Chapter 1: Abandoned

"Jaune! Where are you?"

Jenette Arc called out to her little brother as she tried to find him in their rather spacious house. It had to be granted that there were a lot of them. Jenette just happened to be the oldest of all of her sisters and only brother at fifteen years of age. And as the oldest sister and having a brother being the youngest of them all, she worried about him.

The reason she was looking for him was because of one reason: she hadn't seen him all day, and he was nowhere to be found so far. That did a little more than worry her.

Jaune was never one for attention, simply enjoying family company the most and being shy around anyone else.

Jenette stopped in the middle of the hallway and began to take deep breaths. She was overthinking this one too much. It was a simple thing she was doing, but the way she was going about it was wrong.

"Jenny," a voice called out to her. "Any luck?"

The eldest Arc child turned to see the technically-third-oldest sibling, better known as Grace. She was the most energetic of the Arc children. And because she was helping Jenette with this task of finding their brother, she was helpful. If only her energy could always be directed so easily.

"Nothing," Jenette said. "You?"

"Still looking. Little bro's really good at hide-and-seek," Grace grinned, "But we'll find him."

"So you checked his room," the eldest asked.

"Yep. Also checked our rooms," Grace replied. "Even checked mom and dad's room."

Jenette frowned as she considered where else he could be. If he wasn't in any of their rooms, then the places where he could be were limited. He couldn't be in the living room nor could he be in the dining room otherwise he'd have been found quickly.

He likely wasn't in the training room either as nobody was there right now. He didn't like the basement because he was sorely afraid of dark places. And he wasn't likely in the weapons room either. He wasn't yet ready to hold a weapon.

As she listed out the rooms that he couldn't be in, it began to dawn on Jenette's features that there was one possibility that she hadn't considered, and she mentally cursed herself for not thinking of it before.

Jaune, you clever boy, she silently remarked. You are good at this.

"I'm going to check outside," Jenette said to Grace. "You keep looking inside."

Her younger sister gave an eager nod and ran off to check the other unaccounted rooms. The eldest sister took off, taking care to not break anything along the way. The last thing she needed was to get scolded later for being careless.

Once she was out the door, Jenette carefully scanned her house was a bit secluded from the rest of the village, and surrounded by forest. If Jaune was out here, then she would have to to check a few likely places where he could be.

The first of those places would be the shooting range strangely enough. It was the easiest seeing as it was one of the few open areas near the house. Unfortunately for her, easy was not going to play nice with her today, as he wasn't there.

"Jaune," she called out. "You out here?!"

The next thought Jenette had was to check the obstacle course. He often was here watching his sisters train. He wanted to be just like them when he grew up and no amount of babying and coddling would change that boy's mind.

He wasn't there either. It was a desperate thought at best but Jenette didn't like to leave stones unturned.

How about the shooting range? Again, not likely a place he would be, but she need to see for herself.

A quick sprint along a well-worn pathway took her to a place lined up with dummies meant for target practice. All of them needed to be replaced because they sported numerous holes and burns and scars. It was sheer luck that they held together as well as they did.

A search of the area proved to be just as fruitless as the previous places searched. At this point, Jenette was beginning to panic. Jaune could've gotten lost in these woods seeing as whenever he came out here, it was with one of his sisters or their parents.

The panic only served to fuel Jenette's desire to find him.

"Jaune," she cried out. "Where are you?!"

The sound of a branch snapping brought her head up and she quickly tried to trace the source of it. Her footsteps quieted down to whispers as she carefully made her way to the source.

"I'm right here," a small voice called out.

Normally, the eldest sister wouldn't be scared but such a small voice but she was tense with anticipation and worry that she was easily caught off guard.

"JAUNE," she jumped back in shock.

"Sorry, Jenny," he said. "Did I scare you?"

"You know better than to go here without one of us," Jenette scolded, recovering quickly. "Don't ever do that again. What were you doing out here?"

"Hide and seek," he squeaked.

"Jaune," she sighed. "What were you really doing out here?"

"Being quiet and secretive," Jaune protected. "I wanna train to be a quiet huntsman and kill the bad Grimm when they can't see me."

"Jaune," she sighed. "You're still a little kid. You're too young to be thinking about that. Besides, it's not all fun like in the stories. Grimm are nasty business."

"But I wanna do it," Jaune protected. "I wanna be a hero."

Jenette couldn't help but feel a small smile come to her face. Jaune truly was selfless even as a small child. And if the eldest Arc sister had to guess, he was likely to grow up with that same selflessness and give it to anyone in need. And that served only to reinforce her love for him.

And that's why she couldn't find it in her heart to crush his words.

"Well how about this," Jenette took his hand. "How about we practice with mom and dad watching."

"But they won't let me become a huntsman," he whined. "They say it's too dangerous."

"You'll grow up," Jenette encouraged.

"Really," Jaune looked up hopeful.

There was that same look that try as she might could not find it in herself to deny.

"One day," she said. "One day."

With that, she led Jaune back to the house. As they caught sight of the house, Jaune found himself caught in between the two second-born twins, Grace and Ashton.

"Jaune," they both cried simultaneously. "You scared us all."

"Sorry," he looked crushed. "I didn't mean to."

They set him down after a moment and Ashton kneeled to meet Jaune's eyes.

"Jaune," the first twin said. "We love you to death. If anything it's our fault for letting you out of our sight."

"And speaking of that," Jenette looked to the twins. "I thought it was your turn to watch him."

"It was," Grace look sheepish. "We kind of got caught up doing something else."

"Do you want to give mom and dad a heart attack," Jenette crossed her arms.

"Sorry Jenny," Ashton raised her hands. "Won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," Jenette warned. "Because my anger will be the least of your problems.

"Don't be mad at them, Jenny," Jaune pleaded. "It's my fault."

The eldest sister casually moved some strands of her dirty blond hair to her right side before facing her little brother.

"Jaune," she chuckled. "It's okay. I thought I told you that."

The twins grabbed Jaune's hands to show that they didn't fault him, and he looked at all three of his sisters.

"Okay," he said timidly.

"Now how about we play a game," Grace suggested.

"Tag," Jaune blurted out with a suggestion.

"A much more preferable thing to be doing," Jenette smiled. "So who wants to be it?"

Location Classified

"Is this truly wise, sir?"

Colonel James Ironwood stood with a scroll in his hands as he looked at the portrait of the young boy that adorned the screen. The boy was six years of age, and the son to two of the most well-known hunters in all of Remnant.

"It's not a matter of wise," James said. "It's a matter of preserving peace and protecting the innocent."

"But there is no war going on sir," Lieutenant Holden Jennings pressed.

"Not yet," the colonel said immediately. "But if our intelligence reports are correct, there will be."

"Jacob Arc and Gina Arc will hunt us to no end," the lieutenant continued. "They are overprotective of their children. Do you remember what happened when someone last tried to hurt their eldest child?"

Colonel Ironwood gazed at the officer with a neutral expression.

"You know what we have to perfectly well. And we all agreed that it is better to trade one life for the many. You know what you signed on for, lieutenant; why the hesitance now?"

James could understand his subordinate's unease towards their directive, and truth be told, the colonel too felt the same amount of disgust towards what he was doing. Unfortunately, this was necessary because if they didn't do this, many more lives would be lost. It was decided that this small sacrifice of morals was far outweighed by what it ultimately would do.

"I just don't see why our special forces can't handle this," Holden sighed. "Is our situation this desperate?"

"Believe me, lieutenant," James shifted the picture and displayed a dossier. "Special operatives aren't enough. Even a trained huntsman or huntress cannot occupy this role. The number don't lie, and that's why we are doing this, to create an ultimate soldier on that can exceed the best of the best."

At this point, the argument was pointless and Holden sighed lightly, not having anything more to argue with. He knew that this was the right thing to do, as ironic as the situation was. Doing the wrong thing in order to do the right thing never felt more sickening than this. Yes, it was part of the mission, and yes Holden had volunteered to be a part of it, but becoming a part of this seemed so different back when he first heard about it.

The details were specific and clear when he was told to read everything that was entailed. That had been a week ago. Now a week later, after having read all of the report detailing the mission, he felt just slightly disturbed by it. The logic was sound in that it created a warrior that few could rival, but what was entailed was extreme, perhaps even brutal.

However, this wasn't merely a mission that was weeks or months long. This was expected to take at least a decade. And ultimately, the end wasn't actually clear. There was only an estimation of the time frame.

Lieutenant Jennings could list a few more things that didn't bode well with him, but there was no turning back, and he'd have to live with the consequences of this choice forever in his mind. So he might as well do his duty and hope that he could somehow atone even just a little bit.

"When do we proceed with the first phase," Holden put his hands behind his back.

"We have just received the green light," James finished his reading of the information. "Our operatives are in place awaiting the order."

Putting the scroll down, Colonel Ironwood turned to the lieutenant, who still stood at full attention, with no slack in his posture.

"We have our work cut out for us, Lieutenant Jennings," the colonel spoke. "Make sure everything's ready."

The officer saluted crisply before turning to leave quietly and briskly to do as he was commanded. James then proceeded to stare out of his office window at the countless machines of war that stood outside.

May Monty Oum forgive us.

Hello readers out there. I'm back with another story. This story was inspired by many different sources. And Jaune's character will be OOC to be certain with some of his trademark quirks.

Because this is my first RWBY story, I want to first write a pairing that I feel I know the best right now. I think that as I write this story, my own understanding of all the characters will change and that will inspire me to write non-canonical pairings.

To my new readers and old readers, if you loved this chapter, leave me with a review. If you hated it, I want to know why. And any feedback and ideas are greatly appreciated. RWBY is still a new universe to me.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and remember, as much as life demands that we work, take the time to step back and enjoy life however you can.

Peace out!