Jak Silver

"Alright! You lot! On the cart!" The sharp voice of the Grimm-masked guard rang out in the crisp winter air.

The sun had yet to rise over the pine forested mountains as my fellow workers and my own rag-wrapped feet crunched over the permafrost towards the railcart meant to take us down into the Dustmine.

Silently, we did as we were instructed and climbed aboard. Once we were all onboard, the cart lurched forward and we went down into the darkness of the mine's entrance.

I looked around myself, counting heads. Twenty old faces I knew, plus three newer ones I didn't recognize. I knew they were new since they stood closer to me than the others. They hadn't yet learned the danger I posed to everyone around me.

'Fresh workers... Fresh bodies...' I thought to myself somberly. If they were lucky, one, or maybe two of them will live to see tomorrow. I promised myself to do what I could for them. Even if it means they will start to avoid me like the rest. And who could blame them?

Almost everything about me was unnatural.

The railcar lurched as it came to a stop.

"All right! Everyone out!"

"Oooooh this is the best day ever!!!"

I jerked awake with my hand snapping to the hilt of my sword before taking a deep breath to calm down.

'Easy Jak... You're not in the mines anymore...'

I looked over to where I heard the excited voice.

A beautiful blonde girl with the ears AND tail of a fox was excitedly squeezing the daylights out of a shorter, red-cloaked crimsonette.

'Odd, most faunus only have one feature...'

Turning my attention toward's the blonde faunus's companion, I realized that the red one was the same girl I fought with the other night against Roman Torchwick.

I was attempting to find some sleep in a nearby alley when I had heard the crash of glass when I saw the girl confronting the criminal and his little crew.

I recognized Roman from a wanted poster and was reminded that the reward for bringing him in would be enough for me to afford food and shelter for at least a month.

Too bad he got away, but hey, at least the shopkeeper was willing to let me spend the night in his store after the police and an older Huntsman were done with me and the girl.

Apparently, the Huntsman was the headmaster of a place that trained people to hunt Grimm as well as rogue Aura users like Roman. The headmaster called himself Ozpin and was impressed with my performance enough to give me an offer.

One that I would have been foolish to refuse.

And now, here I was, on my way to Beacon Academy with guaranteed three hots and a cot for the next four years.

Provided I pass Initiation.

I tuned out the rest of their conversation and looked down upon the weapon in my lap with my hand still resting upon its hilt.

Despite only recently acquiring it four months ago in the mines, it felt supremely natural in my hands as though it was a literal part of myself. With it, I felt safe. Secure. Powerful.

Eventually, the flight came to an end and all my fellow prospective classmates took our first steps onto Beacon's grounds.

That was when I heard some yelling. Apparently, the girl I had fought with the other night had tripped over some white-haired girl's things and was now being verbally abused.

I was too far away to make out what was being said, but Red looked like she was trying to apologize while White was ranting and shaking a vial of Dust in the poor girl's face which resulted Red sneezing and causing an explosion.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt and White had stormed off by the time I had arrived.

(/-Line Break-\)

"Welcome to Beacon..." I moaned to myself.

Not even five minutes in, and my sister ditched me, I bumped into the luggage of some crabby rich girl, had Richy McPoophead yelling at me while shaking loose Dust in my face, sneeze into the Dust, and cause an explosion...

'Great... Just great...' I thought bitterly to myself just before a shadow loomed over me.

"Need... A hand?" A soft, yet distinctively male voice almost nervously asked.

My eyes snapped open to see a hand, wearing a very worn out glove that was missing its fingertips, stretched out to me.

Past the hand, the first thing I noticed was the eye patch covering his left eye. Moving past that, I saw the rest of his rather handsome face with hair that started off white before bleeding into gold at the ends tied up in a warrior's wolftail. He smiled shyly at me, his one beautiful blue eye peering down at me nervously but not unhopefully.

What? I'm fifteen, not five!

Unfortunately, my brain had decided it wanted to turn into mush.

'Quick! Do something! Anything!'

"Pes ylease..." I squeaked out, taking the offered hand while mentally kicking myself.

'Smooth Ruby... Real smooth...'

Upon closer inspection, I realized that this was the same guy who helped me with Roman the other night! His leather jacket, if you could call it that, was dark brown and stitched together as well as the rest of his apparel, giving him a self-reliant 'tough guy-biker' kind of look.

Goes to show that looks can be deceiving.

"Oh! Hi! Um... I didn't expect to see you here!" I blurted, immediately regretting my choice of words when my eyes flicked back to the guy's eye patch.

'Come on Ruby! Get it together!'

His smile became a bit more relaxed as he gave a light chuckle.

"Didn't see myself being here," he responded. "Jak Silver," my (hopefully) new friend introduced himself.

"Oh! R-right! I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose. It's nice to meet you!" I introduce myself.

"Nice to meet you, Ruby. You can let go of my hand now." Jon added.

Looking down, I saw that I was still holding his hand after being helped up.

I let go and jumped back.

"I'm sorry!" I apologized, feeling my face turn redder than my hood.

Jak, simply cocked his head to the side with a puzzled expression.

"It's... Okay?"

After I finally got my blush under control, we started walking together in a somewhat awkward silence.

No problem! Let's open up with weapons and show Yang I don't need to 'break out of my shell'!

"So... I've got this thing..." I started by pulling out Crescent Rose and shifting it to scythe-form. "This, is Crescent Rose," I continued with pride.

'Please don't run away!'

Jak simply nodded with a small, friendly smile.

'Okay, so he's not much of a talker. I guess he's a bit like me.'

I then shifted it to sniper-mode.

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!" I explain.

Another nod.

"Made it myself!"

His eye lit up with that.

"Cool."

'Yep. Definitely felt a man of few words.' I think to myself as I look down at the sheathed longsword in his left hand, the black revolver on his left hip, and the white handled ka-bar on his right. Let's try getting the specs on his gear.

"So what about you?" I ask.

"?" He gave me a quizzical look.

"I showed you my baby, so what have you got?"

He drew, then re-holstered the revolver, revealing that it was a bull barreled .44 magnum.

"Gun."

He tapped the ka-bar on his belt.

"Knife."

Before finally getting to what was probably the weapon that really got my attention.

Jak lifted his left hand, still holding his sword by its scabbard. Starting from the strange, spherical, white, almost metallic gemstone pommel, the weapon featured a deep red grip of what I think was some kind of polished wood or horn with a gold inlay followed by a black space near the equally golden riser and crossguard.

"Sword."

He seemed pleased with himself, but I needed more than that! Especially for that sword! I don't know why but it just felt special.

"How did you get them?" I ask.

"Found them." He answered after a moment. I could see his visible discomfort at what appeared to be a painful memory and winced internally. Maybe that wasn't the best question to ask.

Unsure if I was pushing my luck, I asked the next big question on my mind.

"Can I see your sword?"

After another moment of silence, I was sure I had overstepped a boundary with Jak before he closed his eye and nodded.

"Yes."

Lifting his hand up, he raised his sheathed sword up to me to draw it out myself.

Firmly, but delicately, I wrapped my fingers around the grip as I pulled the sword from its scabbard. When I did, I was nearly blinded by how brightly shone.

"Hello beautiful..." I breathed, after my eyes adjusted to the blade's radiance. It featured a diamond profile. Near it's base, towards the hilt, a golden Trinity Knot was emblazoned upon both sides of the sword.

Despite its pristine condition, by virtue of the symbols, I knew this sword beyond ancient.

That was when I felt this... Feeling... In the back of my mind, like something outside of the natural order was wrong. Then it dawned on me as I looked back at Jak. My attention went back to the sword.

It did not belong in my hands.

I returned the weapon back to its master, and when I did, not only did it feel like some part of natural order had been corrected, I could have sworn I saw the sword seem to glow with what I could only describe as a divine, ethereal light before Jak replaced it back into its scabbard.

"What's its name?" I barely managed.

"Excalibur."

(/-Line Break-\)

"Hey Ruby! I saved you a spot!"

"Oh! There's my sister! Gotta go! Nice meeting you!" Ruby hurriedly said before zipping off to the blonde foxgirl.

'Family is important,' I supposed. Not that I would know. The farthest back I could remember was back when I was around seven or eight, waking up in the mines with a terrible burning pain on my left hand and no knowledge of who, or where I was.

I shook my head of those memories before spotting an open spot next to a beautiful red-headed young woman with green eyes, dressed in some type of bronze gladiatorial armor.

Even without the armor, she had the look of a fighter.

Not to mention she looked a little lonely.

Seeing as nobody else wanted to be near her, and we had a few minutes before the welcoming speech, I figured I'll try my luck making another new friend.

The Lion knows I could use them.

"May I?" I asked as I approached.

"Yes, go ahead," she consented to my presence politely.

Her smile looked a little forced, and her guard was up.

"Not wanting trouble," I assured her, before extending my hand. "Jak Silver."

She took my hand in a shake.

"Pyrrha Nikos," she introduced herself with a polite smile and an... Expectancy in her eyes.

"Nice meeting you," I say. "Sorry if I'm bothering you. Not used to nice people." I explained after a moment.

She relaxed, and her expression adopted a look that I was not familiar with.

"I'm sorry. It's just that people tend to react differently when they meet me is all. Do you not know who I am?" She apologized then asked.

Oh. Is she special?

"Is it a problem if I don't? Should I act different?" I ask, not wanting to offend her.

"No! Not at all! This is rather refreshing!" Pyrrha beamed. Now her eyes held something I understood.

Excitement.

Mixed with something else I don't recognize. To be honest, it kind of reminds me of how Ruby was looking at me earlier as well...

It made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

"I will keep this brief..."

(/-Line Break-\)

"Look at all these people! It's like a giant slumber party!" Yang excitedly exclaimed to her younger half-sister, Ruby.

"Yeah, well, I don't think Mom and Dad would appreciate both girls and boys sharing the same sleeping space," Ruby commented.

'What if some creep starts bothering Jak?' She thought to herself.

Then again, that's probably why some of the faculty was present. To make sure no girls were up to any 'funny business' around the heavily outnumbered boys who had practically corralled themselves into one corner of the ballroom while multiple girls were 'showing off' in an attempt to garner a guy's interest.

Apparently, the spot Yang had picked out for the both of them had given them an unobstructed view of the males.

"I know I do..." Yang purred before snapping to attention as one figure began approaching.

Immediately, Yang began brushing her tail and hair while checking her top so she could look her absolute best as she recognized the boy coming up to be the cute guy she saw with Ruby wearing the eye-patch.

He was still in his day clothes, with the exception of his jacket being rolled up under his arm, revealing the faded, black t-shirt that hugged his torso tightly and bared his chiseled, albeit scarred, muscular forearms.

Yang was ready to mingle with this 'bad boy' only for him to walk right past her in favor of another girl.

Dreams, crushed.

Hopes, shattered.

Yang was stunned to see the young man smile brightly at her younger sister and speak to her amicably.

Ruby.

He wanted to talk to Ruby. Socially awkward, hyperactive gun-nut Ruby.

What?

"Ruby," he softly called out. "Can I sleep here?"

And Scene!!!

So yeah, Jaune apparently has amnesia and doesn't know anything about his life before the mines, nor the world outside.

To make a ling story short, Jaune's knife, gun, and clothes were looted off of a bandit he killed shortly after acquiring his freedom.

And yes, Jaune has literal Excalibur. How he acquired it, plus his time in the mines will be expanded upon in the future.

Now before anyone goes on a tangent about the dichotomy between Excalibur, Caliburn/Caliburnus, and Caledfywch, I am aware. Ever since I was a little kid, I was obsessed with Arthurian Legend and Myth.

A lot of what Jaune can do is pulled from the various stories and myths surround King Arthur. Like how Arthur, even without Excalibur was considered to be a one man army and could tank almost anything you threw at him except for magical weapons.

As far as the powers and abilities Excalibur has, it will be similarly based upon various sources. And its appearance is based off of the 1998 movie 'Quest for Camelot'.

I just love that design, despite the fact that realistically, Excalibur would most likely be either a Roman Spatha, or a Celtic Anthropomorphic sword.

Besides, it's fantasy, what's wrong with having a little fun?

And don't worry IronGiant9000, you can PM me if you want, I've got no problem talking to others, just be prepared for long waits between messages since I'M ALWAYS AT FRAGGING WORK!!!

Finally, the elephant (more like fox) in the room, yes, I made Yang a foxgirl. Why? Because I like the idea of it, however, Yang is not a natural Foxgirl, but she has adapted to this change. This change has already affected some things already, like Summer's actually alive, healthy, and living with her family. This means Yang doesn't honestly care about finding Raven since she still has a maternal figure who actually gives a damn about her.

And finally, don't worry my fellow Knightshade fans, we're gonna see Blake reunite with her Jaune very soon.

Even if neither of them realize it right off the bat.

Ciao!