This is a story showing how Jaune ended up at Beacon and is the back story to Jaune the Wild Card. In my version Jaune does not get in with fake credentials but instead is disadvantaged because his aura was only unlocked recently and so he missed out on combat school. The LGDF stands for Local Grimm Defence Force.

Six months before Jaune started at Beacon, he was showering and getting ready for a trip to Red Rock. He would be staying overnight with one of the LGDF's teams of hunters who specialised in patrolling areas with a significant Faunus population. His mother was grooming him for a career in the LGDF and was making certain that he had a wider experience than most potential leaders of the organisation.

Ansel province was around thirty per cent Faunus. The White Fang attacks and the economic recession in Ansel over the last three years had exacerbated tensions between humans and Faunus and thus had led to an increase in Grimm attacks. Convincing the Faunus population that the leadership of the Ansel LDGF and a substantial number of its operatives paid more than lip service to the idea that its objective was to protect all citizens from the Grimm was seen by her as essential to reducing fear levels. Having Jaune join in missions around the Faunus areas was an effective way of showing that she meant this without overly upsetting the human population that she was too much of an "animal lover."

He wandered downstairs, listened outside the kitchen door, and then put on his game face. He entered the kitchen/dining room area of the Arc house. Lavender looked up from the table and said "Morning Jaune". He said, "Good morning" back. He then ruffled Lavender's hair and said hello to his mother.

He poured himself a cup of coffee and helped himself to a bowl of Lavender's current favourite cereal. There was a picture of an attractive red-haired woman on the front of it.

Lavender said, "Would you both like a bacon sandwich?"

He said, "That'll be great Lavender," and his mother said, "Yes, thank you dear."

Lavender was in her second year at combat school and was doing well as far as he could tell. It still hurt that she was enjoying the education that he had wanted for himself, but he had learnt not to take out his frustrations on her. She, like all the Arc children was blonde, but she took after her maternal grandmother in height. She was only around five foot two while dad, he and the other sisters were all within a couple of inches either way of six foot while mum was five foot eight. It was possible that she would have a growth spurt, but she had learned to accept that she would always be the little sister to all of them. What really worried her was that her height would count against her when she applied to Haven.

Lavender started making the sandwiches and looked at him. He nodded and smiled, "Go ahead with whatever you were talking to mother about before I came in."

Lavender continued to make the bacon sandwiches and resumed where she had left off her conversation with mom. His mother beamed her approval at him. For a long time, Lavender had been excessively considerate about talking about combat school in his company. At first he had appreciated it but had eventually realised that it would be bad for their friendship if she could not speak about the most important aspect of her life with him.

There was a reason she had gone back to erring on the side of caution with him by asking permission to continue. The fourth years had just taken mock exams and while officially the real exams in two months' time were the crucial ones, in practice the results of the mocks were important for the pecking order in deciding whether to apply to Haven, the LGDF or to the security companies. If his aura had been unlocked this was the conversation that he would have hoped to have been having with his family and friends.

He half listened so that he knew when to encourage her to continue or to nod without paying full attention. She said, "A lot of the seniors are wondering whether to take a gap year before applying."

Mom replied by asking "Why's that dear."

"The "invincible girl" is going to Haven this year and the competition for places is meant to be fierce. Apparently some students took a gap year the year before so as to give them a chance of being on the same team as her There are also rumours were that some parents are offering to fund improvements at Haven if their children are offered places."

"Darling, there are always these rumours around this time of year. Amber and the twins were terrified that the system was fixed against applicants from Ansel."

Jaune could recall these fraught conversations. The twins had also been confused as to whether being Amber's sisters would count in their favour or against them when they applied.

"I know, but this time is different. The richer seniors are having special training from hunters to increase their chances of getting in and I know Cordelia's sister is looking at applying to Beacon, Atlas or even Shade because there are meant to be so many applicants from wealthy families."

Jaune said, "They are good schools. Most of Amber's best friends went to Beacon."

Mother nodded at him. He knew that she thought that it might be better for Lavender to consider applying to Beacon to avoid having to compete with the party girl image of the twins or the grumpy over-achiever legend of Amber. Beacon was also known to have a greater concentration on weapons than Haven which she thought might benefit Lavender in view of her small build.

"I know, but it would be frightening going somewhere you had no friends from combat school starting with you."

Mother looked at the time and said to Lavender, "Remember dear, you will need to be home promptly tonight. Lily, David, and his parents are coming to dinner tonight. Father will need your help with preparing the dinner and there is always the risk that I will be late back from work so you may need to pour them their drinks and be a good hostess."

"Yes, mum. I helped dad with the marinades and prep last night. We're all prepared to go."

He was glad that he was being sent on a mission which kept him out of the house tonight. Lily was two years older than him and was the quietest member of the family. She only fought either family on a few issues she decided were important. No one had challenged her call to not go to combat school. Mother in particular had always said she wanted the children to make their own calls. Lily had married at seventeen to a wealthy young man from a traditional family. The father-in-law in particular seemed to relish trying to push Jaune's buttons about not being able to go to combat school and making snide comments about Amber.

Lavender moved on to talking about weapon design. Being smaller than most of her school mates had pushed her into taking more technical classes than most students and mother had helped her in that regard. He listened more carefully to this conversation as it would be useful long term in relation to the LGDF as maintaining the arsenal and mending damaged weapons rather than replacing them with new had reduced the Ansel LGDF's weapon expenditure by 20% over the last three years. This had eased the effect of the spending freeze linked to the economic crisis. The least said about how mother managed the dust budget the better.

Lavender suddenly checked the time and dashed out of the house to combat school. Ansel hosted the combat school for the province and the two neighbouring ones so she could be a day pupil. The majority of the pupils were boarders, although those who lived in Ansel province often went home for weekends.

Mother and he walked briskly to the headquarters half a mile away. On the way she said, "Amber will be joining you at Red Rock this afternoon. She has a week between contracts in Vale and has spent a couple of days with Saphron and her family in Argus and last night went out on the town with the twins in Mistral City. She only arranged the trip back to Mistral at the last moment."

Mother paused "It was too late to rearrange the Gruens' without causing offence and I thought that it would suit both of you to have some time together. She will come back with you tomorrow evening."

Jaune nodded. While Amber and Lily got on well enough, it had long been obvious that Amber only tolerated David because he honestly loved Lily and she actively despised his parents. To be fair they reciprocated the feeling. They referred to her being an animal-lover in a way which made the inverted commas almost visible. The thought of a dinner with Amber and the older Gruen's together would have been guaranteed to end with Lily in tears and dad incandescent with anger as he decided whether it had been the in laws or Amber who had started it. He suspected that mother had had more advance warning then she was claiming and had simply played the cards she had in front of her in the way she thought best.

If it had been Debo and Jasper coming round both he and Amber would have been happy enough to share the family dinner. Jasper while enjoying tweaking Amber's tail did so in a way which she found fun as well as challenging. She had explained it as being the difference between having a debate where even if you did not change each other's minds, you each ended up understanding why the other person thought the way they did and refining your arguments accordingly. This was better than simply having an argument where you knew the other person was not really listening to you.

Mother turned to him and said, "Thanks for listening to your sister today. She really respects you and you've been a great help to her since she started at ACS."

He smiled back. "Well, my problems aren't her fault. How are the preparations for the open day?"

She said, "There will be five journalists and a TV film crew travelling around with me today. While Lavender's year may be overegging it, there are real reasons to suppose that there will be a squeeze on places at Haven next year and I want to encourage people to apply to the LGDF. I'm going to tactfully suggest that the LGDF is open to all and that so far the White Fang have left us alone at least in Ansel. They'll get to have a ride in the bullheads and mix with some of the hunters we have working for us."

He then joked with her, "How likely are you to have a busy day at the office tonight?"

"I've done my best to avoid problems arising. Never say never, but Lily will need my support in keeping things light tonight so unless there is a major incursion I will be there in my glad rags. I'm timetabled to give an interview for the TV people at 4.30 for thirty minutes and the others will be invited for a drink by the office staff and a team of hunters at 5.30 so no reason while I should not be home for 6."

As they walked in the door, her two deputies, Marian Ultramarine and Reynard Howard were waiting. Marian was a human who was nearing retirement age while Reynard was a Fox Faunus in his early forties. Both seemed genuinely happy to serve under mother although dad joked that it showed how good a politician she was.

Reynard drew mother aside. "Drew's ready for the briefing and the journalists are corralled in the briefing room drinking coffee and eating cookies."

Maria said, "Chocolate digestives, custard creams and hob-nobs. Hospitable without being extravagant."

Reynard said, "There's a third level warning from Mistral. More worryingly, we've just had FYEOs for you from both deputy-chief Cotton of the Kulsa Police and sector chief Lime in the Faunus sector of Kulsa."

Mother blanched, "I'd best listen to them alone. Jaune, sorry about this, but I need you to run distraction for me. Marian, take him in, tell them I'm running late and introduce him to the press. Jaune, do your talk about the opportunities for those without aura in the LGDF. Reynard, with me."

Marian nodded and led Jaune to the briefing room. She said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Chief Arc will be with us shortly. In the meantime, her son Jaune will talk about the opportunities available for those whose aura has not been unlocked in the LGDF."

The journalists looked at Jaune and he could tell that they were thinking that he looked like his older sisters. Marian gave the back story as she had at the talks to schools and workplaces they had done before. "Jaune joined us nearly two years ago after he had turned sixteen. He spent half a term at ACS before it was determined that his aura could not be unlocked. Since joining us he had been involved in all aspects of the LGDF."

Jaune gave his normal talk about the opportunities for both reservists and full-time members of the LGDF whose auras had not been unlocked. He made the point that "In fighting against the Grimm huntsman need to be supplied with dust, information, and transport. In the LGDF my job and that of others is to make certain that they have it. Without people like me who can deal with our citizens regularly and who they feel that they can call about Grimm movements, there would be a lot more deaths. Having civilian pilots who can pilot regular overflights to check up on these reports or look themselves allows us to identify Grimm concentrations. It allows us to bring in hunters to take out Grimm before they can become dangerously concentrated."

He did the job of filling in time and was relieved when Reynard appeared at the door and signalled for him to wrap up while Marian prevented any questions being asked. He was relieved as in his talks to schools it did not take long for the questions to revert to his sisters and father. Anyway, some of the journalists had actually been listening, the camera had been on, and the local newspaper representative even applauded a little at the end.

Mother came in the room and smiled at him. He could tell that she was tense and wondered what the "for her eyes and ears only" calls had been about. Reynard left with him and said, "We will be on the road in ten minutes. I just have some calls to make calling up some reserves."

Jaune listened to the calls and realised that mother was preparing for bad news. Reynard called up a sixty-year-old reservist known as "Happy" to join mother in a flight to Kulsa. He was a retired hunter whose semblance was to increase happiness around him. It was helpful in defusing tensions and reducing the balance of negative emotions attracting Grimm. He also called up bullhead pilots and authorised releases of dust.

Ten minutes later he was in the car with Reynard. Jaune was being allowed to drive. Already this was a change in plan, originally Marian was meant to be travelling with him. Reynard had his scroll to his hand and told Jaune the proposed route. While he was driving in part because of his motion sickness issue with bullheads, but it was also because mother liked her subordinates to watch out for signs of trouble before it got out of hand. She had a very individual approach to her job and was strong on prevention and mitigation. She liked her subordinates to stop off in places which seemed to be quiet and take soundings. She said that showing the flag helped reduce fear and allowed her to spot potential problems in advance. The more proof people had that at least some of the authorities cared the better and the more likely they were to contact the LGDF early.

After five minutes of calls Reynard turned to him and said, "Chief Arc said to brief you but to make it clear that it was on the understanding that it is confidential."

Jaune nodded.

Reynard said, "First, what do you understand about a third level warning? Both officially and unofficially."

Jaune said, "It's the second highest level of alert and normally means that there has been a warning that a White Fang attack somewhere in Mistral was imminent. Half the time these are false warnings."

Reynard nodded, "Your mother believes that this is deliberate policy from the terrorists or fellow travellers. The disruption which alerts cause are economically damaging and raises tensions."

Reynard paused, "You don't know this, but there was a White Fang attack last night on a dust train on the line between Argus and Mistral. Adam Taurus led it."

Jaune frowned, "It's unusual for the White Fang to launch two attacks in two days. Something must be up for them to be raising a warning."

Reynard nodded, "Your mother has identified two separate strategies for the White Fang. One is economic and focuses on destroying infrastructure, sneak attacks on what they called legitimate targets and generally forcing the government and businesses to spend more money on security and dissuading the multi-Kingdoms from investing in Mistral. Adam Taurus leads most of those. The second strategy involves assassinations of humans who the White Fang say are murderers and torturers."

Jaune nodded. He had heard this analysis from mother. "So, if Adam Taurus was blowing up a train yesterday they must be fearing the second form of attack."

Reynard looked at him, "I don't know how much your mother has said, but the assassinations have been well targeted."

Jaune nodded, "Yes. I would like to hear your take on that."

Reynard said, "The first person they took out two and a half years ago was the CEO for the SDC in Vacuo and was about to be appointed to the main board. The pubs ran out of beer that night in the Faunus sector of Kulsa."

"Why was that the reaction?"

"He had also been the man in charge of the Rising Sun mine at the time of the strikes."

"I get the message."

"I'm not going to say that the White Fang was right to take him out, but I'm not sad about it. The assassination targets have been designed to ensure that even Faunus like me who disapprove can't hate them."

Jaune nodded. "I suppose they also divide opinion amongst humans."

Reynard laughed, "You may very well say that. I cannot possibly comment."

Jaune nodded. He had heard the arguments between dad and Amber about this. Mother as always had found a way of getting them to agree on something when she said that no matter what the rights and wrongs were, Faunus in Mistral had become less visible and anti-Faunus feeling had increased since the assassinations had started.

"So, the FYEOs made mother fear that the warning was real and that things would be happening in Ansel province?"

"Deputy Cotton reported that the outflow of Faunus through the gate to the rest of the city was down twenty percent. Lime said that one of his informants had drawn his attention to the fact that on the Faunus radio station there had been an interesting juxtaposition of requests on the breakfast show. "Another one bites the dust" was requested by Sheila Karacha followed by "Mr Sandman" requested by Ghira Blenkinsop. As you can imagine, he suspected that the requestees were using aliases."

While Adam Taurus and Sienna Khan were the leading members of the White Fang as far as most people were concerned, the Sandman was a close third. There were no photographs of him, and the assumption was that he was an Vacuoan ex-employee of the multi-Kingdoms who was taking revenge for the ill treatment of Faunus in the mines run by the multi-Kingdoms. The other theory was that he was a myth and simply designed to draw attention away from the real strategists.

"So does mother think there is a real chance that there will be an incident here?"

"No, she thinks it is happening elsewhere or has already happened. The White Fang are not that confident to boast in advance."

The Faunus paused, "The danger is that this is a biggie. They are warning Faunus to stay safe. If I was a gambling citizen, my bet would be that something has happened in Argus. The Atlas military is more disciplined than ours and things do not leak to the same extent."

Jaune grimaced. If this one was a real one then it might make Amber's home visit more stressful than normal as well as making today an overly eventful one.

He looked across at Reynard. The Fox Faunus was clever and hard working. He was someone who mother trusted. Both dad and Amber made the same joke that mother had appointed competent deputies who were not a threat to her. Maria was too old to want the top job and had been promoted by mother four years ago. Reynard was both too young for the top job and was a Faunus. While there was no formal rule that Faunus could not lead the provincial LGDF, real world was that it would be politically impossible for the foreseeable future. Reynard's best chance for the top job was for mother to serve an unprecedented four terms as chief. She had just been appointed for her third term which already made her unusual.

Jaune said, "I can understand why Mother is going to Kulsa then. What is she going to do with the journalists?"

"She's taking the bet that they will force the locals to be on their best behaviour. While they will play up to the cameras, they will not want to go the full Lagune. Besides which there is no good result from dumping them. If nothing happens she will have damaged relationships for nothing. If something happens she will be seen as part of a cover-up. Besides which if she can make the story about resisting the Grimm then everyone will be grateful."

Kulsa was the second city in Ansel province and for most of the last hundred years had really been the biggest and wealthiest city. It was also the most troubled city and so Ansel, despite really being an agricultural market town, had remained the administrative headquarters for the province.

They first stopped off in Bilston. Reynard went to see the mayor while Jaune went to the local dust shop with the LGDF credit card. The LGDF were exempted from sales tax on purchases of dust although there were audits designed to ensure that the dust was actually used or stockpiled by the LGDF and not sold on. It had taken six months before Jaune had been allowed in with Mother, Marian, or Reynard to buy dust in Faunus dust shops and another six months after that before he was allowed to purchase it himself.

The fact was that there was black market in dust in the Faunus areas of Ansel and it was possible to buy about sixty percent more dust for the same money as in Kulsa or Ansel itself. The invoices understated the amount of dust supplied and mother used the surplus to stockpile against a rainy day.

Mother had sat Jaune down one day and explained that the LGDF was not a law enforcement agency and indeed a predecessor of hers had been sacked for reporting incidents of police brutality. If she was not allowed to report incidents of humans breaking the law she was not going to report incidents of the Faunus bending it and if the suppliers out of an excess of public spiritedness wanted to contribute extra dust to the Ansel LGDF she was not going to prevent them. If they had cheaper suppliers than the other retailers that was no concern of hers. Marian had put it more pithily. "Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie." So far mother had escaped the notice of the auditors who after all were looking for theft rather than overstocking.

After two stops, Reynard was looking tenser. There was a call to mother where he was clearly using a codeword to indicate that there were rumours amongst the Faunus. He asked Jaune to turn on the radio to the news and nodded when he heard that Colonel Cordovin in Argus was due to give a press conference at twelve.

They arrived in Red Dock just as an LGDF bullhead arrived overhead. Darren Marine and his team stepped out accompanied by Amber. Amber said, "Don't worry Reynard. Mother has co-opted me to support the LGDF today at standard rates and so the lift is not going to get her sacked."

Darren had been at Haven with Amber, and she had recommended him to mother. His team had never been Vytal Festival contenders but were good against Grimm and did not take unnecessary risks. They served about six months a year with the Ansel LGDF, did four months of more lucrative gigs and two months of holidays and training. Amber as a Vytal finalist could command premium rates and so turning out at standard was in some ways an act of charity.

She turned to Jaune and gave him a hug. Darren and his team shook hands with him and Reynard and them they all proceeded to the mayor's office which had a room which was used for LGDF business. There was a small pack of Beowolfs about five miles away. Reynard briefed them and the team plus Amber set off to deal with them. Within thirty minutes they were back with the mission accomplished and camera coverage to satisfy the bean counters.

It was now nearly midday and Reynard switched on the main news channel. Jaune's heart sank as he saw that that the newscasters had their serious faces on and the Breaking News tag was on the screen.

"We are taking you over live to the Atlas military base in Argus where Colonel Cordovin is due to make an announcement about an incident which has happened today."

A diminutive lady accompanied by two extremely tall soldiers was standing behind a podium. She announced that a small aircraft carrying twenty holidaymakers from Kulsa had lost contact with ground control. The Argus emergency services had called on the Atlas garrison to help locate the aircraft.

The woman took a deep breath. "While we have not yet located the aircraft we have found the passengers. Eight of them are alive and are mostly physically unharmed. The other twelve are dead with seven of them having been dropped out of the aircraft without a parachute. While investigations are underway, initial indications are that this was a White Fang atrocity. We are seeking to contact the relatives of the deceased and the survivors before releasing names to the public."

She paused, took a deep breath and said, "In order to reassure as many people as we can, the passengers were on a package tour and mostly came from Kulsa in Ansel province. They were ex-employees of Atlesian multi-Kingdoms in Vacuo."

At this point Reynard put in a call to headquarters in Ansel. "Reynard here. I am going to get the team in Red Rock in the air and will be heading to Kulsa unless and until I receive orders to the contrary. I have Jaune and Amber Arc with me as well."

Amber said, "Do you have fire dust with you, deputy chief?"

Reynard said "Yes, there's some in store but we bought some today," He looked at Jaune who said, "Ten crystals and two kilos of loose dust in the back of the car."

Amber nodded, "Ok let's get that on board and take off."

Ten minutes later they were in the air together with two local civilian reservists who had shooter clearances. Mother preferred to take out Grimm from the air if possible. It was not always possible but weakening them normally was an option.

Jaune took the anti-sickness pills and kept himself busy helping the hunters prepare the dust for use.

A scrambled message came over the link to headquarters. Reynard and Amber both swore at some of the names. One they recognised as the nephew of the mayor and another as the brother of chief of police in Kulsa. Both had worked for the multi-Kingdoms in Vacuo in mine security until two and a half years ago when a scandal involving the treatment of Faunus workers had blown up.

"How the frack did the White Fang get their hands of twenty of them at one go?" said Amber. "I'd thought that they would have been paranoid enough not to be fooled."

Reynard nodded. "No doubt Jesse will be plugged in on the background." Jesse Earl was the local coordinator for the LGDF in the human part of Kulsa. He got along with almost everyone which was an interesting knack. He was good at preventing things simmering over. He worked well with mother despite having been passed over for the chief role eight years ago. Apparently he recognised, even if his friends and family did not, that coming over like a good old boy was not a qualification to lead the Ansel LGDF nowadays.

There were now 24 minutes from Kulsa and Amber and the hunters were ready for action. They would be dropping Reynard off over the Faunus quarter of Kulsa and would be looking for signs of Grimm converging on Kulsa. Fifteen dead terrorist victims would be causing a lot of negative reactions and oddly the fact that there were five survivors would not help. There was a LGDF half-joke that relatives often could cope with certainty that loved ones were dead, it was the hope that they found hard to handle.

Jaune was busy loading the grenade launchers when Amber came and sat next to him. She whispered in his ear, "Is Judge Blanche still refusing to cut back his forests to comply with the ten mile cordon sanitaire?"

Jaune looked up and nodded. Amber smiled, "I think that I will suggest that Darren concentrates his initial scout on that area on the basis that it is the nearest cover for a Grimm incursion to Kulsa."

She then winked at him. "Of course, it will be his operational call. I am merely a co-opted concerned member of the public who happens to be a huntress. Still if he found some Grimm exiting from there then I doubt anyone could seriously argue with his decisions if he decided that is was operationally essential that he took out the forest with fire dust."

I recognise that this will be heavy on OCs and so is unlikely to be popular. It is just that I had the world building in the back of my mind while writing Jaune the Wild Card and I think it is interesting to explore Mistral other than the capital and Argus.

EDIT- a few typos and inconsistencies dealt with