Chapter 21
Reality
Jaune dashed over to Ruby, worried that his display of power had truly hurt his friend. She was moving, and breathing at the very least, so good news there. A quick glance at the scoreboard showed that she was just below the victory threshold of ten percent of her Aura, so Jaune relaxed a bit.
"You okay, Ruby?" he asked, genuinely concerned.
"Owwwww," she groaned. Squinting in pain as she looked up, Ruby first saw her friend's gauntleted left hand extended towards her to help her up. His right still held Crocea Corax's hilt, its now-six-foot-long, telescoping blade resting flat on his shoulder, dribbling licks of flame and the occasional spark as the last of its Dust charge flickered out. A grunt of annoyance left her as she got up, her first instinct to find and retrieve Crescent Rose rather than look Jaune in the eye. Thankfully, the inanimate object of her affection lay a short distance away, and she limped over and picked the scythe up before looking back at her opponent. "I had you," she growled softly.
"Nnnnope," Jaune replied with a mischievous smirk.
"Yeah huh," she maturely retorted.
"Nuh uh," he fired back, his grin widening and further infuriating Ruby.
"Front and center, both of you," Shaw interrupted, ordering them both to the other side of the arena where the lectern loomed over the floor. Ruby trudged over angrily, muscle memory spinning her scythe into its compact form before stowing in on the back of her belt, while Jaune took a brief detour to retrieve his shield before joining her. He arrived shortly after Ruby did, placing his sword's point into the arena floor and shoving down forcefully, collapsing the blade to its normal length before sheathing it at his side.
"All right. Arc, you had twelve opportunities to end that fight quicker. Why didn't you?" Shaw asked, Jaune blinking momentarily at the seeming praise.
"Umm, I didn't see them? Plus, my Aura control isn't that great. I can't do a bunch of things at once with it, and I only get away with a lot because I can afford to brute force through it," Jaune admitted candidly.
Shaw's normal eye narrowed, the gruff professor silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Five, then. If you have a faster, smaller opponent allow you into grappling range, you damned well take advantage of it. Chokeholds, joint manipulation; the possibilities are only limited by your training, initiative, and imagination. Hell, you could have grabbed an ankle and ragdolled her into the deck until she lost consciousness and there wouldn't be a damn thing Miss Rose could do about it."
"Understood, sir."
"And you, Miss Rose. Can you tell me why you lost?" Shaw asked, fixing her with a flat gaze.
"I didn't," she protested, crossing her arms.
"The scoreboard clearly disagrees with you."
"You said if we thought the match would end with injury you'd end it, even if we didn't."
"Correct. I saw no reason to do so," Shaw retorted matter-of-factly.
"I had him! On his back, gun to his head!" Ruby protested.
"You're missing one key point, Miss Rose."
"And what's that?" she asked, her voice bordering on a growl.
"If you'd pulled the trigger, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the match."
"Are you joking?" Ruby protested, getting a curious head tilt from Shaw.
"Professor?" Jaune interjected.
"Yes, Mister Arc?"
"I think I know what the problem is."
"Do enlighten me, and the class as well," he stated, Jaune and Ruby both now realizing that Shaw's mic was picking them up also.
"Well, Professor Shaw doesn't think you would have done enough damage to take me below the limit," he began matter-of-factly.
"Oh, really?" Ruby shot back, blood boiling over someone daring to insult the efficacy of Crescent Rose.
"And neither do I," Jaune added, dropping Ruby's jaw nearly to the floor.
"What?!"
"You don't believe me?"
"Hell, no!" Ruby scoffed.
"Fine, prove it."
"Huh?" Ruby asked, her head cocked to the side.
"Take the shot," Jaune added, throwing his arms wide in surrender.
"Are you crazy or just stupid?!" Ruby fired back angrily, her expression that of fearing for her friend's very sanity.
"I can take it," he replied with a cocky smile.
"No, you can't," she said, pointing to Jaune's Aura bar, still on display. "I don't wanna hurt you, Jaune."
"You won't."
"Only because I'm not gonna do it. Professor?" she asked, hoping that Shaw would be responsible enough to end this silliness.
"You heard the man."
Ruby gawked at them both, a soft murmur from the crowd finally becoming known to her. This was insane! There was nothing that was going to convince Ruby to shoot her friend, especially with his Aura so low after their spar, and she'd be damned if anyone thought they'd convince her that she'd actually lost the match.
"Hey, Ruby? Remember last year, when someone kept slipping a single oatmeal raisin into your plates of double chocolate chip cookies?" Jaune asked, Ruby's face going slack at the memory of the most diabolically horrific prank that she'd ever fallen victim to. "It was meeee," Jaune whisper-hissed, grinning like a maniac.
"You monster!" she shrieked at her betrayer, spinning Crescent Rose back into its rifle form, aiming the muzzle at the center of his breastplate, and pulling the trigger.
Click.
Jaune's smile continued unabated, Ruby's confusion further amplified by this turn of events. Blinking twice, she remembered her immediate action drills, racking the slide of her weapon and slapping the bottom of the magazine, which is when she finally froze in place. There hadn't been a casing, live or otherwise, ejected when she'd cycled the action, but of greater importance was the magazine itself.
Or rather, its absence.
She patted the empty magazine well again, locking the bolt to the rear of the action and visually inspecting it, finding it still completely empty. She cycled the bolt again in disbelief, almost as if the movement would erase the sheer impossibility of what she was seeing.
"Whuh?"
"Looking for this?" Jaune asked, pulling the missing magazine from his cargo pocket.
"I...but...how?!" she demanded, her gaze darting to him, her weapon, back to him, to Shaw, and back to Jaune yet again.
"You did show me how to load and unload that thing," Jaune reminded her.
"Yeah, but why didn't I notice…" she trailed off before her eyes went wide as the realization hit her. "It only weighs 362 grams, Ruby! You'll barely notice it's there!" she whinged in a high falsetto, trying to approximate her partner's voice. "GAHHH!" she shouted to the ceiling in frustration, a fist clenched as she looked for something to punch.
"Are you done?" Shaw asked pointedly.
"Yes, sir," Ruby replied, her frame going slack once more.
"Are you going to answer my question?"
"Which?...Oh, yeah," she said, her gaze cutting to the floor in embarrassment. "I lost because I didn't realize Jaune had stolen my magazine," she said, muttering under her breath a further "Jerk."
"Wrong," Shaw stated flatly.
"Huh?" Ruby replied at the blunt response. "I mean, I didn't realize my weapon balance was off because I added a new mod yesterday, and I'm still…" she tried to correct, showing Shaw the as-yet unpainted hardlight shield generator Weiss had gifted to her.
"No, Miss Rose. That is how you lost, not why."
Ruby blinked at the feedback, now genuinely lost, her nerves threatening to overwhelm her. "I...I don't understand, Professor," she said in as timid a voice as Jaune had ever heard from her.
"You lost that fight before it began. Let me show you," Shaw added, clearly displeased at her confusion. His fingers swept over the large display built into the lectern, bringing up a camera feed from the beginning of the match. Another tap brought up both fighters' Aura levels, overlaid in the bottom corners of the display. The sound was muted with a third gesture, allowing the class to watch without missing the commentary.
"Your Semblance, it consumes Aura like most any other, does it not?" Shaw asked, screen Ruby bolting across the arena to her starting position in a manner familiar to nearly everyone else present.
"Well, just a little. Sometimes I get excited and can't control myself."
"And what were you so excited about?"
"I mean, I love combat class! Who doesn't? Well, maybe Jaune, but me? I don't have to worry about being looked at as the kid who shouldn't even be here. I can just let loose and let my fighting skill do the talking," she added, missing the flat-eyed gaze from her friend in her awkwardly gushing explanation.
"So you don't see Mister Arc as a threat?" Shaw interrupted, an eyebrow raised in consternation.
"I mean, yeah?" Ruby asked, having not expected the question in the slightest.
"But not enough of a threat to take your fight seriously? You two are friends, yes?"
"He's my best friend," Ruby corrected him with a smile.
"Romantically involved?" Shaw asked bluntly.
"What!? No!" Ruby protested, turning as red as her hood.
Jaune could only gawk at the accusation, still unsure where this was headed.
"Then tell me why you took it easy on him."
"I didn't! He's gotten better! I mean, I didn't know how much, but…"
"This graph shows your Aura usage immediately preceding and during the fight. You dipped below maximum before you even started, and the closest you got was...here," Shaw paused the playback just before Jaune had scored his first hit of the match. His shield was frozen in place a hand's breadth away from the back of her corset, and with a tap of the finger, Shaw changed the Aura readouts from a simple bar graph to numerical values.
"Right before you took that hit you stood at ninety-nine point eight five percent. Fast forward to the end of the fight, and the automated systems called the spar...here," he said, finding the point where Ruby impacted the safety barrier and freezing playback once more, "At nine point nine four percent. Your showboating before the match cost you," he concluded. "You could have recovered from that final hit, and maybe even taken the match. If you'd taken Mister Arc seriously."
"I...I…" Ruby stammered.
"Are you deliberately sandbagging your opponent?"
"I...no, sir," she replied, shrinking visibly.
"Are you trying to get him killed?" Shaw growled.
"No!" Ruby protested, silver eyes threatening to brim over.
"Or is it going to take you nearly dying again to get through to you that this isn't a damn game!?" Shaw shouted, the weight of his words pushing Ruby further into the floor.
"That's enough!" Jaune shouted, bringing Shaw up short even as Jaune recognized that he'd heard the same from Ruby's sister in the gallery.
The Professor cut his gaze to Yang for a moment before he refocused on Jaune.
"You think I'm being mean, without reason," Shaw stated flatly. He nodded once, regarding the class as a whole. "Who thinks I'm being cruel towards Miss Rose?" his voice boomed, getting Yang's hand raised defiantly, Jaune's following shortly after, but a bit more hesitantly due to his proximity to the intimidating presence of Shaw. A few of their classmates offered support as well, though nowhere near as vehemently. "First rule, class. Honesty! Who thinks I'm being cruel?" he asked more forcefully this time, garnering raised hands from a full half of the class now. "That's better. Hands down." He paused, dismissing the hardlight display with the wave of a gloved hand.
"Very well, allow me to further introduce myself. For those of you who place importance on the recent Vytal Festival tournament, I was, in ancient days of yore," he added with obvious sarcasm, "leader of Team ORCD of Atlas Academy, one of only three teams to successfully defend their Vytal Festival championship, and the only one of those to have done so as third-year students." He again paused to let the accomplishment sink in before dashing it utterly.
"However, as most of you have no doubt discovered, a tournament win means precisely dick. Seeding and luck of the draw can wreak havoc on a tournament bracket, and I won't lie and say that we weren't supremely lucky in some of our matchups. That being said, I take pride in a far more important achievement. Class, on your feet!" he barked suddenly, getting swift compliance out of most everyone through the sheer authority he exuded.
"We have eleven teams in this class, forty-four students. In my career, I've taught hundreds of student Huntsmen for at least one semester, both Atlas Academy graduates and exchange students when Atlas hosted the tournament. Four hundred forty-eight have at least ten years since passing their licensing exam. Of those, four hundred seventeen are still active Huntsmen and Huntresses, many of them Atlesian Army Specialists. Twelve retired to raise families, five more due to injury, and four were lost in an airship explosion orchestrated by the White Fang, those courageous little freedom fighters," he added, his voice dripping with sarcastic venom. "The remaining ten fell in combat with the Grimm, may their names be forever glorified. Mister Winchester, Mister Ren; have a seat, please." Cardin shrugged and complied, not fazed by being singled out. Ren, placid as ever, did the same.
"What you all see before you is the average of every class I've ever taught. Four hundred seventeen brave souls standing against the darkness that threatens to consume our world." Shaw let that sink in before moving on to the rest of the lesson. "Team CFVN, take a seat. Mister Lark as well," he added.
"This is the average of every Beacon student over the same timeframe. Misses Xiao Long, Belladonna and Schnee, take a seat." The class was now cowed, seeing the disturbing direction the statistics were taking. "This is now the global average, again over the same span." The class was silent, many unwilling to look at the professor as their worldview struggled with the cold, hard facts with which they'd been presented.
"Sorry if I'm the first to tell you this, but we are in a very dangerous profession, ladies and gentlemen. Every student I've ever lost, I've had to ask myself what more I could have done, how I could have better taught them." Shaw took a deep breath, straightening his uniform coat for a moment before he continued.
"So to answer the question? You're Gods-damned right I'm cruel. I am ruthless, I am merciless, and I'll be damned if I'm ever going to let a single one of you fail to give me your best every day you're in my classroom. I will hurt feelings, break egos, and trample self-esteem, and in the end, you'll be better for it. Hell, some of you might even thank me," he added with a smirk. "The rest of you, take your seats."
"Now then, back to the matter at hand. Mister Arc, you somehow were able to both surprise and disappoint me, so...kudos, I suppose. You defeated an opponent who clearly outclasses you in almost every available metric through cunning and luck, but you could have done better. Eighty-four. You still have a lot of room for improvement."
"Yes, sir," Jaune replied, blinking in surprise at the first legitimately decent grade he'd received for a spar.
"Miss Rose, your cockiness and disregard for your opponent cost you the match. However, I will say that it is a mistake I'm glad you've made here, rather than out in the real world. If you approach every Beowolf like you're on auto-pilot, one day, one of them will do something unexpected and you'll be in trouble. All that aside, your technique is sound and your strikes well-placed. Open your mind a little, and work on your situational awareness. Seventy-two. Questions, either of you?"
"No, sir," Ruby whispered dejectedly, Jaune simply shaking his still-reeling head in response.
"Very well, hit the showers, both of you. I want you both in my office in fifteen minutes."
"Sir?" Jaune asked, wondering what trouble they'd managed to get into already.
"Did I stutter?" Shaw asked flatly, clearly brooking no disagreement.
"No, sir," Jaune and Ruby replied in unison.
"Good. Get lost," Shaw added bluntly. "Next match! Since you seem so eager for a fight, Miss Xiao Long, let's get you down there with Miss Scarlatina." Yang stomped down to the arena floor, cracking her knuckles whilst Velvet approached the coming fight with an air of calm confidence about her.
"Yang?" Ruby called out as they both passed her sister.
"We'll talk about it later. Both of you," she clarified. Jaune could swear he saw a heat shimmer rising from her shoulders already, and thus didn't question her decision, instead vacating the arena floor alongside Ruby.
A quick glance to the stands showed him the reactions of their teammates, even as subdued as they'd gotten since the end of the match. Returning her wave, he could see the proud smile on Pyrrha's lips, her eyes slightly closed to ward off tears. He returned the smile until he caught view of Weiss, whose glower for the both of them made him flinch.
Breaking eye contact with the stands, Jaune looked to Ruby again, seeing that her head hung low as she shambled alongside him towards the locker room. They passed through the floor-level door in silence, hearing the tell-tale pop-hum of the safety barrier going back up as the door closed behind them.
"You okay, Ruby?" Jaune asked softly, unnerved by his friend's quiet demeanor.
"You lied to me, Jaune," she said, her teeth gritted in anger.
"Beg pardon?"
"You didn't say anything about your sword doing that...that...woosh thing!" she finally got out, her hands gesticulating wildly.
"What, the extension?" he asked, drawing Crocea Corax and whipping it quickly to his side. The blade snapped open to its nearly six foot length easily, a faint whistle heard from the perforations as it cut the air. "Or the Dust?"
"Yes! You said you hadn't modified it into a mechashift variant!" Ruby protested.
"No, I said that it still wasn't also a gun. And there aren't any gears involved, actually."
"That's still lying!"
Jaune shook his head and smiled, lightly tapping the tip of her nose with his finger.
"You're just jealous I've got a cool weapon now."
"Oh, as if!" she countered, rolling her eyes, the beginnings of a smile forming on her lips.
"Or you're just mad you lost," Jaune added, immediately regretting it when he saw her face fall, her gaze finding the floor. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I'm not trying to rub it in your face or anything, okay?"
A soft puff of breath escaped her nostrils before she shook her head gently in disbelief. "I still can't believe you sometimes," she muttered softly.
"I said I'm…"
"Stop it!" she barked, an angry edge in her voice. "Stop being the perfect friend for one minute?" Jaune looked confused for a moment, giving Ruby the chance she needed to unburden herself. "I screwed up, okay? He's right! I should have taken you more seriously than I did. I'm sorry," she added in a near whisper.
"You finished?" he asked her, voice low and calm.
"I guess."
"Okay. One of us had to win, one of us had to lose. But it's like Sensei always said, 'you can always learn from getting your ass kicked'. And damn if I didn't learn a lot over the summer," he added in a mumble.
"Yeah," Ruby concurred, still crestfallen. "I noticed."
"So what did you learn? Sensei always asked me that after I'd ended up on my back."
"Don't trust you with Crescent Rose ever again?"
Jaune shrugged. "Ehh, I'll take that answer."
"Still, gotta say I like the new sword. You took a classic and made it better."
"Well, I didn't technically do it, but yeah. I'm liking it too."
"Can you show me how everything works? That craftsmanship is just insane! I can't even see the seams!" Ruby gushed, now that they'd arrived at one of her favorite topics of conversation.
"Maybe later, Ruby. We need to clean up and get to the professor's office." Jaune again collapsed his sword before sheathing it at his side.
"Yeah, I guess. I wonder what this is all about."
"We'll find out when we get there. No sense in worrying about it."
"Listen to you," Ruby said with a smile and a nudge. "You used to be terrified of Goodwitch."
"I guess being dead for three months changes your perspective a little," Jaune snarked, getting a punch to the shoulder for his troubles.
"That's not funny, okay?" Ruby rebuked him gently.
"All right, last time, I promise."
"Better be." Ruby fixed him with a firm stare for a moment before relenting, stepping forward and throwing her arms around him, squeezing tightly. Jaune returned the embrace, his chin resting on top of her head as she took a deep breath through her nose and sighed. "It's good to have you back," she whispered.
"It's good to be back," Jaune replied, squeezing her a little tighter for a moment.
"And you stink," Ruby added, backing away a step. "Shower. Now."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. Keeping up with you is hard work, you know? Meet you in ten minutes?"
"You got it!" Ruby chirped, watching as he turned and walked into the locker room, the storage unit for his gear on the other end from hers. Her smile faded just the slightest bit in Jaune's absence and she raised her arm absently as she stared at the now-closed door. An experimental sniff reaffirmed to her that even with her sleeve coming into contact with the patch of sweaty undershirt just below his cuirass, it wasn't ruined, per se. As smells went, it was slightly pungent, but not truly unpleasant, if she were capable of being honest with herself.
If.
With a shake of the head to dispel troubling, wordless thoughts, Ruby made her way into the locker room.
Ruby's calves dangled over the edge of an uncomfortable, school-issue chair, kicking slowly with nervous energy as she fiddled with the hem of her well-worn cloak. The gilded lettering on the frosted glass in the door next to her still read Glynda Goodwitch, Groundskeeper Coleridge having far too much on his plate to have gotten around to updating it just yet. The problem winding her nerves to the breaking point was that she at least felt like she knew her erstwhile professor well enough to know why she was here, in spite of her initial meeting with the woman. Shaw was an unknown quantity, and a rather intimidating one at that.
And Jaune's absence wasn't helping matters.
Before she could type out another frantic text to her friend, demanding to know why he wasn't there, Jaune came dashing around the corner, speed just below a dead sprint as he tried to adjust his necktie.
"Where have you been?" she hissed in frustration as he took the seat next to her.
"My locker was being a pain," Jaune grumbled, tugging his tie into place. "Good?" he asked, craning his neck.
"I've seen better," she replied offhandedly, taking a page from her sister's playbook.
Jaune rolled his eyes and shook his head, rolling with the joke.
"I still can't believe we ended up in the professor's office on the first day of class," Ruby griped, looking down into her lap.
"Don't worry about it."
"How can you be calm about this?" she demanded in exasperation.
"Oh, I can't. I'm just not going to spend the effort worrying about it. When I was training this summer, I could either worry about my next beatdown, and make it worse than it had to be, or just power through and get it over with." He shrugged. "No sense making a bad thing worse."
"That's no way to live, Jaune," Ruby said softly, placing her right hand on top of his left.
"No. But sometimes you have to survive long enough to get back to the living part. Back to the stuff that makes living worthwhile," he added, covering her hand with his own and favoring her with a smile that she returned warmly.
Jaune, if asked, would have admitted the slight blush coloring her cheeks was rather fetching, but it was quickly replaced by the full, cherry red kind as another voice joined the conversation.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Obsidian Shaw asked with the barest hint of amusement buried under a mountain of disdain.
The two of them immediately disengaged, Ruby's hands folded in her lap and endlessly fascinating to her, it seemed, while Jaune elected to simply sit on his.
"No, sir," he answered quietly, his own embarrassment rooting him in place.
"Good. Arc, get in here," he said brusquely, opening the door and walking in.
Jaune stood and followed, a long gaze for Ruby silently begging her to wish him luck, a wan smile from her his only answer. Entering the office foyer, he could see that some redecoration had been done by the new occupant. Gone were the extensive bookshelves filled with well-organized tomes on an eclectic selection of topics, replaced with a simple desk with a computer terminal facing the door, a side door leading to Shaw's office proper.
Calling the professor's office stark would be considered by most to be an understatement; a simple, but large, steel desk with two uncomfortable-looking chairs in front of it, a computer terminal and a single framed picture facing the Atlesian Colonel's own chair. This was a wide, visibly sturdy affair that nonetheless creaked when he settled into it.
"Have a seat, Mister Arc."
Jaune complied wordlessly, still unsure as to why he was here.
"Now then, I'll cut straight to the point. I had eleven students submit applications for the position of my teaching assistant, with you as the only second-year student," Shaw began, Jaune's eyes going wide in realization. "As of noon, nine of those have been withdrawn. Apparently, I wasn't the hot blonde they signed up for," Shaw muttered darkly. "So why you? What do you bring to the table, and what do you expect to get out of the deal?"
Jaune paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts before he spoke. "Well, if you hadn't noticed, my combat skills aren't...super great," he said with a wince. "I was hoping to learn through watching other students, maybe pick your brain from time to time. Plus I can keep an eye on Team CMLN, but I didn't know about that until after I'd applied. As for what I can bring? Well, if you're lowering the Aura threshold, my Semblance does a pretty good job healing people, if something goes wrong. Gives me a chance to work with it, too. Plus I'm a hard worker with no real social life," he admitted with the barest hint of reluctance.
"Careful what you promise, son," Shaw warned him.
"An Arc never breaks a promise, sir," Jaune replied solemnly.
Shaw regarded him with a flat gaze, the optics in his cybernetic eye rotating slightly before settling into place.
"Is that all?"
"TA was the only elective credit I could put in for that wasn't already full. I know it's usually third and fourth years, but if I don't get this, I'm going to have to wait for someone to drop something to get into another class, or take something down in Vale at the university to make up the difference. And making that work on my training schedule would be insane."
Shaw pondered that for a long moment, Jaune's nerves threatening to snap with the tension. "I admire your candor, Arc. Most students, especially the ones who don't already know me, would try and blow smoke up my ass. You laid everything out and then some. You've got the job," he said succinctly, a wave of his hand illuminating the display on his work terminal. From behind the display, Jaune recognized the typical schedule layout the academy network used, mirrored in the BEST app on his Scroll. "Be here Thursday afternoon at five p.m. sharp. During school hours, you will be in uniform, anything after hours, appropriate civilian attire. And do something about that hair," he added as an afterthought.
"Y-yes, sir. Thank you, sir!" Jaune stuttered, barely able to believe his good fortune.
"I'll be monitoring your grades in your other classes, so keep those up as well. We'll discuss scheduling on Thursday. Questions?"
"No, sir."
"Good. Dismissed. Send Miss Rose in, please."
Jaune ambled out of the office, his hand trailing over the desk in the foyer with a sense of fond wonder. Walking into the professor's office and walking out with a win? Jaune mused that he could definitely get used to this. He slowly opened the door to the hallway, peeking out to find Ruby still nervously fidgeting in her seat.
"Hey," he said softly, getting her undivided attention in an instant.
"Hey. You okay?" she asked, her own nerves forgotten for the moment as her concern for Jaune was shoved to the forefront.
"I'm great!" he answered, stepping full into the hallway with a smile threatening to split his face. "You are looking at the new Assistant to the Beacon Academy Professor of Combat Arts," he said, puffing his chest and planting both fists on his hips to strike a heroic pose.
"Really?" Ruby asked, her eyes lighting up.
"Really," Jaune replied, dropping all but the cocky smirk.
"Think you can get that last grade fixed for me, buddy ol' pal o' mine?" she asked with a conspiratorial smirk.
"Prices start at a dozen cookies per letter grade."
Ruby's expression fell, her flat gaze conveying exactly how much that wasn't going to happen.
"Jerk."
"Hey, now. You're the one trying to get us both expelled. At least I'm gonna make it worth it."
"You're still a cookie-sabotaging jerkface," Ruby pouted, turning her eyes away from him.
"You know I didn't really do that, right?" Jaune asked, his face taking on a nervous grimace as seconds stretched uncomfortably without an answer from Ruby.
"You still made me relive that tragedy."
"Sorry." Jaune's eyes found the floor, shamed slightly at hurting her.
Whatever response Ruby had was cut off by Shaw's booming voice blasting out into the hallway.
"While we're still young, Miss Rose!"
"Eep!" she squeaked, jumping to her feet. "Wish me luck?"
"He might not want to talk about what you're worried about. I hope," he added.
"Not helping!" she whispered in response. Ruby took a deep breath, trying and almost succeeding at calming her nerves completely before she pulled on the door handle. "Here goes nothing," she muttered before walking into the office.
"So what's the deal with this guy, anyway?" Yang asked as she stepped through the locker room door, barely showing any of the limp that Velvet's deceptively vicious snap kicks had induced, into the hallway with Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha, fluffing her hair after her quick shower. Her Semblance was an effective, if subpar, hair dryer, but it would have to do for now.
"That's what I was trying to tell Ruby. Professor Shaw was my sister's favorite instructor at Atlas Academy. I met him once at her graduation party. My father couldn't be seen as unsupportive of the military, after all." Weiss added, her tone jaded as she buttoned her uniform blazer. "You know what? Let me call her," she said, pulling out her Scroll and tapping a small portrait of Winter Schnee. The soft, purring ringtone went on for several seconds longer than what would be considered normal, or even polite, before the screen flared to life.
The room behind Winter's face was sparsely furnished, illuminated by only a small lamp on an end table. Winter herself had her hair down, and roughly so, her blue eyes blinking against the light she'd just turned on, apparently.
"Weiss? What's wrong?" she asked in firm, authoritarian tones, an undercurrent of concern and fear present as well.
"Winter, I...oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I forgot about the time difference!" Weiss hurriedly apologized.
Winter sighed, squinting her eyes a moment to further adjust before she spoke again. "Apology accepted, Weiss. But since I'm awake anyway, how are you? How is school so far?"
"I'm all right, Winter, and school is why I called, actually."
"What's the problem?"
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a problem," she began, her sister's eyes narrowing in annoyance at the evasive tone Weiss was taking.
"Weiss, it's three in the morning. Spit it out," she commanded brusquely.
"Did you know that Colonel Shaw is teaching at Beacon now?"
"Who do you think was named to replace him?" Winter replied, her mouth skewed in annoyance.
"That's...good, right?" Weiss asked hopefully.
"With twelve hours' notice," Winter completed the thought.
"Oh," she answered with an understanding grimace. "It's still a good assignment, right?"
"Lead Combat Instructor for Atlas Academy? Of course it is," she clarified, her face taking on a haughty air reminiscent of her younger sister. "What have you done to earn his wrath?" she asked, the edge of her mouth ticking upward as Weiss winced at the question. "You wouldn't be calling me at this hour for something so trivial otherwise."
"I...had a moment of weakness, and forgot who I was. It won't happen again," Weiss reassured her.
Winter took a deep breath, letting out a beleaguered sigh before she spoke again. "The only advice I can give you is to pay attention, do your best, and don't take anything personally. He does truly care about his students."
"Doesn't seem like it," Yang groused from over Weiss' shoulder.
"And you are?" Winter asked, a skeptical eyebrow raised.
"A teammate with the manners of a Centinel," Weiss replied before Yang could answer.
"Is there anything else? I have to be up for PT and breakfast in two hours."
"No, thank you, Winter. Good night."
"Good night, Weiss," Winter replied, terminating the call abruptly.
"Am I the only one who thinks Weiss' sister is ridiculously hot?" Yang chimed in immediately. "I kinda want her to step on me."
"She is a very beautiful young woman who is entirely too good for the likes of you, Yang," Weiss countered immediately.
Yang turned to her partner for backup, but Blake only gave her a flat-eyed gaze coupled with an annoyed smirk at her antics. Giving up the line of conversation entirely, Yang returned to her chief complaint for the day.
"I still say he's an asshole. Seriously, matching me up against his ringer?"
"He challenged you, Yang," Pyrrha chimed in, her smile tinged with the slightest touch of smug. "You're one of the best Huntresses in our year, and acquitted yourself well against an upperclassman."
"That girl's a damn nightmare to fight!" she added in exasperation. "Can't wait to see you try her, Red."
"I look forward to the challenge," Pyrrha replied with a genuine smile. "Also, you still owe me ten Lien."
"I'll get you later, don't have it on me right now," she grumbled in return.
"...so then I tell him 'Get ready to get hammered harder than your boyfriend does!'" Nora babbled excitedly to Ren, the pair of them emerging from the locker room where they'd been changing back into their school uniforms. Nora's match against Russel Thrush had been the last of the day, a shortened class period for their orientation day keeping the number of spars limited.
"Hey you two," Yang greeted them, her mood lifting a bit at seeing her gym buddy's ebullient mood.
"Hey, Yang. How's the leg?" Nora asked, having cringed at the sickening crunch she'd heard from one of Velvet's better-placed kicks.
"Ehh, I should be fine in an hour or two," she deflected, testing her right knee again.
"I still say you should have gone to the infirmary," Weiss huffed.
"I'll. be. fine," Yang replied through clenched teeth for obviously not the first time.
"So now what?" Ren asked pointedly.
"We need to go find Jaune and Ruby," Pyrrha reminded them.
"Indeed. You remember where the professor's office is, right?" Weiss asked, pointedly looking at Yang, who was looking at Nora, who was looking back at her in turn, like neither of them had ever been called there for misbehavior by Glynda Goodwitch.
"Come on, everyone," Pyrrha said diplomatically, leading them down the hallway.
"Professor?" Ruby hesitantly asked from the inner office doorway.
"Have a seat," Shaw said flatly, not looking up from the computer terminal on his desk. "You've had quite the colorful career already, haven't you?" he asked, Ruby able to see her full transcripts from Beacon as well as Signal through the back of the hardlight display.
"Professor, I just want to say I'm sorry about earlier, and I don't want you to think that…" she began.
"Shut up." Shaw interjected firmly.
"Shutting up," Ruby muttered.
The Professor regarded her silently for several moments, Ruby's tension ramping exponentially before he expelled a soft puff of breath, the corner of his mouth ticking upward.
"When I first laid eyes on you, I knew you looked familiar. You even look like your mother," he said, his voice taking on a rich, warm hue that Ruby hadn't thought him capable of.
"You knew her?"
"Not well, but yes. Team ORCD was assigned to Team STRQ as their hospitality liaisons during their semester at Atlas Academy. Show them around, answer questions, that sort of thing. It's not something Beacon does, but the culture of Atlas is difficult to adapt to quickly when you're thrown headfirst into it."
He paused, reaching into a desk drawer for a small water bottle, unscrewing the cap and setting it on his desk. He then produced a small vial, pulling the rubber stopper from it and emptying the powdery contents into the bottle before recapping it and shaking the contents to mix them while he talked.
"I was just a freshman, having to play host to defending champions Team STRQ. Nervous as hell, but Summer Rose wouldn't have any of it. We even had dinner once. Nothing untoward, I assure you. She just wanted some decent Mistrali food, and I happened to know where the best noodle house in Mantle was." Shaw paused, uncapping his now yellowish brown beverage and taking a deep swig, grimacing in disgust at the taste. "Balanced nutrition, what joy," he pronounced flatly.
"She could tell I was troubled. Nervous, I guess would be the better term. The Vytal Festival Tournament was looming, and I was worried. Not about my team, mind you, but myself. You and I both know what that feels like, don't we? Thinking that your team deserves better."
"I...yes, sir," Ruby said quietly, somehow at ease despite how scared she'd been upon entering the room.
"Well, she set me straight. A little too well, she said later." Shaw took another slug of his nutritional supplement before setting it off to the side for the moment.
"I always promised myself I'd repay her kindness some day, though I will admit I didn't think it likely I'd be doing so with her daughter." He paused again, thinking over his course of action one final time. "What I'm about to show you, even redacted as it is, is highly classified. When you walk out that door, you and I will both agree that this video doesn't exist. Am I clear?" he asked, the authoritarian tone creeping back into his voice.
"What video?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"And you're a quick learner, too," Shaw replied with a smirk. With a gesture, he reversed the hardlight display of his computer, projecting a video player window for her to see. A single stroke of the key started it, a few moments of a black screen shown before it changed, a single figure now visible, perfectly framed in the shot with mechanical precision.
"Penny!" Ruby gasped as she recognized her friend.
"...and Cadet Soleil has been most efficient in all regards," she began, before she paused, her cheerily formal expression slipping just a bit. "I know I promised General Ironwood I would not mention it again, but I hope that you will be able to help me continue my education at Beacon Academy, Colonel Shaw. The General said that he wishes me to serve as a guardian of Atlas, and that I should be able to better pass as human through normal human schooling. I believe that my time here has served far better at doing that than last semester at Atlas. I...I have made a friend, sir. A real friend," she admitted, giving the camera a soft smile without a whisper of artificiality.
"Ruby has treated me like a real girl ever since we met, even after she discovered the truth. I believe with her help I might be able to make even more friends, eventually. Even if that fails, I would still be content with having Ruby as my only friend. I have researched every book and manuscript in the Atlas Academy archives on the subject, and I calculate a ninety-seven point two percent chance that I could not find a better friend than Ruby Rose. She always knows the right thing to say to me when I am uncertain or my protocols do not cover the situation in which we have found ourselves."
Here she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before speaking again.
"Please consider speaking to General Ironwood, sir. I know he will listen to you, more than my father at least. He values your opinion very highly. I do, too." Penny snapped to attention, proffering a salute, the precision of which contrasted with the enthusiastic smile of a teenaged girl. "Penny Polendina, signing off, sir!" she beamed, the video freezing on her chipper expression.
Ruby found she could barely focus on the screen, the tears that threatened to overwhelm her blurring her vision.
"She sent me that message the day she died," Shaw said solemnly, looking past Ruby now. "Best student I've ever had, and the closest thing I'll ever have to a daughter, in this life or the next."
He took another swig of his drink, sighing heavily as memories washed over them both.
"Thank you for being her friend, Miss Rose. Penny never really had friends in Atlas, and her father and I were worried she might never find one. It's why I lobbied to let her participate in the Vytal Festival as early as she did. I sometimes wonder if I really did her any favors there."
"Sir, I…I can't imagine how you must feel, but I can tell you that she was a good person, and a wonderful friend to me. Heck, she probably saved my life that one time," Ruby admitted with a chagrined smile that quickly vanished as her gaze wandered to the floor, trying to keep her composure. "I miss her, Professor. I miss her so much," she said, voice a haggard whisper.
"As do I, Miss Rose. As do I." Shaw punctuated his statement with another sigh, leaning back in his chair for a moment's reflection. "I think she would have wanted you to know how she felt."
"I...thank you, sir," Ruby replied, her voice still on the brink of giving out.
"Deep breath... and let it out," he instructed, settling her down some as her eyes rose to meet his again. "Two things. If you mention what I've shown you to anyone, or mistake my kindness for weakness? You will find my displeasure both immediate, and permanent. Understood?" he asked, voice barely different than a growl.
"Yes, sir. I'm still sorry," Ruby answered quietly.
"Don't tell me you're sorry. Show me," he admonished her. "Dismissed, Miss Rose. Please see to it that your efforts in my class are your personal best every day."
"Yes, sir."
Ruby got to her feet, holding on to her composure by a thread but not letting her emotions betray her in front of Shaw either. The outer office was quiet, save for a soft sniffle heard as she passed through, closing the door gently behind her.
"Oh, hey, Ruby. Just so you know, I wasn't..." Jaune barely got out before she crashed into him, her arms clutching him fiercely to her. At last she let the mask drop, a deep, wet sniffle given as the tears began to flow in earnest. "What happened?" Jaune asked softly, returning the embrace with the well-practiced concern of a big brother.
"I...he…" Ruby began, struggling to find the words in her jumbled thoughts.
"What did he say to you?" he demanded, a protective edge in his voice.
"It's not that, Jaune. It's...he knows Penny. Knew," she clarified, burying her face in his chest.
"Oh," he said softly, tightening the hug around her and slowly stroking her back. He kept her close, not worried about the mess she was doubtlessly making on his blazer, waiting several long moments until he felt her posture relax and her breathing become steady. "Better?"
Ruby nodded in lieu of trusting her voice for the moment, or relinquishing her hug for that matter.
"You wanna go find the rest of our teams, maybe get an early supper?"
"Yeah," she muttered into his chest, giving him one last firm squeeze before she took a step back. He could see the shimmer of the last dregs of her tears in her silver eyes, the sparkle lending an almost magical look about her. "What?" Ruby asked in puzzlement.
"Sorry. It's nothing," Jaune replied, shaking his head briefly. "I wonder how everyone else did in their fights," he said, changing the subject abruptly enough that Ruby noticed but declined to comment.
"Yang? She's like, the second awesomest Huntress I know!" Ruby piped up, a smile showing through the last of her sadness.
"Well, I'll be sure to let Pyrrha know she's still first then," Jaune replied with a cocky grin.
"Jerk," she said half-heartedly, smiling at the joke at least.
"Then Weiss is third? Nora isn't going to be happy about that."
"Oh, whatever, Vomit Boy," Ruby fired back with a sarcastic eye roll.
"Aw, don't be like that, Crater Face. I promise you're in my top ten. Top twenty at the very least."
Jaune winced when Ruby jabbed him in the ribs.
"Hey now, you don't wanna start that. I've got it on good authority that you're ticklish," Jaune added with a grin.
"Oh yeah? You have to catch meeeee," she chided in a singsong voice, skipping twenty feet ahead of him before she turned around and began walking backwards. Ruby kept her distance as they walked, a smile on both of their faces.
"I don't think Yang would approve of you teasing me like that, Ruby. Or, you know, she actually might, come to think of it."
"Oh, so you want me teasing you now?"
"Not really. You're my friend, Ruby, my best friend. I don't wanna make things weird."
"Pssh, yeah, that would be totally weird," she fired back, her cheery expression faltering for reasons she couldn't identify.
Jaune stopped, recognizing the change of mood, and Ruby followed suit, her head tilting slightly as she looked at him.
"Oh hell," he whimpered, his eyes wide in fear.
"What is it?" she asked, before flinching visibly when she got her answer.
"YOU!" echoed down the hallway, inspiring terror in spite of the high-pitched register of the voice.
Ruby turned around, finding the rest of their teams walking towards them, Weiss Schnee in the angrily heel-clicking lead, her ponytail bouncing with each infuriated step.
"I cannot believe you! Do you have any idea how bad you made me look out there?" she demanded imperiously, Ruby's hands trying to find a contrite pose and settling on fingertips hesitantly pressed together. "I can't even fathom why I let you be associated with my name!" she continued, bearing down on the two of them.
"Weiss, I can ex...plain?" Ruby began as Weiss reached her, trailing off as her partner blew past her to get in Jaune's face instead.
"What were you thinking out there?"
"Well…"
"How much Dust did you use?"
"Uhh, all of it?" Jaune replied with a chagrined grimace.
"Have you ever used Dust in actual combat before?"
"Noooo…" he said, fingers finding the back of his scalp.
"Have you ever used gravity, fire and lightning Dust in combination before?"
"No."
"Have you ever mixed Dust of any kind before?"
"No," he replied, casting his gaze lower.
"What did I tell you Sunday night?" she asked rhetorically, producing a small vial of Dust from her pocket and waving it under Jaune's nose. "The second you don't respect this, it kills you."
"Yeah, yeah," Jaune said, conceding the point.
Dissatisfied with his tone, Weiss grabbed his necktie, yanking his head down to stare him directly in the eyes. "You told me that you were going to be the best student I'd ever dream of having, listening to me like the word of God, and that you'd be a reflection of my talent and skill for everyone to see. Give me one good reason to keep training you, you dolt."
"I won," he said flatly. The two stared at each other for several long moments before Weiss huffed softly, releasing him and putting her left index fingertip an inch under his nose.
"Six thirty sharp, training room seven. I'm going to go over Dust safety again with you, and I swear, if you don't retain it…" she trailed off.
"You'll make me regret being born," Jaune completed the thought, raising his hands in surrender.
"So you two legit aren't dating?" Yang chimed in, a disbelieving eyebrow arched.
"No more than you and Blake are, Yang," Jaune fired back, a slight smirk curling his lips when the girls in question both flinched slightly.
"I mean, we are pretty hot together," Yang replied, recovering quicker than her partner. Blake simply shook her head slightly, the barest whisper of a knowing smile gracing her lips as Yang's arm draped across her shoulders. "But enough about me, Vomit Boy," Yang began, utterly missing Ruby's angry scowl. "So you wanna explain why you did that to my little sister?"
"What? Beat her in a spar? In combat class? At a combat school?" Jaune retorted, his voice growing angrier with each statement.
Yang had to pause, her anger insufficient to simply disregard the logic of his answer.
"Fine. I have a long memory, Jaune. You'll see what happens when I get you in the ring."
"Yeah, he'll beat you," Ruby immediately fired back, her arms crossed stubbornly. "Because you're going to make the same mistake I did."
Yang was aghast at the verbal assault, not having expected it in the slightest, and the rest of the two assembled teams were likewise shocked at the exchange.
Especially Jaune.
"Ruby, I don't think this is necessary," he began, but an incensed Ruby Rose was almost as difficult to deal with as his mother when in this sort of mood.
"No! I'm sick and tired of one of my best friends, one of my only friends, getting treated like garbage by someone who owes them a crapload more than they'd ever admit! And you still haven't apologized, have you?!"
It was the last that broke Yang's defiance, her eyes finding the floor off to her side quickly as her shoulders slumped.
"I was waiting for the right time," she mumbled softly.
"Now. Now is a good time," Ruby prodded relentlessly.
"In front of everyone?!" she hissed in disbelief, the barest glance at Pyrrha indicating her true fear.
"You had four days to do it privately."
Lilac eyes lifted a moment to look at Ruby, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing in her younger sister. This was no childish fit of pique born of missing cookies or video games. Ruby's face told of righteous fury and stubborn rage, both of which Yang had hoped to have never seen there, let alone actually provoke.
Yang's heart skipped a beat, her lips quivering softly in shame before she gave a deep, defeated sigh.
"I'm sorry, Jaune. For everything. You...you trusted me with a secret and I used it to hurt you. I swear it wasn't supposed to be mean, but I went too far, and I'm really, really sorry."
The looks on everyone else's face besides Ruby at the humility being shown by their otherwise brash friend was nearly uniform, a brief moment of silence overtaking them. Jaune finally broke it, sighing heavily and letting go of the anger simply mentioning the argument had conjured.
"Okay. Apology accepted," he said quietly, favoring Yang with a brief nod as well.
"Thanks," she whispered back, a relieved smile blossoming on her lips.
"As long as we're on the subject, Ruby?" Weiss began, drawing her partner's attention from the now settled conflict. "Last year? I was wrong. Professor Ozpin was right to name you team leader."
"Oh. Thank you, Weiss," Ruby said with a smile for her other best friend.
"Yes. There's no way I could've gotten that apology out of Yang," she clarified, her haughty air now intact again.
"There's an insult in there somewhere," Yang countered, with a glowering gaze for Weiss.
"I do believe there is, Yang. Good luck finding it."
Ruby gigglesnorted at her partner's barb, also getting chuckles from Nora, Pyrrha and Blake of all people.
"All right, all right. I won't forget this, Weiss Cream."
"Also, don't forget to pay up, either. With a note fresh from the bank, thank you very much."
"Well, if you insist," Yang replied, a hand moving toward her neckline.
"And whatever you call it, your brassiere is not a bank, Yang."
"Pssh, it's a damn vault, am I right?" She asked of the group with a sly grin.
"You're hopeless," Blake chided her, her ears drooping slightly.
"I mean, she could hide a small child in one of those things!" Nora chimed in, her face already starting to show signs of slipping into her typical hypoglycemic mania.
"I think we should probably get some food," Ren said evenly, knowing full well what a hungry Nora was capable of.
"You all go on ahead, I need to talk to Jaune for a moment," Pyrrha said smoothly, her usual pleasant smile making her statement hard to argue with, and doubly hard for Jaune to interpret.
"All right, come on, guys. Let's get some chow!" Ruby added, getting hums and grunts of agreement from the rest of the group, leaving Jaune and Pyrrha behind.
Jaune waited for them to round the corner before he spoke. "Hey, Pyr, I know I messed up out there, and…" he began before he was shocked into silence by the presence of Pyrrha's index and middle fingers on his lips. Without a word spoken, she leaned forward, planting a gentle kiss on his cheek before pulling back with a blush that he easily mirrored and then some.
"I am very proud of you, Jaune."
"I...um, wow. Really?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"Yes. I always have been. You're my partner, and my best friend, and I admire you because you never give up. You're always trying to get better for the sake of others and not just yourself."
"Thanks, Pyrrha. That really means a lot to me," Jaune replied, giving her the goofy smile she'd long since fallen in love with.
"That being said…"
"Here it comes," Jaune grumbled, getting a chuckle from Pyrrha.
"I'm going to be pushing your training up a notch or three."
"Ouch."
"Oh, I haven't hurt you," she chided gently.
"Yet."
"I just want to see how far you've come, all right?" she placated him.
"Yeah, I get it. We'll have to work around my new schedule though."
Pyrrha cocked her head to the side for a moment before her eyes went wide, a smile lighting up her face.
"You got the job?!"
"I did," Jaune answered with a smile.
"That's wonderful news!"
"I hope so, at least. This guy seems all right, but I'm still not sure."
"He reminds me of my father to be honest," Pyrrha replied with a slight blush.
"And yet, you want to date me. Are you trying to get me killed?"
"All right, maybe not quite so much like my father,"
"That's not helping, Pyrrha."
"Relax, Jaune. You'll get to meet him for Parents' Day, probably. He's been quite eager to meet you, too."
"Helping even less," Jaune deadpanned, getting a playful poke and giggle from his partner.
"Hush, you. Now let's go get some dinner, shall we?"
"After you, partner," he said in as gentlemanly a manner as he could muster.