One More Chance

Chapter 19 - Failure and Reward

A/N: If you're interested in seeing early releases for the chapters or wish to help beta my stories, then you can go here: 'discord .gg/zhn7zr7' Just remove the space.

Beta(s): Amphion, Indrick

Jaune paused as he felt a connection with his Aura suddenly drop.

He frowned and turned back, eyes widening as he saw it—the speck of black and red falling from the Anansi's maw. Everyone around him paused too, feeling a distinct sense of disconnection from someone.

And they saw Ruby.

"Ruby!" he didn't know who shouted it, nor who started first—but he knew one thing, he ran towards her. Ran faster than he had ever done before, pushing the limits of his own ability. He knew that it was dangerous, and that he would lose a lot of Aura in the process, but he didn't care.

His plan failed.

And now, because of that, Ruby paid for it.

"Fuck!" he screamed, tears in his eyes, he gritted his teeth even as he felt his Aura struggle to keep up with him, but he pushed through. Pushed through until he could get to Ruby and help her. So that he could make up for the sins that he's done. "Ruby!" he screamed again, looking up to where she was. She was going down to the ground fast—faster than he could reach her—but no, he can't fail again.

Not here.

Not now.

He skidded to a stop as he arrived just beneath where Ruby was and spread out his arms, looking up as he prepared to catch her. She fell onto his arms, and he crouched down to cushion the fall, causing cracks on the ground. Then he opened his eyes, heaving a sigh of relief when he saw that, yes, she was still in one piece.

Ruby had her eyes shut, until she slowly opened them, tears forming as she saw Jaune's face. He just smiled, waiting for her to calm down.

"Hey, Ruby." he smiled, and her tears finally streamed down her face as she hugged him and leaned into his shoulder, sobbing all the way.

"Jaune!" Ruby's cries were muffled as she continued sobbing on his shoulder, arms around his neck. "I-I'm so—"

"Sorry." Jaune sighed, looking up and running back towards where the others where. "I didn't plan for that."

Ruby didn't say anything in the duration of the short trip, continuing to silently sob in his arms.

When he arrived back to where the others were, he sighed and placed Ruby down on her feet, surprised when she didn't let go of him. "R-Ruby…"

"I don't feel my legs…" she mumbled, Jaune barely catching it, making him carry her again.

But he didn't have the chance to do so when suddenly he felt Ruby get taken away from him, he panicked for a moment before he looked up and realized it was Yang who was glaring at him.

Were her eyes always red?

"You!" Yang growled, "You nearly got my sister killed!"

Jaune frowned, slumping down as he hung his head, "Yes, and I—"

"You—!" Yang struggled to move as she was held back by Nora from punching him, while Ruby clung to her tightly. "Let me go!"

"That will do nothing to improve our situation." Weiss said as she crossed her arms, Jaune glancing up at her for a moment, before nodding.

"Yeah… We should—"

"That is why, I would suggest that we retreat now as soon as we can, there's still a bomb out there, and it's not exactly a weak one." Weiss said, glancing at Jaune for a moment with a frown. "It would be best if you use your abilities now while you can. We need to escape after all."

Jaune gulped, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, then he reapplied the buffs for them all. He then looked at Weiss and said nothing, not trusting himself to say anything at this point.

Then they ran.

"Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Lie Ren." as their names were spoken by Ozpin, the four of them went up the stage. When they were on it, he continued, "The four of you have achieved something that many others would not be able to do alone, and that had been shown all throughout your performance in Initiation. Furthermore, the four of you persevered, survived, and have learnt from it." at that, the audience clapped. Something Jaune thought must have been more for show than anything genuine. "And you have acquired the Platinum Medallion, a symbol of Dominance and Power above a great many things. The four of you will go far." Ozpin smiled then, "Jaune Arc, you are now the leader of a great team. Team Abyssal."

Jaune's eyes widened at that, and he looked up the large screen to see the letters of their names appear. A, B, S, and L.

He looked at Ozpin with confusion.

Him?

Why would he be leader? Didn't he see just how they…

He was about to say something, but held his tongue when he saw Arthur walk up the stage.

It seemed the ceremony for them was still not finished.

"And in addition to the rewards which will be given to you based on your medallion, there shall be a mentor that will guide you in your time here at Beacon. For you, team Abyssal, you will have Arthur Arc as the said mentor for your team. However, all Beacon Staff may assist you as well, but your main mentor shall be Professor Arc. I hope they will aid you well in your journeys from now and until the end of your time here in Beacon." Ozpin said, as Arthur nodded and looked at his team.

"Welcome, Team ABSL, to Beacon. Like Ozpin said, I will be your mentor in your stay here, and in that time, I intend to make sure that all four of you will not only become a team that would surpass others by leagues and bounds, I plan to also make you a versatile team, able to work in any situation that would be thrown at you. I hope that you are all ready for that challenge." Arthur said and for a moment there was silence, as everyone awaited for their answer.

Jaune frowned, looking at his team, Weiss and the others looked back at him, all of them with nods, making him turn to face Arthur. "Yes, we're ready for any challenge." he said with a nod.

At that, Arthur smiled. "Good, now follow me." he said as he walked down the stage, Ozpin nodding at them to follow.

They did, walking down the stage as well and following Arthur's lead.

When they were out of the Auditorium, Jaune took a deep breath and was about to speak, when suddenly Arthur interrupted him, "The questions can come later, Jaune. For now, I have to orient you all to your schedule. Wait until then."

Jaune grimaced, before nodding, continuing to look at Arthur's back as they walked.

They passed by the hallways and the doors to the different lecture rooms of Beacon. Many people looked at them oddly, particularly Jaune, which was probably because of Arthur.

He ignored them, staring straight into Arthur's back, and suddenly they stopped by one of the doors inside the dorms. He looked at the number, 993, guess that was theirs.

Arthur swiped his scroll over the door and then it opened.

When they all went into the dorm—it didn't look like anything fancy so he didn't really care—they all sat down on their beds, with Arthur standing by the door as he crossed his arms.

He then looked to Jaune. "So, you had a question?"

Jaune just sighed and stood up, nodding. "Yes. I do."

"What is it?" Arthur asked, frowning.

"May I decline the role of team leader?" Jaune asked, looking straight into Arthur's eyes.

Straight into those darkened cobalt eyes of his.

"I don't know if you, or I hated you more back in Beacon."

"To be fair, Weiss, both of those would probably be right."

"How would that make sense?"

"The Brothers will find a way."

A/N: Anyways, thanks to a few of my betas and stuff, I got a lot of help on this chapter, and honestly it would take too long to say them all.

For those who were scared of this going down the RW3Y path, worry not, cuz that should never happen in this story. If it does, just bug me over on discord to change it or something. I dunno, whatever works.

Well then. This chapter isn't really all that much, and honestly I just wanted this arc to end, and right now I feel really, really tired. But thank you guys for following and reading the story anyways, even though it's generally bad xD

So yeah. I have something to tell you here. There will be no chapter tomorrow (sadly) nor a few days after that as well. Most of that will be because I'm going to start actually planning out this story so that I don't fuck up too much like I did in To Change the Past. It shouldn't happen here, and I won't let it happen. So stay tuned for it! Also, I love y'all!

Next Chapter: Hopefully Next Week or Earlier. You can help me out on discord too if you like that. Link's at the top so :D