Disclaimer: Don't own RWBY or anything associated but sandboxes are fun.

Chapter Eighteen: Breaking Free

A considerable amount of time had passed since the fight with Cardin and yet, Jaune's obsession with the sword and the strange powers it possessed had not abated by even a fraction. If anything, it seemed that his desire to discover the secrets the blade possessed had gotten worse. The other members of Team ABYN were getting to the point where they'd beyond had enough and had collectively decided that it was time to employ some drastic measures in order to get their leader back. This train of thought leads us into our current situation that sees Jaune seated at his usual table in the corner of the library, once again perusing the novel that had obtained his interest for the past several weeks. Blake calmly strode over to him and without a single word leaving her lips she reached down and claimed the book for herself, lifting from Jaune's grasp and snapping it shut the moment she had a good grip on it. To Yang and Pyrrha this made the most sense, as the quietest of them Blake was the best canditate for the job.

"Hey-" He began.

"That's enough," she said sternly.

Jaune went to swipe the book back wordlessly, but Yang moved into a different position before he could get even a fingertip on the book and it was passed out of Blake's hands and into Yang's. Jaune went for it again but this time the process was repeated and the book ended in Pyrrha's hands.

"Girls-"

"No," Yang said immediately, "You've become dangerously obsessed with this book Jaune. When was the last time you ate? Drunk something other than coffee? You're supposed to be our leader yet you've become-"

"What? Focused on winning? Wanting to get back at the guy who made me look like a joke who couldn't even get a single hit in?"

Pyrrha winced at the ferocity in Jaune's voice, he was clearly very far gone into this hole of his and though they'd all thought just snatching the book back was a good idea, Jaune acting this hostile hadn't occurred to them. They thought he'd be resistant at first, but the level of hostility had surprised her and by the looks on their faces, Yang and Blake shared her sentiments. Then, there was only one way to handle this.

"You want this book back?" Pyrrha spoke up.

"That's what I just said, isn't it?"

"Fine, but I'm not going to just give it back. You're going to need to prove to me that reading this book is having results and that you're getting closer to being ready for a rematch. If you can summon the power of that sword then going toe-to-toe with me should be no problem. If you win, you can have the book back?"

"And if you win?"

"The book goes away and you come back to your team."

Jaune looked down at the sword rested at his hip, he could've sworn he felt a vibration against his leg and he turned to Pyrrha, a strange look of determination in his eyes. The red bags under the lids proving that the next words out of Jaune's mouth had only come from a combination of tiredness and his brain not being entirely in the right place.

"I accept."

"Very well, meet me in our usual training room in an hour."

Pyrrha turned on her heel the moment she'd finished speaking and without waiting for Jaune's answer she left the library, Yang and Blake close behind. Yang immediately shooting a confused look in the spartan's direction, "Pyrrha?" she asked, "What was that about? I thought we were going to talk-"

"Yang, you should know better than anyone that talking only gets you so far. I'm tired of being the meek and quiet little girl that does whatever her sponsors want, that never speaks out of turn or does anything about anything for fear of ruining her career. My leader, no my friend needs me and I fully intend to do whatever necessary to help him. He's going straight down a path that leads to little more than self-destruction and I refuse to sit by and let it happen."

"Wow, Princess, someone lit a fire under you today," Yang teased.

"Really Yang?" Blake put in from the other side.

"What?"

"I need to go and get ready for the fight," Pyrrha told them, "You two coming?"

The only response she got was a nod, but given the current situation that was all she needed. Pyrrha hated to have to show Jaune that was he was doing was not the way to go about this but since he refused to listen then she was going to have to take some drastic measures. It was like her uncle had always told her, "There's nothing wrong with a little tough love, Py. That's all people need sometimes."

x-x-x-x

Jaune's hand tightened some around Crocea Mors' handle and he narrowed his tired eyes across at Pyrrha. He would get the book back no matter the cost. Sure, Pyrrha was not the kind of opponent that anyone wanted to take on even on their best day but Jaune had all the reason in the world to obtain victory here. He'd obtain the book he lost and return to learning whatever secrets that his sword held. He lowered his stance slightly and-

"Begin!" Yang shouted.

Jaune clumsily threw one foot forward as he darted across the makeshift battlefield, yet he'd barely taken one step when he noticed that Pyrrha was already there, waiting for him. Jaune's eyes widened and he felt himself stumble from the shock of Pyrrha's speed alone. The Spartan was yet to make a blow and he'd already faltered. Either way, he dug deep into all of the willpower he had in order to take a swing at Pyrrha...but missed entirely.

"What-"

"You're too tired to battle effectively," Pyrrha told him gently, "Please back down, I don't want to hurt you Jaune...but I will if I have to."

"I have to win. have to."

Pyrrha sighed. She almost could've guessed that would've been the answer that Jaune was going to give her but she had to give him the chance to take the offered rope. Now that the offer was out of the way, it was time. When Jaune took his next swing, Pyrrha darted inward and ducked under the clumsy swing and finished off her move by throwing a foot into Jaune's stomach with all her strength. The resulting blow throwing the Arc straight out of the ring and onto the floor below.

"Is he okay?" Pyrrha asked, not bothering to wait for Yang to give the results of the battle. 'I'm sorry, Jaune but this was for your own good. We're going to make a fighter out of you but we can't do that when you're like this.'

"He's out cold," Blake called from the floor.

"That'll be the exhaustion," Pyrrha heard Yang add as the two of them both hopped down of the stage. Pyrrha looked down at the young man's form upon the floor and a soft chuckle left her lips, "He's not properly unconscious, I think his body just gave up. Jaune's sleeping," she knelt down and hooked her arm around his form so that she could hoist him up over one of her shoulders then returned to her full height.

"C'mon big guy, you're forever carrying us around, we're taking you back to the dorm now."

"Mrhzzz...zzz...No...please...please don't brush my hair again..."

The girls exchanged a look at the tired boy's mutterings but shrugged either way and made to leave the training room. The dorm room of Team ABYN was bathed entirely in darkness when two oceanc pools of blue drew open. Jaune Arc shook his head slightly in order to get his bearings and once he realized where he was, the Arc couldn't help but to heave a heavy sigh.

"You alright, Jaune?"

Pyrrha's voice sliced through the darkness and Jaune couldn't help but wince at the sound of it. Reality was finally setting in for the young man who'd lost himself to his own obsession with winning and sleep deprivation as a result of this. How much had he forced his team-mates to endure before they'd puled him back from the edge over one stupid loss to a much more experienced fighter?

"Yeah, 'm sorr-"

"Don't mention it," she responded softly, "Looks like you needed to sleep it off. Your apology is accepted on one condition."

"And what condition is that?" he asked softly.

"That the next time you feel overwhelmed by something like that, you'll come to your team and not some obscure book. We're all here for you okay?" Yang put in, her own voice coming through to Jaune through the darkness.

"That's a condition I think I can accept."

"Good. Then get some rest, we'll get back to training in the next couple of days but for tomorrow we're all going into Vale."

This caught Jaune's curiosity. After everything the four of them had endured over the last few weeks as a team, Yang wanted them all to go into Vale? That didn't entitely make sense to Jaune but-

"Of course, being that your leader you have final say, I think it'd be a good idea for us to get a chance to just hang out y'know after all the messes we've been dealing with practically since we got here, y'know."

Suddenly it made sense. The trip to Vale would be a solid way of giving the Team a chance to reconnect and find new common ground with each other enabling them to move forward. He doubted the sting from his previous actions had entirely abated yet and a day like this would give the four of them a strong chance to move on from the chaos.

"I think that it's a brilliant idea."

"Then it's decided," Blake added, her voice was much more groggy sounding than Yangs and Pyrrha's was and Jaune could only assume the sound of them talking had woken Blake from her sleep. With that decided, it was time for them to finally get some well-earned rest. Morning came quicker than Jaune might've liked but that might've just been because of how long it'd been since he'd gotten a good night's rest. Still, after the planned trip to Vale that had been organized the previous night he could hardly just go right back to sleep. Jaune pulled himself up and out of bed. He immediately stretched some and received a playful punch to his shoulder.

"Mornin' Ladykiller.'

"Hey, Yang."

The brawler grinned at him then pushed past to go and collect something off the desk at the far end of the room. Seeing she was doing this, Pyrrha called, "Hey Yang, can you grab me my hair tie?"

"Sure thing, Princess."

"Anyone mind if I take the shower?"

"Blakey's just in there now," Pyrrha informed him, "She should be out soon."

"Thanks," Jaune commented, he was grateful that Pyrrha had told him. After things being fixed so quickly with his team-mates from the big incident that they'd just undergone the last thing he wanted was to unintentionally cause another rift between them all. Privately, even if Pyrrha had told him not to worry about it, Jaune was still concerned that things might've resolved themselves too quickly but he knew that his team-mates were good enough to let this go then he was going to have to make sure he never gave such a situation any reason to arise again. True to what Pyrrha had informed him of, Blake exited the bathroom a few moments later and then Jaune was able to go and take his own shower. He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Once he'd locked the door, Jaune moved over to go and turn the hot water on. While it was heating he slid his scroll open and placed it on the sink with music pumping through the speakers.

End Chapter.

Sorry for the extremely short chapter, but this is the best way I could come up with to hit the reset button and I apologize even further because this is incredibly rushed and serves as little more than to undo the mistake I made by having Jaune go all obsessive over the book since I feel like in the chapters leading up to this I ultimately took things to far.

From the next chapter onward we'll return to your regularly scheduled programming and please be aware that the obsession being little to not mentioned at all unless absolutely necessary as I feel its inclusion damaged the overall narrative and just want to move on from it as best and quickly as I can.

Either way, thanks for reading and hope you'll join me for the next chapter. Updates for my other stories are coming too, I swear, I've just had a few things going on behind the scenes lately and haven't had as much time on my hands as I'd like.

Thanks.