Well everyone I cancelled the polls and I'm now asking to simply leave you thoughts about a lemon in chapter 24 and ideas for a battle at Beacon Academy for chapters 25-28. By the way this story will end at chapter 30 with "31" being an epilogue. I will continue the adventures in a sequel and possibly in one-shots dealing in the misadventures during the summer break.

A RWBY fanfic

The Hunters of Beacon: Team MRCK (Merc)

Chapter 21

It was Sunday. A perfect day to begin training Jaune and seeing where his strengths and his weaknesses lie. I planned on this being a short session simply because I expected him to wear out quickly. Not that he hasn't gotten better but I expected him to try and use all his strength to attempt to beat me. But it would have to wait for tonight because today was my first lesson with Kasey and Goodwitch and I was actually looking forward to it. I was waiting in a private training room and was quickly growing impatient because while I was on time the other two decided to be late. I was just sitting there so I went to get my radio. I plugged my IPhone into the AUX port and began playing my music. Today's selection was Journey – Separate ways to start me off. As I turned it on I thought I heard the door open but I couldn't be sure because I had turned my rock up so no one could disturb me. That is until Goodwitch shouted above the noise to get my attention. She was standing at the door arms crossed and a scowling me. Me not thinking anything of it asked.

"Why did you yell at me?"

"Because Mr. Lowrey I could hear that music outside the door. You are here to learn, not to blow out everyone's eardrums." Goodwitch replied curtly.

"So what are we doing today?" I asked impatiently.

"First thing you need to find the weapon to channel the magic through. However it cannot be forced through the weapon. It will work either way but it will not be as efficient as having the weapon that allows your aura to flow through it naturally." Goodwitch explained, and then she asked. "Do already have a weapon that allows this?"

"I don't know. I guess I'll have to try them to see." I said sheepishly.

"Well I guess it's a good thing I had Miss Torrte bring all of them here." She said smugly.

"You did what?" I asked surprised. Then Kasey burst through the door and I could just feel the anger radiating off of her.

"You know all of those swords are heavy!" She shouted.

"That's why I don't carry all of them at once." I said sarcastically. "But seriously Kasey, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'll be fine." She said dismissively.

Soon I was trying each of my weapons. I could put my aura onto my swords but everyone including myself noticed how forced it was. We just couldn't understand it, until Kasey remembered something.

"Matt, what about your gold force lance?" She asked.

"What about it?"

"Matt, it didn't belong to you at first. It belonged to Andromeda, but in her will she gave you that lance. Now why would she do that?" Kasey asked possibly hinting something.

"I don't know, I thought it was to remember her by. We did meet while I was trying to construct my first weapon. It's all I have left of her; it holds a lot of emotional value." I said sadly, remembering all the good times before Signal in my hometown and the short time she was at Signal.

"Matt I don't know how to tell you this but she was one of us too. She never built that weapon for her. She built it for you. She apparently knew she was going to die but she began your training anyway. That's how you can already do some of the things you can do. Like summoning your weapons out of seemingly thin air for example, not a common trait amongst people. It seems either you naturally sought us out yet didn't know what you were doing or we were trying to find you."

"Kasey, Professor, why am I so important to this?" I asked surprised by this revelation.

"Because you are our last hope. You are going to fight in the war that will decide the fate of our kind. All of your friends will fight in it too, but not as how we will." Goodwitch stated emotionlessly.

"Matt, you do remember the man you taught you to use your swords, the one you killed after you realized that he was using you? You took his Masamune after you killed him remember?"

"Yes, although I'd rather not." I said curtly.

"What was his first directive for you?"

"Do not hesitate, show no mercy. Why are you asking me this?" I was confused to say the least.

"Because you need to remember this, you just can't forget your past. Now try Andromeda's force lance."

With her last sentence I pulled her lance out of my pocket. It felt warm like how I always felt around her. Like it was a part of me. As I held it I could hear the approval of Kasey and Goodwitch. That's when I pointed it up to the sky and whispered to myself "Somehow I always knew you were there Andromeda. Your death won't be in vain." After I finished a bolt of lightning erupted from the sky, burst thought the ceiling, and connected with the force lance suddenly I felt a surge of incredible energy and something else before I blacked out.

I woke up to a concerned Kasey and Professor Goodwitch reassuring her that I was fine. I really was fine but I felt off. It felt as if there was someone else's memories were in my head. I got that feeling because I was seeing though someone else's eyes, places I didn't remember yet now know about. It was all rushing into my head and seeing all of this. It was almost overwhelming but I managed to sort it all out as I saw Andromeda in a mirror. I was seeing everything through her eyes, these were her memories. But why was I seeing this? I would ask later but something was motivating me to learn this.

"What a rush!" I shouted gleefully.

"You just got struck by lightning and all you say is 'What a rush'"! What's wrong with you!?" asked Kasey.

"I don't know. So what were we doing Professor?"

"Well we are going to start with a simple glyph. I assume you don't know how to create a glyph?" Goodwitch asked.

"I don't think so. But I'll try."

I attempted to summon a glyph at first with no success. Goodwitch thought it was a decent effort though. Apparently when creating ones' first glyph one must first think of and focus on how the glyph will take form. Everyone has a different aura and in turn no two glyphs are exactly alike. I tried again but this time the unexpected happened again. I conjured a glyph; however it surprised Kasey as to what it looked like. The border had ancient constellations all in a ring and the center symbol was a wing. Specifically an outline of a left wing. It was Andromeda's symbol on the glyph not mine, which is a stylized star. But the constellations were reminiscent of an activity that I did during my childhood. I was always looking at the stars, hence why my symbol is a star. I guess now would be a better time than any to tell them about what happened while I was blacked out, so I did.

"Matthew, how on Remnant did you get Andromeda's memories?" Kasey asked shocked and annoyed.

"I don't know! Ask the bolt of lightning!" I shouted.

"Don't you yell at me!" Kasey shouted back. Then she quieted her voice, " The bolt of lightning? I wonder…"

"Miss Torrte, you are not making any sense. How could a lightning bolt give him the memories of another person?" Goodwitch asked the confused look on her face completely priceless.

"Matt come here and give me your weapon." Kasey said.

"Umm, ok?" I said as I handed it to her.

As soon as she had a hold of the lance she immediately dropped it as if she was burned.

"Well that explains a lot. I think I figured it out." She said checking her hand for burns.

"Explains what?" I asked.

"A part of her aura was imbued into it. This could explain why he now has some or all of her memories and experiences." Kasey explained.

"Well at the moment it's some." I said. "It seems to be related to this. Nothing more."

"Well students, it's getting late. We're finished for the day." Goodwitch stated walking out the door. As she left she said one more thing, "Miss Torrte, please remind Miss Freeman that she's over due on turning in that essay."

"Well I'm off. I'm going to train Jaune now. Kasey get everyone together for the 'plan'."

Jaune and I were in Holomatrix three with the "playing field" set at Beacon. It was simple. I was going to play my game and see how he thinks when he's angry. It was simple enough. He was already suspicious at the fact that no one else was around. In fact if everything went to plan he shouldn't have seen them all day. He however outwardly projected confidence, yet I could see in his eyes the uneasiness lurking. The need to know why he hadn't seen any of his friends. I'd wait for him to ask though. No need to set him off while he had his full strength. I needed to wear him down a bit. Then see if it gave him strength and focus, or if it made him sloppy in his swordsmanship. But who was I kidding. I'd tell him here soon.

"Jaune, you've been training with Pyrrha for a few months now. Well she feels as if she cannot train you effectively with a sword, so she's asked me to help." I said.

"Yea she told me. However I do know the basics and everything she's taught me. I hope I'm a worthy student." He said. His confidence is something that could be improved.

"I already figured you were. After all you want to improve. I can tell by the fact that you asked both Ren and Yang for training in hand to hand. You are no weak fool. However my first lesson will be a grueling one."

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked curiously.

"Well you've been wondering why you haven't seen any of your friends, correct?"

"Yea, I'm concerned but I assumed they all had to go into town."

"Well you're wrong. I've taken them all captive and you have to fight me in order to get all of them back."I said with a neutral expression.

"Impossible. You couldn't overpower all of them at once. And even I-." He said thinking it was impossible.

"Let me stop you there. Who said I overpowered them? Dude chloroform is the world's second greatest substance."

"YOU DID WHAT!?" He shouted enraged.

"Good. Use your anger. Strike me down." I taunted.

The fight had started as Jaune made the first move. He swung his sword high and tried to bring it down upon my head. A mistake to say the least. I brought up my own gunblade to block. Metal clashed and right after he realized his mistake he let off and backed away, taking a defensive posture seeming as if he wanted to wait. Too bad that I would show him that this was a mistake too. He had apparently forgotten that I could shoot him as well. I started unloading round after round at him. He blocking and it worked for a couple of shots before he was knocked back into a wall. He recovered and ran at me again. This time with no warning. I was barely able to dodge him. I shot his sword out of his hand, yet it still didn't stop him from bashing my chest with his shield. As I recovered I noticed him going for his weapon. I didn't let him take the chance. I used my semblance and impaled it through the ceiling. This didn't stop him as he started to channel his aura into a continuous stream of energy heading straight for me. I created my own aura shield just in time. I brought myself to use my semblance to stop Jaune before this got too far.

"Jaune," I said, "Do you really think I would kidnap any of you?" After I said that everyone came out of the observation room and Jaune immediately looked relived.

"But you told how you did it. Why would you do this to me?" He asked.

"To test you. I needed to see how you would fight while infuriated. What you lack in form however you made up for in power. All in all, a worthy student. Meet your new teachers; myself and Weiss."

Jaune groaned as Weiss stepped forward while the rest of us had a laugh at Jaune's misery. But on the bright side, he's going to learn from the only other sword users he knows.