"Greetings, all."
Admiral Ozpin's first words echoed around the hall with ease, and if his mech hadn't caught everyone's attention, his voice would have. It was higher than Jaune had been expecting, but it had a quality to it that felt powerful.
The admiral stood from his seat inside of his mech's cockpit and took a single step forward, dropping down onto the stage and bending slightly, his aura flashing around his legs for a moment before he stood upright and smiled at the crowd.
"You are all here for various reasons. Whether you want to fight Grimm or protect humanity, or even just see being a Huntsman or Huntress as nothing but a paycheck, all are valid reasons… as long as you are truly ready."
Ozpin glanced around the crowd for a moment, and Jaune could have sworn that his gaze stopped on him for a single instant… but that was likely his paranoia talking. Why would Admiral Ozpin himself have any interest in a complete nobody like him?
Unless he knew about his faked transcripts… That would be very bad. Catastrophically bad, even, as it would mean getting ejected from Beacon before he even started, and right after he'd made a friend or two at that.
"But, for now, you are ready enough to begin learning how not ready you are. The world of Hunters and Huntresses is a dangerous one, and the Grimm are vicious. Every day you spend here will push you to your brink, before reeling you back, telling you what you did wrong, and then pushing you again."
Ozpin tapped his cane against the ground, both hands placed atop it. He closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling softly.
"But I digress, such dreary topics are not suitable for a celebratory moment such as this! You should all be incredibly proud of making it here. The fact that you are standing here before me means that you have the potential to become fine pilots, and I see that potential in all of you."
A smooth grin appeared on the man's face, and with another flash of aura around his legs, he hopped upwards, landing perfectly in the cockpit of his mech, and sat back down.
"Now, my young students, go forth, practice and learn as much and as hard as you can, and one day, when you are ready…"
He pressed a button, his cockpit closing, and Jaune could only watch in awe as the mech stood to its full height, towering over all of them with ease.
Said awe was infiltrated by a small surge of laughter as a larger version of Admiral Ozpin's cane appeared in the mech's hands, tapping against the ground, its sheer size causing vibrations to shake the room.
"One day, I will be glad to stand side by side with you in Arks of your own, as comrades in the fight against the Grimm!"
Instinct took over as Ozpin finished that sentence, and he and everyone else in the hall somehow started clapping at the same time, all of them simultaneously realizing that the Admiral's speech was over.
The crowd of students started to talk and cheer as Ozpin's mech strode out through one of the walls, a massive garage door opening as he reached it to let him out, leaving only Glynda Goodwitch on the stage.
"Thank you to our headmaster for his words of encouragement. Now! All of you should have access to your Beacon school accounts via your scrolls, so before 3:30pm today, I want you all to have signed in and taken a look at your schedules for the coming weeks."
She tapped away on her scroll for a moment, and all of a sudden he felt his own scroll buzz. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw a notification of a scroll-mail from Beacon, titled 'Map of School Grounds'.
"You have all just been sent a complete map of Beacon. On it, you will find all of the buildings your classes will be taking place in, marked in blue. If you did not receive the scroll-mail, please come forward to get a physical copy, and then head back to the welcome desk to fix your scroll-mail address."
She held up a piece of paper in the air above her with her Semblance, but Jaune was a bit too far away to read it clearly, especially in the semi-dark of the hall. Ruby, however, didn't seem to have any issue.
"Alright, that's just the map again, printed out on paper. I got the scroll-mail, so I'll be fine. Did you get yours, Jaune?"
Jaune nodded. He had no clue how Ruby could see the paper from where they were, but it didn't matter, as they'd both gotten the scroll-mail. As she opened her scroll and clicked into the map, he pulled out his own.
"God damn…"
Once again, Jaune was given a reminder of how gigantic Beacon was, as the map he had received showed the sprawling layout of the school, easily covering an area he would say was almost a quarter of the size of Vale itself.
Probably. He wasn't great with distances and the like. Plus, it was just really hard to accurately measure a city when you've got your head in a bin for most of the flight over it, losing your lunch.
Whatever exact size it was compared to Vale was, realistically, irrelevant. All Jaune needed to know was that the grounds were massive enough that they required their own road system, complete with buses and airships as public transport available for students.
There was a legend on the side of the map, but he didn't have enough time to memorize them all, as Glynda Goodwitch started speaking again. "At 3:30pm this afternoon, you will be required to meet at 'Location Alpha' on your maps, you should be able to see it clearly, for your first exercise."
Glaring at one group of students who were being noisier than the rest, she huffed. "There are a few different testing locations, please make sure you log in to your own account to check, do not just follow your friends."
That seemed to be all she had to say, as she stood up a little straighter, her riding crop letting out a 'crack!' As she snapped it to her side. "Now then, you are dismissed. Congratulations, students… You are now officially Huntsmen and Huntresses in training!"
As everyone cleared out of the Amphitheater, Jaune couldn't help how quickly his heart was beating.
This was it. This was what he had been hoping for so hard for his whole life, the thing he was so desperate for, that he would risk getting in the worst trouble of his life to commit fraud by faking his transcripts.
He was a student at Beacon Academy. But… Even though he was currently fulfilling one of the major dreams he had since he was a kid, he knew that he would have to put in some real work if he wanted to stay a student at Beacon Academy, however.
"Admiral Ozpin is pretty cool, isn't he?"
Jaune let out a yell as he jumped almost a foot into the air at Ruby's voice. He had been so focused that it seemed as if she had just appeared next to him, shocking him out of his thoughts.
Ruby laughed at him, a fist coming up to cover her mouth. "Oh wow, sorry! I didn't realize you were so focused on… whatever you're focusing on. Sorry for scaring you."
Jaune shook his head, his hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck. "Oh, no, no. You're fine. Just got lost in my own head and all that. But uh, yeah. Admiral Ozpin is very cool. Isn't he like, the best pilot in all of Remnant?"
Ruby bobbed her head side to side as she waved her hand horizontally. "Kinda? He's got some of the best records, but he hasn't really been in active combat for the last decade or so, so there are probably a couple who could give him a run for his money nowadays."
Jaune let out an impressed 'huh' at that. That was kind of awesome, actually. "Do you know why he doesn't really go into combat anymore?"
"Nope!" Ruby shook her head as she rocked back and forth on her heels, popping the 'p' in nope. "There are theories but he has never said why. Maybe I'll get to ask him at some point!"
Jaune cocked his head to the side at that, confused. "Wait, why would he answer you, but not anyone else, about that?"
Ruby grinned, putting her fists on her hips, jutting out her chest as a smug look grew on her face. "Maybe because he personally granted me entry into Beacon after I beat up a couple of thieves attacking a dust shop?"
Jaune's jaw dropped at that. Ruby already had actual combat experience, and with thieves confident enough to attack one of the most well-defended types of stores?!
"You did what?!" His yell caught a bit more attention than he would have liked, and he sunk into himself a bit, noticing that Ruby's smug look was frozen as she seemed to realize something.
"Argh, wait! Jaune, you can't tell anyone about that, okay? I'm actually not technically supposed to be telling people about it… But I can trust you to not gossip, right?"
Jaune nodded at that, giving her a messy salute, and the girl let out a sigh of relief, her shoulders dropping as her arms dangled. "Oh, thank god. I can't believe I messed that up already. Made exactly one friend and am already revealing secret stuff…"
Her head then darted up to him, an embarrassed look on her face. "Ah, I mean, if you wanna be my friend, that is! You're the first person I've met here, and we've been talking, so I assumed…"
Jaune couldn't help the snort that escaped him as Ruby almost devolved into a ramble, stopping her short by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry! Of course, I'll be your friend!"
Ruby froze at that, before letting out a 'WOO!' that was frankly just adorable, jumping fully into the air as she starfished, before collecting herself when she landed as best she could, the grin on her face remaining. "That's awesome! Well, then my new, and first, friend… I actually have to go find my sister now so she doesn't think I've vanished. I'll see you later after the exercise is over!"
With that, she actually did vanish, turning into a cloud of Rose Petals, and this time due to the open space they were in, he could actually keep track of the bundle of red petals that was darting off just over the crowd.
"Man, that's so cool."
Shaking his head, he laughed to himself, his hands coming up to his eyes as he leaned his head back. If Ruby was anywhere close to the baseline of how skilled the new students were going to be… then it was going to take even more work than he had thought to keep his spot.
But that was fine. He may have stolen his place at Beacon, but he was prepared to fight tooth and nail to stay here.
Jaune paused as his scroll started to vibrate.
He had been wandering the sidewalks of Beacon, trying to get himself acquainted with the grounds, when the alarm he had set for 3 o'clock went off. Quickly turning in place, he pulled up the map of the grounds again and started sprinting for the 'Location Alpha' symbol.
It turned out to be a small courtyard just a bit away from him, only taking him about 12 minutes to reach there from where he had wandered. When he showed up, there were already a couple of students gathered around, and Glynda Goodwitch stood next to a doorway at the end of the courtyard, a tablet in her hands.
They made eye contact briefly, and Glynda nodded sharply to him, before tapping something on her tablet, presumably marking him off. Turning his attention to the students that were already there, he noticed a familiar face.
He strode over to her and sat down next to her, grinning. "Hey there, Weiss, how are you? Looks like we got the same spot for our first exercise."
The girl looked up from her scroll and, for an instant, had an annoyed look on her face, but after she seemingly realised who he was, she smoothed her expression, giving him a polite smile. "Ah, blonde boy. It seems we have. I was too busy yelling at your friend to do so last time, so allow me to introduce myself properly."
She stood, holding out her hand, and when he grabbed it, they shook. It was then that he truly realised how much larger than her he was, having probably an entire foot of height on her, but to her credit, she didn't seem to really care."My name is Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee family name. A pleasure."
The name was… vaguely familiar, and being the 'heir' to anything probably meant that she was pretty important, but he couldn't quite place her. So instead, Jaune just smiled, giving her a nod. "Nice to meet ya. The name is Jaune Arc, heir to, uh, a small farm out in the middle of nowhere. Probably… If one of my sisters doesn't claim it first."
Jaune was pretty proud of the small snort of laughter that escaped Weiss, before she took her hand back, pocketing her scroll with the other. She was about to speak further but was interrupted by Miss Goodwitch speaking loudly across the courtyard.
"Alright, as it seems that everyone is here slightly early, which is appreciated, I believe that it would be prudent of us to begin the explanation now. Behind me is a training facility that uses top-of-the-line aura-based battle simulators to immerse you into simulated combat, which allows us to test out your combat proficiency, and ability to adapt."
That got the students murmuring, but Jaune was just confused. Leaning over, he nudged Weiss softly, and the girl cocked her head towards him slightly, an eyebrow raised as he whispered. "Does that mean you have to have your aura unlocked to use them?"
That seemed to grab Weiss' full attention as she turned to face him, an aghast look on her face as she whispered back at him. "Are… are you implying that you don't have your Aura unlocked, Arc?"
Jaune froze at that, and before he could really think, an excuse dropped from his lips. "Well, I mean, if you really think about it, then, uh, technically all living things have Aura."
The look Weiss gave him threatened to freeze him solid. Not quite a glare of anger, not quite a look of confusion… more like a stare of shock at the very audacity of the words leaving his mouth. "Give me your hand, right now."
Jaune hesitated for a moment, painfully aware that both of them were missing the entirety of what Miss Goodwitch was talking about, but Weiss just leaned over and grabbed his hand, and Jaune felt something warm shoot up his arm.
For a moment, he was worried that she might have injured him somehow, but as he looked down at where she grabbed him, he saw her own Aura, a light blue glow, covering both of their hands.
The warmth spread up his arm and into his chest, and then over his entire body… and then warmth turned to power. He'd known what Aura was and what it was supposed to do, of course, no sane person on Remnant didn't, but the feeling of having his own activated felt insane.
Every single tiny bit of soreness on his body seemed to fade, and he felt lighter than air. He could see that he was glowing with his own Aura now, a soft white light that covered his entire body.
Weiss let go of his hand right after, her eyes open wide as she stared at her hand for a moment, before meeting his eyes. "Good gods above, Arc, why on Remnant do you have so much Aura?"
He was about to answer when there was a sudden 'CRACK!' and both he and Weiss froze in place, turning slowly to meet Miss Goodwitch's eyes as she glared at them from the front of the courtyard.
"Mr Arc, Miss Schnee. I am glad that you are so enthusiastic about all of this, but how about you listen to what you will be doing, instead of flaring your Aura as hard as you can at each other."
"Yes, Miss!/Sorry Miss Goodwitch!"
Both of them yelled out their apologies in sync, and Jaune wilted slightly at the stares and laughter that the other students were shooting… Only his way? Even though she had been caught talking, just like he had, Weiss didn't seem to be the target of any of the student's ridicule.
Maybe he was right to think that she was super important.
Miss Goodwitch quickly went over what they were doing again as the crowd of students followed her into the training facility, and as they reached a large room with rows of metal boxes, Jaune was sure that he got the gist of it.
They were gonna get thrown into a simulated fight with a Grimm, in a 'standard issue' Ark, and were tasked with working together with their partner, who was apparently going to be randomly selected by the computers, to kill said Grimm.
As Miss Goodwitch snapped her riding crop again to motion them towards the simulators, Jaune paused, turning to Weiss and whispering to her again. "Thank you, Weiss. I'll have to find some way to repay you for this."
Weiss just lifted her chin, a smug smile on her face. "That's appreciated, but unnecessary. Just consider us even now, for your help with the Ruby Incident. Just don't make a fool of yourself. Everyone likely believes that we are friends, so it will reflect poorly on me as well."
She walked off after that, leaving Jaune with one additional nugget of stress in his steadily growing pile of things to worry about. Shaking his head, he walked over to the simulator that had his name on the side, a panel opening as he got near, showing a seat and a pair of gloves connected to a computer box via thick cables.
Sitting down in the chair, he put the gloves on, and waited, eventually hearing Miss Goodwitch's voice from a speaker inside the box. "Excellent, everyone seems to be in place. Remember, your partner will be assigned to you by our computers based on several factors, the main one being the compatibility of both your Aura and your registered fighting styles."
He felt his nervousness rising as he waited, but Miss Goodwitch almost seemed to be done with her speech. "They will be your partner and teammate for the remainder of your time at Beacon Academy. It should also be noted that all other testing groups are taking place currently as well, so your partner might not be in the building with us"
There was a hiss of machinery activating after her speech finished, and the box he was sitting in rumbled slightly. He was a little confused about what was going on, having never been in one of these things before, but Miss Goodwitch's next words told him what to do.
"The program has been loaded. You are all clear to activate your Aura and enter the simulation. Stay calm, remember your training, and work with your teammate. Best of luck, Hunters and Huntresses."
With that, Jaune reached for the feeling of power that Weiss had activated within him, and the inside of the box lit up with white light as his entire body started glowing, before he felt it flowing down his arms and into the gloves in front of him. There was a flash of white as he crossed some threshold of Aura used, and the system activated.
There was silence for a moment, as his stomach felt like it lurched within him. That silence was broken a moment later, as his ears were rattled by the bone-shakingly loud screech of a Grimm only a hundred meters or so in front of him and his partner, whoever they were.
The AO3 version of this story includes character and scene art! Check it out there as well!