A Night to Remember

Jaune slowly trod into the bar. His boots were muddy and his clothes were drier than they were during last night's downpour, but not dry enough for comfort. As he sat down he left a mental reminder to himself make sure to check the leaves of the next tree he sleeps in.

The bartender walked up to him and said, "What'll you be havin? Wait a minute, you old enough to be here?"

Jaune looked up at him with his dead eyes, five o'clock shadow, and unkempt hair and whispered, "Does it really matter?"

"Fair enough." The bartender responded before backing up a step in nervousness. "So why are you here?"

Jaune started to drift off didn't respond until the bartender had to snap his fingers and ask, "Are you alright? You don't look so good."

"Yeah I'm fine," Jaune said with a cough. "I just haven't gotten a good rest in a while. I'll have whatever is the cheapest you have. Do you have anything hot to eat too?"

"I've got some soup left over from the 10 pm rush."

"Then I'll have a bowl of that please."

Jaune watched him go and lost himself in his own mind again. It was a bad habit he had been trying to get rid of but it was all that kept him sane sometimes. So much has happened that it was near impossible for him not to think about his time back at Beacon. But that was before Cinder had her way with Vale.

Jaune shook his head to get those thoughts away from him and looked around. The bar was pretty empty but that was to be expected for someone arriving at 1 am. There was a drunk asleep in a booth and three farmers from the surrounding village playing one last round of poker. It actually made the place feel a little lively.

The food and cheap beer were placed before Jaune where he remembered his hunger and started wolfing it all down. It didn't taste good in the slightest but it was still food which he would gladly take. Meanwhile, the bartender watched Jaune chow down on his food and asked, "When was the last time you ate boy?"

When he came up to breathe Jaune said, "Two days. I was hunting in the forest and got stuck for a week when I had only five days rations."

"So you're a hunter, eh?"

"Yeah."

"Like hunter of game, Grimm, or-"

"People," Jaune interrupted. "I hunt people."

The bar if it wasn't quiet enough it certainly was now. One of the farmers playing poker overheard the conversation and asked in a thick Vacuoan accent, "Who you be huntin, son?"

"What does it matter to you?" Jaune answered.

"I just wanna make sure it ain't me. If it ain't me I got no quarrel with you."

"It isn't you, I can promise you that."

"Then who is it? For the right price, I may be able to help."

"I'm hunting the Red Princess."

Everyone's faces but Jaune's paled at the sound of that. The deathly silence that fell upon the room was interrupted by the sleeping drunk jolting up. "Did you say the Red Princess?" The drunk asked with excitement.

The bartender said, "Shut up Billy. Unless you can pay your tab then you know you aren't allowed to blabber in here. Besides, I don't want you to drive away my paying customers."

The drunk jumped to his feet and exclaimed, "Oh, but Mr. Liquor Man! I can pay off my debt if I could speak with this young man here for a second. Please?"

Jaune shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure, he's not bothering me."

"Yippe!" The drunk said as he sat down next to Jaune. "Listen kid, I've seen the Red Princess around here recently. Just two nights ago in fact. If you pay off my tab I'll tell you where she went. She's been travelin awful slowly lately I'm sure she'll still be close. What'd ya say?"

"Wait, you've seen her?"

"Yes I have. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She had long red hair and green eyes that could see into your soul. Meanwhile, she reeks a stench of death so thick I'm amazed I'm standing before you today."

Jaune turned to the bartender and asked, "Is he serious about this?"

The bartender sighed and shook his head. "Billy here did come running in here about how he saw what he said two nights ago. He's an idiot but he's a truthful idiot. If you actually want to accept his deal then his tab is fifty lien."

"Then it's a deal. I'll pay off his debt for the information."

Money changed hands and information was shared and within ten minutes Jaune was back on the road with a new excitement in him. He was close, so close to actually finding her. His journey had lasted much longer than he would've liked but he'd die before he let her throw her life away like this. Especially when she never said goodbye.

He followed the path for an hour and then strayed off for another following signs of travel. The tracks matched hers perfectly and they looked fresh. He knew he was finally going to find her.

He eventually made it to a clearing surrounded on three ends by forest and one end a cliff face. The shattered moon was shining above and lit up the entire area, reflecting off the grass flowing in the breeze to look like waves on the sea. Sitting in the middle of this clearing was her. She was resting near and facing the cliff edge while her legs were crossed and arms resting on them like she was meditating.

Jaune's heart was beating so loud from excitement and fear that he was surprised she didn't hear him. He kept on hand on his weapon just in case and slowly crept from beyond the tree line towards his target. He made it about halfway there before he heard her speak.

"Hello again Jaune."

That voice. He had only dreamt of hearing her wonderful voice again and yet she was really here, right in front of him. She didn't turn around but knowing that he had been found he stood up to full height. He cleared his throat and spoke in a hoarse whisper.

"Hello Pyrrha."

She flinched when she heard her name. "I don't go by that anymore."

"Then what do you go by?"

"I don't have a name."

"You've earned a reputation for your new self though. People refer to you as the Red Princess."

That gave her a chuckle. "Not what I would've chosen but fitting."

A silence was stuck between them. Jaune had been tracking her for four months and had been planning what he was going to say but now that he was here he was tongue tied. After what could've been a few minutes but what felt like hours he asked, "Are you going to look at me?"

"You won't like what you see."

"But Pyrrha-"

A deep and guttural voice erupted from her and yelled, "I told you I don't go by that anymore!"

Jaune backed up a few steps in surprise. "Pyrr-"

"NO!" Pyrrha's normal voice screamed as she broke down into tears before him.

Jaune was frozen in shock. He stood there and watched as she bawled into her hands. Every cry of hers hurt him in ways he couldn't imagine. He had come all this way to bring her home and happiness and now that he found her he felt like he couldn't do anything. After about a minute he couldn't stand and just watch. He walked forward to comfort her but soon stopped by her reaction.

She pulled out her spear Miló in its musket form and aimed it at him. She still refused to turn around but her arm holding the weapon was shaking. "Please," she begged, "don't come any closer."

"I won't if you tell me why you left."

Pyrrha took a moment to consider it before saying, "Please go. I don't want you to waste any more time trying to follow me. You need to let me go."

Jaune started to grind his teeth and felt hot with rage. "Let you go? LET YOU GO! I'm sorry but I'm trying to get closure for you running away! You killed Cinder and Beacon was being rebuilt. Vale too and everything seemed like it was going to be alright. I've never been happier in my life than I was in those six months. Do you know the reason why I was happy? It was because of you."

Pyrrha flinched when she heard that but remained silent as he continued.

"I'm sorry I was too stupid to recognize your feelings until you kissed me before you fought Cinder. I'm sorry I cried like an idiot and wouldn't let you go when I found out you were alright. I'm sorry I took so long to finally ask you out afterwards. We were so happy together. Or at least I thought we were. I don't know what to think anymore. If it was something I did then I'm sorry-"

"NO! No! No, you did nothing wrong. You may be an idiot but you're a lovable idiot and the man of my dreams. I didn't leave because you did something wrong."

"Then why did you? If you had just talked to me I'm sure I would've understood-"

"You'd never understand Jaune. You never can and never will-"

"Then you could've at least gave us some heads up. I wasn't the only one hurt when you vanished. Ruby, Nora, Ren, it was like you didn't care about any of us-"

"I left because I did care about you all. I cared too much."

"You could've at least have said goodbye! I love you!"

"I left because I love you! I didn't want to hurt you!"

"You caused more pain leaving than whatever you tried to spare us from! You can't deny that! What reason could you have possibly justified your actions on?!"

"THIS IS WHY!" Pyrrha screamed as she turned around to face him.

Her right side of her face was normal with her emerald eye flowing a stream of tears. In contrast, her left side of her face was black with white bones sticking outwards with red highlights. Her left side of her mouth displayed canine teeth and had a small cloud of black mist continuously flowing outwards. Her left eye was a solid red with no pupil, iris, anything. The left side of her face was undeniably-

"Grimm," Jaune muttered.

"This is why I left. Not because I wanted too."

Pyrrha eventually couldn't hold it anymore and dropped her weapon from too much shaking. She brought her hands to her face to cover her crying. Jaune could see the Grimm eye leaking an acid as a form of tears as seen from the burnt patches on the ground.

He got closer till he was a few feet away from her and rested on his knees next to her. "How did this happen?" He whispered.

She regained her composure fairly quickly before she explained. "Remember how I killed Cinder?"

"Yeah, so?"

"She took the maiden's power from Amber using a Grimm that resided in her soul. It would continuously eat at her until she found another soul to take or it ate her own. When she died the maiden's power transferred to me but so did her Grimm."

"Couldn't you have expelled it from yourself using the power though? Based off of what you told me after Beacon was attacked made it seem like this power made you invincible."

"That's because it's what people want to believe. They always saw me as the 'invincible girl'. But I'm human like everyone else, well, not anymore. The maiden's power left me Jaune, but it left the Grimm. Ruby has the power now."

"So that's why she limited contact with everyone else." Jaune said to himself more than anyone else. "So this Grimm, what's it done?"

"It's eating me. It's eating my soul and turning me into one of them. I've lost my aura, semblance, and nobody can detect a soul in me anymore. Last, I'm about to lose my body to this thing inside me."

Jaune felt a fear deep inside him start to stir outwards. He started to shake and asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

Pyrrha slowly shook her head and closed her eyes. "No. I had a talk with Ozpin when I found out what was inside me. I went through hundreds of tests to see if there was anything that could be done. They all failed. I'm stuck like this forever."

"Is th-this something that you c-can control?" Jaune barely whispered.

"The only reason you're still alive right now is because I'm being held back," the deep voice growled. Jaune looked over to see a contortion of facial expressions where each side, Pyrrha and Grimm, were fighting for control of her body. Eventually, Pyrrha won again and came back panting. "Please back away from me. It can smell people and it gets harder to control then."

Jaune felt aware of despair crash over him. He had spent so long trying to find her so that he could bring her home and they would be happy again. Now he had to face the realization that she could never come home in this state.

"Jaune, I know this is hard for you and I'm sorry. This is why I left. I didn't want you to see what I'm becoming. I wanted you to remember me for who I was, not who I am now."

"There has to be a way to fix this. There has to be. There has to be something I can do. I can't just sit here and let this happen to you."

A cloud covered the moon and the crushing darkness suffocated them in their silence. It made him feel numb but whether it was in shock or to delay the pain he was feeling he didn't know. Eventually, there was a breeze that carried with it a smell of rotting flesh. Jaune sniffed around him to find it was coming from Pyrrha. She noticed this and said, "Whenever another part of me becomes Grimm, the original part of me decomposes first."

This only made Jaune feel even worse. He felt so lost. He spent the past four months searching for the love of his life only to find her like this.

Pyrrha interrupted his thoughts when she said, "Jaune, you still love me right?"

"Of course. You know I do."

"Then there is one thing you can do to help me."

"Anything! I'll do anything if it'll help." Jaune excitedly said as he stood up in anticipation.

Pyrrha stood up too and scratched the back of her neck looking away. "You're not going to like it though."

Immediately Jaune felt his smile fade and he warily asked, "What is it?"

"Jaune, I'm losing control of myself more every day. Sometimes I lose control and whenever I do… I wake up in a pool of blood and human remains. I've killed so many people since this has started that I never wanted to. I'm turning into a monster. Which is why I want you to do one more thing for me. I want you to kill me."

Jaune froze and he felt his breath catch. He felt his heart pounding as fear and sadness overcame him while all the good memories he's had with her flooded his mind. He fell to his knees and couldn't do any more than mutter, "I can't."

"Please Jaune," Pyrrha pleaded. "I can't do it myself because the Grimm inside will do anything to survive and won't let me. I've tried and it always takes over before I can. Then if I go on like this then I'll be consumed and turn into nothing but the monsters we swore to fight. Other people would try to make it hurt. But I know if you were to do it then you'd make it as painless as possible. So I'll ask it again. Please kill me?"

"NO!" Jaune bellowed as he scrambled away. He made sure he was well out of arm's reach before he started rambling off anything in his mind. "I can't. I spent so much time trying to find you so I could bring you home."

"There's no home for me to go back to."

"I wanted us to finally live together like we had planned. I had been saving up for an apartment for us."

"There's no future for me left in Vale."

"What I missed most wasn't the date nights or gifts. I missed the little things. Holding your hand when you were cold. Kissing your cheek when you were upset. The look on your face when you wake up and realize that we're still in each other's arms. Was that too much to ask?"

"It's not and I'm sorry Jaune."

"You mean everything to me. You're the love of my life. Even though I knew we'd never have our relationship back again, I wanted to get closure by seeing that you're happy. I hate to see you in pain and the idea of hurting you hurts more than I could imagine. But kill-" He gagged and couldn't finish his sentence. He had to take a moment to squeeze his eyes shut to hold back his tears before he said, "I can't imagine a world without you."

"You've lived that way for a while now."

"And the only thing that kept me going was hope. Now that's gone. You really want this?"

He looked up to stare at her through his teary eyes. He could tell that she was crying some too but she nodded nonetheless. "It's not what I'd want but it's the best thing that can happen to me now."

Jaune felt his emotions in turmoil between knowing what he was supposed to do and what he wanted to do. The realization that all their plans were going to be cut short by the sharp knife of a short life cut deep into him. He tried to think of what a world would be like without her and it hurt more than any hell he could've imagined. "What would you have done if this Grimm never happened? Just to give me some comfort in my mind."

"We would've been sleeping together in that apartment you mentioned. We would be home. We'd be working to build our lives together. As much as you and I want this I'm sorry it can never be. I never intended or wanted this to happen. Just know that while it may hurt you'd be doing me a favor."

The clouds moved past the moon and bathed the field in bright moonlight again. This time Jaune could see more than he did previously. He was able to see that both of her arms had turned black and her hands were now claws. The same was for her legs but it had yet to spread to her feet. The light and the breeze showed the swaying of the Grimm fur that covered her corrupted areas. Even the hair on her head was starting to die and be replaced. Every exhale released more of that black mist from her mouth. She still looked like Pyrrha but she looked like she was wasting away. She looked like she was in pain.

Jaune's thoughts were interrupted by the Grimm speaking again saying, "The smell of your flesh is delectable. You do realize that no matter what happens; only one of us is walking away here tonight."

Pyrrha regained control and immediately apologized. Yet he had seen that, thing, controlling Pyrrha. He had to watch this parasite use the body of the one he loves to deliver a message of destruction. It was far more horrifying than the idea of her no longer breathing.

Sealing up his heart and emotions Jaune asked, "Are you sure that this is what you want?"

Pyrrha took a deep breath to calm herself before she said, "Yes."

Jaune wiped his eyes to get rid of any remaining tears before he croaked, "Okay. Can I get a hug first?"

"Sure," Pyrrha said with a smile.

The two eventually joined and it felt so good to have her in his arms again. It was her but he could tell that there was very little of the Pyrrha he knew left. She had the faint linger of her natural scent but it was now mostly the smell of rotting flesh. Knowing what she was going to do he took a deep breath and bit his lip to keep from crying out.

Pyrrha gasped as she backed away from the hug. They both looked down to her midsection where Jaune's sword was now lodged in her chest. She looked up with a smile. "How did you know it was going to kill you?"

The two of them looked up between them. Above them was the end of a Grimm scorpion tail that sprouted from her and was poised to attack him. Jaune whispered, "You said it yourself. Grimm do anything to survive."

Pyrrha's smile grew larger even though she fell to her knees and breathing was now difficult. She started chuckling to herself and said "You're no longer the lovable idiot you were. But I still love you. Thank you for setting me free. Can I have one more kiss? For old time's sake?"

Jaune couldn't bring himself to words so he ran forward and closed the distance between them. He got on his knees next to her and started letting his emotions out while he cried into her shoulder. He felt her stroking his hair for a few moments before she brought their faces together and they kissed. Jaune shut his eyes and refused to open them again until the last bit of warmth from her lips disappeared. When he opened his eyes again, she was gone.

The last whiff of evaporating Grimm soon dissipated in the breeze and Jaune was left there alone. Looking down at the ground he could see his sword lying there among her weapons and circlet. He slowly grabbed her stuff with shaky hands and held them against him. He then let out all the emotions he was feeling and had tucked away.

The landscape paid him no mind, the moonlight kept shining and the wind kept blowing his cries away. Somewhere, somehow, he could've sworn he heard the wind take the shape of a voice. A voice that whispered, "Thank you."

Jaune slowly and painfully walked towards the grave. He knelt at it and set down some flowers in front of it. Turning his head to his side he asked, "Does the pain ever go away?"

Blue eyes met silver as Ruby knelt down next to him. "No. It lessens with time but it never goes away."

The two of them stared at the two graves in front of them; one for Ruby's mother and the other for Pyrrha. Even though they had no body to bury, the same was for Summer so Ruby offered to let them build a grave for Pyrrha nearby. Jaune was thankful that Ruby was willing to let him do such a thing and he would never forget that.

Jaune looked back down at the grave site and felt himself getting emotional. He knew that a day like this would happen but he had hoped that it would've happened at least fifty years from now and that she would've outlived him. He brought his hands up to cover his face and silence his cries. He felt arms wrap around him as Ruby gave him a hug and said, "It's only been two weeks… And with how close you were to her you're allowed feel upset. I know, it hurts."

Jaune took a few minutes to regain his composure before he said, "Before… You know… She mentioned that you have the maiden's power now. Is that true?"

"Yeah. I didn't ask for it but we were walking in the hall talking to ourselves when she started looking sick. Then this thing lit up and flew out of her and into me before I blacked out. When I woke up I found out that I had the power. I thought that it just rejected her but now I realize that the power couldn't be contained in a soul that wasn't whole. The Grimm had started to eat her at that time apparently."

"She mentioned that a soul couldn't be found in her anymore. If there's an afterlife… Then does that mean… I won't ever see her again?"

Ruby thought about that for a moment. When she spoke she said, "I think she still had a soul. I think that she still has one because of you though. You saved her from becoming her worst nightmare. Besides, I feel kind of connected with all those who have had the power before me. I can still feel her around, kind of. It's weird."

Jaune sniffed a few times before he said, "Thanks Ruby. That's comforting, it really is."

"You're welcome. So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to keep moving forward. For her sake more so than my own."

"As long as it helps you."

Jaune looked up at the ocean beyond the cliff face. Waves were crashing up against its side and reflected glistening light back at him. He could smell the salt and feel the gentle breeze flowing through his hair. The sunlight warmed his skin and for the first time that he could remember, he felt at peace. "Ruby?"

"Yes?"

"Pyrrha once told me about how she believed in destiny. I think I do now too. She just didn't know what hers was, that's all. She helped so many people by stopping Cinder. When she left so did her identify. Nobody knows that the Red Princess was her and so she'll be forever remembered as a hero. She did what she needed to help, and then she had to go back. She was too good for this world."

"She really was."

"When I see her again, I'll have plenty of stories to tell her. And I'll tell her that I did it all for her sake. I'll make it so that while she may not be here anymore, her memory will never leave. After all, it is in passing that we achieve immortality."

A/N: I wanted to try my hand at Arkos and this is what I put together. I hope you all enjoyed the tragedy and feels, I know I did. Check out my other works if you want to see more of what I do.