"I won't ask again." Ironwood said, his voice now taking a stern tone, one Izzet almost certainly didn't like. She lowered Temporal, wishing that Jet were here so that-

CRASH!

Izzet flinched as the door flew open, the boot mark on it indicating it had been kicked in, and she looked up in time to see both Jet… and Ruby?

Both stepped inside, scythes raised. Ruby immediately turned towards the man calling himself Ironwood, who had side-stepped the pair, and Jet strode towards her, bidding her to meet his eyes, which shone in the artificial light of the room.

"What happened? Is Lilac safe?" Jet asked.

"Ironwood?" Ruby asked. Jet took his eyes off Izzet and wheeled around to see the man Izzet had been defending Lilac from. Ruby immediately folded up her scythe.

"What are you doing here, General?" Jet asked. Izzet's heart felt like it had dropped a little.

Jet knew this man?

"Trying to ask our victim some questions about the incident she suffered." Ironwood replied sternly. Izzet noticed that Jet did not collapse his own scythe, and Ruby stepped back. "Your teammate has been preventing me from doing so. I would ask that she stand down."

'I didn't know this man.' Izzet sent to Jet, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be angry with her. 'All I wanted was for Lilac to be safe.'

"It was my instruction." Jet responded. He didn't look at Izzet, who felt a pang of guilt. Was he covering for her? "She was to defend Lilac against any she did not recognise or who didn't look like a doctor or nurse. And she is very protective of her teammates."

"And obstructive to those who wish to aid them." Ironwood commented scathingly. Now Izzet was roused, and angry. How was she supposed to know?! She took a step towards Ironwood, but Jet held Midnight Rose out to his side, blocking her.

"Enough, please." Jet responded. "I am here, and I can confirm for you," he turned and looked Izzet straight in the eye, "this one is trustworthy, both by Ozpin and myself. Now, Izzet, stay-veni."

Izzet recognised the command. Stay-veni meant 'stand down'. She lowered her blades and sheathed them. At the same time, Jet collapsed his scythe, and it faded into a purple aura which fed into Jet's own aura. Perhaps this man was trustworthy, as Jet seemed to regard him. However, she shot him a glare all the same.

"We will leave you to interview her." Jet said to Ironwood, putting an arm around Ruby's waist, intending to guide her out. "However, I must warn you, she is both shaken and scared. Her previous confidence in her strength was shattered. Remember this."

With that, he and Ruby vanished. Taking it as her cue, Izzet activated her time stop, and took one last glance at Lilac, who had cowered under the covers of her bed, before stepping smartly past the statue of Ironwood and leaving the room.

Weiss sat down on her pristine sheets and sighed heavily. Today had been a big day for her. And the sun was only just starting to crest the sky. Her forehead was in the palm of her left hand as she sat there, her hairs' normally tight-knit formation of strands coming free as shimmering slivers down her face.

That peaceful state was shattered when two shapes literally appeared out of nowhere in the center of her dorm room. With an understandable shriek of fright, Weiss leapt off her bed and into a fighting stance, Myrtenaster at the ready. It was only when she focussed on her two targets that she realised who they were.

Ruby was giggling nervously as she let off a plume of rose petals, seemingly from nowhere, and Jet, looking quite dizzy, spun once on the spot, before his legs gave out underneath him, letting his upper body hit the carpeted floor of their dorm, hard.

"Oopsie! Um… sorry Jet." Ruby said awkwardly, before wheeling around to see Weiss, still with her rapier pointed right at them. "Umm… Weiss? Why do you have your sword pointed at me?"

That was when the heiress exploded.

"RUBY YOU JUST GAVE ME THE FRIGHT OF MY LIFE WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!" Weiss yelled, very quickly. Jet covered his ears as he swayed, still dizzy. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"Yeesh, calm down." Ruby said, nonchalantly, as if the heiress hadn't just yelled at her. "I'm fast, remember?"

"Ruby, she wouldn't have seen us coming." Jet said, standing up, though he still looked off balance. "I stopped time, remember?"

"Oh, right." Ruby replied. She looked over at Jet, noticing his state. "Are you alright, Jet?"

"Just fine." Jet replied. "I keep forgetting how fast you are, so when you picked me up-"

"Wait, Ruby picked YOU up?" Weiss asked him, shocked.

"…and carried me across Vale at the speed of sound, I can safely say I wasn't expecting it." Jet finished, then turned his gaze upon the heiress. "And yes, Ruby did pick me up. You'd be surprised at how strong she actually is, what with swinging a sword mounted on a pole all day."

"Hey! It's a scythe, thank you!" Ruby pouted, but before she could go on a tirade, Jet silenced her by placing a finger on her lips. She gave him a very indignant look, which evoked a chuckle from Jet, and a playful smile in return.

"You are too easy to tease, Ruby." Jet said, before releasing Ruby and taking a step back. "But enough prattle. I've an appointment with Goodwitch. I bid you, adieu." He have a mock bow aimed at Ruby, and then vanished.

"We'll see who's easy to tease." Ruby said, still irate, and shot out of the door, leaving a single rose petal, that slowly fluttered to the ground. Weiss, now slightly stunned, walked over, and picked it up.

"Well, that was a thing." Yang said, from behind Weiss.

Another shriek echoed through the dorm room, and this one could be heard from several rooms away.

Jet resumed the time flow once he was outside Ozpin's office. He knocked twice upon the traditional wooden door, and upon hearing Goodwitch's "Enter", opened it, and stepped inside of the familiar office. Before him laid that clock that gave a rather unappealing view of the stony grounds below, and the innermost workings of the clock that was on the outside of the building.

Behind the desk stood both Goodwitch, and… Ozpin? As Jet entered, he beckoned towards the seat before his desk. At his action, both teachers also sat. Jet linked the fingers of his hands as both teachers shared a glance, before turning their attention to him.

"How are you feeling?" Goodwtich asked, in a voice most different from her usual sharpened tone. This gave Jet pause. Normally, he'd never known Glynda to use anything but her usual. Still, he supposed he should play along.

"Fairly fine, considering I've got a teammate whose suffering right now, another that is so agitated she nearly decapitated our General, and no leads to the perpetrator of the first." Jet responded, mimicking Goodwitch's tone. This caused Ozpin to chuckle.

"Funny you mention that." Ozpin replied, after receiving a sideways glance from Goodwitch. "Normally, I would be concerned as to the reasoning of the attack on James. But, I suspect I know already, and your teammates'…" he paused, as if searching for the right word, "faith and trust in your command will ensure that this does not happen again?"

"Most definitely." Jet responded. "But you and I know each-other much better, therefore I suspect that my healer nearly decapitating Ironwood with a sword was not the main reason for my coming here."

"Quite right." Ozpin replied, with another chuckle. "Glynda, if you would?"

Goodwitch placed her scroll on the desk, which showed a hologram. Jet watched the video speed up until it reached a familiar scene. Jet watched from the third person as he slashed as Izzet using his scythe, her falling, and then the bars that filled below his name indicating that his aura had been refilled.

"Where did you learn how to do this?" Ozpin asked. "And moreover, why have you not demonstrated this ability before now?"

Jet bowed his head, taking his eyes off the terrible reminder of his abilities.

"For as long as I care to remember, I've been able to do that." Jet replied. "During your trial of me, neither of us had allies with aura to drain, therefore I was unable to demonstrate that ability. And only now have I performed it within Beacon's walls. It only works when an ally is willing to sacrifice their aura temporarily."

"Yet your aura's strength was measured as impenetrable by the aura indicators. How was that achieved?" Goodwitch queried.

"When Dark Ultimatum is used, I enter a period of instability through which my physical and aura strength is greatly increased." Jet explained. "The duration of time I am able to sustain this for scales with the drained ally's remaining aura. After this, I suffer a massive reduction in those strengths, which has a duration that also scales with the ally's aura."

"I now understand what you meant when you said to me that you thought yourself unsuited for my personal opinion of you being James' rival in tactical combat." Ozpin commented. "You were referring to this ability. The ability to absorb aura."

"Correct." Jet responded. "And yet something tells me to embrace it. A feeling that what I can do is what true power really is, that what I am is only the beginning."

The door opened behind Jet as he spoke. He turned his head quickly.

"Ah. Perfect timing." Ozpin spoke from behind Jet.

Ruby wandered around outside, near one of many statues inside Beacon's walls, thinking. How best to get Jet. How best to get him back.

She looked up in time to see storm clouds starting to gather, converging around the fabled Beacon Tower.

An unusual sense of foreboding gripped her heart, and not for the first time today, she wondered where Jet was. What he was doing.

Jet felt his body being slammed into the ground of the arena for the umpteenth time, and an all too familiar arm being slammed into his back, which prevented him from rectifying the situation of being slammed into the ground in the first place. Had he mentioned 'slammed' a bit too much there? Good!

"Please tell me that you don't need me to beat him up any more." Qrow's voice sounded out from above Jet, and he knew that he was the owner of the arm currently pinning him, the same one that had been pinning him for the past ten or so attempts.

It turned out that underneath the tower of Beacon a hidden practise arena laid, clearly meant for Ozpin's personal use. It was dark here, the metal floor of the simulated arena cold the first time Jet had found his cheek upon it. Now it was warm, from the use it had just gone through.

He'd been sparring with Ruby's uncle for the past half an hour, and Jet was slowly getting more and more frustrated. Ozpin and Goodwitch were watching, the session presumably to further awaken his powers. All of those semblances he'd had, if there was any hidden within.

And every time, EVERY AGONISING TIME!

He'd get up, face Qrow again, and every time he'd end up back here.

How could he break the cycle?

That was what they wanted, right?

Jet thought hard, as Qrow helped him up and he walked to the other side of the arena again, his aura still dangerously low. He could feel a number of sore spots from the battering, and had heard Goodwitch protest more than once as to the necessity of all of this.

Why was it still going on?

Jet tried to maintain his twelfth ready stance, but felt his legs collapse from underneath him, and he fell to the ground, finally defeated. He had no more energy. Another run would kill him.

'Jet?' Flux called out from the back of his mind as he heard Qrow call out "C'mon, he's done! Oz, there's no need for any more!"

'They're hurting me really badly, Flux.' Jet replied. 'I can't go on.'

"Once more, Qrow." Ozpin responded from the stands. "We must be certain."

'Should I assume our alternate form?' Flux asked Jet. 'Can I save you?'

'Yes. Please.' Jet mentally begged. At this point, he didn't care, as long as he ended this.

They wanted his true power, well, that is what they would get.

"Sorry, kid." he heard above him. Looking up, he saw Qrow's face above his own, and he could see that sword. The one responsible for all this pain. The one… the one…

No sooner had Jet found it hard to martial his thoughts that he realised strength, pure strength was flowing through his veins, Flux's mind slowly replacing his own in the cockpit of his own body. Pain was making him spasm, especially in his back, but he knew that the pain meant Flux was working.

"Not… yet." Jet growled, his mouth moving on its own, Flux having assumed direct control. He sent out a red shockwave that blasted Qrow backwards, the size and power of the blast stunning him as he was sent flying backwards.

Jet roared and convulsed as he felt his tank top being ripped off, his wings growing to an enormous size, and that wasn't all that appeared. Needle-like feathers burst from the sides of his arms, forming blade-like protrusions. Silvery claws caused Jet to drop Midnight Rose as they exploded out of his fingertips. Jet was howling in both pain and pleasure as Flux completed the transformation into his alternate form, a Grimm and human hybrid.

"Get comfortable." Flux spoke through Jet as she took flight, soaring until she was at the height of the arena. "Because now you've made me mad!"

Jet could feel Flux's anger at all of them as she tensed up. His vision was turning red, and he could feel fangs jutting where his human canines had once been. Power. So much power!

'Finally.' A third voice, this one much deeper, much darker than Flux's voice, spoke out in Jet's head. A momentary surge of panic shot through Jet as he recognised the foreign voice, but that moment passed as it was replaced by more elation. 'You awaken.'

Jet plummeted, straight towards Qrow, fist aimed straight at the man's head, at speeds close to sound. He barely had time to react.

But barely meant everything. He only just managed to evade Jet's strike, which shook the ground. Rather than counter-attack, as he had done every time Jet had attempted to attack, he kept his distance as Jet crouched into a fighting stance.

'Now, let us show these humans what power you truly wield.' the third voice said, and Jet felt his whole body suddenly glow white hot with heat. He was… getting stronger! Even stronger!

More pain!

More power!

He barely saw Ozpin leap forward from the stands before his consciousness deserted him.

To be continued...