His hands moved frantically over her abdomen, but no matter where he applied pressure, more blood continued to ooze out of the huge gash, coloring her tattered attire red.
"Jaune." The words, no louder than a whisper, barely registered. Tears trickled down his face, his vision blurry. He could barely see through his curtain of yellow-grayish hair sticking to his face.
"Jaune!" she choked more forcefully. Blood pouring out of her mouth, running down her chin.
"Glynda, don't speak." He moved in to support her head with one hand, tenderly wiping her mouth clean with the hem of his shirt. "Just stay still and let me take care of this," he panted, "I've fixed you up more times than I can count, this is nothing, barely a scratch."
He turned back to the wound, resuming his previous endeavor. "Jaune." Small hands encircled his wrists in a weak grip. "Stop, it's no use."
"No, I can do this," he exclaimed through clenched teeth. "I have to do this."
"Jaune, look at me." With a noticeable effort, she reached for his chin. "It's okay, we always knew it would end one day."
She looked at him with a teary smile. The evening sun reflecting in her eyes, making them look like shining emeralds. "You look beautiful," he breathed. Even though her face was slightly wrinkled and her hair started to gray slightly, she looked no less stunning than when he first laid eyes on her. Placing her head in his lap, he began to gently stroke her cheek. "Please don't leave me," he whispered.
She closed her eyes, relaxing is his touch. "I'll always be with you, in this life and the next."
A strained sob escaped him. "Do you really believe that?"
"It's the only thing left," she whispered.
He was silent for a moment, looking down at the Emerald Forest, the wind blowing his hair lightly. "Do you ever regret it?" he mused, staring into the distance.
"Regret what?" she perked up.
"Me. Regret me. Regret that it was me with whom you ended up in that cave all those years ago? I mean, if you could cho–"
"No"
"–ose anyone, surely you… what?"
"No," she choked out, blinking away tears, "if there is one thing in life that I don't regret, it is you. When everything went to hell I didn't think I could go on. I thought all hope was lost. But then you came along," she smiled, "you made me smile again." She reached up with one hand to caress his cheek. "You reached out to me, breaking through my cold and closed personality behind which I had been hiding for so long." She paused for a moment and contemplative look on her face. "Now that you mention it, there is one thing I regret."
Jaune stilled, propping her up by her shoulders, he gazed at her intently. "What? What do you regret?"
She laughed lightly which turned into a bloody coughing fit. "The only thing I regret," she replied after calming down, "is that it took the apocalypse for me to get out of my shell. This. Us. It's the only time in my life where I truly felt alive and dare I say it... Happy. Despite all the death and destruction around us." She looked down as if ashamed and continued in a small voice. "I know it's selfish and betrays all the people that gave their lives for us. But sometimes I'm glad everything happened the way it did because I got the chance to meet you."
Jaune held her close as if afraid the wind would blow her away, and rested his forehead on hers. "I know," he whispered, wiping her tears away with his thumb.
"Promise me something?" she whispered back.
"Sure, anything."
"Promise me... When we meet again in the next life"-her breathing becoming more labored-"and I don't remember you or am once again my closed off self, you'll do everything win me back."
"Of course, don't think you'd ever get rid of me," he joked weakly causing a small smile to grace her face.
"Promise me!" she insisted.
"Yes, I do. I promise."
Glynda seemed to relax in his arms. She closed her eyes. "Goodbye, Jaune Arc, I love you… forever."
"I love you," Jaune croaked in-between sobs. Slowly, closing his eyes, he brought their lips together, pushing all his love and despair into one final kiss, sealing his promise. Ignoring the bloody taste, he savored every last second he would share with his wife.
He had always known the day would come when one of them would mourn the other. That didn't mean it hurt any less. He felt like his heart had been ripped out, leaving only feelings of remorse and sadness. It felt like an intense pressure in his stomach, begging to be released, but at the same time clutching him tightly, draining all air from his lungs, making it hard to breathe.
After what felt like an eternity, he pulled back, closing her dead eyes with one hand. There was only one thing left to do.
He picked her up in his arms, clutching her closely in a vain attempt to fill the void within himself, and walked over towards the edge of the cliff. Ironically, the very same cliff from where they had been launched all those years back during Beacon Initiation.
Normally that thought would have brought a smile to his face, but the last source of happiness in this world lay motionless in his arms.
He closed his eyes, leaning slightly forward, he deactivated his aura and let gravity claim him.
They say when people jump to end their lives, that suddenly all their problems seem solvable except the one they had just created. The same could not be said for the Jaune. There were no problems left to fix in this world.
As he descended head first towards the ground, the wind blowing by his ears, his wife's body in his arms, the only thing Jaune could think of is that he was glad the struggle was finally over.
He didn't know how much time had passed since the Fall of Beacon, having long given up on counting days. It must have been decades, but if your life consists of only survival day in and day out, one tends to lost track of time.
Now he just felt tired and empty.
His ears picked up a faint sound of something fast moving towards him. Reacting purely on instinct, Jaune twisted out of the way, narrowly avoiding the spear-like projectile as it rushed past his head.
He must have reversed his position in trying to dodge. Because the next thing that happened was him hitting the ground feet first. Hard. The crunching sound emanating from his legs was accompanied by Jaune's grunts of pain as his momentum shifted from vertical to horizontal, causing him to spin around himself bouncing off the ground and trees repeatedly, finishing with him draped over a bush with his feet dangling in the air and his face in the dirt.
Great, he thought bitterly to himself, can't even get killing myself right. He had scrapes all over the place and probably multiple broken bones. Not that it mattered. Even if he were in perfect physical health, he wouldn't have been able to muster any motivation to move. There was nowhere left to go to after all.
Trying to unsheathe his sword to finish the job seemed like a pointless and entirely too onerous endeavor. He would just lie there and wait for the next Grimm to find him. He had enough negative emotions to spare, that was for sure.
Finally, he thought after what felt like hours lying there hurting all over and inside his body, when he made out a bush rustling to his left. The sound of light footsteps drew closer. Wait, footsteps? My mind must be playing tricks on me. There is absolutely no chance anyone could be here right now. Guess the strenuous wait for my demise continues.
He didn't lift his head to look up, just lying there, waiting, while the sound of footsteps drew closer. Something connected with his skull and was shortly followed by the sound of a body falling to the ground.
"Oooff", a female voice exclaimed, followed by a few muttered curses. "Hey, watch where you're going! Can't you see I'm walking here, and what are you doing anyway lying there all… hey… you're not dead, are you?" She prodded him slightly with her foot.
Jaune snorted, not even bothering to look up, he muffled into the grass. "Not yet. Sadly. Could you now kindly leave me to die in peace?"
"What? What is this nonsense? I swear Jaune if this is another of your ridiculous attempts of hitting on me, you can stop now. It's neither working nor funny."
Jaune, now being entirely confused finally turned his head to look up. Beside him stood no other than Weiss Schnee. Or so it seemed. "Hitting on you?"
"Don't play dumb now." she snapped. When his confused expression didn't change she chose to elaborate. "Two words: 'Snow Angel'. You now know what I'm talking about?"
"Oh, hehe, I remember that one. Yeah, that was quite embarrassing." As were all his fruitless attempts on gaining Weiss's affection he had made during his time at Beacon. They made for good stories to brighten the mood though when one was feeling down. Which was quite often, when you were one of the last remaining humans left of Remnant. "Listen, whatever I said to you, I'm very sorry. Could you now please go, I kinda have an important meeting with the Grimm to uphold."
As if on cue, multiple Beowolves approached, encircling them. "Get up now Jaune," her voice wavering slightly, "this isn't funny anymore. Don't act like you didn't want to be partnered with me. Now get up and help me with those Beowolves!"
"Partnered?" he asked, confused.
She started shooting fire dust rounds out of her rapier, hitting and burning multiple Grimm to death. She dodged an attack from behind, twirling around and impaled the Beowulf on Myrtenaster. "You dunce! Have you hit your head so hard, you forgot we are at Initiation!?" she panted in-between evading and slicing open more Grimm. Her voice turned more frantic. "I really need some help here. Please, Jaune!"
He craned his neck to look up at the Beowolf towering over him. It raised its front legs getting ready to strike. Initiation? he thought, the claw closing in. What if this is real? And I'm actually back at Initiation? The Beowolf's paw now scarce inches above his head, about tear it in two. Only one way to find out. It wasn't as if he couldn't die later.
One moment he lay there with his torso on the ground and his feet still entangled in the bush. The next he was on his back– the Beowolf cut in half, a deep gash where Jaune's head had been moments before–having rolled to the side and drawn his sword in one swift motion.
"Jaune! Help!" Weiss's cry reached his ears. He was on full alert now, blood thumping loudly in his ears. He frantically looked for the direction of her voice. She was surrounded on all sides, the Beowolves slashing away on her aura, accompanied by cries of pain from the heiress.
"Weiss!" he cried out. With monumental strength he managed to get on his two feet again, grunting and shedding tears from the pain it caused. He must have at least one broken leg. Howling in pain, he lunged at the nearest Beowolf, chopping its head off.
The last three Beowolves were beating down on Weiss, who had coiled in on herself, whimpering with each successive strike.
It was like the Fall of Beacon all over again. Having to watch his friends get slaughtered and being powerless to help. Jaune felt anger boiling within himself. Not this time. I'm not the weakling I was then. As long as he breathed, he would not allow anyone to be taken from him again.
He funneled all that built up anger and hate into one last onslaught. With an anguished battle cry, he pushed through the pain, jumping over to Weiss's downed body and swung his sword in on powerful arc, cutting all three Beowolves in half.
Utterly exhausted, he let his sword fall to the ground, his feet giving away under him, he dropped to the ground, landing face first in the dirt for the second time that day. All his energy spent, he closed his eyes and just lay there, not a single thought on his mind.
"Jaune?" Weiss's timid voice broke his peaceful state of nothingness. She put her hands on his shoulders shaking him slightly. "Jaune! Please don't be dead." she sobbed. She carefully turned him on his back, eliciting a grunt of pain from Jaune.
"Weiss?" he croaked, his voice hoarse. He blinked the tears out of his eyes, carefully eyeing her kneeling form for injuries. Aside from her torn clothes she seemed fine. "I'm sorry."
"What, what are you sorry for?" She gave him a teary smile. "You saved me!" She threw herself at him burying her face in his chest and began sobbing freely once more. He managed to snake one shaking arm around her back, also breaking out in sobs.
The reality began to slowly catch up to him. He was back. He really was back in time. The universe or whatever had given him a second chance to set things right. His sobs gradually turned into tear-filled laughter, causing Weiss to join him.
They just lay there in each other's arms, laughing like loons, glad to be alive.
He stared into the sky, thinking back to his time at Beacon. He wanted to apologize. Apologize for all the times he embarrassed her. For not being there when it counted the most. For being too weak to save her. To save all of them.
But it didn't matter now, did it? It hadn't happened yet. He would make sure it didn't. He would make it up to them.
He also had a promise to keep. Glynda he thought. She was alive, and he would do anything in his power to win her back, promise or not. The thought placed a smile on his face, filling him with new hope.
"So, partners, huh?" Jaune broke the silence after they calmed down.
"Yeah," Weiss mumbled into his chest. "Partners."
"I know, you didn't exactly want to be partnered up with me." She looked up at his words. "And I'm sorry for how I acted earlier, but I'm gonna make I up to you." His voice full of conviction. "I'm gonna be the best partner you'll ever wish for. And we'll be the greatest team to ever grace Beacon's halls." He paused for a moment. "With you as our leader of course," he added as an afterthought.
"Hmm-mm." She smiled, resting her head on his pecs once more, gazing into the distance of the forest. "You already are."
"What? I'm what?"
She huffed. "Don't make me say it again, you dunce." She pushed herself up from the ground. "Get up, we should start moving and collect our artifact."
Jaune propped himself up on his elbows, looking at her expectant. "Help me up?"
"Seriously? Just when I thought you had finally grown up and– "
"Seriously, I can't stand on my own. I think my legs are broken." He looked to the side guiltily.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Weiss blushed, slightly abashed. "How thoughtless of me. I should have noticed."
She moved behind him, grabbing him under his shoulders and hefted him up. He carefully shifted his weight from leg to leg. "Oh good, only the left one is broken." They rearranged themselves with his left arm draped over her should and her right arm supporting his back and began making their way slowly in direction of the temple.
"How did you manage to break your leg fighting those Beowolves anyway?" she asked after a while.
"I didn't," he mumbled.
"What?" She turned to look at him.
"The Beowolves didn't. It must have happened during my landing."
"What?" She looked shocked. "Are you meaning to tell me, that you fought those Beowolves off, only able to move one leg?"
"Well, broken doesn't mean unmoving. Hurt like hell though."
Weiss looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but turned away after a moment.
They continued on their way in companionable silence.
Well, here it is, my first fanfiction. Hope you enjoy. Please feel free to review, critique, share your thoughts, and make suggestions for future chapters. I have the main plot basically laid out but am always happy to make adjustments.