AN: Before you read the chapter I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone reading this. After uploading the last chapter I passed 100 followers. To get such a positive response on not just my first RWBY fic but my first multi-chapter fic is simply incredible. On this subject I would like to give a special shout-out to NewPorty, who holds the title of my 100th follower.
With that out of the way, hope you enjoy the chapter and happy holidays!
Beta-reader/editor: Wyncrer the Sage
"And then, with the help of Weiss' magic, I dragged the Nevermore up the side of the cliff and decapitated it!" Ruby finished with a flourish.
A prolonged "Woah" was Jaune's only response as he looked up in awe at the short girl standing on the bench opposite him.
"Not to brag, but yeah. We were pretty awesome." Ruby added
"That really was quite an impressive feat," Pyrrha complimented. "I was a bit busy with my own fight at the time so I didn't actually see it as it happened."
"Oh yeah! You teamed up with Ren and Nora to kill that massive Death Stalker, didn't you?" Ruby asked excitedly.
"Yes, though it wasn't nearly as exciting as your fight, and from what I hear, it sounds like team RWBY recently took down a Death Stalker of their own. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Nora starts looking around for a mutant Nevermore to even the score."
"That actually does sound like something she would do," Jaune commented. The three laughed at the idea of their energetic guildmate taking on the aforementioned Grimm.
It was a full two weeks since the events of Dr Merlot's island and everything seemed to have settled down for the wizards. Jaune and Pyrrha had made their way to the dining hall after a training session. Ruby had entered soon after, having grabbed some cookies, she had joined them for some company while she ate.
"Speaking of terrifying beasts. I hear you've been doing a bit of training with Weiss," Ruby said.
"Oh yeah," Jaune perked up at the change of topic, eager to talk about the training. "She's being teaching me how to better use my magic. Apparently, she couldn't find any books on my specific type of magic, so instead she's teaching me a whole bunch of things that are universal to maker magics. Thanks to her I finally have more than two things I can make." Jaune smiled with pride as he finished talking.
"I didn't think to ask it before, but why exactly is Weiss teaching you how to use your magic?" Pyrrha asked.
It was Ruby who answered as Jaune just shrugged. "That's because Weiss made a deal with Yang."
Pyrrha frowned at the knowledge that she wasn't the only one that Yang had asked to train Jaune.
"Why would Yang go through the trouble of making deals with people to train me?" Jaune asked in confusion. Ruby and Pyrrha both froze at the realisation that Jaune had no idea of the arrangement Yang had with Ozpin.
"Well, uh, I guess," Ruby stammered out awkwardly, pressing the tips of her pointer fingers together and looking anywhere but at Jaune. "She just wants to help you succeed as a wizard. Yeah. That's it."
"If that's true then she has a weird way of showing it. She's been avoiding me ever since I got back from the island," Jaune muttered dejectedly.
An awkward silence descended on the trio as Ruby and Pyrrha looked at each other, both unsure how to cheer up the blonde, so when suddenly the doors to the dining hall burst open and the Guild Master strode in, it was a welcome distraction.
"Wizards of Beacon." When Ozpin spoke he barely seemed to raise his voice, yet his words carried across the hall and brought all conversation to a swift end. "A situation has arisen that requires our immediate attention. An unknown party has tampered with our security sensors in the Emerald Forest. Whatever they have done, is now causing the sensors to draw in Grimm and drive them into a blind rage."
The Master's words drew forth shocked gasps and worried murmuring from many of the assembled wizards. With a simple raise of his hand, Ozpin silenced the noise before it could grow into anything more.
"This is nothing we can't deal with. We have plans in place for mass Grimm attacks, and this will merely require an adjusted form of one of them." Ozpin's words drew a clear reaction as the crowd visibly calmed.
"Miss Goodwitch and Mr Port are already positioned on the walls of Vale closest to our guild to protect the city. Miss Rose and Miss Schnee? You will be heading to the North-Western sensor and I need Miss Nikos to handle the sensor to the South-West. These are the sensors closest to the city so time is of the essence."
With a determined nod to the Guild Master, the aforementioned girls ran out of the dining hall together, before splitting into their respective groups and heading in opposite directions. This left Jaune alone at his table and feeling overwhelmed by the urgency with which everyone else seemed to carry themselves.
"Miss Belladonna and Miss Scarlatina are to head to the North-Eastern sensor. Miss Adel, you are to take care of the Southern sensor. Mr Daichi and Mr Allister will deal with the South-Eastern one. Mr Lie and Miss Valkyrie will be going East. Miss Xiao Long is to take Mr Arc and go North. The rest of you are to form a perimeter around the edge of the Guild grounds. Now move."
The wizards charged out of the dining hall with confidence and determination as they moved to take their positions. Amidst the rush Jaune was standing stock still, hoping that he had somehow misheard the Guild Master. After all, there was no way he could be expected to be going out into an area filled with berserk Grimm, or so he hoped.
He was pulled from his thought as a hand roughly grabbed him by his hoodie and started dragging him towards the door. Jaune instantly recognised the mane of long blonde hair that belonged to the fire wizard pulling him along. He tried to voice a greeting but his words were lost amongst the rush of people.
It was only as the approached a cliff on Beacon's Northern end that Yang released her grip. Instead of any greeting or explanation for why she had been avoiding him, all Jaune got from Yang was a curt "Stand there," as Yang pointed at a metal plate with Beacon's symbol on it, embedded in the ground. Realising now was neither the time or place to try get an explanation out of her, Jaune went over and stood on the plate.
"Stomp on the plate," Yang commanded as she stood on a similar one. When the action yielded no result, Jaune looked to Yang expectantly. The blonde sighed. "Stomp harder."
Jaune couldn't help but notice how much differently she was talking than usual. He understood why, he really did and he didn't blame her. She had vouched for him to become a member of Beacon.
In doing so she had staked her reputation on his success or failure. And he had failed badly. He was next to useless in the fight against the White Fang and he barely had time to catch his breath before he was kidnapped. Yang had every right to be disappointed in him and not want anything to do with him. But right now, by putting him with Yang, Ozpin had given him a chance to redeem himself to Yang, and he was going to make the most of it.
It was with this in mind that Jaune stomped down as hard as he could on the metal plate and this time his efforts resulted in a dulled click. For a moment, everything was still. Then the world started spinning.
Yang fought the urge to facepalm as she watched Jaune go cartwheeling through the air. A quick stamp later and she was also hurtling through the air, though in a far more controlled style than Jaune.
She had been so lost in her own thoughts about how she should act around Jaune, that she completely forgot that he had no idea about the launch pads. Going by how he was spinning out of control she was also pretty sure he had no landing strategy.
A few well-timed blasts from her shot-gauntlets had her catching up to her fellow blonde. She wrapped one arm around Jaune's mid-section and held the other in front of her, and used it to release a jet of flame to slow their descent.
The landing was a bit rougher than usual for Yang, but given she was carrying someone else, she didn't do too badly. Of course, that didn't stop Jaune running to the nearest bush as soon as he could stand and unloading his lunch. Yang couldn't help but laugh at the scene.
"You alright over there vomit boy?" The words slipped out before Yang realised it, and as Jaune turned with a light-hearted glare, for a moment it seemed like everything was back to normal with them. The moment was broken as Jaune turned back to the bush and unleashed another salvo of vomit. When Jaune finished he straightened up, brushed himself off and turned to Yang.
"So where is this sensor thing?"
Yang opened her mouth to speak and raised her right hand to point, then paused. She stayed like that for a few seconds as she searched her mind for an answer. When she drew a blank she instead brought out her scroll and after a few quick taps and some scrolling, she pointed ahead and a bit to her left.
"That way," She declared confidently. "Probably."
"Well, lead the way," Jaune suggested with a small smile.
Jaune had expected the distance from their landing site and the sensor to be quite small. He was instead treated to half an hour of fast jogging before they had their first Grimm encounter. And what he saw terrified him.
He had read about the monsters and so had a general idea how they tended to act, and after what he had experienced at the hands of Merlot, coupled with his training, he thought he would be fine.
He felt sorely mistaken, as the beowolves which usually attacked as a coordinated pack, all leapt at the pair of wizards at the same time. They were so desperate to get at them, many collided with each other. It didn't end there. The Grimm that had struck others, quickly turned on their fellow packmates that had hit them and attacked, slashing at each other's faces and biting down on necks.
"Get back!" Yang yelled, placing herself between the monsters and him.
The urgency in her voice tipping Jaune off to the fact that she too found the situation alarming. Yang swept her arm in front of her and created a wall of flame between them and the Beowolves.
However, the Grimm that weren't occupied with fighting each other barrelled through the fire without even slowing. If normal Grimm were terrifying, then a berserk Beowolf, set on fire, and charging at you was what nightmares aspired to be.
Changing tactic, Yang let loose with a volley of red dust shells from her gauntlets. The salvo did its job and many of the monsters fell. However, the pack was far from done for and Yang was quickly realising that a ranged fight was soon not going to be an option. As a Beowolf got close enough to leap at her, Yang cocked her fist back and let it be surrounded in fire as she prepared to counter with crushing force.
"Light Make: Javelin."
Only for it to be a wasted effort as a javelin of solid white light pierced the Beowolf's head and brought it crashing down to the ground. The first javelin was followed by five others that hit other charging members of the pack with various degrees of success.
Yang looked behind her and saw Jaune, one look at his face and she could see how scared he was, but in his eyes, she could see the same determination she had seen in the burning bookstore, with his right hand extended in front of him as he called out the spell once more, and six javelins appeared over his head before shooting towards the pack.
Deciding that Jaune could take care of himself for now, Yang changed to a more aggressive strategy and charged the few members of the pack that remained.
It wasn't long before Yang finished off the last of the pack and turned to check on Jaune. The javelins had been a surprise, but it was good to know he was making good progress under Weiss' tutelage.
And as Yang saw him standing there with a sword and shield in hand, not the magical ones she knew, but regular steel ones that she didn't recognise, she was forced to acknowledge that Jaune's new magical skills were not the only change that had happened while she was avoiding him. Despite Ozpin assigning her responsibility for Jaune, it seemed he was flourishing in her absence. The revelation spoiled any good mood produced by the shot of adrenaline in the fight.
"We should hurry," her words were clipped, more suiting of Weiss' cold demeanour than her own. "The noise of the fight may have alerted other Grimm, and the last thing we want is to get bogged down fighting these guys." With that said, Yang got back to jogging towards the sensor, leaving Jaune to chase after her.
As Jaune ran after Yang, he let his thoughts wonder to the aftermath of the recent fight. Unfortunately, it seemed the display of his new spell was not enough to get back in her good graces. But that could be expected, as he had a lot to make up for. When Yang suddenly stopped in a clearing, he almost crashed into her back as he tried to quickly halt his momentum.
He could see most of the sensor past Yang. It was a high-tech looking cylindrical object rising out of the ground, with four 'legs' at its base that had thick black pipes that likely supplied power to the sensor.
What he didn't understand was why Yang had stopped so suddenly, as the sensor was still a good few meters away. He moved next to Yang to try spot what had been causing the sensor to go haywire.
What he saw had him stumbling backwards and understanding why Yang had stopped as she did. Stuck to the side of the sensor was a metallic, briefcase sized object, with a 'M' inside a stylised hexagon, coloured with its creator's namesake.
"Merlot," the words came out as barely more than a whisper. His nightmare had followed him home. He turned to Yang to see her eyes a furious red, her whole-body trembling with rage and her fists clenched. She strode quickly towards the device, her intentions clear.
"Wait!" Jaune called out.
Yang paused just in front of the sensor, with her fist covered in fire, it was obvious it was taking all of her self-control to hold back from destroying the device. Telling her to stop wasn't easy for Jaune either. It felt like every cell in his body wanted to have every trace of the device destroyed, as the memories of the pain he endured surfaced with a vengeance. But he had an idea. And he needed that device to make it work.
"Even when all of those are destroyed, we are still going to have a lot of Grimm that have already been attracted to the Guild in the area."
"So what are you suggesting?" The way the words came out made it clear Yang's rage was still strong. Instead of answering immediately, Jaune walked forward. His hands shook as he reached up and pulled the device free from the magnets holding it to the sensor.
"Ruby told me about the ruined tower you encountered during initiation, the one in the chasm, do you remember it?" Yang nodded in response. "If we get this connected to one of our scrolls, we can lure the Grimm there and take shelter in the central tower while the frenzied Grimm are left charging over the edge as they try to get us." A howl from the tree-line caught their attention and it was soon answered by an alarming number of other howls. With no time left to fully analyse the plan, Yang grabbed the device out of Jaune's hands and placed her scroll on it, and after a few taps she placed it under her arm.
"Well let's hope this plan of yours works. Now follow me and be quick about it." With that said, Yang took off in a run back towards Beacon.
Now carrying the device that was attracting the Grimm, they encountered a lot more of the monsters then they had on the way there. Instead of standing and fighting, the duo elected to instead blast through and keep running. Jaune helped out where he could with his shield and javelins, but it was Yang's fire that truly kept the Grimm off their heels.
"Hey Jaune?" Yang called from a few meters ahead of Jaune as they desperately kept up their sprint.
"Yeah?" Jaune shouted back, feeling more than a little out of breath.
"Do you happen to remember the part of Ruby's story, where the bridge to the tower was destroyed?"
"Don't worry, I got that covered." Hoping Jaune knew what he was talking about, Yang kept running.
Breaking out of the trees and onto the crumbling road that led to the tower, Yang and Jaune picked up the pace as they no longer had to watch out for tree roots or run around trees. Unfortunately, the clear ground meant the Grimm could go faster as well. As they got closer to the edge of the chasm Yang called out "Whatever you're planning on doing, you better do it quick!"
Jaune held a hand out towards the gap between the edge and the tower, recalling the words Weiss had drilled into him.
"Visualise it in your mind." He heard the words in his head as though Weiss were right next to him saying them. "When you have your image, reach out to your magic and make it real."
"Light Make: Bridge!" And true to his words, a bridge of white light appeared and spanned the gap. The duo ran on to the bridge without slowing, and a moment later Jaune felt a growing strain on his magic and instantly knew what it meant. The Grimm were on his bridge too.
Yang reached the end of the bridge first and turned to check on her companion, to find him still only about two thirds of the way across with the Grimm gaining on him. Yang threw some fire balls at the pursuing horde, but she couldn't do anything more powerful for fear of either hitting Jaune or knocking him off the edge.
"Jaune! Run!" She yelled desperately.
"What do you think I'm doing?!" He shrieked back.
As he got to the edge of the bridge, he dived forward, throwing himself onto the tower as the bridge disappeared, dodging a Beowolf's claw by a hairs-breadth.
The two exhausted wizards sat back against a couple of the still standing pillars on the tower and watched the Grimm on the chasm edge.
In the grips of the frenzy, some Grimm tried to leap from the edge to the tower with no success. Those that tried to stop had the press of bodies behind them push them off the edge. Watching the carnage unfold, Jaune didn't know whether he should feel proud that his plan had worked, or horrified by the madness of the Grimm.
"Next time you have an idea like this, remind me to say no," Yang said as she caught her breath.
"What? I thought that worked well?" Jaune argued.
"You clearly didn't see how close that Beowolf got to you," Yang countered.
Now out of danger, Jaune allowed himself to laugh. "I guess you're right."
A silence fell on the two and for the first time that day, the silence was neither heavy nor awkward. Jaune felt that now was a good a time as any to clear the air.
"Listen Yang. I, uh, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." Whatever reaction Jaune had been expecting from his words, a mix of shock and confusion was not it.
"What the heck are you apologising for?"
Now it was Jaune's turn to be confused. "Because I messed up?" he tried to explain. "You put your reputation on the line when you recommended me. And I repaid your faith in me by screwing up at Mount Glenn and then getting kidnapped."
"Do you honestly think I care about that?" Yang almost shouted in response.
"Wait, but, if you weren't avoiding me because you thought I was some sort of embarrassment, then why were you avoiding me?"
Yang let out a long sigh. She didn't want to talk about this. To face up to her mistakes. But there was hardly any avoiding it now. "I was avoiding you because I felt guilty."
"Why would you feel guilty? It's not like you did anything wrong."
"Yes, I did!" Yang yelled back. "Remember when I told you that I gave Junior information in exchange for the location of the thugs?" Jaune nodded. "The information I sold him was about you. He knew about you, because of me. So it's my fault that you got kidnapped. It's my fault you were delivered into the hands of that mad-man. And then, even after everything he had done, when I had him right in front of me, I just let him go."
Yang looked down at her lap and her voice grew quiet. "When you say, 'I didn't do anything wrong', you couldn't be further from the truth. I did just about everything I possibly could wrong. And everything that happened to you is a result of that, even all of this is because of me."
As she stopped talking, she could feel a lump in her throat. She really had screwed up this time, and now it wasn't just Jaune, she had gotten the whole Guild involved in her mistakes.
She could hear Jaune stand up and start moving. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to be around her, she honestly wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to see her again. When a hand gently touched her shoulder, she looked up with a start, to see Jaune kneeling next to her with a gentle smile on his face.
"Why?" was all she could manage.
"Because you came to rescue me." Yang made to speak but he cut her off. "Yes, you made a mistake, but so does everyone else, myself more than most, and you had no idea of knowing what Junior was going to do with that information. What's really important is that, as soon as you found out what was happening, you came to save me."
"So did the others," Yang tried to argue, looking away, unable to understand how he could be so kind after what she had done.
"Not really," Jaune countered. "Ruby and Pyrrha I could see coming along to help bail me out. But the others? Weiss barely knew me, definitely not enough to make her want to risk her life for me. Nora and Ren didn't even who I was, and Blake? I legitimately still have no idea who she is and I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual. They came because they cared about you, not me."
Jaune's grip on her shoulder became more firm before he continued. "Ruby already told me about what happened with Merlot, and you know what? I'm glad you didn't deal with him then and there. Not just because I don't want a friend of mine become a murderer for my sake as her sister watches. But because when it comes time to take Merlot down once and for all, I want to be there."
To Jaune's surprise, Yang let out a small laugh and turned back to face him, wiping away a few tears that had threatened to spill out . Gone was sullen expression of before, instead her eyes now shone with the same light he was used to seeing in them, and she had a small smile on her face.
"Are you kidding?" she asked. "After the stunt Merlot pulled today, if you want a shot at him, you're going to have to beat me to him." Jaune smiled back at her.
"Challenge accepted."
It was sometime later that Jaune and Yang stepped into the Guild Master's office. The other wizards that had been sent out to the sensors were already there. A table had been set-up in the middle of the room, where Oobleck analysed various pieces of the devices that the other wizards brought back.
Yang dropped their device on the table. Free of any medium through which to transmit, the device was harmless.
"Looks like other than Pyrrha, we were the only ones that didn't destroy our device," Yang commented, seeing the state of disrepair the other devices were in.
"Not exactly-" Pyrrha started to say before being cut off by Oobleck.
"Actually Miss Nikos destroyed all the internal electronics with a magnetic pulse. It seems you were the only ones to not destroy their device." Oobleck adjusted his glasses slightly as he looked from his work to the new entrees. "Which to be honest is the exact opposite of what I was expecting from you."
"Gees, have a little faith Bart. I'm not that bad." The flat looks she received from the rest of the room's occupants said otherwise.
"Humour aside, having an intact device will greatly speed up the process of where these were activated from," Oobleck announced as he picked up the reddish box and plugged a cord attached to his scroll into it.
"Isn't it obvious?" Yang asked. "Merlot must have activated these things from his island."
"Yes, the only problem with that is, from looking at the broken devices, I have been able to discover that the receivers on these are not capable of picking up a signal from that far away." As he finished talking a light ping sounded from his scroll. "We have a location!"
Everyone in the room, except the Guild Master who calmly sat at his desk, rushed to look at Oobleck's scroll.
"Wait, isn't that-" Ruby started.
"The Merlot Industries building located in Mount Glenn," Oobleck finished. It was at this point that Ozpin rose from his seat and walked over to the assembled wizards.
"As much as I would like to come down on this man with the full force of the Guild, that simply isn't an option right now. Despite Mr Arc and Miss Xiao Long's interesting tactic, there are still many Grimm in the area and we will need to keep the majority of our force here to defend both the Guild and Vale.
"However, I can send those of you gathered here. An attack on a single Guild member is one thing, but this man has attacked our home. When you find him, I trust you will teach him what it means to make an enemy of Beacon."
All the wizards facing the Guild Master nodded with grim determination. It was time to pay the man back for everything he had done to them.
AN: So next chapter we will get to see team CFVY in action with the others. I already know what I'm going to do for Velvet and Coco in terms of magic, but if you have any ideas for what Yatsuhashi and Fox could use, please let me know via either review or PM.