Best possible version of yourself, chapter 3

AN: Okay so here is the next chapter, enjoy everyone, its going to be a pretty long one. Also for anyone that wants an idea of how Jaune's new carbine rifle looks, search up the MAS-36 rifle and then have a slightly smaller version of that(only slightly, was already pretty short for a mainstay combat rifle). Which is actually going to be theme for things in this story, if in Canon something isn't shown or mentioned on what it looks like on the front of military or medical equipment, I'll use real world counterparts for inspiration while drawing from specific nations that the RWBY counterparts seem most similar to (for Vale French designs, Atlas German and Nordic countries designs, Mistral a mixture of Greek and Chinese designs, not sure yet what to use for the others)

.

Ansel, Friday early evening

.

As he walked towards the agreed upon meeting spot he found the old stablemaster with a large white horse ''Here's Bessy, she's a good horse for more dangerous trips. I wish you the best boy, Nicholas should have remembered what he did in his own youth when his father tried to prevent him from becoming a huntsman.''

Jaune nodded at this, all the while stroking the horse's mane ''Thanks Johan, I'll get her safely to Oakville. I hope you'll be fine with my dad angry at you, I know him and the militia are your main sources of income during this time of year.'' The older man snorts at the answer before gesturing to the area surrounding them.

''There's no real way of patrolling the area around Ansel or getting to and from it quickly besides either horses or bullheads and I'm the only stablemaster in town while the Bullhead only comes by once every few weeks to drop deliveries and passengers from Vale. He can't afford to be cross with me for more than a short while before he will need my services too badly to keep it up.''

Nodding to the man Jaune took over the reins of the horse before walking the short distance towards the blacksmith with the horse following while old Johan headed back home. Upon arrival he bound the horse to the post outside before stepping in pick up his gear. Once he recognized who was walking inside the blacksmith brought out both the armour and the crate with supplies, helping Jaune with putting on the armour and giving him a small armour maintenance for dummies book with a slight chuckle before assisting in loading everything else into the saddlebags ending with the rifle which he had put inside of a special holster that could be hung both onto a horse and onto a humans back without getting in the way.

When Jaune moved to pay him for it the older man waved him away. ''Keep it, you're going to need it more than anyone else around here and otherwise that thing will just be gathering dust in my attic for the next decade or so. You've also given me as much business in the past week as I've had for the whole month before that, so I can afford to be a bit generous.'' He clapped the younger man on his shoulder ''I wish you luck Jaune and hope that you'll have a safe journey to Vale.''

As he thanked the older man and mounted his horse before riding away he looked back to the town one last time, taking in the sight of his hometown. Then he turned his back and set Bessy into motion to the road heading towards Oakville.

.

Later that night

.

As Jaune and spirit are sitting down near the campfire Jaune suddenly asks him ''Please tell me more of the friends you made during your time at Beacon.'' As spirit looks at him with an eyebrow raised Jaune rolls his eyes ''I know you gave me some basic information on them, but could you talk some more about them, their habits, antics, and such. You only spoke in very broad lines, like I know Nora Valkyrie is a very strong and energetic redhead who likes her childhood friend a lot, but even then half of that is because of the emotions and sights I got while viewing you and your friends dying taking out a woman that was a threat to Remnants continued existence. I know nothing of the friends you found worth fighting for, a second family as it where.''

The spirit seems to think it over for a moment before nodding. ''Sure, will actually be nice to talk about them, maybe get some things off of my chest before we actually meet them. Where to start? Probably best to start with Nora, since you just mentioned her.'' As he turns towards Jaune a smile graces his face ''Well first things first, while she wasn't overly tall, don't let that size fool you, she can lift our fellow Beacon students and anything smaller than an Ursa and use them as projectile weapons against enemies.'' Jaune stares at him shocked while he chuckles some more.

''And before you ask that isn't an exaggeration, she literally did that and similar things on several occasions while I've known her. She's also a very happy and energetic girl, that loves her childhood friend Ren to bits, but they both danced around the subject for years until they finally found the courage to tell each other, just before dying essentially in eachothers arms in Atlas.'' The mood darkens somewhat before he shakes his head.

''However the most interesting things from her are probably from back when Beacon was still around, she used to proclaim that she was Queen of the Castle, so one time when we got into a food fight, and I mean actual duelling with baguettes strong enough to break normal people's bones while somebody uses their semblance to rain hundreds of soda cans at the enemy style food fight here, not the throw a few boxes of fruit juice before being stopped that you see in the movies, she….'' As he continues talking the night away about his friends, a happy smile grows and stays on his face, thinking about all the good time, before at one point they realize how late it is and Jaune pulls out his sleeping bag before lying down, wishing the spirit and horse both a goodnight.

.

Three days later, afternoon

.

As we see Jaune and Bessy going along the path towards Oakville, Spirit is floating along giving some instruction on how to best adjust to the behaviour of the teachers at Beacon once they arrive there. ''For Port, its best to ask him of specific things that he himself wasn't involved with, he actually remains fairly non-partial on those and is a pretty good story-teller when it's about somebody else, it's just that whenever he talks about something he experienced himself he'll add or at the very least heavily influence most of the details, making it very uncertain what parts are true and what not, in addition to his oratory skills going downhill due to making up so much of it on the spot.''

As the younger man nods he continues ''With Glynda Goodwitch, well listen to her carefully and don't mess around in her class, if she grows to dislike you early on you're very badly in trouble in the long run, she is probably the best of the staff at her actual teaching job so you'll need to have her be friendly enough for you to go to her whenever the others gloss over or outright forget to teach something. Also its probably for the best if you do well in the first few fights she sets you up in, otherwise she'll probably figure out our transcripts where faked very early and unlike in my timeline she might not just keep silent about it until she gets a better grasp of our actual drive to succeed.''

As Jaune mentally notes down 'Keep blonde huntress with overpowered semblance happy' ''For Oobleck, remember that he always wants to be called doctor despite the fact that his title as professor at one of the four main huntsman academies indicates a similar amount of education as a doctorate ever would. Never figured out why the man was so peculiar about it. The best option for his class is to record at least the first few classes and share notes with whatever friends you make from very early on, as the man talks so fast it almost seems like he's trying to weaponize the sound of his voice into a rain of machine gun bullets aimed towards the students. He's also very…'' just then he stops as he hears a sound in the distance and realizes what was there the first time he passed by this route.

With no time to lose he turns towards Jaune ''Jaune, give me control, there's fighting ahead and from what I saw last time it will be too dangerous for you to tackle this one yet, it might mean the difference between life and death for some people!'' as he says so Jaune, though surprised, immediately nods and hands over control to Spirit who then kicks his feet into the horses side while ordering it to speed up, all the while grabbing the javelin from its place sticking out of one of the saddlebags. As they race closer the sound of gunfire and growls becomes louder, when bursting over a small hill he can see four disintegrating Grimm while two more are approaching a downed soldier, his rifle having just been slapped out of his hands by the Grimm.

Jaune immediately yells to grab the Grimms attention, all the while channelling aura into his arm before throwing the spear at the Beowulf closest to the downed man, ripping through the beast and causing it to fall over while it joins its brethren in disintegrating while its slayer pulls Crocoa Mors out of its sheath and chops off the other Beowulf's head with an aura enhanced slash while charging past, leaving no Grimm standing in the area.

He then jumps off his horse and moves to the now sitting soldier, who shakes his head ''Name's Derek, I'll be fine, just give me my gun and put me on your horse so I can support you, I was trying to clear out a route of retreat but with the delay I'm unsure if the others are still safe'' Picking the now visibly Atlesian man up and putting him on Bessy while throwing him his gun, the two rush forward, Jaune pumping aura into his legs to keep up with the horse before they quickly spot a dozen or so Grimm, all Beowulves, trying to besiege a log cabin surrounded by empty space but being forced back by fire from inside of it with a number of rapidly disintegrating husks surrounding it.

As they feel emotions behind them a few turn just in time for Jaune to have rushed the closest and chop off its hindlegs before bashing it to the ground with his shield followed up by a stab through its eye, starting its disintegration process while the soldier he saved opened up and took out a Beowulf trying to claw its way through one of the cabin's blindspots, taking large chunks out of the Grimm in doing so before it collapses and joins its fallen brethren.

With this most of the Beowulfs now turn towards the newly arrived threats, with Jaune already in the process of beheading another but this change in attention from the Grimm makes them easier targets for the defenders inside, taking out another three of their number before they can reach either of the men in the open. Blocking a swipe from one of the Beowulfs with his shield, Jaune retaliates by chopping off the offending limb with his sword, before shield bashing the Grimm in its face, followed by a stab through it's chest with the weapon being brought out of it through a downward slash through the Grimm's body, making it collapse and start disintegrating. Turning to his right he parries a Grimms claw with his sword all the while using the motion to strengthen his kick with his left leg into the beasts side, sending it tumbling back a few paces, giving him the freedom move forward and use the momentum to bisect it with an overhead slash splitting the Grim in two with the legs and lower stomach rolling away all the while disintegrating.

Seeing no immediate threat he now takes a moment to look around, seeing that the soldier he rescued combined with the defenders of the blockhouse managed to also do a number on the Grimm, leaving only three of them left, two trying to chase the mounted soldier while the last is running straight at him. He readies himself and halts the charging Grimm in its tracks, its headfirst charge into his shield doing little besides push him back a bit, allowing him to retaliate by slapping its head to the side with his shield before beheading it with a slash from his sword.

Afterwards he shouts ''Hey, get the remaining two here.'' The soldier on horseback hears you and changes into your direction where once he passes you step into the path, parrying a headfirst rush from the first Grimm with your shield while hitting the slashing arm of the other and chopping off its paw in the process, though the first manages to get past your shield and get a slash in at you before you can position your shield to defend again.

Fire from behind you rips its arm and shoulder out before it can do anything else, allowing you to finish off the Grimm you had wounded with several repeated stabs at his chest before you turn around and finish off the last now limping Beowulf by chopping it in half. At this point after looking around one last time, Spirit relinquishes control of the body back to Jaune, all the while sweating like crazy and being out of breath. Jaune almost collapses immediately afterwards but manages to keep himself up by stabbing his sword into the ground and using his now free hand to keep himself steady at a nearby tree.

Before he can do anything else though a murderous growl, causing him to quickly bring his shield up and draw his sword out of the ground only to get thrown back several meters and almost fall over before finding his footing looking at the far larger and stronger looking Beowulf, which spirit quickly supplies to be an alpha Beowulf, before Jaune hands over control back to him. As this is happening the Beowulf has already started moving towards the still mounted Derek, who tries to dodge only for the Alpha to ram into Bessy, causing the horse to stumble and throwing the man off since he can't hold on very well with his wounded legs.

At this point Jaune butts into the situation by performing an aura enforced jump before using a combination of the momentum and aura enhanced muscle strength to bash the Beowulf in the head with his shield, causing it to stumble away while the facial bone mask is visibly cracked and a good chunk of the teeth in its maw are destroyed. Despite this damage though, it still manages to bat aside the follow up overhand strike of the young mans sword before trying to claw his face off, only for the paw to be knocked aside by the shield, followed by a strike along it.

At this point the Alpha retreats slightly only to come under fire from the blockhouse, causing it to slightly turn, giving Jaune an opening to jump in and hack its left leg, though it jumps away fast enough to not get much more than an undeep cut. Now slightly to the left behind Jaune, Derek has grabbed his rifle and empties it into the to him visible right paw of the beast, scoring several hits and in addition to the fire from the opened door of the log house distracting it long enough for Jaune to come in, deliver a heavy overhand slash to the already injured leg and chop it off before bashing it in the face with another shield bash, though causing less damage this time, before taking the now wide open neck and stabbing his sword into it.

Though even with this the beast while now almost crippled isn't ready to die yet and it manages a powerful claw strike against a now stuck Jaune, throwing him a distance back and forcing him to let go of his sword though he is still standing while the beast is heavily wounded and now slowed, allowing him to gather aura around his hand before he closes in again, and this time just punches it into the already heavily damaged left side of its bone mask splintering it while also creating a large open wound in the process, after which he now more easily dodges the next slash before reaching his sword in its neck and ripping it out through its throat, leaving the head only attached to the rest of its body by a relatively thin strip of flesh.

This in addition to more wounds caused by supporting gunfire proves to finally be enough for it to collapse, leaving Jaune to look around for a moment again before moving over to Derek and helping him back onto Bessy. Before stabbing his sword into the ground again and releasing control to the younger Jaune while their body is even more exhausted though still mostly unharmed thanks to Aura, the combined aura usage, first time experiencing real combat and hits taken from the last Grimm are taking their toll.

Out of the blockhouse three humans, one of them limping and all injured to some degree and a dozen Faunus in various states of lighter injuries walk out to greet the two of you. It's only at this point that Jaune and Spirit both finally realize that they're not dealing with Atlas itself, but instead an SDC camp. The limping man moves over to him together with the guard on Bessy while the rest remove two large canvases nearby, revealing two decently sized trucks before they start loading them.

''Thanks for the assistance, while we'd have survived that group there's another group inbound and we wouldn't have been able to get out before they arrived, especially not with Derek being wounded even with your help. Name's Johan Schmitt by the way, commander of this logging camp and resupply depot.''

Jaune shakes his outstretched hand while nervously introducing himself ''Jaune Arc, no problem I'm just thankful I arrived in time to assist you all. Though I have to ask will you be alright at this point?'' At this point he looks back to the group currently loading the trucks ''Most of your people seem to be injured and there might be more Grimm on the road ahead.''

''Yes, I wanted to ask about that. I know you've already helped us much but can you escort us on the journey towards Oakville? The group of Grimm is coming from the east and if we go south towards Ansel they might follow us, while going to the west would remove us from their general direction much faster, giving a better chance for them to lose us. Especially since according to Derek's report from when he scouted them out with the drone they were moving at fairly high speeds towards here and Oakville is also closer.''

Jaune nodded his head, still taking everything in and panting a bit ''No problem, I'll follow you on my horse since I was heading to Oakville anyways, though do have somebody look after Derek, he's probably got a wound somewhere on his legs considering he wasn't able to get up by himself when I found him.'' The man nods at this and calls over female fox Faunus who helps Derek dismount and assists him onto one of the trucks, where she first softly hugs him before checking him over.

Then Jaune remembers something the blacksmith had said to him the week before ''Also, could you possibly spare some ammo for my rifle, I heard you still have similar ammo to that used in the V36 bolt action carbine rifles, and I'm kind of out so my only ranged option was throwing improvised Javelins.'' Jakob eagerly nods and opens the ammo pouch he's got on him before removing three stripper clips with five shots each.

''That's all I can spare of it really, I use them myself in the bolt action rifle I got for hunting and marksman support, everyone else has assault rifles and submachine guns. We've got a supply depot at Oakville, I'll make sure you get more of them as part of the payment for your services.'' As he says this behind him most of the supplies have been loaded up and they're doing last check-ups on the wounded, making sure they are actually secured in the trucks and seeing if they aren't leaving anything important behind.

As Jaune remounts his horse and loads his carbine rifle while he has a mental discussion with Spirit 'Okay so you didn't seem to expect this, what happened to these people in your timeline?' as spirit doesn't react for a moment Jaune grows worried as he starts being more and more certain about what most likely happened to those people, though he asks again 'What happened to these people and this place in your timeline?'

The other voice sighs mentally and says sombrely 'Like you've probably already figured out, all but two died here, and by the time I got to Oakville only one survivor was left as a shuddering wreck in Oakville, asking why she survived while her friends were all dead, while the other survivor had apparently committed suicide because both her brother and husband had died here with the former even directly sacrificing his life to make sure the two of them made it out alive while the latter had died trying to secure an escape route….'

Even though he had been expecting a bad situation, he had hoped that it would have been less tragic. But also 'Why would she commit suicide when the two people she apparently loved most gave their lives trying to save her? Shouldn't that have caused her to instead live on if only for their memory?' Spirit is silent for a moment as Jakob signals Jaune, who then has his horse go into a draff to escort the trucks while they also start moving, having to move slow enough to not cause additional injury to the wounded meaning that the horse can keep up without much trouble.

'Here's the thing about trauma Jaune' Spirit says softly 'It hits everyone differently and even the same person in a almost exactly the same situation different each time. And sometimes, it is just too much for people to take, the pain is too much to live with for much longer or they might not even see the point of living on anymore when they've lost everyone or everything they cared for.'

Then Spirit forcefully brightens his tone 'Now that we have covered that, let's get back to happier things, since we managed to save these people from that fate. So let me give you a basic run-through of how to operate the rifle you're holding and some tips on how to and how not to use a bolt action rifle that I got from Ruby. First something that should be fairly obvious but a lot of people apparently ignore, if something is moving very fast don't shoot at the object itself unless its heading straight for you, instead lead them and once you've figured out their movement pattern fire just ahead of them in the direction they're moving in.

While bullets travel very fast, they don't cross distances instantaneously so if something is already moving before you fire and you aim at where they were, there is a pretty high chance of them dodging the shot, or at the very least you only getting a grazing hit in, which doesn't actually do much of anything against Grimm or humans with active aura other than make them angry.

If there's a Grimm, as is probably obvious by now aim for something other than their carapace, eyes are an especially good target once you've been trained up, since despite having little in the way of organs Grimm do require their eyes, ears and noses to use those respective senses, same as humans or animals. Of course though, since a lot of Grimm have armoured carapaces on their heads, it is usually a better idea to just aim for their chests and shoulders, which are normally less well armoured.'

As Jaune is mentally noting it all down they notice a few black specs on the horizon as they turn a corner in the road, he spurs his horse to go a bit faster so he'll end up ahead of the convoy. Once they start closing in a bit he realizes it is a duo of Ursa's heading their way. He halts his horse before he aims for one and fires, only to promptly miss as he wasn't expecting the rifle to have so much of a kick to it.

As he racks the bolt and re aims his second shot lands in a leg of one of the two, pushing it back while causing it to stumble and ram itself into a tree. A shot barks out from the back of the first truck, hitting the downed Grimm causing it to roar as Jaune cycles the bolt for another shot. This one hits the still moving Grimm in the chest, at which point he cycles the bolt again and fires a shot, this time getting a lucky hit in on the Grimms left eye, causing it to stumble before falling as a shot barks out from the truck hitting it in the chest.

Jaune cycles the bolt again as the downed Grimm starts pushing itself up again and puts another shot into its chest, putting it out of its misery. He cycles the bolt again only to find his rifle is now empty 'Remember, it's a 5 cartridge bolt action rifle, especially with how little ammo you have now you have to check yourself to make sure you're not wasting any.' As Spirit is telling him this he gives some advice on how to efficiently reload, having guided him through the motions in the second, third and fourth shot before allowing him to work on his own in the fifth one.

As they watch while one is already dead and disintegrating the other is still just about clinging to life, before it gets put out of its misery by another shot from the back of the truck. Turning to look at them Jaune notices it was Johan, who gives him a thumbs up which he returns before they start moving again. Luckily the rest of the trip is mostly calm and despite the sedate pace to prevent further injury of the wounded and allow his horse to keep up they are well on schedule to arrive in another ten minutes when the forest starts thinning and after cresting a small hill, they can see Oakville in the distance, a sizable walled settlement with high stone inner walls and smaller but sturdy looking concrete outer walls that Jaune knows are re-enforced with steel to make one of the largest uses of armed concrete in the entire kingdom of Vale besides the walls of the great city itself. When they get close to the walled city one of the guards shouts down ''Who's there and why did you come here with such a large group without notifying in advance?''

An irate voice can be heard shouting back ''Learn to look Bordeaux, it's me Johan, with all the staff and guards of logging camp 045, together with a huntsman student that assisted us in killing enough Grimm to get out of there before a Grimm horde numbering in the high hundreds arrived.''

The gate guard now looks somewhat surprised at the group though with recognition of the voice, before turning to look down the inner side of the wall while shouting ''Open the gate and let them in, they're the real deal of SDC personnel, they're retreating from a Grimm assault on the logging camp. Possibly still being followed, further questioning can wait till they're inside.''

As ordered the large thick steel gates start opening, and as they move through most of the people in the convoy let out an unconscious sigh of relief, they've made it back to the city alive and mostly well. Upon entering they are met by half a dozen guards, who though armed are keeping their weapons aimed at the ground. ''Been too long since you visited old man, how have you been?'' As the apparent leader of the guards speaks Jaune looks him up and down while the other guards move to help the people off their trucks and see if they need medical attention. He's wearing a Valean militia uniform, standing at roughly equal height to Jaune and despite his greying hair he still has the build of a frontline combatant.

''Until this morning all went well,'' as he says this he leaves the back of the truck and moves to stand closer to the guard officer. ''Then the Grimm attacked, small groups first but after killing off those two of my men went to clear out getaway routes only for one of them to be ambushed on his way back after he found out and called in that a group of hundreds was approaching, shortly after which a larger group of Grimm also assaulted the main base.''

At this point he motions for Jaune to get closer so he dismounts and walks closer with Bessy calmly following. ''Then this young man came along and helped him, before together they distracted and killed more over half of the remaining Grimm surrounding us, including an Alpha Beowulf while we used the distraction to mop up the last few stragglers.''

As Jaune now stands next to the man the guard sizes him up before smiling in recognition ''Now that's a face I can place, Jaune Arc is it not?'' Jaune gives a confused nod in return.

''Your father and Violet like to talk about the family and often show pictures of all of you in the downtime between meetings during the yearly militia budget and planning gatherings,'' at this point the man frowns ''But they never mentioned you being capable enough to do what seems to be a job needing at the very least a well trained Beacon first year, what gives?''

Now Jaune is pushed into a corner and whitens a bit but before Spirit can step in he regains himself and answers ''I've been training for most of my life to live up to the family name, but dad and most of my sisters didn't like that much, wanted me to stay home, stay safe. Beacon however felt me capable enough to accept my application letter, so I'm heading there to make a name for myself.'' As he finishes the other man smiles, while Johan gives him a supportive clap on his shoulder.

''And a fine job he did, chopping Grimm to pieces left and right, going through them like a scythe through wheat. If all future Huntsmen are this capable when they join the academies our future is in safe hands.'' After this he turns towards Jaune and hands him a note.

''Here's the address of the SDC complex we'll be staying at, come see me there after you're done settling in for the day, the next train to Beacon won't leave till tomorrow morning so you'll need a place to stay the night.'' Jaune nods in return and takes the note before starting to walk away while the two older men catch up. As he does so he sees three people approach him from the corner of his eye, two of the workers and one of the SDC guards.

He turns their way and sees it's the man he saved together with two remarkably similar fox Faunus, probably his wife and her brother, while both the (possible) siblings support him while they walk closer, before the male Faunus fully hands him to her for a moment while moving over to hug him, which Jaune accepts as the emotional man sobs out a few thank you's. Only moments later he has composed himself and takes a small pouch off his belt ''Thank you, without your help we'd have lost my best friend and my sisters other half. While it's not much, we scraped together a reward.'' As he says this he hands the small pouch over.

Before Jaune can even think to refuse the saved man in question speaks up ''Without you I'd be gone and these two would probably still be in danger, so please accept the money. Rounds for that rifle of yours are expensive so if you're going to use that while fighting for a living, you'll need it.''

After he accepts the pouch all three of them thank him again before the brother moves to take the mans arm again as they head to the medical post nearby to get him looked after by a professional, with Jaune feeling warm inside all the while looking at them. 'Before you ask, that warm feeling is the satisfaction of being able to improve a persons life mixed with the pride and happiness taken from others honest praise. It is a very nice feeling isn't it?'

A smile grows on Jaune's face as he hears Spirits answer to his unasked question while walking towards the nearby pony express stable. Upon arriving there he learns that the old man sent a radio message ahead, to let him known he can keep the saddlebags if he paid for them, so after handing over the money and with both the military rucksack on his back and the saddlebags over his shoulder he leaves for a nearby hotel recommended by the desk clerk of the stable.

After renting a room and storing everything besides Crocoa Mors some jeans and one of the shirts he bought with the military surplus which he lays down on the bed, he takes a short shower to finally get the of long distance travel off of him before he redresses and heads back down to the lobby where he turns towards the teenager behind the front desk ''A question, do you know where Oswald square number five is?'' As he talks he ignores Spirits grumbling 'Why does it always have to be Ozpin', thinking to ask about it later.

The young redhead behinds the counter looks at him with a smile before eagerly nodding her head ''If you head down the road, take a left at the great war monument and then follow that road till you arrive at the rail station, you take a right and you should see the square, it's the large white warehouse with a large sign of a snowflake on a blue sky above the door.''

Jaune nods his thanks before leaving and following the directions, though once he arrives at the square he spends a moment staring at the sheer opulence of the buildings around him, never having seen anything like it in real life until now. After a while Spirit grows annoyed of Jaune assuming the gaping tourist look and shocks him awake with a 'Are you done staring at the warehouses around us? This is nothing compared to Vale and Atlas, so please get over yourself before the SDC compound closes.'

Shaking his head the young man refocuses and walks up to the door, ringing the doorbell once arriving there. Within a minute the door opens to reveal a young woman with black hair that looked him over, first with slight annoyance but quickly with some interest ''Are you Jaune Arc?''

As he nodded in confirmation she smiles at him and stepped out of the doorway to let him in, closing the door behind him. ''Thanks for helping out my grandfather by the way, the old man might be too stubborn to admit it directly but from how he talks it seems that there's a good chance at least some of them wouldn't have made it out alive without you.'' As he gives an unsure smile in return she pats his shoulder for a second before saying ''Go to room A0.05, go down the hallway to your right and then straight ahead, should be at the end of the hall.''

As he moves to walk down the hall she goes to sit back behind the receptionist desk. After a last wave he enters the hall and follows the directions, ending up at a, surprise, white door identical to the four he passed moments earlier, with its only distinguishing feature being the small plaque with A0.05 on it. As he knocks he gets a shout from inside to come in, causing him to turn the handle and open the door. As he does so he gets a good view of a long table with three people sitting on one end of it, two garbed in the pristine white suits preferred by the Atlesian upper classes, while the last man is wearing combat fatigues though these seem far cleaner than they where last time you saw him.

''Good to see you here kid'' As Johan starts speaking he moves out of his chair and gives Jaune a short slap on the shoulder, while without the helm you can see that he has pure white hair on his head. ''Again, can't thank you enough for the assistance back there.'' As the man talks you can hear one of the others clear his throat before he gestures for the both of you to sit down.

As you do so one and Johan sits down to your right, with both of the suited men in seats opposite of you, you feel it would be a strange sight: two men in what are essentially off duty paramilitary fatigues that have seen better days who both have barely been able to clean up from the wild opposite of two men in pressed suits that look extremely new. ''Thank you young man for your assistance to the logging camp. I am Reinhart Merkel, my colleague here is Mattieu d'Anterré.'' As he shakes both men's hands and introduces himself in return, though they probably already know his name from Johan it is only polite, before Reinhart continues.

''As you discussed with Mr. Schmitt, you'll be paid in a mixture of ammunition for your rifle and lien, as compensation for your bravery in risking your life to get our personnel out of there faster. We would propose giving you a full ammo pouch, worth 100 rounds of ammunition, in addition to 4000 lien.'' While Jaune thinks it over Spirit nudges him mentally 'Normally I'd say negotiate for a better deal, but this is actually a pretty generous payment and staying in the good books of the SDC in general is probably worth more than the slightly better deal you can squeeze out of it' Jaune thinks on this for a moment and mostly agrees before he remembers something Spirit had told him about.

''I am more than fine with that sir, though I do have a suggestion: I am a huntsman in training going to Beacon academy, and I know that lately the robberies in dust stores there has been becoming more and more frequent, including those directly owned by the SDC.'' All three of the men look interested, with Reinhart motioning for him to continue ''With myself and potentially my team at Beacon a phone call away we might be able to help guard any place you believe stands a high chance of being robbed on specific times, such as during a large new shipment, as long as it fits within our schedule as Beacon students of course. This would help in situations where there is not enough evidence to call upon law enforcement but enough threat that your security won't be able to handle it on its own.''

''Excuse us'' while saying this Reinhart and Mattieu stand up and move over to the corner for a moment, discussing it, before they return to be seated, both seemingly happier than before ''We're interested, though details on that front will have to be negotiated with a more important member of the SDC once at location.'' At this he hands over a small card with several scroll numbers on it ''As thanks for this proposal we will add some more ammunition to the amount, you will get ten additional rounds for your rifle and a gift-card for 100 lien worth of products from SDC delivery international.'' As he speaks you nod your ascent and he brings out a piece of paper for you to sign.

''This shall serve as a notification of us handing you the reward, the information on what account we should send the lien to and so that we will actually have your contact information for future dealings.'' As he fills out the fairly short form with the pen he looks everything through thoroughly only to find that it is just as they say it is. Once he lies the pen down the two men opposite of him both shake his hand again before Reinhart hands over a gift-card causing both Jaune and Johan to look at him ''You'd be surprised at how often we hand out these gift-cards as thanks to people, Johan will show you where to get the ammunition. Have a nice day and good luck with your career as a huntsman.'' As Mattieu nods along the other two get over their surprise while the two suited men walk out of the room.

After taking a moment Johan looks over to Jaune ''They went easier on you than I expected, usually Reinhart is a demon during negotiations while Mattieu tries to undermine any counter-arguments the other party brings to the table.'' Then he shrugs ''Don't blame them though, with how much threat the smaller outposts in Vale have been under lately they're probably just happy that evacuation and the battle itself went smoothly in at least one place.'' As he finishes his sentence Spirit immediately becomes alert in Jaune's mind, while Jaune himself also grows interested.

''Wait the smaller SDC outposts around have been under threat lately? Why didn't I hear anything about that before this? I mean I knew criminals where ramping up their robberies on dust shops in Vale itself, but I didn't hear anything about smaller outposts coming under attack till I found you guys.'' Johan sighs and looks around for a moment before tapping a screen on the table, showing it to be a digital projector, causing an image of Vale to be shown on a map with 30 or so small red dots and three larger ones.

''This is a map with the independent outposts the SDC ran last year throughout Vale's territory, 15 small mines, three large mining camps, eight locations that are a mix of logging camp and secure resting spot while the remainder are train stations along the supply routes of the mining camps that also serve the logistical hubs for huntsmen and military whenever a village in the region needs to be re-enforced.'' He pushes a button and the image changes, now still showing the three large red dots but only twenty of the smaller dots. ''In the past year, with my logging camp included we've been forced out of a third of our smaller outposts throughout Vale, while roving bands of Grimm near our larger outposts grow more and more common.''

He looks sadly at the map before turning his gaze towards Jaune ''Most of those outposts didn't have the luck of getting re-enforced in time to evacuate all their personnel, and instead usually lost a third of their personnel during the attack with on average a bit more than 10% dying during the evacuation. In total they usually lost around 45% of their personnel to the Grimm. While Vale has taken action and is re-enforcing both the outposts and most smaller towns with additional militia personnel in addition to SDC headquarters having the surviving guards from the taken outposts re-enforce the still active ones plus ramping up recruiting efforts in the slums of the larger cities for more guards with re-taking efforts being prepared, Grimm activity has been on the rise all throughout Vale so the forces readying for that will likely have to be diverted to assist elsewhere instead. If the Grimm could think or had some leader it would almost be like they're trying to weaken Vale's defences by drawing away troops from the city itself.''

In Jaune's head spirit deigns to share 'While I didn't have this information last time, that causes some things to make so much more sense, Ironwood was bringing his troops to Vale under the assumption that there was going to be a full on assault while the cities garrison was spread out all over Vale's smaller settlements, rightfully surmising that the attacks on the outposts and smaller settlements was to draw troops away from Vale, though he didn't realise that they could take control of his robotic troops through a hacking program. Which is kind of understandable, it was after all designed by somebody he thought of as dead, that thus had access to and knowledge of information everyone thought no enemy of Atlas would have.'

As Jaune mulls over both the new information given to him and the conclusion imparted by Spirit, Johan continues after staring at the map in silent grief for a moment, before he smiles again, though more woodenly than usual. Chances are high he lost friends or family members with those fallen outposts. ''Let us go and get you your new ammunition from the armoury, you'll need to get back to your hotel early so you can get enough sleep before the train tomorrow morning, it leaves at 7 so you'll need to be at the station fairly early.''

As they walk through the hallways where everything was painted only in differing shades of white 'Is this more an Atlesian thing to make everything white or is it more a Schnee thing to go along with their name?' to which Spirit gave a very simple 'A bit of both', before the Spirit went silent again going over the information they had just gained.

After a minute or two walking they arrived in front of two large steel doors, where Johan showed a card to the guards, who allowed them through after shortly checking the card and Johan, where-upon inside Jaune could see planks with neatly organised equipment, upon getting inside Johan headed straight for the area designated 'Ammunition' and looked around for a moment he grabbed a large ammunition pack and a small pouch before handing Jaune the larger pack for him to hang from his shoulder before handing over the smaller pouch to clip to his belt.

As they left through the door before they moved to the reception area, Johan stopped in the hallway at one point, turning around to address Jaune ''Thank you for your assistance young man, you've helped both me and the people that where there a lot. While I might not tell it to them, to keep the groups calm, even though we could have taken out the regular Grimm without too much trouble, we'd have been slaughtered once we went out afterwards. Myself and Derek are the only two of our group worth a dime in close quarters combat, and with Derek… out of action without your assistance, the combination of the remaining Grimm coming over from his position and the Alpha Beowulf would have overwhelmed me fairly quickly, since my aura had already been broken in a fight earlier that day and I hadn't fully recovered yet by that point.''

He sighs at the thought of his own potential death, shaking his head, all the while Jaune is thinking about the chance of just that having happened in the original timeline ''After that the others might have taken the Alpha out with some casualties, but the combination of that and those Ursa would have slowed them down enough that the small horde could have caught up to them before they got to Oakville. If you ever need help when you meet me again, I'll do whatever I can to assist.'' As he shakes his head again he gives the young man one last thankful clap on the shoulder before they leave for the receptionist area where the man moves to stand with his granddaughter as they both wave him out though as he leaves though as he closes the door he can swear him teasing her about something, though he couldn't hear what exactly.

Afterwards he walked back to the hotel, stopping by a bakery on the way to grab some croissants and a baguette for tomorrow, before getting dinner at a small restaurant where he eats a nice steak meal with salted escargot as a side dish. After finishing and tipping for the delicious meal, he moves back to his hotel, waves to the redhead behind the counter and goes upstairs to fall asleep, where he dreams of the potential comrades he might get and of all the antics they could get up to, though unknown to him not all of these are dreams alone, a number are full on memories unconsciously supplied by Spirit, showing him the wonders of the various people he might meet in the future.

AN: and that's a wrap, it's a bit longer than previous chapters but this was the journey to Oakville. I thought about writing till he arrives at Vale but I would rather keep the story of that and his first meetings with the rest of the main cast to wait until the next chapter, since I had put a standard to myself: start posting this story once the third chapter is written. If anyone took notice of how quickly I uploaded these chapters after the other, no its not me suddenly regaining a feverish writing spirit, though I have been writing a lot lately, I simply wished for there to be a bit of reading out quickly since most people only read things longer than 20k words either way.

Now, if anyone has commentary, please do review or send me a message with it. I won't react all too seriously to flaming, but I will take any advice given to heart. As I said before, I'm writing this story as a combination of wanting to get back into writing and because the concept intrigued me, so any and all advice is welcome. Have a nice day all.