Authors Note: This week has been exhausting and I can't really pinpoint why. I've just gotten home from work and been dead tired and I'm afraid that may reflect in the writing a bit, let me know your thoughts in the reviews once your done.
The cheers of the crowd roared as they exited the Arena. They had done it, they'd won their first match! Yang felt the excitement run through her as the adrenaline slowly tapered off. She was sore and tired but relieved beyond belief.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling. Team RWBY had proven that they were in fact among the best, now all of Beacon would know. Her team were much the same, despite the fact that Blake and Weiss tried to hide it.
Blake actually had a smile on her face for once while Weiss was practically vibrating next to Ruby. Yang's sister was jumping and squealing.
"We won!" Ruby laughed. "I can't believe that we actually won! This is so awesome!" She reached over and pulled her partner into a hug.
"Ruby!" It was probably testament to just how happy she was that Weiss didn't try to pull away from her partner, at least, not as much as she normally would have.
Blake glared at her in a silent threat that, happy though she may be, she would not let Yang get away with that. A second later the glare slipped away and her smile returned.
The fight had been intense, though thankfully it wasn't as close as it could have been. Team RWBY had been ahead for most of the fight thanks to their better teamwork. That fact didn't stop them celebrating, nor the happiness they all felt.
"Now we have to decide who is going into the next round." Blake whispered to her, Ruby being told off by Weiss for such a public display of affection, she didn't miss that the Ice Queen wasn't as cold as usual.
"We can worry about that later. For now, we celebrate!" Yang howled. "Team RWBY is gonna win this thing!"
"Don't count us out just yet." A voice said from behind her. "We've still got a couple tricks up our sleeves."
"Pyrrha is hardly a trick up your sleeve." Yang turned around to see Jaune. He smiled back at her. Pyrrha blushed slightly, rubbing a hand against her neck.
"I'll have you know I am an excellent strategist."
"Throwing Pyrrha at them doesn't count as a strategy." Yang chuckled. "No matter how effective it is."
"I'm really not tha-"
"Lies! It's totally a strategy!" Nora followed after Jaune.
"We won!" Ren stepped back from his partner just in time for Ruby to slam into Nora with semblance enhanced speed, knocking them both onto the ground.
Jaune turned away, ignoring Nora's cries of treason and betrayal, and walking over to Yang.
"You did great out there, both the team and you." Jaune said. "You were amazing."
"Charmer," Yang smirked. "Are you trying to win me over for something?"
"That depends," He replied. "Is it working?"
Yang reached out and pulled him into a short kiss, ignoring the groans and complaints from their teams.
She pulled away a second later. "I think so."
"Ugh, get a room you two." Ruby smiled to show she was teasing, a fact that Yang didn't know whether she liked or not. She was glad Ruby felt comfortable enough to tease, that didn't mean she wanted to be the target. Retaliation would be the only way to break even.
"Preferably not ours." Weiss glared at them to show it wasn't a recommendation.
Weiss put herself in the line of fire.
"Don't worry," Yang's smile grew. "I wouldn't want to encroach on your alone time with Ruby."
Ruby turned beat red and shrunk back, Weiss stammered but was unable to speak for a second. Nora was laughing up a storm while Blake simply shook her head.
"Xiao Long!" Weiss pointed a single finger at her. "That is not appropriate!"
"Don't worry Weiss," She waved with her hand. "I wont judge."
"Xiao Long!"
"Yaaaaaang!"
"Arc!" Weiss snapped. "Stop her!"
Yang looked to him, raising one eyebrow.
He seemed just as confused as her. "What do you expect me to do?"
"I don't know!" Weiss yelled. "Embarrass her!"
Yang smirked at Jaune, waiting for his attempt.
"And how would you propose I do that?" He rolled his eyes. "Have you met Yang?"
"Hey!"
"I suppose that's fair." Weiss sighed.
"Believe me, I would if I could." Jaune smiled. "It would be a useful trick to have."
Yang rolled her eyes. "If you two are done." She paused a moment and waited for them to nod. "We have to go celebrate our teams making it into the doubles."
Jaune looked confused. "But our team hasn't even fought yet."
"Your team has Pyrrha Nikos, it would be more surprising if you lost." Said girl's blush turned a shade darker.
"I'm really not th-"
"Fair enough." Jaune turned to smile at Pyrrha. "You really are too nice Pyr, you could probably win the match by yourself." She made to interrupt but he continued before she could. "With us by your side, I almost feel bad for the other team."
"Almost." Yang reiterated. "But if you want we can wait until you've had your fight." She groaned when they nodded their heads in approval. "You are all the definition of the word party poopers."
"The wait will make it even better." Jaune shrugged his shoulders.
"I doubt that but I'll pretend." Yang rolled her eyes once more. "I guess we should go find our seats." She gestured back towards the bleachers. "No telling whether we'll find any good ones."
"You guys go ahead, I need to do something real quick." Jaune stepped away from them.
"Uh actually, I needed to talk with you about something if you don't mind me tagging along." Yang waited for him to nod before separating from the group. Ruby promised she'd save them some seats, Nora promised they'd be next to each other so they could 'make kissy-face'.
Jaune waited for their teams to be gone before speaking.
"What's up?"
"You're going to talk to your parents, right?" He looked confused by the question but nodded. "Have you introduced them to your team yet?"
"I-uh… no, no I haven't yet." Jaune sighed. "I didn't really plan on doing it."
It was Yang's turn to look confused. "Why wouldn't y-"
"Because I was actually gonna ask them to leave."
Jaune refused to meet her eyes.
"Why?"
Jaune stayed silent for a moment before answering.
"I… I'm not on the best of terms with them, Yang." Jaune's voice was complicated. "I'd prefer not to mix my old life with my new one."
"So you're just gonna send them away when they came here to make sure you're safe?" She smiled, not meaning for him to take it seriously.
"That's exactly what I plan to do." He kept his eyes closed.
"Jaune… They're your family-"
"And they wanted to stop me from coming to Beacon!" His eyes snapped open as he yelled. "If they had had their way then I never would have met my team! My friends! I never would have met you!" She tried to interrupt but he continued before she could. "They wanted to stop me from following my dreams because they didn't think I was ready, I proved them wrong! I went to Beacon, I trained and I improved. I can call myself a Huntsman, no thanks to them!"
He was silent for a moment before the anger wore off and he realized exactly what he had said.
"Yang, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-" Jaune sighed. "It's just… I'm not ready to forgive them, not yet. They still think I should have stayed away from Beacon and I just… I can't let that go."
Yang reached out and pulled him into a hug. "Don't worry, I get it." She whispered. "They didn't support you and that stings but… Jaune, they're your family." She pushed him away slightly, enough to look him in the eyes. "They were worried about you, when you came to Beacon you were…"
"Useless?"
"Untrained," Yang slapped his arm. "You're not useless, you've never been useless." Jaune forced a smile but it was clear he didn't believe her. "You're trying to separate your old life from your new one, but… they're the same thing. No matter what you do you're still gonna be the son of Nicholas and Juniper Arc." She paused for a moment before continuing. "But you're also the leader of team JNPR, you're a huntsmen in-training and boyfriend of Yang Xiao Long." She blushed slightly.
Jaune's smile seemed to brighten slightly. "One of those sounds better than the rest."
"Your team isn't that great." She leaned forward, planting a chaste kiss on his lips before pulling away. "I'm not saying to forget what they tried to do, just dont push them away over 'll regret it.
Jaune coughed into his fist in an attempt to hide his blush, it was adorable and she couldn't help but laugh, making it even worse for him.
"Go talk to your family. Introduce them to your team, I know for a fact Pyrrha and Nora would love it."
Jaune took a deep breath. "I'll go find Pyrrha. Thanks Yang."
"I'm afraid it's beyond our worst estimates." Ironwood stated. "The information we've gleaned from Torchwicks Scroll hints at something far larger than anything we thought possible, and sooner than we thought."
"Any specifics?" Ozpin leaned back in his chair. "Anything we could use to root out the Queen?"
"Nothing solid yet." Ironwood grumbled. "I had my Specialists close in on what we knew the second we cracked his encryption. The details lead us to several safehouses and storing sites both in and outside the walls, most were abandoned however."
"Most?"
Ironwood grinned. "The raids still turned over a large amount of supplies, it's our current theory that these were set up as dead drops for some future operations, but very few actual guards were found." He explained. "Of the few we have gathered we learned about a couple more targets, sadly those were completely empty by the time we got there."
"They knew you were coming after the first wave of raids. How interesting."
"Concerning more like." Glynda corrected. "If they were able to respond so quickly it's very possible you have been compromised James."
Ozpin hummed but made no comment.
"That was one of my fears, yes." Ironwood admitted. "But after further investigation we believe the leak to be a software one. Our top engineers are looking into it."
Either result would be disastrous for them. Traitors were dangerous not only because of the information they could leake but the difficulty of finding them without hurting the trust of those still loyal. Traitors and infiltrators often made friends with the group they were betraying in order to build their cover story, an added bonus of that was the potential for allies in case of danger.
Ozpin doubted many of the Atlesian soldiers would turn on them however. The soldiers of Atlas were loyal to their country, but above that, these were the General's best men. The ones he trusted enough to drag across the world to face an enemy unlike anything they could imagine.
Still, traitors could be dealt with, as much as the thought sickened him. Computer viruses were different. They could lie dormant or undetected until they had already done their job. Even with their attention drawn it was possible they wouldn't find anything in time, and if the computer systems of Atlas had been compromised that meant most of their forces would be as well. The robotic ones at least.
Their biggest asset may have already been swept from under them and they hadn't even noticed.
"It seems we must take action." Ozpin sighed as he picked up his mug, taking a long drink before setting it back down. "We will go ahead with the transfer."
"You've made your choice then?" The General asked. "I cant convince you to reconsider?"
''I'm afraid not James." Ozpin replied. "Given recent developments I believe we have no better options available."
"She's strong, and her loyalty is almost certain but…" Glynda pinched her nose. "It feels wrong to bring one so young into this."
"I know and I wish there were another option but we simply can't leave the power with Amber." Ozpin sighed. "Her team is strong and she will be well protected."
"Then it seems the discussion is over." Glynda sighed. "Would you like me to make the call?"
"If you would." Ozpin stood from his desk, taking a step towards a bookshelf off to the side where he could refill his mug. He had the feeling he would be needing it for the conversation to come.
"Her family won't like this."
"Leave them to me, Glynda." Ozpin sighed. "I owe them that much."
"This is Nora and her partner Ren."
"It's a pleasure to meet ya!" Nora shook Nicholas' hand.
"Please, the pleasure is all ours." Juniper smiled brightly. "We're so glad to see Jaune has made so many friends at Beacon. We had been worried, he was never the most popular back in Ansel."
"Mooooom~" Jaune whined.
"Oh believe me, we know!" Nora smiled, showing she was teasing. "Lucky enough for him he got me on his team, I'm super good at making friends!"
Ren made a so-so motion with his hands behind Nora and Jaune's parents smiled at each other.
The introductions had gone well. Jaune's mother had been overjoyed to meet her son's friends, just being included in his life again after so long seemed to make her happy.
His father looked happy that his wife was happy and seemed to be content with his son's team, though whether that was because of who they were as people or because of them all being strong enough to stand up for Jaune if he needed it was anybody's guess.
Still, it was an improvement and Yang was happy to have had a part in it. Jaune was currently talking with Juniper and Pyrrha, the latter of which was blushing at something Juniper had said while Jaune seemed to be denying it.
It was a sweet scene, especially given what she knew about Jaune's opinion of his family. It was clear there was still an issue, the way he still tended to refer to them as Juniper and Nicholas when talking to them, or the awkward silences in between nobody talking.
Still, it was progress. Nora pulled Pyrrha and Jaune into a hug, or a tackle depending on how you defined Nora's hugs, and the group laughed.
A beeping sound broke through the laughter and Yang reached for her scroll. She'd considered denying the call until she saw who it was. Ruby noticed her step away and started to step towards her for a moment before she held up the scroll. Her sister nodded and went back to her conversation with Nicholas and the rest of team RWBY
Once Yang was in a somewhat quieter place, a reasonably abandoned stairwell, she answered.
"Hello Miss Xiao Long."
"Miss Goodwitch, is something wrong?"
Author's Note: Welp...wonder what that ending could be about.
The ending part of this chapter was a real bitch to write, not the literal ending lines but the build up to it, and I'm still not all that confident in the actual wording and flow but we'll see how yall feel.
A number of people have asked how far I plan to take the story in terms of volume and to them I say wait and see. Sorry about the anti-climactic answer there but I don't wanna reveal anything until a certain point. Until then you'll just have to be along for the ride.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and, even if you didn't, I encourage you to review. It helps me to improve and make this story as well as others better in the future.
Sincerely SE