Jaune plodded through the forest slowly, taking care not to aggravate the injuries he got from the damned foxes. He'd bandaged himself with the last of his medical supplies, taking some of his last pain pills. He'd been tempted to take more than the recommended dosage, but he couldn't risk it fogging his mind too much, so he was still in quite a bit of pain.

He reached the top of a cliff and paused to look out over the forest, seeing the vast expanse of trees crisscrossed with streams and rivers he still had to get through. He sighed, exhausted just by the thought of it, and made his way over to a large stone to take a seat and rest. As he sat down with a groan he began focusing on cheering himself up by thinking about what he'd do once he got out of the Deathlands.

Once he made it out he'd have an uncountable amount of cred due to being one of the only people to survive the deathtrap, and most definitely the one to survive the longest time in the deepest areas of it. Professor Port would especially be interested in hearing of his encounters with the more exotic varieties of Grimm. Something told him the thrice accursed foxes, at the least, weren't very common.

Getting out would definitely shut the mouths of everybody at Beacon that had doubted him, especially Cardin. Hell, with the rep he would get, he might even be able to get a date!

Jaune let his head fall back, closing his eyes with a grin as he imagined an adoring crowd, girls swooning and guys cheering him on, his friends standing proudly with him, no longer feeling burdened by having to carry him.

It was a nice image.

His eyes snapped open as he kept from moving a muscle. He could feel it. Something was watching him, its malevolent gaze hitting him like a blast of ice launched from Myrtenaster. Slowly, carefully, Jaune reached over his shoulder and grabbed his bow, unslinging it with slow, unhurried movements. Then he drew an arrow from his quiver, holding it ready to draw. He took a deep, shuddering breath before letting it out. Then he moved.

Jaune jumped to his feet from on top of the rock, pulling his bowstring back even as he whirled around, letting his arrow loose with the ease of many hours of combat experience, the missile flying straight and true… to impact harmlessly against the bone plating of a massive Grimm.

Jaune froze when he caught sight of what he was facing, paling as he recognized it. It had only been a brief glimpse in the moonlight on his first day in the Deathlands, but it was hard to forget the enormous Grimm centipede that had skittered passed the tree he had been hiding in.

The thing was just as large as he could remember it being, but now that he could see it clearly he could tell it was very heavily armored, white bone plate covering almost every inch of its back. Intricate glowing red patterns snaked around every inch of bone, including the long, sharp blades that made up its legs, making them look like they'd been splashed with luminescent blood. Many red eyes rested above a mouth full of razor sharp fangs, bladed mandibles at either side. It was, essentially, a long, armored, bladed tank.

"Well… fuck." Jaune muttered.

The monster gazed at him hungrily, mandibles clicking as it reared back, ready to attack. Jaune looked around for any place to run, finding just trees to the sides and the cliff behind him. Glancing down he saw it wasn't very high, but definitely higher than he felt comfortable jumping from. Then the Grimm struck, shooting forward with surprising speed. Jaune, having expected the attack, managed to jump to the side even as the stone he'd been standing on shattered from the impact of the huge insectoid, rocks flying everywhere from the force.

Jaune began to run like hell as the centipede shook its head and turned to him with a screech, quickly moving to follow, its many bladed legs stabbing into the ground, tearing it up. The knight glanced behind him, seeing the thing catching up, and managed to get that much more speed out of weary legs. Spotting a ledge halfway down the cliff, he quickly made his way above it before leaping down just as one of the monstrosities' legs swiped the air where his head had just been.

Landing with a thud Jaune didn't give his now aching knees any time to give more than a token protest before jumping again, landing on the forest floor in a roll to minimize the impact, something he'd sadly been unable to do before due to the size of the ledge, meaning his knees weren't happy with him. Turning to look behind him to see what the centipede was doing his eyes almost bugged out as he saw the thing begin making its way down the cliff easily, its legs stabbing into the rock and allowing it to climb down without any issues.

"Oh, come on!" The blonde shouted in frustration. He drew an arrow and fired in a single motion, the projectile managing to bury itself among the monster's many eyes, making it screech in fury. Seeing he hadn't done much beyond piss it off, he quickly turned and began running again, trying to get away rather than get stuck fighting a battle he knew he couldn't win.

Team RWBY was wandering the streets of Vale, trying to find something to do to keep their minds off things. It had been three days since they'd been told the search for Jaune had been called off. They had tried training for the Vytal Festival, but none of them could concentrate, and Ruby had made the decision to put that off rather than risk any of them getting seriously hurt due to inattention or fatigue.

She was seriously considering pulling them out entirely. They simply weren't in any shape to fight. Not physically, and most definitely not mentally.

"How about a movie?" She asked.

Yang and Blake shrugged, but Weiss simply stared straight ahead, not appearing to have heard her.

Ruby bit her lip. She was really trying to keep them all from breaking down further, no matter how much she personally wanted to just lay down and cry. It was her responsibility as leader. She wasn't sure that an outing was the best option, but it had to be better than just moping around the dorm. "Um, what would you like to see? I think there's a new comedy out. Something about a really weird kids camp?"

They stopped in front of the theatre and began looking at the show times, trying to decide what they were going to watch. "Alright, so, four for the camp comedy, then." When Yang nodded with a small smile and Blake shrugged Ruby continued when she didn't hear anything from their fourth member. "Sound good, Weiss?" She asked. There was a thud behind her. "Weiss…?" She asked hesitantly as she turned around, only to find Weiss passed out on the street, looking paler than usual. "WEISS!" She shrieked as she rushed over to her partner, Blake and Yang right behind her.

"Shit." Yang hissed as Blake pulled out her scroll, beginning to call an ambulance. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Ruby whimpered. "Weiss, Weiss, wake up! Please, Weiss…"

Blake pulled the scroll away from her ear. "Ambulance is on its way." She looked at Weiss before speaking to both the operator and her teammates. "I think it's exhaustion and malnutrition. She hasn't been eating or sleeping right due to depression."

Ruby whimpered. "This is all my fault…"

Yang wrapped an arm around her sister. "No it isn't, Ruby."

"Yes it is!" Ruby exclaimed as tears travelled down her cheeks. "I knew Weiss wasn't okay, but I just let it go because I was too busy wallowing. I should have told one of the teachers or something."

"We all saw it, Ruby." Blake said softly, scroll still in hand, call still ongoing. "If you're to blame, then we are too."

Yang gave the red reaper a gentle squeeze. "Weiss-cream will be fine, Rubes. We'll help her get over this…"

Ruby simply buried her face in her sister's shoulder and cried, having trouble dealing with yet another bad thing happening in an entire month of horrible events.

Jaune sat down on a tree stump as he tried to keep from nodding off. He was utterly exhausted and having trouble keeping his eyes open.

The centipede had been stalking him non-stop for days. It popped up at the most inopportune moments, attacking whenever it could. He'd woken up once with it feet from him, losing part of his pant leg to its jaws as he tried to get away. He'd tried killing it, including setting traps like making a large boulder fall on it. Unfortunately it was devilishly fast, and craftier than it seemed, not to mention tough thanks to all its armor. One of the only reasons he was still alive was the fact that he seemed to finally be discovering his semblance.

He wasn't an idiot. He'd noticed that when he'd infused his aura into his armor or shield it pushed Grimm back violently. If he had armor that covered him a bit more fully he might not have so many issues with injuries, assuming he could infuse his armor with aura reliably. He still failed at doing so in any consistent manner.

Infusing his weapons had more interesting effects. Infusing his sword made it cut more easily, as though the aura was adding to its sharpness. It made dealing with the tougher Grimm easier, as it got through their durability. It wasn't like Grimm other than the centipede had stopped attacking him just because it was following him like he once had Weiss, after all. If anything the constant stress had made it worse.

And he'd only tried imbuing his arrows once. The result had been satisfying, the arrow exploding violently once it had penetrated, but the arrow had been destroyed, which meant he would run out of ammo if he continuing using it with no way to resupply. That was something he was unwilling to risk. He was running low as it was.

He reached into his bag and pulled out some smoked meat from a rabbit he'd managed to catch recently. Tearing into it hungrily he did his best to keep his energy up despite wanting to get some sleep. He might be able to sleep for a few hours before the damn centipede interrupted him again, but he wanted to make as much progress as he could while there was daylight. The sooner he made it out, the better.

Jaune cracked his neck before quickly leaping forwards from his sitting position, managing to just barely keep from getting slashed to ribbons as his personal stalker appeared again, chittering angrily as its prey escaped it once more.

"Tch, now I know how Pyrrha feels." Jaune grunted with a scowl, too tired and irritated to bother being afraid anymore. "Would you just leave me alone, you asshole!?" He shouted, the Grimm's growl pissing him off further.

The monster shrieked and launched itself at him, its many blades tearing up the ground as it made its way with the intent to devour the blonde knight.

Jaune once again jumped away with an aura enhanced leap, unslinging his bow and drawing an arrow as he did so, taking aim at his enemy, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

The Grimm quickly turned to follow him, and Jaune fired. Unfortunately, the arrow bounced off the armored mask protecting its head. It let out another screech as the arrow hit the ground, slashing down at it, breaking it in two.

"Oh come on!" Jaune shouted, pissed off even more now. "I don't have many of those left!" Then he turned and ran, getting behind a tree just as the centipede slammed into it with a crunch, making the thick trunk splinter and lean over at an angle. As the monstrosity started spitting wood out of its mouth Jaune came around with Crocea Mors drawn, slashing non-stop at the unarmored underside of the thing's head, the blade glowing white as he forced as much aura through it as he could.

The monster screeched in pain as painful wounds opened up in its black flesh, and it suddenly swiped at Jaune's side, sending him flying with a cry, his aura beginning to get low. He shakily pushed himself up, coughing from the force of the impact against the ground. Quickly picking up his sword he once again grabbed his bow and drew an arrow. He focused his will, trying to imbue it with his aura, praying it would work this time. When the arrowhead began to glow white Jaune smiled, took aim, and let it fly.

The shot did exactly what he needed it to, hitting the centipede right in one of the wounds he'd inflicted with Crocea Mors. It then exploded with tremendous force, ripping the thing's jaw clean off. It screeched in absolute agony, thrashing around in rage and pain. Jaune didn't waste any more time and ran away, doing his best to get as far as he could before it came after him again. He'd wounded it, yes, quite a bit, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he'd be able to kill it when it was pissed off like that.

With any luck, it would think twice about following him any further. He wasn't holding his breath, though.

Weiss groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. The constant exhaustion that had kept her company for weeks now threatened to drag her eyes back shut, but she managed to fight it back to fully open them, the light stabbing straight to her brain, making her groan and bring a hand up to shield her eyes.

"I'm glad to see that you've finally woken up, Weiss. This is not the state I wanted to see you in when I arrived." A familiar voice said, making Weiss jerk in surprise, her head turning to the person seated by her bed.

"W-Winter?" Weiss stuttered.

Winter Schnee leaned forward, a rare, gentle smile on her face. She was, as always, immaculately dressed in her Atlesian Specialist uniform, her silver hair up in an elegant yet functional bun, a long lock of hair along the side of her face. "Hello Weiss. I got here as soon as I could when General Ironwood told me that you needed some support and gave me leave to help you."

Weiss couldn't help it, feeling tears gather in her eyes at the sight of her beloved sister. She did her best to hold them back. "I-I'm glad to see you, sister."

"I wish it could be under better circumstances." She took Weiss' hand, surprisingly gentle considering her normally strict persona. "You haven't been taking care of yourself, Weiss. I thought you knew better."

Weiss flinched and looked away. "I… It's just…"

"Do you think Jaune Arc would want you to kill yourself like this after he gave his life for you?" Winter asked softly, her face making it clear she was well aware of how low a blow that was.

Weiss flinched again, whimpering slightly. "B-but… It's my fault, Winter. He was a doofus, but he deserved better than dying scared and alone in the middle of a place like that… He shouldn't have died… Not for me…"

Winter sighed before getting up and moving to sit beside her sister, wrapping her arms around the younger girl, who promptly began to sob. She remembered when they were children, back before such displays had been figuratively beaten out of them. They'd both learned early on to never look to their parents for comfort, and had instead looked after each other. Stormy nights after a nightmare, Weiss had clutched onto Winter for comfort and the scant love she didn't get anywhere else. She needed to remember back to those times, because her current attitude and demeanor wouldn't do much to help her sister.

"Weiss, people rarely reach the ending they deserve, especially in our profession. I have seen many others go through what you have, and I have lost comrades as well." She moved back and wiped her sister's cheeks. "I've spoken with your friends about Mister Arc. From everything they told me, dying to save a friend is precisely the end a man like that would want."

"He still died for me, Winter…" Weiss said hoarsely.

"Yes he did. Which is why you must now live on in his honor. Prove yourself worthy of that sacrifice. You have a responsibility now, Weiss, to make sure that death was not in vain. And I never thought you to be the type to shirk your responsibilities." Winter finished softly, her experience as a military woman shining through.

Weiss was silent, looking down at the sheets, eyes in turmoil. Finally, she let out a long sigh. "…I will, Winter. It's the least I can do."

Winter smiled lightly. "Good." She wrapped an arm back around her sister and simply held her for a few seconds before continuing. "Mister Arc's family arrived earlier today." She felt Weiss tense up again. "I spoke with them briefly. They want to meet you."

"I… I…" Weiss hesitates, unable to speak.

"The memorial service will be tomorrow." When Weiss looked up in surprise Winter continued. "You've been unconscious for a while now. Still, they want to meet you and your friends afterwards. So you should rest and recover so you can be at your best when you do so."

Weiss looked panicked for a time, breathing heavily at the thought of confronting Jaune's family, but she managed to get herself under control. "O-Ok..."

Winter let her sister go and sat back up. "Get some rest, Weiss. I'll let your team know you're alright. You frightened them quite a bit."

Weiss wanted to protest, but she could already feel her eyes getting heavy. "Alright…" She said as she began drifting off.

The elder Schnee sighed as she watched her sister fall back asleep, hoping that she would be able to overcome this trial and emerge stronger from it.

The sun was making its way down the sky when Jaune emerged from the tree line to an area almost entirely clear of trees around a raging river. Said river was nearly twenty yards wide, full of rocks and water that was moving far too rapidly to cross. He could hear the sound of a waterfall somewhere nearby. However, none of that held Jaune's attention.

Above the trees, on the other side of the river, he could see smoke rising to the sky. It wasn't the smoke of an uncontrolled fire, as far as he could tell, but rather the kind of smoke often seen leaving chimneys. And not just a single chimney, but multiple ones.

Jaune smiled widely before he began laughing, throwing his fists in the air. "Finally!" He cried out between almost mad cackles. "I'm finally almost out of here!" With a grin on his face he made his way to the river to look for a way across.

The water, as noted before, was too fast and strong for him to make his way across that way, especially with his gear weighing him down. The stones were spaced too widely apart, and he didn't trust himself to not slip on the wet stone if he tried jumping anyway. And he didn't think he'd be able to jump all the way to the other side in one leap, even with aura. That meant he had to find or make a way across.

He began walking up along the stream, hoping to find an area with a denser concentration of rocks for him to walk across. It took a while of searching, but after several minutes he found an almost clichéd fallen log, the dead tree forming a bridge over the rushing water. "Heh, looks like Lady Luck finally decided to give me a smile."

Of course, he should have known better than to tempt fate, because he immediately afterward heard a crash behind him. He whirled around before letting out a loud curse as he saw his stalker had returned. "Dammit all, why can't you just be satisfied with a missing jaw, you fucking asshole!?"

The centipede screeched from said missing jaw and quickly began making its way towards him. Jaune quickly unslung his bow and loosed a couple of arrows, trying to hit the Grimm in its now unprotected mouth. His opponent wasn't stupid, however, and quickly moved so its mask protected its vulnerabilities. The huntsman moved away as the monster once again tried a bashing attack, but was caught by surprise when its armored tail suddenly came around and slammed into his stomach, launching him away and almost dropping him into the water.

Jaune got up with a groan and immediately drew an arrow. As the beast skittered towards him He infused the arrow with his aura and took aim. The beast screeched, recognizing what he was doing as the act that had taken its jaw, and rather than continue charging headlong it abruptly stopped moving, turning its body to use the momentum to try to slam into him with its tail again. Caught by surprise Jaune let the arrow loose. It hit the tail, blowing out a chunk of bone armor, but the attack was only slowed slightly. He quickly put up his bow to defend, and the tail hit with a crack, breaking his trusty weapon into pieces and once again launching him back.

Jaune managed to get up woozily before looking down at the two pieces of his bow he still had, both still attached by the string. Looking up at the Grimm, which was readying itself to attack again, he promptly turned and ran for the log, hoping that crossing the river would keep the monster from reaching him.

He jumped onto the log and began making his way across as quickly as he could without falling. Unfortunately, the Grimm saw its prey trying to escape and acted swiftly to keep that from occurring. Stabbing its front legs into the ground to anchor itself, it once again swung its tail at him. Jaune saw it coming and managed to keep from getting hit, but the same couldn't be said about his bridge. The wood immediately shattered, the remains of the log falling into the water and taking Jaune with them, the knight immediately being dragged along by the current.

The blonde did his best to keep his head above water, the river deeper than he'd thought, and he tried to grab hold of the rocks to stop himself, only succeeding in injuring himself. That's when he noticed the waterfall.

If he hadn't been so focused on continuing to breathe the huntsman would have screamed in sheer, unadulterated frustration. It was like a bad movie, except it was happening to him! The universe was having a laugh at his expense.

Wet, close to drowning, hope ripped from his hands once again, and about to die, he could only do one thing as he watched the monster that had tormented him for nearly a week and apparently finally killed him recede into the distance, watching him with its many red eyes.

"FUUUUUUUUCK YOOOO-" He began, before a brief weightlessness took hold as he finally reached the waterfall. Then, a long, long descent.

I AM HERE!

Hey all. No, your eyes do not deceive you, I updated this story yet again. Why? You can thank the Patron vote for that. Ask, and ye shall receive.

So… Jaune's luck kinda sucks, doesn't it? I mean, he was soooo close, and then… *snap fingers*

I know many people wanted him to attend his own funeral like a badass, but that was never the plan. I've known how he would be making his triumphant return to civilization since the beginning. It won't be too much longer, though. Don't worry.

Besides, he hasn't discovered the secrets of the Deathlands yes. As I've stated before, I've always intended for there to be something special about the place, and the new lore revealed in the latest RWBY eps has made my job that much easier, as they've given me something to work with. I hope you all end up liking what I have in mind. We'll be seeing it in the next chapter.

I think that's all for now. Please leave me a review if you enjoyed it. And if you want to see more of this, you get a vote if you donate to Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. Hope to see you there.

Till next time.