35 The history of the Arcs

"Isn't it the conflict that the faunus started in order to free themselves from slavery and obtain the same basic rights as humans?" Jaune said listing what he learned from history books.

"Yes, but that's not the whole history. As you should already know, the first meeting between humans and faunus was not very pleasant as it can seen by the 'first contact wars' that ensued shortly after the first meeting between the two races, conflict that eventually ended with the two races making peace and recognizing that they had much more to gain by working together against a common enemy 'the Grimm' rather than killing themselves."

"Yeah, but things weren't as nice as you made them sound."

"Indeed, even if the two races were no longer openly hostile, humans never actually saw the faunus as their equals but instead as labor that can be exploited, so they made use of their much greater number to subjugate and enslave the faunus instead, despite their physical advantages over humans the faunus were incapable of resisting with such low numbers."

"And that lead to the faunus revolution down the line." Jaune concluded.

"The revolution was a combination of many factors, but that was the main one. There were also many interests of the kingdoms of the time involved and this revolution was used as a opportunity for them to push their own agenda. Remember Jaune, in that conflict there weren't just two sides, things were much more complicated according to the family records."

"And where were the Arcs in all of that?"

"I was just getting there, the Arc clan had risen in prominence in a time between the first contact wars and the faunus revolution. At the start of the Revolution we were already quite famous around the area that now is the Kingdom of Vale as a warrior clan, we exterminated Grimm, drove off bandits and acted as mercenaries in the conflicts of the kingdoms at the time. This brought us great wealth and the Arc clan expanded as a result of that."

"..." Both Jaune and Neo continued listening intently as Nicholas continued to recount the family's history.

"But despite being a warrior clan, we still had our values back then and we always worked to prevent any conflicts we could, as we knew that the innocent civilians were always the ones most negatively affected. Ironic isn't it? The ones that lived from conflict were also the ones that did the most to prevent it."

Hearing this Jaune nodded, finding curious as to why his ancestors valued the family's customs so much when it brought absolutely no benefit to the family.

"So when they saw the first signs of the Revolution rising and recognizing that as long as the faunus held dissatisfaction in regards to their treatment, this conflict would never have a peaceful resolution, they decided to join a side as warriors in order to reduce the potential damage."

"They wanted to reduce the damage from a potential conflict by joining it? Wouldn't that instead accomplish the exact opposite? How is joining the war as warriors supposed to help?"

"I agree with you on this point, but apparently they thought that joining a side, with the great strength and number of warriors with aura they had at the time, could tip the balance to a side and make the war reach a resolution much quicker therefore reducing the damage to the civilian population. You must also keep in mind that the Arc clan was made up entirely of warriors, so they didn't know any other way to aproach the conflict other than as warriors and they were unwilling to just sit still and do nothing."

"So which side did they join in the end?"

Hearing this, Nichola's face became quite complicated as shame and regret in regards to his ancestors actions were clearly visible on his face, but he just took a deep breath and continued recounting the history.

"That's the thing, we technically joined both."

"Huh?"

"While deciding which side to support, the family was divided as they couldn't reach a concensus. Some claimed that the faunus yearning for freedom was justified and it was the most honorable of the two sides to support, while others claimed that as a clan we should prioritize our oaths to our many allies regardless of the moral standing and as supporters of peace we shouldn't support the side that started the conflict, regardless of how good was the justification."

"..." Jaune was speechless after hearing this, even for him who hasn't even been an Arc for half his total life, the idea of this family that values unity above everything else splitting up due to a conflict is completely foreign, that leaves him to imagine how bad was the conflict in order for things to end like that.

"One side valued their honor above all while the other valued only their duty, so both sides believing what they were fighting for what was right joined the respective sides and ended up facing each other."

"And their original plan to end the war ended up going astray."

"Exactly, instead of decisively tipping the scale towards one side and quickly ending the war, they ended up prolonging it and turning everything much more chaotic than it would be if they all had just stayed put. Their shame over the consequences of their actions was such that they erased all records from that time from the family records, all that we know today about that time was pieced together by their successors much after the event, so the information may not be completely accurate but you can imagine what transpired there."

'Chaos, bloodshed, death, brothers drawing their weapons at each other, Sons killing their father, a family turned on itself, all because of a small difference in values? This can't be right! And coincidently having all records erased? There had to be something bigger going on that they've tried to cover up.' Jaune thought while showing his doubt in regards to the story he's being told, it's as if there's something they're trying to conceal from their descendents using this cover story.

"And the family conflict, was it eventually resolved?"

"Sorta, after the war ended and the Revolution won, thereby ending faunus slavery-" 'Just on paper though, treatment of faunus labor didn't improve much if at all, this was just one more instance of Faunus getting the short end of the stick despite their great sacrifice.' Jaune briefly thought. "-The pro revolution part of the family as the winners punished the rest of the family they fought against to one of the harshest punishment there were: Loss of their surname and banishment from the clan, that included not only the warriors who fought but also their wives and children, that made the clan that was already weakened enter in decline and no longer have the influence that it once had.

"This also marked the change of family's aproach to wars, with the Arcs remaining neutral and mostly at the sideline in the wars to come, instead the family used its large number of warriors with aura, which were much rarer at the time, to become huntsman and build the family's reputation once again as Grimm hunters. Of course there were exceptions, such as your grandfather that instead of being a huntsman was a soldier in his youth but you get the idea."

"So... How does all of this relate to my sudden engagement?"

"Almost there" Nicholas then clears his throat before continuing. "So thanks to those actions, we Arcs received quite a contradictory reputation, especially amongst the faunus, that made us simultaneously respected and cherished as allies and friends among some of them while simultaneously being loathed as oppressors and murderers by others, as such we had since then a very complicated relationship."

"But that was hundreds of years ago! By now there should be almost no one amongst them that still knows of this history, much less carry any sentiment towards something that happened so long ago."

"Jaune, there is currently many old families in managarie that have been standing since that time and they hold their own documents about the conflict. You can be sure that their favor and grudge won't be easily erased by time."

"..." Jaune has now realized that in the future he will need to think twice and consider the risk before saying his surname to any faunus, especially if that person belongs to a more traditional family.

"But the family which is most relevant for us to talk about right now are the Belladonnas."

Hearing this, Jaune internally sighs and starts to contemplate this revelation.

He had already considered this hypothesis ever since his father brought up the faunus revolution, but he didn't dare make the guess since there were many other faunus characters, but now there's no more doubt.

The only girl around my age with the surname Belladona that was seen in the show and could fit the bill was non other than one of the members of the main cast and the 'B' in RWBY.

Blake Belladonna, currently the daughter of the leader of the faunus rights movement 'White Fang' that in a few years may become the chieftain of managarie after stepping down from his current position Ghira Belladonna and his wife Kali belladona. She certainly is someone that he didn't expect to have any contact with until the start of terms in Beacon, but it seems that fate had other plans.

To be honest, he did in the past entertain the idea of entering in contact with her family, more specifically her father, in order to avoid the unfortunate direction that the White Fang will take in the future. His idea was to inform Ghira of what would happen to the group once he left in order to convince him to remain as the leader and prevent the White Fang from becoming more radical.

But this plan would never work due to several reasons:

First is that the change of the organization reflected the thoughts of his members, even if Ghira was to remain in power this wouldn't deal with the dissatisfaction of the members that thought that the results were not coming fast enough. This could cause things to become worse as the members would seek to take actions on their own, so Jaune would rather have them be aggressive but organized under a new leader than let them leave in dissatisfaction on their own to cause destruction without anyone to keep them in check.

Second is that Ghira would not completely trust his words, Ozpin was able to somewhat trust him because mysterious figures that controls things in the shadows are the kind of stuff he's into, so he can sympathise thanks to his own personality being similar and his information being too valuable. But Ghira on the other hand, from what he learned about him after reincarnation by watching some of his speeches, he's a very uptight man so unless he speaks to him face-to-face, he'll never take any of it seriously and he obviously can't do that considering his age and being a human.

So despite still planning to deal with the White Fang issue in order to at least ensure that they don't become Salem's pawns later, he had to postpone it until he's in a better position to do so.

But now he's more involved in it than he could've possibly imagined.

'Well... What do I do now? I suppose I can only try to make the most of the situation now."

Seeing his son showing some recognition after hearing that name, Nicholas decided to question him. "Do you know the name?"

"How couldn't I? You're referring to the leader of the White Fang Ghira Belladonna aren't you? Is this girl you've arranged for me related to him perhaps?" I pretend to not to know the person he's talking about, since it would be suspicious to know too much about someone that I never met.

"Mmhm" He hummed and nodded his head "Your fiancee is his daughter actually, not many people know of her in contrast to her father, but she should be about the same age as you."

"But dad, you told me this whole story but you still hadn't explained how you came to this arrangement in the first place." Jaune said, finally showing some impatience towards this story that seems to never reach the point.

Hearing this he adopts a embarrassed expression before quickly responding: "Sorry, I was getting ahead of myself. So back to the topic... our meeting happened when I was fresh out off Haven Academy, I should've had my huntsman licence for only a month or two at the time. We both were very young in our respective careers (Nicholas was 21 and Ghira was around 14 to 15) and we had a lot of expectations and dreams unfulfilled."

"Our first meeting face-to-face was when I was acting as an escort for a supply caravan that was headed through the snowy wilds of Solitas in order to reach Mantle. We were taking a rest at one of the last stops before reaching our destination and it was there that I encountered a rally of the White Fang that he was leading."

"And let me guess, you found your ideas coincided with each other and the two of you hit it off from there." Jaune said, already being able to see where this story was heading.

"We did not exactly agreed with everything the other believed, but we had a tacit understanding and mutual respect for each other. Your mother and I even participated in a few rallies at the time, but as your mother got pregnant with Saphron and Ghira met his wife, we naturally started getting further apart until we lost almost all contact with each other."

"So, how did you meet again after not seeing each other for so many years?"

"Well, it was him actually that aproached me. Firstly to give his condolences about the passing of your grandfather and also in order to get some some advice from his old friend in regards to the steady shift in visions that is slowly occurring in the White Fang."

"Shift in the White Fang?" Jaune's heart starts to accelerate as he starts to consider the possibility that the change in power in the White Fang might happen earlier than expected, but regardless, he can't do much about it for now.

Noticing the heavy atmosphere in the room, Alexandra shoots a glare at her husband that means: 'You better not bring up that topic to this conversation.'

Seeing this, Nicholas clears his throat and quickly diverts the topic.

"Anyways... After we finally restored contact after so many years, we ended up having a lengthy conversation about everything that happened and then we also started talking about how our families were, so we ended up realizing that his sole daughter and our youngest were at the same age.."

"So we realized that our children had a lot in common with you both being antisocial and liking to read books. We then got the idea of setting up a meeting between the two, we contacted our wives in order to better plan this meeting and long story short: After much deliberation, we decided to set a casual engagement between you two, of course we decided to leave the final decision to you and your fiancee but we are hopping that you two can get along well."

After finally getting the answers that he wanted, Jaune is given a moment of silence to process everything that he has just heard.

Taking a brief look towards his back, he spots Neo that is trying to seem unaffected by the conversation while doing some menial tasks as her past time but is incapable of fooling anyone due to her been wiping the exact same spot for the last 10 minutes while sporting a stiff expression.

Turning back towards his parents he can only mentally sigh and make up his mind in regards to the situation. So after a few seconds of silence he finally opens his mouth and responds:

"Honestly, I'm still a bit bitter from being kept in the dark and not being consulted in regards to something that may affect my future, but since I already said I'm going then I won't take my word back. But don't get your hopes up, I'm only going to meet them and I have no intention of going through this arrangement."

"Why?" His mother joins the conversation "From what I heard your fiancee is quite pretty, I don't see why you would be so against it before even meeting her." She tries to persuade him.

"Her apparence is not the problem here! What I don't like is that this arrangement was made without taking into account either of the party's feelings. And you should both know that there's no way this relationship could progress in a healthy direction when both of us have no genuine feelings for each other."

"So you're talking about the two of you or just yourself? My son, you can tell me honestly if you're not into girls, your father will unders-"

"Where the in Oums name did you get that idea?! Dad, did you seriously started to question my sexuality just because of me rejecting this engagement?" Jaune becomes outraged at his father's insinuation, so much so that he involuntarily raises his voice.

"Then son, do you have any problems with her being a faunus?"

"Absolutely not! I would reject this proposal regardless of her species. That's not at all the reason for it."

"Haah... then we'll talk more about this after you return from your trip, use this time to think more calmly about this." His father finally gives up and just steps back.

'Ugh, if I didn't already already have enough things to worry about now I'll have my parents nagging about this engagement, I'll have to to make a trip to visit my 'fiancee' at some point and something tells me that my sisters and specially Neo won't be leaving me alone so soon.'

For now Jaune decides to just ignore all the unpleasant thoughts and just focus on the upcoming training trip.