NOTICE: It's obvious from the end of Volume 5 that the events of RWBY canon can't entirely happen in a way that would lead to this story, since this story predicted that Haven would fall. Therefore, this story has the feel of an AU, rather than a prediction, but I still genuinely believe that some aspects of this story might end up canon.

After having been battered both physically and emotionally, Jaune left the bunker shortly after the other Hunters arrived after responding to his emergency call. While it was relieving to know that some Hunters would still help him when he needed it, the sheer apathy and rage given to him from the very people that he volunteered to protect left him… even more humbled than he usually was. He cared for his friends and those around him very much, but cared very little for himself, so hearing a man that lost his nephew and blamed him for failing to protect him hurt him more than that shovel ever could.

When Jaune looked up at the night sky, he could feel the thoughts coming from Pyrrha's soul go through his mind. She was thinking about the time when she and Jaune were out in the balcony during the Beacon school dance. He could feel her regrets lingering in his mind. It was just teenage drama back then. Nobody had to feel helpless and fear for someone else's safety. Life was so simple then…

Jaune gathered up his nerves and spoke to the fragment of that girl's soul, "Pyrrha… I… I'm sorry."

Her voice went through his mind when he said that, "For what?"

He took a deep breath before explaining, "I… took my anger out on you earlier… and… you were just worried about me… and I…"

Her voice interrupted him, "Jaune, stop."

He tried to continue as if he didn't hear her, "You were always worried about me! I…"

Her voice interrupted him with a louder tone, "Jaune! Please… don't apologize."

He stopped at that moment while her voice started to explain, "You were right. I… I did throw my life away. I shoved you in that locker and went to fight Cinder… alone. I'm sorry."

Jaune only muttered a single word, "Pyrrha…"

Her voice started trembling within his mind as his emotions started twisting from the inside out, "I got myself killed... and left you all behind… and now, all I could do was hope that my friends could shoulder my burden for me."

Jaune struggled to speak with the painful emotions inside him, "Pyrrha, you left us all with a big hole in our lives when we lost you. I admit it. I was angry at you when you left us… Really angry... but I still tried to live up to my family name… and to you. I… I admired you."

The painful emotions inside Jaune suddenly subsided when her voice went through his mind, "Jaune…"

His confiding became a bit easier when they did subside, "You were so strong… so brave… so nice… and… beautiful."

He heard a loud gasp in his mind before he continued, "You were everything I wanted to be! Everything I wished I could be, but… I was just an idiot! I… I was so weak compared to my friends! I held my team back at Beacon! I wish I was the one that died that night instead of you."

Those same painful feelings came back and hit Jaune like a train when Pyrrha's voice shouted in his mind, "Don't say that!"

Jaune started shaking as he kept trying in vain to keep himself composed, "It's true!"

Her voice shouted again, "Jaune, please!"

Jaune gritted his teeth and lost his composure, "I mean it! I… I hate living like this! I hate failing when someone depends on me. I have living with the guilt. I'm so tired of losing everything! There's a part of me… that just wants the guilt to end."

Her voice didn't go through his mind, but he could feel her sorrow as tears came from his eyes, "I'm just a failure… with a death wish."

Everything was silent between the two with only a renewed feeling of heartbreak to replace the tension. Jaune felt like an emotional weight was lifted from his shoulders… only for that weight to be replaced by the sorrow that came from Pyrrha's soul.

After that moment of silence, her voice resonated through his mind again, "I'm sorry… that my death caused you such pain. I… failed you too."

He could feel even more of her sorrow bubbling in his heart after her apology, as if she was holding back tears, "Pyrrha… You… You were… the best of us… The strongest… and the bravest…"

He heard her voice suddenly shout in anguish, "Stop it!"

Jaune collapsed on his knee due to the sheer emotional stress coming from her soul, "Pyrrha? Wh-what are you..?"

From that point, every word that Jaune heard from Pyrrha's soul was like a needle piercing his heart, "You're wrong! Every reason that you idolize me… Every reason that the world once put me on a pedestal… It's all wrong! I didn't push you away to fight Cinder because I was braver… or because I was stronger… or even because it was worth fighting for! I did it because I couldn't bear the shame anymore!"

The words that resonated through Jaune's mind felt like a contradiction to everything he ever knew about Pyrrha, which left him nearly speechless, "What?"

The sheer sorrow that came from her soul was more than enough to actually restrain Jaune, as he fell from his knee and onto his thigh while she recounted everything from that terrible night, "I was supposed to accept the Fall Maiden's power. I was the one that was meant to bear the responsibility of saving the world on my shoulders! I should have accepted that power the instant I was told, but… I was afraid."

While he was struggling to get back up, Jaune recalled the story that Qrow told him over a campfire once, "Ruby's uncle… told the rest of our team about what happened… before we got separated. He told me… that your Aura would become intertwined with the Aura of the last Fall Maiden, and that nobody could predict what would happen to you. I was there in that vault when you accepted it. I saw you."

Her voice was still filled with sorrow about that terrible night, "I should have bore that burden sooner. I was a Huntress! I shouldn't have been too afraid to accept my destiny! None of this would have happened if I… I…"

Jaune could actually hear her voice crying from inside of him, which in turn was causing his limbs to quiver, "P-Pyrrha…"

He could only hear Pyrrha's voice within his mind, fallen into hopeless despair, "If something… really would have happened to me… then it would have been worth it… because at least I… I wouldn't have… I wouldn't have faced Penny in that match and… I killed Penny! I… I killed a young girl… in a stadium… filled with thousands of people! All of those eyes… watching me… rip her to pieces…"

Jaune's mind was getting flooded with visions of Penny's robotic body torn to pieces, followed by the sounds of a horrified crowd, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to kill her! I didn't mean to…"

He desperately called out for some way to stop these visions, "Pyrrha, please snap out of it!"

He heard her voice call back to him as the visions started to fade, "Jaune?"

Jaune was gasping for breath, as if he has awoken from a vivid nightmare, while Pyrrha's soul resonated in his mind, "I'm sorry. I had almost forgotten that you can intimately feel my emotions."

When he caught his breath, Jaune crawled back up to his knee, "Those images… in my mind… They're just like the nightmares I've been having. I already figured that much out before, but I also thought that it was just that annoying Maiden girl putting them in my head, just like when she strapped me down on that bed."

Jaune stood back up on his feet, "I get it now. Those nightmares I've been having… They're just your traumatic memories… Flashbacks… just like what old war veterans go through in the movies…"

Her voice was much calmer when it resonated through his mind, "Yes, I suppose that's an accurate way to look at it. After Penny… died, I heard the outburst that came from the crowd around me and… something just… broke inside of me. Then, I heard Cinder's voice addressing the crowd about what just happened… Everything just went black for me before Ruby stepped in and…"

Jaune interrupted her, "That wasn't your fault! It was Cinder!"

Her voice resonated in his mind with unusual fury, "Does it matter?! I used my Semblance on her! She died by my hands and… the world saw it."

He tried to interrupt her again, "Pyrrha…"

The fury in her voice was replaced with sorrow again, "I know I kept a strong face after that, but deep down… all I could think about was atoning for my failure to accept the Fall Maiden's power quickly enough and for my part in Penny's death! The shame… consumed me! I… I couldn't bear it! I couldn't face the stadium of people that watched me kill her! I couldn't face the friends and family that would grieve for her! I couldn't face anyone in Beacon! And… I couldn't face the world that I swore to protect!"

Jaune's limbs quivered as he heard her voice start crying again, "I couldn't look into their eyes! I couldn't face their judgment or bear the shame of an innocent death on my shoulders! I know that my social status… the 'pedestal' that the public put me on… wasn't something I was entirely fond of, but… I couldn't bear the thought of failing the people that put me on that pedestal! In the end, that was my fatal flaw. I… I wasn't strong enough to move forward! Not if it meant living like a pariah! And… that was why… I faced Cinder that night."

Jaune's eyes widened while his limbs were still numb, "What?"

Her voice resonated through his mind with a tearful confession, "I had to make things right… whatever the cost! I had to do it alone because it was my weakness that allowed all of it to happen! I couldn't let anyone else die because of me! That's why I pushed you away… why I pushed everyone away… I had to do it alone! I had to be the 'Invincible Girl' that the world needed! If I failed… again… then death would be my punishment!"

Jaune's anger was palpable, despite the fact that the sorrow from Pyrrha's soul was enough to keep him restrained, "Pyrrha… why?"

Her voice continued to resonate through his mind with a sad, but dignified tone, "I already told you. Something broke in me that night. I didn't even care about how anyone else felt! I just… wanted the guilt to end. I committed glorified suicide and left my friends to pick up my burden. I have no excuse. I'm sorry."

And just like that, Jaune's anger faded almost instantly. It was as if her humble apology had sapped the fury from him… again.

Before he could even decide what to do or say, he heard her voice resonate through his mind again, "Jaune? Please don't throw your life away. Don't make the mistake that I made. I know what it's like to think that death would bring you peace. I felt that way once… but it didn't. I was wrong! My death didn't make anything better… and neither would yours. I… I'm still broken inside! Even in death, the past still haunts me! There isn't a single moment when my thoughts don't drift back to what happened that night, but… it's too late for me now. I can't make things right. Not anymore…"

Jaune was at a loss for what to do, and whenever that happened before, Pyrrha was the one that would offer guidance. Now, she… or a traumatized piece of her soul was in his mind, so he did what he usually did.

He asked her for help, "Pyrrha? What do I do?"

After a brief pause and no response, he asked again, "Do I have to break my promise to stay by these people, leave a village that's probably going to burn no matter what I do, and lose what's left of you just to save myself, or do I keep my promise, stay and probably fail to protect this village, and die for it without accomplishing anything? What am I supposed to do here? There's no good answer for this."

Pyrrha's voice resonated in his mind again, "You're right. There is no ideal solution. I honestly don't know… and even if I did, I have no right… Not now… Not after everything that's happened… Remember?"

Jaune recalled the moment he lashed out at her and still felt guilty for it, before her voice continued, "I suppose that the only thing you can do is… to just live and do what you can. That's it. I know it doesn't help much, but it might be better to worry about what you can do… and not to worry about what you can't do. Does that help you?"

Jaune exhaled with a sad look on his face, "Yea…"

He pulled out the Soulstone that the Death Maiden gave him from his pocket and saw the green eye in the reflection of the stone staring back at him, "I know what I can still do…"

Her voice seemed almost content after Jaune said that, "Even after all of the pain you've went through… you can still move forward? Jaune… I… I'm so proud… to see how far you've come… You've become so str…"

Before she finished, Jaune dropped the Soulstone on the ground… He took one last look at it before stomping it as hard as he could with his boot… and crushing the Soulstone to pieces! And with that, any hope of getting his life back was crushed along with it!

Despite the sheer consequence of what he just did, Jaune felt strangely calm about it, "No, I didn't. I can't overcome all this. I'm not strong enough. I can't move forward. Not anymore…"

Pyrrha's soul, on the other hand, filled his heart with her horror, "Jaune… Do you understand what you've just done?!"

Even the horror that he felt from her didn't do much to change his mood, "Yea… I'm going to die. I know. It doesn't matter now. I was too weak to make a difference anyway."

Her voice resonated in his mind with heartbreak, "But… I…"

Just like the horror before, the heartbreak now didn't change his mood much, "Pyrrha, I can't lose you. Not again…"

Just like that, her heartbreak turned into a sense of astonishment, "What?"

Jaune acted as if he learned some kind of epiphany now, "I can't let you go. I can't move forward without you, Pyrrha."

Her voice was so quiet, but filled with awe, "Jaune…"

Jaune actually laughed a bit and brought up old memories, "Hey, Pyrrha. Remember when you found me in Emerald Forest? I was stuck in that tree. I was inexperienced and wanted to live up to my family's legacy so much that I faked my way into Beacon. You got me down from that tree, picked me up when I was down, trained me to be better… and left a piece of yourself in me. Remember? You unlocked my Aura like that… and then I quickly became stronger and better than I was at the start. Do you know why, Pyrrha? It all makes sense when you think about it. It was you. You gave me that strength. I'm not just talking about emotional strength. I mean 'actual' strength. I had this piece of your soul in me all this time… and that's why I have so much Aura now. I… was never strong. It was your strength… all this time. What would happen if I lost this last piece of you? Do you think I'd be strong enough to even survive four minutes in the Grimm-infested Beacon Academy after I lose this piece of you? You think I'd even be strong enough to accept death to save someone else… without you?"

There was no response from her, but Jaune could feel his emotions stirring again as tears came down his eyes, "No, I couldn't. You know how the fear of failing the people that looked up to you was your fatal flaw? Well, I have one, too. I've become… dependant on you. I'm no good on my own."

Her voice resonated within his mind with a sad, yet heartfelt tone, "You need me?!"

Jaune made no effort to stop the tears from flowing out of his eyes, "Yes! I… I admit it. I'm nothing without you. Pyrrha… Please don't leave me."

He heard her gasp as he kept begging, "I… I promised the people of this village that I would do everything I could to keep them safe… and that I wouldn't just leave them to die when things got bad. Well… look at how bad things are! You can see it through my eyes, right? The buildings are torn up, the food supply here is ruined, the corpses… Oh god… They're all over the ground… But it doesn't matter… An Arc… never goes back on his word!"

His begging turned into quiet sobbing at this point, "Please… I can't face death on my own! I'm so scared!"

Jaune collapsed on the ground as he heard her heartbroken voice in his mind, "I suppose I don't have any choice."

His limbs started quivering when he heard her voice start crying again, "Everything I've done… In the end, it was all for nothing!"

Jaune struggled to speak, "P-Pyrrha…"

Her voice resonated through his mind again, "Jaune… I… I'm sorry. I'm trying… I'm trying to stay calm, but…"

Jaune grasped his legs to keep himself up, "Pyrrha… It's okay."

He sat on the ground and relaxed, "It's okay. You don't have to be strong anymore."

After a brief pause and no response, he lied on the ground, "Pyrrha, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask."

Her voice was filled with despair, "Jaune… I'm beyond help. I'm dead!"

That last sentence was painful to hear, but he kept his cool, "I know! I… I know. Pyrrha… I can't give you back your life. But… maybe I can help you through your trauma."

After a moment of silent contemplation, her voice resonated through his mind again, "How exactly do you intend to help me?"

Jaune took a moment to actually think about it, "Uh… Well… Maybe you can… talk to me? You might feel better if you have someone to talk about it with. Or maybe I can take your mind off of that terrible night altogether? I can tell you about how I grew up with seven sisters, or you can tell me about your family."

Her voice sounded slightly amused at the idea, "In other words, a therapy session."

Jaune exhaled in disgust, "Well, when you say it like that, it just sounds silly. But… that's really all I can do for you now. I hope that's enough."

After a brief pause, he spoke again, "Pyrrha, I'm not the amazing hero that my father and his father were… and you're not that 'Invincible Girl' that's on the box of Marshmallow Pete's cereal… but that's okay. You've done many amazing things in your life already! It was just too much this time. That's all. We were just students caught up in a problem that was too big for us. I know I'm in that situation right now. I couldn't do very much back in Beacon, and I'll probably fail to make a difference in something as simple as one remote village, but maybe I can at least help you feel better."

He could feel Pyrrha's soul resonate in his mind with a gentle peace, "Jaune… I never expected you to go this far for me."

Jaune got off of the ground and back on his feet, "And I never expected you to fall this far since we first met, but now I'm going to be around to pick you back up. Okay? You don't have to hide anything from me. Your guilt… Your shame… You can put it on my shoulders now! I'll carry it for you!"

Her voice had such a solemn, yet heartfelt tone, "But you gave away… everything… Your life… Your aspirations… Everything you've worked so hard for… You threw it all away… just to ease the lingering regrets of a dead Huntress…"

He answered without any hesitation, "Yes, I did. Even if I die trying to protect these people, I know I can still help you. After everything I've seen, I know there has to be some kind of existence after death. It doesn't matter now. I'll still be around in some way to help you rest in peace, no matter how long it takes. You deserve that much."

This was the moment when all of the emotions of a dead Huntress struck him at once. Her grief, her shame, and even her joy… Everything fell on Jaune like he was physically being weighted down by a barbell, but like any Arc, he kept his word.

He could hear her voice sobbing uncontrollably, "I thought… the guilt… would burden my soul… forever… I've actually forgotten… what it's like… to see the light… at the end."

Jaune closed his eyes and imagined that he was hugging her in the flesh, "Shh… It's all right… It's all right. I'm here for you now."

He could hear her voice speak so sweetly in his mind, "Jaune… Thank you. Your forgiveness means so much to me!"

Just like before, his limbs started quivering when her voice started crying again, but he stayed on his feet this time and spoke softly, "Try and imagine that you're already in my arms. Imagine me hugging you right now… My arms are around the back of your head… Your face is nuzzled on my shoulder… and my Aura is protecting you from all the negativity… You can hear your friends and family nearby… and we're all going to help you through this."

He could feel her voice calm down already, "Yes… You'll be with me… always. Even in death…"

That brought a smile to Jaune's face. Who knew that practicing those ASMR videos would actually come in handy someday?