Cowboys of Remnant: "One Shot, One..." 2
AndrewJTalon
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Vale, Dockyards
- - -
Cinnamon Berahard was nearly seven years old, and she was super bored. Her mama and papa had told her that a trip up to Vale would be fun and exciting! But most of the trip had been about Papa buying and selling and talking to boring old people. Mama had at least bought her a dolly. It was a beautiful china doll, and she'd named her Priscilla.
She held onto Priscilla tightly as she sat in the back of the car, bored. Their front left tire had gone flat and Papa was fixing it. She watched Papa and Mama work on it together while they argued. The world outside was dark except for street lights and big, grim looking warehouses. They were creepy, so she focused her attention on her parents.
"I told you we were lost," Mama sighed, "Why didn't you just buy a proper Scroll?"
"Feh!" Papa snorted. "My old Scroll works just fine! We just took a bit of a detour, that's all."
"A detour, he says," Mama groaned, "who knows what kinds of thieves and cutthroats could be around here!"
"Please," Papa chuckled, "This is a civilized city! There ain't no bandits or thieves or-"
There was a loud explosion nearby. Everyone jumped, especially Cinnamon. She saw a gout of flame rise up behind the buildings. She gasped in amazement.
Maybe it was like her CCTV programs back home! Hunters and Huntresses on the street, fighting against bad guys!
"... Let's call the police," Mama suggested. Papa nodded.
"I think you're right." He pulled out his Scroll, and made the call. "Hello, Vale Police? Yes, I'd like to report a-"
A ragged looking young Faunus with cat ears, black clothing, and a white mask jumped through a window in the building across the street. He landed hard on the pavement and sprang towards them faster than a horse! He slapped Papa and Mama, sending them both sprawling to the pavement.
"MAMA! PAPA!" Cinnamon shrieked. The Faunus man opened the door and checked the keys. He groaned.
"Great, I gotta fix the tire..." He glared at Cinnamon, and she shrunk back. "You're really fucking slow, you humans!"
"I-I-!"
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Cinnamon and the Faunus looked back. Four young women in yellow, black, white and red leaped down, landing on the street. In an instant, the Faunus seized Cinnamon and yanked her in front of him. She screamed in fear and began to cry as he held a gun against her head.
"One more step, and goodbye little human!" He snarled. The girl in red, with black hair with red tips and a huge red scythe, froze. She shook her head.
"Y-You're bluffing!" She cried. "You're not gonna kill her!"
The Faunus grinned and jabbed the gun against Cinnamon's head. She whimpered. She wet her pants. She shook and trembled violently.
"You think I care?" The Faunus scoffed. "You'd better back up, nice and easy. Even you aren't fast enough to get to me before I pull the trigger!"
"Let her go!" The girl in black offered, "The White Fang is better than this!"
"FEH! Where have you been, Princess?" The Faunus scoffed. "Now, back off! Weapons down!"
"You're a scum sucking scoundrel!" The girl in white cursed, while the girl in yellow with blonde hair snarled angrily. The Faunus laughed.
"It keeps me breathing, darling. Now, you-HEY!"
Cinnamon stared through her tears. A man had appeared, jumping down from the same window. His poncho waved dramatically as he held onto his cowboy hat. He stared intently at Cinnamon and the Faunus as he stood up. The Faunus growled.
"YOU! Same thing, cowboy! You try anything and-!"
BANG!
The Faunus' body went limp even as Cinnamon's ears hurt. The Faunus dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. In an instant, the girl in red appeared and caught Cinnamon as she felt. She buried her face in her chest, sobbing loudly even as the girl in red rubbed her back.
She glanced up: The man was holding a revolver and pointing it at the Faunus. The Faunus had crumpled to the ground. He wasn't moving.
Cinnamon shivered and buried her face back in the girl's chest.
"Mama... Papa...?" She managed.
"They're okay," the girl said softly, "They're just... Just asleep."
"... The bad guy?" She asked.
The girl in red was silent as police sirens filled the air.
- - -
Yang was the first to recover from the abrupt end of the pursuit. Jaune barking orders into his Scroll helped take her eyes away from the dead Faunus.
"Pyrrha, Nora, make sure nobody else gets away, we caught one straggler," he stated, "Ren, sweep the area one last time. All of you, come to my signal location ASAP."
"Roger," Pyrrha spoke.
"Okey dokey Jaune-Jaune!" Nora replied.
"Understood," Ren said.
Jaune closed the Scroll as the cops arrived. He holstered his weapon, his face grim and stony.
"You... You killed him," Weiss said, soft and disbelieving.
Jaune very slowly nodded.
"Yes miss," he said, his voice devoid of its customary warmth. He glanced at the corpse briefly. "Let's check on the adults, make sure they're all right. Weiss, you got Healing Dust, right?"
Weiss kept staring.
"Weiss?" He pressed.
"Y-Yes, I'm on it," Weiss said, turning and heading over to the two groaning humans. Blake continued to stare at him intensely. She walked up close, her yellow eyes narrowed.
"Was that necessary?" Blake asked, quiet but angry. Jaune let out a soft sigh.
"... I hope so," he muttered.
Yang walked up and rested a hand on his shoulder. She gave Blake a very stern look.
"Threatening to murder a child is rarely something a good person does, Blake," Yang stated in a flat, angry tone.
"He was desperate, he was scared-" Blake tried. Yang glared.
"He had a choice. He made the wrong one," Yang practically spat.
Blake stared intensely at Jaune, who was still as blank faced as a cube of marble. A few moments later, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora jumped in. The cops were securing the area. One, a sergeant by her stripes, walked over to look down at the body. She then turned to look over the assorted Hunters-in-Training.
"Which one of you shot him?" She demanded, brushing a few stray black hairs behind her ears as she scowled.
Ruby opened her mouth-To what end, Yang didn't know. Jaune shook his head and stepped foward.
"That would be me, ma'am," Jaune replied calmly. Pyrrha's eyes widened. Ren and Nora stared intensely. Ruby shook her head and dashed forward, still holding the weeping girl.
"He was holding a girl hostage, he was going to shoot her-!"
The sergeant held up her hand and Ruby fell silent. The Red Reaper glanced at Jaune, looking distraught but over what, Yang couldn't tell. She could guess a few things, though.
"You can all give your full statements at the station," she stated, "What's your name, son?"
"Jaune Arc."
"Sergeant Matty Dillon," she introduced herself, "Under city policy when it comes to Hunters-in-Training, I'm going to have to take you into custody pending assessment of the incident and interviews with the witnesses." She held out her hand. "I'll need you to surrender your weapons and come with me."
"Hey! Hang on a second!" Yang argued, "That bastard was going to kill a little girl! You can't just arrest Jaune for that-!"
"It's all right, Yang," Jaune said quietly. He undid his gun and swordbelt, and handed it over to Sergeant Dillon-His revolvers and Crocea Mors hung from it. He pulled out a knife from his boot, and pulled his shotgun off his shoulders and handed it over too. Dillon raised an eyebrow.
"Anything else?"
"No ma'am," Jaune said politely. He held out his wrists. "Do you need to cuff me?"
"Yes," Dillon said, slapping them on, "It's just procedure."
"But he didn't do-!" Ruby tried, but Jaune shot her a look.
"It's all right, Ruby. I've..." A look of shame came over his face, before his determined expression returned.
"I've been through this before," he said carefully.
Ruby's jaw dropped. Yang gaped. Blake gasped. Weiss, still tending to the wounded, still shot a shocked look back. Pyrrha's eyes widened. Ren closed his eyes while Nora shook her head.
"You can all come along in another car," Dillon stated, "We'll try to get this sorted out as quickly as possible. I'll read you your rights on the way."
"Yes ma'am," Jaune said. He looked around at his friends.
"It's gonna be all right, I promise," he said, as Dillon escorted him towards one of the police cruisers. Ruby stared in shock, even as the little girl stared after him.
"Is... Is he gonna go to jail?" She asked.
"Not if we can help it," Yang growled.
"Cinnamon!"
The little girl looked over. She beamed as she saw her parents standing up, smiling.
"MAMA! PAPA!"
She dropped from Ruby's arms and ran over to them. They embraced the little girl happily.
"Well," Yang muttered, "I can think of a few people thankful Jaune took his shot."
Blake just scowled deeply.
Weiss approached, looking anxious.
"We-We should go with him," she said, "After all... He'll need our testimony... R-Right?"
"Let's go," Pyrrha said grimly, as they headed towards a second police cruiser.
- - -
I'm working on the other Cowboys of Remnant bit, but I wanted to try something a bit darker. Any thoughts so far?
Things were, from a certain point of view, very straightforward from then on. They were all taken to the police station, which was a stately old building in downtown Vale leftover from the Post-Great War Construction Boom, with high vaulted ceilings and gothic exteriors.
They got to stay in a waiting room, while, one by one, they were each taken to an interview room to be interrogated separately. They didn't say "interrogation", but Blake knew more than enough by now what this was.
They didn't talk much. She told them it would look bad if they seemed to be coming up with a collective story. Yang and Weiss glared, but they acquiesced. They each kept quiet, Yang hugging Ruby to keep her calm.
Each of them went in, talked for a while with Sergeant Dillon, then came out. The sergeant was nonplussed by all of them-Even Nora.
Then came Blake's turn. She silently walked into the interview room and sat down on the far side of the desk. The walls were covered in white wallpaper, and a camera watched silently from above. The sergeant sat down across from her, eyes narrowed.
"Miss Belladonna," she said.
"Sergeant," Blake greeted in a neutral tone.
Dillon checked her Scroll, then looked up at Blake. The clock ticked away in the background-An intentional touch, Blake knew, to make suspects nervous.
"I believe you've been told not to go on vigilante excursions in the past?" The sergeant asked dryly. Blake slowly nodded.
"In this case, I was trying to speak with some... Some friends of mine," she decided on, "Who were going to a White Fang rally. I was hoping to talk them out of it... Then things escalated."
"Not as badly as last time," Dillon stated dryly. Blake shook her head.
"If the police aren't stopping them from bringing in military grade equipment, then it is up to the common citizen to do what they can," she said quietly, her tone neutral but her eyes narrowed. Dillon sucked in an angry breath, then let it out as a frustrated sigh.
"... Your heart is in the right place," Dillon agreed, "Even if the rest of you isn't. But let's look at the incident tonight, shall we? You broke up the rally-"
"They opened fire first," Blake said, "We tried to keep it from escalating-!"
"But the White Fang always escalates, Miss Belladonna," Dillon stated flatly, "Has since Sienna Khan took over."
Blake winced. She kept her ears from flattening out of sheer willpower.
"They-They didn't mean to-"
Dillon scoffed.
"They've threatened any Faunus who became a cop with harassment and worse. All so it looks like humans beating up Faunus. My partner was a Faunus, best I ever had." Dillon glared angrily at Blake.
"Until they burnt his house down. His family was safe... But he got the message. Loud and clear." She shook her head, and took a deep breath.
"That was unprofessional," the sergeant said quietly, "Forgive me."
Blake didn't know if she was being manipulated or not. Dillon's body language seemed too genuine to be a lie. The anger in her voice...
No. She had to stay focused.
"I... Y-Yes," Blake managed.
"So," Dillon said, looking over her notes, "You engaged the organizers of the rally. One set off a Dust Bomb-That's when we got the 911 call from the Berahards. The perpetrator ran out onto 12th street. Correct?"
"Yes."
"He struck Mister and Mrs. Berahard."
"I didn't see it for myself but they were lying on the ground when we arrived, yes," Blake said carefully. Dillon stared at her and nodded.
"All right. He took the girl hostage though, correct?"
"... Yes," Blake said quietly.
"Held a gun to her head?" Dillon pressed.
"Yes."
"What did you do?" She asked.
"We tried to talk him down," Blake said quietly.
"Do you know how high his Aura was?" Dillon asked. "If he had a Semblance?"
"We believe he was Aura unlocked given his speed, agility and strength," Blake said quietly, "We're not sure how strong it was. If he was taking a hostage, I... I suppose it may have been low?"
Dillon nodded.
"Then what happened?"
"Jaune caught up," Blake said softly, "The... The perpetrator threatened him... Then..."
She took a breath.
"Then Jaune shot him," she finished.
"Where?" Dillon asked.
"Between the eyes," Blake said softly, tensing up slightly.
Dillon stared at her.
"Do you think he acted wrongly?" She asked.
Blake was silent. She sucked in a breath.
"I believe that, given how the situation looked-"
"Yes or no, Miss Belladonna," Dillon stated. She leaned forward and lowered her voice.
"It's all right to disagree with his actions," she said, "To be uncomfortable with killing. I prefer Hunters who can be honest about it."
Blake let out a hiss.
"... If we'd had more time, we... We may have been able to talk him down," Blake said quietly. "I-I want to believe we could have done it."
Dillon made a note.
"I see..."
She asked a few more questions, taking down a few more notes, before she nodded.
"Thank you. You're free to go," she said, "We'll have a decision shortly."
"Of course," Blake said with a slow nod. She slowly stood up and exited the room. She walked back to the waiting area, where the rest of RWBY and NPR were waiting around. Yang and Weiss shot her suspicious looks as she sat down.
"I didn't tell them anything they didn't already know," Blake said quietly.
"Did they ask for your opinion on things?" Yang asked. Blake winced.
"They did..."
"And?" Weiss demanded.
"I gave them my opinion," Blake said.
"Which was?"
"Guys, please," Ruby said, shaking her head, "Don't. It-It won't help."
Blake scowled, a feeling of self righteousness swelling in her chest.
"We could have talked him down," Blake hissed, "If we'd had more time-"
"He had his gun to a child's head, Blake!" Yang growled. "You really think he could have been talked out of it?!"
"He was scared, he was desperate-" Blake tried, but Weiss shook her head.
"Criminals often are," Weiss growled.
"You don't get to say anything-!"
"White Fang terrorists murdered members of my family," Weiss shot back, "Did they deserve to be killed? Should I be killed because of my family's crimes?"
"No!" Blake whisper-shouted, "Of-Of course not! But your history with Faunus-"
"And your history with White Fang makes you no better," Weiss growled. "If he was a human holding a gun to a Faunus child's head, he still should have been taken down!"
Blake looked over at Ruby for support.
"Ruby? You were trying to talk him down, right?"
Ruby nodded shakily.
"If we could have... Yeah... But..." She sighed. "L-Look... I... I don't like that we had to shoot him. I don't..."
Her eyes opened with a steely determination.
"I also got the same horror stories and attempts to discourage me from becoming a Hunter that Yang did," Ruby insisted, "How-How we fight people sometimes. Bad people. And some people can't be talked down. I..." She shook her head. "I don't like it. I wish we could have-have done something else..."
Tears came to her eyes.
"It's my fault," she whispered, "I'm team leader. If-If I'd thought of something else-If I'd come up with a plan, he wouldn't be dead and Jaune wouldn't... Wouldn't...!"
She began to sob. Yang hugged her tightly. Weiss shot a glare at Blake. Blake bowed her head, feeling low.
"Ruby," Nora said softly. The ginger walked over and sat down on the coffee table between the cheap couches. She reached out to hold Ruby's hands.
"Ruby, look at me," Nora said quietly. Ruby sniffled and looked into her eyes.
"Sometimes there is no good choice, just the least worst," Nora said softly. She nodded over at Ren, who was sitting quietly in a cheap armchair. The stoic ninja nodded.
"Yes," he said, "We've experienced that many times in our lives."
Pyrrha sucked in a breath. She nodded stoically.
"I know this too," she said quietly. She shrugged. "If we'd been there sooner... If you'd had more time... We can't change what happened. All we can do is deal with it."
Ruby sniffled again. Blake looked away for something, anything else to focus on.
"Jaune?" She blurted out. The cowboy emerged from the backrooms, his face like stone. Sergeant Dillon accompanied him, carrying his weapons. She handed them over.
"Everything you handed in," Dillon stated. Jaune put his gunbelt back on without a word. The sergeant looked back.
"You'll probably be getting hell from your professors," she said, and everyone winced, "But you're clear. No charges will be pressed. Just try to avoid anything else like this in the future, huh?"
With that, the Sergeant turned and headed off. Jaune looked at his friends. He saw Ruby still crying. She got up and hugged him. He returned it.
He sighed and patted Ruby's back comfortingly.
"Let's go home, huh?"
- - -
Even back at Beacon, and even after suffering through Professor Goodwitch's wrath (two weeks detention), Blake couldn't sleep. She felt too restless, too nervous. The tension in the dormroom was almost suffocating.
She climbed out the window and up to the rooftop. She heard the faint sounds of a guitar being played over the wind. She sniffed the wind, and followed a familiar scent. She jumped off the roof, landing easily. She dashed after the scent in the direction of the music.
She made it to the stables. A campfire was going just outside the paddock. Jaune was there, playing his guitar, staring into the flames. Orleans was asleep, and softly snoring in her stable. Blake stopped short of the fire, and listened to the tune for a while.
He began to sing softly.
"Hard time here and everywhere you go
Times is harder than ever been before..."
She hesitated, then cleared her throat. Jaune looked up, his fingers still plucking at the strings.
"Miss Blake," he returned quietly.
Blake worried her lower lip.
"May... Can we talk?" She asked softly.
Jaune nodded. He kept playing and stared back into the fire. Blake sat down on the log next to him, fidgeting a bit.
Jaune kept playing, a gentle acoustic. He would sing softly under his breath every now and then.
"And the people are driftin' from door to door
Can't find no heaven, I don't care where they go..."
Blake finally took a deep breath.
"I... I'm sorry."
Jaune kept plucking away quietly. He looked over at her in curiosity.
"What for?"
"I..." She winced. "I told the police that... That I didn't think you... You should have killed him."
Jaune was silent save for his guitar strings. He snorted softly then looked back into the flames.
"That's fair," he said.
Blake started.
"You... You aren't mad?"
Jaune shrugged.
"If Pyrrha or Ren had gotten there sooner, we could have brought him down. If I'd given you more time, maybe..." he sighed, "But I had a choice: Kill him, save the little girl... Or kill him after he'd shot her. I didn't want to bet her life."
Blake sighed and shut her eyes.
"... I've been where he was," she confessed.
Jaune stared at her. Blake shook her head.
"I-I never... I never took a child hostage. But I've used underhanded means, bluffs, violence... All to get what I wanted. I thought... I thought I was justified, as part of the White Fang. I thought I was righteous. I thought... I thought that almost anything was justified for freedom."
She stared down at her hands.
"... And I was wrong," she whispered, "I realized I was just making people fear and hate Faunus more than they already did. That-That I was making things worse. I realized that. I made the right decision."
She bowed her head.
"... And I can't stop asking myself: Could he have made the right decision?" She whispered. "Would he have realized what he was doing was wrong, and... And made a better choice? If... If..."
"If I didn't kill him," Jaune murmured. Blake looked into his eyes. He was grim, his eyes as hard as flint. He then closed them and sighed, looking very tired. Very old.
"I asked myself that too," he admitted. At Blake's look, he shook his head. "I... I've had to kill before, Blake. To defend my friends. To defend others. I... I looked into the eyes of those men, just before they..."
He steeled himself.
"Before I killed them. And I wondered the same thing. Could they have changed? Become better men if I'd let 'em live?"
Blake stared at him, her eyes reflecting the firelight.
"What happened?" She asked softly.
Jaune shifted a bit, setting his guitar to the side. He sighed and looked up at the stars.
"My pa and Mister Duke told me that our choices determine where we end up in life. Their choices led them to attack innocent people. My choices led me to stand between those men and people who needed protectin'. We all suffer the consequences of our choices. Theirs were to die... And mine is to live with the fact I killed them."
He looked intently into her eyes.
"You chose to get out. To run. To try and do better, to make up for what you did," Jaune said quietly, "And I... I'm choosing to believe I ain't a bad person. That the evil I do won't outweigh the good. That's what... What I'm choosing."
He looked back into the flames.
"No matter how hard it is to do that," he whispered.
Blake stared back. She slowly took his hand.
"We both will," she murmured.
He squeezed her hand back.
They watched the flames in silence underneath the star filled sky.
- - -