Chapter 4
Jaune and his new team followed Professor Goodwitch to a small section of Beacon that he had a sinking suspicion that he would visit a lot.
She pointed up at a red cross that was painted above a set of white double doors; the sound of people moaning could be heard inside.
"As you can see this is the Infirmary in which you will be staying for the night Mr. Arc. We monitored your progress in the Emerald Forest and the Headmaster and I both agree that you've sustained far more injuries than you're letting on." The older woman said sternly to which Jaune could see his new teammates nodding along as well.
"I'm fine Professor Goodwitch, nothing a good night's rest won't fix." Jaune said but she turned on her heel quickly and Jaune winced in fear as she pointed the riding crop right in his face.
"You and I both know you need medical attention, now you'll either go in there or I'll make you." Jaune opened and closed his mouth then nodded.
"Good." The Deputy Headmistress said and the door behind her slid to the right. Inside Jaune could see a women dressed in nurse scrubs came towards them.
"How can I help you Deputy Headmistress?" Goodwitch turned to the shorter woman.
"Ah Rosia, I need you to find an examination room for Mr. Arc here. He suffered more than a few major hits during Initiation and I think it would be wise for him to undergo a medical examination before classes start next week and don't take no for an answer from him." Goodwitch instructed and the nurse nodded before gesturing for him to follow her.
"The rest of you can either stay here or if you'd like I'll take you to your new dorm room." Goodwitch said as she turned to the other three members of team JNPR.
"We'll go to the Dorm room." Ren was the first to speak with Nora nodding but Pyrrha looked at Jaune as he walked away with the nurse and sighed.
"I'll stay for a little bit if that's okay with you Professor." Goodwitch nodded and Pyrrha watched as her new teammates left her alone in the infirmary.
Looking around she was surprised that there were quite a few people already here. On a row of beds to her right she could see boys and girls lying on beds. Some of them had stark white bandages wrapped around arms or legs.
"Miss, do you need something?" Someone asked from behind her and Pyrrha turned to see a lanky looking girl with short black hair that covered her left eye in scrubs with a patch saying she was a student trainee.
"You're a student?" Pyrrha asked and the girl nodded.
"Despite what they say, you can learn more than just how to fight Grimm here. So are you looking for someone?" The girl asked again and Pyrrha could see over her shoulder that Jaune was walking through a door.
"I'm just here with my team leader since he's getting an examination."
"Ah, you're a freshman." The girl said with a knowing smile and Pyrrha frowned a little.
"What makes you say that?"
"Cause no one says that about a teammate unless they're all new, it's a new teammate, something happened or you just aren't actually friends and just see these four years as a working relationship." The girl explained.
"Wait, what do you mean by something happened?" The girl hummed a little.
"Well I guess I can you now. When you reach your second year the Academy can let your team go out on unsupervised missions, things can happen though and someone gets hurt or killed. The remaining teammates sometimes blame themselves so they distance themselves away from their other teammates or they blame each other and the team falls apart. This also means they're no longer allowed to perform missions until they get a new team member and sometimes they simply leave the Academy, resigning due to the guilt I suppose." Pyrrha frowned.
"Does that happen a lot?" The older girl gave a sad smile then gestured around.
"Not as much as you'd think but far more than we like, anyways, you should go find your team leader now." The girl finally said.
"Thank you?" Pyrrha said leaving room for a follow up question as the older student began to turn away but then stopped to look at Pyrrha.
"My name's Hilda Autumn, I'm a third year and it's not a problem. Helping people is what I do." The girl said with a soft smile and Pyrrha gave one of her own.
"Thank you, my name is Pyrrha Nikos." The girl nodded again before walking away and Pyrrha walked over to the door passing by several beds that had injured students on them. She supposed that some of the people here must have been injured in the initiation but it wouldn't account to why there were so many.
Stopping in front of the door, she raised her hand to knock but hesitated. What right did she have to come and check on him?
They had only met and neither of them knew each other very well. At the same time she had a responsibility to uphold both as his new partner and the one who led to him being injured. So she knocked three times on the door.
"Come in!" He called out and Pyrrha opened the door then quickly stepped in with the door clicking shut behind her. Standing in front of her was a bare chested Jaune Arc.
Turning to see the red hair girl standing there, Jaune squawked as he covered his chest with his hands then turned away.
Pyrrha in her daze at seeing the lean but well ripped body of the boy was also surprised at his scar covered shoulder. It looked to be a wound that happened far before they met she reckoned but still fresh enough that it was very noticeable.
"Pyrrha, what are you doing?!" Jaune squeaked.
"I, uh, was coming in, uh, to check on you." She said as the door behind her began to open. She stepped out of the way as a grizzled looking man in a white lab coat along with noticeable bags under his eyes walked in.
"Alright, let's get this over with." The man grumbled as he walked over to a small tray where a clip board was laying. Picking it up he looked it over and didn't say anything as the two teens stood there silently.
"Uh, Doctor?" Jaune started to ask and the man glared at him.
"What." He asked bluntly.
"Uh, I don't think this examination is necessary. Professor Goodwitch just thought I might need an exam after our fight during initiation." Jaune began to explain but the older man snorted.
"Right, you suddenly have a Doctor of Medicine now? You're capable of accurately giving yourself a self-examination right, fuck, can you give me mine then too." The man asked sardonically and Jaune kept silent.
"Good, I've spent far too long dealing with hotheaded kids that think they know better than me. They think just because they have Aura it'll mean that nothing can happen to them. The foolishness of youth I suppose, you'd think they'd realize that wasn't the case if we're in constant need of having to train more and more Huntsmen and Huntresses. Aura like any other tool can break." The man said before looking up at him.
"So your name is Jaune Arc huh?" He ask and Pyrrha swore that Jaune started to pale a little but the man chuckled.
"No need to piss yourself boy, it was just an observation." The man said as he stuck out a hand, Jaune took it and gave a firm shake.
"Doctor Aveus Dillinger." He said and Jaune nodded.
"Pleasure to meet you sir." Jaune said and Dillinger snorted.
"Alright boy, I'm going to do a brief preliminary examination just to see how bad these supposed injuries are. Though I see you've already gotten some battle scars, did you get that from a Beowolf during Initiation?" He asked nodding towards his shoulder as he pulled on a pair of latex gloves.
"No sir, it…was before I got here." Jaune said as he stared at the floor.
"Hmm, I see. Well young Miss, may I inquire why you're in my examination room?" Dillinger turned to look at Pyrrha.
"Oh! I, uh, just wanted to stick with Jaune. He's my team leader and partner. Plus I'm sort of responsible for him being here." Pyrrha said as the man started to check Jaune over by hand.
"Hmm." He pressed Jaune's ribcage and Jaune couldn't help but twitch a little at a brief flash of pain.
"Did you take a hit to the chest? No, it was the back wasn't it?" Dillinger asked and Jaune nodded. He twitched a few more times as the doctor probed his back more before pulling a stethoscope from his coat pocket. Then pressed it against Jaune's bare back, while he took slow deep breathes.
"It appears that there is extensive discoloration on your back between where the first thoracic and lumbar are, though that's a clear sign of the bruises healing. If I had to guess you also had a few fractured ribs and possible damage to the spine when your Aura was out, do you wear armor?" The doctor asked and Jaune nodded. Pyrrha moved a littler to her right and felt her heart drop to see the fading but large bruises on his back.
"Show me." Dillinger ordered and stepped back to allow Jaune to pick up the chest and back plate of his armor then held them out for them to see. Pyrrha felt her mouth open in shock to see the horizontal dent running across the back plate.
"That would explain it, though it must a good piece of armor if you took a hit that bad and didn't get crippled immediately by it. But in the end you did take a beating and your Aura must be already taxed to the limit in healing your body, though it doesn't seem to really be affecting these scars, so those will probably fade will fade a little over time." Dillinger wrote something on the clipboard.
"So I'm going to have you checked in for the night for observation, we'll also run some scans to see if there's anything lingering internally that your Aura has yet or is incapable of healing at the moment. I'll have a nurse come in to take your belongings and show you to a room." Dillinger said then nodded to both of them before heading out, neither teen said anything.
"So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Jaune said cautiously as he looked towards the red head.
"Right." Pyrrha said as she looked at the tiled floor.
"So what happened to the others?" Jaune asked.
"What?"
"To Ren and Nora I mean. Did they not want to stay here?" Pyrrha shrugged.
"They were rather tired so they decided to go with Professor Goodwitch to our dorms." Jaune nodded.
"I'm not surprised."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I don't think they're all that happy with me being their team leader." Pyrrha frowned.
"What makes you think that?"
"I have a feeling that Ren probably thinks I'm reckless as he knew that I didn't have my Aura but I think he just assumed it depleted not that I didn't have it unlocked at all at that point. As for Nora, I think the whole spider Grimm thing is bothering her since I was the one to lead her down there." Jaune looked at her but she didn't meet his eyes.
"Do you agree with them?" He asked.
"I…I agree with my partner."
"That doesn't really seem like a yes to me, tell me. Do you think I made a bad call?" He pressed.
"I don't know."
"You don't know or you won't say."
"What do you want me to say?"
"I don't want you to say anything other than the truth."
"Fine, I don't know what to think. I wasn't there; I didn't hear your reasoning to lead her there. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you had some sort of plan to assist in the fight against the Nevermore though."
"Fair enough Pyrrha, thank you for speaking your mind." Jaune said.
"Well if we're speaking our minds then why did you go inside of the tower?" Pyrrha asked.
"I knew Nora wouldn't be able to get a full range of shots if she had stayed on the bridge. I was hoping that when we entered the building we'd find a staircase leading us up. We didn't nor did we find a staircase that led us all the way to the top, we either had missed it completely when we were running from the Grimm or there just wasn't an access way to the top." Pyrrha nodded as a nurse came in, holding a folded paper gown in one hand.
"Mr. Arc? I'm going to need you to strip down completely and put this on." Jaune nodded as he unfurled the paper gown then looked over at Pyrrha.
"You can go Pyrrha I'll be stuck here for the rest of the day, so you can head to our dorm room and rest." Jaune said and Pyrrha nodded.
"I'll see you later Jaune." She said before exiting the room, the beeps, moans, and soft chatter of nurses could be heard much clearer now. As she walked away she thought about what Jaune said, he wasn't technically wrong in his decision process.
He had Nora's weapon and her fighting capability in mind when he had made his choice it just didn't go as he intended. She should probably discuss this over with her and Ren as it wouldn't do any of them good if they were already at each other's throats.
Elsewhere…
Alexander was sitting in the troop bay of the Arcadian aircraft as it flew north of Vale. Looking out a small window he could see them passing over Forever Fall Forest.
Memories bubbled back up; he could smell the stench of blood, fear, and men soiling themselves upon death. The crunch of metal breaking and war cries as the armies of Grimm clashed with the Army of the Grand Campaign.
It was also here that marked the beginning of the end for Arcadia on the continent of Sanus.
Shaking his head slightly he turned to see Zus sitting across from him looking at a data slate. The man if anything was at least dedicated to his job. It wasn't abnormal to find more than a few field agents that have taken, one or two liberties, when they weren't being watched.
"So how did you find my daughter?" Alexander asked his voice cutting through the noise of the dual propellers easily even without a headset.
"Oh, we were able to get our hands on some copies of official Valean documents for the purchase of a home about four hours north of Vale. We then narrowed it even farther by medical records that were transferred via the CCT network." Zus leaned over and held out his data slate. Taking the relatively small device in his hands Alexander could see a map with a mark where his daughter was.
A village named Envall with a population not even a thousand strong, Alexander narrowed his eyes. Something was off about her location, while he didn't doubt that Zus or his information was faulty. It was almost like his parental instincts suggest that this trip might cause more harm than good.
A Few Hours Later…
Walking up a small hill, Alexander found himself staring down at a lake surround by various buildings. A small brick wall barely twice his height surrounded the outskirts of the village.
He could see small fishing boats sitting on the lake surface, while other people enjoyed their day in the water. Others were closer to shore, children, all of them seemed to have not a care in the world.
Even from the distance he was from it he could hear the joyful sounds of laughter along with the smell of grass and the sounds of nature. Yet the longer he stood there the more and more his senses changed what they were experiencing.
The sound of laughter slowly began to turn to the cries of horror and pain. While the smell of grass turned to the pungent smell of blood and fire. Nature's natural sound turned to into the staccato ripple of small arms fire with the low rumble of distant artillery.
"Sir?" Zus asked as he stood next to him.
"What is it?" Alexander asked as he did a quick scan of the area, not was out of the ordinary.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, now let's go." He said before walking down the hill without waiting for a response. The sounds of armor clinking could be heard behind him as he reached the main entrance to the village, he stopped and turned around.
Excluding Zus there was four others with him, all of whom were Praetorians. They stood out in their black plate armor menacingly with their pollaxes in hand, each one stood passively like a statue but Alexander knew they were all fully aware of their surroundings.
Alexander also knew each of them by name and what class they graduated from. He also knew that people got very uneasy when four highly trained warriors with heavy armor and deadly weapons walked into their homes.
For many who lived through the Faunus Rights Revolution and the few that were still alive from the Great War. The sight of the Arcadian Praetorians meant blood would be shed in large amounts.
"Zus you're with me. Seranatos, Esdroch, Hamael, and Oshiah I want the four of you to spread out and cover the outer perimeter, watch for bandits, Grimm, or worse. Also try not to be seen by the locals." One of the Praetorians looked up at him, a gauntlet rising up to push up the metal face plate of the visored Barbuta. The scaled face of a reptile Faunus looked up at him in confusion.
"My Lord? We should be with you." Alexander shook his head.
"I understand Hamael but I would rather not scare the locals with the four of you standing behind me." The Praetorian nodded reluctantly and lowered his faceplate soon the four of them split off to patrol the outskirts of the village.
"Do you think that's wise?" Zus asked and Alexander nodded.
"Let's go." The two of them approached the gate, a wooden double door with two metal rings on it. Alexander took on and knocked three times each one sound like someone was taking a hammer to the door.
"Oi! Quit bloody hammering you prick! What are you trying to do? Break the flipping door?!" An old man started to yell and Alexander stepped back as one of the door was pulled back.
An old man with thinning white hair stepped out wearing overalls and boots. Alexander however was mostly concerned about him having a single barrel break action shotgun.
"Good evening sir." Alexander said courteously and the old man sized him up.
"Bugger me; you're a big fella ain't ya?" Alexander smiled.
"It appears so sir." The old man waved one hand in front of his face as if chasing away a bad smell.
"Don't call me sir, I ain't that old. Now what do ya want here mister?" The old man asked posing the last part as a question.
"Alexander, my name is Alexander Arc. If you don't mind me asking but do you know if a Katherine Arc lives here?" The old man scratched his cheek.
"Mmm, yup I know of a Katherine Arc but who are you to her?" Alexander smiled.
"I'm her father." The old man nodded then looked at Zus.
"My oh my, ain't you a pretty fella, I bet you're even prettier than my daughters." The man said before clearing his throat and spitting out some phlegm.
"Uh, thank you sir." Zus said unsure of what to say.
"Well I guess you two can come in, night's approaching and ya'll don't wanna camp out the night. We got spirits that live in these woods." Alexander frowned.
"Spirits?" He asked and Zus looked up at him while the old man spat again.
"Now I know you city folk probably think I'm crazy but it's true." Alexander shook his head.
"No, I don't think you're crazy, I for one know that Spirits are a real thing." The old man glanced up at him.
"Really now?"
"Indeed." The old man snorted then stepped aside letting them walk through.
"Oi, Eskell! Come here girl!" The old man shouted and a petite raven hair girl wearing grey trousers and a brown jacket ran over.
"You need some help Granddad?" She asked and looked up at Alexander with wide eyes.
"Whoa."
"Yes, yes now put your tongue back in your gob girl. Take these two to see the Arc girl." The girl frowned now.
"The crazy girl? What would I?" The girl never finished her sentence as the old man slapped the top of her head.
"Quiet girl and do as you're told! This here is her father." The girl open and closed her mouth repeatedly then turned away.
"Uh! Follow me!" She said unnaturally loud as she started to walk away. As he followed her Alexander could see that while it was small, the village was at least clean and well-constructed. Everyone also seemed to know each other to some degree as many of them crowded quickly into groups upon seeing Zus and him.
"I don't think they like us." Zus noted.
"I'm pretty sure they don't like you." Alexander said casually.
"My lord, you wound me with such words. Here I was thinking they were frightful of the giant strolling amidst them."
"Come now Zus, we both know I'm far prettier than any giant."
"My apologies my Lord, calling you a giant is an insult, a troll is much more fitting."
"Maybe and I'd say your weasel face may frighten some of the young ones but then again everyone knows you prefer them in the more developmental stage of life."
"Ouch my Lord, I didn't really you personally did executions." Alexander didn't say anything at that and neither did Zus. Eskell who had been leading them thankfully didn't her their exchange as she led them to a small wooden cottage at the far edge of the lake. Alexander could see a thin trail of smoke rising from the chimney.
"Well here we are if you need anything else feel free to ask around I'm sure any of the neighbors would love to help." She said and Alexander couldn't help but notice the strain in her face as she smiled at them.
"Thank you but that'll be all, we know the way out." Alexander said and the girl nodded quickly before hurrying away. She didn't look back at them as she left.
"So, uh, should I stay out here?" Zus asked and Alexander stared at him.
"I'll take that as a yes." He said as he turned away. Looking back at the cottage Alexander walked slowly up to it for some reason he could feel a sense of anticipation dancing through his fingers as he approached the door.
Before he could even knock on the door it swung open and he was greeted by a stocky red hair cat Faunus woman.
"What the fuck do you want?" She asked and Alexander could see the thick mass bandages around her right arm.
"Good evening ma'am I'm here to see someone." The cat Faunus narrowed her yellow eyes and crossed her arms.
"So what? If you want to get your rocks off, might I suggest the nearest brothel but mind you it's a two hour journey eastward before you reach an establishment like that." The girl growled.
"Eiko! Would you just let him in already?" A familiar voice called out and the Faunus crossed her arms as she stepped aside.
"I'm watching you old man." She growled.
"Take a picture then." Alexander said casually as he ducked his head stepping inside. Thankfully once through the doorway it wasn't so bad, he had plenty of room to stand.
The inside of the cottage was homely to say at least. There was wood furniture, two couches in front of a stone fireplace with a shelf over it that had several pictures sitting on top of it. A small table sat in the corner next to what Alexander assumed was the kitchen area.
There was one thing that caught his interest however; it was the young blonde women that sat in front of him. At the same time a pang of pain and sorrow filled his heart at seeing her.
Katherine Arc sat in a wheel chair looking up at him; she had a scar that crossed over her right eye to her temple and nose. Rendering it along with her sight useless while her right leg ended just above the knee. Lastly white bandages covered every inch of her exposed skin, Katherine looked up at him.
"Yo."
The Next Day…
Jaune slowly opened the door handle to his new room; he had left the infirmary as soon as he could. It was still early in the morning for most people, especially on a day off after yesterday's events but for Jaune he felt an itch crawling across his body to start training for the day as he had with Areto.
Of course he couldn't do that both to the Doctor Dillinger's orders and his body also protesting anything more than a simple stretch.
So he figured he'd go and see his new team in their dorm room. A part of him was nervous about it especially to the idea that half of his team didn't like him for his actions despite good intentions.
Opening the door he poked his head through, Ren and Nora were still asleep it seemed. Nora was halfway off her bed snoring while Ren looked like as still as a corpse that had been rolled tightly with the bed's thick cover.
What was strange was Jaune didn't see Pyrrha in any of the other beds in the room. He'd had expected her to be asleep as well if not just lying in bed.
Stepping into the room, he slowly closed the door as he didn't want to wake up the others. A door to the side opened and Jaune was surprised to see Pyrrha strolling out in a red tank top and black shorts.
Jaune immediately looked away and pretended to study a wall even though there was nothing on it.
"Oh, Jaune, I didn't realize you were here. Are you supposed to be up and about already?" Pyrrha asked from behind him, her voice low as she didn't want to wake the others.
"Yea, Doctor Dillinger said that there was really only going to be some soreness in my ribs and back for a while the Aura heals my body so there was nothing for them to do with me. Why are you up so early? I figured you'd want to get some rest after yesterday." Jaune asked as he looked towards her again but she shook her head.
"True, yesterday was pretty hectic but I kind of wanted to do some like cardio to let off some tension."
"Fair enough, I know what you mean as well. I was walking through the halls and I would have expected some of the higher years to be up and about but it seems like anyone that doesn't have a job to do are nowhere to be seen." Jaune said as he sat down on a bed that had his stuff.
"I suppose they have a small break from classes for Initiation. You know, to give the Professors and other faculty time to focus most of their attention on that instead of their normal schedule." Pyrrha said as she began to stretch, Jaune made a point to just stare at his feet.
"Oh, do…you wanna join me?" Pyrrha asked and he looked up confused as she stood next to the door.
"What?"
"I was just wondering if you wanna go for a run with me but you don't have too if you aren't feeling up to it." Pyrrha said and Jaune smiled softly.
"I'm gonna have to take a rain check on that, I doubt I'll be able to keep up as I am right now. I wouldn't want to make you carry me back here when I collapse." Pyrrha laughed softly.
"Well I suppose we can at least get some breakfast afterward, if that's okay with you?" She asked and Jaune nodded.
"Sounds like a plan." She left and Jaune looked towards the sleeping forms of his teammates but neither of them had moved. He sighed as he stood up and took off his armor plates.
Laying them out on his bed he could see that they were pretty beaten up already. Aside from the dent in the back plate, his right spaulder and rerebrace were pretty scratched up as well. He couldn't help but think how his dad would kill him at knowing he already put a mark on his armor.
Sighing he opened his bag, which he assumed his father must have had it delivered sometime yesterday when he was in the infirmary. Inside of it was a note written from his father telling him to keep his head on straight and wishing him good luck.
Crumpling the note up he tossed it aside before digging out a fresh shirt and some loose shorts he wore when he felt lazy. Setting those aside he unpacked the rest of his stuff and looked around for a dresser. Walking over he pulled out the top drawer to see it occupied with what he assumed was Ren's clothes.
Opening the bottom drawer instead he found that it was empty so he put his clothes in it. Afterwards he picked up his clothes from the bed and headed into the room Pyrrha had come out of.
It turned out to be a really nice bathroom complete with four marble sinks, a glass shower, and another door to the toilet.
Locking the bathroom door he hopped into the shower and let the warm water wash over his body. He swore that if he could he would have just sat down on the shower floor and taken a nap right then and there.
Alas he knew that was wasteful of water and that at some point the others would want to come into the bathroom. After scrubbing himself down with the school's provided bar soap he dried himself off and headed out into the main room.
Looking up at the clock he could see it wasn't even eight in the morning yet it felt as if half the day was already gone.
"Maybe I should have gone with Pyrrha." He said to himself as he walked over to one of the desks in the room. On it was a small packet with the school's symbol printed on it, picking it up he opened it to see that it was an information packet about the regular school year. It included everything from school rules, electives, areas on campus for them visit, a list of faculty members and the hours from which the cafeteria was open.
Glancing up at the clock he realized that breakfast was now being served. So he set the packet back on the table and slipped his sneakers back on.
Heading once more out of the room he saw that there was another dorm across from theirs. There was also a little sign etched onto the door. Stepping closer to read it, he was surprised to see that it was Ruby's team.
"Need something?" A quiet voice asked and Jaune felt a wave of fear pass down his spine as he looked to see the black hair girl whose name he had forgotten.
"Uh…no?" He said after a moment.
"You don't sound very sure of that." She said and he just shrugged.
"Ah, well, it's just that I was surprised to see your team had the room across from ours."
"Okay."
"Yup."
"Alright."
"Mhmm." Jaune started to back away as she stared at him.
"I'm going to go now." Jaune said slowly then quickly turned away and walked down the hall. Once around the corner he started to flail his arms around in frustration at how awkward that was. However he stopped when his stomach started to growl a little and he realized that he hadn't eaten or drank anything since Initiation.
10 Minutes Later…
Jaune pushed through a set of double doors and inside revealed four very long rows of tables with the occasional break between every four tables.
There were a number of students sitting at the tables but they were few and far between. At the far end however was the kitchen. The smell of eggs, sausages, pancakes and coffee was more than enough to send another pang of growls from his stomach.
"Ah Mr. Arc I see you're already up and about." A calm voice said from next to him and Jaune looked to see Headmaster Ozpin standing with a steaming mug.
"Oh I didn't see you there Headmaster, and yes I couldn't really sleep and I kind of felt hungry so I came here." Ozpin didn't look at him but nodded before sipping his mug.
"Your sister was like that as well the day after Initiation." Jaune frowned.
"You know my sister?"
"I try my best to remember all the students and teams that come through my school. Your sister and her team are just one of the more noteworthy ones."
"Thank you sir, I'm sure she would be happy to hear that." This time Ozpin looked at him.
"Do you not keep in contact with her?" Jaune shrugged.
"Ah we haven't talked recently. Normally she'll send a message or two and even rarer she'll come home but she never stayed for long."
"Ah, the joy of youth I suppose. The world is brimming with the beautiful mysteries of life; I'm not surprised she'd take whatever chance she can to explore it."
"Maybe but the Creatures of Grimm are still a threat so I'd imagine that some of those beauties have thorns sticking out of them."
"True but pain is beautiful in its own sense. To experience and learn from pain is to grow and that's what we all must do to become the best we can be." Jaune looked at Ozpin again.
"Are you one of those that believe everything has a place, no matter how random it appeared to be?" Ozpin looked at him.
"You know what I'm talking out, destiny and what not." A small smile touched Ozpin's face.
"Do you not believe in destiny Mr. Arc?" Jaune shrugged.
"I'm not sure, but I suppose if following the line of what's been said. The belief that what happens no matter how destructive, painful or even seemingly meaningless is going to or should happen no matter what then I find myself rejecting that notion. As to me it sounds far too complacent."
"Interesting, anyways Mr. Arc I wouldn't want to keep you from your breakfast." Ozpin said before walking out of the cafeteria and left Jaune wondering what just happened.
An Hour Later…
Jaune was still sitting at a cafeteria table when he saw Pyrrha walk through the front doors. Looking towards her, he could see her smile and wave at him politely.
He was also surprised to see her not in her outfit from Initiation, this time she wore blue jeans and a red shirt with sneakers. Though he had to admit it probably would have been sillier for her to walk around in the same outfit all the time.
"Hey Jaune." She said as she stood next to the table he was at.
"Hello Pyrrha, enjoy your run?" He asked.
"Yup, though I was surprised to find you not in the dorm when I came back but I can see that you found yourself something to enjoy yourself with." She gestured to his loaded plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and a cup of coffee filled halfway with milk.
"What can I say? I can't help myself when I see bacon that isn't crisped all the way." Jaune said as he held up a half-eaten piece of bacon. Pyrrha laughed softly before heading over to the ever growing line for food.
Jaune couldn't help but notice as she walked away that more than a few people were watching her and him to some extent. He wondered how much that had to do with the awards under her belt or the fact that she looked good.
In the corner of his eye he was surprised to see Ren and Nora entering the cafeteria as well now. Ren met his eyes and the two of them exchanged nods but Jaune could practically feel the tension.
He needed to talk with them, not just them actually, Pyrrha as well. None of them knew each other and because of Jaune's mistakes during Initiation it was already putting tension between everyone.
It wasn't long before the four of them were sitting at a table together. Pyrrha was on his left while Ren and Nora sat across from them.
"So, uh, how was your sleep?" Jaune asked slowly as he looked at Ren and Nora.
"It was fine." Ren said plainly and Jaune could feel himself twitch a little at the response.
"The beds here are surprisingly comfortable and bouncy." Nora added in to which Pyrrha nodded as well.
"The food here tastes good as well." Pyrrha said as she ate from a bowl of oatmeal.
"I'd imagine that since they're training us to be Huntsmen and Huntresses that they wouldn't cheapen out on the expense." Jaune said as he nibbled on a sausage then set it down on the plate.
"I believe there are some things we should discuss." The others looked towards him.
"It's about Initiation; I just want to apologize for getting you into trouble at the tower Nora. It wasn't my intention to put you at risk all I wanted to do was to help find a better position for you to attack the Nevermore." Jaune explained as he looked at Nora who nodded.
"Good intentions don't necessarily make for a good leader and just because you can apologize doesn't mean we're going to instantly be confident in you." Ren said calmly as he set his own cup down.
"I don't think that's a very fair assessment." Pyrrha cut in before Jaune could reply.
"Fair or not I'm simply stating what I've seen you do and quite frankly I'm not sure if we can trust you to not get us killed." Ren said as he looked Jaune in the eye.
"I completely agree with you on that, I haven't done anything to truly warrant any tangible belief in my ability to lead this team but I also think you're being a little too irrational to expect me to make flawless decisions all the time let alone for others as I've never had to lead anyone before. That being said I'm going to do my best to learn to be a proper team leader but I may make mistakes along the way and if I do please do what you're doing now and call me out on it but first you've got to give me a chance." Jaune said simply as he took a sip from his own cup.
"Yea Ren, quit being so hard on him, so what if things didn't go as planned. You should know by now that sometimes life makes a decision that doesn't agree with us at all." Nora said a stern looking flashing in her eyes as Ren looked away from them.
"Fine, fine, you're right Nora." The shorter girl smiled as she flashed Jaune and Pyrrha a thumbs up.
"Actually there's one last thing, what happened to you before we met up during the Initiation. They sent you to the infirmary almost immediately after the teams were made." Ren asked looking back at him and Jaune coughed slightly into his fist.
"Well my landing strategy sort of put me in a bad position and I ended up take a few serious hits that needed to be looked at in case." Ren nodded understandingly.
"Ah, so your Aura broke your fall but it was used up. Do you have a small Aura amount?" Jaune shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure." Ren frowned.
"Didn't they tell you when you went to Combat School?" Jaune shook his head.
"I didn't go to Combat School; I had one-on-one training." Everyone looked at him in surprise at this. Pyrrha knew something had been off since she found out he didn't have Aura but she just assumed he snuck his way into Beacon somehow.
To learn however that he had training meant that there was much more than meets the eye with him, another thing she needed answers when it came to Jaune Arc.
"Oh, well then thank you for telling us this." Ren said with Nora nodding emphatically.
"See Ren, I told you he was a good guy." Nora said as she chomped down on a pancake.
"I never said he was anything other than a good guy, I was just curious to know if he's truly capable of being a leader." Ren looked at Jaune and nodded.
"Anyone that's willing to admit they're not perfect and invite criticism while they learn is someone that I can trust with a little more ease." Jaune smiled.
"Thanks Lie." He held up a hand.
"Please, call me Ren." Jaune nodded.
"Oh! Oh! And you can call me Queen Nora!" The bubbly orange hair girl called out.
"Yea, you can ignore that." Ren said.
"That sounds like treason." Nora glared at him but Ren simply returned to his breakfast.
"So, what do you guys think classes will be like Monday?" Pyrrha asked.
"I'd imagine that it'll mostly be orientation for our classes." Ren replied and Jaune pushed his tray aside before resting his head on his arms.
"Whatever it is, I think our time here will be an experience none of us will ever forget."
Later That Day…
Jaune was by himself again as he wondered Beacon's numerous gardens. He did find it strange that the school had so much space dedicated to these spots but he supposed it was their way of encouraging a peaceful atmosphere.
He remembered reading some of the after action reports of long range patrols where the Army units were put off rotation for more than a year sometimes. The stress of combat against the Creatures of Grimm for a long time outside of the more fortified border provinces of Arcadia tended to put a massive strain on soldiers.
So in the end when he supposed having a variety of places to distress on campus seemed like a really good idea. Jaune headed away from the gardens then walked through an open doorway, as he stepped past its threshold he bumped into someone.
"Shit." A voice said and Jaune looked down to see a teen with a light green hair cut into a mohawk sitting on the ground.
"My bad." Jaune said as he held a hand out, the teen took it and Jaune pulled him up.
"Man, you're like a rock." The teen said rubbing his ass.
"I wouldn't go that far to say that." Jaune said and the teen held up his hands.
"Hey man you don't got to be so modest, my team leader is pretty built himself but even he doesn't feel like that outside of his armor." Jaune chuckled softly.
"Russel Thrush, I'm from team CRDL." The teen said as he held a hand out, Jaune took it.
"Nice to meet you Russel, Jaune Arc leader of team JNPR." Russel snapped his fingers.
"Ah yea, I remember you from after Initiation. Your team got put together after ours." Jaune nodded.
"Gotta say you got lucky as well, two girls and two guys plus one of those girls is the famous Pyrrha Nikos. Man she's hot." Russel said wistfully and Jaune couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance, his brotherly instincts kicking in briefly at the callow remark.
"Yup, she's also my partner." Jaune said as he crossed his arms and a flash of realization went across the other teen's face.
"My bad, I'm just saying it's better to have an even team than all dudes." Jaune held up a hand stopping him.
"Don't worry about it." Russel nodded as he exhaled.
"Yo! Russel! Over here!" A new voice called out and Jaune turned around to see three other teens walking towards them. The lead figure was the tallest out of all five of them, behind him was a teen with shoulder length dark blue hair and the third some plain looking kid.
"Who's this?" The lead figure asked they got closer.
"This is Jaune Arc; he's the team leader of the people that went up after us when Ozpin made the teams." Russel explained.
"Cardin Winchester, I'm the team leader of CRDL." The lead figured said as he held out his hand, Jaune gripped it. Almost immediately Jaune could feel that the guy was indeed strong as he squeezed Jaune's hand hard but Jaune didn't relent in his own force which amused the bigger teen as he smiled.
"I see you've got a grip as well, makes sense since you got to be the leader of a team despite having Pyrrha Nikos on it. I've seen a few of her fights and she's honestly a one person army all on her own."
"Yea I get that impression as well." Jaune said.
"Well man I don't wanna hold you up from anything so we'll head out, nice meeting you Jaune." Cardin said to which he nodded as well.
"You too, I'll see you guys around then." Jaune waved goodbye as the four of them walked back towards the gardens.
"What a bunch of nice guys." Jaune murmured to himself as he cheerfully headed towards his dorm room glad in meeting new people.
Elsewhere…
"I'd walked over to give you a hug but I'm a little, indisposed." Katherine rasped from her wheelchair. Alexander had three immediate thoughts; the first was remorse for seeing his first born so injured.
The second was a darker thought of violence, the urge to take up his armor and greatsword then lay waste to the Four Kingdoms at their incompetence as fury seethed through every fiber of his being.
The third and most frightful was the thought of what Arabella might do when she learns of what happened to her first daughter.
"Actually, how did you find me?" Katherine asked as she pushed herself around in the wheelchair.
"It sort of just happened there were a few things that we needed to take care of as I moved the rest of the family back home and Zus happened to have caught wind of your paper trail in the CCT." Alexander said simply as she gestured for him to sit on the couch, the furniture creaking loudly under his weight.
"Really? You're moving?" Katherine asked with an incredulous look on her face.
"With your brother attending Beacon, I felt it would be wise to get out of reach from the Four Kingdoms." Katherine chuckled softly before devolving into a coughing fit.
"So Jaune's becoming a Huntsman? That must have pissed you off." Alexander snorted.
"No but I did test him after having Areto train him for a few months."
"Well it's nice to know that you've learned from our fight."
"Maybe but it seems while I avoided the mistakes that I made when you decided to leave I ended up doing something far more foolish." Katherine looked over at him but Alexander couldn't meet her gaze.
"Now I've come to find my eldest daughter and offer her a place back home with the rest of the family but alas faith has been cruel showing her the darkness in man's heart." At his statement both Katherine and the other occupant of the cottage stiffened.
"What makes you think a Grimm didn't do this to me?" Katherine asked in a low voice.
"Please, I know a sword cut when I see one. Besides that you've got far too many bandages around you to indicate combat with the Grimm. Along with that your voice has a clear sign of thermal damage from smoke, while fires can start from a Grimm attack the more likely answer would be a human or Faunus opponent. Plus your friend here is far more cautious than one should be, while the Creatures of Grimm are a malignant force, she wouldn't be on the lookout in a village that is, as far as I'm aware, perfectly happy. So that rules out the prospect that the Creatures of Grimm are what you're being wary of." His daughter and her apparent friend exchanged looks.
"I think he's figured it out." The other girl said.
"Actually, before we continue, who are you?" Alexander asked.
"Oh, yea I guess I haven't introduced myself." She said as she walked towards him and held out her non-bandaged hand which his own dwarfed hers as he took it. Alexander gave a firm shake of her hand and could see her face twitch a little.
"My name is Eiko Ono, of team AERO, nice to meet you Mr. Arc." She said as Alexander let go of her hand and shook it a little.
"So are you the O or the E in that team name?" Alexander asked he watched carefully as there was a brief flash of remorse that touched her face.
"I'm the O; we had another person named Eldon Umber who fit that part." Alexander nodded.
"So I assume he's dead." Katherine glared as Eiko turned away.
"Dad, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Alexander held up his hand.
"You're both grown up enough to answer the question; I apologize if it's a painful memory but affirm or deny it nonetheless."
"He's dead and so is Aryle Raye, the other member of our team not here." Eiko cut in before Katherine could speak.
"Thank you and you have my condolences for the loss of your team members." Alexander said and Eiko gave him a curt nod.
"I see you're still an ass." Katherine murmured.
"Its fine you think that way but when you get to be my age doing what I do then you'll understand why I became the man I am that sits before you." Alexander said but Katherine crossed her arms, which was obviously not a great decision as he could see her face twitch in pain.
"So why are you here again?" Katherine asked.
"Well at first I wanted to see how you are doing which I've done so now I'm going to ask if you would like to come home with us. It would do you good to see your sisters and mother again. I know they would be happy to see you in the end as well. Plus I can see to it to ask Forge Master Rosenstock to craft a leg for you. My offer obviously extends to your friend." The other girl tilted her head in confusion.
"What would someone like me do there?" She asked and Alexander waved his hand dismissively.
"We're not the Four Kingdoms we accept Faunus wholeheartedly." She nodded.
"No I understand that, Katherine told us about who she really is and where she's from at the start of our second year together. I remember we were all kind of annoyed that it took her that long to tell us but in retrospect I think she told us at the minimum scale of that sort of timing." Alexander leaned forward and glared at Katherine.
"What else did she tell you?" He asked as the two of them glared at each other but Katherine looked away within moments.
"Ugh, where do I start?" Eiko said and Alexander patted the spot next to him on the couch.
"Start from the beginning."
A Few Days Later…
Jaune was sitting in the top row of bleachers in Combat Class; Professor Goodwitch was going over the basic rules of her class. He had to admit the older woman was intimidating, he reckoned that even if this wasn't a combat class that no one would dare break a rule on their own volition.
It was a lot better than Grimm Studies. As much as he wanted to like Professor Port's class it seemed that for once it was the teacher that made learning boring and not just a boring subject.
"With that out of the way class is over for today but be mindful we'll be going forth with the planned schedule tomorrow." Goodwitch said as she gave a casual wave of her riding crop. A stack of papers on the other side of the room started shaking before they became highlighted in purple then quickly shot over to land in the laps or hands of the waiting students.
"The entire semester's plans for this class is on that sheet so don't lose it. Now if anyone has a question feel free to come ask me, the rest of you may now leave."
"Ah! I can't wait for tomorrow." Yang said from the row below him.
"I'll be back." Weiss said as she stood up.
"Where are you going Weiss? We can leave." Ruby asked but the white hair girl ignored her as she headed down the stairs towards the arena.
"Ren, can we get something to eat? I'm hungry." Nora asked.
"Nora you've been eating chicken nuggets the entire class, how are you still hungry?" Pyrrha asked but the shorter girl shrugged.
"Those were just appetizers." Pyrrha tilted her head a little in confusion.
"That doesn't make any sense." She started to say but Nora put a finger on her lips stopping the redhead.
"Shush my dear child." Had Jaune not been looking he would have definitely missed Pyrrha narrowing her eyes at the shorter girl.
"Come on Nora; let's go see if the cafeteria is serving anything new for lunch." Ren said from behind Jaune and the shorter girl hopped towards him.
"So you girls wanna come with us?" Jaune asked as he turned towards Ruby, Yang and Blake.
"Sure, anything beats standing here." Yang said and Blake simply nodded.
"Uh, I think I'll wait here for Weiss." Ruby said as she looked at the white hair girl as she talked to Professor Goodwitch.
"If you say so sis, we'll wait for you in the cafeteria." Yang said as she looked at her and the young girl nodded absentmindedly. When the six of them left the amphitheater, Jaune looked at Yang.
"Is something going on?" The blonde shrugged her hair waving injunction with the movement.
"Ah it's just some interpersonal issues." Jaune nodded as he looked towards Pyrrha and she shrugged.
"So what's everyone's day looking like?" Jaune asked, Beacons main focus was on shaping them to become Huntsmen and Huntresses but it also gave its students a select number of elective courses.
Since the Great War, individualism and art had always been the forefront of education with teachers even in elementary trying to shade the minds of children to seek art, beauty and attain what they thought of as their own identity.
Even Aura had a place in that teaching, as it was the physical manifestation of the soul.
If each soul was a representation of the wielder then thought process most had was that Aura or more specifically their semblances would be fitting to the person. Even if two people had a similar power then all it would take is to look for a detail, whether it was fundamental or minor, that would twist the power to match its owner.
So even in a school like Beacon where its primary goal was to create the Huntsmen and Huntresses of tomorrow, it still sought to teach subjects that would help give a more rounded education to the students that attend it.
So the students at Beacon had courses like mathematics, sciences like a normal school but it also had courses like sculpting, sainting, photography, music, culinary and drawing. Along with that there were technical courses like wood work, mechanical engineering, metallurgy which including forging, glass blowing and casting.
There were even more classes like medicine, history, wilderness training, and programming. Beacon had a course for almost every subject that could be reasonably thought of, though the core will always be combat orientated.
"I've got shop in a few hours then I'm free." Yang said from behind him.
"Oh Ren and I are taking a culinary class together." Nora called over her shoulder, Jaune looked at Pyrrha.
"What about you Pyrrha?" Pyrrha looked sheepishly at the ground.
"I'm taking a weight lifting course." Jaune nodded.
"Nice, I got stuck having to take Tactics and Logistics with Goodwitch later." She tilted her head a little at that.
"Tactics and Logistics? I don't remember seeing that on the list of available courses." Jaune waved his hand dismissively.
"That's because it's not an elective or universal course. It's only meant for team leaders, Goodwitch is supposed to instruct us on how to be effective leaders or how to communicate properly in stressful situations and what not." Pyrrha nodded a little.
"That sounds interesting."
"Wanna trade places then?"
"Nope." Jaune chuckled as the group headed over towards the cafeteria, opening the front doors he could see it was much more crowded than the first time he had ever been in it. Dozens of uniformed students sat around chatting and eating as they waited for the next batch of classes.
"So did you guys hear the news?" Yang asked as they got into line.
"What news?" Pyrrha asked.
"Well it turns out there was some attack in the far south, a whole town got wiped out by the Grimm over the weekend." Yang said as she started picking up some plastic wrapped sandwiches.
"Really? How big was the town?" Jaune asked.
"Ah they're not saying how many but here's the kicker. There are some rumors that the Arcadians are actually behind it." Yang explained as they neared the end of the line, Jaune wasn't sure what to make of hearing that. So instead he opted to just pick up a few pieces of roasted pork loin and mash potatoes.
"Wow, the Arcadians? No one's heard anything about them since the Faunus Rights Revolution." Pyrrha remarked.
"Much good they were during that." Blake said the first real words she had spoken since they left combat class but her words nonetheless had an apparent darker reason to them.
"If I recall correctly, wasn't it the Arcadian Army that broke the back of the United Army of the Four Kingdoms in the Nian Campaign? Which also result in the Four Kingdoms losing almost half of their army along with most of their experienced officers?" Ren pointed out.
"They did that only because they wanted to strike at the Four Kingdoms they didn't take any of the displaced Faunus into their own Kingdom after the fighting was over. They keep everyone else out of their Kingdom while they marched wherever they want with their army." Blake retorted.
"Can you two not talk about this right now? I was hoping to enjoy my lunch in the comfort of talking with friends, not in the discomfort of a political discussion." Jaune said as the group reached their usual table.
"Sorry Jaune." Ren said as he sat down next to Nora but Blake didn't really respond and nor did he really expect her too. If anything she seemed to prefer staring him down at the moment, Jaune couldn't help but remember what his father told him. So it was a bit unsettling for her to be looking at him like that.
He would need to be careful around her for the time being.
Later That Night…
"So what do you guys think of Jaune?" Blake asked from her bed with a book in her hands.
"What about him?" Weiss asked from her desk, the heiress tended to study just before bed.
"I was just thinking about him." Blake said casually, Yang's head appeared from the bathroom with a toothbrush in her hand.
"What's this? Blakey has a crush?" She asked with a cackle of glee.
"It's not like that Yang." Ruby butted in and Yang gave a sly smile.
"Why Ruby? Worried she's muscling in on your man?" Ruby's face turned to a color that matched her name.
"It's not like that." Blake cut in before Ruby could defend herself.
"Then what is it?"
"Well, I don't know, there's just something fishy about him. Like he's hiding something, didn't you see how he acted when Ren and I started talking during lunch?" Yang shrugged.
"Maybe he's got a crush on you and got jealous when you and Ren started talking."
"Oh come on Yang, we all know that Ren and Nora are together. There's no way Ren would go for some quiet girl like Blake." Weiss said then turned to look at Blake a slight grimace on her face.
"Sorry."
"Whatever, you're all still missing the point." Blake said.
"That's because you haven't gotten to it." Weiss said as crossed her arms.
"I've already said it; Jaune was acting suspicious during lunch."
"Yea that's because you and Ren were talking about politics. I can't think anyone else besides Weiss who likes to talk about that stuff." Yang remarked.
"No it was precisely around the point that you mentioned Arcadians that he got tense." Blake said as she closed her book.
"Maybe he had a relative that got killed by them? The Arcadians did leave a high body count in both wars they were a part of." Weiss said but Blake still shook her head.
"No it can't be that, I know it's something else." Blake said as she set her book aside then pulled her duvet up to her chest as she settled into bed but the atmosphere of the room had changed a little.
The three other girls in the room exchanged looks as she settled down. None of them were really prepared at how obsessed the quiet girl seemed to become over this.
Yang just hoped this curiosity wouldn't come back to bite them later.
My oh my, why aren't things already beginning to pick up on Remnant. Jaune's trying to get a grasp on his new team without starting a mutiny while making some interesting acquaintances and Alexander is making some startling discoveries. Blake is already being Blake.
These next few chapters are going to have some construction going on in them as I want to build upon this particular world of RWBY that I'm making. Hence why I devoted more than a few lines to talking about the addition of a school infirmary along with the courses that the school offers. Though I feel an infirmary would be actual important in a school designed to train people to use deadly weapons and even deadlier powers against creatures that in my mind would rip and tear apart anyone they see in front of them.
Along with that we're going to be seeing a lot more of dear ol' Alexander mainly cause it's to help put perspective on some of the more "alien" aspects I want to employ into the RWBYverse.
Also I might also I enjoy the militaristic battles, which on a side note that I want to ask you more sophisticated experts amongst those that are reading this, which of these weapons would you rather equip your soldiers if they had to fight the Grimm? The F2000, the Famas, G3A3, or the Scar-H. Let me know in your review of the chapter or PM me your thoughts.
Another thing I want to throw out there, if anyone wants to suggest names of red shir-I mean characters. Yes, characters, ha ha ha...anyways if ya'll wanna throw out your own OC maybe even teams then let me know in a message or review and we can talk about it.
Of course as always, thanks to TheMightyTeaRex for letting me bounce stupid ideas off him while we talk about our respective stories so go check him out if you haven't already.
As always feel free to leave a Review about your thoughts on the chapter whether it was good or bad. Or PM me if you having something you want to talk about story related or not and don't forget that I update my profile on the progress of the next chapter for each story.
Till Next time!