Silver

by Imyoshi

Forced to admit that Crocea Mors didn't feel right in his hands—no matter how he held it—Jaune Arc struggled to overcome this obstacle through the insane idea that Aura could become more than just the armor that protected him. Barriers broke as he pushed past the limits of what Aura was capable of, creating and forging his very own weapons from the manifestation of his soul.

14. Flint

Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.

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Flint

By: Imyoshi

Chaos—a powerful, yet simple word meaning absolute disorder and sheer confusion with unpredictably as its key component to waver everything and anything it so pleases.

Absolute chaos breeds only more chaos.

Nothing good could ever come from it.

So when chaos meets harmony, the world loses anything that makes even the tiniest bit of sense.

"And this is where you'll be sleeping, Sir Scrabbles!" Nora cooed adoringly, hugging the sloth Grimm cheek to cheek. The Grimm merely blinked, emotions hidden behind those blood eyes of its. "My bed is extra, extra soft! Softer than any of those pesky trees back at Emerald Forest!"

Listening to Nora gush over her new pet, the rest of Team JNPR begin to unpack from their return from Emerald Forest, tired from the long hike. The only one who still had any energy seemed to be Nora and her never-ending escapade to teach Sir Scrabbles all about the finer things of living at Beacon. It's definitely not something normal for them, but the situation still borderlines on a nice rarity that comes from the antics of Team JNPR.

Ren and Jaune are the first to finish unpacking, having packed the lightest compared to their female counterparts. Besides, their minds are on more dire matters than folding and not mixing their boxers with their shirts. Like Ren's mysterious Lore cloak that defies the thing called logic and reason. Mostly it's the cloak.

Standing in the middle of their room, Jaune had a grip on Ren's sleeve, trying to feel the Lore out under Outer Space with Ren still wearing the article of clothing. His Aura notebook is ready to take notes and Ren's curious to read and interpret them. Pyrrha herself is watching from her bed, having let her hair fall away from her ponytail, interested in the way Jaune's eyes had a sharp sense of resolve.

"How do you feel?"

Ren blinked, comparing the feeling of Jaune's Lore to this cloak, "Different. I feel cold, but not as cold as when you tested your Lore on me. It's an almost pleasant type of coldness."

Jaune nods, thinking back to his experiences with Lore and Nora's recount to having Lore in her system. No matter what the outcome, Lore robbed away heat, or better yet, replaced it. So it's safe for the Arc to theorize that Lore's a naturally cold power, strange as that might be. Then there's the key difference between his Lore and Ren's Lore.

Next question, "How's your Aura?"

A light smile appears on Ren's face, "Better. Much better. Before, I had a pretty good grasp over my Aura from all the years of training to control it, but now I can control my Aura to new levels I've never imagined. It's a whole new experience. I feel stronger."

Thinking it over, Jaune writes down what he assumes are the properties of the cloak, adding extra notes from his view in Outer Space. From what he can see, Ren's Aura is compressed under the same weight as his Black Hole, just not as strong. It's lesser than Black Hole's gravitational pull and greater than Gravity's. Essentially allowing him more flexibility to channel his Aura than he ever could since the Lore acts as a barrier to suppress the Aura tight to Ren's soul, yet none of the repercussions like having his Aura drained.

Simply marvelous!

While Jaune's interested in everything Aura and Lore, taking notes left and right in a speed that almost rivaled Pyrrha's, Ren's conflicted in the inside, even against his rare happy exterior and amazing attitude.

The effects of the cloak are all new to him. His emotions are scattered at the implications of this article of clothing. On one hand, Ren could feel his Aura compressed and under his control with his semblance bound completely to his soul, the one wish he's had for years, yet on the other, it's made of Lore, the very power that almost took Nora away from him.

Can he accept this dark power so easily? Should he? The matter's all so confusing in less of an ironic sort of way, and more just ill lucked. However, a tiny squeal of joy shifts his attention and one look from Nora hugging Sir Scrabbles close to her chest is all the conformation the ninja needs.

This cloak was given to him as a gift, be a great dishonor to simply toss it away.

Rubbing his chin, Jaune tried to think of what else to ask of Ren before a thought pops into his head, "Can you try to focus on your Aura? I want to see how the effects differ in Outer Space and Space."

Ren does and the effects are varied. Under Space, Jaune can't feel Ren's Aura at all. He can see his pinkish Aura mix alongside the Lore, turning into a slightly darker variant of pink. Then under Outer Space, Jaune can feel the Lore's pressure weighing down on with a constant force. Unlike normal Space, this force didn't fluctuate and remained a constant. So in a way, Ren's Aura has been replaced with Lore. At least for as long as he's wearing the cloak.

Writing down some quick notes, Jaune paused, biting the end of his pen, wondering what else to test. Nothing much comes to mind except seeing Ren actually fight. Aura acts differently when fighting, responding to the needs of the body and soul compared to simple training. Maybe something odd would happen if he tried fighting with the cloak on?

Pushing those thoughts aside, he's got one more question, "Can you create an Aura sphere with your newfound control?"

Ren glares a little, stretching out his hand. He tries to concentrate, but nothing happens. Even with his new found concentration, there's only so much he can do. Both he can feel it and Jaune can see it. No matter how much Aura or control he has, the fact of the matter is, Lore's main properties are to hold Aura back, immobilizing it. Makes only sense that Ren can't freely create an Aura sphere when the gravity's simply making the matter impossible.

Shut!

I think that's all we can get for now." Jaune finishes, placing away his Aura notebook into his bag. He sheds off his sweater, grinning at all the new discoveries, "Until we see how it works in a fight, we've pretty much got the gist of what it can do."

Done, Ren's pretty much ready to sleep, exhausted from just everything. The fight, the near-death experience, the Sloth King, Lore, just everything! Everything has drained the energy out of the lazy man, pushing him to the brink, but now it was time to finally rest. Rest away the troublesome worries of life.

Feeling the Lore react to his needs, the collar to the cloak suddenly opens up from the sudden lack of gravity needed; eventually lowering down until it opens up completely, freeing Ren from its hold. The mechanics behind the cloak opening up may be lost to them, but the idea isn't so confusing. Emotions always did play a heavy part in Aura and even Lore. Perhaps the cloak responded to Ren's emotions?

It's something Jaune and Ren already noted for later testing.

Placing the cloak down on his bed, he doesn't see Nora's hand reach out and yank it. By the time he's finished changing for bed, not wanting to sleep in his dirty and sweat covered clothes like usual, he's missing one cloak. The culprit is found easily enough when she's hums wistfully, lounging inside Ren's attire from atop her bed with Sir Scrabbles peeking out from behind her head.

Her smile is grand from wearing the cloak two-sizes too big for her.

"This is so comfy!" Nora lifts up her hands, which can't be seen because the sleeves are far too long. Ren panics for a split-second, not liking the idea that Nora's wearing the Lore cloak, but stops himself when Nora's face lightens up. "And it's so soft in the inside!"

Confused, Ren eyes his leader who is watching from the side. He knows he's more puzzled on checking Nora's Aura than anything else, wary on the fact that Nora's in direct contact with Lore after her first encounter, but no panic reaches Jaune's face. Fascination overcomes him actually, driving his leader to level a glare under his critical eye. Slowly he relaxes his tenseness, grinning at the worried man.

"It was definitely made for you." Jaune observes, moving up to poke Ren on his shoulder. "The Lore's unable to grab onto Nora's Aura since it's looking like the size isn't matching up. It's kind of funny, actually. On one part, her Aura's too close to the cloak, and on the other, it's too far away. She's too small for the Lore to grab onto."

Thinking back to how the sloth Grimm had been measuring his arms, legs, torso, and pretty much every aspect of his body, the news brings a pleasant sigh of relief to him. "That's good."

Leaving Ren to pry the cloak from Nora's hands, Jaune takes out the notebook to write that quick note down before jumping on his own bed. He lays flat on the mattress, staring up at the dust particles dancing around his vision, thinking about the upcoming Vytal Tournament. His vision and thoughts are then clouded by waves of red hair raining down over him with a smile hidden in the center.

"What are you thinking of Jaune?" Pyrrha pressed, having slipped into her sleeping attire. Somewhere in the background she can hear Ren and Nora fight over the cloak.

Regarding her question, Jaune blows away a stray lock of her hair, never sitting up, "The Vytal Tournament. Can you believe it's only four weeks away?"

Pyrrha frowned, moving to sit on her leader's bed, "Are you nervous?"

Jaune blinked, not understanding, "Shouldn't I be?" Smiling at her foolish leader now, Pyrrha can't help but laugh, "What? What's so funny?"

"You!" she giggles into a fist, eyes bright and alive. A spark ignites her very soul, making her wonder how Jaune could be so clueless at time, "How can you be nervous for a silly little tournament, after all we've been through? After all the progress you've made on your own? After our fight with the Leos and their king."

This time Jaune does sit up, unable to believe Pyrrha's words, "How can you be so calm about this? It's only four weeks away?! If I lose—!"

She's only laughing more, eventually stopping to grab his shoulders to ease his tense muscles, "Jaune, I know you're going to win. You'll do fine. I have no doubt in my mind that you can win." Her smile grows brighter, putting every star outside in the night sky to shame, "Because I believe in you completely."

There's irony in her words. She knows it. He knows it. Neither of them says it.

"You do?" Pyrrha hums lightly, nodding her head at her frozen leader.

Awestruck, Jaune's emotions settle down and he's looking away shyly, not knowing how to take the sudden faith he's been given. It's one thing to say they'll believe in him after he risks his own safety for theirs, but to have unwavering belief in him… not even his parents gave him that. No one has ever given Jaune Arc their complete trust before.

But the smile Pyrrha's giving him is too honest and sincere to be anything but.

Not knowing what to say, Jaune stumbles onto the first words he can think of, "You're hair's very beautiful when it's not tied up." He quickly gets up, missing Pyrrha's blush. "Ah! I think I could use some fresh air!"

Racing out, Pyrrha's left to stop the blood rushing to her cheeks. It's great practice to stop the iron from moving, but it simply wasn't cooperating. She has to wait for the heat to wash away on its own before she realizes there has been an audience. An audience that's been strangely quiet from last she's checked after remembering their earlier struggle.

Turning around, she's come to settle her sights on Nora who's wrapped inside Ren's cloak with Ren inside it, sitting on her bed, arms wrapped around her midriff with Jaune's Aura notebook tucked securely between his fingers. His eyes are focused solely on the notebook, disregarding the two females in the room for Jaune's notes on Lore with his head rested comfortably on Nora's and Sir Scrabbles perched on his own. Meanwhile, Nora's sporting a goofy grin that melted those pesky butterflies swarming her stomach.

Looks like they came to a compromise for the cloak?

Tilting her head, Pyrrha's lost, "Nora... what?"

Nora presses herself deeper into the hold, melting simply into the embrace. Her eyes are lost and she sees no reason to find her way back, "I'm warm."

Pyrrha's about to ask another question but Ren tries to get himself more comfortable, leaning back a little on the bed with one arm wrapped snuggly around Nora's stomach and her leaning onto his normally clothed chest. Except it's not, he's only wearing a pair of sleeping shorts because his clothes are covered in too much dirt and grime.

The closeness is nothing new to him. Nora's always been the hugging type. This is just the first time he's ever gone shirtless. So Lie Ren sees nothing strange about his hold, easily okay at the idea of sharing his personal space with Nora in order to reach a compromise of sorts. He's even let his ponytail free, eyes trapped on Jaune's notebook and scattered wildly.

Pyrrha can't help but smile sadly at the girl trapped in the embrace, wondering how the hell she's avoiding passing out. The cereal girl's not blind, Ren got some muscle from wielding Nora's hammer after their bomber's little stunt in Professor Goodwitch's class and like Nora's pointed out time and again, he's indeed handsome. That and his new found confidence and strong devotion has pretty much turn Nora into putty in his hands.

Weak and losing herself, Nora turns to lay her head on his chest, arm resting across his torso, "Ren?"

He doesn't look up from the notebook, "Hn?"

"I'm sleepy," she yawns, finally feeling the day's activities wearing down on her.

He lowers the notebook, finally looking down a smidge, giving Nora a light smile, "Okay. Go to sleep then. I'm about to turn in as well."

Pyrrha giggles off to the side as that rare smile of his does Nora in, crashing the girl all the way down to sleep land. Poor Nora. She fought a valiant battle, a valiant—hopeless battle. Some might even call that a victory. Pyrrha sees that as Nora's total surrender.

Smiling wistfully at her poor yet lucky friend, Pyrrha stares off to the side where Jaune had left in a hurry, wondering if her leader is going to be gone for long. Her answers comes a few minutes later when Jaune walks in, declares it's lights out, and heads to bed without so much as another word. Everyone but her is out in minutes.

Pyrrha then spends another half hour awake; playing with the strands of her red hair that has somehow received a compliment from Jaune. Curiosity grips her, not letting go. There's a tug in her chest at just thinking about Jaune's stunned face, wondering the past her leader's had. When she finally falls asleep, her dreams are filled with metals and the color red and how those things have yet to let her fall.

...

Morning comes faster than Team JNPR expected, so much earlier that even Pyrrha Nikos is considering closing the blinds to block away the sun's evil rays for another hour or two of slumber. Those two weeks in Emerald Forest kind of spoiled the team, having the comfort to sleep in a cabin where the trees blocked out most of the sun's rays in the morning due to their high height. Of course any one of them could simply get up and close the blinds, but that would require actual work. Real, physical work!

Defeated, the team slowly rises up from their slumber with Jaune being the first to get up. Nothing new there. His Aura practically rises with the sun, but he's still the second laziest in the team, only behind Ren. Pyrrha's usually second with Nora being the first always out of bed, full of energy that defied logic.

Jumping out of her bed—which Ren's still sleeping in—Nora grins at the sunlight, damn happy to be moving. Her memories of being confined to her bed still haunt her, and she never wants to be immobilized like that again. Never! Life's too great to be wasting away in bed. No matter what other lazy people thought.

Speaking of wasting away in bed, Nora turns around, ready to shake a snoozing Ren with Sir Scrabbles still perched on the top of his head, but stops to giggle at the sight. He's still shirtless with the cloak having covered a good portion of his body, much to her envy, but she couldn't remember the last time she saw Ren without his ponytail.

Parts of Ren's hair lay scattered all over her bed, almost actually masking Sir Scrabbles from sight since her pet lacks any bony features except for its claws and tiny two rib skeleton frames peeking from its underbelly but they're practically impossible to even see or feel. Sir Scrabble is just so adorable that she can just hug it all day and never let go!

Grinning, Nora jumped on Ren's stomach, waking up her childhood friend from his slumber in a familiar form. A soft ugh is what she gets as a reward, knowing Ren's too far use to her jumping on him in the morning. It matters not to her, just gives her the perfect reason to wake Ren up and sit on his lower torso with her hands pressed to his chest, waiting for him to notice her.

"Wakey! Wakey! Ren!" she sings, missing this feeling after being forced into a bed for a week. "It's morning! Time to get up, lazy butt!" Ren responds by lifting up an arm and using it to shield his eyes from the morning rays. Nora only pesters him more, poking him on the forearm. "Get up!"

Lifting his arm to glance from the shadows, Ren's pink eyes illuminate in the darkness, "Nora?"

"Yes, Ren?"

"Go back to sleep."

She shakes her head, "Nuh-uh! It's time to get up! I'm hungry!" a soft growl catches their attention and Sir Scrabbles is opening its tired eyes to stare at Nora and she's plucking the Grimm off Ren's head, cradling the tired Grimm in her arms. "Aw! Did I wake you? I'm sorry! I know how much sloths like their rest. You can go back to bed, Sir Scrabbles."

From off to the side, Ren glares at the sloth Grimm as he gets up, feeling intense envy that the darn Grimm gets to sleep in while he's stuck waking up. Pyrrha and Jaune are right behind him, use to using Nora as the team's own personal alarm clock. The day's only starting, but Ren has a feeling it's going to be a long one indeed. Lady Luck must've had some plans ready.

Sitting up, he grabs the cloak and thinks it over once before hanging up the article of clothing for later use. He's not Ruby, he can't just go wearing the thing over his school uniform and hope the Professors don't care. Too much drama for a guy who avoids the word like the plague, but then he stops before closing the closet, feeling a pull from the clothing. Either from the power of gravity behind it or his own selfish needs, he's not too sure. Maybe even a little bit of both if he's truly honest with himself.

Narrowing his eyes, Ren gets dressed in his uniform and places the cloak over his shoulders with the collar opened and the sleeves dangling. He doesn't even need to pin it down or nothing, fascinated by the power of Lore holding down the cloak to his shoulders by the force of gravity and all its magic. Such power is still new to him. Such power is still even new to his leader.

When he stands, it drapes over his body, almost closed but not, following and responding to Ren's emotions like how the Grimm do towards humanity. The power still amazes him, especially its power to control his Aura and semblance. Even now, he still feels his control greater, just not as great compared to having his arms hidden in the sleeves and cloak completely closed.

Across from him, Jaune's yawning, unpacking his stuff he forgot to do yesterday after leaving the room in a hurry. There's still a few of his clothes he's forgot to unpack, and little knickknacks here and there. And when he flips the bag around, a single Aura shard falls and shatters on the floor.

"Oh?" he's honestly surprised. "I thought Nora ate all those?" Jaune sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Great, now I'm stuck picking up the pieces."

Kneeling down, Team JNPR's surprised when Sir Scrabbles scrambles out of Nora's arms and plops down onto the floor where the Aura fragments lay. They're even more surprised when the sloth Grimm starts picking up the shards, tilting its head at the glowing fragments with acute fascination and begins eating them, making little sounds of content that melts Nora's heart.

No one knows what to say until Nora leans down to scratch Sir Scrabbles behind its neck, "Does my little sloth like Aura rocks? Well don't you worry, Jaune's gonna make you some every morning! A growing sloth needs his food!"

Jaune's too perplexed to even bother fighting that declaration, captured at the sight before him. A Grimm eating an Aura shard, and actually liking it? Everything about this has to be noted for later, under impossible and next to dumbfounding. More importantly, he's severely interested at how hungry the little guy's for Aura. Only moments ago did Sir Scrabbles look only tired and oblivious to the word.

Reaching into his bag, he sighs when he finds it empty. "Looks like that was my last one? I'm all out of white Dust crystals. Who's up to hitting Vale tonight for more?"

"Didn't you buy like a hundred of them?" Pyrrha asked, kneeling down beside Nora to pet Sir Scrabbles. "How could you be out already?"

Jaune scoffs, throwing his hands up, "Well Nora here eats them like pancakes! Then I had to use a lot to fix you guys. And I broke a lot trying to figure out to store Aura into them. They went by pretty darn fast. I think I only ate one between all of them."

"Ah, Jaune," Pyrrha stands up, shaking her playfully head at her leader's problems. Problems that seem to only center around him and him alone, "I'll be happy to accompany you to Vale later."

"Me too!" Nora adds with Ren sighing in the background. A yes for Nora meant a yes for Ren as well. No use arguing the inevitable.

Glad, Jaune looks down at Sir Scrabbles picking up the remaining fragments of the Aura shard, still conflicted at seeing the Grimm consume what is essentially pure Aura, or even more so, his Aura. That and the idea of Aura shards are making him rethink parts of his strategy when it comes to the little gems.

They're great, there's no getting around that. They're practical and lifesaving when it really matters. Useful for prolong fighting and even Aura training. But, should he be using them? Now that he thinks about, he's basically creating Aura shards to consume when he's running low on Aura. A foolproof plan that doesn't really have any downsides he could see, yet, does he want to rely on that plan for when he's low on Aura?

Wouldn't it be much easier to merely increase the amount of Aura reserves he has so that problem never surfaces?

He's not clueless. Jaune Arc knows his reserves probably outrank a lot of students and maybe even a few low rank Huntsmen. Not too hard to imagine with his control over Aura and how much each of his techniques require, especially the projectiles. Still, the idea of solely relying on a nearby power source doesn't sound like the party it used to be. Not after they're all exhausted. And then there was the disaster with Nora and her addiction to the little shards. Just another reason to be cautious about what he comes to rely on for power.

Aura shards are still a perfect creation, one he will take advantage of anyways in the upcoming tournament and future battles, but he's come this far without relying anything than his own power. Even if said power was stored in a tiny crystal, it technically no longer belonged to him. Not anymore once it left his body and range of his control.

Questioning it and remembering his fight against the Leos, Jaune settles on the idea to increase his Aura reserves, rearranging times when he can practice his Aura training. Then he comes to the conclusion of why not simply concentrate his Aura throughout the day? That would slowly drain away Aura throughout the whole day, pushing his soul to the brink until more Aura is needed, thus marginally increasing his reserves. And if push came to shove, he always had Lore for a backup.

Not a perfect plan, but a better one in the long run.

Plus any threats relating to the Grimm are starting to diminish each second he watches Nora fuss over Sir Scrabbles and his apparent adorableness. Hard to take humanity's greatest threat seriously when it's getting snuggled in a hug that broke barriers.

"I'm hungry!" Nora suddenly shouts, pulling her leader out his thoughts. "Let's go get breakfast!"

"I could go for some nourishment." Pyrrha adds, liking the idea of food. "Breakfast does sound pleasant."

Ren reaches out from underneath his bed, pulling out one of his legendary health bars, "I already have my breakfast right here."

Nora shivers from watching Ren take a bite of what she calls poison, "Bleh! You and those nasty health bars! One day you're gonna kills someone with those!"

"Impossible," Ren assures her, biting down into another corner of his delicious snack. The cloak waves wistfully as he walks towards the door. "They're healthy. You can't get hurt eating healthy foods."

Nora latches onto Pyrrha's arm as they walk out the room, "Pyrrha! Tell Ren he's insane for liking those!"

The cereal girl's not sure what to say, smiling awkwardly as Nora pulls her out the door. Only Jaune's left alone in the room, watching Sir Scrabbles finish the last of his Aura shard before slowly crawling back into Nora's bed to sleep underneath the blankets where the sun can't reach it. Jaune does Sir Scrabbles one better and closes the blinds before heading out, already concentrating a bit on his Aura.

Now that Nora mentioned it, he is sort of hungry.

It's only breakfast. What's the worst that can happen?

...

Other than the flour strike having finally ended, everything seemed to be normal when Team JNPR sat down to enjoy their breakfast. Nora's mouth couldn't stop drooling at the sight of seeing Beacon's pancakes being served again; Pyrrha enjoyed a crisp tart, bagel with cheese, and warm cup of chocolate milk while Ren continued eating those bland health bars of his with a side salad. Jaune, on the other hand, spoiled himself with a warm sandwich, immensely enjoying the taste of chicken and vegetables in his mouth for a breakfast platter.

A perfect breakfast to start a perfect day.

Slam!

"You guys are back from your camping trip!" Ruby pops in from the corner, smile bright, dropping a heavy binder down onto their table. "So how was it—uh?" She never finishes, zooming over to Ren to see the cloak attached to his shoulders, akin to the cape she wore. A silence passes over before a fire burns deeply in her eyes, "What are you doing?"

Ren takes the time to break down her question, thinking of the multiples answers he could give her. None of them seem right as he can't seem to figure out what's she implying, having very little to base on.

So he settles for the obvious, "Eating."

She pokes her finger onto the table, "Not that! This!" Ruby grabs part of his cloak. "What are you doing with this? You can't have a cape! Only I can have a cape! It's sort of my thing!"

"It's not a cape," he says simply, dipping his fork into his salad. "It's a cloak."

"What's the difference?"

Ren points his fork at the collar, giving Ruby a disinterested glare, "The collar rides up. I lack a hood."

Ruby's eyes roam around the cloak, eventually narrowing when she finds what she's looking for, "You're trying to copy me!"

"No I'm not."

He's honestly not. Life just seems to be making it look like that. Ren would like nothing more for Ruby to drop this silly rivalry of hers before it spirals out of control, but all the problems seem to stem from him, making it look like he's the one provoking her. Beating her in a fight, refusing her challenges, robbing away her two week planned activities she had plan for them during the break, and now this. From a different angle, this rivalry seemed very much alive and very much his doing.

How troublesome.

Ruby grabs the giant binder she brought over, glaring sourly at Ren, "Hmph, this isn't over," and zooms over to her team across from them.

How they didn't notice them will remain one of Remnant's greatest mysteries.

"Gosh, Ren," Jaune laughs, patting him on the back in a show of mock support, "At this rate, you'll never get Ruby off your back."

The stoic ninja's eyes slide over to Jaune, barely peeking over the cloak's collar, "What about you and Yang? From where I'm sitting, I can see her glaring daggers at you."

Jaune looks over to spot Yang doing just that with Weiss looking indifferent to what Ruby is saying about most likely Ren and Blake reading her book in silence. Then their leader is off, giving some important speech from what he can tell, and Jaune tries to ignore Yang's sudden smirk and devious gleam tracing the ridge of her eyes and smile.

"Aw! She's fine!" he bluffs, waving his hand easily. "Yang can't hold onto a grudge!"

Plop!

"She just threw a grape at you."

Jaune ignores Ren in favor for more important topics, "So I was thinking we could go to Vale after dinner? After just getting back to Beacon, I'm not too much in a hurry to leave."

Pyrrha smiles into the bite of her bagel, talking with her mouth full in a rare moment of not caring, "That sounds perfect. I've been meaning to pick something up as well."

"Oh?" Jaune grins, pretending that an apple didn't hit him on the head. "And what might that be?"

Pyrrha thinks for a moment before thinking that turnabout might be fair game. Plus she wants to surprise her leader and show him when she's fully got a grasp on the project. And if she can't fully learn to control the metals in blood on her own, then she knows he'll always be there to lend a hand.

Sipping her drink, a smile grows on the rim of the cup, "That's a secret."

"Ohhh!" Nora moans with pancake in her mouth, staring teasingly at her Fearless Leader. "She's keeping secrets! Sounds just like our leader!"

The team laughs at the distant memory with Jaune rubbing his neck, "Okay! Okay! Is it at least a good secret?"

Pyrrha puts her finger to her lip, teasing her poor leader, "Of course. You're not the only one who—?!"

Splat!

Jaune, Ren, and Nora's eyes widen as a pie hits Pyrrha squarely on the face. They all turn to see Team RWBY pointing fingers at Yang with Blake resting her head dejectedly into her book and Weiss hiding her disappointment behind her palm. Even Ruby looks stubbornly at her Yang's who's making an oh gesture at her clear mistake and poor aim.

When the pie slides off Pyrrha's face, Jaune can feel a sudden spike in pressure coming from his partner's Aura.

Without warning, Pyrrha grabs Jaune's sandwich from out of his hands and chucks it wildly across the table, glad the contents of the sandwich come undone in midair and land between all of Team RWBY. She couldn't exactly see past from the whip cream to see who they were pointing at for the culprit of this heinous act, so the invincible girl gladly settles on the fact that the tomatoes land on Weiss's hair, mayo all over Ruby's outfit, buns on Blake's face and book, and varies meats on Yang's cheeks.

The brawler is the first to retaliate by chucking another apple at them, missing all of Team JNPR and hitting aside Nora's pancakes instead. Her plates leaves her hands and drops to the floor where the fluffy pancakes meet their unjust demise, and Nora's gasping at the loss of delicious nectar.

Then all hell breaks loose!

Angry of her innocent friends perishing, Nora flips her team's table, effectively throwing the remaining food at any general direction. Litter of morsels fall upon the student body and Team RWBY, who respond with equal vigor. Even Blake and Weiss get sucked into the brawl when syrup drenches their perfectly brushed hair and ruining a perfectly good breakfast.

Food is thrown between the teams without care, not once caring for the other students eating nearby. Everything is a weapon, bread, turkeys, watermelons, and so much more. So much in fact that all the other students run for cover when Nora flips even more tables to create a fort like structure where she happily stood on top of.

No one notices a blue hair teen and his monkey Faunus friend enter as everyone else vacates the premise, yelling Food Fight.

Standing on the pinnacle of her wooden castle, Nora laughed mockingly at her challengers, aided by her loyal allies. The merciless Fair Maiden stood a deck below her with her loyal Sloth King and Fearless Knight guarding the front lines. And the Pancake Queen herself gloated with perfect virtue and strength.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" she laughed louder, leaning back to throw her voice farther, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

Stomping her foot on a table with enough force to rattle the food, Ruby pointed at the evil Pancake Queen with fury, determined to be the hero to bring down the corrupt monarchy. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be... delicious!"

Her followers rallied behind her, taking Ruby's crushing of a carton of milk as their sign to charge! They all yell to their heart's content, fist raised alongside their leader, "Yea!"

Accepting Ruby's challenge, Nora leaped off her balcony to join her fellow cohorts, landing behind her watermelon cannons, "Off with their heads!"

The Sloth King is first to react, sliding beside the watermelons to quickly grab and lunge the fruit forward at the attackers with the aid from his practice of wielding Magnhild. Their Fearless Knight joins him, picking one up of his own and adding a hefty amount of Aura to his swing while their Fair Maiden finds salt and peppers shakers, tossing them to blind their invaders. But it's the Pancake Queen who does the most damage, flipping a table holding multiple watermelons to their attackers.

Ruby's instantly in leader mode, "Yang! Turkey!"

Moving on command, Yang fisted two nearby turkeys, using them as replacement gauntlets. She crushes her hands tightly together before intercepting the incoming barrage of fruit with deadly precision, punching her way through wave after wave of watermelon. But the brawler's only so good, having to backflip away and dodge a few others before having to stay on the defensive.

She's not stuck fighting defensively for too long, her partner eventually runs up to join the fray, using a pair of nearby baguettes to push back the watermelons and give her partner enough to space to push alongside her. Together they're a well-oiled machine, decimating Kingdom JNPR's first wave of defenses, and quickly crossing the threshold to raid the castle.

Smashing a few more watermelons while Blake runs off to intercept from the sidelines, Yang tosses the turkeys like ammunition, aiming squarely for the Fearless Knight with a grudge and motive. Surprisingly enough, the knight's able to dodge the projectiles, focusing on his Aura to give him the boost to keep up. He's then running at Yang while reaching down to grab a nearby baguette, using the bread as a sword of his own that's coated in a layer of Aura.

Dodging an incoming Blake, Jaune feels Spaces all around him collide together in a cornucopia of pressure and color as everyone begins to use their Aura, upping the ante for this little game of theirs. In the background he can feel and hear Pyrrha intercept Blake, fighting together in a... stalemate.

Ha! That's four! Take that Yang!

Not prepared for an assault confrontation from the Fearless Knight, Yang barely dodges the swing of his baguette by rolling back while using the quick momentum to gain some proper footing and distance. During her roll, she managed to pick up another pair of turkeys and met the knight head-on for a second round.

Heh, she'll give him this. He definitely is fearless to be challenging her.

Bringing her forearm to intercept the baguette, Yang's immensely surprised by the amount of force behind the swing, completely losing her balance. She's immediately pushed back into a pile of broken watermelons, covered from top to bottom in the thick, sticky juice of the damn fruit. Then she's forced to quickly side roll out of the way, or be stuck taking a full slash of the Fearless Knight's attack.

Many things aren't adding up for the brawler, but she pushes that all aside for the simple matter of fighting this man one-on-one. A fight she's been itching to have for more than two weeks.

Hands full—pun for the win—Yang sure hopes her team's fairing fine without her.

...

Blake glares at the Fair Maiden, locking baguettes in a struggle of dominance of will. Her ears pick up fighting behind her between her partner and Jaune Black Smudge. Instincts tell her to be worried, but she's not too sure for whom. Then instincts scream at her to take the Fair Maiden seriously as her strength begins to fail against her unknown power.

Lifting her foot, she tries to kick the Fair Maiden away, but she leaps back to dodge the kick, tossing forward her baguette for Blake to block. Only to have the Fair Maiden lunge forward and grab the baguette in midair, using Blake's momentarily distraction to her advantage to deliver a cross sweep that centers directly at Blake's midriff.

Thinking on her feet, Blake lets go of one of her baguettes, quickly allowing the long bread to fall a foot before re-grabbing and twisting the loaf in her hand to intercept the strike. It works. Allowing the bookworm to strike the Fair Maiden on the side, thus giving her the first strike of their little match. Yet, first strike or not, this fight is far from over as her opponent tosses up a pepper shaker from who knows where, catching Blake in a sneeze attack!

Oh no... Yang's rubbing off on her.

Sneezing, Blake doesn't notice the Fair Maiden pull in her baguette roughly, stopping its momentum when the bread reaches the halfway point, getting locked tightly between her fingers. The booklover then feels the sudden stings of bread poking her body from all points in a never-ending assault that's both quick and enduring.

Struggling, Blake crosses her baguettes, splitting them right after to build up a shield and a stubborn push. The payoff works, pushing her fighter back enough for Blake to move on the offense once more, using one of her breads as a pole to life herself in the air and toss her other baguette at the Fair Maiden. A perfect strategy, one that lands a blow on the Fair Maiden's midriff and forces her back, but at the price of a lack of defense and retreat.

Left in the air and open to attacks from all sides... including incoming deadly watermelons from the Pancake Queen and her inhuman strength, Blake barely has time to intercept half of the watermelons heading towards her before the Fair Maiden tosses her baguette roughly for Blake's head. Luckily, Weiss comes to the rescue with a swordfish clutched in her hand and a tray in her other for a shield.

Weiss is only able to block most of the food and barely look over her tray shield to see the Pancake Queen close in, "Watch out!"

Blake doesn't exactly have time to understand what Weiss is saying until she's pushed away by her icy teammate to avoid a watermelon to the face. Somewhere along the lines, the Pancake Queen had found a way to construct a hammer using a pipe and watermelon for the head before going on the offensive to fight their resident Ice Queen.

A fight between hot and cold, soft and hard, insane and sane has just begun.

Splash!

Awestruck, Blake barely had time to acknowledge her school uniform was covered in ketchup and mustard from the Fair Maiden's counterattack. Then an avalanche of red and gold head towards her direction like a tsunami, and Blake has even less time to kick up a nearby table to shield herself from the onslaught. But while she shields herself, she spots a roll of weenies lying beside her feet and the gears in her head run a mile a minute.

Out of ammunition, the Fair Maiden narrows her eyes at the block of blood and gold still standing from her attack, wondering where the pesky ninja had runoff to. Then she no longer has to wonder with Blake jumping above the table, tossing her baguette, which she easily sidesteps before a trail of weenies is coming for her.

They rap around the Fair Maiden's arm and she barely has time to look down at the rope binding her before Blake's pulling her in with her baguette squarely locked to attack, "Get over here!"

...

Ruby's paralyzed from watching her team fight evenly against the evil Kingdom of JNPR. A second later she shakes her head, "Head in the game, Ruby! Your team needs their leader!"

Checking to see who's the closest, Ruby runs up to grab a tray and grinds across the battlefield from table to table. Her closest ally is her partner and she's slowly closing the gap to aid Weiss against the dreaded Pancake Queen, but Fate's a tricky mistress. Sometimes she's sweet and gentle and other times she's cruel and harsh.

Only two tables left to go, Ruby almost reaches Weiss but her cloak gets stepped on from behind and she falls on her adorable butt. The tray tumbles on the floor, clinging as it eventually slides to be forgotten in the turmoil of custard bombs and pepper strikes.

"It's been a long time, Ruby," she hears from behind, alerting the Little Reaper to her current adversary. Her blood just begins to boil as she comes face-to-face with JNPR's own Sloth King. "Your fight's with me."

Narrowing her eyes, Ruby feels both excited and angry at the emotionless tone he used to poke at her. They narrow even more so from the way he so easily stepped on her cloak, lacking any sort of grievance for disrespecting her pride and joy.

Pulling her hood away, Ruby points at her rival, "Prepare to feel the full wrath of my justice!"

The Sloth King regards her words with a lack of emotion, hinting to nothing but pulling out a pair leeks from the confines of his sleeves, "Who talks like that?"

A gust of winds blows from behind, laced with the taste of sugary substances, trapping their cloaks to the effects of gust. Hers blows past her shoulders and over her body with her hair falling to the same Fate. His is hardly pushed away somehow with only his hair losing the fight to the wind. A distinct chill runs up her spine from the way he stood so straight with his cloak hardly moving.

He calls it a cloak, but to her it looks like more of a mantle with the way it hung so easily on his shoulders or how it refused to bend to the wills of gravity.

Still, Ruby couldn't have asked for a better opponent, "I'll show you!"

Looking around the battlefield, Ruby spots her weapons and makes a hasty dash towards them with a trail of rose petals left in her wake. Her hands reached down towards the piles of cookies and she uses her semblance to give herself a little boost before tossing the cookies towards the Sloth King. By using her speed as the base of her velocity, anything she throws will essentially move faster than her, practically making them move at speeds rivaling bullets.

Testing his limits, the Sloth King reaches out with a wave of his arm, feeling his semblance less in his control than when his mantle is wrapped completely around his body, but the effects are still far better than before. A wave of invisible pink lashes out and comes in contact with a few of the cookies, causing them to lose their trajectory in an untimely and unfortunate set of events with the end result being a cookie to cookie collision that essentially annihilated most of Ruby's projectiles, turning them into a mess of destruction and dough.

The very few that broke through all that were met with an early death from a slash of leeks, except for the one he merely caught between his fingers as an act of humor.

Feeling his cloak improve his power to a new level, the Sloth King took a bite of the lukewarm morsel, "You're still too slow."

Angry that he brushed off her attack like it was nothing, Ruby took a step back to place her foot at the right angle. She got ready to show him what slow really looked like. No matter what! She will beat her rival! Nothing's going to stop this Rose!

Studying her, the Sloth King crushed the remainder of the cookie in his hand, tossing away the crumbs before bringing up his leeks in a cross guard of sorts. Then he's concentrating on his Aura as Ruby breaks the distance between them with a large mass of food trailing behind her due the vacuum of air she's created from her sudden burst of speed. Parts of him feel honored that such a powerful attack is solely meant for him; the other part of him can't help but sigh at the sheer foolhardiness of why he's coming head to head with a wall of fatty foods.

How troublesome.

Bringing up his leeks, Ruby's boots press hard against the vegetables, almost breaking them if it wasn't for the Aura the Sloth King concentrated into the foods. That, and unknown to everyone, the Lore played a heavy part as well. Due to Lore's gravity properties and the Sloth King's previous idea to use those properties to lessen or greater the effects of said properties, he instinctively lowered the gravity of Ruby's force the second she crossed paths with his.

Just like the cloak's power to stay connected to his shoulders, Lore's gravity properties are definitely an oddity. One Team JNPR needed to test more on. But for the meantime, the Sloth King has far bigger problems to worry about.

Even though he's stopped Ruby's kick, the piles of food coming towards them was still a very lively threat. One the adorable reaper tried to evade with her superior speed, but the Sloth King had trapped her foot between his leeks, keeping them both stuck in place as the food almost reached them.

"What are you doing?! We're both going to get caught in that tornado of food!"

Her rival stopped for a slight second to think about this before poking Ruby on the forehead, "Not we." Adding a little of his semblance to Ruby's still locked foot, he let her go and jumped back towards the gold and blood colored wall. "Nora!"

Popping her head over the Ice King, the Pancake Queen grinned in her deadlock with Weiss at the sight of food coming towards them. Raising her foot, she kicks Weiss on the stomach and connects a solid hit with her watermelon hammer that sends Weiss towards Ruby before jumping after her king, "Coming, Ren!"

Flying towards her leader, Weiss can't move in time to avoid hitting her and Ruby couldn't either as she somehow tripped on her two feet. Somewhere in the background they can hear the Fearless Knight and the Fair Maiden take cover from two soda machines being levitated together to form a barricade with their opponents none the wiser.

Then the cataclysm happens.

The Kingdom of JNPR hides behind their walls as the maelstrom of food passes over them with the screams of their opponents littering the backgrounds. Gushes of air sweep across their barricades, threatening to topple them over as well, but they hold. Through the act of Monty they hold strong.

When the winds die down, Team JNPR looks behind them to see all of Team RWBY pinned to the wall in a palette of colors and swirls of their own design. One by one they fall from their easel, landing with halfhearted thuds and groans, painting the floors in a messy rainbow. No inch of them resemble any of their previous color palate.

It's almost enough to warrant a laugh from Team JNPR if it wasn't for an angry Professor Goodwitch suddenly entering the room with a pressure Jaune knows outclasses all of theirs. Then she's using her semblance with a growl and unleashes it all around them in a haze of purple Aura only Jaune can see. Something that looks absolutely magnificent as Professor Goodwitch's semblance resembles a lot of invisible hands that grab onto each and everything that's not them, fixing the mess hall in seconds.

When it's all finished, she fixes her glasses to glare at each and every one of them, "Children, please. Do not play with you food." Nora burps at this, getting Professor Goodwitch slightly angrier.

Luckily for them, Ozpin walks in right after, giving her a light smile, "Let it go."

Goodwitch doesn't know what to say, so she sighs as both teams begin to ignore the Headmaster and Professor. Part of here doesn't know what to think; maybe that's why she comes to Ozpin when she's lost. Even now, he always seems to have the answers.

"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."

"And they will be," he agrees, enjoying the light laughter in the background, "but right now they're still children. So why not let them play the part. After all," he looks at Jaune Arc who isn't worse for wear than he expected, "it isn't a role they'll have forever."

Glynda looks between Ozpin and the students, finding the meaning behind his words, but still not liking how these children were acting. Still, there will be times where a little fun can go a long way. And if the Headmaster didn't want to punish them, then there was very little she could do.

"Fine," she waves, already walking out and barely greets a Monkey Faunus and the purple hair individual covered in grape juice.

Ozpin follows alongside her a second later; barely passing one more look to watch his students as the doors to the mess hall closes. Then the mess hall is a furry of talking and commotion, even more so when Team RWBY recognizes one individual standing by the door.

"Sun?" Blake presses, whipping off a banana peel from her hair. "When did you get here... why are you here?"

"What's up?!" Sun grins with an easy wave. "I wanted to introduce you to my buddy, Neptune and show him how awesome you guys are! And we're exchange students for that Vytal Tournament thing. Say hey, Neptune."

Neptune merely tries to wipe away the purple from his outfit, ignoring his friend's request, "Aren't mess halls meant for eating?"

Sun shushes him, "Shut up! Don't be a nerd. And dude!" he points at Neptune's multi-colored hair. "You're hair looks totally awesome with that shade of purple. You should keep it like that."

Neptune pulls his hair down to see it is indeed covered in a purple hue. Knowing it's futile to try and fix with him covered in the color purple, Neptune at least wipes away the stain on his face, somewhat glad that everyone but Sun is covered in food. Kind of makes everything balanced.

Kind of!

How the food missed his hyperactive and always looking for trouble partner is beyond him.

And then everyone's talking to Sun and Neptune with both Jaune and Ren left in the background to clean off the few specs of food that have gotten onto them. They're about to join Sun and Neptune as they finish, but Monty has other plans for the fellow males of Team JNPR. Cruel, heartless plans.

"This isn't over!" Ruby yells suddenly, forcing Ren to turn to meet her with a quick spin. "I won't lose to you!"

Ren fixes young Ruby a glare, pointing at the lettuce stuck to her hair, "You just did... again." Probably the wrong thing to say as Ruby's about ready to explode.

Jaune would try to diffuse her and stop this madness from growing, but he's got his own rival to worry about. And she's a lot more forceful than Ruby.

Shaking him, Yang's relentless, "I'm not going to lose to you! I want a rematch or else!"

Even through her nonstop shaking, Jaune Arc knows fully well Yang did not lose to him. She lost to the tornado of food that Ruby caused, her baby sister! Not him. Not Jaune Arc. Not the leader of Team JNPR! But Ruby Rose. Yang's leader. Yang's baby sister. Not him!

Somehow that got lost in translation. And what Yang Xiao Long got from all that was Team RWBY lost, so in theory, Yang lost to Jaune. Made sense from one angle, maybe even two, but not all of them covered the simple line of common sense.

But again, something must have got lost in translation.

Confused and dizzy, Jaune's traitorous mouth beat him before logic can, "Or else what?"

Tempted, the grin stretching on Yang's mouth can make a Grimm seem good and harmless compared to the nasty way her Aura enveloped her body. Her eyes gleams that lovely shade of crimson he's come to love so much and she's letting him go before he could figure out what's happening.

Then without a moment's rest, Yang scoots over to Ruby, who's still trying to gauge a reaction out of Ren, and plucks her sister away from Ren, "C'mon, Rubes! Looks like Ren and Jaune here want to feel the wrath of our might! And you know what that means!"

Ruby squirms a little in Yang's hold, but raises her hands in the air, "Yea!"

Jaune and Ren are left clueless as Yang and Ruby run out the mess hall with a cackling laughter. They turn around to see the rest of their friends still engaged in a conversation with Sun and Neptune, apparently having missed their rivals declare war on them with them having no weapons prepared to counter any plans those two could come up with.

"How come we're the only ones who have to deal with this?"

Ren pretends to know the answer, "Because Monty hates us."

…

For all of the morning and half the afternoon, nothing happens to Jaune and Ren. But they remain cautious and diligent since Yang and Ruby have remained missing since the moment they left. Pyrrha and Nora tell them not to worry, but those two don't have stubborn one-sided rivalries. They don't understand the problems they have to go through.

No one does.

Other than staying on high alert, Jaune and Ren got a chance to meet Sun and Neptune. Cool guys who thought Ren could use more emotion in his life. A mutual agreement between all of Team JNPR and Weiss and Blake. Neptune had complimented Ren on his strange hair combo and Sun had said he could always use more fellow blond friends.

After everything was all said and done, Ren and Jaune liked Sun and Neptune, enjoying the extra testosterone in a girl heavy friend group, and the guys planned to hang out during some point in time when everyone wasn't trying to settle in at Beacon. After that, Sun and Neptune had followed Blake and Weiss around, searching for their missing team members while Nora and Pyrrha ran off to who knows where, apparently having something to do with girl talk.

Now they're walking back to their dorm room with Jaune looking over his shoulder every second. He can't feel Ruby or Yang's Aura, so they're not actively using their Aura which sort of settles Jaune's nerves, but that much.

"Should we be worried that we haven't seen Ruby or Yang since they ran away?"

If Jaune had been paying more attention, he would've noticed that Ren's eyes have been roaming the halls as well, "I am."

Reaching their room's door, Ren's eyes widen a little, barely avoiding a surprise water balloon aimed for his head from the side. He's unable to alert his Fearless Leader on time and the outcome... Splash!

"Ah!" Jaune cries, dripping in water. He just got cleaned up from the food fight! "What the heck?! Where did that come from?!"

Laughter fills the halls, answering their question when they spot Yang and Ruby's head popping out of the corner from the end of the hallway. Yang has another water balloon in her hand and she quickly throws it at Jaune, who, once again, can't dodge because this time the water's blinding him to the sneak attack.

Splash!

"Ah!" Ren dodges the second water balloon Ruby tried to sneakily throw at him... it hits Jaune. "Ah! Come on!"

"Darn it!" Ruby growls adorably with Yang lightly messing her baby sister's head of hair, "I missed!"

"Don't worry, Rubes! You've got all day to prank poor Renny. He's a sitting duck."

Ren tilts his head, "I'm standing right here."

Yang blinks at that before tossing her other hidden water balloon, aiming directly at poor, blind Jaune. He's hit squarely between the eyes and the sisters are gone, leaving behind a soaking leader and cautious ninja.

"So..." Ren begins, trailing as Jaune wipes away water from his eyes. "They're pranking us. Is that it?" Jaune answers with a huff, pushing his hair back to avoid it sticking to his forehead. "This is going to be a long day."

Jaune's hit with another surprise water balloon from behind.

...

Sitting out a set of dry and clean clothes, Ren changed out of his school uniforms covered in filth and into their normal attire after stepping out of the shower, yet Ren's a little hesitant when he puts the cloak over his green tailcoat, unsure whether or not he should wear so many layers of clothing all at once. Sure, he already wears a black long-sleeved shirt underneath his tailcoat, so the idea of wearing extra clothing isn't something too crazy, but another piece of clothing sounds a bit too much.

And the mix colors of green, white, black, and pink clash too much for his benefit.

Placing all three down on the bed, Ren's eyes are distracted by Sir Scrabbles sliding over to his cloak and then black long-sleeved shirt, ignoring the bright, vibrant colors of his green tailcoat all together. There's a silent conversation passing between Ren and the tiny Grimm, one they both know Jaune is watching immensely as he exits out the shower with a towel wrapped around his lower torso and another used to wash his face.

Sir Scrabbles and Ren know in their own unique way that Jaune's still iffy on letting Sir Scrabbles stay with them. But, just like Ren, he can't say no to Nora when she begs, even more so after the little Emerald Forest episode. And Ren has no qualms about letting the little guy stay. Anything to make Nora happy and keep that smile always blooming. Plus they did solve Ren's personal problem. So they've earned the stoic man's trust.

Taking Sir Scrabble's advice, Ren calmly grabbed his green tailcoat and hung it back into the closet, deciding only to wear his long-sleeved with his cloak. Less constriction and the colors don't clash with his pants or hair.

Perfect!

"You're not gonna wear your tailcoat?" Ren's not sure what's he's more impressed with. That his Fearless Leader already figured out his plan... or that he knew what a tailcoat was. Apparently, he voices these thoughts through his subtle glare because Jaune rolls his eyes at him while drying off his face with his towel, "I have seven sisters, remember?"

Ah. That's right. Now Ren remembers. If anything, Jaune should know more about clothing than he should.

Satisfied, Ren shuts the closet, reaching for his long-sleeve, "It's too much." Popping his head out of his shirt, Ren's glare stays on Jaune for a little too long in eerie silence.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"Yes."

"Huh?" Dropping the towel, Jaune walks into the bathroom and runs back out a second later; grabbing the towel he's just dropped. "What's all this black stuff all over my towel and face? It won't come off!"

A few minutes of fruitless rubbing with a clean towel proves to be useless endeavor as all it does is slightly smudge the black stuff more so on his face. Eventually, it's across his forehead, passing straight down towards his cheek, looking like a giant black smudge.

Letting his leader furiously rub his face, Ren walks into the bathroom and searches it until he finds an empty bottle of prank ink. He reads over the instructions and labels printed across bottle, figuring Yang had something to do with the prank.

Walking out, Ren tosses the bottle towards Jaune, "This is what's on your face. It says it won't come off for twelve hours."

"What?!" Catching the bottle, Jaune reads over the instruction, sighing at his misery when he's done. Slowly he slides down onto the floor, "I should've just let Yang beat me up in a fight."

If only that was the end of Yang's pranks.

...

Yang's pranks only increased in volume the second Jaune left his team's room.

First was the door handle being covered in nail polish, leaving Jaune's palm covered in a sickly shade of gold that burned his palm slightly, but continuously. Then her dreaded air horn surprise hug prank that followed Jaune like the plague.

No matter where he turned, Yang was always nearby. Perhaps hiding behind a potted plant that didn't exist there before or wearing a sombrero three sizes too big. She found a way to get past Ren's leader impeccable defenses. But lastly, and the most dreaded of them all was Yang's pie to the face. A pie laced with love and lots of whip cream. The end result being Jaune having to take another shower, which backfired terribly after Jaune forgets about Yang's ink towel again.

Suffice to say, Ren's surprised his leader hasn't snapped yet.

The only time one of Yang's pranks backfired was the one neither Jaune nor Ren knew anything about. During some point in time, she had snuck Zwei into Team JNPR's room when they were all away, ordering Zwei to chew anything that smelled like Jaune, only to be surprised when Zwei hurried out the room with a large cut on his nuzzle seconds later.

When she tried to make him go back in, Zwei whimpered and ran back into the haven of Team RWBY's room and Yang had no time to see what the problem was, since Jaune and Ren at the time had been returning back to their room with Jaune covered in her chicken feathers prank.

She never saw the pair of blood red eyes peeking through Ren's sheets.

...

Ren walks into his team's room after eating lunch, finding his Fearless Leader scribbling in a frantic panic in the dead center. Jaune's shoulders are hunched and he's whispering to himself over and over again in a delusional manner. Essentially meaning, Lie Ren was a tad concern for his health, especially since Lore radiated from his body in unending haste.

Unlike Aura's bright glow, Lore's luminosity seemed to create even more shadows.

"What are you doing?"

Not sparing Ren a glance, he laughed, "Working on my latest plan to finally get back at Yang for all her pranks!" Jaune Black Smudge grinned evilly, harboring a spare Gravity to float his plans in a diabolic way. Oozes of Lore poured out of his body, "And you're just in time to help me! Okay! Here's what I need you to do—!"

"You shouldn't sink to her level..." Ren interrupted, emotions calm despite everything. Clearly, order needed to be restored and his leader wasn't capable. "I know Yang's been relentless with her pranks, but I refuse to be the smaller man and allow her petty tricks to get underneath my skin. Eventually they'll get bored and stop."

Jaune wasn't convinced at all, "Easy for you to say! Ruby hasn't even tried to prank you yet!"

"That is because she knows she can't."

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Ignoring Jaune's attempts to persuade him, Ren goes to answer whoever's knocking. His lien's on Blake.

Splash!

Giggles echo from out the hallway as Jaune sees Ren get drenched in a bucket of ice cold water, dripping down from every possible inch of his frame. Spots of water soak to the carpet as he remains to drip endlessly with a bucket stuck to his head from a highly reactive glue. The giggles soon become laughs that are clearly Ruby's, and Ren calmly shuts the door, releasing a dark intent that his cloak intensifies and Jaune's Gravity to gravitate to. Even Sir Scrabbles has popped out from underneath Nora's sheets from the weight of antipathy build up.

Drip! Drip!

Ren Bucket Head turns his gaze towards Jaune Black Smudge, tone dangerously flat, "Tell me more about this plan of yours..."

...

Checking his scroll every few minutes, Jaune Black Smudge taps his foot impatiently on the dirt near Emerald Forest, wondering where the hell Ren was at. It was almost time to—?!

"There you are, Ren! It's about time you got—why do you have Sir Scrabbles?"

The tiny sloth Grimm peers from behind Ren's head, hiding most of its body beneath the collar of Ren's cloak with only the hue of black and blood eyes as its companion. No emotion escapes Sir Scrabbles. Neither of the two outwardly expressed any emotion. It kind of freaked out Team JNPR's leader at the uncanny impassiveness.

Jaune still can't figure out how either Nora or Ren so easily let the little guy bunk with them. Pyrrha's still a little indifferent about the subject, but she hides it well or maybe she's just coming around to Ren's line of thinking. This whole Grimm theory Ren's testing is definitely pushing boundaries and breaking barriers. How he could so easily trust a Grimm to such a degree was beyond Jaune.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ren looks off into the moonless night, "Nora and Pyrrha were still busy with their girl time and I thought I should watch him. It's not good to keep an animal locked up in a room all day."

"It's a sloth," Jaune drones, pointing at crimson eyes blinking at him. "It likes being cooped up in a room all day. All they do is sleep! Sleep!" Sir Scrabbles makes a tiny yelping sound. "Alright! Alright! Fine! You can stay. You can stay. Just be quiet!"

Ignoring the irony, Ren peers over his shoulder to stare at the tiny Grimm, signaling the little guy with no words to hide back inside the safety of his cloak. Sir Scrabbles does just that and Ren's back to looking at his leader, "Is everything ready?"

"Yup! Just be ready to use your semblance when it's your signal!"

For the first time ever, Jaune sees Ren smirk lightly at the thought of testing out his semblance. Of course it might have something to do with Ren wanting to extract revenge on Yang and Ruby for the ice bucket prank. Maybe Lore's negative emotion backlash might be a culprit as well. Perhaps even a little of both if Jaune's honestly guessing at this point. It's all a matter of principle depending on which angle he's looking at.

Then the smirk's gone, hidden away as the cloak's collar closes all the way, allowing only Ren's pink eyes to be the mirror to his emotions.

What a useless mirror.

Grinning, Jaune revealed a white sheet with a set of razor shape teeth cut out for a mouth and two holes for eyes for the first part of his master plan. The next part had them both standing at the very edge of Emerald Forest just outside of Beacon Academy in the middle of the night with no one in sight. Third, Jaune has an outfit of Blake's, ready to make it look like she got eaten by the ghost. Fourth, Jaune's found a makeshift tree for them to hide in. Fifth was Blake's scroll with a message that never got sent. And finally, to really sell it, Jaune got Blake to lend him Gambol Shroud in exchange for a future favor, to read in his room right now, and his promise not to break it.

In all, everything was set except for one crucial component of the plan.

"How are you even going to get Yang and Ruby to come out here?" Ren poked, finding a loophole for only Jaune to grin, holding out his scroll. Ren's not impressed. "Won't it be just a little bit suspicious if you invite them to a secluded area outside of the school?"

"But I didn't," Jaune answers. "Blake did. She owes me one. Plus she's always so mysterious and stuff. It would be totally like her to want a secret meeting place away from Beacon."

Now Ren's impressed. Yet, there's still more to keep count for, "How do you know if they're still coming or not?"

Jaune waves out his hand, "I've been keeping track of their Aura ever since Blake sent out that message. They're slowly making their ways towards here. Blake's message had been one of utmost urgency," Again, Ren's impressed. Sometimes he forgets that Jaune's the real strategist of the team. "Okay! No more fooling around! They're almost here!"

Canceling out his concentration, Jaune switches to Lore and creates three Gravities. Each one floats in the air, hovering ominously due to their leader's emotions, yet they look no different compared to any of the Gravities Jaune's created in the past.

Interested, Ren finds the instinct to run gone and any fear he once had diminished to absolute nothing as he quietly kneels beside it, practically coming face to face with the dark power. Jaune can see Ren's Aura still remain close to his body, against the gravitational pull coming from three separate Gravities. None of his Aura is being drained or pulled away.

Fascinated, Jaune has to shake his head, needing to set up, "Forget about it for now. We'll test some stuff later out in our room!"

Reaching for the sheet, Jaune willed one of the Gravities to move up a little, trying to level them in a perfect triangle. When he does, he tosses the sheet over the orbs, impressed at Lore's capabilities to make the sheet float like an actual ghost. Then the blond throws some of Blake's clothing on the floor with red dye on both the ghost and her clothes to make the appearance of blood look real.

"Perfect!" Concentrating, Jaune moves the ghost's hands by willing the Gravities to move in that direction. It works and he sets up the final phase of his plan, placing Blake's clothing in the arms and mouth of the ghost.

Ren must admit it does look terrifying with the way it floats so easily in the air.

"Alright, time for us to hide!" Ren follows Jaune into a nearby tree that hides there location. Jaune then tested the power of his hold on the Gravities from far away, still having a fair control over them. "Good. It works. And here they come."

Jaune wills the ghost to hover higher in the air so Yang and Ruby don't see it.

Reaching their location, Ruby and Yang stop in the middle of courtyard, wondering where the heck Blake was at with their surprise. The message said to be there on time or she wasn't sharing the surprise with them. Of course the message had sounded fishy. Blake didn't do surprises. But Yang and Ruby couldn't take the chance to pass up an opportunity for Blake to open up.

"Where do you think Blake is at?" Ruby asked, standing on her tippy toes to see if Blake was further down the courtyard. No such luck. "Did we come too early?"

Yang checks the time on her scroll, scrunching her eyes at the numbers, "No... we came just as she told us to. Right on time. See, Ruby... Ruby?"

Yang looks up from her scroll to see her sister's petrified face staring right behind her. Then before Yang can realize what's happening, a strange urge to run settles down in the depths of her spine, causing goose bumps to run up her arms and a chill to trap her soul. Fear overcomes her throat and it feels like her Aura is being drained away by the seconds.

Turning around, Yang sees a white sheeted ghost hovering behind her with articles of Blake's clothing drenched in blood, held in its arms and mouth. It takes a full three seconds for the brawler to breathe again before she bursts out laughing at the sheer dumbness of the thing happening right in front of her, almost choking really.

"Nice try, guys," Yang yells out between laughs, walking towards the ghost even when her instincts tell her to run away. "I gotta admit... getting Blake to play along with your little prank was pretty good. But, c'mon, this is the best you can do?"

Grabbing the sheet, Jaune wills the ghost's head to peer down at Yang's arm, dropping a piece of Blake's clothing in the process. Yang ignores this to pull the sheet and is eternally surprised to find nothing hidden inside. During the pull, Jaune had willed away the Gravities, already creating three more for the next phase of his plan.

"Uh... Yang," Ruby poked, pointing at the sheet in Yang's hand and the empty space where Jaune and Ren should have been if this was their doing. "Where are Jaune and Ren?"

She doesn't know and she's not given the chance to ponder.

Coming out from the shadows of the trees, Jaune's spare ghost flew out towards them with Blake's weapon clutched between two Gravities and the third forcing the sheet forward. Except this spare had a much larger mouth with even sharper rows of teeth and eyes designed to look scary. This ghost also has Blake's other article of clothing in its mouth with the third Lore sphere keeping it from falling until the last possible moment.

Eyes widening, Ruby points at the weapon between the ghost's hands, "That's Gambol Shroud! What's it doing with Blake's weapon?!"

The ghost then passes by her, barely grazing past her body, inflicting Ruby with Lore's negative properties that cause fear and a numbing coldness to seep into her bones. Her Aura reacts violently to the almost contact, telling her to run as fast as she can.

But Ruby holds her ground, even when Gambol Shroud falls lifelessly on the floor, next to her boots and a scroll she didn't see before. The scroll is barely sticking out of the ground, covered in blood with a message having never been sent. And it takes some courage to reach down and retrieve the dying scroll.

When she reads the never sent message, her eyes widen and her hands begin to shake, "Yang! This is Blake's scroll! This thing ate—oomph!"

Yang pushes Ruby out of the way as the ghost tried to tackle Ruby, "Move out of the way!" They slide on the floor with the scroll falling next to Yang's face. There, she opens her eyes to read Blake's failed attempt to call for help. The last message she never sent.

"Yang..." Ruby whimpers, grabbing Gambol Shroud. "This is the real Gambol Shroud."

Oh no!

Quickly standing up, Yang plucks that weapon out of Ruby's hand, gasping at the familiar feel of her partner's weapon. Then the fear returns as both the ghost rise up from the floor with the last of Blake's clothing falling out of their hands, no longer having the gravitational power to lift up the weapon with one of the Gravities moved to the second sheet to act as its head solely.

The ghosts then return on the attack, zooming towards Yang and Ruby with particles of dirt getting attracted by the gravitational pull of Gravity with a high pitch scream echoing from all around the forest edge. Jaune has to keep himself from laughing as Sir Scrabbles makes another high pitch echo that only adds to the mood. Meanwhile, Ren's getting into position behind a boulder, waiting for his moment to strike.

Hovering past Ruby and Yang, the Gravities absorb more of their Aura and inflict even more fear into them. By now they have come to the conclusion that this wasn't a prank, ironically, and started to take the situation more seriously.

"These ghosts ate Blake!" Ruby cried again, barely dodging the spirits as they flew over her head. "They ate Blake!"

Gritting her teeth, Yang tried to punch any of the ghost, but they always dodged her or simply her fists were met with an intangible body that's only part sheet and Lore spheres. Both of which quickly raised the fear in her soul each and every time she attempted to do something.

"We need to call for our weapons!" Ruby's already ahead of her.

Messages are sent and their lockers arrive in no time, but Jaune sets up Ren's queue, making one ghost block the weapon lockers while the bigger one hides Ren as he sneaks away from the boulder to add his semblance to Yang's and Ruby's weapon lockers and weapons themselves. Then the skinnier ghost rushes toward Yang and Ruby, distracting them just long for Ren to get back to the trees with Sir Scrabbles immediately latching itself on his neck.

"Now comes the fun," Jaune grins, crossing his arms before releasing them to speed up the ghosts' quickness.

Dodging the monsters, Yang and Ruby reach their weapons' lockers, having the hardest time trying to pry open the darn things. The machine was malfunctioning and the ghosts were already making a comeback, flying closer towards them with one of them having its hand stretched out.

"Enough of this!" Yang punches the steel locker, causing a dent but enough force to break open the locker. The skinner ghost then flies past her nose, draining away Aura from her head and causing the fear in her to rise. "Open! Damn it!"

Another fist breaks the locker open and she grabs Ember Celica, loading them onto her arms before breaking open Ruby's weapon locker.

Grabbing Crescent Rose, Ruby moves away just as the larger ghost attempts to grab her. Her hands are shaking as she grips her weapon, constantly telling herself that heroes don't get afraid. They do the right thing. And the right thing was to put these ghosts down for killing poor Blake!

Switching her weapon to scythe mode, Yang stands beside her with Ember Celica locked and loaded, ready to get even!

"Let's do this!" Ruby yells with fake heroism, wishing for nothing more than to be back in her dorm room where she can hide.

"For Blake!" Yang yells back, firing a few shotgun rounds at the skinny ghost... which go completely though it. Or at least that's what Yang and Ruby see.

Lie Ren knows all her shotgun shells missed—however impossible that really was—having messed with their weapon's barrels and aiming function with his semblance. But to Yang and Ruby, in the dark on a moonless night with only Beacon's outside light as a source, it looked like the shells passed harmlessly through the ghost.

Again, Ren's gotta hand it to Jaune, he's definitely thought of everything.

However, the constant strain of moving the Gravities away so far from his body is causing him to lose a lot of Lore compared to having them within a certain distance that keeps his Lore levels in check. This prank can only go on for so long before his leader uses up the last of his Lore.

Best to keep this prank short and everlasting.

Looking at Ruby, both Jaune and Ren are pleased to see her shots missing as well, passing the larger ghost coming after her. Then Ruby tries cutting the ghost, only missing thanks to Jaune's quick reflexes. There's nothing Ren can do about her physical aim when it came to slashing, unless he personally messed with the person earlier.

"They won't go down!" Ruby misses another slash, feeling her Aura being drained away from the close proximity. "They're unbeatable!"

Yang doesn't believe that and fires even more of her shotgun shells at the skinny ghost, but it merely hovers there silently while all the shells miss as an ominous breeze passes by them, flapping the sheet aimlessly in the wind, revealing not a single hole in the sheet or skeletal structure underneath.

This dance they were playing had been going on for a while, and both Yang and Ruby were running out of breath and Aura quickly, falling dangerously close to red. Secondly, their instincts kept demanding they run, and the girls are starting to listen more and more to those little voices in their head.

"I think it's time to go into the final phase," Ren says, hearing the telltale signs of his leader breathing starting to harden after keeping this up for about five minutes. "By now they're scared enough."

"Good idea," Jaune prepares the final act of his little play, centering both the ghosts on poor, unsuspecting Ruby like a puppeteer playing with his puppets. "Time for the finale."

Yang of course isn't just going to let her baby sister fight a pair of ghost one on two. She jumps towards Ruby, firing pointblank in a never ending fashion into the chest of the larger ghost with red Dust infused shells and her semblance fueled by anger to boost.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The ghost catches on fire, slowly withering away from the flames burning the sheet. The Lore's coldness is able to halt the flames, but most of the sheet has given into ashes, eventually falling onto the floor in defeat.

Ruby smiles, eternally relieved, "Yang, you beat it! You beat that ghost and now—it's got me!"

During Ruby's distracted, celebratory cheer, Jaune used the remainder of the Gravity to hover over Ruby's head before willing it away so the sheet can fall onto Ruby's head while the skinnier ghost was pressed to her chest. Each of the Gravities spike up the fear surrounding Ruby, slowly draining away practically all of Ruby's Aura to near nothing.

"Ruby!" Yang almost shoots, but stops herself with Ruby stuck in the crosshairs.

"And now for the final act," Jaune whispers to Ren, willing away the Gravities since he no longer needed them. He extends his hand out, coating his palm in a shade of Lore, "Trap, Black Hole."

Poor Ruby barely pulls off the sheet from her head when the pull of a strong force grabs her, pulling her into the deep, dark woods. When she tries to break free, it's a useless plan since her Aura isn't strong enough anymore and the gravitational force exceeds her own.

Falling onto the floor, Ruby claws at the dirt, desperately trying to fight the force pulling her into the dark woods that has a pair of blood red eyes starting back at her, "Yang! Help me!"

Her sister is there in less than a second, grabbing Ruby's hand. She tries to pull Ruby away, but her Aura just isn't there to give her the strength. There's absolutely nothing left. Nothing!

Monty! Give her strength!

Feeling like they've made their point, Jaune wills Black Hole away, knowing his and Ren's happiness is both from their own pride and Lore's dark properties. So it's not too hard to figure out why they enjoyed this so much.

Watching Yang pull Ruby free from the ghost's grasp, Yang and Ruby decide to turn tail and run. Live to fight another day and all that good nonsense.

Waiting for Yang and Ruby to get far enough from the trees, both Jaune and Ren jump from there hidden spot, quickly recovering Blake's weapon and scroll off the floor as they run to accomplish the final part of their prank. Now all they had to do was outrun Yang and Ruby back to Beacon, an easy task to accomplish with Yang and Ruby running on no Aura.

Again... a brilliant plan by his Fearless Leader. Lie Ren can only imagine what Jaune Arc will accomplish when he sets out his power against enemies.

...

Beating them to their team's room, Jaune and Ren quickly enter their room with Nora, Pyrrha, and even Blake sitting nearby with a book in her hands. She quietly lowers the book, fixing the tired teens a silent glare that speaks with nothing and everything, knowing something's up just not what. Nora and Pyrrha are only more lost at what's happening when Jaune and Ren toss Blake her scroll and weapon.

"Act natural," Jaune says between breaths, pausing for a slight moment. "That's an order from your Fearless Leader." Kind of a hard order to do with a giant black smudge covering half of Jaune's face, but the three somehow manage.

Jumping on his bed, Jaune pulls out his Aura notebook, actually adding notes like Ren's immunity to his Lore's negative effects with Ren sitting right beside him. It's obvious to him why that's the case, but there's just so much he wants to test out. Unfortunately—he thinks Ren might be responsible—there's no time to test out Lore's properties with Blake in the room.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

There's a heavy pounding on their door and Pyrrha looks between Jaune and Ren for a second before sighing and goes to open it, still very lost. When she does, Yang and Ruby tackle inside with Weiss looking down, sighing right behind them and angry at being disturbed of her precious beauty sleep. They're a tangle of limbs on the floor and Weiss looks up, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"These two dunces think they saw and fought a ghost that ate Blake."

Amused, Blake eyes both Jaune and Ren who pretend Remnant's greatest secrets are inside that little notebook of Jaune's. How funny.

Standing up, Blake plays along and walks over to her fallen friends, waiting for their reactions from Weiss's explanation. Clearly, this all had something to do with Jaune's act natural order. So whatever was going on had to be good.

Of course Ruby's the first to react, "But we did! We saw a pair of ghosts that ate Blake." she cries over her shoulder, shaking her arms on the floor before latching onto Blake's foot to help herself up in a panic. "You gotta believe us!"

Weiss looks down at Ruby before crossing her arms to glare at Blake. All the bookworm does is wait for Ruby to finally look up at whose foot she's grabbing, feeling a tiny bit of humor bubbling up in her chest.

"I believe you, Ruby." Blake says with a tiny smile. "Those darn ghosts must have torn me to shreds."

"They did!" Ruby shakes, pulling Blake closer to meet her at eye level. It takes Ruby a few seconds to figure out what's happening before her eyes are widening to impossible heights. "Blake! You're alive!"

Blake ponders on what this whole ghost fiasco was about, and some part of her knows Jaune and Ren had something to do with it, but for the life of her, she can't figure out what Ruby's rambling on about. And then the hug of a lifetime crushes Blake in a death grip, crushing the poor girl under Ruby's hold. "I'm happy I'm alive, too. You can let go of me now—!"

Yang follows soon after, adding to the surprise hug. Weiss is the only one not partaking in the hug, pulling the group of three knuckleheads out of Jaune's room from the sheer absurdity of everything happening around her, ignoring Ruby and Yang's pointless gibberish.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow for class. Goodnight." Weiss slams the door as cries are heard from across the hall. "Stop crying, you dolt. She's fine! There's no such thing as ghost!"

Slam!

Wincing at the slam of the door, Pyrrha stands up and Nora tilts her head. They both turn their heads towards Jaune and Ren who are busy writing and adding stuff to Jaune's Aura notebook with Sir Scrabbles perched over Ren's shoulder, rubbing its claws in Jaune's hair with bored curiosity.

"What was that all about?" Pyrrha finally asked, waiting for a response. She doesn't get one, "Well?"

Sideways glancing at each other, the two guys and the sloth eventually look back at the females with Jaune taking the lead, "Long story short, we pulled the greatest prank in Remnant's history on Yang and Ruby. One of that can't ever be remade. It's was awesome."

Pyrrha's looks conflicted, but it's Nora who is hurt emotionally, "And where were we for this totally awesome prank of yours?"

"You were the ones who wanted to have your girl time or girl talk. Plus they were pranking us, not you, so it was personal," Ren counters easily, enjoying the way Nora's cheeks puffed out.

"That's not fair!" Nora whines, not believing she missed out on Ren pulling off a prank. Ren! "You know how much I love pranks! Tell me what you guys did!"

Tilting his head, Jaune closes the Aura notebook, knowing full well how holy this subject was between his sisters. He might finally be able to learn the true secret to this ancient language. Worth a shot. Maybe even two.

"We will..." he trails, smiling stubbornly. "If you tell us what you two were talking about that was so secretive."

Based on the shrinkage of their pupils, they weren't spilling anytime soon. Especially after they look away from them, pretending now they didn't exist with a flush on their cheeks. Poor Jaune and Ren will never understand women and their strange ways. Alas, a greater mystery than the inner workings of Aura and Lore.

"Would you look at the time?" Nora throws her arms up in the air, feigning sleepiness. She scoops up Sir Scrabbles from Ren's neck in a panic, "Time for bed! I'm beat! What about you, Pyrrha?!"

"Oh!" she jumps. "Yes! Sleep does sound wonderful." She stops to look at her leader, "Sorry, Jaune, looks like we'll have to head to Vale tomorrow after class to pick up more white Dust shards."

Blinking, the males of Team JNPR don't have much say in the matter as the light's washed away from the room. Supposedly it really was bed time with the way Pyrrha and Nora jumped right into like a pair of Huntsmen-in-Training.

Strange.

Oh well.

Turning to stare at Ren in the darkness with a wide grin and strong posture, Jaune's cobalt eyes shined with a light as his Aura comes back to life from the moment he switches between the powers. Ren's magenta eyes do the exact opposite, embracing the darkness, slowly succumbing to the shadows in the room that hid away his emotions and protected him.

"Ready for classes tomorrow?"

---

Author Notes: Two hidden references in this chapter. All hail the Kingdom of JNPR.