Author's note: I know it's an uber short chapter compared to how much I normally write, but my writer's block has struck again while I was writing this. I wanted to bring back Ruby somehow, I didn't just want to leave her dead. It's not my best work, but I hope you guys like it.


The woman opened her eyes, the world slowly coming into focus. She turned her head and looked around the room, different machines decorated the walls of the small room, half of which were connected to her in some way and the other half beeped and displayed numbers. 'Where am I?' she thought to herself, trying to remember what had happened. As she attempted to recall the events leading to her current circumstances, a sharp pain came from the inside of her head. 'Who am I?'

Upon further self-inspection, she found a raw patch of skin on her chest. It was red and soft to the touch, similar to a newborn baby's skin. After a few moments of rubbing the scar and thinking, she clutched her temples in an attempt to ease the pain. "W-what happened?" she muttered as the sharp pain slowly but surely subsided.

"You were injured on a mission, Miss Rose. Your teammates reported that they couldn't retrieve your body," the young woman looked up to see a silver haired man, "so I was immensely relieved to hear that the general had found you and I'm sure your friends would be too. Do you remember anything at all?"

"Just a name, but I'm pretty sure it's not mine," she looked at him in confusion, "Jaune."


"Ruby!" Jaune shot up in his bed, yet again. He looked around to find his darkened room, to his surprise, his teammates were still asleep despite his scream. Lifting his legs, he moved to sit at the edge of his bed, holding his face in his hands. 'Every night this month it's been the same thing,' he thought to himself.

The young leader gathered his jacket, and made his way to Beacon cliff. When he arrived to his usual spot he was greeted with an unusual sight. "Do you think she'd be mad if I jumped off?" she spoke, not moving from her spot at the edge of the crag.

"I've asked myself that question almost every night this month, Yang," Jaune took a seat next to the brawler. He pulled out a lighter and a cigarette, and brought them both to his face, "I can't sleep, I can't eat, hell I can't even go one day without thinking about what happened."

"You're that shaken up, huh?" she turned to see his eyes, void of sort of happiness. It broke her heart to see her sister's best friend, the man she watched her fall in love with, and the one who usually had a contagious smile on his face, in such a state. "Since when did you start smoking?"

"A few days after the funeral," Jaune said in between drags, "it doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would. It helps a little." He took a deep breath, exhaling loudly, "I loved her, Yang. I loved her so much, and I couldn't save her. It's my fault she's gone. You must hate me for not being able to do anything to save her."

"It's not your fault Jaune. I wasn't able to do anything either," she comforted her friend as she choked back tears, "I was wounded and useless, but Ruby was fighting until her last breath. I should have died that day, not her."

"That's also my fault. If I had been more careful, none of this would have happened. You wouldn't have been wounded and Ruby still be alive," Jaune flicked the cigarette butt over the cliff, watching the small glowing red dot disappear into the darkness below, "I promised that I'd protect her, that nothing would happen to her, but I'm such a fuck up that I can't even do that right."

"Dammit, Jaune, stop blaming yourself!" Yang screamed, "You did all you could, we all did, yet she still died. She was my sister. Besides you, I knew her best. She was my family, and I don't even blame you for her death."

Silence fell, as soon as Yang finished speaking her mind. During this time, Jaune painfully recalled the events leading up to his beloved's death. "Don't you think it's weird?" he asked.

"What is?" she raised an eyebrow.

"We were so close to Vale's borders," he pointed out, "it wasn't more than ten kilometers, so why were there so much grimm? They don't usually come that close to the walls in packs that big."

"Now that you mention it, it is kind of weird," Yang agreed.

"I might know the reason," he pondered before standing up, brushing himself off and offering a hand to the brawler, "but first we should get some rest."

The walk back to their dorms was silent, but Yang noticed the determined look in his eyes. "Jaune," she started before entering her dorm room, "just so you know, Ruby did love you back. She never told me, but with the way she looked at you, she didn't have to."

"Thanks, Yang," he smiled back, finding contentment in the information confided to him.