Beacon Academy's Infirmary Wing, room 217…

The room was quiet, the only sounds permeating the air being the beeping of life-monitoring machinery and the breathing of the individuals inside, seven of them focused purely on the eighth one, the one in need of the aforementioned life-monitoring machinery.

The seven, bodily unharmed occupants, still wearing the formal dressing of the dance they had attended the previous night, could only focus on the chest of the blonde young man lying on the infirmary bed. His usually bright hair was limp and lacklustre, and his face was sallow. He was shirtless, which only accentuated the wrappings around the centre of his torso that covered what they knew was the scarring left behind from the deep piercing wound and subsequent burning that had landed him here.

Sitting in the chair closest to the window, a red-wearing young woman had dried tear tracks on her cheeks as her silver eyes stared at the lifeless body of the young man, the only sign that he was still alive being the raspy breathing that made his chest rise and fall, though not without trembles. She could only remember what had caused such a wound, having had front row seats to the scarring event.

"Ruby, look out!" she heard his voice, and it surprised her. Why would he be here? Could he have seen the same thing she had on top of the CCT tower? That couldn't be, he hadn't been anywhere near the building where the dance was being held as far as she knew.

The questions in her mind were left unanswered as she turned to find out what he was warning her about, only to come to a stop in a shocking realisation.

There he was, in front of her, arms splayed out and blocking her view of the woman she had just been fighting. His hoodie was wet and sticking to his body, which only accentuated the sight of the black and orange arrow that had pierced his sternum and his chest plate, stopping just a few centimetres from her own body. She could just barely see his body taking in ragged breaths and his eyes closing and clenching in pain, but her mind refused to process it, not wanting to think that this had really happened.

Then, he collapsed, valiantly holding in a scream of pain as the arrow suddenly glowed with what she barely recognised as Fire Dust, which began to burn through his torso from the point the arrow had pierced…

She shook her head roughly, willing away the thoughts of the previous night. It would do no good to start to cry again over what had already happened.

Across from the youngest of the group, a pair of young women also stared at the near-lifeless body of the young man. These two, the most well-off of the entire group, had very different thoughts about him, but their minds couldn't help but wander back to the last times they had both seen him.

"Weiss Schnee~" he sang, strumming the acoustic guitar in his hands actually well. "Will you accompany meee~… to the dance on~… Sunday? Sunday~!"

"Are you done?"

A pause.

"Yes?"

"Then no."

And with that, the door was closed.

"Jaune… are you alright?" the redhead asked, returning from the bathroom just as the blonde team leader returned to the room, his shoulders squared and his face set in what she recognised as a determined scowl. The very same kind she had seen on herself every time she messed up in her training.

Her mind vaguely reminded her it was past midnight already.

"I'm, fine, Pyr," he responded in a tone devoid of the usual emotion that usually filled his voice. "Just tired."

"Will you be alright for the dance tomorrow?" she asked, thoughts of the dance making her heart clench.

She watched as he removed the armour around his arms and chest, then his hoodie. As he threw himself down on his bed, he answered with one word.

"Probably."

The Mistralian Goddess of Victory and Atlasian Heiress of the SDC could only wonder what had caused the young man to end up how he did in the timespan of less than a day.

And sitting just next to them, similarly staring at his team leader with troubled eyes while he rubbed the head of his best friend, one quiet Lie Ren thought back to the last time he himself had seen Jaune, the last time anyone had seen him before this incident.

He awoke without any fanfare, as he would usually have it. Having made waking up early a routine while traveling the Wilds with Nora, he was usually the first one up in the dorm room.

Today, however, that wouldn't be the case.

He sat up, stretching his arms into the air to rid them of any stiffness, when the sound of metal meeting metal came to his ears. He opened his eyes and looked to the source, which turned out to be his team leader, already decked out in his armour and placing his sword in its sheath-shield.

"Jaune?" he asked, curious but minding his voice so as to not wake anyone else.

The blonde looked towards him, and for just a moment, Ren could have sworn he saw anger in Jaune's eyes.

"Hey, Ren," Jaune responded, his eyes no longer conveying the anger he thought he had seen, but not giving off any other emotion. This set Ren on edge. In the entire time he had known the blonde, Jaune had been an open book. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and would happily give it to anyone that he saw needed it. This… emotionless look was completely new.

"Are you heading out?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you. I'm just going to go train a little," Jaune said, making sure his sword was strapped on right.

"Oh. Very well, just make sure you're back on time for the dance." Ren was sure that he would be, though. It was about seven in the morning, and the dance would be that night, giving Jaune plenty of time to train, come back, and get himself ready.

"Sure, I will be," Jaune responded, walking towards the door.

Something about the way he said those words, though, made Ren doubt he meant them, and that premonition would prove to be right hours later.

Ren couldn't help but sigh as he stroked the head of one Nora Valkyrie, the only one of them that was able to fall asleep during the night, helped in no small part by Ren's ministrations.

Finally, as the clock on the wall hit 8:13 am, the sound of an opening door shattered the quiet air. The only two members in the room not deep in thought or asleep turned to the source.

"Hey Sun, Neptune," Blake greeted quietly as the blonde and bluenette entered.

"Hey," Sun responded, back in his usual, near-shirtless getup. "We heard from Port that you guys were here." Looking at her, he raised an eyebrow. "You're still in wearing your dress…"

Blake shook her head and motioned to the patient bed in the room. Looking in that direction, both guys' eyes widened upon noticing the limp form of Jaune Arc.

"Jaune? What happened to him?" Neptune asked as he and Sun approached the female blonde and ravenette. "Now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing him at the dance…"

Yang shook her head, smoothing out her white dress for what felt like the fifteenth time. "He didn't go. I was at the podium greeting everyone, and he never showed up. As for why he's here… We're not too sure either, actually. The only one who knows how it happened is Ruby, and, well…" She motioned towards her sister, and both guys could see she looked near catatonic, just staring at Jaune without any other movement. "She's not in any condition to talk."

"Then perhaps we can shed some light on the subject," a new voice came, and everyone turned to the door, where the headmaster and his deputy were standing, both staring at Jaune as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

"Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch," Yang said, none of her usual cheer in her voice. "What do you mean?"

The rest of the students asked the same with her eyes. Even those that had been deep in thought were staring at him with questioning eyes.

As Ozpin approached the group, he sighed and pulled out his scroll while Glynda did the same. "You see, Glynda and I have been reviewing the security footage around the school after looking at the footage of the CCT tower due to the incident. We traced back where Mister Arc would have come from to have arrived at the battle between the intruder and Miss Rose."

He turned his scroll around and showed the room the screen, where the feed of a security camera could be seen. In it, Jaune's familiar mop of blonde hair could be recognised walking past the CCT, whereupon he stopped and looked up at it. Without any other warning, he unsheathed his sword and ran towards it, stopping once to look at something to his left, and then continuing on into the building. Ozpin switched the feed to a camera inside the CCT's base, were the group could see a few limp guards on the ground. Jaune, after looking around the room, stopped by one and knelt at his side for a moment, then stood and moved to another, then another, then another, until finally, he had checked them all. He then moved towards the elevator and called it, entering it a few moments later. Ozpin once again switched the feed to a camera inside the elevator, where they could see Jaune kneeling by two soldiers that had been inside the elevator, as limp as the rest had been outside.

And then he spoke, in a tone of voice so dead that it made most of them shiver.

"Dead… just like the others…"

He stood up, and now everyone could see his eyes. They were blank, no emotions passing through them until the doors opened, whereupon they widened in shock. He dashed out of the elevator rapidly, and when Ozpin switched the feed again, they could see why.

The feed on the scroll showed them the inside of the top of the CCT tower, where one Ruby Rose and an older, curvaceous woman were fighting, dashing back and forth around the room. Ruby stopped as she had to balance herself in the heels she was still wearing, and her opponent took that moment to jump back and load up an arrow, which glowed an ominous orange colour.

The enemy fired, and it seemed as though Ruby would have been hit by the arrow if not for the appearance of Jaune.

In a move that made them all gasp, the young man threw himself in front of his friend, splaying his arms out and receiving the entire blow. Despite the fact that they knew how this would end, they still expected the arrow to merely stagger the young man, who they all knew had massive aura levels, enough to help him tank such a blow.

Instead, the arrow pierced his back almost cleanly, sticking out of his hoodie and creating a small spurt of blood. Jaune froze for a moment, then his arms clenched around his torso as the arrow began to glow. When the audience saw his hoodie smoulder, they understood what was happening.

The arrow was burning, immolating Jaune from the inside.

They all stared at the image in pure, unbridled shock, the sight of their friend suffering in such a way appalling them.

"But…" Blake, being the first to recover, turned to the grim-looking professors. "How…? Jaune should have had more than enough aura to prevent this from happening to him."

Ozpin motioned towards his deputy, who held up her scroll, showing them a different camera feed. The tag on the lower left corner told them this was Training Room 2, and the time was eight in the morning.

In it, the door opened, and the very same young man entered the room. They could see his face was set in a determined scowl, and as soon as he closed the door, he applied the two locks on it. He walked to the centre of the room and activated the training module, which released a robot that took the form of an Alpha Beowulf. As Jaune stepped out to face it, however, he shocked them all when he took his sword and shield and tossed them to a corner of the room, then doing the same to the armour he was wearing and, further, to his hoodie as well, leaving him topless.

The Beowulf stepped forward cautiously, growling at the young man. They circled each other, and when they could see his face, they saw not fear or apprehension as they expected from him, but sheer determination and anger.

Then, the Beowulf charged.

The feed suddenly changed to another camera, which had skipped some time and showed instead Jaune being slashed across the torso by the same Beowulf, only it seemed to have suffered several blows to its body and one of its eyes was closed. Jaune, however, was equally as hurt. He could be seen panting heavily, and the slash he had just received had sent him to the ground on his back.

The clock on the camera had passed ten o'clock.

Then, they heard Jaune speak as he struggled to get up.

"Not… yet… I'm still… too weak…"

With those words, the weary and worn Jaune jumped back into the fray.

The feed skipped several more times during the day, each skip making the eyes of those watching widen further and further as they saw Jaune constantly get knocked down and struggle to stand back up. It came to the point where Ruby and Pyrrha were silently begging him to just stay down and rest, but of course, since this was a recording, their wishes went unfulfilled.

It wasn't until the last recording, where the clock on the camera showed 5:33pm, that Jaune finally stopped the training module. In that time, his torso had taken quite a beating from the few times that his aura had disappeared and he had taken an attack, but thankfully, it seemed they didn't scar over.

"So… Jaune trained for nine straight hours?" Sun asked in disbelief.

The professors nodded.

"And that isn't all," Glynda spoke up, pulling up the readings of Jaune's aura levels during that time. "Take a look at his aura."

A picture of Jaune appeared on the screen, and below it, an aura bar filled to one hundred percent. A clock appeared under it, showing the time Jaune had begun the training module. The clock began to advance rapidly and during that time, Jaune's aura slowly dipped, sometimes slowly, sometimes jumping. When the clock hit 5:33pm, they were appalled to see that he had no more than five percent of his aura left, and that it was recovering very slowly. To further their dismay, Jaune's aura had hit zero percent exactly three times during those nine hours, and had hardly recovered to fifteen percent when it began to fall again, meaning it was unable to recover at a good pace.

They were able to connect the rest of the dots themselves.

"Now, only one question remains…" Ozpin murmured, looking at Jaune.

"Why, right?" Neptune asked as the rest of them also looked at the unconscious Jaune. "Haven't known him for long, but Jaune doesn't strike me as a guy who would train for nine hours. And his face…"

"He wouldn't," Pyrrha spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. "I'm sure most of you know that I've been training Jaune most weeknights. He's never gone farther than three or four hours when we trained, and even those times were rare."

"Yes, but how did he look to you whenever you sparred, Miss Nikos?" Glynda asked.

"Pardon?"

"Did Mister Arc ever seem angry, frustrated, or emotionless whenever you two trained?" Glynda specified.

The others watched as Pyrrha thought back to their training sessions, then shook her head. "No. In all the times we trained, he was either eager or apprehensive, but never angry."

"And when was the last time you two trained?" Blake asked.

"Just two nights before the dance."

Everyone was silent at that.

"We can only assume that something happened to Mister Arc that caused his mind-set to change," Ozpin said to the room at large. "We checked the logs of the training rooms from the beginning of the year until now, and Mister Arc had not used any until yesterday."

The group once again stared at the unconscious young man. What could have caused him to throw himself into training so heavily, and so angrily?

"Do any of you know anything about this?" Glynda asked the room at large.

Two hands were raised, belonging to Pyrrha and Ren. Glynda motioned towards Pyrrha.

"Two nights ago, Jaune came back to our dorm past midnight," the redhead spoke. "I didn't think much on it then, but he already seemed to be rather… listless, I suppose."

"I had a similar encounter yesterday morning," Ren spoke up after Pyrrha. "I am usually the first one awake in the dorm, but Jaune got up before me and was already in his combat gear by the time I awoke. When I asked where he was going, he said he was going to train, but I never expected him to train for so long. I even reminded him to come back in time for the dance."

"Did he seem different to you as well?" Glynda asked.

"Yes. I could have sworn I saw him angry, but for no more than a moment. Other than that, he was very emotionless. And… well, this is Jaune we're talking about." No more needed to be said.

"So, in short, something happened to Jaune between Saturday night and Sunday morning, which either made him very angry or something close, which then made him train himself to the ground. Due to that, his aura was too low for him to withstand the arrow that he intercepted when he intervened in the fight between Ruby and the intruder," Yang summed up.

The professors nodded.

"But… what was it?" Ruby, surprisingly, asked, her voice scratchy and distraught.

"Unfortunately, I believe only Mister Arc can tell us," Ozpin said. "I suggest you all go and freshen yourselves up, perhaps sleep if you need it. He won't awaken for some time, I believe, and I have placed your teams on temporary leave so that you may be here when he awakens."

Most of them stood up to follow the advice, but both Ruby and Pyrrha stayed where they were.

"Ruby?/Pyrrha?" Yang and Ren, respectively, asked.

The pair shook their heads.

"I can't leave him…" Pyrrha murmured.

"He's… it's my fault…" Ruby said just as quietly.

Yang walked over and placed an arm around her younger sister's shoulder. "Come on, Ruby. You know how Jaune is. He's a really nice guy. Hell, he'd probably do it again if it came to it. It's nobody's fault but that woman's."

As Yang expertly calmed her sister down, Ren approached Pyrrha and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Pyrrha, come on. You need to rest, and you heard the professors. We could all use a little rest."

"I… I can't, Ren," Pyrrha responded weakly.

"Yes, yes you can," Nora suddenly spoke, Ren having been unaware that she had woken up. "Do you think Jaune will be happy with you if he wakes up and sees that you're so worn out?"

Pyrrha sighed, but she couldn't refute her. With a nod, she shakily stood and followed after Team RWBY and her teammates.

It was several hours later, when the sun was beginning to set, that Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR returned to the infirmary to check on Jaune Arc. However, when they arrived, certainly more refreshed and calm, the bed where he had been was empty.

Pyrrha and Ruby promptly freaked out, which drew the attention of the nurse on station.

"Oh, Mister Arc?" the deer Faunus nurse said, tapping the pen in her hands to her chin. "He already left."

This shocked everyone.

"W-what do you mean?" Ren quietly asked, unable to believe what they were all thinking.

"He was all recovered when I entered my shift an hour ago," she explained succinctly. "I checked his vitals, his muscles, and just about everything else, and trust me, I was very shocked too. But since he was alright, I have him the option to leave at his leisure, and he took it immediately."

"Do you know where he may have gone?" Blake asked, being one of the two still coherent ones, the other being Ren.

"He mentioned something about Training Room 3…"

In said training room, all was quiet for a moment until the sound of a thunk broke the stillness of the air.

Near the wall opposite the door to the room, a bullseye target was set up on the wall, currently untouched. Instead, all around it were nicks and marks of impacts, and there were even a few arrows stuck to the very wall.

Just a few metres away, Jaune Arc stared at the target, visualising the paths the previous six arrows he had shot had taken. He glanced over at his Beacon-issued scroll, where he had searched up a short introductory course to archery. He had been able to request a practice archery set from Glynda, though only after promising he was entirely recovered and that he would not do any heavy training. He didn't feel like doing so anyways.

Not just yet.

He narrowed his eyes and once again stared at the target. He was close. He could feel it.

He raised the hand that was holding the bow, placing his hand just as the site he had visited had instructed. He could feel the somewhat unfamiliar weight of the bow in his hand, but after wielding his heavy shield on the same arm, he could withstand it.

He grabbed an arrow from the quiver on his back, the leather wrap of the quiver rubbing against the plain white shirt he had chosen to wear. He held the arrow between two fingers, not even looking at the bow anymore as he notched the arrow.

He raised the bow and pulled back the string, holding the arrow near his ear. He looked down the sight and his hand loosened slightly-.

"JAUNE MILES ARC!"

Reflexes that had been developed in his time in the school suddenly activated inside him, and without even thinking, he turned and released the arrow he had drawn back, the projectile flying off rapidly…

And striking the wall next to Pyrrha Nikos' head.

The redhead jumped as the arrow smacked into the wall, having to force herself to not react on instinct and pull out the weapons she didn't have on her. She shakily looked over to the wall the arrow had impacted against, then back at her blonde partner, who finally registered who had yelled out his name and sighed.

"Oh, for the love of… Pyrrha, don't do that. You're lucky that I still suck at aiming with this thing," Jaune sighed, holding up the bow in his hand.

She couldn't do anything but nod at that, giving the other six Huntsmen-in-training the chance to enter.

"Jaune!" Nora and Ruby yelled out simultaneously, dashing towards the blonde young man and tackling him to the ground.

"Whoa! Easy, girls, easy," Jaune said, coughing as his back impacted the ground and the quiver pressed against his back roughly.

"Nora! Please, don't send our leader back to the infirmary," Ren called out with a sigh.

"Whoops! Sorry, Ren!" Nora called out, releasing Jaune and zipping back to her partner's side.

Ruby, however, didn't let go.

"Um… Ruby, mind letting me up?" Jaune asked, looking down at the red bundle on his body. Ruby didn't answer, so he sighed and forced himself up, bringing the girl with him.

That's when he felt it. Not just the shudders that he could feel Ruby letting out, but the wetness on his skin.

"Ruby?" Jaune asked, this time actually moving her away from him, whereupon his suspicions were confirmed.

Ruby's eyes were full of tears, and she was letting out little hiccups as she cried.

"Ruby, what-?"

"Please… tell me you're okay," she cried, looking him right in the eyes.

His eyes widened a little, but he eventually sighed and nodded. "Yes, Ruby, I'm okay."

Ruby rubbed her eyes, continuing to speak low as the others approached. "Are… are you sure?"

Jaune looked at his fellow leader and could see a hint of doubt in her eyes. He shook his head sardonically. This girl knew him very well. "Maybe not completely mentally okay, but in body, yes. And besides, I should be asking you that. I hope you weren't hurt by that woman."

Instead of answering, Ruby just hugged him again, so Yang picked up the ball. "She's fine, physically at least. Gotta say, Vomit Boy, you gave Rubes a hell of a scare. Heck, you gave all of us a scare."

Jaune sighed, rubbing Ruby's head. "Well, I'm sorry about that. I'd still do it again, though."

"We know you would," Blake spoke up with a little smirk. "It's just how you are, Jaune. Next time, though, do remember you have a shield."

"Yes, Jaune," Pyrrha said with a little edge to her voice. "Please, next time remember that and do not scare me- us, like that again."

Jaune disentangled himself from Ruby, who cleaned up her tears, and turned back to the shooting range. "Sorry, but the shield wouldn't have deployed in time for me to block the arrow, and I didn't want to take my chances with deflecting the arrow with my sword. So I just did the next best thing."

"Taking the shot yourself with barely any aura left in you?!" Ruby exclaimed. "How is that 'the next best thing'?!"

Jaune shrugged, grabbing another arrow. "Hey, you weren't hurt, right?"

Everyone stared at Jaune, gobsmacked, as he loaded the arrow and took aim.

"Jaune… do you truly care about your life so little?" Ren asked, his quiet voice filled with concern.

Jaune didn't immediately answer, instead letting the arrow fly. It struck the outer circle of the target shortly after.

"Let's just say…" Jaune began, and everyone could see that he now looked weary, though they could tell it wasn't from exhaustion. "I… don't have the best opinion of myself."

"What are you talking about? You're a great guy, Jaune," Ruby and Pyrrha exclaimed in tandem.

Jaune, to their surprise, snorted derisively. "Yeah, if you knew my history, I doubt you'd be saying that." He shook his head and loaded another arrow. "But I don't really want to talk about that."

The group looked at each other, confusion and concern in their expressions. The thunk of another arrow striking the outer circle of the target across the room brought something else to Pyrrha's mind.

"Wait, Jaune, why are you training?! Shouldn't you be resting after what you went through?" she questioned.

Jaune looked at his partner questioningly. "After what I went through? Pyrrha, I'm fine. The nurse told you, right?"

"No, not that," Pyrrha shook her head. "I'm happy to see you've recovered from that. I'm speaking about the… training you did yesterday."

"All nine hours of it," Yang added.

Jaune drew back. "How do you know about that?"

"Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch showed us the video feed of the training room you had been in," Weiss explained. "They also theorized that was why your aura hadn't stopped the arrow that you took for Ruby."

Jaune, to her surprise, didn't respond to her. In fact, he didn't even look her way. She wasn't sure, but he seemed to be actively ignoring her, actually.

"Jaune…" Pyrrha began. "Is… everything alright? Is there anything you would like to talk about?"

Jaune shook his head, turning back to the target and notching another arrow. "No, Pyrrha, there isn't. I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," Pyrrha retorted. "Don't lie to me, Jaune. You aren't okay."

"And what exactly makes you an expert in that, huh?" Jaune said back in a deathly tone, releasing the arrow and watching it attach itself to the outer circle of the target alongside the last two. He was improving slowly.

"Wha-? Nothing! I just see it in you, Jaune!" Pyrrha approached her secret crush, her eyes moistening up. "I want to help you, Jaune. That's all. Please, can you tell me what happened to make you like this?"

Team RWBY, Ren, and Nora could only watch this partner by-play and wonder to themselves how it would end. There was definitely something up with Jaune. He was acting completely different, and they knew that no person alive changed so drastically without a good reason.

Jaune sighed, looking at the ground, then back at his partner. "You can't help me, Pyrrha. Not with this."

"What?" the redhead asked, taking a step back.

"I know what you're all thinking," Jaune addressed the group at large. "Why I'm acting so differently, right? Well, I'm going to tell you right now that I don't plan to talk about the reason. What I will tell you is that something happened that caused me to reconsider my priorities." Jaune looked at the range again. "I'm too weak. I'm a liability to everyone here. And ever since this school year began, I've done next to nothing to correct that. I haven't trained enough." Jaune looked back at his friends. "And I plan to fix that."

"But why?" Weiss, surprisingly, spoke up. "Why won't you tell us what happened to you? Is it embarrassing? Or perhaps demeaning to someone?"

Jaune looked at the albino girl, and for a moment, Weiss was sure she could see his eyes narrow before he sighed.

"It's a lot simpler than you think. I'm not going to tell you… because I just don't want to. It's something I'm not proud of, I'll admit, but it happened to me because of my stupidity. And I won't let it happen again."

The blonde looked back at his partner. "That doesn't mean we won't still train together, if you still want to, Pyrrha."

The Spartan took a little time to respond. "Uh… yes, I would- I would love to continue our training sessions."

"Good. Now, is there anything else you guys need from me?"

The group looked at each other, wondering if they wanted to pursue this train of thought. In the end, though, Nora was the first to speak up.

"Actually, yeah! How come you're practicing archery, fearless leader?" she asked, zipping up close to him and looking over the simple practice bow.

"She's right," Ren added. "You've never really shown an inclination towards long-range weaponry."

Jaune looked at the only other male there with a sardonic smirk. "Would you believe me if I told you that being hit by an arrow made me curious?"

Everyone jerked back at the somewhat dark reasoning.

"Yeah," Jaune confirmed, notching the last arrow in his quiver. "When I woke up this morning, I got really curious about the very weapon that landed me in the infirmary in the first place. So I figured I'd check and see if the school had any archery sets."

Yang looked at the target her fellow blonde had set up and chuckled. "Seems you're not that good at it."

Jaune smirked without looking at her, aimed the arrow, and released it.

The point of the arrow promptly buried itself in the very centre of the target.

"Wha-! How did you-?!" Yang spluttered.

Jaune looked at her. "Well, you mocked me. I figured I may as well make you eat your words."

The rest of the students stared at Jaune.

"Jaune… how long have you been training?" Blake asked.

The blonde leader glanced at his scroll and checked the time. "Uh… about three hours?"

Pyrrha, unsurprisingly, freaked out at that. "Jaune!"

"What? This doesn't make any condition I might have worse!" Jaune insisted as his partner approached him in worried anger. "Honestly! It mostly stresses my arms, but those were fine!"

The young man raised his hands in a placating gesture as his partner got up close to him. This action, however, allowed the redhead to reach out and wrap her arms around his stomach, placing her head against his chest.

"P-Pyrrha?" Jaune asked worriedly, hanging the bow on the quiver on his back and placing his hands on her shoulders. Feeling the small jumps of her shoulders, he could guess what she was doing. "Oh, not you too…" he muttered.

"Please…" Pyrrha sobbed. "Please don't scare me like that again."

Jaune sighed, stroking her hair. "I can't promise you that." Pyrrha looked up, her face filled with anguish. "Pyrrha, we're training to be Huntsmen and Huntresses. The fact of the matter is that this is a dangerous profession." Jaune's expression hardened. "The only way I can even come close to not doing that is by attempting to salvage the time I still have left."

Pyrrha's buried her face in his chest again, wanting to refute him but being unable to do so. In the end, though, she understood his points and released him, stepping back with her head hung low. "Alright…"

"Hey now," Jaune smiled softly, placing a hand on her chin and raising her face so that her eyes met his. "Don't get so down in the dumps. You and I both know why I'm like this, so instead of moping, let's just work hard to make sure nothing can threaten us like this again, alright? Besides…" Jaune chuckled and moved closer to her, the hand that was on her chin lowering to her shoulder. "I'm going to need all the help I can get, and who best to help me with that but my beautiful and trusty partner?"

Pyrrha blushed brightly at his compliment, but a million-watt smile broke on her face and she nodded enthusiastically.

A whistle from the side brought the pair back down to Remnant, alongside a familiar, teasing voice. "Whoa, Vomit Boy, nice mooooves! Should we give the two of you some privacy?"

The blonde and redhead blushed at the teasing voice. Jaune, however, sighed a moment later. "Yang, are you ever going to let go of that nickname?"

"You'll have to give me a reason to do so," Yang grinned. "Or maybe another nickname."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Why not Lantern?"

This confused everyone except for Ren, who had to hold back a groan as he understood what his leader meant.

"Lantern?" Yang asked, as confused as the rest of them. "Why that?"

Jaune shrugged with a little smirk. "Well, I was lit up from the inside two nights ago, right?"

The shocked faces of his friends made him chuckle, though the horrified looks Ruby and Pyrrha gave him did make him hold it back a little.

"Jaune!" Ruby exclaimed.

"That's not funny!" Pyrrha followed up, smacking his arm.

"Alright, alright," Jaune chuckled, rubbing his arm. "It was funny to me."

"I have to agree somewhat," Ren added, making the girls stare at him.

"Oh, right!" Nora palmed her fist. Looking at the rest of the girls, she explained, "Ren likes dry and dark humour. It's pretty much all he's good at in that area."

"I take offense to that," the young man in question responded stoically.

"Great. The only two guys in our group are savants in dark humour," Yang shook her head. "And here I thought it couldn't get any worse."

"It could," Ren spoke up, drawing the girls' attention to him as he walked up to Jaune.

"Yeah. That arrow could have hit my neck instead of my torso," Jaune added with a smile. "Then you'd only have one guy!"

"JAUNE!"

You know, I made a reference to Jaune's source material without even realizing it.