Hey guys I'm sorry the last chapter took so long to come out again, lots of changes going on in my life and lots of responsibility I'm dealing with now but without further ado let's get to the chapter.

"SPEECH"

"Thoughts"

Jaune took a seat on the bench in the changing room he had stumbled into on exhausted legs followed by Bleu handing him a bottle of water that he drank from greedily. Bleu leaned back against a locker with her arms crossed and waited for him to finish before speaking. "You did better than expected against mother Jaune, you're still sloppy and brothers are you slow but you have a solid grasp of hand to hand combat. You need to work on your counters however." Jaune poured the rest of the water over the back of his head rather than answer. Yeah I've got my teammates to thank for that, as for countering it took everything I had to just keep myself from losing in the first five minutes.

Bleu let out a soft chuckle before she ruffled his hair affectionately, "I suppose you have a point little brother, now you need to rest up as much as you can in the next 10 minutes. Mom won't go so easy on you in the beginning again. She'll use everything she has to put you down quickly, so she doesn't have to hurt you any longer."

Jaune nodded and decided to lay across the bench and shut his eyes to regain what strength he could. Bleu started to walk out of the door but paused when Jaune called her name. "Thanks Bleu for giving me a chance to choose my own destiny." Bleu gripped the door handle tightly and looked back at Jaune with a smile, before replying. "I knew all you needed was a chance, and you would fight till you made it reality. Now rest little brother." Jaune nodded and laid back down, while Bleu walked out. "Please don't make me regret letting you run away Jaune, a storm is coming and I don't know if you'll be ready" Thought Bleu as she clutched her chest tightly and hurried back to the stands.

With Joan

Joan sat in the locker room on the opposite side of the arena, with Vlad sat opposite of her. "He's gotten much stronger since the last time we saw him Vlad, maybe he's ready to take the trial?" Vlad looked to be in deep thought before shaking his head. "We'll see how he does in armed combat first my dear, if he does well enough I'll allow him to take the trial. I just worry if he'll come out of it the same, you remember what happened when I let Rouge take it early. She was in the infirmary for two months and we had to wait to see if she'd wake up, I hate that they have to go through this and the thought of anymore of them ending up the way Rouge did makes me feel sick to my stomach."

Joan stood and hugged her husbands head to her chest softly rubbing his back to relax him. "I know exactly how you feel Vlad they are my children as well and the thought of them never waking up again terrifies me, but they need the trial in order to ever grow into the warriors they will be." Joan began softly running her fingers through his hair, grazing his scalp softly with her nails in a bid to relax him. Joan pushed his head back and locked eyes with her husband before softly kissing his lips and holding his cheeks in her hands. "Now let me prepare for the fight my dear before time runs out."

30 minutes later

Jaune entered the arena sporting the new armor his grandfather made him, and Blanc strapped to his lower back. Crocea Mors was sheathed at his side, his left hand resting on the pommel as he made his way to the center. Joan enters on the opposite side of him sporting black leather armor with a dark purple almost black cloak over it. She had gloves on her hands that had metal studs over her knuckles, along with leather greaves that added to the protection from her armor. A bow and quiver were strapped to her back along with a short sword strapped to her hip the hood of the cloak was pulled up leaving her eyes shadowed, paired with the mask that hid the bottom portion of her face you couldn't see her facial features. She stood across from Jaune and pulled him into a small hug. "The new armor suits you well cub, you look so handsome my little night." She said loudly earning laughs from Yang and the recently arrived Team CFVY accompanied by Ruby.

Jaune blushed and ducked his head to hide his burning face. Joan chuckled and ruffled his hair softly before taking a few steps back from him, pulling her bow from her back and notching an arrow. Jaune drew Crocea Mors and readied his shield. Ozpin stood from his spot in the stands and smiled tapping his cane on the ground to gain the attention of the two combatants. "The rules of this bout are the same as during combat class understood? The match will end when one of your aura pools reaches 15 percent, one of you yields, or I stop the match. Do you understand?" Both mother and son nodded before locking eyes. "The let the match begin."

Jaune took no time to rush in and try to shield bash his mother, who simply jumped planting both her feet on the shield, using the momentum from the bash to flip back and fire her arrow which bounced off his aura planting into the ground. Jaune wasted no time and rushed in again to close the distance between them swinging his sword in a downward slash. Joan brought her bow up blocking the slash and sending a kick into his leg to bring him to his knees. Jaune looked up and was met by his mothers bow smashing into his temple and sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Jaune rolled to the side avoiding the axe kick aimed at his head, before sweeping Joan's legs out from under her and getting to his feet before stabbing his sword down to her chest. Joan parried with her bow and fired a red tipped arrow that exploded upon contact with his stomach sending him flying into the arena wall. Jaune tried to shake the ringing from his ears and brought his shield up to block another arrow, this time it had a yellow tip that upon contact sent thousands of volts of electricity through his body making him drop his shield and fall to his knees using his sword for support.

Joan rushed in and rammed her knee into his face, flinging his head back. Jaune swiped with his sword to make her break off and gain some room while he stumbled to his feet and switched his sword to his left hand and drawing Blanc with his right. He fired three quick shots hitting Joan in the torso with two and her right shoulder with the third. She spun with the momentum and pulled a bag from her waist and threw it at his feet, causing it to explode into a cloud of smoke. Jaune fired twice in the direction he last saw his mother in and started to reload when pain erupted from a slash he received across his back.

Jaune swung is sword in a wise arc, only hitting air before he received a kick to the side of his head that knocked him aside. Jaune shook the stars from his head and quickly got to his feet as the smoke cleared and was greeted by his mothers slamming into the side of his legs sending him back to the ground. He looked up and saw the bow coming to crash into his head, brought his sword up and managed to block it just in time. He planted both feet into Joan's stomach and sent her back with all the strength he had.

Joan crashed into the wall and got back to her feet quickly drawing her sword. She tossed her bow to the side and pointed her blade at Jaune. "I'll be getting serious now Jaune, try to keep up." She rushed in and brought her sword in for a stab at his cheek. He deflected the blow but received a palm strike into his chin, raising him off the ground letting Joan slam a double palm thrust into his stomach launching him across the arena.

Jaune smashed into the Arena wall and tumbled to the ground in a motionless heap. He tried to get back to his feet but felt his muscles burning in protest, as his aura worked to heal any damage it hadn't already healed. Surging aura through his system his eyes started to glow gold as he pulled himself up and held his sword up. Joan grinned and rushed at him swinging her sword down only for Jaune to block it with his sword and land a punch to her stomach that lifted her slightly off the ground. Joan dropped her sword letting Jaune's pass harmlessly, before grabbing his head and smashing her knee into his face.

Jaune's head flew back, but he recovered and slammed his head into his mothers nose disorienting her enough to plant his foot in her stomach to gain room. Looking over the arena floor he found his discarded shield and ran reaching it just in time to lift it and block his mothers sword. They locked eyes and had grins as they had a battle of strength.

Audience

"Go Jaune!" shouted Ruby as she practically hung off the railing, being joined by the shouts of Yang and Coco and the excited babbling of Akemi. Bleu had a smile hidden behind her mask as she stood with an arm around Jade who was grinning and holding onto Bleu. Ozpin watched with a small smile taking the occasional sip of his coffee, while Glynda smiled with pride at how much Jaune had grown, and the young woman that accompanied him simply watched in silence. Vlad watched the battle feeling his pride for his only son swell. "You've grown so much from the sickly child you were Jaune. You're a fine Arc."

Julius watched the two fight in silence as he thought off a way to train Jaune to get stronger as fast as possible. "He's gotten stronger but will it be enough. My love I wish you were here with me, you'd be so proud of the man Jaune has become and how strong he will be."

Arena

Jaune pushed his mother back and took his stance once again watching her over the top of his shield. Joan smiled and kicked her bow up grabbing it out of the air and taking aim at Jaune. Joan smiled and fired an arrow that Jaune deflected into the ground. Joan began running around her son firing arrows that he continued to deflect into the ground until she strapped her bow onto her back and walked towards him. Jaune raised his shield and readied himself watching her closely. "You really have grown Jaune you're much stronger than you were at home. Though you've still got room to grow, and you need to pay better attention to your surroundings, why do you think I kept firing these arrows at you?"

Jaune looked at the arrows he deflected and noticed the glowing yellow dust crystals sticking out of the ground and the wire connecting them all. Jaune turned and saw Joan smiling with her hand shrouded in purple aura before she tapped an arrow and Jaune's world erupted in pain.