For a few moments, no one answered. Then, Qrow stepped forward. This time, there was no trace of his usual sardonism. His expression had sharpened into something colder and tired, as if Jaune's question had forced open an old wound.
"What happened to him?" Qrow repeated, his voice low. "You can probably guess."
He folded his arms and looked directly at Jaune.
"What's the biggest headache for LUCID in this current day and age? What group of people keeps tearing holes through the natural order and causing chaos wherever they go?"
The answer came almost instinctively.
"Sleepless?" Jaune said, surprise coloring his voice. "But that doesn't make sense. I thought they didn't have proper Rank 3 combat strength."
The moment the words left his mouth, Jaune felt a spike of embarrassment.
That was stupid.
No, worse than stupid. It was naïve.
How could an organization like Sleepless possibly function at its current scale without a Rank 3 operating somewhere in the shadows? The thought was almost laughable once he said it aloud. Rank 2s, especially a terrorist organization that were filled with them, were not simple the sort of people who fell in line beneath weak leadership. They were monsters in their own right, forces capable of changing the fate of cities and nations.
Only someone stronger could keep that many predators facing the same direction.
Raven gave him a look that could have cut steel.
"Is that a real question?" she asked flatly. "Just because there haven't been reports of a Rank 3 in Sleepless doesn't mean they aren't there behind the scenes."
Her crimson eyes narrowed.
"And have you already forgotten what happened in Atlas?"
Jaune's breath caught. He remembered.
The city of Rime in the dream realm. That monstrous Grimm that had rampaged through the city with the kind of force that made even reality seem fragile.
And Ironwood. Even a man like Ironwood had not been able to destroy it.
Only repel it and drive it away.
That memory sat in Jaune's chest like a stone. If something like that had manifested fully in the waking world, it would not have been a disaster.
It would have been an extinction-level event for the city and the surrounding regions. That was the terror of a Rank 3 Grimm.
Raven continued, her tone clipped and severe.
"We don't know how many are out there. And considering that Sleepless has the ability to create amalgamations as well as forced awakenings, it's only a matter of time before more Rank 3s start to pop up."
Jaune fell silent.
There was no arguing with that.
If Sleepless truly possessed the means to manufacture monsters, then the future looked far darker than he had imagined.
Qrow let out a breath and shook his head.
"Let's get back to the point," he said. "About Velik."
His voice grew more measured, but no less grave.
"We don't know the full specifics because Velik has chosen not to reveal them. That much is his business. And as a Rank 3, he is in every right to do so."
Taiyang gave a faint nod at that, arms folded as he leaned against one of the black roots jutting from the crater floor.
"But the general case of what occurred," Qrow continued, "is as follows."
His gaze shifted briefly toward the distant pillar before returning to Jaune.
"Somehow, Sleepless deployed a very special Rank 3 Grimm to attack Velik."
Jaune frowned.
"A special Grimm?"
Qrow nodded.
"How they did it, we don't know. Whether it was created, summoned, or cultivated, we still don't have the full picture."
His expression darkened.
"But what we do know is that the Grimm's abilities, were like what that Formless Stalker said earlier, it's parasitic in nature."
The word itself made Jaune tense.
Parasitic.
Qrow's eyes hardened.
"It was aptly given the classification: Gheist."
Jaune had never heard it before, but the way Qrow said it made it sound less like a classification and more like a curse.
"It attached itself to Velik," he said Taiyang continued.
Jaune blinked.
"Attached how?"
Taiyang tapped two fingers against his temple.
"Here."
The implication hit immediately. It was not a creature that merely attacked the body.
It attacked the mind.
Qrow picked up the explanation.
"It was trying to take control of his consciousness."
Jaune felt cold.
The strongest Rank 3 alive, and even he had nearly been overtaken by this thing?
Qrow's tone dropped lower.
"Velik made the only decision available to him."
The air around them seemed heavier.
"He severed the part of his soul that the Grimm had infested."
The implication was horrifying.
For awakened, the soul was more than a philosophical idea. It was structure, identity and power. The very blueprint of what they were. It was their spirits that traversed the Dream every night while their bodies were left behind in reality.
To sever it away. Even if it was a part of it...
Jaune swallowed hard.
"He cut it away from himself," Qrow said, "and cast it into the Shadow Realm."
Jaune's gaze instinctively drifted toward the endless black forest surrounding the crater. Somewhere in this impossible place, a fragment of Velik's soul existed.
That alone was terrifying.
Then Qrow continued, and somehow it got worse.
"Unfortunately," he said, voice bitter with irony, "that part of his soul contained his Master Rune."
Jaune's eyes widened.
"Allow me to remind you," he said, "That Velik's Master Rune is made up of the meta rune Darkness and two others which he has never disclosed."
Qrow gave a dry, humorless laugh.
"Not technically a shadow rune," he said, "but it has a direct connection to this Shadow Realm."
Taiyang nodded.
"It allows him to traverse freely between the two worlds."
The missing soul fragment was not just a piece of Velik. It was a piece of his ability and his pathway. The fount of his strength and his bridge between worlds.
That was why the expedition mattered. That was why Rank 2s had been deployed. That was why everything about this mission had been cloaked in secrecy.
Qrow looked him directly in the eyes.
"The Rank 2s are here to find that missing fragment of his soul," he said, "and bring it back."
His voice dropped.
"Before Sleepless does."
The silence that followed was immense.
Jaune stared at the three of them, his mind still trying to piece together the implications of everything they had just told him. The image of a severed soul fragment drifting somewhere in this impossible realm refused to leave him. After a moment, he finally spoke.
"I still don't understand something," he said slowly, looking between Qrow, Raven, and Taiyang. "If Velik is a Rank 3, then why didn't he just ask the other Rank 3s to help him look for it?"
His brow furrowed as the thought continued to unravel in his mind.
"Wouldn't that make more sense? Surely it would be better for someone at that level to help him search for the missing piece instead of sending Rank 2s into a place like this."
Jaune's expression darkened.
"And if this Gheist Grimm is still somewhere in here… if it's roaming around attached to that soul fragment…" He swallowed. "Then what we'd be dealing with is the power of a Rank 3, right? Velik's power, plus the Gheist itself, which is already a Rank 3 Grimm."
His voice lowered.
"Even if we found it, wouldn't we just die the moment we ran into it?"
For a moment, none of them answered.
Then Raven shook her head.
"No," she said calmly. "That's where Grimm are different."
Her crimson eyes lifted toward the black canopy surrounding the crater, as though she were organizing the explanation in her mind before speaking.
"Compared to humans, Grimm are very strange existences. In many ways, they're far more limited than we are. There are things humans can do that Grimm simply cannot."
Her tone sharpened.
"But in certain areas, they can also do things we can't."
Jaune frowned, listening closely.
"Their existence is tied directly to the laws that govern Reality and the Dream Realm," Raven continued. "They aren't just creatures that happen to exist inside the Dream. They are part of it."
She paused, then looked at him directly.
"Do you remember how Grimm enter reality?"
Jaune's eyes narrowed as the answer came to him.
"You mean amalgamations?" he asked. "When they infect regular people through nightmares?"
Raven nodded once.
"Exactly."
Her voice became colder, more clinical.
"To this day, there has never been a single confirmed case of a Grimm entering reality without infecting a host first. It can't happen."
Jaune blinked.
"Huh. I guess... I haven't really thought about that."
"It's a rule," Raven said. "A law so fundamental that, for whatever reason, it cannot be broken by contemporary means. And trust me when I say that LUCID has tried."
Taiyang folded his arms beside her, letting Raven continue.
"The only reason Grimm can manifest in reality at all is because the Dream Realm is connected to it," she said. "That connection acts like a bridge."
Her gaze drifted briefly toward the distant Formless Stalker, still conversing with the researchers.
"We've learned over time that Grimm derive their power from the Dream Realm. They are born there and sustained there. They are expressions of the Sleeper's subconscious desire for the end of all life."
Jaune's expression slowly changed.
Which means…
Raven's lip curled faintly upwards when she saw the realization beginning to dawn.
"Yes," she said quietly. "That means they possess a very special link to the Dream Realm itself."
Then she asked, her voice low and deliberate:
"Now tell me, Jaune. What happens if that link is severed?"
His eyes widened. "The Grimm would die?"
Raven shook her head. "No." Her answer came firm and immediate.
"Not death."
She let the word hang for a moment.
"Stasis."
Jaune stared.
Raven continued, her voice steady.
"When Velik cast away the infected portion of his soul into the Shadow Realm, he didn't do it just for fun."
Her eyes hardened. "He was forcefully placing the Gheist into hibernation before it could take him over."
That made Jaune go still. Because now it made sense.
By severing the infected soul fragment and banishing it to a realm disconnected from reality and the Dream Realm, Velik had effectively cut off the bridge the Grimm required to fully manifest its influence.
Raven continued. "That fragment of his soul remains under his command, not the Grimm's."
Then her tone darkened. "The problem is what happens if it returns."
Jaune's stomach sank.
"If that fragment re-enters the real world," Raven said, "the Gheist becomes active again."
Silence settled over them.
"This time," Qrow said quietly, picking up where Raven left off, "Velik might not get the chance to sever it again before it takes control."
Qrow gave him a deep look. "Do you see our dilemma now?"
Jaune slowly nodded, true comprehension finally settling into place.
"We have to find the fragment," he said, voice low. "And somehow separate the Gheist from it before it can return to Velik."
All three of them nodded.
"Exactly," Taiyang said.
Jaune exhaled slowly, then another thought struck him.
"Wait."
He looked up.
"I'm assuming since he's a Rank 3, his body in reality isn't just lying there in a coma like regular awakened when they enter the Dream Realm?"
Raven shook her head.
"No. Physically, he's fine."
Jaune frowned.
"Fine?"
Taiyang gave a dry laugh.
"As fine as a crippled demigod can be, I suppose?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "His physical might is still that of a Rank 3. A single punch from him could still wipe out half a city."
Jaune's eyes widened slightly.
"But," Raven continued, "he no longer has the Aura reserves or the Will expected of his rank."
Her voice sharpened. "Barely one percent remains.
"And without his Master Rune," Qrow added, "he can't enter the Dream Realm at all."
Jaune's eyes widened further. "Because his spirit is severed."
Qrow nodded.
"Exactly."
For a moment Jaune just stood there, absorbing the absurdity of it. A Rank 3 whose body remained monstrously powerful, yet whose spirit and higher capabilities had been crippled.
Then he asked the question that still lingered. "But why haven't the other Rank 3s come to help him?"
"They are helping."
Jaune blinked.
"What?"
Qrow smirked. "You think that Rank 3's are so free that they can dilly dally all day and go off on an adventure to the Shadow Realm?"
He shrugged.
"They have responsibilities, you know? Which is why they're already helping in their own way."
Taiyang nodded.
"After Vale secured Creation from the tournament, one of its first major applications was the development of a specialized extraction device."
Jaune stared.
"What device?"
"One specifically designed to separate the Gheist from the soul fragment," Taiyang said.
That immediately led to the next obvious question.
"Where is it?"
Qrow's grin sharpened. "You really think we'd bring something like that here before we've even found Velik's missing self?"
Jaune paused.
Then Qrow laughed softly. "Come on, kid."
He gestured upward, toward the unseen divide between worlds. "Why do you think we keep having to establish beacons for the portal in reality to lock onto?"
That made Jaune freeze.
The beacons. The constant anchor points. This entire mission had never been about bringing the solution with them. It was about finding the target first.
Only then could reality reach in and only then, could they bring the cure.