"Holy shit," Roderick muttered, staring at his hands. "Holy shit."

Holy shit indeed.

Roderick was never a particularly religious or spiritual man, but he was quite superstitious. He had a strict routine, wore a particular set of socks for good luck on every operation, never smoked anything that wasn't a menthol ice, and he certainly didn't count on miracles.

Which is exactly why the miracle that just got thrown at him floored him so damn hard. The hole in his armor plating was big enough to make Jerry squirm, and yet the wound was… stabilized. Jerry still had to field dress it and it would probably take a while for him to be fighting fit again, but the dull blue glow around his body made it clear that something was going on.

Something that Jaune did.

"So, I guess we finally figured out your Semblance!" Ruby stated, all smiles and cheer. The Skyranger ride had been mostly morose, with Roderick simply staring at his new 'Aura' while Jerry stewed and Eric rubbed his temple.

"Yeah," Jaune agreed, his voice still quaking. "I guess so."

"Am I glad you fuckin' did," Roderick said, leaning back in his seat. "I was seeing the light and everything."

"I'm just glad you're okay," Jaune replied, offering a weak smile.

"He ain't okay yet," Lawrence said, looking at the bandaging on Roderick's chest. "That there's a nasty wound. Should be dead, by all rights, and he was walking on spaghetti legs."

"Yeah, but I'm walking." Roderick shrugged his shoulders. "That's what matters to me."

"Amen, hallelujah," Eric agreed, wincing. "God, my fucking head aches. The guy dancing with me and Blake did some… weird psionic shit, I dunno. What is it they do with that brain shit?"

"He probably tried to put you under mind control," Adam explained, his eyes still focused on Jerry, as they had been for most of the ride. The man had been… uncharacteristically nice when they'd first mounted up, specifically thanking Jaune for his contributions before moving on to the rest of them. They'd all been a bit thrown by that turn of events, but once everyone was on board, his attention was on Jerry. Roderick knew the medic well enough to know why. He'd told Grace this wasn't above board, and he'd been proven right.

"Bloody pikers'll make you shoot your own guys just to put you in a damn Catch-22," Adam continued. "Takes a tough SOB to shake that shite off."

"Yeah, well, they make Deltas hard as fuck," Eric said, smiling through the pain. "Fuck with my head, I fuck with yours."

"Still reckon you should get checked out when we get back home, Eric," Lawrence said. "Would rather you not go 'Manchurian Candidate' in my space."

"Alright, Larry, alright."

"Jerry, are you okay?" Blake asked, leaning over Eric's shoulder to look at the man in question. "You've been quiet."

Jerry flexed his metal hand open and shut a few times before a quiet, "Thinking."

"Thinking about what, kemosabe?" Roderick asked.

"Nothing in particular."

"Don't think that's how it works," Roderick replied, leaning back in his seat. "But, be that way, I guess."

Jerry didn't reply. Roderick wasn't sure he wanted to hear exactly how he would word his 'thoughts' if he did. Even with the kids back and giving Jerry something to be hopeful about, the chipper, up-beat medic he'd met in the old days was gone, replaced by a far cagier, nastier man, and Roderick wasn't exactly sure what said man was going to do when he got a hold of Grace alone.

"Home free, boys!" Firebrand called. "Thank fuck, I never wanna see another train again."

"You and me both, sister," Lawrence muttered. "Y'all young folk get out of my damn way, my old bones have had enough of this crap."

"Age before beauty, Hamilton," Adam jibed.

"I got you beat on both."

"Oh, the hell you do."

The mood finally started to lift, if only a little, as the Skyranger made its landing approach. Though he'd certainly been done a rather frightening turn by the operation himself, Roderick felt pretty confident now that he apparently had an Aura, and it seemed that the rest of the team, sans Jerry, shared his positivity. Still, the lack of positivity from the man in question unnerved him.

Upon landing, Grace and Bradford were waiting on deck, and 'Qrow' landed behind them, effortlessly shifting from bird to man.

"That's still creepy," Eric said.

"Well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Frost," Adam replied, standing up while motioning back for Lawrence to exit. "Take five, all of you. You earned it, 'specially you, Rod."

"Yeah, I'll sleep for days after that," Roderick agreed, rolling his shoulders. "Gonna get Jauney here nice and slammed as thanks for casting Lay on Hands or whatever the fuck it is he did."

"Um, thanks, but I-" Jaune started, only for Roderick to extend a hand and cut him off with a grin. He wasn't gonna let the kid get out of this.

"Nope. You and I are gonna have a nice, enjoyable afternoon. Jerry, you're in too."

"Not happening," Jerry replied as Lawrence shuffled past him. "Busy."

"Oh, busy with what?"

The moment Lawrence was off the boat, Jerry immediately followed, making a beeline straight for Grace. Roderick's smile fell, and despite every bone in his body telling him to go intervene, something told him there was gonna be no stopping Jerry until he got it out of his system.

He just hoped it ended well.

Besides Jerry pulling aside Grace and giving her an earful, reembarking on the Avenger had been entirely uneventful. Jaune hadn't stuck around to hear what the medic had to say, or even talked to anyone else. He needed to relax, get his bearings.

He had a Semblance, now. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he knew he had it. It evidently allowed him to share his Aura with others around him, though exactly what that would mean for his team was a mystery. For Roderick, though, it evidently gave him one. Jaune may have been starting to get used to the differences between him and his new comrades-in-arms, but that was still a rather new one.

He'd found the room set aside for Teams RWBY and JNPR upon their return, and settled in, sinking into the couch and letting out a deep exhale. He was sore, especially on his back and chest where he'd been shot, but thankfully that was the full extent of his injuries. Roderick's were far worse—bad enough that he was diverted from Jaune almost immediately and sent to the medical bay.

Jaune was relieved beyond words he'd survived. Still, his nerves were fried. He felt like he could sleep for days. In fact, he might start now-

'Or not', he thought, as the door opened to reveal… his partner. Pyrrha was practically glowing when she met his eye.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" she asked.

"Nah, I was just trying to relax, what's up?" he replied, sitting up as Pyrrha took a seat next to him.

"I heard the good news, Jaune. You saved Roderick's life and unlocked your Semblance, if Adam's description holds true. He was… unusually complimentary of you."

"Really?" Jaune was incredulous—sure, Adam had been a bit nicer on the ride home, even told him he'd done a 'bang-up job', but he didn't actually think the man would say that to anyone else.

"Really," she assured him. "He called it, and I quote, 'fucking brilliant'."

Jaune snickered beside himself. Pyrrha cursing was probably one of the weirdest things he'd ever heard, and up there with the funniest.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Just… those words sound so wrong, coming from you, is all," he explained, returning her smile.

She rolled her eyes in response, though her own smile remained. "Jaune, please. I'd say the same thing, if in less vulgar terms. You've grown so much since initiation, more than anyone would have given you credit for back then. I'm very proud of you."

The sudden shift in her tone caught Jaune off-guard. True, he did unlock his Semblance, but from what he'd learned from a bit of perusing on the internet, that wasn't even his doing. They just sort of… show up in stressful situations, or at least that's what he'd read, and there was nothing more stressful than a guy you consider a friend bleeding to death in front of you while you can't do anything about it. He couldn't even control the flow of his Aura, it went on and on and on until Jaune realized what was happening and removed his hands.

"I didn't really do anything," Jaune said. "I was just in the right place at the right time."

"And you wouldn't have been there if you hadn't chosen to come back here," Pyrrha retorted. "You're a better leader and a better fighter than you believe you are, Jaune, and you're only getting better every day. I'm glad for my part in that, but it's you who had to make these strides. Don't discount your efforts, not when you've come this far already."

Her smile had faded, and it was just now hitting Jaune how close she was to him, his hand in hers and their eyes locked. It was… well, pretty intimate. Also, a bit intimidating.

Pyrrha seemed to notice shortly after he did, her cheeks tinting slightly as she released his hand and retreated slightly. "I, erm, I'm sorry."

"No, no, you're fine," he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I couldn't have done this without you, and I mean that. Ren and Nora too. If it was just me over here, I'd have gone crazy, but because you guys are here, I can keep my head up and keep going."

"I feel the same, Jaune, and I'm sure that Ren and Nora do, too. We're a team. We take care of one another, right?"

"Right."

About a minute of silence followed, neither of the partners quite willing to break it. Jaune, personally, had his mind going in a few different places at the moment, mostly regarding that moment a few minutes ago, where Pyrrha's hand and gaze met his and they just… sat there. It was weird. Good weird. Like, 'maybe I'd like to do that more' weird.

His hand idly drifted across the couch, and hers met him halfway. She'd evidently had the same idea.

'I've got a lot to unpack here, don't I?'

"So, Mr. Branwen, here's my question to you," Zeke said, leaning over the bar and examining him with narrowed violet eyes. "You… turn into a bird?"

"Yeah," Qrow replied. It had become obvious very quickly that 'Earth' was a totally different ballpark than Remnant. "I turn into a bird."

"And how long have you been flying around our men without letting us know?" Bradford asked. "You followed the kids here?"

"Mhm. My boss wanted to make sure they had a professional watching over them if they were gonna risk their necks to help you."

Bradford frowned, folding his arms and turning to Grace for some kind of direction. Qrow's surveillance had been mostly outside of the vessel, and occasionally sneaking aboard to make sure the kids were alright, and from what little he'd seen, the crew looked to her for leadership, despite the fact that she generally looked about as lost as any of them did, especially right now.

"Nice of him to think of us," Adam stated, sarcasm oozing from his voice as he turned his full attention to Qrow. "You didn't answer the question. How long have you been here?"

"Since the kids came back. I followed 'em," Qrow stated, nonchalant.

"And you didn't give us a hand before now, why?" Adam asked.

"Got a cover to maintain, friend. Only reason I jumped in when I did was because you guys couldn't win that on your own,"

"The situation was well under control."

"Didn't look like it from where I was standing."

"We appreciate any help we can get, Branwen, but you'll have to understand, one of my men nearly died," Grace interrupted. "Jones has a right to be a bit testy, in my opinion."

"I can't help but agree with him," Zeke followed, folding his arms.

"Look, I'm here now, and I'll help where I can. That bein' said, I don't know what the hell kind of help you need." Qrow cut his eyes between the soldiers in front of him one by one. Rather a hostile crowd, other than Grace. He might as well try to make himself useful, ease the tension. Would be a lot easier to keep an eye on the kids if their eyes weren't on him. "What's the latest?"

"Well, the Chosen just came down and mushroom-stomped us so hard that Braddock's gonna be feeling it for about a month," Zeke explained, before motioning to Grace. "That being said…"

"We just got word before you and our team arrived. We've located one of the Chosen's base of operations, and we have reason to believe that she has one of my men captive. We're gonna be hitting her stronghold head on once we've recouped from this operation and are better prepared. We still have other operations that require our direct attention, though- maybe you could help us with that?"

"What kind of operations?" Qrow asked.

"Looking for the other ones," Adam replied. "There's four of the Chosen bastards, and even one of them is too many. The more we can knock out as soon as possible, the less risk there is on our future operations. Problem is, once we take out the Assassin, the rest will start playing a lot harder to get. The faster we can pinball from one to the other, the easier it'll be to take them down."

"We have a lead on the location of the Warlock, one of the other three Chosen," Bradford stated. "If you want to pitch in, we need a point team to investigate. Would be nice to have a bit of assistance."

Qrow nodded. "I can do that. If need be, I can go ahead and fly out to whatever coordinates you give me straight away."

"Won't be necessary, it's not a long ride. One of my men has a car, he'll be bringing us out," Adam explained. Get sorted and meet me outside."