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Jaune was terrified right now, he could feel it deep down. In his core. He had been nervous enough before he stepped out of the locker room, enough so that he'd forgotten to zip his pants. Then he'd seen their method of actually getting to the testing grounds and it had gotten worse. Still, he'd been more nervous than afraid, thinking they were testing their resolve, or had limiting fields in place or something. Then, flying through the air, he'd been scared enough to scream, but Pyrrha had pinned him to a tree- likely saved his life, as well.

But then he'd met the first Grimm he'd ever seen, and felt terror. In the back of his mind, at least. But he'd been calm, spoken calmly, and acted calmly. He'd freaking read Pyrrha's thoughts and been just fine, rolled on as though nothing had happened. That sort of calm, that discipline… that wasn't Jaune. That was Pyrrha. He could feel her mental state, and it washed his own down until he could breathe and walk normally, enough that he could drown his own feelings in a sea of hers.

"He's still staring... I would much prefer a fight with more Ursai than this." She tossed a look over her shield-arm's shoulder, and he waved meekly at her. She smiled back before turning back, "He's not even ogling my rear, as most men have been wont to do until now. Is he some sort of deviant with a hair fascination?"

He sighed quietly, enough that she couldn't hear, and kept staring. He had to look at her for it to work, he'd looked away twice and each time almost panicked when the emotions rushed back to him, like a man to air after nearly drowning. He flinched back slightly, blinking. He was even beginning to think similarly to her now, along with moving and feeling as she was. Could doing this be dangerous in that aspect? And now the fear was worse, under Pyrrha's calm, at the back of his mind.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha called quietly, looking over her shoulder again, "How did you know the Ursa was waiting for reinforcements?" "With a locked Aura, I'm certain you're at best a novice. There's no chance you have better training regarding Grimm instincts and behaviors than I do."

"Uh, well… I grew up with a bit of a physical sickness, made training my body hard when I was younger. So my family didn't want me to train as a Hunter. I told them I wanted to be a teacher instead, at one of the smaller academies." He shrugged, smiling nervously at her and rubbing the back of his neck, "So they bought me books about Grimm instead of swords and armor."

"So you lied?" "Deceptive actions lead to deceptive lives, at every turn." She asked, her voice calm and curious. Her thoughts, however, were far more barbed and prickly.

"No, I do intend to teach some day, and will need this knowledge to do it. I just intend to use it to defend people for a while first, so I can learn the Grimm through practice as well as science." Which was true, if only because most Huntsmen eventually became teachers after a couple decades of working as Hunters, to train the next era of their ilk.

"I see." "So a deceit of coincidence... Is that not still deceit though?" Pyrrha ducked under a low hanging branch, holding it so Jaune could do the same and walking next to him, only just in front for his defence, "So it is less a lie, and more an eventual truth?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." He smiled at her and, a good sign, she smiled back and he sensed she truly felt satisfied by his answers. They walked in silence for several minutes, their armor clinking and the noise of the forest were all that one of them could hear. The other could hear thoughts from his new partner, and emotions from far ahead of them, an ocean of them.

And they weren't happy ones. They were angry and dark, filled with hate that washed towards him like a gust of heat. It stunned him, and he staggered back slightly clutching at his head under the torrent, the sheer malignance making his legs turn to jelly.

"Jaune?!" Pyrrha asked in concern, taking a knee and pulling him against her for support, bracing her shield-arm behind his back and holding his shoulder. "Jaune, are you well?"

Ignoring her, unable to even feel her mind at this point, he looked ahead of them. A pack of four Beowolves, larger and more armored than normal as far as he knew, with massive arms rippling with muscle under their fur and thin and light bone plates on their backs and forearms and legs, scarred from conflicts long since passed. Their eyes narrowed onto him, boring into him and fixing him to the spot, and he felt the echo of direction towards him, like a nudge from a mile away. Telling them to hunt.

Telling the Grimm to hunt him down, directing them at him. "Jaune." His face was pulled to Pyrrha's gently, a gloved hand gripping his chin tightly, "Is this your sickness acting against you? As you told me?" "I had thought him mended… Damn it, this isn't good."

"Y-Yeah, I have sudden… migraines, I guess you'd call it." He let her pull him up, drawing his sword in a shaky hand and trying to force himself upright properly, "They… They used to be a lot worse, I'd be unconscious for days. Now I just get bowled over on occasion, but I'm fine now."

"Good, because I shan't be able to protect you if you can't move. Not against this manner of force." Pyrrha advised, stepping in front of him without hesitation and raising her shield, sword shifting into a spear and sliding into the inlet on the side of the shield defensively, "I will require you to defend yourself while I slay the beasts." "This is how we meet our deaths, I suppose… Without a second fighter, I can't handle this many Alphas."

"I... I can fight too, Pyrrha. I know enough to defend myself, just worry about yourself." She looked over her shoulder, and he gave her a brave enough smile, which she returned warmly before looking back.

"Very well. May the Gods guide our blades and hearts, then." "Some courage… I am glad for it, it is nice to see a man willing to face death on his feet." He swallowed nervously, hearing her voice echo their doom when she turned back and took a step forward, advancing at the slowly encircling Grimm, "To battle!"

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"Why are there Alphas of that caliber in the forest?" Glynda half-snarled, gripping her mug hard enough to almost break the reinforced and treated ceramite in her distress, "I understand the students are a bit further south than they ought to be, but even so, the Grimm shouldn't' be such a large threat as a pack of Alphas."

"And why track these two specifically? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me that they'd avoid three other groups with weaker fighters to go after those kids." Qrow's voice crackled on the Scroll, watching from some room in a random inn outside Vale, "Do I need to started headin' their way? I can be there in about an hour if I go as the crow flies."

"No. Not yet, at least. Pulling you in would cause a ripple if Miss Rose or Miss Xiao Long were to find out about it, and we need to avoid that if our other suspicions ring true." Ozpin said quietly, reclining in his chair and watching the screen, "Glynda, if they prove unable to deal with this threat, how quickly can you have assistance to them?"

"I can have a squadron of our Atlesian Knight Mark Ones there by Bullhead in five minutes, and I will accompany them." She said quickly, plucking her Scroll from the table, "I can cut that by half if they are readied and loaded onto a Bullhead already, but that may cause alarm with current students."

"If questions arise, simply say that Grimm activity along the southern patch of our initiation area is too high for our novices to handle. Also, enlist team BLCK on a mission to clear out Grimm in that area." Glynda nodded, standing up and moving towards the elevator without another word, and Ozpin turned to regard Qrow, "As for you, any report on who orchestrated the attack on Fall?"

"Not really. I didn't recognize 'em at the time, and my contacts only know the one." A file popped up on Ozpin's Scroll, and he diverted it into a folder to review after the call ended, "Short version, he's an old assassin's kid. Lost his legs, no one knows how, but that helped me identify him. He's the dangerous sort of criminal, the kind that only cares about his paycheck."

"Nothing on the others?" Ozpin asked quietly, lifting his mug and sipping at the cooling tea.

"Not a thing, aside from a rumor about the green haired one. A thief from Vacuo, except everyone always remembers the person who was robbed handing her the item." He shrugged nonchalantly, sighing and causing the line to crackle lightly, "Aside from that? Nothing."

"Keep searching for now, along with looking for Spring. Winter is under Atlesian protection, for now, and Summer is safe enough in Mistral for us to consider worrying for her tertiary." Ozpin sighed, leaning forward and pressing a few buttons on his Scroll, "I am sending you some contact information for Hunstmen in the area. Task them for Grimm clearing, the funds for it will be made available."

"Understood. And what about the tin man? Gonna call him?" Qrow asked gratingly, rolling his eyes from the other end of the call, "You know some Specialists would be damned useful to you, so why don't you-"

"We don't need Atlesian Huntsmen here, Qrow. Further, that would raise a great many concerns for the Council. Concerns I can't lay to rest without revealing certain secrets that you know would at best cause my dismissal. At worst, my imprisonment." Ozpin said dismissively, closing his eyes and sighing, "And I can't allocate enough funds to you to pay for it without raising those same suspicions, along with suspicions of Atlesian sympathizers."

"Yeah, I got it... Dust, I hate politics." He sighed, and in the background Ozpin could see him moving around the hotel room he'd been in for the conversation, "I'll need five-hundred up-front for the guys I have in mind, though."

"It'll be in your account." The other man nodded and Ozpin ended the call, reclining in his chair and opening the file on the silver-haired boy to peruse. Silently, he mused on how threatening Salem's pawns were, if this boy wasn't even one of her leaders. Not a pretty thought, to say the least.

He turned his attention back to the forest, eyes narrowing slightly. He needed a few more back up plans, just to be safe. And if the blonde was drawing Salem's direct ire… Perhaps he should watch him, for considerations.

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"No, no, no, you moron, put the red crystals in the red case. I mean honestly, how hard is that to understand? Are you freaking color blind?" The Wolf Faunus huffed, walking away to put the crystals where he'd been told, and Roman sighed rolling his eyes and looking at Neo, "Honestly, where do they get these guys?"

The small girl shrugged, laying on a crate and watching a movie boredly, until they both heard the clicking of heels, "We find them on the streets, where we found you as well, Roman. If you recall." Cinder stepped into view, smiling at him chillingly, and turned to survey the wall of crates, "My Mistress wants you to gather some information for her."

"Your…?" He paused when she gave him a look and coughed nervously, Neo hopping down to stand next to him protectively, "What sorry shit has her attention?"

"A blonde student at Beacon Academy. Wears light armor, carries a shield and sword, and is in the new class. Find out who he is, and how we can get to him." She smiled at him, turning around slightly and looking at the door, "We need new pawns, after all, and she's… interested in something she noticed about him recently."

"What kind of thing caught the attention of whoever can control you?" He asked curiously, twirling his cane absently, "Has to be pretty bad ass, by my thinking, to draw even your attention. But your boss? That sounds even harder to do."

"Just do as you're told, I don't care what you think about him. She wants him found out about and captured, unharmed. Then you turn him over to me, and I will handle the rest." She raised a brow at him, giving Neo a glance, "And if she hurts him too badly, I'll kill her. Understood?"

Roman ground his teeth for a moment, glaring at her, and Cinder gazed at him coolly in return. "She won't hurt him unless he fights back."

"Then make him not wish to fight back." Cinder said dismissively, "Come up with something, Roman, I don't care what. At the worst, he's a teenage boy. I'm sure any rather attractive woman in the Fang could be used to lure him to our side. Or Neo herself, even."

"I… Can think of a few people in the Fang I can use for that. But I'm sure that won't be how I do it, so relax." She nods at his answer, walking to the door, and he watches her leave. "Neo, find out who the hell she was talking about? I could use more than 'blonde guy with a sword'."

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