Beta: ShadowMeister234

If anyone needed a reminder of how rich the Schnee family actually was, they wouldn't have to look any further than this luxury airship. It was amazing just how much stuff you could fit in such a relatively small space and still have it be comfortable. Jaune wasn't even experiencing his usual motion sickness. The chairs were so soft and cool that Jaune knew he could doze off like a baby if he wanted to. It would have been the perfect thing to do before having to rough it in the wilderness for the next couple of days.

Shame he couldn't. While the girls had ceased squishing him between them like a guarded prisoner, the glaring hadn't stopped. It wasn't constant but everyone once in a while one of them would look up from their separate corners of the airship, see the other, audible scoff, then go back to whatever it was they were doing. Normally that would have meant he had to play mediator, but with Emerald and him not exactly best friends at the moment, there wasn't much he could mediate.

His gaze drifted over to Yang, who wasn't quite shadow boxing but was silently practicing her jabs, and once again wondered if he had made the right call. From a purely combat perspective, it made all the sense in the world to add to their fighting force, and whether Emerald liked it or not, there was no denying Yang was a powerhouse.

But on the social side of things, that was a mess. Obviously, the girls didn't like each other, having gotten off on the wrong foot and it only getting worse from there. For Yang's opinions on him, it was harder to tell. He didn't think she hated him or even disliked him, but they weren't any more of friends to each other than he was to the pilots in the cockpit. The only reason they were together was because their goals aligned. There was no loyalty between them and that lead to distance which, given the circumstances, probably led to some distrust. Yang probably thought he was still hiding something from her, and in a way, she was right. It was partially his fault that Ruby was suffering, after all

Emerald was much less complicated but no less troubling. She loathed that he had brought Yang along. She probably believed that he had chosen this new girl over her. That wasn't true. Letting Yang come along didn't have to change anything between the two of them. They were still partners, it was just the situation required some flexibility. Emerald wouldn't see it that way, though. She felt the way she felt and there wasn't anything Jaune could say to change that. She didn't even want to be here in the first place, but she was because Jaune had gone and done the one thing he really hadn't wanted to. He had played with her emotion to get her on board. She was only here because she felt she had to be. To her, Yang had just been another ploy to force her to stay in line.

So, had he made the right choice? Were the support and power worth the tradeoff in relationships and cohesiveness? People might praise the power of teamwork but individual strength shouldn't be dismissed. So, was a shaky three better than a solid two?

Jaune didn't know and supposed he wouldn't until they either made it back or became bloody smear somewhere along the way. What he did know was that a solid three was definitely better than either of the prior. At the very least he hoped they could put their differences aside in the heat of battle, but even that, he knew, would take some work to get to.

Turning to his one solace in this raging storm, he asked Whitley if he had any suggestions, in a tone quiet enough to not alert the girls.

"Yeah, having two girls fighting over you is going to cause some problems. I'm very familiar."

"That's not at all what's going on here, and how are you familiar with girls fighting over you, aren't you like thirteen?"

"I'm fourteen and will be fifteen in a few months, and I think it should be obvious why I have so much experience. There are many advantages to securing a marriage or even just the attention of the future head of the SDC."

"Isn't you sister the heir to the SDC. You keep saying she isn't going to be chosen, but does anyone on the outside know that?"

That fact that he was, in fact, not the current heir seemed to be a slightly sour spot for Whitley as he slumped over in his chair slightly now taking great interest in the fuzzy light-blue carpet. "No, they don't know I'm the one that will eventually be on top, but I'm still Jacques's only son. So, unless my sisters decide to expand their sexual preferences, or someone wants to take a shot at seducing Father, I'm the only option any female has if they want to work their way into the Schnee family. Even if they don't recognize that I'm the true heir, any connection to the Schnee family is attraction enough. Any type of girl you can imagine has likely offered themselves up to me on a silver platter at some point."

"You didn't take any of them up on their offers, did you?" Jaune asked, feeling a little inadequate.

"No, I'm still a pure soul if you have to know. Most of the girls I deal with are the daughters of business partners or other high-class Atlas ladies. They're usually extremely beautiful and all dolled up for the party, social event or charity function we meet each other at, but almost all of them don't have two IQ points to rub together. Most of the Atlas elite are very old school and only see their daughter as a way to secure a marriage and increase the family standing while the sons are groomed to take over whatever company their fathers run. The girls I normally interact with are unbelievably sheltered. 99 times out of 100 they're only talking to me because that's what papa told them to do. They've been educated enough to understand advanced economies and politics, but the moment you step off the royal red carpet they completely flounder. I sometimes make a game out of it when I'm bored," he added.

"Yet your sisters seemed to escape that fate. Isn't one second-hand to general Ironwood and the other training to be a huntress in Beacon. They can't have been that sheltered if they could make decisions like those."

"Despite what many believe my father is cruel not because he's racist or sexist, but because it makes sense to be cruel. The reason faunus workers fill our mines isn't because he dislikes them or thinks they're beneath humans but because with their night vision faunus workers are much more efficient which is all my father cares about. As long as he believes they're best for the job, it wouldn't matter to him if a woman, a faunus, or even a dog runs the company after he's gone.

"Winter and Weiss constantly complained about their lack of freedom, but they were given so much more than their peers. I'm sure Mother had something to do with it, but Father's contribution shouldn't be ignored. It a shame it backfired on him in the end, though, since both his daughters jumped ship to secure even more freedom."

"And what about you? Are you happy with what you have?"

Whitley smirked. "Do I look like I'm locked in a cage to you? There are plenty of ways to gain freedom without having to cast aside your responsibilities."

Before Jaune could say anything else the floor of the ship bucked upwards and the walls creaked which was all just a warmup that led to the sound of a machine gun whirling to life and the rat-a-tat-tat of bullets cutting through the air. Emerald only briefly looked towards where the noise was coming from before putting her head back down, and Yang didn't react at all. It was a very familiar sensation at this point. Almost all airships that weren't just for local transit were armed with weapons to fight off the grimm. Whitley's airship was no exception. It was fully capable of dealing with a few flocks of nevermores, griffons and even sphinxes if necessary.

The little scuffles had ceased to elicit much reaction, but everyone on board knew that the grimm attacks were happening with increased frequency. It was clear they were approaching the end of the line. Soon it would just be Jaune and the girls which actually reminded him why he was talking to Whitley in the first place since they had gone off on a tangent.

"So, back to what we were talking about. How do I keep Yang and Emerald from killing each other?"

"I don't think they'll go that far."

"You know what I mean."

Whitley shrugged. "Honestly, I'd just talk to them, figure out some sort of compromise. You'd be surprised how many problems can be handled with words alone."

"If I could I would, but Emerald's and Yang's positions are pretty opposed to each other. Yang wants to be here so she can save her sister. Emerald doesn't want Yang anywhere near us, especially assisting on the mission she doesn't want to be on in the first place. There isn't a lot of middle ground to forge a compromise."

"Then there's really only two options. Try to convince one of them to change their position. It's a bit late to try and stop the blonde one from coming along, but if you can change Emerald's mind about your new teammate that would help a lot."

Jaune's memories returned to the recent bar fight. Even if from his perspective, it was a blurry kaleidoscope, he still knew it wasn't something either of the girls would just write off. "Yeah, I don't think that's going to be possible. What's the other option."

"You just choose a side. If only one of them is going to be happy then you have to pick the one that provides the most benefit to you if they are."

Jaune looked at the snow-capped boy like he was speaking in tongues. "You're joking, right? I can't do that."

"I'm not. The SDC has to make these decisions all the time, and what's this talk about not being able to do it? Haven't you already figure this out? Didn't you weigh the consequences of bringing in the new girl? Didn't you think to yourself that while Emerald would be unhappy it wouldn't be a huge loss because she'd still follow along and you'd still get to bring your blonde asset along? The benefit of siding with Yang outweighed the loss of going against Emerald."

When he put it that way it really did seem like Jaune had chosen Yang over Emerald. Was that why he was able to ignore her opinions like what happened when Roman told him to go to Mt. Glenn? Had he been pushing the boundary of what he could get away with because subconsciously he felt that no matter what happened, Emerald would stay by his side? Was he treating Emerald the same way Roman had been treating him, just a loyal tool that he could exploited until he found a better one?

Just what was their relationship? Despite being stronger and probably a bit smarter than him, Jaune was the one that had all the decision-making power. Why? Because he controlled every luxury Emerald had in her new life. Their home and all their money came from Whitley, and if the two of them ever reached a point where they wanted to split up it was clear who Whitley would side with. All that combined with him being the one to "save" her from the streets, and it was no wonder that she was afraid he might abandon her.

It made him sick just thinking about it, and it wasn't just figuratively. He could feel some horrid bile work its way down his throat and drop into his stomach. It was physical enough that Whitley took notice.

"Hey, are you okay? Is your motion sickness acting up?"

"I'm okay," Jaune said waving Whitley away. It wasn't true, not by a long shot. He could feel the dread amassing inside him, but there wasn't anything Whitley could do. Jaune had to fix this himself. Bringing Yang along, at least in the way he did, was a bad decision. He knew that now, but there was still time to change it for the better, and he had to because if he didn't, the three of them wouldn't be making it back to Vale.

Jaune straightened his back, pushed his self-doubt down and gave Whitley a more confident assurance he was fine. While he was doing that his eyes caught Emerald's which weren't filled with scorn but with a bit of worry. She had probably caught his little breakdown.

Jaune wanted to tell her he was okay, and so much more. The moment seemed perfect as well. If they were going to have a heart-to-heart this was the time to do. Emerald's eyes told the same story, but before Jaune could usher her over, another burst of machine-gun fire ruined the moment. The focus was lost and Emerald quickly returned to inspecting the gear she would be carrying on their long trip.

Jaune cursed under his breath, but ultimately let it go. There wasn't going to be a lot to do on their trip to Cryphilictal besides talking to each other. There would be time to connect, for all three of them to connect.

There had to be.

They had come to the end of the line. Whitley's airship had landed on a grassy plain after having peppered all immediate grimm with machine gunfire. Goodbyes would have to be quick since there were definitely going to be other grimm from farther out coming to investigate. The flat land that seemed to stretch out in all directions for miles would make it easy to spot any incoming threat, but that would be true for the grimm as well. At least their scheme of greens and yellows would be better camouflage than the harsh reds and blacks of the grimm.

"We'll try and make some noise on the way back, and hopefully that will draw a lot of the grimm away from you, but other than that, you're on your own," Whitley said standing at the cusp of his idling ship.

"Thanks for all your help. We couldn't have done it without you."

"There's no need for that. I'm only around for the easiest leg of your journey, and even then, it's the pilots doing all the work. I only sat around."

"I think you deserve some credit for thinking of a way to get us past Ironwood's blockade."

"That was more coincidence than anything else, but I'll accept it."

"Then this is where we part ways," Jaune said holding out his hand, "have a safe flight back."

Whitley grasps Jaune's hand with his own. "And a doubly safe trip to you. I imagine it's going to get rough from here on out. Do you still have that knife?" Jaune nodded. "Good, I'm not going to expect any check-ins since if what you say about Cryphilictal is even remotely true, I have my suspicions that the knife won't work any better than a scroll."

Jaune thought about that and realized that Whitley was probably right. Cryphilictal didn't seem like the kind of place that would allow such outside communication no matter what form it took. It wouldn't give up its secrets so easily.

"In case I'm wrong though," Whitley continued, "I'll still be listening for you at the same times we discussed at Mt. Glenn and hopefully much more than that."

Jaune cringed at Whitley's mention of Mt. Glenn and gave a quick look to see if Yang noticed, but luckily, she didn't seem to be paying that much attention, instead, focusing on adjusting the straps of her backpack. Jaune breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know if Yang would be able to piece anything together just from hearing about Mt. Glenn, but it was better to not risk it in the first place. He was trying to salvage this trio, not have it completely implode in the first couple of steps.

"I'll keep in touch if I can," Jaune said to his colleague.

Whitley nodded and waved goodbye before stepping back into the ship. Jaune, Emerald, and Yang watch it leave as it fired off a few rounds to attract grimm before flying out of sight completely.

Without the sound of roaring thrusters, the field became very quiet. All three of them were keeping their ears open for grimm but none of them heard anything. That didn't mean they were hanging around the landing zone, though. Machine gunfire on the way out or not, there were bound to be grimm coming their way.

"We need to get going," Jaune said to his two compatriots.

"Couldn't agree more," Yang replied.

And so, they did.

Each one of them carried a large backpack and the grass grew high enough to touch their kneecaps, but at the very least it was late enough into autumn that the heat wasn't unbearable. Hygiene was going to be enough of a problem without having to deal with sweat-soaked clothes the entire time.

Despite Jaune holding the map and compass, since of course, there wasn't a road to follow, Yang was the one to lead the group, once he pointed out the general direction, and she did so at an incredible pace. At first, Jaune was fine with this since he thought she just wanted to get away from the landing zone as fast as possible, but as they put more than enough distance between them and the landing zone, Jaune realized that she had no intention of breaking this pace. They were practically jogging.

Jaune would've said something, but Emerald beat him to it. "Hey, bimbo slow down. If you keep this up, all of us are going to be run ragged within the hour."

"If your scrawny little legs can't keep up then feel free to take a break. I'll run on ahead to Cryphilictal and meet you when you get there."

"Yeah right, you don't even know where you're going."

Far from slowing down, Yang appeared to increase her speed. Emerald refused to match it, though and started to fall behind. Jaune decided to do the same. Yang's lead increased drastically, but she did make sure that the distance between them wasn't great enough to where she wouldn't be able to tell if they needed to change directions.

"Emerald we need to talk," Jaune said knowing this was as alone as they were ever likely to get out here.

Emerald didn't respond and instead turned her head away from him.

"Still giving me the silent treatment? That's not going to work anymore, I literally just saw you talk."

"It's not that I can't speak. I just don't want to speak to you."

It was Emerald's voice, but her lips never moved. "Seriously," Jaune exclaimed, "you're going to use your semblance to talk to me. That's completely childish."

"If it gets on your nerves then it's fine."

Jaune wanted to stick out his leg and trip her, but he held himself back. Getting angry and retaliating wouldn't help anything. He needed to be compassionate and get Emerald to forgive him.

"I'm really sorry about this, Emerald."

Emerald rolled her eyes in a way he was clearly meant to see. "No, you aren't. If you were truly sorry we wouldn't be here in the first place."

"I don't think that's very fair."

"No, what isn't fair is you dragging us out here because you feel guilty. Roman was going to find a way to cause that incident regardless if you helped or not. You aren't any more responsible for what happened than the people who dug those tunnels in the first place. Other people's problems aren't your responsibility. It's time to get over yourself."

"It's not that easy."

"Why not!"

Jaune clenched his fist. This was just turning into another fight and he didn't want that. "Fine, maybe you're right. Maybe we're only here because I'm too busy pretending the world revolves around me, but we're here now and nothing is going to change that. So instead of fixating on the past let's look towards the future."

"That sounds exactly like what some abusive husband would say after blowing all the money on alcohol and gambling."

Jaune couldn't hide his chuckle. "Those are the types of mean spirited jokes that come from the Emerald I know."

For just a moment Emerald smirked, but quickly covered it as she remembered she was supposed to be mad at him, but within that fleeting smile, Jaune saw his opening. "Is there anything I can do you make it up to you."

"Getting rid of that other blonde would be a nice start."

"You know I can't do that. We're supposed to try and get along."

"You're more delusion than I thought if you think that's ever going to happen. It's obvious she's in this for herself. The two of us are just the people she has to put up with. Look no further than this miserable pace she's set."

"She's just worried about her sister. I'm sure she'll calm down after a little bit."

"I doubt it. She reckless, abrasive and clearly does more thinking with her fists than her head. She tried to kill you at Junior's bar just because you might have had some information. That goes way beyond being a protective sister. It's psychotic."

"It wasn't that serious."

"It was. You just don't want to, or were too drunk to believe it."

Jaune ran his hand through his hair. "Listen, can you just promise me that you'll try to get along with her."

"Can you promise me—guarantee me—that you won't force yourself to take these insane trips ever again just because something bad happens."

Jaune wanted to. He really did, but he knew Emerald would be able to see through it. If something like the breach were to ever happen again and someone needed his help, he didn't think even a promise to Emerald could stop him from trying. He had always wanted to be a hero, and now that he had the chance to be one he didn't want a single chance to slip by.

Emerald understood all this, which was why she knew Jaune wouldn't make that promise. A person who tried to fake their way into Beacon and accepted indoctrination into the unknown world by Roman Torchwick of all people wasn't someone that could just push their nature aside so easily.

It was something that Emerald really liked about Jaune and he wouldn't be him without it, but she did wish he would take a little more care of himself. He could be so clever when he wanted to be, but the moment his passion got the better of him, and he decided to throw himself into the deep end there didn't seem to be anything that could stop him. She feared that one day he would throw himself too far and not be able to swim back to shore.

For all she knew that day had already come.

"Just forget about it." She told Jaune through her semblance.

At least he had the decency to look somewhat ashamed at his inability to make such a simple promise. "I'm sorry," he said.

'I'm sorry' seemed to be the only thing he was able to say lately. If he was really sorry then he needed to prove it. Actions spoke louder than words, and for someone who had grown up on the streets, that phrase meant double for Emerald.

Jaune might have tried to continue the conversations, as one of the Arc's worst traits seemed to be to never take the initiative when he needed to talk to someone but never shutting up when he just needed to let things be, but Emerald's eyes caught something to their left.

"We've got company," she said with her actual voice.

Jaune quickly saw what his partner was talking about. A line of black had risen over the horizon. It was too far to tell how many or what type they were, but they were definitely grimm and they were definitely heading right towards them.

Jaune got ready to signal Yang of the oncoming horde, but she had already recognized the threat and was slowly falling back into their formation. The grimm were probably around ten minutes away from their position, so the trio continued to move forward while waiting from the grimm to catch up with them.

About five minutes later, Yang was only a couple steps ahead of the other two and had her gauntlets deployed. Emerald grasped onto one of her chain weapons, and Jaune had manifested his sword and shield. The grimm numbered about thirty strong and were all boarbatusks. It was a type Yang recognized from Professor Port demonstration, but even from this distance, she could tell that these were about a half a size bigger than the one Port had caged.

But how had this group of grimm found them? It was inevitable they would encounter some eventually, but this felt too soon. The sound of airship landing and taking off, along with the gunfire, really should have drawn all the grimm to it. It could have been that this pack had been going towards the ship and had just stumbled upon them along the way, but the boarbatusks were coming from the wrong direction and seemed far too locked onto to their group for that to be the case.

So how had the grimm found them? Jaune had the answer and he suspected Emerald and Yang did too.

Negativity.

Their group was a mess of opposing emotions that none of them could really keep under control. Out in the wilderness far away from civilization even their moderate negativity must have been like rigging the dinner bell. These grimm were the first to arrive but they would certainly not be the last.

Eight minutes after the grimm were spotted, the group stopped moving, dropped their bags, and prepared for a clash. Jaune squatted down with some chalk and started drawing an etch. Even through the tall grass and on loose dirt, he found it remarkably easy to complete.

Stakes of stone appeared in front of the charging boarbatusks like a line of pikemen. About four couldn't slow down fast enough and skewed themselves on the sudden obstacle but the rest were able to correct their speed and position to avoid that fate.

Next up was Emerald, who fired a couple of test rounds into the hoard. Most bounced off the boarbatusk's heavy armor without doing anything, but a few did strike flesh. One particularly lucky bullet struck a boarbatusk in its eye causing it to buck and strike the one next to it. Neither died but the collision caused them to fall behind the pack.

The charge was closing in at that point. On the open plain, there wasn't any obstacles or cover they could utilize, so Jaune and Emerald took a defensive stance and held their ground. They could give up ground and pull back if they needed to but for now, it was better to just let the grimm charge into their waiting weapons.

Yang had other ideas. Red eyes flaring and gauntlet's loaded, the brawler charged in looking to meet the grimm head-on.

Emerald hissed and charged forward herself, knowing that Yang was going to get swarmed if she went in alone. Jaune followed sword at the ready, after realizing that if tried to stay behind and use his etches for support, he would be just as likely to hit the girls as he was any of the grimm.

The boarbatusks in the front of the pack curled up into balls and started spinning towards the group of humans, tearing up dirt and grass as the now spinning wheels of death gained speed. Yang was the first to greet the grimms' charge and without hesitation punched one of the boarbatusk while it was still spinning. Its heavy bone-plated armor didn't do a thing to protect it against Yang's gauntlet and the accompanying shotgun blast. It's mask shatter and black mist poured from its wound.

At that point, it was likely already dead but Yang wasn't finished. She juggled it in the air with two more punches, each followed by another shotgun blast, until she used one final shotgun enhanced punch to send the now certainly dead grim into another.

"Yeah! That's right. Who else wants a piece of me?" Yang yelled out her war cry.

It was a frenzy from that point forward. Boarbatusks bore down on the group from every direction as those that had missed their first pass came back around from the other side. Dirt and dust were being kicked up at every turn making it hard to see through the already frantic scene and the whirl of noise the many boarbatusk produced while rolling around was ear grating.

The head-to-head melee was only helping out the grimm with their superior numbers and mobility, yet no one could break off. Jaune and Yang both lacked any real ranged options and Emerald had already discovered bullets were of little help. She couldn't even detach her blades for fear of the chain getting caught somewhere in the wild fray. If their foes were any more intelligent they could have pushed their advantage, but as they were, they were only rolling around until they hit something or something hit them.

Emerald's strategy was simply to sidestep any death wheel that came her way and slashed their side as they passed. It usually wasn't a death blow but it slowed them down and made them much easier to kill if they came back around. Staying in relatively the same place also made it more likely that two or more of the boarbatusks would crash into each other when they charged after her. At the speed they were going a collision into their brethren could easily be fatal for both of them. If they were lucky the grimm might trim down their numbers all on their own.

Jaune, on the other hand, wasn't nimble enough to avoid every grimm that came his way nor was he strong enough to brute force his way through their armor like Yang. A few months under Emerald's tutelage could never put him at the level of those two or any other huntsman-in-training for that matter.

He had no choice but to take the boarbatusks' charge head-on.

One rammed into his shield and making his arm tremor, but the impact knocked the grimm out of its curl. Before it could properly get its footing, Jaune went low and slashed at one of its legs trying to get it to tip over. The plan worked letting Jaune slice through the underside of its neck when its leg gave out.

The victory was short-lived, however, when a boarbatusk crashed into his side, hitting him with what felt like the weight of a truck. He hit the ground, bounced a few times, then skidded to a stop.

The hit hadn't come because Jaune had been neglectful or careless. The grimm that had hit him had flown out of nowhere and, in fact, had already been dead as evidenced by the already mostly evaporated corpse that was half laying on him.

Fighting through the blurriness in his vision he saw exactly where the grimm had come from. Yang was sending grimm corpses all over the place as the boxer deliver one devastating shotgun punch after another. Her straightforward aggression seemed to draw more grimm towards her, but she didn't seem to care. Even when a boarbatusk hit her, she barely seemed to register it, only turning towards the offending grimm and delivering her own blow that hit at least twice as hard. Even with grimm as large as these, the blows sent them flying. Jaune had just so happened to be in the path of the one that hit him.

Jaune didn't have a chance to think of what this meant for the stability of their party or even Yang's own mental state because before he could get to his feet, another boarbatusk, this was very much alive, came barreling up to him.

Jaune recognized it as one of the latecomers that Emerald had shot in the eye, but missing an eye didn't matter when all it had to do is rear up and smash his head in with its front hooves.

Jaune wasn't in a good position to bring up his shield arm so he had to settle by blocking with his sword. Metal rang out as the Grimm's hoofs collided with his sword, but Crocea Mors, and his arm, held strong.

That wasn't going to be the case for long, however.

As the grimm put more of its weight onto him, he could feel the sword slipping from his grasp. Jaune wasn't worried though. He might not have the raw skill of either of his companions but he had ways to make up for it.

By doing different hand signs or actions he could retrieve either his sword, shield or journal from the Apeiron, but on the other end of that trick was his ability to put them back. For his journal, all he had to do was close the book. For his sword and shield, the action was even simpler.

He let go.

One of the very first things Emerald had drilled into his head was to never lose his weapon, so when he set this all up he figured he might as well make that impossible. The moment all his finger left the hilt of his sword it disappeared, but a moment later, after adjusting his finger so they were shaped as if he was holding a grenade, his shield appeared in its place.

The transition while not instantaneous had been quick enough to where the boarbatusk wasn't able to push through. Now it was pressing down on his much sturdier shield, but more importantly, it's stomach was exposed, and with his free hand now holding a sword instead of a shield there was nothing stopping him.

Crocea Mors plunged into the grimm's body and it squealed as it tried to dislodge the offending object. Its struggles only caused the blade to puncture deeper into its body until finally, its struggles ceased.

Jaune pushed the corpse off him and got back to his feet prepared to join the battle once again, but nothing significant really happened after that. The tide was already turning to their favor by the time he got up since the more they thinned the horde the easier it was to carve through the ones that remained. It wasn't until the last grimm fell that Jaune noticed something that worried him.

Yang ended the battle by dislodging all the spent shotgun shells from her gauntlet. They shot off her weapon, dramatically, and rained to the ground, joining their siblings. Every punch she had thrown had used one of those little red casings even if she hadn't needed to. How many had she used? How many did she have?

Was she even thinking about her limited ammo?

From the way, she casually dismissed her discarded shells, Jaune didn't think so.

If she didn't hold back she would run out long before they reached Cryphilictal, and that was the place she would need them most. He needed to talk to her—about a lot of things but this included—because this had only been one grimm encounter, and there would be more, with the negativity their group was spewing it was impossible for there not to be.

They dealt with two more grimm packs before they came across a small stream and Jaune decided he needed to call a halt. Despite the grimm attacks Yang had only slightly slowed down her pace and still kept a fair distance in front of Emerald and him never leaving him a chance to discuss the grimm she threw at him or her ammo wasting practices. At least she hadn't blown as much during rounds two and three, but whether that was because of intention or coincidence Jaune couldn't say.

Of course, Yang being so far ahead didn't hear him. It wasn't until after she hopped the stream and turned around to see them not following her, that she stomped back over. Jaune could feel Emerald's desire for a fight and stepped in front of her in hopes Yang wouldn't notice it.

"Why did you stop?" the other blonde questioned.

"We need to make camp," Jaune replied as diplomatically as he could.

First Yang looked shocked, like she couldn't believe such a thing was even possible, then she got angry. "What do you mean set up camp. We've barely started traveling."

True they had been on foot for no more than two hours and despite the continuations jog Yang had forced on them, they hadn't covered much ground. Mainly because they had been interrupted by grimm probably drawn to their location specifically because of the negativity produced from their backbreaking pace. None of that was his main reason for his call to set up camp, though.

"The sun is going to be setting soon. We got here pretty late so it can't be helped. Tomorrow we can get a full day of walking in."

"We're not stopping because you're scared of the dark! We can push on."

Jaune thought he could feel his jaw coming undone. "Are you crazy? We can't go walking around in the dark!"

"Why not? I'm sure all of us have flashlights. We'll still be able to see."

"Every grimm in a ten-mile radius would be able to spot us if we did that."

"Then we just kill them?"

"How can you even call yourself a huntress if—" Jaune wanted to say more but at that moment his vision wobbled.

Crap, not now, he told himself trying to fight against it, but there was no stopping this. His right foot stumbled forward to catch himself as he brought his hand to his head. The headache shook his body for only a second or two, but that was more than enough to catch Emerald's notice.

"Are you alright?" she said swinging around to his side.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he tried to pull off, but the few droplets of blood that drip from his nostrils and onto his upper lip discredited him immediately.

Emerald's eyes grew wide and she gripped his forearm preventing him from wiping the blood away. "It's still happening," she murmured. "Why didn't you tell me? No, never mind, that's exactly like you." There was a little bit of anger in her words but it was mostly disappointment.

Jaune could only laugh at himself knowing this day would come. He just wished that day could have waited a little longer. He had managed to keep his continued condition hidden from Emerald up until now, but it looked like the game was up.

Even with all the echoes in Mt. Glenn gone, his headaches were still around which meant the stunt he had pulled back then had screwed him up permanently. Although with cramming so many other consciousnesses into his mind, he had probably gotten off easy.

He had kept it a secret because was anything they could do about it and they never lasted for long nor were they as frequent as they were before, so he had just thought that it wasn't worth worry Emerald over.

Little secrets for little issues, as his eldest sister used to say. No mom doesn't need to know that Saffron burned herself. We already fixed it so don't mention it.

"Is something wrong with you?" Yang asked, leaning in closer to get a better look.

Jaune used his other hand to wipe the blood off his lip and onto his pointer finger. He stared at the crimson liquid of a bit before showing it to Yang with a sad smile. "Nothing, just the aftershock of a reckless decision. We're camping here for the night and that's final."

Jaune was having trouble sleeping. It wasn't that he wasn't tired or uncomfortable, the two-person tent Whitley had provided them was actually quite nice ("the SDC's lightweight, compact and easy to set up camping tent can brave any conditions from Atlas' coldest mountains to Vacuo's hottest deserts, but still offers the same comfort as if you were still at home. Perfect for family trips, huntsmen missions or mining expeditions," the side of the box had proclaimed.),he just had too much going on inside his mind.

Perhaps he had never intended to go to sleep.

He pushed off his blanket, which Emerald, who was sleeping a few inches beside him, snatched up like it was her lifeblood, and opened the flap door to go outside.

A couple feet away from the tent a fire burned dim and low. It was kept that way mostly to hopefully avoid the attention of any grimm, but also because there weren't any nearby trees to burn, just a lot of dry grass.

Yang sat in front of the fire, her legs brought up to her chest and her chin on top of her knees. After having lost the battle to keep moving forward, she had volunteered to take the first watch. Jaune could understand that. If he had been the one wanting to push forward, he wouldn't want to try and force himself into bed either.

Yang wasn't slacking on her job either. She noticed him the second he stepped out of the tent. She just didn't say anything. It was only after he took a seat on the other side of the fire from her did she acknowledge him.

"Just because you're awake now doesn't mean you're getting any shorter of a shift, you know."

"I know, but I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd come out here to talk."

"There's not that much to talk about. It's been pretty quiet so far."

"That's not what I meant, and I think you know that."

Yang sighed and placed her hand on the ground behind her so she could lean back and look up at the clear night sky. There was a long silence lasting to the point where he thought she might just pretend he wasn't there, but finally, she opened up. "Your girlfriend hates me."

"She doesn't hate you. She's just mad, at a lot of things but mostly at me. I screwed up pretty big."

"Yeah, I already figure that. Mostly from your little speech back at the café, but also because you just seem like the type of guy to screw these kinds of things up."

"Wow, thanks."

"Aw, don't look so angry," she laughed. "I'm sure you're trying your best to make it up to her, and there's a certain charm to guys who beat their heads against a wall so much that they actually knock it down."

"That just seems like a really roundabout way of calling me headstrong."

"Yeah, that's probably right."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Moving back to a more serious topic, do you think you could try and get along with Emerald."

Yang's eyes roamed the fire as if that housed the answer. "I don't know. Even if she doesn't hate me like you claim, that bar fight soured us to each other pretty good, and I don't think it's improved since then."

"Well, today you haven't been making it easy to like you." Jaune didn't think Yang was stupid. She knew traveling in the dark was next to suicidal. She knew how her actions were being perceived and the friction they were causing, yet she didn't do anything to change them. Was she just that full of herself, or did she just not care?

Yang gave a kind of half answer to that question by asking one of her own. "Do you have any siblings?"

"I have seven sisters, actually."

"Hrk!" The response was a familiar one to Jaune at this point. He waited for Yang to finish choking on the air and recollect herself. "Wow. Okay. Moving past that, you'd do anything for them right."

"I don't know. If something ever happened to one of them, there's six other to take their place, or mom and dad can always make a new one." Yang did not appreciate his humor. "Alright, I'll be serious. Yes, I would do anything for them if they really needed it."

"So, you must understand how I'm feeling right now. Ruby is in trouble and I'm sitting on my ass doing nothing."

"No I don't understand," Jaune stated, his expression stern, "because you aren't doing nothing. You're resting for the night to be prepared for tomorrow. If I was the one lying in that hospital bed, I wouldn't want any of my sisters to run themselves into the ground for my sake, and you know what else?"

"What?" Yang growled, her fingers digging into the ground behind her as her thoughts went back to a dark path and a red wagon.

"I would want them to get help from as many people as they could." Yang's breath hitched and for a long time the only sounds the two of them heard were the crackling of the fire and the soft trickle of the stream passing them by. "We may not be friends, but you need to stop treating us like we're your enemies. It might not be for the same reason but the three of us share the same goal, the fact that we're out here should prove that. I think it's time to trust us a little more."

The soft crunch of dirt interrupted anything reply Yang might have had. Jaune nearly summoned his sword before he saw who was approaching. "Looks like the gang's all here," he said.

"Might as well. I was never going to get back to sleep with you two out here yapping away," Emerald said, taking a seat next to Jaune.

"We weren't being that loud," Jaune said since it was the truth.

"It was loud enough," Emerald sent Yang a dirty look to which she returned, but without as much heat as before Jaune noticed.

"So, what were the two of you gossiping about?" Emerald asked.

"We were talking about how we're all on the same team and it would be better to be a little nicer to each other," Jaune emphasized.

"I'm out here, aren't I? Isn't that being nice enough?" Jaune wished he could tell if that was directed at him or Yang. Luckily, Yang made that call for him.

"Actually, why are the two of you out here?" she asked. "I know you're caretakers or whatever, but neither of you has any real reason to risk your lives for my sister."

Emerald beat Jaune to it before he could answer. "Honestly, I could care less about your sister. I'm only here to protect this idiot from his own stupidity, and he's only out here because he has a moronic hero complex."

"Couldn't you cut back on the name-calling at least a little?" Jaune asked.

"I didn't call you retarded, did I," Emerald said with and all too sweet smile.

"And what about the Whitley guy?" Yang said, breaking them up. "I was pretty surprised that Weiss Schnee's brother just casually dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. I've always been under the impression that you would have to resort to actual torture to get the Ice Queen to do something for anyone that wasn't her."

It was Jaune turn to answer this time, but unfortunately, he didn't really have a good one to give. "Whitley has his own agenda. He's—let's just say he's complex. He is looking out for us, though."

Despite accepting that her sister had magical eyes powers, Yang still didn't look like she believed him, and sadly, he could understand.

"But his 'looking out for us' ended at the airship, didn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess it did," Jaune replied sensing a solemn shift.

"Be honest, how likely do you think it is that we're making it back to Vale alive." It was an answer Emerald wanted to hear too, so she turned to face him.

He took a deep breath.

"Honestly, I have no idea. Who knows what we're really going to find there? But if you want what my gut it is telling me, I don't think the odds are good." It hurt to say, but it was the truth.

The fire crackled as Yang threw some more grass into it. "Yeah, that's what I thought too," she said burying her chin back into her knees.

Somewhere far in the distance a nevermore cawed alerting his flock to a gathering of dark clouds.

Excerpt from book

This really is common sense but so many people seem to forget about it, or perhaps they never really understood it in the first place.

Nearly everything in this world is on a scale with opposite ends opposing each other. It's all relative of course, but the mechanics stay the same no matter what. The further away you move from your starting point the more dangerous it gets.

I'll use grimm and huntsmen as an example because it's simple and most will understand it. On the huntsmen side, they have their major cities and their academies which make up their end of the scale. Their strongest our housed here and it's a rare day for any grimm to appear in these areas let alone survive there. Further along the scale is just outside the walls and the major outlying villages. There are grimm here, but huntsmen can confidently cut them down with the assurance that their home base is close by. It when they go deeper into the wilderness, and thus further along the scale, that things get challenging. Out in, what I will call, the mid-ground grimm and huntsmen power are more or less equal. This is where all the real casualties happen and what humanity is essentially fighting for. It's after this mid-ground where the grimm's side of the scale begins and marks the point where the average huntsman is actually outclassed, if not in raw strength then in sheer numbers. How many starry-eyed huntsmen teams had been dominating on their side of the scale, only to take that confidence to the grimm's side of the scale and be absolutely decimated?

My theory is that the most common cause of huntsman death is due to them underestimating a beowolf that was just a little stronger, and a little smarter than what they were used to.

But just like the huntsmen domain, the grimm's domain has its own layers, they're not as well defined, but at the very end of their part of the scale is what we saw call their absolute domain. The place where the oldest and smartest grimm roam. Grimm with enough power to go against even the strongest huntsmen. Of course, these two rarely met since they make their homes on the other end of the scale, and that's probably for the best. The scale keeps things balanced and orderly. It takes extraordinary circumstances for the scale to be shaken in one direction or the other, but occasionally it does happen.

Just remember any caretaker who's reading this passage and thinking of moving along the scale of the unknown world, for every success, there is a mountain of failures that preceded it.

That's just common sense.

AN: The first steps to the start of a long journey have been completed, and with it comes a whole bunch of character development. Hopefully, this chapter clears up some of the criticism from last. Jaune choosing to bring Yang along was made with sound reasoning, at least to him, even if it went against Emerald's wishes, but this whole mission is against her wishes so may as well go all in.

On a related note, I once talked about how I based Emerald's and Jaune's dynamic off Emerald and Mercury, but make no mistake when it comes to their relationship Jaune has just as much influence over her as Cinder ever did. No matter how big of a mistake Emerald things he's making, she'd still follow him, something Jaune has been noticing for a while now.