History Fanfic / InTheKingdomsService

-->'''[[spoiler: Vanguard:''' Designation 1409. Codename: Vanguard.Initiate Winchester Protocol. Time: Three seconds.]]\\
[[spoiler: '''Jaune/Rat:''' C-Cardin]]?\\
'[[spoiler: ''Vanguard:''' Good luck, Jaune. For the Kingdom of Vale.]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:Vanguard's HeroicSacrifice also reveals his identity.
-->'''Vanguard:''' Designation 1409. Codename: Vanguard.Initiate Winchester Protocol. Time: Three seconds.\\
'''Jaune/Rat:''' C-Cardin]]?\\
'''Vanguard:''' Good luck, Jaune. For the Kingdom of Vale.]]

* WhamLine: Vanguard's HeroicSacrifice also reveals his identity.
-->'''Vanguard:''' Designation 1409. Codename: Vanguard. [[spoiler:Initiate Winchester Protocol]]. Time: Three seconds.\\
'''Jaune/Rat:''' [[spoiler:C-Cardin]]?\\
'''Vanguard:''' Good luck, Jaune. For the Kingdom of Vale.

In this story for your eyes only, Jaune has the living daylights scared out of him when his fake transcripts result in him getting recruited by Vale's Secret Service, a spectre organization dedicated to protecting the quantum of solace the populace enjoys. As Jaune comes to terms with the fact that he can never say never again, the forces of Salem and the White Fang has set their golden eye on the secrets Ozpin keeps hidden, with a view to a kill and for them, the world is not enough. With no time to die, Jaune must prove himself and work with the VSS if Remnant is live and die another day.

---

* BadBoss: Alpha proves to be this for the VSS. He is perfectly willing to kill his own agents when they are no longer of any use to him, or to keep them from revealing anything that could expose the VSS. All he really cares about is staying in power, no matter how many of his people have to be sacrificed for it.

* {{Foil}}: Oobleck and Alpha are both directors in the Vale Secret Service, but are complete opposites in every other way. Oobleck is AFatherToHisMen who knowingly gives up potential intel to kill the one responsible for one of his agents' deaths, while Alpha callously has anyone who might have shaky loyalty tortured until they either break or die. Oobleck intends to return the stolen Paladin to Atlas after having a look at the insides, but otherwise keeps everything above board. Alpha has an Atlas agent kidnapped and tortured for first the Paladin's location, then information on its specs. [[spoiler:Finally, Oobleck is a WellIntentionedExtremist who genuinely wants to help protect Vale and its citizens, but hates the DirtyBusiness he has to engage in to do so and ultimately makes a HeroicSacrifice to save the city. By contrast, Alpha is a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who only cares about staying in power, and outright says he'd let tens of thousands die to protect himself. The most obvious contrast shows in their opinions on the Mount Glenn incident: Oobleck considers it a tragedy and confesses that [[ItsPersonal Roman]] is right to want him dead for the deaths he caused that day; Alpha doesn't care it happened, as the thousands of deaths solved Vale's overpopulation problem and it was only the destitute and desperate who died rather than "anyone who mattered"]].

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: The Vale Secret Service is a morally dubious group who do what they have to in order to protect Vale and its citizens, with Oobleck stating that they put it all on the line to protect them "because we love them". But [[spoiler:after Oobleck dies,]] it's revealed that only his faction has pure intentions; the rest (fellow director Alpha in particular) only care about staying in power. [[spoiler:Alpha kidnaps multiple agents, including one from another Kingdom's agency, to torture for information or to break them into being loyal to him. He even has Ruby kidnapped both as a trap for Jaune, and to harvest her silver eyes in the (correct) belief they would be a powerful weapon]].

%%* WellIntentionedExtremist: Oobleck.

%%* DirtyBusiness

* EmbarrassingNickname: Jaune is given the code name Rat as a VSS agent.

%%* FallenHero: Roman Torchwick.
%%* AFatherToHisMen: Bartholomew Oobleck.

* {{Foil}}: Oobleck and Alpha are both directors in the Vale Secret Service, but are complete opposites in every other way. Oobleck is AFatherToHisMen who knowingly gives up potential intel to kill the one responsible for one of his agents' deaths, while Alpha callously has anyone who might have shaky loyalty tortured until they either break or die. Oobleck intends to return the stolen Paladin to Atlas after having a look at the insides, but otherwise keeps everything above board. Alpha has an Atlas agent kidnapped and tortured for first the Paladin's location, then information on its specs. [[spoiler:Finally, Oobleck is a WellIntentionedExtremist who genuinely wants to help protect Vale and its citizens, but hates the DirtyBusiness he has to engage in to do so and ultimately makes a HeroicSacrifice to save the city. By contrast, Alpha is a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who only cares about staying in power, and outright says he'd let tens of thousands die to protect himself. The most obvious contrast shows in their opinions on the Mountain Glenn: Oobleck considers it a tragedy and confesses that [[ItsPersonal Roman]] is right to want him dead for the deaths he caused that day; Alpha doesn't care it happened, as the thousands of deaths solved Vale's overpopulation problem and it was only the destitute and desperate who died rather than "anyone who mattered"]].

%%* ItsPersonal: Roman's enmity with the VSS, Oobleck especially.

[[foldercontrol]]

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* AdaptationalBadass: Several characters. [[spoiler:Cardin, Ciel, Velvet, and Yang]] are all secret agents, while Oobleck is the director of Vale Secret Service. But the biggest change is Penny, [[spoiler:who is a weaponized Relic made to kill Maidens]].

** [[Spoiler:Vanguard/Cardin Winchester sacrifices his life to save Jaune from being killed by Mercury.]]
** [[spoiler:Winter Schnee sacrifices spoiler:her own life to ensure that Adam Taurus will never kill anyone again, taking the terrorist down with her.]]

** [[Spoiler: Vanguard/Cardin Winchester sacrifices his life to save Jaune from being killed by Mercury.]]

** [[Vanguard/Cardin Winchester sacrifices his life to save Jaune from being killed by Mercury.]]

** Vanguard/[[spoiler:Cardin Winchester]] sacrifices his life to save Jaune from being killed by Mercury.
** [[spoiler:Winter Schnee]] sacrifices her own life to ensure that Adam Taurus will never kill anyone again, taking the terrorist down with her.

* CombatPragmatist: All of the Vale Secret Service agents fight as brutally as possible, seeking only to kill or disable an enemy before moving on. As such they will use explosives, distractions, cheap shots, and gang up on targets when possible. Jaune has used his grappling hook vambraces multiple times against enemies, including shooting them point blank into Neo's shoulder. At one point, Jaune even uses a corpse as a decoy against Mercury and Emerald in order to get the drop on them. Vanguard[[spoiler:/Cardin]] softens up Neo for Jaune by blowing up their car, which she was currently standing on. In many of his fights, Jaune makes a point of fighting at extreme melee range because even martial artists tend to be unused to fighting someone too close to even punch. Jaune uses this same philosophy to explain why he can fight stronger, better trained enemies despite his cover identity being a small time criminal who failed to get into a huntsman school. Such as getting away from Blake and Ruby while sabotaging the CCT by first smashing computers to spread broken glass all over the floor (Ruby took off her heels to fight) then taking Blake hostage long enough to escape.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: [[spoiler: Cardin Winchester.]] He behaves like he usually does in ''[=RWBY=]'' fanfiction, but [[spoiler: his real identity is the agent Vanguard, who is the latest agent of the Winchester line in the [=VSS=]. Cardin is explicitly described as one of the most dedicated and heroic agents of the current generation, with his obnoxious/racist personality being just a cover to deflect suspicion from himself.]]

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Cardin Winchester. He behaves like he usually does in ''[=RWBY=]'' fanfiction, but [[spoiler: his real identity is the agent Vanguard, who is the latest agent of the Winchester line in the [=VSS=]. Cardin is explicitly described as one of the most dedicated and heroic agents of the current generation, with his obnoxious/racist personality being just a cover to deflect suspicion from himself.]]

%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: {{Inverted}} by Cardin.

%%* DeathByAdaptation

%%* AFatherToHisMen: Oobleck.

%%** Oobleck.

%%* ITsPersonal: Roman's enmity with the VSS, Oobleck especially.

%%* SuicideMission

%%* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Cardin Winchester.

** Blake spends some time wanting to figure out why Jaune is acting so suspiciously. Ever since learning he's an agent in the VSS and, despite her fears, wasn't investigating her at all, she's wished she had just minded her own business since now she has another secret to keep and this one might get her killed.

* BoringButPractical: Cinder compliments John White's (Jaune's cover identity's) preference for simply knives over fancier mecha shift weaponry, citing that they're concealable and basic enough that they're both easy to replace and hard to trace back to him. Likewise, both she and Roman would rather take on someone intelligent but with subpar power over someone strong but stupid, as not only are the latter more liable to screw up a job, but it's easier to make someone stronger than to make them smarter.
* CombatPragmatist: All of the Vale Secret Service agents fight as brutally as possible, seeking only to kill or disable an enemy before moving on. As such they will use explosives, distractions, cheap shots, and gang up on targets when possible. Jaune has used his grappling hook vambraces multiple times against enemies, including shooting them point blank into Neo's shoulder. At one point, Jaune even uses a corpse as a decoy against Mercury and Emerald in order to get the drop on them. Vanguard[[spoiler:/Cardin]] softened up Neo for Jaune by blowing up their car, which she was currently standing on. In many of his fights, Jaune makes a point of fighting at extreme melee range because even martial artists tend to be unused to fighting someone too close to even punch. Jaune uses this same philosophy to explain why he can fight stronger, better trained enemies despite his cover identity being a small time criminal who failed to get into a huntsman school. Such as getting away from Blake and Ruby while sabotaging the CCT by first smashing computers to spread broken glass all over the floor (Ruby took off her heels to fight) then taking Blake hostage long enough to escape.
* CorneredRattlesnake: After resigning the Vale Secret Service because he refused a SuicideMission (specifically to sacrifice himself and his team to stop the Breach), Jaune is hunted by the VSS because he could leak information about them to Ozpin or Cinder Fall, both of whom he'd been tasked with infiltrating. [[spoiler:When they kidnap Ruby, Jaune snaps and rats out their existence and location to Roman, Cinder, and Ozpin, causing all three factions to attack at once]].

* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent: Eventually, Jaune ends up as a student at Beacon who's secretly working for the Vale Secret Service, pretending to work for Cinder Fall, and working alongside Roman Torchwick to stop Cinder. Roman is one of only two people (alongside Blake) who knows all of Jaune's loyalties, real and fake, and is up front that he'll betray Jaune the moment their interests no longer align. [[spoiler:After Oobleck dies and a new director takes over the VSS, Jaune plays all three sides against one another, though once again, Roman knows he's doing it and simply doesn't care because it advances his agenda as well]].

* JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Near the end, Glynda insists Ozpin use Coco Adel to become the new Fall Maiden. Ozpin hesitates, citing that he's still not sure she'd be the ideal choice, but Glynda shuts him down because Beacon is currently under attack by those who want to steal the Fall Maiden's powers; there is no time to worry about finding the ideal choice. Ozpin reluctantly agrees with her, even after Glynda says that [[PragmaticHero if she can't get hold of Coco, she'll grab any female student she can find]]]].

* MistakenForBadass: Jaune. He gets kidnapped by the VSS, though for the opposite reason as in the author's other work ''Fanfic/ProfessorArc''. Namely, Jaune's transcripts are obviously fake to anyone who digs through them... yet Ozpin accepts him anyway. Combined with how bad frontier town records are, the VSS naturally become suspicious and pre-emptively spirits Jaune away for interrogation and/or disposal. Unlike most examples, they quickly figure out Jaune is just a stupid teenager due to one of their members having a Semblance that lets him know if someone is telling the truth. On the other hand, others like Blake start assuming Jaune is unusually competent after he easily tracks her in the Emerald Forest despite her best efforts to stay hidden (Jaune is wearing glasses with thermal imaging and can see someone up in the trees).

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: The Vale Secret Service is a morally dubious group who do what they have to in order to protect Vale and it's citizens, with Oobleck stating that they put it all on the line to protect them "because we love them". But [[spoiler:after Oobleck dies,]] it's revealed that only his faction had pure intentions; the rest (fellow director Alpha in particular) only care about staying in power. [[spoiler:Alpha kidnaps multiple agents, including one from another Kingdom's agency, to torture for information or to break them into being loyal to him. He even has Ruby kidnapped both as a trap for Jaune, and to harvest her eyes in the (correct) belief they would be a powerful weapon]].

* HeroicSacrifice: Vanguard/[[spoiler:Cardin Winchester]] sacrifices his life to save Jaune from being killed by Mercury.
* TheMenInBlack: The fact that the Kingdom of Vale has a ''Secret Service'' functions as this. As well as the Kingdom of Atlas.

* AlternateUniverseFic: Jaune faked his way into Beacon at the start of the school year as in canon, but his forged transcripts get noticed by [[TheMenInBlack Vale's Secret Service]]. Thus he enrolls in Beacon as a student while also operating as a secret agent to spy on Headmaster Ozpin.

* AlternateUniverseFic: Jaune faked his way into Beacon at the start of the school year as in canon, but his forged transcripts get noticed by [[TheMenInBlack Vale's Secret Service]]. Thus he enrolls in Beacon as a student while also operating as a secret agent.

Complete as of September 9, 2022.

* AlternateUniverseFic: Jaune fake his way into Beacon at the start of the school year, but his forged transcripts get noticed by [[TheMenInBlack Vale's Secret Service]]. The result? He enrolls in Beacon as a student while also operating as a secret agent.

* AlternateUniverseFic: WhatIf Jaune's transcripts have been accepted and make him qualified to enter a secret service for Vale?

!! ''In the Kingdom's Service'' contains examples of: