Author's Note:

Lot's of other people in this chapter, and I always want to know how I'm doing with blokes like Torchwick, Penny, Neo, and Roman. So tell me.

If you are so inclined, follow the story! I like it!

Thanks for reading.

Nora sat on top of her bed, fidgeting and fighting to remain still. It was taking every ounce of her willpower, but she was willing to do it. She had been promised that Ren would be returned swiftly if she was good. Every ounce of her strength had gone into staying in control, and she was finally starting to crack. She had stolen Ren's pillow again, and was hugging it tightly, eyes fixed on the door, waiting for him to come back. She wondered how long she had been staring at the door, but dared not take her eyes off of the door. If Ren came through the door, and she wasn't looking, she wouldn't forgive herself.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, her eyes finally started to rift over towards the digital clock on her bed stand. It had only been ten minutes since the last time she had looked. A frustrated noise somewhere between a sigh and a growl left her throat, and she slid her tongue over her teeth. When would he come back? She needed him.

At long last, a floorboard creaked outside, and Nora sat up like an alerted dog. That had to be someone out there. She hoped desperately that it was Ren. The lock on the door clicked open, and Jaune walked in, followed quickly by Pyrrha, who closed the door behind her. Nora looked between the two, confused for a moment, before pulling her face up away from the pillow and asking "Where's Ren?" in a worried voice. Jaune stopped briefly, visibly trying to avoid looking at her, before Pyrrha stepped forward between them, saying "Nora, I think we need to have a little talk."

Jaune turned away from them as Pyrrha began to explain that Ren had been drawn away by urgent family business, and wouldn't be back for a few days. He knew that if his gaze lingered on Nora for too long, he wouldn't be able to pull it away. He remembered Ren's face, absently smiling and clouded over, not a single large thought in his head. It was scary to think that Nora had done that to him, but it was the reality of the situation. Even looking at her could be a hazard, and he definitely didn't want her to get too close; she had started to give off this smell, totally unlike anything that he had ever smelled before. The only word that he could really assign it was "seductive". When he caught the odd whiff of whatever smell it was, he felt him mind numb and simply slip into a much more relaxed state. He stopped caring about everything around him, and he wanted to continue feeling that way.

That was why he had to keep his distance. It was of the utmost importance that he remain in control of himself. If he lost his control, than the team would lose their leadership, and Pyrrha would have to fend for herself. He couldn't let that happen. He had to stay strong.

Pyrrha finished explaining why Ren wouldn't be present for a few days, and Nora started to breathe more heavily, signaling that she was about to start crying. With a few hurried steps Jaune got to the door to the bathroom, throwing it open and dashing inside as quickly as his legs would let him. If Nora started to cry, he would be tempted to look at her, and to feel sorry for her. As terrible as it felt to admit, pity was a luxury that he couldn't afford Nora. Whether or not she intended to, that was how she would manipulate him, and drive him to the brink of awareness, so that he would be trapped in a waking dream like Ren.

The door shut behind him, and Jaune was alone again. On the other side of the door he could hear Nora start to bawl. She drew infrequent, spastic breath, and expelled it just as infrequently. He could also hear Pyrrha trying to comfort her, but it was likely to be to no avail. She was inconsolable, except by Ren. Nevertheless, Jaune felt a strong pull to go to her, and help her. It would be bad, though, and it took him immense strength of will to stay behind that door. He knew it would be a rough three days, but he would have to sweat it out. At least it wouldn't get any worse.

The extractor continued to pull at the object, but it soon neared a shift. Word had been sent to Naze that the artifact would soon break out of the molten soup of the mantel, and into the crust of the planet. When it did so, it would become much easier to divine its purpose and function, as well as any potential risk. Naze had made the decision to be present during this event. As it was, he was standing in the middle of a large patch of dead ground, waiting for the moment.

He didn't have to wait long, as though he could not see it, he could very much feel the change in the air. The artifact exploded into the solid earth, and the change was immediate. The very air seemed to spark and burn with ozone and brimstone. A wave seemed to ripple out of the extractor, and leave a deep worry in its place. Far off among the trees, creatures of Grimm howled and yelped, running in the opposite direction. The wizards who kept the extractor faltered, only for a second, before resuming their work, casting anxious looks at Naze.

Their leader stood still for a moment, contemplating. It was an energy he hadn't felt for a long time, but its corrosive touch was unmistakable. That was the feel of demonic energy.

So it was a demonic artifact. There was no doubt about it now. He knew that he had to keep it very safe now. Not his own sake, but for that of the rest of the world. He could feel the barrier between Hell and the world weakening. Demons were just behind that now relatively thin veil, waiting for their chance to pounce out at the souls that awaited on the other side. Delicious nutrients to them, and nothing more. Naze would be spared their consumption, even if they did overtake the earth, but his subordinates, and all of those still living would not be so lucky.

His eyes turned out to the forest, penetrating through the thick lines of trees. No White Fang had yet ventured close enough to be considered threats, but they were certainly approaching the point. They were massing numbers and arms, as well as a willingness to attack. Cinder had been riling them up towards them, and he knew that she was just waiting for the artifact to be revealed. He couldn't simply let it sit in the earth, either, as it would surely start to corrupt the very land, and everything on it. While he was curious what a demon corrupted Grimm would look like, or act as, he didn't anticipate this curiosity being shared. No, he had to ensure that the artifact fell into his hands alone. There was also the concern of Nora, and the demon that had taken up residence in her soul to worry about. If she found her way to it, things would take a very bad turn, without a doubt.

In any case, the artifact would be unearthed soon, and it was clear that there would be significant issue in getting it back to the ziggurat safely, without issue. Perhaps he could call in some assistance, and attempt to improve relations with the larger factions of the living. Ironwood didn't trust him, but maybe this was just the thing that would give their relations the little push that they needed to be more trusting. Naze didn't know how Ironwood would react, however. He seemed like a hard man, but he also didn't seem like a fool. Even if he hated Naze simply for the fact that he was undead, he had to see the reason of only letting the one who knew how to contain the danger the artifact could cause possess the artifact. If the White Fang were somehow successful in taking it, they would all become possessed, likely the same as Nora. And if Nora was allowed to access the artifact with as advanced a state of possession as she was in, it would be astounding if she didn't try to open some kind of portal.

He started to make his way back to the rune that would take him back to his home. Issues would require attention eventually, but he was not yet required to do anything.

The moon hung over the streets, lazily floating across the sky, but not even that great white eye, fragmented as it was, could tell what the thing was that walked in another's skin. Neo crossed the streets, confident that this time she would be able to free Roman, and maybe she would even do a favor for Adam as well. If he was on the way, she might as well.

It had been days since she saw him last, and she was starting to fear that he was being mistreated in the small cell that they had confined him to. Certainly it had all the things required, but she knew Roman better than anyone, and she knew that he hated being cooped up more than anything. Just as the large complex that she had already tried once, unsuccessfully, to infiltrate came into view, she pictured Ironwood in her head. Every small nuance of his body, facial structure, hair style, no detail was too small to escape her memory. She let off a small hiss as her body started to shift and change, bones and tendons growing as needed. In what seemed like a very short amount of time, she was an identical copy of Ironwood.

She needed to be fast if she was to get the job done in a clandestine manner. The last time she had botched the job, gotten ahead of herself, and set off an alarm. She had to be more careful this time. It hadn't really been her fault, regardless. If Adam hadn't been making so much noise, that guard never would have known that they were there.

She was alone now, and felt much better for it. Cinder had already condoned a second try, and Neo wasn't about to wait around for her to organize another team. She wanted Roman, and she wanted him now. A cloud passed aver the moon, and a strange breeze blew across the street as Neo grew closer to the gate. She tilted her head slightly, trying to get a read on the wind and determine what made it feel that way, but she couldn't. It simply felt wrong, with no rhyme or reason. It was starting to get on her nerves, but there was nothing that could be done. The feeling of wrongness had started to permeate the air a few hours ago, sometime after the broadcast from Ironwood about the undead operation in Menagerie, and she knew that the two things were connected. She couldn't say how she knew this, she simply chalked it up to changeling intuition. She approached the gate on foot, and was greeted by a guard standing in the post that controlled the gate, who was understandably confused.

Ironwood was still away in an airship, so his being here was very strange. Neo knew that it wouldn't cause too much trouble though, and greeted the man with a very small smile and a wave of the hand, indicating that the gate should be opened. The man's years of military training took over, and he did so without question. As she walked away, she could feel the man's confusion, but she also knew that he wouldn't call for anyone. It was a puzzling occurrence, but not worth the disciplinary punishment for calling a higher up for nothing.

She continued to walk, making her way to the structure that held prisoners. The guards outside of this would be dealt with much like the first, and would likely be even less prone to call anyone else. She allowed her mind to wander as she made her way towards them.

Cinder wanted Roman because he was powerful, but still capable of being a pawn in a greater scheme, without knowing the full plan. Ironwood wanted Roman because he was a threat, charismatic and somewhat psychotic, willing to do anything if his reasons were good enough. And that thing that had called itself "Naze" didn't seem to have any interest in Roman himself, but simply in showing up to stop them. She wondered if there wasn't more to this game than she thought.

She was snapped back to her present situation when her body almost automatically repeated the signals it had given the gate guard. They looked at each other briefly, but allowed her through. She walked in the door, and found herself in a long hall, many cells inlaid on the wall. She had seen this hall once before, but it had been a secondary detail in the face of the battle she had fought. Now she was here alone. She started to walk down the row, her memory flawlessly telling her which cell contained Roman. She also started to feel her body start to turn back to its natural state, and put more effort into remaining Ironwood. If nothing else, she needed to keep the form until she opened Roman's cell.

She knew that security cameras were gazing upon her from all angles, and that thought sped her feet along. She came to Roman's cell in seconds, and gazed in eagerly, despite of herself.

Roman was asleep in a sitting position. He didn't have his hat, and was missing his cane, but other than that he seemed to be in well enough health. Neo felt his thoughts for a moment before realizing that he was dreaming deeply. She respected Roman, and normally gave him a good deal of privacy, but she was very curious to learn what he was dreaming about now. She took a step closer to the clear glasslike material that separated them, and focused in on his thoughts.

They were active, and he was thinking about someone he knew, but beyond that it was impossible to tell. Reading dreams always had been like trying to translate another language. She dismissed the thought as a wave of discomfort shot through her, and she reminded herself that she was on a clock. She placed her (or Ironwood's) hand on the biometric lock, and the door slid open immediately. This caused Roman to jerk hard, hitting his head on the wall with a resounding thud, accompanied by an indignant "Ouch!"

He sat up and turned to face the now open door, saying "Ugh, what time is it? Don't you people have any idea how…" his eyes traced up the figure of Ironwood, starting at the boots and working their way up. When they reached his face, Roman leaned back and said in a challenging voice "Oh, it's you, is it? What's in store for me this time? Another round of questioning? I've already told you: I won't say a word."

Neo simply stood there, unmoving, looking at him. He didn't know it, but it was a little game that she liked to play with him. If ever she was in another form around him, she liked to simply stare him down. It was rather amusing to see how paranoid he got about it. He had called her out on it a few times in the past, but never been angry.

He sat up now, and even got to his feet, saying "What's up with you? Are you sleepwalking or something? Because if you are-" His voice was cut off when Neo blinked, and one of her eyes tuned a silvery grey. This was usually because she was feeling some emotion, and she certainly was at that moment. Roman looked taken aback for a moment, taking a cautionary step away, before narrowing his eyes and leaning towards him. "Wait, you're not…" His voice trailed off, and a smile came across his face.

"Neo! Oh, you magnificent little monster, I knew you'd bust me out sooner or later!" He reached out with both arms, wrapping them around her in a brief hug before breaking away and stepping out of the cell just as quickly. She wished that he hadn't, he didn't touch her often, and she rather liked the feeling.

"Alright, which way to get out of this dump?" He asked the question in a hushed voice, but the excitement in his voice was clear. Neo smiled again, and motioned for him to follow her, starting to let herself change back into her regular self. On the way, she passed Adam's cell, but her hands were already in the process of changing back, and she didn't want to use the energy to keep them transformed any longer. He was out of luck. Maybe if Cinder told Neo to get him out get him out specifically she would, but she doubted that Cinder wanted that to happen. She had just been put in control of the White Fang, there was no way that their getting their natural leader back would make Cinder too happy.

She walked towards the door again, letting herself slip back into the small form that she was used to. A few cracks and pops later, she was back to the almost childlike stature she normally had, the clothes that Ironwood wore melding back into the ones that always clung to Neo's body. Even though Roman was watching her, she didn't mind. As she did this, she could feel Roman's thoughts changing. She became more familiar, and the few emotions that Roman did have became much warmer towards her, and more attracted.

She couldn't help but smile a little wider at this. It made her happy to feel his… it wasn't quite love, but it was probably the closest that he could manage. She felt the distinct sensation of a pair of people drawing closer. She knew that if they were seen, it wouldn't be good, and she also knew that they were probably being sent because of the security cameras.

Without waiting to inform Roman of what was going on, she stopped. Roman collided with her back, his feet skidding on the floor as he tried to stop, almost toppling both of them. Luckily Neo braced herself, and was able to stay upright. Roman cried out "What the fu-" before Neo turned and grabbed a hold on his wrist, giving him a reassuring smile. He realized a second before in happened what she was going to do, and gave her a cocky grin. "I love it when you play dirty."

In a sudden flash of light the both of them vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of their presence behind. The two men who had been called to investigate the disturbances found nothing out of the ordinary, and soon went to return to their posts.

When Penny's eye flicked open and her mind rose back to the surface shrugging off the sleep that she had spent her night exploring. She didn't think that she dreamed quite like everyone else, but she did dream, at least in some respect. She didn't know how it compared to the nighttime experiences of others, but she was more than happy to keep to her own adventures.

But the sleep that she had been given was not quite the sleep that she was used to. The sleep she was used to was that of the mechanical parts of her body, and of the processors that she used to think. It was the computer sleep, which saved her current state and nearly shut down, running on minimal power only. She didn't dream when she did that, she only went to sleep, and woke up when the sleep ended. She had recently been given real dreams, or, at least, mimicked real dreams. It was a program designed to imitate the brain activity of a sleeping human, and she had accepted it eagerly. She had always wondered what dreaming really felt like, and even if she couldn't feel the real thing, an imitation was better than nothing.

The scientists also stood to gain from this, studying the effect of the new program on the aura that they had made for Penny. Overall, there seemed to be a positive effect, with her mood improving and even showing an increase of power generated. In an odd way, she was more alive than she had ever been.

This wasn't what she was thinking about, though. What she was thinking about was the dream she had had in which Ruby and Yang had both been crying over a tombstone. It was a very emotional experience, and Penny had to continually remind herself that it had only been a dream to keep from feeling sad. It worked to some extent, but there was also another thing that was making her feel down.

Something oppressive in the air, unquantifiable by any scale she had access to, was doing something akin to scrambling her thoughts. It couldn't quite be pinned down, and the confusing effect was barely noticeable, but if she tried hard, she could feel her thoughts being shunted slightly to the side. It only manifested when she tried to create a complex, multi-level thought, like planning a large event as well as different outcomes for different occurrences involved, but the errors were easily fixed. It had her more puzzled than worried.

And her dream had inspired a new question in her, one that she had not considered before. The foundations of this question had been laid when she had heard that Yang had died, but had not grown much since then. What was death? And how did it relate to her? She could think, feel, and act. She could dream, and want. But could she die? The more she thought about the question, the more the answer was clearly going to elude her. She decided that she would ask Ironwood. The topic of dead things seemed to be on his mind to a lot lately. She hoped that he wouldn't get angry when she asked.

She walked out of her room, making her way to find Ironwood herself. Technically she was supposed to go to the labs every morning so that they could collect data on her dreams, but she wanted to address the question first. She would go to them afterword.

It was a few minutes of walking before she found Ironwood successfully, and when she did she found him sitting at the large table of his private quarters, hands knit together, fingers interlaces, forehead resting on the sides of his hands. He looked like he was seething with rage, barely containing it. Penny's step faltered, and she started to rethink asking the question today. It wouldn't be too bad if she had to wait, she wouldn't mine.

Just as she started to edge towards the exit again, Ironwood looked up and let out a heavy sigh. "What is it, Penny?" She stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh, uh, never mind. I'll just-"

Ironwood cut her off again, saying "Penny, come here. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad about something else. Please, sit." He indicated a chair next to him, and Penny hesitantly obeyed. As she sat, she asked "What went wrong?" in an innocent voice. She didn't want him to get madder, but now she was genuinely curious. She thought that she would have heard about anything bad happening, but there were some things that she wouldn't be roused for.

"Torchwick escaped last night. Apparently the infiltrator from last night took my form again, and freed that bastard without opposition." His voice was bitter, and it made Penny even more hesitant to ask. "Oh." She didn't want to ask, but she had to. "That's a shame. Anyways, I wanted to ask you something." Ironwood looked up from his hands, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Penny responded slowly, saying "Well, I've been thinking a lot about it, and I've been hearing a lot about it too, but I just can't seem to figure it out. What is death?"

A silence hung in the air for a few moments before Ironwood looked up at her, a confused look on her his face. "Penny, why are you thinking about that? You shouldn't worry about-" it was hard, but Penny worked up the courage to interrupt him. "Sir, One of my friends died, and one of my friends was dead when I met them. I'm only curious. Please, can you just tell me what death is?"

Ironwood let out another large sigh and lead back, saying "Penny, that's a question I don't think anyone can answer. I don't think that even Naze could answer that. He might act like he knows everything, but no one person can know so much." He shook his head "Stop worrying about this. It hurts me to see you thinking about things like this. Please, drop it."

His last words were more heartfelt than Ironwood almost ever got, and Penny felt herself start to well with emotions. If it really made Ironwood feel that bad, she would stop. She didn't want to cause him any unnecessary pain. He had done so much for her, and despite how he acted in some situations, he loved her. Ironwood sighed and stood from the table, his appetite having been lost. "Go on and get to the lab." He said softly. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

Penny nodded and turned, standing and walking towards the exit. Ironwood watched her go, feeling his heartstrings pull back and forth. She was so little, and so innocent. She shouldn't have to think about death. It was hardly fair, but he'd come to expect that in his life. Before, he had rose to the challenge, but now there was nothing he could do. He couldn't answer Penny's questions, and he couldn't help the feeling that he had towards her. As she rounded a corner and walked out of sight, Ironwood sighed, reflecting on what he had agreed to when he had assumed responsibility for her. He had promised himself that he wouldn't become emotionally entangled. It was easy at first, but in those days he saw her only as a machine. It made him sick to think about, but he had treated her like equipment. But it wasn't long before the visage and the personality of a young girl had wormed its way into the depths of his heart.

He almost considered her a daughter. It was impossible not to, after the things that she asked him, and the moments that they had shared. He'd never had children of his own, but if he did, he was confident that if they turned out like Penny, he would be a proud father. He took pride in Penny, too, but sometimes her naïveté was the cause of more problems than he could handle.

But her questions did help his thoughts along, instead of just distracting him. She brought his attention back to Naze. Why hadn't he intervened this time? Was this his plan all along? If so, what was Torchwick doing in return to receive this service? The one who had freed him had been the same one who had attacked when Naze was defending, but that only made it more suspicious. He had let her get away, which seemed to suggest that they were working together. His eyes widened as the web of possible deceptions widened. There was any number of people that Naze could be working with, and any number of goals he could be working to achieve. These could include attacking or damaging the kingdoms. These goals could also include teaching magic, like he said, but somehow Ironwood doubted it.

He shook his head to himself. Today was going to be a long day, he could already tell. Between concerns over Penny and trying to divine Naze's intentions, he was liable to have some kind of heart palpitation or brain aneurism. He shook his head again. Why was did all of these things have to happen today?

Yang laid over the top of her bed, focused entirely on the center of her metal hand. A small ember, barely the size of a fingernail, was hovering a few inches above her palm, her fingers curled around it in a cage-like fashion. It was a struggle to keep the flame at the small strength it was at. She couldn't feed it too much power, or else it would grow into a strong blaze and burn itself out, and she couldn't underfeed it, or it would simply sputter out and die.

Her eyes narrowed on the little light as it started to fade, and she said in a hushed voice, careful not to wake her teammates "Don't do it! Don't do it, you little –" she couldn't increase the amount of power she fed it without burning it out, and it was already dying. She knew that if she tried to increase how much she was letting dribble into the magic, than it would surge, and the ball would die.

As the last of the heat from the fire died, and her fingers closed around the now empty air. As her metal skin slid across itself, her temper got the better of her, and she let the pulse of energy that had been building up within her for the past few hours slip into a flame, causing a blinding flash and a sudden wave of fire to spin out around her. Nothing caught fire, and the flame didn't travel far enough to endanger any of the others in the room. They did roll past Yang, licking the walls and creating black soot marks.

Yang was quick to clench back down on the power, preventing any further accidents. She also looked across the room at Weiss and Ruby, trying to tell if they had been disturbed by the blast. Neither appeared to have been, and she could hear no stirring from the bunk above her, so she assumed that Blake hadn't been awoken either. That was good, because she would feel somewhat guilty of she had awoken any of them. She let herself relax again, feeling good that she had at least been able to contain the damage that much. She had been lucky the blast had been mostly silent, though.

As she relaxed, she started to notice that her temper wasn't usually that bad. She was normally fairly chill about everything. While it was possible that it was interference from Naze again, he had said that he would shield her from that in the future, and it seemed that he was more fearful than angry when his humanity took hold. Yang didn't think that it was from Naze, though. There was something the air that seemed to have changed. Things had felt strange ever since sometime late in the afternoon of yesterday. It hadn't been too bad, but it was still noteworthy. She had almost asked Naze about it when she recalled that he had said something about being busy with "other things" and not wanting to be distracted.

Yang sighed to herself before opening her hand again and re-summoning the small burning ember. She would hold this for as long as she could, it was what she had been doing almost all night. She thought that she was getting better, too, because even if she was still failing, she was getting better at controlling small flows of power. She knew from her reading that if she wanted to do anything really special with her magic, she would have to hone that ability to a razor's edge. Still, she didn't know if she had the patience for that now.

The ember sparked to life, and she started to regulate the flow of power to it. At first she started off a bit too heavy, and the ember burned bright for a few seconds before she slowly and carefully edged off the power so that the change didn't come too quickly. If nothing else, this was teaching her some degree of restraint. In her duel with Cardin, she had held nothing back, and as a result her attacks at been very powerful, but also unfocused, wasting a lot of energy. If she had been more careful with the power she'd used and how she used it, she could've used many more attacks like that. The effectiveness of her magic had been clear, of course, but she knew that she could've been much more efficient and deadly of she had a little more of an idea what really good magic was. If she ever wanted to move on to something more advanced than Pyromancy, she would have to learn to use a magic that wasn't almost entirely emotion based.

Her fingers tightened around the ember, and it shrank, glowing brighter the smaller it got. This was a more difficult for of the exercise, the smaller ember burning through power faster, requiring more control over the flow and making any mistake snuff the ember out almost instantly.

She couldn't just focus on her offense, either. She needed to find some way to defend herself. With her aura out of the picture, her ability to take damage without her performance suffering was almost nothing. She could wear armor, but that would inhibit her mobility more than she was willing to sacrifice. She wanted to ask Naze about the possibilities of a different method of defense, but given that he didn't want to be disturbed, she hadn't asked yet. She had considered the possibility that she could go to the ziggurat and ask someone there, but she knew that it was too close to the start of the day to do that. There was no way she would be back in time to make it to class. The sun was up outside the window, but the shades blocked it out well.

It was another half an hour before Ruby's alarm went off, causing the girls around the room to finally stir. When it did, Yang jumped in surprise, and the flame in her hand blazed worryingly hard for a second before she clenched her fist closed, killing the light completely. Ruby pulled herself off to the side of her bed, and sluggishly beat an open palm against her alarm clock.

Yang watched as her sister rolled over in her bed, face towards the ceiling, and stared blankly ahead for a few moments before kicking the covers off of herself and sliding to the ground. "Come on guys, time to get ready. Come on." She shook Weiss's shoulder, speaking to her more directly now. "Yang, could you get Blake up?" She nodded, and Ruby went back to shaking Weiss, who was starting to voice objections. Yang got up from the bed and peeked over the edge of Blake's bed, poking her softly in the head and saying "Blake, time to get up! Come on kitty, we have to go to classes."

Blake's eyes opened, and she rubbed them softly with her knuckles. "Ugh, fine, I'm getting up." Yang smiled as she was reminded of how she used to act when she had to get up in the mornings.

She sat back down on her bed, hearing Blake start to move above her. Around her, her friends started to get ready for the day to come, classes and eventually lending a hand to team JNPR with their little problem. Yang could still hardly believe what they had said about Nora. But apparently Naze had offered to do something to help her. They didn't want Naze's help, though, and wanted to take Nora elsewhere. Yang didn't know that she agreed, but she understood the want. If a Paladin could help, than they should let him do it, even if Yang didn't necessarily trust him.

She shook her head to herself as she thought. She had died, but she hoped that she was the only one who would meet a messy end. It might have been more of the emotion from Naze himself, but she thought that she would be a little more insulated than to feel just a little bit of trepidation like that. She wondered if dying could simply make her depressed. She didn't feel particularly depressed, but would she really know what that felt like? Maybe dying was a little more of a shock than she had initially thought.

Jaune woke up, and as soon as his eyes opened, he started to regret it. It was a difficult prospect to wake up to, lying to one of your closest friends and trying to trick them into undergoing what amounted to a spiritual surgery. But that was still two days away, and he didn't know if he could handle it on his own. Luckily enough, he wasn't on his own. He had Pyrrha to lean on, and other friends that he could turn to. Team RWBY had agreed to help with his problem after classes, which was good, because he didn't know how much more of dealing with Nora he could take.

It made him feel a little more respect for Ren. How he had been able to resist the focused attention of Nora for so long, even if she wasn't quite to the level of attractiveness that she was now, he didn't think he would ever know. It certainly gave him a new perspective on things, though.

The reason that he had asked team RWBY for help was simple: because women didn't seem to be affected in the same way that man were. Even during classes, people had started to simply stare of Nora, and not pay any attention to the classes that they were at. It was a problem that Jaune knew everyone else, even teachers were starting to notice. He was worried that if things went on like this, there might be enough men under Nora's thrall to put up some resistance to getting her to Solace. If any of the professors were to fall under her spell, things would get a lot more complex. He himself had come close to losing himself in her eyes, or her smell, or her increasingly curvy figure…

He shook his head, warding off the thoughts. No, he wouldn't allow himself to think that. He had seen Ren, and he didn't want to become like that. He wondered how Ren was doing now. He had to show some improvement after a night of fresh air and distance, right? It would be very bad if there wasn't. But Solace was strong, and Jaune was sure that he would find a way to help him. He felt the urge to call his friend, but he knew that Ren didn't have his scroll on him. After Nora had learned that Ren wasn't coming back anytime soon, she had practically ransacked his belongings, finding his scroll among the rest of his things. She had tried to find out where Pyrrha and Jaune had taken him, but they didn't say a thing, instead insisting that she go to sleep. After a while, she had, and only then did Jaune allow himself to loosen up.

Now he slid out from behind his covers, walking to the bathroom and taking a shower. Pyrrha already had bathed, and Nora was likely not going to. She didn't need to anyways, filth and grime seemed unable to stick to her skin. Her skin, so smooth, wasn't able to be smudged. The water, cold at first, as it always was in the dorm house, snapped him out of these thoughts. He resumed washing himself, hoping that Pyrrha would know enough to distract Nora from him when he came out.

He stepped out of the shower and dried off with a towel, dressing in the bathroom to avoid contact with Nora. When he finally did leave the room, He tried to avoid looking at her. He looked at the time on his scroll, and was somewhat surprised when he found that they were late. "Oh crap, come on guys, we have to go!"

Pyrrha looked up, then said "Yes, you were sleeping very well, and I didn't want to wake you, so…" her voice trailed off, and he rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I should've woken you." Jaune shook his head, saying "No, no, I appreciate it. Thanks. I think I needed a little extra rest. But I'm up now, so let's just get going." Pyrrha nodded.

Nora spoke up now, saying "When will Ren be back? I know you said in a few days, but have you heard anything else from wherever he is? I'm sorry, I really don't want to be a bother about this, but I just really want to know." Jaune felt the words tug at his heartstrings, but he took a deep breath and steeled himself, getting ready to lie through his teeth again. "No, I'm sorry Nora, but there's been nothing else though. He's doing alright though, and he's getting better. We still don't know much about what's going on or when he'll be back. We just need you to be patient."

Nora sighed and looked down at her feet, nodding. Jaune walked towards the door, giving Pyrrha an uncomfortable look as he passed her. She joined right next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder as he opened the door. "Jaune, it's going to be alright. We can handle this until Solace gets ready. After that, everything goes back to normal. We just need to last that long, right?"

Jaune nodded, closing his fists tightly. "Yeah, just that long." It was obvious that he wasn't very confident, but he needed to continue to look forward. He would get through the day, and then he could get the help of RWBY. He just needed to last long enough.