So, some people might be for this, others might be against this. The thing is, I feel this is the best thing for the story. Plus, I was eventually going to let everyone find out over time and I feel the time is right for this.

Symbiote Knight

Chapter 19: The Fifth member

So here Jaune was, in this team's room having a team meeting over, well over their newest member. He was thankful that Pyrrha was here to help with things, it had been hard enough to explain everything to her but to both Ren and Nora? Well, he managed to get through it, the reactions were opposites of each other as Ren sad there in quiet stunned surprise, his eyes wide with shock, Nora was…well Nora.

"YOU HAVE AN ALIE-HEEMMM!" Nora's shout was quickly silenced as a tendril from Jaune's arm quickly went across the room to cover her mouth.

"Shhh!" Jaune whispered. "Nora, not so loud with that word, he's kind of sensitive about people knowing."

Nora tried to speak but with the symbiote gently covering her mouth her words are muffled.

"I think you can left go now," Pyrrha told both Jaune and Valor.

"Oh right, sorry." Jaune retracted the symbiote.

"Do it again!" Nora smiled brightly.

"What?! No!" Jaune wasn't sure he wanted to do that again to her. He could also feel Valor's feelings of apprehension. Then got a memory of Nora's tongue on the symbiote when it covered her mouth. "Wait, did you lick him?"

"I was curious what it tasted like," Nora shrugged nonchalantly. "And for your information, he tastes kind of earthy with a hint of liquorish."

Jaune blinked as that was information, he wasn't sure he wanted to know what his symbiote tasted like.

~In my long life I have never been licked just to see how I tasted…I don't like it, maybe it was a mistake to tell them~

'It was your idea.'

~And I am having second thoughts~

'Well, it's too late now.'

Ren noticed the odd facial expressions Jaune was having as something clicked. "Are you…talking with…'him' at the moment?"

"Oh, right sorry, yeah," Jaune scratched the back of his head as the suit pulled back leaving him in his normal clothing. "I've gotten so used to it that I don't even think about it anymore."

"I see," Ren simply said but his mind was going a thousand miles an hour. There was just so many things this revelation brought he was having a hard time adjusting. First was that aliens indeed exist, they were not alone in the universe. In fact, from what Valor, Pyrrha and Jaune explained, the universe was filled with life. Another was that Jaune hid this from them, at first, he was starting to worry that this symbiote could be influencing him.

"I know it's a lot to take in," Pyrrha explained. "I was hesitant as well but as I got to know him, I can see he's only had what was best for Jaune at heart."

"Yeah, he's been a real big help and honestly he's been a good friend to me," Jaune said truthfully. "I know I kept it secret but it's not exactly an easy thing to bring up, he was also a little unsure given that most films I've seen the aliens are the bad guys and he was afraid we would immediately think he was an evil alien to conquer the planet or something."

"And you're sure he's not?" Ren asked.

"No, Ren, come on." Jaune spoke on his alien partner's behalf.

"I have to ask the question," Ren held up a hand in defense. "What do you know about him? I mean really know? How do you know he's not effecting you mentally? How did he get into that asteroid to begin with?" Ren asked.

Valor winced as he had never truly explained that, and he could sense Jaune suddenly realized he had never asked that. Valor could see that Ren was being cautious. He would be a little harder to put at ease. Valor asked permission to take over as Jaune relaxed controls, the symbiote formed around him once again.

"That was my prison," Valor explained.

"Prison?" Pyrrha asked.

Valor nodded and then looked at Ren. "You asked so I'm telling you. You see there is a give and take with being a host and symbiote. There is a joining between us, we can become one being and yet individual. Because of this progress there is a certain bleeding effect between the minds of both of use. As he learns from me, I learn from him. Jaune has gained a bit more confidence with me being there in his mind."

"But there is a darker aspect, my kind is also influenced by the hosts. We take great pains to choose our hosts because of this, if we choose poorly then negative aspects can take hold within us."

"So, if you get a good guy like Jaune you're good?" Nora asked as she thought she was following along, and Valor nodded. "What if you picked up a bad guy as a host?"

Valor paused as he took a breath. "The group I was with landed on a planet very far from here and very long ago, I have no idea as I was in a rock floating in space for a long time. But we thought we found good hosts, at least I did. But the others did not, they were slowly being corrupted by their hosts darker impulses. They…tore me from my host."

Jaune could feel the pain in that statement as flashes of memories came to mind. Of how painful both physically, mentally and emotionally it was.

"My host did not survive and as 'punishment' a slow death was given to me. To put me into a rock around the orbit of the world and sent into the void to slowly die over time. We can survive for many centuries or longer without a host or others of our kind, if we can conserve ourselves but eventually, we will need a host."

"So that is how I came to be trapped in that rock, also to your question of if I'm influencing him. Yes and no, it is the same influence you all have on each other. People can influence you in life it is only so much more intense between a symbiote and host because of how joined we are together. In some cases, the personalities resonate and feed off each other. I heard how some even take on the host's full personality because of how compatible they are."

"Does this answer your questions?"

Ren could hear the emotion in his explanation, he could feel the great loss when talking about being ripped from his previous host. It was still a little hard to get used to the idea that Jaune was sharing his body without any kind of side effects, but he would reserve judgement at least. The symbiote hadn't done anything overtly hostile at least.

Jaune wasn't sure what to think, he never saw this side of his symbiote. 'You never told me this before."

~It is…painful to think about~ Which was true, for a true Klyntar the bond between symbiote and host was a precious thing. To lose one's host was like losing a piece of oneself, they knew that they would most likely outlive their hosts but that didn't lessen the pain of such a thing. Symbiotes might not have the family ties that most sentient races did but when you bonded with another being on such a level it was impossible to not feel anything.

Nora however immediately went up and hugged Jaune/Valor as the symbiote was surprised by her actions.

"What are you doing?" Valor asked confused.

"You sounded like you needed a hug so I'm giving you one," Nora simply told the alien.

Valor wasn't sure what to say to something like that, no one every really gave him a hug so to speak. It felt strange, he had felt hugs sure, but they were for the hosts never for himself.

~I'm unsure what to do here~

'Just hug her back,' Jaune replied.

So, the symbiote awkwardly hugged her back, it felt just so strange to be the center of affection for once. His species wasn't exactly the affectionate type for others outside of their hosts. They were the only real bonding experience they had. While the hug was nice it was also outside of his comfort zone and decided enough was enough and pulled back into Jaune where it felt more at home.

"Awww," Nora pulled back. "I guess he's just shy."

Pyrrha had to cover her mouth at the idea of the alien being shy, it was just funny for her for some reason. Who ever heard of a shy alien?

~I'm not shy~

Jaune didn't say a word but if he had to put a description to how that sounded like, it almost sounded like his symbiote was pouting.

"Still, this is the coolest thing," Nora was a bundle of energy now as she got excited. "I knew Jaune was a great leader and now he's got an alien buddy makes him even better. Oh, does this mean we have to change our team's name? We technically got five members now, where to put the V? JNPRV? PRVJN? JRVNP? This is hard, how does Ozpin keep coming up with all these team names all the time when it's all randomized?"

"I don't think we can change the team's name, not without explaining why," Pyrrha told her.

"Oh right, secret alien teammate…how about just for us? I'll keep workshopping it, I'll figure out a way to include Valor, does he had a last name I can use?"

"No, in fact I picked the name as Klyntar's don't really have permanent names, symbiotes are kind of like that." Jaune shrugged remembering the little history lesson he was given by his symbiote. Sometimes a symbiote would carry a name for a few hosts but sometimes the hosts liked a different name.

Ren rubbed his chin, while he wasn't sure what to make of the symbiote learning more about the species might help. Plus, he had to admit he was fascinated by what he could learn.

"So, what else can you do?" Nora asked them eagerly.

"Uh, well there's this?" Jaune flung his hands out as his clothing now shifted from school uniform to the fancy clothing he wore at his time with Weiss.

"Cool," Nora looked it over as she even felt the arms. "It feels like real clothing."

"So that's where you got those clothes," Pyrrha said softly to herself she had been wondering about that, despite his explanation as she never saw him arrive or place them anywhere. It wasn't a big room after all, so she was wondering why she had never noticed them.

"Yeah, he's also been helping me get in better shape," Jaune admitted. "Since he can help heal my body he can help with the muscles."

That got Pyrrha's attention, "Of course, that's why you've been physically improving so fast. If your muscles are rebuilt fast enough and the acids taken away, you can work out longer and harder."

"So that's why you're so much more buff now," Nora grinned poking him a little. "Yep, no more baby fat here."

"Nora!" Jaune stook a step back rubbing the area she poked a little embarrassed. She only giggled in response.

Ren tilted his head, "So does this have to do with your recent odd food cravings too?"

"Oh that, yeah. He needs some," He pauses as the alien tells him the name as he can never remember it. "Phenethylamine that's it. Got some pill supplements for it now but that's why I've been eating things like cheese, chocolate, fish, radish and stuff. It has it in there, but the pills certainly have been helpful. He's not as 'hungry' anymore thankfully."

"So, wait wouldn't all that chocolate you eat have been working against you bulking up slightly?" Nora asked.

"Yeah, he can regulate that stuff. I could eat a ton of chocolate and not gain any weight." Jaune shrugged and he was pretty sure he could literally eat a ton, well Valor could. Jaune wasn't sure where things went when Valor 'took' them, he tried to explain it once, but the concept of a living tesseract gave him a headache.

"No fair!" Nora pointed at him in jealously. "You know how hard I have to work to keep my body like this?"

She sat on her bed and pouted with her arms crossed. "If I had a symbiote I could eat chocolate covered pancakes all day."

"Sorry Nora, he's one of a kind and we're stuck together for better and worse." Jaune shrugged at her.

"Still not fair, we all went on that mission. Any one of us could have gotten him." Nora huffed hating the fact she missed out on this. This was the coolest thing ever and the more and heard about it the more she wished she had a symbiote. They sounded cool, well the good ones at least, the bad ones that sent Valor off alone in space not so much.

"You think anymore will show up?" Ren asked thinking about it.

Jaune tilted his head. "He says not really, the odds of him showing up here were pretty big. I mean you have no idea just how large space can be, I've only seen a little and, yeah, it's huge."

Pyrrha having similar small views could relate.

"He says that if another showed up it would be a long time from now or would have happened in the past a long time ago and we would have noticed it by now." Jaune finished giving the message.

They stayed up a little later than normal just talking and asking questions and getting to know the new secret teammate for the team.

-The next Day-

Pyrrha was currently in class, but she couldn't help but have her mind on other things. Mainly Jaune and Valor, she couldn't believe what she had learned yesterday. She was starting to wonder how long it would take to feel 'normal' about all of this. Her mind kept going back to all those images she had, all that she was shown. The universe was just far vaster than she could have imagined.

Then she would look at Jaune, seeing him doing his best to take notes she knew that Valor was taking his own 'notes' down on everything he saw for them both. If she looked closely enough, she could see him tilt his head as though listening to something or the odd smile or expression would appear. You would think he was just thinking about something, which he could have been, but now she was wondering how much of that was him having a conversation with Valor.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she tried to focus back on the lessons, but it was so very hard. Yesterday had been something she never expected and while now all the strange little changes to Jaune made total sense in context, she was just having a hard time wrapping her mind around it all.

She was caught off guard when the bell sounded as she felt a little embarrassed that she once again lost focus. Fighting back a sigh she figured today was going to be a long day. She was nearly out the classroom door when Yang's voice called out to her.

"Hey P-Money wait up," Yang quickly caught up with the taller redhead. "You got a second?"

"Sure, what is it Yang?" She asked as they walked to the next class.

"Well first, if you're trying to make eyes at Jaune you might want to get his attention first," the blonde grinned.

"W-what?"

"You were making eyes at him all class, not very subtle of your," Yang teased.

Pyrrha blushed, while she was aware she had been looking at Jaune she didn't think how it could be mistaken for something else.

"Hey, no worries, I know what you are feeling," she said in a lower tone making sure no one else overheard her. "But boy it's bad today, did something happen?"

Pyrrha knew she couldn't tell Yang the full story, it wasn't really her secret to tell, but she felt bad about not sharing it. Yang had opened up and shared her feelings for Jaune and even though in a way they were rivals for the boy's affection, she also felt a sense of solidarity between them. Opening up in that café was something she had never really done before.

"Kind of," Pyrrha trailed off. "Mainly Jaune and I got to talking and then with our team. So, our team had kind of a bonding experience if that makes sense?"

Yang tilted her head as she thought about it. "Guess this is personal stuff between the team?"

"Very." Pyrrha nodded.

"Then I won't pry, not my business," Yang could respect someone's personal space but only up to a certain point. If someone was troubled, then her big sister side took over to try and help. Looking at Pyrrha it didn't seem like something was troubling her. "At any rate you want a report on the Weiss front?"

"The what?" Pyrrha blinked.

"I asked Weiss how her non-date went," Yang shrugged. "Although getting information out of that girl is like pulling teeth. The short of it is, she seemed to enjoy herself."

Pyrrha's face darkened a bit which Yang picked up on.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Yang sighed. "So, get this, Jaune apparently likes her singing and asked her if maybe we can get the group together for karaoke. Did you know that Weiss had no idea what that was? I mean just how sheltered is that? Anyway, she asked me about it and I was wondering if Jaune brought it up yet."

"No, he hadn't," she shook her head. "But then again, we were kind of busy yesterday.

"Well, I think I can convince the rest of the team to go, Blake is a bit of a hard case to crack at time, but I think I can convince her. Ruby will be all for any team hangout so she would be the easiest. What do you think? Think you can get Ren and Nora into this?"

Pyrrha was pretty sure Nora would be all for it, Ren might just go along with it because the rest of the group was going. She had to admit maybe just going out and doing something normal would be just the thing her team could use after having a ton of revelations dropped on them. Also, she had never really gone out with friends like this before, she had been so focused on training and sponsors she barely had time for all the little things she missed out on.

Coming to Beacon and being on team JNPR was showing her just how much she missed out on.

"Since this is Jaune's idea I assume he's in and so am I, Ren and Nora won't be hard to convince." She stated.

Yang smiled broadly, "Cool, honestly, I think this is a good way to relax with everyone outside of school. Plus, you never know, maybe get a certain blonde's attention?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened a bit as she thought about it. She wasn't all that confident in her singing, she had never done it before and apparently Weiss was good enough to sing in front of crowds. Maybe she could get closer in other ways? Looking at Yang she could see that the blonde was having similar thoughts.

"May the best girl win?" Pyrrha asked.

Yang only grinned. "Hell yeah, and no hard feelings after. I'll set up a group chat," she pulled out her scroll. "I just need all of JNPR's contacts and we can set up a time and place. Maybe Friday afternoon so we don't have to worry about classes?"

Pyrrha nodded her head pulling her own scroll out to give her the contacts. It was a few days away so maybe she could get in that sparing in the woods with Jaune, now that Nora and Ren were in on the secret, they all could maybe go? It would be nice to have them along so they too would know what Jaune was fully capable of. It also didn't hurt to have two more sets of eyes on watch.

Maybe they could be used to monitor their aura? They needed a way to safely judge it as it was one of the reasons, they never used the wooded area near the school because there was no way to judge the aura level while sparring. But with their teammates, each one could connect to their scrolls and watch the levels in case of danger.

She actually found herself looking forward to it, she truly wanted to see what he or rather they could do without restrictions.

"You look to be in a better mood." Yang commented.

"Oh, just, you know looking forward to it?" Pyrrha explained, she had forgotten Yang was walking with her to class in that moment, lost in her own thoughts.

"Good, because so am I." She smiled back. "This is going to be fun and that's what we should have now and then, fun. We're going to be students only for a few years after that it's on to missions and traveling the world. Not sure how often we'll even see each other if we even stick to teams after it."

Pyrrha never thought about that, after graduation would they all go on their separate ways, or would they stick together? Not all missions required a team of huntresses or huntsmen after all. She was enjoying her close friendships she had gained while here and the thought of losing that gave her a sense of emptiness.

"Then I hope we all at least keep in touch or work together in the future," Pyrrha told her.

"You bet, plus it sounds like fun taking on real missions together with everyone," Yang nodded her head thinking about it. "Well enough of the far future, that's future us that have to worry about that. Right now, let's just worry about the present and deal with that. I say we enjoy our time here while we can and make the most of it."

"You certainly have a bright way of looking at things." Pyrrha commented.

Yang shrugged. "I just like to look on the bright side of things and focus on the here and now. I just want to enjoy life to the fullest you know?"

They arrived at class as they each took their usual seats as class began, she tried to focus a bit more this time.

-Vale: Current Torchwick Hideout-

Roman signed as she slumped into a chair, it was another long day. He had to split his time between trying to gather a few gangs together to replace Junior's people, stealing more dust and keeping ahead of the police. It's not easy to hide large amounts of dust after all and he still had no idea why he was doing it. They weren't even selling the stuff, he had a fortune in dust he could ship out, but he couldn't, at least not yet.

He was told when things were done in Vale, he could sell it all off, but he had this nagging feeling the knife was pointed at his back already. Granted he was boxed in with no place to move so he would go along with it, it was the path to survival after all and he was if anything a survivor. He'd look for any way to continue on and if there was an escape route, he'd take it.

Thankfully he hadn't run into that white costume freak again, Little Red or anyone else, but he doubted it was a one off. These things never were, but so far things were still moving forward if a bit slower than he would have liked.

He only got about a minute of rest at the foldup table in the middle of the shipping building he was using to store everything before Neo tapped him on the shoulder.

"Oh, what is it now? I swear if it's because you're having another craving for ice cream you're more than old enough to do it your-" He stopped when he heard the steps of a certain pair of high heeled shoes. People tended to have a sound to them, how they moved, how they walked and how their footwear sounded. It was important to have in his line or work when you could catch someone sneaking up behind you and it helped to know who that person might be.

'Great, just what I needed,' He mentally thought as he pulled himself together and turned around to see Cinder there.

"Cinder," he gave a fake smile and welcome. "Another unannounced visit, careful, you can give a guy ideas."

She let the comment roll off her like usual as she gave a small but slightly deadly looking smile in return. "I know but that video you got of that mysterious white clad figure, well my associate I showed it to needs a little more to work with."

"Well, that's the only one we got," Roman shrugged.

"I know, which is why you'll get more." Cinder told him.

Roman paused as he could feel where this was going. "And how will I do that?"

"Simply cause more trouble, I'm sure someone like this will show up sooner or later. It's only a matter of time, after all every trap needs bait." She got to the table and leaned forward towards him.

Roman had to admit she had a point he got the sense of the young man (and he was certain it was under that mask) was the type to jump into trouble. Just like another annoying little brat in red he met not too long ago. "That's going to get everyone's attentions, police and Hunters."

"You think you can't handle it?" She said poking at his ego.

"Of course I can handle it, I just wanted you to know that this will slow down the dust side of things." Roman pointed at the large shipping containers. "That may look like a lot but it's still not everything and you were very specific about taking as much as I can."

"Technically I said all of it." She corrected.

"And I said that's not possible, and the vast majority is what I can do," He fired back. There was no way to steal from people's personal stock of dust and there was the city's reserve which was locked up tight. He'd need an army to break into it and out again and he wasn't going to do that. Not to mention the dust that powered the city was equally locked tight with reserves.

The only dust he could get where those in transport or in shops and warehouses like the one they were in now. He wasn't sure what the end goal was, but it certainly rose the price of dust a bit, but he doubted this was all for money. Cinder gave the impression that money for her was just a means to an end. No, power was the be all and end all for her, he figured. Which was worse, money was easier to come by but real power? That wasn't so easy and to do so without money or influence was even more so.

No, she wanted personal power, the type that made people kneel before you because knowing what she could do to you if you didn't, that was the name of her game.

Usually, it was the fanatics that liked that kind of power but there were the rare types like Cinder that weren't fanatical. They were patient like a viper waiting for just the right moment to strike. He could see she was smart and worse she knew it.

Roman leaned back and took noticed of something. "Not babysitting the kids today?"

"They're off looking into something for me," Cinder didn't tell them that they were sending messages to a few White Fang dead drops to keep them up to date and that Roman here would be an ally for them. Thankfully the messages were with Adam's signature so even with the negative reactions to working with a human criminal, they would be obeyed.

Another reason was because the banter with them and Roman was a little tiring at times.

"So, do you think you can bring this person out or not?" She pushed the question.

Roman thought about it and looked to Neo who pulled out her scroll to say she was ready to film again. "I might know of a few locals that might want to cause some trouble. Maybe we can use the dust thefts and price increase to cover it up as locals just 'protesting' what's going on."

He could picture it, people causing violence in the streets, maybe a few well placed slogans. Maybe even get a few people actually involved, it would help if when the police started to crack down not every member was surprisingly had criminal records and/or part of known gangs.

Cinder could appreciate manipulation tactics, after all the grand plan for Beacon had a lot of that. It was so easy at times to sway the public, you just needed just enough of them to push in the right direction, and most would just go along with it because of 'public opinion', even if that opinion had been manipulated.

"This could take a few days and it should be good enough bait…so you want more video or something more?" Roman asked.

"Video is preferred but if you can get a sample of whatever that suit is made of that will work too." Cinder explained.

"It did seem weak to fire dust," Roman muttered. "If I'm lucky I can bring in what'd left of it off his corpse, but that's only a best-case scenario. I won't promise anything, but we'll at least get in some good video for you."

"Good," she smirked as she pushed herself off the table and walking out of the building. "I'll be in touch."

"Of course you will," Roman silently said when he was certain she was out of earshot. He signed and looked to Neo. "Guess we'll have to call in some rough boys…you think the Twins are up for some chaos?"

Neo signed the word 'Malachites?' back to him.

"Oh no not them, well, now that I think on it maybe. Sure, them too if they're up for it, I was thinking of the DD Twins and Humphrey and his Egg Boys."

Neo rolled her eyes.

"I know they aren't the best or the brightest but when you need some brainless thuggery, they are the ones to do it. We need people to cause trouble and who better than them? They are always looking to start something and paying them to run wild for a bit is just the excuse they need."

Neo tilted her head side to side thinking on it but eventually she nodded, it sounded like something those gangs would want. They were pretty low on the criminal totem pole which was why they weren't pulled into this plan with Cinder and whoever else she was with. They were street thugs that had small territories not because of manpower but because no one really wanted their territories.

"Neo, I think it's time we visited a few local thugs for and offer of some paid fun and violence." He stood up wanting to get started.

Neo grinned as she liked the sound of both of those things.

TBC..

So, I decided to add in a few gangs to the city, like Lil' Miss Malachite is an allusion to Little Miss Muffet these are ones I made are based other nursery rhymes and fables, mainly Alice in Wonderland and someone on a wall, so I think you can guess which is what.