Chapter 3: Dust For Dunces 101

(Team JNPR Dorm)

Nora was convinced that something was very wrong with Jaune. He had left the dorm room at ten last night, and hadn't come back until two. He thought that no one had noticed, but Nora had. Most people would just assume he had been with Weiss, but Nora knew that Weiss was very much not a night owl.

She watched Jaune get ready for training with Weiss, there was a very good reason that Nora always acted out, always instigated shenanigans. It was her way of making sure her friends were alright. Back when it was just her and Ren, she hated when he just... withdrew. So, she did whatever she had to do to get him to smile.

"Jaune, how are you doing? Really?" Nora asked.

Jaune pondered the question. Finally, he answered.

"I miss her, Nora. I miss her smile, her laugh... the way she'd always apologize even when she had nothing to apologize for! I just... I miss her." Jaune said.

Nora sensed that he wasn't done, and waited for him to continue.

"It helps that I always have a piece of her with me," Jaune said, motioning to the sash tied around his waist, "But, that night... it still haunts me, Nora. It still... I'm still..."

Nora walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, Jaune. You can tell me, I won't tell a soul."

Jaune shot her a look.

"Well, maybe Ren." She admitted, a mischievous smile on her face.

Jaune barked out a laugh, then continued. "I met one of the new first years. Her name was Percia. Apart from her hair color it was like I saw a ghost. That's not even the worst part, she stopped me to tell me that Pyrrha was her inspiration for wanting to become a Huntress!"

Nora frowned. "Jaune, people are going to do stuff like that. Me and Ren get questions a little more than we'd like. You're gonna have to get used to it at some point."

"I know, I'm better than I was. I haven't... gone away like I did right before finals last term."

Nora flinched. That had been bad.

Whether it had been the stress from finals combined with his grief or something else entirely, Jaune had just... shut down. He had barely been able to get out of bed and take a shower, much less tell you the weak points on a Beringel.

It had only been through a combination of Weiss's ministrations and Jaune not wanting to miss the Combat final that had brought him out of it.

"I can't go away like that again, Nora. There's too much at stake." Jaune said, "Besides, I don't think I can survive another one of Port's makeup tests!"

Ah, yes. The increasingly weird balance of their lives. The balance that went from 'save the world' to 'did you do your history paper' and back again.

"I don't blame you, Jaune. Now get out of here! You've got some training to do!" Nora yelled with all of her typical manic exuberance.

Jaune smiled as Nora bodily shoved him out the door. He could always count on her to cheer him up.

(Beacon Academy, Training Room 3)

"So, Jaune, what do you know about dust?" Weiss asked.

An excellent question. What did Jaune know about dust? He knew that lightning dust kick-started Nora's Semblance, he knew that Ruby had nearly blown herself up by sneezing around it, and he knew that Weiss looked absolutely fabulous when she used it.

"Uh, you do cool stuff with it?" Jaune answered.

If ever there was a way to glare at someone indulgently Weiss had mastered it. "Correct, but try again."

"Uh, you look absolutely fabulous when you use it?" Jaune attempted again.

"Flatterer. You could give Neptune a run for his money." Weiss teased.

"I doubt that, but I'll take the compliment." Jaune countered, "Okay, for real this time. After Aura, dust is our best weapon against the Grimm. There are multiple types, all with varying elemental effects."

Weiss nodded, "Good, what else?"

Jaune pretended to think for a moment and replied, "Don't sneeze around it?"

"Jaune."

He raised his hands in mock surrender, "Other than rattling off the types of dust I know of off the top of my head, I've got nothing."

"So, normally with dust based weapons," Weiss explained, "They use dust to achieve a pre-determined effect, such as when Ruby uses lightning ammo."

"That makes sense. Cardin can really only do fire dust explosions with the dust crystal in his mace." Jaune added.

"Exactly, however, Myrtenaster is different. It allows me to shape the effect of the dust how I want, either by focusing it through my glyphs, or-" Weiss started.

Jaune's eyes lit up in understanding, "That's why you move the way you do when you use dust! To direct it, right?"

"Jaune, why aren't you this clever when it comes to Dust Studies?" Weiss complained.

"That is a very good question that I do not have an answer for."

"In any event, you are correct. The upgrade that I have designed for Crocea Mors will work in the same fashion, but with a twist." Weiss explained, "It harkens back to older dust weapons where the user had to add aura to their strikes to activate the dust."

It's perfect for me in a way, with aura concentration being the trigger, instead of there being an actual trigger to fumble with. Plus based on what Weiss has told me about how dust works, it'll work exactly the way I want it to.

"Awesome, let's get started." Jaune said.

Weiss had chosen training room three for a reason. It was known by another name by most of the other students. The Workshop. This was because, unlike the other training rooms at Beacon, there was a workbench meant for the application or fine tuning of upgrades.

As Jaune watched Weiss enable Crocea Mors to accept dust vials he was reminded of the "Weapon Tune-Up Day" that had happened last semester, in Grimm Studies for whatever reason. Seeing Ruby work on Crescent Rose had been like watching a master craftsman hone their skill. Seeing Yang work on Ember Celica had been like watching a pyromaniac have a bit too much fun. But Weiss?

Watching her work on Myrtenaster had been like watching a surgeon. It didn't help that she actually wore a surgical mask for some reason. Regardless of her reasoning for that, she brought every bit of that skill and precision to bear on Crocea Mors.

After about twenty minutes, Weiss had finished. The dust upgrade was molded seamlessly with the Mistralian Bronze that Jaune had added to the cross guard of his sword. Unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't even be able to tell anything was different.

Weiss showed him a knob that was located right where his thumb would be when holding the sword, that knob was how he chose what dust type was active, or if it was primed at all.

"There's room in the sword for four dust vials." Weiss explained. "Right now there's two wind and two lightning vials. If you choose to add more dust types later, you'll need to reconfigure the selector knob."

Jaune took his sword, and moved to the center of the training room. "Weiss, give me a target." He grinned as he settled into his stance.

A glyph appeared a good distance away from him, Jaune flicked over to wind dust, concentrated aura in his sword, and swung.

A wave of wind, reminiscent of Blake's aura slashes, was released, and impacted against the glyph.

"Yes!" Jaune crowed, "It worked just how I wanted it to!"

Jaune continued to experiment with what he could do, while Weiss kept a watchful eye and provided advice when requested. It seemed that unlike with swordsmanship, where Jaune needed constant direction, with dust his natural creativity took over.

After helping Jaune figure out how to reload, Weiss began to work on something that had eluded her for a long time.

Summoning.

It was the lesser known part of the Schnee semblance, the ability to summon Grimm that she had felled in battle to defend her. The problem was that the summoning glyph was incredibly... slippery.

Most of her glyphs, Barrier, Velocity, Hold, and even Time Dilation were simple enough, all it took was visualization. For Barrier, she simply visualized a shield.

In recent days, she had taken to using Jaune's shield as the visualization and was pleased to find out that it had increased the strength of her Barrier glyphs slightly.

But summoning didn't work off of visualization, or off of science. It worked off of emotion, at least that's what Grandpa Schnee's diary said. It required something else, but a poorly timed ink blot kept that information from her.

So, all she could do was fumble around in the dark, figuratively speaking.

Visualize the Arma Gigas, focus on how you felt when you beat it, add aura, and...

The glyph fizzled.

"Damn it!" Weiss swore. She had almost had it, too! Maybe.

That got Jaune's attention. Weiss didn't swear.

He sheathed his sword, and walked over to her. "Weiss? You alright?"

"I'm fine!" She snapped. "This is just proving to be elusive."

"Summoning, right?" Jaune asked.

Weiss shot him a look, how did he know about-

"Ruby told me about it a couple weeks ago. She said you were having problems with it."

"Every time, it fails!" Weiss ranted, "I have the glyph perfect, I have the image of the Grimm that I want to summon in my mind, but it just fails and I don't know why!"

"Weiss, can you try again?" Jaune asked.

Weiss sent him a withering glare, to his credit, Jaune realized that her ire wasn't directed at him.

"I've got a hunch, but I need to see it one more time." Jaune explained.

Weiss nodded, plunged her sword into the ground, and began to concentrate. The glyph formed without complaint, glowed brighter when she had visualized the Arma Gigas, then... failed. Again. She turned to Jaune who... was smiling?

"I think I've got it, but... ah..."

"Jaune, what is it?" Weiss asked impatiently.

"Well, it uh... comes from one of the comic books that I read." Jaune cleared his throat and explained, "This is the quote, 'The power comes in response to a need, you have to create that need.' Does that make sense?"

"Strangely enough, it does, but how do I create the need?"

Jaune responded by moving so he was across from her, and drew his sword. "En garde, Miss Schnee."

Weiss smirked, noting the playful tone in Jaune's voice. "En garde, Mr. Arc."

Technically, this is our first date. Weiss thought.

Weiss created a glyph beneath her, and launched herself at Jaune, her sword extended. The Schnee Family Special, as she called it. Jaune deflected it, barely, by making the blade skip off of his shield.

They danced a dance of steel and wit, Weiss landed small hits regularly, due to Jaune's inexperience with fighting against fighters that used speed. However, these small hits took off so little of his aura that they were negligible. Jaune, for his part, took advantage of the fact that he only needed to pressure Weiss into a situation where she thought she needed to try summoning.

He flicked over to lightning dust, and launched an aura charged spin attack that unleashed a wave of electricity, causing Weiss to jump back using a glyph.

If I can just make her duck... she might go for a summon.

Jaune thrust his sword in her direction, causing a bolt of lightning to leap from the blade of Crocea Mors at Weiss.

She knelt to dodge, plunged her sword into the ground, and the summoning glyph began to form.

Gotta make her think she's still in trouble...

He switched to wind dust, and attacked, vertical slashes that sent waves of wind just to the right and left of Weiss, close enough to make her think that-

Suddenly, there was a flash, and the one-on-one fight had become two-on-one, with a Boarbatusk joining the fray.

Weiss grinned, and simply pointed her sword at Jaune, the Boarbatusk started its signature rolling charge...

But Jaune was ready, and rolled to the right. Once he had regained his feet, he resheathed his sword, and activated its greatsword mode. Jaune charged, attacking the Boarbatusk with an uppercut that sent it flying. It impacted the wall, then vanished.

"You actually got the Sword-sword?" Weiss giggled.

Jaune groaned.

(Unknown Location, Vale)

Arthur Watts was finally in his element.

It had taken weeks, but he and Tyrian had finally infiltrated Vale, and had a relatively comfortable hideout. The first step to the plan to... relocate Miss Rose to Evernight Castle was recon.

The whole reason that Tyrian and Watts, two people who could not possibly be more different, worked so well together is that they knew when to work together, and when to work separately.

Watts was slowly probing Beacon Academy's cyber security, careful not to poke too hard, it was much too early to raise any sort of alarm. Tyrian would call him occasionally, asking him to disable a camera, or something of that nature.

Watts had been able to track Ruby's Scroll through the GPS, so Tyrian was familiarizing himself with the places that she frequented.

A dust shop in the main square.

The candy store next to it.

A video arcade a good distance away.

A ramen stand that also served seafood of all things.

Not making much progress on Beacon's firewalls, Watts turned his attention to Ruby's Scroll. As it was connected to the network, it was tantalizingly vulnerable.

Watts frowned. This was... beyond the usual encryption. At least for her text messages. With little effort, he decrypted her contact list. Why was that encrypted in the first place?

Why the hell was General Ironwood in Ruby Rose's contact list?

Watts frowned. This... did Ozpin tell her about...

He accessed her text messages and started snooping about.

It seemed that all of the members of Ruby's team, and the remnants of their "sister" team, team JNPR, were all involved in some sort of independent study program. There was just one problem.

Beacon didn't have an independent study program.

"Well, this certainly is a wrinkle." Watts mused.

"What was that, oh, good doctor?" Tyrian asked.

"Ozpin appears to have chosen his next generation of guardians." Watts said, stroking his mustache. "We'll maintain the course for now, but depending on if we can act before Adam starts his little war, our plan may change."

"If we can't get the girl," Tyrian suggested, "Can I at least kill Ozpin? Imagine the chaos that would cause!"

Watts considered it. It was certainly a viable strategy, plus it would look good, cleaning up Cinder's messes. He filed it away in possible contingencies.

"Come back for now, Tyrian." Watts said. "I think we should lay low for a couple days. I'll admit to being spooked."

In the meantime, Watts got to work, tapping away at his interface. He had six more people to get to know.

(Team JNPR Dorm)

Jaune lay awake pretending to be asleep. He had to wait until he was sure that others didn't know what he was doing. They wouldn't understand. He was even keeping it from Weiss.

Finally, Nora's snoring started. Jaune was forever grateful that Ren had conditioned himself to sleep through Nora's snoring, that allowed him to sneak out to do some training.

Training that was incredibly personal.

He made his way to the roof, it was the one place that he could do this while at Beacon, he sincerely hoped that Cardin didn't rat him out, his window was in the perfect position to spy on him.

He took out his scroll, primed the video, drew his sword, then hit play.

"Alright, Jaune. Just like we practiced. Follow these instructions."

The voice of Pyrrha Nikos began to echo around the rooftop.

"Shield up, keep your grip tight, don't forget to keep your front foot forward. Ready?"

He hadn't been. If he had been, then maybe Pyrrha would still be alive. He had to be ready for the next time, he had to get stronger. Cinder was still out there, and Adam Taurus was a threat to Weiss that he hadn't counted on.

He couldn't let history repeat. It would break him if it did, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to put himself back together right.

"Go!"

He stabbed at an imaginary opponent, letting out a shout to release his emotions.

"Again!"

This time a horizontal slash.

"And again!"

An overhead strike.

"Okay, now assuming you aren't cheating, we can take a break." Video-Pyrrha said.

Jaune knew what was coming next. He could set the video to rewind at this point.

But he didn't.

"I know this can be frustrating, and it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount. But I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves!"

Thanks, Pyr.

"You've grown so much since we started training, and I know that this is just the beginning."

I know, but I need to keep going, I'm not there yet, I can't protect them all yet.

"Jaune, I... I just want you to know that I'm happy to be a part of your life."

Jaune could hear the words she had wanted to say, but didn't have the courage to say.

"I'll always be here for you, Jaune."

The video rewound, and he did it again.

And again.

And again.

(Team CRDL Dorm)

It took a lot to move the men of team CRDL to tears, they were men, they claimed, and men didn't cry.

Turns out, all it took was hearing Pyrrha's voice.

Then it started over, and they realized what was going on. Jaune was torturing himself with what Pyrrha had intended to be just a training video.

Then, finally, it was over.

"Cardin? What are we gonna do?" Sky asked.

Cardin wished he knew.

A/N: So, things happened. I hope y'all can forgive me for putting my headcanon for an upgrade for Jaune in this story.

Yeah, I made references to both RWBY Chibi and Dragon Ball Z here. The Chibi reference was just for fun, but the DBZ reference actually has weight to it, at least, I think it does.

In this AU, this is the first time Weiss successfully summoned anything. She didn't need to during the Battle of Beacon because of how much smoother the battle went.

In canon, Weiss doesn't successfully summon until Velvet gets punched by a Paladin. She needed the power to protect a friend, the need was created, so the power came. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Oh well.

As for Jaune's power level, I hope I'm not making him OP too quickly, not that he'll get OP in this. But there's an interesting point about his power level that I need to bring up. His "I can hold the line" and "I can win this fight" power levels are two completely different things. Keep that in mind going forward.

Next Chapter: Classes start, and Professor Goodwitch ropes the gang into additional classes just for them. No one said that multitasking fighting a shadow war and passing their classes was going to be easy.