Jaune was starting to regret a lot of things.
He was starting to regret moving into his own house, believing himself to be a young man on the first step to true adulthood when it was clear he was little more than an idiot who needed to have his hand held so that he didn't face plant into a pile of big, steaming crap.
He was starting to regret thinking this had ever been a good idea, though visiting the Circle had been born out of desperation rather than any real desire to join the organisation that was secretive and seemed to be of little help to him specifically from the all that he had heard and been told so far.
He was starting to regret listening to his anger and rising to Yang's challenge, but in spite of that there was a large part of him that, despite the human/not-human missile of death rocketing towards him, did not regret it. Yang had been barely implicit when she had threatened his family, and he'd be damned if he just let her did that. He didn't actually know if she would do that, but he wasn't risking his family playing chicken with someone who clearly didn't like him for some reason. Part of him believed what she said, as what he had seen so far Blake and his mother were immensely strong when it came to their tentacle thingy's and he had no idea what else they could really do, so he wasn't going to bank on his mother's reputation as a person to overrun her reputation as being a Shadowling when it came to a war of words if Yang were to start to cause a ruckus inside the Circle. Summer might have been able to stop it becoming an official hunt maybe, but that wouldn't stop the rumours spreading and making some of the grunts thinking they should take it into their own hands.
Call him an idiot. Call him stupid. He didn't care. He wasn't going to risk his family like that, even if it cost him his life or a permanent disability after the inevitable ending of this one-sided fight between noodle and muscular, Amazonian killing machine.
So getting beaten to a pulp it was.
"Enough!" Barked a comfortingly familiar voice that made Yang freeze just in the nick of time to save Jaune's head from being turned into a smashed watermelon, her fast shaking slightly just in front of his nose. Whether it was fear or anger he didn't know.
"The duel has begun." The voice that seemed to have refereed the fight at the start piped up. "None shall interfere until the duel is over as per the standards of the fight set by the combatants."
"I yield." Jaune blurted out quickly, earning complaints from the ground. A shiver ran down his spine as he felt something not entirely human and not visible to the naked eye turn its attention to him.
"Such is stipulated in the rules of the combatants." The voice of the arena decided, finality clear in its authority-ridden tone as the barrier keeping them boxed in fell. If Jaune knew any better, which he didn't, then he would have guessed it was almost disappointed.
"You coward!" Yang yelled, and Jaune might have been more scared were it not for the fear in her eyes as a positively nuclear Summer stormed onto the Colosseum with fury radiating from her silver eyes.
"What the hell of this Yang?" Summer snapped. "You had one job. One!"
"I-"
"And you!" Summer whirled, pointing an accusing finger at Jaune. "Just what in the hell were you thinking? You had one job, get your girlfriend registered so the Circle doesn't need to worry about a rogue Shadowling running about without knowledge of the Accords. Instead you run about making enemies? You needed to have consented to this fight Jaune, the Colosseum wouldn't have allowed it otherwise, why the hell did you!?"
"I was under duress." Jaune replied calmly, only a hint of bite in his tone at being berated for something he hadn't wanted to do in the first place. Yang's lilac eyes widened when she realized he was ratting her out for threatening his family, and Summer used her supernatural "Aunt/Mom" sense to notice and whirled on Yang furiously.
"What did you do?" Summer asked quietly, and Jaune knew from experience that you should prefer a yelling Summer rather than a calm Summer whenever she was angry at you.
"She threatened to start spreading rumours about my mom and supernatural sisters breaking the Accords with her also implicitly saying it would be a 'shoot first, ask questions' later deal due to them being Shadowlings."
Even the crowd watching, disappointed by the lack of a physical fight but content with a verbal one, seemed disgusted and shocked by what he said. Jaune felt slightly sorry for Yang, just for a millisecond, as her skin paled and her hands shook with fear. This wasn't going to stay private, not with an audience, and her reputation and likely her career within the Circle would be ruined because of it, if she had or was aiming to get a career that was.
"Is. This. True?"
Jaune was genuinely taken aback by the poisoned glare and arctic cold words Summer directed at Yang. He had expected more anger and definitely shock, but this was something worse than that. Something he hadn't seen before in the instinctively maternal woman. If a word existed that defined something significantly more potent, cutting, fiery and knee-shakingly terrifying than just rage, this was it.
"I-I…"
"Is it!"
"Y-Yes!" Yang exclaimed, voice quickly turning quiet. It almost reminded Jaune of whenever Ruby got her hand caught in a cookie jar, but much more severe in proportions. "I-It is."
Silence reigned in the Colosseum, before the voice of the arena rang out with barely constrained anger.
"You have tainted the arena with a dishonourable duel, even if it ended before it could begin. Yang Branwen is henceforth banned from my domain. I do not care if the Grandmaster himself wants her here for whatever purpose. She is barred until her bones are dust."
The crowd seemed to have similar sentiments, stalking away with hatred in their eyes and muttered curses flung Yang's way. Blake was at his side suddenly, quickly grabbing his hand at hers, beaming at him. He blinked in surprise before the sound of palm hitting face startled him and made him blink again when he saw a red handprint on Yang's face, Summer breathing heavily with barely restrained rage and shaking her right hand. body trembling.
"You disgust me." Summer snapped, and Jaune's guilt resurged momentarily at the shocked, terrified look on Yang's face as she cradled her red cheek and stared at Summer with eyes welling in tears. "For a long time now I regretted what happened, not fighting for you better, not being there more for you after it all happened. But now I don't. Now I regret feeling that way at all. You're nothing more than Raven's spawn, and that's becoming clearer and clearer the more you become her with every passing day. Unless you want to share her fate, grow up and stay away from my family. Jaune, Blake, come with me. I'll take you to get the Accords signed."
Without looking back Summer stormed away, and Jaune followed, dragged along slightly by an eager Blake. Sobbing followed them out, and he turned to see Yang, hugging herself in a foetal position in the ground and with tears streaming down her face.
His guilty conscience resurged, but then he turned around and walked on. She threatened his family to force him into a fight, and he hadn't even done anything to her to justify it.
'Good riddance.' Jaune thought bitterly, even if he felt anything but good at that moment. How could he hate something so pitiful?
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
Blake was practically buzzing, her hand holding his so tightly he was starting to worry about hairline fractures on the bones in his hand. Her legs were practically skipping in long, elegant strides and Jaune quickly looked away when he realised he had inadvertently been checking out her legs and flushed when he noted the amused look on Summer's face as she watched them, though there was a distance to her that was apparent. She was millions of miles away, lost in a place of regret and grief and what-ifs that tortured her. But Blake, bless her beautiful soul, was distracting her from her misery.
"What has you so cheerful?" Summer asked Blake, who practically blinded him with a beaming smile of pure joy.
"Jaune's plan!" Blake exclaimed cheerfully. "He was going to yield the moment the fight started. That's why you were asking about the rules! To find a loophole you could use to get out of it, and you didn't tell me because you didn't want anyone to hear and boo so that Yang would know and try and change the rules! You're a genius Jaune!"
"I wouldn't go that far." Jaune coughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly at the praise being so easily lavished on him. He'd only remembered he could yield after the voice of the Colosseum mentioned the rules after Summer's interruption. It was lucky coincidence, nothing more, and Summer's weak grin told him she knew that too. Auntie Summer could always read him like a book.
If only he could do the same to her. There were so many questions that he had, so many things he wanted to know, but he had no idea how to ask. Whether it was even appropriate to ask. It was a silent but well understood rule within most families that everyone had their secrets, and especially so in the cases of older to younger family members, it was best not to dig and ask and pester. Jaune wasn't keen on the idea of breaking that convention, but he really wanted to know what the deal was between Summer and Yang.
Summer could see this, because he was an open book to her, and she looked away with an inscrutable expression Jaune knew was not positive in terms of general emotions. So he did what he did best, and changed the topic to avoid more awkwardness.
"Wait...people would have booed me?" Jaune asked Blake, who gave him a cheeky grin.
"So you didn't notice how eager the audience was to see Yang fight you." Blake said, expression and tone souring when mentioning Yang, before perking up quickly. "It seems you're only half-genius then. Still a genius though!"
"I'll take it." Jaune replied, noticing some the looks he was being given by a pack of goblins that passed them wearing little yellow hazmat suits. "I would have thought the arrival of Blake would've been old news."
"Your incident with Yang has become the new news. On top of the eldritch incursion this morning." Summer said neutrally, before sighing heavily. "This is too much bull crap for one day. If something else happens I'm going to punch that something in their big, stupid something face."
"Jaune!" Two voices cried out, both familiar and accompanied by the sound of running feet.
"I'm going to kill myself. Or something else." Summer paused, turning around to face the two approaching figures running towards them. "I don't know yet."
"How about neither?" Jaune offered quietly, earning a gimlet eye as Ren and Pyrrha hurried towards them worriedly.
"What the hell happened? I heard you were at the Seventh Sea when some eldritch abomination tried invading." Ren asked, almost calmly, though he was flushed from running and was clearly alarmed by the situation.
"I heard you nearly got into a fight with Yang Branwen of all people!" Pyrrha exclaimed, and Blake's hand tightened imperceptibly as she spoke, Pyrrha's emerald eyes flickering down then up with a dissatisfied expression. "That would have been a one-sided massacre. Why would you do that?"
"She threatened to get my family lynched." Jaune replied bluntly, and Pyrrha's eyes widened almost comically. Ren's eyes widened as well, which was about as surprising to see as the sight of his mother yeeting a vampire out of his home with tentacles. "Something that would have apparently been easier to do on account of the fact they're big, bad Shadowlings."
"I'll kill her!" Pyrrha bellowed, turning around and stomping away quickly.
"I'll hold her down. You flay her." Ren added, turning to follow, and Jaune quickly leaped forward, somehow managing to break out of Blake's grasp in the process, and grabbed the two of them by the arms, bringing them to a halt just as quickly as they had started.
"Look, I appreciate it but enough drama has happened today. I just want to got to wherever the hell it is I need to go to get the Accords signed for Blake, then go home, then sleep and try to pretend this never happened whilst the repairs to my war torn house are done. Seriously, I appreciate what you guys are trying to do...kinda, the flaying thing is a bit much, but I get it. Thank you guys. You're awesome friends. But if you do this Auntie Summer will probably kill you for causing more drama."
"I will." Summer said bluntly, grabbing Jaune's shoulder and dragging him away. "If you lot are going to talk then you are going to do it whilst waking. Jaune's a walking chaos magnet, and I'm not getting him dragged into another shenanigan before the Accords are signed for his girlfriend."
"You two are dating?" Pyrrha asked, hastily following the warpath that was Summer. Ren did too, and Blake hurried to grab his hand, leaving Jaune in the awkward position of being dragged by the shoulder by Auntie Summer, making him stumble backwards with every step, having his hand held fiercely by a Blake glaring at Pyrrha who was following with Ren at her side.
"W-We're just house mates." Jaune replied, and Blake's hand tightened slightly on his, making his bones squeal and plead for mercy. "But she's a super good friend and a blessing as a housemate." The hand managed to both tighten and soften at the same time. "Can I walk properly please?!"
"Fine." Auntie Summer said, letting him go so that he could walk normally, her eyes practically cutting him. "I swear though if you drag yourself or me into some Rooby-Boo hijinks I'm going to spank you so hard they'll be able to hear it another dimension. Clear?"
"C-Crystal."
"Good." Auntie Summer said, whirling around and hurrying off. Jaune made sure to follow quickly, Blake practically glued to his side as Ren and Pyrrha walked next to him.
"Where the heck have you two been?" Jaune asked his friends with no heat in his tone. "You two have been gone for ages now."
"It always feels like it's been centuries down here even if it is just a few hours." Ren replied sagely, giving Jaune an amused look. "It's only half past nine. I went home last night to see my father, something he insists on me doing when I can after Circle business. He…well, because of what happened with my mother."
"I understand." Jaune said, feeling guilty for some reason. "I was just curious is all. Where have you been Pyrrha?"
"I had training this morning that was cancelled at the very last minute." Pyrrha replied, turning to Ren. "Have you ever had a lesson with Staff Sergeant Ironwood cancelled?"
"Never." Ren frowned, looking ahead with a deep look on his face. "Something serious must have happened."
"We were told he was sick."
"He's unwell at the moment. He'll be better soon." Summer said curtly, clearly in a mood that was far beyond 'bad'.
"He seemed well yesterday ma'am." Ren replied, and Jaune shivered as he recalled the taciturn, giant of a man who had greeted him at the door to the base.
"Terrifying more like." Jaune added, and Blake nodded in agreement.
"It was quiet sudden from what I heard." Auntie Summer remarked dryly, turning to Jaune with a worried, knowing look. "You haven't eaten yet have you?"
"Uhm…noo." Jaune replied, making her sigh.
"I thought so, which means Blake hasn't either. Follow me. We'll eat at the nearest cafeteria."
"There's more than one?" Jaune asked, earning a nod from Auntie Summer as she led them down a corridor to the right.
"Yes, this place is absolutely massive and needs lots of them to cover the distance. Not to mention there are members of the Circle are residents who permanently dwell here, so they need a place to access food twenty-four seven."
"Huh…thought I saw a sign for one is all." Jaune pondered, and Auntie Summer did not look back as she spoke, as if she was keeping an eye out for potential hijinks with a menacing glare.
"They're all over the place Jaune." She said simply, and Jaune decided to be wise for once and stopped pestering his Auntie when she was clearly in a bad mood over whatever the business between her and Yang was.
He was going to ask. Eventually. He had the right to know, especially after he'd nearly been beaten up over whatever conflict was brewing between the two for whatever reason. Even more especially so after Yang had threatened his family because of it.
But for now he would wait. He wasn't completely stupid after all, and asking now would only earn him a verbal savaging from Auntie Summer.
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
"The Grandmaster will see you now."
Yang trembled as she entered the spartan office of the Grandmaster of the Circle, a place she had only been sent to once before in the aftermath of an accident she was willing to accept she had not wanted and desired to rectify if she could have.
She did not feel the same here. She was too terrified to feel much of anything at that moment.
"Miss Branwen." Grandmaster Ozpin greeted cordially, face as unflappable as ever. "Please sit. Would you like anything to drink?"
"No thanks." Yang replied quietly, earning a raised eyebrow. "Sir."
"Normally I may have allowed that, but I have heard worrying tales of your behaviour as of just recently." The Grandmaster said coolly, a hint of ire entering his normally calm, collected tone. "Tales that involved threatening an innocent family, threatening and attempting to do harm to someone who has not so much as breathed in your direction, tales of you lashing out at your own grievances with your superior on an innocent boy. Tell me - and answer honestly - are these tales true?"
Yang was silent. She could not lie. She could not tell the truth. One way or another, she was screwed.
"I did." Yang replied quietly, voice barely above a whisper. "It's true."
Grandmaster Ozpin said nothing, before he stood slowly and walked away to a desk on her right. She heard the sloshing sound of liquid being poured into a cup, before the clinking of a spoon against porcelain and a gentle sip as the Grandmaster returned to sit opposite her.
"I remember you being in this office when you were thirteen years old." Grandmaster Ozpin said, letting his steaming cup of something rest against the desk. "You were crying. You were remorseful. You knew that you had done something wrong, that you had made a mistake, and that you regretted it."
Yang flinched and her hands wrapped around herself harder with every word that came out of the Grandmaster's mouth, made all the worse by his grandfatherly tone. She couldn't look him in the eyes, knowing the disappointment she would find there.
"I don't see any of that now. You took an opportunity to vent the frustrations you have with Summer at someone entirely unaware of any conflict between yourself and Summer but close with her. Tell me, what is the biggest aspect of being an Agent of the Circle that we promote as an absolute necessity we cannot compromise on?"
"To not target the innocent."
"Exactly." The Grandmaster nodded sagely. "To engage with due process, with justice, to ensure fair and free trials of those accused of crimes. To not revert to days where blood feuds were the law of the land and blood ran like rivers due to even the most minor of disagreements escalating into war and kin-feuds. This principle is something the Circle has been stringent in enforcing ever since your mother went rogue and slaughtered innocent Supernaturals like animals."
Yang said nothing.
"You are following in her footsteps. You have violated the most important principle of being an Agent. I would like to know if I have any good reasons for allowing you to continue your training?"
"T-There aren't any." Yang replied shakily, feeling her heart pounding. "I…I'm not worthy."
"No. You aren't." Grandmaster Ozpin said bluntly, sipping from his drink as she lowered her head and fought back tears as her world came crashing down. "Which is why you will not continue your training. Instead, you will be sent back to step one."
"S-Sir?" Yang gasped, eyes wide and heart roaring with jubilation and hope, both of which died at the stern look on the Grandmaster's face.
"Do not mistake yourself." He said bluntly. "You are little more than a disgrace, and it pains me to even think of allowing this. However, the Circle has raised you since birth, and we have invested a significant amount of resources and effort into making you an Agent. I cannot cast that aside, not with the troubled times we are heading towards. You will start from step one and work your way up to the position you once held. You will be hated and scorned due to your prior actions, but you will take that squarely as it is what you deserved. You will bare the hatred of your peers and rise above it in time, proving yourself worthy of respect again in time and with good deeds and actions. I am warning you, that if you are ever seated here in front of me for anything other than a commemoration of good behaviour then you will be removed from the Agent training program and spend the rest of your life as a janitor here. Am I understood?"
"Yes sir! Thank you sir!" Yang exclaimed, and he gestured at the door.
"Leave. Don't return unless it's for something I can praise you for." Grandmaster Ozpin instructed, watching her go before standing up and turning away from his desk to stare at a map of Remnant. "Well?"
"Arc isn't a Jester." Qrow replied, transforming from the 'stuffed' Crow perched atop a cupboard. "He doesn't have the aura of one, even without the meds dulling it."
"So he it is either coincidence that he has been the centre of at least two incidents within our base in the last twenty-four hours." Ozpin remarked, before looking at the clock nearby. "Less than that even. Lucky coincidences one after the other…or fate."
"With all due respect Oz, fate?" Qrow scoffed. "The kid's just unlucky, that's all there is to it."
"I don't believe so. What was it that the Colosseum said?"
"Species uncertain." Qrow begrudgingly allowed.
"Uncertain." Ozpin nodded. "The Colosseum has had every known supernatural species enter it's boundaries. It knows what it knows. Arc is either something new, or something hidden."
"If this new species was hidden by fate of all things then, why has it been revealed now?" Qrow demanded, and Ozpin turned back to the map with a wary look.
"Because it is needed." He said bluntly. "Or has some sort of role to play in the war to come."
"You seem certain that's something that can't be avoided."
"That's because it can't." Ozpin shook his head. "At best it will be a limited war between Vampire Clans that won't drag in any others, but will undoubtedly affect others. Arc could be critical to us in our mission of protecting the innocent."
"I thought our mission was to keep Humanity in the dark?" Qrow remarked humorously. Ozpin sipped his drink.
"Who said those two things are different? Thank you for your report Qrow, can you ask my secretary to call for Mr Arc please on your way out?"
"Yeah, yeah." Qrow grumbled as he stalked out the room, likely going to confront his wayward niece. "Couldn't have been more blunter than a rusty pipe."
Ozpin shook his head, letting his shoulders slump in the privacy of his office as he stared at Remnant's map, wondering how long it would take for that map to have been changed and marred forever by the scars of a devastating war that could result in something far more brutal than had been ever witnessed before.
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
"May Jaune Arc please head to the Grandmaster's office immediately? I repeat, may Jaune Arc head to the Grandmaster's office immediately."
Jaune stumbled into Auntie Summer's suddenly stopped back, taking in the faces of those around him worriedly, unsure of what that meant or what he had done to warrant a public service announcement telling him to go somewhere. Ren looked worried, Pyrrha looked curious, Blake looked concerned at the voice echoing through the halls with no discernible body and Jaune flinched at the little he saw of Auntie Summer, who's eyes were twitching fiercely.
"Jaune!" Summer bellowed, and Jaune wheeled back, hands held up in surrender.
"I didn't do anything! I swear!"
A/N: Next update ?/?/?
Also Merry Christmas :)