Chapter 2: Neither a Borrower nor a Lender Be
"Bestower?" asked Pyrrha in confusion. "You mean..."
"Here, read this," Blake pointed to a paragraph in the book's long definition, and settling on the bed next to Pyrrha's desk.
Pyrrha began to read aloud. "...Though the evidence is not substantial, there have been a few reports and historical examples of people with a Bestower ability. Unlike most other semblances, which can enhance a person's own strengths, a Bestower has the ability to enhance the aura and abilities of those around him or her. Due to it's undocumented nature, it's difficult to know exactly what the ability enhances, how much control a Bestower has on who around him or her is enhanced, or even the effects it would have on the person receiving the power. Many scholars dismiss this semblance as myth, due to the enormous aura reserves it would require." She looked at Blake. "You mean you think..."
Blake nodded. "We've been thinking about this all wrong. When we were thinking about Jaune's loss today, we were only looking at him and what he was doing. And you said so yourself- there's not a lot wrong there. But think back to to the duel- or any duel of his, really- and think about his opponents. Have you ever seen Cardin shrug off attacks like that before? Or move that fast? Outside of fighting Jaune, I mean."
Hope was starting to seep into Pyrrha's voice and she realized the implications. "He... was moving unusually well..."
"You've watched Jaune's fights more closely than I have. Each loss- would you say it's because Jaune's not fighting to his potential- or is it, actually, that each of his opponents seem to be performing so well? Or even... beyond their abilities?"
Pyrrha's eyes were wide with realization. "Beyond their abilities..."
"Pyrrha, I think he's enhancing everybody he goes up against. It's why there's such a difference between his skills against the Grimm and against another person- he's probably lending them half his aura, and he has no idea."
Blake wasn't sure how Pyrrha would react when she too realized what it was, but she certainly didn't expect this.
Pyrrha, throwing away her careful poise and practiced politeness, was suddenly and fiercely hugging Blake. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she repeated happily.
Blake couldn't help but stiff up- hugs, especially sudden and fierce ones, weren't exactly her thing- but allowed it to happen.
Pyrrha broke the hug, laughing with relief. "Blake, you have no idea how long I've been... how much time I've worried about Jaune... to think he's been making us all stronger...! And if I hadn't asked for your help, we might never have known. Thank you, Blake, I... I can't imagine how happy he'll..." She trailed off as the realization that Jaune was still in the dark hit her. "Blake! We've got to find Jaune, right away, to tell him-"
"Whoa, hold on," said Blake, putting up her hands. "We're both pretty positive that he's a Bestower- it does make everything add up- but we need to be absolutely sure before we tell Jaune. The last thing we want to do is get his hopes up that we've finally found his semblance, and then crush him if we're wrong."
Pyrrha nodded. "That makes sense. But what do we do? How can we be sure?"
"You're training with him tomorrow, aren't you?"
"Yes. We always practice the day after his duels."
Blake looked thoughtful. "I think I have an idea."
"Time?" asked Blake, out of breath from the exercise.
"Four point two seconds," said Pyrrha. "About the same as the first nine."
Blake looked at the test she had come up with in the corner of the courtyard- it was really very simple. She would push her speed as much as she could over the marked distance- and Pyrrha would time it. When Jaune showed up, if she was markedly faster, well... then he truly was a Bestower, and was enhancing people's abilities without knowing.
"I can hardly see you, Blake- you move so fast! How far is that distance, anyway?"
Blake shrugged. "It doesn't matter- so long as I'm faster when he shows up, we know it's true."
"Speak of the devil," said Pyrrha with a smile, suddenly waving behind Blake. Blake turned and saw Jaune in the distance, jogging over to them.
"Remember," whispered Blake, "Don't mention what we're doing until we're sure."
Pyrrha simply nodded.
"Hi Pyrrha," greeted Jaune as he arrived. "Heya, Blake- are you, uh... joining us today?"
"Something like that," said Pyrrha. "Your attack and defense have been improving so well over these years we've trained together. But I've realized we've never really worked on your agility or speed... so I thought I'd bring in the resident expert on those subjects."
"Oh, that makes perfect sense!" Jaune seemed to be relieved- after the fiasco during yesterday's class, he was just glad to have something new to work on.
Blake couldn't help but stare at Pyrrha for a beat. Did she just... come up with that lie? On her feet? Just then? When did miss polite get so good at lying?
Pyrrha turned to Blake and smiled. "... that's right," was all Blake could think to add.
She started on the line they had drawn on the dirt. Four point two, she thought. That was the time to beat. Any small improvements wouldn't prove anything- but anything major, and they'd have their proof. Could she get under three? Maybe lower?
"For now, just watch the way Blake moves over this short distance," she heard Pyrrha explain. "Pay as close attention as you can, as she'll be moving quite fast- it might be a little hard to see her!"
Jaune nodded in determination, and then turns towards Blake.
"Ready when you are, Blake," said Pyrrha.
Blake took a deep breath, got into a starting position. "Ready," she replied to Pyrrha.
Pyrrha started the countdown. "Three- two- one- go!"
Blake pushed off the ground, suddenly a blur- but still, it didn't feel much different than her first ten times. She tried to push herself harder, but it just wasn't coming.
She crossed their makeshift finish line. She took a second to catch her breath and then looked at Pyrrha expectantly.
"Four seconds exactly," said Pyrrha, looking down at her scroll's timer, almost hiding the disappointment in her voice. Blake would have cursed if Jaune wasn't there. It was an improvement, but certainly not by much. Certainly not enough to prove anything.
Jaune, of course, had no idea what was going on through their heads. "Wow, Blake! That's incredible! I mean, I've seen you move in combat before, but still- it's really something. I doubt I'll ever be able to move that fast."
Blake just looked him over for a second, in thought. Why wasn't this working? What was different? Would they have to duel him, to see what the cause was?
"Blake? H... hello?"
What was different about the duel?
"Jaune," she said softly, "Tell me about your thought process when you enter a fight. Or a duel. Do you do anything to mentally prepare, or... is there a certain way you think while fighting?"
"Er- what does this have to do with agility, Blake?"
"Just trust me," she said, knowing it would be more than enough for him.
"Of course," he said, without a single moment of hesitation. "I don't do much before hand, to be honest. In the battle? Pyrrha and I worked on meditation for a while, to help me focus. I guess I just kind of take a moment, and try to push everything else out- which feels like a kind of meditation- and I just try to focus all my... er, energies or... just thoughts... on my opponent. That way it's easier for me to see what they'll do or how they'll fight. I try to stay aware of my surroundings, but focused on my objective." The way he said that last part made it sound like a quote directly from Pyrrha, and from the way she smiled, Blake guessed it probably was.
"Jaune. I want you to do exactly that to me while I run, okay? I want you to focus one me, exactly like you would an opponent. No- even more so. Don't worry about your surroundings- just..." she blushed a bit, but it had to be said... "focus only on me."
"Er, okay, I'll... try."
She walked over to her starting line, glancing at Jaune. He had his eyes closed, and was taking a few deep breaths. And as she was setting up in her runner's position, she glanced over at him as he slowly opened his eyes, light blue suddenly much darker, with that same focus that he had been looking at the horizon with- and they suddenly snapped to her eyes...
Holy hell, she thought. She could feel it.
It was hard to explain the sensation- it felt as though her Aura pool was suddenly endless. It felt like electricity was running from her head to her toes. Her muscles seemed to demand their use- it almost seemed difficult to stay in the runner's position.
She wondered what his usual opponents thought this was. Did they not notice? In the heat of a duel, did they not care? Were her Faunus senses just more able to detect the change?
"Ready Blake?" asked Pyrrha. She sounded louder- was her hearing better, too?
"R... ready," nodded Blake. Half of Blake loved the new sensation- she felt practically invincible- but her more careful, controlled half still wasn't sure what it would do.
"Keep focusing, Jaune," she heard Pyrrha say. "Three..."
Blake's leg muscles tensed as the new energy built up inside her.
"Two..."
She could see every blade of grass between her and the finish line.
"One..."
Was Pyrrha counting slower? Or... could it be...
"Go-!"
From Blake's perspective, all that new energy and power was suddenly let loose as she tore through the ground. It hardly felt like she was running- in fact, it felt more like she was kicking away the earth with every step, pushing with everything she had. And she suddenly had a lot more.
From Jaune and Pyrrha's perspective, Blake disappeared.
Blake stood at the finish line. "Time?" she asked. Unlike every other time she ran the length, she wasn't out of breath.
Pyrrha's jaw hung open, her thumb still poised to press the start button on her scroll's stopwatch. "I didn't... I mean, I couldn't have... Blake, you-"
Jaune snapped out of his trance. "Blake, that... was... AWESOME!" he yelled, blue eyes back to their normal bright state. He was walking up to Blake as he rambled excitedly. "I have never seen anyone move that fast, not even Ruby! It almost seemed like you teleported! That was so cool! Now I seriously doubt I can ever be that fast- or even a hundredth of that speed- but I couldn't even see you move, so you gotta tell me- how the heck did you do that?"
"I didn't. Well, I didn't... by myself."
Jaune looked confused. "What..? Of course you did, who else could have?"
Blake glanced at Pyrrha quickly, who nodded at her.
"You did," said Blake, looking directly at Jaune.
He looked back and forth at them, not understanding.
"Jaune," said Pyrrha, gently. "Blake figured out your semblance."
Jaune's face was unreadable. Blake saw more emotions on it than she could count- hope and relief- anger and frustration- and many in between.
They had just finished telling them everything they knew. The book, what they suspected his power was, and what they were really doing here today to test it. Blake had still not mentioned what she heard from Ozpin and Goodwitch- but she needed to make sure Jaune was okay with all this before she brought up the strange secrecy.
Pyrrha stood near Jaune, explaining more of what she had read in the book. He quietly and intensely listened.
Blake sat against a nearby wall- she was still feeling the effects of his powers, long after he had broken concentration on her. She was taking a couple deep breaths- it was, frankly, hard to calm down. Her heart was pounding. It was hard to tell if the link between them still existed, or if the power he lent stayed after the connection was broken...
"Are you sure?" he asked, after hearing the whole story. "Couldn't it just be I'm a poor duelist? Couldn't Blake have just had... an unusual burst of speed?"
"No," said Blake with quiet confidence. "I could feel it Jaune. I don't know how it works, or what it does exactly- but the moment you focused on me..."
She looked down at her hands. They were still shaking- as if she had drank way too much tea. She felt like running for an hour.
But she took another deep breath, and finished simply, "I could feel it."
He looked thoughtful. "So all this time..."
"All this time," said Pyrrha, "You couldn't have possibly won your duels. Because the stronger you got..."
"The more power you would lend your opponent," finished Blake. And what a ton of power it's become, she thought.
Both girls looked at him, waiting for his reaction.
"Shit," he muttered, a tone filled with frustration and realization. "Shit! All this time- you mean I could never have beaten anyone? Oh god, Pyrrha- think of all the team fights I must have cost us-"
"Hold on," comforted Pyrrha, "We don't know how your semblance works. For all we know, you made everyone on our team stronger. You may have won us countless bouts, Jaune."
It didn't seem to work. "Or I might not have. I clearly have no control over this- and even if my minds all over the place, the best you can say is that I was neutral, making everybody stronger. But most likely I was empowering everyone we fought against!"
"Jaune, it doesn't matter," reassured Pyrrha. "All that's in the past. It's not worth worrying about, Jaune. Look to the future- once you learn to control your semblance, you'll finally discover how strong you truly are."
"If I can control it," he mumbled.
"Hey," snapped Pyrrha, giving some tough love with a smile. "We'll figure out how to control it. We can handle this. When have I ever led you wrong?"
He met her eyes, and after a second, finally smiled. "Never. No... you're right. I was being stupid. It's not worth worrying about. It's not like any of us could have known, right? I do still feel a little bad, though..."
Shit, thought Blake. Shit. It'll feel like a lie if I don't say it now. "Actually..."
Pyrrha and Jaune both looked at her. She hesitated- she wasn't sure how he would react to this.
"What, Blake?" he asked.
"Ozpin and Goodwitch... they... they knew."
"What?!" asked Pyrrha in disbelief.
"They... what?" he asked, his face again unreadable.
"I didn't mention... I hadn't mentioned yet, this part, I just didn't know if it was..." They both looked shocked- Pyrrha looked a little betrayed. Stop making excuses, Blake told herself. " ...I went to Goodwitch's office after... yesterday. I wanted to ask her... about what happened. I overheard them talking about your semblance there, and how it was hindering you, and that they had to keep it a secret for now- they never said what kind it was, but that's what got me to find this book."
"Why didn't you tell me that?" asked Pyrrha, her voice hurt.
Blake rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. This is why she never got involved in stuff like this. She always ended up hurting someone's feelings. "I didn't think it was important, okay? And it's not really, it's probably just another one of the teacher's stupid games-"
"Stupid games?" asked a shocked Pyrrha, who, unlike Blake, had never questioned authority in her life.
Blake was about to snap back at Pyrrha when Jaune spoke.
"They knew?" asked Jaune to no one in particular. His voice was filled with an uncharacteristic amount of venom. "They knew, and they had me duel- sending me to lose, year after year, and they did nothing? They let me go into the ring with my team, knowing...?"
"Jaune..." said Pyrrha softly.
"No," he said firmly. "Stop." He took a breath before continuing. "I just need... I just need to think for a while. Just... this was a lot to take in, I just need..."
He didn't bother finishing. Turning away from them both, he headed off. Blake had no doubt he was going to his spot on the cliff.
There was a tense moment between Pyrrha and Blake as they watched him walk away.
"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Pyrrha, her voice cold.
Blake was already getting a headache from this conversation. "I told you, it didn't seem important. And what would you have done differently?"
"He didn't need to know that. He certainly didn't need to hear it right now."
Blake looked at her in disbelief. "What are you saying, we should have- what, hid it from him?"
"It certainly seems like a better option than what you chose to do."
"He's not a child, Pyrrha. You can't protect him from everything. He had every right to know, and you know it."
"He's running away from us when he needs us the most!"
"His life changed pretty drastically in the last twenty minutes, Pyrrha- he just wants some space to think about it!"
There was a moment of heated eye contact between the two of them, before Pyrrha blinked and looked away. "No, I'm... I'm sorry, Blake. You've been so helpful, I shouldn't have..."
Blake sighed, rubbing her temples. "Don't worry about it. It was bad timing, I know... but I didn't want to hold anything back from him."
"You should... talk to him. Make sure he's okay."
"Me?" asked Blake, surprised again.
Pyrrha gave a sad smile. "I don't know what you two talked about yesterday, but... clearly he's opening up to you. I'm his partner, and I'll always be there for him, but I think what he'll need now is someone to talk to, and... he seems to like talking to you."
Blake blinked. What that jealousy in her voice?
"Besides," added Pyrrha, "He may have questions about what you heard from Ozpin and Goodwitch. You should be there to answer them."
"Are you sure?"
Pyrrha nodded. "I want to go to the Library anyway- I want to see if I can dig up any other information on his semblance. The book mentioned historical examples- I want to find out what it means."
Blake took one more deep breath- despite his distance from her, she could still feel his power lingering in her chest- and nodded. Blake may not have meant to, but she hurt him- so she would be the one to make it right.
"Jaune?" Blake called out. She approached his oak tree, still unable to see him.
"... yeah?" came the voice, in a tone that really meant "Please leave me alone."
She walked around the tree to see sitting in his same spot.
"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," she said, finding her root. "But if you need me... I'm here."
They sat for a while in silence. Every now and then, he would throw a pebble gently off the cliff, but she just sat, content to wait for him to say something.
Blake wasn't sure how much time had passed when he finally spoke.
"This sucks," he said simply.
She couldn't help it- it was such a simple, pure expression of exasperation she laughed- immediately covering her mouth and choking it down when his eyes shot over to her.
"Sorry. Sorry, that was... sorry," she sputtered, regaining her composure.
He laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "No, it... that's the only way I can think to explain it, you know? This just... sucks."
She nodded. He was certainly right about that.
"I guess I should be thinking about the future, like Pyrrha said- that this my chance to find out what I can really do- what I'm really capable of. But I can't help but think of these three years, of the countless fights and duels we've been in- and wonder how many times I could just never win. How hard I tried, and how each time it was actually and impossibility. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the duels, I guess, but I can't imagine how many teamfights-"
"Jaune, we have no idea how your semblance works, you can't assume-"
"I can, Blake," he said simply. "Maybe not every time, but there must have been times I hindered my team."
He stood up suddenly. "But I could get past all that, if it was unavoidable. But Ozpin and Goodwitch knew, and they..." His hand clenched his current pebble in a tight fist at his side as he spoke through his teeth. "They knew and they never said anything, they..."
Blake got up and stood next to him. "Jaune..."
"I always sort of felt like a loser, or a joke, compared to the rest of my team, but this... this just makes it so real. How could they set me up to fail like this? Why would they..."
"Jaune, we don't know the whole story," comforted Blake. "There may be some good reason they kept it from you..."
He shook his head. "You don't know what it's like, Blake. To feel that way. How could you? You've always been one of the most gifted, strongest, most beautiful and talented girls at the school."
Wait, what was that third one?
"You couldn't possibly know what it's like to be the one dragging everybody behind, the one who didn't belong. It's always felt like that, but I worked so hard and pushed myself to get to all of your levels, and I..."
He suddenly threw the pebble- much harder this time...
And suddenly Blake could feel it again.
The electrical feeling, the new pool of Aura.
Fury was growing in his voice. "Knowing that all that time, all that pushing, and it was always a pipe dream- to know I've always been a joke, and they knew it, Blake... they knew it..."
It was building in intensity. Her muscles were twitching again, itching to be used. Her senses were becoming heightened, and she was somehow aware of everything. It felt so good and so dangerous at the same time.
She could see his fists clench even tighter as he talked. She could see every vein, every pore... "They knew and they let me fail over and over again. Do you know how much that hurts? Knowing I never had a chance? Knowing I never..."
It continued to build. Her heartbeat was going insane- she started breathing heavily. She wasn't sure she could control this anymore. "Jaune..." she breathed, finding it hard to speak.
He didn't seem to hear her. "... never had a chance. And it's not like we haven't faced people who've wanted to kill us before, Blake! People with aura, people I probably helped- what if someone had gotten hurt because of me, Blake? What if someone had died?!"
Her senses were exploding- she thought she was hearing her own heartbeat in her ears, when she realized with a start that it was his heartbeat she was hearing. Her body was begging for her to move, to use this energy, or crumble beneath it. It was getting harder to breath- was she hyperventilating...? She saw strange color around her vision. "Jaune...!" She forced herself to say, but despite her efforts, her voice croaked out and was barely more than a whisper...
"What?!" he asked, finally turning to look at her. All the fury that had been on his face suddenly disappeared, replaced with complete horror. "Blake!"
Blake wasn't sure what happened next, but found herself on the ground, her head being cradled by Jaune's hand. "Blake?! Blake!" she heard him say.
She groaned. "I'm... I'm fine..."
"Oh, thank god!" he said, and pulled her into a tight hug.
This was Blake's second hug of the last twenty four hours. And despite everything, the hug was so genuine- so clearly from someone who cared very deeply about her well being, almost as if he was clinging to a life raft- she couldn't help but enjoy it. She would never admit it, but she liked that about Jaune- how important his friends were to him. How much he would do for them.
He broke the hug, and looked down into her eyes. "I thought I had... I had no idea I could do something like that... like this..."
"Yeah, me neither," she said weakly. "It's fine, Jaune. I'm fine, That was just a little... much."
"How does it feel?"
"Weird. Intense. I can still feel it, but it's going away quickly. I'm just having trouble... having some trouble seeing..." she held a hand up in front of her face. It was blurry, but her vision was returning quickly.
He looked at her in disbelief. "That wasn't what I was talking about, Blake... You mean... you mean you seriously can't feel that?"
"Feel what?" she asked.
"Blake," he said, his voice serious. "Your eyes are leaking pure aura."
Blake sat in her bed, where Jaune had dropped her off a few hours before. He had stayed with her until her vision completely returned, and the aura stopped flowing from her eyes.
Pure light, he had called it. It looked like pure light flowing and sparkling from her eyes. Blake suspected this was what happened when a person's Aura reserves were well beyond what they could hold- she wanted to think more about it, but... another thought kept distracting her.
He only left after she insisted- maybe forty or so times- that she was fine. In fact, she made Jaune promise never to tell anyone she had fainted. Ever. But she had her scroll near her bed, and promised Jaune she would call her teammates if anything felt off.
And as soon as he was confident she was fine, he left. With a cold, determined look on his face.
She wondered where he had gone, but the day had already been too exhausting, and she was happy just to have some time to herself.
She pulled open her book, starting to read and relax, but found she couldn't concentrate. Because that same thought kept distracting her. It wasn't the intense moments of the day that kept creeping in her mind- with a blush, she faced the unfortunate realization that she couldn't stop thinking about Jaune's hug.
There was nothing wrong with enjoying a hug, she begrudgingly admitted to herself. It was just a hug between friends. It was nice to be there for a friend who had been through a lot.
But it lingered on her mind- the feeling of his body on hers, the way he held on to her, like he was afraid to lose her- and she couldn't quite figure out why. They hardly knew each other. Would Jaune have reacted the same way if, say, Ren had been in her place?
She suspected he would. He wore his emotions on his sleeve, after all. So, logically, this hug between friends... it wasn't worth thinking about, right?
Right?
Maybe it was how intense his powers made everything feel. In the tight embrace, she could feel every muscle in his arms, hear every heartbeat. When he broke and looked down at her in relief, she could sense how genuine it was.
So even though she suspected he would react the same way if any of their friends was in her shoes, she couldn't help it, and felt herself blushing again. How many times have I blushed lately, she thought, annoyed at herself.
Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted when Pyrrha opened the door. "What happened?" she demanded.
Blake barely had time to register what was going on. "...what...?"
"What happened, when you met? When you talked?" she looked panicked.
Jaune must have told Pyrrha that he lost control of his semblance, Blake realized. "Nothing, Pyrrha, it was nothing- I'm fine." She sat up from the bed. "It just got a little out of..." she finally looked into Pyrrha's eyes and realized from the way she held herself that there was something else wrong. "Wait- why? What happened?"
Pyrrha walked over to her bed and handed Blake a note. It was short, and simple.
Need to get this under control. Don't follow- too dangerous to be around now.
-Jaune
"He took camping supplies from our room, Blake. He's gone."
Author's notes:
First line of the next chapter: "That f**king idiot," moaned Blake.
Just kidding. Maybe.
As a warning- I'm already starting to write out parts of chapter three and four- and I'm worried some of the themes I'm going to touch on will take us above a T rating into more of an M rating. I'm thinking about making a switch soon to be safe. I apologize if this rating cuts out younger people who've started this story, but I want to be as safe as I can with the ratings.
Please be prepared for a rating bump into M!
That's all. Reviews are loved, no matter what they say!
-James Locklear
