Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.


Fossil

By: Imyoshi

Reasoning—connecting logic and action together in perfect symmetry.

Reason and logic were hard to comprehend in a world full of monsters and myths.

Reality's truth could be just as complicated.

Together they proved to be absolutely incomprehensible no matter how hard someone tried to prove them wrong.

The screams just didn't stop. They didn't. No matter how long Jaune bound his time or pretended to think otherwise, the endless screams just never stopped, never ceased their cries of pain. They couldn't. He didn't know what to say or think. All his Aura logic escaped him in probably his biggest time of need. It was only when Jaune terminated his Aura control did the shrieks finally go away, but the action hardly settled the nasty sensation in the depths of his soul. Every part of his pride knew he couldn't allow those screams to continue. Hiding wouldn't make them go away. It simply turned him into a coward. That wasn't what being a Huntsmen-in-Training was all about.

He wasn't a coward.

"Salutations, Jaune! Allow me to introduce myself! My name's Penny Polendina. It's nice to meet a friend of Ruby's. I hope we can become friends as well?"

Jaune didn't even realize Weiss had already left him alone with this Penny girl until he was forced to shake the odd girl's hand, with the heiress most likely seeking her time elsewhere. Probably heading to the transit tower for whatever it was she was doing—he had honestly forgotten—leaving him to deal with the enigma wearing a green blouse, black stockings, and giant pink bow that was bigger than normal.

She was strange. That much was certain. No real two ways around it.

Still, he didn't want to make a bad first impression. "Oh! Uh, hi, the name's Jaune Arc. I guess we could be friends. Where's the harm?"

Penny's face lit up brighter than his Aura ever could and she was breaking past his personal bubble. "Sensational! We can go to the mall! Watch movies! And we can even stay up late at night and play board games!"

Jaune cracked a forced smile at the bizarre girl, slightly surprised his strained grin didn't wipe off the ecstatic smile on her face like it would've done to any sane person. In fact, Penny didn't seem to mind, appearing far more cheerful than even Nora. She even had a kick in her step as he led the way to Team RWBY's room, speaking about nonsensical things friends did or how she couldn't wait to reconnect with Ruby again. Stuff that honestly made little to no sense to the troubled Arc. None whatsoever!

All and all, this was going to be a tougher challenge than he thought.

...

Throughout their short walk to Team RWBY's dorm, Jaune observed the screams from Penny's Aura during random intervals, hoping to catch a sign of fault or reasoning he could ride on, hoping it would lead him back to sanity. None ever appeared and he was sadly stuck listening to the cries of anguish that sound oddly feminine. The Arc would even say childish. All of which contrasted Penny's odd, bubbly personality.

Not only did the endless screaming pose a challenge to his Aura knowledge, there was her unique Aura patterning as well. When it came down to it, no two people had the same Aura—Jaune couldn't write that as an official law just yet in his Aura notebook until he ran into a pair of twins—but even then, he was having trouble deciphering her Aura. It wasn't like most. Far from it! Compared to Faunus and humans, it just felt unnatural to be around. Lacking a certain warmth every Aura carried with it.

Almost resembling a husk or a shell of its former life.

Roughly, for starters, the damn thing was constantly releasing Space for Jaune to feel and study. Never did it go away. Nor did it weaken over time. Almost like her body was always combat ready or something along those lines. Although, that was only a few of the strange issues he saw with Penny's Aura. The shape altogether was another issue, pure blocky, missing foaminess, and Jaune swore he saw ones and zeroes in the layer of green when he got close enough. Above all else, her Space almost rivals his partner's. At this point, nothing else would surprise him when it came to her exceptional Aura.

Too bad that wasn't the only dilemma he was forced to solve.

For all intents and purposes, he wanted to help her. Jaune really did care. She didn't seem like a bad person. No evidence to the contrary. This was Penny's Aura for crying out loud! Sure! To be perfectly reasonable, he just met her, but what was happening with her Aura couldn't be good. How could it? Last time he checked, Aura wasn't supposed to be crying out in pain. He was the Aura expert here.

"So, what's your favorite color? Mine's green!"

He was pulled out from his thoughts by Penny's innocent question. Throwing her a cautious smile, he paused. They were almost to Team RWBY's dorm and the strange girl hadn't once stopped talking since she introduced herself to him. Kind of reminded him of another redhead on his team. After getting past the initial awkward start, turned out Penny was a whole different person. One that loved to smile and remind him he was her friend. Granted, that might just be since he knew Ruby, but he lived to see the honesty in each person, and Penny so far had been nothing but honest and then some.

Just another reason why he wanted to help her.

Sadly, she was worse than Nora when dealing with patience. If Jaune Arc had buttons, Penny Polendina would most certainly be pushing them. Every bizarre question she was asked was random and required an answer immediately or she pestered to no end. The idea of subtly and difficult didn't seem to register to her and Jaune was slowly reaching his limit. Even Nora had an off switch from time to time.

His name was Lie Ren.

Reaching Ruby's room, Jaune stopped them in their walk and pondered over Penny's inquire. "Mine? Let's see? I'm gonna have to say... red. I'm a red type of guy. But orange's a close second." Jaune extended his hands out toward Team RWBY's door. "And here we are. Allow me."

Knock! Knock!

"Hold on!" Jaune noticed Penny flinched a little from Ruby's voice. For once he could positively say her smile seemed to be off-centered, crocked even, proving she did have more emotions options other than happy. "Come in."

Ruby didn't act surprised to find Jaune at the door when he walked in, half-expecting him to either talk in Ren's behalf—which she knew he wouldn't—or to have been dragged in by Yang. Neither proved to be the case as Team JNPR's Fearless Leader moved out the way and threw his hands toward Penny, who inelegantly waved her hand at her with a small, timid smile.

"Penny? Penny is that you?"

"Hello, friend Ruby. I heard you were hurt and wanted to see if you were alright." Penny looked a tad uncomfortable to be in the same room as her and Jaune shared a glare between the two adorkable girls, so very lost. "Although you do appear to be hurt, I can see you are alright. I am relieved."

It was true.

Ruby was stuck in bed, confined even, but Weiss was definitely right. It wasn't that bad. Just a few bruises from where Ren hit her. Jaune saw her Aura fixing the damage, just not as fast as his would. Clearly, Yang was going overboard. Protective older sibling mode could be cruel and embarrassingly harsh. Jaune knew firsthand. His baby sisters weren't allowed to leave their beds until they finished all their chicken soap. How else were they supposed to get better from the common cold! They didn't know any better! It was a cold world out there!

"Penny! It is you! Where have you've been?" Ruby suddenly jumped out of her bed and rushed at the waving girl. Her lunge was cut short by a hand grabbing her by the threads of her hood.

Jaune didn't even notice Yang in the room and it seemed the gesture was returned with Yang focusing solely on a squirming Ruby. "Hold it, Rubes! Who said you could get out of bed?" Ruby opened her mouth stubbornly but Yang was having none of it. "Uh-uh. Back you go. I'll tie you down if I have to."

"This isn't fair! I'm the leader!"

"Bed!" Yang warned, leader or not! "No buts! Unless it's yours in that bed!"

Throwing her back to the pillow covered, blanket securing, and perilous soft prison, Ruby crossed her arms and pouted the entire time. Jaune actually cracked a grin and he was met with a pillow to the face. Didn't stop him from laughing at poor Ruby's situation, glad emotionally she wasn't physically hurt, but someone must've forgotten to tell Yang that.

"It's not funny!"

He begged to differ and Jaune had a counter-argument on the tip of his tongue, but it was Penny who beat him to the hilarious punch. "Forgive me, friend Ruby, but I find the need to point out Yang's treatment of your injuries is quite humorous. Would you not agree, friend Jaune?"

Ruby tried to warn Jaune not to agree with the defiance in her silvery eyes or suffer her adorable wrath. Somehow, he must missed that message? "Yup! Hate to be you right now, Rubes."

She melted a little into her sheets and Penny giggled again. "I'm sorry, Ruby. You're right, it's not funny." Hiccup! "But I'm still glad you are alright."

Ruby tried to stay angry, really stubbornly tried, but finally seeing her friend again made that next to impossible. "Eh, it's no big deal." They could all see past the fake bravado. Her eyes then lit up all excited. "We have so much to catch up on. Like what happened to you after the docks? I spent forever looking for you!"

It was Jaune turn to flinch. Docks? That was strange. Now that Ruby mentioned it, he did remember feeling Penny's Aura for the first time around the docks. Ruby and Blake's too. There must've been a fight going on at the time with the multiple waves of Space colliding, but he had team problems to deal with at the time, robbing him of the chance of ever learning what truly happened that day. Eventually, he just forgot about it. Having lost interest rather quickly.

Part of him wanted to ask. Maybe it'd lead to him uncovering the truth to Penny's absurd Aura. Another part would rather avoid pointless drama altogether. He already had the future Vytal Tournament to eat away at him, hanging just around the corner, now only three weeks away. Tangling him up in a bigger web of secrets would only make things harder than they truly needed to be.

Penny looked unsure for a moment on how to answer, sliding Jaune a cautionary glare he picked up but didn't call out. Again, it was all pointless drama.

"I'll tell you later, Ruby. Promise." Ruby was hesitant, but Penny took a seat on her bed and smiled largely at the confined girl. "So, how have you've been? I hear your team got chosen to compete in the Vytal Tournament. That must be exciting?"

Ruby threw a fist forward. "You bet! Team RWBY's going to win! There's no way we can lose!" She subtly pointed at Jaune. "Don't worry, Jaune, I'll go easy on you. Maybe you'll end up fighting Penny in the Vytal Tournament?"

Jaune tilted his head at Penny. "Wait? You're in the tournament?"

Penny mirrored his expression like a puppet on strings. "And you're in the tournament? No offense, but you don't look that strong? Your muscle mass seems severely lacking for a typical Huntsmen-in-Training. You could potentially overexert and pull your muscles if you're not careful."

Jaune heard Yang laughing in the background, but he ignored her. It wasn't his fault he didn't train in a combat school for four years. "I'm the leader of Team JNPR, Jaune Arc at your service. The very same team chosen by the Kingdom of Vale to compete in the Vytal Tournament. Trust me, I'm stronger than I look."

Penny moved faster than he expected and she was shaking his hand. "What an extraordinary honor you've been given!"

He pulled his hand away and rubbed his neck in uncomfortably. "Yeah, I guess that's one way of putting it."

"He's also the partner of Pyrrha Nikos." Ruby chimed in, further dragging him down the rabbit hole. "So, you better watch out, Penny. She's been training him." Jaune would like to point out Pyrrha hadn't taught him anything in weeks, but Ruby wasn't finished. "Pyrrha's going to kick so much butt with her amazing new weapon and—eh! Hey? I just remembered!" She pointed accusingly at Jaune. "You still haven't shown me that gun you've been working on."

"Like I told you during Dust class, Rubes, I'm saving it for the Vytal Tournament." Jaune pretended Ruby wasn't sulking—which she totally was—but then Penny's acute curiosity proved to be his downfall as she looked at him with imploring eyes. Something told him it was more for Ruby than her. "But, I guess I can show you what it looks like at least."

Ruby practically jumped out of her bed. "Really?!"

"Sure." Jaune grinned, moving up to Ruby and poking her on the side of her head with his index and middle fingers pressed together. "Better watch out, Ruby! This gun can blow your head off. I once almost killed a Death Stalker with it. It's that deadly."

She tried to swat the imaginary gun away and Jaune mockingly poked Ruby in the head again with the barrel of his handgun a few more times.

That was five! Too easy, Yang!

"Stop it!" Jaune moved Shooting Star away from her, grinning the entire time. Ruby glared and hit him softly on the chest. "Fine, don't tell me, jerk!"

Hey! He wasn't lying. Jaune showed her what Shooting Star looked like. It wasn't his fault she couldn't see the power behind his awesome weapon. Kind of sad coming from a certified weapon's nut. He literally could've blown her head off and no one could've stopped him on time. Luckily for her, Shooting Star's safer than the average firing arm—that was six, Yang—which was ironic for the immense stopping power behind the gun. The only safety was his willpower to not blow her head off.

"You'll just have to wait for the tournament like everyone else." Jaune moved away from the bed and noticed a snazzy dress on Yang's bed. "What's this? New clothes? First Weiss and now you, Rubes? I didn't know you owned a second outfit."

She crossed her arms. "And how do you know that's mine?"

He held up the small, red-colored outfit. "Oh, I don't know? Where should I begin? The color? The size? The combat skirt? The cape attached to it? Please, take your time stopping me, I got all day."

Her arms remain crossed. "It's for a super-secret—!"

"Weiss already told me you're heading to Vale later." Jaune cut in, tossing the clothing back onto Yang's bed. He took pride in her gasping mouth. "Wanna clue me in on this team bonding exercise? Maybe I'll steal it to use on my team? I know it was Blake's idea, maybe I should just go ask her?"

Yang's suddenly grabbing Jaune by the arm, dragging him toward the door. "Alright! You've had your fun, Vomit Boy! Now, if you would excuse us, we have an evening to plan! Time to go!"

"How come Penny gets to stay?"

Yang didn't answer him, insanely drilled on pushing him out of the room. It appeared she was still sore about Ren beating Ruby in that fight. She just had to be. Normally, she was a lot more open to teasing Ruby, encouraging even. Perhaps he should consider asking Blake to smooth the ice over with Yang before she kicked up her rivalry a notch with him. Best to avoid any more of Yang's torture in the near future if possible.

Pushing him out, Jaune was met with the confused stares of both Neptune and Sun outside the hall. The slam of the door shook them back to life and Sun was wrapping an arm around him before he could so much as get a word in.

"Hey, dude! Long time no see! Whatcha been up to?"

Jaune looked back to the door and then Sun, shrugging his shoulders easily. "Teasing Ruby and somehow pushing Yang's buttons. Same old, same old."

"I get that!" Sun moved past Jaune to knock on Team RWBY's door. "Well, take care, Jaune. We were actually looking for Team RWBY. I wanted to take the trees and surprise them, but Mr. Boring here wanted to take the safe path."

"Hey!" Neptune cried, acting very nerdish. "Excuse me if I prefer living. Heights aren't my thing. Sorry if I have feelings."

Sun deadpanned at his emotional friend. "You're an inspiration to guys everywhere."

Feeling he should step in, Jaune pointed back the direction he originally came from. "Oh? Well, if by any chance you're looking for all of Team RWBY, then you're missing half of them. Weiss and Blake aren't in there. Weiss' at the Transit Tower. And I'm not sure where Blake's at. Maybe check the library."

Both the guys stop from knocking on Team RWBY's room, interested at what Jaune just said.

"Wait? Weiss is at the Transit Tower?" Neptune asked.

"Blake's probably in the library?" Sun added.

To be fair, Blake could be anywhere. That was part of her Blake charm. She could be in the Mess Hall or Beacon's courtyard. If Jaune was a gambling man, he would bet the library. She couldn't be in his team's room; she hadn't attacked him from the shadows yet. Suffice to say, he didn't have a clue to Blake's whereabouts. In an honest to fair guess, she could be watching them as they stood around like a couple of fools in the hallway. Just waiting for the perfect moment to strike. What or why she would was as good as anyone's guess.

Again, it was all part of Blake's charm.

"I know Weiss is at the Transit Tower. If you hurry, you can probably—?!" Neptune ran past Jaune and the Arc blinked and turned his head toward the direction where Neptune ran off. Slowly, he looked back to Sun. "Anyways... Blake can be anywhere—?!"

And Sun was gone too.

Alone again, a tense silence filled the hall before he dropped his grin in record time, fixing a hard glare at Team RWBY's door that was unnatural to anyone but his own team. He may have been all smiles and laughs moments ago, but deep inside he was sadly torn in two. Talking to Ruby and dealing with Yang's weirdness may have distracted him for a short time, but even now he felt Penny's unnatural Aura from outside the hall. If he tried hard enough, he even heard the cries of pain coming from the room.

The sounds sent a cold shiver down his spine.

Killing his control, his eyes refused to roam elsewhere, intently stuck at the problem at hand. Luck would have it Penny was a special case, but what made her tick was still an unknown, an obstacle for him to overcome in his pursuit of unlocking the secrets of Aura and Lore. She was a challenge. A possibly dangerous one, but she was also a person whose Aura was screaming out for help. There was no avoiding that.

The only way he had a chance of learning with what was happening with Penny's Aura was to delve deeper into the secrets of Aura and Lore, past his experienced knowledge and further into the unknown where possible hazard lurked. Only then could Jaune Arc say he truly tried to help and solve the problem at hand.

Looked like his small week break of Aura control was coming to an end. No more games! Time to get back to learning!

Glaring away from Team RWBY's dorm, he locked away the glitch and entered his team's room and found Nora playing with Sir Scrabbles on Ren's bed. She was tossing the Grimm into the air, catching it right before it tumbled down onto Ren's bed before tossing the Sir Scrabbles right back into the air in an endless loop. No one else was in the room, devoid of other life, so it was just the two of them.

"Hey, Jaune-Jaune!" Nora laughed, hugging Sir Scrabbles tight in a loving embrace. Jaune still didn't know how she could trust a Grimm so freely. "Whatcha up to?"

"I'm going to practice on my Aura and Lore for a bit." Jaune rubbed his hair and glanced around the room. "Where are Ren and Pyrrha?"

Nora pulled on Sir Scrabbles tighter, resting her chin on top of the Grimm's soft head. "I don't know. I think Pyrrha went to go study for Professor Port's test next week or maybe I think she said something about the Headmaster calling her for some boring meeting. She was smart like that. Ren went to go eat more of his gross health food."

He paused, wondering if he should check up on his friend first. It wasn't impossible for him to figure out why Ren destroyed Ruby the way he did. The Lore cloak must've been influencing his negative emotions during the fight. Lore's properties did have a tendency to do that if left unchecked. And whatever anger and negativity Ren previously had must've been left free from disturbance throughout the entire day until it finally broke in a wave of amplitude mixed with deadly power. A likely scenario since Ren was so good at hiding and bottling up his guarded emotions.

What a complicated problem to deal with.

Reaching for his Aura notebook, he added in Penny's Aura for context, roughly sketching a picture of Penny's head next to a list of her Aura's extraordinary and abnormal properties. Only now did he realize what a great artist he was becoming, but that was neither here nor there. He was far too preoccupied writing down each and every note for future study. Part of him wished Ren was here. His opinion did always shift things into a better sense of alignment. Or at least gave him a different of point-of-view to consider.

"What's wrong, Fearless Leader?" Jaune's pencil broke upon the paper of the notebook and he was about to ask how she knew something was wrong, but Nora only hugged Sir Scrabbles firmer. "You're usually so happy whenever you write in that boring diary of yours."

Surprised from Nora's observant skills, he shut the notebook a second later and tossed it across his bed, even Sir Scrabbles had focused its emotionless eyes at him, but that was to be expected from a Grimm. He then walked to the hole in their wall and glared through it, finding some peace from the sun's rays piercing in. They rained down a light of warmth that filled his soul with renewed hope. This hole was a symbol of all he accomplished, proving that nothing was truly impossible, and any problem could be beaten with just enough resilience and belief.

Calmly breathing in, Jaune released a shaky sigh and peered over to the loudest member of his team. Nora wasn't like everyone else outside this room. He didn't need to plaster a fake smile for her because she was one of the few he didn't have to hide his true feelings from. Any and all secrets between them were known. Some of her hardships were his and vice-versa. There was no need to hide anything from her. So it came as no surprise when he continued to wear a frown around her.

"I've met one of Ruby's friends today."

"Really?" Nora jumped off of Ren's bed and slid up next to his personal bubble. Sir Scrabbles fidgeted a little from Jaune's impassive frown. "Is she nice?"

Therein lied the problem. "Yeah, she is, a little bit weird, but she's super nice. Her name's Penny Polendina." His frown turned into a harsh glare. "There's something wrong with her."

"Is she sick?"

"No." Jaune laughed hollowly. He moved away from the wall and ran a tired hand past his messy hair. "That would be so much easier, but she's not sick. It's her Aura. It's so... different."

Nora pressed Sir Scrabbles closer. "Different how?"

"Different bad!" he sighed. "Very, very bad! Her Aura's literally screaming out in pain and I'm the only one who can hear it. Something's not right about her. I just don't what the problem is."

She appeared lost, unsure what to say. Words became meaningless for a short period of time until Sir Scrabbles booped her on the nose, bringing her back from the conflicted emotions dwelling deep inside her soul. Her heart felt heavy when she zeroed in on Jaune's rare frown, but Sir Scrabbles lightened the load with a soft nudge of its head, for once not liking the negative emotions radiating from the human snuggling it.

"How are you going to fix it?" Jaune was tempted to say he wasn't going to, very tempted even, but he couldn't. His Arc pride wouldn't allow him to abandon a person in need. No one deserved an Aura that screamed out in pain. He knew if Nora or any other member of his team captured the same problem, he would do everything in his power to help. "Fearless Leader?"

"I don't know." He was lost, but not hopeless. "But I'm going to try to fix it. I'm heading to Emerald Forest to train. I'll be back in a few hours."

Nora knew her leader could practice his Aura control in the room, but not Lore. So it didn't come off as a surprise he wanted to train in Emerald Forest. In a funny, cosmetic sort of way, her leader did his best work in that forest. Maybe Jaune could find the answers he was looking for there.

Feeling Sir Scrabbles shuffling in her arms, Nora looked down at the tiny Grimm, who made a cute sound. Seconds later she felt its stomach rumble and she was in front of Jaune before he could reach the door.

"Before you go, can you make me some Aura candy? Sir Scrabbles is hungry!"

Jaune frowned for a moment before reaching for his spare Dust shards. The number was low before he even used them, but the sight was still unsettling compared to previous hundred he had beforehand. Damn these rising Dust prices. They were really cutting into their Aura shard supplies. Feeding Sir Scrabbles was already a strain on their provisions as it was, but he couldn't exactly say no to Nora.

Maybe he'd take up Pyrrha's offer to split the costs.

Taking a few minutes to create a limited supply of Aura shards, Jaune dropped the last of them into the bag. He glared at the shiny shards, remembering a time when these had been his biggest challenge. Now, they were just food for a Grimm to consume. Another mystery he should probably focus on as well, but he simply didn't see the priority overshadowing Penny's.

Pocketing an empty Dust shard, Jaune tossed the bag over to Nora and she caught them with glee. The Aura shards weren't particularly powerful on their own—at least by his standards of Aura—but he pretty much drained away most his Aura to create them. He just had enough to use Excalibur or fire one shot off with Shooting Star, but even that was pushing his reserves to their limits.

Looked like Lore training was on the table.

"Here you go. Don't overfeed him, okay? I can't use them all." Jaune reached for the door, but she stopped him again.

"Well, what else is Sir Scrabbles supposed to eat?"

How was he supposed to know? "Beats me, I don't know. Feed it whatever it is that sloths like to eat? I think they enjoy leaves."

Nora gagged, tongue out, not believing her precious Sir Scrabbles enjoyed the same nasty food as Ren. How could her precious Grimm soil its taste buds with such fishy food? Leaves and vegetables as food? It was downright criminal! Ren must be acting as a bad influence around her impressionable Grimm. She'd show him! There was no way he was corrupting poor Sir Scrabbles!

"Don't even joke about that!" Jaune grinned and messed up Nora's hair before heading out. She shut the door once he was gone, finding his amusing smile stupid and was forced to look Sir Scrabbles directly in its soulless eyes to prove a point. "You don't like yucky leaves... do you?"

Sir Scrabbles wisely chose to pinch an Aura shard from her hand and plucked it into its mouth.

...

Wandering quietly in the hall, Lie Ren allowed a pleasant, small smile to adorn his normally calm features as he returned from the Mess Hall. A second later, however, he lightly zeroed in his sharp glare at Team RWBY's dorm, pausing for the briefest moments into this walk before resuming his journey back to his team's room. Memories of his earlier match resurface back to him and a tiny twinge of guilt sprouted underneath his calm exterior. Quickly, he snuffed it out, knowing he could've been a lot worse to Ruby if he wanted. She was lucky he didn't use StormFlower on her and just stuck to close hand-to-hand fighting. Proving another reason why this rivalry she conjured up for them was meaningless.

Entering the room, he spotted Nora on his bed, fast asleep with Sir Scrabbles underneath her bed. If it wasn't for its bloodshot eyes, Ren would've missed the Grimm entirely, but he didn't, and now the thing was under his lazy influence. Which, in layman terms, meant basically nothing and total immunity from strained activities. The sloth Grimm knew far too well Ren wouldn't actively pursue it unless it was absolutely necessary or if it sought after his attention.

Moving over to Nora's napping, snoring form, Ren took a moment to admire her sleeping beauty before reaching out for a blanket and tucking her in. In no time her instincts reached out for the blanket and she moaned in content before dwelling deeper into dreamland, smile three times bigger.

From a logical standpoint, she must've fallen asleep waiting for him, caught in one of her Nora patent-pending, midday naps. This, of course, left him alone to deal with any mess she caused, and except for the messy room and destruction of Jaune's bed, the damage was limited and easily fixable—if he gave a damn that was.

Oh well! Time to relax!

Ren never even made it to his bed before Sir Scrabbles peeked out from underneath, covered in dirt and grime. The poor thing was looking at him for some guidance and he had no choice but to sigh as he snatched the Grimm from the floor, fixing the sloth with a look of clear annoyance. One meant to destroy an enemy without touching them.

Well, what did Sir Scrabbles expect? The Grimm had chosen to stir under Nora's bed. It made its bed, now had to lie in it. This pun game was too easy. No wonder Yang loved throwing them out there. No challenge whatsoever.

Now Ren was stuck cleaning up Sir Scrabbles or else they'd be stuck with a messy Grimm on their hands. And he didn't need that problem to become known to their cautious leader. Jaune was already having trust issues with allowing a sloth Grimm to live with them. Since day one he had been against it, only showing his opposition in not so much as words, but gestures. The only real reason Sir Scrabbles was here was because Jaune's weakness was practically identical to his own.

They both couldn't say no to a big-eyed Nora. Probably didn't hurt she almost died, too.

Holding the Grimm underneath his arm, Ren glared intensely at Sir Scrabbles. "Why do you this to me?"

He was met with a boop to the nose; like that action would solve all Ren's problems and bring world peace. A delusional action, one he knew the Grimm had picked up from Nora from spending too much time with her. She was slowly becoming an interesting, but exhausting impression on the little guy and it was tiring them both out. More him that it anyways.

"You know you need a bath now, right?" Sir Scrabbles tilted its head at Ren, hoping to escape such a Fate. Unlike Nora, he couldn't be won over by its cuteness. "You've forced my hand. Either I give you a bath... or Nora does?"

Lie Ren almost, almost laughed from the way Sir Scrabbles flinched at the idea of what a bath done by Nora could lead to. He didn't, of course, willing his Lore cloak to open up the rim of his collar and allow the sloth Grimm to see his amused smirk instead. The smirk itself deserved its own patent.

"This is why you don't play underneath people's beds. They're filthy and covered in dust bunnies. Nothing good could come from it."

Heading to the bathroom, he gave a passing glance to his sleeping childhood friend before entering the bathroom. He turned on the sink and searched for his shampoo and soap. Then he waited until the water got lukewarm before placing Sir Scrabbles into the sink, drenching the Grimm in a waterfall of water which was followed by dazzling shampoo.

Rubbing the Grimm's scalp, Ren fixed an even glare at it. "This is my Narudo Spiral shampoo and it's very expensive, so I urge you not to get dirty often."

Observing the orange-scented and colored liquid getting rubbed into its fur, Sir Scrabbles wondered if the male human enjoyed this fluid because the human loved the smell of oranges or because the color resembled the female human's hair. Seemed like such a bash and utterly useless color in the wild, ill-suited in even the most elusive of camouflage. No self-respecting creature should ever be caught dead using such a color to hide.

Glaring intensely at the sloth Grimm hiding in the sink, Ren had his cloak's sleeves pulled up as he washed the Grimm behind its ears with the running faucet drowning out the outside noise. The collar of the cloak had been split open, allowing the human's curious frown to be present as dirt, dust, and grime got washed off the Grimm's fur. Sir Scrabbles was oddly curious at this thing they called soap. Seemed to it like it was just a bar of fats and oils, highly contradicting to the aspect of cleaning, especially its fur. Such strange creatures humans were, saying one thing and doing the other.

Inside their team's bathroom, he splashed the Grimm's head in an avalanche of water, getting most of the soap off. His hands then scrubbed the tiny Grimm's neck as he fought to remove the stubborn dirt, solely fixated on the amount of filth escaping Sir Scrabble's fur. Tiny splotches of black fur begin to coil around the drain and Ren reached out to pull it free before a clog could happen.

He carelessly threw it away, never allowing his perceptive eyes to leave the soapy Grimm. "I don't understand how you got so filthy so fast, Sir Scrabbles. You sleep in all day and hardly move around? Most of the time Nora's holding you, when did you have time to get dirty?"

Lie Ren would never learn why Sir Scrabbles loved crawling underneath their dust-bunny polluted bed when they were gone. It just did. The darkness underneath those beds made sleep all the much sweeter. Basking and hiding the Grimm in a calming veil of darkness that reminded the little guy of its monstrous king.

Closing its eyes from another splash of water, Sir Scrabble opened them to find the female human hiding from the male human's presence, apparently having woken up from her nap by most notability from the running water. Her head was peeking out from the side of the door as she observed them interact in acute silence unfitting for the female. Her eyes were shining with an all too familiar sparkle and the love radiating from her soul was next to impossible to ignore. Even the way she gripped the door securely spoke too much about what was transpiring in her pancake-filled mind.

Catching onto the game, Sir Scrabbles would warn the human bathing it if it possessed the power to do so. The male better be on high alert or else. The female was taking notice of his parental behavior and it was causing a reaction to occur within its caretaker. Multiple factors could be the cause of this, either from a lack of family to call her own or a need to start one. There could even be factors the Grimm couldn't see. So, unless if the male felt like having his arms full of future little ones, then the bathing needed to stop now before the female could make her move. Sir Scrabbles couldn't even imagine the picture the male was imprinting for the gripped female.

Removing its sights from the driven female, Sir Scrabbles peered back to the male cleaning its claws, slightly worried for the human's well-being. The Grimm wondered if he should warn the human male that acting fatherly and dependable was attracting the female's natural urge to produce offspring with such a caring and protective mate, especially one that took all of her wacky tendencies and showered them with pure affection. The urge must've only gotten stronger after the male proved its strength against their king and displayed the powerful Aura he commanded.

Unbeknownst to this all, Ren finished cleaning the Grimm up and plucked Sir Scrabbles from the sink and wrapped it inside a cocoon with a towel, perching the tiny Grimm on his shoulders like a small child. Small droplets of water spill onto the floor and Ren made sure to rub the little guy thoughtfully to get all the water off. Sir Scrabbles then shook some of the water off and didn't realize the mistake it had caused before it was all too late to stop. By covering Ren in a layer of water, it was enticed a unique reaction from the human. One that was filled with a light smile, small laugh, and hair as equally as wet as its own.

"You're such a handful, you know that?"

Only Sir Scrabbles witnessed the bridge of red building up on Nora's nose. Only Sir Scrabbles saw the want in her eyes. And only Sir Scrabbles felt the wave of lustful emotions spreading across the room. Nothing was more apparent than right now. Every other little thing outside this bubble was insignificant. And the bubble wasn't imperishable.

Stop it, human. Keep this up and halting the female would become next to impossible. Repressed instincts could only be contained for so long. The lock around her heart was breaking more and more by the second. Eventually, there would be no stopping her once the cage was broken.

Shutting off the sink, he turned around and spotted Nora staring longingly at them, no longer hiding behind the door. Both Sir Scrabbles and Ren blinked at her, mimicking their reactions and looking oddly family-like. The lack of emotions only cinched the picture-perfect moment and the Grimm actually held its breath upon seeing the way Nora struggled to stand.

Her desire was clear. There was no way this male couldn't see the emotions skewed across her face. Nothing could hide that want. That need. And there was no one around to barrier themselves between the two. Everything depended on the strength of the male human's will and character.

"Look who's awake." Ren smiled, holding Sir Scrabbles close to his chest. His smile disappeared a moment later when he spotted the telltale signs on her person. "Nora? Are you hungry? You're drooling again. And there's a touch of red on your cheeks."

Sir Scrabbles this time blinked up at the confused Ren, showing an emotion close to pure skepticism, borderline disbelief honestly. Apparently, the stronger a human was, the denser they were as well. Simply putting it, there couldn't be any other answer. At least, no other logical answer.

Her emotions were repressed and she smiled. "Nope! Just wanted to check and see what you were doing." Her smile turned saddening. "And what do I find, you giving Sir Scrabbles a bath without me! How could you, Ren? I missed his first bath!"

He reached for a few droplets of the water on his face and flicked some at Nora for a memento to remember by. "Next time you should be awake then. I found him underneath your bed, covered in dust. Which brings up the question, Nora." Ren's eyes narrowed. "What's underneath your bed?" Nora chose to remain quiet. "You know what, never mind, I don't want to know. Where's everyone else?"

Silent for a moment, Nora pointed in two different directions. "I'm pretty sure Pyrrha's at the library or somewhere with the Headmaster and Jaune-Jaune went to Emerald Forest to train on his Lore stuff. He's all super serious because there's something crazy going on with some new girl's Aura and he went to go train by himself." Ren raised an eyebrow, curious about what his leader was focused on. "Poor Jaune looked sad when he left."

Now he was doubly curious. "Oh? Then I guess we better go check on him before he does something foolish." It was an honest joke to lift up Nora's spirits, but the execution fell terribly flat. When she didn't follow him to the door, he stopped altogether. "Nora? Aren't you coming?"

She appeared torn and shook her head with a tired yawn. "Nah! I'm fine here! It's your turn to drag his sorry butt back here before Pyrrha comes back and goes all crazy."

She tried to play off her sadness with fake cheerfulness, a tactic that was clearly failing. Both Ren and Sir Scrabbles saw through her mask, it was weak compared to their emotionless ones. The only major difference was Ren and Sir Scrabbles' analysis of the lie she was giving. He held a lack of true understanding compared to the Grimm whose very power was to read emotions down to the base levels. They were on the same page, just different books entirely.

Sir Scrabbles sometimes still couldn't believe their king gave this human attire worthy of sloth royalty. Especially one as dense as he. Could the human male not see his lack of interest was hurting the girl? Pushing her away in a never-ending game she was getting tired of. Or was he truly that blind to the truth? Trapped in a web of lies beyond his perception? Where not even his unique eyes could see the truth hidden within.

Ren moved forward and towered over Nora's frame, keeping his voice calm and gentle, contrasted heavily to what he acted upon Ruby. "Are you sure?"

He knew not push and that was enough for her. "Yup-yup!"

He hovered around for another minute before silently booping her on the nose and pushing Sir Scrabbles into her open arms, and then he left. Nora's smile fell a little the moment he shut the door and she clung onto Sir Scrabbles.

Sir Scrabbles felt considerately bad for the female. Maybe it'd act extra cuddly and adorable for her? She was, after all, the only barrier protecting it from the leader of the pack's influence. Without her, Jaune Arc's doubt would've rid Sir Scrabbles long ago. He was the only one who lacked any sort of sympathy to it.

Holding Sir Scrabbles out, Nora pouted at the Grimm. "How do you get someone to notice you, Sir Scrabbles? What am I doing wrong?" The Grimm in question blinked. "You don't know either, huh? It's not fair!"

Plopping down on Ren's bed, Nora placed the Grimm on her head as she lazily threw her arms and feet over the sides of Ren's bed while Sir Scrabbles rested neatly on her orange noggin.

"It's not fair!" she sighed, groaning pathetically. "Not fair, I say! I always knew Ren was handsome, he's always been handsome, but did he have to go and get all delicious!"

Nora hated herself, but she secretly hated Ren more for changing over the months. He wasn't supposed to get all confident, strong, emotional, and powerful in such a short period of time. It was supposed to be a gradual change if at all. Allowing her to slowly adjust to his improvements and changes. Beacon was supposed to make them better, not turn her handsome friend into a walking furnace. And part of her missed her old, super lazy friend who rarely talked. The other more dominant part of her wondered how it'd feel to have his powerful arms wrapped around her waist.

Nora's head fell flat into Ren's pillow, muffling out the words. "I'm so screwed. Ren knows something's wrong. I can't keep secrets from him. He can read me like a book." Sir Scrabbles wanted to roll its eyes at her delusional assumption. Clearly, if the human male could decipher her feelings, then this wouldn't be an issue. "What am I going to do, Sir Scrabbles?"

Figuring he should help its sadden caretaker, as best as his limited skills could, the Grimm crawled off Nora's head and peered over the bed for an answer. It came to the Grimm the moment it spotted some fragments of the Aura shard the leader had created earlier, and it reached down and swiped the shard from the floor before pushing it into her face.

"Huh?" she lifted her head off the pillow and grabbed the small Dust shard. "What? Are you hungry again? I still have a few Aura candies left, but Jaune-Jaune said not to eat them all." The Grimm pointed to its stomach and then hers before her eyes lit up. "Wait! I got it! I'll make Ren a super special meal to show him how much I care! And these little babies will make them taste extra scrumptious."

She hugged the sloth Grimm, pressing her cheek to its own before running out the door. Sir Scrabbles, on the other hand, was stuck wondering how humanity had lasted so long against their kind.

Honestly, humans were such a fickle, complicated bunch.

...

Swirling three Gravities around the forest clearing, Jaune had his hand extended out to better his control, using his other hand to add Lore to the empty Dust shard in the process. It was a slow, agonizing practice filled with faults and tedious concentration, but how else was he going to learn and get better? At least he was much better than before. Not by much, but better still.

Calling forth the Gravities, he focused on his Lore, swinging his hand in an arc that the Gravities follow with a small lag. His control wasn't complete; it was an improvement from before, like all practice essentially led up to, he just hated the difference between his Lore and his Aura. There was always something beyond his knowledge that kept him rooted to the past, unable to properly wield the Dark Energy without fail. Aura may not have been the easiest powers to grasp, but it never gave him this much trouble compared to Lore.

Maybe the problem haunting his thoughts was simply keeping him from discovering the truth to his lack of complete control? It was possible, but highly improbable since his Lore control had always been a riddle since the very beginning. Gravity was not an easy power to wield, very use ineffective in the midst of a battle between Grimm.

When it all came crashing down, Lore had never been an easy power to learn. Didn't help he was even more confused than before. This whole Penny Aura problem had thrown him into a rather perplexing and morally aligning loop. Whatever Aura knowledge he grasped was being tested and he wasn't sure he was still up to the challenge. So many discoveries were waiting to happen and it vexed the poor Arc.

The Aura expert in him wanted to study her fascinating Aura. The Arc in him wanted to help her. While the leader in him voted to avoid and ignore her altogether and instead focus on the upcoming Vytal Tournament. Each idea sounded perfect in its own special way. Each had their reasons and their faults. None really pointed out a perfect path where all three were gained. And Jaune couldn't decide which to follow. It wasn't like he could just study Penny while avoiding suspicion.

That was simply asking too much of him.

Swinging his arms out, the Gravities followed suit and Jaune attempted to will them faster. They were fast, just not fast enough for his liking. He doubted they'd ever match Aura's speed and power—no matter how much training he put in—but Lore had its own unique ways of fighting back. So, he wasn't totally lacking in the excitement department, just misplaced.

Willing the orbs to crash down onto the floor, he glared as the Gravities impacted the dirt, pulling in several objects to its range of gravity. He willed them to move up, not really surprised the orbs could hold heavier pebbles than before. It came to be expected, more control meant a stronger gravity, nothing too mind-blowing for the Aura prodigy. Still, why the pebbles never actively went to the center of the orbs confused him. The Dark Energy should've attracted the dust into the center, but when he looked closely enough, it almost appeared that the pebbles were being expanded out.

Twirling the three into a circle, Jaune lowered the gravity vortex closer to the ground and widened his eyes slightly from the cracks appearing on the floor. They formed and spewed the closer the three Gravities got closer, lessening when he spread the Gravities apart, thus robbing them of their joint gravitational pull. When he brought them closer again, the cracks spread apart more before chunks of bigger bedrock break from the floor and joined the floating stones and pebbles.

Again, the wow factor was just not there. Not after having witnessed a screaming Aura. Nothing surprised him at this point.

Breaking them apart, the heavier rocks fell under the control of Remnant's gravity once more. He willed them closer to his body as he sat on a bolder with one leg arched out, twirling them in a clockwise spin around his person. They were almost childlike in the way they move. Free and out of the control of laws and authority, Jaune would even went as far as to say peaceful.

He envied them.

"Nora said I'd find you here."

Never missing a beat, Jaune willed the Gravities to dance around him as he twirled his eyes to meet Ren. "And her track record remains spotless."

Ren shared with Jaune an amused grin before meeting up with his leader next to the rock. His small grin died and his pink eyes were locked on him. "You want to tell me about this strange Aura Nora was going on about?"

He laughed a hollow laugh. "Must we always talk about the negatives? Can't we just enjoy the bright, sunny day we've been given?"

"Fair enough. The weather's been pretty nice recently."

Jaune shook his head and jumped off the boulder. "I don't know. You've might've just jinxed it with your running strain of bad luck." Ren didn't say anything and his shoulders fell. "It was weird... this Penny girl's Aura was screaming? Screaming! Like someone was in pain. I just don't get it."

"So what'd you do?"

"Nothing, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything! I wouldn't even know where to begin!" He threw his head back, groaning. "I don't have all the answers."

"I'm not expecting you to. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself." Ren shrugged, saying words with no hint of malice or undertone. "Maybe nothing's wrong with her Aura and it's just something her Aura does?"

Jaune looked at him evenly. "Even I know what her Aura's doing is not natural. No. There's definitely something wrong with her. I just don't know what. But it's her and I have to find a way to fix it, or at least understand it."

'No one's asking you to do anything, Jaune." Ren reasoned sensibly.

Jaune scoffed. "What? Am I supposed to leave her Aura alone?" Ren's piercing glare said it all. "I can't do that. You don't what it sounds like it, Ren. You didn't hear it! There was so much screaming. I just—I have to do something! Her Aura's in pain! It's not right! It'll be wrong to just leave it alone. My gut just won't let me look the other way."

Fixing his leader a stare that was unreadable, Ren easily looked away, toward something else. The Gravities rotating around Jaune caught his attention and he leveled with them, oddly curious to their power. He even poked one of the orbs, finding limitless fascination in the act of being able to touch the sphere without consequence, fear all gone and instincts to run missing.

The Lore cloak hid most of his body from the sun's rays, reflecting none of the light. One of his hands was hidden inside the cloak and only the skin on his face and white of his pants reveal any sort of color. For such a bright, sunny day, Ren's Lore cloak really sucked the life out of the area. Not to say the Gravities' ominous appearance didn't accomplish that as well, it was just a simple observation Jaune made.

It was ironic in a lucky sort of way. Ren helped him practice his Lore control; brave enough to put himself in harm's way to further his goal, and now Ren had Lore of his own to control. Well, not exactly control, but the dark power did give the means to an end. So, in other words, his leap of faith paid off.

"Making another Lore shard?" Jaune looked down at the blackening Dust shard in his hand, never missing Ren's lackluster gaze.

"Don't worry." Jaune sighed, pocketing the shard away. "I'll make sure to let Nora know I have this and for her not to eat it."

Their talk was interrupted by some rustling in the woods. They centered their line-of-sight toward the direction and were mildly surprised to find an imposing looking Alpha Beowolf crawling out the forest. It seemed to be utterly confused as it stared at them, unsure whether to gawk or growl at their presence. Neither Jaune nor Ren make much of a move, not afraid, simply interested at the Grimm's future reaction. Fear failed to grab them and for good reason.

For one, they both know the Lore surrounding them was essentially masking their presences in a way the Grimm deemed friendly, but on the other side of the spectrum, they were human and look human, and were most definitely human, so the line had to be somewhere in the muddy sand. Could the Grimm see it? That was the million lien question. And if push came to shove, they have no doubt in their mind that this would end in their favor.

It was all up to the Grimm now.

Scoping the situation, Jaune measured the Grimm's movements, not sensing anything in Outer Space, meaning it hadn't actively searched out the power yet. Which meant the Grimm didn't see them as a threat, at least not yet. Then his eyes focused on the familiar scar running across its torso and the cautious steps it took around them, and finally, the leader's eyes widened in recognition.

"Wait a minute... I remember you..." Ren tore his eyes away from the Grimm to his leader. "You're that Alpha Beowolf I let go. Yeah, right after I killed that Death Stalker, you were there. You're the one that sacrificed itself for the pack."

"You know it?"

Jaune gave Ren an honest smile. "Yup! It's that Beowolf I told you about it during our camping trip. If it wasn't for this Grimm, I would've never got the idea to talk to Ozpin. It was this Grimm that gave me the push I needed. I wonder what it's doing here."

Filing away the Grimm's involvement with one of his leader's decision for later, Ren pointed out the obvious. "I think it was attracted to your negativity, Jaune. That's probably why it's so confused when it actually found us."

His Fearless Leader was quiet for a moment, leveling the Gravities to float beside him. He didn't know how to act. "So what am I supposed to do? Fight it? For some reason, I don't feel right attacking the thing."

Ren briefly pictured Nora hugging Sir Scrabbles with a bright smile. "I get what you mean. It doesn't seem right." Not after Ren's little Grimm have soul theories ingrained itself into their line of thinking. "We should probably just ignore it. I doubt it will attack us. Not while it's having a hard time discerning whether we're ally or enemy."

It sounded like a solid plan. One Jaune Arc would've taken a part of in a heartbeat, but the Alpha Beowolf had other plans and moved slowly toward them, cautious as ever. The Huntsmen-in-Training didn't move a muscle, confident enough in their own abilities to react in time and counter whatever level of power this sole Grimm held. And their non-threatening actions were rewarded with the Alpha Beowolf sniffing them when it got close enough. It sniffed Ren for only a short time, picking up a heavy presence of another of its kind on him before setting its nose on Jaune.

The Grimm glared at him, sniffing his body from head to toe, taking its time and Ren smirked with something akin to amusement. "I think it likes you."

More like it recognized Jaune from the first time it encountered him. Then, too, it remembered Jaune's face and power he wielded that was oddly similar to its own kind. And the Grimm wasn't going to forget about the tiny creature that slew a Death Stalker. It did have an intelligence that rivaled above all the younglings of the pack. There was a reason it survived this long. Mayhem and strength only carried a monster so far.

Moving back, the Alpha Beowolf held a curiosity to the human who was always surrounded by negativity. It didn't know what to think of him. Considering it spared it the first the time, the Grimm was willing to remain docile, knowing the human wouldn't attack unless provoked. Then the monster was looking at the human's companion, another male human, who possessed the same power as its kind and reeked of the sloth species. More accurately their imposing king. The scent of him was strong, nothing the humans could ever detect, but any true Grimm species could.

Interested at how the humans ever got bestowed such a power, the Alpha Beowolf took another moment to sniff them both before stepping back, heading toward the forest. They made no move to pursue it, never allowing their sights to deter but not hunt, only watch from a distance. That was almost enough for the aged Grimm—almost. Instincts demanded it now leave them be. Maybe, just maybe, its leader could answer the strange call it felt? Would be a shame to overlook such odd humans.

Jumping into the woods, the Alpha Beowolf howled into the bright, sunny sky without pause and neither of humans moved when it did. They did, however, react when it echoed yet another howl, deeper down into the forest where few humans have dared to trek alone. Another howl and another one after finally lulled the humans into its reasoning.

"I think... I think it wants us to follow it." Ren observed, feeling a sense of déjà vu. "Perhaps we should."

"And how does that sound like a good idea? What possible good could come from trusting a Grimm?" Ren fixed Jaune a subtle glare as a passing breeze moved his Lore cloak. "Still doesn't make it a good idea."

Howl!

"This is your chance to walk away. There's no reason for me to go on without you. I cannot possibly see what I would have to gain if I went alone."

Jaune crossed his arms for a moment, floating the Gravities above his head. They remained drifting as he raised a single brow at his friend. "Just let me ask you something... how can you trust the Grimm's power so easily?"

Ren didn't need to ponder over the question. "Because Aura's caused me nothing but pain while Lore has removed that pain. I can feel again for the first time since I was a child. It might be a blind chance to believe in their power... but my luck hasn't fared too well with Aura, so I'm willing to play the odds."

Jaune sighed aimlessly and walked in the direction of the howl, trusting in this blind chance Ren jumped into. "That's a big gamble."

"What can I say, I'm feeling lucky."

"Keep that up and you're going to steal Yang's job away. She won't like that." Jaune warned jokingly.

"I'll tell her it was your idea."

Gasp! "You'd really sell me down the river like that?"

"In a heartbeat."

Following the howls, Jaune and Ren pushed through the forest in a calm but alerted manner. They kept their wits sharp as they trekked through all the vegetation, passing each one of the trees, noticing the deeper they went in this direction, the taller and wider the trees got. By the time they finally reached the end, hardly any light penetrated the top of the trees, encasing the entire area if a soft afterglow of light reflected from the leaves. And what they stumbled upon was a pack of dozens of Beowolves, all various ages, and all looking directly at them with a mixed reaction of hostility and confusion.

How the staff of Beacon had yet to find this place would forever remain a mystery to the duo.

"Ren, I have a feeling we're not at Beacon anymore."

A few of the nearby Alphas moved toward them, circling around the duo, acting as a barrier, and before Ren and Jaune could prepare themselves, a large howl cut through them all. It was unlike any Beowolf howl they've ever heard of before. The howl pierced through the air like a knife through butter, signaling the Alphas to step back. The younglings even appeared frightened by the howl, cowering away into the distance. The duo even saw the Alpha that led them here had joined the others in making room.

Then they saw it.

A Grimm far taller than the both of them, towering them by at least double their frame compared to their height, but its imposing figure lacked any real bite for the moment. The Beowolf overseeing them was snowy white in appearance, having almost its entire body covered in bone and age. It stood above a rock formation peeking out the earth, vastly different compared to every other Beowolf in sight. Its presence alone demanded respect and awe, and then the monster lunged across the field in one fell swoop and landed directly in front of Ren and Jaune where the earth trembled beneath its massive feet.

Neither of them had raised their arms in retaliation, for Jaune never felt a wave of Outer Space crash upon him and Ren followed suit with his leader's reactions. Although, that could all be changed in a heartbeat, so their instincts remained sharp and ready.

Studying the humans that entered its domain, the beastly Beowolf circled them, finding the scent of the Sloth King on the one wearing a cloak of shadows while the other manipulated the same power as their kind. The Beowolf then took a closer look at the sun-furred human, seeing something akin to recognition, finding this human resembling another it had once encountered in the past, but what really caught its eyes were the strange orbs of darkness floating above the human, radiating the same power as their own. They abide by his command, remaining loyal to a human, doing nothing of the sorts to rob them of the warmth dwelling deep inside.

Everything changed the moment the Beowolf sniffed Jaune's right arm.

That was the scent of a Monarch Leo's blood.

Wolves versus Mountain Lions, a game of hunter and hunted that had been going on since the beginning. Like humans, even all the Grimm didn't see eye-to-eye, such as the Fate of the lions and wolves. Carnivores and herbivores have never ever truly been equals in Mother Nature's chain of command. One hunted and the other hid, an unbalance when the issue of territory became harder to simply ignore, but the scent of dried up blood on the human's right arm spoke volumes to the sudden disappearance of the Leos. Whereas the other human next to its companion bared no clue of sloth Grimm's blood or hint of foul play anywhere on the fur of the Sloth King.

Profoundly confused, the Beowolf needed a second glance at the human with invisible blood on his arm. For the scent of the Monarch to be found on this being, a human no less, nuzzled the core of the Grimm. Little could be misinterpreted. This human killed the Monarch Leo and drove their pride far away from the forest.

What a perplexing conundrum.

Interested and curiosity sorely peeked, the Beowolf sniffed Jaune's head once more before turning around to rest back on its rock, placing judgment on them in silence. For now, it allowed them to remain. The other Beowolves took that as their cue to study the humans, but this time they approached the duo differently. The older, wiser ones still have an air of caution around them but seem less hostile than before and the younger ones made it no secret they were overjoyed and ran up to the two with eagerness rivaling their friend Nora.

One of the younger ones ran up underneath Jaune's arm and he was forced to scratch his fingers along its scalp. "I guess we've been accepted into the pack? I-I don't know."

"Or we're being tested?" Ren hummed, far more used to dealing with affectionate, over-sugared, killing machines.

"Should we be concerned?"

Ren eyed the Beowolves circling Jaune as they sniffed him intensely. "You've already come this far. I don't think they'll stop us if we decide to leave."

Sighing, the Arc rubbed the smaller Beowolf beneath its chin. "At least wolves are better than dogs." Jaune allowed his sights to settle on their obvious ruler. "What type of Beowolf is that by the way? I haven't seen one like that before."

Ren racked his brain for an answer, thinking back to Professor Port's lessons. "I think it's called a Zeta Beowolf. They're higher than the Alphas."

This only confused him more. "Shouldn't a Zeta be lower than an Alpha?"

He shrugged his shoulders toward the beast. "You tell it that."

Not liking the idea of angering a pack of Beowolves in a dense forest, Jaune decided the Zeta Beowolf could keep its name. No skin off his bones. And he walked further into the softly lit forest clearing with some of the Beowolves no longer watching his movements as he got closer to their leader, who was resting on top of the rock structure. Trees in every direction surrounded his vision, obscuring most of the light that tried to penetrate from the outskirts of the forest, and the area was unnaturally quiet, but the Beowolf's boney appearance stuck out nonetheless.

The Arc finally reached the stone before him, troubled to why it seemed so familiar, like he'd seen this same exact rock formation somewhere else before, but his musing was cut short when a dark, black mist started to radiate from the Zeta Beowolf's body and hid all the color and light around it in a constant blanket of coldness that was undeniably Lore related. It was never-ending, passing by his feet and hiding the forest floor or anything else it touched in a pure shade of black. All except the Grimm and Ren.

Jaune couldn't feel the power affecting his Lore in any way, but he confidently guessed his Aura would speak a different tale. Not to say he was going to rid his camouflage in amidst a pack of Beowolves, especially since he used up most of his Aura back at the dorm. It was a logical thought his expertise summed up, noting that for later observation, and the way the Zeta glared one eye at him pushed him to further keep his Lore powers in check.

Reaching down, Jaune planted his hand firmly on the dark blanket, surprised at how truly cold it felt on his fingertips. The strange power crawled partially up his hand before falling back down, like all of gravity's servants did, before rushing past his body to meet up with Ren's feet. Through Outer Space, Jaune felt the Zeta releasing a pressure, but not making any move to attack, meaning this strange cover of Lore was a conscious act?

Jaune stood up and peered over at Ren. "Now, I'm really confused. Why can't anything make sense anymore? And what the hell is this strange, misty Lore on the floor? It's a little freaky."

The ninja looked down, eyes roaming over the little details. "I don't know, but whatever it is, it's hiding all the matter it touches in a dark substance." Ren pointed to the Gravities still hovering over Jaune. "It sort of acts like your Gravities, reflecting no light to see. Creating a dark matter for lack of a better word."

"Dark... Matter?" Jaune echoed, kicking some of the stuff around. It was true. He couldn't see the ground, plants, or rocks anymore or spot any light reflecting off the stuff, but his own Lore kept the stuff from missing with his colors and he was able to kick it. "You think I can somehow do this?"

Ren just shrugged his shoulders, occupied with a sudden Beowolf crawling underneath his hand. Jaune was forced to make up his own theories, knowing Ren couldn't really say no to an affectionate creature. It was actually a pretty funny weakness of his, next to his love for terrible food and need to be sarcastically witty.

Testing the limits of this Dark Matter Ren so eloquently put it; Jaune shuffled his foot on the stuff, hoping to see if it would push the mass of darkness away. It didn't and he was forced back to the drawing board. Everything was just a learning experience and this had actually distracted him for the time being, including the obvious threat of being in the jaws of a Beowolf pack.

Concentrating harder on his Lore, he tilted his head as the Dark Matter got less dark and revealed the layer of dirt and grass underneath, barely. The moment he halted his concentration and lowered it, the layer of darkness crept back, hiding everything it touched. So unless he was actively controlling his Lore to a certain degree, he couldn't see past the stuff, which begged the question of how much control did he actually need to command such a strange and inimitable power.

Pushing his experiment, he willed the Gravities to get close to the fog, intrigued the moment they made contact. Just like when he tried creating a Supernova in Lore form, they collapsed almost instantly, right into the Dark Matter, but something was amiss. He still felt his control over the Gravities lurking beneath like they never got consumed by the Dark Matter or the gravity they released outclassed Dark Matter's, and he willed them to float out. They did, escaping the power without any change to their properties or outward appearance, suggesting Dark Matter's gravitational pull was indeed very weak.

Interested, Jaune willed one of the orbs to go back inside, still feeling his control over it, and he made it move toward Ren who was still busying playing with a smaller Beowolf. Then he silently commanded the Gravity to float out from behind his friend, floating harmlessly out from the shadows, completely undetected. His friend was none the wiser and he willed the orb to float back down into the mist, making it travel across the area without detection.

"Hn?" Jaune moved the Gravity up, collecting all three back together. He willed them away, absorbing the Lore back into the system. "I gotta learn what this stuff does."

Kneeling down, he slapped his hand over the Dark Matter, interested in the way the Dark Energy traveled up his arm before falling down. His hand was a color palette compared to the drenched, black floor and he tried to grab the dark power. It was not an impossible task, simply a difficult one. This stuff was just out of his reach in terms of practice. He felt the grass and dirt underneath, he just couldn't move the mass out of the way to see it. And even when he pulled the grass and dirt from the floor, they came up covered in Dark Matter, lacking color or even a true physical form that wasn't Lore.

Dropping the sediments, the Arc paused for a moment, encasing his hand in the power of Black Hole. He swiped his Lore covered hand across the floor of Dark Matter, amazed the gravitational pull of his hand actually ate up the Dark Matter like it did Aura. And for a quick second—before it got covered up with more Dark Matter—Jaune saw the grass and dirt again.

"Now we're getting somewhere." He was still confused, immensely so, but it was all about taking one step at a time. "I wonder if all Grimm can do this."

Standing up, Jaune looked over his shoulder for nearby Beowolves, trying to spot any that radiated the same power as the Zeta. An almost wasted task as only the strongest of the Alpha Beowolves barely produced a fraction of what the Zeta made, subtle and weak. The weaker ones proved to have no power, acting young and very foolish. So only the Zeta created such a strange power. Probably meaning Dark Matter used up a lot of Lore and concentration. Far more than any of the Alphas were capable of creating for themselves.

What a shame.

Glaring at the Zeta, Jaune measured the Grimm's Outer Space, impressed with the pressure it was releasing. It rivaled that of the Sloth King, striking something close to fear in Jaune's soul, yet, it made no move to get up from the rock formation it laid on or rather the black smudge it laid on. The Grimm only stared at him, matching Jaune's glare, but lacking any real sort of bite. Somewhere in the background, they heard Ren playing with the child Beowolves, but the noise got lost.

Sighing to himself, Jaune glared away from the calm monster, noting how far the Dark Matter had traveled. Not very far. The dark energy barely reached the forest trees, just out of reach of the aged bark. The Lore simply remained in a fixed circle around them, intriguing Jaune to what secrets the power had or the limitations it possessed. He wasn't the only one; Ren was busy taking experimental steps on the floor while a young Beowolf circled around him.

The Dark Matter, just like it did with Jaune, tried to cling to him but failed miserably with each step and retreated back down onto the forest floor. Jaune was going to go out on a limb and say it had something to do with the Lore cloak Ren was wearing. Nothing else was free from the dark mist unless someone counted the Grimm. Only Lore driven creatures could essentially walk over this power without getting entrapped in a layer of darkness. It seemed like the most logical choice until they could test the boundaries of what Aura had on the mysterious power.

Appetite satisfied, for now, Jaune looked up to the sky and saw the sun beginning to set. In a few hours Team RWBY should be heading to for their trip to Vale and Jaune wanted to see Penny once more before they left, guessing she was going with them, giving Ren and him no choice but to exit the forest.

"Let's get out of here, Ren." Jaune said, walking across the field of Lore.

Nodding, Ren petted the playful Beowolves and followed his leader into the forest. The moment they step out of Dark Matter's circle, Jaune turned around when a surprising amount of pressure crashed upon him. What they saw caught them off-guard and showed Jaune Arc Dark Matter was most impressive property.

It was the ability to float in the air and spread out!

His eyes widened as a dome started to fall over the line where the Dark Matter ended. "This is new."

Just like Aura, Lore wasn't bounded by Remnant's gravity, it was bounded by their own set of rules. Game-changing, maybe, but also very limited. Lore and Aura's power were based on how much control the individual had over them, and when it came down to it, Remnant's gravity would always be superior; no control could change that. Lore just held the pieces to a bigger puzzle. Kind of explained why the power couldn't exactly entangle itself onto Ren and Jaune. Their Lore prevented that from happening.

Seeing the Dark Matter fly out into the air and eventually reach a maximum height and then spread out, Jaune could just make out the range Dark Matter reached on the forest floor. It wasn't far, but it wasn't short. It covered a generous range, limited by the Zeta's own control, yet, more than enough to hide the pack from wandering eyes as it encased them in a dome of darkness. One of which Jaune learned could be seen through if a person had a certain degree of control over Lore.

Control over gravity!

Then everything became clear when the Zeta's Outer Space suddenly vanished the second the dome was complete.

"I think I get it now!" Jaune suddenly laughed, loving it when he learned something new. "Ren, I need you to take off your cloak! Do it real quick!" Ren gave Jaune a critical stare but complied, ridding himself of his protective garment. The very second he did, his eyes narrowed. "Hurry! What do you see?"

"... Nothing."

"Exactly, Ren! You were right! Dark Matter doesn't reflect or absorb light!"

Concentrating, Jaune switched over to his Aura, watching as the dome of darkness began to vanish before his very eyes, alongside the Grimm inside. His instincts were screaming at him to be careful, warning him of an invisible force he couldn't see. The cold of Lore fell over them like a cold winter's day. And no matter how hard they try to see the dome, they couldn't. Aura's light simply didn't reflect or allow for them to see what essentially didn't interact with light. What they couldn't see was everything Dark Matter could react with and that was Lore.

They both knew there was something there.

In other words, the Zeta Beowolf was hiding the Grimm in plain sight. That was why no one had discovered this pack so close to Beacon. They wouldn't be able to see the Grimm. Without Lore's gravity to interact, Dark Matter couldn't be seen or felt. Light couldn't penetrate or reflect off the dome. Plus, Lore's negativity property to cause fear in people probably pushed them to avoid any area encased in Dark Matter, depending on the range it could reach, probably even for the most seasoned Huntsmen. And Jaune had a sneaky suspicion Aura couldn't see Dark Matter unless it was already trapped inside its gravitational hold, to begin with.

It was a unique area of interest, one that couldn't be seen through Space and even Outer Space. Sure, Lore could see Dark Matter, but it couldn't see what was inside unless the Lore's gravitational properties proved powerful enough to be able to interact with the Dark Matter or if he merely walked inside with or without knowing. To prove his point, Jaune took a step forward back into the den of monsters.

"Ren, stay back!" Jaune warned, going back to Lore mode. He began to walk to the dome of Lore that suddenly came back into view alongside the Beowolves inside, which were all staring at them with mixed reactions. "And tell me... can you see me?"

Jaune humbly walked back into the Beowolves' territory, standing in the dead middle of the clearing with all the Grimm confused. Ren was holding his Lore cloak close to his chest, so the Grimm couldn't see the difference with a barrier of Lore masking his Aura.

"No."

Jaune smirked, holding his hands out toward the mass of Lore surrounding the pack and the sky. The light from the sky was scarcely noticeable because his Lore allowed him to see past the Dark Matter, barely, but with less concentration, he knew he'd be standing in an arena of darkness where no light interfered.

Yes, the area was indeed a unique Space. What Lie Ren basically didn't see was a large quantity of Dark Matter right in front of him in what Jaune would call an area that was both invisible but not fake. Where power lied right in front of Ren in a space with nothing to show for it and as empty as it was full, holding the Dark Energy of Lore that couldn't be seen with Aura.

Essentially, what Ren saw was an Empty Space filled with the vegetation and nothing else. A Space they knew was there but couldn't be interacted with. Not without the power of Lore. One completely invisible, even to Aura's light.

Stepping out, Jaune left the dome of Lore, feeling positively perfect. He spotted Ren trying for the life of him to see the Dark Matter, but it was a lost cause and Jaune pointed at the cloak in his hands, signaling him to put it back on. He did and he humphed once as the dome came back into existence, hiding the Grimm inside and reflecting no light to be seen.

"Well..." Ren trailed, heading back toward Beacon as the mass of Lore continued to exist. "That was something."

"Just give me some time." Jaune coughed, following right behind. "I'll have Dark Matter figured out in no time."

"Oh?" Ren questioned, taking the slightest of seconds to stop. "So you're calling it Dark Matter. Should I be flattered you're using my name?"

Jaune ignored him, holding his hands out. "I think I'll call it... Hide, Dark Matter!"

Ren shook his head, poking holes in the plans already. "You can call it whatever you want, but still you gotta learn how to control the power first, Fearless Leader. And considering how far you've gotten with your Lore... that can quite possibly take forever."

Jaune sulked angrily. "You know... you're really raining on my parade today. You've been doing it a lot recently. You're like some rain cloud or something." Jaune didn't notice Ren tense up slightly. "What's up with that?"

"It's what I do."

His leader glared at the cloak hiding Ren's mouth and body, already figuring out the real problem with Ren. It was a small problem, one he could solve himself, but if left unchecked could have some serious backlash. "You know... that cloak of yours is really starting to change you." Jaune pointed out with a sense of Aura knowledge. "I know having control over your Aura is letting you feel, but be careful. Don't forget that Lore makes all your bad emotions all that much worse."

The Lie flashed back to his earlier bout with Ruby. Maybe in some sense, he pushed her a tad too far. Lore was such a dangerous power. Giving before taking. At least he assumed that was how it worked. He couldn't really recall what Lore had taken from his leader, but time would tell them eventually. Like all things true, time revealed all secrets and healed all wounds. One second at a time. And Lore was slow, it could use all the time it needed to catch up.

Looking off to the side, Ren coughed. "So... how does Dark Matter work?"

Jaune tilted his head, racking his brain for the right words. "The short version, when it really comes down to it, Dark Matter has a really weak gravity. Like, really, really weak. Nothing compared to Gravity or Black Hole. Honestly, Gravity can mess around with Dark Matter, and Black Hole just eats the stuff up. Kinda confusing, but I'll get the gist of it. But what really gets me is the power it has to hide stuff in an Empty Space!"

"Because Lore doesn't reflect light." Ren mussed. "You can't see what light can't touch. How does Aura react directly with Dark Matter?"

"Heck should I know." Jaune sighed, throwing his arms back as they left the dense part of the forest. "It's not like I could suddenly just use my Aura in there. There was a lot of Beowolves."

Ren stopped walking, thinking over his leader's words. "So what you're saying is anything involved with Dark Matter can only be seen or interacted by Lore."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Jaune scratched the side of his face, smile weak. "This is all just a wild guess, though, but once I learn to harness the power, then we can test it."

Ren peered over to the dome. "So I'm assuming you've figured out the drawbacks?" True be told, every technique Jaune learned or observed had a drawback behind it. Nothing was perfect and this Dark Matter stuff just screamed out weakness.

His leader scoffed. "The only thing I could figure out about the stuff is it can't be used by the weaker Grimm. Some of the Alphas can use a tiny bit, but the damn thing must take a lot of control to use and a whole bunch of Lore. It's going to take me forever to learn how to use the stuff. I don't know where to even start."

The ninja mussed over the answer, casting a backward glance toward the forest. A soft wind breezed by and he glanced over to his leader. "Are you going back?"

Jaune hesitated, thinking over the idea of walking into a den of Beowolves again. Even if the monsters didn't outright attack them, some didn't trust them and he returned the favor. Silently he wondered why that Alpha Beowolf even bothered to lead them to their home. What other mysteries in this big, dangerous world had he yet to uncover. What was lurking beneath the subtext of Remnant?

"I guess I have to. How else am I going to learn?" Jaune sighed, rubbing the side of his hair. "This whole situation has really thrown me off balance. First with this Penny girl's screaming Aura and now this. Really shows me how little about Aura I actually know."

Ren blinked once, grabbing him by the shoulder. "Well, whatever you choose, just make sure to warn us. I don't need Nora to go stir crazy looking for our missing leader because he's hiding somewhere."

"That depends... do you still plan to betray me if I tell Yang you're stealing her material?"

"Nothing would bring me greater joy."

...

Reaching their room's hallway, Ren's pink eyes slid over to Team RWBY's dorm, causing a mix reaction to build in the pit of his stomach. The Lore in the cloak fought against his weaker emotions, forcing him to feel a rotting sensation unsettling parts of his soul and Ren sighed evenly before addressing the issue. Now that he remembered the Lore's more subtle, negative aspects that tag alongside the power, he was more apparent of it. No longer did the darkness hide within its shadow. And perhaps it wasn't too late to maybe fix the battered relationships haunted by the cruelty of his misguided actions, somewhat.

There were still parts of Ren—the more reasonable and logical parts that hate Ruby for stealing what wasn't hers—that know Ruby Rose was in the fault. Manipulated or not, the Lore fed off the base of his emotions. He was just not going to roll over and accept all the blame. Letting someone get away with a crime was for the weak minded. He was throwing her a deal if anything. An agreement where both parties benefited and accepted blame presented.

Only seemed fair.

When they reach their team's door, Jaune was baffled to why Ren was remaining behind in the halls. "Aren't you coming in?"

Ren shook his head. "Later. There's something I gotta do first."

Jaune frowned before shrugging his shoulders. "Suit yourself. I got notes to write."

Glad his leader didn't pry, Ren set his iron gaze on Team RWBY's door, figuring now was the best time to finally put an end to this pointless rivalry once and for all. And he might as well apologize to the adorable girl, knowing the Lore from his cloak drove him a little insane, that much he saw now after spending time with a pack of Beowolves, but Ruby's not completely getting off the hook. Not entirely.

She still stole from him. Beating around the bush did nothing to quell this dilemma. He was just going to end this on friendly terms.

Knocking on the door, a moment passed before it was opened wide with Ruby being on the other side. She was wearing a new outfit, looking ready to head out. He couldn't see anyone else behind the door, coming to the conclusion she was the only one in there. Part of him wondered where the rest of her team was at. The other side of him didn't really care to know.

Back to the matter at hand, Ruby seemed surprised to find him at the door before her confusion was replaced with adorable envy. She was inside his personal bubble, attempting to poke him on the forehead without any warning given. A valiant but pointless effort as he grabbed her wrist before she could get even remotely close. To be fair, she did try to break free of his firm grip.

"You're still too slow." Ruby glared at the pink eyes peeking over the rim of Ren's Lore cloak, finally breaking free of his hold. "You'll never reach me at this rate." She tried a few more times and Ren intercepted them all before proving his point by poking her on the forehead.

"Gah!" Ruby cried, rubbing her forehead from where he poked her. She glared adorably at him. "What are you even doing here? Come to rub it in some more?"

Feeding her rivalry, Ren counted to ten mentally before allowing the rim of his Lore cloak to open up. The act still stunned her and she probably wished to know how his cloak did that. All good questions with answers she'd never get. Not now and not ever.

"No." Ren said finally, lacking emotion for the emotional girl. "I've come to apologize."

Ruby didn't seem to believe him. "Did Yang force you to say that? Jaune? Blake? Weiss?"

As if Yang could force him to do anything and his leader could be crueler than him when he wanted to be. Blake needed to stay on Jaune's good side and Ren doubted Weiss was going to force Jaune or any of his teammates to do anything after what he did for her. No. This was all Lie Ren.

He glared nonchalantly at her. "No... This is all me." She still seemed skeptical. Fair enough. "I've come to make it up to you."

He hadn't planned on saying that, but it seemed to be the right words because Ruby's eyes lit up like shooting stars. Her body was practically shivering in anticipation, but she quickly squashed that hope, trying to act professionally in a situation where mannerism was not needed. Nonetheless, Ren saw her holding herself back from ruining this moment, even when she was holding all the cards and he was left with a joker.

She still ended up folding.

"Really?!" She was leaning forward on her tippy toes, still not reaching his height. Didn't matter to her. All that mattered was whether or not he was serious. "Oh! I mean... really?! Really! Really! You pinkie promise?!"

She threw her pinkie out and Ren childishly reached out and wrapped his around hers. "Yes. I promise." He let go, fixing her a leveled glare. "Now... what is it that you want. I'll let you decide."

Ren didn't think Ruby could get anymore happier. He had been one-hundred percent wrong. The innocent smile on her face rivals Nora's, putting the sun to shame in the process. Any all previous anger she held onto before was gone and she was grabbing the sleeve of his cloak in a hurry. Then she stopped, ran into her team's room, and came out with Crescent Rose in her hands. Whatever previous engagements she had seems to have been canceled on a whim as she began pushing him down the hall.

"Hurry up! Move your butt!"

"And where are you pushing me to?" Ren already had a decent idea where she was taking him.

"Training! You're going to help me get stronger so I can finally beat you!"

Ren stopped her from pushing him any further, throwing a cautious glare at the adorable leader. "That's what you want to waste your promise on? Training?"

"Hey!" she argued, shaking her fist. "It's not a waste of a promise! This way I can finally beat you."

He allowed the words to sink in. "You want me to train you... to beat me? You know how crazy that sounds, right? And you want to do it now? Weren't you heading to Vale today? Do you really have time for training right now?"

"Stop trying to weasel out of it and move it!" Ruby began pushing him again, but she was stopped when Yang suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder.

"He has a point there, Rubes." Yang added from out the shadows. Blake and Weiss were right behind them with Sun and Neptune. "Vale now and train later."

Ruby looked torn between her older sister and Ren. On one hand, she could finally learn Ren's secrets, on the other, she did promise Blake. Blake was her sister's partner, meaning Ruby was stuck doing the responsible leader thing again where she put their needs before her own.

Darn it!

Ruby backed away from Ren, annoyed at his amused smirk that disappeared just as fast as it had appeared. She kicked some imaginary dirt on the carpet and groaned. "Fine."

Giggling, Yang grabbed Ruby by the shoulder and led them toward the stairs, but Nora's sudden presence stopped them in their tracks. In her hands were stacks of fluffy pancakes that Lie Ren definitely knew he did not make and she held onto them with pride and joy, practically radiating success.

"I made pancakes!" Nora skipped to the front of the group, pushing them out for Team RWBY, Sun, Neptune, and Ren to see. "Who wants some?! I made them special!" The girls of Team RWBY all declined, ready to head to Vale, but the guys, minus Ren, were all for it.

Neptune grinned at the meal. "You girls go on ahead, we'll catch up in a minute."

Sun waved them off, not giving them the time of day. He saw bananas in one of them. "Yeah! What nerd boy said. How can I say no to free food?!"

"Well, come and get it!" Nora ran into her team's room with Sun and Neptune hot on her trail.

Only Ren was left outside the room and his glare had increased threefold. His mind was racing and he glided into the room while Team RWBY headed to Vale to go on their team bonding trip. The moment he stepped into the room, his emotions race as Nora handed Neptune, Sun, and Jaune pancakes! Pancakes she made with her cooking skills. The very skills Ren had forbidden her from ever using!

Oh no! Jaune was too much in a good mood from making a Lore discovery to see the error of his ways. He could see Sun and Neptune as poor victims of circumstance, but Jaune should know better! Never trust anything Nora made! A lesson Ren learned the hard way.

"Stuff your faces!" Nora grinned brightly. Pancake mix covered her entire face and outfit. "I spent all day making them." Another clue to why no one should eat them. Pancakes didn't take that long to make. "I call them Nora's new Dust Enhanced Goofy Good Delicious Pancakes! They're made with special ingredients!"

That was the final straw! Special ingredients? Ha! Ren knew better than too trust anything Nora cooked. Years of living by her side had taught him that if nothing else. The poor ninja felt pity for his fellow males, unable to stop them now. Not while they were greedily holding the plates close to their chests.

Watching the poor fools accept the plates of steaming unknown, Ren got ready to block their hands in a last ditch effort when a plate was suddenly pushed into his chest with a squirming Nora on the other end. Her face was slightly red and her hands were shaking, but she was mustering up the courage to give Ren his pile of fluffy doom. Whatever confidence she previously had was all gone. Replaced with this nervous girl standing before him.

"I hope you like them, Ren. I made these ones extra special for you."

Confused and slightly terrified, Ren took a calm step back but that proved to be the wrong move because Nora was suddenly looking like someone kicked her while she'd been down. She held back her disappointment quite well, hiding away her feelings like before during their training trip with that pesky mask of hers. Tears and sadness may want to escape, but her stubborn smile proved superior in the end, and then his Fearless Leader came to her rescue, snatching the plate from her hands and forking a piece of the breakfast food, twirling the dough while missing the shine from the tiny Aura shards embedded within. Not even Neptune or Sun noticed, quickly biting into their third bite without even swallowing the first two.

Grabbing Ren by the shoulders, Jaune pushed a forkful of pancake into his mouth while taking a bite of his own. "Hey, c'mon Ren! Lighten up already and try some!"

Gmph!

...

"Nora?"

"Yes, Pyrrha?"

"What happened?"

"I... I don't know." She really didn't. "One minute they were eating the pancakes I made and the next second they're devouring everything like starved people. Then out of nowhere, Sun has this great idea of going on a guy's only road trip... and they just left without me."

Checking the damage done to their dorm room, the champion leveled down to expect the plates of syrup stained evidence. They were empty, not a morsel left to consume or share. Her train eyes then zeroed in on the broken door hinges, like something or someone simply couldn't wait to get out of their room and just had to leave in a hurry. There were no other two ways about it. Nope!

Studying Nora's story, Pyrrha tilted her head at the missing items she noticed missing. The guys didn't take anything, except for the pile of forgotten sunglasses Nora had stashed away, and one of Blake's questionable ninja outfits she kept hidden in their closet, thinking they didn't know of its existence. But what was even stranger, another precious but forgotten idea had been taken as well.

"I wonder why Jaune would take Crocea Mors with him or why they would leave their scrolls behind." Pyrrha's eyes land on the spotless plates. "Nora... what were in those pancakes you made?"

The person in question timidly pushed her fingers together. "... Flour, sugar, baking powdered, salt, and love?" Pyrrha's eyes narrowed, waiting for the obvious more. "Maybe even some of Jaune-Jaune's rock candies. Oh! And some chocolate chips!"

Pyrrha opened her mouth and then closed it, wondering what the implications of cooked Aura shards could have on a person. They were packed loaded with Aura from her leader, and his Aura alone was on a different level compared to the vast majority of everyone. Even a shard filled with one Supernova could give a person a much-needed boost of strength and power. Least not forget Jaune's high reserves of Aura. If he had wasted all his Aura making those, then Pyrrha couldn't imagine the aftereffect! Nora already proved there was such a thing as Aura overload—a hangover practically!

To think, Nora just gave those four pancakes that granted immeasurable strength for who knew the consequence. Never mind poking at Nora's cooking skills. Pyrrha had seen what she could do to a kitchen with just a mixer and some flour. "This can't end well."

Nora looked over to Pyrrha, wondering for a second where she had been all day, then her eyes zeroed in on the person standing just outside their broken door. Her smile was bright and she waved almost robotically at her, never breaking the façade even when Nora tugged on Pyrrha's shoulder.

"Pyrrha? Who's that?"

Looking over to her new friend, Pyrrha breathed in deeply before addressing the question with trained hospitality, already forgetting about the problem at hand. This one was far more important than the guy's sudden road trip, which she wasn't suspiciously jealous of as well.

"This... this is Penny, Penny Polendina... my new friend. I met her sometime during my meeting with the Headmaster. And Penny, this is my teammate and friend, Nora Valkyrie."

"Salutations!"

...

Three days later and in walked all four of the missing males, right into Team RWBY's dorm with all the eyes of their friends on them in clear surprise. They were tired and dirty beyond reason with bruises around their body. Neptune had small streaks of purple in his hair. Ren winced when someone bumped into his back. Sun groaned and Jaune sighed as his feet finally had the option to give up. Dust and grime littered their attire, making them next to impossible to distinguish them out from a crowd. They move with no grace, crashing right into the nearest bed they found—Weiss Schnee's bed.

"Hey!" They made no attempt to move and her anger only grew. "And where have you four been? You've been missing for three days! Three days! Nora and Ruby have been worried sick! I hope your ridiculous, spur of the moment road trip to Mistral was worth it because while you four were doing Oum knows what, my home kingdom got under attacked by a new group of terrorist!"

All of the guy's eyes widened and they look up to see Weiss pulling out a poster from a hidden compartment from her combat skirt. It was a roll for a newly delivered poster. As she unrolled it, Sun, Neptune, Ren, and Jaune couldn't keep their mouths closed tight enough, holding their breath as Weiss disgustingly displayed the poster for them to see and compare right in front of their faces.

The Treacherous Quadruple! A big wanted sign was written underneath with the Schnee banner promising a ton of lien for any knowledge to the whereabouts of the infamous group. A group that almost looked like them, plus the awesome shades, which meant there was no way those guys could be them. Not in their friends' eyes. Their clueless, misguided, blinded eyes.

Nope!

"They call themselves the Treacherous Quadruple." Blake wisely pointed out, poking the image of a strikingly familiar Monkey Faunus. "These four somehow managed to take on the might of the Atlas's military and make the White Fang look like a pack of simple girl scouts. Rumor has it they even stole a suitcase full of lien and rare Dust from them. It's been the talk all around Beacon and even Remnant. Here's one of the members, Monkey Fist. A Monkey Faunus dressed as a ninja."

Sun pretended the grin on the poster staring back at him was someone else. Anyone else. Please let this Dust-inducing, Aura weakening nightmare end already!

"And this knucklehead right here is Super Pervert." Weiss humphed, glad Neptune was nothing like the violet hair guy on the poster. "I don't know where they got their amazing strength, but they must be stopped! They simply cannot be allowed to pollute the world with their filth!"

The last two of the Treacherous Quadruple were left without an introduction, not needing one. Except no one told Ruby Rose that. She was slapping the poster, hard.

"No one knows where they got their terrible strength!" Ruby shivered, glaring adorably at the smirking Sloth King. Her insides just boiled at the idea of meeting this guy and just bashing his dumb head in. "They were too powerful to be stopped! Someone needs to do something! And fast!"

"I agree." Weiss held the poster next to Jaune's face with the D-Arc Knight right beside him. Obviously, there was no correlation between Jaune and the D-Arc and his magical, cobalt shades. "Somehow these four managed to escape Atlas undetected. Who knows where they've gone. They must be taken down. Right? These four troublemakers could be right underneath our noses and we would never know!"

Everyone, but the men in the room, nodded their heads. Nora was the only one who seemed conflicted, casting an adoring look at the Sloth King poster. Her eyes betrayed her and she was looking between the Sloth King and Ren. Jaune, on the other hand, simply pretended nothing was wrong, casting a subtle, worried glance to both Sun and Neptune whose faces were practically pressed side-by-side by their evil counterparts. Neither Blake nor Weiss made the connections. Yang and Ruby were just as clueless. Pyrrha and Nora try to make heads and tails of it and nothing worked. All was wrong with the world.

"I'm scared..." Neptune whispered to Sun and his friend simply shushed him.

...

Reaching their room after everyone—but the guys—cursed out the Treacherous Quadruple, Jaune and Ren prepared for the inevitable, not believing for a moment their lackluster disguises truly worked. Surely sunglasses weren't enough of a disguise to fool their partners. Maybe Nora, but not Pyrrha, they knew this. And based on the way she slowly closed the door with a small frown, they get ready for their impending doom. It wasn't like they were at fault here. Nora was the one who made the pancakes that trapped them in a maniacal rampage that ended with them attacking Atlas from a hijacked Bullhead. It was her concoction that left them in a state of unforgiving frenzy and made their blackout all the more gruesome. She did that to them.

They were the victims here!

"So..." Pyrrha began, turning her frown into a smile. Looked like the Aura overload didn't happen. "How was your sudden road trip? Poor Nora here was mad you didn't invite her."

"It isn't fair! How come Ren and Jaune get to do all the fun stuff?"

Jaune and Ren spared a second glance toward each other, blinking once in utter amazement before refocusing their sharp glares back at their counterparts. Clearly, shades really were all the disguise a person needed to blend into plain sight. Forget masks and capes! Glasses were where it was at. Yet, this did put them in a compromising predicament.

Should they come clean? Reveal to their friends the mayhem that happened in Mistral? Expose the perilous journey from Atlas to Vale? Like the fight with the bounty hunters or perhaps the military? Maybe Jaune should talk about how he fought Winter Schnee on top of a burning Bullhead as they tried to escape Atlas with said stolen Bullhead. Heck! There were still streaks of purple in Neptune's hair! Even Ren didn't come out of this unscathed. The only positive thing that came out of the entire, heart wrenching, soul-crushing, nightmare-inducing experience was Jaune and Ren being able to keep their secrets, well, secret! And it was all thanks to a simple pair of shades that didn't even hide their facial structures, hairstyles, or anything much for that mattered.

So? should they spill?

Nope!

That was another story for another time.

Besides, Pyrrha and Nora really wanted to bring down the D-Arc Knight and the Sloth King. The look of determination in their eyes really frightened them. They had still been looking over their shoulders from the small pathway to Team RWBY's room to their own during the quick walk in between. Paranoia was not strong enough of a word to describe the three days they've had. Hell was awfully close, though.

"Fine!" Jaune said a little too quickly. Panicking, he pointed to Ren's shoulder. "Uh? Ren got a tattoo!"

Ren flips his angry glare over to Jaune. "What?!"

"What!" Nora screamed in anger. She moved in, grabbing Ren's cloak from behind, already pulling the article off. "Oh! I see! I can't get a tattoo! But you can!"

Running off her abandonment anger as fuel, Nora reached for Ren's clothing, and he had little time to warn her before the cloak was pulled off, alongside his black shirt, and her eyes widened once she spotted the tattoo. She gasped a few times, not saying any words, and Pyrrha walked up behind her while Jaune slipped away to put away Crocea Mors. Meanwhile, Sir Scrabbles absorbed the sight with piercing, emotionless eyes, feeling Nora's emotions all over the place until they eventually settle on unrestrained happiness.

Whatever sadness Nora felt from Ren ditching her and almost not eating her Dust Enhanced Goofy Good Delicious Pancakes, her words, not theirs, seemed to vanish without a trace as her eyes take in every juicy, heartwarming detail of the tattoo on Ren's back.

There was a Sloth King on his back, centered between his shoulder blades and lean muscles, with an added cape and a crown. The king owned a pancake castle with a moat drenched in high-grade syrup. Butterflies danced in her stomach and her soul soared, but what truly captured Nora's attention was the little personal touch of Ren putting her name in the syrup. It was clear as day and he even had the pancake castle made out of her favorite pancakes, making the tattoo all the sweeter.

"Do you like it?" Ren nervously asked for the first time. Even Jaune and Pyrrha were stumped. "I got it..." he sighed, casting a quick, merciless, death glare at Jaune before giving Nora his absolute attention. "I got it for you."

Taking a step back, Nora finally stole a second look at Ren, noticing the small change in his wardrobe. Beside the newest addition to his skin, he also picked up a pair of white pants with a new style of shoes—sandals really—where the toes were left to breathe and they reached partially up his leg. Matching his form-fitting coal shirt and cloak, the outfit really did go together quite nicely. The Lore cloak still covered a huge portion of his body, including most of the newest additions to his attire, but the little changes could be seen, and the opened toed shoes did allow him more freedom and he loved them. That was all that truly mattered in the end.

Nora Valkyrie could just eat Lie Ren all up!

"Ah!" She ran up to him and tried to crush him in a death hug. His Lore cloak and natural strength prevented that, leading up to a normal level hug in the terms of his choosing. Nora was still trying to squeeze the life out of him, but the effort was all in vain. She was still rewarded with a small smile. "I love it! I love it! Love it! Love! It!"

Watching from the sidelines, Sir Scrabbles peeked closely at the human female's sudden skyrocket level of attraction for the male human she already wanted. Apparently, the male human wasn't so hopeless after all.

Pyrrha moved up to Jaune, smiling wistfully at her overcharged friend.

"So... Do I want to ask how Ren ended up getting a tattoo, or why you didn't stop him?"

She could ask them all she wanted. Jaune, Neptune, Ren, and Sun all agreed to take their dirty secrets with them to their graves.

"I wouldn't if I was you."

There was no reasoning behind it.

What happened in Atlas, stayed in Atlas.


Author Notes: Violet is another one-shot I wrote a while back and that story is connected to this one since Aura shards really do give the person consuming them enhanced strength and speed and stuff, and Nora's just crazy enough to cook them. I'm surprised no one, and I mean no one, figured it out, there were so many clues in that little story and this one—except for the added line of Ren's cloak—that I was saddened when no one called me out on it.

Cover art: Exvnir

Edited - 6/03/2018