hadn't imagined would come back after Raven left all those years ago, after she'd performed a meritorious deed that saved the lives of some Valean diplomats on Ozpin's behalf and was finally allowed a single gift from Ozpin without any restriction.
When she'd requested to ask a question privately to the Relic of Knowledge. To have access to the first question of three in this new century.
Everyone had trusted her then. She'd grown so much. Trying hard everyday to be a better person even if it looked awkward and fake, she was trying, and that had been enough for all. Ozpin had left that Vault with Raven still inside to ask her question to the Relic with a smile on his face.
But Raven had come out of that Vault a changed woman.
And not long after learned that she was with child.
It might have been a miracle that she'd stayed with Yang until she was a toddler before she finally left, but she'd still left.
Now she was still bitter, cranky to all but her daughters and family, an absolute bitch in general, but she was true to herself while being there for everyone once again. Her smile wasn't half-forced or fake like it sometimes got during their first few years after graduating Beacon.
So he let it go when she jabbed him in the side with a snide remark about how he'd lost his lead.
Qrow almost went through the portal without a counter remark about letting Callows get away.
Almost.
The way the portal began to collapse on him as he exited on the other side was actually slightly scary though.
It was noon in Mistral's Capital, so it was pretty close to midnight on the Vale's end. Raven had made the portal to Zwei, funnily enough, as there was always the chance of Summer and Tai being in the middle of something intimate at this time of night. And they didn't want to chance waking up Ruby, especially now that her sleep schedule seemed a bit sporadic.
And going through an odd phase where she was talking to everyone's weapons like they were having a real conversation. Was she just not making enough friends at Signal? He worried for his cute little niece.
Maybe it was because she was used to hanging out with Yang and Jaune and their friend group that she struggled with kids her own age. Shit, he was raised by bandits though, he didn't know what normal was really supposed to be for a girl her age. Or for any kid his age, really, regardless of gender.
He distracted himself from that thought as he petted the small gray corgi on the head, getting some sleepy licks to his palms for the trouble, before leaving the cabin, locking it behind him, and soaring up as a crow.
Patch luckily had CCT access, so Ozpin would know he'd be coming. Glynda too, so when he finally joined her in bed she wouldn't accidentally kick his ass thinking it to be some sort of invader.
You can give a mani-pedi and a cushy job to a Huntress and put her in a position of power, but you couldn't take the Hunt out of the Huntress. Or something. And sure her fighting style was a bit Semblance heavy, but nobody could deny that Glynda Goodwitch wasn't one of the strongest Huntresses of her generation.
The part of that powered armor that Raven had offhandedly joked was a Knightmare (Tai was rubbing off on her too much, fitting name though) had been sent off on a secured express flight to Argus, one of many.
Rather Haven was even stretching themselves a bit thin to send multiple dummy Bullheads to Argus so that the Atlasean military would do the exact same thing. All for a measly bit of mud-crusted weaponry.
All very unnecessary if it wasn't for the fact that the Osprey had been Arthur's magnum opus. And it was pretty well armed to boot, according to Jimmy. Not helpful, but good to know.
So the dummy ships were needed in case a few got blasted out of the sky.
Luckily Arthur was too proud a man to mass produce such vehicles. Likely even for Salem.
At least not easily. Hopefully.
Either way, anything that they could glean to help track down where the Knightmares were manufactured or the details of its make might be valuable. If it wasn't for the fact that they didn't want to get Jaune involved it would have been best to bring it to him directly, as the kid had the right to know. It was derived from his tech, after all.
And despite both Ozpin and Jimmy vetoing his vote to do so for now, they acknowledged that they might need to go to Jaune about it later anyways.
Gods, Qrow hated how reactive their war against Salem was. Sitting on his hands like this never felt right.
But the reality was that due to the nature of her schemes and her being shrouded in shadows, Remnant was always on the backfoot. Always reacting to an issue rather than confronting it and fighting it outright.
No matter what, it wasn't possible for mankind as it was now to force a direct assault on the unnamed continent to strike at the Queen of the Grimm without leaving their own societies defenseless. Yet.
He didn't want his nephew to be turned into some sort of arms dealer, churning out high-tech super armor until the day he died in the fight against Salem, but maybe that might end up being a dark reality.
…either way, while something human sized was easy enough to build in some relative secret, but anything on the level of an airship would take a lot more specialized equipment and require significantly more space and resources.
Enough resources that couldn't be gathered without leaving an obvious trail somewhere.
Hopefully they'd be able to find it soon.
"Beautiful. Remarkable. A method of observation without risk nor restriction, ha ha ha. That strange child was correct after all."
Merlot watched as the Grimm that the Callows fellow called the Hero Maker consumed another test subject.
His eyes turned away from the beautiful creature to his monitors, witnessing through the various scanners the process that the customized Grimm performed on the consumed. And it seemed to carry a sense of sentience, letting it obey his commands as long as it didn't interfere with any of his new associates' goals.
Unlike the usual Grimm that were a mere mass of strange black substance, this Grimm had a rudimentary pocket inside as if emulating some sort of digestive tract. A pool of liquid was held in a pocket with no exit save the entrance, the outline of the swallowed human within squirmed and struggled vainly as the liquid appeared to be squeezed up the long fleshy neck, engulfing them fully.
That and the upper body of a human within the torso, acting as some sort of nexus point, allowing it to process complicated commands. A harmony between man and Grimm, despite how rudimentary it appeared.
Not at all unlike that which called itself Arcana. The fascinating specimen who had casually invaded his island with non-modified Grimm listening to its every command.
The body shown in the scanner began to break away in parts, regardless of the Aura that protected them, as if the digestive power or other from the black liquid observed inside the creature washed over their form ignored the light of the soul.
There was a strange set of blips on the scanner, as if the Grimm was reconstructing the body from the inside, the pieces digesting then reforming, pulling back together, only the brain being left in an originally intact state… however at that point the subject ceased to function, no life signals or brainwaves to be caught.
"How upsetting. Something so fascinating to be impeded by something so intangible and difficult to quantify as human willpower. So that blessed child survived this? Curious, curious. What made them different?" Merlot hummed contemplatively. "Aura is a key component. Necessary. Without unlocked Aura it becomes impossible to be reformed, as if the power of the soul itself is a key factor into the liquified body's reformation."
He made notes as the reformed body was dissolved back into black sludge in the belly of the beast, this time putrefying and absorbing the brain matter as well.
"Samples of that black ichor cannot be taken, as when outside of the Grimm known as the Hero Maker, it simply eats through any container that it is placed within. As if it is some sort of primordial ooze that subsumes all but the Grimm. Perhaps, it is even something that their very existence stems from." Merlot continued to speak into his microphone, getting a verbal note of everything for later.
He paused for a while, observing the process extend over the rest of the body with an excited countenance.
"How utterly fascinating. Almost as if the Queen allowed it simply because I would not be able to gather any direct data from it. Despite the fruits of my current research, the ability to manipulate this black ichor is beyond my current capabilities, although the flesh of Grimm be malleable in my hands. No matter. Observation of casualty, of an end result too, is data. We will simply have to piece together the means from it. Nothing is impossible with science. Ha ha ha!"
Though the Queen's ability to command and even pacify the Grimm was certainly something that defied expectation. Even her child, Arcana, the one that had come searching him out, had some sort of stranger lesser ability to do so.
Still, he suspected that Arcana had purposefully lost control of a few Grimm simply to underplay its capabilities to Merlot himself.
"Still, how odd they were so willing to leave such a fascinating specimen in my hands when I requested it." He mused. "Though they disallowed me to inject it with my own formulae to see if some change would happen. I'd disagree heavily if this wasn't the only specimen of its kind at the moment. Note to self, request more iterations of the Hero Maker Grimm for experimentation, if possible."
His eyes still hovered to the data gathered of Arcana from when it had happily and easily volunteered to allow Merlot to take a few surface scans of its body.
Of course he'd done something a bit more thorough without its permission, even if the smile he'd been given at the end insinuated that it was aware of such regardless, happy to let it go as long as it gained his cooperation.
Aside from the fact its flesh had been remade (supposedly by the Hero Maker) there wasn't anything that struck him as uniquely odd. Not without, perhaps, getting a sample of its flesh and blood, but if he did so, he was sure that he'd be hunted down like a dog.
The two men that had come to drop off the Hero Maker seemed oddly protective of Arcana, after all. Merlot supposed that was reasonable, it was a most valuable subject, after all.
Perhaps if he was up front about his desire for a sample? Arcana seemed like the rational sort. It would understand his desire for knowledge, perhaps. Offer up a small sample in exchange for Merlot's promises of further work.
Either way the twin orbs inside the wrists, the strange small orbs that the ulna and radius inside the forearm wrapped around protectively were still quite curious.
Were they a stabilizing material that made the difference, or was it an adjustment that was made after? What was the purpose? Certainly it did the bone structure no favors, warping it in a way that normal arms were not meant to be. If anything it would simply theoretically make the bones of the forearms near the wrist rather brittle.
An odd thing to have such a thing by such a critical joint.
"Next subject." Merlot pressed a button that dispensed another member of Vale's homeless population into the room through a chute. Their Aura had been awakened by the 'gang press' method that was popular in the Underground. "Endure with all your might, and you will live to see another day."
He lied, of course. Still, it was an attempt at getting something to change about the experiment, an attempt to induce success.
Perhaps giving a sense of false hope might be enough for a new possible experimental variable. The power of human hope and triumph was emotion enough to force away the Grimm, after all.
Regardless, the sooner he was done with his daily quota, he'd be allowed to perform experimentation on the dozens upon dozens of Grimm so helpfully supplied to him, all quite docile now thanks to his agreement with Arcana.
It really did make everything so much more simple.
He'd even get to perform more invasive adjustments that wouldn't have ever been possible before! The fact there was no such thing as anesthetics for Grimm, alongside their incessant thrashing had always made any true surgical implantations a nightmare.
"Jaune."
"Yeah, Ren?"
"I can't sleep if you keep scribbling theories for something up there."
"Oops. Sorry, Ren. Just a bit distracted."
Ren frowned.
"Ever since you got that package from upperclassman Kamina you've been constantly distracted. The girls haven't said anything, but you know they've been worried, right?"
He could hear Jaune let out a slow sigh, sheets of paper rustling as he must have been putting them down in the dark. Unlike Ren, Jaune was a Faunus so he didn't need much light to see in their dorm room while the lights were off.
Sometimes it made him wonder how Faunus managed to even go to sleep with Darkvision. He certainly found it difficult to nap in the day if there was too much light.
"...there's just something weird going on and I can't help but to worry."
Ren sighed, closing his eyes. Jaune wasn't going to let go of this, was he? If that was the case, it was probably better he at least had someone watching his back.
"Any ideas? Because if you're just flying blind, I'm going to insist we just let the adults handle this."
"I mean, we'll be seventeen and adults soon too." He could hear Jaune pout, though his brother's grumbling brought a bit of a smile to his face. "But while nothing's concrete, I think something's going to happen either this Vytal Festival or the next. Maybe both."
That did make Ren frown, his eyes snapping open.
"What do you mean?"
"...Let's say in theory that there were some really bad people out there. Like evil on the level of Grimm bad. Some of them destroyed a bunch of settlements and gave some kind of unknown weapon to the Great Houses. What does that sound like to you?"
Ren bit his lip. Jaune never really did thought experiments like that, which meant he believed in something specific, even if he wasn't sharing all the details. And right now that just sounded like a justification for something drastic.
Destroyed settlements, mysterious weapons… That just seemed like…
"The Kingdoms can't go to war, Jaune. If they did that the CCT would go down and their own people would rise up against them." Ren reminded his brother. "There was a reason that the Prophet King of Vale in the Great War almost a century ago helped set up the foundation for modern society this way."
"But maybe the goal isn't the war. What if it's to make a public spectacle during the Vytal Festival to turn it into a symbol of despair? To incite the Grimm from every corner of the world or-"
"And what do you propose you do? You're one person, Jaune."
"I… I could use the Idealists? I could-"
"So you want to be some sort of big puppet master, manipulating a bunch of not-quite allies?"
"No! That's… I don't know. I just can't lay here and pretend like I don't know there isn't something strange happening. I get antsy. My hands feel like they should be doing something."
"Your hands should stay where they are and calm down." Ren scolded, "Or stay wrapped around Yang and Blake."
"Erk."
"Yeah, none of you are very subtle about all those private moments you look for together." Ren teased, completely choosing to not reveal the fact that he'd originally tried to help Yang find moments to confess to his brother, "Only reason Pyrrha probably hasn't caught on is that you're mostly working opposite shifts all week. Plus she's competitive, but not really the jealous type."
"Thank god we're done tomorrow." Jaune groaned, finally succeeding in taking his mind in a different direction. "I can't wait to take that train to the Capital and attend the Vytal Festival."
And the reason Ren had brought up Pyrrha clearly went straight over Jaune's head. Weirdly even Nora didn't really believe Ren when he brought up the possibility that Pyrrha liked Jaune romantically and just hadn't allowed herself to come to terms with it.
Sure, she was an upfront and fairly direct girl, but she could, in some ways, be just as socially awkward as Jaune.
She was just better at putting up a public persona than his brother.
Seriously, he couldn't be the only person that saw it. It was just like watching Jaune and Yang a few years back, but less sibling vibes. Significantly less sibling vibes. Honestly sometimes Ren wondered if helping Yang get together with Jaune in any capacity had been a wise decision. Like he'd assisted in something slightly morally bankrupt.
"It is odd that we've never really had a proper chance to attend to this point." Ren nodded. "But then again we weren't in Sanctum until after the Vytal Festival was last in Mistral. Rather… you don't have to answer me if you don't want to, but what's your deal with that Miss Rider, anyways?"
Anything to get his brother's mind away from trying to get himself caught up in a massive diplomatic issue. That wasn't his responsibility at all. That was something for the adults to handle.
"Uh… hmmmm. I mean it all kind of started because she was like me in a lot of ways. It's all hard to explain. And it all began when I was about seven, so some of it's kind of fuzzy-"
Although it wasn't rare for him and Jaune to have conversations and moments of heart to heart late into the night, it was the first time they talked about girls while doing so.
Naturally Ren shared his own feelings about Nora as well, late into the night, the brothers bonding quietly in their dorm room, neither easily drifting off to sleep.
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