Disclaimer: I do not own the RWBY franchise, it belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 3- Recovery

A.N. to the lovely guest reviewer who took the time to criticise my pairings for the story: Would you mind expanding your point? I don't think merely saying that Arkos and Bumblebee are shit pairings is going to change my mind much. However I'm always happy to listen to others arguments, and while both ships are essential to my plot I'm curious as to what you'd prefer.

'THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?!' The unmistakably furious voice of Yang Xiao Long carried easily into the kitchen. Accompanied by a loud thud and the crackling of flames, the entire house echoed with a hot and angry magic.

Blake gave a start, accidentally dropping her plate of fried tuna. It lay on the ground, forgotten as she rushed up the stairs. Tai was right behind her, his face betraying a mix of fear and concern. She went to open Yang's door but immediately jerked her hand back with a hiss. The handle was red hot.

'Move over.' Blake turned around and hurriedly moved to oblige Tai's request. Wasting no time the blonde Huntsman proceeded to kick the door down with surprising strength.

They both quickly ran inside and were immediately struck by a wave of heat.

Yang was in the centre of it all, flames licking and twisting around her in a roaring blaze. The carpet had burned away in a ruff meter circle around her and her eyes blazed with a furious light. Those blazing eyes were directed at a man Blake vaguely recognised as Qrow Bronwin.

'MY SISTER WAS CORRUPTED? EVIL? BECAUSE HER EYES WERE DIFFERENT?'

Qrow didn't answer; he appeared to be unconscious.

Blake was rooted to the spot. She had seen Yang angry before, (The golden haired Huntress had started more bar fights in the past week than should be physically possible) but this was something different. My Maiden, the words echoed through her mind as something else awakened within her. Blake's instincts combined with this new feeling compelled her to act. Without thinking she rushed to Yang, wrapping her arms around around the fiery berserker she paid no heed to the flames that scorched her skin.

'Stop it' she whispered into her parter's ear 'this isn't you Yang, so please, just think about what you're doing.'

Yang was furious, Qrow had crossed the line. Saying something like that barely two weeks after her sister's death! Even saying that at all- Ruby had been the most pure hearted; innocent, wonderful young girl, and he dared say she was corrupt?

She barely noticed the swirling firestorm around her, there was nothing but rage and pain in her mind.

Suddenly, out of nowhere cool hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a tight hug.

'Stop it' Blake's voice pierced Yang's rage, replacing it with fear. Quickly she tried to reign in her anger and push the poor cat fanaus off at the same time.

'What are you doing!?' Yang yelled in panic 'Blake! Get off, I'm going to hurt you if-'

'I don't care.' Those words stopped Yang's heart 'I'm not going to run anymore, I refuse to abandon the ones I care about again. A few burns are nothing.'

'Blake..' Yang cried 'he.. he said that.. and I..'

'I know...' Blake rubbed reassuring circles into her back 'I know.'

And at last, the fire went out.

'Wohaaaa! Weiss, your house is so BIG!' Nora chirped happily, pressing her face up against the Atles vessel's glass.

It was about time Weiss thought, the normally three day trip had taken almost two weeks due to overpopulated ships and multiple Grimm attacks. They had made it through however, and now her; Nora, Ren and Jaune were approaching the main private Schnee landing strip outside her home.

'I agree, it it most impressive' said Ren, smiling at the Heiress. 'Thank you again for taking us in like this Weiss.'

Weiss gave a small smile in return and crossed her arms.

'Well I wasn't about to leave you three out on the streets of Beacon, now was I?' She said.

'Yeah!' Nora yelled, getting some odd looks from the other passengers 'you were awesome back at Beacon Weiss!'

She started doing a surprisingly accurate impression of Weiss's voice,

'If you think I'm just going to leave those dolts alone when they need me most, you've got another thing coming!' Nora grinned 'you were just like that!'

Weiss gave a slight laugh, the orange haired Valkyrie's determination to keep everyone's spirits up was certainly admirable. But she didn't feel particularly 'awesome', in truth she felt utterly helpless. Unable to refuse her farther's summons, she had been forced to abandon her teammates in their time of need. Taking along team JNR had been a compromise of sorts, at least now she was helping someone.

Sighing she looked up to see Jaune sitting on a bench a few feet away, staring into the floor with a blank expression on his usually goofy face.

Weiss looked away. Emotional support had never exactly been her strong suit after all.

Ren had followed her line of sight and stood up,

'I'll go talk to him' he muttered as he passed by. 'Try to keep Nora busy for me, ok?'

Pyrrha was gone. That was all Jaune could think about. Ruby and Penny too, they were all dead.

He should be stronger than this, he thought. Everyone else was coping, they'd even been considerate enough to give him the space he needed- Ren had taken up the mantle of temporary team leader until he was capable of resuming the role himself.

This was a mess, he was a mess. Jaune sighed, hands digging into his knees as he stared at the ground.

'Hey Jaune.' Ren's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, making him look up.

'Ren' he greeted, already knowing where this conversation would lead.

'We're going to be landing soon.' Ren said 'I was wondering if you could come and help me grab our stuff from the rooms?'

'Sure.' Jaune nodded

They made their way to the nearest lift and headed down.

'Listen, Jaune, we're all worried about you.' Ren said 'Me; Weiss, Nora, everyone can see you're not handling this well. And... we want to help.'

They turned right at an intersection.

Jaune felt a tightness in his chest, and let out a ragged breath.

'I know..' he said quietly.

Ren looked at his former leader with sadness. The blonde had changed from a kind but unintentionally oblivious boy to a broken man in the blink of an eye.

'Look.. I know you took Pyrrha's death harder than all of us. She was your partner after all. But..' Ren seemed to be choosing his words carefully 'We're your teammates too, and we'll always be here for your, alright?'

Jaune said nothing for a few seconds, then nodded.

'Yeah. I'll try to remember that Ren, thanks.' He smiled for the first time in weeks.

Whew. Next chapter we check in with our villain team and see how they're handling things.

In the meantime, please drop me a review- as nice as it is for me to see the view count go up, it's meaningless unless I know what people actually think.