This is gonna be a White Knight/Snow Angel or whatever you kids call it nowadays. *Insert old man grumbling here* This is gonna get OOC af later in the story. But it's basically a retelling of RWBY, but with the teams a bit more mixed up, and a few extra shenanigans. Stuff happening before Beacon. May take me a few chapters to get back into the flow of things. Let's get started!
Jaune Arc, hero, manly man, and all round cool guy. Or so he thought. The young knight had no clue how many times he would be proved wrong in his thinking. Not just by his partner, but by the Grimm, his teachers, his best friend, and even himself. Such was the depth of the rabbit hole he was throwing himself head first down. But one thing could be said. At least he didn't run away. Much.
"So, kid. Let me get this right. You come to Vale, nothing but the clothes on your back and a pocket full of Lien. You, without any help, find the most dangerous criminal in the city, just so you can get into Beacon?" A man of average build, yet fantastic hair asked our young hero, puffing his cigar the entire time.
"Yes?" Jaune squeaked. His answer barely escaping his lips. At the time, he had no clue who he was talking to, but an idea was forming in his head. He did not like the idea very much.
Roman laughed at the boy, smoke billowing from his mouth and nose like some sort of ancient dragon. "Well, you certainly came to the right person, even if it was rather foolish to do so. Tell you what blondie, I'll forge your transcripts. Say it's from some old hunter who trained you but died in combat. I got a few names lined up we can use. Old men who used to hassle my employer. Well, they don't anymore." The criminal mastermind had turned his open laugh into a chuckle.
"I'll send them to your scroll when they are finished, then you just send them up to Beacon, wait to be accepted, then you get to play hero all you want. And I get to be a few thousand Lien richer." Roman's smile could only be compared to that of a wolf that had caught his prey. After all, if they fail, then Jaune fails, and Roman still got to keep his money. If they work, then he gets to boast about how his forgeries are so good they even tricked the greatest minds in all of Vale.
"T-thanks?" Jaune said to the criminal, not too sure of himself. He was making a deal with the devil, and he knew it. But there wasn't much of a choice. The young knight wanted to be a hero, and he would only get himself killed if he were to do it any other way. They both knew it.
"Don't thank me yet. You're a kid from the middle of nowhere that has to live the next six months in Vale before school starts, not to mention without any cash. That Lien could have gotten you six months if you stretched it, but you needed transcripts. Talk about not thinking ahead." The thief stood up, with Jaune's money, and gestured to the door. "If you ever need some cash, come see me. I could use a grunt that can actually think."
"I'll think about it?" Jaune told the man, his heart racing. He was going to get into Beacon. His dream was going to come true, even if it started off less than legal. The knight had plans to make up for his bad start by saving so many people that even of someone found out about it, they would realise he was needed way too much to be thrown in jail. Jaune wasn't too sure how he was going to do this, but winging it always seemed to work in the past.
"Good good. Now get out. Oh, and do us both a favour and don't get a job dust related. Not if you want to keep it." Roman said, a warning in his voice. Jaune just nodded dumbly and made his way to the door. "If that kid makes it past the first month, then he may just be worth watching." Roman said to himself, or he would have had a small girl with heterochromia not stepped out of the shadows. Not that Jaune ever noticed her.
The girl, Neo, just tilted her head to the side, not answering the man. Not that she really could, being a mute and all. "Yeah yeah, I know. No need for the sass." Roman told her, seeming to understand the girl, even if no words left her mouth.
Well, that's the start of it. Now we watch Jaune struggle for a few chapters before Beacon starts. A problem with many of my old stories was that I rushed the plot when I shouldn't have, and I am aiming to fix that by making this slow and painful, but don't worry, it's not going to be boring.
