Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.


Bone

By: Imyoshi

Darkness.

Jaune Arc absently blinked his eyes, adjusting to the sudden absence of light.

From a space of shine and rainbows to a cavern of blight. Such a transition left a strain on the eyes. The glow of the Earth Dust was gone, and his hand remained fixed on the powerless crystal. Upon glancing down, he found the hue of brown encompassing his entire body. More than any shard of Dust ever had.

Such an oddity to witness a glow that offered zero illumination in a darkened cave.

He doubted he'd ever get used to it.

Shaking his head, he shoved bits of dirt off his sleeve and turned toward the direction he originally came. "Crazy life-changing moments aside, I need to get out of here. Lucky for me, I got Earth Dust to help! And plenty of it. Now, how does this type of Dust work again? Oh? Right!"

Powerful and dense body placements.

Frowning, he carefully removed his hand away from the massive Dust shard and stepped slowly on the floor, checking for any cutting rocks or imbalanced ledges. Upon the first step, his body froze, senses tingling like goosebumps. The entire cave system revealed itself for a few seconds, like an intricate system of contour lines, before disappearing again to total darkness.

"Okay. That was just weird. How'd that happen?" Testing another step, albeit softer, the cave this time did not reveal itself on the second step. "So soft is a no-go? A fluke? Maybe? Let's see. Harder this time."

Narrowing his eyes, he tried again, adding a more stubborn push to his foot, and found the process from before revealing the cave. He repeated the gentler approach, observing the same results from before. Then came a denser step and the cave's internal workings burst to life again. Hard, yes. Soft, no.

Yup! Just like Ren said. Different elements meant different hand and foot placements. Earth Dust required pressure-filled movements. Fire, water, and wind did not need a dominant force, but the straightforward direction of thrown body movements, the ripple effects of arc swings, and constant freedom of space. Earth didn't budge from such tactics as those. If there was ever a time to practice earthbending, it was now. Not like he had much choice.

Breathing in, he exhaled and moved with straining steps.

The act of walking with a tremendous escalation of Earth Dust was an odd one. Small vibrations flickered away from his the balls of feet, alive with each stimulating step. Impossible to ignore. Felt like seismology, oscillations created by naturally occurring processes such as earthquakes, but that wasn't entirely accurate. Not when the Earth Dust in his body aided the ability, consequently blurring the line of naturally occurring and man-made.

Either way, the vibrations traveled in what he concluded P-Waves and S-Waves. One moved faster than the other, parallel to his steps. An ability he vaguely recalled the first time he used Earth Dust against the moth Grimm, but hardly noticed at the time. Now, in the pitch-darkness of the cave, regarding the vibrations was impracticable to ignore. It was as if each step layered out the blueprint of the cave's infrastructure.

Similar to sight.

Sadly, each step drained away the Earth Dust in his body, diminishing the effect. Not to mention it all came naturally, so Jaune didn't know how to turn it off or on. While not particularly threatening since he absorbed a tremendous supply of Dust, it still gnawed away at the back of his skull. Whatever ability it was, questioning it now would prove wasteful.

He needed to escape this hellhole.

Retracing his steps back, the Dust Nerd found the rockpile from the slide, kneeling down to touch the mismatched pebbles and cobbles. The grime smothered against his dirt-layered skin. An odd feeling, being filthy that was. He didn't seem to mind it that much. Perhaps because the Earth Dust erased such feelings? Wouldn't be unimaginable considering Dust affected both his physical and emotional state.

Being one with dirt, while covered in grime, made sense in the obscurest of ways.

Tossing the rock over his shoulder, the Arc groaned and figured the only way out was to climb and create an opening at the top. He wasn't confident enough to earth bend a makeshift staircase with his lackluster control, might waste too much Earth Dust.

No.

Climbing up the slope was the better of the two options. One wrong move earthbending in this cavern and the whole cave complex might come crashing down from pushing past the shear-failure envelope. The brittle-component of the surrounding bedrock wasn't something he wished to test. Especially not after an earthquake just happened, but the Arc had a sneaking suspicion that Mother Nature might've caused such a seismic event.

Sighing, he dug his hands and then feet into the rocks, slipping marginally on sediments, before climbing up in a somewhat brisk pace upward in the darkness. Must be the Earth Dust making the rock climbing easier. Possibly? Didn't matter, his Dust logic pointed to yes. Memory only helped support his claim since he once walked through fire without getting burned because of the influence of Fire Dust or how he felt one with water in the rain.

The climb after a few minutes came to an abrupt stop when boulders prevented him from advancing any further. From purely guessing, he figured to be near the top from where the cavern had opened and swallowed him whole. With little options left, he grumbled and tried to push the boulders away, finding the actions a wasted one. A few more wasteful attempts later and Jaune huffed, digging his legs painfully into the slope's sediments with his arms bunched toward his sides.

Whelp! All or nothing now!

"I did need to practice, anyway."

Throwing his hands up, he recalled past actions and heaved his arms down with his muscles straining.

...

Weiss Schnee felt a migraine building.

Out of the nursing station and straight into a chasm, her partner certainly preferred to spice up any sense of normalcy. Like being a walking Dust mine wasn't enough! Now she was stuck at a crossroad. Either run out and fetch her team for help or wait and see what happened next. At least she had a rock to sit on, torch for light, and training in persistence. Impractical, sure, but had little choice in the matter.

She expertly maintained a composed internal panic, flaunting only an impatient tapping of her foot. Guilt ate away at her.

"This is all my fault... I should've ordered him back to the dorm room. He could've used some of my Dust until our team knew. He just got better. Of course, he was delirious!"

Grumble! Crack! Snap! Pop!

Blinking, the Dust Heiress looked down to find cracks forming on the floor where the boulders remained. The stones themselves trembled, quivering with what she thought to be an aftershock. She quickly stepped back when the earth beneath her feet split in two. Rocks moved, the cave shook, but didn't crumble underneath the intense shaking. When a mop of dirt covered sunny hair popped out the darkness of the crevice, she sighed a breath of relief. Out crawled out Jaune, digging his arms and legs into the gravel with powerful strikes to balance his body from sliding down. An intense and glaring frown contorted his features, stubborn like a rock with his body shaking.

She humphed, almost smirking.

What a relief. The jerk must've stumbled upon some Earth Dust during the landslide? Bits of dirt were attached to the ends of his locks and cheeks. First, he fell into a dark chasm looking for life-giving Dust, only to crawl out with said Dust. Leave it to her partner to have atrocious luck. Still made for an amusing experience, greatly surpassing what she expected when attending Beacon Academy, but that hardly meant this whole ordeal didn't make her blood boil.

Crawling, he tried to stand up, finding the highest amount of loose sediment resting where he earth bent. Jaune suddenly stumbled, almost losing his balance on the last step and Weiss gripped his hoodie before that could happen, pulling him roughly away from the slope with more strength than he thought her lithe body possessed.

The toss finished with him smacking his body on the ground with a roll that ended up with him on his back, body splayed and eyes shut. Groaning, the Arc opened his eyes to stare up at the famous Schnee family pout and fierce, piercing eyes, all illuminated by a burning torch. The fire contrasted nicely with her pale features.

He snickered with a cheeky grin. "Worried about me."

Humph! "Don't be ridiculous. Now get up."

The snickering persisted, but he hefted himself right up, brushing some dirt off his pants. Thank Oum he finally managed to climb himself out of there, or for the fact, the cave didn't collapse on top of him for removing weight. Small miracles.

Standing up, he met her glare, not phased by its intensity. Compared to her, his dirt-covered body contrasted evenly with her pristine outfit. He beamed at the thought. Earth Dust sure erased the need to be clean and proper. Still, he wiped away some more dirt to lower the temperature in the room.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. How long was I stuck down there, anyway?"

Weiss tilted her head, glaring. Waiting? "Did you hit your head on the way down? You were only down there for a few minutes?"

He stopped rubbing the dirt off his clothes to loosely glare up and blink at his partner. What? A few minutes? Hardly any time had passed upon touching the Dust shard and communicating with Mother Nature? No. No! That made little sense. That conversation lasted far longer than a few minutes. The climb back up itself was a few minutes.

"Only a few minutes? There's no way that's right. It felt so much longer."

Her frown said otherwise.

Time distortion? Manipulation? Both? Must've been Mother Nature's doing. Not like scientific reasoning had a place to argue. Anything and everything science-y might as well be fabrication when it came to that deity. For Dust's sake, his Little Buddy defied reason for just existing! Logic, thy name was Insanity. However, he grew up studying the internal structure of the planet's core and how Dust formed. Science, Dust-based science, coursed through his blood!

Eh? Not blood. Chlorophyll, right? He was a plant, after all. Needed that stuff for photosynthesis, although he wasn't green per se, both then? Maybe? Gah! Whatever! It didn't matter!

"What?"

He shook his head. "Never mind, let's go back to our dorm. Something important has come up. And I would rather not be stuck in this cave anymore."

"Hey! Stop! What about needing Dust?"

"It can wait."

She disagreed by shoving her finger into his shoulder. "No. It can't. In case you've forgotten, you just got out of the nursing station. For having a lack of Dust, I might add!"

He sighed, didn't she think he knew that? He desired nothing more than to explore and excavate more Dust, but Father Time waited for no creature. To prove a point, he held out his hand and concentrated on the tug, feeling his skin drying up almost instantly with bits of dirt getting trapped between the crevice of his dried up skin and underneath his fingernails.

"Trust me... this will last me a while. And I still have some spares left."

Spares put it mildly.

Weiss hummed. Fire, ice, and gravity? Three other Dust shards did not make for a perfect compromise. All this work for only one piece of Dust? Not an ideal situation, but he appeared stubborn to a fault, immune to her poking. Must be the power of Earth Dust? How dare he be resistant to her poking!

Nonetheless, he appeared adamant. "Very well, I've had my fill of this forest anyway. Let's retire to the dorm."

He grunted and moved past her, slow compared to when he happened to be hyped up on Wind Dust. Jaune Arc energized by Earth Dust reflected a complete one-eighty to Wind Dust. She wasn't sure yet which she preferred. This headstrong dolt or the youthful free spirit? As of now, between the choices of Dust personalities she came to know, she craved the Ice King.

Eh? A shiver ran up her spine from just thinking that. No doubt that emotionless jerk had something to do with that. Probably still furious over her strategic stalemate in battle. Cheater? Her? Preposterous! Not on his life.

Once they made it out the cave and onto fresh grass, she sighed in relief. After the sudden earthquake that almost caved them in a tomb of limestone and dolomite, the idea of being in that enclosed space any longer churned her stomach violently. One life-threatening situation was enough for one day. Besides her, Jaune paused. Once outside, he stopped walking to test his footing on the crisp grass. Hn, now that he could see his seismic sight vanished, useful.

The rest walk back was quiet. Neither spoke, tired from a long day of fighting and hunting. Fortune smiled down upon them and spared them the threat of any other Grimm attacks during their trek home. Weiss only wanted a hot shower with her partner focused entirely on his feet, lips chewed. Whatever plagued his mind, besides the being eaten alive by his Aura issue, she knew he'd spill as soon as they returned to their team, after Yang tore him a new one for fighting Grimm in his current state, of course.

Was she a cruel partner to be looking forward to that?

Smirking, she glanced down once her heels hit cobblestone. Finally! Beacon Academy! Had it always been this far from Emerald Forest? Someone should fix that. Maybe add in a conveyor belt? No! Two conveyor belts! Yes. At the very least she allowed herself to drop her guard, releasing strangled a breath she carried since walking out the cave. Her partner even mimicked her, sighing loudly into the crisp air.

"Hey, thanks for coming out with me. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if I could've beaten that monkey Grimm back there."

She frowned. Simple gratitude. Nothing new, but still found it odd.

The Heiress stopped, crossing her arms with that silver tongue of hers ready to belittle his forgetfulness. "Did you forget, we're partners, what else would I have done? I'm making an effort to be a better person, allowing my partner to die would be taking two steps back from that goal."

He grinned. "Partners or not, you didn't have to. We've only known each other a few days, but it's nice to know you have my back."

Weiss didn't allow for her emotions to escape, she, however, couldn't say the same for Jaune. For a blockhead, the pain filtering in his eyes spoke louder than any words. Somehow she related. The Dust Duchess hardly knew of anyone she could honestly say would have her back. Outside of her older sister, the Schnee family spaced themselves apart from any acts melodrama, including family-oriented. It was a lucrative business first and family-oriented second household in the Schnee manor. Which brought up the question to why Jaune would be surprised from something so mundane as human affection? She made sense. Her partner did not.

What? A lack of friends in combat school? A laughable notion for a dork like him, those personalities attracted an abundance of support, even if only from other noodles. Who ever heard of one noodle? Then again, a dork or not, this walking Dust shard did score a perfect on the regional Dust exams and essentially killed the curve. The number of applicants applying for a Huntsmen Academy had hit an all-record low this year. All because of this dolt right here.

For him to achieve such a score, well, not even Weiss Schnee studied that much. She scored high, naturally, just not noodle high. Now that she pondered over it, he probably had very little human interaction outside of his family. Maybe he did lack friends when attending combat school? Studying fervorously killed any social interaction. That perfect score surely wiped any chance after that.

With that idea cemented Weiss snorted with a smirk. "For now, but don't expect me to offer you any assistance when it comes to Yang. You know she's going to be furious with you."

He waved off the pressure like a stubborn rock. "I can handle anything Yang can dish out."

Weiss merely raised a brow and resumed her walk to the dorms with anticipation building between each step.

...

The Schnee bit back a chuckle.

Wave off an ominous warning? No pressure. Come face-to-face with the said warning, and suddenly he took the path of least resistance and grinned harmlessly at the red-eyed brawler. Not even Blake offered to opt this one out, glaring over the edge of her book with Mr. Squeakers gripped tightly between the pages.

"The infirmary called and said you checked yourself out early, Jaune?" Yang smiled too widely. "But the funny thing is you never came back to the room, and you're covered in filth. Don't think I don't see the ripped marks on your hoodie. So? I'm only going to ask nicely once. Where'd you go?"

Tick-tock.

Jaune turned to Weiss. "I thought you weren't going to message them?"

Weiss shrugged. "I didn't. The doctor must've?"

He frowned. Damn that Doctor Constable. Doctor-Patient confidentiality must've meant shout it to the world. He regretted not asking for plastic now.

Turning back to the glaring Yang, he expected maybe a hearty slap to the back for recovering, but all he received was a mean fist to the arm. Then she threw a second fist at the same spot, followed by a third and fourth until he had the foresight to move away.

"Ow, that's my swinging arm. I need it to swing and junk. You might've bruised it." Jaune rubbed his sore muscle, pouting. "You hit hard. I'm gonna have to get the doc to examine it."

"You'll be needing your head examined after I'm through with you!" Yang wrapped an arm around his head, pulling him tight. "What were you thinking? What kind of moron just runs into a Grimm-infested forest after they just got better? Well? Hello! I'm asking you a question!"

"Okay! Okay! I give! You were right, and I was wrong! We all make mistakes. It won't happen again." Jaune turned to Weiss when Yang refused to let go. "Hey, partner, help me out here."

Weiss flipped her hair at the headlock Yang had Jaune in. "I tried to stop him, but he was determined to leave. He's been acting like a blockhead."

"Oh? A blockhead?" Yang smirked, squeezing tight. "Maybe I need to beat some sense into him then?"

He bit lip but simpered upon noticing the dirt on his nose. Smirking, he wrapped a heavy hand around Yang's neck and began violently spinning his head, shooting out a cloud of Dust from his dirtied hair and onto her. Gah! She promptly released him, bouncing away from the veil of dust, but not before bonking him on the noggin.

It felt like hitting a dense rock.

"Ah!" Yang screamed. "You got dirt all over my outfit! And your head's as hard as a rock!"

"There's more where that came from!"

Before any pointless fighting damaged the room, Weiss slapped the idiot on the back of his head, pretending no stinging sensation followed suit on her palm. "Enough fooling around, I believe you have something to tell us?"

That overconfident attitude of his sunk faster than a stone in water, and he brushed her remark with a frustrated sigh. Whatever ate away at him—minus his Aura—drained the life out of him. He appeared to age a few years just by thinking it. To make matters complicated, he reached for the remaining Dust shards in his pocket and played with them, mute.

A distraction presumably meant to buy time until he figured out the right choice words he wanted to say. This unusual silence coming from her partner unnerved her. Was there more to this whole Aura eating away at his humanity shtick? Not exactly a comforting thought, but at least it marginally explained his reluctance. Maybe he wanted to reveal the truth—the entire truth—with the whole team around?

She secretly hoped that wasn't the case.

Snicker!

Three sets of eyes blinked upon hearing him chuckle. It soon turned into full-blown laughter with the person in question clutching his stomach in a river of emotion. He soon reached out randomly for a bedpost, using it as a support beam as his sense of balance abandoned him in his fit of insanity, and before any could comfort and gauge the situation, those laughs died down back to chortles before turning into silence. In its place remained a dirt covered man who hadn't a clue.

He moved away from the bedpost, feet staggering on the carpet, and the Arc looked anywhere but them, eyes light and smile straining. Now that he sincerely thought about the situation, one-hundred percent wrapped his head around it, why wouldn't it sound completely insane?

Welcome to Beacon Academy.

He dropped the smile and breathed, arms hung to his sides. "I must be going crazy. First I grew my Little Buddy, turned into it and now this? Yeah, check one for bonkers Arc."

Blake glared suspiciously. "Jaune? What in the world is going on? What was all that laughing about?"

Soot covered cheeks looked to her. "I'll tell you. I'll tell all you. Because keeping this a secret will tear me apart and be infinity times harder than not keeping it a secret. Besides, we're a team. You deserve to know what your crazy leader's up to."

"Okay..." Yang trailed slowly. "So what's this major secret you've kept from us?"

"I'm a plant."

All three paused. "What?"

He shrugged and pinched the ends of his clay painted locks. The sheepish grin and exhausted laugh made it difficult to take him even remotely seriously, but instead of chuckling a second time, he told them everything. The encounter with Mother Nature. The Dust-Dust Fruit's obscure origins. Salem, the Grimm, being the first Paragon. Everything! Jaune Arc told them everything, not leaving a single detail out or stone unturned.

Based on the way all three of them remained doubtfully quiet, he slumped. "You don't believe me."

Not like he blamed them. He wouldn't believe himself either if he wasn't a walking contradiction. For Oum's sake, he was walking, talking plant! A plant! The thing that grew out of the soil filled with bugs and dirt. Cow food! That thing!

Yang snorted instantly. "Could you blame us? It's a lot to take in. I mean Mother Nature? Balance? Dust-Dust Powers? Not exactly something they prep you on at combat school unless I missed that lesson. I don't even know if I believe you yet."

He lamented. Leave it to Yang to break the tension. "Look, I know this is hard to believe. Trust me, I do. Heck, even I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't for this."

He held up his palm and added Aura, creating a shard of Earth Dust in his hand. Bits of dirt fell off the tips of his hair, and his skin rejuvenated from the dryness dissipating. Along with the soil, his rigid body relaxed, and his feet didn't press themselves so firmly to the ground. Once leveled on his palm, the shard felt extremely heavy, pulling his arm down from the unexpected weight of a highly condensed amount of Earth Dust.

Not the perfect example he needed, but he held the Dust fragment up and dropped it into the first pair of hands brave enough to accept the challenge. Surprisingly Blake wrapped her fingers around the crystal and grumbled upon discovering the weight behind it, and when she leveled the shard on her palm, a sense of reflection filtered through her eyes, like she had experience with quantities and qualities of Dust shards, regarding her leader with a tight lip frown.

Blake had held many shards of Earth Dust in her natural life, a secret she kept locked away, and not a single one came close to this one's weight. All paled in comparison. In all things exhibiting the natural order, this piece of Dust shouldn't exist. Too much substance. Too small. Above all else, man-made.

Her eyes reflected nothing but curiosity. "Mother Nature, huh?"

Yang snatched the Dust shard out of Blake's hands, curious. Upon discovering the unique weight for something so puny, gears started to turn. Her thoughts drifted back to the time he used his Dust abilities against Grimm alike. His control over the power hadn't been the greatest, and now she understood why.

She threw the Dust back. "So? I'm not saying I believe you, but I'm not saying I don't, but if do, which I'm not saying I do, then that means it's not your Semblance, right? You know, the Dust control. This is all that, what'd you call it, the Dust-Dust Fruit's fault?"

Jaune laughed weakly, catching the shard. "Ha. Yeah. With the way my Dust-Dust powers is eating away at my Aura, I can't have a Semblance. My Aura doesn't even heal my injuries. Sorry for lying about that. I wasn't even sure until I spoke to Mother Nature herself."

Mother Nature, another topic that screwed with their heads. To think someone like that existed. Who watched humanity crawl out of the mud. To think someone like Salem breathed, a person with the ability to steal life and turn it into energy. Create Grimm! Such an idea almost sounded too ridiculous to believe, but he acted so serious about it. Plus with the whole Aura eating away at his body thing, lying would prove unbeneficial. Their Dust Leader needed to be upfront about it. That much they knew.

If this was going to be the case, that only left one viable choice.

"Whelp! That settles it! Good thing you're a terrible liar! I'm game!" Yang yelled, slamming her fists together. When her teammates stared at her, she shrugged. "What? Isn't that why we came to this school in the first place? To kick Grimm butt? I can't think of any better way than showing this Salem person who's boss!"

Yang's simplistic, to-the-point answer had an undeniable point. While not all people turned to a life of Huntsmen for either fame or fortune, all Huntsmen, in their primary core, became Huntsmen to kick Grimm butt. Defeating this Salem person, this queen, was the exact definition of Huntsmen.

Both Blake and Weiss regarded the question with indifference. Between the two, Blake frowned, wondering how she got stuck with the worst of luck? What? Did being a cat Faunus entitle her to a life of misery and bad luck? Weiss merely looked down at her heels, unable to curse whatever entity existed.

"Do you think I have any experience working with a group whose sole mission is to bring balance to this forsaken world?" Blake remained quiet for all about four seconds. "Alright, I'm in."

Only Weiss remained the outlier, knowing all eyes were on her. She chewed the bottom of her lips, considering the implications of possibly accepting this mission. Bring balance to the world or die trying? No ifs, ands, or buts about it. The deciding factor came when she looked up and recalled how sick Jaune appeared in that hospital bed. That was all Mother Nature's pesky plant's doing, but he still accepted the mission given to him. If he was willing to put his life on the line for the sake of others, who was she to turn her back on him?

She came to Beacon to help change things for the better.

Weiss huffed, arms crossed defiantly. "While I find it highly illogical to challenge what I would describe as a mythological being, this solution seems viable in saving humanity." Weiss smirked. "I, too, am in."

Yang beamed and pulled them all together for a squishy group hug between the shoulders. "That settles it then! Team ABYS is going to save the world!"

"We're going to bring balance to it." Blake corrected while squished between Yang's biceps.

She waved her hand out. "Pssh! Balance? Save? Same difference!"

Squeezed between Yang's hand and Weiss' shoulder, their leader breathed. The entire exchange left the Arc tongue-tied. Not the whole bring balance to the world part, strangely enough. No. He reflected upon how they so easily pushed all agenda away to do this as a team. That greatly confused him. Trust and team dynamics took longer than three days to forge, right? He honestly hadn't a clue with little experience with friendships.

Jaune made sure they knew this. "Not to be a Ruby downer, but we've only known each other for a few days. How can you girls be fine with this? I'm asking for a lot."

Yang released them all for except him, pulling him closer. "Cause if we don't do this, then who will? Someone's gotta put that witch in her place! Besides, you're the leader! We got to follow you lead us to glory or our doom."

"I still feel like I'm asking for a lot from people I barely know."

"Then it's time we get to know each other!" Yang pushed him away.

"I'm pretty sure I got your names memorized by now?" Jaune said.

"No! Dork! I mean we should really get to know each other." Yang didn't give Jaune a choice, pushing him down by the base of his shoulder. She plopped straight down right after. "I'll go first! The name's Yang Xiao Long. Learn it. Love it. Live it. I'm the best person you're ever going to meet, so be prepared to be thoroughly disappointed with everyone else you meet from now on."

Before he could get a word in, Blake joined him on the floor. Her voice carried some weight. "My name's Blake Belladonna. You may call me Blake. I enjoy literature and hate the oppression that goes on in the world. My mission is to one day bring equality for all people. That is why I joined this school."

"Heavy stuff..." Jaune remarked.

Blake offered a small smile. "Compared to what we're about to embark on, not so much. Bringing balance to the world should make bridging the gap between people easier, this is a blessing in disguise if anything."

Next Weiss joined them, although she grabbed a nearby pillow to sit on. A Schnee did not rest on the dirty floor like some common vagabond. Plus the wood floor was hard, and she felt like she deserved some comfort after following her boneheaded partner into Emerald Forest.

Her tone remained clipped. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Do not call me Miss Schnee. Weiss is fine. I enjoy organization and order. I dislike anyone who doesn't know how to handle Dust properly. I prefer well-thought-out plans and strategies, and not half-brained ones, especially from people who go past their limits and almost get themselves killed."

"Hey? Was that a jab at me."

Weiss kept her emotions in check but offered a tiny smirk. "Like I said, half-brained."

Before Jaune had the chance to strangle his partner, Yang rubbed her hands together with her Aura showing. "Now that we got all the boring stuff out of the way, it's on to the juicy stuff! So? Anyone here knows how to play truth or—?"

Blake broke up the brain train and zipped her partner's lip shut. "As much as I would love to sit around and talk about stuff, how exactly are we going to travel all across Remnant without drawing attention to ourselves? You did mention these Maiden are somewhere in Remnant but have no clue to their whereabouts. We can't just jump in without a plan."

Her leader frowned. "I don't know, but we'll figure something out. I mean, how hard could they be to find?"

She pursed her lips to that. Finding someone wasn't such a difficult task. Most people left a trail if looked hard enough, unless if they wanted to remain anonymous. Then things got difficult. Trails became muddied. Sources turned misleading. Blake had a feeling these individuals weren't so keen on being tracked.

Cutting her train of thought, her partner bumped their leader on the shoulder. "Uh? Excuse me, Jaune, but where's your sword?"

"What do you mean? It's right—you got to be kidding me. Where'd it—ah! It's still stuck in the tree!" Jaune sighed, got up and headed for the door with a weak wave. "If you ladies will excuse me, I have a sword to get. Don't wait up—!"

"I don't think so!" Yang grabbed his arm and pulled him back in. "Sit your butt down! That quack told us about your appointment tomorrow. You're not going anywhere. Blake and I will get your sword back!"

"Don't rope me into this."

He argued. "But I'm the one who left it behind, so I should be the one to retrieve it."

"Hmm? You make a valid argument. Show of hands, who here thinks Jaune should stay inside?" The girls' hands rose up in the air, and Yang snapped her fingers. "Darn! Whelp! That's how the cookie crumbles, leader. Nothing we can do about it. You're staying put!"

"You don't even know where it is."

"It's near a crater by the eastern edge of Emerald Forest. There's a nearby cave to help you map yourselves."

"Weiss!"

His partner played with her nails, pointing to his bed without any argument. Fire burned in those cold eyes with clear defiance. He tried to escape the room anyway, but Yang predicted such a move and shoved him into the bed. He reattempted. She pushed harder. Soon it was like watching a brawler trying to beat sense into a boulder. Bits of the Earth Dust's properties must've remained from absorbing such a quantity.

He eventually gave up and pouted like a child. "Fine! You win. I'll be stuck waiting here. Have fun exploring in the dark."

Yang waved out the door with her victory grin and waved at her pouting leader. "Don't worry! We will!"

Slam!

Face impassive, his head hit the pillow hard. A sigh escaped him soon after. At least they got his mandatory meeting over with, even if it was a few days late and not during lunch. When his partner said nothing, the leader turned his noggin and found her oddly staring out the window of their room with a deep frown and arms stiffly crossed. He tched, almost biting his tongue. Not that he blamed her. This whole day started bad and ended up worse. Forgetting Crocea Mors was merely icing on the cake.

"Not exactly the adventure you were expecting at Beacon, huh?

She said nothing. Without the other half of their team, the air quickly turned stale. An agreement of ceasefire hung around, screwing up the team dynamics. Courage eventually gripped her, and it lacked direction. By uncrossing her arms, Weiss allowed a breath of her own to escape her lungs. She ultimately turned to him, this close to becoming a sputtering mess.

"Ever since I've stepped foot into this school nothing's been going my way. I was supposed to have the perfect team with the best partner and focus on fixing my family's name. Not—not this! All my plans have been thrown out the window! Nothing's going the way it should."

"I'm sorry."

The real world had unprecedented failures. It didn't care about shift changes or meticulous schedule planning. Mistakes happened. Plans fell through. Things changed. From her very first step into this academy to current present had shown her that in more ways than one. Believing things might turn around and get better would be foolish.

Weiss Schnee didn't play the fool. "Don't be. It's what we signed up for, right, to kick Grimm butt?"

He gifted her a beaming grin. "Still, I can't imagine this is how you planned for your stay at Beacon to play out."

She offered him a small smile in return. "No. Not at all. Not even close."

"But..."

She suppressed the grin from growing. "But it's not the worse that could've happened. And I have a pretty decent partner."

He choked. "Decent?"

"Decent. Average. Normal." Weiss scoffed playfully. "A dork. Someone who doesn't know when not to push himself. Straggly. Blond. I'd even label him as a dolt."

"You know, I'm still waiting for that thank you."

"And delusional."

He scoffed. "First my partner's a cheater and now this? I've got the meanest partner in the world."

"Very delusional."

He threw a pillow at her. Weiss expected such a barbaric tactic, dodged his and threw her own, hitting him squarely on the face with a fat smack of cotton. Underneath his soft tomb, the Arc grumbled with feathers in his mouth.

"And she picks on the sick."

"Go to bed."

He shoved the pillow away and emptied his pockets of his remaining shards, resting them on top of his drawer. Between the four of them, Fire Dust shined the brightest glow. Ice released a hazy afterglow. Earth or gravity carried little shine but made for it in weight proportions. All in all, having all four next to one another irked him, reminding him of the glow Mother Nature shined. Just thinking about her and the path she set him on burned his blood and forced him to confront the significant problems of the world firsthand. His stomach lazily ached from the reminder, but that might potentially be the lack of Dust in his system.

Like being eaten alive from the inside out of his problems wasn't enough.

He turned to his side and pressed down, hoping to end this day already. Tomorrow was Friday, which meant they still had class. The more sleep he got, the better. Because as much as he wanted to fuss over this topic of world balancing and Dust using, he didn't. Not today. Not anymore. Sleep. He wanted good old fashion sleep. He'd concentrate on life-changing secrets tomorrow. Just not now. Sadly, his partner enjoyed pushing his buttons.

She poked the stubborn fool on the shoulder with the Earth Dust. "Aren't you forgetting something? The Dust? You have to absorb it or potentially die."

He flipped over and pushed the shard back. Experience taught him well. "It's fine. I'll wake up with my body hurting all over, but I'll be okay, mostly. All I need to do is absorb Dust in the morning, and everything will be peachy. I'd rather not waste Dust sleeping."

Her face contorted into a multiple of emotions. First surprise, then pity, followed by anger, and ending with a stubborn scowl.

"Like I said, a dolt."

...

Finding the crater site wasn't hard. Leaves were blown away. Trees dead with one looking as if it had been thrown. Judging from the destruction found on Jaune's clothing, and the way some of the trees were toppled over, a fierce battle took place here, and with the sun setting on edging horizon, they had little time to retrieve his weapon.

"Whoa!" Yang whistled, inspecting the damage in glee. "We missed one heck of a party. I wonder how many Grimm they fought?"

"One."

She blinked. "How can you tell?"

Blake crouched down and pointed to a single set of medium-sized footprints. "If there were more, we would've seen more sets of prints. As far as I can tell, there's only one set of prints."

"So only one Grimm did all this?" Yang grunted, teeth bared. "Must've been as tough as nails. Maybe tougher!"

Blake didn't say a word. A Grimm tougher than nails? Preposterous. That was like eating cereal without milk. No such concept existed.

"Let's just find his sword and go."

The search for the first few minutes turned up nothing, and the darkness of the mountain range edged closer. Soon the afternoon glow went from a warm, hazy orange to a crisp, winter's blue. As the temperature began to drop, Yang made her complaints known with her voice mysteriously less-Yang.

"Maybe we should've done this in the morning?"

Blake, being keen on smelling fear, smirked ever so lightly at her battle-hardened partner. "I didn't take you for one to be scared of the dark."

"I'm not scared of the dark!" Yang crossed her arms, throwing a cautious glare over her shoulder. "But how are we supposed to find a sword in this darkness? Our Scrolls only give us so much light. Tell me! I'm all ears!"

Blake's bow twitched at the sound of all ears but refrained from making a point to address it, or Yang's fear for the dark. The amber of her eyes narrowed in concentration, seeing past the blanket of lingering darkness. Obscurations painted silhouettes. Her intense searched analyzed any contours too sharp to be considered branches. Finally, something straight and narrow protruded out of a tree trunk, sticking diagonally out in the shadows.

She tapped her scaredy-cat partner on the shoulder and pointed up at a tree. "It's right there."

Yang tried to squint to see it, hopelessly outmatched. "How can you tell?"

Blake fought a grin. That was the second time her partner had asked that question. "I have excellent eyesight in the dark."

"I'll say."

"Now, how do we get it out of the tree. I could maybe wrap my ribbon around—?" Punch! The tree wobbled and snapped against her partner's knuckles, falling to the ground with a mighty thud. Blake merely glared. "Was that really necessary?"

Her answer came with Yang flexing her arms. "Can't let these guns go to waste!"

Something told Blake Belladonna Yang only smashed that tree to get to the sword faster. Afraid of the dark? Yang Xiao Long? Who would've thought? It certainly painted a pretty picture for someone so boisterous.

"Whatever." Blake walked over and pulled the sword free, surprised at how much the thing weighed. She swung it out of curiosity, finding the simplicity of such a weapon fascinating. At least some people respected the classics. "I got it, let's go."

Yang couldn't agree more.

Once they made it back to Beacon's courtyard, Blake watched the tension leave Yang's shoulders. Her ears picked up on the whispering sigh passing her lips. A fist, she hadn't even noticed, became unclenched with the girl taking a deep breath. Okay. Maybe not afraid of the dark, but an ounce of fear manifested itself somewhere, past trauma perhaps? Maybe more? Maybe nothing? Something bothered her partner when the lights went out, and it wasn't the monsters lurking in the forest. From the tales of boast she heard during their first day as her partner, Yang didn't seem the type to flinch away from a challenge.

Had to be a form of trauma.

The Huntress sighed to herself. Best to leave it buried. If Yang didn't want to talk about it, then that was it. Oum knew how much dirt she carried.

The return back to the room was anticlimactic. The terrible two slept like logs, unmistakably drained from such a long day. The sound of Yang casually tossing Jaune's substantial sword to the floor didn't stir them in their sleep. They hadn't even bothered to change out of their clothes, covered in dirt and grime. A surprise for her, but this Huntress-in-Training wisely kept her tongue-tied.

Blake smirked proudly in the open. Who knew a Schnee hugged pillows with such ferocity? Tabloid gold if she ever saw it. Trailing over to the bottom bunk, that smirk of hers turned playful. Their Charismatic Leader, the Paragon, the hope for the world and yadda-yadda, slept curled in a ball, mumbling gibberish. Must be some dream. At least between the two he didn't snore, but Weiss did, softly she might add.

"I'm taking a page out of their book!" Yang yawned and crawled into the top bunk, wrapping herself in a tight cocoon. "Night, partner."

"Night."

Ignoring Yang's fumbling with her sheets, she moved to pick up the Fire Dust crystal, getting lost in the energized glow and abnormally burning touch. Memories flashed before her. A certain someone came to mind with fiery hair. A fast moving train. Numerous Forever Fall trees. Lights. Droids. A mission. A goal. Like an everlasting nightmare, she gripped the shard and squeezed it hard. Not enough to break it, but enough to draw some blood.

This whole Mother Nature thing left a sour taste in her mouth. Not so much the concept, just its entirety.

Grumbling, the grumpy girl dropped the shard and sunk into her bed, back flat. She stared up at her partner's bunk, tapping her fingers endlessly on her stomach. Once she found time to settle down and had a moment to think, it hit her full force. World balancing? Good and evil? A Paragon for Dust's sake! Yang was right. Could anyone blame her for being the least bit skeptical?

Her head shifted to glance at her fumbling leader.

Blake still wasn't sure she believed him, but if he told the truth, then that was it. All this went beyond Faunus discrimination. Beyond the integrity of humanity and Faunus kind as a whole. Fixing this problem should solve the racism issue. It should fix everything messed up with the world. Bring balance to it. Make things better.

If what her leader said was true, then she abandoned The White Fang to join a benevolent cause. Blake immediately scoffed at the idea.

Not the best odds, but life rarely was.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire."

...

The morning of felt just as bad as the previous three.

Agonizing.

Jaune groaned upon waking, curling himself deeper into that ball. Ribs hurt. Chest ached. A pounding in his ear ruptured painfully like a headache-inducing migraine. The sensation like someone took a crowbar and went to town on his body. Yup! Exactly like the first three days. Only now he knew he wasn't sick. Just an unfortunate byproduct of his body devouring itself from the inside out.

Dust! He needed Dust!

Breathing slowly, he tried to uncurl himself but had difficulties moving. Limbs refused to go with his stomach lurching. Not a problem. Morning jitters. Just like the other days. All he needed was some strength of will, but no Aura! Never again!

A shard of Ice Dust dropped in front of him. Sweet, merciful Dust!

He reached his hand out and drained the Dust, only now noticing its chilly properties. Ice Dust dropped his body's temperature as the fragment turned white. A glow, not too luminous, traveled from his palm to his chest, resting dead center with his body's joints becoming undone. He instantly sat and turned to his savior, finding Weiss smirking down at him from the top bunk.

"I think the words you're looking for are thank you."

Caught with his pants down, he did the only sensible thing a Dust lover like him could, he stuck his tongue out at the girl and rubbed his stiff neck. Ignoring her smug sense of satisfaction required more patience than he had, eventually leading up to the Arc touching her barefoot with the base of his icy hand.

"Gah!"

That earned him a swift kick to the head. He grinned nonetheless and headed for the shower, finding himself the last awake with Yang just finishing up her mandatory half-hour shower.

"What?" Yang asked, brushing her hair from the bathroom door. "No hair change? No boring attitude? What gives?"

He shrugged. "I guess there wasn't enough."

"Eh! Whatever! The shower's all yours! But don't be expecting to find any warm water!"

Remembering how in sync he felt in the rainstorm while fueled on Water Dust, he laughed. "I don't think that's gonna be a problem."

"Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He brushed past her and slammed the bathroom door shut, walking over to the mirror while tugging off his hoodie. The reflection greeting him back was the snowy glow resting in his chest. Unlike the time he woke up in the infirmary, he had no bits of ice attached to his skin. Must only happen with a highly concentrated amount of Dust? Didn't explain why the effects lasted until every drop was drained versus absorbing a non-concentrated fragment of Dust, but some things favored no explanation.

Rubbing his neck, he turned on the shower, finding Yang honest above all things. Whelp! Time to experiment and see if a non-concentrated fragment of Dust rewarded him properties that an undiluted piece contained. Stepping him, he shivered instantly, but compared to past experiences with his seven sisters hogging all the hot water for themselves, this wasn't bad. Not great, but not terrible.

Decent.

Sighing, he allowed the water to scrub the dirt from his body, only now seeing how much filth he carried from that rock slide. Minutes later he stretched out, towel wrapped around his head and waist. He stood in front of the mirror again with his hand outstretched, concentrating on his palm to encase a layer of ice around his fingers. He quickly snuffled out the power, searching for his hoodie, only to find some torn edges from what might've been the rock slide or fight with that monkey Grimm.

"Great. Just perfect. This is my favorite hoodie. I wonder how much a tailor's gonna cost me to fix this?"

He grumbled and walked out of the bathroom, tossing the hoodie onto his bed. A quick peek around revealed an empty room. Where had his team escaped to? He wouldn't discover the mystery of their disappearance until after he checked the time on his Scroll. By the time he barged into Professor Port's class with his team staring smugly at the late leader, he quickly theorized payback was a jerk.

"Ah! Mr. Arc! I'm glad to see you are alright!" Professor Port laughed at the tardy student. "But please, try to make it to my class on time. It's not professional to be late."

"Sorry!"

He bowed his head and chose to sit next to Ren and Nora with Cardin hovering in the higher row. He ignored the light snickering coming from both Yang and Weiss. Girls and their grudges. At least when Nora surprised hugged him for his swift recovery, seeing her fall off her chair upon learning his freezing skin cracked a smile on his lips. Ren casually sighed but shared the notes he had missed. Cardin just laughed.

How he missed these three.

Port resumed the lesson. Quickly he got bored and started aimlessly sketching fragments of Dust into his notebook. Then shapes. Then crude faces. Then before he knew what he was painting, Mother Nature's doodled face gazed up at him, flashing that spectrum smile. Immediately he turned the page, sighing with his head lowered.

The first Paragon?

Such a concept eluded him. How was he even supposed to find these Maidens if Mother Nature herself didn't know where they were? Remnant was a big place. Too big for one team to go blindly search for four myths. To think Mother Nature expect them to find these Maidens. No. They needed a plan. Something—anything to give them a head start!

Ren tapped him on his shoulder. "Hey? Are you okay? Do you need to go back to the infirmary?"

Jaune shifted up and smiled at his kindness but shook his head. "Nah. I'm still waking up. It's been a long couple of days. You don't have to worry. I'm fine now."

Ren smirked, pointing his pencil to Nora's growing frown. A frown directed at the stunned leader. "It's not me that's worried over your health."

He chuckled awkwardly, grinning innocently at the angry Nora. He redirected his gaze back to Port and his wondrous tales while pretending her heated glare didn't burn his freezing skin. Yup. Perfectly peachy. Nothing wrong with this Arc.

Shifting his attention away, he opened a new page in his notebook and planned. Blake had a point. How were they going to travel across Remnant and find these Maidens? Finding them already proved heart thumping, but continental travel? Yeah, no. This Dust nerd hadn't a clue. So far all he managed to scribble down in a few minutes of mindless brainstorming was hijack a Bullhead, drop out of school, or disappear from the public eye.

All bad ideas. All too out there for anyone not to notice them. Weiss' status presented a challenge. The Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company just up and dropped out of school? That drew too much attention. Disappear? Worse! No. Things were complicated. Blake and Yang seemed ordinary, but what classified as average anymore, anyway?

Nope!

The best course of action was to do nothing and wait for an idea or opportunity to present itself.

...

Doctor Oobleck talked just as fast as he remembered. Quick. Precise. Oobleck. Must be the coffee? No wonder adults kept that stuff to themselves. Strong stuff. He quietly imagined what Ruby or Nora would be liking drinking a shot of espresso, the horror, but Oobleck's quick-moving personality left little room for imagination to grow when busy notetaking. The doctor hadn't even welcomed his return. Good.

So far his experience with doctors left a sour taste in his mouth.

Scribbling down like a madman, he every so often peeked down at his chest to check up on his remaining Dust. Each time the Dust's glow diminished between the intervals he looked. Each time the urge to absorb some of the neighboring students' Dust—those that carried any—grew. What a torment! No wonder ignorance was bliss.

Huffing, he settled into the groove of impossibly following his professor's lesson, mumbling. "Ignore it, Jaune, just ignore it."

"Stop being weird."

He heard the whisper. He turned to the smirking perpetrator. Once again he forgot Yang chose to sit next to him, only this time she knew why he was acting weird. Still didn't stop her from jabbing him with teasing remarks, but this time he was ready and smirked right back at the predator.

"Stop eavesdropping, weirdo."

Yang prepared a few sarcastic quips, but a shadow loomed over the thundering blonds. This darkness leaned down, glaring through impossibly shiny specs, and the two gulped from the imposing Aura. Before an argument was made on their behalf, two slips of papers fell on their desks with the judge, jury, and executioner frowning at the two troublemakers.

"Miss Xiao Long! Mr. Arc! I warned you two last time! Saturday detention! Both you! Now pay attention!"

Doctor Oobleck zoomed away, leaving the two rascals to pick up their detention slips. They sighed together, glaring at the other with Yang burning up and Jaune dropping a few degrees. Steam formed between them.

"I blame you."

"That's funny because I blame you."

"Don't think I won't hand out two detentions!"

They swiftly shuffled apart and buried their noses in their notebooks, scribbling down everything and anything Professor Oobleck lectured. Across from them, Ruby giggled with Weiss sighing. Detention during the first week did not make Team ABYS look good.

Having two members in detention looked worse!

...

The Mess Hall acted like a busy little beehive with students flocking for that sweet nectar, and by sweet nectar he meant food. Food meant fuel for the average organism. Organism included both Faunus and human. Sadly, that fuel meant nothing when compared to the intricate workings of a Dust-Dust Human. He required Dust, not just only food, and while he wasn't starving on a Dust shortage, the weakening glow resting in his chest shuddered his nerves.

That didn't stop Yang from trying to beat weakness with sheer willpower, purposely selecting his lunch again.

She offered him no choice on the matter and slammed down a tray of meats, butt-bumping him to make space on the table. Across from them, their respected partners glared, troubled that their partners had Saturday detention. Weiss didn't need the gossip. Blake didn't need the eyes. Team ABYS currently couldn't afford either of those.

Yang pushed his tray of meats and vegetables into his side, grinning wolfishly. "So what's the plan, Plant Boy? How are hitting up Remnant?"

Plant Boy groaned, finding his food lacking in appeal. "I'm still working on it."

Yang noticed him not eating and frowned. She stabbed the steak, poking his cheek with medium-rare goodness. "Eat."

"I need more than just food, Yang. I need Dust."

"Eat now and worry about that later. We can't save the world on an empty stomach."

"But this will only put me at half tank."

Jab!

"Eat."

"Fine! Give that fork! Weirdo." Jaune grumbled, snatching the fork out of her hand. He slipped the food in and chewed loudly. "There! Happy now?"

She smirked. "Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Eating habits aside..." Weiss trailed, playing with her food. "What are we going to do about your Dust withdrawals? Prices have only gone up due to recent robberies, and travel from Vale and back would be troublesome."

Her partner sighed. "Tell me about, I mean, if I look around the Mess Hall, I can feel all the Dust around that anyone's carrying and absorb it, but I can't."

"Can't?" Blake asked.

"Won't!" Jaune reaffirmed, tone steadily cold. "It wouldn't be right. I don't want to steal other people's Dust. They spent and worked on it, too. And what if they're fighting some Grimm and end up dying because they thought they had spare Dust when they didn't? I don't want that on my conscious."

"Well, you gotta do something, Jaune? We can't have you up and passing out on us when you're running on empty." Yang stared at Weiss, twirling her fork at the Heiress. "What about you, Princess? Got any Dust to spare for our poor leader."

Weiss dabbed a napkin to her lips, glaring coolly. "Some, but I require the rest for Myrtenaster. I apologize for the inconvenience."

He laughed while stabbing his food. "Don't worry about it, Weiss. I'll figure something out."

She tightly frowned at the comment but said nothing more on the subject and dipped her fork into her creamy dessert. Yang snorted, elbowing the leader that eventually led up to a competition of elbow shoving between the fool-hearted blonds. Only Blake regarded his true feelings into account, hiding a small smile behind her tuna-fish sandwich. All that power and not once did her leader feel like stealing from others? Yes. She made the right decision back at the train.

...

Twenty minutes into Dust class and Weiss and Jaune finished their assignment for the week, lounging lazily at their desk with spare shards of Dust needed for the experiment. Grunts echoed into the pristine, but elemental scorched lab with frustration painstakingly clear across the hopelessly lost students.

"Whelp!" Jaune muttered, balancing a shard of Fire Dust between his finger. "I guess Dust class is useful for something."

Weiss humphed, busy refilling Myrtenaster to pay him much attention. "While being allowed to keep any spare Dust not used in our experiments is indeed fortunate, it's not a long-term solution to your problem."

He huffed but agreed. Any spares weren't exactly plentiful. Not to mention most were weak due to their volatile nature. So to limit classroom destruction, Professor Peach kept Dust samples relatively weak for experiment use. Jaune almost laughed at the thought. Only three days ago the idea of keeping extra Dust brought a smile to his lips, but now it taunted him with his frailty. Still, he appreciated the opportunity and gripped the spare fire shards grateful.

Zap!

Blinking, the two turned to see Pyrrha Nikos covered head-to-toe in electrical burns and soot with a small wisp of smoke burning on the tip of her head. Ruby Rose stood before her, laughing awkwardly, pressing her index fingers together with Yang groaning somewhere in the background.

Hn? Maybe he'd have to rethink his policy on not absorbing someone else's Dust. Bullet rounds for Ruby? Perfectly fine! Anything not in that shape? Nope! Heck! Jaune bet if she walked into a Dust shop, something terrible might happen, like, oh, he didn't know, the place getting robbed. An amusing thought for sure.

Turning back to his spare Dust shard, the leader dropped the shard and frowned. The smart thing to do was absorb his Fire Dust and combine it with this one. The experimental route, on the other hand, demanded he merged this shard of fire with his draining Ice Dust to materialize Smoke Dust again. Something to do. Something to expand his horizons on the mechanics of unknown Dust. Just something different.

Weiss must've noticed his hesitation because she stopped working on her weapon to pluck the Ember Dust out of his pocket. "You're not going to merge them?"

He shoved it back and grinned. "Nah, I want to mix them. Experiment. Create more Smoke Dust!"

"And why would you want more of that Dust? It's hazardous to our health! You left our room in a layer of smoke last time."

"Ah, it's not that bad. Think about it! Imagine using Smoke Dust as a distraction or cover? It has its uses." Jaune paused, holding the shard up. "Or maybe I'll just absorb this piece and have both fire and ice within me."

"You can do that?"

He winced. "Not exactly. A highly concentrated fragment of Dust pretty much occupies all the space in my body. These fragmented weaker charged shards can share space, but I'm guessing no hair change as a payoff. And perhaps other stuff too that I just haven't realized yet."

She blinked once, and then twice. "Hold on? Dust requires space in your body?"

He sighed. "I'll explain it later."

She bit her lip but accepted the answer, and honestly, she should've noticed his lack of absorbing. All that potential and her partner never formerly consumed more than one concentrated fragment of Dust at a time, even when he carried a pocket full of Dust. Made sense the more she thought about it, but that also left another question to hang in the air.

What about his supposed ability to give power—to give Aura? So far he hadn't tapped into that ability, at least as far as she knew. Maybe asking him would clear things up?

"And your ability to supposedly give Aura? How does that work?"

He paused, straightened his body, and then shrug. "I don't... know. I'm not entirely sure."

"Is there a possibility you've already done it?"

Before answering with a solid no, he stopped to think hard about it. Mother Nature said he could only give Aura, never use it. His fight with Yang attested to that. Like his now nonexistent healing factor. Aura reversed zero damage. So he couldn't use his Aura, well, no, that wasn't accurately true.

Aura was required to produce Dust shards from Dust stored in his body, but that might attribute to the whole giving Aura gimmick of his Dust-Dust abilities. That process heavily resembled photosynthesis, turning energy to life and yadda-yadda, and the only other instance where he vaguely recalled giving was when he pushed instead of pulled upon some Wind Dust in the Bullhead transporting them to Beacon Academy during their first day. What a wild ride that turned out to be.

Hn? Perhaps that pushing sensation warranted further research.

"Maybe?" Jaune finally answered. "There was this one time in the Bullhead when I forced some Wind Dust in this guy's pocket to go off. Maybe that had something to do with giving my Aura?"

She hummed. "Ah, yes, I recall that incident in the—hold on just a minute! That happened because of you?!" Weiss suddenly grabbed him by the treads of his hoodie, pulling him uncomfortably close to her pointy nose. "I was on that airship! Do you have any idea what kind of heart attack you almost gave me? I ended up with motion sickness because of you!"

He tried to escape her hold, but to no avail and merely held his hands out in beaming surrender. "Hey, hey, cut a guy some slack. I just got the powers at the time. I didn't know what I was doing."

Her frown stretched, the steel in her eyes sharpened, her Aura flared, and her skin flushed in wrath, but she released him and humphed. "You still don't."

That harmless grin grew. "And that's why I'm lucky to have you as a partner to help me figure it all out. Without you, I'm screwed."

Her features intensified. "And don't you forget it."

...

Sigh.

Jaune Arc rubbed his neck in the sanctum of the locker rooms, counting backward from ten. Crocea Mors laid beside him, shield close. Combat class, the place where his adventure started. The secrets. The lies. That embarrassment. All of it stemmed from this class. Not by his choice, but life rarely threw a fastball. Now it was time to face the crowd again.

Anyway, time to fight!

Huffing, he focused on the glows of the two Dust elements resting in his body, fire, and ice, and merged them to create a single shard of Smoke Dust. He pocketed it away shortly after and headed out to fight his opponent, Ruby. The cinnamon reaper waited outside in the ring, grinning like a hungry predator that had just spotted fresh prey with her overly inflated gardening tool hanging off her hip. The moment he stepped into the ring, he felt all eyes on him, no doubt wondering to see if he planned to faint again. Jaune ignored them enough. Helped that their combination of Dust glows made him want to avoid their presence, even if the glow's luminosity appeared to have dimmed since the last time he looked. Hn? That was worth looking into later.

Miss Dust for Dummies herself carried an exceptional amount of fire rounds, most likely keeping extra ammunition tucked away for emergency use.

"Are you ready to get your butt kicked, Jaune!" Ruby shouted, vigorous. Unquestionably Yang's sister.

He answered that question by reaching into his pocket and fishing out for any Dust shard, pulling out Gravity Dust. The shard quickly lost its coloring, turning white with him absorbing its nutrients like dirt to a plant. Strands of his hair floated up, defying gravity. A calm, cool, collective level-headedness overcame him, drowning out emotions with a neutral demeanor rivaling that of Lie Ren.

Common sense and practical judgment replaced the leader, and he regarded his opponent with no interest, more fascinated with the ant crawling past his shoe. Crocea Mors felt incredibly light in his hand, both sword and shield, and he hardly noticed them. When he heard her grunt, he looked up to find himself in the obstacle of adorable fury. Ruby couldn't wait for the match to begin.

Without a doubt Yang's baby sister.

Professor Goodwitch coughed. "Good to have you back, Mr. Arc. I trust you're in better health now?"

He offered her the best eye smile he had. "All better now, professor."

"Very well... begin!"

His emotions abandoned him, and Ruby rushed forward, turning into a tornado of red petals. His shield quickly intercepted her trajectory, fighting force against torque. Stuck fighting the red corkscrew with his shield, he shrugged and strived his first attempt with Gravity Dust, swinging his sword from underneath to strike. She used her spinning velocity to travel up his guard, resting the soles of her boots on top of the buffer with her scythe aimed directly for his chest.

She weighed distinctly that of a feather.

Neutral about it, he released his shield, and she wobbled in place, an advantage of being tall, suddenly losing traction, even more so when he kicked the plating of his armor to throw off her center of balance. His shield flew across the ring, much further than he had anticipated for such a hollow kick, and she fell flat on her butt. His lack of emotions allowed him to focus entirely on Ruby's stumble, dashing forward with his blade ready to knick some of her Aura. She rolled out of the way just in time.

Of course, she would.

She spun on her heel, crashing her weapon to the floor to aim her sniper at his prone position. Shots fired. He had little choice but to block with his sword, forced to backtrack to cover some distant. Ruby easily capitalized on that and aimed for the crossguard of his blade, dislodging his sword from his hand. The smirk behind her scope was the only warning the defenseless Arc was given.

Desperate, he threw his arms out, palms flat to act as a shield.

Fire!

The shot missed.

Looking up, he found the scorch mark on the wall from where Ruby's bullet trajectory traveled, calm. He slowly turned back, with his palms still thrown flat out, to find the adorable reaper struggling to lift her weapon off the floor. No matter how strenuously she put her back into it, the scythe wouldn't yield an inch. The out-of-place scene prompted Jaune to move his arms back a smudge.

Ruby, in turn, managed to lift her scythe a bit.

Composed, he retracted his arms much further back, palms still flat, and the scythe abruptly lost most of its weight, like paper, and she almost suffered from terrible footing after discovering how weightless Crescent Rose felt and not expecting it in the slightest. Throughout the experimental display, he felt his Gravity Dust reserves dropping, but he figured out Gravity Dust's characteristic properties.

Weight allocation.

"That's useful."

Oh, Ruby was rushing at him again? How upsetting. "Now I've got you!"

She came at him like a speeding torpedo with Crescent Rose posed to do some explosive damage while acting as the torpedo's head. Unable to maneuver out of the way, he focused on her body and hoped to Dust this would work, pulling his flat palms back in the shape of a hug. She hadn't a clue to what he was planning, picking up speed but unable to stop, and when she crashed into his body, she panicked—what if she seriously hurt Jaune—but her thinking momentum entirely stopped.

Along with her body.

Gravity and weight were interchangeable variables all part of the same system. The higher the gravity, the heavier the weight. Weight equaled mass multiplied by gravitational acceleration.

Simple.

However, if the gravity constant were to be taken away, then the weight of an object lowered, and if there were to be zero gravity, then any force from a propelling, weightless object would be negligible to an imposing force of significant weight. An equal and opposite reaction might occur between the two objects, but the opposing force of the weighted object beat the weightless one, unless the object moved at a quick enough pace. It didn't. Not nearly fast enough to compensate for the sudden weight loss.

Such an example existed between Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc.

By using his Dust-Dust abilities, he removed Ruby's acceleration of gravity, rendering it zero, thus diminishing her opposing force to negligible levels. This was how she ended up being bearhugged to death between Jaune's arms when her spinning vortex of doom failed her, struggling to break free with the sudden gravity or weight of his arms overpowering her lithe body. Poor Crescent Rose fell out of her hands via impact, leaving her weaponless.

"Gah!" Ruby moaned, fighting fruitlessly in his hold. "Let me go! Let me go! Let! Me! Go!"

He offered her a simple eye smile. "Nope."

He sighed internally. By squeezing her in a hug, he had aimed his palms directly at himself once he captured her, increasing his weight from the thrust forward. She had zero chance of escaping. Not with his abnormal weight. Not to mention he had a good foot over her size. Just another advantage of being tall.

Nodding, he began turning around toward the arena ring. Once it became clear he planned to toss her out the ring like a sack of potatoes, she started kicking him in the legs with all her adorable rage. Really, Ruby? Kicking? How embarrassing.

"No! No! No! No! No! Not like this, Jaune!"

He ignored her. Ignored her shouting in his ears and promptly dropped her at the edge of the ring, purposely adding a generous portion of Gravity Dust to her boots to keep her from escaping her loss at the last possible second. She tried, too. Oh, Ruby tried her darn hardest but ended up crashing her body against the floor when the weight of her boots miscalculated the force she needed to escape, face first.

"Winner, Jaune Arc!"


Author Notes: If RWBY can have floating islands, then I'm going to ignore the gravity constant with the basis of Gravity Dust. Oh, and happy Birth-Free Candy Day, Rubes.