I warned in the last chapter but be prepared for objectionable content here. I am not talking about Yang/Blake (though from some reviews you'd think otherwise) but more the things that people this age would get up to in a completed doomed dystopia where their lives are measured in years. I.e. Ruby may be cute, innocent and sweet in canon, and she will be the same in some ways here, but she has also grown up on a farm being force-fed propaganda and prepared since birth to go into Beacon, study and die on the front lines in this universe, and that's going to have had an impact.

She ain't gonna be looking for cookies and milk on a night out is all I'm saying. Don't be shocked (or, well, do be shocked, but understand there's logic to it) when she acts like a 20-something student on a night out instead of her 15 year old dorky self. Bigger discussion at bottom of chapter for anyone who is really affected or wants to see my reasoning.

Chapter 3

Getting out of Beacon was as simple as walking out the gates. The members of Phoenix Squad were still wearing their cargo pants and tank tops, though they'd tossed on jackets the same colour as the pants. For Jaune, that meant a crisp and clean new uniform, but the others looked lived-in and dirty with sweat, dust and the mud they'd been training in.

Ironically, he was the one that stood out in the undercity.

It wasn't a real undercity; it wasn't even technically under the city. it was just called that. In truth, it was what would be called the ground floor of the Vale Arcology, excepting that nowadays a new floor called `the ground floor` had been constructed above the thick layer of smog so that people wouldn't get messed up by it when they were commuting to and from work. That had turned the area beneath into something of a basement. It was dark, but then it was night so no one cared, and lights attached to the ceilings gave off the impression of a night sky. The undercity was where most of the manufacturing districts of the city lay, but also plenty of cheap services playing host to them – the most important of which were bars. The former didn't work during the night for safety reasons, meaning the latter came out to play.

It was a bright wonderland of neon lights and overly bright store fronts offering everything from beer to drugs to sex. It was garishly bright because of the lack of any natural light to work with, and it had been set up like a shanty town with corridors in between metal and wooden shacks. Technically speaking, it was not a slum. The Arcology had the room for everyone who lived there, and all these people would have assigned places to live. Homelessness didn't exist because a person sleeping rough wasn't being utilised and could always be sent to the front lines. In reality, the Undercity was more like a community marketplace. It was a place that set itself up every night to cater to people's more carnal desires, the kind of shit you couldn't get in the Arcology, and the government ignored it because it was out of sight and also useful. It kept people's morale up, stopped the workers from complaining, and didn't actively sabotage anything.

He'd always known it existed, first hearing the bad stories from his parents and the warnings to stay away, and later the tall tales and boasts from squad mates in his various regiments. It was his first time in the undercity, however, and he had to say it was nothing like what he expected. He'd thought it would be full of destitute and miserable looking people in search of relief. The downtrodden and overworked parts of the city. Instead, it was an eclectic mix of people. There were businessmen and women in crisp suits, soldiers in fatigues, factory workers in overalls and those in between who had come in denim, slacks and whatever else, mixing with people clad in leather with pierced noses and lips.

He walked by a wooden shack with three barber's chairs out front. Instead of a haircut or a trim, however, the man reclining in one of the seats had a scantily clad woman gyrating on his lap, slowly peeling off her shoulder straps as the chair reclined. Yang hooked a finger in Jaune's collar and dragged his stunned ass away. "You can get a lap dance later, lover boy."

"I wasn't-"

"Yeah, sure. Your eyes just got tired and you needed to rest them on her ass." Yang cackled, and the rest of the squad laughed with her, while Jaune blushed horribly. "It's cool. No one judges down here. This isn't a dive, either. Everyone here will be back to working tomorrow for the betterment of Vale, yada, yada, et cetera, et cetera. Fight the good fight."

"What she means," said Sun, hooking an arm around Jaune's shoulder. "Is that this is above board. It's cool. City knows it happens and doesn't care. As long as we're back before tomorrow and as long as we don't bomb training, no one will have at us."

All those lessons from his parents wanted to say otherwise, but he could see people in officer's uniforms dotted here and there. They weren't keeping watch or snatching soldiers up, either. They were drinking and gambling and, in one case, having a tattoo etched into their arm by a heavily inked woman with blue hair. It really did look like everyone had just come down to have fun and kick back, and he really doubted the arcology wouldn't have been aware about it. They could send the MPs down here if they really wanted to stop it.

He supposed the Arcology must had more important matters to focus on like birth rates, food, defence, dwindling electronic supplies and more. They didn't waste time or space with growing hops for beer, so if the people down here wanted to brew and sell moonshine in their apartments then that was fine. And if people wanted to unwind from a day of backbreaking labour by trading their money for a night of passion or some drugs, then that was fine as well. As long as they worked, and as long as the arcology functioned, everything was accepted.

Yang brought them to a run-down metal shack with several rickety and half-broken chairs outside. There was a metal barrel with an old-fashioned stereo on top that was belting out classics from sixty years ago – actual music, for a change, and not the national anthem or other patriotic tunes about how great they were, and how brave their troops were. There was music being played from a number of different devices all over the undercity, some set to metal, others to punk and rock, and all mixing together into a frantic medley of noise that was somehow not that bad.

The lot of them collapsed into one that stretched and squeaked under their weight. They were the kind of old things he'd seen pictures from before the collapse show people using at picnics outside – little more than felt cloth between several bits of metal that acted like a hammock-chair of sorts, and that could be folded away when not in use. They were old as hell, and he wasn't even sure they'd keep their weight.

"Oi, Junior!" shouted Yang. "A strawberry sunrise."

A tall man came out in what looked like a clerk's uniform. It was strange to Jaune to think that someone with such a good job topside would be running a bar down here. He obviously didn't need the money, which meant this must have been a hobby of sorts. Or a side-hustle.

"The fuck is a strawberry sunrise?" asked the well-dressed man. "I have beer, beer or beer and you fucking know it." He then flipped her off, before waving to Ruby. "Hello Ruby. Doing alright?"

"Yep." Ruby giggled and waved back. "You?"

"Not bad. Better before your chimpanzee of a sister showed up."

The way Yang laughed told Jaune this was a regular thing. The man lugged out a bucket, an actual plastic bucket, and set it on the table with a sloshing sound. He then tossed down a couple of old-style plastic cups. Ruby, Ren and Sun wasted no time dipping the cups into the bucket to fill them with ominously cloudy beer, then taking a big drink.

When in Vacuo, thought Jaune, and did the same. It was… well, it was shit if he was being honest. Cloudy, dusty – as in he could taste the dust, not that it looked murky – and with more than a little bit of scum floating on the top. It was strong. Fuck, but it was strong. It burned his throat like hot lava and hit his stomach like an incendiary grenade. "Fucking hell!" gasped Jaune. "You could kill Grimm with this!"

"Sheeet!" wheezed Ruby, her cute and not-so-innocent face puffing as she breathed out. "This is your best yet, Junior!"

"I know." The man grinned, then turned to Yang. "Why can't you be more like your sister?" asked the man to Yang, who snorted and sampled some herself, whistling at the taste. "Your sister is an angel, and you're the queen of bitches. Where's your sidepiece, anyway? Least you can do is put on a show for my customers."

"Blake's coming later," said Yang, smiling lazily up at him. "And do you like our shows?"

Junior shrugged. "Nothing draws the customers like a bit of girl-on-girl action." To Jaune's surprise, Yang just laughed, and no one looked bothered by it. Then again, Junior didn't look all that serious either. It must have been an in-joke. He looked, then, to Jaune. "New meat?"

"This is Jaune." said Sun. "Jaune, this is Junior. Probably not his real name, but most of the higher class don't like to use their names down here."

"Some of us have reputations to lose," said Junior. "My condolences, kid," said the man. Jaune thought he meant about being a huntsman, but he then said, "You have to put up with these idiots on the regular. I feel sorry for you."

Jaune snorted. "Thanks."

Yang chuckled along with him. "And you saying we don't have reputations to lose, Junior? I didn't realise I'd ruined mine already."

"Your kind don't think about the future."

"Not much point thinking about something that doesn't exist." Yang refilled her cup, as did everyone else, and raised it high. "To Jaune!" she said, and the others echoed it. "To Phoenix Squad." They didn't drink, and Jaune held himself back. Instead, Yang looked to him. "We have a rule in this squad. It's a rule that everyone follows, no excuses. Live fast; die young. That means no moping around, no feeling miserable for how shit our chances are, and no letting life drag us down. You ride with us, you ride, and we only have two speeds – not moving, and moving very fucking fast. You got that?"

He thought he understood it. Their future was hopeless, their odds miniscule, and rather than mull on that and slowly walk into the void crying at their fate, they wanted to have fun, fuck around and die with smiles on their faces. It was a sentiment he'd heard before, though he'd never embraced it seeing as how his mom hoped he'd become an engineer, and thus too valuable to let die for so little. Life had thrown that option out the window, and as much as he wanted to rail and cry about it, he understood there was no going back. If he let that eat away at him, he'd spend his last years in a miserable funk, and probably drag his squad's mood down with him.

If he was screwed anyway then he might as well have some fun.

They might as well have fun.

"I got that," he said, mimicking her language with a wry grin. "Can we drink yet, or are there any more rules I need to know?"

Before they could answer, he tipped his plastic beaker back. Sun whooped immediately and did the same, while the others quickly followed suit. They were faster than he, with stomachs of iron to handle this nightmare juice, and they all roughly slammed their beakers down at the same time. Even Ruby, at only fifteen, had managed it like a seasoned pro. For all he knew, she was well practiced.

"A new phoenix is born!" howled Yang, uncaring for everyone else walking by. A few even whooped with her, just amused and happy to get involved. Some threw up their middle fingers, several smiling, and Yang must have recognised them because she happily returned the gestures.

"You know, you don't have to scream it every time," said Ruby, giggling and dipping her beaker for more. Her pale skin was already flushed pink. Eager or not, she was small, and the moonshine must have been at least fifty per cent proof. What the other fifty per cent was, Jaune couldn't say. Clean water seemed very unlikely.

"That's your sister for you," said Nora. "Would literally die if she wasn't the loudest in the area."

"We ought to know," said Ren, "being her neighbours. She and Blake aren't quiet at all."

"You think I don't know that!?" cried Ruby. "I share a room with her! I'm scarred for life."

"Oh, fuck off," laughed Yang. "Like you and Nora aren't going at it like rabbits."

Nora giggled. "At least we're quiet."

"If you think that muffled gasping is quiet then I've something to tell you, babe. At least Blake and I are quick and get it over with. Your little whimpers and gasps are audible for, like, an hour, and ten times as distracting."

"That's because Ren knows how to please a lady."

"Tch. If he did, then he wouldn't take an hour to get you off!"

"Renny has a thing called stamina. Look it up."

"Here's to the not fucking one another club," said Sun, hooking an arm around Jaune's shoulder. Ruby was dragged into his other side and giggled with him. "We may be single, but at least we get a full night's sleep. Cheers."

"Cheers!" said Jaune and Ruby, drinking.

They worked their way down half the bucket over the next hour, laughing and talking and drinking and poisoning themselves all the while. Somewhere in the midst of it a very attractive girl with black hair and feline ears arrived, stating that she "could hear them all the way from the entrance". She introduced herself as Blake, and her attempt to take a seat next to Yang was immediately thwarted when the blonde drew Blake onto her lap instead. After which, they suddenly had a lot more beer to go between them, because Blake and Yang's lips wouldn't leave each other's. Already feeling a little heady from the booze, Jaune swallowed and had to tear his eyes away. A lot of patrons weren't even bothering to do the same and had turned their seats around to watch.

"Ugh," groaned Ruby, head bouncing off the table. "I hate when they do this."

"You need more beer," said Sun.

"Yep." Ruby scooped a fresh cup and tried to wipe the sounds of her sister making out with someone from her memory. Jaune decided he needed more as well, and promptly refilled and downed his own.

Eventually, the two girls stopped – partly because Blake decided she wanted to drink something other than Yang for the evening, and partly because things were getting just a little too heated. Yang wore a smug smile and slapped Blake's ass, earning a hard swat to her head for the trouble. The tables around them moaned, and a few called out for Yang to keep going.

"You know I hate when you make us a show," hissed Blake.

"You never complain."

"I'm complaining right here and now!"

"Yeah, well, you don't complain at the time." Yang laughed and then said, "Did you fetch it like I asked?"

"Yes, and I'd have said that if I didn't have your tongue shoved down my throat the second I got here."

Blake peeled open a pocket on her cargo pants and brought out a small packet wrapped in silvery tape, then a pocketknife, the kinds of which every soldier had for everyday tasks on the field. Jaune wasn't sure this was what their CO's anticipated they'd use it for, not as Blake cut a small slash into the packet and sprinkled some sparkling dust onto the table.

"Is that dust?" asked Jaune.

"Hmhm." The girl, lips flushed from Yang, briefly smiled his way. "This is one bullet a day pocketed from the range and drained in my room. Any more than that and it'd be noticed." She set the packet down on the table and said, "It's your turn next week, Ruby. I can't keep stealing from the range or someone will take notice."

Stealing at all was heavily punished, especially when every little resource went into pushing the Grimm back. That didn't mean it didn't happen; only that it was risky. Jaune was less surprised one of them would, and more surprised it was an organised effort, and that he'd presumably be stuck with his turn on the rota at some point. Welp. Not worth worrying about that now.

Ruby bounced on her seat. "Yep. I know. It's fine. I haven't been caught yet."

"What are we doing with it?" asked Jaune.

"It's a little extra spice," said Yang. She fished a hand in her pants and pulled out a small wad of lien. "Oi, Junior. You good for some?"

The man came over to their table and dropped a much larger brick down. He then cut it open himself, and white powder spilled out. Drugs, Jaune realised, and hard drugs by the look of it. He suddenly felt just a little nervous. It wasn't like drugs were uncommon in the military; everyone liked to pretend so, and pretend it was discipline and duty over everything else but risking your life on the daily was terrifying and he'd known more than a few people who topped themselves up with a little extra to take away the fear or calm their nerves. Much like the moonshine, the COs knew it was happening but knew they couldn't do anything about it if they didn't want panicky and withdrawn soldiers.

Jaune had always excused himself from such things and never partaken. He'd had plans for the future, his mother's warnings, and the dream of getting a respected job, and he hadn't wanted to come away with any health complications for a night of fun. Not much point worrying about all that anymore, was there? Jaune watched as everyone else eagerly scooted around, and as Blake sprinkled some dust – actual elemental dust – into the mix. A kick, Yang had called it. Yeah, that'd be one hell of a kick alright.

The guys and girls didn't even hesitate to run themselves little lines, pinch a nose and snort. Jaune watched Ruby, as young as his little sister, inhale it and lean back, coughing with a dopey smile on her face, then shake her head and laugh. She wasn't the only one, and not even at their table. Drugs were being shared as much as drink at the tables, and Jaune could smell smoke on the air that was laced with herbs.

It was a shock for someone who had grown up in a military academy in the better parts of the arcology. He'd grown up on propaganda both from the school and from his military parents, and they'd always filled his head with stories of the forces being completely disciplined. Maybe they just hadn't wanted to disappoint him. He'd seen enough people doing this back in the army to know it happened, and huntsmen had a much shorter life expectancy.

"Is this okay?" he asked, just to be sure. "We're not going to get busted by Goodwitch?"

"If she caught us doing it, sure," said Ren, "but we'll be fine as long as we don't collapse during training or outright tell it to her face."

"I've seen some of the other teachers shooting up down here," said Nora. "Not the XO or CO, but I've seen lecturers. No one tells on anything they see down here. This is where you come to relax. It's the rules."

"Plus," said Ruby, "We're all hopped up on PEDs anyway." She swayed in her seat and giggled. "B-Bit much to t-tell us off for this."

Jaune paused. "I'm not."

"Not yet," said Yang. "You'll probably get your first dosages later this week." She flexed her left arm, causing her muscles to bulge out. "Ruby and I have been on steroids since we were young. All huntsmen and huntresses are."

"It's why I'm short," said Ruby. "They stunted my growth."

Yang snorted. "That's the excuse she likes to use."

"It is! Why else would I be this small?"

"Because you're a midget."

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck you!" replied Yang.

"Fuck you!" shouted Ruby.

"Fuck me!" said Yang.

"Nope." Ruby giggled and downed another cup of booze. "You lose."

"And you're obviously neither high nor drunk enough, dear sister of mine. Bottoms up!"

Yang dished out some more powder, then offered some to Jaune. He glanced to the rest. He saw Sun and Nora and even Blake nodded her agreement. Performance-enhancing-drugs hadn't been the norm in the army, but then they weren't expected to go toe-to-toe with Grimm either, and it was better if they didn't end up with any weird side-effects that PEDs could cause. Again, not really a problem when you were in Beacon. The stronger you could be, and the sooner, the quicker you could be sent to the frontlines.

I keep thinking this is the army and that they're thinking about our futures. I keep forgetting we don't have futures. Jaune looked down at the line before him, then up at the wildly grinning and laughing members of his new squad. They were having the times of their lives specifically because they didn't have much time left in their lives. Live fast; die young. They weren't kidding.

Jaune closed one nostril, leaned in and snorted.

The rest of the night was a blur.

/-/

Jaune woke up to the buzzing of an alarm clock, a ringing headache deep in his skull and a steep sense of vertigo. His vision swam slowly into focus, revealing a cold, metal ceiling, a tough mattress beneath him and a soft body against his side. His head fell to the side, nose tickling dark hair tipped with red.

He was in bed with a girl.

Huh.

He figured that ought to have brought a bigger reaction.

Said girl shifted against him, yawned and pushed herself up before he could panic or react. Ruby blinked slowly at him, her pale shoulders leading down to her usual tank top and, beneath that, a black pair of regulation underwear. It dawned on him that all she'd really done was take off her boots and pants, and that he hadn't even done that. He could feel his boots still on his feet. Nothing had happened, then. He wasn't sure if he should be happy about that or not.

"H-Hey." Ruby yawned. "Hey Jaune."

"Morning. Why are you in my bed?"

"Because Blake is in Yang's bed."

"Oh."

That said it all, especially now with distant memories of last night filtering back in. There had been much laughing, much shouting, some dancing on a table – being shouted at by Junior when the table collapsed, hurling the bucket of moonshine over Ren. There had been Nora licking it off and then more beer, some more drugs, Yang and Blake making out sloppily, and he could distantly remember them very drunkenly and very clumsily sneaking their way back into Beacon long past curfew, being obviously caught once or twice but just as obviously ignored by officers coming and going, then collapsing in his bed to sleep before someone had hammered at his door. He could remember Ruby stumbling in, saying something about noise, and sisters, and nightmares, and not enough earplugs in the world, and then climbing out her pants before passing out on top of him.

Oddly enough, after all that craziness, the first thought to come to Jaune's mind and be put to words was, "Huh. Do you think Yang remembered to go to her punishment detail if you're here and Blake never knew?"

Ruby looked down on him

Ruby looked to the door.

Ruby whispered, "Fuck…" under her breath.

It turned out that Yang had not remembered, but that Lieutenant General Goodwitch had – the memory of a commanding officer for infractions among the troops being the most reliable thing in the world and all, especially when you didn't need it to be. That was the only explanation for her thunderous expression as they showed up to morning role call, back in their uniforms, saluting, all in a line. Yang looked like a wreck, hair sticking out at odd ends, eyes bloodshot, and yet she still managed to shrink a little further when their XO walked in front of them, paused meaningfully, and stared long and hard at Yang for a good thirty seconds before moving on.

Yep, thought Jaune. She remembers. Bad luck, Yang.

"Your morning drills will begin soon," said their XO. "I had considered a basic three-mile run, but Cadet Xiao-Long has convinced me that you have all been getting too much sleep lately and have become lazy." Several other teams groaned, and more than a few glared bloody murder at Yang. "As such, you will be going on a six-mile run this morning. Thank Cadet Xiao-Long for her actions, cadets."

"Thank you, Xiao-Long," chorused the thirty or so cadets hatefully. Yang grunted and ducked her shoulders, knowing she was likely to get jumped in the showers, and quite possibly hazed for this. Ruby stepped away from her to avoid any collateral damage.

"Furthermore, I have decided to bring forward your weekly fitness assessments to Thursday." More groans, more angry glowers. "And should you fail, you will be spending Friday on remedial training, and will lost your Saturday free time periods." She paused with her arms linked behind her back. "You know who to thank, ladies and gentlemen. Come on. Show your gratitude."

"Thank you, Xiao-Long," seethed the mass.

"Good. We are training huntsmen here, not civilians, and we expect the utmost discipline and focus from you all. There will be no exceptions – there can be no exceptions – which is why everyone, no matter how new," she looked to him as she said it, "will be expected to meet minimum requirements. You have one hour to complete six miles. You may begin now."

Jaune considered himself fit. He was infantry, so he had to be. He was also from a military family, so he'd been running with his parents since he was young and taught that sweating now meant you didn't have to bleed later. He had run, in training, three miles in thirty minutes. That was a standard you had to pass for basic fitness tests – three hours in twenty-eight minutes or less. He had clocked twenty, which was respectable.

Jaune bombed out after his fifth mile here, collapsed to his knees and threw up. Everyone kept going past him, leaving him behind.

"Off the field, Arc," called out Goodwitch. He crawled off, pushed to his feet and stumbled over to her, gasping for air. The stern woman did not look impressed. "I would say that five miles is impressive for someone in their first week, but it is not the first week and we expect more at this junction. It does not matter that this is your first week. You will be expected to slot in. Am I understood?"

"Y-Yes ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am."

"I did say no exceptions. You will be put through extra training this Friday after hours. Ask Mr Wukong where you must report."

Damn it. Jaune kept his head down. "Yes ma'am."

"Do not fail to show up as Xiao-Long so regularly does."

"Yes ma'am." Jaune sucked in a breath and asked, "M-Ma'am, I was told I should expect some… uh…" He faltered under her strict gaze, then realised it was only getting harsher the more he wasted her time. "Performance enhancers, ma'am."

"You are scheduled in the infirmary two days from now. You were to receive the message later this afternoon once you've had your medical checks." The officer looked away from him and back to the running cadets. Their faces were read, their arms swinging, their chests heaving. "You will be tested and then given a suite of PEDs as permits your tolerance. Have you taken any before?"

"Never, ma'am."

"I suppose you wouldn't have, coming from the regular forces. I am not sure how much they will impact you. Our students have been on them for years and had time to take advantage of their effects. Any time is better than none, hence why you will still receive them, but I will advise you to work twice as hard as everyone else. It will be your life otherwise." She looked back down to him. "Does it bother you, cadet? Speak your mind."

"I've just never… It's frowned upon in the regular forces, ma'am."

"I see. There is a vast difference between regular infantry and huntsmen. We cannot afford to be picky, nor can we afford to take things slowly. Any advantage we can have, we must take. That includes advantages of the chemical variety. You will get used to it."

"What about side effects, ma'am?"

"Any debilitating or potentially life-threatening side effects would take years to manifest." Her pregnant silence was telling. "That is not something you need worry about."

The side effects were something he didn't need to worry about, or was it the idea that he would have years of his life in which to accrue them? He couldn't help but think it was one of the left and half a dozen of the other, but he didn't know which was which. No one else failed the six-mile run, not even his squadron, fiercely hung-over and probably still a little high. The slowest person managed six miles in forty minutes.

He had a lot of catching up to do.

/-/

The sentiment was repeated numerous times during the day. Jaune struggled in fitness, he struggled in weights, and he struggled at the firing range because his arms were still burning and his heavy breathing kept throwing his aim off. At least he was just below average there and not helpless. When melee training came about, he was pulled out before it even started and given to an older student to learn aura manipulation.

Breathe in, breathe out, focus, push-

Cry out in pain and fall over as a fist struck his cheek.

"You need to concentrate," snapped the girl. Brown hair, long ears atop her head and chocolate coloured eyes that were constantly narrowed. "This isn't hard; everyone else can do this."

"I'm new-"

"You think the Grimm will care?" The girl pulled him up and then slapped him, harshly. He failed to get his aura up, or to control it at all. "Sorry, Mr Beowolf, it's my first day on the job. Don't rip my guts out." She let him go, forcing him to stumble on his feet. "Your aura isn't even registering. You're going to die like this. Even faster than the rest of us." The faunus sighed dramatically. "We're going to have to go with instinctual."

He didn't like the sound of that. "Instinctual?"

The girl huffed again, this time impatiently. "Aura can be controlled and pushed around the body, but it can also protect you instinctively. Usually if your emotions are running high or you're afraid. It might help you get used to sensing and controlling it if you can feel it being pushed around your body. It's better than nothing."

"And how are we going to do tha-?"

By beating him to within an inch of his life. Jaune had faced hazing and combat training in basic, but nothing like this. The faunus was a huntress, or close to one, and tyring to fend her off was like a baby trying to fight off a grown man. Jaune's defences were split apart, his clumsy blocks ignored as she drove her fists into his stomach, his chest, his jaw, his shoulders, his thighs – anywhere she could cause pain, basically.

After twenty minutes of beating him, she drove her palm into his face when he tried to swing back at her; he saw her bare hand coming and clenched his eyes shut, preparing for pain. It struck hard, under his nose and driving it up. That could kill me, thought Jaune in the brief window of agony. He remembered being told it could drive bones up into the brain, and then he was airborne and crashing down onto the grass. The girl knelt beside him and yanked his hand away from his nose cruelly.

"No blood," she remarked, nodding her head as if she'd expected as much. "I guess it worked. Your aura really did protect you."

"Cadet Scarlatina!" barked a familiar voice. Lieutenant General Goodwitch stalked forward. "You were ordered to instruct your fellow cadet in controlling his aura, not assault him."

"Ma'am." The cadet, Scarlatina, jerked up and saluted. "His conscious control of aura is next to nothing, ma'am. I believed it best to stimulate his aura to unconscious action so he might better recognise it." Hesitating, she added. "This is how I was trained in basic, ma'am."

"And did it work?"

"His aura activated to protect his face from a dangerous blow, ma'am."

"Dangerous as in potentially lethal?"

"Potentially, ma'am." The girl didn't falter. "But he would definitely die if he was sent out without aura, ma'am, and potentially bring his squad down with him. Better to die in training than cost lives in the field."

Ugh. What a bitch. Jaune pushed himself up, his blood boiling. It wasn't his choice to become a huntsman and put Phoenix Squad in danger. He hadn't asked for this, nor for this girl to beat him like an abusive stepfather. I thought she'd be teaching me theory. Meditation exercises.

"There are safer ways to assist in aura control, cadet," said his XO.

"With all due respect, ma'am, those exercises are taught over years, and to people who are eleven and have six years of training before they get to Beacon."

Goodwitch hummed. "You believe them to be of no use here?"

"Not if he wants to survive, ma'am. He just used aura, subconsciously or not. This method is showing results."

Lieutenant General Goodwitch nodded. "Very well. Continue."

No rescue. The ends more than justified the means as far as his XO was concerned. Jaune was bloody and bruised by the time Scarlatina was done with him, and his blood coated her knuckles. He'd felt his aura protect him from several hits, usually ones to the face that he was most worried about, and that, she told him, proved her point. When he raspingly told her she didn't have to be such a bitch about it, the faunus laughed.

"You're wasting my time today as well, you know? I'm training some hopeless rookie instead of getting the training that might keep me alive in the field. How is it fair I might die because I had to train you?"

The girl left after saying that, and it was up to Sun and Ruby to come help him up. Ruby had a split lip, a black eye and a bloody smile. A wobbly tooth, too. "Yang is really good at fist-fighting," was all she would say.

Sun was battered and bruised as well, but not nearly as bad as Jaune was. He took Jaune's left arm, and Ruby took his right, which wasn't nearly as helpful because of the height difference. Between them, they dragged his sorry ass toward the ground floor infirmary. No one who passed them by even looked at Jaune askance; badly injured cadets were apparently the norm.

"Learning to first control aura is a bitch," said Sun. "Don't worry about it."

"I was lucky," said Ruby. "Really natural aura control."

"Bitch," chuckled Sun, good naturedly. "I was the exact opposite and got put through advanced aura protocols. That's basically the same thing you got today, except I was told to take rubber bullets and learn to repel them. They even threatened to try a real bullet if I didn't master it within a week."

Jaune's head swung his way. "Did they?"

"Nah. Was just a threat. Course, I was panicky enough to believe it back then."

"We're too valuable to lose like that," explained Ruby. "We have naturally occurring aura, which already makes us rare, but we've also had six years of training. Those of us from the vat-farms have even more resources that have been pumped into us. They can only grow so many people every year because of the space – they told me they only have the vats to grow fifty a year."

"A hundred now," said Sun. "The vats were some of the first things they evacuated from Mistral before it fell." He snorted. "Even before they started evacuating people."

"A hundred, then," said Ruby. "It's always huntsman and huntress genes that are prioritised, though. That's why Yang can act out as much as she wants and not get in big trouble, either. It's not like they can afford to discharge or lose her. Or any of us. We're too important."

"Important in being thrown against the Grimm," finished Sun. "All bets are off then. That's not an invitation to become another Yang, though. As you saw, Goodwitch has other ways of punishing her for acting out, and those usually involve everyone else. Public shaming at its finest."

"Is getting my shit kicked in something I can expect to continue…?"

"Yep." Ruby grinned cheerfully. "I mean, look at me. I mastered my aura years ago and I have a wobbly tooth-" She played with it with her tongue for emphasis, then cried out sharply as she poked it loose. The thing fell to the floor, leaving her stunned with a bloody gap-toothed expression.

Sun burst out laughing. "Serves you right!"

"My toof!" slurred Ruby.

"You can stick a straw between them and drink with gritted teeth now."

"Phuck you, Phun!"

Jaune's weak and ragged laughter meshed with theirs. It was brutal, it was horrible, it was cruel and it was painful, but it was also the way things were. Presumably, therefore, it was the best way of doing things. Beacon had been churning out huntsmen and huntresses for decades now, and it wasn't his job to question orders. His job was to pick up the slack.

They dropped him off at the infirmary, a white and pristine room with many, many beds and just as many doctors and nurses working. Each bed had a large machine next to it with everything a doctor might need, which made it far better equipped than the military infirmaries he was used to where there was one professional to every ten soldiers.

Sun left him there, but Ruby was sulkily escorted to a chair so that someone could poke around in her mouth. Jaune winced. It was ridiculous considering what he'd been through, but he still hated dentists more than he did doctors. He was brought to a bed himself, propped up for him to sit on as a female doctor checked his vitals and swabbed his open cuts clean with antiseptic. He obediently answered questions about how it happened and what he was doing, to which she nodded and took notes on an electronic device. There was a raft of other tests too, including blood.

"Your blood alcohol level is high and there are grade-A narcotics in it," said the woman. Jaune froze, locked up in absolute panic, only for her to continue. "You're scheduled for your first dosage of performance enhancers two days from now. Please do not take anything for the twenty-four hour period before that."

"Y-Yeah," stammered Jaune. He was confused there weren't any threats of a CO being brought in, but not eager to push that or ask why. "S-Sure thing, doctor. Anything else?"

"Your aura is at 19%," she said, showing him a screen with it on. "Good news for your training, as it does mean you were passively using aura to dampen blows. The lack of any broken bones or fractures implies it was used on deep damage, but not to mitigate pain. That's a good thing, though it likely won't feel as such here and now."

"I'm alive."

"That, you are. It's all one can ask for. Any questions?"

He had one. "I've heard the phrase naturally occurring aura being thrown around a few times. Does that mean there's unnatural aura?"

"Not as such. It means that you have unlocked your aura on your own and without interference. Anyone can, in theory, have their aura be unlocked." She continued before he could speak. "You're wondering why everyone's aura isn't unlocked?" He nodded. "Everyone does. It's because Vale doesn't have the time to train people up like that. People who unlock their aura naturally and without interference generally have greater reserves, and they also have an easier time learning to use it. Those unlocked by someone else can take years to get it to even a basic level. That's not worth it in the grand scheme of things. It's not a case of being able to unlock and teach people as children, either. More students means more teachers, which means taking veterans away from the front lines. Vale can't survive that."

Better to let those who don't show aura work in the factories, mines, farms or be trained into other jobs – or join the military. Jaune understood the concept, even if it wasn't one he much enjoyed hearing. Presumably, Vale had already given this a shot and had seen the evidence it wouldn't work, because they'd have had thousands more huntsman otherwise.

"Should I have a way of monitoring my own aura like that?" he asked, pointing to the device in her hand.

"Your scroll can tell you your aura if you hold it against your body, but I wouldn't worry too much about it outside of training. You'll know if your aura gets low in combat." Then, without expanding on that fatalistic comment, she said, "I will update your file signing you out of any aura-related training for the rest of the day. Inform an officer if they ask you to perform any, and they can access your records to check. I am required to tell you that they can access your records at any time and faking or lying about your condition to get out of training is grounds for a night spent in solitary. Dereliction of duty and abandonment of training are punished heavily here."

"Understood, ma'am. When should I report for my enhancers?"

"After lunch. Eat well before you come. By then, we'll have run your blood through tests to ensure there won't be any issues." Chuckling, she added, "At least we know you'll be good for dust-infusion, seeing how much is swimming in your blood already."

Jaune's blush lit his face on fire. He didn't appear to be in trouble though. "Am I dismissed, ma'am?"

"Yes. Report back immediately should you feel lightheaded at any point during the day."

He got out to find Ruby still waiting for him, sulking and mardy with her hands shoved in her pockets, her shoulders hunched, and her lips sealed shut. She offered him what he expected was meant to be a smile but came out a grimace, then jerked her head without speaking.

"Mouth hurts?" asked Jaune.

A glum nod.

/-/

Phoenix Squad had been ostracised by the time Jaune got back to the common rooms. It was six in the evening, and the beginning of their free time. Four hours before mandated lights out, which went so far as to electronically dim all lights no matter what you were doing. Ren, Nora and Sun were playing dice on a table, gambling little blocks of wood as chips and talking quietly.

"You're back," said Ren. "How was it?"

"Ruby visited the dentist and won't be talking for the foreseeable future," said Jaune. Ruby nodded unhappily and collapsed into the seat beside Nora, who crooned and wrapped the smaller girl into a tight hug. Ruby sniffled and buried her face in Nora's chest.

"Ah," said, Ren. "Not fun. I remember when Nora knocked two of mine out." He poked his front incisors. "These are fake."

"Damn. Where's Yang?"

"Kitchens," said Nora. "Goodwitch caught her before she could escape combat training and told her she would be making up for this morning twice-over. Worse, she's stuck doing it sweaty and tired from training and before she was even allowed a shower." She giggled. "I'd say that'll teach her not to forget next time, but we all know it won't."

They were interrupted by the arrival of Blake, who was huffing loudly as she dragged out a seat and threw herself down. It only took one inquisitive look from Jaune to have her talking. "My squad," she said it like it was an insult, "is blaming me for all the extra training we had to do today because of Yang."

"I mean, it is kind of your fault," said Ren. "You let Yang sleep in."

"How was I supposed to know she had punishment detail if none of you told me? I'm not psychic!"

"We're all public enemy number one right now," said Sun. "Welcome to the loser's camp. We have dice, we have… well, we have dice. That's about it. Pool table is booked up for next two hours and good luck convincing them to let us use it. Guy I asked looked like he was considering running me through with a pool cue for that six-mile run this morning."

"What are we playing?" asked Jaune.

"Perudo. You know it?"

"Never heard of it."

"It's cool." Sun scooted in and so did everyone else. "I'll teach you. Basically, it's all about odds, cold-reading and a whole lot of bluffing. It goes like this…"

So, elephant in the room. Was it necessary to have Ruby snort drugs? I believe so, yes.

Did I do it to make her look cool? No.

Would I call it OOC in any other RWBY story? Yes.

The purpose of it here isn't to be "cool" or "funny" (I don't think class-A drugs are either) but to show how shit life is in this AU that taking hard drugs like this is a thing people do en masse just to get by in their brutal lives. It's to show just how dystopian things are that a kid Ruby's age and personality would not only be taking them, but encouraged by her own sister and her friends, and accepted for it. No one cares here because it's just a totally normal thing for a girl her age to do, and that's meant to be a little sad. It's to show the changed culture, and to show how everyone has grown up getting used to it.

Also, to briefly address those who have said things like how relationships (or drugs) are frowned on or would be banned, etc, in the military. I have spoken to numerous servings and previously served people in the US military, and my brother-in-law was a soldier over here and was stationed in Afghanistan. All of them agreed that both drugs and sex were very common, even if not all of them partook themselves. One laughed at me when I said some comments had challenged me over relationships and sex happening and said that people had clearly never heard of barracks bunnies.

In the words of one: "You do, or take, whatever you need to in order to stay calm out there. The officers know it happens and let it happen so long as it doesn't stop you doing your job. Some people cope in different ways."

My brother-in-law got hooked on heroin over there and had to go through rehab back home to get over it. He told me that life over there was just so miserable and frightening and it always felt like you didn't know what was going on, and people were shooting up in their off times to calm down. They all pretty much agreed you never do it when you have a job to do or something, and that your mates would come down on you hard if you did, but that it was basically very common when they had free time.

Think of it like school if you like. Drugs and sex are also banned there, but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen all the time.

Next Chapter: 22nd November

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