The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Reunion

I looked around discretely as we landed, glancing at the long empty buildings. We were in what had once been a town outside the Kingdom of Vale, up until everyone inside of it disappeared never to be seen again, as towns outside the Kingdom's were wont to do. Since then, it had apparently be decommissioned into the occasional training camp and rendezvous point for the White Fang. I saw about two dozen uniformed men staring at me through their masks, standing beside smaller ships, including a small fleet of Bullheads and large, heavily modified shipping crates. With a gesture, I had Levant tighten the air around us to make sure we could talk freely, and then focused fully on my friends.

Adam spoke first, looking me carefully up and down.

"You took your time getting back," He said, as if I'd just run to the store for some milk, playing it off like it hadn't been anything major. Even so, I could see the smile on his lips and didn't believe for a second that he hadn't decided in advanced how to greet me. "Something come up?"

"Mm, yeah," I answered in kind. "You guys missed your flight, I caught the wrong one, and it was all downhill from there. JBA's Radical Vacation Adventure died young."

"The good always do," He shook his head and then looked at me quietly for a moment, smile fading into seriousness. "I'm glad you're okay. I still owe you that drink."

"Yeah, well," I shrugged like it wasn't even a thing, smile on my lips. "You know me, always flying into danger, sort of crashing my way back out—"

"I'm sorry," Blake interrupted, voice quiet. "You shouldn't have had to do this alone."

I looked at her—which was hard, with the deep bags under her eyes making it obvious that things had been hard for her. It wasn't hard to guess why, when last she'd seen me I'd been in death's clutches, stolen away by a mythological monster for a mission she'd brought me in on—thinking, most likely, that she killed me even while probably on the run from whatever attention had fallen upon her and Adam. Even if it had only been a week…

Adam had a mask to hide if he'd been affected, but it hurt to look at Blake.

I could only imagine how much more it'd hurt to look at my family.

"Why?" I asked her reasonably even if reason didn't have much to do with guilt. "None of what happened was your fault or anything we could have prepared for."

"I knew how horribly the odds were," Blake denied and I could see that her eyes were red. "I knew this mission was doomed to failure but I saw your power and I just…I just guilted you into it despite that, because I needed your power. You didn't have anything to do with it, but I—"

"Did nothing but ask," I interrupted her gently. "I could have backed out. I probably knew the risks even better then you did, even if I didn't see any of this coming. I accepted because it was the right thing to do and I don't regret that—and I certainly don't blame you for things you didn't have any control over. Hell, if there was anything at work here, it would probably have my fault because of my Luck stat, and while that may have influenced things, I don't think it was the cause of anything. And, in fairness, I was lucky enough to make it back, apparently, so I'll call it even."

I shrugged easily, maintaining the smile.

"Let's face it; there were factors involved that we didn't know about and couldn't have planned for," I continued seriously. "I don't know what happened on your guys' end—"

"A local named Torchwick interfered, working on something else," Adam put in. "I had to interfere to stop him before he ruined everything; I'll tell you about it later."

"—But a lot of that stuff would have happened one way or another," I said, nodding at Adam. "The specifics might have been different but there's no way of knowing if they'd have been better or worse if not for my luck or our actions or whatever. I've complained about it a lot, and probably always will, but there's no way of measuring what my luck did or didn't do and that applies to everything—the road not traveled and all that. We'll never know if things would have been better or worse if they'd been different. But what I do know is that if not for you, this mission never would have gotten off the ground and I never would have been able to save those people up there."

A saw her look up at the White Whale and pressed on.

"If not for what we did—and I never would have made it if not for the books and training you guys gave me—over a thousand people wouldn't be here right now, wouldn't get a chance to start new lives. Rather than how dangerous it was, I'd prefer to think that all's well that ends well. And in my eyes, this ended pretty well."

"…Yeah," She said, at once seeming to agree and sound unconvinced. I saw her nearly smile before the expression became strained and faded slightly. "Thank you for…everything. I mean it. You didn't have to…but…"

"No problem," I shrugged, smile becoming honest again and I gazed at the White Whale. "I was glad to do it. Really."

"I'm…" She began before stopping herself and starting again. "Thanks. For helping me. And them. If there's anything…"

"Well…" I mused looking back at her. "I'm level thirty now…if you're up to it and my mother doesn't murder me, I wouldn't mind making a party and killing some Grimm together. I'm a lot stronger now, so we can try our hand at some bigger targets, split the experience fifty-fifty, and gain some levels. What do you say?"

"Somehow, I'm completely unsurprised," Adam shook his head. "You've got a one track mind. Be on the lookout, Blake; you've seen what kind of insanity follows him around. I wish you luck."

"Hey, don't think you're getting off light, either," I told him, pointing at him with a mock glare. "I only have a few levels to go before I'm within ten levels of you and then we're all gonna have fun. I learnt the next of Bai Hu's techniques and let's just say I think we can make our Giant Nevermore strategy even more fun."

"Oh joy," He replied. "Oh fucking rapture."

"The ship, boys," Blake reminded, still looking exhausted and sad but somewhat less of the latter. "There's still work to do."

"One sec, wanted to give you the heads up and talk about a few things before we take care of them," I paused, looking around the small town. "You can take care of them all, right?"

"Yes. We're still waiting on several ships and it's taking a bit longer to get everything in place because of Ziz," Blake said, pausing for a moment in midsentence to close her eyes, apparently struggling to get her thoughts in order.

"Everyone's on guard so it's harder but we'll manage." Adam clarified.

"Okay," I nodded, deciding where to begin. It wasn't a hard choice, because there was something I wanted to put off. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you I woke up the Aura's of the Faunus onboard."

There was a moment of silence as they looked at me, staring.

"When you say you woke their Auras…" Adama began. "How many do you mean?"

"Uh," I said. "Over nine hundred. I told the rest I'd need to speak with you guys before finishing the job, but I'll get the rest later."

The silence returned.

"Yeah," Adam said after a minute, Blake looking like she had a headache or at least a worse one then she'd had before. "I assume this is the result of some application of bullshit but I'm still going to need an explanation for this one."

"I figured they'd be safer if I woke up their Aura, considering the world we live in and how Faunus are treated. I knew the general concept from the books I've eaten and read, so I figured I'd try it at least, give them the best odds I could," I explained. "It worked, too, but the thing cost two thousand MP each time I used it, at least initially. Thankfully, when I was at the mine I stole the local store of Dust—probably a day's worth or so. I told you the healing skill I used could restore MP, right? I used it to restore myself between castings. Did it about a thousand times or so."

"…I reiterate," He said. "Bullshit. That's…"

He paused for a moment, frowning slightly to himself as he began mouthing what seemed like numbers to himself, probably calculating the effective cost, before shaking his head in irritation.

"Has it been improving?" Blake asked and I nodded.

"Pretty quickly, too…sorta," I said. "For an Active technique, it's gone up pretty fast relative to the number of castings; as an example, most of my Active skills take between twenty-five and forty castings to reach level two and then go up quickly from there. For this, I reached the second level after ten…but it took about as many minutes and twenty thousand MP. Each level reduces the cost by about twenty MP, which would be really amazing if it wasn't such a ruthless bitch to begin with. I'm almost at level twenty now, though, which…still leaves it exhausting."

"Still, to draw out the Aura of nearly a thousand people in a day…that's amazing," She said. "If you could somehow get it low enough to cast at a reasonable rate or if you had a steady supply of Dust…no, if you could get the skill to a hundred…"

"Yeah," I said, smiling. "I know. It's cool, even just thinking about it. If I could train it enough to use it easily…it'd take an enormous number of castings or a huge amount of Dust, but…I want to. Be able to enlighten people easily. If I could do it to a thousand people in a day at this level then in a few years or however long it takes…"

I shook my head.

"I just…" I chucked slightly, not even entirely sure what I wanted to say. "Could I do it to a whole city? To everyone I met? If I could do that…"

"How are you going to train it, though?" Adam asked. "The math is kind of against you. How many more Dust crystals do you have if you used a thousand?"

"A fair few," I said. "Enough to have some on hand after this is over. You're right though, on its own it's not gonna cut it, not even if I keep improving Soulforge. I'm still working on how to handle that, even with the lower number of castings needed. I'll use it whenever I can, but it'll take a long time to level up that way. If I want to make headway any time soon, I'd need either a lot of money, a lot of Dust, or an even more absurd way of restoring my MP. For now…if I survive my triumphant return home, I'll practice it nearby."

"You'll draw a lot of attention that way," Blake warned. "People who awake others under the table always do."

"I know," I said. "Thinking about if I even want to do it that way; it'd be a good way to make money, I mean, and I'm sure Junior could hook me up, but…the type of people I'd be awakening that way would probably not be the cleanest of characters. I could do it for free, but that'd draw a lot of attention…maybe not in a bad way, though? But for now, I think I'll stick to practicing it on animals."

"Animals?" Adam complained. "Really? I mean, is Vale not weird enough without a population of super animals?"

I shrugged, still smiling.

"It's an easy way to practice subtly, if I'm careful," I said. "And I always feel bad for things in the wild who have to survive among the Grimm; that must be tough as hell. I'll try to keep it far enough from the city to avoid a horde of fire-breathing squirrels or something and I'm sure I have some animal related skills, but…"

I shrugged again.

"Yeah," I said. "Anyway, getting back to the point—I unlocked their Aura's and healed their illnesses and injuries, so they should be fine on that note. I just wanted you know so you weren't surprised later. Anyway, I'll stick around to finish up the remainder, stick around long enough to see everyone off safely, and then probably head home, I guess. Besides that…what I really wanted to ask was…did you, uh…"

"Get your message, through?" Blake asked quietly and I nodded, feeling nervous and guilty and worried. "Yes. We sent it anonymously after we were sure you'd be in the clear. They should have gotten it by now."

"Okay," I nodded. "Right, yeah. Okay. That's…that's good."

"It's good you messaged us when you did," Adam said, continuing even after Blake shot him a glare. "Before you called, we'd been discussing how to deliver the news of your death to family. We were gonna have to speak at your funeral and everything—and trust me, you wouldn't want that; it doesn't end very well when we have to write speeches."

"That is good," I said. "If you'd told them how I died, you'd have joined me shortly after."

Adam snorted.

"Still might have to go to your funeral, huh?" He asked. "Do me a favor? Just go ahead and leave me everything in your will to make up for the inconvenience."

"Do me a favor?" I returned. "Go fuck yourself off a building. I'm bringing the ship down."

I watched the Bullheads rise slowly, lifting the shipping crates into the air. I'd bid goodbye to the Faunus aboard, made sure they were all safely seated, and even used Observe on everyone flying the ships to glimpse their motives and intentions, just in case. Now, I watched them go, off towards new, hopefully better lives in Vale. With any luck, I'd see some of them around town, be able to keep an eye on them, and make sure they weren't having any problems. Maybe even lend a hand now and then, if anything happened. Of course, there'd be no way of truly knowing where any of them would end up until after the White Fang's work on that front was finished, but I could probably arrange things with Adam and Blake…

I sighed. I knew what I was doing.

I was looking for ways to stall. Now that I was so close, I found myself dreading the idea of going home, even as I wanted it more than ever. I'd resolved early on to tell my parents about my power eventually. I loved and trusted them and knew they felt the same way towards me, so I hadn't really worried about them knowing my secret. On top of that, I knew how strong they were and knew that they could help me grow stronger, too, so it only made sense to tell them eventually and ask for assistance.

However, more than anything…I knew from the beginning that I'd tell them eventually because I wanted them to be proud of me. It was strange, in a way, how that worked; I'd kept it from them initially for no other reason than the fact that I'd still been weak. I'd wanted to strengthen myself, prove my worth, and rise to the challenges I'd failed before first, prove that I could do it—even if I knew I didn't need to be strong to earn their respect or approval, I still…

But now I was strong. I still had a ways to go, still had higher to climb, but I knew how much stronger I was than before. Some of the things I'd done had been due to luck, but not all of it. I'd stolen the White Whale and made it fly because of my own power and skill. I'd fought stronger opponents and braved the lands beyond the Kingdom, trained myself around the clock, mastered skills, and won. I knew how extraordinary some of the things I'd done were, had seen it in the eyes and faces of hundreds of people now. Yeah, I'd cheated a lot to make it happen, but against the odds I'd faced, who could blame me? It was still impressive as all hell and I'd have been glad to have told my parents about it.

If not for the whole terrorist thing.

As expected of any plan, when theory met reality, things had gotten a little complicated. When I'd stolen the White Whale, when I'd awoke Ziz, when I'd been stranded, when I'd reached the town—stuff had happened that I hadn't planned for. That was unsurprising, because you couldn't plan for everything; the unfortunate truth about strategy and, really, life was that stuff just happened sometimes and you had to deal with it. I'd known from the very start that I wouldn't be prepared for all the things I'd face. I knew that for all the planning I'd done, all the effort we'd put into preparation, in the end something would catch me off-guard.

Nonetheless, knowing you could be caught off-guard was not actually a defense against being caught off-guard. Things had happened and I'd been forced to think on my feet, roll with the punches, and try to make it through. I liked to think I'd did pretty well on that front, what with surviving and all, but I couldn't much had gone according to plan.

Originally, we were supposed to take off together, remain unseen, and get a massive head start on any pursuers. Instead I had to antagonize and harm someone who'd done nothing to me, organize a hostage situation in broad daylight, and act the part of a villain. Then, instead of getting to the 'safety' of the Grimmlands, I'd woken up an ancient super monster and been whisked away. When I'd finally made my way to the mine after a huge delay, instead of hanging back while Adam and Blake dealt with anything that came up, I fought an amazingly powerful robot and ended up tearing her limb from limb.

I had no idea if what I'd done in Atlas had circulated yet, but it barely mattered, I knew the picture my actions must have painted of me. I didn't regret what I'd done—well, no, I regretted that it had been necessary to do those things. But the fact that I'd saved these people? Never.

But I did have to wonder what my parents would think, when I told them everything. Would they see it the same way? Would what I fought for matter in their eyes? Would it seem worth it to them, justify my actions and crimes? Or would they be disappointed? Angry? I'd saved a thousand Faunus from captivity and reintroduced the world to Ziz in the process. I'd liberated the enslaved and held a young woman hostage, defeating her and wielding her against her father. I'd threatened and bluffed, but who could tell what was truth or lie. Would they believe I wouldn't have hurt Weiss or the people around the airport? Would believing me matter?

I think it said a lot that I wasn't worried very much about the repercussions of them disapproving. Even in the worst case scenario, I knew they wouldn't kill me or anything. I'd probably find myself in jail in short order which, honestly, was fine. I mean, the nature of my power meant that I could improve my skills by struggling with something, so if I found myself in prison I'd just grind my skills for getting out or meditate or whatever until it wasn't an issue. With my Elementals, odds were good I could probably escape wherever they put me anyway, at least the first time I got arrested, and Adam and Blake would probably try to help, too.

It'd make things harder, crush most of my plans for the future, and generally ruin things for me…but honestly, even that didn't worry me too much. It was almost odd how little it worried me, really. I guess it was because, even if becoming a Hunter had been what I'd dreamed of my whole life, I was smart enough—or perhaps wise enough—to know I could help people in countless other ways, Hunter or not. I could heal people, fight to defend them, awaken Auras, and countless other things. If I found myself a known fugitive and forced to run and hide…I could deal with that pretty easily to, I thought.

But if my parents thought I deserved it, if I'd really let them down that much, if I'd enraged them, if I could never go home again…

I closed my eyes.

I was over thinking things. I'd wasted all the time I'd reasonably could. I'd unlocked the Aura's of the remaining Faunus, stood guard over the town with Adam and Blake, and seen the people I worked to protect away safely. My mind supplied other things I could do to put things off, some of them rather strange—but it was time.

Even if, thinking about, I did have to wonder what, if anything, would happen if I awoke the Aura of a plant.

"Jaune," Blake said, evidently noticing my discomfort and guessing its source. "You don't need to go back yet, if you don't want to. They'd have only just gotten your letter. You've done more than enough to earn a break if…"

Adam grunted in agreement and I smiled at them both.

"Nah," I said. "I don't sleep and I'd rather not dwell on this longer than I have to. Really…I shouldn't be worried; my parents are awesome. I guess I'm just worried about disappointing them but…at the same time, I want to see them a lot. It's stupid."

"No," Blake said, shaking her head slowly.

But there was a lot of weight to that one word.

Adam looked over at her and actually smiled—at her and then at me.

"No," He agreed without any sarcastic remarks.

My smile became a little sadder, a little more real.

"Yeah." I agreed quietly.

"Do you want us to come?" Blake asked.

I chuckled.

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"No," She said. "But we'll do it anyway, if you need us to."

I looked at them both for a moment before chuckling again, looking down.

"Thanks," I said. "That means a lot. But no; I want to talk to them alone."

I removed Dreary Midnight and stored it in my Inventory, Lenore joining it a moment later. I stretched, tail uncurling from my waist, and then dropped my arms.

"I guess I'll stash the White Whale somewhere for now," I said with a sigh as I floated upwards. "Until we can make sure no evidence has been left behind, at least. One thing at a time, I guess. I'll see you guys later, though; don't forget, you owe me training and drinks. And just…keep in touch."

For a moment, they just watched me go silently. It made me feel cool and dramatic.

"Wait, what's with the tail?" Adam ruined the moment as Blake tilted her head to the side.

A little annoyed by the interruption, I said nothing and continued my ascent.

XxXXxX

After stashing the White Whale in a safe, out-of-the-way place—or as safe as any place outside the Kingdoms could be, that is—I ran the rest of the way to Vale, getting there a few hours later.

Tailless, of course.

I felt a little self-conscious, sweaty and dirty as I was, but I ignored the part of me that wanted to put things off just that little bit further and take a bath. Instead, I unlocked the door to my house and walked in, taking a deep breath. And though I'd thought about it extensively…there was really only one way to return home.

"I'm back!" I shouted. "Sorry I'm late!"

There was a moment of silence that was promptly broken by the sound of motion. I barely saw what grabbed me and lifted me into the air, but I was already laughing.

"There you are!" My dad said, doing much the same. "You're okay!"

"You're alive!" I said, hugging him back.

He pushed me away a moment later, hands on my shoulders, expression darkening.

"Boy, you don't even know what you put me through," He said severely. "When we got called back and you were gone and Ziz—I thought I was going to die. And then you took a whole week to tell us you were okay? Really?"

"I was busy," I defended. "It was important!"

"More important than your father's life!?" He demanded incredulously. "Boy, when this is over, you and I—"

"Jack, shut up."

At that voice, we both went silent, turning to face my Mother. I hadn't even noticed her approach, but in the face of her severe expression my senses warned me of danger. I stood my ground as she approached, literally pushing my father out of the way.

"Jaune, what were you thinking?" She demanded. "Do you have any idea—"

Her voice broke off into a sudden snarl as grabbed me and pulled me close in a hug that felt warm. It may have just been the burning wrath of her ire, but I preferred to think of it as the soothing warmth of home that was temporarily keeping that inferno at bay.

Either way, I hugged her back with everything I had.

"We were so worried," She continued, voice no less furious despite how closely she held me. "When we came back and you were gone…everything was going crazy because of what happened and you—"

"Mom," I interrupted, more than a tad regretfully. "I know. I was there. I need to tell you what happened."

"—Then you have impeccable timing, Mr. Arc," A voice I didn't recognize made me go still. "We were just talking about you."

I looked up to see him standing there, cane in one hand, mug in the other. He was dressed all in green but for his black shoes; suit, vest, scarf, and pants. Against all of that, his grey hair stood out starkly—and while I didn't recognize the voice, I recognized the man.

I looked to my father who shrugged helplessly.

"I had to ask somebody to keep an eye on you while I was away, especially when you said you might be going into danger," He said in defense. "It's not my fault you went above and beyond."