It was almost dawn, the sun just starting to peek over the horizon as Jaune brought up his shield to block another attempted stab at his chest from his new training partner, twisting his grip so that the blade scraped along the edge of his shield and behind him.

'Slip inside her guard, use shield to defend against possible surprises and aim for her wrist to disarm...' Due to the adaptability of hunters versus the enemies he faced out in the Outlands, Jaune found his current fighting style to be inadequate, especially after being beaten twice in succession in Ms Goodwitch's combat class.

When he had raised the issue, primarily to see if anyone could suggest a trainer to go to or a book he could study, Jaune was surprised when not only Pyrrha but several of the others offered to help in quick succession. Which led to him stood with Crocea Mors at Weiss's neck and her dust rapier on the floor off to one side, the young heiress frowning for a moment before nodding her head.

"Well done, you were still somewhat slow to respond when I changed styles, but you can count this round as yours." Which still left him with a deficit of 8 to catch up on, and Weiss wasn't even using her dust abilities or her main sword style against him yet.

"Thanks Weiss, and sorry for making you get up so early for this..." Jaune was surprised when his apology merely made Weiss' frown deepen even further before she held her hand in her usual authoritative manner to stop him speaking.

"I am used to getting up at such times, my lessons as the Schnee heiress were long and by no means easy. However, I wish to call in my favour." The favour she mentioned was what Jaune had promised each of those that offered to help him train, as he wasn't prepared to let them go out of their way to help him for free, even if they were.

He had been a little worried when Weiss had volunteered, because she had only done so after he had made it clear he was going to owe them favours, and given her background she was also the most likely to make the most of the perceived advantage such a favour gave her.

"Oh, okay Weiss, what do you want my help with?" He was hoping it wasn't with schoolwork, even with Velvet's basic tutoring he was barely a passable academic right now, whilst Weiss was consistently in the top 5.

Her frown switched to that of a thoughtful expression, and for several moments she merely stared at him in silence, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to shift uncomfortably as he imagined what terrible things she was considering asking of him.

"Two things actually, but the second one can wait for the moment. For now, you can tell me why you are being so nice to me after you found out who I was..." For a moment Jaune was genuinely confused by what Weiss was asking, before his memories of the team placements shot to the forefront of his mind and the sense of unease returned.

"Are you sure this is what you wish to use your favour on?" Seeing her nod determinedly, Jaune knew that there was no getting out of this situation without telling her the truth, Weiss had an almost unnatural ability to sense when someone was lying to her.

"Well, it's because of what happened the night I went missing three years ago, I assume you have researched what happened?" If she hadn't she would be the only member of their two teams that hadn't, the reports primarily based on his sister's memories along with the few other scattered survivors who had been rescued the following morning in response to the distress signal that had been sent out.

"Of course, I wish to understand as much as I can about my future potential team mates, that and Ruby wouldn't stop pouting until I read it with her." That seemed in line with the young team leader's general approach to her problems, the mental image bringing a smile to his face, Weiss responding with a small smile of her own despite the irritation in her voice.

"What I don't understand though is why you were there in the first place? Whilst I know the town was named in honour of your great-grandfather, the reports don't give any indication as to what would make you and your sister go there." It still surprised Jaune how few people asked that question when they worked out who he was and what he had been through, many were too focussed on the horror and the desperate fighting that took place to realise the day had started out remarkably quiet in the Arc household.

"The villagers of Arcadia were very generous to my family after the war, several people willing us land or money in recognition of what my grandfather had done, and as part of the founding celebrations each year there was a collection passed round for us." His Father had always been slightly ashamed at the fact he had needed the money given to them to make ends meet more than once, such a large family was expensive to raise, especially so far from Vale.

"So it was something of a tradition, that an Arc would attend the day's celebrations and act as a guest of honour, something my mum or dad would do to try and make it clear how important the people of Arcadia were to us. Then, once my sisters were born and started to grow up another little tradition began, where Arc's would attend the celebrations in their 17th year before heading off into the wider Remnant to pursue their careers." It was still very much a fledgling tradition when Jaune had been dragged along by Amber, though with four of his sister's having attended the celebrations, it was one that had rapidly become a much enjoyed one amongst the Arc children.

"That explains why Amber was there, though why were you? And if your parents... Sorry, I don't mean to pry." It was strange, to see the prim and proper Weiss Schnee so clearly attempting to be emotionally considerate, though how much of that was Ruby's fast growing influence was yet to be seen.

"Don't worry about it, it's not as if this is deeply personal information. Mum and Dad were out on a mission, they usually avoided missions around the time of the festival but the amount of pay offered was too high for them to ignore. Looking back, it was highly suspicious the timing of the request, but at the time there was no reason to look into it. As to why I was there?" Jaune paused for a second, a wry smile appearing as he thought back to his younger self.

"Let's just say I was a bit useless around people in general and Amber thought attending the festival would be a good way to gain confidence..."

"Are you sure it is okay for me to come Amber, mum and dad..." His attempt to try and reason with his sibling one last time was cut off by the urge to vomit as the aircraft they were in buffeted forwards through the slight turbulence, meaning he could only feel sorry for himself as Amber grinned in his direction.

"Stop being so boring Jaune, think of this as your early Signal present from me! That and we need to get your new armour from Flax and make sure it fits, you can't keep wearing my old armour forever..." She was revealing things like this far too loudly for Jaune's liking, especially when all he could do was look pleadingly in her direction to get her to stop embarrassing her even more than his motion sickness was doing already.

"Amber... Shut up!" The gritted tone merely made his hellion of an older sister chuckle as she waved to a girl around their age across the interior of the aircraft, the girl smiling and waving back before looking concernedly at Jaune.

"Aww, someone already has an admirer..." Trying his best to not turn beet red, Jaune wondered whether vomiting on his sister to shut her up would be more or less embarrassing than letting her continue.

Though at this point, Jaune thought as the girl turned back to her mother and regained her original smile, he had to think that vomiting really couldn't make things much worse...

Looking up as he left the memories of his younger years, Jaune was surprised to find Weiss doing her best not to giggle, hiding her mouth behind one of her perfectly manicured hands as she shook slightly from the effort of keeping her amusement non-verbal.

"What's so funny about that? My motion sickness isn't that much of a thing..." Weiss shook her head even as she lost her battle to keep the giggling contained, the lilting and pleasant smile bringing a smile to Jaune's face even as he tried to glare at her for finding his plight so amusing.

"N-No, hem, I mean that isn't what was so funny. Sorry Jaune, but I never expected the younger you to be so, so Ruby-esque!" He assumed the esque bit meant they were alike, which he guessed was probably quite accurate in regards to his younger self, his sisters had always referred to him as the 'baby dork' of the family.

"Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?" Not that he would ever bring that particular detail up if he could help it, Yang's use of 'vomit boy' was already bad enough without adding any more fuel to the fire.

"Sorry, so you were there to collect some new armour? I didn't know Arcadia had any particularly renowned craftsmen in its midst..." At this Jaune couldn't help but snort slightly, raising his hands a little apologetically at Weiss' imperious look.

"I think the reason you won't have heard of him is the same reason you and Velvet have had such a fun time becoming friends." It wasn't meant as an insult, but even he could tell that the two girls were still struggling with not letting their stereotyping control their interactions with each other.

"He's a Faunus?" Jaune nodded before wincing as the memories bubbled to the surface.

"Was, he was one of the first to die, though I imagine those details were well recorded by the survivors, so I won't go into the details of the attack. I suppose if you are asking then you don't know about Amber's injuries?" As Weiss shook her head, obviously a little confused at where he was going with this, Jaune decided his sister could forgive him later for revealing her little secret.

After all, if they got into Weiss' good books, perhaps she could arrange something with her father to get rid of the debt entirely.

"Well, it all started with the bombs..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

The festival was in full flow as they arrived, with stalls and makeshift rides littering the large square in the middle of the small town and the crowds swelled with visitors from nearby villages as well as central Vale itself.

"How's the new armour Jaune? Look's good on you..." Amber's comment made Jaune need to quell the urge to fiddle with his new chest piece once again, the full plate armour made by the aged Rhino Faunus heavy enough that Amber had needed to activate his Aura in order for him to be able to wear it effectively.

"It itches, why did I need to wear it now Amber? Surely we could have picked it up in the morning and I wouldn't feel like I was trying to move through Forever Fall Sap?" Amber chuckled and reached up to pinch his cheek in her usual overly-touchy manner.

"Because this means you can start getting used to it a day earlier, and the girls always like a man in arm..." Amber was cut off by both of them being blown forward, their aura's protecting them from the physical force of the blast but unable to prevent the damage done to their senses, Jaune's perception of the world reduced to blurry visions of wreckage of the large bandstand they had been stood in front of littering the crowds that had been happily milling around moments before.

"-aune, Jaune!" One benefit of aura was that it did help in regaining his senses faster than normal, his vision settling and the ringing reducing to a dull thudding in his ears as Jaune pushed himself onto his hands and knees.

"Death to humans and their pets!" Even as Amber reached his position, the sounds of fighting and gunfire managed to penetrate the numbness that was currently filling his ears, the screams of the crowd getting louder as the people around him scattered like sheep in the face of a pack of wolves.

"Amber? Amber, what's..." His sister cut him off as she pulled him to his feet with one hand, dragging him behind her as bullets slammed into her aura.

"White Fang!" The word sent a chill down Jaune's spine as he caught sight of the masked people moving through the crowd towards them, some pushing the normal people aside whilst others simply cut them down with their weapons.

"We knew there would be one Arc brat here for us to send a message with, but the boy being here means we can use him as the message and keep the girl for other purposes..." The announcement came from a slim and relatively short white fang member who had been the one to shoot at Amber first, though the way he was smiling whilst gesturing with his gun at his sister made it clear what he intended to happen with the 'spare'.

A couple of the other White Fang members laughed, though even with the angry haze starting to give him tunnel vision Jaune could see a couple of the masked Faunus casting openly disapproving looks towards the speaker, who was overly confident now that he had numbers to back him up.

"So why don't you just put the weapons down, and then we can work things ou..." Amber didn't even wait for the Fang member to finish before cutting him off in her usual style, the flail head shooting from the haft of her weapon like a rocket and sending him flying back into the crowd of people still panicking behind them.

The other White Fang members seemed to take offence to this particularly abrupt ending of negotiations, Jaune drawing Crocea Mors even as several of them charged forwards towards them. Stepping in front of his sister, as it would be several seconds before her weapon and wound itself in far enough for her to use again, he brought up the now expanded sheath to block the first attack by a Wolf Faunus armed with a Katana.

With everything else that happened that night, Jaune's memory of the next few minutes was a blur of frantic defence as he kept some of the White Fang members occupied whilst his sister dealt with the others. His aura had been useful at the start of the fight, but the repeated attacks that made it through his guard sapped it rapidly even with the benefit of his new armour, which now sported several scars and puncture marks to show its christening in combat.

The next part that stuck out clearly in Jaune's head was when he and Amber were staring down the remaining half a dozen white fang members, both sides taking a moment to catch their breath and analyse their remaining opponents, as fallen White Fang and civilians alike tried to crawl or limp away from the combat area. Even as the new leader of the White fang group, a female goat Faunus if the horns sticking out over her mask were to go by, stepped forward there was a cry from somewhere in the distance that sent cold shivers up Jaune's spine.

"GRIMM!"

!"£$%^&*()_+

"Obviously the White Fang hadn't anticipated the two of us to put up such a fight, there was no way they couldn't have expected the bombings to lure the Grimm in with the mayhem and negative emotions it generated, but after the first Nevermore took out their escape transport they were in as much trouble as we were." Jaune shook his head as he looked across at Weiss, who seemed honestly enthralled by his tale.

"If they had just bombed the grandstand with the intent to capture us then Arcadia would probably have survived long enough for Hunters to arrive, but one of them thought it was a genius idea to blow a hole in the perimeter wall and several other locations without telling his superiors, which meant that the amount of Grimm and the speed in which they got into the town was far faster than anticipated..." He could see that Weiss was confused by how he had worded that, let it not be said the Schnee heiress was slow on the uptake in the slightest, so he elaborated before she could interrupt.

"All thoughts of them capturing us when out the window with their escape transport being trashed, though if given the choice at the time I would probably have taken being captured instead of what seemed to be certain death, and the goat Faunus seemed to realise that fighting us and the Grimm at the same time really wasn't the best idea. I wouldn't say we parted as friends, but fighting your way across a burning town tends to make you bond with even the worst of people..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

"Watch your left!" The call made Jaune react on instinct, raising his shield in time to catch a pouncing Gaunt full on the snout, sending the small dog Grimm flying away from them even as Jaune impaled the Beowolf he had already been fighting with Crocea Mors.

Looking up, Jaune's face turned into an angry frown as he saw the goat Faunus from before, leading 3 other White Fang members from one of the side streets. Given the bladed long bow in the Faunus' hands, he raised his shield defensively whilst Amber cut down the remaining Grimm.

"Are you seriously still trying to capture us? Don't we have bigger problems? Problems that are entirely your fault?" Maybe antagonising the White Fang wasn't a good plan given the genocide that was taking place around them, but the baptism of fire and blood really hadn't improved Jaune's mood, and in all likelihood they were going to die here regardless.

They had been separated by the arrival of a murder of Nevermore into the main square, several of the White Fang being devoured or torn apart in short order as they tried to force their way through the swarms of flying Grimm to the Arc siblings, providing the two of them with the opportunity to retreat into the main body of the town. Seeing as the loudest sounds of fighting and dying seemed to be coming from the South Amber had led them North, as that was now their best chance of surviving to see the next sunrise.

"Now is not the time to be allocating blame, especially seeing as this was not the plan, or do you really think I want to die here?" The Goat Faunus drew and unleashed the arrow in her bow as she was speaking, but she wasn't aiming at either of the Arc's as the arrow embedded itself in the chest of the Gaunt that was just returning to the fight.

A strange calm fell over the area, obviously the Gaunt had been the last Grimm of this particular cluster as Amber was suddenly at his side once more, flail ready and pointing in the White Fang's direction as the Goat Faunus lowered the bow in what was obviously meant to be a pacifying gesture.

"Look, all we were told was there would be the bomb in the band stand, which would disorientate you long enough that we could take you down and kidnap you. Bisque and the others said nothing about the other bombs or what they were planning to do with you afterwards, though I should have known better than to take that bloodthirsty bastard at his word. You don't have to trust us, I would be asking far too much of you for that, but trust that we want to get out of here alive as much as you do..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

"You worked with the White Fang? Even after they had tried to kidnap you and..." Weiss cut herself off, though Jaune could tell she was thinking about what the snake Faunus had implied about his sister, something that she no doubt had nightmares about the White Fang doing to her as well.

"Given that we weren't even Beacon trainees at that stage we really didn't have much of a choice, even if they decided to leave us alone we wouldn't have made it through the Grimm swarming into the town given the aura damage we had already taken from the explosion and fighting the other White Fang." Weiss was obviously conflicted about the idea, but it was one of those situations that Jaune knew was difficult to understand if you hadn't actually been there.

"But the newspaper reports made no mention of White Fang beyond the initial bombing..." Weiss' statement/question made Jaune chuckle and gesture out over Vale, the slowly rising sun putting much of the city into light relief.

"And you think the Council wants to let the image of White Fang and the Arc family working together in any sense make it's way out to the people of Vale? We aren't anywhere near as important as your own family is in Atlas, but our name still means quite a bit outside the capital of Vale, so any mention of the White Fang that didn't paint them as murderous terrorists was hushed up pretty quickly. Besides, most of them didn't survive the journey to the wall..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

"Damn it all..." The muttered growl from the goat Faunus, whose name seemed to be Noire by what one of her fellow White Fang members had cried out when he had been overwhelmed by a wave of Beowolves, made Jaune look over from where he was standing watch.

They had lost the first White Fang member to a Griffon that had plucked her from the rooftops they had been traversing to avoid the Grimm pouring through the streets, and the last one had just bled out from the wounds he had received taking down an Ursa Major that had stumbled across them as they rested. Despite the fact that they had been trying to kidnap them, Jaune could now say he believed her earlier words about this not being part of the plan that these Faunus had known about, the fear that they had exhibited made it clear that these weren't experienced Grimm combatants.

"We need to keep moving, we are less than 200 metres from the wall." Noire's comment was filled with the grim determination of someone who had a score to settle now, no doubt with her superiors in the White Fang who had either lied to her or had sacrificed her as part of this plan.

"Yes, we just keep following the river and we will be able to get into the forest as long as the Grimm aren't still swarming the walls." Amber's mood was sombre to say the least, but her plan of moving so that they had the river to their back seemed to be working, as it prevented them from being fully surrounded by the ground based Grimm as they tried to escape.

It also cut off their ability to withdraw, but the trade off was definitely worth the risk given that all three of them were almost out of Aura, Jaune's new plate armour already reduced to a damaged breast plate and the vambraces as the Grimm took their toll. As they stood to move forward, Jaune saw Amber's eyes widen as she looked in his direction, the action informing of the threat a moment too late, his half formed block as he tried to spin round merely preventing the claws of the Alpha Beowolf from tearing him in two.

"Jaune!" Surprisingly the cry came from both Noire and Amber, though all Jaune could focus on was the sheer pain he felt through his shield arm as he was sent flying backwards into the wall of one of the buildings, his diminished Aura doing very little to prevent the agony that erupted from his back at the impact.

Still, this was no time for whining, Jaune forcing himself to one knee as he saw the Alpha Beowolf dodge his sisters Flail attack before shrugging off Noire's arrow to the shoulder as it charged towards him again. He tried to bring his shield up, but his arm was still numb from the first blow, the Beowolf batting aside Crocea Mors with it's arm as it's maw went to engulf his skull.

Blood splattered his face, shock overcoming him as Amber was suddenly there, her arm stopping the Beowolf's bite in it's tracks even as her flail came round in her other hand.

"Not today you bastard!" The Grimm didn't understand human speech, but this Alpha seemed to still take offence at the insult, a deep growl emanating from its throat as it bit down harder as the flail impacted its chest...

!"£$%^&*()_+

"She lost her arm just below the elbow, and if it hadn't been for Noire after my rather foolish heroics, there would have been no way Amber would have survived until the reinforcements arrived. I wasn't around for the aftermath, but from what I understand your father knew my mother from several missions she had taken in Atlas before I was born, and made my parents a deal about 6 months after Arcadia fell." Weiss' expression still showed her shock at the revelation about Amber's injury, though the mention of her father seemed to sober her up.

"And knowing my father, it was not anything remotely close to a fair deal..." The slight venom in her voice made Jaune glance in her direction, obviously the Schnee family wasn't as close knit as they liked the world to believe if that was Weiss' view of her father.

"Actually, given that the arm Amber has is custom built and top of the range, most of what he asked for was remarkably simple. Amber spent a year at a SDC testing facility with her new arm, though she can't tell any of us what she got up to there, and my parents had to take several missions for the Schnee family free of charge, but given the circumstances it was a lot better than getting Amber a basic model..." Weiss smiled in obvious surprise, before she seemed to catch onto what he had said and frowned.

"You said 'most of what he asked for', what aren't you telling me Jaune?" Jaune sighed, hoping that she hadn't noticed his wording.

"Your dad also made it so that the Arc family owed the Schnee family an undisclosed favour, which could be anything and for an undisclosed period of time until it was agreed that the debt was paid..." Up to and including suicidal missions or actions against the law, though Jaune preferred not to reveal how desperate his parents had been to agree to such a thing.

"And so once you found out I was the Schnee heiress, the idea that I could then call in the favour at any time..." Jaune nodded, and though Weiss had mellowed considerably since they had first met he couldn't help but be nervous of her reaction, which was not helped by the somewhat devious smile that slowly crept across Weiss' face before she spoke once more.

"Well, I think I can speak to my father about using the debt in his stead, though it would have to be something valuable enough to convince my father to allow it..." Doing his best to avoid letting his mental groan turn into an audible one, Jaune resisted the urge to drop his head into his hands as he knew that he wouldn't like the answer to his next question.

"And it sounds like you have a good idea of where you want to start?" Even as Weiss' nod made a metaphorical death note sound in his head, Jaune kept looking at the 'bright side' of the situation, compared to whatever her father might have had in mind for that favour, Weiss' requests couldn't be that bad...

A/N: And so we disclose the events of Arcadia Falls, as well as some of the revelations about the Arc/Schnee agreement. Schnee Senior will have made such a deal so that in the long term, the benefits of providing Amber's arm will far outweigh the costs of said arm, which Weiss knows and will take account of when trying to convince him to let her use the favour.

So, ideas for things Weiss could ask of Jaune/Amber? Keep it PG please guys :P And what was her other request going to be before they got wrapped up in this story-telling experience?

As usual, review at your leisure, though inspiration and comments do get the ball rolling for the next chapter a lot faster... hint hint.