Author's Notes: In this chapter, I wanted to try something a little experimental with how I ordered the Scenes… It did not Work. Quite frankly, this chapter would have been done several weeks ago had I not tired my little experiment, but hey… you live and you learn. Either way, the Author's Notes at the bottom will explain what I tried to do if any are interested.

Dr. Arthur Watts was not a patriotic man but he loved Atlas or rather he loved working in Atlas. He loved the way the kingdom treated its old capital of Mantel ensuring that there were always people desperate for any kind of work other than the mines or factories, desperate people that would not ask too many question and no one who mattered would care if they were gone. He loved how their militaristic culture ensured that everyone understood how the Chain of Command worked, this ensured that everyone working under him in this particular laboratory knew better than to ask above their clearance level, it helped that he was easily the smartest man in the room with his skills in medicine and advanced programming. Combine all of that with the systemic racism towards Faunus and the result is not a single question is asked when he had a certain specimen brought in to study her… unique condition, and when he told a half-lie about using her to create a combat enhancing drug for Atlas, well everyone jumped right on board.

However, that was several months ago and now people were not machines, they were starting to doubt, beginning to ask questions and have second thoughts. He supposed that it was inevitable as everyone had limits to what they were willing to tolerate and these people not fools, Dr. Watts only worked with the best and had been well aware that he could only keep up the charade for only so long before someone would figure out what they were creating: A true Grimm Hybrid. Already he had to have several would-be-heroes "Let go," a lesser man might have panicked but, He had been sought out by Salem because he was no mere "lesser man," Dr. Arthur Watts was a true genius who lesser men couldn't hope to comprehend and under his guidance, the research was able to progress making leaps and bounds to his Mistress's goal… however all good things must come to an end.

As he made his way to the surveillance room Dr. Watts ignored the looks of suspicion he was getting from some of the researchers and various other staff at the laboratory, soon it would be impossible for him to continue working here. Fortunately, it was already far too late for them to do anything to stop the research, the final experiment was about to begin.

Suddenly an alarm went off, an alarm went off indicating that there was a breach in the holding cells and now the "Specimen," was free and the test had begun.

Right on time, Watts thought to himself as he entered the suspiciously empty surveillance room. He then locked the heavy reinforced doors, sat right in front of the console and pulled one of the microphones to his mouth, "Attention, May I have everyone's attention. This is the Chief Project Head Dr. Watts speaking, a highly valuable specimen has broken out of containment. For the safety of the staff and the specimen I hereby order an immediate evacuation and lockdown of Sector Eight Subsection "C" through "D" you will be allowed back inside once the Containment Team succeeds in securing the specimen," Or at least they will try.

The Dorm rooms at Beacon were not what anyone would call luxurious but they were cozy however this unbeknownst to most students and even alumni was that the coziness of the was a design choice by the Headmaster when the Academy was first built. The general idea was two-fold with the first goal being to force members of the same team to interact with each other daily thus training all of the students in the communication skills and the flexibility necessary for cooperation that all professional Huntsmen were expected to do on and off of the field. The second reason was to give the trainees a small but ever-present reminder of why they were fighting and risking their lives, so that people could live happy and cozy lives.

However Jaune did not feel any of that. Right now as he sat on his bed in the dorm room with Pyrrha he felt more like an animal trapped in a cage rather than someone talking to a teammate and friend. The worst part of it all was that he knew just how ridiculous this feeling was but, he couldn't help but feel this way. The unknown nature of his condition created a blanket of uncertainty that covered everything and amplified the negative emotions while dismissing the positive. What should have been simple shyness and nervousness had bloomed into fear and stress which was beginning to grind on his mind threatening to trigger the flight or fight instincts.

Sensing what was going on Pyrrha walked over to the bed that he was sitting on, sat right next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Jaune, it's okay. You can tell me anything and if you don't want to say anything... that's okay too."

He didn't want to lie to her but there was no way that she would ever understand or even believe him, how could she when he didn't even know himself? So with some hesitation, he finally spoke "Do you remember initiation? Do you remember what was happening when you found me?"

"I don't think I could ever forget that," she replied, My nightmares won't let me forget.

He mulled over for a bit trying to figure out the right way to say it, trying to figure out how to best lie to her, "It's my Semblance."

So, Ruby was right… Pyrrha thought to herself.

"My Semblance is an… unpleasant one," he then thought back to the sparing room trying to recall what Ozpin told him about the Berserkers of old, "It makes me stronger, more focused, it keeps me from getting tired, it heals me and it numbs all pain."

"Wow… many would kill for a Semblance that does all of that," she then realized what she had just said, "Jaune I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound insensitive!"

"It's okay and you're right, the first half of my semblance is incredible," the words tasted like ash in his mouth.

"First half?"

"Pyrrha... my aura doesn't protect me."

"What!? But that's impossible! Unless… unless your aura can't be used for defense because it's being used for something else," everything was starting to click together.

"That's actually right, I can't use it for defense because it's the fuel for my regeneration and it gets worse, my Semblance is triggered by my emotional state so if I am stressed-"

"It feeds off of your stress which in turn makes you more stressed because now your body thinks it's in a fight," it took her a second to realize that she had cut him off, "Sorry, I just got excited for a moment," Why did I do something so stupid?

"It's fine and you're right, it's a vicious cycle," both then went silent trying to figure out what to say next.

She silently mulled over this new information taking time to consider all of its implications, I've never heard of a Semblance like this though it would explain everythi-... almost everything. I still don't have an answer for his eyes or his blood. But does that matter? She looked at him again and saw him for what he really was: A scared Young Man. Opening up to me like this must have been difficult for him. I need to help him! But how… wait I know-how! "Jaune, I'm going to help you."

"How? How could you possibly help me?"

"Ren's Semblance mutes emotions, Nora can help you learn how to better control your strength and I'll teach you how to properly use your weapon and your armor, Which reminds me that his armor is broken thanks to me so I should replace that. It will take awhile but you will catch up to the rest of us so please, let us help you!"

Jaune could see the concern written all over her face and he could all but feel the fear emanating from her. Though she wasn't afraid of him or afraid for him, she was afraid that he would reject her offer and push her away. The messed up was that there was a part of him that wanted to do just that, to take her kind offer and throw it back in her face all for the sake of some misplaced pride. However, a bigger, stronger and more intelligent part of him was relieved and overjoyed that she wanted to help and more importantly that she was someone that could actually help. He didn't even try to hide the tears of joy that were beginning to form, "Pyrrha, thank you."

There was a nervous feeling in the air and every member of Team RWBY could feel it. They tried to ignore it by quietly sitting in their dorm room each minding their own business, but that only made things worse for everyone. Ruby uncomfortably watched as Weiss and Blake sat on opposite sides of the room, both wearing headphones, both doing their homework and both doing their damnedest to ignore the other one. She could feel the beginning of a rift forming, No, this isn't something new. Blake has always been treating Weiss a little colder and harsher than everyone else but why?

Yang could see her little sister racking her brain trying to figure out a solution, trying to find a way to end the squabble before it can become anything bigger and she wanted to help her. So she scooted over to her little sis and began to whisper "It's not your fault, there was no way you could have stopped this." When Ruby turned to face her sister she had a look of hurt that Yang was not prepared for and it took all of her strength not to immediately apologize and drop the conversation, She needs to hear this, not telling her would hurt her more, in the long run, Yang reminded herself and kept whispering. "Ruby, there was no way you could have known about this sore spot."

"But, I did know! Yang, I met the two of them before initiation and they clashed back then as well and now they are doing it again and they're going to keep doing it and I have no idea what to do!"

"Would you two please keep it down! I'm trying to study!" Weiss went back to her homework.

The pair waited for a bit, watching as Weiss continued with her work and waiting for the Heiress to return to a more relaxed position before continuing their conversation and eventually she did. "Ruby, you didn't know that they would be your teammates and you didn't know that they would keep going at each other's throats."

"But what am I supposed to do? How do I fix this?"

"You can't fix someone else's mess."

"Then what can I do Yang? What am I supposed to do?"

"Tomorrow after class let's do what that guy in the cafeteria suggested and talk to Oobleck and even Gris if we have the time."

"Fine, It's just… I don't know, I feel-"

"Powerless?"

"Not powerless, I feel lost and just a little powerless, like… this is all a mistake. That making me the leader was a mistake."

Yang pulled her sister in for a hug "Every great leader has felt that way at some point or another and besides you said it yourself. It hasn't even been one semester yet, of course, there are going to be problems. But, you aren't waiting for things to get worse before asking for help and that puts you way ahead of the curve."

Unbeknownst to the sisters, Weiss had been listening in on their secret conversation and while she could not make out everything they were saying, she did understand enough to realize what they were talking about. It is for this reason that she was feeling a measure of shame, she had never meant to make Ruby feel this way and while she still believed the young girl had no right to be leading the team she herself had no right to make things so unnecessarily hard for the poor girl thrust into a position that she had never once asked for. I'm going to have a few words with Blake about this, I refuse to allow this team to fall apart just because of one…, Weiss honestly didn't know what she thought of Blake but she knew that for the sake of the team she would have to soon figure that out.

Blake had also overheard the sisters and had also heard Weiss nearly shouting at them to keep it down, Honestly just how selfish could this Schnee be? Her mind wandered back to the cafeteria and she began to reconsider her own word and actions, Maybe I could have worded things in a friendlier way, dad was always good at making a point without coming across as confrontational but… everything is clearer in hindsight and the facts was that her father despite everything he did still made enemies and more importantly: He failed to make any real difference. Maybe the problem was the time and place? But then again, would that havereally changed anything? Weiss and I would have still argued and it might have even gone further without an audience watching us. Maybe the real problem is because she is a Schnee. Blake winced a little at that thought, it felt hypocritical to think of Weiss that way. However, it was a thought that refused to go away and only made more and more sense the more she thought about it and made thought dwell even longer on Faunus' mind, which made her more and more uncomfortable.

The last clear thing she remembered was dying and before that, she remembered falling, convulsing and an eerie cold encapsulating her as she felt her body shut down. Everything after that was far harder to make out, the best way she could describe it was to compare the feeling to trying to remember a dream that had already started to fade from memory. Though there were a few moments of clarity, without any context she had no idea what any of it meant which only deepened her confusion.

What she does remember is that she was in a familiar looking forest though she did not know why it looked familiar. Likewise she remembers that she was walking through that forest but was clueless about why she was there to begin with. The next part was even more confusing and made her question whether this was a real memory or just some kind of dream because she recalled chasing something though what it was or why she was chasing it were complete mysteries to her, it was just something that she was chasing but could never catch. She remembered that whatever she was chasing made such a funny sound as it ran and the best part was that even if she lost sight of one another one would always appear sooner or later. Then most of the peculiar things happened, two more of those… things appeared, but they didn't run and they didn't make that funny sound. Instead, they came to her and then something struck her, it was small, fast and it pierced her skin but it did not hurt, rather it just made her feel sleepy.

Then she woke and found herself somehow inside of an empty unfamiliar room, she was on a table of some sort and couldn't move very much but at least she was never alone for very long. Those strange things were with her and they did things to her, some of it hurt and made her very angry and other things felt funny. She didn't know how much time had passed nor did she really care because one day she was able to get up from the table, or did something let her out? She wasn't completely sure, though one thing was crystal clear despite the heavy fog shrouding her thoughts: This is the strangest dream I ever had, and she couldn't wait to find out what will happen next.

The subject escaping from her restraints was not an accident, it was the experiment. A test to see how a woman, who was well past her prime and as far as her records suggested had never once been in a fight, would handle a combat situation against multiple armed and armored opponents. Under normal circumstances this would be a joke of a fight, however, she was not powerless instead she had been physically empowered and mentally diminished by Merlot's serum which had been further tweaked and improved by Dr. Watts with the aid of Salem herself. This elderly Faunus was now the true first of a new potential breed: A True Grimm Hybrid. But, was that a good thing? Were Hybrids worth perfecting and creating or was Merlot wasting time? That was what the experiment was going to reveal.

"This is Team Gamma reporting in, we have eyes on the target."

Dr. Watts was shocked but he hid it well, Contact wasn't supposed to be made for another seven minutes! What are those fools doing, how did they even get there? He took his eyes off of the subject and began looking for an answer on the monitors but he stopped himself, Calm yourself down. This changes absolutely nothing.

"This is Team Gamma, the subject was unresponsive to both verbal and nonverbal commands. Requesting permission to tranquilize"

Arthur Watts was not an excitable man but, right now his heart was pounding in his chest and an almost childish smile was stretched across his face as he pulled the microphone close to his mouth, "Permission granted."

Suddenly his train of thoughts was interrupted by someone knocking at the door and shouting, "Dr. Watts? Are you in there? Dr. Watts, we need to evacuate!"

He almost couldn't believe his ears, Evacuation? What are they talking about there is no evacuation order! So instead of foolishly opening the door and letting whoever this person was in, Watts used the security cameras to find out actually what was going on. Trying to reach him were some members of the research team though he couldn't tell which ones in particular, Not that it matters. Over and over again did they bang on the door acting like they truly cared for his safety when it was blatantly clear to anyone with a modicum of common sense that this was an utterly pathetic attempt at an intervention. Did I hire fools? Did they think that they could trick me with a false Evacuation order? Do they really think I'm stupid enough to let them in and confront me? Well gentlemen, good luck breaking down that door. Though there was a part of Watt's that wanted to let them in, not to talk but rather to silence them once and for all with his own two hands. It was barbaric and yet it was also a rather tempting thought, not to mention everyone working was going to be terminated by the end of the day. What did it matter if a few of them died a little earlier and at someone else's hand? Not to mention there were many many benefits of physical exertion, relaxing his brain a bit could lead to a breakthrough down the line and so Watts checked his watch and decided that if they were still there by the time his extraction team arrives, well they would get their "Talk."

Cardin's mace whistled through the air as it flew towards Jaune's unprotected head but he saw the hit coming and was able to sidestep past that wrecking ball which continued its deadly arc and embedded itself in the floor of Professor Goodwitch's combat class, Jaune seeing a golden opportunity stepped into Cardin's personal space and rammed shoulder first into the bully's chest forcing the man to take few steps back and more importantly leaving himself completely open. This was his chance to strike back and Juane's first thought was to attempt a stab into Cardin's exposed chest but he quickly changed his mind, Cardin's armor would just reduce how much Aura he'd need to protect himself. So, do I try and get his arms or his legs instead. Wait! Why is Cardin smiling?

*BOOM*

Jaune was launched forward and flew right past the bully who had been ready for the blast and then just to rub salt in the wound, Cardin was now laughing and laughing hard especially as the hapless Wanna-Be-Knight landed face-first breaking his nose. However, he quickly recovered and pulled himself up while turning around to face his opponent who had stopped laughing and was now watching with curiosity and mild disgust as the broken nose realigned itself.

"Holy shit, your Semblance really is self-healing? Talk about useless! Though I guess that just makes sense that a worthless loser that needed to be protected would also have an equally worthless Semblance."

"Was that your Semblance just then? Can you trigger explosions?" asked Jaune in an attempt to change the subject.

Holding the mace up Cardin couldn't help but chuckle, "Oh you would love it if that was the case. But you're not that lucky Jauny boy."

"It's the crystal on his mace! It's a shard of fire Dust that creates an explosion whenever he runs some Aura through it!" Ruby shouted from the stands.

"Huh, I knew that girl was a dweeb but come on! Though it's not like knowing that bit of info is going to help you at all," Cardin then dashed forward holding his mace like it was some sort of baseball bat, fully intent on ending this farce of fight with his next blow.

Calm down Jaune calm down, unfortunately for the young knight this turned out to be a near-impossible task as his condition was feeding his fight or flight response and kicking it into overdrive making thinking of any true strategy a futile endeavor and as a testament to that, he gave a battle cry before he charged right at Cardin which took the bully by complete surprise, however instead of backing down Cardin reveled in the challenged and chose to meet Jaune's charge resulting in a thunderous impact has the two combatants now found themselves weapon locked and attempting to overpower the other one to break the stalemate they now found themselves in.

"Kick his Ass Jaune!"

"Crush that Wimp!"

"Don't give an inch!"

Cardin was shocked by Jaune's strength which was far far greater than what his stature would suggest and to his disbelief he found himself being pushed back a step. However the Brute was not so easily overcome and quickly regathered his senses and began to run through a mental list of options, I could overpower this loser but that would just drag this fight out maybe I could redirect his force or perhaps I should let him push me a little further back and bait him into a counter-attack. Huh? That's weird, were Jaune eyes always copper? I guess he just has something in common with that blond bimbo.

Had Jaune been more observant he might have noticed that something was very wrong with the way he was pushing Cardin back, he would have questioned how he had been able to overpower someone who was not only physically bigger and stronger but had been trained to properly utilize both strength and height. If he had better control over his emotions he might have been able to keep a cooler head instead of letting the heat of battle trigger his condition and cloud his judgment. Maybe he could have noticed the way Cardin had been slowly shifting his feet, his body and the way he was holding his mace. He might have been ready when Cardin suddenly stepped back and to the side letting Jaune slip right past him completely off balance and open. Before the wanna-be knight could regain his bearings and turn around, Cardin's mace slammed right into his unprotected back sending the poor boy sliding right across the arena and breaking his spine with an utterly sickening- *CRACK*

Shock, Horror and worst of all Silence filled the stands as everyone stood dumbfounded and utterly aghast at Jaune's broken body and the sheer brutality of Cardin's final attack. Even the bully was staring with fear at the results of his handy work. As for Ruby, Pyrrha, Weiss and Professor Goodwtich who knew about his regeneration, they were fearfully waiting for what they knew was going to be haunting their nightmares and they were right.

Cracking, Snaping, Twisting and the Screaming echoed throughout the classroom as every bone in the boy's body pulled itself back together. Most turned away and covered their ears trying their best not to acknowledge what was going on in front of them. Professor Goodwitch was clenching her hands so hard that not only were they shaking but she would also have been bleeding if it wasn't for the reflexive use of her aura preventing the damage. Meanwhile, Winchester himself felt all the strength that he was so proud of just leaving his body starting with the hand that was holding his mace which dropped to the floor when it became too heavy for him to hold, then his legs followed suit and he fell to the floor. Then it stopped. The Screaming, the Snapping, The Cracking everything just stopped and Jaune collapsed on the floor laying perfectly still.

Cardin couldn't believe it, he had just killed someone. Oh, Sweet god no no no no no no no no please let this just be a sick nightmare! I didn't want to kill the guy, I just wanted to expose him! Was that wrong? It's over… my life is over. For some reason that he himself could not explain the bully crawled over to where his foe laid and saw to his great relief that Jaune's chest was moving up and down. "He's alive, He's Alive! Oh, thank the brothers he's alive!" There was an almost audible sigh of relief in the entirety of the arena, then Jaune's eyes opened and his first flew right into Cardin's nose, knocking the bully away from himself.

"Gaaaah, do you have any Fucking idea how much that hurt! Do you think for one Fucking Moment that I asked for this? But, guess what asshole! I'm here anyway!" That felt good, it felt so good to get that crap off of his chest, Jaune could even feel his condition beginning to subside just a little, Huh? Well, that's something I'm going to need to explore later. But right now I have a match to win. Looking right at Cardin who was still on the floor in surprise, Jaune began to walk towards his sword fully intent on repaying the bully.

"Mr. Arc, if you are feeling better, could you and Mr. Winchester please leave the arena. Your match ended when Mr. Winchester broke your back. I would also suggest that you visit Dr. Gris as soon as you're done," Professor Goodwtich's voice made it extremely clear that this was not a suggestion.

he still very much wanted to repay Cardin for every single bone in his spine that had fractured and shattered thanks to that blow but thankfully logic and reasoning was able to win the war against his more primal desires and so he obediently went to grab his weapons from the arena floor and a still shocked and very much confused Cardin followed after him.

As they are cleaning up after themselves the Professor broke down what they did wrong, "Mr. Arc, your form was far too stiff, awkward and far too basic. It is important to adjust the way you stand, the way you move and the way you approach situations according to whatever you are facing. Furthermore trying to overpower Mr. Winchester is what opened you up to being countered like that. Next time keep a cooler head and remain flexible in your approach. A good example of this was when you shoulder checked him, that was an excellent way to create an opening. However, you hesitated and judging from where you were looking I would guess that you were wondering how to handle his armor."

"Yeaaaah," He confessed with a little embarrassment.

"A good rule of thumb is to aim where there is no armor, furthermore remember that while Aura prevents the damage it doesn't prevent any knockback or the consequences of said knock-back. So you could have also gone to a stunning blow. That is all Mr. Arc, Miss Nikos could you please escort him to Dr. Gris?" She then turned her attention to Cardin who while still shaken had already made it back to the stands. "Mr. Winchester first off I must congratulate you on your use of the Fire Shard, I can only imagine how long it took you to practice the timing for that, however, I must also caution you not to rely on such a trick. Moves like that only work on people who don't know what to expect. Furthermore, choosing to try and overpower Jaune was foolhardy, after all what if he had a trick prepared for that exact situation? That will be all Mr. Winchester." She watched as the young man made his way back to his friends. "Alright, everyone now that the show is over can I please have Mr. Zaure and Miss. Chandlea come down to the arena?"

Looking at Glynda's face you could be led to believe that she was truly unfeeling and after what happened with Jaune many of the students in her class had come to that conclusion. However, if you were to take a closer look and knew the signs to watch out for you would find that the opposite was true. Glynda had been disturbed by what she had seen, it took all of her strength not to run into the arena and stop everything when she saw and heard Jaune's back break. This wasn't what she signed up for, everything she did she did for her students, she stayed in Beacon working with Ozpin because she wanted every single one of foolish and oh so brave children to be able to live to retirement to grow old and die a natural peaceful death surrounded by their families and the people they saved. She supported Ozpin even when she did not understand him because she believed that one day, one glorious day would come either in her lifetime or another where Huntsmen would be no longer needed because the Grimm would be no more.

But, this... this was just torture for the sake of spreading a Lie. A necessary Lie but there were so many other ways they could have done this. It didn't have to be like this, there was no reason why I couldn't just hold a special class or make up some lie to train Jaune myself. Her mind was made up and she was going to be having a few words with Beacon's esteemed Head Master.

Author's Notes: My Little "Experiment," involved going back to the lab after every single scene change. What I was hoping for was to create a sense of rising dread and unease through the clashing scenes. What I got instead was a confusing mess that needed to be untangled and scenes needed to be rewritten to make sense of what was going on. Still, though, I don't regret it. Like I said at the beginning, I'm doing this to improve my overall writing and storytelling ability starting with a Genre I've never written for in the past. Experimentation is a must.