"You okay Raider?"
"Yeah, just stuff one of my other forms is dealing with."
"Is it something bad?"
Raider waves off the young girl, "No, no, it's nothing bad. Just… Just something that could use some serious improvement."
"Is there anyway we could be of assiststance?" Pyrrha asked, wanting to help her friend. Raider sat silent for a moment before giving the girl her answer, a small shake of the head. I know the writer is breaking fourthwall rules by having this put in it, but I'm not going to open their eyes to any of that. That would just open a whole new can of worms, and a pretty big one at that.
"Oh, well you can tell us if you need help."
"Raider is a universal entity that brought all of us here from another dimension, I'm sure if there's an isse, she most certainly has the capability of doing it herself." Came Emerald's voice from the back of the room.
"I appreciate the concern Pyr, really, but it's something only I'm capable of." Raider stood there for a few moments before whispering to herself. "Wait, that didn't come out right."
"The point is that you have us when you need us." Raider smiled at the people in the room. Her smile dropped as she turned back to the screen. "Boy, this is getting a little too sappy for my liking, I can save those moments for you guys when you get to those points." Raider was searching around her chair, seeming to have misplaced the remote. "Gosh darnit, give me one second while I find the remote real quick."
As she proceeded to look for it, a person behind her coughed his throat. Ren was holding Nora back and giving Raider a pleading look to take the remote. "She was trying to skip ahead and couldn't wait to see what happened to Cardin."
"How would that be in her favor, this is in the past so wouldn't she know what happened, and two, we would all already be watching the episode." Weiss voiced her confusion at the hyper girl's logic.
Raider remembered the time Nora finally caught onto Qrow's name. "Yeah, we all have those moments where we don't exactly catch up with our brains."
"And thank you Ren."
"No problem, I know how much of a handful Nora can be sometimes."
I seriously bet you do.
Finally having the remote, Raider was able to begin the episode, for reall this time.
*Volume Intro*
Snoring could be heard as Jaune was currently dozing off in the middle of lecture from Professor Oobleck. "Yes, yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution more popularly known as the Faunus War."
The teacher's station area was an absolute mess. In the back was a map of Remnant, with pieces of paper placed all across its surface. Connecting the papers were a very long string of red yarn. All over the professor's desk were a miscellaneous of items, but more specifically paperwork, tipped over coffee cups and books.
"Is his desk always that disorganized?" Kali asked the students down in the front two rows.
"Whenever we have class with him that's what it looks like, and we've never seen anything different. And you should have seen Weiss when she saw his work space, it looked like she was going to have an aneurysm." Yang answered simply, laughing and remembering the expression Weiss made. It was hilarious.
"Human kind was quite, quite, adamant about centralizing the faunus population in Menagerie." Coming onto the screen was the teacher himself, speeds challenging the speed of light.
"Still the same as always." Ozpin muttered to himself.
"It looks like that man lives on caffeine alone."
"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember these are relatively recent events." The students have to constantly turn their heads, just so they can face him directly as he goes on about his lesson. "Why the repercussions of the uprising could still be seen to this day."
"Your teachers' sister are… very interesting to say the least." Confused on how a single man could move so fast without the use of semblance. His legs don't even seem to look like they are moving at all.
"Now! Have any among you been subjegated or discriminated because of your faunus heritage?"
"Seems like such a personal question to ask in front of a room of students." She would at least think it would be a better idea for it to be asked to a student in private. "Mr. Oobleck has always been one to take a direct approach."
Adam raised his hand. "Do you have a question?" Raider asked, a little confused. But then remembered the question asked on screen. "I have plenty, but I'm certain you would shut me up before I even get to start."
Blake subconsciously raised her hand, upon seeing this she quickly pulled it down, praying to the Brothers know one noticed. Unfortunately for her, a pair of eyes did notice and looked in her direction with despair.
A black shadow in the room raised their hand, as well as Velvet but she was a lot more hesitant in doing so.
"And Velvet is such a cute person, that's why it pains me even more to see her get bullied. If only you could ban all students who are against faunus, but the sad thing is that would be taking most of the students out of campus."
"The real world can be so cruel." Blake muttered with sorrow. "But you can't change it, no matter how much you want to."
"Deadful, simply dreadful. Remember students it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence! I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang. Now, which one of you young scholars can tell what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the year of the war?"
Weiss is the first to quickly raise her hand, having the answer. "The battle at Fort Castle."
"Precisley, and, who can tell me the advantage the faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Jaune is resting his face, obviosuly not paying attention as he is seen sleeping. Cardin flicks a paper football at the back of his head, startling him awake.
Now I see for myself why his grades start to slip.
"Hey!"
Professor appears in his face, "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"
"I'm confused about whether he's happy that he's participating in class because he's normally a quiet kid, or Oobleck is just calling him out for sleeping in class."
"It was probably for me sleeping in class."
"Uhhhh… The answer… The advantage… of the faunus… had ove that guy's stuff." Jaune pathetically tries to come up with an answer, having no knowledge of what happened during the lecture. Pyrrha helps him out along the way, but being real, Jaune has no clue what she is trying to tell him.
"That whole interaction was painful to watch to say the least."
"It appears that Jaune doesn't know what the answer is." Says Penny, innocent and oblivious of the weirded out looks being shot in her direction.
"Yeah, no sh-"
"No! You will not swear at Penny! She doesn't deserve it." Raider yells at Emerald, becoming very defensive.
Jaune looks over Oobleck's shoulder trying to decipher the cryptic message Pyrrha is trying to send him with bodily gestures. She makes circles around her eyes, giving Jaune his supposed answer. "Um, b-binoculars!" He answers with a lot of confidence.
"Seeing it from your point of view, I can now understand why you… chose that answer."
"That whole interaction was hard to watch, please don't do it ever again." Roman commented in dismay, Neo nodding all the same.
"You know, it's incredibly stupid how I didn't think of doing this to you when you first got here. Neo, can you come to the front of the room for a second?" Said girl gave Raider a very sceptical look, narrowing her brows and crossing her arms stubbornly. "Come on, it's not bad. Besides, I think you're gonna like it."
When Neo doesn't move this gets a laugh from the other villains in the room as well a proud smile from Roman. "Fine, be that way, I'll just go to you." Raider got up from her chair and made her way up the isles. Stopping next to Roman, in a final futile attempt, Raider waited for Neo to get up from her seat. But shw should have expected as mch that she wouldn't move. "*Sigh* Okay, but heads up, you might feel a slight pain in your throat, and by slight I mean about a six on a ten rating scale."
"Wait, what are you-" Roman yelled for an explanation but was cut off by a bright light coming from Raider's hand. The room was engulfed in a pink glow before subsiding. Neo held her neck with tears streaming down her face. Roman turned to the one responsible, not bothering to hide his anger. "What are you doing?!"
"You'll see." Once the pain was more bearable Neo let go of her hold.
"What was even…the point…of….that…" She screamed at the entity but trailed off as she heard her own voice for the first time in her life.
"I'll give you guys a minute." Was all Raider said before she began to return back to her seat.
"You have the power to do that?" Pyrrha questioned in awe.
"Please, in this dimension of course I can, and once we get to later volumes I will be making…some adjustments." She finishes, trying to find the right word. Her eyes quickly darting down to Yang's right arm, but moved it back to the screen before any notices.
Back with Neo. "I've never got to hear my voice before."
"And I'm glad I got to hear it."
"And I can finally say 'Thank You', for taking me in." Neo jumped into the man's arms and brought him into a tight embrace.
Raider watched the encounter with a warm smile. Most villains are just misunderstood or were treated badly for no reason. Like Neo. And Maleficant.
The class erupts into laughter, Oobleck giving off silent disappointment. Pyrrha facepalms while Cardin is laughing the hardest, abusing the table by slamming his fist on it. "Very funny, Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject."
"Ha! Payback time!" Yang yells, pointing a finger at the screen.
"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."
Pyrrha cut in after, not going to let him finish his statement. "You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?"
"What? You got a problem?"
"Yes, we have several with you."
"No, I have the answer! It's night vision, many of the faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark." Cardin simply growls at her response, not like being shown up.
"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus in their sleep."
"Ha! What a bunch of idiots." Nora laughed at the screen.
"His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured." Oobleck nodded his head approvingly. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."
"Boom!"
"Nice one Blakey!"
The faunus smiled proudly to herself, and her parents doing the same. Adam sat in the room, smiling down at his 'beloved'.
Cardin got out of seat, looking like he was about to throw hands. "Mr. Winchester, please take your seat." But Oobleck just told him to sitt his butt down.
"Karma is such a sweet thing."
Jaune snickered loudly, causing Oobleck to round on him. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." Jaune slumped in defeat, seeing as he celebrated too early. "Now, moving on!"
Team JNPR, except Jaune, walked out of the classroom. "You go on ahead. I'll wait for Jaune."
Oobleck took a sip of his coffe. "You two hae been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if its a lack of interest or just your stubborn nature, but watever it is- it stops now."
"Or it could be the person struggling to grasp the material given to them, but getting off track."
"You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best."
Jaune lowered himself upon hearing about working hard to gain scholarship to the school. Pyrrha noticed this and tried to reassure him.
"So, I expect you to act like it. History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it… you're destined to repeat it! Pages 51 to 91! I want an essay on my desk by next class! Now, run along/"
Oobleck quickly makes his way out of the classroom, Jaune and Cardin surprisingly not close behind.
"How were you two behind him so quickly? He was going at sonic speed!"
Jaune looked down in thought, "Time purposes?" No one questioned it, seeing that seemed like a reasonable explanation.
Cardin walks behind Jaune and bluntly shoves him to the ground. Pyrrha runs over and helps Jaune right himself. "You know, I really will break his legs." Jaune looks down and sighs. Pyrrha immediately lights back up.
"Get ready for one of the funniest lines in the volume."
"I have an idea! Here, come with me!" Pyrrha grabs Jaune by the arm and runs hastily around the corner. Turns out Pyrrha brought them up to the top of the roof.
"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now but I'm not THAT depressed."
"HAHA!"
"I fail to compute how death is such a laughing matter."
"It's just funny. Out of all the things he could have said, he came up with that."
"It terrified me when I figured out what he was implying."
"And he thought you were implying suicide." Yang couldn't help but chuckle a little at the notion. She got a rough elbow to the side from Blake. "Ow."
"I can always be a farmer or something…"
Nice foreshadowing.
"N-No!" Pyrrha screamed out in horror as she pushed the both of them farther away from the edge of the building. "That's not why I brought you up here! Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class."
Jaune gasped to himself as he noticed Cardin in the open window below. So that's how he found out.
"And that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so… I want to help you."
Jaune looked at her with a frown and voiced his confusion. "W-what?"
"We can train up here after claas where no one can bother us!"
"You think I need help?" Jaune responded with a voice full of doubt.
"N-no!" Pyrrha tried to reassure him. "That's not what I meant."
"But, you just said it."
"You're getting the wrong idea there Jauney-boy!"
"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time."
"Like how Yang abandoned Ruby when they first arrived at Beacon?"
Yang directed a glare at Neo once she said that. "I did not abandon her!"
"You left her by herself, ditching her to go somewhere else. That seems like 'abandoning' to me, am I wrong?"
Yang's eyes gave a flicker of scarlet, and if anyone looked close enough, the smallest hint of tears could be seen.
"I honestly liked you better when you didn't speak."
"Aww, did I strike a nerve Yang Xiao Long?"
A very deep nerve, yes. But she knew damn well she wasn't going to tell her that.
"It seems you did, but the real question is which kind of nerve?" Mercury added evily.
"Alright that's enough, both of you!" Raider yelled in their direction. "Let's just get back to the episode, there's something that's going to be revealed anyways."
Jaune remembers this conversation, and lowers his head for what's soon to come. Pyrrha sits beside, trying to comfort him before the berate of shouting is brought his way, seeing as it was inevitable.
"Yang? Are you alright?"
Yang turns her head in the direction where her partner's voice is coming from. "I-I'm… Yeah I'm fine Blake, don't worry about it." But that did reassure her in the slightest, only making her worry grow.
"It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon, that speaks volumes of what you're capable of!"
Jaune turns around with a sigh. "Y-your wrong, I don't belong here…"
"That's a terrible thing to say, of course you do!"
Jaune turns around. "No I don't!"
Oh, boy, here it comes.
Jaune sighs and Pyrrha gives Jaune a sorrowful look. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon."
"What?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" He can't be saying what she think's he's saying. He worked his way into Beacon, right? Right?
"Wh-what do you mean?" Pyrrha didn't understand what he meant by that.
"I mean, I didn't go to Combat School! I didn't pass any tests! I didn't earn my spot at this academy! I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied."
The room was frozen in silence. "Wow, never knew you liked to break rules, Jaune." This was Nora's way of trying to ligthen the tension, but it wasn't working.
Jaune looked towards the ground and avoided any kind of eye contact with his friends around him.
Weiss stared at the ground, trying her best to wrap her head around the information that was just shoved in her face.
"Why? Why lie?"
"I was just trying to live up to what my family was." Jaune couldn't stand to look at his friends right now, not even bothering to see what everyone else in the room thought of this new revelation. Blocking them all out.
"What? But, why?''
"'Cause, this is what I've always wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before hime were all warriors! They were all heroes!"
"Jaune, you didn't have to lie your way into Beacon to be called a hero." Yang tries to sound supportive, but she was still going through the shock of learning the truth, especially in a way such as this.
Jaune didn't want to give any indication of wanting to listen and gestured for the show to be unpasued.
"I wanted to be one too. I was just never good enough."
"Jaune you are good enough, just look at how much you've improved since we started training. You're more than capable of being a hero. You just need to see it yourself. See yourself the way I see you." Pyrrha couldn't take back her words the moment they were released. But, fortunately and unfortunately for her, Jaune didn't think anything of them.
"Then let me help you." Pyrrha reaches out a hand, showing to Jaune that he can open up to her, trust her.
"I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"
He has the nerve to call himself a hero! After knowing that he's brushed everyone who's had to get this far because of hard, honest work!
"Jaune helping wouldn't make you a damsel in distress. Asking for help isn't something to be ashamed about. You can talk to us, we're your team."
"Jaune I-"
"I'm tired of being the loveable idiot, stuck in the while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own…then what good am I?"
Pryrrha tries to reach for him in an attempt to comfort him, but he just backs away as if he's been burnt.
Jaune… That might have happened in the past, but it hurts to see him back away from her as if she were a virus. And all she was trying to do was help.
"Just, leave me alone. Okay?"
Pyrrha lowers her head in defeat. "If that's what you think is best."
Cardin climbs his way up to the roof, laughing with cruel intentions. "Oh Jaune…"
Caught by surprise, Jaune swivels around to face the intruder. "Cardin!?"
The noise that came out of Nora resembled more of a growl than anything. "Cardin."
Pyrrha's emotions took a turn from sad to anger upon seeing the bully. "Jaune, what happened once I left?" Her voice came out cross, realizing this would reveal the reason for Jaune's constant absence.
Jaune, of course, hasn't ever seen Pyrrha so provoked before, showed a lot of uneasiness. "Nothing happened, Cardin was just being a pal, no need to worry."
Pyrrha wanted to take Jaune's word, but she wasn't buying that 'nothing happened'. So, she might have appeared relaxed, but it was a completely different story on the inside.
"What does he want?" Yang's voice was filled with malice, as if she were to strike the boy at any moment.
"I couldn't help but overhear you two from my dorm room."
Ruby crossed her arms, brows furrowed. "That's just peachy!"
"So, you snuck into Beacon, huh? I've got to say Jaune, I've never expected you to be such a rebel."
"Please! Cardin, please, don't tell anyone!" Jaune pleads.
"Jaune, come one! I'd never rat out a friend like that!" Was Cardin's response as he makes his way closer to Jaune.
"Piece of shit." Yang muttered irkly.
"Uh… a friend?" Jaune stutters confused.
"Of course!" Cardin then brings Jaune into a tight headlock. Jaune's attempts to free himself were in vain as Cardin wouldn't let go. "We're friends now, Jauney-boy! And the way I see it, as long as you're there for me when I need you, we'll be friends for a long time." Once Jaune is freed the first thing he does is gasp for the air that was stolen from him.
"That being said… I really don't have time to do those extra readings Dr. Oobleck gave us today." Cardin continued, staring down at Jaune who still lay on the concrete. "Think you could take care of that for me? Buddy?"
Cardin ruffled up Jaune's hair. "That's what I thought. Don't worry Jaune; your secret's safe with me."
Cardin retreats back into his room. Jaune rubs his neck, showcasing a look of worry before the screen fades to black indicating the end of the episode.
The room exposed itself to dead silence. Not knowing what to make of the situation, seeing as it took a turn during this episode and not for the better.
They figured they should talk through the situation now, but they all felt drained right now. They asked Raider if they could have a small break. "Alright, but you're gonna have to address the elephant in the room at some point, you know that right?"
"Yes." Weiss and Jaune answered at the same time. Though, Weiss's voice came out more serious while Jaune's was more on the tired and depressed side.
A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well, I think I am. Been working on this chapter since this morning and spending most of my day on. I also hope you guys are enjoying the story so far.
Though some comments have been brought to my attention and looking them over, my writing is sloppy. I do notice these things and I do try my best. So, with seeing some of the commentary as of late, I will do my best to meet those requirements.
Another thing, seeing as there are a lot of characters that don't use, I will be removing quite a few. I will give a new seating chart on that in the next chapter. Speaking of the next chapter, this brings me to my next point. I know I said that it will be coming out on the same day as this one, I realize that I will need to make a lot of adjustments, meaning it will most likely not come out today.
This story is for all of you to enjoy at its fullest. So, I will see you all once Forever Fall is out, and hopefully it will come out for the better!