Moving forward.
Chapter 2: The Starscourge
"Are you okay?"
Jaune let the question hang in the air, his consciousness far from his body. Idly, his eyes trailed towards the new ring that graced his right hand. It was heavy—the mental burden of the knowledge his father had unpacked on him far too much for one person to handle. Forebearers, forefathers, his true father, the idea of a lineage, and destiny… far-flung concepts that he once paid no mind to as a happy-go-lucky teenager when around his dad, and a stern and somewhat serious retainer when around Weiss, danced around his head.
Weiss let out a sigh, one of her slender fingers plucking his forehead as she sidled up beside him. "I know you're supposed to be my retainer, but you do understand that you can talk to me about anything, right? As much as our relationship is one of business, I'd like to believe that we genuinely are friends too."
Jaune heard her, but before he could give her a proper answer, his mouth gave an affirmative grunt. His head hurt—which was rare, considering how easy life typically was for him. But now, a dull pain sat within the front of his skull. With a sigh, he finally said, "I'm okay."
"You're lying." Weiss retorted.
"I am," Jaune said, with zero-shame. His eyes roved over the fabled sea of Saunus lazily, the immaculately blue water filling him with no sense of wonder. The hustle and bustle of the other passengers aboard the airship headed towards Beacon was muted to him. So far, the world solely existed when Weiss pulled him out of his head, and ended when she left him to return to his own devices. "But you needn't worry, Miss—"
His pompous charge crossed her arms beneath her chest, raising a lone eyebrow challengingly. It didn't take an idiot to receive the hint, and Jaune supposed he should've known better. After all, it was only yesterday that she demanded he call her Weiss. Then again…
"I thought the condition was I was only allowed to if we're alone?" Jaune asked. He stifled a smile as the perfectly proper and prim heiress huffed. For a person whose every action was basically trained, Weiss could be quite the boorish gal when away from the clutches of her family.
"Like it or not, we're alone now," Weiss said. When Jaune gave her a crooked smile and gestured to the vast amount of people on the airship, she sighed. "No, not literally. I meant in the sense, that even if you're still my retainer, here we're both just students. Sure, part of the relationship is business, but there's no guarantee we'll even end up on the same team or anything. Not without a plan, at least."
Jaune watched her pace from the beginning of the window towards the end, no doubt cooking up some sort of scheme to land them on the same team. Familiarity was best, he supposed. Despite that, part of him questioned how Weiss would fare without his incessant needling. The girl had always been somewhat rough and tumble underneath her girly exterior—she'd probably manage just fine without him fashioning her breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
She finally returned, her hands brushing at her combat skirt before folding them in front of her. "You know, I spoke to Pyrrha Nikos earlier. It was brief, but I think we'd get along good if we tried. Could you imagine just how impressive a team with the three of us could be? With either you or her as my partner, we'd be something spectacular."
Pyrrha Nikos was a household name across Mistral. While Jaune knew the boy wouldn't be caught dead eating them, she happened to be the mascot of the popular cereal brand Pumpkin Pete's, Whitley's favorite cereal.
There was also the fact that Pyrrha Nikos was the five-time reigning Mistrali Regional Tournament Champion. Jaune has seen her fight—the young woman was a goddess of war; a true force of nature on the battlefield. Hailed as the 'Invincible Girl', Pyrrha possessed a fabled guard that truly had no weaknesses.
But if you were to ask Jaune, she was just the cute girl standing beside the bunny mascot on a box of cereal.
"Humph," Weiss huffed, plucking Jaune against his forehead again. Her blonde retainer let out a sharp exhale, stifling all thoughts of the minimal pain she inflicted and crushing them underfoot. The action was automatic, and Jaune could barely make out what she was saying as his mind thought back on Professor Eisner's training.
The peculiar professor's methods of applied training more than made up for his eccentricities. Being taught by a man known throughout all of Mistral, Mantle, and Atlas as 'The Ashen Demon' would be a major selling point on his resume in case he was ever fired by the Schnee Family.
"Did you even hear anything I said?" Weiss asked. When Jaune shook his head, she repeated, "I said, we should be arriving at Beacon soon. Let's get ready to go."
"You sure you want me to trail right behind you?" Jaune asked. "Mr. Schnee sent me here to watch over you. But I don't want to make it seem like our relationship is anything closer than just business and friendship. You're not worried—"
"Jaune," Weiss said, simply. "You're wearing a black and white shirt that has the SDC logo on the back, along with my family's insignia and a crown atop it on your right breast. The navy trousers, dark combat boots, and the white jacket don't help. It'd be stranger if you weren't accompanying me."
"Besides," she added, flicking her ponytail. She batted her eyes prettily, offering a superbly sweet smile. Jaune stifled a giggle behind his hand. Weiss could be a real deadpan snarker when she wanted to. "Father says you're no longer my retainer, but my knight. That means you have to do what I want, anyway."
The girl motioned for him to follow, and wordlessly Jaune did what he was told, carrying both of their bags. As the airship finally docked, he listened silently as Weiss recounted some sort of message that was given while he was zoned out, citing that the deputy headmistress said that they were to go towards the entrance of the academy across the courtyard.
He followed behind quietly, ignoring the pointed stares that stemmed from him casually walking beside Weiss. The heiress chatted with him without a care in the world, boldly disregarding any quizzical look that came their way.
"See?" Weiss said, turning to face him. "Nothing to worry—" Weiss began, but was cut short when she unwillingly collided with another girl. A vial of red dust shook on her waist threateningly, but otherwise nothing happened.
"Oof!" the girl behind her cried. Her red cloak flapped in an almost dramatic fashion as she nearly fell down with a squawk, but instead the sound died in her throat as a powerful hand gripped her wrist.
Jaune let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as he pulled the diminutive girl to her feet. Her face was nearly as red as her cloak, and it only took Jaune one glance to see what exactly was her malfunction.
Aw, he thought to himself. She's socially awkward. Just like Whitley.
"Ohmigosh ohmigosh, I'm so sorry!" Red began, furiously muttering apologies at the speed of sound. Jaune half-listened amusedly, letting the girl continue her word salad before she eventually stopped.
"It's fine," the blonde said. He could feel Weiss' rolling her eyes as the small girl in front of them continued to talk. He sighed, a crooked smile growing on his lips. He wasn't sure if it was just towards him particular, or whether it was just something that annoyed Weiss in general, but the heiress seemed to possess limited patience for people she deemed 'childish.'
"Really," Jaune said, snapping the cloaked girl out of her stupor. "It's okay. No harm, no foul."
"Really?" She chirruped. She wiped at her forehead, making a 'phew' sound. "Thank the gods. I was worried that—ah—"
Jaune's eyes sharpened as the girl's face contorted. His eyes scanned his sleeves and her clothes, roving over her briefly as he noted the tiny specks of red on them both. He caught the fact that her nose twitched briefly before her body shook once more. Instinctively, Jaune threw his aura up and activated his semblance, encasing them in a small dome.
"Ah!"
Unsurprisingly, Jaune sighed. It didn't come as any surprise to him at all that both his mind and body longed for the original end of Jacques' deal. He could have been settling into a nice little apartment or home in Vale. Instead, here he was, forced to attend an academy that taught 'the defenders of tomorrow.'
"Choo!"
And then there was an explosion.
/ - N - /
"I said I was sorry!"
Jaune grunted affirmatively, reaching into his bag and pulling out a tie for his hair. He combed it towards the back, picking up a majority of it and tying it into a small ponytail. "You don't have to keep apologizing for a mistake."
"But she glared at me the second I walked this way!"
Jaune couldn't help but offer a half-grin to the girl. After she blew them both up, in between her profuse apologies, she had introduced herself as Ruby Rose. The girl was something of a prodigy, if being able to attend Beacon two years early was anything to go by. The disconnect between prodigal huntress extraordinaire, and cute, awkward dork was massive.
"Well you broke one of her vials of fire dust, caused her to look like a fool, and then got her harassed by the dark haired girl with the bow," Jaune said. He laughed softly as Weiss' hand quickly slapped his arm, the girl no doubt upset with his choice of words.
"But I blew you up and you're not even angry at me," Ruby said.
"I'm furious," Jaune said, smiling. When it looked as if Ruby was actually worried, he chuckled lightly and said, "Just kidding. You exploding us both wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to me."
"Speak for yourself," Ruby said, sighing. "Can we start over? Y'know, before the whole exploding on you thing?"
The blonde extended a hand, flashing her a trained, winning smile. Weiss wasn't the only one who had their actions modeled during their upbringing—she just unfortunately had the misfortune of being made to continue when they acted out against it. Jacques originally saw it as a waste of time on Jaune, yet he moved to resolve that with the introduction of 'Drill Instruction 301' with Professor Eisner.
"Jaune Sieben," he said with a wink. "It's a pleasure to meet you, crater-face. The girl glowering behind me is my bos—"
"Friend," the heiress said, sharply. "Best friend, in fact."
Huh? Jaune thought. He sighed internally, letting her words reign absolute. "Childhood friend."
"Sure he's not just security or something?" a voice asked, sidling up to Ruby. Jaune took her in—blonde hair, lilac eyes, and a stance that was three-hundred percent swagger and confidence. "I mean, you're wearing similar colors, and his shirt has the same logo as your bolero."
"I can't tell if you're perceptive, or if my obvious choice of clothing spoke way too loudly," Jaune said.
"A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B," the blonde said. She extended her hand, flashing a smile. "Yang Xiao-Long. I'm Ruby's sister."
"Jaune Sieben," he returned. "Retainer to Weiss Schnee."
"You're royalty?" Yang asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"You don't know who I am?" the white-haired girl asked, surprised. When the blonde shook her head, she said, "Weiss Schnee. Heiress-apparent to the Schnee Dust Company."
"Oh! Your family has the monopoly on dust, basically. I'm surprised you'd want to come to Beacon though, instead of Atlas Academy or something," Yang said.
"Well you know," Weiss said, waving a hand to dismiss the topic. "Everyone has their reasons. Just like how we have our reasons for leaving now. Come on, Jaune."
"Looks like we've gotta get going," Jaune said, slipping his jacket off and tossing it into his bag. He pulled a bottle of water free, unscrewing it and taking a sip in one motion. "See you later, big sister. Crater-face."
When the pair left, Yang turned to Ruby, one eyebrow quirked in interest. "Crater-face, huh? Look at you, making friends already!"
When Weiss and Jaune rounded the corner away from the main gathering in the Great Hall, he watched the heiress walk away briskly, her arms folded beneath her chest a clear indication she wasn't talking to him.
He sighed, preparing to ask anyway. "What did I do?"
Jaune wasn't surprised when the heiress didn't respond, but he couldn't help but quirk a brow when she spun to face him dramatically. He made to open his mouth again, but was silenced by her simply raising a single finger to her lips. There was a pregnant pause in the air, and Jaune watched the heiress ball her hands into fists as she steeled herself.
"You don't want to be here."
"I didn't ask for this, no," Jaune agreed. A residual part of him knew where this was headed, but despite his best interests he asked anyway, "Is that a problem?"
"I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt," Weiss said. "I figured you'd want to get out from the manor. A selfish part of me decided that maybe bringing you to Beacon too would be best, so I brought the idea up to father as well. Believe me—if I didn't want you here, I'd have been much more vocal about it."
"You're the reason I'm here?" Jaune asked. He clicked his tongue in his cheek to prevent himself from saying anything further, his mind scathing at the already needless accusing tone he took. "You told your dad to send me to Beacon with you?"
"You're my retainer," Weiss said. "You're supposed to take me into consideration, listen to me, and follow what I say or decide what's best for me your entire life. But—"
She stalked forward, shoulders shaking hesitantly before she willed them to stop. The smile she offered was perfectly practiced. Jaune could see the beginning of tears well up in her eyes, and was thankful they were alone in the hallway, if only so no one could see the chips in the Schnee Family's masks of perfection.
"I wanted to give you an opportunity to be normal," she said. "I didn't want you to feel as if you had to go your entire life kowtowing to me."
Jaune opened his mouth to protest, but couldn't find anything to properly say. With a sigh, he dropped his bag on the ground, closing the distance between him in Weiss in three strides. His hand wrapped around her back and pulled her in for a hug. Air blew out of his nose at the young heiress' fake attempt at protesting, hardly using her frame to shake Jaune off of her as he rested his chin on her head.
"What happened to not wanting anyone to get the wrong idea?" Weiss shot.
"One hug hardly means we're dating," Jaune said, rolling his eyes. Before he took on the role as her retainer, they were damn near family. Being raised by Klein entailed spending a lot of time with Weiss—and to some degree, Jacques Schnee had to not dislike him, if his overall treatment of him and his father were anything to go by. He let her go, picking his bag back up before motioning for her to lead the way.
"Besides, I can't fault you for attempting to do right by me. In all honesty, I'm more surprised you considered my feelings that much."
"Well one day, Jaune," Weiss said, spinning to pull her bag free of Jaune's grasp. She slipped it on and continued her stride without a break in momentum, saying, "You'll know just how much of family you and Klein are to me."
/ - N - /
"Sometime in the nearing future, be it weeks, months, years, decades, centuries or even millenia, will the bane of this bleak planet of bloody evolution rear it's head once more. This plague is known as the Starscourge: a sentient, amalgamation of negativity. One of the final 'gifts' of our planet's two creators was the Starscourge—originally, they were to act as a prophet—a manifestation of Darkness' energy to keep the planet in check. But as time persisted, the Starscourge grew greedy.
Enacting balance across the world was no longer a responsibility it took on.
Instead, the Starscourge acted selfishly, amassing more and more power until it almost bathed the entirety of Remnant in darkness. After all, how could there be a Starscourge if there were no stars to gorge themselves on?
Ha. I fear that in the future, people will take these publishings as nothing more than a feverish scribbling from a madman. But the truth in all it's entirety is out there: though you may find this same journal in your hands potentially millenia later, I'll burden you with one final thought on your mind.
The Starscourge is real. And even as you read this now, know that they're lying in wait, slowly amassing in power, and even when—"
"Wow," Ruby said, peeling Jaune's eyes away from his book. The red and black haired girl was joined by her sister, the pair either coming to see him or Weiss. His lien would be on Weiss—something about Ruby screamed that she wouldn't rest until the friendship she believed she damaged was prepared. Jaune wanted to laugh; something about that girl's blind altruism was kind of endearing. "You're the second person I see reading tonight."
Jaune only offered a half-shrug. "I'm not the biggest fan of literature, if we were being honest. But this topic is very interesting to me."
"Anyone tell you that you're a walking contradiction?" Yang asked. When Jaune shook his head, she said, "I won't lie to you: you're very attractive. Anyone ever tell you your choice of pajamas is very unattractive, though?"
Jaune looked down at his onesie pajamas, the black, white, and red hooded ensemble designed to look like a red panda. Truthfully, he bought them because of a party he was supposed to attend with a couple of the other servants in Schnee Manor, but since it never came to fruition, he was left with the remarkably comfortable onesie.
He glanced back towards Yang and Ruby, whose pajamas were only a tanktop and shorts or pajama bottoms.
With a sigh, Jaune took the hood of the onesie off, and unzipped the part covering his chest, stopping just above his belly button. He slipped both of his arms out, goosebumps dancing across his arm from the sudden exposure to the slightly chilled air. "This better for you?"
"I'm not complaining, but won't you make the heiress mad?"
"We're not dating," Jaune said, eyes flickering back to his book. "We're best friends, firstly. She's my boss second. I'm basically a butler and bodyguard."
"I don't think she'd need a bodyguard in Beacon."
"That makes two of us, crater-face. If you're looking or waiting for her, she went to see if she could get a glass of water from the kitchen. She should be back soon."
"Oh-okay," Ruby said. When Jaune's eyes looked her way, the girl's face went flush as she looked away. With a sigh, she said, "Two things: Can you please put the onesie back on properly?"
"Don't do that-"
"Not helping, Yang! And can you tell me what's the best way to make friends with Weiss? I don't want to have any problems with anyone before I actually start school here, and—"
"If that's the case, you can take it up with me, personally," Weiss cut-in. Her white hair was down, her pajamas of choice a pale blue gown. She held a bottle of water in each hand, offering one to Jaune who took it gratefully. Loathe as she was to admit, her eyes held onto the image of his form.
It wasn't as if he was unattractive; in fact, a majority of the people in the room could also easily double as supermodels, based on their figures, physique, etc. But the very repressed part of her mind couldn't help but let her eyes linger on the matured and muscular form of someone she basically grew up with.
She coughed into her free hand, uncapping the water and taking a sip before continuing. "I'll apologize as well for the way I acted earlier. I definitely could have stood to be a little nicer."
"Aww," Jaune said. "How come you never apologize to me like that?"
"You be quiet," Weiss said, pinching the bridge of her nose. She shook her head slightly, saying, "My point is… if you really want to be friends, I'm more than willing to try."
"How sweet," Jaune said, turning to reach into his bag. He pulled out a bag, presenting the three girls with six lightly damaged Nix de Amor. He presented Weiss, Ruby, and Yang with two each, saying, "These are Weiss' favorite. Like I said before, as her retainer, I'm basically a butler and bodyguard in one. But Weiss might also have a bias, because we've grown up together, and—wow you've finished them already."
"In our defense," Yang said, wiping cream from her mouth.
"They looked really good," Ruby said.
Defeated, Jaune began to lie down on his back, turning away from the three of them. "I'll see you in the morning."
Author's Note
If you think the absence of conflict between Weiss being independent and away from her father's influence, and Jaune's lack of wanting to be there is unintentional or bad writing, that may hold salt in some way. It won't stay that way forever, but all I'm saying is the overall plot will have a bit more to do with something kinda petty like that.
Chapter is a lot late, and a bit shorter than usual. If only because I've been struggling to write because of work. Not that it's anything bad, or that anyone cares, but I've been promoted. That was cool.
I've gone from making $12.50 to $14.50 per hour, which is pretty good for a nineteen year old in my eyes. That being said, don't worry, because I have school again, and being placed in my intermediate fiction writing class will force me to get my ass in gear, and may even inspire me.
Charmed should be out sometime next week or the week after. Part of it is written already, it just has to be finished. That's if you read both of those, anyway.
On a final note, I'll leave you with this: I have another idea in mind. Not RWBY related, unfortunately, but if you're a fan of My Hero Academia, and a fan of Miles Morales, you might enjoy what I have been cooking.
Until next time. Sorry for the delay.