11The City of Vale, in ruins. Beacon Academy, now run by Grimm, and the Tower being their center, from an even darker, more mysterious creature. Some civilians are deceased, most of them are injured, but all are traumatised. Only the few, who directed the steps among this landmine that had gone off, have grinned at the devastation that make even stronger warriors weep. But they do not weep out of vulnerability. Rather, they weep for repression before their bringing of reinforcements and retaliation.
"Weiss! Please you have to stop her!" A young Knight pleads to his scroll, as he exits a portable locker, that had crashed in an abandoned, destroyed city. "What?", questions his acquaintance through the scroll. "Pyrrha! She's going after that woman… at the top of the tower! She doesn't stand a chance!" He explains the situation out of desperation. There was a small pause, and he starts to weep. "Jaune, what are you talking about? Where are you?" She asks, sounding confused. "Don't worry about me!", he snaps back. His words then come out in sobs. "Please… You have to save Pyrrha." Now understanding his request, Weiss responds. "We will. Are you okay?" With the mix of sadness and rage, Jaune screams and throws his scroll to the ground, and it cracks. He breaks down and cries on his knees. "Please…", he says in tears.
Jaune cries for more than half a minute. As dire as the situation was, it only meant for him, especially, to take action. He was his partners leader, after all, before anything else. He gets up to his feet, and rotates, looking at his surroundings. The locker he was shoved in previously seemed to be his only form of aid. It was designed to be mobile and hold, as well as transport weapons, gear, and body for combat scenarios. Surely, it was highly durable and still in fair condition. The Knight picks up his scroll, and dashes to the locker. With it forced in the ground, he digs the rubble and concrete off, and adjusts it, pointing to the sky. He types down the coordinates to his previous location, and enters the locker. He slams the door closed, and braces for take off. "Hang on, Pyrrha. I'm coming!"
The portable locker blasts into the sky. As his transportation flies in the night, Jaune can see swarms of what looked like crows, but were obviously hundreds of winged Grimm as he got closer to the Tower. He could only see hundreds, while knowing there were thousands more outside of his locker vent's vision. His heart beated heavier the closer he got to Beacon Academy. He tightens his fists, preparing to rush out for when he lands.
Suddenly, a heavy thud is felt while still flying. Presumably, it might have been a flying Grimm. The locker is flipping, losing altitude. Jaune puts pressure on the walls with his arms and legs. Unfortunately, this does not help him much from banging his head back and forth on every side in the locker. He can feel the locker descending faster, wondering if he'll hit the ground. The locker crashes, and his face slams right on the locker vent.
Jaune moans to his aching head, while lying in the locker. Assuming he had reached his destination in front of the Tower again, he forces the door open. It felt like it was shoved into concrete and debris like before, only harder to open. His back presses on the locker inside, and he pushes it open. "These things need like steering wheels, or something. Seriously!" he complained as he sat up.
As far as landing went, the good news was that he crashed into the near top of the Tower, making a big hole. This left him with less stairs to run up, and more energy saved to help Pyrrha. The bad news, however, aside from how Ms. Goodwitch would punish Jaune for property damage later, was that not enough damage was done. The locker only made it halfway inside the building. The other half was dangling outside, many stories high. This came to Jaune's realization, and he laughed nervously. "Well, at least I'm closer than… being down there… If either Ms. Goodwitch or that woman doesn't kill me, then this will!"
With every move Jaune makes, a creaky sound is heard, and a piece of rubble falls. More importantly, he could feel heavy bumps from up above the Tower. That just might make the locker fall before he could even twitch and then plummet to the ground. That had to have been Pyrrha and the villainous woman in combat. With his head at the outside, he carefully caterpillars his weight, using his legs, to reach all the way inside. His head is almost through. He slowly tries to completely enter while trying to avoid the broken metal at his jugular.
But then, the Grimm Dragon that has been roaming around Vale appears, flying towards a higher level of the Tower. At the same time, a great bang is felt and heard. Rubble and glass exploded, and the whole roof falls to the ground. The locker, holding Jaune, began to tremble, and started falling outside. He started to panic.
For a split second while slipping, Jaune had a small glimpse of a red object clad in bronze up where the roof fell from. It was Pyrrha up there in that explosion! She disappears in his sight. Now, all bets were off! It was either put all your energy in jumping off the falling locker, or start at the bottom, and get nowhere. He chose the path that had him hanging on the edge instead of falling with the locker. He sighs, and climbs inside to the floor.
"I am so done being forced to ride those!", Jaune declares, getting to his feet. Now back on track, he looks around the room while running past the the elevator. "That's out of the question", he says, seeing how the elevator looked like a truck had drove up through it. He opens up the room's emergency stairs exit. "I'll just go up the sta-." Jaune's words were delayed by what he saw at the stairs.
Backing up out of the entrance, Jaune saw someone running up the stairs. It was only a few seconds, but the figure's backside was familiar. Tall, black with red details, and swift. Unsure why, but Jaune feels a throbbing, unbearable headache. He knew it wasn't from his rough landing earlier. He goes into a panic attack with his heart racing, and the room going blurry.
Jaune drops to his knees with his hands holding his head. His eyes are shut tight, and his mind goes into brief, traumatizing flashbacks. In between them, everything turns red. (... A face with no eyes… Red fire… Voices: "What are you doi-?!"... "Get ou-!"... "Jaune!") He wakes from the visions in sweat.
"Agh! ...What just happened?!" Jaune slowly gets back up to his feet. His headache slowly fades away. Then a heavy bump from above is heard and felt on the sealing and the floor. "Pyrrha…!" With his friend still in danger, Jaune continues on, slamming the door open and sprinting up the stairs.
After moments of running up the stairs, Jaune was expecting to meet a door at the end. Instead, with the top floor now being the roof, he meets a reddish sky fading to dark blue. His eyes adjusts to the outside moonlight. All that was left was destroyed walls and school property. Jaune was standing right in front of a big pile of it once he left the stairs. This blocked his sight from the middle of the battlefield to find Pyrrha.
Jaune looks at the other side of the pile while still standing behind it. Before he could lay eyes on anything, there was a sudden bright light across the Tower. At the same time, there was a loud sad cry. "PYRRHA!" Jaune shields his eyes, as he takes cover. There was also a loud, abominable screech. Jaune was worried and confused "Agh! What's going on?! Pyrrha! Where are you?!", he screams. The light was overwhelming. It brought him to his knees with its weighted aura, even while taking cover.
The light starts to go away. Jaune walks out and makes an effort to feel for clues while blinded and adjusting to the outside, again. He gradually regains his vision with squinted eyes. The first thing he sees is a giant set of jaws wide open. The Grimm Dragon stood there, speechless (screechless). It looked like it was trying to catch flies (or Jaune, for that matter).
"Monty-Fucking-Oum!" Jaune screamed for his Lord and Creator in shock. He fell to his bottom, and rapidly crab-walks backwards. He pauses. "Huh?" It came to his attention that the monster was not moving an inch from that spot. "Why is it so still? Not that I'm complaining, but I thought I would've been chewed up by know." He got up to his feet and looked around, still confused. "What was that light?"
Jaune sees no one else there, except for the Grimm Dragon. For once after a while, there is silence. All that could be heard was the wind, from being many stories high, and t at the edge.
It was Ruby Rose, lying down unconscious. "Ruby!" Jaune runs to the Little Red Sniper, and gets on one knee, shaking her. "Ruby, wake up! Say something!" She does not respond. He checks her pulse and her breathing. Her vitals are adequate, and Jaune let's out a relieved sigh.
The area was still abandoned with Pyrrha nowhere to be found. Jaune continues to look around and wonder what all took place before he had arrived. "Pyrrha? …Pyrrha?!" He begins to shout out even louder while looking around. "Pyrrha, where are you?!" There was no response, still. He walks around slowly, hoping to find anything.
In the middle of the room, Jaune finds a familiar bronze metal object. It was his partner's circlet she wore on her head. Without blinking, he stares and slowly steps to the head peace. He painfully drops to his knees and picks up the circlet. "No… No, Pyrrha… you can't be!" His eyes begin to water, and he grits his teeth. "PYRRHAAAAA!"
The young Knight cries with the headpiece to his face. Memories of his comrade flash in his thoughts (From the first time they met in the locker room, to their first, and possibly only kiss). Still, Pyrrha being killed could not be confirmed by Jaune. Her body was nowhere to be found, and her circlet was left behind. But at this rate, he could only assume the worst, knowing how powerful that woman was.
Jaune felt cold and crushed. He could not find his friend in time before whatever had happened to her took place. As alone as he felt on top of the Tower, a deep voice spoke out, and showed otherwise. "You weren't supposed to be here." Jaune's crying stops. He opens his eyes, and slowly looks up while still on his knees. "You weren't supposed to see any of this. Though, judging by how lost you looked a few minutes ago, you probably don't know what happened at all, do you?"
As Jaune stares at the new character before him, his heart goes from slow and broken to fast and alert. The same person running up the stairs from before was standing in front of him. He was tall, carried a dark weapon, and wore black clothing with a red flowery/fiery theme. His hair was red and spiky with devilish horns, and he had a villainous white mask. Judging by the horns and the mask, he was a White Fang soldier.
The same flashbacks as before flash in Jaune's thoughts. His eyes widened and constricted. Before he could go into a full panic attack again, he holds his composure, and stands up. "You look… painfully familiar… Have we met before?" The faunus did not respond, but with a small chuckle. That ticks off Jaune's nerves a little. "Okay… What happened here? Can you tell me that?" Jaune starts being more firm and assertive.
The faunus starts to explain. "If you want to know who's responsible for all of this, you can blame Cinder. She was fighting your friend a while ago, and why she's gone." Hearing those words put Jaune in despair, but with denial. His eyes were close to crying again. But more questions had to be answered. This was not the time for him to bawl up.
"What do you mean 'gone'? ...Is Pyrrha dead?! Did that woman kill her or did she take her away somewhere?!" His first thought was murder, but Jaune insists on finding even a small bit of hope in seeing if she was okay.
"Do I look like I give a damn?! Wouldn't you know if you were here to fight for her? You know, stick up for your friends and protect them?!" The faunus started to be more defensive. They both start to slowly walk in a circle, facing each other. "You and all the other humans are the same. As soon as something goes wrong, you point fingers and take your humilation out on others. And then we become the bad guys because we stood up for ourselves and took action before any of you would." The conversation seemed slightly off topic.
On the opposite side of where he was, Jaune saw and remembered that Ruby was on the building too, unresponsive. The best decision was to not fight, and get her somewhere safe. "Look, I don't want any trouble. All I asked is if you know if my friend Pyrrha is alive. If she is, then where is she?"
The faunus responds with a question instead of an answer. "What if she were dead? What would you do then?" They both stopped in their tracks, now in the same spot as they were in before.
"What- What would I do… if she was...?" Jaune removes eye contact, and stares downward. His emotions would usually go into sadness, considering Pyrrha may be dead. Instead, with Cinder in thought, it went into anger. His protection in regards to Ruby became faint. He looks up with hatred in his eyes. "I would avenge her! And I will stop whatever it is this Cinder is planning and anyone who gets in my way, even if it kills me!"
The faunus smirks at Jaune's words. "Good. Because the way how things look now, you and your little friend back there are going to have to die before trying..." He reaches over to his left hip, and a clamping metal sound is heard. "... just like your Red-Headed Champion!"
This meant to Jaune that Pyrrha was dead after all. With the way how the White Fang member expressed it, he had to have had some part taken in what happened to her. The way how he was positioned meant he was getting ready to fight as well. That might have been Jaune's fault for being tempered and forgetting to at least try and slip away with Ruby, who was behind him. Now the angered, vengeful young Knight prepares himself for battle as he wields Crocea Mors.
Jaune charges and delivers the first blow from above. His attack is blocked by his opponent's barely unsheathed chokuto's red blade. With little hesitation, Jaune swings consecutive angry slashes at different angles. Every attack was blocked by the same slightly exposed blade. After a few swings, the faunus started to dodge the attacks without using his weapon. It was a sense of mockery to Jaune and his improved training from Pyrrha. The faunus swiftly dodges the last blow and moves behind Jaune. While maintaining momentum, Jaune twirls and swings his shield behind himself to attack. His opponent used his sheathed weapon and arms to absorb the shield's smack action.
The Knight swings twice, horizontally. His last swing was pushed further than needed by his opponents sheathed weapon. Briefly, Jaune was off balance and open. With a martial arts style, the White Fang Ninja began swinging his sheathed weapon at Jaune. At first, he was able to block them with his shield and sword. However, the faunus increases his speed, and begins hitting his face and body. The last attack was a lunge to his chestplate, knocking him on his behind. They were all painful hits, and hard enough to leave bruises later.
Jaune gets back up to his feet while still in pain. His knees were slightly bent, showing he could barely stand. The faunus was not in Jaune's space, attacking him anymore. Instead, his back was turned, facing the edge, looking down on an important subject. "Tsk. Pathetic! I bet even this little girl could put up a better fight than you." He taunts Jaune, as he stares down at Ruby. "Look at what she did to that Grimm over there."
"What is he talking about? Did Ruby stop that Gri-... Wait, Ruby!" Jaune was put on alert with the White Fang member facing his human friend. Suddenly, he could stand up straight, ignoring the pain. The faunus slowly pulls his sword, preparing to kill the Little Red Sniper. "Oh well. I'll dispose of this filth, now!" But before he could pull his red blade completely out, the Knight dashes with great protective speed towards towards him. He grunts, as Jaune lunged Crocea Mors towards his blade, halfway out. The sword briefly glowed in white right before the tip stabbed at the middle of the chokuto's wide side.
The Ninja held his guard and impressively leveled the Crocea Mors' tip on his blade. Jaune was shoving him towards the edge of the Tower in the same thrusted position. They were now further from Ruby, to Jaune's relief. "Stay the fuck away from her!" Jaune deeply grunts as he tries to intimidate his psychotic foe. He was not someone who would be accustomed to murder, nor has he ever committed one. At the same time, he was willing to push someone off a cliff if it meant saving his comrades.
Unfortunately, Jaune's anger and strength are overpowered by the dark faunus. Everything red on him, from his hair to his clothing and weapon, was glowing red after Crocea Mors' aura-filled attack. Even without enough strength to push him off the edge, Jaune holds on to his own persistence. But that was reduced after the Ninja spoke out in excitement. "Now that's what I've been waiting for, Arc!"
In both feelings of surprise and confusion, Jaune's momentum slowly fades. "How does he know my name? Did we meet after all?!" As the glow of the faunus dims, he slowly pushes and walks further from the edge. Jaune's feet were firm on the ground, yet were still being forced backwards. His sword wiggles from balancing the tip's unorthodox position on the other weapon. No longer with the advantage, they return further from the edge.
Before Jaune could adjust his position, his opponent makes the next move. The Ninja wraps his right leg around the jittery sword arm, and pulls Jaune off balance. Then he extends his leg to shoot a kick to his face. Giving little time to recover, he delivers multiple kicks all over his body.
The pain was somehow worse than the attacks from his sheathed weapon. Jaune struggles to regain composure. "I think he absorbed my aura, and made himself stronger. That's just like Yang's semblance... For Oum's sake, is he toying with me?! If you say we need to die, why not just get it over with?" "Hehehe… I guess I got ahead of myself. After all these years, you still haven't unlocked your semblance, or controlled your aura."
Jaune grunts in pain and tries to catch his breath. "What are you... talking about?" The faunus continues to conversate. "I don't know why I'm surprised. Last time, all you could do was lay only one hit on me. It must run in the family to 'stab someone in the back'. But even then, you couldn't put up a good fight. None of you could."
Jaune grunts in pain. "Who… are you? I've never even met you. How do you know my last name?" The faunus only responds with only a smirk, and a chuckle. Jaune gets angry again, and screams as he charges with a slash. He delivers multiple slashes that hit nothing but his opponent's personal space as they're being dodged.
On his last blow going downward, the blade becomes closed between two fingers in a black glove. Even with both hands on the handle, Jaune could not move Crocea Mors. The sword slowly moves aside, and he can see the mask staring at him. "Just as dense as always…" The faunus, while still clamping on to Crocea Mors, shoots his left knee to Jaune's gut. This causes him to spit out saliva and widen his eyes while still holding his weapon.
The ruthless, yet skilled faunus swoops his left arm around Jaune's right arm. He twists his arm uncomfortably and then elbows Jaune's face with his dark weapon to add on more pain. He then flings a forceful backhand fist to his face. Jaune no longer has his sword in hand.
Jaune could barely feel his numb yet painful arm. He was left with nothing but his shield. With the faunus knowing this, he walks up to Jaune. He swings a shield smack towards the faunus walking to him. But he catches it with his left hand on the triangular bottom. He twists it 180° upward, thus twisting Jaune's left arm this time. His sides are exposed with his knees forced to slightly bend from the painful positioning. The faunus thrusts his knee to the twisted straight arm's elbow. Jaune cries in pain as a crack can be heard from his arm. While still holding the shield, the faunus punches him straight in the face, putting him in the center of the stage. Now he no longer possesses Crocea Mors, as the shield is yanked off from the punch.
Down to one knee, Jaune holds his left arm and agonises in pain he had never imagined to bare. Slow steps were making their way towards him. Each step his opponent took, getting closer to him, made his heart race harder from both fear and anger. He looks up at the devilish white mask looking down at him, while holding his Crocea Mors set in his right hand. The faunus grabs him by the top of his chestplate with his left hand, holding his dark weapon. He lifts him up to face level and extends his arm in Ruby's direction. "Why are you doing this?"
The faunus does not respond. Instead, he grits his teeth, and punches Jaune in the face four times, making him bleed. He punches one more time, but harder, yanking his torso armor set off of his body from one side and launched at the edge of the Tower. He slides across the floor a little, and his head hangs at the edge. The world looked upside down to his view. Then he sees his disarmed set falling down to the far ground. His vital gear was thrown by the faunus under his feet while lying down.
To his right side, he notices Ruby there, five feet away, still unconscious. Jaune achingly gets to his feet, as the faunus continues walking their direction. Expecting another attack, Jaune puts his fists up. The faunus instead goes to Ruby. He lifts her up by her hood above his head. Jaune ignores all the pain he had felt and charges at the faunus with a battle cry. He shoots a fist in his direction, but it slows down before it could hit his face. His body went from feeling weak and painful to weak and numb. Suddenly, he noticed that the sky was bright red and everything else was shaded black. Jaune looks at the Dark Ninja and sees that he was glowing red again. He slowly looks down to see that his hand was halfway inside of his chest, bleeding through his hoodie.
The pain was too agonizing for Jaune to even scream. Had it not been for his excessive aura, he would be either dead instantly, or unconscious. He levitates with his toes barely touching the ground, as his dark enemy walks to the edge holding him and his comrade. "Do… whatever it is… you want with me… but leave her… alone!" He shakingly raises his fist to hit the faunus. Before he could even try to punch him, he shoots his hand further in, down to his wrist. Jaune screams to the top of his lungs, which were being tickled at this point, and coughs up blood.
The faunus extends his arm, and holds the two Beacon students over the edge. "You know, I've always liked you Jaune. No matter what form of humiliation you dealt with, you always put yourself before others. You're the only human in this world who I could respect. The Arc family policy, how they "never go back on their word"…. It's a shame that the rest of your family couldn't follow through with their own saying! And while you're still so pure, it'd only be a matter of time until this world corrupts your innocence too… Consider this, a favor." Jaune held onto his grasp, confused by all that he had said. "What are you talking about? How… do you know… my family? … Who are you?!"
The faunus smirks. "You seriously don't remember me? …If you somehow survive this fall, ask one of your sisters. They're not as dense as you, so they'll remember me very well. And here's a message to your leaders and your family." He pulls Jaune in closer. "Mankind will succumb to the flames of justice by the White Fang, and the Arcs will wilt in pain for their betrayal of the Taurus family!" At that moment, everything was quiet to Jaune, and a childhood flashback comes to his mind briefly. (He sees himself clashing wooden swords with a red-haired boy with black horns around his age. Another memory shows them eating food, running around, and laughing together. It all looked like a good time. The flashback ends with a faint image of the boy and the sound of a gunshot in his memory.) It lasted for a split second, and Jaune squints his eyes as he somewhat recognizes who this Dark Faunus Ninja was. "Adam?" He responds back with a wide grin. "Perfect!"
Adam springs out his arm, and throws Jaune in the air. He drops Ruby along with him. A small stream of blood flies out of Jaune's chest as he reaches levels lower than at the top. Time stops in his mind. With him falling with a penetrated chest, he believed that his life was going to end. His life flashes before his closed eyes.
(Jaune sees small scenarios of his childhood. He could recall only a few moments with Adam. He remembers who he is, but hardly enough of the details, including his eyes. The memories move forward to the times he spent with his two parents, and seven sisters. Years after those memories, he was in his teen ages. He recalls talking about how he'll enter Beacon Academy.)
(Then, a painful and blurry memory had came up. The same memory that caused Jaune PTSD before. He can remember active fighting sounds. He was unsure of what all had happened, but he recalls on gunshot, and recognized that same fiery red White Fang mask Adam wore. This told Jaune that he had encountered Adam some time between their childhood days, and now. Further through his life memories, he sees himself trying to enter Beacon Academy with the fake transcripts. The rest of his thoughts went through his time at Beacon, the friends he's made, and the times they've all spent. This also included the earliest time in which everything fell apart, as well as his first kiss. His last thought was seeing Adam decrease in size as he fell further. It was up to the point where he had closed his eyes after seeing Ruby fall too. "Ruby. Ruby…!"
"...Ruby!" Jaune's eyes snap open like nothing was wrong with him. What was wrong was how his comrade is falling and unconscious while he was falling, but still awake. She is five feet above him with her head aiming towards the ground. Forgetting about the chest wound that would keep most folks from moving, Jaune musters up his motivation, and flattens his body to gain air resistance. He reached the same level as Ruby, allowing her to somewhat lay on his back.
Jaune reaches for the bottom corners of her cape, praying for a parachute action. It works, but had it only been Ruby doing this, there would be more resistance with her solo lightweight. However, it was her solo lightweight (and Crescent Rose), plus Jaune's additional masculine weight. Having no weapons and less armor was no exception. "Damn it! Come on!" They were going to hit the ground hard. But at least he'll hit the ground and hopefully cushion her fall.
"Jaune!" A distant shout reaches his ears from the ground. Weiss was striding across every glyph she summoned in a straight path to reach them. Suddenly, Jaune got an idea at that moment of seeing her. He twirls around, grabs Ruby in his left arm, and takes Crescent Rose in sniper form from behind her in his right hand. He takes three shots at the ground to push them upwards and minimize their impact, like a pogo-stick.
Jaune tries for a fourth shot, but the magazine was empty, and there was no time to try and reload. They were now 50 feet from the ground. "Crap!" Then, he assembles Crescent Rose in scythe form. He adjusts himself closer to the Tower, and sticks the scythe into the wall, dragging down on it. They were slowing down slightly, but not fast enough for safe landing.
At 20 feet, Jaune chose to push jump and push himself off the wall towards Weiss at the ground. She reads the situation, and makes a glowing black gravity glyph allowing Jaune to easily levitate down and at a few inches from the ground. Her glyph turns white and he lands. In front of her, she sees a bloody, beat up Knight of Jaune who was glowing from her glyph, holding an unconscious damsel of Ruby, and Crescent Rose in hand. She blushes for a little while.
"Oh Oum!" Jaune coughs up blood and falls to one knee. Weiss stopped blushing when she saw the young Knight in agony. "Jaune!" She runs to him to try and help. He sets Ruby down, and moves aside on his knees and elbows. "Jaune! Are you okay? What happened?"
"Get… Ruby… out of here!"
"Jaune, I can't leave-"
"Now! It's... not safe!"
Weiss hesitates, but she grabs Ruby and Crescent Rose after assembling in portable form. She looks at Jaune in physical and emotional pain.
"Jaune? Weiss?" Ren shows up and runs to them from behind, along with Nora. Immediately, they approach Jaune, who was heavily panting and exhausted. "Ren… Nora? What- What are you doing here?" Nora saw him with a puddle of blood on the ground under him. "Jaune! What happened to you?!" He falls to his face, not on his elbows and knees anymore.
"We need to get him on the ship." Ren grabs Jaune from behind, under his arms, while Nora grabbed his legs up front. He continues to slowly lose consciousness and grunts in pain.
"Come on Weiss. The ship's leaving soon." Ren was giving orders as him and Nora ran with Jaune. Weiss began to run while holding Ruby in front of her. "But what about Pyrrha?"
"We'll come back and look for her. But for right now, Jaune looks like he's about to bleed out. We need to get him to the medic." Jaune could only sulk quietly and lay in his friend's arms while they carried him. "Py-Pyrrha…!" "It's going to be alright, Jaune. We're almost there." A few Grimm came in their direction, but Ren managed to shoot a few with one hand in their weakest spots. The same for Nora, weak spot or not. One grenade was usually enough. "We need to move faster!"
A few minutes later, they reach the docks where the ships are, taking in passengers. The Atlas soldiers there were giving instructions to enter and take seats. Ren calls out to the soldiers outside the ship. "We have two students who need medical attention immediately!" The soldiers see them running, and instruct the passengers in a line to move aside.
"Get inside!" The soldier excuses them to go in and they enter the ship. It was bright inside and packed with other passengers seated. A few medics approach them and take Jaune and Ruby to the back of the ship. "Set them on a bed with team A."
Jaune was laying on the bed, feeling dizzy while dealing with his pains. A brighter light was above his head and people in scrubs surround him. His team is there too, looking at him with worried faces. He sits his head up a little and sees Ruby across from him with Weiss at her side.
Those people in scrubs were touching different parts of his body and conversating in regards to his vitals. Across from where he was, he could hear Atlas soldiers talking. "Ms. Schnee, we need you to come with us."
"What? Why? I need to be here with-,"
"Your father gave us orders that we escort you to his airship. Please cooperate, and follow us."
"My father?! He's here?! I-I can't just-!"
The soldiers forcefully take her by the arms. "Wha- Hey, stop! Unhand me!" They make their way out of the ship. "Let me go this instant! Ruby! Ruby!"
Jaune leans up even more. "Weiss! Ah!" The pain worsens and he drops back down. "Sir, we need you to remain lied down." Jaune was in so much pain, both physical and emotional. The medics were even describing his pain as they remove his remaining armor and upper clothing.
"Severe penetration to the chest. Excessive blood found in the mouth indicates lung or esophagus contact as well." They began to bring out their tools. "Remove any bodily fluids, and apply oxygen."
"Multiple bruises on the upper body. Assess his lower body as well." The medics presse on Jaune's lower body, making him flinch, showing he was attacked their as well. His emotional pain is brought back up when Nora speaks.
"Jaune, we can't leave without Pyrrha. Where is she?" He is reminded of his primary mission, to help Pyrrha. His eyes begin to water. Before he could answer, an Atlas soldier walks in, carrying some materials. He has his torso armor, his Crocea Mors set, and even Pyrrha's Milo and Akouo set and her circlet. Ren and Nora look with surprised faces.
The soldier approaches Jaune. "Young man, are these your belongings?" Jaune sits completely up on the bed. Jaune stares at what all the soldier holds.
"Sir, we need you to lay back down. You're losing a lot of blood!" The medics were demanding him to lay back down as they were still treating him. Instead, Jaune grabs Pyrrha's circlet. He starts to cry, and the medics stop their procedure, looking at him in pity. He holds the circlet to his forehead, and invisions Pyrrha's head, where the circlet is, on his.
Ren and Nora look with sadness in their eyes. Nora cries, and holds Rens. He comforts her, trying his hardest not to shed a tear. The whole ship is quiet for a while. Ren regains most of his composure and breaks the silence. "... Jaune?"
The Knight was exhausted and breathing heavily, but was filled with anger. "Cinder… That's the name… of the woman who fought Ozpin. I tried… I tried to stop Pyrrha, but she wouldn't listen! ...And she… she took her away from us! Now… she's gone!"
Nora cries even harder after hearing him, making Ren break resistance and shed tears as well. Jaune touches his lips, remembering the last time he saw his closest comrade. His hand then went over his painful chest. He grits his teeth and gets flashbacks.
(Sword approaching his abdomen... Sword slashes upward... Adam's mask.) Jaune's voice was starting to sound more angry. "And… Adam! He's one of the White Fang, and he was there when it all happened. I don't know what he or the White Fang have to do with all of this… but he was there. And so was Ruby. They know what happened. And he… tried to kill Ruby!"
"So if it's Justice he wants, then that's exactly what he'll get. Both him, and Cinder!"
Ren looks at Jaune and nods with determination and slight anger. Nora, still holding Ren, looks at Jaune with tears still in her eyes, and nods with anger.
After his speech, Jaune reaches his limit. He faints and looks into darkness. "Jaune!" In sink, Ren and Nora called out his name. Voices continue as they aid his wounds as best they could. The ship begins to take off, away from Beacon Academy, in its devastation.
The young Knight begins to dream after his difficult fight. "I'll find you, Cinder. We all will find you! And I'll find you too, Adam Taurus!"