"One should never despair too soon"

Frederick the Great

Chapter Seven—The Rank and the Responsibility

It was a while before Jaune finally caught up with his section. They sat or stood panting by a brook, evidently having decided they were far enough away to stop running. Jaune approached them through the undergrowth, following the devastated trail of snapped branches and bent bushes they'd left in their wake. The first thing he saw was the business end of a rifle shoved into his face, the crazed, bearded mug of Bounty behind it.

"Don't shoot!" yelped Jaune, his voice breaking spectacularly. Well, there went any hope of them following him because of his manliness. Though come to think of it, was that ever really an option?

"Jaune!" gasped Bounty, hastily lowering his weapon, "don't sneak up on us like that. I almost blew your brains out." Jaune seriously hoped he was joking.

"Jaune!" This came from Phil, who Jaune was deeply relieved to see looked unscathed. "Thank Oum you're alive. Are you alright? What happened to you? Did you get caught? No, wait, you couldn't have. Unless you escaped. Did you?"

"Where's Sarge?" demanded Cat, cutting off Phil's questions, "last I saw, you were with him. Oum knows we could use him right about now."

"Jaune?" asked Naomi. Her blue, spiky hair was all over the place, matted with dirt and sweat. Her eyes were alert though, and full of worry. She'd spotted the look on his face before anyone else had.

"Sarge… Sergeant Cole didn't… he didn't…" began Jaune, but he found his voice too clogged with emotion to go on. Instead, he simply removed the blood matted sergeant rank slide from his chest and held it out for them all to see.

It took a moment for them to realise what it was, and a moment more for them to comprehend what it meant. Terry gasped loudly, disbelief plain on his pale face. Buzz's innocent brown eyes were wide, his brown creased in confusion. "But, but Sarge…" he mumbled. The rest stood in shocked silence. They must have made a strange sight had anyone seen them. A dumbfounded congregation, standing around a brook whose trickling music took the place of a mournful organ, in reverent silence for the loved leader they'd los-

"Oh this is bullshit!" exploded Cat, storming away from the group, her dismissal of Jaune clear as daylight. The rest looked to him expectantly.

They all knew what it meant that he had arrived wearing the rank slide. They all knew their fates. Now they were waiting for him to say something. Something encouraging. Something motivational to inspire his team to accept him as their leader and give them hope to go on.

Something.

Anything.

But Jaune couldn't say anything. He'd held the mantle of leader once, and look what had happened to that. Now here he was again, unwillingly thrust into a position of authority, the lives of those around him balanced on his shoulders. The weight of that alone was enough to crush any attempts Jaune made to say something.

After a few, agonizingly quiet moments, when it became clear that Jaune wasn't going to say or do anything, Naomi spoke up.

"I'll talk to Cat. Try to cool her down." She gave Jaune one more worried glance, then turned and hurried after Cat.

The others watched her go, not knowing what else to do.

"Jaune," began Buzz, "what do we do now?" Buzz's youthful voice was overflowing with fear, worry, uncertainty. But also hope. He really, honestly believed that Jaune had a way to get them out of this. Some plan to put everything right. Damnit, Buzz was counting on Jaune. They all were. But Jaune's throat was still too clogged with the tar of apprehension to say anything.

Eventually, Terry coughed. "We… we should follow protocol," he urged, shooting Jaune an apologetic glance, "if the commanding officer dies in the field, then the 2 i/c takes over."

"That was Ash," said Phil quietly. Another beat passed in despondent silence.

"Then… then whoever has the highest rank should take over," insisted Terry.

"We're all Privates here, dummy," berated Bounty. Then he sighed. "Look Jaune, I like you an' all. You're a good lad. But you're no leader. I'd rather stick it out on my own to be honest."

"You'd never survive," said Phil, coming to Jaune's rescue. "We're out in the wild here. Miles away from the Kingdoms and any civilization. You'd die of hunger or exposure within days. That's if you're lucky. If you're not, the Grimm will find you. Believe me, that's the last thing you want."

"Phil's right," cut in Aiden, surprising everyone. Aiden rarely talked at all, but when he did he always had something meaningful to say. The fact that he was sticking up for Jaune was both humbling and terrifying. "We're better off sticking together."

"Might be so," conceded Bounty, "but would we even survive a day with a kid as our leader? No offense Jaune."

"Sarge would have had his reasons for electing Jaune as his successor," answered Aiden. Jaune wasn't so sure if Sergeant Cole really had, or whether Jaune had just been in the right place at the right time. Or wrong place, wrong time, depending on how you looked at it.

"Besides, who else is there?" asked Phil, "way I see it, Jaune's just as competent a leader as anyone else in this unit."

"I could do it," thrilled Terry. The squad looked the lanky young man up and down. With his greasy blond hair parted in curtains, and his pail, sweating face, he looked ready to fall dead from a cold at any moment.

"I'll pass on the Terrier," mumbled Bounty, ignoring Terry's indignant squawks. Instead he scratched his bulging stomach and pulled on his shaggy beard. "Alright then, I suppose Jaune's as good a fit as anyone here. I sure as hell ain't gonna take the role anyway."

"I vote Jaune as well," added Phil.

"Me too," piped Buzz.

"You have my support Jaune," said Aiden.

"Alright, alright," grumbled Terry.

"What do you say Jaune?" asked Phil.

What did he say? He hadn't even said a single word, yet somehow, he'd been voted in by most of the squad as their new sergeant. He wasn't even sure whether he wanted that role. Being a leader came with so much responsibility. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that again. He'd failed as a leader of a team of four excellent Huntsmen and Huntresses, and now he was going to try to lead a team of eleven—no, nine—no, eight—barely trained soldiers. Sarge and Ash were dead, and Finn had fled into the woods somewhere, abandoning them to their fates. He couldn't handle that kind of pressure.

He was about to tell them it was a bad idea when one thought snagged at the back of his mind. Sarge had chosen him to be his successor. Maybe it was just because he was the only one there, but he could have always told Jaune to give it to someone else. But he hadn't. He'd asked Jaune specifically to look after the section. Him.

Sergeant Cole had once told him that he liked to know everything he could about his troops. If that was true, then he must have gone through everyone else and decided that Jaune was the best candidate. It seemed crazy, but now that Jaune thought about it, it wasn't so illogical. Buzz was too young, too naïve. Naomi was clever, but couldn't control a team. Cat was too cold. Phil too jumpy. Aiden too quiet and detached. No one took Terry seriously. Bounty was a bit of a manic and probably couldn't make a good decision to save his life if him standing up and laughing as he was shot at was any indication. And as far as Jaune knew, no one here had had any experience leading a team. No one that was, except him.

Jaune gritted his teeth. He wasn't the right man for this job. He wasn't a good leader, and besides, he barely knew anything about the army. But was anyone else? Maybe he wasn't ideal. But he might just be the best person they had. And as he looked at the expectant faces around him, he realised something.

They would accept him. They knew he wasn't perfect, but they would follow him nonetheless. Didn't that count for something?

"Keep them safe Jaune," Sarge had said, "keep them alive." Jaune wasn't sure if he could. But he'd try. For Sarge. For the hopeful faces before him. For himself.

"Alright," said Jaune, "I'll do it."

"Cat!" called Naomi, struggling through the thick undergrowth. She wacked a branch out of her way, only for it to ping back and smack her in the face. Damn nature. "Cat," she called again.

"What?" the figure of Cat finally halted and spun to face Naomi. Naomi stuttered, suddenly unsure what she was supposed to say.

"Why are you being like this?" she finally asked.

Cat just laughed at her. "Why am I being like she?" she mimicked, "oh I don't know. It's not like we've just been attacked for Oum knows what reasons, been forced to run into Grimm infested woods, lost our commanding officer and the most experienced soldier in this rag-tag group of misfits, almost died on several occasions, and to top it all off, our best chance of surviving lies on the shoulders of a fucking kid! Sorry Nuke, if I'm overreacting a little bit!"

"Look Cat," Naomi tried to reason, "I know things look bad-"

Cat laughed rather hysterically then. "Look bad? No Nuke. Things look bad after Bounty's used the toilet. This is a fucking mess. We're out in the middle of nowhere, all on our own and with no way to contact anyone, unless you happened to bring a scroll with you." Naomi hadn't, and she doubted anyone else had either. A scroll wasn't something you brought on a military exercise if you ever wanted to use it again. By this stage, Cat had advanced on Naomi, her green eye and blue eye to Naomi's brown eyes, and she accentuated each point she made with a finger shoved in Naomi's face. "The nearest place that could have helped us was just overrun, so it looks like we're going to be trekking home on foot. That is, if we can even find home. And can get there without getting killed by Grimm, bandits, or more of whoever those soldiers were. Oh, and did I forget to mention? We're being led by a fucking child!"

Naomi winced, and not just because Cat had used 'whoever' instead of 'whomever'. It really didn't look good when Cat put it like that. "Jaune's not so bad," she tried to argue.

"As a person, maybe not," conceded Cat, "but as a sergeant? Face it Nuke, we're screwed."

"That's not necessarily true." Cat snorted, but Naomi pushed on. "Look, I get why you're mad. We're all a little on edge after what's just happened. But you could at least give Jaune a chance."

"A chance, Nuke? Really? When our lives are on the line?"

"I'm good at reading people, Cat, you know I am. Trust me when I say that Jaune can get us out of this. I saw the will behind his eyes. The fire. It's there. I can see it, even if he can't yet. Just give him a chance. He can do it. He just needs someone to believe in him."

Cat finally fell silent at this. She seemed to consider what Naomi had said, or perhaps it was Naomi she was considering, judging if she could believe her. Eventually, she sighed. "Tell me truthfully Naomi; are you sure enough that Jaune will get us out of this to risk your brother's life on him?" At this, the same panic settled in Naomi's stomach that had suffocated her during the attack. That same, senseless fear of losing Buzz. But she swallowed it down.

"I'm going to have to," she said simply. Cat nodded at that, apparently satisfied.

"Fine then. I'll give the kid a chance. On your head be-"

A twig snapped in the trees, silencing Cat and Naomi. Two rifles flew up as both women froze with bated breath. Naomi heard a sharp intake of breath. She waited. After a few seconds, a bush exhaled loudly and began panting ridiculously. Cat strode forward and reached into the bush. Something yelped as it was lifted clean out of the plant and dumped rudely onto the ground. The thing would have scrambled to its feet and scampered off into the forest, had Cat not stomped a foot down onto its chest, pinning it in place.

"Well, well, well," spat Cat, "look what the rat dragged in." Naomi levelled her rifle at the struggling creature when she saw what it was. Or rather, who it was.

Finnegan fucking Fletch.

Buzz didn't bother helping as the men of Beta squad went through everything they had. Some odd rations, a few canteens of water, a rifle for each of them, some side arms, a couple of clips of ammo for them all, plus Naomi's Bazooka and the box of rockets she'd managed to bring with her. Buzz barely noticed. He was too wrapped up in his own thoughts. Everything that had happened since the morning… flipping heck. Where had it all gone wrong? Buzz wasn't usually one to despair, but when he tried out a smile, it felt weak and watery even to him. He tried to think positive thoughts. There had to be some way to get out of this mess. They could figure this out. Naomi was, like, the cleverest person Buzz had ever known, and not just because she was his sister. And now that Jaune was leading them, he'd keep them safe, right? It would all turn out well, wouldn't it?

Buzz looked at Jaune now. He was silently observing the others argue about something, clearly deep in thought. Buzz could only imagine what was circling around in Jaune's head, but he was sure every ounce of Jaune's mind was dedicated to getting them out of this predicament.

"Who even were those bastards back at the base?" asked Bounty, finally dragging Buzz out of his daze. The other's looked at each other, the question having clearly been on everyone's minds. Buzz quickly copied them.

"Atlas," Phil stated simply. Everyone stared at him. Phil went slightly red. "Well, uh, at least, I'm pretty sure it was. Like, 90 percent sure. Maybe 95."

"Atlas? But, aren't we allies? Why would they attack us?" asked Terry.

"I don't know. But you guys saw their armour, right? And the Bullhead? I know my ships. Those models are definitely Atlas exclusive."

"Could they have been stolen?" contributed Buzz.

"That much equipment? From the frozen war mongers? Not likely," scoffed Bounty.

Jaune shook his head. "The why doesn't matter. At least not right now."

"I agree," Terry claimed, "the important thing is we were attacked, and now we're stranded in the woods with limited food, a couple of clips of ammo per person, and no idea how to get home. That's not enough. We need more supplies! We should go back to the base and see if we can salvage anything. There might be some more rations, or even a radio." Yeah, Terry was right. They should go back.

"Going back is too risky," Aiden explain calmly, "the Atlesian soldiers, if that's what they were, will likely have stripped that place of anything useful. And even if they didn't, going back would just as likely led us to more of them as to anything useful." Oh yeah, that was true. The thought of running into more of those faceless soldiers… maybe going back wasn't such a good idea.

"But what about the other sections," pressed Terry, "I saw some of them fleeing the ambush like us. They could still be back there. We could find them, and join up."

"If they haven't already been captured then they're miles away by now," said Bounty, "we might just be walking back into a trap."

"It's worth the risk if we can-"

Just before another argument could break out, Naomi came stumbling out of the woods. Buzz smiled at his older sister, and was about to wave when he saw the look on her face. That wasn't a good look. After her came Cat, and practically being dragged behind her was the dark skinned man who always looked grumpy to Buzz. Buzz couldn't remember his name, but he remembered that he'd been the one to run away from them when they were attacked. From the furious sounds his companions were making, he suspected that wasn't a very popular move.

"What's he doing here?" demanded Bounty.

"Found the little shit having a nice comfy sit down in the trees whilst we were left behind to fight for our lives," replied Cat.

"Ow, ow, let go of me!" protested the man who Cat still clutched by the scruff of his neck.

"I'd have just put a bullet in his treacherous skull and been done with it," continued Cat unperturbed, "but Nuke here was pestering me with her morals."

"Nobody's getting shot here," Naomi fixed Cat with a hostile glare.

Bounty knelt down so he was eye-level with the man. "What's the matter Finnegan? Don't want to see your old squad you abandoned to die!" Suddenly, Bounty ploughed a meaty fist into Finnegan's stomach. Buzz gasped at the unexpected violence. Bounty's eyes were like chips of marble as he contemptuously watched Finnegan wheeze on the floor, as if he were a particularly ugly kind of bug. Where had the laughing old man gone? The grinning maniac? The bearded joker who would burst into song during dinner? The man before Buzz was a complete stranger to the person he'd thought he'd known and fancied as a kind of odd, older friend. This man was scaring Buzz.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," panted Finnegan, "I didn't want to die for Oum's sake. Sergeant Cole would have bloody held us there to the last man. I got scared alright. Is that a sin?"

"It is when it causes us to get overwhelmed by those bastards," snarled Bounty.

"Well you got out of there alive, didn't you? If I hadn't run, we'd have all been killed. I saved your lives. You should be thanking me!"

Bounty let out a dry, hollow laugh. Not the kind of friendly, inclusive laugh Buzz had begun to associate with the man. This laugh made Buzz's stomach curdle and his smile decay on his face. The soured laugh snapped off suddenly and Bounty slammed another fist into Finnegan's stomach. Finnegan doubled over, gasping. Bounty looked like he was preparing for another swing, when a hand appeared on his arm, holding him back.

"That's enough, Bounty," commanded Jaune with far more strength than Buzz had ever heard from him before. Bounty looked back, surprised to hear Jaune speaking to him like that. He challenged Jaune's gaze for a few harrowing seconds before shrugging and stepping back, 'accidentally' hitting Finnegan with his foot as he retreated. Jaune sighed, then came over to Finnegan.

"Sarge and Ash are dead," he stated simply. That sucked the colour right out of Finnegan. "Dead because they tried to keep us all alive. So cut the bull about Sarge making us fight to our deaths."

"Shit Jaune," Finnegan tried to say, "I didn't realise-"

"It doesn't matter," interrupted Jaune, the commanding edge back in full force, "but Sarge told me to keep you safe. All of you. So that's what I'm going to do. But I need to know this: if we're in that situation again, are you going to save your own hide at the cost of all of us?"

Finnegan seemed to struggle with that, though it seemed like a simply answer to Buzz. Duh he wouldn't. "You don't understand," muttered Finnegan, "I have to survive. I have to get home. I've got to-"

"We all have to," cut in Jaune, "and we're all going to. But not if I can't trust you. So here's your options: You either join us, share our supplies and our safety-"

"What?" cried Cat aghast, "him? We'd be better to just dump his body in a ditch and count ourselves lucky for less dead baggage."

"But if you're with us," Jaune went on, ignoring Cat's outburst, "you follow my orders and you don't try to run from us again. Or, you try to brave the forest alone. It's up to you."

Finnegan chewed over what Jaune was offering, weighing up his chances, judging the outcomes. Buzz would have gone with Jaune in a heartbeat, and not just cause they were friends. Being all alone in a creepy, monster-infected forest? No thank you.

Finally, he gave a resigned sigh. "Fine. I won't leave you."

"Good," said Jaune, reaching down a hand and pulling Finnegan to his feet. He then turned back to his squad mates. "I know you're all angry at Finn," Bounty and Cat harrumphed loudly, "but I need you all to be able to get on with each other if we're going to get out of this alive. So give him a chance to make amends. That's all I ask." Bounty grumbled something that would have given Buzz at least a dozen detentions if he used that back when he was in school, but seemed to accept Jaune's verdict, the rage that had gripped him earlier having seemingly faded as fast as it had risen. Cat still looked positively murderous though. "And hey," said Jaune, addressing Cat, "if he does try to run, feel free to put a bullet in his back." Finnegan gulped. Cat grinned manically.

And just like that, the sticky situation was diffused. Buzz wished he had the kind of people-skills that seemed to come to Jaune so easily.

"So, what now Sergeant Arc?" jeered Cat, but the malice had left her voice.

Jaune winced at his title, though Buzz thought it was kind of cool. He'd certainly love a name like that. Sergeant Victorian. The thought made Buzz smile. "We need to decide where to go," said Jaune.

"Back," said Terry immediately.

"Forward," countered Aiden.

"Anywhere that isn't here," added Phil.

"Everyone stop," cut in Jaune. He looked genuinely surprised for a moment when everyone stopped talking and looked at him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and thought for a moment. "It's too risky to go back to the base, sorry Terry, and I don't like the thought of just waiting around here for Grimm to find us. Our best bet is to start heading back towards Vale and try to reach another military base. There's got to be more of them closer to the Kingdom, right? So we need to head…"

"That way," said Naomi immediately, pointing off into the trees.

"And you know that because…" asked Cat sceptically.

"I know we headed North on the bullhead because the rising sun was to the right of us. So Vale is South of us. It's about late afternoon now, so the sun should be roughly South West in this part of Saunus. Meaning we need to head that way," Naomi explained, pointing again. Buzz loved it when his sister did that.

"Works for me," said Bounty shrugging.

"Alright then," said Jaune, "everyone, pack everything we need. We'll need to move quiet if-"

"Quietly," interjected Naomi.

"Quietly if we want to avoid any Grimm, so make sure everything is secure. When you're done, follow me." What few supplies Beta section had retained were soon saddled between the squad, and they were all soon trekking in Jaune's shadow as he led the way.

If anyone had asked Buzz at that particular moment for his opinion, he would have told them that Jaune looked more like a leader then as they followed him than Buzz had ever seen him look before.

Sure, Buzz was scared. If he was being honest, he was terrified. But he trusted Jaune. Jaune would get them all out of this alive. His confidence was unrivalled in the group, except for maybe Naomi. Yeah, they were safe in Jaune's hands. He knew what he was doing, Buzz was sure of it.

But no one did ask Buzz for his thoughts, so he simply stared at Jaune's back and willed him to feel his determination, his faith. "I trust you Jaune," he tried to make his stare say, "I believe in you."

Up at the front of the column, Jaune shivered slightly. He couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that he was being watched…

Oh dear Buzz, looks like your stare may have had the opposite effect to what you were intending. Better luck next time.

And so, Jaune's story continues, and now we finally know why it's called Sergeant Arc. Oh, and just because Beta section have decided to give Jaune a chance for the time being, doesn't mean they all completely accept him as their leader. We can't make things too easy for our protagonist, now can we? Let's see if I can remember to bring that back into the story.

Anyway, the status quo has been reset this chapter after the last one took an enormous dump on it. It was actually really nice to write a chapter like this - no fights, no big explosions or deaths, just some good old character interaction, development and growth. Oh, and did you see what I did with the chapter title? I am way too smug about those little things.

Anyway, thanks so much for everyone who has read this story this far and an extra big thanks to the huge number of you who have reviewed and contributed to help make this a better story. We've still got quite a way to go, but we have now completed what I like to think of as the first act of this fic (though to be honest, in my head, act one actually finished last chapter, but whatever, we'll celebrate it this chapter). Let's see where act two takes us!