Story idea belongs to College Fool, RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Enjoy!
"Prior to the Faunus Right's Rebellion, the government was quite, quite adamant in their plans to centralize the faunus population on Menagerie!" The green haired blur that was Doctor Oobleck paused for a moment to gesture at a map before resuming his lightning fast delivery.
Jauque felt his eyes closing momentarily and forced himself to stay focused on the rapid words flying through the classroom. A ball of paper bounced lightly off the back of his head and he growled softly under his breath. Seated behind him was Carson Winchester, leader of team Aerie and a constant source of stress for Jauque. It seemed that the taller boy's grudge against him for standing up for Veronica had turned into a full-blown vendetta over the last couple weeks.
"Now then, some of you will scoff and ask why it is important that you learn about these events some four decades ago. Well, if you look around you, you will see many repercussions from the Rebellion have great impact to this very day. Who can tell me the last great victory the faunus had, causing the Empire to bring the full might of the military on them?"
A hand shot up near the front of the room, causing Oobleck to pause and turn towards them.
"Yes, miss Schnee? You believe you have the answer?"
"The battle of Fort Castle."
"Exactly! Can anyone tell me one of the factors that played a part in the Faunus victory over the forces of General Lagune?"
A foot smacked into the back of Jauque's chair, jolting him with a start. "Hey!"
"Excellent, Mr. Arc. You believe you have an answer?"
His mind failed to bring an answer to his tongue, however he noticed that Penelope was making gestures around her eyes, as if she was using binoculars. The hint did nothing to help Jauque with the answer as he racked his brain for what he knew about Fort Castle.
Shit, what is it? It happened at night, I remember that. Night and 'binoculars'...
"Night vision?"
"That is indeed one of them! Does anyone else want to add another? Mr. Winchester, you have not answered a question in a while, what are your thoughts?"
The orange haired smirked before responding in a scornful tone.
"It's easier to train an animal compared to a soldier. I know that much."
Several students glared at Carson as Doctor Oobleck shook his head. "Does anyone more open-minded have a correct response?"
Blair raised her hand before responding, "General Lagune made the mistake of underestimating the faunus, ignoring the fact that they had the advantage in the dark and relying on his overwhelming numbers to achieve victory. He was quickly outmaneuvered by the faunus forces and was captured. Maybe if he had paid more attention in class, he wouldn't have failed."
The tail end of her answer was delivered with a scornful barb towards Carson, causing the boy to glare at her with ire. Oobleck continued on with his lecture, breaking the hostile tension in the room.
"Miss Belladonna is correct. However, the battle of Fort Castle would mark the turning point in the Rebellion as the Empire proceeded to win every major battle over the next four years, eventually leading to a surrender by the faunus. The Empire imposed sever penalties on the faunus as consequences for rebelling, making it highly illegal to hide your identity as a faunus as well as stripping several laws promoting equality between faunus and humans. These laws have been recently reinstated by more moderate members of the government, however tensions have remained high as evidenced by the rise of the White Fang, not a decade after the end of the war. Now then, I do believe we are out of time. Please finish reading chapter 5 in your texts by the end of the week."
His mind elsewhere, he robotically went through the motions of rising to his feet, collecting his books and heading to lunch.
Jauque woodenly pushed his spaghetti around his plate, lacking an appetite and any bites he actually took were flavorless. He could pretty much feel the concern radiating next to him. Unwilling to meet her emerald eyes at the moment, he merely tilted his head towards her when she spoke to him.
"Jauque, are you doing okay?"
"Why do you ask?"
Rebecca looked at him from across the table, just as concerned as his partner. "It's just that you seem... not okay."
Weiss gave a slight snort at the word choice of her partner before turning to him. "I believe the real question here is not 'are you okay', that much is obvious. What's causing you to act like this, Arc? You weren't like this at the beginning of term."
Rather than give her a flat answer, he flicked his gaze over her shoulder to where team Aerie were laughing harshly at some joke one of them told. Weiss nodded, picking up on his nonverbal response while most of their teammates were still looking at him to reply.
"Do they really have that much of an effect on you, Arc? You should go talk to Professor Goodwitch if that's the case."
Jauque shook his head, feeling a rush of shame at the thought of people like them having that much influence on him. "It wouldn't help me all that much. Detention wouldn't be enough to deter them from what they're doing."
"That doesn't explain why you're so tired though. Distracted, I can understand. Stressed, maybe. But not this exhausted."
He fought the urge to growl as the frustration in Jamie's words matched his own. His gaze shot down the table to meet hers, "I've been spending late nights at the library trying to catch up on what I miss in Oobleck's class as well as the fact that I've been doing abysmally in Combat class as well."
Lilac eyes narrowed at the acidic tone that he responded with and Jauque quickly backtracked, realizing that he had let his mood get the better of him. "My apologies, Xiao Long. I let my stress get the better of me."
A polite cough caught his attention and he turned to Penelope, who had a thoughtful expression across her face. "While I may not be able to help you with history, I am willing to spar with you to improve your fighting. If that's okay with you, that is."
He gave her a grin, extremely grateful that he had teammates like these. "Thanks a lot Nikos, that would be great."
Rolling her eyes at his formality, she returned the smile. "Grand. Meet me on the roof this evening and we can spar for a couple hours."
The bell rang loudly to signal the end of lunch. As everyone made their way out of the doors of the cafeteria, Jauque grunted as someone fell against him heavily. He felt a hand deftly slip into his pocket before they quickly regained their footing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jamie brush herself off before grinning at him. "Sorry about that, Ladykiller. See you in combat class."
He made his way towards the locker rooms, putting his hand in his pocket once the hallway was relatively empty. A slip of paper brushed lightly against his fingertips, despite the pocket being empty moments before. Pulling it out once he got to his locker, he quickly read then re-read the message written on the papers surface.
'If you want to blow off some steam: Airship docks, tonight at 9, wear normal clothes, Jamie.'
He surreptitiously put the note back in his pocket before changing into his combat outfit and heading off to Goodwitch's class.
The door squealed on its hinges as Jauque stepped out onto the rooftop, still dressed in his combat outfit and with his sword sheathed at his waist. Penelope was at the far end of the rooftop with her sword unsheathed and held loosely at her side. She had her back to him, gazing upwards towards the stars that were beginning to appear in the indigo sky. No indication was giving that she knew he was here, although the door was loud enough to easily signal his arrival.
"So how is this going to work, Nikos?"
The redhead turned around at the sound of his voice, giving him a smile. "I have some idea of the weaknesses in your fighting style from watching your matches. However, the best way for me to learn that is for us to spar."
She strode towards the middle of the roof, settling into a stance with her blade drawn back. Jauque moved forward until he was about eight feet from her, drawing his blade and clasping the hilt with both hands, keeping the blade vertical. They signaled their readiness with small nods, Jauque unconsciously tightening his grip while his partner remained as composed as ever.
Penelope surged towards him, pivoting on one foot while slashing fiercely at his shoulder. His sword managed to intercept hers and he grunted at the force behind her swing. His blade was shoved backwards and he nearly lost his grip while she merely used the rebound to cut towards his leg. He blocked again, this time she aimed for his head and now she was jabbing at his torso.
He was somehow able to make a couple cramped swings at her that were batted away like flies. The fight between Penelope and him was not so much a trading of blows like when Blair and Ryan fought and was more akin to Jauque defending against a whirling onslaught of steel. He lasted for one, maybe two minutes before his blade was knocked to the ground and the pommel of her sword threw him from his feet.
He lay groaning on the cool surface of the rooftop, waiting for the ringing to subside from his ears. Jauque opened his eyes to see Penelope leaning over him, arm outstretched to help him to his feet. He graciously accepted her aid and she hauled him to his feet. Retrieving his weapon from where it had fallen, he titled his head slightly and gave his partner a questioning look.
"Ok Nikos, what do I need to work on?"
She gave him an appraising stare as she began to circle around him, "For one, your stance is inefficient: it lacks adaptability and makes it harder to respond to a quick attack. Your stance should not be rigid, it should be ready to react to an attack from any direction."
She manipulated Jauque's pose while talking, widening his stance as well as positioning his blade so it crossed his body diagonally.
"Second, your blocks are weak and badly positioned, making it difficult to keep your grip. Stepping backwards as you block helps ypu absorb part of the blow although it gives ground to your enemy. You shouldn't take the brunt of the strike directly on the blade if your opponent is stronger that you. Instead, you should angle your blade to deflect it to one side. Keep your grip loose until just before impact, then tighten it while bringing the blade up to defend. Here, attack me and I'll show you."
Penelope backed up a couple feet and settled into her stance. Jauque took a swing at her and noted that when she blocked, there was much less resistance and his blade held firm instead of bouncing off. She motioned for him to go again and this time her block was much stronger, causing his blow to reflect with a light 'clang'.
"Lastly, you tried to attack from a cramped position which weakens the power behind your hits and leaves you open to punishment. When you're in a situation where you can't attack effectively, you want to disengage from your opponent to give yourself space to maneuver in. You want to abuse any reach advantages you get against shorter opponents and taller ones you should aim to get inside their guard to cramp their mobility."
She paused, pulling her Scroll out of her pocket and checking the screen. Apparently satisfied with what she saw, Penelope turned back towards Jauque with a smile. "It's around 8:00 right now and I promised Blair that I would work with her on the project we have for Port at 8:30. That gives us a bit of time to practice if you want to."
Leaving later would mean I have less time to make excuses for. Plus, a bit of extra practice won't hurt.
"I've got some time, anything in particular you want to work on?"
"Blocking: I'm going to swing at you and you need to successfully block it. Don't worry, it won't be as bad as earlier."
Jauque drew his sword, waiting for his partner to make the first move. Steel danced across the rooftop as Jauque did his best to parry the oncoming blows. Eventually, his blade clattered to the rooftop and the tip of Penelope's sword was at his throat. She lowered it with an encouraging smile as she returned the blade to its sheath. "Well done Jauque, that was much better than earlier. I need to head to the library to meet up with Blair, but I'll see you in the room when we're done."
"I, most likely, am going to take a walk before heading to one of the quieter common rooms to catch up on my reading for Oobleck. I may not be back in the room by the time you're finished with the project."
She nodded in understanding and headed through the door with a brief wave. Jauque made his way to the dorm room and found it empty, which was not much of a surprise as Natalie abhorred staying still when she didn't need to and likely dragged Ryan off somewhere out of sheer boredom. He collected a change of clothes as well as his textbook for History and made his way to the locker rooms. Jauque opened up his locker and placed both his weapon as well as his History book before taking a brief shower.
Upon exiting the shower, he changed into the one set of 'normal' clothes he had: blue jeans, a red shirt and a plain black hoodie. He made his way outside, letting the cool night air wash over him as he followed the path that led to the airship docks. A lone figure leaned against a low retaining wall, brilliant gold hair bleached pale by the moonlight. As he neared, she pushed herself off the wall and gave him a grin.
Jamie was wearing a cropped brown leather jacket over a bright yellow top, leaving most of her midriff exposed to the air. An orange muffler was wrapped around her neck and she had black gloves on. Black shorts and an asymmetrical lilac skirt were paired with knees high boots and tall orange socks completed the outfit. She had pulled her flowing hair into a long braid that swayed as she turned her head.
"So you showed up, Ladykiller."
"Okay Xiao Long, what are we doing that required this much secrecy?"
She remained silent for a moment before reaching into her pocket and tossed a concave object at him. Turning it over in his hands, Jauque found that it was a wooden mask painted to look like a golden dragon. While it was not designed to cover the lower half of his face, it was easily sufficient in hiding who he was. Suspicions deepening, he looked back up at Jamie and raised a questioning eyebrow. Her grin widened as she pulled out a similar mask and held it over her face.
"We're going painting."
Man, university kicked my ass this past week. Thankfully I get my spring break now, which gives me more time to write. :D
Thank you to everyone who has followed/favorited the story and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me or leave a review.
See you next chapter!
17/3/17 Edit: So, I went back and fixed a few details from the previous chapters that I noticed were off. I was hoping to post the updated chapters along with chapter 6 but writer's block decided my ass needed kicking. Hopefully I can get it finished up by Monday but I can't promis anything. My writing time has been reduced for the next month or so due to upcoming University stuff but I should be clear after exams.
Thanks,
Obsydian
