REMNANT, VALE, BEACON ACADEMY, 6:44PM

After a long, hard day for Marcus and also an hour and a half in Ozpin's office, it's finally good to feel the finish of the school hour. Even though there's more to come tomorrow, he doesn't mind. As he makes his way to his dorm(which is at the top floor and currently, he's outside), he notices a girl sitting on a bench with a gloomy expression.

Pyrrha.

Marcus looked at her with curiosity as she never seems to look like this ever. He decides to walk up to where Pyrrha was.

"Hey Pyrrha, what's wrong?" Marcus asked.

"Mm?" Pyrrha looked up and soon changed. "Oh, uhh, it's nothing, thanks for asking."

"You know," Marcus said. "I already saw your face and I was like, "is she okay?" Something bothering you?"

"Marcus, it's fine. I'm just thinking about the next day." She replied, trying to dismiss the topic.

"Come on, Pyrrha. Just tell me what's wrong," Marcus told her, this time not in humor. "That look on your face definitely tells me something's not right."

Pyrrha glanced at Marcus, then turned to the stone ground before taking a deep breath. "I-It's about Jaune."

"Jaune? Your leader? What's up with him?"

"It's just; he's been avoiding me since we had this talk about his skill on fighting."

"So, you're saying he's been doing crap?"

"Almost the point," Pyrrha said. "But things went out of control and we had a fight. Then he stormed off."

Marcus' face turned to a grim look. "What made him do that?"

"I don't know. But the problem is, ever since he left, he's been hanging out with his bully, Cardin."

As soon as Marcus heard it, his heart went into panic mode. "Cardin?! Jaune's hanging out with that prick?! Why?"

"I don't know, that's the question," Pyrrha said. "He's been doing errands for him and when he sees me, he runs off."

"That means Cardin must have manipulated him or just, literally brainwashed him, don't ya think?" Marcus asked.

"No, I don't think he was brainwashed. I believe he's been controlled to do those things."

Marcus stayed silent for a while, before getting out his phone and typing a message. On the phone, he's texting to Jaune with the message, which shows:

Jaune, let's meet at the rooftop, 7:10 sharp.

"I'll deal with the problem."

"What are you doing?" Pyrrha asked, standing up.

"I'm going to help y'all with his issue," Marcus replied, running off. "If this can't be fixed, then it's going to get worse!" He called as he ran.

Pyrrha watched him run to the dorms and open the door. She then looks around. The night still brews on with the shattered moon on sight. Pyrrha soon walked to the dorm where Marcus was and disappeared through the cold smoke.

MEANWHILE…

Jaune took soft steps through the hallway as he carries a opened box with several batches of flies inside. Of course, he's doing a job but it's worse. Cardin, his bully, has officially made him his friend and just told him to retrieve a box of rapier wasps. Yes, lying to people, he doesn't mind but lying his way to an academy? That's a big issue. He soon arrives at the door of team CRDL and knocks on it. The door opens, which reveals Russel in his school uniform.

"In here." He says, making way for him.

Jaune makes his way past Russel as he slowly walks to a desk where Cardin was. Basically, Cardin's just playing on his scroll and soon turned his head.

"Well, well," He said, impressed. "Looks like the rebel just got his hands on the bites."

"Yeah," Jaune stocked the box onto the desk, panting as he wiped his forehead. "7 jars of rapier wasps in it, just like you asked."

"Bravo." One of Cardin's friends, Sky said.

After doing so, Cardin moves onto Jaune and holds him with his arms around his head.

"Heh, looks like you're gonna be a real star for us." Cardin said, chuckling. "Meet us at Forever Fall, it's gonna be tomorrow. Find us around the open area. We'll be waiting."

Jaune was then set free. He fell to the ground like paper.

"Either way, you still fall like a woman. Now get outta here." Cardin said, ushering Jaune out of the room, slamming the door in front of him. Just before Jaune opened his mouth, Cardin reopened the door.

"And Jauney-boy? You know about the secret-keeping thing." After saying it, he closed the door again.

Jaune stared at the door with a blank expression but a hint of desperation and sighed heavily. How's he going to deal with something he doesn't want anyone to know? His secret's already revealed and Cardin's using it as a weapon on him. Just as he was about walk back to the dorm, he heard his scroll beep.

Jaune reached the scroll from his pocket and opened the message box. In it, he received a message from Marcus which says:

Jaune, let's meet at the rooftop, 9:10 sharp.

Jaune's brain soon went crazy. Does Marcus know anything about this? He knows he can't tell anyone about his association with Cardin but Marcus is no normal person. He's a hacker, according to what Ruby told him. Jaune turned back to the door, still hearing voices of Cardin inside with his friends, laughing. He stared back at the scroll before cursing under his breath and heading to the rooftop. Maybe he's not really about to ask him about Cardin, or if he is, at least spill some beans to him.

LATER…

Jaune opened the door, leading to the rooftop. As he wandered onto the open roof, he looked around and gazed at the yet beautiful moon and the night light.

"Hello? Anyone?" He said, attracting anything's attention.

Jaune soon believed that Marcus' message was a hoax and groaned before turning to the door. As he approached the door, a person appeared in front of him. He gasped in shock with his face almost in fear.

Marcus. With a phone on his hand as usual.

"Hey, Jaune." He greeted with a casual smile, holding his free hand up.

"Oh, uh, hey Marcus." Jaune replied awkwardly, fistbumping Marcus' fist.

Marcus chuckled and walked past Jaune.

"Ya know," He started. "Everybody's been saying you've been acting super weird for the past few days. You've been taking drugs?"

Jaune was taken by surprise at Marcus' question. Why does he think Jaune took drugs? "What? No! I would never take drugs! I would never take them at all."

Marcus chuckled. "Of course, man. I'm just playing with ya."

"Okay. Now's getting serious." Marcus' face turned into a serious look. "I just heard you've had some issues with that prick Cardin and your partner Pyrrha has told me you're hanging out with him. Why's that?"

"Uh…"

"Wait." Marcus stopped him. He glanced down behind his back, looking at a window. "It's not safe to talk here. Let's head inside."

"But, everybody's asleep-"

"Just follow me. You can't trust a sleeping person, would ya?"

Jaune learned that Marcus had a point and followed Marcus out of the rooftop.

After a walk around the corridors, Jaune reluctantly agreed to tell Marcus the truth of how he really got to Beacon and why he was acting strangely.

"It's just, all I wanted was to be a huntsman," Jaune told him. "It's what my family wanted. But for me, it was difficult. I just shouldn't have come here."

"Hey, don't take it personally. We all have problems. Like myself." Marcus said.

"And I yelled at Pyrrha and what do I get? Avoidance from her. I shouldn't have done that but my mind just had me on control, like it was trying to make me care about just myself."

"And that's why Cardin went after you?" Marcus said. "Just because you used fake transcripts to get here?"

Jaune didn't respond but went after the lift in front of them. "If I didn't do such a stupid mistake like this, I wouldn't have gotten into this mess."

Marcus used his phone to open the lift. They both went in. Marcus hacked the lift to take them to Jaune's floor. "Look Jaune. What your friends, your teammates, your family, hell even me are doing a huge benefit for you. We want you to get through the first year of Beacon, we want you to improve what your old skill has. It can happen if you just accept your mistake."

Jaune looked at him as Marcus continued. "Look at yourself in the mirror. Convince yourself that this mistake was the best thing you ever did in your life." Marcus gestured Jaune to a mirror next to them. "Ignore those assholes that judge you. It's your freedom. Do what you want and you'll possibly receive."

Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening it again. It was filled with confidence. "I lied. I cheated my way to Beacon. All I wanted was to be a huntsman. That mistake was the best thing I ever did."

"Yeah, keep going." Marcus told him.

"I'm not letting anyone judge me who I am, what I did. Cardin won't stop me from doing those things I want to do. I'm Jaune Arc and I am a liar, a huntsman and the best damn thing I ever was!"

"Yeah! That's the spirit." Marcus smiled.

The lift opened after that, the boys went out. Marcus followed Jaune to his dorm, across where RWBY's was.

"Thanks for your motivative speech, Marcus," Jaune said, turning around to Marcus. "I appreciated it."

"Hey, no problem, bro. We're all here for y'all."

The two gave a goodbye fistbump before wishing each other a good night. Marcus watched as Jaune closed the door into the room. He smiled before silently celebrating. Marcus took a stroll away from the rooms as he returned to the lift.

"Alright. Next up, Cardin." He muttered as the lift's doors shut.

2 down, 1 to go! Part 2 of Blackmailed has been finished, now it's the last part of this mini-series. Sorry about the long delay a month ago, the schedule will possible flow as usual. At Tide's War is still in production but it'll come, which is my next target to complete. Anyways, here are some news for you all.

As mentioned in the first chapter of At Tide's War, I partnered up with The95Will(author of Jaune's Fall from Grace) to beta-read my upcoming chapter, EMBER. It's going to be a character introduction of one of my OC's Ember Dvorak. He'll make his appearance shortly in this series. Anyways, that's all I have so see you all later!

Reviews and critiscm appreciated