Chapter IV: Light in the Darkness
dum vita est spes est
While there's life, there's hope
In one of the many airships flying to Beacon, there was a girl sitting all alone on a bench that was next to a window. As she read one of her many cherished books, she looked out the window and saw that she almost made it to Beacon Academy. So she stopped her reading by placing down her bookmark and stood up to enjoy the full view of the scenery.
She saw that Beacon Academy was located on a mountain cliff and on a giant river. She sees on the water boats that are going towards Beacon Academy, as smooth and slow as her own ride was moving at.
"The view is nice," she thought. "But, it would be better if I had a friend here with me." She sadly looked down and slowly pulled a piece of paper from her favorite book.
It was an old photo that showed two happy kids standing in front of Beacon. She smiled, remembering the happy memories she had of nine years ago. Her smile soon disappeared when the sadness in her eyes returned, when she remembered her promise from many years ago.
"Jaune, after all these years I managed to keep the promise I made with you. I only hope that I could see you soon. It won't be long until the next chapter of my life begins and…I want you to be a part of that new life."
Blake Belladonna, the Faunus who dealt with so much misfortune, placed the photo back inside the book and sat back down to return it into the bag beside her.
In another airship, a blond boy was at a toilet throwing up his breakfast made up of his favorite scrambled eggs. When he finished with the last of the remains, he raised his bobbing head and flushed the toilet.
"This motion sickness is going to be the end of me."
He washed his hands and slowly got out of the bathroom. The blond boy sat down at a seat and looked around him. He saw a young red-haired girl and a blond girl among the vast amount of people on the ship.
He closed his eyes, pulled his hood down, and slowly rocked his body back and forth. "When is this ride going to end? I don't know how long I'll last until the motion sickness gets to me again."
"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick who continues to evade authorities."
Searching for the voice, he looked over to the side to see people watching the voice's source, the VNN.
"If you have any information on his whereabouts please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you Lisa."
"Thank you, Cyril. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark after members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony-."
Glynda Goodwitch appeared in holographic form to introduce herself to them. But Jaune didn't bother to listen to her.
The hooded blond sadly looked down on the ground, after hearing the news of the recent Faunus violence. This had been common in the past 5 years in Vytal and the news showed that it wasn't stopping anytime soon.
"I know you want to help your people, but is this really what you are willing to do to help them? I only hope that you weren't a part of their violence Blake. I really hope so."
Sighing deeply, Jaune pulled his head up and gazed at the ceiling of the airship and sat there until the ride to Beacon ended. He never realized that he is going to deal with much misfortune, especially when it starts with him finding his head in a trash can after the trip was over.
After the airship began to slow down, it came to a complete stop when it reached the docks. The door of the airship opened and the young passengers stepped out onto solid land. They were fascinated by the sight of Beacon, especially with the giant tower looking over them with a brilliant light shining like the sun. While most of the new students walked to their new home, few stayed behind to enjoy more of the sight.
Blake was the last person to step out of the airship and off of the ramp. She looked up from her book and smiled at the same dazzling sight of the school.
"I'm finally here at Beacon. I don't have to use my skills to help in the White Fang's violence anymore. Now I can use become a Huntress who can live her life, helping people in need."
Her eyes returned to her book and tried to read when she heard a loud explosion go off. After something fell beside her shoes, Blake picked up the item and turned the glass vile until she recognized the symbol of the glass vile.
"This is a logo of the Schnee Dust Company"
She heard yelling and looked over to see that the noise was coming from one of the two girls she recognized in an instant.
"That's definitely Weiss Schnee, but I'm not sure who the other girl is."
When the yelling continued at a higher volume, Blake could no longer stand by to watch this brutal sight.
"Well, someone needs to put her in her place," thought Blake as she walked towards the two girls with a plan.
"Unbelievable, this is exactly the thing I'm talking about!" yelled Weiss as she stomped her foot in frustration.
"I'm really, really sorry," replied Ruby as she drew her fingers closer together out of nervousness.
"Ugh, you complete dolt. What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"
"Well…I-."
"This isn't your ordinary combat school. It's not just sparring and practice you know. We're here to fight monsters, so watch where you're going!"
"Hey, I said I was sorry Princess!"
"It's Heiress actually."
The two girls saw Blake walk towards them after coming into the conversation.
"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world," said Blake in a calm tone.
This made Weiss grin and proudly declare, "Finally some recognition," and glared over at the girl who caused her trouble.
"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces, and questionable business partners."
Shocked, Weiss angrily exclaimed, "What how dare, the nerve of-."
The young red head snickered in the background while Weiss got close to Blake and angrily took the glass vile from her hand.
"I promise I'll make this up to you," hollered the red head as the heiress stomped away towards Beacon. Sadly looking down, Ruby said, "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day. So what's-."
Before she finished her sentence Blake was already walking away and leaving Ruby to wonder who the mysterious person was.
Jaune, during the time, watched as the whole incident with the young girl unfolded before him. After Weiss and Blake left in separate directions, he noticed that there was a third mysterious girl walking in a different direction. Her long black hair was freely moving with the wind and around her neck was a black scarf that looked nice with her dark, purple pleated dress. But Jaune wasn't looking at her clothes. He was looking at her beautiful pale face.
As the mysterious beauty walked away, she felt someone staring at her. She stopped walking and looked around to see that it was Jaune's blue eyes that made contact with her own crimson ones. After she stood still and looked at him for a few seconds, Jaune's face grew red because he realized that he was staring at her for too long. When Jaune quickly turned his head, the sight made the woman giggle before she continued to walk and disappear in a shroud of shadows.
When Jaune heard her laugh, he quickly looked back to see that she was gone. As he tried to look for her, he never noticed the shadows on the ground disappear out of sight. After he looked for several seconds, his eyes returned to the red head that was laying on the floor and looking at the clouds in the air.
"Welcome to Beacon," whispered the girl. Jaune could literally hear her voice sound so sad in the blonde swordsman's ears.
"She didn't do anything wrong. She's just trying her best to make some friends like everyone else…just like me."
So he began walking towards her until his shadow was over her body. Putting out a hand to help her up, Jaune said, "Hi, I'm Jaune."
She smiled and took his hand.
"Ruby."
Jaune smiled back as he helped her up.
"It looks like I have my first friend in Beacon, hopefully nothing can go wrong now."
Ruby raised one of her eyebrows and asked "Pfft, aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"
Jaune lowered his head in embarrassment as he thought, "Or it could just be just as bad as before."
"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on."
Ruby and Jaune were walking down a stony path that was at an unknown part of Beacon. While Jaune was trying to make his point, Ruby was laughing as she saw him make the effort.
"Look, I'm sorry. Vomit-boy was the first thing that came to mind."
"Oh yeah? What if I called you Crater-face?"
Ruby stomped her foot on the ground and exclaimed, "Hey that explosion was an accident!"
"Well the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."
"Do they," asked Ruby as she raised an eyebrow.
Jaune chuckled a bit and replied "I doubt it. Most of the girls are kind of out of my league. I thought that there's really no point in making myself look like a fool when I can't help it, but rather have a nice laugh about it every once in a while."
Ruby laughed a bit at his answer and fell silent when she found nothing else to say. While the two friends were walking silently along with each other around the pond, Ruby suddenly decided to break the silence.
"Sooo I got this thing."
She pulled her weapon from behind her back and when the weapon completed unfolding, it collided on the ground and made a loud crash.
Jaune slowly backed away as he was surprised to see the weapon appear out of nowhere.
"Whoa, is that a scythe?"
"It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle."
"Sooo…basically a gun, right?"
"Yep," answered Ruby as she pulled back the bolt.
"That's cool."
Pointing a finger at Jaune's waist, Ruby asked, "So, here's my weapon. What've you got?"
Jaune unsheathed his weapon as he replied, "I got this sword, it's okay since I can still cut something with it."
"Oooh."
"Yeah, and I got a shield too."
Jaune pulled out his shield that had his family symbol on the middle of its front surface.
"So what do they do? Like, can they change into a gun, shoot out lasers, or use Dust? Something cool like that," Ruby excitedly asked.
Jaune felt sheepish as he looked down at his weapons and said, "Uh, no, no and no. They don't do anything else at all. The only thing one of them can do is become smaller and become something that my sword can go into. I can't really say that it makes it easier to carry around."
"Oh, sorry. I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I guess I did go a little overboard in designing it."
"You made this weapon?! Wow, that's pretty cool. I mean, it's better than my weapons; they're hand me downs that my great-great-grandfather used to fight in the war, you know, the big one in those huge history books."
She looked at him curiously and asked, "Why didn't you make your own weapon? Aren't students supposed to make their own weapons?"
Taking a moment to think, Jaune answered "I don't know, I just…didn't. But the weapon I have now suits me and it would probably disappoint my family if I didn't use it."
That answer seemed to be fine with Ruby since she was able to smile and say, "Well either way, I like it. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."
"Yeah the classics. Wouldn't want those to die out," replied Jaune as he wearily looked down at the weapons in his hands. When he felt the worry inside him go away, he put his weapons away.
When Ruby began to walk again, she asked, "So why'd you help me back there in the court yard? It's not like we know each other."
Walking with her, Jaune replied, "It looked like you needed a friend and my mom always said, strangers are friends you haven't met yet. So yeah, this makes us kind of friends, right?"
"Sure, why not? It's nice to know that there's a person to talk to since this is our first year at this school," replied Ruby.
Ruby suddenly noticed they were in an unfamiliar area. This made her ask, "Hmm, hey, where are we going? Do you know your way around here?"
Jaune suddenly remembered reading a brochure that had a map of the entire school on it. He actually memorized it because he was hoping that he can meet up with Blake if he ever heard any sign of her from the school. Now, he felt proud to know that he can use this knowledge to help his new friend.
"You know, I might know a thing a two about this place. If you want, we can hurry and check out to see what the food court looks like before we go to the opening ceremony."
Impressed to hear this, Ruby gave Jaune a happy smile as she followed him to their destination. When she was sure that Jaune knew where he was going, she excitedly said, "The food court?! Haaaa, I wonder if they have something good there for us to eat?"
"Well, we're about to find out. I just hope they have something that can help make my stomach feel better."
Blake walked into Beacon's main hall and saw there were many people waiting for the Headmaster, Professor Ozpin. She walked to a spot in the room that didn't have many people. Blake took out her book and started read, but she couldn't focus on her book as she wanted to. Her mind would drift back to the blond teenager who she saw earlier today.
He was someone that seemed familiar to her, but she didn't know why. He had blue eyes, blond hair, and wore separated parts of armor. When Blake thought that the boy was Jaune, she shrugged it off because it was too silly for her to accept it.
"It couldn't be him, it just couldn't be…but there is always a chance. Well, there's no point in creating false hope until I have enough information to prove that it is him."
While Blake tried to manage her thoughts, Jaune and Ruby entered Beacon's main hall.
As they entered and saw many students standing around, a voice called out Ruby's name. They both turned to and saw the voice was from an older blond girl waving at Ruby.
"Ruby, over here! I saved you a spot," called the blond, who was actually Ruby's sister, Yang.
"Oh hey, I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony," said Ruby as she walked towards her sister.
"Hey wait…Oh great, where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to," said Jaune as he sadly walked away.
When Jaune walked away, he didn't notice a pair of green eyes watch his every move. Jaune walked into an area of the room that had a perfect view towards the stadium. Far in another place were Ruby and the blond girl while he was waiting for the ceremony to start. He didn't notice Weiss sneaking up from behind Ruby until she spoke in a loud manner.
This startled Ruby and made her jump onto the blond girl's arms. The two began to talk with one another. Jaune wasn't interested in what they were discussing until he heard some unpleasant words.
"Yeah! And we can paint our nails, try out clothes, and talk about cute boys like tall, blond and... scraggly over there," she sarcastically said as she pointed at him.
"That was rude of her to do that." He looked over at the stadium and saw Professor Ozpin walk towards the stadium.
Pushing his glasses in, Ozpin said, "Ahem. I will keep this brief. You…"
As Professor Ozpin spoke, Jaune noticed that he seemed to sound distant in his words. Although he wasn't sure why it sounded strange, the professor's words were interesting enough to where Jaune listened closely to his words, especially the next ones.
"But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge will carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
"The first step…wow, that sounds like something I should do. I wonder how I'm going to start with that."
When Miss Goodwitch took over for Professor Ozpin, she said, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are all dismissed."
The crowd of people began to disperse. Jaune walked up to Ruby and the other girls and spoke "I'm a natural blond, you know. Scraggly, not much, but it's better lean than fat, right?"
Weiss placed her hand on her forehead and shook her head in disapproval. This made Jaune smirk as he began to walk away with a smirking Ruby and Yang. While he was walking, he noticed the black haired girl from before. She was alone, reading her book and he wanted to walk up to her to talk, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"I shouldn't just go up to a random stranger while she is reading and ask her for a name that would seem weird and make things awkward." So he began to walk away with the rest of the crowd.
Blake looked up from her book and saw the blond boy again, walking with the rest of the people out of the ballroom. She placed her bookmark on her current page, closed the book, and also followed the crowd out of the room.
It was night time and everyone was at the ballroom and wearing their sleeping outfits. While some were sleeping, others were still up and either trying to go to sleep or waiting for the noisy ones to go to sleep first.
Jaune walked into ballroom while he was wearing a white T-shirt and blue pants. As he carried his sleeping gear, Jaune looked around for a spot to sleep at. When he found a place at a corner of the room, he hurried over to claim it by placing his pillow and pad on top of the area. When he looked over at the window, he felt his thoughts slowly start to be filled with images of Blake.
"You know, she might actually look different now. I don't even know if I'll recognize her, at least, if she still has that scarf."
She was his first friend, someone who made him excited for and scared of the coming future. Remembering the news of the White Fang activities in the past 5 years, he was scared that she died and was unable to keep the promise between them. He was also scared that the quiet, polite, and friendly girl he knew years ago was gone, replaced by a White Fang loyalist going through extreme lengths to help her people. Supporting the violence, setting anti-Faunus stores on fire, and stealing Dust cargo that involves Faunus as its main labor forces were all just the start of his worries.
Sighing deeply, Jaune looked up at the stars and made a small wish in his heart.
"I know I asked this a lot, but please, just be okay. Please don't be a part of the violence out there Blake. I hope I even get to see you tomorrow."
He laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.
"Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I'm going to need my sleep."
Blake sat up and looked around her. Some people were sleeping while there were a few others who were still up and making small talk.
"Well, I'm still up and it's quiet. I guess it's the perfect time to catch up on my book."
She took a match and lit the candlestick beside her. When she blew away the match with her breath, she picked up her book, placed her back against the wall, and opened her book to read its lovely tale.
Her quiet time didn't last long; she heard footsteps and looked up from her book to see two familiar girls walk up to her.
One of them waved a hand at her and said, "Hellooo., I believe you two may know each other," in a very happy voice.
Blake looked at the girl behind the tall blond, wondering where she's seen her before. And then it hit her.
"Aren't you the girl that exploded?"
The young red head faced her and said, "Uh yea," and extended her hand out to Blake. "My name is Ruby." As Ruby spoke her name, she saw that Blake's eyes returned to the book. She lowered her hand and placed it on the back of her head and as she rubbed it, she gave Blake a fake smile.
"But, you can just call me… Crater, uh, actually you can just call me Ruby."
Blake's eyes never left the book when she replied, "Okay."
Yang didn't like how this was going. That's why she gave Ruby an angry look.
"What are you doing?" she whispered.
"I don't know help me," replied Ruby.
After the sisters awkwardly smiled at Blake, Yang finally had an idea and asked "So, what's your name?"
She looked up from her book again "Blake."
"Well Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister. I like your bow."
"Black, long, and bought from your average store."
"Thanks," said Blake in the same uninterested tone.
"It goes great with your pajamas."
"The same pajamas that came in a special deal for dark clothes at the same mall?"
Thinking this, Blake slowly replied "Right," while she didn't understand why the sisters wouldn't leave her alone.
"Nice night don't you think?"
"Yes, it's lovely." She had no expression on her face as she spoke, "Almost as lovely as this book… that I will continue to read… as soon as you leave." Her eyes returned to the book, making Yang see that she no longer wants to talk to her.
"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause." Yang disappointedly said.
Ruby didn't seem to care. Instead, she calmly asked, "What's it about?"
"Huh," Blake looked over at Ruby.
"Your book, does it have a name?"
Blake felt surprised to hear such a simple question as she answered, "Well, it's about a man with two souls, each fighting control over his body."
"Oh yeah, that's really lovely." Yang said, feeling weird from hearing the topic of the book.
Ruby stepped forward and continued, "I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters; they're one of the reasons I wanted to be a huntress."
This made Blake slightly smile, glad to hear such an innocent remark.
"And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"
"I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like the heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right and protected those who couldn't protect themselves."
Yang smiled at Ruby as she heard this. "I'm so proud of my sister right now. She's finally opening up to people!"
Blake lowered her book and replied, "That's very ambitious for a child." The smile on her face soon disappeared when she added, "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."
"No, a fairy tale would have allowed me to see Jaune again, the one person who I miss so much right now."
"Well, that is why we're here. To make it better and make a happy ending."
Ruby's answer made Blake feel like she could actually believe that such a thing is real. It sounds strange, but when she thought about Jaune, she felt that his and Ruby's words gave her something to hope for.
Yang went over to Ruby and gave her a bear hug. "Oh, I'm so proud of my baby sister."
Ruby was clearly irritated by this and yelled, "Cut it out," and punched her sister in the face. The two then started to cause a ruckus, creating a cloud of fists and feet flying in the air.
One nearby girl groaned in frustration and got up to walk over to the sisters.
"Well, Ruby, Yang, it was a pleasure to-," but before she finished, Blake saw Weiss walking over to them.
Weiss angrily said, "What in the world is going on over here!? Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?" Weiss looked to her left and saw the last girl she ever wanted to see before she slept.
"Oh, not you again," Weiss and Yang yelled at the same time.
Ruby moved one of her fingers to her lips and exclaimed, "Shh! Guys, she's right. People are trying to sleep," she said quietly.
Blake hoped that Ruby's words stopped the fight and looked down at her book to read.
Weiss folded her arms and glared at Ruby "Oh, now you're on my side."
After hearing this, Blake realized that she wasn't going to be able to read anymore, so she closed her book and placed it on the small table next to her.
"I was always on your side!"
None of them saw Blake pick up the candlestick. Yang walked one step forward and spoke, "Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice."
Weiss quietly stomped her foot. "She's a hazard to my health!"
Blake then blew the candle light with her breath. She placed her head on her pillow and pulled her blanket over to cover her body. Everyone suddenly became quiet when they realized that it was time to go to sleep.
"Good night Blake," said the two sisters when Weiss walked away after the room went dark.
"Good night to you to as well," Blake replied, too quiet for the sisters to hear her.
When the sisters left, Blake smiled as she remembered Ruby's words that caught her interest.
"You're quite an interesting girl Ruby."
Blake's smile disappeared when she also remembered how Ruby reminded her a lot about Jaune. He also wanted to help others, just like the Huntsmen he read from stories and books. This made Blake feel sad, especially when question after question about Jaune swirled in her mind.
"Will I be able to see him tomorrow? Did he even make it to Beacon? Is he…is he even alive?"
Tears began to form in her eyes as Blake felt terrible for what she did after she left Jaune.
"Is this…my punishment for being in the White Fang?"
More tears poured down her eyes when she realized her time in the White Fang was all for nothing. Everything it did never helped her people, especially when the White Fang became a shadow of its former purpose.
The White Fang was meant to unify humanity and the Faunus people to create peace. But because all of their efforts were in vain, their former leader stepped down 5 years ago. When a new leader came into power, the White Fang started to use violence. Even the human members of the organization left them when their protests against violence were left unheard.
Now that she also left, the only thing that kept Blake going was her promise with Jaune. With determination in her heart, the hope of seeing him again in Beacon was the small light in her dark world. He was the first to accept her for who she was; she was a Faunus who Jaune treated better than any other Human she has ever met.
"Please, just let me see my only friend."
"Please…"
Blake looked at a nearby window and saw that the stars were very bright tonight. Blake's eyes closed as she made her wish to the stars above.
"…let me see the only person who can accept me for who I am."
Authors Note:
So I'm sorry for releasing this chapter late. There are things that I had to do or deal with in my everyday life. But I hope you all like it. Special thanks to my proofreader Storygazer for his help in reading it and fixing a lot of the errors I do. He did a lot, so please send him a message to thank him for the help. On another note I'm happy that there have been new Luner Eclipse/Black moon parings in the Site. Good to know that there are people that like this paring to.
So do you guys think I should keep the Teammate pairings the way they are now in the Rwby Canon story or make him have another teammate? Send me a message telling me what you think or a review explaining why I should or shouldn't.
Any who thanks Storygazer for the help and will work on the next chapter as soon as I can. Now I must play league of legends to get out of Bronze 5. Zed all the way people, forbidden shadow wins.