Coeur Al'Aran was the beta for the original Auburn and helped me immensely during a period when we were both just getting started. Cover Art drawn by confections101 and a link to it is on my profile page. Jefardi is the one who finally kicked my butt into gear to do something about this story I had almost given up on.
Auburn
Lambent
Jaune sighed in relief as the dropped down about only a dozen feet to land on the solid metal structure that would serve as their new home. The fall itself was more than short enough for his aura to comfortably absorb the blow without any of the annoying numbness that came after.
"That wasn't so bad." He grinned to his partner and best friend just as she landed next to him.
Blake rolled her eyes and pat him on the back again, like she had been forced to do most of the bullhead ride over. "I can still smell the puke from all the throwing up you did… that was pretty bad."
"Well sure, the flight was. I meant the landing." He tried to grin, but even he could tell it came out forced and half-assed.
"Oh my gosh, Jaune. Blake. Come look at this, it's amazing!" Fortunately Ruby was there to remove any awkward tension caused by his motion-sickness, waving them over to the edge of the tower they now stood on. Weiss was already next to her, looking over the edge and into the abyss below.
Just thinking about how high up they actually still were made his stomach churn in protest. He almost didn't even want to look over that ledge, preferring to just pretend they weren't ten stories stories up. Still, curiosity got the best of him anyways and he chugged forward, legs feeling heavy. Blake trailed at his side, matching his gait and still somehow making it look natural.
In the not-so-distance he could see the Mountain Glenn for what the expansion had been named. Even as tall as this tower was, it still felt like a speck in the face of that mighty landmark. It was a wonder Grimm got over here at all with such a strong, naturally border. Then again, Grimm had adapted all kinds of abilities and for them, getting around that mountain probably wasn't nearly as much a challenge as it was for humans.
"Watch your step, dunce." Weiss grabbed him just before he could manage to walk straight off the ledge. Looking straight down made his knees go weak and threw his whole balance off as vertigo overwhelmed him. If not for having Blake on one side and Weiss on the other he might have for real fallen off right then and there.
It did give him a good view of what was beneath them. The abandoned buildings and structures of Mountain Glenn were mostly incomplete and even the ones that had been finished were broken and falling apart.
The tower of Lambent had been constructed on what looked like was once a wall on the border of the city. To the south was a vast plain of grass that eventually gave way to a thick forest. Parts of the wall still stood and ran to the East and West of the tower's sides, but several hundred yards in either directions there were gaps and whole parts completely missing. The Grimm could get at it from any angle they pleased, really.
Which they were certainly taking advantage of. Even now and no less than a hundred Grimm were within view of varying sizes and shapes. All of them were charging straight for the tower, going easily three times as fast as Jaune could in a dead sprint. For all the good it did them.
They got within about fifty yards of the tower and green beams of energy flared to life from the middle of the structure, pin-pointed at the Grimm with deadly accuracy. Very deadly accuracy. If the beam so much as grazed one of the creatures, that was it. The monster died. Hundreds of them were scattered around and disintegrating.
"It's a Dust powered anti-Grimm laser defense system." Weiss appeared just as shocked to see such a powerful defense system as he. "They're still testing those!"
"I'm guessing the Schnee Dust Company is the one developing that?" Blake tapped the handle of Gambol Shroud, an act Jaune wasn't even sure she was aware of.
Weiss nodded. "Last I heard they were still developing a way for them to safely target Grimm without reacting to any other signs of life. If I had to guess, I'd say these ones are programmed to react to any Grimm that gets within the perimeter. I can only imagine the amount of Dust it takes to effectively utilize those."
"That's the Schnee Dust company for you." Qrow drunkenly slurred behind them, not trying to hide his distaste as he said Weiss' family name. Jaune imagined he and Blake would get along pretty well if the guy would lay off the booze. "No expense is too much!" He spun around and gestured vaguely to the silver tower they stood atop of.
"Are you saying my family built this place?" Weiss looked surprised by this news. He imagined it was pretty rare that her family did something without her knowing about it then. Not that he would know.
"Why don't you ask that question of the dear old headmaster? I imagine you'll recognize him." Qrow chuckled ironically, shaking his head and stumbling towards a cylinder poking out of the center of the tower. An elevator, if Jaune had to guess.
Qrow stepped past the members of PYRN who had gathered not far away from that elevator and as he came up to it, the door slid open with an audible hiss. Qrow and some man Jaune had never seen before- yet looked oddly familiar- passed one another without a word. He heard Weiss let out a small gasp from next to him and immediately made the connection.
Qrow slipped into the circular elevator and leaned against a railing as he turned and looked out at the others and the apparent headmaster. Weiss jogged up to him, the rest of her team following behind where they lined up side-by-side with the other Beacon team.
"Glad to see you all made it." The man greeted in a nasally, chipper tone of voice. He was dressed almost entirely in white; From his pants to his leather jacket and even his boots. The katana that hung off his waist was also sheathed in white. His slicked-back white hair stood in stark contrast to his more tan skin complexion. "My name is Shirou. Shirou Schnee. I am the headmaster here." Several eyes darted to Weiss at once.
She cleared her throat and made her way to the front of the group. "It's good to see you again… uncle." She gave a small curtsy while she addressed him. "I had no idea it was you who would be running Lambent. The documents on that were rather… vague."
The man chuckled as he stepped forward and directly in front of Weiss. He towered at least two full heads over her and almost had to look straight down through slanted-eyes that obscured the color of his irises. "Yes, well you can thank your father for that. He didn't want to be seen as involved with this academy for several personal reasons. For his sake, we hid the fact that his younger brother was the one running it."
"I understand. A little heads-up to me would have at least been appreciated however." Weiss huffed and glared at the taller man.
"And miss the surprise on the face of my favorite niece?" He reached his hand forward and patted her hair. If it was possible her glare got even sharper. "Ah, I'd forgotten that you lack a sense of humor. Definitely your father's girl."
He walked past her and smiled at the rest of them before stepping up to Pyrrha and extending a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Nikos. Your transcripts looked very promising."
"T-Thank you, Professor Schnee." Pyrrha mumbled awkwardly as she took his hand and shook it.
"Please, just call me Shirou." He waved his hand and gave a disarming grin as stepped up to Yang. "Good to meet you, Miss Xiao Long."
"You... don't act much like a Schnee." Yang shook his hand even as she tried to lean away from him.
"Bah, all those formalities are far too troubling." He stepped up to Nora and shook her hand next to which she only enthusiastically returned. "Miss Valkyrie." He greeted quickly. "Besides, I'm only Schnee by name. After my brother married in, they sort of adopted me too." He finished saying that while shaking Ren's hand. "Pleasure to meet you."
Then he turned to the remaining members of AWBR and Jaune went tense, his whole body locking completely up. This man was anything but what he expected him to be. The way Ozpin and Qrow described the situation, it sounded like some kind of megalomaniac was running this place. Maybe it wasn't really so bad after all? Then again, if experience had taught Jaune anything it was the more harmless and inviting something appeared, the more dangerous it usually was. He wasn't about to drop his guard around this guy.
"Miss Rose. You're quite the prodigy. It must be hard on you being partnered up with my niece." He was already up to them and shaking Ruby's hand.
"Hey! I'm right here!"
"Nah, she's not too bad." Ruby tilted her head and grinned brightly at her partner who only folded her arms and humphed. Shirou laughed at the interaction and moved onto Blake.
"The mysterious Miss Belladonna. That is a cute bow you have on." Blake didn't say anything as she shook his hand and only stared with eyes that appeared to be assessing the man in front of her. Jaune wondered if she was thinking along the same lines he was.
Finally, he stopped in front of Jaune but paused as he glanced him up and down. Just great, was he about to appear on this guy's radar so soon?
"A good team is nothing without its leader. I look forward to working with you, Mister Arc." Despite the length of silence that stretched before, that was all Shirou had to say as they shook hands. Jaune tried looking into his eyes to see if he had somehow figured him out already, but wasn't able to get anything from them due to the fact that he kept them closed throughout the entire exchange.
"Same..." Jaune replied awkwardly and pulled his hand away.
"That's good to hear. Now that introductions are out of the way, allow me to be the first to give you all these words." He straightened his posture and took a couple steps back. With a big flourish of his arms he bowed deeply before them.
"Welcome to Lambent."
"Something on your mind, Mister Arc?" Jaune looked back to Shirou to see him giving the same amused grin that seemed glued to his face. It was like everything was one big joke to him or something.
"There are just... more floors than I imagined?" He wasn't really sure if that question sounded natural or not, but it was the first thing that came to mind looking at all the buttons on the elevator. There were ten floors in total and one sub-floor. That meant eleven he was going to have to look through in order to find whatever the heck it was Qrow and Ozpin even wanted him looking for. Not that any of them knew what that was.
Speaking of Qrow, the drunken professor let out a not so-subtle warning cough. Jaune didn't know what he wanted from him. How was he supposed to find anything if he didn't ask questions? The only thing Jaune knew about being a spy was from Bond movies, dammit. He wasn't cut out for this.
"You got something stuck in your throat, Uncle Qrow?" Ruby was hanging off of him in concern, which seemed to give him the perfect cover for Shirou to not notice anything.
"Probably all the booze trying to come back up." Yang snorted, shoving their uncle, not even capable of rocking him a little.
Shirou ignored their family banter and nodded to to Jaune's question instead. If he thought it suspicious, he did a good job not showing it. "The tower had to be at least this tall so we kind of had to spread things out when constructing it. Some of the design isn't the most efficient, but we had spare space so we had to fill it with something."
He pointed to the button for the top floor. "That one is for my office." Then he pointed the next one down as he counted them all off. "The teachers' rooms and their offices. Then the rooms you'll all be in, along with simple restrooms. The baths, which are quite extravagant if I say so myself. Then the cafeteria. The fifth floor is where the defense system for the lasers are and the fourth is where everything is stored, so essentially a giant closet. Students won't go into either of those. Rounding off the last three: The classrooms. A gym. And finally, a library." Blake perked up at the end.
She had clearly been listening the whole time to their conversation, but Jaune hadn't even noticed until the mention of books. His partner suddenly looked very embarrassed as both Shirou and Jaune turned to regard her.
"So uhh…" He tried to spare her feelings and push past that she'd been caught listening by moving on. "How do we get out of here? I notice you didn't mention anything about an exit." He also didn't mention the sub-floor but there was no getting around that. It just made it more suspicious and in the line of spy-work, suspicious was good, right?
"We just left it." Shirou stated matter-of-factly.
"Wait… you mean the roof?" He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.
"Of course, we can't have doors on the ground floor. If any of the Grimm got past the lasers they would make it right in." So they were what? Just expected to jump off the roof every time they had to leave? Suddenly launching them from rocket pads made more sense, if it was preparing them for living here. Was there a ladder on the outside to help them back up? Unlike Weiss, Blake, and Ruby, he didn't have a Semblance that could help him climb.
He didn't have a Semblance at all.
"And here we are!" Shirou gestured dramatically as the door opened up on the fourth floor, the cafeteria. "Feel free to take a seat anywhere you want." He pointed to the numerous circular tables that were spread across the room. "You're of course free to mingle with the other students… not that any of them seem too interested in doing the same." Jaune finally noticed the twenty-four other people about his age that were seated throughout the room. They were separated into three other groups that he would guess were the three separate kingdoms. That made them the last group to arrive.
"Qrow, my old friend, if you'll come with me?" Shirou flashed that ever present maniacal grin at the only other adult, earning a grimace and roll of the eyes.
"See ya, pipsqueak." Qrow disentangled himself from Ruby and followed after Shirou. Ruby and Yang both followed after their uncle for the first few steps and then broke towards the tables. The rest of the two teams weren't far behind, except Jaune.
He took a couple steps after them but paused again as he looked once more around the room, skimming its entire surface. There were no windows, a high ceiling and it was all made of the same metallic material as the outside of the building. The tables and small stage set up looked incredibly out of place in the otherwise empty room. He peeked around the other side of the elevator to see that side of the room completely bare. It was like the setup was thrown together at the last second.
"Jaune?" He jumped at the unexpected voice and spun to see Blake had stayed behind with him while all the others were already seated. She raised an eyebrow at his odd behavior and his brain whirled as it attempted to form some kind of believable excuse. Who was he kidding? Nothing he said was going to convince Blake. For better or worse, she already knew him well enough to recognize all his tics and habits.
"Everyone is waiting." To his surprise she didn't say anything about his behavior and simply nodded her head towards the others. He was both extremely relieved and immediately thankful.
"Right." He straightened his stance and began walking with her.
Their two teams all sat at one table, of course separate from all the other schools. The order went Weiss, Ruby, Yang, Nora, Ren and Pyrrha. That left a gap of two seats between Weiss and Pyrrha for them to take. Jaune took the one next to the Heiress, knowing Blake wouldn't want it. So his partner took the last one next to the champion.
This worked out well enough since he needed some more information anyways. "Hey Weiss." Jaune rubbed the back of his head and scooted his chair in.
She turned and looked at him half-questioningly, half with her usual scowl. "Yes?" She didn't even given him a chance to gather his thoughts, although he probably should have had them gathered before he even got over here so maybe that was his bad.
"I just wanted to know more about your uncle." Her eyes narrowed and he shifted backwards, as if trying to put distance between them. It was kind of apparent that her uncle was a sore subject but he couldn't give up here. He needed to do this. At least he thought he did. Hopefully Weiss could tell him things Ozpin already didn't know.
"What in particular do you need to know?" She asked after several seconds of silence.
"Well… everything, I guess. Let's start with that." Her eye twitched.
"You know 'everything' is a really broad term, right?" For some reason it sounded like she was trying really hard to be patient with him. He couldn't imagine why that was.
"Yeah I know. How about we just start from his birth and work our way chronologically from there? He's only… how old is he anyways?" Jaune glanced over at him and if he had to guess would say was in his mid-twenties. That seemed really young to be running a place like this.
"Are you just trying to irritate me? Cause if you are, it's working." Weiss grabbed his ear and twisted.
"Ouch, no I'm being- ouch! Weiss cut it out!" She finally released his ear and he rubbed it as he eyed her fearfully.
"I'm also a little curious about him." Blake offered as she glanced between the two of them. "What's he like?"
Weiss huffed and crossed her arms. "You've seen what he's like. Everything in the world to him is one big joke. He doesn't take anything seriously at all. All his life, things have just been handed to him."
"That's not just your personal-bias talking is it?" Blake accused and Weiss turned on her. "Someone that doesn't take anything seriously surely wouldn't have been made the head of a school in the middle of Grimm territory. His skills must be exceptional beyond compare and that's not something you get without effort."
"You don't get it." Weiss leaned back in her chair and sighed. "That's exactly what I'm saying. His skill at cutting down Grimm… it's unnatural. My father has even said so. Ever since he could swing that sword of his, he's been some sort of prodigy. I don't think he's ever faced a Grimm and thought he might die." Jaune definitely couldn't relate to that. Every time he faced a Grimm he thought for sure he was dead. Was that why this guy instinctively sent off warning bells in his head? Was it because he sensed how different they were?
"Though, I suppose it was fortunate he had that talent. He would never have been recognized as a legitimate heir to the company so becoming a Huntsmen was really the next best route for him to uphold the family honor. Even more so because he doesn't deserve to wear the Schnee Family Crest on his back." Weiss said this almost bitterly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jaune asked that question so heatedly he surprised even himself. Something about the way she worded that had struck a nerve he'd rather not think about.
Weiss let out a long, drawn out sigh as she appeared to consider how to answer his question. "...My grandfather was a great man. He hardly had a tarnish on his record while he ran the company. He was also... well, he was just too compassionate." She emphasized. "When my father married in, our grandfather made him the heir. Then he adopted Shirou too and gave him the family name despite the oddity of doing such a thing. Uncle has dedicated himself day and night to the sword and to my father and grandfather ever since. He's now Atlas' most renowned swordsman. So it's no wonder he was selected to run this school."
Silence followed after she finished.
Ruby was the first to respond and he realized everyone at the table had been listening. "It sounds like you actually respect him quite a bit." First it was her and Yang's Uncle, whom they both clearly looked up to. Now Weiss too. Next thing he knew and everyone was going to have an uncle that worked here.
Weiss' cheeks tinted with pink and she shifted her eyes so they wouldn't meet any of theirs. "Of course I do. I may not agree with his personality but he's still my uncle and an excellent Huntsmen."
"I think it's very nice." Pyrrha offered.
"Thank you!" Weiss beamed brightly at her compliment. "Why couldn't you have been on my team?"
"Sorry none of us are up to your standard." Blake remarked dryly and immediately flustering the young Heiress again.
"That right there is exactly the type of thing I'm talking about! You all give me such a hard time!" The girls continued their argument but Jaune wasn't listening to that much anymore.
Instead he was staring into the green eyes of a girl that stood less than several feet from them all and who was smiling brightly at him in particular. At least he thought the smile was directed at him. Her eyes were kind of vacant so it was hard to be sure.
He didn't recognize her but she must have been about his age which made her a student from one of the other schools. Why she was over here, he had no idea. He was kind of hoping she would say something but she seemed perfectly content to just stand there and stare back at him. As weird as it was, he had to admit she was kind of cute. He particularly liked the bow on the back of her head. It kind of reminded him of Blake's a little, just crooked. And pink.
"...Do you know her?" Ruby leaned past Weiss and poked him. Just then he realized all the others had taken notice of the two of them staring at one another.
He quickly shook his head. "I've never seen her before." Despite the fact that they were now talking about her, she didn't say anything. It was passing beyond just weird now. So he turned back to her and cleared his throat. "Can I... help you?"
The girl tilted her head and looked to actually process the question. "I do not believe so. Do I look like I need help with something?"
"Mental help." Weiss grumbled under her breath.
"What are you doing over here?" Blake asked more directly.
The girl positively beamed at this question. "I came to introduce myself and meet the other students!"
That was all well and great, but why hadn't she introduced herself yet then? Maybe she was feeling really awkward and didn't know how to properly do an introduction? Jaune felt immediate sympathy for the girl in front of him as he knew what it was like to be socially awkward.
He cleared his throat and got to his feet. The least he could do was show her how it was done. "The name is Arc. Jaune Arc. All the ladies just call me handsome."
He heard several hands smack their owners in the face simultaneously but ignored it. The girl in front of him didn't appear phased at all and instead kept right on grinning back at him. Then all at once her face went rigid and serious, hand coming up and giving a military salute. "Salutations! My name is Penny! It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Handsome!"
If Yang could have taken a picture of all their faces at that moment, Jaune had no doubt she would have had a field day for weeks. Weiss broke into a fit of coughs so violent that he thought she might have been choking on her own lung. Ruby had jumped from her seat so quickly she knocked it over and looked absolutely lost at what to do now that she was standing. Pyrrha's mouth hung so far open it looked like her jaw had broke. Blake's face had reacted the least but even he was able to tell she was staring very strangely at their newest acquaintance. His own face burnt in unrestrained embarrassment at having so casually been called that by this quirky girl.
"You are all behaving rather odd." Penny remarked and Jaune had to wonder if she was being serious or if this was all some elaborate prank.
"You're the one being odd!" Weiss all but shrieked as she finally managed to stifle her coughs.
Penny looked like she was replayed the full conversation in her head before she responded. "I introduced myself normally."
"It wasn't the introduction!" Weiss' continued to holler before quietly muttering under her breath. "Although your introduction wasn't what I'd call normal either."
"You don't have to call him that, you know?" Blake was attempting to maintain a neutral expression but was failing hard.
"He said all the ladies call him Handsome. Do you not believe I am a lady?" Rather than sounding offended, she sounded more like she was afraid that they were onto her secret.
"What? No. How did you even come to that conclusion?" Blake dropped her facade as the frustration took over. It was actually pretty amusing. This was the first time Jaune had seen someone get to Blake like this; Someone not him or Weiss anyways. "You know what? Don't answer that." Blake stopped Penny before she could do just that.
If Penny had come to thrown them off their game she had certainly done a good job. Then again, was it possible she had come over here just to see him? She was staring right at him just a few moments ago. This whole thing kind of made it seem like she was flirting with him too. Was this finally his chance to get a date? Wait a second. How were you supposed to date someone out here? They were on the edge of a destroyed expansion. Slaying Grimm was hardly the most romantic thing two people could do with one another. Regardless, if this was his chance he wasn't about to lose out on it.
"So… Penny." Jaune gave the most suave grin he could muster and took a big step closer to her.
"Yes, Handsome?"
"Stop calling him that!" Weiss and Blake yelled at the same time. He had never heard them so in sync before.
"What brings a cute lady like yourself all the way out here to Lambent?" He placed a hand on her shoulder but she showed no outward reaction to him invading her personal space. Maybe she really had taken a liking to him?
"Uncle Ironwood insisted that I have my training here in order to put my combat prowess to the test!" Penny flexed both arms as she answered but Jaune wasn't paying any attention to that. In fact, he had lost her after the first two words.
"D-did you say… Uncle Ironwood?" He pulled his hand off of her and took a couple fearful steps backwards. "As in the big, scary, General of the Atlas military?"
Penny nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. That would be him." Okay… time to abort mission. No way in Hell was he getting involved with a girl whose uncle could destroy him in more ways than he could imagine without any repercussions. Penny tilted her head questioningly at him. "Is something wrong, Handsome?"
"Nope! Nothing's wrong!" Jaune shook his head so violently he made himself dizzy. "You know what? How about you just call me Jaune? That's what all my friends call me." Penny's eyes widened and she stared at him in complete silence for what must have been thirty whole seconds. In that time, Jaune was beginning to fear he had really set her off now. Was she going to tell her uncle? He really hoped not.
Sudden movement from Penny caused him to focus back in and he saw her approaching quickly. She walked right up to him and he took another couple steps back in retreat. He bumped into the table and Penny stopped less than a couple centimeters from him. He leaned back as far as he could but Penny leaned forward and stared into his eyes with an expression that meant nothing but business.
"Are you saying-" He flinched at her voice. "-that you and I are friends?"
"Uhh…" Jaune had no idea how to answer that. He looked to the others for help but not one of them would even look in his direction. The traitors! He was on his own for this one. With great reluctance, he turned back to Penny. "...yes?" He really wished that hadn't sounded like a question.
When her stalwart gaze didn't let up, he wondered if it was too late to change his answer? Then all at once, the serious expression broke into a huge smile and she skipped backwards to finally give him some breathing room. "Sensational!" She whooped as she hopped around and threw her hands into the air. "I'll compile a list of activities we can do together while here at Lambent! We shall spend everyday together for here on out." What the Hell had he gotten himself into now?
"My apologies for the delay everyone." Saved by the bell as Shirou started to address them all, his voice carrying over the whole cafeteria with ease and echoing off the metal walls.
"We shall continue this later, new friend." Penny gave a quick wave and ran off back to her team, leaving Jaune to let out a sigh of relief as he plopped back down in his seat. No sooner after than his and everyone else's scroll made a small beep and vibrated as they simultaneously received a message. He pulled it out to see a huge program pending to be downloaded.
"What I've just sent you all is vital. You can consider it as your personal Lambent Identification. It allows you to enter and leave the tower, operate the elevator, access a majority of the facilities within, including your own personal room. There is a map of the floor layout programmed in as well as an interactive map of the surrounding landscape that will update automatically as you journey around to slay Grimm. Your class schedules and weekly assignments will also update frequently."
He paused his speech and waited for them to download the program. Jaune was surprised how quickly it installed and in only several moments his scroll was displaying a picture of him with a list of statistics such as what school he was representing, his status as team leader, and even Grimm kills which flashed a big fat zero. He cocked his head at one of the statuses that simply read GKP with the number 500 next to it.
"It looks like most of you have finished at least glancing the system over." Shirou started back up. "Seeing as we are living outside the kingdoms, it isn't exactly feasible to expect any of you to earn lien. So we've developed the GKP currency for you to use. It stands for Grimm Killing Points. In other words, the more Grimm you kill, the more points you get. The stronger the Grimm, the more points it is worth. You will use these points here to supply yourself. This includes meals, gear, even simple necessities such as toothpaste. If you fail at killing many Grimm, then you are in for a very rough life here."
Jaune gulped. This was probably what Qrow had meant when he was talking about incentives to improve yourself. They were practically living in their whole own society out here. He tuned whatever Shirou was saying out as he flipped through some of the pages of information. The map of the tower was interesting to say the least. Of course that sub-floor didn't even appear. How curious. Did that mean his scroll wasn't authorized to let him go down to that floor either? Only one way to find out but that would have to wait.
The store menu popped up and he was surprised by how much you could actually buy. If you needed it, well, you could get it. In the small corner of the screen it read 'Provided by the Schnee Dust Company.' That figured.
Next was his class schedule and short bios on the Hunters that would be training them. Classes didn't seem bad at all with him only having to attend four hours a day, four days a week of actually sitting through a lecture. That meant there was likely going to be a lot of out-of-class work, but that made sense given they had to kill Grimm to be able to even feasibly survive out here.
"-aune. Jaune!"
"Huh? What?" He gave a start and tore his gaze from the scroll to see Blake standing over him.
"The headmaster excused us. Everyone is heading to their rooms for the night." She eyed him oddly for a second before glancing at the page on his scroll. "It must have been interesting information. I don't think I've ever seen you read that deeply."
Jaune gave his signature awkward chuckle. "I just love to learn. You know that." She rolled her eyes. "What time is it? I didn't think it was nearly that late." He glanced at his scroll to answer his own question and to see it was already eight. How long had he been going over that information? It didn't seem like a lot, but really it was. Most of the other students were already walking by them and forming a line at the elevator. "Ruby and Weiss?"
"They're in line." He tried to spot them but they were obscured by the crowd of students. As he looked at them all, a thought struck. This place was supposedly built as a school, right? Why then did they only have one elevator to get around? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have multiple means of getting to each and every floor? Or was he just overthinking things because of the mission Ozpin had given him?
"What are you thinking right now?" Blake once again snapped him from his thoughts. Damn it. He had to quit being so obvious about all the doubts he was having. What kind of spy was he?
"I was just..." He had to think of something to chance the subject. "...wondering if I really had what it takes to be here."
Blake grimaced and pulled her chair back out to sit next to him. She then placed a hand on his knee and squeezed. "You need to be more confident in yourself. You had what it takes to get into Beacon, after all. And you survived against that Chimera despite all the odds being stacked against you." He really didn't have what it takes to get into Beacon, though. They only let him stay here as leverage to get what they wanted.
"You don't have the littlest doubts about this place?" Now that he thought about it, he supposed Blake had no reason to doubt it here. He wouldn't question it at all if Ozpin and Qrow hadn't planted the seeds in his head.
Blake shrugged. "Something about this whole thing isn't adding up, but this is the path I chose and if it helps me become a Huntress faster, than I have no complaints. We just have to watch our backs while we're here. I trust you to have mine, just like you did in that cave."
"I guess…" She was right of course. No matter what it was that was truly going on here, he was doing this so he could become a Huntsmen. All he had to do was expose this place for whatever the heck Ozpin thought it was and he could still be on that track. Finding the secret here would ensure Blake's survival too.
"My, my. How boring." Shirou commented and they both tensed immediately as he stopped behind them. "Where's your sense of excitement? Don't you two want to seek out the thrill of life and death?"
"We didn't come here for a life of excitement. Not all of us at least." Blake turned to Shirou and stared at him evenly.
"Life is no fun if you don't try to find some excitement in it. Live like everyday is your last. You never know if it might be; Especially here." Jaune had no idea why Shirou insisted on looking at him the whole time he spoke. He hadn't even been the one to say anything yet. Blake appeared to notice this too because she kept glancing back and forth between them.
"Is there something you wanted with us, Headmaster?" Her voice had a slight edge to it now.
"Just thought I'd get to know some of my students is all." Shirou gave them both a disarming smile, not that it had any effect on either of them. "I also thought I would let Mister Arc know that I'll be taking the leaders out on a training trip tomorrow. Just think of it as a warm-up for things to come."
"Just the leaders?" Blake suddenly sounded very concerned and Jaune didn't blame her. If it was just the leaders, that meant he wouldn't be with anyone from his team. He had no idea how he was going to survive without any of them. At least he would be with Pyrrha. That was a good thing, right? She was pretty strong so surely she could protect him. That sounded bad when he put it like that. He should be worried about being able to protect others, not himself.
"There are some qualities I wish to put to the test among the leaders. Your lives here are going to be strenuous and I need to be sure you're up to the challenge. If I feel anyone is not ready, I withhold the right to send them back. We have no need for someone that is going to die fruitlessly out here, after all." Those words cut more deeply than Jaune would care to admit. Even more-so seeing as they seemed to be directed right at him.
"It looks like the elevator is free. I think we'll be taking our leave now." Blake stood up and grabbed Jaune by the elbow, pulling him up as well.
"You have a goodnight now, Mister Arc. Hopefully we can have a more engaging conversation tomorrow when your overprotective partner isn't with us." Jaune looked back in horror as Blake dragged him away.
The smile on the older man's face was the same perpetual and creepy one as always.
Chapter End
AN: So Lambent and my OC.
Shirou is Japanese for White and that's where his name comes from. In that regard, his name has the same meaning as Weiss' name. At one point, I was hesitant when creating this story to use an OC but it ended up being inevitable seeing as I needed someone to run Lambent and I did at least try to connect him to one of the main cast. He's also fun for me to write.
Penny was also fun to write. I'm actually really proud of the way that whole interaction turned out even if it was mostly reminiscent of her introduction in the show. While I could've introduced Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald as a team from Haven, I feel that part of the point of changing the location was to get away from them and their plans. Let Ozpin find someone else to handle them, I say.
Next time, the leaders from all the schools get together and the mission Shirou spoke about begins.