By the time their first lesson with Professor Port was over, Jaune and, he was quite sure, his team, were most definitely aware that they had missed breakfast. The blonde was thankful that his team had apparently decided to stick around to take care of their leader instead of taking care of themselves, but he also felt guilty as hell.

Especially since even Nora, who was one of only about seven students in first year who actually enjoyed the Professor's classes, was flagging. Her head kept slipping forward, and he could hear low, intermittent gurgles coming from her direction. She perked up, however, as Professor Port's story came to a close, and a familiar voice cut across the room.

Weiss Schnee moved from her seat to a door set into the side of the room, which led into a space which was used as an armoury, supply closet and changing room. She emerged a minute later in her usual battle-dress and carrying Myrtenaster. Jaune tried to consider where she had been keeping them, or where they had to have come from...but with his restless sleep, lack of food, and the Professor's story (which he had heard at least three times before by his count), the effort of problem-solving was far beyond him. The heiress set herself at a fair distance from the box Professor Port had brought into class, staring at the red eyes glowing within.

Jaune watched the ensuing battle in silence. He was just awake enough to observe from the standpoint of a relatively experienced leader, and he couldn't help but sigh. Ruby had suggested an entirely viable strategy, yes, and had refrained from trying to micro-manage her teammate. That was her experience as a warrior shining through.

What also shone through, however, was her rather child-like disposition. Cheering on a friend was all well and good in a tournament setting or something similar, since not only did it bolster confidence in allies, it could engender all kinds of negative emotions in enemies, therefore encouraging them to make mistakes. But in a class like this, where the opponent was a Grimm, and the person being cheered on was...well, Weiss Schnee, it didn't really work. And when it was done during a time of particular focus (like, say, holding a raging Grimm at arm's length while it tried to kill you), it was distracting - and distractions in battle had consequences.

A piercing whistle cutting through the air, the sound of breaking glass...the sinking feeling you get when something has just gone very, very wrong...

Jaune shook his head to dismiss the thoughts of the past. It was a non-factor now, and was best left out of consideration.

When Weiss had defeated the Boarbatusk, Professor Port soon dismissed the class. Jaune watched as Weiss stalked out of the room, Ruby hurrying after her, but Yang and Blake making their way to the dining hall for lunch. Jaune turned to look at his team. They were seated side-by-side, with Jaune on the end of the bench by the steps, then Pyrrha, Nora and Ren in that order.

"Come on guys, let's go and get some lunch." Nora went from half-asleep to fully engaged in a moment, and the blonde quickly moved off the seats to let Pyrrha get out of the girl's way. Once all four of them were free of the seats, they left the classroom and headed across the courtyard to the dining hall. Pushing open the doors, they moved to the serving area and piled their trays higher than usual to make up for the lack of breakfast.

Jaune scanned the hall, and almost immediately his eyes alighted upon a familiar mane of blonde hair. The warrior to whom the hair was attached looked up from her meal. Spotting him, and by extension his team, she began gesturing for them to join her and her partner, who was currently engrossed in a book.

A few seconds' maneuvering got team JNPR through the hall and into the four seats opposite Yang and Blake, who had saved seats for their other two team members when they arrived. "Hey guys. I guess I ought to thank you for keeping an eye on the time...or maybe not. That professor was kinda creepy."

Jaune couldn't help but nod, swallowing the more-or-less whole sandwich he had just devoured. "He's certainly got...character." he replied, though he could tell that beside him Pyrrha was contemplating a somewhat...wider array of words which might have been used. His fellow blonde shoot Jaune a look out of the corner of her eye, leaning forward as she was to try and read the title of Blake's novel.

"Uh huh." was her only response, though the doubt present in the simple expression was almost tangible.

Jaune laughed uneasily. He knew for a fact that Professor Port would never make any moves on his students. In fact, Jaune knew that the Professor Port that most of Beacon were familiar with was more or less a mask - an entire personality that the veteran Huntsman employed for teaching. Of course, his female classmates didn't know that (and frankly he shouldn't either), so he didn't mention it.

Taking a large bite of an apple, Jaune felt himself coming back to life as the glucose made its way into his bloodstream. As he started thinking again, he quickly checked his scroll; their afternoon class was Oobleck, and then they had combat training in the evening. The same pattern that they had followed for almost their entire first year, barring exceptions for emergencies, absences, field trips and the like.

A creaking sound reached Jaune's ears, and he turned toward its source – Blake Belladonna was gripping her novel with enough strength for the cover to protest its treatment with the noise he was hearing. Her gaze was going over Jaune's shoulder, and he turned slightly. Team CRDL. Of course it was them, and if Jaune was right, then...yep, there she was.

Velvet Scarlatina was stuck sitting between Cardin and one of his cronies. Jaune realized that he had actually forgotten their names. Cardin and Co had left JNPR alone following the Forever Fall incident, abandoning all attempts to mess with them. In fact, he'd barely thought about them in months.

Now though, they were back in his sphere of interest. He knew that this was another moment where had to debate what to do. He had discovered in the run-up to the Vytal Festival that the rest of team CFVY tended to wake up sometime in the early afternoon, due to the fact that second-year Beacon students had parts of their schedule shifted into the night-time. Apparently it was meant to give them the ability to grab sleep as and when they needed. However Velvet was always up earlier, studying in the library.

So Jaune had two options. He could assume that the bullying was something which had changed Velvet for the better in the long run...or, before CRDL got settled into the idea that this was going to be a regular occurrence, he could...

Do what he was already doing. Without noticing, he'd already stood up from the table, and he felt his feet carrying him toward Cardin Winchester.

Cardin Winchester thought his day was going well. He'd been appointed team leader of CRDL just the night before, becoming fast friends with Russel, Dove and Sky. Now all he needed to do was secure a reputation as someone not to mess with. It had always been his way - by establishing a reputation, his team earned themselves a place in the spotlight. It might not be a favourable light, but it still brought attention to them. And the more attention they got, the better their chances of getting ahead.

He'd quickly identified a Faunus as their first target. They suffered from discrimination so often that they rarely fought back, and a lot of the time people didn't want to bother coming to their aid. So he and his followers had crowded her in, and he was running through his list of offensive terms and slander, watching with a professional eye as the girl with rabbit ears seemed to fold in on herself more and more.

Things were going well when Dove tapped him on the shoulder, distracting him. "Uh, Cardin?".

"What?" he snapped, turning around. He immediately saw 'what'. A blonde figure was walking slowly toward him. That would normally not worry Cardin at all - someone coming to the aid of a target would serve as a good example to others, bolstering the reputation early on. Except...where the blonde walked, no one else did. It was as if the crowd simply parted to let him move. Even worse was that the man's hair had fallen over his eyes; all he could see of his expression was a small smile.

That smile was absolutely terrifying.

But if Cardin buckled, his reputation would be ruined before it was even fully formed. Calm down. The kid's a head shorter than you, doesn't look that tough. Even if he's some kind of tactician, we got this. Fixing his oft-used 'pissed' expression on his face, the titanic youth brought himself to his full height and moved forward to engage the blonde. He opened his mouth to ask what the hell he was doing...

And that was as far as he got before something broke his nose.

Jaune watched thoughts run through the darker blue eyes of his opponent. He was obviously unsettled, but forcing himself to work through it. Apparently through with his mental pep-talk, the lummox went straight for the intimidation tactics. Full height, slight lean forward, face like he'd stepped in something nasty. Mouth opening to deliver some kind of warning or question.

Jaune waited until his mouth was fully...and then he moved. Though he had learned almost all of his combat skills from Pyrrha, she had once brought Ren in one their training, since she thought Jaune could use an alternative for when no weapon was handy. Ren had taught him just that - a strike which was intended to be used on a human opponent when they thought you were disarmed and helpless. It was sudden, extremely violent, and could incapacitate an adversary instantly.

Jaune had practiced the technique until Ren told him it was good enough. 'Good enough' from Ren was roughly the equivalent of a diploma, particularly when it came to combat. So when Jaune put the entire force of body and every available muscle behind his middle knuckle and drove it into Cardin Winchester's face, his nose broke instantly, despite his aura.

The move wasn't complete though. His fist still buried in Cardin's face, Jaune launched himself forward in an arcing motion, propelling the larger boy over onto his back, and driving his head into the floor. Winchester's aura absorbed most of that blow - the striking area was too large for it to do much damage. But it got his head ringing, a distraction on top of the pain explosion a broken nose caused.

His hands flew to his face, already vacated by Jaune's fist, and he let out the loudest noise he could currently make...which amounted to a gurgled whimper. Jaune looked up at the rest of team CRDL, and spoke clearly to what was now a silent hall. "I don't know if discrimination against Faunus is a normal thing where you come from, and I don't care. In Monty's name, I will lay waste to each and every one of you if I even see a hint of this happening again." His point made, Jaune began to walk over to Velvet. The spell broken, RDL rushed over to their leader, carrying him over their shoulders as they made for the infirmary.

The faunus girl was watching him carefully as he approached, and Jaune stopped well outside her personal space. "You all right there?" he asked, keeping his hands open at his sides and maintaining eye contact.

"...Yes. Yes, I'm fine, thank you." The girl was soft-spoken, and her eyes turned away from Jaune's. The blonde gestured behind him.

"I understand if you don't want to, but I don't suppose I can offer you a seat at our table?" The girl turned back to him, scanning his face. Jaune just let it show how he was feeling; hopefulness, worry, and receding anger. Apparently that was enough for Cardin's would-be target, and she nodded as she stood.

Jaune extended a hand to her. "Jaune Arc, at your service."

The girl stared at his hand for a moment, before hesitantly clutching it in her own. "Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina. Thank you, Jaune." Jaune grinned, letting Velvet have her hand back as he lead her back to the table where Ruby and Weiss had apparently returned.

He offered her his seat, and she settled into it. Jaune turned to head out of the hall, but was hailed by Yang before he could leave. "Hey, Jaune, where are you going? You just going to leave your damsel to her own devices?" Jaune turned back, one eyebrow raised.

"That 'damsel', Yang, is a second year. She would whoop my ass, Cardin's ass, and probably your ass too. I'm hoping she'll keep you out of trouble." Yang's eyes widened slightly; she wasn't used to people playing her game.

"You think so little of me, Jaune? That hurts, it really does." To reinforce her point, Yang placed her left hand melodramatically over her heart, putting the back of her right hand to her forehead and leaning backwards.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much." countered Jaune, smirking. "But yeah, I have to go. Goodwitch will be here soon, and I can probably do damage control if I go to meet her. I'll see you guys later if she doesn't kill me." Jaune moved off toward the doors, hearing Yang, Ruby, Nora and Pyrrha offering their own variations on "Good luck."

Jaune pushed the hall doors open, walking out into the sunlight. A quick scan revealed Glynda Goodwitch striding across the courtyard in his direction. A member of team CRDL was with her. Taking a deep breath, Jaune moved to meet with the teacher, and thus they were face to face in only a few seconds. Professor Goodwitch gave Jaune an inscrutable look.

"Well Mr Arc, you aren't the fastest troublemaker in the school's history, but you were admirably close. Mr Lark here tells me that you assaulted Cardin Winchester for no reason, breaking his nose and issuing a threat against his entire team as well?" Jaune waved his hand back and forth.

"Almost entirely true Professor. I did in fact break Winchester's nose, and though I felt I was issuing a warning to his team, I suppose it was a threat at that." The professor raised her eyebrows.

"I notice that you have deliberately failed to mention one of the points I mentioned. Shall I take it then that you did in fact have a reason for assaulting another student?"

Jaune nodded. "Yes, Professor Goodwitch. I assaulted Cardin Winchester because he and his team were verbally abusing Velvet Scarlatina due to her being a Faunus. I took exception to their actions, and sought to remedy them." Jaune pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "You can ask her yourself if you want; she's sitting with the rest of my team, as well as team RWBY. All of whom will tell you what I just did."

Goodwitch frowned slightly, leaning a bit to the side in order to look into the hall. The Huntress's eyes quickly found Scarlatina's distinctive ears, which were in fact seated next to the other seven members of the group which Jaune had been part of during initiation. She turned back to Jaune, examining his face with eyes that had faced down hundreds of Grimm, criminals, guilty students and the veritable Rubik's Cube of a man that was Headmaster Ozpin.

A good man in the making, with the kind of resolve that you can bend steel around. There was something else behind the gentle nature, though; something dark and foreboding, that she had seen in many others like Jaune. It was what separated the great warriors from the legends.

A great warrior built his life around something he had to protect, and drew strength from it. Legends were those who had that and lost it, and then quietly stood up again and said "No more." And when they spoke, the universe itself seemed to listen. The huntress wondered what could possibly have happened to the young blonde for him to have already attained that inner strength...she would have to do some digging into Jaune Arc.

Jaune held still as the Professor leaned down slightly, staring into his eyes. He knew that she could read him like an open book, so he didn't even try to be deceitful – he just prayed that she would decide he was telling the truth. A moment passed, and Goodwitch straightened. "I see. Of course, I'll have to speak with all your teammates individually, but I believe I understand the situation now. Discrimination against other students, in particular because of race, is a betrayal of Beacon's very spirit, and shall be dealt with accordingly. Next time, however, please refrain from delivering such retribution yourself, Mr Arc - we teachers are more than capable of dealing with these situations. Return to your meal, Mr Arc. Oh, and do tell your compatriots that I will be calling on them in the days to come."

Jaune nodded. "I will, Professor Goodwitch. Thank you." With that, Jaune turned back to the hall and headed inside, letting his shoulders slump with relief.

When he returned to the table, he found that Velvet had relocated to sit beside Ruby, allowing Jaune to regain his place at the table. He picked up his apple and took another large bite out of it, sighing around the fruit. He looked up to find eight pairs of curious eyes looking back at him. "So? How went things with tall, blonde and terrifying out there?" asked Yang, leaning over the table a bit.

Ruby did the same, continuing the line of questioning with "Yeah, are you gonna be all right?" Jaune smiled back at them, angling himself so that he was facing everyone at once.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be fine. I told Professor Goodwitch what happened, and she took me at my word. Oh, but she did say that you guys will need to talk to her about what happened as well." Everyone but Weiss seemed to nod in acknowledgement of this fact, simply accepting it as necessary. The Schnee heiress, however, sighed explosively.

"Really? We've been here less than two days and already I'm going to end up talking with a teacher about something I wasn't even involved in. Nicely done, Arc.". Jaune might have been long-rid of the crush he'd once had on Weiss, but that still stung. He bit back his reply, going instead for an apology.

"Sorry Weiss. It was unfair of me to drag you into this...but I felt it was necessary if Velvet was going to be safe from those idiots."

"And how is her safety any of our business?" asked Weiss, and Jaune realised that he may have made a mistake. "You said it yourself Arc; she's a second year, and someone we hadn't even met before today." Jaune had to admit that, from a logical standpoint, she was basically correct. However, he also knew that Weiss didn't trust Faunus very much.

She wasn't anywhere near as bad as Cardin, but since most of her experiences with Remnant's other sentient species stemmed from the White Fang, she wasn't particularly fond of them. Jaune knew that Blake would change that with time...but for now, perhaps associating with Velvet would be a step in the right direction.

His meal was finished, and he was still riding a little high from the confrontation with Cardin, so the blonde decided to burn off some energy. Jaune got to his feet, picking up his tray as he went. "Well, I'm done. I think I'll take a walk before classes start again. See you later, guys."

Jaune moved across the room to place his tray on the pile at the end of the serving area, then headed out of the hall. He stood in the sunshine and turned his face to the light, just breathing. Moments later he was joined by Pyrrha, who had followed him. "A walk sounds good. Mind if I join you?"

Jaune turned to her, and felt his spirits rise just seeing her. "Not at all."

The partners strode forward, and Jaune managed to put Weiss' attitude out of his head. She would change, he knew, with time and friendship. For now, he would simply be content with Velvet having a trouble-free semester stretching ahead of her, and having Pyrrha by his side.

Back in the hall, Ren sat deep in thought. Jaune hadn't seemed to notice, and nor had any of the others...but when he'd struck Cardin, Ren had experienced the same sensation as earlier that morning. That meant that Jaune's ability was being activated either by his emotional state, or whenever his body registered a need for a defense. Either way, Ren knew, he had to start teaching Jaune the finer points of aura control, and soon.

The words of Ren's old master came back to him. There is no weapon more dangerous than the one you carry into battle with you. If you do not treat it with the fear and respect it is due, it is not your weapon at all – it is the enemy's.

Another, even stranger fact, was that Ren recognised that move. It was a medium-level technique employed in his own martial arts style...he'd learned it in his third year. The precision required for that strike, and the knowledge of your body, is something that only comes with training. Yet Jaune seems to have barely any physical conditioning... He certainly wasn't a disciple of Ren's style. It had only one teacher, who had only ever taken one student. Yet the blonde had flawlessly executed the attack...it was incredibly strange.

He'd have to keep a closer eye on his leader.

Author's Note

Okay, this marks the beginning of an area where very little is documented by the show; as far as I've been able to discover, there is a several week gap between The Badge and the Burden and Jaunedice, so I'm basically free to do whatever I want with that time.

Also, we just reached 1,500 views. In a WEEK. That's a pretty incredible number for me, and so are the 17 follows that have been so generously given. Thank you, everyone, for the support – thanks especially to garoorar and tennisdesi91 for the positive reviews, and dragoon109 for feeding me ideas and information. You guys rock!

I hope you enjoyed reading this even partially as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave any criticism or comments as a review, and I'll be sure to get back to you. Enjoy your day!