(Chapter 22)

As Jaune watched the hand of his eldest sister descending in slow motion towards him, preparing to deliver tough love. As he accepted his fate, the blonde thought about the decisions he made that bought him to his point. "The Slap," as it would later be remembered, caused all the bystanders who curiously looked on, the males specifically, to wince in phantom pain as they saw the younger man knowingly accept his fate, red handprint on his cheek and all.

The blonde rubbed his cheek, letting his aura heal the stinging pain from his sister's wrath. The blonde's friends looked on curiously, wondering if they should be worried, until the unknown woman spoke.

"Why haven't you called us since you got to Beacon."

"Well, I-"

"We were worried sick! You were supposed to call us after you got there."

"I know but-"

"And then, and then! You don't call, you don't write. For five months!"

The woman ended her accusations with a pointed finger aimed between his eyes, mere millimeters from her well-manicured nails scraping his brow. The blonde teen stood there for a moment before he gently pulled her hand away from his face with a sigh.

"I'm sorry."

The girl huffed as she looked elsewhere with grit teeth, obviously still quite irritated. The sound of approaching footsteps was heard, before the woman with glasses was standing across from Jaune, the toddler in her arms looking at him with excitement.

The blonde flashed a quick smile to the child, before it was replaced with a more nervous one as he faced the tan woman. She adjusted her glasses, causing the light to reflect off them and hide her eyes, something Ivori noticed and took note of to use for himself.

The woman adjusted the child in her arms so that he was being held by her nondominant arm and raised her other one in the air slowly. A moment later, she brought it down lazily on Jaune's head in a chop, though she did it lightly in contrast to her wife's slap.

The blonde said nothing, as nothing more needed to be said. The woman sighed before smiling at him slightly, ruffling his hair with the hand on his head, before handing the toddler in her arms to her brother-in-law. The blonde nodded to her, before he smiled again, this one being the widest and brightest of the day, at his nephew. He did this for a moment, enjoying the happy sounds the child was making before realizing he wasn't alone.

He turned around; toddler still being held on his arm as he addressed his group.

"So…this is my sister Saphron and her wife Terra. And this,"

As he said as he motioned to his excited nephew while speaking.

"is Adrian, my nephew."

The group looked shocked, save for Marrow as he hadn't been present for the bit of backstory the blonde revealed the night before.

"…And this didn't come up last night…why?"

The blonde had the decency to look sheepish at Whitley's question before being spun around being pulled out of the way by his sister so that she could stand in his place.

"So, which of you are my brother's teammates?"

The other members of team JCKP stepped forwards to introduce themselves in order.

"My name's Flynt."

"I'm Neon!"

"And my name is Penny Polendina. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

The older blonde looked the trio over, before she made an overly dramatic pacing around them. She stopped after completing a full circle and was about to speak when both she and the group noticed something.

Little Adrian was making the most adorable sounds as he was reaching out to them with wide eyes. Terra and Saphron watched silently as the toddler took a turn being held by each member of the squad and reveled in the opportunity to play with an accessory on their person.

For Neon, he continuously shook the bell on her choker while for Flynt, the child surprisingly chose to play with his earring. When the tot was passed to Kobalt, the child played with his ponytail, and for Ivori, the poor teen had to suffer his glasses being temporarily confiscated from him by the curious, though undeniably cute baby.

Ciel's turn came round, and though her outward reaction was minimal as the child in her arms continuously tried rubbing away the golden mark on her forehead, only to amaze himself when it was still there; on the inside, she was melting from the adorableness of the situation.

Whitley's reaction to the child was possibly the most surprising yet, as while the child would repeatedly drop the hat he was studying intently after trying to pull it from the teen holding him, Whitley didn't seem at all bothered, if anything, he seemed to truly be enjoying it. After a few minutes of holding Adrian, the teen seemed to feel the eyes on him staring curiously as he realized what he'd been doing, and blushed while the group awaited an explanation.

"I uh-ahem, always wanted a younger sibling. I wondered what it would be like to look after one, so…"

The teen was silent after that, though his partner stared at him discreetly with a unexplained warmness in her chest and an inability to prevent a small, though full, smile from creeping across her lips from witnessing the wholesome moment that slipped from Whitley.

As Whitley was about to pass the child to Penny, he noticed Marrow standing to the side with his arms crossed and looking away with his tail limp behind him before sending a look to his fellow leader who nodded back.

"Would you like to hold him Marrow?"

Upon hearing the offer, the tail of the faunus Ace Op started to sway from side to side lightly. And though the man in question was about to deny himself the opportunity, he met eyes with the child and his fate was sealed as he sighed with a nod, tail swinging faster now.

"Y-Yes, please."

As the tan man held the baby, the child looked over his shoulder in amazement at the visible faunus trait of the person holding him, making amused noises that when Marrow's tail would wag faster.

A few more minutes went by until the child was reaching out to the final of the blonde's friends. However, the girl in question looked nervous for the first time today, at the prospect of trying something new no less. Jaune accepted the baby from the graduated huntsman, before making his way over to the android.

When he held the baby out towards her, she hesitated, something the leader of her team didn't expect. As Adrian was pulled back closer to him, the blonde leaned in close to her as he was whispering.

"Penny? What's wrong?"

The girl in question was silent for a moment before she answered.

"I-I'm…nervous. I've never held a child before. What if I do something wrong?"

The blonde made a face of understanding before he moved closer to his ginger partner. He gently passed the baby into her arms, a hand on the shoulder farther from him as he stood next to her, correcting her holding of little Adrian, before finally she was holding him perfectly. Causing the group stared silently at the two of them and what the scene they were unknowingly cementing in the minds of their friends.

She gave a nod of thanks to her partner, before looking down at the baby in her arms. As they studied each other, the toddler reached out a small hand towards her, and she brought up a hand to him, watching as his little fingers wrapped around one of her own as he began to laugh, while she mesmerized by the child in her arms.

After a few minutes, Jaune's partner returned the child to his mothers. As the youngling was passed back to Terra, the boy's parents watched as the child reached back out towards Penny, wanting to be held again, making cute noises as he did. After a few moments of letting Adrian calm down, Saphron spoke up.

"After seeing how your friends were with our cute little man,"

As she said that, she tickled the baby's stomach, earning her the laugh she loved to hear before continuing.

"I think you made some good friends baby brother."

She capped off her sentence by pinching the taller blonde's cheek causing him to flail her hand away.

"I am not a baby. That, is a baby."

Adrian saw Jaune point at him before crossing his arms, and the group watched as the tan toddler copied his uncle's pouting pose, causing the girls of the group to melt again.

Saphron chuckled at her younger brother's antics before pulling him to stand beside her and gently pushed the back of his head forward until he was in a light standing bow that she did as well.

"Thank you all for looking after my little brother. I know sometimes he can be a pain, and a bit clumsy, and oblivious. But he's got a good heart. I hope you'll keep watching his back while you're all at Beacon."

At this, the group looked between themselves questioningly. Causing Saphron and Terra to look confused at that reaction. Jaune stood to his full height and brought a hand to his neck, rubbing it as if it were sore.

"About that…Saph, can we talk?"

The woman in question looked at him curiously as she nodded, and Jaune smiled appreciatively to her before looking back to his squad.

"Hey guys, there's some stuff I need to talk about with my sister. Since we still have a while before the train to Mistral leaves, why don't we agree to meet up in front of the station half an hour before it departs. Sound good Whitley?"

The blonde's white-haired friend looked to his team for input, and Kobalt took this as his signal to voice anything he may have wanted to do while in town.

"That works out for me, I wanted to stop by my Ma's place and let her know how I'm doing."

The rest of his team shrugged their shoulders, and the white-haired teen nodded back to his blonde co-squad leader.

"Alright then, so we'll meet back up soon. Penny, why don't you, Flynt, and Neon go look around the city while I catch up with my sisters?"

As the group began to split up to go spend the down time before their train ride how they planned, Jaune looked over to Marrow who was going off on his own.

"Hey, Marrow? What about you? What are you going to do?"

The canine faunus yawned whilst pointing to a coffee cart not to far from where they were before he continued walking away.

"So Jaune, what did you want to talk about?"

The leader of team JCKP looked back to his two sisters who were staring at him with a bit of concern. He almost flashed them a fake, though, reassuring smile, but decided against it, knowing that would only make them worry more.

"Is there anywhere nearby we can sit down and talk?"

A short walk found Jaune, Saphron, Terra, and Adrian in the Cotta-Arc household. The blonde sat in the living room across from his blood sister and her wife to talk, Adrian having already been put into his crib upstairs for a nap.

"So? What did you want to talk about?"

The blonde sat deep in thought for a moment, thinking about how to begin, before he decided on how to approach the subject.

"Sis, when's the last time you talked to dad?"

Saphron and Terra looked at each other for a moment, before the woman in question answered.

"I haven't spoken to him in around a month, why?"

The blonde knight who was sitting somewhat bothered let out a sigh as he leaned forwards and stared at the floor for a moment.

"I got expelled."

The blonde's sisters were speechless. Jaune studied their faces, as they seemed to process what was said. Now while he had their full support in him and his dream, their belief was always a bit…cautious.

Naturally, they were realistic, and knew full well about the dangers that came with being a huntsman. So when their clumsy, untrained little brother expressed his desire to go to one of the academies, they were worried at best and dreading at worst; but never once did they tell him that he wouldn't be able to or try to stop him.

It was something that the blonde knight would never forget or appreciate more.

Just as Saphron was about to shout her questions, and most likely awake little Adrian sleeping upstairs, she was held down by a hand on her shoulder from Terra. The calmer woman kept an unflinching gaze trained on her brother-in-law as she adjusted her glasses, causing the reflection from the light to hide her eyes like earlier as she spoke.

"What happened?"

The blonde laced his fingers together before responding.

"It's kind of a long story."

"We always have time for you Jaune. You're a part of our family."

The blonde smiled in response to his blood sister's words.

(Hours Later)

Meeting up with Maria Calavera had been simple enough.

Enduring the woman's judgmental remarks and thinly veiled jaded cynicism, however?

Not so much.

The moment they'd rendezvoused with the woman at the train station in Mistral, they'd been the victims of an unapologetically ruthless critique.

Kobalt in her words was, "Little more than a child with a temper who thought he took the easy way out when he decided to be a hunter."

Ciel? "The same as the blue haired one, only with less temper, and even less direction. You probably don't even know why you're on this path, do you girl."

She stared at the male fashionista of team WICK for a little while longer than either of the two she'd already judged. It didn't last much longer as she snorted before turning to another member of the squad, but not before imparting her thoughts.

"Whatever happened in your past to make you want to be a huntsman has you out for revenge, not justice."

Walking over to the lifelong friends, the tiny woman glanced at Flynt and Neon before bringing her review crashing down.

"You only want to be a huntress so that you won't be bored, and you; you're doing this for what? To make someone else proud; to make life easier for someone else? Terrible mindset for a hunter."

The normally calm trumpeter clenched his hands together with grit teeth as he wanted to respond to the woman's claims, but before he could, she was already walking past Penny without sparing the girl so much as a glance.

"Impossibly Naïve and a slave to something, like a puppet on a string."

Finally, she stopped in front of the two leaders of the squad, both of whom were frowning after having watched the woman tear through their friends with no remorse. The woman turned towards the younger of the two, before she frowned.

"You. You're a child who didn't get what he wanted, and so you decided to become a huntsman to try and find a way to get whatever it is you want. You don't even really want or care about being a huntsman, child."

Whitley bit his lip as Maria's words forced him to think.

"Hey, don't you think you're being un-"

The woman brought her strange looking cane to the inside of both of his knees, forcing him into a kneeling position before leveling it at his nose.

"And you're the worst of all, Knot-Knees. No strength, no skills, but everything in the world to prove. You're not just naïve, you're selfish."

With her piece said, the woman turned away from them before boarding the Argus Limited, the train that would take her and the students to Argus.

Which led us to now, with the members of the squad all stuck in their minds thinking about the elderly woman's words, because in their minds...she had a point. A stranger they'd never met before was able to look at them-no, look through them and state their motivations pretty accurately.

Almost like she'd seen hundreds of people just like each of them before, and was equally as unimpressed.

"Um…"

Maria looked towards the canine faunus who sat up straight at having the woman's attention solely on him.

"Well? What is it?"

"Ma'am…Weren't you a little harsh earlier? I mean, they're just kids."

The woman snorted in response before pulling her cane to her lap as she let a pause hang in the air before she spoke.

"Maybe they are. But the moment those kids joined the academies, they stopped being children. Now, they're hunters. If they can be expected to fight grimm, to protect, and we both know, one day die to save lives, then I refuse to treat them like kids. Me telling them the truth now is something that might just save their lives."

The faunus sat back as he couldn't find an appropriate rebuttal to her words and instead let out a sigh as he at least understood the point Maria was making.

"Still, couldn't you have at least waited until we were safely back at the academy to do so. The moment you were done tearing them apart, I could almost feel the negativity rolling off them."

The woman rolled her mechanical eyes at the young man in front of her.

"If they're half as good Pietro said they were, then they should be able to handle a small swarm or two if they appear."

The man seemed exhausted by the woman's mindset even though she had a point, but just before he could respond, the train shook roughly, and an alarm started to blare. The specialist sent the woman a look before she waved him off, causing him to nod his head.

Exiting the cabin, Marrow was glad to see the teens he was watching over already taking action. Jaune and Whitley split the squad into two groups, with the younger teen preparing to take Flynt, Penny, and Ciel with him to the roof of the train to defend the transport against the approaching grimm. Jaune asked Marrow to stay and keep an eye on Maria while he, Neon, Kobalt, and Ivori would spread out to go to each train car and calm the passengers.

Marrow pulled a small cylindrical container from his breast pocket and opened it to reveal an earpiece. Plucking it out gently, he inserted the device into his ear to listen in on the squad's communications, both to grade, and in case any of them were in dire need of assistance. He reentered Maria's cabin before opening the window, where he kneeled and used the frame to perch his weapon in its rifle form.

On the train tops, the sound of gunshots, lasers, and dust attacks filled the air as the four huntsman students were having an even time defending against the minor swarm that were assaulting the transport.

"Whitley, how are things on your end?"

The white-haired teen warded off an aerial grimm that had been trying to snatch him away with his revolver before pressing a finger to the earpiece to respond.

"Not good; there are at least a dozen manticores with more in the distance and a sphinx hovering nearby. What about you?"

"Most everyone is as calm as they're gonna get with a swarm attacking the train. We're about to head up to the roofs to help out."

Before Whitley could respond, the train was suddenly beginning to cover itself with thick metal armor. Defense turrets started activating and began firing rounds into the swarm. One turret locked onto the sphinx and started firing at it, one of the rounds managing to clip the bone mask covering its face.

And then all hell broke loose.

Letting out a staggering screech, the sphinx seemed to have sent a command to the lesser grimm, as they began to ignore the young hunters firing at them in favor of destroying the defense turrets. A particularly large manticore slammed its body onto one of the turrets, not only destroying it, but denting the metal where the train car wasn't as well reinforced, thoroughly frightening the passengers below.

The impact from the manticore shook the train a bit, causing Jaune to worry.

"What's going on up there."

The blonde had to wait a moment, for a response before Whitley relayed what was happening.

"The train's turrets activated and started firing on the grimm. Now they're ignoring us to destroy them."

"Then we need to get to the conductor and have him shut down the turrets."

It was at this moment, that Marrow had decided to add in a bit of information that the younger boys weren't privy too due to their inexperience.

"The conductor probably wasn't the one who turned on the turrets. Passenger transports like this typically have one or two huntsmen assigned on board in case of situations like this. And the one with mission lead is given control of the transports defenses and is trusted to accurately assess the situation and the decide on what response to take."

The two boys processed this as quick as they could before they realized what was necessary.

"Whitley, I'll look for the huntsmen who are supposed to be on board and get them to shut off the turrets."

"That's fine! But I don't know how much longer before things get start getting bad-"

As the white-haired teen said this, the sphinx landed atop one of the train cars ahead of the group, letting out a deafening roar as it did.

"Or before they get worse!"

The blonde turned to the three of his squad with him and gave them their new order.

"You guys go and help the others, if the grimm are starting to land on the train, then they're gonna need your help."

The three nodded to him, and the blonde ran towards the conductor's car, figuring that to be the best place to start looking, and his intuition didn't let him down upon reaching the last train car. He saw an older man with a hunter's weapon and the conductor, and whatever they seemed to be arguing very heatedly about something.

Wasting no time, the blonde practically ripped the door open, catching both older men's attention, and shut the door behind him before speaking.

"Are you the one in control of the train's defenses?"

The mace-wielder gave the kid a stern and stressed look as he addressed him.

"Can't you see that we're busy kid? Go back to the where the others are, it's safer the-"

Jaune took out his scroll and displayed his identification to the older man as he cut him off.

"I'm a huntsman student from Atlas. My team and our proctor are on a mission; they're on the train roofs trying to hold off the grimm."

The older man looked slightly relieved at seeing another person who could fight before he answered back.

"Thank the brothers. No, I'm not in control of the defenses, that's Dudley, and he's on the roof of the train car before this one."

The blonde wasted no time, turning around to exit the door so that he could make his way to the train tops, but before he could fully open the door, he overheard the two older men continue their argument.

"For the last time boy, I'm not doing it!"

"And I'm telling you that there isn't another way."

"Now that there are more of us that can fight, we can make it work! Less train cars means less space for us to protect!"

"I'm the conductor here! And I won't allow it!"

The blonde turned around and broke up the discussion, reminding the two adults that he'd never exited.

"What are you two fighting over?!"

The hunter seemed like he wanted to withhold the information from the blonde knight, but the conductor had other plans.

"This coward wants to detach half the train so that the grimm are forced to divide themselves!"

The blonde's eyes widened as he looked between the two, before turning around and throwing the door open, running to relay what was happening.

"Wait kid! We're coming up-"

The conductor's words went unheard as Jaune leaped up to the roof of the train in a single aura-fueled jump as he found the man he was looking for. He didn't need to sweep the area long as he could see a dark-skinned man with a rifle firing on the swarm.

"Kid, gimme a sitrep."

The blonde pressed a finger to his earpiece before responding to Marrow's command.

"I found the two huntsmen onboard, but we have a problem…One of them wants to detach half the train."

"What, Why!?"

Marrow was silent after Whitley's outburst on the channel for a moment before he started speaking.

"If they detach half of the train, the moment the passengers on the train cars that get left behind see what's happening, they'll panic worse than before. All that dread, fear, and anger at being left to die will make the grimm focus on them, while letting whoever's left on the train cars still attached slip away."

The comms were dead silent as the teens thought about what was said before the canine faunus spoke again.

"So, what are you kids going to do?"

There was a pause, even with the fighting having begun on the train tops, everyone was waiting anxiously for one of the leaders to make a call.

"Before we can figure that out, we need to shut down these turrets."

Jaune comment brought the rest of the squad back to the present while he made his way over to the rifle-wielding huntsman.

"Hey! You've got to turn off the turrets!"

The man took another shot and dissipated a manticore that was flying straight for him before turning to the blonde, having to shout over the loud rushing wind and sounds of battle.

"What?!"

"I said: You've got to turn off the turrets!"

The dark-skinned hunter narrowed his eyes at the blonde while reloading his rifle as he made his way towards the younger man.

"Listen Kid, I don't know where you get off, but these turrets are the only thing keeping us alive, so beat it."

The blonde stood his ground in response as he fired back a response.

"You don't get it! The turrets are drawing the attention of the grimm, and the turrets are all over the train, where the passengers are! If they're turned off, the grimm will focus on us."

The older man fired off a few more shots, as he chewed on Jaune's words for a moment in his mind.

"…Kid…that's suicide."

"Well it's better than-"

The familiar screech of the sphinx stole everyone's attention, and all the huntsman were confused to see the large creature and the smaller monsters at its command beginning to pull away from the train, causing confusion. They watched as it observed them, its mouth twisting into what could almost be described as a cruel smile. Like it was laughing at something.

"Why are retreating? I've never seen grimm act like that before…"

The blonde turned around to face the huntsman he was on the roof of the train tops with, and as he faced him, he looked past him, and paled to Whitley's complexion, before screaming out at the top of his lungs, activating his earpiece as he did.

"Tunnel!"

The blonde glanced behind himself quickly and saw that he was closer to the connecting section of the train that he'd come from instead of the one that older man had decided to run to, and sprinted into a slide, narrowly managing to avoid a tragedy. Jaune's friends, being so much farther away on the train tops, had plenty of time to hurriedly reenter the transport. Unfortunately, the huntsman that was on the train tops hadn't been as lucky.

Before convening in the conductor's car, Whitley saw the…frankly horrendous injury the dark-skinned hunter was sporting, and had his squad go to each train car searching for medical supplies and/or a doctor.

One had come forth rather quickly and she asked to see the man's injury, frowning once she laid her eyes on it. His elbow was bent at the wrong angle, and he had a vicious purple bruise on his forearm. Taking a guess from experience as to the extent of his injuries, the woman went to where her back was stowed away and retrieved a medical supply kit. Leaving the man there to get help, Whitley and his team moved to where the conductor's car was.

Entering the car, the conductor was keeping a stone face as he both kept an eye on the tracks ahead, as well as monitored the screens that showed the rear view of the train, seeing the grimm lagging by a bit of distance.

"We're going to be in this tunnel for long, so if you kids got any ideas, I'm open to 'em."

Minutes. They had a few precious minutes to figure out a plan before they were under siege again and Whitley noticed the former Arc looking out the window in a thinking pose, muttering to himself silently.

"Jaune, did you have something in mind?"

The blonde was shaken from his thoughts and looked to his fellow leader. The silence hung in the air for a few moments before he let out a sigh and responded.

"I…think I may have an idea."

"Well then let's hear it."

Neon stepping forward without her usual hyper energy showed she was completely serious. Jaune nodded in response before beginning to lay out his plan.

"Alright, so here's what we know. We have a good number of the manticores from the storm chasing us through the tunnel,"

The blonde pointed towards the screens showing the rearview of the train to emphasize his point.

"And it's a safe bet to guess that there will be more of them on the other side of the tunnel. We need to cut their numbers, and the easiest way that I can think of to do it is by using the tunnel to trap the manticores chasing us."

"And how would we do that?"

"Have everyone on board move to the coaches closest to the conductor's car. When we're about to be out of the tunnel, we'll break the connection between the last train car or two, sealing off the exit."

Everyone present was thinking the idea over in their heads while Flynt decided to ask a question.

"What about the grimm outside waiting for us? That Sphinx is gonna be a problem."

Whitley cleared his throat, gathering the attention of the group so that he could give his input.

"I have a proposal. What if we keep the train's defense turrets active on the empty cars at the back, letting them draw the grimms' attention and thin their numbers. And if they are starting to build up too much, we can just detach one car at a time."

The plan becoming a little more solid was beginning to sound promising, but before they could propose any more hypotheticals, the conductor spoke up.

"You kids are going to have to make that idea work, cause we'll be out of this tunnel in about three minutes!"

The group shared looks before moving throughout the train, either to get into position or help some of the younger or elderly evacuate to the train cars closest to the lead. The conductor's voice over the intercoms instructing all passengers to quickly move as directed for their safety.

Having waded his way through a sea of people, the blonde was back in the conductor's car, and he was able to see the light coming from the exit.

"Did anyone fill in Marrow?"

"No need Kid, Schnee still had his earpiece active while you were all coming up with a plan. Miss Calavera is already with the other passengers, so you focus on making your plan work. I'll provide fire support where I can."

The sound of the older man clicking off his earpiece could be heard as Jaune prepared to move to a good position from which to start his plan. Before he could fully exit the lead car, the conductor spoke out to him.

"Kid."

The blonde knight turned around to see the much older man with his eyes glued to the track ahead as he put his question out to be heard.

"You and your friends are going to make that plan of yours work, right?"

There was a hint of fear in voice, but also hope. So Jaune did his part as a future huntsman.

"Yea, we will. I promise."

The man let his eyes shift to the window so that he could see the blonde in its reflection, nodding his head before focusing back onto what lied ahead while Jaune exited the train car, intent on making the plan work.

(A/N)

Again, not a lot to add on. Last few chapters of season 1 coming up. Besides that, I hope y'all are having a good time reading, and as usual, be sure to leave me your thoughts!

Though, I might do some re-writing/editing on this later. Not sure though.

(Part of) The Discord link below as usual.

/dSbQbK7FTy

Also, might have another chapter of one of my other stories coming up~

BlackJackHero