One More Chance

Chapter 9 - Sunshine and Rainbows

A/N: I know I said that I'd be working on something else this time, but... ah fuck it. Here's the first chapter to the Jaune Arc arc. (heh)

"Jaune, do you ever miss your family?"

"All the time, Weiss. All the time."

- Weiss Schnee reminiscing with Jaune Arc, 1 year after the Fall of Beacon, 1 year before the Fall of Atlas

Arthur and Bianca arrived at Vale with hardly any disturbance in their trip.

"Ah… home sweet home." Arthur muttered with a smile, "At least, what's supposed to be my home, I wouldn't know. What do you think Bianca?"

Bianca rolled her eyes with a smile, "I think this place feels much more like home already." She muttered as she saw what looked to be a family with children of various hair colors waving towards them. She, along with Arthur, waved back at them with a smile.

"Well," Arthur muttered to himself, "I guess I'd come back home eventually after all…" He said, and it was barely heard by Bianca, making her frown at him for a moment. "I've missed them."

Bianca's face softened and she put a hand on his shoulder. "Now you're back."

"I guess I am." Arthur smiled at her, "Let's go."

Bianca nodded and they both walked towards the Arc's.

"Wow, her hair is even whiter than mom's…" Carmine, the one with red hair, Bianca remembered, said. "It never looked that bright when we called through the scroll."

Bianca smiled, "Well, scrolls can't capture everything perfectly after all." She muttered before looking at all the girls. "Carmine, Tania, Jeanne, Olivia, Azure, Indigo, Violet, and… Mrs. Isabella Arc." All of them smiled and perked up at the mention of their names, with Isabella nodding at Bianca.

"Ah! She remembers us!" Tania, who had brown hair, squealed while shaking Jeanne, who had yellow hair, beside her. "Jeanne, come on! Weren't you excited to meet her?"

"A-ah? What? N-no—I mean—" Jeanne stuttered, panicking as she looked between Bianca, Carmine and Tania.

"Tania, please." Carmine, who had red hair, said as she put a hand on Tania's shoulder. "Let Jeanne approach as she wishes."

Bianca just chuckled before she looked at the male Arc's. "And of course, Jaune and Alexander Arc. A pleasure to meet all of you."

"Always with the introduction." Arthur chuckled, "Well, yeah, anyways, since you girls seem more excited to meet Bianca than me, I'll leave her to all of you for now."

"W-wait! That's not—" Jeanne started to speak but was interrupted by Arthur's hand ruffling her hair.

"I'm just kidding, Jeanne. Seriously though, have fun with her, you guys seem more fun than the Schnee's so let her have some fun. I have some stuff to talk with your dad and Jaune here." Arthur said, smiling down at Jeanne, who blinked and blushed slightly, before nodding. Arthur then removed his hand from her head and went towards Alexander and Jaune to talk with them.

Bianca stared at Arthur for a moment, before suddenly she was swarmed by the girls who started to ask her a lot of questions. Well, mostly Tania and Violet—the one with violet hair—but regardless, she smiled and entertained them for now.

Besides, it wasn't everyday she was able to spend time with a normal family for once.

Thinking about it, that's rather sad. But she didn't really care, at least she was here now.

She might as well get to know more about the Arc family, she supposed.

They arrived at the Arc Manor not too long after Arthur and Bianca met up with the Arc's.

Now, Arthur and Jaune were at the backyard, with Jaune doing some push-ups as Arthur watched him.

Arthur frowned while Jaune struggled with his exercise, but pushed through it with gritted teeth.

Arthur was crouched besides Jaune's struggling form, when he saw that Jaune was about to collapse, he used his Semblance over Jaune.

He used it again now, barely feeling anything as he sent Aura to Jaune, who had a lot of Aura himself.

Jaune glowed white again, and he took a deep breath, before continuing his training again. Arthur didn't like the fact that he did this, it was basically exploiting the fact that he could fix anything that gets broken really quickly. That, and the side effects.

But he knew that Jaune could take it unlike the others who had trained with him in this way before, particularly, people like Ruby and Nora. But he didn't need to remember that now.

"We have a long way to go Jaune." Arthur muttered, "Do you think you're up for this?"

"Y…yeah." Jaune grunted out, "I… didn't ask dad to unlock my Aura for nothing…" Jaune was sweating hard, he wasn't even wearing a shirt at this point just because of how soaked it usually gets as he does this kind of training. He pushed against the ground again, struggling against the weight behind his back, but he managed to push through before slowly going down and repeating the process again.

Arthur sighed, "We're on a time limit. The Beacon Entrance Exams have already begun and the cut-off point is a month from now. We're going to need to get you through some extremely intensive training just to get you ready for it." He paused for a moment, letting Jaune process his words. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Jaune grunted as he continued his push-ups. He wanted to do this. Well, no, at this point he had to do this. What use would his Aura be if he didn't go to Beacon and became a Hunter there?

All of it would have been useless.

A waste.

He was tired of that.

"You will face many challenges."

So what?

"You will bleed,"

And?

"You will feel what it's like to live right next to death,"

And? What did he care?

"You will lose,"

So? He's lost a lot of things already.

"You're… you're going to lose what you love."

That made Jaune pause. He turned and looked at Arthur's eyes and saw just how lost he was.

"Are you ready for that Jaune?"

He…

Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He couldn't imagine what it was like to lose his family.

But, he supposed it would have only been natural.

"I'm not going to lose what I love." Jaune muttered, continuing to push against the ground. "I'll use my strength for what is right."

"But what if you don't know what is right?" Arthur asked, and Jaune frowned, sighing.

"I… I guess I'll just hope to whatever being is out there to lead me to the right path."

"But what if that being doesn't hear you?"

Jaune paused, but this time he smiled, and chuckled. Even Arthur was confused. Why was Jaune chuckling?

"What are you talking about Arthur?" Jaune laughed, "If that being didn't hear me then why are you here right now?"

Arthur blinked, before understanding what Jaune just said. "I guess you're right." He muttered, smiling. "Then, Jaune, do you want to proceed with the next part of your training?" Arthur stood up, before removing the weights behind Jaune's back and offering an arm to him.

Jaune blinked and let himself be pulled up by Arthur. "Sure, what is it?"

"Get your armor. We're heading to the Emerald Forest." Arthur said, smiling.

Jaune just blinked, before nodding and getting his armor.

Arthur just watched Jaune get his armor for a moment, before muttering to himself, "How could I forget…?"

He forgot the one thing he asked for way back then.

He asked for a mentor to teach him.

He supposed that Pyrrha was his mentor before.

Now, he was the mentor to himself, Jaune.

Arthur just chuckled and shook his head.

Whatever being was up there, he just thanked it.

Though if he were to be honest, he really didn't understand whatever it is that being was planning. But he supposed he could go with it.

He was given one more chance after all.

He looked inside the house and his eyes met Bianca's.

They were given one more chance.

And it could be their last.

So they had to make it right this time.

He then looked as Jaune was now in his armor and had Crocea Mors by his hip.

Arthur nodded, before turning around and motioning for Jaune to follow him.

It was time for the second phase of training.

"So what was it like in your home?" Olivia, the green haired Arc, asked.

Bianca hummed and shrugged, "Home is a rather relative term, at least with how Arthur and I used to live. We travelled from place to place, not really much of anywhere to stay on for longer than days at a time."

Olivia blinked, and Tania asked next, "How was it like moving from place to place? I could only think that it wasn't really always all that pleasant."

"Oh no, it was far from that." Bianca chuckled, "Grimm everywhere, following us every now and then. It wasn't a very peaceful life as you could imagine, out of the borders of Atlas."

"Must have been cold…" Jeanne muttered, not meeting Bianca's eyes as she looked to the floor, Bianca smiled at her.

"It was." Bianca nodded, "But we lived how we had to live. Arthur, our friends, and I, we had one another. For a while at least, then it was down to just Arthur and I." Bianca said with a shrug. "Things don't always last, I suppose, and we had to move onto other places at some point."

The girls nodded, a more somber tone taking over the room.

"But that was then. Now Arthur and I are just looking to start anew and hope to share what we learned to those who need it. Better for the new generation to be prepared in facing the darkness than not." Bianca said, smiling at the women of the Arc Family.

"So the two of you are looking to become Professors at Beacon then? Why did you guys come here before going to Beacon?" Tania asked,

"I was interested in that as well, I would have expected the two of you to go to Beacon Academy first." Isabella asked, making Bianca look at her.

Bianca hummed at that, "Well, it's more because of a personal thing for Arthur." The others made a noise of understanding at that. "Yeah. Just as I had trained both my cousins, Winter and Weiss, Arthur wants to train Jaune as well since he wants to be a Hunter."

"Why Jaune? Isn't it too late for him to become a Hunter?" Surprisingly, Jeanne, of all people, asked. Her eyes were narrowed as she looked at Bianca, who understood just what it was Jeanne was feeling.

She was worried for her brother. And it wouldn't be unfounded either. Especially with how it would normally be too late for Jaune to try to be a Hunter now.

"Maybe." Bianca nodded, "But Arthur's the best at using a sword and shield as a weapon as far as I know. Jaune would learn a lot from him."

"But isn't it dangerous?" Jeanne asked,

"It is." Bianca agreed, "But just as Arthur and I have accepted the fact that we would be the best people to teach many hunters-in-training on surviving in many different situations. Jaune has accepted the fact that he'd become a Hunter and that he could die." Bianca closed her eyes before sighing, "Arthur and I have accepted that we were going to die out there beyond the borders. Even before we took up our weapons. Jaune himself, and so does my cousin, Weiss, understand that. They know what they're walking into." She looked straight at the blue eyes of Jeanne. "They have their own reasons, but Jaune wants to protect the things he loved, and to live up to the family name—"

"But we don't care about that!" Jeanne was on the verge of tears,

"—and he knows that." Bianca frowned. "I may not have met Jaune very well yet, but I can see much of the same things in him that I do in Arthur." Jeanne's tears started to fall, but she stayed silent and listened. "He knows what he wants to protect. That's you. He knows that he doesn't have to prove himself to any of you. Not even to his father or grandfather. But he needs to prove it to himself." Bianca sighed, "Jeanne, how would you feel if you felt that you were powerless to do anything, but you want to do something? Wouldn't you want to prove it to yourself that you can stop being powerless?"

Jeanne stayed silent, and looked down on the ground. She felt the comforting hands of her sisters on her back, but she didn't care about that.

Of course she knew what Jaune felt. He was her twin brother after all.

But… she also knew that just as she was fortunate to be skilled in many things that she wished to do, Jaune wasn't.

Sure, he was great at cooking, sewing, and many other things which one would consider rather feminine, but was he powerful?

More than a normal person, sure, but as a Hunter? No.

She knew that he was weak compared to everyone else.

Jaune was intelligent. At least as far as she can see.

But…

Jeanne sniffled, closing her eyes as she grit her teeth.

But he wanted to prove himself. Not for anyone else but for himself.

Who was she to judge?

She… she had everything she wanted.

But… she didn't want to lose him either.

Jaune was her beloved twin brother. She didn't know what she'd do if she were to lose him.

"I…" Jeanne gulped, taking a deep, shaky, breath, before looking up at Bianca who just looked at her with an understanding look. "I would." She would… "But. I don't want to lose him. I… I don't want to lose Jaune."

Bianca just chuckled, and kneeled in front of Jeanne, brushing her golden hair. "Jeanne, you won't lose Jaune." She smiled at Jeanne, who couldn't help but start to sob. "I may not be an Arc, but… just as I know Arthur would promise this to you, I promise to you that you won't lose Jaune."

Jeanne felt Bianca's arms around her and she started to sob even more, "I… I'm so sorry for…"

"Don't be." Bianca whispered. "I understand, Jeanne." Jeanne slowly put her arms around Bianca's form crying into her shoulder. "I promise to you. You won't lose Jaune. You have my word. And… a Schnee never leaves a debt owed."

Jeanne couldn't help but chuckle at that. "T-Thank you…"

"You should thank Arthur. Not me. I'm just his partner." Bianca muttered, caressing Jeanne's hair, calming her down. "He'll make sure that you won't ever have to lose Jaune."

Jeanne knew that she would lose Jaune eventually, but at least with what Bianca said to her, she won't have to lose him to death or the Grimm.

That was all she asked for.

And that was all she needed.