Blades Of A Rose

Part 7

A/N: Do my eyes deceive me? 1K VIEWS because of the this double part today because ya'll deserve it

"How come Jaune gets home so late?" Nora says.

"He's become rather scarce since he started fraternizing with Cardin." Ren responds.

"That's weird... Doesn't he know we have a field trip tomorrow? We need our rest!" Nora says as she twirls in the air lands on the bed

"I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing." Pyrrha says in a irritated tone.

Nora and Ren exchange glances, not knowing that Jaune himself is looking in through the crack of the door.

"Mmmm... I guess so." says Nora.

Jaune hangs his head and closes the door, just as a voice interrupts his thoughts.

"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby says, "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?"

Jaune turns around, startled, to see Ruby in her pajamas.

"Oh, uh, nope! Got it!" Jaune said as he raised his scroll and tries to laugh.

"So! Where have you been lately?" Ruby said, clueless to what happened.

"I, uh..."

"I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me, and..." Jaune said

Jaune breathed heavily through his nose and then said "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea. I'm a failure." Jaune says as he presses his back against his team's door and slides down to the ground.

"Nope!" Ruby responds.

Jaune says in surprise, "'Nope?'"

"Nope! You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure." Ruby says cheerfully.

"But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?" Jaune says slightly depressed

Ruby thinks for a moment and says "Nope!"

"You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff." Jaune says as she joins him on the floor.

"Nope!" Ruby said as Jaune leans more into the door.

"Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid..." Ruby said.

Jaune groans and sinks more onto the ground "... and you might've even been a failure the first day we met!" Ruby said.

Jaune groans again and lowers more to the ground

"But, you can't be one now. You know why?" Ruby said

"Uhhh, because...?" Jaune said, puzzled.

"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." Ruby says, as she gets up and puts her hands on her hips.

"We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you." Ruby says inspirationally, as she walks to her team's dorm.

"Have a good night, Jaune!" Ruby says as she goes into her dorm room.

With new energy, Jaune pushes himself off the ground and faces the door, ready to turn the knob and face his team, but his scroll beeps and he pulls it off of his side to open it, seeing Cardin's contact relaying a message.

"Hey! It's your buddy Cardin! I know you're probably busy with that Dust project I gave you, buuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier Wasps." Jaune makes a terrified gasp for air, "And make sure they've got some really big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up!"

Jaune closes his scroll just when it begins to beep again. Sighing, he wearily heads down the hallway and away from his room.

[Timeskip to the Emerald Forest- Your POV]

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Glynda said to us

We stopped and saw Jaune, grunting and carrying a large case with six empty glass jars on top, tries to catch up with them and ends up bumping into Cardin. The bully scowls at Jaune, who attempts to feign innocence by whistling tunelessly.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here by 4 o'clock. Have fun!" says Glynda, holding up a jar full of sap.

While and her sister smile at one another, Jaune attempts to sneak away from Cardin to his team, but the blackmailer sees this and grabs Jaune by the back.

"Come on, buddy - let's go!" Cardin says to a now terrified Jaune.

You saw Jaune miserably looks up at his team, where Nora and Ren are already walking into the forest's depths and Pyrrha is staring sadly at the scene. Dropping his gaze, Jaune turns and follows CRDL, to the disappointment of a sighing Pyrrha before she continues on.

While going to the trees you wondered why Jaune was with CRDL then with JNPR.

"Hey guys, I'm going to talk to Pyrrha for second ok?" You said to them

"Alright" Ruby said in her cheerful tone

You went over Pyrrha

"Hey Pyrrha" You said to her

"Yes?" Pyrrha said

"Why is Jaune over with team CRDL?" You question

Pyrrha got slightly angry

"It's none of your business" Pyrrha said

"Ok, sorry then, see ya" You said

"Bye" Pyrrha said

'She is definitely hiding something' You thought

You went back to Team RWBY and Eli

You started collecting sap. Eli was already done while Team RWBY was still collecting. You noticed something out of the corner of your eye as you finished collecting. You saw Jaune with a jar of sap in his hands. You knew what was going on when you spotted Team CRDL behind him. You then heard Jaune say no. You perchered yourself in tree without anyone noticing

"No." Jaune says firmly

"What did you say?" Cardin said

"I said... NO!" Jaune yelled at him

He turned around and threw the jar at him. The sap sprayed across his armour

"Oh, you've done it now..." Cardin said darkly

Jaune laughed nervously as they grabbed him by the shoulders