It had been several weeks since everyone found out about his condition and things had been complicated to say the least. Qrow, Goodwitch and Ozpin had been looking into it nonstop to try and figure out how to help him. So far, they had found nothing. Ozpin had the best idea but Jaune instantly declined. There were too many risks and not enough information to work with.
Neo was worse. She practically glued herself to his side, like at any moment she was away would be the moment he would just drop dead. It was a battle to get her to go to class or to be with the rest of their friends. Eventually, he set up her scroll so she could see his aura levels. That way she'd at least be able to somewhat monitor him. It eased her a bit but that didn't stop her from running and clinging onto him as soon as classes were over.
The rest of them were more complicated. He wasn't exactly sure how to describe it. Sometimes they were distant and seemed to avoid him. Other times they wouldn't leave him alone and almost coddle him, which he didn't really enjoy. And other times still, they would just act like nothing had happened and they didn't even care about his condition. All of this was giving him a mental case of whiplash.
That is why he was relieved when his aura went back up to a level he was comfortable with, he was okay to go out on missions for an extended period. Since the situation in the Emerald Forest had been taken care of, he decided to start checking the villages, towns and settlements around Vale for signs of a Drake being created. He grabbed his necessary supplies and left a message for everyone on what he was doing, at three in the morning. By the time they could reply or tell him it was dangerous and/or stupid, he was already at his first stop.
Over the next few weeks, he had started looking into potential spots that Drakes could form. And he had found so much evidence to support that. He found many packs of Grimm that were turning cannibalistic and Jaune made sure to exterminate them. Along with that, he had found that a few of the smaller settlements had been destroyed over the last few weeks. Only good thing about that was that they were done in by regular Grimm and not a Drake. Plus, he had found clear signs of the people evacuating so he was hopeful some of them got away.
After that, he followed the signs of the Grimm that had attacked the settlement and had found a spot in a nearby forest, it had clear signs of a Drake being formed. But that wasn't the most unsettling thing. It appeared that another Drake had shown up around that time. It was strange, he could see the tracks of it showing up, probably around the time that the other Drake was forming, but he saw no sign of it actually forming. He also couldn't find the tracks of a Drake leaving the area. After he looked closely, he found a different set of tracks all together. He had to draw the conclusion that the Drakes had to have formed into a Draco and that Grimm had left the area.
But, that made little sense. How did a Draco form when the second Drake never appeared to have manifested? Did the first Drake somehow interfere? And if so, how did it become a Draco? Regrettably, he had no answers to that and had to move on.
He had studied the remains of some other settlements and what he found there was equally surprising. Each one showed signs of the Draco showing up and being attacked by Hunters. But each one showed no signs of it leaving. Actually, the only recent signs of anything leaving were the footprints of one person. And when he looked closer, he could see signs on the buildings of what looked like Hunters' weapons being fired at them. That wasn't completely out of the range of possibilities. Draco's were still vastly unknown. Who knew what they could do?
But the real question was: How was this possible? If the Draco never left the first settlement, how did it show up in the other two? And more so, he could tell that time had passed between every one. That last one wasn't more than a few days while the other was over a week old. Just what was going on? Eventually, the trail went cold but he decided to keep tabs on the settlements close by. It was likely that the Draco would show up once again. With that, he finally decided to return to Beacon.
After being away for three weeks, Jaune finally stepped off the bullhead and onto the airfield of Beacon. As soon as he did, his eyes slowly panned over to the tower and Ozpin's office. He really should go up there and give Ozpin the information he had in person. But, he was exhausted and just wanted to get back home. With a sigh, he pulled out his scroll and sent the info to Ozpin. With that, he made the slow trek to his temporary abode.
People looked at him as he walked through the academy but Jaune was used to it. They were all curious about Rien. The Huntsmen that showed up one day and stayed on the edge of the academy and worked directly under Ozpin. Plus, most were curious on his strength and more so, what he looked like under his mask. Jaune chuckled to himself, 'No chance on that happening.' He thought to himself.
He gained a small smile when he finally saw the guest building come into view. He unlocked the door with his scroll and shut it quietly behind him. As soon as the door was closed, he had his mask compact into their sunglasses form. He slowly took off his cloak and hung it up before resting his hand on the wall. He then slowly pulled his boots off and sighed when his feet could breathe again.
He then started to walk over to the couches as he pulled his chest plate over his head. Even though it was light armor, his fatigue was making it feel like a hundred pounds. He then dropped it onto the couch that had the back facing the door. As he was walking around, he was taking off his vambraces, rerebraces and cuisses before tossing them with his chest plate. He sat down on the couch across from the door and leant forward to place his sunglasses on the coffee table before undoing his greaves. He threw them with the rest of his armor and sat back against the couch. He sighed as his exhausted body sank into the couch.
He tilted his head up and looked at the ceiling. He was only sitting there for a couple minutes before he felt his eyes drifting close. He had been camping out or sleeping in abandoned buildings in those settlements for the last few weeks. And the couch was the right balance between firmness and softness to fully relax his body. He knew he should get up and go to his actual bed, even if he had a hard time sleeping in it. But it was too far and he was too tired. He stopped fighting it and drifted off to sleep.
An unknown amount of time later, Jaune awoke partially. At this point, he could fully wake up or fall back asleep easily. As he was debating that, his body was picking up on a few things. First he wasn't sitting up anymore, he was now laying on his stomach. That wasn't odd, he probably shifted in his sleep. The next was that he was very warm, not uncomfortably though. It felt like there was a heat source underneath him and his arms were wrapped around it. The next was that his head was resting against something extremely soft and couldn't resist snuggling into it more.
After a second, he heard a rhythmic beating coming from whatever his head was on. It was calming but that's when he smelt lilacs. That was peculiar. That wasn't a normal scent around him. As he was thinking that, he felt something gently comb through his hair and a humming come from just above his head. The humming was lulling him back to sleep but he was now curious on what was happening around him. With a mental sigh, he slowly pulled himself from his semiconscious state.
His eyes slowly opened and he was staring across the coffee table to the other couch. He blinked slightly and was right when he thought he was now laying down on the couch. Then he started to pick up on the beating and with a soft groan, slowly lifted his head and turned to see what it was on. His eyes saw an orange fabric over two very round globes with the tops just coming out above it. He then looked up to see a very familiar smile and pair of lilac eyes. The humming stopped and she said, "Morning, Jauney."
Jaune blinked sleepily and everything came to him in the next second. He probably should've been embarrassed. He should jump off of Yang. But he didn't. He was still wasn't fully awake and he was very comfortable. And by the look on Yang's face, she didn't mind either. He turned his head to side and yawned before turning back to her. "Hey, Yang." The two just looked at each other before he continued, "So, gonna explain how this happened?"
She gave her usual chuckle, "Sure. Well, Ozpin sent all of us a message that you had come back. I was the first one to finish classes so I decided to come see you. Guess how shocked I was when I saw you passed out on the couch."
He just gave a halfhearted shrug, "I was exhausted."
"I could tell." She said with a small smile. "Well, with that, I decided to sit next to you and as soon as I did, you leant against me. You looked too peaceful to wake you and I really didn't have a problem with it. After a bit, I decided to lay down with you because your neck was at an uncomfortable looking angle. I guess you agreed because you wrapped your arms around me and used my chest as your personal pillow."
He chuckled a bit, "Well, they are comfortable." He started to pull his arms out from under her and was trying to get up. Except Yang's arms around his back pulled him back down. He looked back up at her in confusion, "Yang?"
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked with a predatory grin.
"Getting off you?" he asked simply.
She shook her head, "Not happening."
Jaune just blinked, "Okay. Why?"
"I'm comfortable like this. Besides, you still look like you went through the ringer." She then gently placed her hand on the back of his head and pushed it down so it was against her chest again. She gently started to rub it as she spoke quietly, "Get some more rest, Jauney." Knowing she wouldn't hear otherwise, he gave a sigh and closed his eyes once again. He just took the time to listen to her heartbeat some more while breathing in her perfume. Or was it her body wash, shampoo or conditioner? He should ask her later.
Neither fell asleep and they both knew the other wasn't either. They just used the calm to just bask in the presence and warmth of the other. After twenty minutes or so, Jaune opened his eyes and looked back up at her. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. Jaune had an idea on how to respond to that. And to thank her for helping him relax and get some rest. He knew he shouldn't but right now, he stopped giving a damn.
He unwrapped his arms from around her and supported his weight on his hands. He then moved up so he was face to face with her. She wasn't sure what he was going to do. His eyes held an intensity to them she had never seen before. She gently bit her lip as he just kept staring down at her. When he was ready, he slowly lowered his face and planted his lips on her's.
Her eyes widened at this. Since he had come back, he hadn't kissed any of them without them starting it. Not until now. Her wide eyes stared into his half-lidded ones. She then closed her eyes as he did the same and she returned the pressure. The kiss lasted until they separated to breath. They each took a breath before coming back together and allowing their tongues to get reacquainted.
Yang's arms tightened around his lower back and around his shoulders. Jaune was still using his to support his weight but switched to using only one to support him as the other wrapped around her back and pull her up into him more. Yang was slowly running out of breath, just breathing through her nose was slowly becoming not enough. But Jaune seemed to be staying strong. With great reluctance she pulled away and gasped for air. She was taking several deep breaths as he just looked at her with a simple smile on his face.
When she had her breath back, she looked back up to see that smile and glint in his eyes. She felt a blush come to her cheeks with that. She then smirked back and pushed herself up. She sat up and slowly pushed him so he was laying his head against the other armrest. She laid on top of him and gently took each one of his cheeks in her hands. Jaune in response just wrapped his arms around her lower back. Yang then lowered her face and kissed him passionately. But opposed to their heated make out a few seconds before, she just separated and kissed him repeatedly. Once their anticipations were high enough, she came back down and they indulged in more tongue play. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she did.
Neither knew how long this would go on for or if things would escalate further. But right now, they didn't care. Right now, they only had the other and they were showing their love to each other. In short, they were in heaven.
That was until the door was flung open and a very bubbly voice shouted, "We're back!"
The blonde pair's eyes shot opened wide and darted over to the door to see the teams. Yang's team were all in shock, along with Pyrrha. Meanwhile, Nora had a shocked but megawatt grin, Ren had a simple eyebrow raised and Neo, well, she was making a lot of lewd hand signs. That was when Yang decided to pull her tongue out from Jaune's mouth. She gave a weak chuckle, "What took you guys?" she asked in a hesitant tone.
Neo was still signing to them but a little more subtlety. Meanwhile, Weiss recovered from her shock and narrowed her eyes at the two. She crossed her arms over her chest and started to tap her foot on the ground, "Care to explain this?" she asked with a cool edge to her voice.
Yang was trying to come up with an explanation but Jaune spoke up with a smirk, "This is all Yang's fault."
She looked at him in betrayal and shock, "How is that the case? You kissed me."
He shrugged, "You took advantage of my exhaustion and used your feminine charms to seduce me. Also, you were the one to stop me from getting up in the first place. Speaking of, mind getting off of me?"
She gave him a look that said, 'I'm going to get you back for this' before she did get off him. He chuckled and sat up, as he did he couldn't help but start to ridicule himself for that. As much as he loved Yang and the others, he shouldn't be doing that. It would just make it harder for them all when the inevitable happened. He was pulled from his thoughts when someone poked his nose. He blinked twice before he looked up to see Nora standing in front of him, looking at him in concern. "What's eating you, Jaune?"
He just shook his head with a small smile, "Nothing, Nora. Just still kinda tired."
"Is that all it really is?" Jaune looked past Nora to see Pyrrha looking at him in concern.
Jaune sighed, "If you're trying to ask if Void has anything to do with it, no. It's just more insomnia and sleeping out in the wilds when I could actually sleep. It has nothing to do with my condition." He saw everyone in the room flinch or stiffen when he said that. He ignored it and popped his neck a bit before rubbing it. "So, why are you all here? What's up?"
Blake was the one to reply, "What, we can't just stop by to see you?"
Jaune just rolled his eyes a bit and he leant back against the couch, "You could but you were all acting almost bipolar before I went on my reconnaissance mission. Well, besides Neo because she has been overly clingy." He saw her pout in his peripheral and he smirked slightly. "So since you're here now, means something has changed since I've been gone." He looked at them all as they were slightly stunned by that, "So, again, what's up?"
They all looked at each other before Ruby spoke up, "While you were gone, Weiss came up with a way that may undo Void."
Jaune's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I thought I told you to not bother with this?' He opened his eyes to look at them again.
Weiss was the one to answer, "You did but we decided to ignore that. We don't like seeing you just give up like this. You've always been a fighter, so let us help you fight this time." Weiss was almost pleading with him. She then looked away and spoke quieter, "We don't want to lose you again."
Jaune sighed and leant forward to run a hand down his face. He just couldn't tell her no, especially considering how broken she sounded. Even if he did, they wouldn't let this go. He gave another sigh, "Fine. We'll try whatever you have planned." They all looked happy for a second, "But, if this fails, you stop torturing yourselves on trying to fix me. We have a deal?"
They each gave him a determined nod before he stood up and put his glasses on. He stood up and threw on his cloak and boots. He decided to forgo his armor because he doubted that he'd actually need it now. Plus, he was still dead tired and couldn't be bothered with it. "So, where are we going?"
"The Emerald Forest." Weiss answered.
Jaune just nodded and his glasses expanded until they formed his mask. He then followed the eight of them into the section of the forest they needed to be at. It was a long track and they asked him how his mission went to pass the time. He told them he found signs of a Draco possibly being formed but the info he had was minuscule at best. A few of them seemed excited and wanted to join him when he went to fight it. Those four were Ruby, Yang, Nora and Neo, to no one's shock. He asked them how their classes went and they said normally. Until Ren told him how Nora almost started another food war in the cafeteria because someone took the last stack of pancakes. That caused Jaune to laugh and Nora to pout.
They eventually came to a small clearing in the forest and what was there actually stunned Jaune. In the center was a massive ring made of Dust. A ring wouldn't do it justice though. It appeared to look like the stereotypical magic circle from fantasy and was about fifteen feet wide. It looked very intricate and he didn't even want to think about how much time it took to make. Let alone, how much it cost for all that Dust. As he looked closer, he could see the different lines, which were about an inch and a half to two inches wide, and designs in it looked to be made up of combinations of fire, water, wind, earth and lightning Dust. At five equally spaced points around the ring were smaller circles about five feet wide and each was made of only one kind of Dust. "What the hell?" he asked stunned as his mask slowly condensed back down into sunglasses and he removed them.
"You said that Void was a combination of the five elements and your aura." Weiss started her explanation. "I came to the conclusion that when you were exposed to the Fall Maiden powers, you body absorbed more elemental energy and that acted as the catalyst. So naturally, it would make sense that a larger amount of each elements energy and equal amount of foreign aura may be enough to undo the process."
"That explains the circle. Where did you even get this much Dust? I thought your father cut you off?" Jaune asked.
"He did." Weiss conceded. "But, I'm still the Heiress of the SDC, so that gives me tremendous pull in the company." She looked at her nails nonchalantly, "I just called them and asked where the delivery I needed was. After saying it should've been here yesterday, they sent it immediately out of fear that someone forgot to send it and enraged their future boss."
Jaune just looked at her in shock and Yang chuckled, "And here we thought you grew out of the moniker of Ice Queen."
She just gave her teammate a glare, "Moving on." She turned back to Jaune. "Since your aura is at full, you can use all of it to make Void. The five of us…" She motioned to herself, her team and Pyrrha. "Will each stand in a circle and activate the Dust with our aura. Our hope is that the combined effort of all of us will break apart your Void and exhaust your aura completely. Once it rejuvenates, it should 'reset' your Semblance in a way."
Jaune just looked at her for a bit. Her idea made a lot of sense but it just seemed to be too out there. "Not to shoot down your idea, Weiss, but this sounds very extreme. Are you sure it will work?"
"We believe to be the best solution, Jaune." He turned around to see Ozpin, Goodwitch and Qrow walking into the clearing. Ozpin continued to speak, "Miss Schnee asked me about this and I believe it to be the best option. As we've said, the Maiden's power in you has changed drastically so we shouldn't think of it as the Fall Maiden's power. The amount of Dust here should be enough to exceed the amount you needed to form all your Void and their auras together is about as much as you have. In theory, this should work. And as an additional precaution, we are here in case anything could go wrong."
Jaune sighed, "Well, if Oz is saying this could work, we might as well try. So, what do I need to do?"
Weiss pointed to the ring in the center of the circle, which was just as big as the ones outside it. "Just stand there and activate your Void."
Jaune nodded and stepped onto his spot in the circle. As he did, each of the girls stood in their respective circle, which was the same dust the swords he left them. He closed his eyes and focused his aura. His dark purple aura came to the surface before eight Void orbs formed around his body in an orbit-like fashion. He opened his eyes and nodded to them, signifying he was ready. Weiss nodded and turned to the other's. "Focus your auras." With that said, all five of them brought their own auras to the surface and they were flaring around them.
"I'm going to count down from three, when I say 'now', focus all our aura into your circle, it'll cause a chain reaction afterwards." The girls nodded at Weiss' instructions. She took a deep breath to calm herself. Meanwhile, Yang's hands were clenching and unclenching, Blake's ear were flicking sporadically, Ruby was practically shaking and Pyrrha was trying to will this to work by glaring at the circle.
When they were all as calm as they could be, Weiss started, "Three… Two… One… Now!" They all released their auras and their rings started to glow with the color of their aura. Immediately afterwards, the aura traveled through the circles designs and lines, making them glow ominously. The Void acted defensively with that, the orbs expanded and form a hollowed sphere that completely surrounded Jaune. His ultimate defense in a way.
At that moment, the glow of the Dust lessened and their elemental fury was released in full. An inferno was being released and the sheer heat was burning the nearby trees. Gale force winds were blowing, ripping up anything that wasn't rooted to the ground. Water was flooding the area, evaporating when touching the fire or freezing if it was too close to the wind. The ground around them was shaking and cracking or even uplifting. So much lighting was surging through the water and shooting into the air as a light show. It was as beautiful as it was deadly.
"Glynda!" Ozpin shouted and his second-in-command nodded. Ozpin slammed his cane onto the ground to create a barrier around the circle and Glynda was using her Telekinesis to limit the destruction the elements could do to the surrounding area. As they did that, Grimm started to swarm the area, sensing something was off. Not even thinking about it, Qrow, Ren, Nora and Neo started to fight them to protect the people around them. Luckily, they were only younger Beowolves, dangerous but not as deadly.
Too bad that despite the elemental Armageddon around him, the Void sphere just erased anything that touched it. Although, the elemental energy and aura was doing a number on it. Cracks were forming all around it but the massive sphere was still holding strong. Inside of it, Jaune was feeling the stress his aura was going through. With a hiss of pain, he fell to a knee. He could feel something happening to his aura, and effectively his Semblance, but he didn't know what it exactly was.
On the outside, the girls were watching the Void crack but not completely shatter. They could tell it was close but the aura and Dust was running out. It was only a matter of time before it would stop and if his Void didn't shatter, it would be all for naught.
Blake's ears were pinned to her head as she shouted above the cacophony the circle was creating, "It doesn't look like it's enough!"
Yang's eyes flashed red for a second, "Weiss, what do we do!?"
Weiss just shook her head, "I don't know! It's almost there but we need a bit more to push the scales in our favor but we need all five!"
Pyrrha clenched her teeth together, "We need to do something! Otherwise, Jaune will die to Void!"
They were all racking their minds on what to do as the nature's fury was slowly dying down and their auras were burning out as well. That's when Ruby's eyes went wide, "The swords!" They all turned to the reaper. "Jaune's swords! We can put the last bits of our aura into the Dust and use it all!"
The other's eyes went just as wide and Pyrrha turned to Weiss, "Will that be enough!?"
Weiss shrugged helplessly, "Possibly! I'm not positive though!"
Yang shouted above them, "We have to do something!"
Blake nodded, "It's all or nothing!"
They all agreed and drew their swords before sending the last of their aura into them. "Now!" Weiss shouted and they each swung their blades forwards. All the Dust in their weapons was released and the five elements flew towards the sphere. They hit at the same time but were quickly extinguished. They felt their hearts sink with that. The effects of the circle were slowly receding and they each crumbled to their knees in exhaustion.
That was when more cracks formed across the Void sphere at an exponential rate. Dark purple light was shining across them. Suddenly, a massive amount of white light was released from the sphere, flooding the clearing and releasing a tower of light into the air. Everyone was bathed in the light, no one more so than the five women inside Ozpin's barrier.
After several seconds, the light died down and vanished. Revealing the almost battle torn land where the circle used to be. The five women were still on their knees and were trying to blink away their blurry vision. Each barely registered the warm feeling circling throughout their exhausted bodies.
Once they could see, they all looked at the center of the clearing, seeing Jaune lying on his back, unmoving. "Jaune!" they shouted before running to where he lied. Ozpin dropped his barrier and the other six were doing the same. Ruby was the first to reach him and pulled his head onto her lap. "Jaune, are you okay? Wake up, please."
After a couple of seconds he groaned and started to stir, "Ow, my head. Feels like someone dropped a building on me." He slowly opened his eyes and saw his favorite women looking down at him. They all gasped when he did. "What?" he asked weakly.
Weiss grabbed her scroll and let Jaune see his reflection. He didn't see anything abnormal but when he saw his eyes, he froze. His blue eyes. "My eyes." He said in shock. He slowly sat up and when he did, focused on his body. Ever since he was stuck with Void, he's always had this feeling of something weighing down on his body. But that heavy feeling was gone. And that's when he knew for sure. "It worked?" he said in shock.
He looked at everyone around him, "It worked! I don't feel Void's presence in my body anymore." He started to chuckle, "It actually worked." That's when he was tackled by seven very happy women. They hugged him tightly and were crying in joy. It wasn't long before Jaune was hugging them as well and he too cried his own tears.
After so long, he was free.
A/N- Well, its finally here. Sorry for the long wait. Three months was longer than I anticipated. For those who were wondering, what the hell is taking so long? Truth is, I burnt myself out. Big time. Writing this, along with DVYL May Cry and Distortion, was quickly turning into a chore for me to do. I hated that it got to that point. I love writing and to have it turn into something I'd rather just avoid was terrible for me to feel. The break I took to write other things has refreshed me and now I'm ready to write this story with reborn passion. I hope you'll all understand and I thank you all for being patient with me. And I hope to see you all in the next update!
PS: TES has broken 1.5k Follows and Favorites! I can't believe it and that has made me SO happy! Thank you all for that!