Chapter 16: Forever Fall Part 2

Lana's POV:

I watched with horror when Cardin picked up Jaune. Cardin grins while punching him back to the ground. "You know that wasn't very smart, Jauney boy," Cardin said, picking up Jaune again while the rest of team CRDL watched. The rest of Team CRDL held me down to prevent me from running away.

"Please, Cardin... stop," I begged.

"Shut it, Lana. You're next." Cardin said harshly. Cardin turns his attention back to Jaune.

"I am gonna make sure they send you back to mommy in teeny tiny pieces. And I'm going to make sure your precious daughter won't be able to sit down for a week." Cardin said.

"I don't care what you do to me... but you are not messing with my team or my daughter," Jaune said, looking at Carding with fury.

Cardin looks at Jaune with shock for a moment before speaking again. "What? You think talk like that makes you tough? You think you're a big strong man now?"

Jaune smiles in defiance. An enraged Cardin roars and raises his fist again, but just as the hit connects, a bright light shines from Jaune, and the white fades. Cardin is crying out in pain as he holds his hand. Jaune, now back on the ground but completely healed looks confusedly at his hands as they faintly glow white. While he stares though, Sky kicks Jaune in the back and gets him on his stomach but he looks up and glares at Cardin as Cardin is approaching.

I broke free from Team CRDL's grip and quickly run up in front of Jaune to try to protect him from Cardin's next move, but Cardin punched me hard in the face, knocking me down next to Jaune.

"Let's see how much of a man you really are..." Cardin said. When Cardin was approaching me, I felt some strong wind forces generate through my body. The wind around me pushed Cardin back. I looked at my body with confusion. Did I just do that? There is no wind around here.

Cardin was about to approach us again, a low growl was heard in the distance. Team CRDL turns around, surprised to see a large paw crash onto the scene, belonging to a huge Ursa Major with dozens of jagged spikes sticking out from its wide back. It leaps forward and stands over us. My eyes widened in fear. The Ursa lifted its head up in the air to smell the sap on Cardin's breastplate. It landed back on its fourlegs while his teammates heroically flee.

"That's a big Ursa!" Russell cried.

Cardin is rooted to the spot when the Grimm swings its claws and knocks him sideways. Jaune is cowering behind him. I knew I had to do something. The Ursa continues to sniff, uninterested in me and Jaune, and follows its nose to Cardin. We watch as it towers over Cardin, who gets its whits and pulls out The Executioner, only for the monster to swipe it away to mine and Jaune's feet. Jaune looks conflicted about whether to fight or to run away.

"Daddy, we have to do something," I said. Jaune stayed silent, still thinking. I wondered if I could still do the wind thing I did before. I closed my eyes to concentrate, then made a powerful force of wind, knocking the Ursa over.

In the Forest, no POV:

Meanwhile, the roar of the giant Ursa is heard by the members of Team RWBY and JNPR, still collecting sap on the other side of the forest.

Ruby gets up and looks concerned. "Did you guys hear that?" Ruby asked.

Suddenly, the remaining members of Team CRDL are seen running to the other way from the roar through the other students.

"Ursa, Ursa!" Russell cried, looking back. He runs into Yang accidentally.

Yang is completely unfazed by his collision. She picks him up by the front of his shirt. "What? Where?" Yang demanded.

Russell is still struggling and still running in the air, but points back from where they came. "Back there, it's got Cardin!" Russell shouted.

"Jaune! Lana!" Pyrrha cried, dropping her jar of sap.

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby shouted. Dropping Russell, Yang, and Blake nod before following the orders.

"You two, go with them! There could be more!" Pyrrha shouted at Nora and Ren as she and Ruby activated their weapons.

Back with the Ursa, Lana's POV:

Cardin is attempting to run from the following Ursa, but it leaps over its prey and claws him away. My wind could only hold him off for so long. Cardin tries to get up and crawl away.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Cardin cried.

I saw Pyrrha, Ruby, and Weiss come onto the scene. "Oh no!" Pyrrha cried.

They watch as the Ursa leans over the helpless victim, raising its paw and swiping down... only to be blocked by mine and Jaune's shield. Jaune and I struggle to defend a stunned Cardin from its attempt to lean on him, but Weiss lifts her Myrtenaster, her mother instincts coming in to protect her daughter, and prepares to attack.

"Wait!" Pyrrha said to Weiss.

Me and Jaune take the shield out from the Ursa's paw. Jaune slashes at his stomach, causing it to lash out and try to crush him. He rolls out of the way to jump over it and swipes at its feet. I jumped up to attack the Ursa but my jump was much higher than I anticipated. I felt my body glowing. Jaune is unprepared when it launches a claw at him in midair. I nearly dodged the attack and jumped out of the way, but instead of landing on the ground, I caught myself in midair. I was...floating?

Jaune lands far away yet is immediately back on his feet and passes Cardin as he charges again. The Ursa knocks Jaune behind it when he tries for a leaping attack, and he looks at his scroll in his shield to find out that his Aura level is in the red. He grows angry again and starts to run at the Ursa as it also rushes towards him. I gave a battle cry and charged toward the Ursa too. Creating strong winds, I was able to create a small tornado and pushed the Ursa back a bit. I looked at my hands with amazement. I didn't know I could do that.

The Ursa got back up and charged at us again. I landed back on the ground. As Jaune, the Ursa, and I are about to clash, Pyrrha sees that Jaune and I have left ourselves completely open to the Ursa's attack and lifts her hand out to us, gathering dark and red energy in her arm. Just as the Ursa is about to hit us, the glowing surrounds mine and Jaune's shield and makes them lift up to block the swipe. Jaune and I use the surprese defense move to lean on the ground, push our shields back up, and swing our blades right through the Ursa's neck. The head falls to the ground as the body slams to the ground.

Ruby looks at Pyrrha with surprise as she smiles when her hand stops glowing. "Uhhh... what?" Ruby said.

Weiss was equally amazed. "How did you?" Weiss asked.

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, my semblance is polarity," Pyrrha explained.

"Woah, you can control pulls," Ruby said.

"No, you dunce, it means she has control of her magnetism," Weiss said.

"Magnets are cool too," Ruby said, still impressed.

Weiss notices Pyrrha starting to leave. "Wait, where are you going?!" Weiss called.

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened!" Ruby said.

"We could..." Pyrrha said. She paused before speaking again. "Or perhaps we could keep it our little secret."

Pyrrha walks away again and Ruby and Weiss smile to each other in understanding. When the fight was finished, I took a few minutes to catch my breath. The eagle's chest plate glows on my chest. I smiled, knowing what that meant. I have unlocked my semblance!

Jaune shieths his weapon before going over to Cardin. I too made my way over to Cardin.

"Holy crap, Jaune!" Cardin said.

Jaune looks at Cardin threateningly. "Don't ever mess with my team - my friends - ever again. And don't you dare lay a hand on my daughter ever again. Got it?" Jaune said.

Cardin looks intimidated, possibly even apologetic. I glared at Cardin and walked up to him. Jaune stops me by grabbing my arm, but I shook it off and continued walking up again.

"We are done, Cardin. DONE! Don't you think about contacting me or trying to get back together with me again!" I shouted at him.

With our orders spoken, Jaune and I turned around and walked away from Cardin. I took out my scroll and blocked Cardin's number before he could contact me. When I met back up with my parents in the forest, I told them about my semblance.

"Mom! I unlocked my semblance!" I said happily.

"Oh my gosh, that's great!" Ruby said happily.

"I knew you could do it," Blake said.

"Show us what you got, Lana!" Yang said.

"Okay," I said.

I took a deep breath and generated some wind. The wind turned into a tornado.

"Woah," Ruby said. "What else can you do?"

"Let's see..." I said. I raised my hands in the air and created some clouds. Those clouds turned dark, and some rain and lightning appeared. Everyone watched with amazement.

"I can also fly too I think," I said. I jumped up in the air and flew around, then landed back on the ground next to Weiss.

"What is my semblance called?" I asked.

"I think it is weather manipulation," Weiss said.

"Meaning you can control the weather," Pyrrha added.

"Cool," I said. I kept trying out new things I could do with my new semblance while we made our way back home. I discovered that I could make big waves and tides- as well as create a snowstorm that piled up on Weiss. Weiss gave me an annoyed look as I laughed nervously.

"Sorry," I said in between giggles. Ruby also laughed at my creation.

I can't wait to show my family my semblance when I reunite with them.

Later that night, I decided to spend the night in team JNPR's dorm. Ren and Nora were making pancakes for dinner. Pyrrha was helping me heal some of the wounds I got from today's fight.

"Where is Daddy?" I asked when I noticed our leader had been absent for a while.

"He is on the rooftop last I heard," Ren said.

"Oh okay," I said. When Pyrrha finished, Pyrrha and I decided to go to the top of the roof where Jaune was. Jaune was standing on the edge of the roof and looked into the distance at the green lights of Beacon.

"No Cardin tonight?" Pyrrha said as we walked to Jaune's side. "I thought you both and Lana were best buds."

"We... we broke up, Mom," I said.

"Oh..." Pyrrha said.

Jaune turns to Pyrrah. "Pyrrha... I'm sorry. I was a jerk! You were only trying to be nice, and... I had all this stupid mocho stuff in my head-"

"Jaune! It's okay." Pyrrha said as they smiled at each other. "Your team really misses their leader, you know." Pyrrha begins to walk to the exit. "You should come down! Ren made pancakes! No syrup though, you can thank Nora for that."

Jaune smiles but holds out his hand and calls out. "Wait!"

"Pyrrha turns around, and Jaune looks sheepish. "I know I don't deserve it after all that happened, but... would you still be willing to help me... to help me become a better fighter?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha turns around to see a worried Jaune who won't see her satisfied smile. She goes up to Jaune and suddenly pushes her leader to the ground.

"Hey!" Jaune whines.

Pyrrha is standing over him with her arms on her hips and an evaluating tone as she speaks. "Your stance is all wrong. You need to be wider and lower to the ground." She offers him her hand, which he graciously accepts, and they continue to hold on to and grin at each other. "Let's try that again."

"Mom? Do you think you can help me grow my semblance?" I asked Pyrrha.

"Of course," Pyrrha said, smiling at me.

The three of us spend the rest of the night practicing our fighting skills and improving my new semblance.