The next couple weeks went by relatively smoothly, although I didn't get a chance to do any sparring in Goodwitch's class and I really needed to work off some steam and hitting the gym just didn't do it for me.

Relatively being the operative word. At least four times a week I'd wake up sick and in sweats from nightmares about seeing the mangled bodies of Andrea and the wolf-twins. Thankfully, nobody else from team JNPR noticed me waking up due to the fact that their view of me was obstructed from my position on the kitchen floor.

Jaune was nice enough to introduce me to all of team RWBY and they all accepted me as one of their friends, although Weiss seemed more than a little apprehensive about me.

We were all eating breakfast one day and everything was business as usual with Nora telling everyone about the dream she's been having for a while now and Ren correcting her along the way.

"Jaune?" I heard Ruby call our team leader's name.

"Hmm?" He responded looking up from his meal.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's just that you seem a little… not okay." The little reaper stated.

"I agree, you've been a little distant as of late." I added.

"Guys, I'm fine. Really! See?" He said with an obvious fake smile and a thumbs up.

"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first day of school." Pyrrha said.

It felt like a flaming ball of rage was going burst from my chest when I heard Cardin's name.

"And you didn't bother to ask one of us for help?" I interjected, confused and angry.

"Joe's right Jaune, if you need help, you can just ask." His partner added.

"Ooh!" Nora piped up. "We'll break his legs!" She said enthusiastically.

"What's the point in that? A few weeks later, he'll have use of them again. Why not just sever them altogether? Make him a paraplegic?" I asked. Everyone looked at me, horrified. "What? I just happen to really not like the guy." I said, returning to my breakfast.

"Guys it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's just a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone." Jaune said, his gaze shifting towards team CRDL mocking a rabbit faunus. Anger quickly formed in my chest again at the sight, but I kept it under control for the moment.

Jaune then picked up his tray and left the cafeteria.

"So that guy's been bullying Jaune straight from day one?" I asked Pyrrha, pointing a thumb at Cardin.

She looked down at her tray. "Unfortunately, yes. And Jaune hasn't brought it up to any of the professors."

The champion was about to continue when I heard a heart breaking: "Ow, that hurts!" I looked back at team CRDL to see Cardin pulling on her ears. My anger got the better of me as I stood up and stormed over to them.

"HEY ASSHOLE!" I yelled at him. "How about you let the lady go and you and me get some sparring practice?" The big guy let go of her ears and she walked away quickly, trying to hide the tears that I could see were starting to form in her eyes.

"Hah!" He laughed in my face as he stood up. He may have been a full head taller than me but I really didn't care, as intimidating as he looked in all that armor. "And who the hell are you? An animal lover?" He said mockingly.

"Of course a stupid sack of shit like you wouldn't know the difference between a faunus and an animal." I said with my arms crossed and a smirk.

He was angry now and held an expression that said so on his face, making me smile. "Fine, let's settle this in the arena." He said angrily, heading down to Goodwitch's class, with myself right beside him and his lackeys in tow. "I never did get your name, bunny lover."

Fuckin' got him! I thought sarcastically. "Joseph Taren."

After the both of us were geared up, a small audience had gathered in the stands including my teammates, team RWBY and the rest of team CRDL.

We stood across from each other and I cracked my neck using my hands rather than just tilting it. I don't know if it intimidated him or not, but it couldn't hurt.

"Say when, Ruby." I said to the little reaper as I extended both my blades.

"3…2…. 1…GO!" The red reaper yelled out.

I charged at Cardin in a horizontal spin, making him block both my blades with his mace. He countered by shoulder charging me in the chest, which knocked me to the ground. Using my hands to push myself, I jumped up off the ground and retracted the right blade, letting loose a barrage of grenades at Cardin. It must've hurt him a little because he stumbled backwards and I stabbed at his exposed stomach where the chest plate didn't protect him. His aura took a lot of the hit, but it was a high-velocity stab and it must've done some damage. Cardin went back on the offensive and took a few swings of his mace at me, but they were fairly slow and I managed to dodge most of them except for two that hit both sides of my rib cage. I backed up from him and noticed that we were both breathing hard.

Hopefully he's as tired as I am. I thought as I rushed him with both blades extended.

He swung to get me to back up and I grabbed his wrist to prevent him from swinging again and I slashed at his other arm with my free blade, cutting right through his aura.

To be honest, the next five seconds were a blank memory. I think I stabbed Cardin in the shoulder as Goodwitch entered her classroom, she yelled something at the both of us and the next thing I knew, I was slumped against the arena wall with both my blades retracted.

When I looked up, Cardin was holding his left shoulder with his right hand, screaming in pain and bleeding profusely. Goodwitch called for the medics and walked over to me.

"MR. TAREN!" What were you thinking, staging an unauthorized fight without supervision!? you will spend the next month in detention after classes being educated on the rules of sparring here at Beacon." She yelled angrily at me. Despite her chastising, I was smiling. Cardin got what was coming to him.

Goodwitch yelled for everyone to get out of her class and we complied. When I exited the left side of the arena, headed for the school's medical center, everyone from teams RWBY and JNPR intercepted me.

Weiss was the first to speak up, angrily of course. "What were you thinking!? You could've killed him!"

I turned to the heiress. "Weiss, if I wanted him dead, he would be." I deadpanned.

She crossed her arms and gave a frustrated grunt.

"Still, no one has exhibited that much hatred for Cardin. At least not in public." Blake declared.

"He mocked one of my friends because he was a faunus on the same day he died. So I'm sorry if I didn't exactly go easy on him, Blake." I replied sarcastically.

"Wait, you mean one of three students who died on initiation day?" Yang asked.

"Yes." I said through clenched teeth. "And you have no right to bring them up."

"And why is that, Joe?" She asked in an almost annoying voice. "It's like you said, people die in the real world."

"Yes, but the three who died where my friends. I met two of them when I got to beacon and the other was my best friend since I started at Signal." I glared angrily at the blonde brawler. "So you will not bring them up again, Yang." I said, extending both my blades in an attempt to make my intentions known, Cardin's blood still dripping from my right blade. She and everyone else backed up as I pushed past them to get to the infirmary.

I waited outside where I saw the doctors take Cardin until one of them walked out.

"Excuse me?" I asked a female doctor with long brown hair and blue eyes. "Is it alright if I go in and apologize? I feel really bad for what I did." I said with downcast eyes, lying through my teeth.

Fortunately, she bought it and wordlessly opened the door for me. I walked over to the bed where Cardin was lying, now shirtless and with a large bandage over his left shoulder.

"Hello, bigot." I greeted him. His eyes went wide as he saw me and he was about to call for the doctor, but I covered his mouth with my hand before he could scream. "If I even see you walking next to another faunus ever again, I'll come back to finish the job." I deadpanned. "And I promise you I'll make it nice and slow, the way a good death should be." I gave him a smile as I uncovered his mouth and left the infirmary.

It was a Saturday which usually meant that Pyrrha would be studying, Ren would probably be either cleaning his Stormflowers or meditating, Nora would be hanging around Ren, trying to convince him to make pancakes and I think Jaune would either catch up on some rest or reading X-Ray and Vav comics.

I was headed back to the dorm when I was stopped by a girl clad in black and brown, wearing a beret, dark sunglasses with a full belt of minigun rounds draped across her left shoulder. She had a neutral expression on her face; not happy or angry.

"Hello?" I said, expecting a name from her.

"You're the one who sliced a hole in Cardin's shoulder?" She asked, the expression on her face staying the same.

Wow, news travels fast around here. "I am." I stated cautiously.

"Team coffee sends their thanks." With that, she walked off without another word.

That was weird. Who the hell is team coffee? I wondered as I grabbed my books to go study in the library with Pyrrha.

After Pyrrha helped me with Oobleck's lessons on the Great War, I went back to our dorm where I found Jaune sewing a hole in his hoodie, much to my surprise.

"Hey, Jaune." I greeted him.

"Hey, Joe." He replied back, not looking up from his needlework.

I placed my books on the desk that Ren had graciously given me a few days before, explaining that Nora almost never used hers and the two didn't mind sharing.

My gaze shifted over to Dusk whose hilt was peaking out of my duffle bag that also served as my dresser and closet.

A wave of grief washed over me again as I looked at the weapon. She died and it's my fault. Worse yet, I don't even have anything to remember the twins by. I thought.

"Jaune?" I called as I got an idea.

"What's up?" He called back.

"How well do you know how to sew?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not exactly the worst at it. My mom and sisters taught me how to make my own clothes as well as stitch up fabric. Why?" He asked me, looking up from his needlework.

"It's…it's because I was wondering if you could make something personal for me. I'll reimburse you for any fabric that you may have to buy as well as pay you for your time." I said, leaning up against the wall.

"Okay, yeah I guess I could do it when I have the time. Just tell me what it is."

We spent the next two hours going over the specific details about the project I wanted him to make for me before I went to sleep.

I ran as fast as I could towards the screams that echoed throughout the Emerald Forest.

"ANDREA! ANDREA, WHERE ARE YOU?!" I yelled out, only to hear more pained screams. Picking up my pace, I ran into an open clearing where I saw my best friend in the jaws of an ursa, her entire body being bifurcated after the beast's massive teeth clamped down. Enraged, I felt myself grow to be equal height of the ursa and charged forward, my left blade plunging deep into it's stomach as I slowly raised the bear-grimm off the ground and decapitated it with a single slice of my right blade.

I retracted the left blade and let the corpse drop to the ground with a loud thud. I turned around to see the lower and upper half of Andrea's body about three feet from each other. I walked over to her upper half and to my horror, her eyes opened and she started speaking to me. Most of the words were echoed whispers and I could barely hear them but I managed to make out one word: semblance.

Her voice became even clearer as her right arm shot up and started shaking my shoulder.

"Joe! JOE!"

I shot out up in my sleeping bag on the kitchen floor and ended up accidentally head butting my team leader. We both recoiled from the unexpected pain and took a few minutes to recover.

I looked around. It was still dark and everyone aside from Jaune and myself was still asleep. I'm in my dorm room. It was just another nightmare. I thought as Jaune sat up from his position on the floor.

"Sorry about that, Jaune. I didn't mean to hit you." I whispered.

He groaned in pain quietly. "It's alright." He whispered back. "I got up to use the bathroom and noticed that you were writhing quite a bit in your sleep. Was it a nightmare?"

I only nodded. Even though he was my friend and I trusted him with my life, I really didn't want to go into details.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Just about one in the morning. Try and get some sleep, okay?"

"Thanks, Jaune. I will." I replied with a fake smile. He smiled back and went to bed.

But I can't. Every single time I've had one of these nightmares and tried to go back to sleep, I've only succeeded in staying awake for the rest of the night. I thought with a sigh.

Tomorrow is going to suck.