Jaune Arc

Jaune woke early, both mentally and physically relaxed. He had not gone out last night, so as to be functioning at 100 percent mentally. He couldn't afford to mess up in a life-or-death situation. He got dressed, equipping the same sword and shield he had showed Ruby yesterday. He put on his usual belt, filled to the brim with all manners of explosives, chemicals, and crystals.

Dressed and ready for the day, he headed to the cafeteria, where he was sure all of the new students would be ravenously devouring the delicious food Beacon served. He stood in line to get food and searched the cafeteria for Yang and Ruby. He saw them on the other side of the cafeteria, but they seemed to be arguing over something, as Yang was trying to block Ruby's playful punches. Not a good time to say hello.

He swept his gaze around and saw Weiss with a redheaded girl that looked slightly familiar. Was she some sort of celebrity? Whatever it was, her smile seemed to be strained as Weiss continued to jabber on in her ear. A perfect time to save her from the boredom.

"So Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well known individual such as yourself."

She was trying to butter this 'Pyrrha' up. Jaune grinned. If the heiress to the Schnee fortune was trying to chat someone up, that meant that that person was someone he needed to know.

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may." Pyrrha has a melodious, slow, voice that was quite pleasing to the ears.

"Well, I was thinking maybe me could be on a team together." Weiss said, a little too innocently.

"Well that sounds grand." Pyrrha said kindly. Jaune saw the triumphant expression on Weiss's face. He knew now was the time to strike.

"You know what else is grand? Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you Snow Angel." Jaune suavely said, sitting down opposite of the two girls with his plate of pancakes and syrup. He casually cut a piece off and chewed as he waited for one of the two to respond.

"Nice to meet you Jaune." Pyrrha said kindly. She leaned slightly towards him, causing Jaune's lips to creep upwards a little. Pyrrha really didn't want to talk to Weiss. Weiss glared at him, annoyance obvious.

"So I heard you two are planning on teams. Spots are still open on Team Jaune, care to join? There's a long waiting list you know." Jaune scooped up some applesauce.

"You, Jaune, do you have any idea who you are talking to? Either of us?" Weiss demanded, hands curling into fists.

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel." Jaune continued speaking in the same, honestly irritating, tone he had been using so far.

Weiss seethed. "I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, only the most well-known company on Remnant!"

"Huh." Jaune looked her up and down and shrugged. "Thought you'd look stronger."

Pyrrha involuntarily smiled, but quickly hid her mouth with a napkin. Weiss glared at him in fury and shock. This boy was ruining her talk with Pyrrha and insulting her at the same time!

Jaune ignored her and turned to Pyrrha. "And what about you? Don't tell me your family owns some other large company, I think one heiress is enough in this school."

Weiss butted in before Pyrrha could even open her mouth. "You don't even know her?!" Her voice was shrill and full of furious surprise. "She graduated top of her class at Sanctum, breaking several records in the process."

"Sanctum? Never heard of it. Is that a school?" Jaune tilted his head in mock curiosity.

"She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, adding to her collection of records she holds." Weiss glared at him like she expected understanding to shower down on him.

He just shook his head. "Not a clue."

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!" Weiss waved her arms around, exasperated.

"That cereal? Isn't it really unhealthy?" Jaune turned to Pyrrha to see an odd expression in her eyes, almost like suppressed happiness? He expected her to be a little disappointed or to think of him as an ignorant but slightly funny guy. He definitely didn't expect her to be happy with his answers!

"Yes Jaune, it is really bad for you." Pyrrha smiled. "And you really haven't heard of me?"

Jaune laughed. "I haven't heard of you in particular, but I have heard of Sanctum. I'm not that much of an idiot. Just pulling your strings Weiss, sorry."

Weiss's expression darkened further with anger.

Pyrrha was now not paying any attention to Weiss. "And as for the teams, I would love to be on yours, Jaune."

Jaune looked at her in genuine surprise. She was happy that he didn't recognize her? Wait, he had read something about this in a psychology journal.

"Wait, really?! Pyrrha, you don't know anything about him! He just admitted to not knowing arguably the most famous Huntress-in-training in all of Remnant!" Weiss looked a bit panicked as she saw her chances of wooing Pyrrha onto her team vanish in a Jaune-shaped cloud.

"If he is here at Beacon, I'm sure he is a wonderful fighter. I can also tell he has the traits to be a wonderful leader." Her voice was warm and friendly.

"Uh, thanks Pyrrha. That's really nice of you." Jaune managed to say, collecting himself. He returned Pyrrha's kind smile.

Before Weiss could voice her growing disbelief, the loudspeakers in the hall came to life. Goodwitch's voice boomed through the hall. "Would all first year students report to Beacon cliffs for initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon cliffs, immediately.

Jaune waved his farewell to the two girls, one staring at him in fury, the other smiling at him happily. As he put away his tray, he thought to the surprising behavior Pyrrha had exhibited.

Jaune knew that most celebrities loved the attention the media gave them and that was the reason they did their job. However, there were some who hated the publicity that came with doing anything extraordinary. The media hounded them, trying to get into their lives, trying to peel back the shell that the individual put around themselves. Seems like Pyrrha belonged to this group of unwilling celebrities.

He merged into the crowd moving to the Beacon cliffs facing the Emerald Forest. Ozpin and Goodwitch were already waiting there in front of several square metal pads near the edge. Most of the students were already standing on the pads and Jaune followed their lead. He stood on one next to Ruby.

"So do you have any idea what the initiation will be about?" Ruby looked up at his question.

"No, it's a secret. It changes every year apparently. Only the teachers know what will happen."

Jaune hummed noncommittally and stared at the forest, thinking of the importance of standing on the pads. Pads, on the edge of a cliff overlooking a forest they had to fight in? He had a bad feeling about it.

Ozpin started speaking. "For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Goodwitch spoke up next. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. Today."

Sounds of despair emanated from Ruby.

Ozpin continued the statement. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Jaune tuned the rest of his speech out. Landing? They're going to launch us off this cliff? Why the hell did no one tell me? It's at least a 100-foot drop from the cliff edge!

He reviewed strategies to survive the landing. Maybe he could flare his aura and hope to not die? Grab onto a tree branch? Pads started to launch their students as Jaune planned how to avoid what looked like an unavoidable death. He looked up at Ozpin and saw that the headmaster was grinning slightly. That cheeky son of a-

He couldn't complete his thought as the sudden acceleration overwhelmed his senses. The air stung his eyes and drew tears which interfered with his vision. He blinked them away and activated a prototype version of his HUD. This one consisted of a contact lenses on his eyeballs that filtered light to create splotches of color in his vision. He had programmed different colors for different alerts, such as aura levels or enemy movement behind him.

He had a bright light built into the inside of his shield. It would shine into his eyes to ensure that he could see the HUD even when inside dark areas. It had taken a while to get it right (any many near-blindings) and he had barely managed to scrape a prototype together for initiation.

He reached the apex of his arc and started falling. Deciding on a plan, he held his shield near his chest to protect his vitals. He activated the barrier crystal in his shield, and used small bursts of a gravity crystal to slow himself.

He had to conserve his aura, as who knew what faced him in the vast forest. All he knew what that he had to reach the north end of the forest and collect the relics there.

Seeing the treetops approach at a breakneck, Jaune sent out a large burst of aura through the gravity crystal, slowing him down considerably. He braced himself for a collision with the ground when he felt a tug on the hood of his sweatshirt.

He slammed into the side of a tree, his hood ripping as he bounced off the tree. He fell to the ground and felt his breath leave him. Gasping for air, he looked up at the tree to see what had hit him.

A javelin? Doesn't the idiot that threw that know that we're supposed to be hunting Grimm not each other? What the hell?

Breath back in his lungs, he looked at the clearing he found himself in. He had pulled most of his aura to his chest, so there were minor cuts and bruises on his face, but that didn't bother him.

What did bother him was the group of 5 beowolves staring at him. He grasped his sword tightly and raised his shield. He knew they attacked in packs, and that they would try to distract him with feints and flanking.

He lunged forward suddenly, chopping at the paws of the closest one. The blade passed through like butter, smoother than Jaune had expected. The excess of power in the swing caused him to lose his balance and for the next beowolf to smack him across the chest.

If this was a year ago, Jaune would've been torn in two. Today, however, was a different story. His aura blocked the paw, and Jaune recovered his balance. Adjusting to the ease at which the blade cut through the flesh of the creature, Jaune sliced its head off with ease and turned his shield to block an incoming strike from a flanking beowolf. His blade flashed as it stabbed the creature of Grimm through the chest. Jaune turned the blade and sliced the Beowolf in two.

He ducked and rolled away from the now dissolving body, creating distance to survey the field. He saw the three beowolves looking at him cautiously. One seemed to have much more armor on him and Jaune could bet his sword wouldn't cut through him so easily. That was the Alpha, the leader of the pack.

One of the smaller beowolves launched itself at Jaune's head while the other went for his legs. Jaune brought his sword down, slicing through both beowolves with one swing. The bodies crashed into him, bowling him over. He had not been expecting that and fell over, hands trying to push away the dissolving carcasses even as he heard the triumphant growl of the alpha.

Smart girl, Jaune thought as his fingers slipped on the fluid leaking from the bodies. He managed to push the one on his chest off before the alpha was all over him. Its large claws slammed into Jaune over and over again, its weight threatening to suffocate Jaune.

He struggled to concentrate to get his aura under the beast to push it off, but the constant attacks by the monster rendered any efforts futile. As Jaune's breath began to run out and darkness began to seep into his vision, he heard a hum and a sickening crunch.

The creature slumped off him and Jaune saw a flash of red and gold leap over him to the fallen creature and decapitate it. He gasped, trying to inflate his lungs. Within seconds, his aura had started to heal the damage done to his face and insides.

Once he felt better, he got up on his knees to look at his savior. Startling green eyes looked back at him. They really are very pretty, Jaune's instinct said but he quickly stifled that thought. That side of him had been giving him trouble for quite a few years and had been quite vocal lately.

"Hello again Jaune! I guess we're partners now." Pyrrha's voice was warm, friendly, and comforting as usual. Jaune stood up, smiling in relief at his luck. Out of everyone at Beacon, Pyrrha was probably the best person he could have had on his team.

"I guess we are. Thanks for that save, that Alpha really was a handful, more than I expected" Jaune scratched the back of his head.

Pyrrha smiled. "We're partners now; we need to watch each other's backs for the next 4 years. Now let's go Jaune, we need to find the relic that Ozpin told us to find."

"Right. Do you know where to go?"

"Of course. The professor told us to go north, and north is that way." Pyrrha pointed in the direction from where she had come.

"Alright, that sounds good." Jaune started to follow Pyrrha as she turned to exit the clearing. "Oh! Wait a second Pyrrha, I need to get something."

He went to the tree where the javelin was stuck in. Peering through the branches, he could find no trace of the javelin.

That's weird, the javelin should be easy to find, it's red and gold! Wait. Waaaait a second.

Jaune whirled around, seeing Pyrrha's confused eyes. He looked down, seeing her sword, red and gold, just like the sword, strapped to her waist. Narrowing his eyes, he looked back at Pyrrha, who looked even more confused now.

"Pyrrha, does your sword transform in any way?"

"Why yes, Milo here has a javelin form. Why do you ask?"

" Milo skewered me through my hood to the tree during my landing. Please tell me that was an accident."

Pyrrha laughed slightly guiltily. "I wish I could, Jaune. You looked like you were falling too fast, so I tried to help by catching you with the javelin. It was the only thing I could think of at the time."

"Eh, it's no big deal, I'm alive, that's all that matters to me. Now, let's go get those relics!" Jaune wasn't sure how he felt about her problem solving tactics, but at least it was original. Originality was good on the battlefield.

"Are you sure that this is it? I mean, it looks a bit foreboding and generally evil. Not my cup of tea."

Jaune and Pyrrha were standing in front of a large cave that went deep into a hillside. It was marked with ancient looking pictograms of stick figures fighting a Deathstalker.

"Maybe Professor Ozpin wanted to give us a challenge?" Pyrrha sounded unsure.

"Well, I'll go in. I won't try to fight, and will run out immediately when a threat presents itself. Deal?"

Pyrrha nodded, seeing the benefit of sending in a scout. She turned and started guarding the entrance from any threats in the forest.

Jaune pulled out a small pair of goggles which he fitted over his eyes. They perceived infrared light as well as sound waves to create an image of the world. With them, Jaune could get a better view in the dark, but they were far from perfect. The image wasn't fully accurate and had very low resolution. The image feed lacked any form of stabilization and was not real-time, but it was better than any other option.

Jaune led the way in, scanning the walls for any recent gouges in the walls. Continuing further, the cave opened up into a large cavern. Something cooler than the surroundings flowed near the entrance and Jaune confirmed it was a stream when they stepped over it.

In the center of the otherwise pitch black cavern. Jaune saw a blob of something that was hotter than the surroundings. He started backing out, trying not to draw any attention to himself.

SPLASH

The sound of his foot entering the stream was like a gunshot in the silence. The mass in front of him shifted, getting bigger as the creature seemed to rise up.

"Oh wonderful, just great." Jaune turned tail and rain, dropping some proximity based explosives. He had created many of the explosives used on Earth, such as gunpowder, and had decided to use them alongside Dust. It would be distinctive to the Promethean order, cheap to use and produce, and would be something his enemies had never seen before.

A lot of the explosives that Jaune could create were much better cost-wise than forming proper ratios of energy, fire, and lightning dust in a mixture.

He burst out of the cave as it started to collapse, the explosives rattling the entire structure. He saw Pyrrha look startled at the sudden chaos inside the cave and didn't start running until Jaune grabbed her hand and started pulling.

"Jaune what the hell did you do back there?"

"I saw a large cavern, huge deathstalker inside, it started to chase me, I threw down explosives, and now we're running away hoping we live and it dies." Jaune stated, breath shallow from running in a flat out sprint.

Hearing the enraged roars of the deathstalker, they dodged trees, jumped over roots, and avoided tangling themselves in vines, only to crash into a red and white duo.

"Why does everyone insist on running into me?!" Weiss cried out. She was sprawled on the forest floor, beating the ground with her fist.

"Ruby, Weiss, we need to skedaddle, now! There's a deathstalker on our tail and I may or may not have dumped lots of rocks on it. Let's move, now!"

The two didn't question him, and they all ran from the giant scorpion-like Grimm.

"Hey Blake, is it just me or is that a giant Nevermore over there?"

Yang and Blake, newly partnered, had collected their relics and were waiting on the others to catch up.

"It does seem like a giant Nevermore. I wonder what's got it agitated?" Blake queried, quiet as usual.

Her question was immediately answered as a huge dust cloud rose over the forest, followed by a shock wave.

Yang and Blake looked at each other in shock. What the hell produced an explosion of that size? Was someone hurt?

They both nodded and dived back into the forest.

Once Jaune saw the Nevermore flying overhead, he knew he had to pull out the big guns. Dropping back, he slowed his pace slightly. He was last in the pack and the others quickly gained ground as they ran for their lives.

He stopped once they were out of sight and got to work, pulling out small shaped charges from his back pockets. All of them were carefully prepared to do maximum damage to a single target and were powerful.

But that wasn't all Jaune had in his arsenal. He had one very high yield bomb he had been saving for an emergency. If a Giant nevermore and a Giant deathstalker aren't emergency enough, I don't know what is.

He set the device into the ground. It was very small and wouldn't create anything close to a crater. But what it did do was create a very large, very high energy shock wave that would boil blood, wreak havoc on tissues and bones, and generally be classified as "not fun". It was something that would cause military engineers back on Earth salivate, but was only possible thanks to the miracle of Dust. The correct proportions of different forms of Dust could give off quite a bit of sound energy.

He connected the trigger to another proximity sensor and ran like hell in the direction the other three had gone. He knew that they would have to take care of the Nevermore later, but getting the Deathstalker off their backs was a priority.

He had scarcely run 200 meters when the device went off. The Deathstalker was much faster than Jaune had anticipated, which was a very, very grave mistake.

It was like nothing Jaune had ever felt before. The air itself seemed to become solid, pushing his body forward like a mere plaything. His aura strained under the pressure as it tried not to let his body get harmed.

Sadly, aura doesn't work very well on preventing internal injuries and Jaune was keenly aware of this fact as he felt some organs inside him burst, each followed by a blast of pain.

He flew through a dozen trees, his aura getting pushed to the maximum with no barrier dust blocking any of the damage. Jaune's HUD was blinking red rapidly, indicating 15% aura levels. The light got redder and redder and increased its frequency to warn him of decreasing aura levels.

Jaune couldn't take note any of this as he lay amid the fresh logs of the trees he had been thrown through. He couldn't feel his legs, his arms were twisted at odd angles, and blood flowed from his mouth, creating a small pool under his head.

His mind felt as if cotton balls were being stuffed in every corner of it. The world was alternating between a white haze and a red flash. His eyes couldn't focus on anything and rolled in their sockets. He wanted nothing more than to just let go of his pain and drift away.

The only thing holding him back was his aura, steadily working on his body, bringing life back to him. His head slowly cleared and he coughed, knowing that if blood started to congeal in his throat, he would choke to death.

His eyes focused on the incessant blinking of the HUD. The red was deep red, which meant he was disastrously low on aura. He attempted to pull from his aura reserves in the crystals in his belt to no avail. He was far too distracted by the pain to focus on his aura store. Jaune lay there, the pain gradually increasing in magnitude as the numbing effects of his aura stopped.

His lungs felt as if they were burning. His breathing grew shallow and he felt as if he was drowning. This is the end, and what a truly shitty end it is. Wonder what my tombstone will say. 'Unknown idiot, killed by his own bomb'. What an end. Just another statistic.

Jaune's self-pity was cut short as a shadow fell over him. Wonderful, I don't even get to die by myself. Hopefully the Grimm makes it quick.

He felt something jab into his neck, and he fell headfirst into unconsciousness.

Jaune awoke in a hospital bed. His eyes flew open and the first thing he noticed was a solid green light. 100 percent aura. I'm still alive? He looked out the window. Nighttime.

Jaune checked the rest of his body, feeling everything working and no pain anywhere. He rolled out of bed and stepped onto the cool floor. He was wearing bright blue hospital pajamas that did nothing to stop the nighttime chill.

He looked around the room and saw none of his items there. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Dim ceiling lights gave enough illumination to traverse the eerily quiet halls.

He followed the signs to the lobby, hoping to contact someone as there was no scroll or bell in his room. He walked under the dim lights, feeling slightly unnerved. Where are all the doctors and nurses? Shouldn't someone be checking on the patients?

Finally coming to the lobby, he reached the counter. There was no one there. He rang the bell to get attention, but there was no response. Now fully mystified, he walked to the nearest room and looked inside. The machines lay dead and the bed was empty.

He moved down the hallways throwing open doors to the same result. There was no one in any of the rooms and Jaune suspected there was no one in the entire hospital.

Running now, he went out the doors of the lobby into the grounds of Beacon Academy though they were nothing like he remembered. Craters littered the ground, and ash lay upon the land like a blanket.

The towers of the academy, at least those still standing, were full of holes and fire licked the air from many of them. Smoke rose from many of the others and one even crumbled as Jaune watched.

The sky was red with the amount of dust and ash in the air. The sun was reduced to a dim red circle. Jaune sprinted to the Beacon cliffs and gazed out over the Emerald Forest.

Or what used to be a forest. The once splendid and rich forest was now replaced by a barren wasteland. Like the Beacon grounds, this place was also marked with craters, but there were also countless shells of airships and other vehicles littered throughout.

Still refusing the facts and conclusions his brain presented to him, he rushed to the airpads to look at Vale.

It was a ruin. Glass littered the wrecked streets and reflected the red sky. The standing husks of the formerly proud buildings hunched, supporting structures exposed. The lighting colored them a ghastly red.

Jaune reeled from the sight, finally accepting the conclusion. Vale and Beacon had been destroyed by unknown forces, likely Grimm. Everyone was missing, probably long dead. How was it that he was still alive?

"You have finally started asking the right questions, Jaune Arc." A cold, soulless, malicious, and dangerous voice broke the silence. It was undoubtedly feminine.

Jaune whirled, trying to locate the source of the voice.

"Oh Jaune, how long I have waited to talk to you. Ever since you first unlocked your aura, you made such waves as I have not seen for years!"

"Where are you? Who are you?" Jaune still couldn't find the speaker.

"Jaune, I'm not going to reveal myself to you, yet. But do know that I will be getting in touch with you, soon. All you need to know is that I am someone who has known you…intimately. You have nothing to fear from me; I am simply trying to help you the best I can."

"What about all this? What happened here?!" Jaune couldn't help but become angry at the casual tone the unknown entity used.

"Oh this? This is but a small glimpse of what the world will look like if you follow that fool Ozpin's lead. Think of it like a gift. Foresight is a very valuable tool, Jaune. I'm sure you can figure out the message I'm trying to get across here."

"So you're saying that if Ozpin has his way, it will end in the destruction of the world? And I can help prevent that?"

"Yes."

"This is ridiculous. How do I know you aren't lying?" Jaune couldn't make any sense of the situation at all. What was this place? Was he dead? Was he in a coma?

"How do you know Ozpin isn't lying about trying to protect humanity?"

"I…well…" Jaune truly had no answer to that. His brain was fried trying to figure out how his mind was being hijacked to show him these visions.

"Exactly. Jaune, one thing you need to learn is that there is no black and white in this world, only shades of grey."

"Was the whole point of showing me all of this was to tell me not to trust Ozpin?"

"Oh no, not at all. The point was to show you the outcome of the path that you lead currently. All this death and destruction, all due to youngsters misguided by older mentors. It's a chess game to him, did you know that Jaune? Sacrificing a piece to capture another. Giving up a rook to get the queen. Do you feel remorse about your pieces during the game? Why do you think he is any different?"

"Because he's on the board with us pieces? That's probably why, don't you think?"

"Oh really? Do you really think he is like you and your classmates Jaune? Like any other human in Remnant? Can you be sure everyone is on the same playing field?"

Jaune stayed silent. Was she saying Ozpin is playing a different game? Is she trying to say Ozpin isn't human?

"I think my point has been made. Think upon this, Jaune. We shall meet again. I am looking forward to it."

The world fractured into a thousand shards, each glowing brighter and brighter until his vision was entirely white. Once this blinding whiteness cleared from his vision, he was in the same hospital as he had been in the vision the voice has shown him. He looked over at the side table and saw a rook resting there.

A chill went through him as he recalled the voice's words. Giving up the rook to get the queen.

He put the thought from his head as he checked his scroll, which lay next to the rook. The date was the day after initiation. Which meant he took less than 24 hours to go from Jaune "Soupy Insides" Arc to normal Jaune. Incredible.

He pressed the button on the side of his bed to summon a nurse. One came quickly and checked his vitals. He opened his mouth to question her, but she seemed to anticipate that he would be asking questions.

"Your teammates and friends are waiting outside. I'll let them answer the questions." The nurse walked out of the door, leaving it open behind her. Ruby, Pyrrha, Yang, and two others came in, followed by Professor Ozpin.

Jaune's breath froze as he recalled the warnings the voice in the vision had given him. He subconsciously turned his head to look at the rook and back at Ozpin.

Ozpin looked calm as usual, but his eyes held the real story. They were scrutinizing him, stripping his defenses, reading his secrets. Seeing the slight turn of the head to the rook, understanding dawned in the eyes.

He stared solemnly at the piece and at the accusing glare in Jaune's eyes. His eyes grew soft at that, almost remorseful. Looking into his cup, Ozpin spoke up, tiredness seeping into his voice.

"Jaune, I fear we have much to talk about."


Obligatory AN: What'd you think of the chapter? Anything I can fix? Anything you especially liked? Please review and PM me with this stuff, I love to get them and it helps me write better. Thanks for reading!