Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another Remnant Light!
This is the intro chapter to the new story arc we'll be going through, so I hope you enjoy it!

Once again, and for every chapter of this story and others, I give a massivethank youto Mr_Crocodile for his help in brainstorming ideas, motivating me, beta-reading chapters, and getting me into RWBY in the first place!


Weiss was -begrudgingly- somewhat grateful to Arc.

Yes, she was loath to admit it, but his assistance with her studying for Survival Class had helped a great deal. Where before, she was one of the least knowledgeable in the class for this subject -And ONLY this subject, thank you very much- his help, and her strict schedule and drive to improve, had skyrocketed her to the upper-middle of the class, in just a few weeks.

"So, as you may all know, your team's mission against the Grimm was just the beginning! A few times a semester, at least for the first year, we will be sending you out on assignments relating to your classwork, to test your knowledge and ability. Your next one, which will be this coming Thursday, is for my class!"

Even still, for all her growth… Professor Peach's announcement caused her to internally cry out in annoyance. A frown etched itself on her face as Professor Peach started to explain the assignment, her heart sinking as it went on.

"You will be flown out into the wilderness with some basic supplies, about a week's trek away, and will do your best to make your way back to Beacon unassisted. Those that do will pass, and both the condition you are in, and the speed of your return, will determine your score for this assignment."

Weiss glanced down at her notebook for Survival Class, full of knowledge gathered from both her classes with Professor Peach, and her study sessions with Arc, and did her best to quell the worry in her chest.

She was good at learning, and studying was her bread and butter… She had come leaps and bounds in the subject since the start of the term, but had she done enough to get through this assignment with the level of ease a Schnee should? She didn't know for sure, and that caused her to worry.

Thus, when Professor Peach finished her explanation, and team Jasper exited the classroom alongside all the other students, she made sure to corner Arc with a Glyph. "Arc, we are going to increase our studying. Clear time on your schedule for it, because I refuse to fail this upcoming assignment."

Arc shook his head like something was funny before shooting her an infuriatingly calm smile as he nodded in response. "Of course, Weiss, I'd be glad to help."

She thought that would be all, like it usually was, but even as she dropped her Glyph and made to move away, Arc grabbed her by the shoulder and stopped her. She didn't even glare at him like she would anyone else for the move, she was so stunned by it.

"You know you don't have to like, demand it from me, right?"

'What?'

"What?"

Arc let go of her shoulder as the question escaped her with a much snippier tone than she was going for, and took half a step back. His eyes darted around a little before he took a breath and met her gaze.

"You don't have to demand things from me. I'm always going to be happy to help if you need me, Weiss. If you need my help with Survival Class, or anything else, I'm there for you, whenever I can be. Brothers know I owe you that much."

Weiss stared at Arc as the words processed through his head. The words were… Oddly charming. She'd always either had to force her words to be heard by Winter, Whitley and her Mother… Or just been instantly waited upon by the servants in the manor before she could even tell them what she needed.

Arc was just… Offering his help. Not because she had any authority over him, Beacon had seen to that, and not because he was being paid to, he just… Genuinely wanted to help her however he could, and would let her dictate how he went about it.

She felt her face warming slightly at how nice it felt to have someone just want to help her like that… And felt a spike of frustration at that fact shoot through her. She turned on one heel, getting Arc's stupid, helpful face out of her line of sight and intentionally huffed.

"I see."

She felt bad about not being able to think up much else of a response to his statement, but Arc seemed to take her short response as a good thing. Or just… Not as a bad thing, which was good enough, since she hadn't intended it to sound like a dismissal of his words.

"Anyway, just wanted to say that. Uh… So what kinda topics do you wanna go over, or redo? I'm free right after classes finish if you want to get started today?"

A smile fell on her face at that, and she straightened upright, shaking off the uncertainty and the annoying feelings she had felt, allowing her brain to focus on the task at hand. As they both started walking to the next class, Weiss actually found herself looking forward to their next study session.

"Well, I believe it would be prudent to make sure that I am fully confident in my knowledge of edible plants before we leave."

"Ah, good idea! I'll go over some of them while we walk, so let's see…"


Jaune opened the door to the Simulator with a yawn.

After classes had finished, he spent a few hours studying with Weiss, and then, when she was content with their progress for the day, he headed out to get a couple of hours in the simulator, training his Aura piloting.

Blakes's advice had put him on the level of a very determined beginner, enough to assist his team in the fight against the Creep, but he still wasn't feeling very confident in his ability to fight anything if he was only with Ren, or Brothers forbid, by himself.

And so, his intense training continued. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd clicked the [Reset Course] button on the simulator's terminal since the start of the term, but he was sure that was definitely in the top few for Simulator use.

But, even still… Something felt wrong. Every time he got into the Simulator and felt his Aura being pulled around the artificial machine's systems, there was this uncomfortable feeling that he just couldn't shake, which made it hard for him to focus, made it hard for him to improve.

He'd actually meant to ask Weiss or Ren about it, since they were the only two that he knew knew he had only gotten his Aura at the start of the year, but he'd gotten sidetracked by Weiss' request to study more and forgot.

Was it just the growing pains of someone new to piloting? Or was it something he was doing wrong? He'd put the hours using the Simulator in, and he'd studied Aura in the library, but nothing he could find was giving him the answer to that question.

Oh, sure, they all talked about Aura and the difficulties of using his own natural energy to pilot a machine, but the specifics of 'Aura-Mechanical Integration', as the books called it, flew over his head with ease.

He was just… Lacking so much information, it was hard to tell if he was doing something incorrectly, or if he just had to bide his time and stay focused. So he eventually decided that he was just going to be patient. Blake's advice had helped, and he was improving…

Jaune shook his head, laughing at himself. He knew he was feeling insecure because his teammates were so amazing, but… Wasn't it really arrogant of him to expect to be on their level in just a few weeks?

"This is what I get for not pushing Mum harder to send me to Signal, huh…"

His own voice echoed lightly in the mostly empty Simulator building, but the echo was interrupted as the pod a few down from his own let out a hissing noise as its doors opened. Jaune noted that it was the one he'd spotted Blake in, but…

As the black-haired girl practically collapsed out of the doorway, Jaune was on his feet and rushing to help. As he reached her, he fell to his knees next to her, his Aura acting like kneepads to stop the sharp contact from hurting too badly as he leaned over Blake.

"Woah, Blake! Are you alright? Blake?"

"-Mmm fine, go away…"

Jaune flinched at her words, even though her exhausted state took a lot of the bite out of them. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed out his Scroll and tapped it to her arm, earning an annoyed growl from Blake as she tried to pull her arm back, only to find that she couldn't escape his grasp as tired as she was.

[7% Aura]

Jaune's eyes flew open in shock as he saw the number. "Blake! What on Remnant are you doing?! You're almost out of Aura, do you know how bad it is to drain it down to practically nothing like this when you're in a Simulator?! What if you got forcefully disconn-"

"I'M FINE!"

Blake shoved him off of her, and he scooted back slightly, his Scroll disconnecting from her arm with the distance she gained, but the scan remained on his Scroll's screen as he looked at her. "What's wrong, Blake? Please talk to me. You've been jumpy since you came back from Vale the other day… How can I help?"

"No. Leave me alone."

Jaune didn't need to have lived with 7 sisters to tell that the girl was lying, but it did help him know how to deal with it. If this was anything like when Violette, the sister who was probably most similar to Blake, was upset or had an issue, then forcing her to talk about it would backfire.

But, he did have an ace up his sleeve.

"Fine then. As your Team Leader, I am ordering you to stop this, right now. You need to go back to the dorm and rest, And if you don't… I'll tell Professor Goodwitch that you're pushing yourself too hard, and then you can deal with her."

Blake looked like she was going to argue with him, to be honest, as she met his eyes with one of the meanest glares he had seen out of anyone, let alone the usually chill Blake before she very obviously swore under her breath and pushed herself to her feet.

"Fine, whatever. I'm going."

Jaune did his best to ignore the feeling of uselessness that plagued him as Blake started towards the door of the Simulator Building. Was that harsh of him? Probably, to be honest. Was it for the best? Hell Yes.

He'd noticed that Blake was surly, grumpy, and had bags under her eyes ever since Yang brought her back from Vale a couple of days ago, but he had never been able to talk to her about it, until now. It was when she was driving herself to Total Aura Exhaustion, something he'd read was both excruciating, potentially damaging to the body, and the most important thing mid-combat… Slowed regeneration of Aura.

There was a reason most people stayed down when their Aura shattered, but even then that was apparently usually at the 5% mark. You still had some Aura, but it wasn't strong enough to do anything.

So to see Blake at 7% was... Worrying, especially since she was pushing herself to it of her own free will.

Whatever the case, the event had spoiled Jaune's appetite for training. He quickly packed up his belongings, an exceptionally easy task since he usually only brought a bottle of water with him, and turned off the Simulator he was using, as well as Blakes.

He headed towards the entrance to the building himself, turned off the lights as he left, after making sure he was the last one inside, and tapped his Scroll on the door to sign both himself and Blake out.

One of the perks of being a Team Leader, he guessed. Meant that he didn't have to make Blake do it tomorrow morning. He turned around from the scanner, and he'd only taken a couple of steps out of the front doors when he stopped.

Yang would have already been visible, even in the later evening, with her bright blonde hair standing out against the dark black sky, but right now it was clear she was pissed about something, her hair was literally bright as it crackled with fire that didn't dare burn her.

She met his eyes and he realised that she was just angry… She didn't seem angry at him specifically. And with him sending Blake out only a second ago… It was likely that Yang had tried to get to the bottom of the situation as well.

He was proven right a second later when she crossed her arms, looking all the part of a mob boss's enforcer sent to intimidate someone. And even though it wasn't pointed at him, Angry Yang was a scary thing.

"We need to talk about Blake."

He just nodded, not daring to say no to her when she was this mad. But it also didn't hurt that he wanted to talk to her as well, ask her what the hell was going on. And then hopefully, the two of them could help Blake fix it.

He would not allow one of his new friends to hurt themselves over whatever was happening without a fight.


"COME ON PEOPLE! LET'S MOVE IT!"

Jaune let out a yawn as Ruby practically barged down the door of their dorm room, calling back for them as she vibrated in place in the middle of the hallway. Jaune could see that she was getting odd looks from the other students as they walked past her, but the girl clearly either didn't notice or didn't care.

She looked prime to bolt, however, which is likely why Yang and Weiss darted forward to attempt to keep her with them so that they could head to the docks as a team. Jaune just laughed at their antics as Ruby bobbed and weaved through both of their grasps.

His laughter dulled as he noticed Blake silently throw a knee-length coat over her usual outfit and tuck her pistol-sword-thing on her back before exiting the dorm room and stopping, just waiting for them to all leave as one.

He glanced out of the doorway and met Yang's eyes, and their conversation from the night before flashed before his eyes. She'd told him about what had happened in Vale, and it was… Weird. But that wasn't going to stop them from trying to break through her defences and help her.

And it just so happened they were going to have a week-long trip in the middle of nowhere, with everyone trapped together to finish the assignment. The good timing of the assignment almost brought a smirk to his face.

But, now wasn't the time to get stuck in his head. He still needed to get fully dressed, having been the last of the group to get a shower, so he quickly pulled on his blue flannel shirt and his white and gold vest.

There was a new addition to his outfit, however. He tightened the belt around his waist as the new weight on his left side pulled them down slightly, Crocea Flos now fully painted and ready for his use.

It was a sight to behold, with the Arc family insignia on the front of the shield, reminiscent of Crocea Mors. The main difference between his weapon and Crocea Mors, however, was that instead of gold for the trimmings and the Arc symbols, they were made in a gleaming silver, to further honour Ruby for all her assistance in its creation.

Not that he would tell her that outright. She seemed embarrassed enough about its name being in her honour, he couldn't imagine how she'd react if she knew he'd chosen Silver for her as well.

Laughing to himself, he followed Ren out of the room -the other boy had finished putting his outfit on right before him- and locked their dorm room with his Scroll, the small device under the doorknob letting out a ping and showing a closed padlock symbol.

Fireteam JSBYRR officially got a move on once everyone was outside. Ruby, predictably, was at the front of the pack due to her speed and her excitement, with Yang and Weiss continuing to try and keep her nearby, to little avail. Although it was rather funny to see Weiss throwing Glyphs up to try and stop Ruby from running off.

He and Ren were in the middle, and behind them… Behind them followed Blake, a tired look on her face and her hands clenched as her eyes darted about. Before she could see him looking, Jaune turned back to Ren as he started speaking, sighing softly to himself.

"I must say, I am looking forward to getting back to nature. This trip will be very… Similar, I would say, to how Nora and myself spent our younger years."

Jaune perked up at that. Was this… Ren lore?! The boy spoke so little about himself it was hard to get a read on him, other than that he was basically Jaune's brother-he-never-had after having his back for the last month or so.

He sent the quiet boy a smile as he tilted his head, eager to know more. "Oh yeah? Did your families go camping together a lot or something?"

Ren didn't so much flinch at his words as he did frown, but Jaune could immediately tell that he'd put his foot in his mouth somehow as Ren's face fell slightly. "Ah… No. Our home was destroyed by a Grimm when we were very young. Nora and I wandered for many years in the Mistralian wilderness."

Jaune felt horrible for reminding the boy about the clearly painful memories and placed his hand on Ren's shoulder. "I'm sorry, man. Didn't mean to bring those back to the surface. And… It's not much, but I'm sorry that happened to you."

Ren was silent for a moment, but after a second, he took a deep breath and looked up at Jaune, meeting his eyes. "Really, it is fine. It was… Many years ago, and I have made my peace with it. Nora is a good friend, and as you may guess having met her, an even better distraction."

Jaune couldn't imagine that just distracting yourself from the problem for years until you got over it was a particularly healthy way of dealing with grief. Still, he also hadn't lost anyone but his father, and even that was so young he barely remembered the man, so he couldn't really talk.

His musing was cut short as Yang crashed into the two of them, her arms wrapped around their shoulders. "Right, Nora. I'm sure she was totally there and able to help you, Ren."

Jaune snickered to himself as Ren just stayed deadpan. Yang seemed to have enough of teasing Ren about Nora's non-existence and went to attempt to wrangle Ruby, who was bugging another team about their weapons as they walked, the blonde girl looking oh so much like the owner of a dog that had escaped its lead at a dog park.

Jaune knew that he could likely end the misconception the girls seemed to have about Nora not existing, but if Ren was fine with it, and he certainly seemed to be, then it was funnier for him if he let it go for as long as it was able.

Their walk had been going for a few minutes, and they reached the doors out to the courtyard in front of the dorm building. Jaune yawned again as the harsh morning light stabbed at his eyes, especially reflecting off the polished gunmetal grey of the lines of Bullheads all sitting on the docks.

He spots a couple of other teams making their way from the other dorm buildings, including Nora, who was wildly flailing her arms about as she talked to a tall, redheaded girl in what looked like… Branded activewear? And not the kind that you bought, the kind you were given when you were sponsored by something.

Or so Jaune assumed, having never been sponsored for anything before. He was about to wave to Nora when he noticed the taller redhead looking in their direction and waving towards… Weiss?

Huh, he didn't know that she interacted with many other people outside of their fireteam, but he was happy to see she had friends, especially if they were the kind of people that could either deal with or be content around someone like Nora.

There were some other people he recognised as well, but the majority of his year were strangers to him. Cardin Winchester was unfortunately not one of those strangers, and when the boy noticed him looking, Cardin shot him a death glare, running a finger over his throat but not doing anything else with so many other people around.

There was also that grey-haired guy from the workshop a couple of days ago. Jaune didn't know why he stood out in his memory, but he did. Weirdly, even though he had earphones in, the grey-haired guy somehow seemed to realise Jaune was looking, even from behind and turned to look his way.

'Huh, that's pretty cool!'

Also, damn, the grey-haired guys' fireteam leader, he knew she was the leader due to her being present for their leader-only tactics classes, was absolutely gorgeous. Cinder, he thought her name was?

Actually… Now that he thought of it…

He'd been way too busy over the last couple of weeks to even register it, too stressed over his continued enrollment at Beacon to put much thought into it but… Looking at his own teammates, he realised something.

'Do all Huntsmen and Huntresses look so good?'

The girls of Fireteam Jasper were drop-dead gorgeous as well. Ruby was adorable and charming, and Yang had a tomboyish flair that contrasted excellently with her large… Hair. Blake was mysterious and standoffish in an attractive way, or at least usually was, she was just tired and grumpy right now, and Weiss was so practically flawless that the scar over her eye actually enhanced her looks. Also, even if he didn't swing that way, he could admit that Ren was a very handsome man.

Was it an Aura thing? He looked around at the other teams, and with a few noticeable exceptions, it definitely seemed to be one. 'I'd always heard that all Huntsmen and Huntresses were fairly attractive, but I thought it was more of a "they're badasses" type thing, and not them literally being attractive.'

Before he could consider that further, however, he saw Professor Goodwitch standing next to Professor Peach, turning towards the large swarm of students in front of her. As she did, she took a step back, allowing Professor Peach to take the stage, as it were.

"Good morning to all of you! Why don't we just get started right away, I'm sure all of you are eager to get back to sleep on the Bullhead."

Jaune focused on Professor Peach's voice as she started to talk. There was a wave of laughter at her joke, even if he knew that he was likely going to be going right back to sleep. He perked up slightly as the thought reminded him, and he reached into his pocket and pulled out some anti-air-sickness medication, popping it into his mouth.

Professor Peach continued, smiling as she motioned towards the rows of Bullheads lined up on the docks, each with a different number painted on the side of its chassis.

"So, here's how this is going to work! I will call out your Fireteam, as well as what number Bullhead you're headed to, which is selected at random, and you will help load your supplies onto it, before heading out. That makes sense to everyone?"

It was simple, so she didn't get any 'no's' from the students, and she grinned at the crowd at that. "Alright, then! First up, let me get Fireteam CRDNAL to head to… Bullhead number 7! Enjoy your trip, boys."

Jaune let out a small sigh of relief at seeing Cardin's fireteam heading out first, the boy not even bothering to look his way as he stomped over to Bullhead 7. Honestly, Jaune tuned out the next little bit, the repetition of the same procedure over and over again sapping his already tired mind of all its focus.

That focus was snapped back into place, however, as Professor Peach called them out. "Now we have… Fireteam JSBYRR! You will be on Bullhead 13! Have a pleasant flight!"

Nodding his head towards the Bullhead, he started to move in its direction only for Ruby to dart ahead of him and onto the aircraft, which destroyed any modicum of restraint the others had as they dashed ahead of him, leaving him and Yang, the slowest on the team -even if Yang was still faster than him- as the last two off the Bullhead.

"I guess it's up to us to go load up the supplies, hey Chief?"

Jaune just rolled his eyes at Yang's words, adjusting Crocea Flos on his belt as he moved over to the 3 crates that sat next to the Bullhead. His Aura flared as he pulled with all his might, and… The crate moved with more ease than he had been expecting them to.

'Huh! I guess all that training has been paying off!'

He was quickly shown up by Yang, of course, who was dragging one crate in each hand behind her as she walked at basically her normal speed. Jaune just blew a raspberry and followed behind her, tying down the crates in the cargo section before heading over to sit in the corner of the seating area.

He clipped his seatbelt on and leant his head up against the wall of the Bullhead across from Ren, who was already asleep, and the medication he had taken before must have been kicking in already because the rumbling in his stomach that appeared alongside the rumbling of the Bullhead's engine was muted.

Muted enough to allow him to follow the call of sleep, and after a few minutes, he was completely out of it, snoring softly as the Bullhead took him and his teammates to who knows where. He was excited, and very much so looking forward to the trip, but at that very moment?

It was 100% sleepy time.


Thank you for reading!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments! I appreciate all the support you guys have given this story, and am glad you're enjoying it!

See you all next week!