The Bloodied Thirty Pieces

4 - Once in a Lullaby

Jaune sat in a chair in Ozpin's office, staring at the floor as if he wanted to kill it. He was still covered in Pyrrha's blood, now gone a dry and sticky dark red. Next to him sat Yang, watching the blonde knight carefully with as much of a poker face as she could muster.

She had been among the first few people crowding around Jaune's door after Nora had screamed, and quickly deterred the curious by pushing to the front of the crowd and yelling at them to find a teacher, take Ren and Nora away, or simply 'fuck off', as she put politely. No one really heeded the last part, but a few fell over each other to find a teacher or two; some of the teams in neighbouring dorms led Ren and Nora away, the stoic boy trying to console his partner. The rest of the assembled group then surprised the blonde brawler by pulling out their scrolls and, pushing into the room, started to take photo's of everything. Yang almost lost it then and went to beat some dignity into people, but it wasn't her that started throwing people around.

It was Jaune.

He caught everyone completely by surprise by lifting two of the students off their feet and throwing them into the walls, another followed swift and the fourth almost went through the window. It took three students AND Yang just to hold him down long enough for someone to explain that they were photographing the room for evidence. Jaune calmed down after hearing this, slightly, and was let go, though Yang kept a firm grip on the boy's shoulders. With a glance at Pyrrha's body, the blonde brawler decided Jaune had had enough and started to lead him out of the room.

Jaune for the most part didn't fight back. It was like he withdrew into himself after that and switched off, only responding with grunts, never lifting his eyes, moving in whichever direction Yang pointed him or doing whatever she suggested, such as sitting down. Yang, forcing down her anger and shock to keep her face and own emotions calm, was trying to think of a place to take the zombie vomit boy when her scroll dinged in her pocket. The screen was flashing with a message from Ozpin as she pulled it out; quickly opening it Yang's eyes glided across the screen in one swipe.

<Please bring mr Arc to my office and please remain with him at all times. I shall be along soon. You will find another team of students waiting for you in the elevator>

Yang looked up from Jaune to glance at the other team. They were standing off to one side of Ozpin's office, watching her and Jaune while whispering among themselves. Yang had seen them around school once or twice, but not enough really to learn their names or their team name before tonight; in the elevator the leader, a tall green haired girl dressed in a clothes Weiss or Ruby would wear, introduced herself as Serena and her teammates, Erika, Walt and Nikolas, as team SEWN, and said that the headmaster asked them to watch over the two blondes. Yang had tried asking why they needed to be watched, but the other team hadn't said another word to her since the introduction, and none of the others had spoken to her.

Yang was just about to get up and knock some answers out of the other team when the door swung open, everyone in the room besides Jaune standing to attention as Ozpin stepped in.

"At ease," the headmaster said, looking at everyone before settling on Jaune. Quickly crossing the room Ozpin crouched down in front of the blonde knight, looking over his glasses. 'Mr Arc?"

Jaune didn't respond, not even twitching in response.

"Mr Arc?"

Still no response.

"Jaune?"

Something flashed in Jaune's eye, a faint hint of the boy still in there, but he didn't respond.

Ozpin sighed, and slapped Jaune. The sound echoed through the room, the blonde Knights face going red as he was thrown from the chair. Yang jumped to her feet in shock, words to rip into the headmaster forming in the back of her throat.