Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

These were the two words Jaune focused on as he sat upright in the cot he had called his home for the last two days. His T-Shirt clung to his chest as his lungs gasped for breath, his heart pounding against his ribs in a rapid, powerful beat. It was the start of a new routine the blonde knight hoped would not become a permanent one; Though as his bare feet pressed into the tarp flooring and saw the still petrified dragon looming over the fractured spire of Beacon Academy, he feared that was not the case. Looking back into the moonlit tent the slightest glint of bronze grips his heart, stilling the once thunderous beat it had.

Pyrrha

The memory still seared in his mind, the form of his partner, his friend and would-be romance pushing him into the locker and rocketing him away. It was the last time he would see her; Yet in his desperate search had he been so lucky that he had found the broken remains of the once Invincible Girl's weapons, let alone managed to recover them. Yet of the three things the Blonde Knight had managed to collect, the most precious of them was not among the pile. Looking beneath the cot and atop the nearly folded bundle of his sweatshirt rested the circlet that once found itself upon her head. Now however, it was the only real piece of her memory he had left.

I'm sorry

Those were her last words, and they were the same words that haunted his nightmares. Knowing that Pyrrha was gone, knowing that she had sacrificed herself to save him and knowing that it was partly his fault. For Jaune, to stare that in the face had changed him; For real or not it was where his heart now lay, faced with the fact that he had survived at the cost of his Partner.

A dry, pained chuckle could not help but escape his lips as he thought about it.

She had unlocked his aura, trained him, stood up for him and even died for him. She had loved him, and he had repaid that with the blindness and cluelessness he was seemingly destined to have. It was only at the end that Jaune came to know her feelings, and now he could never return them. But with what he had done to her?

It was only fair.

Taking a seat once more Jaune continued to focus on his breath, though it did nothing to calm him nor the stabbing pain in his chest. Reaching for his scroll and checking the time the fact that it had only been four hours did not surprise him. It did however leave him knowing he would probably not be sleeping. Not for awhile at least.

So, it was on to the next best thing from sleeping.

Quietly slipping Croeca Mors and its sheath from beneath the cot, the lone knight made his way out of his tent and to the grove of trees a few hundred feet away. However even as he crossed this distance in the still-warm air of late September he could not help but feel a scowl tug at his lips. To think that only two days prior he and so many other students here had been fighting for their lives, yet now it seemed almost tranquil in comparison. Though as peaceful as the makeshift campground and clearing was, it did not ease or settle the anxiety that gripped him.

So stepping into the clearing and setting down his scroll, Jaune made quick work of setting up what he had come here for.

Tapping the center of the screen and stepping a few paces away it was another stab of pain seeing none other than Pyrrha Nikos, her bright emerald eyes and small courteous smile like a ghost lingering again in his life. He remembered the day she had sent the video to him in case she had been busy with class. He remembered how many days he'd contemplate using it when she was and how often the answer was a no. Because Jaune could never imagine a world where she wouldn't be by his side.

How wrong would he be.

Seeing the image of the Invincible Girl blink he immediately feels his muscles tense. Her picture was one thing, but seeing the image begin to animate was another. It was a far more immediate reminder of her passing, seeing the deceased girl smiling, blinking and breathing as if she were still present was…

Though when her voice began to ring through the scroll's speaker the pain in Jaune's chest nearly floors him.

Hello, Jaune.

In a panic the Blonde Knight lunges forward. Desperately stabbing a finger into the screen of his scroll to make it stop. Due to the suddenness of the action Jaune had little time to prepare and so having thrown himself to stop the video had found his face buried in the dew and dirt. Enough had finally been enough and he could take the pain no longer. For two days he had fought the torrent of emotions in the name of staying focused on the ongoing disaster. But no more, as a strangled, pained whimper finally broke the silence.

It had finally become an unavoidable reality in hearing her voice: Pyrrha Nikos was not coming back.

Turning from a whimper to a choked sob, Jaune felt as if his guts had turned into rubber; Pulling his frame into a ball as his lungs spasmed and sputtered breath and cry alike. It was unavoidable now, the realization that he was truly alone. While Ren and Nora were still around they were often gone during the long hours of the day, no doubt mourning in their own way. Team RWBY had up and vanished, and there was no way to send out a call to his family. And so as the tidal wave of emotions washed over the Blonde he could no longer stem it, his quiet cries rocking his already trembling frame in the evening grass.

How pathetic? How pathetic am I that I can't even hear her voice without falling apart? What did she see in me?

In this moment of weakness, it was hard to ignore these thoughts. To Jaune they were always present, but often quiet, kept at bay thanks to the presence of his friends. But without them and their constant warmth that was no longer the case. So in this moment of absolute isolation, there was little else Jaune could do but ride out the storm of emotions. Though however long the lone Knight had wallowed in his sorrow he was eventually disturbed by a figure cutting the otherwise choked silence.

"I did not expect to find you out here so late, Mr. Arc."

The sound of Glynda Goodwitch's voice was a shock and Jaune naturally shied away as the professor made herself known. It was no secret that he was a poor student and it seemed more often than not that the professor had made it her mission to push the teen harder. So his surprise was welcome and as he pulled himself to a seated position before wiping his tears away.

"W-well I was just-" The teen stammered, though his words were quickly cut off.

"You miss her, don't you?" She asks.

There is a pregnant silence.

To be fair Jaune had not expected the question, let alone for it to be put out there so bluntly. In all the time that he had known the rather serious professor, the words he would use to describe her were 'Serious, intelligent, high-strung.' But 'blunt' was not on that list and with his shock evident Glynda took a few steps forward. Hearing the grass part at her steps only heightened the blonde's anxiety, causing him to scoot back ever so slightly. The sound of stops and looking up he finds that sure enough she had stopped, the imposing figure of Glynda made small as she kneeled a few feet from the teen.

"Mr. Arc, while I may have been your instructor these nearly two years, I am also your years advisor. I am not asking this for any…" She pauses, a sigh escaping her lips as she takes another foot forward.

"I'm asking because I know you were close." She reiterates.

That was an understatement.

"Close? She was my partner." Jaune seethes, his fists clenching as his wracks of sadness turned to those of anger. "She helped me when no one else could, or would. She pushed me to actually be a huntsman. And just before she died? She...she." Jaune ranted, however in his tirade he found himself swiftly caught up in the embrace of his once-teacher.

Once again the dam broke, Jaune subconsciously allowing himself to collapse into the older woman before him. For the first time in recent memory, the boy collapses into a sobbing heap amidst his Professor's embrace. His cries were no longer unbidden, releasing a tumultuous cocktail of emotions into the forefront; Anger, fear, anguish and heartbreak all perfectly brewed together within the recesses of his mind. Even as he continued to tremble, his body wracked with cries, he simply could not ignore the slight touch of a hand against his back, its warmth sinking soothingly through his shirt. How long he had let himself be swept up in her embrace, he did not know; Though the next active thought that danced across his conscious mind was not where had had been before.

The sound of birds chirping and the slight rustle of fabric around him was the first thing to assault his senses, followed shortly thereafter by the warmth and unavoidable light of the sun as an all too familiar voice all but shattered the silence.

"It's time to get up Jaune-Jaune!"

Jolting upright as his body naturally responded to what had become a familiar call in his mornings, Jaune had not accounted for the low height of his cot and found himself tumbling on to the floor; Much to Nora's amusement.

"I'm up, I'm up." The Blonde Knight mumbled before the nights events played out in his head.

Was it all a dream?

Reaching a hand up to the cot the Blonde Knight felt for his scroll, his fingers brushing against the cold metal a quick moment later two things are immediately apparent. First is that it was in fact 9 A.M, which was surprising if only because Nora was not one for late mornings. The second was a single message that read the following:

'Mr. Arc, expect one of my colleagues to be in contact with you shortly. ~ '