Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

-Lao Tzu

"The Vital Festival!" Exclaimed a very excited Weiss Schnee, who was walking down the streets of Vale with her leader and teammates."This is absolutely wonderful!"

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss." Said a surprised and confused Ruby Rose."It's kinda weirding me out..."

From there Weiss went on to name all the reasons to justify her excitement, Jaune wasn't really paying attention.

Oh that's right! Team RWBY approached Team JNPR with an invitation to come and see the preparations for the Vytal Festival.

Nora was skipping down the street with excitement while dragging Ren around by his arm Pyrrha meanwhile was walking close to Jaune.

"You sure seem really happy today Jaune." Pyrrha pointed out.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, what NOT to be excited about, the Vytal Festival is going to be sensational!" Jaune said with excitement.

The reason why Jaune was happy wasn't because of the Vytal Festival however...


When Jaune returned with Prof. Port back to Beacon he went with him to report the success of his mission to Ozpin, Prof. Port praised Jaune for his heroic actions, Ozpin did not seem surprised, but then again, Jaune had a hard time remembering a time he saw Ozpin surprised...

After the report was done, Jaune returned to his dorm room and locked himself in his bathroom to test out the idea he had for his Skeeter Grimm.

He took a seat in the toilet and focused his thoughts...

Suddenly hundreds of white Skeeter Grimm appeared around him.

"Alright then..." Jaune started to speak."Let's test this out."

The Skeeter Grimm would be decently useful in a fight with their ability to drain Aura from his enemies, but Jaune had another idea...

"Drain as much Aura from me as you can..." Jaune instructed.

Suddenly several Skeeter Grimm positioned themselves on Jaune's body, Jaune put up his Aura shield around his body and the Skeeter Grimm pierced it with their stingers and started to drain his Aura slowly.

As this went on, Jaune started to feel a little weak and sleepy, no doubt a result of getting his Aura drained.

"That's enough." Jaune instructed, and the Skeeter Grimm stopped draining his aura.

Jaune pulled his scroll out of his pocket and checked it to see that his Aura was down to 10%.

He then looked at the Skeeter that drained his Aura and saw that they were glowing much brighter than usual, no doubt because they were full of Jaune's aura.

"You are dismissed..." Jaune instructed, causing the Grimm to vanish.

"Return..." Jaune said, causing all the Skeeter Grimm to return from whatever void they came from, and much to his delight, the Skeeter Grimm were still shining brightly with his Aura.

"Give me Aura!" Jaune said with excitement.

Once again, the Skeeter Grimm placed themselves on top of Jaune and proceeded to pump Aura into his body.

Jaune started to feel his energy return to him rapidly.

"Yes!" Jaune raised his closed fist in the air in triumph."My theory was correct! The Skeeter Grimm can retain my Aura, even when I dismiss them!"

"If I keep telling my Legion to drain as much of my Aura as possible and then wait for my Aura to regenerate, I can have a limitless supply of Aura!" Jaune laughed. "I will me undefeatable!"

Suddenly he heard the sound of his dorm room door opening, a bunch of footsteps back to the bathroom door and someone tried to open it only to realize it was locked.

"Jaune?" He recognized the voice of Pyrrha."Are you in there?"

"Y-Yes Pyrrha!" Jaune exclaimed."I am just about done, if you need to use the bathroom it's all yours!"


Back in the present, Pyrrha seemed to buy Jaune's excuse to his excitement.

"I'm surprised by the sudden 180 you did." Pyrrha said."This morning you really didn't want to wake up, if Nora didn't threaten you with a bucket of ice water you probably wouldn't have gotten up."

Jaune laughed nervously, the reason he had been so tired in the morning was from the Skeeter Grimm draining his aura repeatedly, it was just as draining on his stamina as it was on his Aura.

Yang revealed the reason Weiss had come to Vale was to spy on the teams from other schools they were going to be fighting, Weiss denied it, but before anything else could be said, Ruby noticed a Dust shop that had been vandalized.

As they got closer, they saw the windows to the shop were broken and covered in Vale police tape.

When asked what happened by Ruby, the police officers explained it was a robbery, which led to them theorizing on who was responsible, and the named of the White Fang came up.

Jaune heard the name of that radical group before, but he didn't know much about them.

Same could not be said for Weiss, who proceeded to bad mouth them, much to Blake's annoyance.

This caused Jaune to remembered the time he saw Blake's bow twitching back in Beacon's cafeteria when Velvet was being bullied by Cardin.

Before an argument could break out between Blake and Weiss, the attention of both teams was drawn by a scream coming from the docks.

"Hey! Stop that Faunus!" Screamed a voice from the docks.

Teams RWBY and JNPR ran back to the rails separating the docks from the city of Vale to see a monkey Faunus with blond hair jumping out of a boat and hanging of a lamppost by his tail.

"You no good stow-away!" Screamed one of the sailors.

"Hey! A "no good" stow-away would have been caught. I am a great stow-away." Said the monkey faunus while peeling a banana.

The two vale cops from earlier arrived and threw a rock/potato at the faunus before telling him to get down from the lamppost.

The faunus answered by throwing the banana peel at the cop's face, before laughing and making a run for it.

Sprinting past both of the teams, Jaune could have sworn for a moment he saw the faunus winking at team RWBY.

"Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition and there it goes." Said Yang.

"Quick! We have to observe him!" Exclaimed Weiss before giving chase with the rest of team RWBY, Blake seemed to pause for a second before chasing after her teammates.

"Should we go with them?" Ren asked.

"We came here to have a good time, but this seems a lot more fun!" Nora exclaimed.

"Besides, it's our duty as huntsman and huntresses to stop criminals." Pyrrah claimed."But you are the leader, what do you think Jaune?"

"Hum... Sure why not." Jaune said, and they all gave chase to Team RWBY.


They stopped running when they noticed Team RWBY had stopped giving chase to the Faunus and the police officers, they now seemed to be talking to some girl with orange hair and a pink bow.

"My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Said the now named Penny with excitement.

Team RWBY introduced themselves to the girl before walking away.

Pyrrha asked Team RWBY what happened and they explained they lost track of the Faunus and the cops chasing him after Weiss bumped into Penny.

Both teams turned around and started walking away, but when they did they noticed Penny who was now standing in front of them.

"What did you call me?" Penny asked, turning to the members of Team RWBY.

"Woah, that was awfully quick, I didn't even hear a footstep." Jaune exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me." Yang apologized while Weiss seemed just as confused as he was surprised by how she got in front of them.

"No, not you..." She said before walking up to Ruby."You!"

"Me!?" Ruby said in surprise.

The ginger with the pink bow processed ed to ask her if Ruby called and friend, followed by asking her if they really were friends.

Ruby said "Ya, sure!Why not?" much to the girl's excitement and her team's surprise.

The girl proceeded to say they could paint their nails, try on clothes and talk about cute boys, a conversation Jaune had heard between Ruby and Weiss during initiation.

Penny then explained the reason she was in Vale was because she was fighting in the tournament, much to the surprise of both teams.

Weiss remarked that she didn't look the part, leading to Blake making a remark about Weiss wearing a dress.

"It's a "combat skirt"." Weiss defended her fashion sense, causing Ruby to agree with her before they shared a low five.

Weiss soon realized this meant Penny most likely new the monkey faunus they were chasing, she showed a poorly made drawing of the faunus while asking Penny about him.

"Wow, Weiss is many things, but an artist she is not." Jaune joked, causing Nora to giggle, Pyrrha would have done the same if the conversation that followed didn't make her so uncomfortable.

Weiss and Blake proceeded to have a heated argument about her racist views and attitude towards the faunus.

"Hmm, maybe we should go and have lunch." Jaune suggested, the heated argument making him uncomfortable as well, his team mentally thanking him for the suggestion.

"Oh! You're friends with Ruby right?" Penny asked turning to team JNPR.

"Yeah?" Jaune answered.

"Does that mean we're friends too!?" Penny asked wit excitement.

Team JNPR didn't answer, they just stood there looking at Penny like she had grown a second head.

Jaune suddenly spoke up with a question.

"You're being serious aren't you?" Jaune asked.

"Yes!" Penny said with excitement.

Another small pause happened, the members of Team JNPR shared looks and nods between each other.

"Penny?" Ren spoke up."On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your social skills?"

"Zero." Penny answered.

"Can we ask you a series of hypothetical questions?" Jaune asked her.

"Sure." Penny answered.

"If a man you don't know wearing a black suit approached you from a dark creepy alley, alone and out of sight from anyone but yourself and asked you if you wanted to be your friend..." Jaune paused. "What would you do?"

"I would ask him if he really wanted to be friends, and if he confirmed it with I yes, I would gladly accept his offer." Penny explained.

"Okay, now say that man told you to follow him to his white van and told you to get inside so he could take you some place his friends are at so he can introduce them to you." Pyrrha said."What would you do?"

"I would get inside his van and eagerly await to meet his friends." Penny answered with a smile.

The members of Team JNPR looked at each other before nodding to one another.

"There's no way we can leave you like this." Jaune said before gesturing Penny to follow them."Come with us."


Team JNPR plus Penny walked into a restaurant and ordered some food, Jaune and Nora ordered some burgers with fries while Ren and Pyrrha ordered a tuna and chicken salad respectively.

"Do you want anything Penny?" Jaune asked. "Our treat."

"No I am quite alright, I had a pretty heavy breakfast this morning, I don't need to have lunch." Penny explained with nervousness.

"Sounds a lot like Nora." Ren said."She begs me to make her a stack of pancakes every morning."

This caused the team to laugh, Penny also laughing a little confused, Jaune turned to her with a serious expression.

"Let's cut to the chase, we didn't just invite you for lunch for the heck of it." Jaune explained.

"Huh?" A confused Penny said while tilting her head to the side.


3 hours had passed since the Team placed their order, those 3 hours being spent teaching Penny about social norms and interactions, stopping on occasion to take some bites from their meals.

"Oh..." Penny said as she hear them talk.

"Now, let's return to that hypothetical scenario we shared with you, after what we told you..." Pyrrha started ."What do you think would be the best course of action?"

"The right course of action would be to get away from the man as quickly as possible..." Penny started. "If I did as he instructed he would have taken me to an unfavorable location where a bunch of grown man would have me surrounded and would force me to do illicit activities with them! The most likely of which being-"

"OKAY!" Jaune shouted."You're right, but don't talk about this kind of stuff with such glee."

"Jaune is right, it's important to be mindful of your tone when discussing certain topics." Ren instructed. "Do you understand why Penny?"

"Because it would seem that I am not giving the topic the seriousness it deserves if I talked in my usual tone during sensitive or serious topics?" Penny answered.

"Right! But can you give us an example?" Nora asked.

"If someone I knew just lost a loved one it would be a bad idea to make it seem like they would get over it in a few days." Penny answered, this time being mindful of her tone.

"Right, now what would be the right course of action in this scenario?" Ren asked.

"To offer sympathy to the person and a shoulder to cry on to help them through the grieving process." Penny said."Is that correct?"

"That's right Penny." Pyrrha said with a smile."Final question. When Ruby called you a friend, what do you think she meant?"

"Depending on the context, calling someone a "friend" can mean different things." Penny explained."In Ruby's case, she was most likely just being polite when she called me a friend."

"Sometimes people call me friend in an attempt to lower my guard, other times it could be used to insult or mock me if used with heavy sarcasm." Penny continued.

"Congratulations Penny." Jaune said with a light clap of his hands, the other members of his team followed suit.

"And it's all thanks to you Team JNPR." Penny said with a smile."I now feel like I can confidently have a conversation with someone like a normal person! All thanks to you."

"You're welcome Penny." Pyrrha said with a smile and a nod.

"The sun is setting, we should be returning to our dorms." Ren said looking at the twilight sky, the members of Team JNPR getting up from their seats.

"Wait." Penny said, getting their attention."We are acquaintances then?"

"Yes Penny, I don't think we are close enough to be friends just yet." Jaune said."But remember Penny, you shouldn't try to make friends with everyone, there are people who are cruel, selfish, greedy, ect."

"Right, I don't want to befriend the wrong people." Penny said."And I am quite alright with being merely acquaintances with you four."

"Alright, see you later Penny." Nora said."Hopefully we will meet again."

"If you hang out around Vale often then most likely, I'll be around until the Vytal Festival is done." Penny said while waving away at Team JNPR as they walked away.


The walk back to Beacon was calm, but Pyrrha seemed much happier, Pyrrha had been very worried about Jaune and his strange actions recently, but today it seemed like things were back to normal and Jaune was acting like himself again.

That pleasant atmosphere however was dashed when they returned to beacon, Team JNPR could hear screaming and arguing from Team RWBY's dorm room.

"*Sigh* I can't believe they are still arguing, I am starting to feel sorry for Ruby and Yang." Ren said.

"Let's get some rest, having to explain all that stuff to Penny was surprisingly exhausting." Nora said with a yawn.

"You guys go get some rest." Jaune said. "I'll join you soon, I got something I need to do."

Ren, Nora and Pyrrha were too exhausted to argue with Jaune, they just went to their room, Jaune leaned his ear against the door to RWBY's dorm.

He heard Weiss explaining the reason why she wasn't fond of the White Fang and faunus by extension, how they had been causing trouble for her family for a long time, how she watched family members disappear and board members executed, how an entire train cart full of dust was stolen.

But worst of all was how Weiss mentioned how her father would come home furious, she didn't say much else about that, but Jaune understood what she was implying, and he felt awful for Weiss having to experience all those horrible things as a child.

Weiss however quickly went back to bad mouthing the White Fang before Jaune heard Blake answer with a surprising revelation.

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake answered in anger before she realized what she just said.

There was a moment of silence in the room, Jaune took a few steps back from the door and he was thankful he did, Blake rushed out of the room, so fast she looked like a black blur, Ruby shouted after Blake, Blake didn't seem to notice Jaune standing by the door after she bolted out of the room, and Jaune decided to quietly step away to avoid giving away the fact that he was listening in on their conversation.

Jaune went to Beacon's front yard, he had a hunch that was were Blake was heading.


Once he made it to the front yard, his hunch was proven right, he saw Blake standing in front of the statue in the middle of the front yard, she stood there looking at it for a few moments before reaching for her bow and undoing it from her head, and Jaune saw that Blake was keeping a pair of small cat ears hidden under her bow.

"Blake?" Jaune called out for her, causing her to turn sharply towards him.

"J-Jaune! I hmm..." Blake tried to talk as she covered her ears with her hands, too anxious to form an entire sentence.

"It's okay." Jaune said, raising a hand to signal Blake to take it easy."I've known for a while..."

"You did? How...?" Blake asked.

"When Velvet was getting bullied by Cardin I looked over to you and noticed your bow twitching." Jaune explained."I didn't tell anyone, and I figured you would tell us when you were ready."

Before Blake could answer with anything, both her and Jaune were caught off guard by another voice.

"I knew you would look better without the bow." Blake and Jaune turned towards where they heard the voice come from, and were greeted to the stow-away Faunus from Vale.