Chapter 1: The makings of an Arc
In the World of Remnant...
Location: Castle Arc, Paris Island
Kingdom of Vale
The Island of Paris,
One of many islands that occupy the coasts of Sanus that's under the Kingdom of Vale.
It had a small town whose inhabitants are easygoing and relaxed since the island is protected by it's natural body of water, so it's safe for the most part from Grimm.
The only town in the Island, named Aachen, is under the protection of the owners of Paris Island.
The Arc Family.
The Arc family, one of the most powerful families in the Kingdom of Vale, and yet they are also the most isolated families in the kingdom.
Their history goes back to the time of the Kingdom's inception, one of the first families to fight for the first King of Vale.
The Arc's produced some of the best huntsmen and huntresses in all of Remnant, their skill in combat as well as their skill in leadership is unmatched.
However, despite their fame and prestige, since recent times the Arc's have been hit with scandals that seriously hurt their reputation.
The Arc family are noble and upstanding, they are never the ones to stoop into corruption. Yet, they we're accused for such things.
Abuse of power, financial corruption, illegal dealings, and so and so, were the crimes the Arc's have been accused of, but none of these accusations didn't stick.
However there is a recent accusation that put the family in hot water, The Arc family were being accused of colluding with the White Fang, and to make this accusation even worse, the accusation had some weight and truth into it.
The Arcs has always been a champion for equality and unity, supporting both human and faunus rights, they have backed the White Fang since their founding, but has since cut ties with them after they turned to terrorism.
This accusation have seriously hurt the Arc family's reputation hard, and as punishment by the Valean Council the family were under house arrest and isolation from the rest of the Kingdom for 20 years.
However, many of the Arc's allies protested against the charges, saying that the Arc's are wrongfully accused of a crime that is beyond rationale, Others have suspected that the arrest and downfall of the Arc family is a huge conspiracy. But the Arc's, they know that the reason for their fall from grace is most likely a conspiracy from the highest offices in the Vale Government.
Knowing that their enemies are within the Vale Council and have amassed great power, the Arc family decided to lay low to bide their time to strike back.
And so, the Arc's have stayed in their Castle since then.
However, despite the "scandals", the younger children of the Arc family were allowed to leave the isolation of the island, since many of them are now teenagers, but they were constantly monitored by Vale's military forces.
At the town of Aachen, the architecture is that of old Renaissance, with stone walls and paved roads, with Roman arches and Venetian docks.
Despite the antiquity of the town, the place is well advanced with technology, IC towers and holographic screens dotted the town, cars and motorbikes parked on both sides of the road, and people wore modern clothing, a blend of the old and the new.
(Think of rural france and italy in the modern day, in terms of aesthetic and atmosphere)
In the lazy port town, the people are going by their day. people leaving their homes to go to work, some having a chat, the children playing by the stone paved road playing tag or hide-and-seek.
However, if you look closely you can see a number of faunus interacting with humans and vice versa, with smiles and pats on the back.
The Arcs despite their problems with the White Fang, they never stopped supporting for equality amongst the faunus and humans, they are willing to take faunus in to the island and live here as refuge from the terrorists and those anti-faunus human terrorists.
Many of the faunus living in Paris Island were former White Fang, some were even the Organisation's first members, many were pacifists and preferred words instead of violence as their weapon against racial discrimination. They owed their lives to the Arc family for sheltering them from the WF terrorists.
And speaking of the Arcs...
"Good morning, Sir Arc!"
"Look, it's the Arc boy!"
"My my, such a nice young man."
"Bonjour, everyone." Jaune smiled as he walked down the streets of Aachen waving his hand saying hello to the townsfolk.
Jaune Arc, is the only son out of seven children in the family, six are girls.
He's the sixth child born into the family, and is the future Patriarch.
In Arc tradition, the males were often chosen to be the head of the family, often the eldest male, but since Jaune is the only male in the family he's chosen to be the head despite being the second to the youngest in the family.
But there's another reason as to why Jaune is chosen as Patriarch.
Jaune Arc, was born under a shooting star, a sign of good luck for the Arc family.
At an early age he displayed a certain air of maturity and grace that made him the darling of the family.
Also, he's a very talented boy in terms of strategy and leadership, talents that would do him well in the future.
He and his father would spend hours in the war room, a recreation area where there's a large table that has an extremely detailed diorama of a battlefield map with pieces that symbolise troop regiments, Jaune would play war games with his dad, learning how to move his troops efficiently and securing an area of the map.
This exercise sharpened his mind, allowing Jaune to come up with tactics and strategies on the fly.
Of course, it's not only tactics and strategy is Jaune's greatest talent, no Jaune is what would many consider a prodigy, a master of different trades.
Jaune's other talent is combat, and by Oum he's a natural.
Charlemagne Arc, Jaune's father, or Charlie as he's called by his wife and friends, had trained his son in the arts of combat and to his surprise and joy Jaune learnt quickly.
Jaune was able to hold his own in the various spars he faced with Charlie, despite losing every time Jaune learned, each swing, each feint, each dodge, each step, Jaune is calculating every fight and predicting every move, memorising every move, and Jaune is quickly gaining the upper hand.
Which is why he's in town today, Jaune is meeting with the local weapon shop owner/ weapon forger, the owner had made something that could prove to be useful for the young Arc scion.
In the middle of town, there's a small shop called "The Notre Dame."
The shop, which is a two story building made of cobbled stone and slated roofs, the windows designed in old gothic with a tint of light blue window panes, flower beds line the place to give it an old French Provence feel.
Notre Dame is one of many shops that look similar in design and architecture, giving a French southern look.
Jaune sees the shop and goes inside, the doorbell rings.
There he sees an old, but muscular man wearing a blacksmith's outfit on the front desk, behind him is a stone wall with weapons being displayed on the wall. Many of these rifles on display are single-action, lever-action, bolt-action, and semi-automatic, with a few SMGs and Assault Rifles being on display.
The shop also had display cases for pistols of many kinds, and also Dust.
Jaune sees the owner, and greets.
"Bonjour, Monsieur Lion."
"Good morning Jaune, come to see your weapons I hope?"
Jaune nodded, the weapon shop owner, Mr. Lion, is a faunus.
Lion had the features of a lion such as lion ears, whiskers, eyes, and a tail as well. His complexion is white with a yellow hue and his facial hair is that of the colour yellow.
The old Lion, is former White Fang, one of the old guard who advocated means of peaceful coexistence amongst the humans during the organisation's inception, now branded a traitor by the former peaceful organisation turned violent terrorist group, he sought refuge amongst the Arc's, who are willing to take him in.
Since then, Lion was grateful to the Arc's and has been loyal to them ever since.
"Yes, I wish to see them." Jaune answers.
Lion then led Jaune to the back of the shop, and into the weapon's forge and bench.
There Jaune sees the thing or things he's been looking for.
On the weapon bench, he sees a small case, the case is made of polished wood and golden furnishings.
"They have been tested and are ready for action, I've even added a few finishing touches to it myself." Lion proudly said.
Jaune then pulled the case's locks and opens it.
What's inside are two revolvers, Jaune grabs one and looks at it and inspects.
The revolver is double action when Jaune pulled the trigger and cocked the hammer. It had a barrel length of 8 inches as Jaune sees, he also estimated and felt that it weighted in mass of either between 33.5 and 36.3 ounces.
The revolver has also a deep bluing that's so well done that it has a mirror finish that looked like black hard chrome, but there are also etchings in the barrel that if you look hard enough the barrel is engraved with images of vines and roses.
The top frame of the revolver is polished to be matte black, to prevent light reflecting to the shooter's eyes.
The handle of the revolver is made out of polished wood, the handle also had the Arc family coat of arms engraved on the handle.
All in all, it's one of the most beautiful revolvers that Lion has ever seen, perhaps the most beautiful sets of pistols in the world.
Question: What gun did Jaune made?
Answer: The Manurhin MR73.
(The .357 Magnum, Manurhin MR73 revolver. A french revolver designed and manufactured by Chapuis Armes, now under the Italian manufacturing giant Beretta. The revolver is the official sidearm of the GIGN, the french counter-terrorism unit which old-Jaune was in before his death. It came with a bipod and a scope to assist in longe range.)
And Lion is not the one who designed and make it.
"That's a beautiful revolver you have made boy, you should be proud of yourself." Lion smiled.
And here is where Jaune had another talent, though not as well known but to his father, Jaune is also a weapons designer and maker, and a damned good one at that.
Since the age of 4, he had ideas on how to make a weapon, he couldn't explain it but he said that "It looked like that I can see the weapon through his mind's eye, fully formed, fully functional."
Unbeknownst to everyone, a certain god had given Jaune the skill and know how to make certain things, not to be specified but will come in handy in the future.
Jaune then went to the firing range behind the shop, the targets in the range are a straw dummies, each wearing a White Fang mask.
The old members of the old pacifistic White Fang have a deep hatred for the current White Fang, believing that many of the so called "Defenders of the Faunus race." were nothing more than vicious bloodthirsty killers with no moral compass and lacked any basic decency and respect for human and faunus lives, hence the reason why Lion had a target dummy with the White Fang terrorist mask.
Jaune looked at the dummy and readied his revolver, loading them with .357 Magnum red dust rounds.
With six chambers loaded, in a upright posture he pointed his revolver on his target aiming for the mask.
*BANG!*
Jaune shoots, and his shot landed on the torso, but as no one can see, the shot was non-lethal as it's represented as a flesh wound and didn't hit any vital organs.
Jaune shoots again, this time five shots in quick succession, all landing in non-lethal areas of the body.
"Well my boy, you have to work on your aim." Lion said to him, thinking that Jaune might need practice cause he has terrible shot placement.
Jaune smirks, he then reloads his revolver again.
"I can assure you Sir Lion, my aim-"
He suddenly then pointed his revolver in the sky, there are a few seagulls above them, without even looking at them he fired.
*BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!*
In just a fraction of a second, Jaune fired all six shots then finishing with a cowboy revolver twirl.
"-is just fine."
As Jaune then placed his Manurhin revolver back into his holster, six seagulls fell right above them.
Each of these seagulls fell to their deaths, each of them were shot in the head.
Lion's jaw dropped, amazed in such skill. Jaune laughed at the old feline faunus.
After that, Jaune and Lion went back inside, the latter still amazed in Jaune's marksmanship.
After a while, Jaune had gotten his two new revolvers and looks in the mirror.
He checks the holsters, which is actually nothing more than a cowboy gunslinger belt, with two holsters by the hip which holds the two revolvers, the holsters were made out of Grimm leather out of a Beowolf.
"Nice." Jaune whistles, admiring the craftsmanship.
"I'm glad you liked it kid, consider this a present for your 10th Birthday." Lion smiled.
"Thank you Sir, I won't forget this." The boy then shook Lion's hand and shoulder hugs him.
"You're welcome, this is just me repaying the Arcs. If not for them, I would be dead."
Jaune nodded, "We never forget our friends, that's one of my family's code of honor."
Shifting then to another topic, Lion then looked at Jaune with a serious face.
"I know it's your birthday today Jaune, but can you come and meet with my associates by 6 in the afternoon, tomorrow?" Lion said, "There's much we have to discuss."
Knowing that this is related to the White Fang, Jaune agreed to the meeting. He also knows that his father would also join since Lion and Charlie were close allies.
Jaune then left the gun store, and went back to his home in Castle Arc.
While walking back to the top of the Island, he started checking his revolvers' second form.
While his revolvers look like a single weapon, Jaune with a push of a small button within the weapon, it started to morph and change into a melee weapon.
What Jaune has now, are two heavy cavalry swords, with a slight curved blade and a crossguard. The blade is made out of black chrome steel and the crossguard made out of tempered steel plated in gold.
Jaune was trained to fight with a sword and shield combo similar to a knight just like his father and his father's father before him as a time honored tradition, but Jaune is trained in many styles and weapons of combat as well by himself, small swords, daggers, spears, flails, axes, etc.
Jaune's preferred combat style were dual weapon combat, the use of two swords or any combination of weapons such as sword and dagger, sickle and hammer, dagger and rapier, and many other combinations.
Hence why he preferred the dual revolver/cavalry swords pair.
Satisfied with his craftsmanship, Jaune returned his swords back into their revolver mode and holstered them.
Arriving in Arc Castle, Jaune stepped in front of the large wooden door of the entrance.
Castle Arc stands out as it's the only structure on top of the island, it was a traditional castle in terms of architecture, with it's towers, the stone construction, the lone brick path from town to the top which leads to a gate, and a small but spacious courtyard in front of the castle with a fountain in front.
In short, the castle is straight out of a fairy tale movie, only that it's situated in a small island.
Jaune with both hands, pushed the large door open and goes inside.
The first thing Jaune sees is that the place is empty, the area he's in is the hall venue.
The chamber is empty with a long table at the middle with chairs lined up. The chamber was filled with banners of the Arc family coat of arms, with large baroque windows letting in a lot of light. This place is used by the local island council as it's official meeting hall where discussions among community leaders are held.
"!!!"
Jaune's senses then suddenly went overdrive and reacted by drawing his revolver and transforming it into his sword, he then turned around and blocked the incoming sword that's about to decapitate him.
"What!?"
"Good Jaune, good." The person said with approval.
As Jaune finally see his attacker, he sighed.
"Hello Dad."
Charlemagne Arc, is a towering figure above him. Six feet, two inches he's the tallest of the Arc family. He wore a grey white shirt with sizes too tight as his muscles can be seen, he also wore loose olive green cargo pants, and flippers. He has blonde hair that reaches to his shoulders, and bluish grey eyes that gives off an air of mystery. Combined with his towering, toned, muscular body and good looks he's the picture perfect Prince Charming.
"Your movements have improved last time son, can you keep up with me now?" Charles stepped back and readied his sword.
Jaune smirked, he then upholstered his twin revolvers and switched them into their sword mode, he readied them.
"I believe the appropriate question is old man..."
Then in a blink of an eye, Jaune disappeared in front of Charles.
The older man's eyes widened, he then felt a gust of wind behind him. Reacting swiftly, he then dodged and readied to block Jaune's incoming overhead sword slash from behind with his sword.
But it never came as Jaune then suddenly stopped his attack midway and retracted his slashing sword arm and uses his other sword arm to thrust at the exposed chest area left unprotected.
Charles, seeing this at the last minute sidesteps and then grabbed the sword blade, Jaune's eyes widened.
Then using Jaune's momentum, Charles then gripped the blade and throws it in the air, with Jaune holding it resulting Jaune being thrown up high.
However, as Jaune was thrown into the air he then transformed his sword, the one his father was holding it's blade, back into his Manurhin and started firing.
*BANGBANGBANG!*
Charles was caught aback by the sudden force of the revolver bullets and lets go of the revolver.
With his revolver freed from his father's grip he then performed a flip and then landed at the long table with in a gymnast pose.
It didn't take long before Charles jumped into the table and now both father and son facing each other.
"Come on little man, don't tell me that's all you got?" Charles smirked.
Jaune returned the expression with a smirk as well, he answered Charles with a Bruce Lee hand gesture that says "come on."
Charles then proceeded to run towards Jaune, despite being small in height and his father being very towering Jaune kept his composure and readied his next move.
Charles then charges with a sword thrust aiming for Jaune, the boy seeing this and with his father's sword inches close to his chest, Jaune simply sidesteps dodging the sword by a centimeter.
As Jaune's proximity is now an inch to his father without wasting any time he jumped and performed a right elbow downward attack on Charles's head, followed with a left knee kick to Charles's chin.
The two muay thai moves stunned Charles, and Jaune not wasting any second he then performed a sweeping leg kick and brings Charles down to the ground.
Then Jaune pointed his sword at Charles's chin.
"I win." Jaune grinned.
Charles chuckled.
"If your opponent was a novice Huntsman, you might win."
Then, in a surprise move Charles kicked Jaune's sword wrist which caused his hand to drop the sword, surprising the boy and then grabbing it. Charles then points the sword to Jaune's chin.
"I win." Charles answered.
Jaune frowned as his father was holding his sword, but smirked.
"Oh? But where's the other sword?"
Charles's eyes widened then he realized but was too late, as Jaune was holding his revolver close to Charles's gut and fired.
*BANG! BANG!*
The shots were powerful, but thanks to his Aura, Charles's injuries mitigated the damage, if it wasn't then he'd have life threatening injuries.
As Charles recoiled, Jaune immediately grabs his other sword from his father and then performed a jumping roundhouse kick to his chest.
The kick didn't do any damage but it did throw Charles off balance and thrown him off the table.
He crashed into a weapons rack, he then gets up and grabs a sword from the now demolished weapons rack and charged towards Jaune, which the boy did the same.
And the fight goes on for the next thirty minutes.
Steel clashing steel, Brute strength and power versus manoeuvrability and versatility, father vs son.
By the thirtieth minute, the hall was in shambles. Banners were torn, furniture broken into pieces, glass windows shattered, the table beyond reasonable repair, the place looked like a warzone.
Both combatants, Charles and Jaune both still stood. Their clothes a bit torn up and with a few bruises and cuts but otherwise fine.
Charles, however despite still standing he was more cuts and bruises than Jaune, and was more winded up and breathing heavily than Jaune.
Jaune however, has far less wounds with the most prominent is a cut through his right cheek which still bleeds. He's still standing upright and is breathing slowly but not heavily.
"Impressive, you've managed to last much longer than last time." Charles approved. "However, one final test."
Charles's body is now glowing in bright white light, as the light takes over Charles Jaune then felt an immense pressure over his body, as if he's being pressed by a giant foot.
"You must come towards me, and deal the finishing blow."
And so, Jaune did just that, but as he gets closer the pressure starts to weigh down on him, his body feels he's being sandwiched into a hydraulic press.
'C'mon Jaune, you can do this. Move damnit!' Jaune said to himself.
'Don't give up now!'
"AAAHHH!!"Jaune roared, he then got up and started running towards Charles.
Ignoring all pain he moved faster, he started coughing up blood but he kept going.
As he's now in striking distance, Jaune then throws his sword like a Javelin and hits the white light but it just bounces off.
'It's now or never!' Jaune then grabs his sword and jumps up in the air.
He then landed on the white light and thrusted both his swords, but an invisible shield was protecting the light, not penetrating the light.
"I'm. Not. Giving. Up. Not. Now. Not. Ever." With each word, the shield starts to crack as his words fills with resolve.
"As. It's. My. Duty. To. Be. Humanity's. First. And. Last. Line. Of. Defense."
More cracks begin to form.
"My. Duty. Is. My. Resolve. And. So. Shall. It. Be!"
Then the shield breaks, and Jaune makes the coup de grace.
"THIS I SWEAR IT!!"
As Jaune delivered the final blow, the light then exploded and Jaune was knocked back by the explosion.
And then, silence. No sound after the ordeal, It was over.
As he lied there in the middle of the hall, Jaune hears footsteps.
As his vision begins to fade into black, he sees his father's face, fully dirtied in soot and torn clothing yet he smiled, a proud smile.
"Well done my son, you've passed the test. Now you're ready." He hear his father say.
"Rest easy, tomorrow is your birthday and it's going to be the day your Aura will be activated." Charles's voice begins to fade out.
"Just rest son, you've earned it."
"Thanks, dad." Is what Jaune says moments before he finally sleeps.
Charles, with his clothes shredded, he carried his now sleeping son to his bedroom and laid him to sleep.
"Sleep tight, kiddo." Charles smiled.
'He's born to do great things, I just know it.' Charles thought, as he can recall all the times Jaune surprised him and his mother and sisters with his numerous talents and skills that he absorbed and learned with great effect.
Jaune was a born prodigy, and a blessing from the Brothers.
'I must better prepare for his future.' Charles thought, he knew that Jaune by the time he's about to turn ten he would have to leave the Arc household and go on to travel all over Remnant, to learn new skills and experiences in the span of five to seven years, it was a time honoured tradition by the Arc males.
Charles already thought of the academy that felt was best for Jaune: Beacon Academy.
It makes sense, Beacon is the number one Huntsmen academy in all of Remnant, and produces some of the best Huntsmen teams in the world: one of them is his former Team, Team WCKR (Wrecker) which comprised of Himself, Willow Schnee, Kai Ren, and Reiner Valkyrie. And Team STRQ (Stark) who are his closest allies comprised of Summer Rose, Raven Branwen, Taiyang Xiao-Long, and Qrow Branwen.
Last he heard of Team STRQ is after news of Summer Rose's death was made known. Charles was saddened by this and gave his condolences to the bereaved Taiyang, who lost two of the most important people and his life and is now raising two daughters on his own.
But the news of his own team is what made him nearly tear up. Shortly after his house arrest in the island, he heard news about the deaths of his two compatriots Kai Ren and Reiner Valkyrie, they died whilst defending their shared hometown from a massive Grimm attack, Leaving behind two orphaned children.
While the news still brought him pain, it's comforting that their children still lived, which he thanked the Brothers for.
Charles, while he liked to send Jaune to Beacon, he doesn't trust it's Headmaster.
Charles had suspicions towards Headmaster Ozpin, he felt that the grey haired man was always hiding something. Maybe it's just paranoia, but his instincts and gut tells him that Ozpin is hiding something that he doesn't want others to know.
But for his son's future and growth, he would have to send him to Beacon in the future, no matter what his views on Ozpin is, he hoped that his son won't get entangled on any of the Headmaster's schemes.
"CHARLES!!! WHAT ON REMNANT HAPPENED HERE?!!!" A furious female voice howled downstairs.
Charles's face paled, he realized that he had made a rookie mistake.
'Perhaps sparring in the main hall wasn't actually a good idea.'
"CHARLES, I SWEAR TO THE BROTHERS THAT IF I FOUND OUT THAT YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MESS-!!!"
There's only one thing left to do.
"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALLLLIIIVVVEEE!!!!" Charles took his chances out the window and jumped off.
One thing is for certain though...
Charles would be sleeping in the dog kennel tonight, and would nearly experience heaven's gate.
'HELP ME!'
Chapter 1 End.