Heya, I'm back~ Today was a little hard for me, but I managed to survive! Anyway, I just wanted to tell you this: having WiFi problems when you live off fanfic writing is horrible. So... third commissioned chapter for The Sins of the Past, by azuring-galaxy, here it is.

Also, I hate my brother. Like... not hate-hate, but I can't stand him and his behaviour. He does nothing all day, talks me into unconsciousness (I might have mentioned it in another fic, he literally talked until I almost fainted), uses the already limited WiFi to search those stupid game-y things of his (and then he HAS to make me read them...) and all around is useless and a weight! My family is going through something of an financial crisis and at least needs support as in "do your house chores and help a little with the baby". He does the housechores only when repeatedly called out on them, and his way of taking care of our little brother is to shove him in front of a screen to watch a movie while he plays with the phone. It's... it's infuriating, and the worst part is that he gets annoyed when you ask him to do something because "huff, do I have to do EVERYTHING?". That little hypocrite shit... if he weren't my brother I'd hate him.

Despite Ozpin's suggestion, and Ironwood's words, no one of them 'took a break'. They were emotionally drained already, and they had just begun. They just didn't want to see their friend suffer any more. They were all good people at heart, and even though some -like Weiss- did not explicitly show their care for the blond knight, they all felt pity at what his alternative version was going through.

Ruby just wanted to hug him and never let go of him ever again. She had developed a small crush on him, nothing she couldn't keep a secret, but first and foremost she was his friend and fellow leader. It hurt her enough to see and hear him put himself down in their… she guessed she could call it 'home universe'… but seeing him go through such hardships and trauma was straight-out heart-wrenching. He did not deserve any of that, yet he went through it nonetheless. She understood why Jaune hadn't been allowed to come as well, but at the moment she really wanted to give him a hug, both to ensure he was still there, and to calm her own rampaging negativity. It was no secret she was easily his best friend. And to her, it was no secret she might've wanted for them to be closer, maybe, for him to be her boyfriend. But romantic or not, her bond with him was too strong to just ignore what he was going through in another universe. Had their own Jaune been there as well, she might've endured it better with him, but without him… all her empathy was used to feel for his alternative self, and all she could feel was compassion.

Weiss had more… conflicting emotions. Of course she too was angered by Jaune's unjust fate, but she had been raised better than to just let emotions show. She understood just how much the other Jaune had to have suffered, or rather she couldn't understand the enormity of his pain, but she also knew that life was rarely fair. Weiss knew that despite what he had to go through being utterly horrible, she also knew that there was no answer to the question 'why?'. There was no why, it just happened. It didn't make it any easier to bear, but it made it so much easier to understand. Alas, the burden of seeing Jaune like that was heavy. Weiss rejected his advances often, and she would continue to do so, but that didn't mean she wished him ill. He was just… too stubborn to understand a 'no' and too doltish to focus on girls he actually had a chance with. Weiss didn't wish him ill, she just wished for him to stop pestering her. She wouldn't go as far as saying they were friends, but they were acquaintances.

Blake… to be honest, Blake hadn't spoken much with Jaune all thorough the time their teams had spent together. While she was indeed usually silent, she did speak up sometimes, but more often than not she would reply to Jaune with short, clipped sentences. She didn't have anything against him, of course, but he was… definitely not her ideal type of friend. She had been forced to live with her team and had adapted, but just like she didn't speak much with Nora, she didn't speak much with Jaune. She didn't like his clumsiness and his lack of knowledge. To be honest, she didn't particularly like him as a whole, but she respected his drive and his selflessness. His kindness and his acceptance for the Faunus were welcome as well. For someone like Blake, the pain she felt was a bit dulled, but that didn't mean she couldn't feel it. It was still there, aching and hurting, under all the self-control she had over herself.

Yang's emotions were simpler. More primal, even. She was furious at the universe for having done such a thing to her friend, and she was furious at the entity who brought them there for forcing them to watch as Jaune suffered and they couldn't do anything about it. Jaune was far from her model of good friend or boyfriend, but he was a friend. A kinda weird-to-hang-out-with, awkward, clumsy, weak friend, but a friend nonetheless. But she was also sad about everything his alternative self had to endure. The 'dunce', as Weiss called him, didn't deserve any of that shit. He wasn't the best fighter nor student of Beacon, but that didn't mean he should've suffered so much.

Pyrrha…

Pyrrha was simple. She loved Jaune. She loved him and seeing him suffer, even if just an alternative version of him, hurt. It hurt so much and she was holding back the tears. She knew they weren't going to solve anything but she couldn't help but feel the pain. Maybe Ironwood was right, and maybe they shouldn't have focused on the negativity, but how could she ignore her partner's pain, even though from another universe? It was just not possible. The General might've held truth and wisdom in his words, but those were a truth and a wisdom she didn't want to embrace. How could she? How could she just ignore his sufferance when she lived with him every day? She might've been referring to his soul with 'Infinite in distance and unbound by Death', but that didn't mean her Aura chant couldn't apply to her own feelings as well. Different universe or not, that was still Jaune. A different one, but Jaune nonetheless.

Nora… she was sad, that much was clear. But surprisingly, she shared Weiss's opinion on that. She had been an orphan, scavenging for food in the trash even before Kuroyuri was destroyed. Where Ren could remember happy times with his family she couldn't. Every time she tried she only remembered cold, loneliness, and hunger. She knew that the world was not a kind place when one was on their own. Sticking with people was the way to remain happy. The fact she accepted it didn't mean she wasn't hurt at seeing Jaune being so thoroughly devastated. It was like someone had taken the boy and methodically destroyed him piece by piece, hurting him in a way that was far more obvious and far more subtle than scars. What the other Jaune had gone through had left scars on his body and his soul alike.

Ren partly shared Nora's and Weiss's opinions, but he too had a slightly different one. While it was true that Nora had gone through worse than Ren had, sometimes the boy thought that maybe he would be better off not remembering how it was before he became an orphan. In a similar way, he wondered if the fact that Jaune still remembered them during his time in the 'Death Korps' hadn't made it all worse. Living in misery as far as one could remember, sometimes, was easier than living with memories of happier times… now impossible to reach again. Ren considered Jaune his non-blood brother, and he would've hated for something like that to happen to their own universe's Jaune.

Ozpin and General Ironwood alike were just silent, waiting for something to happen among the children. They were honestly expecting for negativity to explode or at least for some of the to cry, but instead what they got was so much worse. Silence. Hollow silence hung over them, not the tense silence that came before a storm, but the hollow silence of a dead wasteland left with nothing to sound out in the emptiness. Hearing such a silence among students so young was not something they wished to hear ever again. Silence in people like themselves, like Qrow… it was a way of coping. When everything was just so much that even trying to vent wouldn't work, silence and time were the only ways to move on.

Seeing the students use such ways so young… it unsettled them. It made them wonder just how young -in terms of maturity- they really were. After Ozpin had suggested a break, he had expected them to talk a little, maybe in hushed tones and grave voices, and maybe to do something to take a small break. He had been unpleasantly surprised when no one had moved, no one had spoken, and a hollow silence had settled in the room. He hated such silences. It was a silence of defeat and weakness. His words were meant to improve them, to teach them how to gain strength from pain, but instead they had apparently erased what little flame they still had.

He just wished he could remedy his grievous mistake.

"Can we… just go on?".

At the young reaper's request, the screen lit up and continued narrating the story that was breaking them all.

The cell vibrates every now and then as it made its way through the Warp, An alternate dimension of almost liquid energy, devoid of life, stars, and light as it is commonly known. The ship rides the warp current, thanks to the Navigators who can see into the warp and follow the light of the Emperor through this hellish place. It was thanks to this, the Imperial Navy is able to travel faster than light to get to planets or systems. He was able to learn this thanks to a navigator that he met on an Imperial world they had managed to save from rebellion.

"A… warp?" repeated Ruby, confused. "Why would they risk travelling through something as dangerous as that one is described? Just because they don't care about death?"

"Sometimes, an army has to take risks in order to arrive within time, Ms Rose," explained Ironwood, rubbing his forehead. "Alas, these 'Death Korps' apparently use it to reach planets faster, and thus causing even more destruction. In their case, their willingness to throw away their lives is an advantage. While sometimes preserving soldiers can eventually lead to victory, they apparently have an unlimited army of suicidal warriors. And for the ones who refuse, they can evidently force them to fight nonetheless."

"Damn them," whispered Yang, her eyes red. "Damn them all."

"Wonder when we'll be out of it. Always get this feeling of dread whenever we warp-jump." he said to himself, looking around his cell. The lights had turned on shortly after the jump, though they were dim but provided just enough to see the picture of him and Pyrrha. He had decided to get off the slab of metal that was his so called bed, deciding to lean against the wall of his adjacent to the cell next to his. He could hear shuffling in the cell, probably another prisoner, doubt it was another Death Korps member.

"To add to their sins, not even the worst criminal should have a cell such as that," growled Blake, and Ironwood looked away. Some of the containment cells on his Admiral Warship were barely enough for the prisoner to stay seated the whole time, and the light was no better than the Death Korps' battleship's. The knowledge of being worse than an army like them tied his stomach in knots, and he resolved to change those cells into something more human as soon as he went back to Atlas.

It didn't matter if he had been sleeping at the time, he would force himself out of bed to rectify such an inhuman treatment. The prisoners were criminals, sure, but they were still people. He wouldn't allow himself to step as low as imprisoning a person in such a cell.

"Human." a somewhat deep raspy voice came from behind him. Jaune jumped at that point and looked around, that didn't sound human whatsoever.

"Who said that?" he questioned, wondering if it was probably whoever was next to his cell. Gods, he hoped that he wasn't losing it. He was relieved when he got an answer however.

"Me, a fellow prisoner just like you." the voice was definitely coming from the cell next to his. The voice though, it sounded tired but sense of command in them. Jaune calmed down, going back to his original position, he wasn't in any danger. The cell shook more as the battlecruiser made its way through the warp, traveling to the next battle and the next after that. It was never ending, battle after battle. "War is all I will know now huh?" he asked himself as he closed his eyes.

"I don't like that voice," murmured Nora, something very strange for the normally loud bomber. "It's not evil, but it's just… alien. Strange… scary."

"As it said it probably belongs to a non-human entity or alien," noted Ozpin, racking his brains for a voice even just remotely similar to that one. He couldn't remember having ever heard of it before. "Those 'Death Korps' apparently take prisoners, after all, and alien races are among those imprisoned ones. Even decades in a cell cannot make your voice as raspy as that one, so I'll have to hazard a guess. Maybe it belongs to some kind of alien we haven't seen yet."

"It's a possibility," nodded Blake. "Although, to tell the truth, I'm kinda curious as to how those aliens would live. I mean, they wouldn't be like humans, what would they eat? Would they even need to eat?"

"Those are many questions and we have no answer, Ms Belladonna," replied Ironwood, shrugging slightly. "Aside from our current inability to reach the outer space, it's possible we wouldn't even be able to recognize aliens. What to us could look like a rock could be an alien as well. We cannot be sure of anything."

"Maybe Crescent Rose is an alien, since you talk with 'him' so much, eh Ruby?" Yang nudged her younger sister, earning a pout in response. "Come on, it was just a joke. I know you built it yourself, I just so happened to have been forced to watch over you the whole time to avoid you to hurt yourself with the forge."

"I would've been fine."

"If you say so…"

"So, who are you?" he finally asked to the prisoner, maybe pass the time with some small talk. His neighbor was silent for a while, making him wonder if they passed out or just decided to ignore him, but both answers were wrong when they spoke up.

"My name is Kor'O Vior'La Man'me of the fire caste, though the Gue'vesa under my command called me Kor." he responded.

A Tau prisoner, a warrior nonetheless. He knew he wasn't the same Tau that watched him come in, that one was near the bulkhead. The Tau, it was thanks to these Xenos that an entire planet was doomed to be slaughtered. So many innocent people died because the actions of the few that wanted to join them. He couldn't forgive them, not after what they caused. Not after what he was forced to do because of their actions.

"Anyone else who noticed how this 'Tau' alien and our 'host' have basically the same name?" Pyrrha spoke up with a frown on her face. "Kor and Khor. Identical pronounce although I cannot be sure of how they are written. Maybe this alien has a language that's even written differently from ours, but the pronounces are the same."

"Maybe this alien is the alternative version of our 'host'?" offered Ren. "He introduced himself as a person who 'earned the power of Wandering', so he might still have alternative versions of himself in other universes."

"If so, I'm gonna find him in Remnant and beat him so much he'll forget his own name," promised Yang, not pleased with having been brought there by force. "We owe him so much pain already, and we've just begun this 'universe watching' thing."

"I would recommend against possibly angering someone of his power," noted Ironwood, knowing just how easily irritable some people were. "He might see your actions in Remnant and use his powers to get revenge."

"How can you get revenge on a revenge?!" exclaimed the blonde brawler. "He deserves it!"

"People don't always reason like that, Ms Xiao Long," Ozpin interrupted, trying to calm her down before someone -most probably her- got hurt. "You might think it fair but he might not share your opinion. I suggest you all, when we'll go back to our universe, to just be thankful you will be done with extradimensional beings messing with your lives… I hope so, at least."

"What do you want?" he asked, anger could be heard in his question. That didn't go unnoticed by the warrior but he didn't mind it. He could understand to some extent the human had for him and their cause. But he didn't regret it, it was for the greater good after all.

"You are one of them? The Forsaken ones." he said to him. Jaune was confused by this, "Forsaken ones?" did he mean the Death Korps? He shook his head and decided to answer.

"If you mean the Death Korps, then yes. I am."

"Why are you in here? If you are one of the Forsaken, then why would you be here? With the rest of us prisoners?" he asked, Kor was wondering what this Forsaken did to earn his place among the conquered. Maybe he could sway the human to his side, but from what he had seen and learned, the Forsaken were frantically loyal to their "God" so he doubted it. But it would be good to talk, before he met his death.

"What a horrible way of thinking," commented Ironwood. "No one should think of doing something only because Death is closing in on them."

"Unfortunately, Mr Arc is not normal any more. Any particle of light has been annihilated by what he was forced to do, and now he is weaving in the darkness, blindly holding onto his fading memories, and at the same time condemned by those very memories," replied Ozpin, voice saddened and head kept low. "I… I honestly have no wish to watch this any further, but alas we do not have a say in this. But I can indeed say this: once we will be out of this, we shall all see Mr Arc in a different light. We will all be glad he hasn't gone through anything like this."

Yang chuckled weakly. "Imagine his face when he receives a letter from Ironwood telling him he's glad he's okay…"

A few others chuckled too at the scene, even Ironwood himself. "I'll make sure to oblige, Ms Xiao Long," he stated after the chuckles had subsided, taking out his Scroll. "May I have Mr Arc's contact info?"

"Wait, are you serious?" asked Pyrrha.

"Why not, Ms Nikos?" countered Ozpin, drawing his own device to show Ironwood Jaune's number. Since he was Headmaster of Beacon, he had all Beacon Scroll numbers saved in his phone. "It's a good idea."

Jaune was quiet. He didn't really want to answer that, mostly because he didn't want relive those three days. Those three days of murdering men, women and children. Burning homes and spilling blood. Innocent blood. He couldn't stop himself, despite badly he wanted to and gods did he try, he couldn't. Whatever his Watchmaster did, it made Jaune compliant to any order that he was given. When he was told to burn a family alive, he did without any hesitation. Gods, he hated himself so much and now this thing wants to know why he's here? He sighed, well not like it will matter in the long run. This Tau will be dead soon anyway and it was better than being left alone with his thoughts.

"I didn't follow orders. The ones you managed to turn away from the Emperor's light needed to be punished but I refused to kill the innocent who were still faithful to the Imperium. But they were guilty by association thanks to your actions." Kor listening intently as the soldier explained to him. Kor remembered that many didn't wish to join the Tau Empire or fight for the Greater good, normally they would have been conquered or taken prisoner but the one who commanded the invasion opted to let them leave to their Imperium's space. A controversial move but one that was positively received by the newly acquired Gue'vesa and those that came with them. "I didn't want to kill civilians, People who couldn't defend themselves. People who were scared and crying to be spared. People who were still loyal." Kor heard his voice crack a bit, despite it being muffled by his respirator. "But i was forced to." this perked his interest greatly. This Forsaken Soldier, he was different. First, he wasn't fanatically loyal like the others. If he was talking to another soldier, they would be trying to get to him or cursing him. But this one wasn't. This one was...Kind? Or Innocent? Maybe the former but the latter was most likely gone after what transpired on that planet. Though knowing the Forsaken, it was probably taken along time ago.

"Sadly, so true…" sighed Ironwood, the lightness from earlier already dispelled. "I wonder whether we will ever get to see a lighter scene from this, or if we shall have to witness Mr Arc's descent into insanity by his trauma."

The students shivered at that. Seeing how much he was hurt was already horrible as it was, they didn't want to add anything else to the pile. And to tell the truth, that Jaune probably had already partly gone insane.

Then Ruby perked up and spoke. "Hey, what about doing a sleepover when we get back?" she offered to the other students. "So we all get to see if Jaune's alright and we can sleep well without… many… nightmares."

"I like it," nodded Yang, and the others soon followed. Even Weiss reluctantly agreed, but only if she was allowed to sleep on a bed.

"What do you mean forced?" he asked, curious as to how this one was forced to kill.

"My watchmaster, said somethings to me and I couldn't control my body afterwards. Whatever he commanded I did without any hesitation. So I killed all of them." Jaune finished, hoping that would sate the Tau's question.

Kor was silent, hes heard of warriors forced into a trance in order to be compliant perfect warriors. He didn't think the Forsaken would do need to do that to one of their own, not after seeing them fight and what they did to the surviving Gue'vesa. They did whatever was told of them of their own free will but this one had to be put into a trance.

He sighed before speaking; "We were gonna let them leave." he told the young boy, maybe to lessen the hostilities between them. Maybe lessen his guilt on someway.

"What?" asked Ruby, confused.

"Apparently, this 'Tau' race was going to allow the ones who didn't wish to join them… to leave their empire peacefully, or at least that's what I gathered from his… her… the alien's words," replied Ironwood, sighing deeply. "Just… watch on, and we shall see if my hypothesis is correct or not."

"What? What do you mean?" Jaune asked, his voice rising a bit.

"Our Shas'O made the decision to allow those that didn't wish to join us to take their ships and leave. To head into your Empire's controlled space." he heard a slight gasp from the soldier.

Jaune was surprised-no stunned! Everything hes heard and read about the Tau is that they conquer any planets that don't willingly join at first. Those that don't stand with them are either killed or taken prisoner. All for their greater good, he's never heard of them letting people leave to safety if they didn't want to join.

"This is what I feared," explained Ironwood. "Apparently, these 'Tau's would've allowed those who refused to walk away unscathed, but… the Death Korps arrived and killed everyone, because a few had joined the so-called Empire. And… I fear this will just make Mr Arc more hurt by what he had to do."

"Why?" asked Yang.

"Think about it, Ms Xiao Long. He thought that all of them were going to die nonetheless by the hands of these 'Tau's since he believed they killed everyone who didn't want to join them," replied the General, suddenly looking way older than he had appeared just a few moments earlier. "And now think how it must be for him. He has just been told that even more people died, and they were going to live. It's easier to kill a man you know is going to die no matter what, than a man you know could live if you allowed him to. And given Mr Arc's kind soul…"

"Such knowledge is only going to harm him further," nodded Ozpin.

"He is an abnormal one. But he knew this would benefit our Empire, show your kind that we are forgiving and plant the seeds of doubt towards your Imperium." he didn't care that he was explaining this to the boy, he was a prisoner just like him and he was dead anyways. Whatever the Forsaken wanted with him, it would lead to his death. "So that next time we sent envoys to join us, we would have a much better success and more of those willing to join."

Of course, there was an ulterior motive to it but still, they were gonna allow those who remained loyal to leave. They weren't be forced to stay but they still died. The Death Korps came in to bring the world to heel and they did.

"Some did escape. Left to your Imperium's space. A few of your cities were almost abandoned before you Forsaken arrived." he said to him.

"Really? So some were able to get away?" he asked. He was a bit relieved at this, knowing some were able to get away before they arrived. Some would be spared the horror and pain that the others felt. It didn't take away the guilt though, it was still there. He did kill those that weren't able to get away and he shot down those that were trying to. He sighed, the heaviness coming back.

Many sighed in relief. "At least, something that went we… better than worst," commented Yang. "I was starting to believe it was all going to be 'and everything, somehow, went worse'. At least some of them managed to escape before those butcherers arrived…"

"I guess not everything always goes poorly," agreed Blake, subconsciously relaxing at the revelation. She hadn't realized her muscles had coiled up so much during the viewing. It was like her instincts were continuously telling her that something bad was going to happen, and to be honest her instincts were kind of right. "I'm glad Jaune has at least that burden off his shoulders. I was starting to think he was going to live five years of continuously gone wrong events. It's a relief to know that at least some people survived. Maybe it'll take some weight off his burden."

"I certainly hope so," confirmed Pyrrha. "He doesn't deserve any of this."

Ironwood and Ozpin exchanged a glance. They knew it was actually unlikely for those people to have survived, but they still had hope.

"You carry this guilt. Why? You are a soldier much like me?" Kor asked, he had long come to understand the Greater Good demanded sacrifice and blood to ensure all those came under peace.

"Because I never wanted this. I always wanted to save people, protect those that can't protect themselves. Much like how my ancestors did, like…"his voice trailed off as his mind wondered to his friends. "...Much like how they do. Gods they would hate me now."

"We could never hate you, Jaune," Ruby murmured, fighting back the tears that threatened to blur her vision. "Please, believe me, we would never hate you nor leave you. If only we could do something…"

Yang placed a hand on her shoulder. "We can't, unfortunately. We can't, and this is proof of how powerless we sometimes are," she told her motherly. "There are times when we won't have the power to do anything… I know that from experience. I may not be a general or a headmistress but I have experienced something like that. It's horrible, it's something you wish you never have to live, but unfortunately you cannot decide when you'll have the power to do something. Sometimes, you just have to watch and hope."

Ruby nodded without a word, but inwardly she was thinking hard on those words. A plan was already forming in her little leader head. She was going to confess to Jaune. She knew Pyrrha had feelings for him as well, so she would at least ask him about what he felt for the tall redhead, but she didn't want to wait any more. A part of her felt sorry for Pyrrha since she knew the Amazon was too shy to tell him herself, and a part of her was shy too, but she couldn't allow the chance to slip by her fingers. Although the thought of telling him still scared her, she took comfort in it.

"We all have to do what must be done, even if it goes against our individual moral codes. You for your Emperor and me for the Greater goo-"

"Greater good?!" Jaune yelled, anger seething from him. "Your "Greater Good" killed so many people. I've read about planets obliterated because it didn't wish to join you. I've even met survivors that we've rescued, telling us how you Tau killed anyone that didn't stand with you!" he waited for a response, tired of hearing about the Greater Good from the Tau he's met briefly. They never elaborated on it, just that it was the best for living beings in the universe to unite under it and the Tau. "You Greater Good has caused nothing but misery for Imperial worlds." He calmed down, realizing he just turned a conversation into an argument. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know what came over me.." he sighed as the two fell silent.

"Your people will never understand, for time neither did I, but eventually i did." he explained, breaking the silence. "I believe you are too, slowly coming to realize your Imperium's beliefs. I can't properly explain it to you, as it I doubt it would matter. But the Greater good is much more and needed for the Universe." Silence grew between them for a while, Kor wondering if the hostilities have returned but was pleasantly surprised when they didn't.

"Why do you call the Death Korps Forsaken Kor?" he asked, the question lingering in his head.

"I'm pretty sure we aren't gonna like the explanation," commented Ren, sighing deeply. Just three viewings, and he had already guessed how it was going to go next. He had always had a knack for predicting the 'future', but foreseeing something like that was easy. "It's becoming something of a recurrent theme."

"And then everything went wrong?" snorted Yang. "You know, it's not too far from the truth, if I have to be honest."

Ironwood sighed and shook his head. "You are still children, so I will forgive you, but keep in mind that war is all but kind. Every second is something that goes worse. You cannot hope to find something good in war," he stated gravely, making them look at him. "Mr Arc especially is going through a war that is one of the worst ones I've ever seen. It is foolish, naive and childish to hope that something is going to get better. Those people who 'survived' are lucky they did. It's a miracle, not a normal occurrence."

The students looked down at that. For a child, it's impossible to realize they're being childish until someone calls them out on it. As well, the students hadn't realized how naive they were being until someone who knew of war had called them out on it, and now they were ashamed to have allowed themselves to be so naive.

Kor was silent for a bit, before speaking; "Your people, the Death Korps, I see how they throw their lives needlessly. I watched a group charge at us, despite being under heavy fire, they continue charging not caring that their own were falling." he continued, remembering how he ordered that group to be killed. Though it mattered not, as more charged and eventually overcame their fortifications. "You fight with reckless abandonment, not caring in the slightest for your own lives but rather the enemy. I've seen hundreds of Forsaken throw themselves against a Fort, just to cause a small breach in it. I see that you all carry a heavy burden, one that pushes you to fight till death takes you. Thats why I call you Forsaken, because you all have Forsaken yourselves." he finished, waiting for a response. He heard clipping sounds from the cell before he heard a voice no longer muffled by the mask but a young one. One of kindness and hope, but slowly losing both those things.

"You're not wrong Kor, Kriegsmen don't care about our lives much. But you would be surprised that we do care about the lives of our fellow comrades. Yes, we individually have given up our lives but we look at another Kriegsmen and hope they survive the battle to fight on or return home to Krieg." he told him, hearing a small sigh. Jaune smiled a bit, remembering Titus. He told Jaune he hoped he would survive the war and return home one day. To meet his friends, wherever they are in the Imperium. Titus, the only Krieg Guardsmen that watched over him during the previous battles, making sure he was alright. He misses him.

"Comradeship is common among all armies," Ironwood told them before they could even speak up. "Do not think this is 'things are going better'. No, this is just war. When you are fighting for your lives-"

"James, I think that's enough," Ozpin interrupted him. "You are… unsettling them."

Ironwood halted and looked at his old friend, who in turn nodded toward the students. Following his eyes, Ironwood felt a pang of regret. He shouldn't have been so harsh. Ruby seemed on the verge of crying, as well as Pyrrha and Nora. Ren's expression and body language was tense, extremely tense, and Blake wasn't far behind, although her eyes held more sadness than tension in them. Weiss sat rigid and trying to reign in her emotions, but it was clear she was as troubled as the others. And finally Yang seemed tired. Just very, very tired. Weary of the unfairness of the world, maybe.

Ironwood sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he apologized weakly. "I… I allowed my temper to run free while I should've kept it under control. I… I'm very sorry."

"What is your name? I've given you mine but have no idea what to call you. Truth be told, Forsaken doesn't fit you."

"My name is Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." he chuckled a bit at the last part, it felt good. To laugh like this again.

"He-He… he m-missed laughing?" Ruby's voice trembled dangerously. Her tears were threatening to finally spill, and they weren't going to stop once they started. "H-How… how l-long did he n-n-not laugh?"

"For far too long, Ms Rose," replied Ironwood, his eyes lowering to the floor as memories from his own past depressions resurfaced. "For far too long…"

"From warrior to another, its an honor to meet you Jaune Arc." Kor said as the two conversed more. They may have met on the battlefield as Enemies but the cells brought them together as friends for the time being. Though unbeknownst to Jaune, this would be the last time he felt this happiness.

-Beacon Infirmary-

Jaune's hand hadn't healed that well. His aura having not been able to heal him properly, leaving some of his wounds open partially. They couldn't understand what was wrong, his Aura reserves were well normal for Jaune but it wasn't healing him, it almost as if something was stopping it from doing so. Despite their pleas, Jaune's friends were sent back to their dorms while Glynda Goodwitch stayed along with a doctor to talk about why one of her student's were like this. She may come off as strict and at times heartless, but Glynda cared about all her students. It was her job to ensure they would become the next generation of hunters but she also understood they were children, children who still needed care and attention from time to time.

"Its like his body is fighting off his own Aura. seeing it as a hostile invader." the doctor said, examining the unconscious boy's aura levels. While he was explaining on what he thought was happening, Glynda examined Jaune. Still wondering if this was the same boy that snuck his way into Beacon. She looked at the various scars adorned all over his body, arms, legs and even face. Making notes of them and wondering what caused them, though one caught her eye. She looked closer, hoping she was wrong before seeing her suspicions sadly confirmed.

"How can his body fight off his Aura?!" exclaimed Yang, bewildered. "It's… it's… it's impossible! It's against nature!"

"Remember how he kept his Aura even in a world without Aura?" Ozpin asked rhetorically. "Apparently, he might've adapted to that world too much, losing his control over it. And now that is in Remnant again, his body still recognizes Aura as an outsider that needs to be dealt with."

"But our Aura is our soul!" protested Blake. "Only Grimm don't have it! Did Jaune lose his soul?!"

The mere idea of it tied knots in many stomachs, but fortunately Ozpin shook his head. "No, Ms Belladonna, but he doesn't know how to use it any more, and thus considers it a danger to his body," he explained slowly. "I… I didn't know something like that was possible… but I guess it is, as he looks to have trouble healing."

"Someone tried to slit his throat." she said, looking at the scar, seeing it looked jagged and didn't seem deep. As if the person either didn't know what they were doing or were having second thoughts.

"I looked at it earlier, it appears…" the doctor's voiced trailed off, wondering what transpired that came to such an act.

"Speak doctor, what is it?" she asked, wondering what kind of person would considering doing that to a child.

"...its self-inflicted Headmistress." he said, the atmosphere in the room dropped as her eyes widened in response to what she was told. She backed up a bit, trying to comprehend what she was just told. She looked back at him, still asleep, small tears forming near the edges of her eyes.

Every student in the room just froze, unable to process the doctor's words nor what they implied. It was just too much too soon, too much too quickly.

Ironwood sighed and closed his eyes. "Just how many of my men actually did that?" he asked himself, calling forth crimson memories of bodies laying in pools of their own blood. He shook his head but the images remained, sometimes even of men and women just past their twenties. "Ironic how I am General… and yet I hate war more than anyone else."

"Because war has taken much from you, my friend," Ozpin reminded him. "You are not the way you are reasonlessly. No one in this room is this way for no reason."

"How do you know?" she asked, she tried to remain stoic but memories flooded her head of similar situations of Hunters that lost their will to live and tried to end their own lives in anyway they could.

"If it was an assault, then it would have gone one way and deep. A quick slice. But this, look see these jagged signs here?" he said, pointing at the scar tissue. She looked, seeing more clearly at it. "This is where the knife would veer off, as if he was trying to keep it steady as best as he could, trying to fight the pain off i presume." he explained more, he was gonna continue but stopped when she saw how visibly disturbed she was getting. "Let him rest, right now we have hands bandaged and it appears the aura is making work, albeit slowly since the body still looks like its fighting it off." She nodded and walked away, trying her best to remain calm but also trying to understand what would make him do such an act of self wounding.

-Aboard the Emperor's Judgments bridge-

"My Lord, we will soon be coming out of the warp-jump above The Shrine World Nehru." The Navigator said.

"Good, WatchMaster, go and bring Jaune Arc to the Valkyrie, I'll be there shortly." The officer ordered, his voice muffled a bit thanks to his respirator. The Watchmaster was a bit shocked but acknowledge the order, leaving with two Kriegsmen to fetch the boy. The Officer stayed silent as he looked at holographic monitor, receiving orders about a situation on the Shrine world.

"This will be a good example, to show Arc what's at stake if he doesn't follow orders and keeps following his heart instead of seeing the bigger picture."

The screen cut to black, but still no one moved.

Silence reigned on the room, but this time it was different from the hollow silence before the viewing. This time it was a pregnant silence full of slow realization. Ironwood and Ozpin had to watch, powerless, as the students slowly grasped the implications of what had happened. Tears filled their eyes as one by one their postures slumped or coiled into balls. No sound was heard except for the sobs and soft wails that now rang out in the otherwise silent room. Knowing that they could do nothing to stop such pain from reaching them, the two adults just exchanged a glance and shook their heads. They had just discovered that their friend, even just an alternative version of him, had tried to take his own life.

There was nothing they could do to comfort them.

Okay, super-heavy chapter. I'm kind of too drained to write more in the AN. Just goodbye, and see you later.

Until next time,

Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh