Yo, wassup?
I'm not very experienced with dialogue writing, and there's gonna be a ton of dialogue in this bitch. So, things are about to get really chatty. I've decided to make writing a weekly thing. As in, I'm gonna be dropping chapters every week or so. I can afford to do that with the way my schedule's been buggin'. Again, no fuckin' proofreader. Deal with it.
Headmaster Ozpin was tired, but he was also so excited.
There, he sat in his circular room as the great big clock of Beacon ticked on behind him. The ticking had always filled with a strange mix of calm and worry, always reminding him of the ever-flowing river of time and the events that passes by. The sun smiled through the glass of his office, filling it with a very much welcomed warmth as he completed mountains of paperwork on his desk.
And for the first since forever, he didn't hate it...
That was because this particular pile of paperwork promised so much in the future. With The Northern Grimm Pools gone, Vale can finally expand freely without having to worry about endless armies of Grimm to halt them in their tracks. He no longer had to worry about his students freely venturing beyond the walls in the fear of them getting swallowed by a sea of darkness.
Despite all these great things, Ozpin still had quite a bit of work to do.
He corrected the placements of his spectacle and slid back his white unkept hair. His old green eyes filled with a rare hope as he read and wrote certain texts. The contents of his work primarily concerned the actions and activities of Huntsmen and his students. Since there was no longer such a large population of Grimm around the Kingdom, his students would no longer have access to particular Grimm to train against. This was a problem that needed to be fixed.
Huntsmen were also being regrouped back to the Kingdom to prepare for quite an event. The Great Recovery.
The Kingdom had plans to send out fleets of ships filled with supplies and weapons out to the frontier to recover whatever was lost due to the Grimm and the previous two wars that used to plague Remnant. It was ambitious, but all perfectly possible with the Northern Grimm Pools no longer in the picture. His students would also assist in The Recovery by aiding the Huntsmen in whatever way they can while they kept up with their education. They were still students and still needed Grimm.
If there was no Grimm to fight, then how would they learn? So, Ozpin attempted to kill two birds with one stone, his students will keep learning.
A smile curled and stretched his pale aged face.
Something truly new had happened and everyone's hopes were higher than they've ever been!
He might join the parties and festivals going on in The Kingdom if he finishes this early. He might even get a bit tipsy if he could afford to do so.
So, he wrote on. His green vest hugged onto him under his black coat while his black slacks warped at the tapping of his black dress shoes. The green sweater underneath it all kept him warm from the chilly altitude of his Academy. He breathed a sigh of relief as he was nearing the completion of one of the piles. A single thought manifested in his mind and he chuckled in response to it.
'Our stalemate has broken, Salem.'
But, after that thought, a series of others came along. Questioning the very nature of Vales current circumstance.
What was the Pillar of Vale?
How did it dry up The Pools?
What caused it in the first place?
It was definitely not of magic. If it was, he would know. Instead, the beam was made out of something else, something common, something familiar, something that existed in every living thing.
Aura
What could have produced such an unimaginable amount of Aura?
Jaune awoke.
But... something was off.
He opened his eyes to see that the ceiling was alot higher than he remembered. It was also alot colder, too.
Jaune sat upwards, his supporting hands meeting grainy fine soil rather than the soft cotton comfort of his benevolent bead. His vision was still blurred but he felt... much better than before. With his index and thumb, he pressed against his forehead before bringing them down to rub his eyes. He took a quick breath and blinked a few times to clear his vision.
What he saw sent him shooting onto his feet. He knew what this place was, he spent a good chunk of his childhood here. It felt like only yesterday since he took off.
It was The Arc Ranch Barn.
Except it wasn't a normal barn by any means.
The building was of a tall rectangular structure. The ceiling hovered a massive thirty metres above the ground. The construction was roughly fifty metres wide and seventy metres long. It was a massive effort of labour, but... it was almost entirely empty. There were no tools, no hay, no animals. Aside from the pair of stairs that lead up to a platform above the entrance where an open square window allowed light in, there was nothing.
The walls were also strangely thick. They were reinforced with iron and soundproofed as to not disturb anyone as to what may be happening inside.
That was because this barn was never intended to be used for the purpose it was named after. It wasn't a place of agriculture, or a place of storage, or even a place of rest.
It was a place of combat.
An Arena
A very well hidden and disguised arena.
He remembered how his sisters would almost always spend their time here with his dad before they, one by one, vanished from the house to become Huntresses...
Why was he here?
Jaune tried to call upon his memory on how he could have possibly managed to bring himself back to where it all started. His hazy memories were unhelpful, but they did give him bits and pieces. He remembered...
He remembered going to a bar to "feel better", he remembered feeling the buzz of his life, and... remembered trying to run away from Vale to go back home.
His brows and lips both twisted down at the realization that getting hammered was not the best choice he could have possibly made at the time. But, that was not important, what was important was how practically impossible this whole situation was.
How did he manage to scurry his way all the way back to Arcadia?
How did he manage to do that while black-out drunk?
How did he manage to even get here without being killed by some sort of Grimm in his vulnerable state?
He needed to escape and somehow get back to Beacon. He can't be here. He had to leave as fast as possible and-!
Wait...
He remembered something else.
He remembered waking up in his dorm with a towel on his head before dashing off to the bathroom to hurl out whatever was upsetting his stomach. He remembered looking down at the retch and seeing glowing drops of yellow and white. He also remembered how ominously red his vomit was. Finally, he remembered Pyrrha bringing him up from the ground as he crawled back to his bed.
In this tornado of recollection. Jaune started to see how he didn't run away during his unfortunate display of alcohol abuse.
Something was not adding up.
If he woke up in Beacon earlier, why would he be here?
Out of curiosity, the boy turned his head over to the window then to the tall, double-doored entrance. Taking small hesitant steps, Jaune slowly approached the doors with dread. The white soles of his black boots parted the fine soil on where he stepped as a pale hand inched closer to thick sound-proofed iron reinforced wooden doors. Flesh met material... and pulled.
A flash of colour assaulted his retinas as he recoiled slightly from the intensity. He pushed onwards, slowly and meekly stepping outside as to not alert anyone nearby who might recognize and...
"...What?"
There was nothing, nothing but the cloudless blue sky and the sun high above indicating the time of noon. He took a few steps outside and stopped at an "edge" where the ground took up a blue blocky appearance and looked down. There was no ground. There was no horizon. Just the sky, the barn, and the small patch of land around it. The fall beneath seemed bottomless and all was just blue.
He quickly walked around the premises on whatever little available terrain the barn stood on and found the same thing, the red walls ever-present. He revolved back around the entrance fist clenched and eyes darting back in forth. It was some sort of island in the middle of nowhere. An impossible space with no land, sky, or horizon to separate the two. All that was above was the sun that granted light to this realm of blue and the humble little island in it.
The world beyond this building did not exist, all that he could see where an endless space that held no reason. He lied on his stomach to look back down beyond the edge again, thinking that if he did, there would something for him to determine the nature of his circumstance. Alas, this did nothing. All he could find was the same eternal space that surrounded him attiring the sky's blue.
"What!?" He was starting to panic.
He dashed back inside the barn and shut the doors behind him, hoping to keep the revelation of the outside world from his mind. He slid down, his butt slowly descending on the fine soil. There, he sat. Mind overheating from the logic of this place. This was not the barn... it was... but it wasn't.
Where was he?
Why was he here?
How did he even get here?
Hands pressed against hair as lungs received rapid shots of air.
"What's going on? Where am I!? ...I need to get out of here!"
Jaune shot up to open the doors again but as soon as he tried to slide them to the side, they simply contested against him. Furrowing his brow, he tried to pull them aside once more, only to be met with that same harrowing resistance.
His eyes shot wide in fear as he prepared his third attempt. Nothing. "What?"
He pulled again. The doors did not budge. "No."
He pulled again. The doors will not part. "No!"
Again. There wasn't even a buckle. "NO!"
"HELP! ANYONE! HEEEYYY!" He began banging at the door, his alarmed state making way for desperation. "HEEEELP! ANYBODY! PLEASE!" His fists crashed against them in futility. "SOMEONE! ANYONE! OPEN THE DOOOOR!" He tried kicking his way out, but there wasn't even a crack in the wood.
It would be impossible for him to escape this way anyway. The wood throughout the entire building was reinforced by hidden layers of iron and soundproofing, it had to be as to not turn heads when his sisters were sparring and bullets flew throughout the space. The wood itself was made of a mix of East Mastrali Hickory and Atlan Oak with some Vale Poplar here and there. It was a sturdy structure designed to endure the abuse of its intended purpose.
"No. No, please. Please! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!? IS ANYONE OUT THERE!? MOM! DAD! Please... anyone..." He resorted to calling out the last people who he thought could possibly help him out, but then, the haze of his desperation gave way to reason and he remembered that he was on a floating chunk of land in the middle of some sort of limbo where there was no sky, no ground, and no horizon. "Oh, what's the point..."
One of his fists still stuck to the doors while his forehead met beside it. Even with Aura, there was no way he was getting out of here. This place was built to endure his sisters' training. If it can do that for so many years, then what chance did he even have? After finally calming down, he pushed himself off the door and thought of other means of escape instead of just brute-forcing his way out.
He looked back behind him and saw a square of light shining upon the dusty ground. A spark of thought illuminated his mind.
"The Window!"
The window was still open! He can escape through the window!
With sparks of hope quickly kindled into flames, he dashed his way around one of the stairs that lead up to the platform where the window was. Smiling wide, he climbed the steps with speed and stomped his way up, the sound of each step bouncing around the vacant space. The boy eventually reached the platform and stood tall n' proud. There was a time when just climbing these steps would leave him breathless, but not anymore.
Freedom was just inches away.
He carefully walked towards the window but... there was something wrong. When he peered out through the square hole, he couldn't see anything but white. The blue of the space around him was washed away by the purity of it. He felt that something was wrong with the window and slowed himself down to inspect it with more scrutiny. Taking small steps, the sole occupant of the barn closed the distance between him and the window.
Black.
There was a small oval of black indented in the clean white. Jaune squinted his eyes for better vision and saw something else within it. Two orbs of blue? No... Cyan. Two orbs of cyan inhabited the black, they were not all that visible due to the blinding white that surrounded it. He blinked. Was it coming closer? He blinked and squinted again, the black oval and the cyan orbs within it were growing larger with every second.
"What the..."
Yes, yes it was. It was definitely coming closer. A pang of fear made itself known in Jaune's chest as he moved back in light steps, but he wasn't fast enough.
In the click of a finger, something bursted out of the white beyond the window and into the barn itself. Spontaneously coming face to face with its original occupant.
"WHAT THE-!?"
"WASSUP!"
"-AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A creature of some sort, Jaune couldn't get a good look at it since he recoiled back and was in the process of tripping over the railings and screaming like a chipmunk high on helium, yelled with ground shaking volume. His lower back met the wooden rails the weight of his body cause him to tip him over it, careening to the floor upside-down.
"Oof! ...Ow..."
The dust rose around him as his lanky body lied there, his ears picking up the muffled laughter of whatever just scared the bejeezus out of him. He rose up and planted his feet down again, raising himself up in a stance in case of hostile confrontation. His knees buckled and his teeth chattered. The laughter went as whatever jumped him hovered its way above and behind him.
"Oh, that was bloody priceless, Mate! Did you see the look on your fuckin' face!? BAH! HAHAHAHAHAH!" The voice gradually toned itself down but it was still loud enough to not miss.
Jaune turned around and came eye to eye with whatever came through the window.
And stood frozen.
The creature was "humanoid" in a loose term. It had long and seemingly boneless arms, longer than its entire body. Its legs were strangely small, barely even visible as they curled in the same boneless fashion as the arms. The extremities of the creature were strange and disproportioned, the feet were small and simple but the hands were massive and disgustingly detailed. Its body was somewhat large and bulbous, the closest object Jaune could compare it to in shape was a chalice or grail.
Finally, it's head...
Its head was probably the strangest feature. Two pieces, of which he could assume was metal, warped and folded like clay and the darkness between them housed two glowing orbs of cyan that maybe functioned as its eyes which would squish and stretch, bouncing along to the thing's laughter.
"Holy Shit! I bet you shit ya'self, you sounded like a fuckin' seagull!" It continued with its onslaught of howling.
The creature did have colour though and did seem to wear some sort of attire with different dashes of simple colours.
Those freakishly long arms were wrapped around a soft, white padded fabric which ended in a pair of black leathery gloves tightly hugging its weird, large hands.
Its legs, probably the smallest of its features, had a smoother blueish fabric going down to pair of small boots made of the same material as the gloves.
The body was wrapped by a bulbous blue vest which was tightened in place with a black belt made of the same stuff as the boots and gloves. It also had silver rectangular "buttons" running along the middle and the same padded cloth on the arms dangling down beneath it. Jaune concluded that the white cloth and the arms underneath the vest were all part of some sort of coat. A pair of pauldrons on either of its shoulders bared the same blue as its vest and pants.
The head was made of some sort of silver or incredibly polished metal. There were two pieces. Some sort of metal mask that rose up in the middle at a point and the large rounded "hat" that stretched and warped like eyebrows. A blue band of cloth wrapped around the brim of the metallic headwear and held two blue feathers at its right.
White. Black. Silver. Blue. All with a touch of Cyan.
In Jaune's opinion, the thing looked like something you would find out of those really old cartoons his grandpa used to watch when he was a kid. It had simple friendly colours and had wibbly-wobbly proportions of a character you would find in that era of media. It was definitely highly expressive with the way the mask and hat warped with its laughter and it would just float there with its long inflatable-tube-man-like arms fluttering about clutching various parts of its form.
"Oh! Oh, sweet mama! Holy shit that was pathetic! Mate, that was possibly the most embarrassing display of bitchery I've ever seen. I'll tell you that. Whew! Hahaha." It began to calm down from its laughing fit, placing both its massive hands on the side of the belt. "Last time someone screamed that high was at the time one of my previous Knights was watching some poor sap's balls get chopped off during a choir session! That's the reason why it's called a castrato..."
"..."
An awkward silence made its way known between the two. Jaune was incredibly unwilling and very cautious over the idea of talking with something that looked alot like a living, breathing cartoon and was roughly double his size... five times his size if he counted the length of the arms. On the other hand, the creature was looking back in its past mulling about the unfortunate mutilation of the poor boy back then but that choir did be bussin', though.
A good minute passed by as Jaune simply stood there thinking what to do next while the entity before him was dicking around in its own head, mulling over the exact pitch of the castrated choir boy. If none of them was going to cut the silence, this was just going to go on even longer and Jaune did not want to be here any longer. He wanted to go back to Beacon and go back to eating his dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.
So, with great fear and a wobbly meek voice, Jaune attempted to break the ice.
"Um... Ex-... Excuse me, but who-... who are you? And,... where am I?"
That definitely did the trick as the thing perked upwards and shifted its attention towards him. It froze there for a second like a deer in headlights before slapping the top of its cap and chuckling along.
"Oh! Oh, yeah! That! Where the hell are my bloody manners!? Of course!"
The creature glided closer and stopped right before Jaune, who took a few steps back from the floating giant out of fear, and bowed slowly and dramatically akin to a performer after a play with one hand forward and one hand behind its back.
"I, Sir Jaune, am your Squire."
[|]
Jaune looked at the bowing figure with confusion and scrutiny.
"...What?"
The figure rose once again displaying its massive size in comparison to the boy.
"Squire! I am your fuckin' Squire, M'lord! It is my sole duty to serve and assist you in whatever shitty endeavours you may endeavour and yadda yadda yadda-... wait what was my next line again? I genuinely don't remember it's been a bleedin' long since I've made an introduction. What was I supposed to say next? Uuuuh... Endeavours you may endeavour and uuuuh- FUCK! I forgot my lines. SHIT!"
As the creature went into a seething rant about how he "fucked up his bit" Jaune watched with genuine curiosity at what was before him. This thing moved in ways that shouldn't even be possible and was able to express human emotions with the hat, mask, and eyes alone. Its body language was explosive and its hands were extremely expressive as they fluttered about. Honestly, the thing looked alot more silly than threatening while floating back in forth trying to remember its "lines".
What was more interesting was how it knew his na- Wait! It knew his name!
"Wait! You know my name! How do you know my name!?" Jaune's sudden interrogative and fearful tone grabbed the Squire's attention again.
"Ah! Well... That. Uhhh you see, well-Uhm..."The Squire turned around slowly towards him, hissing slightly and avoiding eye contact while placing the tips of its fingers together. "I may... or may not have swum around in your head for a bit."
"What? What does that even mean?"
"I... I took a dive in your memories and unveiled quite a few little details about you from the day you were born, how you spent your life so far, and-uhm... You're uhhh... You've got a weird fuckin' thing for Pumpkin Pete, mate. I don't know if you're brainwashed or just stupid, but I'm quite fuckin' sure that stuff contains more than just a few toxic substances. You never pay attention to the ingredients of the boxes, there's fucking MERCURY IN YOUR SHITTY CEREAL!"
"*GASP* You take that back! Pumpkin Pete is the greatest cereal brand to ever exist!"
"Says the Cereal shill with only two working brain cells sharing the same single electron between them!"
"I CAN PROVE IT! Pumpkin Pete has the highest record sales in Remnant HISTORY and their sales are only growing! HAH! Beat that!"
"THAT'S BECAUSE THEY'RE PUTTING FUCKING COCAINE IN THE CEREAL, IT'S A HIGHLY ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE! WHAT DO YOU NOT GET!? THAT SHIT'S POISON!"
"...What's Cocaine?"
"...You fuckin' idiot how do you not know what cocaine is- ATATATAH WE'RE GETTIN' OFF TRACK!"
The creature clapped his hands together in full force to stop the snowballing hot takes between the two of them and took a ten-second long to inhale before Jaune could utter another word.
"Alright, let's get down to business. My name is Squire, my occupation is as your Squire, my title is The Squire. My job is to effectively help you in whatever bullshit you're going through. Ya dig?"
"I... I don't? What's a squire?"
Deep breaths Squire, don't scare away a potentially unstoppable war criminal.
"Tell me, Jaune. You know what a Knight is right?"
"Oh Yeah! The Arcs are full of Knights. There's Rosso Arc The Blood Bathed, Zelenyy The Deadly- Oh! OH! There's also Morada The Wealthy! She had so many castles throughout Vacuo!"
"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tone down nerdgasming, would ya? Keep going and you're gonna start growing pimples. Effectively, a Squire is a direct servant of a Knight. That's what I am. I am your Squire, you are my Knight... Well... you're my three thousandth Knight. The ones before you are all dead, and I have no idea how long I've been stuck in that fuckin' rock, so I don't know how long it's been since my last Knight ditched me and probably died."
Jaune couldn't wrap his head around whatever was coming out of Th Squire's mouth... mask? Mask. Jaune couldn't wrap his head around what was coming out of Squire's mask. He was a Knight? And this thing was his Squire? And what was he going about with a rock?
"Whoah... So, I'm like an actual Knight now?"
"Ehhh... Kindaaaa. Look, you haven't really done anything remotely "Knightly" at all yet. So, I really don't know how qualified you are for the Title."
"Aww..."
Something clicked in Jaune's head, why was all this happening? And, still, where even was he?
"Hold on, you told me who you are, but... but you haven't told me what's going on and where I even am." He allowed his eyes to wander around the space, extracting every bit of nostalgia he can out of the barn. "This is my family's barn, what's it doing here and why is it in the middle of nowhere?"
"Am I dreaming, am I going insane!?"
He stressed every word. His deep blue met cyan sheen, begging for answers. So, Cyan answered Blue.
"Alright. So... You want to know what's going on. You want to know what the hell is happening, how this is happening, and why it's happening. You also want to know why you're here, and to that, I'll explain everything I can. You are my new Knight after all, and as your Squire, I am obligated to help you."
"Oh, thanks, man... Wait... do you have a name."
"...I literally just told you my name was Squire a few seconds ago, dipshit."
"Hey, you can't just call people stuff, man. That's not cool." Recovering from the insult, Jaune snarked at a sudden realization. "But... you're name is Squire, you're job is a Squire, and your title is The Squire."
"Yeah."
"Wait. So, does that mean your full name is... Squire The Squirely Squire?"
"...I hate how you're not fuckin' wrong about that, but yeah. My full name would literally just be Squire The Squirely Squire. Oh! That's a tongue twister! Try saying that ten times fast! Haha! But, on the topic of you dreaming. Yeah! You're dreaming."
Jaune raised an eyebrow at that and looked at his hands. His face scrunched up with thought as Squire glided about unaffected by the laws of gravity... or even physics and the laws of nature in general with how his very existence seemed to be an utter impossibility.
"So... I'm dreaming... This is a dream... And, none of this is real...?" Jaune was trying to understand but failed. Everything just felt so real. The way coolness of air touched his skin, the way the soil grained against his boots, and how his hoodie and armour normally clung to him with weight. Everything just felt real... too real.
Squire placed a finger on his "chin" to think of a good way to explain this whole deal and, I shit you not, an actual light bulb physical appeared above his head before shattering and disappearing. Just like a cartoon.
"Here, I'll explain in the best way I can so kindly shut the fuck up while I speak, 'aight?" Squire said, continuing to illuminate Jaune.
"This-" He splayed his arms wide outwards, almost touching the walls. "-is your Dreamscape!" His hands came back to him and continued to speak alongside his mask. "This place resides in the inner crevices of the subconscious and is an amalgamation of thoughts, dreams, and memories. I have taken some degree of control over it during the initial stages of your sleep cycle and fashioned a stable and familiar environment for you and me to dick around in."
Squire came down to circle around Jaune in a clock-wise manner while he rambled, much to Jaune's ire due to how somewhat creepy it was.
"This is where reason becomes unreasonable and logic goes to die! The mind is a liquid. It flows and ebbs formlessly and continuously, making it chaotic and difficult to control but I, a master of the mind, am capable of turning the tides and commanding it into any form I wish! However, this is not my mind, it's yours. And, my control over it is limited, better than yours, but still quite limited. That's why I opted for something... simple and familiar for us to chat in."
He laughed for a bit.
"It didn't take me long! We already spent quite a bit of time after we first met."
Jaune eyes gradually widened in awe and fear. What was Squire? He entered his mind, but when and how? What even was Squire? He explained who he was and what he does, but not a word of what he was. Best to play this safe, Jaune thought while processing every sentence from his strange companion.
"So... we're in my head. Ok... I get that much, but why are we in my head and why am I your new "Knight"? When did I even meet you? You said you had other Knights before me and that you got left in a rock. I don't remember anything about a rock? How did I meet you?"
Squire stopped dead in his clockwise circling and shot up into the air looking up into the ceiling, hand on the side of his belt, and the point of his mask pointing downwards to form a "smile".
"Oh, Yeah! That! You don't remember when you first met me because you were hammered, mate. You were pissed to nowhere, lad. When we first met, you were so bloody drunk that you didn't even question or even thought about why I could talk to you while I bossed you around to save your ass from a hoard of Grimm! Man, that was stressful. You got fucking impaled by a Deathstalker Stinger! You almost died."
Drunk? Grimm? Impaled by a Deathstalker stinger!? ALMOST DIED!? WHAT!?
Then it clicked. The Crowbar. He... took a glass of that strawberry sunrise and everything went fuzzy. Does Squire have something to do with his puke from earlier?
"Wait... what? You're not making any sense- uh well... Me being drunk makes sense. But, everything else you're saying is insane! What happened how did we even get here? If I got Impaled by a Deathstalker stinger, how am I not dead- wait. AM I DEAD! I'M DEAD AREN'T I!? I'M DEAD! I'M DEEEEEE-*Smack*"
Squire proceeded to smack some sense into the panicking boy before he could get into a screaming fest. So overdramatic. The slap left him rubbing an incredibly wide and red mark on the left side of his face. "Almost died, Jaune, Almost died."
"Look, Jaune, I really don't wanna bother telling you every little detail about our little meeting with each other and how you're not dead after getting impaled so I'm gonna give you a freebie." Squire said with exhaustion...
and clicked his finger.
It all came rushing in like a flood. Pressure built up in Jaune's head as he started to see things. Images, sounds, tastes, smells and feelings overwhelmed his mind as memories forced themselves to be recognized.
He remembered... going to the bar because he felt really bad and wanted to stop feeling really bad. He got dizzy and the bartender came up to tie a rope around him but before he could do that, Jaune jumped through the window. He scaled the massive wall of burning hard-light in Vale without somehow being fried to a crisp. He walked all to the Emerald Forest where he found a giant sword... but it was so slim... so light.
A Greatsword.
He remembered Grimm... so many Grimm. He was going to die but then the sword... talked to him. It was Squire's voice. Was the sword Squire? He felt so sad, so frustrated, so angry. He killed a Beowolf... and then he killed so many more. Flocks of black birds, Nevermores, came down to peck out his flesh and eyes. A Deathstalker came up and swatted him away. He tried to fight back, but he... he... he got stung. There was a massive hole in his gut. He was dying.
His blood pooled out from his guts.
Somehow, he got back up and crushed the Deathstalker. Taunting it. But it wasn't his voice doing the taunting, it was Squire's. Jaune then remembered... fighting the Grimm. Like actually properly fighting them. He did moves he's never seen before, made decisions that definitely weren't something he would do, and performed feats beyond what his body could handle. He was crushing the Grimm like they never even had a chance against him.
No... not him. Squire.
Squire was the one who talked to him, Squire was the one who guided him, Squire was the one responsible for getting him out of that hoard alive.
Squire was the reason why he was even still breathing.
Revelation after revelation came crashing down Jaune like tsunamis, washing away every hazy thought and confusion from his mind. He remembered crushing the Deathstalker, decapitating that weird, glowing Giant Nevermore, He even remembered fighting a massive sea of Grimm for hours until Sunrise where he fell and his teammates caught up to him...
Except he didn't do any of that... Squire did. He was just a puppet on strings being weaved around and away from danger by someone who knew better than he did.
He opened his eyes and looked up to his literal saviour.
"You saved me..."
[|]
Squire glided back down to meet Jaune eye to eye once again.
"Well, Yeah! Of course, I did. Couldn't let my brand new Knight get torn to shreds now can I?" Expressive as ever and throwing in a wink for good measure.
Jaune on the other simply stared at Squire with a strange look. His eyes were full of thought, touched with a tinge of gratitude.
"...Thankyou... for saving my life. I-... I wasn't in a good place."
"Let me tell you, lad. That's an understatement! Big understatement. If anything, I should be thankin' you for finally gettin' me out of that rock."
Jaune smiled at that.
"Heh. Yeah. I guess we both have something to be thankful for, right?"
"Aye. Anyway, moving on. Now, you know who I am and why I am here. My little evaluation is done, it's your turn."
A book covered in blue and silver accents appeared in Squire's hands. He opens it allowing several pages to flip by before stopping at a particular one.
"Ah. Here we are! Everything I've written down about you is right here. Your name is Jaune Arc, seventeen years old, male, standing at one point eight metres and weighing in at sixty-eight kilograms."
Jaune awkwardly stood by and listened to Squire read out details about him.
"You were born in Arcadia to two parents and seven sisters, grew up in a relatively stable household, wanted to become a Hero just like the Arcs around and before you but was shot down in your attempts, you would do nothing but fuck all for the next twelve years until you came into contact with Crocea Mors and decided you really did want to live up to your family name."
Shame made itself known to Jaune. As Squire said, he really did want to live up to the legacy of the Arc but his parents and sisters never even gave him a chance.
"You dipped from your home, which was a literal fucking castle at the edge of Arcadia... Seriously, man? You lived in a bloody castle, that's sick! Ok, moving on. You dipped from your home when your parents were on a hunting expedition and were left with just the servants. You used your savings to hitch rides to the closest Huntsman Academy, found yourself in Vale, and did some shady dealings with some narcissistic ginger for transcripts into Beacon."
This felt like some sort of Jury sentence, but Jaune kept his mouth shut despite the growing discomfort in having his past casually laid out before him.
"You got into Beacon with some stolen armour, no Lien, Crocea Mors, and some motion sickness pills which you ran out of during the flight on the way there. You suck dick at virtually every class, have the worst reputation out of all the students, and are being blackmailed by another ginger threatening to expose you. Mate, what the fuck is up with you and gingers? The only other person who knows about the transcripts is your partner who is, frankly, doing a shit job at training you."
He closed the book shut and threw it up high in the air where it slowly dissolved into a cloud of cyan pixels.
"Alright. My verdict." Squire placed both his hands together close to his face and inhaled then pointed them both at Jaune. "You're fucked, mate."
"Oh, don't remind me, man. I know how badly I screwed up, K? I just... I just wanted to be something. Ya'know? Somebody. Anybody! Do you have any idea how hard it is knowing that you're the odd one out of an entire line of legends and heroes? Do you have any idea what it's like being the only person doing nothing while their entire family's out there slaying Grimm, saving lives, and just being awesome in general? ...It sucks, dude."
Jaune crashed onto the ground, salt was evident on his face as he parted the soil sit cross-legged, focusing on just venting. He hasn't had many opportunities to do so.
"It's like, what the heck's wrong with me? Why can't I be like my sisters!? Am I that much of a loser that I can't even be trained like everybody else? Everyone gets to be a Huntsman but me! WHY!? Couldn't they at least give a decent answer other than 'You're just not ready, Jaune.', or 'Being a Huntsman is too dangerous Jaune.', and even 'You're not cut out to be Huntsman, Jaune. We know what's best for you.'. They never ever gave me a good explanation as to why... they just... they just..."
Squire was about to butt in with his remarks but clamped his opening nonexistent mouth shut as soon as he saw the boy about to explode.
"THEY JUST WON'T TELL ME THE REASON! They keep going on and on with the same excuses, never ever giving me an honest, genuine reason as to why I can't be just like the rest of them. I spent years. Years! Years in the shadow of my family and never being able to do anything about it! I wanted to be just like them. That's all I've ever wanted! To be with my family..."
Jaune was close to tears, digging up something like this was taxing on the mind and it showed.
"Mom and Dad are always too busy on missions, my sisters spend all their time in the barn, and I'm stuck in my room most of the time... alone because everyone is just too busy. Every time I try to tag along with my parents, mom and dad would always lecture me about how dangerous their job was. Every time I try to hang out with my sisters they just kick me out of the barn immediately 'cause what they were doing was too DANGEROUS! Everything is too dangerous for me..."
"...It's always too dangerous."
Tears came down on drops but did not flow freely. Jaune tried, and oh did he try, to not show any more vulnerability than he already did. He looked up with red, teary eyes up at the floating creature who looked down on him with a passive expression, showing no outward emotion. For once since he met him, Squire was as solid as a statue. There were no fits of laughter and ridicule, no indication of any form of non-verbal insults or negligence, even his mask, hat, and eyes were solid still.
Squire simply stared...
"I'm sorry." Jaune looked back down. "I-I-I didn't mean to explode like that. Really, I-"
"Stop."
One word. One word was all it took for Squire to bring Jaune's attention back to him.
"Ever since you can think and even walk, all you've wanted to do was to fight side by side with your family, yes? To rise to the name of your ancestors and live up to their greatness in any way you can, no? To make something of yourself to a point where your relatives can look at you with awe and pride, hmm? Family must mean alot to you, Jaune. If it didn't, you wouldn't have gone this far into getting closer to them."
"...Yeah... Yeah, it does..."
His response was barely a whisper.
Squire looked at his new Knight straight in his eyes and saw pure desperation. The boy was not happy nor proud. He constantly felt inadequate by those around him since the only people he's always been around with were either Huntsmen or Huntsmen-in-training. Even now, in his shenanigans at Beacon, he was surrounded by people who were just better than him in almost every margin. He was but a mere mortal among the closest things Remnant has to Gods.
He took pity on the boy but also felt a burning excitement.
What sat before him was someone who would already go to the extremes to accomplish his goals. Someone who already knew what he wanted and was willing to do some seriously dumb shit to get it. He wasn't a stickler for rules, which meant he was flexible and flexibility is always a desirable trait in most situations. There was no need for coaxing, lying, or even manipulation to get his new Knight to become an active force. He already was.
Unlike almost every previous one of his wielders, everything he needed and wanted was already right here wrapped in a neat blonde bow.
This was perfect. Jaune will make a fine War Criminal... and Knight. That too, he guessed.
"How about this. What if I told you that I have a few ways to get what you want and even more?"
Oh, that did it. Jaune blinked a few times and tilted his head.
"What if I told you that I have a few little tricks up my sleeves that can help you shimmy your way up to greatness? What if I told you that I can help you catch up to everyone else in Beacon within just a month? What if I told you that I know a couple of jigs that could help you not only live up to your family's capabilities... but also exceed them? And, not just your family. I can help you exceed your entire BLOODLINE!"
In an explosive display of grandeur, Squire placed himself underneath the beam of light from the window. His arms were wide open, emphasizing his point.
"...What are you talking about?" Genuine curiosity and interest laced his words, and Squire definitely did not miss such promising feelings.
"I'm willing to present you an offer, one that you most definitely won't shoot down! Mate, look at me. I'm someone that's been around for a long, long time. I have witnessed and studied various different forms of warfare, attained a pretty good fuckin' idea of a great variety of weaponry, and bare countless skills and techniques lost to the ages! Jaune! I can be your teacher! I can teach you how to catch up with everyone else!"
Jaune looked up at his Squire with hope. Can he really catch up with everyone else that quickly?
"Mate, I can have you clapping Huntsman cheeks in no time! Besides, despite your Pumpkin Pete dick sucking, I know you're a smart cookie. The reason why you're doing so ass in your schooling is because the teachers expect you to already know the basics when you really don't! That's where I come in. Every night, while you're asleep, you and me can be chilling in your Dreamscape honing everything you need to succeed! Simple!"
"Can... Can you really do that? Can I really catch up with everyone else that fast?"
"Jaune, I've already got plans to have you leavin' everyone in the dust by the second week."
Squire came close to Jaune, their faces inches away from each other.
"I can absolutely promise you that you will succeed. I'm not gonna lie, it's not gonna pleasant. But, what is gain without pain, hmm?"
He couldn't refute Squire's point. Logically, if he wanted to run side by side with people who have strained themselves to such an extreme degree to a point of perfection throughout the span of years, he's going to have to compensate. And, he's gonna need to compensate hard. Jaune sat there with his eyes glued to his legs in thought.
"C'mon, Jaune." Squire shrunk down to a size where Jaune was the larger of the two now, but the metal cap-wearing creature's arms were yet still so freakishly long.
He presented his hand to Jaune, which was now roughly the size of his own. It hovered there, awaiting something. Squire still hovered in the light of the window, the gleam sheening off his hat and mask in a way where they seemed to look like solid gold instead of silver. That same light reflected off the blue of his vest shining the shadows with its calming hues. Squire almost looked angelic in the light.
"Let's shake on it. You agree to take up my teachings and I agree to be your teacher. You may be my Knight and I may be your Squire, but you're still really green."
He had no other options. Either take up Squire's offer and go through whatever nightmare he had planned, or, turn it down and eventually get exposed for the lying cheat that he is. His hands gripped the denim fabric of his pants and his teeth clamped against each other with much pressure. He really had no other way, but at least he had finally he was being offered one last chance to shoot for the stars and achieve his dream...
His hand met Squire's with resolute grip.
Ozpin finished the rest of his paperwork.
It didn't take him as long as he thought, maybe it was because he was actually excited to get it done. He was about to place them on the messenger drone beside his table to take to the council, but as soon as he placed down his pen, the elevator to his office parted and the notification system dinged throughout the space. Coming out of the contraption, a familiar dusty old crow marched his way in.
"Ah! Good morning Qrow. How have you been?" Ozpin spoke in an oddly cheery tone of which Qrow did not miss.
"Oh, y'know. Killin' Grimm, helping out evacuations, making a few names disappear. The usual. Still no lead on the Relic of Destruction or the other Maidens. I heard somethin' happened in Vale while I was gone and you seemed to be in a weirdly cheery mood." He said as he started to take a sip from his flask, red eyes tinged with boredom and greasy black hair showing his deprivation of modern hygiene.
"Ah! Yes. That. Well, you see. The Northern Grimm Pools are gone." The older man's casual tone almost fooled the alcoholic into thinking it was nothing important.
Qrow choked on his flask but didn't spit out any of the booze, he wouldn't dare waste such quality ethanol. Though, the drink did go into the wrong hole. So, he stood there beating against his chest while coughing his own lungs out. Eventually, he managed to expel the burning liquid from his lungs and swallow it back down in the correct one this time. He still took note of what Ozpin just said.
"*Cough* *Cough" WHAT!? *Cough*"
"Well, while you're choking on your beverage, I'll briefly explain. At around midnight last night, A great white beam lit up the entire Kingdom. Coming up to today, at around seven in the morning, it was discovered that The Northern Grimm Pools have been completely depleted of Grimm Matter which made it effectively extinct. The Kingdom is planning on making a massive mobilization in the form of fleets and convoys to recover whatever they can throughout the entire Vale Frontier."
"Holy- *Cough* HOLY SHIT! *Cough* *Cough*"
"Indeed. I just finished the paperwork necessary to mobilize Huntsmen throughout Vale and gather them all back into the Kingdom to prepare a massive campaign known as "The Great Recovery". Huntsmen will be organized appropriately throughout the fleets and convoys for the mobilization. We're leaving an exceptional few to keep the Kingdom itself safe. My students will be going along with the fleets and convoys to continue their education on fighting the Grimm"
"*Cough* What the fu- *Cough*"
While Qrow continued the beat against his grey shirt, Ozpin loaded up the piles of papers neatly into the drone's storage compartment. He tapped in the coordinates and signed his signature before it whirred to life. The gravity dust engines hummed on as the four rotors of the machine spun to allow its ascension. He walked over to an openable window and guided it out to allow it to fly forth onwards to its journey.
"I'm free for the rest of the day." He closed the window. "It is the weekends, and I've effectively completed everything for now."
"So, I'm planning to head down to The Kingdom and join the celebration to loosen up a bit. This body may be getting old, but I'm still up for some excitement."
He turned around back over to Qrow who had finally stopped his coughing with a final wheeze.
"We can talk about the rest of the details of your trip over some drinks if you don't mind." He smiled.
Qrow had finally rid himself of the burning in his lungs and replied.
"Uh... Yeah. Yeah! Sure! I-I-I know a handful of places where we can get some great booze."
"Then, let's, shall we?"
The two made their way to the elevator, with Ozpin smiling the entire time and Qrow being somewhat creeped out by the constant smiling.
...
A woman, wrapped in red and gold, seethed in rage within the shadows.
Lein Lost: 0 Lien Acquired: 0 Total Lien: 0
Dust Lost: 0 Dust Acquired: 0 Total Dust: 0
Ammo Lost: 0 Ammo Acquired: 0 Total Ammo: 0
Equipment Lost: 0 Equipment Acquired: 0 Total Equipment: 0
Grimm Exterminated: 0 Machines Neutralized: 0 Living Hostiles Captured: 0
Aura Lost: N/A Aura Acquired: N/A Total Aura: N/A
Injuries sustained: None
Injuries recovered: None
Total Injuries: None
War Crime Count: 0
Additional Notes: None
Performance: F