The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Private Channel

"We're home!" I said as we walked into the house, groceries in tow. The house door was open, leaving me to briefly worry about how Gou might have reacted—but no, I could sense him and he seemed fine. He'd have recognized my Grandmother, if nothing else.

"Jaune," Olivia appeared in the doorway to the living room, long golden hair falling down to the back of her green dress in neat ringlets. My youngest sister smiled at me, the expression coming easily to her face as she approached. Looking me over, she took a deep breath and lifted her voice. "Violet, Grandmother! The others are back and they brought groceries!"

The Queen of the Open Spaces Above the World

LV 88

Olivia Arc

"So we should move as slowly as possible to avoid doing work? Good to know," An easy sounding voice answered from upstairs. My second oldest sister smiled lazily as she came to the railing above us, leaning over to rest her forearms on it. Her hair was styled so that it hung to the right side and covered an eye, showing off the gleaming stud of an earring on her left in the process. She was wearing a shirt just a few shades off of Indigo's, but she wore what seemed like an armored jacket over it. Metal plates were affixed to the cloth of her pants as well, guarding her shins and thighs.

The Chains That Bind the Earth and Sky

LV 91

Violet Arc

"Violet," Bianca looked up at her calmly, making the younger girl roll her eyes.

"Bianca," She answered with a slight whine in her voice, but she was smiling teasingly as she spoke. "You obviously have it under control if you lugged all that stuff here. I still have to get everything in my room set up."

Bianca sighed.

"Indigo, go," She pronounced as a single word, now so timeworn that no one even reacted to it. Indigo slipped down into her shadow, dropping bags as she did, and the unattached shade slipped neatly up the walls to appear behind Violet. Indigo reemerged and put her hands on her older sister's shoulders.

"Come on, V," Indigo said. "Let's go help put things away."

Violet turned without missing a beat and jumped up, forcing Indigo to quickly move her arms to catch her.

"Only if you carry me down," She replied, hugging Indigo's head closer. I saw Indigo roll her eyes but start walking towards the stairs, making Bianca sigh behind me.

"You'll only encourage her, Indigo," Bianca said disapprovingly.

"Yeah," Shani agreed. "And if you're going to do that, there are better ways to do it. Drop her down the friendship stairs!"

Olivia and I, the youngest pair, turned and glanced at each other, silent words passing between us. As one, we nodded and began carrying stuff into the kitchen, making productive use of our time.

"Shani…" Bianca sighed again before shaking her head and focusing back on Violet. "You realize that if you just helped, we'd be done in seconds."

"Of course," She nodded. "I could do it, but that doesn't mean I want to. You seem to have this weird thing where you mistake an absence of work for a desire to do work."

"Violet…"

"Bianca…"

Bianca closed her eyes again, took a deep breath, and turned towards the kitchen.

"Fine," She said, sounding annoyed. "Just laze around doing nothing, then."

"Sounds good," Violet replied as I came back to get more bags. As Bianca and Shani brushed into the kitchen, Violet smirked and gave me a thumbs up before speaking in a sagely tone. "Word from the wise—if you're completely worthless whenever someone asks you to do something you don't want to do, you get a lot more free time."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said, smiling back, leaning down to pick up what Indigo had dropped.

"Really, though, do you need any help with that?" Indigo said, nodding at the bags I carried.

"Nah, I'm good," I answered honestly. "It's light as a feather to me. I was originally going to go shopping alone before any of you showed up, but Bianca and Shani got in early. I'm surprised you guys got here so fast, though."

"Grandma wanted us to make it here as fast as possible, so we cleared the skies," She said, lifting a hand to brush her hair to the side. As she did, she revealed her right eye, the iris a bright and gleaming purple in contrast to the blue on the side, with jets of the color spiking out into the sclera. She must have used her Semblance quite a bit on the way over.

"Well, whatever the case, I'm glad you're here, Violet," I told her, meeting her gaze evenly. "I was in Mistral not too long ago, but I didn't know you were around."

"Yeah; sucks, doesn't it?" She shook her head. "Indy and I were on a mission at the time, but I'd have been quicker about it if I knew you were around. I saw your fight after I got back, though! Not gonna lie, I dug the fire giant."

"Thanks; I thought it was pretty cool, too," I smiled at the praise. "I was actually gonna compete in the tournament, but some stuff came up and I just didn't feel like it. Well, it probably would have been kind of boring after fighting Pyrrha, anyway."

"Why bother with a competition when you can just challenge the champ, right?" She nodded. "Not much point in spending days on the fishies after you wrestle with a shark. I heard from Grandma that you introduced yourself to the other families?"

"Yeah; we fought each other and now we're friends," I considered that for a moment before looking down at her. "Is that normal for us?"

"More or less," She shrugged. "I fought some of their parents, actually. They're older than me, but I gave them the Ultraviolet Surprise!"

I chuckled at that but a voice interrupted me before we could continue.

"Jaune," My grandmother greeted, appearing at the top of the stairs as she clipped her scroll to her belt. "My apologies; I was in the middle of a call. I heard Olivia call?"

"Hello, Grandmother," I answered, looking up at her and shrugging. "It was just the usual. Let put these in the kitchen real quick, okay?"

Not waiting for a reply, I took the bags to where Olivia was busy putting everything away and silently helped her, leaving a few cans on the counter for when I'd make supper. The sausage, ham, chicken, and turkey mostly went into the freezer, but I put some of it in the refrigerator for later, alongside the small mountain of lunch meat, yogurts, milk, water, and pretty much every other consumable we'd been able to find. For the first time in years, the massive fridge we had upstairs approached something like capacity, but I knew from experience that it wouldn't last. If I didn't need to make another shopping trip by midweek, I'd be surprised.

"Thank you for all the hard work, Jaune," Olivia smiled at me as we filled a small shelf with condiments. "So, how have you been? I mean, beyond, you know—"

"Yeah," I nodded before she could begin stumbling over her words. "I've been pretty good. I heard you'll be working at Haven soon?"

She beamed at that, smiling lighting up her face and her green eyes.

"Yup!" She said, shifting so I could put a few jars of jelly into the fridge. "I was going to head up north and work with Azure for a while, but a position opened up unexpectedly. I sent my resume in and, well, they accepted! I mean, I'd always wanted to become a teacher, but the competition is so fierce, that they'd pick me— I couldn't believe it!"

"You'll be the youngest professor Haven's ever had, right?" I asked, making her nod happily.

"I was going to try up at Atlas, originally," She admitted. "There's a general up there who's also a Headmaster and he works closely with Azure's department. I was going to work there for a few years and then ask him if I could be a teacher's assistant or something, but I never expected to make professor so early."

"I'm glad you did," I answered, bumping her shoulder as I reached past her. "I'm sure you'll be a great teacher."

She bumped me back.

"Stop that," She said, even as she beamed. "If my ego gets any bigger, I'll float away like a balloon again."

I chuckled at that memory and nodded at her.

"So, what about you?" She asked. "I saw your fight in Mistral and saw you in the news when we landed. You're a healer now, right? Given any thought to the future, yet?"

Only what seemed like all the time, I thought.

"A little bit," I said aloud, even as my mind turned towards the varied horrors I'd discovered over the recent months, so many of whom just seemed to be lying in wait for the right time to strike. "Actually, I was going to speak to Grandmother about it when I had a chance."

"Oh, then don't let me keep you," She replied, taking a jar from my hand as I reached past her. "Off you go, then."

"You don't mind?" I asked, drawing my hand back with a raised eyebrow. My other sisters, despite the argument they'd had about carrying things to the kitchen, had promptly made themselves scarce the moment that was done, so it was just the two of us for the moment.

"Not at all," She nudged me in the direction of the stairs. "We can always catch up more later; it's best not to leave these things be."

I inclined my head towards her and walked back towards the stairs, awareness expanding through the house. Shani, Indigo, and Violet had moved into the living room to watch TV or play games, Bianca had gone up to her room to finish unpacking, Olivia was putting stuff away—

Now was as good a time as any.

"Grandmother," I greeted again, seeing her still waiting at the top of the stairs, watching me scale them quickly. "Can I speak to you for a minute?"

"Of course, Jaune," She said in a relaxed tone. "Shall we talk in private?"

I nodded and followed her, already shutting down the air around us, ensuring sound would not escape.

"So," She began the moment she closed the door of the study she's apparently commandeered upstairs. "What is this really about, Jaune?"

I knew what she meant and didn't waste time beating around the bush.

"On our mission, we encountered a Pandora Shell," I said seriously. "And Crom Cruach blew it open amidst the fighting."

My grandmother stopped, somehow freezing in place even though she hadn't been moving. Her eyes focused on me, emotions playing freely across it before she focused it back under control—and even then, the storm continued beneath the surface. I felt shock, terror, realization, dread, and something like a pit of acceptance. She bowed her head, opened her mouth the speak, and cut herself off before she even began, turning her head away from me and closing her eyes.

For a long moment, she was silent—restrained, really—but at last she let loose a slow sigh.

"So," She said, making herself sound calm and composed as she turned my way. "This is going to be one of those conversations, is it?"

I assumed that by 'one of those conversations,' she meant the ones were I told her stuff that completely altered her understanding of the world. Which, in fairness, I did sometimes. To be even more fair, this probably was going to be 'one of those conversations,' so I nodded.

"Yeah," I answered. "You might want to sit down for this one, because it's going to be a doozy. Is there anything you want to say before we get into this? Because it's going to be a long story."

She took my advice, claiming my mother's chair for her own.

"I wanted to speak to you about what has been happening in Mistral, but suddenly I think you should go first." She muttered, knowing she didn't need to raise her voice for me to hear. "Start from the beginning, if you don't mind."

I nodded once in acceptance.

"Dad and I went on a mission," I said. "It was supposed to be a relatively basic mission to deal with a threat to a town before it got out of control. I was along as a way to get experience and build a reputation for myself—Dad's idea with Ozpin's approval. Officially, I went along as a healer and tended to the wounded. After that, however, I looked around and found out how the Grimm got into the town itself; there was a massive set of tunnels beneath the ground with several passages leading to the surface—"

"Tunnels?" Grandmother interrupted, furrowing her eyebrows. "Natural or artificial?"

"There wasn't really time to check," I shook my head. "But given what we found later, I'd bet they were artificial—though how long they'd been there, I can't say. And yes, the thought of more tunnels being dug beneath our feet has occurred to me; I formed a contract with an Earth Elemental and have been on the lookout since. I haven't noticed anything in Vale yet, except for the abandoned subway systems that let out to Mountain Glenn. Still…"

"It's something to be wary of," She nodded firmly, eyes shifting to the side as if looking at an imaginary checklist. "We'll need to make arrangements for you to confirm the safety of other locations, too."

"Yeah," I agreed. "But Grandmother, with Crom Cruach around, I can't be sure how much it matters. I'm confident I'll notice if anything happens beneath me, but he moved so fast that the minute I'm gone, I can't guarantee anything."

That gave her pause again and she tilted her head to the side.

"How fast?" She asked.

"Fast," I said. "He came up under me and a geokinetic named Onyx before either of us could really do anything. I wasn't expecting it and I didn't have the White Tiger active and most of the senses I could track Grimm with didn't work on things with hundreds of meters of earth between me and them—but he literally came up under our feet before we knew what was going on. I'd definitely peg him as being able to move underground faster than most Hunters can run. Maybe even faster than some airships can fly. With the tunnels he can leave behind, he could open a path for entire army's right beneath our feet without most people knowing."

"Well," She replied after a moment of silence. "That's…problematic. I dare say exterminating the beast needs to be something of a priority, but…"

"Easier said than done," I agreed. "But I put him on the list of things that need to die as soon as physically possible, don't worry. The good news is, there's some evidence that they can't act freely, but I'll get into that later. In the meantime, I'd seriously recommend investing in seismographs.

Though what any of us would be able to do if they picked up on something, God only knows.

"I'll work on creating countermeasures," I continued. "With an Earth Elemental, I might eventually be able to take the fight to him, but I can't say how long it'll take until that's a feasible—much less winnable—strategy. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Once I relayed things to my father, he went down to scope out the tunnels with Onyx. Those of us up top called in reinforcements—Mom's team—and prepared for a fight. But the moment Mom's team showed up, the Grimm reacted, as if they'd been waiting for it. Even ignoring what happened later on, that town was definitely a trap arranged by the Grimm for us Hunters; the attacks were just to provoke a response of some kind. Soon as we walked into it, all of the Grimm rushed to the surface."

I blew out a breath and pursed my lips.

"The sad part is, that's only when things began to go wrong. We held off the first few waves easily enough, turning the opening into a death trap, but as soon as things seemed to be turning our way, Crom Cruach shattered my barriers and turned the narrow gap into a full-on breach before slinking away. We kept fighting to stop the flood and when we managed to hold our ground, a Deathstalker crawled out of the ground carrying Pandora Shells on its back. We tried to secure it but Crom Cruach blew them wide open with some sort of beam cannon and everything went to hell."

"Jack," She whispered. "Is that what happened to him?"

"Yeah," I answered the same way, closing my eyes briefly. "He was taken, along with three other Hunters and a local. Mom grabbed me, turned the ground to lava, and sank us both into it before freezing the air solid above us to protect us both from the infection, but she almost died in the process; two members of Mom's team and Onyx escaped using their own means, as well, though not without costs of their own. Onyx had to tear off a leg, the other two escaped to another dimension of some kind, and…well, any attempt to really stop the Grimm at that point was pretty doomed. They swept right past us into the village and started tearing up the place. By the time I recovered from the burning and freezing and managed to secure an area enough to heal Mom, the situation was pretty bleak. And then the virus inside of Dad spoke to me."

I felt my grandmother react to that, a flash of confusion and then dawning understanding actually making it to her face.

"You mean—"

"I mean the virus," I nodded, predicting the question. "I know what the records say and they're wrong—it's sapient and it calls itself Conquest. When he gets inside people, he traps their minds deep inside, assumes control of the bodies, and then adjusts them as he sees fit. The reports of infected acting strangely and of the sickness driving them crazy? It's all a lie and a joke; he's in control the entire time."

"You're…" My grandmother's voice faltered and she hesitated, looking down at her hands. "You're sure? It wasn't just…it couldn't have actually been a case of the sickness turning your father against you? Or anything else?"

"I'm certain," I said firmly. "I dove into my father's soul to confront it directly and found my father trapped there in the process."

Grandmother opened her mouth at that, eyebrows rising and then furrowing even as her lips pulled upwards, but while she seemed to be trying to decide where to even begin, I kept talking.

"Once I'd confirmed that there was an intelligent Grimm present, I tried to learn what I could from him. He didn't give much away, but I managed to find out a few things during the whole thing; I'll get to that in a bit. Still, he's…Conquest is a huge asshole, but he's smart and a lot of the time he saw through my attempts, but there was one thing he confirmed. The Grimm want me for something—something they need me to do. All the weird stuff that's happened so far, from Ziz to the Goliath, it was arranged for that purpose. Maybe not just that purpose, but they went out of their way to keep me alive or make me stronger. I still don't know why, but I know that much for certain, because…Grandmother, I met the person responsible for it all. The one who created the Grimm."

Her mouth ceased trying to form words and simply dropped open, leaving her staring at me wide-eyed.

"What?"

"I met their creator," I repeated. "After I left Mom, I rushed into the town to learn everything I could about the disease and try to find a cure. I had to kill the other three infected Hunters in the process, but I returned with the power I gained from fighting them and faced my father again. I…well, that whole fight was a mess, but I managed to win and used the power I'd gain to force my way into my father's mind or soul or whatever. I freed him from the prison Conquest had made and together we faced him down and defeated them—but in destroying at least that part of him, we must have drawn the attention of his maker. We tried to fight him, but in the end we couldn't win, so we spoke one last time, my father ordered me to retreat, and…I did. And then I killed him, when He took over."

"Jaune," She whispered, tone strained. "That's…this is…"

"Hard to believe?" I answered. "I can prove it, if you want. I can show you the power I gain in Naraka or dive into your soul. I had Ozpin on my scroll the whole time and Mom was there if you want to ask her. You know about my power, about the Gamer's Mind. I'm telling the truth."

"I know," She replied. "If it was anyone else, I'd think they were lying or mad, but I know better when it comes to you. It's not that, it's just…This is all…"

I nodded quietly, giving her a moment before continuing.

"Yeah," I said. "It's a lot to take in even though I left out a lot. If you want, I'll try to show you everything I can later, but…should I tell you what I've learned thus far?"

"Why not?" She said, gesturing tiredly, and I began at once.

"Conquest infects the body and somehow uses that to seize control of the Aura. He confirmed our suspicions about Babel and claimed to have been responsible for their downfall—and honestly, I believe him. When I tried to save us from the Shell with Naraka, he shattered it and claimed he'd done it before, hunting down those who made the technique. He also displayed a great deal of knowledge about Aura, citing those he'd infected in the past as the cause. When I examined the infected and the mutations they experienced, I noticed that they seemed to create matter out of nothing, but because of the absurd amounts of power that would require, I came up with an alternative theory—that they, and even we, might instead be drawing from an external and possibly extradimensional source of matter and energy. When I spoke to Conquest about this theory, I managed to make him mention something called 'Malkuth Theory,' which might lend it some weight. I also managed to get confirmation on a notable set of Babel ruins I'll tell you off later and he implied that they, the strongest Grimm, were significantly more active in the past, implying that something was now holding them back, internally or externally."

I took a deep breath then, working my jaw for a moment as I considered my words carefully.

"Also, when we summoned his creator, he addressed me as 'old friend,'" I said at last. "Though his tone makes me severely doubt the friendship aspect of that, I do believe that he at least thought we had a history together and under the circumstances, I believe it might imply reincarnation in some form. Having given it some thought, it may actually explain some things, such as how my Semblance awakened before my Aura did, so…it's something I'm keeping in mind. At the very least, my power seems to be leading me in a direction I am not consciously aware of."

"Of course," She murmured, bowing her head and pinching the bridge of her nose. She was silent for a long, long moment, taking deep, slow breaths before at last looking back up at me. "Anything else?"

"Quite a bit, I'm afraid," I answered, looking her over carefully for the twelfth time even as I considered my options yet again. It had its risks but…no, I needed to stay focused here—and she was one of the few people I thought I could tell. Even so, I watched her carefully, monitoring everything from her physical body to her Aura to her emotional state, waiting to see how she'd react. Unlike Ozpin, I didn't have anything directly linking my Grandmother to the Grimm—I'd hardly read her biography, but there was nothing obvious to be suspicious of. Furthermore, she'd long since expressed her opinion of Ozpin and though they were peers, they hardly seemed to be friends.

If Ozpin was a Rider and if he could pass that infection onto others, I could assume Atlas had long since fallen; the connection between Ozpin and Ironwood wasn't a hard one to make, and from there, the Riders could do as they wished with both Kingdoms. But Mistral, in the distrustful hands of the Families, might—might—yet be safe. And if it wasn't, if he'd gotten even there, even to my grandmother and, if so, likely my sisters…best to find out now.

As it was, though, she was the closest I had to a safe test subject.

"Conquest was considered to be the 'White Rider,' a type of…Grimm Knight that, I believe, were designed to invade the bodies of living humans in pursuit of whatever their goal is," I said at last. "And there are more—I know of at least one for certain and I have suspicions of others. And if any of those suspicions are correct, I believe we may be in a great deal of trouble."

I watched her closely, paying attention to how she reacted to the news. She didn't know about my Empathy and so it was that which I paid the most attention to. She was afraid, of course—who wouldn't be in this situation? I knew she was smart enough to understand the implications, to realize what having an enemy like this meant. Creatures that could invade bodies, pretend to be just like us, steal the knowledge from our very minds. It was a security nightmare if there ever was one, something horrifying to even consider.

But more than that, the worst case scenarios must have been creeping in, worming their ways into her mind. Politicians, Hunters, Leaders, the most powerful people in the world potentially working against it. Beneath her fear, something harder emerged, something careful and considering. It didn't erase that fear, if anything it added to it, but it was something cold enough to work through such things. Understanding mixed with resolve and the fear never made it to her face.

"Who?" She asked, lifting her head to meet my eyes. "Who is it?"

"I can't be sure of anything yet," I admitted. "All of the evidence is circumstantial and currently impossible to verify. Under the circumstances, there remains a chance that it's just the paranoia taking its toll. But…the biggest suspect right now is Ozpin."