Hello hello!

Enjoy the chapter!

"Woah!"

Jaune yelled in surprise as he felt his vision suddenly shift. A quick look at the ground below him revealed that the torso of the Arcsoul had appeared, starting at his waist, but his flesh-and-blood feet were still planted on the ground. The difference between his vision and the sensations from his actual body played havoc with his balance, and he quickly felt himself tipping over.

"Ah!"

THUD!

Luckily, the Arcsoul didn't interact with anything but the ground, meaning that the section of the Emerald Forest that they were training in wasn't flattened as he landed. As the back of his Arcsoul touched the ground, Jaune felt himself, and especially his legs -which were outside of the Arcsoul's torso that he had accidentally generated- suddenly lifted into the air by the sheer size of it all.

The speed at which he had suddenly been pulled from the ground made him a bit dizzy, and his legs quite a bit sore, but he was alive, and his Aura was handling both of those issues already. It didn't solve the issue of him flopping around like a turned-over turtle, unable to right himself properly without his Arcsoul's arms as his real body 'floated' just above the tops of the trees.

Taking a deep breath and summoning his Aura to its strongest, he pulled his Arcsoul back -which was luckily much easier than bringing it out was, or he would likely have been stuck for a while- and fell the relatively short distance to the ground. He still bounced as he hit the dirt, his Aura sparking as he rolled down the hill he had landed on, coming to a stop right next to a girl staring daggers at a bit of cardboard.

"Hey, Jaune. You don't seem like you're getting the hang of it."

Groaning as his Aura once again started healing his bruises, he flipped over until he was lying on his back, looking up at Ruby's smirking face as she stuck her tongue out at him. Rolling his eyes, he gently punched her on the leg from his spot on the ground.

"I don't know, Rubes. Have you gotten any closer to lasering that Ursa to death?"

The smug look on Ruby's face faded instantly as he pointed out her total lack of success getting her Silver Eyes to activate again. The 'Ursa' in question was a cardboard cutout of an Ursa in a generic attacking pose, something that Ozpin had apparently thought might help jog her emotions, due to her situation at the end of the battle.

But, from the look of frustration on her face… It was clearly not working as well as they had hoped. The crossed arms and raised shoulders do a good job of painting him the picture of how unfruitful her 'training' had been, too. "Ugh, it's so unfair that you don't need the Grimm around to use your super cool magic powers..."

Jaune wisely stayed silent, even as Ruby allowed herself to fall backwards until they were lying on the ground side-by-side together. For a moment, he wondered if she was genuinely upset about it, and how to handle that, but then her pout faded as she turned her head to smile softly at him. "But, I don't want you to feel guilty or anything. I am a bit miffed that it's gonna be harder for me to use my super cool magic powers than it will be for you, but I'm glad that yours can be activated at will."

Ruby does a half-turn on the ground, wrapping his arm that was closest to her in a hug, her face pressed into it. He continues to stay silent and unmoving, not wanting to disrupt her. They stay like that for a moment. Eventually, Jaune hears her mumble something.

"Because hey, if they couldn't, I might not be here to complain about it, y'know?"

Jaune couldn't help himself.

He was forced to disrupt her as he sat up, dragging her into the same sitting position as well, due to her being attached to his arm. As she lets go from the surprise at the sudden movement, Jaune shoots his arms forward and wraps the girl in a hug. She froze for a moment before returning the hug, humming softly into his shoulder.

They stay like that for a little while, with Jaune's hand rubbing the back of her head and messing up her hair a little bit. He didn't know how long they just sat there like that… But he became very aware of how much time had passed as laughter reached his ears, a voice -that definitely wasn't Ruby's- speaking from behind them.

"And here I thought seeing the Arcsoul appear and disappear over the tree line meant there was training going on. Should I give the two of you some more time alone?"

Before Jaune can even react properly, his face and arms -well, his entire body, to be honest- are instantaneously slapped with the force of a hundred Rose petals moving faster than he has ever seen Ruby move before. The force of Ruby exploding while hugging him throws him backwards, and suddenly he is laid out flat on the ground again, looking up at a bemused Admiral Ozpin as the man leans over him.

"Hello, Admiral, Sir. I think we'll be fine. What can I do for you?"

Ozpin stayed silent for a moment, allowing Jaune to catch his breath and get back to his feet, dusting himself off from all of the dirt, grass, and Rose petals that he was covered in. As he finished cleaning himself off, Ozpin tapped his cane against the ground a couple of times, smiling brightly.

"Well you see, I have been doing paperwork at the top of Beacon Tower all afternoon, and I keep seeing bits and pieces of your Arcsoul coming into existence and then vanishing again… But it never seems to be the full construct. I have finished my work for the moment, and only wish to offer the both of you any help that I can."

At his words, Ruby popped back into existence in another cloud of Petals. "Admiral Ozpin, sir! Pleasetellmeifyou'vereadanythingaboutwaysIcanusemySilverEyesoutsideofjustblasting Grimmwiththem! ThecardboardUrsaisn'tworking!"

As if to support her words, the flimsy thing topples over as Ruby speaks, being pushed by a sudden gust of wind. Ozpin just stares at it for a moment, humming softly to himself. "Hmm… It would seem that Professor Goodwitch merely skimmed over my notes, then. I assume her current lack of belief regarding the existence of Magic might be the cause."

Jaune could see the way that Ruby started vibrating at that, the lack of an outright shutdown of her request very clearly filled her with hope… Not that Jaune wasn't excited to hear about it, too. If Ozpin did have something to help her use her Silver Eyes, then he wanted to help her figure it out.

Ozpin seemed to notice her reaction, as well, and he raised a hand to calm her down, coughing lightly into his fist. "Before you get your hopes up… I have only ever seen one Huntress do this before. Silver-Eyed Warriors have always been rare, and Silver-Eyed Warriors with a good level of natural talent towards combat even more so. Do not get your hopes up."

Jaune can tell from the tone of his voice that Ozpin was about to start telling them something, so he plopped back down onto his butt and leaned his back against a tree, happy to wait his turn as Ruby stared up at the Admiral impatiently.

"After the creation of the Arks, there were only a scant few Silver-Eyed Warriors that reached Beacon. Perhaps some of them went to the other academies, but… Since its creation, Beacon has only had three students with Silver Eyes. You, Ruby, are the third."

Ozpin seemed like he was on a roll, now, and the 'lesson' started to flow from him as he paced back and forth, his cane tapping the ground with every step or so. "After the awakening of their abilities, previous Silver-Eyed Warriors grew frustrated that the only way they could use them was to carve a hole in their cockpit for the Light to shine through, creating a massive weak spot."

It was here that Ozpin hesitated, a look in his body language as if he was steeling himself for what he was about to say next. "You… I believe that you are aware that your mother's eyes were Silver as well, correct?"

Ruby froze at that, and Jaune felt a spike of sympathy for her at the look on her face, but she nodded in response to Ozpin's question all the same. "I've known what colour they were my whole life, Dad always said I had the same colour eyes mum did. It's just… It's only now that I know they're super cool and magical."

Ozpin nodded, a hum escaping him as his forehead scrunched a bit. "Yes, I guess I should have expected Taiyang to be unwilling to talk to you about her powers much after she-"

Jaune's curiosity burns as Ozpin cuts himself off, but he can see the way that Ruby flinches, looking appreciative to the man for stopping. Clearly, Ozpin had realised that he was nearing some kind of line in regards to Ruby's mum, and Jaune wasn't so curious -or mean- to push him towards that just because he was curious about what they were talking about.

It was clearly something in regards to Ruby's mum, but… He had known there was a touchy subject there for a while now. He could live without knowing the specifics until she was ready to share them with him.

Ozpin coughed into his hand again, doing his best to get back on track. "Right, well. Obviously, having a hole in the cockpit of an Ark is an inconceivably bad idea. We did try to make it work by having a Hardlight Dust shield, hoping that the see-through nature of it would allow the Light through. It wasn't effective, however, as the Light was muffled as it was forced to break through the Hardlight Dust."

Jaune can see that Ruby is getting impatient for him to tell her the technique as he instead goes over its history. He can also see how she is too nice to interrupt the man, leading to her sitting as still as possible, a blank look in her eyes. Ruby might be prodigal in almost every way… But even he was better at studying and listening to people ramble on for a while than she was.

Seemingly sensing her impatience, however, Ozpin pauses in his pacing, glancing over at Ruby before shaking his head softly. "Anyway, what I mean to say is that when all other options failed, a new technique had to be created. And one was."

Ozpin waved a hand towards Jaune, motioning towards him and causing Ruby to stare at him for a moment. "While the Arcsoul enhances a person's ability to fight the Grimm by expanding upon the user's Aura, Summer Rose discovered that the Silver Eyes could be used to enhance that Aura, itself."

Jaune saw Ruby flinch slightly at the name -which he felt safe to assume was her mother's- but the look on her face was one of determination and excitement rather than despondence. Ozpin seemed to see it, too, and a smile grew on his face. "Via her training with an Ark, she discovered that by 'looking inward' -as she called it- a Silver-Eyed Warrior could channel the Light through their Aura, turning it silver. This technique is something called a Silversoul."

Jaune and Ruby merely stare at him for a moment, silent. After a second or two, Ozpin adjusts his glasses and looks away from the pair, an oddly grumpy tone to his voice. "Well, look. I didn't say the name was creative, just that was what it's called."

Ruby just kept staring at him, even as Jaune stopped. The man competed in the impromptu staring contest for a moment, before huffing. "Fine, I probably could have thought of something better, but I didn't, and you just have to deal with that. Do you want to know about the Silversoul or not, Miss Rose?"

Ruby squeaked, and Jaune couldn't stop the laughter that escaped him at that. She sat up straight again, even as her eyes dropped to the floor and she pouted. She also shot him a half-serious glare as he continued to snicker at her, before refocusing on Ozpin. "Yes, sir, please keep going, sir."

Ozpin nodded sharply, tapping his cane on the ground as he resumed his pacing. He was silent for a moment as he recovered his train of thought, but eventually, he restarted his lecture. "The Silversoul grants a few benefits. Increased Aura, as well as an increase to the user's strength, speed, and durability, as the user's reserves are bolstered by the magic of their eyes. Your mother's Semblance was also affected, and seemed wholly more effective against the Grimm when using Silversoul."

Jaune could practically see Ruby sparkling with excitement as she held her closed fists out in front of her as if she was about to start cheering, only holding herself back so that she didn't interrupt Ozpin. "These benefits -other than the increased Aura capacity and Semblance adjustments, of course- are mostly useless within an Ark itself."

He hummed, blinking as if he was realising what he was doing all of a sudden. He tapped his cane onto the ground and turned to face Ruby, his pacing stopping. Jaune was amazed that Ruby had kept quiet for so long, even as Ozpin essentially went on a rant about all of the things her Silver Eyes could do.

"I must preface this, Miss Rose, with a warning. Your mother is the only recorded Silver-Eyed Warrior in history to be able to do this. I am only telling you about this as a suggestion of what you may be able to do, with training and dedication."

Even with his warning, Jaune almost rolls his eyes at how excited Ruby looks, her best efforts to hold back said excitement failing horribly. Jaune can tell that Ozpin notices it as well as the man merely sighs, accepting that Ruby was likely going to bang her head against the metaphorical wall until she figured it out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Jaune jolted in surprise as Ruby started to yell as loud as she could, her eyes wide open as she stood in a stance that he was vaguely familiar with… Wait. He stood up front against the tree, his Aura having fully taken care of the soreness from his fall from earlier, and patting Ruby on the shoulder.

"I don't think you'll activate it by screaming like X-Ray when they're charging up their powers, Rubes, sorry."

With Jaune interrupting her yelling and her Aura remaining the lovely shade of red it usually was, Ruby's shoulders dropped and she pouted. The act got another laugh out of Ozpin, who shook his head.

"Miss Rose, I believe that the Silversoul will be easier to train when we can get you back into Crescent Rose… Which should be sooner than we had expected, I might add. It seems Willow Schnee herself has sent Beacon a large amount of resources to begin expediting the repair of our Arks, as a show of goodwill and camaraderie between Atlas, Beacon, and the Schnee family.' Excellent timing for such a gift, I say, as the Vytal festival approaches."

The man then looks wistful for a moment, his eyes turning up towards the sky, up at the sun as it beat down on them. "Isn't it wonderful, how people can come together like this and support each other, even across continents? I truly believe that it is humanity's greatest trait."

Jaune and Ruby glance at each other as they notice the odd look on his face, but neither of them comment on it. After only a moment or two, Ozpin seems to snap out of it, tapping his cane on the ground in a quick, rhythmic burst.

"Apologies for getting lost in my thoughts… Mr Arc, would you please show me how your Arcsoul Training is coming along?"

Jaune blinks at the sudden change of subject, glancing at Ruby. She just nods subtly, motioning for him to go for it. Seemed that she was okay being patient for a little longer in regards to her eyes and their power. "Yes, sir, but I would suggest taking a step or two back. I don't have this completely under control yet."

Ozpin nods wordlessly, following Jaune's advice. He motions for Ruby to stand next to him, and she does so without arguing, having gotten a pretty good idea of the size of the individual bits of the Arcsoul from being near Jaune as they trained. Closing his eyes, Jaune reached inwards to grab the fire that was his Arcsoul, metaphorically grabbing onto it and trying to mould it into the shape it had been in before.

"Gah!"

The rushing air around him as he was suddenly launched up into the air snapped his focus, and he saw that only the left calf of the Arcsoul had appeared, emanating from around his knee joint and holding him in the air. He does his best to lower himself as smoothly as he can, his control not quite there yet as he plummets the final few meters.

He is caught by his Aura without issue and opens his eyes again to see both Ozpin and Ruby staring at him. Ruby was very clearly trying not to openly laugh at him in front of Ozpin, and Ozpin merely wore an amused smile on his face. After a moment, the man pulls out what Jaune can see is an old-looking notebook, flipping a few pages in as he pulls a pen from his blazer's front pocket.

"If you want, I would be very interested in assisting in any way I can, Mr Arc, Miss Rose. To help in discovering the training process behind two of the rarest bloodlines on Remnant at once is a goldmine to an enthusiast of Myths and Legends like myself."

Jaune and Ruby both attempted to accept Ozpin's help with gusto, and Jaune got out a 'yes, please, sir' before Ruby quickly realised that she couldn't do anything just yet without Crescent Rose to assist her.

Flopping onto her back with a groan, she glared at Jaune -in a way he could only describe as cute- as he very barely held onto his laughter at her antics.

Jaune stumbles out of the Simulator, his stomach rumbling like an engine as he allows himself to lean up against a nearby wall for support.

"Woah, are you alright, Jaune?"

He doesn't even get the chance to answer Blake's question to him as he rushes past her towards the bin, his stomach finally getting the better of him. As he lost his lunch for the first time in a while, he let out a pained groan.

"Ugh, no..."

He kept his face over the bin, in case he threw up again. Blake followed him over to the bin, one of her hands landing on his back as she rubbed it slowly, a worried look on her face. He appreciated the contact, leaning into it slightly. "What happened?"

Groaning again, he pushed up until he was around arm's length from the bin, shaking his head as he rubbed at his eyes. "Ugh, I just tried to use the Simulator to keep practising, and… The second I tried to run my Aura through it, my Aura felt so smothered, it was like I had claustrophobia all of a sudden. It's happened before, but never enough to cause this much nausea…"

He glanced up at her as he said that, and saw a look of realisation on her face. She patted his back once more and stood back up to full height, looking thoughtful as she motioned up towards her ears, which she flicked a couple of times. "Right, yeah, I think I get it. Something similar happened to me, due to my Ark's lack of cat ears. And now that you have manifested your Arcsoul…"

Jaune pushes himself up from the bin, his stomach finally calming itself down as he nods at her words. He hadn't tried to connect to Crocea Arca since his Arcsoul manifested -due to it being almost entirely shattered and thus not rebuilt yet- but if it was going to feel like that every time he tried…

Jaune's eyes blew wide open as he realised something. As Blake continued to flick her ears at him with a small smile on her face, he placed a hand on her shoulder, meeting her eyes. "Wait, Blake. Have you been dealing with this feeling the whole time we've been at Beacon?"

Blake froze, and her mouth opened and closed wordlessly a couple of times before she was capable of getting out a proper response. "Uh… Haha, yes, I have… It's why I've been coming to the Simulators this whole time. I wanted to get used to it so that I could fight properly."

Shaking his head, Jaune frowned. That wasn't good enough for him. He had just lost his lunch just connecting his Aura to the machine, let alone fighting like that. "Is there a way to make it not happen for you anymore?"

Blake's shoulders seem to drop as she starts to drill her foot into the ground, looking a little embarrassed, although Jaune can't imagine why. But as she nods, and starts speaking, he quickly finds out. "Well, uh, you see… Sigh… If I got some ears added to the top of Gambol Shroud, allowing my Aura to flow more closely to how it does outside of my Ark, it should remove the uncomfortable feeling, but-"

She stops suddenly as Jaune claps her on the shoulder, grinning at her. He could see her about to argue with him about it and so he gave her a look, causing her to lower the finger she had been about to raise. "Blake… You know what I'm about to say, right?"

A defeated voice escaped the girl, even as her ears twitched, flapping up and down. She made a show of looking like she was being hard done by, swinging her arms back and forth a little. "I know what you're about to say…"

Jaune nods sharply as his hands move down from her shoulders, grabbing her hands between his own. "And you know that you can add the ears to your Ark without fear of what the team will think, right? We'll always do our best to support you, Blake."

She lifted her head and met his eyes, and he could see the spark of something within them, but he wasn't entirely sure what. She does not attempt to remove her hands from his own, however, merely smiling softly at him.

"I know, yeah... Thank you, Jaune."

With a smile growing on his own face, he moved his hands from around her own. Grabbing her wrist, he started to drag her along behind him. Blake adjusted quickly to the sudden movement -she was crazy agile- but even she let out a small yell of surprise. "Wait, we're doing this now?! It's after class time!"

Jaune brushed off the excuse with his free hand, smirking at her. "You and I both know that the engineers are working around the clock. We could go there at three in the morning and someone would be there for us to bother."

Blake huffed under her breath as her attempt at a reason for procrastinating was seen through so easily. Exiting the Simulator building -and making sure he remembered to mark both of them as having left on the system, which had been hard to do while dragging Blake behind him- she tried something else.

"Come on, Jaune. My nausea probably isn't even as bad as yours, because it's only part of my Aura being compressed instead of all of it like yours."

"Nope!"

Blake blinked at the suddenness of his statement, and Jaune could only smile as Ruby's technique worked perfectly to stun the girl. She opened her mouth to try and talk again, but Jaune just shook his head. "Nope."

"But-"

"Nope."

A frustrated sigh escapes Blake at that… But the simple fact that she hasn't used her Semblance to escape Jaune's grip tells him all he needs to know about her true feelings on the matter. She didn't try anything else for a little while as they jogged down the footpath of one of the super-wide roads that covered Beacon's campus.

But as they neared the Hangar Bays, Jaune spoke. "Look, with the Vytal Festival and the exchange program starting soon… We all need to be on our A-Game. And on a personal level… Brothers, that Nausea sucked. If I can make it so that you don't have to feel like that ever again, well, I think a little embarrassment is worth your comfort."

Blake just sighs at that, seemingly admitting defeat under his insistence. But with his eyes locked ahead of him, making sure they were going in the right direction, he didn't notice the way Blake's cheeks turned red, as he pulled her along behind him.

Jaune was laughing his ass off, and he doesn't think he could stop himself, even if he wanted to.

"-eriously, girl! We've been wondering from DAY 1 why on Remnant your Ark wasn't transmitting Aura the way it should, and it's all because of a couple of ears?! Brothers, we're literally almost done implementing them already, do you see how easy this could have been?!"

Jaune really did try his best to hold his laughter in as Blake did her best to look as apologetic as possible as she knelt on the floor in front of an irate engineer. The woman was currently pointing up at the top of Gambol Shroud, where -just like the engineer had said- there was a set of cat ears being installed as they spoke.

The look in the engineer's eyes reminded him of Ruby when he forgot to do proper maintenance on Crocea Flos. A righteous indignation about a 'Hunter not treating their equipment with the proper amount of respect.' Or at least, that's what Ruby had called it.

"I am sorry, but there were personal reasons involved…"

The engineer looked three seconds from attacking Blake, and Jaune really did have to wonder just how long and hard they had been trying to 'fix' the 'issue' with Gambol Shroud's Aura systems. "Breathe. It wasn't malicious, she's just stupid and stubborn. Breathe."

Another burst of laughter escaped Jaune, even as he tried to muffle it with his hands. He got a glare from Blake in response to what laughter he couldn't contain, but the way she quickly turned back to face the engineer with a frightened look on her face as the woman smacked a workbench with her wrench just made him laugh harder.

"Look, kid. With this 'issue' finally 'solved' a lot of things are gonna start working as intended. Now that your Aura isn't running like stale honey, I reckon you're gonna get a dozen or so extra uses out of that Semblance of yours. Maybe more if you can bring the Aura usage down, but I don't know if that's something you guys can train or not."

"It depends on the Semblance. Also, honey can't go stal-"

The wrench banged on the workbench again, and Blake went quiet as the engineer glared at her. "As I was saying, this is good news, and we're almost done attaching all of the wiring and connecting supports. So, unless you've got any other very useful information that could have stopped many late-night arguments among my team that you're hiding, then you can leave, now."

Blake mumbled something about not having anything else to tell her, and the engineer huffed as she did a 180, stomping back over to her teammates and attaching herself to a pulley, being yanked into the air to work on the Ark some more. Blake remained kneeling on the ground for a moment, so Jaune took his chance.

Swooping in beside her, he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around before she could realise, taking a selfie of the two of them at a high enough angle to get his smirk, Blake's shocked face, and the clear cat ears atop Gambol Shroud in the frame.

"JAUNE!"

He started running immediately afterwards, and it was a good thing he did as he heard Blake yell his name, even as he sent the 'send' button to the Fireteam Jasper group chat, laughing the whole while.

Deja vu at the ending of the chapter. Blake is being teased by Jaune… That is something I didn't even realise until I was about to upload this, lmao.

I hope you enjoyed this week's chapters!

If you haven't already, I hope you go check out The Hunt for the Goldfire Wyrm as well! It will be updated every Monday!

See you then!