A/N: Two re-uploads in one night! I'm working my way through my old work and trying to make things clearer/More readable. Once all the edit are done the story will advance again. Thanks for reading!

Jaune's mind was blank. He couldn't see anything and couldn't feel his body. He knew he was laying down but that was the only thing he was sure of. Until he felt the first slap. Then the second. Soon he felt himself being slapped rapidly. This was enough to remind him that being slapped hurt and he awoke in his dorm room on the ground with team RWBY, Nora, and Ren standing around him. Above him was Pyrrha who as he put two and two together must have been the one who was slapping him.

"Ouch..." Jaune mumbled as he regained his senses.

"Sorry." Pyrrha said as she helped her leader stand up.

"So what happened?" Jaune asked. His mind was already trying to remember what happened last. He went for a run and had dinner and when everyone was talking he... His memory faded after that.

"You fainted." Ruby explained. "Weiss told you that the class you signed up for was advanced and you passed out." Weiss looked away for a moment as Ruby finished.

"Um, what class?" Jaune asked. His friends looked around the room trying to urge someone else to explain, again.

"Battlefield tactics with General Ironwood." Pyrrha said as she readied to catch Jaune.

"So why am I here?" Jaune was still a bit groggy.

"Well we weren't going to leave on the floor of the dining hall." Yang replied with a grin. "As funny as that would have been to see." She added to herself.

"We should get going," Blake urged. "Jaune probably needs some air."

With nods of agreement team RWBY left. Jaune flopped down onto his bed. The room was silent, his team members waiting to hear what their leader was going to do. As he lay on his bed he let his mind wander.

"So what are my options?" His inner voice asked.

"Port's class. Which is a minor hell. Or-" He thought at the voice.

"OR, we try Ironwood's class." The voice finished.

"But I'm not good at, well, most things! A tactics course for top students is like me trying to fight a full grown Ursa!" He retorted.

"You did. And won."

"Shut up. That was... different. It's just a saying!"

"If you don't try you will never know. It might come naturally to you or something will just click and you'll catch on quick. But you will never know if you quit now." The voice continued, "Ozpin picked you to be the leader of a team. And you train every night with Pyrrha. And Ironwood picked you. The people you look up to think you have potential, don't let them down."

"I guess I don't have a choice when you put it that way." Jaune thought.

The rest of team JNPR had been waiting for awhile before returning to their normal evening activities. Ren started his book while Nora listened to music. Pyrrha sat next to Jaune waiting for him to snap out of whatever he was thinking about. She wondered if she should slap him again to see if he was still conscious. It was then that she saw Jaune blink hard a few times as he stood up from his bunk.

"Thanks for not slapping me again." He said to Pyrrha, "And also for the training." He added in a smaller voice.

"Oh, you're welcome." She was a bit off guard, "Are you feeling any better?"

"Probably. I'm going to take the course. I've been given an opportunity to improve myself and if I ignore it then the rest of my training would be kinda worthless."

Pyrrha smiled at her leader. He was finally gaining confidence. The two simply went back to their bunks without another word and soon team JNPR's dorm room was dark as the team slept.

The first thing Jaune noticed about his new class was the size of the room. Unlike his other classes with had three columns of seating and many rows going back this class only had two, enough for about 20 people. There was still a desk in the front of the class but between the desk and the seats was a large table. From the doorway he couldn't make out what was on it but he could tell it looked like a map of sorts.

Next on Jaune's list of discoveries was that he was not the first one to class. There was a pair of students in the front row sitting next to each other. They both wore Beacon's uniform but looked older than his friends. He reasoned that they were probably third years. Ironwood was nowhere to be seen.

He took the seat behind the two students and calmed his nerves. He wasn't sure why he was nervous but his stomach had been doing flips all morning and he had to remind himself every few minutes that he was here for a reason.

"So are you going to introduce yourself or hide all class?" The boy in front of him asked after Jaune had been sitting there for a few moments silent.

"Jaune Arc. That's my name. I, uh, hello..." Jaune replied trying to hide his nerves.

"The name's Stahl Alloy. This fine lady here is Maryn. Ouch!" Stahl's introductions were interrupted when Maryn slugged him in the shoulder.

"Ignore Stahl here. He's just trying to sound cool. It's not often he gets the chance to try to impress a first year." She opened her mouth to continue when the three of them heard more people walk into the classroom. Two more students joined them. The pair came from Atlas, their uniforms gave it away.

Behind them Ironwood strode into the room. He took his place at the front of the class and waited for the pair to take a seat. For a few tense moments he simply watched the class. The students, Jaune in particular, started to feel uneasy. Ironwood's cold calculating stare seemed to fill the room.

"Good morning and welcome to battlefield tactics. As you are aware this class is an advanced course and all of you have been selected by me. Before we begin I will warn you about the consequences of failing. If you happen to fall behind or disappoint me I will drop you from my course and you will have to join another course." Jaune swallowed hard at the thought as Ironwood shifted tones. "This course has three portions. The first of which are my lectures, Next is testing your strength against one another using this battle station." He said gesturing towards the table between him and the class. "The last part will be the, for lack of a better word, homework. These scrolls contain combat scenarios that will test your skills. For now only the first one is unlocked. Return to class tomorrow with it complete. That ends today's class," As he left the room he added, "Good luck."

The two students from Atlas left a few minutes later. Jaune spent a good 10 minutes getting comfortable with the controls before even trying to complete the homework. His heart sank as he was defeated pretty quickly. He tried it again and made more progress but was still soundly defeated.

In from of him the two other remaining students were having problems if their own. It started with them comparing strategies which had evolved into a full argument about which strategy was better. Jaune decided it was best to leave and maybe get Pyrrha's help on this after classes were done. As he packed up his things he was stopped by two rather disgruntled students.

"Leaving so soon?" Stahl asked.

"I- well, er, I was just going to work on this with my teammates after classes..." Jaune explained.

"Is that so?" Myran pressed. "You aren't going to ask your upperclassmen for help first?"

"I-" Jaune was trapped and knew it. He couldn't point out how they hadn't won yet, but he also didn't want to join them. Instead he took the third option.

"I-"

He bolted. He made it about halfway down the hallway when he heard what sounded like a sniper round. Stahl flew past him and sunk an axe into the ground stopping his movement and blocking Jaune's path. Turning around he saw Myran stroll down the hall with a mace in hand. Unlike Cardin's the end of it was a cannon ball with spikes.

"Why do you have weapons? That's against school rules?" Jaune asked.

Stahl walked up to Jaune and put an arm around his shoulder. "As third years we can be sent on missions at a moments notice so we have to be ready with our weapons."

Jaune returned to his dorm much later than his teammates. All of his free time that day had been claimed by the two third years. Even lunch and dinner had been stolen away. Stahl simply handed him some snacks from his bag and they all worked on the task at hand.

The simulation felt almost like a game. It was a turn based system. Units were placed on a grid and could move and act in the same turn. Each one had different actions to perform. Infantry were low on defense but could move in all terrain. Vehicles had more fire power and could move much further but on less surfaces. Finally tanks, which could travel on less types of terrain and had less movement than vehicles but had the most firepower. There were a number of options that couldn't be selected, yet. For now it looked like the real test would be learning the system and finding out the real strengths and weaknesses of each of the units.

But now Jaune was free. Free to continue working on his homework. He frowned as he came to that realization and walked slowly into the room. Ren and Nora were on Ren's bed working on something together while Pyrrha sat at her desk reading a book. She looked up as Jaune walked in.

"Are you ready for training tonight?" She asked in her cheery voice. After giving Jaune a once over she continued. "Or do you need some time?"

"Let's just train. I need to get my mind off some things."

The two of them headed to the rooftops and warmed up. After a few rounds Jaune's mind was clear of problems and felt much better. He was even smiling. Pyrrha couldn't help but to smile as well, it was infectious.

The two of them took their stances and Jaune waited for Pyrrha to make her first move. As he waited he braced himself for what she might do. He imagined various attacks she might lead with and found the best stance that would allow for a counter or minimize the blow. Next he tried to think of what he could do if she dodged his attack. As he stood there he could imagine various paths of battle. Finally Pyrrha attacked and while Jaune couldn't keep pace with what he planned as he lay on the ground he realized something important.

"Pyrrha I'm going to call it a night." Jaune said as he started to grab his gear and throw it into his bag.

"But we haven't even started Aura training yet." She replied disheartened.

"I promise to make it up to you but I really need to take care of something." He said as he was halfway through the door.

Jaune practically sprinted back to his room. He grabbed the scroll Ironwood gave him and started the scenario. After three failed attempts he was making progress. Soon he could tell the AI was losing and trying to defend. He pressed his advantage making sure to stifle the AI's attempts to regain ground. Pyrrha walked into the room after showering and saw Jaune working away, still in his armor and dirty from hitting the ground during training.

"Whatever he's doing better be worth it." She thought to herself.

As if on cue Jaune jumped up and yelled out in joy as he started to dance around the room. Nora not missing a beat joined in. Jaune was ecstatic. Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle.

"Definitely worth it." She finished as she grabbed her book and began reading again.