Hello hello! Good to see y'all again!

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and that it gets you as excited to read what comes next as I am to post it!

Beep!

Jaune's eyes opened at the sound of a soft digital beep. He'd passed out early the night before after his training and slept soundly through the night. Leaning over, he grabbed his Scroll and saw that it was like, five in the morning.

'Who is up at this time?'

Looking towards where the noise had come from, he saw Ruby leaning against the wall next to it with the door wide open, a hand on her head. Whisper-shouting so as to not wake the others up, Jaune speaks. "Ruby? What are you doing up?"

The girl let out a small 'eep!' and turned towards him, one of her eyes lidded and both with serious bags under them, showing him that she definitely hadn't slept well the night before. And in the soft light of their dorm room -barely peeking through the edges of their blinds- he could see that her eyes…

Were her eyes glowing?

He pushed his covers off of himself and got to his feet, padding over to Ruby. She looked up to meet his gaze but winced at the movement, a hand coming up to clutch her head and press harder on it. "Hey, Ruby. You alright?"

Ruby shook her head. She closed her eyes as she did so, and Jaune frowned. When she spoke, her voice was a little scratchy. "Not really. I've got a killer headache, and it's just been getting worse. I barely slept, and my eyes are killing me…"

Jaune nodded at that, clicking his tongue as he shook his head pityingly. "Damn, that sucks… Actually, could you open an eye for a second?"

She did so, opening her eye just enough for him to see her entire iris. Holding a hand up in front of her face, he gulped as he saw a soft, silver light shining onto his hand, visible only due to the darkness of the room.

"Ruby… Your eyes, uh, well. This might sound crazy, but… Your eyes are literally glowing right now."

As her eyes closed again, Ruby gave him the closest thing she could to a confused expression, she could with both eyes shut. Jaune knew how she felt, as he was rather unsure of what was going on himself. "What?! Why would they… I think I need to go to the infirmary."

Jaune nodded at that, before remembering that Ruby couldn't see with her eyes closed. "Hold on, gimme a second to change and I'll help you get there."

He saw Ruby's cheeks go a little red at that, and she pouted at him. "I can get there myself, it's fine!"

She then turned and bumped straight into the wall instead of exiting out of the doorway, letting out a soft 'oof!' and freezing in place. Jaune chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Sit tight, I'll be quick."

He took the fact that she didn't move again as acceptance of his help and quickly darted over to his bed, grabbing a fresh outfit from his hamper and changing into it, leaving his onesie thrown haphazardly on his bed.

He was about to head back over to Ruby when he felt a tingle down his spine. Pausing in place, he frowned. Something just felt… Off. He didn't know if it was lingering tiredness or just paranoia because they were up so early, but Jaune reached down and attached Crocea Flos to his hip before he even properly realised he was doing so.

As he tightened the final strap, however, he nodded to himself, feeling much better now that he was armed. Why he felt so anxious about walking around one of the most protected buildings in the world, especially with a weapon he only had a month or two of training with? He wasn't quite sure, but he had more important fish to fry at the moment.

As he moved back over to Ruby, he grabbed a jacket -and her boots- from atop her hamper and handed it to her when he arrived next to her at the door. "Before we go, you should put these on. You're still in your pyjamas."

Ruby did so without argument, looking embarrassed at the idea that she had been about to wander the halls of Beacon in her nightwear. When she had her jacket and shoes on, Jaune offered her his arm. "Here, put your arm in mine. I'll be your eyes 'till we get there."

As he pulled the door shut behind them, he locked it with his Scroll to make sure it was closed. Ruby smiled up at him, her eyes still clenched shut even as she grinned. "Oh, yeah, thanks. You can guide us, I'll try to focus on getting them to hurt less… Thanks, Jaune."

She slipped her arm through the gap his own made, and Jaune started walking slowly, with Ruby keeping pace easily. The two of them weren't trying to go fast, but apparently, even a rather slower-than-usual Ruby was about equal to his own walking speed.

Beacon was… Quiet.

It was to be expected so early in the morning, with many of the older students out on placement missions in various villages and towns, and the younger students still in bed… But it was also somehow busier than he thought it would be.

He and Ruby were not the only people walking through the halls, and Jaune spotted a couple of other first-years up and about. A few people were hanging around the entrance to the library who were chatting softly, but he didn't recognise any of them. He also thought he spotted Pyrrha Nikos as they passed a training room, already sparring against a robot.

He would go and say hello and properly introduce himself to her, as she was Weiss' friend, but he wanted to take care of Ruby for the moment. Leaving the girl to her training, Ruby piped up. "Was that people fighting? This early in the morning?"

Jaune laughed softly, squeezing her arm with his. "No, no, that was just Pyrrha Nikos. You guys mentioned she was a tournament fighter or something, right? I think she must have gotten used to getting up early to train."

Ruby nodded slowly at that, humming. "Ah, right. That would make sense. Still, that's pretty crazy awesome. Should we start getting up that early for training, too?"

Jaune froze, playing up his reaction so that she could tell he was shivering even with her eyes shut. "Please, Ruby, please don't give Weiss any crazy ideas…"

That got a reaction out of Ruby, who snorted with laughter before clutching her head again as her headache spiked. "Snrk, haha! Ah, ow…"

Sunlight starts to become ever-more present as they walk further and further, the sun rising slowly and peeking through the large windows that line the outer hallways. As they passed the cafeteria, Jaune paused and remembered how hungry his sisters got when they were sick. He asked if she wanted to grab some food first, but Ruby declined.

"I don't think I'd be able to enjoy food, like this. Let's just get me some painkillers first."

Jaune nodded slowly, before remembering to squeeze her arm gently again when he realised that she still had her eyes shut. "As the lady commands."

Ruby snorted again, poking at his side with a finger and smiling. "Weiss was right, the fancy accent sounds weird on you."

Jaune's face froze at that, and he sighed. "Ah, jeez… Weiss told you about that?"

Ruby's grin turned smug, even with her eyes shut and her wincing from the small bob of her head she gave him. "Yep! She told all of us about it, actually. When I'm feeling better, I wanna see you try to act all fancy like that again, it sounds funny!"

Jaune let out a small sigh of defeat, knowing that his fate was sealed… But not minding it that much. Bumping his shoulder into hers -something that took more leaning down than he had thought- he hummed. "Sure, I'll put my suit back on and everything for you all."

Ruby pumped a fist up into the air with a soft 'woo!' before letting it fall back down beside her. They kept walking slowly, crossing paths with a couple of other students. But he did start to notice that not a single person they saw was an older student. "They're all first-years…"

Ruby cocked her head to the side. "Pardon? Who are all first years?"

Jaune blinked, having not realised that he had spoken out loud. "Oh, uh. Everyone we've seen so far. They've all been in our year. Not a single older student."

Ruby frowned at that, but shrugged her shoulders, not really knowing what else to do. "We have been seeing them go on missions a lot. Maybe they just mostly haven't gotten back yet or maybe they're still sleeping."

Jaune shrugged as well, taking that as good an answer as he would be getting, seeing as the sun was still only just rising. They eventually reached the infirmary and Jaune stepped aside to let Ruby talk to the nurse privately. He'd grown up with sisters enough to know that girls usually preferred talking about medical issues alone.

Ruby came out of the nurse's office looking a little better. Her eyes were open at least, even if the headache was apparently still there. "My eyes still hurt, but the nurse says I should just try to sleep. Got the day off class and everything 'cause it was bad enough, apparently."

Jaune smiled at that, giving her a small high-five. "Gotta take the silver lining, I guess. You'll get to miss out on Professor Port's class today. Actually, talking about silver… Did you mention the whole, uh, glowing thing?"

Ruby nodded, her lips pursing into a small frown. "I did, but… She didn't know why. Her best guess is that they hurt so much 'cause I got a little Energy Dust in them when refuelling my Ark or something and it's causing them to glow."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at that, glancing back at the nurse's office. "But we don't refuel our own Arks, not yet. Isn't that a second-year thing, once we've been taught how to?"

Ruby hummed, looking back at the office door as well, and nodded. "Yeah, that's what I said, too. But other than that she had no other ideas on what could have made them glow… Should I check with a different teacher?"

Jaune just shrugged at that. "If the nurse doesn't know, who else would know? The best bet I can think of might be Professor Peach."

Ruby nodded, letting out a sigh. "Yeah, maybe. I think I'll just take the nurse's advice and go to sleep. I feel weirdly exhausted even if I only just woke up. And there's still like, this weird haze in the back of my eye, as well as just… I feel like something's wrong…"

Jaune paused at that, feeling an odd sense of deja vu at her words. "Wait… Does it, uh, feel like a tingle down your spine, telling you to be careful?"

Ruby cocked her head to the side, nodding slowly as they stopped in place. "Oh, um, yeah? It's not even my Aura, I know how that feels when it gives me early warning of stuff, we learned that pretty early at Singal. It's just… Something feels… Bad."

Jaune nodded, his hand falling down to sit atop the pommel of Crocea Flos. It is then that Ruby seems to notice that he has it on him, her lips pursing. "I get what you mean. Earlier I just felt like… Like I needed my sword when I left the dorm."

Ruby looked like she was about to say something before she froze with her mouth half open, turning on the spot to look down the hallway on their right. Jaune didn't see anything, but with his attention drawn to it, he could feel the same thing Ruby clearly could as well.

"And I feel like we need to go down this way."

Jaune's nervousness felt like it was at an all-time high as she started moving down the hallway towards the Ark Hangar Bays. Jaune was worried for her at this point, but nodded, following after her, even as her steps started to get more and more assured as they got closer.

Ruby's head felt like it was splitting open.

As she jogged down the hallways towards the Ark Hanger Bays, she could feel the pulsing ache behind her eyes spikes with each footfall, but she continued anyway. Glancing over her shoulder she could see that Jaune was keeping pace, but that was only because she wasn't using her Semblance.

If she had been, he would've been left in her dust, but she was feeling very paranoid right now and having him nearby helped.

She slid around a corner -practically drifting around the corner as her boots slipped slightly on the tiled floor- and she came to a stop before the bulkhead door to the Ark Hangar Bays. Within moments of stopping she sucked in a deep breath, having spotted something wrong.

Jaune's footsteps ended right behind her and he stepped up beside her, clicking his tongue as he spotted what she had seen as well. The access panel next to the bulkhead door has been pried open, the lock having seemingly been melted off.

"What the- What is going on?"

Ruby hummed, not having an answer for him as she inspected the access panel. She hadn't seen it before it had been tampered with, but she could tell that someone had messed with the wires to unlock the door without being discovered.

"Someone broke in here, we need to check it out."

"Wait, we should- Ruby!"

Ignoring Jaune's call to her, she pushed open the bulkhead door with ease -the lock not having even been reactivated- and ran into the Hangar Bays. Even still, she could hear him following her in and she smiled, taking comfort from the sound of Crocea Flos being unsheathed and activated.

As soon as she got inside, she spotted the issue. Each Fireteam had its own unique section of the Hanger Bay, where all 6 of said Fireteam's Arks were stored behind giant bulkhead doors when not in use and after maintenance was completed.

It was one of the physically largest buildings in Vale, if not in Remnant.

The doors to these sectioned-off parts were usually locked by an extra door, similar to the bulkhead at the front, alongside the giant blast doors that the Arks could leave out of. Unfortunately, similarly to the front Bulkhead door… Every single Fireteam's section had been broken into, the bulkheads hanging wide open.

Her vision blurred as she burst into a cloud of petals, speeding towards the bulkhead closest to her, reforming herself and peeking into… A Hanger Bay that was assigned to a Fireteam with a name she didn't recognise.

Her eyes widened as she looked inside, and sped off to the next section. After confirming that one as well, she went down the doors one by one, checking all of them. Jaune didn't even attempt to follow her, which was probably for the best as she was much faster than him, so when she was done she linked back up with him near the front door.

He had a look of concern on his face as he spoke, clearly seeing her own semi-panicked expression. "So, do you know what's going on? This all feels wrong. Those doors are supposed to stay shut…"

Ruby swallowed heavily, her breathing shallow as she met his eyes.

"It's the Arks! They're all heavily damaged! Parts missing, servos melted like the doors were… I even saw some with, well, they looked like they had Grimm claw marks, Jaune. I don't know how that could happen inside the Hanger, with no alarms going off… But I think… I think someone might have sabotaged them, Jaune!"

Jaune's feet hit the floor harder as he ran faster than he ever had before.

With Crocea Flos re-sheathed and back on his hip, he and Ruby were sprinting through the hallways of Beacon as fast as they could. Well, as fast as they could without Ruby bursting into a cloud of petals, at least. Now that they were fairly certain a saboteur was around, neither wanted to risk getting caught out alone, especially being the ones to find the sabotage.

His huge reserves of Aura put in the work as he was thrown forward so fast he felt like he could keep up with his family's old car. He was sure that was just the adrenaline talking, however. Pretty sure, at least.

Not like he would be going home anytime soon to be able to test that theory.

They spotted a couple more students out and about now that it was a slightly more reasonable hour for people to be awake, and got all manner of curious looks as they ran through the hallways of Beacon at a near-full tilt, but no one stopped them.

As they ran, he pulled out his Scroll and attempted to send a call through to Ren, and then Weiss, and then Yang and Blake… And none of his calls connected. It wasn't even that they didn't pick up, or that they hung up on him, the calls themselves just didn't reach his Fireteam.

"Ruby! I can't reach the others!"

He heard her suck in a deep breath and knew that she was likely not even more paranoid about what was going on… Because brothers know that he was stressed out right now. What the hell was going on?!

Eventually, they made it to the front lobby area of Beacon Tower. Jaune practically came sliding to a stop before the elevator up to Admiral Ozpin's office/quarters, and he slammed a hand forward, pressing the call button…

Only to receive no response. Not even an 'elevator in use' message, the button just gave him absolutely no feedback to show that it had ever been pressed.

"Ruby, the elevator's not working either!"

Ruby frowned at that. He could see her hands twitch for a moment -reaching ever-so-slightly towards the control panel- and briefly had the vision of someone catching Ruby taking the elevator apart to make it work and assuming the worst, so he shook his head.

And it was a good thing that he stopped her, too, because even as they start going through Beacon's website, trying to find a way to contact Admiral Ozpin from there, the sound of footsteps moving towards them reaches their ears.

Both of them looked up and Jaune felt a rush of relief at the sight of Professor Goodwitch. She nodded at them, her eyes still looking a little bleary from how early it was. "Good morning, children. You are certainly up early. What's the matter?"

Letting out a breath he hadn't even realised he was holding, he nodded back to her. "Professor, thank god. We need to get up to Admiral Ozpin, now. We found something… And it's really bad news, some absolutely Red-Alert type stuff, but the lift isn't working. Neither are our Scrolls."

It was almost scary how instantly her eyes sharpened into the Professor Goodwitch he had come to know over his time here at Beacon as the oddity of two systems being simultaneously down seemed to register with her.

"If it truly is that important, then I'll deal with the elevator. Brief me on the way up, you two."

Before he could start talking she leaned over and pressed the button for the elevator, seeing the complete lack of a response it gave. Pushing up her glasses, she waved a hand forward and the SCREECHING sound of tearing metal filled the hallway and attacked Jaune's ears as she used her Semblance to rip the doors out and reveal the elevator's interior.

Stepping into the elevator, he placed his trust in Professor Goodwitch as the entire thing glowed purple and they started to rise by the sheer power of her Semblance. As they began to move, she turned and looked at them expectantly. "Well?"

Ruby recovered from her shock at the flex of the Professor's Semblance first, words spilling out of her mouth. "We were up cause I had a headache and got a bad feeling and checked on the Ark Hangar Bays and someone broke in and I think they sabotaged all of the Arks that are here right now and we can't call anyone so I think that the CCT might be down as well and also my eyes were glowing a little but I don't know if that's relevant it was just also weird!"

There was a brief pause as Professor Goodwitch seemed to take in Ruby's word vomit… And then her eyes widened and a hand came up to her glasses as she let out a deep breath, glancing in Jaune's direction as if to ask if she was being serious.

"Is… Is that so?"

He didn't know if it was good or bad that he was somehow the more trustworthy of the two of them in Professor Goodwitch's eyes, but he nodded anyway. "Yes, ma'am. All of it. Including the glowing eyes, which we don't have an explanation for."

Professor Goodwitch's eyes were hidden behind a glint from her glasses for a moment as she clearly took a second to compose herself. Even still, Jaune could see how tense she was at the realisation that someone was likely attacking the school.

After a moment, however, she looked at the both of them and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "You've done well, thank you. We must inform the Admiral as soon as possible, so I need you to hold on tightly, okay?"

Jaune and Ruby both nodded without fully comprehending what she meant, but as the purple glow around the elevator intensified, they got a good idea. Jaune reached forward on instinct and wrapped an arm around Ruby's waist as he gripped the wall of the elevator and held on tight.

Gravity felt like it intensified as Professor Goodwitch held a hand up towards the roof of the elevator and the speed that it is rising at increases to double, triple, maybe faster than what they were originally moving at.

Eventually, they came to a stop and Professor Goodwitch used her Semblance to once again tear through the doors, this time revealing the familiar sight of Admiral Ozpin's office. She strode into the room with the both of them in tow, walking right over to Admiral Ozpin's desk and sitting down in his chair, tapping away at his computer.

As Jaune stepped towards the office's wall-high windows, Ruby stepped towards Professor Goodwitch, a concerned tone in her voice. "Can you see anything wrong, ma'am?"

The fact that she had complete access to his computer was a bit of a surprise… But it really shouldn't have been seeing as she was the second-in-command of the entire school, and one of the best, most trusted Huntresses in the world.

The tapping of keys echoed from out behind Jaune as Professor Goodwitch went through Admiral Ozpin's computer… Until suddenly he froze, his eyes shooting over to the ocean that Vale sat beside. "Professor! The Grimm Defence system, it's not working either, is it?!"

A grunt escaped the Professor, who was too focused on the computer to look away. "No, it isn't… Wait, why do you say that?"

Jaune pointed out towards the ocean from their vantage point at the top of Beacon Tower. "I can see Grimm, Professor! More than one, but I can't tell how many exactly. They're in semi-shallow waters already!"

As a muffled 'shit!' escaped their usually composed Professor. Ruby and Jaune's eyes met and they shared a panicked look. It was a moment later that one of the doors to the office slid open, revealing a clearly just-out-of-bed Admiral Ozpin, his cane tucked under one of his shoulders.

"Glynda? Why on Remnant are you here this early causing a ruckus?"

Professor Goodwitch did nothing but snap her fingers at him, floating the keyboard she was using over to him. "Admin password, Ozpin. Hurry, we don't have much time."

The man looked slightly nonplussed at the cold tone in Professor Goodwitch's voice, but input his password anyway, a testament to the trust he clearly had in her. "What do you need it for?"

Any answers he would have gotten from Jaune or Ruby are cut off as all of the lights in the room -and as Jaune looked out the window most of the outer borders of Vale- shut down all at once, flickering back on a moment later…

"You reset the generators? Why?"

And then the sirens start to blare.

"WARNING… WARNING… Grimm have been detected off-shore! Immediate Evacuation of coastal areas 1-34 is advised. Estimated Time of Grimm Landfall: 8 minutes. Grimm have been detected off-shore! Immediate Evacuation of coastal areas 1-34 is advised. Estimated Time of Grimm Landfall: 8 minutes. WARNING… WARNING…"

Admiral Ozpin was quick on the uptake and darted over to the window. Jaune could see the hand on top of his cane clenched around it so hard that his knuckles were whitening. Things weren't looking good, that was true, but why did Ozpin have a look on his face as if he felt guilty?

No one could have predicted this.

"How could they have gotten so close without the alarms going off?!"

Professor Goodwitch stood up from the desk and headed back towards the elevator, motioning for Jaune and Ruby to follow. Calling Ozpin from her Scroll, he picked up with a knowing look on his face. "I'll explain over the Scroll sir, I need to create an announcement for all of the students."

Admiral Ozpin nodded, his face calming slightly. "Good. Rally anyone we can for the defence. I spotted no less than 10 Grimm down there in a pack…And none of them look any smaller than the upper end of Medium."

Jaune glanced up at Professor Goodwitch, with a panicked look on his face. "But ma'am, the first-year's Arks-"

A glance in his direction cut him off. "Will have to be used no matter their state, Mr Arc. With the uptick of Grimm in the last few weeks, all of the upper-year students are currently out on missions, leaving naught but the first years behind. In any other situation I would call this bad luck, but…

She shook her head, glancing at the both of them. "No, this is no bad luck. For them to come right as we are without our more experienced students, accompanied by the sabotage of the remaining Arks…"

A sigh escaped her and her jaw set in the same way he had seen his classmates right before they got into a fight. And when she spoke, it filled Ruby and Jaune's hearts with dread.

"Beacon Academy -and Vale as a whole- is under attack."

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNNNNN….

See you all next week!

:) :) :)