Well well well, back again with a hopefully improved re-write. Honestly a glaring oversight on my part but I haven't been feeling myself lately with some minor personal business, but that doesn't excuse it. So be it, no going back now. That's embarrassing but hopefully this re-write captures a much different feeling.
I'm throwing in something that just occured to me not too long ago and It has plans in the future. Also it helps me admit to Jaune not being just a senseless killer, now there's something else.
0-0-0-0
The bullhead doors opened with a metallic whine revealing the bright auburn scenery of Forever Falls forest. The name had come from the strange fauna that had grown in the area; trees and other plant life were perpetually stuck in a bright, autumn color giving the forest its name. Although one of the biggest things that made the area well known was that the trees were known to produce a delectable sap favored by Grimm and humans.
Grimm known to consume the sap were found to become more docile and not actively hunt humans if a regular supply of sap was given to them, making the area safer than other forests around Vale. The first year teams exited the metallic death trap (as Jaune liked to call it) and followed Goodwitch, and to a lesser extent Peach, who was still firmly stuck to the Professor, down a wide path leading into the forest.
"Whoa Rinny this place is so cool!" Nora squealed as she bounced around her teammates much to their chagrin. Rin just nodded along, occasionally pulling her childhood friend back from wandering off as the teams got near to their destination.
Jaune could feel the burning glares of Team CRDL and made a mental note to watch for anything fishy. A smarter person would take his threat and not have anything to do with him- but he had the sneaking suspicion Cressida's pride was more importantly than her survival.
So be it then.
Professor Goodwitch stopped in the middle of a wide clearing, the gathered students formed a half circle around her as she explained the assignment.
"Students, your task for this afternoon is to collect a full jar of sap from the trees in this forest in 3 hours." Some of the students groaned but she continued anyway. "Failure to collect said sap, or the loss of one's sap will earn a failing grade. No if's, and's, or but's"
Peach and Goodwitch set about giving the needed tools to everyone in the clearing before sending the separate teams off. "Oh, and please keep your weapons nearby just in case. If you feel that you are about to be overwhelmed by Grimm, come back to Peach and I!"
Team ARSN stalked off into the woods with RYBN following behind them in their usual raucous manner. Jaune rubbed two fingers along the bridge of his nose in a futile attempt to stave off the oncoming headache that was Nora and Team RYBN goofing off around them.
"Quite the troublesome bunch, aren't they?" Rin asked from his side in what might have seemed like a pleased tone if he was more perceptive.
"Yeah, troublesome is one word for it." he sighed as he saw Nora bit into the bark of a tree. By Monty was the girl given a lobotomy as a child?
Noticing the expression on his face Rin chuckled sweetly. "Personally, I don't feel that there's anything wrong with her. As long as I've known her, she's been one to do the first thing that comes to her mind."
"Doesn't sound fun."
"You're telling me, but she and her family were all I had left before coming here so I couldn't complain." Rin smiled fondly at some distant memory. "I wouldn't have settled for anyone less."
Someone who was childish, full of energy, and always sickeningly cheery who also did whatever came to mind?
Yeah, that sounded pretty interesting.
The two returned to tapping the trees in their corner of relative sanity as Nora chugged Weiss's sap, Yang cheering her on as the heiress seemed intent on impaling the both of them on Myrtenaster.
What the teams didn't hear was the 4 women sneaking through the brush towards them, one of them holding a box full of angered Rapier Wasps…
0-0-0-0
Cressida Winchester growled, a guttural sound that seemed more akin to what an Ursa would make rather than a girl with a wounded pride. Arc, her quarry, could be seen narrowly between the trees and red plants that separated them.
"Pretentious bastard, thinking he's hot shit just 'cause he got special treatment." She had worked all her life for her mother to notice her accomplishments! Her achievements! And the day she gets accepted into Beacon, all her mother can do is go on and on about this son of bitch with aura.
Well no more! The Winchesters had their pride and she wouldn't be the only goddamn Winchester in her family line to walk away in shame when some upstart tarnished her family's name! Her hands squeezed tightly around nothing, creating a low, elastic sound from her gloves.
"Cressida, do you really think this is a good idea?" one of her teammates, Sky, asked hesitantly from next to her. She whipped her head to her teammate with an expression of pure, unadulterated anger.
"What was that?" she snarled, Sky seemed to shrink back but stammered out a reply anyway.
"I-It's just that this guy didn't seem like he was joking when he threw you into the wall yesterday." Cressida snorted like an angry bull which caused Sky to flinch backwards and avoid her gaze.
"Yeah? Well the way I see it is that you're too much of a goddamn coward to give this bastard what he deserves." she returned to glare at her target who was currently trying to get a jar of sap out the hands of that spaz, Nora. "He's all talk. No matter what he says, my mom's on the council, so if he even lays a finger on me after this then he's gonna get the boot."
"Well, didn't the council send him here?" piped up Russet from the other side of her.
Cressida growled at the mohawked girl who also flinched backwards. "What was that?"
"W-Well, y'know, the council sent him here right? We all saw the news story. So would they really expel him then?" despite it almost giving away her position, Cressida rose above her green-haired teammate in a show of pure intimidation.
"So what you're telling me is my mom would favor this piece of shit over her own daughter?"
"W-what? N-No, but what if we get in trouble?"
"We won't!" Cressida snorted like an angry bull once more as she laid back down. "We won't because, if we do this right, he will have no evidence against us so shut up and get the wasps ready!"
Russet nodded solemnly as she lifted the box and the team began to close in on the unsuspecting hunters.
"I told you that'd you'd regret this Arc, and I meant it..."
0-0-0-0
Jaune felt his mysterious stalkers close in on his team and Team RYBN; he had, long ago, learned the art of aura sensory from Qrow who labeled it as the most important survival technique a huntress can have in the field. While Grimm have no aura, Qrow always told him that the most dangerous of obstacles are ones who can think, strategize, and set intelligent traps.
In other words, humans.
4 people, Team CRDL's glares, and Cressida's threats? Yeah, it didn't take long for him to realize just who his hidden friends were, and he could guess who they were truly after. Not wanting to drag his team and RYBN into this mess, he made an excuse that he was going to look for more sap and left his partner and fellow hunters to deal with Nora.
He had successfully found himself alone on a small knoll; this quickly changed as none other than Cressida and her backup dancers slinked out of the woodwork, the leader with a big smirk on her face.
"So, you were dumb enough to run off from your little friends?" she laughed smugly while her pack of thugs tittered behind her, he cracked a smirk of his own at the slightly nervous lilt to it.
"Wow, you really are slow on the uptake aren't you?" Jaune laughed which caused the ginger bully to scowl in what would be intimidating way if she was, well, intimidating.
"Enough of this Arc, you talk big but I don't think you got the stones to back it up." she snorted as she and her teammates closed in on him, one of them, the mohawk girl, holding a suspicious box with a large "W" on it.
Cressida traced his gaze to the box before smirking once more. "Oh that? Yeah, those are Rapier Wasps. In other words, you're screwed pal."
Something was with them now, a force, a presence almost. Unknown even to Jaune and his enhanced perception but something lied just beyond their grasp of the world around them, and it watched merrily as its trap was sprung. Everything was going according to plan, and it was destiny that the boy himself was at that precipice between madness and sanity before it even found him. Oh yes, a marvelous trap indeed...
"What would a thug like you want with a box full of bugs?" he guessed at the answer but she humored him anyways.
"Well, before you walked off on your own like a cheap horror flick, we planned to release them on you and the rest of those idiots back there."
Jaune's head twisted suddenly before he returned with a glare at them. "I see, well I'm not one to make idle threats."
Russet moved to open the box but Jaune's aura flared in a magnificent pulse of white; raw, unbridled anger bubbled forth from the young man and took shape in the form of an arcing current of blue lightning. It hit the box, cooking it to a crisp, and inadvertently sending millions of volts into the young girl who fell over in a spastic heap.
The blue-haired one cried out her name but, in the moment of distraction, Jaune crossed the gap, pumping his plentiful aura into his legs and gripping Sky's head in an iron lock before sending it straight into the nearest tree. The tree's bark splintered on impact, a thin blue sheen rising off the body now embedded in the trunk. He let go of Sky, who had ceased moving, to watch her slide down limply, a small trail of red coming down the bark. Jaune was curious as to whether or not it was sap, but he had more pressing concerns.
The sandy blonde swiveled her head between her leader and the rather murderous huntsman in front of her and made the best choice an aspiring huntress, who had spent years in combat school, could make.
She fled. leaving Jaune alone with one Cressida Winchester who, even now, tried to put up some flimsy shield of false bravado. She bared her teeth at him, mace gripped a little too tightly in her hand.
Jaune laughed but it was obvious there was no humor in it, lumbering towards the huntress, his face pulled tight and a manic twitch in his eye. "Wow, so you really didn't think I was being serious were you?"
With each step Cressida backed away, returning slowly to the woods she had appeared from. But that didn't faze Jaune in the least. In fact, just about the only thing in his head was an emotion he couldn't quite pin down. Not really angry, no it felt different, it was somewhat colder, more distant than the red-hot, adrenaline-filled feeling of pure anger going through you. It was something different, he knew that, somewhat familiar, like the time with the Atlas councilwoman over a year ago, but amplified. He was, he was...
Murderous.
Yes, that was the word that described his mood right about now, and Cressida knew it...
0-0-0-0
Rin had survived a lot with being friends with Nora Valkyrie over the years. There was no way you couldn't be around her for more than 30 minutes without somehow getting a story -and, sometimes, a scar- to show for it. However, when the blonde member of Team CRDL came barreling out of the woods like hell itself was on her tail, he guessed this would be one for the "Lie Rin Story Hall of Fame".
Rin caught the blubbering woman as she passed by her and dragged her back within eyesight. She required a gentle -enough- slap to the face to get her talking once again, but when she did Rin found herself none the happier by it.
"I-It's Jaune! And Cressida! T-They're- They were- Look! Jaune is about to murder Cressida you gotta stop him." Rin swallowed hard at this unpleasant news, when she wished to find ways to get closer to her leader and partner so she could be there for him, "preventing him from burying a fellow huntress in a shallow ditch" was hardly one of them.
Rin looked back towards his team and RYBN as they finished collecting sap, Weiss filling up Jaune's jar while he was away and the rest looking at her with inquiring expressions. Rin set her jaw in a thin line before leaning in to whisper something to the still captive girl.
"I'll handle this, do not tell them what is going on, understand?"
She nodded wordlessly and Rin turned back to her friends. "I just need to talk to Jaune real quick, I'll be back in a moment please wait here. Even you Nora." Rin explained as the former began to march towards her. When she heard the last bit, she pouted, but returned to trying to steal Yang's sap.
Rin burst off towards where Jaune had left, aura fueling her speed, as she attempted to save her comrade from a particularly nasty situation she thought he would come to regret.
0-0-0-0
Cressida hit the dirt with a shriek of pain, agony coursed through her legs as she attempted to reach her mace only for it to be kicked away like a child's toy moments later.
"Hurts doesn't it? I hear getting shot in the legs will do that to you." came the mocking voice of Arc, she knew this was a bad idea, even if she wouldn't admit it to her teammates, but this bastard needed to pay for that arrogant attitude of his.
Jaune enjoyed watching the brutal bully squirm around, trying to find some way to save her ass. "Well don't act like you didn't see this coming, like I said, I do not make idle threats Winchester."
"You think you're gonna get away with this Arc? When my mother finds- No! When Ozpin and Goodwitch find out? You're gonna be a dead man." her threat didn't carry the desired reaction as her tormentor laughed heartily.
"Find out what?" he chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "This is Grimm territory kid, who's gonna be left to say you weren't torn apart by Grimm? That blonde chick? She and I -I think- will come to an understanding on what happened."
Speak of the devil and she shall appear, a low growl emanated from the thicket in front of them. Sure enough, an Ursa Major crawled out from the woodlands, eyes glowing like hot coals as it descended upon the four students. Drawn by the concentrated negativity of himself, Jaune knew others would soon join the fray.
Jaune chuckled to himself and shook his head at this unprecedented run of good luck. "Well, well, well, looks like I don't even need to get my hands dirty do I?"
Jaune picked up the near-unconscious Cressida and tossed her closer to the large monster. She had this coming; a racist bully who didn't have the smarts or skills to be in this school accepted because of her influence. He'd call this karma.
The beast drew near and it seemed Cressida had resigned herself for she made no movement. Suddenly, from the area behind Jaune, gunfire erupted as his partner came charging into the fray, decimating the Ursa with a flurry of bullets. The creature roared sadly as it fell backwards and began to dissipate, Rin watched Jaune carefully as she checked to make sure Cressida was still alive. Sure enough she, and her two unconscious teammates, were alive and would probably make it back to Beacon with time to spare.
Damn, well surely there would be a next time for the trap to work. The presence disappeared from the knoll, still unknown to any of its occupants as it thought its next move. Perhaps this wasn't the end for this avenue, after all, there were more plans for the boy and there was more than one way to dig into his head. In fact, perhaps this could be turned into something more. All he'd take is one little push...
"Want to explain to me what is going on?" Rin demanded to her uninterested partner.
"Looks like some cosmic payback to me."
"This isn't a joke Jaune, you damn near killed these people."
"And nothing of value was lost. Furthermore, let's get this straight: We found the team cornered by Ursa and beowulves so we decided to offer some aid, they were badly beat up but we arrived just in time." Rin chewed her lip, but nodded slightly and her leader turned to leave.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why? What did they do to you?"
"Besides the thinly-veiled threats against Headmistress Ozpin and the faculty? These idiots showed up, cornered me, planning to set a box of raspier wasps on me. And not just on me either, they would have released them on everyone back in the clearing." Jaune snarled catching Rin by surprise, Rin's mind whirled as she tried to make sense of this, inside her an internal battle between logic and emotion warred. However, regardless of her feelings, it didn't excuse this.
"But why? Why would you feel the need to this-"
"To protect you!" the shout had cut her off and she returned to silence, Jaune seemed to gather himself before continuing. "It's a leader's job to protect their teammates right? More than that she was about to drag 7 innocent people into this vendetta because she didn't like them. That's what criminals do, and if this situation were different I'd be in the right, wouldn't I?
Rin considered it and found the logic sound, but still, this looked really, really bad. "So excuse me if I didn't take another team attempting to assault my partner, my team, and another team very lightly. More than that, I warned her to leave me alone, told her exactly what I would do, and she didn't believe me to be serious. She knew what she was getting into."
Rin gathered her thoughts before replying softly. "Ok, let's just call the bullhead and call it good for now. I-I'm not sure what to make of this right now, Jaune, I just can't wrap my head around it at the moment." she paused "We'll have time when we get back to sort this out."
Jaune smoothed his hair and sighed deeply. "Alright- Alright, I know you guys just want help, but- but I'm not used to all this. Look, you just need to know that trust doesn't come easily to me, as you could probably guess, and it's weird being with people like you all."
"Trust me, I get it. But you're our leader, and that means we need to be there just as much for you as you are for us. Ok?" Jaune nodded and he called Professor Goodwitch for a medical evac for the downed huntresses. Minutes later Goodwitch and the two teams along with the blonde Team CRDL member arrived to be hauled off and cut the field trip early, luckily Weiss collected his sap giving him a passing grade for now.
Rin walked back to the clearing with her partner still mulling over everything. Think about it a traitorous voiced sounded within her subconscious, what if that had been Nora? What if she had gotten hurt while you were supposed to be taking care of her?
True to the voice's words, what Jaune had done would have been but a pittance to her wrath in comparison. Still, protecting them was one thing, but if he got expelled over this? Then doesn't that defeat the purpose because he'd no longer be there to protect them?
She shook her head of those thoughts. No, no, Headmistress Ozpin is not an irrational woman so I'm sure she'd understand a hunter's desire to protect their teammates not to mention their friends. And I suppose it helps that the council likes him enough.
But would that be enough to save him? Cressida's mother was on the council, so could she have him expelled? No, the council needs him too much to expel him otherwise another kingdom will just swoop in and take him.
She benched these thoughts for the long bullhead ride back as she and Jaune walked into said airship, her team as well as Team RYBN behind her.
The two teams shot them confused looks, but Jaune quelled them with a gesture that said he'd talk later as the rest of the freshman boarded the bullhead and returned back to Beacon. As Professor Goodwitch interrogated Cressida on what happened, she caught sight of Jaune who was throwing her a glare that conveyed a pretty clear ultimatum. Jaune's scroll pinged as he got a message from what looked to be Headmistress Ozpin herself.
Please come see me after you debrief with your team, this is not a suggestion. -Ozpin
Oh great, what did I get myself into this time?
0-0-0-0
Explaining to his team what happened when he returned was... not fun to say the least.
Nora was miffed at the fact that he didn't invite her along to beat up Team CRDL, Rin had come to terms with what happened and was willing to forgive him, even if she had serious doubts about the lengths to which he went, but Weiss...
She was mad, more so than her usual screechy type of angry. She ranted and raved about how irresponsible he was in taking on a team of four huntresses alone, yet she seemed more hung up on how reckless he had been rather than, maybe, putting two huntresses in a coma. It didn't help when he explained his upcoming meeting with the headmistress which only served to aggravate Weiss further.
"Listen up Arc, don't go and get yourself expelled just because of what you did in your usual, reckless manner. I'll be damned if I have to tell my sister that the man chosen to lead over me ended getting expelled, got that?!"
Jaune sighed as he opened the doors to what he and Qrow liked to call "The Emerald Tower" for obvious reasons. Sitting at her usual desk, sipping her usual coffee, was none other than the headmistress herself who gestured for him to sit.
"Now, Mister Arc, I have just been informed by Miss Goodwitch that Team CRDL suffered extensive injuries on what should have been an easy assignment." she sipped her coffee casually.
"Yes, what of it?"
"Well, I just wanted to ask what you saw."
"Well, Rin and I heard some screaming from the knoll up ahead so we went looking for what was making the sounds. When we arrived we found what was left of their team being beaten down by an assembling of Grimm attracted to the sap in the trees around them." Ozpin hummed but nodded her head before standing up.
"Team CRDL will make a full recovery in a few weeks time, aura is quite the beneficial thing you see. If these were civilians, well, we'd put you on trial for murder but considering that their respective auras softened the blow the worst they'll get is a couple lasting scars." she seemed to contemplate something before turning back to him.
"Mister Arc, this is the same story, we told to the Vale council who accepted it without hesitation. It was then forgotten as footage of your training, initiation, and other files were presented to them in order to keep you here." she breathed deeply before looking at her pupil. "Mister Arc, I understand, I saw the footage of what truly happened not to mention the audio-"
Jaune felt a cold wind on his back at the thought of this woman knowing what he had done and also the fact she had cameras, and apparently mics, everywhere.
"And, frankly, it's a more than a little disconcerting. To think, the one male with aura and he turns out to be an attempted murderer." she said, seemingly unamused with the whole situation.
Jaune felt the need to argue with the woman but unfortunately found himself lacking in argument. I fact, if he wanted to entertain the idea, he couldn't really find a reason why he wasn't in jail.
"You're lucky the council was relatively uninterested in the rather negative happenings when it comes to you Mister Arc. The Vale council, in all honesty, views you as a proud investment and, more or less, prize that no other kingdom has claim to." she adjusted her glasses and set down her mug. "Even if we did tell them the truth they'd be more than happy to sweep it under the rug if need be, but that doesn't excuse you."
Jaune attempted to make some kind of argument but was cut off. "I honestly thought your time here had gone better, but it seems we were horribly wrong in where we educated you. I want you to stop and think what your fellows peers, not to mention your teachers and Qrow, would say if they viewed the footage here. Luckily I have kept this out of their eyes and will continue to do so for the greater good, Mister Arc."
"Headmistress I just-"
"Save it Mister Arc, I can feel your reasoning already and let me tell you, although well-placed, is completely wrong. Hunters have special abilities that make them better than an average civilian, as such we take very careful precautions so that huntresses do not abuse their power for their own gain. And, Mister Arc, if you were an ordinary huntress you would be sealed off from your aura and sent to prison. Luckily, you are in a special position that saves you from such a fate."
Was she right? Did he truly fly off the rails that bad? Of course he did, he nearly murdered 2 people in cold blood and admitted to their face he was going to set the whole thing up as an accident! Ironically his words about Cressida's trap being "what criminals do" never seemed louder than right now; because that's what he was right now: a criminal.
Ozpin sighed as she rubbed her brow, most likely desperately trying to figure something out to help the poor man. "Jaune, this behavior reflects something incredibly disturbing we didn't know was inside you. Sociopathic tendencies should never be overlooked, and it horrifies me that we would miss what apparently was just beneath the surface from the start."
"Headmistress, I-I don't-"
She held up a hand to stop him, her eyes reflecting some deep inner thoughts. "In time, Mister Arc, you will be made for bigger things than yourself and when that comes it is my responsibility as a teacher to make sure you are mentally and physically prepared for it. The only thing I can do now, barring a straight jacket, is offer you some much needed council."
"What are thinking of?" he asked hoarsely, his throat had become inexplicably dry while he wasn't paying attention to it.
"I'm thinking you require some time with your mentors, Jaune, perhaps some one-on-one talking with your closest teachers will help straighten this out. After classes, inbetween training with your team and such, I will set up some counseling sessions with a few of your teachers under the guise of some recent stresses."
"May I ask which ones?"
Ozpin paused as she seemingly thought about her options. "Goodwitch mainly, I suppose, she is, believe it or not, much more versed in this area than myself or my fellow employees. I'll have some of the others come talk to you at different intervals for, what I hope is, a change in perspective. Now head back to your dorm room for now."
"Thanks, Headmistress." somewhere he felt a simmering anger but choked it down, trying not to admit to himself what he may or may not actually be. He had reached the elevator door when he was stopped by the headmistress's voice.
"I'm worried about you Jaune, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't care."
...
"Going down."
...
Jaune left the tower feeling none the better, but at least content with how things worked out. Heh, I guess the council really does want me don't they? Maybe, if this day wasn't so shitty, he'd be more angry at the blatant oversight of this incident because he was special, but he couldn't be bothered to care right now. He was all out of anger, and just about any other emotion right now.
He had just made it into to the dormitories when his scroll began ringing, checking the caller ID he saw it was Qrow which actually surprised him. Whenever she called him it was usually because she was either drunk or hungover and in need of help at 2 AM.
He picked it up and brought it close to his ear and instantly felt Qrow's drunken, slurred mumblings on the other side. "Qrow? You all right? It isn't like you to call me this early."
"Kidsh, Oshpin told me that ya killed two huntreshes." Qrow drunkenly slurred on the other side of the line, it was lucky that Jaune had long since gotten used to Qrow's secondary accent.
"I didn't kill anyone Qrow, don't worry."
"Thatsh good, I can't have my shtar pupil exshpelled sho soon."
"I'm fine Qrow, don't worry."
"Look kidsh, I know it may seem tempting, at timesh, to want to kill some prick 'cause they look at ya the wrong way." there was the sound of drinking coming from Qrow's end. "But shtill, I raished you betta than that, sho I wan't you to take a deep breath and just count to 10 next time."
"Qrow, you're rambling."
"Don't backshash ya moms, I am your moms."
"You're not my mother Qrow, and please don't make me entertain the idea of you getting busy with another person."
For a few moments Jaune could swore he heard the sound of drunken sobbing and moaning something about rebellious teenagers on the other side before Qrow cleared her throat and laughed. "Yeah? Well you might just have to ente- enter- expect me to get busy 'cause tonight momma's on the prowl."
"And that's where I hang up, good talk."
"Goodnight kid, make shure you say hi to Rubes and Yang for me!"
Jaune flicked his scroll shut and walked up the stairs to his dorm room, no sooner than he had entered he was tackled by Nora in a massive heap.
"Oh my god fearless leader! Did she expel you!? Are you expelled?! Oh, it was too soon!" she moaned as she continually crushed her "best buddy and fearless leader" before Rin pried her off with strength he didn't know she had.
"So what of it Arc, are you in any lasting trouble?" Weiss inquired as she brushed her hair, a ritual she went through at least three times a day.
Jaune chewed on that question for awhile before responding rather quietly. "I'm good, I think. Look, I may not be around after classes for awhile so just don't ask about it. I'll handle it on my own."
A pointed cough from his partner redirected his train of thoughts. "But, I'll call if I need some help." he said, now beginning to feel the distant clutch of sleep tug at the back of his mind.
Deciding today had drawn on too long Jaune excused himself to the shower and came out feeling less refreshed and more dead tired. The hot water relaxed his muscles, accenting the mental and physical exhaustion of using his semblance, getting told of by Ozpin, and talking to Qrow.
"Well, I think this has been enough for me today." he yawned loudly and clambered into bed before moving to switch off his light.
As he tried to get situated into bed Jaune's scroll pinged once more as he rolled over to look at it.
Me and the girls were gonna head out into town this weekend, and of course that means you're coming along. -Yang
How am I supposed to convince Weiss to give up schoolwork? -Jaune
Just tell her that she can check out the upcoming people for the Vytal Festival, first ship of them should be arriving soon. -Yang
"Hey Weiss, we're apparently going out this weekend with Team RYBN."
"Absolutely not! To think that blonde buffoon wants to waltz around the city instead of doing important classwork-"
"She says we can check out the competition for the Vytal Festival there."
"Well... A Schnee is never unprepared in the face of challengers, so it would only be right."
"Whatever." he had no room to joke or find the situation humorous, he was too busy trying to sort out his life at the moment.
0-0-0-0
He was alone, in a place he couldn't quite make out. Familiar, and yet kind of muddled like an old memory from a place you frequented years ago. He decided not to dwell on it too much and just went with the flow of things.
"So what's your plan?" a sickeningly familiar voice called out from behind him, he turned and was met with a near mirror image of himself, only younger and dressed in a fine tailored suit. And yet still there was something wrong, his skin was nearly snow white. Worse than Weiss's you could almost call it translucent, and he could tell, ebbing from under the collar, a thin criss-cross of black veins branched upwards from the neck. "Oh right, you don't have one."
"What?" he asked lamely, his mind was still short circuited from this vivid hallucination before him.
"You finally make it out of that life you always hated, and more than that, you finally got that power that was lorded over your gender." the hallucination cackled to itself, finding the situation funny. "And now look at you, bending your knee to an old buzzard in an even older tower."
"Shut it! It's not like that, it was never like that!"
"Really? Did you not hear her, admittedly honest, words herself? 'You're a prize no other kingdom can claim?' wow you really stepped up in this world didn't you." it taunted happily, enjoying his doppleganger's suffering.
"She- She's just trying to get me out of this." he argued back, his voice lacking assurance and reeking of desperation.
"Out of what? That little dream world where you're the master of your sea? Don't kid yourself Jaune we're still puppets on a string!"
"Screw you, I don't know who the hell you-"
"-Are? Why I'm you! Or rather, how you currently want to view you! Or is it we?" it shrugged its shoulders before continuing. "Regardless, we are nothing more than pawns of a chess board for Ozpin's amusement."
"That's not- You're not-"
"Real? I'm as real as you make me, and I can tell, even though you deny every fiber of your being with it, you do know that I'm just you."
"I-I don't..."
"Think on it Jaune, do you really think you're the psychopath Ozpin says you are? And if so, do you really think you'll ever fit in here...?"
One little push was all it would take.
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Woohoo! Another good chapter beta'd by my good friend SabletKnight (insert applause track) so a big shoutout to him! I personally like this avenue in which I'm going to take it, strap yourself in 'cause we're about to hit darkness bed rock later on.
The next chapter will be a little longer because "An Arc's Mad World" is just itching for a new chapter!
XOXOXO
CoffeyJoe