Jaune jerked back as if struck at the question, feeling a cold sweat beginning to build on the back of his neck. The wolves panted and turned to him as much as they could on where they were stuck, and Jaune was half convinced they were gonna leap off the alien and attack him. Could wolves smell fear? And even if they couldn't, could alien wolves do it?

"I- I don't know what you mean!" Jaune said, hating the stutter in his voice. He thought he had been careful, how that he would at least have time to prove he deserved to be in Beacon (Really? And how were you supposed to do that when everyone had gone through actual schools or tests? They were running and you hadn't even begun to walk) before someone got his number. But it hadn't even been a full day of classes, he hadn't even fought yet, and someone already had figured it out? How?

"Really? Then how'd you get into Beacon?" Jaune locked up further at the deceptively simple question. Instead of answering, he shot back the weakest response he could.

"How'd you?" Like she was gonna reveal she had snuck in too. She had destroyed the Grimm him and Pyrrha had been running from and that giant bird without breaking a sweat.

"Professor Ozpin invited me in, then sent me on a mission to prove my skill," she deadpanned, "You didn't answer the question."

"Transcripts!" Jaune said, having gained enough time to remember his cover story. Only for her to immediately blow a fist sized hole in it with a question Jaune hadn't even thought of when he got his fake transcripts from the Xiong family.

"What school?"

Jaune's mouth went dry even as Pyrrha stepped between them, opening her mouth, he admitted the truth.

"They're fake," Jaune said, feeling his dreams go up in ashes, "I, I faked my way in."

"Didn't think about training then taking a licensing exam?" The voice said.

"That's… That's a thing you can do?" Jaune said, feeling Nora give him a startled look and Ren a measured one.

"Pretty sure," the voice said, "What are you using as a weapon?"

"An- an old family heirloom," Jaune said, "Crocea Mors."

"Get it to me before the day's up," Jaune's stomach fell. She was taking Crocea Mors from him? Had he messed up that bad- "I'll do some preliminary work on it while I sketch up some upgrades for it. Make sure it's sharp and won't break on you in the middle of a fight-"

Bwuh?

"Then, if you're still here by tomorrow night, training starts," the voice said, "It won't be easy, you'll wish you were dead, but we'll get you into shape."

"You- you aren't gonna tell anyone?"

"Did I come off as that?" Sheepishness entered the voice, the first real emotion Jaune had heard from it, "Sorry if I did. No, I was just curious what someone like you was doing at Beacon. It's up to your team whether or not they keep you, I'll train you either way. I know your type, you'd get yourself killed if I didn't."

A heavy hand landed on Jaune's shoulder, patting him with enough force he sunk to his knees, "I won't say you're a good kid, Sunshine, I don't know you well enough to say that, but you're a well-meaning one. I can tell that much. Try to keep quiet, don't draw unnecessary attention to yourself."

"Was this really a conversation we needed to be here for?" Ren asked.

"Yes, because his fate is in your hands. You have every right to not want an untrained civilian on your team. Even more because he's supposed to be leading you. If you tell Ozpin, I, at least, won't think less of you for that."

Jaune didn't say anything, just gaping like a fish at the alien as it left the room. What? Why? How?

How did she know his parents had called him Sunshine?

—

Ruby shut the door on Team JNPR, eyes immediately going to Blake and saying, "You won't tell anyone?"

"Too much attention," Blake said, walking evenly with Voruna.

And Blake hated attention drawn to herself, something to do with the red headed man that scared her so much. Ruby knew it was a violation of Blake's trust to use her powers to even begin to scrape her pain, but she was also aware Blake occasionally spied on her and Yang, so so long as neither of them brought it up, Ruby considered them even.

Ruby suspected, from what details she had passively scavenged, that Blake had once been a member of the White Fang,decently high up too. It explained the training, the high quality weapon in Gambol Shroud and that when she had seen the red haired man, he had worn a Grimm mask.

Which was stupid in her opinion, why wear something that let people dehumanize you more?

"You mind if I hang out on the Orbiter after classes?" Blake asked, "I feel like Weiss is gonna be a headache to deal with when it comes to homework."

Homework. Right, that was a thing they had now.

Crud.

"What classes do we have today?" Ruby asked.

"Combat Studies with Professor Goodwitch, history with Professor Oobleck and Wilderness Survival with Professor Peach," Blake said, "Which, we should really hurry to the first one if we don't want to get in trouble."

History. Uhg.

Ruby was half tempted to turn around, demand Jaune's weapon and skip that class. She could trust Blake to get her notes and it wouldn't be nearly as boring.

Ruby opened and closed the clawed hands of her Warframe. Mulling over the option. Ah, screw it, she would give it a try and then decide if she would skip it from there on.

They walked into the classroom with a circular arena in the center, Ruby nestling Voruna into the corner before using Transference to appear in the room, walking down with Blake to slide into a chair next to Yang.

"What was that about?" Weiss immediately demanded, and Ruby responded without missing a beat.

"None of your business, what'd we miss?"

"Nothing yet, she hasn't shown up," Yang said, "We got…" She checked her scroll, "five more minutes before class starts."

Ruby settled in, waiting for Team JNPR or, failing that, Goodwitch to enter. Sure enough, both entered around the same time, Goodwitch giving them an unamused look.

"Let me make this clear," Goodwitch began to lecture, "This is the most dangerous class in Beacon, we do our best to minimize danger through Aura, but if I call you down to the arena, you are being asked to endanger yourself. That is a requirement of this class, you can leave now… Alongside the school.

To their credit, nobody budged, not even Jaune. Goodwitch called the first people down to the arena then, and Ruby couldn't help the self confidence smirk that lit up her face as she disintegrated into energy and entered Voruna.

"Ruby Rose vs Cardin Winchester!"

—