The rest of the day, the nine of them relaxed and played random fighting games on their scrolls while using Jaune's television as the screen. The new JNPR and RWBY started with a tournament while Jaune watched. Similar to what happened in their first year, the tournament ended with Yang and Ruby as the finalists with Yang winning the entire thing. Ruby was annoyed but couldn't blame Jaune for this one. Especially since he was in the other room, getting everyone drinks and a few snacks.

After that, they moved to a new fighting game that had more of an every person for themselves style. They managed to get Jaune to play with them but they would soon regret it. As the game started, everyone was fighting for themselves. Until Jaune started to dominate against anyone that landed in his sights. They turned to him but he was completely focused on the screen with a smirk as his fingers never stopped tapping away on his scroll.

They quickly agreed that Jaune needed to go first. They tried to gang up on him but his character was always moving and would always catch the most unexpecting person in a combo before taking off again. The only person that managed to counter him or catch him almost immediately was Neo but even she was not fairing well.

Everyone was in the red besides Neo, who was at a quarter, and Jaune, who was still on half. That's when Ruby and Yang exchanged a look and nodded. Yang's character charged in for her best combo but Jaune managed to counter it and eliminate her character. Jaune smirked but that was when he was grabbed from the side and Yang planted a searing kiss to his lips. Jaune's eyes went wide and his hands stopped from the shock. That shocked multiplied when he felt Yang deepen the kiss and all but ravage his mouth.

While Jaune was distracted, everyone charged at him at once. Ready to capitalize and eliminate him. Yang wasn't paying attention, she was enjoying herself too much. It just felt so right to kiss Jaune like she was again. She only stopped when she heard the telltale sound of a character being eliminated. Yang reluctantly pulled away and looked Jaune in his stunned eyes, "Sorry, Jauney. Looks like you…" she turned to the screen and was shocked to see Jaune's character still standing and Nora's character eliminated by Neo's. Everyone was just stunned and every character stopped moving. "Lose?" Yang finished her sentence through her shock.

Everyone turned to Neo in shock and they were greeted with her just smirking at them. They turned back to the screen when they heard someone else be eliminated, finding that Jaune had just eliminated Weiss. They then heard Jaune chuckle evilly, "Pretty sneaky, Yang. Too bad you didn't know about my ace. Ready to do this, Neo?" She nodded and the two then started to eliminate the other four characters. After that, the two battled it out but Jaune won after a close battle. One more hit would've been all it took to beat him.

Every one of them just looked at Neo and Jaune in annoyance. The two just shrugged before Jaune spoke up, "In a game, Neo would rather fight and lose than to win by an unfair tactic like that. The instant you decided to 'cheat' you lost her as an ally." He held his fist to her and she bumped it.

That's when they decided to just to binge watch a few movies before everyone decided to head back to their dorms. And with all the tension gone between Neo and the rest of them, she decided to go back to her dorm with her team. She looked nervously at Jaune but he just reassured he that it was fine. She hugged him in gratitude and he had no problem returning it. Everyone said their good nights and Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang gave him a kiss before they left.

Jaune sighed at that and went about cleaning up the mess he and the others made. About an hour later, it was done and he made his way into his room. He took the pillow and a blanket off his bed and laid on the floor for the night. He may've slept in the bed with Neo but it was still too soft for him to rest well. He looked up at the ceiling with a small grin, 'At least things are fixed between Neo and the rest. They'll have each other to lean on… once it happens.' His grin fell slightly when he thought that. He sighed before slowly drifting off to sleep.

Jaune woke up early the next morning, which was normal. He stretched his arms with a yawn before he threw off his blanket and rolled over onto his stomach. He then did fifty push-ups, followed by fifty sit-ups and finally fifty squats as a morning workout. After that, he stood tall and started to stretch any sore or stiff muscles.

With that done, he went to take a shower before dressing in his normal gear, minus his armor, mask and cloak. He left his room to go to the kitchen. He made a small pot of coffee while making himself a breakfast of eggs, ham and toast. He ate his breakfast in the living room and turned something random on the television to fill the silence.

'I wonder if they'll stop by again today?' he thought to himself as he drank from his mug of coffee. He then shrugged, 'If not, I can't blame them. Their lives don't revolve around me. And no matter what they think or what I want, I don't belong here anymore.'

He quickly finished his breakfast and coffee before doing the dishes and walking back into the living room. Immediately, his scroll and sunglasses went off at the same time. He instantly went on edge as he picked both off the coffee table. He placed his sunglasses on his face and the lens started to show him a feed from one of his many cameras in the Emerald Forest. It showed dozens of Grimm had gathered and were tearing into each other. He had no time to waste.

He quickly ran back to his room to throw on his armor before running out the door. He threw his cloak on as his mask covered his face. He sent aura into his legs and took off like a bullet towards the cliffs. Luckily for him, ever since he was stuck with Void, it increased his speed, strength, endurance, stamina and reflexes. Not to the level if he was only using one element but it was still close.

As he was running, he sent a call to Oz. Sending the feed through his mask. After two rings, he picked up. "What is it, Jaune?"

"Rien." He corrected the headmaster as he kept moving. Running past several confused students as they were nearly knocked over by a black blur. "Keep the students out of the Emerald Forest. The Drake is going to manifest anytime now."

"What?" Ozpin questioned, "I thought you said it'd be longer?"

"I was wrong. Any way you can get Qrow? I may need back up."

"Qrow is currently in Vale. I'll contact him immediately but I don't know if he'll reach you in time." Ozpin informed him.

"I'll hold it off til he gets there." Jaune was nearing the cliffs but didn't slow down. He sent Void throughout his whole body, gaining a black borderline around him. At the edge of the cliff, he kicked off with all his strength. He flew from the cliffs in the direction of the swarm of Grimm. This was another ability he had with Void. By covering his whole body in a fine layer of it, he could weaken gravity's hold on him. Using his aura as a way to accelerate and turn gave him a form of pseudo-flight. Although, it did burn through aura fairly quickly. 'I have enough aura for four Void orbs, maybe five if I push it. I'll have to finish this quick.'

The universe must've had it out for him right then because he got an alert from some of his motion sensors. He tapped into a feed of a camera nearby and saw Team CVFY hunting Grimm only a quarter mile or so from where the Grimm were frenzying. "Damn it! I had to open my mouth. If they get involved, it'll be that much more difficult."

He looked back to where he was flying, just in time to see a massive amount of smoke escaping from the tops of the tree with dark red glow coming from it. "Too late." He quickly pulled his Void back into him, allowing gravity to pull his body once again. He grabbed a branch of one of the trees and flipped from it to land on another closer to the clearing that the Drake was forming in. Jaune crouched on the branch and saw that the smoke was still condensing. He needed to wait for the Drake to fully manifest. Trying to attack it now would be literally attacking smoke and it would give away his cover.

It didn't take much longer before the red energy flashed from the smoke. Jaune had to grip the tree harder to not be blown off. When he looked again, there was the Drake standing there before it reared its head to the sky and roared. Luckily, it was an inferior Drake so he wouldn't have to worry about any other Grimm coming to its aid. Jaune threw his right hand out to the side as four Void orbs materialized from his aura to revolve around his forearm. The little he had left would barely save him from an attack but he couldn't worry about that now. The orbs quickly moved to his hand before they twisted together, forming his greatsword.

He took it in both hands and kicked off the branch, shattering it, as he rocketed towards the base of its skull to try to end this before the battle really began. As he was closing in on it, the Drake just happened to swing its tail to be between Jaune and his target. Jaune had no choice but to slice through it or be knocked away. Jaune effortlessly cut through it with his Void but it killed his momentum. He flipped and landed on its back as it shrieked in pain and started to thrash around.

It turned its head to look at Jaune as it was charging its energy blast. Jaune was too far from its shoulder blades to attack the weak point and he had too little time to close the distance. He decided to take a risk. He waited for it to fire and jumped away. He turned his head to see that the beam hit its back but the beast didn't act out from that. Jaune landed on the ground and spun. The beast turned to glare at him as the section of its back that was hit smoked from the heat of the attack but there wasn't a mark on it. 'I guess that they are immune to their own energy. Wish I knew that beforehand.' Jaune thought bitterly to himself.

Jaune was reevaluating his plan when a rustling behind him go this attention. He turned his head enough to see two Ursa charging into the clearing. Most likely they were running away from CFVY. The one in front tried to swing at him but he easily ducked under its arm. He then drove his blade through its chest, killing it. Jaune saw the next one still coming, so he angled his blade and reduced the blade's width by half to double its length, piercing the other Ursa through the head.

He spun, his blade easily cleaving through the decomposing Grimm. The Drake saw an opportunity and was bringing down its claws to crush him. Jaune launched to the side with his aura. As he cleared the impact zone he rolled forward. He pulled two orbs from his greatsword, turning it into a broadsword while doing so. While he was crouched, the two orbs flew across his back before they started to revolve around his left forearm. Jaune started to turn towards the Drake as he stood. Pulling his left arm back to hurl the two orbs into the eyes of the beast. The orbs moved to his palm, ready to be launched.

That's when time slowed down as he saw something enter the clearing from his right. His eyes flicked over before widening at what he saw: Coco and Yatsuhashi a hundred meters away from him. The two froze when they saw the sheer size of the beast. It's tail was coming towards them at that moment. Not because it was attacking, it was just turning its body to better fight Jaune. Jaune immediately sent some of his dwindling aura into the two orbs in his left hand, making them safe to touch and gaining a dark purple outline to them, before he threw them sidearm. The two orbs flew like bullets towards the tail before they suddenly curved to the right, directly at the two students.

The two snapped out of their shock and positioned their weapons between the projectiles and themselves. The orbs hit and pushed them out of the clearing and far enough away to not get hit by the tail.

The Drake capitalized by bringing its other claw on top of the Jaune. He held his sword above him and used his other hand to support the blade. The Void didn't strain and just sank into the claw itself, as a huge crater was forming around Jaune from the force of the attack. His entire body was shaking from the strain and he was gritting his teeth. He couldn't do this for long or he'd be crushed indefinitely.

Jaune screamed and as his distorted voice was echoing out, the Void orbs reacted since they were still just within the range of his control. They shot away from the C and Y of CFVY. The orbs broke through any trees in their way and aimed directly for the head of the beast. The orbs fused together to make a single orb the size of a bowling ball, which struck the beast in the side of its head. But with Jaune's excess aura around it, it didn't penetrate its skin. The dazed Grimm screeched before toppling to the right and freeing Jaune from its claws.

Jaune collapsed to a knee as he used the quick reprieve to gain back his breath. As his breathing was normalizing, the combined Void orb flew back down to him and floated just over his left shoulder. His extra aura was draining from it and back into Jaune, helping him recover quicker.

That's when Team CFVY came into the clearing once again. They turned from the toppled Drake to Jaune/Rien kneeling. He sighed as he stood, "You four should've gotten away from here." To told them lightly.

Coco lowered her sunglasses, "And let you deal with that alone?" she pointed to the Drake. "Fat chance."

"I'm the expert on these things, Miss Adel, I should be the only one fighting them alone." He popped his neck to the right, "But you're already here, so I can't do anything about it. Have you been briefed on the Drakes yet?"

The fourth years nodded, "We read the notes and heard your lecture the other day." Velvet chimed in.

Rien nodded, "Good. Here's the plan: I'll draw it's attention by engaging it directly and wearing it down. You four will get into position during that time. When I give the signal, I want you to unload on it to gain its attention away from me, Ms. Adel." The fashionable leader nodded as her minigun unfolded from its compact form. "Mr. Alistair, when it's attention is moved to her, I want you to go for the weak point on its back." The blind martial artist nodded and was getting ready to move. "Mr. Daichi, once it's paralyzed, I want you to go for the kill." The giant swordsman nodded dutifully as he readied his blade. "Finally, Ms. Scarlatina, I need you to back up Ms. Adel. And if it prepares its energy attack, I need you to hit its chest with the biggest thing you have. Can you do that?" Following her teammates, she nodded in confirmation.

That's when the Drake started to get back onto its feet. Jaune called the large Void orb into his left hand, shifting it into a second broadsword. Risking more aura, he covered his body in a thin layer of Void once again. "Go!" he shouted as he took off like a missile. Fox started to run to the right, to get to the Drake's rear, while Yatsuhashi took off to the left to be ready to finish it.

He closed the distance between him and the massive Grimm. He started to deliver a series of slashes across the base of its neck and collarbone. He flew higher up its neck, leaving shallow but painful cuts into the length of its throat. The beast roared in pain and fury before he kicked off the neck and propelled himself higher into the air.

As he did, the Drake tried to clamp its jaws on him. Jaune used both his blades to cut through its teeth. Before he kicked off the tooth to fly higher into the air and drive it through the bottom jaw of the beast. Once he was above it, he shifted his right sword into a javelin, the whole thing looked like a giant needle. He threw it and it flew just as fast as his regular orbs. It impaled into its right eye, making sure it wouldn't see Yatsu. The beast roared again as it thrashed its head from side to side.

He looked and saw that CFVY was in position. "NOW!" He shouted as he started to fall back down to Remnant, allowing gravity to grab a hold of him once again. Coco unloaded at its head and it turned to look at her in hatred as the bullets did very little. Even with her Semblance boosting her ammo, it was barely penetrating into the hide. She didn't stop though and only brought her assault to a stop when her gun overheated. That gave Fox enough time to jump on its back and run up to its shoulders. When he was close enough, he jumped into the air and spun his arm blades so they were facing forward. As he came down, he drove them into its weak point. Causing the Drake to freeze in pain.

With that, Yatsu used as much of his aura as he could to jump into the air. Jaune was halfway down its neck by that point, he held his right hand out which Yatsu grabbed. Jaune spun and used all his strength to throw the swordsman higher and faster. As he flew higher and higher, Jaune was sure this was it. But the sad truth was that their angle was just off. Yatsu swung his sword but only cut about a quarter of the left side of its neck, not nearly enough to kill it.

Jaune couldn't let this chance pass him by. He opened his left hand, shifting the broadsword into a round shield. He then threw it and it flew through the air like a buzzsaw. It looked like the Void disk would cut through the rest but that's when Jaune's vision went blurry and he had to shake his head to clear it. That short lapse in judgement made the disk veer off to the left and cut through a third of the right side of the neck. Still not enough. The beast managed to move through the pain enough to aim its open maw at Jaune as it started to build up energy.

He was a sitting duck. He didn't have enough aura to move out of the path of the attack. That's when he saw a flash of light. He looked down to see a beam of light hitting the Drakes chest. He followed it and saw that it was Velvet using a copy of Penny's swords. He smirked as he looked back up to the Drake. Its energy was growing unstable and some was be released from the cuts across its neck. Eventually it built up too much and the Drake's head exploded from the built up energy. With that, its body fell to the side and started to evaporate.

With that done, Jaune flipped himself and used his Void to slow himself down enough to land on his feet. With him safely on the ground, he relaxed and dismissed any of remaining Void. He sighed as he saw Fox jump off the dissolving Grimm and Yatsu using his sword to cut into a tree and reduce his speed. He turned to the two females of CFVY as they walked towards him.

He smirked under his mask, "Not too shabby. You four are natur-ahh!" He stopped with a scream as a very familiar pain erupted across his chest. His hand flew to his chest and his fingers nearly dug into his chest plate as the pain increased. "Why? I'm not at my limit." He asked out loud as he fell to his knees.

He felt a familiar liquid building up in his throat. He quickly opened his mouth piece before spitting up an alarming amount of blood. His breathing grew labored as his vision started to darken. He heard footsteps running to him and the familiar voice of Qrow shouting, "Kid!" He could do nothing as he fell forward and darkness took him.

Jaune woke up to staring at a familiar white ceiling. Jaune raised an eyebrow as he slowly looked around. He saw the very familiar sight of being in Beacon's infirmary. Although, it appeared to be a private room with no other beds.

That's when he heard a beeping. He turned to see he was hooked up to a heart monitor. He then looked down to see the sensors connected to his bare chest, his shirt and armor was nowhere to be found. He also noticed that an IV was going into his left arm. That's when he realized his mask was not on.

He sighed in resignation before he sat up and started to unhook himself from the machine and took out the IV. The machine started to go off and a few seconds later, the door opened to let in Ozpin, Goodwitch and Qrow. "Kid, you're awake?"

Jaune grinned at him, "Thanks for telling me, Qrow." He chuckled slightly as he started to roll his shoulders a bit. "How long was I out for?"

"A few hours." Qrow responded. "I showed up just after you and CFVY killed the Drake. You passed out and I rushed you here as quickly as possible."

Jaune slowly nodded before he started to stand up. Once he was on his feet, he stood there to make sure he was alright. When he didn't feel lightheaded or that he would lose his balance, he then slowly walked over to the table that held his clothing. "So where are the others? I'm surprised they aren't fussing over me."

There was a silence. Jaune looked over his shoulder to see the three of them looking at each other. Ozpin looked at him, "We asked them to wait until you were awake to come see you. We wanted to talk to you about something."

"Is it about how the doctor knows who I am now?" Jaune asked.

"No. Our old doctor retired after the Fall. Our new doctor has no idea that Rien is Jaune Arc." Ozpin informed him, which calmed him down a bit. The less people who knew who he was, the better. "We learned a bit more about why this keeps happening to you."

"Okay. What is it?" Jaune asked as he turned back around and started to pull his shirt over his head.

Ozpin sighed, "Since your Semblance has evolved to the point where you can only use Void, your body is constantly exposed to it. As you use it more and more, your aura stops protecting your body to form it. Exposing your body to the destructive properties of Void. So, as you keep using it, your body is damaged even more. When your body reaches it's limit, it shuts down."

Jaune cut him off there, "That's why my aura rejuvenation has decreased. My aura has to focus on healing all the damage to my body before it can fully restore my reserves." He was putting on his armor as he said that. He then realized after a few seconds that they were quiet. He turned to see them staring at him in shock.

"You knew." Qrow stated, not asked.

Jaune nodded with a sheepish smile, "Kinda hard not too when I can literally feel my body breaking from using Void."

Qrow actually looked angry with that. "Jaune, this is serious. Even with aura, the body has its limits. If this keeps up…" he let his sentence drift off.

Jaune finished it for him, "I'll die. For good this time."

"Jaune." Goodwitch started, "Why didn't you say something earlier. We could've tried to help you with this."

Jaune sighed, "Because there isn't anything that can be done. It's not unheard of for Semblances to evolve but they've never devolved."

"Kid, that doesn't mean its hopeless. We can try to find a way." Qrow tried to reassure him.

He shook his head, "I've tried everything, Qrow. I've tired splitting Void into its components. Tried absorbing all or even a large amount of one elemental Dust to break the balance. I've tried depleting my Void but with enough aura to absorb an element, to try and reset it." He gave a tired sigh, "Nothing has worked." He looked at his hand for a second, his dark purple aura shifting to the surface. "I'm stuck this way."

That's when the door was thrown open. The four looked to see Neo stomping over to him with an angry look in her eyes. RWBY and the rest of her team were still at the door with shocked looks on their faces. She stood in front of Jaune and crossed her arms as her foot tapped on the ground. Jaune just sighed, "You heard, huh?" She gave him a look and he sighed.

"Why didn't you tell us?" He turned to see Ruby looking at him with tears in her eyes.

Jaune ran a hand down his face before he started to but on his cloak, "Because I didn't want you to know. If you all knew, you'd worry or try to fruitlessly 'fix' me. It would just make it harder when the inevitable happens."

By that point, his cloak was on and he picked up his glasses. "It's the other reason why I didn't want to come back. It's crueler to just come back into your lives, just to leave again." He turned back to them with a sad smile, "That's why I wanted Neo to come here. That way she would have a family even when I'm gone."

Neo held him tightly and he just gently rubbed her back as she shook. Eventually, he gently pushed away and he started to walk to the door. He stopped and started to speak up, "Jaune Arc is already dead. And Rien is just living on borrowed time." He looked at all of them with a sad smile before he put up his hood and glasses. The mask started to form as he finished his thought, "You're better off just letting me go. And letting me do my job until the end. That way I can do just a bit more good for you all and Remnant." With that said he walked out of the room. Leaving them all to just digest what he just told them.