A/N: Hey all! Sorry if the story is moving a bit slow. A few have noted that it's fairly similar to canon so far, and I did that somewhat on purpose. Things will start to change however, as Jaune's past starts to catch up with him, and those at Beacon. Hope you all stay with me until things start getting exciting!

As always, thanks for reading and please review!


"dO NoT fORgET."

"Whuh…"

Jaune opened his eyes to see himself floating in a sea of darkness. It expanded as far as the eye could see.

"Wha-... Where am I… The last thing I remember was…"

A giant scorpion. Nora's surprise hammer blow. The nevermore that had swallowed him. Ruby.

"At least I helped I guess…" Jaune was glad that he had managed to help Ruby in some small way. Especially after the last time he could have helped Ruby.

"DO nOT FOrgeT."

Pain lanced through Jaune's head, the words driving deep into his brain. It shouldn't have bothered him. He was used to pain. Jaune had once had literal lances in his head! This pain was new however, striking deep at his very soul.

His head whipped about, trying to find the source of the voice. It was voice that Jaune did not remember, but it still struck a chord deep within him.

"Who's there?! Where am I? What is this?!"

"yOu PRomiSeD"

Jaune felt his brain once again trying to scramble itself, the voice still shaking him to his core.

"Gah! Stop yelling! Promised?! Promised what? What did I promise? Who are you?"

"A hErO"

"A… a hero?" Jaune could barely think with that constant pounding in his head. He wasn't sure what this thing was, but a "hero" probably wasn't one of them.

"A hERo'S deAth"

Jaune felt himself snap, the pain and the confusion finally pushing himself over the edge.

"Death? You want to see death? I've died plenty of times! Look at any of them!"

"NONe wErE WOrThy"

"Shut up! Who are you to judge my death?! Deaths… Whatever! Screw you!"

"do NOT fOrGEt WhAt YoU PrOMiSeD"

"I've never met you before you stupid disembodied voice sitting in your stupid sea of darkness and creepiness! Ooooh, look at me! I'm a stupid dingleberry who apparently can't use their FREAKING INDOOR VOICE"

"a hErO's Death MR. arC."

"Shut up! You and your stupid hero's death! Get over here so I beat your nonexistent ass blue!"

"mR. arc"

"I said shut up! Nobody loves you!"

"Mr. Arc."

"I said shut up you stupid doofus!"

"Doofus?"

The voice no longer sent spikes of pain into his brain, but it still sent a chill down Jaune's spine. This voice was different from the one he had just been hearing. It was more familiar. It was someone he had met only a little while ago. It was someone who scared the literal bejeezus out of him.

"M-Mrs. G-Goodwitch!"

Jaune sat up, finally taking stock of the situation. It was dark, the only light coming from flashlight that Ms. Goodwitch. His surroundings were barely illuminated. He could make out a rock, some moss, the errant shrubbery… He craned his neck, looking skywards to see a crack of light.

"It's Ms. Although I believe that's a step up from 'doofus'. " Ms. Goodwitch arched an eyebrow, staring down over the edge of her glasses, leaving Jaune to flinch once more.

"I'm so sorry. I was… having a really weird dream."

For Jaune it really was weird. Ignoring the fact that he had just had a dream, which was strange in and of itself, Jaune wasn't sure if getting lectured by a disembodied voice in a sea of black would be what one would call 'normal'.

Glynda sighed. "It's fine Mr. Arc. Just… get up. I'm assuming you're fine?" Jaune nodded as he stood up, brushing himself off. He looked around, noting a distinct lack of giant demon bird.

"Yeah I'm fine… I'm guessing the nevermore died and did that weird smoky thing… Where are we?"

"At the bottom of a crevasse."

"A what?"

" *Sigh* ...a hole Mr. Arc. We are at the bottom of a deep hole."

"Oh…" Jaune looked around a little bit more before looking back at the thoroughly fed-up Goodwitch.

"Could we… get out of here?"

"Oh god ye- I mean. Yes Mr. Arc."


Ruby was freaking out. ' "Oh no Ruby, don't run ahead! We should stick together to stay safe." Stupid Yang!" Ruby had wanted to use her semblance to hurry back to Beacon. Jaune needed help! 'But nooooooo. Instead I had to walk with all these slow pokes!'

Granted, judging from the red faces and hunched over posture of everyone else, they had been running as hard as they possibly could. Ozpin looked away from his vigil of the Emerald Forest, still standing on the same cliff that he had launched them all off of in the morning. He eyed the wheezing students in front of him, still sipping on his coffee mug.

"Hi Ruby!"

"Sorry can't talk right now Jaune!"

"O-oh… okay…"

Jaune slowly lowered the hand that he had been using to wave at the petite girl. Ruby and the others had run past with him nary a glance in his direction. He could hear Glynda letting out another sigh beside him, vague grumbles muffled by the hand that now covered her face.

"Ozpin! Please you've got to help us! Jaune fell into a big hole."

"It's called a crevasse. I think."

"Thank you Jaune. Please Ozpin! Jaune fell into a crevasse!"

"Welcome Ruby!"

Jaune watched as slowly, one by one, the members of the group turned around. Various looks of surprise and relief came over their faces. Pyrrha's was the biggest reaction, even overshadowing the excited "squuuuue!" that came from Nora's mouth. She visibly sagged, the tension and stress leaving her body all at once. She breath out a large sigh, her hand coming over her heart and her eyes closing briefly, before opening to smile at Jaune.

'What were they so worried about?' Jaune met their looks with a casual wave of confusion. "Uhm… hey?"

"Ja-"

"Jaune!"

A ball of red interrupted Pyrrha, speeding past her and leaving a trail of rose petals in its wake.

"Oof!" Jaune felt the breath leave his body, as something slammed into his stomach at breakneck speeds. Tiny little arms wrapped around Jaune in a hug, before transitioning into a crushing vice grip around his insides.

"You're alive Jaune! Ohmygosh I was so worried! Pyrrha told me what happened and I-"

"R-r...Ruby! C-can't…. Breath…"

Ruby saw Jaune's face rapidly turning blue, prompting a yelp and hasty retreat. Jaune felt the breath come back to his lungs as Ruby's arms left his sides. Ruby looked down at her feet, her hands toying with the hem of her skirt.

"I-I'm sorry Jaune… I was just so gla-"

"Jaune!"

This time Pyrrha interrupted Ruby, running past the small girl and wrapping her arms around Jaune. He felt a familiar choking sensation, Pyrrha's grip tightening around her partner.

"I'm so sorry I-"

"Nora!"

Nora's apparent battlecry was all the warning that Jaune had before a second body crashed into both his and Pyrrha's.

Nora Valkyrie was a mighty girl, strong for her size and able to swing around her giant hammer with nary a care in the world. Jaune realized just how strong Nora was the moment that all that muscle and sinew began to literally squeeze the life out of Jaune.

Jaune heard something crack in his back, the smaller girl's arms crushing both his and Pyrrha's frames. The edge of his vision turned black as he felt the familiar approaching sensation of the sweet embrace of death.

Pyrrha on the other hand was not doing terribly well either. She felt her body pressed deep against Jaune's, the curves of their body melding together. Ignoring the fact that they were currently being crushed together by one Nora Valkyrie, it was quite an intimate embrace. Her face began to flush, her red face in stark contrast to Jaune's blue.

Ms. Goodwitch walked away from the spectacle, leaving the two of them to their fate. Ren had run over, doing his best to release Nora's quite possibly literal death-grip on Jaune.

"Nora! I think you need to let go now!"

"But he almost died Ren!"

"Well you're killing him anyways! Could someone please help me over here?!"

She came beside Ozpin, both of them watching the new students. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang ran over to join Ren in trying to release Nora's grip.

"Gah!" "Wait, hol-" "Oh no!" "Grhk!"

Glynda and Ozpin watched as their new students somehow all ended up piling on top of Jaune. The two teachers shared a glance, before moving out of earshot from the tangled pile of limbs resting on top of the now very flat, very blue, and possibly very dead boy.

Ozpin was the first to speak. "Did you see it?"

Glynda turned her head to look at Ozpin, his question still in the air.

She hesitated for a moment. "Yes." She repressed a shudder. "I saw his… resurrection."

Ozpin slowly nodded, his finger idly tapping against the coffee mug in his hand. Hearing no answer, Glynda continued, her words slow and unsure.

"It was… It was awful Ozpin. When I found him he was bloody and broken... His arms were broken… his legs were snapped..."

Glynda barely repressed a shiver, her arms coming up around herself for some measure of comfort. Ozpin felt himself frown. Glynda was a seasoned huntress. A calm and disciplined woman who had survived countless life and death situations. Ozpin had never seen her so shaken before.

"I…. I watched him die Ozpin. I sat by his side and watched him take his last breaths…"

His eyes closed. Ozpin asked for forgiveness to whatever deity existed. He had given Glynda orders. To ignore every fiber of her being telling her to save Jaune. He had told her to watch him die.

Glynda's hands tightened around her arms, her fingers pressing deep into cloth and flesh.

"Then… it happened."

Glynda seemed to withdraw more within herself. Ozpin reached over a hand, resting it on her shoulder. Normally that would have been asking for a sharp smack from her riding crop. It never came.

"There was this… dark mist that came from his body. It felt wrong Ozpin. I don't know what the hell that was down there but I know it was wrong. I watched as it just… pulled him back together."

Glynda's hands clenched tighter at her sides. Ozpin tried to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze but Glynda paid it no notice, her mind still elsewhere.

"It's not aura… it's not anything like the maiden's powers… I don't know what the hell that was Ozpin but we can not have it near our students!"

Steel came back into the Goodwitch's voice, the familiar fire back in her eye. Ozpin let a small smile come onto his face. There was the Goodwitch he remembered.

The smile dropped from his face as he looked back towards Jaune and his new found group of… dare he say it… friends?

The blonde young man had managed to extricate himself from the crushing pile, Pyrrha behind him rubbing his back as he struggled to regain his breath. A bowing Nora was in front of him, being lectured by Weiss as Ren laid out beside her, clearly exhausted. Ruby sat nearby, an awkward hand reaching out to give Jaune a pat of comfort, as both both her sister and Blake stood behind her, giving the occasional jeer at her attentiveness to Jaune.

"Are we doing the right thing Ozpin?" Glynda asked as she also watched the scene of budding friendship. The scene was ruined for her however, by memories of dark tendrils seeping from Jaune's body.

Ozpin continued to stare at Jaune, trying to discern some hidden facet of the boy in front of him.

"Yes."

Ozpin gave a sidelong glance at Glynda, who nodded although still with a bit of doubt.

The two turned away, as Yang's relentless ribbing had finally driven Ruby too far, prompting a sisterly tackle that almost took the two back off the cliff again.

There was still much to do.


Jaune sat on a bed, his head in his hands.

Too many things had happened.

Well. Really only one thing.

"Why Pyrrha, why! Why did Ozpin make me team leader?!"

Pyrrha sat beside Jaune on the bed, awkwardly patting his shoulder.

"It's…. Fine? I think you'll be a great leader Jaune."

"I agree with Pyrrha Jaune. I think you will be a fine team leader." Jaune raised his head from his hands to look at the other voice in the room. Lie Ren. His magenta-eyes looked up at Jaune from where he was putting away his clothes. "Your plan against the deathstalker was going pretty well ...until Nora almost killed you."

"Reeeeeeeeeeeeeen. I said I was sorry!" Nora Valkyrie sat on her bed, the second in a set of four beds that comprised up of Team JNPR's bedroom. That was their team. His team. Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren.

Jaune was panicking. He was sure the others noticed he was panicking. He was responsible for their lives. He couldn't be responsible for their lives. He wasn't even responsible enough for his life!

'What the hell was Ozpin thinking?!'


"What the hell were you thinking Ozpin?!"

Glynda Goodwitch liked to think she was a calm woman. Ozpin had a way of changing that.

Said source of Glynda's ire was currently sitting at his desk, sipping at yet another damn cup of coffee. Glynda wanted to smack that stupid mug out of his stupid hands.

"Team JNPR led by Jaune Arc?! You said so yourself! That thing is broken! I ca-"

"Boy."

Ozpin's words cut through Glynda's tirade.

"What?"

"He's a boy Glynda. Not a thing. A boy."

Glynda found herself at a loss for words. "I… I know he's a boy Ozpin. What are you getting at?"

"You called him a thing just now."

"..."

"Glynda?"

"I… I did? I didn't even know..." Glynda looked away from Ozpin, her grip unnaturally tight upon her riding crop.

Ozpin went silent, his musings going unvoiced as he watched the shaken Goodwitch. She had not been the same ever since he had sent her to retrieve Jaune. Ever since she had seen… that.

"Was his resurrection truly that… disturbing?"

Glynda took a long calming breath, her hand reaching up and smoothing away at nonexistent wrinkles.

"I… forgive me Ozpin. It was that mist… It didn't just put him back together. I could see it's pulse. I could feel it with my aura. It was alive."

Ozpin rocked back in his chair, trying to digest what he had just heard. He snuck a glance at Glynda, who was still trying to calm herself down. When he spoke, his words were slow, methodical.

"Qrow spoke of the boy as if he had no regard for the sanctity of human life however we both saw him attempt to rescue Ms. Schnee however during the initiation."

Glynda took a moment, thinking on what Ozpin had just said. She felt guilty. From his story and her interactions with him, Glynda had not seen him as anything more than a broken person. A boy lost out in the world who had been done a great wrong. However she just couldn't separate that image of Jaune and the thing that lived within him no matter how she tried. She thought she was better than that. Apparently Ozpin was.

"You think there's still hope for him." A statement, not a question.

Ozpin nodded, his eyes distant as he thought to himself. "I do. I believe… that in Mr. Arc is the potential to do much good. To serve as a shield for many. I believe he just needs time to heal, and that Beacon can do provide a place to do that. Have you truly given up on him?"

Glynda shook her head as a small smile graced her face. She couldn't say she totally had, however that didn't help with her chief concern.

"And if that … black mist turns out to be a problem?"

This time Ozpin turned away from her. He did not speak for a few moments, instead choosing to look out the window in his office. When he spoke there was an edge there, an edge that sent chills down Glynda's spine.

It was easy to forget, but Ozpin was headmaster of Beacon for a reason.

"If he ever proves to truly be a danger…Immortal or not. He's still just a boy."


Jaune awoke to the smell of pancakes.

For a moment Jaune thought that he had somehow had a stroke in his sleep. There had been a brief period of time where the scalpel monkeys at the lab had been poking about his brain. For a while they had been literally poking at his brain.

Jaune patted his hand over his face, glad to see that everything was moving alright. Was it not a stroke then?

When he looked over at Pyrrha however, he also noticed her sniffing at the air in her sleep.

While he was glad that he was in fact not suffering from a stroke, that still raised the question. Why was he smelling pancakes?

A quick survey around the room found the answer. He was smelling pancakes because there were pancakes.

Lie Ren was somehow already awake. AND he was making pancakes. He had set up what looked to be like a portable electric skillet, along with a large jug of pancake mix sitting nearby. Jaune thought something looked amiss however, prompting a closer look. Was Ren awake?

The only other male on Team JNPR stood there with a spatula in hand, a pancake still sizzling away on the griddle. A rather hefty stack of pancakes was already sitting on a plate nearby. Jaune was admittedly jealous that the other male was pulling off his pink apron so well. He knew if he ever put on a pink apron he would simply look silly.

Then Ren's head nodded forward, causing Jaune to finally notice that Ren's eyes were completely closed. A small snore escaped from the boy clad in a pink apron. Jaune felt himself go a bit slack jawed. Ren was a asleep. He was making pancakes in his sleep.

Another snore brought Ren out of his slumber, snorting slightly as he startled himself awake.

He looked around blearily, before finally noticing the pancake in front of him. His half-lidded eyes gave the pancake a cursory inspection, before the spatula came out and flipped it over to reveal a golden-brown surface.

Ren's eyes began to close again, his head already nodding forward.

"Uh… hey buddy… What'cha up to?" Jaune slid out of bed, tiptoeing over so as not to wake the girls.

Ren gave a slight grumble, mustering up the energy to speak. "Nora… pancakes… If none…. World will suffer..."

Jaune felt a small smile fall on his face as he watched the sleepy young man continue to toil away.

It wouldn't do for one of his teammates to burn himself on the first day of school.

"Hey Ren... how about I take over for you? I'm already awake and I don't think I'll be able to sl-"

Jaune had hardly finished speaking before the black and pink haired boy flopped into his bed, not even bothering to go underneath the covers.

"Thank…*zzzzz* you…."

That small smile stayed on Jaune's face, as he shook his head and moved over to the griddle. A quick flip of the spatula sent the finished pancake onto it's plate.

"Jaune… Don't be afraid..."

Hearing his name, Jaune felt himself quirk an eyebrow as he watched Ren mumble into his pillow.

"Don't be afraid… to talk to us…*zzzzzzzzz* Nora said… you looked… broken*zzzzzzz*"

Jaune felt himself stiffen as Ren continued to mumble into his pillow, his grip tightening on the spatula.

"We'll…. Be here…. *zzzzzzzz* for….. You…."

Jaune's body relaxed, his hand releasing its death grip upon the spatula. He felt a breath of relief escape him. He looked around the room, his eyes stopping on each member of his team.

Ren was still drowning in his pillow. Pyrrha had burrowed underneath the covers, the only thing visible being the end of her flowing red hair. Nora had apparently smelled the pancakes already, her mouth nibbling away at her pillow.

Jaune poured some more pancake mix onto the griddle, that same small smile still on his face.

He could get used to this.