Authors Note: The script originally called for this chapter and last chapter to be one but it didn't pan out that way, works better this way.

Enjoy

Jaune had finally been right about something, he still hadn't perfected a landing strategy, and this time no spear was sent by a champion class fighter to aid him… life was cruel like that sometimes.

Jaune landed into a poor roll and twisted back onto his feet. It was far from graceful and left his bones feeling like they had been broken but he was standing. It took about half a second for him to realise he was now on ground level with the person who had attacked him. In addition to the already bad situation, several of the bullheads had decided he was worth the ammo to shoot at.

Thankfully his shield stopped most of the projectiles from hitting and those that made it past stopped at his aura. One of the bullheads moved back and was about to fire when something hit its engine and sent it smashing into the warehouse. Jaune looked up to see Ruby taking shots at the other bullheads who were now rethinking going on a direct path to shoot him.

His luck had apparently felt bad for abandoning him.

Jaune's moment of ease was short lived however, as soon as it was clear the bullheads were busy the far more dangerous threat set his sights on Jaune.

Roman Torchwick left the fight with Blake and the other guy to some of the White Fang grunts and made his way over to where Jaune was currently standing. He hoped that the criminal's plan was to just disengage with the two competent combatants and leave via bullhead, it would make sense to cut his losses, that way Jaune wouldn't have to fight him and th-

"Jaune! Don't let him get away!" Or Ruby could force him to fight a criminal way out of his league.

I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it… aw hell, I'm gonna do it.

Jaune put himself firmly in between Roman and one of the bullheads, stopping the crook from retreating. He spent a moment to look the man over more thoroughly. He used a cane that also functioned as a gun of some kind, but other than that he didn't seem to have any other weapons. Jaune had the advantage both in weapon and armour.

Surely that would be enough, right?

Jaune learned quickly that he was wrong once again. The flamboyant man had hooked his cane around the corner of his shield and almost ripped it out of his hands in one move. It took everything Jaune had to not let go, and it quickly became clear that not letting go was probably a mistake.

Jaune was pulled forward, directly into his opponents waiting fist. The gut punch left him lost for air and unprepared for the follow-up wack with the man's cane, sending him hurtling past to the ground.

He had enough common sense to twist over and throw himself back onto his feet to ward off the next attack, but none came. Instead, Torchwick kept walking. For a moment Jaune thought about letting him, in a few short seconds the guy had completely thrown him around. Jaune steaded his shield and rushed back after the man.

The crook seemed to hear him and let loose a heavy sigh before turning to face him. "I have places to be, kid. Could you just hurt yourself or something?" Torchwick dodged Jaunes thrust with his sword and sighed again. "Guess that's a no."

He brought his cane up and hit the underside of Jaune's chin causing him to stagger. He flicked his cane around in his hand to get a better hold on it and smashed it into the side of Jaune's arm.

Jaune's arm ached as he tried to hold onto the blade. The follow up attack struck the same spot, as did the next one. Jaune turned to put his shield up and block any follow-up attacks, but in doing so lost sight of his opponent.

Crocea Mors arched over his shield and down with as much force as Jaune could manage, only to miss the criminal entirely. This time when the cane came down it hit Jaune's wrist and he was unable to keep a grip on his weapon. The blade had barely left his hands before Jaune was being pushed back away from it.

The criminal's hits hurt more than almost anything Jaune could imagine. The sheer force behind them was far more overwhelming than most spars, but not all of them. The next strike that came hit Jaune in the shoulder, he rolled his arm back to redirect the energy, something his opponent didn't seem prepared for, before stepping forward and charging him with his shield.

The second Jaune made contact and had lifted his opponent off his feet, Jaune forced his shield to the side throwing Torchwick to the ground.

It was at this moment Jaune was faced with the deadliest opponent he had ever faced; choice. He could either go back to his sword and retrive it or he could press his advantage against the now on the ground criminal.

Jaune turned to go after his weapon and got about two steps away before something hooked around his ankle and pulled it back, causing him to fall face first onto the hard ground. He flailed his arms in an attempt to catch himself but only succeeded in losing grip on his shield as it too went sliding away from him. The air was forced from his lungs as he finally impacted the ground.

Jaune stayed on the ground a moment attempting to catch his breath before being violently turned over, both of his arms being throw out to his sides, before taking an immediate punch to the side of his face, followed by another and another. Jaune brought his own fist up and strike his attacker in the underside of his chin, almost succeeding in knocking the man off, before the limb was batted away and the punches resumed.

He again tried to force his opponent off of him, succeeding in part before something struck the criminal from the side throwing him off and giving Jaune a moment to breath. A hand came down and pulled Jaune to his feet.

Blake stood by watching Torchwick while the blonde man, Jaune didn't know his name, was the one to help him. It was at this moment he realized that the three of them were standing between the criminal and his escape vehicle, the bullhead behind them.

"You good to move?" Jaune stood up a little straighter and nodded. "Name's Sun by the way." Sun offered Jaune a hand before remembering where they were and turning his attention back to the criminal.

"No no, don't stop on my account. By all means." The criminal stood a little taller and dusted some dirt off of his coat before nodding in their direction. "This has been fun and all but I believe it's time for me to be off."

Another bullhead came in from the side and began firing on them. Sadly Jaune still hadn't retrieved his shield and so was left with little other choice except to run for cover. The guy who had helped him up did so as well but Blake seemed to have far more difficulty making the choice, in the end she followed them behind one of the containers.

The bullhead wasn't able to stay long before some kind of energy beam went through one of its engines, but the damage had already been done. Torchwick made it to the bullhead and the three on ground level watched helplessly as it slipped out over the ocean.

They had failed.

The police had come mere moments after Roman had escaped and helped round up the remaining terrorists. They had also been on the verge of arresting everyone else, until they found out they were from Beacon.

In the end Jaune, Blake, Ruby, and Sun had been given a light reprimanding about calling the police next time and not burning down a part of the docks. None of the police looked liked they believe them when they said they'd keep that in mind. The officers left them to go deal with terrorists instead, apparently finding them to be of more sane company. Jaune couldn't blame them.

Penny and Nora had apparently shown up towards the end of the fight and helped Ruby take down the bullheads. Yang and Weiss had trickled in a few minutes later.

Everyone present was on edge as Blake and Weiss approached one another. Ruby had attempted to intervene and talk to Weiss before an argument could break out but was ignored.

The two huntresses stared at each other for a moment before Blake finally spoke. "Weiss, I want you to know that I am no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was wi-"

"Stop," Weiss interrupted her teammates explanation and paused for a moment. "Do you know how worried you made Ruby? Or your partner for that matter?"

The question seemed to catch everyone off guard, not just Blake.

The question was apparently rhetorical and Weiss was quick to continue. "Of course not, you didn't think about them when you decided to run, did you? We spent twelve hours in this damned city looking for you. Twelve hours!" Weiss took a second to calm down and lower her voice. "In that twelve hours I've come to a realization" She paused, putting practically everyone on edge as she waited to finish her sentence. Jaune noticed Ruby look to her sister for some sign or clue, but apparently even Yang was lost. "I don't care."

"Boo, what a tease." Nora once again went ignored as the rest of the group focused on the discussion between an ex terrorist and the heir to the SDC, which was a slightly more entertaining display. Only slightly.

"You don't care?" Once again, Blake seemed entirely caught off guard and unprepared for the simple answer.

"You said you weren't a part of them anymore, right?" This time, the question did not seem to be rhetorical.

"No. No, I haven't been sin-"

"I don't wanna hear it." Weiss was quick to shut her down, again. "All I want to know, is that next time something like this happens you don't leave your team to worry. Trust your team enough to come to us about something like this and not some… someone else."

Blake wiped at her eyes discreetly. "Of course."

There was a moment of pause as the tension dissipated.

"Yes! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby began celebrating immediately, Nora joined in as soon as the mood shifted.

The conversation moved on to a lighter tone after that. Tales of battle and heroism were shared, mostly by Nora and Ruby, and the nights events recounted.

"Me and Jaune..." Yang, along with everyone else, ignored Weiss' grammar correction and focused on the story. "were looking around the city for Blake when the first explosion went off. We pretty much immediately knew that was where Blake was" Yang ignored the squawk from her partner at the comment. "and so we ran here as fast as we could. When we arrived, what do we see?…" Ruby paused for dramatic effect, something Yang thought largely ineffective given everybody knew the outcome. "Roman Torchwick standing over Sun, about to fire a shot!"

The group gasped in awe while the man in question blushed in embarrassment.

Ruby resumed as if the interruption never happened. "I had to act fast, so I grabbed the criminal's attention-"

"By literally yelling a greeting instead of firing a shot or something." Ruby blushed as Jaune said that part, a tidbit Yang planned to take Ruby to task for later after they had time to party a little.

A blushing Ruby attempted to pick the story back up. "I looked back to Jaune for a moment and Roman fired a dust round directly at us." Yang logged that one away as well, Ruby would be better than that, or else. "Jaune saved me by pushing me to the side and taking the shot on his shield!"

It was the blonde knights turn to blush. "Well I-um"

"Torchwick fired another shot and brought Jaune down to the ground level after that. I didn't see much of their fight, I was too busy trying to take out the bullheads." Ruby shrugged softly as if her own job had been any less impressive. "From what I saw though, he did really good!"

"I didn't really do that much." Jaune rubbed a hand against the back of his head. "Torchwick was trying to get past me, he didn't even see me as a threat really. He only focused on me because I was between him and his getaway vehicle." He chuckled nervously.

"You still did great Jaune." This time it was Yang to give him praise. "You helped Ruby and even fought off a renowned criminal! Be proud!" She socked him in the arm softy.

"It really wasn't anything. I could barely hold my weapon for half of it." Yang hated it when he talked so negative about himself. One of the first things she had tried to teach him was confidence in his abilities. "A better fighter probably would have been able to stop him. I was pretty much useless."

"Torchwick fought off Blake and Sun at the same time. You did good!." Jaune smiled indulgently at Ruby but it was clear he didn't believe her words.

That negative outlook would never do. Yang grabbed him by the arm and turned him to the side, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. Jaune froze, his cheeks warming up to a bright red the same shade as Ruby's cape. As did the rest of their group.

"You're not useless. You fought off the big bad crime boss and helped save the damsel in distress, sounds like a badass to me." She let go of him and took a few steps forward into the, now stopped, crowd of hunters in training. "Don't read into it Vomit Boy."

Authors note: Is it clear what ship this story is yet?

O.M.G THEY KISSED! ARE THEY GETTING MARRIED YET?! ITS OFFICIAL THEY"RE GONNA F- I'll stop you right there. Nothing is official and there is a lot more to romance than a kiss, keep in mind how Yang felt when delivering the kiss as well as her reasoning why. I ask you to be patient and not think I ruined the pacing.

I hope you enjoyed

Sincerely SE