So I've been meaning to get this one out for months now, since before volume 6 even began but my schedule caused me just focus on other things and I eventually forgot about this one. I might not update for a while too, I'm really having trouble laying planing plot and I wouldn't be against a beta for this one. Normally I just do it on my own since I like to work at my own pace but I'll admit I'm out of practise. Anyways enjoy, tell me what you think. For any writers out there, how do you figure plot structure? tell me in the review section.

Before you ask yes I went back to add Sapphron into, though in this one She's younger than Jaune.

Shadows and light danced to the beat of wind's drum casting strange shapes over his closed eyes. His faced scrounged as stirred from his dreamless rest. The sight of the under wood is what greeted him when he opened his eyes. It seem he fell asleep by under that tree once again... and for the last time. He bit back the urge to cry, If he broke now surely they would all follow.

He he got up to look for them. They weren't hard to find, sitting in a circle at the edge of that grassy hill. Straw colored hair, perfect little white dresses sewn together by their mother, they sat with bent knees playing with each others hair and picking flowers. The was seven of them, the youngest was two, the oldest just a year younger than himself at sixteen. He walked down sitting next to his eldest sister who was holding their youngest sibling in her lap.

"Why'd you let me sleep?"

"We're we supposed to wake you up?" Said sixteen year old Sapphron.

"I wanted to spend this time with you…" He said.

"Do you really have to go?" His five years old sister Verde said. He remembers carrying her when he was twelve. He held back the dam that was his feelings.

"It's be okay Verde, It's not forever." He says trying his best to sound optimistic.

"You don't know that" Said thirteen year old Noir.

"It's not set in stone Noir." He says a little annoyed at how Noire's words might affect the others.

" It might as well be." Noir says.

"For all we know Jaune might not even have aura..." Sapphron, ever the optimist says. They all knew that was unlikely.

He could hear Verde's whimpers. He cursed under his breath. He picked her up and cradled her in his arms. "It'll be fine your brother is strong don't you see?" He makes a point of flexing his free hand getting laugh out of Blu, ten, blanc, two and marron seven.

"Jaune…" He heard someone call him. He turn so see his father standing in the back patio of their home. "We need to get going…" He said.

His sisters looked with sadness at their father. As if to ask how could he break them apart, but they all knew he didn't want this either. His father, Aurum Arc stood at an imposing seven foot two, he had broad shoulders and a muscular frame, he shared the straw-like blond hair that his children have, he wore his tied behind him in a ponytail. his face held had quite a bit of stubble but not enough to hide that he had a strong square chin and defined neck muscles. He was in his mistralian officer's uniform that he rarely ever wore anymore consisting of white slacks and a red coat and hat convo with golden about Aurum commanded respect yet he was a softie when it came to his children. One of Jaune's fondest memories was laughing along as Rouge and Noir braid their father's long hair. He took it in stride all to make his kids laugh, If he's to be honest with himself Jaune hopes to someday be just like him.

"The car is waiting…" Aurum said.

"And my things?" Jaune asks he doesn't really have a lot he wants to take with him.

"We they're packed but we're leaving them here. I'll make the second trip for them."

The drive to mistral's capital was an hour's long drive through forest highways. He was quietly watching the trees race past his window as his father drove. He had said his goodbye's to sister, maybe forever. His sister Sapphron had remained hopeful while his mother refused to see him leave instead watching the scene from the second story no doubt in his mind that she was nursing a drink. Now that had given birth she was free to drink.

"Son…" His father caught his attention. " I'm sorry about all this…"

"It's not your fault dad, everyone has to go get tested once they are seventeen."

Aurum doesn't say any for a while. His eyes are stuck on the road. Both hands gripped the wheel of the car in a manner that to belay some frustration. The road itself was pretty desolate, They scarcely saw any cars, Jaune briefly wondered what sort of effort it took to keep these roads grimm free.

"When you were born… I used to lay awake thinking of this day…" His father spoke up. " I dreaded the day they came to take you from me. Truth be told there's never been any doubt in my mind that your aura will be strong so I decided that should enjoy your childhood as much as possible."

"Dad?"

"I'm sorry Jaune, but this is the only thing I could do for you." Aurum said.

Jaune never really noticed till now but, most children in his neighborhood practised with sword axes and the like. While his father trained him in the use of the sword those sessions were few and far between. He spent most of his time playing with his sisters, and hanging with kids around the neighborhood and now it seems that was by his father's design.

He felt his heart caught in his throat, not finding the word to put father at ease. He could only listen to his father pouring his heart out to him. "The front line are a place I hoped neither you nor your sisters ever had to see. I saw so much death, the grimm are relentless, But I have hope you will return to us."

"I will be back father I promise…!" Jaune said with conviction.

"I know you will." Aurum said.

Mistral city was finally in view. He found it just as breathtaking as he remembered. Towering walls of stone and concrete surround a massive mountain range the side of which most of the city was carved. The walls were massive but they paled in comparison to the mountains they encompassed. The mountains themselves are sprinkled with buildings and platforms built into them. From what he saw of the streets they were a blur of wood and paper walls as is the eastern Mystralian tradition.

His awe died in dread as the car pulled up to the a tall white building. It was in architectural dissonance with its surrounding. It's modern look of white concrete and window beginning at floor level and rise to the ceilings throughout multiple stories stood out against the wooden structures of traditional design. This building stood out like sore thumb. The most noticeable thing however was the fifty or so youths gathering around the building. Guess I'm not the only birthday boy.

Mystral proper, as the stories told of it, was born when three tribes settled in the mountain sides. The seafaring Northerners, with fair skin and reddish hair; The eastern nomadic folk that had sharp eyes and jet black hair; and lastly the people of the plains who's coalition of city states crumbled causing the olive skinned survivors to flee the grimm further North. It is said that the three groups found each other in the hills of and together the mounted one last desperate defences against the forces of the grimm and survived. So shocking was their victory that they dared not leave the mountains.

Jaune didn't know the legitimacy of the founding stories, and he's heard some outlandish ones, children raised by wolves and such; but right now it truly felt he was between three tribes. As Jaune approached the group of teens he could tell there was a split. The was divided into clusters, people talking casually yet seeming very purposely divided by their visual traits. Those of eastern looking people stood left of the glass building right by its doors, to the right was the olive skin teens who seemed to be caught in their own conversation, and furthest from the building was a group of mostly boys, boisterous and loud stand a ways away near the street, their hair varied from auburn all the way to a deep crimson all too familiar to Jaune.

"Jaune." His father called to him Jaune turns to see his dad.

"I got this sword from my father, when I left to take the exam. It took some to make it my own but hopefully you can make it yours just as I did." Aurum said as he took his blade Crocea Mor, an ornate saber with a black hilt and golden accents, held it in both hands and extended it towards Jaune.

"Dad… I…" Jaune was at a loss for words, though now he didn't quite feel like crying.

"It's probably not the fanciest Weapon you'll run into… but you can change it as you see fit. It's yours now." He said.

"I'll carry it with pride." Jaune said.

"I know I don't say it often son, but I'm proud of you." Jaune hugged his father one last time before the man went back into the car. "I'll be going back to get your things, I know your sisters all have thing they'd rather you take with. Mementos and all that."

Jaune nodded and wave as his father's disappeared down the street.

Jaune now found himself alone amongst a pretty homogenous crowd. Just now he became aware of how everyone had been staring at him and his father. Truth be told Juane stuck out like a sore thumb. He was third generation huntsman and it shows he needn't even carry a sword. Where as the other groups showed the strong genetics of the tribes of yore Jaune clearly didn't. While he had the complexion of a northerner he lacked the redish hair, Jaune's hair instead told of a decent not entirely mistralean.

These kids where the sons and daughters of butchers, tailor and blacksmiths not soldiers or huntsmen. They likely saw this as but a test, their civic duty to come here today and then return to their lives. Once they get it over with they will go back home carry on in their studies and most likely marry the sweet girl that lives next door.

A well on of envy settled on Jaune, they truly had no idea how easy they had it. Jaune has dreaded this day all his life yet to them… it was jury duty.

"Jaune…" Jaune turned to see another missfit amongst this crowd. A pretty girl with brilliant crimson hair of the north, and the olive skin of plains.

"Pyrrha." Jaune said, almost not believing it. It certainly wasn't her birthday, she was the last person she expected to see.

They stood in awkward silence for what felt like forever till she spoke up.

"I'm sorry I've been ignoring your calls." She said.

"I understand, we both knew this day was coming." Jaune said.

"That doesn't make it right." Pyrrha says.

" No, but I don't blame you. If it were you… If you were the one a few months older, I don't think I'd could come see you off." Jaune says.

"It's not fair, why can't they just let us be?" Pyrrha said bitterly. "We both have auras…"

'You don't know that yet' is what Jaune wanted to say but that optimism rang hollow for him. He was pretty sure he had Aura. If the what the teachers at Sanctum were to be believed, Jaune genetics afforded him slim chance of being an auraless civilian. But even then what astronomical odds would it be for Pyrrha Nikos star child of Argus didn't? That they would be free to be with each other?

Everyone told them that this couldn't last yet with blindness only afforded to the young they'd ignored it. Now theirs was to be separated as the even if they both have Auras. The huntsman cast is more than just the job of slaying monsters.

"It's our duty, Pyrrha. If we have the strength to protect then we must." Jaune said.

"I-I'm sorry Jaune. I shouldn't have ever confessed…" Pyrrha said hugging her arms.

"Yet I'm so glad you did." Jaune said. "I don't regret one moment of our time together." Jaunes, he'd amit to being cheesy but at least he got a smile out of her.

"Not even the boat trip?" Pyrrha asks.

"Maybe just that." Jaune said with a chuckle.

"You're the one about to go…" Pyrrha says with a sigh. "Yet here you are consoling me."

"It's fine. I need this too." Jaune said.

They spent what must have been a twenty minutes talking, crying, and consoling each other. The hardly even noticed the doors opening and the rest of the teen slowly pour in a vestibule inside. Jaune waited till the last straggler went inside, and the men at the door looked to him with sympathetic eyes yet a practised demeanor.

"Jaune…. One last thing."

"Don't apologize." Jaune said with a sad smile. Pyrrha smile back handing a small paper gift she had kept at her side till now.

"Happy birthday Jaune." Pyrrha said, before turning around and walking away.

With his father's saber in one hand and pyrrha's gift in the other Jaune turned his attention to building towering before him, glassy seeming transparent. The workers at the door, two large men in scrubs and a rather short woman with ram horns, had already been with very patient with Jaune. They had quiet waited while he said his goodbyes.

"You did good, Son." One of them said. "You're quite brave."

"I have to do my part." Jaune said for himself before walking into the mouth of the glass behemoth.

The vestibule was as sleek as the exterior of the building, plastic whites and metallic silver permeated the room itself was wide and curved; It seem to extend out of of sight Jaune briefly wondered if wrapped around the whole building. There was rows upon rows of seats, clearly this building was designed to handle massive traffic almost like an airport.

Not a moment after Jaune was seated a woman in a suit walked through the big gray door that lead further into the building. She was carrying a clipboard and gave it just one look before locking eyes with Jaune from across the room. The lady walked fast, with intent, she had black hair that she wore on a messy bun and upon Jaune before he could even gather his thoughts.

"Jaune Arc?" She said with a smile that screamed professionalism.

"Yes…" Jaune said unsure of himself.

"Figures, Name's Suran heart. I'll be working your case." The lady said extending her hand towards Jaune, which he took in his own in a fair shake. " Any questions you might have for me."

"Yeah, uh my case?" Jaune asked confused.

"Ok, those guys are going to start calling you guys alphabetically, once you're tested it's up to me to sort of figure out where you're going." Sura said.

"Oh, ok are you gonna take long? there's a lot of people here." Jaune said looking around. The room was nowhere near capacity yet the was a number of teens here If Jaune where to take a guess he would say around sixty.

"Well we screen everyone for aura… but we only ever a get one or two from the general public. Most everybody comes get tested and are let go. When usually work further with people like you, second or third generation huntsmen." She said.

"Oh! Ok."

"The machine takes some time to warm up, so hold tight." Suna wa gone at the same brisk pace as she arrived just moments later.

Jaune was left to his own devices for the third time today. In the nearby by seats, the northern kids still laughed and joked with each other, others distracted themselves with their scrolls. Jaune briefly considered doing so himself, but this nerves got the best of him. It would be foot tapping and thub twirling for him. And so he did as he counted, the seconds turned to minutes.

When they first started calling the people through those same grey door everyone was made aware of the strangest of sounds. It built up from nothing; a slow rumble that go progressively louder. Like and earthquake or maybe even the bellows of mammoth or similar beast eventually everyone was forced to acknowledge it, even the smallest chats where forced to a halt.

Then came the very call first call a boy from the steppes whose last name also begun A was called. Not after he stepped through those door The rumbles was drown out by a thunderous sound Jaune had never heard before. If the rumble was the beast's growl, then this was It's roar as a deep base sound reverberated through him. Were it not for the boy walking out through the same grey doors before him Jaune might actually have been convinced the building had swallowed the kid whole, so violent was that sound.

Soon came the next person, then next and then the next. Each marked with same roaring sound that drowned out the rumble each time. The crowd that had started so plucky seemed to grow more nervous with each roar. People went in and they went out. The everyone left yet they all seemed worse for wear, not hurt but exhausted.

Jaune was still quite nervous but now a lot more resigned. It's not that Jaune didn't want to be a huntsman, he'd never feared the grim and he was sure his desire to emulate father likely would have to him down that path anyways he was nervous for other reasons. It was the distance, he wouldn't be allowed to see his family for years to come depending on what was he assigned to do from now on. This moment could make or break or Jaune's future and that's what terrified him. Yet either way it was out of his hands, which weirdly enough brought him some peace.

"Arc!" a man yelled as the cacophony died down once again.

Jaune lifted his sword and made a shown of not showing any weakness to the crowd. He was relatively up in the line and most of the teen were still seated. He should conduct himself in a manner becoming of a huntsman and that meant fearlessness. These kids had nothing to fear and so Jaune would show them just that.

Jaune did feel like he was in the belly of the beast, the machine was massive. Tubes ran along the walls like veins all converging in the center and into a rickety machine that extended from the floor to the ceiling, bustled away. It looked old much older than the avant garde build it was built into. It was a conjunction of pipes, engines and valves. Jaune was actually coming to terms that this might be the machine that tested his father and grandfather before him.

"Just step underneath and close your eyes." the lead scientist said. As she fiddled with a computer from behind a pristine desk.

Jaune obbeys standing directly inside the rickety machine. Soon Jaune was startled as the contraption turned and a glass door cut Jaune 's access out of the machine.

"Are you nervous?" The ram horned woman asked through a microphone.

"Y-yes." Jaune said. So sue him. There was naught but him and this woman in the room he would admit a little weakness.

"Then do something for me, close your eyes and imagine a flame." She said.

Juane felt this might have been a distraction. The type you would try on a child before a you give them a shot. Jaune would be embarrassed to admit it, but he tried anway.

Jaune closed his eyes and thought of a flame. Small and flickering, the fire was less of a campfire and more of a candle. He focused on in as he heard the machine's rumble pick up once more.

In his mind's eye the small will o'wisp danced and turned colors. Then, along with the mounting noise around him the flame grew. If this was meant to relax Jaune it wasn't working, as the flame burn more and with the every second. Jaune's heart beat his chest as he anticipated the roar but then...white.

Boom!

The thunder was should have been terrifying. Instead Jaune felt as if he was finally free. He was loose and limber. He not could contain this flame within him any longer, and he didn't want to. He wasn't afraid, he was eager to stretch his limbs for the first time.

So he released it and in an instant the world around him shook. The machine's door flew off it hinges crashing against the wall. Glass shattered and the and the forced knocked the paper and clutter flying off the desk. The woman behind it cowered and Jaune… he felt as if the weight of the world just came off of his shoulders.