So, just a quick Author's Note before the actual story begins to answer a couple pressing questions that I've had people comment about. Firstly, while this Fanfic is based off the Anime and Light Novel "If It's For My Daughter, I Would Even Defeat a Demon Lord" I'm not going to mirror every plot point that happens in them. An example, which will NOT be seen in this fanfic, is the main protagonist going on to marry the young demon girl he rescued and adopted. Jaune and Jade are BROTHER and SISTER, adopted or otherwise, and therefore will have only familial feelings towards one another, NOT ROMANTIC. Granted, I may have some instances where Jaune and his romantic interest interact act on their feelings for one another and Jade lashes out in a protective manner that younger siblings tend to do, but nothing more than that. I know this may seem like I'm going on a rant but I felt it was best to discuss this early on so there's no confusion.

Second, while I do have this fanfic tagged as "Romance" in the genre section, keep in mind that I'm not going to outright state who will end up with whom until much later. While I know some of you won't like this, I'd prefer to keep the pairings a mystery more so you can theorize for yourselves who Jaune might end up with and for what reasons. While I do have a pairing in mind that I'm working towards, I don't want to outright say it so you won't instantly assume every moment between the characters should be interpreted as a romantic one. Some of these relationships will be platonic, nothing more. Some will develop into something more and I, as the author, will do all that I can to make that build up to their relationship a believable one and not something that makes the character look like they were a prize to be won or that they suddenly developed feelings for one another out of the blue.

Long rant, I apologize, but I wanted to address those issues because I had a lot of people commenting on them. Hopefully this explains things and, should you have any more questions, feel free to let me know in your reviews or PM me.

Beacon Training Room

"Just a few more, Jade, you're doing well," Jaune said as he watched Jade going through her routine.

It had been a few weeks since Jade's birthday and already the child had taken to her training. Jaune was currently putting her through a more downgraded version of his own workout routine, alternating between having her run laps to build up stamina and practicing her sword swings to build muscle and breed familiarity with how she would wield her weapon. As she would grow older her abilities would improve and one day her sword would become something of a backup, a spare to use alongside her more permanent weapon once she either commissioned one or built it herself.

"Alright Jade, that's enough. Come take a break," he said, handing her a towel and a bottle of water.

Securing her sword in its sheath she tootled on over, accepting the water and drinking it eagerly. Already she was panting heavily and her workout shirt was drenched in sweat. Once she'd cooled down he would see to it she took a shower before taking her with his team and team RWBY out on the town.

"I think that's enough for today," he said, packing their things and getting ready to head out.

"I can still go," she said, eager to prove she could be just as skilled as he was.

"No, you need to rest. You can barely hold you sword up as it is," he replied, having watched her attentively and noticed when her energy was beginning to wane.

"But Jaune," she whined, only ever using his name when she wanted something.

"Don't Jaune me. You need to rest. If you don't you could end up collapsing from exhaustion or hurting yourself and that would make your training even harder. We'll stop for today and pick up on it tomorrow."

"Okay," she said in a defeated tone.

He smiled, giving her a light hug before picking up their bags and leading the way back to their dorm. Jade was lucky. The training she was putting in now would go a long way to helping her prepare for the life of a huntress. While she was still unskilled and lacking in certain areas, she was only five. She had time enough and room to grow, ensuring that by the time she was old enough to enroll into a prep school she'd have built up enough muscle and honed her skills to the point that she'd be able to hold her own. It was more than Jaune had started out with when he took up the huntsman's life.

Granted, he had no one to blame but himself for being ill prepared to become a huntsman. Having come from a long line of huntsman, he'd always wanted to be one but was just never willing to put in the commitment when he was younger. When he was Jade's age he'd been out playing in the woods or reading comics while his friends such as Ruby and Yang had been training, honing their skills in preparation to one day attend Signal and then Beacon. He'd always planned to runaway to Beacon, taking his family's ancestral sword and hoping that by some twist of fate he'd be accepted.

Thinking back on it now he realized just how stupid and naive he'd been. He had no prior skills to fall back on and simply thinking he would have been able to get by on sheer dumb luck would have undoubtedly been his undoing. Granted, the year he'd spent on the road to Vale, working alongside actual huntsman and honing his skills in preparation for coming here had helped him a great deal, but he was still sorely lacking. At best he'd be spending his years working harder than anyone else just to close the gap between himself and his friends. He was skilled but not as skilled as they were and they would only continue to press forward during their time here. He couldn't allow himself to falter if he wanted to have a ghost of a chance of being able to hold his own alongside them.

That said, he could at least give Jade a better chance of excelling than he'd given himself. The short sword he'd had commissioned for her, along with unlocking her aura were all meant to prepare her for the long road ahead. Part of him felt guilty for having done it. There was no reason Jade couldn't have chosen to grow up, living a good life as a civilian here in Vale. His actions might very well have thrown any chance she had at leading a normal life to the curb. That said, he also couldn't ignore the fact that such thoughts at having a "normal life" were probably the furthest thing from the five year old's mind. With the deaths of their families only a year ago and Jaune dragging Jade along with him to Beacon, he'd put her squarely in the middle of a life where everywhere she looked there were examples of people working hard to prepare for a life as a Huntsman or Huntress. If nothing else, "normal" didn't amply to anyone at this school. Period.

/-/

"We're back," Jaune said as he and Jade entered their dorm room.

"How did training go?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune grabbed some fresh cloths on his way to take a shower.

"Rather well. Jade is learning pretty quickly. Stamina is still a bit low but that'll improve as she gets older."

"Indeed. It would be too much to expect her to be able to last as long as we can, even with her aura unlocked."

"Hey Jade, did you have fun during training?" Nora asked in her usual chipper tone.

"Humph," Jade said, pouting in a manner that looked less annoyed and more cute as the little five year old made her way over to her bed, taking out the box she'd retrieved her sword from before setting it inside and sliding it back under her bed.

In response to the girl's reaction, Nora pouted as well, clutching Jaune's arm as she cried fake tears to her team leader.

"Jaune, help me," she whined.

"Nora, we've been over this, there's nothing I can do."

"But Jade still hasn't forgiven me," she said.

"Yes, and while I admit that's childish, she is still a child. You'll just need to apologize to her."

"But I did and she still gives me the cold shoulder."

"Well then maybe next time you won't drink all of the tree sap we were going to use as syrup on our pancakes," he chided, slipping his arm out of Nora's grasp before slipping into the bathroom.

Nora's predicament had actually begun a week earlier when the class had been taken to Forever Fall by Professor Goodwitch to collect tree sap samples for Professor Peach. While they seldom saw hide nor hair of the reclusive Professor, even during her lessons. Prior to going Ren had talked about how the sap from the trees had a reputation for its sweet flavor which made it a popular condiment on pancakes. His talk of pancakes had intrigued both Nora and Jade, the two girls asking excitedly if they could have pancakes to go along with the sap they collected. Ren, being as patient as ever (even when adding someone as excitable as Nora into the mix) promised he'd make some of his homemade pancakes which they would enjoy along with the sap. It soon became the only thing Jade would talk about, even to the point on her making Jaune promise he would come to collect her as soon as they returned so she could enjoy the pancakes as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, it ended in failure due to Nora's inability to keep her hands, or more appropriately her lips, away from the jars of sap they'd filled. With each one they filled to the brim, a processes that took several minutes, Nora had them drained in seconds. It had taken the remaining three members of JNPR to keep the girl at bay while they filled their jars, ensuring they would be able to turn something into Miss Goodwitch by the end of the day. To top things off, Cardin along with his teammates had attempted to exact their revenge against Jaune using a jar of sap they'd collected along with some rather nasty rapier wasps. Thankfully, they didn't do too much damage. Their initial attack failed when Jaune, hearing the whistling of the jar as it flew through the air, deployed his shield in an instinctual defensive fashion. Broken glass and sap had coated the exterior of his shield but he was otherwise unharmed. This, of course, still attracted the wasps but they were quickly dealt with thanks to the aid of team RWBY.

Of course, karma quickly followed as the all-boys team were assailed by an Ursa not long after. Most likely drawn to Cardin's negative emotions as he was still sour about Jaune breaking his nose and causing him to end up with a weeks' worth of detention (despite that being entirely his own fault). He was completely caught off guard when the massive Grimm bear targeted him, making quick work of his teammates who abandoned him without a second thought and leaving him completely unarmed when it easily swatted away his massive mace. Jaune, despite what his friends felt was against his better judgment, had come to the boy's rescue, fighting off the Grimm and, with some aid from Pyrrha's semblance, promptly decapitated the beast. While most would have assumed the incident would have led to the two teams finally putting aside their differences, it only seemed to bruise Cardin's pride a little more and sour the faith he had in his teammates as well.

Shortly after they were all pleased to find out they would indeed be allowed to keep at least one of the jars of sap to use as syrup for their pancakes. With this in hand they'd made their way to their dorm, dropping it off while Jaune went to go pick up Jade and the others went to the kitchens to start on the pancakes. Jade was a bundle of energy, eager to have a taste of the legendary syrup and quickly bounded down the halls on their way to the kitchens. When they'd arrived, however, they were surprised to see only Pyrrha and Ren in attendance, with Nora missing and unaccounted for. It was only after Pyrrha made the comment that the orange haired girl had slipped out to use the bathroom that they start to wonder if she'd made a detour back to their dorm and quickly ran off to check. Sure enough their suspicions proved true as they found Nora with an empty jar in her hands and a pink sticky substance around her mouth and lips. The moment Jade saw her, all of her excitement quickly evaporated as she burst into tears, subsequently draining Nora's energy as well as she realized what she had done.

Despite her attempts to apologize and receive her forgiveness, Nora was underestimating two key factors; one, that Jade was a girl and two that she was a child, both of which were notorious when it came to holding grudges and Jade was no exception. For the past week she'd given Nora the cold shoulder, ignoring her at every turn and refusing to acknowledge her presence. What's more she'd found herself an ally in Weiss, an odd turn of events, as the two started to bond over Nora's betrayal with the other girl recounting moments when her partner Ruby had crossed her, albeit their fights ended fairly quickly once both sides had compromised and apologized. Jaune had actually imagined her bonding more with Ruby who acted more like an older sister to her and, above all, Blake. While he couldn't be certain, Jaune suspected the girl was hiding a pair of ears under her bow. Whatever her reasons for hiding her faunus heritage, he thought it best not to question it. Then again he could be wrong and it really was just a bow but the way he sometimes noticed it shifting in the most peculiar of fashions, especially when Cardin was around, had left him fairly certain he knew the truth.

"Ren," Jaune could hear Nora whine to her partners, knowing she'd get no support from him, "help me."

"You dug yourself a hole, Nora, now you have to get yourself out of it."

Jaune chuckled softly to himself, listening to the girl bemoan her fate as he turned on the water. Jade would get over it, at least he hoped she would, and things would gradually return to normal. Until then Nora would simply have to suffer, learning a valuable lesson of not making promises you couldn't keep or in crossing Jade for that matter. All things considered, though, he felt the girl had suffered enough at his little sister's hands. Perhaps a trip to Vale where Nora could purchase some similar tasting syrup for Jade as a way of appeasing the five year old might help?

/-/

Vale – Port

"I must admit, Arc, this was a surprisingly good idea," Weiss commented as their two teams walked alongside one another through Vale.

"I figured some fresh air could do us all some good," he commented, looking back to Nora and Ren before leaning in to say, "now is a perfect chance to slip off and buy Jade some of that syrup."

"Are you sure it will work?" Nora asked with hope filled eyes.

"It's either this or you can wait out Jade's temper, whichever one you prefer," he replied.

"Come one Ren, we've got some shopping to do," Nora said, taking the hint before latching onto her partner's arm and dragging him off towards the shopping district.

Jaune chuckled, feeling slightly guilty for the fact that Ren would have to spend their entire trip not only babysitting the orange haired girl but also preventing her from drinking all of the syrup before they returned and give it to Jade as a peace offering. If Nora could manage to exert some semblance of self-control, she might be able to get herself back into his sister's good graces otherwise she'd have to suffer it out until Jade grew tired of ignoring her. Speaking of the little terror, Jaune looked ahead to were his sister was, held between Yang and Ruby as they walked down the street.

Peels of excited laughter traveled back his way as the two sisters swung Jade back and forth, using their arms as a makeshift swing. She giggled happily, with the two girls joining in, as she swung forwards and then backwards. It was a wonderful sight, one which Jaune greatly appreciated. When he'd set out for Beacon he'd done so with the goal of providing a stable life for himself and his little sister. He'd known it would take some sacrifices on both his and her part as four years in a combat school wasn't a simple affair. The moment he'd made friends with Ruby Rose, however, and found their teams meshing together in a very familial role, any doubts he'd had about providing Jade with happy moments such as this one quickly faded from his mind. That's not to say he didn't want to provide her with some. Vale had many places where families could spend time with one another, having fun and making memoirs. Jaune intended to take Jade to them as time permitted, but simple pleasures such as this one weren't moments he could plan. They happened of their own accord and were pleasantly unexpected.

Before long both girls grew tired of swinging Jade, her boundless energy outlasting their stamina it seemed, and his sister quickly retreated to his side. With a bright smile on her face she looked up her brother, jumping up and down while reaching up as far as she could.

"Jaune, lift me up," she demanded.

"Is that how we ask for piggyback rides?" he asked, placing his hands on hips in a mock portrayal of Weiss, albeit lesson snippy in his tone.

"Lift me up please," she said sweetly.

"Alright, up you go," he said, putting his hands under her shoulders.

He lifted her up, tossing her in the air and earning an excited squeal, before catching her on the way down, spinning her around and placing her legs on his shoulders. Her tiny hands warped around his head to keep her steady while he grasped onto her legs to keep her from slipping off. Before long their journey took them towards the docks. It wouldn't have been too suspicious were it not for the Vytal Festival banners overhead and the fact that Weiss had taken the lead, talking none stop about how wonderful the festivities were. It might have been sweet were it not so creepy and out of character for the heiress.

"Isn't it all so wonderful? The festivities, the banners, the atmosphere," she said.

"Weiss, you're starting to creep me out," Yang remarked.

"Not to mention the perfect opportunity to see the arrivals from the other academies and scope out the competition in advance," she said with a sinister grin.

"Ah, there it is," Yang added.

"Eww, it smells stinky," Jade complained.

"What do you mean? I think it smells fine," Blake replied.

"I don't think Jade shares the same appreciation for fish that you do, Blakey," Yang pointed out.

"I'm guessing you grew up near a fishing port," Jaune replied.

"You might say that," she said. "Fish were a major commodity where I'm from. You just sort of got used to seeing it being brought in from the ports as well as on your plate."

"Would explain your strange obsession with tuna," Yang mumbled.

"It's not an obsession," Blake snapped.

"When you have fish at nearly every meal, it's an obsession," Yang pointed out, earning a snarl in return.

"Hey guys, look at that," Ruby interrupted, pointing to a large crowd that had gathered near a dust shop cordoned off by police tap.

They drew closer, looking out over the remnants of what appeared to have been a rather nasty robbery. An older gentleman with a horseshoe haircut of gray hair stood outside, giving a statement to the two police officers inspecting the scene. Several people gathered round whispering to one another, commenting on what happened and the frequency of the attacks. Nearby they could make out a news crew where a familiar feminine news reporter stood in front of the camera, giving her piece on yet another dust robbery that had been performed within the last couple of weeks.

"What happened?" Pyrrha asked.

"Looks like a robbery. There've been more and more as of late," Yang commented.

"I bet it was Roman Torchwick," Ruby commented.

Thinking back on it, her guess made sense. Having hung around the young team leader, Jaune had naturally come to learn how she'd ended up at Beacon two years early. As it turned out, the young huntress to be had been at a Dust shop when Roman waltzed in with a gang of thugs looking to rob the place. She'd naturally intervened, easily taking down most of his goons before squaring off against Roman himself. While his hired help had been easily dealt with, Roman was a former huntsman, having been trained at Beacon in his youth, and his skills hadn't rusted at all since he'd wandered off the huntsman's path. He'd managed to escape Ruby's grasp before making his way to a nearby roof and boarding an airship. He would have escaped and left Ruby in the dust too had it not been for some intervention on Miss Goodwitch's part, coming to Ruby's aid as they fought to apprehend Roman. They'd unfortunately failed but the whole escapade had impressed Ozpin enough that he offered to enroll her early alongside her sister.

Since his botched attempt on the store, Roman hadn't slowed his work ethic at all. Several more stores were hit, all of them suppliers of Dust, Crystals, and ammo. Roman's face was all over the news, the man's notoriety quickly skyrocketing despite having kept a mostly low profile for a number of years. It was rather odd, all things considered. While Dust was a lucrative business, selling it on the black market was no easy task. It was actually much simpler, and cheaper for that matter, to have a mule act as the middle man between suppliers, purchasing the Dust for you through legal means without anyone asking questions as to what its purpose was for. So long as people got paid, they were happy to be kept in the dark regarding its intended purpose.

"Or it could be the White Fang," Weiss added with a snarl.

"What makes you say that?" Blake asked in a tense tone that was rather foreign for the girl.

"The White Fang have targeted my family for years. Everything from Dust shipments to members of our staff. It wouldn't surprise me if they had stooped to assaulting businesses simply to land a blow against the SDC."

"That's a lot to assume given the lack of evidence," Blake pointed out, crossing her arms under her chest.

"They're terrorists, Blake. It wouldn't surprise me if they resorted to such tactics."

"They're not terrorists, they're simply protesting the unfair treatment of Faunus throughout the kingdoms."

"Why don't we just keep walking? I'm sure some of the students from the other academies have already started to arrive," Yang interjected.

"She's right. There's nothing we can do here. We'd simply get in the way," Jaune replied.

Both girls gave their silent acknowledgement but maintained a noticeable distance from one another. The conversation itself had Jaune's mind working furiously as he glanced over at Blake. During their argument, he'd noticed the girl's bow perform some interesting movements. While he'd only been suspicious before, he was all but certain now that Blake was indeed a Faunus, though one who was keeping her heritage secret. It was also apparent that she might have held some sympathy for the White Fang as well. Having spent most of his life outside the major Kingdoms, Jaune had seldom heard about the White Fang at all. They'd hear the occasional rumor, of course, but they were so far off the beaten path that none of it ever felt important given that it wouldn't affect them anyways. Now, however, having brought himself and his sister to Vale, he was starting to have a major reality check as he realized just how much of the world's problems intersected their small patch of happiness.

"Stowaway!"

"Stop him!"

His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the shouts of some men from the docks. Glancing over, Jaune took note of a couple of sailors chasing a young boy wearing an unbuttoned white shirt, jeans that were rolled up to his knees, and a pair of sneakers. From the distance it wasn't difficult to make out his blond hair contrasting against his tan skin as well as the long monkey tail he sported. He watched, impressed, as the boy flipped and summersaulted over and around his pursuers, jumping from the ship to the docks where he clambered up a nearby light pole, hanging from it using his tale and peeling a banana that he'd kept on him before munching on the snack.

"Way to not play into stereotypes," he grumbled, watching the teen as the men closed in on him.

"Get down from there, you no good stowaway," one of the sailors yelled at him.

"I'm not a good stowaway, I'm a great stowaway," the boy remarked.

"What's the difference?" one of the men asked, much to his partner's annoyance.

"A great stowaway doesn't get caught," he said, throwing his used banana peel on the ground at their feet before leaping down and taking off in a sprint.

The members of teams RWBY and JNPR moved out of the way as the Faunus tore past them with the sailors in hot pursuit, albeit quickly running out of steam as their target, who clearly had huntsman training, had yet to break a sweat. As he passed by he saw the boys eyes rove up towards him, taking note of Jade sitting on his shoulders before moving on to Blake. The girl's eyes watched as the boy passed and for a moment Jaune thought he saw him wink at her before disappearing around a corner. Needless to say it was one of the oddest events to happen to them during their day and it would prove to be the beginning of many soon enough.

"After him!" Weiss bellowed, taking off in a sprint of her own as she charged after the boy.

"I swear, how that girl can managed to get anywhere fast in heels, I'll never know," he grumbled as he pulled Jade down into his arms to hold onto her better as he ran after the Schnee

They followed closely, Weiss somehow managing to cover a hell of a lot of ground despite her footwear (seriously, how did any huntress fight in those things, let alone walk?) with her team close behind. Unfortunately, the faunus must have been more slippery than they'd anticipated as the boy had managed to disappear the moment he rounded a corner. Before long they were in Vales shopping district which was filled with crowds perfect for blending into. This minor detail did little to dissuade the heiress as she rounded a corner before falling back abruptly, the sound of something hard smashing against the ground echoing alongside her.

"Oof!" she cried.

"Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby asked, rushing to her partner's side.

"Yea, I just hit something."

"More like someone," Yang remarked.

True to her words Weiss had indeed run into someone. Looking over, Jaune could see a young girl in peculiar clothing with orange hair, lying flat on the ground. While most people would have looked a little disheveled, especially after having a huntress run head long into them, this girl looked completely fine, laying on the ground like she was resting or getting a suntan. What's more her hair was completely unaffected with not a single strand out of place. Her expression was also strangely chipper, like there was nothing in the world that could sour her mood. Frankly speaking, the girl was starting to creep him out and he didn't even know her name yet.

"Are you alright?" Ruby asked as she went to help the girl.

"I am perfectly functional, thank you for asking," the girl replied.

"Functional?"

"Healthy. I said healthy," the girl corrected.

"S 'not what I heard," Jaune mumbled.

"Hi, I'm Ruby Rose," Ruby introduced herself.

"Salutations. I am Penny Polendina," the girl replied.

"Wonderful to meet you Miss Polendina. By any chance have you seen a young faunus ruffian running this way?" Weiss interjected.

"Excuse me?" Blake snapped.

"Why no, I haven't seen any apart from the two with you," Penny replied.

The comment left everyone perplexed as they looked around for another Faunus. Jade was obvious from the start but the mention of a second one had everyone confused. Well, everyone apart from Jaune that is. As soon as Penny had mentioned another his eyes had quickly shot over to Blake and caught a nervous look on her face which she had quickly dissolved as she looked around at the crowds. At this point he was all but certain that his suspicions were correct and the fact that she looked so distraught at being called out raised its own plethora of questions. He decided to save it for later, focusing instead on the other peculiar girl standing before them.

"Drat, I can't believe that criminal got away," Weiss complained.

"He's not a criminal. Why do you keep making such baseless accusations?" Blake complained.

"He was caught stowing away aboard that ship, how does that not make him a criminal? Besides, the way he headed straight for us was rather suspicious. He could have been a White Fang member looking to target us next."

"Not all Faunus are part of the White Fang! What is with you and your ignorant assumptions about the Faunus?"

The pair quickly devolved into an argument with everyone, the crowds included, quickly forgotten by the girls. Jaune could only watch with obvious disappointment, wondering how two people could act so childish despite their age. Speaking of children, it wasn't at all difficult for him to pick out a familiar pair of people making their way over to them, one of them being noticeably dragged by his orange haired counterpart. Nora bounded over to their team, a heavily laden grocery bag in her arms that swung back and forth like a pendulum, the plastic bag straining to maintain its hold on its rather large contents.

"Hey guys, fancy meeting you here. Anything exciting happen while we were gone?" Nora asked cheerily.

Jaune glanced over at Weiss and Blake whose argument had now devolved into a shouting match of sorts with people noticeably moving to the other side of the street simply to avoid them.

"Depends on your perspective," he replied. "What's in the bag there Nora? Looks heavy."

"It sure is. Well, at least not for me because I'm crazy strong but whatever. Jade, I think you'll like this. Ta Da!"

Reaching into the bag Nora extracted what had to have been the largest container of Forever Fall brand pancake syrup Jaune had ever seen. His jaw dropped at the size of it, the container looking less like a bottle and more like a kegger of syrup in the girl's small hands. He glanced over at Ren, his eyes silently asking just where she had managed to find such a monstrosity, let alone purchase it.

"We found a superstore that sold everything in bulk. Believe it or not that was the smallest size they had. I had to concede to Nora buying that one because I was afraid she'd try to purchase their barrel size," he replied.

"Ren, don't be silly, I'd never buy something that big. Where would we put it?"

"Fair point," Jaune conceded, finally finding his voice.

"Guess we won't have to worry about syrup for a while," Pyrrha chimed in helpfully.

"Jade, will you forgive me if I make Ren make us some pancakes for us to use this on?" Nora asked.

"Excuse me?" Ren butted in.

Jade simply looked at the bottle, her eyes wide as plates, before a broad smile flashed across her face to match. She energetically shook her head, the early signs of a sugar rush already evident in her gestures.

"Can we have pancakes for dinner?" she excitedly asked.

"No," Jaune and Ren said simultaneously.

"Of course," Nora chimed.

"Yay!" Jade celebrated.

"Uge," Jaune and Ren replied, facing palming themselves as they realized all too late that they had been ignored completely.

/-/

Beacon – JNPR Dorm

Jaune sat on his bed, reviewing some of his notes from Dr. Oobleck's class. The man spoke a mile a minute, making it increasingly difficult for him to catch even a small percentage of what he'd said throughout his lectures. He'd compared notes with Pyrrha and Ren, adding to his own as each of them had managed to catch something the others had missed. Still, there was a great deal he wasn't sure on. He was currently considering going next door to team RWBY and asking Weiss if she might share her notes with him. The girl was meticulous when it came to her school work and would no doubt have caught a great deal of the man's speech. While he was considering this he noticed Jade get up from her bed, holding the book she'd received from Blake for her birthday as she made her way towards the door.

"Headed over to RWBY's room?" he asked, catching her attention.

"Uh huh, I'm going to read with Blake," she replied.

It had become something of a nightly ritual for Jade at this point. Due to his school work, most notably the assignments he received from Oobleck, it was becoming increasing difficult for him to spare time to read with Jade before bed. Thankfully he had an idea, knowing that Blake was an avid reader and, at the time, suspecting she was a Faunus. He figured he might be able to take out two Nevermore with one bullet, giving Jade the chance to learn to read and Blake the opportunity to bond with another Faunus and possibly begin to feel comfortable enough to reveal her heritage. Children had an uncanny way of making people feel better and lowering their defenses. Not only that but considering the increasingly heated fight she'd had with Weiss which had continued to rage all the way back to their dorms, he figured having Jade come over to read might be a welcome change of pace.

Before he had a chance to get up, however, they heard a door open and suddenly slam home, echoing in the mostly deserted halls. Jade glanced to her brother with a worried expression and Jaune quickly rose to check to see what had happened. Of course, by the time he opened their door and checked the halls they were empty. Whoever had left had done so in a hurry. He suspected it must have been a member of team RWBY judging from the shouting he could hear even through the thick door and figured either Blake or Weiss had left in a huff, the other having said something that drove them over the edge. With Jade sticking close to him Jaune ventured over before knocking loud enough that he was certain they'd hear him over the shouting. There was a momentary pause where everything was quiet before the door creaked open, revealing Ruby peeking out from the doorway.

"Oh, hey Jaune, what's up?" she asked, opening the door just enough to see her sister and Weiss, both of whom were glaring at one another, and Blake strangely absent.

"Jade was just coming over to read with Blake and I was going to ask a favor of Weiss but it appears Blake is absent."

"Yea, uh, she just left."

"I figured as much. We heard the door slam and the shouting. Everything alright?"

"Everything is most certainly NOT alright," Weiss replied.

"Well if you had just given her a chance to explain," Yang shot back.

"She's a terrorist!"

"Allegedly!"

"Guys, guys, can we please not fight?" Ruby attempted to intercede.

Her attempt failed, with Yang and Weiss returning to their earlier tirade, completely ignoring the other occupants in the room. Ruby looked helpless as they bickered and Jaune massaged his temple, already feeling a headache coming on. He'd had some experience when it came to his sister's arguing, an event that could typically last hours and usually revolved around something completely trivial that had simply been blown out of proportion. Patting Jade's head as she sequestered herself behind him, he gave her a comforting look before turning on the remaining girls and grabbing their attention the best way he could.

"ENOUGH!" he roared, catching all of them off guard, causing Jade to jump in surprise, and silencing them instantly.

"Look," he continued, "obviously something happened that has you all at each other's throats and while I'd like to know what happened and possibly help if I can, I can't figure it out with all your shouting. So, I'm going to ask for the full story but not from you two," he said, pointing to Yang and Weiss.

"What?"

"Why the hell not?" Yang asked.

"Because aside from Ruby, you two are emotionally compromised at the moment."

"Excuse me?" Weiss balked.

"Tell me I'm wrong," he challenged in an authoritative tone, causing both girls to cringe as they were forced to admit he was right. "Alright then, Ruby, if you would please start from the beginning?"

With each of the girls taking a seat either on their bed or the window sill and keeping a sizable distance from one another, Jaune settled himself on a chair with Jade sitting comfortably in his lap. It was then that Ruby recounted the argument Weiss and Blake had gotten into earlier that day. Jaune had recalled that, with the point of contention being the Monkey Faunus who had apparently stowed away on the ship that had just arrived in Vale. Weiss' continued reference to the boy as a "degenerate" had rubbed Blake the wrong way, thus causing the argument itself.

When they'd returned to their dorms the fight hadn't petered out as Ruby had hoped but had seemed to gain more fuel and drive as it progressed. It was at that point that Weiss had revealed the source for her contention when it came to the White Fang and Faunus in general. Being the heiress to the SDC, her father's actions had garnered the unwanted attention of the humanitarian group early on. He'd obviously ignored them in the beginning, finding them nothing more than an annoyance, before the Fang took an abrupt change when they started attacking stores refusing to do business with Faunus and targeting SDC shipments. Their actions continued to become more destructive with some of their executives either being kidnapped or flat out disappearing. Needless to say, it had made things very tense for Weiss as a child, something which Jaune could understand.

It had been at that point that Blake had shouted back that they had been tired of being pushed around. While not a flat out confession, it was enough to catch everyone off guard and begin putting two and two together. Blake certainly hadn't done anything to argue against the assumption. On the contrary, the horrified look they'd seen on her face screamed "I've said too much" and before anyone could stop her she'd bolted from the room. As soon as she left a fresh argument ensued, this time between Weiss and Yang, the heiress having assumed her life had been in danger for the past several weeks and Yang arguing in favor of her partner, wanting to at least give her a chance to explain herself before passing judgment. Needless to say, Ruby had felt lost at that point and was grateful for Jaune's interruption when it came.

"Huh," he said, considering everything Ruby had just told her. "So she was a Faunus. I always suspected but never really thought it polite to ask."

His sudden epiphany was meet with stares as the remaining members of the team looked at him. All of them were surprised and, for the first time in a long time, Jaune felt rather awkward.

"I'm guessing none of you knew that."

"You knew she was a Faunus?" Weiss snapped.

"No, I suspected but I didn't know for certain," he corrected.

"And you didn't tell us this before because?" Yang asked, her own eyes turning crimson from frustration.

"I didn't think it would have been polite for me to flat out accuse her. I figured she was keeping her heritage secret for a reason. Honestly, with the way Cardin treated Velvet and Jade, I wouldn't be at all surprised if she was afraid she might become one more victim amongst the bunch."

"Well, the only person who needed to worry about being a victim is me," Weiss replied. "This entire time I've been living with a White Fang member and she could have killed me at any point."

"I'm honestly surprised she didn't," he muttered.

"Excuse me!" Weiss snapped.

"Well, think about it," he replied, realizing she'd heard his offhand comment and quickly attempted to save himself some pain. "Assuming she is White Fang, why didn't she? She's had plenty of opportunities."

"Perhaps she was just looking for the perfect opportunity," Weiss pointed out.

"She's had plenty all throughout our stay here," he countered. "Assuming her mission was to assassinate you, she had several opportunities to get you alone from initiation to moments where it was just you two here in the dorm. She could have even invited you to the library or for a cup of tea in the cafeteria and have been gone with you without leaving much evidence. So, barring that, she either has a different mission or, most likely, we don't know enough to assume anything."

Having a sound argument, Weiss scowled before turning away. Ruby looked pleased, glad to have someone there who wasn't completely against her teammate. Even Yang seemed to have calmed down, having nodded along with the conversation as he pointed out the holes in the heriess' argument.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find her," Yang suggested, rising from her seat.

"We can't," Jaune replied, catching her off guard as her mood quickly turned.

"What? Why?" she snapped.

"Unless you've noticed, it's gotten pretty late out. The last bullhead will be leaving shortly which would no doubt leave us stranded in Vale for the night and I doubt any of you wants to pay for a cheap motel," he said, glancing over at Weiss to see she was still pouting.

"But Blake is out there, all alone. We can't just abandon her," Yang argued.

"I never said we were abandoning her," he snapped, "I'm simply suggesting we get some rest and go out fresh tomorrow to start looking for her. It's doubtful any of us are going to make any headway especially with how dark it is and unless any of you are secretly Faunus as well, we'd being stumbling around out there, perfect prey for some of Vale's less than savory citizenry," he pointed out.

It was now Yang's turn to pout, no doubt eager to go after her partner and save her from a night out on the streets. It was an endearing quality, Yang's loyalty, and was honestly one of her better traits in Jaune's opinion, but her actions were short sighted. She often acted before thinking, believing that it was better to apologize rather than ask permission. Not the greatest philosophy in his opinion.

"Alright, now that's settled, I'll go inform my team and we'll start preparing for tomorrow. With any luck, if we get an early start, we should be able to make some headway," he said, rising from his seat.

"I don't understand why any of you are on her side," Weiss snipped. "The innocent never run."

Jaune stopped, his hand hovering over the doorknob. Weiss' comment had struck him in a rather unnerving way and the young leader turned to regard her with a questioning look.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I said the innocent never run," she replied.

"You're sure about that?"

"Of course I am."

"Enough to bet your life on it," he prodded.

Weiss gave him a quizzical look, not quite certain what he was getting at. "What do you mean, Arc?"

In reply Jaune started to chuckle, softly and in a manner that was quite unsettling for everyone there. "You know, I have to admit Weiss, my opinion of you had been improving as of late," he said, the girl in question cocking an eyebrow in response, "but I never took you as someone who would believe in something so very flawed."

Before Weiss could ask what he meant, he returned to his dorm with Jade in tow.

While I know this may have been a short chapter, at least in my opinion (I usually aim for at least 18-24 pages in my Word document) I felt it best to split this little story into two parts. Obviously there'll be some changes in the next one and I'll be sure to add some interesting dialogue. Honestly, I'm looking to add more original chapters and not just ones that are remakes of the actual show. Unfortunately, the first volume was a little lacking story wise. At least the next two have more meat which gives me more to work with.

I decided to skip over the Forever Fall storyline, something I'm sure many of you will appreciate, mostly because, with Jaune being in Beacon legitimately, he's no longer a target for Cardin's blackmail. Of course, I decided to maintain him as a jerk for storyline reasons later down the line. While I do see him improving later on, I can also see him becoming more embittered as his attempts to seek revenge against Jaune fall flat.

Weiss' line of "The Innocent never run" always interested me and it's a shame no one ever looked into it more. Obviously, it's a rather flawed statement as history has shown that the innocent do indeed run, especially when it's from the corrupt who would silence them. We'll explore it more as it'll present some backstory for Jaune and Jade's time outside Vale.

Hope you all enjoy this update. Looking to finish up a chapter I've been working on for World War Remnant pretty soon so expect some more updates. Always appreciate your reviews. They help me to fill in certain holes I often overlook or push back until later in my stories.