Since enough people have asked about it, I might as well make it clear. Jaune will have his canon Semblance in this fic.

Individual System

Block.

Block.

Par-Ack!

"Focus!" Winter Schnee snapped as she kept attacking, wooden sword in hand.

"I am tryi-gah!"

"Do not speak in the middle of a fight! It is a waste of time and energy!"

Jaune Arc wanted to point out that she was speaking in the middle of a fight too, but he was too busy frantically trying to defend himself with his own wooden sword.

Besides, Winter had no problems talking and fighting at the same time. Not while he was the opponent, at least.

"Your grip is too tight. Relax it," Winter instructed as he barely leaned back in time to avoid a sword thrust to his chin. Jaune immediately did as she bid him. By now, the act of following her orders was instinctual.

"Better."

She closed in with lightning quickness. Jaune didn't so much block as he held his practice sword in front of him and hoped it'd get in the way of her strikes. Each hit forced him to give more ground. Then in a single fluid motion Jaune knew he would probably never be able to replicate, Winter was suddenly inches away from his face.

She didn't strike him.

She just lightly—so softly he almost didn't feel it—bumped her boot against his foot.

Jaune fell on his ass.

He looked up and found Winter's wooden sword an inch away from his throat.

"You place your feet too far apart. That makes your stance weak. Someone with an Aura as large as yours should not be knocked down so easily. Again."

Winter stepped back, allowing Jaune to get up. The blond wiped some sweat off his brow. The drops noisily splattered to the floor. His Aura was still at 50%, but his shirt was already wet with sweat, and his legs felt like jelly. The relationship between having Aura and not being exhausted was apparently not as simple as Jaune would have liked.

"Okay," he said, holding the wooden sword in both hands. "I'm ready."

Winter did not say anything. She just attacked. For each blow Jaune blocked, two more hit. Every time he failed to properly listen to her instructions, he was rewarded with a particularly punishing blow.

"You're slowing down. Pick up the pace."

Jaune's body protested. Even so, he roared as he moved to attack, his blade raised high above his head.

A sharp jab to his stomach quickly put an end to that.

"Do not mistake recklessness for ferocity," Winter chided. "Any fool can swing a sword. Be better."

Jaune managed to step to the side to avoid the follow-up attack. A flick of Winter's wrist had her slashing at his face. He moved his sword in time to block the first strike, then the second one. However, when it came to the third strike headed for his left side, Jaune wasn't so lucky.

He managed to get the timing right, but the creaking of wood reached his ears just as the wooden sword in his hands broke, allowing Winter to score another hit.

"Take a break," Winter said, stepping back. She took a moment to look at his ruined weapon. "We'll resume in ten minutes."

Jaune almost collapsed at that. He didn't because he knew that if he did, Winter would scold him. He needed to keep his body in motion for a while after exercise or something. Winter had said something like that, but he didn't quite remember the details. He had been too busy panting so hard it had felt like his lungs were about to come out of his mouth when Winter had been explaining it.

Instead of lying down like his body desperately wanted, Jaune picked up the fragments of broken wood and headed for the corner of the room closest to the door. There was a cooler full of water bottles there. There were also two boxes. The first held several pieces of broken wood. The other one had brand new wooden swords for him to use.

When they had started the day's training, the first box had been empty.

Jaune picked one of the water bottles and started guzzling down. A happy sigh escaped his lips. Water may not taste like anything, but after hard work like this, the sensation of it pouring down his throat was better than all the chicken nuggets in the world. It was a good thing Winter always made sure they had more than enough.

As he thought about her, his eyes drifted to the woman in question. She wasn't paying attention to him. Instead, she was taking down notes in her scroll. She often did that whenever they took breaks.

After Jaune had returned to the IXA project, General Ironwood had introduced Winter Schnee to him. She was to replace Red and Blue as his main instructor and help him learn to control his Aura. At first, Jaune had been struck by her beauty. Her blue eyes, white hair, and aristocratic features were undeniably captivating. It was like she had stepped out of a painting. However, her sheer intimidating presence had prevented him from making a fool of himself.

It was for the best, really.

The second thing Jaune had learned about Winter was that she was a harsh taskmaster who demanded nothing less than excellence from everyone around her. In a weird way, Jaune found it flattering. People usually didn't expect big things from him.

"To train your Aura, it is first necessary for you to understand its limits. Now, on your guard!"

That had been one of the first things Winter had said to him. She had barely given him a chance to defend himself after that. She had worn down his Aura hit by hit, putting him in the yellow with laughable ease.

Winter had then shown him a few basic control exercises and told him to practice them. Apparently, the less Aura he had, the easier it was to control. If his Aura recovered too much, Winter would spar with him again to whittle it down.

That was how they spent their first week as trainer and trainee.

Once two weeks had passed, Winter decided to move on to more advanced things, hence the wooden weapons. Since they both had Aura, there was no reason for them to use practice weapons to avoid hurting each other. However, the wooden swords served a special purpose in his training.

"With enough control over your Aura, it is possible to project it over objects to make them more resilient. Students from Atlas Academy could easily kill a Grimm using a loaf of bread."

Jaune hadn't quite believed that at first, but then Winter had used one of the wooden swords to slice a combat droid in half. The sight put in perspective just why people with proper training wouldn't do for the IXA Project. If the students could kill Grimm using food, then putting them in the suit to have them kill Grimm wouldn't prove much.

Jaune, however, was nowhere near that level of control. The first time he tried to reinforce a wooden sword with Aura, Winter had broken it with one hit of hers. The second time he had tried it, the sword had broken in his hands before he could do anything with it.

"A wooden sword is not a Huntsman-grade weapon. It is not made for Aura to be channeled into it. Put too much into it, and the wood will break under the strain"

That was what Winter had told him right after. It would have been nice if she had told him that before, but Jaune had learned Winter was one of those experience-is-the-best-teacher type of person.

That had set the tone for their subsequent training sessions. Winter kept bringing wooden swords, and Jaune kept breaking them during their spars. At first, they would last only a couple of blows. Now, Jaune could make them strong enough to last a few minutes against Winter.

Sorta.

A few times.

Two out of ten.

"Break's over!" Winter called to him. She was already back in the center of the training room, her wooden sword held in one hand. There was nothing in her stance that looked overly threatening, but experience had taught Jaune that stance was enough for her to react to any of his attacks with ease.

Jaune looked at his empty bottle and sighed. He was tired, bruised, and sweaty. The moment he got home, he was probably going to collapse in his bed and sleep until tomorrow.

Still, he dropped the bottle and picked a new wooden sword.

"I'm ready," he said, standing before her, the sword held in both hands.

Winter looked at his stance. She always did that before starting their spars. Any flaws she found there would be ruthlessly exploited later.

"Use one hand."

Jaune blinked.

"Huh?"

"Starting today, you will hold your sword using only one hand," Winter told him.

"B-but if I do that, I won't be able to reinforce the sword nearly as well," Jaune protested. Holding the sword using two hands allowed him better channel his Aura into it. He wasn't quite sure why, but that was how it worked for him.

"I am aware," Winter replied. Jaune could swear she was smiling on the inside. "That is the point."

Of course.

xXx

Jaune Arc, Winter had learned, was astonishingly easy to read.

She could call him an open book, except one usually had to lean in to read a book. There was no need to make such an effort with Jaune Arc. The boy was simply hopeless when it came to concealing his emotions, or perhaps, it had just never occurred to him emotions were meant to be concealed in public.

It was very different from what Winter was used to.

Winter was used to her father's greedy business partners who lied as easily as they breathed. Winter was used to her classmates at Atlas Academy who were taught discipline above all else, even the weird ones. Winter wasn't used to dealing with someone so… transparent.

Maybe if she were someone else, it wouldn't have mattered much, but she was Winter Schnee. Her father had taught her how to read people and conceal her emotions while other children were learning how to read and write their names. Emotional excesses, her father once said, were for lesser people.

While her opinion of the man was far from high, Winter would be lying if she said his lessons hadn't served her well. In battle and in everyday life, hiding her emotions behind a mask of cold indifference was something that had come in handy numerous times.

Winter knew what Jaune was thinking. She knew the prospect of switching to one hand after having slowly gotten used to wielding a sword with two did not appeal to him. She knew he was dreading the number of swords he was going to break, and more importantly, the number of blows she was going to land as a result.

Despite that, Jaune Arc only tried to protest once. After that, he just sighed and let one of his hands drop from the hilt. The remaining one—his right—pointed the sword at her, his gaze resigned yet determined.

There was not even a hint of insubordination in those eyes, yet the deference Winter was used to wasn't quite there either.

Winter wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.

She was, after all, a Schnee. Life had taught her most people would react in one of two ways to her. Servile deference or buried resentment. There were people who would bow their heads to her because she was a Schnee, and people who would resent her because she was a Schnee. Winter joined Atlas Academy to escape that but found more of the same. There were classmates and even teachers who had been quick to follow her lead just because of her last name.

Then there were students who had been quick to dismiss her as someone who used her last name to get by. They thought she bought her way into Atlas Academy. Even her teammates had not been excluded from that.

Did she get her position as team leader due to her skills or due to her last name? That question hung over them during their first couple of months as a team.

Winter knew the truth. She knew her worth. General Ironwood had allowed her into Atlas Academy because she deserved it, and he had made her team leader for the same reason. However, it had taken time for everyone else to recognize that, and even after years at Atlas Academy, many people still only saw her as a name.

It was all part of being the daughter of one of the most powerful men in Remnant. Her father may have disinherited her, but most people still only saw her as his daughter.

Jaune Arc was proving to be a rare exception.

In the time Winter had known him, he had never once had that look. That "Ah, she's a Schnee" look Winter had grown so used to seeing her whole life. He followed her orders without complaints, throwing himself at whatever training she gave him, not because she was a Schnee but because she was his superior officer.

For some people, the difference would be insignificant. For Winter, it was a new and novel experience, exciting even. She threw all manner of tasks at Jaune, testing the limits of their trainer-trainee relationship. Sometimes, Winter feared she had pushed Jaune too far, but the boy would just dust himself off and keep going. Sure, he'd whine here and there. He had a talent for it, but he'd still get up and do the work.

How many times had she ended up alienating people due to her strict standards?

More than she could count.

Winter was a perfectionist, and what she demanded from other people was no less than what she expected of herself. However, in most cases, that proved too much for other people. That had certainly been the case with her team.

Weiss was an exception to that, but Weiss was Weiss. Her sister had a relentless desire be the best and worshipped her with devotion Winter didn't really feel she deserved. She could put whatever task she wanted before Weiss, no matter how unreasonable, and her younger sister would do her best to meet her expectations, then feel ashamed if she happened to fail.

Jaune Arc was not her sister. He didn't hold any personal devotion to her, nor did he share her drive for perfection. That wasn't to say he wasn't determined, because he was. It was just that perfection didn't seem to be a goal or standard that had even once crossed his mind.

If Winter had to put it in simple words, she would say that rather than wanting to be the best, Jaune Arc was someone who wanted to be better.

Step by step. Minute by minute. Training session after training session.

He kept trying to get better.

However, did him having that type of disposition made it right for her to push him as far as she did? Two months ago, he had just been a regular civilian. Should she not take that into consideration? Yet, if she took it easy on him because of that, wouldn't that hurt his progress?

How much was too much? How little was too little?

What was right for a superior to demand of her subordinate and what wasn't?

They were not questions Winter had to deal with before.

"Ready?" She asked Jaune, turning away from her thoughts. The boy nodded.

He wasn't.

Winter counted at least five different mistakes in his stance. Usually, she'd start by ruthlessly exploding them. Experience, after all, was the best teacher. However, she decided to try something different this time.

"Your sword is too high. Lower it." Jaune blinked in surprise but did as she said. "Better. Now move your right foot forward… Not that forward. There."

She gave Jaune two more corrections after that.

"That will do," Winter said, taking in his form. "Begin!"

Obviously, Winter didn't go all out. She never did. That wouldn't help him learn. Still, Jaune ended up hitting the mats thirteen more times before their session was over. By the end of it all, he was lying on the floor, his clothes soaked with sweat.

"That will be all for today," Winter said. Unlike her pupil, there was barely a drop of sweat on her, and barely only because Jaune had gotten some of his sweat on her a couple of times. "Go home and get some rest. We will do the same tomorrow."

"Right. Home," Jaune said, panting. "I'll do that… eventually… when I can get up."

This, it occurred to Winter, was a prime occasion to socialize with her subordinate. Though General Ironwood had told her she should try to get to know him, Winter had made no progress in that area. Their interactions had been strictly professional so far. The logical side of Winter told her there was nothing wrong with that, yet that didn't ring true. After all, General Ironwood was the epitome of professional, and he knew Winter as a person.

She didn't know Jaune Arc at all.

This, she supposed, was as good a time to fix that as any.

"You have improved," Winter said as a way of starting a conversation. "Your control still leaves much to be desired, but it ever so slowly inches closer to acceptable."

"I… thank you?"

Had Winter been speaking to Weiss, those words would have been enough to render her sister into a stuttering mess, an adorable stuttering mess. Jaune Arc just blinked in confusion.

"At this rate, there should be no problems during IXA's next test," Winter continued. The way Jaune slightly tensed up did not escape Winter's notice. "Worried?"

"What? No! I mean… yeah," Jaune said, still laying on the floor. "I'm not going to back out or anything. I already made up my mind. It's just…"

"The last test did not go well for you," Winter finished for him.

"I exploded. It sucked…"

A natural concern. He may have committed to the project, but it was foolish to expect his hesitation to completely disappear after being caught in the middle of an explosion. Even if his mind was made up, fear was not something that a person could just will away.

If people could be brave just by wanting to be brave, there would be no cowards in the world.

That wasn't to say Jaune Arc wasn't brave. His presence in Atlas confirmed it even if it also raised numerous questions.

"Why Atlas?"

"Huh?"

The sudden question caught Winter off-guard, even more so when she realized it was she who had uttered it.

"Why did you choose Atlas?" She asked again. "I have read your file and understand you tried for Vale first, but why did you pick Atlas immediately after that?"

She could understand not wanting to waste time with Vacuo, however…

"Give your family's circumstances, I would have thought Mistral would have been a more appealing choice to you."

There. The thing that had been nagging at her since the day she met Jaune Arc. It was true kingdom alliances did not matter to Huntsmen. Someone born in Mistral and raised in Vale could go to Shade, then settle in Atlas, and no one would bat an eye over it. Huntsmen were, after all, free agents not aligned with any country. Jaune Arc was born in the Kingdom of Atlas, so it wasn't wrong for him to choose Atlas Academy.

However, he was an Arc.

"It did cross my mind," Jaune admitted, scratching his cheek. "But traveling to another kingdom just to get rejected is a bit too hurtful to do it twice. It's true that I didn't want to be too close to my family, but Atlas is okay."

"You misunderstood my meaning. I was not referring to whether being close to your family made you nervous. I was referring to your family's history with Atlas."

Once upon a time, the Arc family had been a knightly house serving under the King of Mantle. Over time, the house had risen in rank and influence. Many great warriors and military leaders had been born from the Arc family. However, that had all changed after the Great War. When the King of Vale claimed victory, it wasn't just the kings who had to step down.

It was all the nobility.

Countless noble houses across the four kingdoms lost their titles. Some had fared better than others, but those in Mantle suffered greatly. Not only did they lose the war and their lands, they even lost their kingdom. Many houses fell into poverty when Atlas rose. The Arcs fared better than others, but they were still left forgotten in Mantle.

Jaune Arc should resent Atlas.

Jaune Arc should resent her. Like it or not, her father was the reason why many poor mining communities had appeared around Mantle.

"Oh. That." Jaune said it as if it didn't matter. "I actually never gave it much thought. I mean, it's old history."

Old… history?

"I'm not saying I'm not proud of what my family accomplished," Jaune hurried to add. "It's just… there's no point getting mad over what happened a long time ago. My family did their duty, and I think they were happy with that. I don't think they ever resented the people of Atlas. At least, my dad and my grandpa never have."

He said it as if it should have been obvious. As if there was no reason his words needed to be said. To someone like Winter, who wore her family's history like a cloak, it was incomprehensible.

"Is that why you never once had any objections to being taught by a Schnee?"

Winter was not expecting Jaune to suddenly blush and look away.

"Ah, about… I actually didn't notice."

What?

"Winter Schnee. Schnee Dust Company. I kind of didn't put two and two together until about a week ago. By then, it kind of didn't matter anymore. Sorry!"

What?

That… that was…

Ah.

So that was how it was. She understood now. This boy… her subordinate.

He was a fool.

xXx

The time had come.

Jaune Arc stood in the middle of the testing room with the IXA Belt already wrapped around his waist. A group of scientists with more doctorates than you can shake a stick at watched him with bated breath through the cameras. Dr. Gelato Polendina sat at the front of the group, his hands clasped together. General Ironwood stood at his side, his stern eyes taking in everything.

"Jaune," Polendina said, and he immediately found himself wishing for a glass of water. His throat was too dry. "Are you ready?"

He watched the child nodding through the monitors.

"I think so, yeah."

"And did you read the manual?"

"Of course, I did."

"Good." Dr. Polendina licked his lips. "That's good. Then if there aren't any objections, we will begin the test. There is no reason for you to worry. We have done the necessary changes to IXA. This time should be no…"

Damnation! Why was he feeling so nervous? He had done the math! His calculations were perfect. The accident wouldn't repeat itself this time.

"Altercations. There should be no altercations this time."

There couldn't be. Because if there were… if there were any… No. Failure was not allowed. Failure had never been an option. Not for him. Not for IXA.

Not for Penny.

"Okay." Jaune took a deep breath and nodded. The boy slightly shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Let's do it."

It was now or never.

"IXA. Test 2. Begin!"

Jaune slammed the IXA Knuckle against his palm.

Ready!

Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. WorkWorkworkworkworkworkworkworkwork!

Fist. On!

There was a flash of light. More than one person behind Polendina gasped when it faded. Where before there was a small fifteen-year-old, now stood a knight clad in white, black, and gold. Even though IXA had adapted to Jaune Arc's height as the suit was created to do, it still cut an intimidating figure. However, these people were professionals. Their stunned awe lasted only for a moment before they went back to their work.

"Report. Now!"

"Vital signs are all stable."

"Aura drain is within acceptable parameters."

"No signs of overheating. All systems green."

Good news. All of them good news. Although considering how low the bar had been set by the first test, maybe that wasn't saying much.

"Can you hear me, Jaune?" Polendina asked. His heart started beating faster when he saw IXA nod.

"Yeah. No problems here."

"Excellent," the scientist said, nodding even though Jaune could not see him. "Are you experiencing anything unusual right now? Anything potentially dangerous?"

"Not really." Polendina could hear pencils scribbling away behind him as IXA moved to better look at himself. "It feels a bit weird having this on, but not in a bad way. It's like…Ah, I got it. It's like a more complete onesie. Yeah, that sounds right."

Polendina decided to remove that comparison from any and all future studies on IXA.

"I want you to listen to me carefully. We're going to start by testing a few simple motions. Do you think you can do that?"

"No problem, doc."

Polendina's eyebrow twitched.

"That's still Dr. Polendina for you! Now, I want you to walk in a straight line until you reach the wall."

If Jaune thought the request was in any way odd, he did not say it. Instead, the boy in the suit started walking with slow, careful steps, as if he were stepping outside a couple of days after a snowstorm when black ice ruled the ground with an iron fist. After ten steps, he began moving with more confidence. The tension those simple movements generated in the control room could be cut with a knife.

"Well done," Polendina said once Jaune reached the goal. He used the sleeve of his lab coat to wipe some sweat off his brow. "Let's move to something more complicated. Try jumpin-"

TWACK!

Polendina gaped as IXA suddenly shot up to the ceiling with enough force to crack it. A simple jump had left the suit embedded into the roof all the way up to its torso.

Someone behind Polendina fainted.

"I thought the room was supposed to be reinforced!"

"It is," Ironwood replied.

"Sorry!" It was a relief when Jaune's voice reached their ears. "Sorry! I miscalculated how much force I needed to use. I'm okay. I'm okay! Just a little stuck, but I think I only to move a little and… there!"

Polendina would never admit he almost fell out of his chair when IXA fell from the ceiling and landed on its butt. He most certainly did not facepalm immediately after.

"I'm okay! I'm okay!"

"Let's continue," Polendina said, deciding to ignore the whole thing. For the next twenty minutes, he made Jaune go through a series of simple exercises to determine his range of movement while wearing IXA.

"What do you think?" He asked Ironwood when they were done.

"I think we can move to the next stage." The general took the microphone from him. "Jaune, we'll begin combat testing now."

The boy looked around the room. "So, will I be fighting robots again or…?"

The general smiled. "I have something different in mind."

With the push of a button, the door to the testing room opened and in stepped Winter Schnee, clad in her Specialist uniform. The nervousness that radiated from IXA at that moment was palpable.

"I think I'd rather fight robots."

Ironwood chuckled.

"Don't worry. You will not be fighting Winter directly. Specialist Schnee, if you would?"

The young woman nodded and drew her sword. A pure white glyph appeared in front of her and from it rose a monster. A white and blue version of a Beowolf.

"You can summon Grimm?" Jaune asked with awe in his voice.

"Not quite," Winter told Jaune. "The full explanation would take too much time, but suffice to say, I can create copies of enemies I have defeated in battle."

"That sounds ridiculously overpowered."

It really was. If Polendina didn't have more pressing concerns, he'd like to take a few months to study the Schnee Family Semblance.

Rather than being offended by Jaune's words, the young woman seemed almost smug. "It has its uses. The Beowulf I have summoned for you to fight is slightly stronger than the average Beowolf. You will find it a harder challenge than the outdated droids you have been testing yourself against."

"Are you ready, Jaune?" Ironwood asked.

The young man seemed to take a deep breath, though it was hard to tell with him being inside IXA. "Yeah, sure." He settled into a loose fighting stance. "Why not?"

"Begin!"

One punch.

That was all it took.

Faster than Polendina could perceive, IXA got within range of the crystalline monster and smashed its fist against its face, shattering it into a million pieces.

Stunned silence followed. Even Winter looked surprised.

"I think," Ironwood said, breaking the silence. "That we'll be able to move testing to Site B sooner than anticipated."

At that moment, Gelato Polendina's smile was so wide it was almost terrifying.

AN:

Jaune is in an interesting place as a character in RWBY. There is a lot of stuff we know about him. We know what he wants. We know what he struggles with. We know his quirks. In some ways, he is the most nuanced character in the show.

At the same time, there are just enough gaps in his backstory for writers to fill them in all sorts of different ways. Is the Arc family full of badasses or is his father the only one who knows how to fight there? Was Jaune untrained because his family didn't want him to fight or because he just didn't care about that sort of stuff until shortly before Beacon? Is he from Vale or somewhere else?

Depending on how you fill those gaps, you end up with slightly different Jaunes while still keeping true to the Jaune in the show which I think is neat. Here I went with his family being former Mantle nobility. I like the concept of them being former knights, and nobility is one of those things the show doesn't really talk about. There were kings eighty years before the show began. It's reasonable to assume there should have been nobles as well. Where did that all go?

If you can't tell by now, I like the idea of the fallout from the Great War not being all that neat and tidy. Now, this doesn't mean Jaune's family will play a big role in this story, although it may come up once or twice in the future. It's just there to give a little flavor to the setting.

As for Winter, I'm going with "What if Weiss was made the leader of her team and things didn't quite work out for her?" as the basic idea for her background. Her perfectionism and status ended up alienating the people around her until she just stopped trying to make things right with her team. She wasn't lucky enough to run into people like RBY.

Does that mean we'll see Winter's old team in the future? Who knows?

Till next time!