GUESS WHO'S BACK!

Uh... me. That's whose... nevermind.

Anyways, this chapter was initially going to be a continuation of Pyrrha's mission with that one OC that everyone's probably forgotten at this point. But I keep getting people who ask me what happened in Jaune's past that made him so... broken. So I figured, it would actually be a good idea to touch on that and give people the context they were looking for. Truthfully enough, this chapter would've been needed sooner or later.

There's some pretty violent stuff in here. Probably too violent for a T rating... oh boy. So heads up if you get queasy easily.

Beta: Maxaro. I ACTUALLY DIDN'T MAKE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE BOOK SERIES UNTIL YOU TOLD ME! So that totally wasn't intentional... or, uh, yeah, it was all part of my evil plan to mess with you... oooooooooo...

Enjoy!

Two years ago…

Sweat dripped down Jaune's brow as he sprinted down the wooded trail, a small group of hunters following closely behind him.

Actually, that wasn't completely correct. Some of the fluid that covered his face was indeed sweat. The rest of it was blood.

And, much to his own horror, he could recall exactly whose blood it was and the gruesome manner in which it had gotten there.

The group ran on and on until they could run no more. Of the six hunters, two of them had collapsed on the ground, desperately hacking and gasping for air. Jaune had run over to grab the nearest one to help her into a sitting position.

"Jaune… I'm… I'll be… fine… don't worry about me…" she managed in between greedy gulps of air. Her wavy blue hair remained plastered to her face which contorted in an expression of pain.

Jaune scowled. "It's part of my job description to worry about you all, Artemis. And, evidently enough… I haven't been doing a good job of it…" He couldn't bring himself to meet her concerned eyes.

"Jaune…" murmured Artemis, her voice shaking with hesitation.

Ten feet away, one of the other hunters, a tall, white-haired gunner named Percy pushed his goggles up the bridge of his nose and turned to Jaune. "Perimeter seems clear. We've got enough coverage from the overhead canopies, so no Nevermores or Wyrms will be able to catch us without us knowing. We've also got the higher ground, so even if we get swarmed we can at least begin to pick the terrestrials with Artemis's crossbow, Indra's dust magic, and my Bad News."

One of the other hunters, a burly tiger-faunus axeman named Balder brushed his hands and grinned at Percy. "Bad News is one hell of a powerful gun, but even you know that it's a bitch to reload. Why not use Good News?"

Percy inhaled deeply. "Good News is designed specifically for accuracy. There's no way it would hold up in a horde situation. At least not for long." The gunner pulled out a mammoth plasma cannon and began setting up its mount. "I need the spread and power. We just don't have a choice."

Balder's enthusiasm perfectly offset Percy's grimness. "No need to worry, bud. All them Grimm you and Arty won't be able to get, me and Wyck got it! Right Wyck?"

He glanced off towards the swordsman, Wyck, who was busy helping the group's dust mage, Indra, onto his feet before turning with a dark glare towards the axeman. "How do you still manage to keep that fool's smile on your face?" snarled Wyck. "Have you no remorse towards your fallen comrades?"

"Wyck… now is not the time," Artemis chastised softly. "We have to get organized if we want a chance of surviving, much less escaping. Squabbling amongst ourselves can come later."

Wyck frowned at her but remained silent.

Shaking her head, Artemis turned towards Indra with a softer expression. "Conduit's still in good shape, Indra?" she asked with a smile.

The diminutive dust mage ran the checks on his gauntlet, which was in fact a literal conduit for his magic, and nodded.

"That's good." Artemis let out a sigh before turning to Jaune. "Anything to add, Jaune?"

The blonde, who had been silent up to this point, started at his name and glanced at the huntress, a flash of pain washing over his face. "Why would you ask me?"

Artemis flinched at the venom in his voice, while Balder gave a hearty laugh.

"Waddya mean by that? We've always followed your tactical advice before, and you've always done good. Ain't no reason for us not to follow you now!"

Jaune felt his fists clench. "Then if what happened at the rendezvous point wasn't my fault, then whose was it? I lead our troop to a bloodbath… losing that point means losing Vale's hold on the fort and the supporting village… all those innocent civilians… we lost half of us in the process…" He could feel the hot tears beginning to stream down his face.

Percy walked up to the group's de facto leader and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Jaune, it wasn't your fault. The Grimm worked in a coordinated effort in that assault, which, as far as we know, isn't even supposed to be possible. There was no way you could have known that there was some commanding force in play."

"I'm a tactician!" Jaune yelled in frustration, forcibly throwing off Percy's hand. "I'm supposed to be prepared for this shit! We've never lost a single hunter before! SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" He took his anger out on a nearby fallen log, the rotting wood shattering upon impact with his boot.

Silence fell over the remainders of the hunter troop.

Wyck's deep, brooding voice cut through the silence. "Well, I certainly blame you."

"Wyck!" Artemis turned on him in a rare show of anger.

"What Arc says is true," scowled Wyck. "He's supposed to have us ready for any situation. That's what you're paid to do, isn't it?" The swordsman turned to Jaune. "So now are you even worth anything to us anymore?"

"Wyck, shut up!" snarled Percy. "Are you trying to get us to turn on each other when our lives are on the line? Have you no honor?"

"Surely you can get your head out of your ass at least until we get out of here alive," agreed Balder.

"The one without honor is the one we've placed to lead us!" Wyck growled, pointing his sword at Jaune. "If he wants to make amends, then perhaps he should sacrifice his own life so that the rest of us may escape!"

"No! Are you insane!?" Artemis spat out. "We are hunters! We look after one another! We don't leave our own behind! That's the most shameful thing of all!"

She turned to the blonde huntsman. "Don't listen to him, Jaune. He's just angry right now… like we all are. But I trust you. You'll get us out of here alive, right?"

Jaune stayed silent, but he avoided her gaze.

Artemis grasped his shoulders. "Okay. You don't have to answer that right now. But we're going to need your help to make it out. Alright?"

Jaune hesitated.

His eyes wandered among his teammates, from Balder's endlessly enthusiastic grin, Percy's steely but accepting gaze, Wyck's turned head, Indra's shy thumbs-up, to finally Artemis's fully trusting smile.

The blonde heaved a great and weary sigh. "Alright. We're gonna pair up. Surround the elevated area: Balder, stay with Percy – he'll need a mobile defender like you since he won't be able to move with Bad News. Indra, you and Wyck take that side over by the stump. Arty, we'll stay here."

As the troop started to take formation, Artemis gave him a reassuring smile. "You've got this."

Jaune tried to smile back, but some unexplainable gnawing kept him from doing so. "…No."

"Jaune…" Artemis lightly punched his shoulder. "You don't have to be humble. I trust your strategies."

"That's not… it," murmured Jaune. "Something's off. Like I'm missing something."

"What do you mean?" The blue-haired huntress's brow furrowed.

"I feel… something that doesn't belong here." Jaune paled. "Fuck… what if this has to do with that commanding force?"

"You think… they're prepared for us?"

Before Jaune could answer, they felt a rumble from beneath the ground.

It took a moment before Jaune realized the flaw in his plan. "No… no… we were expecting them to attack from above ground, and they knew…"

From under Balder's feet, a giant worm-like creature burst from underneath, wrapping its jaws around the faunus' leg and dragging him into the ground before he even had the chance to pull out his axe.

"NOOOOOOOO! BALDER!" Percy screamed.

The ground shook immensely once more, and a jagged fissure formed in the ground in between the remainders of the group. Like ants from a disturbed dirt mound, waves of bipedal reptilians and warthogs spilled out of the crack. The worms shot out of the ground in tandem with the rest of the Grimm.

"Arrrrrgh! What is happening?" The gunman began firing hysterically, but as Bad News disintegrated a dozen Grimm in one shot, three dozen took their place . "The Boarbatusks I can understand, but Creeps and Tremors? They're not supposed to gather in this area, much less be aggressive to above-ground creatures! I don't underst-"

His cognitive sentences ceased to be and the rest became only screams as the Creeps sank their teeth into his flesh and proceeded to pull the gunner apart limb by limb.

Across from what was left of Percy and Bad News, a particularly fat Tremor burst from the ground and swallowed Indra whole, bursts of lightning magic spewing out of the Tremor's maw being the only sign that Indra even existed at all.

Wyck slashed madly at the fat Tremor, hacking and hacking desperately in an attempt to save his friend. The Tremor burrowed back underground without so much as a scratch.

The swordsman's arm dropped limply. He turned his head over his shoulder, and Jaune made out the look of utter contempt and betrayal that was aimed at him before Wyck disappeared in a cloud of Grimm.

This all happened before Jaune had the chance to react, and he could only watch in dazed horror. "No…"

He felt something grab at his arm.

"We have to run, Jaune!" yelled Artemis, and she pulled him out of his shock.

The pair ran as fast as they possibly could through the heavily sylvan path, already exhausted from escaping the rendezvous point earlier. Every few seconds, Artemis would fire several arrows towards the horde of Grimm, but it barely seemed to have any effect on quelling the oncoming stampede.

Jaune slashed repeatedly in front of him, frantically cutting through any bramble or shrubbery that stood in their way.

"Dammit, they're gaining!" roared Jaune over the combined din of the hundreds of Grimm. A quick glance back revealed what looked like a sea of black closing in on the two hunters with the looming inescapable nature of a tsunami. "Arty, can you use your semblance at all?"

"I should be able to!" she shouted back.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune could make out a brilliant flash of green light before he was suddenly carried off the ground by a pair of huge talons. Looking upwards, he saw that the huntress's semblance, Morph, had taken on the form of a rather large falcon.

They flew swiftly above the cover of the forest's canopies and safely away from the Grimm horde below. Jaune watched worriedly as the Grimm slowed to a halt as their prey took flight, and the horde collectively regressed back the way they came.

"Did… did the Grimm just make a tactical retreat?" Artemis's voice emanated within Jaune's brain.

"Yeah…" he murmured out loud. "Grimm don't retreat, period… this is wrong…"

"There's not much that we can do about it now," assured Artemis. "We did what we could. The only option we have is to get out and report to Ft. Soap. Maybe they'll know what to – hrrrrrrrrrkkk!"

A shadow fell over Jaune, and he looked up to see a Nevermore roughly three times the size of Artemis's Morph plunging it's claws through the falcon's chest.

The blonde's eyes widened in shock.

"ARTEMIS! NOOOOOOOO!"

The Nevermore cawed almost mockingly and ripped out a large chunk of the falcon's chest cavity. Jaune watched in horror as Artemis's eyes rolled backwards and he could only scream as both he and the Morphed huntress began to plummet several hundred feet back to earth.

The falcon had lost its grip on Jaune, and they fell as two separate bodies. The huntsman struggled to get closer to his friend as she spiraled away from him.

"Just… a little… closer!"

His fingertips closed in on one of Artemis's talons.

"Gotcha!"

Jaune activated his semblance, and the two falling bodies began to glow white, impervious to any outside damage.

And not a moment too soon.

The pair crashed into the forested ground with a loud thud. Both bodies bounced from the impact, and after rolling and bouncing every which way, Jaune finally ground to a halt, his head throbbing from the impact.

The glow wore off, and he could make out the giant Nevermore watching the scene with brooding, beady eyes before smugly flying away, satisfied with the destruction it had reaped.

Dazed, Jaune watched the bird depart before he remembered his mortally wounded companion.

"Artemis!" Scrambling to his feet, the blonde huntsman stumbled his way past the trees and shrubs to where the bloodied falcon lay, which began to weakly glow green. Jaune knelt by her side and cradled her head as she Morphed back into human form.

"Jaune… unnggg…" she gasped from her now human mouth. The large gaping hole in her chest remained through the transformation, and a pool of blood rapidly grew from where she lay.

"Shhh, don't move! I'm gonna get you out of here, Arty, just please stay still!" Jaune's voice was frantic and terrified.

"We know… that… won't happen…" The huntress tried to give Jaune a reassuring smile, but there was no way to mask the contortions of pain as blood spilled out from her mouth at an alarming rate. "Just go… and warn… the others…"

"No… no… Arty, please don't die…" The huntsman held his friend closer as the uncontrolled sobs began to burst forth from his throat.

"Jaune… you're a good man. Don't let… anyone… tell you otherwise…" Artemis managed in between convulsions. She reached a hand towards Jaune, which he immediately grasped tightly. "This… isn't… your fault. You have to… tell them…"

The blonde's mind raced, but he couldn't come up with anything to say. The flow of tears spoke all.

The huntress in his arms gave him a warm smile. "It was… an honor… to serve with you. Please live… for all of us…"

She shuddered suddenly, and Jaune could hear his teammate expel her last breath. Her convulsions subsided and the grip of her hand in his relaxed. With a sense of finality, her head slumped over in Jaune's lap.

"No… please no…" His mind refused to believe, yet there she lay, dead in his arms.

Of the twelve that had come to defend the fort, eleven were dead.

And as if to add insult to injury, he had survived covered with no injuries of his own, but instead with the blood of his own friends.

There was no one left in his troop but him.

Cradling Artemis's body in his arms, Jaune threw his head back and wept.

The Present

"Mmmmuuuhhh…"

Some source of light shined past Jaune's closed eyelids.

Slowly cracking open his eyes, he realized it was morning.

Yawning, he shifted himself into a slumped sitting position.

Dammit… I dreamed about them again…

Instantly the overwhelming sense of depression threaten to eat at him again, and he turned to his right to grab the pills on his nightstand.

Except that they weren't there.

Huh, Jaune frowned. Not only can I not find my pills when I need them… but this isn't my nightstand.

He stared at the pink sheets wrapped around his legs.

This wasn't his bed either.

Jaune felt a shift on his left, and an arm wrapped around his waist. "Morning, Jaune."

He turned his head in surprise and found Ruby, still half asleep as she curled against him.

"Uh… morning, Rubes."

If Jaune had been any more awake, he probably would've freaked as to why he was in Ruby's bed with Ruby in it. But the lingering nightmare weighing heavily on his mind blocked out any other emotions that would've been elicited by his predicament.

Still, he couldn't help but smirk slightly at the sight before him. "I'd imagine lying on a metal arm would be uncomfortable."

Ruby chuckled softly. "You'd think. It's actually not terrible. Just cold in the mornings sometimes." She opened her eyes groggily and turned towards Jaune with a smile, but her face suddenly twisted in concern. "Jaune? Are you okay?"

Doing his best to shove down the feeling of despair in his chest, Jaune furrowed his brow in feigned confusion. "Yeah, course I am. Why?"

"Don't lie to me, Jaune." Ruby gave him a stern look. "You've been crying."

Instantly, Jaune brought a hand to his face.

His cheeks were still damp.

Jaune sighed. May as well tell the truth.

"I dreamed about the mission again."

Ruby's eyes widened, and sat up before wrapping her arms tightly around the blonde's shoulders. "Oh, Jaune. I'm so sorry..." she spoke, barely in a whisper.

In spite of himself, Jaune felt a warm feeling wash through his chest.

As much as he hated to admit it, he never felt this comforted when Pyrrha was around. She did seem concerned and willing to help him in his time of need, but she also always seemed… busy.

To be fair, it was never Pyrrha's fault. That was just the nature of her job. She was always away, and there was really nothing either of them could do about it.

And, to be quite honest, Jaune doubted if Pyrrha was even able to relate to his situation

Ruby, on the other hand… she seemed like someone who could sympathize with him. More importantly, he felt like she was someone he could hang onto.

"T-Thanks, Rubes. Seriously, I, uh… thanks." He nervously ran a hand through Ruby's hair. "Hey, uh… we didn't… do anything last night, did we? Because, y'know… we're kind of in… a bed… together."

Ruby chuckled again. "No, Jaune. We didn't. We were just… both in a bad place and we needed each other. I mean, you don't… regret this, do you?"

"No!" Jaune answered, almost too quickly. "I mean… I really don't. In fact, I'm glad that you were here for me."

"And you for me." Ruby smiled and tucked her head in the crook of his neck. "It's eleven on a Saturday. You wanna do anything today?"

"Well…" Jaune mind eased into clarity, recalling the last argument he had had with his now estranged wife. "I was actually thinking about grabbing all my stuff back from the house since I don't really have any reason to stay there anymore. But only if you'll have me!" He squeezed in the last part hurriedly. "I don't wanna assume anything…"

"Jaune."

The blonde gulped at the slight annoyance from Ruby's voice. "Yes?"

She giggled. "I already told you to stay, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess so," breathed Jaune, letting out a sigh of relief.

Ruby shook her head, laughing. "You get flustered so easily. It's cute." She started to pull away from the bed. "I guess I should go make breakfast."

"No, wait!" Jaune gripped her wrist before she could leave.

Ruby gave him a quizzical look. "Jaune?"

Jaune looked down towards his lap. "I, uh… can we just… stay here for a bit longer?"

Because you keep my nightmares at bay, even when all I can see are their faces and when all I can hear are their screams.

Jaune bit his lip at the unspoken thoughts that rattled in his mind.

Ruby's face softened upon hearing the almost pleading edge in her friend's voice.

Her silver eyes were compassionate, full of understanding. The friend who had always been there for him was here now, when he needed her the most.

"I guess we can put off real life for a while." Ruby smiled comfortingly, resting back against Jaune's chest with a sigh.

And for the first time in a very long time, Jaune felt truly at peace.

Again, many apologies for not updating in a long time. I'm not sure how long I can keep up the postings in a timely manner, but I'll be damned if I don't try. Thank you so much for being patient.

Next chapter is gonna be a doozy. As if Jaune and Pyrrha haven't had enough of a falling out yet...

Reviews are always welcome.

Until next time!