Chapter 7

Dancing

Ruby blasted into the fight, taking advantage of a distracted opponent. Aiming a quick swipe at Lucien's neck, she forced him back into the match. Jumping back just in time to activate his blades to block a shot from her rifle. She kept up her offensive start rushing in with her semblance aiming another swipe at his neck. This time he was ready for it, phasing out and letting the mass of her weapon throw her off balance. However, she didn't let her weapon control her, she took the momentum from the swing and turned into it, spinning around and aiming another strike where she thought he would appear.

Lucien let her swing through and regain her balance, taking that time to back off and collect himself. Recovering from his horrible start he phased back into reality and backed off enough to utilize his weapons ranged capabilities. Raising his arms up he cocked his hands up firing off darts up from the underside of each wrist. Ruby was surprised by this change of tactics, but she was willing to adapt and easily dodges the darts, activating Crescent Rose's sniper form. She took aim from the hip at his feet she let loose a quick barrage of rounds. Lucien was ready for a ranged counter attack and jumped into the air.

"You are good Ruby." Lucien commented.

"Thanks so are you." She responded giddily

Silence falling upon them again they began circling each other. After watching Ruby for a moment Lucien darted in close, negating the reach of her scythe, and aimed a jab at her gut. Ruby had expected something like this, her experience using such a long weapon made her aware of it's biggest draw back. Prepared for the attack she jumped back dragging Crescent Rose low to the ground hooking Lucien's ankles, trying to drag him off balance. Unprepared for such a counter Lucien threw his weight back and phased out of existence of a split second, letting himself drift through the air harmlessly. Fading back into the physical worlds a second later he stood in front of Ruby, ready for another attack.

Seeing her plan fail so spectacularly, Ruby paused for a moment to assess her options. She knew her greatest advantage was her speed and spontaneity, but whenever Lucien got into a jam he just disappeared like a ghost. She would have to move as fast as she could and even then she knew she would only have one strike at most.

While Ruby contemplated her options Lucien appraised her. He saw the obvious faults with her weapon immediately, it was only a hinderance when her opponent got to close,and she had to telegraph her swings quite a bit to get any power behind a strike. Her greatest advantage was her speed, is she could move fast enough to get past Lucien's guard and make an attack before he could disappear than she might actually be able to get a hit in.

Only a few moments had passed while the combatants evaluated the situation, but it was enough time for each of them to come up with a strategy. Both stepped forward in the same moment, aiming their weapons at the others feet and firing. Ruby reacted by side stepping with her semblance, Lucien simply faded away long enough for the shot to miss. They each continued forward, at the last second Ruby let her scythe drop behind her and used her semblance and charged Lucien, letting her scythe trail behind her, Lucien did just as she expected and phased out of her path, coming back into existence right behind her.

Suddenly both opponents stopped, each feeling a blade pressed to their skin. Lucien stood with his throat lightly pressing against the blade of Crescent Rose. Ruby could feel the tips of Feast and Famine pressed into the small of her back ready to fire off their lethal darts at any moment.

"Mutually assured destruction?" Lucien asked her, standing statue still.

"I figured that would be the only way to get to you." Ruby replied, her usually bubbly tone of voice being replaced by a deadly serious one.

"I guess that could work." He said.

"How's this going to end?" She asked.

"Like this. This match is over, with the final result being a draw." Glynda said angrily as she brought the force field that surrounded the arena down. "These duels are not supposed to be to the death. You both know that."

"Sorry Professor. Eh eheh…" Ruby replied, slightly embarrassed by the chastising tone her teacher had used.

"My apologies ma'am." Lucien replied, retracting his blades as Ruby removed her scyther from his throat. Turning to Ruby he gave a deep bow. "Thank you for the exhilarating match Ruby."

"Yeah you too." Ruby said.

"You two go change back into your uniforms." Glynda said, dismissing the two of them.

After the two had changed back they returned to their seat and watched the rest of the matches that took place. After the bell rang Lucien walked to his next class in good spirits. Such a good fight was a rare occurrence for him and it felt good to be challenged. The rest of his day was excruciatingly boring compared to his morning. Drifting through his day as usual he went to bed earlier than he normally would have, anxious to really get started with teaching Jaune.

Waking early and training with Jaune, sitting through boring lectures, the occasional challenge from a cocky student, dining with teams RWBY and JNPR, and politely avoiding Glynda became the routine of his days. A month past following that pattern, fall turning to winter. On an early winter morning something that really excited him happened. He was training with Jaune early in the morning as he usually did. The past two weeks had been spent practicing the use of aura in combat. Using it as to shield from blows and to heal quickly, but more importantly, trying to uncover what Jaune's semblance might be. Lucien was going at it a little harder than usual, trying to push the blonde boy.

Swinging at the boy rapidly, quick enough that some blows actually connected. Then Lucien would disappear and flank Jaune and let of another volley of blows, trying to aggravate and stress the boy. As this went on Jaune grew more and more annoyed with this and eventually outright furious. Jaune took a completely defensive stance, low to the ground and solid, his shield raised to just below his eye level with his sword kept close to his body in a defensive position. He waited for Lucien to reappear on his flank before throwing his shield in the way of the assassin's blades deflecting the bulk of the blows with his shield, but he still felt the sting of Lucien's blades bouncing off his aura.

Returning to his defensive stance Jaune began slowly turning in place, hoping to catch all of the blows this time. Lucien was patient though and waited for Jaune to expose his sword arm, the side he couldn't defend with his shield. When Lucien saw his opportunity he appeared and pulled his arm back to let off a series of strikes. Jaune saw the man out of the corner of his eye and before he could raise his sword to defend the first jab struck home, eliciting a cry of pain. With his eyes closed Jaune threw up his sword arm in an attempt to block another jab to his aching sides. When Lucien shot his left arm forward to strike a second time his blade was caught in the air and was thrown back, nearly wrenching his arm out of its socket.

Stopping to see what the hell had happened Lucien looked at the boy, or tried to look at the boy. What was there instead was a solid white wall the shape of Jaune's shield, easily three times as big. The shield of light was just floating in the air in front of Jaune, protecting him. Lucien began walking around Jaune, circling him, wherever Lucien stepped the shield followed.

"Jaune, we are done fighting now. You can put you shield down." Lucien said, trying to sooth the boy.

"Finally, I thought we would nev-" Jaune began before he was stunned into silence by the giant white shield that was blocking his vision. "Um… Lucien… What the hell is this?"

"You tell me. I figured since you put it there you should know what it is." Lucien replied.

"Wait I did this?" Jaune asked incredulously.

"I'm assuming you did." Lucien answered.

"Is this… Is this my semblance?" The boy asked, still unsure of what was happening.

"I'd imagine it is. Now you might want to let it go. It's just like we practiced with using your aura as a defensive tool." Lucien instructed.

"Ok give me a moment." Jaune said, letting himself relax and feel his aura slowly recede back into him. When he looked back up the shield was gone, confirming once and for all to him that it was indeed his semblance.

"Congrats kid, you found your semblance. Now you just need to figure out how to trigger it and how to control it." The older man said, a small smile on his face.

"Yeah I guess that's what we start on tomorrow?" The boy asked.

"You know what? Let's take tomorrow off, you've worked hard and deserve a day off." Lucien said, his smile growing.

"Thank you. It'll be nice to sleep in with Pyrrha for once." The boy said, before blushing at what he had just said.

"Don't do anything too exciting now. Let's go get showered and grab some grub." The man suggested, leading the way to the locker rooms. As he walked out of the arena he caught sight of a figure out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over he saw Glynda sitting in the back of the classroom watching them with a small smirk on her face.

"You go ahead Jaune, I'll catch up with you, we have plenty of time." Lucien said before he turned to head towards the back of the room. "Good morning Professor. Mind if I ask what you are doing here this early?"

"This is my classroom. A better question is why have you and Jaune been here early every day for the past month?" Glynda asked.

"He wanted help training, I agreed to, so we have been meeting here." Lucien explained, a proud smile on his face. "He's doing good. I'm sure you saw what happened down there."

"Yes, from here it looked like all it took was a bit of abuse to get him to realize his potential." Glynda said, putting emphasis on the word abuse.

"I wouldn't have actually harmed him. He'll just be a bit sore, but I think it was worth it." He said proudly.

"Yes you do seem rather proud of yourself." Glynda said with a hint of distaste.

"No, you have it wrong, I'm not proud of myself, I'm proud of Jaune. He is determined and he has come a long way because of it." Lucien explained.

"You are really enjoying teaching him?" She asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, teaching is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Didn't you know that?" He replied cheerily.

"So I've heard." She replied. "Why did you start teaching him?"

"Honestly, to piss of the little Schnee." He replied, taking a seat next to Glynda.

"You are unbelievable." She replied.

"Yeah I realize it was an asinine thing to do. I should apologize. She's almost been pleasant to me since then." He said, raising his hands behind his head.

"God, you reek of sweat. Go shower." Glynda replied with a snicker.

"Yes ma'am." He said, jumping up from his seat and walking down to the locker rooms. Walking into the locker room he replaced his gear in his locker and went to shower. Jaune had already finished and was waiting for him, sitting on one of the benches in that sat in the middle of the rows of lockers.

"Hey Lucien. I wanted to say thank you. I don't think I would have discovered my semblance so soon if you hadn't helped me." Jaune said sincerely.

"No problem kid." Lucien replied with a smile."Just don't get too comfortable tomorrow, you only get one day off.'

"Yeah, I won't" The boy replied.

"Oh one more thing. I feel like letting my wings out. Would you mind watching the door for me while I shower?"

"Uh… no problem… I guess." Jaune answered.

"Thanks, kid." Lucien said as he let his semblance fall completely. Unveiling his wings completely to the boy for the first time. He spread them out and let them stretch, gently flapping them a few times. Jaune simply stood there staring at his mentor's back, taking in the snowy wings, unable to count the number of scars that adorned his wings, lost in the beauty of them and the story of pain that they told. Jaune had seen the numerous scars that his mentor wore, having been half naked around each other numerous times in the past month, but seeing the full story now was something that scarred him, and somehow reassured him.

"Hey Lucien, I've got a question. You don't have to answer if you don't want to though." Jaune asked.

"Yes I can fly with these." Lucien replied jokingly.

"That's cool, but I was going to ask how you got all those scars." Jaune said timidly.

"All of them? I'm sure there is a story behind every single one of these scars, but the only story I know is how I got this one." Lucien said as he turned around and pointed at a small scar that sat on his collar bone.

"That's the only one?" Jaune asked, confused as to why such a small scar was the only one that had a story.

"Yeah. It was on one of my first independant hunts. When I was in school I was part of team Alabaster, ALBR. We worked well together and we were pretty good friends, but we all wanted different things from being huntsman so we split up not long after graduation." Lucien began.

"Really, you went solo?" Jaune interrupted.

"Shush kid, I'm telling my story." Lucien prelied. "Yeah I went solo, but there was this one job that was for a two man team, so I called up on of the top huntsman in my graduating class, asked her if she wanted to take the job with me. See I had kinda been friends with her since our first year, and I enjoyed working with her so she was my first choice. She agreed, so we went on this mission together, pretty simple escort job, with an elimination bounty tagged on as well." Lucien continued before being interrupted again.

"Wait. A mission with two objectives? Do they even do those?" Jaune asked.

"Not too common now, but they used to be a thing. Like, hey make sure this get's somewhere, and kill as many grimm as possible while you do it." Lucien explained, taking a seat on the bench opposite Jaune.

"Ok I get it." Jaune said, motioning for Lucien to continue.

"So my friend and I went on this mission, completed the escort and went back to take out a pack of beowulfs that had harassed us earlier. So we finish off most of the pack and tracked them back to a cave that we thought they were living in. When we get there it turns out that it was a death stalker lair. So we start fighting this deathstalker and the rest of the beowulfs show up. I decided to take on the beowulfs and leave the deathstalker to Glynda."

"WAIT! Hold the phone! Your friend was Professor Goodwitch?" Jaune asked, interrupting again.

"Yeah, didn't I say that earlier?" Lucien asked, Jaune shaking his head. "Hmm... guess not. Yeah it was Goodwitch. So I left the death stalker to her, and I took on the beowulfs. I was about halfway through the rest of the pack when Glynda shouted at me to look out. I turn around and the death stalker is taking a swing at me, he just barely hits me when I activate my semblance and his stinger passes right through thin air. We finish off the stalker and take out the beowulfs, then I start feeling a bit woozy. Turns out I had gotten a little knick on me, but it was enough to poison me. Deathstalker venom isn't something you want in you. So I pass out pretty soon and I wake up a few minutes later. Glynda isn't near me so I start looking around, and I see her over by some bushes gagging on her own vomit. Turns out she was gonna play hero and she tried to suck the venom out of me. Then she remembered the antivenom that was in the field kit I wore on my belt back then." Lucien explained, chuckling at the humor that hindsight had given the story.

"Gross." Jaune replied.

"Just wait. It gets better. So after I come to she starts berating me for being an idiot and almost dying and blaming me for her having to suck out the venom and stuff like that. Then she smacks me, like out right smacks me. I ask her what the hell all of that was about and then she just kisses me, then I get into real trouble. I start gagging cause her breath tastes like vomit." Lucien told the boy, a grin plastered on his face.

"Double gross." Jaune said, almost gagging himself.

"Yeah, so that's how I got that scar. Now I need to shower. You can go on ahead, I don't think I'll need you to watch the door." Lucien said, waving a hand to dismiss the boy.

"Yeah I'm gonna go tell Pyrrha about the big news." Jaune said as he rose to leave. "Oh, and Lucien, it's good to see you happy."

"I'm sure it is, don't tell anyone else about that ever." Lucien said, his usual cold attitude returning. "If you do training will be hell for the next four years."

"Yeah I'm sure it would be. See you at breakfast." Jaune said smiling as he departed.

Good to see me happy? I guess I have been in a pretty good mood lately.