The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Names

I drew myself from my meditation and slowly opened my eyes as I felt someone approach. As I returned to myself, my awareness of the world adjusted, so that the vague array of sensations amidst the background of greater forces solidified into a clearer picture. Most of the teams were closing in now and the majority would make it here in the next ten to twenty minutes.

But Emerald and Mercury had already arrived.

"Hey," I greeted, rubbing my eyes for the sake of appearances. "Just the two of you?"

The two of them looked at me and then at Adam, who I'd awakened with a touch of Charitas. Beneath the illusion I'd conjured, his eyes glowed as they opened and focused immediately on Emerald and Mercury.

"Yeah," Mercury asked after a moment of silence, looking us up and down. "And you are…?"

"My name's Jaune and this is my friend, Adam," I introduced, rising from my seat and then extending a hand to shake. "If you don't have anyone else, I guess that makes you our new teammates."

Mercury looked down at the hand for a moment before shaking it slowly, expression musing.

"You'd be right," Himmel said, grunting as he came up. "About time people started to arrive. For a minute there, I actually thought this wouldn't be an enormous pain in the ass, but hey—I'm used to being disappointed."

Despite his words, I saw him look over the two appraisingly. Though they'd taken far longer than Adam and I, they'd still reached the center with abnormal speed, leaving most of the other teams far behind—and like us, they'd done it without any help. I could feel Himmel thinking the same thing, but all he did was grunt after a moment.

"Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black?" He continued. "You're the second pair to arrive alone, so you'll be partnering up with these two. Get along. Or don't. I don't care as long as you don't bother me about it."

And with that said, he shambled away, making notes on his scroll. I figured he was contemplating how big a pain in the ass our team was going to be. Which was fair enough, I supposed; if he had any idea about what he was putting together, he'd have probably tried to go on vacation.

The thought made me smile a bit wider.

"You heard the man," I said with a nod towards the seats beside my own. "Let's try to get along."

"I'll be sure to do that," Mercury answered, grabbing another chair to put in front of his own so that he could put his feet up after taking a seat. I took a moment to glace at his boots.

A skill has been created through a special action! By drawing on the experience of a master, the skill 'Kick Mastery' was created!

A skill has been created through a special action! By drawing on the experience of a master, the skill 'Talaria' was created!

"So," I said, still smiling. "Did you two have any trouble with the maze?"

"More than you two, apparently," Emerald answered humbly, lifting an eyebrow. "When did you two get in?"

"A minute or two after it started," Adam replied with a grunt. "It was easy."

At that, the both of them looked a bit surprised.

"Wow," Emerald said, though I could feel the change in her emotions as she focused on the two of us even more. "You two must be really strong if you managed that."

Adam shrugged, looked them over again, and then closed his eyes again.

"Jaune," Mercury said abruptly, frowning. "Jaune Arc? Hey, weren't you on TV that one time? With, uh…"

"Pyrrha?" I finished for him. "Pyrrha Nikos? Yeah."

He hummed once and looked at me a bit differently.

"I saw a recording of that fight," He mused. "Not bad—I liked the fire thing."

"Hard to go wrong with fire," I replied, paying attention to their emotions to see how they'd respond. From what I knew of Cinder, they'd likely associate her with the Element.

Mercury smirked, seeming to remember something fondly.

"True," He answered. "And you're…a Roma, right? I remember someone mentioning that."

"Through my mother," I nodded.

"Shouldn't you be with the others?" Emerald asked, scrunching up her face as if in thought. She was pretty good at faking her role, but I could both feel her emotions and see the electrical signals passing through her brain. There was really only so much she could do. "That's how it works, right? Alexandria, Barca, Khagan, and Roma? I thought there were a few of the others in our year."

"Itri, Kyanos, and Ulaan," I confirmed before shaking my head. "But my mother sort of broke that tradition. I'm not really the heir, either, so I'm free to do what I want, which is why I teamed up with my best friend instead. What about you two? Contract, friendship, or luck?"

Emerald sighed as if in exhaustion and looked at Mercury.

"Luck," She said. "Bad luck. Somehow, it seems we always get stuck together."

"Eh," Mercury replied. "You want me."

"If by that you mean I want you to shut up, then yes," She answered with a roll of her eyes. "Yes, I do."

There was an air of routine to the actions, as if they'd both been together long enough to know exactly how it went. Whether or not they weren't friends, they had obviously worked together for a long time and I suspected their teamwork would show that. I made a note of that and nodded.

"I see," I mused before shrugging. "Well, either way, glad to have you onboard Mercury, Emerald. I think it'll still be a while before anyone else shows up, so feel free to relax, okay?"

"Don't need to tell me twice," Mercury stated as he closed his eyes. Emerald rolled her own beside him but I chose to follow suit, instead.

After all, I didn't need my eyes to see what they were doing. I'd enjoyed mediating but, despite my words, the time for relaxation was over.

XxXXxX

"Hey, Jaune!" Kyanos's voice 'woke' me as he came in. "I guess you got here first after all, huh?"

"Of course," I answered, opening an eye and flashing him a friendly grin. His team had suffered a bit of a delay after meeting up with Sun's; the people in charge had apparently taken that as just cause to lead them through some of the more dangerous parts of the maze. "I said I would, didn't I?"

He chuckled and gave an easy nod even though he looked tired.

"You did," He agreed. "And I see you found the rest of your team, too. Mercury and Emerald, huh…"

"Believe it or not, they were just the second team to arrive," I chuckled. "Adam and I got in first and had to wait to see who we'd end up with."

"Oh?" He asked, seeming a bit surprised. "I guess you just have an eye for talent then."

I smirked a bit before nodding again.

"I like to think so," I stated before glancing past them. "And I see you made some friends, too."

"Yup!" He seemed pleased. "Meet up with them on accident. These are Sun, Neptune, Scarlett, and Sage."

"Hey," Sun greeted on behalf of his tired looking team. They'd run into a few of the larger monsters in the maze. "Do I know you? I don't recognize you from Sanctum."

"I doubt it," I answered with a shrug but rose to shake his hand. "I'm kind of new in town; just came over from Vale."

"Yeah?" He seemed surprised as we shook. "That's cool; I moved here from Vacuo when I was younger."

"Been meaning to go there some time," I said. "A friend of mine spoke of it fondly."

"It's a nice place," He assured. "Hot and cold and sandy depending on its mood, but the best food you'll ever eat."

"I'll look forward to it," I promised. "I'm Jaune Arc, by the way. These are my teammates, Adam Knossos, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black. Maybe we can hang out some time."

"Sounds cool, dude," He nodded before looking around. "So…what now? Do we just wait or what?"

"Just about everyone's here," I said, gesturing around. "We should be starting soon."

Sun groaned.

"Man, we look stupid," He complained to Neptune. "It's all because we ran into that Cretan; we ended up super late."

"I like to think of it as saving the best for last," Neptune replied.

Sun lifted a finger and then dropped it.

"I like that," He admitted. "I guess this isn't so bad."

I chuckled at them both and glanced towards the doorway as the last team arrived. On the other side of the room, several members of the faculty made notes and someone went over to approach them and check things over. When that was done, I saw Himmel moving towards a podium in the center of the room.

"Hey," I said, drawing everyone's attention. "I think we're starting."

"Congratulations to everyone here," Himmel said once he was in position. "You didn't embarrass everyone by dying on your first day, which I guess means you pass. Kudos for not bringing shame unto us all."

At the faculty table, a young woman who's name indicated she was Himmel's daughter put her face in her hands, while everyone else there seemed utterly unsurprised. A low murmur went through the students, however, and beside me Sun blinked twice.

"Well, he seems nice," He murmured, making Neptune chuckle.

"For those of you who don't know, my name is Himmel," He continued. "In case you can't tell by the wrinkles, I invented the art of not dying and then I perfected it. I'll be passing on some of that knowledge to you kids this year, because as of now, you're students of Haven, which means you're the future defenders of Mankind. We'll be making sure you're up to the task however we can, so get ready, because class starts tomorrow. Before that, though, here's a free lesson. I said you passed by not dying, because as Hunters, that's what winning means. When you win, people survive. Sometimes you, sometimes someone else, but either way, that's how you measure success. We're here to save lives and we start giving you what you need to save yours, so pay attention and try to learn something. As Hunters, we have a lot of weapons to help us do our jobs, including the literal ones you've got by your side. But those swords and guns are nothing without hands willing to wield them, without us. Never forget that you are Hunters, the greatest warriors on this goddamn planet—that you're here and willing to fight. Remember why that is and never forget it."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in before looking around and smiling.

"And never forget that you aren't here alone. Whatever your pasts, whatever your reasons, whoever you are, you're here today and that's what matters. You're here to fight despite the danger and you stand shoulder to shoulder with people willing to do the same. To that end, I'm here to tell you who you'll be fighting with for the next few years."

Screens appeared, some of them revealing crowds in more comfortable circumstances—our upperclassmen and the teachers. Others, however, showed our faces.

"Jaune Arc, Adam Knossos, Mercury Black, and Emerald Sustrai," He began and letters appeared to form the word JAME. "From this day forward, you will serve as members of…"

JAME, I thought, eyes widening. The way it was spelled, the way it was pronounced, it was almost as if it were spelling—

"Team Jasmine!" He pronounced.

…What?

It could have been worse, I decided shortly afterwards. After the initial surprise wore off, I decided the name was more amusing than anything else; it's not like it affected anything, after all, nor did it make us any less powerful. I'm sure someone would make fun of it eventually, but frankly, I didn't actually care what anyone thought of it or me. Hell, for years I'd gone to bed wearing a bunny onesie my sisters had given me, and I'd only stopped wearing it because I'd stopped going to bed.

Adam, who'd woken up for the announcement, seemed only marginally more annoyed.

"How did he get Jasmine out of that instead of Jam?" He asked me in a low murmur, to which I could only shrug. To the other side of me, Emerald seemed vaguely pleased by the name, while Mercury just looked at the screen for a moment and then rolled his eyes.

Himmel, for his part, simply continued blithely on. A few minutes later, Ulaan, Kyanos, Melania, and Itri were named team UAMI, pronounced 'Ultramarine.' Sun's team arguably got off the best with team 'Sun', though there were some confused murmurs in the audience at the pronunciation of SSSN. Personally, I assumed that whoever was in charge of making names out of a bunch of random initials either had a lot of fun or hated his job; either way, I suspected we'd all laugh about it later.

The team leaders had been Ulaan, Sun, and I, with only the former seeming to come as a surprise to me, but I suppose I could see what they were aiming for. For the short time I'd known him, Ulaan had always come off as rather quiet, but perhaps the fact that he was withdrawn was for the best; Kyanos had a tendency to charge into the fray and Melania had a tendency to follow him in there. While Kyanos was undoubtedly the most friendly and outgoing of the team, in the role of leader someone more cautious was likely needed. And of Ulaan and Itri, the former seemed like the one best able to tie the team together.

Sun, on the other hand, was nowhere near as cautious as Ulaan—but then, his team was focused differently. If UAMI was a team that revolved around the synergy between its members powers to set an opponent up and bring them down, then SSSN revolved around the synergy between its members as people. Sun seemed to be good at making friends and his Semblance, as well as those of his teammates, was broad enough to fill a variety of roles; what mattered most was that every member of the team worked together well.

By comparison, team JAME was something of a mess, made of pieces that simply hadn't fit anywhere else. I wasn't surprised by the fact that I'd been made leader—whether at my grandmother's wish or as a result of the fact that I'd finished first, it had probably been inevitable. It was probably for the best, I supposed; if I'd been put in a subordinate position, I'd likely have been a pain to deal with, simply because what the hell was anyone going to tell me that I didn't already know? Odds were I'd notice something was wrong long before anyone else and walk off to deal with it to save myself the hassle of listening to someone try and tell me what to do.

On the other hand, I doubted anyone on our team was all that good in a subordinate position, except maybe Adam. Emerald and Mercury's loyalties were already spoken for, after all, and if my interests conflicted with Cinder's, I had no questions as to who they'd chose. They'd probably obey until that happened but the fact remained that the only one I could really rely on to do their job was Adam, who at least had some experience working as part of a team, even if he was also used to operating alone. Well, but I guess I couldn't really talk, since Adam and I weren't exactly loyal to the team, either. I expected all of us intended to abandon this charade as soon as it was convenient.

It almost made me want to sigh; day one and team JAME was already a mess, even if we didn't look that way on the surface. I suppose we made up for any flaws with our overwhelming power, but if there was anything team JAME had proven in this exam, it was that we didn't actually need to be in a team; we could all get by, if to varying extents, on our own—because that was what we'd always done, when it really counted.

I wondered if that was a bit sad.

While all of the team stuff was going on, though, I focused the rest of my attention on the audience. Far above us, within Haven proper, the upperclassmen were gathered to watch the proceedings. Sometimes, when a team would go up onto the stage, a few students would react excitedly—presumably family members or old friends. Other times, when the teams were named, a few students would laugh or boo, no doubt remembering their own times on that stage.

But there was only one reaction I was interested in and it was Cinder's. Since I'd first spotted her, I'd made sure to keep track of her with my senses, so even from this distance it had been easy to pick her out of a crowd. At the announcement of our team—of Emerald and Mercury's team, in her eyes—I felt a flash of mixed emotion from her; curiosity, concern, and a touch of interest. I assumed she recognized me in some fashion, though whether as the boy who'd battled Pyrrha Nikos to a draw or as the grandson of Jeanne Roma, I wasn't sure. The reaction didn't seem large enough to make me think she recognized me from any of my other suits, which was what I'd been the most interested in.

Assuming she was a Rider, what did it mean that she didn't know who I was? It didn't necessarily mean anything, I supposed, as Conquest had needed my father's memories to realize why he had been woken up. His creator hadn't gotten involved until the very end, after I'd destroyed Conquest, which implied…what? That he wasn't able to command them directly like he could other Grimm? That he had some reason not to get involved so directly? The truth was, I didn't have enough information to do anything but speculate.

But…could it perhaps have something to do with souls? That's what this seemed to keep coming back to—my soul, the shape of souls, battles in the soul, on and on. It would be a lie to say I understood any of it, much less to the extent that my enemies seemed to, but…if I thought about it logically, perhaps it made some sense? A lot of Semblances have a hard time directly affecting anything protected by someone's Aura. I knew that the creator of the Grimm had a soul, if one that had seemed extremely strange; could he have the same weakness?

That might be a bit too much to assume from one data point. I'd never met the guy in person, after all, never experienced his power first hand. But maybe that was part of it, too; whatever he was doing, he was projecting his power over a distance, potentially an enormous distance. I had no idea where he even was, in fact, but he'd never tried to walk up to me and speak to me face to face. He always worked through pawns and proxies, which could be an indicator of arrogance…but somehow, I suspected it had more to do with inability. For whatever reason, he couldn't involve himself directly.

Besides having a difficult time getting past the Aura of another, most Semblances and Aura-based techniques shared a few other similarities, if you could call them that. Really, it was just basic logic; it's more difficult to affect something that's far away, it gets more difficult to maintain effects as their duration increases, it's harder to affect a large number of things than a small number of things, etc. If he is somewhere that makes it difficult to involve himself directly, it must be hard to affect things, for those reasons—and if something like a person's Aura makes it harder, it might be outright impossible, unless something else makes it easier.

Had I done that somehow, when I'd destroyed the Conquest within my father? Had my attempt to destroy the connection to its source somehow opened a pathway in?

It was possible and therefore worth investigating. If it was true and I could figure out why and how, that might lead me to the answer I was looking for.

But then, why would he create soldiers he couldn't directly communicate with? Certainly, Conquest had seemed utterly loyal, but he hadn't really struck me as the type to rely on that alone. And personally, if I were constructing nightmarish super-soldiers designed to oppose all life, I'd probably layer my precautions and countermeasures, just in case. Even from wherever he was, he could influence and command the Grimm, if only in small numbers. Why would he design the Riders if he couldn't do the same to them?

Perhaps he hadn't. Just because he was unable to get involved now didn't mean that had always been the case; Conquest had implied something now kept the most powerful Grimm from running rampant—perhaps something was holding back their master as well. Or perhaps it was the fact that their master and source was being held back that was holding them back. Maybe when he'd been allowed to run free, he could have done more.

There was no way of knowing for sure, but I felt like I might have been on the right track. There were holes in the theory, things I still didn't know for sure, but…even just from our single meeting, I felt pretty confident that he wasn't one for fairness. If he was able to just waltz out and wreck our shit, I felt fairly certain he would be doing so. Something had to be holding him back.

Something I'd done, perhaps? In my past life?

I mulled over the thought for a moment and decided it was possible. He definitely wanted me for something and from the way he'd been leaving me alive, it seemed probable that it was something he couldn't get anywhere else. And whatever it was, he seemed to be working pretty hard to get it.

But that's the thing about freedom, isn't it? Anyone who doesn't have it, wants it.

Assuming I'm right about any of this, of course. I like to think of myself as fairly smart and wise, but coming to correct answers with incomplete information is always tricky. Something can seem perfectly logical and make complete sense and still be utterly wrong because there's something you don't know—and I could admit I didn't know jack.

For instance, if I was right and he was trapped and I was somehow the key to setting him free, there was a major issue with his plan—namely, I had no idea how the fuck to set him free, and if I did, I would never fucking do it.

But then, that had been exactly what Conquest had said, hadn't it? That they'd needed to lead me along, because I wouldn't go along with it if I knew. So…maybe I was on the right track, but if so, they must have known I'd figure this out eventually. By default, riddles favored the solver, because however long it takes you to think one up, the solver can puzzle over it until he figures out the right answer. Conquest had been in my dad's head, so he'd have known I favored Intelligence and Wisdom. He must have also known that as I got stronger, I'd continue to invest in them. So why give me something I could figure out?

There must be more to it. I'd considered that the Mask quest might be related to the creator of the Grimm and maybe I was right. But if that was the case, all I'd have to do was avoid killing at least a few types of Grimm or just not collect their masks and he'd be fucked. And if that was the case, why not just send legions of Grimm to attack me until I'd killed one of every type? Hell, they could just die on my blade and that would count, right?

I was missing something.

Far above me, Cinder stood from her chair and left as the proceedings began to draw to a close. Odds were good that she'd speak to Emerald and Mercury soon, to give them orders on how to act around Adam and I, and perhaps to give them further orders now that they were in. Given that, perhaps something good had come from ending up on a team with them after all.

Because who knows. I was in school, now—maybe I'd learn something.