The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Is this Hell?

Bodies lay scattered across the sand contorted in death, crimson fluid staining the sand beneath them.

They had won, but at what cost?

His eyes searched frantically over the landscape, desperately searching for someone, anyone, who was still breathing. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught motion, and, spinning around, he stared into the face of Death itself. A bone-white mask glared at him.

With a scream of rage, he leaped forward, exhaustion all but forgotten; with a savage grin, he channeled his aura and slammed his fist into the Mask obliterating it and the midnight black body behind it. Panting heavily, he sunk to the ground as the gentle hiss of the grimm dissolving reached his ears.

Even this victory would not be enough.

Once again, he surveyed the landscape and only the dead greeted his eyes.

Was this hopeless?

He could feel the last of his energy leaving his worn body and slowly his body crumpled down to the ground. Looking down at his blood-soaked clothes, he finally acknowledged he was dying.

"I'm sorry."

Blood dribbled from his mouth and as his vision grew dark, he caught a glimpse of a familiar cloak and her panicked voice filtered into his fading hearing.

"Jaune! Jaune! Stay with me!"

Xxx

Jaune's eyes snapped open, frantically looking around and desperately searching; that is, until his mind finally caught up and he slumped back down into his bed. He could feel a faint wetness trickle down his cheek, causing him to reach up to wipe away something hot and wet from his face. Refusing to acknowledge what it could have been, Jaune rolled out of bed his feet meeting the cool floor.

Stepping into the center of the room, he surveyed his surroundings critically. Last night, Ruby had gone into a frenzy at the lack of space in the room; so, they had transformed the beds into bunk beds. Even having little to no knowledge of construction, Jaune seriously doubted what the team had done was in any way structurally sound. It had raised questions from his team about his lack of belongings. As a nomad, Jaune was used to traveling light and only carrying what he absolutely needed on his person. Clothes, his weapon, money, and a couple of books were the extent of his openly shown belongings. He had packed his survival gear and cloak into a travel bag and deposited it swiftly under his bed. Keeping the bag out in plain sight would have simply raised questions that he had no answers to.

A soft mumble drew his attention to his team leader. Ruby lay curled up in her bed located directly above his own, softly snoring mumbling softly in her sleep. Without meaning, to his face softened.

'She's so innocent…'

Shaking himself free of his thoughts, he silently padded out of the room.

Xxx

Sweat ran down his body as Jaune finished his morning training. The sun had just begun to breach the sky, its weak light illuminating his surroundings. He could already feel the difference in his aura; it had taken considerably less effort to soothe it today and, even now, he could feel the sense of other a small distance away. A sigh gusted out of Jaune's mouth as he sunk to his knees, contemplating the situation he had gotten himself into.

'I should tell her, she has the right to know. What do I do after that, though? It's not like I can just tell her that I'm not actually a student. This mission's barely started and I have no leads, a partner, and a bond that's dangerous to both myself and her.'

With a growl, Jaune shook himself furiously; that was a dangerous path to go down and he knew better than that. What was done was done. Sighing to himself, Jaune walked back inside and navigated himself through the hallways of Beacon, eventually coming to the door of his team's room. As quietly as possible, he reentered the room to see that none of his teammates had stirred yet. Grabbing his uniform, he headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

Xxx

Jaune emerged from the bathroom and softly padded over to his team leader. Starring at her peaceful face, he almost felt bad about attempting to wake her up. Shrugging the feeling aside, he spoke softly.

"Come on Ruby, time to get moving."

At his voice, Ruby's eyes shot open and looked around widely, panic in her eyes frantically moving her hands towards her stomach searching for something. Through the fog of sleep had not quite lifted, she seemed to aware of her surroundings enough to notice Jaune. She shot forward from her bed, landing on an unprepared Jaune with all the speed her semblance granted her. Laying on the ground, Jaune could only bemusedly wonder what exactly had happened. This bemusement was replaced by worry as he felt Ruby's body trembling slightly. With a quavering voice, Ruby spoke.

"They're all dead."

'What the hell…'

As Ruby's began to calm, she seemed to realize what she had done and began stuttering an apology before bolting into the bathroom and slamming the door. Jaune slowly sat up and sat down on his bed, trying to decipher what had just happened. Loud yawns and the shifting of covers alerted him to the rest of his team awakening. Putting Ruby's behavior aside, for now, he greeted the rest of his Teammates. Receiving a sleepy nod of acknowledgment from Ren and a hyper 'good morning' from Nora, he fell back onto his bed to wait for his team to ready themselves.

After an indeterminate amount of time, he heard feet padding up to his bed and then the shifting of his mattress as another body settled atop it.

"H-hey Jaune…"

Cracking open an eye, he looked up to see a nervously shifting Ruby staring at him.

"What's up?"

"I'm sorry about earlier this morning…"

"Don't worry about its fine, no harm done."

Ruby nodded gratefully and the pair proceeded to wait for Ren and Nora to finish their morning routines.

Xxx

As team RNJR sat down to eat, Jaune could only wonder at his team dining habits. Ren had the healthiest looking meal out of all of them if the amount of green on his plate was any indication. His partner, Nora, had the largest stack of pancakes that Jaune had ever laid eyes upon. Ruby on the other hand… well, at least she was getting something to eat, even if it was cookies. Jaune, by contrast, had just picked up whatever he could and began to methodically eat his meal. Conversation flowed easily between Nora and Ruby, with Ren quietly listening and adding a comment from time to time. Noticing that other students were beginning to leave, Jaune took a glance at his scroll.

"Looks like class is going to start soon."

The rest of his team nodded acknowledging him and as a group, they rose and headed off to their first class.

Xxx

"Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of grimm have many names!"

As Professor Port continued his lecture to the young hunters in training, Jaune stared blankly off into space. Ruby quietly doodled next to him. Even though he was technically a student, Jaune couldn't bring himself to care about Port's attempt at teaching. Trying to alleviate his boredom, Jaune took a glance at what Ruby was doodling. Though admittedly crude, he recognized what she was drawing in an instant.

'A Sand Wyrm?'

It simply didn't make sense; as far as Jaune knew Ruby had never been anywhere near the outlands, where the wyrms roamed freely.,

'Maybe she saw it in a book?'

Yes, that must be it, because there was no way Ruby had ever encountered one of those creatures. Still, something nagged at Jaune; the drawing seemed to stare directly through him.

"A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, which of you believes they embody these traits?"

Port's booming voice knocked Jaune out of his thoughts, causing him to once more look to the front of the class and observe what was going on. A white blur caught his attention and Jaune saw Weiss raising her hand, a fierce pride burning in her eyes.

'Looks like she's got something to prove.'

"I do sir!"

"Well, let's find out."

Xxx

Weiss did indeed fight like a fencer dancing around her opponent, firmly focused on defeating the Boarbatusk. Finally, she managed to gain the upper hand as she stopped the Boarbatusk's rolling charge with a shining glyph. Using another glyph, she launched herself forward to impale the grimm's belly. In a show of elegance and grace, she withdrew the weapon from the body of the deceased grimm and flourished it before sheathing the rapier.

Jaune noticed that immediately after doing so, she looked toward Pyrrha as if looking for approval. In turn, she received a gracious smile from Pyrrha, causing Weiss to flush.

"Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!"

As the class came to an end, Jaune stood up, stretching his body, not used to sitting in the same position for so long. Ruby stood up next to him, clutching the paper held tightly to her chest. As Jaune and his team began to walk to the exit, Ruby split off from the group and walked up to Port who looked down in surprise at seeing one of his students approach him.

"Is something the matter Ms.…"

"Rose, I just have a question that's been bothering me."

"Well ask away, Ms. Rose!"

"I can't remember where I saw this, but do you know what type of grimm this is?"

Ruby held up her picture and Port's eyes widened slightly.

"That, Ms. Rose, is what's known as a Sand Wyrm. They're an incredibly dangerous grimm species due to their ability to burrow beneath the sand taking their prey unaware and slipping away before any harm can come to them. Thankfully, they are only located in the outlands, so it'll be awhile before you encounter them. If ever."

Ruby nodded, looking at the picture again before folding it away.

Xxx

For lunch, they were joined by team PYWN, who had been dragged to their table by Yang. The members enjoyed their lunch with pleasant conversation; Jaune would have tried to take part in, until he realized that he had no idea what the teams were talking about. He could only listen in confusion as they discussed bands, scroll games, and other things he had never heard about. Hearing his scroll ping, he reached into his pocket and retrieved the device and saw a single message emblazoned across the screen.

"Meet me in 10, East courtyard."

'Not like I have anything better to do.'

Scraping his chair slightly across the ground Jaune, rose to his feet drawing the attention of the group towards himself. Forcing a smile onto his face, he responded to their questioning looks.

"Sorry, got to go study and all that."

Exchanging goodbyes with the group, he headed out of the cafeteria, maneuvering through the hallways. He eventually arrived at his destination; to his surprise Qrow stood there with a deadly smirk on his face.

"So, what's this I hear about you partnering with my niece?"

'So, they were related…'

"I didn't realize that you were hanging around here, old man."

"I just had a small bit of business to take care of with Ozpin, and, after hearing that you were partnered with my niece…"

"I see."

Silence descended on the courtyard.

"Will you be able to keep her out of this?"

'And wasn't that the question?'

With a deadly serious face, Jaune looked contemplatively towards the sky.

"I don't know Qrow, I just don't know. All I can do is promise you my best."

Qrow nodded and with a sigh, and scratched the back of his head.

"I guess that's all I can ask. See you around kid."

With that, Qrow walked off, leaving Jaune to his thoughts.

'What am I going to do?'

Authors Note: Edited for Grammer