Well here is the First chapter I promised this week. Its the second longest thing I posted I think but I hope you like it. Sorry for the exposition but I wanted to get that out their so you guys know of Jaunes past. I did have more fun writing the transaction more than the exposition but I think thats with every writer. Well you all know the drill more talking down below So I hope you like the story. Enjoy
THE TESTS
Jaune was laying in his bed, resting for his battered body to heal. That's what it looked like to the five girls taking shifts watching over the young man yet if they could see inside his head the plans formulating, revising, scraping, tweaking to get out of the mess that become his life in the last week.
When he awoke he was surrounded by five unknown girls all formidable, all strong. In an unknown territory, alone. His body was too damaged to move, his best friend was captured, a threat to keep him in check if he disobeyed. The members of the fang watching Ren are probably using the same method to keep him in check too. But he did not know if Ren was still alive.
Even if it came from the lips of his enemy he would not risk Ren's life. He would swallow his pride and make a deal with the devil for his friends. Before making the Oath, thoughts of escape raced across his mind, but in his current condition with so many variables to account for he could not think of a way out alive.
Acting out would only put him in a disadvantage, they would punish him possible treat him worse, even kill him if he became too much trouble. He could not be too submissive either. These people seem too pride themselves on strength, in all forms. A will broken too fast would be to unappealing. When the leader Pyrrha use Ren as leverage, a tool to obtain his servitude she open the door for him.
Years of interacting with nobles in Vale and military higher ups in Atlas taught him how to talk to people with superiority complexes. Though dealing with some of the nobles his how he got into this mess. Revenge in the form of exiled.
But everyone has a weakness, for him it was his friends. And he will find theirs, information is his ally and weapon to use against the Fang. Till his body heals he will bide his time and wait.
A week had passed since his capture. His body was almost fully recovered, besides his left arm still wrapped in a sling. He was always a quick healer but even he was surprised by how fast he had recovered, he originally thought their medicine was more advanced like their weapons, but he started to worry when the girls compared themselves to him with healing. The thought of faking or injuring himself to prolong it crossed his mind but did not act on the thought.
His health seemed to grant him an audience with the five as all walked into what he now thought was the medical room of their a state. They were not dressed in armor beside Pyrrha still wearing her helmet, (yet her mouth was now shown through the opening.) but all still armed with their weapons at their side. They undid the locks around his feet allowing him to stand free of their bonds. He was grateful they at least gave him loose clothes to cover himself.
Standing he tested his body, stretching and cracking most of his joints in the process. Beside the stiffness of his legs and body staying in bed and chained he was not too rusty, though faked a little with how much he could move his left arm. He noticed the girl watching him, a few had a slight blush but he paid little mind to it.
With a cough he turned back to the five girls staring at him. On first glace the girls in front of him could be seen as average warriors in a city, but the pressure coming off of them was other worldly. He only ever felt this kind of pressure from a few of the high ups in the city.
Pyrrha spoke first. "Jaune Arc."
"Just Jaune." He interrupted. Earning a glare from Weiss and Ruby, with a smirk from Yang while Blake remained neutral.
Pyrrha seemed to not mind the change. "Jaune. Seeing that you mostly recovered and are able to move we have deiced to let you wonder around to formularizer yourself with your new home. Since you took the Oath and I have faith you will stay true to your word. But the others here do not share my value in your Oath and will test you before letting you out of this room. Do you refuse?"
Jaune shook his head waiting for them to begin. "It's too late to back down now, if I'm too get out of here I need to play by their rules for now." He thought.
"Very well, who shall go first?" Pyrrha asked.
"I'll start us off, with a Yang~." The blonde girl smiled pointing with both thumbs to herself. The rest of her team placed a hand to their face while shaking their heads as the girl destroyed the atmosphere.
"You might have a nice look to yea, but I will not risk you being a liability in battle." She spoke while flirtatious at first, when she brought up her team her toned changed back to the seriousness before. "Each of us honed our skill with training and dedication. I expect you to be the same which is why every day you will be with one of us training."
Jaune looked over his body, the memory of his fights with the girls was still ingrained into his skull. Even alone each could take him with ease. "Agreed. I need to get better if I am too fight too but I don't know about that weird magic, skill thing you all have."
"Don't worry we'll whi~p the wim~p out of yea." Yang said with a tease.
"I don't know what will be worse the training or dealing with your puns." Jaune said shaking his head with the others. Earning a smiling glare from the blonde.
"I have a question for him." All eyes turned to Ruby who stepped forward.
She looked uncomfortable being the center of attention, though took a deep breath to calm herself. "We talked before about leadership, how to be confident in yourself and the choices you make. But what happens when the orders you give gets your comrades killed? How did and do you feel knowing this?"
Jaune paused thinking to himself. While he knew it was not his fault they walked into that hell, he took the role of leader in Cardin stead. The girls looked at him waiting for his reply. Ruby, Pyrrha, and Yang gave their full attention to Jaune, while Weiss and Blake seem less interested in what he had to say.
"As I said before, that was the first time I lead such a group. Normally I would only have two or three in the field under me, but we mostly followed a plan from the high ups. Though at times I have been known to ignore them and do what I think is right. This was the first time I had so many listening to me, relining on me to give the right orders and get them home. Yet so many died. At the time I… Tried to ignore that they were human."
The room was silent, all eyes where on Jaune who looked at the floor. Pyrrha was silent, Weiss gave a colder look, while Blake and Yang gave a disappointed look.
"So you did not care that they died?!" Ruby asked her fist was shacking a little as she spoke with rage.
"No." Jaune said calmly raising his head. "Each and every dead that happened while under my command will be a burning remaindered of my failure. Yet if I allow myself to be concerned with the death of a warrior one that train and knew as we all knew how it might end. Others might have suffered more. In a battle there will be casualties. Your comrades will die. No matter how much you plan or train you will face this reality."
Again the room was silent. Ruby listen to Jaune, as he spoke she grabbed more of her cape into her hand. Her eyes were covered by the hood but Jaune could see the frown on her face.
"But that is no reason to quit." Everyone looked at Jaune who seemed surprised himself for speaking.
"No matter how much I tried to ignore my emotions seeing a comrade fall, I am still Human. I felt rage, sorrow, fear, a rush of emotions that you all probably felt. I protect those that I can, I save those that I can, and fight harder to keep others from falling. As a leader you are responsible and you might feel alone, but you are not. You have friends, comrades by your side that will fight with you."
Ruby nodded to the knight, her face still covered by her hood. But had a smile on her face. Pyrrha and Yang also were smiling at the Red hooded girl.
"I guess I'll go next since my question is related to Rubies." Blake said stepping forward. Book in hand she keep the neutral expression on her face.
"I'll get straight to the point of why I don't trust you. As you said before comrades will fight and die by our side. In the battle we fought, all of us here have killed one or more of your comrades, just as you have killed ours. Do you not feel rage, as you said before? Will you not seek out revenge for your fallen comrades? Look me in the eyes when you answer."
Tension in the atmosphere returned, all the smiles faded as Blake brought to light what all were thinking in the corner of their mind. All the girls knew how Blake felt, while Jaune had not caused them any harm, he had killed one of Blakes friends. And they were curious how he felt with what they did.
Jaune again took his time before answering. "I am familiar with revenge and retribution. I have been part of the cycle of hate it creates. Before I served Atlas my home was in Vale. There I was adopted into a kind noble family, while blessed with seven girls they found room in their hearts for me, a poor infant crying, abandoned in their garden. Though not related by blood all in the family loved and treated me as if I were. In turn I love and cared for them the same."
Jaune Continued. "As my adopted family were nobles they faced many challenges, one of which was suitors demanding the right to marry my sisters. Luckily my family believes the right to marry those you love. And the suitors were turned down, wounding many fragile egos. Till one night at a party one such noble deiced to have his way. He drugged my sister and carried her off. Seeing this I raced after him and found him stripping the clothes off her. In a rage I threw him off her and continued to inflict as much damages as I could while my other sisters carried her away."
The girls could see the rage still burning in his memory of that night. "After I stopped I walked away leaving him bloody but alive. Till I felt a sharp pain in my back. The bastard had pick himself up and slashed my back. Sword in hard I fought him beating him with ease yet no matter what he continued to taught and attack me till I pierced his heart."
Taking a breath Jaune calmed himself. "As you can imagine this did not go well with the other family as they were from Atlas and their only son was now dead. They were calling for my head even with the testimony of the other guest they still continued. As I was not a true noble being adopted they still wanted to be given compensation. Reluctantly the leaders of the city had to do something so they came with a compromise. I will serve Atlas and not be allowed back into Vale till I serve the tour their son was going to do."
"I get that you had to protect your sister but how is this helping your case with not wanting revenge?" Blake asked.
"To the point, when I joined Atlas my reputation followed. On top of it Atlas is a military city so they have conflicts all the time not only with Grimm but other cities. So you can guess who was in the front lines for the bloodiest of those fights."
Jaune stop, the next sentence was full of regret. "In those fights I had to do what it took to survive as they did the same. With so many battles comrades falling by your side was just expected. Not many would be friendly for the fear of losing them the next day. It was hell till I found Alice and Ren. I did not care where they were from I was happy to find them. Eventually Atlas got smart and went with smaller teams. And we grew closer as a team."
"In the end of fighting so many battles you would find city's you were fighting against would be you allies and you allies before would be your enemy. Even if you hold a grudge against a city you have to put it behind you to stay alive." Jaune finished.
"That's great! You had to fight with people that you hated but while you fought with a faceless city or Grimm, You killed my friend! I saw you kill him. Just as you say us kill even if you are desensitized or used to it we killed your troops and hurt your friends! Worse you're right in front of me and while I want to and can kill you, I can't since you're claimed." Blake spoke louder then they heard in a long time.
Jaune looked to the side thinking, till he walked closer to Blake stepping in front of her is blue meet her yellow.
"You're right. We both have blood on are hands and there is no moral high ground here. We were on opposite sides of a battle. Now the only reason you are not trying to kill me is because I am "claimed" as you called it. While I'm bond by my Word and the Fang holds my friend's life on the line. So we seem to be at an impasse." Jaune said not breaking eye contact.
"Well then it seems we should hold a contest then." Pyrrha spoke up.
"What type of contest?" Blake asked not looking away from Jaune.
"It will be a contest of stealth." Pyrrha said all eyes on her. The rest of the team looked shocked at the thought of a contest of stealth with Blake, yet she looked a little worried.
She continued, "Each of you will have to ambush the other and grab and object off the other. For Blake it will be her Bow. For Jaune it will be this." Pyrrha handed back to Jaune the stone necklace he wore in the mine. Back in one piece. He would be shocked if the others weren't all staring at Blake's Bow who turned a bit pale at the thought.
Pyrrha ignored the whole scene and continued. "The winner will have the loser do whatever they want besides killing anything is up for grabs."
It took a moment but both agreed to the term. "Great the contest will start in a week. Jaune should be healed by them and he will start his training as well."
"With all this talk about you word and friends life, we come to me." Weiss said stepping forward with a bottle in hand.
"My test will be more straight forward, this bottle is a poison that turns fatal after it enters the body. You will not feel the effects for a day or two but you will die. If you do not drink this your friend will, (Jaune grabs the bottle drinking it whole) have to… Did he just drink it?" Weiss asks.
The rest of the team RPWBY shakes their head in unison as he places the bottle back in Weiss hands.
"But, but." Weiss stutters. Jaune wakes up to her.
"No matter what I will not let you or anyone hurt my friend. If I have to suffer so be it." Jaune says with determination face to face with Weiss.
Weiss backs away flustered but collects herself after seeing everyone looking at her. "Well fine then, ever way you just tied your only leash."
Jaune looked confused till he realized what he done.
"I see you final understand, that poison is my own creation only I know the antidote and can make it, so even if you had some grand plan to betray us you can't as you have to see me if you want to survive!" Weiss announced standing proudly.
"Well I hope you two get along then." Yang popped in between them.
Weiss looked confused, While Jaune just face palmed shaking his head.
"Weiss you just made it that you two can be apart for more than a day." Ruby informed her.
"What?"
So after reading the reviews I flushed Jaune out a little more. Had more interactions with the other characters, and hopefully you like it. I hope what I wrote shows the type of person Jaune is in the story. If your close too him he will go threw hell for yea, Ex: Ren Alice. While after fighting so many battles, he is impacted by the death but will not give it a lot of weight since so many have die already. So while he is not happy being where he is, he will tough it out to make sure Ren is okay, over Revenge.
Next chapter will be more about the girls and how he interacts with them now. PLease comment, review, give your thoughts. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!