A Man of Honor.

Prologue: O Brother, where art thou?

Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without police protection is both. It is as cowardly to betray an offender to justice, even though his offences be against yourself, as it is not to avenge an injury by violence. It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself ~ The code of Omertà.

Vale: Three months after the Battle for Beacon.

Saphron Cotta-Arc stared out the window of her hotel room at the glittering lights of Vale highlighted with an orange sunset sky. It was almost difficult to believe that a month ago this was a city under siege. Here and there, however, she had seen the signs of the battle as she traversed the city. Buildings damaged by Grimm or explosives set by the White Fang terrorists, fires that had left homes piles of ash or blackened concrete facades, and piles of rubble left over to be picked up and disposed of.

Though thankfully, it could have been worse. Much, much worse. It was one thing everyone seemed to agree on. Every bit of information going around about the attack was vague at best or at worst, highly suspicious. The Vale Council had been laying the victory on the well coordinated efforts of the police and military, but everyone was casting doubt on the official story. The truth of how a potentially cataclysmic attack was avoided was in truth irrelevant to her- she had come here for different reasons.

She looked down at her Scroll and opened it to see a pair of bright blue eyes and a goofy grin staring up at her. Jaune. She had been showing anyone and everyone this picture of him hoping that someone could lead her to him. So far, she had no luck whatsoever.

Moving past the image she pulled up her contact list and selected her home number. It rang three times before it clicked and she heard her wife's voice greet her. "Hey, Saph."

"Hey, honey," she sighed, feeling relaxed just hearing her voice over the line.

"I'm guessing you didn't have any luck again today, huh?" Terra asked her.

"No," Saphron said, her mood immediately dimming again. "Honestly, I don't know WHERE to look anymore! Beacon's in ruins and the new Headmistress hasn't exactly been forthcoming. Downright cold was more like it. I KNOW Jaune managed to enroll and pass initiation, but she says they have no record of a Jaune Arc even attending."

"I don't mean to upset you, hon, but, well, Jaune WAS the one that told you about passing initiation," Terra said. "He could easily have lied."

Saphron, unseen by her wife, shook her head. "I don't think he would have lied about that," shs stated. "Besides, I have no doubt that he at least went throught initiation. Even if he'd failed, you'd think they would have some record of him."

"I suppose you have a point," Terra conceded. She then paused for a second before asking her carefully, "Did you... Did you recheck the casualty list again?"

"I did," she answered with a sigh. "And there was still nothing. Honestly, I don't know if that's a good thing or not." The growing list of dead had been the hardest to check. Thankfully her brother's name had yet to appear. Unfortunately, that meant little as every day, more and more corpses were recovered and identified. She had checked with the morgues but that too had been fruitless. The idea of her brother dead and unidentified, or worse, buried under some pile of rubble somewhere and rotting chilled her to the bone.

Saffron rubbed her eyes as if her exhaustion could be cured so easily. "I wanna come home," she said. "I don't know what else to do or where else to look. It was bad enough not hearing a word from Jaune before all of this, but after all this... I don't know what I'm going to tell Mom and Dad."