Marksman of Remnant

It was looking to be another average morning in Beacon Academy. Professor Ozpin was at in his office, sat in his chair with a fresh cup of coffee in his hands. He was facing away from his desk and was looking out the window behind him. The view of his Academy and the Kingdom of Vale in the distance was a beautiful sight. He never grew tired of it. So he took a few minutes every morning to enjoy it. To remember why he did what he did. Why he continued to fight.

His moment of tranquility was broken when he heard the telltale alert of him getting a message. Ozpin sighed to himself before taking a sip from his coffee. He turned his seat around to face his desk properly before gently placing the mug on it. He turned on his desk and started to look to see what was sent to him. If he had to guess, the Council probably had some issue they wanted him to help with. Either something that didn't need his touch or resources. Or possibly something he had done as of late to rub them the wrong way that they wished to complain about.

When he opened the message, he was surprised to find that it wasn't from the Council or any of his other colleagues. But from the leader of a stable settlement in the middle of Vale's territory. A settlement he knew very well and one he liked to visit whenever he could. Sadly, it had been close to two years since the last time he could do so.

As he looked over the message and the request that came with it, he spoke to himself, "I certainly wasn't expecting this, hmmmm." He hummed to himself in thought. When he made his decision, he reached over to the scroll on his desk and called Glynda. When she picked up he started to speak, "Good morning, Glynda. How is your morning going?"

"Same as usual, Ozpin." She answered back. "I am curious on why you are calling me this early. Please tell me you're not going to try and push some of your paperwork off to me." The last part holding a certain edge to it.

That made him chuckle, "No, I am not. Could you please send Teams RWBY and SVRN to my office please."

There was a brief silence before she asked, "What did they do now?"

"I assure you, nothing, Glynda." He looked back over to the message, "I actually have an opportunity for them."

There was another extended pause, "I will inform them and send them up to you immediately."

"Thank you." With that, the Headmaster ended the call before sending a message back to the leader of the settlement. The two spent several minutes messaging back and forth. He was in the middle of his next message when he heard his elevator coming up. He finished typing out his message before closing the screen, not sending the message yet. The doors opened to reveal the two teams in question. Two of the most promising first year teams.

First was Team RWBY. Leading them was their leader Ruby Rose, the prodigy he let in two years early for helping Glynda bring in Roman Torchwick. Weiss Schnee, the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company who wished to follow her own path to uphold her family legacy. Blake Belladonna, the ex-terrorist that revolted against her former beliefs to find her own way to Faunus equality and peace. And Yang Xiao Long, the talented Huntress that hoped to find her purpose for her skill and strength at his school.

Then came their sister team, Team SVRN. The first of them to walk in was Pyrrha Nikos, Mistralian Champion and top student of their year. Behind her were the inseparable partners that had suffered more than any person their age should, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. And finally, there leader. A former second year student who had gotten severely injured on her first mission and was forced to repeat the year. Despite her timid personality, she took charge when it truly mattered and lead her would be team to success: Velvet Scarlatina.

As they all walked in, Ozpin couldn't help but smile to himself. "Good morning, students. I hope your morning has been going well."

Weiss was the one to speak up, "We have, Professor, thank you for asking."

"Well that's good to hear. With your second semester starting, I was hoping everything has gone smoothly over your break."

"Not to be rude, Professor…" He turned his eyes so he would be looking at Pyrrha, "But why did you call us here?"

"Straight to the point. I can respect that." He took a sip from his coffee before continuing. "I just received a message from the leader of a settlement that has… importance to Vale. They are in need of a little extra assistance. Grimm activity has been a bit higher than normal there and they are in need of experienced hands. Sadly, they don't have the funds to hire a fully-fledged Huntsman but he has reached out to me for help."

"You want us to be the help they need, Professor?" Velvet asked, still on the timid side but she was slowly beginning to move past that with the help of her old, new, and sister teams.

He nodded, "Precisely. Your two teams are the top of your year, so you should be able to handle this. You will be paid for your time, by both Beacon and the settlement. And I believe you would all gain valuable experience from this mission. But I should warn you: depending on the volume of Grimm, this assignment could take several weeks to possibly the entire semester."

"What about the schoolwork we'll be missing if we take this?" Blake asked cautiously.

"You will have to make it up, of course." The Headmaster answered, "But you will receive extra credit for your time away, considering this could be an extended mission. But again, this is completely optional. If you wish to not go, that is completely fine. There is no shame in backing out of something you don't believe you are ready for."

"Who said we weren't ready?" Yang asked as she cocked her hip to the side. "I think we can handle it just fine."

"Yeah!" Nora said excitedly. "No one can kick Grimm butt like Teams SVRN and RWBY."

Ozpin looked them all over with a small smile, "So, is that your answer?"

Ruby nodded enthusiastically, "Team RWBY accepts, Professor."

Velvet did the same, "Team SVRN too, sir."

He nodded with that same smile, "Very well. I will let him know you agreed. I suggest you go get ready and pack what you feel is necessary. An airship will be ready to take you there at noon, so be down at the air docks by then."

With that, the eight of them nodded before heading to the elevator. All of them talking excitedly for their new mission. That was until Ren stopped and turned to him, "Professor?" he asked. His friends stopped and Ozpin looked to him, "You never told us the name of the settlement."

"Oh, it is called Arcadia, Mister Ren."

It was a few hours into their flight and the two teams were beginning to get a bit stir crazy from sitting on the ship for so long. "So…" Ruby started. "What do you think Arcadia is like?"

"I honestly have no clue, sis." Yang spoke up. She had her arms behind her head as she was laid across several seats to rest. "I've never even heard of the place before."

Weiss just rolled her eyes at that. She was on the other side of her leader with her scroll in hand. "Why am I not surprised by that?"

"Don't start with me Weiss cream." Yang warned with no heat in her tone. "But since you seem so in the know, why don't you tell us all about it?"

Weiss just held her scroll towards Yang, "What do you think I've been doing on my scroll this entire time?" she asked. "I have been looking into any information on the settlement we are heading to. That way we can know what to expect and be prepared." She then gave her usual prideful smile for going above and beyond.

Yang snorted and Ruby playfully rolled her eyes, "Okay. So what did you learn, Weiss?" There was an extended silence and she turned to her partner. The Heiress was looking off to the side with a hard to read expression on her face. "Weiss?"

She sighed, "Nothing, okay? I've found next to nothing."

Blake, who was sitting on the other side of Weiss and reading, slowly lowered her book with that. "Nothing?"

"That's what I said!" Weiss responded irritably.

Pyrrha, who was sitting with her own team across form them joined in, "How is that possible? Vale usually has a list of known settlements and at least some basic information om them. Even if some people find it to be a waste of time, they update them regularly."

Weiss sighed, "I know and that's where I looked first. But aside from the name, there is very little. Not even exact coordinates. And the leader is only known as Arc. Apparently their family founded the settlement. But that's it."

"That is very… odd." Velvet spoke up, sitting next to her partner. She had her hand on her cheek as she thought out loud. "I mean, some settlements do go under the Kingdom's radar. It could be one that has just persevered and they have done little to gain the Councils attention."

"But the Professor told us that this settlement was important to Vale." Ren pointed out, "If that is the case, why is there so little information on it?"

"Maybe it's some sort of secret conspiracy!" Nora said excitedly, sitting next to her partner. "Maybe this settlement has something so amazing that if anyone found out about it, they would be attacked nonstop! And if it were to fall into the wrong hands, the world would be doomed!"

Everyone just stared at her for a bit, "Nora, I highly doubt it is anything that extreme." Weiss said with a sigh.

"Well what's you reason then?" Nora shot back. When Weiss didn't immediately answer, she gained a megawatt grin, "Ha, I win!" She said as she leant back with her arms crossed over her chest.

That made them all share a laugh. Yang finally sat up completely before speaking, "Well whatever the reason is, I don't think it's our business." She looked them all over. "As much as I love a good mystery, we're here to kill Grimm. Not uncover possible conspiracies."

"She's right." Blake spoke up. "Let's do what we were sent to do. Take care of these Grimm and keep the people safe."

"That, I can agree with." Weiss grinned.

Before anymore conversations could continue, they heard the speakers come to life, "We are nearing your drop point." The pilot spoke to them. "I would suggest grabbing your things and preparing to land."

That had all of them turning to the windows to see the settlement but they were shocked when all the saw was a massive forest. One that seemed to stretch on for miles. Seeing that, Yang reached over to the radio on the wall, "I thought you said we were close? I don't see the place anywhere."

The pilot answered back, "Guess no one told you. That forest throws off a lot of interference that makes our instruments completely useless. Many airships have crashed down into it because of that. So, my job is to drop you off at the edge and you eight need to continue on foot."

Weiss took the radio from Yang, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?" he said in annoyance.

"Like I said, my job is to drop you off here. I didn't know you were clueless and frankly, it wasn't my job to tell you the details. Now you can either stop complaining and grab your things. Or stick around and I'll fly you back to Beacon." The pilot said before he shut off the radio. That left Weiss glaring at the radio, as if she were trying to kill it and possibly the pilot with only her eyes.

"Well nothing we can do now." Ruby said with a shrug as she slung her backpack over her shoulder and made sure that her trusted weapon was on hand. "Weiss, do you know where to go?"

She huffed as she grabbed her own bag and weapon, "I have a general direction on where it is but that is about it."

"It'll have to be enough." Velvet said as she took a picture of Weiss rapier. The unexpected flash had her blinking afterwards. Velvet chuckled nervously, "Sorry, Weiss. I just don't have any more pictures of you weapon. Can never be too careful."

"Please warn me, Velvet." Weiss said as she rubbed her eyes.

They all felt the ship start to turn and all faced the back. The hatch slowly opened up to show that they were ten or so feet in the air and thirty or so feet from the forest. They all jumped from the ship and as soon as they were all on the ground, the airship closed back up before flying back towards Beacon.

Ruby was looking at the forest for a few seconds before Velvet walked up to join her fellow leader. They shared a look before they nodded, "Alright." Ruby said out loud before turning to everyone. "Let's get going. We should get there before sunset."

Weiss pulled out her scroll to double check which direction they were supposed to go before they started to walk into the forest. As they walked in, Blake stopped as her ears twitched under her bow. She looked around the trees and branches for a bit, looking for something. She shook her head when she found nothing before catching up to her group. She just missed a form peer around the trunk, high in the branches and a pair of blue eyes watching them all.

The eight students had been walking in the forest for the better part of three hours and were undeniably loss. The pilot was right about the interference that the forest gave off. It made using their scrolls a difficult process to say the least. Sometimes they would just be slow and others it was just a static mess on a screen. They quickly gave up on them and tried to use more of an old school method to navigate, a compass. But that turned out to be just a big a bust. And what was worse, sunset wasn't too far away and that would make navigating near impossible.

They all came to stop and were trying to get a bearing on their surroundings. "Well I'm up for suggestions." Ruby spoke. "Anyone have any ideas on how to get out of here?"

"I'm not climbing anymore trees." Blake said instantly. They tried having her look above the treetops but they always just saw a near endless expanse of forest. No sign of any settlement anywhere close.

Weiss pulled out her scroll and sighed, "Scrolls are still useless."

Ren held up his compass, the needles just constantly spinning clockwise before going counterclockwise. "Same for the compass."

"We have to think of something soon." Velvet pointed out. "Only Blake and I have night vision and there is no guarantee that our scroll's flashlights will work any better."

Yang huffed in anger, "You know, it would've been nice if the Professor mentioned we'd have to hike our way through some creepy forest that screwed with electronics."

"Yang, calm down, please." Ruby started, "This sucks but the last thing we need is for-" She was cut off as they all began hearing growling. They all turned to see Ursai and Beowolves stalking towards them. Their red eyes glowing ominously. Ruby sighed, "Grimm. I was going to say Grimm."

"Finally!" Yang said as she deployed her weapons. "Something to take our frustration out on."

The rest drew their weapons and prepared themselves for combat. "Dibs on the Ursa!" Nora shouted as she barreled towards them. No one could stop her and Yang decided if she couldn't beat Nora to them, she would just join the hammer maiden.

Ruby turned to her Faunus teammate, "Blake?"

Velvet did the same to the sole male on her own team, "Ren?" Both of them sighed but nodded. They then just chased after their respective partners to make sure they didn't get in over their heads. Or wreck the forest. Whichever came first.

With that, the remaining four students faced towards the Beowolves. Velvet quickly creating a copy of Akouo and Milo before herself and Pyrrha started to fight with identical fighting styles in nearly perfect sync. Ruby and Weiss focused on the other half of the pack, Weiss getting in close while Ruby covered her with her gun.

It didn't take more than a few minutes before the Grimm were pretty much taken care of. Ruby was just beginning to relax when she heard growls from behind her. She turned just in time to see three Beowolves ready to pounce. She pulled up her scythe to try to counter them but it was unnecessary. In the next second, three grey arrow flew in from her right and impaled each Grimm through the eye, killing them. Ruby just stared on in confusion as the Grimm started to dissolve. She then heard a voice come from the same direction as the arrows, "You probably had them handled but I wanted to be sure."

Walking towards her was a tall figure. They wore black boots that went up to the knees, brown pants and a black, short sleeved vest with a hood that covered their head. The vest was open enough to show a green shirt underneath. They also had a pair of mismatching black gloves. The one on the right hand went up to the wrist while leaving the pinky and ring fingers free. The one on the left went up to the elbow and looked to be just a bit thicker on the inner part of the forearm; this one only covering the index finger and thumb. Over their right shoulder was a quiver filled with arrows and the left hand had a grey bow, strung and ready.

Ruby shook her head after she realized she had been staring for a bit, "Uh, thanks for the help."

He chuckled a bit, "No problem." He then went over and retrieved his arrows. He looked them over and after seeing they were fine, returned them to his quiver.

That was when the others walked over to join him, they all looked over their new arrival, "Yeah, thanks for watching out for my sister." Yang said cheerfully. "But who are you?"

"Oh, right." He said before his right hand reached up and pulled the hood down. Revealing tanned skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. He smiled at them all before placing the same hand on his chest. "My name's Jaune."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ruby Rose." She said with a smile.

"Weiss Schnee." Said with a prideful tone.

"Blake… Belladonna." Slightly apprehensive tone.

"Yang Xiao Long." Said confidently with a wink.

"V-velvet Scarlatina." Timidly and nervously.

"Nora Valkyrie!" Loudly and full of energy.

"Lie Ren but please call me Ren." The epitome of calm and collected.

A look of apprehension before a sigh, "Pyrrha Nikos…"

Jaune nodded, "Nice to meet you all but why are you all out here? Not too many people come out here."

Velvet cleared her throat, "We are actually from Beacon Academy. We were sent out here to give Arcadia some assistance."

He nodded, "Right. I was told some students may show up today. Well good thing for you I ran into you. Most people can't navigate through the forest but I can lead you back home without much issue." He looked off towards the sun, "And we should get a move on. It'll be dark soon and the Grimm tend to get more restless at night."

He started to walk away and just motioned them to follow with his bow. The eight quickly picked up their bags and followed after him. "How exactly do you know where we're going?" Weiss asked.

He just chuckled, "I've been playing and exploring this forest since I was half my size, Miss Schnee. I know it like the back of my hand."

"Why were you out here though?" Blake asked next. "What would you need to do in this forest?"

"Hunting." He said simply as he jumped over a downed tree. "Arcadia has livestock but we hunt to help with the volume of food we need for everyone. I was looking for deer when I stumbled across you all."

"That explains the bow." Nora pointed out.

"That and its my weapon of choice." He looked back at them, "I like taking care of Grimm before they even know I'm there."

"And how good are you exactly?" Yang asked with a grin.

He stopped and looked around. His eyes locked onto an apple tree maybe a hundred feet away. "See that apple there?" He pointed at the higher branches and they could see a large red apple hanging. Before they could speak, he grabbed an arrow, drew it, and fired in less than a second. The arrow flew and broke the stem to the fruit while not touching the branch. The apple fell to the ground when gravity took a hold of it.

They turned to him as he lowered his bow. "Whoa…" Ruby said before she raced over to the tree with her Semblance. They saw her materialize before reaching down to pick it up. "Wow!" She raced back over and appeared in front of Jaune, making him step back in surprise. She held the apple out to him, "You hit the stem and didn't even mark the apple. How?!" she asked with stars in her eyes.

He smiled slightly as he gently took the apple from her, "I've been using a bow since I was old enough to draw it back. Years of practice." He tossed the fruit into the air before catching it nonchalantly. "Although I was a complete mess when I first started." He then tucked the apple into a small satchel on the back of his belt. "Come on. We still got a while before we reach Arcadia." He then took off in a brisk jog.

The Beacon students all looked at each other before shrugging, they quickly picked up the pace to keep up with the guide.

The nine of them jogged at the same pace for nearly an hour. Which impressed the students since they had assumed he was just a regular guy but he at least seemed to have some sort of training. They finally came to a stop, with Jaune just beginning to pant, and they saw a few dozen feet in front of them was a clearing. And in the clearing were massive walls. They were nearly fifty feet tall, built from wood and concrete. They could see a number of armed people on the top of them, keeping an eye out.

That was the last thing they were expecting but they got pulled from those thoughts as Jaune chuckled, "Yeah, most people don't expect that." He then started to walk forward. He brought his finger to his lips and whistled three times in rapid succession. The guards turned to him as he broke the tree line but waved when they recognized him.

They stepped up beside Jaune as he waited patiently for the massive doors to slowly open. Once they did, they saw a massive settlement, borderline city. They saw numerous houses built from wood and just as many shops. They saw many people walking to and fro, ending what appeared to be a regular day for them. "What is this?" Nora asked in shock.

Jaune had the most content smile on his face as he just looked over the settlement. "This is Arcadia. This is home." With that, he slung his bow over his shoulder and walked into the safety of the walls.

As the group started to walk up the main street, many of the people around them would stop to greet or wave at Jaune. He would return the greeting or wave back. As they walked by the butcher, they saw a burly man with bright red hair standing out front. Jaune nodded, "Good afternoon, Mr. Rouge."

He nodded back as he was cleaning off his hands, "Hello, laddie. Did you get anything?"

He shook his head, "Afraid not. Found the Huntresses we were expecting though."

He gave out a booming laugh, "Even better. And don't you worry, we should be fine for a while with all the game you brought me."

A random group of kids were running through, just missing them. One of them tripped but Jaune managed to catch her before she hit the ground. He helped her stand up and he knelt down to be eye level with her, "Are you okay?"

She nodded bashfully, "Yes. Thank you for catching me, Mister Jaune."

He just chuckled, "Just Jaune." He took out the apple he had shot down earlier and handed it to her. "Here you go. Now why don't you go play?" She quickly nodded before chasing after her friends, the apple held against her chest.

"Aren't you popular?" Yang said with a Cheshire grin but deep downs he though tit was sweet. She did have a soft spot for kids after all.

Jaune blushed slightly but shrugged, "Most people know each other here. They may not be on first name bases but they know each other." He shook his head, "Anyways, let's get you all to the manor."

"Manor?" Velvet asked. But she didn't get an answer though.

Jaune led them through the streets of Arcadia. They were still just baffled by just how large and seemingly peaceful this settlement was. A settlement that was virtually unheard of. They even noticed that the population was almost equal between humans and Faunus, which was a shock for Blake and Velvet for obvious reasons. Eventually they were brought before a manor on the top of a large hill towards the back of the settlement. It was beautiful and well made but it didn't seem excessive. It gave a sense of importance but not lording it over the people around them. Some would say it gave off the same aura of a wooden cabin. Homey and warm.

Jaune didn't hesitate to slowly walk up the path towards the manor and when they were all outside the front doors, he just pushed them open and walked in. "Should you really be doing that, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

He turned to answer them but was stopped by another voice. "Master Arc, you're back." They all turned to see an older gentleman with silver hair that was combed back and warm hazel eyes. He was dressed formally in black dress shoes and pants. A white dress shirt with a brown vest over it and finally a green tie. A warm smile stretched across his face. "How was your day, sir?"

Jaune smiled back, "It was an eventful day, Bertrand." He motioned to their guests. "These are the students Professor Ozpin told us about."

Bertrand turned to them and gave a small bow, "Welcome, all of you." He stood again, "I am Bertrand Copper. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"I'm sorry but did you say 'Master Arc'?" Weiss asked. The entire group was just looking confused as she was.

Bertrand nodded, "Yes I did." He motioned to Jaune, "This is Lord Jaune Arc, the leader of Arcadia."

The students just turned to the hunter they had met in the forest and just stared at him in shock. Jaune rubbed the back of his head before he gave a sheepish grin, "Did I forget to mention that?"

A/N- Well here it is! The winner of the poll. To be honest, I didn't know which story would win but I didn't think it would be this one. See how much I know?

Couple things to go over: Yes, I know. Arcadia isn't the most original name. I've seen it in dozens of Fanfics but what can you do? Velvet is the team leader of Team SVRN, pronounced saffron, because I needed a character to take Jaune's place as leader and she will be one of the girls in his eventual harem. That's your one freebee, the other four girls will be a surprise until later.

After rereading this chapter, I think it's a bit... light? I don't know. Like I don't know if their is enough of a hook to it. Maybe I'm just over analyzing it or maybe not. I wanted this chapter to give you a peak. Next chapter will be where more of the plot and a bit of lore to hopefully smooth it out a bit more. Let me know in the reviews.

So, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and hopefully you'll stick around with it for the extended future. See you all in the next update!

PS: Going forward Team SVRN will instead be called Team Sovereign because a few people brought it to my attention and it is way better