Autumn Leaves Dance

A/N: Hey what is going on readers, I seen the sneak peak to Volume 4 presented at RTX and that had me excited. How Ruby was being a badass but surprised to see how she and everyone else changed within 6-8 months, wow.

Disclaimer: RWBY and everything presented here will belong to the people at Roosterteeth.

This will mainly feature Jaune as he finds something by surprise, will contain hurt/comfort and angst, not sure to add these into the description.

Enjoy!

Everything sucks…

A blonde teen was walking through the forest by himself, with both sword and shield in his hands, he was scowling across this area for any Grimm or any dangerous creatures. Checking every viewable area, he walked to the next area.

Seeing something that sparked his interest, 2 Beowolves were walking close. Seeing his opportunity, he held his sword up high and charged in, alerting the wolves of his presence.

The wolves reacted aggressively and charged at him, with teeth and claws out to hurt him.

Remembering what his friends and classes had taught him, his shield blocked the initial claws. Moving his sword, he sliced off one of the arms of the Beowolves. With the arm missing, it stumbled around while the other charged in, swiping its arms around. The blonde teen watched the attack but simply moved out of each swiping motion and thrusted his sword into the beast.

I hate this…

With rage fueling his actions, he looked down at the Beowolf he just stabbed, it was slightly alive, trying to get back up. Without remorse, he held his blade up and repeatedly struck at the head of the beast, making it turn into a black cloud, quickly dissipating. Looking at the other Beowolf, he walked over, holding his shield up to block the swipes of the beast.

With a thrust of his blade, he pulled it out of the head of the Grimm, walking away from the disappearing corpse.

Remembering what he was doing before he seen the Grimm, he decided that the area was safe enough. Walking back, he was thinking of the past. He found out the terrible news from his friends, that one of his closest friends and teammate Pyrrha Nikos was confirmed killed by Cinder. He fell onto his knees, not knowing what to do, he collapsed and later woke up in an infirmary.

He went on this mission with Ruby, Ren and Nora in hopes to find the woman, and try to find a way to finally close a portion of his life.

'Why was I so stupid!'

He was blind to see how Pyrrha ever felt for him, he was always trying to find a way to impress the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, but he knew that he was lying to himself when he thought that he had a chance with her. He thought back to all of the times Pyrrha and his team were there for him, tutoring him when he had a hard time with classes, give him the confidence to stand up to certain people. Saving some people from Grimm, even though one in particular was the bully.

Seeing the lights of the village, he knew that it was still there. He seen his three teammates standing by the bridge, discussion a plan of action, they were keeping a lookout.

"We should have one on lookout for the night" Ren said, having a problem where none were awake, with a few Grimm causing some trouble in the outside regions of the town.

"I agree, but who should go on first watch?" Nora looked at the other two, with her mighty hammer on her shoulder.

"Hmmmm…" the young leader of the newly formed team, since she was the most likely candidate for this role.

"I will" Jaune said, when he was within earshot.

Nodding Ruby looked at the others, "Ok, Jaune will be the first, I will go next, Nora can go then Ren, is that ok?"

Without much argument, the team decided to call it a day and headed back to the town's inn.

Walking through the small town, Jaune looked at the other people who are currently living in this town. Many people stayed when the Grimm invasion occurred, leaving many hurt and some killed. Many of the Huntsmen/Huntresses helped some citizens to safety, but the numbers of Grimm were only increasing. Luckily RNJR was nearby, with some huntsmen leaving to get reinforcements.

"Can you believe it's been a week?" Ruby said, pulling her arms back and slightly leaning back, looking at the dusk sky.

"Yeah, thanks to the local huntsmen, we managed to contain the Grimm in this area, though the rest of this kingdom is in trouble as well" Ren noted out, the Huntsmen never came back with aid, only leaving Ruby and her friends alone with this village.

With the slight breeze of the autumn wind blowing by, rustling the nearby trees, making Ruby's cape move with the wind, showing the tears and burns it had taken with her recent Grimm attacks.

Looking down onto his outfit, Jaune was wearing some more armor than previously in Beacon, it was recommended by Ruby to protect himself, so he looked around to find a set closely matching his chest plate, with arm and leg pieces. It will be enough to keep him mobile but protected.

He looked over to see how both Ren and Nora also changed their clothes, cause the battle and tearing their travels had done, Ren's resembled his old set but had a longer shirt, going past his butt. His hair did get noticeably longer, with the pink streak still there.

Nora's new outfit closely resembled her old one the closest, with slight alterations to the dress, she still kept the color scheme like the last one. Her hair did get longer, only reaching down to her shoulders.

Ruby was the one who changed the most. Her outfit consist of a cotton shirt tied by a black corset with a black skirt. She is also wearing her boots and wearing black stockings, though some battles already started to show some wear and tear. Her hood was still the same, but the battles were relentless over time, burn marks had scorned around it and tears occurring around as well, with some parts missing or burned.

Entering the inn, Ruby, Ren and Nora quickly walked to their respected rooms and called it a night, a long day clearing even more Grimm. They were secretly hoping more huntsmen or Atlesian forces could show up, but so far no luck. They don't know how long they could keep this up, they have their own agenda, in hopes to find Cinder and stop her.

Jaune stepped out of the Inn and climbed on top of the tall makeshift tower the townsfolk made for these huntsmen/huntresses to see the Grimm coming in from a long distance.

Leaning in on the railings, he searched around the town, for anything, bandits, Grimm or wild animals.

After much time had passed, he opened his eyes, looked up to see the moon close to the high point, "Nothing much… again."

He made one last search until something glistened in the distance, passed the bridge and into the forest. By making it out, he could see a person running.

'They could be in trouble' he slid down the railing and past the bridge, following the person. He caught little glimpses of the person, so he knew he was going in the right direction.

"Ugh…" Ruby said walking out of the Inn, "hey Jaune, it's my turn." She seen him slide down the railings and towards something she doesn't know. Pulled out her scroll to call both Ren and Nora.

"…Hello?" Ren said.

"Ren, get Nora up, Jaune's currently chasing after something. I'll be tracking him right now" Ruby used her semblance to go across the bridge and after her comrade.

Getting out of bed and ready to fight, Ren ran over to see Nora already, "You're up?"

Nodding, Nora ran beside the ninja, "Yep, let's go."

Chasing this person, Jaune wondered if this person was a thief of some kind, cause he doesn't see any Grimm or wild animals anywhere. He slowed down to see the person stopped in front of a nearby cliff.

"Who are you?" Jaune asked the person, "Are you hurt by any chance?"

Shaking its head, Jaune see how the person was wearing a cape like Ruby but it was brown in color and heavily damaged. Holes were around the head, with Jaune seeing a deep red color for the hair.

Walking up to the person, the person went down onto its knees, revealing black high heeled boots.

Jaune walked up to the person, making her say, "Please stop."

Hearing the voice to be female, but it sounded weird, like it had some growling noise was heard with her voice, "Are you sure you're ok?"

Nodding, she pulled down the hood, with her long red hair fall out of the hood and down her lower back, tied up in a ponytail. Her hair looked familiar but her hair was in clumps, not taken cared of for a long time by the looks of it.

Seeing something very familiar but he couldn't place it, "Have we met before?"

Her reaction was shocking; it had sounded like she was sobbing. He seen her hands go past to cape and to her face, "Hey, are you-" he stopped cause everything around her was like his dead teammate, "…P-P-Pyrrha?"

Her head shook up and down, "Yes…"

Behind Jaune, Ruby was behind, making sure nothing around would catch him by surprise. She looked back to see Ren and Nora, ready for something, "Wait here."

Walking up to her, wanting to touch her shoulder, "Please don't come any closer…"

Not moving, Jaune wanted to know what happened to her, "What happened to you back in Beacon, Ruby seen you get shot by an Arrow, how was that possible?"

Stop sobbing, she knew she had to face the truth, turning around seeing Jaune's face for the first time since the incident, "Surprised now?"

Jaune and the team behind him were shocked to see what had happened to her, her pale skin was no longer there, instead her skin was snowy white. There were long black vein-looking marks around her arms and face. He looked at her face to see her eyes were black around her green iris', "What happened to you?"

He walked closer to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, wanting to feel her body heat on his cold fingers, only feeling her cold skin. He looked at her outfit, her headpiece was missing, since it was left when Cinder made her disappeared. The rest of the outfit looked like it was charred, leaving the metal armor cracked with pieces cut, the skirt and other softer items were tearing from the possible battles she went through. He had a closer to her chest to see a scar visible, most likely the scar Ruby was talking about.

Without thinking of anything, he pulled her closer to him, missing her embrace.

She didn't expect him to do this, she was thought to be a Grimm, so the people she tried to save wanted her dead. With tears forming around her eyes, she hung onto his embrace, not wanting this to end.

"I missed you"

She looked at him and smiled, "I missed you as well."

Leaning onto her, he rested his forehead on hers', for how long since they had their kiss.

Ren was about to get up and talk, but Nora grabbed onto him and pulled him down, "Wha-Nora?"

She closed his mouth before he could interfere, "He needs this."

"You're not afraid that I'm" she backed up and motioned around her, "like a Grimm?"

Shaking his head, he didn't care, "I don't care about that, you're still you. It doesn't matter that if anything happens to you, I will still love you."

Holding her hands over her mouth, "I wish I could go with you and your journey but I cannot…"

Jaune looked at the red-head, "What, why?"

Holding onto her shoulders, she turned away from the boy and looked at the moon, "After I became this, I'm no longer like myself. I don't have my semblance anymore and I get into this berserk mood whenever I see many people, almost like a Grimm."

"Why don't I go with you, help you like what you did for me?" Jaune offered to her.

Looking at him, she didn't want him to, "No Jaune, you can't."

"I must, you helped me even when no one else cared about me, so it's only right this time, oh that reminds me" Jaune remembered that he packed an item with him for good luck, pulling out her old ringlet, he placed it onto her head, like she use to wear it before she went away.

Feeling happy, she looked at him with her green iris' glowing, "Thank you… this is the kindest thing anyone would do for me. What about your team? Won't they miss you?"

"Don't worry, we know" making both looked to the tree-line to see Ruby, Ren and Nora walking out.

"How long were you there?" Pyrrha asked.

"The whole time" Ruby simply said, "we didn't want to ruin it for Jaune."

"Guys…" Jaune doesn't know if he should abandon his post.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of the town while you're away" Ren said, wanting Jaune and Pyrrha to find some answers.

"Yeah, if we do need help, we'll send you a message" Nora put her hammer away.

"Thank you" Jaune said, not believing that this would happen, "ready?"

Pyrrha nodded, "Yep, but thanks everyone."

Ruby watched both teammates walked away from them, wanting to find out what happened to Pyrrha.

And that's all for now, Pyrrha came back from the dead but as a Grimm. Now Jaune will leave the group with Pyrrha to find out what happened. Tell me what you guys think?