Short chapter, wounds reopened.

Pardon my grammar.

Chapter 9:

It's been reported that Vale has suffered a notable rate of violence in the following months after Roman Torchwick's disappearance. The infamous thief was essentially a wildcard in the criminal world, wreaking havoc on every single crime group that got too powerful, and wealthy.

Garnered too many cash and illegal goods? Roman is there to take it and cripple whatever foot soldiers the gangs employ.

"Where are we hitting today?" One of the three, casual-looking men asked his leader.

"Mr. Sangue's honeycomb."

"Think we'll be able to take a shot?"

"The boys gave us a chance, we're taking it."

Unbeknownst to them, someone was tailing them in the darkness.

The figure in the dark paused as his targets started laughing at a joke, then he made his move. Blurring behind them, he drew his revolver and collapsible sword drawn with both hands. Sharp cracking gunshots echoed through the dark corners of Vale's river docks.

Underneath the shining shattered moonlight, three bodies fell onto the solid ground, unmoving. A lone figure stood above the bodies, his dark blue combat uniform pales in the moonlight.

A figure who is known as Mors.

"That's the last of them. Maybe."

/-/

"Mors!" A well-dressed man known as Mr. Sangue was clapping his hands while strolling towards Jaune. "How is my favorite contractor doing? I've heard of your predicament with Little Miss Malachite and her Spiders." The man patted Jaune's arms in an assuring manner. "Do not fear that backwatered woman. If you need a place to call sanctuary, I will welcome you with open arms! None of her associates will dare come after you here."

Jove Sangue is a large man with slick back, gray silky hair and wine-colored eyes. Upfront, he may seem outgoing, boisterous, and jovial. But Jaune knows better than being too comfortable with the crime lord. Outside of his friends, associates, and inner circle, his enemies call him the Bloody Man for a good reason.

"You're too kind, Mr. Sangue." Jaune politely shook hands with the giant man. "But your praises are good enough for me. I am capable of handling whatever the Spiders throws my way."

Mr. Sangue's grin widened. "Ha! You flatter me! Come! Take a seat!" He waved Jaune towards a red soft chair, laced with gold frames. "You remember Arancione don't you?"

He motioned towards his personal bodyguard and enforcer, who stood in a corner menacingly.

Arancione is a tall stature man with pale orange cropped hair. He has five wicked clawed scars running horizontally across his face, most likely from an Ursa Major. Dressed in dull clothes, Arancione is decked out with metal armor that pairs well with his utility lantern shield and heavy rapier.

"Hard to forget someone as tough as Arancione."

"It's hard to forget someone who has a 15 to 30 million lien bounty as well." Arancione uncrumpled a Spiders' wanted poster and looked at it with disinterest. "Did you grievously insult Jacques Schnee? Perhaps the entirety of a kingdom's body council to get this sort of bounty?"

"Now, now. Let's not go into such personal matters after our dear amico just got back." The crime lord clasped his hand, happily looking at Jaune. " He's done many great favors and got rid of those pests for us."

Those pests mentioned are Mr. Sangue's rival competitors out to chip away his influence in Vale, and there were a lot of them creeping out during nighttime.

"Yes, sir."

"Now it's all in the past! Terribly sorry about that." Mr. Sangue apologized for his subordinate's behavior. "Arancione was always a curious fellow. Now then! Let's get down to business, yes?"

It was time for Jaune to do some contract negotiation. The contract in question is mostly metaphorical since somethings on their 'contract' is better off unlisted.

"My payment for today's commission?"

Cleaning up the streets of Mr. Sangue's enemies is easy compared to most commission Jaune takes, but it's a huge pain in the ass to do when Vale has eight criminal syndicates vying for power. He doesn't know who's who anymore, and there are some dangerous people mixed in among the ranks of their hired goons.

"Would you like your payment in liens or gold?" He slid a gold bar wrapped in silk cloth and a similarly wrapped stack of lien. "A little bit of both?"

"A little bit of both." A bit of lien and gold is always good. Especially gold, since its always in high demand. Jaune could always sell it to jewelers for a decent price.

"Excellent." Mr. Sangue produced a red stiletto out of thin air and tossed the gold bar into the air. A flash of red cleanly cut the gold bar in perfect twos, falling into the crime lord's palm. He then swiped his hand across the stack of lien, taking a decent chunk off. "Here you go, my amico."

He slid a cubic gold bar and liens to Jaune.

"Thank you." Jaune took it off the smooth wood glossed table.

"No, no. Thank you." He emphasized the 'you' part. "Your payment aside, I assume you already received the key my men gave to Junior, yes?"

"Yes. Received it and collected my rewards."

Mr. Sangue rapped his table rhythmically. "Wonderful. Onto real business. I understand that Junior has already provided you a good amount of commissions to go over, yes?"

"He did, but it's not much. Most of them were already taken, or not up to my standards."

"How unfortunate." Mr. Sangue ceased smiling, putting on his considerate and thoughtful look. "I suppose you're still not interested in my offer for a position among my establishment?"

"As much as I would love to join your establishment, I am free-spirited at the end of the day. I must refuse, no offense."

A polite way of saying that Jaune doesn't want to be deeply rooted or tied into a criminal syndicate, successful they may be. Criminal dealings go beyond just murder, and Jaune wants no part in that. Well, the people he often killed were at least, the types no one would miss. Other than that, Jaune wants nothing to do with extortion, trafficking, and all the typical things organized crime do.

"None taken, amico. If you're looking for work outside my people's capacity, I just might have something for you." Several papers and photographs were fanned out on the table. "My captains just so happened to have some troubling news. One of our despicable competitors happens to run a trafficking ring to finance their little enterprise."

Jaune's eyes angrily narrowed behind his military-grade goggles. "Tell me more."

Mr. Sangue, being the cunning and crafty crime lord knew that he has Mors hooked in for this commission. Why did Mors choose to work with him instead of the other criminal enterprises in Vale? Quite simple really.

Out of all criminal syndicates in Vale, his establishment doesn't do human trafficking along with a few other unpleasant dealings. Jove Sangue, the Bloody Man that he is known, is one of the lesser evils. His rivals may scoff and mock him for the supposed loss of revenue in exchange for having a bit more morals, but his access to those like Mors proves otherwise.

"One of our spies reported that a large shipment containing forced manual laborers is coming to Vale in a week or so. From the report, it is confirmed that they are used as free labor for the Dust mines. All of them desperate males, mainly faunus, who were tricked into this dangerous work."

"I'm assuming that the SDC is buying Dust off your competitors at the expense of these laborers?"

With the current state of the Schnee Dust Company, it's not that hard to piece the picture together. Having the monopoly business working or financing a rival organized crime is also not something Mr. Sangue can overlook as well.

"There's no solid proof of the SDC involvement, but I don't believe any of us would be surprised if they were. Yes?"

"No, we wouldn't." Jaune sat back, gathering his thoughts on this matter. After several seconds of consideration, he turned to Mr. Sangue. "I will help you break this trafficking ring, but I won't be needing your assistance from your establishment. I have my own contacts."

Mr. Sangue gave Mors a knowing smile. The crime lord won't have to get his hands dirty on this one. All part of his plans. Regardless of the outcome, his competitors will be putting the crosshair on Mors and his contacts instead of his establishment. "If all goes well, I promise that you and your contacts will be rewarded like kings."

He put his hands out, and Mors took it. Shaking on the arrangement.

"Deal."

/-/

"You know he played you into doing his dirty work." Adam berated Jaune through his scroll for his supposed spur of the moment the blond boy is known for. "Is the information even accurate? How do we know it's not a trap?"

"First off, Adam. I knew what Mr. Sangue was doing, thank you very much. Second, the man may be a criminal with a lot of blood on his hand, but he has a very good reason to break up this trafficking ring. Having the SDC financially backing one of his rivals is dangerous to his establishment, so the information is most likely correct and not faked. Third, are we going to ignore the fact that we have enslaved faunus and humans illegally being shipped to Vale? Especially the faunus?"

Adam gave him a flat look, despite hiding behind his mask. "And if this is a trap?"

"I'll be going in first to make sure it's not."

"…"

He was hesitating on whether or not to go along to Jaune's plan. Their priority was to retake the splinter cell of Vale's White Fang branch but saving faunus is one of the White Fang's top goals. Plus, they've yet to fully gauged the splinter cell's capability should Adam and his White Fang try to retake it. Heck, he doesn't even know if the rogue White Fang group would welcome him or attack him on sight.

Most importantly, he was afraid of Cinder being there. If she was, then their takeback operation would become much more dangerous. Fatal is the keyword.

"It'll be good PR for the White Fang. Freeing people from a criminal trafficking ring, humans and faunus."

"We're already considered terrorists." The White Fang is now known only for its violent movement. Even a good portion of faunus don't like the White Fang. Those who do look at them in a positive light are those mostly from heavily discriminated areas. "A little bit of good PR won't do us much favor." Even if they do some 'good' for the people, it still won't change the general view towards them. "But you're right, I can't ignore this."

"Don't forget that we'll be screwing with the SDC since they're the ones paying the traffickers for the Dust." Jaune hammered home just by mentioning a chance to take a crack shot at the SDC. Mr. Sangue isn't the only one who can pull one's moral strings. "But I don't think we can find any evidence to tie them in."

Adam suddenly looked more invested. "They'll get away anyway because of those damn council members and the SDC's lawyers." He drew his sword, letting the red blade glimmer in the light. "But anything to screw with the SDC is fine with me. Got a plan?"

/-/

Cinder calmly drank her warm tea while flipping through the newsfeed. She and her two underlings, Emerald and Mercury were situated in Haven's Headmaster office.

"So, the Mistral council has decided to accept Atlas Military aid."

After the amount of mayhem caused by Piker and his crew. Fear and tension were at an all times high in Mistral, attracting Grimm to the main city and neighboring ones. Despite all of this, the Creatures of Grimm were unable to make it far due to the mountainous terrains Mistral was built on. But it was enough to make the citizens of Mistral worry, and thus, bringing an endless cycle of Grimm migration.

Seeing this, Atlas has offered to send in military fleets to help deal with the influx of Grimm and quell the uneasy citizens of Mistral. It was put to the vote, and while the citizens still have faith in their huntsmen and defense force, they would feel safer with Atlas military aiding them.

Thrice have Mistral been wracked with mayhems. First, it was Greenley's and his paramilitary crew, then two unknown assailants, then Piker and his band of criminals.

All of a sudden, having a foreign military presence to keep the order didn't seem so bad.

"Yes. I've convinced the other council members to support the new measure." Leonardo Lionheart, Haven Academy's Headmaster was standing in front of his own desk, while Cinder sat in his chair.

It was ironic.

Cinder is listed as a student at Haven, yet she's sitting in the headmaster's chair. Meanwhile, the headmaster himself was standing in front of the desk like a troubled student.

"Good. That should give our allies in Mantle to make their moves."

With a decent portion of Atlas military fleet away from Atlas and Mantle, the insurgents will be able to proclaim their emergences and inflict devastating attacks against Atlas military presences and SDC mines in Mantle.

In all honesty, this whole insurgency thing was stupid to Cinder. It was detrimental to Mantle and Atlas, but even more so to Mantle itself. Not that she really cares about it. Dr. Watts's little insurgency will help Cinder in her goals, and that's all that matters.

"Are we using the virus against Atlas hardware here? In Mistral?" Mercury was laying on the couch with his feet rested on the armrest.

Leonardo looked guilty at the prospect of Mistral becoming a slaughtering ground for hacked military androids and Grimm, but it was either them or his life.

"No, we'll be holding our cards for now." Cinder still wishes to use Watts's virus in Vale once the Vytal Festival starts. "But it would be a waste not to install it on the CCT here." They have easy access to the CCT network in Mistral, and Leonardo can easily handwave any restriction. "Do see to it, Leonardo."

"Y-yes. Of course." Leonardo meekly bowed. "And as for Mors… I was… I was able to get a match."

Cinder and her underlings' curiosity were pique about the bounty hunter known as Mors.

"Do tell." Cinder purred.

"Several match and records were from the Mistral's Special Response Team database." Leonardo shakily displayed the records he had taken onto the screen. A young man with bright blond hair and blue eyes popped up, staring back at them. "He's listed as Jaune Arc. Twice he appeared in this database with the most recent one concerning a run-in with those two mercenaries your colleague hired."

Cinder snorted at that. Arthur Watts is no colleague of hers. "A confirmation of Mors's identity. Continue dear Leonardo."

"It's… It's unknown if the name he provided is an alias, but this young lad doesn't show up in any database outside of this one. No records."

"Interesting.?"

"And there are several people, who have Arc as a surname."

Mercury smirked. "Using his family to blackmail? This should be good."

"Not so fast, we don't know if that is his true name." Cinder cautioned. "He could have taken up the name Arc and set those with that surname as bait."

It was a far cry, but Cinder was not taking any chances. Twice had Mors screwed her over, and she was not going jump the slope until she was absolutely sure she Mors was down there.

"Then what should we do?" Emerald asked. "Do we ask them if they know someone named Jaune Arc or something?"

"I'll think of something, but we should remain cautious for now. Leonardo, pull up all the names that have Arc as a surname."

"O-of course."

"What about Lil' Miss Malachite?"

Cinder sneered at the mentioning of the plump lady. "I don't trust her with this sort of information. She double deals with all her clients when it benefits her. We're not giving her anything as of now, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Now let's see how our operations in Vale is going."

Pardon my grammar.

Mr. Sangue you magnificent bastard.

And damn it Jaune...