AN: Hey everyone, quick warning, most of this first chapter largely consists of a recap of the events transpired in DMW up until Chapter 22, so this first entry isn't really gonna be all it's cracked up to be. You can read it if you like, but just know that.

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DATE: APRIL 16, XXXX

TIME: 9:56 PM

[PLAY]

Jackson had taken his hand away from the device as it began recording. Night had taken hold, as was obvious in the background with the shattered moon visible through the window, and the only ample lighting provided was from a lamp at his bedside. Looking directly at the camera, he held two things in his hands: one had what appeared to be two pills of some kind, holding it so that the camera could see, and in the other a glass of water. He popped both pills into his mouth and swiftly followed it up by chugging half of the glass of water. He stopped for a breath of air, and let out a content sigh.

"Pulmonary Edema," he said out of the blue. "That's what the resident Schnee doctor diagnosed me with, and gave me these pills to help break down the blood still trapped in my left lung. While the medication does its thing, they want me to refrain from doing any excessive exercise, so I don't start feeling like I'm suffocating again. Jackson Wesson, entry number…"

He appeared to stare off into nothingness for a bit, before he came back to reality and shook his head. "No. Too much has happened since the last one to write this off as another video log entry. Jackson Wesson, entry number one. A lot has happened since the last time I've done one of these, and there's no easy way of packing it all into a thirty second recap, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning."

A sigh escaped him as he prepared to recall the events that have happened over the last two months or so. "The day was shaping up to be just the same as the ones that have gone on for the last three years: Hunt, eat, survive, rinse and repeat. But, things took a turn for the worse, or more worse than what's happened before on hunts gone awry. A downed elk, a severe mauling and a gunshot later, I was lying down on what I thought at the time would be my deathbed. Darkness took me, and I thought that'd be the end of it… but that didn't seem to be the case.

"Before I knew it, I woke up in an infirmary, with no idea of where I was or how I got there. To be completely honest, I was… overwhelmed, when I came to. After spending so much time in the forest, a wide open and spacious area, the fact that I woke up in what felt like a suffocating place, with no knowledge about it, just rubbed me in all sorts of different ways, none of them good."

He let out a chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Looking back on it, saying I overreacted would be putting it lightly. Anyways, after not-so-subtly letting myself out of my room, I found myself facing off against three girls, the ones that saved my life.

"Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao-Long, and Blake Belladonna. Strangers with guns back then, but now they're some of the first real friends I've made in a long time."

Jackson's smile slowly dissipated, turning to a look of regret as he looked back on it. "And to think, it started out with me threatening their lives to get away…"

A good thirty seconds passed before Jackson came back to Remnant, shaking his head to dispel his thoughts. "A-Anyways. Yeah, things got out of hand, one thing led to another, and it results in a chase through the woods. Somewhere along the line, I realize I'm not gonna be able to shake them, so I'm forced to stand my ground." He let out a sigh as his head hung a bit lower. "I had such little remorse for my actions back then, all I wanted was to go back to where I belonged, and I would've been damned if I let anyone stop me. Maybe that's the effects near-total isolation for three years has on you. I'm scared to think what would've happened to them, or myself, if that had gone on any longer than it did."

The smile returned, and he brought his head up again. "But it didn't, because of all the things that could've happened in that moment, the most shocking, and most amazing thing took place instead. Weiss Schnee, my childhood friend, and my first ever crush, appeared.

"I was shocked, absolutely floored, shook beyond belief, whatever you want to call it, seeing her burst out of the shrubbery catching up with the other three. It was… I can't properly describe it, no matter how much I want to. Three years has passed since we last saw each other, and so many questions were racing through my mind. Does she still remember me? Does she think I died? How is she gonna react when she sees it's really me?"

He then chuckled. "Of course, I didn't have enough time to figure out an answer for any of them, Yang sent me flying into the forest before I ever got the chance. Blonde bastard can hit hard, thank God my aura took the brunt of it, otherwise I'd have been a red smear along a good couple of trees. After recovering, I did some more… less than satisfactory actions, and took Yang and Ruby out of the fight, only leaving Weiss. She looked afraid, afraid of me. That isn't to say it was undeserved, but it hurt. I didn't see a hint of recognition in her eyes either, which hurt even more. But I could understand, not many people are going to hold onto that small shred of hope that someone is still alive after three years without something, anything, to show it was true."

A moment of silence passed before he continued. "Another scuffle ensued, and I'm not ashamed to admit that Weiss kicked my ass. Hell, Yang did most of the work, so I don't know if I should give her full credit. She didn't believe who I was when I told her, but after showing her some irrefutable proof I was who I claimed to be, she broke down right in front of me.

"I held her in my arms, rubbing her back as she let it out. And when I held her, it was then that I realized just how much I missed her. Looking back, I wish I held her for longer than I did, let time pass by as he stayed there, taking a form of comfort in one another's presence, but we didn't get that chance. It wasn't long before the officials from Beacon Academy, my apparent resting place, came to retrieve me. From there, I met with the Headmaster, a man by the name of Ozpin. Whether that's his first or last name, it never occurred to me to ask. I secured a spot in Beacon as a student.

"Things were weird from there on out. I had to ease back into society, which was all sorts of off putting. Sure, I had Weiss and them to help me out if need be, but it didn't change the fact that I felt so out of place there. But it wasn't so bad. Like I said, I had friends that would help me. We went to classes together, hung out in Vale with some of them, as well as performed a student initiation as is required by Beacon, it was a simple and slow-going process.

"Then…" More silence passed as Jackson's face scrunched up with guilt and regret. "…Then my birthday rolled around.

"It's always the hardest day of the year for me, and always will be, for years to come. I changed that day, and I never realized it because I was never around anyone for them to witness that change. I was always alone, which left me blind to how I acted. How I refused to open up, because there was no one to open up to before, how dangerously short my fuse was that day, because no one was around to ever light it to begin with. I'm just thankful that I got away from them all when I did to go pay a visit to my home, or the replacement for it, rather. It doesn't seem to get easier, even after three years. Maybe if it was due to natural causes I'd be able to come to terms with it and move on. But Life's got a twisted sense of humor."

A bitter chuckle escaped from his lips. "I managed to let go, to just release all of my emotions when I met up with my village, all the anger, all my guilt. It should have been enough negative emotions to attract an entire horde of Grimm, but it didn't feel negative in any sense of the word. It was relieving, a wholesome feeling, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. And I felt comforted, though there's no good way to explain it. It was a warm feeling, just by being there, where my home once stood. Soon enough, I was myself again, at least that's how it felt at the time.

"I made the trek back to Beacon, ready to apologize to Yang, to all of my friends, for how I acted towards them earlier. But Nora found me on the way back and led me back to the dorms.

"And that's where it all went to shit."

Had Jackson been speaking to an actual person, they would've sworn they felt the temperature drop a few degrees. "It was supposed to be a simple apology, that's all it should have been. But my friends had other plans for me. I love them for who they are, and I know they didn't know what they were doing or deliberately mean any wrong, but I don't think I could have hated them more for that.

"They threw me a surprise birthday party, a gesture that would have been appreciated by anyone else. But for me, all it did was break my mind, made me remember things that were lost to me for so long, but that didn't go without paying a price. My mind crashed, overwhelmed by the sudden overload of memories lost to me, memories that held so much weight to them. I remember the old memories, but there's a hazy gap after they surprised me. The only thing that fills up that space was red, anger, pain, misery, murder, and other emotions, all while reliving what felt like a memory that had me fighting the White Fang.

"And when I came to, I found myself strangling the life out of Ruby."

Jackson sounded like he choked out the last few words as he tried to hold himself together. "It was all a mess when I regained myself. Friends littering the floor, broken furniture and a shattered window, all with a young girl hanging from my hands fighting desperately for air. I immediately let go, terrified of what had gotten over me, before they thankfully took me out of commission before I could have done anything else. Before I knew it, I was back into the same position I was when I first arrived to Beacon, except this time around I had straps keeping me pinned to the bed. But once I remembered what I did before getting knocked out, I'll be damned if leather straps were gonna keep me from seeing if my friends were okay, especially Ruby. It didn't look like I would have to turn the infirmary upside down looking for them though. They were all waiting outside of my room. I was relieved as well as scared; relieved they were alive, scared for their safety if "it" were to happen again.

"…But everything left me when Ruby finally stepped in."

Jackson was choking up, as tears threatened to break through. "She looked so scared… scared of me. And I could see the bruises around her neck from where I nearly choked the life out of her. That was it. That's what did it for me. I was ready to end it all, and not be forced to live with the knowledge that I'd nearly killed one of my first, and closest friends.

"I was so close, too," he whispered. "Gun was fully loaded, hammer pulled back, all that was left was for someone to pull the trigger, and I'd be swept into eternal bliss. But it didn't come to that, as you can plainly see. Of all the people that could have stopped it, it was Ruby, the one person that was the most hurt by me, who looked to be the most scared.

"I didn't know what to feel. Relief that she still, at the very least, cared for me, or fear that something like this will happen again. It was being under informed that got them here in the first place, because I never told them anything about my past, and the only one that knew was Weiss. So the truth came forth, better that they know why I broke how I did; plus, they deserved an explanation as to why anyways.

"After that, I rested. Though not for long, first-years had their first missions coming up, and Ozpin wanted me to accompany Team RWBY on their, special, mission. Mountain Glenn, a failed attempt at expansion with an unusually high amount of activity of Grimm. What would have originally been reserved for second-years and above, they somehow managed to get their hands on it first. Now you can see why Ozpin wanted me to tag along. Honestly, you'd think they would have been more cautious going about their own personal mission. Regardless, I went along.

"Things seemed to have gone as expected at first: scouting, Grimm slaying, rinse and repeat, until we decided to set up camp for the night." At this point Jackson let out a sigh. "…Then an old friend decided to pay a visit.

"How he managed to find me, I've no clue. But once he did, he tipped us off on a White Fang operation going on in the fallen settlement, which was what drew Team RWBY here in the first place. But before I could tell it to them, we got into a bit of a heated argument, regarding Team RWBY. Neither of us really had an advantage over the other, and by the end of it both of our 'prides' came out bruised and battered. But let the record show that I had him on the ropes before I could win. No one really came out a winner from that. And just as I was making my way back to camp, I come across Ruby, doing what exactly I've no clue. I didn't have time to figure out what, she got swallowed up into darkness from a hole that opened up right underneath her feet. Picking up Crescent Rose, I jumped in feet first after her, knowing what was waiting for me down there, and hoping for the best.

"It was insane," he said. "An entire subterranean living complex, abandoned for years, now occupied by terrorists planning to blow the center of Vale wide open for Grimm to come in. I couldn't let that happen, we couldn't let that happen. Thankfully Ruby was okay, but that was the least of our problems. We had to stop that train from going to Vale. Breaking Ruby out from the grasps of the White Fang, we did what we could to hold out and delay the White Fang from sending the train out while we waited the cavalry arrived to back us up. When they did, the train was already leaving the station, so we had to get aboard.

"From there on out, so many things happened: Grimm, White Fang, train bombs. I had seen more action on that mission alone than I had in possibly the last three months, longer even. But somewhere along the line, I did what took me years to realize what I wanted to do: I kissed Weiss.

"It was a spur of the moment. I'm beaten and cut up like I walked through Hell and back, and Yang calls out jokingly to just kiss already, but I took that as my cue and committed. It was an amazing feeling, something I've wanted to do for so long, but never realized until it was taken away from me three years ago." He let out a somber chuckle. "Ha, you never do realize what, or who, you take for granted until it's gone. I'm just thankful I got a second chance, not everyone does.

"The fight continues on. Train crashes, Grimm flood out, and we're left to defend the city of Vale from a complete massacre of innocent civilians. Thankfully, we weren't alone. Other teams rushed in, and the Atlas Military came in, them essentially overwhelming the Grimm fifty to one. Soon enough, it was over. The Breach had been contained, and the White Fang's plans were thwarted. It ended on a happy note… for most people that is.

"After the Breach was finished, some things happened, one snarky statement led to another… and here I am, in the Schnee Manor, having given Weiss the cold shoulder for weeks. Oh, and I got shot in the lung, which didn't help in any sort of way, shape or form. Also explains why I'm taking the fucking pills."

Jackson growled and angrily threw his fist down atop the bed he was laying on, before beginning to cough a bit excessively and and wheezing a bit before calming down again. "It's stupid, it shouldn't have gone for this long. But my mind was clouded with emotion, and I started painting a picture in my head of who I thought Weiss had turned into in the last three years while I was "dead." I was jumping to conclusions, coming to realizations that never existed to begin with, and all I've done was go and fuck up everything more. I hate myself for it, I really do. And I've tried apologizing for my stupid mistakes, but the opportunity keeps slipping away from me. Hopefully it isn't too late."

Jackson let out a tired sigh. "On another note, Gage is back on the case about my home, and this time he's finally going for the White Fang. Took me ages and a small fortune to convince the bastard to look into them, but at least he finally is. Hopefully it'll be a progressive change of pace from the constant empty-handedness about the event.

"This entry log's taken a lot out of me, partly because of how much I had to cover, and partly because I touched on some topics that are still a bit sensitive. Who knows how much worse things will get. But hey, look at the bright side. Once I hit rock bottom, there's nowhere left to go, but up. Jackson Wesson, signing off."

Jackson did a little two-finger salute, before his hand reached for the recording device an-

[END RECORDING]

…

Entry Log #1, finished! So that's the first installment, sorry that most of it is just a recap of the entire story, but that's usually how entry logs and diaries and such go. Entries from here on out should be more Jackson's-thoughts-oriented just because he won't have to spend so much time summarizing things that's happened like he did here, and I don't have any set schedule for this series, I'm still not certain if I want to do this after every chapter. Most likely I won't since more than one chapter can take place in the span of a day in the story, but that also means entries are going to be a bit sporadic because of it. But hey, it isn't required to read this to understand what's going on in the main story, it's just to hear Jackson's two cents that you might not normally get to hear in DMW.

Follow, Favorite, Review, do whatevs, and I'll see y'all later!