Awakening
Remnantian Year 875
As the first day of Beacon was undergoing its later hours, the red light district of Vale was beginning to enter its early hours as the sun began to set up the darkening sky. With this time came a cloak-wearing individual entering one of the more prominent clubs, one that was currently having its windows redone.
“What can I do for you today?” A man at the counter sighed as he shook his head, “If you couldn’t tell, I’m having to fix the place up a bit, so if you want a drink or information, the price is higher than normal.”
“Junior,” The cloaked individual addressed with a courteous nod and gazed into the eyes of the man without lowering his cloak, “I was hoping to learn what exactly Torchwick is up to.”
“Beats me,” Junior scoffed as he began to polish one of his shot glasses, “He hired a couple of men from me for a few heists weeks ago and soon enough I find that some of my best men on loan to him have been arrested, taken down by some red cloaked huntress in training. And from what I know, said trainee is also sisters with the girl who blasted apart my club weeks ago.”
“Shame, I did always find the disco floor… extravagant. The poor statues as well, I heard those were a wedding gift,” The man leaned forward, placing a hand on the counter, displaying a spider tattoo prominently on the back of his hand, Junior’s eyes narrowed, and scowled.
“Tell her she can fuck right off about my business. She lost her right to that when she abandoned the kids. And if she even tries to put a foot here into Vale, I’ll have her thrown right into the mouth of a Leviathan,” Junior warned dangerously and the cloaked man scoffed as he shrugged his cloak off, displaying to Junior his appearance as his striking hazel eyes contrasted heavily with the blue scales on the man’s face.
“Ahh, if it isn’t Jren, didn’t recognize you with that old, brown cloak. Tell me, how’s your kids and the wifey? Heard one of them is at Beacon,” Junior taunted as he let one of his hands down below the counter, beginning to reach for his weapon, “Can’t imagine why she’d not want to take after you. What’s not to like with all those bounties on your head and working for her.”
“Lil Miss Malachite wants you to understand something, if she finds out that you are indeed aiding the police as she believes, then I’ve been ordered to bring you to her so she can punish you properly,” Jren warned and Junior scoffed at these words.
“My business is my own, besides cops can be good for business sometimes, huntsmen more often than those bootlickers though,” Junior responded and looked up at the DJ booth, “Girls, remove him.”
“Must we? Come on Melanie,” The red-clothed girl rolled her eyes in boredom but still did jump down from the DJ booth behind Jren, alongside her white-clad sister. Both looked ready to fight but Jren did not pull out his weapon.
“Miltia, Melanie,” Jren turned and gave a slight nod to both of them, “If you don’t mind me, I’ll be leaving for now. You’re lucky the madam wants to deal with you herself.”
“Tell her she can go fuck herself,” Junior let the hand grabbing his weapon relax as the scaled faunus walked out of the club and Melanie and Miltia sat down on top of the counter with frowns on their faces.
“Seems the underworld’s getting shaken up a bit,” Junior noted and tapped his fingers against the counter, “Roman and the Spiders both being active in Vale. Girls, tomorrow we’re heading out of town for a week. I have an associate to talk to. Don’t wanna risk things right now.”
“Who’s gonna watch the shop?” Melanie asked as she stood up from where she sat and glanced around the club.
“Heard word your aunt is in town. Gonna call in my favor for her to watch it,” Junior responded as he began to fish out his scroll from his pockets and began to dial a number, “I have a feeling it’s not just the underworld that’s gonna be in turmoil…”
“Hmm… quite an interesting predicament, Mr. Arc. I had indeed expected Saphron to have a better memory to unlock your aura before now, after all she did always have an impeccable mind to remember a lot of team attacks during her time here,” Professor Ozpin commented, almost in amusement, as Jaune shrunk down further into his seat as Glyna Goodwitch bore disapproving eyes into his skull. She definitely scared him, but not as scary as Terra was when Saphron had brought Jaune over after… his parents would find him after a training session
“I…” Jaune began to apologize but was stopped by Professor Ozpin raising his hand. Jaune quickly shut up and let the headmaster continue.
“I did say interesting, not unique. This is a situation we have run into. I’d say we get at least one student a year who starts without an aura. Unluckily however, many of them were too afraid or foolhardy to talk to a teacher about it before initiation and sadly would lose their lives fighting Grimm,” Ozpin explained, careful not to say any more about initiation other than that, which Jaune could understand, “But I find that those who do bring this up are those who truly want to be here and are willing to accept aid from others. If I recall right, I believe that Miss Scarlatina from our newly minted second-year class would be one to talk to and help with your training.”
“Really? So I’m not in trouble for this?” Jaune asked hesitantly and Professor Goodwitch shook her head.
“No you are not, however, you will be having remedial lessons with me and Miss Scarlatina on Saturdays so you can hopefully reach your peers’ levels sooner rather than later,” Professor Goodwitch explained and Ozpin nodded in agreement.
“Indeed. Now let us get to unlocking your aura, young man,” Ozpin stood up from his desk and walked to Jaune, putting a hand on his shoulder, “For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul and by my shoulder protect thee.”
After reciting this chant, a white aura surrounded Jaune’s being in a great light before dimming down in brightness. Ozpin seemed bemused by this and looked at Goodwitch with a smirk on his face.
“Well Mister Arc, it seems you have one of the highest aura pools I have ever been lucky enough to unlock. I look forward to seeing what your year at Beacon will bring, should you pass tomorrow’s initiation,” Ozpin gave a gentle smile and Jaune felt the aura fade into him and envelop him, like a soft blanket on a cool night. Jaune sighed in relief as he was let go to head back down to the common area. As he walked through the halls, Jaune felt like a weight had been lifted. One that he had always known was there but was also unaware of.
As Jaune made his way back to the common area, Ruby was frowning as she walked through the hallway, rubbing her ears in an attempt at comfort.
“I wish Penny could’ve talked more. Guess they are more strict with sleeping hours there,” Ruby bemoaned to herself, as her tail wagged at even just the thought of Penny.
“Oh hey Jaune,” Ruby waved from across the hallway as Jaune tripped over nothing and fell onto the floor, “Oh!”
Ruby quickly felt her aura exude outwards from her body and let it feed into her semblance, everything around her slowing down as her heart began to beat faster than a normal human could withstand. She let her semblance encompass her entire body before shooting forward, catching Jaune before he could meet the ground. Her aura and consequently, her semblance, went away as soon as Ruby set down Jaune.
“You good?” Ruby asked as she tried to quietly regain her breath, not unused to the feeling of her body not quite being up to speed with… well a speed semblance.
“I’m fine. How’d you catch me though?” Jaune decided to ask and Ruby pointed down at her legs.
“Speed semblance boyo,” Ruby awkwardly tried to sound cool about it but immediately felt embarrassment from it, and quickly changed topics, “So did you get your aura unlocked?”
“Yeah. Professor Ozpin said that they get at least one student a year who arrives without aura. But…” Jaune was hesitant to continue, but Ruby could see what was disturbing him through a glance at his eyes.
“Not all of them got it unlocked. Died during initiation. Am I right?” Ruby wagered a guess and Jaune nodded silently before looking down on the floor, trying to hide as tears fell.
“Fucking… agh!” Ruby screamed out in frustration, punching her fist right through the nearest wall, growling lightly, “What is the point of training to become huntsmen and huntresses if we can’t save other students?!”
“I… didn’t even think of it like that,” Jaune admitted guiltily, picking his gaze up from the ground, “I was just relieved I wasn’t kicked out.”
“It’s… I won’t say it’s fine, but I’m just… sensitive to this,” Ruby begrudgingly admitted, lightly tugging at her cloak, trying her best to ignore the pain that was welling up in her hand.
“Sorry,” Jaune apologized on instinct, feeling his innate empathy open up once more to this girl he had just met today.
“Not your fault,” Ruby tugged her cloak tightly around herself, “Anxiety, trauma, and depression just sucks. Hearing about death at all just kinda… sets me off a little.”
“Ahh…” Jaune held his tongue back from saying more than he probably should, but he still decided to be his kind self, “If you ever need to talk about it, well, what’re friends for?”
“Yeah…” Ruby rubbed her arm anxiously as she quietly responded, following behind Jaune as they headed toward the sleeping area. Once there, Jaune split off from her and headed to the bathroom with a change of clothes in hand and Ruby fell onto her sleeping bag that was right next to her sister’s, not feeling up to changing.
“So… how was the call with the gf?” Yang lightly teased and Ruby rolled her eyes.
“It was good. It’s just been a long day,” Ruby yawned as she nudged her way close to Yang and nuzzled into her side, “Would've been better if someone didn’t leave me right after we landed.”
“Heh… sorry sis,” Yang awkwardly apologized as she pet her sister’s head in an effort to comfort her and smiled as the younger girl fell asleep into her side.
“This world doesn’t deserve you, Rubes. Your heart is way too big…” Yang thought to herself sadly as she watched her sister’s ears fold down as she began to lightly snore into her side. As Ruby did so, Yang just gently pet her sister’s ears, well aware of the black-haired girl looking at her in confusion before quickly looking back at her book, “I’ll get up in like ten minutes or something,” Yang sleepily thought to herself as she blinked and felt her own exhaustion overtake her before she could even do what she had wanted to do, letting the embrace of sleep take her.
In the same room, a red-haired girl huddled herself into a corner of the room by herself, eyes scanning over every fellow initiate with slight fear gleaming in her eyes.
“Don’t interact with anyone until initiation. Don’t make any false promises of friendships. Don’t make any friends at all actually, they all just want to use you,” The voice of her father rang through her head and Pyrrha felt that she was stuck. If she didn’t listen to her father, then she’d lose her scholarship. But if she did listen, then she’d be completely alone. It didn’t seem like a good situation now for her.
“Gotta just try to be strong. Be the invincible girl as you’ve always been. It won’t be too hard, right?” Pyrrha weakly tried to assure herself as she tried to fall asleep, but found herself restless. Thus, as the candles and lights finally went out, Pyrrha was left just staring across the room as she both tried to fall asleep and stay vigilant. Time flew by and eventually, Pyrrha found herself dead tired as the light of the morning sun began to enter the room. It was almost time for initiation and she needed to pass. She couldn’t afford to fail.