It was finally the day for the last qualifier battles for the first year students. Coco and her team dominated the second year qualifiers, and everyone was surprised when Velvet defeated many opponents despite yet to use her weapon. Now it was time to discover who would be each other's opponents in the first year. This time the bleachers were filled with people, from students from the other schools, family members and reporters to staff and Beacon students.

All of that only served to make Jaune more nervous. This time he didn't had the advantage of people not knowing his and Saber's abilities, and his opponents were way better warriors than the ones they fought the other day. Both saber and Pyrrha tried to make him relax, but now that he got so far, he wanted to win. But at the same time, he felt the conflict of not wanting his great friends to lose.

"Jaune, that is how it is." Pyrrha reassured him, gently holding his hands with hers. "We will give our best to win, so we all can only ask of you the same."

"Pyrrha is right, Master. If you don't give your best shot, I won't be able to give mine." Jaune smiled at both girls and sighed once again, now making a real effort to get those thoughts out of his head.

"I promised you both I would do my best. And an Arc never goes back with his word." He reassured them and both girls once again felt proud of his attitude.

"Aww, aren't you cute?" They all looked at Emerald, Jaune with a worried look while Pyrrha and Saber with murder intent. Emerald laughed at the scene. "Oh my, what possessive fangirls! Jealous of little me! Don't worry, this time I just came to wish good luck to our blonde knight. I will do nice things another time. When your fangirls aren't around."

She winked at Jaune and walked away, her hips swaying more than normal. Pyrrha barely could hide her jealousy; while Saber still thought something was wrong with the way emerald approached her Master. They didn't have time to talk about it as Ozpin took the stage, followed by Ms. Goodwitch. The big holo-screens showed the eight students from Beacon that would now dispute the sole four spots at the tournament.

"Welcome all to the last qualifier for the first year students. Competition help hone skills, and that is why our students fight at the Vytal Tournament. I hope to see a good show of both skill and sportsmanship. Now, today we will see one on one battles between the eight students that were able to pass the first round. And the battles will be…" Ozpin looked up, as did everyone else as the panel shuffled the students' pictures.

Pyrrha Vs Ruby.

The two redheads nodded at each other and mouthed a good luck wish.

Nora Vs Weiss.

The duo shared a challenging glare between them.

Ren Vs Yang.

Yang only smiled, the same for Ren. It would be an interesting battle considering their fighting styles, power Vs technique.

Jaune Vs Blake.

Jaune's picture had a small picture of Saber within it, something Jaune asked for. The boy almost had forgotten Blake could be an opponent, the same as the catgirl. They looked at each other and smiled in acknowledgement. Jaune saw Blake fighting rarely, so he was worried and already thinking of strategies, the only thing he was good enough to be proud of. He didn't want to rely purely on Saber's skills, because that would not be enough for his own ego. He then left a sigh out.

"Come on Jaune, don't worry, you will do great, I am sure of it." Pyrrha once again reassured him, and Jaune gently held her hand.

"Yeah. Now, go on and do your best, partner. I promise I will too,"

"And an Arc never goes back with his word." She said before giving him a quick kiss in the cheek. "For good luck."

Jaune was left speechless, while Saber just smiled happily. They missed the happy blush the Spartan had as she entered the arena for her fight.

…

If anyone expected boring battles, they were disappointed.

Pyrrha and Ruby got at it first, and despite the smaller girl being younger, she held a fight on equal footing for most of the time. But Pyrrha had the experience and her semblance was especially effective against Ruby's Crescent Rose and the weapon's over use of magnetic metal. Despite her speed granting Ruby a few hits, it wasn't enough to defeat the Spartan, that finished the fight by using her polarity to force Ruby in striking the ground too hard, and as the younger girl tried to get the weapon free, Pyrrha finished with a shield throw and a bit too many apologies and the promise of fresh baked cookies. So Ruby smiled despite her defeat.

Nora surprised everyone by putting Weiss in a pinch. Team JNPR knew their heavy hitter wasn't stupid, and in fact all her movements were carefully planned. Sadly, they were carefully planned to be as flashy as possible and once Weiss perceived it she used it to her advantage. A few well positioned glyphs and the use of her ice Dust trapped Nora long enough for Weiss gracefully wins with a few hits.

Ren and Yang had the longest, most epic battle. Ren was a master of defense, and he blocked almost everything Yang threw at him. But even her light punches were hard as a train hitting you, so that was draining Ren's Aura. Ren was able to get many hits of his own, that putting things in an even field until Yang activated her own Semblance. That was the problem of fighting Yang, the more you hit her, the stronger she hit back. If her light punches were being hitting by a train, her heavy punches were like being hit by a cruise ship dropped on you from the tallest tower of Beacon. Ren learned that being hit by Yang when she used her Semblance was like being hit by a cruise ship filled with trains dropped from orbit. Yang won by KO, but she also was dead tired and almost in the red on Aura after that victory.

Now it was finally Jaune's turn, and to his surprised everyone was eager to see what he and Saber could do against a high level opponent. Jaune groaned as he walked towards the arena. Seeing his friends fighting made him realize that his victory against Cardin really didn't meant that much. They were leagues ahead of Cardin, damn, Pyrrha defeated the whole team CRDL without dropping a sweat. If Jaune didn't had Saber by his side, even if he somehow managed to qualify, he would never win against any of his friends. But Saber was there, with a determined look on her face, and he smiled. They were right, she was his Semblance, and therefore he would not beat himself over it.

"Saber, let's show them what we can do."

"Certainly, Master. But art thou sure thou do not wish me to use my secret weapon?" She asked as they entered the arena. There was a big ovation from the bleachers, but both ignored it.

"Nah. Let's save it for the Grimm. Besides, I believe we can win if we stick with the plan."

"Certainly." She finished with a proud smile.

Blake wasn't that confident. Surely she could defeat Jaune with easy if he was fighting alone, but she knew Saber didn't use the full extent of her abilities yet. But the Faunus girl also knew many people fought against the duo in the wrong way. Most concentrated in defeating Saber, ignoring Jaune. They didn't need to defeat Saber. Saber is classified as an Aura construct. All she needed to do was to defeat the Master, not the servant, and that she could do.

She stood in the middle of the arena and analyzed Jaune. She expected him to be nervous, but he was quite calm. They exchanged smiles and Blake almost felt sorry she would have to fight him, as he was always nice to her, even after Weiss told them of her heritage at her request. But Blake wanted to win that tournament. It could be a turning point if a Faunus won that. She broke her line of thought as Ms. Goodwitch finished revising the rules.

"Good luck, Jaune." Blake said as she shook his hands.

"You too, kitty cat." He answered with a wink and a smile, leaving Blake baffled. Jaune never hit on her, and now of all times he decided…

Brilliant little devil! He tried to throw me off with that!

Blake now understood why he was a tactical genius. He started fighting the qualifier already, and tried to break her concentration, and she smiled because it almost worked. She took a heavy breath and readied herself, watching as both Saber and Jaune got ready, though Saber still kept her sword invisible. They waited before they heard Ms. Goodwicth voice telling them to start.

Fast!

Blake blocked saber's attack and felt how strong they were before she leapt over the blonde girl and rushed against Jaune. She was faster than Saber, and she would use it to hit Jaune as much as possible before the knight girl could interfere. But the knight boy already expected that and Blake first attack met his shield. Blake understood now why Weiss told her to remember that Jaune was bigger than her. Blake's attacks were about precision and not strength, and her attack did nothing to move Jaune and his shield.

Blake created a shadow and jumped out of the way as both Jaune and Pyrrha swung their sword in the position she was. She couldn't win with muscles. Jaune had huge reserves of Aura, even considering Saber was constantly draining it. And with his shield and training, Blake needed to use a more varied combination of moves.

She changed her weapon to gun mode and fired at Saber and Jaune, forcing Jaune behind his shield and Saber to dodge. Blake returned the sword to its blade form and drew the bladed sheath, exchanging a dew blows with the Servant before using her shadows against her. Saber dispelled the shadows only to realize Blake once again moved against Jaune, shooting her gun and forcing him behind his shield. She jumped over him and tried to hit, but Jaune quickly spun around and blocked with his sword, and forced her to back away again.

He is also stronger than I expected.

Everyone looking at the battle had the impression that Blake was in the advantage as she was the only one landing hits. But Pyrrha smiled at that. She knew what Jaune was trying to do, something he would usually do with the Grimm. He was setting a trap.

With her options getting limited, Blake decided to play dirty. She shot at Saber to keep the girl at bay, and using the ribbon on her sword to trap Jaune's feet, which she succeeded, but when she pulled in an attempt to trip him, nothing happened. She noticed that Jaune pinned down the ribbon with his sword and was smiling at her. She looked surprised and detached the ribbon, in time to block Saber's new barrage of slashes.

The fight all of sudden seemed way more balanced than before, as now Jaune got himself out of the ribbon and rushed towards the Faunus girl. She used her shadows once again to escape the dual attack, and this time she landed a few hits against Jaune, making him lose his balance and fall. It was her chance, and she jumped at the boy to attempt to finish that fight, but Saber blocked the attack and launched her sideways. Blake feline nature helped her recover the balance.

Saber is even stronger than Jaune!

Now both Jaune and Saber rushed against her. Blake threw her sword-sheath at Jaune, which deflected it with his shield. Blake ran towards him and slid to avoid Saber's sword, using the same motion to hit Jaune's leg and tripping him. In a flash she got up and put her fott on the boy's chest, sword near his throat.

"Yield?" she asked, but Jaune smiled.

"Better you ask Saber about that, kitty cat."

Saber attacked with a thrust, that Blake avoided, but when she tried to jump far from them she fell. As she looked at what held her, she saw that Jaune used her discarded ribbon to tie her leg while she asked him to yield. Before she could do anything about it both Saber and him were above her, pointing their swords at her, now Saber's sword fully visible.

"Yield?" They both asked, and Blake sighed. She couldn't escape that situation, not without having to hurt herself and her friends.

This is why we have partners…

"Yeah, I yield." She answered as Jaune offered his hand and she got up. Ms. Goodwitch ended the match and there were a round of applauses from the bleachers. When they all left the arena, Pyrrha almost tackled Jaune to the ground with her hug. Jaune smiled and hugged her back, while Yang and Ruby tried to comfort Blake.

…

"Now, Mercury, you still think that Arc boy is irrelevant?" Cinder asked as they walked away from the Arena.

"I think that Blake girl that Adam is so adamant in not hurting is not as good as he made it be." Mercury said still trying to belittle Jaune and Saber.

"Don't be dumb, Mercury. All of that fight was clearly into blondie's hand. Every attack and movement Blake threw was perfectly countered by Saber and him. He might not be a good warrior alone, but put some skilled people under his command, and he will be a headache." Emerald countered, now really impressed at the fight.

"And this is a headache I don't want. Emerald, try to seduce him, make the level of trust his friends have for him go down. A leader is only as good as the people that follow him." Cinder ordered, and Emerald nodded.

…

Thankfully Ozpin final speech was as short as the first one. Pyrrha, Weiss, Yang and Jaune, with Saber near him, were going to represent Beacon at the Vytal Tournament in two weeks, to the young knight surprise. He never expected to be able to, now he was going to have to try even harder for it. He was glad he still had two weeks to train, but he knew each battle would be harder.

Meeting everyone was what to be expected. Pyrrha received a lot of praise, and everyone said she was the favorite to win. Weiss and Yang also received their fair share of victory wishes, but Jaune and Saber were kind of ignored. Aside their usual friends and a few girls that became fan of him, most students still had trouble accepting his victory. It was OK at first, but now they felt Jaune had an unfair advantage, no matter if the tournament commission accepted Saber as a Semblance. The boy mostly ignored the stares, already used to the mocking stares, so these new jealousy ones were nothing he couldn't write off.

"Congratulations on your victory. I am eager to see more of it in the tournament."

As Jaune turned around to answer the voice that said the compliment he felt a pair of hands grabbing his collar and lips meeting his. With his eyes wide open he saw Emerald kissing him, and tried his best to get away from her without having to hurt her, so all he could do is try to move back and flail his arms. His friends looked aghast at the scene and it was only when Pyrrha used her Semblance to force Emerald away that the boy could breathe.

"It seems your fangirls won't allow little me have some little fun. I will see you around, Jauney." Emerald winked and sensually walked away, Jaune blushing and turned around to see the surprised looks on his friends' faces, but especially the sad eyes Pyrrha cast upon him.

"Congratulations on getting an admirer, fearless leader." She said as she almost ran away. Jaune took a second to realize what happened before rushing after her, the clear sensation of déjà vu.

"Well, that was a thing." Yang said as they looked the pair walking away.

…

Why I am letting that girl getting under my skin like that? Jaune clearly didn't want that kiss and tried his best to get out of it, but his gentlemanly nature made it impossible to do so without pushing her. I can trust him, so why I am so angry? It is because I am not his girlfriend, so he is free to go with anyone he wants… Why can't he want me?"

Pyrrha kept walked aimless, absorbed in her thoughts. It took her to almost hit a wall to finally stop long enough to Jaune reach her. He grabbed her arm gently and turned her around, giving her a surprising but warm hug. The redhead eyes once again were wide open. He once again chased her. Why she couldn't just trust him as she was supposed to as his partner? She hugged him back and hid her face on his shoulder.

"Please, tell me we will not have to do this every time some girl I don't know try a stunt like that…" he said, and Pyrrha felt tears flowing from her eyes.

"I am sorry Jaune, I don't know what got into me…" She said as she tried to suppress those tears.

"Pyrrha… there is only one girl I want to kiss me… and it is you…" Pyrrha eyes were wide open once again. Did she heard right or was her mind playing tricks with her? "I was hoping to tell you this only after the tournament, maybe after my first victory on combat class. But things have being so chaotic that I didn't wanted to distract you with the tournament coming. Pyr, I am in love with you, I have being for some time know."

"Jaune…" She looked deep into his eyes and caressed his face. There were no lies in his eyes, in the way he looked at her. More tears flow out of her eyes as she heard the words she wanted for so long. "I have being in love with you for so long. When we met I knew we could be real friends, which you would not hang out with me due to my status. But when you confided me and we started training, I realized that I was in love with you at first sight. That the reason I actively tried to be your partner was because somehow I knew you would be the one person that would love Pyrrha the girl, not Pyrrha the star."

"Eh. Why we are wasting our time talking?"

Jaune kissed Pyrrha, and the girl kissed back. That felt fantastic, and she felt that every single cloud in her mind was swept away by that single gesture. Now they were more than partners, and she loved feeling like that. She had no more reason to fear, no more reason to be nervous, no more reason to hide how she really felt. Jaune felt like someone gave him a reward for a good deed he never noticed he did. Now it was his time to be afraid. Pyrrha was fantastic on his eyes, and he was just he. He needed to do his best, maybe even more than that to deserve the love Pyrrha gave him.

"So, do we tell them?" Jaune said referencing his friends, as finally they broke the kiss, which felt too short for both of them despite the lack of air. Pyrrha had a grin in her face, no more tears coming from her dazzling green eyes.

"Let them in the dark for a while. I want you all for me. I waited way too long for this." Pyrrha said kissing Jaune again. The boy could only think of one thing.

Well, it seems I somehow got into a relationship with the most perfect girl ever. Now what?

…

Blake sat at her secluded spot at the club's library. She sighed at her defeat, and wondered what her mistakes were. Certainly she had a chance in defeating Saber. She was sure that she still could easily defeat Jaune. But the duo was close to impossible to be defeated. The way they coordinated so easily, how they countered every maneuver against her, how Jaune improvised in the middle of the battle against her.

That is why we have partners.

She realized that Jaune was not the weak link in that chain. He was part of a whole, that with him any team, any partner would perform better. And with hat thought she grabbed the book she found the other day. If that book told the truth she too could have a servant, someone that would always be by her side.

She regretted that last thought. Yang was always there for her, as it was Ruby and even Weiss despite their rock start. Even team JNPRS was made of people that she could count on. But every news of the white Fang acting violently and the Faunus hate on the rise made her fear for herself and for her people. She needed all the help she could use.

"The book says the ritual need to be done at full moon days. Saber was summoned in a full moon. It is worth a shot. The next full moon is just rightly before the tournament."

With a decision made, she once again read the mysterious book she found.

…

"Tch…" Cardin grunted dissatisfied as he checked the battles in his scroll. Jaune Arc was a Beacon representative while he was there dealing with Kirei. He couldn't wait more to have his sweet revenge against everyone that dared to humiliate him. Starting with Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos.

"Good news, Mr. Winchester. Your servant will be here just in time to the tournament." Kirei said as he finished writing something in one of the weird books he had around his lair. Cardin just had an evil smile in his face.