Chapter 6: Slumbering Blood and Waking Pride

Rouge couldn't believe what she heard come out of her uncle's mouth. "Excuse me, what?! You mean my family's got ancestry with the thing we always keep in check?!"

Astolfo, who was messaging someone over on their Scroll, finally realized what was mistakenly said, and turned around frantically. "Oh no! Nononononono! It's WAY worse than that, missy!" The short uncle firmly held Rouge's massive red pauldrons and said, "Your brother has been in contact with someone else with Vulcan ancestry. And it took a fight with your brother, who's now a Vessel, to get that dormant blood active."

Rouge in return slammed her hands on Astolfo's shoulders, making the adult's knees buckle under the force and weight of her armor. "Are ye frickin' kiddin me?! It's bad 'nough I gotta share the same air as Ice Pop, and now I gotta worry about random chance that genetic codin' is gonna kill Jaune?!"

"Yes. Cuz as it stands, I'm pretty sure it was an unconscious murder attempt. On BOTH parties." Astolfo strained to say. "And we were lucky that Jaune was able to thwart it."

Rouge's grip strengthened. Jaune could almost hear bones popping. Almost. "How can ya joke at a time like this?!" She shouted. Astolfo's pain was buried under the elder sister's worry.

"Rouge…" Jaune called out. The elder sister stopped her panic to attend to her brother's potential query. "How can there be a bloodline for Vulcan?"

The elder sister sat on the same bench he was on. "We told you… the process of turning into a monster is a symptom of Vulcan and Juno fighting for control over your body."

The blond Beacon student sighed and hunched over as it clicked. "Weiss' sister did say that if Vulcan won, it'd be his choice to wreak havoc in my body or just end the body." He looked at his sister, and asked, "You mean to tell me Vulcan had wives and kids?!"

"You're giving a Demigod too much credit there, buddy." Astolfo commented and waving the thought away that the supernatural being had any for of humanity in it. Jaune looked conflicted at the statement. "A higher being such as the oversized garden snake inside you would take what it wants. No questions asked." Jaune not so subtly looked at the back of his left hand. The Schnee brand glowed faintly. Had he failed… His thoughts seemed to be transparent when his uncle remarked, "Don't think of the what if, Jaune-Jaune."

"But how can I not?!" Jaune asked as he stood up from his seat. He stepped forward toward his uncle. "For a moment, I was a monster!" He took another step. "I set my sights on Weiss!" He grabbed onto the adult's shoulders and shook violently. "I was ready to kill her until I found the strength to hold on long enough for her to make me a Vessel!"

"You are a Vessel now. That fact can't be changed." A comforting hand patted Jaune's chestplate. "All you can do is now move on from that event." Astolfo consoled the boy.

Jaune let himself simmer down as he took a seat back at the bench. Elbows rested at the knees while he cupped his hands in front of his face. Taking in the information presented, Jaune repeated it in a whisper. "So back to the fact that there's a bloodline for Vulcan…" The blond student's eyes narrowed in realization. "Doesn't that mean-"

"-Extremely distantly related." Astolfo answered swiftly, as if ready to intercept the incoming awkwardness. "The last failed Vessel was a thousand years ago." The adult leaned back on a locker and looked away from Jaune. "Nasty piece of work, that one. Became an emperor that conquered the West and headed Eastward. You can guess what happened to the women of the lost territories… I'd just about guess a percent of the world population has Vulcan's blood."

Jaune looked deep in thought. He looked to his uncle as he asked, "So… out in the world, there's one in one hundred people that have Arc blood?" He received a nod. Jaune paled as he realized the severity of the issue. If that Vulcan/Arc bloodline was in Yang's mother's side of the family, then he only needed to worry about potentially one unhinged friend in the group. If it was on the father's side…

He wouldn't be able to handle the Divine Dragon and the Speed Demon of Beacon trying to kill him!

Rouge decided to cut in. "How come I've never heard of this?!"

"Because the need to keep a lookout for Vulcan's bloodline was nonexistent until now." Astolfo replied while pinching the bridge of their nose. "By Juno's grace, the last Vessel made was just a decade before the Great War happened! It's practically impossible to find out who was of Vulcan's blood because the Vessel was under constant threat of death as a Valean turncoat!"

"So what are my options here?" Jaune asked. "She's a friend! I don't want to kill her -not that I possibly can with my skill level…" The boy looked down in shame at the mention of potentially killing a friend.

Astolfo had other priorities after hearing that statement. The adult ever so slightly craned their neck back and gave Jaune a stare. Both hands were open and slightly pushed toward the boy: The signal to stop. "Woah. Woah!" Astolfo started off. "Where is this negativity coming from? You beat her."

Jaune, still looking downwards, replied, "Barely!"

"But you still beat her in a fight." Astolfo insisted. "I don't know how, but you did. I've never even seen you fight. If I were to base it on your family's library of armed combat, you haven't emulated one bit of their cadence or their habits. Basics are there, but everything else? Not a thing." Hands rested on Jaune's shoulders. "You fought like a man possessed."

Jaune kept his mouth shut about the stranger that he saw during the battle. He thought it to be a trick of the mind, and left it at that. "At that point… I-I really just went with my gut." He lied as he hoped neither adult noticed the deceptive reply. "Dodging something larger than a bus is so much harder than an arm or a leg." He looked up as he chuckled out, "After that, it's just all counters at that point, yeah?"

Astolfo frowned. Jaune's early days of training were eye-opening to say the least. He could see the raw potential in him. His father did too. But after what happened… To see Jaune reduced to base instincts and basic training irked the adult.

"Only you would trivialize your sporadic increase in skill to something as simple as trusting our gut." Astolfo muttered while disapprovingly shaking their head. "Your partner? Redhead gladiator? She knew you were about to kill the other blondie when the light show started." The adult watched and felt Jaune's shoulders shudder slightly. "It wasn't until Weiss commanded you did you stop that lethal blow and turned it around to incapacitate her." Rouge was about to interject, but was stopped by an uncharacteristic glare from the uncle. The adult cleared their throat before saying, "Which brings up another thing…"

Hearing that transition, the blond nodded in understanding: the elephant in the room amongst the other elephants crowding the tiny space. "Weiss used a command on me." Jaune answered, knowing where the conversation was headed. "My head was cloudy around the same time Yang changed. I heard her voice through the fog I was in then my focus returned." He paused to contemplate the situation. He clasped his hands together firmly. "Was I that out of it?" He questioned quietly to himself.

Astolfo appeared astonished. Hands rested at the waist, the pink-haired adult whistled. "Wow. Didn't realize she used two commands..." Wordlessly, Rogue went to exit the locker room. Locked on to movement, Astolfo asked, "And where do ya think yer goin' lady?"

"To go have a talk with the Ice Popsicle sisters." The elder Arc sister replied without stopping herself from departing the room.

"Oh no you don't!" Jaune protested, bolting out of his seat and grabbing his sister's arm. "You stay away from them." He ordered.

Rouge turned around swiftly. "Huh?!" She could hardly believe Jaune's tone. He was using his "Protective Big Brother" voice on her! She gnashed her teeth. "And who do ya think yer ta order me around?!" She closed the distance at a surprising bit of speed and grabbed her brother by the collar of his shirt, and lifted him off his feet.

Jaune's remaining hand clenched onto the gauntlet he grabbed to stop his sister's departure. "Weiss saved me. And by saving me, she helped me save Yang from what could have been a killing blow from me." Jaune answered hotly as his eyes glowed electric blue. His grip tightened, and both could hear the red armor creak under the pressure. "You've got no right to be angry at her!"

She slammed him against a locker. "She knows how to command you now, Jaune!" Rogue snarled as her eyes bore into him as if to drill that fact through his thick skull. "You think a girl like that, who hasn't lived a life where she had to do things for herself, can even control the urge not to take advantage of you?!"

"No. She'll no doubt use me for one selfish thing after another." Jaune answered calmly. "It'll be inevitable."

Rouge's free hand punched the locker behind him. "Then let me burn that mentality so that it doesn't continue to flourish!"

Jaune's defiant stare said everything about his stance on the matter. Rouge's gauntlet creaked even more. She begrudgingly released her grip on him and let him back on his feet. The boy casually adjusted his collar before turning to exit the room. He didn't spare a second glance to his sister nor his uncle.

But he did stop to say one last thing. "As long as she doesn't trample on everything I stand for, I'll endure every order thrown at me. If being the Vessel means being her servant, then I'll do what's expected of me to the very end." With his piece finished, he walked away, not letting his sister recover from the answer in time to tell him about her talk with their parents.

All the while, Jaune was trying to think of ways to ask for forgiveness to the sisters in Team RWBY.

"Ruby!" Weiss called out to her partner, who dragged her unconscious sister through the empty halls of Beacon.

"Oh… Hey, Weiss." She acknowledged without turning to look at the white-haired maiden. The young team leader adjusted her hold of her sister.

Without hesitation, Weiss grabbed Yang's unoccupied side and carried that side to help her partner. "Does this help a little?" Ruby hummed an affirmation.

The trio waded the gigantic halls of Beacon Academy. The massive windows allowed natural light to illuminate its marble walls; polished sheen reflected down on its floors, intensifying the luminance in the great space. Weiss herself basked in the tranquility of the moment. Beacon's walls were a drastic change in atmosphere compared to the wilds. After facing almost certain death, whatever anxiety-inducing activity the Academy could dish out would no longer affect her. At the thought of that, she let out a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong, Weiss?" Ruby asked softly.

The partner perked up in attention and adjusted Yang's arm over her shoulder. "Hm? Oh… it's nothing wrong. It's just a little jarring to be back in a safer environment after what happened."

Ruby hummed in thought. Weiss couldn't figure out the redhead's thought process at the moment. "Is it really that big of a difference?" She asked.

"What?" Weiss could hardly believe the question. "If the class' lowest-ranked combatant had to step up and face a horde because his ally was unreliable, then-" Weiss cut off her frustrated reply. She noticed her tone, and corrected herself with a quick apology.

Her mind replayed his words.

How can I live up to my ancestor's deeds if I can't even save the ones close to me?

"To answer your question… yes." Weiss replied. "We were figuratively cornered, and Jaune decided to step up and swallow his cowardice to face our enemy head on. It's as he said in the arena: he had to go on the offensive to get us out of that situation. And he did to a surprisingly effective degree."

Ruby could hear her partner's depiction of Jaune. Even if it did sound stiff, the fact she was even giving remarks on the positive end of the spectrum told Ruby the magnitude of Jaune's effort. "Was that his bravery showing, or was that his ideals speaking for him?" Ruby asked in a whisper.

Weiss overheard Ruby's whispered pondering. "Whichever it was, I'm grateful to him for saving our lives even if he doesn't cherish his own."

"Sounds like the opposite of what he showed during initiation…" Ruby grumbled.

"Hm? Oh! The 'Run and live' comment?" Weiss recalled that tidbit from the start of their Beacon days. Ruby confirmed the guess. The heiress nodded in agreement to Ruby's interpretation of Pre-Semblance Jaune. "It's certainly a conundrum that he contradicts his desires against his innate will to live."

"That or now that he has a visible power in the form of his Semblance, he believes 'anything goes' from now on in his quest to be like his ancestors." A third voice entered the conversation.

"Blake?" asked Weiss.

The quieter member of Team RWBY acknowledged the call to her name. "Yes?"

"Elaborate."

"Jaune's a hard worker where it counts, yes?" Blake asked nobody in particular. When no one answered, she continued. "You've heard the nightly spars against Pyrrha. You've seen marginal improvement that is a product of said training. When it comes to note-taking, he's subpar, but when it comes to tactics, he's up there in ranking."

"Where are you going with this?" Asked both remaining members of RWBY.

"What if this Semblance of his is overriding how he normally acts as a trainee Hunter? What if this new power he's obtained and the inherent hubris it brings out in all -if not many amateurs- is just making the justification that he's invincible now?"

Everyone stopped in their tracks. The gears grinded in both Ruby and Weiss' heads. A Semblance is one's soul manifested. Lightning in of itself is strong. Fierce. And force to be reckoned with in nature. It can cover great distances in the blink of an eye and land killing blows with but a touch! If a boy with subpar skill got hold of such a power-

He'd flaunt it and think himself capable of doing the most impossible of tasks. He'd set himself up for an early death.

If it weren't any more obvious before… Weiss knew she had to keep him in line. And if it meant ordering him around like a dog obeys their master, she would for his sake and the second chance he was given.

"...Jaune is a Beacon student?" Nino asked for clarity as she sat down on a porch bench in the back of the Arc household.

"You heard right, dearie." Charlotte answered as she offered the Huntresses-in-Training drinks. Two were claimed; One by Nino herself while the other was claimed by Texas. The remaining were left at a nearby table. "Finally found where that rascal ran off to, and only now did we hear that he's a Beacon student!" The mother looked split between happy and downright murderous. Understandable, really. Her baby boy went missing for a year. The mother of eight pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm happy because he's happy, but that boy sometimes just…" She belted out a defeated groan of frustration.

"Odd… how come I missed him?" Nino mumbled as she stared into her drink.

Her black-haired lupine teammate butted in since she overheard the mumble. She leaned towards her leader, and whispered, "To be fair, we were stuck on a mission, doing that beachside annihilation when the dance was coming up. Gods, being stuck there for days was not good for my complexion."

Nino tilted her head towards Texas, "Why we weren't recalled in favor of letting an Atlesian detachment unit still boggles me."

"A learning experience about not holding onto expectations of help on a regular basis." Ch'en chimed in as held a wriggling twin in each arm. "Now can I get help handling these rascals?"

Charlotte chuckled. "Sad to say they're hard to handle. Vi would be the easier of the two, but even she has her moments." The Arc mother hummed as she circled the dragon girl to look at her twins. "Now what did Miss Ch'en say or do that got you girls rowdy?"

Nino tuned out the conversation in favor of keeping her thoughts on her childhood friend. Taking quick sips, she took the time to note her friend's accomplishment. Inwardly, she was happy that he made it as a student. He was a quick study if the lessons were hands-on. Stances were taught yes, but it was during battle where his ingenuity shone. There were spars where he picked apart offenses by countering at the most opportune times. Certainly caught his father and sisters off guard…

But after that incident, he never seemed to get back into that rhythm despite his diligence and hard work. Where he once could find moments to turn the tables, he cowered behind his shield. There were times, he even feared pulling out the sword, and kept Cocrea Mors in the scabbard to be used as a blunt weapon.

She wondered if his self-taught style was sharpened by those very basics he was once taught by his father…

Her lance shot forward.

He charged towards the danger shield first.

The flat surface of the shield angled down. Then these two pieces of steel met, the former delivered a glancing blow as it flung upwards from the deflection. His right arm flung at her with Cocrea Mors in tow.

A gunshot rang from the tip of her lance, its recoil pulled it back enough to guard against the following attack. The white glint of Arc steel was pushed back, forcing a gap between the two friends. The gap was necessary; it was her ideal range. She hefted the lance, and sent a rapid series of thrusts that weren't thought to be possible due to the sheer amount of machinery compacted inside the weapon.

Nonetheless, the blond ducked and weaved like a boxer. He only blocked what was necessary, yet even that was far fewer than his attempts to recreate the deflecting block that allowed him to enter into his range.

She never pulled the trigger whenever she had him in this defensive posture. She knew he was without Aura. Many times she tried offering to unlock it for him, but her friend forbade him. He thought his own progress and diligence would sort things out for him and would get him the recognition he deserved from his family. That to give him a shortcut was not the way.

It was one of the few times she completely disagreed with him. She may have respected his wishes, but to have kept himself unprotected by the blessing of Aura was suicidal. That was the stance she would never budge on because it was an undeniable fact!

And every time she used a shot not aimed at him, she could see his focus wane. She was holding back. Both of them knew it. She could have ended this farce of a spar by just detonating a shot when her lance went past the shield. The concussive force alone would discombobulate him if not outright wound him from the heat of the blast.

Why he allowed to be made fun of like this, she didn't understand. Her relentless barrage only got faster. With a twist of the handle, the weapon morphed slightly. Four exhaust ports jutted out of the widest end of the lance. The opening at the tip of the weapon closed up. As soon as her hand was by her hip, she pulled the trigger. A shell ejected skywards. Four forceful gouts of fire and smoke erupted from the new openings. The hefty lance rocketed towards the blond with force comparable to a fortress battering ram.

He evaded the attacks with all his might. And when he was just about to step outside her effective angle of attack, she boxed him in by throwing an attack ahead of the direction he planned to jump out. The gatling strikes repeated. Every now and then, a blast-induced thrust flew out to probe his defense or pierce it.

He stepped out of range completely. He wasn't risking his arm blocking that. At least that's what she thought when he got out of range.

"I really appreciate you doing this for me, Nino." He said gleefully.

She could not understand him. Take him out of a fight, and he was the lovable dork that tried to please everyone around him. Whenever it was in battle, she could not fathom what went on in his head. She thought she had an inkling when he got a little sloppy in his defense after showing herself holding back…

"Now then… have you been counting?" He asked softly.

Her breath hitched. Her eyes twitched. She was so lost in her thoughts that she got careless!

He charged ahead like before, shield first. In a panic, she hastily threw out an unplanned attack. He swiped it out of his way and followed through with that telegraphed sword slash. Her lance couldn't come back fast enough to block this hit. The white glint returned. Sun bore down on it brightly as if heralding victory.

Yet victory would not be claimed by him that day. She had a free arm; an arm protected by the blessing of Aura. She blocked it with the back of her left hand. Her Aura wasn't damaged enough to worry about the sword cutting through her extremity. She could see the shock at first glance. It twisted into disdain that wasn't aimed at her. She flung her left hand out, bringing Cocrea Mors with it to open the boy to a clean strike.

Her left foot anchored. The other dug a tiny trench. In a flash, a boot connected with his chin. He rose up from the ground. A right hand clutched one of his legs, and brought him down swiftly. He groaned in pain. It was ignored as she mounted herself on top of him with her right fist cocked.

"Yield?" She asked.

If there was one thing she could contribute to her success, it was her mentality. In the preparatory school several towns away from Orleans and definitely closer and within the arms of Mistral's defensive reach, she reigned as one, if not the strongest amongst her peers. It was not her Draco features and strength that carried her to victory. Nor was it her fearsome weapon that could pierce or blast through defenses. Nay.

Her victories were won in one particular way. Nearly all students were afflicted to: pride in their armament. Her peers devoted their time to a combat style fit for the weapon of choice -refined it to be the best at this one thing. But take away their strength, and they shatter alongside their weapon. In an effort to be a combat machine, they neglected the most important cog in that machine. Themselves.

She could never break Cocrea Mors, but the threat of breaking something else was still there. And when she was subject to losing her weapon, she had primitive ones on her: Her own extremities.

While her rare Faunus trait was a bonus that facilitated learning a new combat style, few ever dabbled in another combat art. She, a wildlands resident in the town of Orleans, fought with whatever tools she could to survive. It was what was expected to even live in these lands. As the saying goes: When life gives you lemons…

"...Yield." Jaune groaned while massaging his chin.

Jaune was not a bad fighter. No matter how many times his parents denied him the chance, she believed her childhood friend could be someone great. When he saved that caravan by what seemed like divine intervention, she believed in his dream of being a hero. When he was denied the chance to train as a full-fledged Huntsman, she in turn provided all she could to get him to his goal.

When she was sponsored by the Arc family to enter preparatory school, she decided then and there that she'd make it up to Jaune. Spars, workouts, tactics… she provided what she could to give him a fighting chance. And while the former was few and far between due to school being so far away from Orleans, she did not shy away from getting him accustomed to fighting those with specialized combat equipment. Back then, she'd invite students from her school. They'd treat it like a little trip, hang around the wildlands to get accustomed to wildland territory. Jaune would accompany as the guide. And he'd use the opportunity to learn how others moved with weapons by either spectating spars or participating in handicapped versions of it.

And when she herself could not come to help, the latter of the rest of the things she offered allowed him to keep in relative shape while also cultivating an imaginative mind during combat. She diligently copied page after page of textbook information about Grimm, human anatomy and theoretical combat tactics.

From that last spar she reminisced, she gathered that he bided his time by making her waste bullets to the point that the threat of her weapon was diminished. He counted her shots enough times to strike at her weakest. He did so by learning defensive maneuvers and had the stamina to maintain the defensive mobility he had. And while his offense was lackluster, it was just enough to take him seriously that she left her weapon in favor of using her arms and legs.

She sure hoped someone at Beacon unlocked his Aura. He'd only get better from there.

"You look deep in thought." Rosmontis commented as she stood by Tex's side.

"She's drinking air." Texas said in amusement. "The fact she's not registering her empty cup says it's deeper in thought. She's probably thinking about her hubby." Tex said teasingly. Light chuckles escaped her and easily infected the white cat of team NCTR.

Nino immediately looked to the lupine teammate. Red dusted her cheeks. "Hubby?! Where'd you get that from?"

Tex shrugged her shoulders. "You talk about him like he's this perfect guy. A lil cuckoo, but overall someone you clearly like. Time hasn't diminished your interest in him and that's not factoring the fact you've been friends since childhood-"

"Mrs. Arc tells you to informally refer to her shortened name or just 'Mom'." Rosmontis added, leaning forward with a small smile on her face.

The wolf Faunus nodded as she added Rosmontis' contribution to the list. "And there's been more than one instance where we've talked about him. Today. With every single bit of criticism against him, you instead defend him wholeheartedly. And now all of a sudden, the missing son is found?" She chuckled as she leaned against a porch bench. "Since he's in Beacon, the only thing I can assume is you'll tear down the place just to find him."

"It's not like that!" Nino huffed in denial as she stomped the ground.

"Didn't you say you didn't want to be adopted into the family just so you could take the Arc name later on in life?" Charlotte joined in on the teasing by dropping the equivalent of the Mother Of All Bombs.

"Ngh!" Her face burned brighter than any active volcano. "Mom!"

"That's the spirit, dearie!" Charlotte and the rest chuckled at Nino's expense and embarrassment.

"-une."

Yang's hair had to be a mess now. After shocking her with darn near serious levels of voltage, her luscious golden locks had to be downright atrocious in comparison to its original beauty!

"Ja-!"

A figurative light bulb moment brightened his mood; he had an idea to reconcile with the unconscious brawler of Team RWBY!

"Jaune!"

Startled by the shout, Jaune flinched. He blinked several times as if to reacquaint himself with his surroundings. Sat on the comfy communal couch, the blond swordsman of JNPR looked up silently at an irate Pyrrha Nikos.

"Seems I finally got through to you…" She said as she crossed her arms.

Jaune chuckled in embarrassment. Caught in his own thoughts, he wondered if his pondering look appeared goofy to the outside perspective. "Sorry, Pyrrha. Got occupied with something on my mind."

The red-headed gladiator sighed. "I can see that for myself, Jaune." She sat at the couch's arm with her back to him. Jaune could hear her slow, deep breaths. She was preparing herself to ask her question. He let her take her time. "What happened back there?"

Jaune realized how loaded of a question it was. He then realized it could have meant a few very recent certain events. He looked at her. Her usual neat red waterfall of a ponytail frayed at certain parts. Her collar wasn't completely done. The edges of the whites of her eyes were tainted with red roots. By the grace of makeup and professional upbringing/habit did she seem presentable at a distance.

He chose to guess that it was last night's incident rather than the fight's conclusion and answered as such. "Didn't I tell you?" Jaune asked. "Walked into the path of that King Taijitu. Got hurt and ended up unconscious. Then we got ambushed to the point I used all of me to save Weiss last night." The redhead bit her lip. Her body shuddered. Her left eye twitched ever so slightly. Though he wouldn't see her facial expressions, her body language alone showed that she disapproved. Of what, he couldn't fathom. He thought she would have been glad to see bravery in the weakling named Jaune Arc. That her efforts bore fruit.

"How much are you willing to sacrifice to save someone, Jaune?" She asked softly.

"Everything." And that was literal. His brand that she'd never know about was there on the back of his hand to prove it.

Pyrrha shivered at the simple and swift answer. "B-Because it's Weiss?"

Jaune frowned at the question. His blue eyes momentarily glowed electric blue."Because it's right!" Jaune snappily answered as he nearly bolted off of the couch. The redhead got off the armrest from the volume her partner exhibited. "It's kinda rude of you to just think I did my best because it was Weiss that I had to save! I may like her, Pyrrha, but I don't like the assumption at all! It's insulting that you boil my motivation as some simple form of puppy love or some desperate loser that thinks saving the girl gets him the girl!"

Caught in a panic, Pyrrha waved her hands in front of her. "That's not where I was going with that line of questioning, Jaune!"

He gave his partner a pointed stare as he folded his arms and sat back down at his seat. "You're not someone I'm supposed to doubt, Pyrrha. You're my partner." Pyrrha looked relieved upon hearing that. He himself remained neutral in his expression. "But I gotta be honest, this is the one time I don't believe you."

"Jaune…"

"I thought after all the time we've spent training together…" He turned away from her. "I thought you knew how serious I am about the career choice I picked in its professional capacity." His shoulders tensed as he trembled slightly in offense to his partner's assumption. Eventually, he simmered down with a couple of deep, rhythmic breaths. Without announcing his intentions, he left the room.

An unrecognizable heat enveloped her. It wasn't the same heat that emanated from her Semblance. This felt… alive. It pulsated around her body, neither giving aid nor torture as it announced its presence.

She calmed down, its arrival heralded curiosity in Yang. But to focus on this… thing meant she drowned out the noise around her. Her eyesight was engulfed in fire. Waterfalls of conflagration surrounded and trapped her. Four gargantuan pillars with spiral carvings jutted out into a black sky. They towered above her so high that she could not see the ends of it. Even so, she thought to herself that the empty sky was her way out of this obvious hallucination.

There was no way this was real life. She was fighting Jaune in the arena. She would have just stayed on campus -not where this hellscape is! Her eyes scanned for a way up into that seemingly unreachable exit. Left, right, up, down; she looked around the scene.

As soon as she thought of it, a section of the wall of flames opened up to show a spiraling staircase. She didn't hesitate to climb up it. Her feet carried her as fast as they could go. After her feet left the previous step, the foundation began to bubble and destabilize. She quickly glanced back to see the steps crumbling as she progressed upwards.

Hurriedly, she ran up the stairs. Her steps skipped two at a time as she built up a steady cadence. The brawler ran alongside the wall of fire. Its intense heat that should have burned her. It should have scorched her vibrant gold hair. Her skin should have darkened from the lingering ash. Yet the flame's presence felt akin to that of a campfire. Embers sprinkled above and around her like glowing rain.

"What's the hurry, young lady?" Asked an echoing voice. "My abode not to your liking?"

Yang did not deign to answer that in favor of running faster. Disembodied voice in a random hellhole? Yeah this was a nightmare she had to get out of.

"I'm hurt, dearie. You insult my home, and run for the hills the moment you're able? For shame…"

"I'm not interested in anything you have to say, creeper!" Yang shouted at the voice.

Just then, a massive shadow pierced the wall of flames. Even with the illuminating power of fire, it did not shine on the newcomer's large obsidian body. Or rather… its head. Its serpentine head.

"I slither, for your information!" Responded the telepathic gigantic snake as it put its snout inches away from her face.

Frozen in shock, Yang fell backwards into the collapsing stairs. The sight of engulfing flames slowly faded to black.

Yang Xiao Long woke up with a start. She sat straight from her bed. She recognized the infirmary. She also recognized that it was pitch black outside with only the moon to illuminate the wilderness' landscape. But before she could even think of what to do next, her body ached. Agonizing. Her muscles screamed with each micro movement. It was like a full-body version of a leg cramp: excruciatingly annoying. She endured the torment from the paralytic sensation to the point her flash flashed into its usual golden blaze.

Her pain receptors flared all over her body. A miniscule amount of movement equaled a disproportionate level of agony. She idly wondered if this is what old people felt when getting up in the morning. A section of her brain just threw out orders just to see what she could tolerate. All in all, Yang, the indomitable brawler of Team RWBY, was practically helpless.

But she wouldn't say that this was worse than outright dying.

The infirmary door burst open to reveal an individual with a sealed box fumbling into the room. Off balance due to their haste, they tripped and dropped their box as they landed face first. The owner of the clumsiness on display was none other than Jaune Arc. Had Yang not seen the level of skill he presented, she would have no suspicion regarding Jaune Arc as a trainee-Huntsman.

"Yang! What's happening?! W-What can I do to help?" He asked as he approached in panic.

Now… Back to his old, silly ways, the elder sister of Ruby couldn't help but feel something was off about the leader of team JNPR. While the Semblance was new… it wasn't the entirety of the change. Sure did take up a majority of the load, she could attest to that!

Based on her experience writing an essay on Semblances with her partner, Blake, the topic was a can of worms. To begin with, many, if not most scholars, debated that Semblances reflected the innate sense of self of an individual. There's been commonality in speed-type Semblances reflecting some form of drive that incentivizes urgency. Enmity types, or those that gain physical strength under physical duress like herself, find commonality in that individuals with this type of Semblance had aspects of unyielding personalities.

Elementalists had their branch of scholarly debate. Simply put, prominent personality traits defined the element as one side of the argument like normal. Hot-blooded, earnest folk tied to fire-based Semblances and the works. The other side stated an individual's most prominently displayed deadly sin was the identifying trait. Sounded like a nonsensical reason she'd find in some magic/scifi genre in those Mistrali saturday cartoons. To Yang, both sides sounded equally stupid. A prominent personality wasn't much different from a sin if both of them aligned in her eyes. A lazy person being slothful was the same as a person with the sin of sloth being lazy!

Regardless, she remembered Blake reading up on Elementalists. Luckily, she remembered a subsection that focused on one particular sin. Sin of pride. And if there was something she noticed Jaune had… it was a lot of pride. Not in himself, no. She could remember the trainwreck he was upon entering Beacon's landing docks. She remembered her poor boots too. But to the matter at hand… the blond in question felt immense pride for his family history.

By definition, pride was a feeling, deep pleasure, or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. Jaune's hero worship fit that to an unbearable degree as of late.

An elementalist with the sin of pride had an extreme focal point. Case in point, Jaune's desire to be a hero because of that historic family legacy. He's built his life around that one thing. Yang could not fault him for it. It was part of his upbringing. Continuing on that focal point, to have pride means to show it off. Spread it out. Like the branches of a lightning bolt, that focus -that pride is put on display.

If this was the case of Jaune getting this Semblance, she found herself on a self-imposed mission to make this young man learn some self-love. If he had no sense of self-preservation, then she'd give him a reason to stay alive!

"Next time you go that rough on me, take me out to dinner first, Jaune." She spoke out in pain while trying to deliver her usual brand of humor.

He caught the joke and blushed red. "Not funny, Yang." He muttered as he sat by her side before putting the box he brought down by his feet. "So… how're you feeling?"

"Could be better… to be honest." Yang answered weakly as she began to fall back to her bed. Instantly, her body was wrapped in Jaune's arms. "Eh…?"

"Sorry!" He said as he moved Yang's hair out of her face. He paused for a moment, his eyes drawn to something on her face. Her Semblance's glow, which she forgot remained, illuminated the blond boy's face. His cheeks tinted red as he glanced away. "T-The way you sound, it's like your whole body is probably sore. Best I gently put you back to bed instead of the sudden movement you were about to do."

"R…Right. Makes sense!" She agreed awkwardly while glancing away. He proceeded to gently pull her back to bed. Rested normally, she found the position off for the moment. She changed her mind. "Actually, could you just lift the head of the bed?"

"Sure." He pulled his arms away from her to fumble with the bells and whistles at the side of the bed. Eventually, he found it. The machine's inner mechanics cranked and groaned from moving. When it was set to her liking, Jaune sat down and watched her patiently.

"...What brings you to my neck of the woods?" She asked.

"Your hair." He simply answered.

"...My hair?" He nodded. Enveloping herself in her curtain of golden locks, "You…came for my hair?!" He nodded again at the bewildered blonde bombshell of a Huntress.

"The very same hair that made me bust through the door to see if you were safe from some sort of fire incident. All I could see from the crack at the bottom of the door was the glow of your hair. I thought the room was on fire!" He exclaimed with his arms wide open to convey the panic in him. He noticed his over-exaggeration and quickly recovered with an embarrassed cough and a glance off to the side.

She giggled. There he is. There's the lovable goofball with a heart of gold. Still, he was thinking with his hero-brain again.

"The very same hair I'm trying to fix." Jaune explained firmly as he pulled out the box by his feet. Upon opening the box, Yang was presented a bevy of hair products ranging from conditioners, shampoos, specialty brushes, and other tools. "Since… I ruined it and all. Sorry…" He spoke bashfully as he pulled a mirror to show her the monstrosity that was her hair.

And what a monstrosity it was. It was only because Jaune apologized that her reaction to the sight of her hair turning out into a jungle of tangled and spiky mess was restrained. If you call screaming into a pillow loud enough that it still sounded like normal screaming restrained. She bawled her eyes out as she frantically and uselessly attempted to straighten her hair with her bare hands, finding the effort to be painful and humiliating. Painful because her body still hurt. Humiliating because her hair's a mess. Her pride and joy, ruined.

It took a few minutes, but she eventually calmed down. Her head turned to him. Lilac eyes peered through the curtain of shaggy blonde hair. "Do you…even know how to fix hair?" Yang asked with an eyebrow raised.

Jaune let the box drop to his lap to raise his arms as if he was surrendering. "I'm no professional, but I can safely say I've had my fair share of hair trouble to deal with by being in relation to all of my siblings."

"And how many is that?" Yang asked curiously.

"Seven."

She leaned toward him hastily and dangerously to get close to the young man beside her. "Are you -ack! -kidding me?! Seven?!" She recoiled a little from the lingering pain but pushed through nonetheless. Jaune held her by her shoulders to keep her from falling off the bed. "Where do your parents even have the time to continue the bloodline like that…?"

Jaune looked away with a dusting of red on his cheeks. "Mooooving on…"

The buxom blonde laughed at his expense just before reclining back on the bed. "Right! Right… I'll…take you up on your offer. But could we do that in the morning? I'd rather do this when I'm fully rested and able to keep a clear head at all times."

Jaune nodded and smiled as he stowed away the box underneath the bed. "As the lady requests."

"Oh I quite like being called that." Yang remarked. "Keep doing that."

"Do I get an upgraded name then?"

"Not a chance, Vomit Boy."

The boy groaned while the maiden snickered.

"You do realize at some point you'll need to curb that mane of yours."

"Over my dead body."

Jaune sighed. "Why do I even bother? If I cant get my sisters to change their hairstyles, what makes me think I can make you change your mind?"

She heartily slapped his right shoulder. "Now you're getting it!"

Neither of the two blonds noticed the crack in the door. The person stared silently at their little bonding moment. It was an honest surprise to see Yang entertain a conversation with Jaune past the teasing flirt she always gave to lighten the mood. Jaune grabbed a thin book out of the box. Yang joked about possible inappropriate content, to which the young man blushed and vehemently denied. He explained it was a comic book. Issue seventy-six of whatever series they cared not to remember. Yang seemed intrigued, if only because said issue had some outrageous plot twists that actually made sense apparently. Jaune took the opportunity to "nerd out" and explain the intricacies of the series that led to the reveal.

"You're a bad book recommender, y'know that right?"

"Eh?"

"Who gives a newcomer to the series the plot twist issue?"

"Don't lie. I've seen what you read to pass the time in the library." Yang seemed to choke on some saliva. He snickered, knowing he caught on to her lie.

Oh? That was news to hear. Yang Xiao Long in the library? Granted it was for comic books, but proactive action to just entertain herself with anything else other than video games was quite enlightening. Must have gotten it from Blake.

Satisfied by the sight, they nodded walked away.

Inside the Arc household, two sisters watched their brother's empty bed. Tidied but untouched. Dust gathered over his bookshelf. Walls of comic books lined the three-tiered shelf. The brother was an avid collector of them from Mistrali to Valean forms. Neither were amused by their contents. Heroes. After being told their brother died and became Schnee property, they stewed in their own frustration as they stared out the window. The happy guests and adult hosts were unaware how the two felt.

Their brother went and became a hero again. It was only sheer luck he managed to snag a second life.

One of them took a book off the shelf. Its title said "Hollowed Knight". The sister that picked the book up remembered this one. A vengeful knight reanimated into the armor he wore. Because of this condition, he had no permanent body. A decent strike to the body would collapse his form back to its basic pieces. Only by his will to avenge his betrayal did he assemble himself back up each time.

"Ah… that's the one that is discovered by the runaway princess, right?"

A nod of confirmation. The runaway princess escaped the kingdom, which was overthrown by corrupt individuals of her father's court. She managed to survive and travel over several kingdoms to evade potential pursuers until one day she stumbled into a town that thrives off of bounties. One such bounty was the 'Ruin Knight.' Her knight, described in the armor he was known wearing as castle guard.

She ran into the forest that reported multiple sightings of the apparition in armor. When they reunited, vengeance was reformed. Instead of anger for the betrayal, it became motivation to free his home from the shackles of corruption. He'd be a hero to his home even if he were to be thought of as a villain.

The two shuddered at the minor similarities between this story and their brother's situation. The book was hurriedly returned before they ventured to the basement. They have to have a discussion with a certain someone.

Walls of steel directed their descent into the lower levels of the Arc household. As a Hunter family, their house was designed to have an inner sanctum built with sturdy fortifications in mind. This floor alone could withstand the stomps of a Goliath! Tried and tested design derived from their ancestral home now adapted to the Mistrali environment.

"You're disturbing me." Said a voice from below.

As they completely entered the space, they were greeted by one other individual that did not react to their arrival except for that prior comment. Air whistled as a blade passed through its domain. Steel blurred, rapidly piercing an imaginary target as if it were a woodpecker. The barrage finished when it swung low to cut at the legs. It flowed into the next strike, arcing upwards before slamming down on the imaginary head of their opponent.

"You didn't show up to the family meeting." Said one of the sisters, not impressed with the combat on display.

A feminine sigh came out of the individual's mouth. "My time is better spent somewhere else than just wasting it on feeling sorry for myself." Answered the basement dweller as they sheathed their blade. "Father knows this and didn't bother wasting time to inform me."

"I thought you of all people would have been there to hear what had to be said. It was about Jaune, after all." Said the other sister.

The individual turned and sat at a nearby chair. Blonde hair parted to show dull, jade eyes that lacked care. She propped her right cheek on her right fist, balanced on her right elbow. "Funny. He cared not to mention why the meeting was happening." She said in a monotonous drawl. "Dear Papa has gone and made a mistake again…" She rolled her eyes, "Whatever shall I do?"

The pair of sisters attempted to speak, but they knew better than to defend their father in front of this individual. "You could have at least listened in…"

The seated sister turned the chair around. "I know what was talked about. I don't need to hear anything else about Jaune. And while it's sad he's become what he is, I'm just happy he's alive…" The three of them remained silent for a time. Whether it was seconds or minutes, none of them knew how long that silence passed. Uncomfortable, the sister who dwelled in the basement cleared her throat. "If you don't have any further business here in the basement, then please leave."

"Jeanne…"

She brandished her weapon. A fine, silver longsword. Simple in design, the cross-shaped weapon whistled through the air as it cut a path to point at the two sisters. Though an addition of a long strip of cloth at the blade's pommel hung nearly all the way to the floor. "I'm not going to repeat myself a second time." Jeanne stated sternly.

The two sisters complied, and left the sword-wielding girl alone as they ascended to the ground floor. All the while, they heard their sister's sword slashing air. They never understood what caused Jeanne to train so hard, but maybe one of these years, they'd see her efforts bear fruit.

When the pair of sisters left the basement, Jeanne sighed and sat on a chair. She undid her braids, and let out her long, flowing hair colored like the dawn. The maiden sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. It wasn't enough, her effort. She found herself much too slow to react. Too weak to contend. Too reactive when she should be proactive. She ran through the scenarios in her head multitudes of times, and always found herself lacking. People found her too critical of herself despite the praise she'd been given time and again.

As she should! If anything, they should be more critical of themselves! Look at the Fang. They've snowballed into violence one step at a time. Most likely they justified their violence time and again. They became the way they are now because they could not acknowledge the mistakes for what they are. They've made themselves the very monsters the humans detest them for.

She was getting off track with her line of thought.

Her weapon was a Scale of Juno. Untouched, in regards to modern modifications, it was only wielded with skill. Skill she was praised and acknowledged for. Later on, it was supplied with supplementary items like Dust or consumable gadgets like grenades. She was tempted -Oh she was ever so tempted to modify it. But she couldn't. She didn't think it was worth it to desecrate the simplistic beauty of the weapon.

But that won't help her. Not at all.

He would simply overpower her means of attack. He could fight at range too. He had innate, but uncultivated battle sense. Enough experience would recoup the shortcoming quickly.

Almighty Fallen...

Begotten power...

Cast light onto the sullen

Bare thine grace and wonder

She mentally prayed to the demigoddess. Night after night, she prayed. She was like her father in that regard. That's as far as she'd say she was similar to him. He was a gods-fearing man. She considered herself a follower of his religion, but able to think outside the Grand Testament. In any case, he she was, praying yet again. "I've called for you many times, yet you don't answer..." She whispered. "What do I have to do...to make it go away?"

The night sky was blanketed by the darkest of clouds. Nary a star in the sky pierced through the black curtain. It bellowed like a beast. Flashes of light danced across its body, yet never departed its side. The winds howled, toppling trees from their roots and cleaving rooftops with relative ease. The ground split; the earth's blazing blood razed the land. At it's center. A thing. A tiny, human being. A shouting, grieving youth. Tendrils of white lightning sprouted from their back like wings. Their left arm lost any sign of humanity and became that of some scaled beast. A once defiant set of blue corroded into a furious, flaming crimson.

Yes, Jeanne was burdened with forbidden knowledge. Visions. Glimpses of life that she never thought possible. A glimpse of future. With the way the world is turning out and the most recent events happening to her family, those visions were starting to see a kernel of truth behind them. All of it led on one particular nightmare:

Her brother becoming the cataclysm that destroys Beacon.

Hello everyone! Sorry about this late upload. Life, as you know, can get quite stressful. Mine came in the form of doing a lot of 12-hour shifts consecutively. You'd find yourself having some difficulty continuing knowing you're both physically and mentally tired. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know this one isn't much into moving the story forward timeline wise. We're still basically just past the day after Jaune became a vessel and here I am still trying to establish a few things lore and character wise. Hopefully, by next chapter, I get things rolling.

Again sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!