Every time that Jaune and Ruby had sparred, he had told her that if she wasn't sure what to do she fell, or when she wasn't sure that she could take a hit, that she needed to scatter and take a step back to regain her bearings.

Every. Single. Time.

So that's what she did, scattering into rose petals and shifting up into the air, to gain a better idea of what her and Yang and possibly Sun were working with.

She hoped that he could fight otherwise this would be a bit harder than it needed to be. Jaune had mentioned before that he wanted to start her on 'Semblance Reflex' training in addition to the strength training and the semblance she was already doing. She had blanched at the time, but she had really wish that she had started that now.

"Hey Little Red!" Roman greeted, sweeping his hand in a dramatic gesture. "I see you brought Curious George and Goldilocks with you this time! That's fantastic! You see…I brought some friends as well!" He continued, gesturing to the army of Faunus that were staring at them.

Dummy. Like Ruby couldn't see them.

She wanted to fight. She wanted to show everyone here that Ruby Rose was not to be trifled with! She wanted Roman to know that.

She wanted Yang to know that.

But this wasn't the time for that. She already knew she couldn't handle Roman when he was by himself and now he had an army that actually knew what they were doing.

It galled her, but they needed to leave.

"Yang! Sun! We have to get out of here!" She called out once she solidified back into her normal form, reappearing on the rafters of the building they were in.

It looked like a storage facility of some kind. Ruby wasn't too big on details like that, but it seemed like something Jaune would want to know she did her best to study it.

Gray. Gray. White. Gray. Ugh! Details like that were boring! Why couldn't she have an easy job like studying their weapons?! That would be fun.

Focus Ruby.

"Leave? Why would we do that?" Yang yelled out, arming herself with Ember Cellica and adopting a fighting stance, Sun matching her while whipping out…were those GUN CHUCKS!?

Focus Ruby.

"Yeah, why would you do that? It's just me and a bunch of mutts," Roman echoed, pulling out his cane and eyeing the rafters, trying to shoot her down. Like Ruby would let that happen, she would constantly dart from rafter to rafter, not staying in one place long enough for him to focus. He wouldn't be able to focus on both her, AND Yang and Sun. "Come on Red! I'll even let you keep one! I promise they've all had their shots! Might still need some potty training though…" He trailed off, laughing to himself.

"Are you guys seriously going to just take that?" Sun asked the faunus, hackles raising as they stared silently at them, but said nothing. He scoffed at that. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You guys are nuts."

Yang turned to where she thought Ruby was. "Ruby we can take these guys, they won't even fight! It'll be quick!"

The grunts weren't the problem. Torchwick was.

She didn't think that they could handle Torchwick. And they've never fought with Sun so they were bound to get in each other's way. But how could she tell Yang that without alerting everyone?

She couldn't. So, she had no choice but to throw herself all in. And so she did, hoping that Roman still hadn't been able to track as she lined up a shot. She could fire one off so quickly that…

Danger.

A pin prickle of…something nudged the edge of her senses and she ducked. Not quickly enough to avoid a few strands of her being removed from her body. She quickly hopped back and traced the trajectory of the…parasol? Was she seeing that right?

She looked backwards to see where it had come from and saw nothing. It was just her up here…but that couldn't be true. She knew for a fact that someone had swung at her. She could hear Yang and Sun fighting together against Roman below her but she couldn't afford to think about them right now.

And besides if whoever was up here was focused on her, it gave them a better chance. She could dodge and move faster than Yang could. Sun too, come to think of it.

She quickly petaled away to a new rafter, to try to confuse her opponents, and to gain her bearings.

Which was why the boot to her face came to a complete and total surprise. Too shocked to petal away Ruby skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding falling off the rafter. She eyed the woman in front of her, hand on her face as the woman mimed laughing at her.

The lady was short. Shorter than Ruby even, wearing a white tailed jacket with a pink interior. She wore black gloves, and black and white boots over brown pants. Her jacket was open, revealing a brown corset, curved in the middle and at the bottom, showing bare fleshy hips. She was also wearing a bunch of beaded necklaces, slung around her neck haphazardly.

"What the-Who are you?!" Ruby asked, shifting Crescent Rose into its bladed form. The girl merely winked at her and opened her parasol and twirled it, before shutting it back.

This girl was clearly mocking her. Ruby needed to fix that. She used her semblance to spin around the girl, trying to build up momentum for a good swing. Jaune had been working with her so she didn't need to do that, but she wasn't there yet.

Ruby rematerialized behind the girl and let gravity do the rest, swinging her scythe down with all the strength she could muster. Which was a lot considering she had momentum and gravity on her side.

Alas, it was for nothing, for the girl merely twirled out of the way, her parasol coming up as she twirled, smacking Ruby in the face. Ruby took the blow, growling as she landed on the beam and spun herself, trying to bisect the girl with a horizontal swing.

She'd be fine. She had aura. But she stood there, grinning at Ruby as her scythe inched closer to her. And then suddenly there was a flash of light and Ruby was blasted backwards.

"What ju-" But she was given no reprieve as the mystery girl suddenly decided to mount an offense.

She danced around Ruby, who swung downwards, trying to get one complete swing in. If she could just do that, then she could keep the swings going and it would give her some breathing room!

The woman wasn't having it though, she merely dodged the first swing, stepping inside of her guard and grabbing Crescent Rose, she used it as a spring board, her boots lashing out and smacking Ruby in the face.

Ruby used the force from the girl's kick to use her semblance, turning into petals and flowing away from her at breakneck speed. She made an arc in the air, before launching herself at the girl, still in petal form.

But rather than try to avoid Ruby, she stepped forward, reopening her parasol and thrusting it forward, where Ruby crashed into it.

That forced Ruby to solidify and then the woman stepped into the meager guard she tried to put up and began to pepper her with blows. A kick here, an elbow there. Ruby couldn't have put a stop to her assault so she had no choice but to weather the blows.

She could feel her aura draining at a steady pace and became desperate. She hopped back, trying to shift into petals to get away from this woman but she thrust out with her now closed parasol, impaling her in the gut making her release an oomph of surprise as she lost her footing and fell off of the rafters.

"So, you're Red's sister? Not going to lie, I don't see the resemblance,"

"Less talking, more pounding!" Yang growled, jabbing at the unfortunate men and women that happened to be standing between her and Torchwick.

All...however many there were. Any she missed tried opening fire on her, which she felt, but did little to stop her rampage.

It only added to it in fact. By the time she had reached the center where Torchwick stood, her semblance had activated. The fact that Ruby hadn't come down and hadn't said was telling. She needed to end this fast.

She reached Roman with her fist raised in a jab that would've torn his head off.

If it had connected. He sidestepped with a little hop and his cane cane up in the same movement and smacked her in the chin.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you that it's rude to attack your elders like that? The nerve of some people. You got a light?" He asked, using his other hand to fish out a cigar.

"Never mind." He said sticking the cigar out, towards her HAIR and bringing it back, lit. "Thanks Goldilocks. Preciate you." He said, winking at her.

Yang saw red. Literally and figuratively. She screamed, trying her best to remove Roman's head from the rest of his body.

But no matter what she tried, he would simply move out of the way just enough for her to miss, and then he would counter attack with his cane. She had even started adding shotgun rounds to her attacks but that simply made him give her a wider berth, still dodging her attacks with ease.

And start using the guns that he himself had on him. His cane rose to her eye level and something bright and flashy shot out directly in her eyes, blinding her for a moment and taking a significant chunk of her with it.

She yelled out in pain, but while blinded couldn't exactly defend herself, which left many openings for Torchwick to exploit. Which he did. Gleefully.

That monkey boy, whatever his name was joined in the fray at this point and then they discovered an altogether different problem that they were unsure of how to tackle.

Yang and him kept getting in each other's way. If it wasn't Yang getting in the way of a perfect shot or stepping into the line of one of his gun chucks, it was him ruining the perfect set up for an attack or being too close for her to let loose with Ember Celica.

He was doing this on purpose. She was sure of it. He knew it too, smug bastard.

"Hey…" the Faunus tried to say but she ignored it in favor of trying to score a blow on Torchwick. If she could just get one freaking blow…she could finish this!

"You're just going to ignore your sister falling like that?" Torchwick whistled. "That's harsh Goldilocks."

Wait. What?

Yang backed up in case it was a trick and looked up. Sure enough, Ruby was falling straight down, making no attempt to catch herself, or do anything about it really.

And even worse, Yang could see the tell tale signs that her aura had been depleted, the aura particles falling off the girl in in waves.

That meant she would take actual damage from the fall.

Yang shot one more look at Torchwick who blew a kiss at her. "Chop chop,". He said, motioning to Ruby.

Yang hated to do what he said, but Ruby came first. She dove for the girl, having spent too much distance to cover and not enough time to hoof it. She caught Ruby and took the brunt of the fall, her aura absorbing the blow.

Where did Ruby even come from?

She looked up, only to lock gazes with...a dual colored huntress? One half of her was pink, and the other half of her was brown. That didn't matter as Yang debated trying to pound her face.

The girl must've known where her thoughts were headed as she smirked at her and made a come hither gesture.

"Yang, don't." Ruby warned, grabbing her clenched fist and holding it back. "We need to leave. We can't handle this."

"Finally! Some sense Red! Although to be fair, I've already moved the forces while we were having our scraps. This is Neo by the way," He said as the girl seemingly materialized next to him. "Say hi Neo."

She gave them a 'cheery' wave and then a mocking bow. Jerk. Yang could see now that he mentioned it that all of the faunus that had been in the building with them were gone. And she meant all of them.

Even the faunus that had been fighting with them had left.

"Well ladies, it's been fun, but we've got to skedaddle. You know how it is right? Ta Ta!" And with that, Neo did...something and they were gone.

Yang had never been defeated so...soundly before.

She wasn't going to lie. She wasn't a fan.

Jaune led Blake deep into the industrial district of Vale. The building he stopped at was an old one, with arched windows. The entrance was a large automatic door that immediately opened as they got closer.

Inside was a dance floor surrounded by six crystalline pillars with the DJ's booth on the opposite side of some stairs. There were several balconies along the walls overlooking the dance floor. And above the floor was a rotating ring of light.

"Did you bring me here to dance?" Blake asked, giving Jaune a strange look. He ignored her though, walking straight up to the bar and asking for Junior.

The girl manning the bar, a girl that looked around seventeen or eighteen, gave Jaune and Blake a once over. She had short black hair cut in a page boy style with her bangs going down past her ears. She had pale green eyes highlighted with heavy red make up. And she was wearing a red strapless dress...made out of...newspaper?

That couldn't be right.

She also had large red and white feathers sticking out from her right ear, Jaune assumed from an earing or something like that. This was Miltia, one of Junior's bodyguards.

But not who Jaune came for.

"I need to see Junior. I won't ask again." He said, tone flat, even as he felt Blake behind him tensing in response to the look that Miltia gave him. He rose his eyebrow in challenge, daring her to do something.

She must have seen something in his face that she didn't like, for she went back into the kitchen, and after some time passed, Junior came out.

Junior was a tall man, especially for someone with the name Junior. He was wearing a black vest over a white dress shirt, a red tie, along with black gloves and black dress pants. He had close shaved black hair along with a beard and a mustache. His eyes couldn't be seen over the red sunglasses that he was wearing.

He groaned upon walking out and spotting Jaune and Blake. "Not another blonde huntsmen in training! We JUST recovered from the last one!"

"The last one? What did they look like?" Jaune was just here for information about the White Fang, and to introduce Blake to Junior, but extra information was always helpful.

Junior growled, remembering something that he found unpleasant. "Your age, maybe comes up to your chest, brown clothing, yellow gauntlets...hard to put down."

Blake and Jaune shared a look. "That sounded like Yang.

"I think I know her," Jaune said, making a show of looking around the bar, "Do you happen to know what she was looking for?"

"She was looking for Raven Branwen. Which is beyond foolish. No one messes with that woman. No way was I giving information out on her! Which she handled quite poorly."

Raven Branwen. Good to know. Now to soothe some ruffled feathers and to get what he came for. "I'll bet. Tell you what, I'll report her to the headmaster for you, and I promise you she'll get punished."

"Yeah?"

He nodded, "To the fullest extent Beacon allows."

"Hmm...Good. And what can I do for you two? You're both too young to be drinking,"

"I'm only here to introduce you to Belle here."

"You're here to do what now?" 'Belle' asked, wiping an errant hair out of her face, walking around Jaune to face him directly.

Jaune ignored her. "You're an information broker right? We're here to trade information."

Junior's stance relaxed some as they went into territory he was more familiar with. "Oh yeah, and what are you offering? My information isn't free."

"How about intimate knowledge of the White Fang? How they structure their forces, bolt holes and anything else we can think of?"

"I can't offer that!" Blake hissed, pulling him back out of Junior's hearing range. "They'll kill me!"

Jaune looked at her like she was an idiot. "And that's different from them hunting you down now...how exactly?"

At that, Blake looked down and Jaune put a hand on her shoulder. "Relax Blake. I know what I'm doing. You won't come to any harm. And when the White Fang comes after you…"

"I'll protect you."

And at Blake's shocked silence he turned back to Junior to finish the conversation that they had started.

"Like I said, this is Belle," Gesturing to the shell-shocked faunus standing behind him, "And from now on, if I have any questions that I would like to ask, or information to trade, she'll be here to meet you. And likewise, if you want to reach ME, find Belle."

Junior took off his shades, giving Jaune an appraising look. "And what exactly are you after, Mr…?" He trailed off, trying to get a name.

"You can call me...Arthur," Jaune said, a small smile on his lips. "And what I want from you is simple…"

Jaune cornered Yang as soon as he found a free moment sans Ruby. He waved her down the hall, catching her attention.

"Hey Yang, do you have a moment?" He asked, getting a look from her, before she sighed.

"I don't really have a choice here, do I?"

"Not really no." Jaune admitted, leading her into an empty classroom that he had staked out and shifted things to his liking earlier.

Ruby and Blake required softer hands to get his point across.

Yang was a big girl and she would be treated as such.

"You really screwed up today you know."

"Don't you think I know that!" She yelled at him, her eyes still lilac.

"And do you know why?" Jaune asked, refusing to be cowed by the girl.

She sighed, but ground out. "I was so worried about Ruby and overconfident that we could beat Torchwick and whoever that girl was. I got angry and then…"

"You got sloppy." Jaune finished for, taking the wind out of her sails.

"Yeah, basically."

A not so awkward silence ensued as they stood in front of each other.

"You don't have to worry so much about Ruby you know? I'm working hard, and she's working hard to ensure that she can take care of herself,"

Jaune was surprised when Yang shook her head at that. "You don't get it Jaune. Ruby could be the strongest person I know, and I'd still worry about her,"

"You're right. I guess I wouldn't understand that…" Jaune said, voice growing flat. Yang quickly realized how her words could have been taken and tried to backtrack.

"I'm-sor-"

"Who is Raven?"

Yang stopped, hands reached out to, Jaune guess placate him or something. She literally just stopped.

It was eerie.

"Where did you hear that name?"

"A little birdy told me. Now, who is she?"

Yang laughed at that. "Who is she? That's a damn good question Jaune. I'll let you know when I figure it out."

"Wait. You don't know?"

That was surprising. Then again you didn't need to know someone to search for them.

"Raven is...my mom. In theory."

"In theory?"

Yang hummed, confirming his question. "She left practically as soon as I was born, and I've always wondered why. Why did she leave? Weren't we good enough? Wasn't I good enough? I just need to find her and get some answers you know?"

That made sense. How to respond…

"How does that translate into being a huntress?"

Come on Yang, give me something to work with here. A cause, a goal, anything.

A shrug. "I'm a thrill seeker. I want to travel all around the world and get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can. And if I happen to help some people along the way, that's even better. It's a win win you know?"

This was something he could use.

"And eventually if you search hard enough…"

"I'll find Raven". Yang finished, nodding.

Jaune pauses for a second, rolling the words over in his mind before he voiced them. "Have you considered changing your approach?"

Yang's face said that she hadn't, so Jaune continued. "When you can't beat the odds, change the game. What have you been told about her? I know you've asked your dad once or twice."

Yang crossed her arms, lost in thought. "He said..he said that she was stubborn. And values strength above all else. There was nothing more important to her than being strong."

"And so strong you became."

"I did." Yang confirmed, a proud smile on her face.

How best to put this…

"Not strong enough though."

Nailed it.

"Want to run that by me again?" Yang's voice was low. Dangerously low. He needed to tread carefully here.

He lounged back, cool as could be. "Well, you lost. And worse than that, you almost let Ruby get hurt, because you were angry. You lost control."

He needed to speak quickly before she attacked him.

"We don't need you angry Yang. We need you righteous. We need all of Yang. Not just angry Yang. Can you do that for me? For JRBY? For Ruby?"

She paused, taking in his words. Okay this was working. Now to reel her in.

"I'm not saying stop looking, don't get me wrong I'm not saying that at all! I'm just saying that you should shift your focus a bit. She's not going anywhere after all. And from what rumors I've heard, Raven is strong. Like scary strong. Wouldn't you prefer to be able to over power her to get your answers?" He stopped to take a breath. "It might be the only way to get your answers."

He held out his hand, waiting for Yang to grasp it. "Work with me Yang. Work with us. I promise we won't let you down."

Yang closed her eyes, clearly thinking things through. "I thought you didn't know anything about my mom."

Jaune felt a sick sensation pooling in his gut. Did he slip up? How to fix this?

But she eventually let out a laugh and grasped his hand, gripping it strongly. "You talk a good game though! Hope you can back it up Mr. Leader. Count me in!"

Jaune grinned back at her, happy that he had everyone on board with his plans. "I'm glad you feel that," he said with a sinister grin on his face.

"Training begins tomorrow after class. Don't be late."

Ruby, Yang, and Blake met with Jaune after class so he could go over his current plans for each of them. Instead of doing it separately, he figured that it would be better for them to go over it all at once.

That way they were all on the same page.

Everyone settled into the abandoned classroom that was starting to become their haunt.

"Is everyone here?" Jaune asked once they were settled.

"Well duh...do you see anyone missing?" Yang replies, dodging the answering swat from her sister, catching the arm and pulling her into a hug.

"Hack! Too tight!"

"What? Harder you say?"

Jaune ignored the by play, as did Blake and started the meat of the topics that they were getting into.

"Alright, JRBY! First order of business is semblances. I have a plan for each of us but it's only fair that I start. My semblance is Amp. Using a small amount of my aura, I can amplify the strength of other people's auras. I can also amplify my aura and increase my strength, speed, healing factor...basically anything aura can do. The only downside is that my body has to be strong enough to handle how much I amplify my aura, hence why I'm always training."

He made a fist, that quickly started flowing white with his aura. "The stronger I am, the more of my aura I can amplify, and the stronger I become. Got it?"

"That's a pretty terrifying semblance,"

"If by terrifying you mean amazing, I totally agree!"

"I wonder what my semblance boosted would be like…"

"Alright. Here's what I'm eventually aiming and hoping for in regards to us. Blake." He started, catching her attention. "I know your semblance is clones and you typically use them to take blows for you. Is that right?"

She nodded. "My semblance is shadow. I use it to make semi solid clones to take blows for me instead of taking them myself. They usually disintegrate after one hit." She chuckled ruefully. "You could say that I use them to help me run away,"

"Nothing wrong with that kitty cat,". Yang told her, rubbing her shoulder. She had taken the reveal that Blake was a Faunus rather naturally. The only thing that she had done was start up with the kitty cat nickname and all the jokes.

Blake wasn't sure if she would have preferred scorn. Ruby hadn't appeared to have cared one way or another that she was a Faunus or not. She did say that Blake looked much better without the bow.

"My semblance is called Ignite. Any and all damage I take gets converted into energy, that I can use to deal more damage. It doesn't stop me from feeling the blows and damage though."

"Oh! Me next! Me next!" Ruby said, hand raised up from within Yang's arms.

Blake raised a brow, "You do know that you're the only one left right?"

Ruby undeterred by the facts, kept going. "My semblance is Petal Burst! It lets me dash off in any direction I want to at super speed! Also I can turn into rose petals to move even faster! All of that costs aura though so I'm working on building up my aura."

Jaune nodded as they all shared their semblances. This was exactly what he wanted to happen when he decided to do this together rather than separately.

He cleared his throat before picking up where he had left off. "As I was saying, Blake, you say that your shadows can take a hit. What I want to do is to reverse that."

Confused silence.

"Explain."

"Rather than use them to take blows for you, I want you to work on using your semblance to attack, say you come at someone in the front and then right next to you, another Blake is attacking as well. Which one to block or dodge? Can it be dodged? Can I take two hits when I was expecting one? Ideally I would want you to have two clones on the offensive with you for each stroke but we'll probably have to build up your aura and endurance before we get that far. Do you think you can do that?"

"I mean...I should. I just never thought of it. It's a pretty good idea though…". She stated, lost in thought of how she would make it work.

Jaune nodded and then turned to Yang. "You said that you convert the damage into energy that you use to enhance your attacks. Is that all you can convert the energy into? Can you boost your healing, or your defense or even use the energy to refuel your aura?"

Yang opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it as she considered. "You know Mr. Leader, me and dad never thought about trying anything like that. I'll get right on that and get back to you though!"

Jaune nodded, that was the best that he could hope for now. And finally…"Ruby."

"Yes sir!"

"What I want to work on with your semblance is the speed you activate it. Specifically the petal burst part. Like Blake uses her shadows now, that's how I want you to use your bursts. I want nothing to touch you unless you let it. Work with Blake to learn how to anticipate blows and what exactly she did to get so good at it. Other than that, same things we've been working on."

He then stood up, addressing everyone again. "Physical training before class ladies, and semblance training afterwards. Before the end of the year I want every one of us to be able to defeat Pyrrha Nikos. Easily. Any questions?"

The girls all stared at him, then each other, before Blake rose her hand.

"Didn't you have a duel to go have with Weiss?"

Jaune shrugged.

"This was more important. Also, she never exactly set a date, so...not really?"