Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.


Fog

By: Imyoshi

Several things didn't make sense the moment Jaune Arc woke up—did not!

First and foremost, Pyrrha and Nora had beaten him up and he's dangerously tempted to check his scroll and see if the Grimm have finally overthrown humanity.

Second, the lazy bastard actually looked interested at whatever he was reading in his Aura notebook, instead of coolly relaxing on his bed and trying to avoid any pointless work.

And finally, Ren actually had some input to share without being directly asked or forced by Nora.

Betting on the fact that no screams of panic or waves of smoke appeared before him or outside his team's window, Jaune reluctantly accepted that the Grimm have not in face taken over, and welcomed this rare offer of odd luck, resolved not to poke the universe on one its very rare days off anymore than usual. Monty wouldn't appreciate that.

"What kind of ideas?" Jaune sat up with a heavy yawn, checking his scroll for the time. Class was a little more than two hours away. He actually woke up pretty early. A personal best!

Sitting down on his bed, Ren poked at a small detail that Jaune had written. "Well, first you wrote that you have learned to control the brightness of your Aura. I was wondering how bright you can make your Aura. Would you mind showing me?"

Fighting off a tired sigh, Jaune cracked his neck with urgency. It was too damn early for this. But for Ren's personal curiosity, he waved one hand forward; easily creating Supernova without effort—practically second nature by now.

Ren couldn't tell at first how bright the Aura sphere was with the room already basked in light from the sun, but then his leader carelessly weakened his control and the room became deathly bright, to the point Ren could barely keep his eyes open, resorting to using his forearm to shield away the blinding light. Jaune didn't even so much as bat an eyelash, far too use to his Aura's glow. Such things didn't bother him anymore.

If Ren thought this was bright, he couldn't wait to show him when it was pitch-dark.

Snuffing out Supernova, the room returned to normal and Ren blinked a couple of times, restoring his vision very slowly. Damn that light burned and Jaune easily waved it off, searching for his school uniform instead while wondering how he lost to Nora and Pyrrha beating him up. Little things like that shouldn't happen. They were the lazy ones. It just had to be Blake's fish cake. She must've poisoned it.

Yawning, he found his shirt underneath Nora's pillow, wondering why everything that went missing usually had to do with Nora. "So? Why'd you want me to do that? Not that I don't like showing off, but it's a little too early for this."

Ren blinked, hoping the two Jaune's merge into one soon. "Really? I need to explain to you why I asked you to do that?" His answer came to his leader almost falling asleep on Nora's bed. "Very well. Don't you see that your Aura's brightness could be used as a weapon?"

That seemed to wake Jaune up, interested on anything Aura related that he didn't already know. "How?"

"Easy." He flipped through a page of Jaune's Aura notebook. "Here you wrote you got blinded by your Aura the first time you created those Aura spheres, but now you're used to it. I'm one-hundred percent sure no one on Remnant, except maybe Nora, Pyrrha, and I, are even remotely ready for your Aura's brightness. You could blind your opponents in the Vytal Tournament and take them down before they could react."

Considering Ren's words, Jaune actually nodded at the idea, wondering why he never thought of that. It really was nice having a well of infinite knowledge for a teammate. So insightful. So perfect. So Ren. So very much Lie Ren.

Grinning, Jaune began the dreaded search for his school pants. "That's perfect! They'll never see it coming. Zap! Blinded by my Aura! Hehe, that's a great idea!"

"It did illuminate the room before I could react and shield my eyes."

Pausing, Jaune created a Supernova in his palm, allowing the ball to hover aimlessly. Pursed lips and a thoughtful idea later, he began condensing the sphere into a smaller form, pushing his current Aura control to its utmost limits. A lack of control allowed for the brightness to go unchallenged. What if he pressured the sphere so tightly and then forwent control altogether? If less control made his Aura brighter, then no Aura control over a Supernova should allow the Aura sphere to collapse and burst forth, showering everything in a tunnel of light. Of course there was only one possible way to find out if such a reaction would happen.

Only major downside he foresaw was probably not getting his Aura back.

"Illuminate? I like that word." Thinking playfully with a grin, he continued to compress the Supernova in his hands. "Hey, Ren? What's the brightest thing around? Is it our sun?"

Flipping through another page, Ren easily answered without effort. "No. That would be a quasar. It was a lesson Professor Oobleck went over about astronomy. They apparently illuminate—?!"

"Illuminate... Quasar!" Jaune released the condensed Supernova, allowing his control to completely slip and free the Aura sphere to explode in a spark of absolute white, covering their entire room in a glow of warmth and intense brightness. When the light finally faded away, Jaune spotted Ren and almost laughed. "Where did you get those sunglasses—no! Why do you have those sunglasses?"

Fixing his pink shades, Ren somehow made the nauseating color look stylish, simply glaring at his leader from the very edge. "I never make the same mistake twice."

"Yea, sorry about that." Jaune laughed. He wasn't sorry and he's certain Ren knew that. In a good mood, he searched for his pants and what did he know! They're right under Nora's bed! Why was he not surprised? "Would you mind adding that to my notes? Gotta remember that one."

Allowing his leader to get away with trying to blind him—for now—Ren did just that, amazed at the list of things Jaune could do with his Aura once he found said page. A gun, a sword, a sphere that's basically a bomb, and now what's essentially a powerful flash bang. Simply amazing. Ren would even go as far as to say extraordinaire.

Going over the notes on the technique page, Ren spotted something that barely caught his attention. He would've normally disregarded the note altogether if said note currently didn't have it out to get him with her one-hundred and twenty pounds of adorableness.

"Ruby's the one who helped you create Shooting Star?"

Finding his tie within Nora's pillowcase, the Arc simply shrugged. "She doesn't know about my Aura control if that's what you're asking. I just asked her to help explain how a gun works. I had to actually figure out how to shoot Aura out of my hand on my own. It's not as easy as it looks." Jaune lazily traced his fingers to form the Aura gun. "This right here took some experimenting until I finally got it right. My Aura kept blowing in my face every time I messed up! And when I finally got it right..." he trailed, laughing sideways toward the poster that once again hid the hole in the wall.

"You shot an Aura sphere through our wall?"

"By accident!"

"Sure it was." Flipping a page casually, Ren noted each word after the next, actually very interested on this tiny piece of info he found. "Aura's not affected by gravity? Are you sure?"

"As far as I can tell." Jaune yawned, ruffling up his bed hair. "If I aim for a target, it always hits dead center from where I'm looking. No air or gravity resistance that Ruby warned me of. I don't really get it myself."

"Interesting..." he hummed, resting his hand under his chin in deep thought.

Jaune wondered what his fellow male could possibly be thinking now. It's kind of hard to take him serious with those pink sunglasses of his. Maybe in a different light he could? No. It's just not possible.

Shutting the notebook, Ren handed Jaune back his research notes, letting his idea drift away for now. His idea seemed sound in theory, but the execution was still missing. Not to mention the implications and obstacles his leader would have to overcome could be overwhelming. And with the tournament to worry about? No. Best to keep his idea locked away until he could work around the bugs.

Besides, Jaune's Shooting Star was already deadly. Did Ren really need to give Jaune the idea of a possible sniper rifle? And even possibly, maybe one-up Ruby's gun design? No! Better not to think about it until he could figure out how to get over the major fact that Jaune's opponent could spot Shooting Star coming before it ever hit them, or how Jaune could even pull off firing or aiming Shooting Star that far off away. Hitting stationary targets was one thing, moving ones were entirely different.

"Something on your mind, Ren?" Jaune poked, waving his hand in front of his face.

"Hmm? Oh? No, Jaune." Ren yawned, losing all his rare enthusiasm faster than Weiss could lose a smile. "Just thinking of another possible technique to add to your Aura arsenal."

His leader's eyes gleamed, rivaling Nora's. "Really?! What is it?!"

Lightly amused, Ren still couldn't believe behind that wide smile and innocent face hid a powerful Aura user, one the likes Remnant had never seen. To think, he once thought Jaune was the weakest in their team when it came to fighting skills and overall power.

Never again! Lie Ren didn't make the same mistake twice.

"It's a surprise."

"Aw! Don't keep me hanging!" Jaune begged, shaking Ren by the shoulder in a very Nora way. Maybe she'd been an unknown influence on him? Or maybe Jaune acted like this when it came to anything Aura-based. Personally, Ren hoped it's the Aura talking. "Hey! Say something!"

"Sorry, Fearless Leader." Now it was Ren's turn to not sound sorry, hiding behind a smug smile.

"What?!" he cried, grasping his Aura notebook tightly between his fingers. "That's not fair! You would tell Nora if she asked!"

"But..." Ren pressed, fixing his shades. "You're not Nora now, are you?"

Beaten and unable to argue, Jaune pouted, acting very childlike. Damn it, Nora. Even when she wasn't here she still found a way to mess with her Fearless Leader. Monty must hate him. That's it! Only reasonable explanation! Logic, move aside. Irrational and paranoia, welcome!

Looking around for the bane of his existence, Jaune raised a brow at the missing bomber and his cereal partner. Only now it hit him that the room proved to be far too quiet. Probably should've noticed when Ren, of all people, spoke at higher volumes than the present people included. And now that he knew half of his team was missing, Jaune felt obligated to focus on damage control.

"Speaking of Nora?" Jaune slowly checked under his team's beds, popping his head over after checking Ren's. "Where's Nora and Pyrrha?"

Motioning Jaune toward the direction of Vale, Ren nonchalantly answered. "They left early to Vale for breakfast. Nora was having a pancake and syrup withdrawal and demanded pancakes immediately."

"Okay." Made sense with the flour strike and all. But some things didn't exactly add up. Like Pyrrha and Nora beating him up. "How come they didn't wake me to see if I wanted some breakfast? I could go for some pancakes instead of another helping of cold cereal."

Ren shrugged. "I was going to wake you, but Pyrrha said you needing a lot of sleep. Something about having a terrible day yesterday." Jaune nodded, remembering the nightmare he experienced yesterday. "And Nora agreed, mumbling something about stingy leaders and their cake?"

"I did her a favor!" Jaune suddenly yelled, recalling Blake's fish cake. Last time he did Nora a favor. "You don't know the horror I went through yesterday."

Ren looked off to the side where the closet currently stashed a giant banner with Jaune's first name written in bold letters, while his last name had a giant black smudge over it. He even found small remains of some fishy substance in their bathroom trashcan. After that, he lacked the courage to continue exploring the sanctuary of their own dorm room.

His leader did have a point. "I don't and I don't want to know."

Hmph! "Fine then, let's go see what's for breakfast." Jaune waved toward the door, hiding one hand in his pocket while the other tiredly scratched the side of his face. "At least tomorrow's the weekend. What a week this has been."

Ren couldn't argue. Truly this week had been truly hectic for his leader. Tournament announcements, being chosen for said tournament, having his secret discovered before he could tell them, that fight with Pyrrha, Ozpin's talk, and even yesterday. What a week. Only two more away before the semester's down and they could head to Emerald Forest for some team training. Now that he thought that out loud, it sounded much more like a punishment rather than a vacation.

And if Ren's being honest with himself—he rarely was—there's a slight twitch in his step, wondering what their experience in Emerald Forest would be like. Probably not boring considering Nora and Jaune would be around. Who knew? He might just come out unscathed.

Following Jaune, Ren watched him tuck his Aura notebook into his school shirt. The action made Ren remember how carelessly Jaune had simply left it sticking out from underneath his pillow that morning and how easily Ren snatched the notebook. Measurements needed to be taken to keep that notebook hidden from prying eyes.

"By the way, Jaune." Ren dawdled, slowly taking off his pink shades that he felt essential to carry now, placing them securely in his sleeve. "It's not a good idea to just be leaving your notebook lying around for anyone to take."

"Same goes for your nasty health bars."

...

Subjugated to another bland breakfast, both Ren and Jaune ate their cereal in a slow manner. They would admit that they're a bit jealous they didn't leave to join their partners for breakfast at Vale, but Jaune had been far too gone in his dreams and Ren hadn't felt like getting out of his bed during the time. Mistakes on their part, surely. And now it was too late to fix them. Classes started not for another hour.

And a trip to Vale for breakfast was no longer an option on the table.

Forcing down another bite of this terrible pumpkin shaped cereal; both the males were greeted with the tray slams of Blake and Weiss. Blake didn't show any outward contempt for her meal, silently choosing to sit next to Jaune on the table, although a little close for his comfort. Weiss, on the other hand, showed absolute displeasure at the monstrosity that was her breakfast, choosing to sit beside the stoic Ren.

Weiss huffed, dipping her spoon into the cereal. "This is unacceptable. I cannot go on eating this sorry excuse for a meal. Especially for breakfast! This strike needs to end. How could someone actually enjoy eating this?"

No one noticed Blake sneakily only drinking the milk from her bowl, expertly maneuvering around the pumpkin shaped flakes away from spoon. Delicious milk! It could use some fish. But delicious nonetheless!

"I know what you mean." Jaune sighed, taking a spoonful of the terrible cereal. "But there's nothing we can do about it."

Hmph, she glowered, forcing herself to eat the food. Disgusting or not, breakfast was the most important meal of the day, even for a Schnee. Best not to let herself starve until lunch. Besides, she wasn't exactly looking forward to that as well. Darn this pointless strike! If only they could find the individuals responsible for this flour strike, then she'd show them the end of Myrtenaster.

Ren allowed his eyes roam the table and the Mess Hall before tapping Weiss on the shoulder. "Hey? Where's Yang and Ruby?"

"Over there..." she pointed with her spoon across the Mess Hall where Ruby and Yang sat on a lone table. "They're being idiots."

Being idiots was a clear understatement. Ruby was looking over a backwards newspaper with a giant hole ripped out the front for Yang to peek through, glaring daggers at Ren and Jaune. And every time either one dipped their spoon into their cereal for a quick gulp, a slight shiver would pass through them and reflect on the newspaper, obviously not enjoying the meal either.

Giving up on his breakfast, Jaune dropped his spoon. "And why are they sitting over there?"

Sensing the chance to get some brownie points with Jaune Black Smudge, Blake answered before Weiss. "Something about planning your ambush. You might want to watch your back today. Who knows when they're planning to act."

He groaned, finding the strange urge to dunk his head in the bowl. "Oh... joy."

...

Picking at her plate with a small frown, Pyrrha stabbed her fork into her hash browns with a small bit of guilt. She's still reeling a bit over the fight Jaune and her had, but her real issue was the future Vytal Tournament, and no amount of perfectly crisp potatoes could cure her depression.

"Are you still worrying over Jaune, you worrywart?"

The champion blinked, sharing a carefree glance with Nora. The wildcard of Team JNPR happily munched on a stack of lumberjacks that's drenched in a mountain of syrup and blueberries. If Nora had any problems weighing heavily over her head, then the girl's really good at hiding it. And she awaited Pyrrha's predictable response with half a pancake dangling from her stuffed mouth.

Pyrrha smiled tiredly. "How obvious am I?"

Nora grinned a syrupy smile, poking the insecure girl with her fork. "You're like a lighthouse!" Pyrrha frowned. "Oh! Stop worrying already! I already said we're going to win the Vytal Tournament and save Jaune's butt! So stop beating yourself up and eat!"

If only if it was that easy.

Taking Nora's advice, she plopped some of the hash brown into her mouth, enjoying the taste immensely. After only one day of eating bland food, courtesy to their flour mishap, it tasted like food blessed by Monty Oum himself. Kind of made it hard to not smile and appreciate the chefs at this quaint restaurant. And Nora quickly capitalized and seized the moment for all it's worth, sliding up to Pyrrha with a shoulder bump.

"That's more like it! Stop being mopey Pyrrha! Our Fearless Leader needs scary Pyrrha! No more mopey! Got it?" Pyrrha had to happily sigh. When Nora put it like that, what choice did she have? "Good! Now let's finish this food Jaune-Jaune got us!"

Pyrrha paused into her second bite, very confused. "Nora? What's that supposed to mean?" Nora remained silent, but she did pull out a wallet from her combat skirt pocket. "Is that..."

"I borrowed Jaune-Jaune's wallet..." she said easily, feigning guilt. "I'm sure he won't mind!"

Pyrrha ever so slightly narrowed her eyes. "Don't you mean stole?"

"Borrowed, Pyrrha! I borrowed his wallet!"

This time the champion poked Nora with the end of her potato-scented fork. "Without him knowing?"

Nora crossed her arms, ignoring Pyrrha's judgmental glare. "Yea, okay, if you say it like that, then of course it sounds bad! Stop being so serious and relax a bit. You'll live longer."

Knowing Nora's not one to budge, and that the damage was already done, plus who didn't like a free meal, Pyrrha smiled into her sip of mocha. Nora squirmed underneath the sudden, sly smile, wondering what the champion possibly knew or could do in the span of breakfast. And the champion had a few ideas, all revolving around a certain word.

Stop being so serious? How could she resist? "But I thought you liked serious?" Pyrrha giggled, liking the way Nora's cheeks flared. "Remember when Ren was acting so serious? Because I do. It was really something, wasn't it? I've never seen him act like that." Nora sweated under Pyrrha's smug grin. "And what about when Ren was using your weapon—!"

"Ha-ha!" Nora forcibly laughed, scarfing down her breakfast in haste. "We better hurry up and finish our breakfast!"

Lacing her fingers over the rim of her beverage, Pyrrha toned down her smile. "I guess you're right. We don't want to be late to Professor Port's lecture."

Eating her pancakes in silence, Nora tried to ignore Pyrrha's air of smugness, not used to the champion having such a Yang-side. Pyrrha probably felt more relaxed around her, which didn't help Nora as much as she thought. Even worse, if Nora thought about telling Team RWBY about Pyrrha's teasing, smug smile, she knew no one would believe her.

"We better hurry, Nora. We don't want to miss the next Bullhead back to Beacon. We'll be late to class." Pyrrha at least felt better about the whole Vytal Tournament thing.

Thank you, Nora!

...

Drumming his fingers along his desk as Professor Port continued nonstop on more tales of his amazing youth, Jaune wondered where Pyrrha and Nora were. Pyrrha's never one to be late and Nora couldn't be that big of a distraction. Ren, however, seemed content on note-taking, not bothered by their partner's disappearance at all. With Pyrrha watching Nora, Jaune guessed the Lie had nothing to worry about.

Bored, he let his eyes travel across the room, eventually landing on Ruby below him. He saw her note-taking, only upon closer inspection revealed notes not for Professor Port's lesson, but pictures and notes for weapons. In the dead center of her paper; she's drawing schematics for Crescent Rose. There's even a crudely drawn picture of Ren in the corner with a scythe pointed at his chest. It made him chuckle when he noticed the vicious angry faces spewed all around his image.

He's going to have to warn Ren later.

Checking next on Weiss, he's surprised to find her not taking any notes on Professor Port's lessons, oddly invested in her own thing. Closer inspection revealed her working on random Dust formulas and notes in her notebook, writings in a professional and elegant manner. There were sketches of that blue Dust with a picture of ice spewing across to the second page. There's even a little snowman within that ice, wearing a hoodie and goofy smile. It even had a snow angel hovering above the snowman. It almost looked cute.

Pushing that strange picture aside, Jaune looked around the room some more and spotted Yang. And of course! She's plainly sleeping behind her standing book camouflage set up. Don't even get him started on Blake's patented disguise book cover for her Ninjas of Love series. Did no one pay attention in this class? And where were Nora and Pyrrha at?

Slam!

"Sorry we're late!" Nora suddenly yelled, slamming the door open with a large amount of unneeded force. And yup! There were dent marks on the wall now. "We missed the airship back to Beacon!"

Nora then skipped right in, unfazed from the all the eyes on her. Pyrrha followed right behind the bomber, embarrassed from the swift attention brought down upon her. For such a confident fighter and four time tournament winner, she sure didn't like being put on the spotlight. But Nora Valkyrie knew better. Embarrassed her butt!

Professor Port's mustache grinned at one of his favorite students. "It is quite alright, Miss Valkyrie! Please take your seat. And you too Miss Nikos. We were just talking about the time I single-handedly took down an Omega—!"

And Jaune's bored again.

...

Taking only three steps into Dust class, Jaune suddenly found himself being pulled away by the red blur of Team RWBY. Before he could so much as ask what, she plopped him down into his new seat. Without uttering a word, Ruby zoomed over to pick up today's assignment, being hush-hush about the whole thing. And when she returned with the materials needed and assignment presented, she smiled with a purpose. And this all happened within the span of five seconds. Jaune barely had time to blink between it all.

Well now? This was new.

No, no, not the part of being pulled away from his actual partner before Dust class even started. Jaune Arc had gotten used to that. It's who had pulled him away this time that confused him. Leave it to Ruby to break the status quo in under a minute, and just when he had gotten used to Weiss's short-temper and demanding workload.

Working with the hand Fate had dealt him, the Arc sighed and settled into his chair. Best to play his hand and see where the chips fell. But Ruby played dumb. And by that, he meant she acted normal. Which would've been fine if this had been a normal situation, but it wasn't. So either she really felt like partner swapping—highly unlikely—or she had some ulterior motive that included him? Jaune's banking on the latter.

Playing her game, he tackled the assignment with suspicious intent, seeing right past that cavity-inducing smile of hers.

However, only ten minutes into the assignment and Jaune's preoccupied wondering how anyone allowed Ruby near any containers of highly volatile Dust. He stopped counting the number of times she fumbled a vial or accidentally knocked one over with her elbow. It went from entertaining to embarrassing quite quickly. They still haven't even tackled the first problem of their worksheet. Suffice to say, he found it a little demoralizing.

He eventually couldn't hold his tongue back anymore.

"You know, for a weapons expert..." Jaune trailed, watching Ruby hastily catch a vial of Lightning Dust before it fell on their lab table. "You're pretty clumsy."

"Hey! I am not clumsy!" she huffed, shaking the vial in front of his nose before accidentally letting it slip between her fingers and hitting Jaune squarely on the forehead. He managed to catch it before it hit the ground, fighting through the small pain.

Placing the vial down and wondering how Weiss survived Dust class as Ruby's partner, he grinned angrily at Ruby. "What was that?"

And Ruby laughed awkwardly, pressing her fingers together. "Hehe, sorry."

Fighting the unbelievable urge to pat her on the head, Jaune rubbed his forehead, peaking through his fingers at the adorable, distraught girl. Just when he sort of settled down into his odd Dust class routine, Ruby very awkwardly threw a wretch at it. And she still hadn't yet revealed why!

She had talked along the lines of partner switching again for fun and becoming better friends and so forth. Wanting to grow closer with all her friends and all that good stuff. All lies! Lies Jaune Arc saw right through like a sheet of tracing paper. It helped that Ruby ever so awkwardly refused to make eye contact unless if it was absolutely necessary.

"C'mon..." he sighed, knowing Ruby was terrible at keeping secrets and would spill on her own time. "Let's get started before you drop anymore vials."

Grabbing the paper assignment, Jaune was pleasantly surprised that he understood the general gist of it. Turned out those Dust classes with Weiss were really starting to pay off. Just another step closer to finding a way to infuse Aura into those white Dust crystals!

Grabbing two separate vials of Dust, Jaune casually twisted and turned them in his hands, wondering how Aura released the energy that was stored inside these tiny fragments of Dust. So very interesting.

Lost in another Aura-based thought, Jaune's pulled away from Ruby light bumping into his shoulder with her own. "So? You know, out of curiosity—does Ren have any fears?" she poked, whistling a terrible, terrible way.

Subtly, this was Ruby Rose. You two have never met.

"Yea." Jaune joked, playing along at now knowing the reason why Ruby chose him as her Dust partner.

Ruby seemed edge closer in her seat, widening her eyes in anticipation with her hands scrunched up together. "And?"

"And I'm not telling you."

"What?!" she gawked, feeling an imaginary knife stab her in the back. She then grabbed Jaune by the shoulder, shaking him dramatically. "Why not?!"

He pretended to think on that. "Um, because I'm his leader and friend."

"But we're friends!" she pouted, shaking one arm in a never ending loop. "I was your first friend here at Beacon! Not Ren! Me! That's gotta count for something!"

"And it does." Jaune smiled, poking the cookie lover on the nose. "But as their leader, I cannot give out any personal information about my team members." That and it might have something to do that he didn't actually know what Ren's fears were. Jaune's not even sure if Ren had any fears.

Ruby pouted even more, kicking some imaginary dust from the floor, and stubbornly rubbed the spot on her nose that Jaune poked her. Life's not fair! All she wanted to do was destroy Lie Ren in every possible way imaginable! And maybe poke him on his forehead! Was that so much to ask for?

Taking her silence as her sign of giving up, Jaune worked on the assignment, placing the vials into a special tray before Ruby once again bumped him in the shoulder, causing him to spill some Fire Dust on his hand, burning the skin. His Aura quickly put a stop to the burning and shielded the pain. Still, he had to ask, how did Weiss ever survive Ruby as a Dust partner?

Ignoring the small clouds of smoke seeping from Jaune's hand, Ruby nudged him once more. "So... did you ever make that gun?"

Surprised at her question, Jaune fixed his other hand with a lost stare, instinctively flexing his fingers to the gun form of Shooting Star. "Uh... still working on it. It's almost done. I'll have it finished on time for the Vytal Festival."

Her eyes lit up like shooting stars. "Can I see it?"

"Nope! You'll just have to wait for the tournament!"

"You're so mean!"

Later, as some form of cosmic payback, Ruby sneezed on the Fire Dust vial in his hand, covering him in a layer of ash, soot, and burns marks.

...

Lunch practically started out the same with Blake tailing him with her books tucked underneath her arms.

Couldn't say he was surprised.

However, what did surprise him was Yang popping out of her team's room before Jaune could even so much as touch his door, and grabbed Blake by the arm, pulling her quickly inside. She glared at Jaune for a moment, gesturing again with her fingers a simple I'm watching you look before shutting her door. A muffled cry and bark reached him moments later and Blake stomped out angry with a tear and bit of drool on one of her books. She slid up to the Arc, waiting for him to open his team's room.

Yang popped out a moment later, daring Jaune to let Blake in his room and see what happened. And he's sorely tempted not to. But then Blake's looking at him with these imploring eyes and a hesitant smile that melted his resolve away, and he's only human, damn it! It's not his fault they're both dog haters. Someone throw him a bone—eh?

Never mind.

Maybe on some weird level, he was kind of, sort of, perhaps stealing Yang's partner away. But it's not like he wanted to! Intentional it was not. Want to or not, Yang didn't seem to believe him. Especially when her eyes turned into such a lovely shade of red. But the effect's sort of dampened with the way she hugged the corgi closely to her chest, acting very B-level villain movie-like with her fingers ranking over Zwei's fluffy coat.

...

The rest of the day practically blurred together until his team finally finished their last class for the day, choosing to lounge in their room for the moment. Nothing else eventful happened—much to Jaune's eternal relief—thankful for the week finally coming to a close. Only two more weeks until their two week break and their training retreat. He couldn't wish for anything more!

Lazing on Ren's unusual comfortable bed, why, Jaune had his feet kicked up the wall with Nora mimicking his movements, too lazy to change from his school uniform and actually falling almost falling asleep in that position. Pyrrha's polishing Crocea Mors, studying he guessed the odd metal that his ancestor's blade was made out of. And Ren's eating his disgusting health bars in actual content, leaning casually on the wall, and reading his Aura notebook some more.

In all, it's the perfect setup for some drama to begin. And Team JNPR's all about the drama.

Reading through the notes of Jaune's Aura notebook and flipping through pages of notes he taken, something very odd caught Ren's eye. "Hey, Jaune?" he called out, pointing at a scribbled out section. "What's this you've scribbled out right here?"

Fighting the decision to move, Jaune finally gave in and sat right up before standing right up, somewhat grabbing his team's attention. He moved over to Ren and spotted the scribbled out section in his notebook with the label Nora-level insanity. There's a tiny picture of a Grimm to help remind him why he did that.

"Oh?" he recalled or thought he recalled, shrugging at the blacken stain. "It's nothing, really. Just something crazy I think happened?"

"And that would be?"

Laughing at the awkward memory, he created a Supernova, fully grabbing his team's attention before willing away the Aura sphere. "I think I saw or used some black Aura before when I was fighting some Grimm. I tried to make more, but couldn't ever do it. So I figured it was just my mind playing tricks on me."

"Black Aura?" Pyrrha echoed, placing Crocea Mors down and thinking hard on the subject. "I don't think I've ever heard of someone with black Aura before."

"Yea..." he agreed. "Crazy, right? I've seen everyone's Aura in combat class and no one's even come close to having black Aura. It didn't even feel like Aura, really. It felt so weird and... bad."

"Bad?" Ren repeated.

"Yea, bad." Jaune retained, shivering at the feeling of hopelessness and misery he felt when it had happened. "Yea it felt—I don't know! Bad! Wrong! Cold!" he waved off the feeling. "But I'm not even sure that happened. It was too quick to remember. Maybe I just imagined it all? I was fighting a Grimm at the time."

Ren moved forward, closing the notebook. "But you remember feeling it?" he countered, not so quick to judge. It sounded crazy so it had to be real. Jaune's the empathy of crazy. "How else did it feel like? Can you remember it?"

Remember it? How could he forget. It was a feeling he didn't think he could ever forget. It felt like he had been pushed into a deep, dark abyss without any light or warmth to keep him company. Anything and everything that Aura was, that power wasn't. And that abyss had kept his Aura at bay for one of the longest moments of his life. So could he remember it?

The better question was whether he wanted to or not.

Running his fingers through his hair, Jaune felt a low pull in his soul, bringing back these intense emotions he thought he finally buried away. The lying and despair he felt when he started deceiving his team all came back full force, and so did that dark Aura tugging his heartstrings. A weight pressed itself against his chest, a force that he couldn't fight against. No matter how much he wanted to.

"It felt?" he stopped, remembering the fight with the Death Stalker and the moment he had been losing. "It felt like everything my Aura ever gave me... all the power and security... got taken away. I was cold, and I felt lonely, but when it was all over... my Aura control felt stronger! I felt stronger. I just didn't know what happened. I couldn't explain it. And eventually I ignored it."

No one said anything for a minute until Nora sat right up, leaning impossibly far off the bed without actually falling over the side, eyes wider than he'd ever seen. It's also the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her face.

"And you never tried to recreate the black Aura?" she asked hopefully.

Jaune created another Supernova. "I did try right after! Believe me, I tried. But my Aura only came out white. So that's why I probably only imagined it."

Ren carefully noted Jaune's words for a moment, pondering over the Aura sphere in his leader's hands. "But you did say that it didn't actually feel like Aura... maybe it wasn't Aura. What else do you remember?"

Remembering more bits of the fight, Jaune smiled whimsically. "I was losing. Supernova wasn't strong enough to break through the Death Stalker's bone-plated armor—!"

"You were fighting a Death Stalker—by yourself?!" Pyrrha fumed, edging closer to Jaune. He grinned weakly at her, knowing that there was going to be hell to pay later. Her eyes then grew impossibly large, placing a finger on his jaw. "That's how you got hurt!"

Realizing Pyrrha finally pieced together his blood stains from earlier this week, Jaune pretended she's not trying to glare a hole through his skull, and redirected his attention back at Ren and Nora.

"So, yea. I was losing and I was starting to lose control over Supernova." Jaune paused, touching his chest and felt the negative emotions coming back to surface. "I remember feeling so weak and useless. All my training felt worthless." Creating another Supernova, Jaune floated the Aura sphere carefully in his palm. "I just felt so tired of lying and not belonging here at Beacon."

"But you do belong here at Beacon." Nora fussed, beating logic with simple reason.

And for a moment, Jaune felt grateful for Nora's trust in him, forgiving her instantly for the all harm she caused both physical and emotional to him. But that small sliver of doubt washed over him once more, forcing him to sit down on his bed, and look sadly down at the Aura sphere in his hand.

"And what if I don't?"

Lub dub!

Feeling again that same tug in the depth of his soul, the very same cold presence Jaune remembered greedily washed over him, drowning him in a sea of undeniable sadness, and he felt it tear his Aura away in a ripping gesture that resembled something like a gravitational force pulling against his Aura. His and his team's eyes widen in shock from the Supernova in his hand suddenly turning deathly pitch-black, and collapsing into the palm of his hand with an overshadowing affect that spread across his entire palm in a blanket of darkness.

Despair quickly fell on Jaune and he lost complete control, finding everything wrong. So very wrong. Whatever this black power was, it did not like being in his body. For some reason, he could see through Space that his white Aura was actively trying to push out the black from overcoming anymore of his arm, eventually killing the power and wiping away the darkness away from his palm. And as soon as the dark power died, so did the cold feeling seeping into his body. The hopelessness vanished as well, only leaving behind trace amounts of mixed feelings, but most importantly, leaving behind unrivaled fear.

That didn't feel like Aura, not exactly.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha finally breathed, grabbing her leader by the shoulder. "Was that?"

"I don't believe it?" Flexing his fingers, Jaune's hand couldn't stop shaking from both fear and excitement. "So it wasn't a dream? It really did happen? I'm not crazy."

Trying again to resummon the dark power, Jaune this time felt a slither lying somewhere deep within the confines of his soul, locked away in his very core. It rested there, underneath all the light. He tried to forcefully pull the strange power forward, but his Aura quickly put a stop to that, automatically pressing the power back in a valiant effort of will and strength.

He tried multiple times, but the results remained the same.

"So that was the black Aura?" Ren mussed, but Jaune quickly shook his head.

"That... wasn't Aura." Jaune glared, remembering the feeling of power. Power that felt totally different compared to Aura. "It didn't—doesn't feel like Aura. Not exactly. This time I can sense it! I know it's there now. And I know where to look, but calling that power Aura would be a lie."

"Why don't you try calling that power again?"

Jaune grimaced. "I'm afraid to see what will happen. My Aura wasn't friendly to it. Maybe if I stop my Aura from attacking it, I could probably summon the power, but..."

"You don't know what will happen." Pyrrha finished, concerned for her leader's grim yet determined look. She squeezed his shoulder softly. "Jaune, you don't have to try—?"

Their Fearless Leader created another Supernova in his hand and this time tried to pull the strange dark power forward, constantly willing his Aura not to attack and stop the new power. The Supernova slowly turned deadly black again, collapsing into his hand once more, and again his Aura fought against his control. Jaune could see through Space his white Aura already attacking the strange power against his will, eventually killing away the power in a valiant act. He tried again, but this time the Aura's more adamant at not obeying Jaune's control, stopping the power from even reaching Supernova.

Jaune didn't know why, but he felt that same cold, lonely despair wash all over him, coating his soul a layer of doubt each and every time the black energy reached him. Sadness that only washed away after the power had been wiped out completely by warm and soothing Aura.

All the warmth that Aura gave simply did not exist within the darkness.

Feeling his Aura staring to lessen from the constant usage, Jaune sat down, never once realizing that was the first time he'd ever actively seen his own Aura through Space. Never once having any reconciliation of seeing his own Aura before. Never noticing how close his Aura stuck to his skin compared to everyone else's. Seeing a glow from his Aura and the actual thing were two different experiences. Because it was like looking at one's own soul.

He just sat there, thinking about how his Aura fought against that darkness. Like a disease.

"Jaune?" Nora poked, no longer grinning. "Are you okay?"

Looking up, all three of his friends were close by him, shouldering all looks of concern.

"Yea..." he said eventually, shaking his head. He searched for the power and found it again in the same spot as before, right above his chest. "Yea, I'm good. Just a little confused, right now. I'm just wondering. Why did it come now? And not before? Why now?"

Lost, Jaune frowned a bit from the lingering emotions, and Ren instantly took note of his leader's unusual depressed mood. Normally, Jaune would never ever let anything get him down. Or at least he wouldn't outwardly show it. This unknown power really had a negative effect on him. Or maybe being unable to control this power hit him harder than any of them thought? It couldn't be easy knowing another form of Aura existed that he lacked the control to command.

Closing his eyes and thinking over the facts, Ren's mind pictured a monster for a split-second when he thought over the negative emotions, cold sensation, and the dark coloring the energy seemingly had.

Looking back at Jaune's Aura notebook, a small theory emerged. "Aura is the manifestation of power that allows us to fight the Grimm. Its warmth and protective, a beacon for our very souls, maybe thinking negatively about yourself had manifested the Aura to become something dark and cold?" Jaune looked ready to argue, but Ren lifted a finger. "Both times you felt sadness... and you're saying that power made you feel cold and alone... maybe that power responds to negative emotions?"

He didn't seem convinced. "What about other Huntsmen? I'm pretty sure I haven't been the only depressed Huntsmen-in-Training before."

"Other Huntsmen didn't have the power to control their Aura to such extents." Pyrrha pushed, liking Ren's theory. "They're not as strongly connected to their Aura as you are."

"And besides." Ren added, pointing at Jaune's Aura notebook. "Who knows what there's left to discover about Aura."

Jaune concentrated and glowed in a light shade of snow. "That doesn't explain why I can't use it or why my Aura seems to attack that power."

Ren shrugged, out of ideas. "Maybe you can't have Aura while you're using it? If your Aura is stopping if from surfacing, maybe you need to run out of Aura in order to use the power?" he guessed, throwing out some random ideas.

"Maybe you can put the Aura where that strange power comes from and switch them out!" Nora threw in.

Jaune was about to scoff at that insane idea, but stopped himself before he could. That power did exist locked somewhere in his soul. Maybe he could switch them out? Crazy as it sounded. And it sounded completely insane. Which was why it might be worth a try.

Because sanity and him have long since went their separate ways.

Feeling for the frightening power, Jaune found it tucked deep within his soul, locked away. He slowly attempted to pull it forth and his Aura's already trying to prevent the power from surfacing. Heeding Nora's crazy idea, Jaune tried to switch the Aura and power, in a way, locking away his Aura. He didn't fight his Aura, he attempted to maneuver it around the dark substances.

What madness. Locking away his Aura. The idea truly scared him to the deepest core of his soul.

But it worked.

After what felt like hours and through some intense Aura control, the power and Aura switched places, and that same creepy dark glow overshadowed him, filling him immediately with an unmatched coldness and bleak feeling. A power similar to Aura, but scarcely different overcame Jaune. The power quickly scared him and he tried to control it, fighting back the unwelcoming emotions. But like being stranded in the middle of an ocean, he felt himself drowning immediately.

Falling to his knees, his team was quickly around Jaune, watching their leader fall to this dark power. They swiftly tried to grab him, but Jaune stopped them by holding his hand out shrouded in a cloak of shadow. He looked up, squarely determined to fight and control the cold power. His glare alone made the temperature in the room fall.

"I want to learn how to control it." Jaune stood up, determined. Unable to control it anymore, his Aura burst forward and pushed back, recapturing him again. "I never know when I'll need the extra power. And who knows, maybe I could use it during the Vytal Tournament?" he joked, hoping to push back the negative emotions.

Truth was, the idea of having some unknown dark power lurking somewhere in his soul irked him to no end. Fear gripped his heart, and Jaune would rather have that power under his control than not. And it didn't hurt to know that he's not anywhere near Nora-level insanity. Small victories.

"And we'll be here to help you!" Nora grinned, throwing her arm over his shoulder.

Jaune smiled weakly at that, seeing the sun begin to set. What a long week this had been.

"Sure, why not!" Laughed the Arc, sitting back on his bed with Pyrrha instantly on his side. "It'll be just like old times with me practicing in our room during dinner, except this time you'll know what I'm doing."

"What about lunch?" Pyrrha asked.

He scratched the side of his cheek, laughing awkwardly. "No can do. That's Blake's reading time. It's impossible to sneak away from her. Believe me, I've lost count how many times she's popped out from the shadows."

"Well..." Nora swayed, undeterred. "That's what the nights for! You can practice and we'll watch you and make sure you don't hurt yourself!" Jaune's more afraid that they'd be doing the hurting. "Speaking of dinner!" she grinned wide, grabbing her leader by the arm, and pushing back all the awkwardness. "You still owe us pancakes for when Ren beat Ruby! You promised! You promised! And I'm hungry!"

Jaune couldn't believe she actually remembered that. "You still remember that?"

"Yup!"

"Trust me." Ren smirked, already getting ready to leave for Vale. "Nora never forgets about anything having to do with pancakes. And you did promise her."

Jaune turned to Pyrrha for support and her stomach growled in response, making the cereal girl fidget a little. "I am getting tired eating the bland food that Beacon has been serving us for a while. Anything sounds good right now, especially pancakes."

"But you and Nora left to get pancakes this morning!"

"And we want more!" Nora yelled, leaving no room for argument. "You can never have too many pancakes! Right, Ren!"

Powerless to Nora's childlike smile, Ren fell easily and nodded alongside Nora, getting a quick hug from the mad fighter. Truth be told, anything really did sound better than whatever Beacon was currently serving after Nora, Pyrrha, and his flour fiasco. Of course their Fearless Leader didn't need to know that.

Guilt be damned.

Accepting his defeat, Jaune sighed before looking for his wallet. He only moved two steps before Nora guiltily pressed it forward toward his face, smile far too innocent. He grumbled a little and glared before snatching the wallet, finding some lien missing.

"Did you use my money this morning for your breakfast?"

Nora seemed to not so subtly hide behind Ren, still smiling wistfully at Jaune from over Ren's protective shoulder. "Did I ever tell you that you're greatest leader ever?"

Fighting the urge to reach out and strangle her, and knowing Ren would stop him before he so much as lifted a finger, Jaune slowly regained his cool and simply let it go. Totally not worth it! Well? No! Don't sink to her level. That's what she wanted him to do!

Unbuttoning his school uniform, Jaune sighed and tossed the constricting article of clothing aside and looked for his hoodie. Might as well best be comfortable for dinner. And the idea of going out for dinner did sound absolutely fantastic right about now.

Even if they were having more pancakes.

"So?" Nora hummed absently at the sheer awesomeness of her leader, leaning over his shoulder now. "What are you gonna name it?"

Finding his hoodie behind Nora's bedpost, Jaune blinked. "Name it?"

"Yea!" she jumped, arms wide out, and smile grand. "That totally awesome dark power! You said it's not exactly like Aura... so it's new! You discovered it! You should name it! Those are the rules!"

Name it? Remembering the dark emotions and cold feeling, Jaune didn't know. The power frightened him—petrified every part of his being. The simple idea of naming it hadn't crossed his mind. Oum, he just discovered the power.

"... I don't know yet."

Pouting, Nora longed back at Ren, hovering within his personal space. Though to be fair, Jaune doubted Ren had a personal space when it came to Nora.

Time passed by in a blur for the rest of the evening with them causing even more property damage like the last time his team had an outing to Vale. Only this time, they managed to stop Nora before she set the park ablaze after destroying the tress and breakdown the pancake house from after eating way too many overly sugarfied, double-chocolate chip pancakes with extra chocolate and heavy syrup.

When later asked by some random Vale policemen if they knew the perpetrator for these heinous crimes to their poor beloved park, Ren, Pyrrha, and even Jaune shook their heads, hiding Nora from their view.

Lying as a team never made Jaune Arc feel so complete.

A team that lied together stayed together!

...

Practicing the last two weeks at night in their room before the semester's over, Jaune learned a few things about this strange, dark power. First and foremost, it did not make him feel any stronger or faster compared to when he actively used his Aura—did not. No increase strength, speed, or reflexes. If anything, they're pretty much the same thing if not, a bit weaker from his lack of control. The power's more like an extra power source. Always there, just impossible to use.

Kind of like Aura and Crocea Mors.

Secondly, the more he used it, the more those negative emotions blurred together, eventually becoming part of Jaune whenever he sought out the power. Charm and goofiness eventually found their way back to him with a healthy dose of attitude. And none of his team seemed to mind. A confident Jaune was better than a mopey one. But occasionally he acted depressed or more like Weiss. Nora had fun poking at both attitude changes.

And finally, both Aura and that strange power couldn't exist together. One had to be gone. No question. And having to actively suppress one power for the other made it damn near impossible to practice control for long. They both may almost felt the same, but their properties were still vastly different in terms of control.

Forget about creating a gun, bomb, or even sword out of this eerie power if he couldn't even manage to hold onto the power for more than half an hour at best. Practically square one all over again. And no amount of Nora's consistent cheering, Pyrrha's never-ending encouraging, or Ren's laid back understanding could help him.

Somehow, someway, he was still missing something truly important to fully grasp this power. That he knew. Call it instinct. Call whatever! Jaune Arc knew that some driving force was holding him back from completely unleashing this untapped torrent of terrifying power. And he couldn't wait every night to practice his control. Every little discovery helped.

Finishing the last class and test for the semester, Jaune sighed a breath of relief, damn happy that he survived his first semester here at Beacon Academy. Home of the elite. Creator of the strong. And any other nonsense that came with attending this school. Now if only he could win the Vytal Tournament. Then all problems would all be but a simple illusion.

Returning to his room, Jaune's met with Blake edging under Ren's bed, with the tell-tale signs of Nora hiding underneath said bed. She's shivering from what he could see and Blake's calmly trying to get her to come out with words of reassurance. Ren, on the other hand, was rubbing the bridge of his nose from the corner of the room, peeking through his fingers at the antics of his childhood friend.

This should be good.

"What happened?"

Giving up her quest to pull Nora out, Blake's bow twitched at the question, observing Jaune with casual, yet slightly alarmed eyes. It's strange, but not as strange she'd been these past two weeks with her constant nudging and overall space breaking persona.

Ignoring her strange behavior for the time being, Jaune asked again. "What happened?"

Looking down at Ren's bed, she started off with holding a worn out book toward Jaune. "Nora wanted to hear some scary stories and I thought I read her some stories about folklore—lore basically."

Jaune tilted his head. "Folk... lore?"

"Mostly stories about monsters like the Grimm or tales usually having to do with something dark and scary. That's what's popular in folklore."

Getting the answer he asked for, but not the one he wanted, Jaune looked down to where Nora was hiding. "Well, you did a great job. She's hiding under her bed. And not even Ren can seem to get her out."

To prove a point, Ren had moved to kneeling beside his bed, attempting to pull Nora out. "Nora, please come out from underneath the bed."

"No!" she cried, shuffling deeper into a corner. "The monsters are gonna to get me!"

Sigh. "Nora—?"

"Please don't let them get me, Ren!"

"They're not going to get you. I promise."

There's a quiet pause before her head peeked out and she's giving Ren her best pout. "I'm scared. Could you sleep under here with me?"

Jaune already knew Ren's answer before Ren even knew. It then came to life when Ren ran a hand through his long hair, buttons pressed, and grabbed a few pillows, overly large blanket, and crawled beneath his own bed. A small shuffle was made underneath for Ren to crawl under and Jaune didn't need to look down to know Nora's clinging him tightly in a death grip.

Poor guy.

Hearing Ren sadly fix his new bed for the night, Jaune glanced back to Blake, honestly curious. "... So what other type of scary stories does lore talk about?"

Sensing the chance to get on Jaune's good side, she settled to tell him everything. "Sometimes it has to do with the apocalypse. Other times it has to do with monsters. Like I said, it's mostly scary stuff."

"Like what?"

"Well..." she paused, opening her book to a particular story. "There's this one story about a monster that almost drowned all the world in darkness. The story referred the monster as Ragnarok or maybe that what the story refers to the end of the world? Either way, after people brought so much negativity to the world, the monster decided to plunge the world into a sea of darkness by robbing away the light that kept the darkness at bay. Eventually, they tried to repent and learned to embrace the fear."

"They embraced the fear?"

"When they embraced the fear." Blake answered, thinking over the symbolism. "They conquered it. No longer afraid and with nothing for the monster to feed on anymore, it left. Embracing your fears and not allowing them to control you are two different things. It takes courage to open your arms to the darkness."

"They sound the same." Jaune argued. This lore stuff sounded dark and cold. Kind of reminded him of the stranger power he's trying to control. Maybe he's looking at this the wrong way?

Closing the book, she handed it to him. "They're not." Beep! Beep! Checking her scroll, she smiled a bit. "Well, I must go, Ruby's throwing this mandatory team meeting to plan for next semester's super fun activities." A small whimper sounded off from underneath Ren's bed. "I promise not to read anymore scary stories to Nora."

Still thinking over Blake's words of wisdom, Jaune couldn't help but compare her to Ren in a way. She's smart and mysterious, strong and silent, and in a tiny way, his personal book of vast knowledge. So far she had helped him overcome a few obstacles and helped him solved quite a number of his own personal problems. Part of him didn't know what would've happened if she had never asked to read in his room in the first place.

Jaune's starting to not regret allowing her to steal away his Aura training in exchange for book reading.

"Ruby can be..." he lingered, remembering her impulsive attitude and stubborn adorableness. "Hyper. But she's nowhere near bad as Nora."

"At least you don't have to sleep in the same room as the intruder." Jaune laughed at her nickname for the dog and her obvious displeasure. "I still have to deal with that dog leaving its darn scent all over my bed. Somehow her dog finds a way under my covers, and it bothers me at night."

"Well, if you hate it so much, you could always move into the closet if you wanted..." he joked, not realizing that Blake Belladonna could never tell the difference between a joke from Jaune Black Smudge or serious offer.

"Really?" she asked genuinely, her bow twitching madly to the idea of getting away from the intruder and being surrounded by the sweet scent of orange scented clothes. The moment felt like a dream.

Of course Jaune still didn't notice her serious and eager expression. "Sure! Why not? Next semester you can have the entire closet if you want."

Blake fought the urge to jump. Maybe later! But for now she settled for a very big smile that could melt steel.

Finally! All her hard work paid off. Goodbye, intruder!

Beep! Beep!

"Oh!" she actually did jump, checking her scroll again. Now Ruby was demanding her to move her sorry butt. "I better go. Ruby's being impatient. I'll see you around."

"See ya!"

Watching Blake leave, Jaune did a tiny wave and paused when he found that he still had the book Blake gave him in his hand. Team JNPR's leader thought about running back and giving it to her, but he stopped when something of interest caught up back to him.

Embracing your fears and not allowing them to control you are two different things.

Looking over his shoulder, Jaune still saw Ren and Nora under Ren's bed with Nora clutching Ren for dear life. Poor Ren couldn't get out of her vice-grip if he tried. And he doubt he would, anyways. Nora did have the ninja wrapped around her finger. Even their clueless leader could see that.

Opening the book, he found the story Blake was talking about, reading over the words the passage contained. The story told of this monster creature with eyes darker than coal and soaked in blood with hair as white as the moon, roaming and terrorizing the world in an age of darkness. Somehow this monster found a way to rob the people of the world of their light and taint them.

She almost burned down the world to pure nothingness if it wasn't for the people finally embracing their fears and stealing the strength she so desperately needed to wipe out humanity. The story ended with her getting away, vowing to finish what she started, even if it took for the memory of her existence to vanish away like dust in the wind. Remnants of her destruction was said to be everywhere around them. A reminder each and every day to humanity's last stand all those years ago and all the lives lost to the darkness.

This story—this lore spoke volumes of fear, darkness, and even hopelessness.

And it reminded him so much of this strange dark power lurking inside him. It, too, filled him with fear, darkness, and hopelessness. But in the story, the humans learned to embrace their fears, not trying to control them. They made the fear as something animalistic. Something to believe in.

Something to trust.

Lifting his hand out, Jaune searched for the dark power, finding it hidden in his soul. He began to pull the power, already feeling his Aura starting to fight it, control it. And instead of forcing his Aura to back away through sheer willpower, Jaune tried not to be afraid of this strange power.

"Embrace your fears."

Closing his eyes, Jaune imagined the power not as something to fear, but something to accept. After all, this scary power did save his life once. It couldn't be all bad. Aura was warm and he gladly accepted its help the first time he felt it. So what if this power was cold? Why should it be any different? He should learn to accept this power as well.

Never judge a book by its cover!

Lub dub!

Feeling that same familiar tug, Jaune felt his Aura suddenly escaping to the realm where the power normally resided, easily switching between the two. Darkness descended upon Jaune's soul, but it's no longer trying to suffocate and corrupt him. His Aura wasn't fighting back to gain control. Not anymore. A balance between the negativity and Jaune's soul was established. And within the cold grip of this power, he felt just as alive than he did with Aura.

Click!

Entering the room, Pyrrha came in to find her leader standing in the center of their room, a dark vial of power surrounding his body in a layer of armor, just like his Aura. Except this time, Jaune wasn't visibly struggling to compress the power. In fact, he looked happy, smirking practically.

There's this air of confidence around him and he looked at her, kicking Ren's bed in order to get his entire team's attention. Ren and Nora's heads pop out from underneath Ren's bed a moment later, and Jaune glowed darkly in the room where no one noticed the lighting getting mildly weaker.

"Nora..." he smirked, not feeling any stronger than when he's using his Aura, but definitely feeling a whole new power all together. The power appeared to gravitate. "I think I finally have a name for... this."

Throwing the book on his bed, Jaune felt the new power embrace him in a blanket of coldness.

Everything that Aura's not.

And this time he didn't fight back.

"Lore."


Author Notes: Edited - 1/11/2018