A/N: Hi everyone. Welcome to another chapter of The Autobot and the Arc.

I'll leave any notes and announcements in the ending A/N.


Arcee was having second thoughts about rain. Don't get her wrong, she still thought it was fascinating and beautiful to experience. It was just a by-product of it that was giving her these negative feelings.

"It's fragging all over me..." Arcee complained as they traveled through the forest in the early morning.

"I am so sorry I didn't think of that earlier Arcee, 100% my fault," Jaune apologized.

"Please tell me you have a way to get this mud off of me. I feel absolutely disgusting."

"There's a hose in the backyard I can use to wash you off."

"Thank you. I swear this mud is starting to solidify and crust on me."

"Hey, you're not the only one suffering here," Jaune said as he gestured to his mud-soaked clothes.

"To be fair, you were driving me, hitting that rock was your fault," Arcee couldn't hold it in anymore and she started chuckling at the situation, with Jaune joining in soon after.

Despite the setback from having to stay the whole night because of the storm, Arcee would say that this trip was a success. She got a good assessment of the ship and of what she had to do, she retrieved some energon to store for later, and she has a new way to communicate with Jaune to help keep her cover. She hoped that they could do weekly, she could get so much accomplished if that was the case. But regardless, staying hidden was a top priority. If that meant that they could only do this once a month, then so be it.

They were on the main road now and were close to the house when Jaune suddenly hit the breaks and started to wheel her on the road while running. "What's wrong Jaune?"

"It's still early so they all might be asleep. I want to try and sneak in and make them think I came home late instead of now," Jaune explained. "I'll still clean you but I gotta shower first so they don't get suspicious."

"Smart, I didn't even think of that," Arcee complemented. Jaune wheeled her along the road and then through the small patch of trees to their backyard. Taking a few short moments to check the windows every now and then, they made their way to the shed.

"Alright," Jaune said as he opened the door and wheeled her in, "I'll be back out in a few minutes and get you cleaned off. Can you last that long?"

"I'll try my hardest," her response got a smile out of Jaune as he walked away. He got just out of sight from the door when she heard the sound of his footsteps cease.

"Oh, hehe, hey mom. W-what are you doing here so early?"

"That implies I went to sleep at all last night," Arcee heard Joanne say. She did not sound amused in the slightest. "Why didn't you come home last night, or even call me?"

"I couldn't because of the storm. I couldn't travel in it and it took out the reception. I'm sorry." Jaune replied.

"All true," Joanne was silent for a few moments. "I tried calling you when I saw the storm approaching but couldn't get through. But then I remembered you mentioned you were hanging out with Mrs. Nakadai's kid so I called her. Imagine my surprise when she said that not only were you not with her or her daughter, but that you two drifted away and haven't even been friends for a little over a year now."

Arcee did not envy Jaune's current predicament, but she did know the feeling and felt sympathy for him. She got in trouble before when she was younger and smaller too. Primus help you if you accidentally broke or even scratched something of Ratchet's. You were usually fine… physically at least.

But this also presented a problem. Arcee learned how human families work. If Jaune got in trouble and got 'grounded', which was a weird name for a punishment, then that would just complicate things further than they need to be.

An idea sprung up in her mind. It was a dumb one, but it would have to do.


"Jaune, I am only going to ask this once: Where were you last night?"

Jaune was frozen under his mother's glare. He was so screwed with a capital S. He didn't know what to tell her. She wouldn't believe any lie he told and the truth was just too far fetched. Who would believe 'I spent the night aboard the crashed spaceship of the alien robot girl who is also my motorcycle'? No one would. He was boned.

Then his scroll started ringing. He took it out and saw "unknown number" calling.

"Answer it on speaker," his mother glared with crossed arms. Not wanting to make the situation any worse, Jaune did as commanded.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jaune!" said a high pitched and energetic voice. Jaune's mind had a hard time processing why it sounded so familiar, and when he did he still didn't believe it.

"Arcee?"

"Yep! I just wanted to call and say thank you for helping me get my homework done last night! I really appreciate it!" So many questions were going though Jaune's mind, all of them very similar to 'Why did Arcee call me and why the hell does she sound like one of those obnoxious popular girls?!' Seriously, what the heck was happening?! "I also wanted to make sure you got home safely! You didn't get into trouble with your parents, did you?"

"I..." Jaune looked back up to his mother. All traces of anger and impatience were gone, and were replaced with surprised wide eyes and pressed lips. Her arms were also uncrossed and she gave a motion for him to continue. "No, they were a little mad but were totally understanding because of the storm and all."

"Awesome! Say, if you'd like, we could meet again next weekend… if you like." In Jaune's peripheral vision, he could see his mother quickly nodding yes.

"S-sure thing, I'll call you later about it."

"Awesome! I gotta go now, catch you later!" Acree said with glee before hanging up.

Jaune stared at the scroll for a little bit longer before putting it away. His mom now had a small smile on her face. "You didn't have to lie. I understand why, but it would have been less stressful for me if you just told me you got a girlfriend," she said before turning around and walking back to the house.

Jaune was frozen on the spot, still trying to process what just happened. He eventually recovered and quickly walked back into the shed. "What was that?" He asked Arcee.

"That was me getting you out of trouble," she replied. "Would you rather get punished? Or grounded?"

"Well, no. Thank you for that by the way. But why did you have to do it like that?"

"Like what?" Arcee sounded generally confused. "Is that now how friends your age act? I picked that up from watching some other kids outside the school while waiting for you."

"Well… did you have to make it seem like we were dating?"

"Dating? What's that?" It was at that moment when Jaune realized what the misunderstanding was, but he was not in the mood to explain dating to the alien robot. He just facepalmed and muttered, "I'll explain later. I'll be right back."

Jaune went inside and came back out 15 minutes later, showered and in clean clothes. He then wheeled Arcee out of the shed and got the hose.

"Alright, this might be a little cold," Jaune warned as he squeezed the trigger and showered Arcee with water.

"It's not that bad, it's actually comforting, like the rain from last night," she commented. "Really refreshing."

Jaune adjusted the end of the nozzle, increasing the pressure to get the mud off easier. "So, what's it like transforming?" he asked in curiosity.

"I don't really know how to describe it, no one's ever really asked me that," Arcee replied honestly.

"Well, what exactly happens? How does your body change? Does it feel weird when your body folds up and expands? Do you think differently as a bike?" Jaune asked with curiosity.

"Can't really say I think differently, I just recognize that there are certain things I can and can't do. I can travel so much faster but can't turn or react as fast and I can't fight back. I don't know if you have anything similar but imagine you have the controls for something, but then you get a different controller for that same thing."

"I think I get it," Jaune said, thinking about it like different video game controllers.

"Changing forms doesn't really feel any different, it's just another function we can do. It's just as natural to us as running and crawling are to you. Sorry if that's not very informative."

"No no, its ok," Jaune said as he let go of the trigger, stopping the water flow. "How do you feel? Did I get all the mud off?"

"I definitely feel much cleaner. Thank you, though I still feel a small bit of mud on me in some places."

"Hose probably won't get them, I'll get a rag."

"Tha- someone's coming," Arcee's tone quickly hushed to a whisper as the back door opened.

"Hey dad. What's up?" Jaune stood and faced.

"Morning son, just heading out to my post for the morning" he greeted with a smile. "Say, can you do me two favors?" Jaune nodded. "In a few hours could you drive Joan to the terminal, her flight for Beacon is today."

"Sure thing. And the second thing?" Jaune raised an eyebrow when his dad's smile faded with a sigh.

"Jaune, look, your mother has been bothering me nonstop for the past 20 minutes," he walked up and handed Jaune something from his pocket.

It was a pack of condoms.

"Just tell her I gave you the talk so she can leave us alone about this. Congrats by the way, I knew you could do it." And then he was off. Jaune stared at the condoms, unable to do anything else as he contemplated what just happened… again.

"Jaune, what are those and why is your face turning red?"


The day went by fast for Arcee. Not much happened. She buried the energon she took from the ship in the forest not too far out and they took Jaune's oldest sister to the airport. It was interesting to learn from Jaune what huntsmen and huntresses and the academies were. It was interesting to learn how humanity trained its elite warriors.

Though she still wasn't sure why Jaune wouldn't explain what it was that his father gave him earlier, and why he was so quick to dismiss it.

His explanation of Beacon and huntsmen brought up more about Remnant, and Arcee, in turn, decided to return the favor. She told him everything she knew about her home, Cybertron. She told him about the Autobots, her friends and comrades in arms. She gave brief explanations of the Decepticons, too many bad memories with them to really elaborate, but she made sure Jaune knew just how vile and despicable the Decepticons really were.

Right now, it was the late evening and Jaune and Arcee were in the shed. He was getting out some small rocks that got clogged in her wheels when his dad walked in.

"Oh, hey dad. What's up?" Jaune asked.

"Hey son," the father replied. "Look, your mother is out right now, and now that Joan's gone, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Uh, sure," Jaune stood up and leaned back against Arcee. "What's up?"

He wasn't the only one curious. Arcee couldn't help but wonder what was so important that Jonathan had to wait for specific family members had to be gone. This was something she knew was personal and private, but anything that affected Jaune can and will most likely affect her too, so she decided to listen in.

"Alright look," he paused for a few moments to sighing before continuing. "There's no easy way to start this conversation. Jaune, tell me what happened at Rorke's Drift."

"Why, what's there to talk about? We already talked about it," he replied, speaking a little quicker than normal.

"Not everything. Jaune, your mother and I noticed that you've been having trouble sleeping some nights. I assumed it was because of what happened in the town with the Grimm, so I asked Joan if she could give me more insight." Arcee could feel Jaune's body tense up at that. "She didn't outright say anything, but she was bad at hiding that she knew something. It took days for her to cave in and tell me."

Jaune looked down shame covering his face. "Why bring this up? If you already know..."

"Because it's eating at you," Jonathan took a few steps closer. "Jaune, I've been a huntsman for years, keeping something like that inside is just going to keep hurting you until you let it out." Arcee could hear Jaune's breath shutter, and then he muttered something that she couldn't hear. "Jaune?" Jaune muttered again but neither she nor he could hear him. "Jaune, look I-"

"I tried killing myself, alright?!" Jaune shouted and stood up. The back of his legs hit and knocked Arcee over. The loud clank of the impact was enough camouflaged the small, quiet gasp she let slip.

She couldn't believe what she just heard! Jaune tried to do that?! He wanted to end his own life?! What?! How?! Why?!

"I was scared! I was panicking! I was afraid of the Grimm so I tried to do it! Is that what you wanted to hear?!" Jaune could feel the anger and shame in his voice.

"Actually, yes," Jaune's body stiffened at this while his father relaxed and his face turned to show sympathy. "Jaune I already said, keep that stuff locked up like this will just let it eat you for a long time. It's like keeping a hatch or a lid closed while pressure is building up, it's only going to get worse the longer it's closed. Trust me, I know the feeling."

Arcee could see in his eyes that he spoke with experience. It was a look she saw in older veterans back on Cybertron.

Jonathan picked Arcee and stood ber back up and sat on the floor next to Jaune. "Jaune please, get it out of your system," he motioned for Jaune to sit down next to him and he did. "Tell me everything that happened that day."

Jaune did so. He described what the down was like, how he felt when the evacuation happened, when the Nevermore threw him out of the suttle, how he ran while he could hear everyone dying behind him.

Hearing Jaune describe it all… it brought back some memories.

(-)

"Come out, Autobots," Megatron called out as he tossed the corpse of an Autobot aside. "We all must die some time."

Arcee ducked back behind cover, thanking Primus that they were too far away for the monster to hear them move. She and about two platoons worth of Autobots were set to ambush an energon convoy with a head Decepticon leader. What that intel failed to provide was that the leader was Megatron himself.

A massacre couldn't do justice to describe the following fight. She didn't know how she and two others managed to escape, for now. It was only a matter of time until they were found.

The fembot to her right started rocking back and forth, hands gripping her head tight. "We're scraped," her voice cracked and shook with her, "We're scrapped. We're totally scrapped."

"Not yet we're not," the other Autobot, Cliffjumper, said. "We still can make it out of this." Megatron's fusion cannon roared in the distance, along with a scream. Arcee ducked when she heard the roar of seekers fly above. "We just gotta keep a level head so we can find a way out."

"A way out," the fembot muttered.

Arcee took a moment to calm herself. "Alright, I think that maybe if we keep low and-

"I know a way out," the fembot said softly but loud enough for them to hear.

"What do you-" Arcee froze as she watched the fembot line her gun up to her chest, right where spark should be. "Wait, don-!"

BANG

(-)

The sound of the blast alerted the Decepticons nearby. Arcee still wasn't sure how she and Cliffjumper managed to escape after that. That, unfortunately, wasn't the last time she saw other Autobots turn their guns on themselves. Most of the time she saw the aftermath instead of the main event, but it was still a gruesome sight to behold.

Arcee wasn't sure how long she was lost in her memories, but when she came out of it she saw Jonathan with his hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"Jaune, I'm sorry I made you relive that, but it was something you couldn't keep in," he said.

"Yeah yeah, it's ok," Jaune responded, "I'm not mad."

"You sound better though. Do you feel better?"

Jaune was quiet for a few moments before answering. "Yes actually… I do feel a little bit better like a weight was lifted off my chest or something."

"Yeah, almost like that was the point of it all." Jaune stared at his dad and failed to hold a straight face.

"Thanks, dad."

"No problem son," Jonathan pulled him in for a comforting hug.

After they left, Arcee was thinking about what she learned. The thought of Jaune being in that situation hurt her. She couldn't fathom the thought of Jaune going through that again. She thought of what she could do to help him and came up with a solution.

Jaune was in that situation because he was afraid of the Grimm and because he couldn't fight. She could at least help with one of those problems, she just has to figure out how.


Dear General Ironwood,

I am pleased to report that the town of Rorke's Drift is recovering nicely. With the exception of some construction, all is like it was before. However, that is not why I am messaging you on this secure channel.

Our suspicions have been confirmed true. It took a while because of the town's recovery efforts, but we managed to get back soil samples from the town's main square.

The soil contained small traces of residue of the substance left behind by weaponry of the N.B.E.'s. All samples have been collected for quarantine. Given how much there is, we conclude that one N.B.E., possibly two at most, was active in the area during that attack.

It is also apparent that the reported dramatic decrease in Grimm numbers from the evacuation to the counter attack is thanks to the N.B.E.

This raises questions.

The only observed interactions N.B.E.'s had with the Grimm before was as a smokescreen for escape, only engaging if the Grimm were in point-blank range or in the path of escape.

The amount of the substance left over and the way the ground was warped tells us that the N.B.E. actively engaged the Grimm to destroy them. Given our previous encounters with the N.B.E.'s, we can not conclude why one would stand and fight the Grimm in a horde of that size.

I request the aid of at least an additional squad or two of S7 agents for my investigation.

More updates will follow shortly.

-Lieutenant Schwarz Lennox


A/N: And there we have. A little slow in terms of plot, but Jaune now has a cover for going out, Arcee has an incentive to train Jaune, and there are mysterious things happening in the background. Let me know what you think in the reviews. I'm really curious to see what you all think.

Now, my friend, Cyberleader2000, made an omake for this chapter that I think you'll enjoy. but first, 3 quick things:

-Autobot Arc smut: My friend on AO3 by the name DesuVult123 (patattack750 on here) wrote a smut of Autobot and the Arc. Bewarned, it's futa on male smut. Here's a link:

archiveofourown org/works/16505762 (if it doesn't work, pm me)

-Amity Arena: I made an academy on the rwby mobile game, "DrunkenMarriage" for Mistral. Feel free to join.


OMAKE

"Answer it on speaker," his mother glared with crossed arms. Not wanting to make the situation any worse, Jaune did as commanded.

"Hello?"

"Hi Jaune!"

"Uh… hi Arcee, why are you calling?"

"I wanted to make sure you got home safely and to thank you for coming over and fixing my pipes."

Jaune watched as his mother's eyes go wide. "No problem Arcee," Jaune replies nervously, hoping this would end before things got worse.

"But I never knew handymen took payments that way. I'm now glad I was all out of lien, it was just as fun as when I paid you back for that pizza you brought over."

"I um..." Jaune heard a thud as his mother grabbed onto the wall to steady herself. 'Arcee, please stop.'

"So, I was wondering..."

At this, Jaune got more worried. "Yes go, on."

"Can you come back tomorrow and fix the tv? I think it needs a long hard cable plugged in the back of it, and I know you have the skills to get the job done, especially since you fixed the photocopier at work and saved me from being fired. I still think I haven't thanked you enough even with all the rewards I gave you in the supply room."

Jaune wasn't sure who is going to faint first: him or his mother. "I, um…. well um…. sure, I can come again." His Mother fainted as his dad ran up caught her. 'Oh god, why did I not think before I spoke?'

"Great, I'm getting a new black couch today. Maybe you can come try it out whilst you help me rehearse scenes for a part I'm trying to get."

"I, I, I….." Jaune looked up to see his dad grinning and nodding whilst mouthing 'I'm so proud, get in there Jaune.'

Jaune sighed. "Sounds great."

"Awesome, see you then!" Arcee giggled hung up.

Jaune stares awkwardly at his grinning farther, who was holding his hand up for a high five.

A few minutes later, jaune walked into the shed and facepalmed. "What the hell was that?"

"I thought I was helping."

"HOW?!"

"By getting you out of trouble?"

"I repeat, HOW?!"

"I just copied what I saw last night in those vids you have saved on your scroll."

"I..." he realized he had no one to blame but himself for that.


Thanks for reading, have a good day :)