AN: Weiss hasn't just been working on her summoning. She's been doing some general training to stay in shape. And again, Whitley has his own goals and understanding of the company. Hopefully, he's a little more interesting here. And it was kind of weird for Weiss to have to sneak through the manor, to accidentally overhear an expository conversation when she could've just gone out that window she broke.

And yeah, I just moved the good parts of Blake's arc in Volume 5 to Volume 4, because the whole point of Volume 4 should've been to get everyone to Mistral. And Ilia's not just going to change sides because Blake batted her eyelashes. She believes in the White Fang. She wants to punish the people who hurt her parents. It's going to take more than a crush for her to give that up. And the whole Faunus militia thing was stupid, so I'm not doing it. Blake and fam are going to try and take back the White Fang, not just kill and replace everyone in it.

And Taiyang is going to Mistral too, for a couple of reasons. First, I don't buy a father just hanging back after his youngest child runs off, leaving nothing but a note. He knows the hazards of her chosen profession, but he doesn't know who she's with, if she packed proper supplies, or if she even has a plan to get there. Also, he doesn't seem to be doing much of anything in Vale.

Jaune is explaining his frustrations with Ozpin and himself, and Ruby is comforting him and showing why her optimism is a strength.

There! The Nuckelavee knocked out two people's Aura, wiped out entire villages, haunted Ren's nightmares, required strategy and teamwork to beat, AND survived Ruby's Silver Eyes. Can we stop acting like it wasn't the most interesting and threatening Grimm we've seen before Volume 6, except maybe for the Grimm Dragon? (And the Goliath's, but only because I made them amazing!) Also, yeah, Silver Eyes still leave Ruby temporarily weakened.

Jaune watched as his two teammates embraced after the destruction of the Nuckelavee. He hesitated, then prepared to join the two and make his confession.

Suddenly, Ruby's scream came from the alley where Jaune had moved Qrow.

"No, no, NO!"

The three ran to find Ruby clutching her uncle's body. Jaune joined her and leaned in to listen at his mouth. He wasn't breathing.

"We may still be able to save him! Do you know CPR?!"

"Vaguely. Walk me through it and make sure I'm doing it right!"

Jaune sat up and gently grabbed Ruby's shoulders. "I'm going to try and resuscitate him, Ruby. I need you to position yourself over his head."

Ruby quickly obeyed his instructions, taking a position at Qrow's head and tilting his head back as Jaune relayed instructions from Ozpin. While Ren and Nora looked on helplessly, they heard a sound overhead. They looked up just in time to see a pair of airships flying overhead.

Nora looked at a building one of her stray shots set fire to during the fight. "They must have seen the smoke!"

"Flag them down!" Jaune called as he opened Qrow's jacket and placed his hands according to Ozpin's instructions.

"Thirty compressions at a rate of 100 compressions a minute, then have Ms. Rose give two rescue breaths."

Jaune took a breath as he prepared, "I won't let her down too."

"One-" As soon as Jaune made the compression, his hands glowed with light, which transferred to Qrow's body, whose eyes flew open as he let out a ragged gasp.

"Whoa!" Jaune shot back as the man laid back down and began wheezing. "What just happened?! I was sure he wasn't breathing!"

"Check his aura!"

Jaune pulled his scroll out and checked it just in time to see a blip of Qrow's Aura disappear.

"You gave him some of your Aura. That must be your semblance."

"Alright, let's try it again." Jaune resumed his place at Qrow's chest. He breathed in, then breathed out, gently pushing his hands into Qrow's chest, watching his scroll. Sure enough, Jaune's Aura dropped, and Qrow's began to rise.

Ruby looked on as Jaune continued to pass his Aura onto Qrow. She checked Jaune's scroll and saw that Qrow's Aura would still fall whenever Jaune took a breath, Qrow's Aura would fall once again. Jaune was battling the poison itself. And Jaune's Aura was already in the red.

Ruby suddenly remembered something Ren told her about the time he and Jaune fought a member of the White Fang. The one Jaune killed.

"Let's try this." Ruby placed her hand on Jaune's shoulder and watched. As Jaune breathed in, a glowing light appeared where Ruby's hand met Jaune's shoulder, and she watched as her Aura fell, then Jaune's Aura rose. He breathed out, his Aura fell, and Qrow's rose.

Ren and Nora arrived with the airship crews a few moments later. Ruby and Jaune both looked exhausted, their Aura wholly drained, but Qrow was breathing steadily.

Nora started as Ren took her hand in his. She looked at him and met his smile. Slowly, the two leaned in, and finally shared their first kiss.

Ghira Belladonna placed a comforting hand on Blake's shoulder as their ship arrived in Anima.

Jaune finished his confession to Ren and Nora, who both looked at him in shock. After a moment, Ren spoke. "You gave me your word."

Jaune nodded. Ren stood up, then paused.

"We need to think about this."

He left. Nora gave Jaune's shoulder a quick squeeze, then left the room as well.

Jaune wiped the tears from his eyes. "They deserved to know. Whether they keep following us or not is up to them."

Yang and Tai's bikes roared across Anima.

They stopped as a sign came into view. One direction pointed to Mistral. The other to Bandit Territory.

"It has been a while since your mom and I have spoken. Maybe I can convince her." He turned to his daughter, "Which way are you going?"

Jaune prepared to train in the hotel's empty courtyard.

"Jaune… may I suggest a compromise?" Jaune didn't answer, but he paused in his preparations.

"Your family's sword is an important part of you and your identity. I was wrong to ask that you put that aside. But I have a fighting style that I've perfected over a couple of millennia. I'd rather I didn't get rusty." Jaune nodded, understanding.

"So let me train for a couple of hours a day so that I can get used to your build and so I can maintain my skills."

"Fine."

"I know you worry about giving me control, but I promise to relinquish it whenever you request."

"I said it was fine."

"…Really?"

"We might need you if things get hairy." Jaune acknowledged, grudgingly, "You're better than me in a fight, and as long as I'm stuck with you, I might as well accept your help when I need it."

Ozpin pause "…I am sorry. The last thing I wanted was to leave anyone behind but-"

"Just. Don't." Jaune growled. "You got your compromise. Just take it, and shut up."

"Hey sis, I've been putting off writing this letter, and I'm not even sure if it will reach you, but there are some things I need to say. I want to say I'm sorry for leaving the way I did. I know you told me it was a reckless idea, and after everything I've been through, I can say you were right. It's been hard on all of us.

Every step we made took us further and further from the things we knew. And every morning, we woke up wondering if just over the next hill would be something good or something terrible.

It's scary not knowing what's going to happen next. And the things we do know now it almost makes it worse.

You told me once that bad things just happen. You were angry when you said it, and I didn't want to listen.

But you were right. Bad things do happen all the time, every day. Which is why I'm out here, to do whatever I can, wherever I can, and hopefully do some good.

We've all lost something, and I've seen what loss can do to people.

But if we gave up every time we lost, then we'd never be able to move forward.

We'd never have a chance to see what beautiful things the future might have waiting for us. We'd never have the strength to change, whether it's ourselves or the world around us.

And we'd never be there for other people who might one day be lost without us. This is what we were training for, Yang, to be the ones to stand up and do something about all the bad in the world.

Because there are plenty of people out there, who are still lost, even if they don't want to admit it.

I know it can feel impossible like every single day is a struggle against some unstoppable monster we can never hope to beat.

But we have to try, if not for us, then for the people we've already— Then for the people we haven't lost yet.

I miss you so much. I miss Weiss and Blake too. But I think you'd all be proud to know that I made it to Mistral. All of us did, and we even ran into Uncle Qrow along the way.

He's going to take us to see Professor Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy. Now that we've made it across Anima, I think things are gonna start going our way.

Until next time, your loving sister, Ruby Rose."

AN: Jaune's semblance, ladies and gentlemen! Revealed when it should've been, and he's not just a buffer/medic. And I bet you guys were a lot more worried about Qrow than you were Weiss. Also, grimm have never sent up enough smoke to be seen from any distance before, so I didn't buy that crap in canon.

Okay, so there was one thing that needed fixing with Ren and Nora's arc in Volume 4.

Jaune's got some shit to make up for next Volume. But he's trying to make the best of an unfavorable situation. And I've been holding off on saying this since chapter 22 since I didn't want to spoil anything, but Jaune is keeping Crocea Mors as his primary weapon. The gun is a sidearm, and Ozpin's cane (and Ozpin himself) is just a backup. I hate writers and fans who think he should replace Crocea Mors to be a better fighter because, again, not everything has to also be a gun. Crocea Mors, in its simplicity, is a big part of Jaune's personality and identity as a character. To ditch, it is to miss the appeal of his character completely.

And I liked Ruby's monologue at the end of Volume 4. It was a nice way to wrap things up, give us a look into Ruby's mind, and even a nice summary of what she went through in Volume 4. That said, it was way too long, and some of the lines were weirdly clunky, so I changed things up. And now it only takes up a third of the chapter! XD And I decided not to interlock it with background events to make the changes I made more clear.

So that's Volume 4! And take note, I barely touched Yang and Renora's arcs. If I'd gone with the safe option of sticking Ozpin in Qrow instead of Jaune, Team RNJR's arc would've had far fewer changes, and I'd have finished this Volume in four or five chapters instead of six. And even with Whitley challenging Cinder for the "Most Obvious Villain" award, Weiss' arc was still one of, if not the best part of Volume 4.

Oh, and in regards to the location jumps, when you have 4+ main characters, you're going to have 4+ stories happening simultaneously. Distance between those characters doesn't change that. So I'm sorry if the location skips confused any of you… but get over it. I don't think people who say Volume 4 had "pacing issues" know what they're talking about. (Seriously, I think they're just making up BS to make their petty complaints sound smart.)

All this to once again make my point that CANON VOLUME 4 WAS BETTER THAN CANON VOLUME'S 1-3! So to the guest reviewer from September 22, no, I do not intend to do a rewrite starting from Volume 4, because the overarching plot of those Volumes is fine the way it is. That's when the story begins. Up until Volume 4, we just had a really long inciting incident. Volume 4-6 is the Conviction, Black Swordsman, Falcon of the Millennium Empire, and Fantasia Arcs to Volume 1-3's Golden Age Arc. And just like how you can't see the development and struggles of Guts to be a better person only by reading the Golden Age, Team RWBY couldn't properly grow and develop while confined to the walls of Beacon.

Now with all that said… Buckle up for Volume 5, because other than the beginning and the end (the overarching plot), it's going to be almost unrecognizable. Blake's going to spend some time in Mistral, the heroes are going to do things, and Adam's going to be an actual person.