I know right? Two chapters in a couple days? Well I saw this idea and it inspired me to write a one shot about it, so you know how that goes. "Needle in a Haystack" will be up next for a chapter I assure you. Enjoy.
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Welcome to the Jungle:
The Great War decades ago was to decide which of the two, faunus or human, would become the dominant race on Remnant. Unfortunately, the humans lost due to their poor tactics and planning, thus securing the strength of the faunus race. Now humans are the minority and the constant abuse and treatment has given rise to some dangerous radicals known as the Broken Fang. Jaune Arc is one such human going to the predominately faunus school of Beacon Academy.
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Woof, ok Jaune it's just your first day, no need to make a fool of yourself I reminded myself mentally, good posture, eye contact, and a strong voice will go a long way to make sure you aren't targeted. I need to remember what sis said: You can't show fear when talking to your faunus classmates, especially not when they are aggressive.
The bullhead jostled slightly and I sucked in a breath. In an effort to help minimize my perceived weaknesses my sisters made sure that I had gotten rid of my motion sickness, puking my guts out on day one would be the worst possible outcome. Despite this, I would not have minded if this bullhead ride of merriment and fun had ended maybe an hour or two ago.
I scanned the room and took it all in, maybe a hundred faunus students and a smattering of my fellow humans were packed inside the ship and awaiting passage into Beacon. There were a few that stood out to me: a boar faunus who was built like a tank eyeing my fellow humans, some kind of wolf faunus with a mane of flowing hair talking to another dog faunus, and a ram faunus blabbing on and on to her green companion.
My parents wanted me to become some more domestic like a cook -because lord knows I can cook a good meal- or something even like a police officer back in our home town. But I knew my place in this world, I needed to become a huntsman, and armed with good old Crocea Mors, I would live up to my family reputation. Suddenly the screen playing some announcement on the new Broken Fang rally was interrupted by the visage of the deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch, a lioness if the ears and tail were anything to go by, began an announcement on screen.
"Welcome new students of Beacon Academy, I would like to be the first to say congratulations on your entry into our prestigious academy!" she said, looking around the room, almost as if she was really there and making eye contact with everyone in the room. "We would like you all to know that no matter what you are, human or faunus, you will be welcomed with open arms and given the best education possible."
I nodded, a good sentiment, and if the reactions of most others in the bullhead were an indicator, the others agreed. After the welcome her visage disappeared and the bullhead began preparations to land.
"Did you hear? The Broken Fang was seen interrupting a faunus council meeting and there were reports of molotov cocktails being thrown!"
"Damn humans, I swear they need to live with it. We won fair and square, so we get the spoils of war." I rubbed the old tattoo over my chest, seriously regretting getting the damn thing now. But I was young, or atleast younger, and foolish, and worst of all, idealistic.
I stopped eavesdropping and returned to staring into blank space, I briefly considered going to talk with the other humans but thought better of it. Better wait until there was less commotion as the others made sure their gear was all packed up and getting up to stretch. I picked up my small suitcase and inched my way towards the door quickly, trying to avoid the eyes of the other faunus students.
Unfortunately, I caught the eye of the large boar from before. I could hear his heavy armored boots thud across the floor towards him as I begged the universe let him not be coming for me!
"Sup human." snorted the boar as his mass encompassed my entire frame. I tried looking for some help and found none so I guess that meant one of two things: a fight or maybe, just maybe, I could talk my way out of this.
"Hey man, I'm not looking for any trouble."
"You saying I'm trouble?"
"Look man, did you need something from me?" he sneered and it looked quite, quite feral.
"Just saying hi to a human here at Beacon." he spat the word human and that gave me a good idea of where he was going with this.
"Look, I'm heading back to my seat." I tried to maintain eye contact but he looked ready to blow at any moment.
"Not so fast human, I think you need to learn some manners." I let my hand rest near my hip where Crocea Mors was, I couldn't see his weapon but if his size was anything to go by he could probably crush my head like a grape with his bare hands.
"Leave him alone." came a voice from my side, Boar-guy whipped his head to the side and so did I. I saw a girl that I could only describe as a goddess, red and gold armor, red hair in a perfect pony tail, sparkling green eyes, a pair of equally red ears on her head, and a shield and sword on her back.
"So, the champion herself came to save a human?" Laughed the big guy, he towered over her as well but she didn't give him an inch.
"you boars, so confrontational." she hissed, a little bit of malice injected in there. That wiped the sneer of Boar's ugly head as he closed in on her.
"What was that you fox-eared bitch?"
"Enough, both of you." came the voice of one of the attendants who were stationed on the bullhead to make sure fights didn't break out. I mean, you put a lot of animals together, some of them very, very confrontational, and there is bound to be room for fighting.
Boar-guy grunted and left, so that left me alone with my savior. "Thanks for the assist, that guy is beyond scary."
"Don't worry about him, racists like him don't speak for all of us."
"So what's you name?" he smiled at her.
"My... name...?" she looked, a little surprised if he was honest.
"Oh, you're right, my name is Jaune Arc." of course you idiot! It's rude to ask someone their name first!
"P-Pyrrha Nikos." she almost mumbled, but I caught it anyway with my super good hearing.
"Nice to meet you, and thanks for the save." she kept looking at him like he had sprouted another head or something. "Ugh, everything alright there?"
"Do you... not know who I am?"
"No I-"
The bullhead landed with what I could only describe as a soft crash and I was thrown off my balance and landed hard on the floor. Pyrrha tried to help me up but I waved her away, better not to show any weakness now I guess. The bullhead opened up pretty quickly after that and on that day, I took the first step into becoming a huntsman and showing everyone what a human can do.
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2 weeks later...
Only two weeks into this year and I can't say it has gone super well. There was the whole debacle with initiation, Pyrrha having to save me from being splattered on the forest floor (yeah, real strong there Jaune) and then there has been this...
"Can any of you tell me why General Lagune's forces failed to capture Ft. Castle." Doctor Oobleck, a tortoise faunus if you would believe it, asked in his speedy manner, racing around the classroom and chugging his coffee.
"Hmmph, all I know is that human's don't put much thought into their actions." Cardin said cockily, he and I were pretty evenly matched at this point but he still had the occasional upperhand on me. But that was a low blow, the humans weren't just beaten back, they were massacred and it was one of the big reasons why the war was ended, to prevent another Ft. Castle.
"Not the most progressive person are you?" asked Blake from across the room, a cat faunus or so she liked to tell everyone. The lack of cat ears weren't necessarily and implication of her humanity, but we humans got a sixth sense for this sort of thing. I can tell a human in disguise or a faunus trying to pass themselves off as one, something we inherited over the decades.
Cardin growled and stood up but before he could make a move I stood up as well, he was on an upper level but of the class but the act itself made my allegiances pretty clear. Luckily the good doctor stepped in to break it up before anything bad could happen-
"Mr Arc, Mr. Winchester, do sit down please." he sighed. "And please see me after class."
The rest of class went the usual way and, when the rest were dismissed, I had to stay behind and get an earful from the professor. "Boys, I understand some of your tensions may be high, but you're training to become huntsman. And one thing I have learned is that when you're face down with an Ursa about to claw open you back, you'll take any savior you can get."
He spoke from experience, and in some deep part of me I felt ashamed. Remember Jaune, you need to prove you are not some violent confrontationalist. You are a human, hold your head high! Dad would be pretty disappointed with me if he could see how I had been acting. We were let off with a warning and we both left soon after, my partner, Pyrrha, thankfully stayed behind along with my team.
"You ok?" Pyrrha asked, concern laden in her voice.
"Yeah, I just need to shape up a bit." what kind of leader was I being? What kind of role model for my teammates? "Lunch?"
"I like your idea oh fearless leader!" Nora shouted enthusiastically, Nora was a ram faunus, as evident by her horns, and she packed up a wallop in her punches. She made me feel like a kid again, and not the former extremist I was. Thinking about that caused something icy in my stomach, I would need to tell them one day. Faunus relationships are built on trust, if this gets out and they know I've been lying, it will ruin our friendship.
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3 days later...
"Pyrrha, do you know why I brought you up here?" she looked confused, and worried, as always, but still she shook her head.
"No, but... what is it?" I sighed as I shrugged off my coat and undid my buttons, her face got red and she began to stammer.
"W-What?! W-Wait, J-Jaune I just, I don't know if we should be going this fast! I-I mean, we're..." she trailed off as I took my undershirt off, revealing the black tattoo printed over my heart. A symbol of a muscled fist, clenching in its iron grip what looked to be a tusk of some kind but was really a fang. It was symbolic, a picture revealing humanity's urges to rise up and take themselves back from their fanged overlords.
The Broken Fang, human terrorist group.
Special Agent Jaune Arc. Specialized at information gathering, scouting, and surveillance. Personally assigned to picking out Mantle targets on no less than several occasions by leader Adam Taurus. Joined at age 14 and completed, with flying colors, 14 missions ranging from ordinary duties to highly classified, was even a candidate for the Broken Fang's "Jaeger Squad". A professional hit squad designed to "hunt and kill animals, like a true hunter does." Currently on the list of highly wanted individuals by the Broken Fang, for reasons unknown but most likely involving the sharing of confidential information.
My shame, my crime.
She choked on her words as she tried to reply. "I know, and yes I worked for them."
I fell silent, what did I expect to happen next? Well, if I was being honest, I expected her to scream for help, try to restrain me, or report me to the Beacon officials so I could be carted away. What I didn't expect was her leaning into me, and whispering out a reply.
"I'm sorry you had to come to this." I'm not sure I understood what she was saying, I'm not sure if she did herself. But it put me at ease, and the permanent feeling of ink on my chest was temporarily lifted.
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2 weeks later...
Dammit Blake, they're your team! Did you really think they would just up and abandon you? I couldn't think, I needed to find Blake and that other human friend of hers, they could be in big trouble. In my time as a Broken Fang agent I only heard of Blake through the grape vine as Adam's second-in-command and lover, he never even met her face to face. He had met Adam multiple times over the course of his short career, and he was indeed charmed by his ideals of a greater society for humans, but he never met her face to face.
Word from Team RWBY was that Weiss said something, so like a Schnee to do so, and Blake revealed her identity, and worse, her former allegiance to the Broken Fang. I could sympathize, my team had accepted me in every facet and had the tact to keep it on the down low. Save for an incident involving Cardin, my secret was safe and Cardin knew better than to leak anything important. But Blake, she had a Schnee which was almost a death sentence right there. Now here I was, running around Vale looking for my human kin.
I thought of all the places she would go, and that didn't help to narrow anything down at all. My thoughts drifted back to them telling my team what had happened earlier to today and the human they met, they said it was near the docks. I sighed, guess that's my only lead right now.
The docks weren't too far, I considered calling Ruby but thought the better of it. Maybe, just maybe, this was a situation that needed to involve us humans alone. Especially considering two of us were ex-Broken Fang. I ran to the docks at breakneck speed, the sooner I got there the better chance I had of finding them. I made it to the dock and spent the next thirty minutes looking for them. I had almost given up when I heard the muffled voices of two people, I couldn't make out what they were saying but I had a good idea of who they were.
"So, this is it huh?" I asked, rounding the corner to find Blake and the other human. The other one, a blonde like me, got up swiftly, maybe he thought I had come here looking for trouble.
"Jaune?" Blake asked, I could tell she didn't expect me to come looking for her.
"You know him?" blondie asked cautiously, I kept my hands at my side and didn't try to make a move on him or anything.
"It's all right Sun, I know Jaune." Sun relaxed and Blake turned to look at me. "Why are you here?"
"To find out why you're here." I responded simply, her team was worried about her despite what she thought.
"I came here to see what the Broken Fang was up to."
"And to get away from your team?"
"That's none of-"
"It is, Ruby is my friend and I have spoken with her after you left. She's worried, like a little puppy worried it's owner won't come home if you'll excuse the casual racism." I sounded tired, and I knew I was putting on my dad voice. "Even Weiss, Schnee that she is, is at least wanting to hear your side of the story."
"Well, they can deal with it." Blake responded stubbornly, but then she turned around. "We think the Broken Fang is here for some reason, they've been stealing a lot of dust lately and we want to know why."
"Yeah, we think they're coming here tonight." finished Sun, Blake sent him a glance and took over again.
"We've come here to stop them, and we would like for you to join us." I cocked an eyebrow, but in my head I weighed my options. "I know you're former fang, and I know you aren't ok with what they're doing, so please help us stop them."
I turned away and began to walk back from where I came but stopped short a little bit. "I checked into their time table, turns out they didn't change the password, 7:36 sharp, they'll be arriving. Oh yes, and, they're bringing Torchwick." I left Blake looking dumbfounded and Sun looking grimly aware of the fight they were going to endure, if they were smart they'd put aside their pride and call Team RWBY.
Why didn't I stay? Why didn't I help them?
I knew why, but I refused to acknowledge it.
Blake moved on, and she's ex-fang now.
But me, though I may have quit, I don't think I've ever moved on.
Yes, scum like me will always agree with their ideals.
I was worried that I go back when I saw them again, maybe they would grant me leniency if I offered information. But on the other hand, could I really betray everyone I had ever known at Beacon?
I was more terrified than in my entire life.
Because I wasn't sure of the answer.