BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP

"IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP! IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!"

"Goooooooooooood moooooorning Vaaaaaaaaale! It's a bright and sunny-"

BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Jaune's eyes slammed open as he shot up in bed, his ears being attacked by the overlapping cacophony of 6 different alarms going off. He saw the rest of his team reacting similarly and could hear Yang shuffling above him.

He swung his legs out to the side of the bed and was jumpscared by a flash of yellow appearing in his vision from above, the Aura in his legs flaring to stop him from being hurt as a wild Yang suddenly appeared, sitting on his lap.

His face was only a couple of centimetres away from Yang's, and both of them were shocked and silent. Clearly, neither of them had expected such a turn of events. Yang even seemed to be too busy waking up to come up with a teasing remark, as she just quickly stood up and stepped back, both his and her faces slightly red.

He coughed into his hand, shaking out his legs. Their Aura had stopped them from hurting each other, but he was still a little numb from the impact. "Good Morning, Yang."

The simple greeting was met with a relieved look as she sighed, seemingly glad he was moving past it. "Hey there, Chief. We're gonna have to get this alarm thing sorted. I'll be damned if I have to wake up to that bullshit every day."

There was a yawn from beside them as Weiss dropped down from the top-right bunk. He felt his breath catch in his throat as he saw Weiss in her pale blue nightgown. He had known she was pretty since he met her, he had eyes, but damn was she pretty.

Now that he wasn't focused on getting kicked out on day one… A glance around had him nodding to himself. His entire team was full of incredibly good-looking people. He even could admit that Ren fit the bill for the definition of an actual 'pretty boy'.

Weiss, being fully unaware of Jaune's musings, spoke up. "While I would have put it more politely, I agree. Should we designate someone to set an alarm for all of us?"

Ren, who hadn't gotten out of bed yet, spoke up. "What happens if that person is gone for the night? Eventually, we'll be going on missions that span multiple days. Or their scroll could just not charge properly overnight."

Weiss nodded, crossing her arms as she tapped one foot on the ground. "You make good points, Ren. Perhaps I should just purchase a clock for the room that we can set an alarm on."

She met his eyes at that, and Jaune was momentarily confused, before a spike of memory shot through him. 'Oh shit, right, I'm the fireteam leader!'

Putting a smile on his face, he nodded, giving her a thumbs up. "If you are willing to do that, I think it's a great idea. I will say, however, that all this talking about it has let Blake steal the first shower."

Weiss let out an indignant gasp at that, turning around just in time to see the sliding door to the bathroom shut, the lock being clicked into place. Jaune chuckled to himself as the girl stomped over and plopped onto a chair next to the door, clearly claiming the next shower.

She was quickly followed by Ruby and Yang, who were practically brawling for the spot right behind Weiss. As his teammates wrestled, he calmly glanced over to Ren, who was still tucked into his sheets and cocked his head. "Not getting up?"

Jaune saw the boy shrug, the covers moving as he did so, and he hummed. "Does it look like either of us are getting the shower in the next 10 minutes or so? No point getting out of bed just to sit and wait."

He could see the logic in that at least, as could Blake, it seemed, as she was still half-tucked into her covers, reading a book. Jaune just sighed, plopping down on his bed, watching Yang and Ruby accidentally bump into Weiss in their fighting, causing the white-haired girl to start yelling at the both of them as she chased them in a circle around the dorm room.

It drew a laugh out of him, but luckily Weiss' ire was focused solely on Ruby and Yang, so he got away with it.

And if all three of them being distracted meant that he was given the perfect chance to sneak his way into the bathroom after Blake finished getting ready, then that was just a bonus!

Jaune's feet hit the treadmill as he jogged, his breathing shallow and strained.

The screen in front of him showed a bar at the bottom, a cartoon huntress running along it, showing his progress through the treadmill's preset 'track', the machine automatically changing speeds and inclination for him, to simulate running through nature.

The rest of the screen was dedicated to a few different angles of Miss Goodwitch's sparring arena, where Weiss' equipment maintenance partner, Pyrrha, was sparring against someone named Cardin.

And absolutely wiping the floor with him.

He also spotted Miss Goodwitch in the back of the recording, seeming to pay even more attention to her fight than normal. Not that she was usually lax with it, but the way she watched Pyrrha fight felt more… Personally interested.

At least from her body language. Not that he was a master of reading that, either.

He hadn't expected that their first class of the day would be physical conditioning, but that was probably on him for forgetting to take a proper look at the schedule on the first day, passing out as soon as he got back to his room, instead.

Apparently, every single day was going to start with two and a half hours of either physical conditioning, like he was doing now, or sparring, like Pryhha and Cardin and a couple of other pairs were doing.

Miss Goodwitch had been quick to impress upon them that while the Arks themselves did all the movement and fighting, a healthy Aura came from a healthy body, and fighting skills only grew when one actually fought.

Therefore, every day would start with this torture. Ok… Torture might be exaggerating a little.

He was pleasantly surprised at how easy his run had been, to be honest. Running had never been difficult before, but he'd also never run for this long in one go before. However, it seemed that Aura was just super fuckin' awesome in every way, and Jaune really couldn't see any downsides to it so far… Other than what Doctor Oobleck had said yesterday… But he was going to be a pilot anyway, so there was no downside!

'Good news, Aura helps with stamina, bad news…'

Each of the treadmill screens had a small box in the bottom right, where he got to see the bar that showed his Aura levels. It was already sitting at about 55% from just running for about 30 minutes.

"H-how is this u-using more Aura than being beaten up by Yang did? A-and how d-do you still have so much more A-aura left when I have more than you?"

Weiss, who was running on the treadmill next to him had swapped her combat outfit's heels for sneakers that even he could tell cost more than his entire wardrobe combined. At his question, she turned to look at him, continuing to run with perfect form even as she did.

"Would you have described yourself as incredibly fit, before I… Helped you, the other day?"

The treadmill decided it was an uphill section right before he answered, tilting upwards, and a frown etching on his face as he focused on running for a moment. When it finally lowered back down to flat, he answered.

"No… No, I wouldn't say incredibly fit, definitely not at a Huntsman level, but working on a farm does require a certain level from you, and I've been doing that my whole life."

Weiss nodded to herself, her arms pumping efficiently. "That might explain it. I have been training extensively, with rather good tutors, mind you, for the last few years. Before my Aura was activated, I was incredibly fit."

Jaune couldn't help the flat look he gave her at her bragging, his breath coming out a little haggard. She had the decency to look a little embarrassed by her boasting for a moment before she schooled her face. "What I mean by that, is that your Aura is dropping faster because it is having to compensate for your lack of natural stamina more than mine is."

She drummed her fingers on the handlebars on either side of the treadmill for a moment, and Jaune couldn't help but feel a little envious about how easy it was for her to talk and run at the same time. "Think of it like this. You have more fuel, but a spectacularly terrible engine. I may have a smaller fuel reserve, but my engine is more efficient than yours."

That… Made sense. She didn't know that he had cheated his way in, or at least, she didn't have any suspicions confirmed. She was pretty smart, though, and he could imagine her having figured out that the dumbass without Aura hadn't gotten into Beacon legitimately.

She would likely have expected some base level of fitness from him. And he technically had that! Just not, like, anything else but what his farm life gave him. 'But hey, that's why I'm here! To train hard and prove myself! And with my Aura unlocked, surely I'll get up to a good level of fitness in no time!'

Weiss continued, having taken a swig out of her water bottle during his little mental pep talk. "Also, because of your… Inexperience with your Aura, you are likely using it far too inefficiently. I can see it around your legs, so I can tell you're just pooling it there."

The treadmill angled slightly downwards, and Jaune grabbed ahold of the handlebars to stop himself from falling forward from the sudden shift. With a grunt of effort, he responded to Weiss. "Is that not how it's meant to work?"

Weiss hummed, closing her eyes for a moment, and he could see that her breathing was slightly heavier than it was a little while ago. He would have felt guilty about the effort of talking to him literally affecting her performance… If she wasn't already whooping his ass.

"Well, yes, that is how it works. But you are pushing far too much, and doing it far too crudely. You are essentially waving a sledgehammer at a problem when it requires a chisel."

Jaune huffed at that and thanked the gods above when his treadmill evened out again, and he saw that he only had a minute or two left before the 'track' was over. "So what? I'm not supposed to use my Aura?"

Weiss shook her head. "You should be using it, but only just the right amount. Too much, and you'll waste it like you are now. Too little, and you won't support your stamina enough and you'll eventually crash as early as if you hadn't used aura at all. You must be efficient, precise."

Her treadmill beeped and suddenly started to slow down. "We will try to go over this more tonight, during our study session. I will make a good team leader out of you even if I have to break you apart to do it, Arc."

The words sent a chill down his spine.

Weiss had already stretched by herself and moved away to get changed by the time Jaune's treadmill ended, but he noticed Blake, Ruby, and Ren starting to do some stretches in the recovery area. It seemed like Blake and Ruby were following along with some forms that Ren was showing them.

Jaune got down on his hands and knees next to the group, sighing in relief as his legs got to rest slightly, and grinned. "Mind if I join in, Instructor Ren?

Ren smiled at him and nodded. "You can do your best, but I don't expect you to be able to match mine, or apparently Blake's, flexibility. Ruby, don't push yourself like that, you'll hurt yourself."

His focus had shifted to Ruby halfway through the sentence, the girl having attempted to match Blake in a pose. Hell, even Jaune could tell that the pose was a lost cause for Ruby. And if Ruby couldn't do it…

"G-got any easier ones, Ren? I don't know many stretches and I think I just shattered my entire spine into little pieces watching Blake twist like that."

The girl in question raised an eyebrow at him, but he felt like he was vindicated because she did that while doing something Ren called an 'Advanced Bridge' and also meeting his eyes.

Ruby chuckled weakly at that, flopping onto her stomach and physically rolling over next to Jaune, going a little too far and bumping into him. He placed a hand on her shoulder and rolled her back slightly, and she stopped face down, giving him a thumbs up. "Ugh, same please, Ren."

Ren nodded and got to work guiding the both of them (Mostly Jaune, Ruby seemed to know most of the easier stuff already.) through the basic stretches, and by the end of it, Jaune could say that he did feel a lot better.

The four of them stood up and Jaune cracked his neck and felt a rush of relief as some tension was relieved. "Alright, well, if we're done with what Miss Goodwitch told us to do for today… Should we go watch Yang's spar?"

Ruby cheered loudly while Blake shrugged and Ren nodded, darting off with her Semblance, so Jaune started walking after her. A glance at the screens dotted around the gym area showed that Pyrrha had absolutely flattened Cardin, with minimal Aura loss.

He whistled softly to himself, nodding in respect. Pyrrha was really strong, and apparently great at fighting. He knew that Weiss thought she was important, so maybe she was super rich like Weiss was.

That would be neat. She didn't seem much like Weiss, though, other than apparently being important as well. Ah well, he'd find out who she was eventually. He had four years at Beacon, he expected to at least know most of his classmates by the time he graduated.

Plus, she was Weiss' equipment maintenance partner. Weiss would introduce them when she was bragging at some point or another.

Yang was a monster and had gone easy on him yesterday.

That was what Jaune realized as Yang sparred in the arena, against someone Jaune didn't recognise. For the first part of the fight, she'd been basically just brawling as she had with him, taking hits and throwing punches. And then…

Then her hair lit on fire.

Immediately, the tone of the fight changed, as Yang punched her opponent and sent them flying backwards, before leaping after them, her jump, as well as her landing, sent cracks spreading through the arena's floor as she slammed another hand into her opponent.

Said opponent collapsed onto one knee a moment later, his Aura flashing wildly, and Yang backed up instead of pressing forward. It was the right call, as the crack of a whip echoed through the room.

"Yang Xiao Long wins this match!"

Ruby let out a massive cheer at that, and Jaune followed suit, clapping for the girl. He had been mildly worried about the flames in her hair, but it became clear that it was a semblance thing when she ran a thumb over her nose and smirked as the flames immediately died down.

Another crack of a whip and those cheering were silenced. Miss Goodwitch floated down into the middle of the arena, her Semblance already doing its best to fix the floor. "A good showing, everyone, Including all of you that did not participate in a spar today. We will be rotating the roster, so tomorrow morning there will be others fighting while the ones who sparred today will focus on their conditioning."

That got a few excited cheers, but Miss Goodwitch kept talking, silencing them with a look. "Now, you only have a few minutes until your recess, but this last spar took… Less time than I had planned for, so you may all head to the cafeteria if you wish. If any of you have questions or concerns, please stay behind. My office, along with my advice, is always open to you."

Unfortunately for Jaune, none of the questions he wanted to ask were safe to, as they would bring suspicion as to why he needed explanations for things his transcripts said he was proficient in.

Letting out a sigh, he slumped. A moment later, he was bumped slightly. Looking over, Ren's face seemed blank, but Jaune could somehow tell he was concerned. "You okay, Jaune?"

Smiling, Jaune waved Ren off, letting out an awkward laugh. It clearly didn't convince the other boy, but Ren also didn't press him on it. "Oh, yeah, totally fine. Just, wow, really tired after that exercise, haha."

Ren had a small frown on his face as he glanced around, and after checking that there was no one listening to them, he let out a whisper. "If you ever need help with something you should already know, I am willing to assist you."

Jaune felt his face clench into a grateful smile at that. Had it been that obvious what he was worried about? "I'll probably be forced to take you up on that at some point. Thanks, Ren, you're a good friend."

Ren smiled at that and turned away. As Yang started moving towards them, a giant grin on her face, Jaune noticed his friend slipping away from the group, heading towards the redhead girl he was friends with.

He didn't comment on it to the rest of the team, though, as the boy snuck off. If Ren wanted to talk to his friend (girlfriend?), then that was his right. His thoughts were interrupted when there was a 'THUD' from next to him, and he saw that Yang had jumped up into the stands from the arena

"Hoo boy! Was I fucking awesome or what?!"

She struck a pose at that, flexing like a bodybuilder and winking towards the team. Ruby groaned at that, blowing a raspberry at her while Weiss snorted and Blake raised an eyebrow at her. Jaune just stared at the cracks in the ground and how high up the stands were, trying to wrap his head around how she had managed the jump.

"You were! You're crazy strong. You must have really held back against me yesterday."

He hadn't even meant to say it out loud, but it was true. She froze at that and he could have sworn that her cheeks were red for a moment, but it was gone by the time he blinked, and her smirk returned. "Eh, kinda held back against that guy, too. Took enough damage early on to take him out quicker than I did, but I wanted to be a bit flashy and do some damage so I let him go for a bit longer."

Yang preened as they further congratulated her, but her smugness was interrupted when her stomach grumbled. That got a laugh out of him and the others, even Blake smiling softly, as her smug expression immediately died. "Gah, betrayed by my own appetite! Let's go get some food. I'm gonna need energy if I have to listen to Professor Port for 3 hours straight."

Jaune didn't blame any of them as they all let out a groan at that.

STOMP. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.

Jaune's chest rose and fell as he breathed deeply, his Aura covering his entire body and flooding into the simulated Ark that he was sitting inside of. The training simulation was pushing his stamina to its limits, even more than the treadmill had.

Dodging around a pillar that suddenly shot up from the floor in front of him, he winced as the left arm of the simulated Ark slammed into it, throwing off his balance. He focused on the image in his mind, of the humanoid shape made of his aura stopping and catching itself, and let out a sigh of relief as the machine followed his instructions a moment later.

Still, he frowned to himself. That lag between the intent and the action wasn't good. He'd heard from Ren and the others that piloting an Ark was meant to feel like moving his own body.

So why did it feel so awkward for him?

Was it just cause he was new at piloting, and with Aura in general? He certainly hoped so. At the moment, he still had to focus on the arms and legs separately, meaning that he wasn't super confident in his ability to fight in an Ark if needed, but he could feel himself improving.

The simulated mech crossed over a glowing line at the end of the training course and he sighed in relief as the Ark came to a stop, a screen appearing in front of him, floating in his vision.

"[Beacon Aura Pilot Training Subroutine V1.7.3.] has been finished. Time of Completion: 24 Minutes, 43 Seconds. Completion Rank [D] has been granted."

Jaune winced at the [D] ranking, but couldn't really argue against it. The course was pretty intense, and pilots were meant to be able to get through the course in under 10 minutes. The fact that he had to keep stopping and starting his movements whenever the course called for him to use the arms of the Ark meant that the time it took him was drastically increased.

He sighed as the simulation shut down, and he once again found himself inside the simulation pod. It was the same one he'd done his initial test in. 'Hey there, friend. I have a feeling I'll be seeing you quite often…'

Jaune pushed open the door to the simulator and stepped out, rolling his shoulders. Now that he was done with that run through the course, he could feel how tired he was after a full day at Beacon.

It was a bone-deep tiredness, and he felt the urge to stop training for the night and just collapse into his bed. No one would blame him, right? 'No one but myself, that is, when I get expelled for not being good enough.'

Even though he was exhausted, however, he did feel great. Especially now that he was actually training, instead of sitting through 3 hours of Professor Port lecturing them about the history of Remnant. It was a cool topic, sure, and Jaune was genuinely interested in it, but Professor Port really needed some public speaking lessons.

Jaune tapped at one of the buttons on the control interface on the machine as he yawned, and reset the device so that he could run through the training course again. It was while he was doing this that he heard another simulator open nearby.

Was there someone else doing some late-night training, as well? As his simulator rebooted, he walked over to where he heard the noise, and as he turned the corner, he was surprised to see Blake standing out front of one of the machines, panting softly as she fiddled with the bow in her hair, tightening the knot.

"Oh, Blake! Are you doing some training as well?"

"AH!"

She leapt almost half her height again into the air as he spoke, clearly spooked by his sudden appearance, a shout escaping her mouth as her eyes flicked upwards, seemingly relieved by whatever she saw.

A spike of guilt shot through him and he held his hands up in apology as he nervously laughed. "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you. Really sorry about that."

As the glare died, her face became mostly passive again as she shrugged her shoulders. It was clear that she still seemed relieved about something, however. Not that he knew what that was. "It's fine."

They lapsed into an awkward silence at that, as Jaune wracked his brain on something to say. After a moment, however, Blake spoke up for him. "And yes I am. Training, I mean. Yes, I am training."

Jaune took the obvious olive branch and smiled. "Same here. I'm running through the 'Beacon Aura Pilot Training Subroutine… version something or other. My Aura just feels awkward running through it, so I'm trying to get better. I'm not sure exactly what's wrong so far, though."

Her eyebrow raised at that and she glanced back at her simulator, which he now noted was also set up for the same course. She coughed into a fist as she saw him realize what course she was doing as well. "Uh, yeah. My Aura feels weird as well, so I'm dealing with the same thing. Trying to figure out why."

Her eyes flicked to the machine again, and Jaune felt like he could slap himself for his stupidity. He was keeping her from her training! And himself from his own! "Well, uh, I guess I'll leave you to it. See you back at the dorms."

Blake just nodded to him as he turned and left, before returning to her own simulator. Now all he had to do was run through a few goes in the simulator, head back to the dorms, and prepare for his… Study session with Weiss.

He couldn't help the small bit of nervousness he felt about it.

Blake narrowed her eyes at Jaune's back as he left.

She knew why her Aura was awkward in the standard issue Arks that the simulators put them in. Her own training had been carefully planned so that she could overcome the weakness quickly, so as not to be found out quickly.

She was a Faunus, a Cat Faunus specifically, even if she hadn't revealed that to anyone. It was a well-known thing that Faunus performed better in Arks that mirrored their additional physical attributes, and performed worse in those that didn't.

It was why so many of the pilots that graduated from Menagerie's Pilot Academy, Fang, had their Arks customized to include tails, horns, claws… Sometimes even wings. When you were pumping your Aura, your soul, through something, it worked better when that something didn't feel like it was missing a part of what makes you… You.

That was why she was struggling with making the Ark work with her Aura Piloting. Because it didn't include her Faunus features. She couldn't fix the problem by requesting that the Ark they eventually granted her have cat ears built on without revealing herself to the public as a Faunus when she finally got her Ark, which was not an option for her, so she was stuck trying to adapt.

But then, why was Jaune struggling with his Aura Piloting? A spark of interest grew inside her. 'Could it be that Jaune is also a Faunus in hiding as well?'

It didn't make sense to her. She was here at Beacon thanks to Ozpin's cooperation with her parents and was only hiding the fact that she was a Faunus so that Adam didn't use his informants to catch wind that she was at Beacon. But she also couldn't think of any other reason why someone who got into Beacon would be struggling with their Aura Piloting like she was if he wasn't.

Whatever the case was, she had no information. If he was a Faunus in hiding as well, she might be able to convince him to work together and help each other keep their covers, but if not, then there was something else going on entirely, and she would be risking her cover for nothing.

She shook her head, quieting her thoughts and refocusing. She tapped a few buttons on the simulator and hopped back in, pushing her Aura into the machine and feeling the claustrophobic feeling she got as the machine compressed the Aura that should have been going to her ears into the head of the Ark.

She shivered in discomfort but pressed on. She would get good enough that the awkwardness didn't matter, and she would stay safe so that she could grow strong and influential enough to protect herself from him.

And when she didn't have to constantly look over her shoulder in public anymore… Then she'd finally be free.