Auburn: Original Chapter 1: Emerald Forest, a rwby fanfic

So this is the very first edition of Auburn. Pretty much completely untampered (which means all the old ANs and mistakes, grammatical and otherwise) from when each chapter was posted. It doesn't include the rewrite that I attempted, but that was just a shorter tale of what already was. You can thank Jefardi for this. He knew of my plans to delete it so went and saved everything to keep a record because he knew I wouldn't.

I wasn't going to post this version again at all. For a while I was just sending it to anyone who requested it. Not only is that inefficient for me, but it's inconvenient for everyone else as well. My original intent wasn't to even go that far, but I guess I underestimated how attached people were to this version. I'm obviously less than pleased with it, or this wouldn't have happened in the first place. Regardless, it's not just about what I wanted with it and I can see now perhaps I did make a rash decision just removing it entirely like I did.

This doesn't change anything, but I will at least own up to it. So posting this is at least my (small) attempt at a Mea Culpa.

Anyways, this isn't perfect. It's huge, for starters. I broke the chapters into "story arcs" so that way I only have to publish half a dozen chapters instead of 30+ and it beats having one massive file most people can't load. It's also forever incomplete. This isn't something I'm ever going to add to or anything. If I ever do continue Auburn, it will be from where the "new version" ended off and will diverge from there.

I am, however, posting a summary at the end of the last chapter to give you an idea how it would have gone, at least. So if you're interested in that, skip to chapter 7 in the dropdown and scroll to the bottom to see how the story likely would have played out. It's at least something for those of you who wanted it.

Auburn

Chapter 1: Blind

Jaune Arc was going to die.

He hated to admit it but he really didn't see any other possible outcome at this point as every second brought him closer and closer to a (hopefully painless and immediate) imminent death by gravity. This wasn't what he signed up for...at least not what he thought he signed up for.

He just wanted to make the world a better place. Was that so bad? Sure, he'd done some bad things along the way; He did fake those transcripts to get into Beacon. However, it all evened out, right? So why was this happening to him? Why had that crazy headmaster launched them off the side of the cliff? He had so many questions but he wasn't going to get an answer to any of them if he didn't do something in the next couple seconds. The treeline for the Emerald Forest was nearly upon him.

"I'm so dead." Jaune closed his eyes and considered just waiting for nothingness to claim him. A brief flash of pain beforehand, maybe. Preferably a very, very brief flash of pain.

No.

He couldn't just give up here. He had so much to live for. He was only Seventeen years old. There were so many first experiences he needed to have. He had yet to kiss a girl. Before that how about holding hands with one. Yeah...he couldn't afford to die yet. Not like this. He didn't want to be remembered as a splat on the ground that had never even held hands with a girl.

Jaune's eyes shot open and he reached for his sword. He unsheathed it and the sheath expanded into a shield. No sooner did he complete this action and he met with the top of the trees. Leaves and small branches whipped at his face, obscuring his vision and cutting his face. He treated these as minor annoyances and brought his shield in front of himself. It was possibly the best decision of his life. The angle of his descent brought him to the trunk of the tree and his shield struck it hard. If that had been his face he would've died as quickly as he had just been envisioning.

Instead he ricocheted off with nothing more than a sudden numbness in his left arm. His right arm meanwhile flailed wildly as he tried to slow his descent by any means necessary. By mere dumb luck he managed to bury his sword into the trunk that had nearly just killed him. It splintered bark and wood apart as it gouged a horrendous wound into the tree as he continued downwards. Every second brought him closer to the earth still, but now it was at a constantly decelerating speed. He was still going a little more quickly than he would have liked but it was no longer fatal.

Finally, after not all that long at all, his feet struck the ground. They failed to support him and he crumbled to his knees and let go of his sword which remained planted firmly in the side of the tree. His shield fell to the ground next to it, his arm no longer capable of holding it. It was still too numb from the earlier impact. Jaune sat there for several minutes in complete silence as he stared with wide-eyed disbelief at the forest all around him. As feeling began returning to his arm and legs he finally realized the reality of the situation.

"I survived." He whispered before breaking out into a huge grin after hearing his own voice. He jumped to his feet and pumped his fists above his head. "I survived!" He shouted to the forest around him, not caring who he let know. At least, he didn't care until he heard the howling of several Beowulfs respond to him. "Ah, crap!" Jaune bent down and pick up his shield which popped back into its sheath form before struggling several seconds to unwedge his sword from the tree. Once his weapon was secure he took off in the direction he was sure he didn't hear a horrifying creature of Grimm respond.

After sprinting for several seconds he realized he had no idea what it was he was supposed to be doing. Professor Ozpin had given them no instructions. He told them almost nothing at all actually. Jaune thought back to the brief couple sentences the headmaster of Beacon Academy had told them.

"In front of you is the Emerald Forest. It is teeming with dangerous Grimm and as such is the ideal location for your initiation into my school. Good luck." Not a moment after he said this and they had all been rather violently catapulted off the side of a cliff and into the aforementioned forest. What was he supposed to do here? Climb back up? He didn't mind the idea of getting out of here immediately. A beeping from his pocket brought him from his thoughts and he halted his mad dash for survival to give it his attention.

He pulled his scroll out and after unlocking it saw a pending message. It read: 'Congratulations on passing the first task. Now that you've survived your fall you are to begin your second task. Locate a partner. How about...the first student you make eye-contact with. They'll be your partner for your next four years at Beacon...or until one of you dies. Do try to pick someone you'll get along with. Complete this to receive your next task.'

Jaune's eye twitched.

He was going to murder that nutty headmaster. If he made it out of here alive. Maybe faking his transcripts wasn't such a hot idea after all? There were other ways to make the world a better place. Soup kitchen. Home repair. Taking care of the elderly. No, no, no. He was here now. He couldn't turn back. He was going to complete all these stupid tasks and become the best Hunter this world had ever seen!

"Let's do this!" Jaune declared to himself as he punched his own chest. He was mindful enough to not be too loud. He didn't want to attract more Grimm. He just had to find a partner. Hopefully someone he knew; Preferably Ruby. She was nice. She looked very capable in a fight. She built that scythe of hers after all. It was also a gun! Maybe Weiss? She was gorgeous. That there was a girl he wouldn't mind giving his first hand-holding to. Yang? She seemed kinda difficult to deal with. There was also that girl on the cereal box. She seemed pretty eager to get on Team Jaune. He had some pretty good options. Now it was just locating one of them.

The sounds of a battle drew his attention. He listened more intently and made out the sounds of metal clashing with Grimm-hide. A scream of exertion followed by more clashes told Jaune it was a girl. Maybe it was one of them?! Excitedly, he took off towards the source of the noise and paused behind a giant tree. He peeked out from behind it and his head lowered slightly in disappointment.

It was some girl he didn't recognize. She had long black hair and a very cute black bow. The thing she was fighting was a terrifying sight. A giant black snake lunged at her and she barely dodged out of the way. If he remembered right that was a snake Grimm called a King Taijitu. It felt like he was forgetting a detail about it though...whatever.

Now was his chance to slip away if he wanted. The girl hadn't noticed him and seemed to be holding her own just fine. If he left her without making eye-contact they didn't have to be partners and he could find one of his earlier-thought-candidates. He didn't want to admit it but that Grimm scared him a little too. Just as he resolved himself to do this he was reminded of that detail he had been forgetting. King Taijitu had two heads…

A white snake was sneaking up on the girl. She was going to be attacked unsuspectingly from behind while she was occupied with the first head. She could die...he couldn't let that happen. He didn't want to become a Hunter to let people die just so he could be safe; The exact opposite. He would rather die for others if it meant they could live on.

"I gotta do this." He took several deep breaths and realized his knees were shaking violently. Was he gonna buckle under fear? No! He had to be brave. The white snake was pulling its head back. It was preparing to strike. She still hadn't turned to see it yet.

She was going to die.

Before that thought had even fully formed he had broken from his cover and was running to her location. The white snake lunged just as he reached her back. His shield was already deployed and raised. Its head ran smack into it and it bounced backwards from the unexpected obstacle. Jaune nearly fell on his butt from the recoil but managed to keep his balance by stepping backwards and into the back of the girl he had saved.

"Thanks." Her smooth silk-like voice didn't sound at all like she was currently engaged in a life or death struggle. "Think you can hold that one off long enough for me to finish this one?"

"Haha...leave it to me." Jaune's voice cracked as he looked at the giant snake in front of him. It was much bigger up close and he felt his vision blur out of focus as fear gripped him. He was staring down death again…

"This won't take long." He felt the softness of the girl's back disappear as she re-engaged her foe. She was giving it her all. There was no reason he shouldn't be expected to do the same.

"Here goes nothing!" Jaune forced his eyes to focus on the snake in front of him and charged forward with a furious battle shout. His sudden change in demeanor must have shocked the Taijitu because it pulled back slightly instead of lunging forward. When Jaune was what he guessed was close enough he swung his sword in a powerful cutting arc...only to fall magnificently short. He stumbled as his sword met air and nearly tripped over his own feet. "...Not what I planned." He grinned sheepishly up at the snake which lunged at him. "Crap!" Jaune let out a high-pitched scream as he raised his shield and blocked the snake's strike again.

Its head once again bounced backwards and Jaune stumbled away from it. It recovered much more quickly this time and lunged again. Jaune barely blocked this time but was knocked to his butt in the process. The snake didn't appear phased at all this time and lunged once more.

He was dead.

He couldn't raise his shield in time and was going to get ripped in half by this light-damned Grimm. At least he went out trying to protect a girl…

Said girl flew across his vision and with quick work pincered the King Taijitu's head clean off. Blood sprayed in all directions as it's head and body hit the ground. Jaune had to scoot rapidly backwards to avoid getting caught by the red splashes. Once a safe distance back he let out a sigh of relief. Twice now, he had escaped death by the skin of his teeth. He looked around for his savior but caught no sight of her.

Had she abandoned him? Jaune's heart fell as he realized the implications of this. He had sucked so horribly she had fled before the two of them could make eye-contact so she could avoid being his partner. He couldn't really blame her. That had been pretty disgraceful on his part. He deserved to be abandoned. His eyes were focused on the grass at his feet when a second pair came into view. He looked up in surprise and locked eyes with a pair of beautiful yellow ones. The girl with the bow gave him a small smile and extended her hand. Jaune took it and allowed himself to be hoisted to his feet. He couldn't help but stare at her in disbelief.

"My name is Blake Belladonna." She introduced herself with a slight incline of her head. "Thanks again for coming to my aide." Jaune opened and closed his mouth but no words came out. She was still going to thank him? He had been the one who was saved in the end. He had to let her know it was fine. She didn't have to team up with him if she didn't want to. Maybe it wasn't too late to undo this. Before he could voice any of this though, the girl he now knew as Blake gave a small chuckle. "Aren't you the guy who was in the Onsie?"

Jaune knew it should have made him embarrassed. He wasn't exactly up-to-date on the latest pj fashion in the city and had made a bit of a fool of himself last night. However, her calling him out on it in such a way made him feel comfortable. It was exactly like when he met Ruby. "The name's Jaune Arc." He pointed to himself dramatically, all his previous floundering forgotten. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it."

Blake rolled her eyes at his introduction but the small smile never left her face. She extended an open palm towards him. "Nice to meet you, Jaune Arc."

He took her hand and gave a single, firm shake. "Nice to meet you, partner."

Their scrolls beeped as their partnership was confirmed.

Jaune immediately fumbled for the device, eager to see his new task now that he had successfully accomplished yet another. He was on a roll. Two tasks down and he hadn't died yet. Just nearly. Twice. Who was counting?

He cast his pointless thoughts aside as his scroll began displaying its newest message from Ozpin. 'Congratulations Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna on becoming partners. May you fight well together. Your third task begins now. To the west is a cave. Locate it, enter it, and retrieve a relic from inside. Once you've exited the cave you will be given your fourth task. Until then.'

"That sounds easy enough." Jaune looked up from his scroll to see his partner already walking. "Hey, wait up!" He pocketed his scroll and took off after her. She moved through the forest with practiced ease, almost as if she lived in it her entire life. He meanwhile crashed through it like a wild boar.

"So Blake," He began as he ducked under a tree branch that nearly whacked him in the face. "What brings you to Beacon?"

"I want to become a Huntress." Was her curt reply. He waited several seconds for her to say more but it seemed that was as much as she cared to elaborate.

"Really? What a coincidence. I'm here to become a Hunter myself!" He chuckled at his own lame humor but quickly stopped when Blake didn't join in. "I come from a line of warriors and Hunters myself. It seemed right to follow in their footsteps, you know? Besides, it feels good to help people. What about you? Why do you want to become a Huntress?" He hoped that by sharing a little about himself that she would open up. For a moment it didn't seem like it would work.

"There's...so much wrong with this world." Blake finally answered. "I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. I have to fix it."

"Ah" Jaune responded back awkwardly. That made his goals of keeping the family name going feel pretty insignificant. He decided to just let the conversation die with that and Blake seemed more than happy to leave it. So for the nearly an hour the two of them walked until they found what they could only assume was the cave their scroll mentioned.

If Jaune had to pick one word to describe the cave it would be ominous. Unreadable warnings were scrawled all around the edges of the gaping entrance that seemed to extend forever into pure darkness. Blake approached the writing and seemed to attempt to decipher their meaning. Jaune, meanwhile tried to peer deeper into the gaping black hole that was before them. He had no such luck in discerning anything.

He looked to Blake as he formed an idea but she seemed distracted so he ran back to the forest for a minute. When he returned she just seemed to be finishing and turned to look for him. When her eyes finally landed on him they widened in surprise as she noticed he was carrying something new.

"Ta da!" Jaune waved the torch he had just constructed happily above his head. It didn't look very impressive in the sunlight but he knew it would be more than enough to light up the cave ahead.

"I'm impressed. How did you even know how to make that?" Blake genuinely looked like she meant her first statement. It caused a small sense of pride to build up in Jaune's chest. Maybe she wouldn't think of him as so worthless after this?

"Oh, you know. Just something I picked up from my days of youth." He shrugged cooly.

Blake rolled her eyes at his vague answer but didn't press the point. "Shall we go find that relic?" She indicated for him to take the lead now that he had the light.

"Definitely." He strolled purposefully ahead and she fell into line with him. As he expected, it lit up the cave brilliantly and they made their way deeper into it. "Did you manage to figure out what all that writing by the entrance meant?"

Blake shook her head. "Only that this place is dangerous. We should be careful." No sooner did she say this then did the torch begin illuminating numerous skeletons scattered across the cave floor. Most of them were just the remains of rats and rodents but several here and there looked like they might even belong to a human.

Jaune gulped nervously. "I don't think we needed that writing to figure that out." Blake could only nod in silent agreement. They proceeded deeper in but this time without any talking. Jaune was far too terrified of alerting whatever it was that had created those skeletons. He did not want to end up like that one bit. Two near-death experiences in a day was enough for him thank you. He just really hoped that this light was enough to scare off anything that they came across. He would hate for something to descend upon them because they were suddenly thrust into darkness.

Maybe it was because he had this last thought, maybe it was just because he was a klutz. Either way, no sooner did those thoughts enter his brain then he tripped and stumbled over a small pebble. He fell forward and dropped the torch to catch himself. By pure dumb luck the torch fell into a puddle…

...and thrust them into complete and utter darkness.

Blake Belladonna let out a long, drawn out sigh as their only source of light was extinguished. Her eyes adjusted quickly and she could see almost as if she'd never lost the light at all in only a couple seconds. She knew though that her partner wouldn't be nearly as lucky. He was going to be completely blind the remainder of their duration in the cave.

Jaune hadn't moved from his spot on the ground. He was on his hands and knees and was just staring at the spot where he had last seen the torch. She felt bad for him. She wanted to call out to him and tell him not to worry about it. Tell him there was no harm done. She could still see after all…

...that was the one thing she didn't want him knowing. She couldn't risk her identity being compromised on only her second day into the academy. She wasn't exactly seeing another alternative either though. They were effectively stranded in here unless she revealed her secret. There was no way the torch was going to be lit again and it would take a considerable amount of time for them to stumble 'blindly' out to make another. She once again sighed as she realized what it was she had to do.

Jaune must have heard this sigh because his head jerked up and he looked in her direction with complete worry and fear on his face. "I'm so sorry, Blake! I'll fix this I swear! Don't give up on me and abandon me as a partner-"

"Whoa, whoa!" Blake interrupted him as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. No one is abandoning anyone. It was a mistake. No harm done." She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to reveal her big secret. "...I can actually see in the dark."

To her complete surprise Jaune let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness." His worry seemed to ebb away as if it had been an illusion. Instead it was replaced by what looked like awe. "You're awesome. I'm glad to have you as a partner."

"Glad?" Blake tilted her head in confusion. He wasn't mad at her for hiding her secret?

"Yeah." Jaune nodded his vigorously to emphasize his point. "You kick ass in a fight. Seem super cool, smart, and collected. You're beautiful. And now I find out you have night vision like some super-hunter from a comic book!"

Blake felt her face heat up at all his blunt praise and she was glad he couldn't see it. She was also thrilled to realize Jaune didn't actually realize what her having night-vision really meant. In a small way, she was glad he was her partner now too. She shook off these thoughts as she lifted him to his feet by the elbow. "Come on, take my hand. I'll guide us through this." Without waiting for a response she grabbed his hand and began pulling him through the darkness.

They continued for several seconds in silence. She had expected him to say something more but apparently something was distracting him now.

"...My first hand-holding."

"What?" Blake's bow twitched as she heard Jaune say something nonsensical.

Jaune was staring at where their hands were connected (not that he could actually see it). "It's my first time holding hands with a girl. Well, a girl not my mom or sisters."

Blake shook her head but smiled. "Don't get too used to it. Once you can see again, you're cut off."

"I'll savour the moment while I can then." Jaune said just a little too happily.

She was going to respond but the scenery of the cave suddenly changed as they reached what looked like a massive chamber. The walls and ceiling extended much farther and the floor dipped down to form what looked like a giant bowl. In the middle of this massive cavern was a pedestal...and on that pedestal was a chess piece; A white knight. "Jaune, I see the relic."

"Are you serious?" Jaune took a couple excited steps forward but nearly tripped because of the unexpected slant. Blake held him tight to steady him. "Let's go get it and get out of here. I still can't see anything."

"Yeah, okay." Blake took a couple steps into the cavern when her bow twitched again. They weren't alone. She could feel it. Her tension must have reached her hand because even Jaune suddenly seemed on edge.

"Blake?" He asked in hushed panic. "What is it? What's out there?"

She shook her head and then remembered he couldn't see. "I don't know. I...don't see anything." Her eyes scanned every inch of the cavern that was visible to her. There was nothing. As far as her eyes could tell it was just them. Her other senses knew better though. But until it made itself known, there was nothing she could do. "We need to move. Preferably quickly."

"Grab it and run. I like it." Jaune nodded to her plan and they both moved at a much more hastened pace. Blake had one hand on Gambol Shroud, ready for anything. Without so much as a twitch from the danger though they made it to the small monolith in the center. Not missing a beat, she snagged the chess piece and forced it into Jaune's free hand. He put it into his pocket and nodded to her.

"Let's get out of here." Jaune turned around and began to drag Blake back. She nodded as she scanned once more into the chamber. Sure that it was safe she turned around only to finally see it.

"Wait!" Blake pulled at his hand hard and nearly yanked him off of feet.

"What is it?" Jaune looked to her but she didn't respond so instead he squinted off into the dark. "...Is that a lightbulb? Is there electricity in here?" He asked as his eyes caught something.

Blake shook her head. "That's no lightbulb. It's the tip of a Deathstalker." Jaune couldn't make out the enormity of the Grimm that was before him but unfortunately to Blake it was all too clear. The giant, scorpion-esque creature had been resting on a ledge above where they had entered the chamber. Now that it saw them though it had climbed down from it's perch and was blocking their exit out of here.

"Can we get around it?" Jaune asked hopefully.

"I don't know." Blake shook her head. "I'm going to have to distract it. Once I give you the go you have to get through."

"No way!" Jaune began to protest but Blake gave his hand a fierce squeeze that shut him up.

"I'm the only one that can see it. You can't fight it blind. Besides, my abilities specialize in subtlety. If anyone has a chance of sneaking by it, it's me." She pulled out Gambol Shroud and readied it in front of herself.

"Alright, but if you get in trouble you better let me know. I won't let anything happen to you." Jaune turned back to the only source of light he could see and watched it carefully.

"Thanks but I'll be fine. Now let's go. It looks like it knows we have to go through there to get out. It's waiting for us to make the first move." Blake didn't wait for a response as she charged forward.

"Damnit." She heard Jaune grumble behind her, clearly unhappy with the situation as he ran after her. It was gonna be fine though. Her big concern was whether or not he could make it out past the Deathstalker without her guiding him.

As she closed in on it the Deathstalker finally started to move forward too. It let out a horrid screech that echoed violently across the cave walls as it swung one of its pincers at her. Blake easily dodged the pincer and swung at the face of the giant scorpion. To her great annoyance her blade bounced pointlessly off its head. It was quite a bit thicker than she thought if it was able to take a blow from Gambol Shroud and not even crack. It then made a noise that she could only assume was in irritation as its deadly tail took a jab at her. She left a shadow clone in her place and dodged the attack and to the Deathstalker it probably looked like it killed her. She was only too quick to prove it wrong though as she pull the katana blade out from her sheath and attempted to scissor its tail off with the bladed end of both her weapons.

Again she didn't even scratch it and only seemed to make it more angry as it swung at her once again with its pincers. She left another shadow clone to be destroyed as she put distance between the two of them. It didn't seem to fall for the same trick twice as it immediately began to look around for her again. It found her a little too quickly and she grimaced. Her katana folded into its pistol form and she began firing bursts of dust bullets to anger it further. It worked and the Deathstalker finally began to give chase.

"Jaune! Now!" Blake yelled as she ran sideways while still spraying it with gunfire. It followed after her perfectly and she caught a glimpse of Jaune as he made it to the chamber entrance.

"Blake, I think I'm here! Now get outta there!" He shouted and looked desperately into the darkness, unable to see them.

"I'm on my way!" The Deathstalker finally caught up to her and once again attacked with its tail. Blake easily dodged and ended up once again inside its guard. She jumped at one of its arms and kicked off it and landed on its back before kicking off once again, flying in the air over the Deathstalker and behind it. "Later." She turned her head to grin at it and only realized too late she had made a mistake. Its tail was swinging backwards and right at her. It was too close to dodge and she couldn't turn around quickly enough to block it. And so the back end of the tail struck her cleanly in the back. She yelled out a cry of pain as she was launched forward and towards the ground.

With a loud thud she crashed and rolled several feet, losing her weapon in the process. Her aura had saved her life but did little to mitigate the pain. It was going to be a solid thirty seconds before she was going to be able to move again. That was assuming her vision quit swimming too. Not that she had thirty seconds. The Deathstalker was running at her again and Jaune couldn't see. She was going to die like this. Facedown in a cave by a giant Grimm. She would likely be skewered by its tail. Hopefully it would be quick. At least Jaune had survived. Maybe this wasn't so bad? It was true she hadn't really helped the world out much. She'd done more to it hurt it, actually. She couldn't help but have pointless thoughts like this as her final moment approached.

"Blake!" Jaune? He sounded really close. Had he come back for her? That idiot! He was going to get himself killed and her death would be for nothing. He couldn't see the damn thing and even if he could, how was he supposed to fight it? His sword and shield were drawn but even Gambol Shroud had been ineffective at so much as scratching it. What did he hope to accomplish?

"Jaune, you idiot." She tried to yell but it came out no more than a raspy whisper. "Run and live." She attempted to turn her head towards him but the site of the Deathstalker caused her to lock up in fear. It was practically on top of her and its tail was descending. This was it. She was dead.

"Get away from her you monster!" Jaune yelled at the top of his lungs. With not even a second to spare he got between Blake and the stinger with his shield and managed to deflect it. The stinger glanced to the right and slammed into the ground right next to Blake's head.

"H-How?" Blake couldn't believe it. Jaune was practically blind but had managed to intercept the strike.

"Blake?" Jaune began looking around the floor in panic for her. In his blundering he kicked her in the ribs and tripped over her body. "Omph!" He hit the ground rather hard and his shield slid away from him.

"Jaune!" Blake coughed in agony as the wind was knocked out from her lungs. His foot had hurt quite a bit.

"Sorry!" Jaune groaned as he rolled over. His eyes widened in fear and Blake turned to see what he was looking at. To her horror, the Deathstalker had raised its stinger again and was prepared to take another jab. But which one of them was it going to aim for? They were both on the ground. Regardless, she still couldn't move properly. If it came for her she was dead anyways. Jaune didn't look much better.

It apparently chose it's target as its stinger descended...right towards her. This time though, Jaune didn't have his shield to protect her. That didn't stop him from trying. "Whoa!" He rolled up to her and grabbed her body. Holding her tight against himself, he rolled them out of the way and the stringer struck the ground. He was sure to stop with himself on bottom. Her hair flayed onto his face and he had to swat it out of way so he could see the light of the stinger.

"Jaune! What are you doing?" Blake attempted to pick herself off him but he held her tight to his body.

"I'm saving our lives!" Jaune rolled them over again. The sound of the stringer crashing into the ground told her they just barely dodged it.

"You can't do anything by trying to save me! Stand up and fight it!" They rolled and dodged once again.

"I've got a plan!" The Deathstalker was getting quicker with its strikes and Jaune had to keep rolling side to side without more than a second pause now. The whole thing was starting to make Blake dizzy. Finally he quit rolling them around when they ended up directly under the Deathstalker. The hail of stinger strikes paused as the giant Grimm lost sight of them.

"Your plan was hide under it?" She hissed into his ear.

"No! This was my plan!" She felt the hand that still held his sword leave her back as he thrust upwards. A violent scream of pain let Blake know that the attack was successful. Jaune pulled his sword out and stabbed at it again. Then again. Each stab caused the Deathstalker's roars of pain to get louder. It's legs buckled and it nearly collapsed on them. Their luck held out though and it stumbled away from them and proceeded to thrash violently a short distance away.

They sat in silence for a few moments as they both gasped desperately for breath. Finally, Blake had to know what had just transpired. "How did you know its weakness was its underbelly?"

"Weakness?" Jaune let his head hit the ground and looked up at her. "I just attacked the only thing I could get at while rolling around." Was he being serious? It certainly looked that way. He looked just as thankful that his strategy worked as she felt.

"Well, it actually saved us." Blake broke eye-contact to watch it continue to struggle to stand up. It was wounded badly and wouldn't be paying them anymore mind.

"So, umm…" Jaune grumbled awkwardly and Blake turned back to him. He had a very deep blush on his face. "...I don't suppose I could ask for you to get off me." Her face got hot as she felt her own blush spread across her face. She attempted to get off of him but only halfway succeeded before her knees buckled and she fell back on top of him. "Blake! You okay?" He sat up and held her gently in a sitting position.

"I'm fine." Even she knew she didn't sound very convincing. "I just took a nasty fall earlier and my body is still recovering."

"Guide me to your weapon and my shield. I'll grab them and get us out of here." Jaune started to get up but a tremor knocked him back to his butt. "What was that!?"

Blake turned and saw the Deathstalker stumble into the cavern wall. It swayed away from it before smashing into it once again. To her terror, the wall creaked and cracked. The crack spread like a spiderweb and before long covered half the cavern. One of the cracks broke loose and a boulder fell. It smashed into the back of the Grimm and it let out its most horrendous screech yet. Jaune and Blake covered their ears to keep the horrid noise out but that was now the least of their worries. Several more hunks of rock broke free and one landed a little more than too close for Blake's comfort.

"It's causing a cave in! We need to get out of here! Now!" Blake shook Jaune urgently and he nodded. He jumped to his feet and hefted Blake off hers.

"Your weapons?"

"About a meter behind me." Blake was astonished as he easily carried her over to where she directed but fumbled pointlessly as he tried to grab it. "Let me down. I can walk." She tried to break free from him but this only caused him to drop her. She landed painfully on the ground.

"I'm sorry! You okay?" She barely heard him ask over the sound of a boulder collapsing right next to them. He let out a girly shriek in surprise.

"I'm fine." Blake hissed in pain as she answered. She grabbed Gambol Shroud and stumbled to her feet. "Let's get out of here now." The Deathstalker was no longer a threat but the cave-in it was causing sure was one. She attempted to run forward but stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Blake!" Jaune called as he stumbled around trying to find her. He found his shield first and immediately retracted it and slid his sword away. Another boulder landed right next to him and it broke into pieces and the debris barely missed them. "Blake, where'd you go?"

"I'm here! I can't run! You're gonna have to help me limp outta here!" She thought about just telling him to leave but knew there was no way he'd go for it. So she just saved them both the time and agreed to accept his help.

"I got you!" Jaune bent down and managed to find her shoulders. He once again hefted her up but this time placed her on her feet. She draped an arm over his shoulder and together the two of them began to amble out of the chamber at a pace that made Blake very nervous. More and more debris was falling all around them and it was only by sheer coincidence they hadn't been hit yet. She gave one last look behind her to see the Deathstalker get buried beneath a pile of rubble and hopefully die. "Where the heck are we even going?" Jaune was more or less walking for both of them but he was completely blind. The sounds of earth shattering all around him had to be terrifying.

It was terrifying even though she could see it too though. "Just keep going straight. You're doing fine." Blake coached as he finally got them out of the chamber. They weren't safe yet though. Even out here the cave was giving way.

"How can I dodge the debris if I can't see?" Jaune looked around frantically but it was fruitless and Blake knew it.

"There would be no dodging it even if you could see! Just keep your eyes in front of you! All we can do is go forward." Blake ordered harshly. They couldn't afford any distractions. Fortunately her partner quickly listened to her orders and helped her limp towards the entrance. After several agonizing seconds the light at the end of the tunnel came into sight.

"Ah! I see it!" Jaune sounded relieved to finally have one of his senses returned to him. "We're gonna make it!" Just as he shouted this the inevitable happened and a baseball sized rocked clocked him in the back of the head. He stumbled forward and dropped Blake as he collapsed to the ground.

"Jaune! Jaune!" Blake cried in desperation as she got to her knees and shook him. She watched in horror as he waved in and out of consciousness. Blood flowed freely from the back of his head. She had no choice. She wasn't feeling one-hundred percent yet but she had to try to drag him out. He hadn't abandoned her and there was no way she was abandoning him. "Come on, Jaune!" She placed her arms under him and hefted his heavy body up.

He seemed only partially aware of what was going on as he managed to at least stand with her help. He took a couple steps with them leaning on one another for support before he stumbled again. His eyes blanked out before refocusing and then blanked out again. It was all she could do just to hold him up. A rock half their size collapsed in front of them. There was no way she could drag him around it like this.

"Jaune! You gotta snap outta it! You have to do it for me!" She shook him as she racked her brain for a way to bring him back. Nothing came to mind so she attempted to pull him away again. He didn't even take a step this time and she almost dropped him. "Jaune! If you don't come around right this second we are both going to die! Do you understand me? You are going to die!"

A spark returned to his eyes and he looked ahead of them with all the determination he could possibly muster. "That's it Jaune! Now let's go!" They got around the boulder and made their way to the entrance once again. And this time they made it. Just as they stumbled outside the entire mouth of the cave collapsed. No one was ever entering or leaving it again.

"We...we made it." Blake almost broke into tears as she and Jaune both fell to their knees. They were still holding one another for dear life as they stared out at the trees in front of them. At the beautiful blue sky above them. Jaune began chuckling next to her. It must have been contagious because it caused Blake to let out a giggle of her own. After that it was like the floodgates had been broken. They both broke out into full-out laugher that lasted a solid minute before showing any signs of dying down.

"That was one hell of a thing." Jaune grinned a big stupid grin as he pulled out the white knight piece they had retrieved. "I'm so glad you're my partner." He repeated what he had said earlier in the cave.

"I'm glad you're my partner too." Blake really meant that. Anyone else might have ran and abandoned her. He stayed though and fought a Deathstalker while blind for her. "I'm sorry I tried to handle that Grimm on my own. I thought you would have only got in my way." She turned to him and realized that they were still clinging rather tightly to each other. She also noticed how ragged he looked. Cuts and nicks from when she first met him were still there. The back of his head and down his neck and into his hoodie was coated in blood. That didn't begin to cover all the bruises he seemed to have sustained while in there. "Your aura...it isn't healing you."

"My what?" Jaune turned to face her and their noses almost touched. Blake didn't have time to care about things like that right now.

"Aura, Jaune." She repeated.

"Gazuntite."

Blake raised her eyebrow at him. "Do you...know what aura is?"

Jaune's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to respond but Blake put a finger to his lips to shut him up. She already knew the answer and she didn't care to hear whatever excuse he was about to sprout. "Let me unlock it for you."

"You can do that?" He received no answer as Blake closed her eyes and repeated the chant she had learned in her head. After a moment she felt her energy drain and Jaune began glowing brightly. It was miraculous. All his wounds closed up and his bruises vanished. Blake was still so close to him she even felt his aura take her own fatigue away. That was unheard of! There might be something more to this guy than meets the eye. "Wow…" Jaune looked at his hand and flexed it in astonishment. "...I feel brand new. What did you do?"

"I just gave you a small push. Everything else was all you." She smiled and broke away from him as she got to her feat. "I'll give you a book about aura when we get out of this light-forsaken forest."

"Speaking of getting out of here," He followed her lead and stood up. "What do we do with this thing?" He held the chess piece up between them. Just as he asked this their scrolls beeped and they opened it up to see their next instructions. To their confusion their scrolls displayed a map of the forest they were in. The map was littered with numerous red dots. Blake noticed one of them was at about right where they were.

After several seconds a message popped up that read as followed. 'On this map is the location of all the other teams of two. Locate the team that has retrieved the piece identical to yours. Be warned though, if you come across a team with a chess piece of the opposite color of yours you will have to battle to move on. That is all.'

They both stared at their scrolls for several seconds before turning to one another and saying the same thing.

"Are you kidding me?!"

AN: Hey there. Thanks for checking out my story; My first real attempt at RWBY fanfiction. I had initially planned to do the entire initiation thing in one chapter but this part alone ended up breaking 7.5k words so I decided I'm probably gonna have to break it up into three parts lest I have a 20k+ first chapter. This is gonna end up as a JaunexBlake as it is my favorite ship. Anyways, can't promise anything like a quick update as most of my time is being consumed by The Evil Within at the moment. (I had initially planned to write the whole Initiation arc up first before posting anything but that game has seriously halted my progress so I just tidied up this part and decided to see how it did.)

So like it? Hate it? Let me know. Until next time.

Auburn

Chapter 2: Duel

Jaune was about done with these tasks!

They had just been through hell in that cave and they were supposed to do more? Just how many things did he have to go through in order to become a hunter at this school? Maybe the headmaster knew he had faked his transcripts and was just screwing with him at this point?

"I don't want to have to fight other students…" Jaune moaned into his scroll. Grimm were one thing. They wouldn't laugh at you when you lost. They would just eat you. He'd prefer that to the humiliation of getting his face beaten in by another student with one of their high-tech custom weapons.

"We might not have to." Blake finally spoke up after several moments of silence. She had been inspecting the map on her scroll very carefully.

"What do you mean?" He looked at his for a moment again but it only made him feel more hopeless. "There's almost a dozen other teams on this map right now. The odds of us guessing the right one is nearly impossible."

"We're hunters-in-training right now, Jaune. This is a hunt." Blake explained, never taking her eyes from the map. "All the clues we need have likely been given to us. We just need to figure out what they are and deduce which team we're supposed to meet up with. That and hope they do the same thing. If they can't figure this much out I'm not sure I even want to be teamed up with them."

"Yeah." Jaune agreed as he felt himself sweat. "Who'd want to be paired with a couple idiots that can't even figure that out?" He let out a nervous chuckle.

"You're fine, Jaune. We've already faced life and death together." He let out a sigh of relief at her comment and looked at the map on his scroll.

"So...any idea what our clues are?" He asked hopefully. He couldn't even fathom the answer.

Blake sighed. "I can't figure it out at all and if I don't soon, we might have a bigger problem. Once teams start moving no one is going to be in their starting position which might be a clue in itself." Jaune looked back in a panic at his map and wracked his brain for an answer. After staring at it for only a couple seconds he concluded one thing.

They were doomed.

Blake let out a groan of frustration as she seemed to be having thoughts similar to him. It could also be because other players were starting to move. He began to mumble to himself to vent. "Stupid red dots. All look the same. If only these guys acted like their chess piece."

Blake let out a gasp. "That's it!"

"You figured it out?" Jaune turned to her excitedly to see her giving him a similar look.

"You just said it yourself!" She replied before turning back to her map.

"I did?" He pointed to himself and tried to remember. "About the dots being the same?"

"About moving like chess pieces!" Blake probably should have sounded irritatedly but she was too excited for that.

"Ah, yeah!" Jaune pointed in the air as if he understood. "How does that help again?"

"All the quadrants on this map are broken up into squares. Squares that look awfully similar to a chess board. We grabbed a knight piece. If we assume that we move as a knight would and our partners do the same thing…" She let herself trail off.

"We'll meet up at the same spot!" Jaune completed for her as he finally understand. He sunk a little though as another worry hit him. "Knights can move quite a few different ways though. How are we supposed to know which way we're supposed to go?"

"Process of elimination." Blake replied without taking her eyes off the map. "Once I find all the possible spots we can land I just have to find another team that can land in one of the same exact spots. Assuming they also move like a knight piece, of course."

"Of course." Jaune attempted to sound sophisticated as he agreed with her. He couldn't help but admire her cleverness right now. He would be screwed if not for her. It was a good thing he had got involved with that King Taijitu after all.

"I've got it!" Blake spoke with barely contained excitement. "And it looks like they might have figured it out too. We've got another team heading to what should be the same quadrant!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go meet our teammates!" At first the idea of more allies sounded exciting. But as Jaune and Blake ran to meet them he began to have doubts about teaming up with others. Blake had turned out okay for him but what if the others couldn't stand him? What if they thought he was holding them back? He didn't want the others to think he was a burden. What if they convinced Blake of the same? No, that was ridiculous. She had just said it herself: They faced life and death together in that cave. They had a bond now. What exactly that bond was, Jaune couldn't be sure. However, it was undeniably there. He just had to believe he would form it with these new teammates.

With these hopes and doubts in his mind they arrived at their destination.

Jaune took a look around the clearing of the forest they found themselves in. By some luck they had managed to not run into any Grimm on the way. "So, this is the place?"

"It would appear so. We just need to hope our teammates get here too. It looks like they took a detour. They may have run into some Grimm." Blake had barely taken her eyes off her scroll as she monitored the situation of all the other students.

"Should we head to meet them midway?" If they were in trouble, Jaune wanted to help them immediately. No better way to make a good first impression than to run in a help them. It seemed to work with Blake anyways. She shook her head in response but her eyes widened slightly and darted off into the forest. For a second he almost thought he saw her bow twitch. "Blake! What's wrong now? Grimm?" He unsheathed his sword and expanded his shield.

"No. Another team is barreling towards our direction fairly quickly." Bake brought her hand up and rested it on the handle of her blade. "They'll run into us at this rate…we should hide. If they have a black piece we'll have to fight."

Jaune was about to nod in agreement when he heard what sounded like something crashing through the forest. "They're being pursued?" He turned to his partner for confirmation and she nodded.

"Judging by the sounds I would guess an Ursa. A big one." Great...more big Grimm.

He sighed as he resigned himself to what he had to say next. "We gotta help them. Enemies or allies. I would feel horrible if they got killed because we ignored them."

Blake let out a small smirk. "I figured you would say something like that. You're too nice." Despite saying this she made no movement to go hide and instead readied herself for battle.

Jaune let out a happy chuckle. "Thanks, Blake." He knew he could count on her to support him.

"Don't thank me yet. You've got an Aura now so I'm expecting more from you." This caused Jaune to gulp nervously. He wasn't exactly used to people expecting things from him. Rather, people never really wanted or needed him to do anything. It was a terrifying responsibility that he wasn't sure he was ready for...yet he couldn't help but feel a tinge of happiness. For the first time, someone was depending on him. He couldn't afford to let her down. As he thought this he felt something that he could only describe as real, genuine confidence wash over him. He could do this.

No sooner did he think this than two of his classmates came bursting through the brush at full speed. One was a rather tall, muscular boy with a mace. The other was lanky and had an unusual green mohawk. They paused for half a second when they saw the two hunters in front of them but immediately bolted again when they heard a terrible roar from just behind them. As Blake had predicted, an Ursa that was easily twice as big as either of them thrashed into the clearing.

Jaune raised his sword above his head and gave a battlecry as he charged forward. The Ursa paused its pursuit of the other hunters-in-training as it appeared to take notice of its two new adversaries. Realizing that they were more of a threat than it's previous targets it turned to them.

The Ursa raised its claw menacingly towards Jaune but he realized with small pride that it didn't cause him to lock up in fear as it would have not even two hours ago. Apparently four near death experiences made you a little braver. Or maybe just numb to the fear? Regardless, instead of backing off he continued his charge forward and raised his shield. It swung at him and he knocked its claw aside with a bat from his shield.

He stepped inside its guard just as it swung at him with its other claw. Blake appeared right next to him and blocked this strike with Gambol Shroud. Jaune stabbed the Grimm in the stomach and it roared in pain before attempting to take a bite out of his head. He pulled his sword out and in perfect sync with Blake jumped backwards and out of harms way.

"Jaune! Give me a boost." He made eye-contact with his teammate for only half-a-second before he understood her intent.

"You got it!" He bent down and raised his shield over his head. Blake jumped up and the moment her feet touched his shield he pushed upwards, propelling her into the air and high above the Ursa.

It gave another roar and charged at him again. Jaune got back to his feet and blocked one strike with his shield. It swung at him again and he deflected it with his sword but the force of the blow put him off-balance. He wasn't going to be able to respond if it swung again. Fortunately before it could, Blake descended onto its back, burying her blade into its spine. It collapsed forward and Jaune had to backpedal to avoid being crushed. It hit the ground but continued to roar in defiance so he stepped forward and finished it by decapitation. Blood sprayed violently from its neck as its head hit the ground.

The whole fight had lasted only about thirty seconds and was the first time Jaune had faced a Grimm and not thought he would die. Maybe he was cut out for this after all?

"Not bad." Blake seemed to share in this sentiment as she climbed off the back of the Ursa and gave him an approving smile. It turned to a frown though as she regarded the two students in front of her. Jaune turned to them and saw them looking at their scrolls. He pulled out his own and saw a message had appeared while they had been fighting.

'Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna possess the White Knight piece. Cardin Winchester and Russell Thrush possess the Black Rook piece. As mandated from the previous message, these two teams must battle. The winning condition is render your opponents unable to combat further or until the other team surrenders. If either teammate flees the scene of the battle it'll be considered automatic surrender.'

After he finished reading his scroll he looked up nervously at the two in front of him. They were staring them down and were reaching for their weapons. Blake stepped forward and called out to them. "You really intend to fight us after we saved your lives?"

"No one asked you to do that!" The one Jaune guessed was Cardin spit at them. "We had it under control!"

"I could tell that by the looks of fear on your faces as you fled." Blake taunted with a smirk on her face. This caused both boys to glow red in the face with anger.

"Blake…" Jaune tugged at her sleeve lightly. He didn't want to have to fight them if he didn't have to but he also wasn't comfortable with her so openly insulting them. He probably would have fled too if he didn't have such a competent partner by his side.

Blake may have picked up on this because she gave his hand an empathetic squeeze. "If they don't back down Jaune, we have no choice but to fight them. It's them or us. I'm sure you're not gonna choose them?" She was right and he knew it. So with great reluctance he nodded and stepped towards them as well.

"You saw how easily we dispatched that Ursa! We don't want to do the same to you!" Jaune held his shield in front of himself and readying his sword as he spoke. It still gleamed with the blood of the creature behind them. Blake planted Gambol Shroud at her feet in a show of support.

Cardin sneered and pulled out a giant mace from his back. "I'll make you losers eat those words!" He shouted and slammed it into the ground. It caused a miniature explosion that launched hunks of dirt and rock right at them. Jaune stepped in front of Blake and let his shield block all the debris.

"You take him. I'll handle the dagger-wielder who's hanging back." Blake assigned the roles that made the most sense to him too. A single mace shouldn't be a problem...even if it did cause explosions. He would likely be overwhelmed by a pair of daggers however.

"Alright, but just incapacitate him. I don't want anyone to get hurt more than necessary." He was still against this but they really had no choice anymore. So with reluctance, he charged forward. Blake ran just a couple paces behind him.

"I'm going to leave a clone in front of you. When he swings at it, take the shot. Don't pay any mind to it getting hit; It's not me." Jaune wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that but he could only nod and agree to her plan. There was no time to get details as every second brought him closer to the boy that was quite a bit taller than him. He raised his mace high above his head, prepared to bring it down on anyone foolish enough to get within its reach.

Just before they got up to him Blake put on a burst of speed and dashed around Jaune. She charged right at Cardin with Gambol Shroud raised. He didn't hesitate to bring his mace down right on her head. For a split second it looked like he landed a clean shot and that Blake was all but a goner but Jaune remembered her earlier warning and sure enough the doppelganger in front of him faded from existence, leaving a stunned and confused Cardin.

Jaune didn't hesitate to use this to his advantage and bashed the taller boy in the mouth with his shield. He toppled to the ground but managed to hold onto this mace. Jaune flicked at it with his sword, disarming him before raising the blade to his throat. The bigger boy froze in fear and Jaune took the opportunity to see how Blake was doing.

He needn't have worried. In a dazzling display of skill she quickly overpowered her opponent and brought him to his knees. Jaune couldn't help but break into a big grin. Thanks to Blake's little tactic they had won without almost any resistance. He was honestly starting to feel like the two of them could do anything.

Unfortunately for him, he let his gaze linger just a little too long and Cardin took advantage of his distraction. He grabbed Jaune's foot and threw it backwards, effectively causing Jaune to flail for balance and stumble off of him. "Oh, crap!"

"Jaune!" Blake turned as she saw him struggle not to fall over but she was too far away to react.

"Have some payback you punk!" Cardin, still on the ground, grabbed his mace and sat up while swinging it. Jaune had no way to bring his shield around.

It was going to hit him!

Time seemed to stand still as the mace inched closer and closer. Jaune racked his brain for a way out but nothing came to mind. If it exploded when it made contact would he die? Probably. Either way, he was about to find out. The mace made contact with his chest and his vision flashed white.

Everything after that was blank.

Did he die?

Everything was still white so that seemed like the most logical explanation.

What was this sensation he was feeling all over his body? It kind of felt like tingling. He focused in on it and realized at once that it was pain. It caused him to gasp and suddenly he was assaulted by several senses at once.

His vision began to return but everything was blurry. He could make out a lot of green and brown. That was likely the trees. His eyes registered movement from several different people but he couldn't make out who was who or how many there were. It was also weird that they were at a distance. Hadn't he been standing right next to them?

Then he remembered that Cardin's mace must have exploded on contact when it hit him. He must have been launched backwards and if he had to guess, right into a tree. It would explain the horrid back-pain he was feeling. Not that there was a part of him that didn't hurt.

As he waited for his vision to return he focused on his other senses. He smelled really smoky...he really hoped he wasn't covered in burns. His ears were working but the only thing he could hear was a really loud ringing, almost as if someone had set off an alarm clock inside of his head. The last thing was the strong taste of copper in his mouth. He could even feel the blood dribble down his chin. Needless to say, he was in really bad shape.

Finally, his vision quit swimming enough for him to make out the people that were dancing around in his vision. Cardin and Russell were pushing Blake back. That was kind of weird, he thought. She was probably skilled enough to take them both so why was she having trouble? Then he noticed that she kept glancing over to him, probably wondering if he was dead. Then it hit him: She was worried about him and wasn't able to focus properly on the fight because of it. How long had he been sitting here like this? Had it just been a few seconds, or several minutes? There was no way to tell.

It looked like she might be calling out to him but his ears were still ringing too loudly for him to actually hear anything that was happening around him. He had to let her know he was alright but how could he do that? He couldn't exactly call out and moving seemed a little out of the question. He was propped up against a tree in sitting position...maybe he could use the tree as support? He needed to get some kind of response from his limbs first for that to work.

He looked down at his hands and noticed a couple things at once. First, his shield and sword weren't anywhere near him. A quick glance told him they had been blasted about half-way across the clearing in either direction. The second thing he noticed was that he was covered in white energy that could only be his aura. Once he realized what it was he also realized that every second he felt more of his senses return and the pain lessened. He was being healed!

Thank the light for Aura. He couldn't be more thankful to Blake for having unlocked his earlier than he was right now. It had literally saved his life. He would have died beyond a shadow of a doubt without it. Still, it wasn't going fast enough for him. His partner was in trouble and needed him now.

So he focused all the energy he could into his hands. At first he didn't get even the smallest of a response. Then, he felt his fingers twitch. His movements were returning! Soon, he was able to move his whole arm. Then the other arm and soon his legs. Slowly but surely, using the tree behind him as support, he pushed himself up to his feet.

He saw Blake catch the movement and her face lit up in relief. She knew he was alive. He was going to make it. That is, if Cardin didn't have anything to say about it. He caught sight of Jaune standing now too and immediately tried to make a break for him. Blake wasn't about to have it and attempted to impede his progress but Russell managed to hold her off long enough for Cardin to get some distance away from her.

He shouted something that Jaune assumed was threatening and raised the mace above his head again as he charged him. Jaune grimaced as he pushed himself off the tree. He wasn't in exactly tip-top shape and he was also unarmed. He didn't know much about Aura but he guessed it wasn't infinite and if he took another hit like that he was probably going to die for real.

In short: he was in serious trouble.

He couldn't let that stop him now though. He had just dodged death for the fifth time that day and wasn't about to take it for granted. Blake was counting on him now too. It was his goof-up that caused their current predicament. So it was up to him to fix it.

He raised his fists up to his face and took a boxing stance. It must have looked like a last-ditch effort to Cardin because he bust out into laughter, not that Jaune could hear it. Still, it pretty much was. He just had to make it work. He wasn't going to get another chance this time. With that thought, Cardin was on him.

He swung the mace down and Jaune did the only thing he could think of: he threw dirt in his eyes.

He had been sure to scrape up a small patch when he was getting to his feet and it had saved his life. Cardin swung the mace too far to his left and hit only air as he coughed and sputtered while attempting to wipe his eyes clean.

Jaune didn't hesitate to use the opening to sock Cardin right in the nose with his bare fist. The bigger boy stumbled backwards and Jaune punched at his wrist, disarming him once again. Cardin sneered defiantly at him and Jaune felt something inside of him snap. He couldn't be sure why. Maybe it was because the guy had almost blown him up? Maybe it was because he had been tag-teaming his partner? Maybe it was for the simple reason that the guy just plain seemed like a jerk. Regardless, his vision swam with red and he unleashed a vicious series of punches that the bigger boy simply had no chance of defending against. After nearly fifteen seconds of his relentless assault, Cardin fell backwards and didn't so much as twitch.

Jaune stood gasping for breath as his rage subsided and he realized that he was able to hear some things again. There was still a small ringing but even that was disappearing. Man, Aura was really something special if it was responsible for his speedy recovery.

"Jaune!" He looked up to see Blake running at him. Russell was also on the ground. He was about to raise his arm in a wave but she kept running until she ran right into him and enveloped him in a big hug. "I thought you died!" It sounded like she was choking back tears as she clung to him tightly.

"Who? Me?" He attempted to joke about it but his voice came out hoarse and rough. He sighed as he realized that he had really messed up there. "Sorry." He mumbled as he awkwardly patted her back. "I nearly got you kicked out of Beacon."

She pulled back as if she had been slapped and gave him a look of disbelief. "You think I'm worried about getting kicked out because you died?" He tilted his head in confusion at her question. That was what she was worried about, right? His clumsiness had almost cost them the match and without him she would have been sent back for failing initiation. So naturally, that was her concern, wasn't it?

"I was worried that you died because you're my friend, you idiot!" Blake looked like she was fighting back the urge to hit him. Her words alone felt like a slap enough though. Not a violent one, but rather a wake-up call. It had never crossed his mind that Blake would have considered him a friend in the short amount of time they had known each other. He had assumed everything she had done for him up to this point was simply so she could pass and become a full-time Beacon student. Needless to say...he felt like a real idiot.

"Blake...I-" His mouth snapped shut as he tried to figure out what to say to her. She only waited silently. His next words were clearly very important to her. "It's like you said. I'm an idiot. I thought there was no way you'd consider someone with such little skill your friend and was only sticking with me out of obligation to pass. Believe me though, I want nothing more than to be your friend and I'm really happy you consider me one. That is if you still do."

Blake's eyes softened and she let out a tired sigh. She then rested a hand on his shoulder. "Of course I still do. I know it may seem odd that I think of you so highly already...you can be rather pathetic."

"I accept that."

"But, you and I have stared down death together. I thought for sure that Deathstalker was going to kill me in that cave but you saved my life. Not only did you fend it off but you helped me out of that collapsing death trap when I couldn't even walk. Those two things alone have earned my utmost respect, Jaune. You may not be strong...or skilled...or clever either, but you have a good heart. That's something this world needs." She took her hand off his shoulder and lightly bumped his chest with her fist.

He gave her a small smile which she returned. "Some of those things you said...were pretty hurtful. I'd like to think I'm at least a little clever." Blake rolled her eyes but her smile didn't waver. "But thanks. That's the first time anyone has ever said anything like that to me. I never thought I would hear those words from someone as reliable as you." She looked ready to respond but their scrolls updated and they pulled them out to look at them.

'Congratulations to Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna. You've won the duel and are allowed to continue the exam. As a bonus for winning, I'll give you a hint to find your teammates. Look up.'

That was all the message said. "...Look up?" Jaune asked quizzically. He looked to Blake and she only shrugged before pointing to the sky. As they tilted their heads upwards it looked like something was rapidly descending towards them.

Rather than something...someone.

"Ruby!?"

AN: Wow, so here's that. Now I know I said in my last authors note that this initiation arc was gonna be three chapters long...well I got up to here in this chapter and realized that that's about impossible unless I just continue to give really long chapters. I don't know how the rest of you feel but I think generally about between 4k to 5k words is long enough. Maybe I'm mistaken and you like the endless scrolling though? Anyways, this is more than likely gonna be five chapters for this arc now.

Length issues aside, this felt like a really good place to end this part and I've kept you waiting long enough. I got really motivated by all the positive feedback I received so thank you very much for that!

Next time the team is fully assembled!

Auburn

Chapter 3: Nevermore

"Ruby!?" Jaune gasped as he recognized the person that was quickly entering a collision course with the ground.

"You know her?" Blake had also spoken briefly with her last night but had not expected to meet her again like this.

"Jaune! Blake! Help me!" Ruby was within earshot now and was desperately flailing for something to grab onto.

"...I'm going to regret this." Jaune grumbled as he ran to where he was approximating Ruby would land.

"A little to the left, Jaune!" Blake called out helpfully.

"Left…" Jaune looked at his hands to figure out which way was left and then shuffled directly under Ruby in just the nick of time. He caught her/she crashed into him and they both ended up a pile of arms and legs on the ground. Fortunately for Ruby, Jaune had wound up on the bottom. "Damn...I think that's it for my Aura." He groaned.

"I owe you one." Ruby groaned too. Her Aura combined with landing on Jaune had definitely mitigated the fall but she was still pretty sore.

"So you're supposed to be our teammate?" Blake asked as she extended a hand to help Ruby up. Ruby looked perplexed as she took it and got to her feet.

"How do you figure that?" She pulled out the chess piece she was hiding and it was revealed to be the other white knight piece.

"We got a hint for beating up those two." Blake hiked her thumb behind her towards Cardin and Russell.

"Here's ours." Jaune recovered quickly enough even with low Aura and held up their piece. Ruby's eyes lit up in excitement as she realized that they were in fact on the same team. "By the way, where's your partner?" The excitement was just as quickly replaced with fear.

"Oh no...she's gonna kill me. Oh no, oh no!" Ruby began pacing in place as she looked in the sky for something.

"Ruby, calm down and tell us what's going on." Jaune placed a comforting hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "Who and where is your partner? Also...why did you fall from the sky in the first place?" There had been so much going on the past few minutes he had forgotten how weird it was at all for people to just dive-bomb out of the air.

"Giant Nevermore. Weiss. Still up there! Angry!" Ruby spoke in broken panic that Jaune couldn't hope to decipher so he turned to his partner.

"Her partner is Weiss Schnee. Somehow, they got on a Giant Nevermore and Ruby here jumped off, leaving her dear partner behind on it. She's quite understandably very upset."

"Ah." When Blake put it like that it all made sense. Well, it really didn't but what did anymore? Their scrolls updated once again as they scanned the skies for the massive black bird and Jaune decided to check it quick.

'Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, and Ruby Rose. You've technically completed your fourth task but seeing as you need four members to continue onto the next one I'm assigning you a bonus task. Find Miss Schnee and save her from the clutches of the Giant Nevermore. When you're successful you'll be given your final task.'

"I swear this guy hates kids." Jaune looked to his two teammates for backup. Neither one of them was really paying much attention to him as they continued to scan for the Nevermore. He was going to join them when they heard a mighty 'Caw' from behind where they were looking. They all spun around to see their target descending right for them. Rather, it was likely coming for Ruby.

"You must have really ticked it off." Jaune grumbled as it got closer and closer. He turned to Blake. She had pretty good vision. "Can you see Weiss?"

"Yeah, I see her." Blake nodded and Ruby let out a sigh of relief. "And she does not look happy." This caused Ruby to cringe in fright. Blake's eyes narrowed and she frowned. "I think it's preparing for something…"

"Like what?" Jaune wasn't exactly sure what the Nevermore could do to them without coming down to the ground. If they were going to have a chance to rescue Weiss they were going to have to wait for that. He looked back up at it just in time to see it launch a barrage of feathers at them. Feathers that looked really, and he meant really, deadly.

"I'm guessing it was preparing to do that." Ruby pointed out not-so-helpfully.

"There's too many of them, we'll never be able to dodge! We gotta get clear!" Blake shouted as she ran up to Jaune and Ruby and grabbed them by the elbows.

"We'll never get clear in time." Jaune shook his head and searched the clearing for the one thing he knew could save them.

"Then what do we do? We don't exactly have a way of blocking them." Ruby took a nervous step towards Jaune.

Finally, his eyes spotted it. "We need to get to my shield! I can protect us!" Without waiting for a response he began running for it. Blake, who was still holding his elbow was yanked along and in turn so was Ruby.

"Jaune! Are you sure about this?" Ruby didn't sound very convinced.

Surprisingly it was Blake who responded. "That thing took a strike from a Death Stalker without even denting! It'll work!"

"That's if we make it!" Jaune kept glancing anxiously between his shield and the oncoming feathers.

They were way too close now.

If they made it at all it wasn't going to be by much.

He put on a final, adrenaline-filled burst of speed and reached for his shield.

The feathers were just above them. "Get beneath me!"

A mere five meters until impact and they would all be punctured to death.

He picked it up and brought it above his head. Blake and Ruby huddled as closely to him as they could and the sound of feathers spearing the ground reached their ears. With several jarring thuds he felt them hit and ricochet off his great grandfather's shield. After several seconds the attack ended and the only sound that could be heard was their erratic breathing.

"D-did we make it?" Ruby peaked around Jaune's shoulder and he could only nod numbly in response. A miniature garden of black feathers taller than they were surrounded them. If one of those had hit them it would have skewered them completely through. In other words, they had almost died...again.

"That's the sixth time this day that I really thought I was going to bite the dust." Jaune's knees wobbled and he would have lost his balance if not for Blake and Ruby still clinging tightly to him.

"You're keeping count?" Ruby sounded surprised and that caught Jaune off guard. Wasn't it kind of common to count every time you thought you were going to die? It made living seem so much more worth it when you thought of all the horrible, violent deaths you had nearly been through...okay, maybe it wasn't all that normal. Or healthy.

"I don't think it's realized we survived yet." Blake brought them back on track as she finally stepped away from the protection of Jaune's shield to view the Nevermore. "It's flying rather awkwardly. I think it's trying to debunk its passenger."

"We gotta get up there and save her!" Ruby ran a couple paces away and knocked down some of the feathers as she tried to determine the best way to get back on to it.

"We need a way to bring it down to us." Jaune mumbled. He lowered his shield and raised a hand to his chin. "If we could just clip it's wings we could finish it off on the ground…" He trailed off as he thought of ways to do that. If they could just get one of them up there while the others distracted it, that person along with Weiss could each damage a wing enough for it to collapse.

"Looks like you've got a plan?" Blake pulled him out of his thoughts and he nodded.

"I'm going to hate this but can you get it's attention, Ruby? We need to get it as low to the ground as possible. I'll hop on it and together with Weiss will bring it down. Once it's on the ground it'll be up to you two to finish it off." He expected them to rebuke his plan on the spot so was utterly shocked when he got the reactions that he did.

"Aye, aye." Ruby saluted and she pulled out her weapon which was still in gun form.

"You're going to need your sword if you're going to do anything." Blake pulled it out from behind her back and handed it to him.

He stared at it in disbelief. It had been on the ground on the other side of the clearing last he had seen it. "When did you-"

"I've got quick reflexes."

Before he could ask further, Ruby began shooting and the Nevermore responded with an angry screech. It turned back to them and once again descended. "Welp, I've got its attention! Now how do you plan to get up there?" That was actually a great question. He hadn't exactly thought that far ahead. But he had already pitched the idea and they were running with it. He had to get onto it. There was no other option.

"I don't suppose your cloning ability could be used to give me a boost?" He looked to Blake hopefully and she gave him a nod. He sighed in relief and turned to see how close the Nevermore was. They had to time this just right. It had to be low enough for them to get to it but not so low it would launch another barrage at them.

"Climb on." Blake did the most peculiar thing he had seen her do yet and squatted down in front of him.

"Huh?"

"Get on my back. I'm going to get you up there." Did she mean like a piggy-back ride? He had just kind expected Blake to throw him or something with some clone assistance. This wasn't what he had in mind. "It's getting closer. If you don't hurry we're gonna have to wait for it to circle back around." Those words prompted him into action and with a huge blush on his face he climbed on her back. His chest rested behind her shoulders and his head peaked just over her right. His forelegs were gripped tightly by her arms and she stood up straight.

"I-I'm not too heavy, am I?"

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." That was probably for the best. Normally, their roles were supposed to be reversed and she would be asking that question to which he would suavely tell her she was light as a feather.

This was just embarrassing.

"You guys might want to hurry! It's coming in hot!" Ruby continued to fire at it, keeping its attention on her.

"Ready?"

"Not really." Jaune was starting to feel sick as he looked at how high the Nevermore still was. What if he missed it? What if he fell off? He had survived one fall today and hadn't ever planned on having to do that same thing again.

Blake rolled her eyes at him. "Here we go." He didn't have the time to protest as she jumped in the air higher than should have been physically possible. He looked down to see she had kicked off a clone. When they reached the arc of her jump, they were miraculously propelled even higher by a seemly invisible force. In the place they had just been was another clone. She was creating clones and using them as stepping stones to ascend?

He let himself get caught up in amazement as she bounced them high above the treeline. It was once they were about double that length up that the novelty of the ability wore off and he realized they were suddenly very, very high. In fact, they were high enough to be even with the Nevermore. Ruby was a tiny speck on the ground.

"I've changed my mind! I'll fight it after it's grounded! You take it up here! Just get me down from here!" He clung to Blake for dear life and could have swore he heard her sigh but decided it was just the wind. It was pretty breezy up here after all.

"Sorry, Jaune. You're dealing with the Schnee Heiress." She grabbed him by the elbows now that they were high enough above the Nevermore. He didn't like this one bit. "Good luck." With the finesse of a pro wrestler she broke his hold on her and chucked him directly towards the giant Grimm.

"Blake!" He screamed like a girl as he entered freefall. He turned to see her using her clones to bring herself back towards the ground. Why couldn't his Aura let him do something like that? It didn't matter now anyways. He was on his own. He turned back to the Grimm fearfully and prepared himself for what he had to do.

The wind beat viciously at his eyes but it wasn't anything he hadn't already dealt with before. He'd gotten through this type of thing once and he could do it again. His target was much higher off the ground...and was a violent monster hell-bent on destroying humanity. Okay, he'd handled that before too. Now he just had to handle those two things together this time. Falling and fighting Grimm...great.

That was if he landed on it at all. He realized with fear that he wasn't getting nearly close enough to it. He had to find a way to slow down his fall so he would have enough time to make it closer. So he extended his arms and legs and let the wind grab him. It worked a little but not enough. He still wasn't going to make it! If he missed there was only the clearing beneath him too. He would die. Unless Blake caught him?

All these thoughts became irrelevant as he landed smack on what he could only call a platform. "What the heck?" He pushed down on it and found it felt as sturdy as glass but somehow managed to not hurt at all when he had hit it. It was a white circle with what looked like a snowflake filling out the middle.

"Jump you dunce!" That sounded like Weiss. He turned to see the Nevermore just starting to pass under him. He didn't need to be told twice and for the first time time that day willingly made the jump. He only fell half a dozen meters before landing on the back of the Nevermore, right next to Weiss. "What were they thinking when they sent you up here to help me?" She cried in appallment as she gave him the most disgusted look she was probably capable of.

"No need to thank me Snow Angel. I volunteered to save you myself." He gave her his most charming smile and felt one of his teeth give off a twinkle as it reflected the sunlight.

"My hero." She responded sarcastically. "I hope this means you at least have a plan to get us down?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." He paused for dramatic effect which she responded to by glaring at him. "We clip its wings."

Weiss continued to glare at him as she waited for him to continue. When it was obvious that he wouldn't she finally said something. "That's your big plan? You know the feathers of a Giant Nevermore are among the sturdiest defenses known to Grimm? Not just any blade can cut it. Myrtenaster might be able to if I use fire but that's only one wing. We'll spiral out of control if you can't hold up your end."

"You're just gonna have to trust me. They're waiting down there for us to ground it." He was beginning to have his doubts about this plan now too, but they were already here. The more they delayed the more danger they put Ruby and Blake in. For their sake he had to do this.

Weiss seemed to reach the same conclusion and sighed rather loudly. "Fine. If we die though I'm blaming you!" With that she began crawling her way towards the right wing. He made his way towards the left one. It took both of them only a couple seconds despite the force of the wind threatening to knock them off at any second. Once he was in position, right where the wingbone met the body, he turned to see if Weiss had made it too. She had.

They nodded at one another and pulled out their respective blades. He watched carefully as she raised the hilt of her sword above her head, the blade pointed down. He mimicked the action. Her sword began glowing red and she took the plunge, sinking it into the Giant Nevermore's flesh. It screamed out in pain so loudly Jaune had to fight the urge to cover his ears. Instead he followed suite and brought his sword down...only for it to be deflected off of the feathers.

That wasn't good.

"Uh oh." He grabbed onto the feathers for support and not a moment later they began to spiral out of control. The wing Weiss had cut bent back unnaturally and no longer supported the Nevermore properly and instead acted as a hindrance to its balance.

"I thought you said you had it!" Weiss screamed as she was nearly flung off her side. She had barely grabbed ahold in time. To make matters worse, they were careening wildly and there was no way she was going to make it to this side to repeat what she had done.

"Technically, I only told you to trust me!" He regretted shouting. All the twisting and flailing the avian-Grimm was doing was starting to cause his motion-sickness to act up.

"Do something you dunce or we're both going to die!" She was right. He fought back the urge to barf and looked at the spot he had failed to stab earlier and made another attempt. It came out weak and sloppy as he couldn't get a good angle with all the constant twisting and turning. For a second they flipped upside down and he saw they were getting uncomfortably close to the ground. They flipped back upright and he nearly lost his grip and got separated from it.

"Jaune!" Weiss sounded rather pleading now.

"Damn…" Jaune grit his teeth and focused on his blade. This thing had been through countless battles. It had killed humans and Grimm alike. Some much more fearsome than this thing. Yet in his hands it was just an old relic. A hand-me-down that he didn't even deserve. He actually felt kind of bad for it. Did it hate him for ending up in his incapable hands? What was he thinking? The sword couldn't feel anything, let alone think for itself. People could though, and he had people counting on him to do something right now.

As he continued to stare at the sword a blue glyph formed at the bottom of the hilt, right above where his hand held it. It looked like the one that had saved him from falling earlier only much smaller. He looked to Weiss to see her nodding at him. "Do it! That glyph will add the force to your strike that you need! Just please get us outta this situation!"

Jaune nodded and realigned himself once again, which was still really difficult. He brought the sword up and drove it down. At first he met the same resistance as before, but after a moment his sword seemed to push in on its own thanks to Weiss' glyph and he sliced into the tendon.

The Grimm lost control of this wing now too and it naturally straightened itself out as both wings flapped back at an unnatural angle. It was just in the nick of time as they felt it crash into the ground and slide across it for several hundred meters. Trees were bowled over in its wake, causing hunks of bark, leaves, and branches to rain down on top of the two aspiring students.

Once it did skid to a stop, Jaune found himself wondering if it was already dead only for it to let out a horrible screech again which told him it wasn't. He and Weiss quickly got to their feet but that turned out to be a poor decision as the Nevermore also chose this moment to stand up. They were flung from its back and onto the hard dirt trail it had left from its excursion across the earth. It turned around and glared angrily at them. It's wings hung limply at its sides. Unfortunately for the two of them, they could only groan in pain as they tried to recover from their tumble.

"Now, Blake!" Ruby yelled as she appeared to the right of the Nevermore's head. Blake appeared to the left. They swung their weapons simultaneously into its neck. Jaune watched in awe as they seemed to be suspended in midair as they attempted to cut through it. They screamed loudly in exertion as their weapons snapped through all at once. They met in the middle and their weapons clashed, popping the Nevermore's head clean off and sending it falling...right towards where Weiss and Jaune were.

"Ah man!" Jaune scrambled to his feet and dove for Weiss who was still lying on the ground. He barely reached her in time but managed to roll them both away from the severed head. It hit the ground with a loud thud, followed only a moment later by its body as it toppled over. He looked at the dead Grimm with wide-eyes as he gasped desperately for breath and gripped Weiss against him.

"Weiss…" Jaune poked the heiress that was laying unmoving on top of him. "...you okay?" His answer was an uppercut to the chin.

"Am I okay!?" She shrieked as she quickly scrambled off of him and got to her feet. "Do I look okay to you!?"

"I'd say you look fine." Blake answered as she landed nimbly next to her. "Rather chipper actually for having just been on a Nevermore for an extended period of time."

"Yeah...sorry again about that, Weiss." Ruby hid behind Blake's back and nervously waved at her partner.

Weiss clicked her teeth and attempted to glare at Ruby from around Blake. "At least he came up there and didn't abandon me. Unlike a certain partner of mine."

"I told you to jump! You could've caught yourself with your glyphs!" Ruby attempted to defend herself.

"And have put ourselves at the mercy of it's Raining Feathers? I think not!"

"Oh, so you knew it could do that..." Ruby deflated but immediately perked back up. "But it worked out in the end, right? I even found our teammates after I landed."

"More like you landed on your teammates." Blake recalled rather fondly the moment Jaune tried to catch her and only half-succeeded.

"I'm gonna be sick." Jaune interrupted their discussion as he finally managed to crawl to his hands and knees only to puke his breakfast all over the ground.

"Vomit-boy returns!"

"Shut it, Crater-face."

He managed to grumble that before he heaved and spilled more of the contents of his stomach.

"Huh, that's actually fairly clever...and accurate." Weiss seemed to appreciate the nickname Jaune had given Ruby. That made him a little happy.

Blake walked up to him and rubbed his back comfortingly. "You did good up there."

He responded with a derisive laugh and wiped his mouth clean. "Weiss is the one who did everything. I wouldn't have even landed on it if she hadn't caught me. Let alone it was thanks to her that I managed to cut its wing."

Blake opened her mouth to respond but Weiss beat her to it. "You did fine. I told you that Giant Nevermore feathers are tough. Even with my aide it was a miracle you managed to hold up your end." He wasn't sure that made him feel better.

"What she's trying to say is that without you up there, she wouldn't have been able to cut the other wing at all. Take some credit. It was your plan and in the end you helped see it through. Even if I did have to force you to go out there once we were in the air." Was that really alright though? Maybe it would have been better if Blake or Ruby had taken his spot. But no, he wouldn't have been able to aide in cutting it's head off. Was he just worthless no matter which end he was on?

He then heard the familiar ping as all four of their scrolls updated. He was starting to hate that noise. He didn't even bother pulling it out to read it. Not when he felt ready to puke again at any moment.

Blake pulled her scroll out and read it aloud for him. "Congratulations Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, and Weiss Schnee. You have successfully formed a team and are ready to face your final task. Located in Forever Fall is an old, abandoned airbase. Make your way to it before sundown tomorrow. There will be an airship waiting for you there. Board it to be lifted back off to Beacon. If you do not get on it you will be left behind and needn't return to the Academy. Best of luck. Try not to antagonize anymore big Grimm."

"Great. No pressure at all there." He really did not like the idea of being left behind.

"The map to the base is included in the message." Blake flipped her scroll around so Jaune could see it. It looked quite far away. Getting to Forever Fall alone was going to take them until nightfall at best. Then it looked like they had to hike a full days worth just to reach the airbase.

"We'd better set out at once if we're to have any hope of making it in time." Weiss took point and set off.

"Wait for me, partner!" Ruby dashed after her, leaving a trail of rose petals behind.

"You fit to travel?" Blake gently helped Jaune get back to his feet.

"I'm still feeling a little sick, but I think I'm done throwing up." He hated that he had to look so uncool in front of her. He knew it shouldn't have mattered as she'd already seen him mess up plenty of times in the short amount of time they had been together, but this felt worse than all that.

"You have to quit beating yourself up in your head." She patted his shoulder and he shifted uncomfortably. Was he being that obvious about it? "The answer to the question you just thought is yes." That answered that.

"Sorry," Jaune rubbed the back of his head as he tried to find the words. "My dad always said just be confident. Chicks dig confidence. The more this test goes on though the more I feel like I don't actually belong here."

"You belong here, Jaune." Blake locked eyes with him and he could see she was being serious but that only made him feel more guilty. She didn't know about his transcripts.

"You guys coming?" Ruby called back to them.

"We need to go. We're on a schedule after all." Blake's gaze lingered on him a little longer than necessary before she nodded to the younger girl and jogged over.

"Right." Jaune mumbled as he followed after them.

He had to at least pass this final test first.

He could decide his future here after he made sure they all still had one.

AN: I decided to change the description of the story. Last one felt a little too vague to me but I'm not sure this one is much better. At the very least I feel it gives people a little more accurate description on how this fic begins. Regardless of what the description is, if you've come this far then you must be here cause the story is turning out okay. Thanks again to everyone that has favorited/followed/reviewed this story. I really wasn't expecting such an overwhelming response for my first fic so that makes me really happy and definitely helps my motivation. I seriously didn't think I was going to devote as much time to writing as I do right now.

Next time...Jauney-boy has got issues and the only one that can help him is Blake! That is...if her own issues don't get in the way first!

Auburn

Chapter 4 - Secrets

"Blake! A little help!" Jaune cried desperately for his partner's assistance as he sprinted fullforce through the Forever Fall forest. No less than four Beowulfs were hot on his tail.

"I'm a little busy here!" Blake had just barely dodged decapitation by her own Beowulf. She stabbed it in the gut and it dropped but when she turned around she had another two running at her. She wasn't going to be able to help.

"Weiss!? Ruby!?" He looked desperately for his other two teammates but was disheartened to see them completely surrounded by at least a dozen Beowulfs of their own. This was getting ridiculous. They had only entered into Forever Fall fifteen minutes ago. Fifteen minutes and it was already becoming almost impossible to make any progress without alerting at least one Grimm, let alone a group of them.

"You got this, Jaune!" Ruby called happily from within her entrapment and waved at him. She was freaking enjoying this.

"I really don't think I do!" Jaune ran around the side of a tree. It was just in time as a beowulf lunged passed where he had just been running. It likely would've taken a nice chunk out of his head had he still been there. That had been close. He thought this too soon as one of the others ripped right through the tree he had been hiding behind.

It lunged at him and he ducked down and held his shield above his head. It collided with it and slid right over him, crashing violently into the ground. He spun and stabbed it in the head. "Ha! I got one!" He attempted to pull his sword out but it remained wedged in its skull. "Oh come on!" He didn't have time to fight for it as the other two charged him at the same time. So with great reluctance he abandoned his sword to its skull and spun around, swinging his shield in a mad bash as he did. It got the Beowulf in the side of the head and stunned it.

The other attempted to take a bite of his arm and he shoved the shield directly into its mouth. "Why don't you chew on this!" He elbowed it on the top of it's mussel and forced it to bite down on the shield. The force of the blow shattered the Beowulf's teeth. It yelped and began to run away in fear. He turned to the other one and it backed off slightly. "You want some of this?!" He held his arms out and screamed as intimidatingly as he could at it. The fear in its eyes was palpable even to him and it took off running. "That's what I thought!" He couldn't believe it. He had made it back off.

"Jaune! Behind you!"

"Huh?" He turned around to see that the Beowulf hadn't run from him at all...rather it ran from the sight of an Alpha Beowulf. It had locked its eyes on Jaune and no other dared go for the prey of their Alpha. "Oh...hey there, big guy." Jaune took an awkward step backwards. "That wasn't your buddy's teeth I just broke, was it? Cause I mean, if it was I'm really sorry about that. Heat of the moment. He technically started it."

"Jaune! Don't talk to it! Run!"

"Right!" He took another step back and once again attempted to pull his sword out of the dead Beowulf's skull. "Well, I have to go. Lovely chatting with you-" He let out a high pitched scream as it roared and lunged at him.

His sword finally pulled loose and he held it in front of himself as the giant Grimm descended upon him.

"Jaune!" Blake hacked through two more Beowulfs just in time to see the Alpha tackle him to the ground. "No, no! Jaune!" She sprinted up to where the Beowulf laid on top of him, prepared to kill it and shove it off the moment she was in range. To her surprise it looked like the big Grimm wasn't moving. It wasn't eating Jaune or clawing his face off...in fact, it wasn't even breathing. "Jaune…?" She couldn't see her partner at all and feared the worst for him.

"I'm okay! I think?" Relief washed over her as she heard his voice. She immediately attempted to roll the Beowulf off but couldn't due to its massive size.

"I'll help!" Ruby jogged up and together they rolled it off, revealing a shivering Jaune and his sword in the Grimm's throat.

"Is it over?" He looked around skeptically for another one to come running at them but Ruby looked completely composed. Blake took this opportunity to peek around the forest too and saw that the rest were fleeing.

"I think it is." Blake knelt next to him and put a hand behind his back, lifting him to a sitting position. "Thanks to you killing the Alpha the rest ran scared. Good job." He blushed at her praise.

"It looked like dumb luck to me." Blake turned to glare at Weiss who was walking up to them, carefully avoiding any Grimm limbs on the ground as she did. "If he wasn't so incompetent, we probably wouldn't have had that much trouble with them to begin with."

"You don't need to say all that to him." Blake's hair bristled and her bow twitched as she got to her feet to glare at Weiss.

The heiress met her eyes pointedly. "I'm only saying the truth. Those Beowulfs should have been a synch for us all of us, but four of them had him running all over the place screaming. It's his fault we attracted as many as we did."

"Guys, let's not fight." Ruby darted between the two of them and held her hands up defensively.

"She's the one picking a fight." Blake pointed an accusatory finger at Weiss.

"No, she's right." All three of them turned to see Jaune looking down at the ground, dejectedly. "I lost my cool and nearly got us all killed. Sorry."

"Y-You don't know for sure it was your fault!" Ruby jumped in to defend him but her words sounded anything but helpful. "What I mean to say is...umm...look, it's getting late out. The sun will be setting soon so naturally the Grimm are going to be more active. Not to mention we're in Forever Fall. There are way more Grimm out here. It was probably inevitable that we fought that many. Right?" She looked to Blake for reassurance.

"She's right. You don't need to be so hard on yourself. You're the one that killed the Alpha in the end." Blake crouched back down and placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder, hoping the contact would reassure him. He didn't raise his head to look at her. He continued to stare blankly at the ground. She bit her lip as she tried to think of something else to say to him.

Weiss interrupted her train of thought. "Look, what's done is done. We need to get a view from overtop of the trees so we can determine our best course of action. Belladonna, you seem to have the best reflexes, think you can get up there?"

Blake clicked her teeth, stood up, and took a step away from Jaune. He didn't move. Something was seriously bothering him but she couldn't fathom what. She turned to Ruby and met her eyes. A silent conversation passed between them and she knew Ruby would keep an eye on Jaune and see if she could get him to say something while she checked their surroundings. "I'll be right back." She announced to them as she walked to the nearest tree and scaled it with ease. Once at the top she perched herself up there and scanned the orange horizon.

The sun was nearly setting on the first day of their initiation, just like Ruby had said earlier. They were also quite definitely in Forever Fall. The change had been quite dramatic. The green leaves and grass of the Emerald forest turned stark red the moment they entered Forever Fall. They still had a lot of ground to cover if they were going to have any chance of making it time. They had until about this time tomorrow or they were going to fail and be kicked out from Beacon.

She grimaced as she saw several of the red trees shake violently in the distance. Likely a pack of Grimm she figured. Odds of them running into any other students out this far were pretty slim. That is if they were even given the same destination. With a long sigh, she began descending the tree to where her teammates waited. With cat-like reflexes she made it to the ground in only a couple seconds.

"Well, what did you see?" Weiss glared at her with crossed arms and tapped her foot impatiently. Blake's eyes narrowed at the heiress. She had pretty much assumed command since their trek had begun and Blake was beginning to get sick of her bossy attitude and better-than-thou demeanor.

She turned to Ruby who only shook her head. The younger girl hadn't made any progress with Jaune, but he was at least standing now. She was going to worry about him again in a minute. For now she turned her attention back to Weiss. "The Grimm are becoming much more active. It's going to become almost impossible to move without running into them soon. We should probably find a place to set up camp before we lose the light."

"Hmm…" Weiss rubbed her chin as she pondered Blake's words. "I suppose you're right. We'll need our strength for tomorrow. No sense fighting those things when they're at their most dangerous. Did you see anything that could pose as shelter? Maybe a cliff-side with caves?"

Blake shook her head. "Nothing but forest around us as far as I could tell. I think I saw a path in the trees that could have been for a river though." She hated to admit it but she was a little relieved about that. The last time she had been in a cave it had nearly killed her. She wasn't exactly rearing to enter another one anytime soon.

"A river wouldn't be bad. At the very least it would cut off half of the direction we could be attacked from without warning." Weiss seemed to find this acceptable.

"Plus we can catch some fish! I'm starving!" Ruby's stomach growled in agreement with her own statement and Blake felt her own stomach groan in response. Food was definitely a promising thought. They had eaten almost nothing since they entered the forest except for a few berries they had found. Had she known they would be spending the night in the wild she would have prepared more supplies. This was all probably another part of the test though. Hunters had to be prepared for anything and it was entire possible they would find themselves in this situation out in the field one day: forced to fend for themselves with little to no supplies.

"It's settled then. Let's find this river. Which way, Belladonna?" Weiss once again resumed command but Blake only responded by gesturing in the direction they had to go. She had other things to worry about other than Weiss' self-appointed leadership. One of those being the aching of her stomach. The other...was obviously, her partner.

As they made their way towards the river she had time to ponder what it could be that was bothering him to the point that he would look so dejected. It couldn't really be because of Weiss' cruel words earlier? No, that couldn't be right. It may have been what reopened the wound but she felt his concerns ran far deeper than that. It had all really started after the Nevermore fight...maybe even before that when they fought Cardin and Russel. She wasn't sure anymore. All she knew was he was having serious self-esteem issues.

She considered asking him but couldn't bring herself to do it. What right did she have to push him into revealing himself to her? She wasn't capable of doing the same to him. He still hadn't asked about her night-vision and it was a great relief to her. She should extend the same courtesy to him...right? Then why? Why did it feel like she was only letting the problem grow by not confronting him about it? What did that say about her own secrets? It was a frustrating question only made worse by the fact that she had no answer.

They reached the river and she was no closer to an answer than when she started. If anything she was more confused. Great, stupid Jaune. His attitude was getting to her now too. She scowled at him as he cautiously approached the riverbank. It had quite the strong current and the rushing water created quite a bit of noise. That was both good and bad. On the one hand they should be able to openly converse without attracting any Grimm but on the same side of that coin they wouldn't be able to hear one approach them either.

"Don't fall in, you dunce!" Weiss called as Jaune got a little too close to the river. The red grass went right up to the edge and then seemed to cut away as if the river had gouged its way through the landscape. "What're you even doing that close?"

"Checking for fish! We're gonna have to get them up before the sun sets if we're gonna have any hope of eating tonight." Jaune's eyes squinted as he gazed at the sunset-dyed river. He was right. They didn't have long.

"Does anyone here actually know how to fish?" Weiss turned to her other two teammates. Ruby shook her head but Blake nodded in affirmation. She loved fishing. Rather, she loved the taste of fish.

"I do." Jaune also called in response.

"Excellent! You two catch us something to eat while Ruby and I will get a fire and some seats prepared for us!" Weiss clapped her hands as if it was the most wonderful idea she had yet. Blake wasn't so sure though. Fishing meant quietly sitting next to Jaune which inevitably meant talking. She wasn't sure she was ready to talk to him yet. She didn't know what to say.

"Everything okay between you two?" She had to fight every urge in her body to yelp in surprise. Ruby had stepped next to her and she hadn't even realized it. She must really be distracted by this if it was even effecting her awareness of her surroundings.

She considered lying to the younger girl but one look at her curious, silver eyes and Blake knew she couldn't do that. She couldn't tell her the whole truth either so she decided to at least go for half. "I just don't know what to do with him. I want to ask him about it but don't know how to without trampling on his feelings."

Her response caused Ruby to grin childishly at her but she couldn't imagine why. "I'm glad Jaune got a partner that cares so much about him. He's a good guy. Even if he doesn't realize it himself." She could say that again. "You don't have to ask him about anything at all. Just make him feel better by having him do stuff he's good at. He'll naturally talk about what's wrong on his own. I always did that with my big sis when she was feeling down. Works every time."

Blake titled her head as she considered Ruby's solution. It wasn't a bad idea but what exactly was Jaune good at? He had showed extraordinary talent under pressure but seemed to flounder helplessly otherwise at even the most mundane tasks. "What kind of things did you do to help your sister?"

"Normally I'd make her take me to the playground. Wasn't long before she starting beating the snot out of every other kid there." Ruby was already skipping away to help Weiss. Blake opened her mouth to call out to her but after a moment of deliberation she snapped it shut. This was something she and Jaune had to work out for themselves.

So with great reluctance she walked over to her partner. He sat crossed-legged on the ground and looked to be constructing something for them. It looked like a couple of spears that they would be using to skewer any fish that was unlucky enough to swim right by them. He had one complete and was sharpening the second with the tip of his sword. After several seconds he nodded in satisfaction at the spear and handed it to her with a small smile.

"Thanks." Blake accepted it and crouched down over the river. Jaune sat up and took a spot next to her, his own spear ready. To Blake's great delight there were a surprising amount of fish swimming through at the moment. Then again, maybe it wasn't too surprising. She doubted too many people came to this area to fish, what with it being infested with Grimm.

She took a stab and on her first try speared a fish dead in the center. She pulled it out and was absolutely thrilled to see salmon. Not as good as tuna but this would be just as delicious on her empty stomach.

"Got one!" Jaune yelled excitedly as he too skewered a fish of his own. This was going to be too easy for them at this rate. "We'll be able to catch enough for tomorrow like this." Blake couldn't help but smile as some life finally returned to her partner's eyes. Maybe this was all he needed? Ruby might have been on to something. It would only be a matter of time before Jaune opened up to her and told her whatever it was that had been troubling him.

And so she patiently waited.

They both caught another fish bringing them to four but Jaune didn't open his mouth to say anything.

He missed his next strike but she caught hers. More silence.

Their next tries ended up the opposite.

Fifteen minutes and about ten fish later.

The sun was nearly set and the last slivers of light were glistening off the river.

Still nothing from him.

Her patience was wearing thin and he didn't look ready to say a single damn thing! Ruby said it worked every time so why wasn't anything happening?

The sun sank below the horizon and they were cast into a light-purple darkness. Her eyes adjusted quickly enough. Jaune, not being able to see into the river anymore, stood up and stretched. "Well, I think that's it for me. We got a pretty good haul. Let's see what Weiss and Ruby got going."

"You're not going to tell me what's wrong?" She blurted out without thinking. She couldn't stand this anymore. She had never been in a situation like this before and the uncertainty of what to do had finally caused her to snap. How could he do this to her? The first person she felt she could trust in a long time and he was shutting her out and burying his emotions from her.

He turned and looked at her questioningly. "What're you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking out." She was sure to keep her voice down so as not to alert their other teammates and rose to her feet. She made eye-contact even though she knew he could barely see hers without the aide of the sun. "You've been in this funk for awhile and no matter what, I can't figure out why. What's going on with you?"

He averted his gaze and shuffled awkwardly to the side. He seemed to fumble for words as he scratched the back of his head nervously. Finally, he seemed to settle on some words but refused to look her in the eyes as he spoke. "It's nothing. I'll tell you about it after we pass tomorrow."

"It's anything but nothing." She snapped and felt her hair bristle slightly as she got more angry. "And if you don't snap out of whatever it is that's got you down there might be a chance we don't pass tomorrow. Just today took all of our combined skills to survive and if you're not giving it your best tomorrow we might just not pull through. You don't want to let someone die just because you're too scared to talk about what's bugging you, do you?"

"I'm telling you I don't want to talk about it!" Jaune finally looked back and Blake saw a small hint of anger in his eyes and could feel it in his voice. "You can't understand what I'm going through, so butt off!" Her eyes widened and she grit her teeth so hard she could actually hear them grinding together.

She can't understand? Who the hell did he think he was? She probably understood better than anyone what it was like to harbor a secret that was constantly weighing down on you. That affected every move you made. In fact, it was he that didn't understand one bit. She kept her secrets in check while he let his bring him down. "Fine." She growled at him and turned on her heel. "Solve your own damn problem. Just don't let it get me killed." She scooped up her share of the fish and walked over to where Weiss and Ruby waited.

"Don't worry! I won't!" Jaune called after her before she heard him do the same.

She approached the modest campfire that they had prepared for them. Four logs were positioned around it, creating makeshift benches for them to use. Ruby and Weiss sat on one end while two logs were positioned next to each other on the other end.

"About time." Weiss huffed as Blake passed by her and went to her log. "We've even prepared the sticks to cook over. I hope you caught enough."

"We caught plenty." Blake let her anger from her fight with Jaune carry into her response but she didn't feel the least bit bad about it. She was sick of it all. Sick of Weiss and her stupid self-appointed leadership, sick of Jaune and his issues, sick of this forest, sick of hiding in plain sight. She grabbed the sticks Weiss had mentioned and planted the fish above the fire to cook before shifting a log away from the other one. She couldn't sit next to him right now.

"What's her problem?" Weiss crossed her arms and glared at Jaune as he entered into the light cast from the fire. Ruby merely glanced nervously between the two of them.

"Beats me." Jaune began placing his own fish over the fire to cook. He didn't make eye-contact with anyone as he did. "Maybe you should ask her?" He finished and plopped down on his own log and proceeded to glare into the fire.

Weiss leaned to Ruby to whisper but Blake's enhanced hearing pick up what she said without any trouble. "Did I miss something or did they just have a fight?" Ruby could only shrug helplessly so Weiss turned her attention back to Blake. "If he did anything to sexually harass you-"

"Nothing like that happened!" The fact that she would even suggest that infuriated her more. "Just stay out of it!" Great, now she was sounding like Jaune.

"Well whatever it is that caused this you two need to settle it soon. Grimm feed on negative emotion and if they swarm this place tonight because of you two, I'm going to be very, very upset." Weiss snatched up her cooked fish and took an angry bite out of it. The others all grabbed their own fish and they began eating in silence.

Blake hated this. The fish which she loved so much tasted like nothing more than ash in her mouth and every time she swallowed it felt like a rock hit the bottom of her stomach, only adding to the dense weight she felt down there. This was a horrible, ugly feeling she had. One she was all too familiar with: regret.

She had come to regret a lot of things in life but she hadn't expected to come to Beacon and experience it on her second night here. Much more over some boy she had only met that morning. Why did she feel so strongly in regards to him? If she had to put it into words...it would be because he had become the symbol for the start of her new life. Without even realizing it she had transformed him into something more than what he was in her mind.

When she had first arrived here she hadn't expected to make bonds with anyone. But then they entered that cave together. In that cave, an all but blind human had charged to his death to save her life. He had thrown all caution to the wind and while it had been a brutal struggle, they had emerged alive and better for it. That cave had formed their bond.

Then she thought he had died. When Cardin's mace had enveloped him in an explosion and he had been blasted into a tree she had thought beyond a shadow of a doubt he was a goner. The feelings that brought out in her...had been enlightening, to say the least. She realized at that moment that she thought of Jaune as more than a partner, but as a friend.

Friend...that was a weird word. She didn't really have anyone she could call a friend before now. She had her mentor, but that had been different. The other members of her old organization...they were simply comrades with which she shared the same cause. None of them were friends. They weren't people who would throw their lives away to protect you. Maybe for the good of their race, but not for you as an individual. Was that what it was that made Jaune different to her? He was someone that respected the individual. He embodied what it was that she sought to become as a Huntress...even if his skills were severely lacking.

So it was no wonder she would be filled with regret. The symbol she had built in her head turned out to be nothing more than a normal, human boy; Filled with all the flaws of a normal, human boy.

"Alright. Seeing as everyone is done eating, we need to set up sleeping and watch arrangements." Weiss' words broke her from her deep reservoir. She was surprised to notice that she had in fact finished her fish already and the others were already wrapped up to be preserved for tomorrow.

"Arc." She addressed him first. "You'll be given the last watch. Also, try to sleep as far away from us girls as possible without putting yourself outside of this sanctuary. I don't want anything unscrupulous going on tonight. About fifteen meters away from any of us should be satisfactory." She then turned to Blake. "I think you should take first watch. After about two and a half hours choose either Ruby or myself to take over for you. We'll guard the middle of the night. Seeing as none of us are those lowly Faunus and don't have night-vision we'll have to be extra wary of any subtle noises. Anything at all should be treated as a threat."

"Wait, what?" Jaune perked up from his spot and looked at Weiss with wide-eyes. If it was possible, Blake felt her heart sink even lower.

"Use your ears, you dunce. You can't see out there, can you?"

"No, before that. About the Faunus." Yep, she was screwed. Her life her was over.

"Faunus. They have night vision. Don't you know anything?" He shifted a glance to Blake and she shrunk in her seat. He had found out! Was he gonna expose her right here, in front of Weiss and Ruby? She didn't doubt it after the fight they had just had. She had tried to expose his secret and in the end had her own thrown in his face. It was almost poetic justice for him now.

His gaze shifted slowly off of her and back to Weiss. He opened his mouth.

Here it came.

She knew hiding out here without anyone knowing was too good to be true. "Well, I'm pretty tired. I'm gonna head this way. Don't wanna make you too uncomfortable, Snow Angel." He winked at her and walked off into the darkness.

"Wh- H-How dare you!" Weiss sputtered after him and Ruby broke into a fit of laughter. Blake merely sat there in shock.

He hadn't told? Why? Was it possible he really didn't figure it out? No. He wasn't that dense. The reason he hadn't figured it out already was because he hadn't known about Faunus night-vision. Now though...he knew and yet he chose not to say anything. She stood up from her spot and took a step towards him. The others couldn't see it but he had already laid down in the darkness, using his hoodie as a pillow.

"Where do you think you're going? It's your watch." Weiss' words stopped her cold in her tracks. She couldn't talk to him now. Not with those two still awake. She had to wait. However, she was supposed to relieve one of them when her shift was over. She wouldn't have a chance to wake Jaune and talk to him. It might be awhile before she could ask him why. She clicked her teeth and walked away from the river and towards the forest. She scaled the first tree she could and perched herself in a branch that gave her a perfect view of the dark wilderness ahead of her.

Her ears twitched as they picked up all the sounds around them. She could hear some of the Grimm actively hunting but they weren't anywhere near them so they should be fine. She heard the two girls put out the fire and curl up next to one another for sleep. It wasn't likely going to be a comfortable sleep either. Still, they seemed to fall asleep rather quickly if the steady rhythm of their breathing was any indication. It had been an exhausting day after all and she couldn't blame them. Once it was her turn she was sure she would pass out almost immediately as well.

The sound of a twig snapping beneath her caused her to jump and instinctively reach for her blade. She looked down to see it was only Jaune who was looking around anxiously for her. He wasn't asleep! He took another couple steps but it would be impossible for him to find her where she was without assistance. This forest was much too dark and she was perched quite high. "Jaune!" She gave a hushed yell and his head snapped upwards and to her location.

He gave her a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. "Is it...is it alright if I come up there with you? I'd like to talk."

She nodded before remembering he couldn't see. "I'd like to talk too."

A look of relief washed over his face and he began walking along the tree, trying to find the shortest branch for him to grab ahold of. "Whoa!" He tripped on a root and nearly fell but managed to maintain his balance. Finally, he found a branch but had to jump for it. It took him several tries but finally he managed to hoist himself up. Then, slowly but surely he made his way up the tree and closer to her. Every once in awhile she'd give him a minor direction and eventually he got to a branch just below hers and to the left.

While her branch jutted completely away from the river, his ran parallel to it. They both sat with their backs to the trunk of the tree. She let several full minutes go by before she wondered why he had come up at all if he wasn't going to talk to her. In that time, the clouds shifted away and the shattered moon cast a white light on the two of them. His head turned slightly and he looked up at her. She was already looking back at him. Their eyes made contact and she knew the time to talk was that moment.

"Why didn't you tell them?" It was eating at her and she had to know.

"Yeah...about that." Jaune lowered his eyes for a minute before bringing them up to meet her's again. "I owe you an apology." What was he talking about? He hadn't spilled her secret to them so why was he apologizing? "I said too much earlier when I told you that you couldn't possibly understand how I feel. As it turns out, I was the one that didn't understand you."

Oh yeah, there was that. She had already pushed that behind her with this latest fear of her being exposed on her mind. Their whole argument came crashing back and she felt overwhelmed by guilt. She had been the one trying to push him outside of his comfort zone and here he was apologizing to her. "We both said things we didn't mean."

Jaune shook his head. "No, you were completely in the right back there and I was acting out of line. I should have told you about what was bugging me. Maybe if I had you would've felt confident enough to trust me with your secret. My mom always said secrets don't make friends and man, she wasn't kidding. I can't believe we got into it like that back there."

Blake was taken aback by his statement. "You still consider me a friend? Even knowing what I am?" She leaned forward so she could see his full face. She wanted to see it as he responded.

"Of course I do. Faunus? Human? Things like that don't matter. What matters is what's on the inside. Kind of similar to what you said earlier. About having a good heart and all that. I'm surprised you still considered me a friend; What with the miserable way humans treat Faunus and all." She felt herself choke back tears at his words. She had just been thinking awful things about him not more than a few minutes ago and here he was making her feel like a complete fool. Yet, she couldn't be happier about it. She was ecstatic to be able to talk to him again. Talk to him freely too. There was no longer anything left for her to hide from him. Well, there was one thing. She was already partly exposed, might as well come out completely.

"I…" She struggled to say the next part but knew she had too. "I used to be a member of the White Fang." His gaze turned to one of shock but she shook her head, hoping to cut off his questions. He didn't say anything so she felt free to continue. "I left because they became too extreme for me. The world they wanted was no longer the one of equality that I wished for. So I left and hid my identity as a Faunus when entering this academy. I wanted to do some good in this world...as a person. Not with a label on me."

Jaune didn't respond immediately, instead he only stared. Not once had they broken eye contact. She wondered if he hated her for half-a-second before dismissing the idea as ludicrous. She knew him better than that. "What kinda Faunus are you? I've never noticed any animal features on you so they must be pretty well hidden."

The question got a weak smile from her and she patted her bow. "I have cat ears under my bow. I may let you see them some day. Please don't ask me for awhile though. I...don't think I'm ready to take it off yet. I know this is a lot to ask but can I please have you keep my secret for me?" She eyed him fearfully for his response and he let out a tired sigh.

"How about an exchange?" She rose an eyebrow at him, unsure of what he meant. "I still haven't told you what's bothering me, remember?" That was true. It hardly seemed like a fair exchange though. Whatever was causing his inferiority complex couldn't possibly compete with what had just been revealed about her. She used to be in a criminal organization for crying out loud. But what choice did she have? The least she could do was hear him out.

"Okay. You can tell me. No matter what it is." She nodded her head and shifted herself on the branch. Her butt was starting to go numb from the hard bark.

Jaune opened his mouth to tell her but let out what sounded like a choked laugh. "Man, this is hard. I can't believe you just did this."

"Jaune..."

"Right, sorry." He let out a deep sigh. "I don't belong here at Beacon."

She waited for him to continue. He didn't.

That was it? That was his big secret?

"Jaune, you said that already. I told you that you're fine. You need to quit beating yourself up-"

"No, you don't understand. I actually don't belong here. I faked my transcripts. I got in by forgery." Oh.

Ooooooh.

That was actually...much more game-changing than she had expected. Suddenly his exchange held quite a bit more weight to it. While her secret would certainly draw unnecessary attention to herself, his would outright get him kicked out altogether. "That's...I'm not even sure what to say." She admitted as her brain tried to catch up. Maybe she was overcomplicating things? She didn't have to say anything or even think about it and he would keep her secret safe. That was the deal he had proposed. The results would be much worse for him if they were both exposed so she had no reason to decline. She hoped it wouldn't come to that as friends though. "Okay. You're on. I won't tell anyone provided you keep up your end."

Jaune gave her a small smile and nodded before stretching his limbs and yawning. "You might not have to worry long about me, anyways." She tilted her head at his statement. "I think once we pass this test I'm going to resign from Beacon."

"What?! Why?" She couldn't believe this. He had done so much to get in here. He had risked death numerous times and was just going to throw it all away? For what? A safe, cushy, life?

"I don't know what I was thinking." He shook his head sadly. "I wanted to help people. Who knew you had to be strong to do that? I'm not talented like the three of you. I don't have a suited-up weapon or some crazy semblance. I'm just an ordinary guy with an ordinary sword and shield. It's a miracle I haven't gotten you guys killed just for being with me. That's why I'm going to help you pass and then I'm gonna bow out. Make way for the real heroes."

"Jaune." She couldn't believe what she heard him say. "You're anything but ordinary." She couldn't stress this enough. "Do you know the number of amazing things you accomplished today? What's more, you accomplished those things without any kind of proper training at all! You didn't even have an aura for our first couple encounters!" She had to calm down. If she started yelling she risked waking up their sleeping teammates.

"Everything that happened was all you guys." She couldn't believe he seriously meant that.

"You held off half a King Taijitu long enough for me to defeat the other. You blocked the strike of a Deathstalker. A Deathstalker, Jaune! You blocked it with only the light of it's stinger to go off of in an environment that left you blind. Then, while still protecting me, you managed to kill it. Then you managed to half-carry me out of that cave as it collapsed around us. Even after you got hit by a rock in the head you kept going. Still no aura by the way. Do I even need to mention the Ursa? You took a head-on attack from that jerk-that-we-saved's mace. That explosion would've killed someone with a lesser Aura. Yours healed you enough for you to beat him down, without a weapon. It was your plan that we went with to defeat the Nevermore and you tackled Weiss out of the way when its head nearly crushed her. You killed an Alpha Beowulf in one strike. You're an incredible person." By the time she was done she was panting for breath.

Jaune's mouth hung agape at her tirade. He tried to formulate words of protest but seemed to be having trouble doing so. Finally, his mouth seemed to start working again. "Most of that was just because you guys helped-"

"That's what teammates do, Jaune. They help each other. We all did our part. That's why Hunters and Huntresses work together in teams. No one is perfect on their own. We need one another to rely on. Even an introvert like me knows that." She grinned coyly at him. "If it'll make you feel better about staying though, I'll start training you after we start classes. Getting you in better shape certainly wouldn't hurt our chances."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jaune waved his arms frantically in front of himself. "You're saying you want me to stay? Even knowing that I shouldn't have been let in at all? Even though you know that the people who know your secret is back down to zero when I'm gone?"

She stood on her branch and jumped down to his. He yelped in surprise but she paid it no mind as she crouched in front of him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I told you, Jaune. You're my friend. The last thing I want is for you to leave. I want you to stay at Beacon together with me."

A couple tears slid down Jaune's face as he stared at her in disbelief. It took him several seconds before he was able to respond. Slowly, he reached out and grabbed the hand that rested on his shoulder. His much bigger hand completely enveloped her smaller one. "I still don't feel like I deserve a partner as good as you, or teammates as amazing as Ruby or Weiss..." She frowned at him and thought about berating him some more, but he continued on. "...however, if you're willing to go that far to make me to stay then I have no choice but to take you up on your offer. I'll do whatever it takes to become the type of guy that deserves to stand at all your sides."

Blake could only give him a small smile in response. It wasn't much, but it was something. His confidence issues were clearly rooted quite deep. Still, as long as he stayed at Beacon, she could be there to help him. That was enough for now.

She turned back to the forest in front of them and sat down on the branch, letting her legs dangle in the air. Jaune mimicked the action and sat next to her so their arms and shoulders were touching. She didn't mind the proximity one bit.

She was just happy to have her friend back.

AN: This chapter was so tricky for me that I wrote it twice. The first one I wrote entirely from Jaune's perspective. The second one (The one I went with) as you can see, was written from Blake's. The end differences between both versions was...enlightening, to say the least. It was really odd, when I wrote it from Blake's perspective, the whole conversation took a very different (and I felt much more natural) order. I guess I'll let you decide if you felt it all flowed well. It was my first chapter without a battle for a climax so I'm fairly interested in if it held up to the others for you.

Next time, the team makes it to their destination but a threat unlike anything they've ever faced stands before them. With time running out, Jaune makes good on his word to ensure the others pass...even if it means he won't.

Auburn

Chapter 5 - Overtime

Blake crept silently ahead of the rest of the group. Forever Fall was teeming with Grimm and it was getting harder and harder for them to transverse any ground without getting caught by a group of them. Their second day had been going for quite some time now and if she had to guess she would say they had three hours tops until they needed to be to this airship that was supposed to take them home. It was something that was totally feasible...if they could manage to quit fighting Grimm for awhile.

Fortunately, she couldn't make out any in the red forest ahead of them. She turned around and waved the group forward. Weiss, Ruby, and Jaune all appeared from around behind trees they had been using as cover and jogged to her. Weiss and Ruby continued past but Jaune paused by her side and gave her a silent thumbs-up with a goofy smile.

She returned the smile and gently touched his forearm before they continued after their two teammates. She noticed Ruby give them a curious glance backwards as they continued on. She had every right to be questioning them. The last she had seen before going to bed the two of them hadn't been on talking terms. Now, the two of them seemed closer than ever.

Sharing their darkest secrets probably had something to do with it.

For that reason, they couldn't let Ruby or Weiss know what had really transpired between them the night before. She still wasn't sure what they would say when asked, but she would worry about things like that after they passed. For now, all her attention had to be devoted to the task at hand. So for the next fifteen minutes they crept forward in silence.

"Does it seem strangely quiet to anyone else?" It was Ruby that broke the silence that had claimed their group. They had been going by the unspoken rule of not saying anything for fear of alerting Grimm to their location but Ruby had a point. It was really quiet. Rather...it was downright silent. There wasn't a single breathing thing moving around them at all. Not birds in the sky, nor squirrels and other rodents bustling along the ground. She couldn't even hear the hum of insects that were an almost annoyingly constant presence.

"This isn't natural." Weiss seemed to agree with what Blake was thinking. The most disturbing part of all was that there weren't any Grimm. If there was something that even scared them away from the area...then they were in more than just a little bit of trouble.

"Does anyone else feel like we just entered the calm before the storm?" Leave it to Jaune to put it with as little delicacy as possible.

"Whatever it is, I don't like it one bit. We should make haste." Weiss skipped ahead before she broke into a light jog. Blake hated to admit it but for once she was in agreement with the Heiress.

"Come on, Jaune. We're getting out of here." She grabbed his wrist and took off running after her. A trail of rose petals told her that Ruby had dashed forward as well.

"What do you think it could be?" Jaune gasped for breath as she dragged him at a pace that was just almost too quick for him.

"I don't know and I don't want to know. We just need to get out of this red forest-" Her breath hitched as the trees broke away all at once and she was forced to skid to a stop before she ran smack into Weiss and Ruby. Together, the four of them stared in utter silence at the massive scenery that had opened up before them.

The lowering sun illuminated the landscape beautifully. Behind them was the edge of the forest which cut into the dense, red treeline they had just broken free from. Immediately ahead of them was a massive slope that slanted at a dangerous angle, leading them directly into the twisting wilderness hundreds of meters beneath them. Rolling rivers were visible for miles, only occasionally obstructed by pockets of orange and yellow trees. Where there weren't trees though there was lush, rich grass that looked so red it was almost as if it had been painted on by the deaths of hundreds of lives. However, none of this compared to the predominant feature of the landscape before them which were the dozens of twisting spires and flat mesas. Some of them appeared to extend several kilometers into the sky, as if they were attempting to stab at it. Two growing mountains to either side appeared to trap the peninsula in a gigantic fissure. Just beyond it all...was the endless blue sea.

"This is…" There were too many words Blake could use to describe it. This was land untouched by man, too far beyond their reach. It was beautiful and yet it was horrifying to look at. If she had to go with a description for it though, there was only one thing that properly came to mind. "...unlike anything I've ever seen."

Weiss snapped free from her stupor first and pulled out her scroll and began scanning her map. "The abandoned airbase is ahead of us...if I had to guess I would say it's on one of those big mesa. It's the perfect spot for them to attempt to establish a route out here."

"If it's so perfect why is it abandoned though?" Jaune brought up an excellent question. So much land was visible in front of them and yet Blake didn't spy a single Grimm. How could that be though? This far from civilization should be teeming with them. Why then did they have to abandon this airbase? Why didn't they attempt to cultivate this area? It didn't make sense.

"We can always ask them when we get there. We really need to keep moving though. I do not want to have to run back through that forest because we missed our flight." It was once again Weiss that egged the group forward and she began to slide down the slope that took them to the rolling landscape beneath them.

"This is something we would have never gotten to see if we hadn't decided to become Huntresses." Ruby took one last longing glance before she followed loyally after her partner.

"We're almost done. We can finally put this whole initiation behind us." Jaune grinned widely as he too started after them.

"Jaune, you need to listen to me." Blake took pace right by his side. "There is something very dangerous down there. No matter what happens, we need to stick together. Do you understand me?"

"Of course." Jaune nodded at her and continued to grin. He didn't look nearly as frightened about this as Blake felt he should be. "We've overcome so much already together. There isn't anything that the four of us can't beat together. I'm certain of it." For once, it was Jaune who was sprouting off lines of confidence. Not his fake bravado either; It was real, genuine confidence. Confidence in his teammate's and his own ability to handle whatever it was that came at them. Blake had to admit, it really suited him. His father might have been onto something when he told him that all a guy needed was confidence.

It took them nearly ten minutes just to reach the bottom of their first hill. Down here, the spires seemed much more imposing. It was impossible to see the tips of some of them as the clouds passed through them. The sound of the crashing rivers and roaring waterfalls were the only noise audible to them and the air...it smelled sickeningly sweet. Just what in the world was this place they had entered?

The blood-red grass was soft beneath their feet and felt comfortable even on their sore legs as they continued their trek. It was almost unbelievable that this place could be dangerous. They continued forward, every step causing them to forget their previous fear little, by little.

They arrived next to their first spire and Blake was immediately impressed with how thick it was. It was nearly one hundred times as dense as any tree. The twisting rock it was made of was covered in moss and roots, giving it an incredibly ancient feeling. More than that, it felt...sacred. Almost as if it was something not to be disturbed or touched by mankind.

"I'm tired…" Ruby groaned as they passed it and continued forward. There were several more in the distance in front of them, some of their bases impossible to see thanks to the numerous hills.

"What are you, a child?" Weiss chided as she glared at her. "We've got about an hour until sunset and we're still a ways off from the mesa I think we need to be to."

"She is only fifteen and this is a lot of up and down walking, Snow Angel. Cut her some slack." Jaune immediately stepped to Ruby's defense.

"You pick up her slack then! I'm trying to keep us from failing!" Weiss spun on her heel and stormed ahead. "And stop calling me that!"

"I'm sorry." Ruby looked downtrodden for having got Jaune yelled at.

"Hey, don't worry about it. She's just cranky from not getting her proper beauty sleep." Jaune jostled Ruby's hair, getting a giggle from her. He then crouched down in front of her and she looked taken aback. "Hop on. I'll carry you for awhile." With a deep blush on her face, Ruby obliged and got on his back. He wrapped his arms around her legs and began piggybacking her.

"Thanks." Blake's bow twitched as she heard Ruby quietly whisper into Jaune's ear. She wasn't sure what it was, but she felt a tinge of something as she watched the two of them. She quickly squashed the feeling and continued to follow after them.

It was only a few minutes before they ran into a problem. One of the rivers that they had seen cut across their path and it was running far too rapidly for them to simply cross without being swept away. To their left it went off a cliff and formed a waterfall. To their right was one of the pockets of trees they had seen earlier. It was a miniature forest in its own right now that they could see it up close.

"This is nothing." Weiss walked up to the edge of the river without fear and unhooked Myrtenaster from her belt. The dial at the end spun until was locked on the light blue and she stabbed at the river in front of her. In only an instant a huge hunk of it froze to solid ice, forming an easy path for them to cross. They wasted no time doing so for fear of the river ripping their makeshift bridge apart at any moment.

The sky was beginning to become dyed with oranges and purples as the sun got lower and lower to the horizon. Their pace naturally quickened as the urgency of the time was becoming blatantly more apparent to all of them.

"Do you think there's an elevator to the top?" Jaune asked the question that Blake could only hope the answer was a yes. The mesa they were searching for was now distinctly in their sights but to their dismay it stretched impossibly high up.

"My glyphs can get us up there easily enough. I won't fail just because there isn't something like an elevator." Weiss and everyone's eyes were glued to the side of the structure ahead of them. It was their one and only goal right now. They were so caught up in it that they failed to notice the danger that was approaching them until it was almost too late.

Naturally, it was Blake who felt it first. "Is the ground...shaking?" She wasn't sure if it was a trick of her tired legs which were shaking simply from the exertion she had put them through or if there was actually something causing the ground to quake.

The others took pause and seemed to consider her question for a moment. Jaune was the first to respond. "The ground is definitely shaking. It's getting stronger too." Ruby was beginning to jitter around in his hold.

"It's not an earthquake, is it?" Weiss looked the most concerned of them as she kept shifting her gaze from the ground to the mesa.

"Actually...I think it's that." Ruby pointed to their left, away from the setting sun, and they all followed with their eyes.

"That's no earthquake." Blake's breath hitched at the behemoth Grimm that was charging for them. It was still too far off to make out all the details, but from what she could tell it was not something they wanted to mess with.

"Should we run?" Jaune was already taking a few uneasy steps away from it. "We don't have much time before the sun sets after all."

"We should definitely run. Like now." Weiss' voice trembled with fear as she gazed at it.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Jaune didn't waste another second; He sprinted faster than Blake had ever seen him go before and that was with Ruby on his back too. She and Weiss were immediately on his tail.

"How did it even find us?" Ruby screamed as she was able to keep looking at it. The others didn't dare turn around to see it. "We would've seen something that big way before it saw us, wouldn't we?"

"Who knows? It's a Grimm! They have all kinds of unusual abilities, most of them good for hunting humans!" Blake's legs were on fire. They had been sore before but now she was putting every fiber of her being into using them to propel herself forward. Her lungs greedily sucked for air but they couldn't possibly get enough. The trembling was getting so bad now it was almost impossible for them to run straight. They still easily had three hundred meters until they made it to the Mesa but there was another forest pocket just twenty to their right.

"Guys! It's on us! Like right this second!" Ruby's eyes hadn't left it and she was reaching for her weapon and appeared to be preparing to kick off Jaune's back.

"Ruby! Distract it for just a second!" Weiss unhooked her rapier. Blake took this as a good sign to unsheath Gambol Shroud. Jaune's sword came out and his shield popped open. They were ready.

"I'm on it!" Ruby's weapon transformed into a scythe and she flipped backwards and away from Jaune. She fired off a round and it propelled her backwards and right towards the Grimm. As she did, all three of them spun around to face whatever it was behind them.

Blake...did not like their odds.

It had three different heads on its body. The one at the front was that of a lion. A big, black lion with the most evil red eyes she had ever seen. It's wild mane was dyed so black it looked like a deep abyss. The second head rode on it's back and was that of a goat. The horns looped around and were made of dark gray Grimm armor. Its front legs were lion paws while it's back were goat hooves. The final head was on its tail and was a snake that made the King Taijitu look small by comparison. The whole thing was big. Just one of it's feet was as tall as they were and the rest of it scaled hopelessly over their heads.

This didn't stop Ruby from swinging right at it's big face. Well, the first face she could. "Take this!" She cried as her scythe descended at it. It turned its head just slightly and she struck the lion's mane only to have her blow completely deflected. Blake could only sympathize as the younger girls eyes widened in shock and she flipped backwards and away from it.

"What the hell is that thing?" Jaune's knees were shaking as he stared up at the monstrosity before them.

"It's a Chimera-class Grimm." Weiss stabbed her sword into the ground and a path of ice spikes trailed towards the Chimera. It gave a mighty roar and swung it's paw. The ice shattered before it even made it to it. "It's an S-rank Grimm."

"What does that mean?"

"It means only the best of the best go after something like this." Blake answered Jaune's question before charging forward to land a strike of her own. In other words they were screwed unless they came up with a plan. Before that though they had to keep it confused by constantly charging at it independently. All three heads seemed to still be analyzing them. They only had a small window before it began attacking in earnest.

That small window appeared to be up as the lion head roared, the goat bleated, and the snake hissed. Blake skid to a halt but she was right in front of it. The lion's mane began shaking violently. It was horrifying looking. Like thousands of snakes were wiggling about. Then it came to life and began stretching out. Four spears made of the hair extended all at once; One for each of them.

Blake left behind a clone and dodged with just a second to spar. It had been incredibly quick. She turned to see Jaune had shielded himself while Weiss and Ruby were both protected by the former's glyph. "Blake! Behind you!" She turned to see the snake head lunging at her.

"Damn!" She dropped to the ground and it barely skirted over her head. It pulled back and poised itself to strike again. Meanwhile, she heard the goat inhale. She could only spare a brief glance before she had to dodge again. It spit a horrible green liquid from its mouth that flew right at Jaune.

He raised his shield to deflect it. "Dodge it you dunce!" Weiss and Ruby were holding off all four of the tendril-like spears that were made of the lion's mane.

Jaune froze up for just a second before rolling out of the way. The green spit hit the ground and immediately began to melt a hole into it. "Thanks, Snow Angel! I knew you cared!" He yelled before looking to see another acid-loogie flying at him. Weiss didn't have the time to respond as more pieces of the mane broke off and were beginning to overwhelm her and Ruby.

This was falling apart for them very quickly. They had been divided up by the heads and if they didn't do something they were going to be picked off one by one. They were going to have to do something and soon. The problem was that communicating with one another was almost impossible. She was putting all her effort into just surviving at the moment and the others were doing the same. If they tried looking out for each other it would only get themselves killed. She had to take control of her own fight if she was going to help someone else.

She dodged the snake once again and sliced at it with Gambol Shroud. Predictably it had no effect. She was going to need to get momentum to do any real damage to it but that thing was swinging around so quickly and fluidly that she couldn't even get a clean hit in, let alone a powerful one.

The snake pulled its head back and loomed over at her. This was another problem, a normal snake was restricted to the ground. This one dangled in the air, giving it a whole different range of ways to come at her. It let out a low, long hiss and once again made a jab for her. She left a clone and dodged to the right. It struck the ground, sending hunks of dirt and grass flying in every direction. She landed right next to it, this time determined to stab its piercing red eye.

"Blake!" Before she had the chance, Jaune tackled her out of the way. She looked to see the snake head pull back up and a wad of acid strike the ground she had just been standing on. Jaune had just saved her life.

"Thanks." They both scrambled to their feet and Jaune nodded in response to her. They stood side-by-side, watching now for both the snake and goat heads.

"Weiss and Ruby are gonna make a break for it here in a second. When they get here we're gonna go for the snake head first. Then the goat. We'll end it with the lion. It's the only strategy we got." He quickly filled her in on the plan the others had somehow formed while she was busy with her end.

"That sounds like the best option to me. We're no good split up like this. It should get easier with each blow we deal." Blake and Jaune split from one another just in time to dodge the snake. She left a clone that was hit by acid not a moment later.

"Jaune! Blake! Hang on!" Ruby and Weiss were coming in at high speeds and Blake knew it was time to put a plan in action if they had one.

"Weiss! Freeze it down!" Jaune called and the heiress reacted. The snake was frozen to the ground just below it's head, keeping it low to the ground. "Ruby! I'll give you a boost! Get above it! Blake get below! Do to it what you did to the Nevermore!"

"Right!"

"You got it!"

Ruby vanished in a blur of roses and appeared above Jaune. He already was crouched with his shield above his head. She fired her gun and was launched into the air. She arched herself above the snake just as Blake got beneath it. Weiss waved her rapier and two more glyphs appeared; One above Ruby and one below Blake. "Use them as a boost!" She commanded. More of the tendrils from the lions mane were about to strike her in the back but Jaune intercepted them with his shield, allowing her to focus.

"Do it!"

Ruby gave a yell as she kicked off her glyph and Blake decided to do the same. Their blades dug into its neck at the same time and just like they had done once before they popped its head clear off.

The other two heads of the Chimera gave very different cries of pain. The tail broke free from the ice and begun swinging around wildly. The mane retracted back to the lion's face and it began stamping the ground with its paws while bucking with its hooves. The ground shook horribly as it threw its tantrum and they all nearly toppled over.

"We need to get the goat now, right?" Blake wanted nothing more than to take a breather but time was running out very, very quickly. They had maybe fifteen minutes before the sun set and that was being generous. That was fifteen minutes to cut off two more heads of an S-rank Grimm, run three hundred meters to a mesa and then scale it to the top and board a ship.

Yeah, not good.

"What's the strategy for that?" Ruby turned to her partner and Jaune anxiously mimicked that look.

"We need to get up there, first. The base of its head is huge and those horns pose a major problem but not nearly as much as that disgusting spit of its so we'll have to pincer it from the sides. Arc and Belladonna should take one end while we take the other. As long as we can destroy its brain it should be easier than cutting its head off. Besides, it'll be more of a hindrance still attached to the body."

"Then let's go." Ruby cocked her scythe and a shell fell out of it.

"Wait, something's wrong!" Blake put her arm in front of her and they all took notice of the Chimera acting differently. It was still thrashing but the tail had quit flailing around like a broken cord and now shot backwards, ramrod straight. It started pulsing. At first it was slow but the time between each pulse got quicker until it was happening multiple times a second. A sick gushing sound reached their ears and the severed part of the tail began growing...until the head of the snake returned as if it hadn't been cut at all.

"Now that's just cheating…" Jaune's arms fell helplessly to his sides. Blake couldn't help but agree with him.

"Is it immortal?" Ruby wondered aloud.

"It can't be." Weiss shook her head. "It likely either has a central heart or all three heads operate independently. If the latter is the case we would have to cut them all off simultaneously to kill it."

"That's about as possible as locating the heart, assuming it only has one of those." Blake didn't want to admit it, but there was just no way they were going to kill this thing. It was S-rank for a reason and that put it out of their league. They were foolish to think they could have ever taken it on at all.

"I agree. We need to run." Weiss sheathed her sword as the Chimera still appeared to be reorienting itself.

"Run where? It's faster than us simply because of it's size." Jaune looked back towards the mesa but even Blake knew they would never make it.

"There's a forest behind us. Maybe we can lose it there?" They all looked at one another and nodded at Ruby's suggestion. It was much closer to them and if they had any chance at all of getting away it was going to be in there.

"Run and live. Finally you people speak my language." Jaune's shield retracted and he slid his sword away. A moment later and he was was on the run again. The rest joined him but it was only after a dozen meters that they heard (or rather felt) the Chimera give chase after them.

"Don't turn around!" Weiss screamed as she appeared to skate across the earth. "Just run right into the the trees! Once you've gotten in, if its not after you try to head north and make a break for the airbase!"

Blake didn't want to be the pessimistic one. Their plan was sound enough and really was the only viable thing at all at this point but there was one major problem. It had found them from leagues away for seemingly no reason. This thing was an excellent hunter. There wasn't getting away without someone drawing it off. That meant someone would have to be left behind. It was the unfortunate reality of the situation. Who would it be though? She had a sinking feeling in the bottom of her stomach that she knew who was going to volunteer for the role of a martyr; Even if he hadn't realized it yet.

They were ten meters to the forest and she could feel its breath on her back now.

Each step it took on its stampede threw her a little into the air.

It was seconds away from mauling them.

Five meters to the forest.

Its legs were visible to her left and right without even having to turn her head. If she looked up the lion's head would without a doubt be directly above her.

A final burst of speed and they crashed into the trees. The sound of them being uprooted and an angry roar told them that it wasn't about to give up just because it lost sight of them.

A whole tree trunk flew over her head and landed in front of her. Orange and yellow leaves were scattered in every direction. She paid it no mind and jumped clear over it. A bleat from the goat head told her that she was putting some distance on it but she also realized that her teammates' footsteps were scattered a distance away from her. They had been forced to separate in order to make it around the dense foliage and with a glance around she didn't immediately see any of them.

"North!" Weiss yelled a little to her right. The Chimera heard it too. Blake took off running in the sound of the voice but to her distress it sounded like the Chimera was running that way too. It was lumbering towards where her voice had just come from.

"Over here you stupid Grimm!" That voice behind her caused her heart to drop. It was without a doubt, Jaune's voice. The Chimera paused and changed directions. She could see its huge black mass moving even through all the trees. "That's right! Follow me!" His voice was getting farther away as he ran in the opposite direction they should be heading.

A crack of a branch behind her caused her to spin around to see Ruby tumble up to her.

"Jaune's calling it off for us to get away." Blake informed her. "We need to go help him." Ruby nodded enthusiastically. The Chimera was getting farther away but it was still easily visible due to its size.

"No, let him." Weiss appeared from a tree behind them.

"What?!" Blake heard Ruby's voice overlap with her own.

"Keep it down, don't let that dunce's sacrifice be for nothing." Blake instinctively reached for Gambol Shroud as she took a couple threatening steps towards the Heiress.

"How dare you call him that after you're ready to just allow him to throw away his life for us!" She reached her hand forward to grab Weiss by the neck but Ruby's timid hands grabbed her wrist, keeping her from completing the action.

"Please, don't fight! We need to go save Jaune!" She looked with pleading eyes at Weiss.

She only rolled her eyes at them and Blake clenched her fist. She almost broke her hand free from Ruby's grip so she could punch her. "Look, we won't get away at all if someone doesn't stay behind. I'm just being practical. We'll get to the airbase and inform them of what happened and they'll fly down and pick him up. They can't expect to leave him to the claws of an S-rank Grimm. We're not even students yet. We weren't trained for this."

Ruby faltered. "S-She might have a point."

"He won't last until we get back! One person can't possibly outrun that thing on their own! The amount of cover doesn't matter." Blake seethed and yanked her wrist free from Ruby's grasp. "I'm going after him."

"Do what you want. I'm getting to the airbase. Ruby, come on." Weiss turned and walked away but Ruby didn't move. She looked nervously at Blake and then back to Weiss.

"I-I'll stay too. I can't abandon Jaune. He was my first new friend." She began to pull out her weapon again but Blake placed a hand on her arm.

"Go with Weiss. I'll make sure to keep Jaune alive. I need someone I can trust to make sure that that airship comes for us. Commandeer it if you have to. We're counting on you."

Ruby hesitated for a moment before she nodded vigorously. She then dashed forward and embraced Blake in a hug. She blinked in surprise before gently returning it for a second. "Hurry and go." She whispered into her ear.

Ruby pulled away and seemed to be fighting back tears. "You both better be alive when I come back. I will without a doubt come back. Keep that stupid jerk alive."

"I will."

Ruby smiled through the tears that were now falling down her face. In a flurry of petals she was gone and after Weiss.

Blake looked up to the sky. The last rays of orange were settling in and the sky was almost completely purple. They were about out of time. Ruby and Weiss would barely make it if they were lucky. Jaune and her though...they were screwed.

She smiled bitterly.

So this was it, huh? She turned and ran after her one and only friend. At least if this was the end she would be facing it with him.

Jaune had to admit, he had better ideas. Then again, since he got ahold of those fake transcripts it seemed his life was a series of just bad ideas. This one probably took the cake though. Luring off an S-rank Grimm was without a doubt going to get him killed in short order.

He ducked behind a tree and peeked around for it. He had been able to outmaneuver it long enough for the sun to have gone down but now the pitch black Grimm was hard to see with it blending into the night sky. It was not hard to hear, however. Every lumbering step it took shook and the ground and it's massive body knocked trees over just by bumping into them. It roared in anger as it tried to find him.

He took a couple cautious steps backwards, very careful not to make much noise. The Chimera had incredibly good hearing and if even one head caught the tiniest noise it would be on him in seconds and he would be forced to make another mad scramble. The sound of something slithering through the brush made him lock up in fear.

The snake portion was gliding through the trees, peeking here and there for him and sniffing the air hoping to catch his scent. If he didn't move soon it was going to pick up his trail, but he had to fight every urge to bolt. Running recklessly was going to get him caught just as quickly.

Slowly but surely he creeped backwards and away from the Chimera. Maybe he was going to make it? But where would he go if he got away? The sun had set which meant the airship would have already departed. He was stranded out here on his own. Even if he survived this encounter it was only a matter of time before something else killed him. He had all of Forever Fall to hike through before he got to Vale and the city was quite further away than Beacon was. It would take him at least three days of just walking. He would be too exhausted to fight off a lone Beowulf let alone whatever else came for him. Maybe it would just be better to get it over with? That Chimera looked like it could swallow him in one bite. Surely that would be a quick, painless death.

No, no, no. He had survived way too much crap to just give up now. If and when he died he was going to die swinging the whole way. That was the least he could do for the ones he let get away. Man...he really missed them right about now. Beautiful, beautiful Weiss. She may have a sharp personality but she was exceptionally skilled. The way she had just taken command of the group had put him at ease and she was just so much fun to tease. Sweet, quirky Ruby. She was his first new friend at Beacon and already felt like a little sister to him.

Blake…

It almost made him cry to think he would never see her again. They had been through so much in just the two days they had spent together. Was it really only two days? It felt like he had known her for months. The constant threat of death combined with the exchange of their deepest secrets probably had something to do with that.

A twig snapped beneath his foot and the snake jerked its head over towards him. It hissed as its eyes locked on him and he could hear the thundering steppes of the main body as it came at him again.

"Just give me a break already." He sighed and turned to run. He only took a step though before he ran smack into someone.

"Blake?!" He blinked twice to confirm it was her. When she didn't vanish he knew she was real.

"Come on!" She grabbed his wrist and yanked him with her as she ran.

"What are you doing here? I stayed behind so you guys could get out of here!" Despite what he said he couldn't help but feel a little happy that she came back for him. It was hard for him to imagine anyone ever doing that for him (anyone not his family that is).

"I'm gonna kick your ass for deciding that on your own later! First we need to survive!" Blake sounded really, really angry. He had to admit, he would be pissed if she had done the same so he couldn't really fault her. He was quite afraid of that ass-kicking she promised though.

Wait, she just said after they survived just now. "Do you have a plan to get us outta this?"

"Ruby was going to come with me but I told her to take control of the airship if she had to! She's coming back for us so we just have to hold out!" That was reassuring to know. There was a slim chance he was still going to make it out after all. Like Blake said: They just had to hold out. That was going to be unfortunately tricky.

He heard the goat spit again and turned around to see a glob of acid flying directly at them. "Blake! We gotta dodge!" He wrapped his free arm around her waist and dove both of them to the right. They hit the ground just as the acid struck a tree they had been running towards. With a burning hiss, it ate through the trunk and the tree collapsed into the forest but it didn't end there; The acid set the trunk ablaze and the fire spread almost immediately as a crashing step from the Chimera sent the flames scattering in all directions. "Great, now we gotta outrun a Grimm and a wildfire."

He scrambled to his feet, pulling Blake up with him as he did. The fire was jumping from tree to tree, being spread by all the wind the Chimera made when it moved as it thrashed around while looking for them. Its red eyes squinted against the suddenly bright flames and obscure smoke. At the very least it was providing them some cover.

"We gotta keep moving, Jaune." Blake tugged at his wrist and he nodded. They turned to run and a flaming branch collapsed in front of them, barring their path. "This feels familiar." She smirked with mirth.

"Running for our lives while the world around us is attempting to collapse on our heads?" He just really hoped he didn't get hit in the head again. That rock had hurt but if something knocked him out and set him on fire then he would be done for.

"This way." She turned to their right and took off, pulling him along again. The Chimera roared and stomped after them, knocking over trees and sending flaming debris launching into other parts of the forest, only spreading the fire further. It had only started a second ago but thanks to the Grimm's efforts it seemed the whole area around them was ablaze. No matter where they went, burning branches surrounded them.

They both coughed and stumbled their way forward. The smoke was becoming thicker and the whole area was alight with an orange glow. Jaune's lungs desperately sought clean air and he was overwhelming hit by fatigue as it failed to collect any. Seriously, how was his body even still functioning? He couldn't help but recall the things he had put it through in just two days. Any other normal person would've died. Maybe this meant he was beyond normal? It relieved him to think random thoughts like that.

"We need to get out of this forest!" Blake doubled over and coughed hoarsely. "We'll suffocate from all this smoke."

"We don't even know what way out is." He attempted to squint into the distance but his eyes watered as the smoke obscured his vision. A foot of the Chimera crashed down right next to them, causing them to jump and sprint away. Trees were torn apart as more tendrils made from the lions mane skewered the area they had been occupying.

"It can't be far! The area of trees we ran into only covered about three hundred square meters at most." She switched her grip from his wrist and just wrapped an arm around his and leaned heavily against his body. She was gasping horribly for breath and he could only imagine he was too.

"You can give me all the fancy mathematics you want but that's not making this easier." He regretted saying that sentence as he inhaled a big puff of smoke. It sent him into a coughing fit that nearly halted their movement completely. He saw Blake worriedly scan for their exit. If they didn't find it in the next minute they were screwed. Not that leaving the forest was going to be much better. For all the trouble it was giving them it was making things much harder for the Chimera too. Once they ran out into the open they were going to have no choice but to engage it again and that hardly seemed like a good idea for two soot-covered, air-deprived teens.

"I think I see the exit! The trees thin out at least. If anything maybe we can escape this smoke." He nodded and they took off again. Their pace was a slow jog at best now. It was a miracle the Chimera didn't catch up to them but he could only imagine how smokey it was above the trees. That thing probably couldn't see at all. Let alone this fire was loud. Any noise they made was likely completely drowned out.

In a second, Jaune saw what Blake was talking about. It definitely looked like an out to him. With a small, hope-filled burst of speed they broke out of the burning forest...and nearly tumbled off a ledge.

"What the hell is this?" What kind of luck did they have? It wasn't an outright cliff they had stumbled into but rather, some kind of rocky slope that bent away and went off to dust-knows-where. It looked kind of like a giant dirt slide to him but there was no way for them to safely traverse down it. Then again, safety might have to be damned. With a burning forest and a Chimera being what was behind them, this was without a doubt the easy choice. He pulled out his sword and allowed his sheath to expand into a shield.

"What're you doing?" Blake turned to him and back to the slope in front of them. She also glanced behind them. The Chimera was running at them again. He could hear it.

"Ever been sledding?" He asked as he pulled her as close to him as he could and dropped his shield face down at his feet.

"What?!" He didn't respond. Instead he kicked his shield onto the slope and jumped after it. He landed on it on his butt and had Blake on his lap. The moment they had hit it they began accelerating at a rapid pace as they sledded down. Just as he hit his shield Chimera had broken free from the trees, sending some of them flying down after them. "Jaune! This is crazy!"

"I know!" He agreed as he leaned left and barely avoided one of the flaming trees as it landed directly in front of him. Immediately he had to shift right again to dodge another one. They were moving incredibly quickly now though and the bend was coming up. Flaming logs rolled after them from behind. Where the bend led, Jaune had no idea but it had to be better than getting smashed by burning logs.

"Can you turn this thing?" We're going to crash if you don't!" Blake was yelling directly in his ear, not that she had much choice. " And it's still chasing us!" After she said this, he could hear the thundering steps of the Chimera as it ran down the slope after them.

"Can't you give me some good news for once!" He held his sword so the blade was pointing at the ground. When they came to the bend he dug it into the ground and nearly felt his arm get ripped from his socket. Still, he held tight and spun them at a ninety degree angle. They made the turn and he pulled his sword out. They continued down the slope for a few seconds before a giant crashing sound told him the Chimera hadn't been so lucky and had run smack into the wall in front of it.

"I think it just caused an avalanche. There's boulders rolling after us now." She was still staring behind them, but she sounded much more calm now.

"Seriously, would it kill you to give me good news?"

The wind was blowing so hard into his eyes it was obscuring his vision. He couldn't tell if they were heading for another bend or if there were any obstacles in his path. Truthfully, they were careening at speeds far too high for him to make proper adjustments anymore anyways. To top it off they couldn't afford to slow down unless they wanted to get buried alive. Yeah, this was going great. Hey, let's go sledding. It'll be fine. He hated the him from thirty seconds ago right now.

"It looks like there's a cliff in front of us. We're gonna go over it." Was Blake broken? She once again said this with so much composure he wasn't even sure it was real. "The moon is out though so at least you'll be able to watch as we plummet to the ground."

"I know you tried presenting that as good news but seriously, that just depressed me more." As he said this he felt the ground beneath him vanish.

They had gone off the cliff and had entered freefall.

Again.

He was frickin spiraling through the air as he fell to his death again.

This was the third frickin time.

It didn't even frighten him like it did the first couple times, now it just made him mad that it seemed to keep happening.

He looked beneath them and grabbed his shield. Pale white sand that was illuminated by the broken moon's light was their destination. Just in front of them was the sea. It looked so peaceful and still. The moon reflected beautifully off its calm surface.

"I don't suppose your semblance is gonna be able to save us from going splat?" He turned to Blake and she nodded her head. "Good, good. Any time now would be awesome." They were starting to get really close to the surface and his stomach lurched at the idea of turning into a red blob on the ground.

He caught Blake rolling her eyes at him out of the corner of his but she did as requested and made a clone that they were able to kick off of. They hit the ground running. He looked up and saw the avalanche had been just behind them. The wave of dirt and boulders crashed into the ground and the impact shook the earth so violently that they were thrown off their feet and face first into the ground. It continued for a solid thirty seconds before finally trickling to a stop, leaving a massive mountain of debris behind them. Yeah, he was really glad he had not been hit by that.

He took in his surroundings. The moon illuminated everything quite nicely for him so he didn't need to rely on Blake's Faunus vision anymore. To their right was the sea. To the left an unscalable cliff. Behind them was the now finished avalanche. The path ahead of them was clear.

A moonlit beach stroll sounded like a nice, stress-free way to end the evening to him.

"At least we lost the Chimera."

He spoke too soon.

It landed directly in front of them. The snake hissed, the goat bleated, and the lion roared.

"Oh come on!" He had to re-evaluate their options.

In front of them was the Chimera.

To their right was the sea.

To their left an unscalable cliff.

Behind them was a mountain of debris.

They were screwed. That was it. They were done. Game over.

He broke into laughter as he dropped to his knees. His sword and shield hung limply at his sides. The Chimera made no move to lunge at them. Instead, it seemed content to lie in wait and stalk them at its leisure. It knew they were done just as much as they did.

"I guess this is it, huh." Blake sat down next to him and gave a sad smile. "Any regrets?"

"Ha, too many to count." He shook his head and smiled at her.

"Yeah, me too." Maybe it was because it was the end but they talked with no tension between them at all. It could also have been because they were just way too exhausted to care anymore. "I think the biggest thing I wanted to do was help fix the gap between Faunus and humans. I just wanted us to be seen as equals. Seems like I only ever made it worse."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I'd say you and I lived equally by one another. Even if it was only for two days. That's gotta count for something." She smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Man...if I had to say the thing I regretted the most…" He paused and thought about it.

There were just so many things. How could he possibly name one of them? What was it he thought when he was first falling yesterday? At the very beginning of all this. Oh yeah, it was that.

"...I really wanted to have my first kiss before I died. Guess that'll never happen."

Blake tilted her head at him and smiled coyly. "I can solve that for you."

"Huh?" Jaune blinked at her and his brain locked up in confusion. What was she talking about? "How-" He was cut off as something warm pressed up against his lips.

His frozen brain kicked into overdrive as he processed what was happening. Blake's words and then her proximity to him. Her eyes were closed and her face was up against his, which could only mean one thing;

She was...kissing him.

It lasted only a second before she pulled away but it felt like it had lasted far longer than that. Not just that, but it had been a magical experience. Her lips were so soft and warm. They tasted slightly of blood and sweat but even that didn't put a damper on it. He was on cloud nine right now.

As he thought these things he could only stare at her in shock and she blushed before turning her head away. "Don't get the wrong idea but seeing as we're going to die anyways I figured it wouldn't hurt to fulfill your last wish. I had no real attachment to who I gave my first kiss to anyways so you were better than anyone. Besides, it wasn't half bad." She smiled warmly as he continued to stare at her in shock. "Satisfied?"

That question finally forced him to get his mouth working.

"Not at all."

She looked taken aback, but he wasn't done yet.

"That was amazing!" He declared as he got to his feet. "I had no idea a kiss was like that! If I get to experience that again by living then I'm going to do whatever the hell it takes!" He glared at the Chimera and pointed his sword at it in a declaration of war. "You hear that you ugly monster? I'm going to live!"

"I'm honestly not sure if I should feel flattered or dumbfounded right now. Was it really that great for you?"

He didn't get a chance to respond as the Chimera finally decided to make its move. It wasn't one he expected though. Instead of charging at them it stood with its lion head leaned back and its mouth wide open. The goat head leaned forward and opened its mouth as well. Then the snake hung over both of them and opened its mouth wide too. At first it looked like nothing was happening but then...he could see a black orb forming at the spot where their mouths hung open. It began growing in size and soon was bigger than even the lion head.

"That...doesn't look good." Blake had yet to rise from her sitting position. "I'd hate to bring you down but I'm sensing a ton of dark energy coming from that thing. It'll likely wipe out whatever it touches."

"I don't care. I'm gonna make it outta this. We're both gonna make it outta this." He took a couple steps forward and positioned himself in front of her. He then raised his shield up.

"Jaune…" She clearly didn't share his sentiment. She had still given up. That was fine. He would show her that they could both survive. He just needed to be confident enough for both of them.

The orb quit growing and then began compacting as if it were squeezing in on itself. It got small enough to fit in its mouth...which might have been the point cause the lion ate it just a second after he thought that. All three mouths closed tight and the Chimera bloated unnaturally as the energy swelled up inside of it.

"Now I see." Blake whispered just as the lion opened its mouth. A bright orange beam fired directly at them. It was huge, taking up more space than either of them were capable of moving so there was no dodging to the side of it. He could only watch as the earth beneath it disintegrated at the touch and to top it off it was fast. It was going to be on them in a second.

He locked his mouth in grim determination and bent down so one knee was on the ground and hid behind shield. He checked behind him once more to make sure Blake was completely obstructed too. She could only stare at him with wide-eyed disbelief. He was really going to try to save them.

He turned back and the beam connected.

It struck his shield and he was pushed backwards against the sand and almost right into Blake.

Still, it held. He heard her gasp in surprise behind him as the beam of energy scattered around them on all sides but the part in front of his shield held firm. He could feel his hair that was just barely poking above it singe and saw the outer layer of his sleeves and pants start to smoke as they were just a little too close to the outside.

His grip on his shield weakened as the blast continued to assault him and he slid another couple centimeters backwards. He grit his teeth and held on for dear life. He then felt a pressure on his back and Blakes hands wrapped around and overlapped with his own, helping him hold up the shield. "You can do this, Jaune! I'm sorry I gave up. Just hold on and we'll make it! I don't know what we'll do after this but if it's together with you then I'm sure it'll work itself out. I just have this feeling that it will."

He grinned and redoubled his efforts. After what felt like an eternity, the blast subsided and they were thrown into relative darkness. It wasn't that the moonlight wasn't bright but compared to the light show that had just enveloped them it seemed dim in comparison. He took a quick check of the path of the beam.

The sand in front of them was completely gouged away right up to where they stood. The gouge continued past them on both sides and as he followed it backwards he saw that the mountain of rubble that had been left by the avalanche ceased to exist. The only thing thing that hadn't been effected was a small trail behind them that was about the width of his shield.

"What is that thing made of again?" Blake tapped it with her knuckle but pulled away quickly. It was scorching hot. A searing pain in Jaune's hands caused him to drop it and he realized that he had been so focused on keeping them alive that his hands were covered in burns and blisters from the heat that was radiating off the shield. It hurt like a bitch now that he was aware of it though and he had to fight back tears. "Jaune." Blake gently cuffed his hands and frowned in concern.

"I'm fine. We still gotta deal with that thing." He nodded to the Chimera which was staring silently at them. It likely couldn't believe that they were alive and was re-evaluating them as they spoke. Jaune attempted to pick up his sword but gasped in pain and dropped it before he even got it completely off the ground. He wasn't going to be able to fight like this.

"Don't worry about it, Jaune. I've got this." Blake got to her feet and took a couple steps forward.

"You can't fight it by yourself!" He hurriedly tried to grab his sword again but once again a stab of pain caused him to fail. He couldn't allow Blake to handle this on her own. She would die. Stupid hands. Work damnit.

"I didn't think you could stop that blast and you did. It's my turn now." Blake held Gambol Shroud in front of herself and prepared for combat.

The Chimera heads made their respective roars in response.

Then they heard something that sounded like a cannon go off. Off behind the Chimera was a girl who seemingly appeared out of thin air and was now flying directly at the giant Grimm. "Who the heck is that?" Blake only shook her head at Jaune's question. She appeared to be a student about their age and she was wielding what looked like a giant hammer.

The goat and snake turned to look at her but she was already upon them. "I hope you're hungry!" She yelled as she swung the hammer at the goat head. It smashed into the side of its face and a pink explosion bowled the whole Chimera over and onto its side. She flew backwards and landed nimbly on her feet.

"This girl is nuts!" He couldn't believe she had just charged in to take on the Chimera by herself. He quickly focused on his hands again, pumping all of the healing aura that he could into them. His reserves were low and he doubted he could fully heal them but if it was enough to wield his shield and sword he would be happy. He couldn't let her fight by herself.

"She's got backup." Blake noted a new boy clad in green as he jumped in and began engaging the snake before it was able to lunge at the girl. The main body was still struggling to get to its feet as several bullets rained down on it, followed by a crack of lightning. They turned up to see that girl who was on the cereal box along with...Weiss!

"She came back for us!" Jaune felt himself tear up. He had never been so happy to see someone in his life.

"We all did." Someone else spoke as she landed right behind them. Jaune turned to see it was Ruby's older sister, Yang.

"Blake! Jaune!" A moment later and Ruby landed next to her sister before lunging at the still sitting knight. She tackled into him and knocked him over. His focus on his aura was shattered as she wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug and wept into his chest armor. "I thought I was too late!" He could barely make out her words as she spoke into his body.

"We had almost given you guys up." Yang explained more clearly than Ruby was able. "We thought for sure that thing had killed you in either the fire or the avalanche. Then we saw it shoot a beam and realized we'd messed up. We almost just turned around before it could notice us but lo and behold, Captain Atlas and his shield here had pulled you guys through." She grinned as she crouched down next to Jaune and ruffled his hair. "Thanks a bunch for looking out for my kid sister. I owe you." She then stood up and nodded to Blake. "That goes to you too."

Blake inclined her head slightly but turned back to the Chimera. Jaune followed her gaze to see the other four still battling it. "We're not out of the woods yet. That thing isn't going down without a fight and both Jaune and I are about out of energy to lend much of a hand."

"Weiss already ran us through a plan of hers. I'll fill you in and you let me know if you two think you can contribute. I'm talking to you too, Ruby. Enough crying already. We got a Grimm to kill." Yang pulled her sister off of Jaune and he felt like he could breathe again. Man, she had a tight grip.

"Who's flying the airship?" He asked as he gasped for breath. He could see if hovering overhead now, a machine-gun poised at the Chimera and ready to take the shot if it got a clear view where it wouldn't hit any of them.

"Some General from the Atlas army that calls himself, Ironwood. Guess he's a personal friend of the headmaster or something." Yang held out her hand and Jaune took it, allowing himself to be hoisted to his feet. His hands still hurt like hell but he had a small part left to play still. So with great care he picked his sword and shield up and readied himself for battle.

"Jaune, you can sit this one out if you want." Blake eyed him up and down with concern but he shook her worry off. He knew he looked like hell but that Grimm was the last thing standing between him and a warm bed. He'd be damned if he didn't do something. So, he turned to Yang and nodded.

"What's the plan?"

General James Ironwood watched with great interest as the events unfolded in front of him. He had thought for sure that blond kid and girl with the bow were dead when the Chimera had unleashed its ultimate attack on them. Hunters and Huntresses of far greater skill had fallen to that ability before. He had just been about to turn the ship around, despite Ruby's cries of protest when Weiss had shouted that they were alive.

He had to double-take just to believe it. It should have been impossible, yet there they were: all in one piece no less. He suddenly double checked their names and memorized both of them: Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna.

Before he could decide what to do next though, Nora Valkyrie had jumped out of the ship and launched herself right at the S-rank Grimm. He thought about rebuking her but then she knocked it over with one hit. Her partner, Lie Ren had taken off immediately after her and began engaging as well. Their combined skill was truly exceptional.

He took the ship down to provide them support when he heard Weiss Schnee give out orders for a plan she had formulated. Once the others were clear on the details they all descended, leaving him to wait and watch.

If they pulled this off...it would be unprecedented.

This area had been off limits for years thanks to the terror of the Chimera and its overwhelming power. Surely, they could have defeated it by now but the wasted resources and cost of lives were estimated to be far too high for the payout to be worth it. So they had let the beast have its land. Now though, this scheme might just pay off.

The other four were running to engage now and they all began circling the Chimera in an attempt to confuse it. All three heads howled at them at once and they tried to keep an eye on all eight of them as they ran about and got in position to enact Weiss Schnee's plan.

"Alright kids, show me what you got." Ironwood grinned widely as they all moved as one.

Weiss Schnee kicked the plan into action, swinging her rapier around as if she was weaving a spell. A blue glyph formed beneath the head of the snake and it was pulled down and slammed into the sand as if gravity had become far too heavy for it to support itself. Ruby Rose launched into the air and as she reached just over the glyph, it's dense-gravity effects took hold of her too. Instead of fighting it though, she allowed it to happen and slammed the blade of her scythe into the top of the snake's head, pinning it to the ground and temporarily killing it.

Ironwood knew it would revive though. Chimera's were tricky. If you didn't kill all three heads before one of them revived you would be caught in an endless loop. That was the ability that made them such a terrifying adversary.

Still, the others were already working away. Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Blake Belladonna were all firing dust rounds at the front of the lion's face. Jaune Arc simply stood on standby. It was apparent his weapon had no modification. A classic. Normally he would think of something like that as foolish and say it went against modernization...however, he couldn't deny the tenacity that shield of his held.

The remaining two Chimera heads gave angry cries and lunged for the group that was shooting at it. However, Ruby's scythe continued to pin it down and it stumbled and fell as the snake pulled it backwards and it lost its balance. The lion's face buried into the sand as its legs gave out.

The remaining six charged at it and ran up the side of its head. The goat hulked its head back and prepared to spit acid at them but Yang Xiao Long sprinted forward and punched it in the jaw, causing it to spit away from the rest of them. Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna broke to the right while Lie Ren and Pyrrha Nikos took the left. Both groups sliced into goats horns and cut them off at the same time and then they grabbed the broken appendages and sprinted forward. The goat bleated in agony but before it could spit at them, Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie swung at it from either side. Their combined strength crushed its head and forced its brains to explode out the top.

Finally, Jaune Arc and Lie Ren positioned the sharp horns at the back of the lion's head so they were pointed directly above its brain stem. Blake Belladonna and Pyrrha Nikos jumped back and used their semblances to fly forward and strike the back of the horns. They dug into the flesh and almost immediately the Chimera fell forward and halted any and all movement. Ironwood sat and waited for a solid minute before confirming its death.

They had killed it.

All three heads of the Chimera were dead and it would never be capable of reviving again.

"Did you see all that, Oz?" He couldn't hide that massive grin that was on his face. "I told you this was a good idea. We've found them. The perfect candidates."

Broken static came through the other end before he could hear his long time friend's voice. "They did perform...exceptionally." The voice was monotone, almost unimpressed.

Ironwood frowned at the speaker. Ozpin had seen the same thing he just had, right? Even if it was through a monitor, the profoundness of it all should still have been noticeable. "Oz? What're you thinking?"

"For now, just bring them home. They've earned some rest." The static cut off as Ozpin hung up on him.

Ironwood clicked his teeth. He would talk to him later. For now though, he had a point. Those kids had to be exhausted.

He took the ship down to them.

Jaune stumbled off the Chimera and onto the sand. He couldn't believe it. They had all done it. They had survived. Just as he almost collapsed he felt Blake wrap an arm around him for support. "Good work, partner."

"You didn't do so bad yourself." He gave her a tired grin which she returned.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Why didn't we run into that thing when we were heading to the airship?" Yang waved her arms animatedly as she talked to her partner, Pyrrha.

She only shrugged awkwardly in response before turning and smiling at Jaune and Blake. "I guess this means all the spots on Team Jaune have been filled up?"

"Ha. I'd forgotten about that. Sorry to say, but yeah they have. You seem to have found a pretty awesome team for yourself though." He indicated to Nora, who was talking quite enthusiastically to a silent Ren. When the other boy took notice of Jaune's gaze he nodded to him and gave a small smile.

"Thank you. You're team seems quite capable themselves." This time Jaune shifted his gaze to Weiss and Ruby as they made their way over to the rest of them. He wasn't sure what to say to either of them, especially Weiss. Still, he had to say something.

"Stop right there." Weiss appeared to take notice and raised a hand to stop him. He could've sworn he heard Blake hiss quietly at her tone but decided not to comment, instead waiting for Weiss to continue. "I admit that I have been rather...harsh towards you since we've formed this team. That's simply because I wasn't sure of your skill sets and value to this team." Well, that stung a little. "However, you performed incredibly well to have survived that Chimera and its numerous abilities. Not to mention you held up your end of the plan without a hitch. What I'm trying to say is...sorry. You have some merits after all."

He couldn't help but smile at her little tirade and opened his mouth once more to respond but Weiss interrupted yet again. "Don't you dare ruin my impression of you by calling me Snow Angel." He clamped it shut.

"Look at that, we're all getting along like a big happy family!" Ruby skipped forward happily to help support Jaune from the other side. Did he look that ready to collapse that both of them felt the need to hold him up? Now that he thought about it, he did feel really tired.

"Looks like our ride is here." Whoever said that came out really quiet and his vision began to blur. Was he losing consciousness? He really didn't have a way to answer that as he was dragged to the airship and forced onto it. The hum of the engine lulled him further into darkness as it took off into the sky and hopefully back home.

His head hit Blake's shoulder and he let himself fade into oblivion.

AN: Long Author's Notes for my longest chapter yet. Seriously, did not expect this chapter to turn out nearly this long. Yet it just kept growing on me and before long it was here. I suppose it is fitting though, being the climax of the Initiation arc and you guys are awesome and deserve a long chapter. Now, onto parts of the actual chapter.

I tried really hard for visual imagery this time around, as I feel its something I'm really weak at in terms of writing (I am here to improve as well after all, so why not take some risks?) so I hope that turned out alright for you guys. If you had trouble picturing the scenery they were transversing then I clearly have much to learn.

The Chimera...I'd come up with him and had been planning to use him since before I started this story (I came up with at least a dozen horrible plots before this story took root in my brain). I hope he appeared as menacing to you as I imagined him in my head. In some regards I think I made him a little too OP but this is a RWBY fanfic...and in RWBY I find over-the-top is usually the way to go. The beam attack that he used (as some of you probably realized) was based off of the Bijuu-dama (Tailed Beast Bomb) from Naruto. I don't plan to use many cross-over things in my story but if I do they'll appear about as minor as this one did.

Finally, had a pretty defining JaunexBlake moment this chapter for all you shippers. I was really torn on whether or not to do that cause it is really on the fringe of Blake's character (if not outright OOC) but in the end decided screw it, they think they're dead anyways, why not? Anyways, it hasn't really changed the dynamic between their current relationship as they both understand what it was, but at the very least it planted the seed for later developments so look forward to that in the future.

Next time, things slow down again as the two teams wait for Jaune to wake up.