Chapter II: Gathering a Crew

All the joy he felt the day before was gone. Jaune, for some reason, had not expected anyone to be against the idea of him setting sail. Especially after Port mentioned turning a blind eye, he hoped it would be a simple matter of gathering some friends and setting out. Now he was on house arrest in all but name. He and Ren were to be watched all hours of the day by at least the majority of his female teammates and team RWBY. They even installed something to monitor their door activity at night to deter him from setting out then as well.

Ren assured him that this was only a setback, and that they just needed to figure out how to get past the defenses. That hardly lifted his spirits, and thus seemed to incite more concern. The largest source of it was Pyrrha. Especially when Jaune had emphasized that his foul mood came directly from Ozpin, she was radiating guilt since she felt herself as part of the reason — not that she would ever regret it.

Evidently Cardin was getting a similar treatment with only his team watching over him. Yang had mentioned some conspiracy that all guys were 'in on it' and Cardin needed to be monitored by someone not on his team. When Weiss mentioned the headmaster was a man, Yang had replied that he might secretly be hiding 'her true gender.'

Port had not gotten away with it either. He had gotten chewed out by Goodwitch so badly that the students who overheard it were provided free therapy from Beacon. The lively man looked almost hollow. Jaune felt bad for him since he knew the man's heart had been in the right place.

"Stop it, Yang!" Blake hissed.

The two teams turned to see Blake holding a book away from her blonde partner. Yang was wearing a giant grin as she made another reach for the book.

"Come on," Yang laughed. "Just let me see it once. If you have to cover it, it has to be good."

It took a moment, but Jaune noticed what she was talking about. Two long pieces of opaque tape had been placed on her book, one on the front and one on the spine, both where the title would be.

Blake's eyes narrowed dangerously. "If you touch my book, I'll throw away all of your shampoo."

Yang's eyes matched her partner's. "You wouldn't."

"Don't make me."

Weiss snapped at them, "Both of you, stop this! You're embarrassing us in front of the rest of Beacon."

Yang gave up and began acting like the moping Jaune while Blake put her book away. Jaune did not miss the weird look Blake gave him.

"Might I ask what you're doing here, Qrow? I did not send for you to return right now." Ozpin steepled his fingers, trying to read the odd behavior of his subordinate.

Qrow laughed lightly. "I wanted to see my nieces, so I thought I could give a report and do that at the same time."

Ozpin simply continued to stare, trying to get Qrow to read his expression, but it was futile. "Qrow, wanting to see your family is not an excuse to remove yourself from the field. In fact, now is a bit of a fragile time."

"What do you mean?"

Ozpin sighed, lowering his hands and grabbing his mug of coffee. "It appears that I have a student who wishes to turn to a life of piracy."

"Pirates?" Qrow mused, "That's a bit of a crazy career choice for a Beacon student."

"Quite," Ozpin allowed. "Qrow, you're already here, so you might as well meet with your nieces. Please make it quick as I might need you ready if anything happens these next few days."

Qrow took a quick swig from his flask and stood up. "You got it, Oz."

As he left, Ozpin sipped his coffee while trying to ignore the feeling that things were going to go terribly wrong.

Blake had cornered Jaune after Oobleck's class. He felt that he should be blushing at the situation, but there was a serious air that hung around them. It certainly added to the mood that she had to sneak them off from the group to do this.

Once she was sure they were alone, she spoke in a hushed tone, "The Grand Line, it's actually — it's actually real, isn't it?"

Jaune calmly nodded. "Yeah, of course it is."

Blake looked like that was not the answer she was wanting. "What I mean is I've heard about it and known things about it for a while, but I thought it was all fiction. Yesterday when I spoke with Ozpin, the way he acted told me that all of this is real. I'm honestly not sure what to believe anymore. So, what I want to know is what your goal is in this?"

Jaune smiled calmly. "My goal? I'm going to become King of the Pirates."

Blake looked unsure. "I don't — I have no idea what that means."

Jaune stared at her and said, "I'm saying that I want to be free, and I won't let anyone stop me. I'm going to gather a crew and I'll protect them no matter what, going on the greatest adventure possible. Oh, and each of my crew members need to have a goal in mind. I'm going to make sure all of our dreams come true!"

Blake looked conflicted, her amber eyes not meeting his. "And if I, hypothetically, were to join you, would you help me with my dreams?"

Jaune smiled, "You wouldn't even have to ask!"

Blake finally looked up at him. "Then count me in."

Footsteps began to sound near them, and Yang turned the corner. "There you two are! What the hell?"

"He tried slipping away," Blake answered, dragging Jaune to the arriving group. "I followed him to make sure he didn't get away."

Weiss shook her head like a disappointed mother while Pyrrha gave him a look he was starting to get used to. He was herded to their next class, being treated like he was going to flee at any moment. That would have annoyed him before, but he had a new crewmate now. Even better, it sounded like Blake knew about the Grand Line.

"I've told you bastards once, I'll tell you again, I haven't lost my damn marbles so get off my back!" Cardin pushed through his team, marching down the halls of Beacon.

"Come on, man," Russel said. "It's just not normal seeing you treat a guy like Arc with respect —"

Cardin whipped around. "He's got big enough balls to go after that treasure. If he can stare me in the eyes and say he's getting it, then he's got more back bone than any of you."

His team shrunk under his harsh tone and firm glare. He turned and beckoned them to follow, which they did. They understood loyalty, that was good, but they were far too weak to be called his comrades. Hopefully Arc's new demeanor was the real deal and not just an act. He refused to call anything less his captain.

"Oi, Ruby, over here."

Ruby stopped walking. Her friends noticed her sudden halt and turned to her to see what happened.

"Uh, did you guys hear that?" She asked only to receive blank looks. She was too curious to leave this be. "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up."

"Uh, sure Rubes. Just don't be late. Who knows what Weiss will do if you are." Yang waved as they went on.

Ruby looked around the hall, finally spotting a man with black hair and red eyes leaning on the wall. Her eyes lit up and she ran into him, hugging him tightly.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby squealed. "What are you doing here?"

Qrow patted her head then tried to pull her off him. "Hey brat, how have you been?"

She looked up at him. "I've been doing so good at Beacon! I'm team leader, I've made lots of friends, and I've done all sorts of cool, awesome stuff and —"

"Hey, calm down," he said, finally prying her off. "One thing at a time, and I don't have too long before I have to scram."

Ruby nodded, trying to calm herself. "Well, everything's been going well, but there is this one thing."

When she trailed off, looking down to her feet, Qrow encouraged her, "Well, just spit it out. Is something bothering you? Is it someone? Do I need to teach someone why you don't mess with my niece?"

Ruby began to panic, "No, no, it's nothing like that. It's just — some of my friends have started acting weird and I'm worried about them. They want to leave and I don't understand why.

"Well, Jaune keeps talking about finding a treasure and Ren just goes along with it. Weiss says they're delusional, but I don't understand why that would just happen. Like, poof, they wake up crazy, and we're just supposed to accept that?"

Qrow's eyes widened slightly. "I guess that explains some things to me. You know, I talked to Yang earlier."

Ruby blinked, looking back up to her uncle. "Really? Why didn't you talk to me?"

Qrow scratched his chin. "I wanted to talk with each of you individually. I have something important to tell you, and I wanted each of you to have this talk on your own."

"What is it?" Ruby straightened, sensing the shift in Qrow's tone.

She waited for Qrow to gulp down a swig from his flask before she received her answer, "That friend of yours isn't as crazy as he sounds. There's an entire place on Remnant that not many know about. It's this giant sea called the Grand Line."

"W-wait," Ruby interrupted him, "So Jaune and Ren really want to go out and be bad guys?"

Qrow sighed. "That's actually what I wanted to talk about. On the Grand Line, being a pirate means breaking the law, but it does not mean being a 'bad guy.' It's not black and white."

"What do you mean?" Ruby cocked her head.

"Look, let's find a place to sit, I've got a lot to say."

They walked down the hall until finding an empty classroom. They sat next to each other and Qrow began, "There are three big factions on the Grand Line. You have the marines, who are the huntsmen and police out there. You have the pirates, which really boils down to any criminal that sails over there. Finally, there's the Revolutionary Army. Not much is known about them other than they want to overthrow the government there."

Ruby shuddered at the thought of a revolution, but Qrow kept going before she could ask about it, "The thing is, Ruby, that while you would be asked and expected to support the marines, not all of them are good. I wish I could say it was just a few of them being dicks, but it's worse than that. The marines over on the Grand Line are corrupt, and some are down right evil."

"Evil?" Ruby asked. "Why has no one done anything if they're evil?"

"Because it's not as simple as that. Never is. First is because the marines still do their job of protecting the people. Even though here or there — or everywhere really — some of them do horrible things, many marines are good and do their proper job. You'll even have marines turning each other in. Not all of them are good, but not all of them are bad either. Second, is because people are lazy. The amount of work and fighting it would take to pull that off when they already do an 'acceptable' job is too much for them to consider. Finally, it's because there are those pulling strings. Like I said, there's corruption stopping anything from happening.

"The other two factions follow the example of the marines: not all good and not all bad. Imagine you stumbled upon an island being extorted by a marine captain. If you stopped him, you just broke the law. They would want you to call the higher marines in and report what was happening; however, those bastards either wouldn't take you seriously, or they would just send something that would do nothing to stop the extortion. No, instead someone would have to step in and break the law to save that island. That's what some pirates on the Grand Line are like: vigilantes.

"What I'm trying to say is two things. One, judge your friend by who you know him to be, not by what he says he's going to do. Saying he's setting sail as a pirate only means he's against the government. That could be him against the good side of the marines or against the corrupt side. Two, I wanted to encourage you to set sail and become a pirate."

Ruby was not expecting that last part. "You want me to be a pirate?"

Qrow laughed and patted her shoulder. "The Grand Line's a place where the huntsmen meant to protect you can be more of a threat than the grimm they promise to protect you from. They really need someone to save them, and I hoped you and Yang would be there to do it. Yang didn't believe me. She kept on saying something about crazy spreading to all men. Well, what do you say, Kiddo?"

Ruby looked down at her hands. This was a lot to process and even more to ask of her. It was asking her to break the law for a noble cause. Could she do that? Should she do that? Would she feel guilty if she did nothing?

"Why is Professor Ozpin trying to stop Jaune if it's a good thing?" She asked, trying to fill in the blanks.

Qrow scoffed, "Damned politics is why. The council has his hands tied, and if he does anything to support piracy, they'll have his head. He has no choice but to fight against it, and it'll be worse if it's one of his brats that does it."

Ruby frowned. "I-I won't say no just yet, but I need to think about it. This is a lot, uncle Qrow."

Qrow gave her a sympathetic look. It was one she didn't see too often. "I know, Pipsqueak. Just don't take too long. One of the reasons people don't know about the Grand Line is because you can only get there at a certain place at rare times. If you went out right now, you could get there, but it'll close off in a week or so."

Great, so she was on a timer now. That totally did not make her panic more than she already was.

Texting someone who was in the room with him was a new experience for Jaune, but it made sense. He could talk openly with Ren at this point since their team and team RWBY already knew about them, but Blake was trying to keep secret that she had joined them as well. She made a groupchat between the three and was discussing plans.

While Yang had found it suspicious and pointed out that Jaune and Ren were being very quiet and on their scrolls, Blake's was hidden behind her book and saying the truth actually worked for the guys. It turns out that when everyone already thinks you have lost your mind, saying, "We're having a super secret conversation through texting," actually works.

After going over a fundamental supply list, it was established that Blake was going to have to figure out how to navigate them since Jaune would be useless there and Ren was focussed on food and water. She was upset at the workload suddenly being dumped on her, and rightfully so, but she seemed to already know quite a bit about the area. She refused to say where she learned it, though.

Then, after some time, the topic of Cardin came up. Blake was very against having the racist bully join them. Jaune was hardly sure himself. Up until recently, Cardin had been his own bully. It was certainly odd getting the feeling that Cardin might actually respect him now. Their meeting in the hall did make it feel that way. In the end, Jaune decided he would have a talk with Cardin. He assured Blake that if Cardin was going to join them at all, he would have to drop how he was acting at the moment.

Taiyang Xiao Long was far from happy when a drunk Qrow made himself at home on his couch. Taiyang opened the door and his old friend pushed into the home like he owned the place, collapsing the moment he got to the living room. Taiyang had a moment's thought of throwing him out, but just accepted it in the end. What could he ever expect from Qrow of all people?

"Well, you're a little more than tipsy," Taiyang mentioned, sitting by Qrow. "But you don't look upset. Celebration?"

"You bet," Qrow slurred. "Big, big celebration."

"And what is it?"

Qrow thrust one arm out, holding his flask in the air like a trophy. "Yang was saying how boys are weird, but Ruby's grown up!"

Taiyang blinked, then growled, "Care to rephrase that?"

Qrow hiccupped in response, so Taiyang gave him more incentive to talk. Wanting his stolen booze back, Qrow did his damndest to give a clearer answer, "Yang wouldn't have it, but Ruby's gonna be a pirate."

"A pirate," Taiyang deadpanned. "Qrow, what the fuck are you talking about? How drunk are you?"

"I'm just saying it as it is," Qrow insisted, reaching for his drink. "Ruby's gonna sail as a pirate, making her uncle proud. Don't tell Ozpin or Taiyang though, they'd be pissed that I encouraged her to leave Beacon for it."

"You what?" Taiyang stood up, staring in disbelief at his friend. "You better be joking Qrow!"

"See, that's a good impression of him. Now try Ozpin."

"I'll wring your neck."

Qrow scratched his head. "See, that's still a Taiyang impression, Ozpin wouldn't say it like that."

The blond man sighed heavily. In the morning he would head over and see what the hell was going on. That would determine how much pain Qrow was in, and he better hope this was drunken nonsense. If Qrow had gotten Ruby to drop out of Beacon, death would be too kind for him.

He was surprised by the conversation he had the night before. Jaune was sure that he would have to do more convincing to get crew members, but Ren had been with him from the beginning, Cardin and Blake had come to him even if the former was still being decided, and Ruby evidently had been convinced by her uncle.

Ruby had asked him a bunch of questions like she was psychoanalyzing him. In the end, she seemed to decide that he was just wanting to be a hero like she did. When he was younger, he had certainly wanted to be a hero, but that had changed recently. He tried to explain that pirates were not heroes and they were just people who did whatever they wanted. She responded by saying she wanted to be a hero. He honestly had no reason to complain since he was not going to do anything that would upset his friend and she was another member for the crew.

After explaining the situation to Ruby, their groupchat now had four members. Then, they played it off as him attempting to escape again, Blake noticing, and Ruby using her speed to catch him. The others had already been on their way, so it worked out perfectly; however, there was the issue of Ruby's acting. Almost immediately her team noticed something was up. Jaune just hoped that it would hold up until they left.

"What are you doing here?" Cardin asked, eyeing Blake who had discretely broken off from her team and approached him.

His team was whispering, and she caught a couple of unsavory remarks about a pretty girl approaching them but phrased a bit differently. A harsh glare shut them up.

She turned back to Cardin. "Believe me when I say I would rather be anywhere else. I'm delivering a message: cut the attitude or you're not going. If you can manage that: the docks, today at noon, you're taking care of yourself."

They stared at each other for a long while. "Fine," Cardin stabbed his food with his fork, "I don't need you to baby me anyways. I'll make it."

As she left, his team bombarded him with questions trying to figure out what they meant. He snapped at them to shut up and went back to his meal. If they shared even a single brain cell between the three, they could have figured it out. It was in his favor though, so he had no plan to tell them anything.

"Tai, don't you think this is a little extreme?" Qrow asked, shielding his eyes from the mild sun like he was in the desert. Hangovers made everything worse.

"You still won't explain last night, and I know something's up. You're too tight-lipped — whatever caused you to say all of that last night couldn't have been nothing. I'm going to have a long talk with Ruby, and I'm sure Ozpin would love to help since you didn't want him to know either."

Qrow groaned, nursing his face with his hand as if he was injured. He truly felt like he was marching to his death, and he might as well be. He could flee, but that would leave Ruby to fend for herself. Or worse, if Ozpin convinced her to be a marine. He shuddered at the thought.

"I just feel this is an overreaction," Qrow tried. "You can just call her later. She's got classes right now, so you're just gonna embarrass her over nothing by having her called to the headmaster. You really can just call, and it can wait until tonight."

Taiyang stopped to glare at Qrow. "You're awfully adamant about this not happening. It's almost like you don't want 'Taiyang or Ozpin' to know about it. Don't think you're getting out of this, Qrow."

Qrow mumbled a few choice words to himself, but gave up. This was going to happen one way or another, and this type of situation was inevitable from the beginning. The truth was he had not returned just to encourage piracy, but to help a group of new pirates get to the Grand Line. When their starting point was the academy for the next generation of huntsmen, a fight was bound to be necessary.

"Are you sure, sis?" Yang asked, furrowing her brows. "I can keep watch right now. I know this is important to you, but you can trust me not to let Vomit Boy go running off."

Ruby rolled her eyes and gave a long, "Yang," before harrumphing. "I know what you're thinking, and I'm fine. I can take care of myself — I'm fifteen, not a child!"

"Right, right," Yang waved her off. "Just make sure the crazy doesn't spread to girls."

"Honestly, if she wishes to play babysitter, let her," Weiss admonished. "I'm through with it."

"It's just a shopping trip," Ruby insisted. "Stop acting like you're leaving for a year. You'll be back in an hour or something."

Yang sighed. Their team needed to resupply, but they had not wanted to go as a large eight person group, especially with two that were prone to fleeing. In the end, it was decided that Yang and Weiss would go. Team JNPR wanted to stay together — or at least the NP part did — Blake was too deep in reading to bother, and Ruby seemed adamant about staying.

In the end, Weiss and Yang left them alone. A quick text into the groupchat, now with five people, showed that this was their chance. They had been prepared to brute force their escape, but this was an even better opportunity.

Ruby began by trying to drag Pyrrha and Nora into some sort of game. After pulling them around the room, the girls failed to notice their missing scrolls, which were now with Blake. Then, with Nora and Pyrrha distracted, Blake, Jaune, and Ren inched closer to the door as they waited for the moment to come. Ruby was chatting amicably, trying to draw their attention away from the door as Blake slowly opened it.

Then she stopped talking suddenly. She smiled sadly and said, "Sorry about this."

Ruby dropped what she was holding and smoke filled the room. She sped to where the others were and they were out of the door sprinting down the halls.

AN:

If I'm being honest, it feels weird getting any support for this. This work is the first of my writing not to be seen by family or friends. With how stupid of a bullshit idea it is (I say that in a loving way) I expected this to get buried under the mountain of other stuff out there.

Also, I'm still writing while revising. I'm seven chapters into revising, but I just finished chapter fifteen. I know I said I was there last chapter, but I meant I was in the middle of it.

It still astonishes me how big this has become too. Bluntly put, this is the longest thing I've ever written. I even consider this my early NaNoWriMo. Despite never actually succeeding in it before, I started this fic in April and had 60,000 words written before May. I can't say that pace will stay, though I hope it will, but there's an excitement when starting a new project that can push your limits.

P.S. I've been using asterisks for scene breaks and only just noticed that the formatting didn't translate over to this website, so I'm going back through and adding horizontal lines...