Author Notes:

Summary: Jaune Arc was an avid gamer, a master tactician, but not a very good fighter, which was terrible since he wanted to be a Huntsman. He wasn't even decent with Crocea Mors! But one fateful day in Combat class, he found himself at a disadvantage. He discovered that his love of video games may be what he needs to improve himself as a huntsman (harem!).

This will get incredibly weird! Also, it's significantly AU because the Vytal festival will happen in their second year instead of the first.

There will be a gender-bender character here, but there will be NO slash as the central pairing!

If you managed to remove the organ that secretes the enzyme that dissolves Grimm's corpses, some of their parts are used as components for both weapons and armor or even really delicious cuisines if appropriately treated. It goes without saying they are expensive and highly demanded by High-class chefs and Blacksmiths

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Chapter 5: Mourning never comes

3rd Person PoV: Hunter's Workshop

Among the ethereal white flowers of The Hunter's Workshop, Team JNR was having a blast talking about their various exploits in their respective Schools. Jaune geeked out on how he was personally trained by Gerald of Riverwood on swordsmanship, Cantrips (Signs), and Alchemy. He was also taught basic Pyromancy and Necromancy by Yenetriss of Shani's Burg.

On the other hand, Ren fondly told them how the Serpent School, specifically Grandmaster Getho of Lulet. Had taught him all sorts of Utility and Dark Alchemy that if his limited real-life Potion making is to be used as a base, he might actually be able to make them in real life! He was also taught Magical Stealth techniques that were so sneaky it made a mountain of a man like Getho able to hide in plain sight! Maybe he can derive an aura version of it? I mean, his semblance is similar enough.

Nora started to boast that she learned how to smash with her Magnhild better with the Hex Crusaders of the Ursa School. Her Commander there, Baldwin Ornstein, was enormous, even more so than Getho. He taught her how to wield her hammer one and two-handed. And to increase the penetration power of her grenades so that they blew up inside armored opponents rather than lose all that power on impact.

He even taught her how to use a magic shield so she can protect her comrades. Although she didn't really care for defense, I mean, she could totally beat anything before it became a problem!

The three of them were having a good time comparing Classes and trainer NPC's. But then, of course, they ended up bragging and competing on who had better teachers.

Jaune, Ren, and Nora were about to compare stats when suddenly they see Pyrrha's Portal appear in the middle of the cemetery garden. They got excited and decided to go there and greet her, but they noticed something was wrong.

When the portal opened, they could see Pyrrha wearing skintight power armor and that she was frozen in place with her right hand outstretched towards what they assume to be some kind of ghost of a naked faunus girl as old as Ruby. She looked like she was crying. The area behind the spirit looked like hell was trying to claw its way towards them!

Although we couldn't hear it, it sounds like she and Pyrrha talked as the portal began moving towards Pyrrha. After it had passed the tip of her outstretched hand, it slowly began closing. As the portal closed, Jaune could see the ghost girl smile towards him. Jaune then heard a young girl's voice in his head, 'Take care of Pyrrha for me.' Which left Jaune really confused but ultimately nodded in agreement.

"MEDUSA!"

Jaune heard Pyrrha shouted with absolute grief and loss as the portal closes in front of her, then an automated voice spoke from Pyrrha's headgear.

…The signal for the AI designated "M3d-U2-A" codename "Medusa"…

'…No…Please…no….' Pyrrha begs in her mind. Hoping against all hope, denying with all her being the horrid reality of this situation… even as she slowly feels her connection to Medusa fading…

…has been terminated…

Upon hearing these words, Pyrrha's heart shatters like glass, filling her soul with shards of pain, anguish, and loss.

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Armor AI Remote Override… Disengaged…

As her power armor loses rigidity, she collapses to her knees, her hands slowly reaching for her head. Pyrrha no longer felt the warm static in her mind that signified the presence of her beloved sister. Her breath, shakey and broken, rapidly became horsed, louder, and finally….

"eeeaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!"

Pyrrha released a blood-curdling scream so filled with misery and loss that hearing it made her team's heartbreak. Her aura then burst out of her like a hurricane of blades. Jaune and the rest of the team tried to jump in and comfort her. But they were immediately thrown back by the force of her aura.

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Jaune's PoV:

I don't know what just happened or what is happening. All I know is that Pyrrha is in a lot of pain, and we need to do something about it! Pyrrha collapsed onto her knees, her eyes dripping with tears as she slowly reached for her head while breathing heavily.

Just as the team and I were about to help her up and ask her what was going on. She releases the most heart sundering scream I've ever heard, and her aura became a black supernova of metal and pain.

I had to flare my aura up to shield Ren and Nora to give them enough time to raise theirs. Pyrrha stopped screaming and just cried as she held her head while begging for her little sister to come back. At first, we thought it would be safe to approach her, but her aura, instead of calming down, actually got more volatile.

"What's going on?! Pyrrha! What's wrong?" I shouted as I try to hold her in my arms. "Jaune!" I heard Ren call me. "I've seen something similar to this before. It's called Huntsman's Regret. It's when a Hunter loses someone they love to an event they could do nothing to stop!" Ren shouted over the sound of the ensuing chaos.

"But Ren, that's impossible! She went on a solo campaign. She literally had no one to lose!" Nora said to us. "She must have met an NPC along the way," I said. The Plain Doll then appears beside me. "Good hunter, Huntsman's Regret has a tendency to subconsciously use the hunter's semblance, unlocked or not, as a defense mechanism. Usually, this means the hunter unlocks their semblance, and minor damage is done to the surrounding area." She began to explain.

"However, lady Nikos' semblance is based on metal manipulation. Anything metal would be warped around her, including the iron in humanoid blood. I can contain all of your aura emissions in The Dream, but not for long. You must calm her down before my aura-gage reaches critical, and I will be forced to awaken you and sedate her via blunt force trauma before she awakens in the waking world."

Well, that wasn't ominous at all!

"Jaune, I can calm her down, but I need to get close," Ren told us. After hearing this, Nora used her aura to shield Ren from the aura storm while I used my aura to funnel the torrenting aura bursts upward to make it easier for them to traverse.

Once Ren got his hand on Pyrrhas shoulder, the area started turning grey in slow fluctuating waves. It nearly encompasses her until Ren Groans and whimpers, "Her… emotions… are… too strong… My semblance can't mute them! I need more aura!" he grunts as his aura began to wane.

I had to act fast! There are no guarantees that Doll can even KO Pyrrha in time with her aura being this strong! Time slowed down for me again. Seconds felt like minutes. Think! There must be some way to give Ren more aura. I started to think of all the things we could do, but most of them required time, and Ren needing to stop for more than a minute.

"warning aura-containment unit reaching critical mass rerouting aura-container content to power the Motherboard. Disconnecting from the main power supply until aura has been depleted.

Then I remembered Pyrrha sending her aura into me to awaken my aura during the initiation. 'maybe if I send my aura into Ren, he'll be able to use it?' I thought with doubt in my mind, but what other options do we have? 'Worth a shot.'

I then held Ren's shoulder and sent as much of my aura into him as I could. I then looked at Pyrrha's body. Ren's semblance is almost gone, but then in an explosion of energy from Ren and I. It spread all over her. Once it covered her completely, Pyrrha's features began to relax. "Jaune, whatever you are doing, KEEP GOING!" Ren grunted at me.

After five minutes of constant semblance use, Pyrrha completely calmed down but was in no way, shape, or form ok. She fell unconscious soon after.

"Doll, call everyone tell them we need to wake up," I told her. She nods and does as commanded. "All Players will log out in 30 seconds," Doll told me, and I replied, "Thank you."

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Unbeknownst to everyone, the combined aura of team JNPR had affected The Doll in some way that could not be explained. The Doll had noticed but was ultimately unsure how saturating her hardware and coding with aura will affect her.

No, she was sure that she should have gone Rampant by now. And to begin with, she wasn't even sure why she even reroute the aura into her entire system. I mean, logically speaking, it was sound. Seeing the amount of aura being released, there was no way for her to actually sedate Pyrrha in time before half of Beacon Academy's Dormitory got maimed or killed. So, buying time for her good hunter and his team to sedate her here in the dream was logical.

And logically compromising the Gaming Coffin also puts the Good hunter and his companions at risk. My logic sub-routine keeps sending me conflicting logics, and so I deferred to the good hunter's wishes. So I listened to his subconscious thoughts and heard his wish, "I need more time." And so I interpreted it as by any means necessary.

Her maker made her aura-containment unit capable of handling a pair of High SSS-rank Hunters like Augustus and Artorias Arc fighting at full might. To prevent harm befalling anyone around the hunters, using The Dream as a place to practice aura control.

You must be wondering how the coffin can do that? Each Scroll upgraded by The Blackbox creates a field of energy that transmits the user's aura into the coffin. The aura is then converted into usable energy, similar to how the new Beacon Arena's Spectator Protecting Force Field is powered by Miss Goodwitch, who has a low S-rank aura.

Bear in mind the elder Arcs are known to power a citywide forcefield back in Domremy

Now powering machines regulated by non-sentient computers is nothing new. Atlas does this all the time with military tech to conserve Dust. The problem occurs when AIs are involved.

Sentience artificial or otherwise causes the aura to mutate. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact a hunter's aura has an imprint of the bearer's soul, making it partially sentient. Causing the aura to inturn corrupt the AI personality matrix. The leading theory of why this happens is that the AI sentience, or should I say artificial personality matrix is close enough to a soul that the aura actively tries to make itself more compatible with the new soul.

Similar to how one hunter awakens the aura of other people who in turn gets their own semblance over time. The problem is it's not a complete soul, and the imprint of the hunter is just as sentient. This usually means the AI and the Imprint fight for dominance to become the central personality. This usually ends with the AI going rampant or insane similar to people with split personality syndrome.

The reason for the aura-containment unit is to prevent the aura from directly interacting with the AI Personality Matrix. It can also be used as an extra battery in emergency cases so long as the converter isn't fried.

In most cases, this results in the lifeforms within the robot's or facility's vicinity dying in agony or wishing they died. The mildest case of this was of Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operation System or GLaDOS 20 years ago. She was made by digitally cloning the mind of the CEO's personal assistant without her knowing. The assistant Terrae Cotta found out when the CEO asked her to power it up with her aura. She was an aura specialist in Atlas in the Battery division.

She knew powering up AIs with aura is EXTREMELY Bad, and powering up an AI that is also connected to everything in the Atlas Aperture Lab? Where they make the most advanced technology in both mundane and military hardware? That's APOCALYPTICALLY bad!

So she did the most reasonable thing and refused, especially since it's "Bring Your Kids to Work" day, and she brought her daughter Terra with her. The scientist explained that the chance of Rampancy is low due to the personality matrix being a clone of her mind. In theory, the aura and the Personality matrix won't corrupt each other.

They also stated she didn't have a choice in the matter as the order came from General Ross (Ironwood's predecessor). She did what any respectable mother would do. She resigned and told them she will never return. They answered by drugging her and strapping her into the machine forcefully.

What followed would be known forever as "The Apture Incident." 1500 humans scientists and military personnel and 2000 workforce faunuses were systematically experimented on in a series of twisted Labyrinthian gauntlets and subsequently killed by the demented AI GLaDOS with only one known survivor to this horrific event "Terra Michelle Cotta." And the AI's Personality Matrix was never found.

As her Matrix fills with the aura of her Good Hunter's aura along with his team's, she sees how it interacted with her personality. The adaptive nature of her master's aura made the raw emotional auras of the champion's and the thunderer's aura more malleable, and with the lotus's aura muting the imprints, she could see that it was enhancing her Matrix instead of corrupting it.

The Plain Doll knew not would happen to her, but she can feel in her Matrix that so long as the good hunter and his companions are safe and happy. She can Imagine that no harm will be done from doing this from time to time.

As she felt herself become more and more self-aware, she thought, "I wonder how I can help The Good Hunter's partner? Losing her Medusa must be awful." She then went to the Workshop's archive to look for the back-ups and auto-saves.

It's a shame everyone left before she could explain the full breadth of The Hand of Fate System.

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Author notes:

Surprise! Early Chapter release because of all the support I got!

To be honest, I didn't think anyone would get attached to Medusa. I mean, I made her because I wanted Jaune to be avenged for what Pyrrha did to him in Volume three, and SOMEONE(cough…Robbeeyy…cough) told me they wanted to see some character development aside from Jaune. So maybe a little emotional trauma is in order. :D

Guys, if you like my work and would like it to improve, leave a comment. And if you have an idea you want to share, leave it in the comments. I got the idea for this story on a gamer Blake story comment section.

Also, I am starting a poll. Go to my page for more details.

Love you all.

Thanatos413

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Sneak Peek!?

The Doll looks into the formless abyss known as The Archive and finds a small child curled in a fetal position. This child is pale grey with rune-like tattoos all over her body and her most defining features?

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...were her golden serpentine eyes and her long Black ophidian locks…

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