Juniper clenched the shoulder of his missing arm, unable to act as Tyrian opened the bay doors, sending Taiyang flying out, his pole lashing out in an attempt to hook onto anything, but finding no purchase.
Summer with her increased weight had just a split second longer to react, a streak of emerald lightning flashing as her hand dug into the floor, but her weight was too much for the metal of the floor of the Osprey's inner hold to bear when pulled by the air pressure and she was flung out as well.
He heard the impotent rage of the pilot, a man that he recognized from Dr. Polendina's photo, over the damage to the strange airship. He'd gone to inspect the face of the pilot when Summer and Taiyang's fight with Tyrian began.
Arthur Watts was alive.
This must have been the sonuvabitch that ruined so many things for his and Ruby's teams. The man that caused enough chaos to bring Atlas to its knees by driving General Ironwood into some strange irrational insanity. Maybe there was a Semblance involved? He didn't couldn't know.
Fury gripped every centimeter of his being.
He wanted to let rip every molecule of his currently stored prana to shred the man in the cockpit into ribbons, consequences be damned.
Pyrrha gave him support from within to cool his anger.
"Thanks, Pyr." He muttered as he gazed down at the form of Jaune currently drugged into a state of unconsciousness below him.
Gods, he should have cut him off while he was super hyper with the first cup only to begin to get very mellow by the third. Something had been wrong, but it was helping him deal with the bomb that Ironwood dropped on him out of nowhere.
And Elm. The kind and generous older Huntress (sure they had fought but that wasn't exactly her fault) that would eventually go to be a part of the Ace-Ops was dying. Something had changed from his and Jaune's impact on the original timeline and she would have died if the General didn't force this move on Jaune.
Sure he'd owe Jaune another favor, but now Jaune would be more likely, more willing, to create more Nikke for him in the future as a result. Juniper wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
His thoughts flashed to Penny. Meant to be both a Maiden and a vision of the future.
"A synthetic Huntress, in every corner of the world." He spat out a laugh. "At least he was always like this. Always so damn ambitious about his reach, never thinking he could be in the wrong or could make mistakes."
Still he'd not gotten as tight-wound as the Ironwood he'd remembered. If anything he was more loose and relaxed than ever before, even during his strong-arming Jaune via those four women.
However, even as Tyrian laughed maniacally as the Osprey's loading bay closed and Arthur insulted his partner in fits of impotent rage, Juniper knew this was not yet over.
What did they think was going to happen?
That Raven Branwen didn't get her way?
Twin pools of reddish black portals appeared next to Jaune's prisoner pod, the whole of Team STRQ landing with a loud thud in the Osprey's cargo bay with vengeance burning in their eyes.
"Round two." Juniper muttered with a grin. "Give him hell, Qrow."
"So. Scorpion Faunus. This wouldn't be-"
"Tyrian." Summer agreed in his arms, unfortunately bereft of S'more as it was too heavy to deal with when Raven had noticed their two teammates had entered a freefall. "He's one of hers."
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this." Qrow heard the bloodlust in his sister's smile. "I've been fucking waiting for this, you bastard."
He felt his bloodlust lurch to the forefront of his Aura, too.
Harbinger's gears turned, the greatsword crackling into its scythe configuration.
"I also need a bite outta this one, sis." His Aura roared with every hateful curse of ill fortune that filled his soul, now shining with purpose, ready to turn that ill fortune upon his foe. "He fucking would've killed Summer."
No. He had killed her, she'd only come back to life from Jaune's little miracle. His partner. The woman he loved too late and kept away from due to his Semblance.
He was going to kill Tyrian Callows.
"Well isn't this a poor spot of trouble?" Tyrian scowled, his long tail swishing angrily behind him. "Four on one is hardly sporting."
"Fools. Leave this ship or we will kill the boy." A voice demanded over the intercom of the ship they were on. "You have ten seconds."
"Fucking monsters!" Qrow heard Tai retort angrily as the ship tilted, beginning to ascend, forcing everything at an angle. "Didn't you want him alive?"
"Nine. Eight."
"Relax. Just save some of him for me." Qrow stepped to Jaune's pod, putting a hand on it.
Semblance and magical bullshit charm don't fail him now.
"Seven. You cannot access the boy from there. Six." The distorted voice seemed so confident and sneering. "There is no-"
There was a loud sound of something metal snapping as the bolts that kept the pod secured to the ground of the cargo bay seemed to fly off with a rusty pop, one of them flying at Tyrian who leaned his upper torso to the side to dodge it.
"WHAT?!"
"Hey." Qrow grinned. "Ain't this lucky."
Summer grinned, slapping him across the ass in cheeky encouragement ("Whoa, Summs!") as she grabbed Jaune's pod and slung it towards another portal that Raven slashed open behind her with a red Fire Dust Alloy katana. Pipes and wires tore away from the now sliding pod, torn free from the floor.
Raven had the option of drawing either katana or odachi blades for her weapon Omen depending on the situation, but the normal sized katana was better for a smaller space like this one.
"Not so fast!" Tyrian leapt forward, his twin wrist blades lashing out as they parried twin flashes of red from Raven, rolling forwards into a cannon kick with both legs as he propelled himself with his arms like a coiling spring, knocking her back into some empty crates that flung open uselessly. "That doesn't belong to you!"
Taiyang threw one side of a pair of twin handaxes, attached by a length of chain about a meter and a half in length, sinking into Tyrian's thigh and bouncing off the Aura. It then propelled themselves from the shotgun mechanism in the back of its head, triggered from the second trigger of the other handaxe, digging against his Aura as it began to wrap around his left thigh.
"Naw. That kid's our little miracle maker. Get your damn own!" Tai spat as he wrapped the chain around an arm as he pulled with his whole body.
Tyrian ignored his binding, spinning in place slightly as he fought the pull. He lashed out with his extending tail and wrapped it around the base of the prisoner's pod that held Jaune within, as he prevented the pod from entering the bounds of the portal. He pulled it towards himself with a bloodthirsty grin.
"Didn't your parents teach you to share?"
Raven swung for his throat, Tyrian barely pulling his head back, the Dust Alloy blade grazing and scorching his chin
"What's mine is mine. Get lost." She declared, her crimson eyes alight with murder.
It would have been more intimidating if she wasn't wearing a sexy black skintight dress.
Sparks of flame flew as Tyrian deflected two slashes, ducked under one, then forced Raven to back up as his hidden gunbarrels fired at her point blank, her crimson blade deflecting the bullet fire it sliced through the air.
"Get him!" Summer grabbed him by the back of his expensive rental tux (and there went return fees) and flung him at Tyrian. "Fly!"
"What an arm." Qrow sighed, not even bothering to propel himself with a shotgun shot from Harbinger as he lazily swung the scythe, rolling it around his torso, the tip catching in Tyrian's long braid, jerking his head back as his foot just perfectly landed in the psychopath's throat,
His other foot jerked back as he pushed the asshole off balance via pressure to the neck.
"Eat shit and shut the fuck up!" Qrow roared, shoving the heel of his (also rental) dress shoes into the man's mouth, twisting it and getting it nice and stuck in his jaw.
Tyrian's hidden gun barrels extended to fire on him as Qrow spun Harbinger for a follow up swing.
And they jammed.
He grinned as a shotgun shot propelled Harbinger caught Tyrian's neck, the haft slamming into the side of his neck painfully.
Qrow wasn't a killer. Not really. Not anymore. He found it unnecessary and distasteful unless he was forced to.
But Tyrian, he was glad to kill. Qrow would fucking murder him with a smile.
The war scythe pulled the blade against the back of his neck as the twin shotgun barrels fired pulling the blade, barely unable to break Aura.
Tyrian on the other hand BIT THROUGH his shoe like a freak of nature, eyes alight with purple fury and staring death in the face with madness.
He was forced to let go of the pod or lose his tail from Raven's follow up swing, grabbing the haft of Qrow's weapon as he pulled the blade away from the back of his neck, swung him around with a muffled roar of inhuman strength with a mouthful of rubber and leather sole. Qrow felt himself smack Raven in the side and be flung into a wall.
"Fucking handle him better, Qrow!" Raven spat as she slashed forward, arcs of flame washing past Tyrian, only one of them making proper contact from the pitching of the airship. "He's flinging you around like it's his job!"
Qrow grunted back, both his shoes (what was left of one of them) flying off conveniently as he spun in the air as he adjusted himself with one Aura manipulated shotgun recoil, allowing him to just go barefoot.
What? So he forgot his socks. Better grip once he was out of his shoes, eh? He'd usually wear them, but he'd grown up without socks. That was normal for him.
Qrow watched as Summer triumphantly managed to kick the brat's pod through the portal, tackling Tyrian from behind and attempting to pin him to the ground. A hand crackling with green lightning rose into the air.
He pulled out of her grip like a slippery eel as the green bolt crashed past him and through the steel floor as he spun up and caught her across the jaw with his knee.
Summer just glared, not limited by human biology, even if it must have rattled her brain slightly.
Then suddenly the feeling of gravity suddenly pitched down, all of them becoming weightless as Tyrian's tail latched onto a railing.
The ship was making a sharp descent.
"Fuck!" Qrow shouted, "Try to hold on to-"
Summer was the first to be pinned against the ceiling, as Taiyang managed to pull hard enough that he engaged in a grappling brawl with Tyrian, butting heads and trying to grapple the other, though despite all of Tai's skill he had a disadvantage dealing with the bladed wrist guards of their enemy that began to cut and slash past his Aura.
There was blood. Even though Tai still had Aura left! What the hell?!
Summer's eyes.
"Tai! You're bleeding!" Qrow warned, running against the ceiling in the reversed state of gravity, Harbinger flicking forwards, gears cranking into his short shotgun configuration with a folded blade. "Fuck! HIS TAIL!"
He shot desperately, aiming at the back of his teammate to launch him at an angle (using Aura manipulation to take the Dust Pellets of his 10 Gauge and breaking them apart into a concussive force rather than a lethal one) to fling him out of the way of the venomous tail that lashed towards an open wound in his pectorals that bled heavily.
The tail lashed again at his male teammate, but this time Raven appeared through an inky portal, deflecting with a slash of her katana, flames licking at Tyrian's tail from the slash.
His Aura was beginning to flicker, they had him on the ropes! What the fuck was this guy even made of?!
The ship suddenly took another sharp upwards ascent, now sending all of his team crashing towards the floor, but Qrow just leapt forwards, his weapon snapping up into a greatsword.
It smashed against Tyrian's crossed arms, smashing with insane force, cracking his weapons as he was launched back and through the metal grates of the overhang, his Aura shattering empty.
Qrow flinched as that hard shock must have unjammed the guns somehow as he was blasted with .45s.
He tossed Harbinger to the side, piercing into the wall as a platform for Taiyang to land on the flat of it as the ship continued to pitch.
His toes gripped the floor as he leapt forward, the shaking of the ship making it so that a scorpion tail flew harmlessly overhead. Qrow quickly thanked Juniper in his mind once again for his now Reversed Misfortune Semblance, his fist lashing out to give that sunuva bitch Tyrian the black eye of his life.
He took a blow across the jaw in return.
But Qrow's hand reached behind him to blind-catch Raven's silently thrown katana Omen, their twin senses at full force despite their differences, flipping the blade in his hands and thrust it forward and piercing through Tyrian's left shoulder and pinning him to the wall.
"Yer dead!"
This was IT.
"QROW!" He heard Taiyang roar from behind and dropped to his knees, letting go of Raven's weapon as his friend threw Harbinger like a massive steel javelin, the greatsword configuration rocketing forward and catching Tyrian in the face.
A scream of pain roared in a muffled mouthful of rubber and leather.
He'd barely dodged the killing blow by twisting his head to the side!
"Sneaky bitch!" Qrow spat, legs extending to grab Harbinger by the grip, aiming to force it to the side to cut through the scorpion Faunus's skull. But the blade came loose and Qrow swore, feeling it slide back out as the bay doors opened behind them. He made a last desperate swing, cutting into his enemy's chest in a crimson arc as he witnessed his enemy's limp right arm grabbed onto the handle of a door for support.
He had him! He was right fucking there!
The bloody remains of an eye splattered against his face as he flew back, splattering crimson into his open mouth. Qrow drove Harbinger downwards, trying to dig his blade into the floor to prevent his jettison with his right arm.
"This farce has gone on long enough. Begone! You've torn up my Osprey enough!"
Qrow just spat out his enemy's blood, his left hand pointing at the madly (muffled) cackling agent of Salem who'd barely survived, missing an eye and pinned to a wall by a burning blade, still roasting away at his flesh.
"You fucking wait right there. I'll find you. I swear by the gods I'll find you. And when I do, I'll fucking finish the job and take your OTHER goddamn eye!"
The air pressure soon became too much as Harbinger was torn free from the floor, sending Qrow back into a freefall.
"Fuck! FUUUUUUUCK!" Qrow screamed into the air angrily, "He was right there! We fucking had him! GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"
Qrow turned into a bird and dove down after his teammates.
Jaune groaned, feeling awful.
"Stop shakin' meeeee." He whined, feeling sick. His stomach felt like it was pumped full of water, but empty at the same time. "I feel… sick…"
"Girls, please. Give your brother some air." Jaune could hear General Ironwood somewhere in his blurry vision. "He's been through a lot and we had to vacuum pump his stomach just in case."
Is that why he felt like a limp balloon?
"Been through a lot?! THAT's what you have to say General?!" His mother's voice rang in all four of his ears. "Thank the gods that Team STRQ could reach him in time before anything happened! How did this even happen?!"
"I apologize, Mrs. Arc. This is truly a failing on my part. We had radar scanning the area and layers upon layers of security, but the kidnappers somehow managed to access a piece of technology that they should not have been able to obtain." General Ironwood could be heard fuming as well, "We promise we are investigating all possible leads."
Jaune blearily opened his eyes, his fingers numb but barely able to feel some of his sisters holding onto them, as he didn't have enough hands to share for them all.
Nora was crying on his shin as Ren held his knee and her shoulder with a stony face. He couldn't feel their hands at all.
His whole body felt cold.
"Is everyone else ok?" He asked weakly, even breathing felt hard.
"God, Jaune." He turned his head to see Saphron crying as she held the ring finger on his right hand, "You're really have a one-track mind."
"Ah. Well. I'm not sorry about that." He replied weakly. "Sorry about that."
He could feel his right index fingertip get pinched numbly as Clarent laughed at him with tears in her eyes, ruining her smokey makeup.
"You fucking nerd." Her voice was low and wet. "Once you're recovered I'm going to beat your ass."
"When's the last time you've won a serious spar?" He teased, lungs feeling like cotton. "I think it's four to one with two ties."
"Jaune." His father's hand placed itself on his forehead, the edge of it blurring the edge of his vision. "You gave us a scare, bud. How do you feel?"
"Just really numb." He replied with a raspy voice, head tilting slightly into his palm, "I can feel my toes and fingers, but everything else just feels cold."
"That sounds awful. You feel warm to me."
"I do feel awful. Nobody answered my question."
"We've detained the girl you call Amber-" Ironwood began.
"Let her go." Jaune demanded instantly, feeling a shaky grip on his left pinky tighten, knowing instantly that it was Robin. "For me. Please."
"...I have her contained purely to get more control over the situation." Ironwood responded back curtly, "We're fully aware that she was likely coerced by forces capable of utilizing such technology and methods and are taking that into account. It's true that it means there wasn't much she was able to do to defend herself. However, that does not absolve her of guilt, Jaune. Her crimes still need addressing, not to mention verifying her iden-"
"I forgave her already." Jaune closed his eyes.
She hated herself. Had been backed into a corner. He understood that, but he still felt betrayed and wasn't sure if he could look at her without getting mad. But she thought the world of Robin.
Loved his sister more than she loved herself.
And even though all that she felt she had no choice but to do as what his kidnappers asked.
He didn't even remember anything after that except the scent of wet chloroform, like fresh clipped grass, sweet but very chemical. He hadn't even heard the airship until it was already behind him. How was a normal girl, even with Huntress training, supposed to go up against that? That wasn't fair.
"It doesn't change-"
"General. Please. Whatever it is, just let her go." His whole body felt numb, but his voice rang clear. "I don't blame her. I don't want anyone to know it was her. It's not fair. This isn't what a hero does."
"Jaune, she can't just walk free."
"Yes she can." He replied calmly, even though his heart beat like hammers in his chest. "Or she has to. Or I'll stop everything."
There was a silence in the room that sat heavy as only the sounds of soft breathing and the odd sniffle provided any white noise.
"That might be a good idea anyways." His mother's voice sighed angrily, breaking the silence. "We're partly responsible for letting Amber get so close without getting any answers, but I'm so angry I want to just return home right now. Honestly, I've never been comfortable with all the expectations everyone's been pushing on my son."
"That's not safe. Not anymore." The General insisted, "Please reconsider-"
"I'll keep working every summer." Jaune swore, "If you let her walk. That nothing happens to her."
He could hear Robin begin to cry.
"...This is a foolish decision, Jaune." The General warned, his voice like steel. "You shouldn't trust her."
"I don't. I trust that she loves my sister. That she didn't feel like she had another choice. I'm not saying this like I'm happy about what she did. I… I don't know if I can even look at her without being mad. Betrayed. But I… I still don't blame her. So… so I can't let you do this to her. That's not what a hero does."
"This isn't about being a hero-"
"It is!" Jaune's eyes snapped open, feeling his numb body pull up and forwards as he met General Ironwood's eyes, seeing the older hero's eyes snap open with surprise. The numb feeling of his father's hand trying to pull him back to lie down edged in his consciousness.
His head immediately began to go light, his vision swam.
"For me that's what all of this has been about! That's WHY I'm here in Atlas! General, if I can't even protect what's within reach of my two hands, WHAT GOOD AM I?!"
"You hold no responsibility for her. What she's done can't be ignored-"
"I forgave her. As she woke me up, sobered me up! Trying to get me to run away! She tried too! That's enough for me!"
"Jaune lay down. Son. Please, you're burning up."
"No! Not until I have a promise!" Jaune's vision swam, everything becoming hazy. He felt sick. There wasn't anything in his body to throw up, but he felt motion sick as if he was currently in an airship. "If you're really a hero, promise me!"
"Jaune. Please listen to your father." The General was tense.
"I'll walk away. I swear I'll walk away!" He threatened, though all he could see was the blurry form of the General, no longer even able to see the color of his eyes.
"...Fine. I don't wish to force you to do anything, Jaune." Ironwood sighed as his hand reached out to force him back down alongside his dad. "I'll have tonight's events classified and redacted. But we will deport her. She will still be questioned and she won't be allowed to meet you or the rest of the Arcs before she's removed from the Kingdom. Once we have her testimony we'll deport her and she'll walk free, even though she'll be barred from ever returning to Atlasean soil. Is that understood?"
Fine. That didn't matter. He could track her down with the single Shadow mouse hidden in her shadow later. Make sure to give her a Scroll she could use to keep contact with Robin who was still softly crying as she clenched his pinky.
"Ok. Ok. Ok. Thank you." Jaune closed his eyes, feeling his world swirl. "I-thanks, General. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"Please rest." The General insisted as he began to slip back into unconsciousness. "You've gone through something traumatic. You need rest."
"I-yeah. O-ok." He could feel his body folding backwards like a human-shaped sandbag, his eyes flickering shut. "I could use a nap… could… could everyone stay for a bit though? I… I-I'm scared."
"We ain't leaving." Clarent swore to him.
"Just rest." He felt his mom kiss his cheek. "Everyone's here baby. We're here."
"We'll be waiting for you to wake up." His father promised.
He heard Nora cry out a blubbering word about being a guard dog, making him faintly giggle. Or he thought he did. He wasn't sure.
He felt like shit.
Ren's world was gray.
His Semblance kept him calm when his emotions spiked too hard sometimes.
Actually it sometimes just burned softly in his soul regardless, keeping him more calm and passive in general, but right now he could feel his Aura slowly draining as his world remained in grayscale.
He didn't understand why Jaune was so obsessed with being a hero.
It was an all consuming passion for him. It didn't make sense. Never made sense.
He grew up in a family that loved him, had a talent that would have let him live comfortably and safely, but all he wanted was to be a hero.
But he didn't want to just go out and save people. It was more than that. That wasn't enough for him. For him a hero always was more, did more. He held them to an impossible standard and then chased that standard with unreasonable zeal that shouldn't belong to kids like them.
He had some strange ideal of what a hero should be and attempted to live out that ideal even when he was physically falling apart.
It was why Jaune, even now, still blamed himself for the deaths of Li and An Ren, his first father and mother's deaths. It was silly when Ren thought about it. Jaune had taken revenge for him. He owed his brother more than his life, he owed him even his vengeance.
A vengeance paid in full from the Nuckelavee that took everything from him.
But Jaune kept walking forwards, still seeking some sort of strange, dark horizon. Consumed by this desire to be a hero encroaching upon his every waking moment. Like a man that had spotted an oasis in a desert, chasing that mirage with every gram of his being.
When Ren felt that his softly muted emotions made him broken, looking at Jaune always reminded Ren what a broken person really looked like.
And he didn't understand why his brother was like this. Why he'd been like this from the first day he'd met him.
All he knew was that if Jaune kept on like this one day he'd either break, or leave everyone behind in this insane pursuit of being some sort of impossible hero of justice.
His grip on Nora's shoulder and Jaune's knee tightened.
He wouldn't let that happen. Not to Jaune. Not to his brother in all but blood.
"...We need to train harder." He swallowed, his tongue felt swollen and heavy in his mouth. "So that this never has to happen again. We need to train harder."
Nora looked up with tear streaked cheeks, her hazel eyes flashing aqua like wet water.
Her voice was too filled with hiccups and tears to do anything but nod.
"Ren. Nora." Their adoptive mother Noelle frowned, her own eyes wet. "You don't need to feel responsible for this either."
"It's not that." He insisted. "Jaune… Jaune needs people to keep him grounded and safe is all. We'll do it. We… we have to. We WANT to. He just woke up from being kidnapped and then threatened the General of Atlas for Amber! To stop cooperating with him for a girl that just betrayed him and he genuinely forgave her, just like that! If he keeps at it like that he'll bite off more than he can chew one day. He's already done it. He'll… he'll do it again."
"Dumbass lil' bro." Clarent agreed was a wet chuckle. "You're gonna have your work cut out for ya, Renny."
"Yeah." Ren nodded. "For a genius… Jaune is really dumb."
The whole family shared a laugh as they sat around Jaune's hospital bed, the panels built into the wall that kept track of his vitals flickering quietly with light.