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

Chapter 8: Where Cinder makes Trouble

"Is that all Headmaster?" he asked.

"Of course" the older and much wiser man nodded back at him. "Do make note that I cannot protect your team from the repercussion if they are discovered or cause too much of an incident. You are lucky that they chose to go against Mr Winchester as…he is not that popular" before being directed to the elevator.

That got a snort out of him, "Cardin isn't that popular is like saying he's a Faunas lover. I'm frankly more surprised that he remains alive considering Cinder's personality and the fact that he forced me to miss a couple of training sessions in a row."

The fact that he had a feeling the training was going to get worse even if temporary was something he wasn't looking forward to.

"Ah…Miss Fall. Do keep an eye on her" The Headmaster said.

"Of course" he walked through the elevator door before punching the button back down.

He had a lot to think about and more to talk to his team about. Lots of things like how Beacon always knew that he had faked his transcripts but also the fact that Cinder did the same to get into this school.

The blond sighed, why did things have to be so complicated? He wasn't that mad for being left out by the team…but he had to clean up after them in the end.

-o-

Jaune was confused, tired and stressed out and the day hadn't even properly begun yet. And he wanted answers.

"So…are we not going to talk about what happened to Cardin?" he nervously shuffled in place as he forked another piece of pancake into his mouth.

Point, Jaune wasn't exactly the best at confronting people and it showed. The team had been eating a lot more pancakes ever since Nora lectured all of them about the 'glory' of pancakes. That and Ren had pretty good sauce to go with the pancakes.

"What about him?" Cinder smiled politely which only cause him to shiver in place. The way the Headmaster told him to keep an eye on her…implied something bad and he was feeling it right now.

"He's has been hospitalised with many of his bones broken and some of his organs even crushed under a boulder" he managed to deadpanned.

Scanning the table, it was only Pyrrha and Ruby who flinched to that. He sighed, so they were also involved after all. Naturally Cinder was involved in this…somehow.

"Wait, Cardin had been hospitalised?!" Yang blurted out.

"Yes."

"That Cardin. The same one that kicked your ass in combat class and managed to be seen as a massive bully by the rest of the school?"

"Yes" he stressed out the word.

Yang blinked for a few moments before saying, "Should we be celebrating then?"

"No!" he slammed his hands on the table before he realised he was breathing heavily. Ignoring the looks he was getting he tried calming down because Cardin being in the hospital was not a good thing because his team caused it.

And chances are, everyone else knew it as well.

More than that, the rest of Team CRNL that weren't injured was actively avoiding his team now. It was quite easy to see who was responsible for nearly killing a student at Beacon. Via giant boulder no less that somehow managed to crash exactly at where Team CRNL's leader was standing without harming anyone else in the team.

The hyper-elaborate set-up to allow for said boulder to actually crash into the hospitalised victim was also found coming to Team JCNR's room as well which was quite damning for his team.

He supposed that had something to do with Cinder and was intentional because normally she wouldn't make a basic mistake like that.

"I just had to talk to the Headmaster about that this morning and I didn't even have a clue that Cardin was actually hospitalised before I got there. So no celebrating no matter how much some of us wants to" he gave his team the look.

"Okay…? Were you punished?"

Jaune slammed his head into the table hearing that question.

"Yes. I was punished by that when I had no idea that it happened or even had a chance to stop it" he gritted out.

"Wait you were punished?!" exclaimed Ruby. He ignored for her the moment.

It was only a few extra classes, extra classes that would cut into his admittedly low amount of free time already.

He wasn't going to even bother to think why they did this.

The action of the team reflected the leader in the end and his team decided to reflect that he had no control over them and that they could step all over him. One of his roles as leader was to make sure his team didn't do anything stupid because they were his responsibility. It was something that he had apparently been slacking on for too long.

Although he didn't want to think about it, people would be placing him on the same level as Cardin when it came to how they treated people. That was not a good thing at all and the number of potential friends and even acquaintances was rapidly decreasing the more the rumours were spreading.

"Tell me team. Did you have any good reasons for excluding me from your little…adventure?" he asked carefully. He was one stop away from shouting at him.

"Well that meant you had good plausible deniability" his partner answered in a way that he knew meant she didn't care at all of what just happened.

Ruby nodded along absently poking her pancakes repeating, "Plausible deniability is good. No one can do anything to you even if you actually had stolen the cookie jar."

Even Pyrrha went along with this madness!

"Well it couldn't have happened to anyone less deserving of some punishment. Perhaps now he would focus on his studies rather than mocking other people when he can for his own ego" the red-head said without a pause.

"You can't be serious?!" he shouted.

If he didn't know better, he would've thought they were actually working together. No, they were working together which was the strange thing. Over the weeks he had gotten to know them, he more or less knew the team dynamic even as they all 'co-operated' to train him in their own mad ways.

His partner, Cinder wasn't the best liked person in the team even to those outside it. She was haughty and naturally looked down at people even without knowing it. Whether it was due to hoe narrow her eyes came to express her emotions or the way her face usually stayed just off a smirk at any moment didn't give her a friendly appearance.

Pyrrha seemed to have reacted worst to her and was naturally antagonistic to his partner. Whether it was due to some combat instinct or a developed sense from her time of fame in the spotlight, the red-head could tell from the very beginning that Cinder wasn't exactly someone you would want to trust completely even if she actually trying to honestly help you.

Ruby on the other hand was much more trusting but learnt to fear Cinder. The younger girl was honestly friendly towards Cinder until she kept her cookies away for not studying and further started burning the cookies as punishment when her warning was no heeded. That did not give her any points to Pyrrha who comforted Ruby while Jaune tried to stop the team fallout with minimal success.

At least they weren't trying to kill each other.

…Even though he was sure that Miss Goodwitch paired them up often just to let them vent. Cinder for a dust user and supposed 'bad at close-combat' was surprisingly skilled and powerful enough to match Pyrrha and more than often actually win against the champion known for being 'unbeatable'.

So yeah, that was lie Cinder told them that was uncovered pretty quickly. Knowing her as much as he did, Jaune supposed that she was attempting to lose but her pride got the hang of her and ended up causing her to beat Pyrrha.

Sighing Jaune propped his face into his hands. His team seemed to be denying that they had anything to do with what happened to Cardin while avoiding the issue.

"Please don't go around hurting people. I can't believe I'm saying this but attacking people outside of sparring of any kind at Beacon is wrong. I thought everyone got this memo from common sense a while ago" he glared at each and every one of them.

"Silly Jaune!" Nora from Team RNBY spoke up, "There is always time for hurting people when you're breaking their legs!"

And wasn't that frightening from such a cheerful girl.

"Well you got to admit" Yang spoke up then. "The giant boulder was a nice touch. Even Blake had to appreciate the classics on someone like Cardin."

"I…didn't say that?" Blake looked warily as if she was going to be judge but calmed down with a pat from Yang. Hmm…there was something going on there but he shouldn't look into it. It was probably private.

"But you all but said it with you actually smiling to the news Jaune brought~" Blake of Team RNBY was pulled into a hug.

Yang grinned letting go of Blake after a moment before high-fiving her sister. If there was any doubt that somehow his team was being framed in his mind, it disappeared then. He groaned knowing that he already had to take supplement classes on how to keep his team in check. Now he was going to be used as an example there.

He was not looking forward to it.

He looked to Ren who was suffering the same fate as him with Nora though it was just Nora. Yang and Blake were sensible enough to not cause him trouble-wait. Yang was Ruby's sister and he doubted that the littlest member of his team wouldn't keep her sister out of the insane plan.

"Ruby…" he cautiously said. "Did you get Yang involved with what happened to Cardin?"

The blush on her face said everything he needed to know. Turning over to face the other blonde on the table he carefully asked, "Yang? Did you get Blake involved with what happened to Cardin?"

"I have no idea what you mean" she said flatly. Blake's face was blank as much as she could as well.

Jaune felt another groan come up and wondered how far this conspiracy went? Was it possible that other teams were involved and allowed the blame to fall entirely on him, someone who did nothing? Cardin wasn't exactly the most popular type but got through with force.

That made more enemies than you would think and there would be many who would've been involved as far as ignoring something incriminating happening or even supplying items to be used. While he knew his team was quite capable in a number of things, he couldn't believe they were that good to sneak by everything without anyone seeing and reporting it.

In other words, this was one big mess he didn't want to clean up after.

Chances were that he had to anyway.

"How do you keep Nora from breaking people's legs?" he asked seriously. That was something he wanted to know. If so, then he might be able to keep his team from overdoing things again.

Ren gave him a long-suffering look.

"I don't. I can only contain the fallout…or bribe her with pancakes. Lots of pancakes with my special sauce."

All of a sudden he felt jealous that he had the option to slave away to stop his partner from rampaging. Jaune quickly realised he didn't have much leverage with his team when it came to making them do things they didn't want to do. Sure Pyrrha might do so because it was polite but Ruby would more often just disappear with her speed and Cinder…

Well he preferred not to think about what happened when he tried forcing her to do something she didn't want to do.

His face always got hotter when he tried thinking about it. Knowing how much she liked fire, she probably threatened to burn him or something along those lines.

"God, what am I supposed to do with my team?" he muttered. He really didn't have much control over them. Was he a good leader at all then? What was the point of being leader when his team did shit like this without warning?

It was with such sorrowful thoughts that Jaune did not notice the looks that his team were giving him and each other before they nodded.

-o-

"So…Jaune is now depressed because we didn't get him in the plan" Ruby spoke carefully. Though they were in an empty classroom, they still didn't have the same privacy as their team room.

More importantly, Jaune wasn't here with them.

"I think it's more because he couldn't stop us from breaking Cardin not that he wasn't part of it…or that he even cared Cardin was harmed from all of this" Pyrrha corrected.

"True. It's only natural that he is somewhat depressed. Something big happened and he wasn't involved when we were. It only got worse in his mind since part of the blame was laid onto him because of us" Cinder shrugged carelessly.

The red- head couldn't help but to grit her teeth and glare at her seeing this. It was this absent of care that made her always think that her team-mate was hiding something. However Pyrrha had to admit that most the time, Cinder did have the team on her mind.

But apparently not this time and now Jaune was paying the price. Even if the price was only a couple of lessons on how to manage the team better, it spoke more than words on their leader's skills on actually leading them.

"And that only happened because you didn't want him involved in the plans you made" she spat out.

"Oh but didn't you agree that getting Jaune involved was a bad idea?"

"T-That's…" She had no answer to that.

It was in a different context but nonetheless, Pyrrha did agree that having Jaune involved with something so malicious wouldn't be a good idea. Plausible deniability after all was what Cinder used to convince her in the end. But it seemed her intentions failed and it only made things worse.

"But why was Jaune so sad then? He wasn't involved and he couldn't be blamed for what happened to Cardin" asked Ruby.

"Because he is our leader" said Pyrrha. "Ultimately it is his responsible to monitor what we do and stop us if we doing something wrong. We have pretty much told Beacon that Jaune is not a good leader."

She sighed in the end but it was Ruby's face that made it all that worse.

The crushed expression on the youngest Huntress in Beacon told more than words as she seemed to realise what she had just did. Under the silver tongue of one Cinder Fall, their team-mate and someone they should be able to trust they did something that was unforgivable for a team.

But was it truly a bad thing that Jaune didn't know what happened?

It was that doubt that was causing problems to Pyrrha right now. She could easily see what Jaune had to endure as punishment if he actually did know was happening. She didn't doubt that the Headmaster could see through any lies from his students. A man was not entrusted with the futures of Hunters to only be lied to so easily.

"Then was it bad that we didn't get Jaune involved in this? I mean, Jaune wouldn't have ratted us out or anything like that" Ruby looked uncomfortable of this topic though she was ironically the most enthusiastic among them for this plan.

"Cardin Winchester being sent to the hospital is quite an event. You could say the person or people who did this did so out of malice. Such people would be kicked out of Beacon if found" the black-haired woman explained. "And I doubt Jaune would've been able to keep himself or the rest of us being expelled otherwise when questioned. The Headmaster is not stupid but wouldn't punish an innocent."

The three of them paused with the feeling of tension increasing. Pyrrha could tell that Ruby was much more emotional right now and needed help. Help that she couldn't provide.

That and all of them were ready to burst out shouting and that wouldn't help anyone.

"Ruby" she spoke gently. "Why don't you see Yang and hang out with Team RNBY for a while. I don't think Jaune wants visitors right now and…I need to have a talk with Cinder here."

"O-Okay…"

A click was heard as the young girl closed the door and left to the comfort of her sibling and friends. Pyrrha sighed knowing that Ruby was probably going to interpret her refusal to comfort her right now as rejection. She had led enough of a life to tell what people were thinking of her for better or worse.

But now with Ruby gone, she had a chance to get a proper explanation from Cinder.

"You sent Ruby away? I thought she would want to know" Cinder raised a questioning brow with a look that was all but telling 'I know but you don't know' to her face.

There was a good reason why she didn't like Cinder that much and being alone with her only reinforced that fact. Not only was it hard to tell the intent of this woman in front of her, it seemed like she made it a game to confuse her and other people of her true intent. If there was anyone who had the interest of harming Beacon and its students, it would be this person in front of her.

"Please cut the crap Cinder. What did Cardin do to you that pissed you off that much that you wished to physically harm him so much? Was Jaune part of this?"

It made it hard for her to actually properly judge the black-haired woman if there were always two conflicts on what she felt to her. Was she trying to use them or help them? The line seemed to blur quite a bit on this.

And compared to her, her other team-mates, Ruby and Jaune were much easier to read.

"No" Cinder agreed. "But he is involved in a way which is why I made this happen."

It was no mistake that Cinder Fall fanned the discontent against Team CNDL. Before, the other teams tolerated the group of bullies as they made their rounds but when Cinder got involved, there were more looks, talks and glares against them that Pyrrha was surprised that a good portion of the school was against them.

"So what did Cardin do to Jaune? I hadn't happen yet since nothing changed in our team before the boulder" she folded her arms, waiting for an answer.

"Pyrrha have you noticed that Jaune is a lot weaker than a normal Beacon Student? That is lacking in a number of ways that this Academy would have otherwise never allowed in in normal circumstances?"

"Yes but-"

"The fact is that Headmaster Ozpin allows everyone with a transcript to get into Beacon. No matter if they are real or fake" amber eyes looked straight at her. "There are some people who cannot get into Beacon normally otherwise."

"Are you implying-" she started to shout.

"Imply?" Cinder tasted the word as if it disgusted her. "I know for a fact that Jaune Arc is among the dozen people who have entered Beacon through fake transcripts this year alone. But that part isn't that you should be worried about."

"Then what is?" she was still in shock. Jaune had…faked his way into Beacon? That would be something that she would need to get used to. But more than that, why didn't he tell her?

Then it hit her. Of course he wouldn't and he wouldn't now especially how his trust was treated. She wasn't his partner and now she could barely count as a team-mate. She felt like crying because it seemed that as much as she hated it, Cinder was in prime position to gain Jaune's trust again while she wasn't.

And a part of her thought that this was her plan all along. It certainly felt like it.

"Simple. Cardin through means I don't know eventually found out or simply deduced that Jaune had forged his transcripts. It would be easy to tell, Jaune isn't a good actor and even saying that someone has faked their way into Beacon would get a reaction out of him."

Flicking her hair slightly, Cinder told her, "Cardin was planning on blackmailing Jaune into doing things for him. And he wouldn't have stopped until he got us involved and I have little doubt how much the idiot would want to push before either we snap and kill him or maim him either way."

"So you convinced everyone to throw a giant boulder on him" she deadpanned though inside, she was much more in turmoil.

"You figured that out?" she smirked. "How easy it was to fan out the flames of hate in everyone. It was quite easy when the targets made themselves so dislikeable to begin with. All it takes is a good image and the world can judge on its own."

"But that isn't a good reason to almost cripple a person!"

"Isn't it?" she stared back at her. "Isn't it fine when a person you trust and care about is getting used because of a fool that doesn't know his place, that wishes to take what is important to you and twist it?"

"No" she firmly said. "There are other means aside from what you think people should do Cinder."

"How naïve…but it makes sense as you are the champion of Minstrel. You simply cannot not be a good person to the world even now. Even when you want to be selfish" she replied slowly as she walked out of the classroom.

"Do you think Jaune can oppose me?"

"I believe Jaune will be able to keep this team together no matter what you say. I trust him that much."

"I see…that we at an impasse. Jaune might become what you think of him with time, but he isn't right now. Well then, I suppose I would have to hunt him down and talk to him. We are partners after all."

Cinder moved to leave and find Jaune. Her instincts, heart and mind told her it was a bad idea to leave her leader with Jaune right now.

Pyrrha didn't stop her. Ruby also needed help.

"Oh, and a little titbit from me for free. Out of the dozen people that actually forged their transcripts into Beacon, only two of them survived Initiation and are on your team. Make what you think about that and the Headmaster's decision to do that."

"That's-"

The door closed and she didn't know what to do. What was right? What was wrong? Killing was bad but was sending people into somewhere you knew was bad right? The more she talked with Cinder Fall, the more Pyrrha's world-view was being crushed and grinded under her heel.

Things seemed to be falling apart and she didn't know what to do? Would they still be a team in the end or strangers among each other? She didn't want that.

First…she needed to patch things up with her partner. Ruby came before Jaune right now…and she didn't want to face him yet.

-o-

Ruby heard a knock and she knew what was on the other side.

"Come in Pyrrha" she sighed. She really didn't want to do anything right now but curl into a ball but whatever happened to her, Jaune had a worse. He wasn't even in the room when she left her sister after a calming talk.

God she felt bad for him. And more important, she wasn't sure her friendship with him could last what just happened.

The red-head in uniform sat next to her, on Jaune's bed without a word.

"You should be out there trying to comfort Jaune" she finally said.

"But I am your partner."

Ruby let out a bitter laugh. One that was all too familiar that once came from her uncle. "We both know that you wanted Jaune as your partner to begin with. The fact that you had to settle down with me didn't change that."

"Ruby what I wanted was a person who cared enough to look beneath everything and saw me as a normal person. A normal person with hopes, dreams and needs that are just average" Pyrrha spoke and it was soft and slow.

"Jaune was the first" she admitted. "He didn't know if me as the famous 'invincible girl' but rather just another girl he could talk to. At that moment, I decided to choose him as my partner."

"But Cinder happened."

Her partner whined at the memory that seemed old to them now. "Yes, Cinder got to him first. Became his partner and I feared that I would now end up with someone who would only care for my name, my ability and how they could benefit from me and nothing less."

"Then I found you all" she whispered.

"Yes and instead of Jaune, whom we all became friends with, I found a partner with you. Aside from gushing from how my weapon worked, you were the same as Jaune in that you didn't care who I was before and that I was your friend now" she rubbed her hair but Ruby still held doubts.

Words were just words in the end. A lie was still a lie.

"But…what would've happened if it was you who found Jaune first in the forest or it was me?" she asked.

"Well-" Pyrrha looked surprised before calming down. "If it was me who became Jaune's partner…well things would be a bit different as I would try to get closer to Jaune than you. At the same time Cinder would be your partner."

Ruby couldn't help but to shiver to that. Cinder already hounded Jaune so much because he was her partner…what would've she done to her if they were partners? She didn't want to think about it at all.

"Our relationship would be different but I believe I would be afraid for you like I am right now afraid for Jaune and how Cinder is influencing him" she grimaced. "Make no mistake. I do not hate Cinder but I do not trust her completely. She…rubs me the wrong way in everything she does despite how I enjoy our spars."

"And if I was partnered with Jaune instead?"

"Then I would probably resent you if not hate you not only for taking Jaune away from me but also for leaving me with Cinder" she said bluntly to the point it caused Ruby to flinch away.

"Not to mention Cinder would also resent you since she seemed to have pinned for Jaune like I did as well" she added and suddenly Ruby was glad there was no chance for her to have been partnered with Jaune in initiation.

"In a way, it was for the best that we were partnered" she mused. "But we still have a problem. We just left cheering up Jaune with Cinder."

"We she is his partner. It's the role of a partner to help support each other" she chuckled though Ruby knew she was joking. It didn't mean it was a good joke.

"Are you kidding? Cinder doesn't even know what fun is! Her fun is all twisted and full of tentacles that Jaune might become a bad person if we let her corrupt our leader!" she all but shouted.

"Then we just need to find him" Pyrrha smiled.

"Of course! We can't leave Jaune behind again."

-o-

"Was this what you wanted to show me?" Jaune asked not wanting to know why Cinder set up spy-cameras in their room. The less he knew the better if anyone asked.

Chances were, they would believe he was the pervert who was filming and watching his team like one. And no one would suspect Cinder…well mainly because she's a woman and a pretty one to boot.

Not that that aspect of her appearance stopped him from hating her guts right now.

"Aren't you going to thank me?" she asked. She was amused again.

"Of course not" he snorted and saw a flick of surprise in her eyes before it disappeared. "I figured that whatever happened to Cardin was your fault to begin with. This is just you making sure the team doesn't fall apart while trying to get closer to me."

He waved at the screen where he was sure that the bonds between Ruby and Pyrrha were getting strengthened. The same couldn't be said for him and Cinder.

"Whatever you're planning, stop. I'm not in the mood for the shit you're planning" he added with a glare.

His partner might have had a hand in making him stronger for the better, but she was also the one who caused so many problems in the team. And she was losing his trust quickly.

He was glad that Ruby and Pyrrha made up for whatever reason that was causing an issue (he was the leader, he should know). But at the same time it made him feel a bit sad that things went right without him. It only proved that Cinder was more of a bitch than he ever imagined even if he was salty with her right now.

Without letting Cinder get another word in, Jaune left her with a final comment. His face pressed close to hers.

"Don't hurt the team or we will be having issues on a number of things Cinder."

It might be the only thing he could do for his team but damn was he going to try and protect them as best he can. Even if the threat is a part of the team and his partner.

Still he was pleasantly surprised if Cinder didn't kick his ass after this or that she didn't actually start to kick his ass then.

A/N: Not much to say here...though its more because I'm too damn tired. 8.30 am classes are hell on my concentration. I think I finished the chapter 11 draft yesterday? Yeah, I did. Now I have to rewrite it into something that doesn't suck.