Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.

Another droid slumped to the floor, a blaster bolt having blasted a hole through it's head. It was the twenty fifth head shot in a row, all in half as many seconds, and though he felt that he should be proud that he's become so deadly a shot, he couldn't help but feel all this training was now wasted on him. He was seventeen, dammit, he should be at Beacon right now, not blasting training droids! His Mother- er... his Father, Aunt Emerald, Aunt Neo, and Qrow had been training him how to fight as soon as he could walk, so obviously he'd be one of, if not THE best one of his class if they placed him there, yeah, but that wasn't the point. The point was, home was getting boring, and he wasn't really doing anything from home.

He wanted to get out there, kill some Grimm, hunt some bad guys, not stay cooped up in the safety of home! Sighing in frustration, he kicked the head of a fallen droid, sending the severed head skidding across the floor until it came to a stop at the wall, stopping right beside the doorway out of their little "training room". He'd imagine most of his would-be peers at Beacon would be out killing Grimm right now, had the school year started yet... That was all he was envious of. Money didn't interest him, nor did social standing or the skill of more experienced individuals, but being out there, making a difference... or at least trying to, seemed like little more than a pipe dream at times for him.

The rustling of fabric alerted him to a presence behind him, and though normally he would've just sent a bolt its way, he knew well enough who it was...

"Hey, kid. Nice work you did here, how long'd it take you?" Came a feminine voice. He immediately recognized the voice, not that he didn't already know who it was. Emerald Sustrai. She was wearing a plain white, cropped jacket with a popped collar, unzipped down the middle revealing the green tube top she always wore. The sleeves were rolled up, revealing her forearms, and on each shoulder rested a light, steel shoulder pad. She adorned black BDU pants with a belt holding several leather pouches on each side as well as the holsters for her guns, and metal plates covering her knees and shins. Her outfit was tipped off with black combat boots.

"Twelve seconds. What, you keeping score now Aunt Em?" He replied, the previous tension lost off of him.

"Hah, still too slow, Jango! I was in here just last night and took out twice as many in half the time!" She bragged playfully, pulling her eyelid down and sticking her tongue out in a half-mocking half-endearing way.

"It's Jangotat, Emerald. Jangotat!"

The older lady merely waved off his complaint and sauntered up to him, slinging her arm around the younger boy's shoulder and bring him around to leave the room. "Yeah, yeah, whatever... But I meant it when I said that was nice work. Your mother would be proud, y'know."

"Yeah... Though I think I would prefer her actually being here to her being proud of me blasting a few droids..."

"Kid, you're not the only one who still misses her... She and I may have started off enemies... so did her and your father, come to think of it... but... well, you know what I'm trying to say." There was some silence that lingered around them as they continued out of the room and down the dark hall, only illuminated by the few and far candles.

It was true that the family wasn't yet over his mother's death, though knowing how her mother passed, he couldn't have helped but grimly think of a popular phrase, "Like Father, Like Son"... only the genders in this case were reversed. Nevertheless, she had died a hero's death. An epic storm overhead, surrounded by thousands of the damned under the shadow of a Grimm Titan.

Her actions had saved Atlas that day, eight years ago, but cost her her life. Twenty nine years, torn to ribbons by tooth and claw. He still vividly remembered seeing the statue, erected high in the center of the Academy, and feeling lost, like his purpose in life had been dashed. It was her memory that had kept him, and several others, going, and remembering that she wouldn't have wanted them to cease movement forward.

Shaking his head of the sad memory, he looked ahead to see that Emerald had brought him outside. It was midday, the sun was high, the birds chirping, and the leaves a vibrant green. It was peaceful, quite, and calm. Things he'd not yet learned to appreciate as much as the rest of his family had, save maybe his cousin Nadia.

"Your father and I have been talking." Emerald said out of the blue. Jangotat merely raised an eyebrow, and gestured for her to continue. "We're thinking of heading over to the Vasilias's house later tonight. You wanna come with?"

"I wouldn't mind stretching my legs a bit, but I feel like there's some bits of information you're not telling me." Jangotat replied, and pressed for more details.

"You're not wrong... but I'll allow the letters to explain once we're there." She said, before unhooking her arm from around him. "Oh, and it's a barbecue, just in case you were thinking you'd change your mind and not show up again."

"Well, could've led with that, Emerald, and I'd have forgotten about what you're not telling me." He joked lightly, before turning about and heading off towards a small table they had lying around. "Is dad gonna be there?"

"Yeah, he said he needed to get away from teaching for a bit. Still can't believe he actually took the job Ozpin offered him, more so that he has the patience to deal with so many... kids! Well, you're an exception, but you get what I'm saying."

"To be fair, they're all warriors that have been training for years. Like me, but lesser."

"And idiotic." She snorted. "Trust me, Jango, you may think the other kids would be like you, but your only experience is with Natalia and Giovanni. Most kids, warriors or not, around your age are more likely to screw off than they are to actually take a situation seriously."

He grumbled darkly, before looking back to the table before him. It held his armor and helmet, freshly repainted and finally dried. The adamite dust-infused steel plates were painted white with blue markings, with a thick, grey adamite-infused fabric for the waist cape and dark grey leather, similarly infused with adamite, for his double-sided pauldrons. His belt held several cases, all made of the same material as the rest of his armor, and from them hung two leather straps going down diagonally and crossing over each other to hold the holsters for his twin hand-cannons, affectionately named Blackrose and Quicksilver, and an additional pouch, this one fabric, for holding some extra ammo, grenades, or other equipment. On the right side of his breastplate, or at least the up-armored, grey colored plate bolstering the already tough armor, were three additional ammo pouches, all slim, only large enough to hold one magazine each for Blackrose and Quicksilver. The boots had some additional plates on them, painted a darker grey color with the knee pads being blue, but they didn't take away from the sleek appearance of the armor. His left gauntlet had a datapad integrated into it, and a rectangular screen topside of his wrist, and his right concealed a diamonite-lined adamite blade topside of the wrist, with both gauntlets sharing some additional armored plating on the underside, painted a darker grey color like the greaves' bolstered plates, and had a blue trim with blue elbow pads, though the armor covering his shoulder and upper arm was colored white with a blue stripe running down them symmetrically. His waist cape was primarily grey, with symmetrical diagonal blue stripes on each side, and his pauldrons held his blue colors over the right side.

Despite the armor being great, to him the most special part was the helmet. Partially because it was his mother's design, partially because of all the advanced (and robust) computerized systems and gadgets within, and partially because it was just comfortable... not to say the rest of the armor wasn't, of course. A built-in rangefinder that could track thermal profiles even through dense walls and thick smoke or haze, an air purifier, night vision, navigational systems within the HUD, assisted targeting for his weapons when linked, and shock absorbent materials. What gave the helm it's face, though, a face he'd come to be more familiar with than his own at times, was the black, T-shaped visor, with a sort of upside-down V-shape in the visor at the bottom. It was all tipped off with a sort of fin on top of the helmet that swept back and stopped just before the back of the helm. The helmet was colored white, with blue markings on the cheeks, rangefinder, topside and fin of the helmet.

The armor was technically a prototype, but it was the prototype that his mother had designed for him. In his eyes, that made the armor perfect, and totally flawless. As such, he named the suit Arma Perfectus, or, Perfect Armor. The only thing he had that wasn't originally part of the armor was his backpack. It wasn't a normal military one by any means, but like his armor, it was made of adamite infused steel, and held generous amounts of survival equipment, extra gear, and several MREs, yet it still matched the sleek appearance of the rest of his armor with it's design and dark grey color.

"Finally personalized that armor she gave you?" Emerald said, bringing him out of momentary stupor. He looked back over at his aunt, a blank expression over his face.

"Mother had designed it just for me, it never felt right before recently to change anything."

"That's the thing Jangotat, that you just can't seem to get. She designed it, for you. For. You. That means, it's yours to use, and it's also yours to personalize as you want." She groaned, and pat Jangotat on the shoulder. "I swear, you're almost as dense as your father was at your age... well... technically he was a year or so older, but... eh."

He stifled a laugh seeing Emerald give up trying to words, and returned his attention to his armor. He was already in his black bodyglove, so he wouldn't need to worry about undressing before equipping himself...

About ten minutes later, he was fully equipped and looked in the mirror to check if anything was off. The boots gave him about an inch in height, making him stand at roughly 6'1". His hair black hair that turned silver at the ends was trimmed short, and drawn back so it wasn't in his face, and his silver eyes still held the shine in them that they usually did. His scar running from his forehead, down over his left eye and down his cheek to his jawline wasn't as prominent anymore, having mostly faded away. His face held a mixture of soft and sharp features, with his jawline and brow being the sharp ones, the latter forming what most would think a light frown to be his normal brow, and everything else being relatively soft.

Smiling in satisfaction on his appearance, he proceeded to straighten his posture. Raising his arms over his head and standing on his toes, he held position until he began to feel his balance waver, then slowly lowered himself down to firm footing. He'd evened out his shoulders and stood better upright, emphasizing his toned body further, making him more intimidating by appearance.

Chucking, he quietly thanked Aunt Weiss for teaching him how to easily straighten out his posture like he'd just done, and snapped on his helmet. On the table behind him rested Blackrose, Quicksilver, and his carbine named Aquila. They were all energy-based weapons, firing blasts of super-heated gas turned to plasma at whatever was unlucky enough to be her target. It was more convenient, he thought, than carrying solid ammunition. It allowed him to carry more ammo for less weight.

Swiftly taking up his guns and holstering them properly, he made a right-face, and marched out the room.

He was immediately met by Emerald outside, who looked him up and down before whistling, seemingly impressed. She gave him a toothy grin, before patting him on the shoulder affectionately.

"By Oum, were I two decades younger, I'd either be relieved that you're on my side, or terrified that you're a guy I'd have to fight! Lookin' sharp, as well, what if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to catch the eye of a pretty gun-nut!" She laughed, giving him a slap on the back, not that he really felt it much.

"C'mon, Aunt Em. We leave any later, we'll be arriving late." Jangotat spoke smoothly, leading the way out of the house (and locking the door behind them), and out to his jet bike, what he'd dubbed his All-Terrain Combat-Bike, or, "AT-CB". Within a minute, they were making haste towards the Vasilias household at 540 kph.

He eased the speed down slowly as he began his final approach towards the Vasilias house. The drive from his home to this one wasn't a short one, that's for sure, being a two hour, 1000 kilometer commute. Because of this, he usually just stayed a night or two whenever he did visit. As soon as he saw the house, he began easing the speed a bit quicker, and as soon as he'd eased down to a more comfortable speed, he and emerald had arrived at their destination.

He was greeted to the sight of Natalia, Giovanni, and their mom and another of his Aunts, Yang Vasilias, waiting for him. The former two were his age, if given a few weeks or months between their birthdays. They all waved and gave the two dismounting the bike wide, friendly grins. Cracking his neck a bit, he began to walk down towards the trio, preparing himself for the inevitable bone-crushing hug from Natalia.

"Jango!" The girl yelled excitedly, throwing herself into him and encasing him in a nearly bone-crushing hug. Thankfully, it seemed his armor was, for the most part, protecting him from that... though it didn't protect against the girl making herself a human projectile flinging itself at him, but he was able to prevent falling by bracing his legs.

"Woah! Hey Nat, Gio! How are you two?" He said, patting the smaller girl on the head as he gently pried her off of him.

"We're good, though we're still a bit miffed that Mom and Dad still won't allow us to enroll at Beacon." Giovanni answered. He wasn't as tall as Jangotat, but was close, standing at roughly 5'11", and had a rather similar build to himself. His fighting style mostly comprised of using his shield to block incoming attacks and chopping up anything that got too close with his axe. He wore a full suit of steel plate armor, with chainmail over more exposed areas and Gambeson under the entirety of the armor. The only markings on the armor were the orange patterns he'd painted onto the plates. He'd left his blue hair short and unkempt, and had lilac eyes.

"You too? I thought for sure that Yang would've enrolled you two by now!" Jangotat said, obvious shock written across his tone.

"I thought she would've too, but apparently not." Natalia said, a small pout forming on her face. She herself only stood at 5'4", but without a doubt, she was an absolute powerhouse in strength despite not looking the part. Her outfit consisted of an open brown leather jacket, a plain white shirt, short-shorts, and black tennis shoes with white socks and white laces. Her blonde hair was mostly held back in a long ponytail, but she had purposefully left her bangs a bit more unkempt. Her face looked like an exact carbon-copy of her mother's, excepting the fact that her eyes were blue like her father's. Similar to her mother, her strategy in combat was to get in whatever was facing her's face and beat the ever-living hell out of it with her twin cestus.

"In any case... Emerald said that she'd been talking with Yang of late. She never mentions such details unless it means something." Jangotat voiced, getting a curious look from Giovanni.

"Interesting... Yang had said the same thing to us about talking with Emerald."

"Interesting indeed..."

Unbeknownst to them, the two women in question were having a conversation of their own not too far away, the topic of which was more or less the same as that of the kids...

"Well, I see the years have certainly been kind to you, Em." Yang said casually, shaking hands with Emerald. She firmly shook the extended hand.

"Likewise, Yang. How you holding up?" Emerald inquired, her tone soft.

"It's... gotten easier to cope. Been almost a decade now, and we're still not over it, though."

"I know... Neither is Mercury. Neo broke down in tears upon hearing the news, but she's seemingly recovered... mostly."

A small moment of silence dominated the area between the two for about a minute, though eventually Emerald decided it necessary to break the silence to usher in what they were really there for.

"Well... shall we deliver the news to the kids? You and I both know how much they've been wanting this lately."

"Ah, yeah, right. Let's bring them to the living room, I'm sure they'll love this!" Yang broke from her sad state, brandishing a large grin. Swiftly, she called everyone inside, with Jangotat being the first to actually take a seat on the couch. He was soon followed by Giovanni and Natalia, and soon after Yang, Emerald, and even Neptune, who'd come downstairs to join the conversation...

About twenty minutes of the standard filler conversation happened, things like asking how who had been and whatnot. Jangotat and Giovanni had only kept half an ear to the conversation, not entirely interested in conversations simply meant to waste time.

Eventually, the time had come, with Yang and Emerald each pulling out an envelope. One was addressed to Jangotat specifically, and the other to both Giovanni and Natalia.

"Alright, so we know you three have been... antsy, to get into Beacon."

"Heh, bit of an understatement there, Em!" Yang cut in, chuckling lightly to herself.

"...Continuing my train of thought..." Emerald grumbled, "These letters are addressed to you three. Go ahead, open e'm up!"

They did so rather tentatively at first, half concerned about what the letters might say. Jangotat, being the quickest to succumb to his curiosity, quickly, but carefully, opened the letter, pulling out the actual letter, reading it aloud...

"blah blah blah... ceremonial stuff... blah blah bl- wait..." Jango said, skipping over a wall of text. "'On account of personal observations and fifteen letters of recommendation from prestigious figures of the International Hunters Association, I, Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy, formally extend this invitation into my most Prestigious Academy to Jangotat Black.'..." Jangotat was struck silent, alongside Natalia and Giovanni, who had been reading their own acceptance letter alongside him.

About twenty seconds of total silence and shocked faces dominated the room, before Jangotat rose to his feet and cried a cheer so loud with his cousins that they'd be damned if Ozpin didn't hear them from all the way over in his tower at Beacon.

The rest of the night was spent in celebration, with barbecue wings, pulled pork sandwiches, sloppy Jo's, racks of ribs, and tender pork chops in place of cake and sweets. The night was spent in Jubilee, and the three newest students into Beacon Academy found sleep all too difficult that night with just hoe excited they really were...

It was around midnight that Jangotat sneaked out, Natalia and Giovanni finally fast asleep. The distance he was crossing wasn't too far, nothing he couldn't cross in ten minutes at a walking pace. It was something he always did whenever he was spending the night here, after all, it allowed him a chance to talk with his mom... even if she never could respond.

His trek up the mountain took only about as long as he'd estimated, being a little over 11 minutes, and left him to look onward across the fast plains of flowers. It was always her favorite spot. he remembered his mother would stand up here for hours, simply taking in the beauty of the vast, seemingly ever-expanding fields of white, pink, yellow and red just beyond the foot of the mountain.

Sighing, he looked down at the gravestone, before taking off his helmet, and taking out a bouquet of roses he had from his backpack. He gently set the flowers down at the base of the gravestone, tears forming in his eyes upon seeing the grave of his mother, and he felt the ends of his mouth tug upwards involuntarily.

"Hey mom..." He started, voice wavering. "It's been awhile... six months, right? I-I'm seventeen now, and finally personalized the armor you gave me... I'm sure you'd love it!" He said, before wiping the tears away. "Mom, I... I finally made it... Beacon Academy, following in your footsteps! I know you must be proud... I've worked so hard for this... and it's finally coming to pass!" He stopped for a few moments, not knowing quite what to say next. "I... We're all still pretty shaken up by you leaving us so early... your sister hasn't taken a contract since because of it, and Mercury... well, he bounced back after about three years ago, but... well, he's not the same anymore. I think getting a job from Ozpin is really helping him."

He sighed. Expressing his emotions was not something he was good at, especially leaving himself open, vulnerable, like he was... but this was mom. He could leave himself vulnerable, and she'd love him any way. "We all miss you... I miss you... and I... I love you, mom... Always have, always will." Jangotat choked out, wiping the tears out of his eyes before they could come down. "...Bye, mom... I love you... When I return, I'm sure I'll have some crazy adventures to share with you!" He said, picking his helmet back up, and snapping it back on before slowly walking away from the gravestone.

The Gravestone had a rose engraved on it, flanked by two mirrored wings on either side. Below it, the words, "Omnibus aut nihil! Semper deinceps, sociis ardent!" were engraved. The famous and immortalized last words of the legendary huntress, Ruby Rose Black.