Chapter 3: The Truth
Days passed by and most of the students started their daily routine. Getting up, attending class, but also still helping out the custodians with the aftermath of the battle. Team RWBY and NR decided to go see their friend at the infirmary.
"I really hope he is ok. I can't imagine the kind of pain he is going through right now." Yang said with a worried look.
"I think it would be best if we give him more time to himself. Something like that isn't something that anyone can get over in days." Blake recommended.
"What he needs are his friends to comfort him and show him that we are here for him." Ruby said with a serious tone.
Finally, they reached the room he was in, they opened the door to see that he wasn't in his bed or by the window where Ruby almost kissed him.
"Where is he? Where could he be at a time like this?" Weiss growled as she looked around the room.
"To think that I wasted a few minutes just to see that goofball".
Meeting
"Ah… Jaune Arc. I have something I wanted to discuss with you, which is why I called you here." Ozpin said, staring at Jaune with an interested look on his face. He sipped some coffee from his mug and continued to explain the reason for his meeting.
"I understand that you were one of the people on the battlefield days ago along with Ms. Nikos and I wanted to ask you, what exactly happened?" Ozpin asked, as he continued drinking his coffee.
"I don't want to talk about it." Jaune said, with a depressed look.
"I want to know what happened because I was told by a witness that a blonde knight with a woman they claimed to be Ms. Nikos were cornered by a large number of White Fang Soldiers in the forest."
Ozpin said with both eyes glued onto Jaune's face.
Witness? No that's impossible. There wasn't anybody else there other than me and Pyrrha in that god awful woods. Was he there? No that can't be right, me or even Pyrrha would have felt his presence. Not only that, but he would surely helped…would he? Jaune thought to himself.
"Yea… me and Pyrrha were at the forest during the attack. She…sacrificed herself to save me." Jaune trying his best not to breakdown and cry again.
"I am sorry for your loss Jaune. Was there anything else that happened after that?" Ozpin asked curiously.
"Anything else? You mean besides my close friend that was laying there emotionless rotting on the ground because of those sick and disgusting Faunus?!" Jaune said, trying his best not to yell.
"I didn't mean it like that Jaune. The witness said that they saw the blonde knight change into some sort of dark armored knight."
Dark armored knight? Is he serious? How can I turn to an armored knight? I don't even remember anything after Pyrrha's death. I had collapsed because of the exhaustion when I tried to help Pyrrha. He must be joking with me, surely I would remember something like that. Jaune thought to himself, trying to figure out what exactly Professor Ozpin is trying to get at.
"Now isn't the time for jokes professor Ozpin. I want to find the person responsible for the tragedy and make them pay." Jaune said as he slammed his hands on the desk and looked at the professor's face with eyes filled with rage.
"Calm down Jaune. You are going to break my desk."
Jaune looked down at the desk and noticed that his hands were breaking the legs from both corners of the desk.
"I… I'm sorry. I didn't know."
How did I do that? Is that just an adrenaline rush?
"I understand your frustration Jaune and I know how much you want to catch the person responsible for the incident, but you need to tell me what you remember after Pyrrha's death."
"I already told you what I remember… I don't remember anything. I don't remember this black knight and I don't remember what he did." Jaune said as he was already getting tired of listening to the professor.
"Then at least take a look at this." Professor Ozpin slid a video recording to Jaune that captured the incident that occurred in the forest.
What…what is this? That can't be me, I don't remember what happened after I lost conscious. I could have sworn that I collapsed. Is that really me? Jaune thought to himself as he watched the clip of him brutally killing the Faunus.
"I… I don't believe it. I couldn't have killed those Faunus, THAT CAN'T BE ME!" Jaune began to yell. He couldn't believe the fact that he butchered and dismembered the Faunus that stood before him. Even he can't see himself doing such an act.
"Calm down Jaune! You need to calm down!" Professor Ozpin said as he attempted to calm the blonde knight.
Jaune began to see the images of death and blood in his head. He started to remember what happened that night. He saw the images of Pyrrha as she jumped in front of Jaune to protect him from a spear that was thrown straight at him. He was seeing the images of him slaying the White Fang soldier one by one. Their faces gave a horrific expression as they drew their last breath before being butchered by the black knight.
Jaune's head began to hurt as he collapsed to the ground. The voices of his victims yelling for forgiveness before they were slaughtered began ringing in his head.
"STOP! MAKE THE VOICES STOP!" Jaune yelled, hoping that his yelling would make the screams go away.
"GLYNDA! BRING ME THE MEDICS TO MY OFFICE HURRY!" Ozpin yelled after dialing Glynda from his phone.
"I'm sorry Jaune." Ozpin said as he knocked the boy unconscious to ease him from his pain.
Back in the infirmary
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" Jaune screamed, looking at Pyrrha who stood in front of him. She had a spear lodged through her abdomen, nearly penetrating Jaune' body.
"Why did you let me die? Why Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. Blood was spilling out of her mouth, her emerald eyes were wide, as if she saw something terrifying.
"YOU DID THIS TO ME!"
"No I… I WANTED TO SA…" Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's neck and began choking him.
"Forgi…*gasp*ve… me…" Jaune said, desperately trying to get air.
*Gasp* Jaune woke up trying to get air into his lungs.
"JAUNE!" Yang yelled, shaking the boy who was on the bed.
"What… what's going on?"
"You were having a nightmare." Ruby asked the startled blonde who was trying to grasp what was going on.
"…Yea."
"Don't you worry, it's over now" Ruby told him, trying to comfort him.
The whole group began to explain to him what had happened. Jaune knew that something was wrong with him, but wouldn't tell any of them of what was wrong and what he was discussing with Professor Ozpin.
"Well I feel better now. I think I should head back to the room and get dressed, I need to get back on track and attend classes again." Jaune told the group who was worried about him.
"Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn't rush yourself. You just woke up and who knows if you have fully recovered." Ren said.
"Yea I'm sure, and besides, I don't want to get overflowed with school work the longer I wait. It would be best if I get back as quickly as possible" Jaune said with a small smile on his face. He walked out of the room and left to his dorm.
"He seems…fine, a little too fine." Blake said as the group watched the boy walk away.
"I find that a little too weird. No one can just wipe off what had happened just like that and pretend like that never happened." Yang said, squinting her eyes at Jaune.
"Maybe he is trying to hide what he really feels just to avoid having a depressing conversation." Weiss added.
"Well, we'll continue talking about it in a different time, we have class with goodwitch and we will really see if Jaune is fine." Yang said, as the group headed to class.
Sparring match
"Alright class. We will be having sparring matches today and it will consist of 2 teams comprised of 2 students each. I understand that some, if not all of you are tired, but you can never know what might happen next, and you should always be ready." As Ms. Goodwitch was about to begin the randomizer, Jaune walked in.
"Ah… Mr. Arc, so nice of you to join us. We were about to select the teams, but since you are here, I will add you to the list." Ms. Goodwitch proceeded to add him to the randomizer.
"Uh… WAIT! I don't really feel it up to it today!" Jaune said, scratching the back of his head.
"OH COME JAUNE! YOU LOOK READY TO ME!" Yang yelled at the boy who was somewhat far away.
"Ugh… fine… okay." Jaune headed towards his group of friends to take a seat.
"Very well, our first matchup will be… Ruby Rose and Nora Valkyrie vs Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee."
"Aw man." Ruby said quietly. She was hoping to get teamed up with Jaune.
"Don't be sad Ruby, WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS!" Nora said excitedly.
"She seems finally better." Yang said as she looked at Nora walk towards the arena alongside Ruby.
"I had to cheer her up every day and explain to her that everything was going to be ok." Ren told Yang.
The 2 teams reached the field and began readying there weapons.
"Wait a minute…" Jaune said as he began to search his back.
"What's the matter?" Asked Ren
"I forgot about my sword and shield."
"Well where did you leave it?" Yang asked with a little attitude, thinking that he was just making an excuse to not spar today.
"Back at the…" Jaune stopped. His face turned pale as he remembered where he had left it.
"Jaune are you alright? You look pale." Ren asked.
"I…I'm fine."
"So where did you leave it? Yang began to repeatedly ask.
"Where huh? Hello?"
"…I don't remember." Jaune said, with an angry tone.
"What's with the attitude?" Yang asked as she stood up from her seat and got close to Jaune.
"What attitude?" Jaune asked, starting to get annoyed.
"THAT ATTITUDE!" Yang grabbed the boy by his sweater.
"Let…me…go."
"HEY YOU TWO!" Professor Goodwitch yelled.
"If you want to spar that badly then I shall let you go first. This one will not be a double's match and instead will be a one on one match."
"What!" Jaune said loudly, surprised by the announcement.
"I'm fine with that." Yang said, grinning at the blonde annoyed knight.
"What about us?" Blake asked.
"You will be sparring after Mr. Arc's match."
Jaune…Ruby thought, as she began to worry about the fragile knight.
"Fine, whatever, but I need you to make it a hand to hand combat only match. I forgot to bring my weapon" Jaune told the professor.
"Sorry but that's your fault. The match will remain the same." Professor Goodwitch said.
"Damn you." Jaune quietly said while walking towards the field.
Yang began to remove her gauntlets to be in an equal field with Jaune.
"You will not disarm yourself Ms. Xiao Long."
"But…" Yang said, trying to reason with the professor.
"No buts!" Professor growled.
The two students took their stands. The students that were watching were asking each other why the professor was acting the way she was. Some were saying that she wasn't this strict and this was really out of her character.
"Let the sparring match… begin!"
Jaune quickly got into his hand to hand combat stand. Before the tragedy, he had been practicing heavily with Pyrrha on how to fight without using his weapons. Luckily, this was the perfect time to use it. Yang immediately shot at the boy several times to which Jaune was able to dodge them successfully, but tripped in the last evasion. Jaune knew that he wouldn't be able to block Yang's fury attacks because of her gauntlets that can easily injure him even though his aura can somewhat reduce the damage taken. Yang took notice and ran towards the knight to take advantage and performed a heavy jump attack. Jaune rolled to the side and avoided the heavy hit that shattered the cement floor. Jaune grabbed Yang's arm and attempted to go for an arm bar, but Yang anticipated this and used her other arm to shoot at Jaune who had his back to the floor. Jaune didn't have time to dodge and had to take the hits head on. Jaune was pushed back from the shots and used the momentum to get back on his feet. As he looked back at the feisty girl, Yang was already running towards him, unleashing a devastating cross punch. Jaune without hesitation ducked and went for a strong hook to Yang's stomach. To his fortune, this knocked the air out of Yang and she quickly collapsed to both knees, trying to get oxygen back at her lungs. Jaune unleashed a powerful kick to Yang's face that sent the girl flying to the other side.
"YANG!" Ruby yelled. Shocked to see what happened to her big sister.
Jaune looked at Ruby's face that held a worried look.
Without warning he was immediately sent flying by a devastating right hook by Yang whose semblance activated after the devastating kick. The attack knocked the White Knight to the other side of the arena, shattering the wall. And just like that, the match was over. Jaune was completely unconscious and was quickly sent back to the infirmary.
Here is another chapter everyone. This took a little longer than expected because college classes started and I only had a few hours to type out the chapter. No worries though, I shall continue with this and I hope you still stick around whether the chapters start getting boring or not. I will see you guys next time. Oh by the way, I am still accepting possible ships for my boy Jaune. I have a few requests already, and if you have an idea, feel free to pm me or something that will get me to read your requests. Laters!