I needed to write an Empire one-shot for some reason. Actually I know why, but I don't want to complain, so have this instead. Anyways, I'm working on the next chapter of Connections and I believe that you will be getting the first lemon of the story though I'm not actually done yet. So that's a thing. Thanks for reading and reviews are always appreciated, so if you have a compliment or other comment, don't be afraid to review.

Thanks!

Court

Ever since the Vytal Festival and the competitors came to town, Weiss noticed that Jaune had become more reserved. He only hit on her once or twice since Sun and Neptune arrived. He also seemed to be not eating as long and often came late and left early to and from breakfast, lunch and dinner and seemed to be waking up early and getting to bed late. She had seen him walking down the hall at the early time of six in the morning when she couldn't sleep and was heading down to the cafeteria for an early breakfast. She was surprised when he turned off towards the gym and the training room. She had also seen him and Pyrrha arriving late to their room, sweaty and tired though in generally good spirits. Weiss was briefly curious before reminding herself that it was the Dork Knight in question. That was enough to make her care less about his habits.

The entirety of team RWBY was in some way stressed before the festival; Ruby was almost consistently eating cookies which caused her to go about a hundred miles an hour. Weiss knew that she was more easily frustrated and took to going to bed later. Blake was stressed about not the festival but the rising threat from the White Fang and had taken to spending more and more time in the library, while Yang spent more time training with the sparring drones.

In direct contrast, team JNPR seemed to not be effected at all by the looming event. In their defense, Pyrrha had done this plenty of times before, Nora was, well she was Nora. Weiss had never seen her anything but boisterous. Ren was another matter, though very similar to Nora. She'd only seen him anything but quiet and reserved once and that was when they first met Neptune in the library. No, the only person that she was surprised who hadn't cracked under the pressure was Jaune. Despite his more reclusive behavior, he always seemed to be in a good mood, much to her chagrin. How was an idiot like that calm under the immense pressure from holding the Vytal festival and competing in it? For what seemed like the first time, Weiss was actually interested in the Dork Knight. Or his mental state. That's what she told herself.

It was a day before the first matches and they had drawn their opponents when she discovered how he was able to deal with the pressure.

It was early in the morning and she couldn't sleep, so she decided that she would make sure that Myrtenaster was functioning properly and that she was ready for the upcoming match. When she walked into the training room, she couldn't help but notice a pile of gear on the bench, topped by a blood stained knife. It's not like she hadn't seen blood before, but it still chilled her to the core, seeing the ruby red blood on the silver blade. She turned to the figure in the center of the room, who was unrecognizable from the pure white color radiating from the person's body. She noticed with a pang that there were blood spatters all across the floor from the figure since combat drones didn't bleed. As she watched the person blocked a blow from the drone and with a flash of steel, removed it's head and watched it roll across the floor as the drone collapsed. The figure sheathed it's sword and turned, the light fading as Weiss realized who it was with a shock.

Jaune Arc, with a vicious look on his face which twisted his already pleasant features into a handsome yet gruesome mask. As he walked towards her, she noticed a nasty gaze on his armor-less chest that sealed, leaving pale scar tissue in its place. He grunted a greeting as he walked past and dropped his sheathed sword next to his pile of gear, picking up and cleaning the silver blade on a white towel, leaving a crimson stain behind. He tossed the towel into the laundry chute and slipped on his hoodie over the slashed t-shirt he was wearing. He turned and left, leaving Weiss to watch the retreating figure with a mixture of concern and surprise. She wasn't able to focus at all to do anything more than confirm that her weapon was properly functioning.

When she had gotten her breakfast, she sat across from the blonde knight and stared him down. He took no notice, still talking and laughing with Pyrrha about something while they ate. Weiss was determined to get answers, so she waited until he left and followed him out of the cafeteria, ignoring Ruby's calls to her. She caught up to him as they walked into the hall outside the dining hall. She couldn't wait any longer.

"What the hell was that?" She tried to spin him around by grabbing his arm but she wasn't able to wrap her fingers more than halfway around his forearm. He barely glanced back at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He pulled his arm out of her grasp, but the heiress wasn't giving up.

"You know what I'm talking about." She hissed as she trailed behind him like an angry goose.

"Nothing in particular comes to mind." He staunchly stared straight ahead, not glancing at her as she stalked along next to him.

"So you find no problems in your training methods?"

"No. Do you?" She was completely taken off guard.

"What! Of course I do! Why would you slash your chest open like that?"

"What's it matter to you?" Weiss stopped. She watched helplessly as he walked off.

He... He's right. Why does it matter to me? Why isn't this like all those other times when I could just ignore him? I didn't even know about his problems with Cardin until Forever Fall and then I didn't care. Why now?

She slumped down against the wall, hugging her knees tightly. She felt exposed, vulnerable, from just one comment. She felt extremely guilty all of a sudden. She should have been helping him more than she had. With a chill, she realized that she was turning into her father. Something had to change.

There was a collective gasp as Jaune was slashed upside the face by the Minstralian's dagger, leaving a crimson trail from his middle cheek to just above his bangs. Blood oozed out, covering the left side of his face in ruby red. Weiss stole a look at his teammates who were sitting next to her. Ren was a statue, watching almost emotionless apart from a slight smile while Nora was no longer in her seat. She was at the railing, yelling things at the other boy. Pyrrha was transfixed on her blonde partner, grinning. She noticed Weiss looking at her and smirked.

"Poor kid. He doesn't know what he's done." Weiss was about to ask for clarification when she noticed the same light that Jaune was bathed in this morning burst around the stadium. The entire stadium put a hand up to cover their eyes while Ren, Nora and Pyrrha just slipped on a pair of sunglasses each. Before anyone had recovered, the buzzer went off, indicating that one of the combatants' aura's had dropped into the red and the official called the match. As the light faded, Weiss looked up at the scoreboard which showed a full green bar under Jaune's picture that faded into a golden bar that read 'Victor- Advances' in black letters.

The audience exclaimed at the sudden comeback by the fighter from their region, applauding the knight. Jaune was busy helping his opponent up and shook his hand before noticing the uproar from the crowd which had reached it's crescendo as he waved and grinned. If it was even possible, the crowd got even louder as the gash on his face healed, leaving the same pale skin that Weiss had seen on appear his chest that morning. He bowed and turned to each side of the crowd as the big screen flashed to a pair of adults who looked like his parents. Weiss's suspicions were confirmed when subtitles appeared under the adults identifying the man as the current head of the Arc house, Jonah Arc and his wife as Helen Arc. Jonah was in his commander uniform and had a proud grin on his face while Helen was bouncing up and down happily.

When the others had left the locker room after they congratulated Jaune on his surprise victory, Weiss lingered. When Jaune noticed it was her, he scowled and completely turned to face her. She immediately noticed that he had a carbon copy of the scar that she bore on her face, down to the correct side of his face. He noticed and smiled grimly.

"We now got two things in common; we attend Beacon and have the same scar." His comment hung in the air like a pesky fly. She could ignore it but she was so annoyed that she couldn't, but he wasn't to blame. She was.

"Weiss? Hello? I need to go watch Pyrrha's match, so..." He stood and started to walk out of the room. Weiss had to speak.

"I... I'm sorry." He stopped.

"Wei-" She had knocked the first rock off that started a landslide.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just feel terrible, I've been nothing more than a bitch to you the entire school year. I don't know, it's that I finally realized that you have it worse than we all do this morning with whatever that was and I need to say this cause I realized that I was turning into my father and that's the last thing I want to happen-" She had closed her eyes to prevent the tears from flowing so she hadn't noticed that the blonde knight had walked back to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there. Hey, relax Snow Angel. This isn't the greatest time to do this. Pyrrha is about to fight. Let's talk tonight." She was sobbing now and crushed the astonished boy in a tight hug. He smiled and hugged her back.

"Come on, my partner has a match to win."

Night had descended on Beacon, leaving the building illuminated by the candles that adorned the walls. They turned Weiss a faint shade of orange as she walked towards the grounds where Jaune told her to go.

She'd only been able to talk to him briefly as he was focused on Pyrrha's match and then he was whisked off by Ozpin and Goodwitch since they were the only team that day to all proceed, Nora and Ren having won their matches before Jaune's and Pyrrha winning after his. Team RWBY was fighting tomorrow. She caught glimpses of JNPR being interviewed individually and as a team, Jaune stepping effortlessly into the role of the confident leader and bickering warmly with the interviewer. Pyrrha was her normal humble self and Ren was the intellectual who rarely spoke while Nora took advantage of her childishness and adorableness. Needless to say, the public loved them. They had eaten with their parents, so Jaune had texted her where to meet.

Leading her to be meeting him now. In the dark. On the grounds. She wasn't sure what to talk about, but she certainly still felt terrible about her previous actions. As she walked towards the fountain, she noticed him staring at the centerpiece. He heard her heels as she approached and turned to her, a somber expression on his face. She walked up and looked at the sign in front of the fountain at a gesture from him. She looked up at him but he beat her to it.

"It's my great-great-grandfather, Leon Arc. I'm sure you know his legacy, your family rose due to the war also." She did. Leon Arc repelled the hordes of Grimm from Vale hundreds of years ago, using his great tactical prowess and the most recent discovery of refining dust due to her ancestor, Archibald Schnee. Historians credit the discovery of the new process of refinement with saving countless lives. Since that time, the Schnees and the Arcs have been two of the most powerful families in Vale for hundreds of years.

"Yes, I know the legends. But why are you showing me this?" She looked at him but his gaze was fixed on the marble bust of his ancestor.

"Perspective. I, I have something that I need to confess to you Weiss. The rest of your team knows but I was waiting for the correct time to tell you. I didn't- god this speech doesn't get any easier. I didn't actually make it into Beacon. You were correct that I didn't belong here. That's because I don't. Or didn't."

"Jaune-"

"The only thing that I ever wanted was to live up to his legacy, so I snuck into Beacon. I'll admit, I should have died during the excursion to the emerald forest, but I didn't. And again in Forever Fall, but I finally wizened up and I've been working to catch up to everyone else's level since then. That's why I don't stick around during meals and I get up early and go to bed late. I know you've noticed. So... yeah. I wanted to tell you since Ruby, Blake and Yang know already." Jaune finally looked at her, determination blazing in his eyes.

"I thought you should know and this seemed like the best time to tell you, after I actually proved myself as capable. You can completely hate me now, but I wanted to tell you since you and your team told us about Blake." He smiled at the young heiress and patted her on the shoulder before starting off, back to his dorm. Before he could remove his hand, Weiss spoke.

"Was that the only reason you worked so hard?"

"Weiss?"

"You know what I mean. Was there another motive?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I've got a chance. I've tried many times but... y'know." She tugged on his hand, causing him to turn to her.

"Have you asked since you told her about your improvement? Cause I think she might reconsider." Weiss reached up and traced the scar that now mirrored hers along the right side of her face with her slender finger, drawing closer to him. He leaned down, maintaining eye contact, looking for a sign to stop. Instead, Weiss stood on her tiptoes and captured his lips with hers, clenching her fists on his lapels as his left hand cupped her cheek and his right hand went to her waist, holding her with care.

Weiss stood across from her opponent, a Atlasian who held a heavy spear with a large body shield strapped on her back. She could hear the encouraging shouts from her team and JNPR, of which Jaune was the loudest. She looked up and saw him hanging over the railing behind her and smiled at him. She saw the white handkerchief that she had given him for a similar yellow piece of cloth that was stitched with his symbol. She rolled up her sleeve, revealing the yellow handkerchief as he beamed. With a shot of a gun, the match started and she shot forward with glee in her heart for she knew that her best friends were cheering her on.