One More Chance

Chapter 24 - Inconsistency


RPYN's second spar against ABSL went a lot better than the last one, not much really changed, but this time they'd been close to knocking both Blake and Ren out of the fight, but Weiss' Grimm were in the way which held them back, and, inevitably, made them lose again. But it was far from being as bad a loss as the last one, they'd even been close to taking Jaune down to three quarters of his aura left!

Although beating them was still a far goal to reach, Jaune didn't doubt that Ruby and her team would get there eventually, especially with the way they were working really hard alongside them right now. He occasionally helped them every now and then, when needed, something which Weiss seemed a bit iffy about, but never really commented on.

Regardless, now they were eating lunch and their two teams were sitting across each other in one table, fitting the two teams just barely enough. Though Jaune had been doing well in ignoring the stares and gazes being thrown their way lately, now, being calmed down after everything that had happened so far, in just the last few… weeks, really, he realized just how many people were actually staring at them, some in awe, some in admiration, and others in envy… Jaune had noticed this lately, but he didn't really realize that there were this many people around Beacon Academy, even counting out all the higher years.

It gave Jaune a bit of a hard time getting through his food, making him eat slower than usual, but he managed to push through it. It seemed Weiss noticed his dilemma and, seeing as she was right next to him, she lightly nudged him with her hand, he glanced at her momentarily, before she spoke,

"Don't mind them." Weiss said, staring at her own food as she absently picked over the last bits of her salad. "What they think doesn't matter. We're here for a reason, and that reason doesn't concern them."

Jaune stared at her for a moment, before smiling and turning back to his own food, letting out a small breath, "Thanks. I guess I needed that." he said, feeling much more comfortable while eating his food. He listened in to the various things which the students at the table talked about, well, mostly Ruby's team really, his team were mostly doing their own thing. Jaune felt himself pause at that,

He may have just gotten one of the most anti-social teammates ever. Well, except for Weiss, but then again it's Weiss, she's hardly bad at anything. Jaune decided to watch as Yang and Nora happily discussed their different tastes in food, with Ruby and Pyrrha interjecting now and then.

He smiled, well, it didn't really matter, he supposed, he's content with the friends he has. Ruby and her team are just so fun to be around, and his own team seemed to be rather dependable so far. So he was happy, he just hoped that he would get better so as not to make the same mistake that had happened just yesterday at Initiation.

He shuddered at that thought, he nearly lost Ruby there… he was going to make sure that never happened again.

As though sensing his inner turmoil, Ruby decided to talk to him, "Hey Jaune! You excited for combat class with Miss Goodwitch later?"

Jaune blinked at that, looking to Ruby with a raised brow, after a moment's thought, he shrugged, "I suppose, it will be a good learning experience, but personally it feels like a rather dark thing for us to learn about."

Ruby blinked then, "Huh? What do you mean?" she asked, the others also starting to look at him with interest.

Jaune grimaced at that, scratching the back of his neck. "Well… I mean, think about it, other than the competitive aspect of the whole student vs student or team vs team kind of thing, it's almost as if they're preparing us for human combat. It's kind of a worrying thought, and I know I'm probably just overthinking this, but I honestly think they're training us for human combat alongside the Grimm combat we have." At his words, the whole table paused, and he could feel their eyes boring into him, making him look down to his plate, feeling guilty for what he'd just said. "You know what, never mind that—I'm just being paranoid—"

"No, I actually think you have a point." Weiss spoke up, and Jaune looked to her then, surprised, "It makes sense as well, we're Huntsmen, well, Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training, but the job of Huntsmen extend further than just slaying Grimm, we protect the Kingdoms as well, and can be conscripted if need be… Besides, it's not as though Huntsmen just deal with Grimm, case in point, Arthur and Bianca, they're both Huntsmen, and alongside that they also deal with threats around Vale, at least, those which the police and military cannot handle. Threats such as terrorism and/or insurgency, Beacon Academy works under the Kingdom of Vale to protect it, so it wouldn't be unnatural for Huntsmen and Huntresses from this academy to be called in if a war ever broke out…"

Weiss explained all that, and Jaune just stared at her, furrowing his brows slightly as he thought about it…

"But, of course," Weiss sighed, continuing from her point lately, "This is all theoretical, and I doubt a war will break out anytime soon, not even the acts of terrorism the White Fang commit would really require Huntsmen to be called in unless it was that huge of a threat." she explained, and Jaune noticed Blake's fist curl around slightly for a moment, making him wonder if she had some history with the White Fang, regardless, Weiss finished explaining and went back to finishing her food before opening her scroll up again and working on some more things.

Jaune focused on what Weiss was doing now, looking at how she was still tweaking the schedule they had slightly. He grimaced slightly at that, seeing how Weiss seemed to have a hard time getting their schedules all fit together perfectly. He wanted to help but Weiss just shook her head and said that this was something she needed to do on her own, talking about all sorts of things like complexity and constraints. Sure, he didn't understand much of it, but he still wanted to help… he shook his head and sighed, turning back to the others who went back to talking about various things.

Well, after what Weiss said, it seemed that the topics have shifted.

"You know I never really thought of it that way." Yang murmured, furrowing her brows as she put a hand to her chin. "Having to fight terrorists… or even just other people… I mean, it sounds cool, but then you start to wonder about the life and death situation that you could be in. Damn…"

Jaune winced, he really didn't want the topic to get here. He really should have kept his mouth shut. But, well, Ruby, ever the cheerful girl, just smiled, "Come on guys, it's not so bad! As long as we have each other, we'll be fine! I mean… I'm not particularly looking forward to getting there, but I know that if I'm with you guys I'll be fine! Besides, Arthur and Bianca will be there to protect us!" Jaune smiled at that, and before he could say anything, someone else stepped in,

"They won't always be there, you know." Blake, surprisingly, stepped in. As the attention turned to her, she didn't do anything other than blankly pull out her book and open it. "All I can really say is, we should hope that it never comes to that. Otherwise, not even I'm sure if I would fare well through it. I have even less to say about how the rest of you will." she said, and from the way she talked about it, it seemed like she had some experience through it. At least, that's what Jaune could gather. He wouldn't pry though, Arthur trusts her, that's enough.

Although… if she's hiding a secret from them… it could be bad.

Then again, just like Blake said, they'll just have to hope that it never comes to pass.

Even though saying such words would likely just tempt fate even more.


Arthur was starting to notice some rather worrying differences now in this Remnant they'd ended up in—the main thing there being… that there was no traces of Cinder to be found.

Hell, even Emerald and Mercury seemed to be practically non-existent.

"And then there's the whole Laquem being out here…" Arthur muttered, rubbing his chin in thought.

Bianca just glanced at him for a moment before looking through her rifle's scope again, still finding nothing out of the ordinary through the thermal lens.

Something which she wasn't exactly sure was a good thing or a bad thing.

She just sighed, "Looks like this one's a bust too, Arthur."

"Like I thought… damn. Bianca, I have a feeling that Cinder Fall isn't in this world." Arthur said, looking up at the ceiling of their apartment room. "And our only next lead might just be the worst one yet…"

"Merlot, huh." Bianca let out a long breath as she set down the rifle and faced him fully. She was already fairly sure that there was nothing around here either. "But why would he need all that Dust?"

"Likely the same reason that Cinder needed all of that Dust back then… which is literally just as a distraction." Arthur frowned, staring at Bianca, "Looks like we'll have to hit up Merlot Industries in the upcoming break."

"That still begs the question, Arthur," Bianca interrupted him, "Why would Merlot ever work with Salem of all people? We all know that, as much as that mad scientist despises Ozpin, his sole reason for even experimenting with Grimm was to use it against Salem."

Arthur went silent at that, realizing that it was a valid question.

"... who knows? But we don't really have any other lead right now, do we?"

"We could always torture Roman or Neo for information." Bianca shrugged, a horrible thought to have, but what else can they do right now?

"That's not going to work." Arthur shook his head, "They're hardly anything in Salem's eyes but a distraction. I doubt they even know about Salem."

"That's fair…" Bianca furrowed her brows, "But then how did they even get to work for her? Or the White Fang to work with them for that matter?"

"We can't be sure about the White Fang right now." Arthur crossed his arms, "... all we can do right now is wait and see. There's too many weird differences in this Remnant we're in—and that could be the only explanation why we're even still here in the first place despite all our interference with our past selves."

Bianca just nodded at that. Thinking for a moment… "So we just train the kids then?"

"That's all we can do right now, really." Arthur sighed, "I'm not exactly optimistic of their chances on even a C-Rank mission right now. Especially with the whole ABSL drama going on." he frowned, "Maybe I should go talk with Jaune about that."

"No, don't be impatient." Bianca shook her head with a smile. "I believe they can work this out on their own."

Arthur was about to say something but then sighed and nodded. "You're right. I shouldn't interfere with their personal lives too much."

"Be patient, dear Arc." Bianca chuckled as she laid herself back on his chest, as he was sitting on the bed. "We still have time, you know?"

"... time that is very much fleeting, yes." Arthur muttered, but he still wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him, "The calm before the storm, huh…"

Arthur just hoped that this storm wouldn't be a devastating one.

It's been way too calm for the last few months after all.


"You know… I never really liked the peace and quiet."

"Oh?"

"Because it only makes the wars even more destructive when it does arrive."

"You're just paranoid."

"And you're too calm!"

"Then what can we do, Jaune? Act out against them blindly? I'm just as scared as you are!"

"Right… I'm sorry about that, Ruby."

"No… we're just all… broken. Right now."

- An excerpt from Atlas' Last Stand, a week before the Fall of Atlas.


A/N: That certainly took a long time. Practically, what, two years? Anyways the main reason for that was because I got lost with my plan and sorta got scared of moving on with this story as it is or not. After a long long time of deliberating, trying out new things, and just working on other stuff... I don't really see why I was so worried back then, haha.

So yes, the show goes on, and things are starting to look interesting with the timeline changes that seemed to not be caused by them.

Anyways, this chapter took a really long time so I wouldn't blame any of you if you got annoyed by waiting for this eh. That said... I hope you guys are willing to give this fic One More Chance?

Eh? Ehhh?

... yeah that was a bad pun. drei signing out.

(also if any of you guys are in the Work in Progress discord server, aka the Jaune discord, you should be able to find me there easily as drei. ping me if you want to talk about this story or other stuff I've written I guess? not sure about my other fics rn tbh, but I'm willing to give them another spin at least for a while.)