The Second Step: Chapter 8

Dragon Child: Part 1

A/N: Well, I've gotten further along with this story then with any other save for my first one. We go on with the grace with god from here. Lets hope we can see the end of the story and the series from here.

As always, thanks to my Editors Ttran2323 H'te Rarpee and Enderkiller77. Great friends and great spellcheckers.

Disclaimer: Okay cock bites, I'm going to say this just once. The writer doesn't own RWBY. Got it?

(Wednesday)

Nora sat on her bed. "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."

Jaune sat in his bed opposite her. "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."

Ren sat on a reversed chair between them, boredly watching the weird exchange Nora had concocted from above his arms. The door behind him squealed open and shut, signaling the return of the fourth and final member of the team from her morning run on the grocery store. "... Um, Ren. What am I looking at?" Pyrrha asked from behind his chair.

"Nora came up with this game. Whoever lasts the longest wins." Ren explained. The pair kept up their blah-ing in the background.

Pyrrha shrugged and unloaded her haul of food into the teams kitchenette. Most rooms had a small place to prepare and keep food that the school chefs didn't serve. This enabled most students to keep some homemade or favorite foods with them, such as Ren's pancakes. Speaking of pancakes:

"Hey Ren, you want to make pancakes today?"

Jaune's head snapped up. "Pancakes?"

"Blah blah blah blah hahahahahaha. I win!" Nora cheered, knocking Jaune out of his reverie.

"Hey! I was distracted!" the hoody-wearing man protested. "I want a rematch!"

Nora grinned manically. Ren dropped his head in exasperation. "You're on Jaune. In three!"

"Two." Jaune said.

"Excuse me. Which team room is this?"

Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren all looked up from what they were doing to see a young man with blue gray hair, maybe two years their senior, looking in on them.

From the window. The seventh story window.

"...We're team Juniper." Pyrrha supplied after a moment. "Are you looking for someone?"

The window hanging man shrugged. "I'm looking for team Cardinal. Where are they?"

Pyrrha winced. "I'm sorry you have to meet them. They're down the hall and to left." She faux-nonchalantly put a box of cereal in the pantry, next to the can-opener. The window man nodded.

"Thank you." And with that he was gone from the window. The team immediately bolted to the window, piling on Jaune to lean out and see the window hanger leaping from sill to sill, before turning the corner.

And then the team realized that they were hanging out of the window, piled on Jaune, and currently staring down an eight story drop. What happened next was...predictable.

"DON'T WORRY EVERYONE! I'M GOING TO-thump."

"OH MY GO-"zup.

"WOO HOO-" zup. "Oh."

Ren, with long practiced ease, twisted and dug his Stormflowers into the masonry wall, halting his fall swiftly enough. Down below, Pyrrha had landed first and magnetized herself and Jaune and Nora, saving the other pair from the indignity of death by falling. Jaune looked happy to be alive, though Nora was understandably unhappy at the sudden removal from her fun little skydiving. Ren loosened the blades in the wall and skidded down.

"You ruin all the fun Pyrrha, you know that?" Nora glared at Pyrrha, ignoring Jaune trying to, between spells of throwing up, wave her off of the idea of antagonizing the woman that had just two days ago experienced a severe mental breakdown. "Why can't you let us fall? I like skydiving."

After his motion sickness subsided and he stopped the retreat of his breakfast from his stomach, Jaune aimed a look at Nora's eternally silent companion. "Wherever you found her, I do not want to go there."

Ren nodded curtly. "Neither would I." But silently, he was enjoying his friends antics. The almost cute complaining was Nora's way of dealing with almost dying.

It probably said something about Ren's lifestyle choices if he knew how his companion would react following life threatening situations. Then again, Ren had known Nora for three years by now. Knowing how she acted in the profession they had had chosen for them was kind of a given.

Pyrrha checked her Scroll's clock against the sun. "We should probably get back to our dorm. Classes start in an hour."

Ren pulled out his own scroll and checked the time. It was eight am on Wednesday, October twenty-eighth. Ren closed his scroll and sighed internally. He hadn't forgotten the date, but seeing it made the finality of the event that would shape his and Nora's lives after this point all the more depressing.

Today was the day that the mob would come and test him and Nora to see if they were a good investment, or if they would be better off rotting away at the bottom of the river.

Nora's family had been involved with the mob since before Nora had even existed, and Nora herself was slated for a very big inheritance once the mob's head, Alvin Cassern, died, either of old age or assassin. Ren had been an unofficial part of this ever since he had 'saved' Nora's life during a train-robbery, but the truth was a little more complicated.

Ren wanted revenge against the Cassern crime family for extorting his own parents and cutting off his fathers hand. To do that he had turned to a very dangerous teacher who had offered him a way in to dismantle the mob from the inside. It had required both the willing and unwitting cooperation of Nora, the careful manipulation of people, and the attendance at the very prestigious Beacon Academy, but when it was all over, he kept telling himself, it would all be worth it. Right?

Ren slotted his Stormflowers back into his sleeves. First Pyrrha, now this. The two events had been unrelated, but it was almost like something had pushed for Pyrrha to have a psychotic break on the same week as his and Nora's assessment. Talk about bad coincidences.

"Hey, Ren." Jaune thumped the Atlan on the back, knocking him out of his reverie. "You okay?"

Ren shrugged off his leaders hand. "I've had worse falls. Nothing too bad about it." If you want to hide your emotions, make it seem like you're feeling them because of something related. Simple diversionary tactic that his teacher had drilled into him over the years.

Jaune picked up his pace and got alongside Pyrrha, gesturing with broad strokes of his arms and generally communicating a sense of gratitude and wonder towards the former soldier. Pyrrha got in with her usual spiel of apologies for not saving them earlier. Ren boredly wondered if Jaune would go on and see if Nora was okay, and was mildly ingratiated when there fearless leader did just that.

'He's certainly better then teacher,' Ren thought. 'Though teacher may do better if he had better help.' Silently, Ren snickered.

And on that happy resolution, Ren stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked on to the impending exam.

Nora cheerfully danced along with her friends on the way back to their dorm. As in, literally did a little series of ballet steps as she walked with her friends. It was a nice way to keep loose, and it was fun.

Jaune walked up along side her. "You okay Nora?"

Nora pirouetted in thought. "No. I'm angry at Pyrrha. She stopped my fall! Doesn't she know I like sky-diving! We've been sharing the same room for three months now, and she doesn't even know my likes and dislikes. But I guess that makes sense, considering she's here to make friends. Maybe she just doesn't know how to ask. You know Jaune, we need to be better friends, always ready to be by her side and pick her up when she's down. You'll a grey example Jaune, though I guess that because she's training you personally, she'll need to be around you. Le gasp! Because you're normal, and she's a great fighter, you're perfect for each other! You get to be taught how to fight, and she gets greats social skills, am I right? Am I right or am I right or am I right?"

Jaune stared at the trees that he and his team were walking by, and was most certainly not avoiding Nora's gaze. "That's nice Nora."

Nora spun through a three step combo. "Your Ren impression needs work Jaune."

"Yeah I... Wait? My what?" Now Jaune was looking at her. Nora hummed a little 'tra-lala' through her dance motions.

"Ren always says, 'That's nice Nora', or 'That's great Nora', or even 'I like that Nora', and the last is really weird because I'm always the only Nora in the room. You said it, but you didn't get the emotions right. Ren's always engaged and happy when I'm talking. You were all...meh." Nora danced and threw her arms up in through the ballet steps. Jaune blushed and looked away.

"Sorry Nora. I wasn't paying attention after you brought up Pyrrha." Jaune gulped in apprehension.

Nora stopped her dancing and crossed her arms, got all watery eye'd, pouted a little, all that jazz. "But, aren't I fun? Why won't you listen to my good ideas!"

"Uhhhhhhh... I don't know."

"Oh, okay. Well, you tell me when you come up with a reason, 'kay Jaune." And Nora continued her dancing, much to the awkward feelings of her team leader.

Ren sidled beside Nora and pulled her aside. Nora, not to be outdone, grabbed him and pulled him further off the walkway. "Hiya Ren. Tell me was that or was that not the coolest impromptu skydiving experience ever?"

"That's great Nora, but we have more pressing matters. You do remember what's happening today?"

"Uncle Billy and uncle Stu are going to come and test us?"

"No, today we're..." Ren trailed off as he realized what Nora had just said. "How do you know who they'll send to test us?"

Nora pulled out Magnhild and started seeing if she could send a flash bang into team CRDL's room from her current angle. "I got a letter about a month ago."

"A month ago." Ren gaped at his long time friend, almost losing his cool and shouting. Instead, Ren brought his voice down low. "Nora, please explain why you didn't tell me this."

Nora stashed Magnhild away, glumly concluding that she couldn't shoot at CRDL's room. "Well, you were making pancakes and we had just gotten all the tree syrup and I didn't want to ruin it. Besides: Everfall tree syrup is delicious."

Ren stared at the girl he'd known for three years and liked and respected before pressing his cool palm into his head. On the one hand, Nora seemed prepared for what was to come, which was really all he could ask for. On the other hand, Nora was...well...Nora. She'd do all sorts of crazy things for the sake of enjoyment or fun. At times it seemed she was totally removed from the reality everyone else occupied.

"Hey, Ren?" Nora stopped her fidgeting and gave Ren a hard, stern look, a look completely separate from her typical demeanor. "Don't worry. We'll be fine."

Ren dusted off his forearms, a long standing nervous habit. "How do you know that Nora?"

Nora smiled now, a true, uplifting and absolutely lovely smile. "We're Ren and Nora. We'll think of something."

Ren stuffed his hands into his pocket. "For our sakes, I hope we do."

The day progressed normally from there. Team JNPR attended their classes, either together in Oobleck's history class or separately in Peach's topology class or Port's Grimm biology. But they all got together for Goodwitch's Dust class, which would also be attended by Team RWBY and have Professor Isaac go over the interactions of Dust with Aura.

After the class though, Pyrrha and Jaune ran into a particular issue. Specifically, an issue that began when, after classes gad ended and the team had gotten back to their room, Jaune asked; "I didn't know that you needed Aura to burn Dust."

Pyrrha blinked. "How couldn't you know that Dust needs Aura to burn?"

Pyrrha's confused statement to Jaune, accompanied by a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, surprised the young man. Jaune held out his empty palms in confusion. "Well, you know, how was I supposed to know. I didn't know Aura existed until initiation. How was I supposed to know Dust needed Aura to do...anything. I just thought it was all-."

"That's not the point Jaune." Pyrrha pressed at her temples before gesturing at him. "It should obvious that Dust needs Aura to work. How to you think all our trains and cars run?"

Jaune stared at his teammate, arms dropped to his sides, white eye'd in shock. Then, exasperated; "on electricity! Gods, how couldn't you know that. Haven't you ever driven?"

Pyrrha took a step back in surprise. "My father has a car that runs on Dust. You need to use your Aura to drive it."

Off to the side of the conversation/argument, Ren and Nora perked up. They had been quietly going over the possible tests that uncle Billy and uncle Stu might force on them, and so hasn't noticed the subject of the argument. "Wait, is your father a ranking military officer?" Ren asked.

Pyrrha shook her head. "My father, Pelum, is a carpenter. What makes you think he's a military...wait, what are you implying about me father." Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. Now that her team was in the know about the Argonaut program, they might have drawn the wrong conclusions. 'If they think my father sent me off to the program willingly...'

Ren held up a hand to indicate his intent to speak. "So, what you're saying, is that your father, a civilian, has an active Aura."

Pyrrha let out a relieved sigh. "Yes. My father has an active Aura. So do my mother and and sister. Why is that important?"

"How old is your sister?"

"Thirteen. Why is this an issue Ren? Everyone in Mistral has active Aura's."

Ren and Nora promptly stopped all actions. They stared at the team red-head. Finally, Nora recovered. "Everyone? As in, EVERYONE!?"

Pyrrha shared a look with the equally confused Jaune. "Okay, what am I missing?"

Nora practically threw up her hands in shock. "Pyrrha! Aura's a military secret in Vale. In Atlas and Vacuo even. It's a military offense to tell someone about it, or to activate someone else's Aura. You could be deported for just talking about it to someone who doesn't know."

Pyrrha and Jaune stared, jaws agape, absolutely flabbergasted. "But...but...but why? Why would anyone keep Aura a secret? It slows down aging, offers protection against diseases an trauma, it even improves memory and cognitive retention." Ignoring Jaune repeating 'Aura slows down aging?' Pyrrha continued. "Mistral has everyone activate their Aura's when they're born. Why would any city, Shade, any person try to keep Aura secret!?"

Ren finally recovered and pointed to his leader. "Jaune, yesterday you said that you had faked your way into Beacon. Can you tell me if you your previous teachers ever told you about Aura."

"No. They didn't."

"But could you see a reason why we would want every single person to have a knife? A knife that they could carry anywhere, and use at any time. Because that's what Aura is. A weapon that the cities want to protect us from."

Pyrrha and Jaune stared at Ren and Nora. Silence seemed to saturate the air like an oppressive humidity. "That is the worst idea...ever. Of all time." Pyrrha clutched at her hair. "Why? Why would they do that?"

"To protect us." Ren answered. Nora had her hands clasped together, looking like she was praying. "Look Pyrrha. I've seen how dangerous people with Aura can be. I know from personal experience." A list of people came to mind: 'Junior, Alvin Cassern, Teacher, Nora.' "It may seem odd, but its for our own protection."

Jaune and Pyrrha shared a look. Finally, Jaune said, "I don't know why they wouldn't tell us about Aura, but right now, that's kind of not the point. I didn't know Aura existed until initiation, and now you're telling me that its needed to make dust work?"

Pyrrha, Nora and Ren shared a group look. Jaune had a mind that focused strongly in applications of knowledge, and not particularly in the reasons of things. This certainly had its advantages in combat: Jaune had turned his attention totally to defeating the Deathstalker, and had coordinated the team straight to victory. It was a surprisingly effective asset in the field, though on occasion, a hindrance in more complex situations.

"...We'll talk about this later." Pyrrha finally decided and turned from the team of old friends who went back to contemplating their plans and addressed Jaune. "Jaune, do you know about the fire pyramid?"

Jaune shrugged. "Yeah. It's just basic chemistry, Heat, Fuel, Oxygen."

Pyrrha smiled in the exasperated way that she did when Jaune was asking a question that was rudimentary. She pulled a bullet out of her pocket and took a knife from the kitchenette drawer and pried the bullet and percussion cap from the casing. "Dust is different from other forms of combustible materials because its typically inert."

Pyrrha took out a frying pan and upended the bullet casing into it, spilling the dust out. "Dust doesn't ignite from heat." Pyrrha put the pan on the electric stove and cranked it up. Turning back to Jaune, Pyrrha gestured to the pan. "Dust can be heated to melting point without ignition, and even struck when hot without going off. We don't know why, and hardly understand the actual makeup of Dust, but we do know that you need to have Aura either in close proximity or in direct contact with Dust crystals to achieve detonation. Can I burrow Crocea Mors for a moment?"

Jaune pulled his great-great-grandfathers sword off his hip. "Be gentle."

Pyrrha smiled, then turned the blade up and smashed the hilt into the melted Dust crystals in the pan. A spark arose from the contact with the cast iron, but that was the extent of the conflagration. She handed the sword back to Jaune, who understandably snatched it back. "We don't understand why Dust is different from other combustibles, but we do know that it has two major differences from other forms of fuel: to ignite, it needs Aura, Dust, and some form of shock. And if I channel my Aura into this pan..."

Pyrrha took the pan in one hand and squinted her eyes, adopting a look of concentration. The pan glowed slightly. Pyrrha sent Jaune a light smile, then took a coin from her pocket and snapped it at the primed Dust.

FWOOM.

"AGH!" Jaune jumped several paces back to avoid the sudden blast of wind from the pan as the Wind Dust went off. Nora herself only just ducked as the coin embedded itself in the wall beside her.

Nora peeled the coin from the wall. "Mine." She sang and pocketed the coin. Ren rolled his eyes, though the action was concealed by his bangs and the angle that he was tilted over the little study guide he had.

Pyrrs pointed at the pan. "Additionally, if I put some more Dust in their, it'll still go off. Our Aura's linger for a little while when we channel them."

Jaune nodded, it all mostly made sense, except... "What do you mean channel them?"

"Channel them. Put our Aura into the weapon and become one with it on a spiritual level." Ren interjected from the table. He flipped a page over to examine the back. "Our weapons become conduits for our Aura."

"Ren's correct Jaune. We literally pour our soul into these weapons." Pyrrha concluded.

"Okay. So we put our souls into our weapons with our Aura." Jaune held out Crocea Mors. "So what your saying is our weapons are HAUNTED!?"

The three people in the room with experience stared at their team leader, and then Nora burst out laughing. Pyrrha held up a hand to stop Jaune from saying anything more. "No, no, our weapons aren't haunted. We just use them to channel our Aura more efficiently, and our Aura can linger for some time."

Jaune's gaze went from Pyrrha to his sword, then back to Pyrrha. "You sure?"

Pyrrha smiled warmly. "Look Jaune, I'll even prove it to you. I have to go back into the Emerald Forest to get Akóūo, my shield, back. I'll take you out there and we can practice channeling Aura into your sword. If your weapon has someone else's soul in it or its haunted, we'll help you forge a new one."

Jaune noticeably brightened at this proposition, and both Ren and Nora perked up. "That would be great Pyrrha. When do you want to go."

Pyrrha checked the time on her scroll. It read 3:26, about three hours before sundown. "Now's a great time. You wanna..."

"Yes."

Jaune already had his sword and shield ready and, with Pyrrha, set out. Nora watched them go, and sighed. "Ah, young love. Don't you wish you were in love Ren?"

Ren thought about that. "Sometimes Nora. Sometimes."

The clock ticked down to five. Ren and Nora checked against each other for different strategies and ideas. "Okay, you're in a room filled with six men. Two have pistols, and are located to the left of the door and the center right of the room. The rest are arrayed equidistant from the other two and the door. What do you do?"

Nora tossed a grenade up and caught it like it was a baseball. "Blow the wall next to the first gun man with canister, launch smoke into room. Blow out second gun man from doorway in the confusion, and when everyone tries to leave, turn it into a chicken shoot. What about you Ren?"

Ren thought about it. "Take the gunner next to the door and use him as a human shield. Cap the hand-armed guy next to the door and just cap the rest from behind the first gunners body."

Nora leaned back in her bed, tossing the grenade round up and down. "That's a great plan."

"Thank you Nora." Ren checked the clock and saw how far along it was to five. They had time for one more. "Okay, last one. You enter a compound with regular guard checkpoints and heavily armed guards. What do you do?"

Nora caught the grenade round and sucked on the end. "Hmm. I'd start blasting through the walls. Avoid the checkpoints all together."

Ren shrugged. "I'd avoid them initially, but once they realize what I'm doing, they'll abandon their posts and guard the other routes. Then, I'll just walk though the old checkpoints, because they'll be empty."

Nora removed the round from her mouth. "I like that plan." Nora noticed the time as well and hopped up. "Well, its the big night Ren! Lets show them what we're made of!"

Ren, against himself, smiled. The mob that Nora's family was a part of had been cruel to his family, extorting the immigrants from Atlas for cash and protection. It was insulting that they had to just lay down and take that, and the indignity of it all had been half the motivation for seeking a teacher to get in and try to do as much damage to the mob as possible.

And now, it looked like they'd be given their way in, to Nora's inheritance and Ren's revenge.

Ren jerked in his seat at a sudden realization. The reason's for trying to get Nora's inheritance hadn't been particularly noble (she just wanted a secure life-style) but he was surprised when he notice that he had started to think about Nora's goals ahead of himself. He liked Nora certainly, and would die before he hurt her, but still...

Ren closed the study guide. "You ready Nora?"

Nora turned away and flipped onto the table, standing in her hands. "Ready captain! Warp speed!"

Against himself, Ren's smile grew bigger.

This was going to be a great day.

A/N: well, this was a decent chapter. Bit slow, but hopefully meaty and comical enough to warrant a nice review or favorite or follow. Please, everyone, I would like to, again, thank my many editors. It's a pleasure.

Also, RWBY VOLUME TWO IS OUT ON JULY 5TH! YES!