Jaune hated his life. He hated his life, his supposed friends and even his partner. There was a time when he looked up to them and be strong like them. But that had all changed the second he had told them of his transcripts.
It had been a particularly rough month for Jaune. First the repeated losses in combat class. Then the confrontation with his team. To finish it all off he had been kicked out of his dorm room and the WBY of team RWBY kept sending him death glares. Letting him know exactly where he stood with them. Well mostly just Wiess and Yang sent him glares. Blake just ignored his existence unless he made the mistake of making eye contact. Ruby just went along with her team. For that Jaune resented her but tried to understand.
She was trying to fit in with people older than her. Her sister was known to fly into violent rages if anyone did anything remotely rude to Ruby. Blake was involved with everything as a rule. Wiess was a spoiled rich girl apparently and to top it all off, she had to lead these people. Something that was difficult to do when they actually agreed on something. As demonstrated by the lackluster performance in team exercises in basically every class that had them. Sans combat class of course.
The treatment Jaune got from his own team was in a way worse. They hadn't even acknowledged his existence. They wouldn't even look at him during the time they were together. The year had started out somewhat okay too. Despite Jaune numerous losses in combat he was learning fast. Fast enough that Pyrrha had even begun to teach him actual swordsmanship. Ren had cooked the morning meals with Jaune and Nora was the energy of the team. In team exercises they stood head and shoulders above every other team on all subjects. Even Goodwitch had commented on it. Not only that but Ozpin the headmaster had congratulated Jaune on his ability to lead his team.
All this had made Jaune very happy and confident in his ability to get through the year without the staff finding out about his transcripts. He had even built up enough courage to tell Pyrrha of his transcripts during one of their training sessions. She hadn't reacted well. The face she had made was one of rage, confusion, and disbelief. All of it distorted her rather beautiful face into something ugly before she schooled her expression into a blank slate. She hadn't shouted at him. No, she had told him in an eerily calm voice that they were done training for the night and that it would be best if he didn't return to their room that night. After that she left without saying anything else. Not long after that he had run into Ren. That hadn't ended well. The shouting match had probably even woken up some of the other students. Nora wouldn't even acknowledge his presence unless it was to physically harm him in combat class.
The next few days after that Jaune had spent sleeping on the roof to avoid his team and sitting as far away from his friends as possible. His team's performance had dropped down to RWBY's level after that. Other students had commented on it. Ozpin had even asked him directly what had happened and he had refused to give him an answer about it. That had left the headmaster with a rather disappointed look like he had expected more from him.
The combined stress of dealing with all that had left him exhausted. Both emotionally and physically. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep the past week. In fact in that time he had only slept a total of five hours. His conversations consisted of him nodding yes or no to his friends and ordering lunch in the cafeteria. Jaune needed a break from everything. So he did what he always did when he needed to think. He found a beach and went for a walk.
Roseford, the town where he grew up, had been located on a shoreline and Vale had once been the maritime shipping capital of the world so it wasn't hard for him to find a secluded beach that he could walk along whenever he needed one. And right now he really needed one. Which led Jaune to where he was now. A beach just outside of beach itself was pleasant. White sand stretched on for a good few miles, wide enough that even at high tide there would still be plenty of beach to relax on, and the only sound was the crashing of waves mixed in with the occasional seagull.
For Jaune it was an ideal place to think but after a few minutes of walking he let his mind go blank. Trying to just enjoy the world around him and forget that the people he called his friends hated him or actively ignored his existence. He was only brought out of his trance like state by the faint sound of static that stood out from the background noise. Looking up he realized that he had been walking forfar longer than he thought. Not only was the sun hanging low in the sky but he was nearly at the other end of the beach.
Once he regained his senses Jaune began to look around for the source of the noise. Not finding anything he went to take a step forward only to trip. After letting out a small "Ow." Jaune got up on his knees and turned around. There half buried in the sand was a small light blue cube. To Jaune it almost looked dull. Like something had sucked the life out of it. Picking up the cube he found that for something that looked so light it was surprisingly heavy, almost like a block of solid steel.
After turning it around in his hands a few times and not finding out anything new about it his sleep-addled brain jumped to the next logical step, at least to him, in finding out what the cube was. He activated his arua and ran it through the cube. For a moment nothing happened but only a moment. The next instant the cube lit up bright blue till it was shining. Contrasting against the yellow glow of Jaune's aura. Jaune stared at the now glowing cube fascinated by the way the light seemed to move around inside it. Then the pain hit. Jaune screamed out in agony trying to throw the cube away from him to no luck. The cube stuck to his hands despite his best efforts to throw it.
The pain only got worse as time slowly dragged by. It got so bad that Jaune was even starting to see black at the edges of his vision. Only after his vocal cords gave out that he realized his situation was even worse than it appeared at first. His aura was slowly giving out. The very thing healed and protected him was about to be extinguished. Now in an even more heightened state of panic Jaune's thrashing took on an even more desperate air to it. But there was no stopping whatever was happening to him now. 'I'm going to die', was his last conscious thought before passing out and laying still on the beach, the incoming high tide lapping at his legs.