The Grimm Prince (RWBY)

In the end, he decides to stay put. He wasn’t here to interfere. At least, that wasn’t his intention. He had only come out here to observe. That was all Glynda had asked of him, really. He was to observe and figure out where to go from there. So far though, all he’d discovered was that the humans were more prone to jumping to conclusions and tribalism then even he’d believed at first glance.

Heh… ‘the humans’. How quickly he forsook his own humanity. Jaune shakes his head, a rueful smile on his lips. No, it wasn’t that he was turning his back on his humanity. It was more that he was so far removed from his previous life that it didn’t feel as relevant anymore. He was the Grimm Prince, and mate to Salem, the Queen of the Grimm. He was ostensibly in charge, but he’d never asked for that. Leadership had been thrust upon him, and he’d done his best with it all the same.

Soon after the heartbeats of Pyrrha and her soldiers leave the range of Jaune’s enhanced hearing, the sounds of panic and fear start to turn, off in the distance. The sounds of fighting grow much more pronounced, and from the angry shouts and yells, as well as the sounds of gunfire, Jaune can tell that the Lieutenant and her platoon have engaged these bandits in battle.

He considers whether they’ll carry the day or not. Honestly, Pyrrha and her soldiers hadn’t seemed all that… trained. Almost as if they’d been run through a fast-paced boot camp and then thrown out into battle without much more than a ‘Good luck!’. Jaune wasn’t sure where that belief came from though. It wasn’t like he himself had military training.

However, what he did have was millions of memories on the other side of things. His Grimm half was made up of millions of different Grimm who had lived… and died over who knew how long of a period of time. And given what Grimm were, for them to die in the first place, required combat. So yes, Jaune knew the difference between a combat-capable human and one who wasn’t combat capable. He knew the difference between a Hunter and a Civilian. He knew the difference between a soldier and a shopkeeper.

Pyrrha was a warrior, that much Jaune could tell just from looking at her. But was she a soldier? More than that, was she a leader? Going over everything he’d seen of the Lieutenant and her platoon so far since they’d arrived in the village, Jaune would have to say no. Not yet, anyways. Maybe given some time… but time was a luxury that not everyone got to have.

The fighting happening on one side of the village sounds quite pitched, but given that it’s still going on, Jaune doesn’t think Pyrrha and her soldiers are winning by a landslide or anything like that. And more than that, as he sits there still tied to the chair, unmoving, he hears something from the other side of the village, approaching the villa. Dozens of quiet footsteps, several fast-paced beating hearts…

Whatever the Lieutenant and her wet-behind-the-ears platoon are fighting, it’s nowhere near the full strength of their opponents. Jaune knows this, because a considerable part of the bandits seems to have come around the other side of the village and are invading from the opposite direction. 

He has a moment to consider what he wants to do, as he hears them entering the villa. They’ll enter this room in a second. He could escape. He could prepare to fight back. But… part of him wants to see what happens next. So why not, right? He slumps back in the chair, feigning unconsciousness once more, and waits. He doesn’t have to wait long before the door is throne open.

“… Well, well. What do we have here?”

“What’d you find, lemme see… the fuck? Who’s that? Why’s he tied up?”

“I don’t have all the answers, Vernal. I’m not sure why you think I would. But obviously he’s a prisoner of some sort.”

“Oi, don’t take that tone with me, Shay. Don’t forget, Raven put ME in charge of this prong of the assault. You better fucking remember that.”

“Yes, yes. Of course. So, fearless leader… what do you want to do?”

There’s a beat of silence, as Jaune considers what he’s just learned. It’s too bad that his human appearance has some limitations to it, or he would have happily formed a bruise that showed how he’d been knocked out. As is, his body is much too pristine, and these bandits, whoever they are, are smart enough to recognize that. The one he’s tagged as ‘Vernal’ slowly creeps forward, until she’s right next to him.

Then, she grabs him by the hair and yanks back, HARD.

“WAKE UP!”

Jaune, of course, does what a human probably would do in his situation. Wakes up and starts yelling.

“AHH! AHH! AH!”

As he does so, he’s able to whip his head around in Vernal’s grip enough that he can at least get eyes on the two bandits. Vernal, as it turns out, is a tanned young woman with short brown hair and icy blue eyes. She’s got on a light brown vest over a high-collared torn white shirt that’s been unbuttoned enough to show the black of the bra she’s wearing, and on top of that, has a collar of all things around her neck. Quite the fashion statement from this feisty little bandit, Jaune absently notes.

Shay, meanwhile, who has stayed back near the door of the room and is now palming his face at Vernal’s actions, is a skinny man with flowing dirty blond locks and gray eyes. He’s wearing a dark blue jacket over a long-sleeved shirt, and a red bandana around his neck. He looks, quite frankly, a bit like he should be serenading some lass in a bar somewhere, rather than raiding a town with a bunch of bandits.

But hey, who is Jaune to judge?

SMACK!

“Shut up!”

Allowing Vernal’s slap to turn his head with the force of the blow, Jaune briefly considers feigning being knocked out again, just to fuck with them, but ultimately decides that would just mean more physical abuse. And while neither Pyrrha nor Vernal’s hits have actually hurt all that much, it’s still annoying. And so, he goes quiet, giving Vernal a wide-eyed and fearful stare that masks what he’s truly feeling as she glares down at him angrily.

“Who are you?! What are you dying tied up in here?!”

“I’m… I’m Jaune Arc! I just came into t-town and… and the soldiers dragged me out of my bed this morning! They said I was a spy! They were interrogating me when the bandits attacked. Wait! Y-You’re the bandits!”

Damn he was good. But then to be fair, Jaune had lots of experience with blubbering. Millions of memories of dying to Hunters came with millions of memories of the last moments of people who had no business facing down Grimm in the first place. Wasn’t something he was proud of, but it definitely gave him some serious acting chops.

Although… while Vernal just glares at him contemptuously for a moment, Shay’s eyes narrow, the male bandit frowning slightly as he cocks his head to the side. Jaune doesn’t meet his eyes, but he does note how… assessing they are. 

“Tch, pathetic. A spy? What for?”

“Vernal… c’mon, don’t you listen to rumors? Mistral is about to go to war. Why do you THINK there’d be a spy here?”

Still holding him by the hair, Vernal yanks him a bit as she whirls around to scoff at Shay.

“Of course I know about the war, don’t treat me like I’m stupid! But still… Shion is a fucking dump. Why would anyone spy on this place?”

Shay just shrugs his shoulders helplessly as if to say ‘who knows?’. But that look in his eye every time he glances at Jaune… that makes Jaune wonder exactly what the pretty boy is thinking. 

“Right, well… ugh, useless! Bring him along. We’ll toss him with the others.”

Yanking him out of the chair, she pushes Jaune into Shay’s arms as she stomps past the other bandit and out of the room. Making her way down the hall, Vernal snarls and shouts.

“Anyone found the bitch elder’s secret stash yet? Her cash has to be here somewhere! If I find out one of you idiots is trying to hide it from me, I’ll fucking kill you!”

For a moment, Jaune and Shay make eye contact. Jaune is careful to continue presenting as a frightened young man way in over his head, and after a moment Shay just grunts and yanks him along, pulling him out of the villa and into the village proper.

The situation, once they reach the site of battle, is pretty bad. Jaune had gotten distracted by Vernal and Shay’s whole… byplay, so he hadn’t noticed until he was being frog marched over that the sounds of fighting had died down… a LOT. Indeed, by the time they reach the center of the village, it’s already pretty much over… and the bandits have very clearly won. Or rather, are in the process of winning.

“You’ve got some skill with that spear, child. But not enough to beat me. Surrender.”

Lieutenant Pyrrha Nikos, panting heavily and holding her weapon aloft, looks like she’s seen better days. The red head’s uniform is torn in multiple places, while the woman she’s facing across from is very nearly untouched. Long black hair combined with a fearsome, full-face mask that resembles a Grimm with its four eye slits and altogether inhuman appearance. On top of that, she’s got a red and black wrap, a black pleated skirt, and a red sash around her waist alongside a red tasset that carries her weapon’s sheathe.

With her arms crossed over her chest, one might not even think that the masked bandit leader HAD been fighting. But as Pyrrha lets out a ragged shout and lunges forward, her opponent acts with ease, dodging to the side and burying a gauntleted fist in Pyrrha’s stomach that doubles her over and sends her to the ground, hacking and wheezing for air.

Behind Pyrrha are the villagers of Shion, being protected by the Mistralian soldiers who all look pale and afraid and largely in over their heads. There’s certainly blood in some places, but to Jaune’s surprise, not nearly as much as he would have expected. Injuries… but no obvious corpses from a cursory glance around. The bandits have surrounded the entire area, but for some reason have yet to kill anyone…

That masked face turns to regard him and Shay in the momentary lull that comes from Pyrrha being sent to her knees by the punch. Cocking her head to the side, the raven-haired woman grunts as she notes the ropes dangling from Jaune’s wrists and ankles.

“Who’s this one then?”

“A prisoner the soldiers had tied up in the villa, ma’am! Says they thought he was a spy. Squad Leader Vernal told me to put him with the others.”

Shay certainly sounds a LOT more respectful to this new woman than he did to Vernal, which in Jaune’s eyes, combined with everything else, makes it abundantly clear that she’s in charge. For a long moment, that masked face stares at him. Then, Pyrrha shifts and begins getting back to her feet, and the moment is broken as the bandit leader shrugs.

“If he is a spy, he’s not with us. Put him with the others.”

Pyrrha’s head whips around at that, eyes widening as she ends up meeting Jaune’s gaze. In that moment, he can see clear as day that the dear Lieutenant thought him to be a spy for the bandits. Somehow, she’d known they were coming, one hundred percent. Now though, with the confirmation that he wasn’t connected to them in any way… oh, that was some serious guilt she was feeling now.

Meanwhile, Jaune found himself being pushed towards the encirclement of Mistralian soldiers and the villagers they were supposedly protecting. It was abundantly clear now that they weren’t so much having a valiant last stand, as they’d been deemed captured and ‘not a threat’ to the extent that the bandits hadn’t even bothered removing the weapons from the privates’ hands. Instead, they’d left them all armed and were just keeping them penned in, uncaring of their ability to fight back when it was so obvious they were too afraid to make the first move.

For a moment, Jaune is afraid too. Not of being hurt by bandits or soldiers, but of having to reveal some of his true nature as he’s pushed towards the soldiers and villagers. If they decide to attack him… but no, they let him through. Alister still gives him a glare as he yanks him back behind their ‘defensive line’ and into the mass of helpless, unarmed villagers that they’re ‘protecting’.

To Jaune, that implies a very real disconnect between the Lieutenant and her soldiers. Pyrrha hadn’t wanted to believe the worst of him at first, but once she asked around, she’d easily gotten the idea that he was a spy for the bandits she somehow had intel on and knew were operating in the area. Meanwhile, her soldiers hadn’t trusted him from the very beginning, but because they didn’t know anything about any bandits, they’d believed him to be a spy from outside of the Kingdom of Mistral.

Obviously, they still believed that. But they were willing to put that aside for now, in the face of the bandit threat.

Though, it didn’t really matter for much longer. A cry splits the air and draws every eye in the area over to Pyrrha Nikos, as she’s pinned to the ground with her own spear through her shoulder. Her aura broken, the red head’s face is a grimace of pain as the masked bandit leader plants a boot on her chest and looks around, specifically at the corralled soldiers and villagers.

“Your strongest fighter lays beaten at my feet. I am Raven Branwen, of the Branwen Tribe, and you… all of you, are now my prisoners. Lay down your weapons and surrender and you will not be harmed. Persist in irritating me, and I will not be so merciful.”

There’s a rustle from the soldiers around him and the villagers, as they all look like someone has just walked over their graves. Indeed, the hope has drained from their faces at the sight of Pyrrha, so helpless and weak.

Cocking her head to the side, the masked woman, now named as Raven Branwen, lets out a dark, mocking chuckle.

“Unless another of you wants to try your luck against me? But I will warn you… this one only lives because she fought well. If you cannot impress me, you have no place in picking a fight with me. Choose wisely.”

Jaune knows what choice they’re all going to make before they make it. Given how they worship the ground Nikos walks upon, it’s obvious none of them think they’re better than her.

Meanwhile… he’s waited and seen what happened before acting. Now, here he is, surrounded by bandits, with Pyrrha downed and her soldiers about to be forced into surrender. So far, the Branwen Tribe has been surprisingly accommodating. Barely even killed anyone. It’s clear they’re trying to take as many prisoners as possible, for some reason.

Does he want to find out more? Or is it time to step in and do something about… all of this? Jaune won’t deny it, this is so much more interesting than the last little while here in the sleepy village of Shion has been. He COULD remain a bystander for a little while longer, and see where all of this led…