Here we are with another chapter in this story, don't worry I'm still alive and writing this story. I cannot believe the amount of followers for this story! As of this posting we have 129 followers! I am so flattered that so many of you enjoy reading my story.

(Alright now to quickly answer some reviews)

Firearm Legume: I like the idea of Winter carrying the C96 Borchart with it leading to the Luger, I personally like the C96 over the Luger, but the voters wanted Blake to carrying a Luger, so yeah not salty in the slightest. For Wiess the only problem I see with her carrying a Webley is I already 'phased' the pistol out for M1911, but maybe the two sisters can have matching pistols? who knows.

ernestohernandez010: I am truly surprised no one's actually written this scenario yet, I'll try to write a one-shot when I get the time and see how the RWBY community feels about it.

As for everyone else who left a comment, thank you for your support!

Please Read and Review

(I don't own RWBY...for now hehe)

The Soldier's Battleground

ザー・ソールジュズ・バタルフィールド

Chapter VII: A Kindred Spirit

When the sound of shells could be heard occasionally whistling through the brisk evening air. The majority of Atlesian and Imperial soldiers seeking shelter in their respective trenches, didn't even react or flinch when a shell would explode near them. Getting shot at and trying to kill and maim the other side on an almost weekly made for most soldiers to just ignore the sporadic shells landing in 'No Man's Land'.

This was also the case for Jaune as he casually made his way down a trench leading to the rear, he ignored the sporadic gunfire in the distance and the dirt that splattered against his dented helmet when a shell would land near his position. After getting thrown out of a building, lifting a massive wooden beam, and carrying an unconscious young woman back to friendly lines. He was too tired to even care about catching a stray enemy artillery to the face.

'Heh then again, if I did catch an artillery round to the face, I literally wouldn't care as my head would be gone…Ugh I need sleep before these puns go any further.' He rubbed at his weary eyes to try and clear his sleep deprived vision. When that didn't work, fate found the solution in the form of an artillery shell that landed dangerously close to him, making his ears ring from the explosion. 'I'm up! I'm totally up!' The ringing in his ears lessened over time and was completely gone by the time he arrived at the part of the trench where Major Ozpin lived at.

Pushing aside the damp piece of cloth covering the opening in the side of the trench, Jaune ducked his head to avoid hitting the board that held up the makeshift door cover. Once he made it inside he saw the Major and Captain leaning over a table and studying a map laid out on its surface. When he cleared his voice to garner their attention they both turned to see who needed them.

"Major Ozpin, Captain Goodwitch, I have returned from my mission." He raised his right hand and saluted as he addressed the two.

Goodwitch was the first to speak up. "Lieutenant, glad to see you're alive, after the Atlesian forces were forced to retreat, we feared that you may not have made it." Jaune lowered his arm and smirked. "Besides a few bangs and bruises I'm right as rain. I was able to successfully link up with the resistance fighters and destroy the bridge with a few complications."

Ozpin studied the young man for a moment before gesturing to the dent in his helmet and his banged up face. "Is this one of the complications you had to deal with?" Jaune lightly snorted. "I caught a stray bullet to the back of my head and feel down a flight of stairs." A raised eyebrow from Goodwitch was the only reaction he got from the two. Ozpin calmly raised his ever present coffee cup to his lips and took a sip before speaking once again.

"While I am curious as to what happened, you can give me a detailed report tomorrow morning, I want you to get patched up and get some rest first." Not finding a reason to argue with the Major's statement, Jaune saluted the two of them once more, before making his way out of the underground room and into the world of dirt and grim. Exhaustion hit him like a ton of bricks and he yawned as he made his way back towards his quarters.

"My name is Blake Belladonna, it's a pleasure to meet the two of you." She gave a respective bow to the two of them. But in doing so, she felt herself losing her balance as the adrenaline that was flowing through her system earlier start to wear off and the pain in her legs started to come back in full force.

Seeing the young woman collapse to the ground, Ren stepped forward and knelt down to see what the problem was. Noticing that she was grabbing at her legs, he carefully helped her up and guided the young woman back to the bed she had hurriedly lunged from when he had entered earlier.

"Hey Renny, what's wrong with her?" Nora quickly lent her best friend a hand in helping the injured young woman back to her bed.

"A wooden beam fell on my legs and trapped me. The Lieutenant stayed behind and helped me get free." Blake answered Nora's question with a slightly strained voice.

Ren carefully looked at the bandages around the young woman's legs to see if they were still securely wrapped after the whole scrambling to pin against the wall incident "That sounds like something Lieutenant Arc would do. He's always risking his life to protect those around him." After verifying that they were indeed secure he stood up and looked at Blake in the eyes.

"Try to not move around so much next time, your legs are not broken but you shouldn't strain them anymore than you have too." Blake nodded her head at what the medic was telling her and decided that a good nap was in order when they left her alone.

"Come on Nora, we should leave her be, she needs rest to get her strength back." Ren gently lead Nora to the exit. "But I want to talk to her. Maybe she knows something about sloths or a new recipe about pancakes!" He smiled and shook his head. "You can ask her later, when she's better alright." As the energetic young woman left the room, the Corporal paused without turning around. "I don't know the reason as to why you are hiding your heritage, but Nora and I won't tell anyone. I will say this though, the Lieutenant doesn't care what your heritage is, as your character is what makes you a person." After saying his statement, the Atelsian medic left the room and left Blake to think about what he just said.

Even though the Corporal had said the Lieutenant only cared about her character and not her heritage. She still gazed about the room to see if she could locate her black bow. She noticed that all of her equipment had been taken off of her to treat her wounds and was neatly stacked on a small table near the bed that she was laying in, and on top of her equipment was her bow. Reaching over she securely fastened the bow atop her head to cover her Faunus cat ears.

'I'm not sure why I'm doing this, the Lieutenant doesn't seem like a racist towards Faunus. Considering how he risked his life to save Sun and then risking his life once again to save me. The Corporal even said he wasn't a racist, but then again, he could have done all that because he was ordered to. I'll have to personally see what he honestly thinks of Faunus, before I can fully trust him with my secret.'

After properly fixing her bow atop her head, she properly took the time to study the room she was staying in. The first thing she noticed, was that the room was more than likely underground as she noted the dirt in-between the cracks of wood planks lining the wall. Not all that surprising considering she was probably somewhere in the Atelsian trenches. She was pulled out of her observing, when she picked up footsteps outside the cloth flap that enclosed the entrance to the room. She looked up to see the Lieutenant sleepily shuffle his way inside the room. And as if on automatic mode, he stripped off all of his equipment, and removed his jacket and boots before collapsing on the other bed in the room face down. He was sound asleep before his face hit the pillow.

'Well I guess I can ask him later then, besides a nap sounds wonderful right about now.' She felt her eyelids grow heavy with sleep and soon found herself joining the Lieutenant in the realm of dreams.

Blake found herself waking up to the smell tea brewing and a smell she couldn't quite place. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw that the Lieutenant had gotten up at some point while she was asleep and was busily typing away at something. She carefully sat up and stretched her arms above her head, which in turn, garnered the attention of the Lieutenant by the movement and sounds she made.

"Ah, glad to see your awake, I don't know what you like to eat, but the mess hall was only serving some corned beef and hard tack. I'm sorry I don't have anything better for you to eat." He stood from where he was sitting and made his way over were the tea was brewing and a tray that was covered by a piece of cloth. "Would you like some tea?" He glanced her way as he motioned towards the pot. She nodded wordlessly at his question and he nodded in response as he poured her and himself a cup. She moved her slightly sore legs over the edge of the bed as he handed her the tray of food and the tea.

"Thank you for the food." He waved his hand dismissively as he sat back down at his desk. "No thanks are needed, you can thank the cooks who prepared the meal before you." She couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic or not by his tone of voice and decided to drop the thought as her body told her that it was quite hungry. Corned beef was not a food she personally would choose to eat. But considering that this was all the Atelsians soldiers probably ate on a daily basis she couldn't complain.

'What I wouldn't give for a piece of fish right now.' The whimsical thought passed through her mind as she took a bite of the rather dry corned beef. The hard tack wasn't any better with how dry it was in her mouth. Taking a sip of the tea in-between bits helped with the dryness and soon enough the plate of food was gone and only some crumbs remained on the tray.

Seeing that her cup was almost empty, Jaune stood back up from his seat and brought the pot over to her. "Would you like some more?" She handed him her cup and he refilled quickly before handing back to her. Putting the pot down near her, he silently motioned at the tray in her lap to see if she was done, and after a small nod he removed it and placed it aside to be cleaned at a later time. Noting that she seemed to be in better condition than yesterday he went back to his seat and started to resume his typing. The only sounds in the room was the typewriter and the occasional mumbling coming from the Atelsian soldier as he pondered about something.

"What are you writing about, if you don't me asking?" Blake wasn't really one for small talk as she preferred a good read over a conversation with someone. Unless, of course the topic was something she found interesting enough to engage her attention in. In this case it was the later, as she was curious as to why the Lieutenant was mumbling as he was typing.

Hearing the rather quite young woman speak up and ask him a question, Jaune stopped his typing momentarily and turned to face her. "Nothing much really, I have to write down and record the events that transpired the other day. A battle report of how the bridge was destroyed and all that jazz." He pinched his nose and closed his eyes for a second. "The perks of being an officer in the military doesn't always make up for all the writing I have to do." His hand dropped down from his nose. There's nothing really interesting in it, but your welcome to read it once I'm finished with it. You were there as well, and I could have missed mentioning something that you remember."

Blake nodded her head at what he was saying, "I see, I don't mind looking over the paper when your done writing it." He gave her a small nod and turned back to writing the report. Once again, she found herself with nothing to do. Well another cup of tea didn't sound so bad while she waited for the Lieutenant to be done. She reached over and poured herself another cup, taking small sips she felt her body grow warm from the drink and she grasped the cup just a tiny bit tighter.

Now that the two of them were preoccupied with something, a comfortable silence settled in the room. That was until the Lieutenant finished the report and he offered the paper to Blake. She took the paper from his outstretched hand and started to peruse what the report said about the mission. For the most part he had done an accurate retelling of the events that happened that night. Something she did notice however was the fact that he modified the part were Sun had messed up. According to the report, Sun had braved enemy fire to complete the mission when the firing wire had failed to ignite the explosives, as he was trying to fix the problem, an enemy round had wounded him but he continued fixing the wire until the issue had been fixed and the bridge destroyed. What the Lieutenant hadn't mentioned about the incident, was that it was him, not Sun who had fixed the problem.

'He didn't include the whole story, why didn't he say in the report that Sun was reckless and could have cost us the mission?' She paused in her reading to look up at the Lieutenant. "You didn't mention the whole story, first off it was you who blew the bridge not Sun, and you didn't write in how you went out to treat him, why?" He gave her a small shrug. "I was just doing what was expected of any soldier when a comrade gets wounded in a firefight. I didn't think it was worth mentioning."

"Not worth mentioning? You risked your life too save his, I think that action is worth mentioning." Blake answered him in a calm tone.

Jaune's facial expression took on a serious look. "One of the duties of my job that I take very seriously, is to ensure to the best of my ability that everyone who is under my command and those around me as well, are safe and get to go home back to their friends and loved ones, who are awaiting for their return."

She raised an eyebrow and her thoughts became pensive. "What about your family? Are they not awaiting for your return home as well?"

"Oh they can't wait until I go home, but they know I have a job to do, and besides, I could never forgive myself if I was the reason for someone under my command to die a needless death." The Lieutenant unconsciously started to clench his right hand as he continued to speak, the action didn't go unnoticed by Blake as she studied the young man from where she was sitting. "I know that sounds kinda dumb to say that, as we are literally fighting over a patch of mud, but this is our patch of mud and as long as the Imperials want it, we will continue to fight and keep it under our possession."

"But why do you fight? The Atelsian government wants you to hold this piece of land, but why do you personally fight for this patch of mud?" Blake knew that she was asking a lot of questions, but she was trying to figure out at least a little bit, how the Lieutenant was like.

"Easy, I fight in this hell hole because if I don't, then some other poor chap will have to take my place, and I don't want that next person to be one of my family members. I have a few sisters back home that still have their entire childhood ahead of them. If fighting in this war means they can have that childhood, then so be it." The Lieutenant stretched out his arms in front of him as he finished his answer. "With that being said, let me ask you the same question, why are you fighting in this war?" He leaned forward and rested his arms on his lap as he waited for her answer.

"My reason's are similar to yours actually, minus the sibling part as I am an only child. When the Empire attacked Atlas, I was serving in the town watch when the war started..." Jaune politely raised his hand and she paused to see what his question was. "By town watch, you mean like a militia?"

"Similar, but as the title says, it was more for my town's personal protection, we were trained to handle firearms and the basics of fighting. But it was more for keeping the peace and not fighting a war. As you know, when the war broke out, Atlas lost a great deal of land to the Empire's invasion. My town being apart of that lost territory. So my town watch started to train in guerrilla warfare tactics to help disrupt the enemy, and perhaps help the Atelsian frontlines in the process." Now it was her turn to look at Jaune with a serious expression on her face. "I want to end this war and help free my family from the Empire's grasp. That is why I fight."

A pregnant silence hung in the air as Jaune processed everything he had just heard from the young woman. 'Hmm, so that help's explain why she's fighting in this war, and since she isn't serving in the military officially she doesn't have to be stuck in these rotten trenches, maybe I should have joined the resistance instead. Probably a lot more cleaner than this place will ever be.' He mentally snorted at the thoughts crossing his mind, but seeing as he was still being stared at by the young woman he refocused his attention back to her and mentally paused as he looked into her eyes. 'You know, now that I can actually see her face without the mask and the scarf covering it, she's got some really pretty yellow eyes...' He brushed off the wayward thought before it went any further.

"I see, your intentions for fighting in this war are commendable, but it doesn't change the fact that this war is a gruesome and bloody business. I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds when I say neither of us truly knew what this war has shown us."

"While I can agree to that, I think you've probably seen more things than I have, as I fight in the shadows away from searching eyes. You on the other hand, must have fought in some less then desirable conditions." Blake had seen her fair share of violence, but when she saw those Atelsian soldiers get vaporized from the artillery shell, she had found herself slightly shocked from the sight she had witnessed. If the Lieutenant had to go through that on more than likely daily basis, she couldn't help but have a small feeling of respect to the young man across from her.

Which reminded her of the momentarily forgotten paper in her hand, she looked down and started to skim through the contents once more. When she reached the part where they had manned the machine gun, he did state that Tukson was a causality of the artillery barrage, and that herself and him were able to successfully retreat back to friendly lines and avoid capture. Once again he omitted the part of how he risked his life as he stayed behind to save her from the fallen wooden beam. Instead of questioning him this time as she had heard his reasoning earlier she just handed the paper back to him when she finished.

"I know you said you were doing what any soldier would have done, but please accept my heartfelt thanks for saving my life. I don't know how I could ever repay you for what you did." Blake knew that a thank you wasn't enough for what he had done, but she couldn't with a clear conscience not thank the man for what he had done.

Jaune raised a hand to the back of his head and waved the other one in front of his face. "Uh your welcome, but like I said I was just doing the right thing, you don't owe me anything, the fact that your alive and well is good enough for me." Jaune stood up from his chair and carefully folded the report in his hand before sticking it in a coat pocket for safe keeping. "Well before I forgot to do so, I'm going to deliver this report to the Major." He quickly made his way out of the room leaving a rather amused Blake behind.

Seeing the rather calm and levelheaded Lieutenant acting slightly abashed slightly amused her. 'I wonder if this is how his real character is like? Then again, I think anyone who's fought in this war has had to grow up quite quickly. But embarrassed feelings don't win wars. I guess I can clean my pistol while he's gone, nothing else to do.'

Blake reached over and grabbed her pistol from it's holster, she also grabbed a small rag and cleaning kit from the bag she wore on her right thigh. Having done this countless times, she started to take apart her weapon and methodically start to clean the parts of any dirt and mud that had gotten on them from the last battle. For the most part, the weapon was fairly clean, aside from few pieces of dirt that were on some parts. She carefully wiped some dirt from the barrel and with a meticulous gaze looked over the rest of the weapons parts for any other grim.

Even though she tried to clean her weapon's on a daily basis, her pistol probably had gotten some grim in it when she had taken the tumble down the stairs. Still, only having some dirt in the gun instead of dying from the shell that had landed on the house was a fair trade off. Then again, Tukson had died in the blast, a flashback crossed her mind and she remembered being shoved down the stairs in an attempt to save her life. Seeing as how both the Lieutenant and her were alive, it had to have been Tukson who had pushed them out of the way. Unfortunately he was not able to save himself. Poor man, before the war had started, he had run a bookstore that she found herself more often in, trying to find a book to read. May Monty have mercy on his soul.

With the dirt cleaned from the gun, she reached over to her bag to grab the small oil bottle only to find it empty.

'I forgot that I needed to refill the oil, maybe the Lieutenant has some, I'll wait till he gets back as I don't feel right going through his things.'

As if he had heard her thoughts, Jaune had returned from his trip to the Major and upon entering the room saw Blake with a disassembled pistol laying on the bed she was on.

"Cleaning your weapon?" While it was a rhetorical statement, he was a bit surprised when heard an answer. "Yes I was, but I don't have any more gun oil, if you have some, do you mind if I use some? The request wasn't a hard one to fulfill and he made his way over to the desk in the room.

"Yeah, I've got some around here I think, give me a second." He started to open drawers as he didn't quite remember were he had put his gun oil bottle, cleaning his knife was a daily thing, even cleaning his rifle too, but it had been awhile since he had used oil for its parts. As he was looking through the drawers something caught Blake's eyes and she had to ask.

"Was there a book in the drawer you just opened?" Jaune momentarily paused in his searching as he heard the question. "Yeah there was, why?"

"To be honest I enjoy reading books in my spare time, and seeing a book piqued my interest."

"I see, well it's a book my older sister wrote, she gave me a copy to read, but I haven't read it yet." By this time, Jaune felt a cold sweat settle over his body as the direction of this conversation made him start to worry.

"Do you mind if I read it then? That is, if your not about to read it yourself." While Blake's voice was outwardly calm, internally she was excited that she had something to read.

"No, no I'm not planning on reading right at the moment, you can read it if you want." He found the gun oil bottle in the drawer he had open and handed it to the young woman before re-opening the previous drawer and grabbing the book that was laying inside. Brushing the cover off he carefully handed it to the young woman.

'Oh god, the reason why I haven't read the book is because I was the one who wrote it...' Jaune watched with bated breath as the young woman looked at the title of the book and read it aloud.

"Ninja's of Love? Your sister wrote a romance novel then?" Blake opened the book and started to skim the pages.

"Yeah, I guess so, like I said never read it, and it has been awhile since I received that so I don't remember."

Back from where Jaune was born, to most of the public he had a gift in martial arts, but to a select few, he was upcoming amateur author, but that part of his life was top secret, nobody was going to find that part out about him anytime soon.

"Thank you, I'll enjoy reading this later, but I should finish cleaning my weapons first." Blake put the book down on the bed before resuming her maintenance.

Jaune internally sighed as he made his way over to his bed and pulled out Crocea Mors from its sheath. "Might as well clean my knife as well, nothing better to do.' After a little while he looked up from his cleaning to see that Blake had finished putting her pistol back together and was now working on a dagger of sorts. Seeing as how the blade was rather unique, he was curious if perhaps the blade was a family heirloom like his.

"Excuse me, but I've never seen that type of blade before, is it perhaps a family heirloom?" Blake stopped wiping the blade and looked up to see a questioning gaze on the Lieutenants face.

"I wouldn't say its a family heirloom per-se, my mother gave this to me as a gift when I joined the resistance. The pistol I carry is the gift I received from my father. My parent's called the set Gambol Shroud. Since firing a firearm is rather loud, and sneaking in the shadows calls for stealth, you make a gamble when you discharge a firearm as it could give your position away. The knife is meant to help shroud your presence from the enemy as it is a silent kill. I personally like the name, even if the reasoning behind it is...unique."

"I think the reasoning behind calling it Gambol Shroud is neat, my knife is a family heirloom that has been handed down the generations. No idea what Crocea Mors means, so I don't have a cool backstory like yours." Jaune shrugged as he said this. Blake on the other hand remembered how his knife had almost glowed in the dark the other day, but seeing as he didn't say anything about it glowing, perhaps it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. That or something was quite odd about the knife.

Before she could pose the question on her mind, an ominous sound could be heard coming from outside.

"GAS! GAS! GAS!, EVERYONE GET YOUR MASKS ON NOW!"

Upon hearing the announcement, Jaune scrambled for his gas mask bag and noticed how Blake didn't have one. 'I am so going to die.'

"Hear! Put this on quickly!" He shoved the mask into her hands.

Blake protested at what he was doing. "What about you? This is your's isn't it!" She was cut off from any more arguing as she felt the mask being slipped over her head.

"Tuck the bottom part into your shirt!" He reached over and placed her pistol in her hands. "Stay here! I'm going to help everyone else!"

Blake may have only known the young man for a few days, but she genuinely feared for his life. As he had obviously given her his own gas mask. The Lieutenant grabbed his rifle were it was leaning up against the wall and gave her a thumbs up. "Stay safe!"

And with that, he took a deep breath as he pushed aside the cloth flap and made his way outside.

I just love cliffhangers...I'm sure you guys as well. Don't worry I won't do it all the time as that can bug some people.

Thanks for reading!