Into the Woods we Go

XxX----XxX----XxX

Official Supporters:

Grand Priestess, Luna Haile.

High Priests, Alvelvnor, Gage.

Priests, The Impossible Muffin, Xager the Chaos King.

Acolytes, DigiDemonLord, Stonecold

Initiates, Final Heaven, Greg Gibson

If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : https://discord.gg/2UZncAm

Second link here, remove spaces and it SHOULD work : D iscord . gg (slash) kfhkfUb

XxX----XxX----XxX

At the end of Beacon Plaza, the huge complex of colonnades, fountains and greenery leading up to the Beacon Bullhead Docks, two paths split off to either side. Both were paved for hundreds of feet, wrapping along the edge of the plateau for students, staff and security alike to walk them to watch for Grimm. Or even to just look out on the woods, though it had the same effect either way. It would be hard to watch the forests and miss out on an approaching Nevermore flock, for instance, just by virtue of looking in the proper direction when they were coming.

Giant monsters were hard to miss like that, apparently. Probably because they were giant monsters, but apparently they still needed radar systems or idiots would be caught unaware.

He knew he was being petty, to think like that, but at the moment he couldn't really bring himself to care. His emotions were too frazzled, his balance thrown off entirely by his lack of centering himself. The katas and training had, of course, done their work in staving off the worst of it but now he was so close to relief, it felt all the worse. Like a starving man smelling food cooking, or a man thirsty watching the water boil to safety. In short, suffering was at its worst when relief was in front of you.

Which was unfortunately something he had learned well, between the food problems he'd faced and Instructor being… Instructor.

And now, compounding the frustration and agitation, was the damn Guardsmen standing beside one of the two gatehouses that let out onto small, worn paths along the cliffs. Like other Beacon guards, he was a Guardsman of the Kingdom of Vale, suited in light, splinted armor and wearing a red beret to stand out from the black and silver of the rest of his padded and plated armor. On his breast, the symbol of Beacon was engraved in bright red stencil work, to stand out from the silver metal and padded black underclothing that reminded him of a gambeson.

The gatehouses themselves were a relatively more simple affair, made of a large oaked gate reinforced with steel and set into a fortification that looked ripped right out of an old medieval movie. Though these were topped by gun turrets on the rounded, raised parapets, and manned by silver and black drones rather than archers. A modern edge that was needed, heavy machine guns obviously of a significantly higher usefulness against Grimm.

"I understand you're all on the same team, but the special dispensation's paperwork only says his partner can go out with in. Unless she is ill, otherwise engaged, or injured." The guardsman explained again, turning his old, gray head to look at the woman and raising his thin brows. "Unless you're hiding a cast under that armor, I'm going to assume you're fine."

"I am, yes…"

"Then I can't do anything about it, I have to follow the letter of the dispensation." The man shrugged simply, clicking his Scroll closed and sliding it into a small metal slot in his armor for safe-keeping. Rifle slung across his chest, the older gentleman leaned back against the stone of the wall under one of the drone-manned towers and sighed tiredly. "Kingdom Guardsman follow things to the letter, kids. S'just how this kind of thing works."

"But we're his team!" Nora almost shouted, Ren's arm landing on her shoulder seeming to calm her. She gave the appendage a glance, but once she registered it was Ren's, she relaxed and untensed slightly. "We're his team, and the dispensation required him to be accompanied for his safety. He'd be safer with P-Money, of course, but he'd be even saferer with his entire team around."

"Probably." The soldier nodded, "But it doesn't matter. I follow the dispensation, not my opinions around it."

"That's dumb though!"

"No, Ma'am, it's duty." The soldier countered easily, seemingly unphased entirely by Nora's outburst and Ren's hushed admonitions. He was probably used to younger students causing a fuss sometimes, Jaune supposed quietly, arms crossed over his robed chest. "I and all Guardsman follow the letter of law and order, to protect everyone involved. We don't know if and when someone neglects to mention to do, or not do, something for a good reason so we stick to our orders."

"You may be told not to patrol a place ahead of a raid on it, for instance, and so wouldn't enter even if you saw terrorists there for fact." Jaune offered, the man nodding gratefully at the example and giving him a smile. In response, Jaune could only frown, and argue, "But isn't it a fact that the wording of this could very easily be interpreted as aimed solely at protecting me and mine? And so limiting my team numbers would go against your orders?"

"Trying to be clever and play the words of the dispensation, eh?" Jaune shrugged and the soldier snorted, and then sighed tiredly. "I follow the letter direct, not an interpretation. So yeah, technically, the spirit is probably to keep people safe out there. But the letter says your partner only, so it's your partner only."

"We could speak to the Headmistress." Ren offered gently, waves of concern rolling off him as he thought. "If we explain the technical failing, maybe she'd order an altered dispensation, or amend this one."

"It would take time." The guardsman warned, face flat while he worked his way through what was probably a tedium to him. "A dispensation takes very little, but an amendment would take a day or two to make it legal and disseminate it properly. And replacing it would take time too, while the old one is removed from the system."

"That's too long… We need to go out sooner than that would possibly take, Sir." Pyrrha argued, trying gently to press him for an exception. Smiling and fighting a grimace, he could see it at the corner of her lips, she even tried something a little more underhanded than he'd have expected. "Surely, you can't honestly be worried about us out there. I mean, you must know who I am, yes?"

"You're a student first, and my daughter's favorite tournament idol second." The man laughed quietly at the second to show he was joking, and after a moment Pyrrha joined him. If only, he was sure, to evade the awkwardness of her trying to use her celebrity status to get her way. Frowning, the man added in a serious tone, "Get the documents updated with different orders, or go out as a pair. I don't care which you do, but I have my orders, and won't betray them. Not for good reasons, not for bad."

Murmuring apologies, the foursome turned and walked a few steps away, where they could talk more quietly and watch the Bullheads come and go in the afternoon light. He didn't sense any agitation from the man, surprisingly enough, even after they'd pushed him the way they had. Professionalism, he supposed, but without a need to worry about it he turned to his team and smiled apologetically.

"I guess you guys got geared up for nothing. Sorry, but they aren't going to budge, I don't think." He smiled apologetically and bowed his head slightly, adding, "Thank you anyways. I appreciate you standing by me, and wanting to help."

"We could break his legs and run for it…" Ren cuffed her on the back of her head, a harmless pat given her Aura and natural durability, and she pouted. Lips pursed, she turned to the man and whined, "Reeeeeeen. You're not allowed to bap me anymore! Jaune is the leader, not you~!"

"Jaune, bap Nora."

"Sure, whatever you say, Ren." He raised his hand and she spun, Magnhild raised warningly and lips pursed, her eyes narrowing while she hissed playfully. Laughing, he let it go and shook his head, turning to look back out on the forest. "I have to go, though. At least for today, I'm sure Pyrrha and I will manage."

"You shouldn't have to…"

"This is already Miss Goodwitch being kind, Nora. We shouldn't be ungrateful." He reminded the pouting, shorter Mistralian woman. Reminded her as much as himself, that was, as he also felt a petulant anger threatening to sprout. Smiling and quashing the aggravation, he asked, "Pyrrha, do you still want to head out there with me? Just the two of us, I mean."

"Of course." She nodded, positively beaming a smile like something had pleased her. She covered it up quickly, though, turning to Nora and offering, "Next weekend, if you wish it, I will feign a cold. That way, you can spend time with our illustrious leader as well."

"But I want to go now…"

"Come on, Nora. Don't pout like that, it's alright." Ren started gently, laying a hand on the small of her back to try and cheer her up. Subtly enough most would have missed it, he saw her lean back against his palm and smile slightly, but the man ignored it and instead finished, "Let's go bake them some muffins for when they get back, hm? I believe I still have some chocolate chips."

"Yes! I love muffins, and you guys're gonna die for more of them later. Ren makes the best chocolate chip and walnut ever!" While she rambled, Ren gently tugged her with him, the girl dragging Magnhild along the ground behind her all the while. The remaining pair watched them go in silence, for a few minutes, until they disappeared behind the colonnades and trees of the plaza.

"So," Pyrrha finally began, turning to him and smiling gently, "shall I be your escort, m'lord?"

Laughing, he nodded, and the Guardsman let them pass without complaint or heckling. He'd had their identification ten minutes previous, after all, and authorized the two of them. Together, they walked down the worn, most crumbled away path that circled Beacon Plateau like a winding road. Every dozen yards, a drone stood watching the forest, there to be destroyed and alert the Guardsman should the worst come.

They didn't mind the duo, though, and the partners made their way in content silence.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"I-I thought you didn't want to know about any of that?" Blake, wide eyed and anxious, stammered when the pair returned to their special corner to hide. Today, Yang had brought bribes in the form of a lunch bag of tuna sandwiches and a new copy of Ninjas of Love, signed by the author and already pressed against blake's chest while she scowled at her partner. "I offered yesterday and you said-"

"That I didn't care, because it was the past, and I wouldn't force you to talk about it when you didn't want to because you felt like you owed it to me." Yang interrupted, leaning back in the beanbag she'd hauled halfway across the library to lounge in. It was more comfortable than the wooden chairs and even more than the recliners they had, after all. "Now, you know I don't feel like you owe it to me. You understand you don't."

"Then why ask?"

"Because I wanted to give you the chance to decide you want me to know about it." Yang explained plainly, adding as gently, kindly as she could, "I want to know about you, but because you want me to. Not because you think I'm entitled to it."

"So you… Want to know what I want you to know?" Blake asked, voice colored with confusion and her face - and flicking feline ears, of course - showing it as well. When she nodded, the young Faunus sighed, pursed her lips thoughtfully and, gently, set her book down on the arm of the chair beside her. After a long moment, long enough even Yang's patience was tested by waiting, she asked quietly, "Where do you think I should start then, Yang? Because I… I want to talk about it."

"You're sure?"

"Yes." She nodded gently, ears betraying her anxiety despite the rest of her being the picture of calm, constantly flicking in agitation. Or, more accurately probably considering all the context, in anxiety. "I need to, I think. Need to move past all of that, and… This is my chance to start, I guess. And stop procrastinating it."

"Only if you want to, Blake. I'm just here as your friend, wantin' to get to know you a little better. Help you if I can, if you need it." Yang reassured her, half-lying in a way. She needed to get Blake on this past soon, the tension with Weiss was beginning to run higher, even if only Yang really noticed it. And knowing Weiss didn't intend for it, she couldn't even try and latch it down on that end. "And with stories, starting at the start tends to be the best place to be."

"When I was younger, I worked with my mom, in the White Fang." Yang's brow raised and, seeing the question, Blake rushed to add. "Before it was violent, back when we did peaceful rallies, boycotts, that kind of thing."

"Did it work? Rallies and stuff, I mean." Yang had always been curious, still too young when the Fang turned more fully to really remember it. Only twelve or eleven, and busy with a broken father and a younger sister she had to mother.

"If it had been working, we never would have considered turning to bombings, robberies and murder…"

"Ah." And now Blake was sad, face pinched in regret and confusion and anger. Laughing awkwardly, Yang waved a hand and tried to lighten the air a bit. "Yeah, guess that's, you know… Kind of obvious. Blonde moment?"

"Is that like a Mulligan?" The Faunus asked, seeing Yang's obvious distress and taking enough humor from it to let her blunder go.

"Yep!"

"Hmm… No, I don't think you get to use being blonde as an excuse." Blake smiled when Yang feigned insult, clutching a hand over her heart like she'd been stabbed and gasping theatrically. Laughing, she added, "And you don't get to use your hair as an excuse anyway. Your hair has nothing to do with your behavior, only idiots think what's attached to you decides how you act. Like me, people always assume I like scratching posts, if I let them see my ears."

"You do like boxes, though…"

"Yang, that's so racist! Honestly, you're ridiculous." She laughed, though, and flushed besides. They'd both seen her make that box fort when Ruby was playing one of her Weiss annoying games a few days ago, even if she'd only been reading.

"You love me, Kitty Cat." She grinned, Blake realizing after a moment she was doing an impression. Of a cheshire cat.

"You're absolutely ridiculous, Yang!" Blake laughed again, the sound suppressed behind her hand to avoid annoying the librarians. Or, equally likely, any of the students in the forward parts of the library. Finally, and knowing Yang had been aiming for her to feel better, Blake reclined in her seat and sighed. "The start of me joining the Fang are simple, I guess. My Mom and Dad ran it, out of Menagerie and Mistral usually."

"Your dad ran the Fang?"

"My dad is the Chieftain of Menagerie, leader of the Free Faunus." She explained, rolling her eyes when Yang mouthed the word 'princess' with a brow raised questioningly. Catching her meaning, Blake sighed and explained the dreaded question, "If you mean to ask if I will inherit the, er, well Kingdom I suppose, then the answer to your question is yes. When my father retires or passes away, unless my mother wants it, I stand to inherit."

"Oh my god, you're a real princess…"

"I am not a princess, Yang..."

"Okay, but you literally are a princess, though." Yang pointed out, grinning like a madman all the while. When Blake frowned and shook her head, Yang raised a hand and started counting. "One, your father is the king of a country-"

"Chieftain-"

"Same thing, same thing, now shush! Momma Yang is teaching you about princesses, and every little girl loves princesses." She waved Blake off before she could argue further, and pointed a finger at Ninjas of Love, "You know, isn't the main character there a dark haired princess from a chiefdom…?"

"Okay, fine, you win. I'm a Princess, don't read into my choices in literature, please." Yang laughed and Blake joined her, both knowing the game was at an end and falling into a comfortable silence afterwards. A silence that stretched on to nearly two minutes, before Blake found the right words and began speaking again. "As I said, my mom and dad ran the Fang, so growing up I was… Just sort of involved."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, Menagerie's population even today is smaller than the Kingdoms, and most of our Guards have to stay there. To maintain the peace, deal with Grimm, pirates, that sort of stuff." Yang had always heard about Mistral's piracy problem, and knew the coasts of Menagerie suffered the most for it. "So, when my parents needed to travel for Fang business, their guards would too. Leaving the house almost completely empty."

"And you without protection, and a kid to boot." Blake nodded and Yang sighed, knowing how that song and dance could go. Lien had been hard when her mother, her real mother that was, died for the same reason. "So you had to go with them and just kind of… Picked up being part of it?"

"Little things at first, like sealing envelopes or making signs with some of the other children Fang members couldn't leave behind." Blake said by way of answer, shrugging simply. "We're a close knit Kingdom, whether the other Kingdoms want to call us one or not. So no one minded having the kids around, and some people were happier for it. Lost their own, or just liked seeing kids around camp."

Yang could imagine laughing, giggling kids would lift spirits in a camp doing the work they had been doing. Fighting bigotry, facing attack from people who didn't want them around to be sure outside the 'proper' Kingdom's defences, and dealing with all the stress and rigors of travel could each wear a man or woman down. Combined, it would be unimaginable, she was sure. Family could help through that, and she knew enough about it from experience to know how valuable the help would have been.

Family was the only reason her father had recovered, after all.

"In Atlas, I was at a protest for SDC workers, trying to get them even basic privileges like helmets at all, and a bolstered security force so they wouldn't be dying en mass outside the perimeter around Mantle." Blake went on, the blonde woman simply sitting and listening intently. "My mother and father were there with me, doing an interview. Wanted me and the children there since it was a small, supposedly militarily protected event."

"Supposedly?"

"An officer in command made moves, changed out the retinue that was supposed to protect us. From veterans with Faunus in the ranks, to solely green Humans and poorly maintained, just off patrol drones. And he leaked the location of the press part of the event to… Less than savory people." Yang could guess already where the story was going, but refused to interrupt Blake's telling. She'd spent way too much time and effort getting her to talk to interrupt now and ruin it. "Long story short, the Humans that showed rioted and rushed the Atlesians, who froze up and broke. The droids responded with force when they took damage, the way they're meant to, and people died…"

"Dust…"

"The interview area was rushed by a few of them, these Humans were armed. My father and his guards started to fight them, but my mother was shot in the leg." Blake went on, now staring into nothing like she couldn't even see Yang. Which, the blonde guessed, might be accurate for the kind of memories she was dredging up, even if her face was set and plain. "She must have seen it going south, because she told me to run."

"Next thing I remember is back alleys in Mantle, hiding behind old and ruined dumpsters from Humans roving between the housing blocks near one of the SDC's Mantle mines." She continued, "A trio of them found me, and threatened so many things… And none of them were just killing me. I tried to run, and one of them got their hands in my hair, yanked me back."

"And then?" Yang tried, she really, really did, to keep her Semblance under control. But she could see the light on the books around them from her Aura smoldering and sighed, hands balled into fists. Taking a breath, she forced herself to relax, and the light faded, and she murmured, "I'm sorry… My Semblance is kind of hard to control."

"Like yourself in that respect, I suppose." Blake murmured with a small, wan smile, like she was seeing something she recognized. A smile that bittered for a second, before she continued her story. "A man came and saved me from those thugs. A man named Adam Taurus, I could tell from the mining jumper he wore."

"Mining?" She interrupted, "So… A miner, then? Not a White Fang protester?"

"No, I found out later, once we escaped, that he was a miner. Had been since he was five, and I met him when he was fourteen." Blake sighed almost wistfully and leaned back, letting her head loll on her shoulders and rest on the recliner behind her. Her eyes closed, she finished, "I met him again a week later, outside Mantle at a Fang camp."

"He's the man in your notebook." Yang asked, the Faunus woman nodding even as she grimaced at Yang seeing her drawing of him.

"Hm. He saved my life, and beat the thugs up before we ran. Problem was, they worked as foremen and security for the mines. His mines, to be specific." Amber eyes scrunched shut and, in a shakier voice, she added, "They branded him for it. 'SDC', right over his eye. Blinded him, nearly killed him from the shock and infection, too."

"Fucking hell…" She'd heard rumors coming out of Atlas in academy, all of them had, about that sort of thing. Lynch mobs, essentially at least, maimings, mutilations and much worse. She'd always dismissed them as rumor and urban legends, but Blak had seen it… "I'm so sorry, Kitty Cat…"

"Don't be, you're… A different kind of Human." She gave her a look and smiled to show she meant it, before finally finishing with a sigh. "My father took him in after I told him, introduced them. He saved my father's life, killed someone in the process… And so the modern White Fang was eventually born."

"Damn…"

"Damn indeed." Blake sighed, shaking her head tiredly. "I'm mature enough to know it's not my fault, that the change had been coming for a while, but… But would Weiss think that? Would Ruby, even?"

"There's only one way to know, Kitty Cat." Yang answered simply, offering her a small, warm smile when Blake only chewed her lip in anxious response. Smiling, Yang made the hard sell. "Tomorrow, we're planning on going into Vale. We go to a private restaurant, somewhere Weiss will enjoy, and… Tell them what you are."

"But then-"

"Weiss doesn't need to know the full story, she's not entitled to it." Yang pointed out simply, quashing her fear by removing a large portion of what she was afraid of. A simple solution, and frankly a correct one. Weiss didn't need to know every jot and tittle of Blake's life, or anyone else's, and they didn't know hers either. "Friends have secrets, sometimes. Long as it doesn't hurt anyone, it's fine. And being friends with the princess of Menagerie could help so many people, and I know you want that."

"...Okay." Blake finally agreed, taking a deep breath and then sighing tiredly. Like even trying this, agreeing to what yang had suggested, was a feat worthy of titans. "Tomorrow, I'll tell them who I am. Just… Not who Adam is."

"You're not him, you don't need to tell people about what he does like you are him." Yang smiled, genuinely happy the conversation had gone so well. She still had some processing to do, she knew, but it wouldn't be anything that could change them being friends. Weiss and Ruby would be the same. "Now, let's relax and… Talk about your book?"

"No!"

"But I wanna know what it's about!"

"Then read it yourself!"

"Okay, lemme borrow your old copy." Yang grinned when Blake was caught out, eyes wide and panicked and unsure of what to say. When Yang didn't get an answer beyond Blake's mouth opening and closing mutely, she laughed and stood, "Okay, I'll go get it, and we can do kinky story book club."

Sighing, Blake surrendered and held out her new copy, murmuring, "Skim it…"

Yang was stressed out now, thanks to Blake, so the teasing could commence after chapter one.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"So how does this all… Work?" Pyrrha finally asked as they walked through the Emerald Forest, following primarily old, worn dirt tracks beaten down by drones that patrolled the area. And students such as themselves, of course, looking for a good training outing against the Grimm.

"What do you mean exactly, Pyrrha?" His glaive clinked as it bit into the dirt and struck the tiny rocks scattered through it, a faint sound that mixed into the air and nature around him.

In the distance, far enough they were safe and close enough he sensed them turning their attention to him, he could feel Grimm moving. It was a familiar sensation, the young warrior able to sense deer a hundred feet north in the same way, albeit those didn't turn towards them. Futilely, he tried to suppress his presence in the Force, withdraw his emotions from the ocean around him, but it was like a man trying to paddle the blood back into his body. Useless, and the trying only wore at him while the sharks circled.

A downside to the Force's gifts, then, albeit one he paid gladly.

"You need to meditate, and it needs to be a natural place. But we've been walking for a while, and you have not done so." The question was clear there, even if she didn't phrase it as such. Or as the accusation it very nearly was either, for that matter.

"This path is worn down by Human feet, and the feet of their creations. Hardly natural, this environment." He explained, honest and detailed outside the aspects of how the Force flowed. A flow that was more natural, and thus easy, in places without Human interference than those who had faced it. "Even the trees have been curated. Those in the way likely removed, to widen the path and make fighting easier, and some replanted to make it feel natural."

"A false nature?"

"Indeed. A false nature, like a mirage or maybe a painting. Made to look real, but decidedly fake and curated." He nodded, sighing as he sensed the Grimm distant turn to them and come at speed, sensing something or merely running together towards some place they deemed worth the effort. "Grimm."

The word had the desired effect, Pyrrh moving a few feet away and sliding a leg back, her shield coming up in front of her at his indication of where they were coming from. To match, he traded his glaive for his saber and pulled his hood up, standing otherwise unchanged in the middle of the path, one end of his saber resting against the base of his right bicep. Two feet in front of him, two feet behind him, and plenty of space for he and his partner to move meant they were in prime condition to receive the Grimm.

They didn't have to wait long, it turned out.

The first Beowolf surged out of the brush around the path, maw wide as it leapt bodily for him. Unbalanced as he was, his fine Force control was off, but that didn't mean he was neutered. And so his free left hand shot forward, a wall of raw power crushing the Grimm back and snapping it around a tree beside the path. Looking like a discarded, smoldering sock puppet, it fell limp around the trip and slid to the ground while its brethren burst free with snarls and yapping growls.

They fared no better, of course.

The second Grimm he batted aside and back as he had its leading Beowolf, crushed in a wet heap against a mighty oak and left to vaporize. The third was too close for comfort, and far enough left, that he would have to turn and aim again. Which would take too long for his attacks to land with any potency or accuracy, unless he wanted to grapeshot the attack. Which would rend trees for a hundred yards in a cone of devastation and exhaust him besides.

Staff spinning, he slid a led back to take its charge, armored plate held up defensively as he rotated, instead using the Force to tug him to the side faster, anchored around a tree behind him. Like a ship tethered in a storm, he anchored himself to take the Grimm head on, saber ready to hiss to life when it closed fully with him and disembowel it.

Pyrrha met it instead, leaping between them and catching it in the side of its neck and her spear through its heart. Limp, it fell to the side, collapsing in a rolling heap behind her before the last leapt at her side. She caught its claw on her shield, but it swept into her faster than even she could react, other arm grabbing her armored leg as it forced her down. Hissing angrily at her proximity, he leapt in with his lightsaber crackling to life.

It saw him coming and reared up, snarling ferally as Pyrrha stabbed futilely at its armored, thick hide with her spear, the woman too pressed to reach further down the handle and shorten it. His red blade hissed and crackled as it cut through the back of its throat and, further, out the back of its skull. It whimpered weakly for a moment, the sound nearly lost in the hissing and popping of meat and bone, and he wrenched the weapon to the side to pull it off her. Pyrrha aided him, rising on one knee and sweeping the treeline with her rifle with herself between him and it. Like she was his guarding it.

Which, technically speaking, she actually was right now.

"Do you sense any more of them, Jaune?" She asked, rifle ready to snap where he directed he was certain.

"No, I don't." He'd only sensed four, and wasn't worried about any more. Extinguishing his saber, he thought for a moment and mused to himself, feeling the tempest of the Force fade away. "Offensively, I'm much stronger…"

"I noticed that." The woman laughed, gesturing at the shattered Grimm and remarking, "A small pack, but you basically obliterated them all. Impressive. I thought you were weakened?"

"I have raw power, but no control for it. No direction, or ability to… Mitigate damage." He gestured around the broken Grimm, at that bushes whose limbs had been shattered from the blast that hadn't hit the monsters, and at the splintered bark where they'd been hurled. "Think of a bomb, but one with no way of deploying it accurately. That is my power right now. Are you okay?"

"I am, yes." She nodded and offered him a small smile, spinning her spear in her hand like a baton. The smile fell swiftly, though, and she sighed, shaking her head and bringing the base of her spear down on the ground with a metallic twang. "That was sloppy of me… I allowed myself to be pinned. It could have killed me."

"Your Aura was full, and you intervened to protect me. Because you know how out of balance my ability has me, and that my Aura sometimes fails." A manipulation of the facts, to be sure, but one that seemed to work. She relaxed slightly and, though he could tell she was angry, she eased and nodded. "Now, we can resolve this-"

"Not here we can't. Too unnatural, as you said." She cut him off, walking past the decaying Grimm and calling back over her shoulders, "This way is what looks like raw forest. Let's find you a proper place, and resolve this mess before either of us is hurt any further than egos and grazing shots."

"Alright then…" Spinning his staff, he flicked it over his shoulder and into its sheath and followed the woman through the greenery.

With her leading and pathfinding for them, they walked in mostly silence for nearly an hour. Time spent ducking under tree limbs, vaulting fallen trunks, and at one point fording a shallow river that cut through rocks and winding tree roots. On the other side, they turned west and began to follow it, at times sticking to the mostly navigable trees and roots, and at times walking through the water itself.

Eventually, they found a small clearing, with a depression in the ground filled with crystal clear water only an inch deep at the deepest outside of the center of the depression. At the center was a rock the size of a man, or probably larger considering the way it was buried, indented into the ground like it had struck at high speed. Cataclysmic speed, even, considering the depression it had left, the wide creek flowing into it from one end and out of it the way they'd come.

"It's beautiful…" Pyrrha murmured quietly, shaking her head beside him. "Like-Like something out of a fantasy movie. I'm half surprised there's no sword waiting for a knight in shining armor to pull it free and become king of Vale."

"It's perfect!" Even from here, several yards away, he could feel the stone reverberating into the Force. Like an echo of something ancient, powerful, and attuned in a way he could only have wished for yesterday. "Pyrrha, can you keep watch? Walk the perimeter?"

"Of course." She nodded, calling as he rushed off, "I hope this makes you feel better!"

Stooping low as he walked, his hand dipped into the water, scooping up a handful of the loose pebbles that lined the dirt of the bed wherever reeds hadn't sprouted. With them in hand, he used the Force to leap up onto the stone like a man doing nothing more than taking a step. On top, the rock was smooth and flat, and reeked of the Force.

Just like the Sith Temple had…

"I can deal with it later." He assured himself, sitting on the stone and crossing his legs. It didn't take any longer to feel the Force thrum around him than it did to close his eyes and open himself to it. Still, it took some time to center himself, and find the eye of the hurricane he always occupied, treading water in the darkest part of the storm to stay afloat.

To stay powerful.

Minutes rapidly compounded into the first hour as he felt tension evaporate from inside and across him, and his senses began to expand. The first thing alive he felt was Pyrrha, pacing the outside of the pond and waiting patiently for him. Then the trees, birds, insects and, distantly, the Grimm that to his eyes seemed to give the entire area a wide berth. As though avoiding something there, which should have been preposterous.

Yet they seemed to be doing just that, the closest groups equidistant from where he sat.

Another matter for later, he decided quietly, raising his hand with the stones in it and spreading his palm. Focusing, he reached out to touch them with the Force under will, and slowly they began to spin, first in a slow and simple circle and then in complex shapes and patterns. He alternated them rapidly, tuning his fine control of them while he sat and thought. Thought of destiny and falling autumn leaves, images that the Force coalesced around in front of him, almost enough to be material.

A simple red leaf, floating astride the water in the storm in front of him and spreading impossible stillness acros tempestuous waters, his mind settled on.

Instinctively, he reached for it, hand stretching out in front of himself as though to touch the heat there. Finally, his fingers brushed it and he felt the air robbed from his chest, along with a sharp tugging sensation and then pain like fire. Like he'd been stabbed, or impaled even. He couldn't breathe, and felt a hand at his brow, holding him so he wouldn't fall.

Instinctively again, he pushed against the hand, like he was trying to swim against the current. Now words came, accompanying the pain he'd felt so sharply in his heart.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

"...Yes."

Simple words, echoing around him eerily, but discernible in a way they hadn't been before. A moment passed and he heard the thwack of strings, or bones maybe, snapping to and felt the piercing pain in his chest. Once more, he felt the hand on his head, and once more he pushed against it. Fighting for more. More words, images maybe, he didn't even know himself what he hoped for. It was war fought because his instincts, or the Force, told him he should.

"Gah!" He recoiled like he'd been burned, the stones rocketing away from him in all directions like bullets loosed while he sucked in air and his heart raced.

"Jaune!?" He heard Pyrrha cry, turning to watch her sprinting towards him with a mask of worry. Sweating, he stood and dropped down in front of her, his legs giving out and the woman casting aside spear and shield to catch and brace him up. Faces close enough their noses could have touched, she demanded, "What happened? What's wrong, Jaune? Are you hurt?"

"N-No… I'm okay." He assured her, giving her a look and swallowing anxiously. "Pyr, I have a request…"

"A request?"

"Yes." He nodded, "Ask me… Ask me if I believe in destiny."

"I don't understand, why is that-"

"Trust me!" He snapped, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. Wide eyed, she blinked at him in confusion, and he took a breath. "Please, Pyr, trust me. I know it's a weird request, but please. Ask me the question, I beg of you."

"I don't understand, but… Alright." She nodded, the man releasing her and leaning back against the stone while she took a breath. Finally, she said the words, and they filled him with dread. "Do you believe in destiny?"

"Gods… Brothers, gods, Dust, Force…" He blinked as the realization set in and her eyes searched his face, filled with panic on both ends. "I heard your voice…"

"My voice…"

"I had a vision." Her eyes narrowed in confusion, and he pushed off the rock, knowing what had to be done now. With a finger, he gestured at the rock and told her, "I had a vision through the Force. Words, spoken by you and someone else I do not know. Then I felt like… Like I was dying."

"Through… Through your Semblance?" Her face screwed in confusion and, lost, she asked gently. "Jaune, I don't understand… Please, explain what you mean. You heard my… My voice?"

And so he did explain, in full detail and leaving nothing out this time, even as it delved into secrets meant to be kept. For he'd heard her voice, and it was connected to death for someone. Who it was, ranging from Jaune himself, to Pyrrha, to someone else entirely, he didn't know. Only that Pyrrha was involved and he had to save her, if he could. She was his teammate, and that made them friends, bad at that whole ordeal or not, so he wanted them safe and sound.

And a Sith would burn worlds to get what he wanted.