Symbiote Knight

Chapter 4: Jaune's New Partner

It has been a few days since his first win in combat class and Jaune was starting to feel pretty good. Pyrrha had seemed to increase their training which was both very tiring but rewarding. He was slowly getting used to the odd things going on. The strange food cravings didn't go away but he was getting used to the odd food items. Even with all the chocolate desserts he still hadn't gained any weight so maybe he just had a high metabolism.

There were still the moments of insight as he called it, that came out of nowhere but were very helpful. Studying seemed to be easier as he seemed to remember things much clearer almost like he had a set of notes on the classes in his own head.

He really wasn't sure what to make of that, but he shrugged it off for now, it wasn't doing anything to him that he didn't want after all.

So here was sitting at lunch with his team and Team RWBY as per usual, the two teams were practically inseparable by this point. Jaune was glad for it, he liked being surrounded by friends or at least friendly. Blake was still a mystery to him and Weiss…yeah that was complicated. He signed to himself wondering how to get the girl to notice him. All his attempts had failed, and he was starting to wonder if he should just stop or try something new.

At any rate besides that they were all good friends, although he would admit he would like maybe some more male friends. Ren was great and all, but he was so quiet, and being surrounded by girls reminded him a lot of his homelife. He was used to it, but he had hoped to make more guy friends when he started at Beacon. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly the social butterfly type, the exact opposite in fact.

"I don't know where you're putting all that chocolate, but I want your secret," Yang's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Huh?" He looked at the blonde.

"You've been taking a slice of chocolate cake for dessert almost every meal lately," She pointed her fork at the nearly eaten cake. "Dude, seriously, what's your secret because I would kill to be able to eat all that and not gain any weight."

"I guess I burn it off training?" He shrugged.

"I'm actually surprised Jaune hasn't gain any weight," Nora thought about it. "He looks the same as always."

"I don't know what you're doing with him, but it's got to be something special," Yang looked to the red headed champion.

She blinked. "Honestly I'm just as surprised I was going to warn him about his eating habits lately, but Jaune hasn't shown any weight gain."

"Well, I don't gain weight and I eat cookies," Ruby shrugged.

"You're so hyperactive and with your semblance I'm pretty sure you burn it all off sis," Yang teased as the younger sister stuck out her tongue.

Jaune no stranger to how siblings could get only smiled at the scene it made him a little home sick for the old days with his family, but he knew his family was still back home and he could visit them with the break coming up.

"Ow! Stop that, that hurts!" an accented female voice called out.

The two teams as did other students in the cafeteria turned to see Cardin pulling on some poor rabbit Faunus girl's rabbit ears.

"See I told you guys they were real," Cardin laughed pulling on them again.

"What a jerk," Nora growled out.

"Agreed," Yang narrowed her eyes.

"Shouldn't someone do something?" Blake asked. She was hoping someone would, she could go up there, but she was trying to keep a low profile at school. The White Fang had people and supporters everywhere after all, it was one of the reasons she wasn't very social. Well, okay it was also because she had always had trouble being social, but at least she had an excuse now.

"Should we get a teacher?" Ruby asked.

Jaune hated seeing someone else getting bullied, apparently Cardin wasn't only picking on him but other students.

"I can't believe they let an animal like her in this school," Cardin spoke up.

Jaune suddenly felt like someone had to do something about this, this wasn't right. He was picking on her just because she was a Faunus? He knew that Faunus had it rough, but he never understood racism. Sure, if you were on opposite sides of the war hard feelings were natural but that was a long time ago, shouldn't people have just moved on? He wanted to stop them, but his own fear and insecurity held him back.

At least it was until he suddenly felt a flare up of something, if he had to put a name to it, he would say righteous indignation. Before he knew it, he was standing up and walking over to him. He heard the surprised comments by the others, but he just felt like he had to stop this.

He got up to them and he spoke the first words that came out of his mouth. "Let her go Cardin…please?"

Cardin narrowed his eyes as he shoved the girl away making her trip and fall. Jaune instantly went to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"I think so," the girl said.

"So what? You an animal lover?" Cardin sneered at him.

"She's not an animal," Jaune was surprised by how he snapped back at her, it felt like he was feeling his emotions running out of control. "She's a student like everyone else here."

He went back to helping her put items that had fallen off her food try back with her. He then gently helped her up. "You sure you're okay?"

She blinked at him, "Yes, yes thanks."

"Well then maybe you both should learn to know your place," Cardin turned around ready to get up when another girl's voice called out only this one was full of authority.

"I think there's someone else that needs to learn their place."

"Oh Coco," The Faunus girl said as Jaune looked to see a shorter girl showing up. She was a little taller than Weiss but not by much although why she was wearing sunglasses inside? There were two other boys behind her, a tanned skinned boy with pale eyes and a mountain of a young man with very short dark hair.

"So, are you the one harassing my teammate and partner?" Coco walked right up to Cardin.

"What about it?" he asked.

Coco quickly picked up her food and slammed it down on the seat right between Cardin's legs almost crushing his family jewels and making a loud impact with her foot.

"The hell!?" Cardin flinched.

"Look here First Year," Coco leaned forward. "As upper classmen we have an unwritten duty to keep you first year students in line. There's always some hot shot who thinks they're king of the school well here's the reality. You're not, and if I ever see you pulling on her ears or giving her a hard time me and boys will be glad to 'educate' you in how to behave like a proper person."

"Ain't that right boys?" She cast a glance as both boys nodded their heads. "Good and trust me, you keep causing trouble and it will be a very long four years for you and your team."

She looked at the other three, "Don't think you three will get off the hook either. The only reason she didn't drop kick his butt is because she's too nice to do it, me on the other hand? I don't mind getting my hands dirty taking out the trash."

She pulled back her foot as she and the other two walked over to Jaune and the girl.

"You good Velvet?" Coco asked.

"Yeah, he didn't hurt me too much," The now named Velvet said.

Coco looked at Jaune as she pulled down her glasses and looked him over. "Well looks like you got yourself a knight in shining armor Vel."

"Uhm, I, I just was doing what I thought was right." He stammered out some, for some reason this girl's look was a little intimidating.

"Well, you stood up for my partner so you're already in my good books. Name's Coco Adel, a second year and leader of team CFVY. This here is my partner Velvet Scarlatina and the boys behind me are Yatsuhashi Daichi and Fox Alistair."

"Nice to meet you," Yatsuhashi said as Fox just nodded.

"Oh uh, I'm Jaune Arc, first year and leader of team JNPR." He gestured to his team who waved at him.

"Team leader huh?" She looked him over again almost as if judging him in some way. Then she looked over at his team. "Oh yeah, you're the team with that Nikos girl on it. Well maybe we can have a nice friendly team sparring session at some point. I would love to go head-to-head with your team with her on it."

"Coco we just met them," Velvet scolded her.

"Oh come on I want some serious challenge, you know we're the strongest second year team." Coco sighed.

"Well anyways thanks for helping me," Velvet nodded her head to Jaune.

"Oh no problem, glad to help you out." Jaune told her.

"Well don't be strangers, look us up sometime if you want some training with us or just want to sit with the cool kids table for meals hit us up." Coco told him leading the others off to their usual table.

Jaune blinked at that as he walked back to his own table. Jaune sat down after the incident as everyone looked at him.

"Look at you being Mr. Hero," Yang smirked.

"W-well I couldn't just let that continue," Jaune blushed in embarrassment.

Yang held up her hands, "Hey I'm just glad to see someone stand up to that jerk. I've been wanting to punch that stupid face of his in for awhile now. But man that Coco chick has got some style, think you can introduce us to have some training? They look like a strong team."

"Hey no cuts!" Nora said to her. "Team JNPR got the invite."

Ignoring Yang and Nora arguing over whether or now team RWBY could go if Jaune took up the offer, Blake looked at Jaune almost as if seeing him for the first time. "Not many students would stick up for a Faunus like that. Look around, a lot of students just kept to themselves…us included."

"I-I wasn't sure what to do!" Ruby defended herself. "I thought getting a teacher was what you were supposed to do."

"It didn't involve us," Weiss shrugged it off.

"No, Blake's right we should get involved when we see someone getting bullied," Pyrrha felt a bit ashamed now that she didn't do anything. Years of living in the limelight had certain behaviors drilled into her. Not making a scene was one of them and even though she left that life behind to be a Huntress, it was hard to change certain behavior you had to do for years.

Blake turned to Jaune again. "I take it you don't got anything against Faunus?"

"Why would I?" He asked her genuinely confused. "I mean they're people too and deserve to be treated as such right? I just…I don't like bullies or people being bullied no matter who or what they are."

"That's a good sentiment to have," Pyrrha smiled proudly at him with a small nod.

Blake nodded her head too, it was nice to see someone that didn't had anything against Faunus. She knew that most of the people at this table didn't. She wasn't so sure about Weiss given her family history or maybe that was her old White Fang days talking. It hadn't been that long ago after all she was part of an organization that would have tried to kill her, one of the many reasons she left the group.

Still, she looked at Jaune Arc one last time with a small part of her approving the young man. If only there were more people in the worlds with that kind of sentiment maybe human and faunus relations would be much better.

The rest of the meal went pretty much as per usual, Jaune was the last to finish up given the extra servings he had been taking lately. He wanted to hurry up before the lunch hour was over and catch up to the others for next period. Putting his tray away he left to get his books from his locker.

He was heading towards the stairwell when he noticed someone, he really didn't want to see any time doon. Cardin was by the stairs, and he figured the bigger boy was here to get even with Jaune. He most likely couldn't go after team CFVY so Jaune was his next target. He thought about taking the longer way around, but Cardin already saw him and might go after him.

Maybe it was best to just get this over with as quickly as possible. Jaune sighed as he walked towards the stairs.

"Think you're so smug now that you're standing up for animal rights huh?" The larger boy sneered.

"They are not animals," Jaune felt a stab of anger somewhere inside of him. It was that same righteous anger he felt the last time feeding into him.

"Yeah, well you better watch your back now Jaune because you never know what could happen."

Jaune was stuck between anger and fear almost like he was feeling two emotions fueling him from two different sources. "We'll see."

It was the only thing he came up with, but he needed to get to the next class and catch up with the others. He just made it to the stairs when he heard Cardin say, "Watch your step."

He felt Cardin kick his feet making him lose his balance, granted with aura it wouldn't hurt as much but it would still hurt falling down some stairs. That's when his arm shot out and grabbed the railing stopping his fall. It happened so fast Jaune had to take a moment to realize what happened.

Cardin grunted in disappointment but left before anyone saw him near Jaune.

Jaune looked over his shoulder and then to his hand and froze in shock. His hand was covered in a black material as he released his grip, he saw the metal railing was now sporting an imprint of his hand.

"What the hell!?" he whispered to himself holding his hand as the blackness seemed to seep away.

Jaune as in full on panic mode now. What was that? That wasn't normal!

He looked over his hand, pulled his sleeve open to look further down the wrist but he didn't see anything. He felt through his school jacket and shirt but he didn't feel anything moving around and he certain didn't feel anything on his skin.

"Oh man what's going on? Could that have been my semblance? I mean I didn't feel anything special like with my aura but what kind of semblance would that even be?" Jaune extended his hand a few times trying to get something to happen but nothing did.

~Find somewhere private~

Again, that sensation of a voice it was like he was hearing his own thought but not his own thought. Only this time it was much more powerful. At first, he wasn't sure but now he was certain something was very wrong here. He felt an urge to move, to do what the voice said.

Quickly Jaune ran and found one of the boy's bathrooms and got in. Looking around he saw he was alone, checking under the stalls to be sure. He got to a sink and started some water and splashed it onto his face. This was crazy, there's no way he saw that happen, no way he was hearing voices.

Oh god what if he was going crazy? What if he snapped for some reason?

~Not crazy~

"Ah!" Jaune jumped and looked around. "Who's doing that?"

~Mirror~

"Mirror?" He went to the sink and looked in the mirror and then suddenly his entire body was now covered in a black material, two large white 'eyes' were now looking back at him. Jaune did the only thing he could think of, he screamed.

~Calm~ The voice said as he felt a flow of emotions wash over him, mainly a soothing calming emotions.

"W-what's going on?" He asked the reflection. While he was calmer, he wasn't exactly in a zen state of mind. He could still feel his heart beating in his chest.

Images flooded Jaune's mind suddenly. He saw an alien world full of black glad beings but the sensations he felt were things like anger, disappointment, fear at looking at the others. He saw them tear the black material off one of the alien creatures as it screamed in pain and fell. The images changed to them taking the black material and placing it into an asteroid and sending it through space. He saw it there alone, it felt so alone for so long.

Then images of it crashing, of it hurt and then of Jaune landing on it.

"That black goo…that's you?" Jaune asked remembering that black stuff he fell into while searching for the crashed meteorite. Thinking back, that's when odd things started happening to him.

~Yes~

"Wait…so…YOU'RE AN ALIEN!?" Jaune the ever lover of comic books and sci-fi couldn't believe his luck. An actual real-life alien, and those images he had seen were from an alien world. It was all so much that he had to hold onto the sink.

"Oh my gods, I can't believe it, wow an actual alien," He felt himself getting light headed. There was what felt like a chuckle in his mind, but it wasn't anything malicious, he got the feelings of it being more humorous than anything. Jaune had so many questions now, there was so much they didn't know about space and here was someone that could answer so many of those questions.

But then his mind went back to the images, the alien had been forcefully taken off another alien by the others. He voiced his thoughts to the creature.

"So…you were taken off that alien by others?"

~The Corrupted~

"Corrupted, who? Those others?"

~Yes~

"Why?"

~Not like them. Symbiote not parasite~

"I'm not sure I get it," He was trying to piece things together but the words it was using were so simple.

~Still weak, need more strength, talk better~

"Oh okay I think I get it," Jaune looked down at his body the 'suit' for lack of a better term was very form fitting. He was wondering what happened to his school uniform, he hoped it just wasn't gone. The symbiote reading these thoughts pulled back from one arm showing how his clothing just seemed to be there. It was odd, looking at the spot where the suit and his clothing met it looked like they merged without a seam.

"Whoa…that's kind of freaky," He had no idea how something like that was possible.

It grew back as Jaune looked back at the mirror. "So…what do you want with me?"

~help~

"Help? Help me or help you?" he asked confused.

~Yes/both~

Jaune shook his head that had been strange although it wasn't usings 'words' as he knew them it was like the concept of words being sent but 'hearing' one word that mean two things together made his brain 'twitch'. It wasn't unpleasant it was like an odd way of thinking was just put in there for a moment.

"Okay so if I get this right, I help you and you help me…wait, have you been the reason I keep getting strange flashes of insight lately?" Jaune asked the mirror image.

~Yes, help you~

"Okay but why?"

~My purpose, to help others, like you~

"Oh," Jaune was taken aback by that, he could feel the alien's emotions being sent to him throughout this talk. It was a very odd experience but also, well it was hard to put into words for him. He didn't feel anything bad about the alien, in fact the guy had been helping him all this time. "So how do I help you?"

~Needs Host/Partner, need to heal/gain strength~

There is went with those strange double meaning words, but he felt like he was getting a bit more used to it. So, it needed him to heal, he remembered it being hurt from the crash. This sounded like this was a partnership and there was a give and take on both sides.

"Oh man this is huge, I mean I have an alien inside of me, which by the way is kind of creepy, but you've been helping me out a lot so thanks for that. Is this also why I've been getting those strange food cravings?"

~Yes, need RylithOiiiMse~

Jaune shook his head, "Uh what was that?"

~Don't know word in language~

Suddenly the images of the foods Jaune has been eating came into his head. "Ohhh, so you need something found in that food. I guess that makes sense looking back at it but why me? I mean I know I landed on you but as you've seen I'm not exactly the best person here."

Jaune felt his self-doubt creep in. He got into Beacon by cheating and even then, he only passed by the skin of his teeth. If it wasn't for Pyrrha he would have failed, in fact he might have died. He had been trying to become better, trying to earn his place here. Also, she had helped him out so much that he didn't want to disappoint his partner.

~Choose you, you are what we look for~

"You look for screw ups?" He sighed.

~Look for heroes/champions/Good People~

Jaune blinked at that, "Hero? Me? Y-you got to be mistaken, I'm a nobody."

~Have the heart, the drive, the need to protect~

"But I'm not exactly that great at being one."

~What I'm here for, to help~

"You'll help me to be a hero?" Jaune couldn't believe this. All his life from all the tales growing up of his family and their deeds in the Great War and before he wanted to be like those Arcs. To follow in their footsteps and to protect people like they did. And this alien was offering to help him with that, from what he had seen he had been very helpful already.

~Yes~

TBC…

So I have a few things I've been thinking about. I was thinking of making this more of an M rated story for some cursing, some graphic content and other stuff. Also if you're wondering about relationships, that's still up in the air so I want to hear your thoughts on it.