Remnant
On Approach to Beacon Academy
"So what's your name blondie." A voice roused Jaune from his short nap.
The young Jedi had decided on taking on a nap on the surprisingly long flight to Beacon, choosing to gain some rest before having to officially socialize with anyone.
Not that he was incompetent at talking to people mind you, it's just when really the only people you've interacted to your entire life is your family full of prodigies and an old Jedi master with a sarcastic streak a mile wide, most people just sound dull in comparison.
Which was why Jaune was less than impressed when he opened his eyes only to find what appeared to be the epitome of a douchebag and too much hair gel standing over him.
'Is that gold on his armor? Besides just being useless as armor as it's incredibly soft and heavy as hell, what kind of jerkoff spends that kind of money on-' Jaune's thoughts paused as he looked down at the 900 Lien jacket he was wearing.
'Well damn. I think I just met kettle.'
"Oi! You hear me blondie?" The young man asked once again with a bit of agitation in his voice.
Jaune refocused on the guy in front of him. Tall, buff, decent looking, expensive armor, armed with a permanent sneer on his lips and an arrogant look in his eye.
'Holy shit. I've found the typical rich boy pompous asshole who happens to probably be a bully.' Jaune thought in pure awe, 'I've got to be in one of those TV shows my sisters watch right? No way that I found one within a half an hour of being here.'
"I asked you if you heard me shit stain!?" The man snarled.
"Yeah yeah, I heard you pumpkin spice." Jaune said upon noticing the dudes orangish hair, "The name's Jaune Arc. Now, how may I help you?
"The names Cardin Winchester, heir to the Winchester family." Cardin began.
"Didn't ask but alright," Jaune muttered somewhat flippantly.
Cardin gritted his teeth at Jaunes obvious disrespect. He'd show the little bastard some manners.
"Well, your sitting in my seat." He said.
Jaune cocked an eyebrow and looked around.
"You sure about that champ? Because either I'm not seeing the nameplate or your flat out retarded." He said, "And I'm inclined to go with the latter."
"That's not- grrrrrr," Cardin growled, "I want your seat."
"Why?"
"Because I don't like you blondie."
Jaune gave him a deadpan look, "Dude, we just met like 12 seconds ago."
"Doesn't matter. Now give me your seat noodle arms." Cardin said.
The knight continued to stare at Cardin with a deadpan expression. Only his damn sisters were allowed to call him noodle arms.
'You know what, I'm not even going to feel bad about this." He thought as he reached out and brushed Cardin's mind with the Force.
'Weak minded indeed.' Jaune thought before he subtly waved two fingers and said, "You don't want this seat."
The Force power Jaune was currently using was known as a Jedi mind trick. While not as invasive or damaging as mind control or corruption, it was still very useful for use against the weak minded while also retaining the gentleness of the light. It could even trick one into thinking something was physically wrong with them, as it could fool the mind into perceiving certain things.
Cardin's eyes glossed over slightly as he muttered, "Yeah. Why would I want this seat…"
"You are starting to feel slightly motion sick." Jaune continued.
The orange haired young man suddenly blanched as his face turned greenish and he began groaning slightly.
Jaune turned his eyes from Cardin and scanned the vast interior of the airship. What could be the least harmful yet most embarrassing thing he could do to the dumbass?
It was then he noticed a pair of girls talking rather excitedly out of the corner of his eye. One was a short brunette with red highlights who was currently flailing her arms at an older blonde girl. A very good looking blonde girl.
Hmmm.
"You feel so sick that you are going to puke, right on the hot blonde's boots over there." Jaune finished.
As soon as he was done speaking Cardin turned even greener and made gagging noises as he broke off into a sprint.
Jaune didn't even bother watching the scene unfold as he closed his eyes and leaned back into the wall.
"Blarrgggg."
"Ewww!"
"Yang there's some of your shoes!"
"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross."
With a smirk on his face the whole time the scene happened Jaune began to drift back into the realm of sleep.
Or he was going to at least.
"Hello and welcome to Beacon Academy."
"Force dammit."
City of Vale
Luke made his way through the crowd of families and relatives that had been at the airships docks to see their children off to Beacon.
He was hoping that he still had enough time to catch the first bullhead flight out of Vale and to one of the outlying settlement. From there he would be able to make it to the coasts and catch a ship on one of the docks. Preferable one heading to Solitas.
"Hey, Skywalker!" A familiar voice called from behind him.
Turning around Luke saw that one of Ozpin's associates was waving him over while standing with another man. Qrow Branwen was the man's name if he remembered right. The one that could transform into some type of bird.
Why was he here?
With a sigh, Luke stopped and made his way to Qrow thinking he might as well and see what the man wanted.
"Branwen." Luke greeted as he walked up to Qrow, "The hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be filing Ozpin's taxes or something?"
Qrow rolled his eyes, "Very funny Skywalker. If you must know I'm here for two reasons. One is for you."
"See, I knew you just didn't point that big sword of yours at every older gentleman."
Qrows companion snickered off to the side until Qrow shot them a look.
"And the other is to see my nieces to Beacon."
"Well now I feel slightly less special."
"Qrow you never mentioned you had an actual friend besides me. Aren't you going to introduce us?" A blonde man joked as he slapped Qrow on the shoulder.
"He's not-" Qrow sighed, "Tai, this is Luke Skywalker. Skywalker, this is Taiyang Xiao Long."
'That names ring a bell.' Luke thought as he searched his memories of where he had heard it before. It was then he remembered it was from one of those history books of Jaune's that he had seen the man's names.
His apprentice had often brought work he had to do for school or homeschool as it was to their training sessions. Both to have something to do in during resting periods in between training and at Luke's own request.
Afterall, he figured if he was going to be on the planet for a while he might as well learn some of its histories. While most of it had been the bog-standard things like dates of wars and founding of different kingdoms, one section had been slightly interesting as it was almost entirely about Huntsmen.
The section had a list called "Super Huntsmen". Apperly every twenty years or so the governments of the four kingdoms came together and compiled a list of twenty huntsmen. These hunters and huntresses were judged by the number of missions they undertook, the difficulty of said missions, marks earned during training in the academies, performance during the Vytal festival, and even the class of Grimm they had slain.
Though while Luke was pretty sure the list was just for propaganda reasons, to make the most skilled Huntsman into legends for civilians, they probably weren't anything to scoff at either.
And that's where he had seen his name as wells as Qrows now that he thought about it.
Luke smiled at him and reached out to shake their hands, "Nice to meet you, Xiao Long."
Taiyang shook his hand "Good to meet you Skywalker."
With the pleasantries aside Luke looked over at Qrow, "So may I ask why exactly your here for me?"
The red-eyed Hunter took an envelope and a ticket out and handed it to Luke. Upon closer inspection, one could see the ticket was for an outbound flight to Minstral.
"Ozpin wants you to investigate some strange happenings out in the wildlands. More info will be in the envelope on what's going on."
'Well, there went my plans.' Luke mentally sighed, 'At least it'll warm instead of freezing.'
"I suppose I could take a look." He nodded while putting the envelope is his cloak and looked up at the docks central clock, "I'm afraid this will be farewell if I'm to make my new flight. See you around."
With that, the Jedi turned around and began his way to the terminal designated on the ticket.
As the two Huntsmen watched him walk off Taiyang turned to Qrow.
"Ozpin wants him to investigate? Does that mean…"
"That he knows about Oz's group?" Qrow finished for him "Yeah he does."
"Than why haven't we heard of him? Sure we wouldn't know him if he was some random Hunter, but I should've met him already if he's working for Ozpin." Tai asked, "Don't tell me you and Oz are keeping more secrets."
Qrow waved him off, "Nothing like that. Let's just say he sorta new around here.
Beacon Courtyard
"Got to say that this is pretty damn impressive. Though it's nothing compared to old Jedi Temple if the pictures I've seen are accurate." Jaune talked to himself as he strolled around, "But not too shabby if I'm going to spend the next four years of my life here."
He had been exploring the campus for the last ten minutes to kill some time before heading to the auditorium for the initiation speech. Didn't hurt that he also was able to scope out the possible competition.
Beacon's initiation was pretty hush-hush, meant to keep the initiates in the dark about what they had to do.
Jaune wouldn't be surprised at all if it was some type of tournament or battle royal where they had to fight it out and the ones who showed the most skill were accepted.
Which begged the question as to how teams were formed. For some odd reason, the teams he had heard of always made some type of word.
Surely the headmaster didn't assign teams and leaders based on something as stupid as catchy names right?
Beacon Tower
"Glynda would you please ready the name generator? We're going to need it to pair the sets of partners together once initiation is done." Ozpin asked politely while sipping out of his mug and going over reports of what the excavation teams had pulled from the Harbinger wreck.
The blonde witch sighed, "Yes headmaster. But if I may make a suggestion..."
The professor paused his readings and looked up at Goodwitch.
"And what suggestion would that be?"
"Could we perhaps not pair sets of partners together based on initials for once? How hard would it be to just name them a color? Like red team or blue team? That way we can give students teammates that compliment them rather than those whose personalities will just clash."
"Well we could, but then where would the fun be it that?" Ozpin smiled as swiped to another report, "Besides, I find that clashing personalities and competition breeds excellence. Just look at the old team STRQ. Would you have ever guessed that any of them would have become friends?"
'But how long did that last? Just take a look at them now.' Goodwitch thought sadly before nodding, "As you say, sir."
Beacon Courtyard
'Fire sword, huge war ax with what looks like a chainsaw mod, dual pistols, and is that-'
"Achooo!"
*Boom*
Jaune was knocked out of his thoughts as an explosion echoed through the courtyard.
Turning around towards the sound of the blast he checked to see what the hell was going on. Hoping that the school wasn't under attack and that nobody was hurt.
Instead, he was just met with the sight of three girls arguing, the monochrome one seemed to be telling the snow white one off while the shorter redhead seemed to be confused on what to do.
'Might as well see what's going on." He thought and began to walk over.
By the time he reached where the group of girls had been monochrome had left and the white-haired one had stalked away angrily. Leaving the redhead to sit on the ground muttering to herself.
Luke had mentioned he wanted Jaune to make friends. Why not start here.
"Hey there. You alright short stack?" He asked.
Silver eyes snapped up at him and narrowed.
"I'm not short! I drink plenty of milk and-" The girl paused and blushed, realizing she had just snapped at a complete stranger, "I-I'm sorry. Please don't yell at me like the white-haired lady did."
Jaune smiled and offered his hand to help her up, "It's cool. The name's Jaune Arc by the way."
The redhead smiled and took the offered hand, pulling herself up.
"Nice to meet you Jaune! My name's Ruby, Ruby Rose!"
'Alright Ruby, you've finally have met someone who doesn't seem to be a huge jerk. Don't screw this up!'
. . .
"How do you even wield that thing? It's almost double your freaking height!" Jaune said in slight shock as Ruby unfolded her giant weapons.
"Years of training and aura enhancement of course!" She said while holding her baby close to her chest. Crescent Rose was her pride and her after all.
Looking at her new friend she noticed he had nothing but two cylinders strapped to his hips, "So what do you use Jaune? Do those cylinders extend into staffs or shoot something? Or are they some kind of transforming whips!"
The young knight smiled as he unclipped his newest saber, "Nothing like that. It's more like a sword."
Ruby tilted her head in confusion until he ignited the saber, a humming sound began as a golden blade of plasma shot out of the emitter.
Silver eyes widened and a jaw slowly fell open as Crescent Rose was dropped to the ground.
"IS THAT A FREAKING PLASMA SWORD! EHHHHHH!" Ruby squealed in excitement as she ran forward and began to inspect it even closer.
"How do you power it? How does the plasma stay in a stable form and not destabilize? Is it a magnetic field? What kind of temperatures does it reach? Do you have another one?" Question after question was shot off as the 15-year-old drooled over the sci-fi weapons.
"As a matter of fact, I do." Jaune smiled as he grabbed his older saber and turned it on with his other hand. A sapphire blade of plasma emitting from it in contrast to the newer gold.
"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Ruby continued to squeak, nearly fainting in the process.
"Whoa there Ruby. We can talk about them later if you want, but we really should get to the auditorium." Jaune offered.
Ruby nodded at his words but really didn't pay attention, the thoughts of how she could turn Crescent Rose into a plasma scythe fresh on her mind.
Both of them made their way to the auditorium, the new friends making small talk until Ruby split off to go find her sister. Leaving Jaune to find a place to stand by himself as Ozpin came to the stage.
The entire room went quiet upon seeing the headmaster on stage.
"I'll...keep this brief as I can see many of you are tired or wish to continue exploring the campus." Ozpin began.
"You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
With that, the headmaster bowed his head and walked off the stage and the clamor of a hundred teenagers started up once again.
Watching the headmaster walk-off Jaune realized that this was the best time to ask Ozpin the question he had been wanting to ask for weeks now.
How to activate one's Aura.
While he had been unable to unlock it for years because his parents would have surely noticed his soul being unleashed, it hadn't stopped him from fantasizing on what he could do with combining Aura and the Force.
He could already enhance his physical aspects with the Force, but what if it had Aura bolstering it even further?
Making his way through the crowd of teenagers, Jaune followed the hallway where he had seen the headmaster go down. Fully ignoring whatever Goodwitch was trying to say over the microphone behind them.
Catching a glimpse of a green vest Jaune called out, "Hey headmaster! Do you have a minute by any chance?"
Ozpin stopped and turned around at the family voice, his frown turning into a smile as he saw Jaune approaching him, "Ah Mr. Arc, good to see you're in good health. It's been awhile since our last interaction."
"It has." Jaune replied as he approached Ozpin, "It was at the beach above the Harbinger if I remember right."
"Indeed it was Mr. Arc. Now tell me, my boy, what can I do for you?"
"Well, I was wondering if you could unlock my Aura sir."
"Your Aura isn't unlocked?" Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow, "Than how… ah yes. I forgot that you and your master have the ability to tap into an energy field you call the Force for when you need physical enhancement and other abilities."
Moving his cane to his other hand Ozpin reached out and put his hand on Juanes shoulder, "It would be my honor as both your headmaster and a senior Huntsman to unlock your aura Jaune."
The activation of one's Aura could be achieved in a few different ways. One method was to train and focus intensely on oneself, coming to terms and embracing your true self to awaken your soul. This method is what many historians and researchers believe to be the first-way Humanity and Faunus achieved the unlocking of Aura in ancient history.
Another method was that someone who already had an unlocked Aura could activate a sleeping one. This involved using one's own awakened soul and bonding it to another's unawakened one for short period. A popular method in the modern world, certain families with histories going back many generations had even come up with poems and oaths that one recited when unlocking another's Aura.
Though it was generally done with family members as it was rather intimate to bond one's soul with another even if it was only for a second or two.
The final method was the simplest yet hardest to master. It required a powerful and skilled user to simply tap the core of one's being to unleash the soul into the physical plan.
A skilled and powerful Aura user like professor Ozpin.
Using his Aura and a bit of magic he found Jaunes core and put a bit of energy into it, jump-starting it like an engine.
Jaune fist started to clench as he felt a huge rush of energy fill his body and his body started exuding a powerful white Aura.
'This is incredible, I've never felt so energized before and the Force, I feel even more connected to it. Like someone just turned a radio to the right frequency.' Jaune marveled as he let his mind slip into the Force.
Jaune had never felt such power before, such…
Pain.
Ozpin smiled as he removed his hand from Jaunes shoulder and took a deep breath to regain some energy. The young man had quite the amount of Aura, evidenced by the fact it was glowing brightly off his body.
And it was getting even brighter.
Ozpin smile turned into a frown at how unusual his Aura was being, it should have died down by now and was Jaune shaking?
"Jaune are you alright?" He asked.
The young Jedi Knight was not alright though, every cell in his body felt like it was on fire and tearing itself apart at the same time.
And there were voices, he could hear them. Like thousands of voices were screaming at him from the inside and they all said the same thing.
"STOP."
"Arrggh." Jaune groaned in pain and began to fall over, only to be caught by Ozpin.
"Jaune." He said worriedly as the young man began to grow even brighter and stated illuminating the corridor they where in, "You have to shut off your Aura. Something isn't right. If you can hear me then you must will it to stop."
Nodding slightly Jaune brought together what little willpower he had and through the pain and ordered his Aura to shut off.
Thankfully it was enough. The energy emitting from the boy shut off along with the bright glow as well.
Some Time Later
Beacon Medical Wing
Jaune his eyes flew open but immediately closed again as they were assaulted by bright light. He groaned as he sat up and brought his hand to rub his eyes and then his forehead which was pounding.
"Easy their Mr. Arc. You're in a safe place, no reason to wake up in a hurry." Ozpin said standing across from the cot Jaune was laying on.
"Professor Ozpin." Jaune acknowledged as he opened his eyes again, this time being able to see properly.
Looking around he noticed he was in a lab of some kind and was laying on a small cot.
"Excuse me for not taking you to the infirmary but I felt that the doctors and nurses there wouldn't be able to help your condition," Ozpin explained.
"It's fine professor. But speaking of my condition, what the hell happened? It feels like something smashed me in the head."
"Well, my boy that is quite easy to answer." Ozpin said while moving over to a microscope, "Your Aura happened."
"My Aura, how did that knock me out?"
Ozpin sighed and decided to go into lecture mode, something his job as a teacher had made him very good at.
"Tell me Jaune. What is the function of one's Aura." He asked.
Jaune thought of the question until he had a sufficient answer.
"Aura is the weaponization of the soul. It can act as a shield, enhance physical abilities, and even heal wounds or and fight sickness."
Ozpin nodded, "And there lies the problem with your Aura. Before you blacked out it was fighting what it perceives to be a sickness in your cells."
"Uhh, shouldn't that be a good thing?"
"Normally it would yes. But not in your case it seems, come here. I want you to have a look as I took the liberty of drawing some of your blood to runs some tests. "
Ozpin beckoned Jaune to the microscope he was standing by and the young Jedi complied, getting off the cot he walked over and looked down the microscope.
All he saw was what looked like small spheres pressed together with an even smaller sphere inside of them. There were also these strange white clouds floating inside of them.
"Am I looking at cells professor?"
"Why yes, you are Jaune, one of your cells to be specific. Do you see the white clouds that seem to be floating in each of your cells."
"Yeah, what about them? Are they a virus or something?"
"No, not at all. And despite the fact that I nor the doctors I asked know little about them, I believe they are colonies of what your master Luke referred to as Midichlorians."
Jaune blinked, "Wait, know little about them. You mean that you guys know that Midichlorians exist?"
"Well of course we did, we just never called them that. Nor did we know that they connected us to this Force. We may not be as advanced as the rest of the galaxy, but we still have things such as electron microscopes that the doctors of Remnant have been using to study our cells for years." Ozpin said with a shrug, "From what I've been told the scientific community just wrote them off as intra-cellular receptors such as G-proteins. Nothing remarkable as they only number in a few hundred per cell and even seem inactive for the average person."
Ozpin put a finger near the slide Jaune was observing through the microscope, "You, on the other hand, Mr. Arc seem to have tens of thousands of them per cell and they look very active. While a normal Huntsmans Aura will ignore ours, watch what happens when I flood your cells with Aura."
Concentrating his Aura Ozpin pushed a bit of it into the sample.
Jaune watched as the cells in slide began to respond and bulked up a little as they energized. His Midichlorians, on the other hand, began to glow as if they were being pushed into overdrive and a chill went down his spine.
He could sense them. The little sample of blood had turned into a small beacon of the Force.
Then just like before, it started going wrong. The microorganisms glowed even brighter and began to scream out into the Force, lashing out violently while causing micro tears in the cellular membrane.
Jaune jerked back from the microscope and looked at Ozpin.
"Stop it, your hurting them."
The headmaster nodded and stopped the small transfer.
"So that's what happened. My Aura treated them as a virus or a bacteria and it tried to attack them…" Jaune muttered
"And you Midichlorians fought back. They were starting to rip your cells apart, quite literally trying to tear you apart on the cellular level."
Jaune sighed, "So what now? Just wait until my cells tear each other apart now that my Aura's awakened?"
"Hmmm." Ozpin hummed as he began tapping his coffee mug that once again had mysteriously appeared, "Perhaps not. You seem fine right now, most likely as your Aura is in a passive state."
All Ozpin received from the knight was a confused look.
Once again slipping into teacher mode Ozpin explained, "There are two states of Aura that exist once it is awakened, passive and active. At the prep schools, students learn to keep their Aura in its active state unconsciously at almost all times. That way the force field and enhancements it provides your body with is always in use. The passive state is when it's inactive, unlocked but simply in a state of unused or recharge."
"So what your saying is as long as I don't actively use it I should be fine. *Sigh*, that kinda sucks. I was really hoping that I would be able to use Aura, especially since it can even supercharge Midichlorians apparently." Jaune said with no small bit of disappointment.
Ozpin offered a smile, "While I'm sure it is disappointing, don't give up hope. The Midichlorians are apart of you, perhaps your Aura just needs time to adjust to them and see that they aren't a threat to your body."
The knight offered a smile back, "Yeah your right professor, thank you for all the help."
"Not a problem Mr. Arc." Ozpin said while he pulled his scroll out of his pocket and looked at the time, "Huh, it seems to be 6 A.M."
Jaune blinked, "Six in the morning? I was asleep for that long?"
"Indeed you were. As such I would suggest you hurry along back to the main buildings. You can grab some breakfast and get your locker number where your bags have been stored if you hurry. Initiation for your group begins in 2 hours."
Jaune nodded and took off through the doorway as fast as he could without making his headache worse. He decided he would Force heal it later.
Ozpin shook his head and took a sip out of his mug.
He could already tell that this would be an interesting year.