A/N (09.01.2024): Nothing has changed in this chapter except finally getting rid of the one Ozpin paragraph I've seen a lot of people comment about.

For the entirety of the conversation, Jaune looked all of them in the eye with sorrowful regret at his past actions. He apologized over and over again. And with those apologies came a full explanation of his choices and why he did them in the first place.

When Jaune was done, they all sat in their respective seats, with a better understanding of both sides of Jaune and the others. No one said it, but they could all feel they had become closer friends from that one talk of communication.

*Volume Intro*

The camera zooms in to Pyrrha staring worriedly out the window. Nora is bouncing on her bed and Ren is looking over his weapon. "How come Jaune gets home so late?"

"He's become rather scarce ever since he's been fraternizing with Cardin." Nora responds whilst she continues to bounce, "That's weird doesn't he know we have a field trip tomorrow, we need our rest." Punctuating the last word by landing on her back, ceasing her jumping.

"I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing."

That doesn't mean I was doing anything good. Jaune thinks to himself solemnly.

"Hey, you got yourself out of the mess you got yourself into. That should count for something, right?" Nora merrily said to her leader, hoping that would lift his spirits.

"Hmm, I guess so." Outside of the room with the door cracked was Jaune himself listening in on the conversation. He closes the door and only a second later, spooked by Ruby who randomly appears behind him. "Hey Jaune! Long time no see. Did you lock yourself out again?"

"You've gotten yourself locked out before?" Ruby asked, trying her best to avoid laughing at her friend.

Jaune nervously fidgeted with his hands. "Maybe a couple of times."

"I remember he had to come to us a few times because he couldn't get himself back in," Ren says, chuckling a little as his friend groans.

"Why must you expose me?" Jaune cries in dismay.

Yang smirks as she turns towards her friend."You're exposing yourself."

"Oh, uh, nope! Got it." He says, holding up his scroll. "So, where have you been lately?" Jaune looks hesitant before replying. "I uh, I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have and now Cardin's got me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me. I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea."

I'm so sorry Jaune, I should have been there to help you. Instead, I pushed you away. Pyrrha thinks with sorrow.

Ruby yelled with defiance as she pointed a finger at her friend. "You coming to the school was not a mistake, you've grown stronger! And that's no mistake!"

Jaune depressingly slides down the door, slumping and sitting on the floor in the hallway. "I'm a failure."

"You are not a failure!" Pyrrha shouts in aghast. Turning to Jaune, how could he even think that?!

"You're an amazing leader!" Nora yells after,

"Nope." Was the simple response Jaune received. "'Nope'?" Jaune parroted. "Nope." And Ruby repeated it a second time. "You're a leader now Jaune, you're not allowed to be a failure."

"But, what if I'm a failure at being a leader?" Jaune shoots back, still having a great amount of doubt in himself. "Hmm, nope." Jaune gives a small chuckle at Ruby's insistent answer. "You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."

"But she's still an encouraging friend nonetheless." Yang smiled with pride, ruffling up her sister's hair who whined at the action.

"Nope. Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid."

"What happened to an encouraging friend?" Blake teasingly asked her partner.

Hearing this, Jaune slumps down even lower. "You might have even been a failure the first day we met."

"Ruby…" Pyrrha spoke in a warning tone, but there wasn't any malice behind it.

Jaune slumps even further with a grunt. "But, you can't be one now, you know why?"

"Uhhh," Jaune was drawing a blank. "Because-" Though, Ruby didn't get to let him start. "Because it's not just about you anymore, you've got a team now, Jaune. We both do and if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us."

Jaune looks down at the ground in thought, "We have to put our teammates first and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader Jaune, and I think that can be you. Have a good night Jaune."

Ending the pep-talk, Jaune has a newfound confidence as he stands back up.

"Encouraging friend." Yang shot back at the faunus. Blake just rolled her eyes playfully.

Thanks, Ruby, I really needed to hear that. Jaune thought, thankful for his young friend.

Just as Jaune was about to walk inside his room, his scroll began to beep, catching the boy's attention. He answered the scroll to see it was a message from Cardin.

The mood in the room changed significantly.

"What did he want?" Nora asks angrily, seeing as the boy has already caused enough trouble.

"He…" Jaune hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should say something. No, he steeled his mind. "He wanted me to get a bag of rapier wasps."

Gasps circled all around the room. Pyrrha's being the loudest.

What happened in the forest, and the Ursa, it was all Cardin! Pyrrha's body tensed, enough for Jaune to feel it from the other side of the couch.

Jaune thought she froze up for a different reason and decided to return the favor for all those times. He grabbed her hand and gave it a small squeeze.

Pyrrha flinched, being caught off guard, but looked down at her intertwined hand. She looked back up to see Jaune giving her a warm smile. The action caused the woman to sport a blush, wanting to turn away before he could see it.

"Hey, it's your buddy Cardin. I know you're probably busy with that dust project I gave you, buuuuuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of rapier wasps." Jaune was caught by total surprise, and shocked at the request made of him.

Jaune and his friends weren't as caught off guard, seeing as Jaune told them beforehand, but it was still a shocking notion nonetheless.

"And make sure they've got reaaaally big stingers, it's important so don't screw this up!" And with that, the call ended.

"Jerk" Nora muttered under her breath.

Pyrrha's grip tightened. Jaune winced in pain but otherwise didn't say anything.

Jaune lets out a deep sigh and walks down the hall, getting farther and farther away from his original destination, now having a new one.

~

It's now daytime, and the students are currently present in the Forest of Forever Fall.

Glynda is seen walking teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL through the forest. "Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, we needed that," Yang said sarcastically.

"Hey, we're able to hold our own!" Ruby exclaimed, bringing up her right arm, seeing that she was trying to show off her muscles.

"But the Grimm can attack at random, it's not something to always be expected." Blake butted in.

Yang brought her fist against her open palm and gave it a small crack. "That won't stop us from taking them down."

Jaune is at the back of the pack, carrying everything. He accidentally bumps into Cardin, pissing him off. Jaune simply whistles like nothing ever happened. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of sap, however, this forest is full with the creatures of Grimm. So be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four O-clock, have fun!"

"Huh, that's weird, she was actually telling us to enjoy ourselves." Nora pointed out, bringing a smile to the faces around her.

"Maybe she wasn't feeling well that day." Yang egged on with a smirk.

Cardin grabs the back of Jaune's shirt, "Come on buddy, let's go." Jaune looks at the ground with a downtrodden expression, watching as Nora and Ren are already making their way deeper into the forest, Pyrrha simply staring back at him.

Jaune sadly follows Cardin. Pyrrha sighs with a frown before going after her other teammates.

Team CRDL are all lazing around, resting on the dirt as Jaune comes in the middle of the group with six full jars of tree sap. He drops them tiredly before falling face-first into the grass.

"They didn't do a single thing while you were out getting the sap?" Pyrrha yelled in outrage.

The nerve of these men! Pyrrha grimly thought.

Nora gave a sour huff. "What a bunch of lazy bums."

"Hey, great work Jauney-boy, now that wasn't too hard, was it?"

If you ever did even an ounce of work you would know how hard it is. Weiss thought with a frown. Sure, she was still ticked about Jaune lying, because she wasn't just going to show any emotion to one of her friends.

Jaune obviously didn't look well as he answered, "I think I'm allergic to this stuff." "Great, great, great, great," he says, totally waving him off. "So, Jaune, I bet you're asking yourself 'Why did my buddy Cardin ask me to collect six jars of tree sap when there's only five of us?'"

"That is one of the many questions I've asked myself today, yes." Jaune righted himself, getting his bearings and sitting on the ground now. "Well, come with me and you'll find out."

"I don't think anyone wants to find out, but I guess we're doing that anyway," Blake spoke with a frown.

Team CRDL hides themselves on top of a hill as they observe the terrain below. In front of them are all of Jaune's friends, doing what they're supposed to and gathering their jars of tree sap.

Ren hands a full jar to Nora, who then hands him an empty one. As he is filling the empty jar, the sounds of slurping can be heard, and only for Ren to turn back around with the previous jar empty clean, Nora having sap all around her mouth.

"You guys should try it sometime, it tastes delicious," Nora spoke with a smile.

"Is that even safe?" Pyrrha asks with a raised brow and a slight tilt of her mouth.

"We checked once we got back to campus, we're lucky there were no side effects," Ren answered, turning towards the smiling girl next to him.

"I can handle more than you think." Nora retorted.

"Anything?" Ren gave Nora a skeptical eye. She just laughed with a nod of the head.

The camera goes back to Jaune and them. "Cardin, what's going on?" After he said that, the music changed to something more sinister.

He only gave one word. "Payback." His voice was menacing and dark as he stared at the unsuspecting girl below.

"He was going after me?" Pyrrha said with shock. Surprised at the revelation.

But, what happened? Was her final thought.

"This is the moment where I finally put my foot down."

Pyrrha tried to hide her blush upon hearing this. Did he stand up to Cardin to protect me?

"That's an honorable moment, Jaune," Blake commented.

Surprised, Jaune turned toward the girl. "You really think so?"

Ruby scoffed as if the knowledge was common sense. "Of course it is! You stand up for friends when they get involved in the mess they shouldn't be in."

"Ruby, I don't think that was the best way to phrase that." Weiss finally spoke. It's the first time this episode.

He takes responsibility for his actions. And, I guess he has worked a lot harder since then. Maybe I should just move on. Weiss thought, seeming to have an epiphany moment.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune's voice is full of confusion as he looks down at the girl gathering more sap.

"What are you-"

Jaune is ultimately cut off as Cardin slams his fist on the ground. "That's the girl, red-haired know-it-all, thinks she's so smart."

"Were you trying to describe Pyrrha or Weiss?" Weiss, the girl in question, shrieks in protest.

"Now that you mention it, he does describe Weiss, except without the red hair," Nora adds.

"I'm right here you know!"

Nora and Ruby did a good job, defusing the negative energy in the room. Besides Weiss's yells of offense.

"Alright boys…" From behind him, Cardin pulls out a box with the letter 'W' on the front. On the inside are buzzing rapier wasps.

"Last night, old Jaune here managed to round up an entire box full of rapier wasps, and now, we're going to put 'em to work."

Russel roughly grabs a hold of Jaune's shoulder and gives him a shake. Jaune's only response was a nervous laugh.

"He's not going to do what I think's going to do, is he?" Pyrrha asked with a voice that held a small waver.

"If I had to guess, he's going to want Jaune to do it, right?" Ruby looked over at the boy. He just gave a small nod of the head.

"Now, according to one of the essays you wrote for me last week, these nasty things love sweets. I'm thinking it's time we teach her a thing or two." The camera goes back to Pyrrha who now had a full jar of tree sap.

"What they're doing can't be legal, right?" Blake asked with a dubious expression.

"This is borderline assault," Yang yells with anger, her eyes flashing a ruby red.

"They would have gone to jail for this, but that would be after Ms. Goodwitch got a hold of them," Weiss says with a deep frown. Hating how the episode is going thus far.

"Well, thankfully nothing happened," Jaune said, giving a small squeeze to Pyrrha's hand that was still placed in his.

Pyrrha stares at him with a blush that Jaune seriously doesn't notice. But, Yang does. She looks at the two back and forth, a smirk growing its way on her face.

Russel gets up from his lying position. And Cardin reaches out his hand for Jaune to grab. Once doing so, he harshly yanks Jaune up with him, grunting in pain when did so.

"And you're gonna do it." Cardin slams the jar of sap into Jaune's hands, revealing his stomach. Jaune lets out a grunt of pain from the impact.

"Yep, they want Jaune to do it," Ruby says, answering her question from earlier.

"They're that dumb, aren't they?" Blake says, shaking her head.

"There's no way that thought he was going to go through with it, right?" Ren asks with an eyebrow raised.

"They are that dumb," Weiss said with a mock disappointed tone.

"Do what?" Jaune asks, still not exactly following.

Cardin frees his worries and points to the jar. "Hit her with the sap."

"Yeah, this is basically assault, not on your part Jaune," Yang says, looking towards her friends.

"That Bitch!" Nora yells with anger.

"Either that or I'll have a chat with Goodwitch and you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon." He finishes by poking a finger into his chest.

Jaune looks down at the jar, then back to Team CRDL. He holds up the jar, prepared to throw it.

"You're not actually going to throw it on her, are you?" Ruby yells in dismay, her eyes wide.

"No, Pyrrha didn't have anything on her, remember? He couldn't have done it." Yang tells her sister.

"I wouldn't have the heart to do that to one of my teammates in the first place." He adds in, looking over his team.

Pyrrha is minding her own business, looking over her jar. Jaune raises the glass higher, his hand visibly shaking as he hesitates with a frown.

Jaune makes up his mind with a determined expression. "No." Was his final answer as he lowered his arm.

"What did you say?" Cardin asks, sounding agitated.

"He said 'No'! You dick!" Yang yelled.

"Along with him being a stupid meathead, he's also deaf too?" Weiss says with her arms crossed.

"I said… No!" Jaune yells as he turns around and chucks the jar. Immediately looking frail he sees he hit Cardin.

"Go Jaune!" Yang yells.

"He deserved it." Says Nora, waving her hand at the screen, not caring about the man.

I don't know whether to feel happy that Cardin got what he deserved or to feel scared for Jaune at this moment. Pyrrha thought to herself, but she shook her head. No, I shouldn't be feeling frightened for Jaune, he can handle himself, he's proven that multiple times already.

The people who weren't here for the event, seeing as they weren't present, aren't familiar with what happened. But, they see this as the catalyst.

The screen rises from the ground to show Cardin covered in tree sap. The man chuckled darkly as he faced Jaune. "Haho, you've done it now."

Jaune raises his hand towards his face, a small, little futile attempt to use as a last defense. Dove and Lark grab a hold of Jaune's shoulders so he can't escape the punishment that will be brought down on him by Cardin.

The last frame shows Jaune's terrified expression in his eyes as he's apprehensive about what will happen next.

And with that the screen goes black, signaling the end of the episode.

"They are going to get it." Both Yang and Nora punch their fists together, absolutely ready to pummel the guy into a pulp. Sadly, he isn't here right now so there is no way they could do such a thing.

Pyrrha is battling an array of emotions. Anger, worry, and fear. All negative emotions could easily attract a horde of Grimm all on its own.

Blake comes over and takes the remote from Ruby. "How about we all ease our fears and worries and play the next episode?"