Good morning!

I know it's always getting fewer and further between but I promise I'm trying my best! Getting severe cases of writers block here. Never the less, I really like this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think!


"Alright, once Ren and Nora get here, we can go grab Oscar," Jaune said to Pyrrha. "Hopefully Ironwood's meeting shouldn't take too long."

Pyrrha looked a little different from the last time most of the world had seen her. While she still wore her trademark armor, there were some other key differences to her appearance. Her entire color scheme now had silver in it rather than the bronze it had previously been. Her armor, circlet, and even her hair had the silver strands speckled throughout. Her sleeves, which had once been brown, were now skin tight silver. They sat snug around her wrists and extended all the way to her chest, connecting to her corset armor piece. There were also four tennis sized balls of metal connected to her waist by short chains. It was a more modest look, but Pyrrha had never been one to care about anything relating to her appeal.

Despite what effect this silver scheme would typically have on a woman, Pyrrha didn't look aged in the slightest bit. If anything, she almost had an ethereal glow about her, as if she were a true Roman Goddess. The silver shined and twinkled under the barest of light, making all who had seen her in Mantle double take at her appearance as if she were sent from the heavens above.

Now Pyrrha didn't like the attention garnered from her new appearance. If anything, she had almost resented it if not for Naruto's encouraging words. It drew attention from both allies and enemies alike, something she had strived to avoid since her tournament days. That alone was almost enough, but even that wasn't as bad as the detrimental affect her new appearance had on her stealth. She couldn't sneak by anybody!

But Naruto had corrected her during their training. While there were negatives to her new look, the benefits far outweighed them. Naruto said it was a testament to her determination, her drive, and her will.

She liked Naruto's outlook more, even if she didn't share the perspective.

The key difference for anybody that knew Pyrrha, though, would be that she was no longer armed with her sword and shield. They had been destroyed by Cinder, and regardless of Pyrrha's skill with them, she couldn't bring herself to replace them. That was likely the largest hurdle Pyrrha had to overcome in training.

An entirely new fighting style.

Because of this, Pyrrha was a little worn from defending Mantle. Not overtly so, but enough to know that she wasn't quite used to her new skills, despite how talented she was with them.

When Jaune had gotten called back up to help heal Ironwood, Pyrrha had returned with him to ensure he made it without too much trouble. She'd be lying if she said she didn't welcome the break.

"I'm lucky all that practice being 'The Invincible Girl' paid off," Pyrrha said light heartedly. "It's interestingly exhilarating, knowing that you don't have an aura to protect you."

Jaune's eyes nervously flicked over to her, "Just be careful Pyrrha."

"Of course," Pyrrha said happily. While she didn't enjoy seeing Jaune this worried, it warmed her heart to see him be as concerned for her as he would. It warmed her heart even more to know that despite that worry, he hadn't once tried to push her away from the career her heart was set on even with her aura being gone.

She shuffled a little closer to Jaune as they waited near the landing pad for Ren and Nora's arrival. Her glinting silver sleeves brushed up against Jaune's own arm. Things had been great between them as far as Pyrrha was concerned. Her death had definitely removed any reservations regarding their feelings for each other…well most of them anyway.

While they were waiting, Pyrrha decided to broach a subject that she'd tried a few times on the occasions that Jaune visited her. He always side stepped it, and surprisingly, death had actually shortened Pyrrha's patience rather than strengthening it.

"You know all this fighting is very…exciting, isn't it?" Pyrrha tried to say as casually as possible, though she couldn't keep the twinkle out of her eyes.

His eyes locked with hers briefly, before he looked away and cleared his throat.

"Err…Y-Yeah, I suppose it can be," Jaune stuttered out.

"You know," Pyrrha started slowly. "I had this rather interesting training session a couple weeks ago where I figured out I can actually vibrate the metal I control. I wish you could have been there!"

Jaune's eyes widened considerably as his mind wandered, hopefully exactly where Pyrrha wanted it to. He caught himself, and quickly resumed his pace through the academy, "I uh…wish I could have too!"

"Hmm," Pyrrha tapped a finger to her chin. "Unfortunately, I also found out that night that the vibrations stop if I lose focus…I'm hoping my partner would be willing to help me figure that out sometime…"

Jaune didn't even try to hide his reaction this time. He just turned to look at her and worked his mouth around as he tried to think of a proper response.

"I don't think that would really be something I can help with. I mean, well, that's just not really—"

"Jaune," Pyrrha cut him off, turning to face him and pushing her chest into his arm. "You know you're the only person I want to be with, right? I know we've been…closer since Naruto brought me back, but I'm worried about how distant you've been at times. I pushed off telling you how I felt at Beacon and it ended up with me telling you right before I died. If us being intimate isn't something you are ready for, I can respect that, but I need you to tell me that. If you're worried about pushing me into something I don't want to do, I think you need to let me decide that."

"That's the thing though, Pyrrha," Jaune shook his head, refusing to look at her. "You didn't just die right after telling me…You practically killed yourself. I know this is what you want to do with your life. It's what I want to do too, but that isn't all it is. You might trust me with your life, but you won't let me trust you with mine. Hell, you won't even let me be responsible for myself! You pushed me away when you needed me…your partner…the one you're supposed to look to for help in the battlefield. Cinder was definitely out of my league, but honestly if me being there had even the slightest chance at saving your life…even at the cost of my own…I just feel like I should have been afforded that chance."

Pyrrha took a step back, surprised at the emotion in his voice. Jaune's eyes misted over and he almost choked on his next words.

"How can I let myself love you even more if I feel like you'll do it again?"

Pyrrha's shoulders slumped slightly at his words. Jaune sniffed slightly, wiped his eyes and set his shoulder back as Nora and Ren entered their sight. The two were obviously tired from their time defending Mantle, but the look in their eyes told Jaune they were still ready to go. Before they got within earshot, Jaune said one last thing.

"The way I felt for months after your death…Knowing that I can love you more…knowing that it can be worse. I don't think I can go through that again Pyrrha. That is why I've been avoiding the subject. I just don't think I'm ready to give you all of my heart right now…not when you've already broken it."

Pyrrha looked down in shame at his last words, causing Nora and Ren to look between Jaune and her cautiously.

Nora frowned slightly, "Are you guys alr—"

"Fine," Jaune quickly cut her off. "Ironwood wants us to meet up with Oscar and meet him in his office. You guys good to go?"

Ren nodded, though Nora huffed slightly. Jaune grunted, and turned around to lead the way to their dorm. The other three followed behind, and Pyrrha smiled slightly at Nora when she placed a comforting hand on Pyrrha's back.

They made it to the steps of the academy when the sound of shattering glass had them all looking up. Three black balls zoomed over Atlas before forming a shield around half the city. This was immediately followed by an explosion that almost knocked all of them off their feet.

"That's Naruto!" Jaune shouted when another figure shot out from the broken window above. The white and red haori immediately told them who it was. He soared in the same direction as the Gudodama, and disappeared from view behind the various buildings around them.

"Let's go!" Jaune began running up the steps of the academy. "Whatever that was, Naruto is being serious about it! We need to get to Ironwood's office now!"

They made it to their dorm in record time, only to find an empty room with three destroyed Atlasean Bots being the only clue as to what happened.

"Where is Oscar!" Nora's eyes widened.

As if called by fate itself, a blast of fire from around the corner and down the hall drew their attention. When the flames cleared, they saw Oscar with a full body, multicolored crystal shield attached to one of his forearms.

His clothes were singed and he was obviously tired, which was concerning considering he hadn't done any fighting down in Mantle. What could possibly…

Oscar saw them, and his eyes immediately widened, "Guys, it's—"

He was interrupted by a figure coming into view from the other hallway and striking the top of his shield with their weapon. This raised the bottom of his shield from the ground by almost a foot. Oscar's assailant, who looked like an Atlesian Operative with a sharp pointed umbrella, immediately capitalized on the gap. She dropped low and swept her umbrella at Oscar's legs, completely pulling them out from under him and sending him falling to the ground.

Oscar gritted his teeth, and suddenly his shield had reformed into a jagged spear that he immediately thrusted towards the Operative mid-fall.

The spear grazed against the girl's cheek, causing her aura to flicker ever so slightly and shattering her illusion to reveal Neo underneath.

"GO!" Jaune shouted while Oscar's back hit the ground. The boy immediately rolled out of the way as Neo's umbrella pierced the ground where he had been.

Nora and Pyrrha rushed past Jaune, who'd pulled out his shield and clenched his ringed hand in front of his face. Ren slammed his hand into the floor beside him, and his own emerald crested ring glowed brightly as the ground underneath them cracked. The cracking in the ground zoomed past Pyrrha and Nora, reaching Neo before she could move to attack Oscar again.

Vines burst from the ground and immediately wrapped around Neo's feet. Causing her to stumble just long enough to catch Nora's hammer to her face. Neo fell to the ground with a startled look on her face, but a blast of fire from her back propelled her back up, and simultaneously burned the vines around her ankles.

The girl snarled and sent a ball of fire at Nora, who immediately batted it to the side. The blast of fire blew a hole in the wall, exposing Naruto's dorm to their fiery battle.

Pyrrha immediately capitalized on Neo's semi-distracted state. She rushed in and threw a punch at the girl's face, dropping to her knees in a slide as an enraged blast of fire cut through the air where her head had been.

They were all on a time limit. A fight with a maiden was bound to burn fast. It was five against one, and they were determined to come out on top.

Neo raised her hand at the crouched Pyrrha, preparing to blast her with yet another ball of fire, when a crystal spear suddenly entered her field of view. It punched through the sleeve of Neo's coat, dragging her arm to the side and pinning it to the wall next to her.

Another growl, and Neo simply yanked her arm free. She stabbed wildly at Nora, grazing her abdomen, before planting the tip of the umbrella in the ground and using the momentum of her stab to swing forward and knee Nora in the face. The orange haired girl stumbled backwards, halfway dazed, and immediately her legs were swept from under her. She hit the floor with an oof of breath escaping her, and immediately took a needle jab to the shoulder.

"Arg!" Nora grunted as the needle grated against her pink aura, though Neo quickly saw a ting of white spreading along the girl's body. A quick glance at Jaune revealed his moonstone to be shining brightly as his eyes focused on Nora.

A sneer later, and Neo was looking back at Nora, whose grunts became more and more guttural as Neo's needle sank deeper and deeper into her aura.

Neo tilted her head curiously as the faintest arc of pink electricity danced in Nora's eyes. She quickly looked down to Nora's ring, and saw bolt upon bolt of electricity hopping out of the gem and into Nora's hand. The arcs of electricity grew in Nora's eyes exceedingly fast, and quickly began arcing all over Nora's body with such energy that Neo actually felt her needle vibrating.

"RrrrAAAHHHHHH!" Nora shouted as she unleashed all of her energy at once. The lightning arcing all over Nora's body immediately jumped towards a single point, that just so happened to be Neo's chest.

It wasn't the most refined way to get the maiden off of her, but in her position, it was the quickest she could do, and it did the job.

Neo inhaled sharply as the lightning blasted her back a few feet. She could feel the electricity coursing through her body, the proximity to Nora allowing a decent portion of the energy to bypass her aura.

Pyrrha hadn't been idle during this brief interaction either. She was already behind Neo, sending a quick punch into one of her kidneys, and immediately ducking the umbrella that twirled her way.

With a silent scream, Neo sent a gust of wind at Pyrrha, pushing the Amazonian back a few paces. Her eyes grew alight once more, and Team JNPPR knew that Neo came to a conclusion about how to fight them. Close quarters with a Maiden? All she had to do was effectively nuke the place.

"Ren get Nora!" Jaune yelled while he focused his aura on Pyrrha. Oscar ran as fast as he could towards the redhead. Jaune simultaneously deployed his shield and slammed it in front of Ren and himself, hoping to block as much of the coming attack as possible.

Ren had already gone to work, burying his entire hand into the floor up to his wrist, and sending his converted chakra out to Nora, who was scrambling to get away.

From Neo came a raging inferno of fire, blasting in every direction and threatening to consume them all. The blast hit Jaune's shield with concussive force, forcing him and Ren back a few feet before they were able to properly ground themselves. The heat is what they felt next. Their skin would have boiled off them if not for the aura protecting them. They felt their aura drop drastically under the wrath of the summer maiden, but their thoughts remained on their teammates.

Oscar's crystals were almost made to counter Neo's maiden abilities, yet the rest found themselves much more vulnerable to her magic.

The flames licking around Jaune's shield eventually faded away, allowing Ren and Jaune to peak around and see what had become of their teammates. A burning heap of burnt intertwining branches next to Neo to reveal Nora's unconscious form.

Oscar's entire back was covered in a cracked crystal shield, and the boy himself had jumped between Neo's attack and Pyrrha, though it was obvious he had taken quite a hit to his aura in doing so if his uneven breathing was any indication.

Pyrrha had closed her eyes and braced herself as soon as Neo's intentions had become clear, knowing she wouldn't be able to get to any kind of cover in time. When she opened her eyes to see that Oscar had defended her, she'd been extremely relieved. That is, until she saw Nora's unconscious form next to Neo.

She immediately felt the increasingly familiar feeling of Jaune's aura rushing over her as he projected his semblance through the bonds of their rings. It was an interesting discovery, finding out that Jaune's semblance amplified the effects of both aura and chakra.

So far, Pyrrha's chakra reserves were nothing special. Naruto assured her that this was only because of how new her chakra network was. According to him, her pool would increase over time naturally. Because of this, she was slightly limited on what she could accomplish with her Jiton kekkei genkai.

With Jaune's semblance though…her imagination was the limit. There was a slight hesitation with revealing the changes in Pyrrha's fighting style, but Jaune pumping his aura into her as he was made her leader's message extremely clear.

We can't afford to play with her. Give it your all!

'Sir, yes sir!' Pyrrha thought excitedly. Oscar dropped to his knees, obviously exhausted from his few usages of his crystals.

Ren was infuriated by Nora's current state, and quickly left Jaune's side to engage the maiden.

"Ren, wait!" Jaune yelled out, not wanting to move and risk breaking his concentration on his semblance.

"Pyrrha…" Oscar grabbed Pyrrha's wrist before she could move to join Ren. "She has the lamp!"

And sure enough, as Pyrrha looked at Neo's belt, she saw the lamp hooked onto it.

"I'll get it back," Pyrrha said confidently as Ren bounded over Nora and slashed at Neo, who shattered into a million pieces only to reveal she was behind him.

Neo stabbed her umbrella into Ren's back, grating on his aura fiercely. The man took it in stride, whirling around and jabbing at her with storm flower. Neo back petalled, but Ren pressed on, pushing Neo farther and farther away from Nora. Out of the corner of his eye, Ren saw Oscar moving to grab her and move her out of harm's way.

Neo had just dodged another slash from Ren when her instincts screamed at her to move from her current position. She jumped back just as Pyrrha struck the ground where she'd been with an axe kick. With a kind of flow that only months of training together could bring out, Pyrrha slid forward to sweep Neo's legs out from under her while Ren kicked off of her back to kick at her head.

While this maneuver was immensely impressive, Neo's agility was even more so. Neo tucked herself into a curled position, successfully dodging both Pyrrha's leg sweep and Ren's Storm Flower while stabbing Hush's point into the ground behind her for a temporary balancing point.

Neo immediately pushed off of Hush and kicked her feet out at Ren's face. Ren had no chance of dodging the diminutive girl's kick, and his aura certainly didn't appreciate eating the blast of fire that burst from the soles of her feet.

Pyrrha felt Ren hit the ground behind her. Hoping to catch Neo off guard while she was regaining her footing, she flailed a hand forward. One of the balls on her waist immediately appeared to change form, rippling and shooting forward into a needle like form. The needle stretched forward just as Neo looked up towards Pyrrha.

A slight widening of her eyes was the only sign that Pyrrha had caught her by surprise, as she immediately raised Hush to intercept the fast-approaching metal point. Her attack having been blocked, Pyrrha retracted the needle and returned it to its ball shape while simultaneously throwing a punch at Neo's face. This wasn't fast enough to land a strike on Neo, however. The girl leapt over Pyrrha entirely, flipping midair and landing a kick on the back of her head. Pyrrha immediately stumbled forward and let out a growl as she turned to face Neo again.

Pyrrha probably would have been able to keep up effortlessly with Neo had she had Milo and Akouo, but as it was, battling an agile opponent like Neo was a challenge in its own right.

Hopefully now, with Pyrrha on one side of her, and Ren having struggled to his feet on the other, they might be able to catch her by surprise. At the rate they were going though, Pyrrha was probably going to have to pull out all the stops to get the lamp back from Neo.

Ren holstered one of his Storm Flowers, and the emerald in his ring glowed dimly as he began converting some of his remaining aura into chakra. Pyrrha knew he was running dangerously low on aura…so this was a gamble on his part. He wanted to finish this fast, and Pyrrha didn't know if she could deliver that.

Or maybe he was just trying to make an opening for her?

Neo carefully looked between them, careful not to let either stay out of eyesight for long. It was obvious from her glance towards Jaune that she didn't know what he was sitting out of the fight for. He was currently kneeling with his hands laying over the top of a sheathed Crocea Mors while staring intently at Pyrrha. He looked every bit the praying knight with the moonstone on his ring shining a brilliant white.

A twitch from Ren while Neo had her eyes on Pyrrha was the only sign she needed that they were moving to strike. Without a moment of hesitation, Ren and Pyrrha lunged forward, immediately putting Neo on the defensive. She found herself constantly pressed to avoid slashes from one of Ren's Storm Flowers, Pyrrha's fists, and her constantly changing metal balls.

Pyrrha didn't hold back a single bit, what with the aura Jaune was providing her. Her balls formed into needles, barbed wire, and curved crescent blades, always flowing whatever way Pyrrha needed them to in order to strike out at Neo. At some points they even detached from her waist as one of her hands drew close, immediately wrapping around her wrist and forming a wrist blade when Pyrrha went in for a palm strike.

Though no hits landed solidly enough for Neo to slip too much, she still felt her aura steadily dipping. She knew that while Oscar was rather winded from the one on one they'd had earlier, she had still only taken out one of her opponents. It would only be a matter of time before Atlesian soldiers and operatives swarmed her position.

Her eyes lit aflame once more as she drew a hand back to blast towards Pyrrha's exposed abdomen. This was the opening Ren was waiting for. He immediately grabbed the hand, growing vines that immediately wrapped entirely around Neo's forearm and elbow. He noticed Pyrrha rearing back to capitalize on the opening he'd created and decided to do the same himself.

He raised one of his Storm Flowers to bring down on Neo's head as she turned towards him. He expected many things when Neo looked at him. Looks of anger, annoyance, or even fury, but Nora's face, hurt spread all over it as Storm Petal bore down on her was not it.

Instinctually, Ren's arm screeched to a halt. Logically he knew this was Neo, but his brain just could not comprehend striking Nora in any way, shape, or form. This would prove to be his undoing in this fight.

With a yank of her arm, Neo twisted her palm towards Ren against the grip of his vines, and released the blast of built-up fire directly into his face.

The vines immediately disintegrated against the flame's heat, and the last thing Ren saw was bright red flooding his vision of Nora's face. He was sent crashing into a nearby wall as his aura shattered around him.

The price of Neo's small victory was a decent chunk of her aura, however, as a newly donned brass knuckle donned fist buried itself into her side.

A sharp exhale from Neo was music to Pyrrha's ears after witnessing the dirty move against Ren and the immediate consequences of it. Pyrrha didn't waste a single second of Neo's predicament either. She immediately buried another fist into Neo's stomach, kicked one of her legs out from under her, and smashed her brass knuckled fist into Neo's cheek when she stumbled to regain her footing.

Neo, dazed as she was from the quick combo from Pyrrha, immediately tried to backpedal. Her eyes focused on Pyrrha shakily, just in time to dodge a barrage of needles that flew right above her head. They buried themselves into the ceiling above her with such power that Neo had no doubt they would have shattered her aura on contact.

Neo quickly regained her bearings just in time to dodge Pyrrha's next volley of needles, which imbedded themselves into the wall to her right. Oddly enough, Pyrrha wasn't advancing on her, leaving Neo's sole focus to be dodging her attacks.

The next dodge had the volley of needles striking the wall on the left. It was then that Neo decided she didn't like so many different sources of manipulative metal being around her for Pyrrha's use. Neo lunged at Pyrrha, thrusting the needle tip of Hush towards Pyrrha's chest.

Pyrrha twirled around Neo, causing Hush to only miss by only a thread. Quite literally in fact, as Hush brushed just past the skin of Pyrrha's wrist, hooking onto the silver sleeve by only a thread and tearing it ever so slightly.

The redhead, now behind, quickly back stepped a few paces, passing the seemingly innocent array of needles in the walls around her.

Neo thrusted Hush forward one more time when Pyrrha seemed to trip on her last backstep. This was just a ploy, however. With a quick clench of the fist on the arm with the torn sleeve, Neo suddenly halted in her movement, the point of Hush just inches from Pyrrha's throat.

The mute girl's eyes widened in shock, and she quickly took stock of her situation. Looking down at her weapon, the faintest shine gave away a string of something wrapping all the way around the shaft of her collapsed umbrella. The string wrapped all the way up her arm before crossing over her body in a highly intricate pattern, zig zagging all over her body and shooting off into random directions around her, only to come back and tighten around her from another angle.

A quick glance confirmed that the wire around her body was indeed connected to the needles imbedded into the walls. The wires tightened around her when Pyrrha clenched her fist further, wrenching Hush away from her and closer to Neo's chest.

Pyrrha sighed in relief, bringing Neo's eyes back to her. Pyrrha slumped slightly, revealing that the silver cloth around the back of her neck had been unthreaded to connect to the needles around her. The sleeve Neo had knicked with Hush was also connected to her weapon, proving to be another contributing factor to Neo's current predicament.

Pyrrha's silky silver addition to her wardrobe was not the cloth it appeared to be. Rather it was metal wire so fine and neatly woven together that it simply masqueraded as such!

"Got you!" Pyrrha said between heavy breaths. "Now, then…"

Pyrrha unclenched her fist, and twirled her fingers around the wires fed from her wrist skillfully. A wire near Neo's waist tightened, cutting through the belt loop holding the lamp. Pyrrha smirked as it clattered onto the floor, and yanked her hand backwards roughly.

The wires wrapped around Neo all tightened simultaneously. Neo grunted as she fought against the constricting feeling, but didn't last long. The fineness of the wires didn't do anything to decrease its durability, in fact, it only increased its deadliness in that it made them incredibly sharp.

It took only seconds to bite through Neo's aura, shattering it around her and leaving her vulnerable to further damage.

Neo's eyes widened in panic, and she quickly began channeling her magic around her. The silver wires around her quickly turned bright orange as they heated up. Pyrrha felt the wires rapidly approaching their melting point, and immediately began withdrawing them. While she would still be able to manipulate the melted metal, she had nowhere near the amount of control needed to reform them into the wires they were.

The needles lining the wall withdrew with the wires, and Pyrrha immediately began launching them towards Neo, intent on capturing her now that her aura was broken.

Neo quickly dodged the first three needles, and simply watched as the fourth zoomed past her head. Despite her panic, she shot Pyrrha a curious look, and happily noted that the red haired girl was breathing much heavier than she had before.

'Dammit,' Pyrrha swore under her breath. She glanced back at Jaune, and noticed that he too had sweat dripping down his face, and his eyebrows were furrowed in absolute concentration.

Pyrrha swallowed heavily, 'At this rate, she will get away. I have to figure something—'

Just then, a blinding pain ripped through her hand, forcing her to choke back a scream. But with the pain came a feeling of irrepressible power.

Pyrrha's green eyes quickly began glowing with unbridled power as her breathing got heavier and heavier as her body adjusted to the sheer amount of chakra flowing through her body.

Neo took a step back, bringing Pyrrha's focus back to her. Pyrrha raised her hands towards Neo, and spoke in voice that didn't seem like her own.

"Jiton: Heijokyofusho! (Claustrophobia)"

Neo had all of a second to react as the walls around her seemingly came to life. The previously sturdy metal lined walls crumpled around her as metal beams, plates, and electrical wires all burst from the wall towards Neo in an attempt to smother her in more metal than she could possibly melt.

The screeching of metal against metal would have been agonizing to anybody not in fear for their life, and fortunately, or not depending on your outlook, Neo very much was.

She flipped backwards multiple times, hoping to create enough distance between Pyrrha and her that Pyrrha would be unable to manipulate it any further.

Her range was much further than expected. Finally, Neo slowly came to a stop as the deafening noises around her stopped. She looked at the carnage in front of her, and saw Pyrrha's green glowing eyes staring at her like poison through the only gap in the metal in front of her.

Neo's eyes narrowed at her, causing Pyrrha to smirk, the impressive feat she'd just accomplished not seeming to have tired her in the slightest.

"Looks like you lose this one," Pyrrha's voice echoed through the metal forest in front of her. "I hope you don't plan to try killing Ruby alone if that's all you have in you."

Neo snarled at her, but the sound of boots hitting hard floor down the hall told her that her time was up. Atleasian soldiers rounded the corner nearest to her, only to find nothing but a wildly destroyed hallway in front of them.

On Pyrrha's side of the hallway, she turned to help Jaune check on Ren. Oscar was hovering over Nora, appearing to still be channeling his aura through the ring into her.

"His aura recovering quite a bit," Jaune said as he hovered his hand over his unconscious teammate. "I'm not sure how all this chakra got in our rings, but it seems like its actually kicking his aura recovery into overdrive. Help Oscar with Nora while I call Ruby."

Pyrrha nodded, and quickly moved over to see if Oscar needed any help with Nora.

'I wonder what could possibly be next,' Jaune thought grimly as he pulled up Ruby's contact. He immediately called her, not surprised when she quickly picked up.

"RUBY!" Jaune shouted. "Neo attacked Oscar at our dorms! Pyrrha fought her off, but she's here in the building!"

There was silence for a few seconds, but just before Jaune could ask if she was there, Ruby answered, an underlying tone of defeat in her voice.

"Got it Jaune…Yang, Blake, and I will search for her. Come to Ironwood's office to find out where you guys are needed."

Jaune didn't even bother responding, instead hanging up and looking over to Oscar and Pyrrha, who were helping Nora up. The girl was cradling her head in obvious pain, but even still, Jaune could see the small sparks of pink electricity dancing across her body. They appeared sporadically, reaching out and brushing against Pyrrha's and Oscar's hands wherever they'd touch her, seemingly testing the waters as to whether they were friend or foe.

'What happened to us?' Jaune wondered in awe as he looked down at Ren, who was beginning to show signs of waking up. Sprigs of plants were slowly poking out of the ground around the unconscious boy.

'It's like he has so much energy that he can't even keep it all contained.' Jaune realized. After a moment, he picked his phone back up and dialed another number.

"Hello?" Jaune heard a slightly panicked voice answer.

"Weiss!" Jaune all but shouted. "Ruby said she was going to look for Neo with Yang and Blake. I thought you would be the best to call."

"I'm a little busy right now Ja—"

"No this is important!" Jaune argued. "The rings! What happened?"

Weiss sighed on the other line, "Naruto was affected in his fight and he's going to be out for a while. At least a good number of hours. He divided as much of his chakra as he could and gave it to each of us. He said it was about two to three percent each."

Jaune's mind began whirling a mile a minute as he watched the plant life around Ren continue to grow.

"Jaune," Weiss asked impatiently.

Jaune's attention snapped back to Weiss immediately, "It's not going to last."

"What?" Weiss' asked in a confused tone.

"Ren is right here," Jaune quickly rushed to say. "He was knocked out during the fight with Neo but plants are growing all around him. The chakra Naruto gave us is slowly leaking out of the rings. It's not going to last!"

"…Shit!" Weiss cursed. "I thought it was a little chilly around me. How long do we have?"

"How should I know?" Jaune said. "We will just have to do what we can with it while we have it. I'm sure it could last at least a day or two before running out."

"Jaune you don't understand!" Weiss yelled over the scroll. "I need almost all of it for this scroll! If it would all be gone within a few days, I only have one day to fix the scroll at most!"

"Maybe it's just because Ren is unconscious?" Jaune tried to reason. "He's waking up so maybe it'll stop?"

"No," Weiss said with a sigh. "I feel the room I'm in getting colder. I didn't notice it, but it is quite a few degrees colder in here than when I first walked in…This isn't good."

"Get to work," Jaune said after gulping. "It's not our chakra or aura, but maybe we can figure out a way to transfer ours to you."

"You guys are going to need it," Weiss argued. "…Make that a backup plan. I need to get to this immediately!"

"Stay safe," Jaune said grimly before hanging up.

Jaune looked at the blank screen on his scroll for a moment, before a groan from Ren took his attention. Nora, Pyrrha, and Oscar also joined them.

"What happened?" Ren asked with a wince.

"Neo seemed to have bettered us for a moment," Pyrrha said with a grimace.

"What?" Ren asked, his eyes still rapidly blinking.

"We got our worlds rocked Renny," Nora groaned, still holding her own head. "Not that complicated."

"We have a problem guys," Jaune cut in, immediately grabbing their attention.

"What is it?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune didn't immediately answer, but lifted Ren up. "I'll…explain on the way. We need to go to Ironwood's office and see where we are needed."

"Right," they all echoed before heading that way…quite a bit slower than they would have before.

Behind them was nothing but a ruined hallway, crumpled and unpassable, with confused soldiers trying to work out the mess behind them.

]-xxxXXXxxx-[

Neo trudged through one hallway after another, slowing only to rest for a moment before carrying on. Her opponents had but up quite a bit more of a fight than she'd expected.

'They were all able to do the things he did!' Neo thought to herself in confusion. 'Plants, metal wires, lightening, crystals? How did he teach them? They obviously weren't all maidens!'

She came to a screeching halt, as the hall darkened around her. She immediately pressed herself flat against the wall and created an illusion around her to blend her into it. Despite the hall being well lit, it suddenly appeared as if it were dusk outside, no light but possibly the sunset to be found.

Suddenly, a pair of amber eyes rounded the corner ahead, darting from corner to every other crack in the hall, searching for any and all signs of life.

Neo held her breath and struggled to keep her heart rate as low as possible, lest the noise of it alert the faunus' keen ears.

"Ruby," Blake spoke into her ear piece. "I've searched almost the entirety of the east wing, and I see no signs of her."

Neo couldn't hear Ruby's response, but Blake's next words as the dark haired girl stalked by her had her blood running cold.

"You're certain he could sense her coming this way?...With her aura broken she won't stand a chance…Well if Naruto said we could face a maiden as a team before, imagine what we could do with this chakra boost…I know we can't let her get back to Salem…They have no way of knowing that Naruto is out right now…Alright, I'll make sure she doesn't leave from here, wherever she is…Head this way once you clear your area. You'll be able to feel her if you get close enough."

Shit…

Shit!

SHIT!

Neo needed to leave. She had to get out before Ruby got there. With no aura and her magic as low as it was, even Neo didn't want to fight team RWBY. After fighting team JNPPR, Neo knew Naruto hadn't slacked with their training. She couldn't fight another team right now! Especially after that freak power boost they all apparently got.

As soon as Blake turned the next corner, Neo took a step away from the wall, taking extra care not to make any noise before she got out of Blake's hearing range.

This mission was a failure, but if she could get back to Emerald and Salem to tell them how strong JNPPR and RWBY have gotten, and that Naruto was apparently out of the picture…it could change everything!

With that last thought, and as she finally felt like Blake was far enough away, she dashed away.


I'm sure everybody has an idea as to what the scroll is for. Naruto and Weiss had a decent amount of time to get into some mischievousness while everybody was doing their training. Obviously if you don't know what it is, I'll tell you...nothing. It's meant for you not to know!

Also I enjoyed the fight scene with Neo. I'm excited to use this as an oppurtunity to show everybody what potential Teams RWBY, JNPR, and Oscar will have with a large amount of chakra at their disposal, despite their lack of training at the moment. One can only imagine how good they'd be with time and a fused core! But that is neither here or now. For now we can just enjoy what they do have.

You guys have a great day!