Last chapter's title: the boss theme when you fight the Mystic in Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition. Translates to "Kingly Compassion".

I realized all of my chapters are named after song names/lyrics. Maybe I should start diversifying LOL.

Ch.5: Day 24 - Silence Broken

The next few weeks went by without a hitch. Ever since that match, the members of Team CRDL have been less inclined to harass whoever they wanted although that doesn't mean they haven't tried a few times. It seems that Charlemagne's charisma has affected a good amount of students because more bystanders were willing to call them out or intervene whenever they tried doing something in a malevolent nature. Specifically with the Faunus, Team King is rather famous among them since Charlemagne and Sora have made more of an effort to make sure the Faunus feel safe at Beacon.

In that same time span, the general initial skill levels of the first years were set in stone. Jaune still had ways to go with his training, but it was surprising how quick Jaune learned essential combat techniques. A few weeks worth of extra training already made Jaune several times better than he was during his first match with Cardin which allowed Jaune to win more matches with a general majority of the class. Near the top of the pack, the other members of Team JNPR and Team RWBY have yet to lose a sparring match to anyone unless they were facing another member from one of the two teams. Yang has an almost perfect record, but was beaten once by Pyrrha who holds a perfect record. The moniker of the "Invincible Girl" was one no one took lightly.

However, the individuals that stood equal to or even higher than Pyrrha were the dual kings of Team King. Pyrrha might've dominated her competition, but the two boys usually did so a bit faster than the red-haired Spartan. Having already seen Charlemagne's first match, everyone wasn't expecting less from him. There were certainly questions on how good Sora was.

Let's just say all questions were immediately squandered after his first match.

While Charlemagne usually dominated with powerful yet precise attacks and elite-leveled swordplay, Sora would outright out-blitz his opponents and find really creative ways to dish out damage both when on the offensive or countering either by using the environment or using opponents' attacks against them. Even without Flowmotion, Sora was pretty hard to keep up with. Both boys haven't used much of their arsenal, making some students wonder just how many weapon-types they have. But so far, the only reason why he, Charlemagne, and Pyrrha have perfect records is because they haven't fought each other yet. Many were awaiting the fated day when either three of them are pitted against each other.

The three teams' consistently good showings of combat was surely going to make them eligible to participate in the Vytal festival. What made this a big deal was the fact that they were competing with ALL students at Beacon to be Vale's representatives, and that included the older students. Not only did it make eligibility fair for anyone, but it also allowed the younger students to gauge their skill levels compared to their seniors. Many already regarded the three teams to be at least second-year level already, Team King with just the two members likely beyond that.

It was an average Saturday day so there weren't any classes going on. Team RWBY went down to the city to check out the preparations for the Vytal festival (though they were suspicious that Weiss just wanted to scope the competition out). With Team JNPR, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren went to do some extra studying for an exam that they had. Jaune was left with nothing else to do so he went to Team King to kill time. They all figured it was a perfect time to train Jaune since they too also had nothing to do since they were all caught-up with their coursework.

"Loosen up a bit, Jaune. You're way too tense!" Jaune did what Sora told him to do, realizing that being very stiff itself was putting a bit of strain on him. Sora was currently going over a two-handed sword style with Jaune in the event he wasn't using his shield. The pair from Team King decided it was better for Sora to teach Jaune two-handed swordplay since he primarily holds his Keyblade with two-hands most of the time. As for one-handed swordplay, that would be more of Charlemagne's expertise especially considering that Croceas Mors was small enough to be deftly wielded with one hand. Since the weapon was also a family heirloom passed down from many generations, it lacked any sort of gun modifications nor did Jaune have anything on him pertaining to projectiles. The two boys decided it was best to refine his swordplay as soon as possible seeing that projectile modifications weren't going to be in place anytime soon. A few rounds from the training pistols told everyone that Jaune had an ABYSMAL aim right now.

Taking a few breaths, Jaune performed a series of practice strokes that Sora showed him. These were similar to the sort of basic attacks Sora did in his first adventure but with more refinement. He didn't want Jaune to use his roughly put-together fighting style he used when sparring with the Destiny Island kids all that time ago. However, Jaune couldn't do any super flashy moves like the rest of his team right now, resulting in Sora thinking up a modified version that reflects the few years of experience he has gone through as well as what he's seen from other sword users like Leon and Cloud. Jaune should learn the fundamentals real quick.

"Ehhh… I will give this attempt a C+. You're honestly learning the motions rather quickly, it's more about refining your swings now." Sora explained, giving his opinion on Jaune's latest runthrough of the exercise. The teen tried to think about what more he could say. "What else should I include?"

Putting some fruit for thought, Charlemagne chimed in, "I can say that it's a good habit to be more intimate with your sword instead of viewing it as a means to an end."

"'Intimate?' That sounds kinda weird there." Jaune warily said, not exactly understanding what Charlemagne meant.

"Huh… Oh yeah I got it!" Sora cheerfully said, getting what Charlemagne was implying. "Don't view the sword as just a weapon, view it as a part of your arm. Like an extension of yourself!"

"Be deliberate with every movement and fully aware of all actions taken. Plan all attacks and know their effectiveness!" Charlemagne added.

Jaune took into account both of their advice. With those in mind, he looked at Croceas Mors and gazed over the craftsmanship of the blade used as early as the Great War and beyond. Even though he isn't much of a battlefield professional, he could tell Croceas Mors was a one-in-a-kind blade; a simple-looking sword with top notch fundamental craftsmanship. His great-great grandfather made good use of it and he damn sure will too.

He readied himself in another stance and imagined the sword as another extension of his arms. A few practice swings were then swung before he began to perform various combinations of the exercise. With each swing, Jaune made the choice of where they will end up and how much force we will implement. He ended the exercise with a coup de grace: a spinning leap into a downward swing. The tip of Croceas Mors impacted the ground and small cracks webbed out.

A clap was heard as Jaune turned to Charlemagne, the Magnus heir saying, "Amazing, you just got a lot cooler there!"

Sora was also impressed at Jaune's display. "That's what I like to see! A much better improvement this time, like a solid B. Keep practicing like this and you'll sweep Cardin by the end of the semester!" He went towards a water bottle before tossing it to Jaune.

"Thanks, Sora." He took a long squeeze of water before swallowing it, relishing the fresh cold fluid. "So do you guys have other things planned for this training?" Jaune was glad that something worked out well during this session, their advice was really helpful for improving his technique. It seemed like they had more in mind though.

This made Sora remember the other thing he planned on bringing up, "Oh! I've been meaning to ask you, but did you unlock your Semblance yet?"

A downward look was the answer he got, but it was all that was needed. The boys looked with concern, Jaune was really the only member of the three teams that hasn't manifested their Semblance. Pyrrha's polarity took some time to discern due to her very crafty and minimal use of it in spars. Since practically all weapons nowadays had some metal on it, redirecting weapons away from her made her literally untouchable at times. Meanwhile, Ren finally showed his ability to mask negative emotion when he suggested avoiding the Grimm during a Forever Fall field trip to avoid damaging their jars of sap.

Jaune has already shown capable leadership with a good understanding of his teammates' abilities, but he needs to unlock his Semblance so he can become a more capable combatant.

"Mind if we do a little spar? Don't worry, it's just to see your technique." Sora asked Jaune out of the blue.

"Uhh sure man." Jaune responded, walking towards one end of the ring with Sora going to the opposite. Charlemagne set up the Aura reader and got the display to show their Aura bars.

"Hey Jaune, have the members of Team RWBY or JNPR ever told you how they awakened their Semblance?" Sora asked from the opposite end.

"Well…" Jaune wasn't sure where Sora was going with this but he responded, "Ren told me it was out of panic in a dire situation."

"Oh, ok! You ready Jaune?" A nod of confirmation from the blond was given as both of them took a stance. Charlemagne took this as both of them were ready as he held his hand up.

"Let the match begin!"

The millisecond after Charlemagne swiped his hand down, Sora shot towards Jaune in a blur. Jaune had extremely little time to react and instinctively held his shield up to brace for an attack. He didn't see Sora pause in front of him briefly. By the time Jaune realized, Sora was already behind him and struck at his exposed back with a hard enough blow to send Jaune hurdling forward. After a good fifteen feet of tumbling, Jaune regained his footing.

"Even without his Semblance, he's fast!"

The spiky-haired Keyblade wielder didn't skip a beat as he easily caught up with Jaune and began a vicious assault. Jaune did everything in his power to mitigate the punishment, but Sora was simply too much for him to handle. For some reason, Sora was being more aggressive in his approach than in his other matches. He was pushing Jaune more than anyone else he was assigned against. From the sidelines, Charlemagne couldn't help but wince seeing the sight of Jaune looking like a pinball in a pinball machine. The man was lucky with his abnormally large Aura reserves protecting him. But even so, Jaune's Aura was decreasing at a fairly rapid rate.

"Huff...huff…hey, hey, Sora! Can we take a time ouuUUUTTTTT!"

It was a request that went unheard and Jaune raised his shield to block a Keyblade that was thrown at him. The weapon bounced off the shield as Sora leapt and grabbed it in midair. As he started to go down, Sora decided to see the fruits of Jaune's training with the two-handed sword style. With a powerful swing, Sora completely disarmed Jaune of his shield as the shield went flying out of bounds. Another swing came in that Jaune blocked, the force making him skid a fair way back. He was dismayed slightly at the realization that he couldn't use his shield. It was practically out of the question to grab his shield and even if the shield wasn't out of bounds, he wouldn't be fast enough to grab his shield without Sora reaching him first.

"Jaune! Let's see the results of your training!" Sora exclaimed as he began running towards Jaune.

The blond wasted no time getting into a stance and waited for Sora to reach him. This was the part of the fight where Sora wasn't going super insane; probably to see Jaune's technique. Reaching to where Jaune was, Sora sidestepped to strike at Jaune's exposed side as Jaune went to clash blades. Warding off the Keyblade, Jaune went for a diagonal cut Sora weaved around with a follow up horizontal sweep that was deftly blocked. Jaune slid his sword up to free himself from the lock while maintaining a hanging guard to leave no opening for a counterattack. Not going as hard he started with, Sora used the momentum from being slightly pushed back into a swirling lower sweep to the legs albeit slow enough for Jaune to react. Jaune did a little hop over the Keyblade before going in for a falling strike, believing he got an opening on Sora who had his back turned to him while continuing his rotation. His intention was used against him though as Sora narrowly dodges Croceas Mors and lashes out at Jaune's stomach with a reverse-grip upper sweep. Managing to keep a grip on the sword, Jaune flew as he tumbled on the ground.

Coughing from that unexpected strike, Jaune stood up, "Not done yet!" He ran towards Sora with an upward diagonal cut which was parried. The exchange progressed while Jaune was surprised how long this fight with Sora lasted. Much of the matches Sora fought should've already concluded with Sora running his opponent through the ground 20 times over. He felt in this case that: 1.) He was actually improving and 2.) Sora was just prolonging the fight purposely to observe Jaune's improvement. There is another reason he thinks was making this fight last longer. It feels like… Sora is waiting for something.

Sora began ramping up his attacks, getting to the point when he started. Jaune found it hard again to keep up with everything that was being thrown at him. A sudden forward thrust by Sora was enough to throw Jaune off his guard. It was then chained with an upper slash that sent Jaune in the air once more. He wasn't left to fall just by gravity as Sora leapt into the air to meet Jaune at the apex of his airtime as Sora sent a bit of a vicious downward slam to Jaune as the blond came crashing to the ground. Jaune, in complete shock with what just happened, groaned as he found Croceas Mors slightly out of reach. He noticed Charlemagne look upwards before following where his eyes looked at. Jaune looked in panic as Sora was descending, seemingly committed to a falling strike that would put Jaune out of commission.

Time slowed down as Sora drew nearer towards Jaune. On the sidelines, Charlemagne was wondering what Sora even wanted out of this fight. He was going on extreme offensive but at the same time didn't close it out quickly. It was until he mentally went over the words the two combatants had before this spar.

"...have the members of Team RWBY or JNPR ever told you how they awakened their Semblance?"

"Ren told me it was out of panic in a dire situation."

"Panic...dire situation… Sora, are you trying to make Jaune activate his Semblance?" Charlemagne mentally pieced together as he witnesses what will transpire.

Sora flared some Flowmotion energy to intimidate Jaune as he continued his descent. With all he can currently do, Jaune reflexively raised his hands in the hopes of mitigating the strike.

A sudden emergence of bright light emits from his hands.

When the light died down after its momentary flash, everyone opens their eyes and immediately looks at Jaune or more specifically his forearms. It looked like his Aura was flowing throughout, actively creating the second layer of protection. There was also bits of the flowing bright energy on the Flowmotion emanating on the Keyblade.

"Is… is this my… Semblance?"

Charlemagne ran to where the two were, "Woah! Are you ok Jaune? Did that strike hurt you at all?"

Jaune took another look at his hands. For some reason it didn't hurt as much as he expected. "Not really actually. It felt more than when my Aura usually shields me. It felt… stronger."

"Wellllll I did try to soften the blow as it was about to land, but I'll say that what you did made it do even less damage on your arms. Though, my question is about this sudden collateral damage around us!" Sora responded while gesturing towards the sudden ring of cracks they were all in the middle of.

"Oh my lord, you didn't try to kill me did you!?" Jaune exclaimed, being extremely worried.

"Not at all dude! Right when I pulled back some of the power on that attack, it felt that the Aura feeding my Semblance was amplified by your Aura. So that bigger energy was transferred to the ground."

Charlemagne decided to finally voice his realization of what Jaune's Semblance could really be, "Amplified? I'm starting to think this isn't just a defensive Semblance."

"Can my Semblance affect others?" Jaune picked up from his own analysis.

Observing the Flowmotion that was amplified by Jaune's Semblance, Sora decided to do a little test by throwing his Keyblade to the wall. What he intended was for the Keyblade to imbed itself slightly into the wall since he didn't put a great deal of force into the throw… so it was a shocker to see the Keyblade make a hole through the wall and imbed itself deeply into the next wall of the neighboring training room with a freaked out student.

After an awkward silence, Sora decided to break it, "Well, I guess we had enough training for the day. Who wants a post-training meal… hehe…"

Sora went to retrieve his Keyblade from the next room and apologized to the student who was training in that room. They spent a good chunk of time in the training room so by the time they got to the dining hall, the kitchen staff was transitioning into dinner service. While they waited for the staff to get the food ready, the boys were relaxing on a lawn discussing Jaune's Semblance and the effects it would have on other Semblances they knew.

"From what we have seen, this could clearly be more than just Jaune focusing a lot more Aura into a smaller area. It made your Flowmotion output stronger, so from what I'm guessing it can really make other Semblances pack more of a punch!" Charlemagne quipped.

"Oh! So what if you did it on Ren? Maybe you can make the surrounding area an anti-Grimm zone!" Sora thought up.

A very enlightening theory to test out. Jaune had just unlocked his Semblance so he will have to practice using it on a more regular basis. It helps that his Aura reserves are gargantuan which correlates to more time practicing. The flexibility and potential of Jaune's semblance is insane. If their theories were right, Jaune is essentially just a walking power generator of Aura who is able to overcharge his and other people's Auras. This makes him a perfect supporter/tank for both ending battles in a bang or battles of attrition. Or if it's something like with Ren's semblance for utility, it'll make missions a lot easier.

"The list of your Semblance's usefulness is so big I imagine. I wanna see you test it with everyone's Semblance to see how your Semblance improves theirs', Jaune." Sora said.

"Pyrrha and the others will be very surprised when we tell them. She thought that after she unlocked my Aura, my Semblance would come a bit easier for me since my body is more mature than when people usually awaken their Auras. Her guess was that maybe my Semblance would show up during a spar since in her words: 'You do flail and get tossed around a lot trying to do something big,'" Jaune finished with mild exasperation.

"You said Pyrrha unlocked your Aura?" Sora asked as he and Charlemagne looked in interest.

"She did during the Initiation after a tree branch whipped at my face and gave me a cut. After her little ritual or whatnot, the cut healed and I felt the Aura within me activate."

"Sooo you didn't have your Semblance AND Aura coming into this school?" Charlemagne looked a bit pale. They had to fight two big Grimm and one of the most dangerous Grimm even when it wasn't mature when Jaune just unlocked his Aura within a few hours prior.

"W-well… you all know how desperate I was enrolling into this school and maybe I skipped a few steps when getting into this Huntsmen thing… umm… of course I knew about those things before getting here! I uhh... just had to meet deadlines… ha..." Jaune sat there awkwardly while the other two just stared at him in pure silence. Jaune has defied so many consequences like injury and incarceration via forgery. They're surprised Jaune hasn't gotten himself killed at this point.

"Ozpin's gamble is sure paying off…", the two both thought.

It wasn't long until Nora's voice was heard, "Hey it's Jauney with Porcupine and Mr. President!" The three guys looked around to see the rest of Team JNPR approach them.

"What?" Charlemagne was confused by the nicknames.

"Welllll Sora is 'Porcupine' because of his spiky hair and you are 'Mr. President' because you sometimes talk like some leader!"

Ren gave his input on the nicknames once he saw their faces, especially Sora's, "I have a feeling one nickname is better than the other."

"You're tell me…", Sora sat slightly dejected while slightly tugging one of his pointy hairs.

Nora zipped to Sora and started touching his hair as well, "How much hairspray do you even put on anyways? Tell me your secrets!"

"Ehh… I don't think I've ever had."

"That's a lie!"

"I room with him, he doesn't have hairspray."

"Liars! He must keep them in those funny baggy shorts of his!"

"Don't diss the shorts!"

Pyrrha decided to interject before the situation went deeper into the eighth wonder of the world that was Sora's hair, "So how was your afternoon like guys?"

Jaune, who still felt a bit sore from his beat down, decided to be playful. "You missed Sora trying to kill me."

"I beg your pardon?" Pyrrha responded with a strained smile.

"Wait wait wait nonononono that's not what I was trying to do!" Sora defended himself.

His teammate tried to talk in between suppressed laughs before managing to speak, "Talk about a very intense game of Jaune pinball."

"Not helping!" Sora tried gaining control of the conversation as Pyrrha's glance became more inquisitive.

The quiet man of JNPR decided to ask Sora himself, "Seems far different from what is usual from his training with you three. What were you going at?"

Looking for reasons to make a case, Sora spotted a trash bin with an empty can on top which hasn't fallen in yet. Looks like a perfect opportunity to test.

"Hey Pyrrha, mind using your Semblance to grab that empty can over there? Jaune, place your hand on her shoulder."

While Jaune's teammates were confused by the request, Jaune and Charlemagne knew what Sora was getting at. Pyrrha obliged and turned towards the tin can and held her hand out while Jaune stood by her side and held her shoulder. The gray Aura activated on Pyrrha's hand and encompassed the can. At the same time, Jaune concentrated in order to bring his Semblance out and sent a quick burst of his Aura Amp to Pyrrha, who felt an unexpected surge that distracted her. The magnetism not only enveloped the can, but the trash bin as well.

Enough polarity was applied to completely unroot the trash bin from the ground as it sailed towards the group… and decked Jaune at a decent velocity.

Shocked, Pyrrha went to Jaune, "I'm so sorry!"

Nora, for once, was very still as she tried to process what happened, "Uhh, what just happened?" Her companion was processing it too but he started connecting the dots.

"Sora, did you manage to make Jaune manifest his Semblance?" This got Nora widening her eyes real quick and Pyrrha's attention.

With a gleeful smirk, Sora responded, "I sure did! Jaune told me that you first used your Semblance in a life or death situation. Coming in with the thought to kill wasn't what I was going for, buuut I thought the trigger was getting him to panic. I felt the power of my Aura grow stronger once I came into contact with Jaune. How did it feel, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha put her hand where Jaune placed his hand on her shoulder. "It felt like.. my Aura received a soothing wave that also gave it a boost. The sudden surge caught me by surprise and made me momentarily lose control of my polarity. Thus, the power of my Semblance rose higher than what I prohibited it to go."

"My head… ughh my bad, I forced a lot in a quick burst." Jaune said as he got himself back on his feet.

"I say this experiment is a success!" Charlemagne quipped. "We can now confidently say that Jaune's Semblance makes him a walking Aura charger!"

"An… Aura… CHARGER?!" Nora exclaimed with the look of a gleeful mad woman. "Strap Jaune to my back and tase me! I'll have… UNNNLIMITED POWEEEERRRRRR!" She began to slowly creep up on Jaune, mumbling about the crazy power she could gain, as Jaune was very visibly frightened and called for Ren's help. Ren could only look at Jaune with pity. While that was all going on, Pyrrha approached Sora as he watched Charlemagne trying to prevent Nora from making Jaune her personal battery.

"Sora?"

The spiky haired teen brought his attention to her, "Yeah? What's up, Pyrrha?"

"I would like to thank you and Charlie for contributing to Jaune getting closer to his dreams. It really means a lot to him and our team for his quick development… this especially means a lot to me as his team partner." Pyrrha said.

Sora did his trademark grin and held his arms behind his head, "Anything for a friend!" Sora responded as they both turned and looked at Jaune as Sora continued, "I just saw a lot of me in him: stuff to prove and all of these expectations on his shoulders. With those situations, having friends to have you back sure helps!"

"Expectations are surely something I'm no stranger to…", Pyrrha sighed.

Her delivery reminded Sora of that time before Initiation when Jaune was trying to recruit Weiss and Pyrrha on the "winning team", specifically when Weiss was explaining Pyrrha's celebrity popularity. Really to him, he didn't really mind much about a person's popularity because he probably wasn't instilled with the idea of fame and authority on Destiny Islands all that much. Yes there was a mayor but with a very relaxed atmosphere, the mayor was overall pretty lax in terms of exuding authority. He can't help it but just be very casual towards people of "higher status", like when he was scolded by Donald and Goofy for not bowing to Queen Minnie.

He just wanted to make friends, that's all.

"Eh, we're all people at the end of the day. No matter how popular you are, you're just as human as everyone else." Sora told Pyrrha, who glanced at him with silent surprise. She was appreciative to find Team King, her own team, and RWBY because they treat her like just one of them. Even with Weiss she seemed to have not focused on her fame anymore. Sora is the first person to actually say this to her face. It felt really good to be told this.

She just wished more people thought like this.

With the sound of opening doors, the dining hall was now open for dinner service. Getting everyone's attention and deciding to eat together, both teams entered the dining hall.

"I don't understand why this is such a problem!" The muffled voice of Weiss was heard as both members of Team King perked up from their individual businesses. They both looked at each other with confusion and concern in their eyes.

"Holy crap, Ice Queen over there is royally pissed. And Blake too?" Charlemagne shuddered.

"Should we check up on them?" Sora really wanted to see what was the issue.

"Hmm…" That was all Charlemagne responded with as both boys continued to listen to the argument, gradually finding out what the topic was about.

"Blake sympathizes with the White Fang? Or rather what they originally stood for." From what Sora gathered from news and talk, the White Fang was like the Oracles of the Elder in that their original goal was to strive for equality. Some sort of leadership or methodology change might've occurred to make the group change so radically. Sora could understand what Blake was trying to get through with Weiss.

Being part of the Oracles of the Elder himself, Charlemagne wasn't so quick to tout every single White Fang member as evil, mainly seeing where Blake is coming from. He can also see where Weiss is coming from due to being a member of an affluent family in Atlas, so he heard about what Weiss was talking about with the disappearance of people associated with the Schnee name quite a bit. It's quite unfortunate that Jacques had to take his anger out on something, or rather some people.

Sora walked towards the door as he couldn't just sit and listen, "JNPR isn't back in their room yet because they are testing around with Jaune's Semblance. We should check to see if they're ok."

"If that's the case, then let's go check up on them." Charlemagne stood up from his desk as they both made their way out of the door. They both noticed the arguing suddenly stopped and as Sora was reaching to knock the door, it was abruptly opened by Blake running out. Everyone stood where they were silently for what seemed like minutes. Not wanting to waste another second, Charlemagne decided to break the silence. "Uhh hey… how are ya girls doing?"

"O-oh hey guys, we're uh just having a bit of... teammm banter! Yeah…" Ruby tried to maintain normal composure, but it was clearly failing. Her strained smile faltered when both boys didn't buy it. They glanced at Yang, seeing her lost for words too. Weiss finally spoke up after a moment of silence.

"Go ask Blake. I'm done for the day." Weiss spat out as she went into the bathroom to get ready for bed and slammed the door behind her. The remaining four people could only look at each other in dismay. With a look of determination, Sora turned to Charlemagne.

"Charlie, you can ask Ruby and Yang what happened, I'll go get Blake!" Sora didn't wait for a response before he ran out of the room in the direction of where Blake ran. He just hoped that she wasn't really trying to hide because not only was she skilled and agile, but covert like a cat. All of his journeys have taught Sora to know who is a seasoned combatant or some powerful figure. From what he sees in Blake, she has been training and fighting a lot before Beacon but not in the prodigal sense like Ruby and Pyrrha. It seems Blake has regularly fought actual combat outside school already. As such, he will have to up his efforts to find her. She already had a head start when he and Charlemagne tried to approach the door, so she might've ran a good amount already. He might need help with this actually because Beacon is a relatively big campus.

Luckily he found someone walking around with probably very good hearing. Activating Flowmotion he zipped straight at the person.

"Velveeeettt!"

"Huh? S-s-sora?!" Sora landed on the wall near her before setting himself on the ground.

"I need your help quickly!"

"It really seems so, what is it about?"

"Weiss and Blake got into a huge argument and Blake ran off. I'm trying to find her but she already had a good head start. I was hoping you can help me and try to hear her movements with those ears." Sora explained to the upper class student.

Velvet took a second to think before answering, "I would like to help, but if you are intending on using your Semblance then I'm not sure how I can keep up with you."

"You can get on my back!" Sora suggested as he pointed his thumb to his back.

"Ermmm, what?"

"I'll do the moving around while you try to hear any sign of Blake. You up for it?"

"...Sure, Sora. You, Charlie, and your friends have stood up for us Faunus, so it's only fitting that I help you in your time of need." Velvet smiled as Sora did as well. Not wasting anymore time, Velvet secured herself on Sora's back as he made sure she was prepared.

"Ready?"

"Yep! Ready when you ar—" She didn't get to finish as Sora immediately launched off with his Flowmotion activated.

Velvet really had to wrap her arms tighter so she wouldn't get flung off. Even with a passenger, Sora was still able to efficiently traverse around with his Flowmotion. Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, Sora looked around to see any sign of Blake while Velvet focused her hearing on her rabbit ears, although she would have to periodically tell Sora to stop so the wind doesn't block out the sound. Sora even checked the towers to see if Blake went up those.

"Sora, stop right here!"

Sora nodded as he made his landing on a rooftop. "Do you hear anything, Velvet?"

"I hear footsteps, running towards that area," Velvet pointed a specific direction, "that's where the fountain is. That might be where Blake stops."

"Right! Then that's where we will intercept her!" Sora had a running head start before leaping off the rooftop. The school already started to set up some things for the Vytal Festival, so there were recently built structures and decorations Sora took advantage of for more efficient travel. It didn't take long at all for Sora and Velvet to reach the front area of Beacon where they had a clear view of the fountain. As they guessed, Blake had just stopped in front of the fountain. Sora landed softly a distance behind Blake and Velvet dismounted from Sora's back. The two of them walked towards Blake, but she didn't seem to notice maybe because she was too focused with her emotions. Sora tried to get her attention.

"Blake… hm?" Sora paused as Blake reached for the top of her head, specifically where her bow was. She unwinded the ribbon that held her bow together as she unraveled the accessory on her head, revealing what has been under that bow all this time.

A pair of cat ears. This was especially a surprise for Velvet.

"Blake… you're a Faunus?" Velvet asked as this got Blake's attention. She turned and didn't expect Sora and Velvet of all people to be the ones to track her down this quickly.

"How… how did you guys know I was going to be here?"

"Velvet helped me find you by using her Faunus hearing," Sora explained to Blake, "I told her to get on my back while I used my Semblance in order to find you quicker. But more importantly Blake… why hide the fact that you're a Faunus?" Blake averted her eyes and looked down, trying to find words to say.

"Is it because you are ashamed of your heritage?" Velvet asked with a particularly sad tone.

That got Blake to respond quickly, "No! No it's not because of that! Not at all… it's just… it's just I have done so much wrong in my past… and I just want to escape it. All of the regrets I have, the pain caused from my misdeeds shouldn't have happened… I am a monster that Ozpin allowed in this school."

Blake's ramble got Sora and Velvet extremely worried. How much has Blake done and gone through to reach this point. Even with experiencing prejudice on a wide scale, not a whole lot of Faunus would cover their features just to blend in as 100% human. Sora found the insinuation of Faunus not being considered "full people" by many to be ridiculous. From what they saw, the Faunus in this school did not go out of their way to conceal their Faunus parts. So Blake must've become very scarred from something beforehand, something that must've been the reason why her argument with Weiss was so big. Blake seeing the Faunus of the White Fang as just misguided…

The White Fang. The White Fang. So that's why Blake was so defensive…

"You were a part of the White Fang, weren't you?" The absence of any following rebuttal from Blake confirmed Sora's question. "Well it looks like you have gotten yourself out of the White Fang and people can always redeem themselves. You're doing so by wanting to become a Huntress."

Blake answered back to refute Sora's statement, "It's not as simple as that, Sora. I was more deep in the rankings of the White Fang than you think. I am more responsible for distributing pain than any ordinary member, the things that I have allowed hurt more people than I can count… including Weiss. All I can do is just run from my problems. And I'm just afraid of that past creeping back to me, following me, wanting to take me back."

Velvet decided to comment on Blake's wording choice, "Later on with what you've just said it sounded like you're trying to avoid a certain person." Blake had a shocked look on her face, realizing she gave away a bit too much.

Sora approached the cat Faunus, "Blake…"

"I just want to be left alone right now." She motioned to leave. Sora tried to grab her hand, but Blake activated a shadow clone and imbued it with Ice Dust, trapping Sora's hand in a frozen statue of her clone. Blake made a run for it, seeming to be headed towards the lockers.

"Blake, wait!"

Getting straight to action, Velvet went into a stance before doing a downward axe kick on the frozen appendage, freeing Sora. "We should both be able to pursue her!"

"Right!" The two began chasing Blake. Noticing that the two were not giving up, Blake produced a Fire clone that exploded a second later in order to deter the other two. They didn't let that stop them as they continued the pursuit. They eventually got closer to the lockers as Blake already reached it first. Sora and Velvet reached the entrance soon after and entered the building, looking for any sign of her. They heard a creak and went to the source only to find a half open locker.

"She must've grabbed her weapons and equipment." Velvet guessed as she closed the locker for Blake.

"We're still following her." Sora ran outside to the other door as Velvet followed.

"Are you sure about this, Sora? She might retaliate!"

Finally getting visual on Blake, she seemed to be headed to the Emerald Forest in order to lose them.

"This isn't the first time I've fought a friend in order to bring them back! I always have a Keychain on me, don't worry!" Sora reassured Velvet as he showed her the Kingdom Key keychain in his hand.

"Well I don't have any equipment on me, but I'll help you locate her in the forest!" Velvet said.

"I appreciate it, Velvet!"

Blake managed to get into the Emerald Forest, Sora and Velvet following not long after. This would be an area that Blake thrives best in; a dark forest perfect for a stealth combatant. He has no doubt in his mind Blake had night vision as a Faunus as it was rather challenging to keep an eye on Blake for how dark it was. Velvet was faring better with her enhanced hearing, but it also seemed like she had night vision as well. Blake turned her weapon into gun form as she shot rounds above her, branches began to descend. Sora summoned Kingdom Key and whacked the branches away from him and Velvet. They all ran into a clearing, Sora finally being able to see clearly. He also decided that he had enough of this goose chase so he took off in a burst of speed at Blake. Her sixth sense made her turn back and draw out her weapon. Kingdom Key and Gambol Shroud clashed.

"Blake! We really need to talk!" Sora shouted.

"Go away!" They broke off the lock as Blake finally stopped running. Sora and Blake faced each other in a stare off, seeing who would make the first move. Velvet could only watch from the sidelines, concern all over her face.

"Why...why are you so persistent?! Don't you see how far I am willing to run?! Just let me go! How can a monster like me be redeemed?! Just leave me..." Blake began tearing up. She held onto her battle stance as tears started flowing down.

Sora held his position firmly, looking at Blake with empathy. He could think of one person who was plagued with remorse about actions in the past…

-Sora's Memories-

"Close your eyes." Kairi says.

Sora complied, taking a glance at "Ansem" before slowly closing his eyes. In the dark void, he didn't know what to expect, but all of that answered itself when he saw Riku. Riku was there, it really was him. Needless to say, Sora broke down once he finally opened his eyes. In the form of Ansem and yet in the voice of Riku, he told Sora about his condition.

"I told you: I didn't wanna be found. Not like this, I couldn't. I fought with Ansem. With... Xehanort's Heartless-when it invaded my heart, and I won. But to use the power of darkness, I had to become Ansem myself. In the past, I was overcome by the dark and betrayed you. Look what's become of me. I wasn't sure I wanted to see you...but Kairi insisted."

-Back to the present-

Blake, to some degree, reminded Sora of Riku. They have both fallen into the dark path and have luckily freed themselves even though they both have regrets and the guilt of hurting others. However, Riku was able to turn his situation around fully not only by accepting the darkness but eventually overcoming it. He became a master over the power that he most feared. Blake needs to overcome her past and live in the present, to begin shaping her future that is not defined by the things she has done in the White Fang.

Sora took a few steps forward, "I'm not going to leave you in the darkness. I know this from the heart: it is never impossible to redeem yourself even after all that you've done."

A moment of silence reigned as Blake registered Sora's response. A chilling wind blew through the clearing, leaves sailing through the wind while the grass danced with the current. After a bit, the wind died down, leaving everything at peace. Only the sounds of Blake's heavy breathing were heard.

"You don't understand… there's nothing you understand about this!" Blake transformed Gambol Shroud into its gun form and began strafing at Sora. Velvet ran to help Sora, but Sora noticed and spoke up.

"I got this Velvet! We'll be done quick!" Sora told Velvet as he evaded and blocked each bullet. Sora decided to press closer to Blake, avoiding each bullet along the way. When the clip was about to reach its limit, Blake knew Sora could close the gap between them quickly so she opted for the head-on charge. She transformed her weapon into katana form and grabbed her sheathe, getting ready to fight dual wielded. Both combatants dashed at each other and their blades clashed.

Blake screamed in frustration as she jumped back and phased to the side to strike Sora but he gave her no quarter. She continued this a handful of times and Sora met her every time with no openings to give.

"It's not too late for you, you can still find redemption!" Sora tried pleading with Blake.

"Don't try it! I've done so much damage!"

Blake backflipped to gain some space but Sora closed the gap pretty quickly. She created a fire clone to replace her and Sora got caught in the explosion. Thinking she got the perfect opening, she went for a strike from behind. That didn't seem to do anything as Sora came from the smoke and met her blade. A brief bout of swordplay and Sora got the better of her as he scored a pommel strike to her side and a clean swipe across her abdomen. She was launched back and tumbled before getting on her feet.

"Rahhhhh!" Blake charged at Sora. During the exchange, Blake decided to speak up. "I've sabotaged Dust shipments, raided cargo, allowed people to suffer for the benefit of the Fang, and I've even made way for our big targets to be held hostage! Even if that resorted in someone's blood being spilt! How can I look Weiss in the face now?! I believed that we could make a change until I wanted out! The fact that I tolerated those acts for even a second is irredeemable!"

Sora swept at Blake's legs and threw her off-balance. She clone-phased to stop her fall and went up. She descended to meet Sora's blade before phasing again behind Sora to get a shot on his back. Sora saw through it and quickly blocked the bullet before throwing his Keyblade at her, striking her in the head. Kingdom Key then returned to Sora's hand.

"But you did so out of fear, did you? You seemed to be referring to someone back at the fountain, who is it?" Sora questioned Blake, who bit her lip. "If you said the Faunus of the White Fang are misguided, maybe that person can also be convinced otherwise!

"It's not that simple with Adam!" The cat is out of the bag, there's the name behind the individual. "...When the Fang was peaceful, Adam and I strove for peace between Faunus and Humans. I saw him as a brother to depend on. But overtime when leadership transferred to a new leader, the methods became more radical. I stuck with the Fang even against my parents' wishes. Adam… he became absorbed with the ideology of this new Fang, eventually embodying the worst of the Fang. He doesn't like defectors, and I am a defector that just so happened to be the person closest to him. Don't you see now? I'm never safe, he will always pursue me! I was afraid to leave the Fang because I knew Adam would do this. Now, his shadow is always on the back of my head..."

Silence filled the clearing again as a lone leaf fell from a tree. It traveled to where Velvet was as it began its descent in front of her. The moment it touched the ground at her feet, Blake switched her weapon into its sickle form as Blake opted for a mix of mid-ranged and close-range. Sora mainly stood at the same position, letting Blake move around all she liked.

Her combination of phasing with clones, using her sickle and ribbon like a whip, and elusive close-ranged style really reminded Sora of fighting Young Xehanort. There were a lot of mix-ups to consider which made that style of fighting threatening.

Unfortunately for Blake, Young Xehanort was leagues ahead of her in skill and combat prowess. He wanted to wrap this up quickly. Blake continued an onslaught of sheathe and sickle attacks. She was in the air and threw out her sickle and that's when Sora capitalized on the moment. He spun his Keyblade and the sickle bounced up and Sora followed it up by jumping and doing a spinning hook kick to send the sickle back at Blake, who was completely caught off guard. He then charged his Flowmotion while Blake was distracted by her sickle coming back and he slid under her with insane speed. This was possible without Flowmotion but Sora didn't want to showcase that level of speed without Flowmotion yet. Sora executed a counterattack with a series of spinning slashes that ended with a flipping slash. Blake got hit by all of that and that flipping slash got her Aura flashing as she landed on the ground. She struggled to get up as she noticed she dropped her weapons. Her attempt to get up was interrupted when the end of Kingdom Key hovered right in front of her face. She looked up to see Sora, seeming that he hadn't even broken a sweat.

It was silent for a few moments before Sora set Kingdom Key to his side. He sighed before giving Blake a story, "I have a friend named Riku. He's a friend that has been with me for so long, and a great competitive rival too. There was a time when another friend's wellbeing was in danger so he took it upon himself to gain as much power in order to save her. Not only did he walk alone, but he gave into darkness to the point where he was manipulated and he betrayed those he loved, including me. I fought with him to knock some sense into him. He snapped out of it, realizing all that he had done and he worked to overcome his past. He was guilty and resorted to isolating himself time to time. A few friends and I had to drag him back. No matter how big the problems are, you can't do everything alone."

"So what happened to Riku?" Blake asked.

Sora gave a pained look and he can't tell Blake how he actually got separated from everyone. "Our island got overrun by Grimm. All I can hope is for Riku's and everyone else's safety. But… I pretty much got separated from everybody." They both fell silent as Blake absorbed everything.

"Now what? You want me to stay and wait until Adam potentially arrives on the doorstep?" Blake sat with her knees to her chest, ruing that day. "I'm still not ready to face Weiss yet…"

"You can stay in one of our rooms while you prepare yourself." They both looked towards Velvet walking towards them as Sora and Blake contemplated it.

"Are you two sure about this? I don't want to inconvenience your teams at all."

"No, not at all! I'm sure Coco and everyone else will understand—" Velvet paused before she just remembered something, "...actually Coco said she wanted to test something with a weapon I was making, which is still a secret. So..." Velvet glanced at Sora, he thought about it for a bit before he smiled.

"I'm sure Charlie will be fine with this situation! We're all here for you, and I'm sure you and Weiss will come to an understanding soon." Sora reached his hand out for Blake.

Blake looked at his hand, thinking how did she still deserve this. She kept trying to run from Sora and despite all of that he went this far just to convince her to stay. Even after Blake fought him in the hopes of stopping him, he persisted. There was just something with the two members of Team King, like they've already had a lifetime of experience. The way they fought, the way they carried themselves at times, and the way they managed to lift others.

A single tear went down Blake's cheek as she silently accepted Sora's hand, smiling slightly. The camera pans to the full shattered moon.

With the moon still in the center point, the sky transitions to red as the camera pans down to view a hellish landscape.

The Land of Darkness. A barren wasteland with no signs of life to be seen for miles. All that moves in this land are the vast quantities of Grimm that roam about. Pools of dark substance dot the landscape as new Grimm periodically rise for these tar-like pools, ready for their collective purpose to get rid of humanity. A lone castle comes into view. Inside of the castle there is a conference hall with dark crystals lining the wall of windows. A dark crystal table lies in the center of the room with chairs on each side and one dark crystal chair at the far end. Right now only two chairs are occupied, one on one side and the one at the end.

"Cinder, perhaps you can enlighten me on the situation in Vale," the individual at the head of the table said.

Salem, the mother of Grimm and Humanity's bane.

"Yes, my Queen," Cinder replied as she prepared to inform Salem, "Roman Torchwick has been procuring Dust as usual from my request as per your orders. There was one incident however that involved a Huntress and two kids."

Salem held her hand up and Cinder took that as her cue to stop talking. The queen rose from her chair and walked towards one of the windows. She stared out before speaking, "And what were those two kids like?"

"One of them was a girl with a red cape and scythe, while the other kid was a boy with a key-like weapon." Cinder answered. A brief moment of silence filled the air as it seems Salem was thinking of something.

"I might know what boy you are talking about, Cinder." Salem said as she returned to her seat. Cinder raised her eyebrow. "I sent a Seer Grimm to observe Beacon's most recent Initiation for new coming Huntsmen-in-training. From there I witnessed two stand-alone stars: a boy with a key-like weapon and another boy clad in white and blue armor who I am certain is the heir to the Magnus family in Atlas Watts has told me about. With the help of friends including the girl with the scythe, they dispatched a grown Deathstalker and Nevermore easily. I then decided to send a young Mishupeshu just to see their worth."

Cinder was slightly surprised that Salem sent a highly dangerous Grimm that's only native to Anima to test a bunch of kids. Salem continued where she left off.

"They managed to slay it with not much more difficulty. Those two boys and one girl commandeered a valiant fight, and they will prove to be a wedge in our plans. This especially applies to the boy with the key."

"What's so special about that boy, My Queen?"

Salem looked at Cinder, "If all of this is true, then it lines up with what our new ally has mentioned. Speaking of which, he's here."

"New ally?" Cinder thought to herself as the large doors opened.

There stood a man in a black coat.

Yo, how are y'all doing!

Shoutouts to ptl for guessing last chapter's name correctly! You're the only person to actually try guessing in reviews lmao. (*EDIT*) And if you guys haven't check out hbomberguy's two and a half video on RWBY, have a look at it. His analysis on the entire series and its flaws is phenomenal with fair criticism all around. Some of you guys have suggested these sort of rewrite videos too. I am open for those thing so we can patch as much issues as possible.

So there's that whole pandemic thing going on around the world. That thing and summer school has halted my progress on writing this story due to being so preoccupied with other things in life. It just so happened that what I thought would take me 3 weeks to a month to write a chapter turned into 5 months. I would say there were two separate weeks where I binged each half of the chapter; the first being 3 months ago and the second being the past week. For that I say sorry about the huge delay lol. I spent some moments when I wasn't working on this story thinking about future ideas for the plot. There are solid ideas up to the end of Volume 3 and everything after that needs solidifying. Soaking the info of Volume 7 also clarified some ideas in mind.

I decided to make this a rather beefy chapter to kinda make the plot start rolling. I haven't introduced Sun to this plot yet and I will very soon. Team RWBY went to Vale to scout out the competition and all that during Jaune's training scene. Jaune has his Semblance now very early on, so it's more than in the main RWBY canon where he only brought it out to block Cardin's punch. In this lore, I made it so Jaune doesn't have a whole lot of precise control over his output so he will have to train with his Semblance.

So HOPEFULLY the next chapter will not take almost half a year to come out. The amount of ideas that I have thought out should help me quicken that process. With that being said, every one of you guys stay safe, wash your hands, and we will get through this together! I will see you in the next chapter!

- Re-Eternal