A/N: So I'm sick today and binge watched all 12 episodes of Vol. 3 of RWBY and let me tell you...I am so sad. I don't think I've been this sad over something fictional in a while. One of my favorite ships, Arkos, has taken a heavy hit. So I felt inspired to honor a marvelous character and a marvelous show with an alternate timeline of events.

This is set when Pyrrha and Jaune have their conversation against the walls of the school and Pyrrha mistakenly attacks Jaune. From there...things go a little differently. Let me know what you think. This may be a one-shot, it may evolve into more. I'm unsure. Anyway, thanks for reading.

Crimson Sun

"Just tell me…" he said, the final word lingering on his lips. "Just tell me what I can do to help you, Pyrrha."

She laid her river of crimson hair against his plated shoulder. Feeling the warmth rise up from inside of him and push itself against his skin, Pyrrha felt the tiniest tide of comfort ebb away at her heart. The pressure she was feeling was indescribable, as if she were laying in a submarine entrenched deep in the ocean. She wanted desperately to tell Jaune about her predicament, about the impossible choice she was faced with. Her destiny was being paved for her, and the result was that Pyrrha's heart felt encased in thorns and wrenched over by an iron grip too cold to be human.

The tears crowded the corners of her eyes, their salty pleading nearly welling over. But she would have to remain strong for the both of them. Jaune was in the dark, and if she illuminated things…

How bad would it be? She already felt terrible. She already knew there was no choice but to say Yes to Ozpin and his request. The fall maiden needed her. In truth, everyone needed her. Otherwise, the maiden's power would fall into the wrong hands and then what would happen? Shaking with a thousand possibitlies of the future wound up inside of her, Pyrrha told Jaune the truth of the moment.

"You already are," she said with a faint smile. But what Jaune could not see was that her grin soon faded. Macabre despair morphed the momentary glow of happiness into a scowl born of intense worry. The lambent light of hope was growing dimmer and dimmer. She did not know what to do.

What can I do? She thought to herself. But say Yes…

Jaune felt the electric shift in her heart. Her shoulders had tensed and she longer eased into him comfortably. Instead, she felt prickly.

"Pyrrha?" he asked.

"Jaune…" she breathed in instant reply.

"Just tell me what's wrong, Pyrrha," he begged of her. "I can help…"

"But you can't!" she cried, shakily rising to her feet. She turned her back to him, walking a few steps away. The black hate for her situation was rising up inside of her but Pyrrha fought valiantly to maintain the posture of civility she always upheld. Turning carefully towards him, she showed him the weakness and the fright that was pouring out of every orifice. Tears cascaded down her face, leaking from the green forest of her eyes. Jaune took a step back and then two forward out of concern.

"Pyrrha…"

"Stay back!" she growled, almost in a bestial sense. "Jaune! I…I…I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry," he told her. "P-Pyrrha…I can't help you if I don't know what's going on."

"You can't know!" she barked at him. "No one can know! A secret so heavy lays upon my shoulders and mine alone! This is my burden, Jaune. No one else can bear it for me. I don't want to put you in harm's way!"

She didn't realize she had been shouting until much later.

He took another step towards her which resulted in her taking one back. "Pyrrha…" he begged, his voice pleading. "You can tell me. You don't have to worry about me."

"But I do!" she shouted. "I have to worry about everyone, Jaune," she said, the tide within her ebbing outwards and allowing for her voice to sink with it. The color rushed from her cheeks and instead a white sincerity enveloped them. She was feeling tired now…but the leaden anchor of her responsibilities and secrets were dragging her deeper and deeper into the black ocean she was beginning to swim in all too often. She hadn't asked for any of this…so what right did she have to thrust it all upon Jaune? She cared too deeply for him to do that to him…

Jaune was silenced by her explosive retort.

"I'm sorry…" she said again. Turning away, she let her crimson cape swallow her and her ambition guide her. Torn up, Jaune was unsure what to say. His lips trembled and he didn't know what to do. Watching her go…he let his heart sink with hers, but in a different plane. He felt awful, indescribably so…but he would not let her turn.

"PYRRHA!" he shouted, commanding her attention. She turned, eyes wide and full of surprise. He jogged up to her, smiling.

"Pyrrha," he said one more time. "You are the first person who ever believed in me, so please, let me believe in you. I don't know what you're feeling or going through, and if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. Just…let me help you, Pyrrha. You're wrong. You don't have to bear this weight alone."

"J-Jaune…"

"I know I've been a coward in the past, but I'm better now. You, Ren, Nora, Team RWBY, everyone…they've all helped me. But most of all, you've helped me. You've let me become who I am today, Pyrrha. So let me help you now."

He shook his blonde hair out of his eyes.

"I won't let you go alone."

The tears broke past their dams. She collapsed into his chest, soaking the breastplate with hot tears. She looked up at him and he parted her fiery hair, smiling into her eyes. This felt so good. It felt so wonderful to let someone share the weight of the world. The tide ebbed further back and she began to feel weightless. It was then she realized he was kissing her. Embraced, intertwined as one, Jaune brought Pyrrha's lips to his and pressed into them firmly. She did not retreat. She melted into him, letting his warmth envelop her. When they pulled apart at last, she felt a lot better.

"Jaune…" she said, her voice softer now. Her words were returning to their velvety kindness instead of the broken cry they had been before. "Do you believe in destiny?"

He looked surprised by her question. "S-sure," he told her. "But…why? What do you mean?"

"I don't think of destiny as a kind of fate you are unavoidably going to fulfill. I view it as a goal, one you work at and strive to achieve."

"That makes sense," he said, still holding her in his arms as she spoke into his chest.

"All my life I've believed my destiny was to be a huntress. To protect people and the world. And lately…everything has been pointing to the answer that I was right. That I am meant to do that…but…I don't know if I can." Her words were breaking up again, the choppy sea bowing against her heart once more.

"Pyrrha," he said quietly, hugging her tighter than before. "Of course you can. You have all of us behind. You have me."

"What if…what if someone altered your destiny? What if something so inexplicably important arose that it eclipsed your previous beliefs? If circumstance came about that required you to do something different…for the sake of everyone."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, pulling back and inspecting her with his eyes. "Pyrrha…you're talking nonsense."

"N-no," she said, lips trembling. "I'm not, Jaune. I'm talking the truth. I'm talking about you and me and everyone else. T-there's…there's something I have to do. And I have to do it…"

"With me by your side," he said, interrupting her. "I won't let you do whatever's been bugging you alone."

"B-but I…"

"Stop," he whispered, holding a finger up to her lips. She shivered. He removed his finger and planted a second kiss, this one much more passionate. The colorless reality seemed to light up as the sorbet hues of the sunset came over Beacon. Standing on the tips of her feet, Pyrrha rose to encase herself in him. Jaune equally blended with her, his blonde hair and her red hair seeming to infuse in bright colors of the sun. In that moment, she knew he was right. She did not have to be alone.

"I love you, Pyrrha," he said. "Don't ever leave me."

She laughed and cried at the same time. "I can't make that promise, Jaune."

"Why not?"

She took his hand. "Come on," she said. "I have something to show you."

Leading him onward, Pyrrha brought Jaune towards Beacon Tower. Whatever secrets she was being forced to keep by Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda and Ironwood…she would not keep them alone. Jaune would know. And with him by her side…perhaps she would overcome the dark.

Or perhaps they would both fall.