AN: So I'm dumb. I'm writing a Jaune fic and I forgot about freaking hard light dust. Well, I'll find a place to put it in.
Chapter 12
A blade sliced through an Atlesain Knight sending its top half crashing to the ground as a shot took out the knight that was prepping a sniper rifle. The orange-haired girl twirled around sending her weapons to sound an unsuspecting group before turning them into smoldering piles of scrap. She surveyed the area but didn't see the beowolves being unleashed. To her, she felt a warning in her head a split second before one jumped at her.
"Penny's doing amazingly well James. Your training has really paid off." Pietro said watching his daughter prove she could be the next guardian of humanity.
"Indeed it has. I was initially skeptical when you came to me with your idea but seeing her excel in such a way has reignited my hope in the future." Ironwood watched as the last of the beowolves were slain. He looked at the time and Penny's speed has cut almost two minutes off her old record of 16:59. She had passed. He had told her if she could clear a course in fifteen minutes or less he would grant her permission to go to an academy.
"Sir if I may?" Winter spoke from her seat.
"Yes specialist Schnee?" Ironwood asked.
"Why are you being so harsh with her most fourth years struggle to complete this course in under twenty minutes?" Winter asked.
"It's needed for the war that's coming. Without her, we will struggle to win. But that's because I want everyone to be safe. Don't worry I'm not going to strip her of her right to live her own life. She's been asking to attend an academy and make friends. She deserves this more than anyone now." Ironwood knew he could be harsh, but he felt true fear after he learned of the 'Queen'. Penny made her way into the room and saluted.
"How did I do sir?" She asked with a smile.
"You passed." Ironwood's hardened face broke into a smile.
"Sensational! Does that mean I can go?" Penny held her hands pleadingly.
"Of course Penny. Now did you have one in mind" Ironwood asked.
"Weeellll."
Palm hit shield and xiphoid was blocked by a sickle-like blade. Ren spun and lashed out with his foot while Pyrrha jumped avoiding the strike. Ren used that moment to getaway. He was in the mid yellow of Aura while Pyrrha had barely touched yellow. He was by no means a poor fight but his low amount of aura meant he couldn't get close and fight for long periods of time. A warning sounds in his head and he narrowly dodges the javelin his partner threw he used the moment to step forward and strike her chin in hopes to disorient her. It did a good amount of damage to her aura but she was focused and the returning javelin struck his back dropping him in the red. The buzzer sounded and his weapons retreated into his sleeves.
"Miss Nikos is the victor. Mr. Ren, you must be more careful in close-range fights. Miss. Nikos your semblance won't always save you. Next Cardin Winchester against Yang Xiao Long." Professor Goodwitch called out. Ren made his way to the locker room and put his uniform back on.
"Ya know if you actually put some muscle on that body of yours you could actually do some damage." A boisterous voice said. Ren looked to see Cardin standing in the doorway.
"I'm fine with my own workout plan but thanks," Ren stated walking past him. Yang quickly wiped the floor with Cardin making Ren crack a small smile. 'I guess those muscles of yours were for show huh Cardin.' The last fight of the day was Noar vs Russle. Ren wasn't too shocked when Nora won they were some of the better students in Sanctum and Russle had just recovered from his injuries from initiation a few weeks ago. Nora was bouncing all around.
"Did you see that Blakey? I totally wiped the floor with him, Just like Renny taught me to!" Nora asked her partner.
"Good job Nora," Blake replied.
"Yeah, you did quite well. Isn't that right Renny." Jaune snickered.
"Indeed she did. Mr. Red Comet." Ren agreed while throwing a barb Jaunes way.
"Hey! I told you not to call me that!" Jaune whined. Ren and Nora laughed at Jaune's scowl. The two teams left the gym together and made their way to lunch.
"God I miss school sometimes. Especially when friends are there with you." Amuro sighed. "You know I had to get a GED while I was under house arrest?"
"Really? Why didn't you finish high school?" Char asked.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe Zeon attacking our colony had something to do with it." Amuro sarcastically said.
"Damn they didn't let you do classes on the trojan horse?" Char asked before realizing that Amuro probably didn't have a lot of time to study. "Sorry."
"Not your fault, you were just following orders. If anything it's the upper brasses fault. If they didn't try to hide the UC Charter then the war could have been avoided." Amuro said looking back at all the things the federation hid.
"The Zabi's were bastards they'd have found an excuse to attack," Char said solemnly.
"So that's when Jaune up and throws up all over the place, and that's why I call him Vomit boy." Yang finished her story. Ruby laughed remembering how Uncle Qrow had to wash his cloak multiple times that day.
"Hey, motion sickness is quite common Yang," Ruby said before Jaune could say anything.
"I guess after all Sini and Violette are far worse than he ever was when it comes to traveling." Yang shrugged.
"Can we please stop talking about this I'm about to lose my lunch," Weiss said with a queasy look.
"Sorry, bestie!" Weiss glared at ruby but accepted to apologize. "Oh, Yang remember that time you beat up that bully? Dad was so angry when he found you." Ruby chuckled.
"Yeah he was but I'd do it again! I can't stand racist pricks!" Yang's eyes flashed red for a second.
"Oh, I thought it was because you liked that Rabbit Faunus he was picking on. She did have cute ears. I wonder where she went?" Ruby tilted her head. Blakes hidden ears peaked up at that and she looked at a blushing Yang.
"Ruby! I didn't like her, yeah sure she had a cute laugh, beautiful brown hair, and every time I looked her way my… I think I'm going to shut up now." Yang hid her face. Blake was rather curious and planned to ask about it while Weiss looked upset.
"Really Yang a Faunus?" Weiss angrily asked.
"Hey, the Faunus near Patch are good folk, Weiss. If she had a crush on one that's fine. Not every Faunus is in the White Fang." Jaune came to Yangs defense. Weiss was about to reply but paused when Jaunes scroll started beeping. Ruby looked over and looked confused.
"Why's my dad calling you?"
"I don't know but I should take it." He stood up as he answered his scroll. They all watched Jaune walk off but had their attention drawn to another side of the cafeteria when they heard a scream.
"See I told you guys these were real," Cardin said to his team as he pulled on a pair of ears.
"Please stop." A brown-haired rabbit Faunus said as Cardin pulled her ears again.
"God that's awful," Pyrrha stated, watching what was happening.
"Someone's got to do something," Ruby muttered. She was about to stand up as both Blake and Yang shot up. "Yang don't cause an incident again!"
"Don't worry I'm just going to have a talk with him." Yang cracked her knuckles.
"I'll get a teacher," Blake stated cooley.
"Hello, Mr. Xiao Long," Jaune answered his phone.
"I told you Jaune just call me Tai," Tai said.
"How's patch doing? Has Qrow come back from his mission yet?" Jaune asked.
"No, and Patch is doing fine. How's Beacon?" Tai replied with his own question.
"Oh, it's great. You could have said they'd be flinging us off a 100ft cliff. Ruby and I are partners and the others on our team are Nora Valkyrie and Blake Belladonna." Jaune replied.
"Yeah, I heard from Yang that Ruby and you are… partners," Tai said strangely.
"Uh, is something wrong?" Jaune felt a little tenser.
"Oh, nothing just that along with a letter Yang sent me a video she recorded." Tai sounded serious.
"Hmm don't remember her recording anything. What was it about?" Jaunes throat felt dry.
"Oh, just you talking to the Heiress of the Schnee dust company."
"Oh… she was there for that… damn." Jaune knew where this is going.
"Did I not teach you to speak to women since your dad was trying to fill your head with pickup lines?" Tai asked.
"Well yeah."
"So why did you reject her so harshly? Yang said she started crying." Tai pushed.
"Man I didn't know that. Yeah, I still feel bad about that I let my anger at what she said to Ruby get the better of me. I just wanted to make it obvious that I…" Jaune explained before Tai cut him off.
"Might love my little girl." Tai finished.
"Yeeeaaahhh..." Jaune was feeling quite awkward.
"Well let me tell you a few things buster. If you so much as harm a hair on my baby girl's head I will personally show you your new home six feet under."
"I understand sir."
"Not done yet son. Now that I said that, I just want my Ruby to be happy ok? If you think you love her don't go playing with her feeling. I'm not telling you to ask her out now just don't wait forever ok?" Tai finished.
"I understand, I just you know want it to be special when I…" Jaune was cut off by a bang and a high pitch scream.
"The heck is happening over there?" Tai asked.
"I don't know let me check." Jaune peaked into the cafeteria and saw Cardin holding his groin and yang comforting a Faunus student. "Whelp I'd be expecting a call soon."
"Yang?" Tai asked.
"Yang. I'll be sure to take your advice, I'm going to let you go so uh yeah." Jaune said.
"Good. Nice talking to ya kid." Tai hung up.
Yang ended up getting detention for three days and a month of anger management classes for her attack on Cardin. While Cardin got suspended for a week and had to take extra classes on Faunus Relations.
"For this class, we will be collecting sap from the Forever Fall forest. Each team will be collecting four jars of sap." Professor Goodwitch informed them in front of a bullhead.
"Um, ma'am. What about us?" Sky Lark asked.
"Four jars. Just because Mr. Winchester isn't here doesn't mean you can skip the task." Goodwitch explained. Each team grabbed a box with the jars and made their way onto Bullhead. It was a short flight and all the groups started working.
"There it's all done. I wonder what these will be used for." Jaune finished feeling his jar and turned to find Ruby had finished hers as well.
"Hey, have you seen Nora and Blake?" Ruby asks.
"No, I thought they were near you," Jaune replied.
"NORA!" They hear Blake yell.
"Follow the yelling!" Ruby and Jaune ready their weapons and sprint off. They find Nora laying on the ground rubbing her stomach and Blake facepalming.
"What happened?" Jaune asks sheathing his blade.
"Nora keeps eating the sap!" Blake snapped. "We've filled up our jars three times already." Jaune shakes his head and Ruby snickers at the image.
"Ok, we'll watch Nora. Can you fill up your guys' jars and deliver our jars to Professor Goodwitch?" Jaune suggests. Blake sighs before nodding.
"Did you have a good snake, Nora?" Ruby asks.
"*Burp* Yup only thing that would have been better is if I had some of Rens pancakes." Nora sits up. "Where's Blakey?"
"She's going to fill up your jar and deliver all of ours to the Professor," Jaune explained.
"NORA!" Ren hears Blake yell in anger and just sighs.
"Shouldn't we go see what happened?" Pyrrha asked.
"Nora ate her sap and probably Blakes as well." Ren comments.
"How do you know that? They might be in danger." Weiss asks.
"Yeah, I get Nora can be goofy sometimes but we are in a forest with Grimm." Yang pointed out.
"I've been traveling with her for almost a decade. She loves Red Sap. We got in trouble a few times because she'd eat a collector's sap." Ren informs them.
"Well, I'm still going to check it out." Yang hands her full jar to Weiss and walks off. Ren goes back to his and fills a second jar before placing it in a pouch.
"Can I ask you something?" Pyrrha asks.
"Sure," Ren says.
"Why did Jaune hide his identity in Argus?" Pyrrha asks.
"What are you talking about?" Ren asks hoping she hasn't figured it out.
"I mean Why did he wear that mask and call himself Char?" Pyrrha asks not backing down.
"You'd have to ask him yourself. But I suspect he didn't want the fame that came with beating you. He probably thought his trick wouldn't work." Ren explained. "How did you figure it out?"
"I'm a fighter we tend to study our fights to see where we went wrong. I saw he had a similar style to Char and when he used his ax I was certain they were one and the same." Pyrrha explained.
"Make's sense. Could you please not tell anyone?" Ren asked. Pyrrha nods.
"You ok?"Yang asks as she catches Blake on her way back to her team.
"Yeah, Nora kept eating the sap so I kinda yelled." Blake rubs the back of her head.
"So Ren was right" Yang mumbles to herself. "Soooooooooo… Do you need any help?"
"Jaune and Ruby are watching Nora and I just turned our jars in. Sorry." Blake apologizes.
"Ah well, I guess I'll get back to my team." Yang turns to walk away.
"Wait can I ask you something?" Blake grabs her arm.
"Sure. I'm not that great at school work if you need help with that." Yang jokes.
"Hm. I'll keep that in mind. No, it's about lunch." Blake looks around. "Did you actually like that Faunus back at your home?"
"Ah, you're talking about what Ruby said." Yang looks in the sky then around. "Maybe? She was very pretty and I felt odd around her?" Yang honestly answers.
"But She's a…" Blake starts.
"A Faunus? Is this more about her being a Faunus?" Blake nods. "Well as Jaune said their nice people. They aren't all that different from humans. I don't like how parts of the White Fang have started attacking civilians but I can see where they're coming from. I think They would be treated better if they kept some of the more pacifist teachings of the first White Fang."
"Huh. Maybe your right." Blake looks at Yang. "Thank you.
AN: Had to change a few scenes but overall this has been a fun chapter.
