A/N: Hehe, this took forever to revise. Hopefully, it's up to snuff with everyone's expectations... if not... Blame my beta! XD jk.

Dylan: I don't know if you're still reading, but I'm just going to suggest you think about canon Jaune's behavior. Remember that he doesn't tend to ask for help until after Forever Fall, and that was because of the incident. He's just a tad bit prideful. In my story though, there's even something to back up why he's so prideful.

Beta: Prince of Austria

"You know, most people try to avoid getting sent to the Headmaster's office." Ozpin said in amusement, looking at the figures sitting before him.

Jaune and Blake were once again sitting in seats that were starting to feel very familiar to them. Along with them however, was the rest of the gang that fought with the robot. Even Sun was standing to the side, looking a little sheepish

"Now, there are few things that make me prouder than seeing my students leap in and fight against the wrongs of the world with such passion that you all show." Ozpin said, sipping from his cup. The group shifted a little, surprised that Ozpin seemed to be complimenting them.

"But this was not the case when you guys decided to fight Roman in a crowded highway." The headmaster continued calmly, crushing the students' dreams of getting off with a light punishment. He continued.

"I understand that you all thought you were doing the right thing. But if you think about it, what is the goal of a Hunter?"

The room was quiet, before Weiss decided to bite, not wanting to leave the question unanswered.

"It's to protect the innocent, sir." She answered quietly. The gray haired headmaster nodded, taking another sip of drink from his mug.

"And let me ask all of you. Would fighting a Paladin, one of the sturdiest, most dangerous robots available to the military in a crowded highway, full of civilians without Aura, protecting the innocent?" Ozpin looked around the room with a stern eye, settling his gaze on each and every one of them, who seemed to be very eager to look at anything else besides the headmaster.

"No," Headmaster Ozpin said, answering his own question. "It was not protecting the innocent. In fact, there are phone calls that I need to make now, several of them to hospitals with patients caused from your recklessness." He looked over his nose, his gaze above his glasses. "And some of them to their families."

With that, everyone flinched visibly, as if the headmaster had cracked a whip right across their faces. Ozpin let that sink in for a little before continuing.

"You all are still very young. I understand that you think you are all invincible, and cannot be killed. Perhaps you are right. But perhaps you shouldn't only be thinking about yourselves."

Each and every word that he spoke seemed to cut deeper and deeper into them all, knowing that every word was true. All the deaths that were caused by Roman were inevitably their faults.

The headmaster sighed, not even able to pull the strength to take another sip from his mug. Ozpin laid his hands on the desk, fingers spread.

"I'm going to give everyone here a separate punishment." Ozpin said, thinking aloud. "As much as I do not want to, as I'm sure you didn't mean to harm any innocents, I need to. At the very least, it will lower the outrage that the council and the civilians are giving me." The group nodded, expecting as much. It would have been foolish to hope the headmaster would let them get away scot free.

Finally, Ozpin leaned back in his chair, swiveling so that it faced away from them.

For once, the silent Professor Goodwitch stood to the side and waited for Headmaster Ozpin to finish speaking before chiming in.

"I think you all should go back to your rooms, and reflect on your actions." Glynda said, her voice soft, a contrast from her usual harsh tone and strict attitude. With numb nods, the students filed out of the room and into the elevator, where they all rode down in silence.

Without another word, they all filtered into their dorms and went to their beds, numb.

Cinder frowned at her scroll, unhappy with the results. Roman was standing in front of her, sweating bullets and trying to play it cool.

"Let me get this straight," Cinder said in a calm voice, "you werer fighting against… first-year, Hunters-in-training, that had absolutely no coordination whatsoever… and you were still beaten?"

Roman gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Now now, Cinder, I know I didn't really live up to your expectations but—"

A resounding crash caused Roman to shriek and fall onto his bottom as he pushed himself as far away from the livid Cinder as possible. Quicker than the eye could see, Cinder was on top of him, a hand wrapped around the throat and her nose inches away from his.

"I warned you already about what would happen if you failed me again, didn't I?" Cinder whispered, her voice sleek and malicious. If Roman had any less self-respect for himself, and if he wasn't wearing an expensive suit, he probably would have pissed himself at that point.

"Cinder, please—" Roman croaked out, before Cinder's hand tightened, cutting off his breathing.

"Shh…" Cinder traced a finger on his chin, down towards his chest, before pulling up her dress and revealing a deadly looking knife. "This will be much more painless if you don't struggle."

Cinder whipped out the knife and plunged it down.

"Probably." Cinder added in over Roman's scream.

Jaune would be the first person to admit it, but he wasn't a social person.

Being traumatized at such a young age, as well as being isolated from almost all human life except his dad and sisters didn't really encourage an extroverted personality.

When he first entered Beacon, it took all of his friends a while to realize that he was even more awkward than Ruby was, and even absolutely didn't care that he was that way. His teammates learned that Jaune wasn't trying to ignore them when he stopped answering questions, and he didn't do homework because he was raised to put aside anything that he thought wouldn't help him.

Jaune knew that he struggled trying to connect with everyone, even the reclusive Blake. He tried his hardest to change himself.

But for once in his life, he was grateful that he was like that.

When everyone finally arrived at their dorms, Jaune didn't bother saying anything, stripping himself of his armor and throwing Crocea Mors to the side, not wanting to look at another weapon for the rest of the day.

Falling onto his bed, Jaune stared at the ceiling, contemplating Headmaster Ozpin's words.

To be honest, Jaune wasn't exactly sure why he was feeling this way. After all, he had personally killed someone (he would always remind himself that it wasn't really alive to begin with) and witnessed things worse than a few thrown around cars. Jaune hadn't even seen anyone die!

But deep in his belly Jaune could feel this sick, nauseous feeling gathering inside of him, and blocking his esophagus. He wanted to throw up. Lifting up his hands, Jaune pulled the glove off of his automail hand, staring at it.

I threw myself into the secrets of Alchemy to try and right my wrongs. Jaune thought to himself. "But why does it feel like I'm making things worse?"

Jaune could feel the despair, which was a constant force inside of him, bubble a little more violently, rise a little higher than before.

Brief thoughts of fading away appeared in the forefront of his mind.

Closing his eyes, Jaune took a deep breath, trying to remember why he stayed.

There are things that I still need to do before I go.

And with that resolve back in place, Jaune shifted off of his bed, walking towards his desk to grab L'Alchemie. The feeling of guilt never really went away for Jaune, but he knew how to deal with it effectively for the time being.

"Where are you going Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune turned around to see his three teammates, all of them looking a little tired. After Jaune had explained what had happened earlier, the three of them were incredibly supportive, trying to convince Jaune that without him there would have been worse casualties. Jaune appreciated their input, but deep inside, he knew that he was at fault.

Ignoring the urge to snap at Pyrrha and tell her to mind her own business, Jaune answered her, reminding himself that they were his friends now, and friends should try and have some level of communication with each other.

Or at least, that's what he's been told.

"I'm going to the headmaster's office again. I need to return this." Jaune said, holding up the worn book again. Pyrrha nodded, hesitating for a second.

"If you want, maybe I could accompany you?" Pyrrha asked quietly.

Jaune looked down at the book, and looked back up at Pyrrha. A part of his mind screamed against the idea, wanting to go alone so that he could have some time to vent by himself. Another part of his mind, smaller, but growing larger by the day, seemed to want Pyrrha to come, as if craving another human's company.

"…Okay." Jaune said slowly, finally succumbing to the temptation of not being alone in his thoughts.

"Wonderful!" Pyrrha said, smiling a bit before hopping off of her bed and following Jaune, who headed out of their room. Before they could leave though, Pyrrha grabbed onto Jaune's arm.

"Wait a second. Isn't this book supposed to be kept a secret?" She asked. Jaune nodded, a little confused as to why she brought that out. Pyrrha smiled, and asked politely if she could see the book for a second, which Jaune reluctantly gave to her.

Taking the book gingerly, she went over to her side of the room and brought out wrapping paper, carefully hiding the book and turning it into what looked like a present. Holding it out to Jaune she gave a shy smile.

"There, now it's safe to go around with it."

Jaune raised an eyebrow and gave an amused snort. Kept under wraps it was. With that, the two of them headed to the headmaster's office.

Jaune didn't actually have too much to worry about, as the conversations that the two of them had were short, and avoided the topic of earlier today. They talked about things like classes, and the next trip to Forever Falls, as well as the Vale Tournament, which seemed to be getting closer and closer every single day.

"Yeah, I think you could probably win the whole thing," Jaune said, nodded. "I mean, you are the four time champion—"

"Oof!"

Jaune backpedaled a little bit as a girl bumped into him, falling backwards.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Jaune said, hands in the air, but not exactly sure what to do. He looked frantically at Pyrrha who gestured at him to offer a hand back up.

"Are you alright?" Jaune asked, holding out a hand for her to grab. Nodding her head, the girl grinned and grabbed on, pulling herself up.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine—wow you've got quite the grip there—it was my fault I wasn't paying attention." She said genially. "Thanks for helping me back up though."

"No problem." Jaune smiled easily back, glad that he had practiced smiling in the mirror so that he didn't look awkward, although judging by the strange look the girl was giving to him, he still hadn't really mastered it.

"I'm Emerald by the way," the girl said, shaking his hand now. "I'm a transfer over at Mistral." Jaune nodded, struggling to try and recall proper etiquette.

"Uh, cool. I'm Jaune. Arc. I come from, uh.. well here, seeing as how I'm wearing the uniform and I didn't steal it, hah hah…" Jaune gave a weak laugh before deciding to shut up at that point, knowing that speaking for any longer would only dig a deeper hole for Jaune.

"Well it was nice meeting you Jaune, but I've gotta scram and—woah!" Emerald exclaimed, her eyes widening as she leaned to the side.

"What's that?" Emerald asked, her eyes lighting up curiously. She leaned a little to the left to spot the wrapped up book in Jaune's hands. "That's an interesting wrapping for a book. Are you giving someone a book as a present?"

Jaune's hands tightened around the tome, before his mind raced to try and figure out an excuse to give the emerald eyed transfer student. "I-uh, yeah. It's an old book so I'm just covering it up and some people like old books so that's why I'm… giving it away… as a… present."

Emerald seemed to almost squeal and held out her hands. "Oh I just love old books! What's it called? I would love to see what it's about."

This was starting to disorient Jaune, and a disoriented Jaune was a Jaune that liked to revert back to his old ways.

"No." Jaune said shortly, before wincing at the sudden harshness of the tone. Emerald heard it as well, holding up her hands and backing away.

"Whoa, hey, I got it man, no worries."

Jaune felt like such an ass for saying that.

"Sorry. It's just. Kind of important to me… to give to the person…. and it's falling apart and I don't want people to really touch it… and stuff." Jaune ended lamely, showing her the wrapped up book. Emerald nodded enthusiastically.

"I get it. Sure thing. So why're you walking around with it then?" Emerald asked casually.

For a second, it seemed as if Jaune's immense paranoia flared up, causing his breath to leave and the only thing on his mind to be trying to get as far away from the green haired girl as possible.

"Yeah, actually, I was going to give this to the person now. It was nice meeting you, uh, Emerald. I'll see you around." And with that, Jaune brushed passed her and continued on his way, leaving Pyrrha behind to apologize to Emerald.

"I'm sorry about that. Jaune isn't very good at talking to people." Pyrrha said, offering an apologetic smile. Emerald waved the apology away.

"Don't worry, I'm happy just meeting him." Emerald waved Pyrrha goodbye before heading downstairs towards Cinder's office, smiling softly. "I'm sure we'll meet again quite soon."