Chapter 7) Hard Truths

A/N: Why have one or two main characters with issues when you can have an entire cast of people with more baggage than an airport? So let's check in with JNPR and see what's happening.

"So then, after we all finished outrunning the avalanche, we used the Nevermore feathers to create wing-suits, and flew back to the tower with the crates in record time!" Nora finished her story with a flourish, twirling her spoon between her fingers as if it were a baton.

Yang was scratching her head in confusion. "But Nevermore feathers evaporate after, like, two minutes tops. How would they have lasted long enough to make the whole journey?"

"That's why it was record time!" replied Nora with an air of satisfaction.

"Yang, are you really going to question the logic of someone's dream?" quipped Blake. "It's not supposed to make sense."

"Actually, this was one of her tamer ones," said Ren. "Compared with the one about the Ursa that grew more heads every time it got hit with something, flying with giant feathers is downright mundane."

Nora started giggling at that. "Oh yeah, that was a fun one. Ren and I were trying to catch flying fish, when the Ursa showed up and…"

Pyrrha smiled as Nora began to regale them all with yet another one of her bizarre dream stories, but decided to zone out of this particular one in order to instead focus on her Scroll, typing out a message to the one member of their team who was noticeably absent.

Me: Jaune, lunch break ends in ten minutes. Should I grab you something to eat in class if you're running late?

Pyrrha waited a minute, but there was no response.

Typical.

Sighing and returning her Scroll to her pocket, Pyrrha resumed eating her own lunch. She would grab Jaune a sandwich from the counter on the way out regardless. He might complain, but he would still eat it if she brought it to him.

"Is he coming?" asked Ren.

"Probably not," replied Pyrrha with another sigh. "I'm starting to worry about him a little."

That was an understatement. Pyrrha was more than a little worried about her leader and partner at this point. He was spending increasingly more and more time in the training rooms in-between lessons, skipping meals and running himself ragged.

At first, Pyrrha had just assumed he was very devoted to his training. That prodigious strength of his certainly implied as much, it had to come from somewhere after all.

But this was too much. If Jaune wasn't careful, he was going to begin doing serious harm to his body. Pushing yourself too far past your limits never ended well for anyone…

I need to have a proper discussion with him, tonight.

"S-s-sorry w-we're late! W-we lost track of time."

The arrival of Ruby, accompanied by her own partner, snapped Pyrrha out of her musings.

"You mean Weiss got lost again," deadpanned Yang. "Seriously, how can you still not know your way around after a month?"

Weiss shot Yang a decidedly unamused glare as she took her seat. "Actually, we really did lose track of time. But you'll be pleased to know that we managed to find plenty of research material for our next team assignment."

"W-we took th-the books back to th-the dorm bef-fore we came h-h-here." Ruby took her own seat and began to dig into the lunch that her sister had grabbed for her and Weiss ahead of time.

"You're welcome, by the way," added Weiss. "You can return the favour by actually reading some of it, instead of making things up."

Yang gave a mock glare of indignation. "Hey, I only did that once!"

"Twice, actually," Blake chimed in.

Yang's fake glare quickly morphed into a more playful smirk. "OK, I promise to try my best. Will that do?"

Weiss sighed. "Ruby, tell your sister to take this seriously. I don't want us to be bottom of the class again."

"Yang, sh-she's r-right. W-we can't m-mess up again." Ruby's stammer did not in any way lessen the exasperation in her voice as she spoke. Clearly, this was a regular thing for them.

And yet, the team sat in front of Pyrrha, for all the bickering they seemed to engage in, she could tell they were getting along decently well, in stark contrast to what they were like at the beginning of the year. Ruby and Weiss were especially notable, given that they had spent the first week of the semester outright avoiding each other.

Now look at them.

If those two could turn their partnership around so drastically, then maybe there was hope for her and Jaune as well.

History class with Professor Oobleck was never dull, but it could be a little hard to follow at times. The animated, fast-talking Professor was not one for pausing to allow his students much time to absorb what he was telling them.

Today was no exception. His coffee mug in hand, looking as ragged and scruffy as he always did, the self-styled warrior-scholar spoke rapidly as he described the day's topic of importance.

"Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite adamant about centralizing the Faunus population in Menagerie. But the leadership of the Faunus community remained strongly opposed to what they described as a mass deportation and forced relocation, thus the resultant escalation from sporadic pockets of unrest to a full-blown militarized conflict!"

Professor Oobleck paused in his rapid-fire delivery to take a sip of coffee. "Now, who can recall what we discussed the other day about the event that is traditionally considered the starting point of the war?"

Pyrrha saw Weiss raise her hand. "The Battle of Fort Castle?"

"Precisely!" exclaimed Professor Oobleck. "And who can recall what the advantage was the Faunus militiamen had over General Lagune's forces during-"

An audible snore cut Professor Oobleck off mid-question, and everyone's attention was drawn to the sight of Jaune Arc slumped over his desk fast asleep.

Pyrrha felt her stomach twist uncomfortably at the sight.

That settles it, he needs to stop.

Professor Oobleck rapped his knuckles against the desk. "Mr Arc!"

Jolting awake, Jaune raised his head and gazed around the room. He looked dreadful, with bags under his eyes and a pale, sickly hue to his skin.

"Yes, sir?" he mumbled, blinking and rubbing at his eyes.

"Since you feel confident enough to take naps in the middle of my lectures, perhaps you can tell us what the Faunus militia's advantage was at Fort Castle?"

Jaune sat up straighter in his seat, Professor Oobleck's less-than-enthused tone as he spoke evidently making him a bit more alert. "Uh… the advantage that the Faunus had… over the other guys… it was… a bigger army?"

"Incorrect, Mr Arc. General Lagune's forces outnumbered the Faunus five-to-one." Professor Oobleck stepped back from Jaune's desk, taking another sip of his coffee. "Would anyone else like to assist Mr Arc?"

A hand raised lazily into the air, and Pyrrha felt herself bristle slightly when she saw who it belonged to.

"Discipline, sir," Cardin Winchester said. "It's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier, after all."

Pyrrha probably would have been more shocked by how brazenly inappropriate Cardin's words were, if he hadn't made it quite apparent over the past month exactly what sort of person he was.

"Mr Winchester," said Professor Oobleck slowly. "I do not appreciate those sorts of comments in my classroom."

Cardin simply shrugged and said nothing else.

"Miss Belladonna, third time's the charm." The Professor turned his attention to the bow-wearing girl sat in the middle row. "Can you help your fellow students recall the facts of this event?"

"It was night vision," replied Blake. "While it's not a trait possessed by all Faunus, many possess nearly-perfect sight in low-light conditions. General Lagune was inexperienced and ignorant of this possibility, so when he tried to catch the Faunus by surprise during the night, they were able to better navigate the battle than his own men, who were unable to coordinate effectively in the darkness. The general was captured, and his army forced to scatter without their leader."

"Maybe if he'd paid attention in class, he might not have been remembered as such a failure," chimed in Weiss.

Cardin rose from his seat at that, only to stop in his tracks when Professor Oobleck glared at him.

"Mr Winchester! Take your seat and reign in your ego. You can remain behind after class."

Pyrrha couldn't suppress a grin, gaining a sense of satisfaction at Cardin getting rightly called out for once.

"Mr Arc, you too will remain after class. It seems the both of you will require some additional reading this week."

The grin fell off of Pyrrha's face at that, but she couldn't exactly blame the Professor for his decision.

No, her frustration was with Jaune.

What is going on with you?

Pyrrha watched from the side-lines as Cardin's mace slammed into Jaune's shield with immense force, sending the defending blonde flying backwards across the sparring arena, landing in a heap by the hard-light wall.

A glance at the display being projected above showed that Jaune's Aura was only slightly above fifty percent. Guarding with his shield was only doing so much to mitigate the impact of each of his opponent's blows.

He should be trying to avoid Cardin, not taking him head-on.

Cardin sauntered over towards Jaune, who was slowly rising to his feet, using his sword to prop himself up as he gasped for air. The last hit had clearly left him winded.

"I win, Arc." Smirking, Cardin raised his mace high above his head in a two-handed grip, preparing to bring it down hard upon his opponent.

Jaune's response was barely audible, but sat in the front row as she was, Pyrrha was able to make out what he said, and it did not make her feel any better about the boy's mental state…

"Over my dead body."

The mace came down.

Jaune lifted his shield to cover his body, but it was useless. With a savage blow and an echoing clash of metal-on-metal, Jaune was driven into the ground face-first, Aura flaring brightly to absorb the hit.

On-screen, Jaune's Aura dropped below the halfway line, and Professor Goodwitch called the match in Cardin's favour.

Again.

This was the third time in as many weeks that Jaune and Cardin had faced off in sparring class, and each time Jaune lost by bigger and bigger margins. Cardin's Aura hadn't even dropped below ninety percent this time around.

"Mr Arc, do you need someone to escort you to the ward?" asked Professor Goodwitch, although she looked less concerned than disappointed as she spoke.

"No Professor, I'm fine." Jaune rose to his feet and began to make his way towards his seat, not even sparing a glance at either the Professor or his opponent. His hair covered his eyes, but Pyrrha could see that he was scowling.

"Now then, just so you are all aware, due to your upcoming field trip with Professor Peach, I have rescheduled our next class for the weekend after. I will be very unhappy if any of you forget this and decide to sleep in that day, so consider yourselves duly warned." Professor Goodwitch's gaze as she said this was aimed squarely at Ruby and Yang, who both nodded their heads without a word.

The bell rang to signal the end of the day, and not for the first time Pyrrha found herself wondering how Professor Goodwitch was able to perfectly time her classes so they always ended exactly as the bell would ring.

Then everyone began to file out of the room, and Pyrrha's wondering mind snapped back to the present.

Without saying a word, Pyrrha grabbed Jaune by the arm and began to steer him along the corridor, weaving in between the throng of students as she led him towards her chosen venue for their… talk.

"Hey, Pyrrha! What are you doing? Let me go!"

Pyrrha ignored him, turning the corner and ascending the steps towards the top floor. Jaune stopped trying to pull free and began to follow along by himself, but she kept her grip on his arm regardless. Just in case.

Here we are!

Pushing open the door in front of her, Pyrrha and Jaune emerged onto the roof of the main building.

Classes today had gone on a bit longer than usual, and with summer now fully transitioning into fall, the sun had already begun to sink towards the horizon. An orange glow was cast over everything, creating quite the spectacular view of the school grounds.

Finally letting go of Jaune's arm, Pyrrha turned to face her partner fully. "Jaune, talk to me. What's wrong?"

Jaune laughed. An obviously fake laugh. "Nothing's wrong Pyrrha, I'm fine. But thanks for asking. I appreciate the thought."

"Jaune." Pyrrha folded her arms and levelled the boy with an even look. "You're struggling, it's plain as day. You're not eating properly, you barely sleep, you spend far too much time in the training rooms for your own good-"

"I'm fine." Jaune's previously light-hearted tone was gone. "So don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"But you don't have to," Pyrrha said softly. Getting confrontational was not going to help here, she needed to be gentler if she was going to help in any way. She could not afford to have Jaune shut her out entirely.

She did not want that.

"Jaune, I am worried about you. You look exhausted, and I can tell you now that if you keep pushing yourself too hard like this, you'll break. So please, talk to me. Let me help, if not as your partner, then as your friend." Pyrrha reached out to place a hand on Jaune's shoulder, but decided against it at the last moment, withdrawing her hand and instead giving him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Jaune looked Pyrrha in the eyes. "Do you really wanna help me?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Of course I do."

"Then just let me figure this out my way. I don't need anyone to hold my hand."

Jaune spoke with such venom in his voice that Pyrrha was taken aback, momentarily at a loss for words.

Jaune began to walk towards the door, brushing past Pyrrha as he did so.

"Wait!" Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's arm again. This was all going so horribly wrong, she had to salvage this somehow. There had to be some way to get through to him-

Jaune wrenched himself free of Pyrrha's grasp and whirled around to face her. He looked angry, and bitter, and so very tired…

"You think I'm weak, is that it?"

Pyrrha frantically shook her head. "No, that's not what I said at all!"

"But that's what you think, right? You think I need help, that I can't handle it here."

Pyrrha considered her next words carefully, not wanting to say the wrong thing and drive him off for good this time. "Jaune, everyone needs a little help now and again, but that doesn't make you weak. Having bad days and struggling to cope doesn't mean you don't belong here, it just means you're human like the rest of us. There's nothing wrong with asking for help, and I promise you, not me, or Nora, or Ren would think any less of you for it."

Pyrrha reached for Jaune again, but this time she went all the way and placed her hand upon his shoulder. "You made it this far, you made it into Beacon. That alone speaks volumes of what you're capable of. I've seen for myself just how strong you can be."

For a moment, Jaune looked at Pyrrha with uncertainty in his eyes, but then his face hardened again and he shrugged her hand off his shoulder.

"I didn't have an unlocked Aura. You had to do it for me. Didn't you think that was strange, that I was accepted into Beacon despite that?"

Pyrrha began to feel an unpleasant sense of unease as Jaune asked her that. Yes, she had thought it strange at the time, but after that first fay she hadn't really given it much thought. But now that Jaune had brought it up again, she found herself considering the question once more.

The pieces began to fall into place, and the picture they formed was not one that Pyrrha liked the look of.

"Jaune," said Pyrrha, voice shaking slightly as she spoke. "What did you do?"

Jaune grimaced. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon. Not like everyone else. I never even attended a combat school, or passed any tests other than the entrance exam they set here, and even then, I'm ninety percent sure I scored as low as someone can. My transcripts probably offset that result enough to get me in…"

Jaune's grimace twisted into a bitter snarl. "My fake transcripts. I doctored a set of records to show my name, and used those to get in. I lied."

Pyrrha stared at Jaune in utter disbelief as his confession sunk in.

He cheated his way into Beacon.

An Aura that was never unlocked. A weapon that was clearly not designed as a Huntsman's weapon. No training, no skill with his blade…

But something still felt off. Yes, Jaune had not received any proper training, but he was still amazingly strong, and remarkably talented in many ways. He was the one who had led their team to victory during the initiation.

And even if his Aura had been locked before, the fact that Pyrrha had been able to unlock it without any ill effects was as clear an indicator as any that Jaune was ready to start down this path.

It just didn't add up.

"Why?" Pyrrha asked finally. What she was asking 'why' about, she couldn't decide.

Jaune sighed. "Because this is what I wanted to be, ever since I was little. I grew up hearing storied about my Grandpa, what a hero he was, and I wanted to be just like him."

Jaune walked towards the edge of the roof, staring out at the sunset. "I begged my parents to let me train and go to a combat school, but they always said no. Told me it was too dangerous, that I'd just get myself hurt."

Jaune's fist clenched. "So I trained myself. My sister Saph, she was the only one who thought I could do it, and she found Grandpa's old weapon and gave it to me. I practiced with it whenever I could sneak away, I made excuses to spend more time out in the woods practicing, doing everything I could to get stronger. But it was never enough. Mom and Dad always said no.

"I moved out and went to stay with Saph last year, and she helped me apply to Haven Academy, but they rejected me because I never attended a school. Shade and Atlas were the same, always saying I hadn't done enough. It wasn't fair. I wanted to go to one of those schools so much when I was a kid, but I never got the chance! They just slammed the door in my face without even letting me try!"

Jaune took a deep breath, unclenching his fist as he exhaled slowly. "Beacon was my last chance, and I couldn't risk being turned away again… so I cheated. Figured if I could just get past that first hurdle, I'd be able to catch up in no time."

Jaune laughed then, a bitter laugh that sounded so hollow and joyless. "But look at me. I'm so far behind all of you that it's a joke."

There it was. The last piece of the puzzle. Now it all made sense.

That didn't make it any less distressing to hear.

"Jaune, I won't pretend to understand what you've been though up until now, but please believe me when I say that this doesn't have to carry on like this. I want to help you, I want you to have that chance, because I know you could be amazing if you had that opportunity. But I'm begging you, please, you have to stop torturing yourself. If you don't stop this, you'll ruin yourself. You'll wear yourself down until there's nothing left."

Jaune turned to face Pyrrha once more. With his tired eyes, pale skin and utterly exhausted expression, he looked for all the world like a ghost.

"If I can't do this on my own, then what good am I?"

When Jaune walked past Pyrrha this time, she was unable to stop him. When she grasped his arm again, he pulled free and continued towards the door, pulling it open…

… to reveal Ren and Nora, the latter of whom had evidently had her ear pressed against the door, as she proceeded to fall over with a grunt.

If Jaune even noticed their presence at all, he gave no indication of it, simply walking past them and descending the stairs back into the main building.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called after him, running towards the door, only to be stopped by Ren placing their hand upon her own shoulder.

"Let him go, Pyrrha," they said. "You said what you could. The best thing now is to let him think about it and decide for himself what he wants next."

Pyrrha wasn't so sure about that. She wanted to run after him right now, to keep on trying to convince him to rest, to let her help, to stop punishing himself before it was too late…

"What should I do? I want to help him, but I don't know how. What am I supposed to do?"

Nora poked Pyrrha on the cheek, causing her to turn to face the shorter girl, who was fixing her with an uncharacteristically serious expression… by her standards at least. Nora's pout was not as serious as she likely thought it was.

"First thing's first, you need to take your own advice. Like you said to Jaune, there's nothing wrong with asking for help."

"We're all in this together," Ren added. "We're a team, so let's think about how to help him as a team."

Pyrrha looked from Nora, to Ren, then back to Nora and then back to Ren. Ever so slightly, she began to feel the knot of anxiety loosen in her stomach.

"You're right. I'm sorry for not including you before. He's your teammate too."

"He's our friend," said Nora, her trademark grin returning full force. "And so are you!"

Ren hummed in agreement. "So let's all put our heads together and figure out a way to help Jaune."

When Nora pulled them all into a group hug, Pyrrha smiled rather than trying to struggle out of it, allowing herself to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

I missed this. I really missed having friends like this.

Breaking the embrace, the three of them re-entered the building and began to make their way back to the dorms.

Jaune swung Crocea Mors, sweat pouring off his brow as he pushed himself to finish the final set.

Come on, you can do this. You have to do this!

Diagonal-down right to left, back up left to right, backstep and draw back to guard, thrust five times, step forward and slice upwards, pivot and slice sideways, three steps and a downward strike into a crouch, roll, leap up and strike with the pommel, sidestep and guard, strike with the flat, transition into a reverse cut, switch to a reverse-handed grip-

Jaune fumbled, Crocea Mors slipping from his fingers and clattering to the floor.

A moment later, Jaune fell to his knees, nausea overtaking him as he retched. Thankfully he avoided actually throwing up this time.

Dammit, not good enough! I shouldn't be falling over from just this!

But as much as he hated to admit it to himself, he had reached his limit for the night. He knew that if he tried to carry on now, he really would be sick, and he didn't fancy cleaning that up again.

Pushing himself to his feet, Jaune retrieved Crocea Mors and departed the training room, making his way back towards the lockers.

Entering the code, Jaune swung the door to his locker open and returned his sword carefully to its place beside his shield.

Jaune ran a hand over the buckled metal of the shield. Clearly Ruby had been right when she said that it was of a lesser quality than the sword was. The hit Cardin had delivered earlier had damaged the folding mechanism and bent the brace that attached it to his arm.

Whatever, I shouldn't be relying on it so much anyway. I can't hide behind a shield forever.

Slamming the locker door closed, Jaune slowly began to make his way back towards the dorms.

Not that he had any intention of staying in the JNPR dorm room. No, he was going to stay in one of the empty rooms along the corridor, like he had done for the past few nights now.

He really didn't want to see the others, especially after what had happened earlier.

Not yet at least.

I'll catch up to you guys, mark my words. I'll get there, whatever it takes.

Hello again to all those who have been here since the beginning. And to those of you who decided that this was the chapter to jump into first for some reason, hello to you as well! I'm Not Scot.

I wanted to add a bit more dimension to Jaune's motivation beyond just wanting to be a hero like his ancestors. That's still there of course, but he also now has a complex about proving himself as a result of his family's apparent dismissal of his dream, coupled with a major dose of imposter syndrome and a dash of self-destructive tendencies, all sprinkled with a nice dose of general guilt for his cheating.

Suffice to say, he's not exactly in the most sensible frame of mind right now, so it's up to his teammates to pull him out of that hole and help him realise that what he's doing to himself is not healthy. Will they succeed? You'll have to read the next chapter to find out!

If you're enjoying this fic so far (or if you think I'm a hack), by all means leave a review/comment letting me know what you think. I love reading people's thoughts on my writing: every time I receive an alert, it really does help make my day that little bit brighter, so thank you to all of you.

I should probably call it a night now, so with that I shall take my leave.

Until next time,

Not Scot.

P.S: Was the shield symbolism too on-the-nose?