Chapter 34: Reunion

Chapter 34: Reunion

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 herwhich 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 onthinking, 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."Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

"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 justI 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 thatand 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 everythingthe 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 didand I never would have made it if not for the books and training you guys gave meover 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 foreverything. I mean it. You didn't have tobut"

"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 nowif 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 Dustprobably 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.

"Nah," I said. "I don't sleep and I'd rather not dwell on this longer than I have to. ReallyI shouldn't be worried; my parents are awesome. I guess I'm just worried about disappointing them butat 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 smiledat 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 justkeep 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 placeor as safe as any place outside the Kingdoms could be, that isI 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 extensivelythere 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 ZizI 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 goneeverything 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 starklyand 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."