It's been far too long, fanfiction! Been itching to get back to this, but alas my original novel came first for quite a while these past few months. But now I feel I've reached a point in my novel so far where I can comfortably afford to now begin this new fanfic; my mind will have an easy enough time to transition right back to my novel's story without trouble is what I mean.

That said, expect updates to take much longer now as I bounce back and forth between a chapter for this new fic and my novel, the latter of which is most important to me as it's an idea I've long since dwelled on and am only now really getting into. Also, work sort of keeps me a little too tired to write for particularly long nowadays, though I do my best to persevere and keep on writing.

Now that said, as you'll come to notice, this fic is entirely a RWBY-centric one, more or less free of the crossovers that I normally do. This is intentional on my part for a few reasons. 1) this is an idea that has relatively recently come to mind in light of volume 3's finale and 2) the other fanfics I would like to write in the future will require more research and memorization of several important things before I can write them without sounding stupid on certain matters.

And as is most common in all fanfics, expect me to interpret things from the series and expand on it as I feel is necessary. Oh, and for me to make several changes to canon! So on that note, please be gentle when first initially reading this fic.

Oh who am I kidding?! Whatever it is you think of this first chapter, let me know in either a review or a PM!

Now onto the actual chapter!

P.S. title and rating may be subject to change!

Edit: bolded ending AN.

Don't Fear the Dark Chapter 1

Jaune Arc was, in his own humble opinion, feeling a little nervous. This was the more polite way of saying that he was on the verge of near panic.

Calm down calm down calm down…

Why would he be nervous, one would ask? Because it isn't every day that someone gets personally called by the headmaster of Beacon for a personal meeting.

"Did I remember to brush my teeth?" he muttered to himself as he slowly made his way off the bullhead and touched down onto Beacon Academy ground.

Truly the academy was a sight to behold, so large that it could almost be considered a small town what with its high rising structures, fashioned out of the most magnificent of stone and metal. And thanks to this meeting, sudden as it was, being set for just a few days before the new term was to begin, the sheer lack of people wandering about allowed a peaceful and almost even serene quiet to engulf the entirety of Beacon Academy.

But alas, Jaune was incapable of appreciating its splendor, at least incapable of doing so in its entirety.

Dull blue eyes, pupils faded to the point of obscurity, peered all around the young man, seeing nothing yet perceiving something here and there.

Yes, the only male child of the current Arc line was blind.

What a nice place, all in all…

He shook his head, trying to keep his wits about him. It wouldn't do to have someone come across him looking ready to stroke out.

"Mr. Arc?"

Jaune nearly leapt out of his skin when a voice suddenly made itself known. Or rather, made herself known.

Older woman, thirties?

"A-Ah, yes, that'd be me," Jaune managed to quip as a tall blonde woman with glasses and a riding crop of all things in hand approached him.

Glynda Goodwitch, deputy headmistress of Beacon as well as its combat instructor. Standing at a height noticeably surpassing six feet, the blonde woman towered over Jaune by a good 3 inches. Combined with her almost constant stern expression, she made more for an imposing sight rather than a lovely one.

Which even Jaune, blind as he was, could immediately understand.

"I'm glad to see you've arrived on time. Was your flight here pleasant?" Glynda spoke formally.

Jaune nodded. "It was, thank you," he replied, trying not to sound hasty. He knew of her and of her reputation. One doesn't grow up learning about huntsman and huntresses without learning about people as prolific as Glynda. Or the headmaster on that note. Last thing he wished to do was let his nervousness show through and rub her the wrong way.

First impressions were everything.

And as it was, Glynda was sizing him up currently. Tall and evidently well built under the dark blue pants and zipped up black coat he wore, a hint of a matching black shirt just sticking out of the scruff of said coat.

With his youthful and clearly nervous features and messy blond hair, it wouldn't have been wrong for anyone to label Jaune as almost a stereotypical 19 year old, just barely leaving behind the teen years to enter early adulthood. But something about him couldn't help but make the deputy headmistress narrow her eyes in confusion.

Something was… off about him. His eyes, maybe?

Well, regardless of why, she had a job to do.

"That's good to hear. Then please follow me…" She turned around, ready to escort him personally to Ozpin, who'd been most interested in meeting with this young man.

Just as soon as she turned around though, Glynda paused and chided herself, remembering that the boy was indeed blind if his eyes were any indication. She almost made ready to turn and correct her mistake…

…Only to be surprised when Jaune had been about to follow after her, step for step.

It was enough to give her slight pause. And this was in turn something that the young Arc detected.

"Er, is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing," Glynda replied without hesitation, years of fine-tuning herself to keep her from giving away too much emotion during most times.

She continued to walk and Jaune followed.

For the most part, the trip proved to be a silent one, the only noise being made being the sounds of their footsteps across campus as they made their way to a tower where Ozpin's office lied atop of.

When they finally reached the elevator and it began to ascend to the top, Jaune finally broke the silence, which he'd started to find nerve-wracking.

"So, Mrs. Goodwitch," Jaune began.

"Ms., Actually," Glynda replied.

Jaune's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?" he stated in genuine confusion.

Glynda, for the first time in quite a while, grimaced. Not out of annoyance or anything, but rather out of something akin to uncomfortableness. Just what did this young man mean by that? "Yes… why?"

"How can someone like you be single?" Jaune couldn't help but blurt out without thinking. "You're an incredible person!"

For the first time since she was but a teen, Glynda Goodwitch actually blushed a little. What a forward person this man was.

When the woman shifted her feet slightly, Jaune seemed to realize what he'd said and immediately felt like sinking into the ground somewhere. After throwing himself out of the elevator, first.

Very smooth, hotshot.

"A-Ah, e-er…" He tried to salvage the situation. It took him a good few seconds, but he managed to get back to what he'd originally wanted to say. "…So may I ask what this meeting will be about? I haven't done anything wrong, have I?" Given that he wasn't even a student of this academy, to say something like that was perhaps a little stupid, but he felt the need to say it nonetheless.

Far weirder things have happened to him, after all.

"No, not at all, Mr. Arc," Glynda responded, inwardly glad for the awkward moment to have passed by. "It'd be hard indeed for you to be called in for getting into trouble, seeing as you aren't a student here."

Basically rehashing what he'd just thought, Jaune slightly flinched. Thinking it was one thing, but hearing it was another.

Not a student here, huh?

For the longest time, it'd been his dream to become a huntsman, to become strong so that he could fight for the weak. To fight for justice wherever he was needed.

To fight the Grimm…

But his dream had sort of hit a few bumps along the rode within the past few years, enough for him to reconsider things.

However, in light of recent circumstances, he couldn't help but try to follow through on his dream, first and foremost by applying for Beacon despite being 2 years older than incoming freshmen.

Could this meeting perhaps be about his application?

As if sensing some of his thoughts, Glynda spoke again. "Rest assured, Ozpin will be explaining the reason for this meeting in just a moment, Mr. Arc."

"Oh… okay then. And please, just call me Jaune," the blond young man stated.

Glynda allowed herself the smallest of smiles. Something about this oddball of a young man was rather endearing despite having only known for all of maybe ten minutes. "Very well then…"

It was at exactly that moment that the elevator finally reached the top floor, binging lightly to inform the two of their arrival.

Stepping forward into the office of Beacon's headmaster, Jaune slowed a bit in his steps. "Gears?" he muttered to himself.

So very many gears…

"Mr. Arc," spoke a voice, a man. "Thank you for coming here on such short notice."

"A-Ah, thank you for the invite, headmaster," Jaune greeted back, immediately placing the voice. Walking forward, he approached the desk and shook hands lightly with the man behind it without hassle.

This action, so simple in nature, was enough to make both Glynda and Ozpin, whom Jaune had just shaken hands with, perk up a bit. For someone that was blind, Jaune moved with such assurance that one would never think he was blind unless they saw his eyes.

"Please, take a seat. Coffee?" Ozpin offered as Jaune did as he'd asked.

"Oh no thank you. Never really did like coffee," Jaune quipped with a bit of a smile. Unbeknownst to him, this statement made Ozpin frown and Glynda inwardly chuckle. The former was simply too obsessed with coffee somedays.

"Very well. Then allow me to get straight to the point, Mr. Arc," Ozpin said as he too took a seat. "Your application to our academy."

Jaune inwardly nodded as his suspicion had been confirmed. "Is there something wrong with it?" he decided to ask straight off the bat. "Am I somehow too old to start here?" While age was hardly much of an issue in any school, there have been some very rare cases in which it'd given someone some level of trouble.

"There's nothing wrong at all with your application or your age," Ozpin replied. "While not quite common, there have been cases in the past where people a little older than the standard have successfully applied here and became students. However, while nothing is directly wrong with your application… I and Glynda find it to be somewhat… misleading."

Jaune inwardly winced. He knew what he meant, but decided to stay quiet until prompted to speak.

Ozpin had apparently printed out Jaune's application, for he now held it up from his desk, gently shaking it so that the young man across from him could hear it. "According to the application, you were a student at Lux academy, the main primary school in Vacuo. From your first year up until your graduation, you had above average grades in everything. A background investigation confirmed this."

"We also confirmed that your blindness was caused by an accident you were in while out in Vacuo's badlands during your second to last year at Lux." Glynda was the one to speak now, stepping forward so that Jaune could hear her footsteps. "And while it had taken you some time to adjust to your new… handicap…" she began a little delicately, unsure of how the young man felt about his blindness. "You continued to get above average grades in all of your classes. But while 'above average,' your grades were not at the level of 'great.'"

On that particular note, Glynda had spoken much more bluntly, enough for Jaune to nearly twitch in a way that screamed 'ouch!' But alas, the deputy headmistress was right; his grades, both before and after that incident, had been merely above average and still far from the level that would be acceptable for the likes of Beacon Academy to accept. The school only took those with truly excellent results in the hopes that they'd have the potential to become true huntsmen and huntresses.

And that was a category Jaune didn't fall into as far as grades had been concerned.

"Yet in spite of your grades, the incident from just a few days ago painted a far different image of you, Mr. Arc," Ozpin now continued. "This naturally begs quite a few questions concerning you. Not to mention a few other questions such as 'why wait two years after graduating to apply' and 'for what purpose did you apply to Beacon, but not to Shade?'"

Jaune fidgeted in his seat.

Of course, they'd know about that…

"So… you saw that, huh?" Jaune began sheepishly, thinking back to the incident in question. About a week ago, he'd finally arrived in Vale after a long journey and as fate would have it, during a nice little walk a few days back – he'd been also using the opportunity to explore the city – a ruckus had been caused in which the criminal Roman Torchwick was robbing a Dust shop with a few goons at his side.

And when Jaune had bore witness to a young girl fighting said criminals, he'd naturally intervened.

"Indeed we did. Vale's security isn't something to be taken lightly; cameras are almost everywhere nowadays to ensure any criminal act is caught in action," Ozpin explained. "But cameras don't quite explain how someone of your level – at least on paper – can so easily incapacitate the likes of Torchwick. The man is by no means an easy foe to face, yet you subdued him with such speed that the cameras could hardly keep up with it all."

"I've been keeping my skills as sharp as I could manage over the past two years," Jaune replied, carefully choosing his words. But they clearly weren't enough if the unreadable expressions on both his listeners were anything to go by, detected only faintly by Jaune.

"And evidently, you've improved a great deal to perform such a feat," the headmaster said with a slight change in tone that clearly indicated he wasn't buying it. "To be frank, that level of speed you demonstrated is well beyond that of any student. I'd dare say it's on par with the more powerful and experienced huntsmen and huntresses that I've met. In other words, Mr. Arc, if I'm right in assuming your other abilities are up to the same level as that speed… then you're rather overqualified for being a student."

The silence that fell over the room was truly something to behold as was the wide eyed expression of Jaune, his jaw so slack that it looked ready to outright detach itself from his face. Overqualified? Him? So then what does this mean for his application?!

"And we've still yet to hear your reason for applying to Beacon," Glynda now added, fixing her glasses back in place as they slid forward slightly. "Shade Academy was far closer to where you lived and just as exceptional a school as ours. So why come here?"

"…Could it have something to do with your sister, perhaps?" Ozpin questioned.

It was enough to snap Jaune out of his stupor. He came from quite a large family, him being the only boy out of the eight children his parents had. The other seven were all girls, with four of them being older than him while the remaining three were his younger siblings. The oldest of the bunch were twins, ages 24 as of this year whilst the youngest sister was 12.

But the one Ozpin was referring to was the oldest of the three younger sisters, Jeanne Arc. Having turned 17 just earlier this year, she'd been studying and training hard in order to apply to Beacon Academy, having chosen this school due to a want to learn in a completely different environment from home. Their parents had been somewhat reluctant to let her even apply to Beacon, but a soft-spoken talk among the entire family had changed their minds.

Her application had been sent in weeks in advance and Jaune could vividly remember when his family had learned she'd been accepted. Kind of hard not to know when the girl had received the acceptance letter in the morning and had screamed at the top of her lungs in joy. Their poor neighbors had been most displeased with the early and sudden wake up call.

"…Would it be creepy if I said yes?" Jaune answered. He chuckled a little, hoping to alleviate the mood that was growing heavier and heavier to him with each passing minute. The other two occupants in the office didn't join in with his chuckling however and it quickly ceased. "I just want to keep an eye on her… make sure she remains safe."

"She's studying to become a huntress, Mr. Arc. While I can admire your desire to keep your sibling safe, her chosen profession is going to make that impossible," Ozpin stated.

Jaune knew this quite well, but remained undaunted. "I know, sir… but even then, I need to be here for her."

His eyes, his blind eyes which were naturally incapable of seeing anything, zeroed in on Ozpin with pinpoint accuracy. Even when taking into account the fact that the young man could likely locate things and people accurately through hearing and his other senses, the sheer ease with which he did so and the determined stare were nearly enough to make Ozpin and Glynda both question the boy's blindness, if only silently.

"Hmm." Ozpin could only sit there in his seat, with only his thoughts to entertain him for the moment. "You refuse to tell us exactly why you want to be here for your sister," he pointed out. "Not to mention the 'discrepancy' between what your application says about your abilities and the reality captured on camera…"

Jaunce inwardly began to panic. Had he somehow gone too far? Nonetheless, his gaze remained resolute. To show weakness now would likely end badly for him.

He'd tell himself later that perhaps it was right of him to do so.

"Nevertheless, to simply turn you down because of that would be a waste," Ozpin continued, a small smile on his face. "While you appear to be too qualified to become a student here, if only on sheer ability alone, employment of sorts wouldn't be out of the question, yes?"

Jaune's mind needed a good ten seconds to process what he'd just heard. "What."

And just like that, the entire situation was flipped upside down.

As Ozpin now actually smirked and prepared himself to explain, Jaune could only sit there in his chair, completely unmoving.

By God, just what had he gone and gotten himself into?

And that's a wrap for now!

As you can see, I was somewhat inspired by Coeur Al' Aran's fanfic Professor Arc. I say 'somewhat' in that Jaune walked into this situation hoping to become a student, only to get something else out of this instead, just like in his masterful fanfic (Seriously, go read it, it's great).

But it is only there where my fic is like his. Unlike in his fic where Jaune was still as inexperienced at the start as he was initially in canon, Jaune in my fic is considerably different as will his job be, if only officially. Plus a lot of other surprises and twists that I hope you will find entertaining in one form or another.

And again as stated in the above AN, updates will be taking more time as I alternate between this fic and my novel, both of which I've long since been itching to work on. So I hope you understand. Also, this fic will likely be progressing rather slowly in pacing (at least, that's my plan), so the action and plot twists won't be taking place as quickly as they did in my previous fics.

All that said, there's really not much else I can think of to write here, other than that I hope you enjoyed this first chapter.

As always, please review and I'll see you all in the next chapter!