Chapter Text
Omertà: Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without police protection is both. It is as cowardly to betray an offender to justice, even though his offences be against yourself, as it is not to avenge an injury by violence. It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself.
Vale: One Month after the Battle for Beacon.
Saphron Cotta-Arc stared out the window of her hotel room to the glittering lights of Vale highlighted with an orange sunset sky. It was almost difficult to believe that a month ago this was a city under siege. Here and there she could see the signs of the battle as she traversed the city. Buildings damaged by grimm or explosives set by the White Fang terrorists, fires that had left homes piles of ash or blackened concrete facades.
It could have been worse, much worse. It was one thing everyone seemed to agree on. Every bit of information going around about the attack was best vague or at worst suspicious. The Vale Council had been laying the victory on the well coordinated efforts of the police and military but everyone was casting doubt on the official story. The truth of how a potentially cataclysmic attack was avoided was in truth irrelevant to her, she had come here for different reasons.
She looked down at her scroll and opened it to see a pair of bright blue eyes and a goofy grin staring up at her, Jaune. She had been showing anyone and everyone this picture of him hoping that someone could lead her to him. So far she had no luck.
Moving past the image she pulled up her contact list and selected her home number. It rang three times before it clicked and she heard her wife’s voice greet her. “Hey honey!” she sighed feeling relaxed just hearing her voice over the line.
“I’m guessing you didn’t have any luck today,” Terra said to her.
“No,” she explained to her, “I don’t know where to look anymore, Beacon’s a ruin and the new Headmistress hasn’t exactly been forthcoming, I know Jaune managed to enroll and pass initiation but she says they have no record of a Jaune Arc.”
“I don’t mean to upset you hon but Jaune was the one that told you about passing initiation,” Terra explained to her, “he could have lied.”
“I don’t think he would have lied about that,” Saffron explained, “besides I have no doubt that he at least went through initiation, even if he failed you think they would have some record of him.”
“Did you recheck the casualty list again?” Terra asked her carefully.
“I did,” she answered. The growing list of dead had been the hardest to check. Thankfully her brother’s name had yet to appear but that meant little as every day more and more corpses were recovered and identified. She had checked with the morgues but that too had been fruitless. The idea of her brother dead and unidentified chilled her to the bone.
Saffron rubbed her eyes as if her exhaustion could be cured so easily. “I wanna come home,” she said, “I don’t know what else to do or where else to look, it was bad enough not hearing a word from Jaune before all of this but after all this I don’t know what I’m going to tell mom or dad.”
“Tell them your son misses you,” Terra explained to her, “and tell them your wife misses you and that you’ve done everything.”
“I feel like I’m giving up on him,” she told her, “what would you do if I had disappeared like this?”
“Babe I’d turn over every stone in Vale for you,” Terra said, “take as long as you need, just know that Adrian and I need you too.”
“Thank you sweetie,” Saphron said, unable to hide her smile, “I won’t stay too much longer, a few more days at the most to make sure I’ve looked everywhere.”
A knock sounded at the door pulling her attention away from her phone. “That should be my room service,” Saphron told her, “I’m starving so I’ll eat and call you back sweety, give Adrian a kiss for me.”
“Alright babe,” Terra said, “talk to you soon, and good luck.”
She closed her scroll and with a stood to walk to the door. Looking through the peephole in the door she saw that it wasn’t room service that had knocked on her door. A tall brown haired man stood waiting on the other side dressed in a dark brown suit. She assumed that she had simply knocked on the wrong door and opened up.
“Saphron Arc?” he greeted extending a large hand for her. She looked down at it for a moment noticing that a large flanged mace hung from his belt.
“It’s Cotta-Arc actually,” she corrected taking hold of his calloused hand and giving him a firm shake. “Who are you?”
“Cardin Winchester,” he said, politely introducing himself and giving her a friendly smile, “I work for your brother.”
“Jaune!?” She exclaimed, “where is he? Is he safe?”
“He’s fine, I’m supposed to take you to him,” Cardin told her.
“I don’t understand, if he’s fine then why can’t he come here and see me himself?” She asked him, taking a step back into her room but kept the door open.
“It’s complicated,” he told her.
“So explain it to me,” she demanded giving another glance at the mace on his hip. “Are you a huntsmen?” She asked him, he looked a little young to be a huntsmen but the weapon he carried certainly looked like something a hunter of grimm would carry.
“No,” he said shaking his head holding his position outside her door. “And it’s Jauney’s job to explain this all too you, he just wanted me to get you for him.”
She narrowed her eyes at the tall man that loomed in her doorway. Her instincts were screaming for her to slam the door, she shouldn’t trust a stranger and just leave with him. Then again she had no doubt this guy could pull her kicking and screaming out of here and she would be helpless. And this was the first person she had met who seemed to have any idea of where her brother was.
“What if I don’t want to go with you?” She asked him, voicing her paranoia.
Cardin tipped his fedora to her, “then have a good night ma’am,” he said turning and walking away down the hall.
She watched him leaving as her mind churned with her options. She’s been here looking for Jaune and here she was letting her first lead walk away from her. What was she going to do next? Keeping checking morgues? Keep showing his photo to strangers?
“Wait!” She called down the hall for him. He stopped and turned to look at her. “Let me grab my coat,” she told him, closing the door to do just that.
He waited for her and they left together taking the elevator down to the parking garage. “You said you work for my brother.” Saphron said to him, replaying his words in her head.
“That’s right,” Cardin answered, stepping out and leading her through the garage.
“Since when does anybody work for Jaune?” she asked him as her heels clicked against the pavement.
Cardin smirked, “It’s a long story,” he told her.
They stopped when he reached his car. It was a sleek black luxury sedan that Saphron guessed cost more than she could ever hope to afford. He opened the passenger door for her and she climbed in. It still had that new car smell to it.
“I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me this story,” she said as he climbed into the driver seat and started the engine.
“Nope,” Cardin said, pulling out of his parking spot and rolling out.
She watched the city pass buy out the window trying. She contemplated jumping out if he drove her into a seedy neighborhood and running away.
“So what can you tell me?” Saphron asked him.
“I can tell you that Jaune is safe, and that he’s doing very well for himself,” Cardin told her.
Considering Cardin’s suit, car and other bling, Saphron found herself wondering if they were talking about the same Jaune.
Cardin pulled into a parking garage and they left for the elevator. Saphron watched as he pressed the button for the Penthouse floor and they went up fifty floors.
The elevator dinged and they stepped out. The penthouse was roomy with hardwood floors and many big windows giving a spectacular view of Vale’s skyline.
“We’re here boss!” Cardin called out to the penthouse.
“Saphron!” She heard his voice and turned to see him standing atop a stairwell staring at her. He looked different, he too was dressed in a suit minus a jacket, he wore black slacks and a vest over a blue button up shirt. A cigar smouldered between his fingers and a gold watch adorned his wrist and a brown leather shoulder holster carried a revolver in it.
He wasn’t just different in his attire. Jaune looked worn, several scars ornamented his face, including what looked like a burn cutting into the hairline of his temple. He stood straight instead of slouching like he always used too, but he still wore the same goofy grim he always used to.
“It’s so good to see you sis!” she said stepping down the stairs, his cigar leaving a swirling trail of smoke behind him.
Saphron felt a storm of emotions seeing him, happiness, relief, but seeing him alive and in front of her she settled on rage.
In a few brisk strides she closed the distance to him and cracked her palm across his face. Jaune reeled back clutching his red cheek. “Jaunathan Arthur Arc!” She roared at him feeling her own palm sting from striking him. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! I don’t get so much as a text from you in months, you don’t take my calls and when I come her to just to see if you’re alive you send this gorilla to bring me all the way here!”
She looked back at Cardin, “Sorry, no offence,” she apologized to him, he didn’t deserve to be called a gorilla.
Cardin held his hands up innocently to her, “None taken,” he said clearly not interested in getting between the two of them.
“I deserve that,” Jaune chuckled, removing his hand from his cheek showing her red handprint.
Hearing him chuckle made her want to hit him again. “You deserve a lot more than that!” Saphron growled.
“I do,” Jaune admitted to her, giving her a goofy grin. “Can your brother get a hug?” He asked.
She swallowed her anger and stepped forward putting her arms around him, his anger dissipated just feeling him alive in her arms. He returned her embrace, he stank of cigars.
“What’s going on Jaune?” She asked him. “Why didn’t you call? And since when do you wear suits and smoke cigars in penthouses?”
“It’s a long story,” Jaune said scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
“So I’ve been told,” she said to him.
Jaune sighed and took a long drag off his cigar. “We should sit down,” Jaune told her, “how about a drink?”
Saphron nodded to him as he led her back up the stairs and down a hall reaching an office. Jaune set his cigar down on a marble ashtray on a polished wood desk went over to a little bar. “I don’t think we’ve shared a drink since you let me tag along for that party,” Jaune told her, “you remember?”
Saphron took a seat in a leather chair watching her brother pour several fingers of an amber colored liquid into a crystal glass from a matching decanter. “You were worried that mom and dad would know you had a sip of beer,” she said remembering it vividly as her and her friends pressured him into taking that sip. “You thought it tasted like piss.”
Jaune smirked, “what will you have?”
“Same as you,” she told him, wondering just what he was drinking. She looked around the office as he poured her drink, behind in the corner hung a bowler hat and a cane. A rifle was framed in a case on one wall and the floor length window gave him a stunning view of the city and the penthouse balcony and pool.
“Do you live here?” She asked him as he handed her her glass. The amber colored whiskey smelled smokey and petey and she felt buzzed just smelling it. The first sip burned with a harsh complex flavor.
“I do,” Jaune told her.
“Your rent must be a fortune,” she told him.
“I own it,” Jaune clarified, taking a seat behind his desk and picking up his cigar, “the property taxes are high though.”
“How can you afford this? This apartment, this whiskey the cigars. “What’s going on?”
“When I came to Vale to attend Beacon things went very differently that what I expected,” he explained to her.
“So tell me what happened, it’s bad enough that you didn’t answer my calls but mom and dad are just as worried as I was, we didn’t know anything. We thought you might be dead.” She explained tired of him beating around the bush.
“I couldn’t contact you,” Jaune explained, “it was for your protection, for everyone's protection.”
“What are you protecting us from Jaune!?” She demanded. “Were you in trouble? Are you still in trouble?”
“I’m fine,” Jaune said, “I’m great even, but what happened after I left Beacon was better kept as far away from you and our family as possible.”
“So what was it?” Saphron demanded.
Jaune looked into his glass of whiskey and sighed. “I trust you’ve heard the rumors going around, about what really happened that night the White Fang attacked?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I might have listened to Lisa Lavender’s report,” she explained, “she said the grimm and the White Fang were fought off by a bunch of gangsters.”
“The Vale Council has been trying to keep the facts buried but it’s true,” Jaune explained to her, “that night the Three Families of Vale stopped it, and I was there with them.”
“You fought grimm with a bunch of mobsters?” She asked him dubiously, “is this some kind of sick joke Jaune?”
“It’s not a joke,” Jaune assured her, “I got booted out of Beacon and found myself on a different path.”
“You became a criminal!?”
“I did,” Jaune confirmed, “but it’s more complicated than that, I didn’t join the mob because of money or sharp suits or anything like that, I was asked too by Ozpin.”
Saphron blinked. The headmaster? “I think you should start at the beginning,” she told him.
Jaune sighed and took a gulp of his whiskey. “You’re right,” he admitted before taking a puff of his cigar and dropping it into his ashtray to burn itself out. “The second I stepped foot into Vale I lived a lie, and in many ways sis I’m still living a lie. You already know how this story started, I arrived in Beacon with fake transcripts, I barely managed to survive initiation and I was made leader of Team JNPR.”
She nodded and took another sip of the bitter whiskey managing to taste a hint of sweetness as it burned her mouth. “That was the last I heard from you,” she said to him trying to wrap her mind about her brother being a criminal, “what happened after that.”
“I was failing my way through the Academy,” he explained to her, “I was losing every fight in Goodwitche’s class, I was failing every test and I was getting bullied by Cardin.”
“That guy who you sent to pick me up?” She asked motioning behind her.
“Yeah,” Jaune chuckled, “turns out he’s actually a pretty decent guy but I’ll get to that later,” he explained before taking a long gulp of his drink and lighting a cigar.
“My partner Pyrrha offered to help me and I let my pride get the better of me. I told her the truth I shot down her offer and told her the truth, that I was a liar that never spent a day in combat school and that my transcripts were forged. She didn’t take it very well and outed me to Ozpin.”
Saphron watched as he took a long puff of his fresh cigar, the cherry glowing bright. He turned his head and looked out over the city. “That’s where my story really begins.”