Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.
Shadow
By: Imyoshi
Turns out teaching Aura control is not the same as leading a team with no background history of combat skills whatsoever.
Leading was easy—being a leader was easy.
Teaching Aura control was supposedly impossible.
And he's come to learn this from a whole wasted day of training.
The truth of the reality, everyone's Aura was vastly different, just like their personalities or souls. No two of them were the same, which meant he couldn't train someone with a different biological setting. It was a matter of impossibility. Nothing simpler.
That didn't mean he didn't try and teach them from where he learned. And the face they made would forever be ingrained into his memory, most especially Nora's and her arrogant grin. Though to be fair, she had every point to be, right down to the never-ending teasing.
Dust counting! It always came back to dust counting. And, really, he didn't know why dust counting helped him solve the secrets of Aura, forever a mystery to the young Arc. Maybe it was because Aura was just crazy like that or maybe it had something to do with dust being the basic foundation where everything starts off from, right down to the smallest of particles. Same like the universe. Ren's far-fetched, impossible theory, not his.
And he really didn't know. None of it made any sense. None of it!
But he told them, and they tried to absorb the knowledge like a dying sponge to a puddle of water. Didn't work. Neither Ren nor Pyrrha really had the patience to count dust in the air, and he couldn't blame them. It's more of an unfocused activity one does alone and not for training purposes.
Like Nora and him.
And after trying for many hours to count at least the fewest specs of dust, someone always losing count on which ones they did count or whether or not that was something in their eyes, both Ren and Pyrrha gave up for the day. Nora on the other hand expertly counted the dust, actually feeling something vaguely familiar to what she described as Aura control, but only after forgetting why she had been counting in the first place.
But she's very limited and not that all good at it. Better than both Ren and Pyrrha he will admit from watching her Aura bend ever so lightly to her will, but very weak and uncoordinated. It might've had something to do with her Aura being so chaotic and wild, as trying to control something like that was the same as trying to control Nora herself.
It couldn't be done.
They did say her Aura was a manifestation of one's soul and if that was the case, then he couldn't really help her learn to control that power. That was all on her and her alone. And when he told her this, told her he's at his limit at what he could teach her, her face scrunched in unbelievable sadness for the briefest of moments, only to be replaced again with a happy-go-lucky attitude that the Arc didn't believe for a second.
A crack is what he saw. It was small and insignificant and he would've missed it except he's seen it too many times these past two weeks. Short and almost non-existent, really. And when it came down to it, Jaune wasn't even sure if she did frown at all, but someone sure knew, but she said nothing, hoping nothing bad would come from it.
Two days later into their training trip and none of Jaune's teammates haven't come any closer to even glowing. Pyrrha and Ren eventually don't bother trying too hard to control their Aura, using some of the break to actually relax and hone their skills instead. Ren practices a little still, feeling like he should at least be able to glow, but Pyrrha seems to have thrown in the towel and instead settled to relax and have friendly spars with Jaune and his Aura sword every so often. On the side note, his Aura sphere storage within his palm seems to have increased to three. A nice surprise.
Nora on the other hand has yet to let the dust counting thing go, and Jaune doubted she would anytime soon. Strangely, not only is she's also the only one able to kind of control her Aura to an extent, she finally learns to glow midway into day three. A very marginal extent compared to his Aura control, but still greater than Pyrrha or Ren's. Sadly, that seems to also be the wall she's hit, unable to glow brightly or for very long. And based off the way her Aura refused to move within her Space, Jaune could almost safely say Aura control to even his weakest level was practically beyond her reach.
Such a shame, Nora really wanted her own Supernova. It's all she's been talking about non-stop for the past three days. Honestly begging Monty to give her the power. And the leader feels bad at not being able to be anymore help. He's just not cut out for this teaching stuff.
With him unable to teach them much, Jaune finds a large boulder nearby some trees and sits down to relax and practice more of his control over his Lore. Nora continues to practice her Aura control in what appeared to be desperation, Ren watches the clouds, and Pyrrha swings around Crocea Mors in an impressive display of skill.
Another normal day for Team JNPR.
...
Laying tiredly on a rock outside of the clearing with a single Gravity orb hanging close by, Jaune practiced moving the orb without his hands and only his sheer willpower. A lost effort as nothing much except for the occasional twitch came from the orb, but whenever his hands came into play, the orb reacted more. And by reacted, he meant still very slow. Faster than when he first discovered the technique, but slower to be used as a firing projectile of any king.
Moving the Gravity back and forth, Jaune mindlessly tossed a few stones towards the orb, still fascinated by the effect on gravity the Lore sphere had on them. The stones drifted endlessly around the orb, defying many of the laws of physics he's come to somewhat know. Makes him wonder what other uses Lore could have or the unknown properties still lurking beneath the dark abyss that hovered before him. Mysteries of this dark power begged to be solved, and he wanted to be the one to solve them.
He's so lost in the oddity that Jaune didn't notice Ren walk up until he practically sat beside Jaune, interrupting his stargazing by only the sudden shift of the wind and soft thud of the dirt.
Ren doesn't say anything at first, pushing away that alarming instinct to move away from the Lore sphere, but he absently studied the Gravity to an unnerving level. Little things here and there he silently picked up, like the fact that no light seemed to bounce off the pitch-black orb, refusing to have any shine whatsoever from the sun or how unnaturally cold it got whenever the orb and his proximity became compromised, no matter the temperature.
Jaune never seemed to notice any of this, or perhaps his leader simply didn't care too much, far more fascinated with the inner working of Lore capabilities than the rich darkness those orbs gravitated that seemed to pierced into his very soul. Ren wasn't entirely sure, content to letting his leader to break the barriers and push past the limits of understanding Aura.
Conversely, watching Jaune carelessly move around the Gravity in the air sparked something in the man, allowing him to truly see the person everyone labeled as no threat. Truly fools they were. Never underestimate your opponent, Grimm or man, a rule drilled into hunters-in-training from day one, and yet most thought the rules didn't apply to their leader. Again, simply foolish views from foolish individuals who've let their opinions get the better of them.
Jaune broke Ren's train of thought by making the Gravity do a small barrel in the air before willingly it to lower closer to the grass and hover for a bit, attracting the thin blades of grass towards the mass of gravity. Aura prodigy or not, their leader still loved to have fun. Reminded him a lot of his riv—?!
No, that's absurd. She's not his rival. Ruby's only being ridiculous and unnecessarily stubborn. It's not completely his fault she has yet to beat him in a spar. Maybe if she stopped eating such unhealthy portions of sugar and used her time more efficiently on her footwork, then feasibly she could keep up. Not likely, he knows, but he digresses.
Forcing away the thoughts, Ren spares a glance at Jaune silently maneuvering his hand towards the Lore sphere, pushing the orb farther away and thus ridding Ren of that cold feeling bearing down on him. Did nothing to the demoralizing glare the orb seemed to give naturally, but the movements still impress the ninja.
"I still can't believe you learned this all on your own."
"Hn?" Jaune stops his controlling of his Gravity, allowing the orb to hover near the floor. The saying gets his attention, creating a grin on his lips, "I know, huh? That's what I thought. I mean, Aura control shouldn't have been this easy." Secretly Jaune had hoped Ren could grasp the basics of Aura control, already having a foundation to start with. Alas, it appeared naught, just like Pyrrha.
Ren peered over to Pyrrha and Nora, noting their no progress, "Maybe it's your semblance?"
He expects Jaune to agree if not at least think about it, but he's generally surprised instead, "I don't think so. If so, how do you explain this then?" Pointing to the Gravity, he calmly moves it away, still practicing his control. Every second counts, and the Vytal tournament is only getting closer with each. "If Aura control is my semblance, then this here makes no sense to me."
"No more than it does for me either."
"Besides," he shrugs, pointing directly at Ren. "Every time I see someone use their semblance, be it Pyrrha, Weiss, Ruby, it really doesn't matter, they always get surrounded by this strange power or have this power following them. It's a lot..." pausing, a thought comes to him. "It's a lot like yours! I can totally tell the difference between your semblance and your Aura. But for me, I feel no difference."
Hearing the words and trying hard to grasp the concept, Ren casually controls his Aura, influencing some of his semblance into the air. The effect is immediate and Jaune's sneezing from the sudden pollen in the wind, throwing off his leader's control over Gravity, but he manages to quickly halt and regain control over the orb before it could pick up speed and deteriorate.
Knowing Ren had something to do with his sudden sneezing, Jaune turned to glare but the action dies as a new sensation gradually overcomes him. Slowly Ren's pink Aura becomes visible again to his eyes for the first time while he's manipulating Lore. There's no Space, but he can see his Aura.
Just to make sure he's not dreaming, he blinks a few times, ultimately rubbing his eyes for good measure as a last precaution. But nope, Ren's pinkish Aura glows bright and before he knows it, he's already looking across the clearing and spots Nora and Pyrrha's Aura as well.
Jaune couldn't stop the grin on his face even if a pack of Beowolves jumped out the woods and charged directly at him. The moment's too powerful for words.
"What are you looking at?" Ren poked, sitting up more.
Seeing Ren's Aura react to his hasty mood shift made the Arc laugh, and the moment's only funnier when Ren checks to see if something is hidden on his person. He doesn't blame the poor guy with a best friend like Nora always lurking over his shoulder with her unexpected tendencies. There's most likely a story or two if he dug deep enough, but for now, he's damn happy.
Ending his laugh, Jaune grins, "I can finally see your Aura now while using Lore."
Ren frowned, never knowing his leader's Lore control was that limited. For such a dangerous power, he worried for him. "You couldn't before?"
"Nope!" he's too happy to care. "Still can't feel your Space though, but at this rate, I'll get there."
Thinking over the implications of better control of the dark power, Ren agreed, "I guess that means your control is getting better. Maybe soon you'll be able to create a sword out of Lore."
Picturing an Excalibur made out of the dark substance excites Jaune and he calls Gravity to approach him, wanting to maybe try and manipulate the orb now but knowing he couldn't yet by instinct, "Yea..."
As he wills the sphere closer and closer, his eyes widen lightly at the small pink stands of Aura being pulled towards Gravity. The closer it gets to them, the more of Ren's Aura seems to be literally gravitating towards the sphere, being pulled deep into the cold chasm that was Gravity. Doing what appears to be draining away his teammate's Aura in a never-ending fashion.
Stopping the orb and mind racing, Jaune's head whips over to Ren and for first time since he's created Gravity, he's noticing the leveled pained expression on his friend's face and the tense posture he's suddenly taken with his shoulders hunched and body rigid. Then there's his Aura altogether. The energy, the very manifestation of his soul seemed to be bending to Gravity's will, pulling Ren's Aura constantly with none escaping.
But that's impossible.
He wrote in his Aura notebook—which now that he thinks about it, he should get himself a Lore notebook—that aura wasn't affected by gravity. At least that's how it appeared to be. But now if Gravity's pull can affect him and his Aura and Lore was considered downright dangerous to be around, then... then now—?!
Springing forward, Ren's caught off guard from Jaune's sudden quick actions, even more so when his leader grabbed the Lore sphere, quickly draining away the orb back into the resides of his soul, thus robbing away the cold feeling washing over him and killing the instincts to run. But the calm doesn't settle his nerves; the storm is only just approaching.
Shifting his sights back on Ren, Jaune can see his Aura no longer being pulled away or disrupted, but he still takes note at how much less Ren has than before and how much easier his body has relaxed. Gravity had been draining away his Aura, pulling the power and light into a black hole of sorts, unable to escape once caught. And what a terrifying thought and power.
Forget his earlier assumption that Lore had no offensive capabilities. Lore was devastating if what he saw was true. Far more earth shattering than he could ever think possible. And that's a lot from a guy whose entire arsenal consisted of Aura based attacks that favored enormous explosions and Aura piercing bullets of blinding light.
"Jaune," Ren asked, standing up as well. "What's wrong?"
Glaring at his palm, Jaune slowly closes his hand, releasing a breath he hadn't know he'd been holding. Everything, everything was wrong. Or maybe nothing was wrong. He didn't know. Nothing made much sense to him right now, but what he did focus on was Ren's earlier posture, practically engraving the trapping of his Aura into his brain.
Still unable to fathom what he just witness, he silently sighed, turning his head towards Ren, "H-How long... Ren... Ren, how does it feel when you're around my Gravity or just me in general whenever I'm messing around with my Lore?"
Sensing his leader's unnaturally powerful concern, the very same he had with the issue of Pyrrha; Ren avoided his questioning gaze to settle on Nora and Pyrrha training. Guess that cold unbearable feeling hadn't all been in their head. Kind of nice actually. For a second there, the stoic male thought his natural fears were just getting the better of him.
"When you're covered in your Lore, nothing," he answered honestly, giving Jaune a subtle sideways glance. "But whenever you have those Gravities hovering close by, it feels as if a cold sensation washes over me. I feel my instincts telling me to move away from your Gravity. I'm pretty sure the same goes for Nora and Pyrrha. Believe me, I've noticed. They both have the same reaction as well."
The words sluggishly melted into Jaune's brain, forcing the leader to lightly touch his skin at the mention of a cold sensation. Like the one he feels whenever he uses Lore—like right now. That cold sensation? Couldn't be?
Could it?
Sensing for his Lore, Jaune allows some to glow around his palm in a calm outline of black, not completely obscuring his vision of his hand, but definitely hiding away some of the color of his skin. Unlike Aura's warm comforting feeling, Lore felt ice to the touch, robbing away that same warmth. It's something he's practically use to now, but never once actually look too deeply into.
After all, maybe there was a reason Lore robbed the light and trapped the warmth from reaching his body.
Adding more Lore to his hand, Jaune felt the similar sensation of a gravitational feeling within his hand; quickly looking back up to Ren and seeing if his Aura was being pulled in. No such luck, but that matters little to him.
What does matter however, "How come you never told me?"
"I can't speak for Nora or Pyrrha, but at first I assumed it was just irrational fear for the unknown," he paused, sparing Jaune a look. "But now I could assume that you have a better explanation?"
Adding ever more Lore to his palm, the gravitational pull becomes just as powerful as when his Supernova collapses into his hand, completely concealing his hand in a dusk of bleak. Jaune then blinks once at Ren, remembering Gravity's effect on his Aura and quietly lifts his hand at him, acting once on that gravitational pull as he tried a couple days earlier on his Lore spheres, only this time aiming it at something Aura based.
"Yea, I do," embracing the feeling and allowing them to guide him, his dark hand forms a small vortex around his palm and Jaune can instantly see Ren's Aura being sucked into his palm in an alarming rate, trapping his Aura with the power surprisingly like a—like a, "Trap... Black Hole."
Jaune of course quickly releases the action, only trapping a tiny bit of Ren's Aura, but he's still surprised at both the discovery of some of Lore's properties and the way Ren's body jerked a bit forward from the move. He's even more so when Ren's Aura clung tighter to his own body, looking as if it was waiting purposely for another dose of Lore.
The discovery excites him even more, but he's instantly on guard when Ren's staring at him with widening eyes, holding a hand above his chest in a defensive stance without any form of recognition to what just happened. The action immediately fills the Arc with dread, only now realizing the possible harm he could've done to his teammate and friend. Not to mention his only male friend at that.
Don't get the Arc wrong, he likes his female friends, but there is only so much he could listen to the girls talk about girlish products, boy bands, fattening foods, and guys before he wants to throw himself into a lake and wait to see how long until the bubbles stop popping.
The temptation only grows stronger each day.
"Sorry about that, I didn't really think about what I was doing," he grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in guilt. "It just sort of happened."
Normally Ren would demand a better apology or even a better explanation, but he knows Jaune isn't one-hundred percent himself while playing around with that dark power, remembering his leader's first depressing mood swings when he first learned to contact the strange power, and the idea of possibly discovering something new about Lore probably overwhelmed his poor leader's love to discover. So he's not too surprised from his impulsive action, half-expecting something of the sorts.
But still, "You owe me," it wasn't a question and Jaune nods before Ren continues. "Now... what was that?"
Grinning larger, Jaune lifted out his hand, moving his fingers playfully, "That my friend... was Lore."
"What?"
"You asked if I knew what that was about and that strange feeling you guys have been getting. Well I just figured it out thank you very much," sitting back down, Ren followed suit and Jaune leaned back on the rock, moving his palm out. Seconds later he forms his gun and fires a lone Gravity out towards the clearing as far as possible before his control starts to slip. "You see there, how Gravity pulls all that small stuff close to it?"
"I do," Ren affirmed, glad Jaune pushed the sphere very far away this time. He can still feel that jolting sensation around his body from when Jaune did that... Black Hole technique. He'll have to wait and see what his leader says about that.
Willingly the orb to move up and down, he plays with the sphere, "Well it turns out that Lore might have an effect on gravity."
"I thought we already established that your Gravity... affects gravity?"
"No!" he jumps, willingly the orb to crash down onto the floor and thus picking up a few pebbles on its ascent back up. "I think all of Lore has something to do with gravity! Earlier when I... when I," his energetic tone lost its bravo. "When... I moved my Gravity closer to you, I saw through Space your Aura being pulled into the orb, practically bending to the will of Gravity."
Ren's got to give his leader some credit, that double meaning in the sentence proved to be impressive, but moving aside that silly notion, he silently absorbed the bits of knowledge Jaune told him, feeling some of the puzzle he's been stuck with finally piecing itself back together.
However, not all the pieces yet fit.
"If I remember correctly Jaune, you stated that Aura didn't bend to gravity."
"I know what I said! C'mon," he throws his hands up, feeling defensive. "Cut me some slack here, I'm going in blind here, remember? It's not like anyone just so happened to toss me a manual on how this Aura control stuff works. It's all still new to me."
Ren wonders if he should tell his leader he had only been half joking, but fights the urge, enjoying the defensive tone he's fighting with. Of course he knows Jaune's still learning all this; being the only one capable of such a task must be an unimaginable burden.
But revenge does sure feel sweet. And speaking of the reason behind his revenge, "... So with your hand... you...?"
"Oh? That?" lifting up his hand, Jaune encasing his palm in Lore, feeling the same exact gravitational pull as before. "After seeing Gravity draining away your Aura, I had this strange idea that to test whether or not the same rules apply for this. And it did after I used it on you—again, sorry for that! And that's where I got the idea that maybe all Lore is connected to gravity. Maybe Aura can only be affected by Lore?"
Lie Ren doesn't think he'll ever get use to Jaune being so passionate about something. Seeing his leader talk and act with Nora level enthusiasm always intrigued him, allowing him to compare his leader to his past self and then current self, many times. The anomalies are too different to properly compare.
Willingly away both his Black Hole and Gravity, Jaune's mind raced at the endless possibilities, not yet fully seeing the bigger picture, "So if Lore can pull and trap aura like a black hole, then do you know what this means?!"
"... That Lore is dangerous to anyone using Aura, including your own team."
He stops halfway with a grin on his face that slowly dies, molding into a stubborn frown, "Well... after the way you said it, it sounds all bad and stuff."
It was bad was what Ren wanted to say. There's probably a reason no one had pitch-black Aura. And there's probably an ever bigger reason to why Lore had all these nasty side effects like mood depression, cold skin, a sense of weariness—the list went on! But throw in this Aura draining business and Jaune's got himself a damn scary power with a greater drawback.
On the other side, he's limited to one or the other. Aura or Lore. One cannot coexist with the other. And then there's the fact that his Lore spheres seemed to have an almost set slow speed and distance that they could only move so far before their effect on Aura seems to wear off and lessen, along with his leader's control. While compared to his Aura's overly pure destructive power, blinding brightness, and incredible speed, Lore seemed very lacking in the offensive capabilities still. More on the teetering edge of purely self-defense that's overwhelming offense.
Pyrrha once mentioned to him that Jaune's Aura attacks burned with a white-hot intensity from even the barest of cuts, while they could all silently agree that Lore's manifestation had such a cold presence. Essentially, Aura was like fire, it burned hot and fast, destructive in nature while Lore was like ice, it was cold and slow, but dangerous all on its own in the long run, slowly killing you compared to fire, draining the life out of you. Pretty much the personification that the greatest offense is the best defense. And when it came down to it, both Aura and Lore were dangerous on their own accord.
Still, he didn't want to crush his leader's ambitions. Who knows what would happen if he did that. Besides, Jaune's not a bad guy, only a little misguided.
Looking over to where the Gravity had originally been floating, Ren spots the pebbles sprawled lazily across the floor, recounting the conclusion his leader has jumped on.
Lore had control over gravity.
That would explain the weird pulling sensation he felt when Jaune pointed his Lore covered hand towards him, trapping his Aura as he so put it with the effect of gravity equivalent to a black hole, literally pulling him a few inches from where he stood.
It appeared the closer his control, his hand, the stronger the pull. And if what Pyrrha said was true, the more Gravities he had around, the larger the stones he could pick up, essentially confirming the theory once more for closeness and control. In all, Lore was a very controversial power. A power when Ren thought right down to it, everyone possibly had stored away within their souls.
The theory makes him wonder if Lore could be accessed like Aura?
Pushing those thoughts away, Ren returns back to his distraught friend, not wanting Jaune to push away his connection from the dark power after what he's just learned. Like it or not, he would prefer Jaune have a control over that power than naught. Far better in the long run.
"It's just different," he diverted, smiling lowly when some of Jaune's bravo returned. "Besides, I've just thought of something," pointing at Jaune's hand and at the lone pebbles scattered on the field, Ren added, "When you used that hand technique—!"
"I'm calling it Black Hole!"
"—on me, not only did I feel a strange pull on my Aura, but my body sort of moved as well." Placing the smallest of concerns away, his stoic friend picked up a stone and tossed it with the others. "If your Lore spheres could control gravity, then maybe they could make you lighter or heavier as well with enough practice?"
Jaune seemed to think over this, leaning back onto the rock, "Maybe... but what good would that do?"
Sometimes Ren wonders how someone so smart could be so dumb.
"Think about it," he urged, remembering Pyrrha's tale. "If you could control the gravity around you, you could become lighter, you could dodge attacks more effectively, and if you were heavier, then your swings would pack more power behind them. You could also perhaps control the amount of impact you take from falling by lessening the gravity around you with high enough control."
Of course it's all a theory.
"..."
"Jaune?"
"See!" clasping his arm around Ren's, Jaune grinned largely, slapping his buddy on his back. "This is why you're the brains of the team!"
Well... he's not called the Well of Infinite Knowledge for nothing.
"I'm going to keep practicing on my Lore control right now!"
Channeling some Lore into his hand, Jaune's about to begin practicing more on his Lore control until he feels the temperature difference between Ren and him, comparing the vastly different body temperatures in slight fascination where he's warm and he's cold. Plus he's starting to feel the strain from prolong use and practice of his Lore, feeling his reserves starting to drop.
It was probably a good as time as any to take a break on his Lore control.
Without much argument, he switches back to Aura, instantly feeling the positive emotions that come with it, including the higher warmth and sense of control. He could even feel Pyrrha and Nora's Space now, mutely wondering when his level of Lore control will reach high enough to feel the pressure their Space released.
All in due time.
"You know what," Jaune mumbled, leading Ren towards the girls. "On second thought, I think I'm good on my Lore training for today. Too much of a good thing can't be good... or at least I think that's what the saying goes?" Passing one of the lone pebbles, another idea sparks his mind, "Instead, I think I'm going to practice adding Aura to those Dust shards now. No time like the present!"
"They're called Dust crystals, Jaune."
"Eh!" he shrugged. "Shards sound way cooler." Ren doesn't argue, finding no reason to, and as they get closer to their partner, Jaune scratches the side of his face innocently. "By the way, mind telling Nora and Pyrrha what we just talked about. I'm too lazy to go over it. And you're sooo much better at explaining things than me."
Ren stops walking which in turn halts Jaune, "... Aren't I supposed to be the lazy one?"
"I know," he remarked, thinking he's not the only one going through some mood change, "you've really changed these last few weeks. Nora hasn't been able to keep her eyes off you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
His leader blinked at him once, smirking smugly away from him, "Man you're as dense as a rock."
"Look who's talking." Ren counters.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
...
Hiding himself in the cabin's living room, Jaune's into day three on this force Aura into this Dust shard experiment, taking a small, well-earned break. Three days into it with a Gravity floating close by for company, his attempts to add any amount of Aura to a white Dust crystal are met with zero success. He makes sure to will away the spheres before his teammates walk by, not wanting to accidentally drain away their Aura. Currently the Gravity held some of his Dust shards, mindlessly floating them around it like a sun with its planets. Strange of the analogies he thinks of.
Glaring intensely with Ruby level determination, Jaune willed away Gravity, watching a few of the shards drop carelessly onto the wooden table. He looks at the shards and back down to his Aura notebook and scratches another idea off. Yet another failed attempt at adding any Aura or even Lore to the shards, and the constant string of failures are starting to eat away at him.
Damn, did he hate puzzles!
Switching back to his Aura with his break time over, Jaune holds up a Dust shard with one hand and then looks over to his other, silently calling a Supernova. He measures down the brightness of the sphere, finding it funny how his Supernova collapses due to the gravity into a Black Hole when he switches from Aura to Lore. That's definitely an oddity.
Winging an idea at this point, Jaune slowly touches the shard and his Supernova together, watching sparks happen when the two collide. The crystal doesn't break under the Aura's power, something he's sure has to do with the sole fact that said crystal was made from Dust, but nothing he does can force Aura into the damn crystal, and he's silently wondering if this was simply impossible.
"I should've been a farmer..."
"Hey, Fearless Leader!" Nora suddenly booped, leaning over his shoulder and hanging onto the chair. "Whatcha doin'?"
Not caught off guard from feeling Nora's Space outside suddenly disappeared, Jaune had half expected her either to be taking a break from her intense Aura training—an unlikely thought which made him consider the second choice—or to be sneaking up on him after knowing he could sense her Aura as long as he was using his.
Too bad she messed up. If she wanted to sneak up on him, then all she needed to do was keep her Aura active, but make sure her control gets lower as she approaches, thus making her leader think she was still outside.
Of course Jaune wasn't planning on telling her this.
Separating the thought and the two objects, Jaune grumbled, leaning his head back over the chair's neck to look backwards at Nora's contagious smile, "I'm trying to add Aura to this Dust shard."
"And how's that going?"
Pressing the two objects together again, sparks flied, "Not good."
Nora hummed thoughtfully for a moment, slowly grinning a sly grin with eyes twinkling with untold mischief. Something tells Jaune to be worried, but he's not sure exactly why. "Maybe you could, I don't know... try to steal the idea from someone else, Mr. Dust Counter!"
Oh yea, she's still stuck on that. First she thought he cheated; now she thinks the whole world is out to get her. He couldn't blame her. Where she too counted all the dust specs in the room, her Aura control was laughable at its worst compared to his and sorry at its best. Like her, her Aura refused to listen. All wild and untamable like the exact way she was. There was no way Nora could find a way to tame such electrifying power.
In a way, it was kind of sad. She really wanted to tame that power. Never once stopping her Aura training and even going to such lengths of actually losing her smile through the sheer effort. Before Lore, Jaune's not sure if he would've noticed her quick depressing moods that had started growing in numbers. But he did notice the small bouts of doubt and even sadness that slowly seemed to break from Nora, and he wished he could erase it.
But then Jaune's stuck wondering if she's truly sad or if it's his mind playing tricks on him.
Still, Nora seemed fine, so he'll take the bait for now.
"You're never gonna let go of that, are you?"
"Uh-uh!" she shakes her head, whipping him with some of her hair. "I demand pancakes for all the emotional damage you put me through!"
"How about a friendly pat on the head?"
She pokes him on the nose, already skipping out of the room before he could return the favor. Somehow he knows she's going to get those pancakes out of him one way or another. Jaune just hopes it's not an embarrassing way. He's just finally getting some credibility at school. Be such a damn shame to lose it all now over some pancakes.
Mostly out the door, Nora's voice got softer the farther she skipped down the hall, "Maybe you should try holding the rock and moving your Aura into it like when you switch between that Lore stuff?"
Jaune blinked curiously, snorting eventually at her simple idea.
Yea, sure, like it was that easy.
"Even if that did work, how would I get the Aura out?" he yelled back.
"Maybe you should try eating it!" she teased, slamming the door shut.
Hanging his arm back onto the chair with his feet kicked out, he willed away Supernova, holding the Dust fragment closer to his face, and scrunched up his eyes at the damn shard like the answers were all just hidden someone in its white crystallize structure. They weren't, but he tried anyways. And after staring at the gem for over a whole minute, he moves it around his fingers, thinking back to Nora's fleeting words.
"Try holding the rock and move my Aura into it when I'm switching?"
She really did make it sound so simple.
Running on the idea, Jaune quietly switched back to his Lore, feeling the pull of soul fluctuations with the switching of powers and sides of his soul. If Lore is the control of gravity and he knows how to switch out his Aura with his Lore, then perhaps Jaune could find a way to push some of his Aura into the Dust shards based off Nora's idea from the moment he called forth his Aura?
He's run out of ideas at this point not try it.
Clasping the shard in his hand, he concentrates and switches once more, trying to control his Aura and perhaps push some towards the Dust shard. If he remembers anything at all from Weiss's Dust lessons, it's that Dust requires Aura to function their capabilities and properties. Meaning, in theory, he should be able to move his Aura not around the Dust shard, but inside it if nothing occupies the space inside.
During the struggle to manage his control over Aura, Jaune's only realizing how little control he really has over the power. Lore, while much harder to mold due to the strong gravitational pull and slow movement it has compared to Aura's free power and fast speed, was actually easier to control in hindsight. Jaune could always feel a connection with Lore like Gravity has with other objects, but once he shot a Shooting Star or released any sort of Aura molded attack, all connection was lost as soon as his control slipped.
While with Lore, he could actually regain a connection within a small window of time.
Strange how he doesn't notice these things until he has to confront them?
Struggling with the act, Jaune forces some Aura to his hand, watching the glow surround his palm where the Dust shard reside, but instantly his Lore is on the attack, violently assaulting the lone amount of Aura that hasn't been moved to the respected space. And the pain's great, very great, and Jaune's about to allow the Aura to die out but at the last moment he could feel the presence of another space for the Aura to head before the Lore finishes all the remain energy.
The moment had been small, but Jaune had felt the other region for the briefest of seconds.
And just for a split-second he feels a shimmer of hope, wondering if it really was that easy. After all, wasn't dust counting that simple? While simple, yes, but easy? Absolutely not! The memory of all his Aura training flashes before him as he lifts up his hand to inspect any damage his Lore did. And for the unknown time, he sighed miserably, hating what the pursuit of knowledge led to.
Why must he hurt himself for his pride?
"I hate my life."
Going through the routine again, Jaune constantly forces some of his Aura to stray away from the path, flowing back down to his hand over and over again. And each and every time the Lore is instantly on the attack, mercilessly crushing his Aura before he could properly sense the other region of space. But each and every time he does attempt the movement; his sense of feeling improves a bit.
It's a slow and grueling process, but one had to make sacrifices for the pursuit of science or something along those lines. He wasn't really paying attention that Dust lesson with Weiss that day when she uttered that quote, too preoccupied with the suspicious feeling of a blonde-haired demon attempting to sabotage his sweater when she thought he wasn't looking with a rusty pair of scissors.
Losing the track of time, Jaune spends hours trying to manipulate his Aura into the shard, getting a sense of the other region within the shard now. Turns out the more he concentrated on surrounding the crystal with his Aura rather than trying to push it in makes it far easier to find the path, but there's always something stopping him.
Back to using his Aura, Jaune's starting to feel the effects of Aura exhaustion, feeling less than half his normal reserves on check. That's the major problem of Aura training; he's only got so much before he could call it quits for the day. A shame, really.
Opening up his other palm, Jaune leaned on the table with his head held by his propped up elbow, the shard pressed snugly close to his cheek, staring dead center at his free hand. Just for fun, he creates a Supernova, watching the amazing flow of Aura bending within the center of his palm and then collecting out on the outer edges before expanding out and creating his signature bomb.
Weird how something so amazing is also painstakingly simple to do, but adding Aura to a Dust shard sounds simple in theory, but is practically a death sentence.
Flexing his fingers, Jaune absorbs the Supernova, draining away the energy from his palm. Then creates another, only this time taking his sweet precious time on doing so, for once actually watching the Supernova process happening. Again there's a buildup in the center before Aura surrounds the edges where the sphere is supposed to end and fills up the space with his Aura.
Interested at the display, Jaune glances at the shard pressed against his face and promptly tosses it to his hand, absorbing the Supernova before contact could be made. He's bored, and this should make for an interesting reaction. Sparks always did intrigue him as a child whenever his father sharpened Crocea Mors. More of a guilty hobby really, like for those who write literature for popular TV tropes.
Holding his palm lazily out, Jaune stretches his fingers, wanting to see the sparks fly. Slowly he concentrates on the manipulation required to make a Supernova, feeling his Aura act upon the center of his palm, only this time it never comes and he raises a single brow, wondering what happened to his Supernova.
Did he mess up?
Figuring no one's perfect—which he's an expert on—and everything had been a simple fluke, Jaune wills his Aura to make another Supernova, again surprised when nothing happens. This time he sits up, holding his palm close to inspect anything amiss and tries for a third time. Only be extremely surprised from the bright glow coming from the Dust shard when he feels his third Supernova completely form.
Eyes opened, boredom totally gone, he stands up, unable to take his eyes off the glowing Dust crystal. The sight's too memorizing and his mind feels like it's racing a mile a second, but no clear, cohesive thought make itself known. A memory pops up and he subtly glares at the shard, fighting feint ignorance.
Just like the first time he was messing around with his Aura, perfectly bored, unfocused, and tired, he yet again found some sort of solution to his problem at the terrible cost of having to figure out how it all happened again. Yet it was a cost he was willingly to pay.
Remembering what he did before, Jaune opened up his palm and tried to create a fourth Supernova, feeling the act completed and a bit draining now with his reserves getting far lower, and this time he's not caught off guard from the increase brightness of the shard.
"I did it!" he did a small dance, not caring if anyone saw him. The small glow of the shard only illuminated the room for his impressive moves. "I finally did it! Oh sweet Monty, I finally did it!" Grinning at the shard in his hand, he moved the piece close to his eyes, laughing at the blasted thing. "Oh, you! You don't know how much trouble you've put me through in these few days."
The glow resonates peacefully in the room, mocking him practically.
Enjoying his sweet moment of relief, Jaune frowns at the newest problem he must solve now. "Now... how do I get the Aura out of you?"
Dust and Dust crystals normally react to the presence of Aura from what Weiss told him. But this Dust crystal had Aura within it, not some strange elemental energy trapped within it, begging to be released from an outside source. Not exactly something he could just will, either. Unlike his Aura in his body, Jaune can't seem to get any sort of lock on the Aura trapped within the shard, powerless to feel even the tiniest hint of Aura.
How does one absorb something?
Maybe you should try eating it!
Wanting to ignore the simple idea that Nora gave him earlier, he's almost tempted to until he realizes it had been Nora's simple idea that got him this far, literally. First her Dust counting nonsense, his Lore to Aura switching problem and now this!
In some way, shape, and form, it was her nonsense, childlike ideas that got him this far. Sure, all the Aura manipulation and hand-to-hand discoveries comes from his crazy ideas, but she gave him the foundation to start off. Really contradicted their personalities when he really thought about it.
Still... it's worked this far.
Biting the shard for a simple test, nothing happens. He then looks at the glowing gem, shrugging his shoulders at Nora's simple idea, and promptly tosses the entire shard into his mouth and bites down onto the crystal, breaking it into pieces as he munches down before simply swallowing the broken gem, surprised at its unusual brittleness.
It's a highly risky gamble, and he has absolutely no idea on what he's doing or what the consequences could be, but Jaune's certain at least that since it was his Aura that was trapped within the shard, then nothing bad should happen—!
Pressure!
And there it is.
His eyes widen at the feeling of an unfamiliar sensation of a foreign Aura entering his system. Jaune's not sure why the Aura stuck inside the crystal felt so different than his own, maybe it had something to do with the Dust's properties, he didn't know, but what he did know—did feel was the foreign Aura being molded to match his own, slightly recharging some of the Aura he lost when he created the crystal, not fully giving back what he pushed in.
Greedy damn jewel if he ever saw one.
"Whoa!" smiling, he touched his chest, touched his face, and then finally touched his stomach, wondering how that process worked. "That was crazy!"
Just like his ideas.
Looking back jauntily at the remaining bag of white Dust shards, his mood promptly dies when he hears an explosion off in the distance, instantly connecting the dots that Nora's outside destroying poor, defenseless Mother Nature. The Space she's emitting feels hostile and depressing, and as he glares at the bag next to his feet, he's really starting to wonder who the real genius on the team is and how unfair said genius got screwed over when she so desperately wanted the power he had.
It doesn't take a expert to figure out something's wrong with one of his teammates, and that he's partly to blame. He's not that dense anymore.
"I really hate my life..."
...
"I want my own Supernova!"
Nora's jealous. Plain and simple. And she has every right to be, Pyrrha thinks, trying to calm the girl down before she could destroy another helpless tree from her grenade launcher. Eventually she grabs the weapon from her hands, frowning at Nora's hunched shoulder, watery eyes, and unwavering attempt at shooting a weapon that simply wasn't there.
Pyrrha could only guess having seen Jaune practicing with his Aura control probably set the girl off.
She's been really trying to hold it together the passing days, hiding the bouts of jealously well from both the guys, but the very second Jaune said he couldn't help anymore, the feeling of depression most likely started eating away at her.
"Nora... calm down," Pyrrha said softly, grabbing her shoulder in a loving hold. "Jaune's said you've pretty much hit your limit from what he could teach you. There's nothing more he could do."
Anger appears on her face, "He didn't try hard enough!"
"He tried very hard."
"He's just being lazy!"
"No, that's Ren's job, remember."
"Then he doesn't like me!"
"Nora, we both know that's not true."
Every logical answer only seems to push the girl into a deeper state of depression. It's not good for her, but Pyrrha doesn't know how to comfort her anymore, not wanting to resort to lying for nothing ever good comes from that. Trust her; she's learned from experience what lying could accomplish.
Sensing a presence beside her, she looks over to find Ren already passing her, moving up to close to Nora. He's says something she cannot hear and then gently grabs Nora's face as she resists to look up at him. Even then Nora won't look him in the eyes, but Ren rubs away a lone tear, bending down to meet her at eye level, finally getting her to look at him.
It's a bittersweet moment, and Pyrrha wishes to know how Ren could get Nora to so easily calm down.
Deep down Pyrrha could sympathize with her teammates, knowing how tempting that Aura control looked. Although it must hurt Nora on a deeper level since it was her mundane idea that got Jaune his control over Aura in the first place, even if it had all been unintentional. And it takes no genius to notice Nora is completely captivated by the power of Aura, taking each and every chance she could get to watch their leader bend the manifestation of his soul to his will.
In a sense, she feels sorry for her, wishing she could help soothe the pain.
Pyrrha waits for Ren to calm her down before she speaks up, "She's been feeling—!"
"I know..." Ren sighs, letting Nora rest her head on his chest.
Nothing gets past Ren when it comes to Nora. Nothing! He was just waiting for her crack; letting her vent it out so he could quickly do damage control and stop the problem before it could get out of hand. For as long as he could remember, it's always been like that. Probably will always be like that, too.
Watching Ren calm Nora down, Pyrrha's impressed by how easy it is for him; somehow he even added affection to his still stoic tone, inciting a hiccup giggle from Nora from a joke that's too low for her to hear. Nora then looks up to Ren, searching for an answer and he gives it to her with a simple boop on the nose.
It's cute, and Nora thinks so too as she hides her face into his chest.
She mumbles through the fabric, "It's not fair."
Ren holds her with one arm, playing with her orangey locks with the other, "Then maybe you could find a way to make it fair."
She only pushes herself deeper into his chest, "How?"
Messing with one of her unkempt locks of hair, Ren already has an answer prepared in advance, "Try using the control you do have and try to make your very own version of Supernova? Jaune did say you have the best control compared to Pyrrha and me."
She's silent for a moment, hiding her face away from the world. Finally, though, she peers up, wiping her eyes with her arm with a weak smile. "Do you really think I can?"
It's not even a question of faith, "I know you can."
It's a weird thing to see Ren acting so comforting. Pyrrha can say without a doubt she's seen more than a range of emotions come from supposedly passive friend than anyone else besides Nora. One minute he's calm and cool, and the next he's irritated and wiping away chunks of flour off from Nora's guilty face. Now he's all soothing and reassuring, acting very un-Ren like to what everyone else believes.
And when it all comes down to it, he's more than just wrapped around Nora's trigger-happy finger, he's practically her giant, soft teddy bear—eh?! Sloth, he's her very own giant, soft, emotionless sloth.
In fact, Pyrrha Nikos is flat-out envious of her bubbly friend. She's never had a relationship like that before. Not even close. She's still getting use to having friends.
"Hey guys!" they hear Jaune's voice from coming out the cabin, practically sprinting to them with a few glowing Dust shards in his hand.
And Nora's instantly off of Ren, masking her face with an overly joyous grin.
Gotta hand it to her, Nora's can hide emotions better than Jaune and her and it doesn't look like Ren planned to call her out on it. Pyrrha would, but a silent sideways glare from Ren that made Professor Goodwitch seemed cute stopped her cold on her feet.
Sliding up to his teammates, Jaune presents them with a trio of Dust crystals that sent off a calming glow. They all observed the shards with unmatched curiosity while their leader tried to catch his breath, feeling a good amount of Aura exhaustion from prolong use of his Aura.
Finally feeling the air enter his lungs, he proudly showed off the shards, "I've finally found a way to add Aura to the Dust crystals and a way to absorb the Aura!"
The girls looked impressed, but Ren had to be Ren and poke at the soft spots for their fearless leader, "About time, you've been working on that for the better part of three weeks."
Jaune grinned smugly, "Oh, I'm sorry, Ren. How's your Aura training going? Able to glow yet?"
Their ninja's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Bastard.
Grabbing one, Pyrrha tilted the rock in her hand, amazed at the warmth it released on the touch. "Do they have a limit on how much they can hold?"
Jaune shrugs, "I don't know? Maybe... I'm not exactly too sure. Each one has about the worth of four Supernovas that much I can tell you."
Pyrrha nodded, knowing now why their leader looked to be dead on his feet. He's running on fumes. Jaune must practically be out of Aura now with stuffing an equivalent of four Supernovas and who knows however many more while inside the cabin.
Holding the shard higher in the air, she looked with one eye from the off glare of the sun. "And how do you absorb the Aura?"
"Oh?" Jaune blinked. "That's easy! You just eat them! Although, that worked for me, and I'm not too sure what would happen if you—Nora! I don't know what that'll do to you if you eat that?!"
Pyrrha never saw Nora snatch the crystal from her hand, only Jaune's frantic warning allowed her to find the source of her stolen gem... right between Nora's teeth. Then her stone became many as Nora immediately crushed and devoured the shard before anyone could stop her.
Pyrrha's not too sure what drove her to do that. Maybe it had to do with her jealously from Jaune's power or encouragement from Ren's words, but what she did know, neither Jaune nor Ren looked too pleased with shoot first and ask questions later action.
The seconds tick on by and no one moves, expecting different reactions to occur from Nora's eating of a shard of Aura. But then her eyes grow wide when a subtle glow shade of snow overcomes her body's outline, slowly turning from ivory to turquoise. During the entire process, Jaune's watching this through Space, noting how her Aura absorbed the large amounts of his Aura, basically devouring the shard from the top of head and all the way down to her stomach.
It's a sight he can calmly say he's never before seen.
And before they could ask how she's feeling, Nora's already jumping on her feet, moving with a vigor that almost puts Ruby's to shame. Every step she takes is an attempt to move faster than the last, unable to have the willpower to properly stand perfectly still.
"Whoa! I feel totally energized like that bunny on the battery commercial!" she grins with no trace of her earlier sadness and Pyrrha knows that smile is genuine. Then without warning, Nora grabbed another one of the Dust shards in a speed that surprised them and ate it away.
The effect is immediate and her Aura actually becomes noticeable for a change. And then she's gone, zipping across the clearing in a never-ending run, talking too fast for even Ren to keep up. All three of them could only watch helplessly from the sidelines
"I think we just discovered Aura overload?" Ren stated.
"Aura overload? And what exactly is that?" Pyrrha asked.
Ren pointed at the energized Nora, "That... is Aura overload."
Running up towards them, Nora slides on the soles of her shoes, leaving a trail of dust in her wake. She's not able to stop and moves in front of Jaune, almost snatching the last shard. But this time he's too fast for her, placing the Dust crystal into his pocked before she could grab it, instead grabbing his arm and shocking him in a painful jolt of electricity.
"Awww!"
"I'm sorry! That was my semblance!" Nora apologizes, now awestruck at the tiny waves of electrical currents running on her hand.
Jaune paused, ignoring the stinging feeling on his forearm, "Your semblance?"
"Yup-yup! I can control electricity and any and all electrical currents!" she explains quickly, oohing and aahing as an electrical current extended from one of her palms to the other.
"... How come you never told me your semblance was to conduct electricity?"
"You never asked, and I've never been able to use it without an outside source! Weird, huh?!" she's still playing with the electricity in her hands.
Ren narrowed his eyes alongside Jaune, yea, definitely weird. Jaune for he's simply seeing Nora's semblance for the first time, for Ren it's weird because Nora shouldn't be able to conduct any sort of electrical current whatsoever. Did the high influx of Aura cause this? Was that the culprit for this innocent crime?
Hmph, obviously.
Playing with her hands and the bolts of static dancing between her fingers, Nora grinned largely, eyes quite literally sparkling with shock. The tiny channel of pink electrical currents in her hands are slowly turning an uncontrollable shade of turquoise, picking up power at an alarming rate. She can practically feel the current bending and shaping to her will as she balled up her fist, yipping for joy at the Aura overload.
I know you can.
Losing her smile, she silently gasps at the power building up in her hands, quietly for a moment forcing one of the balls of electrical currents to move solely to one hand, but before she can, the Aura overload is destabilizing and she's losing control over the voltage in her body, eventually finding herself unable to conduct the current anymore to her will.
But if she tries hard enough, really squints her eyes in frustration and brings her shoulders together, she could feel the briefest of sparks resting somewhere between her eyes and right above her nose. It's tiny, weak, and everlasting, but she could feel it, if only for the tiniest of moments, but she knows it's there.
Call it a gut feeling, but Nora has an idea!
It's crazy! And that's why it's so perfect!
Her fearless leader did say she might be the only one capable of controlling Aura, even if it's for a little bit. And he may not be too sure if she could make her own Supernova, but Ren believes in her, and that's all Nora Valkyrie needs!
But if she's ever going to get control over that power, she first needs to be more in tuned with it. And since there's a shortage of electrical currents in the very bland forest, she settles on her other source of power, swaying back and forth at it with her hands messily placed behind her back.
All she's armed with is a childish smile.
"Jaune... can you make me more of those rock Dust thingies? I wanna practice some more with my semblance!"
Pyrrha can't fight the smile on her face when her leader easily hands Nora the remaining Aura shard, agreeing halfheartedly with practical ease even against the obvious fatigue plastered at every inch of his face.
If Jaune Arc could do anything, that was inspire and amend broken feelings, even when it was totally by accident.
...
Later that day, Team JNPR learns two things. One, Jaune can make Aura filled Dust crystals, and two! Turns out too much Aura can be a bad thing. Because for some odd reason, Nora, a few hours later, experienced the same symptoms of Aura exhaustion, completely throwing everyone in a loop when she turned in early for the night, having forced her own legs to drag her weakened body off to bed, utterly burned out.
Ren checked on her a few times before calling it a night as well, and Pyrrha joined soon after, leaving Jaune to his own devices. And he's god-awfully tired as well, but he doesn't plan to crash until he fills a few more Dust shards with his Aura and maybe even try to make a Lore Dust shard.
The Aura part is easy and fast, draining the life out of him in minutes and virtually leaving him a husk of a shell, but when he switches to Lore, there lies the problem. Unlike Aura, Lore had a strong gravitational pull and refused to leave Jaune's body as easily as Aura, only filling the shard with the barest of Lore after a tiring period of two hours of effort. Inside the shard a tiny sphere can be seen, hovering in the dead middle, floating ominously within the crystal. The Dust fragment even has a dark glowing outline like the Aura crystals, but far weaker due to the little amount stored within it and needs to be closely squinted at to see.
Eventually calling it a night with two more Aura shards and barely a Lore shard made, he heads to bed, leaving the two Aura shards on the table for Nora to grab in the morning. He pockets the Lore one, not too sure what would happen if someone was to grab and eat that one, noticing how cold the shard was compared to an Aura crystal.
In the morning Jaune wakes up to Ren cooking, Pyrrha going through the old dictionary at the table, and Nora with her arms out on the table and using her chin to rest on the table as well, looking positively gloomy. There's an Aura of misery floating around her usual bubbly personality, and not even the scent of fresh pancakes seems to lighten her moods.
"Uh... what's wrong with Nora?" he asked, and he receives a grumpy groan from the bomber who moves her hands to her ears, hiding even more of her head away from the sunlight peering through the window.
"Please... stop... talking."
"I think she has a hangover from having too much Aura yesterday?" Pyrrha whispered-yelled, pointing at the barely conscious girl who moans from a headache none of them could imagine.
He tilted his head, "Is that possible?"
"Apparently," Ren finished making the pancakes, sliding a plate up to Nora. "Pancakes are done."
All it takes is one small look and close-up sniff of the delicious aroma of Ren's delicious pancakes to get Nora off the chair in a frantic frenzy with her hands covering her ever expanding mouth and out the door, dry heaving loudly yesterday's dinner for the whole team to hear.
Deathly quiet, Jaune cautiously eyes the Aura shards hanging close by the edge of the table, and he slowly reaches for them, but Nora runs in a second later, grabbing the shards as she slides on the floor with a defeated look on her face. She holds onto the shards for dear life with the strength of a child, unable to stop the shaking of her hands.
"N-No... I need them... for training."
Ren looks ready to intervene, not liking at all the sorry state she's in, but she's begging with her eyes not to. He fights back with a glare of his own, and for a minute, words are not reached but a compromise is made.
"Fine, but only take one at a time." Nora nods weakly, finding her senses coming back into tiptop shape.
"Sooo..." Jaune trails. "Can I have your pancakes?"
Bleeeeh!
...
So for the next couple of days, a pattern takes hold. Jaune makes the Aura shards, Nora eats the Aura shards, and Pyrrha occasionally continues to practice her Aura training with no progress whatsoever and settles to sparring with Jaune and his Excalibur. Funny, it kind of reminded him of the situation he had been in prior to a little under three months ago. Ren is being Ren, and enjoying his break, hardly doing anything called training, using the excuse that having to wield Nora's hammer for sparring class for two weeks was more than enough training.
Jaune Arc couldn't find the will to argue and doubted Ren would follow anyways, leader's orders or not.
So here they are, a week into their break and exploring the forest for fun, needing a break from the sparring and watching Nora glow a shade of turquoise each and every time she ingested an Aura shard. Jaune made sure to make her some this morning, filling a total of three worth the equivalent of three Supernovas and not four for her before venturing out to the forest for some much unneeded sightseeing.
The Lore shard rested peacefully in Ren and his room, under his pillow with a few other Aura crystals that he wanted to test their storing capabilities for. So far he's gotten the Dust crystal to fill up about one fifth of the way, a feat that took too much time and effort if he should say so. Darn thing refused to cooperate. Don't even get him started on the amount of Supernovas stored within the other shards.
Ducking under a branch, Jaune wonders how Nora's doing on her super-secret training.
...
Controlling bouts of electricity between her fingers, Nora feels all rejuvenated with the last shard of Aura still moving through her system, lighting up her life literally. Her body feels all tingly from the spells of currents running through her skin, nearly giving her goose bumps. And she's playing with the sparks in her hand, trying to combine the little Aura control she does have and her semblance together to get her own version of Supernova.
It's very time restraining and she's hardly gotten anywhere in the past two days except for being able to discover that tiny currents of electrical feeds existed throughout her entire body, waiting to be called for! They are especially powerful in her head and heart, zapping all around in boundless wonder.
Focusing her willpower on her hand, she tries to concentrate hard and move the turquoise electrical pulse to her palm, getting only a tiny, tiny spark in the dead center. She's only able to keep it going for about a half a minute, eventually having to watch the spark up and die on her in a mock solute.
It's all very frustrating, and she wonders if this is what her fearless leader went through to create his Supernova. No wonder he spent such a long time in their room, training all alone.
This was hell!
Her leader really was ahead of the curve—prodigy really when it came to Aura control. And he discovered this all on his own?! Even more crazy! He's makes learning all this Aura stuff look so damn easy! She would be so proud if she wasn't so mad and annoyed right now.
Trying harder, Nora sighs at the feeling of the Aura boosts wearing off, almost cutting off her connection to her electrical impulses. In reality, she didn't exactly need the Aura shards to help her maintain a control anymore, but it made it a lot easier to channel and train.
Reaching into her pocket, she panics at the feeling of nothingness, frantically searching all over her body and non-existent pockets for more Aura Dust crystals. The search comes up with nothing, and she panics at the loss of her portable energy source. Now she'll have to wait for them to return from their trip into the forest before she could get more.
It wouldn't be so much a problem if Ren wasn't so darn lazy and a sightseeing type of guy. Who knows how long they're going to take until they can come back. It could be hours... days! They could get lost and run out of food and Nora has a sneaking suspicion that Pyrrha's the cannibalism type! Her gut says so!
Scratching her head and pushing back the ideas for a later blockbuster film, she checked her pockets once more, finding no Dust shard and then looked over to the cabin, wondering if Jaune's stashed away anymore for himself. Sounds like something he would do. That's what Ren does with those nasty health bars of his. Kind of a dumb idea. It's not like anyone's planning on stealing them.
"I bet Jaune has some lying around..."
Acting sneaky, Nora tiptoed over to the cabin, making spy sounds as she lied flatly on the wall, sliding down the cabin's wooden exterior. Her eyes moved back and forth between the forest and the door before sliding in with a quick slam of the door. She can't very well just let anyone see her take Jaune's personal stash of Aura shards—if they exist—she'll blame it on the ghost if anyone dares to ask any questions. It's foolproof!
Reaching the inside, she made her way to the guy's room, spotting Jaune's bed at the far corner since Ren's was always the clean one. In the clear, Nora spots a light glow coming from underneath Jaune's pillow from the windowless darkness of the room, and grins in delight. No one could stop her now!
Taking a few steps forward, she unearths the treasure hidden beneath Jaune's pillow, positively glowing from her the glow of the jackpot! And all it took was to sneak in while none of her team was around to search the room and find them.
... And no! She doesn't have a problem! Shut up!
Reaching for a shard, she grabs a couple, and then leans back with her foot digging into the wooden floor. A very old wooden floor that—?!
Creak!
"I surrender!"
She screams with her arms instantly up, the shards the only proof of her guilty crime firmly held between her shamefaced fingers. Seconds tick by and no speaks up and she hesitantly turns around to see no one at the door, waiting with a disapprovingly look. The floor then creaks and she moves around, alerting her to the hero that caught her.
"Oh?" her cheeks flushed at the embarrassing moment, glad no one was around to catch her in the act. "I think it's time for me to go?"
Without even glimpsing, she reaches for one more shard, unknowingly grabbing the Lore Dust crystal instead of an Aura one. Nora can't even feel the difference of temperatures between the two, having wedged all the rocks into one hand. And then she's out of the room, leaving no evidence behind except for the obvious who else but Nora option to who stole Jaune's Aura shards.
But she'll cross that bridge when the time comes, already thinking of descriptions for a thieving ghost.
Reaching the clearing, Nora grins at a successful ninja job well done, holding the crystals up high in the air in a perfectly angled sun glare. Then deprived of any concern, she tossed the first shard into her mouth joyfully, not noticing the ominous dark glow the gemstone had or the unnatural coldness that seeped out of it. All she does know is that the shard lands between her teeth before she bites down hard.
...
Bored and dodging a branch Pyrrha let go of too early—for the fifth time this hour alone—Jaune has settled to practice his Lore's control and speed, thus he created a single Gravity to manipulate to follow him around the forest. He does this far away from both Pyrrha and Ren, making sure the Lore sphere is as far away as possible from them without his control slipping. He makes sure through Space that their Aura was fine, staying back if he had to. And they're both grateful and worried that Jaune was getting too use to the dark power. Especially since they now know it's essentially the number one enemy to all Aura users.
Controlling the orb, Jaune looked back at the sphere following him, wondering about the stuff he's learned about both Aura and Lore.
Things like how Aura's fast and hot... while Lore is slow and cold. Or maybe how they're both are dangerous in their own special way. Though now if Jaune thinks about it, he doesn't see how Lore could be dangerous to a Grimm. They don't have Aura to begin with. Kind of dampens his mood a lot, failing to see any practical use of Lore outside of looking cool and messing with the fundamentals of physics or fighting rouge Hunters.
Looks like Ren's idea to control the gravity around him is looking better by the second.
Speaking of the enemies of mankind, Jaune stops to look around, "You know, I've just noticed we haven't seen any Grimm around since we got here."
Ren stops, thinking it over, "Well humans don't normally venture this far into the forest. They probably avoid this area because there's nothing to hunt and no surge of negative emotions to track."
"I wouldn't expect for Grimm to act like that," Pyrrha said.
Remembering his encounter with the Alpha Beowolf, Jaune adds his own interesting input, "Actually... you'd be surprised at what a Grimm will do if you leave them alone after proving you're the stronger one. They'll back off."
"Really?" Ren asked.
Nodding, he remembered how after defeating the stronger Death Stalker, the Alpha Beowolf was hesitant to attack. "Well, at least the Beowolves backed off after I took down the Death Stalker. It was the leader, mostly. Kept the younger ones from charging at me."
Ren grabbed the side of a tree, clutching the bark tightly, "So what happened? Did you finish them off anyways?"
"No," he answered honestly, actually smiling at the encounter now. That Alpha kind of reminded him of, well, himself. "I left them alone and they never tried to do anything. I'm still surprised actually. Kind of makes you wonder, huh? What else would a Grimm do if you spare it..."
Resting on the tree, Ren thought over the words, surprised at what he's been taught about Grimm in Professor Port's class not quite matching up. Grimm were believed to attack regardless of the situation, dire or not. Kind of throws a wrench in the whole enemies of humanity type of thing when mercy is shown when mercy is given scenario.
Taking Ren's silence as another one of his quiet thinking moments, Jaune strives forward, wishing for something to end this hike. Anything would do at this point. He's just sorely anxious to get something done on his Lore control, meanwhile, said Lore sphere hangs lazily behind, picking up poor twigs and leaves that have gotten trapped by its gravity pull.
Oh well, tough luck for him.
Almost stepping on some poor, defenseless sunflower, Jaune's foot barely touches the petals before—?!
Pressure!
Eyes widening, he moves his foot back, looking over his shoulder in complete shock. That pressure... it felt like the power of Lore, but in a real nasty way? Almost like it was violent and downright hateful, lacking any sense of direction or control, similar to his, but just beyond cruel... but what was even worst about it... worst than that...
"What is it?" Ren asked, body stiffening at his leader's sudden intensity.
Narrowing his eyes, Jaune turns around and searches for the power source and a familiar Space and Aura enters his sense of area, but only because it's mixed with the power of Lore and feels almost corrupted. Unsure what to do, Jaune absorbs Gravity and switches back to his Aura and instantly feels Nora's Aura on the rise, fighting back a force of pressure that seemed to be winning.
Pyrrha grabbed his shoulder, "Jaune? What's wrong?"
Suddenly, Jaune feels Nora's Space lower significantly.
"Nora's in trouble!"
...
Running through the forest in a panic, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren enter the clearing a few minutes later to spot a prone Nora with her weapon laid forgotten on the floor. From the distance they could see her breathing jagged and uneven and Jaune could see her Aura fighting back an invisible force.
"Nora!" Ren moves at a speed faster than they could ever hope to achieve.
Running up to a lying Nora, he quickly slid down onto the grass, placing her head on his lap immediately. He really didn't like the way her chest kept rising and falling at an alarming rate, and her gasping did horrible things to his insides. For the first time ever, Jaune and Pyrrha saw a general look of panic and absolute worry on his face, grimacing at the tense marks running down his cheeks.
Nora can barely tilt her head, sounding weaker than ever thought possible, "... Ren?"
"Hang on! You're going to be alright!"
"... It hurts." Ren tenses as she coughs up blood. He never tenses. It only gets harder as a path of blood trails down from her mouth, "Ren," hiccup, "make the pain go away... P-Please."
Her spark wavered and her lips parted tiredly. The shine in her eyes dulled coldly, robbing her vibrant color, and she could barely see past her half-lidded stare, losing the outline of her friends to unrecognizable blobs where her vision hadn't yet been taken over by the cold darkness. Every few seconds a exhausted hiccup escaped her frantic body. It hurt, it hurt everywhere. It hurt on a level she didn't even think possible, pushing her close to the edge of insanity only to hang on for Ren's sake. She even thought about crying.
Crying?
When was the last time she truly cried? Truly allowed her emotional mask to finally break?
It's been so long.
Not knowing what to do, Jaune pauses and thinks about the pressure he felt from earlier in his Lore form. He quickly switches and could only stare helplessly at Nora's Aura fighting back what he notes as Lore instead of an invisible force around her head region. Every aspect of her turquoise Aura fought valiantly against the Lore, like a nasty disease. Unlike his Aura however, hers didn't seem able to push or destroy the Lore instantaneously, having to use every ounce available.
Hers wasn't as strong as his.
Pressure!
Narrowing his eyes, Jaune's frowned heatedly and pushed aside the thought of where the Lore came from for now, finally—at the damn worst possible moment—figuring out why he couldn't feel the Space of any of his teammates while using Lore. Even now, he could only feel the Lore coming from Nora, devastating every inch of her fragile body. See her Aura fighting a losing battle, but not feel it.
In a way, it's Space, but a deeper or outer version. In reality it mattered not. He felt an Outer Space surrounding him and his team for lack of a better word.
Pressure!
Swiftly turning around, Jaune gritted his teeth at the pairs of red eyes glaring from through the sheer darkness of the forest ring, growling a familiar and frightening sound that he's seems to have forgotten could be so damn terrifying.
There's a reason he couldn't feel Aura.
"... You've gotta be kidding me!"
Author Notes: Edited 11/6/2016