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Fear
"A culture's teachings, and most importantly, the natures of its people, achieve definition through conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia
During a class field trip to Forever Fall, team JNPR is attacked by a mysterious creature.
Tropes in this chapter include:
- Alpha Strike: The terentatek finally goes down after Professor Goodwitch has JNPR and RWBY all open fire on the creature at once.
- Big "NO!": Nora screams "NOOO!" when she sees the terentatek nearly disembowel Jaune with its claws.
- Blood from the Mouth: As he lays injured from the terentatek, blood gurgles out of Jaune's mouth when he tries to talk, indicating the severity of his wounds.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Jaune and Yang engage in a bit of this while fighting the terentatek.Yang: Hey Jaune, how you doin?
Jaune: [laughs] Oh you know, not bad. Just bleeding to death. How about you? - Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Ren acts as this for Nora, translating her Cloudcuckoolander speak to Pyrrha.Nora: It's obvious we don't know what's going on inside of Jaune-Jaune's head, so we just have to crack it open and see what goodies are inside!
[Pyrrha stares at Nora in horror]
Ren: She means that we should confront Jaune directly about this. - Comically Missing the Point: Nora knew about Jaune sneaking out at night from the very start and assumed that he was going out for a midnight snack.
- Content Warnings: The chapter opens with a warning from the author that it's going to get a little graphic.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Jaune fighting the terentatek is comparable to a fly trying to take on a fly swatter. The terentatek No Sells Jaune's most powerful Force attack like it's nothing and knocks Jaune out of the fight with a One-Hit KO that leaves him on the verge of death.
- David vs. Goliath: Glynda, Team JNPR, and Team RWBY's battle with the terentatek in "Fear" plays out like this. The terentatek fights like a Mighty Glacier, being far stronger and better armored than the heroes, yet that same heavily armored carapace means that the creature can't keep up with the speed of its nimbler Huntsmen opponents. At the same time, none of the heroes attacks do any meaningful damage to it, while a single hit from the terentatek would instantly kill anyone outside of a physical powerhouse like Yang.
- Death Cry Echo: The terentatek lets out a series of death cries in its final moments before death, which are still heard in the moments following the creature's death.
- Death Glare: Glynda gives the terentatek one during their battle.
- Die or Fly: Jaune unlocks his Force healing ability right when he's on the verge of dying from the wounds inflicted by the terentatek.
- Dramatic Slip: Cardin trips over a tree root while fleeing from the terentatek, forcing Jaune to jump in and help him.
- Everybody Knew Already: Nora and Ren already knew about Jaune's habit of sneaking out in the middle of the night. They're actually more surprised that Pyrrha didn't know, pointing out that Jaune's been doing it for a week.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Jaune still has the exhausted eye bags from the previous chapter.
- Face, Nod, Action: Glynda and Jaune look at each other and nod before combining their telekinesis to form a giant stone spear to impale the terentatek with.
- From Dress to Dressing: Ren tears off one his his sleeves and uses it to cover Jaune's wounds from the terentatek.
- Ghost Memory: Because he has Nihilus's memories implanted in his mind, Jaune is able to identify the terentatek by name, but doesn't know how he came by this information.
- Gorn: After the terentatek slashes through Jaune's abdomen, he describes seeing blood, bodily fluids, and bits of his intestines falling out of the gaping wound. This comes across as rather jarring since the story had been pretty mild with its depiction of violence up until that point.
- Gunship Rescue: Just as the terentatek appears to be unstoppable, a Bullhead called in by Goodwitch arrives and inflicts heavy damage upon it, giving the heroes some much needed breathing room and hurting the creature enough for them to finish it off.
- Gutted Like a Fish: The terentatek's claws tear right through Jaune's Aura and nearly disembowel him. While Ren is desperately looking him over, several of Jaune's intestines start to fall out.
- Heroic Second Wind: Thanks to his new Force healing ability, Jaune is able to get back up after being curb-stomped by the terentatek and joins his friends in an Alpha Strike on the terentatek.
- Internal Reveal: Pyrrha learns about Jaune's habit of sneaking out at night from Nora and Ren, though not why.
- Left Stuck After Attack: At one point during their battle, the terentatek's arm gets stuck in the ground after Pyrrha dodges it's attempt to impale her with its claws. Pyrrha and Nora immediately try to capitalize on this by leaping at the terentatek with their weapons raised... only for the terentatek to pivot it's body and nearly perform an Inertial Impalement with the girls using the spikes on its back.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Subverted. When Jaune's intestines start dropping out from his wounds, he attempts to say "Oh that doesn't look good" but chokes on Blood from the Mouth before he can say anything and collapses from the pain in his body.
- Manly Tears: Ren starts to break out into tears when he thinks that Jaune is dying from blood loss.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": All of team JNPR freezes in horror when they see the terentatek for the first time.
- Midnight Snack: When Pyrrha wonders why Jaune would sneak out in the middle of the night, Nora suggests that he's merely getting a midnight snack and then mentions how she sometimes sneaks down to the kitchen to make herself pancakes when Ren refuses to.
- Mirthless Laughter:
- When Pyrrha asks Jaune if he could have a moment with the rest of his team while collecting sap, Jaune lets out a nervous and shaky laugh due to the Dark Side's influence making him Improperly Paranoid as he becomes suspicious as to why his team suddenly wants to talk with him alone.
- When Yang casually asks Jaune how he's doing after he's nearly disembowled and is lying in a pool of his own blood, Jaune laughs at the absurdity of her question before responding with his own Casual Danger Dialogue.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Jaune unlocks the ability to Force heal right when he needs it the most, when he's been fatally wounded by the terentatek.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Jaune chooses to save Cardin's life by diving in front of the terentatek, this opens him up to an attack by the terentatek, who One Hit KOs him and nearly kills him. Jaune even internally lampshades this trope.
- No Kill like Overkill: Even after the terentatek is clearly dead, the students continue to fire on the body until all that remains is a mutilated, mangled corpse.
- No-Sell: The terentatek shrugs off Jaune's Force push like it's nothing and takes a warhammer to the face from Nora without flinching. None of Pyrrha's attacks leave so much as a scratch on its armored chitin.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Jaune isn't the first Force-user to have ever walked the face of Remnant as the terentatek remembers sensing at least one other Force-user "many centuries" ago.
- Not the Intended Use: After being wounded by the terentatek, Jaune has Nora use her grenade launcher as an improvised flare gun in order to signal for help.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Nora tries to leave her dorm to ask Jaune an extremely personal question, Pyrrha pins her to her bed to keep Nora from bothering him. Nora then teases Pyrrha about her crush on Jaune, causing Pyrrha to get a Crush Blush. Of course, Jaune walks into the room at that exact moment and sees a blushing Pyrrha pinning Nora to her bed, leading him to assume they were being intimate.Jaune: You know, I don't mind if you guys want to, do stuff. But at least like, put a sock on the door or something.
Pyrrha: This isn't what it looks like! - Obviously Not Fine: Jaune's team have noticed how he's been sneaking out at night and hasn't been eating or sleeping, leading them to pull him aside during their field trip to Forever Fall and ask him what's wrong.Pyrrha: Jaune, what's going on with you? You've been staying out late, not focused in class, you've barely been eating and sleeping. Jaune, please, if something's wrong, let us help.
Jaune: [scowls and turns away] I'm fine! I've just been training. There's nothing wrong with me.
Ren: If there was nothing wrong, you wouldn't be sneaking out of our dorm at night. - Oh, Crap!:
- Jaune has this reaction when he sees that the terentatek is immune to his Force powers.
- Ren panics when he sees that the amount of blood flowing out of a wounded Jaune's body is slowing down, as he believes that it means Jaune has almost bled out completely. Fortunately, it's actually a result of Jaune using the Force to heal his wounds.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During Pyrrha and Nora's fight with the terentatek, Ren's normally calm demeanor completely dissipates as he yells at Nora to shoot her grenades up into the sky. It's Ren acting so uncharacteristically that convinces Nora to actually do as he says.
- Post-Victory Collapse: After the terentatek is killed, the students all drop to the ground out of exhaustion and relief. Jaune blacks out completely once the adrenaline in his system wears off and he succumbs to his injuries.
- Punch Parry: Yang attempts to block the terentatek's punch with her own. Because of just how ludicrously strong the creature is, she ends up instantly breaking her arm and is sent flying through a tree.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Glynda, NPR, and RWBY all unleash everything they've got upon the terentatek, hitting it with barrages of attacks from all sides. This continues until they're driven to exhaustion, breathing heavy as their auras and physical bodies are pushed to their absolute limit. However, the terentatek is shown to still be standing strong with its injuries being mostly cosmetic. Luckily, Ash arrives in her Bullhead and performs a Gunship Rescue immediately afterwards.
- Punched Across the Room:
- The terentatek hits Jaune so hard that he is sent flying into a tree and nearly breaks his back from the impact.
- Later, the terentatek does the same thing with Yang, who's sent flying through the same tree no less.
- Rasputinian Death: The terentatek is shot with hundreds of high-caliber bullets, blown up by several high-yield missiles, and is then hit by the combined firepower of JNPR and RWBY. The beast somehow survives all of this and only dies after being impaled by a giant stone javelin formed by the combined telekinesis of Glynda and Jaune. And even then, the students still shoot its corpse into a bloody pulp just to be sure.
- Rock Beats Laser: Played with. The kinetic firearms and Dust rounds of RWBY are shown to be far more effective on the terentatek than the blasters of the Star Wars galaxy. Justified as the terentatek's armor is evolved to be immune to laserfire but is still vulnerable to gunfire.
- Save the Jerk: Similar to canon, Jaune decides to risk himself to save Cardin from the terentatek even though Cardin has been nothing but a bully to him.
- Say My Name: Pyrrha screams Jaune's name in response to seeing him get fatally wounded by the terentatek.
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce: Right as the terentatek is about to impale Pyrrha with its claws, Ruby swoops in with her Semblance and moves Pyrrha out of the way.
- Untouchable Until Tagged:
- While fighting the terentatek, Pyrrha initially seems to have the upper hand as she uses her superior agility, training, and skill to run circles around the creature as she hacks and slashes at it with her xiphos. However, one hit from the terentatek is all it takes to knock her down and stun her long enough for the terentatek to try impaling her with its claws.
- The terentatek spends most of the battle seeming like The Juggernaut, shrugging off everything the heroes try to throw at it. Once Ash arrives piloting a Bullhead and unleashes the gunship's whole arsenal of a heavy machine gun and missiles, the terentatek's defenses are completely broken and it's finished off by the combined attacks from all the heroes, despite previously being unaffected by them.
- Wall Slump: Jaune slumps against a tree after being nearly disemboweled by the terentatek, showing just how serious his injuries are.
- Wham Line: When Jaune and his friends first encounter the creature in Forever Fall, Jaune feels a primal fear grip him as he speaks the creature's name without knowing where it came from.Jaune: A terentatek...
- When She Smiles: Professor Goodwitch lets out a smile during her fight with the terentatek when The Cavalry arrives in the form of Ash piloting a heavily-armed Bullhead.
- The Worf Barrage: When Jaune is faced with the terentatek, he gathers all his Force energy and unleashes it upon the terentatek in a telekinetic blast strong enough to send trees flying. The terentatek is barely fazed by this and shrugs off his attack with minimum effort.
- The Worf Effect: The terentatek subjects several heroes to this.
- Pyrrha Nikos, a champion gladiator and one of Beacon's best fighters, does no damage to the terentatek and gets the wind knocked out of her with just a single hit from it.
- Jaune and Yang both have the largest Auras on their respective teams. The terentatek destroys their Aura and knocks them out of the fight with one blow.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Professor Goodwitch normally addresses her students by their surnames. However, during the fight against the terentatek, she calls out to them by their first names to save time because they're in a life-or-death battle.
- You Just Told Me: When Nora threatens to tell Jaune about how Pyrrha likes to ogle him when he's not looking:
