Carmine and Bertilak sat quietly in an abandoned hut and across from them was Jaune, watching the windows in case they were found. Currently, both Carmine and Bertilak were given their old clothes and weapons, and as they changed, Bertilak looked over to the blonde knight with a peered glare.
"Hey! Blondie!" He called out to him.
Jaune turned to him also with a glare, annoyed that the other man was being loud and would possibly blow their cover, "What?" Jaune hissed.
"Why'd you bust us out?" Bertilak asked with a raised brow. "Jax send you? You a Crownsmen?"
'Crownsmen? What the hell is that? But Jax... could it be the leader of the crown?' Jaune asked himself. "No," Jaune replied.
Carmine was confused by this, "If you ain't a Crownsmen and Jax didn't send you, why'd you bust us out?" She asked.
Jaune looked at her with a sigh, "I heard about you two, I heard you belong to some organization that wants to rebel against the Vacuovian council and Shade Academy, and I wanted to join,"
"How do you know about us?" Bertilak asked.
"CVFY," Jaune replied, "I heard a lot of things from them and I looked into their report, and after learning about what you were doing, I wanted to join," Jaune replied.
Bertilak was now getting suspicious, "And why would you want to join us?"
Jaune glared at him, "Before I came here, I was a 1st year student at Beacon," Jaune told him.
Hearing this, Bertilak was surprised and Carmine was now very interested, after all, there weren't a lot of Valerians in the Crown, at least those that joined willingly, but she knew he was also a survivor of the fall, and she was sure he saw first hand how the council and the so-called protectors of humanity, had failed.
"I lost a lot during the fall and the council did nothing, I came here only to see the same thing happen in a small town raided by bandits... I've lost faith in the council, and I've lost faith in being a Huntsmen and what they stand for," Jaune told them, "I want revenge and I want to change things if I can do that with you and your organization, then sign me up," Jaune told them.
Carmine smiled, "Shit kid, sounds right to me and hey, you busted our asses out of that fucking place, so your good in my book," Carmine said. "With what you did, I'm sure Jax and Gillian are gonna let ya join,"
Bertilak let out a grunt and continued to change as did Carmine and Jaune remained expressionless on the outside, but inside, he was relieved that everything was working as planned and he had seemingly convinced them, however, now he had some questions, who were the Crownsmen, was Jax the leader of the Crown, Or was it this Gillian? Maybe both? He hoped he'd get these answers soon.
Finally, the three managed to sneak out of the town by hiding inside a transport truck, and once they were far away from the town, they hopped out from the back and stood on the side of the road.
Once on the side of the road, Carmine pulled out her scroll and opened her maps, there she copied the coordinates before opening her messages, texted someone, and then sent the coordinates of their locations.
"Alright, I sent Gillian a text and our coordinates as well," Carmine said as she looked at her partner.
Bertilak looked at her, "You let her know that we have a... guest?" Bertilak asked, taking a glance at Jaune.
Carmine nodded, "I did, and we should be there soon,"
Jaune was a bit confused as to what she meant, "Are they coming to get us?" Jaune asked, "Is that a good idea?" He asked.
Carmine smiled at the blonde, "Just wait, you'll see how we're getting there," She said.
Jaune was even more confused, however, a sudden portal opened up near them and it was big enough for someone to walk through, Bertilak was the first to enter and went wherever the portal led.
Next, Carmine walked toward it but turned around to Jaune with a grin, "Come on blondie, your new life begins now," She said as he walked backward into the portal and disappeared.
Jaune walked toward it and stood in front of it for a moment before he took a deep breath and walked through it, when he did, it felt like going through a door, and once he was on the other side of the portal, it closed behind him and Jaune found himself in some sort of old bunker and in front of him were Carmine and Bertilak, but there were also two other people Jaune didn't know.
The first person he noticed was a woman who had a fair-skinned woman with black hair that was braided into two loops on either side. She wore a long dress with many sheer layers of blue, white, green, and purple that resembled running water, and a silver chain was wrapped around her waist matching the slim silver diadem that gleamed on her head.
The next was a man that had black hair which was tied into a top knot, with a silver diadem over his head. He wore a blue linen duster embroidered with spirals.
Carmine went over to the woman and held out her arms and the woman did the same and they hugged.
"Good to see you, Queenie," Carmine said.
"The same could be said for you," The woman replied.
The man then looked at Jaune with a blank expression, "And who's the guest you brought?" He asked.
Bertilak looked at the man, "This is Jaune Arc, he's the one that busted us out, and an ex-student of Shade" Bertilak told him.
The man nodded and walked over to Jaune, "You rescued them? Why?"
Jaune looked at him, "Because I wanted to join you," He said. "I heard about the organization they were a part of, I hear what you're all about, I want to join, I could've gone looking for you and asked questions but, I thought it be better to prove to you that I want to join, so I broke these two out and took this route," Jaune said.
The man chuckled, "Well you've certainly proved you're committed to joining us, but why do you want to join us? What reason could you have to turn on the life of a Huntsman?" He asked.
Jaune looked at him and took a deep breath, "I'm an Ex-Beacon Student, I survived the fall," Jaune said.
The man smiled, "So... you saw firsthand just how useless the council is? How those who claim to protect us, fail when we need them the most?" He asked.
Jaune nodded.
The man smiled, "Well then, that is a good reason to allow you to join, but, what else can you bring to us?" He asked.
Jaune smirked, "I heard you were looking for people with powerful Semblance, which is why I also knew you'd take me in for sure," Jaune said.
The man raised a brow in interest, "Oh, and what is your semblance?" He asked.
"I can boost people's Semblance and Aura," Jaune told him.
The man's eyes widened with surprise but his smile grew, "Well now, that is indeed a good reason to let you in," He told Jaune, "I could use you for sure, such a Semblance would be very beneficial to our cause, and with you willing to join... I don't have to use my semblance on you," He told Jaune.
Jaune was confused by what he meant by that. 'What did he mean by that?' Jaune asked himself, but he continued talking. "Good to know, but I have to ask, who are you?" Jaune asked.
The man chuckled, "My name is Jax Asturias, one of the leaders of the Crown, and future king of Vacuo"
Jaune's brown raised, "One of the leaders? Who's the other?" He asked.
The woman who hugged Carmine walked over to him, "That would be me," She told him, "My name is Gillian Asturias, Jax's sister and future Queen of Vacuo," She told Jaune.
'King and Queen of Vacuo? Are these two for real?' Jaune asked himself but continued to play along, "So should I be calling you my King and Queen?" He asked.
Jax chuckled again, "No, not yet a least, simply call us by our names," He told Jaune.
Jaune nodded, "Alright," He replied.
Jax nodded, "Now then, will introductions out of the way, I'm happy to welcome you to the CROWN, Jaune Arc," Jax said. He looked over to Carmine and Bertialk, "Please show him to the rooms you two, and get some rest yourselves," He said.
They nodded and told Jaune to follow them, which the blonde did, and once they were gone, Gillian walked over to her brother with a raised brow.
"Do you trust him?" She asked.
Jax shook his head, "Not really," He replied, "He seemed a little too eager to join,"
"Should we keep an eye on him?" Gillian asked.
Jax nodded, "Yeah, are you willing to do it?" She asked.
Gillian nodded, "If he does anything that I find suspicious I'll stop him, but I'm not going to kill, him," She told Jax, "His Semblance is way too valuable," She told Jax.
Jax nodded with a smile, "It is, and it gives you an excuse not to keep boosting my Aura," he teased.
Gillian rolled her eyes and walked away while Jax stood there for a minute still smiling before following his sister.
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The next day during lunch, team CFVY walked over to the table where Nora and Ren were sitting and joined them.
Velvet looked over to Nora with a concerned look, "How are you holding up?" She asked.
Nora let out a sigh, "As best as we can be," She said.
Velvet nodded, "Look, I'm sorry about Jaune, I don't know what you guys are feeling but if there's anything you guys need, let us know, and we'll help as much as we can," She said.
Coco nodded in agreement, "Velv's right, our door is always open to you guys," She said.
"Thank you, Coco," Ren said as he looked at the Fashionista. "It's just... It's hard to still accept you know?" He asked.
"yeah, it's hard to... to think that Jaune did this, that he... he turned his back on us," Nora said.
"It's not surprising at all," Fox said.
Ren turned to the blind teen with a glare, "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked
"Fox," Velvet called, trying to tell him to stop talking.
"You've seen it yourself, Jaune has been in a downward spiral since Beacon fell, since Pyrrha left you guys, and since your last mission, I don't think it helped you blamed him for it," Fox said.
Ren glared at him, "I never blamed him for it!" Ren said.
Fox rolled his eyes, "Whatever," He said.
Ren glared but he then stood up and walked away from the table. Nora quickly got up and followed him out of the cafeteria.
Velvet glared at Fox, "Did you really need to say that?" She asked.
Fox sighed, "Look, there's no point in denying the truth," He told her, "We all knew he's been acting differently, we all saw the signs, there's no point in bullshitting them, I knew he was either gonna walk away or betray us,"
"If you knew maybe you should've done something then," Velvet said.
"Not my teammate," Fox said. "besides, they just lying to themselves, they are part of the reason Jaune betrayed us," He said
Velvet groaned in annoyance before getting up and looking down at her teammate, "I think they already know that, I think they know that deep down, but that doesn't mean just hit them in the face with the truth so soon, they have been through the same thing as Jaune, it may be different one way or another, but they are dealing with all the pain, just like Jaune," Velvet said.
Velvet got up and left to check up on Nora and Ren while Fox sat there, guilt slowly filling him.
Outside in the hall, Ren was walking away and breathing in and out, trying to calm himself and keep his emotions in check, and knew that behind him, was Nora, wanting to check on him.
"I'm fine," Ren told her.
Nora grabbed his wrist and stopped him, "I know that's not true," She told him. "Stop trying to hold it in Ren, tell me what you're feeling," Nora told him.
Ren stopped and he breathed in deeply before letting it out, "What's there to say anymore, Nora?" He asked. "We're alone again... ever since Kuroyuri it's been you and me, I was fine with that, it was our normal but then we met Jaune and Pyrrha, we met Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, we had friends after a long time and it felt like-"
"We had a family," Nora cut in.
Ren nodded slowly, "Yeah," He said.
Ren shook his head and looked down at the ground, "But now, Pyrrha and Team RWBY have left us behind, as for Jaune... Fox was right... I blamed him and pushed him away, and because of me, he turned his back on us, worse, he's with the enemy now, so that means if we run into him again, we gotta fight him, and either arrest him or-"
"That won't happen," Nora said, "We are not gonna let it come to that," Nora told him.
"Nora-"
"I'm not gonna do it, Ren!" Nora cried, "I am not gonna let it come to that, because one way or another, I'm gonna bring him back, even if it has to come down to putting him in cuffs, but he's not coming back dead,"
Ren looked at her and slowly nodded, "Yeah... we'll bring him back," Ren said, however, there was no conviction in his voice.
Nora recognized that tone and knew that Ren, the person she loved and the only person that's been by her side since she was an orphan, had given up, realizing that, she let go of his wrist and took a few steps backward before turning around and walking away, leaving Ren alone in that hallway, as he looked to the ground with hopeless eyes.
One had supposedly turned his back on his friends and was deemed a traitor in the eyes of his friends.
One had left those she considered friends to fulfill her so-called Destiny not knowing the consequences of what her actions have done.
One had simply given up, feeling that there was no point in continuing to fight, after losing someone he called brother.
And the final one had not given up hope, yet, she was going to continue her journey alone...
These people would never be the same again...
It was here, that Team JNPR, had died.
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It's here that the story is going to be split up in a sense, we'll be focusing on Jaune in some chapters, some on Nora, and some on Ren, each going on their own journey before they all finally reunite, however, they'll meet each other again from time to time, like for a few chapters Ren and Jaune will be the focus and then later Jaune and Nora are the focus for a few chapters, or Nora and Ren will be the focus again, but all three won't be reunited till much later.
Will we get to see what's going on with Pyrrha and RWBY? Eventually, yes when we get to a certain point.
Also, when I say JNPR is dead, I mean that the team is dead, they are completely disbanded. I think I'm doing something way different than most, where I'm splitting up JNPR completely, hell, there's not even gonna be Renora romance! How scandalous!