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Oscar was ticked off at Jaune. Yes, he was very, very angry right now with his supposed team leader and partner. Why? Because the man was a complete hypocrite.
“Jaune,” he berated their team leader with a deep frown, “Put away your scroll! We need to focus on retrieving this item.”
Jaune’s eyes were still glued to that stupid thing, however.
“Yeah, yeah. We’re fine, Oscar, don’t worry about it,” Jaune frowned, engrossed by whatever was on that screen.
Oscar rolled his eyes, “You know, if you don’t put that away you could get hurt. It’s a distraction.”
“It’s a reassurance,” Jaune countered, sticking his tongue out childishly at Oscar, “And besides, as team leader you need to trust me and my ways.”
He stuffed his scroll back into the pocket of his jeans and motioned for Oscar to follow him deeper into the abandoned city. They were ready for battle at any moment but not particularly nervous or scared of their situation. No, the young wizard was just very annoyed with his older teammate. This was arguably worse on several levels, because if the Grimm jumped out at them they would be entirely unprepared and out of sync with each other. This was not proper Huntsman conduct.
“Whatever,” Oscar muttered, “When you accidentally trip and fall over your own two feet and onto your face don’t blame me.”
Jaune snorted, deciding not to comment on the snide remark, and continued their journey forward. The tall buildings loomed over them and cast intimidating shadows, the knowledge that this place that had used to harbor hope and happiness was now reduced to crumbling homes and eerily quiet streets left the two feeling very unsettled.
As the sky slowly grew darker, and they got closer to their destination within the heart of the city, Oscar found himself gravitating closer to his partner. Jaune pulled out his scroll all over again for what must have been the fiftieth time that day, obsessively checking for notifications. Oscar frowned at him, but he knew there was basically nothing he could do to stop his partner.
“Jaune,” Oscar sighed, the Long Memory tight at his side in case any Grimm came popping up out of nowhere, “Why do you keep checking your scroll?”
“In case one of the others texts me,” he answered simply, eyes fixed on the screen “It’s… weird, not having them here with us. I don’t want to miss a single message, in case something goes wrong on their end and they need us home fast.”
“But we’re here on a mission,” Oscar reminded him, “And they’re safe at home. If we aren’t focused on the task at hand then we’ll be more likely to fail.”
Jaune sighed, “I know, Oscar, I do. I just… I worry about them.”
Oscar felt at a loss for words, the sound of their feet hitting the pavement a quiet echo around them. He felt tense, as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, whether that would be Grimm or an equally terrifying conversation with Jaune.
“Well, I worry too. About you and what might happen if you’re not focused, and I worry about Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha too. I’m…” Oscar trailed off, unsure how to finish his sentence, then shrugged and stared down at his shoes as they walked.
“Hey, wait,” Jaune said abruptly, “Don’t do that to me, not now. You’re what?”
“I’m… I’m scared of things going wrong, really, really wrong. And then not being able to do anything about it, or having to be able to do something to avoid it and not doing that,” Oscar admitted, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly.
“Oh, Oscar,” Jaune laughed softly, “I get it. I mean, that's why I’m even checking my scroll in the first place. I don’t want something to happen to them, I want to be able to be there for them all the time.”
“And… what about me?” Oscar whispered, “It’s you and I out here right now, Jaune. And I need you. As my partner, friend, team leader, whatever, I need to know I can trust you.”
“Oscar, stop,” Jaune said firmly, reaching out and placing a hand on the younger’s shoulder, “You know that I care about you, I wouldn’t be out here with you if I didn’t. I’m just saying that… That I miss the rest of our team, and I’m worried about them because we’re so far away. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped worrying about you, or our mission.”
Oscar shrugged away from him, and took a step back to create distance from Jaune, “Then why won’t you focus, Jaune? If you care, then care.”
Jaune’s hand fell limply to his side, staring after the young wizard as he walked away, deeper into the concrete jungle, deeper into this Grimm-infested hellhole. How could Oscar think that? Jaune nearly felt disgusted with himself, he made Oscar think that way. He did that to his friend, his so-
“We don’t have all night,” Oscar called out to Jaune over his shoulder. Jaune frowned, pulled out his scroll to check it one last time before Oscar could notice anything, then tucked it back into his pocket with the resolve to not look at it again until their objective was completed.
By the time they reached the heart of the city, the shattered moon was high above them, the twinkling stars a bizarre sight in what should’ve been a brightly lit, bustling city. Jaune stayed just behind Oscar, sword held tightly at his side, ready for attack at any given moment. Oscar had pointedly retracted the Long Memory and kept it attached to his belt as per usual.
As they walked by the different buildings, they read the faded out addresses and tried to make out their different colors as they searched for their destination.
“What was the address again?” Oscar asked.
Jaune pursed his lips thoughtfully, “It was 113, the Honey Apartments.”
Oscar nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything. The guilt weighed heavily on Jaune, and he found it hard to find something to say to fill the awkward silence. Not even the usual nightlife could be heard here in the city, and Jaune realized just how used he’d grown to living in Patch with his family. He sighed, and began looking around once more, hoping to see something that even vaguely resembled their target.
“Hey!” Oscar called out from a few yards ahead, “I think this is it.”
Jaune jogged over to his wizard friend, and looked right across the street to where Oscar was pointing. In dull, discolored lettering, right above what should’ve been the front entrance, was basic lettering that just barely read out ‘Honey Apartments.’
“Well,” Jaune huffed, “No use in stalling.”
They crossed over to the apartments, what should’ve been double glass doors at the entrance had become a hole of jagged, broken glass. Jaune grabbed the handle of the door, and in an attempt to be funny, tried to open it for Oscar, but the entire door came off the hinges and the broken glass still inside the frame shattered completely.
Jaune stared at the door in his hand, eyes nearly bugging out of his head, “I… did not mean to do that.”
Oscar rolled his eyes and walked through the doorway regardless, his red boots crunching on the glass, causing Jaune to whip his around to look for Grimm that may have been attracted by the noise, accidentally dropping the metal frame in the process. He yelped and jumped back as it clattered to the ground, and Oscar turned around sharply at the sound.
“Jaune!” he hissed.
“That was not my fault,” Jaune argued, arms crossed stubbornly. A moment later he relaxed and walked to Oscar’s side, being careful to step over the glass, and took the lead through the now dark hallways.
They were both as quiet as mice as they tried to keep their presence concealed, but without night vision it was difficult to do in the dark and creepy hallways of an abandoned home. The main lobby had peeling wallpaper, hornet hives growing in the corners of the ceiling, some areas of the ceiling were rotted out, revealing beams of wood that were hard to make out in the dark. It wasn’t hard to find the elevator, which was rusted and definitely not a safe bet. Off to the side was what appeared to be a stairwell, the glass window in the door gone, leaving behind a wide, gaping hole.
Oscar slowly opened the door, the squeaky hinges sounded like nails on a chalkboard, making the two cringe with discomfort. As soon as it was open wide enough to go through they entered, Oscar pulled out the Long Memory and cast a spell that essentially turned the cane into a glowing, green lantern.
The steel staircase was rusted all over, some places looking sturdier than others, but it was still obviously unsafe.
“Oscar, I don’t think this is a good idea. There should be a safer way up,” Jaune whispered.
Oscar sighed, “Yeah, but where? This is gonna be ten times safer than the elevator, and not many buildings are going to have a third way upstairs.”
Jaune felt sick looking at the staircase and thinking about Oscar going up it. It was unstable, it could completely crumble beneath their feet at any given moment, but… now was not the time for fear. They were here to do a job. They had signed up for this.
“Alright, lets try it.”
Jaune went first, a careful step onto the sturdiest looking piece of the first stair, the fragile metal creaking as it tried to accommodate his weight. He grimaced, and took another step forward, this piece much stronger looking, it hardly made any sound when he stepped on it.
“Follow my lead,” Jaune instructed Oscar, watching as the younger set a hesitant foot on the first step, in the exact place Jaune had been moments before.
They carried on like this up the first stairwell, it was harder in some areas than others, they’d freeze whenever a particularly loud creak or groan echoed around them, but eventually the two made it to the platform, which was firmer and more reliable than anything else about the stairs. There was still yet another flight to complete, and with only the green light of Oscar’s magic illuminating the place, it was a particularly daunting task.
“Okay,” Oscar muttered, “We’ve got this, we’ve totally got this.”
They were roughly nine steps up the next flight when the rusted, dry material beneath Oscar’s feet gave way, causing him to jump backwards, the heel of his boot catching on the step. He would’ve completely tumbled back down if Jaune hadn’t managed to shoot a hand out behind himself and grab Oscar’s bicep, pulling the teen onto safer territory.
“How about you don’t do that again,” Jaune suggested softly, his heart pounding in his chest.
Oscar nodded and gulped thickly, “Y-Yeah…”
They managed to make it up the last steps with no incident, each relieved that it had worked even with the uncertain circumstances. Jaune pushed the door open, it was heavy and hard to move due to being nearly rusted into the frame, but he managed it well enough. On the other side of the door was a tiny, cramped hallway. It was nearly pitch black, and up and down the hall was rotten, peeling walls, along with evenly spaced out doorways on either side of the hallway. Oscar held the cane forward a bit further, showing that most of the doors were gone or off the hinges, and the numbers next to each door were so faded out they weren’t legible.
The two shared a look with each other, and walked up to the doorway closest to them.
Jaune frowned and he squinted at the numbers next to the doorway, motioning for Oscar to bring the light closer.
“101,” Jaune whispered when he could finally make out the numbers.
Oscar went directly across the hall to the door that was parallel, “I can’t read what it says on this one, I’m going to try the next one over.”
It took a couple of different doorways, but eventually he found one that he could actually see.
“This one is 106,” he said as loudly as he dared, Jaune had come up closer to Oscar though.
“So, I guess the right side is even and the left side is odd?” he shrugged.
“I guess,” Oscar whispered.
They continued on down the hall, the worn out carpet beneath their feet Jaune mentally counting the numbers as they went, until they reached what Jaune had guessed was 113. The door was lying awkwardly to the side, holes all through it seemingly randomly, the paint was almost completely stripped, and the knob was rusted beyond saving.
Oscar held the cane as close to he numbers as he could, and, thankfully, this was one of the easier ones to read.
“So, this is it,” Jaune said awkwardly.
“Yup,” Oscar replied stiffly, stepping over the door as he entered the apartment. He waved the light around as he tried to get a sense of the space, but his movements disturbed the Ravagers that had settled within. They came flying out screeching, zipping by Oscar’s head. He ducked and began to jab at them with his cane, while Jaune slashed at them with his sword, the small Grimm turning to dust above their heads.
Gasping for breath, the two stared at each other from where they stood.
“Think that was everything?” Oscar asked with wide eyes.
Jaune pouted, “Hopefully.”
The doorway had opened up into a small living space, with a small kitchen connected almost directly to it, all lit up by the cane. There seemed to be a small hallway on the other side, where they could only assume the bedrooms were located.
The wood flooring was decaying, the walls were crumbling, the ceiling had holes all through it, all the appliances were rusty and smashed to bits, the furniture was moldy and covered in moth holes, and personal belongings were just… flung out all over the place. Jaune moved closer to Oscar, Crocea Mors held defensively in case anything came popping out at them.
“I…” Oscar started as he looked around the place with worried eyes, “I can’t believe all this happened in just ten years…”
Jaune sighed, but didn’t respond. The desperation and hopelessness of this place made him really uneasy and he was sure Oscar was feeling the same way. He felt useless. Ren would’ve known what to say, Pyrrha and Nora too, but he really had no clue.
“The message said the item would be in the bedroom on the left side, either in the box, on the bed, or in the closet,” Jaune said instead, knowing how right Oscar had been earlier when he said they needed to focus on the mission.
“Then let’s get this over with,” Oscar said stiffly.
They turned to the bedrooms, and were unsurprised to see the same patterns here as with everything else. The doors, the frames, everything had the same post-apocalyptic aesthetic as before. There were three bedroom doors, one directly in front of them, one on the left side, and then one on the right side.
Oscar entered the bedroom first, pushing the door gently to make more room for him to get through, as it hung on only one hinge. It was a tiny room, with a tiny, broken window, and a shallow, small closet off to the side whose door had been torn to bits that were now scattered across the floor. He glanced over at the small bed, the sheets and blankets and pillows were filled with moth holes and looked ready to crumble to dust.
At the footboard of the bed was a toybox. It was a worn out pink plastic, and probably the least damaged item in the room. There was a sharp hole in the side, and it looked strained, but it still was somehow in the best condition out of everything else.
The young wizard squinted as he slowly moved his cane’s light across the room, trying to get a closer look at everything there. Then, he saw it. There in the center of the bed. A stuffed cat plushie, dingy and old, with all kinds of holes and worn away fluff from time, but it was there.
“Found it,” Oscar whispered to Jaune, who was only a few steps back.
“Great, do you have the bag?”
“Yeah, I’ve got this.”
Oscar pulled a regular plastic bag out from one of his many coat pockets and approached the edge of the bed carefully, quietly. He opened it up and flipped it upside down, then he pulled the bag down and over the cat, picking it up without ever touching it with his bare hands. He tied the bag off and attached it to one of his belt loops, but just as he turned around a notification sound shrieked loudly from Jaune’s scroll.
He yelped and jumped back, startled, and tripped over something on the floor, accidentally falling back and onto the bed, which essentially crumbled to the ground with an alarmingly loud CRASH .
Jaune froze. Oscar glared at him.
“Oscar,” Jaune whispered, “Get up. We have to get out.”
Oscar just stared at him with wide, incredulous eyes.
“ Now.”
He scrambled to get on his feet, and they ran out of the apartment.
As soon as they dashed for the exit, they looked up the other end of the hall, only to see just what Jaune was fearing. A Cayotl pack was poking their heads out of doorways all the way to the end of the hall. The large, gnashing teeth of the double-headed creatures sent shivers down Jaune’s spine.
The pack bolted down the hall after them, the sounds of their huge claws hitting the ruined floors echoed all down the hallway. Jaune and Oscar ran towards the stairwell at top speed, the Cayotl on their heels. Oscar swung the stairwell door open, only to reveal Death Stalkers completely covering up the entire staircase. As a few turned to see them, they chittered and snapped their pincers hungrily.
Jaune swore quietly, grabbed Oscar’s hand, held Crocea Mors in the other, and raced over to the nearest window at the left end of the hallway, just a few yards from the stairwell. The sounds of the snarling Cayotl were growing louder.
Oscar jabbed at some of the small Grimm with the Long Memory, sending electric jolts through the cane, managing to trip a few up and keep them back. The window was completely shattered, not even glass poked out of the framing.
“We’re going to jump,” Jaune said, pushing Oscar to climb onto the edge of the sill. Jaune turned with his back to the window, slashing and jabbing at the Grimm.
“Jaune-” Oscar tried to argue, but he was already on the sill.
“Not now!”
The knight shoved the wizard out the window.
Oscar gasped in surprise as he fell, but quickly created a force field bubble to protect himself as he went down. Jaune leapt out the building after Oscar, the landing rough but solid since they were only jumping from the first floor. They doubled over, gasping for breath, and looked up at the window they’d just jumped from to see the Cayotls bunched up and snarling at them from above.
“That was a close one,” Jaune said, relieved. Something hissed from behind them.
Oscar sighed tiredy, “Brothers help us.”
They turned around just to be face to face with a massive King Taijitu.
“Well, this is just great,” Jaune said sarcastically, then yelped and jumped back when one of the heads snapped forward, jaw unhinged and hissing furiously.
Oscar slammed the cane against the Grimm’s white head, and ducked and rolled away from the beast when it tried to grab him with it’s other. Jaune used his sword to slash at the white head before diving away from another attack. The knight sheathed Crocea Mors briefly, the sword quickly being drawn again at a warning hiss from the King Taijitu, but this time being wielded in the Super Sword form.
The Grimm lunged for Jaune and attempted to coil around and suffocate the Huntsman, but was distracted by Oscar’s shout as he jumped onto its black head, brandishing the Long Memory. The tiny wizard whacked around the King’s black head hard enough to daze it, then jumped onto the white head when it reared its head back to attack him.
“Oscar!” Jaune called from where he was still trapped by the coils of the Grimm, “We gotta wrap this up!”
“You are wrapped up,” Oscar quipped, then dodged yet another attack from the white head.
The tiny teen sent his own jolt of lightning back at it through the Long Memory, he darted his eyes around the crumbling buildings surrounding them. Sure enough, the growls of approaching Grimm and their trademark red eyes could be heard and seen better and better with each passing second.
The black head of the King Taijitu was beginning to come to its senses, though it was still not fully aware yet. Oscar swiftly slid down that side of its body over to stand on top of the mountain of coils. He reached out a hand which the knight took, then pulled Jaune out of the quickly tightening body to stand beside him.
Jaune ran down the white side of the Grimm up to its face and slashed at its eyes with his Super Sword. The action didn’t do more than stun it long enough for both huntsmen to jump down and run down the street at top speed.
“Is this really the best idea?!” Oscar shouted at Jaune, wind whipping through his hair and across his face.
“I don’t know!” Jaune replied, sounding just as panicked as he looked.
“This is all your fault!”
“How is this my fault?!”
“If that stupid scroll had been silenced then we wouldn’t be in this position right now!”
“You don’t know that for sure!”
“Uh, I’m pretty sure I do!”
Jaune rolled his eyes, then reached into his back pocket, pulling out his scroll to see if extraction had shown up yet.
“What are you doing!” Oscar exclaimed, throwing out his arms incredulously.
“I’m checking my scroll!”
“We are running from a horde of Grimm ! Get off your scroll!”
“I’m checking extraction! And in case you haven’t forgotten, I’m still team leader-!”
He was cut off by the sound of engines over the clamour of the battle. A small airship lowered to the ground a couple hundred feet in front of them, Jaune whooping loudly as their salvation appeared out of the heavens. The door to it opened slowly. Oscar and Jaune picked up the pace, the Grimm not too far behind them. The closer they got to the ship, the better they could make out the rest of their team waiting at the edge of the ship for them.
As soon as he was close enough, Oscar jumped forward and into the ship, landing awkwardly on his stomach. Jaune leapt into the ship and skidded on his knees painfully, but they were safe. They had completed the mission.
The door of the ship closed and they took off, just like that.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Pyrrha asked, kneeling down next to Jaune worriedly.
“We’re fine,” Jaune panted, “It’s all good.”
Oscar sat up roughly and glared daggers at Jaune, shrugging away from the comforting hand Nora attempted to set on his shoulder.
“No, it’s not,” he argued, untying the bag from his belt and handing it to a very surprised Ren.
Nora’s eyes darted between the two, “What do you mean?”
Jaune frowned as he stood up, brushing dirt off his pants as he did so, “Oscar-”
“We could have died, Jaune! You couldn’t get away from your scroll and it almost killed us.”
Ren was absolutely dumbfounded, “Sorry, Jaune you what?”
“I needed to keep my scroll on to contact extraction, you know that.”
“Except we were in the most dangerous part of the mission and you got a Candy Crush update!”
“Jaune!” Pyrrha gasped, Nora and Ren echoing her.
“I’m sorry, I am,” Jaune sighed, “Oscar, you know I’d never let anything happen to you-”
“I do!” Oscar cut him off, tears gathering in his eyes, “I do know that, Jaune! That’s why I’m mad. Because I know that you would die to protect us before letting anything happen to us.”
Jaune stared at him, unsure of how to respond. Mostly because Oscar was right. He would die protecting his family before allowing anything to happen to them.
“I can’t…” Oscar tried, his head hanging low, “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you died and I had been able to do something about it.”
Jaune surged forward, wrapping his arms tight around Oscar in a warm, loving bear hug. Oscar returned it instantly, the two just holding each other as silent reassurance that they had made it, that they were okay.
“I’m sorry,” Jaune whispered, “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that.”
They stayed like that for a few moments, and when Jaune finally let go of his friend his partners were quick to pull him and Oscar into a group hug.
“I can’t believe you,” Ren muttered, pressing a kiss to Jaune’s temple.
“You’re both crazy,” Nora said, rolling her eyes and hugging them both as tight as she could.
Oscar groaned, “Gods! If it were up to me, I’d ground you myself!”
“Well, luckily for me it isn’t,” Jaune said cheekily.
Pyrrha hummed thoughtfully, “You’re right. It’s not.”
“Thanks, Pyrr. See, I totally-”
Pyrrha smirked, “But it is for me.”
“What?!”
Pyrrha shook her head disappointedly, “You’re grounded, Jaune.”
Jaune pulled away from shock and looked Pyrrha dead in the eyes, “I’m sorry?”
“Grounded. No scroll for two weeks.”
Jaune blinked at her.
“Hand it over, Jauney-boy,” Nora teased, holding out her hand for the item.
He sighed, “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Pyrrha repeated.
“Between claiming you were on your scroll for “extraction purposes” and not having it on silent, I think we’re in our right,” Ren explained.
“Alright,” he grimaced, grabbing his scroll and giving it to Nora.
As they sailed away into the late night, moon and stars a promise for their future, he was grateful for his family who knew him inside and out. Jaune sighed and leaned his head against Ren’s shoulder, they were headed home, together and safe. It was really all he could ask for. Even
with
his family trying to give him a taste of his own medicine.