Jaune was pretty popular with adults, Qrow observed with a smirk. To be honest he was partial to the kid for what it was worth.
That's why he didn't complain when in the end he was the one best suited as chaperone for the boy due to Tai being more busy with getting prep-work for the upcoming year at Signal ready and Summer watching the kids and taking them to explore Atlas. Qrow was fine taking a lazy evening keeping an eye on the brat.
He couldn't do worse than Noire, who looked mortified that the brat had given her the slip in the bathroom. Now the mortified look on that dame's pretty face was killer. What was it about blushing discomfort that made already hot women extra sexy?
Was it just a toxic masculinity thing? Qrow wasn't sure.
However, the first thing that had happened when they arrived at the Mechanicus Institute of Technology was a grand tour, even being shown classified areas thanks to signing an NDA upon their arrival.
Naturally they lead with something flashy to try to attract the boy's attention and wow him, which was a giant cannon meant to be fitted to an airship, showing him some blueprints and asking what he thought of them.
Big impressive shit meant to wow young boys. Pretty standard shit. Especially for the Atlas crowd.
The scientist that did so did it with a bit of humor and pride, not really expecting much of a six year old, even if he had devised the most advanced android tech to date. Like morons.
Jaune had just looked visibly uncomfortable.
Not from the attention or even their maybe unintentioned snubbing, no. But because he couldn't stop himself from whipping a marker out of the air, which was probably his Semblance, Qrow gathered keeping a bunch of items with him at all times not unlike his Mold, and began scribbling adjustments and listing out equations related to… actually Qrow didn't know shit enough to know what any of it was about.
The kid told him way later that it was because there were just a lot of unnecessary parts to it all and he was simplifying it, like that was an easy thing to do.
Qrow couldn't make heads or tails of it, but he was sure the kid didn't have any reason to lie about that all. He didn't exactly seem to take much pride in his work, which made him wonder if that lack of pride might have been Julius and Noelle's fault. He didn't want to think poorly of his old friends and classmates, but it was weird the boy rather seemed uncomfortable with his literal groundbreaking achievements.
The scientist in charge had been furious at Jaune's 'disrespect' of their blueprints, only to begin to shut up and observe, his eyes widening further and further as Jaune did something to impress the old bag with his notes and what looked to Qrow like random calculations.
To Qrow it was clear the boy was just confused, seemingly unimpressed by the level of work presented to him, like it wasn't up to his standards or he was comparing a hatchet to a chainsaw.
Atlas not up to standard. HA!
Jaune was Qrow's favorite brat.
Though now clearly impressed that the boy wonder was exactly what he was hyped up to be, the other scientists seemed to take it all as some sort of a challenge. It was kind of embarrassing as they levied wayyyyy too much pride against a kid.
Jaune ended up being whisked away in multiple different directions, from trains to firearms and even airship design. Admittedly, he didn't really have much in the way of the last one aside from introducing some formulae about air resistance and material strength that Qrow didn't understand, but the other scientists ran some calculations and began losing their fucking minds.
Qrow always did enjoy the look of eggheads getting schooled. It was probably something resulting from the way he was raised, often seeing strength as the be all end all. He was a grown man now, though. He knew what the world needed more than strength were people that could pave a future for the rest of mankind, Faunus included.
It needed these pompous eggheads.
That didn't mean he didn't enjoy the sight of them getting outclassed by a fucking six year old.
The only one Qrow genuinely liked in Mechanicus so far was actually the old Polendina fellow that came to visit their little island in Patch. He was humble, polite, and just a good guy that was willing to learn with an open mind. That was the kind of cool dude that would really go on to make real change.
Though the wheelchair bound man did, conspiratorially, sip a cup of coffee by his side as they watched Jaune unintentionally cause mass chaos by adding his input (read: 'correcting/redesigning') to a large amount of blueprints being brought to him from all over the research facility, just looking confused the whole time, the little glorious shit.
Qrow did have to step in when a good chunk of them had begun to offer to introduce the boy to their daughters, nieces, and grand-daughters however. Unlike the Specialists that were assigned to them (clearly too mature to be actual honeytraps, plus Ironwood wasn't the type to pull such a thing) Qrow didn't trust the random eggheads enough to not try to pull something stupid and manipulative out of scientific greed.
The kid had been the one to save Summer. He wasn't just gonna leave him to the wolves. He owed the brat more than that.
"You lost track of him? How?" Ironwood sighed as he pinched his brow, Mettle numbing the sensation of his heavy breathing. "He's seven."
Specialist Noire Briarsong stayed in salute, her face twisted in embarrassment.
"Sir! I believe he heard some White Fang walking by towards their peace rally and snuck through the window out of curiosity, sir!"
"And how did he manage that under your watch?"
"I-it was from the bathroom, sir! I couldn't exactly step in, sir!"
Ironwood sighed. If that was the case he couldn't officially hold it against her.
This is why he didn't want children. Nor thought they should have their Aura unlocked too early. They were unruly at best, petulant at worst.
Think of how important he is. Ironwood told himself. This is just a minor setback.
"And the headline of the paper?"
Atlas Military Defends White Fang? Tax dollars at work or wasted?
"That was me, sir." Pepper replied, her shifting into an even straighter back making her large feminine assets jiggle slightly, "I saw a civilian strike the Little Prof-"
"You let him be hit by one of our citizens?!" Ironwood felt his blood pressure rise before Mettle kicked in. "I… no. I'll just have to take care of this a bit more personally. You did well in protecting him as soon as you could. Was it bad?"
Pepper shook her head.
"No, sir. There was some light bruising on one cheek, but it healed up in minutes, sir! He also did an admirable job preventing any violence from spilling over to the White Fang by presenting himself as the biggest threat, sir!"
Ironwood felt a throb in his temple.
"Dare I even ask?"
"Is… is that an order, sir?" Pepper asked nervously, her tanned nose wrinkling cutely in confusion.
Ironwood wished he had just gotten lucky and the boy had developed a schoolboy crush on one of the two gorgeous Specialists instead of wandering into trouble. But as gorgeous as his chosen Specialists were today, it seemed that young Jaune hadn't exactly developed enough to yet properly be attracted to their womanly charms. That was on him, he knew honeypots would be a long shot at the boy's age, but it was still worth a shot.
You missed every shot you didn't take, after all. An attractive pair of young women that Jaune could potentially see as an 'older girl next door' type seemed like a logical choice yesterday. Also that was reasonably as young as he could take it, Ironwood wasn't involving Academy students in this affair.
"Yes, I need every detail. Our Little Professor is a very high priority person of interest."
"He… he was advising the aggressor how to punch more effectively, sir."
Ironwood chewed on the information. To most it would sound as if it was mere arrogance or even mockery of his foe, but young Jaune was a genius and their minds tended to turn a bit more quickly.
"It sounds like," Ironwood spoke slowly, "he was directing all of that man's hatred towards himself. He didn't attack back, or even attempt to defend himself aside from keeping up his Aura."
"Yes, sir. That is what I observed, sir."
Ironwood smiled.
"He's selfless then. A good, strong trait. Believes violence is not always the answer, and unlike most children is mature enough to know that a Huntsman in training must never use their strength against a civilian unless absolutely necessary. I assume even with Aura he wasn't confident in his ability to subdue the man, especially since he had friends with him. And that if he acted violently the man's allies would have jumped into help and spilled their hatred and violence over to the peaceful protestors, making the citizens of Atlas and Mantle the villains in the narrative." Ironwood nodded, making sense of the situation. "We can take that to the press. I'm certain that we will be able to get corresponding testimonies from the White Fang protestors. This could even be good for tying young Jaune's image to the military."
He could get someone in human relations to spin this back around easily.
"I apologize for speaking out of turn, sir, but Huntress Summer Rose and her family seem awfully attached to the Little Professor. They might take some offense to anything too heavy handed, sir." Specialist Noire advised, having had more direct interaction with the group.
Thus Ironwood took the information in stride.
He hadn't become the youngest General in Atlasean history by ignoring information from his subordinates at the age of twenty seven. Not that he was ever keeping track of useless metrics like that. It was the sensationalists in the media that kept pointing fingers at his age and wouldn't shut up about it as if that was something to base their national pride on. He was thirty two now. He'd thought they'd stop bringing it up after half a decade.
Truly the media was a different kind of beast.
"Alright. I can't see them complaining if he's mentioned as a Guest of the State. That is what he is here as, after all. I'll even make sure it's brought up that I've personally invited him." Ironwood nodded, getting a slightly touched gasp from Specialist Sergeant Noire as he put his very own reputation on the line.
He had been an advocate for lowering barriers for Faunus to enter the military ever since he had taken power. It was hard going fighting the old tide, however, especially as any Faunus with leadership capabilities had to be exemplars to fight back against deep rooted prejudices. It may not end up being in his lifetime, but Ironwood had every intention of making sure that the Atlas military of his generation would pave the way for a better future.
If he could not, the Queen would cause it all to crumble from within eventually.
Also he found that in his bid for Faunus equality, as slow as it might be, earned him a lot of loyalty from his Faunus officers and soldiers, who with their higher educations understood better than most civilian Faunus that this sort of change likely would not be of their lifetime, that their careers and lives were to be stepping stones for the Faunus of the future.
Truly, good men and women, all of them.
"I will happily also throw my hat into this." Dr. Polendina laughed, "You should have seen the fire young Jaune lit in Mechanicus today. I daresay his insights may have pushed us forward five years in material sciences alone!"
Ironwood smiled confidently and with genuine joy. He knew it was a good idea allowing the good doctor to visit the boy personally. And what results they were already reaping.
"The General of Atlas and the Head of Mechanicus both throwing their support to a boy not even in his double digits. The media will have a field day." He chuckled.
It didn't matter. That sort of attention would only tie him harder to Atlas, even with the headache involved.
"The harder issue would be getting him to stay." The good doctor chuckled, "The boy's a dreamer. He doesn't really have any pride in his intellect, despite his genius. I don't think he understands the kind of gem he is. A good, humble lad. He wants to be a Huntsman, you know."
Ironwood was heartened that the boy wanted to serve the world as a protector, but found himself frowning.
"As important as that sentiment is, he'll undoubtedly do infinitely more good as a scientist. Perhaps we could… convince him to enter schooling in the Academy. Track him towards Huntsman programs with teammates we vet personally, but keep him on call as a scientific advisor, eventually getting him official certification. We'd have years to change his mind and certainly having a valuable researcher like Jaune being able to defend himself is equally a boon."
Dr. Polendina gave him a bit of a sad smile.
"I think you might underestimate the boy's passion, General. I've spent a mere two days with him, but the only thing that young Jaune has in his head is the desire to be a hero. He wishes to travel the world and right wrongs, not slave away in a laboratory."
"That'd be a waste of his potential and purpose." Ironwood stood firm in his decision. "Travel can be arranged, even light excursions, but Atlas seeks the future. Jaune's talents aren't even on the level of once in a generation, they might be once in a millennium."
"On that we agree, General. My point is merely that if you chase him too hard, he will run. You were the one who shared with me the files on his family. Is that not proof enough that you need to make concessions? He's a child, and must be handled like one. But not the firmness of an educator, but the nurture of a guardian. That is why he stays with Summer Rose's family. He needs to feel safe."
Ironwood laughed.
"There's no issues then. There is no Kingdom safer than Atlas."
It was surprisingly Pepper that now spoke up out of turn.
"Sir? Not to speak out of turn as well, but that's not the kind of safety I think the Doctor means, sir."
Ironwood paused and turned to his other Specialist.
"Continue."
"Sir! It's, hmmm. Emotional safety that the Little Professor's likely looking for, sir. He ran away from us, his guards, because, well, he went looking for people he could relate to, sir. I think he's painfully lonely, especially if the files on his self-estrangement from his parents are true. I mean, he's even made an imaginary big brother, sir."
Ironwood knew the truth of that was slightly different. The boy was such a genius that he had caught the attention of a slumbering Greater Spirit of Wisdom, according to Ozpin. However, that issue about his loneliness was still likely somewhat true.
"Then what is it that you suggest, Specialist Corporal Pepper Gyarul?"
"He feels safe with the Rose-XiaoLong family, sir. If we could convince them to move roots-"
Ironwood shook his head.
"Unfortunately that angle cannot work in this instance. They're part of Ozpin's inner circle."
Pepper frowned, a slight pouty frown on her pink lip polished mouth.
"Can't we just poach them anyways, sir? Not as if the first time Atlas has done that to other Kingdoms."
"Not them." Ironwood lied. "They're too loyal, and owe him too much."
No, they were part of Ozpin's fight against the Queen. It would be like shooting all of Remnant in the foot to take away their greatest defender's hands and feet. Ironwood would have to be insane to do that.
"If I may, sir." Noire spoke up nervously. "I know I might have some bias here as a Faunus myself. But… what if we showed him that we were willing to support the White Fang?"
Ironwood paused.
"That would come with a lot of political baggage." He stated, "What would make that worthwhile to us?"
Pepper snickered, causing everyone to turn to her, the tanned blonde blushing in embarrassment.
She stammered, looking away and trying to steer the conversation back to Noire, but Ironwood took the opportunity to play the lightest of pranks on his Specialist.
It would look like he was taking his role seriously. Nobody would know. He had to take the few moments of fun his line of work allowed.
"No, no, Specialist. Do elaborate upon your humorous thoughts." He stated officiously, making sure there was a little steel in his voice to hide his true intentions.
"I, uh, sir I. Ahem." Pepper flushed furiously. "There was a girl in the White Fang about Jaune's age that seemed to make friends with him, sir. Got his Scroll number as she was shoving pamphlet after pamphlet into his pockets, sir. I could, could, be wrong, but it-it looked to me as if she was the daughter of Ambassador Belladonna, sir."
Ironwood repressed the desire to raise his brows.
"Should you be correct," He spoke, Mettle holding himself from smiling as he stared directly at Specialist Pepper, "That could certainly be an avenue of cooperation and angle of attack. But if you are… incorrect?"
"I-I-I'm certain she must be Ambassador Belladonna's daughter, sir!" Pepper declared half in panic, trying to stand up even straighter as her assets shook, getting a momentary look of jealousy from Specialist Noire.
"I shall… look into it." He 'conceded' diplomatically. "We'd be making a difficult situation with the SDC should we do so and if, and only if, we decide there are enough to be gained, we will reach out to both the SDC and the White Fang and attempt to mediate some results. Likely we'd have to possibly have young Jaune get involved, share a bit of technological ideas with Jacques's science division, show him that there's something to be gained by making some concessions."
He could see a hard squint from Specialist Noire in the corner of his vision. Understandably she didn't believe Jacques Schee would be so cooperative.
To be honest, neither did he.
It was a gamble, either way.
"Worst case, we simply make a few more concessions from the military end and hope that's enough." Ironwood finalized. "Reach out to public relations and the White Fang witnesses, have this taken care of before for printing first thing in the morning. Dismissed."
"Sir!" Pepper and Noire saluted before quickly leaving his office.
"Well, I too shall turn in for the night." Dr. Polendina began to wheel away with the touch of a button. "Good night, General."
"Good night, doctor."
Ironwood reached under his desk and pressed a button, a paper cup dispensed and dark black coffee began to pour in.
It was the same, cheap instant swill he'd drank as a student on a budget. Frankly it was awful stuff, bitter without cream, tasteless with sugar… but it held memories of easier times. And it was warm, physically and emotionally. That was what mattered.
He held it up in front of his eyes, feeling like that young student that he once was for the mere briefest of moments.
"To the future." He declared, the memory of his younger and more idealistic self toasting along.
Jaune tiredly pulled at the arm of the Gacha, head throbbing at all the math and designs that forced themselves to the forefront of his mind against his will.
He sort of hated how the Ring of Conditional Victory had messed with his brain, feeling that it was no longer even his. Just a slave to the after effects of their treating his gray matter like its own personal chew toy.
He hated feeling like a fraud.
The plastic capsule popped open in his hands.
R Rarity Equipment: Dreams of Purpose
Origin: Remnant
Description: Taken from a very rare Grimm's abilities, the Nightmare, this monster's dark abilities have been twisted for a better purpose. Though uncontrolled by the user, this pillow allows the Dreamer's soul and subconscious to grant dreams involving deeper emotions and introspection. Though it is possible to confuse some of the dreams granted as prophetic, nothing that this Pillow can grant can be from anything but the Dreamer, thus certainly nothing from the future.
What did that even mean?
Admittedly, it looked like a very comfortable pillow, a cushiony, inviting pillow covered in smooth dark purple silk.
Jaune laid his head on it and almost instantly fell asleep after his long day.
The pillow claimed deeper emotions and introspection. That everything had to be from him. That whatever he dreamed it had to be of Jaune Arc and nothing else. Not even the Gacha, despite being FROM the Gacha.
It was the one hope he had left after a long day of feeling miserably fake.
He couldn't really remember what the dream was when he woke up. Only that he had spoken with someone… someone important. That he had sat down with her, talked, enjoyed a nice quiet night in a forest, both missing friends, but supporting each other.
But ever since the Tonic, Jaune could remember everything that he ever heard.
The simple exchange of "Hey." into a "Hey yourself."
The silence that stretched between the two as he spoke to the girl. Who was she? Why was she important? Why did she feel so similar to himself?
"I miss my team."
He had laughed, bitter and wet.
"I miss mine too. We're… not complete without her."
"I'm not.. I'm not trying to replace-"
"I know. We all know."
Team? Like STRQ? A weird but loving family?
Jaune wanted that. He burned and yearned for it.
At some point they were huddled up in the darkness, the sky a twist of colors as they shared a pair of earbuds in the darkness, leaning against each other, the smell of roses and chocolate and a deep crimson cloak.
It was just a dream, it wasn't real, but it was his. His and his alone.
He remembered the song. Every lyric and verse. The sound of it all. That alone remained crystal clear.
Jaune pulled out a guitar from his inventory, an expensive looking orange and white. It had come from the Gacha at some point, he didn't remember when. It was tuned perfectly and he had been taught how to play one.
He was ok at it too, and ever since his Tonic, his fingers had only become more nimble, voice a tad sweeter, sense of pitch (and balance) better, even if he fumbled the occasional chord, trembling as he desperately recalled and tried to match the memory.
"They see you as small and helpless… They see you as just a child…"
Jaune sang softly to himself, unaware of his Big Brother Juniper's confused and wide eyed look, or Summer Rose having come to his hotel room to wake him up, recording with a soft, bemused smile on her face.
Only Juniper knew that even this sweet dream, that this song, did not belong to Jaune. That it was, in the end, not of him at all.
That it was of a different Jaune Arc. The one whose arm resided within the younger's soul.
That even this small moment of hope and joy was fake and fated for falsehood, though the song yet did not exist in this version of Remnant.
But he could not break the boy's currently sole, fragile hope.
To be something genuine. To be something real.
Thus, Juniper spoke no evil.