#the bifurcation of salem into jaune and cinder

[bestworstcase]

tock to salem as neo is to cinder

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness Chapter 29

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(Weiss POV)

Jaune approached me with a backflip.

He flew across the ground, sword and shield in hand, reversed, floating tractionless, and backflipped at me.

Whatever machinations he had in his mind led him to using the shield with a longsword rather than the titanic broadsword. His shield was a giant lowercase 't' shape as he flew about.

I waved my weapon through the air and pinpricks of light followed it. The light hovering in place before it flickered out in a projectile at him.

He flipped past the projectiles without blocking them and slashed at me twice with the straight blade, it was a little over three feet long. I had to engage him with Myrtnaster directly. My own weapon was shorter than his. In a battle of straight range I'd lose.

I tried to fence at him but he was strong enough to shove my weapon out of the way and send me spinning. I didn't fight the motion, I wanted the space from him. I summoned part of my knight. Just the right arm and his sword, I grunted with the exertion of the summoning.

Jaune caught the massive sword on his shield. He had to brace with both hands behind his shield, but he held. It was his turn to grunt with exertion. He spent his semblance, and threw the blade off of him. He looked visibly upset about spending his semblance on a defensive manner. His face was dark and scrunched in a scowl. He had to take physical steps on his next assault against me.

Imagine.

Jaune wasn't like he used to be. That much was obvious from even our little chats. His and Yang's fight just drew it out and this, our sparring match, was icing on the cake. He had a strategic mind second to none of us and his instincts were sharp and finely tuned towards the Grimm according to Ruby. He'd read the Knuckelavee with little more to go on than footprints. It wasn't his experience with the Grimm but a preternatural sixth sense about where it would go, how it would fight. A true hunter's sense.

Now with his semblance and strength he had the power to back that up. He was a threat. A real honest to Gods threat.

He met me again but without his Limit Break he wasn't fast enough to out-spar me. I fenced him with thrusts that met his shield and he tried to counter attack from behind it with a strike that I blocked but sent my teeth ringing. I couldn't imagine trying to block constantly like Yang had when his semblance was active. He was unearthly strong even without it and it only made him stronger while active by an order of magnitude, according to Ruby.

I couldn't believe that Ruby had found a boyfriend before I did. It was unbelievable! And she'd had sex-

Jaune hammered me like a nail with his shield. Then he clipped me with his weapon.

I'd gotten distracted.

I gathered a glyph behind me and in front of me behind Jaune then darted between it Jaune and the next glyph then I summoned another, and another. I tore into his aura, ripping into it as I darted from one glyph to the next. I did damage until I activated his own semblance. Then he reached out and tried to grab me by his shield hand.

I'd seen that before and dodged it but I had to back off. I summoned my knight, this time I had enough spare breaths to call forth the entire body of the knight. Jaune stared it down with a growl and rolled his shield wrist, checking both of our aura instead of focusing on the fight at hand.

The nerve!

The knight paced forward and tried to crush Jaune but he flew out of the way, low to the ground. He jumped and slammed his shield into my knight's chest. It rocked the silver specter. My knight fell right to its knees but it punched Jaune center of mass with a fist nearly as large as he was.

He rolled with it.

Could he just stay down?

He met the blue and white figure again which was slow to rise unlike Jaune who became a blue blur. He hit my knight with a five hit attack that held Jaune in mid-air while he slashed and carved blue calligraphy into the knight. It collapsed into dissolving white light and I fell with it. My aura was nearly exhausted. I leaned on Myrtnaster which had been stabbed into the ground. Jaune came falling down on me with both hands on his sword in a massive overhead strike. He faltered when he saw I'd fallen and he nearly fell on his face in his attempt to cancel the attack he already had momentum behind.

Maybe he was still a little clumsy.

"You out?" He asked like he didn't already know. Ruby had insisted we hook up our scrolls to Jaune's so he could monitor us in a real fight.

I panted and nodded up at him and he offered me his shield hand. He easily pulled me to my feet.

"Thanks."

"No problem," he dismissed.

"About you and Ruby…”

He grinned. It was a quiet proud grin. Like he was proud of what she and him were. I wondered if Neptune had ever grinned like that about me. I rather doubted it. “What about us?” He asked.

“Have you two really, you know…?”

“A couple times. She let me take her.”

“Just like that?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think for her it was some big decision. You know what I mean? I think… I could be mistaken… but I think some girls put a lot of stock into their first time. And I don’t think she was like that. I think she wanted the intimacy. Why? Did you and Neptune ever do anything?”

"You defeated me, well done." I tried to change the subject.

"Just today. Tomorrow will be different."

"Plus I was out of practice," I justified.

"Of course," he said to my excuse without a hint of sarcasm. "You probably didn't have the time to practice while in Atlas."

Well, not against another opponent. All I had to work on was my semblance. Even that seemed to pale in comparison to the work he had done on himself.

He'd had real opponents. I told myself. He saw actual combat.

"Jaune you fought Salem's agents, correct?"

"Just the one, but yeah. I did."

"What was he like?"

"He was a faunus. A scorpion faunus." He clarified, thinking. He put a hand on his chin. "He fought with his tail. He was fast and cruel. We only beat him because Ruby snuck up on him while he was playing with me."

"Playing with you how?"

"He was torturing me with his weapons, that’s how I got hurt. He wanted to hurt me before he wanted me to die." Jaune reached down to pull up his shirt and revealed a set of bifurcating scars on his chest and stomach. "We cut off his tail. Sent him packing." Hard muscle rippled beneath the orange scars leading up to a broad well-defined chest.

I stared and shook my head. The scars went deep, were jagged, and brutal looking. This was when he self harmed. It was important to remember that.

"So he was murderous." I went on.

Jaune gave me a strained look. He broke eye contact with me and dropped his shirt. I watched the fabric fall over him.

"He was… he was more than murderous. He liked what he was doing. He introduced himself as Tyrian but I've just been calling him 'The Scorpion.'"

"Tyrian." I murmured. "Was that before or after you and Ruby got together."

"A little after." He answered without hesitation. He didn't even seem to think the question was odd.

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?" He gave me a look of pure Jaune confusion.

"Being with Ruby."

"Oh. Uh… it's mostly the same. We hang out. Talk about our feelings. That sort of thing."

"Except you also…" I trailed off.

"We also kiss. Yes."

Buffoon. He knew I was talking about sex.

"You don't need to worry though," he cut in.

"Why would I be worried?" I wondered, a little offended.

"Well she's your partner. I wanted you to know I had no intention of taking that from you." He hesitated a moment. "Or her." He added.

"Oh. I see."

"Isn't that what you were worried about. Seemed like something was bothering you." He squinted his eyebrows at me.

Well yes. It was that my little immature partner was already having sex with her boyfriend, but I was hardly going to get into that with said boyfriend. Then again she was seventeen. Not at all too young for that kind of thing, besides Ruby actively saw combat. It wasn't like I could honestly say it was a step too far for her. It was just odd then, that I hadn't. Hadn't really considered it, even.

Sure Neptune had been good looking but it wasn't like my thoughts had been on that. Well, maybe occasionally. I just had never trusted him enough. He'd flirt with me then run around and flirt with someone else. I suppose Ruby just trusted Jaune and why not? It sounded like he'd regularly put his life on the line for her. Compared to that, sex seemed small.

It wasn't, of course. My whole team stuck our necks out for each other and we were hardly all… well. I suppose it took an extra special something. An attraction as well as trust and Ruby and Jaune had always been close and gotten along well. Maybe it was just inevitable.

"I was just curious. That's all. The timeline."

He seemed content with that. He nodded along, head bobbing at the words.

"I wanted to talk to you a bit more about Cinder." He’d grown silent earlier when we discussed his revenge.

"Please Weiss, I don't want to talk or think anymore about that."

"Would you rather talk to Ruby about it?"

"Maybe." He hedged, but he continued anyway. "I'm just not ready to let go. Letting go of Pyrrha is just too much to ask of me. I want to be able to, even. I want to live without this burning ache. Not even Ruby has been able to dissuade me of what I must do when Cinder and I cross paths." He repeated softly. "What I must do."

"I don't understand. Don't you care about what you and Ruby have?"

"Of course I do." He said flatly.

"You'll lose it."

"Stop it. I already know that." His tone terse.

"Do you? Don't you know how much she cares about you? We all do."

"Please." I found him begging. Begging. For someone who had grown so strong to actually beg for me to stop as though my words were daggers came as a shock. "I'm not ready to let Pyrrha go. I'm not."

I frowned down my nose at him. I sighed off to one side. "Then let us help you. Let Ruby help you."

"She already is. I'll get there, I promise. I just need more time. Look, just because I'm not ready now doesn't mean I won't ever be. Believe me when I say I want to. I want to be that for Ruby. For all of you."

I looked at Jaune and the realization struck me that he had really been through the ringer but maybe he was actually getting better. He'd said he used to be more depressed and Ruby had helped him through that. Maybe I just had to let her. She'd helped me too.

"You'll talk to Ruby more about it?" I half asked, half demanded.

"I will," he vowed.

"Hey!" Yang harassed. "You two done flirting?"

I sputtered slightly, unable to get my words out at the same time Jaune shouted, "fucking maybe! What's it to you?"

"It's getting on dinner time is what it is," Yang bounced back. "Come on in."

"Fair enough." Jaune sighed. "I am hungry."

"I could eat. I suppose." My stomach betrayed me. Nearly a full day of sparring had left me famished, it was natural. Organic even. Nothing to be embarrassed about.

Jaune smiled down at me, he had nearly a whole head and a half of height on me. "Don't worry. I'll never tell. It’s our little secret.”

Heat crept up my neck a little at that.

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Dinner was fish and grilled vegetables. Ren had cooked the flank of salmon up over the course of the afternoon. He was no professional chef but he was good. Grilled broccoli, steamed cauliflower, and salmon steak made a stark contrast to our first dinner here.

It was no less delicious than the soup and noodles the night before.

"Yaaaang stop it."

"But look at how much you've grown." Jaune snuck a peak over at where Yang poked Ruby's sides and took a long, long drink.

I wasn't sure who else noticed it but I sure did. I guess Ren and Nora might already know and whatnot. Then only Qrow mattered to Ruby's plans and Yang was too distracted to see the looks Jaune was giving out.

"You've gained a couple inches too, unlike the Ice Queen."

"Hey," I protested around my own drink. "I've grown plenty. At least as much as Ruby did."

"Not where, well, you know," Yang disagreed.

Jaune actively choked and Nora slapped him on the back. Several hard thumps later and he was back to breathing. I glared around the table daring anyone to agree with Yang, none of them did.

I turned my nose up at Yang, though.

"Soon you'll be just like your big sister." Yang went on in Ruby's direction.

Ruby blanched. Somewhere between a gag and a sigh, I was glad she was at least somewhat on my side. "I certainly hope not."

"What's that mean? I thought you wanted to grow up just like me."

"Yeah when I was like six. When was the last time you were in a stable relationship."

Now it was Yang's turn on the backfoot. "Well…"

"I mean you had the occasional fling back at Signal but at Beacon even Weiss got more action than you."

"What do you mean 'even' me." I sort of already knew the answer.

"Neptune." Ruby replied, intentionally missing the point, I was sure.

"Weiss aside, I got plenty of action."

"The only person you danced with at the dance was Blake. Your own partner. She danced with Sun, too, though."

"I was busy, Blake was in a depression. The whitefang and all that." Yang defended. She huffed and looked around the table but nobody else said anything. Jaune had his head down in his food and Nora was suspiciously quiet. Stones and glass houses and all that.

"So, about this mission." I had to wonder. Changing the subject was just a pleasant bonus. "Isn't about time somebody made some decisions about it."

"Well Jaune was intentionally keeping things free in case somebody had some ideas about it." Ruby explained. "But yeah. No sense in delaying the inevitable."

"I was thinking Ren and I case the joint first." Jaune took a bite of salmon steak. "Get a layout of the interior. Then we wait and slip you girls in when the good Don makes a stop by."

"We could always ambush him when he's coming and going," Ruby returned.

"I thought we'd rather keep the fighting in the streets to a minimum," Jaune disagreed.

"But on the inside, won't they know we don't work there?" I cut in. We couldn't just walk in and pretend to be one of the girls. There was no way it was that simple.

"Maybe. It depends on what kind of outfits you are wearing. From my understanding all the girls wear these bee outfits. Hence the name, Honey Bee Inn." Jaune explained. At Ruby's look he went on. "Qrow told me. I have uh-yet to be inside the establishment."

"We just need to get our hands on a set of those then," Nora slammed her fork on the table. "Preferably more than one."

"This seems ripe for disaster," I chipped in. The entire heist my friends were planning was fit to collapse if just one of a thousand things went wrong.

"Which is why whoever goes in will wear a wire. Qrow and I have been rigging something up," Jaune went on.

"Is there an alternative? We need to get those keys," Yang wondered at me. "We'll just threaten to rip his dick off. That'll make him comply."

"The problem isn't that. It's getting in position to do that," I disagreed. "If it was so easy to threaten and bully him, the Malachites would have done it."

"We need information, then." Ruby concluded. "Jaune, why don't you see what else you can find out about the Don with Qrow. Then the rest of us will have Ren check out the inn and see if we can't smuggle ourselves in. If we can get in once, we can get in twice. Preferably with those costumes the second time."

Ren sighed and Jaune leaned back. "I bet I can find a few people who'll tell me something about him. I'm not sure how much I want to know about his proclivities, though."

"You're not one of the ones getting close to the guy who frequents the brothel." Yang pointed her fork at him. Jaune raised his hands in surrender. "I'm the one getting close to those proclivities."

Gross. Maybe Yang was right about me being prudish and maybe I shouldn't fight her on it. I certainly wanted to be nowhere near the man but I had the feeling I'd be getting closer than I liked to the despicable Don. 

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-WG