'Thought'
"Normal Speech"

Jaune sat on the window ledge of his bedroom; he would do this many evenings, leaving his bed freshly made in the corner of his room as usual and falling asleep instead, bathing in the moon and starlight. Ever since he'd been little, he had remembered feeling a certain connection with celestial bodies, especially those at night. He remembered how proud his father had been when they had found out that his aura was directly linked to both moon and starlight.

Remember.

All the pain and grief him and his family had felt when his younger sister, Giallo, had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Given, the doctors had estimated that she had ten or eleven years left to live, fifteen at an absolute maximum, but terminal was terminal: she was going to di-…move on, Jaune quickly corrected himself. That was four years ago.

Jaune had been seven years old at the time, yet fully understood the implications of his sister's condition. He wouldn't go on to have a perfect childhood by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, both his mother and father loved him greatly, just as he loved his sister, but he was often ignored by his mother unless she was teaching him or out with him and Giallo.

He didn't think any less of her for being like this; since Jaune was an infant he had been regarded as a prodigy, both physically and mentally. He'd passed combat and academic classes with flying colours, therefore understood that his mother had to care for his sister, leaving less time for him.

If any positives came out of his predicament, it was that he and his father, Richard, had bonded immensely, and if he had discovered anything, it was that they shared many of the same traits. This had caused his father to become very proud of his son and the fact that he was carrying the 'Arc Legacy' as his father had dubbed it, forwards.

The fact that Jaune was his father's favourite had led to his parents falling out, his mother accusing his father of not caring for Giallo enough, and by extension, loving Giallo enough. Of course, his father had dismissed these claims, and Jaune knew his father was telling the truth. After spending so much time with his father, he knew that Richard loved him and his sister equally, but had trouble excepting the harsh reality of her condition. Furthermore, due to having such legendary heritage, Jaune's father couldn't interpret why an Arc would have such an ailment. But nonetheless, this served to destabilize the Arc household making it that much harder for Jaune to cope.

Lost in thought and blanketed in moonlight with his eyelids heavy, Jaune found himself drifting off to sleep, unaware of what was to happen over the next few days.

Glancing over to his digital, dust-powered clock, Jaune rose from his bed. 'Wait, I'm in my bed..?' Jaune wondered to himself. Pulling the covers off, he assumed that one of his parents had moved him during the night. 'Probably Dad,' Jaune concluded, as he dressed himself in his school uniform and began to make his way downstairs.

He was greeted by the sight of his father at the end of the table hidden behind the local newspaper, his mum sat on the left besides his sister, both eating and his own place on the right, next to his father with his breakfast on the table. He sat down, his father sending a nod in his direction and an excited "Jaune! You're awake" from his little sister. His mother simply kept eating her breakfast.

Jaune sat down and began to eat the cereal that had been placed in front of him.

"Jaune," his mother began. "We're your sister and I are going out this evening, I was wondering if you'd like to come?"

"Sure mum, where are we going?"

"Oh, don't worry, you don't need to know, think of it as a surprise for you and your sister, you'll need to dress smartly though, wouldn't want to look a mess where we're going, especially if there are some nice young ladi-"

"-MUM!"

"I'm sorry dear," Jaune knew she didn't mean it. "Have a nice day anyway,"

Jaune gathered his belongings and placed them in his bag, made sure Giallo was ready and departed off to school.

After kissing Giallo goodbye and hoping that se had a nice day, Jaune found himself at school. Opening his locker, he pulled out his books and glanced at his timetable. Dust and its uses, Grimm Studies, Combat Training and Basic Academics. 'Not a bad day,' he summarised.

Jaune looked to his left to find his long-term best friend, Xavier, closing his locker and turning to face him. Xavier was a fox faunus and had a lot in common with Jaune because of this. He hadn't told him at first, but on his father's side of Jaune's family, many generations ago they had once been wolf faunus, but years of breeding with pure humans erased the physical features that a faunus would usually have, but the increased stamina, speed, tracking skills and most importantly fighting skills had remained in the Arc bloodline. Once they had discovered common ground, Xavier and Jaune had become like brothers.

Xavier knew very well of Giallo's condition and would often get her presents. It was safe to say that Xavier and his family were closest to the Arcs, not just because the boys were friends, but because their fathers had fought alongside eachother defending the village against the regular attacks that Grimm made at the walls.

"Morning," Jaune greeted.

"Morning to you to Jaune," Xavier replied.

"I can't wait for Combat later, I've been testing some new sword techniques and need to put them into a real situation,"

"Well, I heard that we're fighting in pairs today...and y'know, I was thinking that we should pair up for later...?"

Jaune laughed.

"Xav, you don't even need to ask, we've working together on just about everything since we've been five,"

Xavier nervously laughed back.

"Just checking,"

And with that they both made their way to their first lesson.

At last it was their penultimate lesson of the day: Combat. It was by far and away Jaune's personal favourite lesson. Yes, he was good, okay, understatement, he was amazing at just about every subject, but combat just stood out to him.

He saw beyond just the element of strength and spirit; he saw the tactical side of battle, analysing each of his opponents moves with ease and capitalizing on their every weakness.

He was in the middle of the school arena, stood beside Xavier, who had just adopted his battle stance. The whistle blew and Jaune's eyes flicked up to meet those of his attackers. Unsheathing Crocea Mors he adopted a defensive stance, deciding due to his opponent's reliance on speed, that he would simply counter attack and stay relatively still, offsetting his adversary's tactic.

His oppontent saw his time to strike, rushing forwards, but was greeted by thin air and a thump on the head with Crocea Mors' hilt.

"One down, one to go," muttered Jaune to nobody in particular.

However, as Jaune turned around, he noticed Xavier just finishing his opponent off. They'd won...or so they thought.

"You will both face each other in the final now, good luck to the both of you!" their combat tutor announced.

Xavier knew that he wasn't going to win this one. He had seen Jaune training at home with his father, evening managing to beat him on several occasions.

But Xavier was never one to pass up a challenge.

The whistle blew again and the two boys rushed each other, Jaune going on the offensive this time.

Their swords met, and sparks were shed as the intensity of the fight increased.

It was clear from the beginning that Jaune had the upper-hand as Xavier, despite only taking minor damage, found himself driven into a corner.

Jaune went to slash left with Crocea Mors but changed direction at the last-minute throwing Xavier off-balance.

Jaune's sword met the flesh of Xavier's shoulder, but not biting in deeply, however, Jaune had achieved the desired effect, tripping Xavier and levelling his sword at his throat.

"I win," stated Jaune nonchalantly.

It came as no surprise that Jaune had won to the teachers. His record was perfect, with both his grades and combat, but that was to be expected considering he was one of the oldest people in the school. Now he was in his final year of primary school he was ready to move up to something…more.

His parents had considered sending him to one of the main combat schools around, Signal and Sanctum standing out particularly, but they had decided that it was in Jaune's best interests to have his father and some other experienced Hunters and Huntresses teach him, along with his mother and father who were supposed to be among the greatest of their generation. They had even looked into getting his uncle; a certain Professor Ozpin to help mentor him along with Richard.

Jaune was interrupted from his train of thought by the school bell ringing, signalling the end of the day. He jumped up, and along with the rest of his class, made his way to his locker, collecting his weapons that he'd left there earlier and sheathing them, oblivious the longing stares he was receiving from the female members of the school.

Jaune was in his room preparing for an evening out his mother had planned for him and his sister for weeks. They were to go out to Vale, the capital city, to go shopping and have a meal at a smart restaurant, hence the reason Jaune was currently putting his smart clothes on, consisting of some sandy coloured chinos, a dark blue sweater and a navy blue coat.

Examining himself in the mirror, Jaune pulled lightly on his blonde hair. He'd gotten his hair and eyes of his father and the rest of his facial features from his mother. Fortunately or what would soon be unfortunately, his mother his been incredibly beautiful, leading to Jaune being the object of affection for many girls at school. Of course, he viewed many of them as his sisters, due to the fact he lived in such a small village where just about everyone knew each other on a relatively personal basis. Still, he wasn't sure if he loved or loathed the attention. Besides, Jaune himself was only eleven and had decided that he wasn't interested in that sort of thing yet.

Being brought back to reality again through his mother calling his name from downstairs, Jaune sprayed on some deodorant wished his father goodbye, as Richard had to attend the village guard in the evenings and made his way out to the car.

Later that evening, they had been around many of the shops and had just settled down to eat dinner. Jaune looked around at the other diners, noticing a few other youths: a beautiful ice white-haired girl with pale blue eyes, who looked to be of nobility and a pair of girls sat with who Jaune guessed were their parents. One had long blonde hair, lilac eyes, who was no doubt gorgeous and was notably older than the other, whilst the other girl was definitely younger than him and had black hair and curiously coloured, silver eyes.

His family (minus Richard) were seated roughly in-between the two tables, with Jaune sat next his sister and Giallo sat opposite their mum.

Jaune made polite conversation with his mother and talked all about school to Giallo, who was halfway through school and while not showing the same prowess as Jaune, showed that she was more than a capable student. The doctors had attributed Giallo's lack of talent compared to Jaune as a side effect of her condition which fed on her aura reserves slowly and generally stripping away any genetic advantages her heritage had given her.

When their meals arrived, they all gladly tucked in, but not before Jaune caught the white haired girl, looking at him with...jealousy? Jaune guessed and something he couldn't quite pick up. Before he could make up his mind, she looked away blushing at being caught staring.

Looking to the other side Jaune saw the blonde haired girl look at him, not dissimilarly to the girl on the other side. However, she didn't look jealous but was still regarding him with something Jaune didn't recognise in her eyes. Again, she looked away blushing but not before shyly smiled towards Jaune.

It didn't really matter to Jaune though, he wouldn't forget the faces he saw this evening for years to come he assured himself. Maybe girls weren't as bad as he thought.

Meanwhile, a certain Weiss Schnee had staring at a young man, with mesmerizing ocean blue eyes and blonde hair. Given, he was gorgeous in her opinion, but she had been listening in to his conversation and how sweet he was being to his sister, however, she could feel a slight change in his tone when addressing his mother, caring was all too clear but his voice sounded colder, something she could relate to.

Weiss had loved her mother, but always held her at arm's length so to speak, as she would often stress to Weiss that she needed to uphold her duty as a Schnee and act perfectly in every situation. Of course, Weiss had always been opposed to acting how her parents had wanted her to, but she realised that there was nothing that she could do about it.

One small victory for her was her sideways ponytail that her beautiful hair was styled into, breaking the pattern of perfect symmetry present in all the clothes she wore.

But back on topic, Weiss was sure she wouldn't ever forget his face and hoped more than anything that she could get a chance to know him. Or to do something more than just know him. As slim as the possibility seemed at the moment, with her parent practically preventing her from talking to anyone who wasn't family or one of her tutors. Maybe, just maybe, he had aspirations of going to Beacon when he was in his later teens.

On the other side of the room a certain lilac eyed girl was having thoughts along a similar line. First of all, she had unknowingly agreed with Weiss that he was gorgeous and was also eavesdropping on his conversation. However, she was listening for a different reason, she could understand the direction he was coming from towards his sister, as she had done the same thing many times with her sister, Ruby while they were out.

There was one fundamental difference though, Yang had noticed that the boy in question was being nice to his sibling to the point it as unnatural. She would be nice to her sister within reason, but would say and/or do certain things that were meant to antagonise her on purpose.

But this boy…

He gave the word 'caring' a whole new meaning.

Yang being Yang, her mind quickly jumped to the prospect of him being so caring to her and all the imaginary dates they would go on. Putting it simply, he made the boys at her school look like idiots.

She decided right there that if she wasn't going to have him, or at least someone just like him, she didn't want to have anybody.

"Uuuuh…Yang..? Hello-o"

Ruby had caught her off guard while she was off day-dreaming. And they were good day-dreams.

Yang was not a happy bunny. Never interrupt Yang Xiao Long when she's day-dreaming.

Roughly an hour had passed and Jaune's mother was just asking paying the bill, the families around them were beginning to finish up too. Jaune muttered his thanks to the waiter that had served him and hand-in-hand with his sister, began walking towards the door.

On their way back to the car, they passed an alleyway, thinking nothing of it, they took a glance and turned around to continue walking.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Dead-ahead of them stood three men wearing black shirts with red trimming.

Before they had time to answer the man in the middle who was apparently the leading pointed a gun at them. Forcing them to take a step back.

"Get in the alleyway, you heard me!" he shouted again.

They turned to meet with three other men, dressed in similar outfits.

"Don't even think about running!" one of them shouted.

Jaune was simply surprised nobody had heard what was happening, then again, nobody was around really in the dead of night in the richer part of Vale.

Before Jaune knew it, he, his mum and his beloved little sister were all in the middle of the alley, their weapons at home, completely surrounded by the men.

"Take the children over there, I'm dealing with the wonderful women," the leader commanded, a malicious smile gracing his ugly features.

The grunts of the group began to drag Jaune and Giallo away, until Jaune bit into his captor's arm leading to a scream of pain. The leader, noticing this turned and shot Jaune a despicable smile.

"You know what, pretty boy here's going to watch while we have fun with his mother!" he shouted, laughing madly.

Jaunes eyes widened in terror, but glinted in defiance and two new men held him to the ground while the leader began to tear at his mother's clothes and undo his own.

Jaune was forced to watch for ten minutes as the men violated his mother, her pleas for help falling on deaf ears and Jaune's struggling going in vain.

However, when one of the men suggested they go after his sister too something snapped in the young man.

Jaune closed his eyes, seeing the moon in one piece, however, with a mighty 'BANG!' it shattered into pieces mirroring how it look that very evening. He opened his eyes to find himself floating a few feet up in the air with his legs curled up to his face. He took a peek at the real moon to see it glowing with power. Moving into an upright position violently, Jaune released an explosion of light that sent most of the group members flying, and coming to an abrupt stop when they hit solid objects.

Jaune looked down to see himself glowing with an ethereal light, for the first time in his life, Jaune felt what it was like to have his aura at his disposal. He usually had little or no control of it usually but something that night had changed him. On his back were two pure white angelic wings, glowing the same colour as his aura.

Also, something in the air felt different, he felt faster, generally, he felt like he could climb the highest mountain in Remnant and not even break a sweat. Jaune felt powerful. No, Jaune felt unstoppable.

The leader, let go of his mother in fear and pulled out his gun, firing multiple rounds at Jaune, all of which slowed in mid-air and fell to the ground with a metallic 'klinks'.

Jaune slowly walked towards the leader, eyes not blue, but glowing white with hatred and pain at what he had just witnessed. Despite the difference in size, Jaune put his hand around the man's neck and as if gravity was weakened around him, lifted him up and began choking the man.

A minute on and the man was dead.

Jaune picked up the body and with a roar and another explosion of pure white aura, sent the man flying towards one of the far walls where he landed with a dull crack as his now broken body fell towards the ground.

The use of so much aura in one go had severely weakened him though thanks to his young age and he felt himself getting weaker with each second that passed. Jaune took one last look at all that surrounded him, noticing the two families that he had seen in the restaurant earlier, saw that his mum and sister were safe, exhaled and fell to the ground as darkness quickly overcame him.

Hey, this is my first story, so let me know what you think, feedback would be great! It will pick up in the next few chapters, as this was quite a slow start.

Just to clarify, Jaune is eleven during this chapter, as are Weiss and Yang. His sister is eight and Ruby is nine.

-SimplySutton signing off.