"Brothers above, how the fuck are there this many?!"

Jaune ignored the panicked shouts of the classmate he didn't know the name of as he held Crocea Mors' shield out in front of himself, swinging at the Ursa in front of him with its blade and dropping it to the ground as he cut into its brain… or whatever equivalent the Grimm had.

But while he was trying his best to keep the panicked yelling of his classmates from distracting him as waves and waves of Grimm crashed upon the hastily set up defence line he was a part of, he too wondered;

"How the fuck are there this many?"

It was supposed to be a normal field trip, an exercise to work together with a bunch of other teams to 'secure and protect' an objective from a small group of powerful Grimm… but somehow, they had attracted an entire swarm of the damn things, and had been forced to hole up in the building and fight for their lives, with Professor Port overseeing the defence.

BA BA BAAAAAAAA!

His thoughts were interrupted when a trumpet rang from behind them, from inside the small dilapidated old building they were defending from the Grimm horde, which meant that Jaune's 'shift' as an actively fighting defender was over.

He retreated alongside his classmates and sighed in relief as the other half of their 'field trip' group took over fighting the Grimm, giving Jaune, and the rest of the people who had just been fighting, a break to catch their breath.

"Jaune! You're back!"

He glanced over at the voice that had called out to him and pushed himself to his feet again with a groan of effort, plodding along and finally dropping again in front of Ren and Pyrrha, who were also taking a break.

"Hey guys, good to be back. My arms feel like they have cars attached to them."

Ren gave him a quiet nod before closing his eyes again, and Pyrrha just smiled at him. "Well, I think you're doing an excellent job, Jaune. I saw a little bit of your fighting and I must say, you're doing well!"

Jaune couldn't help the rush of pride that shot through him at that. Pyrrha was like, the best at fighting in their year, her apparently being a 4-time tournament champion would do that for someone, so to hear praise from her specifically felt great. "Thanks, Pyr, but it is all mostly thanks to you… Your training has been really helping me."

And it really had been. A few weeks ago he couldn't imagine holding his own against so many Grimm, even with the other students around to help. But now, even when their field trip had somehow been targeted by an honest-to-goodness swarm of Grimm, he was still alive, and had a Grimm kill count in the dozens!

At his words, Pyrrha glanced over at Ren, her cheeks slightly darker, but the boy hadn't made any motion to indicate that he was paying attention. Jaune wasn't sure what she was worried about, he had come clean to Nora and Ren about his cheating to get into Beacon already, and the two were also aware that Pyrrhha was helping him train, so why did she seem worried?

'Oh well, I'm sure if it's a real issue she'll tell me about it'

Pyrrha went quiet after that, seemingly content to follow Ren's lead and rest in silence to prepare for their own shift in the defence line, so Jaune amused himself by looking around and people-watching.

He spotted three-quarters of team RWBY to their right. Weiss was out on her shift in the defence line, Ruby was playing a game on her Scroll, and Yang lying down, her head in the Faunus girl's lap as they chatted. Oh, and wasn't that a surprise! Jaune thought himself fairly observant, so to find out that Blake was a Cat Faunus had been a major shock.

Team CRDL was also one that Jaune kept an eye on but for different reasons. With team RWBY it was because they were close friends, especially him and Ruby, but with team CRDL… well, after the Forever Fall incident, Jaune had made sure to keep Cardin Winchester in his sights whenever he had the chance.

There were a few other teams huddled up in the safehouse that Professor Port had brought them to, most of them unknown to Jaune, but he did spot half of team CMSN -Cinder and Mercury, he thought their names were- sitting in the corner of the safehouse looking bored while their teammates Emerald and Mint were outside fighting.

Even though he wasn't looking at them for long, both of them seemed to somehow realise he had been staring and glanced his way, so he sent them a tired wave and a smile before moving on. He wasn't personal friends with CMSN, that was more Ruby being friends with Emerald, but hey, the friends of a friend, right?

His people-watching was interrupted by the thud of boots echoing through the quiet room they were resting in as Professor Port entered, a student reloading his gun for him as he clapped his hands to get their attention.

"Alright everyone, I have received word from Beacon, and we're getting some Bullheads out here in about 30 minutes! I would like to thank you, as well and congratulate you all, for your bravery and courage after this unfortunate mess of a field trip. Your hard work has kept not just yourself, but everyone in this room safe and sound."

Grabbing his gun off the student after they finished reloading it for him, he nodded to them and the student went to sit down somewhere else. Professor Port turned back to the crowd of students, with a much more optimistic attitude about him than before he got the good news about their transport.

"Now! As we do not have much time remaining on this field trip, and you have had the opportunity to rest a spell, I am willing to let this current 'shift' in the defence be the last one I send out. But also, if you are eager or willing to, I will allow anyone that has over 50% of their Aura left to go and bolster the defensive line for the last little while."

Instinctively, something which had been hammered into him by Professor Goodwitch by now, Jaune's eyes dipped momentarily and saw that he was currently sitting at about 65-75% of his Aura. That put him well over the limit… Should he go back out there and help?

Tapping his Scroll, he saw that Ren and Pyrrha were both under the cap, at 45% and 32% respectively. He knew he had a lot of Aura, but was the difference truly so large?

"Our semblances, Jaune."

"Huh?"

He looked up at Pyrrha, who had a disappointed smile on her face. Had she wanted to go and support their classmates? She tapped her own Aura meter, before using her Semblance to make her Scroll float in the air for a moment. "The reason we are down more Aura than you isn't just because of your reserves, although that does help quite a bit. Semblances use Aura, so we've been burning more of it when fighting than you would have."

Ren nodded. "Indeed. My Semblance is particularly draining, especially since I've been using it to help divert Grimm away from people who lose their footing, or are otherwise in danger of being struck."

Jaune understood what they were saying, and was a bit conflicted. He felt like it was a good thing that he was able to go help out his friends because of his lack of a Semblance, but still… Lacking a Semblance made him stand out as weaker than his classmates, and it sucked.

Standing up, he deployed Crocea Mors' shield form and drew its sword, smiling at his teammates. "Well, duty calls, I guess. I'll make sure to cover Nora's back, you know she's probably out there doing something crazy like piloting a deathstalker by its claws."

That got a laugh out of the two of them, and Jaune was glad to be able to leave them in a good mood before he plodded over to Professor Port and informed him he was going out to help. The man checked his Aura meter and nodded to him, before stopping him with a hand on his shoulder.

"I've noticed your improvement, Mr Arc. 'Tis a Jolly good showing you've made for yourself out there. I'll be sure to let Glynda know."

Jaune smiled at the man as he patted him on the back and pushed him towards the door, but shook his head to refocus on the upcoming fighting he was about to do. His efforts in refocusing were interrupted as he bumped shoulders with someone when they both went for the door simultaneously.

"Ah, shit, sorry. You go first."

Jaune paused as the almost glowing amber eye that stared at him looked him up and down, and Cinder Fall, the leader of team CMSN smiled at him. "Of course, no worries at all. Best of luck out there~!"

She tapped him on the breastplate and sashayed out through the doorway in front of him, and Jaune had to mentally reboot for a moment. Cinder was an exceptionally beautiful woman, and to have her act so… Flirty… was off-putting in the best of ways.

Not that he trusted that attitude of hers, that is. He'd lived with enough women in his life to know when a girl was faking being nice and friendly. He'd seen enough guys go after Saphron to know when they were just putting it on.

Cinder was definitely like that, but he wasn't sure why she was faking her personality to everyone. Was it a reputation thing? Maybe she had some family she didn't want to dishonour by being mean to her classmates, or something?

He snorted to himself as he shook his head and pushed through the door out into the fighting. That theory was probably just him projecting, to be honest. But still, he couldn't help but feel slightly curious about the woman.

Not enough to go out of his way to talk to her, but definitely enough to notice the cruel, bored glint in her eyes as she started to slice away at the Grimm outside the safe house.

"WOOHOO!"

Nora was having a blast, pun fully intended.

Her grenades had run out of stock almost two shift changes ago, but she was still fighting her hardest! The Ursa, Beowolves, and other fodder Grimm died after a couple of swings of Magnihild if that, but she had found a Deathstalker among the crowd, just like the one from initiation!

It was a surprisingly good benchmark for her improvement, as she used its own mass against it to maximise the damage Magnihild did to it. But the reason for her current cheering was that she'd finally tricked it into launching her upwards with its tail!

Gravity had released its hold on her as she was sent skyward… at least for a moment. As she reached the end of her momentum, she felt her entire body shift downwards again as gravity once more embraced her. And while she might sometimes have dreams about breaking free from that hold and flying today, she was happy to have its pull.

It made her next move all the more lethal. "EAT THIS, YOU BUTTHOLE!"

WHACK!

Vibrations shook her arms as Magnihild impacted the top of the Deathstalker's head, crushing it into a fine pulp that quickly started to evaporate into… Whatever Grimm evaporated into. She let out a roar of victory as she shook out her arms, getting ready to turn and fight another of the bigger Grimm when she glanced down at her Scroll, noting the 19% it was telling her.

'Damn, must have landed poorly after hitting the Deathstalker! My Aura shouldn't be that low already!'

She pouted in annoyance. Whatever the case for her lack of Aura, it meant that she was in the red, which meant she had to tag out. "Damnit!"

She stomped her foot in frustration and turned to head back to the Safehouse… Only for her remaining Aura to tingle as she sensed something attacking from behind her. "Wha- GAH!"

She saw a flash of black, red and white in her vision before she felt herself get slammed into, her Aura shattering and her consciousness fading as she was thrown back towards the safe house.

"Arc! Get over here, NOW!"

Jaune finished stabbing into the head of a Beowolf and darted over to where he heard Weiss screaming for him. He made sure to let his other students know that he was backing off, and they closed the gap he created as he pulled back and darted towards where he could see one of Weiss' Glyphs hovering in the air, holding… "NORA!"

Weiss huffed as a dart of ice shot out from the tip of Myrtenaster, impaling an Ursa and dropping it to the ground. "Her Aura is out and she's injured. I think there might be a Ursa Major in the swarm that got her. Is she okay? I caught her after she was sent practically flying back here, over the Grimm."

Weiss' Glyph shut off as Jaune got his arms under Nora, and he immediately moved back slightly from the fighting, putting her on the ground. "Nora! Are you okay? Nora?"

His throat closed up as he looked down and saw that his jeans were stained slightly red. "Weiss! She's unconscious, and bleeding pretty badly!"

He saw Weiss stiffen, indicating that she had definitely heard him, but she was too focused on fighting to turn around. Realising she wasn't going to be able to help, Jaune's forehead wrinkled from the spike of fear that shot through him.

"I'm taking her inside, be safe!"

Grabbing Nora in his arms again, he stumbled back into the house, thudding loudly across the floorboards as he heard shouts of alarm from his fellow students. He reached the area where people who had been hurt were supposed to go and placed Nora on one of the beds, flinching as Ren, Pyrrha, and team RWBY (bar Weiss) practically crashed into his back.

"Jaune, what's going on?! Is Nora alright?"

Jaune frowned at Ren's panicked voice, the other boy usually being a solid source of stoicism. Nora was clearly a bit of a panic button, so Jaune made sure to try and keep his voice as steady as he could.

He reached over to a nearby first aid kit, thanking the lord for family camping trips to the middle of nowhere and parents who demanded every kid knew how to bandage an injury. "Weiss saw her get swatted by an Ursa Major. She's out cold and bleeding. "Yang, can you rip open the bottom bit of her top?"

It spoke to the fear of Nora being injured that no one, not even Yang, teased him about making that request, and Yang immediately grabbed Nora's top and tore it open, a hiss of anger escaping her as a nasty cut appeared from under the bloodstained cloth.

Jaune got to work immediately, pouring the saline solution into the wound and doing his best to bandage it while he got Pyrrha to put pressure on the cut. It was in a bad spot for a bandage, with Jaune having to loop all the way around her torso, but he did so anyway, with Ren and Blake helping to lift her when needed.

Eventually, he finished bandaging her but even he could tell that it wasn't gonna be enough. The bandage itself was already bloodstained to hell and back, and they didn't have any spare clothes.

"Shit, shit! Nora, cmon, you got this. You're strong, Nora! I believe you can get through this!"

His sight was blurred by tears as they dripped from his eyes onto his hands, his Aura seemingly to fizzle slightly as they made contact… Wait, his Aura? Confusion shot through Jaune as he frowned, wiping away at his eyes and seeing his hands glowing.

"What?"

Something was happening with his Aura, the whitish-golden colour seeming to fan out from his palms, turning into a vibrant pink as it reached Nora's body. And there was… Something in the back of his mind, some sense he hadn't been aware of prior telling him… Something. "Wait, my Aura is doing something! Someone check Nora!"

Ruby was quicker than anyone else as she tapped Nora on the arm with her Scroll, syncing it to her Aura tracker app, and seeing the bar slowly fill up, going from empty, to red, and starting to hover around bottom-yellow as Nora started coughing, her Aura's healing clearly coming into effect.

"Jaune, is this you?"

Jaune looked up at Pyrrha, who was grinning ear to ear as she looked down at his hands, which the weird new sense in the back of his mind told him was feeding his Aura into Nora. "I think… I think it is, yeah."

"You finally got your Semblance!"

If he didn't already have the attention of all the students waiting around in the safehouse, he was sure that he did now. "You really think so?"

Blake nodded, patting him on the shoulder for a moment, but pulling back rather quickly as the part of his Aura she touched faded into her own purple. A quick look at her own Scroll caused her to smile at him. "This is definitely not something everyone can do with their Aura. I think you're… Giving Nora Aura somehow, or boosting hers. Mine just jumped up a few per cent as well."

Jaune's heart soared as the realisation shot through him, and he felt his hand's pulse again, the flow of Aura almost seeming to redouble its power now that he was aware of what he was doing. And he was doing really well, it seemed, because Nora let out a groan of pain as their combined Aura got her to the point where she woke up.

"Shit… did anyone get the plate of the truck that hit me?"

"NORA!"

Jaune was almost pushed out of the way by the speed at which Ren shot forward to wrap Nora up in a hug, and even as she clearly winced her way through the pain of his impact, she reciprocated the hug, before seemingly noticing what Jaune was doing.

"Wait, what're you doing, Jauney?"

He looked up from his glowing hands and met her eyes, and a shaky smile formed on his face. "Y-you got hurt… and I discovered my Semblance. It's giving you some of my Aura, I think. Or boosting your Aura… Either way, it's helping you heal. Just stay lying down for a second, alright?"

Nora was clearly excited by the news of his Semblance awakening, and would likely grill him about it later, but for now, she let herself get pushed back down to the bed by a distraught-looking Ren, and Jaune could have sworn he saw her going red as Ren pinned her arms.

He chose to ignore the horniness of his patient and instead focus on the Aura that connected them… Only to find that the sixth sense his Semblance had created was telling him that there was nothing left for him to do.

"I-I'm… done?"

The crowd around him were just as surprised as he was, and he quickly pulled at the scraps of Nora's shirt, gasping as she saw nothing where the cut had been but the tiniest of scars, and even then, that faded under a flash of brightly-glowing pink Aura.

The sense from his Semblance was telling him that Nora was topped up on Aura, sitting at maximum capacity, but not only that, exceeding that, with his Aura amplifying her own. He tapped her on the arm with his Scroll and it recalibrated for a second, showing an error screen after telling them that she was currently sitting on about 180-200% Aura.

Jaune took his hands away from Nora, feeling his Semblance fading into the background, but not disappearing completely, just… Waiting, for the next time he needed or wanted to use it.

He held his hands out in front of himself and pressed the mental button and saw his hands start to glow on their own, his own Aura feeling stronger because of it. His focus was shattered, however, and his hands dimmed, as the sound of a trumpet blared throughout the building.

BA BA BAAAAAAAA!

As Professor Port entered the room, Jaune tried to recapture that feeling of power, but whatever 'zone' he had entered to get a hold of it so easily faded with the entrance of his teacher. He sighed to himself, but mentally he was cheering. He had finally gotten his Semblance!

"Alright, everyone! We are T-minus 3 minutes from our Bullheads arriving, so everyone above 30% Aura, go out there and help give us the chance to get everyone onto them! Do your best out there! Extra Credit will be given to everyone for today, so don't go thinking of this as a completely horrible experience! HA HA HA!"

Jaune checked his own Aura on his scroll. It blipped a solid 37% at him, more than he had expected to have by this point, especially after healing Nora. Still, he smiled, grabbed both halves of Crocea Mors, and exited the door alongside Pyrrha and the rest of team RWBY, grinning wildly.

He couldn't wait to get to training his new Semblance!

Cinder Fall was… Bored.

Not just bored, however, she was also annoyed, upset, frustrated, and more importantly fucking sick of the Grimm for the time being. Even knowing that she was working for the Queen of the Grimm, they were too far away from Evernight Castle for Salem's direct influence to reach these Grimm, meaning they still attacked her and her minions with their full might.

Although to be fair, that was a good thing for their cover. Having a trio of exchange students somehow being ignored by the otherwise incredibly riled-up Grimm swarm would have put much undue suspicion on them, especially with Ozpin having likely told most of his trusted circle about Salem and her abilities.

And while she usually liked fighting, or at least in the sense that she liked showcasing her overwhelming power compared to these children, she hadn't gotten the chance to go all out. She had been forced to stick to the abilities given to her by her Semblance and nothing else, for using the Maiden's flames would have immediately ticked Ozpin's lackey Port off about her 'new abilities', if not her true identity if the old wizard trusted the blowhard enough to tell him about the Maidens.

But, what she enjoyed even less than the fighting, even as handicapped as she was, was the flight back on the Bullheads. How on earth could these students think they had acquitted themselves well? They had been stuck there for over 12 hours, and they hadn't even cleared out the swarm in its entirety!

If they had any modicum of true power, then the swarm would have been absolutely routed by the veritable army of supposed 'aspiring huntsmen', but it had not. Instead, she had been forced to limit herself, to play along with this absolute farce of a performance she was putting on, and wait for the damned school to send them evac Bullheads.

But the thing that was really pissing her off was having to listen to the two other groups of students in their Bullhead gush over their own performances. Sure, she had volunteered her team to fly alongside Team RWBY and Team JNPR, mainly to keep an eye on Ozpin's favourite student Ruby Rose, and the best candidate for the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers, Pyrrha Nikos, but it still bugged her to have to listen to Valkyrie go on her third identical story about the Deathstalker she had fought.

"Are you alright, Cinder? You look upset?"

Cinder grunted as Emerald spoke to her, glancing in the direction of her 'team'. Mercury seemed relaxed now that the fighting was over, but her keen eyes let her clearly see that he was still in 'fight mode', his posture looking just slightly too relaxed to be real.

Neo, or 'Mint' as she was now, was lying on the floor and scrolling through some website on her Scroll, tapping away at her keyboard as she likely got into some sort of argument or another with someone online about ice cream or whatever inane things Neo enjoyed.

And then Emerald herself seemed antsy. Cinder had told her to try and get close to team RWBY, but it was so painfully obvious on her face that she would rather see if Cinder herself was okay than follow that order. Which was frustrating, to say the least, but easily worked around.

"I am fine, thank you. Merely annoyed at the circumstances we found ourselves in. I will be charging Beacon for the damages to my outfit, to be sure. Now… Don't you have something to be doing?"

Emerald, like usual, took the answer at face value, nodding happily to herself as she pushed herself to her feet and plodded over to Team RWBY, striking up a conversation with Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee. Cinder couldn't help but roll her eyes as the girl walked away from her. Her undying loyalty was a small price to pay for having to deal with such infatuation, but it was truly annoying sometimes.

"And then I got hit and I was apparently like ZOOM over the Grimm and then Weiss-Cream caught me with one of those Glyphs of hers, and then Jaune brought me inside and then BAM! Semblance time!"

Anything to stave off the boredom, Cinder actually tuned into Valkyrie's latest tale. She had moved on from stories about her fighting it seemed, moving onto… Jaune, their team leader, she thought, discovering his Semblance?

That was interesting enough to listen in on… Keeping up her information on the abilities of her classmates would make it all the easier to take them out later when Beacon fell.

"Haha, Nora, everyone was there when it happened, they know this already."

"And they know how awesome I am when I'm fighting already too but I still told them all about it! Let me brag about you, Fearless leader!"

Cinder raised an eyebrow at the nickname, but otherwise made it seem like she was focused on her scroll, and not the chattering of Valkyrie. The girl continued as Jaune seemed to acquiesce to her, a grin on her face. "He totally can like, share his Aura! It felt so cool, it was all like, woosh, and vvvrrrmmm, and shabam! And then I was all better, in just minutes!"

Cinder could feel herself perking up slightly at that. A Semblance to share Aura, to give it to others, was a very useful one indeed. Plus, if the boy was a healer, then he would have to be a primary target in the future, as leaving him alive before taking out another target could cause that target to survive due to his interference.

As her brain started to plot out the poor boy's death, Jaune himself spoke up. "Uh, that's technically kinda wrong, Nora. I wasn't just giving you Aura, although I do think it was a little of that. I was also kind of… Amplifying your Aura? It's hard to explain. But I was giving you some, turning it into your own Aura, and then making that Aura stronger as well. You were sitting on about 200% or something when I was done."

"Yea! And even now that it's faded back down, my Scroll still says that I'm on 105% Aura! I think you might have kinda permabuffed me, Jauney! Thanks a million!"

"Nora! You should keep something like that to yourself! What if our classmates heard you, they'd bug him about it all day every day for the rest of our time at Beacon!"

Lie Ren was ever the voice of reason on JNPR, but Cinder was very adept at acting, and with him not saying anything further, she guessed that he thought she didn't hear Valkyrie's words. But still… that caused Cinder to pay attention. A semblance that… Amplified Aura? To such an extent as a 100% boost, some of it even potentially being longer lasting, or even maybe permanent?!

Such a thing would absolutely cement his place as a high-priority target for death! If left alive, he could easily throw a wrench into her plans by healing a target! Already her plans shifted in her mind, thinking of ways to get rid of the boy without casting suspicion on herself, until finally, she thought…

'What if I had that power in my arsenal?'

She paused as the thought hit her. Her first instinct was to kill the boy, to get rid of a problem before it became ever worse as he mastered his Semblance, but… what if she instead helped him master his Semblance? Convinced him to use it on her, to give her the extra power his Semblance offered?

It would likely require her to, ugh, befriend the boy, but she had made bigger sacrifices for power before. A painful tingle that shot down her spine at that thought was a reminder enough of that.

Yes, she could definitely do that. Especially with his reaction to her earlier, it was clear he found her attractive, not that she was very surprised about that, but that would indicate that it should be possible for her to worm her way into his friend group to gain access to his Semblance.

She nodded to herself, glancing over at Jaune Arc. He would be her newest target, in a much less lethal way than her other targets, of course, but a target nonetheless. And when she was done with him, she'd have him in the palm of her hand, her own personal battery of Aura Amplification.

Perhaps he might in time allow her to merely call for the other half of the Maiden powers, her soul so overwhelmingly strong under the effects of his Semblance that it was ripped from that useless woman Qrow Branwen had to rescue?

A smile formed on her face. Yes… This was a plan worth attempting. And if he refused to give her the power she desired from him, or even failed to be worth the effort? Well, she had seen him in Miss Goodwitch's combat class.

It wouldn't be hard to get rid of him if need be.