Author's Note: Due to a mistake, I accidentally uploaded an old version of Chapter 1. The chapter was replaced after I realized what happened, but I fear many people read it before I could correct it. I strongly urge you to go back and reread it, as there were several mistakes in that version, as well as a few important details you may have missed, including some parts being rewritten entirely. I thank you for your patience, and promise that this is the correct version of this chapter.

Engines roared as the Bullhead began to lift off the ground, the thrust propelling the aircraft up into the air. The floor shook beneath Jaune's feet, making his heart pound as they ascended off the launch pad.

Ok, you're ok. Jaune's breathing began to turn ragged as his stomach turned. Just a little trip. Don't get sick. Don't get sick. He turned his eyes from the open side of the aircraft to his team.

Nora was bouncing on her toes, or maybe the shaking of the hull was doing that. Probably both. Ren stood silently next to her, lost in thought. They were originally supposed to go to the village where he and Nora grew up, but as soon as the ear-piercing alarms sounded, Jaune changed their mission, and directed the pilot toward the city. The inky black smoke billowed up shortly afterwards.

Jaune turned his attention to Pyrrha. How did I get so lucky? he thought as his gaze wandered from her brilliant green eyes to her exposed shoulders, strong, yet soft. After the dance, they had begun spending a lot more time together, and more intimately. Their late night training sessions had been replaced on occasion with quiet nights staring off into the distance, where Pyrrha often held tight onto his arm as she rested her head on him.

The nights they actually spent training had forged his body into something new entirely. His armor fit tighter as he bulked up, and his once cumbersome shield had begun to feel light as a feather. He had become a decent fighter, and had improved rapidly under Pyrrha's tutelage. He was now finally able to hold his own in the duels that took place in class, and all of JNPR had begun to finish higher in team competitions under his newfound confidence.

The bullhead banked sharply, preparing to drop off the team. Jaune poked his head out of the airship's door and was immediately buffeted by fierce winds and a dire sight.

Grimm swarmed the streets. They seemed to surge away from a large pile of rubble producing the smoke and down the main street. There were a few pockets of light in the sea of darkness, which the civilians seemed to be headed toward. Those that could make it away from the Grimm, that is.

Jaune steeled himself for the battle that was about to come. "Alright," he yelled as he turned back to his team, "We're going to land by the smoke, then follow the main street until we can get to those spots."

Pyrrha leaned to get a better view of the city below them. "They might be evacuation zones. If we can make it to the first one, we can hold the Grimm off while other teams-"

"Time to go!" A shout from the cockpit alerted everyone to prepare for a quick drop.

"Here we go!" Nora sang as she leapt from the Bullhead, Magnhild already in hammer form by the time she was out the door. Pyrrha and Ren were next, gracefully falling through the air, their landing strategies muscle memory after countless hours of practice. Jaune had significantly less training in landing a jump from 50 feet in the air. He inhaled deeply, then dropped.

Jaune hurtled to the ground, briefly panicking as the hard stone ground approached rapidly, but regained his composure and twisted to land on his feet, absorbing the impact as he quickly gained his bearings on the situation at hand.

This was the end. The city was being torn apart by Grimm, both its people, and the buildings themselves. Giant Nevermores flew overhead, attacking the Bullheads that were flying in to evacuate civilians and to drop off teams like JNPR. Deathstalkers smashed the front of homes with their stingers, trapping the inhabitants inside. Beowolves chased men and women down side streets, and Ursai ripped cars apart to get to anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck in one when the Grimm appeared.

"Let's move!" Pyrrha shouted as soon as Jaune landed. With a short sigh, he sprang into action.

Immediately they were in the thick of the battle. Jaune and Pyrrha cleared a hole, staying side by side and using their shields to barrel down the main road. Ren leapt out to slash any Grimm that turned to face the team while Nora stayed behind the two shield bearers, continuously firing grenades from Magnhild at pockets of Grimm while she kept pace.

They broke into the first pocket to find a familiar blonde haired brawler. Yang was fending off Grimm, her back to a door of a tall, sturdy looking house. Jaune got a glance inside, and his heart wrenched instinctively at the sight.

Men, women, and children were inside, a few intact, many missing limbs, but all of them moved about in a daze as they coped with the things they had seen.

Jaune quickly pushed the image from his mind as JNPR moved to reinforce Yang. As his team formed a wide ring around the young huntress, he stood beside her for an on the fly briefing. "Yang! Where's the rest of your team?!"

"We split up to save as many people as possible. We're using buildings like this as field hospitals and the roofs as evac sites," she panted, sweat dripping from her brow.

Yang must have been helping the wounded, as she had more blood on her than anyone Jaune had seen. Her eyes were red; unsurprising as she was likely using her semblance for the whole fight. After a quick scan of the Grimm there, he made a decision.

"Alright, team, listen up!" he positioned himself between Nora and Pyrrha as he took his position in the standoff between the circling Grimm and the hospital. "Ren, you're going to stay here with Yang and defend this evac site. The rest of us will fight our way to the next site. Once we get there, one person will stay behind as the other two move on. Got it?"

After getting affirmative responses from his team and Yang, Jaune began his countdown. "Alright, we're going on 3. One…" Nora changed Magnhild to its hammer form, "Two…" Yang chambered a shell into Ember Celica, "THREE!" Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha shot toward the wall of Grimm.

Nora soared over his head and brought her hammer down on top of a King Taijitu. The impact of the blow cracked the bone plate on top of the serpent's head. The shards pierced the scales and felled the beast immediately. Jaune and Pyrrha leapt on top of the half dead snake and raced toward the other head, which was now writhing in pain. The trio sped along the back of the Grimm toward the next clearing, ignoring the throng of beasts beneath them.

The next opening approached rapidly. Jaune noticed that Pyrrha was lagging behind, not able to keep up with the other two for long distances while encumbered by her armor. "Pyrrha, stay at this one, Nora and I will keep moving!"

The second head of the King Taijitu reared back in front of them, as if it was preparing to strike someone below, but the attack never came. A certain Faunus dressed in black appeared above it, and slashed its eyes before burying her weapon into the soft spot behind the snake's bone skull. Blake leapt from the dying Grimm's head and disappeared back into the clearing.

The new arrivals launched themselves after Blake into the clearing. Jaune tucked his head and rolled while Nora simply shot off the ground and toward their next destination. A quick glance behind him saw Pyrrha and Blake standing back to back, prepared to take on any Grimm that dared to come near them.

The amount of Grimm in front of them had thinned out considerably compared to the amount that had blocked them on their way to Yang and Blake's locations, but there was still more than Jaune felt comfortable fighting with only two people. Well, it's worked before…

"Nora! Heads up!" Jaune said as he slid to a stop mere feet from the wall of Grimm. He set his shield above his head and braced for the impact.

A moment later, he felt Nora land on top of his shield, and the click of the grenade about to detonate from Magnhild told him when to spring upward to further boost her launch.

The force from the blast sent Nora soaring above them, and Jaune watched as she began to rain down grenades as she fell back to the ground. The explosives made a wide hole for him, and he quickly sprinted through the new opening, shrugging off any Grimm that strayed into his path.

Nora came hurtling to the ground in front of Jaune, and brought her hammer full force onto an Ursa's back. The Ursa crumpled and the short huntress-in-training bounced off its now lifeless body to follow him.

The pair burst through the line of Grimm to find Weiss easily fending off any overly aggressive monsters. Nora skidded to a stop next to the heiress, her weapon at the ready. Weiss immediately complained, despite the situation. "You're leaving me with her?!"

Any more dialogue between the two was lost as Jaune looked ahead at his path to see very few Grimm separating him from what had to be Ruby's clearing. Well then that's a good sign. Maybe this will be easy. Jaune's thoughts didn't keep him from focusing on the beasts in front of him, and he proceeded to bull down the street, determined to get to Ruby.

As he neared his destination, the amount of Grimm seemed to increase, and their resistance to Jaune became stauncher. Jaune struggled through the mass of beasts, slashing out only when he needed to as he approached a solid wall of black. One final push forward, and Jaune broke into the clearing.

Ruby was backed up almost completely to the doors of the building she was defending. She was surrounded by Grimm, her weapon only in its rifle form, and Jaune could see the panic in her eyes. Why isn't she fighting with her scythe?

Quickly, he jumped into the battle. He thrust his sword into a Beowolf, then as he ripped it out, he brought his shield down on top of a Creep's skull, smashing the two-legged Grimm's spine with the force of the impact.

As he continued fighting his way to Ruby, he caught glances of his friend.

The midsection of her outfit was missing, replaced by deep cuts on her exposed flesh, the blood from them already dried. She was bloody and bruised, but that wasn't it. She seemed defeated.

Jaune shrugged off another Beowolf's attack with his shield before he turned to intercept an Ursa Major that was charging Ruby. The beast rampaged toward the young girl, but Jaune was too slow to slow it down, and it barreled past him.

"NO!" Jaune cried out, trying desperately to stop the charge with only his voice and willpower.

And it worked.

The Ursa slammed into a translucent yellow wall and was immediately incapacitated. Jaune, astonished at his own newfound power, quickly sprinted to his companion, following in the wake of the downed beast.

Ruby answered his question before he could even get a word out, "Jaune! Crescent Rose is broken! I need you to cover me while I fix her!"

"Right!" Jaune replied, turning to face the sea of Grimm that faced him. Now, how do I make that fancy shield again? he thought as he heard Ruby fervently working on her weapon behind him.

An odd warmth accompanied by a high pitched whine began beneath his feet. Jaune looked down to see what was the cause of the noise, only to be greeted with a hot orange glow instead of the cool gray concrete like the rest of the city. His eyes quickly shot to his companion.

Ruby was still furiously repairing Crescent Rose, oblivious to anything that was not made up of metal and dust.

In that split second, Jaune made his decision. He focused all of his remaining Aura into another semblance wall to protect Ruby, and braced himself for the explosion about to come.

The ground erupted and sent Jaune 30 feet in the air. His descent was nearly as pretty as his fall from the Bullhead. He twisted to right himself in midair, but his moment of anxiety returned, freezing him. The split second he lost was enough to cost him an effective landing and he slammed into the concrete.

Hard.

Jaune had landed face down, and the sudden and awkward impact cracked several ribs as well as undoubtedly fracturing his left arm that he foolishly tried to use to stop his fall.

Not as bad as it could have been, he thought with a grimace. But it wasn't over yet.

Debris from the mysterious explosion began to rain down on him. A solid piece of concrete the size of a car crushed a nearby Deathstalker. Another chunk speared a nearby Beowolf and pinned another beneath it. A chunk as large as a Boarbatusk landed next to his head, splitting itself in two halves with one falling away, but the other slammed into the back of his head before rolling to the side.

Stars filled his vision, and he faintly remembered screaming. He tried to stir, connecting with all of his body as he tried to assess any permanent damage. That's strange, he thought as he tried to test his left arm, I don't think it's pinned. Jaune slowly opened his eyes.

His arm laid a foot from where he was currently, a large piece of metal in between him and his arm.

He was being rolled over now. He could barely keep his eyes open now. Ruby held him tightly, sobbing into his hair. She seemed to be trying to tell him something…

"...So sorry. Please don't leave me. It's my fault. Please don't die…" Her tears dripped from her nose and landed onto his cheek as she held his head in her lap.

I wonder what she's talking about… He drifted on the edge of consciousness, picking up bits and pieces of what she said. Where did that explosion come from? he wondered to himself, still confused why Ruby was crying.

He strained to open his eyes once more.

There weren't any Grimm around, but only large mountains of metal and debris along the street. His gaze wandered to the main street again, which was still covered by a gloomy gray sky and countless Grimm much further away from them.

Then a light came.

It grew from a bright spot in the distance to covering the sky in less than a second. There was a ringing in his ears, and Jaune could feel the shock wave shake his bones, despite his state.

Slowly, the light faded. Not the light itself, but through Jaune's eyes. His sapphire eyes began to dull, and his breathing grew shallower and shallower as he fell deeper and deeper into his final sleep. Maybe a little sleep right now wouldn't hurt.

But Ruby was trying to tell him something. He strained to make out what words she was saying.

"...My life… You can't die, Jaune, you can't… It's all my fault…" As her words became more and more tear-choked, he allowed himself to shut his eyes, intent on hearing all that she wanted to tell him when he woke up.

Jaune would not wake up.