Arc 1, Chapter 10

Perception, Misconception

For the second time in as many days, Jaune Arc was dripping wet and mostly naked.

At least this time he wasn't alone in his misery. Pyrrha and Weiss were in similar straits. Their drenched clothing had been laid out beside his own.

"You know what I'm slowly realizing I'm awful at?" Jaune asked, his teeth chattering as he spoke. When no one ventured to guess, he answered his own question. "Moving out of the way when things are about to hit me..."

He looked down at his own battered body, which was completely bare save for his underwear, and took stock of his injuries. That was the only productive thing he could do at the moment. Weiss had made it abundantly clear that if he lifted his head for any reason, she would remove it from his shoulders.

Technically, being a team leader, Jaune was the only one in any position to be handing out orders, but he felt it wise to be flexible in this instance.

His unexpected plunge down the waterfall had left the knight with a patchwork of welts covering his back and sides. He had somehow managed to hit every single rock outcropping on the way down, so now dynamic movement of any kind was nothing short of excruciating. The fresh gash on the inside of his right foot, inflicted by the Nevermore feather, looked gruesome, but ultimately wasn't too deep. He had wrapped it in a few layers of wet medical bandages for now. His nose was badly bruised where the Beowolf had sucker punched him with his own shield, but thankfully it didn't seem to be broken.

And, not to be outdone, his older wounds had begun to ache again, with fervor.

When Jaune loosened the splint on his broken wrist, he discovered a disgusting rainbow of blacks, blues, and yellows. He had then re-wrapped it again as quickly as possible. It would be hard for someone to imagine how much it hurt just by looking at it, which was really saying something. It looked awful.

Yet despite all of that, the scar on his face had undoubtedly taken first place when it came to sheer pain. Only minutes ago, the wound had begun throbbing unbearably, and nothing he did seemed to relieve the ache. He had directed his aura to the wound, but if anything that had only made the scar burn more intensely.

Jaune thought back to the moment that bone-armored Grimm had slashed him across the face, and nearly snarled. He hated it. That thing had led them all into an ambush - twice in his case. He was furious that it had gotten away again, and equally furious that he hadn't realized what was going on more quickly.

He had let them walk into an obvious ambush. He had been entirely useless. Like always.

When he realized what he was doing, he unclenched his fists and tried to calm himself. Here he was, thinking negatively again. Directionless anger certainly wasn't going to improve their situation. He needed a clear head, to focus.

The still unnamed Grimm could organize others of its species; of that Jaune now had no doubt.

Beowolves didn't hide. They didn't wait patiently. They were always single-minded in their pursuit of prey... until now. Both times the new Grimm had been involved, the Beowolves acted completely against their natures. It had to be issuing them orders, or otherwise leading them in some fashion. And, if that was the case, it meant that now even the most reckless, unintelligent creatures of Grimm could strategize meaningfully. That was... really, really bad.

And worse still, at the moment, Jaune had absolutely no way to warn the others about his realization.

He had lost his scroll, along with all of his supplies, when he was being dragged downriver. Pyrrha's was lost as well. She had set her pack aside just as the most recent bout of fighting began, and hadn't had time to retrieve it before their abrupt removal from the battlefield. Weiss had actually somehow managed to maintain possession of her bag, but her scroll was waterlogged. It still had power, but it froze on a blank screen whenever she tried to turn it on. It might eventually work again after it was given time to dry out, but for the moment, they had no way to contact the rest of RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL.

Jaune desperately hoped that the others would figure out that the perfectly coordinated Beowolf ambush hadn't been a simple coincidence. His friends would be in less danger once they knew to watch out for clever or unusual strategies on the part of the Grimm, rather than the blind charges they were accustomed to. But Jaune knew they might not connect the dots immediately. After all, it had taken him two blunders to learn that lesson himself.

He desperately wanted to find his friends and warn them - but he couldn't.

At the moment, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Weiss were taking shelter in a small cave, a short walk downstream from the spot where they'd landed at the bottom of the waterfall. It wasn't exactly a luxurious hideout, but they were shielded well enough from the wind and cold.

Twenty minutes earlier, Jaune had pulled himself out of the freezing water, shaking and disoriented, but still ready to hike back to the others as quickly as possible. He had fallen a considerable distance, and would either need to scale a slippery, ninety-degree rock face or head back down the mountain in hopes of finding another way around. He had been fully prepared to attempt either option. But, Weiss had astutely pointed out that, wearing wet clothes, and with the temperature still steadily dropping, they would surely freeze to death well before they managed to help anyone.

and, of course, she was right. It seemed that for now, they were stuck here, recovering. They would simply need to trust that the others could fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, Jaune was not so slowly freezing to death, sitting beside Pyrrha - with whom his relationship was still... weird - and Weiss - his former crush, who had brutally rejected him on several different occasions. And they were all also mostly naked. This mission could have been going better...

"Thanks for the assist earlier, Weiss," Jaune offered conversationally, dutifully not looking up from his frost covered toes. He hoped a bit of conversation might lighten the mood, as well as distract them all from the bitter cold.

"Don't mention it," Weiss replied curtly. She sounded as though she may have meant the words literally.

For a while now, she had been attempting to start a fire using only the few damp branches that they had managed to gather. If her increasingly frequent sighs of frustration were any indication, the work wasn't going well. Apparently, she didn't handle failure as gracefully as she handled nearly everything else.

Still shivering, Jaune lifted his gaze just high enough to see the fire (and Weiss's bare ankles). Actually, 'fire' might have been a strong word, he decided. The small bundle of wet twigs and frozen leaves was letting off about as much heat and light as a sparkler, along with some greasy, black smoke.

"I've always really liked your semblance," Jaune continued. "Your glyphs are really cool." He smiled. They look like giant doilies.

"I suppose," Weiss agreed, still not actually paying him much notice. Then, when another attempt at coaxing the fire failed, she huffed angrily and stomped her foot. "This isn't working at all," she hissed at no one in particular.

"Have you tried Myrtenaster?" Jaune suggested.

"Of course I have!" she snapped at him. "Fire dust is obviously the first thing that I would consider!" Then she sighed loudly, and adopted a softer tone. "All of my dust is soaked. I can't use any of it until it dries out."

"Ah. Right." For a moment, Jaune was tempted to give up and let the conversation die. Weiss was clearly in no mood to speak with him. To be fair, she usually wasn't.

But the heiress caught him off guard - by asking him a question.

"So... have you... discovered your semblance yet?" She inquired, not unkindly.

Was she continuing their little exchange of her own free will? She never did that. "Oh... uh..." Jaune replied, surprised. "Well, no... Not yet..." He was almost ashamed to say the words. He was probably the only hunter at Beacon who had no idea what his semblance was. It was like admitting yet another thing he was a failure at.

Pyrrha spoke up for the first time. "But, you are well on your way to finding it," she reassured him. "At this point, it's only a matter of time and experimentation. Remember, you've haven't had your aura unlocked for nearly as long as everyone else. It can be an arduous process."

Jaune almost glanced up at his partner - but he remembered her current state of undress and managed to stop himself.

"Thanks, Pyrrha," he said wholeheartedly, breaking into another small smile. He was always astonished by how confident Pyrrha was that he, Jaune Arc, the goofball, could succeed. Sometimes it almost made him believe it too.

And they were still talking to one another easily enough. So, the kiss hadn't made things too weird between them.

"I'm excited to find out what your semblance is going to be," Pyrrha continued. "Just imagine the possibilities..."

Jaune sneezed. "Well, we'll never find out if I end up an ice sculpture first."

"Which is," Weiss sighed, "beginning to look like a distinct possibility." She had finally decided the task was hopeless, and swept aside the burnt kindling with her foot.

"What are we going to do then?" Pyrrha asked her apprehensively.

Weiss crouched down and began to rummage through her bag. "Our clothes are wet, the blanket is wet, our supplies are wet, but... If I recall correctly, these sleeping bags were supposed to be waterproof." There was the sound of rustling fabric and a zipper being opened. "And... yes. The inside is still completely dry. That means, at the very least, we won't freeze to death tonight. We have... a... sleeping bag..." She trailed off as realization dawned on her.

"We have... one sleeping bag..." Pyrrha clarified.

...And three of us, Jaune mentally finished his partner's thought. Shit.

They all reflected on the ramifications of that fact, in a moment of shared silence.

With his eyes still locked on the ground, Jaune couldn't see Weiss or Pyrrha, but he felt as though he could probably imagine the sort of horrified expressions that they wore... Who would want to sleep so close to him? "You two share it," he muttered quickly. "I'll... see what I can do about the fire."

"Which is nothing," Weiss replied simply. "We don't have anything else left to burn in here."

"I'll be fine, Weiss. I think I can handle a little bit of cold." Truthfully, Jaune wasn't all that confident about his odds of survival. He had long ago lost the feeling in his extremities. All of them. But, nothing good could come from sharing a sleeping bag with this particular duo...

"Jaune," Pyrrha said firmly, "Your lips are blue."

Don't say lips! Jaune thought, remembering the kiss again. "Wait... Are you two are looking at me... right now? I thought we all had to look down?!"

"No, only you had to do that," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "Listen, Jaune. I'm sure Pyrrha will agree with me when I say..." She paused to let out a defeated sigh. "...We are not going to let you die just because you're too embarrassed to share a sleeping bag with a girl."

Two girls, he thought deliriously. Two nearly naked girls.

"Weiss is right," Pyrrha agreed. "It isn't as though we have much of a choice. This is a matter of life and death."

"I... I guess you're right," Jaune croaked.

"Of course we are," Weiss huffed. "We are going to be professional huntsmen and huntresses in just a few short years. You should behave as such."

Jaune nodded. "You make an excellent point." He debated sprinting from the cave.

"Now, we're all going to have to... tolerate... this for one night," Weiss explained, as she unrolled the sleeping bag onto the cave floor. "And Jaune, I'm sure you won't give us any reason to tie your hands behind your back... Right?"

The sleeping bag wasn't small by any means. Jaune had used it the previous night. He knew that it could quite comfortably accommodate a single person. Having two people share it might make for a tight fit, with perhaps slightly less personal space than desirable, but it could still be managed.

But crushing all three of the Beacon students inside of the one sleeping bag had been an elaborate contortionist trick, if not a miracle.

After a great deal of shoving and struggling, Jaune had ended up stuffed between Pyrrha and Weiss. The two huntresses were now resting on either side of him, pointedly facing away, as not to be lying front to front... but they were still much, much too close for anyone's comfort.

To his credit, Jaune remained flat on his back and kept both of his hands placed carefully in his lap. He tried hard not to move, or to think, or to even exist at all, really. In hindsight, having the only boy squeeze into the middle was probably inadvisable for any number of reasons...

Meanwhile, Weiss was making a valiant effort to create space where none existed. She continually tried to maneuver herself further away from him, though without much success. It was a hopeless endeavor from the start. To keep their bare skin apart, she would have to tear the sleeping bag at the seams.

"Roll onto your side," Weiss whispered at him angrily. "You're taking up too much room."

"Sorry, Weiss," Jaune replied apologetically. "I'll move..."

He didn't.

Which... which way was he meant to face...? Weiss had been the one to ask him to change his position, but she certainly wouldn't be pleased if he rolled over towards her. That would put the two of them in an extremely compromising position... He imagined it and blushed.

And turning in the other direction would leave him in the exact same predicament - but with Pyrrha instead... Even so, wasn't that the better option? He was much more comfortable with Pyrrha than he was with Weiss, after all. Pyrrha was his friend and his teammate. They were closer.

Well, figuratively. Literally, they were all quite close at the moment...

"Yeah, Jaune," Pyrrha said, squirming. "I'm... also kind of cramped as well."

"Right. Just a sec."

Why were they all whispering? Even he was doing it. Hadn't they all been speaking at a perfectly normal volume before they climbed into this thing...? All this whispering was making him even more nervous than he already was. It was weirdly... sensual. He was certain that the girls could hear his frantic heartbeat. He hadn't been trained for this sort of thing. He hunted monsters for a living. This was beyond him. He couldn't possibly move an inch.

"So, are you going to make room or not?" Weiss asked him, growing frustrated.

Jaune conjured up the mental image of a coin, flipped it, forgot to call a side, didn't bother to check which way it landed, and then rolled to face Pyrrha. He decided that she would be less likely to hurt him. He wasn't entirely sure why he thought someone was going to hurt him, but he felt it best to play it safe.

As soon as he moved, he felt Pyrrha's body noticeably tense up against him, which somehow made him even more self-conscious.

When he had still been on his back, his shoulders and legs had formed a sort of protective boundary around him, and that had kept things from getting too personal. Now, however, he was getting to know the girls on either side of him rather... intimately. Weiss sounded like she was grinding her teeth.

The whole situation made him feel like he needed a cold shower. He considered crawling back out to the river and drowning himself...

But instead, Jaune ended up committing to an extremely uncomfortable position; one which minimized his skin contact with Weiss and Pyrrha (barely). Then he remained as still as humanly possible - and began to wait patiently for morning. It wasn't as though he was going to be able to sleep.

To make matters worse, his scar was still screaming as though someone was pressing a white-hot branding iron against his face.

Yeah, sleep definitely wasn't going to be coming to take him any time soon...

...And yet, Jaune must have managed to fall asleep at some point - because he woke up.

It wasn't a gradual process, either. It was a sharp, violent jolt of consciousness.

One moment, he was asleep, maybe even dreaming; and the very next moment, everything around him seemed much, much too busy. His ears were buzzing loudly. Colorful spots flickered and danced on the insides of his eyelids. Every inch of his body tingled as though numb. The air felt too thick and difficult to breathe. He felt light-headed and feverish. He was shaking. He was nauseous. It was impossible to think straight.

He felt like someone had turned on a blender with his brain inside it. What was happening to him?

In a slight panic, Jaune's eyes popped open - but that somehow only made everything even more confusing. He couldn't see straight. So, immediately, he forced them shut again, held his breath, and kept as still as possible. He focused every scrap of his willpower into gathering himself, putting all the pieces back together...

Who and where was he?

He was... Jaune Arc. He was... in a sleeping bag, in a cave. That was as excellent a start as any...

The scar on his face was throbbing... That was a strangely familiar feeling. He latched onto it - metering the passing of time with each painful pulse. If he wanted to figure out what was happening, he decided, he would need to focus his attention on only one thing at a time... One sense at a time.

First, hearing...

Jaune could hear... rushing water and heavy winds - the familiar sounds of nature. But, why then, was it all so damn loud? Every little noise seemed to have been amplified one-hundredfold, and they were beating painfully against his eardrums. He knew for a fact that the only river anywhere nearby was maybe fifty meters away, outside of the cave, and yet, it sounded to him as though it were rushing directly through his skull...

And it was no less overwhelming trying to place the smaller, gentler sounds. Most of them were nonsense to him. He thought he recognized crickets chirping, though now it was more the volume of a revving chainsaw; and distant, dripping water, each bead of which landed like a percussive bomb blast.

A sound he had mistaken for a hurricane had actually been the steady breathing of the girls on either side of him; the crashing thunder was their heartbeats.

Slowly but surely, Jaune matched the abundant sounds to their distinctive sources, and as he did so, he began to find each infinitely more manageable...

Next, smell...

Jaune took a deep breath through his nose - and nearly gagged. He realized, for the first time in his life, exactly how many different scents were floating around in the air. He simply hadn't been able to perceive them until now. Odors were now... heavier, more distinct.

The strongest scent by far was something that might have been flowers - though it had mingled with a strange, chemical smell. Perhaps, industrial cleaner? No, he thought, that didn't feel quite right... He took a few more curious breaths, and with each one he winced a little less.

It eventually occurred to him that what he was smelling was Weiss's perfume.

With that understanding, he inhaled again and discovered that he could pick out a similar scent coming from Pyrrha. Both of their perfumes vaguely reminded Jaune of flowers - if they had been dipped in formaldehyde - but at the same time, they were dissimilar to one another in subtle ways he wouldn't have noticed before.

Neither smell was unpleasant, but both were so thick he could almost chew on them. Meanwhile, behind those masking scents, Jaune could pick up slight traces of his companions' sweat, and oddly enough, he much preferred that to the smells meant to cover it...

Also prominent in the stale cave air was granite, dust, and mildew, but these scents, he decided, were far less enjoyable.

Next, sight...

Jaune opened his eyes again, slowly becoming less afraid and more curious.

The cave interior was certainly much... clearer than it had been; the colors and contrast were sharper. Personally, Jaune had never worn glasses, but suddenly he felt as though he had been blind his entire life. He glanced around excitedly, able to pick out even the smallest of details with ease, examining nicks and scratches on a few of the pebbles lying at the opposite end of the cave. His vision felt like it had to be even better than 20/20. It was like seeing through binoculars.

After a moment, however, he realize that something seemed a bit... off.

But, he wasn't quite sure how to express what was bothering him. A tiny incongruity was scratching at the back of his brain; the sort of discomfort you might experience while trying to make sense of an optical illusion. With a frown, he glanced back and forth, from place to place, between the cave's far wall and its open entrance, trying to comprehend the way doing so warped and distorted his vision...

When Jaune finally realized what he was seeing, he nearly gasped.

It was still night time. It was pitch-black inside of their cave hideout. And yet, he could still see everything with perfect clarity. Before this moment, darkness had always been an empty space in his field of vision, but now, if anything it was more like an extra color. All the darkest places were an odd hue, but he could see into the shadows just as well as he could see in broad daylight.

He had night vision...!

Next, touch...

It was finally beginning to feel as though Jaune was rearranging his hopelessly strewn thoughts back into something resembling order. He should have been confused and worried. He wasn't.

His skin was still tingling.

Curious, he took his right hand and pressed it palm down against his chest. He waited like that for a few seconds, but he noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Somewhat disappointed, he placed his open hand against Pyrrha's bare back, without much thought.

Her skin was freezing - or perhaps his was exceptionally warm. She made an odd noise and shivered.

But, Jaune's sense of touch didn't actually seem to have changed. Pyrrha still felt exactly like Pyrrha and - he maneuvered slightly and pressed his open palm against Weiss's back as well, just to be certain - Weiss still felt exactly like Weiss... Though both of them were still very cold.

And finally, taste...

Jaune pondered a suitable way to test this one. His gaze drifted contemplatively over and along his prone companions. Previously he hadn't been able to see anything, but now he could make them both out quite well with his improved sight. He absently ran his tongue back and forth over his teeth...

Taste, Jaune reminded himself. He had to test his... sense of... uh...

But he found himself quickly losing his train of thought, much too distracted by his sleeping friends. His arm shot out, almost of its own accord, and he pulled the lip of the sleeping bag open so he could see inside. His eyes traced the girls' naked backs from their heads to their feet, and then back up again.

As his mind drifted off to less appropriate places, Jaune was pleasantly surprised to find that his usual nervous blush wasn't kicking in. That little voice in his head was mercifully silent for once, offering none of its usual taunts or chastisements. The peace and quiet in his own head was fantastic. Despite the sudden, unexpected changes he was experiencing, and the almost naked girls in his sleeping bag, he couldn't recall ever having felt quite so... composed.

In fact, it was downright bizarre. He was so calm about all of this...

He shook his head, lowered the covers back down, and tried once again to focus. There were more important things to worry about. For instance...

Why had he suddenly developed freaking super powers...?

But after some contemplation, the only explanation Jaune could come up with was that perhaps... this was his semblance?

Admittedly, he still wasn't entirely sure what this was, but even the possibility made him ecstatic.

Every person who had their aura unlocked eventually developed a semblance; a special power intrinsically linked to certain aspects of their personality. Ruby could run at ridiculous speeds, always leaving behind her distinctive trail of rose petals. Weiss could conjure up her glyphs. Pyrrha could create and manipulate localized magnetic fields. Nora... she... um... ate lightning. Every individual semblance was unique and deeply personal. Pyrrha had only awakened Jaune's aura a short while ago, but already he had spent a great deal of time trying to determine just what his power might be...

Maybe this was it...?

But what, he wondered, did enhanced senses have to do with his personality, exactly?

Of course, he couldn't even be certain how much he had changed. There wasn't really a set of rules or guidelines for these abilities, and they could manifest in any number of peculiar ways. He would need to take a bit of time to experiment, to see what it was he could do exactly.

At just that moment, Jaune's scar flared up more adamantly than ever, as if frustrated that it had been forgotten. He did his best to ignore the pain. There was too much to think about to be worrying about a little... alright, a lot... of discomfort...

Much like earlier, he was way too excited to sleep, though this time, it was for an entirely different reason. Well, for an additional reason, anyway.

Because there wasn't much else to keep him entertained, Jaune was again looking into the sleeping bag, testing his new sight. Weiss would have flayed him if she knew how familiar he was becoming with her back. And Pyrrha, he noted, leaning his head over his partner's shoulder, had a birthmark on the hollow of her neck...

Once again, the lack of an immediate reprimand from his conscience stood strikingly out of place.

Nothing to say? Jaune asked of the little voice. Absolutely nothing? You're certain?

But there was no response.

Pyrrha and Weiss were breathing softly and in rhythm. Jaune could hear their hearts beating much more slowly than his own, which he took to mean that they were still sound asleep. Sadly, the two of them were still shivering intermittently. Their skin was ice-cold in the places where it met his own...

Before he even really understood what he was doing, Jaune had thrown his good arm around his Pyrrha's waist, pulling her up against him. He reached out for his aura, and immediately he felt the soothing warmth spread throughout his entire body, beginning inside his chest and flooding outwards.

Under other circumstances, he would have called this a pointless waste of energy - and in most cases he would have been right. But, Jaune had an exceptionally large pool of aura to call from, and in this instance he saw no reason that he shouldn't make use of it. He could make his companions more comfortable. He was the only one who could; if Weiss or Pyrrha were to attempt the same thing, they would almost certainly be exhausted by morning.

Slowly Pyrrha stopped shaking and her body relaxed. She made a satisfied sound and nuzzled backward into his chest.

Jaune realized then that his earlier thoughts had been right on the mark; this was an extremely compromising position. And yet, he continued to find himself entirely immune to unease or embarrassment of any kind, for whatever reason. He idly wondered if perhaps unwavering calm could be another one of his semblance's effects... Aura powered maturity? He almost chuckled.

Weiss drew his attention, shuddering suddenly from the cold. Apparently, even the ice queen wasn't immune. Understandably, Jaune was a bit hesitant to throw an arm around her like he had with his partner. If the Schnee heiress awoke to find him closer to her than absolutely necessary... well, her rapier was close at hand.

However, he mused, he could claim innocence if she was the one to move towards him...

Jaune focused his aura into his injured left hand - the one not currently occupied with hugging Pyrrha - and nudged Weiss's arm with it. She twitched, and then after a moment, she pressed her arm against him, eager to get nearer to the warmth.

Jaune grinned, pleased with the success of his brilliant plan.

Then, he moved his hand, letting his fingers hover just in front of Weiss's neck. She didn't disappoint, pressing her chin to her chest, trying to catch him. He slipped away instead. And with that, a sort of game of tag began.

Jaune poked at different spots, taking no small pleasure in the adorable ways the sleeping heiress would twist and stretch her body to meet his touch. She was, he decided, much less... abrasive when she was sound asleep.

He placed his hand on top of her own. She clutched at his forearm with delicate, ice-cold fingers. He moved his hand down behind her legs. She shuffled closer, pressing her butt against him. He placed a finger against the base of her spine and then ran it up along her skin. She arched her back to follow it. He placed his open palm against her shoulder and slowly pulled it away. She made a dissatisfied noise and made to follow it, rolling over entirely to face him...

The sudden, growing excitement he felt right then was very unlike the Jaune Arc he thought he knew. All of his muscles were tensed in all of the right ways; he felt like a coiled spring, or a mousetrap... His blood was boiling inside of his veins, and he wondered how his skin wasn't burning the girls, like flames licking at them.

His aura was still humming, radiating warmth, as he brought his hand up again - and, with startling speed, Weiss snatched it, hugging it against her chest. Jaune winced hard as she fondled absently at his broken wrist... but, ultimately, he decided that he was still enjoying himself more than he was suffering.

He had to fight back an excited growl. Now, Ms. Schnee, this is hardly an appropriate way for an heiress to behave...

Weiss smiled in her sleep, pleased with herself for finally having caught the warmth.

At just that moment, Pyrrha squirmed against Jaune's front in the most pleasant way, drawing his attention away from Weiss - a feat which, before that moment, the knight would have thought impossible. As he turned his head, he caught Pyrrha's scent again, closer this time. With his improved sense of smell, it was... overwhelming. It made him feel dizzy and blurred his thoughts around the edges... so, naturally, he inhaled a second time, much more deeply.

That put Weiss Schnee entirely out of his mind... along with just about everything else.

Jaune pressed his face hungrily into Pyrrha's neck. He took the arm still wrapped tight around her waist and slipped it up higher. Suddenly, he only knew that he needed to trace as much of her bare skin with his finer tips as he possibly could. Nothing else mattered. His forearm hit the bottom of her bra and he felt the weight of his her breasts on his arm. Pyrrha's breathing hitched for a moment and she let out a small gasp. It rang in his ears indefinitely.

Something in Jaune's head came undone with an audible snap.

He reared back and pressed himself against Pyrrha, grasped at places he shouldn't have. He pulled his lips back and set his teeth on his partners throat. Her heart skipped a beat almost imperceptibly. But, of course, he could hear it. He could hear everything now. It seemed she was finally waking up...

Why have I always been trying to fight this? Jaune found himself wondering in a daze. She's already gone out of her way time and time again to show me that she's interested in me. She's beautiful and talented. I trust her with my life. She's the world renowned fighter - Pyrrha. Nikos. This is-

But, he didn't get to finish his thoughts.

Before he could, he was stricken by sudden, horrible pain, almost beyond his ability to lend it description.

Nothing could possibly have prepared him for it - especially given what was occupying his attention at the moment. His vision swam, and he nearly passed out right then. In an attempt to keep himself conscious, he leaned away from Pyrrha and bit down on his tongue until it bled into his mouth.

As it turned out, behind him, Weiss had tried to move even closer - accidentally shifting her entire weight over and on top of his broken wrist, which she was still using as her own personal teddy bear. It was significantly less adorable now, he thought, trying not to scream.

There was a grinding sound, as his not yet healed carpal bones clicked up against one another unnaturally.

Though he had no memory of moving, Jaune found himself stumbling out from the mouth of the cave. He walked out into the open air, gasping and grunting and swearing. Maybe he had woken the others when untangled himself from the sleeping bag. Maybe he hadn't. It didn't matter to him in the slightest.

The voice in his head picked that moment to make its triumphant return. What the hell was all that about, Jaune!?

"I... I don't know," Jaune groaned truthfully. "I don't..." He dropped to his knees, and then collapsed face-first into the snow.

...A bit of time passed. The knight couldn't have said how much. It was enough time for a fresh layer of snow to fall and cover him, but not enough for him to freeze to death, unfortunately. Neither Weiss nor Pyrrha ever wandered out looking for him. They hadn't noticed him leave. They hadn't woken up.

For some reason that made him giggle to himself. The sound was muffled and distorted by a mouthful of snow. He spit out some blood.

Eventually, with great effort, he managed to sit up. Then, almost immediately, he threw up in the snow. He hadn't eaten for nearly two full days, so it was mostly bile. He was cold. His scar hurt. There was something horribly wrong with him, or there had been something horribly wrong with him...? He wasn't certain which.

Jaune. What is going on? the voice demanded. Why wouldn't you listen to me?

"I couldn't... hear you." Jaune replied stupidly. He was talking to himself again.

That's weird. Because I was all but shouting for you to stop doing... well, everything you were doing.

"I'm sorry." He really was. "I'm not sure what happened."

Well, the last few days have treated you like a piñata. Maybe, you've finally lost your mind. Like I've been saying, you aren't cut out for this hunter stuff...

This time, Jaune couldn't help but agree with his conscience. He thought about what he'd just done - his downright animalistic little display back in the cave - and he blushed furiously (so that trait was back). Why had he done that? How had he done that? Normally, he would have been too embarrassed to even stand next to pretty girls without tripping over his own feet, or accidentally sticking one of them in his mouth (his feet, not the girls). That really hadn't been like him...

Under normal circumstances, his self-control was more than enough to keep his baser thoughts in check. He knew that he didn't deserve a relationship with Pyrrha, and she certainly didn't deserve to wind up stuck with him. That was the reason he had always been trying so hard to avoid... that sort of situation...

He looked up at the sky, as if he might find an answer to his problems somewhere in the clouds. Remnant's shattered moon was shining brightly.

A while later, Jaune decided it would be best to move back into the cave. He could sleep in a corner... a respectful distance away from the two huntresses. It was too dangerous to be out here alone at night, while also in such a awful state of mind. If the Grimm were to take notice of him, he wouldn't be able to see them coming...

Jaune froze.

He blinked a few times in realization, quickly glancing around him. He... he couldn't see! Well, actually, that wasn't entirely true. He could still see; just not as well. It was totally dark and he could no longer make out any of the area around him - only the blurred silhouettes of trees and a lot of deep shadows.

His enhanced sight and hearing and smell - and probably taste, he'd wager - were all conspicuously absent. His semblance was gone, or otherwise turned off.

Maybe, he thought, the sudden pain in his wrist had done something to his semblance? After everything he had just been able to experience, he now felt blind and deaf and kind of helpless. He reached for the little spark inside himself and focused his aura to see if he could make his powers return to him. They didn't...

However, the golden light of Jaune's aura, essentially his second skin, looked... odd. For some reason, it was flecked here and there with hardly noticeable bits of gray. He turned an arm over in front of his face, examining the bizarre patches curiously. He had never heard of anything like this happening to anyone before... Growing slightly worried, he scrambled down to the river, bent down, and looked at his refection in the running water. He took a few seconds, blinking his eyes some more to make sure they were working correctly...

Then, he screamed.

The scar on his face, running from his forehead to cheek, was now pitch-black and writhing as though it were alive. A sticky substance that looked like ink or tar was spilling out of the wound and slithering all across his face. His right eye - the one directly beneath the scar - was deep red. And glowing. At the seams around his eyeball, black tendrils were clawing their way out, like a thousand tiny centipede legs, raking the surrounding skin to bloody ribbons.

Howling in terror, Jaune keeled over backwards away from the water. He fell onto his back in the mud, desperately grasping at his face...

...But everything felt... normal. He couldn't feel any awful wounds. He couldn't feel any slippery blood or oozing black gunk. With a choked sob, shaking violently, he began to crawl back to the edge of the water. He took a deep, steadying breath - and checked himself again.

He was fine. He was badly bruised, and he sported a few scratches, and his scar looked ugly - rather than dashing as he'd hoped. But as far as he could tell, he was fine. For the moment.

"That... I didn't find my my semblance at all," Jaune muttered to himself deliriously. And he knew it was true. "Something's wrong with my me..."

The little voice started to speak. Well, obviously, Jaune, but what in the world could-?

Oh no, how awful, a second voice - one that Jaune didn't recognize - hissed inside of his head, interrupting. But, whatever could be wrong, Jaune? Then the voice laughed. The noise was unpleasant and slimy, like his skull was being filled up with mucous. Everything is perfectly fine.

And then, despite the fact that he was now sick with fear and sick with disgust, Jaune was suddenly smiling.