Yo! Here with another chapter of this story.

I'm currently halfway through writing Chapter 6 of this story, and trying to work out how to program in Unity (it's going. It's not particularly going well, but it is going) while doing it.

Anyways, without further ado...

Chapter 4 - Beacon and Evernight

His memories of that day are fuzzy.

That's not exactly unfair; Jaune feels as if most of the people who'd gone on that mission, who'd rode in one of the craft carrying them to what many of them considered their doom, hadn't been entirely there. He's not alone in that, at least, from what he's talked to his friends about.

But… his memories are jumbled about, scattered, and start with the briefing. Winter Schnee, their brightest military mind, and Ozpin, having merged entirely with Oscar, going over the plan with all of the commanders of the operation. Jaune himself is one of them, sat beside Ruby on one side and Qrow on the other, two other commanders. There are a few more, Sun of SSSN, Cardin of CRDL, Blake acting as the White Fang's commander, Raven, The Summer Maiden, and numerous others.

He doesn't remember much of the plan now. It had been surprisingly simple, Jaune can recall that. When he'd asked… he's fairly sure it'd been him who'd done so… Winter had responded by saying…

"Surely, this plan is straightforward in theory. It is not an overwhelmingly complicated thing. And that is for a rather simple reason. Salem certainly has things that we have no way of predicting. She will bring something to the fore that will surprise us, shock us, and cost us dearly. We know that. And so, we will account for it now."

Jaune remembers not being alone in wincing somewhat.

"That is why this plan is simple. It is a foundation. It is not meant to be and end all, be all. Adapt. Improvise. Use the skills that we have faith you possess as commanders. For you will have to."

And Jaune had smiled with enough worry to make his heart hurt, but he'd known better than to give it anything else to feed off of.

There's a gap after that. The next few hours had passed by both painfully slowly and all at once, and then, he'd been in front of Weiss, the woman looking up at him with the tiniest of smiles, with nerves hanging about her face just as he had.

And she'd leant up and she'd kissed him, and it had been something he'd had no explanation for at the time, but she'd pulled away and then whispered, quietly enough so as to not be overheard…

"For luck."

And she'd left Jaune there without a clue in the world, despite how, really, if he'd managed to pull to his head out of his own ass, he'd have known exactly what it had been that she'd meant.

And then he remembers the blackness.

The overwhelming, unending darkness that had been the Grimm. He remembers Atlesian officers, the few that remain, Vacuan Hunters, who'd followed along behind them, even the Maiden's, Winter, and Spring, and Summer, paling as they watched the very sun be blotted out in the sky.

And then Winter had steeled herself, and she had commanded.

"Forward."

And their dreadnought had rumbled with the fire of dust, and they'd followed her commands.

Jaune can remember being more scared in that moment than he'd ever been in his entire life.

And yet…

And yet he'd known what he'd had to do.

They all had.

/

It was hard to find a place in Remnant where a statue of one of the seven, if not the entirety of their number, was not displayed. Showing them as towering heroes who'd taken the fight to purest evil and won the day, despite all odds. There were the most statues of Ruby, probably, but Jaune supposed that the rest of them didn't fall all that far behind.

Jaune himself wasn't alone, however, in not entirely caring for most of them. The vast amounts of public attention had been cool for perhaps the first five days. It had proceeded to grow rather annoying after that.

Despite saying that, there was no doubt in Jaune's mind that each statue was a piece of the utmost craftmanship. And that somewhere deep inside of him, there was a tiny little piece that appreciated being able to say that he'd once had to model for a marble carving of himself.

Hell, he'd been summoned to Domremy, his home town, when they'd officially put up the statue of him, and his sisters had spent the proceeding week trying to knock his rapidly-inflating ego down a peg.

Frankly, they hadn't even made a dent. He had a statue. They had clearly lost.

All of that being said, the point was, Jaune had seen an awful lot of statues of the Seven. Good ones, not so good ones, ones where Blake had had her Faunus features suspiciously left out – and hoo-boy, that had not gone over well – and just about everything in between.

But even still…

Beacons was his favorite.

It was not as if the carving along the stone was any fancier than the one that sat in front of Mantle's huntsman academy, nor, perhaps, was it as massive as the one which stood at the central square of Vacuo. And admittedly, the poses on this one lacked some of the fluidity that was conveyed by the one at Haven, which Jaune, admittedly, probably kept as a close second to this one, purely artistically.

But the reason he liked this one the most was simple.

Because among them all, posed heroically with their weapons held ready, was his old partner.

Pyrrha Nikos, unforgotten, smiled forever out unto the horizon beyond.

It was odd. He'd moved on. He accepted that. It was something he'd been struggling with for years, the fact that he'd gotten over her, that he'd almost forgotten her, despite how angry the thought made him. But…

To see her contributions remembered meant a lot.

It was as he was staring up at the statue in the middle of Beacon's courtyard, only a few meters away from where Ruby Rose had once sneezed herself into a crater, and Jaune had helped her up, that a voice called out to him, and he recognized it as his eyes widened considerably.

"Mr. Arc?"

He turned and smiled towards the woman approaching him, who smiled back in turn. There was a brief moment where Jaune wasn't entirely sure what greeting he should go for here. After all, the two of them knew one another, but Jaune himself didn't consider them overly familiar with one another.

In fact, she had been particularly harsh with him during his time in Beacon. Telling him off after nearly every spar he'd completed (and to be fair to her, he'd lost nearly every single one). She'd rebuked his aura control, his overall strategy, and his posture and poise. It had, in the end, been partially her overwhelming judgement that had led him to improve, and yet even still, he was fairly sure his seventeen-year-old self wouldn't have been pleased to see her.

And yet, when the woman reached in for a hug, he didn't at all hesitate to return it himself, laughing freely as the two of them shared a moment.

It was funny how all of that faded into the past now.

"It's good to see you Ms. Goodwitch."

"To you as well, Mr. Arc." Glynda Goodwitch spoke, a gleam in her eye as she addressed him. "You know, if you'd have told me you'd be dropping by, I would've welcomed you myself."

He smiled, realizing that apparently his friends weren't the only people who would rather he trouble them.

"Hah, I wouldn't want to impose on the headmistress' time."

"Please, I'd gladly welcome it." Ms. Goodwitch said, before sighing. "Anything to get away from the paperwork. I've no idea how Ozpin put up with such drivel."

He laughed at the woman's joke, though judging from the disgruntled look on her face, she only half-meant it as such.

"Must've been the whole immortality thing." He fired back, earning a small chuckle from the woman as the two of them walked side by side towards the rebuilt Beacon Academy.

"It certainly can't have hurt."

Ozpin himself was an… interesting topic for Jaune to approach. He'd… he could say with fair certainty nowadays that he'd never truly liked the man. If anything, he'd tolerated his presence, but it had only ever really been because of Oscar. Ozpin was just…

He saw through them. Past them. Willing to see them as pawns on a board. Jaune hated that. Hated that to that man, if the human race survived, no matter how damaged, how bastardized, it was a victory.

No matter how many people he lost along the way.

He'd changed somewhat, Jaune could admit that, and perhaps it really was just his perspective on things that had made him regard the man as an acquaintance at best. But even still… well, one's first impressions often stuck.

Still, during the final battle, Ozpin had proved his mettle. Alongside Salem, the two of them had fought off the God of Light, whilst Ruby and the rest of them had taken Darkness. They'd won, in the end, and the two immortals had faded.

After Ozpin's consciousness had faded from Remnant, so too had Oscar been returned to just being… well…

Oscar.

He still had his memories, of course, and he possessed every bit of the skill he'd learned to fight with, but the life of a headmaster…

Hadn't exactly appealed to Oscar much.

No, that boy had always wanted to be a hero like out of the storybooks, and so he'd set off, wandering much as Jaune did, but for an entirely different reason. To make a difference, to be a real hero.

And so, the position of Headmaster of Beacon Academy had been left to the person it'd made the most sense for it to be given to.

The person it'd already been given to.

That being one Glynda Goodwitch.

Jaune had been back in Beacon on a few occasions; twice, maybe three times since the end of the war against Salem. All those times were brief. The first had been a ceremony to commemorate its true reopening – it had taken until the end of the war for Vale to have the resources to actually get it up and running again in earnest.

The second had been…

Actually, he couldn't much remember.

And if there was a third, that one he couldn't recall either. Perhaps he'd been called in to talk to Ms. Goodwitch? That seemed vaguely correct. He recalled a few of them, the Seven, had been, actually.

What had it been, again?

"Mr. Arc?"

He snapped out of his mind long enough to meet the woman's gaze, and see that they had arrived at the elevator up to her office. Jaune smiled as he stepped inside, and allowed it to carry them upwards.

"You seem lost in thought."

"Ah, just…" Jaune hesitated for a moment. "Reminiscing, I suppose."

"Ah, I understand that." Glynda spoke. "I often find myself thinking about days gone by. I find it happens more and more the older I get." Glynda shivered somewhat. "By everything, I'm going to be forty-two this December."

Jaune himself had never really understood why people cared so much about how old they were, but then again, he was also not very old, so perhaps he'd simply not gotten there yet. Still, he felt, at least, that he could say something, and it was the truth.

"You certainly don't look any older than when you were teaching us." He said with a smile. "Honestly, you haven't aged a day."

Glynda Goodwitch shot him a look then that was equal parts surprise and challenge.

"My, your flirting has gotten better since you attempted to woo Ms. Schnee."

He winced, before he winced again. "I wasn't–"

"I was joking, Mr. Arc." Glynda Goodwitch spoke, smiling at him as the door opened up, and the two of them stepped into her office. "But thank you, I appreciate the compliment."

It really hadn't been a compliment. Ms. Goodwitch just kind of had this… ethereal quality to her. She looked somewhere in the range of twenty and thirty, and sort of always had. Perhaps her hair, once platinum blonde, had gotten just the smallest bit more silver, but honestly – and Jaune would never admit this aloud – she looked all the better for it.

"Speaking of, though," Jaune found himself continuing, once again reminiscing somewhat. "How about some of the other teachers? Are they still working here?"

Glynda turned back towards him with a curious glint in her eye, before leaning against her desk and answering.

"Many of the second-, third-, and fourth-year teachers still work here, yes, though obviously you never had class with any of them. A good many of them retired as well. As for those who taught you, our nursing staff is the same as it was, and Professor Peach and Dr. Oobleck still work here. As a matter of fact, I believe the latter is currently in class, teaching history as we speak."

Something about that brought a smile to Jaune's face, even if it was dimmed somewhat by what he was fairly sure was coming next.

"What about Professor Port?"

"He retired last year." Glynda confirmed his suspicion with a sad smile. "His injury didn't slow him down too terribly, but he was already getting on in years when he was teaching you. He's sixty-three now, and I think he wants to spend time with his family."

Jaune could understand that, especially after the man had lost a leg during their final assault on Evernight. The prosthetic – made by the same company as Yang's – had served him well, but…

Well, sometimes it took a life-changing experience to realize what one was missing. What one had to lose.

Peter Port had, evidently, decided that his family was more important than his career.

Jaune could respect that.

"And what about you, Ms. Goodwitch?"

"Hm?"

"What's life as a headmistress like?"

Glynda Goodwitch seemed to think on that for a moment, before letting out a small laugh and admitting, "It can be… difficult."

"Yeah, I get that."

"But I suppose it has its moments." Glynda spoke. "Although recently, it's been more difficult than usual."

"Why's that?"

"I've been teaching combat classes again." She said, and Jaune was halfway towards questioning why before she explained. "We're currently down a combat instructor at the moment. Our previous one just went back to the field at the end of the previous semester. Joining an expedition in mapping out the Grimmlands. She rather pointedly forgot to mention this until I had less than a week to hire on a replacement, and I couldn't find anyone qualified enough in that time."

Jaune winced, even as he nodded along with Glynda's very evident annoyance.

Speaking of, Jaune had met a few huntsman who were interested in that line of work. Of mapping the Grimmlands, reclaiming them. It was, after all, the final frontier of exploration left on Remnant. There was nowhere else that humanity had not either seen or conquered entirely. Being a part of the last of it had a certain… energy to it. Even Jaune found himself tempted.

Still, it was dangerous work. The Grimm in the Grimmlands were older, wiser, craftier beasts. The ones who'd been wise enough to resist Salem's call, and had even survived the God of Darkness' destruction, were just about the strongest on their little rock.

Jaune himself had no real desire to face them.

He decided to rejoin the conversation in the next moment.

"Ah. So, you're working even more, then?"

"No rest for the weary, I'm afraid." Glynda spoke, before looking up at him a bit pensively. "…I don't suppose… well, I can't ask you to–"

"I can definitely help out, if that's what you're wondering." He said with a smile, more than willing to assist. "After all, the last time I was here, I made a mockery of the arena, or so a certain someone told me."

Glynda Goodwitch rather awkwardly cleared her throat. "I apologize for my language at the time."

"Don't." Jaune said, shaking his head mirthfully. "I needed the push. It was what helped me become… well, Me. In a way, if you'd been kinder, I don't think I'd be here right now."

He wouldn't have survived that final push into Evernight, the way the Grimm had horded around them like a shadow to light. If he'd been even the slightest bit weaker, then his and his team's final encounter would've been–

"Well, then." Glynda said, looking up at the clock on the wall and once more breaking him out of his own mind. "We have twenty minutes until my first class of the day. If you'd like, I could give you a tour? The place has certainly changed since you were a student."

Jaune found himself smiling.

"I'd love that."

/

Getting through the swarm itself… Jaune remembers little about that part.

It's just dark, and black, and evil. The scent of iron and sulfur in the air. The sound of explosions loud enough to have his ears ringing and steel cutting through flesh and bone breaking and everything going wrong in ways they couldn't have even thought of. But… somehow, they get through. Jaune's pretty sure, thinking back, that it's his idea to have Ren cloak their entire ship, and fly under the swarm. So, using every ounce of aura in the both of their bodies, they coat the entire Atlesian dreadnought.

It is… perhaps the single most intense feeling Jaune has ever felt. The pull from him that Ren exudes, the way he seems to guzzle Jaune's aura away, like an engine just burning, burning, burning.

Jaune's exhausted barely 15 seconds in, and they've not even dropped out of the swarm yet.

Over the course of the next two minutes, which is how long it takes them to finally pass the swarm itself – being distracted and led away by a larger, if not much less powerful ship from Vacuo – Jaune finds that he has never truly pushed himself so hard beyond his limits. Has never been utterly spent and then, despite it all, taken up his sword and boarded into a small transport.

They launch out of the dreadnought as the thing itself begins taking fire. Salem has set up quite a few defenses, evidently something Watts had done before his death, for they are Atlesian cannons. They take the dreadnought out of the sky thirty or so seconds after Jaune and the rest of the Hunters assaulting the main base escape it.

Jaune can remember watching the thing crash, hearing as the people still on board, the captain, and the bridge-crew, told them to make it count.

He can remember that message cutting off into static a moment later.

The trip to the ground is no less fearful. Someone does something to the anti-air guns, a semblance probably, from a hunter that Jaune doesn't know. Either way, they overload and explode, which is perhaps the only reason they're able to land without losing any of the transports.

And then the moment they hit the ground; the Grimm are on them.

In droves and droves the likes of which Jaune has never seen. Even the Grimm that had assaulted Atlas look like a small force compared to this. And yet it is Ruby, blazing silver and with a weapon doing the same, that cuts them down in the hundreds with every swing, with every look.

She is raw power incarnate in this environment, and she turns to all of them and screams for them to follow.

Jaune can remember energy filling his limbs, despite the exhaustion hanging on his every breath. Despite the way he'd been gone no more than ten minutes prior.

But Ruby's words, that morale…

It is enough to keep them going. For all of them. He'd screamed in answer, and many had followed suit. Soon their cacophony had matched the braying, teeming masses of the Grimm in intensity.

He looks to Ren and Nora, who nod his way, despite the former's panting, and then to his other side, where Emerald, and Neopolitan stand ready.

His squad.

His squad.

And then he gives the order to charge.

They all follow.

/

It was at some time into the tour – perhaps five or so minutes in? Less? – that Jaune and Ms. Goodwitch ran into a familiar face. Jaune found himself smiling as he waved towards the woman, and her eyes widened somewhat.

"Oh, hey Em."

Emerald didn't exactly smile – she'd never been the type – but it was clear, at least, that his appearance wasn't entirely unwelcome.

"Jaune."

"How've you been?"

"Fine, I suppose." Emerald shrugged. She'd also never been the type to be honest about her emotions, however, so frankly, the world probably could've been burning down around her, and she'd have probably still given that answer. "You?"

…He felt like a bit of a hypocrite as he too answered, "Fine."

Emerald nodded, apparently perfectly content to end the conversation there. Ms. Goodwitch, however, stopped her with a small touch on her shoulder, and kept the girl stationary as she spoke up.

"Emerald here has been a great help."

"Yeah," Jaune turned back to Emerald. "I heard you're the Grimm Studies professor?"

"Mm." She said, and Jaune found himself amused at just how different she was from Peter Port, and the fact that the two of them taught the same class.

Professor Port, despite being quite the tough old man, had also been a boaster, oblivious at the best of times, and most of all, loud as all hell. Nuggets of real wisdom were difficult to pry from his lessons, which mostly consisted of made-up tall tales that not even Ruby believed, which was really saying something.

Emerald, on the other hand, apparently took a radically different approach. She had, after all, spent an awful long time in the very cauldron of the Grimm, in Evernight. And so, she'd seen just about everything that the Grimm could conjure. She spoke from experience, never embellished, and readied her students for what it was that laid ahead of them in life.

All in all, Jaune had a favorite between the two, but saying that aloud probably wasn't nice, so he didn't.

"Well, I suppose I'll leave you to it." Jaune said, and the woman just sort of nodded her head before she pushed past them, and stepped into another classroom.

He was fairly sure it was Port's old classroom, too, but it'd been quite a few years since he'd been here, so he wasn't positive.

"She's quite shy." Glynda informed him a moment later, and Jaune had to laugh.

"I don't think that's it. I think she's just not particularly outspoken among people she's not all that close to."

"That's also possible." Glynda said, laughing herself. "I suppose when it is just the two of us, Emerald tends to speak up a bit more."

"Well, I'm glad she has someone to talk to around here."

Evidently, Glynda agreed.

He and Emerald had interacted a lot less often than some of the other seven. Ren and Nora, after all, had been alone with her in Vacuo, while RWBY and himself had been sequestered away to the Ever After.

And so, while Ren and Nora actually got along with the woman quite well – Nora often boasted that she'd been a bridesmaid at her wedding – he himself was… er…

Not entirely familiar.

Still, he and Ilia had actually sort of bonded in Vacuo, after he, Sun, Ilia, and Neptune had gotten just horrendously drunk, tried to climb the ziggurat in the center of Vacuo, and Sun had nearly cracked his head open falling, before proceeding to laugh until he puked.

They'd also, somehow, gotten Ilia a date.

Jaune still didn't remember how they'd done that – his memories of that night were fuzzy at best – but she had credited him rather heavily in the effort, so uh…

Apparently Jaune was a better wingman than he thought.

And so Jaune ended up hanging out with the couple during their uh… wedding party? Actual wedding? Technically the two had gotten married in a weird one-night tryst after the Valean Gala–

Jaune's eyes widened, even as he attempted to turn around and charge into Emerald's classroom, practically needing to hear the damned story that he kept meaning to get out of someone, because if he went another day without knowing the truth, he was fairly certain he was going to–

"Ah!" Glynda Goodwitch spoke all of a sudden as a shrill sound went off. "That's the bell. We'd better hurry."

And before Jaune could so much as glimpse Emerald once again, he was being dragged down the hallway, towards Ms. Goodwitch's combat class.

He refused to admit that he wanted to scream.

/

The Grimm on the ground are relentless.

Even as Ruby culls them like wheat in a field, even as Jaune swings out with Aurea and cuts down five, ten, fifteen with every stroke, more come. More always come. They all realize, eventually, that there is a massive behemoth of a creature spawning them, somehow larger, even, than the Grimm whale that Salem had summoned in Atlas.

It is a job given to Jaune's squadron, along with three or four others.

Kill it.

And so Jaune gives the orders to his people, and they follow behind him through the grime, through the black blood that flows like a river, through the red blood that splatters the ground, through the scent of iron and sulfur and death.

And when they see it, the creature they name 'Behemoth', it is enough to momentarily stun him.

It is ten times the size of the Wyvern that had once eclipsed Beacon's tallest tower. It is bigger than Monstra, the whale that Salem had brought against Atlas. It is the very ground they walk upon.

And it is beginning to move.

Evernight, it turns out, had been built just beyond this creature.

One final piece of insurance.

Huntsman and Huntresses who have seen the worst the world has to offer scream and shout as the ground beneath their feet shifts, bringing many to their knees, and some to their deaths, either to Grimm praying upon their moments of weakness, or to them falling into the cracks that form in the earth as the Behemoth rises, never to be seen again.

Jaune can remember gritting his teeth and soldiering on, roaring like some kind of beast as he grips Aurea in hand and charges an Alpha Megoliath. It says something about his skill that a Grimm that had once taken Penny, and Ruby, and many others in tandem to down he can now handle on his own. He dodges beneath its feet utilizing his semblance to speed himself up, then shifts that same aura into his arms, into his legs, and swings.

Aurea cleaves its legs in twain, separating each at the knee.

He remembers the beast crying out, before Neo had climbed up its trunk, and, with a manic smile, stabbed Hush into its brain.

It had not finished dissipating before their squad had already killed another of its brethren.

There hadn't been many able to fight at their level. More huntsman and huntresses than he'd ever seen in one place before – perhaps than anyone had ever seen before – had died that day. But none of them will die to this.

The Seven of them – and their closest allies – are too far beyond the Grimm themselves at this point. It will not be the mindless horde that fells any of them.

But there are still some left in Evernight who might.

It is Ruby, finally, that downs Behemoth. She could've perhaps used the same strategy she once had against the Leviathan on its sibling, but she refrains, largely because freezing a Grimm that massive still takes too much out of her, and they'll need her to challenge Salem.

Still, the Silver-edged blade of Crescent Rose, amplified by Weiss' speed, and a boost from Yang and Blake, is more than enough for her to fly faster than sound, and to bring her blade to bare.

One moment, the Behemoth's head sits atop its neck.

And in the next it simply floats in the air, defying gravity however briefly, as its body falls to Remnant, already dissolving.

The roar of them all at that… the way they'd cheered and gained such momentum, the way that the Grimm had faltered beneath the weight of their sudden resolve…

Jaune feels that energy fill him even thinking about it years later.

They charge past the remaining Grimm effortlessly, and finally, they make it to the steps of Evernight.

It is then that Jaune remembers that all of this, losing their dreadnought, the crew who'd piloted it, losing a good many hunters – it takes him a moment to fathom the fact that over half are missing, presumably dead – and the energy of a good many of them, had all been just to make it to the steps.

Just to make it to the door.

His gaze had hardened as he had stepped up to stand beside Ruby. He hadn't really been sure why he'd done it, but… looking back, he thinks he'd simply wanted to support the girl. To offer some modicum of calm to what must've been the worst day of all of their lives.

Still, it had also had the unintended effect of making him, essentially, the no.2 in this operation as far as most of their little audience had been concerned. He hadn't really meant it like that.

Ruby's speech… he doesn't remember it. Frankly, Jaune's pretty sure he could make up one right now that would've been just as effective. Simply say what everyone wants to hear.

"We'll win."

And then they'd pushed open the door.

/

The children all stared at him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as he stood beside Glynda, who ran through her morning routine without any care to the fact that half her class was blatantly not paying attention.

Jaune admired that about the woman. He always had, honestly. She had always been terribly dependable. She'd marched with them to Evernight, after all, commanded her own squad, though it had mainly been the teachers of Beacon, and stood beside them as they'd taken the doors of Salem's palace.

Hers had been one of the ones to guard the gates from behind, to prevent the Grimm from following behind them, and to prevent any surprise arrivals from impacting their assault on Salem.

He smiled thinking on it now, even as the woman cleared her throat, and addressed the room.

"Given that none of you seem terribly interested in my review of just what it is that will be on next week's quiz," Glynda spoke, and Jaune almost smirked at how half the faces in the room blanched. "I'll skip over that."

There was a general chorus of complaining – although Jaune read through that to understand that really, it was mostly begging – as Glynda turned back to him, and gestured for him to step forward.

And so, he did.

He almost shrunk under their awed gazes, but held firm.

"I have invited a guest today that I think you all will be eager to learn from."

Jaune could see that Glynda was rather correct on that front.

"I would introduce him, but I have a feeling he is perfectly capable of doing so himself."

And so Jaune was made to speak. He cleared his throat, pushed down on the nerves inside of him – which, to be fair, were not as great as they'd been while he'd been helping out Ruby at Signal, likely due to his experience in this at this point – and spoke.

"My name is Jaune Arc." He said, smiling as some of the students got even more excited. "I'm an alumni of Beacon Academy, even if I never exactly graduated from it, or even attended it for very long."

There was a bit of light laughter at his joke, which was good. Again, he wasn't particularly sure what he would've done if they hadn't.

"In order to assist Ms. Goodwitch, I'm going to be monitoring some of your combat spars, whilst she does the others."

People seemed to complain about that, and Jaune could see why. Getting the opportunity to be judged by one of the legendary 'Seven' and then having that come down to chance? Yeah, that would've earned some complaining from him, too, had it been him in their position.

Luckily, it seemed Ms. Goodwitch had considered that already.

"That is not all." Ms. Goodwitch spoke. "We will not be simply splitting the class in half. This will be utilizing tournament rules. Single elimination. Those eliminated in the first two rounds will not have the chance to have a match of theirs spectated by Mr. Arc. The person who wins the entire thing will earn the right to have a conversation with Mr. Arc one-on-one."

Now that seemed to be a motivator. Jaune himself laughed a bit awkwardly under his breath at essentially being used as a prize, especially as the students brayed and complained, and some looked disappointed already.

Others looked like they were ready to destroy anything in their way.

"Now," Glynda spoke, pushing up her glasses, letting the lenses glint in the heavy light.

"Let us begin."

/

Jaune did his best to keep up with the numerous matches happening constantly around him. There were usually four on at any time, just so that they'd have enough time in the hour and a half long period to have everyone fight. Jaune himself only really came into the mix around forty minutes in.

When he did, it was… actually, it wasn't half bad.

"Your posture isn't rigid enough." He commented to one woman wielding a halberd. "Take a firmer stance if you're playing defensively, or simply stay completely mobile if you're going to want to be flexible. You're not committing to either, and it's hindering you."

"Yes, Mr. Arc!"

"Your swordplay is excellent, but the moment you're put on the defensive, you seem to flounder. You'll need to learn to shore that up. The saying that the best offense is a good defense didn't come about for no reason."

"Gotcha', sir."

"You… wield twin guns?"

"Uhm… yes?"

"I had a friend who did the same… let me think… Ah, right, here."

He'd adjusted the output of dust into the guns themselves, prompting the woman he'd taken them from to squint, seemingly doubting his knowledge. Really, Jaune couldn't blame her, he was, after all, a swordsman.

But he'd worked around Ren enough to pick up some things.

"Here, try that. Your stopping power should be a lot higher, without adding too much recoil."

The woman fired, and, just as Jaune had thought, she managed to keep him in place as he tried to advance on her with his shield raised. When he finally had to lower it, it was to find that she was grinning from ear to ear.

"I have been trying to solve that for like… eight months, and you figured it out in five seconds!?"

"Eh," He laughed, "You can thank my friend for that one."

By the time the period was ending, the final battle had commenced. It was actually between two people that Jaune had coached already, the woman with the twin pistols from earlier, and a young man who wielded a great sword that split down the middle, forming into two curved blades.

Their fight wasn't terribly long. The woman whose name he didn't know had the great advantage of range, and she managed to hold the distance between them for a good period of the fight. By the time sword-guy could close the distance, his aura was too low to meaningfully put up a fight.

Jaune stepped in as the match ended, and found he had some advice for the boy who'd just lost.

"Sometimes, even though it seems counterintuitive, you have to sacrifice any and all defense in order to have any hope at success. In your position, I would advise putting your sword down, and charging."

Some of the students didn't seem to buy it, although crucially, Glynda Goodwitch had the tiniest of smiles etched onto her face.

And of course, Jaune had rather recently tested that theory out himself, so he would know it worked.

Ruby Rose had pushed him to the limit just a few days ago, after all.

And finally, to round out the period, the woman who'd won the day stayed behind, earning a quick one on one with Jaune himself.

"So," He opened, seeing no reason to waste time when they didn't have a ton, given another group of kids would be arriving in a few minutes. "What was it you wanted to discuss?"

She paused for a moment, before groaning. "Ugh, I had something, and then the moment I'm actually up here, it's gone."

Jaune smirked. "I've been there."

"Really?" She seemed shocked. "You?"

"Is that so unbelievable?"

"What, that one of the legendary warriors who saved the world would get anxious talking to someone? Yeah, it is a little."

He appreciated the girl's snark, it reminded him a bit of Nora or Yang, and made it easier to talk to her.

"Believe it or not, I wasn't always a hero. Nor was I even all that good a huntsman. In fact, when I came to Beacon, I was bottom of the barrel. The worst of the worst."

She eyed him. "Bull."

"Not bull." He smirked. "You can ask Ms. Goodwitch herself on that one. She used to yell at me all the time, telling me that if I didn't shirk up, I was going to fail the year. And she was right, honestly. I didn't deserve to be here, in Beacon."

She didn't seem to believe him, even still, although another voice interrupting at least brought some surprise to her features.

"He's right." Ms. Goodwitch spoke, evidently teasing him. "He was perhaps the student I found myself the most upset with. He struggled in almost all aspects of his curriculum here at Beacon. But in the end, he became one of the best Huntsman of all. And that's completely possible for you as well, Ms. Violetta."

The girl, whose last name was apparently Violetta, went a bit red at that, bouncing from one foot to the other a bit awkwardly. When she finally calmed down, it was with a look at the clock, and the realization that she didn't have a ton of time.

"Ah, crud. I gotta' go. Uhm–"

"You're pretty good with those guns, by the way." Jaune said, before smiling, and holding out his scroll. "If you'd like, I could hook you up with a friend of mine. I'm sure he could give you some advice on how you could continue to grow with them."

Ms. Violetta looked shellshocked. "W-Wait, you mean… from… from Lie Ren?"

He felt the smallest bit cool as he nodded his head.

"Y-Yes! A thousand times yes, uhm… what should I… do I have to pay you, or–"

"Of course not." He laughed, shaking his head. "Ren wouldn't mind, honest. In fact, I'm sure he'd be more than willing."

He was – quietly, and he'd never actually admit it, but Jaune could tell – still a bit salty about the fact that Magni had immediately sprung for his mother's hammer over his father's guns. He would likely appreciate the opportunity to pass on some knowledge.

"Thank you sir! Seriously!" Ms. Violetta bowed. "I… you have no idea what this means to me!"

He had a feeling he didn't, even if he could take a guess. One could never really understand the full depths of another's heart, however. The true scope of her feelings… that he'd never know.

"Oh, I really do have to go, but really, thank you, thank you!" She said, as she loaded Ren's contact information into her phone, and Jaune sent his teammate a quick message dictating that he expect a message from an eager pistol user like himself.

He messaged back with a simple 'I'll look forward to it'.

And Jaune smiled.

"Well then, Mr. Arc." Glynda Goodwitch spoke as he turned back around. "Are you ready to–"

"To do that four more times?" Jaune asked, earning the smallest bit of surprise on her face, before it morphed into amusement. "Yes."

"Yes, I think I am."

/

Jaune hadn't been sure what to make of the fact that Evernight is exactly what he expects.

Violet, dimly lit hallways constructed out of stone that must be as old as Salem herself. The only lighting that of torches which hang every so often, painting the entire thing in an atmosphere that would be unsettling even had Jaune not known what the place's purpose is.

The entire place just feels… dead. In a way that Jaune's not sure he could describe if asked about it later.

Still, they have no choice but to push through it, to somehow locate Salem's seat of power. It is made easier by Emerald, and in some parts Neo, although the latter has never been here, in Evernight itself. The former points them down corridors, leads them to a massive set of double doors, and…

And they open to reveal a figure standing in the back. Her face partially engulfed by black shadow running amok across her form. She is…

Jaune swallows, even as he steps forward, and tells Ruby and the rest to keep moving. They'll handle this.

Every member of his squad; Ren, and Nora, and Emerald, and Neo, they all practically snarl in agreement. There is a real, palpable fury at the sight of the woman ahead of them.

And Cinder Fall just smiles through it all.

It is when the rest of the groups retreat, when it is just the six of them alone in Salem's empty old dining hall, from what Emerald had told them this room had been supposed to be, that Cinder finally speaks.

"My, my. All this effort just for little old me?"

Her voice is…

Jaune does not think it is odd in any way to admit that Cinder has always had a powerful voice. Sultry and manipulating. It had a pull all its own, one that Cinder had always used to her advantage.

It is tainted now. Ravaged by the Grimm that had once been but her left arm. Now… now it winds its way up her entire form, covering her left shoulder, across her collarbone, and even encroaching up her neck. It runs, like a reverse tear-track, up towards Cinder's empty left eye, and yet somehow, the woman regards them with a smile.

One without a hint of regret.

Jaune finds himself, idly, in that moment, wondering if that is how the woman truly, really feels.

It is a useless thing, Jaune supposes. But…

Well, he's a soft thing, at heart, or that's what everyone says. People like Cinder… he simply cannot truly comprehend them.

"Cinder Fall." Jaune remembers speaking, taking a step forward into the room, which is empty, cleared of the long table that had apparently once resided here. It is now an arena, the holes in the walls that Jaune imagines had once housed windows empty and bare, letting rotting, sulfur-tinged air spill into the room. "I ask you listen to reason. Salem means to end all of reality. To end this very world. Join us, and–"

The laugh that Cinder gives then is perhaps the foulest, cruelest thing that Jaune has ever heard in his entire life. It is tinged with the woman's soul, it seems, corrupted and blackened. It reflects her body, her face, even now continuing to be consumed by the Grimm she'd allowed to be grafted to herself.

"Do you think I've not already figured that out?"

Jaune can remember Neo stepping forward then, a silent plea to just get the fight started already, but Jaune…

His lips had pursed, and he'd looked the woman across from him in the eye, in her singular eye, alight with the Fall Maiden's fire, and…

They're empty. That's what he thinks.

There's nothing within them.

No goal. No purpose. No reason. Simply…

He shakes his head. Now is not the time to think on such things. And so, he reaches to his shoulder, where Aurea is attached, and draws the blade, before taking the shield out of its holster on his shoulder and sliding it onto his arm as well.

Cinder's face had grown almost emboldened, then, as if the thought of combat against them, to the death, is the only thing that fuels her.

Jaune wonders, idly, what it is swirls through that head, then and there. What desire, if any, that makes her keep going.

That thought had been thrown aside as Cinder had launched towards them, fire rocketing out of her limbs, and a snarling, flaming leer hanging in her eyes.

And Jaune can remember pondering then that Cinder Fall must already think herself dead.

/

Come the end of the day, Jaune found himself almost out of breath despite the fact that he'd done very little physically.

There was just something… exhausting about it, this whole teaching thing. He'd done it with Ruby first, and now with Ms. Goodwitch. It had gotten easier, but it still took quite a bit out of him.

And so it was that when he and Ms. Goodwitch retreated back to the woman's office at the end of the day, it was with a sigh of relief, and a snicker at his behavior from the woman walking alongside him.

"You handled yourself well."

"Eh." Jaune laughed in response, shrugging. "I guess I'm getting better at it. I helped out at Signal last week when I was visiting with Ruby, too."

"Oh? I hadn't heard."

"Hah, it wasn't really an official thing." He admitted, scratching at the back of his neck. "Ruby and I sparred for her classes, and then broke them down so they could try and gleam some strategy from them. It was fun, actually."

Glynda nodded, but there was something hanging about her gaze, then, that Jaune found himself confused with. He didn't say anything to the woman as she walked over towards her desk, sat down, and opened a compartment on the other side, one that Jaune couldn't see from his position.

She brought out from it an envelope.

"I've rather enjoyed our time together today, Mr. Arc." Ms. Goodwitch spoke, even as she stood once more, walked over to him, and held it out to him. "You surprised me. Although, perhaps at this point I should be used to you, of all people, proving me wrong."

Jaune had to laugh at that.

"Only because I had such great teachers, myself."

The woman in front of him cocked an eyebrow almost playfully. "And you're absolutely certain you're not flirting?"

He laughed, and he could tell his cheeks were redder than they'd been in quite some time.

"In all seriousness," Glynda spoke with a voice dripping with amusement, stepping past him and towards the elevator. "I'd like to offer you a guest room, in case you'd like to stay a few days?"

"No, no," Jaune held a hand up, shaking away the offer. "I'm afraid I was only passing by. I've got a trip to Atlas – er, Mantle, planned already, and a flight already booked for tomorrow."

"Then at the very least allow us to put you up for the evening, Mr. Arc." Ms. Goodwitch spoke, "It is no trouble, I assure you."

Honestly, Jaune didn't really need the help. Weiss' little stipend more than covered any expenses he'd need to spend on a hotel, and he could even stay at one of the really nice ones if he wanted to.

He never actually did, but that was beside the point.

…Still, Ms. Goodwitch was offering, and it might be almost nostalgic to sleep within Beacon's walls for the first time in nearly a decade.

And so, he finally gave in, nodding his head and stepping into the elevator that'd just opened up.

"Alright, you win." He said, ignoring the tiny smirk on Glynda's face. "If you're sure it's no big deal, then I'll take you up on your offer."

Glynda nodded. It took perhaps a minute or so for the elevator to reach the bottom, and when it did, it opened up onto a floor of Beacon that Jaune had never seen.

It seemed this was permanent residence for the teachers themselves.

"Here," Glynda stopped in front of a nondescript door, which was, likely, the point. "It should be furbished and kept clean. If you need anything, drop by the cafeteria, or you can knock on my door."

He nodded, feeling a bit awkward to be sharing the space with the teachers who had once seemed larger than life to him. "I appreciate it, Ms. Goodwitch."

"You may call me Glynda, Mr. Arc."

"Of course, Ms. Goodwitch."

She only huffed out a laugh at him, before turning back around, and heading towards her own room. She pulled open the door, and disappeared inside.

Jaune let out a quiet laugh himself as he pulled his own door closed.

/

Jaune's not entirely sure how long they've been fighting.

He's able to keep track of only a few things at a time in such an engagement. Time falls to the wayside quickly, not at all the main focus. Perhaps it's been seconds, minutes, an hour? Jaune doesn't particularly care, if he's being honest.

Cinder still stands, the music's still playing, and thus the waltz goes on.

And when one of them stops dancing, it will end.

Jaune's not sure how either of them still are, really. Of course, Ruby's group consists of some of the strongest Hunters alive…

But Cinder is a force of nature. A fully realized Maiden, built upon the foundation of arguably the most powerful huntress to ever live. Compared to her, the five of them are practically untenable.

But they have worn her down. She is weak, with little left, Jaune can tell. Nora and Ren are spent, entirely out of the fight. Emerald had taken a bad hit, and is unconscious. Neo…

Jaune doesn't know. She's… he hopes she's alive, but Cinder had struck her hard.

It's just the two of them, now, dancing in the middle of the Maiden's fire. Neither of them are really making contact with the other, too focused on keeping their dwindling reserves alive. Jaune knows that if not for his semblance, he'd have fallen a long time ago.

As things are, he's able to direct his aura towards the places where he'll be hit subconsciously, cutting down dramatically on the amount of damage any one wound can inflict on him. He is also practically immune to Cinder's fire, unless he takes a direct blow, for he can simply push his aura to wherever he needs to pass through it, and do so.

Cinder has fared quite a bit worse. She is bruised and beaten and bloody. Her Grimm arm is a stump, trying to regrow, to reform. The Maiden's fire that had once blazed from out of her right eye is dim, now, barely an ember.

She can't have much left. She can't.

Neither does he, to be fair, so he will have to act in haste.

He has one final trump card that he's not yet shown; Aurea's transformation. The hardlight dust blade that lies within it, that can be called upon if he but sheathes his blade.

Cinder knows nothing of it.

It had, after all, not faced her since its reformation. Since he and Ruby had reforged it, changed its name from yellow to gold.

And so, he jumps into the flames, jumps at the crazed Maiden within, dodges underneath her first strike, purposefully is hit by the second, and sheathes Aurea into his shield.

And then he pulls the entirety of the thing across, and, with a hulking scream, cuts across Cinder Fall's body.

It is enough. Her Aura breaks, evaporating off of her in a blaze of light. She screams in pain as she lands, rolling to a stop a few feet from him. The fires around them begin to gradually dim, and Jaune knows, somewhere in his heart, that it's over.

He's won.

Cinder has fallen.

…

He takes a step forward, and then another. He draws Aurea up, holding it aloft as he stands over Cinder's downed form.

And he looks down at the woman beneath him.

She is rasping, wheezing for breath. She has nothing. No final trick. No big reveal. No reserve power.

And she looks up at him, and their eyes meet for perhaps the first time in their lives. Not in battle. Not in pain, or fury, or any other horrid emotion. Just…

There is a tiredness to her gaze that Jaune understands more than he'd like to.

"What are you waiting for?" She questions him with a bitter laugh.

Jaune wonders the same.

And then, before he can think of anything else, before he can make a decision of any kind, Cinder screams.

It is a guttural, horrid sound. Something that Jaune would never have imagined from someone like Cinder. It is harsh and grating and it is wrong. That much Jaune knows without even knowing the cause.

But then he does know.

He watches as the black of the arm that's been grafted onto her begins to encroach further unto her flesh. He watches as it entrenches itself inside of her flesh, beginning to stab into her and quite literally invade her being. And Jaune knows there and then what's happening.

The Grimm is devouring her.

It is devouring her in much the same way as it had once devoured the Hound in Atlas. It is devouring her in much the same way as that… that thing they'd fought against in Vacuo, that had tried to lead Ruby astray with the face of her mother. That Salem had teasingly called the 'Big Bad Wolf.'

This is not Cinder's trump card. This is not some final technique she is calling to the fore.

No.

This is Salem's.

A way to get one final bit of use out of her last enforcer. A way to make sure that even in death, she will serve her.

It tells him that she has never once regarded Cinder as anything but a tool.

Jaune pales somewhat as he feels a bit of panic flood his system.

And then he meets Cinder's gaze.

Her eye is wide as it turns to him, and he can see tears trying to escape it as the Grimm continues to encompass her further and further, beginning, even, to encase that fiery orb as well.

Soon it will engulf her entirely, and Jaune does not know what it will become, then. How powerful it will be.

The Big Bad Wolf had been… it had taken all of them to down, and only thanks to Ruby's silver eyes had they truly defeated it.

…

Jaune's not entirely sure what it is he's thinking when he stabs Aurea into the ground by Cinder, and kneels down. Not entirely sure why it is he forces aura into his hands, into his fingers, and forces his semblance into overdrive.

It's simply to avoid having to fight that… thing. Some part of Jaune provides as an excuse. And it is a fair one. After all, if he manages to keep Cinder from being devoured, he, likewise, will probably be able to keep the Grimm from forming at all.

But there is a certain feeling inside of him that doubts the validity of that. That doubts that the only reason he's helping the woman below him is because it is to aid themselves.

It isn't. But he's afraid to admit that to himself. To anyone.

And so, he floods Cinder with aura, and watches as the woman's eye blazes. It cuts through the black encroaching her face, and then further, until her mouth is fully uncovered.

The moment it is, Cinder speaks.

"…Why?" Cinder rasps as the Grimm begins to recede, and she can breathe again. "Why… are you…"

"Because I am nothing like you." He answers bitterly.

And Cinder looks at him then for a while as he continues to flood her with aura, as she utilizes the last of the Maiden's fire to burn away at the encroaching darkness, until it is reduced down to the littlest darkness on her arm, and Cinder reaches down, and, with an almost surgical precision, amputates her arm just a little higher than before.

She barely even shows the pain in her expression before she cauterizes the wound, and then burns the remnant of the Grimm Arm to ash until there is nothing left.

And then she just laughs.

"I've never once… understood any of you children."

The feeling is mutual.

Cinder falls into unconsciousness a moment later, entirely spent.

And Jaune is left to stare at the woman responsible for so much death, responsible, in part, for all of what they're currently experiencing. The woman who'd killed Pyrrha, who'd forced him to kill Penny, who'd destroyed Beacon, crippled Vale, attacked Vacuo, and…

…And he stands up, draws Aurea, and moves back towards the others.

After all, if they're to assist Ruby, to stop Salem herself, then they have to move, and his semblance is the only thing that can get them all up and moving again. The fate of the woman behind him… whatever happens to her…

It doesn't matter now.

So, he gathers his teammates, and he regroups them, and they follow along. And as Jaune makes it to the door to the room, as he hangs for just a moment in the frame of it…

He forces himself not to look back.

And then he closes it behind him.

/

Leaving Beacon was a tad bit different to leaving his other destinations.

There was no one waving him goodbye as he stepped onto the bullhead to depart back to Vale, where he would then take a commercial liner to Mantle. He wasn't overly emotional, or too in his own head.

For once, he'd actually had what he'd consider a stress-free time…

Of course, some part of him recognized that just because he hadn't been challenged didn't mean it had been good. That wasn't to say he hadn't enjoyed his time…

It was more to say that Jaune himself was weak.

Ms. Goodwitch had, of course, wished him well that morning, and Jaune had even gotten the chance to say hello to Dr. Oobleck, and Professor Peach, both of whom still taught at Beacon. They both wished him well – and Dr. Oobleck even suggested that the two work together at some point, Jaune assumed he meant in hunter work – as he set off towards the landing pad.

The trip down into Vale was uneventful, as was boarding the larger ship that would be flying them all to Solitas. Jaune settled into his seat – in first class, because frankly, he'd sat in coach a few times since their big debut as 'The Seven', and it had been…

Well, it was a lot harder to avoid getting swarmed by people when you were trapped in a pressurized room a good few thousand meters in the air.

He popped a pill for his stomach – because that woman who'd given him one on the flight from Patch had given him a secret brand he'd never heard of, and that stuff worked like a charm – and was all set to don a sleeping mask and conk out for the long flight when something tinged at the back of his head.

He still had that letter from Ms. Goodwitch. Unopened inside of his carry-on bag.

…

Well, no time like the present, Jaune supposed.

He unzipped his bag, took the envelope, and broke the seal on it.

He opened the letter gingerly.

…It fell from his rigid hands a moment later.

End Chapter 4

Bit of a cliffhanger, although I'm sure some of you will be able to guess what exactly is going on.

Next chapter - Weiss and the Schnees! Mostly Weiss, although Whitley will be there too for a bit.

Alright, see you all eventually!