In case you've all been wondering, yes I have been dead for awhile, I've been busy at work...anyways I hope you enjoy the chapter! Big thanks to DragonManMax for helping me with the plotline.

(I do not own RWBY)

The Soldier's Battleground

ザー・ソールジュズ・バタルフィールド

Though darkness may fall, let the illusion of light guide your path...

Chapter XIV: Forward Unto Dawn

Jaune tightened his hand around the young woman's one as he pulled her quickly behind him. Rounding a corner he turned around to her quickly.

"Take your shoes off! You're going to break your ankles if you keep running with them!" She nodded and tossed the footwear to the side quickly as shouts could be heard behind them as the masked assailants where hot on their trail.

"Move!" The two of them continued running down a hallway until they turned down another one in an effort to lose their pursuers. Jaune racked his brain for ideas, but he had never found himself in this sort of situation before so he wanted to continue running, but a quick glance to the young woman beside him showed that she was tiring quickly.

'Huh, I guess aristocrats and princesses' don't get much exercise.'

The young woman stumbled and sharply stepped on one of Jaune's feet who hissed from the sudden jolt of pain. 'I'm shutting up now.'

Seeing as this was an official event, Jaune hadn't been allowed to carry any weapons on him, so his options were limited to what he could do. Scanning the area ahead of him, he saw a room to his right.

"In here!" He ushered her into the rather small room and locked the door behind him. The sound of approaching footsteps stopped in front of the door and after trying to open the locked door, they started to pound on it trying to break it open.

Not letting that phase him, he jogged over to the window and looked down too see that the ground wasn't too far below. A makeshift plan formed in his head and he looked at the young woman.

"We'll escape through the window." Jaune opened the window and gestured below. "Come on I'll help you down." He pointed downwards to the ground. She gave him an incredulous look at his proposed idea. "We don't have much time, if you think this plan's stupid I'll hear you out later." She made her way over and cautiously stepped over the windowsill and looked down to the ground below.

The pounding increased outside the door, Jaune grabbed ahold of both her hands and stared at her. "We need to hurry." Gently he helped her off of the windowsill, and slowly but steadily lowered her out of the window. His muscles strained as he now found himself supporting her full weight as she hung by his arms. As he was letting her down, the doors finally broke and burst open behind him, he let go of the person in his hands. Turning around he saw the group of masked assailants enter the room.

Not expecting the sudden drop, a small scream escaped her lips as she fell the rest of the distance. Fortunately, a row of bushes were planted below her, and helped in damping her impact from the fall, nonetheless she still hissed from the pain. She looked back up to see why the young man dropped her so quickly and saw his back towards her in the window above.

Jaune took up a defense stance, and raised his fists in front of him. No one was going to get past him if he could help it. 'They had better not pull any guns out as I'll be mostly screwed then.' The enemies in front of him pulled out small daggers and he mentally sighed at the objects. 'At least they're not guns…' One of them charged at him and thrust their dagger at his chest. Falling back on his training, he threw out his left hand and grabbed ahold of their wrist before yanking them towards him. Using his other hand he shoved his elbow face in their face, and at the same time kneaded them in the gut. They immediately crumpled to the ground and he crouched down to grab their dagger.

Another one charged and was quickly brought down when they received a blade to their throat. By this time the remaining enemies eyed him warily as he glared right back at them.

"Two, take three and five and go get the girl. I'll deal with this obstacle." Jaune tenses at the order given as three of them left the room to head downstairs. 'Shit I need to finish this fight and get down there.' He studied his opponent in front of him. Seeing as how it was now just the two of them that either meant the person was highly trained, or overconfident in their abilities. He hoped it was the latter but in the end only one of them would be standing.

Clenching his fists he dashed forward and delivered a midair roundhouse kick towards his opponent who raised their arms in the air and blocked his move perfectly. They responded with a quick chop towards his neck making him raise his arm up his head to deflect the strike.

He threw a punch which connected with their face, he smirked when they growled at him from the hit. He started to throw a variety of punches and kicks at them in an effort to break through their defenses once more, he wasn't able to land another one after that first hit and the two of them traded blows back and forth.

Ducking down to avoid a kick to the head, he lunged forward and grabbed them around the waist tackling them to the ground. He started to throw punches at them but they responded by wrapping their legs around his waist and rolling them over, switching the positions. He decided to use his head to get out from under them, and grabbed their head before slamming it down onto his. The move worked as it stunned his opponent, but he was also seeing stars from the head-butt and tried to clear his vision that was currently swimming from the pain.

Remembering his original thought, he shoved them off of him and shakily stood up on his feet. 'Oh yeah I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow.' Still dizzy from the hit, he wasn't quite ready for a fist to come flying towards him. He grunted when it hit him square in the gut and he stumbled backwards from the surprise blow. Not wasting time, the masked enemy raised one of their legs and delivered a solid kick to his chest. Making him lose his balance and fall out of the open window behind him.

He felt his body become weightless for what seemed like an eternity as he fell down to the ground. But that feeling ended when his head hit the ground hard and he felt his consciousness start to fade from the rough landing. As darkness started to envelop his vision, he saw the young woman running up to him to see if he was okay and they found their eyes meeting each other.

"Run." He passed out.

The young woman paused at the single word the now unconscious man had said to her. Not wanting to abandon the person who had to tried to protect her, but also not having the strength to carry him, she carefully hide the man behind the bushes so that spotting him would be almost impossible in the darkness. With that done she took the advice the man gave and started to run once more from her pursuers.

Making her way across the courtyard she had landed in, she tried to open one of the doors leading to inside the mansion but found that it was locked. Looking for another way in she heard the sounds of footsteps approaching and she crouched down behind a tree trying to make her body as small as possible. Time slowed down as the footstep got closer to where she was hiding, holding her breath she waited and hoped that they would move away. After a few tense moments the footsteps moved away and she took a small breath of relief. Cautiously she leaned out and peered around the tree trunk to see if the unknown person had truly gone. To her surprise and utter shock a masked individual stared down at her menacingly.

"Found you." She recoiled back in horror as the person reached towards her. Reacting on instinct she thrust one of her legs out and felt it connect somewhere on the persons body. They cursed from the hit and she scrambled to her feet in an effort to get away from them. By this time another masked person had entered the scene and not wanting to deal with another person. She reached down and hiked up her skirt a little to reveal a small holster with a derringer pistol tucked neatly inside.

Drawing the small weapon smoothly into her hands she took aim at the approaching figure and fired off a round. The bullet struck their right arm making them flinch from the pain. Correcting her aim she fired the second round which tore into their left cheek making the person scream and fall down from the hit. Flicking the weapon open, she reached down for more ammo when the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Whipping around quickly, her vision was filled with a knife heading right at her...

A throbbing pain started to burn through Jaune's mind as he slowly started to regain conscience. He shook his head trying to dissipate the headache. His sore muscles made him groan as he opened his eyes to a starry night sky above.

"Damn, what happened? How long was I out?" He sat up and looked around him with a questioning look, scanning the area around him for the young woman. A glint of metal under the moonlight caught his eye, and with a slight groan, stood up and made his way over to discover a small derringer discarded on the grass.

"Both shot fired, I wonder if it was the young lady's." He turned the weapon over in his hand and studied it with a keen eye before looking down at the ground.

"There's spots of blood here. I'll follow the trail." As he was tracking the blood, he thought he heard a low buzzing sound coming from the sky and looked up too see the silhouette of a ship crossing in front of the shattered moon's light.

"Is, is that a zeppelin?" He had heard of these types of aircraft and how they were able to transport a great amount of people across the sky. His admiration of the zeppelin design ended when an explosion went off beneath the floating aircraft. His blood ran cold as the realization dawned on him. That zeppelin was not being used to transport people but rather, was being used in a bombing role. Something he had also heard rumors of.

'The kidnapping of the woman and the appearance of a zeppelin can't be that coincidental. I bet its a distraction for their escape. Which means they must have acquired a getaway vehicle.'

He started jogging at a quick pace while tracking the sometimes hard to see trail. Eventually the blood spots became fewer and farther apart, but by this time he found himself in the front driveway part of the mansion. The faint smell of burnt rubber filled his nostrils and he looked around for the cause of the foul smell and found tire marks in the gravel leading away from the mansion. A car's engine roared in the night as it sped away from where he was standing.

'My hunch was right, I bet that's the car they drove away with, I need to tell the others.' The sound of footsteps behind him made him turn too see a battered Blake running towards him.

"Belladonna! Your alright." She stopped in front of him and took a few deep breaths. "Yes I'm fine, everyone else is helping evacuate the premises just in case that zeppelin heads this way."

Jaune nodded before pointing at the tire marks on the ground. "There was a young woman that was taken hostage by whoever released the gas. I believe they are using the zeppelin as a distraction to escape."

She pointed at another vehicle parked near them. "The rest of them have the situation under control, we should go after the hostage."She tossed him a handgun which he snatched from the air.

"Let's go." The two of them jumped into the front seats of the small black car and they tore out of the gravel driveway.

The young woman found herself slowly regaining consciousnesses and awoke to find herself in the backseat of a car as it sped along a road. The area around her was aflame with the sounds of explosions going off nearby. An airship loomed in the distance with what looked to be biplanes circling around it as protection. She looked at the person in the front passenger seat who was wearing a waitress outfit that she had seen at the event. They turned around a moment later and gave a disarming smile. "Well well, it seems that you've awoken princess, or should I say Weiss Schnee."

Wiess raised a delicate eyebrow and looked at the other woman. "That's Ms. Schnee you imbecile. Thank you very much." The unknown woman shrugged casually. "Whatever you say princess." She opened her mouth preparing a reply to the rude woman when one of the men next to her turned around quickly and looked out the back window and saw a vehicle rapidly gaining on their location.

"There is a car on our tail!" Upon hearing this, Weiss also turned around to see if she could see who was in the car, hopefully it was her sister coming to rescue her. But before she could get a good look the other man beside her grabbed her shoulder and stopped her from looking.

"We don't need any more unneeded complications, take them out!" One of the men pulled out a handgun and leaned out of the car window. He started to open fire on the vehicle behind, making them swerve in an effort to avoid the incoming bullets.

Blake jerked the wheel back and forth as bullet started to hit the front of the car, none had struck the windshield yet but she wasn't about to let that happen if she could avoid it. Jaune drew the handgun she had given him earlier and leaned out of the passenger window to open fire on the vehicle they were chasing. The first couple of shots went wild as she swerved to left and right making him grumble from the movements.

"Belladonna can you try and keep the car steady? I don't want to accidentally hit the hostage inside!"

"Then aim for the tires, if you can take those out it will be much easier to catch up to them!" His response was a grunt when they took a sharp left turn almost making him fall out if he hadn't been able to catch himself.

"Would it hurt to just one day off where shit doesn't hit the fan!" He popped off a round which struck right next to the left rear tire. "Where's your sense of adventure Lieutenant?"

"At home in a warm soft bed!" Blake's thoughts temporarily drifted to a certain scene in the book he had given to her a few months ago. A bullet striking the hood of the car made her shake the wayward thought out of her mind. "Belladonna I think they're heading towards the zeppelin for extraction!" She took a moment to look up and saw the zeppelin looming straight ahead of them. "We need to get her before they reach that then." She stepped on the gas pedal and started to close the distance between the two cars.

Jaune ducked his head back inside and pointed towards the sky. "Enemy plane incoming!" Blake turned the steering wheel hard right just in time before the enemy plane opened fire, spraying the ground next to them with lead. It pulled up into the sky and started to make it's way back around for another pass. The car in front of them continued to fire and one of the bullets shattered a part of the windshield.

Jaune looked over to see if Blake was hit and was relieved to see that she hadn't been. He took a look out behind and saw the plane opening fire once more on the vehicle they were in. A hail of bullets struck the back end of the car, destroying the back right tire and putting more than a few holes into the roof of the car. The car ahead of them turned left down a street but with the part of the vehicle damaged and the plane pursuing them, Jaune and Blake had no choice but to swerve right, down another street in order to lose the attacking airplane.

Weiss grunted when the man next to her pulled himself back inside and none to softly shoved his elbow into her gut. "They were chased off by one of our planes."

"Good, with any luck they'll be taken out by the plane. But if not, we'll be long gone by the time they shake our plane off." The car continued to speed down the road and past some burning houses as it made its final approach to the floating airship ahead. The area around the massive airship was alight in flames and destroyed houses. Weiss cringed at the putrid smell of sot and clenched her hands as her pursuer was no longer in sight and had been chased off.

A small group of Imperials soldiers aimed their weapons at the car as they stood underneath the airship. Upon nearing the group, one of the soldiers recognized the occupants inside and raised his hand in the air signaling for the rest of them to lower their weapons.

"Package is secure, let's get out of here." The soldier nodded and signaled the airship above. A few moments later, an wooden elevator was lowered and soon came to rest on the ground below. Weiss was none too gently shoved towards the platform and she turned around with an irritated look on her face. "Get your hands off of me."

Once she boarded the elevator a few of the Imperials followed suit and soon the signal was given for them to be lifted up. The elevator jerked and swayed as it made its journey upwards towards the underside of the airship. Upon arriving at the top, the group stepped off and once again Weiss was pushed off albeit a bit more gentle and was lead down a hallway. She silently observed her surroundings and took note of different places she could potential make her escape from if she could manage to get away from the people surrounding her. Then again, the really only viable option was the elevator as the ship was floating high above the ground. Her chances dwindled with each passing second but she wasn't about to lose faith, if she was going to be captured she was going to do it with dignity befitting of a Schnee.

Blake gripped the steering wheel and clenched her teeth as a stream of bullets impacted the ground to the right of the car. She swerved to the left and then to the right as she tried to lose the overhead enemy plane. Taking a quick glance over to her passenger she saw him reloading the pistol she had given him earlier, he looked over at her with a serious expression etched on his face. "Belladonna when I give the signal I need you to drive the car straight as possible, I'm going to try and take down that plane." She nodded her head and a small smirk crossed her lips. "Don't miss." He shook his head and leaned out of the window. "Trust me, I don't plan on it!"

Sparing another quick glance at the man across from her, she let a small smile replace her smirk. 'I already trust you.' Focusing her attention on the road ahead she continued to try and shake their pursuer and waited for the signal. Taking a hard left at an intersection made Jaune grunt from the turn as he lined up the shot. The road they were now on was straight as it was going to get and Jaune took the opportunity. "Now!"

Blake stopped jerking the wheel and slammed on the gas as they flew down the road. Bullets from the plane sailed past striking the area all around them, but Blake held her course as she drove straight down the road. The air cracked around them as Jaune let loose the entire clip in the pistol towards the plane and was relieved to see thick black smoke start to pour out of the damaged engine. A few seconds later a small fire erupted and slowly start to catch the plane on fire, it started to spiral out of control and veered towards the ground.

Jaune tucked his body back in and looked over at Blake with a grin plastered on his face. "We did it!" She nodded her head at him and took note of how the light danced across his elated features. "Great job Lieutenant." He pointed in the direction of the airship. "Let's go rescue the hostage." She turned down an alleyway and weaved through a group of abandoned cars as they made their way towards the airship.

"Belladonna I need you to cut the headlights, we don't want them to see us approaching if possible. Hopefully they haven't taken off of the ground and we can sneak aboard." Blake knew that driving at night for a human was hard as they had poor night vision, she herself didn't have that problem but seeing how he asked her without hesitation showed just how much he trusted her to keep them safe. The thought was reassuring to her as she turned off the lights and let her eyes adjust to the darkness.

Jaune reloaded the pistol and from his peripheral saw the light bouncing off of Blake's face and noticed how her eyes would occasionally almost seem to reflect the light. 'Huh well that's not something you see everyday...or night.' He shoved the thought to the back of his head and focused back on the task at hand. The airship was coming up ahead and he didn't need to distract himself with wayward thoughts. Now was the moment of truth as they approached the looming airship. Hopefully the enemy wouldn't be able to see them in the darkness.

"Dammit, they're not on the ground anymore, this just got alot harder." Blake scanned the area ahead and saw what looked to be a rope used to help anchor the zeppelin to the ground. "Lieutenant over their we can use that rope to get aboard." Jaune squinted at were she was pointing and was just barely able to see the rope she was pointing at. "I need to start eating more carrots after this..." He mumbled under his breath, but with her enhanced hearing she caught what he said and mentally shook her head at him.

As they approached the rope she noticed that it was no longer anchored to the ground and was actually being dragged by the airship above. Glancing down at how fast they were going she knew that there was no way the two of them could grab ahold of the rope without anyone driving the car. Jaune must have noticed to as he cursed under his breath. She knew what had to be done and she started to drive closer to the dangling rope. "Go, I'll keep the car steady." He opened his mouth to respond but she stopped him. "You know as well as I do that the two of us can't get aboard. Trust me you know I'm right."

"I do trust you, get me close." Blake sped up slightly and soon the rope was right outside of Jaune's door. He opened the door and reached for the rope. Right as he grabbed ahold of it Blake spoke. "Stay safe." He gave her a big smile. "Do your best to follow us, I may need a quick getaway." With that Jaune found himself being lifted away from the car as the zeppelin started to lift up into the air. He gave a thumbs up to Blake before he grabbed the rope with both of his hands and started to climb. As he slowly made his way up the swinging rope he took a moment to appreciate the view around him as he sailed through the air. Never before in his life had he been this high up in the sky, the thought made his blood pump as adrenaline started to course through his body. That and he felt the oddest urge to throw-up his dinner as he felt his stomach start to do somersaults inside of him.

'Who would have guessed that I got airsick.' He laughed mentally at the discovery as he did his best to keep the contents of his food down. Feeling the rope jerk under his hands he decided to not look down and instead looked up to see that someone or something was pulling the rope up and instead of expending his energy to climb upwards he just held on and waited to be pulled up.

Seconds passed by and Jaune readied himself for a fight if it was indeed someone pulling up the rope and not a machine. His muscles tensed as he was pulled the rest of the way up and he found himself coming face to face with a crew member who flinched when they noticed him hanging on the rope. "Nice night isn't it." He grabbed onto their leg and yanked them over the hole. They screamed as they fell towards the ground below and to certain death. You could call that a free fall as they didn't even pay me to make them fall...I need to stop hanging around Yang.'

He hefted himself onto the metal platform as quietly as possible, hopefully the scream wasn't heard by anyone else but that thought died when he heard another crew member coming his way. "Hey man you alright?! I thought I heard you yelling..." A pair of hands wrapped around their head and their world went black.

Jaune gently laid the person down on the ground and started to strip them of their clothes. If he was going to infiltrate the airship he needed a disguise to help him out. He hastily dressed in their clothes before picking them up and walked over to where he had thrown the last person. Disposing the body over the edge he started his search of the hostage.

Sneaking around would come off as suspicious so he started to walk with a purpose towards an unknown destination. No one seemed to pay him any mind as he made his way down one of the hallways. Keeping an eye for the young woman he looked around the ship and looked for different escape routes when he did manage to locate her. Both tasks proved to be more difficult than original thought as not only was he high up in the air, he had yet to find the young woman.

'You know maybe I should have thought this through more, at this rate I'll need to hijack the ship and land it in order to get off.' Jaune continued to weigh the options in his head as he continued his search through the ship. Surprisingly it had a bigger interior than he first thought and more than a few times he got turned around as he navigated it. 'Traveling through the trenches is easier than this shit.'

After a few minutes he found himself in a nicer part of the ship and he could only make an educated guess that this was not for the general crew but for the officers that commanded the ship. Looking around him he pressed his ear against one of the doors and listened for any sound inside. Upon hearing none, he carefully opened the door and peeked inside to see that the lights were off and the room empty. Closing the door behind him he made his way over to the desk and glanced over the charts and maps strewn across its surface.

He found a document with details to a new piece of equipment currently stored below decks that would enable the survival of crew members if the zeppelin were to be shot down. Glancing over the technical document he looked up at the title. "Parachute." Seeing the importance of the doc he folded it up and shoved it into his pocket. Finding nothing else of importance, he started to go through the drawers and after finding nothing walked over to the bed and the small nightstand beside it.

Going through the drawer he found a book inside that he recognized and picked it up. 'Grimm's' Fairy Tales, I haven't read this book since I was a kid." Putting the book back and closing the drawer, he glanced over the room to see if everything looked the same when he had first entered. Seeing everything in order he quietly made his way out into the hallway.

A sound behind him made him turn around, only to find an empty hallway. His eyes narrowed as he listened for any sounds, a commotion behind him stopped him from investigation further and he decided to go check it out instead of looking down an empty hall. The moment he walked around the corner a small figure with heterochromia eyes silently watched him leave before sinking back into the shadows.

Jaune made his way over to the commotion and peered around the corner to see a group of people making their way down a hallway. Right as they turned a corner he caught a glimpse of the young woman he was trying to rescue. Seeing as how he located her, the real challenge now was how to get her away from the group without getting them both killed.

He jogged to the corner they had turned at and saw a door at the end of the hallway with two guards posted outside. Weighing the options in his head he mentally sighed and walked around the corner and made his way up to the two enemy soldiers who looked at him with slight confusion. 'Oh right I'm wearing the maintenance crew outfit...' Not letting that phase him he nodded at the two guards and stopped in front of them.

"I need to talk the commanding officer, their is a slight problem with one of the anchoring cables that I discovered and wanted to report." He held his breath as the two guards looked at each other for a moment before moving their attention back to him.

"Sorry sir the commander specifically said that no one was to disturb them at this time, you'll have to either fix it now or come back at a later time." This time Jaune sighed out loud. "Well it was worth a try." He surged forward withdrawing a small knife he had picked up from one of the crewmembers he had thrown overboard and stabbed the guard through the bottom of their chin and twisted the blade making blood and spittle start to gush out from the deadly cut. The other guard started to lower his rifle in order to fire, but not wanting to get shot, he threw his leg out backwards and hit them square in the gut making them stumble from the blow and affording him the time to turn around and properly deal with them. Reversing the grip on his knife, he sliced them across the throat before flipping the knife and driving it into their chest a few times.

With both guards now dead, Jaune took a deep breath to help calm his nerves as he reached down and grabbed the equipment off of the two dead soldiers. Taking another calming breath he pulled out a remote detonator and opened the door in front of him.

Weiss looked over the bridge of the zeppelin and noticed how it was being manned by a skeleton crew. She could understand the logic behind it seeing that if the zeppelin was taken down or the abduction was a failure the enemy wouldn't have lost to many valuable pilots in the mission. Still if they were going to go through the effort of capturing her the least they could do was have the airship she was on fully manned in order for everything to function smoothly.

Her thoughts stopped when she and the rest of the people around her heard a commotion outside the door to the bridge. The sounds only lasted for a few seconds before silence once more engulfed the bridge. Shortly after the door handle was turned and a person entered the room with something small gripped in their left hand. Recognizing the object to be a wireless remote she immediately tensed up only for some of it to leave when she noticed that the person was actually the young man who had tried to protect her earlier and a shocked expression crossed her face.

"You, what are you doing here?" She pointed a finger at him surprise radiating from her voice. He smiled even though the air around them was high with tension.

"Hello snowflake I've come to rescue you." An unladylike snort escaped her lips at the nickname he had given her, but further conversation was ended when one of her captors aimed a pistol at his head.

"Who are you and how did you get aboard this ship!" They waved the pistol menacingly in the air. "Answer me or I'll shot." The young man gave a small shrug.

"Arc, Jaune Arc. Pleasure to make you acquaintance." The person raised an unimpressed eyebrow at what he said. Weiss placed one hand on her hip and the other one on her face as she sighed at the corny line the young man delivered. Jaune noticed the action and mentally cringed as well. 'That sounded a lot cooler in my head...'

"So Mr. Arc. What are you planning on doing, you are clearly outnumbered and stand no chance of survival. Did you think that barging in with a remote detonator was going to solve all of your problems? You truly must be an idiot." They sneered at the young man.

"I have been known to do stupid things from time to time, but I am not an idiot. Before I made my way to the bridge I planted explosives throughout the ships hydrogen tanks and with the press of this button all of us will go in flames." He waved the small object in the air. "So what will it be?" They lowered their pistol slightly before once more aiming it at Jaune. "No if we don't return with her then it will be our heads, so either you kill us now or we let you escape and we still die from the hand of our boss. So go ahead and press that button, if we can't have her no one can!"

Jaune shrugged. "So be it." He reeled his arm back and sent the remote sailing through the air which struck the person with the pistol in the face, making them flinch from the hit. He took the momentary distraction and wiped out the pistol he had concealed and quickly dropped two soldiers who were next to the young woman. He dashed forward and struck the person he had hit with the remote with his pistol effectively knocking them out. He aimed the pistol at the rest of the crew members on the bridge who all stood still in fear of him.

He motioned to Weiss. "Come on lets go." A determined look crossed her face as she confidently made her way over to him. The two of them made their way out of the room and Jaune blocked the door from opening with one of the rifle the guards outside had. He glanced over at the woman and pointed down the hallway. "I think I found a way to escape that way, but we need to hurry." She nodded and the two once more found themselves running away from the enemy, fortunately this time no one was actively chasing them and the alarms had yet to be raised so the only sound was their footsteps echoing off the walls.

"The prisoner has escaped, I repeat, the prisoner has escaped. All hands full alert!" Jaune groaned internally at the announcement and picked up his pace as he mentally plotted the way to the room he had read about earlier. Weiss followed closely behind him as he turned down hallway after hallway as they made their way to the rear end of the zeppelin.

Seeing the room in sight Jaune felt his hopes rise only for them to dash to pieces when gunshots rang out behind him with the ensuing bullets whistle a bit to close for comfort by him. He twisted his body and fired off a few stray rounds down the hallway to suppress the enemy. They finally arrived at their destination and ran into the room with Jaune closing the door behind them.

"Mr. Arc what exactly were you planning on doing by trapping us in this room!" He pointed towards a row of what looked to be cloth bags hanging on the wall. "I found a document saying that these things will be able to get us to the ground safely, its called a parachute or something." The door behind them started to break as the enemy on the other side started to pound on the other side. Seeing that brute force wasn't going to work, they started to open fire on the door. With bullets holes now starting to form through the door. Moments later the door finally gave out and Jaune had no choice but to open fire on the enemy near the door. He was able to take them all out but not before one them dropped a grenade from their hand which rolled on the ground.

He grabbed one of the dead bodies and threw it onto the grenade and then shoved Weiss to the ground to protect her from the blast. The grenade went off showering the room with blood, guts, and shattered the windows to the outside. The bitter cold sky struck the two of them with force as they now had nothing to shield them from the wind. Jaune made his way over to the parachutes and grabbed one for Weiss when more bullets started to sail down the hallway and through the door. A bullet grazed Wiess' left thigh and she stumbled backwards from the hit and tumbled out one of the broken windows with a scream of terror.

"Fuck!" Jaune haphazardly threw on the parachute as he dove out of the window into the twilight sky below. He felt as if his stomach was at his throat but shoved down the feeling of nausea as he scanned the sky around him for Weiss. He located her some distance away from him flailing helplessly as she fell towards the ground below. Tucking his arms in and straightening out his feet he started to glide himself over to the young woman. Even though the freezing bitter wind was whipping past his ear he yelled at the top of his lungs trying to get her attention.

Sadly the distance was still to far for her to hear him, also she was more than likely panicking and was not listening for anyone anyways. As he made his way to her, she caught sight of him and he took the time to point at her and then to himself as he stretched out his body only to bring it back closer so he could catch up with her. Catching on to what he was implying she outstretched her arms and legs which added a bit more resistance making her fall a little bit slower. Not wanting to see the ground below she looked up at the sky and saw that it had gotten brighter and that dawn was about to start. She then saw the young man shooting his way over to her and she felt comfort knowing that if she died today at least she wouldn't be alone.

But the instinct to survive kicked in and she outstretched her hand towards him. He slowly made his way over to her and after what seemed like an eternity grabbed ahold of her hand and pulled her tightly against his chest. "Hold on!" He gripped the rip cord and yanked. The parachute deployed out of the bag and unfurled above them in a big canopy of cloth and rope. Jaune felt his body jerk from the sudden deceleration and tightened his grip on the woman so he wouldn't drop her.

They both slowly started to fall towards the ground and while both of them felt their heart racing from the ordeal they had just been put through, the adrenaline was wearing off, and with that came the realization of how close they were to each other. Weiss was not one for such close contact and started to lightly struggle in his grip. "Hey stop moving I don't want to drop you!"

Upon hearing this, she immediately stopped her struggle and tightened her grip around his chest. "You had better be appreciative, its not every day you get to hold onto an heiress."

A puzzled look crossed his face and he looked down at her. "Y-your an heiress?"

Her facial expression blanched at his question. "Isn't that why you went after me?" He shook his head. "No it wasn't I saw that you were in trouble and that I could help you, that was all."

She studied his face and despite trying her hardest she could only see the honesty in his expression. "Well regardless I thank you for the rescue. You shall be compensated accordingly once word reaches my father of what you've done." He shook his head again. "No that's not necessary, I was just doing what I thought was the right thing to do. And before you answer we're about to land, brace yourself."

Looking down they were indeed only a few dozen feet from landing and the thought of once more being on solid earth made a feeling of excitement pass through her. That feeling was a bit jarred when the two of them impacted the ground more than a little rough. They tumbled a few time before coming to a stop in grassy field. Jaune let go of Weiss and helped her up before stripping himself of the parachute harness and laying it down on the ground.

The buildings around them were dark as most people were still asleep at this time. Still the sound of vehicles approaching them made Jaune tense up as he prepared himself for another fight. That thought died when he saw Blake pulling up in a car. Other vehicles as well pulled up behind her and a crowd of people soon amassed around Weiss as they checked her over for injuries.

Jaune stealthily snuck his way out of the crowd as he had a much more important mission to accomplish now that the young woman was rescued. Stumbling behind a car he gave a quick look around before he felt the contents of his stomach rise up and he started to throw up onto the grass. A few moments later he felt a gentle hand on his back and he looked up to see to his surprise, Blake softly rubbing his back. He appreciated the gesture and was about to thank her when he felt another wave of nausea hit him full force. "I am never going to go flying again for the rest of my life." Blake voice dripped with mirth as she lightly patted him on the back. "I don't think thats what people are expecting from someone who rescued an heiress." He coughed roughly a few times before answering her back. "Don't care its what I'm honestly feeling." A small laugh escaped her lips at his answer and he looked up to reprimand her for laughing at his misfortune only for the words to be caught in his throat when he saw how she looked.

He had seen plenty of sunsets in his lifetime, many of them bathing the landscape in its beautiful golden rays. But seeing her standing in the grassy field with a gentle breeze blowing through her hair, a smile on her face and her eyes dancing with laughter. He couldn't find the will to tear his eyes away from how breathtaking the scene was. She was immeasurably beautiful...

There you have it, end of the chapter! If you think the ending was a bit abrupt...sorry my bad. Anyways please don't forget to read and review, it really helps me a lot with improving the story.