Distortion

It had been about a month since Jaune and Onyx had met up with RWBY and NPR. And they've been busy ever since then. Jaune created a list of people that could be useful to them after going through all of Haven's files, excluding the student rosters. Haven was still on high alert, so any students were off limits for the time being. Jaune and Onyx had been trying to track them down with little success. Anyone they did track down were underwhelming than they initially thought and were ignored completely. However, anyone that they did find useful were either killed recently or even imprisoned for their crimes. They may be skilled, but they were not about to attack a Kingdom directly to get to them.

Raven on the other hand had been searching across Remnant for an artifact of the Branwen tribe. It was lost long before Raven took control of the tribe, but she was desperately trying to reclaim it. It was the key for their plan to come to fruition and bring revolution to the world. She was using almost all their assets to track it down but each lead she obtained just led to a dead-end. Which left a very annoyed Raven for Jaune to deal with and try to calm down.

Ironwood was not helping their cause in the slightest. He had begun a man hunt for Jaune and Raven after Goodwitch's funeral. The other Headmasters regrettably agreed to send him any information they got on his two targets, mostly because they knew the cyborg wouldn't listen to reason at the time, which was starting to annoy the members of Knightingale. He was using any and all resources he had to find them and reach their destination as quickly as possible. Luckily, their informant in Atlas was delaying the information from reaching him enough so that Ironwood would just miss them. Their informants in Vale and Menagerie were still keeping their eyes and ears out for anything but were growing frustrated. Meanwhile, their Vacuo informant was still bidding his time to get an opportunity to upload the virus to Shade's systems. In summary, the month was long and had very little success.

Jaune and Onyx were taking a break from tracking down 'potential' recruits and were training in one of the many training rooms in the base. Onyx was shooting moving targets set to one of the highest difficulties, which were supposed to be used for gunfire, not arrows. The targets were actually drones the size of basketballs and were programmed to fly in set, but randomized, patterns. He had been going at this for a few hours now with very few breaks and was improving further. He completely lost count of how many arrows he fired but that didn't matter much. The facility was set up with equipment to forge armor of Atlas soldiers and with a few tweaks they were now making him arrows. So, he wouldn't run out for a long time.

Meanwhile, Jaune was fighting a small battalion of training drones. They were designed to analyze the fighter and adapt to their fighting style. To say he was getting a work out would be an understatement. Especially, because he fitted them with real weapons and bullets. He was not holding back with those improvements. He was using his sword, guns and martial arts to their full capacity. He even resorted to using Désespoir a few times throughout his training. He had been going at this as long as Onyx and was nearing the end of the battalion, only half a dozen were left but they were really pushing him. He finally sighed, "I've had enough for today." He said through labored breaths as he used Telekinesis to drive the six remaining androids into the ground.

He walked over to a bench and took a towel to dry off all the sweat he had accumulated. He also grabbed the last of many water bottles he had prepared beforehand. He chugged it like it was the key to immortality. He sighed afterwards and threw it and the rest of his empties out as he watched Onyx. "May wanna call it for today, Onyx. You don't wanna overexert yourself."

Onyx nocked another arrow and fired at a target. "Almost done with this run." Jaune just shrugged and decided to watch him finish. He was still amazed by the skill he had with that bow. His firing speed and accuracy were almost supernatural at this point. Marksman didn't do him justice. He spun and fired another arrow as he spoke up, "Mind if I ask you something about Raven?"

Jaune raised an eyebrow, stunned by the sudden request. "As long as it isn't too personal, sure."

He fired two arrows simultaneously and nailed two more drones. "You said her Semblance allows her to open portal to travel to people she has a bond with." He fired again. "So, how have we been using them to travel to isolated area with no one around for miles?"

"That it? Was expecting something else." He chuckled. "Honestly, it's because of my Negative aura. Like you and a few others, I transferred my aura into her to increase her reserves and strengthen her aura. But, after a certain incident, I had to transfer a whole lot more into her. That influx of Negative aura caused he Semblance to evolve. Now she can open portals to any area she has been before, although they aren't as accurate as the ones she uses to get to people." Jaune finished his explanation as Onyx split Clade Tenebris into its dagger form and returned them to his belt.

He started to walk over to Jaune and he tossed him a towel and water bottle. He caught both, "So, that's it. Could you do that for the rest of us?"

"No." he said with every once of finality he could. "The amount of Negative aura I had to transfer into Raven had a very high chance of killing her. The only reason she didn't is because of her strong will. People who use Positive aura can only handle about a third of their aura being replaced with Negative, I had to use over half on Raven."

Onyx nodded, "Good to know." He hung his towel around his neck. "Now what?"

"We shower. I can smell you from here." He joked.

Onyx just rolled his eyes, "Like you smell like a bouquet of roses."

The two laughed and made their way to the showers. Afterwards they dressed in the usual attire, except Jaune had left out his armor and trench coat. They went to main living area and Onyx went to the kitchens, it was his turn to cook. Jaune plopped down on one of the couches and pulled out his scroll. He started to go through the Haven files for the who knows what time. He started to go through the student rosters. He was going through all the teams to see if any had potential. The ones that did, however, wouldn't likely align with them. One team stood out though, a team he knew very well, Team SSSN. They were all skilled in their own way and their leader, Sun, was a powerhouse to say the least. And since Jaune knew them, that could help him persuade them to his side. Hopefully. If not, well, things would not go well. For them.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't realize someone was behind him until they wrapped their arms around his chest. He tensed for a second until he felt a pair of lips on his cheek, "Nice to see you keeping busy." Raven said teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah." He said before he turned his head to face her and kissed her lovingly. They broke apart and he just looked at her. "Didn't go well, did it?"

She sighed, and he moved over enough for her to sit next to him. She rested her head in the crook of his neck and draped her legs over his lap as he held her in his arms. "More dead-ends." She said in a mix of annoyance, frustration and exhaustion.

Jaune just held her close and kissed the top of her head. "We'll find it eventually, Love. For now, why don't you just relax for a bit." He was expecting here to argue with him but there was just silence. He looked own to see that she had fallen asleep. He smirked at her and held her a bit closer, "Sleep tight, Rave." He just held her as she slept, and his mind went back to the files before he thought about their informant in Vacuo. "I hope Gil's doing alright." His mind started to remember his past and one of the first times he trained with his only teacher besides Raven and his second father.

Jaune was standing in a clearing, across from a behemoth of a man. Jaune was breathing raggedly by this point. After he had joined the tribe, Raven announced it to the rest of them and the members accepted him with open arms. Well, most of them. The more seasoned members were still wary of him. He kept training as usual. He was refining his fighting style and his marksmanship with pistols. While Raven was still training him in aura control and he was starting to control when his Negative aura would absorb Positive aura around him.

A few days back, Jaune was busy sparing with three weaker members when one of the tribe's seasoned fighters offered to spar with him. Jaune agreed and was efficiently beat into the ground. He scoffed and said he needed more work. From that day, Jaune has challenged him to fight. This was one of those spars, he was doing better than before but not much. "That all you got, runt?" he growled.

Jaune came out of his musings and stared back at his opponent. His name was Gil Bolfal. He stood at six feet four and was heavily built. He was in his fifties and had short but wild brown hair, that was now lightening and greying slightly, and he had a marvelous big beard the same color as his hair. He had a pair of bear ears on top of his head, proudly showing his Faunus heritage. All that mixed with his pale complexion and green eyes that just stared through you, made him very imposing. He wore heavy black armor with red highlights and his weapon was in his right hand. A large greataxe, as tall as Gil himself, and as heavy as a Death Stalker. Okay, maybe not that heavy but still felt like being hit by one. It had no transforming properties and was completely grey, Dunkle Axe. This man was a monster. His strength and endurance were extremely high, but he shouldn't be surprised. His man was one of the top fighters here and held a mask like Raven's.

Jaune shook his head, "Not even close." He used his aura to rocket towards the behemoth of a man. He simply raised his axe and brought it down. The force it hit the ground at caused a large force of wind to push Jaune back. Jaune had seen him do this before, so he rolled to the side to avoid it. When he was back on his feet, he immediately had to duck to avoid the axe aimed at his throat. Jaune pushed off the ground with his aura to try to knee Gil in the nose. Gil just pulled his fist back, his arm had a very faint red glow to it, and punched Jaune. He used his sword to guard himself but was sent back a good fifteen feet.

Jaune skidded to a stop and rotated his shoulder to make sure it wasn't dislocated from the impact. "Again, with the Semblance?" Jaune asked.

Gil shrugged, "If you don't like it, do something about it." He challenged.

Jaune grit his teeth, "Fine." He charged forward again. Like every time prior, Gil swung his axe to create the air pressure to stop him. Jaune channeled Distortion into his blade and mirrored his swing. That created his own air pressure that met Gil's and the two forces created a small vortex. Gil was shocked and barely saw Jaune use his aura again get around him. Jaune slashed at his back and sent him off balance. Gil corrected himself and swung directly at Jaune, who managed to divert most of the impact but still had him skidding backwards.

The two stood across from each other and Gil popped his neck, "So, you finally managed to get a hit in. Good, now let's see how you deal with a real swing." He grinned, and his blood red aura came to the surface.

Jaune swallowed, "You've gotta be kidding me." He quickly dropped into his own stance and channeled his Semblance into his own blade.

The two stared down the other before they both took off at one another. When they were on top of each other, Gil raised Dunkle Axe above his head and brought it down with a two-handed swing, that same faint red glow around his arms. Jaune swung upwards with his own two-handed swing as his blade was covered in the black flame-like effect. The two weapons hit each other and the two had a power struggle for all of a second before a red and black explosion sent the two flying backwards. Gil created a trench as his body crashed through the ground before he hit a tree and nearly broke it in half. Jaune hit the ground and started tumbling and skidding across the ground before he stopped in a heap.

The two just laid where they were until they slowly got back to their feet. Gil started to chuckle until the clearing they were in was filled with his booming laughter. "Now that was interesting. You at least have potential, runt."

Jaune's breathing was labored but he answered, "Thanks…that means…a lot…I guess?"

Gil started to walk over to him, "I was interested to see what Raven saw in you. She rarely ever trains anyone personally."

Jaune tilted his head, "She's only training me…in aura control."

Gil shook his head, "Because you need to know the ins and outs of your aura before she'll train you seriously."

"And the hell I've been going through for the last three and a half months wasn't serious?" he asked stunned.

"Oh, it is but she has some special training for those she has interest in." Gil smirked evilly at him.

"Great." Jaune groaned as his head fell, "Fuck me."

"Maybe that's her endgame?" Gil teased.

Jaune's head shot up. His eyes were wide, and his face was crimson. That had Gil belly laughing. Jaune managed to calm down and sent a mild glare at the Faunus, "Ha-ha, very funny. I have zero chance with her."

Gil was wiping a tear, "I wouldn't say that, runt. You spend more time with her than anyone else in the tribe. Even her inner circle." Jaune just shook his head and sighed. "So, why'd you start training under her?"

He looked at her, "To get stronger." That earned him a smack on the back of his head.

"Don't be a smartass." He said with a growl. "I know you want to be strong, but I want to know the reason why." Jaune just looked away from the behemoth. "How about a trade then?" Jaune looked back to him, "I'll tell you why I joined the tribe and you tell me why you did?"

Jaune just looked ta him for a bit before he shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

Gil nodded and took a deep breath to help organize his thoughts. "I was molded by the harshness of Vacuo and learned to be willing to kill at even a young age. As a child, I was abandoned by my parents. I would've died in Vacuo's deserts if not for a bandit tribe. They saved me, trained me. But as time went on, I saw how unfit those bandits were to walk the deserts. When I was sixteen, they attacked a defenseless family. So, I slaughtered them all." He took a second to gather his thoughts again. "After that, I made my way to Shade Academy and I got myself a team. We got to the point where I would lay my life down for them. They were strong, but they eventually fell to another band of bandits. And in a battle rage, I slaughtered my second group of bandits." He leant against a tree to look at Jaune. "I walked the desert for days until members of this tribe found me. They saw what I could do and offered me a place here." He pointed his axe at Jaune, "My life in Vacuo taught me the only thing that mattered: Power is everything. If you want to survive, you need powerful friends and allies. So, in the end, I found a group I will die for if I have to." He then lowered his axe.

Jaune just stared at him for a bit, just taking in what he said. He looked away, "I always wanted to be a Huntsmen, a hero. I even managed to cheat my way into Beacon to accomplish that dream. I got a team and friends I thought I could count on. But, when they found out my secret, they turned their backs on me." His Negative aura surrounded him, "That pain awakened this new power in me and I will use it to prove them wrong. To prove all those that condemned me, pitied me, that I'm above all of that now."

Gil placed his hand on his shoulder, "I can't say what you were before coming here. But I know of one thing, you are powerful, Jaune." Jaune turned to him and Gil just looked into his eyes, "You are a part of this tribe now. So, I promise you, as long as you fight for this tribe, I will fight beside you."

Jaune just stared at me, "Are you okay? You've been pretty cold to me since I met you and now you sound like a father or uncle."

He chuckled, "I'm like that to everyone. That is until I get to know you and like you. Then I'm just a big old teddy bear." He smirked and twitched his ears. Jaune couldn't help but laugh at that. Gil chuckled as well. "Come on, runt. Let's get back." He started to make his way back to the camp.

"Gil." Jaune said with determination. He turned to him and Jaune just stared him down. "I swear, I'll fight for this tribe with everything I have. They are my family now."

Gil smiled at him, "That's what I like to hear. Keep that up and you may get one our masks too." Both chuckled with that and went back to their home.

Jaune was pulled from his trek down memory lane when he felt something cup his cheek. He looked down to see Raven awake and looking at him with concern, "You okay?"

He sighed and nodded, "I'm just worried about Gil. I know no one is more suited to infiltrate Vacuo but I'm still worried."

Raven gently stroked his cheek, "I know. But we both know, that old bear won't die so easily."

That had Jaune chuckling. "Yeah. You're right. He's too stubborn to die." He looked into his wife's eyes with a appreciative look. "Thank you." He leant down and kissed her. She immediately returned it. It didn't take long for the kiss to heat up and they began to make-out passionately. He laid Raven down on the couch and positioned himself over her as he began to kiss her neck. She was letting out quiet moans as her hand started running through his hair. His hands landed on the exposed skin on her thigh and the exposed skin of her breast that her clothing allowed as he caressed them lovingly.

"Alright, foods ready. Holy crap!" Both stopped and looked to see Onyx walk into the room with a pot in his hands.

Jaune sighed, "Damn it, Onyx." He said annoyed as he got off his wife and she sat up.

"Well, how was I supposed to know Raven was back and you couldn't keep it in your pants." Onyx defended as he put the pot on the nearby table.

Jaune just gave him a glare, "My pants are still on, dick."

"First time for everything." Onyx shot back as he was taking off his oven mitts. The two glared at each other before they decided to knock it off. The three then started to enjoy the pot of ramen that Onyx made from scratch. After they all had their fill, there was still half a pot left. "Looks like I overcooked again." Onyx stated.

Jaune shrugged, "It'll still be good later." Just then his scroll went off. He picked it up and saw it was an SOS signal. He stood up so fast that he flipped his chair over.

"Jaune?" Raven asked before he took off out of the room to the locker room. He threw open his locker and started to throw on his armor and trench coat as quickly as he could. That's when Raven and Onyx ran in as well, "Jaune, what's wrong?" Raven asked.

Jaune was putting on his belt with his guns as he was speaking, "Gil just sent me an SOS."

That got their attention. "What are his coordinates?" Raven asked seriously. Jaune tossed her his scroll as he was attaching his sword and sheathe to his back. Onyx realized it was serious and started to collect his weapons and quiver. The three soon walked out of the locker room armed and ready. Raven handed him his scroll. "I'll open a portal." She said as she put her mask on and stepped in front of them. She sliced open a portal and walked through. Jaune and Onyx were right behind her with their own masks on, as well.

They all stepped out into the deserts of Vacuo and were instantly hit by the intense heat. They ignored it and started to search the barren landscape for anything that would point them to Gil. They then saw a sand explosion over a sand dune not far from them. They all started to run towards it and as they crested the dune, they saw a giant Death Stalker, bigger than the one Jaune fought back at Beacon, fighting a man. Although, the man was wearing black armor, wielded a greataxe and was wearing an Ursa mask. Gil had his axe over his head, trying to stop the Death Stalker from crushing him with its claws.

Jaune and Raven took off running, "Onyx, get it off him!" Jaune ordered. Onyx already had his bow out and was nocking all three of his orange tipped dust arrows. He aimed to the side of the Death Stalker before he fired his Explosion arrows. It caused an explosion on impact and sent the Grimm flying a good distance away from Gil as it screeched in pain.

Gil slumped over to get his breath back as Raven and Jaune stepped in front of him. "Took you long enough." Gil grunted out.

Jaune rolled his eyes, "You good, Old Man?"

Gil sighed and stood up, "Yeah. Let's take care of this giant bug." He readied his axe with that said.

"How'd you piss it off anyways?" Jaune asked.

"I don't fucking know. It just erupted from the ground and tried to kill me." Gil defended. Onyx made it over to them and stood beside Gil, who gave him a scrutinizing gaze, "Who's the new guy?"

"Onyx, Gil. Gil, Onyx." Raven said. "Now let's finish this Grimm off and get back to the base.

The beast rose up and screeched before running at them. Jaune and Raven met it halfway and slashed its face with their blades before jumping back. Onyx fired five normal arrows at it to slow it down. This pattern continued for a minute or so until Gil charged forward and hit the Grimm with an upward swing. It retaliated by swinging its tail at him but Jaune used his Telekinesis to move him out of the way. When Gil stopped he looked at Jaune confused, "How-?"

"Later." Jaune said before they resumed their attack. They all charged forward. The Grimm swung its one claw at them. Gil used his axe to stop the attack and tank it as Raven ran past and slashed it across the face a few more times. It screeched and sent its other claw at her. Jaune immediately stepped forward with Désespoir deployed to knock it away as Raven jumped over him to deal another hit. Onyx fired a few more arrows and it tried to impale him with its stinger. Onyx dodged then grabbed onto it. It whipped its tail around to try and dislodge him, but Onyx just nocked a purple tipped arrow and aimed it at the base of the stinger as he jumped away. He fired his Gravity arrow and the arrow caused a large concussive blast that sent him back and nearly knocked off the stinger. Gil caught Onyx as Raven and Jaune jumped back and Jaune fired a bullet into its eye with Souffrance Eternelle. "Raven." Jaune said but she was already in the air and cut the stinger clean off. Jaune grabbed it with his Telekinesis and slammed it into the back of the Death Stalker but the carapace was too thick. "Gil?!"

He turned to him and his arms were already glowing red. He was using his Semblance, Juggernaut, which increased his strength at the cost of aura. "Do it!" Jaune used his Telekinesis and threw the Faunus at the Grimm. He brought his axe down onto the stinger and with his Semblance plus Jaune's, he cut the thing almost in two. The Grimm started to fade away and they all started to regroup as Gil was still crouching on the ground.

"Well that was a thing." Onyx said as Jaune was recalling how similar this was to when him and NPR took down the same species of Grimm. He shook his head to dispel the memories.

"So, what happened, Gil? You were supposed to contact us while in Vacuo. Why are you out here?" Raven asked.

Gil was leaning on his axe, exhausted. "As the virus was uploaded, Ironwood was at Shade to talk to the Headmaster there. Don't know how but he connected the dots and figured that it was similar to what happened at Haven and was having his androids help the Huntsmen search for the culprit. I had to get out of there."

"Great, the General is becoming a real pain." Onyx said annoyed. "Should we get out of here?"

"No." Jaune said and they all turned to him. "I gave Ironwood a warning, but he still insists on trying to take us down. I think it's time we kept the promise I made to him." He smirked sadistically under his mask. It was time to deal with another of Ozpin's inner circle.

A/N- Wow. It has been over a month since I uploaded a chapter for this. Completely my bad. Only thing I can say is I had some severe writer's block for this chapter but I hope it was worth the wait. Also, like to thank justjustin3099, Gil Bolfal is his character and I hope I did him justice. Also, his Ursa mask looks like the remodeled Ursa from the Yang character short, not the original Ursa. We both agreed those were goofy looking. Shout out to Jauneforever for being my Beta Reader as per usual! Hopefully it won't be another month for the next update. With that said, I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all later!