A/N: A little later than usual but still Monday so yay! Let me know what you guys think about this chapter m'kay?
I get the feeling that I make Jaune fight Yang waaaay too much XD
Jaune woke up to someone shaking him.
"I'm up! I'm up!" Jaune groaned, tossing himself out of the bed. One day Jaune was going to be able to get some rest, he swore it.
Blinking blearily, Jaune's vision cleared up enough to see that his three roommates were standing beside him, all dressed in their fighting gear. Even Nora wasn't really smiling.
Yikes.
"Did something happen?" Jaune asked worriedly. Maybe nothing had actually happened. Maybe they were just standing like that because they wanted to go out of the Emerald Forest today to hunt some Grimm. Maybe Nora finally ate way too many pancakes and couldn't stand the pain of smiling anymore.
Oh who was he kidding? The world was probably about to explode or something like that.
It was never something simple with Team JNPR or Team RWBY. It was like some cosmic power was trying to make them suffer.
Jaune didn't take any time to pause for the answer, brushing past the three of them to shuck off his onesie and put on his own gear.
Pyrrha's grim look didn't change when she broke the news to Jaune.
"Imaar is laying siege to Vacuo." She said. Jaune stopped putting on his bracers to think about that.
"Like… all of it?" Jaune asked incredulously. Vacuo was a huge kingdom. How could one person take all of it? Jaune recalled Imaar, and remembered the immense force of Grimm that he had gathered around Beacon.
How powerful was Imaar? How many Grimm could he control to be trying to attack all of Vacuo? Jaune's head raised a little, trying to find what little hope to attach to.
"He can't really be… winning though, right? I mean, there's so many Hunters there and…" Jaune trailed off at the sight of the other's faces, seeing nothing that could turn Jaune's hopes into reality. Which was… pretty much expected out of them.
"Vacuo has been losing ground since early in the morning apparently," Ren said seriously. "Hunters as well the Vacuo military and any civilian who has volunteered to take arms has rallied against the hordes of Grimm, but…" Ren paused.
"Vacuo has been reduced to half its size in about eight hours." Pyrrha finished quietly.
What?
Jaune couldn't even comprehend that. Vacuo wasn't the largest kingdom around, but it was still a kingdom… and to lost half of it in less than half a day? That was bordering impossible.
Jaune fumbled with his other bracer, making it drop onto the floor.
"That's crazy." Jaune muttered, bending over to pick up the fallen object. No one needed to say anything for Jaune to know that they all agreed with him.
There was quiet while Jaune finished fastening his bracer and taking Crocea Mors from his bedside and strapping it onto his hips.
"Where are all the people running to?" Jaune asked. By the sound of how fast the inquisition was going, Jaune wasn't sure what the logistics were for everyone to be moved to a safer place. Luckily for Jaune, that wasn't really a problem.
"They aren't running." Nora said quietly, making Jaune's blood freeze.
"They're being slaughtered on the spot," Pyrrha elaborated. "The people who can find a way to run faster than the Grimm are converging onto Shade." For their last stand. It wasn't necessary for Pyrrha to say the last part, knowing that Jaune understood.
"I-isn't there a way to evacuate the people?" Jaune stuttered, still not completely over the shock of being told that there was a massive wave of death that was exterminating the people of Vacuo. Pyrrha stepped up and laid a hand on the shell-shocked Jaune as reassuringly as she possibly could. It didn't really make Jaune feel any better.
"Jaune. There are millions of people there." Pyrrha winced, reluctant to be the bearer of anymore bad news. "There aren't even enough Bullheads to take a hundred thousand of them out of there."
Jaune finally collapsed onto the floor, the news destroying any strength he had in his legs.
"T-that can't be…" Jaune said. His teammates didn't say anything, merely standing there in support of Jaune, knowing what he was going through, as they had went through the same thing only a few minutes ago. Finally, Jaune snapped out of his reverie.
"What are we doing to help?" Jaune demanded, ready to stop wasting time and find a way to help all those people out. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora all looked at each other, silently having a conversation that Jaune couldn't pick up. An insidious thought crossed Jaune's mind.
"Are we helping them?" Jaune asked, fear clutching his chest. The three stood there awkwardly, not sure what to say.
"Well…" Ren said, trailing as he wasn't sure what he could say that would make anything better. Jaune had enough of them tiptoeing around the issue.
"Guys. What has Professor Ozpin told us to do?" Juane demanded. Pyrrha finally decided to break it to him.
"He…" Pyrrha started uncertainly, before seeing Jaune's face, a cross between determined and angry. Pyrrha sighed.
"He hasn't said anything about it."
If the door to Ozpin's office wasn't part of the elevator doors, Jaune would have slammed them open in anger.
"Professor! Why aren't we helping—" Jaune stopped mid stomp, seeing that the professor had company.
"Ah, Team JNPR. I had a feeling that you guys would come visit me as well." Ozpin said, looking at Jaune calmly.
In front of Ozpin was Team RWBY, as well as a Hunter that was Ruby's uncle if Jaune could remember correctly, as well as the general of the Atlas army. As always, Professor Goodwitch was standing beside Ozpin.
"Oh." Jaune deflated a little, the winds taken from out of his sails.
"Oh indeed," Ozpin said, though not unkindly. "Why don't you and your team come closer, it would be easier explaining this to both teams now rather than separately."
And with that, all the righteous anger that Jaune had was completely wiped away as he walked up to stand next to Team RWBY.
"So you had the same idea, huh?" Yang ribbed gently with a soft grin. Even Yang could really feel the mood though, and didn't really seem like she was going to do anything energetic. Jaune nodded.
"Yeah. Weiss tell you guys?" Jaune asked casually. Yang nodded.
"Yeah. The whole team told you?" She asked back. Jaune ignored the implications that the sentence seemed to carry and just nodded.
"Now that everyone is here, I'm going to get started and assume that both teams are here to ask me why I haven't sent any teams to help out with the Vacuo incursion?"
They all nodded.
Ozpin nodded along with them, lifting his mug up to his lips.
"That's because I am not going to." Ozpin said simply.
The room was filled with stunned silence after that declaration. No one on either team was sure if they heard that right. Looking back and forth at each other, it took almost a whole minute for the information to sink in and there to be an uproar.
"What do you mean?" Ruby yelled out while Yang banged on the desk, furious. Blake and Weiss looked absolutely irate, only their reserved nature preventing them from causing as much of a scene as their partners. However, even those two held aggressive stances, angry at the statement. Jaune's team wasn't faring much better, as Nora pulled out Magnhild and was threatening to break Professor Ozpin's legs with it.
Professor Ozpin on the other hand, was calm, sipping on his mug and waiting for the room to quiet down. The other three adults in the room also stayed quiet, waiting for the unruly children to calm down.
Children they were, but the group was also Hunters and Huntresses-in-training. It didn't take long for them to tap into their discipline and stop with the outrage, deciding that logically, the Headmaster had to have some reason he wasn't going to help a neighboring kingdom out. When the whole room was finally quiet enough to hear oneself think, Professor Ozpin began to talk.
"Thank you." Ozpin said quietly. "I know that all of you are eager to help, especially you, Mr. Arc. But," The professor paused before continuing, "You will be of no help there."
Jaune wasn't one to talk back to his teachers, but with the feeling that he had direct responsibility on what was happening at that moment, he couldn't help but ask why not.
"Think for a minute, all of you here. How long would it take to mobilize every person here to get into trains and Bullheads and get you all to Vacuo?" The Professor asked. Gazes fell to the floor as they realized the logistics of it.
Beacon was at least two hours away from the nearest broders of Vacuo. This wasn't even going to be accounting for the time it would take to gather everyone, prep them and organize them sufficiently enough for transport. Five, maybe four hours would be a miracle that probably wouldn't be pulled off.
No one in that room was stupid. It wasn't a far stretch of the imagination to believe that in four hours, Vacuo could be gone.
"So why can't we just send a few of us?" Yang asked quietly. This time, it was her uncle who answered in a gentle tone.
"Look kiddo, I know you want to do the right thing." He said, "But honestly, unless we take every single person who can fight, I don't think we'll make a difference." Qrow shrugged, knowing that what he was saying was harsh, but necessary. "And even then, I'm still not sure we can go up against what's been invading Vacuo."
This time Ruby spoke up.
"Surely there can't be that many?" She asked, her voice filled with a little hope.
It didn't take long for the hope to be blown away when Qrow just shook his head sadly, before nudging Professor Ozpin. Ozpin leaned forward a little and reached out, pressing a button which let a screen pop out to the side of him, showing a massive black screen.
"This is what you're going up against." Qrow said somberly.
Nothing but black was shown on the screen. For a minute, the kids in the room weren't even sure if anything was being shown until Pyrrha gasped, along with everyone else in the room. A few spires from taller buildings popped out, which showed that they weren't just looking at a blank screen.
What they saw in front of them was a roiling mass of Grimm, so thick that no one could see anything but black, and a few buildings that were able to poke out of the crowd of monsters.
The group of students just stood there, watching the screen in shock. What made it worse was that this wasn't a picture, but a video feed. The tall buildings only helped point out that whatever was recording this was moving, and no matter where it was going, all it saw was a sea of black. The feed finally cut off, and this time, it was the General of Atlas do decided to speak to the kids in front of him.
"As you can see, there are more Grimm there than anyone could ever imagine. I appreciate the fact that all of you want to help, but does anyone here really think that you can do anything to stop what is going to happen anymore than the people who are fighting for their lives at this moment?" General Ironwood asked.
No one said anything, not even bothering to answer the question. They knew that they were outmatched here. One by one they slumped down a little, their flaming spirits soaked in cold dejection as they saw something that they couldn't fix.
"I understand that you all have your concerns." Ozpin said after a brief silence, "But do not think that we aren't doing anything. Get back to your dorms everyone, classes are cancelled for the day. Get some rest." Ozpin glanced down over his glasses at the kids there. "You may just get what you've been asking for. Just not now."
With that final word, everyone filtered out slowly, a few turning back to look at the adults standing there impassively.
Jaune paused at the doorway to the elevator and glanced back at Professor Ozpin, who was also looking intently at Jaune. Jaune could feel the intensity of Ozpin's stare, and was half a second from asking if the headmaster needed anything before Professor Ozpin waved his hand, shooing Jaune away.
"What do you think's going to happen?" Yang asked.
The eight of them had decided to hang out in Team RWBY's room, some pacing a little restlessly, some relaxing on the beds and floors, while others were simply… well, Nora.
"I don't know," Weiss said, one of the few that was pacing relentlessly, intent on burning a pathway on the wooden floors.
"What I do know is that there is no way they will decide to not help at all." Weiss said, not really concentrating on herself, but more of the walls around her.
"Well, what can we really do?" Blake asked dubiously. "Even if every single person here was a fully trained Hunter, I don't think we could even make a dent in something like that. I mean, did you see that?" She asked.
"Of course we saw that. Everyone saw that." Jaune said, only a few shades away from snapping at Blake, who stopped and turned to Jaune in surprise. Along with her, everyone else also turned to look at Jaune, who normally wasn't the first one to go and get angry. Jaune took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and push the feeling of needing to go out and kill something.
He only partially succeeded, but it was enough for Jaune to mutter a sorry before picking himself up and leaving with the excuse of needing fresh air.
Jaune walked out of there in a hurry, leaving quickly enough that even Pyrrha couldn't ask her usual motherly questions of whether or not Jaune was okay.
As Jaune left, the conversation seemed to lull a little before Yang also picked herself up.
"I think I need some fresh air too." Yang said before exiting the room.
Jaune hadn't really gone far, having only moved to the end of the hallway.
Jaune was heaving large breaths, trying to keep something down. It was a sickly feeling rising up in his chest, making him want to scream and run and fight and hurt. Jaune's hand rested on the pommel of Crocea Mors, in hopes that Jaune could concentrate and be able to talk to his friendly neighborhood dragon residing inside of him.
Vedrahgol?
Jaune's internal question finally stirred the irate dragon into action.
Finally! What took you so long to get in touch with me?
Jaune winced at the angry voice. Sorry, I was a little preoccupied at the moment. Vedrahgol seemed to scoff at that.
Busy? Please, what's busier than trying to figure out how to prevent Hermaeus Mora from killing you?
Jaune paused.
Trying to stop his champion from killing me?
Bah, Imaar? He's a third rate Dragon Priest, didn't even do a good job at sacrificing for the Dov.
Jaune was about to ask what the hell a Dragon Priest was before he suddenly had flashes of memories that weren't really his.
Jaune could see people dressed like Imaar, wandering around and praying to the Dragons they so worshipped. He could see their devotion, to the point where they bound themselves through life and death to their masters.
He could see all of it.
Well, not all of it. It was brief, but meaningful, and allowed Jaune enough understanding to follow what Vedrahgol was trying to say. All in all, not knowing something for one instance, then suddenly knowing it was a disorienting feeling.
A hand rested on Jaune's shoulder.
Turning, he could see Yang, who looked concerned about how Jaune was hunched over and clutching his head.
"You alright there Jauney?" She asked. Jaune gave a weak thumbs up.
"Yeah I'm just feeling a little…" Jaune tried to find the right words to describe how he was feeling.
"Restless? Like you wanna punch someone and scream and go crazy?" Yang asked drily. Jaune gaped at Yang, not sure how she understood how Jaune was pretty much exactly feeling. Yang could clearly see the unspoken question that Jaune wanted to ask.
"Ever since we've fought together, you've got this caged look that seems like you've got too much energy. You seem more… wild, I guess?" Yang said.
"How would you know?" Jaune asked, but trying not to be defensive about it. Yang rubbed her arm, mirroring Jaune when he's in an awkward state of mind.
"I used to have that look a lot. Back when I just unlocked my semblance." Yang explained. "All of that energy and… and strength was just something I didn't know what to do with."
Jaune didn't say anything to that.
"Is your semblance the same way?" Yang continued, asking Jaune. Jaune was about to shrug, still not sure what he knew about his semblance.
This restlessness is part of my blood, Maldovah. As my strength becomes your strength, my blood becomes yours.
Jaune jumped at Vedrahgol's sudden intrusion in his conversation, causing Yang to look at Jaune. Jaune gave a wooden smile and mumbled something as an excuse before speaking up.
"Uh, yeah, I think so." Jaune answered. Yang nodded, happy that she got that right.
"Well, before I could figure out how to control my crazy energy so I didn't want to punch everything, I figured out a way to… at least settle the feeling down for a little while." Yang said. "Do you want to try it?"
Jaune scratched the back of his head, happy that Yang was offering, but also a little confused as to why Yang was going out of her way to do something like that.
"Uh, sure, I guess." Jaune said. Yang gave a grin and grabbed onto Jaune's hand, tugging him in her direction.
"Well then, let's go!" She said happily, dragging Jaune to a location unknown to him.
"Wait, where're we going?" Jaune asked, confused.
"To the ring!" Yang exclaimed, giving Jaune a grin. "We're gonna spar the energy outta ya!"
Jaune could only whimper in fear.
A/N: Muahaha I love making Jaune suffer :3
'nyways, onto the Omake!
"I'm bored." Blake said, putting down her finished book. Yang and Weiss were snuggled to the side of the library, reading a book together, completely enraptured. Blake looked towards Ruby, who had her head buried in a weapon's manual. Blake shook Ruby's shoulders to gather her attention.
"Hm? Is there something you need Blake?" Ruby said distractedly, her eyes still glued onto the book.
"I think I'm ready to go back home." Blake said. Ruby nodded, still not a 100% into the conversation that she was supposed to be having with Blake.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it Blake. Just let me finish this book, there's like, tons of amazing stuff here that I've never seen and yeah..." Ruby said, trailing of before leaving Blake alone again. Blake stood there, a little miffed that Ruby seemed more interested in staying here than listening to her. Giving up on Ruby, Blake turned to Yang and Weiss.
"Guys? Let's head home now." Blake shouted across the large room to them. The two girls didn't bother replying at all, simply giggling at something before turning to the next page. Blake looked between the two of them, before bracing herself and getting closer to the pair.
"Weiss? Yang? Let's go home." Blake repeated again. There was, once again, no answer from the two of them. Finally, Blake had it and grabbed the book out of their hands, making them both whine in protest.
"Hey!" Weiss said angrily, while Yang simply frowned at Blake.
"Come on guys, didn't you guys want to go home as soon as possible after we got here? What's so interesting that you guys... really?" Blake said in a deadpan voice, holding up the book that they were reading, 1001 Punny Jokes. Weiss simply flushed a dark red while Yang grinned at Blake.
"I would expect this from Yang, but not you Weiss. Really?" Blake asked sadly. Weiss turned haughtily at Blake, which would have been more effective if she didn't stutter trying to defend herself.
"I-I have no idea what y-you're talking about. I just think we have to use the time we have allotted effectively. After all, we don't want Cardin's death to be all for nothing now would we?" Weiss asked rhetorically. Rhetorically it was asked, but Blake answered anyways.
"We would have killed him for candy bar if the opportunity came up!" Blake said angrily.
"Even so Blake," Weiss said. "Every life is worth something." And with that, Weiss snatched the book out of Blake's hand, opening it back up to where she had left off. Yang kept her smug grin directed at Blake.
"Yeah Blake, why don't you just find another book to read?" Yang teased. "Or is it that Blake Bella-donna what to read?" Yang spread her hands out dramatically, smiling at what she probably thought was her funniest pun yet.
Blake certainly wasn't laughing.
"I- There's just nothing for me to read." Blake huffed out, pointedly ignoring Yang's overdramatic gesturing towards the enormous library around them. Yang sighed, pitying Blake's lack of interest in her reading.
"Blake, you have to realize that while you have read all of the smut in the library, there are plenty of other books to read." Yang said.
"There was barely a bookcase full of them! And they are not smut!" Blake hissed out. Yang waved her hand dismissively at Blake before turning her attention on the book again, giggling at a particularly funny joke.
Blake groaned and fell to her knees, defeated by the spectacle of her teammates enjoying being in the library more than she was.
It was a wish come true that Blake wished she never wished for.
Somewhere on the world of Nirn, Clavicus Vile was chuckling evilly, trading high fives/tentacles with Hermaeus Mora.