"You've really improved since our time at Beacon, Jaune," Blake remarked as they made their way back to Ma'Ula.

Jaune released a bark of laughter and smirked at her out of the corner of his eye. "I'd almost be flattered," he said dryly. "If you didn't sound so surprised, that is."

Blake's cheeks flushed but she pressed on. "Seriously, how did you come so far in just a year?"

"Experience, mostly," Jaune replied with a shrug. "Like I said before, the first few months were tough for me. I was fighting Grimm pretty much every day. Eventually, I stopped thinking about what I couldn't do, and started focusing on what I could."

Blake frowned. "I don't understand."

"I didn't have a lick of combat training when I came to Beacon beyond letting bullies punch me in the face so they wouldn't touch my sisters," he explained. "But my sisters and I have been dancing since we could walk. So, I took that and mixed it up with what I remember from how you, and Ruby, and Pyrrha, and everyone else fought amd just sort of," he waved his hands in the air in front of him aimlessly, "went with it. I'm still not nearly as good as I could be, though, so I try and use whatever free time I have to train when I can."

Blake's jaw nearly dropped as she listened to Jaune explain himself. The way he talked about teaching himself made it sound like a simple matter of trial and error with a dash of emulation, but the more she thought about it the more complicated it sounded. There were masters of combat who spent their entire lives doing what Jaune did, and they tended to have the benefit of a safe, controlled environment to polish their form. Jaune did it while fighting for his life.

"And that... thing you did," Blake asked as she struggled to maintain her composure. "You somehow managed to teach yourself to fire beams of energy from your sword? Or is that also part of your semblance?"

"No," Jaune chuckled shaking his head. "My semblance is just what you've seen so far: I can use my aura to amplify someone elses in any way I want. I ran into a Huntress on a covert mission during my travels, and she taught me for a while in exchange for being her meat-shield on some assignments. What I did there was just some beginner-level aura manipulation. I just channeled my aura through my sword and swung."

"Jaune," Blake said with exagerrated calmness. "We all channel aura through our weapons. It helps keep them in shape and powers the mechanisms so that they can mecha-shift. What you did... I've never seen it before."

Jaune chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah... when I was being taught, we figured out I have too much aura to properly do most techniques like everyone else. Apparently, some people can use their aura to keep them warm without a fire; when I tried, I nearly started a fores fire. Turns out quantity is a quality of its own."

"Well, you certainly have come a long way," Blake remarked for lack of anything else to say.

"There's that surprised tone again," Jaune pointed out with a laugh, making Blake smile and roll her eyes while he playfully narrowed his. "You know, one of these days, I'm going to make you laugh."

"Is that so?" Blake asked.

"Oh yeah," Jaune declared. "And not just that cute little giggle you do when you're humoring us or I do something particularly embarassing. I'm gonna get a full on side-splitting, gut-busting, tears-in-your-eyes laugh out of you. You might even snort."

"And what made you decide to undertake this particular impossible task?"

"Impossible?" Jaune asked, his chest out and chin up as he filled the air with bravado. "If I can get through the Ice Queen that is Weiss Schnee and make her admit to being my friend, I can get you to show your true colours, Starlight."

"Starlight?" Blake asked, smirking. "That's the best you got?"

Jaune shrugged. "I'd have gone for Sunshine, but this seemed more appropriate. Plus, I think Sun would sue me. Would you rather I take the Yang-route, and pick a nickname with cat-based pun in it?"

"No," Blake replied flatly. Vague memories of Adam using a series of pet names for her ranging from darling to my love flickered by her mind's eye, but she let them go with a sigh as she looked up at night sky above them. "I suppose it could be worse, considering this is coming from the mind of Snow Angel."

"Hey!" Jaune exclaimed with mock indignation. "I'll have you know that Weiss liked that nickname!"

"Yeah, when it came from someone like Neptune."

"Okay, what's that supposed to mean?"

The two of them continued to walk for another couple of hours, enjoying each other's company until Jaune called for them to stop.

"What's the matter?" Blake asked.

"We should set up camp here," Jaune replied, his earlier light-hearted demeanor replaced with the stern Huntsman Blake had come to realize existed just beneath the surface and setting off alarms in her head.

"Ma'Ula is only an hour or so away," Blake argued. "It would be safer to press on than spend the night here."

"Closer to two hours, actually," Jaune corrected. "And you're dead on your feet."

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked. "I feel fi-"

As the words were leaving her mouth, Blake suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion rush through her, nearly throwing her off her feet were it not for Jaune catching her.

"Told you," he said softly, helping her to sit on the ground.

"What... what's happening to me?" Blake asked.

"It's nothing major," Jaune explained. "You've just been feeling the affects of my semblance for too long."

"Your semblance?"

"I can boost your aura with my own," he continued. He placed a hand on Blake's arm and she watched as a surge of silvery light trickled down his own before reaching her, where it took on the familiar dark purple hue of her own and a surge of energy flowed through her, revitalizing her. "It makes you stronger, faster, and more resistant to damage, but if you are feeling it for too long, you get used to it."

"Which makes me feel exhausted when you stop amplifying it," Blake finished.

"We're not on any sort of deadline," Jaune added. "So I'd rather take a break and let you get used to your normal power than risk you feeling even worse."

"But wouldn't it still be safer for me to rest in town then in the jungle?" Blake pressed.

"Not if we have to fight tomorrow as well," Jaune countered, shaking his head. "I should've stopped boosting you once the fight was over."

"Why didn't you?"

"I still have trouble controlling it," he explained. "I can activate it easily enough, and am getting better at boosting who I want instead of just everyone around me, but stopping once I've started is tougher."

"Wait," Blake said, realising what it was he was saying. "Have you been amplifying my aura since the night we fought Ilia?"

Jaune nodded, sighing as he leaned back and stared at the sky. "I gave you a bit of a top-up against that Grimm, but yeah."

"How aren't you dead on your feet?" Blake demanded.

Jaune shrugged. "I didn't give you all that much. Plus whatever you have left comes back to me after I manage to deactivate it, so it's not so bad. Anyway, I'm going to go collect some firewood, in the meantime, eat this, it'll help you recover your energy." He reached into the pocket of his ratty, brown cloak and pulled out a small snack bar that he tossed her way, laughing at the way her nose turned up and ears flattened at the thought of stomaching the disgusting meal replacement before taking off into the night.

"You shouldn't be here," a voice said from above her. Blake tensed as she threw herself to her feet much slower than she would have liked and reached for Gambol Shroud. "I'm not here to hurt you," Ilia said, raising her hands.

Blake remained standing, but released her grip on her weapon, crossing her arms as she glared at Ilia. "What are you doing here?"

"You need to leave," Ilia said. "While you still can."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not safe here for you."

"I figured as much when the Fang sent you to spy on me and nearly kill my mother," Blake hissed.

Ilia's shoulders drooped and her skin turned a pale shade of blue. "I'm sorry about that," she muttered. "I was just trying to cause a distraction, I had no idea it would be your parents coming around that corner. I'd never hurt you like that, you know that."

"No, but you will report on everything my family and I do, won't you?" Blake retorted.

"Things are changing, Blake," Ilia said, her expression pleading. "The White Fang is only going to get more powerful, and if you keep being seen hanging around that human..."

Rage filled Blake and she clenched her fists as her eyes narrowed. "You stay away from him," she hissed.

"He should be staying away from you!" Ilia exclaimed. "Gods, Blake, he's the enemy!"

"He's my friend!" Blake nearly shouted.

"He will betray you! It's in his nature!"

"Jaune wouldn't betray me or anyone else, ever!"

"How can you still be so naive?!" Ilia yelled, her skin turning a bright red in her anger. "You'd think a traitor of all people would be able to spot another!"

Blake bit the inside of her cheek to keep from reeling back at the accusation, its validity notwithstanding. "I'd rather be a traitor than a monster!"

"They're the monsters!" Ilia screamed. "They treat us like filth, force us to do the work they won't, and laugh when it gets us killed! But instead of doing anything, you just want to run away to Mommy and Daddy, bringing a human along for the ride and endangering our entire home."

"And what are you doing?" Blake countered. "Spying on another Faunus on Menagerie, when there is literally one human here to keep an eye on."

"I'm trying to protect you!" Ilia cried. "If it wasn't me, then Adam would send someone worse, and you know that!"

Blake opened her mouth to retort when a soft rustling made both her and Ilia whirl around to find Jaune standing behind Ilia, his large, metal-covered fist slamming into her temple as she turned and smashing her to the ground with enough force to throw a cloud of dirt into the air. Before Blake could react, Jaune was on the ground as well, laying on top of Ilia with his arm around her neck, choking her until she eventually fell unconscious. Without saying a word, he reached into his cloak and pulled out a length of rope, tying her arms and legs in a complicated series of knots before standing up and approaching her in two large steps.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his blue eyes shining as small wisps of silvery light curled into the air around him. Blake was suddenly very aware of the fact that Jaune had well over a foot on her in height and was considerably broader as well as she found herself nearly surrounded by him, her back against the tree. That same feeling of shelter from the night before warmed her chest."Did she hurt you?"

"N-no," Blake replied, shaking her head as he started pacing back and forth.

"Can you walk?" He asked. His voice was soft despite the storm of emotions she could almost feel rolling off of him. "We have to get back to your dad as soon as possible."

Blake tried to take a step, but her legs quivered as the adrenaline from having been caught unawares and her shouting match with Ilia started fading and she would have fallen had Jaune not caught her. "S-sorry," she mumbled, only to squeak as Jaune easily lifted her onto her back, his sword having slid along its rails to his forearm where it sat in its collapsed form.

"Don't worry about it, Starlight," Jaune replied quietly. "You just rest, I guarantee you'll feel better when you wake up."

Blake wanted to protest, but Jaune was already moving, grabbing Ilia's sword and tucking it into his belt before grabbing the woman herself and carefully lifting her by the ropes coiled around her body, carrying her like he would a briefcase. Without even a grunt of effort, Jaune started walking through the jungle, his footsteps deceptively soft for someone of his size and the extra weight he was carrying. Blake tried to stay awake, but eventually the rythmic movement of his walking along with the soft warmth emanating from him lulled her into a deep sleep.

*(OoO)*

Jaune sighed as he trudged through the jungle. The sky above him had become a milky grey, and he was starting to feel a burning in his arms and legs from carrying his passengers for so long. Throughout his semi-solitary journey back to the Belladonna Estate, Jaune found his thoughts drifting to the young woman sleeping peacefully on his back.

While their relationship had been somewhat stilted when he first arrived on Menagerie, Jaune had quickly come to appreciate Blake's presence more than he had first assumed he would. Inquisitive though she may have been initially, in the last few weeks, he had begun to earn more of her trust and with that a lack of questioning that he had truly come to appreciate. More than once he had found himself drifting off into thoughts he wasn't ready to share, and every time, Blake would simply place a hand on his shoulder and smile softly. No questions about what he was thinking or how he was feeling, just a small, silent reminder that she was there.

It was a form of support he hadn't felt in a long time, as not even his family had been properly equipped to be there for him emotionally after Beacon.

Blake readjusted herself on his back and turned her face towards his, a soft rumbling coming from her chest carressing his ear with her ever breath as she tried to get as close to the heat he was producing as possible. This made Jaune smile briefly and provided him with a second wind, even as his other passenger started to stir as well.

Once again, he found himself questioning the turn of events that had him getting involved with people like the White Fang, when he had traveled to Menagerie for the express purpose of avoiding the machinations of large groups and others who would use him and his friends for their own gain. Unfortunately, it was that same purring in his ear, and the smell of lilac and old paper that reminded him why he had decided to help out. The White Fang - or a faction within the organization, at least - had a stranglehold on the people of Menagerie, and they were steadily tightening their grip under the noses of those in charge. If that weren't enough to make his annoyingly loud conscience declare a call to action, the fact that Blake, a friend from before everything had gone wrong and who had only become closer to him since, was right in the middle of it due to her prior involvement with the group and her notion of being responsible for everything they did, if not simply by virtue of being the daughter to the man whose power the Fang was slowly eroding.

It took Ilia several moments to apparently realize the situation she was in as she tested her bonds before looking up at him and fruitlessly struggling to get out of them.

"Don't bother," Jaune said softly, mindful of his still-sleeping passenger. "You're not the first person I've had to transport against their will."

"I knew I should have killed you when I first had the chance," Ilia hissed.

"Shut up," Jaune replied, rolling his eyes before focusing them ahead of himself once more. "We have a ways to go before reaching Kuo Kuana, and some people are still sleeping."

Ilia scoffed. "Trust a human to carry me like a piece of luggage," she muttered under her breath before yelping quietly when Jaune eased some of the force he was using to keep her aloft and bumped her head against the dirt.

"I'm carrying you like a criminal," Jaune corrected. "Luggage gets dragged through the dirt a lot more." He paused, then shrugged. "Then again so do the criminals who think they're witty."

"Calling me a criminal is rich coming from your kind," Ilia retorted, and Jaune just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You can spare me the self-righteous rhetoric. I don't care whether you think what you did was justified or not."

"Of course you wouldn't," Ilia continued, her voice raising. "Your kind haven't ever cared - umph!" She was interrupted when Jaune lowered her head into the dirt once more and started dragging her, keeping an eye out for any rocks or tree roots so as not to actually harm her.

"I seem to remember asking you to keep your voice down," he said as he raised her back up once more.

"When I get out of here, I'll -"

"Do what? Try to stab another member of Blake's family?"

Ilia's face fell, and Jaune noticed genuine shame in her features, similar to when Blake had accused her of the same thing. This at least proved that Ilia wasn't completely without remorse, if she would show that kind of emotion in front of him: someone she hated on principal.

"How did you manage to sneak up on us like that?" She quietly asked after several minutes of silence.

"By being quiet," Jaune replied vaguely.

Ilia scoffed and turned away, allowing silence to fall over them once more until just before Jaune reached the wall surrounding Kuo Kuana when Blake began to stir on his back, groaning and mumbling something as she buried her face in his neck, trying to avoid the sunlight that streaming through the foliage above them.

Jaune chuckled and smiled as he tightened his grip on one her legs around his waist. "Good morning, Starlight."

"There are no good mornings," Blake grumbled, still not fully awake. "Where are we?"

"Nearly home," Jaune replied, releasing her leg to squat down and pull open the hidden door in the border wall around the village. "Why don't you go back to sleep, and I'll wake you up again later with some nice tuna?"

Blake smiled and nodded, burying herself further into Jaune's back as the soft vibrations of her purring started once more. Jaune's smile grew once she was fully back to sleep and a warmth filled his chest. It felt good to take care of someone for once, rather than always being the one who needed taking care of.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Ilia groused, her nose upturned as she looked away.

Jaune chuckled but ignored her as he continued to walk towards the Belladonna home, arriving there in about twenty minutes and sighing as he came face to face with the large flight of stairs leading to their front door. By the time he reached the top, he was panting with sweat starting to drip down his forehead, and one of the guards had already managed to call on Ghira and Kali, who met him at the door.

"Blake!" Kali gasped as she and Ghira dashed forward to inspect their daughter.

"She's fine, she was just tired," Jaune explained, before they could wake her up. "We needed to keep moving, though, thanks to our surprise visitor." He heaved his arm up, showing off Ilia to Blake's parents.

"Ilia," Ghira said sadly, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Mom?" Blake mumbled. "Dad?" She let out a small yawn as Jaune helped her down to her feet.

"Hello, sweetheart," Ghira said softly.

Blake looked around, noticing where they were and what time it was before whirling around on Jaune with wide, accusing eyes. "Did you carry me all night?"

"Yeah," Jaune replied easily. "So?"

Blake opened and closed her mouth several times before scowling and turning away from him. "Let's just talk to my parents," she said before casting a glare at the tied up woman laying at Jaune's feet. "Then decide what to do with her." Without another word, she stormed off and Jaune turned to her parents with a shrug.

"Speaking of which, what would you like me to do with her, sir?"

"We have a guest room down the hall from my husband's office," Kali said. "Leave her there."

Jaune nodded and grabbed Ilia by the ropes binding her before following Blake's family through the estate towards the rather nice room where he left her on the bed, grabbing an extra coil of rope from his cloak to secure her to the bedposts so that she would be unable to move.

"Don't worry," he reassured her. "I made sure you'll maintain circulation everywhere."

"My hero," Ilia growled, her gaze forced forwards at the wall in front of her while Jaune simply chuckled and left the room to join Blake and her parents in the hall.

"I must say, Jaune," Ghira commented as they made their way to his office. "That was some rather... complex knot-tying you used to restrain her."

"Yeah, I did a lot of camping and stuff with my family," Jaune explained. "My dad taught me all about different knots and how they worked. It only took a couple of contracts for some local bandits for me to figure out how to put the skills to good use."

Ghira chuckled and took a seat next to his wife in one of the couches surrounding the small coffee table in his office as Jaune and Blake took a seat in another. Now that he wasn't moving, Jaune could feel the first tendrils of exhaustion creeping through his limbs and clenched his jaw to stifle a yawn.

"Now, what have you two learned so far?" He asked.

"Corsec and Fennec are working for Adam," Blake said before explaining how they tracked Ilia to Ma'Ula, where they managed to eavesdrop on the two brothers before hunting a Grimm for the Governor.

"How did you know that they would be needing help with a Grimm attack?" Kali asked.

"Because the trail I found near the village were similar to markings I had found at Gerard's farm and a few other locations where Grimm had attacked recently," Jaune explained. He debated whether or not to share the theory he was working on and eventually decided it was time. He didn't want to keep secrets like this if he didn't have to. "I also knew because members of the White Fang were there."

"I'm not sure I follow," Ghira said slowly. "Do you mean to say that the White Fang has something to do with the Grimm attacks you have been investigating?"

"I mean to say that they - or at least the faction of them that Corsec and Fennec belong to - are behind them," Jaune replied. "Have you not noticed that on an island as crowded as Menagerie, you haven't been experiencing as many of the same types of problems as a place with a similar population density would? In Kuo Kuana especially, there's virtually no problems."

"So, you think because my dad looks after the people that the White Fang is somehow siccing Grimm on people?" Blake asked skeptically. "How does that even make sense?"

"I don't mean to imply any failings on your part, sir," Jaune replied, turning to Ghira. "But, have you ever stopped to wonder how an island so dense can feed so many mouths while still having infrastructure largely consisting of wooden huts and dirt roads?"

"I fail to see -" Kali said only to be cut off as Jaune continued. Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out his scroll and called up a map of Menagerie, zooming in on a small section near the edge of the jungle where the massive deserts covering most of the island began, and handing it over to Ghira.

"Or how well-off a village like Huamela can be when it is the farthest from the coast, has the least amount of arable land, no mine for people to work in, and no livestock? Or how consistently your merchants can follow trade routes without fear, when protecting a caravan is a Huntsman's bread and butter? Or how few Grimm attacks reach your desk when you have none of the protections or infrastructure designed to deal with them that the other Kingdoms do?"

Ghira was silent as he contemplated Jaune's words for several minutes, the atmosphere tense enough to chase away some of the tiredness tugging at his eyelids.

"I'm little more than a figurehead," he said softly, drawing gasps from his daughter and wife. "Is that correct?"

"Yes," Jaune replied.

"But... how?" Blake asked.

"They have access to two things that people here are in desperate need of," Jaune explained. "Protection and employment."

"So, they offer to protect people from the Grimm in return for people joining their cause," Kali surmised.

"Not just for new members," Jaune added. "But, if Ma'Ula was anything to go by, they also extort money and resources as well."

"That's right," Blake agreed. "Oryx mentioned Corsec and Fennec trying to bleed his village dry."

"And Ma'Ula has access to one of the largest Dust mines on Menagerie," Ghira concluded, shaking his head angrily. "I'm such a fool."

"You mentioned the Albain brothers calling you a perfect scapegoat," Kali said as she reached over and placed a supportive hand on her husband's shoulder.

"It means they're coming after us," Blake answered. "Jaune is always around us, it would give them a good opportunity to come after one of us and blame it on him."

"I don't think so," Jaune replied. "The people of Menagerie, and those of the Kingdoms all recognize your dad as the one in charge. Without him, the Fang would have to actively take charge to maintain control of Menagerie, which would draw attention to them from the other Kingdoms, who could wipe them out without breaking a sweat."

"Which is why they have maneuvered themselves into a position where any move we take against them would only hurt our people," Ghira concluded.

"The brothers mentioned Adam," Jaune said softly mostly to himself as he expanded the map of Menagerie and considered what was happening. "We know he's in charge of his own faction of the White Fang, and is obsessed with gettingn to Blake. They could use me as an excuse to take her, spread rumors saying I kidnapped her, getting rid of me and increasing distrust in other humans as well."

He noticed Blake shrink into herself through the corner of his eye at the mention of Adam, and idly reached over to wrap an arm around her shoulder in comfort while Ghira slammed his fist into the table, splintering the wood slightly as he growled angrily. "If he thinks he can get anywhere near my daughter without going through me, that man has another thing coming."

"Which is why they probably won't go that route," Jaune continued, unfazed by Ghira's outburst as he slowly stroked Blake's arm comfortingly, unaware of the way her mother was watching the two of them as he stared at the map, deep in thought. "They would need to convince the two of you more than anyone else that I had taken Starlight." He shook his head. "No. Corsec and Fennec are the schemers of this operation, and they see Adam's obsession with her as little more than a distraction. I think odds are that they will use me as an excuse to take control of the White Fang completely. Say that the big bad human came in and slaughtered their leadership, before taking control and using the renewed hatred to bolster their support across Remnant."

"You've given us much to think about, Jaune," Kali said kindly as Jaune stifled another yawn. "Why don't you go get some rest, and when you wake up, we can discuss our next move?"

"Actually," Jaune replied, suddenly very uncomfortable. "I'm going to head back to Ma'Ula. There are going to be more Grimm attacks, and I need to be there to stop them."

"Oh," Ghira said, his eyes wide. "Okay. In that case, allow me to transfer some funds to you for the work."

"Thank you," Jaune replied, standing up and trying not to make it obvious how badly he wanted out of there and away from the decision-making process. Turning to Blake, he smiled and squeezed her arm, earning a small one from her in return before quickly leaving Ghira's office. Just as he reached the door, he stopped and turned back to the three of them. "I nearly forgot," he said, reaching into his cloak once more and pulling out a second scroll. "This was on Ilia when we captured her. It might have something that could be useful on it."

He handed the scroll over without a word and quickly made his way back to the room in which he had been staying, throwing himself on the bed without bothering to remove any of his clothes or equipment and falling asleep within moments.

A/N: Mostly fluff, trying to show Jaune and Blake being more affectionate with one another without being overtly romantic about it. Besides that, Ilia makes a reappearance, and the plot gets moving with what hopefully isn't as clunky of expository dialogue as it felt when I wrote it, but I wanted to display how many moves ahead Jaune sometimes is thinking, before closing with his reluctance in taking part in these sort of things once more. Anyway, the most important thing I'm hoping for is that you enjoyed it, and I thank you guys for the reads and reviews again. Until next time!