"I'm glad that Jaune and Summer are reunited, but I can't help but wish it was under better circumstances," Kali sighed, laying against Ghira's chest for comfort.
"I know what you mean," her husband responded. "I was hoping the boy could just rescue his daughter and go, but this Pastel fellow complicates matters."
"Indeed, I highly doubt that madman intends to let them escape," Ironwood said with a nod. "If Pastel really does have control over the entire village, then he'll likely throw everything he has at Jaune and Summer to capture them."
"In any case, there is only one way to find out," Willow stated, as the lights began to dim. "Let us see what happens next..." With those ominous words, the audience settled in to watch the next part of the story.
The episode began with Jaune and Summer in the church graveyard, hiding behind a large tombstone. Their reason for doing this took the form of a mob of villagers at least thirty strong, armed with torches, pitchforks, and firearms. The group was making its way towards the church, led by the big, burly chieftain.
"They cannot have gotten too far," the large, bearded man announced. "I must meet with Lord Pastel for further instructions. The rest of you, scour the wetlands! There's a chance the Spawn of Ozma fled back towards the lake. If you find them, bring the girl back unharmed, but feel free to kill the Huntsman. He's just as useful to our cause dead."
"Yikes," Sun cringed. "Pastel ain't fooling around if he's got the big guy in on the action."
"Tell me about it," Yang said, looking equally as uneasy. "That dude's kicked Jaune's ass twice now!"
"Language, young lady!" Tai scolded, before stopping to process what she had said. "Though you do have a point..."
Jaune and Summer silently watched as the large chieftain made his way into the church, slamming the door shut behind him.
"All right, you heard the Chief!" one of the villagers near the front of the mob called to the rest. "Spread out among the wetlands, and let's find those runaways!" A chorus of cheers rose up from the congregation. The mob stormed off, leaving the churchyard empty save for the Huntsman and his daughter. As soon as he was certain the coast was clear, Jaune came out from behind the tombstone, holding Summer's hand firmly within his own.
"Come on," he told his daughter. "We've got to keep moving!"
"But daddy," Summer protested, as the two of them started off again. "We're going straight towards where all those bad people live!"
"Hey, Summer's right!" Ruby realized. "That shack they're heading towards leads right back to the village! Shouldn't Jaune try to avoid that place?"
"Don't worry, Summer," Jaune told his daughter, as he led her into the shack with the underground passageway connecting the churchyard and the village chapel. "Daddy's got it all figured out. If these creeps are going to be searching all over the place for us, then their village is the last place they'll look."
"That actually makes sense," Pyrrha admitted after a second of silence. "If those villagers are going to be looking around the wetlands, then they obviously don't think Jaune will go back to the village."
"Then that means our Fearless Leader can just slip right by those creeps undetected!" Nora realized.
Jaune dropped down the hole leading into the tunnel, not even bothering to clamber down the ladder. Once he landed, he turned around and held out his hands. Summer carefully took a step towards the hole, then closed her eyes and jumped in. She landed safely in her father's outstretched arms, who set her gently on her feet, then took her hand and escorted her down the dark, damp passage.
"Not gonna lie, that was pretty cute," Coco admitted, grinning.
"Indeed it was," Ozpin agreed, hiding his own smile behind his mug.
Jaune and Summer walked in silence as the traversed the linear tunnel, until they finally reached a ladder leading up to the well-lit chapel. Reluctantly, the Huntsman let go of his daughter's hand.
"Wait here," he told her, before clambering up the ladder. Once Jaune reached the top, he stopped for a moment, checking the inside of the building for an ambush. To his immense relief, there were no villagers hiding in the chapel's darkened corners, waiting to pounce. Still, after the Huntsman had fully climbed into the chapel, he made sure to throw open the building's door to see if anyone would lunge into the entryway. But again, there was not a hostile face in sight.
"Man, those guys really did leave the village undefended!" Mercury commented, surprised. "You'd think they would've left someone behind watching the chapel, in case Jaune or Forest came back through."
"Well, kid, that's how mob mentality works," Torchwick said with a shrug. "The more brains there are together, the less of 'em are put to use."
Watch out, Roman, your genius is showing, Neo told her boss, causing him to laugh.
Satisfied, Jaune looked back down into the tunnel beneath the chapel.
"Okay, Summer, it's safe. Come on up!" he called down to his daughter. A few moments later, Summer appeared up out of the pit, her cheeks flushed from climbing up the ladder as fast as she did. Her father reached out a hand, which she took inone of her own, allowing him to pull her onto solid ground. Jaune nodded down at her, and together, the two of them exited the chapel.
"Well, this place sure got creepier," the Huntsman commented, once he and his daughter were outside. The rain had stopped, leaving the village quiet and desolate, as though it were a ghost town. Not even a single light flickered from within one of the buildings. A soft breeze, carrying away the dark clouds of the earlier thunderstorm, blew through the village square, haunting and lonely.
"You said it, Jaune," Emerald agreed. "If there hadn't been that big fight in the middle of this place earlier, I would've assumed this village had been abandoned long ago."
"Well, no use dwelling on it," Jaune told himself, before looking down at Summer again. "Let's get out of here, sweetie. Auntie Winter's sending an airship to pick us up."
"'A-Auntie Winter?'" Winter spluttered, her face turning red at Jaune's title for her, made worse by Qrow's peals of laughter. "Why would he call me that?"
"Well, if you married Qrow, does that not make you Ruby's aunt?" Weiss pointed out. "I would think that is perfectly clear."
"But did Qrow marry Winter?" Blake wondered quietly. "Jaune never did specify who his wife was..."
Jaune and Summer started off again, heading towards the rendezvous point Winter had specified for the Huntsman. They had gone very far, though, when suddenly the little girl let out a scream of pain, letting go of her father's hand as her hands flew down towards her legs.
"Whoa, what?!" Yang shouted, caught off-guard.
"What happened to her?!" Ruby demanded, her silver eyes wide with concern.
Horrified, Jaune spun around to see what had happened. His hands curled into fists as he looked upon Summer, tears streaming down her cheeks as she attempted to pull her leg out of a bear trap.
"Damn it!" the Huntsman swore. "How could I be so careless?"
"But how could he have known?" Cinder asked. "Mr. Arc has not been back to the village since his battle with its residents several hours earlier!"
"Yes, but do not forget: Jaune overheard some villagers earlier talking about they needed to head back and set up traps," Ms. Goodwitch reminded her. "Though with all the excitement he has been through today, it would be understandable if he forgot."
"Especially when you factor in the two expanses of time he spent unconscious," Penny added.
Jaune quickly rushed over to his daughter, grabbing each of the bear trap's jaws in his hands as he attempted to pry the toothed clamps apart.
"D-Daddy!" Summer wailed, tugging at her leg in vain. "It hurts!"
"I know, sweetie, just hold on!" the Huntsman told her. "I've almost got it!"
"There they are! Go tell the others!" a new voice shouted, causing Jaune to freeze. He turned his head in time to see six villagers rushing towards him, the man in front stuffing a wad of cloth into a large liquor bottle, a lighter in his other hand.
"I knew the village being completely empty was too good to be true," Whitley said with a sigh.
"They must have left a few members behind to keep an eye on their home, in case Jaune or another intruder decided to backtrack," Ironwood deduced.
"And now these bastards are using Mantle cocktails against him," Qrow grumbled, disgusted by the very notion. "As if dynamite wasn't bad enough."
"I'm gonna make mincemeat outta you!" the lead villager sneered as he used the lighter to set the cloth wedged in the bottle on fire, before lobbing it at Jaune. The Huntsman quickly deployed his shield and blocked the projectile, gritting his teeth as the bottle shattered and released a blast of flame that washed out around the shield, searing his shoulders. With his Mantle cocktail gone, the villager simply produced a hunting knife, then charged towards Jaune. The Huntsman simply sidestepped his attacker's wild stab, and dragged Crocea Mors across the man's chest as he barreled past. The villager fell flat on his face, his intestines trailing out behind him.
"Eww!" Saphron gagged, clapping a hand over her mouth as her face turned green.
"That's awful!" Terra cried, thankful that Adrien was sound asleep in Ren's arms.
"Poor Summer," Ren whispered, remaining stoic for the sake of his teammates. "To be exposed to such violence at such a young age."
A second villager was quick to fire upon Jaune and Summer with a shotgun, forcing the Huntsman to leap in front of his daughter to block the buckshot with his shield. Jaune returned fire with Ivory, sending four bullets tearing through the man's chest, dropping him like a sack of rocks.
"Daddy! Behind you!" Summer's voice cried out in warning. The Huntsman turned just in time to dodge a torch swung at his face by a third villager, who sneered at him.
"That was close!" Kali gasped, a hand over her heart.
"Good on you, Summer," Ghira commended. "Well done helping your father out like that."
"Come on, Jaune!" Adam growled. "Kill these jerks already!"
Jaune kicked the torch-wielding villager in the ribs, sending them tumbling away, then tilted his head to avoid a hatchet hurled at his head. Suddenly a fourth villager lunged forward, swinging a sickle at the Huntsman's neck. Jaune took a step backward to avoid the attack, then mimicked his attacker with a sideways slash of his own, lopping their head off with one swift strike. Even as the villager's headless body collapsed, a fifth villager entered the fray, thrusting a pitchfork at the Huntsman like a spear. Jaune parried the attack with his sword, then sliced off the pitchfork's pronged head with a downward swing. Undeterred, the villager simply gripped the long pole in their hands like a climb before bringing it up over their to drive down upon the Huntsman. Jaune dropped into a kneel, lifting his shield above his head to block the attack, before driving his sword through his attacker's waist, bisecting the villager.
"There aren't too many enemies left now," Sun commented. "Come on, Jaune! You've got this!"
As the villager fell in half, Jaune stood back up, glancing back at Summer to see how she was holding up. The little girl was still feebly attempting to free her leg from the bear trap, though her expression had changed from agonized to frustrated. Then, he caught a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye. The Huntsman looked back in front of him just as the torch-wielding villager came towards him a second time.
"Burn!" the villager snarled, swinging the torch forward like a mace. Jaune brought his shield up and blocked the attack, then used it to shove the torch back into its owner's chest. The villager screamed as their clothing was set alight, engulfing the entire top half of their body in flames within seconds. The Huntsman looked away as the villager flailed their body, shrieking and wailing as the fire continued to burn.
Most of the audience turned away as well.
"That's..." Coco trailed off, too stunned by the display to speak.
"It's horrible!" Velvet cried, doing her best to cover her ears as she squeezed her eyes shut. Noticing Adam's pained grimace, Cinder put a hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" She asked him.
"I'm... I'm fine," the bull Faunus assured her. "Seeing that just brought back some painful memories."
Finally, with a dying choke, the burning villager fell facedown right in front of Summer, who stared down at them with a blank expression on her face. As Jaune faced his last opponent, he grimaced as their jaw suddenly unhinged to allow tentacles to burst out of their mouth. The writhing, barbed appendages lashed out at the Huntsman like whips, causing him to hold his shield in front of himself to block the attacks. The tentacles responded simply by wrapping around the shield and pulling it from Jaune's grip.
"Yuck!" Blake retched, sticking her tongue out. "I really don't like those things!"
Jaune's arm flew down to his waist, only for the tentacles to wrap around his wrist, and pull him towards the villager, who's outstretched hands clamped down around his throat.
"Bingo," the Huntsman stated, calmly shoving his restrained hand into the villager's face, Ebony's barrel sliding into their unhinged mouth. His finger squeezed down on the trigger, and the back of the villager's head blew apart, while their tentacles burst into smoke.
"Thank you," Mercury muttered, having had enough of the villagers for one episode.
"To see all of that at such a young age," Ironwood said with a frown. "I cannot imagine the trauma Summer is going to have from this..."
With the villagers slain, Jaune turned his attention back towards Summer. He had expected her to be crying, or at least visibly frightened by all that had happened. So to see his daughter just standing there quietly, her face deadpan, caused the Huntsman to grow concerned. Noticing her leg was still caught in the bear trap, Jaune knelt down and tore the toothed contraption apart with his hands. Summer blinked as her Aura flashed heavily over her leg, then stared in her father's face, looking distant.
"Summer...?" Jaune asked quietly. He followed her gaze to see the smoldering remains of the villager he had unintentionally set alight.
"You burned that bad guy," she said quietly. The Huntsman lowered his head.
"I did," he said quietly. "I didn't intend to, but he surprised me, and-"
"He died just like the policeman did," Summer continued, looking behind her toward the village square, where the stake the stubbled policeman had been tied to still stood, the wood charred and blackened.
"How did she know about that?" Ghira demanded, his amber eyes wide.
"The only way she could is if she saw it happen!" Kali pointed out, before a hand flew up to her mouth. "No, they didn't!"
"Of course they did," Qrow growled, his hand squeezing his flask hard enough to leave some indents. "If you want to get a kid to listen to you, you threaten them. It ain't right, but it works. Shit..."
Horror dawned on Jaune's face as he realized the implications behind Summer's statement. That horror lasted only momentarily, though, before giving way to outrage and disgust.
"Those bastards!" he snarled. For an instant, his blue eyes flashed red, but this went unnoticed by his daughter. Instead, Summer looked up at him, desperation in her eyes.
"I wanna go home," she told her daddy. Sighing deeply, Jaune forced his rage down, then nodded.
"Yeah, me too," he said. "Let's get out of this hellhole." He took Summer's hand, leading her away from the village. For a moment, she hesitated, still staring down at the immolated villager. Jaune gently tugged her arm, and the two continued on their way. The episode ended.
The audience was silent as the lights came back on. Ordinarily, they would've complained about the shortness of the episode, but heavier things were on their mind. The adults all mourned the loss of Summer's innocence, while the students were all thoroughly disturbed by how calm the little girl had been to witness such gratuitous violence unfold in front of her.
And somewhere, a Grimm King shook his head in contempt, wondering how humanity had managed to surpass his level of hatred and cruelty once again.