Author's note at the ending of the chapter.

'When you see me write with italics and between the thought marks, it means that Fox is speaking with his semblance.'

(Chapter Four)

Jaune was getting anxious.

The past two days he spent helping Penny and Pietro to fabricate his new weapon, but today, he was informed by the two that he wouldn't be allowed to help in the final stages of creating the weapon. The blonde tried to persuade the father and daughter to include him in the last leg of work but they both remained adamant and forced him away, so he spent most of his day cooped up in his room messaging team CFVY and Cardin.

Jaune looked out the window from his bed and saw that the sun was setting and noticing that Flynt and Neon hadn't returned yet. He was about to message the other partner pair when suddenly the dorm room door swung open causing him to jump slightly from where he sat. He looked up and all the anticipation from today returned as intense as ever upon seeing his ginger-headed partner standing in the doorway wearing a bright smile.

"Greetings Partner, I hope you had a good day!" Jaune nodded to her before rushing to stand in front of her, as he did so he took in Penny's appearance. She was still wearing her normal attire, but she wore a welder's apron and goggles in addition to her outfit. She also had plenty of oil and soot marks littering her, the most noticeable, and admittedly cute, was an oil smudge that covered the tip of her nose.

As he took in her appearance, he stayed silent at her greeting, causing the shorter girl to lean in closer to the blonde and ask him a question causing his face to flush, tilting her head to the side ever so barely.

"Partner? Is everything all right?" As she asked this, Jaune realized that he had been staring at his partner for longer than was normal and coughed into his hand to regain composure whilst taking a moderate step back away from the girl.

"Y-Yea Penny, I'm okay." Once the words left his mouth, the girl looked at him skeptically, before smiling and nodding to him, causing him to let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as she told him exactly what he wanted to hear.

"Sensational! Father sent me to inform you that your weapon is ready. Would you like to come and see?" The moment Jaune heard her comment he nodded his head furiously, causing the ginger to laugh melodically and take the blonde's hand before running out of the dorm and towards the lab at full speed, dragging an embarrassed, thrilled, and terrified teen behind her.

After a few minutes of traversing the campus, Penny was standing proudly in front of the door to the forge lab, while Jaune was trying not to lose his lunch at the previous high-speed travel he was subjected to. Upon recomposing himself, he smiled and gave a thumbs-up to his partner, who returned his gestures, and opened the door. He was led past the various rooms of the lab until his eyes fell upon Pietro sleeping soundly in his chair, slumped over one of the desks in the lab.

Penny made a gesture for him to remain in place as she silently skipped her way to her father's side and gently roused him from his sleep.

"Huh? Oh! Darling, you're back. And I see you brought Jaune with you." The older man stretched as much as he could from his seat before he sat up straight and rubbed away the sleep from his eyes.

"That is correct, friend Jaune was quite eager to come and see his new weapon." Pietro chuckled at her speech tick and gestured for the blonde to come closer as he began to let suspense build.

"Well young man, I promised you a huntsman quality weapon, and I do believe that this," He gestured to an item that lay upon the workbench in between them covered with a cloth for an unveiling, letting an intention silence fall upon the group before he spoke again. "is a right work of art if I do say so myself."

Jaune looked at the weapon that was disguised in front of him, and he looked toward Penny and Pietro.

"Thank you both for this, you don't have any idea how much this means to me." The older man just waved him off and gave him a happy response.

"Well I couldn't have my daughter's best friend and partner off saving the world without a weapon now, could I?" At this, the ever-exuberant girl shook her head no and was excited for her partner to see his personal weapon. The blonde in question looked towards the cloth and then back to the inventor. Upon seeing the older man raise a hand, signaling him to proceed, he gripped the cover and pulled it away in one fluid motion.

His jaw went slack and he found himself looking at a beauty of design. The shield was a heater shield like the one he previously wielded while he attended Beacon, save for the small extra curve at the center top of the shield and the slightly pointed center face of shield. It was all silver on the side that received punishment, but on the side that was held, there were touches of royal blue. The shape of the shield hadn't been decided on when they began working, but as he viewed his weapon, he couldn't help but think that Pietro made the perfect choice.

The blonde picked up the shield, admiring the weight and heft the weapon had before shifting it to its other forms as his partner and her father conversed in a hushed tone. After a few minutes of testing the weight and grip of the weapon in different forms, Jaune was wielding the lance and upon shifting it to its umbrella form, which was ever so barely taller than the blonde at his full height, he took Pietro's attention was from his conversation with Penny.

"Ah, the umbrella form. So, there are two key components for this form that I need to explain." Jaune nodded to the older man before holding the weapon horizontally so that the inventor could point out the features. The man adjusted Jaune's hold on the weapon, tilting the angle at which the umbrella was held so that the canopy was aimed more toward the ground, revealing gill like vents on the inside of the canopy.

"Do you see those vents on the inner part of the canopy?"

"Yes sir."

Before Pietro could go in depth explaining the function of the vents, Penny raised and waved her hand in the air excitedly, grabbing her father's attention.

"Oh! Father, may I explain this part to him? Please, may I?" She suddenly replaced her smile with an adorable pout that was perfected in the art of tugging heartstrings. Pietro let out a large belly laugh at the girl's antics while Jaune coughed and looked away to hide the slight pink dusting that his cheeks had. The dark-skinned scientist gave her a pat on the head before signaling for her to take over the explanation.

"So Partner, the purpose of the vents is for this!" She gestured to the neck of the umbrella connected to the canopy and twisted in a segment, causing an inner chamber to reveal a vial filled with a purple substance.

"Is that…" The blonde leader hesitantly began to say, afraid of the answer.

"Dust. Gravity dust specifically." The ginger replied, confirming his fears. Upon seeing the worried expression of his daughter's partner, Pietro decided to briefly chime in to ease the younger man of his fears.

"I wouldn't worry yourself too much over the dust. You won't have to learn or memorize any type of dust science or take any overzealous precautions with the weapon. The dust is actually rather supplementary to the weapon's design than something else you will have to learn use in battle." Penny nodded her head in affirmation of her father's words before explaining the purpose of the vents.

"By channeling aura into the weapon, and shifting this slider up with your thumb, the umbrella form will slow your decent using gravity dust, since without it you'd be trying to slow your decent using a metal rain protection device. Thanks to the dust, this puts, I believe the term was, 'wind under your sails.'" The blonde's partner explained with a slightly confused face at the term she tried to recall.

She let the look of confusion leave her as she continued her explanation. "And if you shift the slider to the left from its raised position, you'll accelerate towards wherever you have the pointed end facing, and if you slide it down from the left, you'll accelerate towards whatever direction the handle is pointing." The ginger concluded with a look of appraisal towards Jaune, trying to gauge his reaction to his new weapon.

As Penny finished her lecture of his new weapon, Jaune observed the weapon with interest and tried everything to return the weapon to its shield form, and after a few minutes of fiddling with the complicated weapon, succeeded in his challenge.

As he held it, Pietro pushed the weapon Jaune was holding gently against his chest, and gave the boy an approving smile, before imparting his last bit of advice to the young man.

"Now Jaune, while this weapon is something, I would consider one of my better works, there are two things about this weapon that will dictate how you preform with it." The teen in question nodded to the older gentleman, and Pietro continued.

"First, there are a lot of moving parts and pieces to this weapon, and they all have a place. Right now, they are all in their respective places, and no foreign materials or substances have made their way into the weapon." The older man looked to the weapon in the younger man's hands before continuing.

"First, as time goes on, this weapon will clash with the grimm and with other weapons, and it will fall to the ground only to be picked up and fought with again. While this weapon is something I'm proud to have created, if you don't perform regular maintenance on this weapon, it will give out on you eventually. Second, a little bit of wisdom from an old man." Pietro put a heavy but gentle hand on the boy's shoulder and locked eyes with him before speaking.

"Focus on what's standing in front of you and what you can do, rather than what's far ahead of you and what you can't do yet." Jaune nodded to the inventor, and with that, the older man made his way toward the door to catch up on rest in his quarters. And Jaune turned to face Penny, who was standing there awkwardly, but no less enthusiastic.

"So, friend Jaune…do you…like your weapon?" She asked tentatively. Jaune looked down to the mass of shift enabled metal and grinned broadly before scooping his partner up in a hug without thinking.

"I love it Penny, it's perfect." The blonde responded sincerely.

Moments after he scooped her up, he realized what he'd done and let her go, but Penny didn't seem angry, she just smiled earnestly back to him in full.

Jaune strapped the weapon to his back in its shield form and moved towards the entrance of the labs, before his sleeve was grabbed by the smaller ginger haired girl. He turned back to her, and saw the worry in her eyes, and he immediately became concerned. Before he could say anything, she spoke.

"I have a secret." She blurted out to her partner.

Jaune just looked at her confused and questioned. "A secret?"

His partner nodded her head as she stared down at her shoes and answered. "Yes, I have a secret. I asked father if I could tell you and he said it was my decision to make. And I really want to…but-" She took a deep breath and continued. "I can't. Not yet." She stared at the ground and her being burned with shame as they stood in silence.

Her fears of Jaune having a bad reaction to her statement were dashed away when the blonde just smiled and responded.

"Then tell me when you can, you don't have to rush it." She looked up to meet his eyes and nodded slightly, to which Jaune just smiled at her. Penny returned his smile and spoke with a weight lifted off her chest.

"You'll be the first person I tell."

(One Month Later-Atlas Academy)

Turns out, creating a combat style wasn't a walk in the park, especially when you had to create a style to fit four different types of weapons, five if you count the umbrella. He had to get used to dust, wielding two-handed weapons, increase his accuracy with his bow, and learn how to dual wield correctly. The only part of the weapon that he was able to use effectively was the shield.

Despite the challenges that lie ahead of him, Jaune wasn't discouraged. He had his team, the headmasters, and Pietro all believing in him to be better. The only problem so far was that progress was…slow. With his weapon forged, Jaune was cleared to participate in combat class alongside his peers. In individual ranking, the blonde sat in the lower half of combatants, due to both his lack of training and having to learn to fight with his equipment on the spot. In team ranking however, Jaune's team sat amongst the top two spots in class, competing for the number one rank against a team that was rather like team JCKP.

So far three matches of individual competition had been completed by the members of the blonde's team. First was Neon. She went up against Ivori, a tan skinned boy wearing a white and gold outfit that was rather revealing. Accenting his look was short white hair and a pair of gold tinted glasses that didn't fully block his eyes, revealing rather mischievous yet mellow light brown eyes. Ivori wielded a white and gold whip that doubled as a pendulum, and was well versed in combat with it, causing Neon to have a difficult time against him as he could keep her at a distance, but punish her if she didn't respect his weapon's versatility.

Neon put on an impressive display against the Ivori, but in the end, the flashy teen stole the win away from her by landing a heavy hit and dropping her aura to the red. Next was Flynt against Kobalt, a tall teen with cobalt blue hair and eyes. In comparison to his teammate Ivori, his outfit was more conservative, and he accessorized with pauldrons and asymmetrical gloves worn on either arm. His main weapon was the gauntlet he wore on his left arm that made his strikes much more impactful with the help of dust, and his secondary weapons were a pair of butterfly swords he kept in his back belt line.

The winner of a fight between Kobalt and Flynt always came down to whether the blue haired hot head could close the distance between him and trumpet wielding teen, and today, the win went to Flynt. The fight before the one going on currently was Penny against Ciel Soleil, a very to-the-point girl with dark skin and black hair. Her posture, attitude, and even her clothing seemed to radiate a proven confidence but never was she arrogant.

Often when the two would clash in combat exercises, rarely would a winner be decided. Typically, they would battle for so long that the instructor would call their match a draw early on so that other students would have a chance to battle. On occasion, Penny would land a decisive blow with her swords that would drop Ciel's aura into the red, or Ciel would maneuver Penny into a win by ring out with her twin revolvers.

After they returned to their seats, the current battle had begun. Jaune and his opponent faced each other in combat class the most often because of their similar skills. Their bouts were almost always a game of planning ahead, and rarely did one of them defeat the other consecutively. As the battle raged on, the blonde's opponent charged forward.

His opponent had a pale, blemish free complexion and piercing blue eyes. He was tall and had a skinny build, yet still shorter than Jaune by a few inches. His outfit was rather stylish with a professional feel. Covering his upper body was a plain white button-down shirt with the sleeves at a half arm length with a black tie, worn under a pale, dark blue vest sporting a black folded pocket square, and for his lower body, wore indigo pants and dress shoes.

The rest of his outfit was rather interesting, consisting of a gray trench coat that was fitted for the teen, and upon his left upper arm and shoulder sat a compact shield that the white-haired teen angled to protect himself when he lunged to attack. He donned an unusual type of half-cloak that circled him from the right side of his chest to the right side of his back, and concealed him to his lower right arm. Atop his head he wore a gray circular brimmed hat that let but a few white locks of hair show, but the left side of the brim was stitched to the crown of the hat with a 'W.S'.

His weapons were a pata, a sword connected to a gauntlet designed for dueling many years before either teen's time that required agility and finesse and hidden on the above the teen's right ribs was a modernized, and likely highly customizable, dueling pistol. Jaune's constant rival in combat exercises was the leader of team Witch Lock, a.k.a. WICK, and the brother of his former crush Weiss; Whitley Schnee.

Jaune believed he was ready to brace and counterattack, but as he took a step backward, he lost his footing, causing his stance to become faulty. As Whitley impacted his shield with his weapon, the blonde was sent skidding backwards, and he absentmindedly noticed he was at the edge of the ring.

As Jaune checked his aura levels, he saw that a good hit on his opponent would net him a victory, but his opponent had an impressive intellect, and seemed to be formulating a plan of his own. Without warning, his rival shot forth and broke the blonde from his calculating, forcing him to react with a raised shield and a swear.

Upon breaching the blonde's safe space, the white-haired teen smirked and changed the direction of his attack to instead swipe at his legs with his blade. Jaune jumped back before realizing that he played into his opponent's hands, and as he was falling back refused to lose. He quickly shifted his shield to its dual sword form and let out a swipe across his opponents' chest just as his backside hit the ground.

Jaune fell victim to Whitley's plan of forcing him to fall out of the ring, but in turn had found his aura sent into the red with a decisive retaliation from Jaune. The instructor called the battle a draw and both students nodded to her before shaking hands and returning to sit with their teams.

"So~ what's the score now?" Whispered the amused cat faunus of team JCKP. Jaune grunted whilst pulling out a pocket notebook and adding a tally to the book.

"Six wins, six losses, seven draws." The blonde replied as he scribbled away, writing down notes detailing his and Whitley's most recent bout. He let out a sigh as he put away the pocketbook and laid his head on the desk to rest as the rest of the class went by slowly.

Soon, combat class concluded, and it was time for lunch. The members of teams JCKP and WICK walked together to the cafeteria, the eight students conversing with each other in about various subjects and giving opinions of their fights. After standing in line for the lunch buffet, they two teams sat together at a circular table, all enjoying the delicious fresh food cooked by the chefs of the academy.

"That was a rather impressive move Jaune." The blonde turned to the side to meet his friend and fellow leader and nodded to him as the rest of the two teams talked amongst themselves.

"Thanks, and your strategy was nothing to sneeze at either Whitley. I knew in the back of my head that I was at the edge of the ring, but you didn't give me any time to think today, so I played right into your hands." The blonde boy accepted his rival's praise and returned the gesture as he ate.

Whitley adjusted his tie before returning to his meal. The two sat in silence before the youngest of the Schnee siblings spoke again.

"Pardon me Jaune, but may I ask a question?" His tone changed, it was filled with curiosity, and perhaps if the blonde was deducing correctly, uncertainty. Jaune made a motion with his hand, signaling for Whitley to go ahead.

"I know we both lack any long-term substantial training, so we are definitely on the right track but," the white-haired boy paused for a moment, poking at his food before resuming. "it doesn't feel as if we're really improving all that much. I know we won't grow exponentially overnight, but it feels abnormally slow."

Jaune chewed on a rather tender piece of meat for a moment, and swallowed while digesting what Whitley had put forth, and after a brief period of thought responded. "I understand how you feel, but I think we just need to be patient. I don't know everything about your circumstances, but I do know that if we want to be able to face our teammates in combat class or protect them in a real battle, we have to work harder than anyone else. And unfortunately, that's gonna take time."

Whitley sat in silence pondering what Jaune had said, before reluctantly nodding his head and returning to his meal. Jaune got lost in his thoughts thinking about his homework and upping his nightly workout. A soft hand fell on his shoulder and he looked to his left and saw Penny giving him a thumbs up. He smiled back to her before finishing his meal and excusing himself to return to team JCKP's dorm.

Once he closed the door behind him, he set out to finish his homework for Grimm Anatomy. As he looked through the book and filled out the answers to questions, he let his mind wander, causing the time to go by. Before he knew it, an hour had passed, and he'd completed the homework. As much as the blonde didn't like doing book work, he was remaking himself, which meant taking things a bit more serious, even classwork.

He went into the bathroom to change his clothes, just in case his team returned, and once he was completed, grabbed his workout bag before heading to the gym. Once he was in the courtyard and walking to the other end of the academy campus, he felt his scroll vibrate in his pocket and checked it. The time read 17:17, and the screen showed that Jaune had an unread message from his bully turned friend, Cardin.

As he crossed the campus, he decided to call the ginger instead of texting, not having heard the voices of him or any members of team CFVY since before he had designed his weapon. He waited through the rings and on the fourth, the scroll call was answered.

"Hey Cardin."

"J.B! Good to hear from you buddy. I was beginning to think you forgot about me." The blonde could hear the sincerity that the mace wielder was greeting him with which caused a happy grin to appear on his face.

"Nah man, you know I'd never dare do that. But hey, I saw that you sent me a text earlier, couldn't answer because I was still in class. What's up?" Cardin remembered that Jaune was now in a different time zone and rubbed the back of his head before responding.

"I was actually calling…" The Beacon student paused, something Jaune was acutely aware of. Jaune decided to interject himself after a full minute of silence.

"You okay Cardin?" The blonde could hear the uncharacteristic sign leaving the ginger's lips over the phone before his friend finally finished saying what he wanted.

"I was calling to see if you could give me any advice on how to beat your old friends in combat exercises." Instantly, the blonde realized why the boy was so hesitant to say why he called. He needed help, and whether it was because he felt embarrassed at having to ask Jaune or just needing to ask in general the blonde didn't have time to decide on, as Cardin continued to speak.

"I can't squeeze a win out of any of your old pals, and it's getting old. Quick. Both team RWBY and PRVN toss me and my team around like a salad," PRVN? Jaune deduced that that must have been the new name of his old team.

"they don't even look like their breaking a sweat when they go against me. Ren, Ruby, and Blake don't let me get any where close, Nora, Yang, and Weiss all just overpower me every time we have a match, Pyrrha looks bored in every match she has unless it's against her teammates or team RWBY, and don't even get me started on the new girl."

"Who is she? If she really is that bad, I might have to look into her." The blonde was nearing his destination, as he was able to see it distantly. The Atlas Academy training center, it was a large building, but rather ordinary as it blended in well with the rest of the ornate architecture around him.

"Vernal Branwen. I don't know anything about her, except that she is, well…"

"Well what Cardin?" The blonde could hear the boy's shoulders shrug as if he'd given up on trying to describe her politely.

"She's kind of a bitch. She doesn't get along with team RWBY at all, it doesn't even look like she mixes well with the rest of her team." The blonde just shook his head at the description of the girl before he responded.

"Hm, maybe she's like that for a reason. Have you tried exploiting their team's dynamic in team combat exercises?"

"Of course I did. While they don't look like friends or match very well, PRVN can cooperate pretty damn well in fights. And then they're right back to keeping their distance from each other. But there is something I noticed."

"That sounds interesting, what did you see?"

"It only gets to this point when they go against team RWBY, but if one of them needs to fall back, the new girl will straight up screw her team over if it means taking out one of the girls."

"What do you mean by that?" The blonde was genuinely curious about how one girl could offset his old team's dynamic that badly, the other members of the former team JNPR were rather easy to get along with.

"She will straight up leave them to their fates, if she's in a fight with someone else and one time, she even used Nora as a human shield against Weiss' dust attacks." Cardin made a sound of thought as he stopped talking so that Jaune could digest the information he had been fed before the ginger spoke once more.

"But yea…I didn't want to ask for help, but I can't stand getting kicked around by them every time we have class. So…any ideas on what I should do."

Jaune thought about what he knew currently about all involved before speaking. "Well, you aren't built for speed. Your build is very muscular, combined with height and the weight of your armor and weapon, you aren't going to be moving as fast as any of those eight." Cardin verbally deflated from the accurate analysis, but before he could begin to sulk, his blonde-haired friend interrupted him.

"One thing that you do have going for you is the size of your aura pool. You can take plenty of hits unlike Ren and Weiss, who out of the eight, have the smallest aura pools. Also. Cardin, besides the huge dust crystal in your weapon, does it shift at all?"

"No. Take away the dust crystal and it's just a plain mace." The blonde stayed silent for a moment before breaking down his thoughts for his friend.

"Besides your speed, the other problem you have is range. All of them have some way to keep you at bay, even with you enhancing your speed with aura. Oh! What type of weapon does the new girl use?"

"She uses these big bladed disks, she can throw them and catch them if she wants to keep you away, swing with them if you're up close, and they can both fire a laser." Jaune fell silent and evaluated what he had just heard from his friend before asking for confirmation.

"You aren't serious about the laser part."

"Jauney-boy, do I sound like I'm joking?"

"…" The blonde massaged his temples thinking about how he would have to plan for that in the future before returning his focus to what Cardin wanted.

"We're getting off track. So, like I was saying, all of them have a way to keep their distance. On top of that, all of them are incredibly skilled fighters. I see a few things you might be able to do."

"I'm all ears J.B." The ginger's tone shifted to one of hope as he waited for Jaune to elaborate.

Jaune cleared his throat before he began. "Option number one, get faster. Either by ditching your armor, or making your weapon lighter, or just trying to change your bodies build, which its a bit late for, since your body is already rather developed. But if I'm being honest, even if you were to up your speed, you probably won't win against them that way."

"Alright, so what else do you got?"

"Option two is a lot more doable. Get a ranged weapon, something that will let you force them to move and make them want a close quarters fight." At this the ginger starting to envision those fights playing out, but lacked a mental image to help him.

"Any ideas for me?" Jaune recoiled a bit from where he was walking. Cardin asking him for help was already foreign to the boy, but to trust him with suggestions for his weapon? The Atlas student couldn't help but feel slightly warmed by the notion. Jaune thought for a few moments before coming up with an image for his ginger-haired friend.

"Maybe a shotgun, or making your weapon's shaft segment and stretch past the handle to turn it into a flail if the need arises? Cardin tossed the idea back and forth in his mind, imagining fights and scenes playing out with the proposed changes made to his weapon.

"Y'know, those aren't bad ideas at all Jaune. I think I'll talk to team CFVY later and see what they think too. Anything other ideas?"

The blonde could be heard shrugging his shoulders from his end of the call before he spoke. "You could look into getting a shield. It wouldn't really slow you down any more than you are, but you'd also be able to advance against someone rather safely with one. Besides that, train with team CFVY as much as you can. They'll put you through the ringer, but you'll come out stronger for it."

"Heh, you don't have to worry about that last one Jauney-boy, I've already been training with team CFVY for a while now. Still can't beat any of them, but I can tell I'm improving. I owe a lot to Velvet for helping me out." The ginger's tone sounded different to Jaune, but Jaune was more interested in why he felt like he owed Velvet.

"Why do you owe her specifically?"

Cardin let out a chuckle before he responded. "We'll you know how her semblance works right? Well, she watches me and the rest of her team spar, and then when she goes against me, she fights using my style and habits so that I can try and find any holes in my form. It was her idea, and her weapon is no joke."

Jaune knew of the semblances of team CFVY and their weapons, so he could only nod his head in affirmation of the slightly taller boy's assessment. He was closing on the training center, its entrance no further than another hundred meters away, before a thought struck him like a lightning bolt followed by an alarming devilish grin.

"Hey Cardin, I have an idea. Do you think you could talk to team CFVY about it and get them on board?" Cardin could hear the smile on the blonde's face but was confused as to what was going on in his friend's head.

"I mean, I can try. But what are you thinking?" Jaune began to lay out the framework of his idea to the other boy, who slowly grew his own Cheshire grin as he listened on. By the time Jaune was directly in front of his destination. Both boys looked positively giddy at what the blonde was scheming.

"So, do you think you can get them on board Cardin?"

"Say no more, I'm in. I'll talk to them about it, but I think we both know they're gonna want in." The Beacon student was already making his way to the older team's dorm to let them in on Jaune's plan.

"Alright then, lemme know what they say."

"Will do Jaune." As Cardin was about to end the scroll call, Jaune's voice cut through one last time halting him.

"And Cardin?" Curious, the ginger inquired.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." The sincerity wasn't lost on the mace-wielder, and he responded with a chuckle and his parting words.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you, but you're welcome." And with that, both boys ended the international call. As Jaune walked into the training center, he made his way to the locker room to store his workout bag. After he was done stretching, he began his warm-up with a smile on his face, and a thought waltzed to the front of his thoughts.

'Things are really starting to come together.'

(Meanwhile-Beacon Academy)

Things were not coming together Pyrrha decided.

Thanks to Vernal, the synergy of team PRVN was completely out of sorts. She was a terrible partner and teammate, what with her using her own teammates as a shield and abandoning them in crucial moments constantly. The blue-eyed girl's attitude and look on life also didn't help. She only respected strength, and none of the other members of PRVN could beat her soundly in a one on one.

Ren's pacifistic and quiet nature made him a target for the girl's ire. If a situation arose where she saw his pride was insulted, she would personally grow angry with the boy if he didn't assert the strength he rarely showed. She would insult and try to aggravate the boy in the hopes of starting a fight to make him more aggressive, but he would just ignore her, only further incensing the girl.

Nora was hyper, energetic, optimistic, and had a carefree attitude. These were all traits that were directly opposite of Vernal's, and the former bandit turned student of Beacon disliked the girl intensely for them. However, where as the ginger's life-long friend was indifferent and rather uncaring towards Vernal, Nora reciprocated the dislike. Seeing her best friend and crush being insulted was enough to make Nora upset, but combined with all the tan-skinned girl's qualities it made for a rather avid distaste for the girl.

Pyrrha however was the one going through the most difficulties. Unlike her former team leader, she was not a natural born leader, nor did she see herself as one. But after a talk with Ruby about being a leader meant that she had to do it regardless of how she felt, she reluctantly prepared to face the responsibilities in front of her. Unfortunately, they were proving to be a tad too daunting currently.

Vernal would ignore her orders, clash with all her teammates, and had absolutely no regard for others. Coupled with her bad attitude, she contributed nothing to her team except astounding force and combat experience, but refused to lend them even that, which only served to further bring down morale.

Not to mention how the girl affected their relationship with team RWBY. Upon Vernal first introducing herself, she was assaulted with questions by the blonde bombshell of team RWBY, Yang, and stared at cautiously by her sister Ruby. Since then, any gathering of the two groups devolved into an almost silent affair accentuated by glares and an uncomfortable tension.

Pyrrha was driven to the point of insanity, she had spent her whole day trying to reach the olive branch out to Vernal, but was either blown off or subjected to her rude mannerisms. The red head's bad mood had slipped in ever so slightly during combat class, where she accidentally stopped holding back for a few moments against Yang and dropped her aura from green to orange with a ten second onslaught of blows.

The spartan girl stood on the rooftop where she had shunned her former leader and reminded herself that she was strong. When Jaune had revealed his secret to her, part of her, the part that just wanted a companion that cared about Pyrrha Nikos, not the 'Invincible Girl', wanted to not care, wanted to offer to train and guide him. But the other side of her, the side that was built to be a protector and paragon of good saw what he did was wrong, and while she didn't reveal his secret immediately, followed through with what she thought was right.

She tried to shake her head of musing involving her former blonde leader, but couldn't do so completely, and her last thought of the blonde for the night escaped her lips.

"I wonder what he's doing right now…"

Team CFVY was lazing around their dorms absentmindedly, all the teens filling their free time in a multitude of ways.

Fox was laying in bed, taking an afternoon nap to rejuvenate himself while his teammates moved around the room. Velvet was on a laptop with her weapon system connected, fiddling with some components and programs to ensure that all was running smoothly. Yatsuhashi was reading a book about samurais and ninja, stopping to cover his mouth in mild shock every now and again, much to the amusement of Velvet. And Coco was playing video games, and when she had a moment to pause, was also working on outfits of some kind on a laptop that sat next to her.

A rapid succession of knocks was spontaneously upon their door, startling the occupants of the room, and waking a silent but still tired and grumpy Fox. Coco looked to Yatsuhashi, who just shrugged his shoulders, and she paused for a moment before making her way to the door.

As the coffee-colored fashionista opened the door to her dorm, the members of team CFVY were greeted with the sight of an out of breath Cardin Winchester, who despite his exhaustion, was sporting a large grin. The leader of the second-year team decided to question him.

"Cardin? What's up? And why do you look like you did a full sprint from the other side of Beacon to my dorm?" The teen in question finished catching his breath before standing at his full height and speaking

"It has to do with Jaune and his plan for the Vytal festival at the end of the year." As the words left his mouth, all attention was focused on the underclassman. Hurriedly, Coco grabbed the boy by his uniform and dragged him into the dorm, shutting the door behind him.

"What about it. He didn't change his mind, did he? Or get expelled?" Velvet's voice cut through the silence of the room. The ginger-haired mace wielder shook his head negative and explained.

"What! No. No, it's not like that. He came up with an idea, and it all revolves around Velv."

Intrigued, the mentioned member looked towards her friends curiously. And Fox used his semblance, telepathy, on all the other present occupants of the room to ask the big question.

'What's he got planned?'

The leader of team CRDL started to describe the boy's plan, and the upperclassmen couldn't help but admire the plan and the detail to which it was planned out, despite being spontaneous. After a few moments of explanation, all the students in the room sported a confident smile. Coco looked to her team, and they all looked back to her and nodded their heads. She looked back to Cardin and said the words he knew he would hear, but that were no less satisfying.

"We're in."

(A/N)

Hey guys! Holy Hell this one was late. Technically it was on the last day of the second week, but I'm going to try and not make a chapter take that long again.

Reason why it took so long was I couldn't decide where to start the chapter at. But I was finally able to decide and finish it up, I hope you all enjoy. Also, I commissioned an artist to do two pieces for me, one that will be a unique new cover art for the story, and the other will be one for my account, that will give you a picture image of what Whitley will look like in this story. Sorry if the detail was a bit much.

Thanks for all the review and getting me to 10K views in less than two weeks since the story's release, it means a ton.

Also, I put up a poll in my bio about what side projects I should begin to conceptualize further, so go check it out if you get a chance.

See you all in the next chapter,

BlackJackHero