Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, the only thing I own is the idea for the story.

(Chapter 1)

Chaos.

That was the only word Jaune could use to describe what he was witnessing. Glynda Goodwitch, the deputy headmistress of beacon academy, was using her semblance to simultaneously hold off grimm whilst repairing the damages done to the town. Professors' Port and Oobleck, accompanied by Zwei, were exterminating grimm not too far away from Ms. Goodwitch.

Team CRDL had joined to effort to protect Vale from what people were already calling, "The breach inside the walls." Surprisingly enough, during evacuation, and Jaune could've swore he saw Cardin even save a young faunus boy as the battle raged on. The rest of team JNPR were killing grimm in the square, near the origin site of the breach, trying to keep the damage and danger as contained as possible.

Sun and Neptune, accompanied by Velvet, were assisting in both fighting and evacuating citizens, going house to house to search for stragglers while the other three members of team CFVY protected them with area support. Jaune caught eyes with Sun as he was rushing to check another building nearby that had caught fire during the pandemonium and was given a reassuring nod of the head from the blonde faunus, before resuming his search for survivors. Looking down the street, Jaune saw the members of team RWBY holding off grimm from making it to where the evacuees were escorted.

Crocea mors and shield in hand, he made his way to the last building on his side of the street. He took a deep breath preparing himself to enter.

"Alright Jaune, you got this. You're an Arc. You have aura and have been training with one of the best fighters at THE Beacon Academy. This time will be different." With one last moment to collect himself, he steeled his nerves raising a boot and kicked down the door, to be greeted with a falling, burning support beam from the ceiling.
"Is anyone still here? I'm a student from beacon and I can escort you to a safe area!" He waited for a moment, the only sounds he could hear being that of the burning building he was inside along with that of fierce combat outside in the city streets. He turned to leave before hearing the faint sound of something moving above him. With haste in his movements, he made his way up the stairs reaching a hallway where a short row of open doors awaited him. He decided to call out one more time to check for anyone in need of help.

"Hey! Is anyone up here? I'm here to rescue you."

He listened before hearing coughing to his right. He rushed down the hall, throwing his head into a room to see a young girl, no older than 10 shaking in the corner covered in soot. He crossed to room in a flash but saw the worry in her eyes, so he slowed his approach and stored his weapons away on his hip, before continuing to move closer. When he finally was in front of the girl, he knelt, and put a hand on her shoulder. She coughed again before looking up at him, shaking still, and asking him a question,

"Who are you…?" she inquired, scared to be alone, but more scared to have been found hiding.

Jaune looked down to the girl in sympathy, 'Poor thing, she was probably enjoying her day like any other kid, and before she knew it, the city was overrun with grimm, her house is on fire, and she is all alone.' He moved his hand to pat and rub her head before speaking, "My names Jaune, I'm a student at beacon academy and huntsman in training."

She didn't seem to have any reaction to the beacon statement, but her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree at the huntsman comment, before she could assault him with questions, he continued his placating.

"What is your name?"

"A-Avyriss…"

"That's a pretty name. Avyriss, where is the rest of your family?" At this question she began to tear up. Hiccups setting in, a few tears found themselves loose, she answered him again.

"I don't know…Mom and Daddy went to go pick up my younger brother from daycare a while ago. It's not far from here, but…I've been alone for a while now."

Shit. 'I hope her family is okay.'

"Hey Avyriss," he began to coo, he needed her calm if her was to get her to safety, but luckily for the huntsman in training, he was the brother in a family with seven sisters. "It'll be okay. Tell you what, why don't you and I get out of here and I'll take you somewhere safe, and if we're looking, maybe your family will be there!" Jaune knew it was risky and a bit cruel to get the young girls hopes up in such a situation, but he needed her to be as emotionally calm as possible if he was to get her to safety.

She simply nodded her head at him, and let herself be picked up, wrapping her arms around the blonde teen's neck, and being adjusted by the student himself till she was on his back, he gave her a cheeky grin, and managed to solicit a smile from the young girl before the two of them found the floor shaking. 'Double shit, the house is about to go down.' He looked out the doorway of the young girl's room and saw that the fire had completely consumed that side of the house, before he retreated to her room. He set his sights on the window before casting a look at little Avyriss, she saw where he was looking before nodding towards him and tightening her grip around him. He started running, before crashing through the window, just as the house completely crashed downward in a show of burning wood and.

As Jaune was in the air, he remembered that he leaped out a window, from the second story, and focused his aura to his legs so that the impact of the fall wouldn't hurt his legs, and as they landed he let forth a groan of pain, not having had enough time to fully prevent any pain from finding its way to him.

He put down Avyriss and looked himself over for any discernible injuries or damage, and then glanced over at Avyriss, before feeling his heart break a bit. She was standing there next to him, just staring at what had once been her home. No tears were present on her face, but he couldn't begin to imagine the pain she was feeling. He gently picked her up before running toward team CVFY.

Team CFVY along with Sun and Neptune were finished surveying this street for survivors before hearing a familiar voice call out to them.

"Guys wait!" They all turned to see Jaune carrying a young girl over to them, covered in soot, he looked no worse for wear, but the girl seemed pretty shaken up.

"Hello Jaune, are you two okay?" He nodded at Velvet, appreciating her concern, before walking over to Sun, "Listen man, I need to go help out my team, can you make sure she gets to safety." Sun nodded to the fellow team leader. The leader of team JNPR wasn't pushy or overly charismatic, but he was a born leader, and it showed in his mindset, actions, and attitude. This wasn't a request or an ultimatum, it was an order from a leader to another leader to best minimize casualties.

Sun gently took the girl from his friend's arms and gave him a nod. "Sure thing bud, drinks later are on you though." He finished with a confident smirk. Jaune just smiled at Sun's ability to make a stressful situation feel trivial, before turning to young girl he had just passed off.

"Alright Avyriss, you stay safe and listen to Sun alright. Him and Neptune will make sure you get to safety alright? I know I said I would stay with you, but I have to go find and help my team, my…," he took a moment, "family," He said after the pause. She just nodded to him, but before he could turn and run to go and find the rest of Team JNPR, the small girl had grabbed hold of sleeve, causing him to look back at her.

"Avyriss? What's wr-" she put her hand in front of his face promptly cutting him off before speaking.

"Pinky promise."

"Huh?"

"Pinky promise you'll be okay." She wore a pout with tears in the corners of her eyes but wasn't going to stop him from finding the people he wanted to protect. He just sighed before smiling and took her pinky in his.

"Pinky promise, Avyriss. I'll come check on you once everything is back under control too, okay?"

She was silent for a moment, before withdrawing her small digit, and refusing to meet his eyes, "…you better not break your promise."

He just smiled, patting her head and rustling her hair one last time, before grinning and leaving her with one last thing to say.

"Hey, An Arc never goes back on their word." And with that he looked to Sun and Neptune, giving them both nods, before turning and running back to the square, passing and thanking Team CFVY as he ran.

Sun with his ever-mischievous grin and glint in his eyes, lifted the girl over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, much to her surprise, and took to the rooftops to where the survivors were being brought for refuge. As she looked down to the ground she was now far above, she let herself be carried by the tan blond, and almost fell asleep if it weren't for something furry tickling her nose, she blinked open an eye to see that Sun had a tail, further adding to her surprise.

"You have a monkey tail!" she squeaked out. He chuckled before addressing her. "Yup, I'm a faunus. Now relax kid, we're gonna get you somewhere safe."

She closed her eyes and smiled. She believed him.

Back with Jaune, he found himself in unfamiliar territory. He wasn't a native of Vale, nor was he completely ignorant of his surroundings, but in his effort to avoid streets with large congregations of grimm, he found himself having trouble locating the area where he left his team. He turned in to an alleyway to avoid running into a pack of rather vicious looking Ursa and exited into the connected street. Seeing that he was in the clear, he leaned against a building and took a moment to collect his breath as he observed crocea mors in depth.

"It's strange…I stole this weapon," He paused. "Well, technically it's supposed to go to the first-born son every generation so maybe I didn't exactly steal it so much as claim it early." That sounded better in his head. "But I took crocea mors and some cash, wrote a goodbye note, and left my home and everything I knew to come and chase a dream I was…no, am unprepared for."

Jaune didn't want to feel like this, but he couldn't help it. All his friends were stronger than him, and he just wanted to stand beside them, or maybe one day if he was strong enough, in front of them for a change. The first semester had gone by at this point, and the second wasn't too far from ending, and all he had to show for it was managing to barely improve in combat classes and a feeling of hopelessness that plagued him seemingly perpetually.

"After barely surviving the initiation test, I almost got exposed as a fraud to Professor Ozpin and the rest of the school by Cardin. I managed to save his bacon after Pyrrha helped me with the Ursa that attacked us." It didn't take him long to discover that secret out. When he fought that Ursa, he felt an otherworldly pull on his shield. She used her semblance against Ren once in training, and it dawned on him that the feeling must have been Pyrrha using her semblance to save him and give him the push he needed to win and stand up and away from Cardin. He was rather depressed about that for almost a week after he found out.

"Training every other night with Pyrrha, and never once have I ever even made her remotely try in our spars." He thought back to his matches in combat classes against Ren and Nora. "Ren takes his time to teach me, even though he is still more than merciless when we fight, and Nora is a nightmare. After every spar, my body is just one big bruise."

Then he thought of team RWBY

"Yang toys with me every time we face each other, Ruby uses them to try flashy moves that wouldn't work against anyone but me, Weiss looks like she enjoys mopping the floor with me, although that did change recently, maybe I should look into that. And Blake tries to take me out as fast as possible, each time, like she's trying to break a record."

Now while Jaune was most definitely frustrated, both at himself and his friends, he could never feel negatively about them, it just wasn't in who he was. Instead he felt determined, determined to gain the strength he wanted to protect himself, his friends, and the innocent, and become the hero he always saw himself being. Just like his ancestors before him.

He pushed off the building, standing up completely straight, and made himself a vow, "I swear on my name, I will become strong enough to lead my team without being a burden and become strong enough that they don't have to worry as much." He took a second to take a deep breath and put a hand on his heart. "An Arc never goes back on their word, and I won't be the first."

Feelings affirmed, Jaune pulled out his scroll and went to the GPS function, to find the location of the rest of his team. A new notification had been sent to all students from beacon, the breach site had been closed, and all that was left was to kill any remaining grimm found in the city. After a moment of pinging, the scroll told him where he needed to be, and then he stashed it in his pocket. "Alright, they should be only a block or two away, guess it's time to mo-"

Jaune froze at the growl he heard coming from behind him, he unsheathed crocea mors, expanded his shield, and turned to face his foe. Behind him about fifteen meters away was a beowolf, a much larger than average beowolf. Oddly enough it made no move to attack by surprise, which he was thankful for, instead opting to study him. It must have found that boring because now it was baring its fangs with its fur on end, it was ready to hunt.

Jaune tightened his grip on his sword, trying to bring his shakiness under control, before remembering his promise to Avyriss and the vow he made to himself. His grip relaxed, shield still high, a small confident smile graced is features accompanied by a glint of defiance, 'I'm done running away, I'm going to be a huntsman.' He raised his sword and pointed it at the beowolf, "And it will all start with you."

The beowolf let out a roar before charging at Jaune, the boy quickly took up a firm stance, and as the beowolf raised a claw and brought it down on the boy's shield, the teen didn't budge. Instead, filled with determination, he angled his shield with the beowolf claws still on it, pivoted, and pushed causing the grimm to lose its footing, and stumble forward to the side of Jaune. The boy realized that he needed to capitalize on this and immediately leaped forward, bringing down crocea mors towards his enemy, and was rewarded by a roar of pain and the beowolf missing an arm. He leaped back with his shield guarding him and reassessed the situation.

He looked at his scroll to get a read for his aura, and saw that he was in the yellow, but that would be more than enough to take out this beowolf.

"All the fighting earlier cost me a ton of aura. I really need to work on my fighting skills after this is all done."

His thinking was cut short when a large furry head rammed into his shield, knocking him back a few meters. He put away his scroll, and put all his focus back into his enemy, the grimm raising its head, bone mask and red eyes bore into Jaune's soul with hatred as it began to attack him in a frenzy.

Jaune was doing his best to defend against all the attacks, but one swipe managed to make it past his guard, sending him skidding across the ground not far from his former position. His shield was knocked further away from him, but he managed to keep hold of his sword. He readjusted his grip on it before, preparing to get up, but as he turned his eyes upward, he saw the beowolf coming down ready to slash him, he shut his eyes and thrust his sword forward.

After a few seconds of waiting for the pain he had braced for, nothing came, and he opened his eyes to see the grimm impaled through the mask by his sword, slowly turning to ash on the wind. He pulled free his sword and scooted away from the beowolf corpse before it could possibly fall on him. He made his way to his shield and turned it into its sheath form. Instead of sheathing his sword, he stabbed it into the ground so that he could savor the moment of beating a grimm without any help.

"I DID IT! I pulled it off…this is great! All I need to do now is get better and better at killing grimm and I'll be a huntsman in no time."

In his personal pep talk, he failed to notice a pair of glowing red eyes staring at him from behind. And all to sudden, Jaune would pay for it.

'Guess I better check my scroll so that I can find out where my team is now.' He fiddled with his phone before receiving a video call from Pyrrha.

"Jaune! Where are you. Are you okay?"

He chuckled into the phone, before answering,

"Pyrrha. I'm fine. I went to help search for any survivors that might be hiding in buildings. I brought a little girl to Sun and Neptune to take back to the evacuation zone, and I just killed a big beowolf on my own."

Hearing both his deed and success she smiled widely at him, "That's great Jaune! We're heading to your location, stay safe and we'll be there soon. And I think you deserve to skip out on training for a day."

His face shifted to one of false indignation, "Why Pyrrha. I would never attempt to skip out on our training sessions!" he said with a tone of false surprise.

She just grinned back at him cheekily before replying, "Sure Jaune, whatever you say~" and hanging up before he could reply.

He checked his aura seeing himself still in the yellow, but suddenly his world was turned sideways, and he found himself being launched at least a dozen meters down the street.

"Okay…That hurt…" He looked to see what had attacked him and wished he didn't. He was greeted by the sight of an Ursa looking at him with predatory eyes and towering above him from where he once stood. He went to check his scroll for his aura, before he realized that it had been knocked from his hands after the hit from the Ursa. He could see the screen however, it didn't look to promising for him with his aura sitting in the orange now, the last hit having took a lot from him.

He shakily stood up before making his way to the scroll and pocketing it, then turning his attention to the Ursa. It was large, but luckily it looked like it had been hurt by someone else before him, then noticing the deep gash left in its neck.

'I need to end this fight quick. One good hit there should keep it down.'

Plan of attack? None, he made stellar plans when he had teammates that could accomplish what he envisioned. Aura? Minimal, one or two hits would be all he could take before he was just a regular squishy meat person with a sword. He looked at their surroundings for anything he could use for an advantage. The street was rather narrow, so it was probably made to be only for foot traffic, Jaune deduced, as the ground was made of bricks. He kept looking as the Ursa lowered itself to all fours and began to move towards him.

The desperate teen looked up, eyes catching an electric sign above the entrance to a shop not but eight feet above him. He looked back to the Ursa and decided to commit to his plan. He took his sword and rapped it against the front of his shield loudly, trying to taunt the grimm. He wore a predatory grin, despite the unease he felt in the moment.

"Come on, I can take you!"

His taunting didn't seem to do anything, until a few seconds later the creature of hatred decided it was ready to take the life from the teen and charged at him. Jaune saw it approaching at a high speed for something so large and waited until it was within a few meters of him. He quickly jumped back a few feet, giving him room to enact his plan, before charging with his shield, aura reinforcing his arms and legs. When the impact came, again the blonde was unfazed, but the grimm having had a shield rammed into is mask, was briefly stunned. The teen quickly moved before it could regain its bearings and used the Ursa as a steppingstone to get to the height of the sign, cutting through its support with a quick slice of crocea mors, bringing the sign down onto his foe. His enemy let out a snarl of surprise, having found itself on the ground, before turning its red hate-filled eyes to the teen swing his sword down to the exposed gash on its neck.

Jaune watched as the grimm slowly began to dissipate like the beowolf he conquered earlier, and let out a sigh of relief, "Two for two. Good job me, still need to be able to kill these things faster though, anyone from team RWBY would've had this fight done in seconds, my team would have too." He quietly gave himself both praise and criticism.

Unfortunately, he distracted himself in doing so, and only heard what could be described as a buzz saw coming from the left as it was just about to slam into him. Seeing imminent danger, he had but a moment to push his aura to his left side, only to be in vain as once it hit him, it sent him flying down the street, both shield and sword away from him. Groaning, he tried to force himself to his feet, pushing his hands against the ground to face his enemy, a boarbatusk, only to be met with a familiar glow surrounding his body, a telltale sight of him being nearly out of aura. He snaked his hand into his pocket to check his scroll, his aura was in the red sitting at fifteen percent. He pushed the home button on his scroll twice, and switched to the GPS app, and saw that his friends were on their way, but wouldn't get to him in time to help kill his newfound opposition. He put away the scroll and managed to get himself back on his feet, but unlike the other grimm he faced, this opponent had no hesitation, no curiosity, it was on the attack as soon as it saw that he was still alive. He barely had time to dodge out of the way of another boarbatusk saw as he felt the wind of the attack on his body as he moved.

'I have to make it to my sword or shield if I'm going to make it out of this.' Jaune thought grimly to himself, not finding solace in his revelation. He got himself to his feet, grimacing as he noticed that the boarbatusk was near both of his weapons and still centered on gorging him with its deadly tusks. It started to drag one of its legs back and forth, preparing to charge him again, and he realized that he was running out of time to decide on a plan of action.

'If I go for the shield, at least I can fend it off till help arrives, but if I take the sword, I can kill it with one quick slash.' The boarbatusk started to spin in place, and Jaune made his decision, 'Shield. I need my shield. Once I get that back, I'll work from there.' He started to inch toward the sword, waiting for the grimm to slam forward towards him so that he could make a move for what would be his equalizer.

All to sudden, his enemy propelled forward toward him, and Jaune began to move more in the direction of the sword, so that he could enact his decisive plan. As he was only but a few meters from the sword, the boar grimm was now not more than 10 meters from him and approaching fast. He quickly swerved and jumped out of the way of its attack, 'I did it! Now I just have to-' and all to quickly, the blood drained from the teens face. The boarbatusk anticipated his act of desperation and leaned in its saw-like attack to the direction of his shield, where he happened to now currently be.

Jaune had never truly been in a "Life or death" scenario. In the Emerald Forest, one could argue that he came close, and again in the Forever Fall, but he had teammates by his side, and was under the supervision of the teachers at Beacon. This was different. He made a mistake, against an enemy who was unrelenting, while he had no aura, and was about to pay the price. The world seemed to almost slow down around Jaune as he saw his enemy spinning towards him, and he could only think to himself, mind racing to try and find an escape from imminent danger.

'Think Jaune, you've gotten you and your team out of worse. How do I get out of this…?'

8 meters left

'Maybe…no, I'd need my shield. But what about…no, don't have the aura.

6 meters left

'…I don't think I'm gonna make it out of this one. Sorry guys…I wish I could have done more. Although, at least I was able to really save someone, Sun should've gotten Avyriss somewhere safe by now.'

4 meters left

'I want to save myself. I don't want to die here. I want to see everyone again. None of my team or team RWBY would die to just one single grimm!'

2 meters left

"Dammit…Someone, please…Help me!"

Just as the boarbatusk was about to make contact, Jaune felt a pull. Some of his aura went…somewhere, and suddenly the grimm attacking him was sent off course and careening by him. He turned in disbelief slowly to gaze at the grimm, floundering on its side, trying to get up and just as confused as the knight-like teen as to what had saved the teen from doom. Jaune, seeing that the boarbatusk was incapacitated for a moment, remembered that he needed his weapon to fight, and quickly resumed his move for his shield.

Once his shield was in place on his arm, he turned to peek at his enemy, the grimm having found its way back to its feet and recovered from the surprise attack, before glaring at him, and all too suddenly, Jaune felt rather reminded of his lack of weapon. He looked to where his crocea mors once lay but was no longer there. He turned to look around him and locate his sword, but it was nowhere to be found. After a moment, he gave up and refocused his attention on the boarbatusk, which had not attacked him yet to his surprise.

Jaune heard the faint sound of steps behind him, along with the sound of something metal scraping the ground, and turned expecting to see his team behind him to assist him, "Took you guys long enou-" and found himself lost for words as he came face to face with a wolf on all fours. The wolf was…strange to say the least, having eyes the same shade of blue as his, white fur, and gold…accents? His breath was lost when he saw the Arc family crest in gold surround by white fur on the wolf's head.

It made no move to attack him, and oddly enough, he didn't feel the need to attack it. It just seemed to observe him, as if waiting for something, and he felt like he knew this wolf, but he couldn't place it.

"Wait, crocea mors?!" He noticed that the wolf was carrying his sword in its mouth, it walked a few steps closer before pushing its head towards him, with the handle nudging his hand. He gently took it from the wolf and adjusted his grip on it. Having missed the weight of his family's ancestral armaments, he allowed himself a small smile, before turning back to the boarbatusk, which had decided to make a beeline for Jaune in a reckless charge and prepared himself for combat once more.

As he did this, Jaune, heard a growl emanating from where the wolf was, he tilted his head to face it, and saw its backed arched with its fur on end and teeth bared in his direction. Suddenly, it erupted into motion aiming not at him, but at the boarbatusk. It was again knocked off course, but not as severely as before, this time managing to land on its feet. The blonde walked up to where the wolf was, and was next to it, completely still for a moment. "It was you that saved me earlier, wasn't it?" The wolf stopped looking at the boarbatusk, instead opting to look at the boy. Jaune tentatively held out a hand toward the wolf, and it sniffed if for a moment, before licking his hand. He brought his hand up, and pet the wolf a bit before stopping, eliciting a small whine.

Jaune smiled at his newfound ally, before turning to one of the many enemies of mankind and raising his shield so that his eyes could peer over it while tightening his grip on his sword. He wondered briefly where the wolf came from before steeling himself, he was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and he most certainly wouldn't start after having his life saved.

"Now. All I need to do is kill this boarbatusk so I can get a damn break, but how to do it safely? I don't want to take another hit, but I won't let the wolf fight alone…maybe if we circled it and came from opposite sides? It definitely wouldn't be able to focus on both of us, and it doesn't seem like one to retreat, but how will I get the wolf to-" Jaune's scheming was cutoff as he saw the wolf begin to slowly tread its way to the left flank of the grimm, growling. Jaune began to slowly stalk to the right side, matching the distance the wolf was keeping, and in turn it began to mimic Jaune's pacing.

Jaune looked to the wolf, seeing that it was waiting for him to initiate their assault, and took a deep breath, before issuing the command.

"…Let's finish it!" And with that, Jaune charged forward, shield raised, and sword held out to his side ready to swing, and as he shot forward, so too did his new lupine ally. The boar grimm finally seemed to understand its compromised position and tried to go down fighting, turning towards the wolf and jetting forward in its last charge attack. In a few moments, all three combatants were within proximity of each other, the wolf with knees bent still running forward, the hellbent force of darkness still spinning toward the wolf, and Jaune deadly close to the rear of the offending grimm. Suddenly the battle found its close as the wolf leaped over both the boarbatusk and Jaune, the grimm having missed stopped spinning, only to then be cleaved in half from behind by crocea mors.

Jaune looked at the disintegrating remains of his would have been assailant before falling back on his rear in exhaustion, dropping his weapons besides him. He tiredly raised a shaky fist to the air as he sat with an overjoyed expression on display for the world to see. He reached a hand to his pants pocket for his scroll, before panicking slightly as he found it missing from its home.

A soft expulsion of air next to him drew his attention, and he swung his head around to come face to face with the wolf, and under one of its paws was his scroll. He let out a sigh of relief, reaching for his scroll, and opening it to the GPS function. While he did this the wolf plopped down next to him and peered at what he was doing on the small screen and was delighted as the human's hand found its way to the back of its ears, scratching gently. The wolf's eyes closed, and its tongue found its way to the side of its mouth as it fell over on its side next to, and partially on, Jaune. He let out a chuckle at the wolf's antics, before moving his hand to rub its belly, and was rewarded as the wolf began to wag its tail at a frequent pace. Keeping up his petting, he shifted his attention to the scroll and saw that his team would rendezvous with him in minutes.

"Where did you come from…and why do you seem so…familiar?" The exhaused student asked to the wolf, not expecting an answer. He was not prepared for the wolf to crack an eye open, before shifting itself so that it was sitting up across from Jaune. It slowly moved its head forward, and the teen raised a hand to meet it. Once his hand met the wolf's head, the wolf closed his eyes, and the teen was suddenly watching his fight with the beowolf he fought a short bit ago. He watched as he dueled with the wolf grimm, before finally striking the victory blow, before he found himself breathless as a floating orb was left behind from the remains of the grimm. It seemed to float in place during the fight with the Ursa, but once he called for help during his bout with the boarbatusk, he watched as the orb, shifted into the white and gold wolf sitting across from him now, and knocked the boarbatusk away.

The wolf pulled away, now opting to stare at the teen, and the teen just stared back.

"You're the grimm I killed, the beowolf." Jaune breathed out in shock before he immediately felt bad that the… perhaps soul of the enemy he killed had been the one to come to his rescue.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about earlier…" He apologized, but the wolf just tilted its head slightly in confusion as it continued looking at the teen. Seeing that the wolf's expression made him ponder, 'Maybe it doesn't remember?' He continued to think before startling realization struck him. The way the wolf interacted with him, how he was saved in his most desperate moment to date, it all clicked but he was afraid to get his hopes up.

"Did…I do this? Is this my semblance?" He was positively giddy but was stolen from his thoughts as he heard the familiar sounds of his team calling out for him.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha. Jaune also noted she sounded distraught.

"Hey, fearless leader! You okay?!" Heh, Nora. Leave it to her to find a way to make someone smile during hell.

"Jaune, what happened here?" Ren, his brother figure for the last semester and a half. It was odd to hear the teen raise his voice, but it also nice to know he cared from the bit of worry slipping into voice.

The blonde smiled in the direction of the voices of his teammates, before standing up and recollecting his sword and shield, and shifting them into their mobile form of sheathed sword, held securely at his hip. He went to look at wolf again, only to see it disappeared. His smile lost; a frown now set in place. "Where did it go?"

'I'll figure it out later back at Beacon I guess.' He turned back at to his team, which was looking down the street at the ash piles that were tell-tale signs of a grimm's demise and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, before adorning a small, self-satisfied smile.

"Come on team, let's go meet up with everyone else, and I'll fill you on the way."

(A/N)

I figured this chapter was capped at a good point, and wanted to at least get it out and see what the general take on it is. This story is on the back burner compared to my other story, which is my current project, "A Second Chance," but I do have hope for this story.

I'll try and keep this story updated as well as possible, just know that while it isn't on a hiatus, it may be a bit before the next chapter.

Till next time,

BlackJackHero.