As the bell signalled the end of first period, JNPR let out a collective sigh. Though Nora tended to enjoy Professor Port's stories, and Jaune could just block them out, the entire team was exhausted.
Since their return from Vale that weekend, all they'd been able to think about was their trouncing at the hands of Roman Torchwick. The drive to become more powerful than he was had established itself, and had spurred them into almost non-stop training.
Their entire Sunday had been one massive training session, from morning until evening with only lunch as a break. They'd compounded matters by having a strategy meeting late into the night, the three combatants recalling as much of the crime lord's fighting style as they could.
Ren in turn suggested countermeasures to many of his more predictable moves, and provided an assessment of the White Fang operatives he'd seen in the warehouse district. They had talked until two in the morning before passing out, and the combination of physical and mental fatigue wore on the four warriors.
It showed, too. Or at least, Jaune assumed it must because RWBY were practically slinging his team mates over their shoulders for the walk to the dining hall. Ren, apathetic at the best of times, was currently doing quite a realistic impression of the sloths Nora liked so much. How does he know where he's going if he doesn't open his eyes...?
The blonde guessed it had something to do with Aura, though watching it was still strange. Nora had basically fallen asleep on Ruby, only moving forward because her shoulder-pillow was. Normally Jaune would smile at that image...but he couldn't look at Nora without feeling guilty.
Pyrrha was currently locked in whispered conversation with Yang, walking out in front of the others. They had been doing that a lot over the past week, with Jaune's partner attending 'study sessions' in RWBY's dorm almost every night. He had absolutely no idea what they were doing, and at this point he was getting nervous.
That left Blake and Weiss. The heiress was cordial with him, but didn't seem too interested in what he had to say. Her focus was on the Scroll in her hands, as it almost always was outside of mealtimes. Seriously, what is she doing on that thing that requires such a time investment?
The blonde could only wonder. Of course, he could only wonder about Blake as well – nose in a book as was her habit, her expression was one of acute concentration. The world outside her text may as well not exist...except for the oncoming students that she simply stepped around.
Everyone was occupied somehow, and Jaune was almost alone with his thoughts. They weren't happy – most of his waking hours for the past three days had been dedicated to planning anti-Roman strategies, but he still hadn't found one he could call foolproof.
The task vexed him, as he tried to level the playing field in his head. Roman was an adversary both skilled and deadly. He fought dirty, and didn't hesitate to escape if it suited him. If he was going to go down, he needed to be surrounded by a well-coordinated group whose combined firepower exceeded his own.
He also needed to be cut off from his reinforcements, so they either had to be distracted or he had to be unable to call them. That called for an opening strike with enough power to get his mind off calling for help, or to just take him out of the fight instantly.
But JNPR didn't have that kind of firepower, no matter how the blonde looked at it. Their combination attacks were coming along well, most of them flowing smoothly in practice. But each would be less effective after the initial reveal, and he wasn't sure that the amount of damage they'd inflict would be enough to deprive Roman of his aura.
If it wasn't, then JNPR would be facing Roman Torchwick without anything else up their sleeve. They'd also be weakened, since the combos were largely intended for use as finishers or as one-hit and so weren't very energy efficient.
That would be a terrible situation, and Jaune knew it. He also knew that there was an option staring him right in the face that he needed to acknowledge. We don't have enough firepower. We need additions to our team who work well with us and with each other. We need to ally ourselves with RWBY.
The tactician groaned to himself, eyes momentarily sweeping over the members of the other team. Yes, we need to get them on our side by next month...but it's not the same as telling Ren, Nora and Pyrrha.
When he'd revealed the truth to his team, the timing was almost perfect. All three of them had seen the truth of his...condition...first-hand during his breakdown. They had also assumed some kind of responsibility for it, meaning they were more open to what Jaune was saying out of sympathy and guilt. Since they had already been close friends, the bonds they had formed as a team had also helped get them through it. All in all, it couldn't have gone better.
But with RWBY, there would be none of those things. He'd be asking them to train with JNPR so they could defeat a notorious criminal...because Jaune had come from the future to warn them about the consequences of his actions. If they even entertained the idea, they would undoubtedly ask for proof.
What could he give them? He knew Blake was a Faunus, a one-time member of the White Fang. Dropping Adam's name would definitely show that he knew more about her than he should – but it would also most likely cause some major fallout in RWBY.
But Weiss had never shared some deep secret. Ruby had told him about her mother once, but at the same time that was something he could have found out. Yang was just like Weiss, in that he had nothing he could say to prove it.
He could tell them the exact where and when of a Dust heist...but he'd already interrupted one. If he kept interfering, it was likely that Roman would implement a new plan. That would basically wreck his own plan, and so it needed to be avoided at all costs.
In short, bringing RWBY into the fold was much harder than it sounded. The blonde sighed heavily as the eight entered the dining hall, collecting a meal on autopilot. There was as solution somewhere – there was a solution to everything. He just needed to find it...
He nodded to Russel as he passed, the fellow first year returning the gesture. RDL had finally settled into the situation of Jaune being friendly, and though they might not hang out they offered greetings.
Settling into his usual seat, the blonde poked at his meal with a kind of resigned apathy. This plan is difficult enough to implement, but in order to do so I need an even more complex plan. He stared at the ceiling for a minute as he collected his thoughts, returning to his meal once he could think straight.
More ideas whirled through his mind, though there was still nothing useful. Pyrrha appeared beside him, Nora and Ren making their way around the table to sit opposite them. The martial artist was almost asleep in his meal...but when he bothered to look at anything, his eyes went to his leader.
The constant machinations going on behind those blue eyes told him that he was still trying to hatch a plan for bringing RWBY around to their side. It was a tricky situation, and one that Ren didn't envy.
Still, he wondered if his leader might not be putting enough faith in the ties between their teams. Particularly regarding the sisterhood that had sprung up around Pyrrha. Still, he couldn't reveal that...after all, Jaune's face when they finally put their plans into motion ought to be priceless.
Jaune's mind was starting to spin in circles, his ideas all some variation on previous ones. He was in desperate need of some new stimulus... He looked down the table, to where RWBY were eating. How to go about this...
The blonde's hands went to his head, grabbing fistfulls of his own hair as he suppressed a scream. This is too damn frustrating!
The rest of the day blurred past as Jaune obsessed over the problem. So many ideas flowed through his mind that he felt like he might never have one again. But not one of them had more than a tiny chance of succeeding.
In the JNPR dorm, he let out a frustrated sigh and set down his pencil. His team mates were with him, RWBY having combat practice tonight. He turned away from his homework to face the room's three other occupants, drawing their attention.
"I just cannot come up with a way to convince RWBY to join us. I have disjointed ideas, but all of the ones that might be effective come with major drawbacks. If you guys have anything, I'll be willing to listen to it." Ren shook his head almost immediately – he'd been worrying at the problem himself, but was nowhere close to solving it.
Nora and Pyrrha were looking at each other, and after a moment they moved off to the corner of the room. They whispered there for a minute, shooting occasional glances at their male team mates. Their confab lasted a couple of minutes, during which time the two young men just shot glances at each other.
The two girls returned to their seats, having reached some kind of agreement. "Well, Nora and I think that you should just ask them for their help with Roman." Jaune was the one who had asked for suggestions, so he just gestured for them to continue.
"Well, you don't have to tell them about your own circumstances. If you just present it as wanting to defeat such a wanted criminal, then I don't see why they would disagree." The blonde gave them a nod, and a shake of the hand.
"I had considered it. But there needs to be a motivation behind it; it isn't normal for a first-year student team to dedicate their spare time to the defeat of a criminal mastermind. At least, not without a damn good reason." The blonde remembered the mess Blake had become in the weeks following her encounter with Roman. He hadn't been privy to the conversations going on in RWBY at the time, but watching from the outside it had been pretty clear that she was fixated on Torchwick's capture.
His red-headed partner raised a finger. "Ah, but we do have a reason don't we?" Jaune knew that she was presenting her idea as one where his secret wasn't revealed, so he though about it. What had Torchwick done that would motivate them to chase him...oh.
"Oh, I get it. Last weekend's rumble. You're saying we should present revenge for that as our reason?" Pyrrha nodded, lowering her finger. The blonde considered the idea he'd been handed. Revenge was a motivator that RWBY could understand...and he had intended to repay Roman for his little tumble across that plaza.
"That's definitely a valid reason. Of course, it'll raise questions as to why we were in a position to fight him in the first place...but it's not the first time we've spent our weekend in Vale." The more he thought about it, the more Jaune was convinced that this was their best option.
"Okay...okay, I think we can roll with this. If they ask any more in-depth questions, follow my lead. I developed a real talent for bumbling through bad situations during my first year..." His voice slowed as he recalled the many times that he'd been saved by coincidence or intervention in the past.
Pyrrha moved forward to place a hand on his shoulder, just like she always did when he got these flashes of memory. They had quickly discovered that her presence was a more effective calming agent than anything else, and her touch could raise Jaune out of any dark thoughts.
The leader sighed as the let go of the thoughts, climbing to his feet and laying his own hand over his partner's. "I'm alright, Pyrrha. Thank you." Green eyes performed their own examination, but apparently concurred. With a small squeeze, she let go and took a couple of steps back.
"Okay team, we'll talk with RWBY about this tomorrow. In the meantime, everyone turn in early tonight. We need to make up for all that talking we did on Sunday." Ren shot his leader a grateful look as he pushed away from his desk, grabbing his jinbei and heading for the shower room.
Jaune followed when he'd retrieved his own sleeping fatigues, the girls heading off as well. They all emerged more or less at the same time, Jaune heading to the light switch while the others went straight to bed. The room was quickly plunged into darkness, and the blonde's feet traced the path to his bed.
He sank into the fabric with a long breath, and his tired mind was out in seconds.
The next morning saw a much more well-rested JNPR at breakfast, Nora's frenetic energy and appetite both restored in full. As the pancake apocalypse was going on across the table from him, Jaune considered when they should approach RWBY.
Looking to Ren, he posed times and places to him. It was fairly common practice for the martial artist to act as his leader's sounding board, since his wider general knowledge offset his leader's ability to produce and alter plans on the fly.
"Lunch time, here in the dining hall?" Ren considered it, his head moving to the left and right.
"It removes most of the tension that the conversation could generate by holding it in a sun-lit, public area. But it also puts us at risk of being overheard, which would be a massive blow to our efforts." Jaune nodded, mentally assigning it to the 'maybe' pile.
"Evening, in our dorm room?" Another moment's consideration.
"Very low risk of being overheard, which is good. But the setting will be less familiar to them, and that combined with the time of day will unsettle them somewhat. It'll reduce the odds of them listening to us." The blonde grunted, throwing that on the 'maybe' pile too.
All his suggestions involving classes had been immediately vetoed, the combined risk of being overheard or having RWBY react in a way which could draw attention putting such a setting out of the picture. Likewise his suggestions that they have the conversation in the morning, as they still weren't fully awake and would be thinking more of the day ahead. Not to mention the time restrictions.
"Then how about evening in their dorm room?" A nod this time, the martial artist appreciating that his leader got the idea.
"That would be better. They'll be much more at ease on their home turf." Nodding in acceptance of this, Jaune settled on that one.
"Okay. We'll approach them tonight, in their dorm room. I'll tell them to expect us over dinner." Ren nodded, turning his attention back to the food in front of him. The blonde did the same, mentally rehearsing what he wanted to say.
That day's Grimm Studies lesson had been a story about the Professor's first time encountering a King Taijitu. Apparently, it had attempted to constrict itself around him. It had, though, been entirely unprepared for its prey to be just as fond of crushing things. The motions the Professor had made to indicate crushing the massive creature's body between his arms looked more like he desperately wanted a hug.
Oobleck had been...Oobleck. Today had been tracing the history of Beacon itself, from its initial foundation as a base of operations for professional Huntsmen to its gradual rise to the forefront of academic achievement. It had been several hundred years of history, and the entire subject had been compressed into the two-and-a-half hour lesson.
At least sparring had been entertaining. Jaune had been chosen as an opponent for Yang, which she had seemed really happy about. He wasn't sure what he'd done to piss her off, but with how hard she came down on him it must have been pretty damn big.
The fight had been three of the most intense minutes of his life, Ember Celica drumming a constant beat on his shield as he intercepted blow after blow. He'd got in a few good hits, including driving his shield into her face at a full-tilt run. Unfortunately, she had gone for her Semblance after that hit. The punch she had delivered was too much force for his weight to counteract, and had lifted him straight off his feet and backward across the arena.
That had been the end of the bout – but Yang's aura had been about halfway done, which Jaune counted as at least part of a victory. He wasn't adverse to Pyrrha's fussing either. She could be a bit too much of a mother hen sometimes, but he enjoyed it in moderation.
Still, that bout had kept him ticking over until dinner. Now, RWBY and JNPR sitting together as usual, and Jaune was framing his request for an audience. He felt like he pretty much knew what he wanted to say, so he got up and walked over to Ruby.
Settling into the seat next to her, he kept his expression pleasantly neutral. "Hey, Ruby? Mind if I ask you something?" RWBY's leader turned to look at him, swallowing one of the cookies she was so fond of.
"Sure, Jaune. What's up?" Jaune could see Yang out the corner of his eye, and the very serious look she was giving the male situated in close proximity to her sister. Doing his utmost not to appear panicky or, indeed, show anything other than a normal expression, he continued.
"I was wondering if my team might drop by your dorm later? There's this idea we had, we want to discuss it with you guys." The younger girl hummed to herself as she thought, Yang's eyes narrowing further at her fellow blonde. He managed to suppress his reflexive gulp.
"Sure, we don't have anything going on this evening. Just come over any time." Nodding his thanks, Jaune escaped the danger zone as quickly as casual walking speed could take him. Returning to his seat, he found Ren looking at him.
"It worked?" he asked simply, and the blonde gave him a nod. The martial artist mirrored the motion, returning to his food. Pyrrha and Nora both heard as well, Nora giving him a thumbs-up as his partner flashed one of her smiles.
When dinner was complete, Jaune led his team to stand outside RWBY's door. He turned to regard the three people with him, who all nodded in sync. They were ready.
Taking a deep breath, the blonde reached out and rapped on the door with his knuckles. The portal swung open a few seconds later, revealing Weiss. "Ruby told us you were going to be visiting. Come on inside."
Stepping backward out of the doorway, the heiress allowed JNPR access to the room. The rest of her team had taken seats on the...Jaune hesitated to call them bunk beds. He opened his mouth to speak, but felt his partner lay a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me, Jaune, it's...better not to ask."
Deciding to just accept that, the blonde stood facing the now four seated girls. "We dropped by tonight because we have something we need your help with." That garnered instant attention, as he had known it would. RWBY were very big on helping friends.
"There's this...mission, we've been trying to accomplish. Something we're trying to do. We have plans and information, but...we just don't have the firepower." Blake and Weiss were listening critically, the heiress raising one eyebrow.
"You don't have the firepower? You have Pyrrha Nikos on your team, and you don't have the firepower?" Jaune nodded, choosing to ignore everything about what she'd said except for the questioning aspect.
"Yes. The target we're trying to deal with is beyond all four of us combined. Even in our best-case scenarios, we can't be sure that we'll succeed in defeating them." Weiss still looked skeptical, Blake inscrutable as always. Yang and Ruby, however, had a gleam in their eyes.
"Oooh, someone really strong? You want us to help you beat them?" The blonde nodded, the sisters starting to grin.
"Sounds like fun. So, who is this target?" The white-haired heiress shot a look over her shoulder.
"Ruby! You need to stop agreeing to things so easily, especially something that might turn out to be dangerous." The younger girl pouted at her partner.
"I haven't agreed to anything yet!" The heiress, apparently immune to the overdose of adorable Ruby was currently pointing in her direction, shook her head.
"Yes you have! I know that look, Ruby, that's your 'I wonder what it'll be like fighting that' look. You always make that face right before you launch yourself into some ridiculous situation!" The pout somehow managed to become...poutier, Jaune now averting his eyes lest his definition of adorable be forever ruined.
"Oh come on, Weiss! We haven't had a good fight as a team since that Nevermore in Initiation! Can't we please just hear who the target is?" The two girls stared at each other, glaring logic and pouting emotion doing battle in the air between them.
Finally, the pout won out. "Okay, fine. But I want to make it clear that just because we're listening doesn't mean we'll help." Jaune nodded thankfully to her, picking up more or less where he'd left off.
"The target is a local criminal called Roman Torchwick." RWBY blinked as one, recognition crossing their faces.
"Wait, tall guy with red hair? Wears a white suit and top hat?" Jaune nodded to Ruby, who had asked.
"Yeah, that's the guy." The smile on her face grew wider, and the young leader chuckled.
"Oh, I've wanted another go at him for ages. I never got to finish my fight with him...I'm voting we join up with JNPR." No surprises there... Weiss' face seemed to echo the sentiment, as she buried her head in her hands.
"Why do I even bother..."
Yang put a hand on her sister's back, a massive grin adorning her own face. "I've heard about this guy. He's a real piece of work – being part of taking him down would be awesome."
Blake was the only person who hadn't said anything, and she quickly found the focus of the room on her. Amber eyes met blue, as she searched for whatever the blonde might feel. "Why are you guys after him?"
Jaune remembered the fight from several days prior. How he'd been so easily overpowered, used against his team mates. He remembered how Torchwick had been so willing to kill Nora. He remembered it all, and he gritted his teeth as he answered simply. "Payback."
Whatever showed on his face, it was apparently enough for the girl in black. "I can understand that. So long as there's a plan for this, I don't see any problem in helping apprehend a dangerous criminal."
Weiss looked around at her team, letting out a long sigh. "I suppose that, as a Schnee and as a Beacon student, it is my duty to ensure the safety of the public."
Four calls of assent. Jaune felt a smile growing on his face. We have the firepower we need, and we have a month to prepare. You'd better watch yourself, Roman – because we're coming for you.
"Alright. According to an information broker, there's a big SDC Dust shipment coming into the Vale docks next month. Roman plans to hit it – that's where we'll get him."
Frowns and raised eyebrows appeared among RWBY at his proclamation. Ruby spoke first, now sounding pouty. "We have to wait a month?" Yang's expression said basically the same thing – she'd been hoping for a fight now dammit!
Weiss seemed...rather displeased. "That thieving scum...I have a personal stake in this now." There was a light in her eyes now, and while Jaune felt a little guilty at hiding the true source of his information, he felt that as much of this conversation had been truthful as it possibly could be.
Blake just kept her eyes on Jaune's, before moving over to Ren. "You got this from an information broker? Can you trust them?" The martial artist met her gaze straight on, nodding.
"Yes. Ozpin keeps various elements of the criminal element on the payroll – it's part of how he gathers information. I trust an information broker with heavy pockets." The secret faunus nodded, this obviously making perfect sense to her.
All of them are in, and they've accepted our reason for wanting Torchwick. We even managed to sell our source of information. Nora and Pyrrha deserve something special for this idea...
"We're glad to have you on board. We've been training to deal with him in particular...can you join us for that?" He got various responses in the positive, and nodded.
"Then let's go."
Author's Note
Hello! You may be wondering why this chapter was so delayed...well, actually, I imagine most of you have figured it out. I launched the story 'Gloria Dei est in Tenebris' not so long ago, and it was met with incredible support. Because of that, I've spent more time writing the chapters for that instead of this. Especially since I'm trying to keep the average length of those chapters above that of this story.
So yeah, this story will probably end up being updated less often...not really what I expected to happen, but on the bright side it lets me get more planning done. I can't guarantee that Gloria will have the kind of update frequency I had going with this, but if you find that you just can't live without me, it should hopefully be enough sate your cravings.
I hope you enjoyed reading this even partially as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have any comments or criticism, please leave a review and I'll be sure to get back to you. Enjoy your day!