Chapter 1: The Dawn of Darkness
Beacon: Dorms
7:30AM
'Beep Beep Beep'
"Ugh..."
The dreaded alarm clock. While it may be a torture instrument to most, it was one of the more important tools to help those who needed to get out of bed do just that. For Jaune Arc, it was the former. The young man was used to getting up at around 7:30 to get ready for his morning classes but, still didn't understand the necessity to do the same on the weekends. Pyrrha had told him it would be for making good habits. It had been a whole semester and he still hadn't gotten used to weekends.
Weekdays sure, but definitely not weekends.
Jaune rolled over from where he was on his side to stop the cursed sound. Once it was off he laid there for another 5 minutes before deciding he should take the shower before Nora did. God knows no one would get for 30 minutes.
As he went to sit up on his bed he simultaneously wiped the sleep from his right eye before doing the same thing with his left when he was sitting up. When he went to open his eyes fully, he still couldn't see anything, well at least not fully. The room was still pitch black.
A bit confused Jaune did a double take at his clock and sure enough, it said 7:36. It would usually be fairly bright outside at this point, the sun shining through the dorms windows giving just the barest amount of visibility.
"Well that's weird." he mumbled.
He then got up to look outside and still found it to be dark outside.
The only thing he could think of was that his clock was off an hour or two. Although he wouldn't know why. It's been acting functional for his first semester. Surely the life span of the damn thing was longer than 6 months.
Unless...
From the window he turned back towards the room only to land on a certain someone's bed. A pancake loving, hyperactive, prank pulling someone.
He decided that if this is how she wanted to play then that's how he would play too. On his way to Nora's bed he grabbed his scroll off his nightstand and pulled up the flashlight function of the device.
If she was going to make him believe it was day, he would return the favor, no matter how petty it seemed. Although he actually didn't know what good it would do. The building would be falling apart and she would latter be found at the bottom of the ruble still asleep.
Once he was in place, he tapped the on button and...
"What the hell?"
Only for there to be no one in the bed.
Jaune just stood there for a moment with his brow quirked.
'Where the hell is she?' He thought over and over, momentary panic washing over him but quickly disappeared.
Nora and Ruby had gone to the forge to mess with their weapons. That was last night though. Could she actually still be there? With Ruby?
The thought made him jump to the other two members of his team. He flashed the light at the other two beds in the room, and just like before, both were empty.
Pyrrha and Ren each also went out with a different member of their sister team, RWBY. Nora, again, had gone with Ruby to the forge to do maintenance on their weapons, Pyrrha had gone with Yang to spar in the combat arenas, and Ren and Weiss went to the library to study up for a test in Oobleck's class, on a Friday of all days. Which meant that had left him and Blake back here at the dorms.
Maybe Blake would know why their not back yet.
The thing was it was still dark out. Which meant Blake was probably still asleep.
Jaune sighed and opted to just sit back down on his bed. He was worried about his team no doubt, then again he was talking about his team after all. He really didn't need to worry about them. They could take care of themselves, but being a leader really just did that to you.
With a quick glance at his clock which now read 7:51, he got up and decided to get dressed, regardless of the actual time.
He went to the closet and grabbed his usual set of clothes and began undressing. As he got done pulling his hoodie over his head he heard a knock on his door. Jaune moved towards the door while simultaneously putting his belts on. The door was knocked on a second time but was interrupted by Jaune opening it.
Blake Belladonna stood in the doorway looking quite concerned.
"Oh, hey Blake." Jaune offered.
"Um, hey." She said back.
"A little early for you to be getting up isn't it?" He asked honestly. She was fully dressed and even had her weapon on her back.
She reached up and scratched her human ear awkwardly, not really sure how to approach the situation.
"Yeah, about that, did by any chance your clock get set forward two hours?"
Jaune nodded. "Yep. It would seem our team's pranksters were in cahoots I guess."
Blake sighed in relief. "Right, right. Nobody has come back from your team though?"
"Nope. I guess I can assume the same with yours?" He asked scratching the back of his head.
"Uh-huh." She concurred.
They proceeded to fall into a awkward silence at that point.
Jaune didn't know what it was with Blake but he just couldn't seem to fully talk to her one on one. Sure the rare remarks to each other while their teams were together but, not a full on conversation. He of course tried to but she always seemed so distant, so invested in her book that he couldn't get through to her. Plus, he didn't know if she still held that slight slip up in the library at the start of second semester against him. He hoped she didn't.
In this case though, it would seem they each had a similar issue that needed to be attended to.
"You, maybe wanna go find them together?" He asked, sounding like an awkward teen asking a girl out.
Blake nodded. "Um, yeah, we should probably do that."
"Alright well, let me throw my armor on real quick and I'll be out in a sec."
"Sure thing, Pumpkin Pete." She said with a smirk at his hoodie.
He quirked his eyebrow and looked down at the same hoodie he had worn since he got here. "What?"
She rolled her eyes. "Nothing."
He shrugged and ran to get his armor from underneath his bed. The process of putting his chest plate on was quick but his shoulder guards always gave him problems. About ten minutes later he was ready to search.
"Alright, all done." Jaune said coming out of the dorm. "Shall we?"
Blake nodded at his gesture down the hall. "Let's."
As to be expected their slow journey together to the cafeteria was spent in silence. There really wasn't much to talk about at the moment other than the fact that their teammates were missing. The thing is they had already established what needed to be so that awkward air between the two proceeded to return. It probably would have remained that way if something hadn't caught Blake's eye.
"Where's your weapon?"
Jaune looked down at his hip and back up to her. "Oh, when I found out Nora was going to the forge with Ruby I had her take my weapon to the smith along with a blueprint for an upgrade I was thinking of adding."
Blake quirked her eyebrow at that. "What kind of upgrade? Your not adding a gun are you?"
"What? Hell no." Jaune scoffed. "I don't think my weapon is fit for a integrated firearm. Well, I guess I could go for what Dove has but, his doesn't come with a shield, so."
"Well, what is it?"
"I was hoping for it to be a bit of a secret." Jaune shrugged. "Y'know, save the reveal for combat class or something."
Blake nodded. "Fair enough, but wait."
She stopped in the hall causing him to do the same.
"Your telling me you gave something that you wanted to keep secret, to Nora."
Jaune looked at her for a second with questioning eyes before they widened to the size of the moon.
"Oh."
Blake chuckled a bit at his ignorance. "Not your best course of action now was it?"
Jaune put his head in his hand. "No it wasn't." Came his mumbled reply.
"But she didn't ask what it was when I gave it to her so, maybe she didn't look." He said putting his hands up.
"With Ruby with her, I doubt it." Blake said as she continued to walk.
Jaune just sighed. "Yeah, your probably right."
"You live and you learn I guess." She shrugged.
"Yep. Alright here we are..." He trailed off.
"What is...oh."
They each stopped in front of the cafeteria doors in favor of walking over to the exit located right next to the cafeteria.
"What time is it?" Blake asked looking out of the the windows of the doubled doors.
Jaune reached into his pocket and checked the time. "It's 8:30."
He looked up from his scroll and scrunched his eyes up and looked outside. Had Nora also messed with his scrolls clock? He didn't think she knew his password, nor did he think they had the same fingerprint. This wasn't making since.
"I'm starting to think they didn't mess with our clocks." He voiced aloud.
Blake nodded curiously, ears wiggling in her bow. "Yeah." She then moved to open the door and walk outside.
As Blake walked out, Jaune went to stand outside as well, keeping the door open as he watched her. She came to a stop about 20 feet away from the entrance and just looked around.
"See anything?" Jaune asked. "Cause I sure as hell can't."
Blake didn't answer, too keen on just observing this assumed natural phenomena. That was the thing though. Was it natural? Was it an eclipse? Did remnant have rare days of complete darkness? Was it because of the Grimm? At the sudden thought Blake became much more aware of the current situation.
It would actually make sense too. It wasn't as if it were the nighttime darkness everyone was used too. Jaune had just confirmed this for her. She was even having problems seeing beacons green tower in the sky, and she was a faunas. The thing was she didn't sense anything within the darkness either. She didn't know if her senses were nullified or something but, she decided she didn't want to linger on it, especially out here.
"No, I don't either." She answered finally turning back to the entrance.
Jaune shifted uncomfortably at hearing that. "But your a- y'know, and you still don't see anything?"
Under other circumstances she might have commented on his slip up but, ignored it entirely. "No." She said simply before walking back to the doors. She came to a stop beside him and turned back around. "Whatever is happening though, is really starting to freak me out."
"Hey guys!"
The two huntsman in training nearly jumped out of their skin at the sound of Sun Wukong making his presence known behind them.
"Damn it, Sun, you scared the shit out of me!" Blake turned on him furious.
"Well sorry, it's not like I meant to. I was just, excited to see you is all. Hey man!" He said turning to Jaune with an extend fist, who was still recovering.
"Sup dude." He said bumping fists though slightly winded.
"What are you guys doing anyway? Checking out the darkness outside? Yeah, thought it was weird too, didn't really think much of it though." Sun said moving to get a better look outside.
"That sounds just like you. Not thinking about anything." Blake said with a deadpan expression.
"Oh, c'mon! Y'know ya love me." He finished with a grin.
Blake did her best to hide it but couldn't help but smirk a little at her fellow faunas' antics.
Jaune, found himself smiling a bit too watching the pair. They were from completely opposite ends of the spectrum personality wise but, they went together great.
He was so caught up in their exchange he hadn't notice the other occupant standing not to far off, awkwardly. "Sky?"
His remark got the attention of Sun and Blake who both looked over at said boy. "Hey." Was all he offered.
"What are you doing here?" Blakes eyes narrowed at him.
"Oh!" Sun said stepping back inside to stand next to him. "I bumped into Sky on my way to get a bite to eat. He was on his way to do the same, so we started chatting on our way over here."
"Really?" Jaune asked skeptically. "With a faunas?" Blake followed him up accusingly.
"We're trying to change ok." Sky said suddenly exasperated. "Ever since the forever fall thing Cardin has been keeping all of us in check. That right, Cardin. Have you noticed us getting on anyone's case recently?"
Jaune folded his arms and just looked at him. He hadn't noticed his team do anything recently. Not since forever fall in check. He guessed that little stunt in forever fall had actually changed Cardin.
"Well, that's good to hear." He said nodding to him. After he said that he could feel Blake's questioning gaze.
"Like you said Blake..." He said turning toward her. "You live and you learn."
At her logic being thrown back in her face Blake just sighed. "Fine."
"And speaking of Cardin, has anyone seen him?" Sky asked. "I've also been looking for him."
"No, we haven't." Jaune answered for Blake. "We're looking for our teammates too, your welcome to tag along in search for Cardin to."
Once again he felt Blake's glare on the side of his head again. Even though what they had put him through he still wasn't the type to hold a grudge.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll look for him on my own." He said walking forward brushing past Jaune.
"I thought you said you were hungry?" Sun asked.
"I am, but I find the whereabouts of my team a little more important." He yelled from behind him as he walked outside.
"Really?" Blake asked Jaune.
"What, he seemed genuine, somewhat."
She rolled her eyes. "Your a little to forgiving don't ya think?"
"What can I say, I'm more of a forgive and forget type of guy."
"You guys gonna do the same, you said your teams were missing." Sun said.
"We were going to check the cafeteria first, but got side tracked." Jaune told him about to close the door.
"AHHHHHH!"
"What the hell?" Sun said stepping outside. Blake followed him up albeit cautiously. Jaune remained by the door.
"Sky!" Sun yelled.
"Sky?" This time Jaune.
Their only response was silence. It was all there was, until something came flying out of the darkness. Blake and Sun had back of as it almost undercut their legs.
It was Sky's Halberg.
"I-is that blood?" Sun asked backing away.
"Yeah I-I think so." Blake responded.
"Guys." Both Sun and Blake turned to look at Jaune who had a look of mortification. He then motioned for them to get back inside with a simple hand gesture.
The two looked at each other before bolting. Once they crossed the threshold of the door, Jaune had it closed.
The Three turned back towards the door and looked back out into the blackness.
"What the hell is going on?" Sun yelled.
Jaune put his back to the door and slid down it. "Whatever it is...I really hope the others haven't gotten caught in it."
A/n
And that's the first chapter. Let me know what you guys think.
