KingVessel: For those confused with the chapter numbering, I have moved the movie fanfic into the main fanfic and rearranged it accordingly.

Replies to my Reviewers

GreekfanFT: Glad to see that it was well received.

Imperial-samaB: Thanks

TheDragon2000: The chaos both the good guys and the bad guys caused always bothered me a bit, especially when the Mistral and Atlas arcs highlighted the dangers of being a civilian in Remnant.

Chapter 18: Proactivity

"So, let me just... tack on everything."

Headmaster Ozpin's office was looking pretty full today. On the teachers' side, there was Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch, the woman herself looking particularly... twitchy. On the students' side, there was team RWBY, Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias and Jaune Arc solely occupying a seat in front of him.

"Miss Belladonna was apparently concerned about the White Fang working with a well known human criminal, which considering it's more... violent and racist history, was somewhat understandable but not justifiable as several others, including the Vale City Police Department would have noticed that as well."

Ozpin glared from the flinching Blake Belladonna to the resolute Ruby who stared back without backing down. 'Dammit, why are Awakened Conquerors always so stubborn...'

"On the other hand," Ozpin said, starting Jaune's own dress down. "Mr. Arc was concerned about the immense amount of Dust being stolen from all over the city. I admit that while that is a troublesome deal, I still find it hard to know why that required taking the law into your hands and start investigating on your own."

"I admit that the Torchwick and the White Fang working together didn't really bother me much like it did Blake." Jaune said, ignoring Blake's scandalized look then yelp as Ruby stepped on her foot to hold her back. "What really concerned me were the Dust thefts."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow and made a motion for Jaune to 'go on'.

"A few weeks before our Initiation, Torchwick began what would soon be a long streak of Dust theft. While some believe that he might just be stealing it to sell it later, it really worried me that not a single Dust shop lost their money. In fact, he hasn't done anything else other than steal Dust, at all!"

"Really?" Ozpin mused. The last part was news to him. If he really wasn't stealing anything beyond Dust, he could understand Jaune's suspicion. It at least had more weight than Blake's links to the White Fang, especially considering what all that Dust could- no, would potentially be used for. "And how are you aware of that?"

"I have my resources." Jaune shiftily replied. "You know of my brief history with the Valean Criminal Underworld before entering the school, sir. I still have a contact, who's identity I won't be revealing for confidential purposes."

Ozpin just sighed as Glynda growled, rubbing his forehead. "Alright then, let's break down the events of this 'sanctioned'," Ozpin made a gesture at this. "mission. Please start your debrief, Mr. Arc."

"Misses Rose and Schnee went to the CCT to check the SDC records for Dust robberies beyond Vale and other inconsistencies." Jaune started. "Just so that we could have have an idea of just how large the scale was. In fact, Ruby told me she met him the same night she met you and Professor Goodwitch, without the White Fang."

"That is true..." Glynda was distracted from her anger, starting to reminisce. "The only backup he had was a strange woman in a red dress who fought us exclusively with what may have been a pyrokinetic Semblance or Fire Dust."

"Yeah!" Ruby cut in. "Not to mention how hot those flames were! Despite my Aura, my clothes still got singed a bit that night!"

"And that leads to my involvement in this mission." Jaune said. "My informant informed of three new figures shaking things up down there."

"Are they some group trying to take over or something?" Yang asked, confused on how she hadn't seen much with Neptune.

"My informant was troubled because they aren't. What they're doing is rather just using others without any care for long term impact. An example just happened a while ago in which one of them wanted the blueprints of Vale's Railway system, particularly of the southeast."

"What happened?" Sun asked nervously.

"When the guy she asked refused, she burned him alive." Jaune replied, sending chills down the students' spines while the teachers winced. "That isn't even the scary part."

"What do you mean?" Ozpin questioned.

"The guy she burned had Aura, yet she burned through it easily, as if it wasn't even there. From what I was told, The flames were as Ruby mentioned earlier, hot enough to render Aura useless. Even though his Aura was still present, it couldn't protect him in the slightest. If anything, his death was slower as it tried to heal burns it couldn't protect against."

One look was enough to enough to convey the hidden message to Ozpin and Glynda. The enemy had Magic.

It was like a law of nature. As Magma would naturally burn hotter than Fire, as Ice would be a superior freezing agent than Snow, as Crystal would be much more durable than Rock, Mana was superior to Aura in every way, acting similarly enough but under different functions and uses. Haki might help, but only if it was superior to the opponent's Haki as well, otherwise, it would be useless.

"'Queen has pawns' indeed." Ozpin said, finger tenting. Glynda fretted behind him, looking worried. "Amber's assailants have followed her here."

"Who?"

"No matter, Mr. Arc." Ozpin replied. "As for the rest?"

"Right." Jaune said unconvinced. "Miss Xiao Long and Mr. Vasilias headed down to Vale for her own informant to find out why Roman switched from using gangsters to terrorists."

Blake growled a bit, which caused Weiss to stomp her this time.

"They were unable to find anything as all the men who got hired by Roman, never returned."

"They were arrested." Glynda said shortly. "Miss Rose really didn't leave any of them in a condition good enough to be capable of running away."

"Tehehehehe." Ruby rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Lastly, Mr. Wukong and Miss Belladonna were to infiltrate a White Fang recruitment and find out their plans. They discovered that Torchwick was truly allied with the White Fang, removing the possibility that the White Fang members at the docks were just goons dressed to impersonate."

Glynda opened her mouth to say something while glaring at Blake, but Ozpin raised a hand to stop her. "Continue."

"It was then that Roman Torchwick discovered them and, somehow in possession of an {Atlesian Paladin 290}, went on a rampage which necessitated all of them to regroup and defeat him immediately." Jaune finished.

"After reaching Sun and Blake," Ruby started after Jaune motioned at her to continue from team RWBY's perspective. "My team and I engaged Torchwick in the middle of a populated highway, which we didn't lead him to on purpose and we swear and we took him off it as quickly as we could! Sun and Neptune got taken out of the fight, leaving my team and I to engage and defeat him. We managed to destroy the paladin so there's no danger of anyone using it but Torchwick was able to escape with the aid of an accomplice."

"Who is this accomplice, Mr. Arc?" Ozpin questioned.

"I don't know, sir." Jaune replied. "As far as I know, before this debacle started, Torchwick worked alone."

After some seconds of silence, Ozpin got off his chair, walked to his window and just stood there, drinking from his cup while gazing upon the floating airships in the sky.

"Alright, then." He suddenly said, facing the students again. "Now that just leaves the last but definitely most important part. The civilian casualties."

The students all gulped as not even Jaune's Pro Hunter License had much chance to save them from this.

"Last night, Roman Torchwick smashed through and threw several cars during his rampage in a Paladin. There are three reasons why none of you are facing charges. First, by some miracle, nobody died."

This was met by huge sighs of relief, especially from team RWBY as they had reviewed the battle's events, Yang had mentioned the cars full of screaming people being thrown at her. She had felt guilty that in her adrenaline, she had only made it a concern to just dodge and ignore them.

"Second, is that as the Paladin was just demonstrated as an Atlesian asset, General Ironwood is the one facing flake for that, especially as something supposedly 'not off the shelves yet' got stolen by criminals already."

"I-I see..." Jaune said weakly. James Ironwood was not only high up in Atlas' military but a Hunter Academy Headmaster as well. He'd definitely be making a visit to him soon.

"Third, the SDC already took over the scandal and paid for all of the victims' medical fees."

"What?!" Weiss exclaimed in shock. "Forgive my outburst, sir but, did my father really do that?"

"It wasn't him."

Weiss turned to Jaune who moved around his seat to look at her.

"It was Mrs. Willow Schnee." Jaune explained. "When you asked for a list of the SDC records, your mother was present at the time and the Schnee Corp Operator you spoke to, took a chance to inform a Schnee of what you were doing while lowering the risk of your father finding out, for whatever reason."

Weiss' jaw dropped in shock. While her mother had come back from Jaune's home with a lot more smiles and a lot less drinks, she still kept her at arms length, believing her to still regress to her alcoholism. Apparently she hadn't.

'Must be all those constant revisits to Arc's hometown. Seeing as Father hasn't bothered her about it, that means that Mother hadn't indulged or met some gold diggers. She must have made some good friends there.'

Right. Friends. Pleasurable type of friends at least.

"She would have called you but you blocked her number for some reason." Weiss winced at that. She'll have to fix that later. "So she called me instead to ask about you."

Weiss awkwardly fidgeted at this for a while before Ozpin had mercy on them.

"Off the record, I am very well aware that this mission wasn't sanctioned in the slightest and Mr. Arc is just being a good friend and brother by risking his career to save al of you from sure expulsion and imprisonment."

"But..." Glynda muttered.

"But, I am also aware that this has yielded some results. A railway system being used in the Southeast,-"

"That's where Torchwick mentioned operations where going down back at the rally as well-" Sun yelped as Neptune took a turn to stomp his foot while his brother shoved an elbow into his unprotected abs.

"A thief's very unusual robberies," Ozpin continued, ignoring Sun's whining. "and suspicious figures in the city. I wish I could tell you all good job but the mayhem caused last night cancels it out. So, I can only say this."

Ozpin sat back in his chair and swiveled around... then an immense pressure crashed upon everyone as he suddenly brought up his Conqueror's Haki.

"The events of last night didn't happen. You will not talk about it. You will not report about it to any official unless I give the go ahead and you will not act out like this again otherwise I will no longer see you as my students. Understood?"

Seven teenagers nodded rapidly as one in terror as the Haki slowly tapered off.

"Now get to class. All of you." Ozpin smiled a bit as the group nearly trampled each other in trying to get away.

"Ozpin..." Glynda muttered.

"I know." Ozpin said as he genuflected. "I made a gamble by taking in Mr. Arc."

"It's always a risk, you know." Ozpin brought up Jaune's Hunter profile and added the mission details into it's history. "When you succeed after taking a big gamble, one can get tempted to take an even bigger one..."

After the harrowing experience of the Headmaster's office, Weiss headed off to call her mother while the others left for their classes.

After relieving his teammates that nobody was getting expelled or arrested, the day went on peacefully. But still...

'All of team CRDL at once?' Jaune thought in shock as he watched the figh- sorry, the utter curbstomping Pyrrha Nikos was dishing out. 'Still, even though we're not allowed to use Haki with our weapons against each other, she is pretty strong...'

Pyrrha Nikos vs Cardin Winchester & Russel Thrush & Dove Bronzewing & Sky Lark

Pyrrha threw her weapon at Dove, interrupting his attack long enough for her to swipe her feet against his, making him fall to the ground. Sky then came in with his halberd but Pyrrha blocked the attack before sending him backwards.

Pyrrha targeted Cardin, who blocked one strike before going in for a large swing. Pyrrha rolled out the way as the space she once occupied exploded from his Semblance. Cardin then followed up with a strike that Pyrrha blocked with her shield, but was pushed back a short distance.

Cardin and Sky now double teamed Pyrrha, but the champion was quick to react, jumping in such a way that she dodged Sky's attack while blocking Cardin's. Once she fell to the ground, she spun her legs, knocking the duo off their feet.

Pyrrha flipped over Cardin, throwing her shield to hit the back of his head as she does. The shield bounces to hit Sky in the face, and as it falls Pyrrha jumps to reacquire it, landing on Sky's currently knocked over body.

Russel, Dove, and Cardin quickly recovered before charging at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha quickly dashed forward, ramming her shield against Russel, who tried to defend with his Semblance but was launched away.

Next came Dove who briefly parried swords with Pyrrha before she kicked him away as Cardin jumped in for a mighty blow.

Pyrrha backed out of the attack before the hit landed, mechashifting {Miló} into a rifle and fired repeatedly at the incoming enemies.

The bullets were meant for the troublesome Cardin, but Russel recovered just in time to cover Cardin, blocking every shot with his Semblance and daggers.

He and Dove charged at Pyrrha, with Russel leaping into the air and performing a triple somersault while hardening his entire body. While the buzz saw attack sent Pyrrha a far distance, she was still well enough to defend against Russel and Dove's combined attacks, demonstrating precision and skill through their ability to avoid hitting one another and actually forcing her back a bit.

"I've waited a long time for this!" Russel yelled in between attacks. "Too bad Schnee isn't here otherwise, I could've perfectly avenged my horrible defeat in the Food Battle!"

Pyrrha suddenly smacked her spear's shaft into Dove's neck, causing him to choke and give Pyrrha a chance to grab Russel's face.

"Keep waiting, mongrel." With that brief copy of her leader and crush, Pyrrha threw Russel into Dove, sending them both flying.

Cardin attempted to capitalize on the distraction, but Pyrrha was able to roll under his explosive attack. Pyrrha then took the opportunity to go on the offensive against Cardin, pushing him back with a flurry of well-aimed blows, some being blocked but many landing solid hits. Soon a hit to his head caused him to stagger back.

However, Russel charged in again, this time lasting slightly longer before being felled, which caused Pyrrha to respect his durability and loyalty to his partner.

Dove followed this up, hoping for a lucky strike, but was pushed back by Pyrrha, his attacks doing little. As Dove was sent flying again, Cardin got up, winding back a blow intended to take down Pyrrha.

The entire area in front of Cardin was blasted away from the power of his {Explosion}, but Pyrrha dodged it by preforming a high backflip. After landing, she then confronted Cardin into a bout in which {Miló} constantly clashed against {The Executioner} before getting into his guard and smashing the edge of her shield into his abdomen where his armor didn't protect.

With her well placed footing, her attack was strong enough to send him flying away before his Aura finally entered the red.

"And that's the match." Goodwitch announced as she entered the ring and walked past Cardin's crouching figure.

"Lucky shot." Cardin groaned, before collapsing to the ground.

"Which one?" Nora Valkyrie wondered from Lie Ren's side. "Was it the sixth one, or the sixtieth?"

"Nora, don't be mean." Jaune chastised. "I'm not sure if we could do much better. Both Cardin and I have the advantage of greater raw power over her, but Pyrrha's got more than enough skill to render that moot."

"Heh!" Nora crossed her arms cockily. "I could take her."

"Maybe." Ren said.

"Well done, Miss Nikos." Goodwitch congratulated. "You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."

"Thank you, professor." Pyrrha nodded politely.

"Alright." Goodwitch looked up to the audience. "Now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we still have time for one more sparring match."

"Any volunteers? Miss Belladonna?" Goodwitch asked as Blake slammed her book shut and stared wide-eyed at the teacher. "You've been rather docile today. Why don't you…"

Mercury Black raised his hand. "I'll do it."

"Mercury Black, is it?" Goodwitch adjusted her glasses as she observed the grey haired boy. "Very well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually, I wanna fight..." Mercury pointed to Pyrrha "…her."

"Me?" Pyrrha asked in shock.

"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished the match." Goodwitch advised. "I recommend you choose another partner."

"No, it's fine!" Pyrrha objected, turning to Mercury. "I'd be happy to oblige."

"I wouldn't."

Jaune jumped down from the stands, landing next to Pyrrha and coincidentally waking up Cardin.

"I agree with Professor Goodwitch." Nodding towards the teacher, Jaune pushed Pyrrha by her back off the ring. "After fighting a whole team, I'm not letting you fight again so soon."

"W-What?" Pyrrha in a rare moment, protested against her crush. "Why not?"

"Because your leader orders you to rest." Jaune said getting up in Pyrrha's face as she turned around. "So get that pretty ass back up there."

Pyrrha blushed crimson as she slowly walked back, silently muttering "He called my ass pretty" all the way to where he sat.

"Alright, chrome hair." Jaune taunted Mercury, causing Emerald to snort. "Come down here if you still wanna fight."

Jaune Arc vs Mercury Black

"You know," Mercury gloated as he and Jaune circled each other. "You're pretty ballsy, aren't you? Taking away my opponent like that."

"Oh please." Jaune rolled his eyes. "As if you weren't scouting out {The Invincible Girl}. My partner's skills aren't up for view before the festival comes around."

Mercury charged in and kicked at Jaune, but he lunged forward, blocked it with his left arm, and swept his other leg from beneath him with his other hand.

Mercury fell onto his back but then kicked his legs into the air, spun on his hands, and did a double back-handspring. The two stopped and stared at each other for a moment as Jaune slowly shook his arms.

"Your legs feel pretty heavy." Jaune said as he observed. 'As expected of one of the guys Neo actually took the effort to warn me about. I feel like he's got columns of steel for legs.'

"...Why aren't you using your weapon?" Mercury questioned.

"To be honest," Jaune slid into a combat stance. "I'm not so sure that I need to yet."

"OOOOOOOOOHH!"

Nora and Yang whooped from up the stands at the burn Mercury just got served with.

"Fine, then." Mercury slid into a stance of his own.

There was a bit of silence in which the two boys acknowledged each other before clashing suddenly!

Jaune's fist briefly struggled against Mercury sole before actually pushing him back. It wasn't enough as Mercury sped back up to in front of him, before suddenly disappearing to his back and roundhousing him viciously in the head.

Jaune quickly stopped himself before he fell but had to block several more kicks. Mercury was on the offensive, kicking from almost every conceivable angle, whittling down his Aura.

Soon, Mercury left an opening, which Jaune immediately exploited. He dashed forward and threw a punch. Even though Mercury blocked, the beeping sound from the monitor showed that Mercury's Aura had dropped a whole quarter.

"Way to go, Jaune!" Ruby cheered. Behind her, Emerald had a conflicted expression on her face. On one hand, Mercury losing for real was bad for Cinder. On the other hand, Mercury losing for real would be so great for her.

After processing the feel for his opponent's fighting style, Jaune pressed forward, countering against Mercury, who was starting to dodge less and block more as Jaune wouldn't even give him the chance to do the former. As Mercury charged forward for a heavy attack, Jaune suddenly tuned away from Mercury to face Goodwitch who was coincidentally close by.

"I forfeit."

It was only his built up professionalism that prevented Mercury from flopping his attack and face faulting. One one hand, he supposed that he deserved this as he had planned to pull this exact same shit on Pyrrha Nikos if he had gotten the chance to. On the hand...

"Are you fucking serious?!" Mercury snarled in annoyance.

"Very." Jaune said lightly. "I actually wanted to brush up on my unarmed combat skills. Since you didn't have any handheld weapons, you were the perfect test dummy."

"I was your fucking dummy?!" Mercury yelled as Emerald burst into a quickly suppressed chortle.

"If it's any consolation," Jaune replied while shaking his arms. "If I fought you any longer, my arms would have gotten broken from your kicks. I swear it's like you've got steel beams for legs."

"In that case... Mercury Black is the victor of the match." Goodwitch announced. "Not bad, Mr. Arc. Although you were right about your hand-to-hand skills being subpar. You better brush them up for the upcoming festival."

"Yes, Professor." Jaune replied as the shaking feeling in his arms finally disappeared.

Mercury stared at Jaune for a bit. "Jaune... Arc, is it? You're a pretty fun guy among all these boring ones."

"Let's do this again sometime later." Jaune replied. "With our full skillset in the mix."

"I'll be sure to welcome that." Mercury gave a backhanded wave as he left the stage.

"That is all for today." Goodwitch announced. "And remember, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first missions on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."

As everyone left, Mercury stopped beside Emerald.

"Isn't learning so much fun?" Emerald said in mock excitement.

"I don't know." Mercury said as he stared at Jaune's departing back with a dangerous grin. "Even though I didn't get Nikos, there's finally something fun to do on the side without bothering on the job."

"That was awesome, Fearless Leader!" Nora mimed portions of the earlier fight as they walked away. "And to think you're rusty."

"Indeed." Pyrrha said. "I wish I could help in your hand-to-hand but I'm even worse than you."

"Eh." Jaune was surprised. "Even with all your skill?"

"When you have a Semblance like mine, let's just say to be disarmed is impossible."

"I see." Ren mused. "If you've never been disarmed, then your hand-to-hand techniques must have atrophied severely."

"Arc."

The team stopped to see Cardin behind them, beckoning for Jaune.

"Later, guys." Jaune waved his team goodbye and greeted Cardin. "Hey Winchester, you're not sore about how Pyrrha beat you all, right?"

"A little, but not much shame in losing to her." Cardin sighed a bit before hurriedly spitting out his intentions. "Have you heard anything from Velvet's team?"

Jaune and Cardin had met team CFVY a while ago. Well, Jaune met Fox Alistair and Yatsuhashi Daichi while Cardin met an overprotective Coco. While Coco had been mostly teasing towards Jaune, like a mature sounding Yang (a truly scary but arousing scenario), Cardin had received nothing but thinly veiled threats.

"They've already sent a message that their away mission might be longer than they thought." Jaune replied. "Velvet's gonna be fine, Winchester. She's a Second Year, remember. A full year of experience over us."

"I know." Cardin muttered as the rivals took a short walk outside. "I just miss her. With the dance coming up, I've been out of sorts."

The two just stopped for a bit to watch the slowly setting sun.

"About the dance, there's no way you haven't noticed the looks Nikos' been giving you."

"..."

"...Is it Alice?"

"...I know that she's gone and she'd want me to be happy but..."

"...It's okay. You're gonna be fine, faker."

"Thanks, mongrel."

"You can thank me by recommending me some good action video games. And your headset shop too."

Cinder Fall carefully sewed Dust into her black outfit as she listened to her minions.

"We weren't able to gather much intel on Pyrrha Nikos but instead, we got her leader, Jaune Arc." Emerald reported as she sat on the floor while looking through her scroll.

"He's pretty smart, actually." Mercury spoke up, reading a comic book. "He doesn't know our plans but he saw through me immediately and didn't let me fight Nikos."

"Do tell." Cinder urged.

"His Semblance is unknown but he's got a ridiculously large amount of Aura. The only one higher that I've met are you, my shitty old man and Goodwitch." Mercury explained as he sat up and threw away his comic, slowly gaining a more manic look in his eyes. "He's got a durable body, some passable martial arts skill, a sword which I assume he's immensely skilled with and most of all, great raw power."

"Raw power?" Cinder and Emerald questioned together.

"A basic assortment of physical stats. Your strength. Your speed. Your reflexes. Your recovery time. Your durability. Other than reflexes which was average and speed way below mine, Arc was higher than me in everything else. Even then, Arc slowly started to speed up before he forfeited."

"I see." Cinder thought on this. "Oh well, we'll have study Nikos at another time."

"I hate waiting." Mercury fell back to lay on the floor. "I wanna fight Arc again."

"Mercury." Cinder said authoritatively. "You will get your chance. In time."

Mercury slowly moved his eyes to look at Cinder. Emerald would have sworn that for a briefest moment, Mercury's grey eyes flashed silver. Then Mercury smiled the usual fake smile he gave before turning around.

"Alright then. I'll just wait in anticipation since he's really interesting."

"W-What do you mean?" Emerald silently cursed her self for stuttering.

"Heh." Mercury chuckled before turning around to face her. "The only reason I go along with you two is that you're both interesting. However, Arc is interesting for a whole other reason that I don't know of but just can't help and enjoy."

The psychotic smirk came back on his face, which really unnerved Emerald as she suspected that it might be the most honest expression he'd ever shown.

"And I think that means something. I just think that really means something."

KingVessel: There we go. Please review.