Hello back again with the chapter I had promised, and goddamn I just found I'll be gone for another week! Don't worry though, I plan on updating my other fic I'm working on before I leave then there will be no more interruptions until school starts again! I hope you guys enjoy, and let's pray this chapter goes a little better.
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Jaune jolted up from his bed, panting hard and sweating like a sinner in church. He swiveled his head around, making sure he really was back in his dorm room and not in that hell again. Slowly, he calmed his breathing and the sounds of a running shower echoed softly from behind the bathroom door. I guess Rin is up early again,but by the fucking gods above what was that?
Unfortunately, the dream remained crystal clear in his memory. Almost as if he had seen it played out in front of him in real life. Those words, they haunted him, gave him a sickening feeling in his stomach; the kind of feeling you get when you know something terrible has happened but you don't want to believe it.
"Do you really belong here?"
Yes! Of course he did- or, at least he thought he did? No! This was his path, he has the tools, the team, the power to make everything right again. But, what should he do now? Ozpin had laid out the score for him, just as his vision had explained, and openly admitted to Jaune being a trophy for the kingdom of Vale. He ground his teeth together, the most placid way he could release the bubbling anger inside of him.
Who does that bitch think she is? Calling me a psychopath- ha! She wouldn't know what a psychopath was if one stabbed her in the chest. he smiled savagely to himself before realizing what kind of place his thoughts were headed. He wasn't a psychopath, and certainly not someone who would needlessly hurt others right? Yes, Team CRDL had it coming for trying to mess with his team.
Yeah, that was it and that's all it was. The morning finished in relative peace, his mood making it clear no one was to bother them, and Nora only made one or two outbursts before arriving at the dining hall. Nora going on and on and on about another one of her "stories"; to this day, he never figured out where she got them from.
"-And then I was all like: Whoosh! Ka-pow! Slam! And that's how I saved Team RYBN from those nasty Ursa." Nora said triumphantly, retelling her version of the Forever Fall field trip.
"Did you hear? Those CRDL girls got seriously messed up on that field trip!" the whispers of some nameless, faceless girl gossiped to her friend who was in a similar way.
"Oh my! And to think the freshmen rarely ever get hurt on those trips..." the rest was tuned out as Jaune clenched his fists, what did they know about what happened? Nothing! They knew nothing, and yet they talk like they were there!
Some part of him felt mad that these people were prattling on like they knew what had happened, and yet another part tried to halfheartedly defend them but both were drowned out by the pinging of his scroll. Looking down he saw a message had come through-
Mister Arc, your first session has been scheduled for after school with Professor Port today. -Ozpin
Tch, getting in the way again I see. The woman had the gall to insult him and his very rights as a citizen of Vale and then went about telling him he was the psychopath? Fuck this woman, she was just like everyone else.
Yes, it's not like she picked you up and out of Atlas right?
True, fine, but she had some ulterior motive. She had laid it out last night but didn't have the nerve to tell him exactly what she wanted him for. Sighing to himself, he suddenly felt extremely tired and lost his appetite. He tuned out conversations around him and his team as he tried to just shut off his mind for a bit, if only to get some real peace and quiet.
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Headmistress Ozpin sighed as she slumped in her comfy chair and got started on the day's work. Sometime after heading home for the night, Ozpin had come to regret her words to her pupil. The boy was rather vulnerable, and rather volatile, at the time and what did she do? She borderline attacked him passive-aggressively and made more than a few barbed comments at the young man.
Sighing to herself, she found that, even at her age and wisdom, that she could still say the wrong thing in any situation. Hopefully the boy's team would get together and provide support for their leader; suddenly, her desk's tablet function began to receive a transmission from a coded source. Nodding grimly to herself, she answered it and spoke with an even and professional tone.
"Tin Man, to what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Wizard, I wished to handle a check-in with our situation as you are the one in control of the situation." remarked the crisp voice on the other side.
"The subject is stable, furthermore the candidates for the next are beginning to thin as more information comes through."
"Understood, I have more than a few candidates from my own selection Wizard."
"Are they of the acceptable parameters?"
"Wizard, this situation is difficult and completely unheard of so I have found some more varied candidates-"
"I will only even consider those of the acceptable parameters Tin Man, Wizard out." she turned off the call and leaned back in her chair as she mused about her star pupil and his apparent breakdown. Something about this didn't feel right, something was missing, and furthermore, her coffee tasted sour which was a sure sign of something amiss.
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Jaune hung around in Port's class as their final hour ended, he had explained to his team what had happened and that he needed to stay behind for a bit. They seemed apprehensive to leave but he waved them away with a passing comment of finishing their work for the weekend.
After the class had cleared, Port locked the door and turned to face her student. I must tread carefully, the poor lad has been through more than enough.
"Jaune," she started slowly. "I want you to know that I'm not here to reprimand you or force you into some detention. I, and the other staff including Glynda, though she may not outwardly show it, care about you son."
"Yeah, Ozpin certainly made that clear." he snorted, Port sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose Damn it Ozpin, what did you say this time. Despite respecting her superior immensely, Port knew she had a bad habit of saying the wrong thing.
"Jaune, regardless of whatever Ozpin said I do care about you." she said sincerely, something seemed to crack in her pupil's frosty mask because he choked down whatever comment that rose in his throat.
She took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Jaune, Cressida refuses to give us the full story of what happened and you never came forward so now is your chance."
"Cressida and her goons were about to set a box of Rapier Wasps on me and my team, not to mention Team RYBN."
"Is that so? Do you have any evidence."
"No, I vaporized that box of theirs so I didn't mention it. Plus, a weekend stay at the Casa De La Infirmary should straighten them out at least." Port frowned at his reasoning, but decided to go with it.
"Son, personally, I don't think you're off your rocker. And that isn't the reason I've come to counsel you, Jaune, I'm here to get you to talk about some of your past." She knew they were on thin ice now, the boy's past was a bad trigger for him, but the lights weren't flickering so she believed it was alright for the time being.
"Ask." was all he said, a command that told her she needed to ask fast and clear.
"We know some of what happened with Atlas, but we're not sure about your actual childhood." she said, her pupil laughed bitterly at himself more than her.
"It's funny, y'know? My childhood was good, and maybe that's the most painful part. You see, when I was a kid, I idolized my sisters, my mom[not his mom?], my family for just being heroes." he combed a hand through his hair, exasperated at something. "The idea of going out and fighting monsters appealed to me so much, and all I wanted was to be just like my sisters and mom."
He snarled bitterly. "That pathetic excuse of a man, my father, Nicholas, filled my head with illustrations of how my mom used to be back in her heyday and how men like me were the real heroes for being the house husbands. That we were the people that helped the brave huntresses when they came back from the battlefield. " he spat those last words, almost as if he hated the way they tasted. "Me, the gullible child I was, ate it all up and dutifully acted as the perfect son. I adored the way people walked all over me like a human carpet because I was just a man."
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Jaune sat on the balcony of his family estate, sitting in one of the chairs as he heard his grandpa talk about the amazing stories that his grandma used to talk about back when she was still alive. Jaune's eye sparkled at the thought of doing such heroic deeds himself, saving the day and, at the same time, remaining humble in the face of his glory.
His dad tried to one-up his father-in-law by talking about the time Bianca and his mother cleared out one of the worst nest of aquatic Grimm seen in centuries! Just by clearing out that nest, there was an explosion of new trade routes and business boomed across the four kingdoms. The nest itself was located smack dab in the junction of multiple trade routes, so, by killing the nasty creatures, ships could stop going around it and save the extra hours of time. He remembered it because of all the attention his sister and mom got because of it! Interviews, photo shoots, they were famous!
Still, there was nothing cooler to him than being a huntress, to save the day from the bad monsters and the villains just like how his family told them they did. It was then his father spoke up as he turned to his beloved son.
"Kid, I want you to know that just because you can't exactly fight monsters like your sisters and mom, that doesn't make your life any less valuable." his grandpa's eyes crinkled at that. "You grandpa and I, your mom and your sisters, we all want you to live your life to the fullest because that's the only way we can value the sacrifices of the huntresses that protect us."
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Port nodded, filing all this away to take to her coworker Glynda. "And then, after years of being a normal, albeit prodigious and well-behaved, son I got my first reality check paid in full and at 100% interest. My dear fiancee, Kim, was now the center of my universe when I woke up, how I behaved, and how I died were now solely hers to control for me. That's when I had an epiphany: I had been set up for years upon years upon years!"
"The entire thing was some sort of cruel joke! They glued the rose-tinted goggled to my face and expected me to never figure out that I was just a walking trophy! If you think what happened to Cressida was bad you should have known what I was like when I first learned this. It took me months, but I figured out that the path of least
resistance would grant me the most freedom. You see, my mother, at the time, had more than enough control over me to prevent me from seeing anyone, going anywhere, doing anything beyond my basic human rights. Essentially house arrest for a son who didn't want to be sold off to some aristocrat who profited off the misery of faunus."
Jaune took a deep, shuddering breath and reigned in his rushed breathing.
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Jaune stood up on the family balcony, a similar scene from years ago but this time the mood had done a complete 180. Jaune's breathing was ragged, his fists clenching occasionally as he stared at the man across from him. Nicholas watched his son with a tired gaze, knowing full well that the boy he had raised was one wrong comment away from attempting to strangle him.
Anyone could see that poor Jaune did not take the news of his marriage contract very well. In fact, Nicholas had to get them to leave early, citing an appointment, so as to prevent Jaune from glassing the greasy little lawyer that wrote up that dreadful thing. None of it sat well with him, he had told Jaune that his life would be lived to the utmost value when he grew up. And now, now he was forced into a binding contract with a crushing grip stronger than a King Taijitu; the goddamned thing was going to ruin his boy's life in almost every conceivable way.
His wife did not take any of it well, the contract had been sprung all too suddenly and she was forced into a make it or break it decision - and she decided to go along with it. They believed a marriage to someone such as Kim would give their son the meaning he wanted, the resources and the standing to rise up in the world. At the beginning, they even cooed at the idea of a heaping handful of grandbabies that would mix quirky cuteness and sharp intellect together. Having 7 daughters who were all busy huntresses didn't exactly leave much time for baby making.
But this, this was a nightmare beyond all hope. Nicholas returned his attention to the man in front of him, looking about ready to blow at any moment. It took him a second to summon up enough restraint to form a coherent sentence.
"So this," he started, gesturing to open air. "was all some ploy to get in good with the Goldmines?"
"Jaune, this wasn't-"
"-What you had in mind? Then what was? Oh, I see, you expected more money! Don't worry I get it." he chuckled, but the humor in it was as dry as the Vacuan deserts.
"Jaune this isn't about money, we only want what's best for you..." He knew he had slipped up there, as his son stopped moving and settled a nearly blank glare at him. The boy's fingers cracked as he squeezed them into his palm and his eye twitched dangerously. Suddenly, without warning, Jaune began to lumber towards him but before anything possibly violent could occur Sunny called them down for dinner.
Jaune stared blankly at Nicholas for a few moments, and then left without another word.
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"Of course they tried to get into my good graces, wouldn't do to have their prize become too uncooperative right?" he asked, Port just shook her head silently cursing the boy's parents.
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Hollis Arc, otherwise known as just Grandpa, walked around the large Arc family manor with his distraught son-in-law Nicholas. The reason behind his melancholy was none other than Jaune Arc, his grandson. It truly pained him to see what had happened to his little boy, he remembered the days when they would catch baseball games on the weekends and go out frequently under the guise of "Guy's Night Out".
Hollis grimaced as he imagined what his wife would have done if she could see the walking timebomb that was his grandson now. He had been involved with this whole marriage affair enough to know how things got so fucked in the first place, but he couldn't, try as he might, swallow the disappointment towards his daughter. Yes, if his wife was here she'd splatter those arrogant bastards all over the wall and make sure her precious grandson would never get hurt again.
And if he had an aura he'd have done the same thing.
"I just- it's just that we don't have any connection anymore you know? Back in the day I was his go-to for all sorts of manly advice and stories." Nicholas lamented, hands roaming through his hair. "And now? Now Jaune looks like he's constantly about shiv me if I get too close. To make matters worse, the damn Goldmines keep pushing forward with this fucking marriage bullshit so Jaune doesn't have any time recover!"
"Hmm, those pompous asses can shove it. To think, they'd pounce on us completely unprepared." when the Goldmines first suggested this union they agreed pretty quickly, a rich family that would keep their only son rich, well-connected, and well-off not to mention a stunning wife? Of course it sounded good! But the Goldmines had already known this, and they had been preparing for months. As soon as Isabella agreed they sprung the trap, it seems the Goldmines has the idea that Jaune would be their ticket further into the highest echelons of the huntress world and they wanted to make sure he'd never get away.
It sickened him, the way they toyed with people, the way they toyed with HIS GRANDSON made him pissed beyond any meaning of the word. But it was too late now, and he could only hope, by some divine miracle, that Jaune would get through this.
Both of the men entered the kitchen to find none other than the man himself. Drinking something that looked suspiciously like bourbon although there was no bottle in sight, Sunny worked around the kitchen making some stuff for lunch in an hour or two.
"Hey pal, your grandpa and I were thinking we'd hit up the old green jewel this weekend! The Vacuan Raiders are playing the Atlesian Hawks this year!" Nicholas tried to bridge the gap between them but it failed spectacularly.
"I'm not a kid anymore father," he winced at the name, remembering when he used to call him dad. "You can't win me over by going to see some stupid sports game."
He turned to leave, but before he got out the door he mentioned something else with a bitter chuckle. "Oh yeah, and mother has me working all weekend on my geometry courses so I won't be doing anything but that for the next three days. But I suppose you already know that don't you?"
Nicholas was about to defend himself and say he could easily talk Isabella out of such a boring prospect but was cut off by Sunny yelping in pain. "Sunny! Are you ok?!"
She sucked on a few of her fingers and eyed the blender she had been about to use. "Yeah don't worry, darn thing just shocked me all of the sudden."
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"Now Jaune, I don't mean to offend you, but are you sure that what you proclaim to be true is in fact the truth?" Port asked slowly, something sour crossed Jaune's face for a brief moment.
"Yes, trust me I was there, so let me tell you there is no excuse for doing what they did." he leaned back in his chaired and sighed. "I mean, why would they care?"
"I'm not sure, but perhaps things aren't quite what they seem."
"But I-I was their son and they just-" Port swore she could see some treacherous thought cross his mind. "No, they betrayed me and they were lucky I didn't get them back for it. That was my ultimate act of forgiveness. Of mercy."
Port sighed as she checked the clock, she couldn't keep him here for much longer and he seemed to be stuck in whatever trench this was. "Alright Jaune, that's good enough for today but I think we'll need to pick this up again sometime over the weekend. How's Sunday at 5:00 sound with Peach and Oobleck?"
"Yeah, fine." he grunted, packing his things and turning to leave.
He had his hand on the doorknob when Port decided to add one last thing. "Jaune, you do know that we'll always be here for you right?"
...
"Yeah."
And with that, the door shut.
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In a warehouse just south of downtown Vale, a redheaded woman sat on a couch with her colorful accomplice. Roma Torchwick contemplated just how screwed things were when it came to that bitch's plans. She had been behind the dust robberies all over Vale and was working as a surrogate leader for the White Fang branch in the city, at least until the time was right.
Across from her, also sitting on a couch, was her, sort of, adopted daughter Neopolitan. Said girl was currently sucking down ice cream without a care in the world, while Roma tried to figure out how to get out her deal with her new "employer".
The door to the small room creaked opened and in sashayed the woman that was the cause of all Roma's grief: Cinder Fall. Speak of the devil and she shall appear. She was the only woman to strike actual fear into Roma's heart, and she hadn't clawed her way to being queen of the underworld by facing easy opponents. Cinder strutted over, her two lackeys behind her at the door, and sat down on the catch that Neo was currently residing on.
Neo pretty quickly got up, ice cream bowl in hand, and made for the couch Roma was sitting on as Cinder flicked a lock of raven hair from her eyes.
"Now Roma, I understand the dust thefts that you have been carrying out have been going smoothly for the most part." Cinder asked smoothly.
"Yes, but we still have one more job to pull off before I think we've hit max load." Roma answered to her boss. Cinder smiled, a predatory look that most certainly was not humorous.
"Wonderful. I am impressed with your work so far, but I haven't come here for just a simple check up." There was that predatory smile again, Roma could feel her throat constrict slightly. "I would like to talk to you about Phase 2 of our little plan."
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Blake walked through the hallways of Beacon, incredibly troubled by a dilemma that had plagued her mind for the past few weeks. She was oblivious to the other students around her as she tried to pick apart the nagging thought.
Should she tell her team about her heritage?
Part of her wanted to just do it to get it over with, surely her team would understand right? Ruby couldn't be racist, she was sure of that much, Yang was a pretty free and easy-going person so at worst she'd be mad she'd lied, and Pyrrha wouldn't say anything, not with her history of wanting to be accepted.
But another part of her, a part still rooted in the White Fang, warned her that there was a high possibility of her team also shunning her for her race. And, try as she might, she can't help but put some stock in those thoughts, even though she had promised to leave the fang behind. And then of course there was the secondary obstacle: Team ARSN.
They were a bit a trickier for one glaring reason. She knew for a fact Rin and Nora wouldn't mind, Nora would probably want to pet her ears, and Rin probably would be as unfazed as ever. Jaune, Jaune was a sort of wildcard in this situation; at the same time he seemed kind of distracted, so she doubted he would wholly care about her in any facet.
And then there was Weiss, heiress to the SDC corporation. She wouldn't lie that she hated everything Schnee, the same corporation that enslaved so many of her kind for such petty and foolish reasons as financial gain. But did being a Schnee mean Weiss was like that too?
Maybe so, maybe not. But that uncertainty was what was keeping her from revealing her heritage from her friends.
She was so oblivious to the world around her that she didn't notice the person walking out of Port's class in time. She bumped into the figure, and was about to say sorry when she got a good look at them.
"Jaune, what are you still doing in Port's?" Class had been ended over thirty minutes ago. Jaune scowled, although not at her, before shaking his head.
"Forget about it, I'm guessing your team still wants to head out tomorrow?"
"Yeah, you know how Yang is." Jaune grunted but didn't say anything, however he did catch something that interested him.
Years of working under someone like Qrow and you began to look for the little things. It helped him get along with her enough to know when she was drunk, hungover, or just in a bad mood. So it was pretty obvious, by the distant look, the worried expression, and subtle gestures, that something was bothering Blake.
"What's with you?"
"H-Huh? I mean, nothing." she sputtered, taken aback by the question.
"Today is not a good day to lie to me, so spill it."
Blake hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out something to say. "It's just, what if you knew something that no one else knew and you had kept hidden? Like a secret, sort of, and you were worried things would go wrong if you told somebody."
"What, you mean like your ears? Blake, your team is going to be fine about." Blake gaped like a fish for a few moments, before settling on a new question.
"How long have you known?"
"My advice? Buy a hat next time, the bow twitches." Blake blushed furiously as she touched the bow on her head, feeling how even now it twitched, to her further embarrassment.
Jaune sighed, kids these days "Look, Blake, your team isn't going to think less of you for it, and I certainly don't care about it. If you're worried about Weiss, don't be. She probably doesn't care, or else she would've been hanging around what's left of Team CRDL more."
Well, not a wholly bad way of thinking Blake thought to herself. Maybe Jaune was right, maybe they wouldn't judge her.
Blake steeled herself and decided to take action soon, not right now but when the time was right.
"Thanks Jaune, you're not a half bad councilor." she frowned slightly as Jaune got some kind of distant look before leaving without another word.
Strange, I wonder if everything is alright.
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And there we have it folks, the chapter I had promised you all! Sorry for the lack of action here guys, but I feel like we need a quick detox from all the major drama going on. As you can see, this has a lot of dialogue in it and a wealth of flashbacks all of which are for good reasons. If you want to know why certain flashbacks were written the way they were, they were done so to illustrate that not everything Jaune remembered his childhood being like was true.
Ironically, despite talking about "rose-tinted goggles", Jaune can be impressively blind to other things going. Like I said in a previous chapter, the theme of this story is written from what would be Jaune's perspective so it is written like everyone is always conspiring against Jaune even if they're not. Hope this clears things up because I need to start on the new chapter on "An Arc's Mad World."
XOXOXO
CoffeyJoe