Not much to say here, thanks to everyone for your continued support of my stories. I hope you'll also enjoy this chapter. It's a little on the short side, but I felt that the content was more important than the length of this chapter and I hope you'll see my reasoning once you've read it. Ah well, happy reading folks.

Disclaimer: We here at PanickedMode don't own RWBY but we do like sandboxes...a lot. I want ten. maybe twelve. In my living room.

Chapter Eight

The Pendulum Swings

Night had finally fallen over Remnant, the day had come to close and that meant that most of the students of Beacon Academy had retreated to their dorms leaving one Headmaster Ozpin to have a place within his office where he could keep an eye on a piece of paper in front of him whilst slowly sipping at the liquid contained within the mug he'd gripped in his hand. Things were accelerating far faster than the aged man had ever anticipated. Perhaps it was his great misfortune for the situation at the docks to develop the way it had, but two pieces of Excalibur crossing in battle was never a good sign. The moment Crocea Mors and Draco Bracchium met, he himself had felt a pulse reverberate through his cane and ultimately it served to inform him that things were moving ahead.

"This is proving to be rather troublesome, isn't it?" he murmured to himself.

"Headmaster?"

Ozpin's head rose from the scrawling mess of notes upon the paper in front of him, his sunglasses covered eyes rising to meet those of Goodwitch's and seeing her forlorn expression, Ozpin heaved a sigh, "Not good news?"

"Mr. Arc asked a lot of questions, about Excalibur specifically. I must admit that despite his lack in skill...perhaps I was wrong about his potential. I have to ask, what is it you're hoping to achieve by involving him in this? There's no way this is merely one of your whims."

"All will become known in due time, Glynda."

Goodwitch sighed, though she'd expected this answer it didn't make hearing it said any easier. Ozpin had always been good for hiding things and well, this was just the latest in a long string of events which would lead together. She wouldn't have ever expected a man as secretive as Ozpin to show his hand, especially not so early into the piece. One thing that Ozpin's secrecy made blatantly evident however, was that Jaune Arc was much more important in the grand scheme of things than anyone could imagine.

"What of the piece, did we manage to obtain it?"

"No," Ozpin said, "Regretfully, whoever this fighter was, they were no amateur. Our agent's job was to make sure our students made it out of there safely. Personally I'd much rather have four students returned to me alive than any of the pieces."

Goodwitch had to agree with that, as important as recovering the pieces of Excalibur were, that was a secondary to how important the lives of their students were and as far as she knew there was only three pieces currently in circulation. The Arc Family's Crocea Mors currently in the possession of Jaune, The piece that resided within Draco Bracchium and finally the piece that resided within Ozpin's cane. There was still four more pieces that were as of yet unlocated and could very well be anywhere.

"However," The Headmaster continued, "We must err on the side of caution. No doubt the wielder of Draco Bracchium has realized that now possesses a piece of Excalibur."

"You think that means he'll try to kill Arc again, don't you?"

"I am almost absolutely certain."

"And you're intending to use him as bait in order to get more information?"

"Not entirely, we need to be prepared. We need to make sure that Mr. Arc is safe. That our enemy can not get their hands on another of the pieces. If they do, our job will become a lot harder and I've no intention of allowing that to happen."

"What will you have me do?"

"Contact the others. It's time they were informed and I would rather have our allies close by than away from us at that point."

"Very well, headmaster."

Once Goodwitch had left the room, Ozpin moved away from his desk. The elder man slowly lifted the mug in his grip and took a drink of the liquid inside as he crossed his office towards the large darkwood panel on the opposite side of the room. He pressed a hand to it and muttered something causing the wood to melt down at Ozpin's touch, revealing the treasure hidden beneath it.

"Our enemy must never discover that we have the only remaining weapon of Legend not to be shattered by war or ravaged by time. For when the pieces are reunited, the holy Blade Excalibur and the holy spear, Ascalon will ultimately be what turns the tide of this hidden war. I will do what I can to protect the only one capable of wielding Excalibur...but I must also find someone capable of wielding Ascalon willing to stand alongside him."

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The final day before classes came far more quickly than Jaune had expected and, he realized, far too quickly for his liking. Perhaps that was down to his injury and the subsequent time he spent unconscious in the medical ward, but he really wished he'd gotten more of a chance to spend time with his team before all of them lost a considerable amount of free time because of classes. Jaune had come to the realization that between Beacon's classes, his training with the girls and the homework they'd all no doubt have to deal with, he wasn't going to have much free time for the foreseeable future and whilst that bothered him a small amount, he also realized that this was the life he'd always dreamed of living and now, as someone who'd been given the chance to live that dream, it was no right of his to complain the moment things proved to be a little more complicated than he was expecting. He'd wanted this and now he was going to have to prove that he was just as willing to earn it as everyone else was.

The Arc slowly pushed himself up out of his bed and silently padded towards the bathroom, intent on hopefully not waking any of the girls up for this would be the last chance any of them had to grab a sleep in for a while-only, once he'd fully come to, he noticed that neither Blake, nor Pyrrha nor Yang were present. Instead there was a note left for him on his desk that read:

Hey, Ladykiller.

We figured you'd need a decent and proper rest in your own bed after being in the medical bay for the last few nights. You looked pretty peaceful and none of us wanted to wake you. Would've left you a coffee or something for when you did wake up but wasn't sure if it'd go cold by the time you did so just ping one of us on your scroll when you do wake up and we'll make sure we grab some when we're out in Vale or from the cafeteria if we're back before you wake up.

Just putting the finishing touches on that surprise we were discussing before this entire mess happened. I'm going to stop here though, before this entire thing turns into a novel. See you in a few. - Yang.

Well, he had wished he could go into Vale with his team, but given that they were apparently finishing putting together the surprise and that he was still injured from everything that'd happened, he doubted that a trip to Vale was in the cards today or anywhere in the near future. He chuckled to himself slightly as he looked down at the bandages covering his stomach and shook his head. They hadn't even officially started out as Beacon students and here he was, getting injured before the first bell had even rung. After a quick shower, made difficult thanks to not being able to get his bandages wet. He'd managed in the end but it wasn't a comfortable experience by any means. Jaune dressed in a pair of casual jeans and pulled a black hoodie out from his belongings and pulled it on over a plain grey shirt that he'd decided to wear as well.

A sudden crash from outside the dorm caught Jaune's attention and he immediately opened the door to see what the commotion was. Of course, he wasn't surprised to find that the source of the commotion was related to Team LWVR since they were the only other team on this floor, but he was slightly surprised to find that the source of the commotion was none other than the resident Ice Princess herself, Weiss Schnee. Unfortunately, Ruby had yet again been on the receiving end of Weiss' ire and in that moment Jaune didn't particularly care for letting Ruby fight her own battles. Sure, she needed to learn that just like everything else in life, but this wasn't learning to work with someone. Weiss was being insufferable and for some reason it looked like her leader was unwilling to deal with it.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"Jaune?" Ruby said, leaping back to her feet, using her semblance to dart at him and she stopped suddenly, "You're okay! Yang didn't really tell me much, so I'm glad that my first friend at Beacon is looking to be doing much better."

"Isn't he your only friend?"

"That's one more than your zero," Jaune countered, not even missing a beat, "people don't tend to like girls with bitchy attitudes who are so self-serving that they won't give anyone a chance to show their own skills and such."

"No one asked you, you're not on this team."

"And be thankful that I'm not," Jaune shot back, "Because if I was? I'd have put in a request to have you kicked off my team already. You're being so insufferable to people and there's not even been one class yet so none of us have had a chance yet to really see what we're all capable of. Initiation was a different case, yes, but that was ony a small glimpse. Get over yourself Weiss, before you lose any chance you have of making friends that exist outside of your perfect little world."

Ruby had naturally moved to edge behind Jaune slightly, he hadn't yet noticed but the smaller girl was grabbing onto his sleeve a little. Sure, Yang had advised him against solving Ruby's problems for her but he really wasn't about to let this...this princess just bully his friend like that. Jaune Arc hated bullies. He didn't give a flying fuck who they were. He admired Ren's skills during initiation and during dinner exchanged between the two teams before his untimely injury, but he worried that a leader as quiet as he was would struggle to put his foot down when dealing with someone as difficult as what Weiss was. Though, to make matters worse, Jaune didn't think he could spot Ren anywhere.

"Where's your leader, anyways?"

"In Vale with Nora," Ruby put forward from beside him, "She had to get some Grenades and as much as I wanted to go look at the weapons I also had a brand new issue of X-Ray and Vav to get through. I'm a couple of issues behind but it's because newer ones are always hard to come by because of their popularity."

"Well, I've got a subscription that guarantees me the latest issue, the publisher is a friend of my dad's so, let me know when you're done and up to date with it then I'll loan you my copies until I can speak with him about getting you a subscription as well."

"You'd really do that for me?"

"We're friends, aren't we?"

Ruby didn't say anything else, but she did give a cute little nod at his statement and Jaune released a laugh. The two had become focused on their own conversation, so much so they hadn't even noticed the departure of Weiss. That is until Jaune turned his head and saw the spot where she was standing now empty.

"Well, if you want, Yang, Blake and Pyrrha all went into Vale for this, that and the other thing so you're more than welcome to come over into our dorm room, read your comics in peace and quiet away from little miss heiress."

"Are you sure? I'd hate to be a bother."

"Oh, shush, it's fine. I'll likely just be playing around with my scroll more than anything else."

"You worried you're going to get told off if you do anything more than that by the rest of your team?"

"...No..." but the perfectly arched eyebrow of Ruby Rose forced Jaune to reconsider his statement, "Only a little," which was met with a laugh from the crimson reaper. Ruby finally stepped away from Jaune and nodded to herself more than him. She moved toward her dorm and turned her head back, "I'll just go and get the comics I have then."

"Alright, just come in when you're ready, I'll leave the door open."

"Thanks, Jaune."

"Anytime."

After Ruby had collected her comics and returned to Jaune's room, she sat up over at her sister's desk, quietly going over her latest issue of X-Ray and Vav with a happy smile on her face. Jaune, on the other hand, had retreated to his scroll and had open his file on Spectral Kingdom. Maybe it was kind of pointless being on a character that had already reached the level cap. of Ninety, but going around facing enemies at least twenty levels or more below you had always felt strangely carthatic to him. For two people who were both not the most socially inclined, the balance of company and silence that they'd managed to strike was rather refreshing. Ruby was now free to relax without worry that Weiss was going to ruin it and Jaune got to spend some time with his friend, he didn't have a lot of those so he appreciated this time all the more than someone else might.

The rest of the day would pass with the two exchanging the odd conversation and a few jokes here and there but for the most part just enjoying each other's company while they did their own thing. It didn't matter that they hadn't ended up on the same team. They were still friends and they were only across the hall from each other, it wasn't like they were worlds away. Eventually though, those who had returned from Vale all arrived back at Beacon and Ruby and Jaune both smiled at each other knowing it was time to go their separate ways. Ruby had just returned to Team LVWR's room when Yang, Pyrrha and Blake entered ABYN's. Yang then thrust a hot coffee in a plastic takeaway cup into Jaune's hand, to which he grinned at, the coffee, not his team.

"I missed you," he murmured, taking a sip of the bitter drink the moment the cup reached his grip.

"Hello, how are you?" Yang said pointedly.

"Beautiful, how are you?'

"Ugh, men," Yang said, moving away to go and sort herself out after the long trip.

"You're almost as bad with that stuff as Ozpin is."

"Well, Ozpin is someone who a lot of people look up to," Jaune countered, "He may be a nutcase, but he's still important. So sharing a trait with him can't be all that bad, surely."

The pointed looks from all three of the other members of Team ABYN told the entire story, after which point, Jaune wisely decided it was about time that he closed his mouth. To enjoy the coffee he'd been wonderfully gifted with, of course. He took another sip from the plastic cup and had to bite back a moan from just how much he enjoyed the steaming liquid hitting the back of his throat.

"Thank you all for bringing this back though," he said, effectively cutting through the silence, "You didn't have to."

"Oh save it," Yang said, "You're always doing nice stuff for us, we can't exactly let you keep doing that without looking out for you too, for the next four years our mainstay is going to be each other and even beyond that."

"How d'you mean?"

"Teams that are formed in the training academies are often together until death, even long after the school years have become a thing of the past," Pyrrha explained, "After you've lived with someone for four years learning everything there is to know about them and almost developing a symbiotic relationship with them through missions and other things, it would be very difficult to start over without those people unless you were forced to do it. I've heard the only time a team truly splits is when it disbands due to in-fighting or when members pass away."

"Which means we're all going to be in this together until the day we die," Yang said fiercely.

Jaune didn't want to overstep a boundary by asking, but he could sense that the tone of voice Yang was using went much deeper than her new attachment to her team-mates. Perhaps she'd known someone who'd been through the experience of losing their team-mate through abandonment before and didn't want the same thing to happen to them? Without really knowing what was going on there, Jaune didn't feel like he had the right to comment on the matter. However, he also knew that he was going to do everything within his power to make sure that the same thing didn't happen to this team. Yang was right. ABYN would be together until such a time as death met them. Jaune was determined that wasn't going to happen for a long time either.

They would look after and protect each other.

Always.

"Well, it's getting close to dinner time at least," he said, "Sorry for sleeping away most of the day. I know I'm injured but that's really no excuse to spend the whole day sleeping. No matter how uncomfortable the beds in the infirmary are."

"You don't need to aplogize," Blake cut him off, "You've been through a harsh few days and have every right to take the rest."

"Better appreciate it though," Yang advised him, "We've got that training plan almost finished and when it is, you're going to wish you'd rested longer during this time. You're going to be the best leader and we're going to be the best team this Academy has ever seen. We'll make sure of it."

"Thank you...all of-"

"Nope," Yang interrupted.

"Nope?"

"Nope," she confirmed, "We already talked about it, we forgave you and we've made plans to fix the issue involved. The part of you staying is already covered by the rules, but your lack of training is going to be worked out by us so there's really no need to keep bringing it up. We've agreed to work together and advance so that's all there is to it."

"Yang's right, Jaune. We told you we'd stick with you and nothing is going to change that so you'd better quickly get that out of your brain," Pyrrha said.

"I'll happily punch it out of you," Blake added for good measure.

Knowing that he'd been put in his place on the matter so-to-speak, Jaune knew it would be best not to press the matter any further and decided to change the subject, to quit while he was a head as it were, "Well, with dinner being close we should probably get ready to head down to the cafeteria, right?"

"Not...exactly," Yang countered, "It's part of the surprise so I can't explain yet, but we're not going down to dinner tonight."

"We aren't?"

End Chapter.