Hello all, and welcome to chapter 10. So I'll be honest..I couldn't ask for much more than I've gotten. 67 favorites and 101 followers. You guys are unreal and I love each and every one of you all for the support.

Chapter 10: Leaderless

-Vale-

"So this is the guest room I mentioned. Hasn't had..well really any use yet, so at least you know it's clean!" Nora said happily as Pyrrha slowly walked around the room. "I'll go grab your things, you just get comfortable." She left as Pyrrha carefully lowered herself to lay on the bed. It was a damn sight more comfy than the hospital beds, that was for sure and she was certain she'd be able to sleep better as a result.

"Not like I'll have much time for all of that. I've been on the sidelines far too long," she said, one of her hands slowly balling into a fist. She wished she could fast forward the next day or two so she could get that medicine already and start getting back to work. And get Jaune back. She was taken out of her thoughts by the front door opening again and Nora soon walked in, carrying the rest of Pyrrha's things with one arm, much to her amusement. "You ever get tired of showing off?"

"Nope. It's way too much fun! Here's the remote, just call if you need anything, alright? Ren! Is lunch ready yet?" She called as she walked down the hall.

"You can't rush art, you realize that?"

"Im not rushing art, I'm rushing YOU. Im hungry!" She whined. Pyrrha laughed softly as she turned the tv on. Those two could cheer anyone up just by being around them for a few minutes. She was lucky to have them to help her through all of this. It wasn't long until the smells of whatever Ren was making drifted in, making her stomach growl lightly.

"No wonder Nora is so hesitant to have him leave. That kind of cooking, I'd keep him locked up," Pyrrha chuckled. Yeah…probably a good thing no one heard that. Bad joke.

Nora returned a while later and peeked her head in. "Pyrrha? Ren made some soup if you want me to bring you a bowl I can," she smiled. The thought of real food again made her stomach growl loudly this time and she smiled back

"That sounds lovely, Nora. Don't worry about bringing me anything,I'll be there in just a moment," she said as she slowly stood up, wincing the whole way but waving Nora off when she tried to walk over. "I've got it. I won't just sit in bed all day, or else there was no point in leaving the hospital right?" Nora nodded at her, but still kept close to her as they walked to the kitchen. Ren smiled and grabbed a bowl for her. "That smells amazing Ren," Pyrrha smiled as she slowly sat down.

"Well, I can only hope you agree it tastes as good as it smells then," he smiled as he spooned it from the big pot on the stove. "Now then..please dig in," he said as he sat with his own. Nora tipped her bowl back a bit as she hurriedly spooned it down. Ren rolled his eyes and carefully began eating his own. Pyrrha grinned at him after trying it, making him smile back. "The verdict is good, I suppose?"

"Its incredible! If being a huntsman doesn't work out, I think you've found your calling, Ren."

"I could never do this for a living, I'm afraid. All the customers yelling and being cooped up in a kitchen all day every day..it'd be a bit maddening. Though I do enjoy cooking for my friends and Nora-" Nora slurped down the last of her soup and let out a loud burp before setting the bowl down in front of her. "Satisfied?" Ren asked in an amused voice

"Ohhh no. I need some more of that," she grinned. Ren rolled his eyes and grabbed her bowl to refill it.

"Ren..thank you. Both of you. I hope I'm not going to be too much of a bother-"

"Nonsense, Pyrrha. Your our teammate and friend. You are welcome to stay here as long as you require," Ren said over his shoulder.

Nora glanced over at Pyrrha and saw she was biting her bottom lip as she stared down. "Pyrrha? You okay?"

"Huh? Oh yes just..thinking."

"About..him?"

"Well..no actually," she said softly. She finished her soup and pushed the bowl away. "I was..wondering if you could..fill me in on anything I've missed? You've told me about you two and some of what team RWBY has been up too, but I was curious about our other friends. And what it's like out there right now. You never gave me any details about all of that." Ren scooted in his chair, folding his hands over one another

"There isn't much detail to give as far as the others are concerned, I'm afraid. It's the same story all around, from CFVY to SSSN. Mission after mission, working themselves extremely hard to help out as much as possible. No ones been hurt badly though, to my knowledge so there is that much to be thankful for.

"Last I heard from Coco, she mentioned something big happening in Vacuo but that was a while ago" Nora said

"And I believe Sun mentioned his team going Menagerie for…something I forget. That was even further back, so who knows where they might be." He sighed softly. "As for the world in general..we thought things would start slowing down eventually but.. we were wrong. The Grimm attacks have been multiplying, increasing in both number and ferocity. Add that to the White Fang incursions, the bandit clans running rampant, and the very real possibility of war between Mistral and Atlas if things don't start getting better, half of remnant is on high alert constantly. It's not looking to improve any time soon either."

"I..gods..I had no idea," Pyrrha whispered. She knew things had been bad, from the little she'd been able to get out of Ruby and the others while recovering, but from what Ren and Nora said it was far worse than she ever could have imagined.

"You honestly weren't aware of most of that?" Ren asked

"No, I wasn't. I..couldn't really watch the news. It was always talk about Beacon, or something with our enemies and it only made my nightmares worse. So eventually I just forbid myself to even watch it. And I think the doctors understood that because they never mentioned anything either." And somewhere in the middle of all this chaos is Jaune, all by himself. The thought made her feel sick to her stomach.

"Is there anything else you feel I should know?" Nora shook her head while Ren looked away

"No I don't think-" she stopped when Ren let out a heavy sigh. "Ren..is everything alright?" She asked as she reached over and took one of his hands.

"There is something you should know..no that you have a right to know. You recall I went to Patch recently to speak to Ruby?" Pyrrha nodded. "She told me that..she plans to go after Jaune. And that she wants me, Nora, and Weiss to go with her as Blake and Yang are gone." Pyrrha stared at him in shock for a moment, as did Nora. "I wanted to tell you sooner but..I was unsure if it was a good idea with you recovering still. But since your on the track to getting better, there is no reason to keep you in the dark." He slowly began to explain the rest of what had been discussed, leaving out only what he'd told Ruby about how he felt during Nora's injury

"She wanted us to LIE to Pyrrha?" Nora said, her tone annoyed.

"Ruby was worried she would try to force herself to come along and cause herself further harm. Also Pyrrha had already been given some bad news regarding Jaune. Her intentions were good, Nora."

"It still isn't right! Pyrrha doesn't need someone making calls to exclude her like that! She-" Pyrrha slapped her palm down on the table making both of them face her

"She is also right beside you, and would like to be ASKED how I felt about this," she said in a irritated voice. After they both looked down, embarrassed she took a calming breath and looked at Nora. "I'm not mad at Ruby. Ren's right..she meant well. But Nora is also right in that I shouldn't have been left out of that discussion. Jaune is MY teammate as much as he is yours and Nora's," She said looking at Ren.

"Agreed. I won't exclude you any further and I'll be sure to tell Ruby you know about it. But..what will we do? I wouldn't feel right sending Ruby and Weiss to do this alone." Pyrrha pressed her palms against her forehead and thought it over.

"Well..I suppose she has a point. If we wait until Im back to full strength, it could be too late. I haven't even trained in over a year, so..it'll take a lot longer than I care to admit. And I wouldn't want to go in unless I was at full strength. I'd likely be little more than a liability." She let out a long sigh and hung her head in defeat before looking back up.

"Ren..can you call Ruby and see if she can come over?" Ren nodded slowly and went over to grab his scroll.

"What're you thinking?" Nora asked

"Ruby needs to hear that I don't want her to delay this anymore than she has too. If I can't go, I can't go."

"Pyrrha..you sure? I mean you must want to-"

"Im sure, Nora. Of course I WANT too but..If it gets Jaune back..I'll gladly sit out."

"Ruby is on her way," Ren said as he walked back over. Pyrrha nodded her thanks and tried to calm herself as they waited. She felt such a strange mix of frustration, helplessness and..hope. Though right now she wasn't sure which one was most in control.

-1 hour later-

Ruby entered the apartment alongside Weiss looking extremely nervous. Pyrrha guessed Ren must have mentioned what this was about already during their call. "H-Hey Pyrrha..it's good to see you out," she said smiling a bit. Weiss nodded with a smile as they sat down.

"I agree, you were cooped up in that place for far too long, if you ask me."

"Well, they were overly cautious with me, but with an injury like I had, not like they could afford not to be." Ren cleared his throat as he stood.

"I'm going to grab something for us to drink. Weiss, do you and Ruby have a preference?" He asked

"Water is fine," Weiss said

"Orange juice if you have it," Ruby said softly. Ren smiled and with a slight bow disappeared into the kitchen. Ruby drummed her fingers nervously on her thigh before carefully looking up at Pyrrha. "Is..everything okay? Between you and me?" Pyrrha frowned.

"Why would they not be?"

"I was making plans to go after him without you..I kinda thought you'd hate my guts now," she admitted, her voice shaking a bit.

"Ruby.." Weiss said, patting her shoulder. Pyrrha shook her head.

"Never. Ruby, I owe you my life for what happened at Beacon. Rest assured, I could never hate you. Im..frustrated but not with you. iI's more with myself than anything else honestly. I hate not being able to come along on this mission. He's MY teammate and leader and Im the only one who has to stay behind."

"W-Wait…it sounds like your saying you WANT me to go ahead and do this. That was the last thing she'd expected when Ren had called her over, and was partly the reason she had Weiss come along. She had been scared that Pyrrha was furious and would tell her she better not go through with this.

"Of course I do. Whether I can go or not isn't important at the end of the day. Bringing him back is. Just…at least include me with the planning this time alright?" Ruby took a calming breath and her tension slowly faded as she took her drink from Ren who had returned as Pyrrha finished speaking.

"Alright..where do I begin?" She spent the next little bit explaining her uncle and how because of his various missions all over Remnant he likely knew at least one person who would help them find Jaune. If he couldn't.."then I don't know where to go from there. He finally sent me a message at least saying be might have something for me soon, so I guess at this point were just waiting."

"When do we NOT have to wait for everything? Pyrrha has to wait for treatment, me, Weiss and Ren are stuck waiting for Ruby to get a call. Whats next?" Nora asked. The group laughed a bit at this. Weiss folded her hands and turned towards Pyrrha.

"So speaking of treatment..what's the plan for you anyway?" Pyrrha shifted a bit and relaxed against the couch.

"Some medicine that Atlas developed. It'll be here either tomorrow or the next day, and I have to go get the first treatment when it does." She saw Weiss' expression go from curious to surprised. "Have..you heard of this stuff?"

"I believe so..Winter mentioned some of the men under her command were being approved for a trial run of something. Now that you mention it, that makes a lot of sense. Several of them had injuries similar to your own from the battle. I could ask her for more information if you'd like. Maybe how well her people reacted to it and the like. I just don't know when she'll be available."

"Annnd…there's another thing to wait for," Nora said making Ren nudge her in the ribs.

"That sounds great Weiss..thank you," Pyrrha smiled. They spent the rest of the visit with Pyrrha trying to recall anything Jaune might have mentioned to give them some help in the mission, but nothing came to mind. "He never talked much about his family after that first time on the roof and..well right before the finals of the tournament. But even then, it was never anything about WHERE they were or anything like that. I always got the impression he wasn't on good terms with them."

"That's typical," Weiss sighed

"Well wherever he is..we'll find him. I promise," Ruby said. Pyrrha nodded and turned towards the window.

"I know we will..I just worry about what'll happen when we do," she said softly

-Anima-

"Soo…tell me again why we can't stop for the night?" Saya asked for the fifth time in the last half hour. Jaune sighed, this time not even trying to hide the irritation in his voice.

"Because Saya..were not over the limit that I've set myself to. I try to walk a certain amount before I stop." Saya picked her pace up a bit to walk beside him again.

"But WHY though? Your just going to exhaust yourself, and by extension, me." She griped.

"Hey, you can always turn back yknow," he snapped causing her to flinch a bit. Taking a breath, Jaune tried to reign in his frustration. "Sorry. But look, If I stopped for the day every time I felt tired I'd never get anywhere. Were only going to cut more time off the trip the more we push ourselves. You don't even LOOK that tired anyway, why are you on my back so much about this?"

"I wanted to get some training in? If I walk until you decide your tired I'll be too much of a zombie to even lift my blade," she muttered. Jaune stopped and ran a hand over his face before letting out a defeated groan.

"Fine. If it means that much to you, help me find a decent spot to camp." Saya nodded and slowly examined their surroundings

"Im...not sure what a 'decent' spot is, exactly. At least not what you'd consider as decent."

"A place that has a good view of the road and any path leading to it for starters. Less chance of a sneak attack. And a place where I can set up a fire without it catching half the place and has some flat areas for our tents." Saya nodded and began looking again, Jaune helping this time. They settled for a hill that overlooked the road a bit down the way. While Saya set up the tents, Jaune began the work of starting a fire. Once everything was set up, Jaune sat and began sharpening his sword while Saya ate.

"You aren't hungry?" She asked

"I don't eat as much as I used too," he mumbled. It was another one of those things that he never understood. All the moving around and jobs he did, you would think he'd be ravenously hungry all the time. Maybe it was the constant need to ration what he had and learn to go with less or something else he didn't understand, but it happened. "Aren't you going to go train? That's the whole reason we stopped early remember?"

"Well..aren't you going to help me?" She asked. He sighed softly. "What? Do you not want too?"

"No it's not that it's just-"

"Just what?" She said

"I…I don't know. I don't know, okay?" He said, going back to work. Saya watched him in silence for a bit, before she wasn't able to keep quiet anymore.

"What was it like?" Jaune stopped what he was doing, his eyes widening a bit as he turned towards her again. "Going to Beacon. What was it like?" Jaune's eyes narrowed a bit, turning away again.

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Why not? If you don't want to train I'd like to talk at least."

"WHY though? You already know me."

"I know your name, your old team, and you've been alone for a while. That's about it. Come on..I promise I'll answer any questions after you give me a few." Jaune didn't turn around but she saw his hands trembling a bit.

"It was like you'd expect. They had some of the best hunters and huntresses you could ask for and they taught people who came there how to be great in their own right," he knew it wasn't a good idea to talk about this, but he also knew she wouldn't drop it.

"Sounds amazing..all I ever knew about the academies was stuff my dad mentioned, but he only knew about Haven. What were the teachers like?" Jaune stopped his work again and finally turned around completely, accepting he wasn't going to get anything done like this.

"I can only talk about the ones I actually dealt with..but they were great. Though I'm pretty sure my combat tactics professor didn't like me all that much," he said with a chuckle.

"Did you have a lot of good friends?" She saw his eyes sadden a bit at this. He picked up a stick and poked at the fire with it.

"Isn't that two questions in a row?"

"Humor me." He sighed again.

"Not as many as my charming personality might give you the idea of. I wasn't mr popular for a long time there. Hah, who the hell am I kidding? All the way up till the battle I wasn't that. But..I had a few I would have trusted my life too. Not just my team, but a couple of the others that numbers probably gone down after I ran off like I did."

"I doubt that..if you trusted them that much, I doubt they would turn their back on you like that," she said. He scoffed a bit.

"If anything Im the one who turned his back on them..I wouldn't blame them at all." He tossed the remains of the stick into the fire and looked at her. "My turn for a question. You said your dad was teaching some of his stuff..what made you decide you wanted to learn to fight?" She stared into the fire, gathering her thoughts before she began.

"I had a friend, probably my closest friend I'd ever had, his name was Diam. We grew up together and he was always someone I could depend on. Well..one day the Grimm attacked. That wasn't unusual, this was back before the Lotus took control of the area and kept their numbers down. Just..there were a lot more of them this time. Our crops had been hit by a bad spell and everyone was really on edge."

"You might as well have been a broadcasting a signal to them.." Jaune said.

"Exactly. They came by the dozens, not just in little handfuls here and there. The battle lasted most of the day, but..it didn't get bad until right at the end. A group of them broke through the wall on the other side and our defenders got attacked by both sides. While all that was going on, Diam and I got cornered by a Beowolf in my house. There we were, no weapons and no one to help us with both my parents out fighting the main attack. Diam..told me to run and that he would try to lead it away. I got away but..he.." Her voice caught a little, Jaune could see tears welling in her eyes.

"Look..you don't have to continue if you don't want. I got a pretty good idea where this is going," he said softly. She nodded and wiped her her eyes.

"It..it's fine. Eventually, we beat back the Grimm attack but..we lost most of our trained warriors. My parents and maybe five or six others were the only survivors. With Diam being gone, and seeing what those monsters did to everything else..I don't know I felt like I HAD to become a fighter."

"Understandable..Im sure Diam would have been proud of you for deciding to do that," Jaune said

"I'd like to think so too..then again I'm still not much of a fighter. And now maybe you see why the Lotus was able to just strong arm us into being apart of their protection game. It's not like we had a lot of choice in the matter. One more Grimm attack like that would probably finish us off. Kuro got desperate, not that many blamed him. Maybe that's another reason. Mom always said that evil only wins if the good do nothing. I couldn't do anything for Diam. I told myself I wasn't going to let that happen anymore. Though..I already failed that considering what happened to my mom not long before you showed up.

"You can't blame yourself for that-"

"Well I do. And going in this trip with you will be the way I fix it. By helping tear down the bastards who took my only remaining family from me.

"That's another thing..What did your father think when they took over? What happened to him?"

"Isn't that two questions?" She said smiling a bit

"Humor me."

"Well played Arc..anyway, your guess is as good as mine. He disappeared right before they took over.I still don't know what happened to him..and I doubt I ever well. Anima has a funny way of making the memories of people fade away with time." Jaune didn't know what to say to that, turning back to the flickering flames as he went over her story in his head a few times more. "My turn," she said. After he gave her a bit of a nod, she spoke. "What was Pyrrha actually like in person?"

Jaune felt his heart sink. Of course she went there. Why the not? "She was…amazing. I can't think of a better way to describe her to you. She was the first person to believe in me..first person to sort of pull me aside and train with me. I owe her a lot..she damn near died saving my ass." Saya could see eyes filling up with tears, his face full of pain just speaking about her.

"Jaune..was there something between you two? Did you…love her?" With that, he stood and grabbed his sword.

"You said you wanted to train right?"

"Jaune-" he walked past her, motioning for her to follow. She sighed, but did so. He led her to a clearing and stood off to the side as she stood in the center.

"Were going to start with the basics. Weapon up." She held it out in front of her. "Keep your grip tight and your lead foot forward." She nodded, tightening her grip on the hilt of the sword and putting her left foot forward. "Ready? Go." She struck outwards with a shout. "Again." Another strike. "And again." With this one, she put too much into it, and she stood there panting a bit. "Alright..take a second to catch your breath..we got a lot of work to do."

I hope you all enjoyed, and I shall see you soon for the next chapter

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