Road to the End, Volume 3

By: athrunzala

06: Caffeine and Medicine

"What were you all thinking? You three could have been seriously injured if we hadn't arrived to save you!"

"Peter! This isn't the time for that! This young man is seriously hurt. These arrows... I've seen them before."

Port looked over at his companion.

"You say you've seen them before. Where have you possibly seen an arrow made from Obsidian, Barty?"

Oobleck glared at his cohort, adjusted his glasses, and spoke once more, his expression serious.

"At the Vytal Festival Tournament. Almost three years ago."

He then returned his attention to Jaune and Nora.

"As for you two..." he began lecturing at a high rate of speed, his old classroom manner having not left him since The Fall. He continued his tirade until Port put a hand on his shoulder, at which point he looked at the two uninjured fighters.

Their heads were hung, their shoulders drooped. Their whole body was conveying that they knew how they had made a mistake. And Jaune's hands were fighting the urge to clench into fists.

"Mr. Arc," the caffeine junkie said, his tone calmer, "I do hope that you weren't seriously planning to fight her like this."

"I... I just want to avenge her," the blonde said, his hands finally forming fists.

"I understand your wanting to avenge Ms. Nikos. I really do. But there is no reason to run off when you're ill prepared like that. Now, come on. We have to airlift your team mate to the Schnee estate. They will have the best doctors in Atlas."

He then placed a hand on the young Huntsman's shoulder.

"We can train more there. I'm sure Team RWBY would be more than willing to help you."

The airship ride back was silent, with nobody speaking a word. Here they were, returning from what could be considered their first, unsupervised mission, and they had screwed it up. Ren was hurt, Jaune was demoralized, and Nora was trying to rationalize everything. Of the three, she was actually having the easiest time of things. She knew the martial artist since they were children, so she was more than aware of his ability to heal quickly. If she were a betting woman, she would have wagered that he was almost already back to perfect health, thanks, in no small part to his quickly regenerating Aura. Still, it worried her that the arrow had been able to pierce it in the first place.

She turned her attention to Jaune as soon as they landed.

"Jaune?"

"Nora, you should go be with Ren."

"I... I can't do that right now. You need me to be here more."

"No."

"Jaune...?"

"I said 'no', Nora! I'm a jinx to those around me! Pyrrha loved me, and she died. You and Ren tried to back me up and he got hurt! I shouldn't even be your leader!"

His ranting was stopped when the hyper-active pancake lover wrapped her arms around him and held him in place.

"N... Nora?"

"You. Are. Not. A. Jinx."

"Uh-wha?"

"You heard me. You're no jinx. It's just coincidence. Ren was tired, Pyrrha was outclassed. There is nothing going on except for a string of unrelated events."

"Nora... That's... awfully academic..."

"And she's not wrong, Mr. Arc."

He turned his head to see Oobleck standing next to him.

"How so?"

"The events at the Battle of Beacon were orchestrated by an outside force, it would seem. Ms. Nikos death, while tragic, did enable a great many more to escape. Lie Ren's injury was due to his being tired from not sleeping much. The arrow's path was controlled, somehow. Neither instance was your fault, so you shouldn't worry about it. You did exactly what a leader should have done. You did exactly what I would have done in your situation. You managed to keep most of your team safe, and even, albeit unknowingly, engineered the method for their survival."

"So," the blonde began, "now what?"

"Now, I have to go apologize to Ms. Xiao Long. We discovered something about the boy on our way back."