"We are discussing this, now!" Ruby demanded.

"Let us out Ruby!" Pyrrha snapped at the younger leader.

"Pyrrha, calm down!" Nora said, trying to defuse the situation. Right now teams RWBY and NPR were in RWBY's dorm discussing Jaune being at Shade, or at least trying to. It had been a few days since the teams had first heard the news. After Ozpin let them go, the first thing NPR and RWBY did was try and call Jaune on his scroll. Of course, since the ex-leader changed his scroll number all they got was a message saying that the number was no longer in use.

After that incident, the tensions that were hiding beneath the false exterior of forgiveness resurfaced again. At first it was a disagreement about what to do about Jaune. Should they try to contact him as soon as they could? Should they ignore him altogether? This was the start of the escalation.

It soon turned from discussing what to do, to forcing opinions onto each other. Back and forth the two teams bickered and bickered to the point they weren't getting anywhere, which lead to this point in time. Ruby called everyone into the room and decided that no one would be leaving until they all came to an agreement. How did she do that? She pushed her bunkbed into the door to block it and stayed there to make sure no one got any ideas of leaving. "Ruby, are you sure this is the way to handle it?" Yang questioned.

"Yes I'm sure," Ruby answered. "Look let's just try to agree on how we're going to see Jaune again okay?"

"Forcing us into a room isn't going to help us get to Jaune!" Pyrrha snapped.

"Pyrrha enough!" Ren yelled. The fact that the passive boy yelled was enough to get everyone to be silent. What made it even more surprising was the fact that he yelled at his own leader. The raven haired boy glared at everyone. "Right now, arguing with each other won't bring Jaune back and it won't get us closer to him." Everyone knew that Ren was right. Arguing would solve nothing. When no one spoke up, Ren took a deep breath and turned to Ruby. "Ruby, what do you suggest we do?"

The young leader let out a tiny squeak at the mention of her name. She looks at everyone and tried to come up with something that makes everyone happy. "Right now I think we need to focus on contacting Jaune." The two teams shared looks and nodded in agreement. "The first question we should ask is this: When should we contact him?"

"We've been trying ever since we found out about his condition, why stop now?" Pyrrha asked.

"He could still be in serious condition," Weiss suggested. "Maybe we should wait a little until he heals up."

"You're all a bunch of idiots," a voice outside the room says. Everyone turns towards the door and stare at it. Ruby crawls between the beds and pushes the bunk bed away from the door to open it. When she does it is revealed that Cardin was the person behind the door. RWBY and NPR all frown at the leaders appearance.

"What do you want Cardin?" Pyrrha said with slight venom in her voice. Cardin held up his hands in mock self-defense.

"Easy there, I'm just trying to help you out with Jauney boy," Cardin stated. He grew an arrogant smirk. "Of course, you don't have to accept it if you don't want it."

"What do you mean Winchester?" Yang asked, her eyes flickering between red and lilac.

"Will you guys accept my help or not?"

The two teams looked at each other. What did Cardin have to gain from helping them? At the same time, what he had could help them with Jaune. Assuming it was real info and he wasn't messing with them.

"Fine," Ruby said reluctantly.

"If we find out that you're lying Cardin," Pyrrha threatened. She grabbed his shirt and glared him dead in the eyes. "There is no doctor alive that will undo what we do to you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," Cardin stated. With all of that established Cardin was thrown inside by Pyrrha. Ruby closed the door. Cardin went into the middle of the room and saw that everyone was glaring at him to get on with whatever he came here for. He took out his scroll and asked a question. "Have any of you guys seen the news lately?"

"I have," Blake answered. "There has been no news of Jaune. Not after the first report of him in Vacuo."

"Maybe not in the Valian news." Cardin found what he was looking for on his scroll and set it on one of the counters for the room to see. He gathered them around him and pointed at his scroll. "However he's been pretty famous in the Vacuan news."

The article had a video of what looked to be a bar brawl. The headline read "Beacon Fraud gets in bar fight." The article came from a Vacuo news network. As they all read the article it told of how Jaune got into a fight with a bar patron, but it told why he got into it. The bar owner said that Jaune was protecting one of his waitresses from being harassed. The owner also stated that if Jaune didn't step in he would of. Jaune just saved him most of the hassle.

As they read the article Ren had a question for Cardin. "What were you doing looking at Vacuan news anyway?" the raven haired boy asked.

Cardin let out a low grunt. "Oobleck is making me watch other countries news to see if 'History repeates itself' or some grimm shit like that."

Ren let out a low hum, not fully convinced but decided to not question it. At the end of the article was the video of the fight. Cardin clicked play for all of them. The video started with Jaune being kicked away from the other guy. At first everyone thought that Jaune was going to get his butt whooped. However, throughout the video it was like seeing a new person in Jaune. They saw stuff he learned from Pyrrha implemented in the fight, but also other fight styles. There were a few times Jaune did a couple of kicks to the other guy that Yang swore looked familiar. Yang just thought she was imagining it.

In the end, when Jaune won the fight, everyone felt relief, and a tinge of pride. The blonde goofball who could barely hold his sword and shield at the beginning of the year just beat someone in a bar fight. When the video was done Cardin pocketed his scroll. "So there you have it," he said. "Jauney boy's fine." Cardin made his way to the door. As he opened the door he turned back inside. "I'll see you guys around."

"Wait Cardin!" Ruby said. The other leader looked down at the black and red haired leader. Ruby gave him a small smile. "Thank you." Cardin let out a low chuckle.

"Sure thing Shortstack." With that Cardin left the room. When he left, there was a different tone in the room. It wasn't one filled with worry about Jaune's wellbeing. Now it was filled with joy, and relief that he was okay.

"Okay, so now that we know Jaune is okay," Ruby started. "What do we do now?"

"Well he changed his scroll number," Yang said. "So we need to find someone who's good with phones and can tell us Vomit boy's new scroll number."

"Does anyone know someone like that?" Nora asked. Everyone took a minute to remember if they knew anyone good with computers and the like. Blake's cat ears twitched when she got something.

"I might know someone."

Blake and Ren walked into the alleyway in the middle of Vale. This contact of Blake's seemed to be an old acquaintance back in her White Fang days. Ren disliked being in the small alleyway so tried to make some small talk.

"How do you know this guy again?" Ren asked the cat Faunus.

"I don't," Blake admitted. Ren gave Blake a look that told her to continue explaining. "Back during my time with the White Fang, we often got missions that lead to sting operations. We later found out that a certain group of hackers named DedSec was able to hack mission files and change them to get our soldiers captured."

"So now we're asking the people who gave you trouble for assistance?" Blake let out a tiny giggle.

"Old enemies can be the best allies." Ren chuckles at her joke the two finally reach the meet up.

"All right, put on the mask," Blake said. Ren nodded and pulled a balaclava over his mouth, as did Blake. Blake also pulled a hood over her head so that only her amber eyes showed.

The alleyway turned into a bigger square lot that had basketball hoops on two ends of it. There looked to be a cart that can extend and retract to reach higher points in the corner of the alley. It was extended to the top of the third story of the building next to it. A couple of crates that said "Breakable Object" on the side of it were lying around as well. All in all it looked like a stereotypical alley in the city. The two of them decide to wait for their DedSec contact to arrive.

Blake noticed that someone left a basketball lying in the alley. She walks over to it and picks it up. She dribbles a little bit and looks at one of the hoops. She holds onto the ball and then tries to shoot. She makes it and she does a tiny fist pump.

"Have you played a lot before Blake?" Ren asked walking up to her. Blake lets out a tiny chuckle.

"A little, but I was never any good." She pointed at Ren. "What about you, have you played?"

Ren shrugged lightly. "I've never been a fan of stuff like this." Blake runs over to the ball and tosses it over to Ren. He catches it and Blake nods her head to the hoop.

"Come on," She edged. "Give it a shot." Ren looked at the orange ball in his hands. Since they didn't have anything better to do Ren took a shot. The ball hit the hoop but didn't go in. Ren let out a defeated sigh but Blake tossed it back to him. "Come on keep trying you'll get it."

Ren stared at the ball a little bit, deciding whether or not he should. He decides he'll do it again. He shoots and actually makes it this time. Blake claps a couple of times for him and then she goes onto the makeshift court and shoots into the hoop. For the next few minutes Blake and Ren just continued to shoot the basketball in the hoop as they wait for their contact.

They got so involved with their game they didn't even notice the extendable cart was slowly lowering. Ren tossed the ball to Blake who then shot the ball. It went perfectly in without hitting the backboard or the hoop itself. "Dang you two got some nice skills!" a voice behind them says.

The sudden voice caused the two of them to turn around and take out their weapons. While Blake drew one of her pistols, Ren took out both and they aimed their weapons at the person behind them. The man also drew his pistol and aimed at the two of them. He had a hat, sunglasses, and a mask all with the DedSec logo on them. He wore a black shirt with a grey unbuttoned plaid shirt. He had jeans that were ripped at the knees and tennis shoes. He was also wearing a red backpack. He held his pistol at them with both of his hands on the gun. From the skin he did show it was obvious that he was brown skinned.

"Are you Retr0?" Blake asked.

"Depends," the man answered. His voice was somewhat deep and yet had some kind of calming effect at the same time. "Are you BelleKitty?" Blake slightly cringed at the name. Yang was the one who came up with it and used it for their screen name.

"Depends." The three of them stare at each other for a little longer, guns still pointed and ready for to be fired. "All right, count of three we say the password?" Blake nodded her head and the man nodded his head back. "Okay, one, two, three."

"Lugnut." The contact and Blake said the same word at the same time. When they did Retr0 put his hands up and pointed the gun away from them. He holsters the gun and still kept his hands up in surrender.

"We cool?" Retr0 asked. Blake and Ren slowly holster their weapons and nods. Retr0 lets out a small breath of relief. "Awesome." He takes out his scroll and walks over to the two huntsmen in training. He looks at them with his scroll still out in his hand. "So why'd you want to meet in person? We usually can do stuff like this over the phone and through texts and stuff."

"We want to make sure it works," Ren answered.

"We also want to make sure you don't screw us over and just take our money," Blake added.

"All right all right," Retr0 said with his hands up. "Message received." Retr0 clears his throat and takes out a laptop from his backpack. He sits down crossed legged and opens the laptop. "So you said you need me to find someone's scroll number right?"

"Yes," Blake said. "He's an old friend and he changed his scroll number for some reason." Retr0 looks up from his laptop.

"Do you know why he changed it without telling you guys?"

"I believe he didn't want us to worry about him," Ren stated. "He didn't want us to call him if we heard he got hurt or something like that."

"And instead he's making you guys worry more…" Blake and Ren nodded. Retr0 lets out a low chuckle. "Guy sounds like an idiot."

"He is," Blake and Ren said at the same time. The two looked at each other and they knew they were both smiling underneath the balaclavas.

"All right, in order to get this started I need his original scroll number." Ren nods and gives Retr0 what he asked for. Retr0 plugs the number into his phone. He then hooks up his phone to his laptop. After a few seconds the hacker begins to type away on his computer. "So why do you guys think he doesn't want you to worry?"

"He's always been like that," Blake said. "Always wants to make sure his friends aren't hurt or worry for him. He wants us to think that he's doing fine."

"What makes you believe he's not?" Retr0 asked while still typing away on his laptop.

"We got a video of him getting in a bar fight," Ren said. "Granted he did win but even so…"

Retr0 let out another chuckle. "Sounds like the dog's doing all right to me." A few more seconds pass by. "And we should be good!" Retr0 turned his laptop around to show a new scroll number for Jaune. Ren and Blake take a picture of the phone number on the laptop screen. When they did Retr0 closed his laptop. "So we good?"

"Not yet," Blake said. Retr0 looked at her as she pointed at the scroll in his hands. "Call him."

"What?"

"I said call him."

Retr0 looked at the two of them as if they were crazy. The two huntsmen in training glared at the hacker and he sighed in defeat. He mumbled the numbers as he hit them on his scroll. He put the phone on speaker and the other two waited in anticipation. The phone rung three times and Blake and Ren were about to think that this Retr0 just ripped them off. Then the phone got an answer.

Right now, Jaune was just relaxing in his room watching videos on his scroll. He got back from Leo's office about forty ago. The session wasn't anything too drastic, but it was an hour long. Leonardo wanted Jaune to talk about the dreams he had, and how bad they were, how often, how graphic, etc.

Jaune explained as best as he could about his nightmares. He explained how every person he has killed showed up and would replay every gruesome death he had caused. Jaune admitted he killed those bandits because they chose to attack him first. It wasn't his fault, the bandits pushed him to do it! It was self defense

Leo jotted down the notes of Jaune's dreams in a notebook. After the session he put the notes in an empty folder and wrote something on it. He then told Jaune something that might help. He told Jaune to write down all thoughts he had while experiencing the nightmares. Fear, surprise, guilt, happiness, regret, Jaune was to write down any feelings he had during them.

Leonardo told Jaune he would get a therapist for him as soon as he could to help work on those nightmares. However, just as Jaune was about to leave, Leonardo said one final thing that stuck with Jaune.

"It would also help that you don't run away from this problem Mr. Arc. Ignoring it could only make it worst."

Jaune had no idea what Leonardo was talking about. He wasn't running away from his nightmares. After all he went to his office to talk about them in the first place! For some reason though, those words still clung to him.

He was watching videos because he was trying to shake the words from his head. Right now he was watching a guy play a multiplayer game with his friends where they use stupid strategies that actually make it harder for them. Jaune did admit it was pretty funny.

Halfway through the video he got a call. Jaune sat up and looked at the number. It wasn't anyone he recognized or had in his contact list. He thought maybe one of BRNZ got his number somehow by some weird accident or that maybe it was the headmistress calling. He answered the call and put his scroll to his ear.

"Jaune speaking," he said.

Ren and Blake's eyes widen at the voice. It sounded like him and he even said his name, but they needed to be sure. Sure he said his name was Jaune but there could be a lot of Jaune's in the world. Blake pointed at Retr0.

"Make him talk," she whispered to him.

"Uh…" Retr0 stuttered. "Mr. Jaune, did you know you are liable for a chance to win a new car?" Blake and Ren mentally groan at the poor attempt.

"Not interested," Jaune said. The call then ended. Despite the short call, Ren recognized his own leader's voice. Blake looked at the raven haired boy, and he gave her a nod.

"All right," Blake said as she dug in her pocket. She took out her wallet and took out a bundle of quiet a few lien. "Here's your payment." Retr0 greedily rubbed his hands and took the money from Blake's hands.

"Don't mind if I do!" Retr0 said as he pocketed the cash. He gives the huntsmen in training a two finger salute. "I'll catch y'all around."

The two students wave goodbye to Retr0 as he turned the other way and walked to the opposite side of the alley. As the two students leave, they made sure that Retr0 wasn't following them before they took off the masks.

"So it was really Jaune?" Blake asked Ren. The boy gave her a smile and nod. Ren was happy. Blake could tell from the way there was more of a skip in his step, how he stood straighter and how his smile never left his face. Blake knew that Ren wasn't one to express his emotions out that freely, but she learned to pick up these subtle hints when working with the White Fang. This was a big step up from the Ren she had seen these past few days.

If this was how Ren would take it, Nora and maybe even Ruby were probably going to need a cage to keep their ecstasy in check.

To be continued

Beta Reader: TheShadowOfZama

A/N Hey everyone! So it's been a while since I last talked to you guys in an authors note so I thought I'd do one. Right now I just want to see how you guys are liking/disliking the story. This is by far one of my better stories imo but at the same time I know there is a lot of things I can improve on. Shadow helps a lot but I still would like to hear your guys opinions. I may not answer your questions in a private message or a review but that's because I don't want to get peoples hopes up about certain aspects of this story. Anyway enough rambling. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and stick around for the next chapter!