Lunar Legends

by ThePlayer1Company

It all started with a special day in Combat Class, sparring partners were randomized. Jaune was paired with Yang. Jaune was able to keep himself from getting obliterated, and that blue glow of his aura kept him going for a lot longer than he thought possible. One thing doesn't add up, his aura is white, so why is it blue when healing him? The truth is more than anyone expected.

10. Stray Thoughts and Checkered Dreams p2

Where did it go? Our peaceful youth, seems to be LOST forever~!

Seriously, life has been hell on me these past few months. My writing schedule has been "Get it done before Septembe-oh it's already September, okay well get it done before Octob-oh, wait, already October, how about Novem-nope, okay Dece-sorry, time ain't helping you, fuckboi." and so I'm just going to get this in before it's been a full goddamn year since the last update.

I am now calling full canon diversity, Lunar Legends canon divergence! Some developments I've made and many I've planned will heavily conflict with canon so I'm just gonna say CD and be done with it.

And now we're getting into the reading the chapter~!

So here we go, finally into the double digits!

Chapter 10: Stray Thoughts and Checkered Dreams, pt 2/3

---

Cardin charged in with his mace ready to come and launch the smaller knight into the wall.

Jebediah smirked as the explosive weapon smacked into a projected forcefield, then he let out a loud battlecry and slashed at Cardin's exposed underarmor, a few very hard slashes knocking his aura into the yellow.

With a single powerful shield bash, in which Sanctus Mendax was covered in a lavender glow, the mace-wielder was knocked back into the arena wall, the alarm going off that he was in the red.

"Your opening move not only failed but was used against you to finish you off, pretty bad way to go." Jebediah said as he compressed Sanctus Mendax back into its sheathe form, then sheathed Crocea Mors, "I've improved a lot, Cardin, and I can see that you haven't." he sighed and adjusted his shorts, then leaped up the twelve-foot wall, past the deactivated barrier, and landed in front of the RWBYNPR group, handing his sheathed sword and armor, which he'd undone in only a few seconds, to Ruby, "Ruby, be a friend a put these away in my locker for me, okay?"

The reaper smiled and took them with glee, "Alright, friend!" she gave him a salute.

Noting the odd looks from the others, as well as a heavy addition of pride to Pyrrha's gaze, he smiled and pat her on the head, "Thank you, Pyrrha." he turned to Yang and gave her a hesitant smile, "And thank you, Yang." he chuckled and looked around the stands, "Okay well since my fight is done, I'll be leaving then!" and with that, he jogged up the steps and out of the building.

Nobody protested, but the rumor mill was hard at work.

Glynda watched as Jaune left, seeing the various reactions of everyone to the very brief fight, "W-well... Mister Winchester, you're the loser. Return to your seat."

Cardin groaned as he felt something in his mind snap, an empty feeling creeping up his consciousness as he pulled himself out of the wall, an outline of his body comically broken into it, though a bit scarily, there was a spider-web of cracks around it.

Nobody had expected such strength out of the Arc heir, and opinions were being changed left and right.

The biggest changes, however, came from the RWBYNPR group.

Ruby smiled and stood up to go put away Jaune's equipment. She was filled with glee at the fact that she had helped. Even though he hadn't even been touched on his armor, she could tell that the extra protection had given him a boost of confidence, and the kiss they had shared had no-doubt helped even further. She had been a good friend, and now she would continue that friendly favor and put away Jaune's armor and weapons.

Weiss was honestly impressed. Jaune had gone from chump to champ in about a month, and rather than getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter, he had defeated Cardin in less than fifteen seconds. There was also the matter that, if the meters red correctly, his aura was either still completely full, or had increased and improved enough to not go below his previous limit. Whatever it was, she had to say she was impressed.

Blake remained silent, but also had to admit that she was impressed. Jaune had been no-nonsense and efficient, dealing with Cardin with what could nearly be considered extreme prejudice. She knew why the swordsman had a distaste for the mace-wielder, he hated the anti-Faunus attitude and wished to convince Cardin otherwise, one of the things she had noted from her skimming through Jaune's journal.

Yang caught herself before she started drooling. The moves, the power, the taunt, she knew she'd done well... she just needed to talk to Jaune, apologize, clear things up, and maybe... maybe she'd get him. She still had a chance, Jaune was a forgiving guy, after all.

Nora was entranced by Jaune's epicness, and how he had basically no-sold Cardin's attempts to smash him! In fact, Jaune turned it around and smashed Cardin! She giggled at the imprint of Cardin in the arena wall, but then she thought, 'I could teach Jaune more about smashing people! And he could teach me some defenseses, he's really good at defenseses, and I think even Pyrrhy could learn something like a FRACKING AURA FORCEFIELD! That would be SO COOL!'

Pyrrha smiled proudly, Jaune had grown immensely, but she couldn't help but have a nagging feeling that something was wrong... but what was it? Jaune had been serious, definitely, but there was something about that seriousness that put her off, yet she couldn't decipher it. Regardless, she knew.

Something was up with Jaune.

And lastly, Lie Ren, the resident 'other guy' to the RWBYJNPR group, or at least that's how it seemed. He didn't really mind, in fact he was glad Jaune was taking the spotlight, as the spotlight didn't suit Ren's goals, the goals of upholding HIS family legacy.

Martials arts were meant to be kept as arts, as things one must learn through long, arduous, painful, but enlightening training. Meanwhile a knight such as Jaune would be awash in reputation and good history. Now of course, Ren wasn't a stick-in-the-mud that only knew tradition, and as a Hunter, he would need to build some reputation to precede him, just not as much, or maybe fame along a different frequency...

He was digressing! His main concern was WHO was watching that spotlight Jaune was under, namely their six female companions, two of which were on their team. Ren knew Jaune's goals of being akin to a traditional hero. He would face challenges that might overwhelm him and he would have to resort to methods he might not be physically, mentally, or morally comfortable with.

And then there was the matter of love, of infatuation, attraction, and charm.

Fortune had many faces when it came to Jaune's massive charisma. Ren knew those looks, realization that slowly turned into desire and hunger, blooming in various degrees across the faces of the six huntresses-in-training, and he had to make sure Jaune would be ready for when fortune struck!

"Lie Ren versus Sky Lark." Glynda announced, cutting through the green gunman's train of thought.

'Why NOW~?' was Ren's only thought before making his way down to the arena in slight frustration.

He wouldn't lose his temper, he wouldn't go for a quick execution, he wouldn't hurry this the fuck up to go make sure Jaune was informed and thus wouldn't stumble around this blind.

He wouldn't.

He wouldn't!

HE WOULDN'T!

...

Sky Lark groaned as he pulled himself out of the wall, looking at the departing Lie Ren as he practically sprinted up the stairs. He had NO idea what just happened... well actually he knew EXACTLY what just happened. Ren had charged up guns blazing, taking Sky down to 60% aura pretty quickly, then delivered a kick that he KNEW had to have been massively aura empowered. Sky was on 25% aura and Ren was on 30% at the end of it.

Glynda blinked, noticing a trend starting to show.

---

Jebediah smirked as he flew about ten feet off the ground, Crocea Mors' greatsword form reaching down at an angle and ending about three feet from the ground, he was killing Beowolves, slicing Boarbatusks, and even dealing with the occasional Sabertooth.

He stopped when he heard a hissing sound, "Crypt Keeper." he muttered venomously, ready to teach Jaune about the 'Menace on every map'

'Crypt Keeper? Sounds pretty dangerous.'

'They are, they're spider-like Grimm who are as diverse as they are intelligent, some even learn how to act as cavalry!'

'Goddamn... that's ridiculous!'

'It is, they come in many forms and each is armed to kill, the way to tell them apart is by the color of the saliva dripping from their fangs, the secondary markings on their carapaces, and the hue of the dark claws tipping each leg.'

'Wow... so what are they?'

'Hold on!' suddenly, lunging towards the floating knight from somehow hiding out of sight, a four-foot-tall, seven-foot-long massive spider with white Grimm-plate covering its head, abdomen, and thorax. Its four eyes were the normal burning-red color of the Grimm, and broad, simple, burning-red marks had formed along the edges of its back plate. In addition to the burning-red, there were also some smooth toxic-green markings up the middle of its back. 'It's a Gut Wrencher!'

'A Gut Wrencher?'

Suddenly the Gut Wrencher Crypt Keeper spat a sizzling, roiling toxic-green fluid at the floating knight, who ducked out of the way just in time for the spray to coat the tree behind him. He turned to look at it, even though he knew what it was.

The bark and wood of the tree began hissing and melting from the acid they'd been coated with.

'It's not very old, so its acid is weaker, but beware because it's still acid and it will still try to melt your face, body, and especially your weapons.'

'Please tell me these things have a weakness!'

'They're glass cannons, Jaune, because Grimm or not, they're still spiders the size of small cars, and spiders the size of small cars are incredibly less durable than small cars.'

'So we'll be fine?'

'To the inexperienced, they can spell doom, to the veterans...' rather than tell, Jebediah decided to show Jaune what the 'veterans' can do.

With great strength, he grabbed one of the Crypt Keeper's legs and ripped it off at the second joint, grabbing the stump and pulling the beast off the tree against its wishes. It hissed and spat another glob of acid that sizzled against the solidified forcefield on Jaune's chest. With both arms, he swung it around and down, slamming the brittle beast onto the ground, cracking its carapace before dropping down for a powerful stomp that splattered its rapidly dissipating guts all over the forest floor in a moderate radius

Though only slightly acidic, there was obvious damage to the trees, grass, and shrubbery, and so Jebediah paused on the bare dirt, then floated a few inches above it and reached out with Jaune's blue aura.

To the young man's amazement, the grass began regrowing quickly and the damage healed significantly. He heard something.

"To shrouded light, remove the darkness, dear shining light, cast away the darkness, lux aeterna, conflet anima, be blessed with safety from the darkness of the world, let strength fill you 'til you can't be hurt, and one day let the angels' wings unfurl." Jebediah chanted, and he felt the reserves of white aura drain rapidly, but then...

Then he opened his eyes and showed Jaune what he'd done.

It was extremely subtle, only noticeable if you were looking, but the plants around him were glowing softly.

'Did you just unlock the aura of these plants?'

'I did... I used the chant that was used to unlock my own aura, and now I have given these plants, if only a small measure, a defense against whatever cruelties nature may throw at them.'

'That's... really nice.'

'I did not get to be known as Jebediah Arc, the Shield of the People and the Armor of the Innocent, by being a bad person.'

'What were those words? Lux aeterna, conflet anima?'

'The intended meaning is "Eternal light, fan the flames of the soul", though you could say "conflet anima" means "fan the soul flames", both are valid translations.'

'Right... what now?'

'Now... we've worked on stamina, we've worked on speed, we've increased your Grimm Kill Count, so now... how about a break?'

---

The RWBYNPR group had been running on a high. To their incredible amusement, and the incredible expense of team CRDL, all four members of Team JNPR had launched all four members of Team CRDL, in order of initials, in a line on the Combat Arena wall, making comical outlines of them.

It was definitely a moment that would go down in Beacon's history.

Speaking of history...

"And that is how my great great great great great grandmother assassinated the king of South Mistral." Fenerion finished, his green eyes glinting with mirth as he took a sip of his coffee

Teams RWBY and FLRE were traveling through the city together, just on a friendly outing

"Soooooo cooooool~, I feel bad for anyone who had to miss the story." Ruby said, immersed in the tale of the ancient killer.

"Yes, it is quite an interesting tale... made more interesting by the fact that I know it, but I hardly know of my own mother." the raven-haired man went quiet, but then cleared his throat, "Eh~... but that isn't a good, how you say~, topic of conversation." he turned to Luke, "Why don't you spin us a tale of your heroics?"

"I am an honorable knight who need not toot his own horn, friend, I'll let the rumor mill speak of my respectable actions for me." Luke smiled under his helmet.

While students generally weren't allowed to not wear or disturb the uniform dress code, they were allowed to make additions that followed some unknown guidelines.

This counted things like Ruby's cloak, Blake's bow, Yang's compressed gauntlets...

... aaaaaaand Luke's chainmail and helmet.

THAT was a sight to behold walking around the school grounds.

Speaking of grounds...

... they had stopped by a coffee shop on their way to the docks.

Weiss sighed softly, then took in a breath of air, smelling food, masonry, vehicular exhaust, the plastic of balloons and banners, a mixture of colognes and perfumes of the many people walking about, and all manner of other scents in the area.

To her, the mixture smelled wonderful.

"Haaaaaahhhh~, the Vytal Festival!" she began smiling widely, "Oh this is absolutely wonderful!" her icy-blue eyes sparkled with life.

Ruby was the first to speak up, "Weiss, you're acting kinda weird..."

The white-haired heiress turned to her partner, "Weird HOW Ruby?" her tone was bright, but confused.

"You're all smiley and cheerful and stuffs and it's so unlike you and it's kinda weirding me out." the silver-eyed reaper clarified.

"I do believe the weirdest thing about this situation is that half of us are dressed casually, yet all of us are armed." Luke offered.

That was also true.

Ruby was the first one dressed in such a way. She wore a black denim jacket half-buttoned and with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, a crimson tank-top with a white Scatter on the belly, a crimson combat skirt with silver vine-like leafy designs circling the hem and tail, her black skinny jeans with red stitching, and her black and red Subtractas Superstars. The only thing she wore from her normal outfit was her cloak.

Next was Blake, wearing a thin purple scarf, a black leather jacket with her Nightshade on the back in gray, an amethyst-purple t-shirt under that, black leather pants, and short black boots. The only thing she wore from her normal outfit was her bow.

On FLRE's side, Fenerion was casually dressed in a crimson button-up long-sleeved shirt, an unzipped black hoodie with the peaked hood up, an upside-down lower-cased-y shaped bandoleer set with a dozen small throwing knives on it, his twin bracers, and his beast-mouth bandanna (which was down to reveal his scarred lip and his short black facial hair). His black designer jeans were supported by a wide, thick, brown leather belt, his mace, shortsword, and kama all strapped to it.

Luke was the final person dressed casually, and his attire was both odd, yet fitting for him. In addition to his helmet, he also wore a navy-blue sweater, his menacing black gauntlets, gray cargo pants, and black calf-high combat boots.

"Regardless, it's impossible to NOT smile." Weiss said quickly, getting the group back on track, "The Vytal Festival is wonderful, it's dedicated to all of the cultures of the world!" Weiss nearly swooned, "There will be dances, parades, a tournament! Oh the amount of planning and dedication that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!" the fencer walked with a skip in her step.

Yang cringed a bit, "WOW... you really know how to take something cool and make it sound boring, Weiss." she crossed her arms under her breasts, which looked smaller than they actually were now that they, along with the rest of her upper body, were inside her oversized orange hoodie, which the others had questioned at first, but were simply told 'I found it and it looked cool' and dropped the subject. Since their arrival in the city, though, the usually boisterous and loud girl had taken to looking around and the festival decorations with a very slight air of shyness about her.

Weiss' eyes narrowed a slight bit, and she halfway looked back at Yang, "Quiet you." her tone irritated, but not letting Yang's comment get to her.

Yang very slightly cringed away, "S-sorry." she looked away, feeling oddly shy, 'What is wrong with me? I mean... ever since I talked to Jade and Juicia, I've been feeling... off... I haven't seen Jaune since combat class... he looked so... professional, and strong, and skilled... and I want that. I like him, dare I say I've even started falling in love with him, I just... want to know why he said all that stuff...'

While Weiss happily continued onward, Ruby looked at Yang with a concerned expression. While most would assume she was simply looking at the sights, Ruby was an emotionally insightful person and knew there was a problem there. Leaning up, she whispered in Yang's ear, "Sis, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm just... not feeling it today." the blonde waved off with a hesitant tone.

"Not feeling what?" the silver-eyed huntress pressed on.

"Not...*sigh*... not feeling a sense of not being confused, and of wanting to bash all my problems in the face."

"Oh... maybe we can get you some ice cream to cheer you up?" the younger sister offered with a sweet, kind smile.

"Hehe, you know me too well, little sister." Yang smiled once more as she ruffled Ruby's hair a little bit.

"Hey everyone, me and Yang are gonna go do a thing and we'll be back in a bit okay?" the little reaper announced quickly.

"Be careful." was the response of all of Team FLRE at once.

Blake glanced at the four boys before turning to Ruby, giving a small shrug, "Okay."

Weiss looked back at Yang as well, "Don't break anything." despite her cold tone, there was a lack of edge in her voice, subtle as it may have been.

Yang smiled at the others, "Alright, let's go sis." the two sisters took off in a different direction from the group.

The remaining group, B(R)WLF(Y)RE (Brawl-Fire, as Ruby had affectionately named them), continued towards the docks.

They walked.

And walked.

And walked.

And wa-"So how're the love lives going? Got anyone special?" Raiden's question cut through the peaceful silence like a hot sword through a watermelon.

Weiss went wide-eyed and nearly started stuttering in embarrassment as her pale cheeks reddened significantly, "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious really." the swordsman said with a shrug.

Blake felt a heavy blush spread across her cheeks, like blood had been poured all over her pale flesh "I've looked at a guy, he's a poet and an artist and I find him attractive." her words held a tone of 'I'm not saying another word'.

Weiss was in a similar situation, her cheeks doing a good impersonation of a pair of tomatoes "I have looked at a guy as well, he is a religious man with a good heart and I find him attractive." her words also held the same tone of 'I'm not saying another word'

Raiden's eyes narrowed slightly, but he let the girls get away with their tight lipped answers, but he knew...

He knew they were both talking about Jaune.

And he felt like something big would come of this.

He only hoped Jaune would be prepared.

---

"Well well well~, Mister Arc, I hope you're prepared." a nasally male voice said as the man to whom the voice belonged pulled out a tin of mints, chewing a couple of them, and then snorting a packet of pepper, sneezing messily on the concrete roof of the building he was standing on top of, "Gah, much better." he blew his nose into a few napkins he'd stolen from a nearby restaurant.

Despite his otherwise boorish attitude and disgusting habits, this man, Agent 4: 'Dark Runner', was in the top five agents of Master Kain's forces.

He was trailed by Agent 5: Ethereal Terror, and was led by Agent 3: Combat Specialist, Agent 2: Brotherhood Revolt, and Agent 1: Authoritative Assertion.

Conveniently, they were known in short as E5, D4, C3, B2, and A1.

"Have you made sure your Constellation Bottle is on your person, Keith?"

"YES, Sig, I do, shut up." D4, AKA Keith to most, told the purple figure at his side.

"Your power is most useful, I must admit, mainly because I have a sense of pride."

"Yes yes yes now use your dark powers to help me find this blonde asshole."

"Would you like me to find his head as well?"

"If we're supposed to believe the boss, the latter is up the former."

"Well my job is a lot easier then." the purple figure chuckled.

Now, Keith had a pretty unique semblance, Darkness Guardian, a physical manifestation of his own creativity and negative emotions, mostly snark and banter.

Lots and lots and LOTS of snark and banter.

In addition to being a second mind to assess situations twice as fast, the young man's creation also came with a host of various powers.

Like for instance the power that allowed him to view things as if the shadows were a network of eyes.

Which is what he was just using.

To view Jaune Arc.

...

On the streets below, Jebediah had taken Jaune's body into town for a little shopping trip.

'What are we doing?'

'While I cycle our aura through our body and burn waste for more energy, you will be picking out clothes... holy fuck it's still here.'

'What's still here?'

'Fil de Desir, Thread of Desire, a clothing store my cousin opened in Vale a scant forty nine years ago... wait maybe it's fifty now, I can't recall the exact date it was founded.'

'Wait... you have a cousin?'

'Well, one thing you would not realize is that our progenitor, Jacques, my grandfather, had many wives, however the first one to bear a son is Jack's mother, thus how he is the one to bear the blessing.'

'...'

'What?'

'Are you serious?'

'No I'm Jebediah.'

'Ffffffffuck you, that was terrible... but if what you're saying is true, then...'

'Then what?'

'Then we really DO have a lot of charisma!'

'...'

'What?'

'Are you serious?'

'No I'm Jaune.'

'... okay I walked right into that... but YES, we have a lot of charisma, just watch.'

'Wait what?'

Jebediah walked through the front door

---

Awww yush.

This was it.

The hat she'd been looking for.

She put on the black beret and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her voice was quiet, but regardless... "BOOM! Bulging boxers all around." Coco giggled to herself, pouting her lips, then making a kissy-face, and just generally admiring herself in the mirror.

She loved this store, though she could do without the old man who owned the store staring at her.

After a minute or two of some light posing, she quickly grew bored.

As the huntress-in-training lowered her stylish sunglasses to gaze around the store, she saw a yellow-topped head walking in the door.

Out of her new-found boredom, she decided to follow the tall figure. She ducked a little and made her way closer, keeping an eye out for him or her.

'That blonde hair is too yellow for it to be Professor Goodwitch, and she's the only woman I've see who's THAT tall... hmmmm~, it couldn't be that Yang girl from that team RWBY Velv talks about, she's tall, but not tall enough to tower over the racks.'

She watched with slowly widening eyes as they handsome blonde boy came into view, 'It's that guy that beat the fuck out of that Cardin asshole earlier! Damn that was cool... is he talking to the owner?' she made her way a little bit closer.

---

"It's good to see you again, cousin~." Jebediah greeted with open arms and a smile.

Antoine Arc narrowed his eyes slightly, unsure who this young blonde man was, but slowly realization set in, and it clicked when his eyes fell to Crocea Mors.

"J-Jebediah? But... wait, you died!" the gray-haired man said in confusion.

"The blessing our grandfather gave my line? Ring any bells?"

"The spirit of the moon?"

"Exactly, you little munchkin." Jebediah chuckled.

"I haven't talked to you since you died, you old coot!"

"Well, death tends to render most speechless."

'Question... what is going on?'

'I'm having a pleasant conversation with my cousin through your body.'

'Is your whole point to convince me you're a jackass and then work endlessly to convince me otherwise?'

'It might be a side effect of my coming to realize that I missed being alive.'

'Well too bad! You might be being friendly to others, but you haven't even TRIED to reconnect with Yang, and for that, the second I get the chance, I'm going to kill you dead! Nobody messes with my friends, not even my dead grandfather! Ya hear me, ya sonuvabitch?!'

'Don't talk about my mother that way!'

"Are you alright cousin?" Antoine asked, shaking Jaune's shoulder.

"Ah, yes, yes, sorry, it's Jaune, he's a fine young man, just like his father, but I made a terrible first impression and he wishes to kill me."

"Hehe, you were always bad at first impressions." the gray-haired man laughed, mirth filling his cyan eyes and deep voice

"True..." Jebediah sighed heavily, brow furrowed and shoulders shaking slightly.

"It seems we have a audience, Jeb." cyan eyes glanced over at the watching Coco, "She's a pretty one, comes here often, go talk to her for the lad."

"Fine, I suppose I do owe him that much after the trouble I've caused him." purple eyes gained an unassuming gleam as the veteran turned, "Right well I'll just look around then." he said a bit loudly.

Coco quickly ducked out of view, trying her best to look inconspicuous.

Jebediah approached, milling through the racks in the 'Hunter' section in an attempt to find something functional.

"Well hey there~." the brunette greeted with a smile as she came into view, her bag on her side and her hands on her hips.

'Okay... killing you later, but for now? Whoa! Damn, she's gorgeous, and that smile is amazing.'

"Hehe, hi there." the purple-eyed veteran greeted back with a relaxed chuckle, returning her warm smile with his own charming one.

Coco's cheeks began turning pink when she looked at that smile, "Nice to meet you, cutie, the name's Coco, and you?"

"Jaune, Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue." he chuckled a little more.

"Oh! My teammate Velvet's told me about you... sad she didn't mention your tastefulness, at least I guess you're tasteful, if you're coming to Fil de Desir."

He smiled wider at that, "Oh I'm tasteful, sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and bitter, though I try to avoid the last two."

Coco laughed, the sweet, rich, strong, invigorating sound flowed through the air like, well... like hot cocoa.

"Velvet mentioned her beautiful leader, but she didn't mention she had such a nice laugh."

The brown-eyed woman's cheeks reddened immensely, "Well Velvet mentioned the handsome knight that protected her from the bullies, but she never mentioned he was so witty."

"Witty? Nah. Gritty? A little, though I prefer to heal than to harm."

'Spoken like a gentleman, nice.' Coco thought as her laughter died down, "So, what brings the healer to Fil de Desir?"

"Well despite what you might think, I didn't come here to flirt, I actually came here because my current clothes are a bit too small." he punctuated his statement by flexing his arm, causing a few light tearing sounds of threads to emanate from the sleeve, "In addition, since my 18th birthday is coming up next month, and I'm exchanging boyhood for manhood, I also need to exchange these boy's clothes for man's clothes, if you catch my drift?"

"Well I can help you with that, Jaune, I'm something of an expert."

"Your assistance would be most appreciated, Miss Coco." the sincerity in his tone was sweet to her.

And so she led him through the store.

A decent while later, Jaune stood in front of the mirrors in a brand new outfit.

A black leather jacket with black metal buttons, a gray hoodie with a gold zipper underneath the jacket, an orange t-shirt under the hoodie, and pale blue metal armor on top of his shoulders and on his forearms. Dark blue jeans with his belts crossed over them, an ivory belt with a gold buckle supporting his pants, pale blue metal shinguards, and black combat boots. His normal gloves fit well with the outfit, though the metal plates were replaced with pale blue ones. Jebediah smiled, reacting like Jaune would, "This looks AWESOME!"

"I knew you'd feel that way. Everyone has their own desired color scheme, and they can be quite flexible to an expert like myself. The armor is cyan alloy, it's slightly stronger than gray alloy, it's cold to the touch, and you'll notice that it keeps the heat out. If you're wondering where I got it... Antoine deals heavily with Hunter clothing, which is why I shop here so often. Fashion and function brought together." the heavy-hitter smirked, but received a pleasant surprise.

He gently grasped her hands, "Thank you, Coco, this is incredible." there was an immense gratitude and sincerity painted across his expression.

Coco found herself on the receiving end of an epic blush, the same kind she usually dealt to her fellows with her teasing and aloof attitude combined with a beauty that could have landed her on the cover of any magazine she pleased. Now she was gazing at a face worthy of the covers of history books.

The good history books! The ones that showed weapons and battles and uniforms and all that, not the boring lecture shit!

She had a moment of realization, "Hold that thought." she took her hands back and sped off, fighting the urge to leap through the high-quality store like a giddy schoolgirl, despite those two words being extremely accurate.

Acquiring the accessory, she sped back over and set it on Jaune's face. The young man blinked, removing the item.

A pair of half-moon reading glasses with gold wire frames

He put it back on, smiling, "How do I look." his eyes turned down to the blushing Coco.

The normally composed second-year spluttered to form words, "G-good god... uh... it's... like... uh..." her senses came down from being overloaded by the handsomeness and her sight focused on the now dejected-looking Jebediah.

Jebediah sighed as he gave a quarter turn away from her, repeating Jaune's words, "It's bad isn't it?... I knew it, I'll never be some sort of... super-hunk or whatever, I'm just-"

"Fucking GORGEOUS!" the coffee-eyed huntress nearly shouted as she grabbed the blonde by his shoulders and shook him a little, "Listen... I need to know one thing from you, Jaune..."

"What's that?" the purple-eyed veteran queried, blushing slightly at the technically-older girl's loud compliment.

"Do you play video games?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever played Team Fortress 2?"

"No..." Jebediah looked at her sideways.

"I will teach you how to play."

"Well..." he paused for a few seconds, thinking about it.

'Go for it!'

'Ugh, you fool, you stretch yourself out trying to make all these girls happy and you'll tear yourself apart at some point.'

'It's just playing video games!'

'Fine... but only because I owe you after... Miss Xiao Long.'

'Her name is Yang.' Jaune's tone was nearly condescending.

'Nice to see you're finally growing a spine.' Jebediah smiled both internally and externally, "I'd like that, Miss Coco."

"Dude... just call me Coco, no 'Miss' about it, because I'm only like, one year older than you... but HEY~! YEAH~! We're gonna play some TF2! Alright, my Steam name is H0tCh0c0lead." she wrote it down so as to both avoid having to explain how it's spelled and to also add her scroll number underneath it, along with her actual name.

"Thank you, M-I mean, Coco, I'll be sure to, uh..." he looked up from the paper at her, "Get to that as soon as possible."

The heavy-weapons girl grinned happily, "Sounds lovely." she giggled a little, "Now come on, lover boy, get out of those clothes and let's go pay for this quality fashion design."

"Alright then..." Jebediah quickly stepped back over to the changing room he'd left Jaune's normal clothes in and changed in only a few seconds thanks to a quick use of his semblance, and stepped out again with a smile.

Coco smiled warmly as she stood atop the low platform in front of the mirrors, "Still handsome, I see." the fashion lover giggled with a tone halfway between teasing and reassuring.

"I didn't change." he paused for half a second, realization lighting up his eyes, "I mean I DID change, but... oh~ you know what I mean."

Her laugh was like music to Jaune's ears, and they made their way to the counter.

"Well, a full ensemble, it looks intelligent, nephew." the elderly man mused, putting a french accent on intelligent, "For family, half price." he chuckled a little and rang both the new outfit and Coco's beret together.

Coffee-brown eyes were wide as dinnerplates, 'He's related to the owner? Holy shit... and he's gonna... oh yush, I need to know more... but first... I need to leave while giving him the right message...'

A bag was placed into her hand, "Here you go, Coco, all nice and paid for." the knight smiled at her softly and kindly.

The huntress-in-training took the bag, 'Damn he's nice...' she smirked as she turned and started walking away while giving a honeyed giggle.

The blonde watched the finely dressed young woman walk away with a little sashay, blinking in a bit of confusion, 'Dammit... we were played like a trumpet!'

'Or maybe we follow her?'

'I don't know! All you kids nowadays are so confusing!'

Two minds watched Coco reach the dark glass of the door, then turn her head back at the boy, mouthing to him 'Call me.' while holding her hand to her head like a phone, before giving a slick grin and blowing him a kiss and walking out.

...

"Red as the beast's eyes, I'd say." Antoine mused, chuckling heartily as he held a magnifying glass to Jaune's cheek.

The hand was swatted away forcefully, "Dammit cousin, shut up! Kids nowadays, so promiscuous that I cry inside." he sighed heavily, "I do believe that I'm done here... see you later, cousin."

"Maybe we could go bowling sometime?"

The cyan-eyed Arc was given no acknowledgement as the door firmly shut.

"Aww~..."

---

"So do you wanna talk about it?" the reaper asked innocently through a bite of her strawberry sundae.

"Not really, no." the brawler replied before eating a spoonful of orange sherbet.

"You gotta talk sometime, sis, I won't stop until you feel better!" to emphasize her statement, Ruby squeezed her beloved sister into a hug.

Yang couldn't help but smile a bit. Ruby's bright, cheerful, life-giving happiness was irrefutable, and she felt a little lighter and a little more relaxed with each passing second of the hug. She took in a deep breath, she didn't want to talk about it for obvious reasons.

The reason was that she was upset because of Jaune claiming to not be looking for love, a claim that threatened to break her heart.

What could have happened in his life that would make him so opposed to a serious relationship?

She knew that his attempts at flirting with Weiss were all just talk, a way to make her feel better by knowing she was desirable, and that he had extreme doubts about Weiss ever actually wanting to accept him.

... well that was Weiss' loss, then..." Yang sighed lightly, unaware she had spoken her last thought out loud.

"What's Weiss' loss? Did she lose something? Is she why you're upset?" the red-clad huntress-in-training guessed.

"No... no... no... it's not Weiss. It's someone else entirely." Yang mentally groaned, her sister was precious, adorable, enlightening, and incredibly endearing, but her hyperactive initiative was sometimes annoying.

"Is it Blake?" Ruby guessed again, unknowingly proving her sister's internal point.

"No it's not Blake, think more blond-GAH!" Yang let out a yelp as someone bumped into her while running past.

"SORRY!" the blonde monkey faunus shouted back at the two as he kept running, a pair of police officers chasing after him.

"Was it THAT guy?" the reaper said while helping her sister steady herself, pointing at the retreating blonde boy.

"I don't even KNOW that guy!" the brawler said while crossing his arms, grumbling "At least he said sorry..." under her breath.

"Is it Jaune?"

"Yes i-NO! It's not Jaune! At least... not entirely..." sun-kissed cheeks reddened in embarrassed, "It's partially Jaune... it's mostly me..."

"You're worried about him, aren't you?" Ruby mused, not so much asking as she was stating what she knew was true, "We've hardly seen him for the past couple of days, I'm worried too." her silver eyes were filled with hopeful thoughts, but that hope was slowly fading.

"No I'm not-I mean yes but-I mean... dammit sis he was... he was very infuriating... he's always implied before that he wants to find a nice girl and get together and be in love and have a family, but..." the brawler trailed off, feeling a pang of fear in her heart.

"He said he didn't want you?"

"He wasn't NEARLY that specific... he said he didn't want anyone, like, anyone anyone, complete solitude. It was weird and it worried me, because he's never acted like that before." Yang's words were tinged with regret. She

"Is Jaune on drugs?" Ruby asked mostly herself, her eyes moistening with liquid worry and concern, "Nuuuuu~, Jaune isn't that mean... and he can't be on drugs, he's clean." she pouted in protest to the implications.

"I'm not sure it's that, sis." the blonde offered awkwardly while running a hand through her own hair, before she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.

Something cold, wet, and sticky was in her hair.

Her orange sherbet...

Her orange sherbet was in her hair, splattered when that faunus boy forcefully bumped into her.

Bright lilac purple eyes blinked into fiery crimson red.

"He... messed up... MY HAIR!" she took off down the street, her anger causing her aura to flare dangerously.

Ruby sped after her older sister, worry prominent in her silver eyes as she caught sight of the flaming tracks of her sister's footsteps.

---

"I feel like we've missed something." Fenerion mused as the group reached the docks.

"We might be a bit misplaced." Raiden chimed in, stroking his chin as he gazed down from their position over the massive lower area, eyeing the large cargo ship docked there, humming in intrigue and reminiscing days long gone.

"Or the cool stuff is misplaced." Evan shrugged with his words, looking around, "Like that crime scene over there."

At the brunette's words, everyone's attention shifted to an obviously broken-into Dust shop.

Six pairs of feet approached the store, their owners now filled with curiosity.

When they were close enough, Evan spoke up to the bearded police officer who was writing down some information, "Uh, *ahem* hello officer, what happened here?"

Officer Burns looked at the group, noting the diverse appearance and the presence of faunus through his trained eyes. As he finished writing down the details on the scene, he turned to them, "Robbery." he stated simply with a frown, "Second Dust shop to be hit this week." he turned and walked towards the broken window, muttering not-so-quietly "This place is turning into a jungle."

"They left all the money again." Officer Heyman said, briefly glancing back at the students.

"Yeeeah~, just doesn't make a lick'a sense." the bearded officer mused, his pistol in his hand, "Who needs that much Dust?"

"I dunno, y'naw'mean?" the scruffy-haired officer stated with a small shrug.

"You thinkin' the uh, White Fang?" Burns drew circles with his pistol as he spoke, an old habit.

"Yeah I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough." Heyman joked lightly, removing his shades and wiping his forehead.

As the two P.O.s fell into silence, they quietly watched the gathered Beaconites, listening carefully. It was common practice to 'accidentally' spill some information about a crime in front of aspiring Hunters and see how they reacted.

Sadly, these were first-years.

"Hmph, the White Fang, what an awful bunch of degenerates." Weiss crossed her arms with a frown crossing her face.

Blake's bow gave a tiny twitch as she turned her head towards the heiress, "What's YOUR problem?"

"I simply don't care for the criminally insane." the heiress stated with a small wave of her slim hand.

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths, they're a collection of misguided Faunus." the ninja stated defensively.

"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet." the fencer pointed out as though it were painfully obvious.

"I believe the best term is, ah, 'radically motivated', ladies." Fenerion butted in, "Not quite exactly er, psychopathic or misguided, but rather stationed in between."

"Yeah! And Fen ought'a know, 'cause he-" Evan was cut off with a sharp elbow to the ribs, "OW! I'm just saying he studies all manner of organizations, geez." blue-green eyes lightly glared at the blank-faced helmet of his massive companion.

"Radically insane more like." Weiss quickly shot off before Blake spoke up a bit forcefully.

"Hold on now! Whatever label we put on them, that still doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale." it was a good point she brought up, one worth some questioning.

Evan cleared his throat loudly, gaining the spotlight, "There was that Torchwick guy, y'know, the thief that the police didn't capture. He could have done it."

"It could have been either, to be honest." Luke was the next to speak up, "We need to take into account not just the type of store robbed, but also the fact that the store was robbed to begin with. The White Fang gain attention, beat their collective chests in a show of power, they put more pressure on the people in charge to do something, and the people in charge's 'something' is to fight back. It's a terrible cycle fueled by anger and hatred, and as long as they keep up their current regime, it will not change." he crossed his arms over his broad chest, "We have the endless cycle of anger and hate... or we have the thief with nothing better to do... yet honestly, it could be either one."

"Well, okay then." Raiden said slowly, drawing out each word for a second or two longer than needed, "In my personal experience, as one little taco girl once said-" the suited man's sentence was cut off suddenly by a gasp as his eyes went wide.

Evan was the first to notice his friend's state, "Raiden? Raiden!" he waved his hand in front of Raiden's face, "RAAAIIIDEEENNN~!" he shouted to snap his friend out of it

As if fallen into a trance, Raiden effortlessly batted aside his teammate's arm and ran off, lightning arcing off his legs.

The brunette grit his teeth, "Something's wrong, we gotta follow him!" he took off running after the swordsman, the others following seconds later.

Through alleys and streets they ran, following their wise friend.

Where was he going? Nobody had a clue.

---

Where was he going? He didn't have a clue.

No, seriously, Jaune had no idea where Jebediah was taking him.

The purple-eyed knight was content to simply walk down the street, whistling a low, slow tune with a lazy smile, gazing around with wise, yet curious eyes.

At some point, he turned into an alleyway for a shortcut. Several feet into it, however, he paused, his expression quickly hardening.

Jaune gazed around his field of vision, trying to discern the problem.

That's when he saw it, the shadows shifting like a murky fluid, a figure stepping out of them.

The man stood about half a head shorter than Jaune, maybe five-foot-eleven, wearing a tight smoke-gray gi and a pair of black boots. He had what looked like some sort of plastic armor plates on various parts of his body, as well as various pouches holding various items, and a upside-down y-shaped bandoleer set holding throwing knives.

What set off warning bells in Jaune's head was when the mysterious man cracked his knuckles as black energy shifted around him, forming into what appeared to be a strange set of armor that seemed to... un-glow, that is to say it darkened the air around it, and occasionally cast off little black sparks of energy. The man's torso became wrapped up in what seemed to be a ribcage with over a dozen extra rows of ribs, his arms and legs covered with what appeared to be a mixture of ribbons and armor plates, and his boots gained claws. In place of hands, he gained a pair of single-edged swords that formed underhanded like tonfas.

A skull with bull-like horns formed over his head, the hollow eye-sockets outlining his hate-filled brown eyes well.

The man opens his mouth and spoke in a voice that seemed to be two voices speaking together, one rough and deep, the other wispy and lighter, yet still masculine, "Jaune~... Arc~... the Fifth Moon that Illuminates the Night... how quaint it is to find you here..." occasionally the wispy voice overpowered the deeper one, resulting in a terrible mixture of tones, "I am Agent 4, AKA Dark Runner, but you can call me DR, or..." he rasped his blades together, "You can call me your collector! I'm Siggar, by the way, and I'm going to cut your limbs off with my shadow blades!"

'Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh shit oh shit oh shit we're gonna die he's got this crazy shadow power and we're gonna fucking die! I had a good run, I guess... at least I got my first kiss...'

'We aren't going to die, get ahold of yourself, Jaune!'

"An umbramancer, it's been a long time since I've fought one of YOU." Jeb's tone was cold and calculating.

The ninja grimaced, "Jebediah Arc? My my..." he lashed forward, but was blocked by Sanctus Mendax in shield form, "You should be DEAD old man~! No worries, though, I'll return you to where you belong soon enough... back in the hands of the reaper!" he swung his shadowy swords again, but they simply met white metal as Jebediah blocked him again. A thin, shadowy arm grabbed a pair of throwing knives from his bandoleer and threw them at Jaune's face.

Except they hit solidified aura shielding and were pocketed in Jaune's jacket.

"Just put the fucking shield down and GET HIT!" the swords rasped against Sanctus Mendax as the assassin lost his composure fairly quickly, but only came away with a small spray of purple sparks. He struck again and again, but every slash, no matter how strong or fast, was blocked almost effortlessly, "Take a fucking hit damn you!" his anger flared, as did his aura, and his blades grew longer and sharper

"It seems patience was not in your master's lessons." the knight swung Crocea Mors hard at DR's leg, cracking the armor and cutting the ribbons, only for them to reform quickly after, "But it seems that laziness was probably beaten out of you at an early stage." he smirked tauntingly, his tone still low and cold.

"A lot of other things were beaten out of me too, like how I'm going to beat the shit out of YOU! Now hold still!" he swung his blades over a dozen times, still meeting only the shield.

The veteran grimaced and then shield-bashed DR in the face, the force of the blow sending the man flying back almost twenty feet.

Siggar formed out of his armor, leaving only the leggings behind as his face looked at his master's "It's Jebediah, dude! The Shield of the People and Armor of Society! We can't beat him, his defenses are too strong!"

The brunette growled in anger, "Fuck almighty... what else does he have?"

"Since I'm the only one between us that reads the mission briefing, he has Armor and Protection, Healing and Medicine, Fire and Lightning Power, Aura Constructs with Sensory Feature, and an unknown fifth semblance from Jaune himself, as well as five pools of possibly massive amounts of aura."

"Holy shit, dude, why did the boss send me ALONE to come fight this faggot?"

"He probably intended for all of the Five to gang up on him, but we kinda went ahead on our own."

"Oh for FUCK'S sake... you're my aura, you should be helping me!" DR demanded angrily.

"You know, talking to yourself is a sign of insanity." Jebediah spoke from above the ninja, who looked up to find the knight towering over him.

"Here's some advice: RUN, BITCH, RUUUUUUUNNN~!" as if a switch had been flicked, DR ran off at a tremendous pace, his aura charging through his legs and enhancing his speed.

The blonde blinked, then realized what just happened, "Oh no you don't!" he charged his aura through his legs and took off after the brunette.

Sprinting through the streets, the knight chased the ninja in a cruel reversal of the latter's mission, as the former knew the great risk of allowing the enemy to return to their base and inform their fellows and superiors of the situation. He had to cut off valuable information from being passed along.

The brunette ran for several minutes, his breathing getting ragged, his legs growing heavy, his vision growing blurry. He called the shadow arm up and threw his throwing knives rapidly behind him, trying to stop or at least slow his pursuer.

The only result was that the knives were caught by several floating 'sticky shields' and were deposited in the knight's jacket pocket. When the knives stopped coming, he dropped the shields to preserve his aura, using his blue aura to give himself the equivalent of an adrenaline shot.

Terror began to set into the ninja's mind as time wore on and his legs grew heavier and harder to keep moving as both his aura and his energy ran low. He cursed his luck as he continued, "Shit... no matter how many times I turn, he's still chasing me! It's like... oh fuck, he can detect my aura can't he?" he turned back to see that the knight hadn't even begun to show signs of getting tired, his face still twisted into that expression of cold anger.

While he wasn't looking where he was going, he tripped over something that felt like it was either a large fire hydrant or a small person.

The yelp of surprise told him it was the latter.

Rubbing his head after getting flipped over the person's body, he looked up and saw the upside-down image of a pale face topped with pink and brown hair.

Jebediah stopped in his tracks, breathing smoothly, but heavily, "Miss Neo." he bowed slightly with a smile, "Thank you for your assistance in apprehending this scum."

Neo smiled sweetly back at the blonde, giving her own bow, "You're welcome~... what did he do~, exactly~?" she tilted her head curiously and resting the tip of her parasol on DR's forehead, bearing down slightly.

Jebediah frowned and picked DR up by his neck, his feet dangling several inches off the ground as he was taken into the alleyway, "He was sent to kill me... and I have to interrogate him, so... I ask that you look away, this could get messy."

The diminutive woman nodded sadly, turning, "I'll just take a lap around the block, then... that should give you plenty of time." while it was sad that such methods would be needed, as a Huntress and especially as a mercenary, Neo knew that it was probably the most efficient way at the moment.

"Now this is something I learned in South Mistral, I'm gonna break your fingers one at a time and see if that convinces you to tell me what I want to know." those were the last words she heard before she picked up the pace and got out of earshot.

Jaune's handsome face was now twisted into a dangerous scowl as he pressed the ninja up against the bricks with one hand around his throat, the other pinning the man's right hand against the wall, "I can tell by examining your aura residue that you use your right hand the most... if you don't want to die a very, VERY painful death, then information is the key to mercy." he took the man's pinky between two fingers, "Now talk, who sent you?"

"Your mother, she didn't want a filthy bastard like you anym-AAAAAAHHHH!" DR let out a cry of pain as his finger snapped like a twig under the amethyst-eyed knight's greataxe-like wrath.

"Wrong answer, you have 9 more tries before I move on to phase two, and trust me, phase two is a LOT worse." Jebediah's tone was so low and cold that Jaune swore he was drawing its coldness from hell itself.

"FINE! FINE! My boss sent me, big guy in black armor-"

'Luke?' "Luke?"

"Who-AAAAAHHHHHH!" DR panted as his vision began to swim as two more fingers were broken, "I don't know any Luke! Look he wants you dead because you have something he wants!"

"What does he want? And I swear if you give me a snarky answer I'll break THREE fingers this time!"

"He wants you to kiss his ass you blond basta-AAAAAAAAAAHHH-" the brunette's cry of pain ascended into an pained breath too intense to make proper sound with.

"I'll kick his ass after I'm done with you, now you're trying my patience, boy, give me an answer!"

"Okay fine fine! Jebediah, right? He wants YOU... and John, and Jack, and Jacques, he wants your fucking souls!"

"How does he know about that?"

"I don't kno-" the ninja let out a grunt and a slow, extremely pained breath as a single motion strong motion led to the breaking of his remaining for fingers as well as feeling like the bones of his palms had been reduced to a fine powder. He was headbutted and his nose broke, but...

Jebediah stepped back as he watched the man's aura flare up slightly, pure inky gray-blackness, and then the ninja stood up, completely encompassed in anger and rage as two swords formed around his broken hands, no thicker than needles, but seething with hatred.

"Round two... FIGHT!" his voice was both wispy and at the same time full of nothing but pure hatred, black cracks forming like bloodshot in his eyes. He came at the knight like a man possessed.

"What does he want with Jaune's souls?"

'Oh god I have an organization aimed at me! Who did I manage to piss off that much? I swear I'm going to apologize to every single person I've ever seen!'

'Now is not the time for panic, Jaune.'

"He wants the power for himself, as he deserves it more than you do!"

"Who is he-GAH!" Jebediah backed up as his hand was cut deeply by the impossibly sharp shadow blade.

"I'M ASKING THE QUESTIONS NOW!" DR announced forcefully as he slashed again, this time catching the knight in the side of his midriff, the blade widening and drawing blood.

'Why aren't you using your aura to defend yourself?! FIGHT HIM! DON'T LET ME DIE YOU ASSHOLE!'

Another wound that would scar was cut into the blonde's body, this one on the shoulder, 'Battle scars, Jaune, wear them with pride.'

Suddenly, the wounds flashed blue and healed with slightly paled skin and purple light glowed around the cuts in his clothing, replacing the material using nothing but his aura. The next slash was blocked by a solid shield of aura, "No... you're not." his fist crashed into DR's unprotected face, sending his careening into the dumpster, where he crumpled to the ground like a ragdoll.

'Oh god he's dead and the organization is gonna come after me and I'm gonna goddamn DIE and it's all your fault and goddammit Jebediah WHAT DO WE DO~?'

'CALM DOWN!'

'I CAN'T CALM DOWN WHEN MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE! I'M NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO TAKE RISKS LIKE THIS YOU PURPLE ASSHOLE!'

'PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER DOUGLAS!' the veteran physically froze at his own mental statement, which was more panicked than he would have liked.

His hands shook, he drew his sword.

'Who... is Douglas?'

'M-m-m-m-m-m-my... l-l-l-l-l-l-lieutenant...' Jebediah was shaking like a leaf in the wind as he picked up the groaning, hazy-minded DR.

"Fuck... you..." the ninja said as what he knew would be his last words.

"Y-Y-Y-You're... n-n-not-t-t... h-h-h-hurting... a-a-anyone... a-a-anym-m-m-more..." the sharp tip of Crocea Mors slid into the man's armpit, between his ribs, and through his heart and both lungs.

The brunette coughed as he gray eyes dried from inky to ashy gray, the life dimming in them until nothing remained.

He was unceremoniously dropped, a glass bottle at his waist clinking on the stone ground.

Jebediah breathed heavily for several seconds, 'What was that?'

'Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder...'

'No, no I could understand that part, and I do understand you've been through a lot, but~... I heard glass when he hit the ground...'

'Hm? Oh... huh... let me... check that.' slowly, his breathing came back under control as he came back to reality. The battlefields littered with corpses of humans and Grimm alike faded back into the urban environment of the streets of Vale City. The acrid and sickening smell of fire and ash, of countless gallons of blood and grimm ichor slaking the thirst of the blackened and charred earth, forming a mud of morbidity, had faded into the more gentle scent of stone, some sweat, and automotive exhaust. The sounds of gunpowder cracking off and metal weaponry clanging against bone and other metal, the screams and roars of his fellow warriors and the creatures of Grimm respectively faded into the rabble of walking, talking, and engines humming a good forty or fifty feet away.

He spit out the bile that had risen in his mouth and looked down at his fallen enemy. Kneeling, he began searching the body. Jebediah was always a little opposed to looting, but all was fair in love and war.

He removed the bandoleer from the man, placed the knives back into the little pockets they belonged in, then folded the whole thing up and put it into his stomach pocket. He examined the man's boots, "Same size as you, how convenient." he removed the footwear, using a bit of his aura to dispel the dirt, water, and dust off of them, then stored them safely away in his jacket. He moved his hands down to the man's belt, to the glass bottle that was now filling up with what looked like an inky gray-black fluid, almost like liquefied shadows. Amethyst eyes scanned over the bottle, the etched lines on the brass cap, three points, "Orion's belt..." he squinted while holding the bottle out to the light, his eyes tracing the other other points, 'Orion's helm, Orion's greaves, Orion's axe, Orion's shield... and from the etching on the glass, which has been hardened and tempered to a golden hue, this is a constellation bottle... damn, whoever hired this assassin has knowledge of ancient soul technology.'

'Soul technology? Constellation bottle? In English, please?'

'A constellation bottle holds part of a person's soul after death, part of the Chicade known as Identity, that deals with the Semblance. It would be possible, through ancient and generally evil rituals, to absorb the contents of this bottle and gain a second semblance.'

'Wow... how... how did these rituals even become a thing?'

'The ancient monks were the first scholars of Aura, they did absolutely everything they could to learn more, through any means necessary... I never read the full story, but any method, even ones that seemed like they might not grant any results... all in the name of progress... you'd be surprised what some people can think of when they're allowed to do ANYTHING...'

'Damn...'

'Look alive, Neo is coming back.' Jebediah attached the buckle to his belt, the short length of thin chain that held the bottle letting it tap against his thigh with every step.

Sure enough, the walk around the block had come to an end for the petite woman, and she stepped back into view as the knight approached the entrance of the alleyway, "Miss Neo, not a moment too late, then again a lady like yourself of course would have impeccable timing." he bowed politely.

Neo couldn't help but giggle lightly, a soft, light pink rising to her cheeks, "I suppose you've dealt with the~... scum~?"

"He was interrogated and attempted to kill me a second time... he was able to use his semblance despite not having any aura in his reserves, something I haven't ever seen, really." he answered truthfully, "But... he's been... dealt with."

"Oh~... I see~." the huntress deflated slightly, her eyes turning vanilla white and chocolate brown respectively as she gazed down the alleyway, "Well~, sometimes~ it can't be helped~."

Jaune was shocked, Jebediah was not, "Sometimes we have to do bad stuff for a good reason... we can't back down from our duties just because they might be a bit icky." he said with conviction, but ended with a laugh, smiling at her, but his mind was a storm of emotion, though none of it showed.

"Exactly~." Neo gave a slight giggle, smiling back at the blonde. Gentle AND strong? Having a heart AND an edge? To her it was delicious~. She giggled more, the soft, smooth, rich sound was sweeter than any ice cream Jaune had ever eaten.

'Damn, I didn't see her all too well before, but now?... damn.'

'What NOW, boy?'

'She's beautiful! I mean she was beautiful before, but I didn't really see it too well... but now? Yeah... damn...'

'Well keep it in your pants, Jaune, we have work to do.'

Jebediah was snapped out of his stupor by a pair of small, snapping fingers in front of his face, "Ah~, there~ he is~, back on Remnant~. Jaune~, were you even paying attention~?"

"S-sorry, I was... distracted." was the hasty, thrown-together excuse from the increasingly flustered veteran.

"I said~, would you like~ an adventure~? Still one thousand lien~." she giggled immediately after her sentence was over, a slight pink coloring her cheeks.

"W-what does that entail, exactly?"

"Simple~... k-kind of~ like that scum~, but cleaner~ and more professional~... you need someone dead~, I'll take them out for you~." she sighed as she remembered her last adventure, the corrupt politician she had taken down had surprised her with a rather large pistol, managing to get off three shots that cracked three of her ribs, "My last one ended in some whipped cream~, my ribs still ache from that encounter." she idly rubbed her fingers over the sore spot just an inch or two under her right breast, "Three doses, all on my chest."

The blonde blushed lightly, but duty called, and he gently placed his hand over her aching ribs, sending a small surge of blue aura into it, surprising the diminutive huntress with a rush of relief and relaxation, "There you go, can't have you walking around injured."

To her credit, Neo managed to confine her blush to just her cheeks, however her heart was warmed at the care and compassion Jaune showed her, the sincerity in his words, it all made her feel warm and fuzzy inside, "Th-thank you, Jaune."

"No problem, it's just some Aura, it'll be back in, like, ten, twenty minutes tops." Jebediah slowly settled down, his reactions less forced, "Since it's not yet the day I'll train with you, I suppose we have some free time... would you care to join me for some ice cream?"

Neo's reaction was immediate as her eyes widened and she let out an adorable gasp, "Ice cream~?" her voice had risen in pitch with her excited state.

Jebediah nodded and smiled wider, "Come on, I know a good place." he gestured for her to follow him.

One small finger rose up, then a swirling mixture of pink, white, and brown aura glowed around Neo's entire form, then... she changed. She appeared to stand about five-foot-one, with a head full of brown hair and rich pink eyes. Her clothes changed to a black blazer over a brown shirt and brown pants, and even her umbrella changed to a simple clear plastic tinged with light green, "Ready~... I don't like being seen~ by those who don't need to see me~."

"Disguises, nice." he chuckled lightly, 'I can only assume she's probably done quite a lot of work in town to want to go unseen like this...'

The two walked at a leisurely pace together.

---

As Raiden sprinted through streets and alleyways, the sunlight kissing his albino skin and the wind whipping through his hair, his senses screamed at him that evil was afoot, evil that would...

That would...

Tears leaked from his eyes as memories flooded forth, the hell he'd been through, he hated it.

He hated it.

He HATED IT.

He hated everything.

He HATED EVERYTHING!

Wrathful flames rose from his form as anger flowed through his veins, and he jumped, leaving a thick spiderweb of heavy cracks in the sidewalk as his legs launched him to the top of a nearby building.

Crimson anguish glowed around Raiden's tuxedo as his vision flashed between reality and his PTSD flashbacks.

Finally, the signal was near enough that he was within leaping distance.

So he leaped the distance.

...

The sidewalk shattered under his immense weight and he stood with sword instantly in hand, pointing it towards the source of the signal...

"Salll-uuutations, sir!" the five-foot-six green-eyed girl greeted innocently with a small wave, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Who are you? Who sent you?" Raiden's voice was heated and interrogative.

"My name is Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you! I'm from Atlas." she greeted automatically, as... well... it was an automated response.

Raiden glared at the girl for several moments as his optical implants scanned her, "Scans show composition is 50% iron, 12% silicon, 20% carbon, 10% copper, gold, silver, and platinum, and 8% various gases... you're a cyborg?"

"A... cyborg... no." her response was slow as she considered her words, "Would you like me to help you locate a cyborg?"

The swordsman grit his teeth, "A UG then? Interesting AI you have, you're even giving off Aura signals... how?"

"Because I have Aura?" Penny tilted her head curiously, raising her hand with her fingers parallel to the ground as strings of aura drooped down from her fingertips.

"You're obviously not human... what are you then?"

"I'm Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You already said that..." Raiden took a step closer with his sword still outstretched towards the small girl.

Penny backed away, "So I have... why are you trying to attack me?"

"I have bad experience with cyborgs, they tend to fuck the entire world up..." Raiden's aviators had slipped down his nose in his growing anxiety.

"That is... unfortunate." Penny backed away slowly, "Um... scans show 60% carbon, 15% osmium/titanium alloy, 18% silicon, 5% calcium, 2% phosphorous, and other biological material... you are very unfortunate, sir, to require a replacement of your entire biological body."

"Call me Raiden." the swordsman said as he pushed his glasses up.

"19% silicon. You are very unfortunate, Raiden." Penny corrected herself, "I assure you I am not here to commit crimes, assuming that is your concern. I am actually from the military, I stop crimes." she spoke softly, though her voice wasn't good at putting on a reassuring tone.

Raiden's anger flared up five times brighter, "You'll have to excuse me if that doesn't do anything towards endearing yourself to me. but the last military I interacted with and I aren't on speaking terms at the moment, we're more on 'war against one another' terms."

"You oppose the Atlas military?" Penny's eyes shifted slightly, "That is a crime."

"I see you weren't programmed to comprehend the concept of freedom of speech, either." he jested, retracting his sword back slightly.

Penny paused, her gears whirring as she searched for a definition to Raiden's words, "Freedom of speech... the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint... this concept is accepted in Atlesian law."

"Well, that's good." he sighed, his posture relaxing, "So, an artificial person with a real soul?"

"I do not know of the process of my creation, Raiden." Penny continued to stand nearly ramrod straight, no obvious show of body language.

"Sad... well I think you have the potential to be a good person." he offered a small smile.

Penny simply nodded, "Thank you, Raiden, but I believe 'good' is a subjective term. How will I know that I am being 'good'?"

Raiden sighed, then patted the ginger on her head gently, "You're best off figuring that out for yourself. You've got a soul, an innocent one, don't let it be corrupted. If you're a weapon, be a weapon for the right cause."

The atlesian nodded, her face turning to an expression of confusion. The ninja could see, through his massively expanded vision, that there were literal gears in her head turning.

Suddenly, he heard someone turn the corner, approaching swiftly. He turned, still tense, grabbed the approaching person.

"Whoa!" the monkey faunus coughed as he was winded and thrown almost like a baseball into the air.

The suited swordsman gave a small sound of annoyance, "Tch... well, that's taken care of." he turned to Penny, sheathing his sword finally, "So, Penny, might I ask what you're doing out in Vale City, so far from home?"

Penny perked up, "I am fighting in the Vytal Festival Tournament."

Raiden smirked slightly, "Oh? Is that so." he felt himself relaxing slightly.

The cybernetic girl raised a hand to her forehead to give a salute when the cybernetic man raised a hand to stop her, "Is something wrong?"

Suddenly, there was a not-so-distant shout from around the corner, and the ninja quickly sensed a familiar Aura signal flared brightly, "Hold that thought, friend." he turned around, aura flared up.

A furious Yang found her motions slowed to a crawl. She blinked and realized Raiden was standing in front of her, arms outstretched, casting his bright cyan aura onto her.

"Breathe, Yang, breathe." he spoke calmly and clearly.

"SIIIIIIS~!" Ruby shouted as she activated her semblance the millisecond she'd turned the corner, only to trip over a second or two of slowness, barreling into something, "OOF!"

Raiden winces as he watched the little reaper crashed into Penny, sending them both falling back onto the ground. He released the partially calmed Yang and looked her over, realizing her plight, "Here." he pulled a bottle of nanites out of his storage capacitors and set them into Yang's hair, where they removed the smearing of orange sherbet, drops of it falling onto the pavement, and when they were done, they moved and formed a small gray band holding her hair into a pretty ponytail, "There you go, good as new." he smiled at the blonde brawler, then went over and lifted Ruby up off of Penny, "You okay, Rubes?"

Ruby shook her head clear of the fog that had formed, rubbing her eyes to clear them, "Ow~." she rubbed her forehead, "What did I hit?"

Yang meanwhile felt at her hair and smiled, "H-h-hey, thanks dude." she smiled weakly, then looked around, her anger flaring up, "Now where's that faunus guy who crashed into me?" her eyes went red immediately.

"A faunus near here? The only faunus to pass by was launched that way." Penny piped up from her position on the ground, pointing in the direction Sun was thrown.

Ruby looked down at Penny once her head was clear, "Hi there!" she smiled warmly, "What are you doing on the ground?" her tone was innocently curious, and her mind was still slightly shaken from her unexpected

"You collided with me." the robot-in-disguise stated simply.

The silver-eyed huntress-in-training immediately went wide-eyed, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry." she instantly leaned down and extended her hand to help the fallen girl to her feet.

Green eyes examined the hand for a few quick moments, then Penny's pale hand reached up and grabbed Ruby's warmer hand firmly, lifting herself up off the ground, "Thank you." she gave a small nod like she had seen Raiden do.

Ruby gave the ginger-haired girl a warm and friendly smile, "Again I'm REALLY sorry~! I wasn't watching where I was going and I just-"

"Hey, think positive, Rubes, nobody was hurt, were they?" Raiden spoke up, glancing between the two short fighters.

Penny caught the prompt and gave another nod, "I was unharmed."

"Oh thank goodness! Still, I'm very, VERY sorry for running into you." the reaper started almost literally gushing out a string of soft, yet fervent apologies, feeling extremely awkward as she dusted Penny off.

Yang facepalmed and shook her head at the sight, "Rubes, calm down, it was an accident." she looked at her adorable sister with a light smile.

Ruby nodded, sighing out, "Er, right... s-still sorry, it was an accident."

"No harm was done, I forgive you, Rubes." the android reassured in her strongest tone of voice, which was lightly emotional at best.

The young scythe-wielder smiled happily, "It's Ruby, and that's my sister Yang." a pale thumb was pointed at the still-fuming blonde

Yang sighed lightly, "Yo." she raised a hand for a second before lowering it and looking to the side and at the ground, contemplating what to do now.

Penny nodded, "I'm Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you!" she shook Ruby's hand vigorously.

Ruby shook forcefully, giving herself some slack to keep Penny's handshake from dislocating her shoulder, "I-i-it's a ple-e-e-easure to meet you too-oo-oo-oo~!" her words shook with her. Thankfully, before her organs were shaken into a new arrangement, Penny released her hand, allowing the disoriented reaper to regain her bearings once more, "R-right, a-anyways, Yang and I should get back to the group, s-so..." Ruby trailed off as she took Yang by the arm, "See you later, friends." she waved at them as she and Yang turned a corner.

Penny blinked a few times, "Friends? Plural?"

"More than one." Raiden added with a small laugh, "Ruby is a very friendly girl."

"Friend~..." the robotic girl drew the word out as long as she felt necessary, feeling it, "Friend..."

"You want to be her friend?" the swordsman guessed.

Penny nodded, "A friend." she quickly leaped atop the nearest building and ran ahead.

Raiden sighed heavily, "Better get back to the group..." he leaped in a similar fashion to Penny, sending himself careening through the air towards where he sensed the others were.

...

The older of the sisters shook her head clear, "Soooo~... THAT girl was weird."

"I thought she was nice." Ruby said with a smile.

"Of course YOU'D think that, sis, you're too nice for your own good sometimes."

"Are you still mad about Jaune's panic episode?"

"What did you call me?" Penny suddenly interjected, the two sisters looking forward to realize that the orange-haired girl had somehow gotten in front of them.

Yang stepped forward with a soft expression, raising a hand, "I-i'm sorry, I didn't think you'd hear me, I didn't mean i-"

"No, not you." Penny passed Yang and closed the gap between her and Ruby's faces until only about a foot remained, "You!"

"Me? But, I, I didn't...I-I don't know, I- what I- um, uh-" Ruby stuttered as her mind scrambled to find words

"You called me friend! Am I really your friend?"

"Uuuummm~..." Ruby looked past Penny's head, towards Yang, who made a wild 'no' gesture while shaking her head back and forth quickly. Silver eyes quivered, glancing back and forth between her sister and the green-eyed girl in front of her, "Yeah sure, why not?" she gave a tiny shrug, feeling awkwardness rise up.

The pale girl leaned back as her arms shot up in celebration, "Sen~SATIONAL! Oh we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys~!" she gushed the lines she knew.

Ruby scratched the back of her head, "Hehe, hhhhhooooooowwwww about... we do that LATER... and right now, my sister and I go back to our group?"

"You have a group? Of more friends?" Penny clasped her hands in front of her chest with a pleading expression, "May I come with you to meet them?"

Yang pushed the two girls apart, "I'm sure you have someone to get back to as well, Penny, sooo~, we'll be on our way, buuut we'll catch ya later, okay?" she gave the clueless ginger a bright grin.

"Oh, o-o-okay... c-catch you later?" Penny repeated back, feeling slight frustration at the inadequacy of her voice modulators. Why had Dr. Polendina sent her out before her weekly tuneup?

Ruby waved to her new friend, "See ya later~." as she and Yang turned the corner.

Before she knew what she was doing, Penny waved back with a slight smile, feeling... happy.

She had to look up what 'happy' meant, but somehow... she knew it in her soul that that was what she was feeling.

---

Jaune felt exhausted, both physically and mentally.

He had gone over countless scenarios, literally thousands, and nothing within his current power level, he felt, could even scratch his war veteran of a grandfather.

Somehow, he'd figured out how to divide his thoughts from Jebediah's perception, which was crucial in developing a plan to taking down his enemy.

It just didn't do to have your enemy figure out your plan to kill them and figure a way around it, especially when that enemy easily had over a hundred times the experience you did.

He felt a raging fire inside. Jebediah had helped him immensely, he'd gotten a lot of the feel for taking down Grimm, and no doubt he'd physically become a lot healthier.

But as his dear mother had always said to him, an apartment full of love was worth a million times more than a mansion with no heart.

Granted, he DID live in a mansion, granted one on the smaller end of the spectrum, but it was bursting at the seams with love. He was the oldest of eight siblings, yet his parents didn't let the quantity of their love degrade the quality of their love.

He had had a very very nice childhood, he would be the first to say that. Granted he could point out flaws and problems easily, but he never went to bed without a satisfied stomach and a hug from his dear mother Juniper.

His father, John, was... a bit less obvious. He was firm, but fair. He was... eccentric, teasing Jaune all the time, but never failing to express his pride when the youth had done well. Now that Jaune knew the truth of his bloodline, he could understand his father's point of view much better.

Combat skill had always come naturally to his father. He was just... good at it. When he'd attended Beacon, he hadn't flopped around like Jaune had at first, he had hit the ground running, where as Jaune had hit the ground and sprained his ankles.

Of course, a man who'd found fighting to come easily to him, combined with both an eccentric side and a strict side, would be reasonably confused when his son didn't take to his lessons very well. Jaune just wasn't up to snuff for John's liking, so Jaune's uncle was brought in, and that went even WORSE!

Jaune couldn't get that one sight out of his mind, the sight of himself at age thirteen, being forced to put a half-dead buck out of its misery after his psychopathic uncle had run it over. The sight of its guts splattered over the forest floor, the jeep's tired tracks like a deadly tattoo over its torso, he couldn't bear to look at it as he failed to even break through the skull of it after five swings. He'd gotten angry as tears blurred his vision and he swung harder than the other five times combined, killing it instantly.

He had complained to his father, leaving out the gory details of the hunting trip but still saying that he wasn't learning anything, and his uncle was made to back off.

Of course, who would have predicted that even after trying three times harder, he still failed to muster the strength to do it?

Not his father, who he knew would have pumped him full of these blue aura steroid-like infusions to help him build muscle fast.

Really, it wasn't that his father didn't love him, he wasn't that he was an asshole or a goofball or even a bad guy... he just hadn't paid attention and Jaune hadn't realized his problems, a double-blind situation that could have been avoided if either of them had acted smarter, but they just DIDN'T...

Jaune didn't hold it against his father, he didn't even hold it against himself, really. In the end, Jaune had become strong, he was now a man he saw fit to lead Team JNPR to victory.

Victory, and glory, and fame, these things were very tempting for the youth, but the only fame he wanted was that others knew they could depend on him to do a job and do it right, and they knew he was a good man with goodness in his heart and the will of god almighty on his mind, and that will was to be the light in the darkness, and to keep moving forward.

"Being out of control of my body for about five days... has given me a LOT of time to be introspective." he said softly, laying in the soft, cool grass of the Knight's Eternal Field, as he'd come to call it.

He gazed around, the five lampposts, yellow, orange, purple, blue, and white. They spread an ample amount of milky white light around. He looked at the brick wall, ran his hand over the smooth gray surface. He gazed up at the yellow bulb sticking to it, not connected to any source of power, just purely for aesthetic effect. He looked at the waist-high pedestal on which Crocea Mors and Sanctus Mendax rested, ran a hand over the surface of the gleaming shield.

"I need to stop talking to myself, I'll drive myself crazy if I do..." he shook his head, his vision growing foggy, "What the hell?"

...

Jebediah felt a great weight crash down onto the forcefield on his back, which did not yield, "Now who is flying at me?" he turned around to see a blonde boy on the ground, twitching in pain. Sighing, he quickly gathered his blue aura into his hand and cast it to the boy, healing him and applying a painkiller effect, along with a bit of adrenaline to help it along, "Are you going to be okay?"

Sun twitched and groaned, slowly getting up as his aura worked to reduce the pain and fix the damage he no doubt had sustained from that hit against that concrete wall. Blinking a few times, his eyes focused and he realized it was not a wall he'd hit, but a fellow teenager, tall and blonde like him, but moreso than he was at five-foot-ten and with sunlight-blonde hair. He hummed a little, "What?"

"I asked you if you were going to be okay." Jebediah repeated.

"Oh, pssshhh~, that? That was nothing, dude. I've taken worse falls than that and gotten back up no problem. The name's Sun, by the way." the faunus waved off the concern with a hand while brushing his tail off with the other.

"Well met, Sun, the name's Jaune, Jaune Arc, short and sweet, and just in case you need it..." the knight cast another heal on the faunus, restoring what he could feel were heavily depleted aura reserves, while Jaune felt a feeling like his arm was on fire... healing other people hurt him a LOT, he realized, "Sooo~... Sun, if you're thirsty or hungry, I was going to a place with a friend of mine, there's ice cream, coffee, tea, and various types of little snack foods and meals." he pointed his thumb backwards towards the store just down the block.

Sun tilted his upper body and had a brain fart moment, "Is she the store?" he nearly facepalmed at his own statement, gazing at the small woman quickly jogging up to Jaune with red cheeks.

"S-sorry~ for running ahead~, I don't know~ what came over me~." her voice was smooth and rich, then she gazed up at Sun, "Oh, hello~ there sir~, I see you've met Jaune. I'm Hollie, nice to meet you." she held out a slim hand for him to shake.

Sun shook it while staring blankly at 'Hollie', "Uh... you're short."

Hollie pouted, "Don't~. Mention~. That~... or I'll bust your knees." she clenched her fist.

The shorter blonde backed up a step, "You've got quite the firecracker of a girlfriend here."

Purple eyes widened immensely, "N-no! She's not my girlfriend, she's my tutor."

Unseen by Jebediah, but clear to Sun, was how Hollie deflated at his statement, but Sun chose to say nothing about that and just nod back, "Right then... so... tea?"

"And ice cream~!" the short woman said with a grin as she rushed back towards the store, the knight jogging after her.

Gray eyes watched the two of them, then the Mistralian shook his head, "This town is getting weird... eh, she's easily a twenty-three out of ten, totally worth it."

...

Hollie poked at Sun's necklace, "What's this~?" her tone was smooth and polite.

"It's a necklace." Sun replied boredly while waiting for the waitress to return with his jasmine tea and... whatever the other two had ordered, he hadn't been paying attention.

"I mean why kind~ of necklace~?"

"It's a necklace my dad gave me before I started at Haven Academy."

His fellow blonde hummed, "The school in Mistral? You're very far from home then."

"Nah, I grew up in Vacuo." Sun corrected with a smile, "It's a really nice place if you can ignore the blazing hot days and freezing cold nights, or the foggy-as-fuck days and the cold-as-fuck nights, depending on where you live. I happen to be from the plains between the ocean and most of the deserts, nearest the island of Napan. We're~... a bit more traditional, in some ways, despite rampant industry."

Jebediah smirked, "Well it sounds very nice. So you're a Huntsman-in-training, eh? Same here, I'm attending Beacon."

"No shit, really? That's pretty cool." the faunus silently thanked the powers that be that he finally had his tea.

"Yeah, and leeeetttt meeee tell you~, it's quite the adventurous time."

---

"This is quite the adventurous time!" Luke said over the hum of the wind as they ran through the streets.

"Why are we running again?" Weiss shouted as she breathed very heavily.

Evan looked ahead, "Raiden running off does NOT mean good things!"

Suddenly, there was an explosion of noise and dust from the sidewalk a couple dozen feet in front of them.

Evan stopped, shortly followed by everyone attempting to stop too, however the combined momentum and imbalance caused all five members of the two teams to collapse into a pile of tangled bodies and limbs.

"I... hope I'm not interrupting anything." Raiden said with a small laugh, "False alarm, guys."

Evan pulled himself out of the pile by sheer force of will, dusting himself off and helping Fenerion up and off of Blake, "Dude, don't scare us like that! We thought it was an emergency!"

"Sadly, or rather thankfully, no it was not, the danger was simply a conceived threat, the concept preceding any investigation, but too imminent to be ignored." he pale swordsman explained as he effortlessly helped Luke up with one hand and Weiss with the other, "Now then, Ruby and Yang are currently moving to rejoin us." Raiden revealed as he pulled out his scroll, "I already texted them and told them to meet up with us in the shopping district, on the corner of Redwood and Goldbloom.

To his word, the others followed, feeling that getting some supplies was a good thing to spend their time doing.

---

Sun Wukong was many things.

He was wise sometimes, as he had a lot of life experience.

He was hot, many girls drooled over his rock-hard abs, which he proudly displayed with his open shirt.

He was fast, he could fire four shotgun shells in a second with his weapon, and he could run from all of the police officers he'd ever encountered (which was why he wasn't in jail right now).

He was a great stowaway, given that he could stay still for hours without a peep, even if he didn't want to. It was that monk-like peace that he hoped to one day be able to harness in combat, that zen state that would grant him unbelievable power.

He was a good guy, in the traditional sense. Even if he got in trouble for not paying for things and got police called on him more often than he could stop and take a leak, he still genuinely wanted to help people and stop the BIG criminals, the ones that stole valuable things and mugged people and committed murders and terrorism.

He was now feeling like he could add 'brain damaged' to that list, but only if he facepalmed as hard and as many times as he wanted to.

Jebediah whistled lowly as he walked, feeling more relaxed after having a more 'normal' time with friends, "Hollie is a nice woman... a little more touchy-feely than I was comfortable with, but to each their own." he smiled, both minds mostly unaware of the petite woman's desires.

Sun facepalmed, all but holding back his desire to grab the larger blonde, shake him by the shoulders vigorously, and shout, 'She's into you, dammit!' before slapping him a couple times in the face for good measure. Instead, in a show of self-control, he replied with a hum and a "Yeah." before putting his tense hands in his pockets, "So... how's Beacon life on the day-to-day?"

"Well... as I said I live in a room with two females and one fellow male. Thankfully their respective natures offer the same quick shower-time routine, so I'm not scrambling to prepare every day. JNPR is myself, Jaune Arc, then Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos-"

"The four-time champion of the Mistral Tournament?"

"The same, she's actually my partner! We fought a Deathstalker together... I was a lot more pathetic when that happened."

"Whoooaaa~... dude, Deathstalkers are like, BIG DEAL Grimm, not even talking about how they're fucking huge." Sun looked up at his fellow blonde, "Did you win or run away?"

"We ran away the first time... it threw me to the goal area, and it chased Pyrrha all the way there... we later had Nora smash it to death and it fell off a cliff." he noted, grimacing, "It almost killed one of our own... luckily his aura was strong in its defense." he sighed, "My team, strangely enough, is tied for the top ranks with Team RWBY, granted each of my teammate's skill levels are above the norm, yet even in Beacon, 2nd place is still quite the achievement." he smirked, "Maybe if I keep improving at my current rate, we'll even become number one."

"Daaaaamn, we're still, like, number five, but being in the top five isn't bad." the faunus smirked, recalling his teammates.

"Oh, hey, speaking of that, why aren't you in Haven right now?"

"Kinda stowed away on a ship over here. The tests were coming up and if I'm not there, I can't fail, now can I?"

"Hehe, no, no you can't... but you can't pass either."

"I don't care about my grades, I just care about results." Sun scoffed lightly, his gaze lowering.

"You want results, do you? What kind of results?"

"The kind that make me strong enough to defend a village alone or to beat my way through an army of darkness. Strength of body, strength of mind, y'know? My dad taught me that."

Jebediah smirked, not a cocky or a teasing smirk, but one of understanding, "You're more intelligent than you let on, Sun." he turned to the shorter man, "If you weren't so keen on stealing food and playing pranks, I imagine you'd be able to channel your strength of body and mind and be an excellent Huntsman." he gave the faunus a pat on the back.

'Don't think that growing on me is going to let you off of being killed.'

'You just will NOT let that go, will you? Fine, if you still wish to fight me after my good behavior, it is only proper knight behavior that I accept your challenge and put forth my best efforts.'

"So um... there are guest dorms here, right?" Sun asked suddenly.

Jebediah looked around and realized that in a haze of friendly banter and chatting, they'd gone back to Beacon.

How he missed the walk to the airship building and getting on the airship itself, he had no idea, he was usually more focused than this, but there were too few neural connections in Jaune's brain to support his normally much more massive intelligence.

"Uh... yeah, it's the G building." he recalled.

Beacon had many buildings in its complex, dormitories and classrooms, the training hall, the assembly hall, the cafeteria, Ozpin's office, the CCT building, it was all used on a daily basis and it seemed like not a single square inch of the entire academy was wasted.

"Thanks... I'm probably not gonna be using it at all, but it's nice to know for future reference." Sun said simply as he started walking towards the complex, "So~... I thought it'd be smaller..."

"Everyone thinks that at first, I hear." the veteran chuckled, smirking, "So do you want to just roam or are you just going to immediately go back to town?"

"I was thinkin-hubba HUBBA." the staff-wielder's eyes went wide as he picked out something in the darkness.

Jebediah looked ahead, jogging closer as he saw a small figure getting closer to the statue of Jacques Arc and Corsage Rose. He got closer with quiet steps, figuring out it was Blake quite easily from not only the lengthy, shadowy-black tresses she had, but the bow on her head.

He watched her head's motions, first turning to Jacques, then the Corsage, then finally to the Beowolf under the cliff they stood atop. Her hands raised towards her head slowly.

"Blake?" he said in a soft tone, stepping closer.

The ninja spun around, looking at the handsome blonde approaching her, "J-j-jaune?" her eyes were slightly reddened from the crying she'd done along the way.

"What happened?"

"It... it was Weiss and Luke... against Raiden and me..." she sniffled, her hands falling to her side, "Their words were... so hateful... Luke said that only those who had defected upon the turn to violence could be forgiven... Raiden talked about justice... and I... I fucked up, to be honest." she sniffled again, a sob wracking her form.

She felt a soft warm around her body, along with a gentle pressure and a feeling of safety. She looked up at the knight's face and saw the purple eyes staring down at her with a caring compassion.

'Fine, you steer the conversation... if she IS talking about the White Fang, then I don't see the point of even being friends with a former criminal, especially a murderer and a terrorist.'

'BLAKE IS A GOOD GIRL! She wouldn't do those things without reason! The eighth sin, gramps, despair? Yeah, that's a thing!'

"It's okay~." he gently petted the back of her head, holding her in a brotherly and reassuring hug, "It's not your fault... society just isn't fair... a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters can't be expected to come to a consensus." he chuckled softly, kissing the top of her head and comfortingly rubbing her back.

Blake felt peace fill her, "What do I do?"

"Come with me and my monkey without a typewriter." he chuckled, earning a distant 'Hey!' from Sun, "We'll get some tea, stay out of the way, and come back once everyone's cooled down, okay?"

"... okay." she agreed with a meek tone, burying her head in the blonde's unarmored chest, thankful this new outfit had foregone it in favor of style.

"Sooooo~... is she your girlfriend then?" Sun asked bluntly, hands still in his pockets.

"I-" "No." Blake was interrupted by Jebediah's sudden answer, "But I'll be damned before I let a friend fall into despair when I could have helped her. Faunus or no, White Fang or no, Blake Belladonna is my friend and I will help her by any means necessary."

Golden eyes looked up at the knight as he cradled her shuddering form in his warm, muscular arms. She took a few moments to sneak a few feels of his biceps and forearms, pleased with the texture and mentally noting to thank and possibly pay Pyrrha and Yang for the good work they did.

Walking, they returned to the airship.

"Back so soon?" an attendant asked in confusion.

"Forgot to do something in town." Jaune answered, before Jebediah took the reins again, "We'll be back before the final flight runs."

Blake's form was still lightly shivering from the cold, which she never was able to take well, but Jaune's warm embrace comforted her, even if his cold metal shoulderguards were especially cold.

Throughout the short nighttime ride, Blake sat snuggled up to Jaune, feeling the warmth his body offered and taking it for her own, instincts guiding her while her mind recovered from the fiasco earlier, not a single thought entering her head.

Sun looked at the two, noting the affection in his fellow faunus' eyes as she clung almost desperately to his fellow blonde, 'They HAVE to be a couple, that concern, that closeness... nobody just HAS that, right? And I sincerely doubt she's his sister...' he mused silently, thinking of the implications of both this and the woman named Hollie.

If Jaune knew about Hollie's affections and was pretending to not notice, could it be because he was with a friend of Blake's? It made some sense, given his conviction to help her.

He'd have to just wait and see, he guessed.

---

"Did I ever tell you... the definition, of insanity?" the man asked with murder in his eyes.

"Is it me? I'm betting it's me." the other man, clad in a dark blue t-shirt and whitish pants, with large, heavy-looking blue anklets and bracelets that seemed out of place with his casual clothing.

"What? N-no, it's-"

"OH! Maybe it's YOU! Y'know, for attacking ME?"

"I... don't follow you." the man was now only confused.

"Let me explain..." he cleared his throat, "My name is Johnathan Crucifix Arc, X-Class Huntsman and Official Badass, at your service." he served the line with a smile.

"Wait, Huntsman?" the attacker's eyes widened, then purple light flashed over John's body, and his blue bracelets and anklets seemed to have... well, it seemed like their mass shifted, turning into a suit of halfplate armor while he reached to his back, pulling off a sheathed sword and patting it in his hand.

"Mine's bigger than yours, in case you couldn't tell." he looked down at the small knife the mugger chose to use, "This is the part where you run away."

The ratty-looking man turned tail and sprinted away with a fear-filled haste, leaving the blonde man laughing as he put Crocea Mors away and his armor shifted back to its base form.

Standing tall and proud like he always did, he turned and looked at his wife with a winning smile, then at his son with a softer, more fatherly smile, "Now son, what have we learned?"

A young Jaune stared at his father, unsure, "Uhhhhh... be tougher than your attacker?"

"Well... no that's not really a very practical lesson, I mean... bahhh~, nevermind~." he waved off the question with a motion of his hand.

"Dyat was AWESYOME, dyaddy!" Sakura, or Kira as she preferred, cheered from her position of piggyback riding his wife, her small frame just large enough to hold onto her mother's own short frame. Her tail waved around slowly, her little kitty ears twitching and wiggling excitedly.

"Yes it was, sweetie, yes, it, was~." he smirked, "Now how about we go back to enjoying this lovely day, hm? That mugger didn't take anything physical from me, so let's not let him take the feelings of this good time we're having, shall we?"

"Nope! I knew you were gonna make him either run away peeing his pants, or kick his butt so hard he fell unconscious!"

"Nyeah~! Dyaddy kyicks byutt!" Kira cheered excitedly, pulling out a couple of fishy crackers from the pouch on her belt and eating them, kindly offering her big brother one as well, which he happily and politely took.

This was life... it was nice...

---

'Mmmmmm~... w-whaaa~? Huh? What happened?'

'You fell asleep. Just because your mind is not "linked" to your body does not mean it doesn't fatigue. During your rest, you missed some things.'

'WHAT? What did I miss?'

'Well... Sun went off to "crash" somewhere, Blake is staying at a decently clean hotel that I paid for, I looked over our gains from our fight with Dark Runner, and I'm currently situated in an abandoned home that I dusted with a bit of aura manipulation while thinking over what to do next.'

'Oh... I have an idea on what to do next.'

'Is it killing me?'

'No, it's brutally murdering you for the shit you did before! Even if you make me some new friends, that's not going to replace the ones I've probably lost because of you! Now come on, why aren't we back at Beacon?'

'I... missed the last flight back. If you truly want to return, then I suppose I could make the trip through the Grimm-infested forest to get back to Beacon.'

'I... guuueeesssss~... that a Grimm-fighting trip to Beacon would be good. Alright, do it.'

Exiting the building carefully, since it was nighttime, Jebediah took off in a sprint, aura pumping through his legs and hips to enhance and maintain his speed. Taking to the rooftops with a mighty leap, he traveled even faster with jumps and lunges.

Pouring on the speed, he leaped with all his might and went over the city's walls and into the forest, grinning from ear to ear, 'Now you see the results of my training, no?'

'That... admittedly was pretty badass!'

'So you agree I'm not ALL bad, right?'

'Oh I knew that before you even first manifested in my soul. Dad used to talk about you, he doesn't anymore, but he did. I used to think you were SO cool, that you were the hottest shit possible, that you were the kind of hero that I looked up to being... then I met you... and I found out that you're a strict, unfriendly, unforgivable ASSHOLE! You haven't even so much as met Yang's gaze since you had my mouth and my voice yell at her. You haven't even eaten at the same time as my other friends. The only socialization you've done is with Raiden, Coco, Neo, and now Sun, and the fact that you've pushed my body to the past its limits and not, even, SLEPT... shows that you're unwilling to hand control back to me, you asshole piece of shit CUNTFACE!'

'...'

'What's wrong? No snarky comeback? No talk about how I'm just a child and should shut my fucking mouth? No lecture on respecting my elders? SAY SOMETHING DAMMIT!'

'... saying things... was never my specialty... my father had that... not I... I was captain of the Grifball team... yet I was bullied by them for focusing on my mind rather than my body... when I graduated it was a godsend, and when the war started, I was all for it. I had pride in my country the likes of which you wouldn't believe. I was on Atlas' side when it came to ending The Great War... your father moved there briefly after his success in graduating from Beacon... he met your mother and they left to start a family in Vale... I moved to Vale not too long after, and died in battle after I missed your birth, having put fighting before family... I'm sorry.'

'I... I see... I... suppose that I can accept your apology... and I will be putting you out of your misery later.'

'Oh you have GOT to be FUCKING KIDDING ME! I spill my heart out to you and you STILL persist in the desire to strike me down? WHY?'

'Just because I see and understand your reasoning does not mean that I think it is valid reasoning for pissing off my friends. I'm pretty sure they all think I'm growing distant because I'm depressed or something! If they think that then they'll think I need to see a counselor, then everything snowballs from there, I develop actual mental issues from all the poking and prodding, and I lose all my friends because I end up turning into an asshole! I! DON'T! WANT! THAT! I want to have a nice simple life with my simple goals and simple likes and simple dreams. I want to have a nice house and a nice car and a nice family and go out and kill Grimm during the day and come back home to a piping hot home-cooked meal and love from my wife and child(ren) and talk to and go out and have fun times with my friends. I can't just BE ALONE, growing up with both parents and seven lovely and precious little sisters, along with several great friends, has left me unable to manage being alone except for special things, like watching the sunset or sitting in the rainfall or stargazing or stuff like that...' Jaune stopped and sighed, shaking his head, 'Look... the message at the core of this rant is that while I respect you, I don't like you, and I may never truly like you, so stop trying to make me like you because you're just adding more pieces to the puzzle that in the end, I'M going to have to solve... and I don't particularly care for having more on my plate than I need to.'

Jebediah remained silent, "So... when do you think you'll be ready to go back?"

Blake sighed, "Probably... tomorrow... can you please... just... hug me?" she squeezed his form as she slipped her arms into his jacket and wrapped them around his chest.

"S-sure." Jaune replied, Jebediah going a bit more quiet and letting him speak.

The ninja responded with a soft hum of gratitude, cuddling herself against the knight as she took in his warmth and comfort.

---

Jebediah watched Sun hold his teacup with his tail, musing on the usefulness of that. Together, they had gone to a nice cafe with a rooftop section, where they helped themselves to a table.

Blake sighed after drinking her whole cup of chamomile tea in one go, looking between the two blonds with her with a slightly glassy look in her eyes, "So... you two have probably both figured it out... yes, I was once part of the White Fang..." she sighed again, this time very heavily, as if letting go of a weight that was on her, "I was in it for most of my life... I was practically born into it. Back then, I was an idealistic child, and I grew into an idealistic teenager, even as the claws came out. I learned to fight outside of the kingdom, I was as bad of a criminal as you could get without using bombs or murder. I made it a point to not kill anyone... and one day, my partner... one of the leaders of the White Fang who had taken a special interest in me..." she began to tear up, "We were on a mission together, and he wanted to blow up a whole train car full of Dust... I left before that mission could be completed. I don't know what happened, I cut the ties both figuratively and literally, and left him and the cart stranded in the forest. I don't care what happened to him... he's not a part of my life anymore... and I'm not going back to their side."

The knight listened intently, and when the tale was fully told, he gently took the ninja into his arms as she began to shudder and cry.

Blake held onto Jaune as his aura began to glow a soft neon purple around them, filling her with a feeling of safety and comfort, and she felt a connection form as her pain inside lessened and lessened.

Jebediah sighed, "It's going to be okay... that life is over... Blake the Fang is no more... now you're Blake the Huntress-in-training... and one day you'll be Blake the Huntress, and people will love and respect you." he ran a hand through her soft, ribbony hair, feeling its plushness and warmth. He smiled down at her as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes. he gently kissed her forehead rubbing the back of her head and neck, and down her back in comforting, petting-like motions that soothed the cat faunus.

Blake felt conflicted. On one hand, the motions Jaune was making reminded her of younger years living with a family that she later found out only took her in because her father abandoned her and her half-sister's mother for reasons unknown. She had left to go do good for faunus-kind with the White Fang at only four, leaving her eight-year-old half-sister and her mother behind for a new life. She had said sister's number somewhere, just not somewhere she remembered at the moment. They hadn't talked in two years, but from what she understood, Naoto was now a detective of sorts, and had issues with her own femininity and faunus heritage.

Blake thankfully did not have issues with the first, but the second was... well she knew that if she was a human, life would be at least twenty times easier for her, and she had severe confidence issues. Growing up with people constantly hating or berating you for being different tended to drag you down. Compounded by her issues with Adam and Adam's issues with anger and his inability to put things lightly or sugarcoat them, and you get a condition where the thing you see in the mirror is something you despise.

However on the OTHER hand, that pain, that great and ever-stabbing pain in her heart, was waning in Jaune's presence. If only slowly and slightly, it at least took the edge off it, made it more bearable to live with.

She felt like he was a drug, one that she... well she wouldn't mind getting addicted to. She saw his qualities plainly, and now they were all multiplied by his acceptance of her bloodstained past. Jaune's value to her was now polished to a sheen.

Then it happened...

"Nyaaaaaaooooaaawwwn~." she let out an elongated, feline yawn.

'Okay... putting aside my hate of you for a minute... CUUUUUUTE~!'

Blake buried her face in Jaune's chest, hiding her powerful blush, "I'm tired... and I don't want to go back to the room."

"Hey, don't worry." he reassured her while soothingly rubbing her back, "I'll pay for a hotel room, you sleep there for the night, then go back in the morning."

"That's... nyice and all." the faunus blushed while yawning again, her control over her voice slipping a bit, "I... don't want to go back in the morning... or tomorrow afternoon... I don't want to go back AT ALL."

Jebediah paused, but Jaune spoke up, "No, don't talk like that." he forced her to look at him, easily overpowering her weak motions, "Listen, Blake Belladonna. You are a wonderful person, flaws be damned, past be wiped, you, yourself, and the person you are... that being is a good person. A good person doesn't run away from their friends in hard times, they cling tighter to that friendship, you depend on your friends as much as they depend on you. You're a whole fourth of Team RWBY, and you know what a Ruby is without a B?"

"N-n-nyo?" she stuttered out, her mind still reeling.

"A Rue... and rue is what you're going to do when you think back on this decision if you make this choice. I don't mind waiting a day or two, the hotel can be paid for, it's just money and I can get more easily, but what I CAN'T get more of easily is friendship... replacing the payments you make with money is a lot easier than replacing the payments you make with friendship, do you understand?"

Blake stared at Jaune's face, at the strong structure of it, his smooth skin and handsomeness, marred only by a large scar running perpendicular to his jawline... a scar she'd caused from her mistake... and if what Jaune said was true, then this mistake she was thinking of making was going to leave a lot worse of a mark that a simple scarring of the skin.

After a while, she gently ran her thumb over the mark, "I hurt you so badly... could have killed you... and you still treat me so nicely... why?"

"Hey, come on now, near-death experiences don't get me down. Yang nearly caved my skull in but I forgave her and we kept on being friends. I can heal a broken bone, but I can't so easily heal a broken friendship." he smiled his charming smile, "So come on, do I have to do what I do with my sisters to get you to cheer up?"

Her bow twitched slightly, "How do you cheer your sisters up?"

Jaune chuckled, then grinned a wide, happy, cheesy grin, and then..."Ryibbit."

Blake couldn't help but find the way the combination of his expression, his tone, and the sound itself came together to be ridiculously hilarious, and burst out into a fit of giggles.

While the knight and the ninja spoke, the monk watched them, musing, 'I fear what might happen if Jaune has dumb-lucked his way to grabbing the attention of more than two girls...' he drained his teacup and set it down, his mouth turned into a thin crease as he thought on the issue.

Vale was... an interesting kingdom.

---

Weiss was pissed, to say the least.

After being talked down upon by Raiden, having her support from Luke dismissed by a call, and now without someone to talk to, she was sulking.

Ruby looked at the sad heiress from her position atop her bunk, her head upside down as she looked over and around the edge, "Don't be sad, Weiss."

The heiress flinched at the sudden voice, immediately followed by a squawk of surprise from seeing Ruby upside down, "RUBY! Don't surprise me like that!"

The reaper nodded with a light frown, flipping off her bunk and landing expertly beside her partner on her bed, "You wanna talk about it?"

"I 'wanna' cave Blake's skull in for siccing that Raiden fellow on me. The nerve of him, calling me immature." she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted in indignation.

"I agree with one thing, and that is that Yang is the most immature of all of us."

"Hey~." came Yang's weak retort, rolling over to face her sister and her partner, "I am not immature~... I'm probably the only one of us who's ever drank alcohol."

"You still have Captain Clawsy." Ruby pointed out, "He's under your pillow and I saw you pull him out when that storm hit a couple weeks ago."

"Captain Clawsy?" Weiss repeated in confusion.

"A stuffed tiger toy she got from the Gravelstone Pier a few years back. It has an attachable sea captain's hat."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I did not get it intentionally. I was playing that stupid rigged bottle game and I lost and then some boy won it and gave it to me." the brawler explained, pouting at her sister.

"And you kept it, so obviously you liked it." Ruby added with a teasing grin, happy to finally have the tables turned on her older sister.

"Sh-sh-shut up~!"

Weiss joined in, feeling that a little lighthearted fun-poking would cheer her up, "You still play with stuffed animals, that's easily more immature."

Yang buried her head in her pillow, pouting before turning her head away, mumbling something just barely inaudible.

"What was that?" Ruby craned her neck to hear Yang's grumbling.

The blonde turned to her teammates, "I SAID~!... Stupid cute boy with his stupid blonde mop and his stupid pretty blue eyes and his stupid cute face and his stupid stylish clothes and his stupid gaming knowledge and HOLY SHIT!"

"Swear!" Ruby called out and looked for the swear jar, only to blink and recall that it was still back home, "Er... nevermind... but what is it, sis?"

"I just remembered! The boy! The boy who got me the toy! Blonde hair, blue eyes, cute face, black button-up, blue jeans, black sneakers, orange bandanna around his neck... IT WAS JAUNE!"

Weiss and Ruby looked at each other, then at Yang, speaking at the same time, "You sure?"

"I'm pretty sure he's the only blonde guy our age who'd have the two crescent moons symbol thingy." Yang pointed out, grinning widely, "Haha~!"

It was at this point the fencer slipped, "Dammit she's already so ahead..." her thoughts slipped out into spoken words.

"So ahead?" Ruby questioned, looking at Weiss, "What's she ahead in, Jaune liking her?..." realization spread across Ruby's face, "DON'T TELL ME YOU WANT HIM TOO!" she cried out in disbelief.

Weiss blushed, then gently placed a hand on Ruby's back... and forcefully shoved her off the bed, "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! He took me to church and I felt really uplifted and it was nice and I realized that he's not some greedy asshole, he's just a kindhearted fool! DON'T BE A DUNCE!" the white-haired girl covered her whole body tightly in her blankets, not speaking.

Yang sighed, feeling a storm on the horizon... something was going to happen, something big.

---

Jebediah sighed, feeling an omen, a crackle of distant thunder, "A storm is rising... and here I am lying... lying under the open sky, waiting for the rain to pour, to pour down on my... on my heart, and wash away... wash away the pain I'm feeling... and when it's done... I'll see the light of day." he made the poem up as he went, speaking in a broken scheme as he walked with his hands in his pockets, trying to clear his reeling mind.

An unfamiliar voice spoke up, "You know... that actually describes my feelings quite well." a tall man, slightly taller than Jaune, stepped out into the open. His hair was brown with heavy red highlights, his eyes were covered by a pair of white-rimmed sunglasses, and he wore a black trench coat over a smaller, lighter coat. His hands were covered by thick brown gloves, "Who are you?"

"J-jaune, Jaune Arc, and you?" his hand fell to Crocea Mors on his belt, but didn't quite touch it, instead resting near it.

"Just call me Adam." the man, now identified as Adam, said, "So... what are you doing in this part of town?"

"Walking, trying to clear my head, hoping not to pick any fights, but prepared in case someone picks one for me." he explained, noticing the weapon poking out from under Adam's trechcoat.

"I see... well... I'm in a good mood tonight, so walk with me and nobody will be... picking fights for you." the faunus couldn't explain it... something about this blonde boy intrigued him, and despite being armed he seemed to be so afraid and meek. If it came to a fight, Adam was sure he'd win.

"Thank you, Adam, you're a good egg and a greater man." Jebediah said with a small laugh, trying to lighten his own mood.

"Tch, many would disagree with you."

"Well many would be wrong. Call it a hunch but I assume you've got goals for goodness."

"What makes you say that? I could be leading you into an ambush."

"First off, nobody who would actually be leading me into an ambush would actually say that they could be leading me into an ambush. Secondly, I can tell by the way you walk. A subtle confidence, humility shining above your own pride. Perhaps you're fighting for a lost cause, or maybe you feel it's lost. Whatever you're fighting for, I implore you to have faith." he smiled a warm, friendly smile at the slightly taller man.

Adam nearly stopped walking as his mind mulled over the new information. He was feeling down on his luck after having to punch his way out of a failed mission, and seeing a dozen men get taken down and taken into custody. He had come out here to muse and to drink, but the bar he usually went to was closed for renovations, leaving him dry.

Then out of nowhere, a fancy-speaking human boy walks past his alleyway of brooding, describing his feelings pretty accurately.

If he could just have one lucky break, he'd be happy. Just one, even if only one, he could remember it.

"You look like you want to scream your frustrations out to the heavens." the veteran piped up, his tone mildly amused.

"Don't we all, sometimes?" the samurai replied simply, laughing lightly for a second or two.

"I've felt like it since I left the motel..." the knight looked at his shoes, "I've been rather down on my luck. I've felt like someone wants to kill me, I was attacked earlier today, my friends have fought and divided themselves over the petty arguments of affiliations with the White Fang... in all honesty, to me it doesn't amount to a molehill."

"I'm afraid I don't understand. Explain."

Suddenly, Adam found himself slammed against the brick wall behind him, hard enough that the bricks cracked from the force. An expression that should have been impossible for a face so young to make had formed on Jaune's visage, the face of a man who had looked into the abyss and seen its own eyes looking back at him. "It doesn't fucking matter in the end! White Fang, Black Fang, Red Ranger, Atlesian, Valean, Mistralian, Vacuan, human or faunus or halfway between or halfway out, man woman and child, teenager senior infantpregnantmothersanddyingmothersALLOFITDIES!" he lost his composure, his strength failing him as he released Adam and fell to his knees crying, "The Grimm don't see a difference between the mightiest Hunter and the lowliest scum, they see life not their own and they want to snuff it out, to destroy it. A man who lives his life smiling... might not get famous, but he also has a far lower chance of being torn limb from limb by a Beowolf." he coughed in the cold night air, "My family is a line of heroes, people who save others and make them feel happy and safe."

"Ah, a destiny you don't want to uphold, maybe?" Adam didn't read often, nor did he often feel sympathetic, but crying people just seemed to... get to him, every time. The throwing him backwards thing was more forgivable, he wasn't even really hurt by it at all, just more confused.

"No, I want nothing more to be a hero, to save lives and to be the one they sing about. I want to bring happiness to everyone." his aura flared up around him, a purple neon that flickered and popped like a fireplace running out of fuel, "My father is a healer who could touch a thousand lives and ask for only smiles in return, my grandfather defended people with not a single thought for his own injury, my great grandfather fought with speed matched only by few and his charisma shone with all the colors of the dawn and the dusk, and my great great grandfather imagined and created machinations that influence science to this day, and he was one of the men who ended the Great War... how am I supposed to live up to that?"

"I... have no fucking clue." the faunus shrugged, "But just be yourself, it should come to you. It came to them, so it'll come to you." he reassured, shaking the blonde by his shoulder.

Jebediah felt something welling up inside of him... and promptly stood up, leapt to a nearby rooftop, and proceeded to throw up.

"Well I have literally nothing to do all week, so I'm feeling like an outside voice might keep me sane." the brunette said as he jumped up to land a few feet away from the blonde.

"Heh, lucky me, I've made a new friend." the knight cringed as he used his aura to reabsorb the vomit residue in his mouth, cleaning it out better than water rinsing could, but still leaving a sour taste in his mouth, "I guess this deserves a celebration. You wanna get some beer?"

"Haha, you're speaking my language." Adam grinned almost viciously.

Standing up tall and a lot more proud that before, Jebediah took the lead and sought out a bar.

---

Darkness, laughing voices, fear.

Four of them, one of her, all of them so much older and bigger and stronger.

She wants to be strong.

MOM!

No!

Her cloak was taken from her, ripped away from her body by the cruel hands of a bully.

She... HATED... bullies...

Suddenly, a shining golden light. Sister? No... this was a boy. Her sister was not a boy, she knew from simple logic.

Still, she was only five years old, how could she be blamed for at first confusing her sister for someone else?

"RUN!" he said to her as his fists started swinging, hitting the faces and bodies of people older than him, but not that much larger.

She ran, she hid at the top of the slide as the fight continued. She started crying and crying and crying.

Suddenly, she felt a presence to her side, looking she blearily confused the figure for one of the bullies and shrieked, throwing a quick jab and sliding down the slide, softly collapsing at the bottom as she landed on her tiny rear.

The boy took the blow and hopped off the steps up to the slide, ignoring the gravel that dug into his hands, focusing on the task at hand. He walked briskly over to her, stopping in front of her and helping her up.

"Sssshhhhhhshshshshsh~... it's okay~." he hugged her softly, smiling reassuringly, like her sister would, but also like a boy, so... like a brother would?

However he did it, his embrace felt comforting to her. and her tears slowed and ceased, "They... t-t-t-took my cloak..."

"Yeah~... but I took it back." he held up the red mass of fabric, smiling at her.

She was awestruck. A hero out of nowhere, and he was hardly older than her! She put it on, feeling safe and warm inside it, and looking up at him, "What's your name?"

"Uh... just call me Luna." he said awkwardly, smiling sheepishly.

She accepted it without hesitation, "Thank you, Luna." she kissed his cheek without a second thought, smiling happily.

He looked at her, then at his watch, "Oh well look at the time it's close to three o'clock so I should get going." he ran off through the opposite entrance to the playground as she had come in.

She watched him go, reaching out futilely just as her sister arrived. Who was he? Why did he help her? What made him run off?

With no answers, she still felt clear on one thing. She wanted to meet him again.

Ruby yawned and stretched as she rose from her bed, looking around the room with bleary eyes before rubbing the sleep out of them. Seeing a black figure in Blake's bed, she smiled, but when her vision cleared, she saw it was just Fenerion, who had passed out in their room last night and apparently been moved to the nearest bed that wouldn't earn the kind soul a scream of indignation from Weiss.

Hopping out of bed and stretching the rest of her body, she thought back to her dream as she gathered her toiletries, already running through it a third time as she walked to the communal shower.

She thought about the boy in particular, not wanting to mull over the bullies. She hummed as she stripped naked and got into a shower stall. Who was he? Why did she dream of that day? What was the significance of it? All these questions and more buzzed through her brain as she got the water up to temperature and stepped under the spray.

As the warm water hit her head, the realization hit her mind.

Jaune. Jaune Arc, her best friend, her friend for life.

He'd been there. He'd been on the island of Patch, on that specific day, during that specific time, at that specific playground, and he'd made that specific choice to save her. When he was done, he'd acted like the sheer magnitude of the miracle that had taken place hadn't mattered, that he'd just done 'what he needed to', and he'd left right after. He'd put a smile on her face and ran off with just the sentiment of that smile as his payment.

He had protected her when she needed it, and he'd made her happy...

She felt warmth on her cheeks that clearly wasn't from the shower, and held her face in her hand, "He's... amazing..." she smiled, feeling like her heart was melting at the sentiment she held for the memory.

With ignited motivation, she put twice the effort into her routine with the hopes of looking prettier for him.

---

Gravelstone Pier, a place she didn't often come to, but today was different.

She smiled as her fourteen-year-old legs carried her forward, the sun shining in her long blond locks as she smiled, feeling the proud fire of acing her first test in Signal Academy.

Giggling lightly in joy, she walked with a skip in her step, feeling happy.

Looking around at the games, she found one that she felt she could beat. Six bottles stacked up and she just had to knock them down with a thrown baseball, simple enough.

She missed, and missed, and missed, and missed, and missed.

And missed and missed and missed again!

She hit it with her fourteenth ball, but only managed to knock down one bottle.

She sat next the stand, pouting and feeling on the verge of tears when she realized she spent over half her accumulated allowance on this stupid game and all she had to show for it was a tiny foam baseball.

Suddenly, a new presence arrived, "Hey, you okay?" he said.

She looked up and saw bright blue eyes and a slightly shadowed face, "No... I spent half my money on this STUPID GAME!" she pouted more and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Which prize were you trying to get?" he asked, looking at the shelves

"The sailor tiger..." came her meek, sniffling response.

The boy paid for a ball, took aim, and threw it. It missed, as did the next one, but the third struck perfectly, knocking all the bottles over. Grinning, he looked at the man running the stand, "I'll be taking that sailor tiger, please."

Yang sobbed. She couldn't believe it! She wastes half her precious allowance on one single game with no desirable reward, and then some random boy walks up, asks her what she had wanted to win, and now he was going to take it for himself!

Suddenly, her light flow of tears was stopped when she felt something soft and fuzzy being pressed into her hand. Turning her head, she saw the boy was smiling at her, putting the plush into her hand, "Here, you wanted it so I got it for you."

In an instant, Yang felt a little surge of girlish joy rush through her, "Th-th-thank you." she grasped the toy.

"H-hey, no problem." he brushed off with a shrug, "Just... don't cry, please? Girls shouldn't cry, especially not pretty girls like you. You should smile~." he spoke with a gentle, tender tone as he pulled out a handkerchief and, with a tender loving care, wiped away the tears that had fallen. When he was done, he helped her up to her feet, smiling and giving her a quick hug.

Yang blushed softly, the pink color burning on her cheeks in an oddly comfortable way. She smiled and hugged the soft toy to her even softer chest, cuddling it a bit, "Thank you."

"Hehe, just trying to be a hero and stuff." he said while scratching the back of his head.

The lilac-eyed brawler giggled, "Well hero, here's your reward~." she gave him a soft, warm, sweet little kiss on the cheek, grinning at the blush that quickly formed on her toy's savior's face.

"Uhhh... n-n-n-no proble-" he paused and went a little pale when his scroll beeped rhythmically, "Oh god that's my mom! Oh god she's gonna kill me if she finds out I-" he had started hastily walking away when Yang piped up.

"H-hey! What's your name?" she asked him

"Dead man if I don't get back to my mom! S-sorry to have to run like this but I gotta go!" without another word, he ran off.

Yang watched as the mysterious boy vanished around the corner. Slowly, she walked to the corner and looked around it, but he was already gone, leaving her to wonder who he was.

She didn't know who he was, but she wanted to... after she spent some time enjoying the company of Captain Clawsy, that is.

Yang's eyes cracked open, taking in the late-morning light as it streamed through the dorm's window.

That dream... that boy...

She reached under her pillow, pulling out the soft plush and hugging it to her even softer chest, closing her eyes and letting out a low hum.

This toy was one of her most treasured possessions, partly because it was adorable beyond belief, but mostly because of the sentiment it held.

She didn't know why he was there, exactly. Maybe he'd been on a vacation? She had no way of telling.

She did know, however, that he had won a lot of points with her for that move.

And she'd be watching out for any more.

---

Jebediah brushed his hand over his face as he walked through downtown Vale City. He looked to his left hip, where he had a flask of extra-strong whiskey in his pocket

Due to having more than enough aura to spare, the veteran was easily able to out-drink the faunus in their impromptu contest. After his companion had passed out, he decided to watch him for a little while, then leave to find an abandoned house to stake the night out in, simply dosing himself up with sleep suppressants and using a few memories of war to keep wide awake.

He was now dressed in the new outfit he'd gotten with Coco, smiling as he felt more relaxed than before, less weighed down by the past, and even more able to breathe.

Jaune silently stewed as everything over the past few days weighed on him, especially his grandfather's insistence on not letting him take control of his own body, though he was sure that it was because this would be the last time he'd take control.

Together, the two blondes, one purple-eyed, one blue-eyed, were prepared to take on whatever the day threw at them.

Sadly, neither of them knew the magnitude of the things that were going to be thrown.

---

So... I have few excuses, except just one umbrella term.

College

College has been hell on me and if I don't succeed in it, then I won't get to have ANY time to write new chapters to the story

While writing this, I lost like 4000 words at the start of the Dark Runner fight due to a glitch, and I felt like fucking throwing up because that set me back a whole fucking month (given my splotchy, uneven writing schedule, that's a lot longer than it should have taken)! I was distraught and in a rage, but I calmed down and wrote

I know it's been more than 5 months since the last update, but the next update will be before April, I promise you that!

Also WOW on volume 3! Like... HOLY SHIT. I have to claim fanfiction divergence because my plans conflict pretty much completely with canon, but I will abide by it where I can. Otherwise, it's free game! *evil laughter*