A/N: Here's the next chapter, hopefully a week isn't too long of a wait for you all. Enjoy!

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Three years before the 80th Vytal Festival Tournament

Jaune leaned against the banister on the second-story of their house. While not quite as extravagant as a Schnee mansion, it was still quite roomy. Which was good if you wanted to get away from a heated argument between family members. The thing was though, Jaune wasn't trying to get away from the intense discussion being waged between his father and Jasmine in the room behind him. He was actually trying to eavesdrop. For they were talking about him.

"You can't keep ignoring Jaune forever!" Jasmine said, just one notch below screaming. "He wants to become a huntsman. You need to train him!"

"You've seen him swing a sword Jasmine." His father replied, his tone calm, but with a hint of impatience. "The boy is clumsy, he'll never get the hang of it."

"You've been trying to train him to use a greatsword, but what about something different?" A pause. "What about Crocea Mors?"

"He has no right to wield that weapon." His father snapped, his patience drained.

"Doesn't he?" Jasmine challenged. "He's family after all and if I recall my history correctly, our great-great-grandfather had the same problems too."

Another pause. "This is different."

"Why?"

"I've heard enough of this, leave me, I have business to attend to."

The sound of angry footsteps heading to the door spurred Jaune into action, he slipped the headphones he had been carrying back on his ears and moved as far from the door to his father's study as he could. The young Arc leaned against the banister, pretending to be listening to music when Jasmine burst through the door, slamming it shut with enough force to shake the windows. She immediately walked up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, prompting him to take his headphones off.

"Jaune." She said his name, her face completely serious. "You want to be a hero. That's your dream right?"

"Yes." He said without hesitation. He wanted to be someone people looked to for protection. He wanted to be the slayer of monsters. He wanted to be someone his father would actually look at with respect and not pity. He didn't want to be pitied, anything but that.

Jasmine studied his eyes for a moment. "Never give up on it. No matter what."

Jaune was confused by his sister's words, but he nodded in affirmative. Jasmine released her grip on his shoulders and took off down the flight of stairs that led to the first floor. Leaving him alone to soak in her advice.

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Present Day

"There's an altered at my position! Need backup!" Ren's voice came over Jaune's earpiece.

"Everyone gather at Ren's position!" Jaune responded into his earpiece, he got acknowledgements from both Nora and Ruby and began sprinting towards Ren's position. Thankful that he had decent cardio at least.

The young Arc frowned, so an altered had shown up. He knew it might happen, and they've dealt with them before, but he really wasn't feeling it today, he was hoping this mission would be routine. So much for that.

Handling an altered was risky, and the rules were no less than a team of four were to engage one. They were stronger and more durable than the usual grimm they fought. The fact that they also were apparently once human also unsettled Jaune. It was disturbing to think someone had twisted another sentient being into those….monsters.

Pushing those thoughts to the fringes of his brain for now, Jaune rushed through the woods, running through the effective strategies against altereds in his head.

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Ren rolled out of the way of the altered's right fist, it crashed into the ground, puncturing a hole in the snow and dirt. The young huntsman pulled up his dual pistols and fired a dozen shots at the altered's head, who blocked it with his left forearm. The grimm-hybrid growled and punched a shockwave at Ren. He managed to sidestep to his left and the invisible blast whizzed by so close it teased the hairs on his skin as it sailed by, punching through several pine trees and knocking them over. Ren felt a bead of sweat trickle down the right side of his head. That had been too close.

The altered was far from done. This time punching three shockwaves at the young huntsman in quick succession. Ren took two running steps forward and leapt over the first shockwave, sidestepped the second, then jumped and twirled over the third. Gracefully, he spun clockwise like a top until he came within melee range of his enemy, lashing out with his left hand and slashing the altered on his right cheek, causing the grimm-hybrid to flinch. Ren immediately followed through by channeling his aura into his right hand and slamming his palm into the altered's gut.

Like a baseball that was just hit out of the ballpark. The grimm-hybrid was sent sailing out of the clearing that had served as their battlefield, crashing into numerous pine trees. Eventually, the altered hit the ground spine-first, growling in frustration and rising to his knees. Ren had followed his opponent through the air as best as he could. Seeing the altered slightly sluggish and in a vulnerable position, the young huntsman sought to capitalize, taking aim with StormFlower.

Before Ren could get a proper bead on him, the altered pointed his fists behind him. The cylinder-shaped pistons extending from the grimm-hybrid's elbows sank into his flesh a good six inches and he was suddenly rocketing forward, courtesy of the recoil from firing a shockwave behind him. Ren noted that it was very similar to how Yang Xiao Long gave herself a boost with her leaps before the altered crashed into his chest.

The impact sent Ren sailing into the trunk of a tree. The young huntsman's body went numb and stars danced in his vision as he collapsed into a heap. He could only watch as the altered charged forward. The grimm-hybrid reared his right fist back in preparation to finish him off.

And was promptly floored when Nora appeared from above the altered, slamming her hammer, Magnhild, into his back. The impact of the blow created a small crater and the grimm-hybrid grunted in pain, dark-colored blood flying from his wide open mouth.

Ren felt arms around his waist and a split-second later he was moving at breakneck speeds. Sparing a glance behind him, the young huntsman caught a glimpse of a red cloak and grinned. Ruby was carrying him to safety.

As the petite red-clad girl set him down a safe distance away. Ren returned his attention to the altered, who had recovered from Nora's big attack with alarming haste. Nora slipped into a defensive stance as the altered roared into her face, bringing its right fist forward in a fierce punch. Ren visibly winced, Nora was going to feel that in the morning.

There was a loud clang, and another roar from the altered, but this roar wasn't a declaration of violence, no, this roar was one of pain. For the grimm-hybrid didn't strike flesh and bone, but a shield. A shield belonging to Ren's leader, Jaune Arc. Who was now standing tall between the altered and Nora.

The whole team was now assembled.

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Jaune eyed the altered as he kept the grimm-hybrid's fist at bay with his shield. They had defeated altered twice before, which was why Vale had sent them to defend the remote communications tower. Still, even with that record, he wasn't going to take any chances.

"Nora. Pincer attack." He ordered. Nora immediately sprung into action, leaping over Jaune with her hammer raised above her head.

"Got it!" She acknowledged, twisting in the air and positioning herself so she was behind and above the altered. She dropped Magnhild onto the altered's head, or would have if the grimm-hybrid hadn't of intercepted the strike with his right forearm. Nora fired her weapon and used the recoil to leap away just a second before she would have been struck in the face from a shockwave from the altered's left fist.

Jaune chose that moment to strike, noticing that while the altered's arm was protected by what looked like bone, it stopped at his elbow. Jaune made his cut just above the altered's left elbow and felt the steel of his blade sink into flesh. The grimm-hybrid grunted in pain and twisted around to face Jaune, making a horizontal slashing motion with his right hand. Dome-shaped explosions of aura peppered the ground between Jaune and the altered and the young Arc was forced to perform a diving roll backwards to avoid being blown to bits.

Unfortunately, his right shoe was not so lucky as the heel caught the edge of one of the explosions and burst into flame.

"Hot! Hot!" Jaune shouted, rolling around frantically and patting his shoe to desperately put it out. Eventually he succeeded, but not before looking like a spastic spidermonkey. Hopefully no one on his team witnessed that.

The altered began advancing towards Jaune and if looks could kill the young Arc would be buried six feet deep. The grimm-hybrid's progress was halted when a red blur sped by in front of him and a deep cut opened up on his abdomen a second later. The altered roared in pain and doubled over, covering the wound with his right hand. He struck out with his left hand, punching a shockwave at Ruby. The red cloaked huntress used her semblance to dodge the shockwave and swing back around so that she was behind the altered. A trail of blood spewed forth from the back of the grimm-hybrid's neck as Ruby's scythe sliced into him again.

Growling in frustration, the altered blasted the ground with both of his fists, sending himself high into the air. Jaune's eyes narrowed as he watched the grimm-hybrid, this was a change in his tactics, what was he up to?

The young Arc got his answer when the altered pointed his left fist at Ruby, and fired it at the red-cloaked huntress. Jaune watched in disbelief as the grimm-hybrid's fist detached from his wrist and shot at Ruby like a bullet. She managed to narrowly avoid getting hit by leaping to her left, but Jaune noticed with great alarm that the fist was beginning to glow.

"Ruby look out!" Jaune shouted a warning, Ruby looked back at him and then her silver eyes caught sight of the glowing fist. She prepared to use her semblance to get away, and that's when the fist detonated.

Ruby was sent tumbling head over heels, landing hard on her face. Jaune looked up and saw the altered taking aim with his right fist and muttered a curse that would have shocked his mother. He dashed towards his fallen friend, but it was useless, he wouldn't make it before the altered fired his spare fist.

A loud report from above signaled to Jaune that the grimm-hybrid had fired his other fist. The young Arc was about to try and throw his shield to take the hit when he saw Nora ahead of him. The hammer-wielding huntress transformed her weapon into a grenade launcher and shot a round at the fist, causing it to prematurely detonate before it could reach Ruby. She then took aim at the altered and fired a few rounds. Pink explosions of Dust began to fill the air as Nora tried to get a bead on the grimm-hybrid, he was pulling off some impressive aerial maneuvers to keep from being blown to pieces. Unfortunately, he was still able to use his invisible shockwave attacks and began to return fire at Nora.

As his teammate and their enemy exchanged fire. Jaune racked his brain for a strategy. Their options were limited as long as the altered remained in the air, and from the looks of how he was fighting, he didn't plan to return to the ground anytime soon. That meant he had to get grounded the hard way. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune spotted Ren back on his feet, the green-clad huntsman was still shaking the cobwebs out, but he looked about ready to return to the fight. Good.

"Ren!" Jaune called out, getting his teammate's attention. The young Arc held his shield above his head. "Up!"

Ren nodded, not needing any other words to be said. Jaune braced himself as his green-clad teammate springboarded off of his shield, leaping up to an altitude that matched the grimm-hybrid. Ren dug the blades of StormFlower into the shoulder blades of the altered, forcing him back to the ground bellyfirst at a very rapid pace. The impact created a small crater and Ren had wisely rode on the grimm-hybrid's back on the way down so that he took the brunt of the crash. The green-clad huntsman leapt away shortly after they landed, firing his dual pistols at the altered's exposed back as he leapt away.

Jaune felt pride in his team swell as they instantly knew what to do next, surrounding the altered. Ruby quickly caught on, positioning herself behind the grimm-hybrid, Nora was at the altered's right flank, Ren his left while Jaune had the front.

"Stay focused." Jaune told his team, "Nora, come in slowly on his right and then I can…."

He was interrupted when his teeth were rattled from an impact in the distance. Jaune looked to the north to see a thick column of smoke. One that was near Turthus. The sound of distorted laughter brought his attention back to the altered, who was smirking at him.

"Did you think I came alone?" The altered asked. The color drained from Jaune's face as he realized there wasn't one altered on the loose, but two. Dealing with one would be difficult enough, but how was he going to deal with a second?

"What do we do?" Nora asked, looking to him for orders. Jaune pondered for a moment, backup would take some time to get to them, too much time. You needed a 4-man team to handle one altered, that was the rule.

Jaune's eyebrows furrowed as he thought deeper, that was the rule for normal teams. His team was far from normal. His mind was made.

"Call for backup." He ordered. "I'll go and keep it busy until you guys finish up here."

Ruby looked at him like he had grown two heads. "You're going to fight an altered alone?"

Jaune shook his head, "I'm not fighting him, I'm going to keep him occupied until you guys finish up here."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Ren asked, voice tinged with concern.

The young Arc frowned in response. "No, but we don't have many options. I have the best defensive capabilities out of all of us, so I should be able to last until help arrives." He made eye contact with his red-cloaked friend. "Ruby. Take care of my team." She nodded in response, giving him a reassuring smile. Jaune Arc turned and immediately began sprinting towards Turthus, towards the column of smoke where the other altered was sure to be.

Jaune raced through the woods like a madman. Turthus was a remote village with next to no police or military force to defend them. If the altered got there before he did, it would be a massacre.

He arrived on a wide dirt road, the one that led to Turthus. Unfortunately, the young Arc was not on the road alone. Two dozen meters further down the road was the second altered, this one was leaner and slightly taller than his brethren. He was holding a man in his forties by the throat with his right hand and with his left an ivory colored spike extended from the forearm all the way past the back of his fist. Before Jaune could even begin running towards the altered, he sunk the spike into the man's forehead. The man twitched once, blood flowing down his forehead like a tiny river, before going limp. The altered tossed the man off the road like he was garbage. A small boy was behind the man, his eyes wide with fear as the altered reared his right fist back, preparing to impale him like he did the man, who was probably his father.

Jaune felt his anger spike.

Adrenaline fueling him, the young Arc managed to sprint over and swat down the spike in the altered's right forearm before it could reach the kid. Amazingly, the altered wasn't even stopped for a moment by his sudden arrival. The grimm-hybrid swiftly tried to shove the spike in his left hand into Jaune's spine and he had to diveroll forward to avoid getting impaled. The young Arc stood up from his roll, turned around and barely was able to block the altered's follow-through with his shield. The altered's right spike glanced off of the shield, showering sparks over them. Jaune tried an overhead strike with his sword, but at the same time, the grimm-hybrid lunged forward with his left spike. The two weapons collided in a fierce clash.

Jaune's sword almost tumbled from his fingers, but he managed to hold on as the force of the clash staggered him back. Then his right cheek was hit by what felt like a sledgehammer. The altered had recovered fast, and nailed him with a spinning backhand. Jaune fell onto his left side, but hastily rolled to his left and back onto his feet, just out of melee range of the altered. The young Arc caught sight of the kid running towards the village, good, he didn't have to worry about him getting hurt.

The grimm-hybrid actually smirked at him. "Oh a huntsman, this should be interesting. Prey that fights back." He said in a distorted voice.

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "I'm not your prey, monster. Neither are those people in that village."

The altered's eyebrows lifted in mock-surprise. "Monster? That's a label reserved for creatures with no soul or identity. I have both of those." The grimm-hybrid clenched his fists and dropped into a fighting stance, spikes prominently extended past the back of his hands. He smiled menacingly. "My name is Zenner Onyx and I'm going to kill you."

Zenner lunged towards Jaune again, striking the young Arc's shield and sending him sliding backwards a few meters. Jaune retaliated by performing a few overhead slashes with his sword, but Zenner blocks them all with his spikes, crossing them over each other to reinforce his guard. On the fourth strike, Zenner uncrossed his spikes, causing Jaune to stumble backwards awkwardly. The altered stabbed forward with both spikes, aiming for his chest, but the young Arc somehow lost his footing and fell onto his back. The spikes stabbed nothing, but empty air. Jaune winced, luck and clumsiness had allowed him to dodge that, but whatever, he'd take it at this point.

Rolling to his left, Jaune avoided being stabbed in the head by Zenner's left spike. As he got to his feet, the tip of Zenner's right boot was slammed into his chin. Jaune felt his feet leave solid ground as he was launched into the air. Zenner leapt up after Jaune, his right spike aiming for his chest. The young Arc grit his teeth, in the air his options were very limited, dodging was difficult and he could only attack something that was in range of his sword. Luckily, Zenner didn't seem to have any ranged abilities, but he did have the greater mobility, chances are the grimm-hybrid would turn him into a pincushion in the next few moments if he didn't do something.

Thinking back to his training with Ozpin, Jaune did have something he could maybe use. Most likely he'd botch it, but on the off-chance he didn't. It might just get him out of the current pickle he was in. Worth a try at least.

Rearing his left hand back, Jaune brought it forward and tossed his shield at Zenner, slamming the bottom edge of the shield right between the altered's eyes. Zenner grunted in pain and was knocked away from the young Arc. A chain attached to a metal bracer on his left forearm reeled the shield back swiftly, reattaching itself to his arm like it had never left in the first place. Feeling himself touch solid ground again, Jaune took off towards Zenner, who was just now landing. He lashed out with his sword, hoping to decapitate the altered, but Zenner deflected it with his right spike and Jaune ran harmlessly past him. The young Arc hastily turned back towards his enemy, his back now towards the village.

Zenner glared at Jaune, no longer looking so smug. "You lucky bastard, you should have been dead already, but your bad footing saved your life."

Jaune dropped into a fighting stance. "Yeah well, I'd like to think that luck is an important part of a battle." The young Arc suddenly found himself sliding back a meter or two as Zenner let out a powerful pulse of his aura.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but your luck has just run out." The grimm-hybrid announced, dropping into a fighting stance, his dark aura flaring around him. "I'm done messing around with a clown like you. I'm just going to annihilate everything in one attack, you and this lousy village."

Jaune let out a curse and was about to leap away.

"Sure you want to do that?" Zenner asked. "You might save yourself by dodging this, that's true. But I doubt Turthus has the same option."

The young Arc hesitated then. He was right, Turthus was in Zenner's path and judging by the pulses of aura he was emanating, the grimm-hybrid was about to unleash something bad. However, even if he held his ground, what could he do? He would be killed as well. Jaune's thoughts were jumbled mess as he tried desperately to think of a solution. What would Pyrrha have done in this situation?

The young Arc's eyes snapped open at that thought. His lips curled upwards in a grim smirk as he planted his feet, holding his shield in front of him. What would Pyrrha have done? The answer was simple, she would have defended the village at all costs, because that's who she was. If he didn't make a stand now, he wouldn't be able to look her in the eye when he found her again.

Zenner's aura had manifested around him as a dark-violet glowing shroud. "Choosing to die trying to protect the village huh." The altered said. "Admirable, but foolish."

Jaune narrowed his eyes, which were just above the top of his shield. "You keep talking like you know how this is going to end, but I promise you…." He glared intensely at Zenner. "….You won't make it past me."

Zenner raised an eyebrow. "Bold words huntsman, time to see you back it up."

Bending his knees, Zenner's aura intensified. Jaune slid back a few more inches, but he stood firm. He looked closely at the altered. An attack like this was going to be strong, his shield alone would not be enough to stop it. So that meant he had to rely on his aura, and his semblance. He prayed it would be enough.

Zenner suddenly shot forward, looking more like a torpedo than a humanoid. Jaune braced himself as the altered crashed into his shield. The force of the impact swayed all the nearby pine trees away from them. To both of the combatant's amazement, Jaune was holding his ground. The surprise on Zenner's face soon turned to rage and he redoubled his efforts.

Jaune stubbornly held firm, refusing to lose.

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A/N: Jaune vs. Zenner Onyx was inspired by the second fight between Archer and Lancer from Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works(The 2014/2015 version.) Really liked the intensity of that battle.