A/N: Hello, and welcome to my story, thank you for giving it a try! I am a huge fan of the ship Arkos, and of both Jaune and Pyrrha in general, so naturally I was quite saddened by the ending of V3. It was excellent! But completely heart-breaking. So, this is my take on a possible alternate series of events. I intend for this to be a multi-chapter story, but can't make promises to have regularly scheduled chapters. My bad, I know I hate that as a reader, but better to give no expectations than to disappoint. I'd like to say thank you to Marvel Fiction, whose "Eclipse (An Arkos and Renora Story) is one of the only "Pyrrha and Jaune survive" stories I'm familiar with. I don;t intend for there to be much in common beyond premise, however. Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy chapter one!

When a Plan Fails

Pyrrha's mind was most definitely torn over her current situation. Pyr, the teenage girl, was bubbling mess over the extremely close quarters with the object of her affection. Full body contact with Jaune, his hands around her back, was leaving that part of her mind blushing up a storm. Ms. Nikos, the Beacon student and huntress-in-training was mildly pleased with her partner's technique; Jaune was using his larger, heavier frame in conjunction with the confined space to leave his more skilled opponent no realistic way to get out of the hold, bear hug that it was. There was little technique to it, just a straightforward application of size and strength when a better opponent couldn't avoid it, and straightforward can work. The Invincible Girl, champion fighter and top of her class, was furious at being manhandled by a lesser opponent, and practically frothing at the mouth over being prevented from joining the fight; being stuck in a beginner's hold was embarrassing enough without a real fight being underway. Pyrrha of Team JNPR was unhelpfully snarky, pointing out that there was a reason Jaune had been made team leader. He may have been a mediocre combatant, but Jaune was a fast thinker and could rapidly develop plans for a combat situation.

Pyrrha's own plan had been simple: Kiss Jaune to distract him, push him into that rocket launcher and safety, go fight Cinder Fall until help arrived. It did everything that needed to be done, and straightforward can work. The kissing Jaune part worked. "Wonderfully", the very unhelpful 'Pyr' added. But that was where the plan broke down. She placed her hands on Jaune's breastplate and apologized before launching him back into the rocket locker. The apology, apparently, tipped her hand, for Jaune had grabbed her arms and the push propelled both of them in. Pyrrha supposed she was still a little off-balance from Part One of the plan herself, as she didn't even move to stop her own fall. The additional weight knocked the askew locker over, and now the grills of the door looked at stone.

So, while Beacon was being destroyed by Grimm, terrorists, and fairy tales, she was stuck in a locker. With her best friend, whose trust she had utterly betrayed about fifteen seconds ago. Yes, parts of Pyrrha were torn about the situation, but the whole were in agreement on a solution.

Get out of this locker this instant.

"Easier said than done, however". After several minutes of struggling, Pyrrha began to feel the equal parts panic and resolve ebb. She couldn't get leverage to pry herself free, she couldn't use her semblance without risk of injuring one of them, and Jaune certainly showed no sign of letting her go. Short of trying to stab her best friend, which she most certainly wasn't going to do, she was stuck. Jaune had won.

She couldn't see his face, her own head over his shoulder and his turned away. But if the minutes of absolute silence on his part hadn't given away the anger, the amount of force he was using probably should. "He has every right to be angry", Pyr felt the need to point out; she had planned to make him the one thing he hated. Helpless when his friends needed him. "The idiot stuck in a tree" when Beacon needed him most, his team needed him most. She hadn't given that pause, she was thinking about his life, about the lives of everyone at Beacon. She needed to do something, and Jaune was trying to stop her. The Invincible Girl railed at the injustice of it, of being kept from using her abilities. Jaune meant well, but people needed her!

"You aren't invincible." Jaune's words were choked, and her anger quailed before her friend's clear sorrow. He began again, squeezing her into himself.

"You are not invincible, Pyrrha. You were going to die. This isn't a tournament fight, or a Grimm, or Team CDRL. You were going to go up that tower, and you were going. To. Die."

"Jau-" He cut her off, bowling over her words.

"Well, I won't let you die, Pyrrha. I won't let you kill yourself. I don't understand anything that's happened today, but I do understand my partner is acting like an idiot, and that she was going to get herself killed. Just to make herself feel better! Not happening, Pyrrha Nikos. I won't let you do that. So, I'm going to keep you in here until I'm not the only one actually thinking here. We'll stay like this as long as we have to. I'll pass out from exhaustion, and I still won't let you get out. If it takes all day, all week, I'm not letting you out." His pained shouts were losing steam by the end, whispers by her ear.

"I won't let you leave me."

She wanted to tell him that he was being selfish, that he was the one being an idiot. That she could have fought Cinder Fall alone until help arrived. That this was her destiny!

But she couldn't. Because he was right. That woman had defeated the Headmaster, she was leagues and leagues beyond Pyrrha. Ozpin had ordered them to get help, to get Gen. Ironwood or one of Ozpin's circle, and she was going to ignore that and keep Jaune from following through. She wanted to make herself important again, to not be dismissed like she was in the chamber. Dismissed like she was going to do to Jaune. She didn't want to feel helpless.

Pyrrha sagged against Jaune, she started to cry. Quietly, softly. Once the floodgates were open though, it all began to rush. "I killed Penny. I killed her." The memory hit Pyrrha like a truck, and it only got worse from there. "The headmaster is dead because I wasn't strong enough. The school is being destroyed because I hesitated at first. This is my fault, this is all my fault." There were no quiet tears now.

Pyrrha didn't even notice when Jaune went from crushing her in his grip to softly stroking her hair.

When Pyrrha had begun to quiet again, Jaune managed to fish his scroll from his pocket, sending a message in the JNPR+RWBY group chat: "P & I stuck out tower, come help pls". He didn't want his friends rushing into danger, but if he didn't message them they'd do just that looking for them. That thought made him send another message: "Ozpin said get help to tower: Qrow, Gdwtch, Gen.". He hoped his friends would be able to pass that along, because he was busy.

Pyr needed him.

He had been harsh, harsher than was probably necessary, but he couldn't let her do it, couldn't let her throw herself into danger like that. Grimm were one thing, Pyr could kick any Grimm's ass, but this was another! He was a mess, but he could tell right before she did it that Pyr wasn't much better. So when she said "I'm sorry", he grabbed her. When she was being quick, she always used her semblance in a hard burst, instead of a guided process, and he hoped she would rush this. He'd been right, and they both tumbled into the locker. She would spring out quick as can be, so he crushed her in a basic grab and tried to pull her into a bad position. It'd worked, so all he had to do was ride out her fighting and his emotions.

He was furious, he was hurt, he felt fuzzy all over, but most of all he was scared. He had been scared that any second, Pyrrha would break out of his grip and get herself killed. That she'd get away. That she would leave. When she finally stopped trying to break free, it had all burst from him.

Pyrrha would hate him for this, and she'd hate herself for what was happening. But Jaune knew he'd rather her be alive to hate him than dead liking him. "She kissed me…", Jaune cut that train of thought off. This was not the time; it may never be the time, now.

A white light briefly, brightly, beamed through the cracks and seams of their locker, before they were returned to darkness. Pyrrha was shaking, and she stirred after the light went out, mumbling half a question.

"I don't know, Pyr."

Silence returned, cold and unhappy. Pyrrha began to cry again, hiccuping slightly with the tears, and Jaune returned to trying to comfort her. Pyrrha had never been like this before, though he certainly understood why, but you tended to learn some things with seven sisters.

Weiss had found them. It felt like they'd been in the locker for hours. Sun was with her, and he was carrying an unconscious Ruby, of all things. The three came looking for them, but Ruby had seen Qrow go up the tower and followed; Weiss and Sun found her after the flash, unconscious. The two had eventually found the locker as well, letting them out. Jaune hadn't let go of her, at least one arm wrapped around her shoulders since they got out of the locker, as if he expected her to bolt. She wouldn't; he had been right, and it looked as if the fighting was done. The Atlesian robots lay in heaps, and bands of huntsmen & students did battle with pockets of Grimm, making a deliberate retreat towards the Bullhead docks. The fight was over, Beacon was going to be lost.

Weiss kept trying to get her to talk, to explain what happened, but Pyrrha couldn't look her friend in the face. "Pyrrha almost died, Weiss. Now stop." Jaune's voice was firm, almost cold, trying to kill the topic of what had happened in the tower. The group of five traveled in silence after that.

Nora, Ren, Blake, and Yang had all been evacuated to Vale by the time they arrived, and the somber group joined the first outgoing ship they could.

They sat in the Bullhead, shifting as it took off. Sun was staring towards Vale, Weiss was tending to Ruby, Jaune was seated next to her with a death's grip on her shoulder, but Pyrrha was staring at her hands, repeating the same thought over and over.

"it's all my fault."