Best possible version of yourself chapter 10
AN: welcome back everyone, and as said in the previous chapter this is the chapter where we'll finally arrive at Beacon after finishing the last pieces of the pre-Beacon plot. Also I only now realized that I forgot to add a disclaimer to several of my past chapters
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the property RWBY and as such do not make any money off of it, this is a non-profit endeavour, for anything related to profit or merchandise please go to the Rooster Teeth website and webstore, they will probably be happy to take your money.
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Verdun, shortly after Jaune is released by the medic
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As he walks away from the medic that's already busy with another man's wounds Jaune looks around for a moment before he sees the distinct helmets of his own men and quickly notices Oscar near a group of them, sending him walking towards them. As he reaches them and tiredly greets Oscar the younger man turns around and steps towards him, looking him over before nodding.
It's at this point that Jaune looks around and realizes he cannot see most of their troops nor Whitley and looks at Oscar with fear in his eyes ''Just how many of our men did we lose?'' At Oscars pained grimace Jaune's fear grows further. ''Oscar just how many of our men did we lose?!''
Oscar sighs before he answers ''Calm down, luckily none of them died.'' This news does calm down Jaune significantly however he's waiting for the but ''but…'' and there it is ''five of our troops received heavy damage to their limbs, two enough to lose their entire fore-arm while a third lost a hand. The other two didn't lose any limb but sustained enough damage to one of their arms to break the bones in it in addition to one of them suffering enough damage to their left eye that he won't be able to see out of it anymore. Which in addition to the three that have straight up resigned after experiencing what battle is actually like means we're down eight men, though most of the wounded men do want to stay on.''
Jaune shakes his head at just how clinically Wizard is approaching this, having realized the older version had taken over as Oscar wouldn't be able to handle this without showing more emotion ''Any man willing to stay on we pay for medical assistance to recover as much as possible, in addition to buying combat prosthetics for the ones that have lost forearms. I don't blame the three that resigned, they had a week of training and we threw them into a battlefield against a horde of Grimm that outnumbered more than eleven to one.'' A morbid curiosity overtakes him ''How did we avoid any fatalities though, they were as previously mentioned outnumbered heavily by Grimm and they only had a week of training.''
Oscar looks over at the two heavily armoured infantry that have joined the talking with their troops, all of whom look happy to see them ''For that we can thank the soldiers of that Order of the Cross, they've all got active aura and a heavy focus on close quarters training, they and their knights meant that our troops could in many places act as supporting elements instead of having to take the brunt of the fighting, with me jumping in wherever they couldn't while Whitley assisted in covering any wounded with usage of his semblance, allowing them to be pulled off the line before the Grimm could do any more damage. Additionally, due to this being Verdun the local militia was quite a bit more prepared to fight for close quarter fighting than I would've expected, meaning that overall casualties on our side of the battle where far lower than expected, Whitley is currently accompanying the wounded to medical care.''
Jaune nods before turning and seeing the man that had acted as the spokesperson of the knights, Gris Dupont, approaching them. He exchanges a thankful nod with the man before both of them first see to their own troops. Jaune talks with the groups of his own men nearby, especially to make sure that they are actually alright with doing this kind of job long term after they've had a taste of the dangers. ''Are you certain this is what you wish to do for the next few years? We will probably have to do this again in the future, possible even more dangerous battles with less allies to stand side by side with.''
The men look at one another before they nod to a woman who it takes Jaune a moment to recognize as Ashley Allard since her face is full of dust and grime with a freshly bandaged wound on her upper arm ''I think I speak for all of us that this battle gave everyone willing to remain all the reasons to stay and fight on sir. My town was overrun by a group of at most three thousand Grimm while here we fought to stop a group of eleven thousand.'' A number of the others nod, having similar experiences as they all give grim smiles ''And my town were the lucky ones what with us managing to get out alive due to Atlas charging in to help us. This has shown us we can be what prevents others from experiencing the same. Thank you for giving us this chance, Sirs.'' At this they all give him and Oscar tired but determined salutes, who both return the gesture.
At this point another voice interrupts them ''A good speech lady, though I'm afraid I'll have to take away your officer before you can talk more of it.'' Jaune turns slightly to see Gris Dupont standing near them now ''I think you might want to check if your earpiece still works Arc, the lieutenant-colonel requested our presence a minute or so ago and you're the only one that didn't react.'' At this Jaune tries to take out the earpiece only to realize that it wasn't in anymore, probably having been taken out by the nurse when she was treating his wound or having fallen out at some point before that.
''Then I'll have to just follow you along because at some point during or after the battle I've lost my earpiece.'' The more heavily armoured man chuckles for a second before gesturing for him to walk with him as they start walking towards the city, giving them the opportunity to talk ''I can't thank you and your men enough, they helped mine all survive their first battle, is there anything I can do in return?''
The man next to him shakes his head ''You don't have to do much of anything in return, without your troops grenade assault and support my men would have been a lot worse off. I would like to ask you for us to work together more in the future, while my men and I and are good fighters most other groups of skilled combatants have issues with us for one reason or another, and with how well you held your ground back there I believe your men will quickly become a force to be reckoned with.'' He ponders for a second before continuing ''And to be honest with you, I am also interested in the idea of fighting side by side with the descendant of one of our orders founders back in the day, especially since the Domremy branch of the Arc family has stopped being fighters quite a few generations back as they now mostly serve as the cities civil servants.''
Jaune chuckles ''Oh I'm more than willing to work alongside you guys, always good to work with others who also realize armour is a pretty decent thing to have when you fight enemies that can tear through walls with their claws as the chaff.'' Gris joins him in the chuckle as Jaune continues, remembering something once Spirit reminds him ''Also, a question, is that cross on your shields and tunics what I think it is?''
The other man smiles at him ''Ah, somebody recognizes the symbol of the faith taught to us by the Warrior Maiden of Vale? Yes, it is the symbol of our church, though from your tone I get that you aren't a believer yourself.'' Jaune shrugs, knowing it might be a bit strange since it is his family that started the faith after all but the other man only claps him on the shoulder, sending him stumbling forward. ''Don't worry none of us are all that extreme about it, we are pretty much the only city in Remnant that actually has a majority believers in it after all, or really any high number of members of the faith. As long as the people respect our right to believe in it we respect theirs to not do so.''
At this Jaune takes the word ''That is a good approach to take to that, thanks for answering.'' In his mind though Spirit and him have a quick discussion where Jaune tries to convince him that they should tell the man about the book now, but spirit brings him over to his point of waiting till they've know the man for longer. While walking in this companionable silence, they reach the city gates where they walk through the open door, dodging around the celebrating locals hugging their family members that were part of the fighting. ''If we are to work together in the future, it is probably best to exchange contact information, here's my scroll number.''
At this Jaune holds out his scroll with his own contact selected, allowing the slightly larger knight to copy it down, who shakes his head for a moment while looking apologetic ''Could we wait till later with that, touch screens don't really working with these'' he gestures with his off hand to his armoured hand ''still on.'' Jaune nods in understanding as the two reach the location where the lieutenant-colonel wished to meet them, seeing it was the city hall.
The two of them walk in and get directed towards a decently sized conference room that has been turned into a temporary military headquarters, seeing another man there that is dressed in a highly colourful ensemble and is presumably the leader of Patch Company sitting together with the lieutenant-colonel and a scribe at the central table. They sit down as Gamelin nods to them.
''Good to have you both here now gentlemen, I cannot thank any of you enough for having reacted as fast as you did to the call to arms especially since without all of you we would have likely suffered severe casualties since there would have been nowhere near enough anti-air equipment within the city itself to defend against the sheer horde of flying Grimm and without all of you we wouldn't have had the numbers to man the trenches.'' He nods thankfully to all of them as they return the gesture ''Now due to the hasty nature of calling you to arms we had no way of determining individual wages and as such it has been decided that we will pay all of you two-thousand five hundred lien for each combatant you brought with you and five hundred for support personnel.'' All of them agree pretty much immediately, both knowing they're not going to get a better offer out of it and the fact that it is already a fairly high wage, even for this kind of job.
''In addition the city will pay for any and all medical costs your troops have by treating them in the cities military hospital, though for anything fancier than basic prosthetics they will supply half while you'll have to cover the other half. We are also offering all of you a five day contract of a hundred lien per soldier to assist the garrison in clearing out nearby remaining pockets of Grimm.'' Considering Jaune had expected the Council to try to cheapskate their way out of this, he is happy enough to hear that already. It is at this moment however that Jaune remembers something important: Beacon initiation starts the day after tomorrow, and they still needed to both get all their men uniforms, deal with all the paperwork for long term contracts and get them new grenades in ammunition since they probably used up most of what they'd brought with them
So at this point he speaks up ''My apologies, however my company will not take up the garrison and clean up offer, we've got to deal with a lot of paperwork and equipment resupplying in the next two days before I have to leave to join the Beacon first year.'' Gamelin nods in response, not overly happy with losing a chunk of their troops, however he does understand the situation, causing him to turn towards the other two.
Gris speaks up first ''Me and my men can always use the lien, however in case we encounter serious resistance instead of only mopping up small batches I do want the pay to be raised, how much depending on just how dangerous the situation is.'' The leader of Patch company signals he is of a similar opinion, at which point Gamelin nods, easily accepting the terms.
After some discussion on the logistical situation Gamelin dismisses them, at which point they head back to their own groups. Once there Gris takes off enough of his armour to actually use a scroll and they exchange contact information before Jaune heads off to assist in organising their transportation back to Vale.
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Early evening, back at the Arc and Pines Rifles compound
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After having some time off to rest from the battle and think their decisions over for a moment every member without heavy injuries is reviewed on whether they wish to stay and sign a long term contract or just take the additional lien payment from the battle and leave. Most choose to stay, however a few decide that fighting just isn't for them, though one of those is interested in staying on as support personnel. With all the heavily wounded troops actually wanting to stay on so far and return to combat duties once they're healed and in case of those losing fore-arms and an eye get prosthetics to replace them, this leaves them with 46 combat personnel and six support personnel. Whitley meanwhile ordered the best Atlas can provide for the prosthetics, with the other three officers agreeing to it as the best choice.
Afterwards those leaving are given a last send off dinner before they leave and are given a paid for cab back to their homes. After they are gone Jaune addresses everyone ''I thank you all for having stayed with us and I am proud of all of you on how well you performed during the battle. Tomorrow we are going back to the shop and we're buying all of you a uniform, greatcoat and equipment replace whatever was lost in the battle. Afterwards we'll march back to here in full uniform and weapons shouldered before we arrive here, upon arrival all of you will be given two days off to go see your families and friends. Have a good night.''
The now bloodied troops head back to their barracks, chatting about the events of the past day as they all head off to sleep while Jaune and the others head off to their own rooms. Upon arriving in theirs however Jaune and Oscar turn towards each other and as soon as the door is closed both Spirit and Wizard are unleashed with Spirit speaking up immediately ''Unless my memory has been completely fucked up by the being thrown in the past that battle never happened the first time around, or at the very least it happened after Vale had already fallen.''
However as those two start talking about this Jaune instead walks towards a still shocked looking Oscar and sits down on his bed next to the younger man before hesitantly offering a hug, that after several moments the younger man accepts as he cries into Jaune's by now unarmoured chest while he uses his years of experience in calming his sisters to try and help the boy that has just had his first experience in a major battle and seen the losses, while they had fought the battle at the pass previously they hadn't actually lost anyone there and especially not having had to fight on while next to them wounded men are screaming from the pain of losing limbs.
While Jaune himself is also still shocked and horrified by the sights, unlike the younger man he has the advantage of being both somewhat older and having at least some experience seeing things like this even before he got the backseat driver in the form of Spirit. After ten minutes or so the younger man stops with crying only for Jaune to quickly realize it is because he has fallen asleep, causing him to sigh before he undoes the younger mans boots and additional equipment, before tucking him in in his pants and shirt.
As he sits down on his own bed and starts quietly taking off and storing his equipment Jaune starts a mental conversation with Spirit 'You said this didn't happen last time until after the fall of Beacon? Do you know any of how it happened that time?'
'Not many of the details since by then I was on the road and mostly heard rumours and a few news reports I mainly got the headlines from instead of the full story. However what roughly happened was that a few weeks after the fall of Vale, a group of somewhere between fifteen and seventeen thousand Grimm showed up at Verdun, and since Verdun held their ground in the trenches according to the news it was probably from the same route they took today. The difference was, because all troops Vale had were too busy fighting for their lives inside Vale pushing out the Grimm hordes still infesting the edges of the city, there was no army from Vale to help them.'
Jaune stares at Spirit uncomprehendingly 'And while yes with the state of their militia as we saw it they would never have held that. The thing is, in that timeline a while beforehand the Breach had occurred, during which a lot of larger cities essentially woke up from their nap of thinking their defences where unbreakable and decided to actually remilitarize, leading to larger militia's all around and repaired Great War defensive systems like bunkers, fortresses and trenches.'
He gives a mental sigh for a moment before continuing 'What this meant is that instead of having a scrambled together force from Vale to support them, they had rallied their own army of almost fifteen hundred men into the defences, with a few hundred additional troops from nearby small villages that would have ended up in the way of the Grimm if they broke through at Verdun.' Jaune now looks a bit happier about the possible future, since there was a spark of light even in the darkness of that time as he wishes Spirit a good night before going to sleep.
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Next day
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At the head of their small army Jaune, Oscar, Auburn and Whitley march towards the shop of Auburns grandfather. There all of them get fitted for a uniform and a greatcoat and on the weapons belts of their uniforms they hung their swords while shouldering their unloaded rifles over their shoulders. Once they all have their new uniforms and they were paid for by Whitley with the companies money, they left the store before forming up again and marching back to the complex, with people looking at the strange spectacle all along the way.
Upon arrival there they gathered up one last time ''Hello again all of you, our brave soldiers.'' Jaune had written the speech himself, to some annoyance of Spirit since he felt that at least the opening part was overly much, however unlike him Jaune was fairly new to all this himself and so he conceded that Jaune might better know what these men and women were going through.
''We again cannot thank you enough for standing your ground by our side during what is already being called the fifth battle of Verdun, as your bravery helped hold the line and worked in protecting the civilian population of the town. As a reward for this you all have received a fifteen hundred lien bonus, even those that decided after the battle that fighting like that is not for them, with them having already received their reward, while you will get said reward once upon leaving the building after you have all gathered your gear.''
The crowd of troops was for a moment silent at this but then cheered almost as one, having expected some additional monetary reward but not that high of one after it was mentioned during negotiations, though after a few minutes of cheering Jaune puts his hand up to calm everyone down a bit before he continues ''Another reward that we did already specify is that you'll have the next two days and thus the weekend completely free, after which you will be expected between nine and twelve in the morning on Monday, where you will discuss work schedules with Oscar and Auburn. We do have a minimum requirement of available people at all times though, so if you want to be free on specific days of the week do arrive on the earlier end of that spectrum. Dismissed!'' After that the troops all leave to their barracks to pick up their belongings while Jaune, Auburn Oscar and Whitley go back inside to sort out the payments.
An hour later the four of them are sitting around a table in a meeting room, having gotten done with the payments and paperwork belonging to them, talking about their experiences during the fighting at Verdun. Oscar speaks up first ''We desperately need heavy weaponry of some sort, at the very least one machinegun included in those heavy weapons.''
''Agreed'' all three of the others said at the same time, which Whitley then diligently notes down, having assigned himself the secretary position for this meeting before Auburn speaks up ''My grandfather should have several older models and if he doesn't have any good ones he'll have the contacts to get us some. Sadly enough we cannot get the newer ones as only official national military personnel, or in Vale's case national militia personnel and huntsmen are allowed to have those and wasting the training with our specialized weapons and trained aura on a support weapon, even one as good as a machinegun, feels like a bit of a mistake.'' The other three nod in acceptance.
At which point Jaune speaks up ''I also feel the need to notify all of you that Auburns grandfather should get his hands on a lot more MAS-40's sometime next week, meaning we could equip anyone who's main role is as a rifleman with it. I feel that we should use the bolt action only for sharp shooters and as the weapon for people who's main job is something else, like the future heavy weapons teams and logistical personnel.''
Whitley looks at them all for a moment ''This might not be the smartest question but are there any reasons behind using semi-automatics instead of assault rifles or SMG's, considering those have both more ammunition and can empty that ammunition into targets a lot faster?'' at this all three of the others nod before Jaune takes the word.
''There are multiple ones, most of a logistical nature and a few combat related ones. The main logistical flaw of both assault rifles and SMG's when used to fight Grimm is just how much ammunition they use up doing so, though SMG's far more so than assault rifles. All this while doing less damage per bullet but usually costing more per round than the ammunition that our current rifles use. Another issue that is both logistical and combat related is the fact that you also miss far more when using these weapons meaning that you need to carry even more ammunition all the while troops can only carry so much at once, meaning troops are far more likely to run out mid combat and as such you need better and more consistent supply lines to keep the troops combat capable.''
Oscar and Auburn both nod ''Additionally another very large factor is range, especially for the SMG but also for assault rifles, though to a far smaller degree. After more than two-hundred metres pretty much no SMG can still cause damage upon impact, even at only one-hundred metres they're already extremely inaccurate, meaning somebody with most other types of weapons can just wait at a long range, rip you pieces with fire and then leave while never being in range of your weapons. The only environments they're really useful in is urban combat and close quarter fighting in mountains or heavily forested areas.''
At this point Jaune took over ''While assault rifles are far less bad in that sense, they do still have the issue of being very inaccurate at their longer ranges compared to both bolt actions and semi-automatics, in addition to having a shorter total range. And while against human or Faunus opponents that's not too much of a problem since the enemy will also need to remain at a similar range and can be pinned down by suppressive fire, Grimm don't give a shit and just charge straight through. And while yes it'll be more useful once they start getting closer you can only carry so much ammunition and with how you need both more per Grimm to kill them and the rifle is just more inaccurate in general while you can only carry about as much ammunition…''
Whitley's eyes widen ''A protracted battle could quickly leave you with no ammunition to continue fighting unless you're close enough to a supply depot to just run back to it and drag a crate of magazines out back to the lines within a few minutes such as the walls or trenches near a major city… and since a lot of the Valean military does use assault rifles there would not be enough ammunition of that type for us to actually use such a tactic.''
Jaune nods ''Though we are probably exaggerating a little bit with the assault rifles, they do have a decent range however with how much of their ammunition Vale itself uses on a daily basis and the incoming dust shortage caused by constant White Fang raids on convoys and dust shop there will simply not be enough ammunition produced to go around to arm our troops with them even if we wanted, while even without it would be more expensive compared to just arming them with a semi-automatic and then being able to let them train more since we can get replacement ammunition far more easily, allowing them to have a close enough fire rate to where the additional range and more powerful impacts of shots more than makes up for the remaining difference.''
At this point however Auburn speaks up ''To be honest, that's enough on that topic, let's go onto something else important: we need some form of anti-air equipment otherwise fighting powerful flying Grimm like the one at Verdun is going to be a nightmare, we were lucky they could activate the AA canons in time.''
For about an hour and a half afterward they keep discussing different possibilities, including but not limited to the possibilities of getting vehicles besides the singular bus, the weapons previously discussed and the possibility of producing their own explosives like the Paulus cousins had proposed before their first mission together. Eventually they settle on a basic plan that Whitley summarises.
''Okay, so we get semi-automatic rifles from Auburns grandfather for all our combat riflemen.'' The other three all nod before he proceeds to the next points ''We get at least one, if budget allows it two machineguns for each platoons worth of soldiers, so once we can afford it we will try to get our hands on six machineguns total but for now we just get two of them.'' He gets nods in reply again ''We try to get some vehicles, if possible ones with some form of anti-air capability in addition to one or more ground to air handheld launchers if I can them through the SDC and my connections in Atlas. Then use those same connections to get us into contact with the designers and builders of prosthetic arms.''
After getting some more nods he continues ''And last but not least we talk with the Paulus cousins about setting up a production line of explosives that they mentioned before, how much it would cost and what they would need for it in terms of manpower and equipment.'' The others once again nod ''Good, I feel everything is covered.'' Then he looks at his watch and his eyes widen while he starts scrambling to gather his stuff ''I forgot I was supposed to contact my sister half an hour ago, I need to get it now before she steps on her flight to Vale, bye!''
At which point he runs out of the room leaving behind a slightly stunned group before Oscar and Jaune chuckle slightly while Auburn internally gushes on how cute he looked while being worried, shortly afterwards she starts unconsciously doing so out loud however, giving Jaune and Oscar the impression that its best if they leave now before they get dragged into that mess as they instead head to have that talk with the Paulus brothers, who it turns out are more than happy to talk all about the details and complexities of such an operation.
After finishing that conversation however the two of them head out to the hospital their men are being treated at on the costs of Vale and talk with all of them in addition to delivering them the vouchers for the uniforms, who re-affirm their comment to Whitley about wanting to stay on, the youngest of the men that had lost his forearm even going so far as to jib ''Well I always heard the girls in school talk about how dashing general Ironwood is, with a nice uniform and a robotic arm I might look enough alike to get some of that attention instead.'' Which creates some more jokes and a generally pleasant atmosphere before the two of them have to leave to not take up too much of the visiting hours.
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That evening
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Jaune and Oscar are sitting around a small bedside table in their room while Spirit and Wizard are materialized next to them ''Okay, so now that we're done with all that work, I want to ask, are you going to be okay without me down here to help?'' Oscar looks up at him a bit confused and slightly hurt at just what he is saying ''I don't mean in the sense of physically fine, you're more than capable enough at that.'' The younger mans hurt disappears at the complement ''I worry more about the fact that you're going to be the only one with the knowledge of how everything will go while having to lead a small army and the effect that might have on you in the long run.''
Oscar shakes his head though he does get a small smile ''Jaune while I'm happy with your concern, I should probably be asking the same from you considering you're the one that's going to be surrounded by people that you know a lot about from your future self, that you'll feel like you know fully only for them you are a complete stranger. I think that especially for spirit it will be a far worse experience than what I'll be dealing with down here.''
They both sat in silence, thinking about the future for a few moments before Jaune smiles at the younger man ''I feel both of us would benefit from having a decent amount of contact, how about once I get into Beacon I'll try to come down here during the weekends with my team, hopefully JNPR…'' At this he can hear Spirit curse to himself as he is finally forced to think on the possibility of not being on a team with the people he cared about, in addition to the possibility of ending up with those he had a more… hostile relationship with.
Jaune meanwhile is ignoring this and keeps smiling at Oscar while holding out his hand, with Oscar returning the smile and taking the hand before shaking it. ''That would be great, especially since it would also give me the opportunity to train more, plus…'' now he blushes slightly ''If you get either your original team or RWBY I'll get to meet all the people Wizard talks so much about, seeing Ruby again would be great.''
Upon hearing this Spirits face quickly transforms into a smirk before he moves closer, his previous thoughts pushed away by the teasing opportunity ''Oh is it because of their personalities? Or..'' he deliberately lets it hang as his smirk goes a bit wider ''Is it because you want to see al those beautiful woman here and try to impress them, especially Ruby?'' at the sputtering retorts from Oscar and the blush on his face spirit laughs again, while Jaune chuckles and Wizard looks at the scene with a smile, happy the sober mood from earlier is gone. Shortly afterwards they go to sleep, wondering what the morning will bring.
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Next day, docking stations
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As they approach the docking station Jaune smiles at the airship that will bring him and all the other potential students to the school as his excitement flares up as while he knew for a while this was going to happen and even had been told by Spirit about his own experiences at Beacon, it now more than ever hits him that he is on his way to try and make his dream come true.
Spirit chuckles in the back of his head and lets it sink in for a moment before he mentally nudges the slightly younger man 'Can't stare at it all day, you have to actually get on that thing first and probably say bye to the duo that is still here.' At this reminder he turns to the side, seeing Whitley who had waited for them after he had met with his sister while Jaune and Oscar where heading here while on the other side of him stands Oscar where after seeing him off the two were going to go out for lunch together and he smiles at both of them before putting the luggage he was carrying down.
After doing so he first goes to Oscar ''Remember what I said my friend and see you soon, good luck down here in Vale.'' Before surprising the younger man with a strong hug after several moments of which he puts the still slightly stunned teenager down again before he turns to Whitley ''And I trust you to help him with all the paperwork and keep him from getting into trouble my friend.''
After Whitley nods Jaune smiles before hugging him as well with Whitley not reacting for a moment before instinctively returning the hug, liking the warmth a lot to such a degree that he Jaune can't actually put him down before Oscar coughs after a while causing him to realize that once again he has been picked up and is being hugged in public by the taller man, creating a heavy blush ''Let me go now you dolt, we're in public!''
At which point Jaune looks at him and whispers ''I can't actually put you down with how your arms are clamped around my shoulders.'' followed by chuckling as Whitley immediately loosens his hold with his blush growing at which point Jaune actually puts him down before grabbing his luggage again and walking onto the ship while looking back and waving to them after stepping in. At this point Spirit guides him to the room where the students would store all luggage they didn't need for the night in the hall or during initiation. Though he also hears him mutter something that even in his mind is not understandable, something about people expecting to need too much?
He quickly realizes that is not a big deal and instead quickly heads to a restroom to take in the air-sickness pills from the box he'd bought from the store next to the docking station, seems his usual defence when confronted about his airsickness was actually somewhat true, seeing as there was an entire shelf full of medicine for various forms of motion sickness. After taking a pill in he wanders back to the main body of the ship, with Spirit now freezing up just about every other minute from recognizing somebody he'd known which gets a bit annoying after it happened the third time in a single conversation between them, causing him to be happy when he hears Yang talking.
He heads there and after passing several others sees Yang hold Ruby in a strong hug ''Oh, I still can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!'' He doesn't know why but as he approaches and sees Rubies face he can't do anything but laugh, causing Yang to realize somebody is behind her.
She turns around looking angry ''And who are you to laugh at..'' as she actually looks him up and down she realizes she knows the man ''Hey Knight boy, how are you today? Saved any damsels in distress yet?'' At the now very relieved face Ruby is making behind her Jaune chuckles.
''I believe I actually might have, seeing as how your sister looked like she was being choked there. How are the two of you anyways, my apologies for not catching up with either of you in the past few days, had a lot of work to do.'' Yang gives a challenging grin at him while Ruby is so glad Yang's attention is away from her for a moment that for now she hasn't realized yet she's being called a damsel in distress.
''And what exactly is it that had you so busy neither you nor Oscar came to see us before we left for Beacon, especially Oscar with how he can't be here with us? Since I believe he had quite the eye on my beloved sister?'' Now Ruby has recovered enough to A: realize Jaune just called her a damsel in distress and B: Yang is teasing her about romance. She reacts in the only way she knows how to by turning away from the two of them while stomping her foot with an angry look on her face.
Both Jaune and Yang chuckle at this before Yang looks at him expectantly and he answers her ''Well I don't know if you've watched the news lately but the both of us were involved in the defence of Verdun, the handling of both the situation itself and the aftermath took us most of the past two days.'' She raises her eyebrow, as if asking 'Are you serious?' at which point they converse about that for a bit, with Ruby being in the middle of gushing about all the weapons that would be brought by everyone to something like that when a hologram of Glynda Goodwitch appears.
''Hello, and Welcome to Beacon.'' Yangs 'who's that?' being immediately answered by the holograms followup ''My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world.''
At this point the city came clearer into sight while Beacon started appearing on the edge of the horizon causing the students to all crowd around the windows as Ruby gushes ''Wow, look, you can see Signal from up here!'' Yang follows her to the glass as Jaune walks away, happy to leave the sisters to their own moment all the while knowing from Spirits tales that chances are high of Yang leaving Ruby alone near the landing pad. He could catch up with her then, especially since he does have some questions for her about ideas he had for relatively simple mechashift weapons.
He can hear Yang say to Ruby ''I guess home isn't too far after all.'' Before he is out of hearing range, before the sound of their talking is swallowed up by the voices of the exited crowd. As Jaune walks to the window on the other side and watches the large complex in the distance that Spirit tells him to be Beacon grow ever larger as they get closer. That is to be his new home for the better part of the next four years.
As he waits and watches out of the window he doesn't notice a duo in the crowd attentively watching him from a distance. A minute or so later, the airship has docked and large groups of people walk off, with Jaune being among the last. However as he steps foot onto the platform at the end of the walkway and can see Ruby gushing over people's weapons he hears a voice from the side, saying ''Jaune-Jaune, is that you?''
At this point Spirit has taken control and turns to the side, seeing Nora standing there as Jaune feels a storm of hope through his connection with his other self ''Nora? Have you seen something after drinking coffee?'' As he speaks he can see her smile grow as she starts walking towards him.
''Fearless leader! I had feared I wouldn't see you here!'' by this she runs towards him and jumps up where he grabs onto her and spins her around for a bit while holding her up, with her grip around his shoulders strengthening, as both of them cry some tears of happiness. Around them several people look at them, while a young man with black hair with a pink or purple stripe walks up to the two of them.
''Good to see you have already found him Nora.'' As Jaune opens his eyes and looks up he invites Ren to the hug with one hand, Nora doing the same. As Ren shows reluctance for a moment Jaune instead puts Nora down for a second before rushing over and grabbing Ren into a hug. After several moments of that however Nora joins in by hugging the both of them hard.
This is a great experience for the three old friends, Spirit is beyond belief and the fear of it only being him and Oscar that remember everything is gone now, while the future Nora is just extremely happy about the situation while Ren is in spite of his first outward reaction also very happy and thankful that he and Nora aren't alone in this world.
Younger Jaune is very happy for his older self and also feels safe in the knowledge it isn't going to depend on just him and Oscar to save the future, younger Nora is completely ecstatic and is also very happy that the man her older self had seen as a brother is still there. Meanwhile Ren is happy for both Nora and his older self, he is however also very worried currently since he is caught in a crushing hug between two people that have more raw physical strength than him that are using a lot of said physical strength as he can feel his aura strain to keep anything from breaking, causing him to take control out of self-preservation ''Need… air.''
At which point the other two sheepishly let him go before he smiles as they both worry over him and try to see if he is okay. After finding out he is the three of them all laugh at it before going back into a three-way hug, though a far softer one this time. As this all was happening, a redhead is watching the group in the distance with a glint in her eye, liking what she sees.
At this point though the group of three hears a crash, causing them to look around and see its Ruby on the ground with Jaune immediately realizing who his older self was referring to with the comment on too much luggage after seeing the large pile of Schnee brand suitcases. As the trio watch an explosion takes place before an argument springs up that ends with Ruby falling back onto the ground sadly. The trio share a look before nodding.
As Ruby lies on the ground feeling quite miserable as she mutters a sarcastic 'Welcome to Beacon' she looks up when she sees a shadow near and partially over her, seeing a gloved hand in front of her being held out by a familiar mop of smiling blond hair ''Hey there, need a hand?'' and as she accepts the hand to allow him to pull her up she gives him a smile in return.
Even if it is a friend she only met a few times, she is happy enough with a friend that didn't leave her there in addition to the fact that he has two new people near him and as soon as she sees Nora's weapons Ruby's eyes start sparkling silver. ''Is that a hammer grenade launcher combination? That is so cool!''
The ''Hell yeah it is! Want to see it in action?'' from Nora being answered by an almost automatic 'language' though her face clearly shows her own 'hell yeah!' in return. At this point the newly (re)born friendship is interrupted by both of the young men next to them chuckling, reminding Ruby that she isn't alone, she is with one friend she hasn't known for long and two complete strangers! However now as they all chuckle she doesn't feel as bad, especially not as they start talking while heading towards the main academy building.
…..
AN: And, cut. That's it for this chapter, my apologies that it's a fairly short one but I just looked at what I had planned to be the next three-thousand words or so of this chapter only to realize that it would probably take closer to another nine thousand words and I felt like I needed a bit of a shorter chapter for once instead of having all of them be consecutively longer like the last three seem to have been, so I stopped it here and saved all that for the next chapter.
So we're finally at Beacon, and had a heartfelt re-union between people that have a nagging backseat driver in their head. It will be somewhat covered in the next chapter how this happened in addition to several other plot related details however I figured those would seem very out of place if they discussed them right out in the open on a landing pad instead of, you know having a heartfelt reunion with people they thought were lost to them. I hope you all liked reading this and please review on what you liked and didn't like about this chapter, now onto me answering the review of the last chapter
ConsumedPolecat: A fine chapter. I could see the battle in my head and could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. You've outdone yourself.
Answer: Thanks for the complement and nice to see you enjoyed it, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.
Resume AN: Goodbye everyone, thanks for coming, I hope you all liked reading this and please review on what you liked and didn't like about this chapter, it helps improve my skills as a writer in addition to making an better experience for readers.