Happy Friday, everyone!
This is the final chapter of Volume 3!
More specific information at the end, but there will be a hiatus between the 'Volumes!'
It was still fairly dark outside when Jaune woke up.
His eyes opened slowly, the urge to just go back to sleep present but weak as he pushed himself into a sitting position. He rubbed at his eyes, remarking at how even as early as it clearly was, he could hear movement below him.
It took a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust after he glanced over to the noise, especially since he could see two people using the screen of their scrolls to light up their suitcases. Jaune spotted a flash of white and a flash of yellow and chuckled to himself as he got out of his bed, stretching his arms over his head and letting out a quiet yawn.
It was still enough to let Weiss and Yang know that he was awake, apparently, because both sources of light turned to shine on him after a moment. He held one arm over his eyes as they turned their torches on him and gave a small wave with the other. "Morning, guys. Doing a final check on your stuff?"
He heard sympathetic yawns escape the both of them, stopping them from responding immediately, but after that moment, Weiss placed her scroll down on her bed, helping illuminate the area in general. "Yes, we are. I thought it best that we take another look since we've got about an hour and a half to go before we need to be at the airship dock."
Jaune hummed at that, checking his scroll and immediately lowering the brightness when he got flashbanged by his lock screen. Once he could see again, he checked the time. Weiss was correct. As he did so, he heard Yang let out a groan.
He looked over at her and could tell that it had been Weiss to wake the girl up. Her hair was still frizzled from being asleep, and she looked like a zombie, her exhaustion clear on her face. He knew that waking up early always sucked, but at the very least Jaune had woken up naturally so he was a little better off than she seemed to be.
Chuckling under his breath, he patted her lightly on the shoulder, getting a dull nod in response as Yang operated on low-power mode. He then turned to the other beds, eventually landing on the extra bed that had been added, haphazardly placed in the least-full section of the room. Nora's bright orange hair was visible even in the mere amounts of light they had, and Jaune eventually let out a sigh.
"Alright, well, with only an hour and a half to go, I think it's time to get everyone up."
Weiss and Yang gave him a hum and a groan in response respectively, and he snorted as he moved over to the light switch. Placing his finger on it, he raised his voice to a normal speaking level, to let it carry over the room. "Lights on in 3… 2… 1…"
Click!
The room lit up as the lights switched on, and there was a chorus of groaning and hissing noises brought about by the sudden change. Jaune crossed his arms as he stood near the door to the room, a smirk on his face as the others all sat up immediately. "Time to get up, everyone. I know you were awake, so let's not waste any time now. Because there are seven of us now, we need to be better about time… Who wants the first shower?"
"ME!"
Jaune barely had time to react before a torrent of Rose petals burst through the gap in the bathroom door, the sound of the lock engaging echoing around the room a moment later. Jaune shared a commiserating look with the others as he let out a sigh. "I guess Ruby goes first. Any takers for the second shower? I'm going next if not."
Jaune ended up getting the third shower, with Blake claiming it second.
Yang and Weiss had already taken their showers without waking any of them up, somehow, and it was the look of death in Yang's eyes as she explained that to him that made him realise just how much earlier Weiss had woken her up than everyone else. He felt a little bit of pity for her, but it did mean that had more time to work with than he had thought they did, which was good.
He was currently using that extra time to go over his suitcase once more before they all left for the airship landing pad. He had enough clothing, he'd be carrying Crocea Flos and his scroll on him the whole time, and… Jaune's eyes widened a little as he realised what wasn't in the suitcase yet.
Crouching down, he pulled out a small, vaguely heavy box. Opening it up revealed a light blue and gold scarf, a dark blue jacket with some leather shoulder pads, a pair of leather, fur-lined gloves, and a matching set of steel-capped leather boots. Pulling his sneakers out of the shoe slot in his suitcase, he put the boots on right then instead, placing the scarf, jacket, and gloves into the gap the lack of sneakers created.
He glanced at the white and gold vest he had arrived at Beacon in, curled up in a pile at the end of his bed, and thought for a moment before glancing at the jacket and shaking his head, humming to himself. He probably wouldn't need his vest as well for their destination, might be just one too many layers.
He reached down for where Crocea Flos rested up against the frame of his bed and clipped it onto his belt before zipping up his suitcase. He had to put a bit of force into it to get it fully zipped up, but that was something he had done on almost every trip he'd taken before. It was probably just some universal constant that suitcases needed to be held down with full force before they would cooperate.
Rolling it along the floor behind him, he is unsurprised to see that he is the second person ready, Weiss already standing next to their door, watching all six of them with an impatient glare that felt familiar to him. She did seem to lighten a little as he stood beside her, watching the chaos of their other five teammates trying to get ready quickly…
But in all honesty, they didn't take too much longer to finish getting ready. Longer than Weiss had wanted, but he knew by now that her standards were pretty darn high for everything, not that that was a problem. It was just how Weiss worked, and he enjoyed it.
"Alright! If everyone is ready, let's get down there."
Jaune grinned at the tired cheers he got in response from everyone but Weiss, who looked unfairly well-rested as she grinned at him, eager to get going. Sure, he knew that she had gone to sleep earlier than the rest of them, so it was only because she actually was totally fine and well-rested, but still…
It was totally unfair.
Pushing open the door to their room, Jaune stepped out of the room with a heroic step forward… Only to slam right into someone who had been walking past, getting thrown off balance by the impact. He felt his feet slip out from under him, and he was about to tumble over when he felt a hand grab the back of his collar, lifting him fully off of the ground and back onto his feet.
"Sorry, I- Cardin?"
Cardin stared at him and let out a gruff sigh. Jaune worried for a moment that he was going to be pissed off and annoy him for the whole trip, but instead, the boy just grunted, nodding sharply at him and starting to move again, his Fireteam following behind him. As soon as they had made some distance from them, Jaune let out a sigh of relief, dramatically wiping a hand over his forehead as the others laughed at him.
He wasn't really afraid of Cardin, but he didn't want to be on bad terms with the other boy, if only because Cardin was -at the very least- really damn annoying when you drew his ire. They all started moving again after a moment, and as they reached the outside of the dorm building, they spotted someone at the doors.
Jaune felt himself tense a little as Professor Greene started walking in time with him and his fireteam, her eyes locked onto him. "Hello, Fireteam Jasper, Miss Valkyrie. It's good to see that the first years are all up and ready early."
Weiss spoke up in response, a proud smirk on her face as she glanced back at the others, and especially Yang.
He knew that Admiral Ozpin had told Professor Goodwitch about how he had gotten into Beacon… Ozpin hadn't said anything about telling the other staff, but Jaune could tell that Professor Greene was aware from nothing but the look in her eyes.
He prepared himself for a grilling, an admonishment, something… Only to violently jolt in surprise as a hand landed on his shoulder. Looking up at Professor Greene with confusion, he saw the woman's usually stoic expression break into a small smile. "I am aware of your alternate method of enrollment, Mr Arc. I will not be lecturing you for your actions, however."
Jaune blinked, his head cocking to the side. "Wait, you're not?"
Professor Greene nodded once, a hum escaping her. "My initial reaction was to suggest your expulsion, but… You do good work in my class. I can tell that you're not just some freeloader and that you have been doing your best to become a Huntsman, even with your initial disadvantages. I respect that quite a lot, it seems."
Jaune heard Yang let out a low, teasing cheer for him from behind, with the others joining in. His face lit up at the compliment, and he stuttered for a moment. I-I, uh, thank you, Professor Greene. I appreciate all the work you've put in to help teach me during tactics class."
Professor Greene nodded at that, her hands meeting behind her back as she sighed. "You are more than welcome, Mr Arc. But don't think that just because you have a Semblance that Ozpin thinks is 'special' I'll accept a lowering of your grades in my class."
Jaune grinned at her, shaking his head. "Of course not, Professor! Thank you!"
Professor Greene hummed, glancing at the other members of his team, a small smile on her face again. "And that goes for all of you, Fireteam Jasper. You've done well so far, but don't get comfortable. You'll need to keep pressing forward if you want to reach your potential."
A round of responses sounded out at the same time from his teammates, all of them overlapping and making it hard to hear any individual one of them. There was silence for a moment and Professor Greene raised an eyebrow, looking amused by them. Eventually, Weiss coughed into her fist. "Thank you, Professor Greene. We will endeavour to do our best."
Professor Greene nodded sharply, glancing around at the other teams that were heading towards the airship docks. "I'm glad to hear it. Make sure you are all ready to leave, we don't want any delays once the ship arrives."
Jaune saluted her on instinct. The woman inspired an almost militaristic feel when she told people to do things. He heard a couple of the girls laughing at his salute but kept it up as Professor Greene moved on to another team nearby, striking up a conversation with them as well.
Jaune let out a sigh of relief, his shoulders dropping. Hearing someone move up to his side, he felt Ruby place a hand on his shoulder, a smile on her face. Jaune placed a hand over hers and smiled back. "Brother, I'm glad that went well. I've been dreading getting chewed out by each of the teachers, to be honest."
He heard a snort from just behind him, and Yang spoke up, a smirk on her face. "Don't worry, Chief, we've got your back… Unless it's with Professor Port, then you can deal with that lecture all by yourself, thank you very much."
Jaune let out a bark of laughter at that, shaking his head at her as the others joined in his laughter. A comfortable silence reigned for the remainder of their walk after that, and as they reached the edge of the airship docks, Jaune let out a whistle.
The airship they were going to be using was massive. Maybe it was a little weird for him to be so impressed by giant machinery, having piloted larger machinery himself, but the sight of something that was going to be flying being so big was impressive. The others didn't seem quite as outright impressed by its size as he was, but from the way that Nora was vibrating out of Ren's grip on her shoulder, and how Ruby was already ranting about design specs to a softly smiling Blake let him know that they were all just as excited.
Professor Greene was already at the back of the airship, staring up at it as the back door slid open, her hands on her hips. Jaune watched as it clicked into place, and a ramp started to lower a moment later, hitting the floor of the airship docks with a THUNK! The woman did a 180-degree turn as the door finished opening, her head scanning around the teams gathered on the docks.
Jaune followed her eyes and saw a couple of teams he recognised, but the large majority of the students in his year were just… They were his classmates, sure, but he had been so busy with catching up as much as possible, and then all of the craziness after he manifested his Arcsoul that he had never been able to go out of his way to introduce himself to the other students.
The one time he had tried to, Cinder Fall had looked like she wanted to throttle him. He'd still never found out exactly why she disliked him, but he had just assumed it was some kind of ego thing about them both arriving back to Beacon early, instead of their team being the only one to do so.
Speaking of Cinder, she and her team were one of the ones he spotted in the crowd, looking bored as she glared at the ground. Looking past her he could see Cardin and his team, and past them, he could see the remaining members of Pyrrha's old team. Everyone else in the first years was basically a stranger to him, but he didn't really mind. His people were enough for him.
"Alright everyone, listen up! We take to the skies in 10 minutes! Before that happens, I want everyone in their seats, with their luggage stored away! Double-check that you have everything, as we won't be back in Beacon for a good while yet. Board the vessel as soon as you are ready!"
Jaune glanced over at Weiss, raising an eyebrow at her as she went to unzip the top of her suitcase again. "Weiss, I'm pretty sure you've checked that like, four or five times already."
She gave him a semi-embarrassed look, trying her best to play it off as she raised her chin at him. The elegant expression on her face was ruined by the tongue she stuck out at him, however. "Well, it's always good to be sure."
Rolling his eyes, Jaune turned to the rest of his team. "You guys have everything ready to go?"
Yang nodded sullenly, glaring at Weiss. "Oh, trust me, I am very sure that I have everything. I've basically been rechecking this damn thing since someone woke me up an hour and a half earlier than needed…"
Weiss at least had the heart to look guilty about that at least, which seemed to mollify Yang a little. Ren and Nora shot him a thumbs up and a very enthusiastic salute respectively, with Nora motioning to their suitcases with both of her hands. "All packed and ready, bossman! Ren double-checked it all before we went to sleep last night, and I checked again while he was showering!"
Jaune saw that Ren looked a little worried about the idea of Nora going through their stuff to check on it after he had likely set up some kind of very specific system to pack everything. He chuckled as he saw Ren let out a sigh, leaving his suitcase closed. Apparently, he was willing to take the risk that he still had everything packed away, just so that he didn't insult Nora.
Rolling his eyes at the lovebirds-who-didn't-know-they-were-lovebirds, Jaune looked over to Ruby and Blake. Ruby was currently riffling around her own suitcase, murmuring to herself, while Blake crouched next to her, following along with a list on Ruby's scroll. After a moment, Ruby looked up and gave him a thumbs-up, with Blake mirroring the thumbs-up with a smaller, amused smile on her face.
Jaune returned the thumbs up, motioning with his hand, sweeping it towards the airship with a dramatic flourish. He could see a couple of the other teams staring at him from the burst of movement but forced himself to ignore their stares as he saw the smiles his performance gave his teammates.
"Alright then, everyone! Climb aboard! Atlas and Mantle await us!"
Jaune sat in his chair with his stomach gurgling, his head hanging back over the too-short headrest as he groaned up at the ceiling.
He had really hoped to be over this whole 'motion sickness' thing by now. Admittedly, it was better than it had been at the start of the year, but it was still annoying that it was around at all, especially since he had personally piloted machinery that was even larger than this damn airship!
He literally had some kind of magic power to make a skyscraper-sized body of energy to fight giant monsters with, so how on Remnant was he still getting motion sickness from a high-quality, almost luxury-class airship?
He could vaguely hear his team chatting with each other as he suffered, the occasional comforting pat on the shoulder finding him. He didn't mind being left out too much, not wanting to risk throwing up on anyone. He stayed like that for a while, half-sick and half-falling back asleep, until eventually, he felt someone settle into the chair next to him.
Letting his head fall to the side, he saw Blake on the chair beside him, holding out a large glass of water to him. Jaune blinked, cocking his head to the side, and Blake nodded. Reaching out to grab the glass, Jaune drank just under half of it in one go, letting out a sigh. "Thanks for that, Blake."
The girl's hands rested in her lap as she smiled at him, her ears twitching. "No worries, You really looked like you needed it. Are you feeling alright?"
Jaune nodded, downing the rest of the glass of water. Placing it on a cupholder in the back of the chair in front of him, he smiled at her. "Well, not really, but it's better than I used to be so I'll live, I think."
Blake smirked at him, rolling her eyes. "Oh, I'm glad you'll be able to survive the trip. I'd hate to do all the paperwork for being witness to your death, it would cut into my training time."
Snorting, Jaune elbowed her lightly, and the two of them laughed for a moment. Eventually, however, Blake shifted in her seat to face him, leaning against the backrest. She didn't say anything, just kind of staring at him as if contemplating something, a smile on her face. Jaune just stayed silent for a little while, but when it became clear that she was lost in her own head, he coughed into his fist.
"So, uh, do you have any plans for the festival?"
She jolted a little as he spoke, her ears flicking as she snapped back to reality. She was silent for a moment and Jaune was worried she was lost in thought again for a second, but she spoke up a moment later. "Well, not really, yet. But, we will get a month before the festival starts to think about what we want to have a look at, right?"
Jaune wiggled his hand in a so-so motion, shrugging a little. "They were a little unclear whether it was a fortnight or a month, really. I think they're shooting for two weeks, but it's more likely to take, like, the full month to get everything set up."
Blake shrugged right back, and he snorted, shaking his head. Jaune clicked his tongue, letting his head fall back again as he looked up at the roof for a moment. "I think it's gonna take the whole month, because why else would they put so much into getting our Arks repaired and shipped over for us to use if we were only there for two weeks, right?"
Nodding, Blake copied his pose, staring up at the roof with him. "Yeah, I guess so. Do you think we'll actually be doing much during that month? We didn't get many individual missions at Beacon, let alone at a school that isn't our own."
Jaune hummed, drumming his fingers against the armrest of the chair he was sitting in. "I mean, they wouldn't put so much effort shipping our Arks over if they didn't plan on using us right? Well, I guess I should say your Arks. Admiral Ozpin still doesn't have a plan for me to do long-distance missions with my Arcsoul just yet."
They were interrupted as a blur of red invaded their sight, with Ruby appearing next to them in a flurry of rose petals. "Ooo, are you guys talking about the festival? Me and Weiss are gonna go check out a couple of Atlas' experimental tech displays!"
Jaune grinned, shaking his head at Ruby. "Actually we were talking more about the month before the festival. I still need a way to get to and from places, cause I can't use my Arcsoul for hours on end."
That brought a contemplative look on Ruby's face as her eyes narrowed dramatically, rubbing her chin with two fingers. Jaune and Blake glanced at each other and rolled their eyes at the girl, but neither could hide the fond smile on their face. After a moment, Ruby snapped her fingers, pointing directly upwards.
"Airship!"
"Huh?"
Jaune blinked at her sudden shout, but after a moment, his face lit up in a smile as he realised what she was saying. "Oh, that's a great idea, Ruby! If I can't pilot an Ark, I can just fly a bullhead or something!"
He paused right after that, seeing the excited look on Ruby's face and the smile on Blake's, and deflated a little. "Although that does mean I have to start learning how to pilot complex machinery from the beginning… Again…"
That got a snort out of the two of them, and Jaune smiled, shaking his head. "Ah well, it's that or get a lift from one of you guys everywhere, and I don't want you to start thinking your leader is some kind of bum, y'know?"
Ruby burst out laughing at that, and Blake just rolled her eyes at him again, her ears flicking as she laughed under her breath. As Ruby's laughter tapered off, she clasped her hands together in front of herself, closing her eyes as a dreamy expression grew on her face. "Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on Crescent Rose again… I've been separated from my baby for far too long…"
Jaune's eyes narrowed at her dreamy expression, however, the smile she had on her face felt a little plastic. As her eyes opened again, Ruby seemed to hesitate at his stare, giving him a soft smile and a single, subtle nod. Mentally promising that he would talk to her about whatever that was at some point when he could get her alone, he stayed silent, returning the slight nod.
It didn't seem like Blake had noticed their silent interaction. She just nodded at Ruby's words, sighing up towards the roof. "Yeah, it'll be good to get back in the pilot's chair. After training to pilot it almost every day for a year and a bit, having this time off where we can't even enter our Arks has been weird."
"Well, for one, I've enjoyed the spare time to get prepared for our future homework."
Jaune didn't even have to look to his right to know who the voice belonged to, but he did anyway, smirking at Weiss as she peeked over the back of the set of chairs in front of himself, Ruby, and Blake. "I'm sure you have, Weiss. How far ahead are you now? Have you made it to the fourth-year homework yet?"
Weiss scoffed, flicking her ponytail back over her shoulder as she smirked. "Hardly, Arc. I haven't pushed that far ahead… I may have started perusing the third-year material, but that is as far as I've gone."
Jaune clicked his fingers as he realised something, his face lighting up. "Oh, right, yeah. I had a question for you, Weiss! Your family is kinda like the top dogs in Atlas, right? Do you have any idea what General Ironwood is like, maybe? I'm fairly certain Admiral Ozpin will want to talk with him about Ruby and I's abilities."
Weiss hummed at that, even as Ruby perked up at her name being said. Blake looked interested as well, her ears swivelling towards Weiss. The girl tapped her chin, thinking for a moment. "I believe the best way to describe him is that he is very… Determined? That might not be the best word for it. He has a very strong personality, and is unwavering in what he believes… It is just that what he believes in is the betterment of Atlas and humanity as a whole."
Jaune nodded, an impressed look on his face. He hadn't heard of many people who could get a compliment about them from Weiss right off the bat, but the general seemed like a stand-up guy if Weiss spoke this well of him. That was shattered, however, as a sheepish look grew on Weiss' face. "Unfortunately… His stubbornness does mean he butts heads with important figures quite often, within Atlas' council and without. And, well, I can tell you that he will likely try to perform some kind of bribery to get you to consider switching to Atlas. He will probably be quite… insistent about it, too."
"Don't worry, Jaune! We'll stop him if he gets too pushy!"
"We'll have to make sure he doesn't overstep himself, then."
Blake and Ruby blinked as they talked over each other, and Jaune snorted at the shocked expression on their faces as they realised what the other had said. Blake looked like she was about to run for a moment, but was too slow in the face of a massively grinning Ruby Rose.
"Gah! Blake! We're finally getting Partner-Brain! Woohoo!"
Jaune chuckled as Blake made choking noises as Ruby hugged her tightly, fairly certain that she was faking them for effect. He couldn't help the smile that grew on his face as Yang's head peeked over the edge too, starting to cheer on Ruby for her 'grapple.' This then summoned Nora, which summoned Ren as well, and suddenly their group of six chairs at the back of the airship had become the loudest out of the whole lot.
A sigh escaped him as he watched his team, a warm feeling in his chest. They were some of the fun people he had ever met, and brothers above he was glad to have snuck into Beacon and get the chance to meet them all.
While Fireteam Jasper-N continued to cause a ruckus, eventually a call came over the intercom from Professor Greene, telling them that their trip would be a good couple of hours and that they should all try to make up the sleep they missed by getting up so early. The reminder seemed to spark a moving tidal wave of yawns through the students, and slowly, each team's conversations started to fade.
Jaune wondered if he was the last one awake as the rest of his team fell asleep around him, curled up in various positions that he knew would have ruined his spine if he slept like they did before getting his Aura. He didn't wonder for very long, though, because he followed them back into sleep a few moments later, a smile on his face.
Time to see what Atlas and Mantle had in store for them all.
Alright!
Thank you all for reading through Remnant Light Volume 3! I hope that the start hyped you up as much as it hyped me, and that it didn't feel too slow with the recovery/training sections.
I'm going to try and weave combat and downtime a little more evenly in the Atlas Arc, especially with them having access to their Arks again! Not like they could fight against the Grimm much without them, haha! …Except for Jaune, kinda...
:P
In any case, there is going to be a hiatus of about a month to a month and a half as I lock tf in and rebuild my backlog, as it is looking pretty thin at the moment since I've also been working on other stuff. I never want to get to a point where I CAN'T post a chapter for you guys, so these breaks are necessary!
Thank you for reading, commenting, theorising, and enjoying my story in general! Next Friday, I'll be posting a fluffy one-shot I wrote while so sick I don't remember writing it, but for the next little while after that, the only updates coming from me will be on Mondays, for my other longfic being posted at the moment:
The Hunt for the Goldfire Wyrm.
I hope that you all are as excited for Volume 4 and the Atlas Arc as I am! Although I sincerely doubt that you could be, as I have had this planned for a while and am looking forward to getting it out for you! :D