For the first time since waking up in the past, Pyrrha's mind was focused on only one thing.
The familiar pulse of her lifeblood rushing in her ears, the trembling of muscles, the electric air and hyperawareness that came from the rush of adrenaline. This was the kind of stuff that she lived for. Nothing could compare to the high of putting yourself in harm's way and spitting in Death's face.
The first time around, initiation day had been exciting, new, but over all too soon. Now, Pyrrha savored each and every instant. From the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair, to the tug of gravity as it reasserted its authority over her, she memorized it all.
Her shield came up, deployed with practiced ease as she held it out in front of her. She hurtled towards the ground, the tree line rushing up to greet her like the great jaws of a beast.
She met that embrace with cold, hard steel, smashing through the branches, her aura deflecting wayward branches and leaving a cut swath through the verdant trees.
She managed to land on a branch halfway up a tree, and quickly jumped up to a higher one to get a better vantage point. It wasn't hard to find Jaune, considering much like last time, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, a meteor of white, blue, and blonde. Unlike last time, he at least had the good sense to have his shield out, clutching it with both hands for dear life. He was learning!
A brief moment of satisfaction, before she hefted Miló, taking aim at him with some concentration. She'd have to time it just right if she wanted to hit him from this distance. Even with her semblance, using that to guide the spear's path would be difficult, if she didn't want it to simply deflect off his breastpla-
…wait.
She glanced down to the hand that held her weapon, before looking back at Jaune.
…no. No, there was no way she had been that stupid the first time around. There was a reason she hadn't done something so obvious and simple, and infinitely safer than hurtling a weapon at him at top speed to try and pin him to a tree.
Hoisting Miló on her back, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and concentrated on that familiar feeling of her semblance. The murky, inky feeling that accompanied it responded instantly. Opening her eyes to see her arm engulfed in the squirming black energy that heralded her ability, she held out her hand towards Jaune, and gripped.
It was stupid. There was no way she could get him at this range, she should have just put a hole in that hoodie of his agai-
The familiar tug of control greeted her after a long moment, and in the air, she could see Jaune start to slow in the air. Still falling, but…his momentum was starting to slow, like a puppet being jerked around in the air by the strings.
Pyrrha was done. This was so obviously bullshit that she couldn't even think of any other, more refined or thoughtful phrase to put to this new development. With a deadpan look, she used her semblance to very, very carefully reel Jaune in towards her position.
It was less flying, and more of a controlled fall, and a few times there she almost lost her concentration again. He jerked, bobbed, perhaps even weaved through the air like a drunken fairy, but after a few minutes, and a lot of repeated chanting of 'BULL-SHIT' in Pyrrha's head, he was finally able to step on a branch.
That branch promptly snapped under his weight, and he hurtled the rest of the way to the ground, screaming all the way before she could re-establish her hold on his breastplate.
Oh well. She'd tried.
Pyrrha jumped down to ground level, watching as Jaune staggered to his feet, a few branches in his hair. He brushed himself off, blinking all the while as he looked at his unharmed body. "Huh…that hurt a lot less than I thought it would."
"Mmmhm." She hummed, idly plucking a branch out of his hair, so consumed in thought that she didn't even notice the lightest dusting of crimson on his cheeks.
"That's the wonder of aura." She said, trailing off as she considered this latest development.
The fact that she had been able to halt his flight at that range with her semblance was troubling. She had never attempted something so outlandish with her Polarity before, yet it had been…easy. It was one thing to have manipulated the metal in Ozpin's office, but it was quite another to take hold of a moving target flying through the sky.
It was something that she never expected herself to be capable of.
"How did you do that, anyway? Was that your uhm…y'know, soul power thingy? The thing you did to stop Ruby from." Jaune asked after a moment, causing Pyrrha to purse her lips in thought.
"It was…" Here, she paused, weighing on whether or not she should ask him to keep what she did a secret. It would inevitably lead to some problems, but she didn't want word getting out, especially considering that she had never demonstrated such a drastically original use of her semblance before.
"… but Jaune, I must ask you keep this a secret, and I'll tell you why later. Can you do that?" She implored, which caused Jaune to hesitate, before he straightened out and nodded solemnly.
"I promise." He said simply, blinking and ruining the effect before he started plucking the remaining branches out of his hair. "So, what's next, anyway?"
Pyrrha bit back her initial instinct to take charge, hard. There was a difference between guiding Jaune, and leading Jaune.
It was very hard to do it though, and even now she caught herself saying, thinking, or doing things that weren't in line with her plan. It was a hell of an exhausting task, trying to create an equal when she had such a position of advantage over him. In some ways, to be proactive with Jaune, she had to counterintuitively be more passive on some fronts.
So instead of pointing out that they had to go forward, she instead gave him an expectant expression. "Well, what do you think, partner?" Partner. At least step one of her plan had gone right, even if she had to literally pluck him and drag him to her side to make sure it would get done. Better to leave nothing to chance, otherwise she might have lost her mind if he had encountered someone else first.
Jaune looked panicked for a moment, and opened his mouth, before Pyrrha gently held up a finger, holding it just in front of his lips. "You don't have to jump to your first thought. Think it out…" And suddenly, a bit of inspiration clicked. "Treat it like we're going camping. But with weapons." She said with a wry grin.
He laughed, sounding a bit more relaxed, before bringing his hand to his chin, looking thoughtful for a long while. It took a minute of thinking, and she wondered if he needed a little bit of prodding before he finally spoke again. "Well…we're looking for a relic, right? That means people, and people means water and food. So…somewhere near a river, if we find a river, we can probably go from there."
She blinked. It was a well thought out, if basic plan, and honestly, one she hadn't expected from him. She immediately felt awful for thinking it, but it was true. How well Jaune responded to some encouragement, to simply having a friend.
And it spoke volumes about how she had failed to be a good friend the first time. It made her heart ache, but she had already resolved to do better. Pyrrha was simply resigned to the fact that she was developing a taste for self-depreciation.
"That sounds like a plan to me." She said, pressing a button on Miló to shift it into its rifle form. Akóuó found its place on her back, ready for a quick deployment. "I suppose you'll take point, then? I can cover you from range easily."
Jaune hesitated, but steeled himself, hefting his sword with shield in hand, picking a direction away from the cliff face and setting off. Pyrrha followed him at a distance, making sure to keep a sharp eye out for any Grimm. "Thanks, Pyrrha." Jaune said after a short while of walking, glancing behind him for a moment. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
Just when she thought she had a decent handle on her emotions, he went and said that. "It's alright, Jaune. Everyone has to start somewhere." The words were just on this side of clipped, but she didn't trust her to say anything else. She had done okay so far in keeping a fine balance between indulging her need for a connection, and the fact that they were still technically strangers.
They walked in silence for a short while, making their way through the forest until the familiar sound of gunfire pierced the silence. Jaune didn't jump to her surprise, instead only tensing up a bit at the sound, which surprised her initially.
But in the end, she simply chalked it up to the fact that Jaune -had- gone camping with his father. Having to listen to him eliminate pesky Grimm probably wouldn't have been unusual. "I suppose that would be our peers." She said lightly, keeping an ear out for any tell-tale signs of approaching Grimm.
"Yeah. Think we should find them? Strength in numbers, or something." He said, voice strained, but clearly keeping it together, and trying to make light of the situation.
"You read my mind." She replied, before pausing, spotting a break in the tree line. There, from the shadows, came a Beowolf. An average one, but that didn't make it any less threatening. Hateful red eyes, bone spikes, claws that could shred through unprotected flesh with ease and crush mortal men without thought.
Jaune soon noticed it as well, as the beast began to sprint towards them. Her rifle snapped up to her shoulder with practice ease, drawing a lead on the dumb beast. At this range, she could easily dispatch with a lone Grimm. "Jaune. Want me to take this one?" She asked, uncertain if he was ready to fight a Grimm on his own yet.
He shifted in the corner of her vision, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. But she waited, patiently, tensing up on the rifle just in case she had to take the shot before he said anything, but he gave his answer. "M-maybe next one." He finally decided, gulping audibly.
A series of sharp, staccato cracks echoed through the clearing, as her rifle dispatched with the creature. A trio of holes pierced its hide, the beast whimpering pitifully before sliding to a halt only a few feet before them.
Already, it was beginning to fade, black smoke on the wind that dissolved into nothingness within less than a minute. Lone wolves weren't a problem to deal with, but where there was one…
The howl of the pack answered the call of her rifle, and from the tree line came three more of the slobbering animals, fleet of foot. "Looks like you have your chance, Jaune!" She said clearly, trying to distract him from any fear he might feel.
Miló spat another three rounds down range, glancing off the hide of one particularly tough old beast. Less than an Alpha, but more than the other, younger ones, it recoiled, the other two racing ahead of it, dirt flying from the earth-shaking beat of their paws against the terrain.
Miló shifted at her command, and she charged to meet the one on the right head on, cognizant of the one on the left. But it ignored her, instead charging straight for Jaune.
She wasn't particularly worried, if only for the simple fact that it could probably chew on him for a solid five minutes straight before he actually got injured, and she could have killed them all herself in less than two.
Her free hand found Akóuó, flicking the shield with her wrist, her semblance guiding, accelerating the spinning metal. Edged on the sides, it met the Grimm's flesh, inflicting a serious wound along one side, dazing the creature.
Her sword met its other side, carving a mortal wound even as it tried to take a swipe at her. The shield had knocked it off balance, though, and it missed her completely even as she took the creature's life.
Her shield sprang back to her hand, recalled with her semblance from the dirt. The largest Grimm had regained its footing, and was snarling at her, advancing once more.
She spared a backwards glance to see how Jaune was doing. He was fending off the beast with his shield, deflecting blows, but seemingly unable to get in a swing with his sword.
She would have watched to intervene, but the last Grimm was already upon her. A flick of her weapon's switch, and it shifted into spear form, the longer haft giving her a better range.
The beast was smarter and stronger than the others, with bone spurts along the shoulder blades giving it some armored plating. It attempted to gore her on the edge of one, charging straight at her. She rolled to the side, using the edge of her shield to shove it to the side. She shoved Miló into its vulnerable side, tearing a chunk out of the side. It roared in pain, spinning around to try and face her, but she was too quick. With a jump onto its body, she ran it through the top of its body, biting into the spine with the tip of the edge.
Pulling on the trigger of the spear, it flew out of her hands, accelerated by the recoil of the firing, digging deep into its body. It shuddered from the blow, then went still, already decaying by leaps and bounds as she pulled it out of its body with a semblance-assisted tug.
With her foes defeated, she turned her attention to Jaune…who was standing alone, sword in hand over the defeated body of his own Grimm.
She blinked.
At first, she thought that maybe that he had simply knocked it to the ground somehow, but no. He had killed it without her help, the tell-tale signs of decay already setting in.
She jogged over to him, where he stood mutely, watching the Grimm fade away. She stood at his side, staring at the spot left in the grass from the body. "I…I did it." Jaune said quietly, eyes glued to the spot, before they drifted back up to her. She met his gaze.
A pause.
"I DID IT!"
"YOU DID IT!"
They both shouted at practically the same time. Before Jaune could do anything, Pyrrha practically tackled him in a hug. He was clearly shocked at both the affection, and the impact, but eventually returned the embrace, the two spinning around slowly in place. Pyrrha pulled away from him, holding him at arm's length, a beaming smile on her face.
"I'm so proud." She said, letting go slowly and taking a step back. Best not to overstay her welcome, after all. While he probably didn't mind the hug, and while it was relatively appropriate, she didn't trust herself enough with the close contact for any longer than strictly necessary.
Jaune grinned, a bright thing that spoke volumes about how much his confidence had been boosted by even this short engagement in their initiation. "Yeah…it was a lot like you said the other day. Keep a clear head, outsmart it. I guess you got the other two, huh?" He asked, looking out to the other side of the clearing, where her other kills had already disappeared.
"Yes, but I also have quite a bit more experience than you do. To successfully kill a Grimm the day after getting your aura isn't a small achievement. Don't get too overconfident, but don't be too discouraged, either. Don't hesitate to engage, but if a Grimm becomes too much for you, don't hesitate to ask for my help." She said seriously. A part of her pained to temper her praise of Jaune, but she knew all too well the dangers of overestimating yourself.
Every time she imparted a piece of advice upon him, he was becoming more and more receptive to the next. He was starting to see what she already knew to be true; That he could not only simply survive, but he could thrive.
It made the part of her that reveled in competition, in the endless pursuit of the next challenge satisfied in a primal way.
People doubted Jaune's potential, but they couldn't see what she could see. His growth curve as a warrior was exponential. Going from being a mere civilian, to engaging his first Grimm singlehandedly in the space of a day?
He wasn't simply going to be good, he was going to be magnificent. What had his family been thinking? If he had gone to one of the academies, she very well could have been looking at her rival right now.
Oh well. Their loss was her gain, because she was going to not simply forge him into a competent teammate, she was going to make him her equal in every way that mattered.
When the Vytal Tournament came around this time, they would be unstoppable, both against the legitimate competitors, and Cinder's gang of sociopaths.
She shivered slightly, the thought sending traces of all sorts of…interesting emotions down her spine. But that would come in due time.
More gunfire interrupted her musings, the once distant sounds getting closer. Judging from the single, echoing cracks…probably Ruby. Her sniper rifle had a very distinctive sound. "I guess we're on the right track after all." She mused, swapping to Miló's rifle form once more. Jaune gave a sound of agreement, taking point once more as they continued their trek into the forest.
Of course, Pyrrha knew where the artifacts were, but she wasn't in any rush to get there. As far as she was concerned, this was a walk in the park, and a wonderful opportunity to get Jaune used to combat.
They encountered groups of Grimm on their path, and they once again split up the labor in a way that gave Jaune experienced, without having him be too overwhelmed.
Only once did a particularly cunning Beowolf get past his guard, scoring a shallow hit along his breastplate. Miló answered that particular transgression with extreme prejudice, spearing through the creature like the blade of an avenging angel.
Only she was allowed to touch Jaune, if she had anything to say about it…or maybe Nora for group hugs, because she was Ren-sexual, and thus posed no threat.
'Threats?' she thought. When had she started thinking in those terms? Jaune was not some sort of…object to claim and hoard jealously. She was just interested in his welfare, and clearly, his best interests lay with her.
Yes…that was it.
Not.
Who was she fooling at this point? She was intensely jealous of the thought of other girls being around him. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, but it wasn't something she could ignore.
It had taken the destruction of their school for her to get around to admitting her feelings to him, and now all that had been done to bond them together had been undone.
She was still coming to terms with it, but it still stung. And she still desperately wanted to have that same connection she had had before.
Jaune had been treated like dirt by many of his fellow classmates the first time around, and that still stung. She hadn't recognized it at the time, but hindsight was a wonderful thing.
She kept circling back to this same subject. What right did she have to manipulate him? None, perhaps…but how could she stand idly by while his earnestness was met with scorn, simply because he was not perfect?
She simply didn't have the strength of will to deny her affections, either. But how much of their new relationship came from Jaune's own free will, and how much came from Pyrrha's intimate knowledge of how he thought?
She wasn't sure. And that uncertainty made her constantly doubt herself. But at the end of the day, all that mattered was making sure that Jaune was happy, and safe. If that required her to step aside, well, she would do it.
But it just might kill her all over again.
Pyrrha had to work to avoid the cave with the Deathstalker, considering it was right along their path. But some very subtle nudges on her part made Jaune avoid the cliff with the cave altogether. A cave might have been likely to hold an artifact, but the sounds of battle they had been following the whole time had been going away from that direction.
With that in mind, he had conceded the point, allowing them to continue. Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief silently. As much as she was confident in her ability to kill one now, they also hadn't met the rest of their classmates yet, and it was a bit of unnecessary conflict. So, they avoided the cave, and finally, she saw some signs of familiarity. Namely, a giant Nevermore hauling an indignant snowflake through the sky.
"Pyrrha, look!" Jaune shouted, pointing up at the sky, where the winged shadow flew overhead. Pyrrha pursed her lips. This was not an encounter she was looking forward to, for a laundry list of reasons. But at the end of the day, Weiss was a comrade. She just didn't have to like the frosty little bi-
"Why would you leave me!?" Weiss screamed indignantly, just close enough to the ground to be heard.
"Hold on, Weiss!" Ruby yelled in return, punctuating her declaration with the crack of high caliber rounds trying to scare the Nevermore. It wasn't particularly impressed, and neither was Weiss.
"You idiot!" She squawked, the beast finally loosening its grip, deciding that its victim was more trouble than it was worth. Like a raindrop, Weiss hurtled to the ground, flailing about the whole while.
By this point, Jaune and Pyrrha had managed to double time it to the clearing, breaking through the tree line. "Pyrrha, can you grab her like you did me?!" Jaune said urgently, watching helplessly as she fell from the sky.
"I don't think I can. She doesn't have much metal on her, and I need that to do it. Her sword would just slip out of her hands." She said slowly, with mixed feelings on the subject.
On the one hand, what she said was true, insofar as she legitimately did think that halting her movement in the air simply wouldn't work. On the other hand, even if she could, she was feeling really petty right now. Besides, Weiss would survive. Pyrrha wasn't that lucky.
"What about our shields?" He asked, and the idea was clever enough that she could almost forgive him for using that ingenuity for the heiress. Almost.
"I suppose it's worth a try." She conceded, unhooking her shield, flinging it into the air, accelerating the disc with judicious use of her semblance. "Grab hold!" She yelled, Weiss having only a few seconds left to fall.
Weiss managed to grab a hold of it, scrambling up on top of the shield as it slowly lowered to the ground. Pyrrha watched as her shield carried Weiss into a safe falling distance. Then, with not even an iota of shame, she let it go.
Gravity resumed its normal course, and Weiss returned to falling helplessly, yelping in surprise.
"What happened?" Jaune asked, wide eyed, watching as Weiss hit the ground, a cloud of dust spreading from the point of impact. 'Eat dirt, Schnee.' Pyrrha thought with smug satisfaction.
"It slipped." She lied smoothly, shrugging even as she was fighting back a smirk. There. Now they were officially even…for now.
Jaune had absolutely no reason to suspect that Pyrrha had any reason to lie to him, but still, she could see the look of incredulity in his eyes. After all, she had done something far more difficult with him.
"It was a smaller surface, and I've been using my semblance quite a bit. "Which was true, but it had honestly been just as easy to use it that time, as it had been the first. What that meant, she wasn't sure. It was something to puzzle out later.
Walking towards the fallen girl, who was coughing and slowly picking herself off the ground, Pyrrha calmly recalled her shield back to her.
"I can't -cough- can't believe you let me fall!" Weiss snapped, turning to face them, and paling as she realized she had just accused the only girl at Beacon with a more impressive reputation than herself, of being incompetent.
"I'm sorry." How Pyrrha forced those words through her lips, she'd never know. "It was a split-second decision, and an…unusual use of my semblance."
A downplay to be sure, but she didn't want anyone to know just what she was capable of, outside her team. Until teams JNPR and RWBY became closer, there was no way she was taking chances.
Weiss accepted the apology with begrudging grace, glancing at Jaune with a look of dismay. "So, you already have a partner… I don't suppose we could switch?" She said hopefully.
"Weiss!" Ruby cried, making her way over in a burst of petals. The poor girl looked hurt at the prospect, but she didn't have to worry. There wasn't a chance in hell Pyrrha would agree to a swap.
"I'm afraid not." She said with just a hint of sadistic glee at the sight of that glimmer of light fade in Weiss' eyes. "Jaune is my partner, and I'm happy to have him."
"Thanks Pyrrha…but we still kind of have a problem." He gestured to the sky with a finger, the rest of them turning their heads skyward to see the Nevermore circling back, screaming through the air.
Well. That was a thing.
AN: Thank you to all those who've reviewed, followed, favored, and liked this story. Over 100 follows on alone since I've posted the story on this last Sunday! It's been quite an experience.
I have taken note of criticism, and advice in order to try and better format these documents. I apologize, since it is a bit of a pain to cross post these between SpaceBattles and , due to formatting differences.
I will take pains to try and correct this in the future, however.
Don't worry, we're starting to get there in terms of engagement with other characters. Here at the end of the chapter we see Weiss! Who Pyrrha really, really, REALLY doesn't like right now. All sorts of fun friction.
