One More Chance

Chapter 25 - Partners


Weiss watched Jaune's brightly glowing form as his Aura steadily decreased, taking careful notes at the rate of which his Aura decreased depending on which part of his Semblance he was using.

Right now they were testing a more intricate and specific usage of his Semblance.

That is, time dilation.

... No, perhaps using that term would be far too presumptuous of her, after all, it wasn't exactly manipulating time—rather, it was more of accelerating the perception and actions of the user. If it were actual dilation then even if they were just blinking then it would be noticable.

So, in a sense, it was simpler than her own dilation glyph, but also a lot more versatile as all Jaune had to do was come in contact with the person he wanted to apply it to, or just use it on himself... There was also the method of just making his Aura explode outwards to cover a number of people in a radius but that was inefficient and should generally only be used if necessary.

How inefficient? Weiss wasn't sure yet, she was still trying to get more data on that, but with the small sample size she had acquired, she could say that it was around 20% less efficient.

Normally that wouldn't matter with Jaune's large Aura pool, which was why he'd used it back in Initiation since they could have always found somewhere to hide in at the Emerald Forest to recuperate, but in a sparring match or somewhere he can't take a break in, it would be rather difficult to just rely on it all the time.

After all, right now it was draining his Aura at a rate of around 3% per second.

A loud beeping noise pushed her off her thoughts and she gave Jaune the signal to stop as she started to tabulate the data.

"Hm, it seems rather accurate so far at least." Weiss nodded to herself, before looking up at Jaune again, "Your Semblance is quite outrageous, honestly." she sighed, just what were the Gods thinking giving such a powerful Semblance to the same family with the most amount of Aura?

"That's hereditary Semblances for you, I guess." Jaune shrugged, raising his hands up at the glare she sent his way, "Hey! As if your Semblance is any less outrageous! In fact, it can practically do everything mine can."

"Not practically, theoretically I don't exactly have the monstrous Aura that you Arcs have." Weiss shook her head as she rolled her eyes, "And I'm nowhere near Bianca's level yet either, so don't count on me being able to do that much for a while." she grumbled, making Jaune frown.

"Hey, I'm nowhere near Arthur's level yet either, Weiss." Jaune said, looking concerned at her, "You don't have to be perfect all the time, Weiss."

Those words made her twitch slightly, but she just let out a long sigh as she unclenched her fists.

... She should stop letting her emotions get the best of her.

"I know, Jaune." Weiss gazed towards the outside of the Training Arena, looking up at the bright green glowing spire atop the Beacon Tower. "But I just feel like there's so much more that I can do and achieve... Pushing my dream farther and farther away." she looked down and closed her eyes, "I know that getting here to Beacon is half the battle but... I just have that feeling that it's not enough. That it's never going to be enough. That I—"

Before she could finish that, she choked slightly as she found herself wrapped around someone's arms—Jaune's arms.

"I feel the same, Weiss." Jaune muttered, "This... all this just feels like the beginning. And, honestly? I'm scared. Scared that my strength won't be enough—scared that my accomplishments won't ever be enough, that my whole life will just be another footnote in history."

There was a momentary pause there, as Weiss waited, before hesitantly hugging him back, leaning into his chest.

It was warm.

"I'd already failed." Jaune started again, "I've failed many times—and Initiation might just be the latest one, or, heck, maybe even just the fact that I made the whole team dynamic all the more complicated by pushing the responsibility of a leader onto someone else, to you my partner. If anything I'm just—"

"Jaune you're not—" Weiss tried to retort, but Jaune shook his head.

"I know, I know... I'm just saying, it could be seen as that way." Jaune shrugged, "Still, Weiss." they then broke off from their spontaneous hug, and looked at each other in the eye, "We can't always be perfect, heck, we can never even be perfect, but at the very least... we're here now aren't we? And that counts for something. That counts for a lot, really. And for me, I'm just glad to be given the chance." he smiled, "Aren't you?"

"I... am. Yeah." Weiss nodded, furrowing her brows slightly, "But then—"

"No buts, Weiss. No what-ifs, no if onlys, none of that. We can look back all we want and hope for a different outcome... but we can't change the past. That also counts for looking forward into the future and worrying about it, we can prepare and expect all we want, but all that will be useless in the end when fate shows its hand." Jaune then smiled, "So what can we do? Just make sure that we're as ready as we can ever be for whatever fate throws at us. So... stop worrying about it, it'll only make you feel worse, and if there's anything I've learned from Arthur's training... it's that how you handle negative thoughts and feelings matters *a lot*. Especially against the Grimm. Those guys can sense negativity after all."

Weiss just stared at him for a good long while, and Jaune just kept smiling, looking rather satisfied with his words.

"... You should have done the entrance speech instead of the Headmaster." Weiss said after a long while, holding a frown on her face for a second.

But that frown didn't last long as Jaune suddenly laughed at her words—her joke.

Weiss smiled, Jaune was right, it seems.

Negative thoughts really are quite nasty.

"I'm really glad that I found a partner like you, Jaune."

"You mean caught a partner like me? I mean if you look at it from another angle—"

"Not like that you dolt!"

The two of them laughed and joked amongst themselves as they continued on with their nightly training.

Not really knowing that Bianca and Arthur were watching them from the shadows the whole time.

"... You know I feel like Jaune called me out on that." Bianca frowned, "Like, not just Weiss, but me specifically. You're seriously teaching him the worst things, Arthur."

"What can I say? Great minds think alike." Arthur chuckled, "Still... I'm glad these two have it good at least."

"How could they not?" Bianca rolled her eyes, "They're us, after all. But much better than before."

"Remember first year?"

"That's why I said better than we were."

"... That's a good point, but, don't you feel kind of hurt from saying that?" Arthur asked, looking at her,

Bianca just rolled her eyes, "What can I say? Young Weiss was a stuck up bitch that needed a good d—"

"I'll stop you right there before you deviate this conversation into questionable territory." Arthur sighed, rubbing his temples, "Seriously though, look at it, their dynamic is totally the opposite of ours right now."

"That's because you're too stiff, Arthur." Bianca winked, nudging him with her elbow, "If you know what I mean."

"I know perfectly well. Stop devolving this even further..." Arthur groaned, continuing to go back to their room, "Fine, let's go to bed then." this was going to be a long night...

"Alright!" Bianca pumped her fists, "Though ignoring all of that—"

"Finally you're getting serious."

"—you sure we should just let those two keep on going with this? The side effects can be rather..."

Arthur frowned at that, it was a good point, but... "Jaune knows about it. If anything, they should be going to bed rather soon." he said, looking at the time for a moment, 12:08AM, "Interestingly enough, that might actually be why he'd said those words to Weiss. You tended to be rather stubborn in training after all." he smiled at her and she rolled her eyes,

"As if you weren't." Bianca rolled her eyes, "I'm rather worried about something though..."

"Of which thing?" Arthur asked, blinking,

"Jacques' thing. We may be Professors in Beacon, but only part-time. We have a deadline to catch with our main job, Arthur." Bianca looked to him, "And I'm wondering just how we're actually going to meet that when we're not getting to the bottom of the Dust robberies anytime soon."

Arthur nodded, "I understand your concern, but don't worry about it too much, we don't actually have to do a lot of work ourselves in a few months, hell, maybe even weeks."

"What?" Bianca blinked, "Just what makes you say that?"

"Merlot isn't the *only* mad scientist in Remnant, after all." Arthur chuckled, "The Atlesian Army is about to get a huge upgrade."

Bianca stared at him, wide eyed as she stopped walking, "Arthur, what did you do?" she muttered lowly, practically a whisper. "You didn't just—"

"I did, Bianca." Arthur smiled softly. "I never really got to try using my Aura on Penny, after all."

The two were silent after that, Arthur turning back to her with a small smile.

Before they could say anything, however, they got a message on their scroll that made both their eyes go wide as they immediately ran towards Beacon Tower.

Beneath the tower, Amber's body was glowing faintly.


A/N: more chapters yay