Light

The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed through the warehouse. Jaune panted heavily as he fought off his assailants. He blocked a slash coming towards him with his shield and pushed off, knocking the combatant off balance. Jaune quickly swung his sword at his opponent's legs and knocked him to the ground. He bashed him with his shield to make sure he was knocked out just before the other attacker hit him in the back with his sword.

Jaune's aura protected him from any serious harm but the wind was knocked right out of him. 'Geez, that's gonna sting in the morning' he thought and rolled out of the way of another strike. The assailant ran at him and swung his sword from over his head. Jaune bashed him with his shield, disorientating him. He took this opportunity to deliver a swift roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him out.

He was getting better at fighting, thanks to the work he'd been putting in with Pyrrha these past few months. Though, to him, it seemed like he had a lot of ground to cover before he could even hope to be on par with any of his friends. But, he knew he could hold his own in a fight now. He was no longer his old self where he would be hiding behind his friends in battle, no now… now he could really help people and make a difference. ,

"Hey I'm done on my end," he pushed the button on his ear piece.

"Great, that makes everyone, let's regroup before we go any further," he heard Ruby's voice.

Team RWBY had found a lead on where upper ranked White Fang members might be holding their meetings. So naturally, Jaune wanted to have his team accompany them. Due to his persistent and caring nature, the sister team finally caved in to his demands and allowed them in on the mission.

It was unofficial of course, however Ozpin provided them an alibi by sending them on a simple joint 'patrol' mission to help with their synergy. 'He's probably the coolest teacher on the planet' Jaune internally laughed.

He started walking towards the centre of the warehouse. They had agreed upon a location to regroup prior to arriving. They had acquired the blueprints to the warehouse through Beacon's archives. They proved to be very useful as Jaune's tactical mind began hacking away at the documents. He had quickly formulated plans for entry, re-entry and even plans for going from room to room as he thought that they would be heavily guarded. He was right.

He saw the clearing that marked the centre of the warehouse, everyone else had already arrived. "Those are some pretty tough grunts," he said as he walked up to them.

"Those weren't grunts Jaune," Pyrrha said. "They had officer's uniforms."

"Oh… well I guess I didn't notice." He scratched the back of his head.

"It just means you're getting better, all that training is paying off," Pyrrha offered him a smile.

"Oh I'm sure it is… I hear you guys 'training' all the time," Yang said. "Oh Jaune, let me show you how to hold your 'sword'." She wiggled her eyebrows and emphasized the word 'sword'.

"Wha-Th-We we-weren't doing what you thought we were." Pyrrha's face was redder than her hair. Jaune too was affected by Yang's words, however nowhere near as much Pyrrha.

He was no longer oblivious to Pyrrha's feelings, nor to his own. He had first ignored his mixed feelings for her, thinking it was merely admiration, and nothing romantic. But after the dance, when she half-confessed to him, after he wore a dress to keep her happy, he knew that it wasn't mere admiration that attracted him to her; it was more.

"Eww gross," Ruby said and covered her ears. As a 15 year old, her mind wasn't fully opened to the world of sexuality. Sure she found people attractive, but it was limited to only that. "Let's just get going, we can't waste time."

"You remember the plan right?" Jaune asked her.

"Yup, we'll sneak through the air vents and try to take any documents or info that'll help us uncover what the White Fang are after. You'll blow up the main entrance and serve as a distraction until we're finished on our end. Then we regroup and lay the smackdown on the bad guys!" She emphasized her last sentence with a fist pump.

"Alright, seems good, you guys go get ready, give us the signal when you're ready."

"Alright Jaune, good luck." Ruby nodded and left with the rest of her team.

Jaune returned the gesture. "Good hunting." He lead his team to the main entrance where there was a metal door separating them from the rest of the facility.

After about 5 minutes Ruby's voice reached him. "Alright, we're in position."

"Nora, blow that door up, and break as many legs you can!" Jaune yelled.

She grinned and turned Magnhild into its grenade launcher form and started firing away at the door. Pretty soon, alarms started going off as she finally broke through. Grunts began filing in through the door and team JNPR made quick work of them with their firearms, Jaune served as a spotter. Soon after, the frequency of the White Fang grunts became less and less until there were none coming through.

"Aww, is that it?" Nora sounded disappointed.

But she spoke too soon, as a fireball flew through the doors and headed towards them. They managed to dodge it. Three figures walked out, each of them wearing a grimm mask, however, they seemed strikingly familiar. Two of them were girls, one had wavy black hair and a red dress. The other was a mix between pink and brown who, strangely enough, carried an umbrella. The male was about Jaune's height who donned silver hair and a big pair of boots. However, they couldn't make out any of their facial features.

Jaune felt more on edge when he focused on the girl with black hair. There was just something about her that spoke danger. There was no way he could do anything to her with the way he was, he'd need to send in both Nora and Ren to keep her occupied. There was something strange about the other girl as well, she had a smaller frame which would mean she'd be more agile. Pyrrha would be more suited for her.

"Nora, Ren, you take on the girl with the red dress, I'll get the guy. Pyrrha, you take the girl with the umbrella." They all nodded and went after their respective opponents.

Nora and Ren quickly went on the offensive, doing combinations of attacks that could only be accomplished with years of working together. However, the girl was unfazed and dodged all the attacks with matching speed. The markings on her dress began to glow as she brought out her weapon; two swords.

When he looked to see how Pyrrha was doing against her opponent, he was shocked to see that the other girl was holding her own just fine and was even giving Pyrrha a hard time. Not even anyone on team RWBY could beat Pyrrha one on one. What were these guys?

He gulped as he turned to his opponent. 'Alright calm down, just remember the stances Pyrrha taught you and try and hold out as long as you can until backup arrives,' he thought. He drew his sword and shield as his opponent crouched down into a fighting stance.

'Judging by those boots, he mainly uses his feet when fighting.' Plans began swarming through his mind. The key to even holding out against this guy was to target his legs. He took a deep breath as he held out his shield in front of him. He decided to go on the defensive so he could assess how his opponent would be fighting.

He saw the man smirk as he charged forward and spun to kick him in the side. Jaune barely had enough time to react as he moved his shield to block it. But that left his front vulnerable which was taken advantage of by the man and Jaune received a kick into his abdomen. Jaune reeled as the air was knocked out of his lungs. A kick was sent to his head and he was knocked down onto the ground. He barely had enough time to roll over and move out of the way of oncoming kicks.

His head was swirling from the kick, his eyes were constantly focusing in and out. He tried to keep his head still to balance out his equilibrium, but the attacker was relentless. He rushed in, kicking Jaune in the ribcage and kneeing him in the face when he recoiled.

"You're a lot weaker than your teammates." The attacker mocked him.

Jaune looked to see how the rest of his team was doing, and he saw that they were holding their own. His words stung as Jaune realized he was still too weak to make a difference. Before Jaune could ready himself again, he received a swift kick across his jaw, knocking him down and disorienting him.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha saw him get knocked down and was momentarily distracted in her fight.

Pyrrha's attacker caught her off guard and landed a hit at her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She quickly followed the kick with an elbow behind her neck, knocking Pyrrha down for good. For as long as she could remember, this was the first time she lost a fight one on one.

Pyrrha's attacker unsheathed her umbrella to reveal a blade.

Jaune couldn't do anything as he tried to force himself up. His aura was depleted and he didn't have enough energy to move, besides the hand he reached out for her.

"Pyrrha…" he said, his voice was weak. He watched as the girl with the umbrella walked up to Pyrrha.

This was supposed to be a simple mission. Get in, grab the files while they're distracted, and then get out. 'This is all my fault… if I wasn't so weak, none of this would be happening right now.' Jaune thought as he watched the girl approach Pyrrha, either of them unable to do anything. 'Grow Sronger…' There was a voice in his head.

The girl lifted her sword up in the air, before bringing it down, running it through Pyrrha. A sickening gasp broke through Pyrrha's lips, as she began breathing in quick shallow breaths, her life force pooling around her.

Jaune could only watch, mouth agape as he tried – but failed – to reach out for her. He began desperately crawling towards her, forgetting about the person behind him.

His attacker began laughing, and couldn't help but speak out his opinion on how funny this looked. Jaune didn't care though, he needed to get to Pyrrha.

He slowly but surely crawled towards her, not even paying attention to the umbrella girl as he managed to grab a hold of Pyrrha. He grabbed her face and turned it towards him. Her eyes had glazed over, and were losing their colour. No longer the bright green orbs they used to be, they were now almost grey.

"Pyrrha, come on, stay awake.' Jaune tried to keep her conscious. She only looked at him with a weak smile. "It's pretty hard to right now, Jaune." She smiled at him. Her eyes began to close.

Jaune noticed the blood, there was a large puddle of it. "No no, Pyrrha stay awake, that's an order!" Jaune began panicking, using what little energy he had left to press his hand against her wound.

'Gain Power…' There was that voice again. 'Become immortal, and rule them all.'

Pyrrha's eyes fully closed.

Jaune's mind went blank as he was witnessing the final moments of his partner.

'For it is in passing that we achieve immortality.'

Jaune pressed his mouth against Pyrrha, blowing air into her lungs, trying anything to keep her alive.

'Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rule above all'

Tears flowed down his cheeks as he tried anything to get his partner to wake up.

'Infinite in distance and unbound by death.'

Memories of Pyrrha flooded his mind.

'We release thy soul, and thy semblance'

'And by our shoulder, protect thee'

…

'Rise, Jaune Arc, future king of kings, and fulfil thy destiny.'

Ruby and her team had just finished up gathering all the intel they could find. "All right team, let's head back and help Jaune!" she said.

A huge gust of wind blew through the entrance to the room and knocked them all back. "What was that!?" Yang said as she got up.

"I don't know, but it can't be good." Weiss also stood up and brushed herself off.

"Come on let's hurry, they're probably in trouble," Ruby said. They readied their weapons and rushed out of the room back towards team JNPR.

When they got there, they had to cover their eyes as the light in the warehouse was blinding. It was almost like the sun was in the warehouse. They managed to see Nora and Ren standing a few metres away.

"Nora, Ren, what's going on!?" Ruby asked.

"Jaune… he's…" Nora was still staring off towards the centre of the warehouse. She couldn't believe her eyes. Was that actually her fearless leader?

Ruby ran towards the centre of the warehouse, wanting to see what was wrong with Jaune. When she got there she couldn't believe her eyes. There, standing in the centre was Jaune.

Jaune stood and stared down all 3 of the attackers with glowing blue eyes. Light of every wavelength, every colour was emanating from him in pulses. He was standing in a pillar of pure white light, looking menacingly at the attackers.

He brought his attention down to Pyrrha, who had passed out. "It is not yet your time," he spoke. However his voice sounded like there were others speaking as well. He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

Slowly she began glowing, her aura becoming stronger and stronger, her wound healing, and her breathing becoming less laboured. He separated from his partner, and once again, turned his full attention to the attackers.

"We shall punish those who obstruct peace!"

Jaune – almost instantaneously – appeared in front of the girl with the umbrella. Before she had time to react, he struck her with Crocea Mors, the blade glowing a brilliant white. She went flying and crashed into the wall, shattering it. He immediately turned and kicked the other male, sending him flying through several freight containers. He readied his blade, looking to pierce the girl in red.

"Jaune!" Weiss yelled out. The rest of Ruby's team caught up with her and couldn't believe their eyes. The weakest student in the school, had something like this hidden inside of him?

Jaune appeared in front of Weiss, still sending off pulses of rainbow light. He stood, his eyes glowing blue, staring at her, as if judging her. She knew that if she tried anything she would most likely end up just like those people there, so she stood still.

He visibly relaxed and the light pulsing from his body slowly dissipated, his eyes returning back to normal. His eyes closed and he passed out, falling forward. "I got you." Weiss caught him before he fell.

She and Jaune have been on good terms ever since the dance. She talked to him after the dance, wanting to thank him for convincing Neptune to talk to her. But she was shocked when he talked first, and apologized none the less. As heartless as people think she may be, she forgave him, and let bygones be bygones. They agreed to start anew, and became friends. Heck, he even came to her for advice on his feelings for Pyrrha.

She carried him over to Pyrrha and rest him beside her. The attackers decided to make a timely exit after they realized they were outnumbered and out gunned. It was just them now.

"Uhh… what was that?" Ruby was the first to break the silence.

"It seems that there's more to him than we first thought." Blake said, still a little awestruck at what had just happened. "I mean, we all know that he's not the best fighter around. Yet Ozpin still let him into the academy, and I think we now know why."

They all stood in silence as Ruby sent a signal from her scroll requesting pickup with medical personnel. Ren did what he could to apply first aid to Pyrrha and bandage her wound. The medical team would take care of the rest.

Their ride arrived with a medical team on board. Both the teams got on and the medics immediately began checking the vitals of both the unconscious members. Yang sighed and closed her eyes. It was going to be a long ride home.

"Where am I…?" Jaune looked around, everything was made of beautiful colours.

"Welcome, young King. We have been expecting you," a man in a suit of white armour appeared in front of him.

"Who are you…?"

"My name… is Julius 'Caesar' Arc."