The Temple : Part I

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The landing site was small and square, with irregular but smooth stones laid unevenly across about fifty feet of space. Grass, weeds, and the occasional roots of trees had grown over the unknown amount of time since it had been abandoned, very nearly covering the smallest of the smooth, unevenly resting paving stones. They were, luckily enough, flat enough to park the shuttle comfortably on, but the odd breaks and uneven, cracked stone was still a stark reminder of the scale of time.

Around the open area were the walls of old buildings, barely distinguishable in shape for the trees that had grown through and over them. The trees were a temperate smattering of elms, oaks, and even a pine towering high into the sky on the other side of the parked shuttle. Most of the walls had long since fallen, laying flat and covered in grass and crawling vines or laid against trees, held up by the same wood that had, well, uprooted them in the first place. But his attention was drawn to the pin, the base of it covered in vines that had, somehow he wasn't wholly sure of, collected stones and carried them up the tree's surface. A broken wall lay around it, the apparent source of the broken slabs of granite. Roots, like the vines, had wrapped around, under and over the broken hunks of old, weathered and discolored granite.

"Is something the matter, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, stepping up behind him where he knelt, looking at the strange but definitely natural display. He nodded his hooded head at the stones and heard her hum, sounding pleasant when she answered, "It is… Interesting, I suppose."

"It's not normal." He explained, gesturing at the stone that seemed to even be sprouting out from under the tree. "It's like the seed grew on top of the granite itself, instead of in the soil under it."

"Does it… Does it, you know..." She hesitated and he sensed anxiety and doubt, for a moment, before he forced his attention away from sensing her. An act of odd willpower, closing himself to her to give her privacy. "Does it sense proper? Is it… Something unique, that you can discern?"

"No." He shook his head, standing and giving her a smile over his shoulder as she stepped around to stand at his side. "No, it's perfectly natural. I just… I find it beautiful."

"How do you mean?" She asked with a raised brow, and her head cocked slightly to the side with her question innocently. Her curiosity was easy to see and sense both, so much that he knew he'd not have needed the Force to tell it, and he smiled at that. It drew a smile that she pouted at, raising a hand to hide it but not the crinkling of her nose, "Jaune, do not look at me like that. It was just a question."

"It's like us." He answered, turning to look back at it and then gesturing at its roots with a hand. "Fated with poor ground, where its seed should surely have died, like us. And like us, it struggled on against the very nature of things to survive. And in the end, and in spite of the very stone blocking it, it grew, entangling its destruction and making it into its foundation instead."

"Life, uh…" Pyrrha shrugged, unsure of what to say, "Finds a way, I suppose. Is that what you are saying?"

"What I am saying is that if this tree can survive vines snaring it, and stone blocking it, then we can survive fate blocking us." He turned and paused, laying a hand on her shield-side shoulder and smiling. Watching for ears or eyes listening to them across the meager campsite and finding none, he spoke quietly, "I hate your decision. More than almost anything else in my entire life."

"Jaune," She started, stiffening at his broaching the subject, "I'm sor-"

"No." He interrupted, giving her a smile and squeezing her shoulder gently. "You're not sorry about your decision, Pyrrha." She blinked and her eyes narrowed, but he went on before she could speak, "You're sorry for how it makes me feel, and I respect the distinction there. As much, in fact, as I respect your decisions."

"Then what is the point?" She asked, voice filled with as much confusion as her eyes. When she heard no answer she scowled slightly, turning bodily so his hand fell from her shoulder and she could square her shoulders, she asked, "Why have you unbandaged old, healing wounds if you had nothing to say?"

"Because I never apologised to you. For lashing out, and being stubborn, a-and… The works, I guess." He answered simply, turning to stand across from her in the same way she had him. "And I'm… Trying to make that right, while I have the time. Because I'm scared, of losing you and of losing my team."

"And I'm scared of dying." She nodded, not so much countering his words as agreeing and offering her own answer. Along with a hand, that she held out for him to take. "Shall we be afraid of our fates together, then?"

"Yeah." He smiled, taking the hand and pulling her in for a hug that she happily returned with a surprised, muted little 'oh'. After a moment, he released her and nodded, more at peace than he was before. "Let's win together then, Pyr. Right?"

"Of course." She nodded, giving him a look and then, for a reason he was unsure of, nodding again. "Let us win together indeed, partner mine. Whatever it takes, as your code would tell you to strive for. No?"

"My code would teach that we should struggle against anything in our way to get at what we desire. So yes." He smiled, then, and turned back to the tree with a small sigh of anxiety and contentment. As she walked away, he knelt and shook his head, reaching out to press a hand against the old stone and dust it off gingerly, "What was this place, I wonder? And why do I feel so… Swamped by its energies?"

His answers to that question were as easily found as his answers to what to do about his fated, unfortunate partner's apparent doom. That is to say, as clear as swamp water.

"We shall see, I guess." He finally decided, standing and turning to the small camp that had been erected at the back of the armored Atlesian craft.

Each partner pair, including the soldiers, had their own tent arrayed in a half circle in front of the lowered ramp. A fourth had been set up at the far end of the semi-circle with a wide table, tools and a couple chairs set in it, for work purposes and maintenance alike. In the storage compartment of the Atlesian dropship a small stove had been set up, Dust powered and rigged to the ship's power system, with a little table in front of the rigged passenger seats for eating. No fire had been built, each tent instead holding a little Dust cell powered heater, but even so it looked like the kinds of camps he'd seen in old war movies and documentaries.

And, yes, if Nora asked he would say that he'd seen them in Whitewater Jones movies too, back in Ansel.

A good thing she hadn't asked, that, since she'd go off on a spree if she heard mention of them. Damn caffeine was the bane of all… Well, all of Nora's victims, he supposed.

"Hunters, group up, we need to talk for a minute and some." One of the Atlesians ordered, the four of them meandering over to the little pseudo-command tent that they'd set up. On it was a topographical map of the area, with their camp marked, which the soldier pointed to, "Here is us, in a small gathering point that was a ways outside the city."

"Why so far away?"

"Executions, trials, diplomatic meetings, the works." The red-armored officer answered with a small shrug, nodding back at the map for their attention and continuing. "We'll have to find a path up, the one the inhabitants built is long since gone. Overgrown, eroded and, quite simply, buried under newer dirt."

"So we're hiking then." Ren offered, shrugging when the man nodded in answer. "We're Huntsmen and Huntresses, Sir. We can handle a little hike."

"I know, son, I know. Just a briefing, rest assured, I wouldn't just insult you all by doubting you on a simple hike." The man assured them, shaking his armored head and then sighing, less for agitation than for boredom he sensed. Or unease before a mission, equally as likely, based on what the blonde could sense. "Terrain is easy enough, considering the mountain and everything else, with a nice and gentle slope and sparse tree and undergrowth rates. Should be an easy enough hike."

"And at the top?" Jaune himself asked, turning and looking up at the mountainside where he knew the ruins were supposed to be. Just barely, he could make out an imprint of sorts. Lines of trees that had sort of unnatural shapes to them, like squares that had had their lines crossed over. "What do we need to be looking for exactly?"

"Old ruins like these tended to have a fortified holdout point, usually high up, in case of Grimm incursion." The soldier answered simply, "The shape that'll be isn't something we know. Probably inside the mountain, somehow, though. A fortified cave, maybe, with a shrine in it. Some kind of small temple could be the thing, too, these cities sometimes have old, ruined temples like that. Look for something like that and call us on your Scrolls. We'll take it from there."

"While you do that, we'll be hiking around the base of the mountain and planting our monitor-beacons to keep watch out for the Grimm." The soldier went on, standing and gesturing with a hand at trio of crates stacked up at the base of the ramp. "That way, when we want to come back, we can always know if the Grimm are in numbers that would require a Hunter's assistance in the area."

"We'll get it- Hng." He grimaced and pressed a hand to his head, staggering back as what felt like a hot rod lodged between his eyes. Pyrrha caught him as his sight went dim, and when it returned he was outside, standing with her arms around his shoulders and staring up at the mountain's peak.

"Jaune...?"

"I'm okay." He lied, shrugging her hands off and smiling to reassure her, but unable for a long moment to look away from whatever about the mountain had demanded his attention.

And whatever had whipped the Force into a sudden storm, and sent the iron spike of pain lancing through his brain. A storm that, even now, he could sense ripped through him and whipping around the mountain and making him wince in pain at each proverbial flash and crack. Something was up there, he could feel it now. And whatever it was, he hadn't felt it a moment ago, and now it was receding quietly again, both facts enough to have him anxious and concerned.

What could exude such a pressure into the normally undilutable ocean of the Force and then withdraw it like that?

"Jaune, what's wrong?" When he turned, it was to five sets of eyes, behind helmets or not, watching him warily with Pyrrha at the fore. Nervous, worried, and knowing, she asked again, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"You spaced out, and you're so pale..." Nora added, eyes roving him in a way they never had before. Sharp, inspecting, analytical and knowing what she was looking for in a way that reminded him of Instructor during training and his mother whenever she thought he'd gotten hurt. "It was like you… Saw a ghost, or something."

"Just a… Bad feeling I had, all of the sudden. That's all, you guys." He shrugged, resting a hand on the base of his heavy sheath on his back and feeling the weight of his saber through it. Their concerned looks and echoes of anxiety persisted, though, and he waved it collectively off with a sigh. "Let it go, you guys. We'll be up there in a bit and we can find out what's going on."

"On that note…" The lieutenant pressed, waving a hand at the map in a clear ask. With a nod, Jaune turned back to the man and the map and he relaxed somewhat, "I think we're finished here and you know what you need to. So it's time we all get underway with the mission, so we can get it over with."

Jaune couldn't agree more and, hefting small packs of water, extra ammo and whatever else they could need on a hike, the foursome set off. Quietly and anxiously up, and into the old, sparse, green woodlands.

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"Ruby Rose!" Weiss shouted, hurling the door open and storming into the room with her towel wrapped tightly around her body and a scowl on her face. The dolt in question squawked suddenly and flailed, falling off her bed in a heap of sheets, blankets and her half-on uniform. Rolling her eyes, the Schnee demanded, "Where is my perfume, Ruby?"

"I-I don't, you know-"

"Ruby. Rose. You took it didn't you?" Her eyes narrowed further with each word, before she leaned forward over the girl and sniffed meaningfully. The girl squeaked in protest but she was already off, "I knew it! That's my special Vacuoan Spice perfume, Ruby!"

"I just wanted a little bit because it smells nice, okay?" The girl pouted, withering into her blankets and sheets on the floor when Weiss' glare intensified and she rested her hands on her hips. Slowly but surely, a hand peeked up and out of the tangle of clothing and pointed to the work desk. "It's where I hide my sweets… I didn't want you to be mad at me."

"Then why steal my perfume?" She asked quietly, walking over and kneeling to dig the expensive black bottle out from between Ruby's 'secret' stash of cookies. Shrugging off her towel, she set about getting dressed quickly and added, "I wouldn't be mad if you didn't steal my perfume."

"I'm sorry, Weiss..." Ruby pouted, standing and pitching her blankets and sheets in a wad up to her hanging bunk. Seeing Weiss getting ready, she set to doing the same, straightening her own uniform and pulling her cloak on. Pouting, she offered, "I just… I just like how it smells, I guess."

"Why wear it, though?" She asked quietly, giving the younger girl a look over her shoulder while she buttoned up her blouse. "You always say you don't care for girly stuff like perfume. Always smelling like gun oil, Dust and sweets has been your game."

"I dunno. I'm not super into all that stuff, but… I dunno, you know?" The girl shrugged, throwing her arms up in surrender and flopping down on her partner's immaculately made bed. A bed that very swiftly lost any right to that description, much to Weiss' chagrin, though she forced herself to ignore it. "I like how I smell but sometimes… I just wanna smell like a normal girl with normal smells."

"I feel like a two thousand Lien bottle of perfume is not helpful for that." Vacuoan imported spice perfume didn't exactly scream 'subtlety' at one's nostrils, after all.

"But it's my favorite one in the room." Ruby shrugged simply, eyes closed while she relaxed and toyed with one of her combat boots, laying on the floor alongside her combat outfit. "Yang's is too harsh, way too punchy and stuff. And Blake's… Just doesn't smell as nice, you know?"

"You understand there are implications about partners wandering around together smelling of each other's perfume, yes? Implications that could fuel all sorts of nasty rumors." Weiss saw Ruby flush and, in a flash, the girl was on her feet, waving her hands and stammering ou weak, embarrassed protests. To be clear, before the girl collected herself, Weiss added, "I'm less concerned with being linked to you, take no offence. Rather, I am more afraid of my father causing problems for all of us. Blake especially, if he finds out the truth about what she is.""

"No, no, no, I don't wanna do that! Really, I mean, I-I don't want to get you into trouble or anything, I just wanted to steal your perfume!" She almost squealed, words running together while she tried to reassure Weiss of her purely ignoble goal. "I promise, I would never="

"Take a breath and hush, Ruby. Before you have a fit or make a mess. Or, well, more a mess than you and the room already are, frankly." Weiss snorted in amusement and waved her off, rolling her eyes and turning with the perfume in hand, "Here, you dolt. Take it and calm down already, you're freaking out like a child."

"I can use it?" She blinked, surprised and then, in a quiet, conspiratorial whisper adding, "But you said that there'd be… Implications."

"If I don't wear it any longer, then there will be no implications that can be problematic." Weiss smiled, turning to pick up her blazer and finish getting dressed while she hid her smile at the way the young girl whispered 'implications'. "I will simply get some more when we go into- What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" Ruby said innocently, before slamming into Weiss' back with a bone crushing hug while the Schnee scowled and kicked, trying to fight her way free. Holding on from behind her, the Rose hugged her partner, "Oh, Weiss! You're just the best partner ever! You know that?"

"Yes, and I would know that just as well on the ground you absolute-"

"Weiss!" Blake almost shouted as she slammed through the door, eyes wide and shoulders heaving. Seeing and hearing the urgency, Ruby let Weiss go and Blake was one her, pressing her Scroll into her hands, "It's all over the news, Weiss! People are- People are talking and calling me 'catwoman', I don't- What the hell do we do about this?"

Breathless with surprise, the Schnee took the Scroll and looked at it, and felt her heart freeze. Bright and clear, right on a news headline, was a bold statement. 'The Schnee at the petting Zoo'. And below it, ever so slightly foggy for the glass of the door but clear as day nonetheless, was a picture of her with Blake's ears in her hands.

"Oh…" She murmured, stunned into frigid, weak silence and shock, "That's… Bad." As if on cue, Weiss heard her own Scroll vibrating its alert, and picked it up off the same simple desk. Flicking it open she felt her stomach plummet yet again and, trembling, put the phone to her ear, "Y-Yes, Father?"

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As they hiked, they also dispersed somewhat, spacing out for better sight through the sparsely packed and arching trees. Nora and Ren, fast enough and used to travel like this in a way Pyrrha and, in truth, Jaune were, took the flanks and moved ahead. Acting as pseudo-scouts, who could simultaneously deal with any Grimm they found and get away from any they couldn't deal with faster than he or Pyrrha reasonably could.

At least, faster than they could do as easily without expending more effort or ostensibly Aura in doing it, since Ren was their fastest and Nora was quite literally rocket propelled.

The trees were large, and their roots gnarled through the dirt for several feet around them. But unlike the forest around Ansel, the trees themselves had grown far apart from each other, with vines crawling up their sides and bushes full of berries clustered around their roots. A couple times on their walk already, he'd heard Ren, without seeming to look, chide Nora against eating any of the berries and heard her call back that she wasn't. But aside from that it was quiet, calm, and with the distant echoes of birdsong, wings beating and wood peckers murdering innocent trees to get at the insects inside them.

And then he sensed Pyrrha's sudden resolve, a shift from her previous anxiety, and felt her step closer to him.

"You sensed something back there, didn't you, Jaune?" She asked, earning a mourning sigh from him and, just after, a small nod. A wave of emotions washed off of her at the statement and her face reflected it, shifting from surprise, to fear, and then to apathy and finally surety before she sighed and nodded in return. "I see. What did you sense precisely?"

"I don't know." He answered quietly, much to both of their chagrin. Smiling weakly to ward it off, he gave her a look and a nod, "I know, Pyr. It's troublesome, to say the very least. But I didn't sense anything specific enough to name it."

"Describe it if you can not name it, then." She suggested, giving him a small smile when he turned to give her a look. "That way we can at least think with the same information as the other, while we seek out the cause. It would be a good effort for us, given we're doing this together, after all."

"I… Guess you have a point, yeah." He sighed, thinking while they walked and, distantly, he checked to make sure their formation was holding. And of course that neither Ren or Nora were paying attention to them. After a moment, he began to explain as best he could, "It was like… A tidal wave, of sorts. Of pressure, echoing the Dark but mixed with the Light. Like debris the wave picked up along the way."

"Poetic."

"Poetry is spoken art to describe the world's beauty, and the Force is naught but the beauty of that which surrounds us." His teacher's old words came forth without any effort, as drilled into his flesh and bones as the ligaments that kept them all attached were. An easy recalling that, as always, put a smile on his face at the old memories, as bitter as some of them were. "So I can't help but describe the aspects of it poetically."

"Hm. A fair answer." The woman nodded, ducking under a branch he held out of her way, going through the slight blockage rather than forcing the formation to shift further around it. "Is the… Tidal wave still there, then?"

"No." He answered simply, "It blasted out with its power and presence and then receded just as quickly as it came in the first place. It was almost like it-"

"Like it was asking for your attention, and then withdrew once it knew it had been noticed?" Pyrrha offered quietly, swallowing through a no doubt dry throat when he nodded simply. As confused as he was, though probably for different reasons that Jaune's own confusion, "That's… Disturbing, Jaune. What could even do such a thing?"

"I don't know, really." He sighed, frowning at the numerous considerations that there were in that question. Force sorcery sprang to mind, though he only knew tertiarily what that could do and thinking about it was more an act of not discounting it than alleging it. "Aside from a Force ghost or spirit, which ought to be rare, I can't think of anything that could possibly have acted like that. And those shouldn't have been able to tell if I noticed them, I think."

"You think?" Pyrrha challenged, "You don't know, then?"

"I'm not a Master, Pyrrha." He pointed out as the incline began to steepen and the hike began to get harder as they neared where they'd been told the ruins would be, and thus their target. "A Master would have been able to answer all your questions. Hell, a Master would have been able to communicate with whatever that was."

"Guys!Your Queen approaches with exciting news!" The duo flinched and turned, Nora jogging towards them with Magnhild in one hand, the head landing like a heavy walking stick as she went. As Ren approached, slower and more wary, she came to a stop and pointed back the way she'd come, "I found a cave! It had, like, walls and stuff around it. I looked inside and saw, like, a wall with pictures."

"We should signal the-"

"No." Jaune cut Pyrrha off, the sensation from earlier returning, though gentler this time. Almost beckoning him, like it wanted him to follow it. To see something, maybe, or do something. He couldn't tell, though, and simply grunted, "Nora, show me the cave. We need to make sure it's something worthwhile, and that it's not some kind of Grimm trap."

"We've not seen any Grimm, though." Ren pointed out gently, shrugging when Jaune turned and met his gaze. "But you're the leader. Nora, lead the way, we'll check it out."

"Okay." The girl nodded, giving Jaune a nervous look but smiling slightly when he offered her a small, reassuring nod. "Okay men and Pyrrha!" She crowed, turning and raising Magnhild high in the air like a commander's baton, "Follow your Queen to her most intriguing discovery! But be on your guard, for who knows what lurks in the woods?"

Nothing but wildlife that avoided them was 'lurking' in the woods, he knew, but he didn't see a reason to spoil her fun. Instead, with a small bark of laughter, he fell in line behind 'his queen' and followed her. Her energy made for a good distraction, even if he easily noticed it. But he knew that it was her way of being supportive of her team, since she saw the tension as well as anyone else did, and so he let it go and simply allowed himself to enjoy it. For her sake as well as everyone else's.

The cave she led them to was a small thing, but clearly of some importance. An old, thick and well and truly ruined wall had once sealed it shut, but now seemed to have fallen through in the middle. The opening left just enough space for Jaune to slip in, and the others to follow one at a time, but not much else. Including light unfortunately, but he had a solution to that well in hand.

Literally, in fact.

With a dull hum, his saber ignited on both ends and he held it high so he could see. The roof was low and natural, formed over the Force only knew how many years of neglect or simply left as such by the builders here, but the cave's sides were flatter and made of brickwork. The walls themselves were pale, and on closer inspection, most definitely not made of the local granite. But instead what he suspected to be marble, or something like it. The cave continued inwards for about ten feet before suddenly ending with a flat, soldier wall decorated by old, red symbols.

"See what I mean?" Nora asked, waving a hand at it, "Gibberish!"

"No, it says 'Show proof of your power, and break that which bars your path as chains that bind you and hold you still." Jaune corrected, pursing his lips for a long second and turning, using the light of the blade to illuminate more words further to the side. "It says after that that 'inside will be chains yet more, for a lord to tame and crack in measures of judgement their forged of iron will. And through success of power, strength bestowed of yet more until you find your ambition filled'."

"You can read this?" Ren asked quietly, stepping up on one side while Pyrrha occupied his other. "How? I didn't know you studied ancient languages."

"My teacher taught me the language years and years ago." He answered, giving Pyrrha a meaningful look and then grimacing at her nod. With a sigh, he let his eyes close and reached out, probing with the Force. Feeling a node of something, he grunted and flicked his free hand, "There."

With a low, old, and almost cliched rumble, the wall slid back and ground to the side. It stopped halfway, jammed by whatever was there, but the path was clear enough for them and Jaune stepped back.

"Call the archeologists now." He said quietly, looking at the dark, metal tunnel and the old, grated floor he was so familiar with. "Tell them we found something interesting, and they should… Come and see it."

Because if this was the kind of 'temple' they'd talked about, he had a great number of questions. And something to offer in exchange for them.

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Going forward, I will not be responding to RWBY haters of ANY kind at all. Not to defend myself, not to defend RWBY, not to defend my stories, and not to defend ships. RWBY is a wonderful, if imperfect, show and I am ONLY here to celebrate and love it. That is all I am here for and all I wish to say on the matter either now or in the future.

Those who know they are with me on this, sorry for the numerous addressings of this. It won't happen again, I promise.

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(Review Responses)

Zenith Tempest :

The purposes of the items given would shape the story a bit, not the other way around. That said, I don't want him to become uber powerful god tier, so a harrower is maybe a bit of overkill. Would be HILARIOUS, true, but overkill. So something like armor, or a weapon, or information, or something smaller like a gunship or something would fit a bit better.

Phaedo Symposium :

Glad you liked it!

Argus :

All shall be revealed soon~

Richard Blue :

I shan't spoil anything, but ANY factions that DO show up will not do so for a LONG time.

Dr. Killinger :

It would be cool, yeah, but… I don't know where I'd go after that, really. That would very likely be the end of the story.

Knightwolf :

All true, and stuff i shall think on.