Whew, almost 10k words just on this one. The viewing itself won't have many reactions from RWBY and JNPR for... reasons... but see you all in a longer footnote. On a side note, I do no own "Headlong". The song is owned by the Queen.
The two teams were back inside the fortress, Vlakha Naroak, in one of the 'training rooms, aka arenas, with their weapons at the ready.
Team RWBY stood on a side, in a clean line, spelling their team name from left to right: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. On the other side stood Team JNPR, in close tank formation. Jaune and Pyrrha with their shields up and their blades at the ready. Ren was behind Pyrrha while Nora was behind Jaune, both with their weapons out and -in Nora's case- deployed as ranged weapon. Both teams were waiting for the countdown to announce the start of the fight, and eight sets of eyes were narrowed in determination. Team RWBY was determined to fight for their honour, Team JNPR was ready to teach them humility before it could kill them.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FIGHT!
Team RWBY moved immediately, but Team JNPR was stone-still. Stopping in their charges, the four girls looked at each other in confusion before a barrage of hits rained down upon them, all carefully avoiding Yang and her surroundings to avoid charging up her Semblance so early during the fight. Ruby, Weiss and Blake all dodged most of the bullets, but between Ren's continuous hail, Nora's explosions, and Pyrrha's sniper precision, some still got through.
"Come on, we cannot let them bring us down with bullets!" exclaimed Ruby, taking aim with Crescent Rose. Her teammates followed her example, responding with their own ranged attacks, but Team JNPR hid behind the shield-bearers, and not for the first time curses against those defensive objects were shouted by angry attackers.
Yang was the first to charge in, aiming to disrupt the shield formation, and she flung herself in the melee with a raised fist. However, Team JNPR just split in two duos, allowing her to literally ran between them before closing the formation once again. Yang looked at her teammates, and Ruby nodded. She had a plan. With a grin, the blonde brawler ran around JNPR to rejoin her team. "What's the plan, Ruby?" she asked cheekily, not caring about keeping her voice down. Maybe Team JNPR would've tried to attack if they heard they were planning. The plant-named team was still unmoving.
Ruby silenced her and explained the plan to them in hushed tones. "Simple, we disrupt them and we pick them off one by one. If we manage to get Pyrrha last, Jaune told her not to use her Semblance, we might win."
Weiss nodded. "I'll disrupt them," she told the others, creating a Glyph right under Team JNPR with nay but a thought and a sliver of Aura. She pushed Aura into it to empower it. "It is done already, I'm gonna freeze them solid."
BOOM.
Weiss stumbled as her Glyph was forcefully destroyed by the hammer maiden of JNPR. Nora grinned as she lifted Maghnild from the hole in the floor that had once been Weiss's Glyph. With a frown, she glanced at Ruby, who merely cocked Crescent Rose and charged. Blake and Yang charged right after her, and Weiss followed suit.
Ruby slowed down to allow Blake to reach the walls first, and the cat Faunus used her Semblance to teleport herself past the shields. It was very risky, but they couldn't deal with her without breaking formation. Thankfully, it was exactly what they did. Unfortunately, all she got for her trouble was Akoúo slamming into her back. She rolled and was immediately back on her feet, locking eyes with Pyrrha. "I guess you're my opponent?" she asked quietly. The champion merely nodded and charged. With another use of her Semblance, Blake found herself above the redhead and slashed down with Gambol Shroud, only to be met with Miló coming back up and blocking her strike. Blake jumped off Pyrrha and the two stared at each other for a second before charging again.
Ruby reached them next, heading straight for Jaune, but she had forgotten one important detail. With a powerful beat of his wings, he removed himself from the ground, leaving her to target Ren, who had instead put Storm Flowers away. It didn't matter in the end, even though Ruby had hoped to be able to take out the strategist first. No offence to Jaune of course, she didn't mean it like he was the easiest to take out, even if it was indeed true but… argh! She just charged Ren, who barely blinked. She used her Semblance to reach him, deactivating it at the last second to be able to deliver the hit, but to her great surprise Ren merely knelt with… oh shit. Ren knelt while keeping his right elbow up, supported by his left arm, and she slammed into said elbow with all the force of her charge. Even the ninja slid back a little, but he quickly regained his balance and lashed out with two kicks that she dodged. Swiping with Crescent Rose, she managed to nick his clothes and spin him around before kicking his back, making him stumble. Ren turned immediately, and magenta met silver, both burning with determination.
Seeing all of that, Yang nodded to Weiss, who created a Glyph under her, before leaping in the air to punch Jaune back to the ground, but she had forgotten that flying individuals had something jumping individuals did not have: manoeuvrability. Jaune easily swerved to the side, but he didn't even attempt to hit her. Instead, he lowered himself closer to the ground as if he wanted to fight her. Well, as sure as hell Yang Xiao Long wasn't going to be defeated by Jaune Arc of all people! She might like him, okay maybe more than just liking, maybe like-liking him, but that didn't mean she would allow him to defeat her. If anything, the opposite. She wanted to show off her skills, maybe some skin too, and to impress him, not to be defeated. She fired a barrage of shots at him, and a few managed to hit him, even though most just glanced off his armour. 'Okay, note to self: armour does deflect hits, it's not just for show. And full armour is damn annoying,' she thought to herself as she continued to fire. One of her shots hit his right wing and he spiralled down for a few yards before catching himself. That was enough. While he was busy, Yang ran and leapt in the air again, delivering a devastating haymaker down on him. Normally, she would've preferred to use a hook punch, since haymakers were easier to deflect, parry or dodge, but given how Jaune had no real chance in unarmed fight against her, and he was also distracted, she went for full-force, sending Jaune into the ground and fracturing the arena's floor for a few yards around him. Blasting with Ember Celica behind her, she descended upon him with another punch, but he managed to roll out of the way. Now temporarily grounded, Jaune lifted his shield, ready to block, but his sword remained low by his side.
Weiss was the last to engage in melee. After helping Yang, she vaguely entertained the idea of helping out one of her teammates, but eventually decided against it. A Nora left on her own was a dangerous Nora, especially since she was the one who packed the most damage in Team JNPR. A surprise attack from her could take out any of them. With a flick of her hand, a series of Glyph appeared in the air around her, and she flung a series of icicles at Nora. Each Glyph disappeared after throwing the ice and reformed immediately afterwards, creating an endless barrage of ice. It was tiring, but theoretically Nora would've been unable to block them all, or at least to advance. Unfortunately, Nora defied those mere laws of Physics, and instead used her grenade launcher to fling herself into the air, leaving the ice to hit the ground, before coming down on Weiss with a mighty two-handed swing of Maghnild. Quickly summoning a Glyph underneath herself, Weiss removed herself from the lethal area -and she wasn't completely joking on that-, but the shockwave still made her lose her balance. In a second, Nora was already upon her, wielding the huge hammer as if it were made of paper. Weiss managed to dodge the main hit, but her shoulder was still hit slightly. And by Nora's standards, slightly still hurt a lot. Weiss rolled on the floor and quickly got up again, staring at the grinning girl before her. Well, now she understood why Nora's opponents usually babbled about her being a psychopath. She did look the part.
Back to Ruby, she quickly went for a simple scythe sweep, but Ren was not a martial artist for nothing. With more flair and dramatics than he strictly needed, he jumped over her scythe and basically landed on her head. Keeping her head between his feet, he threw himself back, landing on his hands, before lifting Ruby off the ground and bringing her back down on the other side. She managed to free herself and slash at him with Crescent Rose before meeting the ground, but he wasn't done. He deflected the next attack with his forearm, swiping it aside, before he grabbed Crescent Rose's shaft and embedded the point in the concrete. Using a technique he had copied from Ruby herself, he used the shaft as lever and kicked her away, then he somersaulted over the girl and landed behind her. Before she could turn, he grabbed her by the waist and suplexed the smaller girl, taking out a good chunk of her Aura. Still above the red, but just slightly. As she slowly stood back up, cradling her head and a fairly dazed, he roundhouse-kicked her before drawing back a leg and delivering a powerful frontal kick to her face, sending her in the red. Since she was still too dazed to understand his apologies, he just stick to a 'sorry' and then went to help the others.
With Blake, things were pretty complicated. She used her Semblance to dodge most hits, but Pyrrha was just so damn fast and skilled! Every hit had surgeon-like precision, and every time Blake managed to find an opening in her swordplay, she either blocked with Akoúo or dodged the hit. Even the hits Blake had still landed on her hadn't done much if not allowed her to counter-attack with even more fierceness. Blake finally lunged with her katana, but Pyrrha swatted it aside with her shield and drove Miló forwards, forcing Blake to leave behind an ice clone and teleport to the side.
"Blake, watch out!"
She barely had time to hear Weiss's shout before a shadow was upon her, and she grimaced. She had just used her Semblance, so that meant it was over. With a grin, Nora freaking Valkyrie brought Maghnild down, hellbent on flattening both Blake and Blake's ego. And while she had Aura to protect herself, her ego didn't. All what Blake could do, was to press her ears against her head and whine softly before everything went white for a second. Next thing she knew, her Aura was well in the red, she had a new bump on her head, and she was out of the fight.
Weiss gritted her teeth. She had tried to warn Weiss, but that was easier said than done. With her quick rapier and her Semblance, she was keeping Ren at bay, but when both Pyrrha and Nora joined the melee once again, she could only hope that Yang would be able to quickly take Jaune out and help her out. Glancing at the screen, she saw that Yang still had no damage, and frowned. Jaune was less skilled than they were, but he wasn't an idiot fumbling around with a sword. He could hit them, especially someone with as little defence as Yang, but instead nothing. Instead, the blond knight's Aura was nearing 40%. How could he still have that much after two minutes of Yang was behind her. Massive Aura pools or not, he'd have to be completely fighting on the defensive to…
Finally, it clicked. Also something else clicked, namely Mysternaster against Miló as she blocked the champion's attack. Their plan had been… simple, but efficient. So simple Weiss hadn't seen it until the very last moment. She had thought Jaune had grown arrogant, trying to take on Yang, but instead they had used their own arrogance against them. They weren't gonna just fight by themselves. She grimaced as she tried to use her Semblance to escape Pyrrha's relentless assault, but Ren was behind her and he spinning-kicked her back to the two girls. Rolling under Nora's hammer swing, she couldn't even block when Akoúo slamming into her face, followed by two quick slashes from Miló. That was enough to send her just barely into the red, signalling she was out of the fight. With a sigh of relief, she slumped to the ground. "At least I didn't end up like Blake or Ruby," she panted, glancing at the mentioned two. Ruby still had stars and corgis running around her head, while Blake was trying to force her bump back into her skull.
Yang growled as her umpteenth punch hit nothing but pure air. "Stay still!" she shouted, running after a low-flying Jaune, who just kept dodging and blocking. Her eyes were red, but the only 'damage' she had was her own self-inflicted exhaustion. She fired a few shots at him, managing to snatch his wing once more, and rushed to take the opening. He tried to block with his shield, but she had finally learned that hitting a shield wasn't gonna do much to the one behind it. She returned her left Ember Celica to its compact form and gripped the shield's edge, grimacing as the razor-sharp blade bit into her palm. Damn, she had forgotten the shield was what made up the blades of his halberd mode. Nonetheless, she forcefully brought it down, secretly enjoying both his surprised expression and his blush when she winked at him, before using her still-armed right hand to punch him, firing a shot the second she made contact. The hit took out at least five percent of Jaune's Aura, sending him in the upper teens percent, basically grazing the red at 18%. Normal people would've probably lost ten to fifteen percent of their Aura. Well, she at least hoped the rumour about large Aura reserves was true.
As if on cue, all three of Jaune's teammates arrived, their presence telling her that her team was on the verge of being defeated. Even with Jaune temporarily out of the fight, she still knew she had lost. She couldn't defeat Nora, Pyrrha and Ren, all of them with their Auras still around or above half. An idea came to her mind. Well, if she really had to go out, at least she'd go out with a Yang. She focused all her hits on Ren, knowing he had the lowest Aura pools of their teams, around as much as Ruby. He still was at fifty or so percent when her own Aura neared the red. Damn Nora's hammer, Pyrrha's skill and Ren's martial arts. Jaune had rejoined the fight as well, this time using his polearm. 'Not the one I'd like, though,' she thought with a dirty grin and a blush. Whelp, no time for naughty thoughts, she had to make a grand exit!
Focusing most of her Semblance, she waited for an opening before charging at Ren, hellbent on at least knocking him out of the fight. She knew Pyrrha would've protected Jaune or at least stopped her, but Nora was both too far away and without the right weaponry. With a large grin, she brought back a fist and almost laughed at Ren's resigned expression. With one last effort, she punched him with all her strength. That should've been enough to take out forty of the remaining fifty percent of his Aura.
Before she could make contact, a golden blur shoved Ren aside, and her fist impacted with someone with much less Aura than fifty percent at the same time a sword hit her chest, officially sending her in the red.
Jaune was sent flying into a wall and crashed back down, his Aura meter blaring angrily in emergency damage. Shocked and worried, everyone rushed to his side, with Blake and Ruby having finally come out of their daze. Pyrrha called his name, but he didn't reply. When Ren turned him over to check if he was unconscious, they all gasped, Yang and Ruby screamed, and silence fell over them.
Jaune's eyes were open, dull blue staring off into empty space, and a tiny rivulet of blood stained his cheek as it flowed from his mouth. But the most horrifying detail was his chestplate. The golden metal was bent inwards, and where the metal hadn't given out, his chest had. Without Aura to protect himself, his ribs had broken. Ren placed a shocked hand on Jaune's wrist, but to their horror he couldn't feel any heartbeat.
Then, finally, Nora's brain rebooted. She and Ren were the most used to loss, so it made sense she would come to her senses soon. "Ruby, now, your Semblance, the water in the fountain outside, NOW!" she screamed at the smaller redhead, gripping her shoulders and shaking her out of her horrified trance. "GO! Jaune's life might very well depend on you, for fuck's sake RUN!"
Ruby broke out of her daze and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals, running faster than she'd ever run. Nora didn't kneel as much as she fell to her knees beside Jaune pounding the ground with her fist. "You jerk, you can't do this! You said we were a family, you said I had a family again, WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? IT WAS JUST A SPAR, WHY DID YOU KILL YOURSELF!?" she sobbed, refusing to look at anyone. Even Ren couldn't do anything if not hope. "Just to teach them humility, to possibly save them from being killed by their own arrogance… was 'possibly' really worth it!? I CAN'T TAKE LOSING ANY MORE FAMILY, YOU JERK, COME BACK NOW!"
A few seconds later Ruby was back, appearing in a wind of rose petals, and handed Ren a flask -Qrow's, to be frank- full of the fountain's water. Ren placed it aside and began to fiddle with the chestplate, detaching it after a second but not removing it, not willing to see the injury lying underneath. Without wasting any more seconds, he poured some water in Jaune's mouth, then made everyone else turn, raised the chestplate and poured the rest of the healing liquid on the wound itself.
Jaune made no sound, but the water fizzled on the critical injury as it cleaned the blood and repaired the skin. Some of it filtered through, healing his broken ribs and fixing his organs. Ren and the others watched expectantly but… he didn't wake up. Even after his injury was completely healed, he remained unresponsive, despite Ren's attempts to wake him up. From the door arrived the other Watchers, all of them worried about what had happened but unable to keep up with Ruby's speed.
After a few more seconds, he sighed and decided to express his worries. "I… I believe he's in coma," he stated out loud, making the girls look at each other in concern. "I am not a doctor, I don't know how long he will remain out. I think we should place him in the fountain outside, keeping his head out of the water, so maybe the healing magic will speed up his recover. Nothing else can be done for him right now."
Yang nodded and stepped forth. "I-I'll take him," she stammered weakly, kneeling to pick up Jaune's body, but she stopped when a small hand clamped down onto her arm with the strength of a Goliath. Looking up, she flinched when she saw the unbridled fury in Nora's eyes.
"It's your fault," she hissed angrily, and no one countered her claim. "He wanted to knock your arrogance down a peg because your Highness and her fellow Ladies were probably going to get yourselves killed by overestimating yourself. Out of all of you, you are the worst. You believe yourself invincible, you think you're so strong, you think you can take on the world, WELL YOU'RE WRONG!"
Yang tried to free herself from Nora's grip, but to no avail. Ren stood up and placed a hand on the redhead's wrist, making her release the blonde, but in his eyes there was no warmth. He seemed to agree with Nora. "You haven't seen the world's real colours, Yang. You know nothing of how easily the world could kill you," he told her coldly. Weiss stepped forwards to help her, but Blake and Ruby alike held her back, one out of first-hand knowledge, the other knowing she needed the verbal smackdown just as much as they had needed the physical smackdown. "Nora and I lived with that knowledge for years. Jaune learned it the hard way three years ago. But not you. You experienced loss and grief yet it never dawned on you that you cannot take on the world."
"I-I didn't mean-"
"You didn't mean to hit him hard enough to cave his chest in?!" shouted Nora, pushing Ren aside so that she could glare at Yang once more. "Even with Qrow's lecture earlier about using your head you still didn't even think about how hard you were gonna hit! You charged up your Semblance to its full power, you did it on purpose just for some petty reason of bringing down one of us, because your fucking pride couldn't take being defeated by a weak team that was trying to teach you humility! You killed h-"
"NORA THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Everyone absolutely froze at Ren's shout, and they looked at the boy. His eyes were closed, but his body language was tense and angry. Nora shrank and took a step back, understanding she had overstepped a line. Opening his eyes, Ren fixated his gaze on Yang. "You couldn't have known Jaune would've shoved me to the side. I would've been able to tank that hit, or at least to roll with it. He couldn't, and he pushed me aside for some knightly ideal of his. He is at fault too," he said slowly and coolly. "This argument is not going anywhere. We'll talk about it again, when he wakes up." He grabbed Jaune's comatose form and lifted him up, with Pyrrha aiding him.
As they passed by the others, they parted. "If he ever wakes up," murmured Winter, sadly looking at the boy.
She looked down when she felt an iron grip around her wrist, and found herself staring in turquoise fury. "When he wakes up," Nora corrected her before following the others.
Soon enough, they had all returned to the rocky platform in the volcano's crater, and they placed Jaune in the fountain, carefully keeping his head out of the water. Yang volunteered to remain and make sure he didn't go under, but Nora's angry glare stopped her. Unsurprisingly, she was the one who sat on the edge of the basin, keeping his head on her lap and stroking his hair, all the while murmuring for her brother to wake up. There was just so much sadness in her whole composure, but Ren stopped everyone from approaching her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed once before letting go and sitting down.
The screen lit up, but once again only words greeted them.
YOU ARE NOT COMPLETELY AT FAULT, YANG. DO NOT HATE YOURSELF TOO MUCH OVER THIS. BUT, YOU DO NEED TO LEARN SELF CONTROL. WE HOPE THIS SONG FROM OUR WORLD WILL GIVE YOU A LITTLE INSIGHT ON THAT.
KHOR & PHOENIX.
As soon as they had read the message, it disappeared, and music started to play. Weiss opened her mouth to point out what kind of music it was, but before it could, the song started, with the lyrics scrolling on the screen.
"Headlong"
And you're rushing headlong you've got a new goal
And you're rushing headlong out of control
And you think you're so strong
But there ain't no stopping and there's nothin'
You can do about it
Nothin' you can do
No there's nothin' you can do about it
No there's nothin' you can, nothin' you can
Nothin' you can do about it
And you're rushing headlong you've got a new goal
And you're rushing headlong out of control
And you think you're so strong
But there ain't no stopping no there's nothin'
You can do about it
Yeah
Hey, he used to be a man with a stick in his hand
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do
She used to be a woman with a hot dog stand
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do
Now you've got soup in the laundry bag
Now you've got strings, you're gonna lose your rag
You're gettin' in a fight
Then it ain't so groovy when you're screaming in the night
Let me out of this cheap 'B' movie
Headlong down the highway and you're rushing
Headlong out of control
And you think you're so strong
But there ain't no stopping and you can't stop rockin'
And there's nothin' you can, nothin' you can
Nothin' you can do about it
When a red hot man meets a white hot lady
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do
Soon the fire starts a raging gets 'em more than half crazy
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do
Oh, now they start freaking everyway you turn
You can't start walking 'cause your feet got burned
It ain't no time to figure wrong from right
'Cause reasons out the window
Better hold on tight, you're rushing headlong
Headlong out of control, yeah
You think you're so strong
There ain't no stopping and there's nothin' you, nothin' you
Nothin' you can do about it at all
Yeah yeah alright go
And you're rushing headlong down the highway
And you're rushing headlong out of control
And you think you're so strong
But there ain't no stopping
There's nothin', nothin', nothin' you can do about it, yeah
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ha ha
Headlong
Yeah yeah
Headlong
Yeahaw
Headlong
Yang hung her head in shame after the song had ended. Headlong… it defined her perfectly, she guessed. Rash, impulsive, hotheaded, stubborn… and those were just the first adjectives on the list. After the music had died down, the screen changed and the viewing proper began. No one felt the need to call her out any further on her actions, but there was no need. She had already chastised herself.
After the eight students had their mad dash across the school to try to avoid the wrath of one Goodwitch, they all found themselves in the courtyard. Although, they soon realized that they were missing Jaune. The girls looked worried for a second until Ren and Nora told them that he does this all the time and they should be used to it by now. After a second or two they realized that they were right and decided on what to do next.
Yang decided she was going to go to Vale to get a few things and Blake offered to go with her so she could stop by her favorite bookstore. Nora also wanted to tag along to see more of Vale and Ren decided to go as well to keep an eye on the cheery bomber. Weiss decided that she wanted to get a head start on the next semester's work and wanted to first go over her notes from last semester. Pyrrha asked if she would mind the company, since the two girls rarely ever spent time together. Pyrrha believed that it would be a more enjoyable experience since Weiss wasn't obsessed with her and acted more normal lately, well normal for Weiss. Weiss agreed and then extended the offer to Ruby, who politely declined. She didn't want to study over her break and wanted to tune up Crescent Rose. With that they all went their separate ways.
"I bet she meets Jaune there," murmured Blake, casting a glance at the still unmoving and seemingly sleeping form of their friend. "All these viewings have always revolved around him so far…"
"I think yours is a safe bet," nodded Weiss.
Qrow chugged down some more alcohol from the flask he had received as a gift from someone known as 'Randy, the Imperial Guardsman', the one with the four birds on it. After the swig, he glanced at the still utterly depressed Yang and cleared his throat. "Okay, sorry for doing this in the viewing, but I gotta ask what the hell's happened in there."
Yang seemed to slump even further, and Blake opened her mouth to reply, but Nora was faster. "She killed Jaune," she stated angrily, shocking all the other Watchers. They had seen Ruby's panic earlier, but no one had asked anything, and no one had seen the fight. They had thought they'd be fine. They'd been wrong. "She caved his chest in. He had no pulse."
Neptune and Sun were shocked, but Qrow had unfortunately experience with death and loss. He just sighed and spared another glance at the comatose boy before turning to Yang. "Explain."
Yang opened her mouth, but only a sob escaped her lips. She brought her hands up to her face and began to cry. Ruby sat next to her and hugged her while Weiss explained what had happened. "We were at the end of our fight, and Yang was being taken down by all of JNPR. She tried to at least take one down and aimed for Ren, both because Jaune was heavily armoured and had another shield-bearer, Pyrrha, who would've surely protected him. Also he was low on Aura, and she didn't… she didn't want this to happen." She looked at the boy for a second before turning back to the old Huntsman. "But, despite having much less Aura than Ren, Jaune decided to take that hit nonetheless. He shoved Ren aside but couldn't do anything else, and Yang's hit was backed up by her Semblance. At full power."
Qrow winced and looked at the bent chestplate Ren had brought with him in the rock balcony. The chestplate Ruby was now holding, probably studying it to find a way to repair it without having to reforge it outright. "I-". He cut himself off. He was about to tell her 'I told you', but he guessed she had enough pressure on her shoulders already. He sighed. "I guess you did have to learn it the hard way."
Ruby was skipping her way to the forge, she was excited to spend the next few hours fine tuning her sweetheart. When she arrived she was shocked to see Jaune already there. He had his sheathes on the workbench in front of him and was engrossed in his work. Ruby walked up behind him and saw that he had the back panel off the sheathes to see into the inner workings of his weapons, along with a plethora of tools that he would need. He was currently looking into the opening with a pair of tweezers and a cloth with a half a dozen metal pieces and the bulk of the servo.
"Hey, Jaune!" she decided to make herself known to her best friend. Not expecting anyone to be here, he jumped and nearly knocked a few things off of his workbench. He looked at Ruby with wide eyes but soon calmed with his hand on his chest.
"Oum, Ruby. Don't do that, you nearly gave me a heart attack."
She giggled sheepishly, "Sorry but you usually are more aware though."
He sighed, "I'm trying to get all the metal pieces that broke off of the servo before I put the new one in. You know the deal with mecha shifting weapons, mine may not be as advanced as most but the flaws are still there." She nodded, if one little thing was out of place in a mecha shifting weapon it could easily damage the weapon further or possibly damage them beyond repair.
"One of the reasons why I used this mace," noted Cardin, lifting up his weapon. "It's solid metal with a Dust crystal in the heart."
"But it has no versatility," Sun pointed out. "Complex weapons have much more versatility if compared to a solid metal weapon."
"Mr Wukong is right," Ironwood stepped in. "Although both of you have solid reasoning. When choosing your weapon you must always keep in mind both the benefits of mechashift's versatility, and of fullmetal's reliability." He glanced at them. "And before you ask, fullmetal is forging with no machinery."
"Just full metal," completed Winter. "It's the so-called 'normal' or 'original' metalworking."
"A mechashift still gets jammed," quipped Cardin.
"A fullmetal can't turn into rifle," retorted Sun.
"Do you need help?" she decided to offer him.
Jaune just smiled at her but shook his head, "I appreciate the offer, Ruby, but I prefer to do this on my own. I should be the one to fix it, you know, they're kinda my responsibilities." He looked back at his weapons with a small smile. She nodded and liked the look that Jaune had. It was the look of pride that someone had in an accomplishment. Similar to what she had for Crescent Rose.
"Okay, Jaune. I'll leave you to it." She smiled and walked past him to the workbench right next to him and started working on Crescent Rose. It was about a half an hour later and Ruby looked over to Jaune. She noticed he had pulled out a few more pieces of metal and was now looking into the inner workings with a flashlight to be sure he got them all. Ruby then looked at the broken servo and back at his swords. They all seemed perfectly fine, especially considering that the servo was damaged so badly. She didn't want to bother Jaune when he was concentrating but her curiosity won out, again.
"Hey Jaune, can I ask you a question?"
Without looking up he answered her, "You kinda did, Ruby." He soon put down the flashlight and turned to her with a smirk, he was convinced he got all the metal pieces out. "What's the question?"
"How come your sheathes and swords weren't damaged by Weiss' Glyph but the servo was?"
"The metal that the sheathes are made of is almost indestructible. It's rare but I was able to make the sheathes out of it, so they withstood the high gravity. And because the swords were inside the sheathes, they couldn't get too warped." He picked up the servo and tossed it into the air before catching it. "The servo isn't as resistant though."
"That explains why it broke," Goodwitch chipped in. "Although I'm surprised, it's not everyday you see a weapon break."
Ozpin nodded slowly, but his thoughts were elsewhere. Or rather, elsewho. His gaze fell on Team RWBY, the four girls as silent as Team JN… Team -NPR. He sighed and looked at Jaune. Not even he had been allowed to come near the boy, but it didn't take magic to use his Aura sense, and his Aura sense told him the boy's Aura wasn't coming back. It hadn't even started to heal the trauma. Either his Aura was busy or blocked or… his soul had already left his body, and his Aura had gone with it.
He shook his head and returned to look at the four girls before clearing his throat. "Team RWBY… did you learn what Mr Arc wanted you to learn?" They all nodded, but Ozpin wasn't done. After all the effort Jaune had put in that fight, it was only fair for them to expand their answers. "Please then, elaborate your answer."
Yang just continued to cry, and the other three exchanged a weary and heavy look. Finally, Blake spoke up. "I learned that even though my Semblance allows me to dodge virtually any hit, I use it far too much, and against fast opponents who can move quickly, even my Semblance can't protect me completely," she stated slowly, her mind going back to how she had barely been able to go near Pyrrha. "My aggressive fighting style leaves many openings for my opponents to exploit, and I rely too much on my Semblance for the defence."
"I rely on my Semblance too," added Ruby. "Crescent Rose can pack a mean punch but I just don't have the strength to change course after I start attacking, even using my Semblance doesn't always help. If someone were to use that against me like Ren did, I'd have no hopes of winning."
"As for me, I cannot actually do anything without my Semblance," sighed Weiss, looking at Myrtenaster. "I can use Dust for ranged fights but I still mostly use my Semblance to give myself an advantage over my opponent. Without it… I'd be pretty much 'screwed', as Yang would say."
"Ms Xiao Long?" Ozpin turned his eyes on the blonde brawler of the team. She didn't respond, instead silently crying in her hands. "Ms Xiao Long?"
She looked up with tear-stained cheeks and stared at him. "I rush in headlong, I think I'm so strong, and there ain't no stopping me," she bitterly semi-quoted the song earlier. "I think that sums it up pretty nicely, doesn't it? Oh, and apparently I rely on my Semblance to defeat the opponents that are managing to deal me damage."
Ozpin inwardly sighed at her tone, so filled with self-loathing, but he accepted her response. It wouldn't have been fair to force her to go on.
Ruby nodded and Jaune began the task of installing a brand new servo. Even though he has done this countless times before, he had to be careful to not make any mistakes. Halfway through with his task, Ruby brought up another question. "So if they break constantly, why didn't you make the servo out of the same metal as the sheathes?"
Jaune didn't look up from his task but answered all the same, "The metal is pretty heavy. Making the servo out of the metal would've slowed down the speed and would take more time for the sheathes to move into position. But in the same regard, a too light of a metal wouldn't be able to deal with the weight either." He was almost done installing the servo at this point, "Luckily though, I was able to find a metal that was light enough to not slow down the sheathes but strong enough that it could take the strain. They still burn out but I can't do anything about that though." He stood up straight and tested to see if the sheathes were working again. To his satisfaction, they were as good as new. "Perfect!"
Ruby was done fine tuning her weapon as well and was packing up. Until she saw Jaune still looking at his swords, deep in thought. "What's up, Jaune?"
He turned to her and decided to answer her. "Trying to think of a way to improve on my swords for the future."
This may have been a mistake because Ruby went wide eye and started shaking. "Let me help! It would be so cool to work on your swords! Please!? We could configure them to turn into rifles! Or maybe something cooler!" She was practically jumping up and down at this point until Jaune put his hand on her head.
A few chuckled at Ruby's exaggerated enthusiasm. Qrow remembered one time he had mentioned doing some maintenance on his weapon before going to sleep, and the morning after he had found out that Ruby had added several new modes to it, including a spear, a toothbrush, a railgun, a cookie-making machine, and milk distributor. To that day, he still hadn't understood how she had done it.
Seeing the Swordsman about to go through his very own plight was going to be funny.
"Apparently, you are you in all universes," said Weiss, stating the obvious, making Ruby blush a little in embarrassment. "Let's just hope the rest of the viewing won't be about you and your shenanigans with weapons."
"Shena-what now?" asked Ruby, tilting her head to the side.
"She means she'd like not to see you gushing over weapons and designing over-the-top new functions for the Swordsman's swords," patiently explained Blake. "Honestly, I share that feeling. No offence meant, Ruby, but… not everyone loves talking about and sketching weapons for hours like you do."
"Whoa, Ruby. Calm down." He smiled at her. "I would love some help but I don't want anything too out there. So, can you back up a bit on that train of yours?" She looked sheepish because she lost it but nodded. He then ruffled her hair and she blushed slightly. "Thank you."
She than stood next to him and looked at his weapons with him, "So, what do you want to do?"
"Well, I originally designed them to link together to form longswords to help with my Semblance when I use an Advance Element, but you already know this." She nodded. "Now that I know that I can fuse three elements together and I've been working on mastering Particle, I wanna incorporate it into my swords to use when its ready."
She nodded, "So, what's the major issue?"
"Here, I'll show you." He pulled out Kakiri and Fukiri and laid them done on the table with their dull sides facing each other. "See they were originally only designed to only link two together. They link up like this to form the longsword. But because of the way I designed them, it's impossible to combine three swords. Also, I don't wanna reforge all my swords yet. It'd be too time consuming and I have no idea on any other Exceed Elements."
"That's gonna be a pain in the ass to solve," winced Sun. "No way you can make all swords to be able to combine into longswords while at the same time making them able to attach three together into… whatever kind of sword three would form."
"I believe they are going to find a solution," commented Ozpin, calm as ever, sipping his mug. "Ms Rose's ability in weaponsmithing are exceptional, and if the Swordsman designed his swords already, I do believe such a small problem won't stop them from reaching their goal."
Ruby smiled a little at the praise. "Thanks Professor!"
Ruby nodded and thought carefully. Jaune and her were deep in thought for a few minutes. Suddenly, Ruby got an idea and clapped her hands together. "What if we only reforge one sword?" Jaune looked at her and motioned for her to continue. "What if we take one of the three swords you would need for the combo and reforge it into a broadsword?" She grabbed a piece of paper and quickly sketched a broadsword with two single edged short swords on either side of it. "See? With the broadsword you could connect the other two on the sides. We would just need to make the blade longer and reconfigure the hilt."
Jaune looked at the paper for a while and thought it over. He then turned to her with a huge smile. "I love that brain of yours!" She smiled brightly at that. "Although, I need to see if we have the metal to increase the length of the blade." He walked over to all the storeroom that contained all the metals for the forge. "Looks like there's just enough!" He shouted before emerging with a few bars of metal. He set them on the workbench closest to the forge and started to get the fire ready. "I'll grab my swords in a second." He told Ruby.
"Don't worry, I got them." Ruby replied.
It took Jaune a second for what she said to click. "Uh, Ruby, that may not be a…."
He was cut off when he heard, "Wah!" That was all she yelled before he heard metal hit the floor and then what sounded like a person following afterwards. He turned to find his swords in their sheathes on the floor with Ruby laying on the ground as well. She soon sat up and was rubbing her nose.
"Good idea." Jaune sighed before going over to her. "I tried to warn you."
"How do you carry them? They weigh a ton." She said in a slightly muffled voice as she was still rubbing her nose.
"Those must be really heavy if I couldn't lift them," commented Ruby, surprised.
"No, you were probably taken off-guard by their weight as you expected them to be lighter," Winter waved her off nonchalantly. "It happens to the best of us. Although you should've asked for permission or at least confirmation before touching his weapons."
"That sounds so wrong…" groaned Qrow, earning a glare from Winter and a 'eep' from Ruby.
"Still, those must be heavy…" commented Blake. "Jaune did say that the sheaths are made from a very resistant but very heavy material. Those might even weight ten pounds for each sword…"
"Fifty pounds? If so, then our Jaune is lifting much more. His weapon is slightly more than two pounds for the sword and five pounds the shield, but he's got a full plate armour!" exclaimed Nora, still cradling her unconscious brother's head on her lap. "The chainmail weights around forty pouds by itself, plus the plating that are around another forty or so, Big Brother always has nearly ninety pounds on when he fights!"
"Was that a competition?" asked Ironwood, raising an eyebrow. Goodwitch shrugged at him as if to say 'it's always a competition'.
"How do you think I got these muscles? The muscle fairy?" He joked before he knelt down in front of her. "You okay?"
She nodded but was still holding her nose. "My nose hurts a little though." He could tell her eyes were watering at this point.
"Let me see?" She slowly took her hand away and Jaune looked at her nose. It was red but that was all. He was relieved. "It doesn't look bruised so it should feel better soon. Want me to kiss it to make it feel better?" He gave her a teasing smirk.
Ruby blushed before she gave him an annoyed look with the blush still present. "You've been hanging out with Yang too much."
Jaune chuckled and stood up before offering his hand to her, "I thought you loved your sister?"
She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet, "I do. But I don't need a second one."
Jaune leaned down to pick up his swords, "I couldn't be Yang. She has a few things I don't and they are so soft."
Everyone, literally everyone, gawked at that, dumbstruck.
Ruby blushed deeper at that, "Jaune! You can't talk about my sister like that!"
Jaune looked at her confused, "Why not? Her hair is soft. Besides, I don't think I could pull off the long hair look." He smirked at her and she realized what he did and she was further annoyed and blushed even deeper. He laughed at his own joke and she was getting less happy by the second.
"Ha, you done goofed!" laughed Cardin at Ruby's expenses. "He totally trolled you!"
"Very funny," she muttered, annoyance flashing in her silver eyes.
"Come on Ruby, it was a good prank," grinned Sun. "You can't deny you totally fell for it."
"That doesn't make it more entertaining, thank you!"
"You're not funny!" She yelled and pouted angrily.
Jaune stopped laughing at that. He walked over to her and pulled her into a side hug, "I'm sorry, Ruby. Can you forgive me?" She was quiet for a second before looking up at him and sighing. She nodded. Jaune smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I knew you loved me." He said cheerfully and walked the two of them over to the forge. Meanwhile, Ruby was blushing and thinking about that. 'Do I love Jaune?!'
The two started to get to work after that. Jaune decided to reforge Kakiri, due to the fact that he usually used his enhanced strength when wielding it and with it located in the middle of the sheathes, it wouldn't upset the balance of the sheathes weight. Jaune removed all the dust from the handle and put it into a vial before setting it to the side. They then removed the circuits from the blade and the blade itself from the handle. Jaune started to stoke the forge and when it was ready, added the blade and metal bars to melt them down. Around that time, they were getting hungry and Ruby offered to grab them food from the cafeteria. When she returned, she saw that Jaune had taken off his hoodie and had only his black shirt on. She blushed when she realized how much more of his muscles she could see. They took a break to eat before resuming their work.
Jaune stayed at the forge to keep it at the proper temperature. He also used his Semblance to help with the task. Meanwhile, Ruby offered to reconfigure the hilt. Jaune agreed because out of everyone at the school, Ruby was one of the only people he'd trust with his weapon. When she was close to finishing the hilt, Jaune was pouring out the molten metal into the shape of the new blade. Once the metal was ready, he started working the metal until it felt right to him before he started to sharpen the blade. When they were both done, they reconnecting the hilt back onto the blade. They then began the long process of installing the circuits for the dust. With both their expertise, the process took a lot less time but was still very slow and time consuming. But soon the sword was now done.
"That's pretty different from his other swords," noted Sun. "Is he gonna be okay using it?"
"If I've learned something about Jaune, it's that he's resourceful in all universes," Blake smiled enigmatically and looked at the screen. "We just have to wait a little, and I'm sure he'll handle the change in the sword's length and weight."
"We shall see," scoffed Neptune, crossing his arms on his chest. "Arc's not nearly as 'resourceful' as you say he is."
"I bet three thousands Lien he manages," rebutted Ren, without even blinking. "And before you ask no, I don't have three thousands Lien, but I'm more than sure I won't lose that bet."
"Bet accepted," grinned Neptune, already imagining the money in his pockets.
Jaune picked up the sword and gave it a few practice swings. It felt different but felt right in his hands. He added the fire dust back into the handle and activated it. The edges and circuits started to glow the usual red. Soon the sword blade was surrounded in flames and Jaune just smiled. He was going to love using the new and improved Kakiri. "Feels great." Ruby smiled at that and Jaune went over to the workbench to draw Fukiri and Dokiri. "Time to see if this works." He connected the three blades together and they formed a bastard sword. He gave a few practice swings, he wasn't used to the new weight and length of this new combination. "Well, it works but I'm gonna have to practice with this before it feels right." He looked back to Ruby with a smile, "Thank you, Ruby. I owe you a batch of cookies."
She tried to wave it off, "You don't need to, Jaune. It was fun!" She said cheerfully.
"That mean you don't want them?" he asked knowing the answer.
She looked down sheepishly, "Well, if you feel like it."
Jaune chuckled, "I never mind, Ruby."
She smiled brightly before she thought of something, "What are you going to name it?"
He looked it over for a second, "I think Jinkiri has a nice ring to it." Ruby just nodded and Jaune disassembled Jinkiri before sheathing Fukiri and Dokiri. Ruby realized that Kakiri's sheathe was too small now and was about to point this out to Jaune. But he simply put Kakiri on the table and pulled out his scroll. He tapped away on it for a few seconds and Kakiri's sheathed detached from the others. He moved it to the side and started to type more into his scroll and soon the sheathe started to shift to the new size of the blade. Ruby stared in awe. "Because I like to improve my weapons, Mother had me meet an old friend of her's. He's a genius with technology and made the sheathes out of hundreds of tiny machines made from the metal, so I could easily adjust them if I need to." Ruby nodded. Jaune put away the new Kakiri and reattached the sheathes back together.
"But wouldn't that ruin the whole 'semi indestructible' thing?" asked Blake, who didn't really know everything about weapons.
Of course, Ruby was the one to reply. "Well, it depends on how you use them. Theoretically all matter is just a bunch of small pieces pushed together. Matter is made of molecules and molecules are made of atoms -I don't know what atoms are made of though-, but we don't fall to pieces," explained Ruby. She didn't know it was because of the atom's complex gravitational and electromagnetic forces, but the example still stood. "If you can build them able to move, but also able to attach solidly to the others, there is nothing that keeps you from doing something like that. Except that you'd need a very hard metal, or hits would bent, destroy or at least ruin the individual machines."
"I bet you thought of something like that for Crescent Rose, right?" asked Weiss.
"Well…" Ruby poked her indexes together. "It would've been cool to have a weapon that literally forms itself in your hand, and is still solid. Badass and all that, you know?"
They left after that and headed to the dorms. It was about ten now and they wanted to sleep. Jaune had his hoodie over his shoulder and Ruby had a few questions she still wanted to ask him. "Jaune, can I ask a couple more questions?" He nodded slightly tired. "Why do you use tradition knight swords when your master used katanas?"
"My family always used traditional weaponry or weapons that looked traditional. I decided that I wanted to carry on the tradition. Although, I do know how to fight with a katana."
Ruby nodded, "Have you ever used any other weapon besides a sword?"
"I used to use a dagger I 'borrowed' from my father when I left home. Had it for a while but it eventually broke. Kinda a shame, I would still use it if I still had it."
They were almost at their rooms now and Ruby had one last question. She stopped in the hall and Jaune stopped as well and looked at her confused. Ruby was looking down sheepishly with a mild blush "Why don't you give me a nickname? Everyone else on my team has one?"
Jaune was taken back, "You want a nickname?" Ruby nodded. Jaune thought for a second, "How about Rosebud?"
She looked up at him slightly confused, "Why Rosebud?"
"Well, I think it suits you. You're still young but in the future, there is no telling how beautiful you'll be. Just like a rosebud. Plus, no matter how beautiful the rose, they always have thorns. Like our resident reaper." Ruby blushed fully and stared at him and Jaune was concerned, "Do you not like it?"
She quickly shook her head, "NO no no! I like it! Thank you, Jaune." She said happily.
He smiled, "No problem. Well, good night, Rosebud." Was the last thing he said before he went into his room. Ruby smiled brightly before going into her own. She changed into her pajamas and laid down in her bed. She smiled happily while thinking, 'I don't know if I love Jaune but I'm happy to be his Rosebud.' That what she thought before falling asleep.
"To be honest, nothing against the Swordsman's nickname, but I prefer Jaune's," smiled Ruby. Despite her preferences, she was happy her other self was noticing the Swordsman.
"I'm pretty sure a large part of it is just because he's your boyfriend," Ozpin smiled as well, a fatherly look reaching his face as he looked at her. "But you probably prefer not to be reminded you're younger than the others. While it might be true, it's also true that you are more or less as mature as the others, and that you can face challenges just like your peers, even if they are two years your seniors." His smile remained warm for a second before it turned mischievous. "But I still think you like 'Gemshine' more mainly because your boyfriend gave you that nickname."
Ruby blushed brightly at that, but she didn't deny the statement. For a few minutes, they just waited in silence, not really knowing what to talk about, nor what to do. Neptune and Sun went to the training rooms with Cardin to have some warm-up work-out before sparring a little, but no one in Team -NPR and RWBY wanted to follow them. Not after what had happened in the arena.
"Guys…" Nora's voice rang out after a few minutes, making them all look at her, but she ignored them. She was carefully looking at the boy she still cradled like the most fragile of dolls. At first, they didn't see anything, but then they saw Nora's hand on his neck, and realization slowly dawned on them. "I… I can feel Big Brother's pulse. I… I think he's waking up…"
Jaune groaned slowly and furrowed his brows, before trying to rise. Since Nora kept him down, he tried to fight back her grip, but he was too weakened, and even in top shape Nora would've won. As he was, even Ruby would've been able to keep him down. Finally, his eyes slowly opened, no more dull, instead a shockingly clear crystal blue, like the sparkling water of a river.
"Bloody hell, that hurt…"
I'm keeping this brief since over here it's 0:22 in the night. Yeah, I'm crazy, I know.
So, Jaune's eyes are now how they are in V4 and further, no more deep blue but water azure. Argh, in Italian we have different words for it but English doesn't. "Blu" means "blue", but "azzurro" means "light blue"/"sky blue". So yeah, now Jaune has V4 eye colour.
Anyway, as you can see Jaune did not go from unskilled to omnipotent. Nope. He still has to train. But yeah, flying is kind of unfair, eheh.
And we shall see the following discussion later. As for Nora's anger, she already lost her family. I don't think she'd take well losing anyone else. She doesn't hate Yang, she's just venting her anger on her since she was the one who hit Jaune. And yes, it's actually Jaune's fault since he could've just allowed Ren to tank the hit as Ren would've been able to withstand it. So no raining hate on me for having Yang being a murderer, and no raining hate on Yang because she hit Jaune. She didn't want to.
Oh, and yeah, she did kill him. His heart stopped (more like was caved in) and all of that. What can I say, Phoenix and I are Writers. Details like death matter not to us. And this is a reaction fic, so it's all for the sake of the plot, not for suspense.
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh