04/26/2000…

Shortly after school let out for the day Sun Wukong, the recently estranged and disowned son of the Wukong family found himself once again being stalked through the halls of the school.

Cardin Winchester and his thugs once again felt like they needed to put him in his place. Something Sun didn't feel like he needed these days considering he's been "In his place" since the rest of his crew was arrested or killed months ago.

Sun kept a paranoid ear open as he sulked through the halls in a desperate bid to avoid a beating. Sun knew he wouldn't get any help from other students or staff, Neptune still had his back but he was nowhere to be found.

He was all alone with only himself to-

"Found you, monkey boy!" Shouted out the all too familiar voice of Cardin Winchester.

Sun turned to face the smiling face of the teenaged bully as he stood there with three of his friends. Sun knew where this was going, he'd get a couple solid hits in, and then he'd get the hell beat out of him.

Just like every other time he's tried to win this fight. Gritting his teeth he got ready for the charge.

Only for an outstretched cane to break the path between Cardin's gang and Sun's very punchable face.

It took Sun a few moments to recognize the face of the man pointing the Cane out at Cardin, Sun didn't see Jaune too often and the last time he saw him he didn't have his face wasn't covered in a fair amount of stubble which made it difficult for Sun to recognize him at first.

"What the hell are you doing here Arc!" Both Cardin and Sun said in unison.

Jaune didn't feel the need to answer as he put himself between Cardin and Sun

"Oh what, you're defending this punk! Did you forget he was part of the same gang that tried to murder you, your parents, and most of your friends!?" Cardin shouted at Jaune

Jaune shifted his weight to lean on his cane and just glared at Cardin before he said with a forced rasp "He… Also called the police, that made it so they were in time to save my parents and kept me from bleeding out…"

Cardin made a big gesture of spitting on the floor before he growled at Jaune looking like he was going to charge Jaune until he said "It won't… be a good look… if you attack someone that needs a cane to stand…"

Cardin scoffed as he turned and started walking away stating "Whatever, Sun won't always have someone looking out for him."

Once Cardin and his group were all out earshot Jaune turned and gave Sun a thumbs up with a dopey grin.

"I didn't need your help," Sun said to Jaune with a shaky voice.

"You… would have rather be beaten up?" Jaune said with a pained rasped

"It had nothing to do with you!" Sun said as he forced his way past Jaune and disappeared into the halls of the school.


Jaune could only watch Sun walk off silently before he too went on with the rest of his day.

[So why is this bothering you so much then?] Ruby signed to her boyfriend.

Jaune stretched his legs as the pair sat on the couch in Jaune's living room. Ruby had come over to spend time with Jaune that day as the newly reunited couple was still trying to figure things out in their newly rekindled relationship.

[I don't know honestly, I mean realistically I don't owe the guy shit considering our history with each other.] Jaune signed back.

[Which you don't, he did put you in the hospital] Ruby added.

[But I can't get the 'What if's' Out of my head.] Jaune replied back.

[What kind of what-ifs?] Ruby asked Jaune directly.

[I mean, for example, if the police had been a little bit slower, like a few minutes slower even, I'd be dead. So would Alan and likely my mother and sister] Jaune signed back gritting his teeth [I won't lie, I lose sleep some nights thinking about that idea.]

"Yeah…" Ruby said out loud as she snuggled up close to Jaune and pulled an arm around her.

Jaune signed with his free hand [So I guess with that in mind, I kinda feel like I should help him out. He also could have followed Adam's orders and shot Penny, but he didn't do that either.]

"How is Penny? Have you talked to her lately?" Ruby asked.

[Not since we got back together, but last I heard she was making new friends back east, she's talking about some kid she met named Oscar a lot as well.] Jaune replied [I guess the guy is trying to become a zoologist as well.]

Ruby snickered [Oh yeah she mentioned him to me last time I talked to her, it's good she's making friends at her new school already.]

Jaune chuckled softly as he thought about it. [Think she'd be mad that we got back together?]

Ruby smiled and said "Nah...I think she'd be happy for you."

Jaune smiled and nodded as he leaned back in his seat on the couch Staring up at the ceiling thinking.

[I know that look,] Ruby signed with a giggle [That's the look you get right before you go and do something either incredibly stupid or something almost heroic]

[I think I need to think of a way to try and bring Sun into the fold of our group] Jaune Signed

[I think you'd have a better chance to invent a time machine and convince Adam to change his evil ways] Ruby signed out to Jaune.

Jaune shook his head and signed [Yeah I know, but the guy is getting hard bullied by Cardin's gang. If I could somehow-]

"Write him off Jaune…" said out loud cutting him off before switching to sign [I mean to make that work, you'd have to get everyone else on board with the idea first.]

[Well I was going to ask if you and Blake could help out with that.] Jaune signed

[Fuck no! You know Blake won't want any part of this one. That guy was best friends with the asshole that was raping her!] Ruby signed [You know better than this.]

[I guess I can take this on myself then I suppose.] Jaune signed

[I just can't sign off on this unless Blake does.] Ruby signed [I'm sorry...]


Later on, after Jaune left he sat in front of his computer listening as Penny was chatting about her new friends again which Jaune wasn't paying a massive amount of attention except to respond once in a while how happy he was for her.

Jaune instead was IMing one person who's contact information he was given by Alan.

J-ARC83: Ms. Fall, are you online?

: Mr. Arc? How can I help you out tonight?

J-ARC83: Sorry to IM you like this out of the blue, but I was hoping for some under the table advice.

: Well being a school Psychologist is a Salary position so I won't be breaking any of the state's labor laws by answering questions, what's up?

J-ARC83: I need some advice about what to do about Sun Wukong, I know he's getting bullied kind of hard and the guy is sleeping on Neptune's house.

C-Fall: That's… Not an easy one to fix Jaune.

J-ARC83: Why's that?

C-Fall: His situation puts him in a gray area, I wouldn't say teachers are turning a blind eye to his situation, and the rumors of his bullying are rampant, but unless he's willing to step forward and involve the school. I'm not sure what they can do.

J-ARC83: There has to be a way to change that rule, that rule is frankly stupid!

C-Fall: It is, but short of writing to the district superintendent's office and waiting six weeks, I don't know how it could be changed in the short term.

Jaune leaned back into his seat, as he fired off a couple replies to Penny when she pinged him for going quiet on him. Before returning back to Cynder's window

J-ARC83: So it sounds like the only way to stop this is to convince him to reach out for help?

C-Fall: Yes, considering he's been declining even my one on one therapy session offers, I'm not sure you're going to be able to convince him to come forward to allow us to help him.

Jaune took a second to think it over before he responded

J-ARC83: I'll think of something, I'm also not entirely sure who I can get help from on my end.

C-Fall: The big problems never solve themselves overnight, don't push yourself too hard.

J-ARC83: I just wonder how cut out for this I really am.

C-Fall: You're not being asked to handle it all on your own Jaune. Try to remember that for me okay?

J-ARC83: Okay, I get you…

C-Fall: I'm glad we could clear up that misconception Jaune, did you need anything else?

J-ARC83: Yeah one thing has been bothering me. How did you know about that whole thing with… You know who?

Jaune stared at the screen for a couple minutes while Jaune assumed Ms. Fall was cracking up on the other side of the screen. A moment later she finally replied.

C-Fall: Well I do happen to know that Neo only gives Henna Tattoos to those people she had an especially good time with.

Jaune blinked a few times and sighed before he typed out

J-ARC83: So that Henna tattoo was her marking me as a conquest?

C-Fall: Yeah something like that. She treats it more as rewarding someone with a badge of honor honestly.

J-ARC83: And how exactly do you know this?

C-Fall: Well I'm still wearing long sleeves despite it being almost May Jaune, you do the math.

Jaune felt his face turning to a lovely shade of bright red as the mental image of his therapist and the neighbor he's seen naked entangled slapped him in the face.

J-ARC83: Right, good to know, I'm calling it a night, have a great evening!

C-Fall: Sleep tight Jaune!

Jaune quickly leaned back in his seat and slapped his cheeks till the mental image went away. He happened to notice that when he wasn't looking Penny had also signed out without even saying good night as well.

"The only two people awake are Blake and Weiss, I guess it would make sense that Weiss is still having problems with sleeping well." Jaune thought for a second "I just wish she would let Blake sleep…"

Without even so much as another thought on the subject, he switched off the monitor and went to lay in bed.

In the middle of the night, in his dreams, Jaune found himself standing in a cracked rocky field looking up into the swirling and churning sky. In the distance, Jaune could hear the sounds of a churning violently crashing ocean slamming against the rocks.

Jaune caught himself rushing towards the direction of the ocean as fast as he could, but his damn leg was causing him no small amount of grief as he tried to push himself towards his goal. Fear started to gnaw at him, a fear of what he already knew what he was going to see.

Once he arrived at the cliffs he saw what he most feared he'd see. His friends, all standing at the edge of a massive cliff overlooking the churning ocean ready to fall into it. Jaune tried to cry out but found no sound coming from his voice as he started to charge at the group desperately.

One by one he watched them start to fall, Starting with Weiss, Followed by Sun. Ren and Nora were close behind them. One by one they all simply fell until the only one left standing on top of the cliff was ruby.

As Jaune closed the gap and reached out Ruby just looked at him and smiled before willing herself to fall back. Out of his reach and over the edge. Jaune fell to his knees screaming in silence as he overlooked the cliff edge and saw his friends fall headfirst into the ocean below never to rise again.

Jaune laid on that hard cracked edge for several moments silently screaming in impotent rage as his own failure before he heard a raspy chuckle from behind him. Jaune stood up painfully and turned to face the sound of the voice.

Only to see himself, with a bloody hole in his chest, and various bleeding injuries covering his mirror self. The blood-covered Version of him simply declared. "You know you couldn't save them, or stop them."

The blood-stained Jaune stepped right up to his face and declared "I mean, you couldn't even save yourself."

Jaune woke up in a cold sweet moment later. Gripping his chest as his heart pounded in his chest and he found himself checking the time. Seeing that it was three in the morning and that sleep wasn't coming back he decided he'd just put up with being tired for the day and got up to turn his light on and to start drawing till he had to start getting ready...


Another day, another Chapter, and whew lad I went hard on the implied crack pairs this chapter didn't I? I have to admit I'm kinda looking forward to seeing reactions to this one. I also have to admit it's a bit OOC for a school to ignore a clear and obvious bullying scenario such as Sun's but at the same time. There might be people, a lot of people still turning a blind eye to it, even unofficially due to Sun's status as part of a gang that went on a violent rampage.

Sun also exists in a very very ugly grey area as well, His character is repentant, but he's likely either taken part in, or been party to, some terrible terrible things. The question is, does he deserve a redemption arc for choosing to not shoot Penny? Does one act outweigh a potential lifetime of poor if not downright evil choices?

I guess that's why I wrote Ruby's stance the way I did, Sun was one of Adam's best friends before Adam crossed a line that Ruby was not willing to walk, and Adam was doing frankly god awful things to Blake. It's not open for debate that Sun would have at least an idea as to what Adam was doing. Does him not acting to stop Adam, until it was about to harm someone he cared about make him irredeemable?

Just some food for thought for this chapter.

First off, Good seeing you MasterScarcity, you need to get on discord more often if you can! I'm going to keep writing as long as people keep reading, or I just run out of story to tell.

And Dragonlord I do have plans to do some perspective chapters for other characters, but it even though Weiss is going to have an Arc, I'm not sure my notes have a chapter from her perspective per say, I'll see what happens.

That said, I want to, as I always do, thank you all again for reading, and I hope all of you have a great day!