Hey guys! RatherNerdyMan here and I'm just going to start off by saying that I want to sincerely apologize for the time it took for me to get this out. I had a lot of emotional baggage that I had to get over and it just made me not able to write anything.
So, I'm sorry.
Onto the story, I'm happy to announce that the ideas are flowing freely within my noggin, so chapter six with definitely come out sooner rather than later so... Yay for that :D. I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!
Jaune was in a forest, he didn't know where the forest was, just that it wasn't safe. He felt constant eyes on his back, as if something was waiting for that one unavoidable slip up, the action that would end it all. He knew that if he did something wrong, he would die. There was only one thing wrong with the picture though, Jaune didn't know what he was supposed to be doing here in the first place, let alone being able to not mess it up. Keeping up his guard, Jaune starts walking through the forest. He soon comes upon a small wooden cottage, he hears the laughter of his team inside. Ecstatic, Jaune starts running towards the cottage. He was still being watched, but he didn't care, If he was with his team, they were unstoppable. When Jaune reached the door, everything went silent... Eerily so. Jaune was hesitant to open the door, but he grabbed the doorknob with renewed gusto.
"Hey guys, what's so funn-AAAHHH"
"AAAHHHHH" Jaune screamed awake.
"Jaune? What's wrong?" Asked Ren, who currently sat in front of Jaune. They had transferred to a train that was going to their first bounty hunt.
"N-nothing Ren, just another nightmare" Jaune stated sitting up.
"The same one? Odd, we could put this on hold and get that checked out if you feel it's necessary"
"No! No, I'm fine I swear. I think it's just the medicine I took for the motion sickness, honest" Jaune stated, holding his arm up to his heart.
"Okay, if you insist..."
Jaune then looked out of the window, seeing the village of Caelfall. Team JNPR had gotten an extermination/protection job from one of Ren's parents' "associates". The village had been getting attacked by a pack of Beowolves recently and was in need of protection. It was rather odd though, Caelfall was decently small, but Beowolves rarely ever attacked big groups of humans, and Caelfall wasn't too small to be attacked for no reason.
'I wonder why that is' Jaune thought, before hearing a yawn from his... Stomach?
Jaune looked down to see Pyrrha waking up from, what seemed to be a very peaceful nap... On Jaune's lap. Pyrrha had seemed to be getting very attached to Jaune lately, like she thought that he was going to disappear any at second, and she wanted to go there with him if he did. Jaune didn't mind much at all, for... Personal reasons. Nevertheless, Jaune couldn't help but think that this new behavior might get into the way of the team functioning properly. He had to set her straight, at least for the mean time.
"Pyrrha, would you mind getting off of me? My legs are starting to cramp"
"Wha-? Oh! Sure, sorry Jaune..." Pyrrha said, struggling to get back into a sitting position. Disappointment evident in her voice.
Jaune hated being so mean to someone so close to him. It was against his nature, it made him feel absolutely terrible. Before he could start punching himself, Nora strode in with a huge grin on her face.
"Looks like we're here guys!"
Suddenly feeling very inspired, Jaune rose from his seat.
"This is our first mission guys, our first opportunity to really grow" Jaune exclaimed putting his hand in between the other three.
"This experience is going to help us Jaune, trust me" Pyrrha said with a smile, laying her hand on top of Jaune's, causing a slight blush to spread across his face.
"Of course it is, BECAUSE. WE'RE. AWESOME!" Nora yelled slamming her hand onto the pile, eliciting an audible groan from Pyrrha and Jaune.
"..." Ren put his hand on the pile with a sigh.
A sudden stop made the team topple over like dominoes, causing them to chuckle a bit at the debacle. After a bit of trouble with the team's (particularly Nora's) luggage, the team made it to the hotel that they'd be staying at for the duration of the mission. They were getting free rooming while they were here as part of the payment for the extermination.
"I guess this is it.." Jaune let out dropping a pile of Nora's things, seeming to be the only one bothered by the immense weight of her belongings.
"The owner did sound a bit eccentric.. But I'd never guess something like this would be in a town all the way out here." Pyrrha said, also relieving herself of the weight of Nora's baggage.
Stood before the group was a twenty some-odd story building that looked to be, at least, a four star establishment. On the front it read "Schnee Heights". Seeing the sign made Pyrrha's face turn from one of awe to one of pure disgust. Jaune saw this and hurried the team inside the building. As they entered they were immediately surprised by what they saw. People From all walks of life, conversing and helping each other.
"AH! I see that you've arrived in one piece!" A sturdy man in a suit gallantly yelled while striding over at a quickened pace.
"One piece? Why do you say that?" Jaune asked with a worried tone.
"Just a joke son, no need to get your armour dented about it!" The man explained, followed by a hearty laugh. He was starting to remind Jaune of a rather Portly fellow back at Beacon. Jaune had noticed Ren slowly inching away towards the entrance.
"Ren, is something wrong?" Jaune asked worriedly.
"Ren?! By Jove! It is you ya' little squeak face. I haven't seen you since you were four!" The man exclaimed pushing through the team, giving a giant bear hug to Ren, despite his obvious increasing displeasure.
"There wasn't... Anything... *gasp* Wrong..." Ren got out before he passed out from lack of oxygen.
*Sigh* "Enough of the reunions, you young ones probably want to have some rest before you go gettin' rid' of our little problems out there." The man said dropping Ren like a used toy. Causing Nora to run to him and check his vitals.
"Right this way!" The man said pointing down a hallway to an elevator.
They all got into the elevator, Ren being dragged by Nora. The elevator showed exactly 22 floors, the man pressing and lighting up the 21 button.
"Our rooms are on the 21st floor? Wouldn't it be better if our room was on the first floor in case we need to get to the town faster?" Jaune asked while desperately sticking to the corner of the elevator.
"Well I guess you would be right, but all of the townsfolk are on the lower floors and I can't just well kick em' out now can I?" The man said, staring at the elevator door.
A few more moments of awkward silence later and they finally reached their floor. Surprisingly, there were only two doors on either side of the short hallway.
"These are your respective rooms, and I hope you will be RESPECTFUL in them... I know that you're in the prime of your youth but we do not condone such activities as se-" The man was saying, being interrupted by Jaune rushing up to him and putting a hand over the man's mouth.
"I don't want you giving her any ideas!" Jaune whispered frantically to the man. Sneaking a glimpse of Pyrrha over by the still unconscious Ren, and Nora holding him up by the legs. Jaune could have sworn that he saw Pyrrha wear the most demonic grin he'd ever seen for a split second before she smiled at him. He just chalked it up to his imagination and released his hand from the burly man.
"I... See how it is now.. The boys get the left room and the girls get the right room" The man barely got out, seeing the full morphing of Pyrrha's face from one of glee, to one of murder. And it was directed at him, to say it intimidated him would be an understatement. If he had been missing even a shred of his dignity at this moment he would've spilled the contents of his bladder right then. Instead, he just turned around and walked quickly over to the elevator. As the doors closed him inside of the machine, he yelled out.
"The name's Tanpopo by the way!" He got out right before the doors closed him off from the group, leaving them to their own devices. He might just have to ignore the noises he might hear from his room on the 20th floor, for his own safety.
The four teenagers were standing there kind of dazed at how fast all of those events occurred, before Jaune and Pyrrha noticed Ren laying on the floor.. By himself.
"Where's Nora?!" Jaune asked in a panic, looking around frantically. Suddenly hearing the sound of feet hitting something soft repeatedly he figured out where she went. Jaune then grabbed Ren by the ankles and dragged him into the left room. Telling Pyrrha to settle in and that they'd go check out the village afterwards.
An hour passed and Ren finally woke up flailing his arms around, managing to punch Jaune square in the jaw as he walked by. Knocking Jaune flat on his back, knocking the wind out of him.
"...Sorry about that" Ren apologized, now helping his fallen leader back up off of the floor.
"No problem.." Jaune wheezed out.
"I'm glad that you're awake, now we can go explore the town" Jaune said while dusting himself off and regaining his composure. Jaune then grabbed Ren by the wrist and dragged him out of their room, before knocking on the girls' door. The first one out was Pyrrha, surprisingly, Nora was still jumping on one of the two the beds. Pyrrha saw that Jaune had Ren's wrist in his own and seemed to click her tongue in distaste. Sure, she knew that, even if Jaune did like Ren that way, Ren obviously liked Nora. But that doesn't mean that she likes anyone's hand in Jaune's except for her own, it left a bad taste in her mouth and she hated that taste. It was the taste of defeat, of loss, and she never loses, especially when it came to Jaune. Pyrrha had years of hand-to-hand combat experience and skillfully separated the two fast enough so that they wouldn't notice.
"You guys ready to hit the town?" Jaune asked, feeling a slight absence in his hand region, but shrugged it off.
"I am, Jaune, Nora has been simply delighted since we got here. She's been spouting nonsense about food, killing, etc... Normal Nora things I suppose" Pyrrha said with a giggle. This made Jaune's mood lighten a bit, as it seemed that Pyrrha was acting like her usual self again and not overly clingy. And with everyone ready, the team set off to see the sights of the village.
The village was like an immense antique shop, in fact, aside from the towering hotel, everything seemed like it was frozen in time from since they were first built. It was mysterious and beautiful in and of itself. But for some odd reason, Jaune didn't feel safe, like danger was right around the corner. Actually, he had felt it ever since his encounter with Cardin at the cliffs, it was just far more profound in this village. Before he had realised it, Jaune was by himself in the middle of what seemed like a shopping district, void of any liveliness due to the town being evacuated to the hotel. It was extremely eerie.
"P-Pyrrha?! REN!? NORA?!" Jaune screamed, desperately trying to contact his team. After a good couple of minutes, Jaune decided to search for his team for a bit. If all else failed he would just go back to the hotel, it was common sense to return to their current place of residence if they got separated. Jaune continued in the direction that he felt his team would go, eventually happening upon a forested area that seemed to be the edge of the town.
'Well that doesn't make sense, why isn't there a wall here? It's almost guaranteed suicide to make a town anywhere without some sort of barrier separating the population from the creatures of Grimm.' Jaune thought while checking the area for lone Grimm. In his analysis of the area Jaune found a trail with maple trees lining the sides. Jaune started following the path... Against his better judgement. It was like something was pulling him to the end of the trail, something he needed to see.. After what seemed like hours of mindless following of this trail, Jaune found himself in a somewhat familiar setting. The trail had ended a ways back, but Jaune had just noticed, but he didn't feel lost. Jaune continued through the forest until he heard what seemed like a girl screaming. He instinctively ran towards the scream in hopes of helping whoever was distressed. He ran with all of his might towards the noise, he came upon a rather large tree that concealed the source of the scream. When he rounded the tree his legs collapsed beneath him as he saw where the scream originated from. For there, in the middle of the forest, was a cabin... The exact cabin that recently haunted his nightmares. It was another scream that gave Jaune the courage he needed, whoever was in there needed help more than he needed to not go inside the cabin. So he ran up to the door, expecting it to be unlocked (as it was always unlocked in his nightmares), but it was locked. Jaune then heard crying from what sounded like a middle-aged woman. He frantically started using his body to try and bash his way through the door, to get to whoever it was that was in there. He had to stop and asses the situation more thoroughly. Upon closer inspection, he realized that all of the windows were boarded up, and that the cabin itself was in worse shape than he had originally thought. He then realized something, the crying and screams had stopped. What replaced them was a very quiet and methodical giggling, which soon grew to outright maddening laughter. Jaune, with nothing else to do, gave one final bash at the door and it finally gave way. What he saw made him collapse with fear and dread. For what he saw was his team, the NPR part of it, sitting next to a pile of bodies... Human bodies. They were laughing maniacally with blood covering their features. Ren and Nora were having too much fun messing around with the intestines of the fallen before them to notice Jaune, but Pyrrha saw him right away. Her eyes were red and puffy, it seemed that she was the one crying. It didn't match her appearance now though, for she had the most evil smile Jaune had ever seen in his life, it sent shivers straight down his spine.
"What's wrong Jaune? Why don't you join us Jaune?" Pyrrha said while walking up to him and embracing him in a blood covered hug, effectively smearing said blood all over Jaune. Causing him to wretch and unsuccessfully keep in the contents of his stomach. When he turned his head back, Pyrrha's face was mere centimeters away from his. She seemed to have red lipstick on, but Jaune knew better. After all... It smelled too much of iron to be lipstick. At this gruesome sight, Jaune started crying softly out of pure despair.
"What could have caused this?" Jaune wept out, still in the embrace of Pyrrha... Or whatever it was.
"Don't cry my general, after all, it was you who did this" Pyrrha said with a gleeful smile and kissed him on the forehead, leaving a bloodied mark where she had planted her lips.
"What do you mean?! I would never tell.. I would never ask you to do something like this!" Jaune denied, trying to escape Pyrrha's grasp, effectively failing.
"Oh~ But you did, it was so valiant and handsome my amazing general~" Pyrrha said as she squeezed him harder.
"NO! I WOULD NEVER! AND STOP IT WITH THE GENERAL!" Jaune screamed using all of his strength to shove Pyrrha off of him and running to a nearby corner.
"Your words hurt Jaune, just join us Jaune. It's alright, no one will hurt you if you're with us Jaune" Pyrrha said with outstretched arms, slowly inching closer to Jaune.
"Get away from me!" Jaune yelled as he cowered in his corner, closing his eyes to what she might do to him.
"Jaune... Please... Jaune... JAUNE! JAUNE!" Jaune opened his eyes to see a concerned Pyrrha shaking Jaune to get his attention. He was back in the shopping district of the village, his friends still there, Jaune fell onto the cobblestone road and burst into tears. Effectively causing the rest of his team to rush over to him and inspect him for anything wrong. Ren had a clue at what could have caused this to happen though.
"It was the dream again, wasn't it Jaune?" Ren asked as the team tried to help Jaune off of the ground, only to find out that he was unconscious.
"You'll tell me about this dream of his when we get back to the hotel, in full detail" Pyrrha hissed at Ren, making him cower a bit at the anger that she emitted towards him.
"Y-yes mam..." Ren said picking up Jaune's legs.
They arrived at the hotel just before nightfall. They were greeted by an overly excited Tanpopo, that was.. Before he saw Jaune unconscious. He immediately called in the medical staff who had hurriedly hauled Jaune off to the infirmary.
"I didn't expect this to happen.." Tanpopo said to himself, not noticing the rest of Jaune's team eavesdropping in on him saying this.
"Expect what to happen to him?!" Pyrrha said, practically spitting venom as she spoke.
"T-that there would be an injury this early..." He said, catching himself.
Ozpin's Office
"Are you sure? This early? I thought it would take much longer than this.." Ozpin said, worry clearly evident in his voice. He was currently talking to a man over his scroll's video chat.
"I am more sure of this that I would wager your coffee on it Ozpin" The man said With a chuckle.
"Keep a close eye on him, I am trusting you with him Tanpopo"
"Of course Oz, nothing but the best for our little General here"
So we finally are getting something in relation to the title of this story!
Next time: some unexpected findings!
Questions? Concerns? Ships? Leave them in the review or PM me!