With Emerald having given up her attempts at fighting, the team didn’t have much trouble with getting her handed over to the police. But then, of course, they ran into the issue that the police in Mnemosyne weren’t exactly equipped to handle criminals with huntress training, meaning that they found themselves acting as guards until something could be figured out for containing her. The small jail wouldn’t do much good when she could simply use her semblance to snatch a key off a passing corrections officer and be on her way.

  Jaune had a feeling that their needed assistance at the moment was the only reason the cop wasn’t giving them a proper dressing down, both for Jaune’s slight mischaracterization of his qualifications and Second’s theft of the man’s service weapon. Second did get the stink eye, and the officer had been a bit aggressive with snatching the gun back when Ren offered it up, however.

  It was a bit awkward, standing around and keeping one eye on a crying girl while a crowd of bystanders watched from a short distance away. If they made a big show out of keeping watch, then one of the civilians might start getting big ideas to hurl insults or worse at the now “defenseless” criminal. They didn’t need Emerald getting provoked and losing her current docility. But on the other hand, they couldn’t just not keep a close eye on her, because even if she was a concussed and emotional mess at the moment, she was still a criminal who had worked with Cinder and held his sister’s life at gunpoint not even ten minutes before.

  Part of him wanted to egg the civilians on for some vigilante justice when he considered that, but he thought better of it.

  “Sir, you can’t–”

  “Out of my way!”

  All of team JNR(S) snapped to attention at the commotion, but breathed a sigh of relief when the crowds parted and Aurelius came charging through, sword at the ready and a mix of determination, anger, and worry on his face.

  Their eyes quickly met.

  “Jaune!” He ran up to them, inspecting him for wounds first before looking around, still a bit panicked. “Where are your sisters? I was in a call with them, but–”

  “Right over there,” Second pointed out the group of blondes within the crowd, and his father quickly abandoned him to check up on the girls.

  They were all shaken up, but fine for the most part now that everything was over. Zinnia was sobbing just as much as Emerald, though, and Jaune had barely been able to convince her to stay with the rest of their sisters while he joined the watch over Emerald instead of clinging to him.

  His team had suggested that he join and comfort them all, but he didn’t think he’d be able to do that convincingly with Emerald so close by.

  A nearby officer, one who had shown up after the action, hung up a call and approached them. “Good news. Looks like Vale PD is taking her off our hands tonight. We’ll just have to make sure nothing happens until their airship can come pick her up.”

  Second frowned. “Vale PD? Will they really be able to hold her?”

  The cop scowled at him, and at Jaune, seemingly confused about who he should be mad at. “Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but this is a respectable profession. We may not have aura or suppressant cuffs out here in Mnemosyne, but that’s a funding issue, and I don’t appreciate being talked down to or having my service weapon stolen from me.”

  He stormed off angrily before anyone else could get a word in.

  “Who pissed in his cereal?” Nora asked with a pout.

  Ren sighed. “Nora, please don’t.”

  “What?! Was Second’s question really that unreasonable? Last I checked they were keeping Roman and Neo at Beacon!”

  “That’s… true…” Ren admitted, “but I also don’t think that such a thing is commonplace, given that they were being kept in normal rooms. It likely had more to do with certain connections they had,” Ren obviously chose not to mention all of the behind-the-curtain nonsense that the civilians around them wouldn’t know about, “and I’m not certain that Emerald’s face would be well known to someone who lives out here.”

  Second hummed. “That’s a good point. They don’t know who they’re dealing with and there’s obviously some sort of system in place for keeping rogue huntsmen as prisoners. Do you know how that works, Jaune?”

  He squinted at his semblance with some disbelief. “You’re asking me? You know how I was at the start of the year.” An in over his head fool who hadn’t even known what aura was.

  “Ah. Right…” Second awkwardly coughed.

  Ren frowned. “We also can’t be certain that Beacon has been informed at all.”

  “Not it!” Nora shouted.

  Years of living in such a large family had Jaune joining in before he could even think about it, and Second just managed to beat Ren out.

  The boy sighed in defeat before stepping off to the side to make a call.

  That was about the time that Aurelius finished up with consoling his daughters and made his way back over to them.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “So this is the one?” He practically spat the words as he glared down at Emerald.

  Second not-so-subtly stepped between them, giving Jaune’s father a wary look. “...she is, yes. We have things under control, as you can see.”

  Aurelius’ grip on his sword’s hilt tightened obviously, but he didn’t move forward at all. “So it seems.” A slow, deep breath calmed him down a bit. “Mnemosyne is supposed to be safe. Away from the crime of a big city like Vale and better protected than a small village. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen.”

  Nora gave him a sad smile. “It’s not supposed to happen anywhere. But that’s why we chose this job, right? To protect people.”

  Jaune had a feeling that Nora was remembering an attack from grimm instead of a rogue huntress, but given her and Ren’s status as orphans, having family in danger, or worse, was no doubt something she could relate to.

  “We’re all safe, dad. Shaken up, sure, but physically….” Jaune’s attempt at reassuring his father died off when he saw the look on the man’s face.

  He knew something, and he wasn’t happy about it.

  “Those are solid points,” Aurelius agreed, even if it was a bit begrudgingly, “but Zinnia was sharing something quite interesting with me a moment ago.”

  He eyed them all up with a judging gaze.

  “Does someone want to tell me why my son’s family is being targeted? I don’t seem to recall having to deal with that when I was in school.”

  Fire was beautiful.

  The pure destructive potential drew her in like a moth to a… well, a flame. Being able to hurt people, to make them uncomfortable, to make them fear her, those had always been appealing to her, and command over fire added yet another tool in her arsenal to make that happen.

  The fear was especially enticing. Poking and prodding, making the flames lick at the heels of others to amuse herself was one thing, but fear could be used. Power enough to instill fear in those weaker than her was intoxicating. Having that level of control was truly like nothing else.

  Yet fire could also be gentle. It could light the way on a dark night, heat up cold food, fight off the cold and provide comfort.

  Fire was dangerous, but reassuring.

  And fire was terrifying.

  Perhaps not the fire itself. That might be a misattribution. Rather, the terrifying aspect was what the fire represented.

  Hitting up the training grounds once more now that the school was practically empty had seemed like a good idea. She didn’t need, nor want, any babysitters so she had snuck here on her own. It might annoy the ones who ran the place, but she’d been testing boundaries for a while now and had come to the conclusion that this could be passed off as something productive towards their goals. They couldn’t get too upset with that.

  Why did she suddenly care if they were upset, though?

  Their feelings on the matter definitely would not have been taken into consideration before. Now, though, she couldn’t help but at least take basic precautions to appease them. She’d been doing it for so long already, so what was a bit more? So many years of her life lost to running and hiding and being alone, the little human contact she got coming in the form of pawns of the man who saw them all as pieces in his stupid game to command and–

  None of that was true. Or, no, Ozpin and Goodwitch and the others were definitely not above controlling people to get what they wanted. That was how everyone was, how the world worked. Those with power controlled those who lacked it. That was why she needed power. She couldn’t be one of the weak, used and abused and cast aside when unnecessary. That was why she had attacked herself and raged at plans gone awry and lost everything to that damned semblance and–

  Wrong again.

  If Neo were capable, she would be growling in frustration right about now. Instead, she set the field aflame, hoping to vent some anger with the act of wanton destruction. It did help, but only just a bit.

  And then she regretted it.

  What if that act of defiance only made things worse? Ozpin would definitely be upset, and then he’d send Qrow to come and talk to her and–

  Salem would be greatly displeased if it were discovered that she were throwing a fit instead of furthering the abomination’s plans and–

  She had no proof, but it felt like every time she used the power of the Maiden, her control over who she was slipped just a bit.

  What was she supposed to do?

  Not use it? That didn’t seem likely. Just having this power at all made her a target or an asset, and her time working in the underworld had taught her just how eager everyone was to use the assets available to them.

  Give it up? She’d enjoyed Cinder’s initial suffering, but there was no long term understanding of what happened to someone who had their aura removed. Amber, maybe, but as far as Neo knew the girl was still asleep, still healing from the wound that she had inflicted on herself– No. That Cinder had inflicted on Amber. But even then, was that long slumber solely because of the physical injury? Or was it at least partially caused by the theft of her soul? With no way to know, the prospect of ridding herself of the whole thing wasn’t very appealing either.

  The only other option that came to mind was to just… let it happen. She’d seen what having all those souls together had done to Ozpin. Or at least, she had some understanding of it. Would Amber or Cinder take over, erasing her from her own mind? Or was that something that only happened because Ozpin had merged with other minds so many times? Could she suppress the others somehow, assert herself as the dominant personality?

  What would Roman think of all this?

  Despite all the problems they had with each other, they were still partners in crime. Less crime now than before, but she still thought of them that way. This was just… laying low. Buying time until the heat died down a bit. Normal criminal behavior. Things would go back to the way they should be.

  If he would still put up with her after this.

  She very much wore the pants in their relationship, so if she asserted herself then he would capitulate, but… did she want to do that to him?

  None of this made any sense. There was nobody she could ask about it, her muteness set aside.

  She pulled out the blade of Hush, staring into her reflection as the flames danced around her and warped what was presented.

  Mix-matched eyes stared back as she allowed the flames of the Maiden’s power to fade.

  But for just a moment, she worried that more than pink and brown had stared back.