The following is a revised version of the original Chapter 2 of this story, for better or worse.

Disclaimer: Rooster Teeth owns RWBY, and the wait to Volume 4 is almost over.

"Do you believe in Destiny?" Pyrrha Nikos, the girl who seemed destined for victory every time she stepped out onto the battlefield, the warrior who saw fit to train an upstart like Jaune Arc from a bumbling novice to someone who held his own on the battlefield, the very woman that every guy in Beacon claimed they wanted to be with but were too spineless to say word one to her face, had posed this very odd question to Bálor who was passing by the Amity Arena mere hours before Beacon's downfall. The wolf would be walking around in a visible funk, no doubt that the incident surrounding Yang's bout in the finals weighed heavy upon his shoulders as much as it did any other student among Beacon's ranks.

But like the kind and caring soul she usually was; the redhead had taken it upon herself to do what she could to try and raise his spirits, even as her own were weighed down by the profound revelations that Ozpin and the other instructors had entrusted her with on the same day that the aforementioned incident occurred.

"Well, do you?"

The silver-maned young man would look at her in genuine confusion; not expecting anyone to talk to him given the visible scowl upon his face, let alone to be approached by Pyrrha Nikos of all people, somewhat who despite her overall kind nature had some disdain towards him given his treatment of her partner. "I do believe in Destiny, but only because I view it as my enemy." The amber-eyed Faunus would try to return to his sullen-faced walk, only to find that Beacon's star pupil was now purposely blocking his path to the cafeteria as her emerald green eyes had taken on a knowing edge to them. "What is it that you want me to say Nikos: That I spent my life working hard on becoming a male version of you, some great superstar who NEVER seems to stumble despite the obstacles thrown in her general direction?" His lupine ears would droop in agitation as the young man raked his hands through his hair while letting out a frustrated sigh at her continued attempt at conversation, remembering how she and the pancake loving Nora Valkyrie had pretty much laid waste to two members of his former unit, now masquerading as Team BRST of the Shade Academy from Vacuo.

Pyrrha would frown and gently lay a hand upon his shoulder, tightening the grip as he tried to shrug her aside like some pesky door-to-door saleswoman instead of a fellow classmate who was trying to reach out to the lone wolf. "I want you to tell me why you insist on acting like you have to walk alone, when so many people are still trying to reach out to you..even someone who should have no reason to do so."

The spear maiden would continue to search his amber eyes for some sign that her words had reached him, the wolf having been uncharacteristically silent for the past minute. Normally she would've given up trying to talk to the angry young Huntsman-to-be and left him to his own devices, but after what she had to Jaune previously in her attempt to try and talk through the enormity of the task that her teachers had placed upon her..and that she had selflessly accepted despite the dangers that it would bring her way. "I want to try and get to understand you before everything changes, before I become something other than who I am right now." Pyrrha's eyes would begin to well up with tears at the thought of her future as the Fall Maiden, wandering Remnant with no true place to call home lest she bring attention of the antagonistic variety.

Those who would attempt to use her for her power, or attack those closest to her in order for the future Maiden to let down her guard and strike at her in a moment of weakness in order to take them away from her.

Bálor would remain silent upon seeing her confident façade beginning to fade, her words causing his heart to waver and see the truth of a deep-seated pain that not even her better half was unaware of.

"I keep myself isolated and alone, because I don't belong here. I'm only here because Headmaster Ozpin seems to see something in me that most people won't understand." He would hesitate visibly, gesturing for her to follow him to a more secluded area of the Academy and not stopping until they were inside an old storehouse cluttered with out of date textbooks and even some cracked busts of Peter Port's visage. "I'm just some sick social science experiment that Ozpin's hellbent on getting results for, my destiny is whatever that man's endgame is..and that's why I view it as my enemy." The agitated Faunus would clench and unclench his fists as he tried to suppress a growl of disgust towards the man who had released him from his iron fortress of solitude, only to turn around and cage him a prison built of empty promises and cryptic expectations and then surrounding him with people whose hearts would shatter upon enduring a modicum of his blood stained past.

"So that's why you attacked Team CRDL as viciously as you did the day of your first practice battle, why you rejected Ruby when she confessed her true feelings for you during our last dance prior to the Vytal Festival. You're hoping that by acting like some cold-hearted beast that Professor Ozpin would give up on his experiment and return you to wherever you previously called home isn't it?" Pyrrha would smile sadly as he turned away from her in shame, his fists clenched so hard that the knuckles had gone white. "But it's as you yourself said: Ozpin wants something from you and won't relent until he gets it."

What she did next would shock the two of them as the statuesque redhead would gently wrap her arms around the young man's waist, a gesture of intimacy that she imagined giving to her partner Jaune out of love was instead being given to Bálor out of a shared pain that the wolf was unaware of. Only after the shock settled and the wolf's slightly smaller form relaxed against her did the future Fall Maiden begin speaking again, this time in a much softer and gentle tone. "I can't promise you that things will turn out the way you want them to once our time at Beacon comes to an end, but I can promise that you won't have to bear the weight of your burdens alone."

He would chuckle mirthlessly at her soft spoken words, gently prying himself free of her embrace and taking a step towards the door only to be stopped once more. This time being stopped by the suddenly immovable metal door that allowed them access to the storage area.

"Look Nikos, do you really expect me to believe that you'll give up a happy future with Arc just to become my..admittedly attractive keeper?" The wolf would laugh bitterly before trying to bust through the door shoulder first, only to wince in agony from the pain of his reckless actions. "You have no reason to take up that heavy of a responsibility, I'm just an arrest waiting to happen once I leave this place..trust me Pyrrha, that unlike me you were meant for something greater then watching over a beaten pup."

Ruby Rose would be walking along the road back to Team RNJR's campsite in silence, despite the warmth she felt from holding Jaune's hand at that moment there still existed a cold dread in the pit of her stomach.

"What the hell did I just do?" Flashes of her kiss with Jaune assaulted her thoughts followed up by echoes of the pointed words of her now former friend, the crimsonette had honestly tried her best to break through his steel fortress of a heart with only minimal success. Going from being consistently scowled at during most classes and across the cafeteria, to the two of them sharing small talk and even a joke here and there. With each passing day she had managed to chip away at his barriers a little more, eventually the scowl became a stone-faced nod of respect, then it became a sly smile of acceptance, and before either side recognized it they had learned to enjoy one another's company without question. "Why the hell do I feel bad about this, I poured out my heart to him ages ago and he kept me away..right when I thought he had finally let me in." Her gaze would fall to her boots that were treading a trail through the grass behind them, leaving a metaphorical trail of broken promises behind them.

"Penny for your thoughts partner?" Jaune had finally decided to break the silence that had been building up between them, the kiss between them had left him feeling somewhat guilty considering the circumstances between himself and the now deceased Pyrrha. He had discovered how he truly felt about her in what had been fated to be their final moments together and even after pleading to both Ruby and Weiss to do everything they could to save her life, the end result was that his friend and partner had given her life in vain as she had tried to stop the raven-haired pyromancer that now haunted his nightmares. "Maybe you could finally explain what happened back there in that town? Seemed like the Grimm weren't as intense as the others we've encountered up til now, so that's a good thing huh?" The red hooded young woman would stop in her tacks, her silver eyes now brimming with tears as whatever seemed to be troubling her seemed to be boiling to the surface.

"Yeah so what if they were, that didn't make the nightmare that I went through any easier to swallow okay?!" Her outburst was enough to make Jaune look at her like she had an extra head growing out of her shoulder, Ruby was never the kind to lose her temper outright. If anything, she was the one to help keep somebody else's kettle from boiling over with her bubbly demeanor and winning smile. "I'm just..exhausted from all this fighting we've been enduring and it feels like we haven't gotten any closer to why Beacon was attacked..why Pyrrha had to die." She would slump down onto the ground tiredly as the tears finally began to flow freely as she started pounding the grass in anger, even as Jaune sat down next to her in stunned silence.

"Ruby, I know things have been getting frantic lately, the Grimm have been increasing in number and are attacking more often but that's why we're here. We have to be the ones to hold things together and protect everyone, we have to be the heroes everyone needs right now." The fair-haired young man wouldn't immediately notice the stinging pain in his cheek due to the blinding speed of her slap, but once the pain flared up his hand would go to his cheek as he winced in pain.

"Let's get one thing straight here: I'm TRYING to be the hero that everyone needs me to be, but at the end of the day I'm just a girl whose lost her friends. Blake's gone AWOL since we got back to Vale and nobody's seen hide nor hair of her since, Yang's not only lost her arm in the fight but also her spirit. I haven't seen her that broken up about anything since some asshole stuck gum in her hair when she was younger." The crimsonette would pull at her hair in frustration as she imagined her teammates shattering and disappearing like a mirror struck by a rock. Ruby would stop speaking as she recalled something that the wolf Faunus had said prior to their battle, he had been working for the SDC up until recently and had even relayed a message for her from the heiress herself. "Weiss is probably the only one of us keeping her head above water, even if she is in the one place that is probably worse than Hell in her mind." The crimsonette could only imagine what her former partner was being forced to endure now that she was back under her family's strict rules.

"Yeah, your team may be scattered in different places but at least they're all alive!" Jaune would ball a fist of his own as he stared up at the night sky in sadness, the nightmare from earlier returning in brief flashes. "My partner's dead because of some maniacal fire-slinging witch, and no one's been able to properly grieve for any of the people they've lost in the attack because the kingdoms all decided to react impulsively and either completely lock down their borders or beef up security in the larger cities."

The fair-haired knight would close his eyes as his thoughts went to his parents, no doubt concerned for the well being of their son as he traveled through one of the more Grimm-heavy areas of Remnant. "Things are terrible for everyone, but that's exactly why we need to keep pushing forward and fight back against all of this insanity. All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men and women to do nothing." Jaune would stare up at Remnant's broken moon with a quiet conviction etched upon his face, however the younger man also had an ulterior motive for deciding to have their journey go through this part of Haven: for a couple days away was the village where his fallen partner was born and raised. He owed it to her parents to relay the news of her death himself, better that they hear it from someone who loved her than some impersonal courier message.

"Right…I guess I stepped over the line with that last remark, everyone on Team RWBY's still breathing and fighting the good fight in their own way. I just don't understand what's going on with them anymore, I wish I could reach out to them and ask why we had to break apart." Ruby would sigh as she laid back on the grass, not even minding that her hood would probably end up with some very unwanted grass stains later on. "I need to know why Blake decided to run away instead of staying with us, we've endured so much up to that point and we trusted her regardless of what secrets popped up."

Jaune would raise a curious eyebrow at her choice of words, wondering why she was so focused on a singular individual before remembering the articles he had found on her scroll. "You say that you want to ask Blake why she ran, you're worried about Yang losing her confidence, and you seem to know that despite being holed up in Atlas that Weiss is holding her own." The blonde-haired Knight would furrow his brow in thought as he tried to connect the dots in her words to what she had seen on the red hood's scroll, but no matter how he spun the facts and tried to fit the pieces together that everything remained a jumble of confusion. "Ruby, why have you been tracking articles involving a wolf Faunus in Mistral?"

He would watch as her expression changed into one of grief and shame, almost resembling a child that had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. (which for Ruby was an everyday thing, only minus the reprimand and the punishment.)

"I'm sorry Jaune, but I just needed to make sure he was still alive. I already lost enough friends in The Fall and I wasn't about to lose a lead on one of the few that I could track!" He would sigh as her expression only worsened and tears began to form in her eyes once more, the picture was beginning to form in his mind as the situation became clearer.

"You did find him, and something happened between the two of you didn't it? Something so bad that the two of you tore up an already ruined town getting into some petty brawl."

This was the breaking point for the younger Huntress as the tears started back up, this time they would be followed by the softest of sobs as she tried to control her emotions and fight off the sadness fracturing her heart.

"I just don't understand why he would lash out at me like that, not just with his words but..but..." Ruby would shake her head in disbelief as she recalled the cold-hearted glare in his amber eye, the venom laced in his words as he spoke to her. "He looked at me like I was just another Grimm to be hunted down and slain, an obstacle that was in the way of whatever or whoever he was hunting before I found him." The red-hooded girl had since crawled into her friend's embrace once it was clear that the tears showed no since of stopping, even as his arms wrapped around her tightly in response to her words in an effort to protect her from the grief that seemed to wear down her happy spirits.

"Ruby..are you telling me that he showed up here just to attack you? He's a cold-hearted bastard that's for sure but he always kept a soft spot for you." The silence that followed was enough for him to take it as an answer of affirmation, now the picture was crystal clear to the fair-haired young man: Ruby had left their camp site when she had finally managed to track down her missing friend, only to find that he was very much a different man from the silver-maned goof who had roamed the halls of the once peaceful academy.

"And how did you even manage to follow him here in the first place, someone as guarded in life as he is isn't stupid enough to leave signs of where he was headed." Jaune would wait until the cookie-loving Huntress had begun to calm down and compose herself, his friend may have been a prodigy of a Huntress and a complete weapons freak but expert tracker she was not.

"I can't properly explain it, but ever since Bálor showed up to Beacon that first day I've always been able to figure out where he was hiding out and vice-versa. No matter how hard he would try to get away from me we would always end up bumping into one another, like some weird set of cosmic magnets I could always find my big bad wolf." The crimsonette-haired reaper would blush quietly as she realized exactly how she had worded her response. "It's stupid huh?"

Jaune would shake his head silently as he brushed away a stray tear from her silver eyes, he had always found them very unusual in the early days of their time as students of Beacon. But as time passed and they had gotten closer to one another, those silver orbs had become twin pools of light that pierced the veil of his darkest nightmare and helped guide him back to the waking world.

Back to the warmth that came with the presence of her and her treasured red hood.

"I can understand his contempt towards me, we've never really gotten along in the whole time that we've known each other. But Ruby was the only person that he ever truly seemed to be at peace around, so then why the hell would he attack her of all people?"

It was the exact same question he asked himself whenever he was forced to endure the nightmare that was Pyrrha's demise, however unlike that unchangeable sequence of events this was something that he could deal with on a more personal level as his expression hardened into one of determination. "Ruby, I need you to tell me everything that happened." Under normal circumstances Jaune Arc wasn't the kind of man to hold a grudge against anyone, but with the fall of Beacon and the loss of someone dear to his heart, it was clear that the time for such pacifist thinking was done.

He wasn't about to find that fire-spewing woman anytime soon, (apart from his continuing nightmare) but Ruby had made it perfectly clear that the wolf had been somewhere nearby in the area. He had tried to hurt the girl who had been helping to keep him whole, whose kiss had brought a brief spark of light back into his heart after the spear maidens demise had snuffed it out entirely.

It was time to return the year long animosity he had been shown by the amber-eyed demon with double the interest.

It was time for payback.

Bálor Moonlight stood alone in a darkened cave that used to be home to a group of Ursa, battered, beaten, and bruised even before he discovered the shadowy sanctuary he would charge into battle with nothing but his swords and a heart brimming with anger. But even that madness did little to help him win the silence he now found himself enveloped in, it was only after a long and bloody struggle that cost him the vision in his left eye that he managed to win the night.

"Dammit, I can't afford to die here..not now." The injured Faunus would struggle to rise to his feet with the aid of a jagged rock, wincing as it bit into his skin as he relied on it to help him stand once more. The memory of his conversation with the now-deceased Pyrrha playing out before his eyes like a fevered dream made real.

"You honestly expect me to believe that something as powerful as these Maidens exist? That there's actually people capable of using MAGIC!?" He would watch his past self tremble with rage as he remembered the incredible tale that the spear maiden had told him, a tale of four women whose powers had been given to them by a shut-in of a wizard as thanks for bringing kindness and hope into his withered life. It was as fantastic as the fairy tale most children heard while being put to bed. "This is madness, if there really were women that strong in Remnant then why not eradicate the Grimm and end this cycle of horseshit!" The wolf had been incensed to the point that the objects in the store room were trembling violently as his rage continued to build, but Pyrrha stood brave and resolute in the face of his tide of fury nonetheless and continued to plead her case.

"No, but rest assured that every word of what I'm saying is true. I've seen the Fall Maiden with my own eyes, she's wounded and is only being kept alive through a stasis tube developed by General Ironwood of the Atlasiyan military." She would go silent as a bust of Port's finally shattered under the weight of the young man's Semblance, hating that instead of easing his wounds and giving him peace. She was instead pouring the salt of what appeared to be a deep and tightly wrapped conspiracy between those who were duty bound to help prepare them for life outside the safety of their school. "I understand how you're feeling right now: To you this is just another secret that Ozpin's managed to keep from all of us, another reason to mistrust the man who treats you as a lab rat. But I assure you, this is no variable in a math equation..if I don't take on the Maiden's power then whoever attacked her previously may return to finish the job." She would go silent once again, giving him time to digest the magnitude of what he had been told and what he would do with it.

"I still don't understand why you would come to me and not Jaune, you obviously care for him a great deal..a knight like him is exactly what is needed in this situation, not a worthless attack dog like me." Bálor would wince upon hearing himself be described in such a base and demeaning way, but that was his frame of mind back then..before the Fall changed everything. Even as the Pyrrha of his memories held her hands out to him in a pleading gesture, he still had trouble comprehending why she would choose a rogue like him over the man she had spent so much time with as a friend, teammate, and even pupil.

"It's because that I care so much about Jaune so much that it can never be him. The life of a Maiden is a long and weary one full of hardship, I won't let Jaune be dragged into such tedium after coming so far as a Huntsman. He deserves better than that."

The redhead would take a step towards the conflicted Faunus, her hands still held out as she did so. "I need a guardian that will protect me without getting bogged down by emotion, someone I know who will go for the jugular before anything else, someone…that I could never fall in love with no matter how long or how far the journey takes us." The green-eyed Huntress would go silent as she realized just how pointed her words sounded, a feeling compacted by the dumbstruck look on his face. "I-I'm sorry..I didn't mean to word it so bluntly, it's just-"

Bálor would hold up a hand to stop her hurried apology, a Pyrrha Nikos classic. The amber-eyed Huntsman would sigh as he weighed his options carefully: Carry on as he did now and face a surefire incarceration down the road, or become the cold and calculated protector that she was now asking of him and travel all of Remnant by her side.

Not a couple, nor a team.

Just a Maiden and her guardian, out to try and survive the combined weight of their burdens.

"So...will you become my guardian?"

Alright everyone put down the pitchfoks and just like E-Li Drake says: Lemme talk to ya!

The above chapter in no way pushes for OCxPyrrha, this is strictly a business deal between the pair, because as I see it: the life of a Maiden is a solitary one, you never see Amber with any sort of a traveling companion (outside of the horse) and if you think about it, any Kingdom with a Maiden in their borders would set her loose upon the neighbors as a way to expand their territory. If she refuses to respond, threaten the lives of her loved ones and force her hand.
From a practicality standpoint, using Bálor as a guardian effectively negates this threat because at no point will they become intimate. He's basically a gun for hire in order to keep anyone from trying to use her, her heart has and always will remain with Jaune

Even posthumously.

As for the Lancaster portions, I edited those heavily to reflect less of a need for Ruby to reunite with Bálor, and instead trying to cope with the enormity of the situation unfolding around her.

And if you're gonna question the whole cosmic magnet thing: Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, those two SHOULD be able to sense each other!

For those who like the story, go vote for it in the poll on my profile page. Or one of the other ones, whatever floats your ship.

And that's not an insult, that's just a fact of life!