This may very well be the shortest chapter in a long while. You'll have to excuse me. Been in and out of the hospital lately.
Individual System
Ring!
Ring!
Ring!
Salutations, you have reached the scroll of-
Click!
Jaune sighed as he cut the call. Once again, his call ended up in Penny's voicemail. There was no point denying it. Penny was ducking his calls. While it was hardly the first time a girl had ignored him, it was the first time Jaune was ignored by a girl he was friends with. That hurt a bit, even if he understood the reason.
It bothered her that much, huh?
Well, Jaune thought, biting the inside of his cheek. He shouldn't be surprised. If he found out any of his sisters had almost died, he'd be beside himself with worry. It was no wonder Penny didn't feel like talking right now. It was probably best to give her some space. Well, Bri wouldn't, but Saphron definitely would. His eldest sister may be the huntress, but Saphron was just plain better at the whole people thing.
Jaune hummed. Maybe he should ask Winter for advice? Probably Red and Blue as well. They were bound to have more experience on what to do or say when people worried about that sort of thing compared to him.
Come to think of it, his parents had probably been in tons of situations like what happened in the Argonaut, right? No. Not just them but some of his sisters as well. Bri was the eldest, so she had definitely gone on dangerous missions before.
She had probably almost died once already.
The thought drifted through Jaune's mind, a lone leaf carried by autumn's wind. It didn't send him into a panic or make him angry. It just… passed through. The realization went by so peacefully, he almost didn't notice it. It left behind an emptiness in Jaune that felt very unlike him.
He should probably call home once this mission was over.
It wasn't that he was worried about his parents or sisters dying anytime soon. No way. They were way too strong to be done in by Grimm. To Jaune, it was a given that he was weaker than his trained siblings. If he had survived the past few months, his family definitely wasn't going to bite it anytime soon.
Jaune was still going to call them the moment he got back to Atlas.
He was also going to need to visit Penny. They always talked over the scroll, but this conversation was a bit too sensitive for that. Jaune felt he needed to talk to her face-to-face, reassure her that he wasn't going to die anytime soon.
He was way too stubborn for that.
Everyone in his family always said he was too stubborn for his own good. Jaune saw no reason why it shouldn't apply here.
It was his Arc-est trait, apparently.
Sure, Jaune didn't know where Penny lived, but that was easily fixed. Dr. Polendina was in the lab all the time. Surely, he wouldn't mind letting him know, right? If he explained the whole situation to him, it should be fine.
Jaune nodded, convinced of his chosen course of action. As he did, he brought his focus back to the camera feeds being displayed on his helmet. He had already wasted way too much time thinking. He had a job to do and couldn't afford to get distracted. While the odds of something bad happening weren't high, keeping an eye on the students was his duty. Slacking off was no good.
IXA's helmet could display up to four drone feeds at once. Although there were forty students out there, it wasn't like Jaune had to keep track of forty different feeds. Most of the students had seen the wisdom in teaming up with others. There were groups of five, four, and even six fighting together. There were also a couple of pairs and trios out there. It meant the number of cameras Jaune had to cycle through wasn't much. Switching through them every minute or so was not difficult.
Well, not everyone had chosen to team up.
Weiss and Neon had chosen to go at it alone.
Or rather, Weiss had chosen to go at it alone, and Neon had been left alone. Jaune would have scratched the back of his head if he wasn't wearing IXA. He hadn't realized how much he used his arms to express himself until he started having to pretend he was a robot. Having to stand still got old pretty quick. It was like having an itch you couldn't scratch.
It would have been fine if he was alone, but one of the teachers was trying very hard to pretend she wasn't taking a selfie with him.
Jaune rolled his eyes.
Seriously, what was it with these people?
As Jaune understood it, robots were not a common sight in Mistral and Vale. It had been similar back in Mantle. However, Atlas? Atlas was the robot capital of the world! There were drones and androids everywhere. It had taken Jaune a while to get used to the sheer amount of droids one could see every day in Atlas, especially in the upper districts.
What made IXA special?
It looked damn cool. Jaune could readily admit that. He could understand if it was just the average citizen who was attracted to IXA, especially after he had been credited with stopping the White Fang. Combat Academy teachers and students, though? He'd have figured IXA would have seemed significantly more mundane to them.
Were people just that eager to welcome good news, or was that admiration born out of a sense of pride in their technological progress?
Eh, it was probably a bit of both.
Jaune wished he could talk to Bleu about this sort of stuff. She was the smart one.
A beep caught Jaune's attention. One of the camera feeds showed Weiss running into a group of Saybers, four of them. The heiress drew her sword, and with a flash of her glyphs, the battle started.
It had been weird watching Weiss interact with her classmates. Sure, Weiss had been… not the nicest person when they first met, but Jaune had chalked that up to her wanting to see her sister. Well, that and Weiss being a bit entitled. Once they had gotten past the initial friction, things had worked out fine.
Weiss had been nice when she had called him a week or so ago. Well, not nice-nice. Weiss, Jaune was learning, was very easily irritated and prone to lashing out at others. Still, there had never been any real spite there. It was just the way her temper worked. Bri was like that sometimes, so Jaune was used to it. Weiss' subsequent calls had followed a similar pattern.
Jaune had expected Weiss would have been nicer when interacting with her peers.
He had not expected her to be way colder with them than she had ever been with him.
It had been weird seeing someone as temperamental as Weiss like that. It was like he hadn't even been watching the same person. Why was that? Someone like Weiss should have no problems making friends. She was a big shot singer or something, right?
Singers were always popular. His sisters had taught him that. It was why he had practiced with the guitar so much. Jaune had hoped being able to play well would counter his lack of anything else that would make him popular.
Anyway, the point was someone like Weiss should have lots of friends. Instead, everyone but Neon seemed scared of the girl.
Jaune sighed as Weiss ran her blade through a Sayber's face.
He'd ask Winter later. She'd probably know. It wasn't like it was any of his business since he and Weiss had met not that long ago. He probably shouldn't be butting into her affairs.
But he also kind of really wanted to butt in.
That was apparently also an Arc thing.
xXx
Weiss carefully observed her enemies.
Saybers were a common species of Grimm in the frozen lands of Solitas. They were large quadrupeds with long tusks and powerful claws. Much like Beowolves resembled wolves, Saybers resembled the long-extinct Saber-Toothed Cat. There were several theories as to why that was the case.
In olden times, people believed Grimm were vengeful spirits. Thus, the Grimm looked like twisted versions of existing animals because that was exactly what they were. Of course, such theories had long since been discarded. Nowadays, the leading theory was that Grimm naturally took the shape of creatures found in nature upon spawning, although some still believed the many species of Grimm out there to be the result of natural adaptation.
Though Weiss had read several scientific articles covering the subject, she could not say she cared much for the debate.
Grimm were Grimm.
Black glyphs flashed in the ground, pushing the Saybers up and rendering them helpless. Weiss did not let the chance go to waste. Her sword sliced the beasts to ribbons. A small smile of satisfaction was smoothed down as soon as Weiss saw the camera drone flying next to her, capturing her every move.
She was a Schnee. Her every waking moment was always spent being judged by others. A camera drone following her around was nothing she couldn't handle. She'd give the teachers the best performance they had ever seen.
By the time the test was over, she would have set a new record. Weiss swore it.
Taking a look around to make sure there weren't any other Grimm nearby, Weiss took out her scroll. The students had been given a map of the area before leaving the ship. It showed the signals given off by other camera drones, a way for the students to find people to partner up with, most likely. Of course, Weiss had no intention of using it for such a thing.
Weiss only cared about the topographical data.
Grimm didn't need to eat or sleep. They didn't hunt in the same way other animals did. However, there was one thing Grimm did the same as everyone else, follow the path of least resistance.
Unless drawn by negativity, Grimm wouldn't go out of their way to traverse rough terrain. Grimm possessed a certain degree of self-preservation. It had been one of the advantages the first-settlers had back when Solitas had just been a frozen wasteland. The humans were willing to brave the freezing cold until something worked.
The Grimm weren't.
This meant that Weiss was more likely to find Grimm in the lowest parts of the valley, where the terrain was easier to cross.
She wondered how many of her classmates would realize that.
Probably not many of them. Weiss' hand tightened around Myrtenaster. To think she had to go and remind them to change! If they had gotten themselves ready from the start, she wouldn't have had to waste time with them! She'd have been able to spend her time on the ship with Winter instead of being sent away!
It wasn't Winter's fault, Weiss reminded herself.
Her sister had to be professional. She couldn't be seen being too close to her. Some people may interpret that as undue favoritism. That was why Winter had been formal when Weiss had approached her after the debriefing.
That was why Winter had sent her away to check on her classmates. That was all there was to it. If they had been alone, without any eyes watching them, they'd have been able to spend some time together. That was just the way things were. Weiss had long since gotten used to such things.
She wasn't angry.
Not one bit.
The snow before Weiss suddenly shifted as a Grimm emerged from it. Her mind cataloged it instantly. A deathstalker. It was about one foot long from its mandibles to the tip of its stinger. A young one, then. In general, deathstalkers tended to range from less than a foot all the way to five feet or so.
It was rare when one of them grew bigger than that. Giant Deathstalkers were significantly rarer than Giant Nevermores.
Weiss sword went right through the creature's body, a small thrill of satisfaction ran through her body as it did so. Black smoke emanated from it a second or two later. Weiss did not stop to savor her victory. Her combat heels crunched the snow under her feet as she continued on her path.
Growls reached Weiss's ears. She instantly recognized their owners as Saybers. Sure enough, the cat-like Grimm soon came running right at her, obviously attracted by their need to destroy that which was human.
It certainly wasn't because she was feeling particularly negative. Not at all.
Weiss was merely a little peeved she had missed the chance to spend more time with Winter. That was all.
And would it really have killed Arc to be alone when she came into the cargo hold?!
He should have been grateful that she had taken some time off her busy schedule to visit him. He should have made sure there was no one around to bother them when she came to talk! Instead, she had found him making pals with that faunus!
Weiss clicked her tongue as she froze a Sayber and shattered it into a thousand pieces.
Wasn't it his job to keep his identity as IXA a secret? Shouldn't he have been sending away an obvious irritant like Neon instead of humoring her? Well, of course, he hadn't. It didn't matter that Neon wasn't particularly attractive when she was wearing so little. Men were weak like that. Of the many things her mother had told her when drunk, that was one of the few things Weiss had actually listened to.
Another Sayber went for her throat. This one, she burned.
To make things worse, Kleid and her flunkies had shown up. As if the girl who thought roller skates were a valid alternative to combat heels hadn't been bad enough.
Clarie Kleid was one of the many social climbers that graced the halls of Pleiades Academy. Her father had political aspirations, which may bear fruit next election. Oh, who was she kidding? The man was a shoo-in. Everyone knew it. Her father had even made a generous donation to his campaign, which meant Mr. Klied was already in Jacques Schnee's pocket.
He'd be made councilman and look the other way when it came to the SDC. That was how it always went.
That was how Atlas worked.
Ever since Mr. Klied started campaigning, Claire had gathered quite a following of sycophants. The dumb girl ate up all the attention and had begun to throw her weight around, even as she sought Weiss' favor, likely on orders from her father.
Pitiful.
A small deathstalker rose from the snow. It died in less than the blink of an eye as a time-dilated Weiss kept making her way through the valley.
Two minutes after killing it, a lone thought occurred to her.
Where deathstalkers common in this part of Solitas?
xXx
"Great job, Claire!"
"You showed that Sayber who's boss."
"Naturally, we're here to ace the test, aren't we?"
Clarie Kleid laughed haughtily as the Grimm she had just killed faded into wispy smoke. However, her heart wasn't in it. In fact, it would surprise those around her to know how little her outside matched her inside.
"Where to now?" Pipe, one of the two boys in her group, asked. He was tall and handsome, very popular among the girls of Pleiades.
Months ago, he wouldn't have looked twice at her. It wasn't that Claire was, in any way, ugly. On the contrary, Claire considered herself to be quite pretty. At the very least, she had that much going for her before all this began.
"I suggest we keep moving south. The Grimm will probably follow the path of least resistance as they travel through the valley."
"What a coincidence," Claire said with a confident smile on her face. "I was just about to suggest the same thing."
"That's why you're the boss!"
What a farce.
Claire would have never thought of that on her own. She wasn't like Pipe. His father was an officer in the military, and it showed. Pipe was one of the best in their year when it came to combat, strategy, and tactics, a shoo-in for Atlas Academy as far as everyone was concerned. It was known he planned on becoming a Specialist.
Claire had never even wanted to go to combat school.
Fighting and violence were not things she enjoyed. Claire understood the world they lived in was a dangerous one, and that some people had to fight to protect it. While those people were owed respect, Claire saw no reason why she needed to join their number. She would rather learn about fashion than the many different types of Dust rounds. She'd rather have a handbag at her side than the mecha-shifting saber currently occupying that space.
Her parents had other plans for her.
Her father's political aspirations were not something that had been born overnight. It had been the result of careful planning and years of positioning himself. Having a daughter in Pleiades Academy was just another part of it. Patriotism was popular among the masses, and what better way for a candidate to show it than by having his daughter training in one of the elite combat schools of Atlas?
That was how Clarie Kleid ended up in Pleiades Academy. She hadn't earned her position. Her parents just knew the right people, and the proper favors and recommendation letters had been procured. A huntsman had been hired to unlock her Aura and gave her a few lessons a couple of months before she was sent off.
More than anyone else, Claire knew she didn't belong in Pleiades Academy. At best, she was middling when it came to skill.
Yet here she was. In a frozen valley full of hungry Grimm, surrounded by her so-called friends.
Pipe took the front. Two of her friends talked about one gossip or another with her even as they perfectly flanked her. The last two members of the group brought up the rear-guard.
They were protecting her.
They knew the one who needed the most protection in the group was her.
The treatment galled Claire, but she couldn't deny they were right. Even though just moments ago they had been praising her for killing that Sayber, Clarie knew they hadn't meant it. Pipe had already wounded it before she killed it. He had basically served it up for her on a silver platter!
The worse thing was that they all knew it.
Claire wasn't strong or smart or brave.
They just kept telling her she was because her dad was going to be a councilman.
Claire wanted to scream at them. Call them out for their fake smiles and fake friendship. To think she had been so happy when it had all began! She had enjoyed the sudden popularity, the cute boys paying attention to her, being part of a group.
Lies. All lies.
However, she wasn't brave enough to shatter the illusion. She kept going along with the farce because doing anything else would mean admitting how worthless she was.
She wasn't Weiss Schnee.
Sometimes, Claire wished she could be like her. Not for the money or her looks, but due to the way Weiss Schnee held herself. Always above everyone else, never caring one bit about what they thought. It was infuriating, yet Claire couldn't help but yearn for it.
She wished she could be that brave.
Pipe suddenly held up his hand. "I hear Grimm up ahead. Get ready, everyone!"
"More Saybers?" Someone asked. Pipe frowned and shook his head.
"No. Something else." Pipe squinted to see into the distance. Claire could barely make something out as well. At first, she thought it was the snow melting, but as it grew closer, she realized it was dozens of small Grimm moving towards them.
She had recognized them, having once thought their gold stinger was rather fetching when looking at an illustration in a textbook. They were…
"Deathstalkers!" Claire said, proud of herself for having remembered the name. The rest of the group looked at her in surprise.
"Shit!"
Claire's exaltation did not last long. Now that she had identified the problem, they could all realized the gravity of it. Deathstalkers were coming.
And there were many of them.
So. So. Many.
AN:
Just because I know someone is going to ask about this, Weiss does not have a crush on Jaune. She's just annoyed he wasn't free when she wanted to talk. She's a bit possessive since she's in a different place compared to canon here.
As an aside, see if you can guess which character Claire is based on.
Till next time!