Symbiote Knight

Chapter 7: The Choice

It had been a week since Jaune started working with his symbiote and he couldn't believe the drastic changes that happened with him. His training with Pyrrha was going great now, he could actually see her starting to exert herself. Sure, he didn't come close to beating her but he felt like she actually had to put in some effort, which to him was a milestone.

He continued reading in the library now and then, he saw Weiss there and got some more advice from her on certain books. It was nice being able to just talk with her, even if it was over study material. He would have maybe tried to ask her out again but the symbiote warned him that coming on too strong might not work. That maybe she needed to see him as something more first than just another student.

Maybe the alien was right, maybe if he got better, she would start to notice him more? It was worth a shot, he tried mainly everything else plus he did need to focus on getting better. He had so much to catch up with everyone, but he felt he was improving leaps and bounds now. It was odd how easily he started to get used to having someone to talk to in his head all the time.

Whenever he had a question, he was there for him, needed advice? Ask the symbiote, he had a huge collection of knowledge that Jaune could use to help himself to after all.

Then there was the mental training, every night for what seemed like days he trained with his alien symbiote. The alien was teaching him combat styles that he had picked up in his travels in space and from the genetic memory of his predecessors. There was just so much he could learn that Jaune knew if he was in a coma for the rest of his life, he would barely scratch all the knowledge.

There were other things he learned too, he learned more about space and everything out there. Space was just full of wonders and horrors, he still mentally shivered every time he learned about The Brood. That's an alien race he hopes Remnant never meets; they would be destroyed by that race of alien parasites if they did.

And finally, his physical training was coming along, Yang was a big help and when Nora joined in it was nice for the three of them to train together. It was nice getting closer to Yang as a friend since he was already close friends with Ruby after all.

He was improving in his studies and he currently was on a five match winning streak in combat class.

All in all things were looking up.

Jaune woke up and despite the mental training during the night he always felt more refreshed. The upside to having a symbiote that can fix anything with your body.

'Morning buddy' Jaune thought out.

~Morning Jaune~

The symbiote had been getting stronger and could now talk much more easily in his head during the waking hours.

Jaune noticed he was the first up and decided to take the shower first. It was a first come, first serve in their dorm after all. He got into the bathroom and closed the door as he started to strip off his sleep wear. Which no longer was his onesie. He still has no idea what happened to it but the others had already a spare long sleeve shirt and pants for him so it was fine. Still, how did they get him a spare in his size so easily?

When he took off his shirt, he caught himself in the mirror.

"Wait, what?" He looked at his reflection. He was more muscular than he had been a few weeks ago. "Whoa."

He looked himself over, sure he wasn't huge like say Cardin, but he was way more defined now. Still a bit slim but the muscle definition was there. It was like maybe a swimmer or gymnast build, kind of like that action hero Jean Claude Van Vert back in the day.

"Wow when you said you could help my physically you weren't kidding." Jaune had to admit he liked what he saw. How come no one else commented on the change so far?

~Because the uniform hides it. Wearing bulky clothing~

"Oh right, that would explain it." Jaune had to admit that he wondered what he would end up looking like. Nothing too big he hoped, he liked the extra strength but if anything, he wanted to keep his movement and speed up.

The symbiote noted this since he had been adjusting Jaune's body as he slept. Making improvements and enhancing what was there. Jaune was already stronger than a normal base line human with no aura at the moment but there was still more. This aura was an interesting thing that the symbiote had been studying. It healed the body as well as enhancing it too, so it made the Klyntar's work so much easier.

Jaune took his shower humming to himself happily as he dried off and brushed his teeth. There was a knock at the door.

"Jaune are you nearly done?" his human partner's voice called out.

"Nearly," He put on the pants as he spat out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth out. He picked up his shirt and opened the door. "Finished, it's all yours…Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha had woken up to the sound of the shower and noticed Jaune was missing, so she had an idea of who was in there. The other two were stirring so she figured she could get in her shower next. Stretching out with a yawn she had knocked when the shower ended and asked if he was done. She didn't have to wait long for him to open the door and that's when she felt her heart stop.

There was Jaune shirtless, with the towel on his shoulder his shirt in the other, his hair slightly wet but it was his bare chest she couldn't stop looking at. Jaune was a tall boy and slim and she did find him attractive, especially his eyes. She loved his eyes but seeing him now with his slightly glistening abs and pecs she felt her mouth suddenly go dry.

She just wanted to reach out and touch them.

"Pyrrha." Jaune said again snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you okay you're looking kind of flush, you're not feeling sick, are you?"

She realized she must be blushing, one of the things she hated about being a fair skinned red head was that her blushing was more pronounced. Also, she had to be extremely careful tanning or else she would just burn.

"I'm fine-just fine-just needed to use the bathroom." She quickly said her eyes trying to find anything but his body to look at.

"Oh well here you go then," he moved aside as she quickly went in and closed the door. "Huh, that was odd."

The symbiote had a feeling it knew what was going on but kept silent. It only had a guess as human interactions were still something he was learning but he had a fairly good guess that the red haired female was attracted to the host. At least it was a possible explanation but since they weren't fully bonded it wouldn't get involved in the Jaune's love life as it were.

When they are bonded that might change but Jaune still hadn't made the choice yet. Time was running out and soon Jaune would have to make a choice or the symbiote would need a new host.

Pyrrha's back was to the door as she mentally admonished herself for her reaction. Jaune was her partner and friend and not someone that she should just ogle like a piece of meat. She thought she was better than this.

'It's okay, it just took me by surprise is all,' She told herself she hadn't seen Jaune's body exposed like that before now so maybe now she would be used to it. Yes, she had feelings for Jaune that were more than just friendship, he was the first person to see her as just Pyrrha, not the great champion or how famous she was. He saw her as just her and she saw him for the kind and hardworking man that he was.

'Okay so all that training seems to be paying off,' she thought as she undressed for the shower. 'that's fine, yes his build it very nice now, I can admit that. Just because I wanted to kneel down and run my tongue along his abs-STOP!'

Her face turned bright red at the intrusive thought as she quickly decided to give herself a cold shower to cool off her mind and her body.

-Later-

Jaune felt nervous, he was in class, and they were getting back their test results from yesterday. He hated testing, he always felt like he didn't do very well on them no matter how hard he tried. Of course, he had been studying more lately with this help of his alien friend but years of fretting over testing wasn't easy to overcome.

Currently it was their math class, now Jaune didn't know what to expect out of being in Beacon, but he was surprised to learn that most of the schooling was the kind of stuff you'd learn in normal school. They just added in the Huntsmen stuff like Grimm Studies, Combat Class, and things like that onto it. When he had asked about it, Pyrrha had explained it was in case any students failed out of the school, or dropped out, had to leave because of injury or even after graduation.

If they wanted to retire or had to quit for physical or mental reasons so they weren't totally without knowledge that could help them gain other employment.

The teacher was passing out the papers as Jaune got more and more nervous. The symbiote tried to calm him and it worked a little but the closer the teacher got the more worried he was.

~don't worry, we have this~

Jaune nodded at that, the alien had been helping him in his studies. Jaune found that he could remember things much more clearly now, sure he may not totally understand it but the improvement to his ability to recall things really helped. Then the paper was put in front of him.

"Good job Mr. Arc, you've really improved since the last test, you got one of the top scores."

Jaune looked at his paper with a 97% on it. He never scored that high before, especially in math.

"Oh, uh, thank you," He blinked at it as a feeling of accomplishment filled him.

Ruby who was next to him looked at him with a sense of pride and a little jealous given her own 76%. It was still a passing grade, but she had trouble with certain parts. It also didn't help that she had two years of math she skipped over.

"Hey Jaune, you think you can help me for the next test?" Ruby would ask Weiss, but she liked to study alone and the few times she did managed to get her help, Weiss didn't have the patience for teaching.

"Uh, sure yeah, what are friends for?" He hoped he could help, well more to say that his symbiote could help out.

~the science of this world is easily understood~

Right, alien. He kind of forgot that the alien was used to civilizations that were light years ahead of them and had lived for a long time. How long? The symbiote wasn't sure as their people didn't look at time the same way given how long lived, they were.

"Thanks, Jaune," she leaned over and whispered. "I really could use some help to catch up."

Oh, Jaune knew full well about needing help to catch up, part of him wished he could tell her but that secret of how he got into Beacon was one he wasn't sure he could tell anyone.

Pyrrha who was on the other side of Jaune smiled, he always was helpful to others. It was his good nature that she really enjoyed being around him. Weiss sitting behind them couldn't help but notice that Jaune's score was just one point below her own. She was certain that his scores hadn't been that good before.

It again made her start to think something odd was going on with Jaune. He had been improving at a rapid pace and now he was nearly caught up to her level? That dunce had somehow managed to pull himself up too quickly. She didn't see any obvious signs of cheating, but could he be? The teachers should have seen something, they would notice if a student suddenly improved so much and investigate things.

But the teacher seemed pleased so had Jaune just studied harder than normal?

Weiss hated mysteries, unanswered questions left her bothered. Maybe she would see if he could help Ruby. Weiss had tried but the younger girl didn't seem to focus or had too much trouble with certain concepts. Maybe if Jaune could get her grades up then that would answer the question of possible cheating. She knew that Ruby would never cheat on a test, it was one of the few things she could admit to liking about the girl.

So, she would resolve herself to seeing the outcome and make any more judgements based on that.

Nora groaned seeing her score, it wasn't a fail, but it was close. Yang winced at her own, it was a low B but if it wasn't for a few mistakes she could have gotten better. She peeked over at Blake's higher score.

"I think my sis has a point, maybe we need a study group or something to help out." Yang sighed. She knew she could do better if only with a little help. Granted she was more of an action person, but she wasn't stupid, she hated those dumb blonde jokes with a passion and wanted to prove she was more than just a pretty face.

It wasn't every subject she had trouble with, just math and some science stuff. Everything else she was perfectly fine with.

"It might not hurt," Ren spoke up rubbing Nora's back who was now face down on her desk.

"Then as team leader I say we have a group study session with team JNPR," Ruby stated hearing this.

"Shouldn't the leader of their team agree to it also?" Weiss stated with her arms crossed.

"I mean," Jaune looked at his teammates. Ren seemed okay with it, Nora looked up with hope in her eyes and Pyrrha nodded her head happy to help out. "Sure, shouldn't be a problem."

Class ended soon after that as they were in the hall on their way to their next class but then Jaune suddenly felt off, he felt lightheaded, and Ren caught his arm.

"Are you okay?" Ren asked him concerned that got everyone's attention who hadn't seen it.

"I don't know, I feel kind of weak and lightheaded." Jaune then felt a numbing sensation, but it quickly passed.

Pyrrha looked at him seeing him look a bit pale. "I think you should head to the nurse's office."

Jaune wanted to say he was fine but then the room seemed to shift as he stumbled. There was no argument after that as The group made sure he got to the nurse office, which turned out to be a lot larger than you would think. It was actually part of the medical ward, after all this was a dangerous job they were training for. They would face Grimm while training, so accidents did happen.

All the academies had the best medical wards that they could get because you never know what could happen. Even a dust accident with their ammunition wasn't unheard of and those could get very horrible injuries.

They left him in the hands of the nurse on duty as she had him rest up after her examination. She would check back in an hour to see if he was feeling better or needed to get one of the doctors to take a closer look.

Jaune laid in the bed looking up at the ceiling, he felt the room stop moving at least.

~Jaune, it's time~

"Time?" He said rubbing his head.

~Can't hold back anymore. Need to bond fully or leave~

"Oh. That time," Jaune actually had been putting this off until now but apparently, he had a choice to make. The symbiote had explained that as it recovered it would need to fully bond, it couldn't exist in this state forever as it had been fighting its own nature. It couldn't fully heal without a full bond and the pseudo one they had was a stop gap.

Jaune lay there and thought about everything. It was still odd to think that he would share his body for the rest of his life with the alien but so far, was it really so bad? It was nice having someone to talk to, who knew everything about him. Sure, it did feel a little invasive at times but the more and more they were together the more Jaune didn't seem to mind.

Okay sure, someone might make a case that the alien could be altering his thoughts, but it didn't feel like that. The symbiote didn't feel malevolent, it honestly did want to help him be a better him.

There was another nagging thought in the back of his mind, was he only as good as the symbiote? Was the symbiote the only way for him to become a Huntsman? Was this just another cheat? First his fake records and now using the strength of an alien to become what he wanted to be because he was too weak to do it on his own?

Did he really deserve this kind of help, this kind of power or should it go to someone more worthy of it?

He could feel the symbiote trying to encourage him, but Jaune always had self-doubt, especially coming here. It was a lot harder than he thought to be a Huntsman, but he still wanted to accomplish his dream.

He lay there on the bed staring up at the ceiling losing track of time as his mind went around and around lost in thought.

It would be an hour later when Ruby in between classes came to visit.

"Hey Jaune." Ruby's head popped into the room from the doorway. "You feeling better?"

"A little bit yeah," He sat up as Ruby entered the room.

"That's good to know," She sat down next to him. "Everyone's wondering how you were, and I said I would check in on you."

Team JNPR wanted to come but Ruby said since she was the fastest, she could get there and to the next class in plenty of time and would update them on how he was doing.

"Well thanks for that, that means a lot to me," He honestly told her. Having a friend like Ruby was something he was very grateful for. He never really had a friend as good as her, sure she had friends before but for some reason even thought they had only known each other for a few months it felt more like years. It was odd but it was just this comfortable feeling they had between the two of them.

"Hey Ruby, can I ask you something?" For someone two years younger than him Ruby had some surprising insight at times, and he felt he could use her advice again.

"Sure thing Jaune."

Jaune took a breath thinking on how to phrase this. "So, you know how we all got partners now for the rest of our time in school, right?"

"Yep."

"Well, what happens after? I mean do you see yourself being partnered with Weiss for your entire career?"

Ruby paused as she hadn't really thought that far ahead. "Well, I would like to, I mean, I hope by then we become the bestest of friends and would work together as real Huntresses, along with Blake and Yang."

"So, you wouldn't mind having someone with you at all times?"

"Not really," Ruby shifted a bit. "I didn't have many friends at school, the few that I have well I haven't seen them since I left Patch. I barely get to hear from them now so having someone around like a friend of partner sounds nice. You can watch each other's backs, have someone there for you when you need it and be there for them."

"It's a dangerous job so it's good to have a partner."

"Yeah, it is," He thought about it and if he wanted to be the best Huntsman he could be and protect people better, than wouldn't the symbiote make perfect sense? There was one little doubt in this mind though.

"So," He started. "With your partner don't you sometimes feel like you can only be a Huntsman or Huntress without them? I'm not exactly the best and without everyone's help I don't think I could do this. Wouldn't it be better to do everything with your own strength?"

"Well, everyone has things they are good at and things they are bad at," Ruby told him. "I'm much faster than Weiss but her glyphs can make her do things I can't do. That's why teams are a thing, we support each other and we're stronger together. We're all in this together, we work together to help people so why should we have to be alone doing it?"

Ruby looked down at her feet as she felt a heavy weight on her heart as she decided to open up to him about something deeply personal. "My mom went off on a mission alone and she never came back."

Jaune's eyes widened at that, he knew that Yang and Ruby's mom had died but he hadn't known how.

"Sometimes I wonder why she went alone, and I wonder what if she had someone to look out for her? Would she have come back home if she had? What if Uncle Qrow had been able to go with her that day? He goes off alone too all the time and while he always comes back…I'm worried one day we'll hear that he went off on a mission by himself and didn't come back."

"Ruby…I'm sorry I didn't know," He felt horrible having her bring this up, this was a deeply painful memory for her, he knew how important family was to both himself and to Ruby.

"It's not your fault," She shook her head. "But that's why I'm glad I have a team and a partner because I know together, we won't face the world alone and we're always going to have each other's backs so we'll be just fine."

Jaune thought about her words, and he could see her point to everything. He nodded his head. "Thanks Ruby, I think you really helped me out."

"What are friends for?" She smiled at him with such a warm and bright smile he couldn't help but smile back.

After that Ruby left as Jaune was alone thinking things over alone in the room.

"Okay I've made up my mind," Jaune spoke out softly. "Let's do this."

~You wish to bond?~ the symbiote had to make sure the host was in agreement.

"Yeah, you've been nothing but good to me this entire time and I honestly am better with you, together I think we could really be heroes. We could help so many people and you've been a good friend as well."

Jaune had one last thought, "You know I've been thinking about something else, what to call you. I know you said you have been given different names but it's a name I think would suit you. It's a name of the same person who used my current weapons, my great-grand father Valor Richard Arc. So what do you say to the name of Valor?"

~We are Valor~

With that Jaune suddenly felt as if the world had been dialed up, things seemed sharper or clearer, it was like he knew where everything was in the room without looking. He felt more connected with his symbiote all of a sudden.

"Whoa…is this what it's like to fully bond?"

~Oh yes, it will take me a day to fully integrate with your body but now we are bound together. We are One.~

"Oh, hey you can talk more easily too," Jaune could not only hear the symbiote clearer but he could feel the emotions and intentions behind the words as well. It was a bit surreal, but it was like Valor and him were almost one in the same. "Wow this feels totally different from before."

~Before we were only linked, now that we've bonded, we have become one being. I am what you are, and you are what I am.~

"I think I'm starting to fully understand," Jaune said looking at his hands and flexing them feeling the difference. If he concentrated, it was almost like he could feel every muscle in them. "So…what's next?"

~Next, we show the school what we're really made of~

Jaune couldn't wait to get started and to think this all started with a meteor falling to the planet. "Huh…now that I think about it, whatever happened to that meteorite?"

-Weeks Ago, ATLAS Labs-

The main labs of Atlas was a huge facility hidden in the heart of the floating city. It was buried deep within it as it was the testing bed for new technologies like a certain robot girl, the Paladins, new weapon systems and anything else of scientific value. They had the most advanced labs in the world given that the kingdom was in a frozen land they didn't have much in the way of natural resources, at least not easy gotten to in the frozen earth.

They did have plenty of dust which allowed their kingdom a large income and they spent it on everything they could.

Currently the tall cyborg of General Ironwood who was followed by one of his most trusted military members Winter Schnee walked to one of the bio labs.

"Sir what exactly are we seeing?" Winter asked as all she knew was that she had been in the middle of reports when the General came to get her.

"You remember that meteorite that crashed in Vale?"

Winter nodded her head, it was a rare event when something crashed landed. It was given to Atlas for study because of their advanced labs and as a gift from Beacon's Headmaster.

"We found something." Ironwood stated as they went through several heavily enforced doors, going through a decontamination room until they were led by a scientist to the main observation room. Winter saw many scientists in the control room as they were busy at work.

Winter looked over to the room and could see a small clear reinforced box with some kind of black substance in it. It wasn't very big, less than the size of her own hand.

"This is what you found?" Winter was not impressed.

"Wait for it," Ironwood stated looking at the lead scientist. "Begin."

The man nodded as he took the controls as a robot came in carrying a small cage with a rat in it. The cage was connected to the box and then the cage was opened. The rat looked around curious to its new surroundings and slowly crept up to the black goo sniffing it to see if it was food.

Suddenly the black substance reached out and engulfed the rat as it squealed in panic.

Winter took a half step back in shock. "What is that!?"

"That," the lead scientist said. "Is a life form not of our world. We found it on the meteorite, we almost missed it but it tried to latch onto a researcher's finger."

"Their finger?" she questioned.

"It was one fifth the size when we found it, it's been slowly growing since we've been giving it…organic matter."

Winter looked to see that the rat was now covered in the black substance, but it looked different. It was bigger and had rows of larger and sharper teeth and claws now the tail was barbed with large white eyes.

"Is it, intelligent?" Winter asked.

"We're not sure," The general stated looking down. "We're hoping so but what we found out is that this creature can make the rats stronger than before. The first time we tired this it nearly broke containment."

Ironwood looked at the creature if they could just harness this power they could make soldiers that could take the fight to the Grimm in ways they never could before. One of the reasons for the Paladin project was to save lives. How many more lives could be saved if only they could get this creature to bend to their will?

"Welcome to Project Noir, Winter." Ironwood stared down at the merged creature.

TBC…