An extra long chapter because I love you all. Fuck me this was hard to write.

Mercury flanked him as he held out his sword. He had dropped his shield a few skirmished prior. For a moment, they stood opposite each other, waiting to strike. Then Cinder made her appearance, her deadly elegance somewhat obscured by the large bag on her back.

"They're all dead, you know." He refused his bodies want to throw his sword like a javelin. It would be useless anyway. His eyes darted to his surroundings. The town was burning, the town he had made a promise to protect, as burning. Cinder caught his glances and smiled viciously. "Oh! You thought I meant the townspeople. Well, they're dead too. My Grimm slaughtered them all. I thought you would have realized that by now."

"I did." He grunted reluctantly. The screams of anguish had long since died off. It seemed for every Grimm he killed, two people died. He wasn't strong enough.

"However, I was talking about your friends. They are all dead." Jaune scoffed at her announcement.

"Do you think I'm an idiot? Why would I take your word for it?" Her smile grew even wider, and this time Mercury snickered.

"I never thought you would take my word for it. I thought you'd see the evidence. I made myself some souvenirs." She swung her bag to the front and looked inside. "How should we do this…? Oh, I got it. Let's go in order of death." From the bag she pulled out Weiss' rapier.

"No…" The sword had a gleaming coat of blood on it, especially around the handle. All of the dust cartridges had been used.

"The bitch didn't even see us coming. Before she even realized we were attacking, Mercury had already blown her hand off."

"You lie…" Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"Lies? How dare you. I have been nothing but truthful with you." There was a sadistic edge to her voice. "How about you monk friend? Wasn't his name Lie?" At this she threw out the next thing from her bag, Ren's guns, heavily charred. "This one, I took care of myself. I loved the sound of his screams as he roasted alive." Jaune stuck his sword in the ground, practically leaning on it.

"I don't… Believe you…"

"Still? Well, to be completely honest, we only scavenged three weapons. The rest were either destroyed or lost. But… I did manage to get the very, best, one." She reached in and dropped the bag. Jaune's heart shattered. Crescent Rose, right along side Ruby's red cloak.

"I will kill you all." He pulled his sword out of he ground, pointing it at Cinder. She shrugged.

"I was hoping you'd just lay down and let us kill you, but fine. It'll be fun to watch you burn." With that, they attacked.

Jaune met Mercury's kick with Crocea Mors and threw him to the side, dodging a few arrows Cinder had loosed. On instinct, he reached out and pulled all the aura he could from his two attackers. Whatever color their aura had been, it was black now. Salem's influence was clear as he became unable to take even a slight amount of aura after a few seconds. Those few seconds of draining did help regardless, as it always caused his opponents to faulted, letting him gain the upper hand. Turning to Mercury, who was closest to him, Jaune did his best to stab him in the stomach. Due to quick thinking, Mercury was able to avoid this gruesome death, instead receiving a decent cut on his side. Going for another stab in his rage, Jaune failed to account for the Fall Maiden, who shrugged off his aura attack like it was nothing and shot three more arrows that found their way into his arm.

"Fuck!" Jaune grunted, ripping out the arrows and allowing Mercury to regain his footing. They then engaged in a classic back and forth fight. Normally, Mercury wouldn't be able to stand up to Jaune in a one on one battle, even with Cinder's bow support, but in his fury, Jaune had traded subtly for sheer power, using copious amounts of his own aura to power up his strikes.

On top of that, Jaune was losing aura by simply releasing it. All of his reserves had been drained for the sole purpose of giving himself a presence on the battlefield. It didn't have any practical effect aside from making him glow brighter than any flame around him, as if to send a beacon to his lost friends in the heavens. And then came the inevitable.

It had been years since he had last ran out of aura. With his unique semblance, the event seemed all but impossible. But Jaune cared not about the impossible in his time of grief. As soon as he felt the last of it leave his body, he fell to his knees, stopping his attacks all together. Everything seemed so pointless now, as his anger burned away to sorrow. Cinder now stood in front of him, her mouth moving to say some kind of taunt, but he could hear nothing. She raised Crescent Rose, aligning it with his neck, and after a few more parting words, she swung downwards.

He woke up in a sweat, the sheets clinging to his skin. Far worse than any nightmare he had experienced, that was a memory. A memory of his worst day. Even when the smoke had settled and the flames died to to reveal his friends were still alive, all of the villagers were indeed dead. He had been unable to keep his word, he had failed man, woman, and child alike.

Looking at the clock, it read '2:47,' not nearly late enough in the morning to go out of Beacon. But he had to find something to do, less his mind get the better of him.

Silently getting up and putting on his clothes, he went out to find something to take up his time.

Something he finally needed to look into was his aura. He had been putting it off for too long, being more obsessed with making himself look weak than doing anything related to aura. Before he had gone back, he would constantly hone his aura using his semblance, growing it bigger and bigger. But old Jaune didn't know how to do that, so neither did he. That wasn't what he was doing on this early morning.

During the initiation, his aura had been awakened by Pyrrha. Except… He already had his aura before that. He could feel it, now almost acting as his second skin, a second aura. When he actually gave himself some time to focus on it, he could get an intimate handle on how his new aura acting on his body. Instead of lying right below the skin, as his old aura did, he could feel the new aura hovering directly above. As he moved his fingers and limbs, the outer layer lagged behind, creating a small window where no aura touched his appendages. This peculiar effect caused a sort of… 'After image.'

His semblance had allowed him to sense people and see their aura, even if he wasn't doing anything to them. This was why Emerald couldn't use any illusions on him, as he would be able to see right through them. But now, as he reached out to the world around him, he could sense more. He could feel the walls and floor and ceiling, he could feel his armour and his weapons, he could feel the metal training dummy that opposed him.

Focusing on the dummy, he pulled, as if he was taking aura from it. It refused to budge, but Jaune kept going anyway. Still nothing happened, but he knew that there had to be some reason for his new senses. Finally, he felt something give, something small. When he opened his eyes, nothing. The training dummy had not shifted its position in the slightest. Seeing this, it made him wonder what he was even trying to accomplish in the first place. He sighed and walked away. He was far too tired to try and wrap his mind around whatever was happening. In his focus, two whole hours had passed, so it he thought it best if he just went out to the cliffs now.

"Which one of you young scholars can tell me what many consider to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Dr. Oobleck asked the class. Weiss, sitting nearer to Jaune than her actual team, raised her hand. "Yes, Ms. Schnee?"

"I believe it's the battle at Fort Castle." Jaune snorted slightly, but continued his nap.

"Precisely! And, who can tell me what the Faunus forces had over General Lagoons forces?" Cardin flicked a paper football towards Jaune, but at the last second, Jaune adjusted himself and the paper missed his head. "Cardin! Since you're throwing papers in class, maybe you have the answer!"

"Well, I assume it's a lot easier to train animals than soldiers." He snickered. Blake and Pyrrha bristled at this, but before they could retort, Oobleck turned his attention to Jaune.

"That is not correct, Mr. Winchester, please stay after. Perhaps Mr. Arc would like to take a stab at it! If he ever wakes up, that is."

"Nightvision…" Jaune mumbled, still trying to make up for lost sleep.

"So you are paying attention. Alright Mr. Arc, continue your nap, but do stay after as well."

"Okay…" He muttered yet again.

"In other news, class. A training dummy was found with it's back completely destroyed earlier today. If anyone wishes to confess-" Jaune didn't hear the rest of the announcement, as he was already back asleep.

Pyrrha waited for her leader when class ended. She wondered what he was trying to accomplish here at Beacon. He let himself get completely trashed and pushed around by Cardin, he didn't focus in class, and he barely socialized with anyone. He seemed to be closest with Ruby, and that was all well and good, but Ruby wasn't his partner. She didn't know what Pyrrha knew.

When Jaune walked out of Oobleck's class, he was immediately pushed by Cardin and did nothing in response. He picked himself up off the ground pathetically, and that became the last straw. Without a word, she grabbed his hand and began to lead him somewhere. He didn't even ask any question, either too tired or indifferent to do so.

They arrived on the roof and stared out to the view in continued silence. Finally, Jaune spoke.

"I know I'm going through a tough time, but don't you think killing myself is a bit drastic?" He joked dryly. She pulled him away from the ledge to face her.

"I know your secret, Jaune." His eyes widened and his mouth dropped slightly.

"You- I-" She continued, ignoring his stuttering.

"You're so much stronger than you claim to be. So much stronger than Cardin, almost as strong as me!" Jaune's face went blank and he stared through her with cold eyes.

"And why do you say that?"

"When we fought, I wasn't going easy on you. I was trying my damned hardest to defeat you, and I even had to end up using my semblance, which you figured out in a few seconds! Only two other people I fought with managed to realize my semblance, and they were both some of the toughest fighters I've ever encountered. Not to mention, you made it into Beacon without Aura!"

"Why tell this to me now?"

"I just want to know why. Why do you hide your true strength? Why do you let Cardin and all the others bully you? What's the point in hiding?" Jaune said nothing, so she tried to explain herself further. "You were the first person I've ever met who treated me like a normal person. Even my family sees me as this… 'Super being' beyond all else. Yes, we haven't been the most open to each other, but I still consider you a good friend, and I don't like to see you get hurt. Why don't you show everyone what you can do?" She paused for a moment, then put two and two together. "Is it… Is it because you don't want to be like me? You don't want to be put on a pedestal you can never come down from? Because I can tell you for certain, being on that pedestal is better than hiding who you truly are." She took his hand in hers. "I think, just maybe, that destiny brought us together, as partners. I know who you truly are, and I want the world to see who you-"

"You have no idea who I truly am." He took his hand back. "You think I'm some legendary fighter, afraid to show his true self to the world. Well you're wrong." He turned away from her. "I am not strong, and I am not smart. Every action I've made, that's been me. For as stupid and awkward as it was, it was all me. And I hate myself for being that way! But it's all set in stone now. Too late to change. And you want to talk about destiny?!" He whipped back around, a fake smile on his lips, and an unreadable expression in his eyes. "Perhaps it was destiny that made me fail to pay attention in class, causing me to be an idiot. Perhaps it was destiny that made me lazy, causing me to be weak. Or maybe it was just me, failing to do anything correctly as always!" He was panting now. "But you know what was definitely destiny? Destiny was building up my dream, only to rip it apart in front of my dying eyes, destiny was making me live through my stupid decisions all over again, destiny was having my fake transcripts be accepted into Beacon!"

"I don't under-" Pyrrha tried to speak, but Jaune cut back in. She had opened a can of worms, and he was not finished yet.

"Yeah, you heard me! I faked my transcripts. Not so tough now, am I? You had to unlock my aura! What combat school would let a student go around without aura? None! And that's exactly the one I went to, none of them. Whatever you thought you felt when facing me, you were wrong. Now just let me be." He turned his back to her once again.

"Jaune…" She tried to reach out, but couldn't bring herself to touch him.

"Pyrrha… If you have any remaining respect for me as a leader, do as I say. Leave me be." She faltered, so he added to his statement. "Now."

"If that's what you think is best…" As Pyrrha walked away, she found herself struggling to grasp the fact that Jaune had lied to them all, that he had cheated his way into the school, that he was weak. She couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it, but what else could she do? Before she went through the door, she looked back to him. He stood alone, barely able to hold himself up. Any anger that she had building was lost instantly, when she saw him. Finally, she could bare it anymore, and walked away, never knowing that had she stayed seconds longer, she would have seen Cardin climb up to meet his new best pal.

"Ugh! Why isn't he back? Where else is he supposed to sleep?" Nora complained as her and Ren waited for their leader to get home. She threw a pillow at him, which he dodged. "Tell me why!"

"I do not know, Nora."

"Why isn't he here yet? What if he's been kidnapped!?"

"I'm sure that's not the case, Nora." It was Nora who first pointed it out to Ren, but after she did, he couldn't not see it. Jaune was in survival mode. If you got up in the middle of the night, he would be up only a second later, fully ready for a fight. Everytime he went into a room, he paused a moment, presumably to scan for enemies and potentially exits, something Ren did as well. His eyes told them the most however. They had a haunted look to them on a near constant basis, as if he was always looking at a ghost. When he was fighting, his eyes would occasionally go starry, like he wasn't even in the arena anymore.

Ren had tried to stop her, but Nora made it her mission to see to it that Jaune was happy and comfortable with them, making him pancakes, preparing him a sloth themed cake, and other nonsensical things that only Nora could think of. Unfortunately, after Jaune began to avoid them, these crazy surprises all but stopped completely.

"Ren… Do you think Jaune's okay?" Nora had taken to hiding in different places around the school in the hopes that Jaune would walk by and they could play. This didn't work too well as, subconsciously or not, Jaune managed to completely avoid her at every turn. She claimed that she wanted to surprise him for being mean and ignoring her, but Ren could tell that she was actually worried about her leader. Because of his quick understanding as to her nature, Nora had latched onto him fast.

And in truth, Ren too worried about Jaune. He shuffled around aimlessly, like a zombie, until Cardin gave him something to do, and the haunted look in his eyes increased tenfold. Just seeing the sheer despair in those eyes gave Ren chills and he couldn't help but think back to his time on the road.

Back then, he was basically on the edge, at the end of his rope. But he had Nora, and everything became better eventually. As it stands, Jaune didn't seem to have anyone, which could only make the hell he was going through that much worse. And there was nothing they could do to help.

"We can only hope."

"Do you think I made him mad?" On Yang's count, that was the six hundred seventy first time she had been asked that question or shades of it. Every single time, her answer was the same.

"I don't think he's mad at you, Ruby." Yang repeated for the six hundred and seventy first time. If it wasn't for the fact that Ruby would only get even worse, Jaune would most definitely be in the ground right now. For about a week now, Jaune had been completely avoiding Team RWBY. Yang didn't care that much, she wasn't exactly attached to Jaune, but Ruby… Not so much. Her sister had apparently grown used to Jaune and his idiotic ways, and she did not like having that suddenly stop.

"But what if~" Make that, six hundred and seventy two. Yang had always known Ruby would be the death of her, but she never thought it would be, in part, because of Jaune had begun to avoid her team, Yang had no idea. But having to deal with Ruby like this, Yang wanted him back. If he was gonna have any part in Ruby's life, it might as well be a positive one.

That said, it would be a cold day in hell before she let them hook up. Yang prayed that this was only a phase for Ruby and she would eventually find someone else. Or maybe she could just turn out to be a lesbian. That would solve everything.

"I don't think he's mad at you, Ruby." Ugh. As soon as Ruby got over her crush, Jaune was a dead man.

"Umm… Hello Blake." Weiss greeted the secret faunus, who had been in the process of reading a book in the library. Jaune had become Cardin's manservant. Weiss didn't know how or why, but it happened. This, of course, meant that she was well and truly alone. And that was not a feeling she enjoyed. She needed a friend. Obviously, Yang and Ruby were off the table, but Blake was still an option… Hopefully. Having even one team member to work with was enough for her.

Blake made no move to greet Weiss back, not even taking her eyes off her book.

"Schnee." There was no sign of anger or contempt, but certainly no warmth either.

"You can just call me Weiss. Can I sit?" She gestured to the empty seat across from Blake, who had still yet to look up.

"I'm wasn't stopping you." The heiress flushed slightly and took a seat. Blake made no more comments, so Weiss waited… And waited… And waited. She began to tap the table and look around. The Beacon Library was impressive. And that meant something, coming from Weiss. The shelves practically towered over the students, not to mention how long the hall was, with a new shelf every five feet or so. Finally, Blake got sick of the tapping.

"What do you want." So blunt it sounded more like a statement than a question, regardless, it was an opening.

"I have a proposition for you, Blake." Blake raised an eyebrow and put her book down.

"A proposition? I wonder what the great Weiss Schnee could possible want from a lowlife like me." The 'Great Weiss Schnee' did her best to ignore the mocking.

"I would like to be your friend." Out of all the things her fellow team member could have possible said, this was the only one Blake wasn't ready for. For a few moments, she was completely stunned, before she finally realized what had actually just happened. Once that had been realized, Blake bursted out laughing, barely managing to stay in her chair.

Weiss waited as Blake broke down into a fit of giggles after being shushed by the other students present. Once she had become somewhat calm again, the heiress spoke again.

"I was being serious, you know."

"I know. Hehe. That's what makes it funny. A word of advice, people don't make 'propositions' of friendship. You just hangout with someone an it happens on its own." Weiss looked thoughtful.

"Oh. I guess I've never really had friends before. At least, one's that weren't set up by my father."

"So where did this sudden desire come from? Did Jaune stop giving you attention?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Yang saw you guys a few times."

"Of course. Well, to be perfectly honest… Yeah, he did. But I wanted to be your friend before that! I just… Didn't know it yet." Blake still wasn't convinced. "When I came to Beacon, I dreamed of having the perfect team. And while that's all but impossible now, having just one teammate to work with would be enough. Whatever problems you have with my family's company, I'm sorry for, but the company isn't mine. I don't make the decisions. I just want to salvage a failing team." Blake stared intensely.

The Schnee Dust Corporation had been the enemy for so long. The amount of employees she had beaten up was countless, yet nothing compared to the amount of time she spent simply hating the company. Had she been in Weiss' company only a few years ago, Weiss would probably be already knocked out. But that wasn't her anymore. Or was it?

Jaune's words came back to her mind. Not to ignoring the past, to deal with the consequences of your actions. Blake had been part of the White Fang, and she had done terrible things to people. She couldn't change her past, but maybe she could make up for it.

"Alright then. Looks like we're friends now, Sche- I mean Weiss." Weiss sighed in relief. Blake had been staring at her for a while and it had begun to make her uncomfortable.

"Great!" Weiss looked around before starting to tap the table again. "So… What does that mean, exactly?" Blake groaned.

He had never been so happy to see red leaves in his life, any life, for that matter. Finally, the hell on Remnant that was abandoning his friends for Cardin would be over, and Jaune be sane once again.

It was such a pain to avoid everyone this time around. It seemed that he had gotten a little too close with Ren and Nora, meaning he ended up sleeping on the cliffside most nights. Perhaps he had hidden a little too well, as he never got a pick me up from Ruby. Which was probably a good thing in the end, as every time he laid eyes on his angel of death, his conviction to fate faltered and he wished nothing more than to be by her side. Luckily, his days of longing had come to their end, an now all there was left to do was kill an Ursa.

Jaune tuned out Professor Goodwitch while he waited for the teams to split up. He already knew exactly what he was gonna do, and was content just to stare at the beauty around him. Cardin shook him out of his thoughts when they were ready.

"Come on, buddy. Let's get to work." Not even sparing a second glance to his team, he did just that. It sounded harsh when he put it like that, but the quicker he got this done, the quicker he could come back to them.

Memory was a funny thing. For instance, Jaune remembered that he both loved and hated this day. He could remember exactly why he loved it, Cardin stopped bullying him and he defeated an Ursa all on his own. But he never remembered why he disliked the day so much until the day came around once again. Allergies. They didn't debilitate him as a stab to the face would, but they made things so annoying! He had thought he could've collected the sap in half the time he did it last, but the constant sneezing and sniffling threw him off. This wasn't important in anyway, but it was just something notable.

When he finished, he collapsed to the ground in a heap of glass bottles. Seeing his return, Cardin got up to welcome Jaune back.

"Good job, Jaune! That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Allergies suck." Jaune mumbled.

"Yeah sure. Now. You probably wondering, 'why did Cardin ask me to collect six jar instead of five?'"

"Sure." Jaune responded noncommitted. He doubted that's what he said last time, but as of now, he just wanted the torturous week to be over.

"Well, come on and I'll show you."

They walked to the hill overlooking his teammates. Jaune was beginning to get anxious, waiting for the moment where he would be freed.

"There she is. The girl that punched me. Does she really think she'll get away with that?"

"What are you doing Cardin?" Jaune asked the bully, more to get him to hurry up than anything else.

"Wrong question, Jaune-y. It should be, 'what are you doing?" Cardin gave him an evil grin, but Jaune didn't react. Frankly, he was too mentally drained to act scared or nervous. Plus, once you see Salem's evil grin, everything else is an innocent cartoon smiley face in comparison. Seeing Jaune's blank stare, Cardin frowned. "You're gonna help me get revenge. You see, you got us some nice rapier wasps and from what I've read, rapier wasps are attracted to sweats." He paused a moment, clearly unhappy that Jaune wasn't reacting. "You're gonna cover Nikos in sap so she'll be stung by the rapier wasps. Doesn't that make you sad or something?"

Jaune didn't want to purposefully change things. It was just… He had seen so much horror, even done some terrible things himself. And now this highschooler wanted to make him feel bad by having him cause his friend to be stung by a few wasps? Truly, in this moment, his problems were put into perspective. But he couldn't think about that now, as Cardin still awaited an answer.

"Absolutely devastated." Jaune deadpanned. "Give me the jar." After a quick look of confusion, Cardin handed him the jar and team CRDL backed away. Readying himself, Jaune aimed, and without a second thought, nailed Cardin right on the chest. "Fuck off Cardin." The team leader stared in shock at Jaune for a second before grabbing him by the shoulders.

"Oh, you've done it now, Jaune-y boy." Throwing him roughly, Cardin and his gang led Jaune further into the forest to have the shit kicked out of him. Jaune didn't care though, only thinking about how much closer he was getting.

As Cardin wailed on him, Jaune yet again remember another piece of information he had forgotten. His semblance. This was the first ever time he had seen it in action, and he was with Cardin of all people! Funny how things turn out.

When he had first realized his semblance, he had thought that it was based on touch. When Cardin punched him, the aura in his hand was transferred to Jaune's face, healing the face and hurting the hands. This didn't help much, because Cinder and Salem used long ranged weapons, but once he had found his semblance's true potential, that was when he was categorized as a threat and Salem started her aura manipulations.

"I'm gonna make sure they send you out of Beacon in pieces." Jaune rolled his eyes.

"Clever, Cardin. I've seen the face of the devil, and it is not yours, so why don't you stop acting like an asshole?" Cardin snickered.

"So you think you're a man now? I'll show you what it means to be a man." Another good thing about the long ranged aura drain, besides being long ranged, was that it wasn't flashy. While having a bright flash of light appear every time you were hit disoriented the enemy, it also disoriented him, making it so he rarely ever used it. However, in this case, he felt the spectacle was fitting, considering what would happen next. "Argh! Fine. Let's see how much of a man you really are."

"RAAARARGAHARAGHAGA!" On the list of things he never thought he'd be happy about, the 'roar of an ursa' happened to be right under 'red leaves.' The ursa sniffed the air and looked directly at Cardin, who was now shivering in his boots. It roared again, and Cardin's tea went running.

"That's a big ursa!" One of the goons yelled. Jaune almost laughed at that. This was not even close to a 'big' ursa. Cardin was knocked to the side and the bear-like creature went after him, completely ignoring Jaune. And that was a deadly mistake. But first, he was gonna enjoy watching Cardin get beat up some more.

"RAAARARGAHARAGHAGA!" The roar of an ursa echoed through the forest as teams RWBY and NPR collected sap. They all snapped their heads up from their work.

"Did you hear that?" Ruby asked. Just as soon, three morons came running through the woods.

"Ursa! Ursa!" One slammed into Yang and she picked him up by the shirt.

"Where?" The cowardly man pointed behind him.

"Back there! It's got Cardin!" Hearing this, Pyrrha dropped her sap.

"Jaune!" Both Weiss and Ruby heard this, making a move to follow after Pyrrha who had run off. At the same time, Ruby issued orders to Blake and Yang to get Goodwitch. Ren and Nora followed suit.

They arrived to the clearing just in time to see Cardin get knocked down by a giant ursa hand. Before they could intercept, the grimm went for another strike that was blocked by Jaune.

For someone who claimed to be weak, he sure didn't look the part when he barely flinched at the force of the blow. Even less so when he effortlessly pushed the ursa off and stabbed it through the neck with calculated precision. Two of the three girls were in speechless awe, while the other one merely waited silently to see what would happen next.

Jaune walked over to his seated bully with a never before seen confidence. He offered his hand out and Cardin took it hesitantly. When Cardin was pulled up halfway, Jaune let go and Cardin hit the ground with a grunt and a thud.

"Let's have a chat. Huh buddy?" His voice had a dangerous edge to it, further extenuated by the fact that he still had his sword out.

"L-look." Cardin stuttered. "I'm sorry. I really am! I'll never bully you again, I swear it!" Jaune just shook his head.

"Cardin, Cardin, Cardin… You have no idea the hell I've been through this week, and frankly, I hope you never do. You have a bright future ahead of you Cardin, if only you would stop being such an asshole and seize it. But, it's not me that I don't want you to bully, I already know you won't be doing that, I don't want you to bully my friends." At the word 'friends' Jaune brought his sword to Cardin's throat, who gulped nervously. "Now, I'm not asking you to change your ways, I'm not that cruel, I'm just asking you to avoid a few people. Seven, to be exact. Team RWBY and JNPR. Not too hard, is it?" Cardin nodded as fast as he could. "I'm glad you understand. But just in case, I'll give you a clear warning."

Jaune picked Cardin up with one hand and lifted him off the ground to where his legs dangled under him.

"If I see so much as a single hair on their heads out of place, and it somehow leads back to you… You'll be wishing I let the ursa eat you." Jaune dropped the former bully unceremoniously and began to walk back to the main group, never seeing the three girls hiding in the bushes, all thinking the same thing.

Who is this man?

Jaune is nothing without his friends, and nowhere can this be seen clearer than when he is separated from them.

This'll be short because writing this chapter was a huge pain in the ass. The next chapter will be big as well, but it'll definitely be a while before it comes out. There's no way I'll try to brute force finish a chapter like this again.

I'll address the reviews from the last chapter in the next one when I'm less tired.

Anyway

I removed the last chapter and combined it with chapter nine and somewhat with this chapter. Go reread chapter nine if you want.

The plan at the beginning of the chapter will be explained next time.

Jaune does tell Pyrrha that he's doing everything for the second time, but she's so caught up in the moment that she doesn't even notice it. Nobody knows about him getting sent back just yet.

In Jaunedice Part Two, Jaune actually says that his dream is to become the hero. I did not have any idea that was there at first and everything I've said that makes it look like I knew about it was a coincidence. Haha. Funny. I am so tired…

Helpful criticism welcome, your amazing reviews appreciated, and until next time,

-RMV

I'm gonna go take an aspirin and a nap.

Edit: Changed the last line because it sucked.