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.

16. Coin

Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.

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Coin

By: Imyoshi

Pride—a stubborn word that can cause numerous problems and destroy friendships without justification, bringing untold pain everywhere it goes.

It's pride that blinds people and pushes them over the edge.

Yet, it's pride that allows a person to find motivation and a purpose to move onward from an impossible journey and boundless odds.

Essentially, pride's neither good nor bad, only misguided.

Holding her new weapon high, Pyrrha takes pride in Caliburn and gently smiles as she lowers the weapon to get a better glance at the frozen blood gripped between her fingers. Moirázo̱ joins in on the fun, and before long, Pyrrha's resting the weapons on her back as she had done with Akoúo̱ and Miló, feeling a weight released from her soul the moment they rest and a new pleasant one embarking on her new journey. The Dust shards Weiss created have become the anchor for the shield and sword to center on, contrasting the blood nicely with the snowy blue.

"Caliburn..." Nora hummed absently. She makes a true and kind effort not to laugh—she really does—but the end result remains the same. "Really? I mean... really? That's the name you went with?"

Pyrrha looks over with a confused frown, "What? What's wrong with the name?" Nora covers her mouth, hiding her merciless smile. Pyrrha pouts and looks away, "Well, I like it."

Nora opens her mouth, ready to joke, but Ren slides his palm over her mouth with an impassive smile, "It's a great name." His eyes peek over to Nora, "Right, Nora?"

The girl question looks over to her Fearless Leader for some sort of input, but Jaune's busy gushing over how amazing Pyrrha's new weapons look and proves to be absolutely no help whatsoever. Her eyes move back to Ren who's almost glaring down at her mischievous expression, warning her of some sort of ironic retribution, so she nods before licking Ren's hand that earns her a hasty retreat from Ren's palm.

"Right, Ren!"

Happy, Pyrrha moves forward and hugs the both of them, taking extra care not to put too much weight on Ren of fear of both Nora's wrath and the fact he's running on fumes from the blood loss. They return her hug with one arm, trapped between the champion's fierce hold. Then she lets them go and turns toward her leader and partner, powerless to stop the butterflies from spreading the moment his foolish smile blossoms.

"Thank you..."

It's only until he's hugging her that Pyrrha realizes how tall he is compared to everyone else she's ever run into in her life, or how kind and compassionate this goofball can be if only asked. It's enough to take away the air she breathes and fill her with a different type of burn that's pleasant to be around.

Not much happened the rest of the evening after that. Team JNPR fell to an early sleep with all the blood they were missing holding them back. Even Nora and her ever boundless amounts of energy had crashed minutes after Pyrrha revealed the name of her weapon and shield. Didn't hurt that Sir Scrabbles felt like napping on Ren's head that night, thus leaving Nora one logical choice in sleeping arrangements if she wanted to be close to her precious Sir Scrabbles. Plus, thanks to the boys giving up so much of their blood that left the girls needing to help keep them warm at night when the Aura shards lasting effects finally stopped.

Neither Nora nor Pyrrha had minded in the slightest. More so when the transfer of heat required the guys to give up shirts all together for the night. Blankets could only do so much.

...

When Lie Ren wakes up, he's not drowsy or sluggish. It's a calculated experience with expert profession coming from a clan of lazy ne'er do wells. The action drains nothing from his spirits and he's always well-rested considering the normal air he walks with. Outwardly, Ren prefers not to exert much physical activity, a common trait his family used to have, contradicting Nora's bubbly personality and boundless enthusiasm. And speaking of Nora, she's pretty much the exact opposite; minus initiation because even the thought of waking up early couldn't diminish the excitement she had felt that day. Grimm, fighting, explosions, that's all pretty much Nora's formula for a perfect day.

Back to the matter at hand, Ren's eyes open with a deadly precision and he takes a moment to deeply breathe in the morning air before beginning his day. His pink eyes then slide lazily down towards Sir Scrabbles, who has perched itself on his stomach some point during the night, finding peace from the rhythmic beating of his heart, and then he sets his sights on the hands and feet wrapped securely around his torso and legs with his own arm wrapped protectively over a softer stomach.

Glancing towards his left, Ren finds his jailer of both his arms, snoozing softly onto a spot on his shoulder where her head fits perfectly, with the tiniest bit of drool trailing down her mouth. Her arms are wrapped tightly around his chest in a deadlock, trapping him from even making the slightest of movements. Not to say he's surprise—Nora's always been a cuddler, nothing new there—but Ren can never fathom how she does it. What still amazes Ren till this day is Nora's ability to peacefully sleep, even after all the hardships they've endured together since that faithful day they returned to find their families dead.

Ren's eyes narrow as he recalls that faithful day, remembering and seeing the remains of their family with his semblance over their bodies. Even now, till this very day, he can't believe he caused them both so much pain. No matter how many times the elders of the village kept telling them it was a freak accident, Ren knew that was a lie. His eyes saw it. He could feel it. That power of his was over every one of the corpses and he can never forgive himself for putting Nora through that, and all because he was cursed with these special eyes of his.

The power to control bad luck isn't a semblance to be proud of.

Rumble!

Not even bothering to glare down at his stomach, Ren sighs and forgets about the past for now, figuring he needs to replace the vitamins, nutrients, and iron he lost while donating his blood to Pyrrha. Best get up before his stomach consumes itself or before everyone else wakes up and he's forced to wait in line. Not a scenario the Lie wants to find himself in.

Struggling to move, Ren wiggles in place and tested the bonds Nora has on him before silently giving up and tapping his childhood friend on the forehead. She makes a frown in her sleep and hides deeper into his shoulder, tightening her hold on his body, but even Ren has a cruel streak every now and then and lightly pokes her once more, booping her this time on the nose.

"Sleep..." she yawns and Ren lightly smiles into her stubbornness.

"Time to get up, Nora." She makes some unintelligible response that gets lost on his skin and Ren's stomach rumbles once more. "If you get up now, I'll make you some pancakes," nothing. "With chocolate chip..."

"... And Red Sap?"

No question, "With Red Sap."

Even with the promise of delicious, Ren-cooked food, Nora makes a show with getting up, making the process of untangling herself from Ren a chore, while yawning loudly into his neck. Jaune and Pyrrha are still out cold, having lost maybe even more blood than them, for who knows how much Pyrrha's lost over the week and Jaune's just crazy. Ren personally doesn't think they'll wake up anytime soon, especially considering how early it truly was. Classes didn't start for another few hours and Pyrrha's simply not a morning person, contrary to popular belief.

"And blueberries," Nora suddenly adds, upping the ante. She's already picking up and hugging Sir Scrabbles to her chest, who hates being woken up more than her.

Ren fixes her a soft glare and sits up with him towering over her frame, hiding her in his protective shadow, "Might as well add some banana." Her face begins to heat up with the way his cloak falls down his naked shoulder, "Maybe even some strawberries and... extra sugar."

Sir Scrabbles can't imagine why the female holding it has a heartbeat racing so fast it must hurt, or why the normally talkativeness of her seems to have abandon her in her time of need. And all for the very moment the male human said sugar. All the Grimm does know is that her holder's mate has one hell of a powerful Aura and presence surrounding him. To the point it can see why the king chose to bestow this human garbs fitting of a sloth.

Such fascinating and oddities humans truly were.

"C'mon, Nora, I'm hungry," Ren says simply and Nora quickly pushes Sir Scrabbles into his chest and makes haste towards the bathroom. The two emotionless beings glance at the door before at each other with equally detached emotions. "I don't understand her sometimes."

Sir Scrabbles yelps in agreement before sinking back into Ren's bed for more sleep. Ren makes no attempt to stop it and leaves the bed to reach for his school uniform with the cloak hanging onto his shoulders due to Lore's gravity. The outfit is completed and he waits patiently for Nora to exit out the bathroom. His eyes do roam over to Jaune and Pyrrha and briefly wonders if he should wake them. Then he brushes that idea off when Nora steps out the bathroom, already dressed in her uniform with the red gone from her face.

"Onwards to the cafeteria!" Nora grinned, heading towards the door.

Ren gives his other two teammates another look before waving his hand off, not really wanting to put in the effort to wake them from the dead.

Too much work.

...

Making Nora's breakfast is like breathing to Ren at this point, and he enjoys the peace and quiet of his fruition coming into play. It's nice cooking and not worrying about anything but the food. Almost like Ren and the pancake mix are one and the same. Silly, he knows, but it brings the stoic man comfort in his life. And he takes pride in watching Nora's face light up each and every time she takes the first bite. So he's a little excited to see Nora take the first bite of his masterpiece as he makes his way towards their table, which, seconds later, he noticed is occupied by two other visitors who appear to zero in on the food he's bringing with a ravenous hunger.

Good thing he always makes enough for an army.

"Oh! That looks good!" Yang teased, licking her lips. Ruby stubbornly tries to not lick her lips, but the sight of her favorite food—strawberries—toppled over the syrup drenched, fluffy mountains makes it hard not to. "Hope you brought enough to share."

It's not a question.

Setting the food down, Ren passed them a fair portion with some going to him and most going towards Nora. His partner doesn't even wait for him to place the plate down, cutting her fork down the soft material of the pancake with hearts in her eyes. Ruby and Yang follow suit, attacking their free breakfast, only not as chaotic. And it's Yang who starts off the conversation.

"So, where's the other two of your little club at?"

Ren wants to reprimand her for talking with her mouth full, but stops himself to cut into his own pancake, "Sleeping. They had a long... training session last night." Ren lies, feeling completely natural.

"Really?" Yang grinned mischievously, setting herself up, but Ren's impassiveness pretty much squashes the joke since Ruby and Nora are too busy indulging in their meals to listen. And two members of her own club is missing as well, "Too bad, they're going to miss out on all this food."

"Yea," Ren answers, tone flat. "Butter luck next time."

Ren wishes he could've taken a picture of Yang chocking on her pancake or Ruby's attempt to save her from passing out from a lack of oxygen reaching her brain. Both from the chocking and laughing the poor girl found herself trapped in. No way did he think the pun was that funny.

"Oh, Oum!" Yang breathes, leaning on a fidgeting Ruby after finally catching her breath. "That was priceless. I didn't know you could make such amazing puns."

"There's a lot you don't know about me." Ren says, standing up to return to the kitchen. "I'm a tough egg to crack."

On his way to the kitchen, Ren can feel Ruby's silver eyes glaring holes into his skull the more Yang laughs and laughs at his clever food puns. Somehow the more he talks, the more Ruby's rivalry for him continues to grow and nurture. By now it's too late to nip that fantasy in the bud. Better to ignore her now and pretend she doesn't want to wipe the floor with him. No point in looking the other way. Not anymore. Not when all it does is create more problems than solve them.

Such a cruel cycle.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled once Ren is out of distance. "Stop it! It's not funny!" This only makes Yang laugh even more, "Yang!"

Yang pushes her palm flat down onto Ruby's head. She squirms under the pressure, "Oh, cheer up, Rubes! Of all the people on Jaune's team, I didn't expect Mr. Tall, Dark, and Gloomy to be the funny one."

"Yup!" Nora smiles into her food. "Ren's pretty funny. You should see Jaune and him talk. They're like brothers!"

Yang doesn't miss the way Ruby puffed out a breath of irritation from the mention of a certain word. Poor Ruby, she's been trying so hard and yet all her progress has led nowhere. If anything, she's only pushed her goal farther away with every attempt. Her baby sister just doesn't have the people's skill to interact on a social level without help. And at this rate, Yang feels she just might need to intervene before Ruby blows it completely.

Still, a little teasing never physically hurt anymore, "Speaking of the ninja, what's the deal with the cape? He never wore one before until after you came back from your training trip. Poor Ruby here has been up in arms with how he's stealing her look," Yang mimicked, ignoring Ruby's embarrassed fuming.

Nora pauses momentarily into the bite of her food, taking the slightest of seconds to think of a white lie before gathering her wits and resuming her consumption of Monty's perfect creations. Cheerful or not, she's not dense. Some things simply weren't discussed. Like Ren's awesome and powerful cloak.

Clicking her teeth on the fork, Nora adopts a thoughtful expression before leaning forward on the table, "Well, we got it from some traveling merchant. He was selling it for two-thousand liens, but Ren saved him from a giant sloth Grimm and the old man gave it to him for free!"

Yang believes the white lie, "Whoa! That's something, isn't it Ruby?" Ruby glares adorably at her sister and she can't help but grin jokingly, "You know, at this rate, you're never going to beat him. He's already too strong for you..."

Gasp! "Don't say that! I will beat him! I just need to learn the secret to his power."

"You mean other than being stronger and better than you?" Yang pointed out. "Face it, Rubes! Guy's got you beat. But don't worry, I still love you."

Ruby grumbles beneath her breath and silently lowers herself until only her silvery eyes are popping from underneath the table with her fingers gripping the wooden appliance with envy. Dumb Yang. She doesn't need sisterly love! She needs to learn the secret to Lie Ren's power! And here he comes back.

Ruby huffed with her eyes immediately zero in on the advancing Ren, who has a green liquid slushy in his hand with a rare smile to boot. Ren even has a light kick in his step as he takes a calm seat.

Nora's already on him before he can get a word in, "Bleh! You and those nasty health drinks! How can you drink those?"

Ren sighs and swirls the drink in his hand, "How many times must I tell you, Nora? This is good for you. It helps regulate your body's digestive tract and gives you all the vitamin and nutrients you need to get stronger." Ruby perks up slightly. "You know I get all my strength from this." Ruby perks up intensely and she focuses on the green beverage in Ren's hand. "Hn? Looks like I forgot to get a straw. Excuse me."

The moment Ren leaves the table again with the death drink resting easily on the table, Ruby sprouts out from underneath the tabletop and watches him until he's out of sight and calmly whistles terribly while both Yang and Nora watch her. Then Ruby grabs the drink and disappears in a flurry of rose petals and Nora suddenly loses some of her appetite.

"Uh... this isn't good." Nora panics.

Yang doesn't see the big deal, "What? So Ruby took it, which I do admit is strange, but, eh, it's Ruby. Just get him to make another one. I'll say I threw it away because I was bored."

"That's even worse!" Nora yells, suddenly making sure Ren wasn't nearby before whispering to Yang. "Ren and his nasty fishy food are like Ruby and her cookies. You don't just steal them from him."

"What?" she scoffs. "I see Ren always offering some of his nasty food to you."

"That's different. He was offering because he knows we won't actually take some! And those were his nasty health bars. This is a yucky smoothie. Ren loves his death in a cup more than I like my pancakes!" Yang's eyes widen. "Whatever you do, pretend you don't know anything! You have no idea who took his food. You didn't even realize it was gone."

"But—?"

"Pretend!"

Yang doesn't even get another word as Ren comes back with a bendy straw. His eyes are scanning the table for his missing beverage and he looks to Nora with a sense of longing. Oddly enough, she stuffing her face full of pancakes to the point she can't even speak properly without syrup dripping down her chin.

"Nora? Did you hide my drink?" She answers with messy gibberish and Ren can't make any of it out so he looks to Yang who is immobilized under his scrutinizing glare, far different compared to one he gave Nora. "Where's my drink?"

"I can honestly say, Ren, I had nothing to do with it!"

Ren's glare narrows a bit as he feels both Nora and Yang hiding something. He can almost see this air of deception around them, but it's hard to tell because they must've partially told the truth, hiding behind a feeble wall of makeshift white lies.

"Just makes another one!" Yang offers and Ren shakes his head.

"Can't," he answered. "I made that one special. The amount of vitamins, herbs, and moss used to create it is more than the Beacon kitchen had stocked for a second." He frowns at the dishonesty afoot. "If you two would excuse me, I'm heading to make another, less sufficient substitute."

Even when Lie Ren said it so dispassionately, so detached, Yang still felt a cold sensation wash down upon her the second Ren's pink eyes locked on with hers for the briefest of moments. Almost like a monster just stood before her and she only survived because he wanted her to, not because her will proved strong enough, because it didn't. Not in his presence.

And he's supposed to be the funny one.

...

Classes start like usual, except both Jaune and Pyrrha end up being ten minutes late to Professor Port's class. The Professor smiles and waves them off, warning them not to make it a habit. He's only being kind but fair, knowing Miss Nikos's one of his better students and the Arc boy does make a habit at least listening.

...

Jaune walks into Dust class expecting Weiss to grab him by the hood of his hoodie, but that's not the case. She's sitting at their work station, serious and all, but the light in her eyes doesn't seem to be there. Apparently, she's still sulking over the Ice Dust shards, an overall impossible emotion to miss considering she's absently playing with a random Dust crystal in her hand, not even attempting to glance down at the assignment for today with the usual fire in her eyes.

The sight almost breaks his spirits—almost. Instead, he smiles and sits beside his Dust partner, wondering how surprised she'll be to see Pyrrha Nikos using her oh so useless Dust shards. The thought makes him want to whisk Weiss away and show her the accomplishments all her hard work helped to achieve. He does no such thing for obvious reasons.

"What are you so happy about?"

Jaune blinks, enjoying the way Weiss glared at him, "Nothing. I just have a feeling today's going to be a perfect day!"

"You're enthusiasm is insufferable today." Jaune's smile never leaves. Sigh, "C'mon. Let's get started on today's lesson. Maybe if we're lucky, it's not too time consuming today, our team has plans today and I can't wait for classes to end."

"Really? What kind of plans?"

Weiss gets lost for a second, failing to see Jaune's concern expression before she shrugs her shoulders. "Nothing too special, we're just heading towards Vale later for a team bonding exercise." Jaune doesn't whether or not he should tell Weiss Schnee she's a terrible liar, and then he's given a reason not to. "It's all Blake's idea."

"Oh?" Jaune grinned. Looks like Blake took his advice. "That's nice." Guess he's going to have a quick talk with Blake during lunch? "Bring me back a souvenir. I prefer food."

Weiss flips her hair and glares, "Don't think I've forgiven you yet for that prank you pulled. You're still on very thin ice."

"What? You're still on that?" Weiss crosses her arms. "Aw, give me a break! It wasn't that bad!"

She pokes him on the chest, "Do you have any idea how loud Ruby is at night? She tries to be quiet when she's checking under her bed for ghost," Weiss says when passionate venom. "It's like there's a Boarbatusk roaming around our room. I don't know how Yang sleeps through it, but I can't."

"You could tell her to be quiet..."

"And look like the resident Ice Queen again?" she questions. "Not on your life! I'm not going to look like the bad guy. Not this time." Weiss pinches her fingers together, "I'm this close to selling you out. This close!"

Jaune panicked, "Come on, Weiss. Cut a guy some slack. I already promised you a favor. What more do you want?"

A cruel smile bridges on Weiss's face and Jaune feels a panic for his life. As if she's been waiting for a reason to do this all semester. Then the Snow Angel pulls out a notebook from her bag and smirks into her sinful thought. And the panic in Jaune's soul becomes real. Very, very real!

"Let's cut to the chase," Weiss said, pressing the notebook to his chest. "I need my sleep. And until Ruby's no longer afraid of ghost, you're going to have to take my notes for me so I can get a little extra shuteye during class. And don't think you could weasel your way out with lying about how terrible your writing is. Pyrrha says you have very elegant writing."

Jaune never thought having seven sisters and an overbearing mother forcing writing lessons down his throat could ever bite him back. Looks like he was wrong, and it didn't help Weiss caught him a few times writing in his Aura notebook, too! Of all the blasted luck!

He blames Ren for this. Wasn't he supposed to be the sensible and rational one? Shouldn't the ninja of their team have talked him out of pranking Ruby and Yang? People on Weiss's team! Not support him during his obvious time of delusional freedom and consequence free mindset! With that logic he's as much as victim as Weiss is.

Grabbing the notebook, Jaune glared, "You're going to force me to listen to Professor Port's lessons? Are you out of your mind?"

Weiss remains undeterred, "Consider it payback for ruining my sleep and insurance for keeping Ren and your little prank a secret. Oh! And you still owe me that favor."

Jaune looks between the notebook and Weiss a few times, finding the entire ordeal unfair, "This is cruel beyond reason. You're holding me over a barrel here and squeezing me dry."

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

...

For the first time in a real long time, Jaune's looking forward to lunch since Pyrrha and him slept through breakfast and he's starving beyond all reason. Who knew needing to replace all that blood would have such a negative effect on his body? Just another lesson the Arc's learned the hard way. Next to Lore's capabilities and Aura's drawbacks, and while he's pondering over Aura, his Aura heighten senses—mainly Space—pick up Blake's Aura from around the corner just before he reaches the cafeteria.

Stopping before he crashes into her, Jaune wonders over a funny idea. It's ironic, partially funny, and all around amusing. Just for once, he's going to sneak around her and see how she likes it when he hides in the shadows. Now, normally the Arc has no problem being a shoulder to lean on, but not today. After Weiss's deal—blackmail—and his insufferable hunger, helping others just wasn't on his to do list for another hour or two. And he accomplishes this by hiding in a nearby storeroom closet with Blake barely missing him by the skin of his teeth.

She's oddly confused, as if Jaune's person should've tangled with hers the second she turned the corner, but didn't. A funny sight, he thinks as he watches from a crack in the door and has to hold back his laughter as Blake looks over her shoulder and then across the hall for his presence, seemingly lost. In all, it's all harmless fun, but Blake's not happy by the impatient hum she growls.

Her interest seems to spike at the idea Jaune might be somewhere nearby, not actually giving up on finding the boy. And she's off to his room with cause, taking every few moments to see if he's over her shoulder. By the time she's out of his Space's range, Jaune steps out of the closet and heads toward the dining hall without a care in the world.

Honestly, that curiosity's going to be the death of her one day.

...

Stuffing their faces full of iron rich foods and plenty of liquids, Team JNPR enjoyed lunch like no tomorrow. Even Pyrrha threw away her usual mannerism to indulge herself in the heavier foods, apparently needing to catch up on any iron she's lost over the week. Missing breakfast only cinched how truly ravenous she really was. The only one who wasn't actively stuffing his face was Ren, who which had an impassive glare as he took small, calculated bites of his salad.

"What's wrong with Ren?"

Nora looks over to Pyrrha from her stack of pancakes and blinks innocently, "Someone stole his gross health smoothie and he's been moping about it all day."

Jaune doesn't see the problem. "Whoever did it, they did you a favor."

The leader of Team JNPR is not too sure if he should be worried over Ren's Aura, after focusing on his Aura to see if Ren's actually that mad about his food being stolen, since Aura can fuel off emotions like anger, even hidden. Based off the way his Aura interacted with that cloak of his, something's definitely going on, at least Jaune assumes. Just like Nora's, his has changed somewhat, but that's carried over from the cloak he's wearing. Obviously, the Lore crossing alongside Ren's Aura is affecting his friend in such a way. Jaune's just not too sure if that's a positive or negative thing. Not yet. Emotions can be effected by Lore's presence.

Sighing into his food, Ren bites into a baby tomato, "It doesn't matter anymore. By now I'm never going to figure out who did it. And whoever took it must've devoured it by now."

"Aw! I can't take it anymore!" Nora whined, unable to take it anymore. "I know who took your drink!"

Ren perks up a bit at Nora's declaration, zeroing in his perception at the guilty looking Valkyrie. By all means, "If you took it, Nora, that's okay. I'm not mad. I figured you did from the start."

If it was Nora, he would be fine. Better than fine, even. Ren would be ecstatic for Nora wanting to broaden her horizons on the joys of healthy living. In the long run, she'll live longer, a plus in his book. And he can't stay mad at the way she squirmed in her chair. Her guilty conscious is more than enough of a payback. So it comes to a haunting surprise when she shakes her head in denial.

"It wasn't me... it was Ruby."

Ren's pretty good at telling when people are lying. It's almost like a special trait of his. So he's surprised to find out Nora's telling the truth. Honest to Oum telling the truth and the idea vexes him so. To the point he almost stands up from the table with a mission set in mind. Determined to learn why Ruby wanted his food in the first place. Couldn't be because she liked healthy foods, girl ate more sugar than Nora. Her stomach and digestive system probably couldn't adapt well to a sudden change in diet. So what else was the reason?

"Ruby... took my food?" Nora nods. "Why?"

"I don't know!" Nora yells and Ren believes her. "I really don't. She just took it without saying anything!"

"Hn..." Calm and impassive, Ren absorbs the information before he gets up from his spot and leaves the table, "Excuse me. I'm going for a walk. I'll meet you all back in combat class."

His team watches him walk away until he exits out the door with a silent click. The rest of Team JNPR's table is quiet and neither Pyrrha nor Jaune can fully understand what the big deal is if Ruby stole some of Ren's food. Beacon has more. Yet, it's Nora who's feeling the worst out of all of them.

"I don't get it." Jaune says, not having taken his eyes off where Ren left. Neither has Pyrrha, "Why is health food so important to Ren? Huh, Nora?"

Its deathly quiet for only about one second, but it's long enough to shatter the atmosphere the moment Nora answers.

"Have you ever gone to bed hungry?" Both Pyrrha and Jaune suddenly turn around and are surprised to find Nora absently playing with the syrup on her pancakes. Her fork idly moves the food around and she's lost any traces of happiness. They don't know how to respond to that, but Nora didn't expect an answer. "Did Ren ever tell you two that we're orphans?"

Pyrrha's eyes widen, never having heard that before. Jaune's not so much. He knows about it, but he never expected for Nora to talk about it. The last thing he expected for Ren's health craze to lead to this conversation. Of all the possibilities, it's simply overwhelming.

What were the odds?

"No."

"Yes." Jaune answered and Pyrrha looks to him in a flurry of disbelief. He shrugs his shoulders, "This is that emotional baggage I was telling you about."

Her memory flashes back to the end of their training journey when Ren smiled after gaining complete control over his semblance. She remembers asking about why he was so happy all of a sudden, and her leader had eloquently put along the lines of emotional baggage. She never got too much after that, having completely forgotten about it till this point.

Nora lowered her head, "So you know, Fearless Leader?"

Jaune frowned; "About what happened to your family?" she timidly nods. "And why Ren thinks of himself as a monster—?!"

"He's not a monster!" Nora yells with fury, alerting a good amount of people around them. Her violent eyes causes them to all look away before she sets her sights back at Jaune. "He's not..."

Jaune throws up his hands in surrender, "I know he's not. I kept telling him that, but he wouldn't listen."

Nora calms down and almost smiles, "Yea, that definitely sounds like Ren. Always calling himself a monster... even though he's the farthest thing from one."

"I don't get it," Pyrrha butts in and Nora looks up to her. "Why does Ren..." she trails.

"His semblance is the power to control bad luck," Jaune answered and he stops her before she can ask. "And no, it's not an awesome semblance. Not after what Ren told me what happened when he lost control."

Pyrrha's almost afraid to ask, "W-What happened?"

"Our families," Nora finished, hiding her face to the world. "Our families happened. One day while Ren and I were in the woods, playing around, chasing some black butterflies, we came back to find our families dead. The people of our village said it was some sort of freak accident, but Ren said he could see and feel his semblance all over them the second they said that." Nora's voice cracked. "That moment, something in Ren didn't change... it died alongside our families."

Pyrrha remains speechless and Jaune absorbs the information a second time, wondering how a guy like Lie Ren could have such rotten luck.

"After that," Nora adds. "Ren did whatever he can to stop his semblance from wreaking havoc. Like... like," she sniffs.

"Like killing his emotions." Jaune finished.

Pyrrha can't stop her short gasp, and Nora hiccups again, "He used to hide his smile." This time Nora looks up with hidden tears of happiness at her leader, "But then you came along and got all Aura-y and gave Ren back his smile. Something I couldn't do no matter how hard I tried." Nora has to wipe the tears from her eyes, "Thank you, Jaune. Thank you giving me back my Ren."

Jaune rubs his hair in embarrassment, "I-It was nothing, Nora. I'll do again in a heartbeat."

Nora's smile melts his soul and then Pyrrha adds her own to the mix and makes Jaune feel like he's a hero of some sorts, at least to Nora. Or not a hero, but a leader—a Fearless Leader who battled against the monster that was Lie Ren's thoughts and helped him escape that caged he locked himself in, even if only for a little while.

"It wasn't nothing, Jaune," Pyrrha countered. "It was something. Something extraordinaire. Something marvelous... something beautiful. I'm proud of you."

Jaune's not too sure what to say, so Nora boops him on the nose, "I'm really glad that you're my leader and friend. You have no idea."

He doesn't. Not really. And it's Pyrrha that saves him from his Fate of constant embarrassment.

"I'm happy that you shared with us your past, Nora, but... I don't see why Ren's so fixated on food or why it brings up such sad memories?"

Nora smiled at Pyrrha's cluelessness and looks down at her generous portion of food. "Well... we had very little money as orphans, sometimes nothing. We had to scrap through the garbage to find food, and anything even remotely edible, Ren would give to me. He wouldn't eat anything unless he absolutely had to. Always making sure I got all the healthiest food he can find. No matter how many times I tried to share, he would always push it back, saying it's a price he must pay for killing our families. But I don't believe that. There's no way he could've done something like that. I know there's no way."

Every time Jaune learns a piece of Nora's and Ren's past, the more he understands his friend. All of it begins to make sense to him. Bits of pieces of his amusing and downright interesting quirks begin to more and more open themselves to him. And it looks like to Pyrrha as well.

Nora pushed her food away, losing her appetite, "Do you know what it's like, watching him kill himself, over me? Over something he had no control over. Do you know what it's like seeing him lie to everyone?" Jaune knows. He's seen Lie Ren at his worst. It's not a pretty sight. At the very foundation of Ren's mind, he sees himself as a monster. "I would get sick sometimes from all the bad and rotten food, so Ren begged for healthy food from strangers. He begged as a kid for scraps. And anything healthy, I would get. After all," she bitterly smiles. "You can't get hurt eating healthy foods."

Those words haunt the trio, remembering that's one of the lines Ren said to them at the beginning of the new semester.

"That's why he's so serious about all that nasty junk, and why he's so kind to me with food." Nora adds, smiling at the thought of Ren caring for her. "He doesn't want to see me hungry. Not again. He's such a big, dumb, lovable idiot."

At least now Pyrrha and Jaune get why Ren spoils Nora with pancakes and other sweets or why he seems to never have the power to say no.

But not everything makes sense to the champion, "But what about during the food fight. That was a blatant waste of food, but he didn't seem all that different about it."

"That's because you started the food fight and Yang wasn't using our food for her little game with Jaune. He doesn't mind if people waste their own food—anymore. But we've worked hard to get to Beacon and Ren just hates the idea of someone taking what we worked for our whole lives to finally get."

In other words, Lie Ren sees food as a gift. Not some meager object to be tossed aside and treated like trash.

...

Combat class couldn't come fast enough for Team JNPR who were mostly anxious to see Pyrrha test out the limits of her new weapon, lift up their spirits, and to see if Ren would be present. He is, waiting patiently on the top row with unoccupied seats all around him before class has officially started. Nora makes sure to run up to her idiot and give him a bone-crushing hug. And the other two members of Team JNPR find the moment all the sweeter. Loving the affectionate side a supposed monster has. Especially at the way said monster's eyes soften at the hug.

Jaune takes a seat next to him, "Hey Ren, good walk?"

Ren shrugs easily, "More or less."

The blond can't get another word in as Professor Goodwitch begins the class, "Alright, settle down. It's time to get started. Who would like to volunteer?" Pyrrha lifted up her hand and Goodwitch nodded, "Good. Anybody feel like going up against Miss Nikos?"

Surprisingly, Blake offers her hand, considering she's been rather docile the past week. Looks like Jaune's talk really did make a difference, or perhaps she's fighting for a different reason entirely. Or maybe she needs to let some steam out after not finding him in the hall. Hard to tell.

"Miss Belladonna, very good," Miss Goodwitch smiled. "If you two would please come down and join me so we can get started."

The second Pyrrha got up, Jaune concentrated on his Aura to get a good feel of Pyrrha's and Blake's Space. Pyrrha's felt stronger and Jaune has settled on giving up on where these random bouts of power are coming from, never learning the secret of near-death experiences. Blake's, on the other hand, is almost on par with Pyrrha, but Jaune knows having a stronger Aura doesn't mean a person is relatively destined to win. So it's anyone's fight between these two dangerous beauties.

When Pyrrha reaches Professor Goodwitch, the Professor takes a moment to glance at the blood colored weapons resting on Pyrrha's back that strongly resemble her old weapons. Minus some of the color and a change in some parts of the javelin-sword combo's design and they would be strikingly similar to a tee. Her instincts screamed out blood, obviously a misinterpretation on her part.

"A new weapon, Miss Nikos?" Glynda asked approvingly. Blake joined the professor at eyeing the new gear. "Why do I have a feeling this is connected with your little team bonding weapon exercise?" Pyrrha merely smiles and Glynda smirks. "Very well, get into positions." They reach for their weapons, "And... begin!"

Pyrrha gripped the Ice Dust shards between her fingers, recalling what both Jaune and Ren explained about the properties on how the Ice Dust works. By forcefully breaking the bond between the Dust shard and the blood, she can instantaneously cut off the supply of Aura reaching the Dust, thus breaking the solid state of the blood and reverting it into a liquid fluid state whenever she so pleased.

A tricky process she's had no time practicing. Nonetheless, Pyrrha prepares to make full use of the blood's fluid features and dashes forward towards Blake with Moirázo̱ raised high and Caliburn posed to strike her opponent's shoulder. The bookworm raises her own weapon to block Pyrrha's sword, narrowly intercepting the champion's sword that seems to glow under the weight. Then Blake raises a foot and connects it with Pyrrha's stomach and kicks her roughly back before firing a few rounds at Pyrrha, who raises her shield to stop the incoming projectiles.

Meanwhile, Jaune watches from above the stands and pays close attention to Pyrrha's weapons. Normally—he critically assumes—blood would break under such pressure, having no real counter to a great physical force acting upon a weak bound of iron. Luckily for his partner, that's not the case, not with those Aura shards mixed into the life-force.

Jaune Arc knows better than anybody that Aura can do a great deal. If Aura can be used as an armor to prevent a Grimm from ripping someone's skin to shreds, then the idea of Aura hardening blood and enhancing the iron molecules into a durable steel defense isn't too farfetched. Alone with the high mass of Aura shards and a powerful, beautifully crafted Ice Dust shard that feeds off an almost limitless supply of Aura, and Pyrrha's got herself one hell of a weapon. Above all else, Pyrrha's already a dangerous force to be reckoned with and Blake's stuck fighting that unstoppable force.

Ducking underneath a kick aimed for her head, Blake created a shadow clone to block Pyrrha's slash as she somersaulted back to create some distance. Yet, Pyrrha was having none of that, and cut right through the shadow clone and closed the distance between them in a single lunge, forcing the quiet girl to sidestep Pyrrha's swipe and counter with her own slash towards Pyrrha's chest.

Her shield comes to her aid and Blake's eyes widening at the way it suddenly turns all liquefied the moment Gambol Shroud clashes with the iron. Then, to everyone's but Team JNPR's amazement, the blood shots outward like a layer of spikes and Blake only barely manages to avoid getting a deep cut on her body, although, she can't say the same for her forearm, which suffers a minor cut across.

The cut may not look like much, may not seem like much, but Blake's wincing terribly from the intense burn that's sprouted from nothing. At first, the cut had strangely been cold for all but two seconds, then the coldness intensified to the point it burned. And she can't even lick her wounds as Pyrrha's sword comes crashing down on her form. Barely, Blake intercepts the attack from above, but is unaware or Pyrrha turning Moirázo̱ into a second Caliburn until Pyrrha cuts her across the midriff and the burn returns, twice as hot as before.

Creating a shadow clone to distance herself away, Blake creates a few more to act as a shield while she clutched her stomach and wonder where and why the burn wasn't disappearing after her Aura already healed the wounds and stopped Pyrrha from cutting into her skin the second time. While at the same time, Pyrrha breaks the blood off the Ice Dust shard and forces the blood to retain it's original, destined shape once more—Moirázo̱. She even takes the time to study Blake's face and she can recall that same action from the time Jaune cut her with Excalibur.

Not a pleasant memory or experience.

Looking down at her weapons, Pyrrha carefully touched the frozen blood and is astound to find the cold so devilishly hot. Not hot-hot, like fire. But ice so cold that it burns from merely touching it kind of hot. As if the Aura shards had enhanced not only the strength of the blood's life-force, but also acted as an agent to increase the freezing capabilities of the Ice Dust shards to the point the freeze burned anyone or anything it came in contact with. And apparently, the only freedom from this burn is the one holding the Ice Dust shards, which means they have a set property of chillness that not even Aura can break down and change freely. Meaning also her own Aura is acting out as a barrier to keep the natural coldness of the Dust shards from numbing her fingers, thanks to Aura's natural burning properties.

Not to say Aura can protect someone from the intense freeze coming from the blood itself. That's a chemical reaction, not a physical one. Proving Caliburn's not a sword made of blood, but one of extreme cold as well.

How terribly fascinating!

No wonder Jaune loves learning. It's so riveting!

Admiring the distance and fortress Blake's built for herself, Pyrrha glared a little and aimed Caliburn back with a pose to throw a javelin. She concentrates and breaks the blood apart from the Ice Dust shard and carefully constructs the sword into a lance resembling her old one. The process takes too long for her liking and Pyrrha promises herself to get some later practice in.

Hehe, she sounds like her crazy leader.

Reshaping the point to be just right, Pyrrha has to admit, she likes having a weapon that is neither entirely fluid nor solid. When it comes to Weiss's Dust, in a practical sense, it is useless. Ice that freezes on contact with Aura and then unfreezes when the Aura supply is cut is an inconvenience; however, ice itself is troublesome all on its own when dealing with a long lasting solid state. To be able to control the state between solid and liquid is a feat only she can do. Meaning, it's a very awkward weapon for anyone but Pyrrha Nikos.

Taking a quick peek up at her lance, Pyrrha has to bite her tongue back at the oddity of it. No longer does the bloody weapon resemble Caliburn, and she may not be so name-craze when it came to naming her weapons like a certain someone she fights with, but even the champion can't take pride in the off sounding name Caliburn presented for her lance. Lines needed to be drawn somewhere in the proverbial sand.

Lost at the idea, Pyrrha takes a step back and then throws the lance with all her might, using her semblance to offer up a boost to not only her weapon, but the blood flowing through her muscles. And as she lets go of her weapon, Pyrrha can't help but notice how Weiss's Dust shard illuminates the spear in a nice, soft, white glow that contrasted nicely with the bloody color, really making the color and blood pop out more for everyone to see. And as the lance crashes with Blake's Gambol Shroud, Pyrrha's eyes get captivated by the few droplets of blood that break off from the collision, resembling somewhere along the lines of a Bleeding Lance.

Pushing back the lance, Blake has to use a good amount of force to throw the spear out of its destined trajectory, failing to avoid getting nicked on the side. Her Aura protects her skin from being cut, but the burn is an impossible side effect that she just can't avoid, just like Pyrrha running up right to her with her shield transforming into another sword!

Ignoring the burn, Blake switches spots with one of her shadow clones and dodges Pyrrha's attack. But the distraction required her to abandon the only perk she had so far, having Pyrrha's weapons by her side. And the champion knows this, easily pulling the bleeding lance from the wall where all of a sudden the strange liquid from the floor begins to build back towards the spear from Pyrrha controlling it. Prodigy or not, however, she still needs practice. And it's only thanks to Blake's initial surprise and lack of response was Pyrrha able to properly land a few blows with her liquid to solid state weapon tactic.

Oh well, that's what training's for.

"Where did you get a weapon like that?" Blake asked during mid-fight. "You know Ruby's going to ask."

Pyrrha prompts to answer in a way that makes her leader proud, "Wouldn't you like to know."

Blake would. Like everyone else in the room, but she would also like to avoid even coming in contact with such a weapon. So without any other sensible options, she sheaths her blade, saving her Aura for today's trip to Vale.

"I forfeit."

Professor Goodwitch comes out of her stupor and pushes her glasses up with nothing short of impressed. "Very well, this match belongs to Pyrrha Nikos. And I must say Miss Nikos, that's a very unique weapon you have there."

Pyrrha bites her lip, accepting the praise with high regard. She's normally not so docile, usually offering a word or two of thanks, but part of her wants to blurt out how much more amazing Jaune's weapons are compared to hers, so she's forced to give Professor Goodwitch a kind nod.

"Now," Glynda begins, looking up to the stands. "I hope you all learned something from that. The element of surprise can really change the flow of a battle." She looks pointedly at Blake who is guilty for thinking Pyrrha was out of surprises. "Always be on your guard. Now, I know that's a tough act to follow, but we must continue. Any volunteers?" A hand is raised and Jaune recognizes it belongs to that silver-haired guy he ran into a few days back. "Mercury, is it? Very well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually," the guy says, pointing down at Pyrrha. "I want to fight her."

Jaune narrows his eyes alongside Professor Goodwitch. Yet it's the professor who voices her opinion, "I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished a match. I recommend you choose a different opponent."

"No! It's fine!" Pyrrha argues, feeling her pride on the line. She looks up Mercury and smiled, "I'll be happy to oblige."

Glynda Goodwitch has to fight back a sigh, also resisting the urge to rub the bridge between her eyes. Kids these days and their invincible teenage attitude, thinking they could keep on going and going without foreseeable consequences. A body needs to rest, time to recuperate, and time to unwind from a battle. They weren't fighting a war; Miss Nikos has no reason to push herself.

Nonetheless, Glynda can't stop Miss Nikos now. The only one who can truly reach her at this point is her—?!

"No."

All eyes suddenly zero in on the voice that opposed to the fight, surprising almost everyone in the room, and Jaune meets their surprise with a steel resolve. His glare cuts through the room as he makes his way down towards Pyrrha, blocking everyone else out in the room, refusing to allow Pyrrha to fight another opponent. She knows he can see her Aura levels and he knows she knows this, pretty much cutting out that argument before he even reached the last step down the stairway. It's his impeccable logic that seals the deal.

"You already fought Pyrrha, don't push yourself." She readies up to argue but he lifted up his hand. "Nope. Nope. Remember how you got when you let that stubborn pride get in the way... remember how I got?" There had been lots of blood and arguing. "I'm here telling you as your friend and leader to step down. You're done fighting."

Mercury didn't like this man. He's ruining everything, "Then who am I supposed to fight?"

Jaune barely fixed the man a glare, gesturing for Pyrrha to leave, "Somebody's who hasn't already fought."

If Jaune had looked to his side, or if anyone bothered adverting their sights away from the confrontation for even a fraction of a second, in the corner they would've saw Professor Goodwitch grinning the proudest smile in all the class's history.

"Well, Mr. Arc, seeing as you are taking control of the situation," Glynda says a little too energetically. "Who do you suppose Mercury should fight?"

Jaune thinks it over for a minute, allowing his gaze to land on Nora, "I do know someone who's been itching for a good fight. What do you say, Nora?"

The bomber jumps out of her seat, "Awesome!" Time to finally push her semblance to the limit!

Scowling, Mercury makes a weak argument at having his opponent taken away, Jaune answers with a reality he's learned from Ren, "Life's unfair. Get over it."

Jaune Arc didn't know this, but he's changed his image somewhat in the face of all his peers. Didn't matter to him what they saw him as. All that mattered was his partner not pushing herself again. Not after all that blood she's lost. He can see it and she can feel it, her Aura's working overtime to supply the energy she needs to fight. She hasn't fully recovered all her blood. None of them has.

He walks Pyrrha upstairs as Nora runs down to fight her opponent. The entire time Mercury glares at him, but the Arc's undeterred. He's faced a pack of Leos, killed their king with his hand lodged deep within its throat while stranded in the middle of a Grimm infested forest. He doesn't have time to deal with fighters who want to take the easy way out and fight an opponent who's already fought a battle. His Arc pride wouldn't allow it.

Almost reaching Ren, Pyrrha and Jaune are bombarded with the members of Team RWBY, who all have faces of indifferent curiosity.

"What was that, Pyrrha?" Yang asked and so did the others. The poor girl doesn't know whose question to answer first. Not even Jaune attempts to help her out of this bind, perfectly fine to watching her solve her own problems.

Darn him. Now he doesn't want to intervene?

"How does your weapon work?" Ruby demanded adorably and Pyrrha hums at the easier question. "And where can I get one? It's so cool!"

"First of all, its one-of-a-kind," Pyrrha answered, smiling sadly at the sadden reaper. "And secondly, you know how my semblance works?" Eager nods, "Well... let's just say there's some stuff in the material that allows me to freely control the shape of my weapons."

"Does that mean it's a liquid?" Weiss pondered, interested in such a unique weapon. "I'm assuming for you to be able to freely control the shape, having it be a solid would be difficult to mold and shape the way you want."

"Couldn't be," Blake intervened; glad the burning sensation has subsided. "My weapon would've cut right through a liquid. It was definitely solid when we fought... at least until Pyrrha decided she wanted something else."

"Actually," the girl in question answered. "It's both a solid and a liquid. I freeze the liquid when I want to maintain the new shape I'm aiming for and melt it when I want to change."

Weiss seemed lost, "But how? How is that possible?"

Pyrrha smiled appreciatively, gesturing to both Weiss and Jaune, "Well... I have you to thank for that, Weiss. If it wasn't for these, I would've never achieved my goal."

"Me?"

Holding up her weapons, Pyrrha opened up her palms for Weiss to see her Dust shards resting easy on Pyrrha's hands. They glowed that snowy white color, keeping the weapons frozen and very, very solid, causing the heiress's eyes to widen the moment her eyes land on those... useless Dust shards. The very same she gave up on, even after all the love and care she put into them.

"You have no idea how much these helped me out," Pyrrha laughed. "I wouldn't have been able to get this far without your help. Thank you, Weiss."

The heiress is speechless, truly at a loss for words. Her mouth tries to form some words, any words, yet, nothing comes out. "I... I..."

It's Jaune who answers for her, "See, they're not useless." He grins at her vulnerable emotions. "They weren't a waste of time. What do those dumb Dust scientists know? They were probably just jealous of your genius."

Weiss can't free her tied tongue fast enough before Professor Goodwitch's voice booms over them, "The match is about to begin. Take your seats."

Forced to take their seats, Weiss lingers her gaze over the two a moment longer before following her team to their seats with a lost expression. Down below Nora and Mercury are sizing each other with the latter glaring angrily for losing his target. Now he's stuck fighting some random girl who uses dual pistols if he last remembers. No challenge at all. Such a waste of his time, time that could be better spend fighting Pyrrha Nikos and learning a thing or two.

Oh well, the least he could do is beat the life out of this Nora girl. The plan's only been delayed slightly. Nothing too game changing.

"So I'm assuming the team bonding exercise is over?" Professor Glynda question, eyeing the familiar weapon attached to Nora's hip.

"Yup-yup!" Nora cheers, pulling out Magnhild and retracting the hammer from grenade launcher form to hammer form. "Ah... I forgot how great this feels."

Mercury's muddled, not remembering this crazy girl ever using a hammer before. He can't even recall anyone using a hammer nor he does he enjoy the way she's looking at him. Like some sort piece of meat on display and she's the buyer.

"I am interested to see how you fare," their professor comments before signaling the match. "Begin!"

Mercury also didn't expect this Nora girl to be able to move as fast as she is with that hammer of hers, because he's instantly on the defensive the second the fight begins. Dodging each attack of an overly fast swing of a hammer from a girl who doesn't even look like she can hold the damn thing, but here she is, pushing him back at the start of the match with air of her swings brushing past his hair in a dangerous way.

Narrowing his eyes, Mercury sidesteps an arc swing, scarcely dodging a blow aimed for his upper body and follows up with a roundhouse kicked aimed directly for Nora's head. It lands cleanly on her cheek, pushing the girl back half a step before she brushes past his kick and delivers a swing of her hammer to his side torso.

The velocity and momentum of her swing propels the exchange student through the air, forcing the young man to twist in the air seconds later and narrowly dodge her incoming shadow from above. He lands on his hands and uses his still active kinetic energy to propel himself forward with a push of his arms to meet her still defenseless state.

He's able to land a solid kick on her stomach and quickly follows up with another, although he's stopped when Nora grabs his ankles during one of the kicks and delivers a haymaker—which had way more strength than he thought she could dish out—exposing him in a near defenseless form for her to take advantage. And she does with a quick swing of her hammer, landing yet another blow on his side, making it highly impossible to ignore the intense pain building on his body.

She's on the same boat, he knows this, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Her swings just keep getting faster and her strength easily follows along. Doesn't matter how much effort he puts into each and every one of his kicks, they aren't leaving much of a lasting effect.

Spotting her advancing frame, Mercury formed a fist, "Damn it. I can't believe this girl's pushing me back."

He would forfeit, but that would be admitting he can't take her on, even if it's a tactical retreat, and Mercury doesn't have that option after challenging Pyrrha Nikos to a fight. And everyone knows this, especially that Jaune Arc guy who's watching them fight with a sick smile.

He'll show that Arc kid why messing around with him isn't a joke by beating down his teammate. And here she comes, running forward with oh so many openings to exploit. Almost like she wants to get hit? But that's just crazy. Clearly she's insane.

Sliding across the floor, Mercury dodges an attempted swing from Nora's hammer, cartwheel kicking Nora across the face. She has to take a step back in order not to stumble and Mercury almost smirks as her vision is obscured a different direction but stops himself when Nora begins to laugh excitedly.

"Oh..." Nora turns her head, grinning deliciously as sparks ignite randomly in her eyes. The grip on her hammer tightens and her muscles bound together in unadulterated excitement. "Can I break your legs?"

He slides his foot back, clicking his teeth together, "This girl's nuts. How can she—?!"

Mercury's cut off mid-rant by Nora bringing her hammer down from a sudden leap she just did. He easily avoids it, but the crater left behind is enough for him to build up his distance. And he continues to do so while firing bullet rounds at his target which she deflects them without a care.

"Hey!" she yells, waving her hammer around. "What are doing over there? The fight's right here!"

"I think I'll keep my distance."

Nora blinks innocently at Mercury for a split second, registering what he just said. She then smiles at the silver-haired teen with a mock salute. "Okey dokey!"

He barely has time to dodge the hailstorm of grenades raining down upon him.

Boom!

A few minutes later and Nora's sitting happily next to her team after her win with Mercury sitting far away from them with scorch marks littering his body. Parts of his shirt is burned and torn and a small sizzle of smoke escapes from a few locks of his hair. In all, he lost due to a terrible match-up. First, all the information he had on students was misplaced completely, and secondly, Nora Valkyrie had both an array of close-range and long-range tricks to use to her disposal. All of which had greater stopping power than his.

"And he wanted to fight Pyrrha?" Nora joked lightly at his expense which actually earned a laugh from both Jaune and Pyrrha.

Sulking, Mercury crossed his arms and settled more into his seat. Like he thought, there's always next time. The match-up had been bad from the start. Only problem, doesn't really make him feel any better. In the end he lost the fight. Sure, he had planned to forfeit in the beginning, but that was meant for fighting Pyrrha Nikos. Not Nora Valkyrie.

Damn her leader.

Grinning in her seat, Nora swung her legs playfully as she hugged her weapon tightly, "I missed you. Did Ren treat nicely? I know he did. Look at how much he polished you! You're so shiny!" And while she's talking about Ren, Nora waves down at the arena. "Good luck, Ren!"

Hearing her cheer, Ren awarded Nora with a simple glance that made her insides warm before he waited patiently for his obvious opponent. Professor Goodwitch doesn't even have to ask for a volunteer as a flutter of rose petals descends across from the stoic ninja. And for the first time ever, Ren accepted her arrival with a small fervor.

The one-sided rivalry between Ren and Ruby is a running joke that's been going on between everyone in their class and even Professor Goodwitch. Except, no one's laughing. Unlike their previous bouts, there's some hint of an air of annoyance around Lie Ren that's never been there before. His ordinary, passive glare seems to have been replaced with a real one, and that cloak surrounding practically his entire body brings a certain chill to everyone's spines.

Up at the stands, Jaune Arc switched to Lore to observe Ren's Aura, unable to study the Outer Space in normal Aura settings. Not while he's wearing that cloak of his. Compared to him, the Lore encasing Ren's body seems more adapt that when Jaune's actively using his Lore, ignoring all those techniques he's discovered and catalog away. His Aura—while not able to directly act with the Lore—is unmistakably influenced by the constant Lore trapping it inside, having lowered the color of his Aura a small margin and tightening his control to a large degree with a trade-off only benefiting Ren and no one else.

At least, that's as far as Jaune Arc personally knows. The article of clothing is still a great mystery to him. And it's not that he doesn't trust it exactly, but he's on edge over the fact that a Grimm created it. More yet, he's on edge that Ren can trust the Grimm so easily or the power they give. None of which makes too much sense to him, but a lot of this world is shrouded in mystery. So much that he's forced to look the other way for the sake of a person he can honestly call a brother.

After all, this is the first time Team JNPR's watching Ren use his semblance and cloak in a real fight. There's no way Jaune's not interested in what the properties of Lore can do in a real fight. Yet, oddly enough, Ren's not focusing on his Aura just yet. Instead, he's merely sizing Ruby up with a glare only Team JNPR could distinguish as contemplative. Some part of the Arc's curious if the misplaced emotions are caused by the cloak, knowing Lore's property of effecting emotions from experiencing them firsthand.

Down at the arena, Ren wondered what Ruby had behind her back before getting back onto the matter at hand, "Before we start, I have just one question to ask you, Ruby. I know it was you who stole from me. Why? What did you hope to achieve?"

Caught red-handed, Ruby glowered and revealed the contents hidden behind her back. His organic, health packed smoothie residing between her fingers and Ren's glare narrowed slightly at the stolen item rightfully his. Depending on her answer, this can go two ways. Life-changing and painful with a new lesson learned or nothing at all with simple forgiveness.

The Lore cloak greedily yearns for painful.

"To finally beat you!" Ruby declares with absolute conviction. Enough for Ren to allow her to continue, "I'll use your own power to beat you."

None of that makes sense to Ren, who's now convinced Ruby lived in some sort of fantasy world where the reality of the world has yet to merge. Does she honestly think drinking that would give her the strength to win? Who gave her such a ridiculous idea? It's almost enough to make Ren laugh and excuse her blatant reason for taking what wasn't hers.

Almost.

Taking a quick sip of the health smoothie, Ruby immediately grimaces from the awful tastes and carelessly throws the food on the floor with no regard of anyone else's feeling. And Ren's choice has been made the minute she disregarded the waste gift. Lessons needed to be taught. Naivety needed to be erased. Hardships had to be learned.

"Arg!" she cried, wiping her tongue free from the dreadful flavor. "How can you eat that? It's gross!"

Ren doesn't hear her words, fixated on the wasted food. Seeing the carelessly spilled and tossed aside drink brings back some terrible memories from his and Nora's childhood. Like going to sleep hungry or begging for scraps in the rain. All were memories he wished to never recall again, all of them dreadfully rotten to have, and none with any happy moments hidden in between. Perhaps some had decent days when food was shareable, but never were they happy days. Survivable, if anything, and even that's a stretch on the idealistic situation Nora and him lived through which was called their childhood.

Ruby doesn't know what feeling sorrow is. She doesn't know what true sadness or hate feels like. Always taking what she has for granted. Living in that fantasy world where everything's perfect and no true consequences exist. Bound by a reality of her own making.

"As your rival," she frowns, not liking the way the portion of the drink she did swallow affect her stomach. "I'm going to finally beat you!"

Pulled away from the buried memories, Ren glared impassively at Ruby, "Your rival? Hn?" he's tired of these games. Tired of a child's imagination haunting his every move. "I think it's time I showed you how truly misguided your perception on reality really is, Ruby. Let me show you what it is to feel suffering."

The Lore cloak's negative properties have won.

Pulling out Crescent Rose, Ruby prepared herself while Ren could plainly see the aftereffects of his concoction working its healing magic on her. And, for the first time, he can honestly say health foods can hurt, especially if mixed with someone whose diet consisted of nothing but sugary and mediocre heavy foods at best. Her body simply cannot accept the sudden intake of a new diet, even for a short period of time. Perhaps if she had started off small, it wouldn't have been a problem, but Ruby ingested a good portion of greens and even moss. Levels only a pro can consume.

It might only be a small minute effect, but in a fight, a minute's a very, very long time. Even a second can change the course of history. And all Lie Ren needs is a second to control the battlefield.

Running forward, Ruby prepared to strike, "Ren, I hope you're ready to lose."

Closing the distance between them, Jaune's eyes widen from the sudden influx of Outer Space crashing down upon him the last second before Ruby takes her swing at Ren, hoping to get first blood. Imagine her surprise when she finds Ren calmly gripping Crescent Rose's snath moments before the blade can make contact with his shoulder, never having moved a muscle from where he stood. And all together, his pink eyes glare at Ruby's silvery ones in a battle of wills.

"I... I don't believe it," Yang thought. "He brushed off Ruby's attack like it was nothing."

Gripping Crescent Rose firmly, Ren calmly added a considerate amount of his semblance into the scythe that slowly traveled down from the weapon to Ruby's hands then body, instantly changing the odds to his favor. Lore's properties affect the semblance in both a negative and positive way and Ruby tries hard to break his iron grip, but to no avail with Ren calmly pulling the weapon towards himself while Ruby struggled to fight back.

"You are still too weak. You're not even worth fighting, Ruby."

That angers the reaper and she tries desperately to pull Crescent Rose free from his grip, but Ren's added Aura boost plus the two week training session, Lore gravitational effects, two week carrying around Nora's hammer, and studying the secrets of Aura manipulation from Jaune Arc's Aura notebook really has done his body wonders. Compared to Ruby wasting all of her time training with only one weapon and blowing off her break to mess around and have fun, a clear difference of wills are battling it out. And Ren demonstrates this by idly kicking Ruby on the stomach where his bad luck semblance causes her to let go of Crescent Rose.

Watching her slide across the arena, Ren slowly paid her no mind and observed her weapon. Having seen her use it so many times, he finds the button to revert it back into a carrying case and calmly hides it within his cloak as she helps herself up. By the time she realizes she's weaponless, Ren has already added more bad luck to the machinery, effectively disabling it even if she did manage to steal it back.

An eye for an eye. She stole from him and now he returns the favor. Karma is a cruel mistress. Almost as bad as Lady Luck herself.

Ruby makes an attempt to retrieve her weapon with her semblance giving her a boost of speed; it's all for naught the minute she gets within Ren's personal space, succumbing to the cloak's gravitational effects and his improved semblance. The Lore lessens the gravity around Ren, greatly lessening the force behind the body of weight, acceleration, and velocity being thrown at him. It's all instinct. The cloak and his Aura do it by themselves without him noticing. But when it comes to fighting, that's pretty much all it is.

Pure instinct.

She's slightly slower, just enough for Ren to read her movements and stop all her advancements each time. And with each block, he pushes her buttons with a cold slap of truth.

"Foolish Ruby... you can't defeat me, your will's not strong enough... you're not strong enough."

Every word cuts into her as she makes an attempt at throwing a few misguided punches at him. Again, it proves futile as Ren catches her fist and kicks her across the arena again, fueled off not only by his anger but Lore's negative properties as well.

To everyone in the class, it's a very one-sided fight. Without her weapon, Ruby can't do much. She's far too use to needing one specific one. Meanwhile, Ren and all of Team JNPR have all trained with each other's' weapons and learned from their strength and weaknesses. The sight is too much to bear for her older sister.

"Ruby, just give up!" Yang yells. "Professor—?!"

"No, Yang! Don't butt in! Mind your own beeswax!" Ruby attempts to get up, hoping the pain in her stomach would go away. Her will is unwavering but her spirit is breaking, "I told you before; I need to get stronger to beat him. It's now or never. This fight is mine."

Ruby makes an attempt to prove herself and runs up at Ren with a twirl of her semblance to act as a unstoppable force. She's an incoming tornado and Ren uses his newfound semblance control on his legs and connects a roundhouse kick to Ruby's chest, stopping the tornado midway. Ruby crashes onto the floor from the sudden impact of momentum and tries to get up still. All the while, Glynda's having second thoughts after seriously reevaluating a lot of things, first and foremost, Ozpin's decision on a private matter of theirs and secondly who she personally believed to be a better choice.

Thinking she suffered enough, Ren turned around to walk away and give Ruby the win for a forfeit—so they can finally end this pointless rivalry and walk their separate paths—but is not surprised at all when she gets up still with a steel determination. Seems all those words of his really changed something in her, or created something else entirely.

"Not finished," she weakly says.

Ren narrows his eyes, thinking to himself, "She can't even manage to land a blow."

Even before, Ren normally beat Ruby without too much effort, but there had been effort before, but now she's barely standing. Her opponents normally consist of slow and sluggish fighters who Ren can't honestly see how they made it to Beacon; Lie Ren is anything but that. Sure, he's a lazy guy, but he's nowhere near slow in the accounts of speed or intelligence. Not like common criminals or thugs. This is the guy who is the pride of the Lie clan. Who beat the Sloth King and walked away with a new power. Of course she doesn't know that, but those accomplishments still stand.

Resolved to fight, Ruby finally gets up with renewed vigor, "This fight... is mine."

Sighing to himself, Ren figured he should be fair and go all out for her benefit, "So be it."

Walking up towards her, he stands directly in front of her with the collar of his cloak hiding the emotionless frown from her sights.

Even still, Ruby takes the opening and throws a fist forward. "And now I got you!"

Smash!

To only be met with a knee to the stomach and the air knocked out of her lungs. Her face is scrunched up in disbelief from the bluntness of his attack.

"How?" Her neck is met with an elbow before Ren connects a knee to her chin, followed by a fist to the gut that leaves her falling to the ground. "All this time and nothing has changed. I don't get it?"

Jaune sighs as he watches Ren beat Ruby, "Ren doesn't show her any mercy."

Crashing on the floor, Ruby remains motionless, "What have I've been doing all this time? How come I still can't win?"

Knowing the fight's over, Ren allows the image of a hungry, child-aged Nora to fuel his reasoning. All the bad emotions he has are being fueled by the Lore and Ren plans to make sure Ruby gets the lesson across so he will never have to repeat it again. Never have to teach her what the meaning of sacrifice is or why she shouldn't take her happy life for granted.

Reaching down, Ren lifted her by the collar of her shirt, easily holding the defeated girl in a vice grip. Even if it's just Ren holding her up, Ruby Rose swears a Grimm has her in its hold. A natural fear overcomes her the closer she gets to him. A fear a certain ghost incident reignites in her soul.

Bringing her close, Ruby glared dangerously in his emotionless eyes, "You're still too weak. You don't have enough strength. And you know something... you never will."

Shattering part of her reality, Ren lets Ruby go and drops her weapon beside her. He ignores the way Yang runs up to check up on her the second Professor Goodwitch calls the match but not the way her eyes turned a shade of red as she passes him by. None of which affects him as the bell rings and class is dismissed. By the time Team JNPR reaches the hall, Jaune runs up to him with an innocent stare.

"A little harsh back there, don't ya think."

Ren looks to the person standing beside him, wondering how such an innocent person could have so much strength. His leader probably doesn't even realize that his strength pretty much rivals all of theirs, meaning he can perfectly take any of them on if he wanted. It's an interesting thought Ren bounces around time and time again, wondering how truly powerful his leader has gotten since that faithful day Pyrrha and Jaune fought.

But back to the moment now, Ren focuses on the sole difference between Jaune and Ruby.

His leader has the power to act innocent. She does not.

Willingly the collar to open up, Ren shrugged into the walk to dinner, "It's better I get her to open her eyes to what the real world is like before it's too late. With this, she might try to prove me wrong and actually take training seriously."

Strangely enough, Jaune doesn't say anything else, or conceivably, Lie Ren doesn't give his leader enough credit. For Jaune accepts the answer with a determined vision and shrugs off Ren's answer without too much care. Neither Pyrrha nor Nora adds in their own afterthoughts, knowing themselves how cruel the world can truly be from personal experiences.

Life's not always a story with a happy ending.

...

Taking a seat after watching the last of her students leave her class, Glynda Goodwitch takes a long pause to reflect on the day's events, trudging over each and every moment with careful detail. A seed of doubt digs itself in an area she never thought possible. And the man she's thinking of walks into her class with flawless timing.

"I think you chose the wrong team." Glynda puts it bluntly when Ozpin gets within speaking distance, avoiding the need for pleasantries.

"For what?" he asked with a simple sip of his coffee. "The Vytal Tournament? Do not fret about such concerns—?!"

"I'm not talking about the Vytal Tournament." She looks off to the side with a longing stare. "I'm talking about the other thing."

Ozpin actually takes a moment to set down his coffee on her desk, fixing Glynda a serious stare. The professor in question regards over her words, nailing away at her thoughts one-by-one until she can seriously believe her boss and friend made a mistake.

"And what makes you say that, Glynda?"

Serious and honest to Monty, it's her gut. When it comes down to it, Glynda sees a better team to take the mantle of being the one. Maybe she's being a little bias from only watching one side of a team cooperating during combat class, but then maybe Ozpin's being a little bias when it comes to a certain drunken old crow and his niece. Compared to the two, neither of them was perfect. And taking into account of the recent developments she's seeing, Glynda's gut keeps urging and urging her to believe.

She wants to believe in Team JNPR and not just because one person. The entire team as a whole has such a great dynamic compared to Team RWBY. One she can believe in, one where teamwork is the essential key to their success, or so she hopes.

Even if Jaune Arc's fighting skills are below average, he's improving by leaps and bounds from when he first started. And he knew when to call off a fight and take control of a situation when it truly mattered, like a true leader, while Miss Rose failed to understand the lesson Lie Ren was teaching her on the values of the real world and continued on fighting a losing battle when she could've ran and lived to fight another day. And nothing short of an attack on the school can probably push that lesson down her throat.

Pyrrha Nikos has shown improvement and Nora Valkyrie has learned a thing or two as well. They all have. Each and every single one of them! And maybe, she finally feels hope in the future. She actually can tell herself she can believe in the future of humanity for once.

Turning around, Glynda looks Ozpin straight in the eye, "My gut. That's what's telling me."

That's a surprising answer to hear from Glynda. Believing in your gut is essentially the same as believing in instinct. And Glynda's never been a person who thinks too highly of instinct. Order and control is her motto. So to hear those words leave her mouth has truly thrown the Headmaster in a predicament.

Grabbing his drink, Ozpin swirls the coffee absently, "And which team do you personally think I should take a closer look at?"

"Team JNPR."

Stopping the swish, Ozpin frowns, "Look, I know you're fond of Miss Nikos. But one person does not a team make. But she is still a candidate for—?!"

"I didn't say Miss Nikos," Glynda argued. "I said Team JNPR. All of them."

Silent, Ozpin waited to let the air settle, "Did you know Jaune Arc forged his transcripts to get into Beacon? He came into this school with no combat record of anything. You remember... you saw his performance during initiation."

The Headmistresses momentarily loses her cool and moves out her chair in a panic. Her eyes flash back to the time of initiation when Jaune Arc needed all the help he could get and could barely take on a lowly Beowolf. A lot of past questions make a lot more sense, yet, it's not a totally deal breaker. Not for someone as analytic as Glynda Goodwitch.

No combat record?

It definitely changed her opinion on the boy, but not in a negative light entirely. Maybe if she had learned of his lie earlier on, then yes, but not now. Not when the stakes have been changed and she's feeling lucky. To have no skills or training whatsoever and to have come this far in such a short amount of time? That pushes past her previous expectations. Forgot leaps and bounds, his improvement is extraordinaire. And she may not be able to look away from his forgery; she's able to tolerate it if he shows the promise to belong.

"And you never told any of us this... because?"

By us she means the professors.

Ozpin looks up toward the ceiling and remembers, "Him and I are currently under a bet. A deal, if you will." he took a quick sip of coffee. "When he came to me and revealed the truth... do you know he asked of me?" Glynda shakes her head, "He asked to spare his team. Apparently the boy had overheard our conversation of that unfortunate student we expelled last semester alongside with his team. And without questioning the consequences for himself, Jaune barged into my office and revealed his forgery in order to save his team."

Professor Goodwitch's opinion on Jaune Arc's leadership skills just keeps on improving from here, "And I'm assuming this deal you have him on has something to do with his team's enrollment?"

"Not at all," he mused. "The Arc wanted to make sure that if he got expelled for cheating then his team wouldn't fall under the same punishment for his own actions that were out of their control. It was actually quite admirable of him, that's why I made a deal with the boy instead of expelling him."

"So you see it too, Jaune Arc's leadership capabilities?"

"I see potential. I wouldn't have made the boy leader if I didn't."

Thinking, Glynda calmly pressed her glasses up, "Then if this deal wasn't for his team's enrollment? What was this wager?"

Ozpin took a seat on her desk, "Simple. If he wins the Vytal Tournament, I'll allow him to stay. If he should so lose, I merely kick him out, not expel him. Nothing more, nothing less."

Glynda sighs angrily, it's better than straight up expulsion, but still, "That tournament is set up to the point almost no one can win. The dreaded point system can rob anyone of achieving victory."

It's true. Needing three points to win a tournament that's designed even for the losers to fight the winners to the bitter end can in fact rob the winning team of victory. Astonishingly, the tournament is set up so no first place can possibly exist in a realm of certainty. Hypothetically meaning, no one can win and everyone winds up in the same boat, a powerful message for the people of Remnant.

"Sometimes Glynda, it's better for everyone if there wasn't a winner. In a war, a stalemate is the only victory where both sides come out victorious and understand the true taste of defeat. And with that being said, I don't see how Mr. Arc can possibly win the upcoming Vytal Tournament. More importantly, I do not see why you care for Jaune Arc's future well-being. I recall, you were initially against him from day one."

Ozpin slides his eyes thoughtfully towards Glynda, clearly surprised at her change of heart, and she doesn't look away. That was entirely true. She had been against him initially from the beginning. But that was then and this was now. A lot has changed. Enough has changed. More than enough! Potential existed and she'll damned if she snuffed it.

She knows this, yet she's not willingly to give up, "And even if Mr. Arc should prove he has the potential, why not just let him stay."

Ozpin get up from her desk, "Because I'm a man of my word and so is Mr. Arc. A man without his word isn't worthy of being a Huntsmen. If we cannot trust our own future Huntsmen to not stray from their path, then how can we trust them to fight the forces of darkness?" Glynda still looks a little unconvinced and Ozpin's personally amused, "But perhaps you see even more than I do, Glynda. How about we test your gut's instincts?"

Her eyes widen slightly, "What kind of test?"

Ozpin smiled truthfully, "A test of teamwork—a mission. To see if they have what it takes to truly function as a team when the stakes truly matter. I'm willingly to bet on Team RWBY. Are you willingly to wager on Team JNPR?" She says nothing, "It's alright if you refuse. My original offer to the boy will stand regardless."

Glynda bites her lip as Ozpin nears the door.

...

After dinner, Jaune's surprised to find Weiss waiting by his team's door with an impatient scowl. She's tapping her foot restlessly on the floor with her arms crossed as her icy glare lands on him. It's almost enough to make his skin crawl, but she melts her glare just after spotting at him for a second. Then before he can ask why, she's dragging him outside.

"I need you to accompany me to the transit tower."

"Huh?"

And that's how Jaune Arc found himself walking to the transit tower with Weiss Schnee. And damn is it big. Like wow big! And he wonders how he never noticed this tower before, seems kind of hard to miss with all its magnificent glory and other adjectives that are too humble to bask in its presence. He knows what the tower is, having dealt with Weiss shoving the information down his throat during Dust class, but still, they could've just gone to the library to make a call. And the entire walk here has been nothing but pure silence.

"So..." Jaune trails, kicking his feet on the ground. "What's this about? Weiss?"

They stop in their walk so Weiss can glare at him. It actually gives Jaune time to appreciate the newer outfit she's wearing. All white and shiny like a true Snow Angel with a hint of black on the rim of her skirt. Not like he would tell her that, but old habits are hard to break.

And before he knows it, she's hitting him on the chest. Not too hard, mind him, but she's doing it. And for some odd reason, Weiss can't look him in the eyes anymore and that's when he realizes she's mumbling something beneath her breath. Argo, leads to the Arc grabbing one of her wrists after around the sixth hit.

"Weiss—?"

"You're such an idiot!" she yells, glaring weakly at his curious expression. "Only you can find a way to change everything! When a whole team of highly sophisticated team of Dust scientists says one thing, what do you do? Challenge them! Beat them! Prove them wrong!" She's hitting him again with the other wrist and Jaune calmly grabbed the second with a foolish grin. "You're such... you're such a fool. Why are you such a fool?"

"Hey..." Jaune counters kindly, pointing out the obvious. "It's Pyrrha who's using your Dust shards—?!"

"And who was the one that gave her that idea!" Jaune can't answer that without looking humble. "It's because of you... someone has actually found a use for my Dust shards." Weiss's arms shake in Jaune's hands. "Because of you... they weren't useless. They weren't a waste of time."

"Nope!"

He lets go of her wrists and Weiss loses her glare. Then, by his forever confusion and her eternal deniability, she hugs him. It's quick and only lasted for a moment, but it's enough time for Jaune Arc to hug back before Weiss is pushing him away, pretending to fix the nonexistent wrinkles in her combat skirt.

Grinning to himself, Jaune didn't bring it up again, glad in the end he managed to keep his word.

"Now I can see why Blake likes spending time with you." Okay, this catches him off-guard. "You should see how jealous Yang gets. It's always how he's stealing my partner this and how dare he copy my style that. She's really got it out for you." Weiss refuses to admit outright Yang's jealous. Best to let Jaune figure that one out himself.

And since he heard Yang's name, Jaune can't help but ask, "How's Ruby?"

Weiss waves her hand, "Fine. Yang's being a little overprotective, but that's what Aura's for. She'll be good in a few hours."

"Sorry for how roughly Ren treated her."

The heiress actually shrugged, "Don't be. It was a good dose of reality for our leader. She may be capable of leading, but Ruby sometimes forgets this isn't a game to be messing around in. People do get hurt and die becoming a Huntsman. Better if she learns now than when she's on a mission. If anything, Ren's lessons probably did one of two things. Either nothing and she'll bounce back perfectly fine... or it got her to truly think about the responsibilities of being a leader."

Glad no one's viewing Ren as the bad guy except for maybe Yang, Jaune relaxed a little and enjoyed himself. He then noticed he's still currently using Lore over Aura when the sun's warm rays don't quite reach him and he concentrated on switching the two. The moment his Aura comes back, a wave of pressure hits him from out of nowhere and he can sense with Space that the person in question is standing a few feet away from him. But what's truly odd about this Aura is he feels like he's felt this particular one before, even if it's not one of his friends or anyone else in the school.

Glaring off to the side, Jaune's eyes land on some orange-haired girl who wore a lot of green while standing awkwardly to the side as if she truly has no idea what's she doing there? For some strange reason, her instincts tell him he knows this Aura and then there's the fact he can feel it. That means the girl is actively using her Aura this very moment.

He must've been staring too long because Weiss follows his sights and her eyes flash with recognition. Then, she's walking up towards the unknown girl with an indifferent emotion, but one clearly of acknowledgment nonetheless. And Jaune's forced to tag along because of acute curiosity gripping his soul. Although, the closer he gets, the more his eyes start to widen. Until the point he can't find a reason to breathe.

Now he remembers this Aura! It's the one at the docks that faithful night when his team learned his secret. The other Aura beside Blake's! The one that felt unnatural to be around and every step closer reinforced that idea until he's standing beside Weiss with his eyes fixated solely on her Aura.

"Penny?" Weiss reveals the name of his fascination. "Is that you? Where have you've been all this time. Last time I saw you, you and Ruby teamed up to help us find our friend Blake. That was weeks ago."

This Penny girl tilts her head, "I'm sorry, I think you're confused?"

Jaune finds it amusing she hiccupped. He also knows Weiss hates being lied to, "Look, I'm all for plausible deniability, but I won't look the other way considering my partner tried looking for you for days."

Penny takes a cautious step back, "Uh. I think you have the wrong person." Hiccup!

Weiss impatiently taps her fingers on her thigh, "What's your problem." Penny turns around but Weiss stops her, "Don't you want to see Ruby... she's hurt." Weiss lied smoothly.

Ruby's not exactly hurt, nothing a little big sister Yang and Aura couldn't fix in a few hours, but Weiss is still her partner and as such, she wants to see Ruby up and ready to head to Vale with a grin on her face. And she's betting Penny here is the perfect person for the job to lift that dolt's spirits.

What luck she has running into her.

"She is? My friend's hurt?" Penny asked before slapping her hands over her mouth. It's too late. Weiss Schnee is already smirking.

"She is," Weiss confirms before looking over to the transit tower. Time is of the essence. "And I would be happy to take you to her so you can catch up with your friend, but I'm busy at the moment. Luckily my friend Jaune here can take you to her."

Some more words are exchanged at Jaune's expense, except, he's not paying any attention to Weiss anymore. All of his focus is set primarily on this Penny girl with a curious glare similar to the one he uses to study the secrets of Aura and Lore. The same glare Ren watches over Sir Scrabbles and the Grimm with. Utter enthrallment captivates the Arc and not in a good way.

This Penny girl wasn't normal.

Of all the Auras he's seen over the months, of all the strange things that's happened to him that defy logic and reasoning, not once has Jaune laid eyes upon or witnessed one as unique and downright creepy as this Penny girl in front of her.

The oddity and utter severity of it all buries his soul in a million different ways. His instincts scream at every piece of knowledge he's collected and crushes all of it underneath the weight of reality. Because Jaune Arc can't fathom how no one else but him can notice the phenomena befalling right in front of his very eyes. There's just no way.

Why?

Why!

Why can't anyone else hear the screams of agony coming from Penny's Aura?!

---

Author Notes: Cover art by Exvnir. Jaune Arc did sense this Aura back at the docks.