3 Days after Salem's defeat :
Jaune slowly opened his eyes to see a white ceiling and a set of light tubes. His hands were resting on something stiff but soft, like wood with fabric padding, the rest of his was resting on something soft, a chair. His eyes wandered around the room to rest on 2 figures resting on 2 different beds, both of them were wearing hospital gowns. He raised his hand to his face, rubbing up and down in an attempt to wake up more. He let out a sigh. Suddenly, the fog cleared.
Nora took a bad hit from Salem that incapassitated her, and Ren passed out from exhaustion and his wounds after they got the ok that Nora would survive. Jaune could still walk, if just barely, after the battle but he had to use a piece of rubble as a crutch to prop up both him, and Ren as they walked out with Nora unconscious between them, they moved her arms to drape around their shoulders to drag her out.
Jaune looked over their heads to see some machines showing their vital signs. It showed a steady pulse rate for both Ren and Nora. Jaune closed his eyes and leaned his head back onto the chair, listening to the steady beeps from the machines and the sounds of Ren and Nora still breathing. In the corner of the room rested a broken sword and cracked shield. On a nightstand was a pair of 2 bladed pistols, 1 of the blades was completely shattered and the other gun was dismantled. Resting on the wall was a large hammer, it was mostly alright but it would need repairs to work out some dents and to fix some of the mechanisms inside.
A squeak from 1 of the beds made Jaune open his eyes once more. Jaune looked over to see Nora was squirming in her bed, he walked over to her bed to see her face contorting, probably a nightmare. Jaune let out a sad sigh, he lifted Ren and Nora's hands and joined them together, Nora's from stopped moving twitching which was good. Jaune sat at the edge of the bed and studied Nora's face for a bit. Jaune moved some hair out of her face with his right hand, his hand hovered near Nora's chin for a few seconds. Eventually Jaune cupped Nora's face with 1 hand and slowly rubbed his thumb across her cheek with a small frown on his face. Jaune took his hand from Nora's chin and looked over to Ren. Ren looked as stoic as ever, the only thing you could see was Ren's chest rising and falling.
Jaune looked to his left arm, or what was left of it. Jaune took Cinder's life, Salem took most of his arm, at the time it seemed like a fair trade, after the battle surgeons were forced to amputate his arm at the upper part of his bicep to stop the excessive amount of bleeding that happened after his aura ran out. It only stopped him for a day due to his aura and resolve to keep moving. Ironwood had already paid him a visit asking if he would like to have a new arm made, Jaune just asked him to give him some time to think about it.
Jaune got up from Nora's bed and gave her a quick kiss to her temple before turning on a lamp and moving to the door to let them rest. Jaune shut off the light and looked over his shoulder to see the room only illuminated with the lamp, Nora with a smile on her face, and a small smile on Ren's face. Jaune gave them a sad, small, smile, but he knew they wouldn't see it, and stepped out of the room, he pulled a scroll out of his pocket to find a contact, 'General Jimmy', the nickname was something Jaune picked from Qrow but he never told either of them about it, it was more just something Jaune could use to laugh with himself. Jaune tapped the name and raised his scroll to his ear, waiting for the General to pick up.
Ring
Ring
Rin-
A voice came from his scroll, "Hello Jaune, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
Jaune gave a slight chuckle before proceeding, he still found it kinda funny how hard the General was trying to make amends with them after Salem's death, "Hey General, I have some business to attend to in Mistral and thought it would be a good time to ask for that robot arm."
The General let out a contempt sigh, "Of course, glad to hear you're still kicking. Anything specific I should tell my engineers to include?"
Jaune's face adopted a small smirk. "I got a few Ideas that I'll send you, but I still feel as though we should discuss this more in person."
"Of course Jaune, I look forward to your presents."
"Likewise." Jaune hung up and pocketed his scroll once more
Jaune started to walk halls to find the room his sister team was in, he might be leaving but he still felt as though he should see them. Jaune found their room and slowly opened the door. The room was dark, with 2 lamps giving off some soft, warm, light. Inside the room were 4 sleeping girls, Yang and Blake were cuddling on 1 bed and Weiss and Ruby were cuddling on another. Jaune let out a soft sigh before closing the door to let them keep sleeping.
Jaune was discharged from the hospital, with a duffle bag that only contained a new set of clothes and his scroll, and started to walk toward the airport to get a flight to Mistral. Once he boarded a plane he looked out of the window to think about what he was doing.
'We won, Salem is dead… so I just have to do my job now. It's been so long, kinda I forgot I'm a huntsman. How long has it been since Oz told us? I'll need to get new armor since mine was almost completely destroyed… I'll also need to get used to a robot arm... and Coroea Mor beyond repair… and I don't see myself getting any more of that special metal anytime soon… or a new partner…' Jaune let out a stifled chuckle 'I'm Jaune Arc, part of Team RWBY's sister team..., Jaune Arc, the late Pyrrha Nikos' partner…, Jaune arc, former leader of team JNPR…, they'll be fine without me.' Jaune closed his eyes, he wasn't tired but he couldn't do much else.
Jaune woke up in the Mistral airport and sling his duffle bag across his back. He made his way onto the streets, looking for 2 things. It wasn't long until he found the first. Before Jaune was a statue of Pyrrha Nikos, wearing her combat uniform and wielding Miló and Akoúo̱. Jaune stood there for a few minutes, having a silent conversation telling her about everything that has happened. After Jaune was done 'talking' he stood there for an extra minute to figure out where he was before moving to find his second objective, the Nikos residents.
Jaune was traveling on a sidewalk through a quiet, but rich, neighborhood. Jaune stopped at a house that held Pyrrha's insignia. Jaune walked up to the gate and pressed a buzzer to contact the house. He heard some footsteps before the door opened. Before him stood a short woman with blazing red hair, and glowing green eyes..
"Hello, how may I help you?" she said
"Hi, I'm Jaune Arc i-"
Jaune was cut off by the woman grabbing him into her house and hugging him tightly. Jaune was still trying to figure out what was happening when the woman spoke again, "It's you…" her voice was barely above a whisper, Jaune felt something wet on his chest. Before Jaune could ask what she meant she stepped away so Jaune could see her crying, but she had a smile on her face. Jaune panicked at the sight, thinking he did something wrong.
The woman put her hand to her mouth to muffle her laughter. Jaune calmed down slightly. The woman wiped the tears from her face and looked at Jaune, her smile still present. She stuck her hand out for Jaune to shake. "I'm Thea Nikos, Pyrrha has told me a lot about you." Jaune was a bit taken aback, he quickly refocused himself and gave Thea a smile.
They talked for a while, each giving each other new, different, stories about Pyrrha, Thea providing stories from Pyrrha's childhood while Jaune was telling her about Pyrrha's daily Beacon life. After a while Jaune had to leave but he had 1 last thing to give Thea. Jaune reached into his duffle bag and pulled out Pyrrha's tiara. "I kept this with me to remember what I was fighting for, but my mission is over, and I get to start a new chapter of my life. I figured I'd return it back to its home and to give her a chance to rest."
Thea slowly took the tiara as her eyes started to water again, she looked up at Jaune, "Thank you." She said with a tearful smile. Jaune gave her another hug before making his way back in the world. He looked at his scroll to see he spent nearly 3 hours talking, and he had a ton of messages from both RWBY and Ren and Nora. He just ignored them as he made his way to see General Ironwood about new arm.
"What do you mean Jaune's gone!? Coroea Mor is still here!" Ruby woke up and came to see how Ren and Nora were doing. She stepped into the room to see them up with Nora clutching Coroea Mor in her arms. She asked what was wrong when Ren told her that Jaune left.
"I don't know what to tell you, but I can't feel Jaune's aura." Ren said as calm as ever.
Soon the rest of RWBY came into the room to figure out what all the ruckus was about. After hearing that, they were worried, mad, frightened, pissed, and sad. "So he just left… gone." Said Yang with an edge on her voice.
"No," said Nora, "He's just not here right now." they all looked at her, she still had Coroea Mor in her hands and her eyes were red and puffy but she still had her signature slime on her face. Ren also had a smile on his face but they could see a wet glint behind his eyes, but RWBY wasn't going to just take this lying down, they shared a look before nodding to each other, each saying to each other that they would find Jaune, drag him back to Ren and Nora and demand answers, the question was simply where to start looking.
Thank you all so much for reading, and I do hope you enjoyed
Th3TexRex