Whilst they were talking, Qrow and Raven emerged from the inner corridors at the same time as Evergreen. The moment Jaune saw their faces, he knew that their earlier suspicions were right.
Qrow's expression was dark, and sharper than his typical exhaustion-saturated irritation. Raven's face, meanwhile, carried a slight stiffness that didn't belong to her usual detached disdain. Her eyes were narrowed in a way that meant she was thinking, hard and fast, and not liking any of the conclusions. Evergreen trailed behind them, looking… sheepish was the only word. Somebody who knew he'd just delivered news that was going to make everyone's lives harder.
The topic that they'd discussed clearly had something to do with the permanent imbuements. But why were they keeping it all hush-hush? What was the big idea about inviting Rank 1s to join in on this mission operation, then hiding the information from them?
Jaune didn't know. But he was most certainly planning to ask about it soon.
"Alright," Qrow said as he reached them. "Change of plans."
Yang raised an eyebrow. "We're not going to go look for the Displacement user? That's a dumb change of plans."
"Funny," Qrow deadpanned. "Hilarious, really. This whole situation is such a disaster I wouldn't even try to drown it in alcohol—and that's how you know we're doomed."
Even Raven's lip twitched slightly at that.
But Qrow shook it off and shifted back into command mode, addressing all three younger hunters at once. "Here's the deal. Evergreen filled us in on... some extra details. We can't stay put and we can't wait for any other reinforcements. There's no guarantee they'll come in time—and if they do, Dragon Gang might already be gone or worse."
Ruby's brow creased. "So what do we do?"
Qrow dragged a thumb across his jaw. "We as a group will have to hunt them down... or rather, hunt down their spawn location."
Evergreen tensed. "Their anchor point to enter the dream is in the city. Most likely, at least."
Jaune didn't like the sound of that. Not at all. "So we track them down?"
"Exactly." Qrow nodded. "I'll leave a clone here to help defend the base and support the non-awakened. The rest of us will move out."
Before he could outline anything further, Yang suddenly jabbed a thumb toward Jaune and said far too loudly, "Speaking of Dragon Gang—did you know Jaune didn't even realize there were awakened factions outside of LUCID?"
"Yang!"
Ruby leaned away from him just enough to hide her laugh.
Qrow blinked in confusion… then let out a long, suffering sigh. "You're kidding."
"He's not," Yang said brightly, clearly entertained. "Poor guy looked like someone kicked him in the brain."
Raven raised an eyebrow, amusement flickering in her eyes like a candle flame. "How does someone become awakened and not know about unaffiliated factions? Did you not take the orientation courses?"
Jaune threw his hands up. "I did! They just didn't mention any of this! It was all safety protocols and Grimm classifications and—"
"—and Jaune zones out when he's bored," Yang added unhelpfully.
Ruby patted his shoulder sympathetically. "It's okay. You're learning!"
Qrow gave him a look that hovered between ridicule and pity. "Kid, this information is readily available in the LUCID archives. Did you only search up grimm types and combat techniques the entire time you were training in LUCID?"
Jaune groaned.
Raven made no effort to hide her smirk.
But the joking stopped as quickly as it came. Qrow took a breath, expression sliding back into that grim, commanding focus.
"Alright. Enough teasing. Here's the real plan."
He pointed toward the city ruins beyond the barricaded doors.
"Dragon Gang's awakened are somewhere out there. And they didn't come for fun. Given what Evergreen told us…" His gaze briefly flicked toward the older man, then back to the group. "...we've confirmed that they're after the permanent imbuing method. They wouldn't risk this much for anything else."
Ruby stiffened and Yang swore under her breath. An awakened faction getting their hands on permanent imbuing, especially someone criminal, and someone already strong as a Rank 2 would be catastrophic.
That would probably mean that they could have access to multiple Rank 2 level runes. How many was the limit? 10? 20?
Too many.
"The leader in this location was able to fight Evergreen to a stalemate," Qrow said. "And his runes are quite powerful for a Rank 2. Which means that one on one fights are going to be a no go. So... we have to jump him. Well, me and Raven will have to, at least. You kids will have to handle the Rank 1's that he has in his roster."
An uneasy silence settled over the group.
"The three of us alone... are supposed to fight an entire group of awakened?"
Qrow shrugged. "You'll be fine. You have formal training and should be stronger than most of them. But, if anything happens, we'll intervene. Consider this an on field training exercise."
They stared at each other a little uncomfortably in silence.
Yang eventually broke it. "Alright... so how do we find them? The city's huge."
"Again, we don't look for them," Qrow corrected. "We look for where they spawned."
Ruby tilted her head. "Their spawn point?"
Evergreen nodded weakly. "That's right. Every awakened pulled into the Dream appears somewhere their consciousness anchors to. For LUCID operatives, our designated pods are linked up to LUCID bases when we our pods. For unaffiliated awakened that don't have this technology, it's the place where sleep."
Raven finished the thought. "And unless Dragon Gang has custom pods and a base that is under the influence of Creation—which I very much doubt that they do—they'll have manifested in a location that mirrors their real-world hideout."
Yang's eyes widened. "So if we find where they spawned in the Dream… we find where they were in reality."
"Exactly," Qrow said.
"And we can set a trap to make sure to capture them in that location when they spawn in." Raven added.
Jaune inhaled slowly. "…And if we don't?"
Qrow's face hardened. "If the awakened here die from Dream Erosion, the non-awakened staff lose their protection. They don't have access to the nightmare system which means that they can't absorb runes, so Grimm will overwhelm them in minutes. And the Dragon Gang won't just vanish. They'll take what they came for and leave bodies behind."
Evergreen grimaced. "His Displacement rune operating at that level... will just allow them to vanish across half a city before anyone can react."
Ruby's grip on Crescent Rose tightened. "Then we stop them."
Yang cracked her knuckles. "And we do it fast."
Qrow gave a single, decisive nod. "Right. But we're not going in as a single group. Too slow and too visible. We'll cover more ground if we're split up."
He pointed to Ruby and Yang. "You two are with me."
Then he pointed at Jaune.
"And you're with Raven."
Jaune opened his mouth, then hesitated. "But... didn't you just say that we're going to jump them? Wouldn't this be counter productive?"
"Raven has a special sensory link to my shadow. She can pull me through my own shadow to her side and come to my location anytime she wishes. So, don't worry. We'll still jump em."
"So being with Raven... is that a punishment or…?"
"Logistics," Qrow said flatly.
Jaune supposed that it was smart. If Yang was with her, she would probably get baited into attacking Raven if they were stuck together. It was honestly quite surprising how well behaved Yang was in this situation, already.
Raven didn't deny the unspoken adage. She even smirked faintly.
Qrow gave Jaune a strangely sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Stick close to her and try not to let her antagonize you too much."
"That's your way of saying she definitely will antagonize me, isn't it?" Jaune said dryly.
Qrow's silence was answer enough.
The teams shifted into place, readying their weapons. The ruins of Belmont City loomed outside—dark, twisted, and crawling with Grimm. Somewhere in that labyrinth of collapsed buildings and shadowed alleys lurked Dragon Gang operatives, their sub-leader, and their anchor point.
Ruby turned to Jaune briefly. "Be safe, okay?"
"Same to you," he said, offering a small smile. "Don't let your uncle hog all the grimm kills."
Qrow made a vague offended noise and cut in "Alright. Enough chatter. Move out."
As the two teams separated and stepped into the broken streets, Jaune felt the weight of everything settle onto his shoulders.
They needed to find Dragon Gang's spawn point. They needed to stop a Rank Two Displacement user, who somehow had his rune on the level of a Rank 3 Master rune. And they needed to keep the LUCID base from collapsing while doing it.
No pressure.
.
.
Raven didn't waste time once their team split. With a single tap of her foot, she vaulted up the side of a broken wall. Jaune followed after her, armored form scraping concrete as he leapt onto the adjacent rooftop.
Rooftop traversal was objectively cool, like ninja, or parkour runners in movies. The Dream Realm's wind cut sharp and cold, tugging at Jaune's face and hair, as if trying to throw him off-balance.
Raven didn't seem bothered by it.
She sprinted with inhuman speed across the crumbling roofs as though she'd memorized every weak tile and broken beam. Fortunately, with him being a peak rank 1 now, he was able to easily keep up.
Still, the silence between them stretched.
Too much silence.
Jaune opened his mouth amidst the sharp winds. "So… can I ask you something?"
Raven sighed in a way that said she'd been waiting for this. "Of course you will."
He winced, rubbing the back of his neck as he vaulted over an entire stretch of houses. "I just… I'm kind of out of the loop here. Back at the base—what exactly did you and Qrow talk to Evergreen about?"
Raven didn't look at him, but he saw her eyes flick in his direction for a heartbeat. "You want the short version or the one that will make you complain halfway through?"
"The real version?" Jaune said, trying not to sound too hopeful.
A pause.
"We confirmed that the method to make permanent imbued runes is inside the base."
Jaune tripped slightly mid-jump, landing messily on the next rooftop before recovering. "Method? Is it some kind of technique, or is it a device of some sort? Like how you taught me Aura Projection and Echo?"
Raven gave a soft, humorless laugh. "No. Permanently imbuing a rune isn't a technique. No one can do that on their own. It's not about skill, or willpower, or clever manipulation of aura."
Jaune frowned. "Then what is it?"
"A mistake." She hopped onto a toppled billboard, using it as a ramp to vault onward. "A dangerous one."
That didn't help his curiosity at all.
"So it really is something physical? Like… a machine or a device?"
"A device..." she repeated. "Yes... perhaps it could be indeed, be called that. Machine isn't the right word."
He noted the way she said device—like she didn't want to call it what it truly was. Like the word itself was a mask.
"And LUCID has it?"
Raven's feet touched down lightly on the next building. "Yes, and no."
Jaune slowed for a fraction of a second. "…No?"
"We didn't find it first." Raven hopped over a gap that would've made Jaune's stomach flip a week ago. "Dragon Gang did."
He felt his heart push painfully against his ribs. "Wait—then why do we have it now? Or… why is it in the base?"
Raven finally met his eyes.
"Because Evergreen stole it."
Jaune blinked. He wasn't sure what answer he expected, but it sure as hell wasn't that. "Evergreen? Evergreen stole it? From Dragon Gang?"
"That's what I said."
"Well…" Jaune tried to piece it together. "Isn't that… good? If Dragon Gang kept a device that could make runes permanent, they'd be… unstoppable, right?"
He thought Raven would agree, or at least nod.
She didn't.
She only looked forward again, her expression unreadable. "Maybe Evergreen thought he was doing the right thing."
"…But?" Jaune prompted.
"But decisions made out of fear tend to create their own disasters. And now we're here to clean it up."
That lingered between them. And Jaune couldn't shake the feeling that Raven knew more—knew something about this device, about its nature, about what it meant—something that she wasn't saying.
He wanted to ask.
He wanted to ask badly.
But he didn't want her to tell him to shut up yet. Not before he asked something more pressing.
"So…" Jaune drew a breath as he landed beside her on the roof of a three-story parking structure. "The Dragon Gang leader. His rune is basically at a Rank 3 Master level, rune, right?"
Raven . "Not exactly. To be called a Master rune, to be called a Rank 3... is a chasm beyond your current understanding."
Jaune waited for her to elaborate. She didn't. So naturally, he continued.
"But, how are Qrow and you even going to stop him? Wouldn't he just be able to—displace? Like, anytime he wants? To escape? Or send us back to the real world instantly?"
The thought had hit him earlier as Qrow talked, but it sank its claws in only now. If the man's rune ignored the Nightmare System's rules…
Couldn't he do anything?
Raven didn't slow. If anything, she sped up a fraction. "You're assuming Displacement works the way you understand it."
"Doesn't it?"
"It shouldn't allow someone to freely travel between dimensions." Raven's tone cooled as if she were lecturing a child. "The Nightmare's rules are as close to absolute as possible. Even the strongest runes won't let you casually break them."
"But Qrow said Evergreen fought him to a stalemate. He seemed like he could warp all over the place."
"He can warp," Raven said. "He can cheat distance. But he cannot leave the Dream Realm at will."
Jaune opened his mouth—then Raven turned, giving him a smile that wasn't a smile.
A grin—sharp and cold as the broken glass beneath their feet.
"He cheated," she said.
Jaune stumbled again. "Cheated how?"
"The had the permanent imbuement method before, didn't they? Dragon Gang used a specific combination of runes—I do not know which, but somehow, someway..." Raven's voice dropped lower. "...they used them to forcibly drag every person in Belmont who had any tether to the Dream. Sleeping pod users. Awakened and anyone with a connection."
"But... how?" Jaune asked, scooting around debris as they ran. "That shouldn't be possible. I mean—I don't even know what's possible, obviously—but that sounds like something you'd need a... Rank 3 for."
"That's why I said, I don't know. But, what I do know is that he cheated."
This time, Raven stopped abruptly.
Jaune nearly crashed into her.
She turned her head slightly, meeting his gaze with eyes that glowed faintly red from the Dream's ambient atmosphere.
"Enough questions."
"But—"
"Seriously, shut up," she said plainly. "You're irritating me with your constant questions."
The way she said it froze him more effectively than any Grimm's bloodlust. There was clearly something there—some truth so heavy Raven didn't want him stumbling into it by accident.
Jaune closed his mouth. Raven nodded once, as if satisfied.
Then she leapt off the edge of the rooftop and he followed, landing beside her on a collapsed walkway that led deeper into the twisted cityscape.
"Good," she said tersely. "Now keep your eyes open. We're close to one of the likely anchor zones."
Jaune swallowed. He'd wanted answers.
But now, running through Belmont's broken skeleton beside Raven, the silence weighed heavier than any explanation she could've given him.
And whatever she refused to say…
Was perhaps far more terrifying than everything she had.
.
.
AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon