Author's Notes

The rat lives! That's right, due to a computer breakdown, posting was shut down for nearly a month. At least it was the month when FFN completely crapped out, so I didn't lose as much. Anyhoo, all of my files were saved to the cloud, so there's no loss of data, just time. Under normal circumstances, I'd post a bunch of backlogged chapters to make up for the loss, but since we're so close to the end of TES (and RWBY But Worse is so tiny as it is), I'm worried that I'd be down to one fic. I always want to be posting at least two at any given time, so I can advertise my upcoming replacement project in more than one place. Said replacement fic was almost finished when my computer died (22/25 chapters with a full outline for what's going to happen) but I couldn't write due to the computer issues, so I need time to finish it.

Chapter 16 – Even When Your Hope Is Strong

In which Jaune Arc is abducted and violated.

Jaune chose to be smart and simply didn't show up when Team RWBY was expecting him.

Team RWBY chose to be obstinate and dragged him out of his dormitory.

"I need to study. This is kidnapping."

"Relaaaax, Jaune." Yang grabbed his hand and forced it into Ruby's. "You'll do fine."

"He's disloyal to the mission," said Blake. "I'd like to start a motion to have him euthanized."

"Motion denied. But I don't need a babysitter!"

While Jaune appreciated Ruby expressing such a sentiment, he found it difficult to be grateful when she was among the crowd who dragged him onto the airship.

"Seriously, let me go!" He squirmed around violently in their arms, to no avail. "This isn't funny anymore. You can't just take me!"

"Jaune, don't be coy," said Weiss. "If you really wanted to break free of our grips, you'd be struggling a lot more. It's obvious to us all that you want to do this, so there's no need to pretend to save face."

Well isn't this a catch-22. I can't admit that I'm struggling with all my might, because all my might is supposed to be more than limp noodle arms writhing against muscular masses of pure huntress. I bet if Yang placed a watermelon between her thighs, it would…

I shouldn't think about Yang like that. I'm supposed to be with Nora now.

Well, if there was one upside to this, it was that at least he wouldn't have to deal with his infighting teammates. Vale might hold death at the hands of a vengeful Roman Torchwick, but it would be a safe haven from Ren and Nora.

"Oh, and we invited Ren and Nora!"

"NO! LET ME GO! OZPIN, HELP!"

"Oh, relax." Ruby giggled as she strapped Jaune's seatbelt in. "I'm just kidding. We know that you guys…w-we were there, and we saw that. We're not blind, Jaune."

Literally everything you know about me is lies from me and embellishment from Velvet. The four of you are blinder than a bat Faunus. Blinder than a bat Faunus wearing a blindfold who just killed his father and slept with his mother.

…boy, I regret having ever read that G̶r̶e̶e̶k̶ Argusian tragedy.

Jaune gave up resisting when the bullhead took off. At this point, the most efficient course of action would be to humor the others until he and Ruby were left alone, and then just sneak off when Ruby got distracted by a cookie or a gun.

It wasn't that Jaune wanted to leave her alone. He would gladly have gone if not for the fact that he kind of owed it to his own team to look after their own wellbeing first, as painful as that might look. Plus, without any real skills, he'd probably just be a burden to Ruby. If they did run into Roman Torchwick, it would be up to her to protect him, not the other way around.

Yeah, she really doesn't need me there. Didn't she get into Beacon by kicking that guy's butt? I remember her proudly telling me that little tidbit something like that just last weekend.

Weiss hadn't gone with them, as her research was taking her to the CCT to inspect her family's company records. Yang had to go visit her 'contacts' in Vale (Jaune suspected that she would just go out to a club instead like the slacker she was), and Blake's mysterious mission had yet to be revealed to him, apparently out of the cat Faunus' fear of him being a traitor.

I guess I did hit her on the head with a qrowbar.

And sneak in an entire contingent of White Fang members who'd only quit that day into Beacon.

And hit her on the head a second time. That really must have stung.

They landed in Vale around 5pm, as the sky turned into a creamy shade of purple and orange. Yang and Blake went their separate ways, leaving Jaune and his captor who held him by the hand.

"Let's go let's go let's go! I have to visit five or six Dust shops before they close and get to a shut-down bookstore, and then we need to inspect the docks where you oil-wrestled Roman Torchwick into submission and made sweet, sweet love to Blake afterwards."

"W-What?"

"Velvet told me the full story, including the parts that had to be censored for TV. I'll admit, I never would have pegged you as a Blake Belt in karate. That's actually really cool."

You know, rabbit stew tastes delicious. I wonder if rabbit Faunus stew is any good? Only one way to find out.

Jaune tried to pull his wrist free, but Ruby's superstrength grip was far too powerful.

"Ruby, you don't want me here, right?" suggested Jaune. "You said it yourself – you're a full-on team leader who needs no babysitter."

"Yeah. As Perry would say, you're cramping my style."

Jaune perked up. "So you'll let me go?"

"Nope."

"WHY?"

"You're a noble man, Jaune, a finer one than most. No true fighter should be forced to sit in the sidelines watching others bask in the glory when a great battle ensues. I know that deep down, your heart must yearn for adventure and conquest, like the long-gone hearts of your Arc ancestors from days of old. As long as your enemy remain free to roam about this world, your blade shan't be sheathed until he is vanquished." Ruby averted her eyes. "And I also noticed when the airship landed that I forgot my scroll, so I need you to come in case we have to take any photos of the crime scene. Or call someone. Or get an airship ticket back to Vale." Suddenly, her face lit up. "Wait, I could just borrow y–"

"No, no. Y-Yang was right; you shouldn't be out alone, what with thieves and terrorists and Roman Torchwicks out and about."

So, he was out of options, other than going out and buying Ruby a new scroll. Ruby would see Amber as nothing more than an appliance, and if she had lost her own scroll, it was unlikely she'd be any more cautious with his. Jaune guessed that he could afford to spend this afternoon with the brunette reaper and just go get beat up by Ren tomorrow.

Jaune had previously discussed loading a TrackMyScroll App onto Amber, but she'd decided that the potential benefit was not worth the risk. If Ozpin somehow wised up to the fact that Jaune's personal device was a personal device, they'd be handing him a means to locate Amber from any place on the planet.

Thus, for now, he was pretty much stuck just being careful. It wasn't a permanent solution, but until he could think of a better one…

I'm saying that a lot. Amber, my aura, my sword, my team's training, whatever is happening between Ren and Nora with me in the middle.

Jaune wasn't stupid. He knew that they were something to one another…well, he did now. Perhaps it was him being crazy, but he had actually gone and believed them when they said they weren't 'together-together.' If either one hadn't wanted to be pursued, or wanted to stake a claim on the other, then they could have easily just said they weren't not together-together. Jaune had genuinely been under the impression that Ren and Nora's repeated and strenuous objections to dating one another weren't some complex relationship code that he couldn't understand. After all, Ren was the most straightforward human being in the observable universe, and Nora had been sending Jaune signals! At least he thought he was receiving them from her…

I can't be the bad guy here. I'm probably just the catalyst for an argument that was a long time coming.

Jaune voiced such thoughts aloud in a whisper, just to hear what they sounded like outside of the realm of brainwaves, and they sounded even weaker than they had in his head.

"Whawhazat?"

"Nothing, Ruby. Are we close to our first stop?"

"Nearly," Ruby supplied. "It's just around the corner and one block down. I know the way – I used to shop at this place, like, every day."

The first crime scene Ruby wanted to investigate was From Dust Till Dawn, apparently one of great personal significance to her. It was the site where she'd fatefully solo fought Roman Torchwich after mowing down his goons and then was joined by none other than Professor Goodwitch herself as they attempted to bring down a flying getaway vehicle. Jaune had trouble thinking of his combat class teacher out in the field. She seemed so in her element surrounded by insipid students and rowdy teenagers that picturing her actually hunting was a challenging task.

All of my teachers are hunters, even though it doesn't seem like it. Port carries that blunder-axe around like a third arm, but I wonder how long it's been since he's had a chance to use it. Dr. Oobleck…maybe he drinks coffee and moves at superspeed to attack the Grimm? But Ruby's semblance is superspeed, and no two existing semblances are the same.

Or were they? That seemed kind of weird. Like, did a semblance in the process of unlocking ask every other semblance in the world what they were so that it didn't step on any toes? Or maybe semblances all came from a communal pool, and when someone died, the power went back. Jaune had been researching aura in his spare time, but he felt like a toddler who'd just learned how to do arithmetic trying to dabble in multivariable calculus. There was just so much knowledge, and nearly every book in the library expected him to have an intuitive understanding. Not only did Jaune need aura, he needed to be instinctively familiar with it after years of practice to glean anything meaningful from those venerated but gatekeeping tomes.

The store owner mumbled a word of goodbye to a distracted Jaune, and the duo set off in search of the next location.

"I've been meaning to ask," said Jaune. "Why are we investigating Torchwick?"

"It's not so much Torchwick himself as it is how he related to the White Fang."

"Same question, then, just swap Torchwick with the Fang, then."

Ruby bit her lip. "It's not some grand reason or something. We just wanted to, you know, do something. Crime is running rampant, police efforts are going nowhere, Beacon has their hands full with the new class – did you know that they're actually calling themselves the Citron Commandos? I thought Velvet just made that title up. I guess if that's true, maybe the other things she said might also b–"

"Finish that sentence and you two can share a lava-y grave when I dump her into a volcano."

Ruby giggled. "Is she that bad?"

"It's getting pretty difficult. It's starting to reach the point where my real life is being impacted. I don't know how to sue someone for slander, especially since it's not damaging to my reputation. Is there anything called anti-slander, where it's too beneficial to one's image?"

"Have you tried asking her to stop?" Ruby kicked a discarded tin can, scoring a goal as it flew into a tipped over trash can. "She's not a mean girl. She might listen."

"When she approached me for the second article, I vehemently protested. She thought I was being humble and kept pestering me for quotes until I tried to strangle her. Somehow, she interpreted that as me attempting to…how did she put it? 'Impress upon her the sheer might of my stance and musculature.'" Jaune rolled his eyes as they rounded a corner and entered into an alleyway. "If not for the fact that I don't recall offending her, I might've thought she was just doing all this to mess with me."

"I'll try to talk to her," Ruby offered sheepishly.

"She'll just mistake your concern for my welfare as pregnancy hormones from the baby we've beget during a passionate tryst."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"This isn't like Cardin, where getting help will help. I think the best think I can do is ignore it, keep my head down, and try not to have her embellish anything else."

"Embellish? I mean, you did do some of the things she said."

Jaune shook his head. "Don't believe her drivel, Rubes. Fake news. Wrauhng."

"Bruh," said Ruby.

"Yeah, okay, sorry."

"Jaune, you killed three Grimm without aura, and I did see you ride one. You beat Hogwash with your bare hands, and you're undefeated in Dame Goodwitch's fight club. Half of the White Fang members in Vale are now training to become huntsmen because of you."

"Ruby, I…"

Jaune didn't know what to say. On the one hand, he was a fraud, and all of those things were mostly just tricks he'd pulled in order to keep breathing, not feats of miraculous planning. But, just the same…

I did actually do some cool stuff. It's not like I'll just wake up one day and realize I suddenly became a huntsman last night. My journey has already started, and apart from my monstrous To Do List, it's actually been going pretty swell so far.

"You know, you're kinda right." Jaune smiled at her. "I guess I really am…Living The Dream."

Ruby rubbed at her eyes with her petite balled up fists. "…okay, I guess? Is that supposed to mean something?"

"It's a title drop!"

Ruby looked at him funny. "What are you talking about?"

"The title of Velvet's first article about me – Living The Dream."

"Good for you, then?" She shrugged. "Not really sure what you want me to say."

"Anyhoo, why are we in some gross alley?" asked Jaune, something he'd been thinking for a while. "This seems like the rougher side of Vale. Was someone mugged here or something?"

"No, this is just a shortcut. A man named Tukson was murdered in his bookstore, and police have implicated the White Fang."

Jaune stopped walking.

Murdered?

Don and the boys didn't seem like the kind of people who were capable of hurting someone, unless it was in self-defense. Of course, they had only been the White Fang's box-unloading specialists, so they probably weren't also top-notch assassins. It was only through their sheer numbers that they'd overwhelmed Blake and bled her aura dry.

Jaune had actually checked in on the fellas after Ozpin had squeezed them dry of any meaningful intel on White Fang safehouses. Apparently, Big Leo, Don, Mike, and Ralph had become Team TMNT, which was weird because none of their letters showed up in the name except Mike's M. Guess it must be their last names.

Jaune shook himself out of his memories and hurried to catch up with Ruby. "Maybe we shouldn't be going to such a dangerous scene."

"Don't worry! If Roman's there for whatever reason, you can just beat him up like last time."

"I didn't! That wasn't me!"

"Course you did!" said Ruby. "Blake didn't remember seeing him, and you were the only other hunter there. Unless Roman tripped and fell face-first onto his own cane and the barrel was open and went right into his mouth as it discharged, it had to have been you."

Ruby was as dumb as Velvet. That was the only conclusion, because why in the heck would Jaune say he hadn't been the one to down Roman if he had? Modesty? Well, technically he was the one to push the button on the cane, but that wasn't going to happen again here!

Roman would end him if he saw him, there was no doubt. The man's circumstances made him literally an expertly brewed murder soup of the finest murdergredients when it came to Jaune – he knew he didn't have his aura unlocked, he knew his name and face, and he was probably highly motivated to exact some revenge after getting his skull blown up by his own cane. If they ever met in person, Jaune had no doubt that said cane would soon deface his face.

And unlike Roman, I don't have a mystic force field to block the explosive rounds he's packing.

"Relax, Jaune, I'm only kidding." Ruby playfully pushed Jaune's trembling shoulder. "Roman Torchwick lurks around at night, and no one's ever seen him during the day. It's when he sleeps, so that he can be well rested when he goes out on crimes sprees. There's a zero percent chance of running intoooooohmygosh look who it is!"

In a moment of pure instinct, Jaune tore the scythe off Ruby's belt and disengaged the safeties. He'd seen her use it in combat class enough to know the basics. Aiming it, he put his finger on the trigger and readied to pull it as he stared down the scope, straight into the vicious eyes of the bloodthirsty orange-haired…girl?

"PENNY!"

"FRIEND RUBY!"

Jaune could bring down the sniper scythe as the pair embraced, but there was no force on the Brother God's Green Remnant that could bring down his heart rate.

This was the girl who'd been with Ruby at the docks. Also…she flew, maybe.

"Penny, where have you been? We haven't seen you since Jaune oil-wrestled Roman Torchwick into submission and made–"

"I apologize for my absence, Friend Ruby. I have been…in trouble."

Ruby gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. "Oh no! With your father?"

"With…my current guardian in Vale. He is most displeased with the way I ran off without telling anyone. The look of disappointment on his face made me simply wish to run away without telling anyone. So I did. And that is why I'm here."

"Penny, won't you get in trouble when you get home?"

"As I am already in trouble, I cannot get in trouble. Perhaps we can discuss something else. I don't believe you've introduced me to your one…two…one friends."

Ruby looked around. "P-Penny, I don't have one hundred and twenty-one friends."

"Forgive me, Friend Ruby. I miscounted this young blonde haired lady as two people. Is this the sister you mentioned, Yang Xiao-Long?"

"That's not my sister, Penny, that's Jaune."

"Jaune." Penny's eyes squinted as she looked Jaune up and down. Jaune had to consciously prevent his hands from unintentionally moving to cover his chest and groin as Penny's eyes metaphorically pierced through his clothes. "The Citron Ch–?"

"No!" screamed 'not Jaune.'

"You are not Jaune Arc?"

"I am."

"According to local news reports, Jaune Arc is the Citron Champion. If you are Jaune Arc, and you are not…but you are not you, and then you are…"

Smoke began to pour of out Penny's ears. "Logical inconsistency detected. Rebooting. Hello, Friend Ruby. Who is this?"

"I'm her sister, Yang Xiao-Long," Jaune quipped. Anything would be better than having another person remind him of that stupid moniker. What did it even mean?! He'd offhandedly said to Velvet that his aura was yellow like a lemon, and now this distorted title they'd assigned to him was being said more frequently than his real name.

Also, robot.

Jetpack robot?

Jetpack robot. Mm-hm. Jetpack robot.

"I see!" said Penny. "Your bosoms are most substantial, exactly as Friend Ruby described in vivid detail when last she and I spoke."

"Just going to mentally block every single word from that statement out of my mind," said Jaune. "And who might you be?"

"I am Penny Polendina. I am a transfer student from Atlas, Yang."

"Pennyyyyyyy!" groaned Ruby. "He's not my sister!"

"But he said he is! Is…" Penny gasped. "Is he a liar?"

"You caught me," Jaune said sarcastically. This robot girl seemed like the person naïve enough to actually believe he was Yang simply based on their hair color, and jokes aside, he didn't actually want to be called 'Yang' for the rest of the semester. "I'm a liar. Everything I said is a lie."

Penny blinked twice. Smoke began to pour out of her ears. "Logical inconsi–"

"Fine, fine, he's my sister!" begged Ruby, shaking the robot's shoulders. "Penny, please don't die again!"

"Identity committed to memory banks. Yang Xiao-Long, it is a pleasure to meet you." She reached out a hand.

Jaune hesitated for a second.

Honestly, I know that this is just going to be a nuisance for me, but I actually welcome this immovable object if only to see how the unstoppable force that is Velvet conflicts with it. Perhaps the next article she writes will be about how I'm secretly a crossdressing huntress who disguised herself as a huntsman and snuck into Beacon to go to war.

He took the outstretched hand and shook it vigorously.

On an unrelated note, I sure do miss Ren.

"Ruby, why don't you go look around for clues inside…" Jaune read the sign. "…Tukson's Book Trade, and Penny and I can get acquainted for a bit? We can introduce ourselves and whatnot."

"Okay!" Ruby raced into the bookstore, looking over her shoulder as she did back at the duo. "Just be sure to save some Penny for me when you're done!"

"And you be sure to search for clues in every corner!" called Jaune. "Double check, too! You don't want to miss any!"

To Penny, he said, "That ought to keep her occupied for a while. Now…"

Time for the big reveal. The clues were all there, and Jaune felt quite proud of himself for figuring out Penny's secret so quickly upon meeting her.

"As you've just twice nearly died due to logic bombs, and you said you rebooted, and my friend once talked about a robotic interface with aura named PeNNi (sic), and I recall seeing an exhibit in the future section of the Vale Museum of History in which you were flying and had robotic circuitry in your back…are you a robot, Penny?"

Jaune smirked. No doubt she would be amazed by his deductive prowess and bold reveal. He wondered how it felt to have someone ascertain the truth you'd been keeping secret so easily, and reveal it so casually. She was probably stupefied by Jaune's massive brainpower.

"Correct. And, would I be equally correct in assuming that as your scroll is generating an aura but you are not, your scroll is therefore sentient and you do not have your aura unlocked, Yang?"

He no longer needed to wonder how it felt.

"Ahem. I–"

Jaune's scroll rang.

"Your sentient scroll wishes to speak to you, Yang," Penny supplied calmly, her voice never dipping from its jaunty tone. "You'd best answer it."

Jaune picked the device out of his pocket and swiped up. "Uhhhh…"

"She knows who I am…I mean, who I was, as Amber! She's tied to Ozpin and his…his…please, don't give her my name. She'll tell Ozpin and James, and they'll take me away! Jaune, please, don't tell her!"

Easy enough. Penny knew Amber was alive, but she didn't know she was Amber, and there was no way for her to find out unless Jaune told her.

"Who is your friend?" she asked innocently.

Jaune's mind froze. "Uhhhh…Penny, this is…"

Think of a fake name! C'mon, use that brainpower you were just so proud of! What's the first name that comes into your mind?!

"…Jaune."

If Velvet ever received a transcript of this conversation, the world would implode into a black hole from the sheer supermassive gravitational pull of her writing, as nothing in the universe could ever be hyper-ultra-denser than an article by that rabbit Faunus chronicling the meeting that had just taken place.

Penny smiled sweetly. "So, Yang, might I ask how this came to be? In regards to Jaune being alive and you not having aura despite being a huntress?"

"N-No?"

Her head tilted to the side, and she nodded repeatedly with closed eyes, her tangerine hair flopping around wildly behind her head. "Very well! Privacy is most important between friends, so I shall not pry."

"It doesn't weird you out? Even a little?"

"Nope! You are my dearest companion and first friend's sister, so I can trust you completely. As for your scroll, I am also a synthetic being possessing a soul, so it neither bothers nor disturbs me in any capacity." Penny's head tilted to the side. "Forgive me for being unable to distinguish you two due to your peculiar aural circumstances when we first met. Your collective circumstances are unique, but that is not a bad thing."

I guess that's…good?

Did I accidentally inhale some of the Dust from that shop? Cause that would explain a lot of what is happening right now…

"Jaune," whispered Amber. "Ask her if she can unlock your aura!"

His brow furrowed at the absolute non sequitur. "What?"

"You can ask her to unlock your aura! Project PeNNi (sic) is supposed to be an aura-generation automaton. In theory, she could do it!"

"But if she reports me–"

"She already knows, so it's not like asking will make it worse! Besides, she thinks you're Raven's crotch-goblin, so I'd say there's very little chance of this coming back to bite you. If she turns you in, she'll tell James it was Yang who didn't have aura!"

"Can I trust her?"

"Maybe? Probably? Look, I just think that running around as a huntsman without aura is probably more dangerous than taking this one quick risk. It's your call, but I'd bet you'll regret it if you miss this opportunity."

She was right – he probably would regret that. "Okay. I'll try it." Jaune lowered Amber and addressed Penny directly. "Can you unlock my aura?"

Penny's joy-filled smile faded, a pouting frown replacing it. "I cannot approve of this procedure, Yang. The risks to us both are far too great. The typical way of unlocking a person's aura requires them to mix the unlocker's soul into the unlockee's and manually drag it out of their body. The internal aura replicator at my core was originally powered by a portion of my father's own aura. As such, it is only a fraction of his soul, which I am perpetually duplicating. If I were to attempt to mix our souls with my own being incomplete, the results could be lethal. It is possible I would only retrieve a portion of your aura, and in doing so irreparably tear it apart. I am the first synthetic aura user and thus have not yet been perfected. Perhaps a future generation or model shall be able to rectify this error, but I do not believe I can aid you with this problem."

"That's okay," said Jaune. It was a long shot, and it had been Amber's idea anyways. Unlike the time he'd gone into Vale and met Roman, he hadn't had hours to hype himself up in advance of the whole affair, so he wasn't nearly as disappointed.

"Sorry, uh, Yang," said Amber. He was holding her away from his ear, so in order for him to hear her, she had to increase her volume loud enough for Penny to hear it as well.

"Um, no worries, J-Jaune. I didn't lose anything, and it was at least worth a shot."

"If unlocking your aura through the traditional method is your goal, I can simply contact my father, or my guardians. I'm sure one of them could–"

"That's not necessary, Penny. I don't think…hold on a second. What you said just now, about unlocking aura…"

"Have you changed your mind and wish for me to contact my father, Yang? If so, that was fast. I suppose Ruby was correct in describing you as an 'airheaded ditz with no redeeming features except for her round, melon-shaped, mouthwatering–'"

"No, just…you said something about unlocking aura via the 'traditional method.' Could you just expand on what you meant by that?"

Penny nodded. "Certainly. As I mentioned, 98% of the hunter and registered aura-user populace have their aura unlocked through the traditional method I described. This method involves the aid of an existing aura-user, who melds their souls together and attempts to force both to the surface of the recipient. I suppose a better description is that they coax the souls out – there is no technical term for the action, and most metaphorical or euphemistic descriptions are insufficient to fully capture the nature of it. Once the dual auras are released, the recipient's soul remains outside of their body as aura, and the original aura-user's loaned aura simply burns off into the environment as waste energy. This often renders the original aura-user physically tired and depletes their aura reserves by a percentage proportional to the square root of the absolute value of the differences between both users' baselines."

Jaune nodded, following along at every step. Penny was much better at explaining this stuff than the unclear publications and websites Jaune had gotten his hands on. Perhaps she, as a novel user of aura in an untested format, felt passionate about the subject, just like he did. Or perhaps her robotic memory allowed her to instantly access digital resources. Either way, he definitely appreciated having her around.

"Makes you wonder who the first aura user was," said Amber. "Like, if everyone got it from someone else, who started the whole thing in the first place? It sounds like it's a Nevermore and egg situation."

"There shall never be a concrete answer, as any records kept of the first aura-users unlocking have been lost, if they ever were kept in the first place," explained Penny. "However, most scientists of Atlas and Mantle suspect that they simply unlocked it in a non-traditional method."

Jaune's breath hitched. This was exactly what he'd been hoping to get out of this conversation. When Penny had said traditional method, that implied the existence of some other way, some abnormal loophole for him to possibly exploit. Had Penny not brought it up of her own volition, Jaune would have prodded her about it sooner or later.

"And those are?"

"There are currently three known to humanity and the Faunus. The first is to be born with aura. Approximately 0.003 percent of infants–"

"Next." If that one was something Jaune could have exploited, he wouldn't be in this crazy situation in the first place.

"The second method is classified, though it requires an external individual to donate and permanently lose their aura. In most cases, this is fatal."

Loses aura…? What could that possibly be? Maybe Amber knows…

At the thought of Amber, Jaune was brought back to the memory of the machine in which he'd found her and realized he already knew the answer. It apparently killed its users, but it did provide the recipients their aura.

I guess Penny really is a part of Ozpin's Oz-Squad if she knows about the hidden compartment beneath his CCT.

"And the last one? Jaune asked. Neither of the other methods were viable, so this would have to be his last hope. "What's that?"

"The last non-traditional method of aura unlocking is the most common of the three. It is, of course, self-unlocking."

tl;dr Jaunlock Holmes investigates the crime scene and deduces some BS

Omake – Ruby and Penny's first meeting

Penny: Salutations.

Ruby: But what about my sister's massive and suckable tiddies?

Penny: Good point. Let's be friends.

Next Chapter: Three Is The Loneliest Number

In which Jaune Arc's interests are piqued and his status quo remains unchanging.

Author's Notes

What's this? An actual solution to one of Jaune's problems? Say it's no so!

Also, the whole chapter is in one POV. Neat.

When writing Ruby in Living The Dream, I decided to make her the living, lesbian embodiment of chaos. She'll do something crazy just to see it happen, and then she'll say something that makes no sense, and then she'll wash your gosh-darned hog until they're cleaner than this fic's lack of profanity.

Also, it's going to be even clearer later on, but in this fic, Velvet is you (especially on FFN net). You are the rabbit Faunus. Again, we'll understand more as we go into the future, but I just wanted to give you lot a heads up.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!