"I can't believe I trusted you".

Those damning words rang in his head as he watched his partner slowly back away.

"Pyrrha I-," Jaune struggled to muster up an explanation. Anything he could say to make his partners rage subside. Wracking his mind over and over again, he found his resolve to be miniscule beneath her glare.

"What did you think was going to happen? Did you think you would just be able to somehow fake your way through this?"

Fighting back unshed tears, Jaune watched as his confidant paced angrily across the barren rooftop. He knew sharing his false transcripts were a bad idea, he'd known from the start, but to see the one person he thought he could trust react like this?

What hope did he have if anyone else knew?

"Pyrrha please, I only wanted to help!"

"Help who Jaune?!"

Jaune stilled as he felt his next words dissolve in his mouth.

"Do you realise the gravity of this situation? Our team leader is supposed to be responsible for both our lives and the safety of the civilians. Jaune, we have been training for this before we could even really grasp what the grimm were!"

Her beautiful emerald eyes reflected none of the kindness he had grown accustomed to over the course of their friendship. Instead, they smoldered with a searing anger he had formerly thought reserved solely for the grimm.

He felt his heart pound as he watched her continue her tirade without missing a beat.

"We've been training for years Jaune! Would you trust a doctor who 'only wanted to help'? We could die Jaune! You. Could. Die!" screamed Pyrrha. Her chest heaved as her impassioned speech stalled.

She watched Jaune steadily, waiting for him to say anything at all to contradict the truth she had said. She had known he wasn't that strong when they had been partnered.

No huntsman in training that she knew of simply didn't have an unlocked aura, however; she took it in stride on the basis that no school would admit a student if they weren't at least competent.

If his aura was lacking, then his swordplay surely must have been impeccable.

Or so she had hoped.

When it had become readily apparent throughout combat class that his swordsmanship was abysmal and his aura was his only redeeming quality, she became somewhat wary.

Her wariness only increased as he grew more withdrawn in the following weeks. His lackluster performance alongside his progressively worsening reclusiveness had all culminated to this.

To the revelation that her partner was merely a civilian with a sword masquerading as a hunter.

"I'm sorry."

Pyrrha watched as Jaune struggled with himself for a moment, before a look of defeat crossed his features. His previously unshed tears glistened in the moonlight as the fractured moon of Remnant bore witness to his moment of vulnerability.

"You're right." he continued, "I just wanted to be a hero like my family so badly, but you're absolutely right. I was reckless. I thought I would come here and learn to be a huntsman, but it turns out I'm just not cut out for this."

Falling to his knees, he stared at her with a pleading look that placed cavernous cracks in her once unshakeable rage.

"I know I'm not cut out for this Pyrrha, but I'm begging you. Please help me."

As more of her rage ebbed away, she took stock of his dilapidated form. His arms hung limply at his sides as his eyes burned a hole into her soul. Her eyes softened as she opted for a gentler approach.

"Jaune, it's not that I don't want to. It's just far too late for you to begin learning at a rate that will place you in good standing here. I wish it were possible, but I just don't see a way for you to stay here while -"

"I'll make it happen!"

She flinched as his stare became more and more desperate. His hands once limply at his sides were now in his lap, his knuckles chalk white from a vice like grip on his black slacks.

"I'll do whatever it takes. I need this Pyrrha, please. Help me."

Staring into his desperate sapphire eyes, she made a decision. Looking at the fractured moon she spoke, her voice rippling through the night's breeze.

"No."