Hello everyone!

I'm hoping that you all really enjoy this chapter. I've had a pretty great week (started a new job, and also have started to get a bit of fitness back and some weight loss going from going on daily 5-kilometre runs) and I'm super happy to get this out to y'all!

'I seriously cannot wait until my Aura fixes my ankle, this is boring…'

It was now their third day out in the wilderness of Sanus, or like, the second and a half if you took their arrival time on the first day into account. She had expected the days to feel like they went on forever, especially when all there was to do was walk and talk in between bedtimes, but today had gone fairly quickly.

For her, at least.

A yawn escaped her, but she was unable to fall asleep as Jaune jostled her slightly as some gravel under his foot slipped a little. He didn't fall over, though, which was good for her since she was currently clinging to his back like a Koala, a fuzzy little animal her friend Velvet had mentioned lived near her hometown.

Turns out, that even with your Aura taking the brunt of all the healing, actually healing from an injury like hers still took a lot out of her. It had made her sleep less than truly restful, which meant that she had been sleepy all day, alternating her naps between backs as Jaune and Yang had passed her back and forth every hour or so.

They had also been chatting along the way, but Ruby had been so in and out of being awake that she hadn't kept track of what exactly they were saying. Mostly, she got the impression that they were boring and talking about training regimens for when they got back to Beacon.

She did at one point think that she heard the words "Boot Camp" leave Yang's mouth and had almost fallen off the girl's back in terror, but neither of them had said it again so she assumed -hoped, really- that she had heard Yang wrong.

She had also heard them mention someone about "The Plan." She wasn't quite sure what they meant by that, or why they always glanced back at the others behind them when they did so, but she was also too sleepy throughout the day to push them for information.

The rest of the day was rather boring, to be honest. There were a couple of times that she got to laugh at Weiss for stumbling over a rock or stepping into a puddle of mud, but even as the girl blew her with cold air using her Semblance, Ruby was sure Weiss knew she was just teasing her.

Jaune, during one of his turns carrying her in the later hours of the day, when the sky was just starting to turn orange, called Ren over and sent him to find some food like he had last night. It seemed that Ren had become the fireteam's assigned 'hunter' without his input, but the boy didn't seem too fussed with it either way.

Ruby yawned as Ren darted off, her eyelids drooping and the feeling of another nap coming onto her, even as Jaune shook his shoulders to keep her awake. "It's too close to bedtime for you to be having a nap, Ruby. Try to stay awake until after dinner."

She pouted at him but nodded anyway, huffing as she pressed her head into his neck a little more, squirming as she tried to get into a position that would help her stay awake more than her current dangling.

She felt him bump the side of his head into the top of hers in response, nuzzling them slightly together, and couldn't help the small amount of red that seeped into her cheeks from the act. Still, she assumed that no one saw it, because she could imagine the legendary teasing session that Yang would have gone straight into if she had.

THUD!

'Wait, what was that?'

Walking sucked.

Blake felt like that was the real lesson she was learning in this assignment. Walking sucked and doing it in silence sucked even worse. The constant movement meant she wasn't able to read, and the fact that she wasn't really on good terms with her teammates at the moment meant that it was boring as hell.

One foot after the other. Hours bled together, the hue of the sky her only indication of time passing as they trudged through this endless forest. Only the sounds of the animals around them kept her from going insane. 'Well… That might be a bit of a stretch, but all of this walking is still super boring…'

Still, it was her own fault that none of the others were attempting to strike up a conversation with her, so she bore it without complaint. Without verbal complaint, that was, but it still counted in her book.

The only one who had been trying to talk to her still was Ruby, and she was now forcibly stuck to the backs of the two people she had insulted the most out of her team, so she would admit she wasn't quite comfortable going up to them and trying to talk to Ruby, or at least let Ruby talk at her.

Her ear twitched under her bow as they picked up… Something was at the edge of her hearing. But it was at that frustrating level of noise where she could tell that she had heard something, but not what she had heard. It happened less to her due to her enhanced sense of hearing thanks to her Faunus ears, but it was still annoying.

Something continued to bug her sense of hearing for the next five minutes or so, headed in the group's direction. She could hear the sound of quick footsteps and the crunching of leaves, but it wouldn't be the first time they had been approached by a curious animal, so she didn't sound the alarm just yet.

THUD!

That changed immediately as all of a sudden the other noises stopped, replaced by the sound of something hitting the ground beside her. Her weapon came out in its pistol form on pure instinct, and she was already halfway through yelling out 'Guys, Something's on us!' before she realised what she was looking at, and her words froze.

"Wait, Ren?!"

A groan of pain was his only response, and her nose twitched as a slightly metallic scent that had her ears twitch in fright. Her yells had gotten the other's attention, however, and she was almost bowled over by an intense-looking Jaune -with Ruby no longer on his back- as he slid on his Aura-covered knees to Ren's left side.

"Ren! Hey, are you alright? What happened?"

Blake knelt as well, on Ren's right side, and helped Jaune spin him over onto his back, hissing in sympathy as her nose directed her eyes to the gouge in Ren's bicep and the red-stained sleeves around it.

With his hands immediately going to put pressure on the wound, she heard Jaune swear under his breath and glance at her, and then at all of the others. "Anyone got a spare strip of some cloth that I can tourniquet this with?"

It wasn't even a conscious thought.

Her hands moved before her mind did.

Would she have still done it, if given a moment to think about it? She'd like to say yes, but couldn't say for sure. Her body immediately recognised the best piece of cloth for the job as soon as Jaune asked for it.

Something durable, but stretchy, capable of being tied around itself and holding its shape for hours on end.

The strip of cloth that made up her bow came into her vision an instant after Jaune asked for it, wrapping around the upper section of Ren's bicep. She tied it tightly, causing Ren to grit his teeth and for his Aura to fluctuate around the cloth slightly.

She can see the bleeding visibly stem as she pinches the tourniquet around Ren's arm, and she looks up to nod at Jaune and stops, noticing that his eyes are locked firmly on the top of her head.

She looked around and noticed that the others were much the same, staring at her with various looks of bewilderment and shock. Her ears twitch at the odd feeling of having so much attention on them.

And then her mind catches up with what she has just done.

"Blake?"

Yang's voice is soft, and weirdly calm, as Blake shoots up to her feet, her breathing speeding up. She'd… Oh god, she had just… She hadn't gotten the chance to explain yet! She'd ruined it all!

She felt herself stumble away from Ren and Jaune, her mouth trying to form words but stuttering every time she tried to speak. There is an instant where everyone is frozen, staring at her while she stares back.

And then Yang's eyes widened slightly, as the girl suddenly seemed to realise what was about to happen. Yang darted forward to try and stop Blake but she just activated her Semblance, causing the girl to stumble forward as she grasped at the quickly fading wisps of smoke her Shadows left.

And then she was running.

Her secret is revealed, completely by accident. Without the chance for her to test the waters, push and prod and get them comfortable with the idea before explaining herself to them. How could they trust her now, with the way she was acting and the way she hid herself from them?

Had she just ruined her chances of making it up to her team, to her friends? Would they even listen to her now, or ever again? She tried to convince herself that the water running down her cheeks and messing with her vision as she ran from the others was from the rain…

But the clear blue skies above, with not a cloud in sight, taunted her with the truth.

There was a moment when Jaune thought to rise to his feet and chase after Blake.

The pained groan from Ren, who was still squirming in front of him, waiting to be bandaged, changed his mind. Turning his head to Yang, he saw her frozen in place, looking at the empty fist she held out in front of her, a pained look on her face.

"Yang!"

While he wanted to chase after Blake himself, he was the best one in the group at first aid, and Ren needed him there. His shout did what it was supposed to, however, and snapped the girl out of her thoughts, and she looked over at him. He met her eyes and did his best to put as much feeling into his gaze as he could.

"Go and stop her, I'll be right behind you. We will figure this out."

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and he could tell that she understood him completely. She swallowed, about to say something, but seemed to think better of it, just nodding sharply to him instead.

Then, she was off, charging into the forest after Blake like a runaway train, her hair alight with yellow flames that illuminated her path in the quickly darkening forest around them and creating a beautiful, if temporary, light show in the small clearing they found themselves as the flames danced between the trees.

An instant after Yang was out of sight, Weiss was at his side, a small clump of wet, hot strips of cloth in her hands, and a small, solid earthen container -clearly made using Earth Dust- next to her, an orange Glyph underneath it keeping the water inside boiling.

He wasn't quite sure how she was doing that, but Semblances were weird and Dust was weirder and it didn't matter right now. "Thank you, Weiss."

She nodded softly to him as he started to wrap the bandages around Ren's wound, the boy hissing as the cloth wrapped tightly around him, the hot water entering his injury. Her eyes darted over to him now and then as she dunked more cloth into the boiling water, both new and used, to clean and sterilise it for re-use.

"I assumed you would need some to help him, and I've been keeping this plan in mind ever since Professor Peach's lecture on quick first aid. It's reliant on my Dust and Glyphs but it saves us time, especially boiling the water."

Jaune nodded, thankful for her help, but stayed silent for a while as he focused on helping Ren. He could already see Ren's Aura kicking in to help assist the healing process, but it almost seemed brighter than Ruby's, and he could visibly see Ren's skin starting to grow, albeit slowly.

Was it because Ren was older, and had his Aura unlocked for longer, or something like that? Jaune didn't know for sure. He was just too unfamiliar with the specifics of Aura to say for sure, but he was happy to see Ren healing quickly either way.

Eventually, the bandages on Ren's arm surely but slowly start becoming red slower and slower and Ren groans as his eyes flutter open, coughing weakly and nodding to Jaune and Weiss, a grateful look in his eye. "Thank you…"

Weiss grinned back, and Jaune smiled, patting him on the opposite shoulder from the injury. "Of course, dude. But could you tell us what happened to you?"

A look of the most genuine frustration he had ever seen from the boy grew on Ren's face, stunning Jaune for a moment before Ren let out a long sigh. "I found a Wild Boar about 10 minutes away from us, and had planned to kill it for our dinner as you said to…"

Ren groaned, his uninjured hand coming up to cover his face, and Jaune realised that the boy was red in embarrassment and trying to stop them from realising. A smirk spread across Jaune's face as he filed that information away for later. Now wasn't the time for teasing, he would have years and years to do so after Ren healed.

"It would seem that I am… Rusty, when it comes to living off the land. I have taken to life at Beacon quite well and it has dulled the instincts I cultivated during my youth when I was a wanderer alongs-"

Jaune could feel the other boy beating the poor bush to death, and met his eyes, interrupting him. Letting out another sigh, Ren continued. "In any case, the wild boar charged me, and instead of dodging, I activated my Semblance as I would against a Grimm, neglecting to put up my Aura due to my overconfidence in the fact that it couldn't see me anymore, and got gored in the arm for my foolishness."

Jaune thought he heard Ren mumble something under his breath, something along the lines of 'Nora will never let me live this down', and nodded sagely, understanding even from his brief meeting with the girl that she would hold this over Ren's head for the rest of his life as a funny story to tell.

Much like Jaune was planning to now he was sure Ren would be okay.

The bleeding had calmed down with the tourniquet's help, and with Ren's Aura now kicking into high gear, Jaune was sure that he was going to be fine. There was a moment where he hesitated on what to do next, if he should stay with Ren or not, but the boy put a hand on his forearm, which was still hovering over Ren's body, and pushed him away lightly.

"I'll be fine now. You go check on the others, Jaune. Hah, I may have lost some blood but I saw Blake just as much as you all did."

Jaune chuckled softly at that, patting Ren on the hand before hopping to his feet and heading over to where Weiss was now sitting with Ruby. Both of them looked stunned by the reveal, and while he felt much the same, it was his job as the leader to help them at the moment, and so he tried his best to.

Sitting down on Ruby's right, he bumped shoulders with the girl. "Are you okay?"

Ruby jumped and let out a small squeak at his contact, having seemingly been in her own little world before he bumped into her, and she whipped her head around to face him. "Huh?!"

Jaune laughed softly at her, shaking his head. "I asked if you're alright. After… Well, after Ren got hurt, and then Blake's ears got revealed…"

Ruby nodded for a moment, and her shocked expression faded into a large smile. "Are you kidding? I'm more than fine! I'd been worried about Blake, and how she seemed to be making you all mad at her… But maybe this is why! She was stressed about hiding herself or something, and now that we know we can all get past it and become friends again!"

Jaune couldn't help the feeling of hope that filled his chest at her words, and after inhaling deeply, he sighed with a smile on his face. "That's… Well, I'm surprised that Blake is a Faunus, but I don't have any issues with it, so I'm hoping once she realises that everyone accepts her, we can all get past this rough patch."

Ruby nodded quickly, bumping her shoulder into her and wrapping her arm around him. "You get it, Bestie! You understand me!"

Jaune slung his arm around her and hugged her back for a moment, laughing alongside her, but after a moment he glanced over and saw that Weiss was… Red around the eyes? Not so much that she was crying, he was sure, but he could tell that she was on her way to it.

Unwrapping himself from Ruby, he darted over and sat down next to Weiss. Using the softest, most comforting voice he could -and he was well practised with that, having multiple teenaged sisters meant dealing with a lot of tears- and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Weiss… What's wrong, are you alright?"

Weiss turned her head slowly in his direction, and Jaune gulped at the anguished look on her face. "I… I am worried that I might be what caused Blake so much stress. If she truly is a Faunus, then… Oh, Brothers. She might be afraid of me…"

Jaune's eyes blew open that at, a confused gasp leaving him. "What? Afraid of you? Why would she be? I didn't think you'd done anything that would scare her."

Weiss waved a hand in front of her as the other one came up to wipe at her eyes, helping to remove some of the redness around them. "No, not me personally, but… the Schnee. Back when my father was in charge of the SDC… He spearheaded many things, most of them not worth keeping after he passed… And he was most infamous for how he treated the Faunus under his employ."

Jaune stayed silent as Weiss talked, getting the idea that she wouldn't react well to being interrupted. He just let his hand remain on her shoulder as a show of support and let her talk. "I've heard stories about it from mother. Poor conditions, lower pay, more dangerous jobs, and the like. I even overheard Admiral Ironwood at our manor once, saying that if he kept going there were legitimate concerns of a Faunus terrorist organisation forming, fueled by his actions."

She looked his way, and Jaune took that as his queue to speak. "But isn't he… I thought you said he… Uh, wasn't the head of the company anymore?"

Weiss sniffed, rolling her eyes at him. "I am aware that he is dead, Arc. And while I am not cheering for joy about it I am certainly not grieving that man. If he hadn't died, forcing Mother to take over the SDC… Then his actions would have created a generation of Faunus full of righteous anger towards him. Even as it stands now, many Faunus-heavy communities do not trust the SDC and get their dust from other, smaller companies."

Jaune… Didn't know what to say to her. The whole situation sounded terrible, and from everything she had said about him so far, Jaune could say that he wasn't too beat up about Weiss' dad not being around anymore. And while what she was saying sounded reasonable, Yang had mentioned that something had sparked Blake's actions recently.

Which, while bad in its own right, let him put her at ease.

"Weiss… Yang mentioned to me when we talked about what to do regarding Blake's actions that something in Vale set her off during one of their shopping trips, so I fully believe that you're wrong. I don't think Blake is scared of you, and I promise to bring her back here so she can explain herself to all of us."

Weiss was never one to show weakness. For all of the time he'd known her now, he'd come to admire how she always seemed to be a bastion of rationality and discipline -if you ignored a few slips of her mask here and there- so feeling her place her hand over his, the one on her shoulder, and bump her head into his forearm was surprising, in a nice way.

"If… If you're sure about that… Then, thank you, Arc. Please, go help Yang drag her back here so she can apologise to our faces, alright? Ruby and I will stay here and take care of Ren."

"Yeah! Ouch…"

Jaune laughed softly at Ruby jumping to her feet and cheering, before feeling the consequences of putting pressure on her ankle. He squeezed Weiss' shoulder slightly, letting go a moment later and hopping back to his feet. As he turned in the direction that they had left, he spoke again. "My pleasure, Weiss. I'll go get them now."

As he took off, he followed the clear trail that Blake and Yang had left. Blake had likely been too distracted to move as stealthily as he knew she was capable of, and Yang was the equivalent of a bull in a masonry shop with how she snapped branches as she passed them, so it was easy.

He just hoped that she had caught up to Blake and gotten started with trying to get some answers out of the girl because he knew that Yang's job would be the harder of the two. He had some choice words he wanted to say to Blake about her behaviour, but he could save them until he fully understood why she was acting the way she was.

Because really, all he wanted was to know if his friend was okay or not, and how they could all help her if she wasn't.

And there we have it! The moment you've -most likely- been waiting for! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! You should tell me what you think about it in the comments :P

In other fic news; Some good progress is being made on another (shorter) Dragonslayer longfic I've had in mind.

I'm looking forward to starting posting that one as well!

Also, I have the first chapter of a LITRPG semi-longfic written out as well! If you really couldn't tell by now... I very much so love a good Jaune MC fic, and LITRPG stuff is some of my favourites! So, I thought I would give writing one myself a go! But it's not your usual Gamer style, so don't worry about him being absurdly OP Solo Levelling style. :D

Anyway, have a great weekend, and I will see you next Friday!