Authors Note: Make sure to review this chapter when you're finished.

When somebody told you about a failed settlement a lot of images jumped to mind. Mountain Glenn was the very picture of a failed settlement. The damaged buildings, overgrown vegetation and no signs of living life. The very air itself felt heavy, the dreary nature of it affecting them all.

The hardest thing to see, however, were the signs of everyday life. Grocery stores, bikes, signs declaring children at play. It was difficult to stomach.

The group stood there in silence as they all took it in. The trained huntsmen gave them a moment to process it.

Jaune would have thanked them for it, had he been able to speak. It hurt his heart to think of the struggle the people would have gone through towards the end.

After a few moments they began to focus on why they were there. Winter stepped out in front of the group.

"Mountain Glenn." She said. "As you can no doubt see, this is a large area to cover. We will be splitting up into your teams and each team will be given a sector to search."

It was a plan they had come up with on the ride over. It was simple enough, even if the idea of splitting up always went wrong in the movies. He wasn't really sure why she felt the need to restate it though he appreciated how it drew his focus back towards the mission.

Ruby stepped forward slightly, Jaune mimicking the action.

"We're ready!" Ruby whispered, but given the silence she may as well have yelled it.

Jaune offered his own affirmation, a small smile spreading across his face as he felt the courage build up inside him.

"Good" Qrow took a drink from the flask on his hip. "Because that grimm is in your teams sector. Come on Ruby, your team is with me." His courage died a swift death.

The specialist glared at Qrow slightly as he turned and left, team RWBY in tow.

"Our mission is not to exterminate grimm. If at all possible, avoid confrontation." Winter looked among them for a moment, sighing softly as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "You don't have to raise your hand."

Nora slowly lowered her hand. "I think they saw us?" The group turned to see the small pack of grimm running at them. "Yep, they definitely saw us."

Jaune heard Winter mumble under her breath. "Somehow this is his fault."

They stood there in silence for a moment, not really sure what to do. He looked to Winter to see her looking at him. Apparently it had been delegated to him to come up with a plan.

Jaune withdrew his sword, a sound of scraping metal ringing out as he did so. A second later his shield was deployed. The rest of his team followed his lead, pulling out their own weapons, getting into various combat poses.

"Nor-" He didn't have to say more. The energetic girl counter charging the pack of grimm. The beowulf's hesitated as she ran at them. Before her hammer smashed into the side of one of their snouts, sending it flying.

That seemed to do the trick and most of the other beowulfs prepared to attack, one lunging at their teammate.

Pyrrha's shield smashed into its chest before bouncing back at the woman who had thrown it. She caught it with ease, leaping at the target and stabbing her javelin at its head.

Ren followed immediately after, sliding under a strike at his head- the grimm stumbled forward, clearly not having expected to miss its target- just as Ren disengaged and went after another target that was about to attack Nora.

The Beowulf made to pursue but was halted by what it saw as new prey.

Jaune was probably the slowest out of his team, granted it was a little unfair. Ren was a ninja, Pyrrha a champion, and Nora… was Nora.

With that being said he felt somewhat confident in terms of brute strength. He took the beowulf's attack on his shield, sliding back a foot or so before coming to a halt.

Maybe that had just been a result of his tutors. Between Pyrrha and Yang he was kind of forced to bulk up a bit. With a single strike, Jaune cleaved the beowulf's head clean off.

He had to squash the relief he felt as it slowly began to fade away. There were plenty more to fight and celebrating too early would cost him.

He turned towards Pyrrha, noticing a grimm moving at her from the side. She could have handled it of course, that didn't stop him from putting himself in between her and it. Angling his shield slightly so that the attack would slide off somewhat, taking most of the creatures force with it.

It was a trick Yang had taught him, or rather one he had been forced to learn in their spars. It forced his opponent to have an opening, something he could take advantage of.

Jaune aimed for centermass as his sword came down at an angle. The beowulf never knew what happened to it.

It didn't take much time for them to dispatch with the small pack. Pyrrha and Nora having taken most down, not that Jaune would complain. Nora deserved to have her fun after all.

It wasn't until they had finished that he realized their huntress hadn't actually helped. She sat at a distance, merely observing. Honestly it felt a little awkward, he was just thankful he didn't seem to be the subject of her focus.

Pyrrha hadn't seemed to notice yet.

Qrow had told them to split up and search through some of the buildings. Obviously they were supposed to stay within earshot, just in case they stumbled across something. Not that Yang expected to actually find anything.

They hadn't with the last dozen buildings. She knew to stay vigilant, that didn't stop her mind from wandering though. She only wished it would drift towards something else.

This place was... depressing, to say the least. She hadn't found any signs of the White Fang, but she had seen a few things she wish she hadn't.

No bodies, the disaster had been decades ago so thankfully there wasn't anything so direct left. It was the small things that seemed to hit harder though. Things that forced the mind to wonder and imagine what could have happened.

Qrow had made sure to take the darker looking areas, the places that would probably lead to a couple sleepless nights. That still left a lot for the rest of them to find.

Yang let loose a frustrated sigh as the building once again turned out to be abandoned. At this point she just wanted to find the terrorists to help distract her from their surroundings.

Thankfully night was swiftly approaching and they were going to set up camp. It took a little longer than she expected to link up with JNPR but when they did they didn't say anything. The silence was suffocating, even Nora seemed to have been affected by the gloomy atmosphere.

It took an hour or so for them to find a suitable place to sleep. Something that could protect them against grimm, White Fang, and the elements. By that point it was already late and most of them had been looking forward to sleep.

Thankfully Ruby seemed to refuse and let them, instead she had insisted on trying to lighten the mood. At first most of them had only indulged the idea to help her, but it didn't take long for the group to relax some.

Despite what some people may have thought, her sister really was awesome sometimes. Or maybe she was just lucky, either way it helped. It only took a couple jokes for Nora to start helping, her energetic self seeming to infect the rest of them. Even Weiss seemed to have relaxed some.

Weiss' older sister though? not so much. Her and Qrow had pretty much not stopped arguing the whole time. More than one joke about them being an old married couple had been made, only to be killed by the wicked glares from the both of them.

Honestly, that was the best part. They would devolve into bickering a few moments later. They reminded her of Ruby and Weiss at the start of the year, if a little more antagonistic.

It was kinda cute actually, if you ignored the threats of death and violence. The only thing they seemed to agree on was their mutual hatred for each other.

Most of them were sitting around the campfire, though a couple had decided to sit in their sleeping bags. Jaune sat a little farther off though, looking out over the ruins.

It looked kinda… lonely. Yang scoffed, that wouldn't do.

"Hey there vomit-boy." She kept her voice low, trying not to startle him as she approached.

"Hey Yang."

She wasn't really sure what she was going to do. She never had been one for plans. All she knew was that she didn't want him to look so glum.

"You know, you're gonna have to come up with a nickname?" He looked at her with a puzzled look. "I mean, I have one for you."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "So should I relate it to vomit-boy?"

"You could, if you wanted to die." She paused for a moment, sending a glare his way just in case he thought to try it. "You know, all you have to do is ask and I'll stop with the name. I wou-"

"I know, I know." He shook his head slightly. "It doesn't bother me. If anything it's a good reminder of how far I've come."

She stared at him for a moment. "Jaune, we rode the same bullhead here. Trust me, that hasn't come very far." She was able to hold her serious expression for a couple seconds before the two of them collapsed into laughter.

It was nice to see a smile come back to his face, if only for a moment.

His face took a solemn expression a moment later. "What… what did you find? While you were searching the city?"

Yang let loose a heavy sigh. "Pretty much what Qrow said. No sign of the Fang." She paused for a moment, trying to think of something to change the subject to. Maybe it was ignoring a problem but she wanted to forget about where they were, if only for a couple minutes. "I…" She struggled to think of something. "I'm sorry."

Jaunes face contorted in confusion. "What do you have to be sorry for?"

It took her a moment to respond. "For everything I put you through back at Beacon." The thought had weighed on her heart since the dance. Everytime she caught a glimpse of her hair in the corner of her eyes, or when she went to flick it subconsciously. It was a painful reminder of what she had done.

He scoffed. "You didn't do anything to apologise for."

His quick dismissal irritated her. "Didn't do anything? Jaune I befreinded you for a dumb reason, and when I felt like I was in over my head I tried to ignore you." He attempted to interrupt her but she kept going. "I started to have feelings for you and instead of confronting you, I… I ran!" She could feel the frustration and anger coming to the surface. No doubt her eyes had turned red. "I ran without once thinking about how that made you feel! I put myself before you without a second thought and that… you deserve better than that Jaune." She took several deep breaths, attempting to control herself.

"No, I don't." Yang turned to him, only to see him looking the other way. "Yang, I dont deserve better, and even if I did there are few people better than you." She attempted to argue but he went on. "You're a good teammate, an amazing friend, a loving sister, but above all that… you're a good person."

"Jaune I-"

He gestured with a hand. "The people here deserved better Yang." He kept his face turned away. The silence threatened to return, until he sighed. "A guy like me is lucky to have my partner, my team, and my friends… I'm lucky to have you Yang."

It frustrated her to no end that he seemed to think he wasn't good enough for them, for her. "How can you not be mad at me? Are you going to try and tell me it didn't hurt, not even a little?"

Jaune sighed, finally looking at her. "Maybe I should be mad, maybe I have the right too, and maybe I was wronged." He shrugged his shoulders. "That doesn't matter to me though. In the end it all worked out."

At first she thought he was lying, how could he have just gotten over it so easily. How could have not held any of it against her in the slightest. She had betrayed his trust, his friendship.

"For what it's worth." He went on. "I'm glad you took that bet with Blake." A smile came to his face, and to her shock it appeared genuine. "If it wasn't for that we wouldn't have become friends in the first place."

Yang returned his smile. "I figured out what I'm sorry for." Jaune raised one eyebrow in response. "I'm sorry it took a bet to get us to be friends. I never gave you the chance you deserved… and for that, I am sorry."

He looked like he wanted to argue the point but instead settled for it. "Something else good came out of that bet too."

"Oh," A cheeky grin worked its way onto her face "and what would that be?"

A smug smile grew over his face. "You look really good with that haircut."

The grin fell off her face in an instant. "Y-yeah well, don't get used to it." She punched him in the arm and glared, even as her cheeks grew a little red at the compliment. "Blake had to practically tie me to the chair."

"I thought it was your idea?"

Yang felt her cheeks heat up even more. "That didn't make it easier."

The two stayed up for a little while longer. Enjoying eachothers company and helping to stave off the depressing atmosphere of the place.

Between Jaune and the never ending argument her uncle was having, it had actually turned into a somewhat fun night. At the very least it was interesting.

Yang felt lighter, knowing Jaune didn't secretly hate or resent her for her actions before the dance. It was silly really, she should have known. He was kind and forgiving, slow to anger. He was stronger than her in that regard.

She retired shortly after that. Jaune having to stay up on watch. Unfortunately for him, he'd drawn the short stick and the first watch. Tomorrow held the promise of violence and fights, Yang could sleep softly knowing that.

She had the third shift after all, Ruby would wake her up soon enough. She was trying to take advantage of what sleep she could get.

Authors Note: I'm a lot less confident in this chapter. At the very least I wish it could have been better. The dialogue just felt… a little off to me and the descriptions were difficult to come by. Guess we'll see if it can survive the reviewer test.

Also, wanted to make a note about a mess up on the previous chapter, I made a mention that I created a Patr eon. At the time I didn't know the site just deletes that word if you put it there. So my ending note probably looked like insanity.

Patr eon, if y'all wanna donate great, if not, no sweat. Don't forget to review and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Sincerely SE