5Chapter One
Returned
He felt warmth in his hand before he could completely come to. Soft warm fluffy things. He gently held them as his vision returned to him. Kneading one of the soft things between his thumb and a finger, light filled his eyes along with the hushed whispers of young people.
As he adjusted to reality that was returning to him, Cardin realized that he was sitting on the side of a table and gently kneading a young woman's bunny ears in his fingers.
She had her eyes tightly shut and was making a whimpering noise in fear.
This was an absurd and dangerous situation for an adult man like him to be in, and he quickly let go, giving the kid an awkward pat on the head with a softly embarrassed "Cute kid" as he got up and looked around.
The girl with rabbit ears looked at him with a confused and fearful expression before scurrying away.
This was a cafeteria of some sort. It was lightly lit and full of gossipping teenagers. Quite a few of them were looking at him disgustedly, but didn't dare interrupt.
What was he doing here?
That's when he remembered an old time before the tower rose.
" Bea...Bea...right Beacon Academy" he said, suddenly remembering old memories from his youth.
He started laughing in joy. In ecstatic glee. Loud bellowing laughs of joy. He didn't care who was watching or heard him.
He really was back. He had returned.
He dropped to his knees and his laughter became mixed with tears of joy. He laughed and cried then laughed some more as everything began returning to him.
This was real. It wasn't an illusion.
Getting up, he looked around the cafeteria and saw many wide eyed students looking at him with the wide eyed look one would give a rabbid dog. Fear, disgust, and concern filled the wide eyes of many students.
Many looks were thrown his way, but there was only one look that mattered to him from amongst the students right now.
Jaune Arc's.
Finding him sitting with a few other young men and women in the side of the cafeteria, he practically shot over to him. Seeing the fear in Jaune's eyes as he approached him almost made him slow down, but he couldn't stop himself.
Grabbing Jaune up from his seat he held him in the tightest bear hug he had ever given someone before anyone there could react.
"I missed you so much my friend. I'm so sorry" he spoke to Jaune with the hollow voice of a man that had seen his closest friend die and come back to life.
Jaune was terrified whilst team RWBY and their friends were so shocked that they were slow to act, but Yang was the first to speak up.
"Hey, creep, get away from him" Yang said as she stood up but was promptly ignored.
Cardin placed Jaune down with a relieved smile.
Then he realized how crazy he must have looked to those who didn't know his situation.
Stepping backwards with an awkward laugh, Cardin gave a sincere smile to Jaune and to the table he had picked him up from.
With a bow, Cardin gave a heartfelt apology.
"I apologize for anything that I have done to any of you and swear I won't do such childish and immature things again. Please don't hold it against me" he spoke with a sincere heart. He remembered the times that he used to bully Jaune and even though the two had reconciled in his past, they hadn't now.
"Yeah whatever weirdo, get lost" Nora said, rolling her eyes from her seat at the table and shooing him away.
"Jaune, come see me after school at the recreation center. I have so much to tell you and so little time" Cardin said to Jaune before turning around and walking over to his lackeys.
The sound of fists crashing into the faces of the three lackeys and their surprised shouts of pain went on for almost two minutes afterwards.
When the two of his lackeys besides Dove Bronzewing lay unconscious on the ground, Cardin spoke up to Dove who had gotten the lightest punishment.
"Dove, my friend. Stop bullying people. We have much more important things to do" Cardin said as he pulled him up from the floor after roughing him up.
Dove was genuinely scared. He had never seen such a scary looking in his team leader's eyes.
He gulped and nodded carefully.
"Good, now come with me" Cardin said, nodding towards the field and combat arena outside of the cafeteria.
"But. What about lunch?" He trepidly asked.
Cardin just gave him a stern look, and the cowardly henchman acquiesced.
The two left the cafeteria ignoring the shocked faces of the students they passed by.
The two left the cafeteria and navigated the halls till they got to the exit at the arena.
When the two passed the armory and entered the empty arena space, Cardin sat down on a long bench and looked up at the bright sun that rained it's light down on him.
Tapping the bench, he had Dove sit next to him.
The anxious young man sat and looked at him nervously. Cardin placed his bulky arm over Dove's shoulder and leaned close.
"Dove. Something very bad is going to happen in eight months. I need you at your best. This will be something beyond anything that has happened before. So bear with me and we'll make it through this together. I promise you that no matter what happens, I'll look after you like a brother" Cardin quickly explained giving Dove a pat on the back and a smile.
If he trained Dove as best he could along with Jaune and a few others, he could make his rise in the early floors of the tower easier, and most importantly, he could save his family.
"What's going on?" Dove asked. Cardin was behaving erratically and speaking nonsense but he didn't dare challenge him.
"I'll tell you when the time is right, but for now, we train like hell is on our tracks" Cardin said, getting up from his seat and holding his hand out to Dove.
"So that just happened" Yang said as she watched the strange bully beat up his underlings and leave with one.
Meanwhile, Jaune stood stock frozen in his spot, an odd look between horror and confusion on his face.
"Are you alright Jaune?" Pyrrha asked in a soft voice from her seat at the table. That seemed to snap Jaune out of his fear induced trance and he let out a long breath he didn't know he was holding in.
"Yes, I'm alright, I think? He apologized so things will be alright, right?" Jaune timidly asked just as much to reassure himself as to ask for confirmation.
"That scum is up to something" Weiss said, her eyes still on the two unconscious lackeys.
"For once I agree with you" Blake agreed with a quick curious look at the door the two bullies had left out of.
"Anyways, did you see how he beat up those trash? I've been waiting to do that but he stole my opportunity" Nora pouted with faux disappointment before digging into her sandwich.
While the rest of the group gossiped, Blake was deep in thought.
She had been around enough skilled hand to hand combatants in the White Fang to recognize the ability of a fighter, and Cardin seemed incredibly skilled in hand to hand for a schoolyard bully.
She nibbled on her tuna sandwich before giving a little "Hmmph" and thinking about something else.
Jaune sat back down and stared at his plate. Something was very wrong with Cardin. The cardin who had bullied him would never sincerely apologize or hug him like that. It was almost as if Cardin had been replaced by someone else entirely.
"Hah. As if" Jaune chastised himself for his foolish fancies. Cardin had probably woke up on the wrong end of the bed today and it would be business as usual tomorrow.
Oddly satisfied with his conclusion, Jaune nodded before his thoughts were disrupted once again by Pyrrha.
" You're not really going to see Cardin after school today are you?" She asked him. A moderate amount of concern made her face pale as she looked at Jaune with a complex blend of emotion.
"I should hear him out right? I mean he apologized and said he wouldn't do it anymore" Jaune said, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Blake, who had been watching him muttered that Jaune was a idiot.
"Well if you're going to go, be careful" Ruby said. Jaune was a bit odd and a goofball, but she did feel bad for his bullying.
"Yeah" Pyrrha agreed, shooting Jaune a quick look.
"Thanks guys" Jaune said before getting up to return his empty plate and tray.
However in Pyrrha's head she had resolved herself to follow him after school and make sure that Jaune wasn't walking into a trap.
With those thoughts, Pyrrha's cheeks slightly reddened and she smiled giddily.
She could feel her heart beginning to race as she lost herself in her thoughts. She would make sure he was safe.
Author Note: This chapter is pretty short because I don't have much time to write this weekend, but the next will be longer in general.
IRA Aston Impereticus: Thank you for the kind review.