Monitors lined the curved walls, each flashing with mission grids, while projectors floated hazard markers above the central platform. The air itself seemed to vibrate with energy — the combined pressure of dozens of Awakened operatives gathering in one place.
Jaune stood near the back of the main hall, leaning against a pillar as Ruby chattered beside him.
"I haven't seen these many operatives in the same room for a long time." Ruby exclaimed, gesturing animatedly with her hands. "Must be something big about to happen again."
Jaune half-listened, adjusting the strap of his sidearm. His Rune frame's faint, white accents caught the glow of the lights, and the circuits along his arms seemed to flicker in sync with his heartbeat.
Across from them, Yang was unusually quiet. She stood with her arms folded and golden hair tied up higher than usual. Her amber eyes weren't on the projection. They were on him.
Jaune pretended not to notice, but he could feel the weight of her gaze — that faint furrow between her brows, as if she was trying to read something off him.
He didn't meet her eyes.
Ren and Nora arrived next, slipping through the crowd. Nora waved enthusiastically the moment she spotted them and Ren followed behind her boundless enthusiasm.
"Jaune! Ruby! Yang! Oh — and Oscar!"
Oscar looked up from his holo-pad, blinking as if he hadn't realized someone was talking to him. There was a nervous excitement in his eyes — the kind that came from standing at the threshold of your first real major operation.
Today was the day.
Their team's first entry togetherinto a Nightmare Zone.
Jaune exhaled slowly, taking in the scene around them. The operations floor was packed — dozens of operatives, first-years and veterans alike, arranged by team designations. Holo-screens displayed mission assignments and danger levels. The rotating city map above them flickered with crimson blotches — each one marking a Nightmare still festering within Vale's Dream sector.
The tension was palpable, electric.
"Are you excited Jaune?" Ruby asked, curiosity brimming in her gait. "The culmination of your efforts will finally be put to the test!"
"Yeah!" Nora grinned. "Let's smash some grimm and look cool doing it!"
Ren sighed, though his lips twitched in the faintest of smiles.
Jaune caught sight of a familiar head of red hair across the room — Pyrrha, and next to her, Mocha. She stood with her teammate, adjusting her gauntlets and listening to the idle chatter Mocha was filling her in. When she noticed Jaune looking, she offered a small polite nod.
He returned it.
Cardin's squad wasn't far either, lined up near the eastern terminals. Cardin looked as confident as ever, but Jaune had noticed that even he had the stiff posture of someone masking nerves.
Beyond them stood the real veterans — the second and third-years. Some of them were already full-fledged Rank-1 operatives with Rune comprehension under their belts. Their presence radiated quiet confidence.
One group in particular drew the eye.
A tall, muscular Mistralian man leaned casually against a console, the hilt of a LUCID-tech greatsword protruding over his shoulder. His presence was steady but vast, like a mountain at rest. His name was Yatsuhashi.
Next to him stood a slimmer man of Vacuo descent, skin dark and eyes milky white — Fox. The color wasn't natural; Jaune remembered someone saying it was due to the passive side-effect of his Rune. Nobody seemed to know what skill that Rune granted, but rumors said it allowed him to "see" motion in perfect insightful clarity. His gauntlets were lined with claw extensions, faintly humming with power.
In front of them, two girls stood side by side.
The first had long chocolate-brown hair that seemed soft under the overhead light. Her face was delicate, her expression bright but focused. She was Velvet, and she carried no visible weapon — a sign that her Rune was probably a weapon creation type. That alone made Jaune more curious. Weapon Runes were a rare category to make. Notoriously rare, maybe, but brutally effective in combat.
That masked man who had tried to kill Jaune back in Ansel, months ago also had a weapon-type rune. His was... extremely strong. As evident to Raymond's death.
Beside her stood the other — Coco — short-haired, stylish, and intimidating despite her size. A pair of special visors hung on her neck, and across her armored back rested what could only be described as a hybrid monster of a weapon: a futuristic minigun fused with a blade. The kind of thing that shouldn't exist outside of concept art.
Jaune couldn't help but stare. That thing looked heavier than he was.
Ren followed his gaze and smirked faintly. "Interesting weapon eh?"
"Yeah. I'm wondering how she even lifts that," Jaune murmured back.
"With style," Ruby whispered beside him, almost in awe. "That's Coco Adel. She and Velvet are part of a rank 1 team — one of the top Rank-1 squads at LUCID."
Jaune's attention drifted upward as the murmuring in the hall quieted.
On the raised platform at the center of the room stood professor Goodwitch. She wore the standard LUCID rune frame — white and black with the emblem glimmering faintly on the front plate. Beside her stood another woman, elegant, with dark brown hair tied into a bun and sharp, amber eyes.
Counselor Vex.
The moment she stepped forward, the entire room seemed to focus.
Her voice carried clearly through the chamber.
"Operatives," Vex began. "Today marks the first coordinated large-scale purge since the formation of the Vale's LUCID branch. Multiple Nightmare zones have been destabilizing the Dream sector for days now. While many of the smaller ones were removed, the larger few still remain. I needn't speak about what will happen if it isn't. All of you remember the incident that occurred in Vale a few days prior. In any case, your objective is to enter and cleanse those spaces by the end of the night."
Dozens of holo-screens lit up, showing red-shaded maps of the Dream city — all broken, fragmented, and crawling with darkness.
Vex continued, "Remember: the Dream is not kind." Her tone sharpened. "Complacency kills."
The words landed heavy. Even the veterans didn't look entirely calm.
Goodwitch took the floor then, her expression as stern as ever. "Your mission assignments will be distributed now. All of your Rank-1 squads, this time, will pair with Rank-2 operative leaders to provide oversight. You will not be acting alone."
A ripple of murmurs ran through the crowd.
Jaune glanced at Ruby, who was fidgeting with her cloak. Yang still hadn't said much either, though her expression softened slightly when she noticed his look.
Finally, Goodwitch's gaze swept over their row. "Squad 32 — Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Oscar Pine."
Jaune's heart gave a slow, steady thump.
"You are assigned to Zone 8-A which has a massive Nightmare zone for you to clear. You will coordinate with squad 29, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long.
Ruby's eyes widened. "We're paired together? And we get a Rank 2 to lead us? Kind of cool."
"Looks like it," Yang said, her first words of the day. Her tone was casual, but there was a glint behind her eyes — the same evaluating look she'd given Jaune earlier.
Nora pumped a fist. "Let's gooo! Power hour team!"
Ren only sighed. "Please don't call it that."
.
.
The doors to the operations building slid open again, letting in a gust of cool, air from the corridor beyond. Conversations dimmed. The hum of LUCID servers and monitors filled the silence as several figures entered, their presence immediately commanding attention.
Even before Jaune recognized faces, he could tell by the faint presence they were exuding — the distinctive glow of power that was standard for higher ranks. It was the kind of strength that could anchor an entire team within the chaos of the Dream realm.
He spotted familiar ones first — Professor Oobleck, his black frame was painted with an emerald accent. His broad-shoulders appeared even more broader in a rune frame.
Finally, his eyes drifted to the tall woman with snow-white hair tied back into a neat braid. She moved with practiced precision, eyes scanning the crowd with a commander's efficiency before settling on Weiss.
Jaune had seen her once before before the incident had occurred in the restaurant at Vale.
"Winter?" Weiss asked, slightly shocked, the name leaving her like a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
Her sister's stern features softened — barely. "Weiss. Keep your squad sharp today." A faint smile, gone almost as quickly as it appeared. "Don't let emotions cloud your performance."
Weiss exhaled through her nose, muttering something under her breath that Jaune couldn't catch.
Soon after, the atmosphere thickened again as Goodwitch's voice cut through the noise.
"Squad 32 and 29, you will be designated as temporary squad 6. You will be briefed momentarily when your assigned leader will arrives. Until then—familiarize yourselves with the intel packet for Zone 8-A."
Jaune's team gathered near a console station. Digital holograms of Zone 8-A flickered before them — a dense sprawl of collapsing skyscrapers buried in a black misty haze. There were five mapped sectors, each marked with density readings of black matter and recorded Amalgamations.
Ruby leaned close to the hologram, chin propped on her hands. "Creepy."
Ren scanned the display quietly. "A massive nightmare zone. It definitely holds a Rank 2 Amalgamation inside. If that one spawned in the waking world... it would have been... problematic."
Jaune's stomach knotted slightly. He remembered the news reports — explosions, fire, civilians evacuated. "A terrorist attack," the headlines had said. But that wasn't the truth.
He knew that too well.
They didn't have long to dwell on it. Once the other squads were called out by their leaders and filtered from the hall, only one group remained — them.
The sound of heavy boots on metal drew their attention to the entrance.
The man who walked in was impossible to mistake. His Rune frame was matte black, slashed with streaks of crimson light. Across his back, a greatsword was slung diagonally — single-edged, long enough to cleave through a car.
Perched lazily on his shoulder was a black raven, its feathers trailing faint wisps of red static.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby's voice broke the quiet immediately, lighting up as she bounded forward.
"You're our leader?!"
Yang's lips tugged into a grin. "Guess they were desperate."
Qrow Branwen rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck as he approached. "Yeah, yeah. Don't get too excited, kid. It's a one-time babysitting job." He gave Yang a sidelong glance. "And you—try not to punch through another building this time."
Yang shrugged, smiling innocently. "No promises."
Jaune couldn't help but notice the subtle twitch of Qrow's fingers near his waist, like muscle memory reaching for something that wasn't there. The man frowned.
"Damn shame," he muttered, voice low enough that only Jaune caught it. "Wish alcohol worked in this place."
Jaune blinked, half amused, half concerned. It confirmed what he'd already suspected, from his previous times of interaction. The man was a habitual drinker—even if he couldn't here.
It was a funny thought to think about. Alcohol wasn't supposed to work on body stats as high as Rank 2's. He would have had to chug bottles of Ethanol to actually get slightly drunk.
The teams assembled quickly after that. Qrow gave them a single glance, already switching to business.
"Listen up," he said, tone sharper now. "You've all been assigned to Zone 8-A — central district. Main objective's culling and secondary is to see if there are any abnormalities. You Rank 1s will handle the rank 1 grimm, while I deal with the core Amalgamation. If for some reason you encounter something you can't kill?" His gaze swept across them. "You call it out and pull back. Don't try to play hero."
Ruby nodded. "Got it!"
Jaune noticed that Yang didn't say anything — just gave a slow, focused nod. There was something guarded about her lately, the same tension that had been there since Jaune was ordered to keep silent about the details—the details of what had happened that night, when she and Qrow found him passed out in his living room.
They moved out soon after, their boots clanging against the metallic walkways that led deeper into the complex.
From the upper levels of the operations building, the rest of the Rank 2s were already departing.
Jaune followed closely behind Ruby and Ren as they left the from the entrance.
The group then traversed the landscape with a jog. Well, jog for them. To an unawakened this group would have been moving faster than cars.
When they arrived, the sight that greeted Jaune was anything but horrifying.
The skyline before him was warped, with twisted towers curving like melted metal. Rusted out cars that had black matter crawling over it and the street, stood out like beacons in this destroy landscape. And ahead, the atmosphere was thick with black-red mist, coiling lazily like smoke.
He took a slow breath. "Zone 8-A…"
"Welcome to the real frontlines of the dream," Qrow said, stepping through behind them. His voice was steady, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes — recognition, maybe. "Stay sharp. Nightmare zones aren't patient with tourists."
He clenched his fists, staring into the haze where red lights flickered like dying stars. Jaune was here to clean up the aftermath of his own family's sin.
"Let's move," Qrow said.
And they did.
.
.
AN: Cool responses. I'd personally pick Werewolf I think. Van Helsing werewolves were just too good.
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