22

A week and a half before Emerald would participate in her Sponsorship Exam, Jaune was setting foot in Atlas.

Atlasean Summers were kind of the motto in the Arc family at this point.

"Jaune!" Yang and Ruby leapt into his arms, being spun around as he laughed alongside them.

"Bra-ahem. Kid." Raven nodded, avoiding Noelle's exasperated stare.

"Greetings to you too, Branwen." His mother sighed. "You look tired."

"Busy because of a certain glasses wearing girl and her uninvited advertisements." Raven did actually look slightly harrowed as she narrowed her eyes at Farbiglas Arc who just whistled like nothing was wrong as she rocked on her feet.

"Mom's always busy." Yang laughed, "But she still makes time for us."

Jaune snickered as he saw Raven's neck flush pink, used to her death glare at this point.

"Watch yourself, Jaune." Raven warned through her teeth.

"Yes, Captain my captain."

Raven's low growl promised a slow death.

"Ah lay off'em Raven. Kid's just got here."

"Qrow!" Jaune waved at the older man. "It's been a while!"

Qrow chuckled, appearing much more clean shaven than Jaune remembered. His hair was slicked back slightly, looking more awake than when Jaune had seen last year.

He now wore his jacket flung open, revealing a reinforced brown leather vest with crawling black and red vines embroidered on its surface over a lazily half-buttoned off-white dress shirt with the collar popped that looked like it could still use slightly more frequent washing.

Not dirty, but still sloppy. Like he camped in the wild a lot.

But he seemed less sleepy than usual, even though a silver flask with a red rose insignia hung from his hip.

"Sup kid?" He gave Jaune's head a casual ruffle, "How's my favorite nephew?"

Jaune giggled.

"Since when was I your nephew?"

"I think I'd recall a drunk brother." Noelle joked, tucking her silver hair behind an ear, a single gold dyed streak hung over her bangs. "Long time, underclassman Qrow."

"Aw c'mon," Qrow leaned down, hanging an arm over Jaune's shoulder as he placed his cheek on Jaune's other shoulder. "I've mostly stopped drinking. Adopt me?"

Noelle rolled her eyes.

"The flask on your hip says otherwise."

"Actually, it's just rosewater." Qrow popped the flask open with a thumb, the scent of flowers breezing by in the warm, air-conditioned environment. "I mean I still drink for fun, just don't need to crutch on it so much as I used to. Been like six months of mostly soberness."

Even Raven looked at Qrow in surprise.

"Who are you and what have you done with my Drunkle?" Yang accused.

Qrow rolled his eyes, picking up Yang over his shoulder and spinning around with a "I'll show you, Drunkle!"

He blew a raspberry into Yang's side only for the girl to complain.

"Drunkle Qrow, that's gross!"

"Bah ha ha ha. Suffer!"

She smacked an elbow into his back, only to slip forward in his grip and fall, almost landing on her back, but Qrow leaned and casually grabbed her by the scruff of her yellow accented Parabellum coat by hooking his fingers back without looking in her direction.

"Whoa there, Firecracker."

"Smooth." Jaune chipped.

"Yeah, got you and Juni to thank for that." Qrow laughed as he tapped over his heart, Jaune getting a feeling he was signifying the SR Rarity Equipment: Luck Reversal Charm that Juniper had told Jaune to give him as a farewell present almost two years ago. "This thing's saved my bacon more than I can count!"

"Brat. What the hell did you give my brother?"

"Raven!" Noelle warned.

Qrow gave Raven a shit eating grin.

"Aww Rae… I don't know if you just don't love your twin brother enough or can't keep your eyes off of Tai and Summer's admittedly hot asses, but I've been veeeeeery lucky lately." Qrow bragged. "Hell, if you haven't realized, me having to spend the summer with you's the worst luck I've had in two years!"

Raven's crimson eyes widened at the insinuation that somehow Qrow's Bad Luck Semblance had somehow been, negated, removed, or more terrifyingly and befuddlingly REVERSED into Good Luck.

"This is unfair." Raven fumed. "I found the bra-kid first."

She glared indignantly at Jaune.

"My son isn't some lucky vending machine." Noelle defended as she pulled Jaune close by his shoulders, leaning him against her legs and stomach. "Besides, dibs only works when you're a child, by the way. Unless there's something you're not telling us?"

"Naw, Raven's always been a huge kid. Absolute brat, this one." Qrow snickered, dodging as Raven reached up to swing her peaked cap at him, only for it to slip from her fingers and land in Zwei's mouth, the Aura awakened Corgi pup running away with it as he left to get pampered by Saphron and Robin Arc.

"Uh. Ok that's not my fault. Ehe he. Semblances, amiright?"

Raven let out an angry growl.

"Oh there you all are!" Summer's cheery voice called out, accompanied by Specialist Noire and lugging a large trolly filled with luggage. Her 'baby' S'more was in her reinforced case at the bottom of the pile, the label partially covered to just show the letters Hunt We. "I think I got turned around by the crowd."

"Apologies." The Specialist added from the side. "She insisted on going the wrong way."

"Noire! We agreed that I just got a little sidetracked!"

"It's a fancy way for Huntress Rose to admit she got lost."

"Noire!" Summer flushed with embarrassment. "Traitor!"

Specialist Noire only gave an amused smile as she walked over to the form of Specialist Pepper, currently having fallen into a tired unconsciousness on a cushioned bench.

"Was she-"

"Keeping me company the whole flight from Argus while I was motion sick." Jaune scratched his cheek in shame. "In my defense, I managed to only throw up once?"

"One day we will have you label one of your flights a biohazard, Little Professor."

"That's fair."

Everyone had a little laugh as Summer gave Qrow, Jaune, and all the members of her family a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Raven grumbled that she couldn't use her dog-drool covered hat, only for Jaune to roll his eyes and flick the woman a spare he kept in his Inventory.

Raven triumphantly captured her wife's lips under the minimal censorship, revealing a very happy looking pair of women afterwards.

"So. Hotel?" Noelle inquired, gathering her children who'd been politely staying relatively quiet as they grouped up behind her.

This was the first time the whole Arc family was visiting Atlas. Julius was included though he was currently holding a sleeping set of the identical twins and Aurora in his arms and trying not to wake them.

This year they'd hired some additional help to keep the vineyard running without issue in the summer and he'd be returning a month earlier than the rest of the family to ensure everything would be on track.

"We've got both lodging and transport ready. Huntsman Taiyang is already in the vehicle, responding to a call from Headmaster Ozpin." Specialist Noire nodded (Raven spat to the side at Ozpin's name). "There's just one small problem."

"I can tell." The quietly annoyed voice of Julius could be heard as he adjusted one of the sleeping twins that threatened to slip from his grip.

They were currently in a VIP lobby at the Mantle Inter-Kingdom Skyport because after landing they'd been accosted by a slew of photographs from some newspapers that'd caught wind of the Little Professor's return to Atlas.

It was the first time they'd had a crowd like this, but they had known it would happen eventually. The truth was that some people weren't exactly happy that he'd return to Mistral at the end of every summer. Frankly Mistral wasn't happy either, knowing that he was going out of his way to spread knowledge to an unallied Kingdom.

Not that Mistral even had direct official allies, which made the whole argument ultimately fruitless.

It was all just dumb politics.

Others were just excited for his return year after year, taking it as some sort of annual technological revolution, and knew that in the months that followed various scientists and companies would be announcing exciting new products and innovations. They meant little harm, but their expectations were always heavy.

Jaune had… adjusted to his imposter syndrome a lot over the past two years, but it was frankly still slow going for him. The extra media scrutiny didn't help.

And unfortunately while Farbiglas's hobby of was ultimately a good thing, it didn't exactly help him maintain anonymity in the end.

Not that he faulted her for anything.

She was his sister, he'd never do that.

He was glad she liked his music enough to want to share with the world. Actually he was sort of proud that he got attention from the music.

It was the one thing that felt like it was his.

It was definitely an anchor of sanity for him.

"How fast do you think we can all make it into the vehicle?" Jaune asked with a sigh.

"We'll pile the luggage in first." Summer made a 'We can Do It' pose. "Then we can just rush in one go after!"

That sounded fine to Jaune.

Clarent Arc stared out the window to Atlas, a large transport airship having picked up her family and the Jaune-extended family and begun lifting them up to Atlas.

She was excited to visit Atlas Academy, especially since 'cuz of Jaune', General Ironwood extended invitations to all the Arc family to come to them once they'd graduate Sanctum. A standing invitation, to be frank.

The whole family more or less knew what it meant, but didn't directly refuse the man. The General was a good man and had treated Jaune well, even fighting for her little brother to be allowed to return to his family when Noelle Arc had showed up on his doorstep instead of taking advantage of the Arc family and turning them away.

Even if ma Noelle said he clearly had contemplated it. The fact that he'd considered that for his country, but still was willing to treat Jaune right meant that he was someone the whole family saw as a friend. Even if he had ulterior motives.

Still, Clarent knew Jaune had his heart set on Beacon and certainly wouldn't push him to Atlas. But she'd pretend to try to convince him to see what extra goodies she might get.

She smirked.

Yeah. Besides, she'd get hooked up with all sorts of sweet perks in Atlas! Just depended if it suited her personality. Probably wouldn't but eh, you never knew.

She was convinced that Robin would probably take the offer for Atlas Academy, as the environment suited her, but Clarent needed more convincing.

She'd definitely stay if their training was as good as advertised though.

She loved being pushed to the limit.

Her finger tapped against Blood, her DustCast-Reinforced-SawedOff.

Despite her Semblance being something weirdly sophisticated, a force amplifier and shaper Semblance for Dust manipulation, letting her boost the power and utility of Dust Casting, she'd given it the name Point Break.

Something elegant and fancy didn't suit her much. What good was that sort of pretentiousness in real combat?

Clarent in the end liked more simple maneuvers, such as blasting full crystals of Dust out her weapon to form into a raw hunk of elemental power to fire at an enemy like a giant blast, orb, or cone of power. That and she liked focusing it as a rough elemental blade.

The occasional dirty trick too was fun.

Nothing below the belt. Just creatively mean.

She'd particularly liked taking something sophisticated like Hard Light Dust and cranking it up to a nine and just using a giant fuck-off greatsword like her ma, though her ma's greatsword was more elegant about it's utilization of Dust.

And wanting to test herself against what Atlas had to offer, Clarent had done the logical thing of sneaking through and out the bathroom window and went exploring for a fated encounter of some sort.

Just let the spontaneity of life sort it all out.

She'd lost herself in thought looking around casually when she bumped into a white haired girl.

"Whoops." Clarent grinned easily, "Sorry 'bout that-"

She'd reached out with a hand to help the girl up, but Claren's hand was slapped aside.

"If you were truly apologetic, you would have watched where you were walking to begin with." Her stormy gray blue eyes narrowed with an irritated scowl. "Now I need to rearrange the assessment reports for Instructor Stormwind!"

Clarent knew she was the one in the wrong, so she swallowed her pride and reached down to help.

"Look, I'm sorry, k? I'll help-"

"I don't think I'm quite so helpless that I need your help." White Hair retorted angrily. "Who are you anyways? I don't see a nametag, nor are you in uniform. This implies you've snuck on campus. Who-"

"Whoa, who shoved the stick up your ass? I've got my name tag right here."

Clarent unzipped her warm, knee-length padded jacket and pulled it open to show her favorite red and blue sports bra top and bike shorts underneath where she'd slapped on the Hello I am an Academy Guest! My name is: sticker where she'd roughly scribbled her name onto it.

"I- WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!" White haired flushed a tomato red, "WHY WOULDN'T YOU WEAR THAT ON YOUR JACKET!"

"Why the hell it matter where I stick it? I've got it on, don't I?"

"You! You! That's not the kind of outfit that-"

Clarent's eyes narrowed. She'd found one. A sucker.

"You got an issue with my favorite top?"

"EVERYTHING! YOU CAN'T WEAR THAT IN PUBLIC!"

"That's it! I apologized, even tried to help! But I ain't gonna take that laying down! Let's go bitch!"

"I- what?"

Clarent gestured to Blood hanging off her hip, resting pretty on a small leather box filled with shotgun rounds and Dust.

"What nobody challenge you to a trial by combat over you insulting their drip before? What kind of pansy school is this?"

"There is no such situation where that would ever occur! We have uniforms!"

"So casual dress aint a thing?!"

"THAT OUTFIT OF YOURS IS NOWHERE NEAR CASUAL!"

"IF YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH IT, WHITE HAIR, HOW BOUT YOU FUCKING FIGHT ME BOUT IT, EH?!"

"Perhaps you DO need someone to discipline you! You! You Harlot!"

"Then let's go, White Hair!"

"Fine! Follow me!" White Hair shot back with a glare, finally with enough fire for Clarent to respect.

White Hair roughly gathered her papers, shoving them in her folder before storming off towards the nearest training arena, barking along a demand to Clarent to follow along.

Clarent smiled, cheekily laughing inside that she'd goaded the first Atlas student she'd found to give her a spar. It was almost too easy.

Fate indeed. Kismet? Whatever the word was.

They'd entered a simpler arena room, walking past a fancy one with a bunch of lights and moving cubes that some older Academy students seemed to be using to practice drill maneuvers.

"Why ain't we using one of those fancy ones?"

"Because that would naturally give me an unfair home field advantage and if I am to crush you, I will do it thoroughly on even terms!" White Hair spat angrily, slamming her papers down onto a bench before drawing a dueling blade at her side. "First blood, or Red Aura?"

"Aw Red Aura's way more fun." Clarent laughed, drawing Blood, popping it open as she swung her belt around to adjust the box of ammo to her other hip. She loaded the left chamber with a standard 12 Gauge, and the other with a small orange Combustion Dust crystal the size of her upper thumb.

White Hair narrowed her eyes.

"You'll kill yourself using Dust that way." She warned shrilly.

"Not with my Semblance." Clarent bragged with a wave of her hand, "Ain't nothing."

That claim seemed to actually cause White Hair to take her a bit seriously.

"Well." She replied testily, "I suppose we'll see shall we?"

She threw Clarent an Aura tracker from the pair that hung from the wall, slapping one of her own on her wrist.

Clarent grinned as she snapped it around an ankle instead, knowing that her arms tended to take a bit more of a beating from her fighting style. She noticed that White Hair seemed to take note of that, implying that she'd understood that Clarent's fighting style would be more top heavy.

It didn't matter. She didn't even care about winning, she'd just come to see what fighting an Atlas student was like. That's why she'd snuck off when nobody was looking outside the bathroom window.

Clarent tossed her jacket to the side as the countdown began.

3

2

1

Blood ripped the air open with shotgun pellets as White Hair attempted to twist out of the way, using the basket of her dueling blade to protect her eyes as they splashed against her Aura.

Clarent grinned. White Hair had good instincts. Or training. Or both.

White hair lunged in swinging low, causing Clarent to swing heavily with the side of Blood, the barrels of the sawed-off being thicker and more reinforced than a comparative weapon.

It knocked the blade to the side, with more brutal force, getting a grin from White Hair as the weapon coated with ice.

As if that was the first time that'd happened.

"EXPLODE, BLOOD!"

White hair's eyes widened as the second trigger of Blood was pulled, Point Break channeling the whole of the Combustion Dust's explosion to hyperfocus into a beam of orange heat, melting the ice shell on Blood and catching White Hair's shoulder as it ripped against her Aura, spreading orange flame upon impact.

But the beam twisted, forming three not quite right angles as it twisted in a rough square, attempting to strike White Hair again.

Clarent rarely hit anyone with that follow up, the force of Combustion Dust being too powerful and uncontrolled to be accurate, but it usually scared sparring partners fuck all enough that they'd back up.

But White hair, twisted to the side, not giving ground. The basket guard on the dueling saber twisting to reveal a second blade held within the first, like some hidden arming blade.

"Duel wielder, eh? Alright, let's do it!"

White Hair didn't respond as her main blade flashed the flat of it against the licking orange flame burning upon her Aura, extinguishing it with Ice Dust. The second arming blade thrust behind her a burst of wind launching her forwards.

Clarent snapped Blood open, smashing a green Wind Dust vial on the ground, forcing White hair backflipping into the air with a Point Break amped updraft, buying her time to reload a red Fire Dust and shining Ice Dust crystals into Blood.

A blade of flame erupted, hiding the core of the ice blade within the blaze.

This combo had a short lifespan as well, but Clarent preferred her battles run fast and glorious.

White Hair readjusted herself with the arming blade, launching herself downwards at Clarent as she thrust the Dueling Blade down, expecting to extinguish the flame blade extending from the end of Blood, but instead made contact with the core of ice.

Clarent grinned, loving when she fought other Dust casters, letting her own ice blade feed off the Dust in White Hair's weapon through Point Break, branches of ice erupting in coral shapes as flames leapt up after the icy cores.

The Wind Dust Arming Blade let rip a burst of air sending them flying apart as White Hair elegantly spun into a fencing stance, looking irritated as she blew a strand of hair out her face.

"That's annoying."

"What's annoying is that you haven't hit me yet, White Hair."

"Well that's because-"

Clarent's blade flickered out.

Fuck.

White hair leapt forward, dueling blocked by Blood, the arming blade ripping against the Aura of her ribs.

"I was waiting for that!"

Point Break ripped through her Aura, a blast of wind erupting from White Hair's arming sword, sending her spinning as she blocked a wild swing from Blood, the Sawed Off having already leeched an elemental blade from the force of the block.

Blood then flashed in twin swings, deflecting a thrust, then getting counter parried.

Clarent pulled the trigger again, forcing the ice blade to shatter and blow White Hair back as ice shards flashed against her light blue Aura.

It bought her enough time to snap Blood open, baiting an opening, White Hair leaping forward with more wind propulsion as Clarent snapped her gun shut, letting the dueling sword grind sparks against her reinforced sawed off as she blocked and swung her other hand at White Hair.

They caught each other in a crossblow, Clarent clocking her new sparring partner across the jaw with her free hand as the arming sword slashed across her shoulder.

It'd cost Clarent more Aura, but the chin was fragile and disorientating,

A thin white rod flicked into the air as Clarent drew two shells and slammed them into Blood. One of them was a trick shell that was just housing a small crystal of Lightning Dust within.

But the important part was that while disorientated and rubbing her jaw with the back of a wrist, White Hair should have seen twin shotgun shells get loaded.

Clarent snapped her teeth together, catching the thin white rod between her lips.

"That better not be a cigarette." White hair glared.

"Nah." Clarent did take a drag though, the gritty taste of Fire Dust filling her lungs. "It's worse."

She spat the remaining half of rolled up stick of refined Fire Dust forwards before breathing out a gout of flame, only Point Break making it so that she didn't burn up her mouth and lungs.

A roar of flame erupted, igniting the remaining stick as a roaring fireball launched at White Hair.

Sure, it felt unbearably hot, but it was a trick that no normal fighter could do without her Semblance, and Clarent loved showing off her unorthodox stylings.

Somehow though, White Hair seemed to predict her trick, both blades thrusting as an ice storm countered her flame breath.

A scattering of 12 Gauge flashed against White Hair, timed well by Clarent as she knew she'd be unable to block properly, as it struck a chunk of her Aura away.

Clarent leapt forward a rippling burst of yellow electricity erupting into a large cutlass swinging diagonally.

White Hair side stepped, gritting her teeth as tendrils of lightning leapt from the energy cutlass and shocked past the Aura.

Still White Hair managed to crouch down spinning low to kick the side of her knee.

Clarent grit her teeth, barely preventing her knee from buckling as she swung down, missing as White Hair rocketed under her, sliding between Clarent's legs by launching herself with her arming blade, spinning upwards with her dueling sword like a steel whirlwind as she cut across Clarent's back.

Blood was thrust forward viciously, the electric blade quicking stopping its momentum as the arena board announced with a loud blare that her Aura had dropped into the red.

A single tendril licked at Winter's cheek as Clarent pulled her weapon back.

The air was filled with the panting of the two Huntresses in training.

Clarent stared down at the arming blade of the victorious White Hair, stabbing into her foot, but not breaking her Aura.

"Well fuck." Clarent laughed, letting go of the electric blade, Blood returning to normal, a faint hiss of smoke hovering from the steel. "You won. Congratulations. That was a really nice match."

"I- what? Oh. Of course." White Hair, seemed suddenly flustered by her opponent's sudden compliment, combining her dueling and arming blades together. "That is, yes. That was a surprisingly enlightening spar. I've… never experienced someone using my own Dust against me in such a manner."

"That'll be pretty uncommon. My Semblance lets me be real flexible with Dust. Very flexible." Clarent waggled her brows with a grin, jokingly flirting. "Shouldn't have to need to counter that tho normally."

"Still there will always be stranger and wilder Semblances and fighting styles out there. I… well I apologize for insulting your outfit and calling you a harlot. I'm nothing if not a graceful victor. However I must insist you wear your nametag over your jacket. If nothing else but for the fact that wearing it under your jacket is futile."

"Sure, sure. Seriously sorry for bumpin' into ya. Didn't mean to make you spill nothin." Clarent grinned. "Friends?"

"I hardly think our meeting in such a manner is conducive to friendship. We've merely become acquainted. To assume further would be-"

"You don't got much friends do ya? Look, do you wanna be friends or what? If you don't like me, I ain't gonna be offended. I tend to make more enemies than friends anyways."

White Hair looked at her with a confused and contemplative look.

"I… well. Contemplative friendship? Would… would that be satisfactory?" She held out a tentative hand.

"Hey, that's better than rejection anyday." Clarent laughed, shaking White Hair's hand. "Clarent Arc. Nice to meet ya, contemplative friend."

"There's no need to be so cheeky." White Hair huffed. "Winter Schnee. You may simply refer to me as Winter."

"Cool! Winter it is. Would you know where the Alpha-B Dormitories are? That's where my family was headed to stay before I separated."

"The… mission reward dormitories? I-yes I can guide… did you say Arc? As in Jaune Arc?"

"Yeah! My adorable lil' brother! Sup bout him?"

"The Little Professor? The musician? The brightest mind of our generation?"

"...yeah?..."

"I, well, this will sound awkward no matter how I phrase it. I'd like an autograph."

"I mean… if lil' bro's down for it? Sure?"

"Capital! I shall guide you then post haste, friend."

"I thought it was contemplative?"

"It was. I have finished my contemplation, that's all. Decisiveness makes good soldiers."

"Pft."

Jaune stared at the white haired girl that Clarent came back with.

The words ripped from his lips before it passed through his brain or before any introductions could be made.

"Are you an angel?"

AN: Clarent bears inspiration from Fate's Mordred Pendragon. Clarent Blood (Arthur) being a Noble phantasm reference.

In the Canon Timeline, Clarent Arc would go on to graduate Sanctum, then to Haven, abandoning the Arc name when she'd found out that against her requests her father Julius continued to refuse to train Jaune, causing her only brother to run away.

Before getting the opportunity to see her precious brother compete in person during the Vytal Festival on her final year of studies, she and her team (all talented potentiates) were sent on a mission to their deaths by Leonardo Leonhardt, with Jaune never having known of her demise.

This freed up a slot for team CRME to attend in their place.