RWBY: The Redeemer


I just watched what Ruby's Silver Eyes did to those Apathy Grimm in episode 6... HOLY SHIT.

Well, without further ado, enjoy and R&R!


Beta read by Starlight's Poet

Chapter 10 - Jaunedice (I)

It was another new morning at Beacon Academy, as Pyrrha Nikos woke up earlier than her teammates in her dorm room, per her daily routine dictated. The discipline that she had trained upon herself ever since she had participated in Mistral Regional Tournament for the first time.

She looked around her room, the light of sunrise shone through the small gaps of the curtain, illuminating a small, middle part of the room. Still, it was enough for her to get a clear vision of her sleeping teammates - no, her new friends. She smiled at the sight of them.

Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren actually knew of her and her fame in Mistral; having grown up there together. However, they were willing, and able to see past her fame, and talk to her as a person, albeit in their own way.

Nora's bubbly persona and the way she acted around her like a child, made it impossible for Pyrrha to dislike her. In fact, Nora was more excited at the fact that Pyrrha was a mascot for a cereal box rather than a tournament champion - which Pyrrha found amusing.

Lie Ren, on the other hand, had a calm demeanour that allowed him to see Pyrrha as a teammate and fellow student of Beacon Academy instead of some untouchable celebrity, a gesture that Pyrrha could wholeheartedly respect without difficulty.

Her smile widened when her eyes laid upon the sight of her team leader - Jaune Arc. While Ren and Nora had semblances of respect and reverence towards her achievements, the awkward blonde completely did not know her; hence he approached and talked to her as if she was just another normal girl - which sounded like a music to her ears.

In addition, he had made a good impression through his tactical mind during initiation, allowing them to get around and ambush a veteran huntsman, thus landing them a spot on Beacon Academy. Not to mention, his attitude, as well as the onesie he put on for a sleepwear, kind of made him looked adorable in her eyes.

Snapping out her reverie, Pyrrha then proceeded to wash her face and get change in the bathroom, preparing herself for her morning exercise. Stepping out from the dorm in a red jersey tracksuit, she took a deep breath of morning air and did a few stretches before she started jogging, enjoying the fresh morning atmosphere as she added small bounces in her steps.

Following a footpath around the dormitory and campus buildings, Pyrrha later found a familiar back jogging ahead of her. She picked up her pace to catch up, and soon she found that the said person was Sterling Cole in his own tracksuit, sporting earphones and listening to music as he jogged lightly.

"Good morning." she greeted as she matched her speed next to her teacher.

oXo

Claude took the earphone off his right ear as soon as he heard someone running and greeting next to him. He glanced to find one Pyrrha Nikos jogging next to him. "Oh, g'morning. How you doin'?"

The girl smiled at the casual greeting as she matched her pace with the man next to her. "I'm fine, thank you. I hope you slept well last night."

"Yeah, I did." Claude smiled at the gesture. "How 'bout you? How's the room? More like, how's your roomates?"

Somehow noticing the small inside joke, Pyrrha gave a small giggle. She never really heard anything about a huntsman of Sterling Cole's calibre before, but then again, he was a recent graduate of Beacon Academy at Vale, while she was from Mistral at different continent entirely.

To be honest, Pyrrha kind of expected a stricter or more formal attitude when it came to interactions with staff of Beacon Academy. However, Sterling gave her a refreshing learning experience that she did not find at Sanctum Academy, particularly from his speech during the first combat class.

She did not like to brag, but she did, in fact, defeat her own instructors back at Sanctum in multiple spars. While it boosted her confidence at first, it also push her further away from her peers - a truly invincible girl that could best even the likes of a veteran.

She believed even more that moving to Beacon was a correct decision. She had friends that would look her as their equals, and a teacher that made her want to improve herself even more. Sterling's words in regards of their match only built her growing respect even higher.

At that time, Pyrrha believed that her life at Beacon would change forever.

"Following the order…." Pyrrha then returned to the current conversation and replied to Claude's question. "I had a good night sleep, the room is comfortable, and my friends had been wonderful so far."

The two spent the rest of their morning run by exchanging small talks together, until Claude had to excuse himself earlier so he could prepare for the day, with Pyrrha also following soon after, back to her room.


Claude narrowed his eyes critically at the predicament before him - an awkward-looking blonde teenager holding a sword and shield.

It was another day of Glynda Goodwitch's combat class, and after fighting Pyrrha Nikos, as well as observing Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee on the other day, Claude intended to complete his full assessment on the rest of the first-years' combat abilities, either by fighting them directly or pitting them against one another.

Nora Valkyrie was the most eager to have the first round - Claude had to say that the girl was full of energy. It was surprising, yet not surprising at the same time, to see a girl could swing a hammer with Magnhild's size with such ease. It was either Nora was talented in her own way, or she had a really good teacher.

Not to mention, Claude was still impressed at the hybrid technology that implanted into the weapon, which allowed the hammer to transform into a grenade launcher. After all, back in his day, transforming weapons were still considered uncommon.

In addition, Nora's Semblance also allowed her to be a great asset in either solo or team battle, not to mention that it was a counter for Claude's own Semblance. She could channel electricity current that was inflicted to her own body, to enhance her strength; although she could not generate electric current itself. However, Claude deemed there was still a slight chance of possibility for her to develop such ability with enough training.

The next contender was Yang Xiao Long; not unlike Nora, albeit she preferred to use her fists - in which the hits were enhanced by her shotgun gauntlets Ember Celica. She packed a mean punch, and that was not counting her Semblance.

Claude easily recognised that her fighting style was based on her father, and her Semblance could absorb hits inflicted upon her to boost her own strength in return, but the damages themselves did not actually heal. That aside, Claude could see that Yang was potentially the physically strongest first-year students in Beacon, along with Nora.

Much to Claude's amusement, Yang's Semblance was accompanied with her blonde hair lit up in flames, and her lilac-coloured eyes turned into a familiar shade of red orbs.

However, while Yang's hand-to-hand was not bad, her fighting style was obviously based on her father, but due to her lack of wits and experience, Claude found her moves so easy to predict. Not to mention, she had a short fuse that made it easier for Claude to exploit several, amateurish openings out of her. Personally, Claude thought that fighting Taiyang was more difficult.

One more thing - watched the hair. Apparently, Yang took really good care of her golden mane.

Next one was Lie Ren. His weapon, Storm Flower - a twin hybrid knife and automatic pistol, did not possess much fire power, but its firing rate was kind of nuisance to him.

Unlike how Nora and Yang aggressively engaging him, Ren's stoic and calm look made him hard to get a read on, much to Claude's slight annoyance. The boy in green was certainly not bad, pretty average, rather, a normal kind of good. However, perhaps Ren's constant calmness was his special edge on the battlefield. The boy was cool and smooth as a cucumber.

What really caught Claude's attention, however, was Ren's control over his aura. Claude did not know of Ren's Semblance yet, but the latter's martial arts style allowed him to utilise Aura not only as a shield, but as an offensive weapon as well.

Thus, so far, Claude was rather impressed.

Blake Belladonna had a similar calm air like Ren. However, there was one distinction.

She was agile, her movements were sharp, and her Semblance made her hard to hit. In fact, Claude dared to say that among team RWBY, Blake most likely was the most skillful.

However, through his observation, Claude also noticed there was some edge in the way Blake carried herself. Sure, she was calm and not easily taunted like Ren, but there was a sense of experience; as if she was no stranger to combat.

By combat, Claude did not mean the type where the combatants followed the words of a referee; he meant a real combat, where lives were on the line, where defeat could very well mean death.

However, everything was different, not in a good way, with Claude's current opponent - Jaune Arc. The teacher could not help but quirked his eyebrows.

What the hell is he doing?

There were tons of opening in Jaune's stance, his footing was not steady enough, and the way he held his sword and shield - Crocea Mors was just…. Awkward.

Claude knew that Jaune's transcript was forged and the boy did not have a drop of aura before the initiation. But he could not be that bad, could he? After all, he did manage to catch him off-guard and stole a relic from him, even with his friends backing him up.

One might have thought that Jaune's awkward stance was a bait to some kind of trap, but Claude quickly dismissed the idea as he took another look at the blonde's face. The kid was a nervous wreck, Claude could even see the subtle shakings of his opponent's limbs.

In conclusion, Jaune Arc had no idea what he was doing, and what he should have done.

"Et tu….You okay, man?" Claude ended up asking; after all, there was still a chance that Jaune might be under the weather.

"Huh?" Jaune blinked as if he just snapped out of a stupor. "Oh, um… Yeah… Yeah, I'm good." His grip on his weapon tightened, his feet shuffled a bit, but his stance was not turning any better.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Claude then nodded before using his free hand to gesture his sparring partner to come at him. Jaune quickly caught the cue, after taking another breath, he roared and dashed at Claude.

"So slow!" Claude could not help but think as he watched Jaune marching towards him. "Is he really using his sword? Why is he flailing his shield like that?!"

In the end, as soon as Jaune was within arm's length, Claude simply threw a quick left jab right at Jaune's face. The hit caused Jaune to stop, before he staggered and fell on his rear with his nose throbbing and vision swimming.

Claude himself only watched Jaune dazed and struggled to stand back up. "...The hell, bro?" He was not even trying; Claude came to a new conclusion, Jaune Arc was indeed that bad, if not worse.

As Jaune slowly got back on his feet, Claude sent a look at Glynda, who only replied with quirking an eyebrow without a word. When Jaune regained his vision and was about to charge again, Claude held his palm up.

"Alright, stop right there!"

Huh?

Not only Jaune, but the rest of the students blinked at Claude's sudden outburst. Glynda, on the other hand, simply showed a curious expression. "You are doing this wrong." Claude then walked up to Jaune, and he suddenly used his legs to push Jaune's own feet a bit more apart, and used his hands to fix Jaune's posture. "You're way too high up and too close together. "Spread your legs a bit more and get closer to the ground."

Once Claude had made sure that Jaune had a better stance, he then backed away. "Right, now shield up facing the opponent!"

Automatically, Jaune raised his shield as instructed.

"Sword ready!"

Out of instinct, Jaune positioned his sword behind, ready to strike at any moment.

"Now that's better." Claude nodded; there's still hope for the kid…. Probably. "Okay… let's try again."

Despite the quick course that Claude had given, Jaune could not help but still feel nervous as Claude charged at him this time.


It was after the class had ended for the day, noise of tinkering and gears rotating was filling a certain room.

"20 mm wrench, please."

Claude asked as he extended his hand open, expecting something to land on it. His eyes, however, remained focus through the magnifying lenses, on a small metal contraptions on the table.

"The blue one with adjustable prongs or the red one?"

Ruby asked in front of a toolbox, both hands were sporting the tools she just mentioned.

"The blue one." Claude gave a quick glanced at the girl, whom then handed him the requested item.

More sounds of metal tinkering were heard in the forgery room of Beacon Academy as Claude and Ruby - as promised, were working on the former's new weapon.

Claude finally put down his tools - the wrench he asked from Ruby and a couple of screwdrivers. Letting out a breath, he took a look at his handiwork - a machine with several gears contrapted.

He played with the contraption for several times, watching the gears turned in both clockwise and counter-clockwise.

"It looks good so far. Thoughts?" Claude asked his student.

Ruby took another magnifier and inspected the device with a critical look, playing the gears with her hands a little, before she backed away. "It's your weapon…. But considering the size, maybe we need to use a tougher polymer to keep it from falling apart from strain."

"Good thinking; we can note it down for later. For now, let's move on to another part." Claude then turned on his seat to look around the room. "...Your sister is kind of taking a while."

Speak of the devil, the door to the room suddenly opened, revealing Yang Xiao-Long carrying a box under her armpit. "Hey, Sterling! I got this package per your reference!" the blonde brawler strode toward her sister and her teacher, and put the sizeable cardboard box on the table top.

"Thanks, Yang." Claude nodded as he tore the box with a cutter. He gave a quick look at the content and nodded, before he picked it out with both of his hands.

"Sterling…" Ruby's silver eyes blinked at the object on Claude's palms. "Is that what I think it is? Are you…?"

"Yep, I'm planning to incorporate the use of Dust for my Shatter Storm. This is the new Dust Chamber that I can get my hands on the market." Claude smiled at the device.

"That… definitely looks expensive." Yang eyeing the package. "How could you afford that?"

"Beacon's expense." Claude replied without missing a beat. "...And Ozpin had given it a go, so it's fine." the girls nodded at him.

Then, the timer at the corner of the table suddenly rang, prompting Claude to turn it off. "Okay, the shield is ready for tampering." He said as he turned towards the furnace.

Ruby dutifully opened the furnace door, releasing the hot air trapped within across the room. Considering the size of the shield, both Sterling and Ruby had to work together of pulling the piping hot metal out of the fire onto the platform.

"Okay, Ruby. Keep it steady on that end." both Claude and Ruby adjusted their tangs on the hot plate, while Claude reached for a hammer. The man then remembered what time it was. "Oh, right. Yang, can you clean up the table?"

The blonde looked at the table, and it was quite a mess. Tools, drinks and papers sprawled around, not to mention the goods that Claude worked on.

"Got it." Yang nodded. "Everything go to the shelves?"

"Yes, to the shelves…. Except the papers. I still need those."

"Sure." Yang smiled and she began working, at the same time that Claude began to slam the hammer down.

The three began to work in comfortable silence. Yang was tidying the desk, sorting boxes and tools back on the shelves; Ruby was making sure that she was keeping the hot metal in place, while Claude kept tampering the metal with the hammer.

Eventually, Yang finished her task easily enough, and was now sitting and watching her sister and teacher forging the new weapon together; and Yang Xiao Long prefered to spend the time interacting rather than silence.

Fortunately, the silence was broken soon enough without her doing anything.

"So, tell me." Claude asked as he kept working on the tampered hot metal. "...How's life going for you in Beacon so far?"

Ruby and Yang glanced at one another, before the latter decided to reply first. "Well, things are pretty cool so far. My partner, Blake is kind of hard to talk with, but it's just matter of time until she opened up." She finished with a shrug.

"Things are great on my end too!" Ruby chirped in, and her expression went awkward for a second. "Well…. There are some bumps, like Weiss being difficult…. But she's coming around! In fact, she's-!"

"Ruby!"

The door slammed open, revealing an infuriated Weiss Schnee with a couple of books in her arms. "So this is where you've been!" She then strode towards towards the shocked-looking Ruby, even Claude paused on his work, watching the scene along with Yang with curious and amused looks.

"W-Weiss!?" Ruby spluttered. "What are you doing here?! I've done my homework!"

"And it's no good!" Weiss flipped open a book and shove the pages at her partner. "You are going to review and re-do this from the start!"

Ruby looked at her homework in horror, then she looked around in panic for any excuse she could use. "B-but, but…! I still have to help Sterling, and it's… it's almost lunch time!"

"That's why I'll help you do it now before lunch. At worst, we will work on this during lunch." Weiss replied. "Besides, you can't keep using Mr. Cole as an excuse to ditch your duty as a student!"

Ruby turned at her teacher, sporting a puppy-eyed look with hope that he would come to her rescue.

Claude closed his smile and smiled at his niece's face. Sure, Ruby was adorable, but unfortunately for her, he had gotten used to deal with Summer's own puppy eyes. "Ruby, remember our deal?" he then met his eyes with hers. "...You promise that you will do your best at your studies. So you gotta go." He said with stern, yet gentle tone. "Besides, you've done plenty enough in helping me. I can take it from here on my own."

Ruby whined with a pout, with Weiss sighing and Yang gave a good-natured smile. "Come on, Ruby. Blake probably has reserved us some seats together with JNPR." The heiress gently laid her hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Fine…" The younger girl sighed, choosing to keep her word. "We'll see you later, Sterling!" she flashed a weak, yet genuine smile at her teacher as she left the room. Weiss gave a polite smile and nod before following her leader, while Yang simply winked playfully at him - a gesture which Claude returned with a wave of his hand.

As soon as the three girls had left, Claude then returned to the hot metal before him. "Well, time to go back to work…" he then began to hammer the metal again, all while re-assessing his evaluation on the first year students.


Ruby slumped on the table with relieved sigh escaping her lips. She and her partner were sitting together with JNPR for lunch. "Hoo….. I actually made it."

"Yes, you did. Good job." Weiss smiled with a nod while tidying the books and papers on the table - the homework that Ruby managed to finish for the last half an hour before lunch time started.

Next to Ruby, Pyrrha kindly patted Ruby's shoulder with encouraging smile, the gesture that Ruby appreciated a lot. Ren was busy weathering Nora's usual antics, while Jaune was uncharacteristically quiet. Team JNPR had gotten their menus, while Yang and Blake just returned with two trays of food which was enough for four people.

"Here you go, sis. Complete with chocolate chip cookies as you asked." Yang grinned as she laid both of her share and her sister, while Blake put down hers and Weiss'.

The heiress eyed her food for a second before she nodded at the raven-haired girl. "Thank you, Blake." she said with a small smile, which Blake returned in kind.

"Thanks, Yang!" Ruby immediately cheered up and reached her hand towards the sugary treats. Weiss rolled her eyes at the odd choice of Ruby's eating order - usually cookies always went for desert, not appetizer.

"Right!" Nora slammed her palms on the table and stood up, garnering everyone's attention on the table. "So there's this thing happened… in the middle of the night, last night!"

"It was middle of the day…" Ren immediately retorted with the tone that bordered between calmness and laziness.

The lunch went on light atmosphere as Nora re-told her apparent dream during her sleep on the other night, with Ren provided constant retort to water-down his partner's exaggerated tale.

Everyone's reaction varied - Pyrrha was listening out of courtesy, Ruby and Yang were listening while eating out of boredom and curiosity, while Blake and Weiss pretty much ignored the bubbly girl, listening every now and then, in case if there was actually anything interesting in Nora's 'epic adventure'.

During the whole affair, Pyrrha notice that Jaune had yet to utter a word, absentmindedly playing with his food.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked her partner. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" In response, Jaune looked spooked, blinked his eyes a few times before he finally realised that someone else was talking to him. "Oh, Pyrrha. Err… Yeah, I'm good. Why do you ask?" Jaune managed to smile, but his partner managed to notice that the smile was forced.

Apparently, Ruby also caught on when she heard Pyrrha addressing Jaune. "Well… It just seems you look… not okay." she commented a bit awkwardly. "Is something wrong?"

This time, everyone on the table shifted their attention to the blonde, either out of concern or curiosity.

"Guys, really, I'm fine." Jaune repeated, trying to make it more convincing by giving a thumbs-up, as well as a quick laugh. "See?"

The first-years tried to see if there was anything wrong with Jaune, but doing so also allowed them to notice their surroundings; there were whispers and looks directed to them.

[Are those the only first-years around?]

[Yeah, apparently the new teacher just decimated almost all of the new students, leaving only those eight to pass.]

[I don't know about this new teacher, but the newbies should be promising, right? All things considered.]

[Besides, look. That's Pyrrha Nikos. And there's the kid who's rumoured to skip two years from Signal.]

Apparently, being the only first-years that passed the initiation would attract attention from senior students towards team RWBY and JNPR. However, the first-year students were not the only gossip material.

[And this new teacher… Who is this guy again?]

[I dunno. Some recent graduate of Beacon Academy.]

[Really? I never heard of this guy during my time here before.]

[Again, I dunno. I heard Ozpin scouted him personally.]

Team RWBY and JNPR automatically tried to listen more of what they could learn about a person known as Sterling Cole.

[How's he like?]

[I saw his combat lesson earlier, he beat the Invincible Girl in one on one.]

[For real?!]

[Yeah, man! This teacher's a badass! Not to mention, you should have heard his first speech. That guy knows his crowd. He sounds pretty funny to me.]

[I kind of curious to have him teaching my combat class…]

The first-years found themselves amused at the talks between the other students. However, not all of them were good.

[Speaking of combat lesson… Did you see the blonde kid earlier?]

The first-years blinked and turned to look at Jaune, who looked frozen at his mentioning.

[Yeah, that's guy a joke. Sure, I've seen worse, but did he really graduate from a combat school with that kind of skill?]

[It might be a miracle that he was able to pass the initiation.]

[I heard he's partnered with the Invincible Girl… Lucky bastard, perhaps it's thanks to her he made it here.]

[...Or we could say the girl got the shorter end of the stick.]

Ruby and Pyrrha sent worried looks to Jaune, who was looking down with shame plastered over his face. The rest of others were not sure how to approach.

Feeling the need to do something, Pyrrha settled a comforting hand on Jaune's shoulder. "It's okay, Jaune. Don't mind them." she said with squeeze of her hand. "...They don't know anything, and you have four years to prove them wrong."

"Or to prove them right." Jaune shrugged with sarcasm.

"Come on, Jaune. It's not that bad, not everyone can be good right off the bat." Ruby quipped in. "I mean, I did suck a lot until my uncle taught me how to fight, and even now, I'm still no good when it comes to hand-to-hand. You'll get better, everyone does."

Jaune wanted to retort, but he still knew better when he could practically see and hear Ruby's sincerity. Pyrrha also sent the younger girl a grateful nod.

"I guess so..." As a matter of fact, Ruby's words managed to alleviate Jaune's mood.

However, before the conversation could have gone further, the door of mess hall was opened, revealing the person of the topic.

oXo

When Claude entered the mess hall to get some lunch of his own, he suddenly found, pretty much every student stealing glances at him while murmuring amongst themselves. Deciding to ignore the rumour mill around him, Claude then walked through the hall and got a tray of full set lunch on his own.

"Hm… I wonder if the taste will stay the same after 20 years…" Claude pondered as he glanced at his tray, while he looked for a table to sit on. His silver eyes then spotted a group of familiar first-years, with a girl sporting a hooded cloak waving at him, beckoning him to come over.

Smiling at the invitation, Claude then made his way towards the table. "'Sup, kids." He greeted jovially as he took a seat.

"Hey, Sterling." Ruby greeted. "How did the forging go?"

"The shield's main frame is in the cooler. If things go well, tomorrow I probably can start to assemble the gears and modify the Dust chamber." Claude replied as he took a bite, before he glanced at Ruby. "So did you finally finish your homework?"

"Yep, no problems whatsoever." Ruby said while puffing out her chest, her face was somewhat smug.

Claude simply turned to Weiss with raised eyebrows, which the girl only returned with a twitch of her lips downwards and her hands implying between 'so-so' and 'barely'. Some others simply giggled in amusement, while Ruby, who noticed the exchange, pouted at her partner.

"So…" Claude said as he chewed and swallowed another bite. "I already asked Ruby and Yang here; how are things going for you kids at Beacon?"

"So far so good." Blake simply replied while her eyes did not leave the book that she had been reading for a while.

"Things are not the most ideal, but still acceptable." Weiss replied, garnering several flat looks from her teammates.

Team JNPR also followed suit.

"Things are well enough at the moment."

"Things are awesome here!"

"I find them refreshing so far."

"Yeah… it's good."

Ren, Nora and Pyrrha turned towards Jaune's less enthusiastic response. Claude himself was also intrigued by the development. "...Did I miss something?"

"Well…" Pyrrha was not sure how to explain things. "Jaune is…"

Fortunately, Claude understood fairly quickly when he caught several lingering sneers and mocking stares at the blonde boy.

Claude sighed as he put down his utensils. "Well, I can't deny that you do suck."

The JNPR winced and lightly cringed at Claude's blunt statement, while Ruby and Yang sending him looks that questioned his attitude. "However, I suggest you ignore them, Mr. Arc."

Claude's sudden shift in his speech caused Jaune to look at him. Knowing that he got the boy's attention, Claude pushed forward. "While I won't deny that the comparing and everything in competitive environment can help motivating people to perform better, that's not exactly the main focus of a learning place like schools."

Those words finally garnered not only Jaune's, but the rest of JNPR and team RWBY's attention as well. "Your focus as students is not to compare each other's sizes, but to understand your own sizes." Claude finished with a small grin.

The phrasing garnered several reactions. Yang snorted at the joke, hiding her trembling smile behind her fist. Blake seemed to furrow her eyebrows at Claude from behind her book, her cheeks reddened. Weiss was blushing while scowling at her supposed teacher; while Ruby only nodded slightly, entirely missing the innuendo.

Team JNPR also gave not dissimilar reaction; Ren simply coughed into his fist, Nora was grinning, and Pyrrha was blushing like Weiss. Jaune, on the other hand, actually smiled wryly as he got the joke, but could not bring himself to laugh.

"Did you have to say it like that?" Weiss commented with disgusted tone.

"Why? You do need to understand the size and measures of your skills, your limits… You know, if you want to improve. What did you take my words for?" Claude simply replied with teasing smile.

"Yeah, Weiss-cream. What did occur in your mind?" Yang also quipped, causing Weiss to grumble with her flush deepened, as Claude and Yang shared a victory high-five.

"Anyway!" Weiss decided to forcefully shift the topic, as she glared at Claude. "Aren't you supposed to have lunch at the teacher's lounge, Mr. Cole?" The way she addressed him emphasized that she was only a few seconds away from blowing up.

"First of all, I don't recall there's a rule that prohibits a teacher to eat here." Claude shrugged. "Secondly, the reason the teachers have their own rooms is because sometimes, they still have to do some paperwork even in lunch time, they will need the least amount of distraction as possible."

"And don't you have your own… you know, paperwork?" Blake looked up from her reading.

"...That leads to my third and final point." Claude sent a look at the girl. "I'm still a trainee, and what I have to do is to submit a daily report, which I will do later tonight."

Blake simply shrugged and nodded her head slightly in acceptance, while Weiss huffed without any further verbal retaliation. Meanwhile, Ruby looked confused about something.

"Um… Guys?" Ruby asked, her eyes darting between Weiss, Yang and Claude. "What's wrong with what Sterling said about sizes?"

Claude and Yang only blinked at the younger girl before the two glanced at each other awkwardly. The latter glanced at Weiss for help, but the said girl only looked away as if saying, "You brought this upon yourself."

Yang turned to her partner for help, but Blake simply ignored her in favour of her current reading. When Yang turned back at Claude, however, he was standing up. "I'm gonna get some drinks." He said in hurried manner, planning to ditch Yang alone in the predicament; making her lilac eyes widened at the betrayal.

"That son of a…!"

However, in his haste, Claude accidentally bumped to someone as soon as he turned around his heels.

A tray filled with plates and glass of food and drinks splattered on the floor, some specks of gravy, sauce and milk also ended up on Claude's clothes, as well as the other victim's; whom was knocked down on the floor.

"I-I'm sorry!" Whoever Claude just bumped into, immediately apologized while frantically tried to clean up the mess.

"No, no. It's my bad." Claude returned the apology as he also helped picking up the pieces. He looked up and saw that he was talking to a girl with a pair of rabbit ears sticking out from her long, brown hair - a faunus.

Automatically, the first-years also stood up from their seats to help out. Blake, in particular, came over to help the new girl standing up. Ruby and Yang were also kneeling down to help out picking up the mess, while Weiss ended up only watching, since she happened to stand up later than the rest. Team JNPR volunteered to fetch some cleaning equipment.

The crowd who was watching at first at the commotion, began to return to their own business when they found that things had pretty much gone back under control. Soon enough, the mess on the floor was cleaned up; Claude and the rest of the first years were talking to the faunus girl. Ruby, Weiss and Yang were standing on Claude's side, while Blake was standing the closest to the newcomer - her hand was holding her arm supportively.

"Again, I'm so very sorry." the brunette said with nervous expression, her hands were huddled together.

"Come on, I was the one who suddenly bumped into you without looking. Why are you the one apologizing?" Claude waved off with easy going smile.

"But… Still…" the girl's eyes were darting around between Claude's tainted suit and her own.

Not wanting to escalate things even further, Claude sighed. "Look… I knocked you down, and ruined your lunch. We both got each others' clothes dirty. So let me help you get a new lunch and we can call it even. Cool?" He said as he held his arms up amicably.

A few seconds of pondering later, the girl thankfully looked less nervous, as she finally grew a small smile. "...If you don't mind, then. Thank you."

"No problem. It's my fault to begin with, Miss…?" Claude realised that he never got her name.

The girl perked up to introduce herself. "Scarlatina, Velvet Scarlatina of team CFVY. Nice to meet you." She finished her greeting with a nod.

"Cole, Sterling. At your service." Claude placed a hand over his chest as his eyes inspect Velvet's uniform. "You are… a second-year, correct? Where's your team?" He asked while looking around. It was kind of weird that her team had yet to come after the commotion.

"Um… Yes, yes, I am." Velvet nodded sheepishly. "As for my team, they…"

Speak of the devil, the door opened once again, revealing three individuals - one female and two males. "Velvet, you okay?!" The female ran forward as she and the other two approached Velvet.

All of them were sporting Beacon Academy uniforms; the female was a young woman wearing a beret hat and sunglasses, a choice of fashion that Claude honestly did not expect to see within academy grounds.

The next person was a young man with dark skin and messy copper hair. His eyes were pure white - Claude thought that he might be blind, but chose not to call out on it. The man also sported a vertical scar across his lips, showcasing his experience.

The last made Claude looking up - that's one tall guy for a second-year. His skin was tanned, his shaved, short black hair and calm expression made his face screamed discipline. Yet Claude noticed the way he stood protectively before Velvet, hinting a softer persona beneath the intimidating appearance.

"Coco!" Velvet turned around to address the girl with sunglasses. "Yes, I'm fine. These people just helped me."

"I see…." The girl - Coco, regarded Claude and the first years, then returned on Claude again, eyeing him up and down. "Say…. you are that rumoured new teacher around? With the only new students for this year." She asked as she tilted her sunglasses down, revealing a pair of curious dark-brown eyes.

Seeing the confident approach upon his person, Claude thought the two could play at the game. "Yes, that's me. Sterling Cole at your service." Claude offered his hand, which Coco shook firmly.

"Coco Adel, leader of CFVY, a pleasure." the woman's smile widened at the introduction.

"And these are my charge, team RWBY and JNPR." Claude then gestured at the first-year teams; the former was already standing in line, while the latter just finished cleaning up the mess on the floor.

"Hm, looking good, kiddos." Coco waved at her juniors, who seemed slightly awkward to return the friendly, yet sudden gesture, safe for Yang and Nora. "Anyway, thanks for helping out our bunny cake." her remarks caused Velvet to blush storms. "...But we actually came late. So let's catch up once I got the rest of our bellies filled. You okay with that?"

Understandable; Claude knew that lunch time had been going for a while, and team CFVY obviously still needed some nourishment if they wanted to make it through the second-half of school period. "Sure, no problem. I'll probably gonna have to attend some of your classes later. I'll see you kids around." He replied with a coy smile.

Coco nodded and patted Claude's arm before she turned around; while sending a wink at Claude. The rest of team CFVY gave their goodbyes, with Velvet finally smiling widely, seemingly glad that the affair had been settled without incident.

Claude then turned to address the first-years, not without checking on the clock first. "Okay, you lot! Lunch time is nearly over, so get ready for your next class. Peach doesn't really fond of you kids being late." He said with clapped hands, adjourning the meeting.


Back in his room, Claude put down his pen on his desk. It was night, and he just finished writing down his daily report to be submitted to Ozpin on the next morning. Leaning back on his chair, his mind wandered to reminisce what had happened for the rest of the day after lunch break.

The Science and Dust study with Professor Paestil Peach had gone without much incident. The old lady really knew her stuff, thanks to her year of experience teaching a bunch of students from all years. Her tone of voice, choice of words, even some inside jokes during her lectures; allowed her to keep the students engaged in the lesson. Overall, it was quite a fruitful endeavour.

Still, Claude smiled wryly when he remembered that Peach also aimed several surprise questions at him, which he barely managed to wing them. On the other hand, perhaps the exchange between him and Peach was able to garner some laughs from the first years, alleviating the atmosphere inside the class.

The last class of the day was History with Doctor Oobleck - Claude had to exhale on that; he wondered if he should stop Barty from drinking any more coffee, but then again, he was not sure if the sudden withdrawal would actually kill him or not.

However, caffeine overdose aside, Barty's class also reminded Claude of another issue - Jaune Arc.

Back during Peach's class, Jaune was not even that actively engaged; and looking at him unfocused and fumbling during Barty's lesson only made Claude wondered if his treatment during the combat class was wrong.

Still, didn't he give some pep-talk to encourage him during lunch? Was that not enough?

Then again, not everything could work out as he intended, Claude had to say that Jaune was indeed struggling with his academics, not to mention that he was still practically the worst when it came to combat.

The thought of Jaune's faked transcript came to his mind - for some obvious reason, that had to be related with the boy's current dilemma.

Claude decided to put the thoughts for another day, as he eyed the scroll on the edge of his desk and reached his hand towards it. However, through the window that he opened for some fresh air, he suddenly heard voices coming from the rooftop just above him.

oXo

"I don't belong here."

"...What are you talking about? Of course, you do!"

Jaune and Pyrrha were standing and talking on the rooftop of dormitory building. The location was pretty up high, and the fall from there would put a person in hospital, aura or not.

It began when Jaune came out from Doctor Oobleck's detention after the boy's blunder and tardiness in class, and noticing Jaune's dejected expression, Pyrrha decided to take him towards the rooftop. The place was secluded enough and the cool air up high was soothing, thus she could approach her partner's issue without interruption; although the trek there took some time, and the sheer height of the place made Jaune thought for a second that she proposed a suicidal method to escape his problems.

At first, things were not too bad as Pyrrha went straight to the point and offer Jaune her assistance to improve himself in combat class. However, things spiralled out of control when Jaune took the offer the wrong way, thinking that the tournament champion was pitying him. Her words of encouragement about him making it to Beacon did not help him feel any better either.

"No, I don't! I mean it." Jaune rebuked Pyrrha's retort angrily. "I… I wasn't really accepted into Beacon." He managed to choke the words out, but his expression was laced with shame.

Pyrrha's face paled slightly at Jaune's words, but most of all, she was confused. "I… I don't understand. What do you mean by that?"

Throwing all caution to the air, Jaune let out all of his frustration into confession. "I lied, okay!? I didn't graduate from any combat school, I didn't take any test, I didn't have any recommendation! I got my hands on some forged transcript, and cheated my way here!"

Pyrrha's breath caught on her throat, as she was taken aback by the revelation. However, she could not bear the anguished expression on her partner's face. "But… why?"

"Because this is what I've always wanted to be!" Jaune turned away, unable to face Pyrrha. "Ever since I was small, I always wanted to be like my father, and my grandfather! Both of them, and our ancestors were all warriors, heroes!" He then let out a breath. "But I was just… I was never good enough."

Steeling her heart, Pyrrha pushed on. "Then let me help you!" She insisted as she put her hand on Jaune's shoulder to show support.

However, Jaune immediately turned around and brushed Pyrrha's hand off him. "And I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"

If she was hurt by the rebuttal, Pyrrha did not show it as she refused to back down. "Jaune, I-!"

Alas, she was cut off again by Jaune's ranting. "I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck on the tree while his friends were fighting! Don't you understand!?" Tears started to well on his blue eyes. "...If I can't do this on my own, that what good am I?"

Seeing Jaune wiping his eyes caused Pyrrha's heart to break. However, before she could have reached her hand out to him again, Jaune was already speaking.

"Just… leave me alone, okay?"

Hearing the despair in his tone, Pyrrha found herself bowing her head sadly. A second later, she turned around and walked away. "If… that's what you think is best."

Thus, Pyrrha left the rooftop, leaving Jaune contemplating alone. However, his alone time was cut short when he heard another voice.

"Wow, never thought you could be such a dick."

"Who the-?!" Jaune looked up and frantically looked around in his shock. He turned around just in time to see Claude climbing up to the roof. "Sterling? W-what are you doing here?"

"My room is right beneath us, apparently; and you and your partner were not exactly quiet." Claude replied with a raised eyebrow, before he gazed at the door where Pyrrha just left. "...To turn a babe like her away. For shame, Mr. Arc, for shame."

Jaune ignored Claude's words as his eyes widened in fear about something else. "T-then, you heard…?" He could not finish out of nervousness.

"Yep, and a bunch of stuff suddenly made sense to me." Claude quipped sarcastically.

"O-okay, but please!" Panic began to fill Jaune's mind. "Please, y-you can't tell anyone!"

"Save it." Claude simply sighed at the stuttering teen and held his hand up. "Because I've already known anyway."

"Y-you knew?" Jaune blinked. "What do you mean you knew?!"

"I've read your profile before the initiation, Jaune boy." Claude explained as he put one hand on his waist. "And seriously, whoever providing you those papers wasn't really reliable."

Jaune swallowed as he looked away, panicking that he was busted.

"So..." Claude then drew Jaune's attention back to him. "It seems that what I said at the lunch break went straight over your head."

"N-no! I remember, I get it!" Jaune replied, remembering what Claude said about comparing oneself to others. "And I at the bottom of that list, see? I-I can become stronger-!"

"Okay, stop." Despite his calm tone, the two words that came from Claude's lips were able to shut Jaune up. Claude sighed before he walked around before he started to close in towards the boy. "...Tell me, Mr. Arc. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rat you out to Professor Goodwitch by the next morning."

"I…" His heart was caught on his throat; Jaune tried to find something to say, anything, but he could not. Sterling was a teacher in training, but he still had the right, even an obligation to report to his superior. Seeing the man closing in, Jaune took a step back out of instinct.

Jaune kept trying to think of an answer, but every time he saw Claude walking towards him with sedate pace, his legs kept moving back. It did not take long until Jaune found himself at the edge of the rooftop, unable to take another step back lest he would fall.

When Jaune looked up again, Claude was standing within arm's reach in front of him. His posture was stern, calm, unflinching, and his silver eyes were boring into his blue ones.

"...Well? I'm waiting." The trainee teacher simply said with raised eyebrows.

"I…" Jaune looked down, before he closed his eyes and sighed. "I… I don't know." However, he looked up at Claude again with his blue eyes refusing to give up. "But please, just give me a chance, one chance! I-I can't just leave Beacon like this! I'll do anything!"

"Anything, huh?" Claude's eyes gained an intrigued glint in them, before he tapped his chin with a finger. "Hm...I guess I have an idea."

When Jaune thought that there was a hope for him, suddenly he found Claude's hand pressed onto his chest, shoving him backwards.

"...Huh?"

Time slowed down that moment, and as Jaune saw as he fell back, was a pair of cold silver eyes.


Thanks for reading! Constructive reviews will be appreciated. Ahsoei, over and out.