Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.

Chapter 7: Where Cinder corrupts the Team

It was official. His team was filled with sadists. It wasn't just Cinder that he feared felt too much excitement to him being injured and pushed around painfully from the hell he was being placed through but also the innocent Ruby and reliable Pyrrha as well.

They had even taken away his shield for this training as well. How was he supposed to block attacks without it?

"Get ready to feel more pain~" Cinder almost cheerfully declared as she used just her arms and legs to kick his ass more times than Cardin would ever do.

Whether it was attacking, defending or even simply dodging, Cinder was a monster equal to Pyrrha when it came to making him feel insignificant. He moved to attack again, at least by that admission he actually tried to win.

Cinder responded by side-stepping lightly before tripping him over with a single leg.

"Ow!" he grumbled as he was kicked another three times away while on the ground. It was horrible but he was starting to get used to the pain, the bruises and being beaten up. Jaune wondered if there was something wrong with him.

"That attack was pathetic Jaune! No wonder you lost to someone like Cardin!" his partner shouted at him.

"The training would probably help if I knew what the goal of it was!" he retorted.

"You haven't figured it out yet? I even talked about it with the girls in front of your face" she huffed before moving to kick him again. He tried blocking but the power of the kick was strong enough that he was blown back anyway.

"You have to dodge Jaune!" Ruby sort of helpfully added on the side-lines. She was clearing for Cinder of course while Pyrrha was at least polite enough to do the same.

"Dodge?" he wondered before looking at his sword. "Then why am I carrying my weapon out like this?"

"Because I highly doubt that you would go into a battle without your weapon" Cinder rolled her eyes. "It's better to get you used to the weight and the options you have with the weapon than without right now."

"And the reason I'm not using a shield?"

"Simply because you're not learning how to block but rather to dodge blows that would've been simple to allow you to actually make a proper performance against Cardin" she said.

After saying that, his partner spent the next minute drilling into his body when it meant to be hit at various locations without pause. He didn't even have time to think as he tried desperately to dodge as many blows as possible but failing at every single turn. Jaune knew he was going to be hurting tomorrow…

"Wait! How am I supposed to learn if you don't actually teach me anything?!" he shouted when the attacks slowed down momentarily.

The next blow hit his stomach. Hard. And send him flying back. It was at that moment that he recalled that Cinder had told everyone that she was 'bad' at close-combat. He would say that she was bullshitting them or that her other abilities were that monstrous if she was this good at something she was 'weak' at.

"I am teaching you. Your body that is" she simply said before proceeding to beat him up for another minute.

This cycle repeated itself several more times as for a full minute, Cinder would have no mercy towards Jaune in how badly he did while venting out her stress before slowing down enough that he would get a few words in before it started up again.

It was only after a full ten minutes that Jaune was too exhausted to move anymore that she had stopped.

"I expected-no expect you to have more stamina as she continue this training" Cinder looked down at him. "While having high technical skills is praiseworthy though not something you have, lasting longer than your opponent is often a way to achieve victory."

"Basically you're telling me that if I managed to outlast Cardin then I would win?"

"Well that's if you somehow managed to dodge any of his attacks. I was going easy on you and even managed to convince myself to slow myself down to the same speed Cardin had during short periods for you to experience the fool's speed."

Jaune thought about it before saying, "You mean the times when you were slow enough that I could maybe dodge once or twice?"

"Yes" she nodded. "Cardin Winchester as you know is a power-type fighter meaning he uses brute strength more than speed or skill to take down his foes."

"Compared to him, Pyrrha is a skill-based fighter whose skills with her weapon is unmatched while Ruby is a speed-based fighter that can as easily make you unable to touch her as she is easily able to take your life" she continued.

"I…see. And what about me? Or you?" he asked.

"You?" a cruel smirk appeared on her face. "You're far too weak to be categorised in any area. I on the other hand admit to be the power-type like Cardin but far superior in every way. I can actually keep up with Ruby and Pyrrha for one."

It was at that moment that the rest of the team appeared near him. Ruby tackled him into a friendly hug while Pyrrha patted his shoulder.

"You got beaten up!" the littlest Huntress said a bit too enthusiastically.

Pyrrha on the other hand was much more mature at least. "You shouldn't move that much. Your wounds are bruising and should be hurting right about now."

"Yeah…" now that she mentioned it. His everything was hurting, all at the same time. He let out a groan of pain before trying; quite unsuccessfully to not move so he didn't end up quite literally roll into the pain.

"Well then" Pyrrha laughed lightly, "I think you should take a break before I coach you on the finer details on fighting and not losing."

"Urgh."

He wasn't looking forward to that. He knew that sore muscles would make even the simplest task that the red-head thought it would be into a massive challenge for him to face. Still…he was getting stronger this way, right?

-o-

"Unlike what you have practised, using the sword starts off as a routine before becoming more flexible the more skilled you are" Pyrrha explained holding and guiding his hand and arms to where they should move.

"Some ancient texts hold that the foundations of any kind of combat lies in the eight different points you can deal a fatal blow to an enemy. However this accounts for only human opponents and not Grimm" she continued.

"If that's the case then why are you telling me this?" he asked before swinging once.

Pyrrha immediately motioned and corrected his stance before moving him to do the swing a second time which seemed more 'correct' in her eyes seeing that she nodded to it.

It still hurt his muscles when he moved too forcefully. He silently cursed Cinder in his mind where he would not be judged by her.

"Because, just because Hunters are expected to fight Grimm doesn't mean we will end up fighting other humans sooner or later. Bandits and terrorists are some such foes that some may end up fighting sooner or later especially with the White Fang being more active" she explained.

"Which is why combat class is almost exclusively against human opponents and how to beat them. Aside from allowing the professors an easy way to correct possibly fatal mistakes that might work on humans but not Grimm" Cinder injected.

"Huh."

He wondered how Miss Goodwitch knew how to do that without any practise on Grimm on the first place. Sure they were all expected to know how to fight Grimm thanks to how initiation was structured but-

"Jaune. Pay attention" Pyrrha ordered. He blushed before she continued. "With your sword which is a bit primitive compared to modern Hunter weapons, you really have a few options available for you and fewer without a shield."

"Namely, your sword is pretty good at stabbing and slashing at people and nothing else" said Ruby. "You should really get an upgrade with a gun-option."

"Don't have the money…or really the time to learn how to fight with a new weapon like that Ruby" he sighed. If he could then he would. Seeing everyone else using weapons that could transform and comparing it to his own…

Well inadequate was the least of what he was feeling. Not to mention without a range option, he was quite limited in how he could fight.

"You think I could just get a pistol to use a side-arm if I need to fire at something?" he wondered.

Cinder hit his head before retorting, "Getting a gun means you need more training to use it alone and even more to combine it using a sword or shield alternatively. Don't give us more work to get you decent at fighting."

"Sorry sorry" he chuckled before asking, "So I can only stab or slash…that mean I have two moves I can use with Crocea Mors?"

"Not really" Pyrrha shrugged, "You can stab forward, slash from the left, slash from the right and slash from the top. If you were faster or more mobile then you could also attack directly from above or from below as well."

"That's still four different move-sets to learn, well eight if you count one-handed to two-handed wielding" he pointed out.

All three girls looked at each other before Cinder patted Pyrrha's shoulder before saying, "See. He can learn. And to think you would feel that he needed the full explanation to learn anything from you."

Ruby giggled to those words and even Pyrrha couldn't help but to let out a chuckle.

"Oi!" Jaune waved his sword in protest. He noticed that all three girls immediately stood slightly differently than before as if they were ready to spring into action. Was this what someone trained to be a Hunter looked like?

"Is there anything else I need to learn from you Pyrrha?" he asked.

"Stances, mainly. How to balance your body to defence, to attack or even to dodge. The better you are in this, the more 'solid' you are in a fight though I believe Cinder means for you to naturally choose to dodge before your mind decides to attack or defence first" she eyed his partnered.

"Of course. Jaune would take months to learn how to properly fight like everyone else. While short-term, he can learn how to not lose in a matter of weeks even if he lacks variety in fighting" said Cinder before nodding at the red-head.

The next moment, Cinder started dragging Ruby away from the field they were practising at before Pyrrha held her own weapon in her hand without a shield as well.

"Eh, what's happening?" he looked at his team with surprise.

"We're going to spar" Pyrrha stated, weapon pointed at him and stance wide.

"Why?!"

"Because that's the only way you'll fully integrate my teachings in you. Your body needs to learn how to fight from me just as it will learn how to dodge from Cinder" she said. She smiled sadly before adding, "Sorry but I will hold back enough that Ruby can have a turn."

"Ruby has a turn?!" he shouted out in fear.

If stage one was Cinder, stage two was Pyrrha…he didn't want to know of what condition his body would be in when he went into Ruby's hands. Not to mention what insane task she would set him to become stronger.

"Didn't you listen when we discuss this?" she asked, frowning.

"Honestly, I lost track especially when my opinion wasn't considered" he admitted though if Pyrrha felt anything to that, she didn't openly react. She was in a combat stance after all and they were in a spar.

She wasn't a champion or something for nothing if she didn't let her guard down for even a moment.

Knowing that he was going to get his ass kick by also Pyrrha, Jaune settled down his nerves for the long-haul. This was going to be painful but it was Pyrrha. Maybe she would actually hold back on him.

"Remember that a calm mind is the most important thing in a fight" was all the warning he got when a bronze shield bashed into his face.

Wha-

-o-

He was wrong, very wrong in that Pyrrha 'holding-back' was anything good for him. In some ways, she was even worse than Cinder when it came to kicking his ass. She did not forgive openings in his guards and poked into his defence every time he made a mistake.

More than that, the opening of the spar practically was the opposite of calm in that he panicked. Badly. Not that Pyrrha used the shield ever again in the rest of the spar. The simple act of catching him off-guard made the rest of his performance…lacking.

Basically a lot of times, more than he could count.

Now he was lying on the ground, his muscles pretty much mush at this point with no way to move. Class had fortunately ended though he doubted he would be able to do this kind of training day after days without rest.

"How did he do?" he heard Ruby ask.

"Better than expected but worse than what he needs to do to stay above the bottom of the class. Though that may just be because I surprised him bringing my shield into the fight when he didn't expect it" Pyrrha replied.

"That's a lot better than I had expected. In a week we can make him a decent fighter that actually stands a chance against other students in class. In a month we could make him reach the average of the class if we keep on pushing him like this every single day."

He groaned painfully to that suggestion.

"If we let Jaune rest to take care of his studies he might get to the average of the class in a few months instead though. No point in making sure he's barely strong enough only to fail in every single other class he has" said Cinder.

"Does this mean I can't do my part of the training for Jaune?" Ruby whined.

"Not for now" Pyrrha shook her head sadly. "Jaune first needs to be trained enough that he can actually stand up by the time it's your turn. Besides, your training might be useful but it's the least important of the training we discussed before."

Jaune hoped that he would get stronger, only so the pain would stop at this point.

-o-

"Jaune! You will do our homework right? That is something that even you can do."

"O-Of c-course. But I have to go meet with my team-"

"No time for that. You'll be doing it now so you won't have time for them anymore."

-o-

It had been weeks…a few months since she had entered Beacon to infiltrate it and there had been no issue so far. Security around the possible locations of the Fall Maiden remained tight as well as the CCTV Tower. As expected, she would need to act during the school dance or Vytal Festival if she wanted to get into either of those places.

Considering her plans, she would need to get into the CCTV Tower first to plant a virus before moving onto to collect the rest of her power later on. It wouldn't make due if she was caught and forced to escape without achieving both of her plans after all.

"Ozpin may be a fool but he has been in the game longer than me" she muttered.

At the moment, there was no point considering her plans since they haven't changed. Instead she turned her attention to the reports that Emerald had sent her.

Besides keeping them a secret from her team, she had little to no time to give them more than basic instructions for Emerald and Mercury. However, fortunately things seemed to be going fine outside her direct supervision. The White Fang have been geared against Vale more and Torchwick had almost finished stealing enough Dust for her plans.

Another few months and the large amount of Dust would be in the hands of the White Fang to 'breach' Vale with countless Grimm invading as a result. Everyone would suspect the White Fang including themselves of this act and no one would notice the strings that were pulling the bunch of rabid animals along.

(Because really, they were a bit too easy to manipulate to kill and slaughter countless)

Eventually, her mind reached back to her team and issues she had to deal with them now. It wasn't big or dramatic as the reveal that Blake Belladonna was a Faunas and 'worse' once part of the White Fang but it could eventually evolve into that level.

That was something she did not want. Therefore she had to deal with this issue now and she really didn't know what to do. If it was her, she would've destroyed everyone who dared opposed her. Jaune was…not her.

He was being bullied. It was as simple as that.

It was small, subtle and something that no ordinary person would notice but he was indeed being bullied. People whispered behind his back, snickering at things that they could only laugh out in the protection of the crowds. They talked bad about him and didn't respect him at all while not even facing him without large numbers.

What else could you call such a people besides 'bullies'? Of course, there were a few that took the cake on trying to dominate others in the school's social ladder. They of all people were the most desperate to boost their egos in the end.

In fact, she wasn't surprised Jaune was being bullied; she had expected it to happen sooner or later.

The leader of Team JCNR was not a remarkable person and this was never more apparent compared to his team-mates. Compared to the Invincible Girl, Young Prodigy and especially herself, how could Jaune ever compare? He was lacking in his studies and worse he was lacking in his fighting skills.

More than that, Jaune's friends in Team RNBY were all exceptional people as well with three-fourths being girls as well.

To the jealous males, Jaune had three pretty girls on his team while being friends with three more pretty girls on another team. In combination of everything else, Cinder had no doubts on why people seem to like to whisper behind his back and spread bad rumours about him.

He was a better target than Ren.

'Teenagers' she snorted, 'They think that their petty games will amount to anything'

True influence comes with power. And power comes from forcing everyone else to acknowledge that you are superior to them. Jaune would need to 'prove' himself in their eyes for all the rumours and minor acts of bullying against him to stop.

But as much as Cinder wanted to ignore this (as it was beneath her), it was getting out of hand with people believing they had the right to act as they pleased. Jaune was starting to be openly mocked now and soon it would transcend into physical act against him while the school watched by.

She knew all of this would stop when Jaune fought back but he had to do so in such a way that left no opening for anyone to go against him. Her partner was simply not the type of person who had vengeance on his mind to do such a thing.

Still, the blonde being bullied also meant Team JCNR being disrespected by extension.

Bullies in a school setting like this were like vultures waiting for prey. You could not give them ground and even then you might need to stomp them all out to remove the dirt. And Team CRNL proved themselves to such people during the visit to Forever Fall where they tried to pour syrup that attracted Grimm onto Jaune.

It had been a close thing when Cinder pulled the blonde away from the glass jar that had been intentionally tossed him. They could not find out who did throw the glass jar but they had their suspicions considering that Team CRNL wasn't exactly hiding their plans or their complaints when they failed.

'It was a bit laughable on how easy it was to confirm that it was indeed them who had the intention of harm Jaune' she mused.

Well, if they were so fine with someone dying because of their actions, then they would not have any problems if others did the same to them. That and Cinder had little pity for them especially since Jaune was her territory.

"Ruby, Pyrrha, we need to talk about some matters" she said and motioned for them to follow her. Jaune thankfully was off to the library for more study materials that he needed for the moment.

Making they were in private she got to the point immediately. "We need to deal with Team CRNL before they actually get Jaune hurt. Forever Fall might have been minor but that was only because we managed to keep him safe."

"The syrup" Pyrrha realised first, "They attract Grimm and if Jaune was covered in it…"

She looked horrified to that implementation just at the same time Ruby did.

"What do we do? Do we tell the Headmaster about this?" asked Ruby.

Cinder shook her head. "The Headmaster has an off-hands approach when it comes to his students. For example, Velvet has been bullied by Team CRNL and yet none of the teachers have done anything to correct it."

Of course, she suspected it was more of a lesson that if you didn't do anything then people will step on you but throwing dirt at Ozpin was a habit at this point. Still Team CRNL was becoming a pain considering their leader had started to snoop into the backgrounds of other students to get more dirt.

It was unsavoury to some but smart. Knowing more about those you want to manipulate was a good idea and she didn't have any doubts that Cardin would eventually find out certain information that could 'hinder' a couple of students.

-Including hers.

Though it would not matter if he actually found out about her forged transcripts, it would however bring more attention to her which she was using Jaune as a shield for if the fool started to tattle everyone about it. Her plans would be hindered…and even if Ozpin did nothing, she would still be annoyed by the increased number of eyes on her.

Therefore it was better to get rid of them now before any issues came up.

Especially since she suspected that they had found out that Jaune had faked his transcripts to get into Beacon.

"Frankly, Cardin has become too arrogant recently" she started to say. "The teachers seem to have no intentions of helping us deal with this which leaves us to deal with him. Chances are, Cardin will continue to escalate more and more until someone gets hospitalised and if that doesn't stop him he might end up killing someone because no one did anything to stop him."

"I'm sure the teachers will actually stop Cardin if it ever goes to that point" Pyrrha disagreed.

"Then have you noticed him openly bullying Velvet?" she asked.

Ruby's eyes lit up to that, "Of course, Jaune stepped in to help her!"

Jaune did and he was the prime target of the bullying no matter how many eyes she placed on him. There was only so much she could do without confronting the issue directly.

"Yes and now Cardin is bullying him instead. Jaune just made himself into a target when we need him to work more on his training. He had already made a couple of excuses to dodge training recently right?"

"…Yes."

"And he had been eating with them as well right?"

"…Yes. What do you want us to do? This is Jaune's choice in the end" the red-head sighed.

"Choice?" she tilted her head. "If you put a knife to a person's neck and told them to give you money is that really a choice? Cardin basically has blackmail on Jaune and is using it to get what he wants."

Cinder rolled her eyes seeing the surprised looks of the partners.

"I suspect I know what Jaune is hiding that he doesn't want everyone to know. If it's that, our leader would think he would have no choice but to obey Cardin no matter what. And when do you think that Cardin will ask Jaune to do something illegal…like stealing things or even finding out things about people that he can use such our ourselves?"

"But…Carin wouldn't do that…right?" Ruby nervously asked.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Think about on the person you know as Cardin Winchester and think if he wouldn't do that because he could" she shrugged.

"…."

"…."

"And then there's the little fact that Cardin might actually end up killing someone at this rate. People believing they have no limits to consider when dealing with other people often treat them badly" she added. Cinder was completely bullshitting right now if it helped her to convince them then-

"B-But even Cardin wouldn't kill anyone" Ruby protested. And she was honestly right. Beneath everything else, Cardin Winchester was unlikely to actually intentionally harm a person with malice.

"He might not intentionally" Cinder argued, not caring if or why the fool would or could do such a thing.

As long as he's out of her way she's fine with any results. "But considering what he and his team tried to do with Jaune, they are starting to get out of hand. And when they do…"

"People will get hurt and eventually someone will be unlucky enough to be killed by their actions" Pyrrha finished. "But I don't see why we should be the ones who have to stop him. Jaune already has a lot on his hand and putting more onto his hands is unadvised."

"Who says we need to get Jaune involved?" she asked.

Anyone who knew Jaune knew that he couldn't hide a secret if it meant his life…unless it really meant his life. He did surprisingly well in hiding the fact that he had faked his transcripts though that may be due to confidence that he would eventually turn the lie into the truth.

"What? Why on earth wouldn't we involve Jaune in a decision this large? And more importantly why are you saying this as if we already decided to do this at all" Pyrrha questioned.

"Because-" Cinder intentionally paused for a moment, "If we don't then Jaune will be one of Carin's victims and I don't want to see that."

-o-

"Headmaster. Mr Winchester seemed to have a giant boulder dropped on him" Glynda reported. She was frowning thinly and that was never a good sign. Better to get through this now, he supposed.

Ozpin adjusted his cane before stepping over to view Beacon again before asking, "Hmm…a training accident?"

These things weren't rare as he would've liked. Then again, dodging giant boulders was good training to avoid Grimm leaping on you.

"No, someone intentionally dropped one on him. He was in his team room when this happened but fortunately, the rest of his team are fine if only traumatised from this incident" she explained.

That was a surprise.

"Any clues on the perpetrator or perpetrators? Mr Winchester isn't the most popular student so there may be a variety of people who may have issues with him and would resort to this" he asked.

"A few" she admitted. "The top of the list would be Miss Scarlatina as Mr Winchester is a known Faunas racist. After that would be various other Faunas before we have some of the poorer achieving students such as Mr Arc."

"Hmm…send Mr Arc in first. I doubt he has anything to do with this but he might slip out something we could use" he ordered.

Well he had little intention to actually punishing anyone. They didn't do anything to help the victims of Cardin's bullies so why would they help Cardin himself? The most damaging thing Mr Winchester did was trap Mr Arc in his rocket locker before firing it into the Emerald Forest that one time.

If Mr Arc wasn't skilled enough, he would've died. Therefore Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon really didn't care if no one was blamed with the incident of Cardin Winchester being hospitalised.

Then again, if they died from this, then they were not fit to be Hunters.

A/N: Well this got...well I can't say 'dark' because it didn't but things got a bit serious. So yeah, Cinder planned and dropped a literal boulder onto Cardin...now that I look back on this I wonder what I was thinking. Anyway this takes place after Forever Fall meaning I completely skipped that part. Which means I also skipped the fact that Cardin had been bullying Jaune.

I feel that some things don't really change no matter what little differences happens. Whether Jaune actually stood up to Cardin or not, the tall guy would eventually look into the blonde's way for one reason or another and find it in him to bully him. And then Cinder would feel that Jaune didn't do enough (or anything) to correct this and retaliate with (near) lethal force.

Anyway I'm off to actually try and finish the rest of the chapters before my posting reach that point.