Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.
Pebble
By: Imyoshi
He's come so far.
Farther than he ever thought possible—farther than his own parents believed he could go.
Farther... than anyone else.
Holding out his hand, Jaune Arc observed the dark power covering his body in acute fascination. He couldn't fight back his grin even if his very life depended on it. Just the simple thought of a whole new power to control and learn has finally grabbed him in ways only Aura can. Peaked his ever growing interest. Peaked it to new heights. New goals! New everything!
Not even the shroud of coldness surrounding him could dampen his mood.
"Lore?" Nora slowly blinks, unable to contain traces sparks of her excitement. The word just sounded so cold and mysterious. And it even rolled off the tongue so effortlessly like exotic silk.
Popping out from underneath the bed and forgetting about her momentary fear of monsters and everything frightening from Blake's scary tale, Nora and the rest of Jaune's team edge closer towards their Fearless Leader, finally able to see this Lore after two weeks of intense struggles.
Upon gazing, she sees her leader shrouded in a cloak of darkness similar to his Aura. His face is no longer stuck in an intense pain as he struggles to control the power, and for once, Jaune seems completely relaxed. Content really. Like nothing could stop him. As if the world alone needed allies to beat him. And even then that probably wouldn't have been enough to stop him.
A new person—a new leader.
"Lore?" Unable to stop the worry bubbling in her chest from the eerie energy surging around Jaune, Pyrrha bites her lip. "Doesn't that sound a bit, dark?" she asks, still unsure how to still feel about Jaune's new power.
On one hand, she's glad he's finally able to control Lore to an extent... but on the other, all the things he's said—he's felt! Those thoughts of hers worry the champion. Fear is never good. And now her leader, friend, and partner is practically basking in it. Embracing the sinister power without reserve.
Who wouldn't be worried?
"Well, I like it!" Nora grins without worry before hiding under Ren's bed. "It super cool and mysterious and it rolls off the tongue. I bet the ladies will love it!"
"See?" Jaune added. "Nora liked it."
"Nora likes everything!" Pyrrha countered heatedly.
"Not true!" she argued, popping out again. "I hate waffles and all that nasty stuff Ren eats."
Ren sighs, shuffling back underneath his bed, "It's called a salad, Nora. And it's healthy for you. Maybe if you just tried it again, it'll—?"
"It's nasty and looks awful!"
"It's good for you—!"
Ignoring Ren and Nora's argument, Jaune looks back to Pyrrha in all his Lore coated glory. She blinks a few times at his amusing smirk, still not use to Jaune's influx of emotions whenever he actively tries to control this dark power he calls Lore now. His current attitude is an improvement from the self-pity that came before, that much is true, but she's still not use it.
Not by a long shot.
Feeling his Lore start to relax, Jaune's dark glow eventually settles down and goes away. Now though he could feel the Lore residing where his Aura normally stays, filling every pore of his being. It's a cold and empty feeling, but not in the sense of being bad. Like Aura, the feeling felt natural once he finally got a control over it.
Not total control, mind him. Unlike Aura, Jaune can feel his control over Lore far weaker. He could probably still create a sphere out of Lore if he tried, but that's all assumption based. Monty knows how much training it's going to require to fully grasp this strange, dark power. Parts of him are even still doubting trusting the dark power.
Sitting down on his bed, Jaune laughs, "So? What do you think, Pyrrha?"
Silent, she glared over to a waiting Ren and Nora and then back at an excited Jaune. What did she think? Think about what? Jaune's new found control over his Lore? The upcoming Vytal Tournament and all the ramifications that came with it? Nora's refusal to eat anything healthy and Ren's forever quest to say otherwise?
What did she think?
"I think... I think this is going to be an interesting training trip."
...
Sleeping in for most of the day, Team JNPR wakes up in the middle of the afternoon, rested and all for their big training trip into Emerald Forest. The bags have been packed beforehand and Nora hasn't stopped talking about all the fun camping activities she couldn't wait to try for days now. And Pyrrha will admit that she's been looking forward to this as well.
Waking up first between her team, the cereal girl yawned loudly, fixing her bed hair while spotting her Fearless Leader waking up due to her loud yawn. Pyrrha smiled apologetically at her leader. She didn't mean to wake him. Unlocking his new found control over Lore and dealing with finals had really drained him and Jaune was the first to fall asleep the night before.
Next to Jaune, there's a muffle curse from underneath Ren's bed—most likely Ren himself—from probably bumping his head on the wooden padding. And Nora's not too far behind with her loud—!
"Good morning, Ren!"
Sigh, "Morning, Nora."
Pyrrha smiled to herself, wondering how a girl as strong as Nora Valkyrie could be scared of a little ghost tale. Didn't she ride an Ursa Major during their initiation? Perhaps she wasn't scared? Maybe Nora just wanted an excuse to cuddle with Ren? Pyrrha's smile grows a tiny bit bigger at the idea, already feeling her day that much brighter than before.
Rolling out from underneath Ren's bed, Nora bounced upwards, quickly sliding towards her still sleepy leader, "Morning, Jaune!"
"It's too early, Nora."
"But it's almost eleven!"
"Too early."
Fixing her hair, Pyrrha watched Jaune fumble around for his morning clothes, finding them under Nora's bed of course. He pulled out his sweater before heading for the bathroom. Meanwhile, Nora pulled out a tired Ren from under his bed, smiles and all. And for a split-second he glared at his rude awakening, but Nora's sudden fixing of his hair calmed him down.
Pyrrha shakes her head at the scene.
Nora so has Ren wrapped around her finger.
...
"Why do we have to carry the supplies?" Ren complains dryly, walking out of Beacon and towards Emerald Forest with both Jaune and him caring all the camping supplies. "How is this even remotely fair?"
"Because you're the guys!" Nora answers from behind the group, slapping her leader on the back. "You're supposed to be big and strong."
Ren's about to argue—he really is. But then Nora's all up close and personal, grinning from ear to ear with a small sway in her hips as she stood in place. She silently hums, blinking once with absolute innocence that Ren knows better than to believe. He knows he knows better. So why did he sigh and blow away a stray stand of hair away instead of fighting?
"Fine."
Pyrrha can't help but giggle amusingly from her point-of-view, wishing Ren all the luck she can. Poor Ren is so tightly wrapped around Nora's trigger happy finger; she wonders what her stoic teammate actually gets out of this. It can't be from the sheer kindness and selfless preservation of his heart.
He's far too lazy for that nonsense.
Reaching the courtyard, they spot Team RWBY lounging around the giant fountain in the middle of Beacon with Ruby zooming past her teammates back and forth in clear excitement. They all look indifferent to whatever Ruby was telling them, emotions evident on their various faces, but paying attention nonetheless.
Yang looked ecstatic at her baby sister's plan, lounging back towards the fountain. Weiss had a slight huff in her posture, sitting properly on the fountain while Blake completely stayed cleared from the fountain, gazing blankly at her leader. Occasionally, she thought about voicing some of her opinions on the matter, but decided against it each and every time.
"Hey!" Ruby suddenly yelled, spotting them before Nora could yell first. "What are you guys up to?"
Now Nora could yell, "We're going camping in Emerald Forest!"
"What?!" Appearing before them in a flash of rose petals, Ruby peeked at the stuff Jaune was carrying, seeming to deflate a bit every second. "How long will you be gone?"
"About two weeks," Jaune said.
"Two weeks!" she screams, throwing her arms out. "But that's practically the whole break! How come I'm just learning about this?!"
Team JNPR stops to think about that, having flashbacks of the past couple of weeks and all of the shenanigans in between. All their flashbacks consisted of Ruby and Yang trying to sabotage Ren or Jaune one way or another. Like the time Ruby set off her own water bucket over the door trap, or the time Yang bleached parts of her own hair. Each and every time something bad happened usually had to do with messing with Jaune and Ren.
Pyrrha could never figure out how Ren or Jaune came out unscathed from those planned pranks, but Nora would wave it off, playing the card of bad luck or something along those lines, and that as long as Jaune was by Ren, no harm would befall them.
Pushing that aside for the moment, it totally made sense that none of Team RWBY knew of their suppose camping training trip with being too preoccupied on getting the drop of their fellow males. Blake probably knew, but unless directly asked, most likely didn't bother mentioning it. And Weiss wasn't someone to get mixed up in other people's business to begin with.
Still, the answer Ruby got came from Nora, "We thought you knew," she shrugs cheerfully.
"B-But," Ruby choked, pulling out a big binder out of nowhere. "I had plans set up and everything! We were all supposed to go to Vale and have a blast! How could you, Jaune?!" she cried, using his sleeve as a pillar of support to lean on. "How could you rob me of our team bonding fun?"
Sensing Yang's eyes on him, Jaune risked it all on the truth, "It was all Ren's idea to go camping!"
Time freezing, Ren doesn't even get a chance to defend the accusations or glare at his traitorous leader before Ruby's up in his face, attempting to poke him on his forehead. He dodges of course, but that only helps to fuel her already deeply rooted anger.
"I should've known this was your idea," she says in an accusing sort of way, glaring her adorable eyes at him. "First you beat me, then you deny me my rightful rematches, then you beat again, and now you rob me of all my hard work! Must you take everything away from me?"
Knowing the words reasoning and Ruby don't mix well, he shrugs, "Yes."
Resting her hands on her hips, she points at Ren, "Watch! I'm going to train and get stronger and beat you! Just you wait!"
Bored, Ren slothfully poked Ruby in the forehead, amused in the inside while remaining calm at her adorable puffed out cheeks. "You do that."
"I will!"
Tempting Monty, Ren barely smirked for the first time at her, "You should probably work on your speed first. You're still too slow."
Now he pushed her too far.
Stepping back before Ruby could hit him with her tiny fist, Ren sidestepped away from her, avoiding her montage of pathetic strikes. It helped with his unknown semblance currently running rampant in her body when he poked her, throwing off her balance as the sun glared off at the perfect moments in her eyes.
Cheering Ren and Ruby on, Nora grinned at the display, excited to see how Ren would handle the moment. Meanwhile, Pyrrha tried to stop them, eventually successfully grabbing Ruby by the waist, using all her strength to hold back a kicking and screaming Ruby. Jaune, on the other hand, watches this all with a small laugh, glad that wasn't him for once.
"Hey!" Turning around, Jaune comes face-to-face with Weiss and she's frowning at him, very displeased apparently. "How come you didn't tell me you're leaving for the whole break?" Weiss glares.
Jaune just smiled at the rare concern, "What? Are you gonna miss me?"
"Of course not, you dunce!" she glares off wistfully at any direction but his, crossing her arms. "It's just that there are no doctors in Emerald Forest, so there's no one to help you when you get hurt while camping."
"Don't worry about me," he laughs, pulling the bag higher on his shoulder. "I'll be fine. My team will be there to watch my back."
"Fine, whatever!" she pulls out a blue Dust crystal from her pocket, pressing the rock roughly on his chest. "But at least take this."
"What is it?"
Weiss smirks, holding her head up high, "It's that new ice Dust crystal I've been working on. I finished the last touches last night after our final Dust class. I guess you could have it to defend yourself, you did help make it. Don't worry, I have the other one."
Holding up the bright, snow blue crystal, his hand cools greatly from just touching it, "It's very cold."
"The Dust crystal itself is below zero degrees Celsius."
Not really sure how he could use this Dust crystal in the future, Jaune's still touched by the care, taking extra care at tucking the ice gem into his sweater pocket. He smiles warmly at Weiss against the freezing cold sensation he's feeling in his fingers.
"Aww! Thanks, Weiss! I'll keep it safe!" he gives her a thumbs up and she returned the gesture by humphing her head away. Jaune still laughs anyways, grinning like a total fool.
"Jaune?" Nora interrupted from behind, tugging her leader by the shoulder. "I think we should skedaddle before Ruby breaks free of Pyrrha's hold!"
Looking over his shoulder, Nora's right—frighteningly—Ruby's still trying to attack Ren who's attention is settled on his reflection in the fountain. He doesn't even seem to be acknowledging Ruby's attempts at attacking him, very less paying her any attention whatsoever.
Yup! Time to leave.
"Okay, I'll see you later," Jaune waved, pulling Nora and then Ren away, knowing Pyrrha will catch up later when Ruby can no longer find them.
Weiss watches them leave with Yang walking over to her sister and taking her into her hold, preventing Ruby from mad dashing towards a running Team JNPR. Pyrrha thanks her profoundly before running to catch up, waving them goodbye as well.
A moment later, Blake walks up beside Weiss with a knowing and rare smirk playing across her face at Weiss's unusual deep frown.
"How hard is it to tell him that you're worried about his safety?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
...
Trudging along Emerald Forest, the girls of Team JNPR casually talked about feminine things that neither Jaune nor Ren personally felt like engaging anytime soon. Besides, holding the bag full of camping supplies and sleeping bags required all their effort. Hell, both Jaune and Ren were actively using their Aura's to keep them going, silently hating everything life had to offer for the moment.
They were heading towards a destination Ren had pointed out in a map that was relatively free of Grimm activity since little to no Hunters ever wandered that far into the forest. A perfect place to train! No wandering eyes or the sneaky suspicion of someone watching their every move. Only downside... the distance.
Minutes soon turned to hours during the hike, and when they were almost there, Nora spotted something in the far off distance, pointing excitingly towards it.
"Hey! Look over there!"
Following her finger, the rest of Team JNPR spots a lone cabin in the woods hidden within the trees with a wide opened space beside it in clear need of a new coat of paint. Don't even get them started on the chipping wood, beyond filthy windows, and misplaced planks of wood sticking out the side of the cabin.
Don't.
"It seems to be a cabin in the woods," Pyrrha hummed.
"C'mon!" Nora ran towards the cabin. "Let's go check it out! I bet there's some awesome stuff in there!"
Jaune huffed, "What if someone is living in there?"
"I don't think anyone lives in there," Ren commented, trailing behind Nora.
Unable to stop their bubbly teammate, Pyrrha and Jaune followed shortly behind, reaching the broken porch. Both Jaune and Ren immediately dropped their bags, glad for a moment to rest as Nora peeked through the murky window, unable to see past the grime and darkness within.
Determined, she pushed open the window and jumped in before Ren could stop her. A few seconds later, they heard the sounds of a clumsy oops coming from inside as Nora probably crashed into any furniture within the darkness. Another a minute later, she returns energetic but with some dust sticking to her hair.
"Hey!" Nora yelled, popping her head out the dirty window. "This place is empty!"
"More like abandoned," Ren added.
"Why would there be a cabin way out here in Emerald Forest?" Pyrrha checked the chipping wood. "It seems oddly suspicious."
An imaginary light bulb appears over Nora's head, "If no one's living here, we can stay here for our two week break!"
Ren pulled her out the window, "I'm not sure that's such a great idea, Nora."
"Aw, c'mon," she begged, pulling Ren by the sleeve towards the timeworn door. "At least first take a look inside."
Knowing she wouldn't budge even if he said no, Ren sighed, looking back to his two other teammates. Of course they know as well Nora wouldn't go down without a fight, and decide to humor her. Besides, their campsite is only about an hour away and they still got a few hours of daytime left before sleeping for the night.
Where's the harm?
"Fine," dropping the camping bag, Jaune walked over to the door, ignoring Nora's celebratory yea in favor for getting this over with.
Opening the door, a thick layer of dust escapes the house and hits them full force. They're left there standing for a bit, blinking away the dust from their eyes before coughing away bits of dust as they ventured inside the abandon cabin. It's dark. Very dark. Unnaturally dark almost.
Pyrrha tried to see past her nose, "I can't see anything."
Getting an idea, "Here," Jaune creates a Supernova and the entire hallway is lit up in pure light. "Allow me."
Getting a better look of the hallway, they see the paint chipping on the walls as well with four doors leading to all different rooms on each corner of the hallway. One Nora already explored while the other three a complete mystery. And Jaune can't help but wonder what happened to the last people that lived here.
"Let's check out the room Nora went into."
Opening the door, Jaune slowly entered first with his Supernova illuminating the room. The first thing he spots is an old pinkish king-size bed at the corner of the room. Next to that is a dark chocolate dresser that still had some old clothes hanging out one of the drawers. And finally what looks to be a closet with the door wide open, housing nothing inside.
Basically a typical bare bedroom forgotten to the sands of time in this Grimm infested forest. Which, by the way, he's surprised they haven't run into at all yet.
"It's comfy looking," Nora moved closer inside, jumping on the bed that had more dust than possible. "The bed's super soft, too!"
Looking towards the corners, Jaune waves to her, "C'mon, Nora. There are still three more rooms to check."
She follows along beside Ren, giddy at the prospect of a bed.
They reach the second room and Jaune calmly opens the door before shining his Supernova into the room. He peaks inside before jumping back.
"It's... it's," Jaune dramatically steps a few more feet back, eyes wide with terror. "It's... it's!"
"What!" Pyrrha cried reaching for Crocea Mors strapped to her back! She knew something was wrong with this cabin! Go in Nora said. Please she begged. Why did she listen to her crazy teammate! "What is it?!"
Jaune takes another step back, breathing heavily, but then all the fear quickly drains away from his face in favor or a Nora level grin as he shines the Supernova in the room, "It's a bathroom!"
"..."
"Uh, Pyrrha—?"
"That's not funny!" she yelled, hitting him repeatedly on the body. She began to hit him much harder when the laughing started.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Jaune only sounded remotely sorry, unable to help himself. He held out his hands to protect his face, eventually grabbing Pyrrha's wrist within her assault. "I couldn't resist!"
Pyrrha didn't need to be told her face was bright red from embarrassment. She could literally feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. It didn't help with Nora snickering behind her with even Ren chuckling a laugh or two. And it especially didn't help with Jaune still laughing!
"It's not funny!" she yelled again, glaring hard at her leader. Jaune got the memo and forced himself not to laugh anymore, instead focusing on checking out the bathroom.
Unlike the room, the bathroom didn't have much dust. All the appliances were there. A shower with a Grimm designed curtain, a toilet that when checked, still flushed amazingly, and a sink and mirror. The coloring was all whitish with light shades of blue hue sinking into the tile flooring. In all, it was a bathroom out in the middle of Emerald Forest and Jaune for a quick second knew that this would probably persuade one of his teammates on actually staying in this cabin.
Shutting the door, they moved towards the end of the hall and checked another room that bore striking resemblance to the other bedroom down the hall except that this one had no window.
Striking three rooms down, they moved towards the final door, pushing it open and walking in to find an old dusty kitchen slash living room with a fireplace. A picture of an unknown Grimm hung over the fireplace above a worn out book with close signs of age edging around the corners.
There's a table by the corner of the room with cobwebs covering the chairs while the kitchen had opened cupboard with cans of food still inside. And besides the tasteful rug on the floor, nothing else really stands out except for the large red couch in the dead center of the room, piecing the room together and a window off to the side which shows the clearing next to the cabin, giving them a perfect view from the kitchen.
Done with the tour, they head outside and Nora's again the first to speak.
"It's like a home away from home!"
Pyrrha can't help but agree, "True. There even is a... bathroom," she glared back at Jaune who was busy willingly away his Supernova.
Nora hugged Ren from behind, "So can we stay! Please! I'm tired of walking."
Ren raises a silent brow.
She's tired of walking. Not him. The lazy one, the one who's been carrying all her stuff since they left Beacon all those hours ago, but her! Her! The small whine Nora gave when she leaned further on Ren only helped strengthen his resolve that Nora was a closet lazy person. Oh, she may be hyper at times, but at other times, she's even lazier than he is.
Never once thinking about voicing these concerns, he looks to Jaune, "It's the leader's decision, not mine."
Looking pleadingly over Ren's shoulder, Nora whimpers, wobbling her lower lip at Jaune, hugging Ren much tighter than before. The extra force does nothing to his nonchalant teammate, but even Jaune knows that Ren was beyond tired.
He looks away at the setting sun. It was getting dark and the idea of a bed did sound great, even if he had to share one with his fellow male because he doubted Pyrrha wanted to be near him after that little stunt he pulled a few minutes ago. And he's tired from the long trip and his Aura's running low.
Where's the harm?
"I guess we're staying here for the break," he grinned, leaning on the cabin wall.
Nora squealed, letting go of Ren as she ran back inside and quite nosily crashing into walls within the darkness. The windows only provided so much light after all and she came out a second later with bits of dust everywhere on her outfit, still looking positively pleased.
"So we're staying here instead of roughing it in the woods?" Ren asked a minute later, crossing his arms.
Jaune shrugged, "Seems like it."
Tapping his fingers on his forearm, Ren heavily thinks for a moment, staring down at the camping bags beside his feet. He sighs before turning to his leader, a thin lining crossing his mouth.
"Let me get this straight, you're telling me that you and I carried all this camping stuff for nothing?"
"Not for nothing," Nora hums for Jaune, lifting Ren's arm up. "It was a great workout! Besides, you both could use some more upper body strength."
...
Turning in early the night before, Jaune wakes up first to the rising sun peaking over the mountains, feeling his Aura completely recharged. He silently gets up, making sure not to wake up Ren and disturb the guy's totally needed sleep. And he did kind of owe his friend.
Stepping outside to the crisp forest air, he quietly closes the door, taking with him one of Ren's gross health bars for a breakfast choice. Not his greatest move, but anything else would make too much noise and wake his team up.
Walking towards the side of the cabin, he spots the clearing and heads over there, prepared to start practicing his new found Lore control. Lucky for him, Aura and Lore felt as if they shared some similar properties, helping immensely with his control over Lore. Thank Monty Lore and Aura are sort of the same. That makes it much easier to control. There's no way he's going back to dust counting.
And now that the Lore isn't fighting him every step of the way, he's fully prepared to take full advantage of it.
"Alright," he smirks as he begins to switch the Aura in his body with the Lore locked away in his soul. "Time for some training!"
Reaching the clearing, he feels the last of his Aura switch places with his Lore and a dark outline forms around Jaune before dissolving away. The cold feeling comes back to haunt him full force, but he easily pushes that aside, no longer fighting but embracing that fear.
Really does make controlling Lore all that much easier.
"OK! Let's do this!"
Creating a Supernova Lore in his hand—at least his control isn't totally gone—the Lore sphere quickly implodes within itself before falling down onto Jaune's hand once more, shrouding his palm in a layer of darkness, and Jaune's stuck feeling this intense pull coming from his hand. Trapping the Lore squarely to his hand, no matter how hard the leader tried to force otherwise.
How odd.
He tries a few more times, hoping the Supernova stay in form. He knows he's got the control for it, but it keeps falling back into his palm instead.
At this point, the technique couldn't even be called Supernova anymore if the Lore sphere keeps collapsing within itself. He's not even totally sure if this could be called a technique, anymore. Considering Jaune had no idea whatsoever on how to execute a proper whatever when it came to Lore.
Still, he's not giving up on discovering the secrets of Lore just yet. So he couldn't create a Supernova, big deal. Jaune's still got Shooting Star to back him up!
Forming his Aura gun, he concentrated and pulled together Lore towards his palm like for Aura, sensing his limit storage around three Lore sphere at the max. At least the Arc hopes they're Lore spheres and not more of this palm nonsense.
Aiming random towards the clear sky, Jaune's hand gets coated in a thin layer of Lore before he fires his first Lore sphere in absolute success, or at least that's how it started. The Lore ball shot out like an Aura sphere, circular and all, but compared to Aura... it was a bit lacking in the speed department. And by a bit, Jaune meant a lot. A lot-lot Nora would so elegantly put it.
Actually, the Lore orb stopped after traveling around ten feet. Just stopped, floating mid-air like the laws of physics and gravity didn't exist—mocking them almost. Except Jaune could faintly feel a tug coming from that Lore sphere, pulling him like how his Lore covered hand would. He seemed to gravitate towards the Lore sphere, or maybe it was the other way around and the Lore seemed to gravitate towards him.
He did not know yet.
But what he did know was that Lore ball was just hovering roughly ten feet in the air, though through some intense glaring, he did notice it slowly condensed, most likely withering away, but not like Aura.
Noting that, Jaune aimed for a lower ground elevation, curious to observe a Lore sphere closer without the damn thing hanging over his head, and fired promptly. Again the Lore orb traveled slowly about ten feet, stopping in midair again with its companion still hanging over Jaune's head. And yet again, Jaune can feel a tug coming from this one as well, calling out to him.
Hearing the Lore's call, he walked towards the hovering Lore sphere and observed the Lore sphere at a close angle for the first time, noticing unlike an Aura sphere, it was obviously black in color and perceived no light. Hardly larger than his palm, Jaune then reached out and tried to grab the Lore, surprised when he did, that the orb could actually be felt like a solid object.
Unlike Aura that supposedly burns hot and fast, Lore apparently cooled and formed a physical shape.
However, the action is very short-lived as the Lore sphere collapses within Jaune's palm again, once more coaxing his entire palm in Lore. He swiftly feels the pull again coming from his hand before feeling the pull coming from the Lore sphere hanging above his head, only half as large as before.
Feeling something unusual and allowing his instincts to drive him, he calmly extends his hand out towards the Lore sphere hanging above his head, and absently pulls that feeling from the Lore sphere, pushing limits. Nothing happens for a long moment until the Lore orb moves slightly closer to Jaune.
Well, that did nothing.
Absorbing the Lore in his palm, he glares fruitfully at the Lore sphere and tries to summon it towards him without the Lore encasing his hand, and like again, the sphere moves slightly towards Jaune. Well, at least he knew having the Lore on his hand didn't change his pull on the Lore sphere, but he's made very little progress so far.
Maybe it has to do something with his control?
Compared to his Aura control, Jaune's Lore control wasn't too great.
Sighing, he remembered all the times he practiced with his Aura control. Lore and Aura aren't the same and so the control wasn't either, "I'm so confused."
Watching the Lore sphere finally collapse within itself, his briefly notes that none of the Lore from the orb came back to him. Makes perfect sense, Jaune's Aura never comes back unless he's physically holding or hovering his Aura close enough to his body. As a matter of fact, Jaune can still feel one more Lore sphere concentrated into his hand, and this time he decides to fire it close to a rock. Maybe even figure out if Lore could even be used offensively.
Finding a poor unsuspecting boulder, Jaune moved real close, only about three feet away and fired his last Lore sphere. And this time! This time—the Lore sphere bounced on the rock before hovering slowly back harmlessly towards Jaune, stopping halfway in the air, and Jaune can feel a slow twitch starting to form on the edge of his of eye.
He had been afraid... of this?!
The damn thing didn't even so much as crack the rock. Compared to Aura so far impressive track record of overly destructive force, Lore definitely wasn't offensive. Not even close. No destructive force! No impossible explosions! No nothing! What good was Lore for then?!
Glaring at the floating black sphere, he laughed lazily, wondering to Monty what Lore actually did, "I hate my life."
Maybe he wasn't being completely fair to the poor energy source?
Giving up for now, Jaune was about to grab and absorb the Lore sphere, but a tiny rock floating in midair collided with his hand as he was reaching out. He paused, slowly grabbing the floating rock before seeing a few others floating as well, all around the hovering sphere. They floated around the sphere, moving around the mass of darkness in a slow never-ending circle.
Stunned for a long time, Jaune eventually grabbed a few more rocks, shuffling them in his hand for good measure. Then he calmly tossed a rock towards the Lore orb, fascinated when it slowed down in mid-air before joining the other small rocks circling around the orb.
Amused, he grinned, tossing a few more rocks, "Okay! Now this is awesome! Finally, we're getting somewhere."
Well, that explains the whole lack of gravity influence thing, he guessed. Sort of.
Almost all of the small rocks floated harmlessly around the sphere until he threw a much larger rock that simply passed by the orb and fell flat on the ground. Confused, he grabbed the rock again and this time coolly moved the rock closer to the orb, even more confused when the rock fell flat.
Going into Lore obsession mode, Jaune grabbed a handful of rocks of different sizes and dumped them above the Lore orb, utterly spellbound when an assortment of different small size rocks floated around the orb. Much larger rocks had merely fell towards the grass floor which Jaune just barely noticed seemed to be attracted to the Lore sphere as well.
All the blades of grass near the orb pointed towards the sphere's direction, being pulled by the same gravity as the rocks, but stuck to the earth. In all, the Lore sphere appeared to be a gravity ball of sorts. Anything small and that weighed little seemed to be affected by the sphere compared to things far heavier. A nice trick Jaune will admit, but hardly offensive when he finally sat down and thought about it.
Tilting his head, Jaune looked at the floating rocks, thinking of some crazy ideas.
Trying to summon the orb closer to him, the sphere hardly moved a foot, and Jaune's forced to think of a way on how to make this discovery of Lore's weird gravitational properties more effective. Maybe better control over Lore would give him a greater gravity input?
"Who knows," he shrugs, smiling at finally figuring something out about Lore other than its cold properties. "Since you love to miss with gravity so much, I think I'll call you Gravity!"
Trying to will Gravity closer, it barely reaches his outstretched hand before collapsing within his palm again, encasing his hand once more in a black layer. The rocks that had been floating quickly fall helplessly to the floor, and Jaune gets a crazy idea. If Gravity can pull objects closer to it, then if it's in his hand, then the same physics must apply!
Reaching out, Jaune felt that same pull from earlier and aimed his hand towards the rocks on the floor, trying to pull them towards him. It doesn't work and he's left standing there like a fool, "I knew that was too much to ask for."
Willing away his Lore, he sighed at his failed experiment, but not completely miserable. At least he learned something about Lore and a new technique. Even if the technique still didn't look like it could help him much in a fight. Well, at least not yet. Give him some time to practice his Lore control and who knows how much Gravity could control!
Speaking of Lore control," Let's see," he mused, counting away with his fingers. "I tried using my Supernova and then Shooting Star and all I got was a new technique. Next should be summoning my Excalibur!"
Excited at the notion of a black looking Excalibur, Jaune stretched his hand out and tried to form his sword—tried being the key word as nothing happened. He tried again, even going as so far as to switch back to his Aura and checking to make sure he could create Excalibur, but no sword formed when he was using Lore. No matter how many times he tried to form the sword, it never came. Oh, he could feel the Lore trying to focus on the actions he wanted, but unlike Aura, he didn't yet have the control to perform the move.
"Great!" he kicked the boulder before leaning on it. "Looks like it's back to training all over again."
Looking at the still early morning sky, Team JNPR's leader figured his team wasn't getting up anytime soon, especially if Nora had her way. It was a good of a time as any to begin his Lore training and he still had nothing better to do, anyways.
Not really sure on how he could improve his Lore control passed his current level, Jaune created a Lore sphere, watching as it collapsed into his hand again. He then focused the Lore to bend into his palm, wondering what to do.
Shooting out the Lore sphere, Gravity floated harmlessly in the air, already attracting a few rocks towards it. Jaune humorlessly stretched out his hand, trying to pull the sphere closer to him. It hardly moved of course, but it did give him an idea.
Trying to pull Gravity once more, the same subtle movement caught his eye, and he wondered. Perhaps learning to pull the Lore sphere could be inferred as training. Jaune didn't see any other alternatives and he's gotten this far based off crazy ideas.
Another wouldn't hurt.
Feeling the Lore bubbling in his soul, he smirked as he reached out towards the sphere, silently calling it forth.
...
Stepping out towards the vacant field after spotting Jaune through the kitchen window, Pyrrha sees Jaune messing with what looks to be three Lore spheres, casually moving them in the air. They moved slowly, and her leader was sweating from obvious training, but he looked outright pleased nevertheless with every little movement that he made.
Walking up to him, her eyes followed the spheres, and she stood behind him, "What are those?"
Caught off-guard, Jaune jumped back, holding a hand over his heart, "Pyrrha! Don't sneak up on a guy like that. You almost gave me a heart attack!"
She giggled at his clumsiness and payback, "Sorry, Jaune," the humor in her eyes made it hard to accept her apology. "So... what are those?"
Feeling his pulse return to normal, Jaune smirked lightly and willed a Lore sphere closer, impressed with himself that he could call the orb from about almost two feet away. Although very slow, the process was still an improvement since he first started this morning.
"I call them Gravity. It's the Lore form of Shooting Star. Here, watch," grabbing a few tiny rocks from the floor, Jaune tossed them towards a single orb and Pyrrha's eyes widen in slight captivation. "Isn't that amazing?!"
She will admit that was impressive, "It truly is... What happens if you throw rocks with all three closer together?"
"You know," he paused, willingly the other Gravities closer. "I haven't thought of that. Let's see."
Bringing them close, Jaune threw more small rocks at the orbs and they floated like usual, however, they ceased to float around the orbs anymore, instead remaining to hover lifelessly in the air. Curious, he got a bigger rock and added it in with the orbs, only slightly amazed that this time it floated with the rest.
Well, he should've seen that coming.
"Looks like the more Gravities I bring closer together, the stronger their pull is," he noted. "So far a single Gravity can only hold the little rocks. See."
Forcing the Gravities to split apart, the much larger rock fell from the lack of force holding it up while the much smaller rocks followed alongside the Lore. To anyone else, the sight would be outright remarkable, but Pyrrha's already found the event normal after baring witness to some of Jaune's more, destructive powers.
And while she's on the thought of destructive powers, "You said this was the Lore's Shooting Star form?"
"Oh, yea, they are," he waved absently, willingly the Gravities back and forth. "Too bad they don't do much on the damage part. I shot one at a rock and nope, nothing! Just bounced off harmlessly away from the stupid rock," he sighed. "So I wouldn't even call it Shooting Star now if I think about it. Just Gravity is fine. Besides, they're too slow to be called dangerous."
"At least it seems you have a good grasp on them."
"Are you kidding? Darn things are impossible to move! It's taken me forever to do this!" he willed Gravity back and forth a foot in a very slow speed. "You should've seen this earlier. I could barely budge them. I can't even create a sword yet!"
Wait a second? Earlier? "Jaune? How long have you've been practicing with Lore?"
"I don't know... a couple of hours, maybe."
Worried at the unknown effects Lore could have, Pyrrha gently nudged her leader's interests, "Shouldn't you take a break and go back to your Aura? Who knows what effects Lore could have on you after prolong use? You've never gone this long with Lore before."
"Aw," Jaune waved with Nora level care. "Lore's not that bad after you get past all the freaky darkness. Here! Wanna take a closer look?"
Willing a Gravity sphere closer to his partner, Pyrrha felt a pull coming from the orb and a feeling of dread and coldness immediately washing over her. She took a step closer and that sudden pull got even stronger and all her instincts told her to get away from the Gravity.
Now!
"No... I'm fine," just staring at prone Lore sphere sent chills down her spine. She smiled wistfully as she took a step back, "I'm fine over here."
"Hn?" he shrugged, practicing his control again. "Suit yourself."
Leaving Jaune to his own devices, Pyrrha wasn't even sure how her leader could just stand there and freely manipulate the Gravity orbs around without sensing that feeling of coldness coming from them. Maybe he could and just has gotten so use to it already like his Aura's brightness, or maybe it was something else entirely different.
"Get up, Ren!"
Well, Nora's up. Sounds like poor Ren is too.
Hearing Nora yell, Jaune looked away from his orbs towards the cabin before absorbing all three Gravities. And the moment he did, that strange feeling in Pyrrha's chest went away. The cold feeling still lingered all over her body, but she no longer felt an intense pull.
"I wonder if we can get Ren to make us some breakfast?" Jaune wondered, heading towards the cabin. And he did have a point; Ren did pack a lot of ingredients and instant pancake mix for Nora, knowing full well at how she gets during her pancake withdrawals.
But Pyrrha's just glad that Jaune wasn't practicing his Lore control at the moment.
...
Walking in to find Ren in the kitchen with ingredients for pancakes stacked on the counter, Pyrrha and Jaune spot Nora cleaning up the cobwebs surrounding the room, using one of Jaune's spare shirts to clean, and Jaune does nothing to stop her. Best not to fight a losing battle he decides when Lie Ren was in charge of making his breakfast.
"There you two are!" Nora poked, cleaning a cobweb off from the chairs. "Where were you guys?!"
"I woke up to find Jaune practicing his... Lore outside," Pyrrha answered, still a little unnerved at the thought, but Nora's having none of that.
"Really!" she leans on the table, her eyes sparkle impossibly brighter. "And you didn't wake me up!"
"I woke up kind of early," Jaune laughed, sitting down at the table. "But I can show you something new I learned."
Concentrating more Lore into his palm, he formed his personal gun and fired a Gravity towards the vacant living room. The orb travels slowly in the air before coming to a complete stop midway, and Jaune wills the ball to come towards him, levitating the sphere at the center of the table for Nora to see.
"Whoa!" her eyes get even brighter before she rushes to Ren, pulling his sleeve like Ruby at a weapon's shop. "Ren, look!"
He does so while expertly still preparing breakfast, "And what is that?"
Jaune wills the orb to move closer to Ren, "I call it Gravity. It doesn't do much in the explosion side and I don't think it can do any real damage, but it does seem able to control gravity. For example," he pulls out a few rocks from his pocket, tossing them at the sphere. It floats to Nora's forever amusement and Ren's slight eye widening. "See! They float!"
"Hence the name," Ren stated.
"Yup!"
Unable to control her excitement any longer, Nora rushes over and plucks a few of the floating rocks. She throws them back at the orb, laughing at the fun game she's made for herself. And she continues this against the cold feeling she's been ignoring ever since Jaune summoned the sphere, rationalizing the sensation as nothing but goosebumps.
But when she attempts to touch it, her instincts, like Pyrrha, tell her to move away immediately. She of course ignores this as slight paranoia for venturing into the unknown, but when her hand comes dreadfully closer than Pyrrha ever did, she starts to feel a little woozy and hesitantly backs off.
Though she hides it well, Ren still sees right through her, walking up towards her and subtly pulling her away from the Lore sphere. He's not sure if it's the orb or the cold forest air, but he's not taking any chances once that feeling of coldness filled his lungs. The same feeling his leader had described feeling when he first accessed this dark power.
"You might want to put that out, Jaune," Ren informed, finishing up the breakfast platter. "We don't want any of the food to start floating now."
Not seeing the tense movements from his teammates as he played with with his Gravity, Jaune absorbed the sphere, grinning, "Good idea."
Feeling the warmth coming back to them, Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief and sat down at the table beside her leader. Nora joined so after and Ren set the table and food out, serving his teammates the fruits of his labor, both figuratively and literally.
"Let's eat!" Nora pounces at her defenseless pancake, smiling a pancake filled smiled at Ren. "These are the best pancakes you've ever made, Ren!"
"You say every time I make you pancakes."
"That's because it's true every time!"
Enjoying both their cheerful banter and Ren's cooking skills, which was a godsend compared to Beacon's current chef strike, Pyrrha got a better look around the room as natural light filled the corners.
The room was a deep rich color of chocolate as the others and the fireplace was made of stone. The picture of the Grimm hanging above the fireplace was one she still didn't recognize, but the monster appeared fierce, dragon like in appearance. Below that picture leaned a book on the stone wall, most likely long forgotten by its previous owners.
The champion will admit, she's curious. And the curiosity gets the better of her, forcing her to stand up and walk over and pick up the book gently, afraid that she'll break the fragile literature.
"Whatcha got there, Pyrrha?" Nora asked with a mouthful of pancakes.
What a great question.
Time to find out the answer.
"I don't know," she sits down and opens the tomb, glazing over the words written down in a sequence of lines. "It seems to be a dictionary."
"A dictionary?" Jaune repeats.
"Exactly, though it appears to be very old. See here," she points at a random word. "Amend. That's a word no one uses anymore or even exist in modern dictionaries." She flips through the pages, scanning random words. "A lot of these words aren't used anymore. This book's ancient."
"So it's an old book," Nora poked, silently grabbing a piece of Ren's pancake. "Maybe we should keep it! Give it a nice loving home! Wait—we could give it to Blake! She loves books and she's always hanging out in our room... so it's perfect!"
Pyrrha nods at the idea, placing the book down and attacking her own breakfast. But her eyes keep traveling back down at the worn passage, getting an even bigger question on her mind... how old is this cabin?
The dictionary appears to be far too old to just be lying around randomly here.
Someone must of found this book and—perhaps she's thinking too hard on the matter. After all, it's just an old dictionary from Monty knows where. Who knows if the person even read the book, very less actually left it on purpose behind to avoid carrying unnecessary weight.
It's just an old dictionary with words no one uses anymore.
Nothing too special.
...
Having finished their breakfast, Jaune led his team outside to the clearing, telling them he had a surprise for them. A training surprise. And they stood patiently in the clearing with their respected weapons drawn, ready for Jaune's surprise. Well, Pyrrha and Ren stood, Nora lounged lazily on the boulder Jaune attempted earlier to break to pieces.
"So I've decided," he started off, winging this decision. "I'm going to help you improve your Aura control," from the questionable stares, he adds, "Think of it as a way of saying thanks... for... everything."
No one says anything for a minute until Nora sits right up, leaning impossibly far off the boulder without actually falling over the side, eyes wider than he's ever seen. It's also the biggest smile he's ever seen on her face, ever.
"Really!" she squeals, jumping up and down on the rock.
He finds her attitude contagious, "Yes, really, Nora."
Before Jaune could prepare himself for the inevitable, Ren intervenes and quickly grabs Nora before she could leap out and strangle their leader in a death hug. Don't get him wrong, she's still very much fidgeting in his hold, trying to break free in a pointless effort. And eventually she tires herself out, hanging aimlessly in under Ren's arm.
Dropping Nora back on the rock, Ren's eyes never wavered away from his leader, "And how exactly will you be teaching us?"
Jaune grinned, waving his hand in an endless circle, "OK! I may not be some professor, but I'm pretty sure I can help you find some way to improve your Aura control."
"Are you sure, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, grabbing Crocea Mors.
"Of course! What kind of leader would I be if—?"
"Could you teach me to make a Supernova?" Nora cuts in, jumping and forever claiming the rock as her own.
He shrugs, "Depends on how good you are. You might not even be able to control your Aura at all for all I know. But I'm still going to give it my all. And I expect you too!"
"You got it," Nora saluted, getting lost in a day dream with her very own version of Supernova at her disposal.
Pulling out his Aura notebook, Jaune tossed the book at Ren who honestly thought it was a good idea to get a better handle on his Aura. But first, "And again, how exactly do you plan to teach us?"
Smirking, how else! "Beats me! We're going to wing it. That's how I learned to control my Aura!" Well, that and dust counting. But he'll damned if he let's Nora on that let little secret.
Still, he gets mixed, positive reactions.
Nora can't nod fast enough to the idea, Pyrrha seems perfectly intrigued at the idea, and Ren's fixing his leader a questionable gaze at best. But none of them were straight out saying no. Why would they? Free Aura training!
And Jaune Arc may not know, but he's got his team's full support. They believe in him unconditionally.
"And when exactly did you want to start?" Pyrrha asked.
Looking around the empty clearing and spotting the still high sun,"How about now or later if you want. We could always go exploring first."
Nora is the first to jump at the chance of now, shifting closer to her Fearless Leader with Pyrrha eventually following suit. Ren smiled , sitting beside Nora, wondering still how their Fearless Leader planned to teach them Aura control.
Weirder things have happened.
Unsure on how to start, Jaune scratches the side of his head, thinking where a lesson in Aura control should begin. Monty knows he's not cut out to be a professor.
Before he could wing anymore of this plan, Pyrrha interrupts, "You're not still using Lore... are you?"
"Yea," he answers slowly. "... Why?"
"Well," she smiles wistfully, not liking the idea of her leader exposed to that power any longer, "Maybe you should switch back to your Aura, Jaune."
"It would be kind or weird if you're trying to teach us Aura control while you yourself aren't using Aura," Ren added.
Thinking it over, Jaune touches his face, "Well... it would be nice to be warm again."
Switching his powers, Jaune feels all the coldness leaving his body the moment his Aura filled his soul. That numbness he felt in chest is gone and his smile even gets brighter than before.
He almost forgot how great Aura felt.
Now that that's done, he starts thinking of a way to teach his teammates Aura control. Eventually an idea pops into his head and he begins by simply letting his Aura wash over him in a nice shade of snow, illuminating each corner of his body. By starting off where he got his inspiration to use his Aura as a weapon, Jaune planned to walk them through each part of his process one step at a time.
"So?" he trails, lifting his glowing hand. "I'm guessing you can all least glow, right?"
The slow, absent blinks he receives does not bode too well for Jaune Arc.
Author Notes: Edited 10/28/2016