Homeward Return, And a Calling

"Why are you dressed like that?" Saphron asked suddenly as they climbed the hill towards Ar Manor. The Force Warrior hummed at the quiet question, and the armored woman waved a hand at him, "The robes, the hood, the… Metal pole on your back, and those absolutely ridiculous metal shoes. Those can't be comfortable to wear, I'd imagine you feet are covered in blisters."

"At first, yeah, they chafed something awful and hurt my feet." He answered with a shrug, feeling a chill wind bite into him through the cloth robe he wore and, though he shivered at it, enjoying the feeling. "I adjusted, though. When it comes to the robes, though… Well, I didn't have many options, where I got stuck."

"Where did you… Get stuck?" Saphron asked, always the curious one. Questioning, testing, toying, experimenting…

"I'll get to that." He dodged, evading the question and knowing she'd hate it. He knew she'd argue, push him for answers, and so found a way to direct her away from that. Give her something else to talk about, for now. "Why are you a soldier now, Saph? I always thought you wanted to move out to Mistral with Terra. 'Two friends against the world on an adventure' as you both said it."

"I… Jaune, you have a lot of catching up to do about me and Terra." He gave her a confused look and she snorted in amusement, shaking her head. "Nothing, nothing, I'll tell you later." She promised, smile slowly wasting away into a more sad, solemn one. "We were going to, but… Times are hard, around here, right now."

"I noticed." Even if it was barely noticeable to most, he had other ways of telling the differences. People looking ore tired, kids laughing more quietly. There was a tension and exhaustion in the air, along with a suppressed fear he didn't understand, and the Force rippled with it. "What's happened, Saph? What's going on?"

"Father… When you went missing, he tried everything he could to find you, you know?" He nodded, having expected that his family would have almost since the day he was trapped. They were close knit, and if they didn't know one of theirs had died, they'd fight tooth and nail to find out for sure or save them. "Three months of Hunts into the woods, guards sent out to search for you in Grimm filled lands, and the family pulled from Hunting contracts to do it… We lost, Jaune. Alot."

"Damn it..." He'd known and hoped a search would be put on, for obvious reasons and more selfish ones both, but… Three months? He'd not expected that. "How badly?"

"Very." She answered quietly, an armored hand curling into a fist beside her. "And with the loss of people, we lost workers in the mines and the fields, to replace the men and women who'd died or been wounded too badly to keep serving. I volunteered for the guard, and we've… Just not recovered. Terra did too."

"I'm sorry." He sighed, the woman turning an eye on him. He bowed his head, hiding under the hood, and added, "If Father hadn't taken me out to train, I'd have never gone missing. None of this would have-"

"Finish that sentence and I will punch you so hard, I'll feel it." Saphron threatened hotly, the younger blonde turning to her in surprise. With a gentler smile than he'd expected, she explained simply, "You couldn't have known what would happen, and you only ever wanted to help. To do the right thing. Be the hero. There's no blame or shame in that not going to plan."

"I guess… I guess you're right, Saph." He didn't like it, but it made some kind of sense, end of the day. Even if his motivations hadn't turned out quite so pure as she believed them to be, in the end. "I still feel kind of bad, though."

"That's… Understandable." She forced out, sighing and shaking her head. Then, with more force than he'd expected, she clapped him on the shoulder and grinned as the western gate into Arc Manor swung open ahead of them, the guards spotting the woman and recognizing her even if he knew they didn't recognize him. "But enough of all that shit, and being depressed about the past, you're back! That's what matters, baby bro."

"I can get behind that, at least." And that was entirely true, too, finally standing on the grounds of Arc Manor. Of home, even if it looked a bit different to how he remembered it.

The grass was longer than they normally kept it, the paint flaking off in places, and the stone paving leading between the two sections of the building had bleached over time, weeds poking through in places. No soldiers or Hunters milled about in the gardens, like he remembered them doing, but with the loss of revenue and manpower both those things would have necessarily fallen off, and only one guard stood by at the gate as opposed to the old two that would have been there. The entire place looked older, worn down a bit by everything, but he couldn't really bring himself to care.

"Where's everyone else?" He asked, waving a hand at the garden. "The twins used to play there all the time with you, Terra and Mom."

"Mom and all the youngest went to Vale, to stay at a house owned by an old family friend who works at Beacon. Figured they'd be safer there, and they could go to school in the city." She saw the question on his face before he spoke it and added, "Dunno who, I was on patrol when she came to Ansel and offered, and I never asked. Been too busy, and they're being taken care of, so I'm not worried."

"Safer?" He repeated, turning fully to look up slightly at her face, the woman a hair taller than him. "Why wouldn't they be safe here?"

"I'll… Let father explain." She said quietly, shaking her head as they climbed the steps to head into the family side of the building, the woman holding the door open for him and talking while she pulled off her cloak and armor, "He should be in here in just a few minutes, when Terra tells him what happened."

"Will she?"

"She's a bit of a stickler for reporting in. And you coming back?" She raised an eyebrow and turned, headed down the entryway. "Well, let's just get something to eat while we wait, yeah? I've been on patrol for a while and could use a bite. You?"

"Force preserve me, yes." He hissed, lashing out to grab her shoulders when she looked confused. "I've eaten nothing but protein sludge since I disappeared, Saph. Please, for the love of everything under the sun, yes, I would like something to eat."

"Okay…" The woman blinked, leaning away from her suddenly, and he wouldn't deny it, rather manic brother. Gently, she reached up to pry his hands off and nodded slowly, like she was afraid he'd freak out again. "Let's, uh, let's get something cooking. Dad'll want food for all of us to catch up either way, so not a bother. Pork steak and mashed potatoes sound good?"

He was in heaven, he knew it.

Inside, Arc Manor was… Rustic, mainly. Heavy, wooden doors leading into simple rooms that served as entry and storage areas. Armor, cloaks, weapons, all of them could be hanged off walls or stored in little cubbies, like lockers without the door, along the four walls. Directly across from the main, more decorated, door was a second door, made of sturdier wood, for protective purposes. Theirs was a family of leaders, soldiers and Huntsman, at least for the most part, and all these attracted enemies as a rule of life.

Beyond that was a sort of great hall, twenty feet wide and as many tall, a hearth at the furthest point from the front entryway and a wide, black couch that curved in front of it. The walls were painted a dark, wooden color meant to be as close to natural-looking as possible, and covered in pictures of important Arcs in history on either side. An ever-present reminder, when he'd lived here, of the expectations of his family's name. And his father had wondered why he was so passionate and stubborn about becoming a Huntsman.

The room was divided by a long, old, sturdy oaken table covered by a thick white tablecloth, edged in gold to match the edges of the paintings. Overhead hung a heavy, bronze chandelier that sparkled as the light from the fire glanced off it, and its own lights mingled with the fractaling freely, throwing rainbows along the roof beautifully. For now, the table was bare, and the chairs were tucked under its edge all around, the most ornate of which sat at the far end of the room, back to the hearth. Heavier than the others, with solid sides rather than arms cut out of the wood, the thing wasn't pieced together like the others had been. It wasn't assembled.

It was a tree, carved into the rough shape of a chair, and then lined with padding and fur for comfort. Where the head of the Arc household, man or woman, would sit for every dinner, meeting or whatever else came.

To the right of the table was another door that, he knew, matched the front's design. Through there one could step into the garden and head to the other side, where Hunters and the like lived, maintained their gear, and met to plan or head out for a job. Over that door, though, was a set of stairs that led up, to the second floor of the Manor's family wing. Nothing but bedrooms and, in one corner, a modest library for Hunter information to be compiled, contracts to be stored, and whatever else his father needed it for.

Opposite that was the door into the kitchen which, due to the sheer size of the typical Arc family, was probably three times the size of a normal one. It even had three ovens because, to quote his mother, 'one would take me getting up at six every morning just to make lunch for all of you'.

Why she didn't just get cooks or something, he'd never found out.

"Here you go, Jaune." Saphron said a few minutes later, bringing the clearly reheated food around on two plates and setting one in front of him in a seat near the door. "Reheated from last night, hope you don't mind."

"Not even slightly." He barked quickly, sounding irritable but really just wanting to get to the eating part. Which he did with gusto, shoveling some of the steamingly hot potatoes into his mouth and fighting back the groan that came with them. "Gods, Brothers and Force all, Saph, this is delicious."

"It's just potatoes." She pointed out with a quiet chuckle, taking a much smaller, more reserved bite of her own steaming pile. He ignored her, taking another gluttonous bite and then grabbing a knife to start cutting the meat. "Brothers, you really didn't have real food… Wherever the hell you were, did you?"

"No, all we had was… Well, Instructor called it 'nutrient paste'." He answered, pausing to take an almost unreal bite of the pork and savor it in a way he doubted he ever would have before. "Basically bugs, algae, whatever else, processed into this… Goop."

"Ugh."

"Exactly how I feel, Saph." He nodded, sighing as he felt the warmth of the meal - actually hot for once in years - settle in his stomach. "I never bothered to ask about it. Kind of, you know, didn't wanna know what it actually- Ah." He smiled, taking another bite and setting the spoon down, "Dad's here."

"How do you-"

Her question was cut off by the sound of the door being thrown open, slamming back against itself as heavy footfalls carried a large man through the entryway. He'd sensed the person coming, sensed the urgency, the panic mixed with hope, and made a guess at who it would be. An educated one, of course, but a guess nonetheless, even if it turned out to be entirely correct.

"Hello, Father." He said politely, watching the man blink at him owlishly. With a small, unsure smile, he reached up to scratch at the side of his small beard, toying with the slight braid there, and asked, "So, uh, long time no see?"

"My baby boy!" The man's voice boomed, arms armored still and spread wide in a rushing embrace as he thundered towards him, the smaller blonde's eyes widening at the approaching bear of a man. "Come here and let me give you a hug!"

"Force preserve me…" Was all he could manage to think before great, metal arms engulfed him in a bone-crushing hug.

"You aren't going to… Question me, to make sure it's actually me?" He asked, after the man had settled into his throne-like chair and the two younger Arcs had joined him. And after Jaune had regained his ability to breathe from the exuberant hug, of course. "Saph did a little bit. I had to convince her."

"My daughter is head of the first guard, if you convinced her then you convinced me. Besides," the man's great beard and mustache bristled merrily as he smiled, "I can recognize my own son, Jaune. Even if you look different, older and bearded now at such a young age, I can recognize you well enough. And again, Saphron would have never let you in here if you hadn't convinced her completely."

"I have to judge people coming into the settlement almost daily." Saphron added from across the table, trying to help he was sure. "Traders, travelers, people wanting to join the ranks of the soldiers, farmers or miners, nd Hunters coming and going. You learn to tell when someone's lying pretty well."

"So no, not going to waste time on it. I lost enough time with my son as it is, I won't waste more on questioning you coming home." The man sighed in a tired way, leaning an elbow on the arm of his chair and resting his chin on the palm. Taking the moment of silence, Jaune cut off another piece of the pork, savoring it while the older man spoke, "I trust that Saphron has… Already told you about our troubles here?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and then grimaced and started to add, "I'm sorry for everything, Father, I-"

"This fork, your nose." Saphron threatened balefully, flicking the small silver thing into the air and catching it deftly, pointing the tips at him unambiguously. "No apologizing for what you didn't do, got it?"

"I'm not mentioning it to start passing the blame, Jaune. Down girl, no threatening your brother." His father assured him, a hand reaching out to press one finger against Saphron's hand, forcing the threatening dining ware down and away from his face. "I just didn't want you to be… Confused about it, or anything else."

"Saph said you sent away the girls and everyone, off to Vale to be safer." He nodded, asking after the man grimaced, "Why would they not be safe here? Three of the girls are Huntresses, aren't they?"

"The oldest of the girls are working to pay rent and fees for the other's classes, out of Vale. Your mother has to keep an eye on the twins, so she went with them." He said, answering the second part of his question first. More than likely because it was the simplest, easiest one to deal with, which did not fill him with confidence for whatever would come next. "As for it not being safe here… Times are harder, now, than they were before. Fewer people for the work all around means longer hours. Which douses hope and raises discontent among the people here, many of whom have no option but to stay and toil."

"Discontent, depression, strife, fear... " Saphron added, stabbing her fork into her potatoes angrily. "Means Grimm coming closer, ranging in the forest nearby."

"Which makes it hard to patrol for the men, which means it's hard to get out and go hunting. Of the more 'meat and hide' varieties than the Grimm ones, at least." His father added with a tired sigh, "I was about to head out on another purge with some of the soldiers when Terra found me, in fact. Over in the other end of the house."

"I thought you'd already left." Saphron grumbled, seeming embarrassed at having been wrong. Over something so simple, no less, which told him she did not enjoy being wrong about anything at all. "Or we'd have gone over there right away."

"I wanted food anyways, so I would have wanted to come over here first." He took a hearty bite of his potatoes for emphasis and the woman grinned, straightening her padded shirt and leaning back in her seat comfortably.

"Just like you used to be when you were little, thinkin' with your belly first and everything else second." He didn't think he'd been that way, but the way his father laughed and slapped a hand against the table, he wouldn't argue. His dad was happy and probably latching onto memories that lined up with how he acted now, and he wouldn't ruin that.

"Fewer soldiers and patrols also means an uptick in bandits in the area." Saphron, though, had no qualms about ruining the mood, apparently. She gave the older man an apologetic smile when he sighed, and added, "S'important, dad. He needs to know, in case something happens and he sees it."

He'd expected that the settlement was struggling, and could even understand the closer ranging Grimm with everything that had happened, but… Bandits? He'd never thought Ansel would fall so low as to be maligned by petty banditry. It wasn't the main one, but Ansel was an important, protected place. One of a litany of waypoints for traders, Huntsmans and even Atlesian patrols drifting by in the blue sky.

"Why isn't Atlas, or Vale even, helping out here?" He asked, waving a hand around them, more in reference to the settlement than the manor. Both worked, though. "We're supposed to be allies, aren't we?"

"The loss of resources meant I couldn't afford damn fees for their 'military support'. So they were forced to 'divert forces elsewhere, to more successful ventures'." The man sighed, stroking his messy beard with thick, meaty fingers and shuffling in his seat, the armor scraping against the wood mutedly. "Basically, we couldn't pay their 'support tariffs' so they cut us loose until we could. Lien, food, a safe place for them to rest and trade, whatever. We can't give it to 'em, they don't care to help."

"But if we got Lien, we could help?" He asked simply. The man nodded, and he returned the gesture, "So, what can we do to get that?"

"We need more people and support, and to solve the low morale around the settlement." Saphron offered, looking to her father. He nodded but stayed quiet and, taking it as an invitation, the woman went on, "We do that, the Grimm will be less attracted to the area, and we can afford to pay Atlas' fees for their support. Or, I don't know, contract Hunters to clear the woods."

"We don't have the numbers for any of it. We could move farmers into the mines, but one, they are terrible at it and untrained." Which meant it was unsafe to do so, on one hand, and they wouldn't get much out of it for the other. "Two, we do that and the settlement starves and withers away."

"Why not wipe out the bandits?" He asked, an eyebrow raised. His father turned to him with a questioning look and he explained, "It just seems like that would solve a lot of problems by itself."

"There's thirty of them, several with Hunter training." His father dismissed with a heavy shake of his head and another exhausted sigh. "Even with the girls, your mother and the guard, we'd lose too much in a straight fight with them. "We'd need at least two teams of season Hunters to help us and not come out waiting to die off. And we're breaking even, now, we can't afford to hire in that many Hunters."

"You'd have to call in another favor." Saphron guessed, the old man rumbling an agitated response. "Let me guess… Beacon?"

"Or Haven, and Haven offers us nothing without essentially selling our land out to them. Bah!" Which, Jaune guessed from his sharp tone, was entirely out of the question. Something he could understand, really. Ansel belonged to the Arcs and the people who were good enough to work it, not a foreign headmaster. "Beacon can't help anymore either without seeming 'compromised' apparently."

"The Headmistress is helping take care of most of the family, Father. They have a bit of a point, worrying about that, while Headmaster Ozpin holds a Council seat." Saphron pointed out dryly, the man grimacing and waving a hand to dispel the notions like a foul smell. "What do they want? The same thing they did before, I would guess."

"Which is?" He asked, looking between them, "I've been out for a while, I haven't exactly stayed caught up with the news around here, you know."

"He wants an Arc at Beacon, but the only one here around the right age to enroll is Saphron." His father sighed, reaching out to take the now stiff-looking woman's hand. "But I won't let you be forced sacrifice any more for this place, Saph. You and Terra have given more than enough, and I won't push for more."

"I know, Dad, but if it's that or we lose Ansel…" She smiled and let out a shaky breath, looking to Jaune as though she'd forgotten he was there. "Let's not talk about all this heavy crap anymore, okay? Jaune just got back, and there's nothing we can do about it anyways, so let's just… Eat together?"

"Yes, let's do something other than fuss over this." The older Arc grunted, standing and turning to head towards the kitchen, "I could use a bite to eat, too, now that I think about it."

Jaune wasn't about to say no to getting something tasty to nibble on some more, even if he was starting to feel rather full.

"And you," his sister said, prodding his arm, "can tell us where you vanished off to."

Maybe a drink, then. Something strong, if he was of age at least, because this would be a conversation and a half.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"The Temple is kind of a simple one, up in the mountains. Nothing special." Considering what it had been dedicated to, at least. He'd lived there for long enough even the great statue had, eventually, grown boring and tiresome to look up at. Not that he'd ever tell the droid that, lest he get another session of 'intensive sparring' or 'pain tolerance training.' "Since I was trapped, Instructor agreed to teach me how to use the Force. As long as I worked hard and didn't send people piling into it's Temple, at least."

"So no visiting, then." His father surmised simply, Jaune nodding curtly at the question. "A shame, I'd have liked to thank him for saving you."

"Instructor doesn't… Do the whole 'thanking' people for things." Jaune grimaced, not sure how to explain it properly. Though from his father and sister's confused looks, he guessed that they wanted something by way of explanation about this mysterious automaton that had helped him survive what should have been a death sentence. "It helped for a benefit he saw in it, not anything else beyond that. So thanking it, far as it would care to be concerned, would just be wasted breath."

"You can… Move things?" Saphron asked after a second of silence, the blonde nodding simply at the question. "Can you show me?"

"Alright." He raised a hand, calling on the minuscule amount of strength he needed, and lifted a knife off the table in front of her. Mouthing 'wow' she reached out hesitantly to take it, and Jaune explained, "I'm not a master in it, per se, but I'm very good at it. At least the normal uses, and raw power. Anything too delicate takes more focus out of me, right now, unless I'm upset and can funnel that."

"Emotions give you strength?"

"Emotions are my strength, Father." He corrected gently, smiling and going on before the man could ask what he meant, "Passions of every kind, when they flare, fuel the Dark Side as surely as Dust can fuel a fire. And I am trained to take that and interweave it with the serene acceptance and understanding of the Light Side, the kind of energy that comes from the world around me controlled by the kind that emerges from me."

"And it's not a Semblance?" The old Huntsman asked, sounding… Confused and uncomfortable, in the way older people did when something new confronted their previous understandings of things.

"No, I don't even have my Aura unlocked." He shrugged, Instructor had been a machine so he'd never even bothered trying to get him to do it for him. It was almost impossible that he'd have been able to, and Jaune had been busy enough as it was studying the Force. "It's a natural ability that people are born able to use, or not. That's what Instructor always told me, and that I was lucky to be able to use it."

"I see, I… Think.." Jaune could tell his father couldn't, in fact, see what he meant for sure. Less for a lack of trying or intelligence, and more for the concept being entirely foreign to him. "It's impressive that you have such a unique power."

"Useful, too." Jaune pointed out, watching his father closely as he added in a firm voice, "I still want to be a Huntsman. A hero. And you said Beacon couldn't help without a promise of another Arc to attend there… Where better to study being a Huntsman than the prestigious Beacon Academy?"

"You must be joking, Jaune. You… Can't be serious." His sister laughed, the two men turning to look at her, the wiry woman slowly shaking her head. "You just got back, Jaune. And you want to run off again?"

"I always wanted to be a Huntsman, Saph. How many people died because of that wish?" Too many, judging from the way her jaw tweaked, and her face turned into a grim scowl. A low blow, bringing up everything that had happened to sharply, but one that worked well enough to do the job. "And now, because of what happened to me, Ansel needs help. Beacon can give it to us, but wants an Arc to study there. I want to be a Huntsman and help Ansel recover, and to do that, I need an Academy to study at that will let me help. Beacon is the answer every way you look, Saph."

"Is that really what you want?" His father asked quietly, in the same voice as when he'd asked if Jaune wanted to head into the forest with him.

"Yes." He answered simply, meeting his father's gaze while Saphron glanced between them anxiously. The older man rumbled unsurely and Jaune added, "Four years, I've been training to get out of that hole. So I could see everyone again, and be a Huntsman. Save people, get the girl, all that jazz. And now, I can do it and help my family, in Vale and Ansel both, too."

"Then, if you're sure…" He asked a second time, to be certain, watching Jaune's face for any reservations. The young Force Warrior nodded simply and he sighed and stood, "Very well. I'll… Go and make a few calls, I suppose. To your mother, then to Headmaster Ozpin. After that, I'll unlock your Aura. For defense, if nothing else."

"Thank you, Dad." With a small smile, he turned to Sahpron and said, "I have to do this, Saph. Everyone else has sacrificed so much for Ansel… I have to too, now. I'd love to stay here with you all, but… Ansel needs me."

She couldn't argue with that, instead looking down at her plate and sighing, "I guess that's just like you, huh? Trying to be the hero even when I don't want you to be."

It was petulant, petty and meant to upset him, he knew. But he simply took the sting of pain that dealt to him and sent it out into the great ocean of the Force, letting it cascade away, and answered, "I have to do what I have to do, Saph."

She'd understand, in time, he was sure.