"Jaune, Jaune it's time to wake up," Pyrrha spoke gently; "We're late for our mission!"
"Wha?" Jaune groaned, flipping over and burying his face in his pillow.
"I said we're late for our mission Jaune."
The blond leader of team JNPR remained motionless for a moment before catapulting from his bead, tripping over his blanket he'd so hastily thrown off and falling face first into the dorm room floor.
Pyrrha laughed before helping the young man to his feet, "We're not late yet, but you'd better get ready before we are, Nora and Ren are already having breakfast."
Jaune blinked, "Aww come on Pyr, that's not fair!"
"Of course it's fair Jaune," Pyrrha laughed, "If I hadn't then you'd have slept through the day!"
"Touché." The blond responded while digging through his dresser and picking out his combat outfit, "Did you tell Nora not to eat the food they got for us this time?"
"Of course fearless leader, you're egg sandwich is safe today."
"Good," Jaune said with a content sigh, "This is our first joint mission since the Breach, and in my hometown no less, I want everything to be perfect."
Pyrrha picked Jaune's armor from the closet and handed it to him, "Of course, I'm sure you're family will be ecstatic to be seeing you."
"Yeah, they've been blowing up my scroll ever since I told them, said they'd have a 'Banquet fit for a king'," Jaune sighed, "I guess I'm just nervous is all, I've not seen them since I left."
Pyrrha helped the blond leader with his armor straps, "I know they'll be proud of you Jaune."
"Thanks, Pyr, Lets go get some food before Nora gets her hands on it all!" Jaune said with a laugh, His red-haired teammate really knew just what to say to cheer him up, and for that he was grateful.
-=Ansel - 5:37 PM=-
Air buffeted against Jaune's face, his hair flowing wildly as he peaked out the open doors of the bullhead, his eyes watered, but he kept them open, gazing out at the small town he'd called home for almost 18 years.
Ansel, a small frontier town directly south-east of Vale proper, and a rather large town at that.
The place was set up in three rings, each ring having a large stone wall keeping it separated from both the wilds and the other rings. The outermost and largest ring was the commercial and agricultural district, with the majority of the space being taken up by roving fields of farmland and pastures for livestock. The space left was known as the market, the de facto heart of the town, even from high above Jaune could see people staring up at the bullhead, children and parents alike watching the vehicle fly by.
The next ring was the residential district, A place where the people of Ansel could feel safe and raise their families away from the fear of Grimm.
And finally, was the center ring, the estate of the town mayor and his family.
"Hey Jauney, can you see you're house yet?" Nora yelled, excitedly bouncing on her feet and leaning out the bullhead further than most would call safe, "Which one is?"
Jaune sighed, "Yes I can see it, and you'll find out soon enough."
Nora pouted but accepted his answer, instead opting to assault the girls of team RWBY with questions instead.
Before everyone knew it, the bullhead began it's decent to the center, which piqued everyone's interest, they'd clearly passed over two other bullhead pads, why were they going straight to the center.
"Maybe the Mayor wanted to talk to us about the mission?" Yang asked, her curiosity getting the better of her as she herself got up from her seat and peaked out the side.
Nora was next to her in a flash, "Ooh! ~ What if that's Jaune's house!"
Jaune could hear a distinct 'hmph' from behind him before Weiss spoke, "As if, the Mayor just wants to see whose taking up the mission is all."
The bullhead touched down a moment later, the only one to great them being a fragile looking old woman in a form of maid's uniform.
Jaune hopped out first, followed by the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR before the bullhead lifted off once again to await the completion of their mission.
"Master Jaune, it is so good to see you," The old woman cooed, a large smile on her face as she embraced the blond leader, "We've all missed you so much!"
"I missed you too Gran," Jaune said with a blush of embarrassment, embracing the woman back before pulling away and looking back to his team, "This is my team, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora, and that's RWBY, Weiss, Yang, Blake, and Ruby."
Everyone gave their own hello before been told to follow Gran to the estate proper.
The Arc Estate.
Jaune could swear he heard Weiss's jaw hit the landing pad before being dragged along with the group by Ruby.
Everyone followed along as Jaune gave them a quick tour, the training grounds, bathhouse, gardens, stables, and armory standing out to more than a number of the estate's guests before ending at the front door of the large home.
"You'll all get pretty much free reign to roam the property and do whatever you want," Jaune gave both Ruby and Nora a pointed look, "Within reason."
The old woman opened the large Oak door and welcomed the two teams in; telling them they could drop their stuff by the door and take it to their room's once everyone was settled.
"Do you have pancakes?!" Nora said bouncing up and down excitedly, drool running down her face.
"You'll have to wait for dinner to be served, wouldn't want to ruin your appetite now, would you? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to check on just that." The old woman said with a smile before walking down a hallway, once the audible sound of a door closing reached the two teams ears did the questions start flowing.
"You live here?" "You didn't tell us you were a prince!?" "Where is the Armory?" "Where's your family?" "Will we get to meet them?" "SHOW ME THE GUNS! ~"
Jaune dropped his backpack by the door and placed Crocea Mors in a rack by the door before speaking, "Alright, everyone just chill out, I'll answer you're questions during dinner, first we need to get settled in."
Everyone begrudgingly agreed and followed Jaune up a large set of wooden stairs, the mixed smell of wood and home cooking with a hint of smoke caused a wave of nostalgia to wash over him.
At the top of the stairs, Jaune showed both RWBY and his own team the two guest rooms they'd be staying in and left them to settle in with their bags and prepare for dinner.
Jaune left his team and wandered to his own old bedroom, a dark blue wooden door with a stylized 'Jaune' painted on it.
With a creak, the door opened, and he was hit with another wave of nostalgia, it was just the way he'd left it.
Sitting on his bed, Jaune picked up a framed picture from his bedside table, it was a photo from a family camping trip they'd taken the summer before he'd left, everyone had a large smile on their face as they huddled together roasting marshmallows over a fire.
Jaune let out a sigh before felling back into his bed, a smile gracing his lips before the exhaustion of his trip hit him like a truck, and he fell asleep.
-=Sword Class Frigate - The Unending Flame=-
An Imperial Navy officer ran hurriedly through twisting passageways, taking lifts and bounding past squads of black armored guard and hulking red robed tech-priests.
Droplets of sweat rolled down the officers face as he arrived at his goal, a large imposing door situated in the centermost chamber of the vessel, a door that, if he wasn't careful, he'd not exit.
With a gulp, and a second to steel himself, the officer thumbed the mechanism, and the door swung open without a sound.
Within the barren room sat a single large impressive desk with a stylized 'I' decorating the front, and a single woman working behind it, her eyes watching him with a burning gaze that was almost painful to keep too long.
"What have you found captain?" The woman questioned coldly, her gaze remaining steady on the man, sifting within his mind and learning all she'd required before he'd even opened his mouth.
"We've set a course to the location you asked of us Lady Inquisitor," The man stated, standing ramrod straight and holding his gaze to hers, a commendable effort for a man in his situation in her opinion, "The Lord General of the forces planeside is less than happy, but said he'd have no trouble finding the man you described, apparently, he'd already been on the Lord General's radar for his actions in the field."
The woman sighed before taking a long sip of her mug, the recaf being more than sufficient to satiate her exhaustion, "Good, and does the Lord General know if his exact whereabouts?"
"Yes Lady Inquisitor, he is currently being treated in the medicae on the Righteous Fury in high orbit for severe exhaustion and lesser injuries, he's been unconscious for two days."
"Good, see to our esteemed guest's transport to our medicae personally as soon as we arrive." The Inquisitor ordered to the frankly terrified officer, "Do I make myself clear captain?"
The man maintained his gaze, "Crystal, Lady Inquisitor."
"Then you are dismissed," The woman answered with a smirk, "Alert me when we have arrived."
"Of course Lady Inquisitor." The Officer said before turning and leaving the room, as soon as the ominous doors shut silently behind him, the Inquisitor let out a long and tired sigh.
"Jaune Arc," The woman mumbled, "What does the Emperor have in store for you?"
A/N
Man, I feel like I'm only getting better and better at this cliffhanger thing!
Who do YOU think this mysterious Inquisitor is? Could it be someone from Remnant? Could it just be some shmuck? Find out in the next exciting installment of 'The Emperor Protects'!
In all seriousness though, I've really been putting a lot more effort into this story and I hope it shows.
As always, please follow and favorite, and most importantly of all, leave a review, it really helps me to keep this story going and motivate me to keep working at it to bring you guys more and more content faster.