Weird, I was originally thinking this chapter was going to end up shorter, but it didn't. Oh well! I hope you guys enjoy. Here's a little look at Ruby post June's disappearance.

Hellsider: Updated version! The original version was much more of an asshole, this one is going to be more heroic.

PersonaNinja Lux: Updated version!

Argus456: That would be fun! But that will wait for a while when Jaune gets his version of Geryon of DMC 5.

Akkifslashernero: It's not but thanks for showing me a new thing to read! I may have it appear in the theater.

MM Browsing: Thanks for the support! You'll find out some of them later.

Hirshja: Well the idea of what I did is coming from an RP I had with someone that concerned RWBY. It's going to be weird haha.

Roy Ken Ligarda Salazar: My Spanish isn't great but "Muchos Gracias!"

Disclaimer: I do now own RWBY.


Silver eyes open as their owner wakes up. The rays of the sun hitting her face. Ruby Rose, age fifteen, awakened with a smile on her face. Or should have if she wasn't so stressed.

Groaning, she rolled out of bed placing her bare feet into a pair of slippers that had the Pumpkin Pete's Bunny as the design. It clashes against her Beowulf pajama pants but she didn't care. They were comfortable and they were a gift from Jaune.

It was the simple comforts that the huntress-in-training could only take comfort in recently.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Ruby looked at the clock and saw it was 9 o'clock. Thankfully it was Saturday, so she wasn't going to get reprimanded by her partner Weiss. For the past three months, she hasn't done that, thankfully, since Ruby was doing better in class.

After doing so, Ruby looked around her dorm room. Yang's bed was messy. This means her sister probably hanging out with her friends from Beacon or training on her own. Blake's bed was neatly done. That meant her quiet teammate was out there either in the library or the bookstore. And of course, Weiss was missing as well, probably at breakfast or studying.

Grabbing her clothes from her drawer, Ruby went and took a quick shower. "It's Saturday but I have nothing to do," Ruby sighed underneath the water. "I finished all my homework already. Maybe I should ask the rest of the team if they want to hang out?"

That made her grin, hanging out with her friends. Brothers, ever since the start of the semester she didn't get to have much fun, but maybe Weiss will allow it this time. Drying herself off, Ruby put on her regular clothes, not forgetting to put on her cape, and went out to start her day.

As she exited the room, she paused and looked at the room for what remained of JNPR. Only Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha were left. Ozpin, cowed by the Council of Vale, was forced to keep the team on. Namely, after their debacle of Jaune Arc, they did not want to lose Pyrrha Nikos back to her home kingdom.

"That didn't matter though," Ruby frowned. "She's all too wrapped in up Cardin to even care what's happening around her." The huntress-in-training used to want to be Pyrrha's friend, but ever since three months ago or prior, the champion from Mistral was suddenly in love with the former bully.

It seemed out of nowhere but there didn't seem to be too out of place. After all, Goodwitch had asked her to tutor the bully on something but that was it. Ruby still felt that something was off. "Even if mom and dad were in love with each other, they weren't that bad," Ruby sighed. Maybe Cardin did something to her during that time?

Shaking her head, Ruby went back on track to the cafeteria. As she arrived, she got her plate of pancakes with strawberries on top, strawberry syrup, and a glass of milk. Scanning the room she frowned at what she saw.

Yang was hanging out with a team composed of all her friends from Signal. She was at a different table from where Ruby usually sat. Then there was Weiss who was at another table studying all on her own. Blake was in a corner with a book, also at a different table.

"How did it turn out like this?" Ruby asked herself. She went to walk over to sit next to Weiss but stopped. Did she want to go there? To sit and talk more about school when it was the weekend? Then there was sitting with Blake who, after Jaune's expulsion, was far quieter and kept to herself more. And Yang was not an option because that would just have her friends ignore her like they usually do.

As she was about to give up hope an arm slung around her shoulder. "Ruby!" Nora greeted her with a smile. "You got pancakes today?"

"I would have gotten waffles but they didn't have any," she replied. That and Ruby usually ate waffles with Jaune. Just thinking about eating them while he wasn't around made her stomach hurt. She then looked around. "Where's Ren?"

Now it was Nora who frowned this time. "He said he was going to meditate...again," the usually enthusiastic bomber replied.

"Are you still angry at him?" Ruby asked. Nora nodded.

"I am. He used his Semblance on me!" The two sat down at a table. "How can I not be angry at him and Pyrrha when they wouldn't let me vent!" The orange-haired girl grumbled as she ate her food. "You know the feeling right?"

Ruby took a moment before she nodded. "Yeah," the young leader sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, Nora was right. Ruby gripped her utensils in her anger. Two months after Jaune had left she felt so angry at herself.

-Flashback-

Ruby paced around in her room. She didn't know what to do. When she had said she wanted to impress Weiss, and the white-haired girl agreed, Ruby was ecstatic. Not only would Weiss help her study more, her partner was proud of her for taking the initiative.

Everything was going great!

That was until Jaune's transcripts came out to the limelight. Everyone was pushing him away after finding out his transcripts were fake. Then there was the second blow to his reputation. Pyrrha, the girl Jaune had confessed his feelings to, had all but said she didn't love him at all. Pronouncing her love for Cardin in front of the school.

Ruby was about to go to meet up with him when Weiss had stopped her.

"Ruby," Weiss had said holding her shoulder. "I know you're friends with him but you want to be a good Huntress right?"

"Y-Yeah Weiss," she stuttered. Ruby was looking at her partner in confusion.

"And you want to live up to your mother's legacy, right?" Weiss continued. Ruby nodded her head again.

"Weiss, what are you trying to say?" The younger girl was starting to get worried.

"Then you must know that being a Huntress you must know that you have to keep appearances. And that includes who you associate with," Weiss said. Ruby frowned as her eyes furrowed. "What I mean to say is, Arc would put a bad mark on our name if you keep being his friend. So it would be in your best interest to stay away from him."

"What why!?" Ruby asked. Why would she have to move away from her friend?

"It's for the best," Weiss replied. "Not only has he faked getting into the school, but people on his team are abandoning him. It's best if we just avoid him, especially you since you are our leader."

Weiss put her other hand on Ruby's shoulder. "If you want to show me that you are willing to do this, show me. Stop associating with Arc." After finishing her small speech, Weiss walked off leaving Ruby with her dilemma.

So here she was now. Pacing in her room, Ruby was at a crossway. Did she want to follow her partner's advice and stop speaking to Jaune? Or did she go with what she thought was right and kept speaking to him?

Ruby felt at ends, not knowing what to do. Her head hurt as did her heart. "Why does everything need to be so complicated!" Ruby bemoaned herself. What did she want? What did she want to do?

In the end, Ruby came to a decision. Taking a deep breath, she went out of the door and toward her friends' room and knocked on the door. "Jaune, it's me," Ruby said. The door opened to show a red-eyed Jaune, making Ruby come to almost reconsider.

"Hey, Ruby," he greeted with a sad smile. "Did you need something?"

Ruby flinched upon seeing that. This was about making hard decisions as a Huntress. She had to keep going. "Jaune. After what has been revealed, I think it's best if we stop talking." Jaune was confused as he stared at her.

"What?"

"I mean what I say Jaune," she glared at him, even if she knew this was not what she should be doing. "Stop talking to me."

With that, she didn't wait for him to respond before she went back into her dorm and closed the door. Immediately she went to the bathroom and began to throw up, hoping her decision was right.

-Flashback end-

Well. it was right for the first month or so. Her grades went up, she was able to speak to Weiss even more, and she was sure that she was making her mom proud!

Then at the end of the month, both RWBY and JNPR (Ozpin let the name stay to make it easier for naming conventions) had been in Jaune Arc never made it home. He was on one of three Bullheads that had gone missing. A coordinated hijacking by someone had the vehicles without a trace.

Ever since then, Ruby's stomach had always hurt at the thought of Jaune. Of course, everyone was shocked. Pyrrha doubly so, since that was the same ride that her sister was on. However, they had all moved on so easily.

Yang didn't care much for Jaune even before his transcript mess. He was just Ruby's odd friend. So that lets Yang go pursue other friends. Blake seemed to take the information oddly, folding into herself. Weiss was glad he was gone, the person who kept chasing after her.

Then there was JNPR. Pyrrha, after the initial shock of a week, went back to dating Cardin. Maybe as a coping mechanism? Ren had become even more stoic. And Nora well, she…

Nora did not take it well. The silver-eyed girl turned to her friend who was angrily eating the pancakes. Nora had taken it the hardest, especially upon finding out everyone's reactions. She chewed out all of her teammates, all of RWBY, and then Ozpin. The usually vibrant and happy girl was shaking in fury.

It took both Yang and Pyrrha to hold her down as Ren used his Semblance on her. But that was not before she managed to punch Ruby in the face and did similarly to Pyrrha. She hadn't spoken to anyone for the entirety of the second month he was gone.

And during that month, Ruby was alone. It was like Yang, Blake, and Weiss drifted off to their little worlds, leaving her alone. No one would want to play games with her, go to the shop to just browse weapons, no one to look at comics with. Yang used to but she found her friends. Blake considers comic books trash. And Weiss doesn't want to have fun, ever. Or if she did, it was nothing she ever wanted to do.

It had only been when Nora approached her, after seeing Ruby was alone too. Nora made it clear that she may have forgiven Ruby, she was still not happy with her. The two were just lonely. Over this third month, the two had come to consider each other best friends.

Ren had numbed himself to losing his friend with his Semblance. And Pyrrha was still distracted by Cardin to the point she sat in his lap for breakfast, as she was doing now. The sight of her feeding him made both Nora and Ruby gag.

"Why does she do that?" Nora asked. "Even after this long doesn't she understand that her PDA with him is disgusting?"

"I know right?" Ruby said. She took another bite of food. "It's still just so weird. This came from out of nowhere."

"I'm still saying he did some weird voodoo magic on her! I just can't prove it!" The orange-haired girl said stabbing her pancakes. "There's no way Pyrrha would have betrayed Jaune-Jaune like that!" Teal eyes meet silver and Ruby flinched.

"I know, I was being dumb," Ruby groaned. "I should have followed my heart instead of listening to my brain at that time." And yes, Ruby truly did regret her decision. She missed her friend, she did. She missed hanging out, their goofy talks, and just relaxing. But Ruby missed his goofy smile.

"At least you can admit it unlike everyone else," Nora huffed.

"And I'll make it up to him when we get to see him again," Ruby replied feeling hopeful. "Have you heard from him?"

"After that first week, he hasn't picked up his phone." Nora and Ruby frowned at that. "I think that was around the time he went missing with everyone. But I still believe he's still alive."

"Me too." Ruby and Nora were about to continue when someone caught their attention. Looking toward the end of the table, they saw deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch.

"Ms. Rose, Ms. Valkyerie, would you please gather your teams and come to the headmaster's office," Glynda said with a very visible frown. "It's rather important."

The two girls shared a look before nodding and gathering their teams. Ruby got Weiss, Blake, and then Yang before going to the elevator. "What do you think he wants to talk about?" Yang asked, shifting from side to side.

"Hopefully nothing bad," Blake said calmly. Ruby had noted she was still a foot away from everyone else. As if to not be close to them, which made them frown.

"Maybe he's reconsidering his decision of not including our teams for the Vytal Festival," Weiss said with hope.

"I doubt that," Ruby mumbled. The reason they weren't chosen for this year's Vytal Festival Tournament was that they, as Ozpin said, were not good enough. While they had potential, they didn't come together as a team as he had hoped. Hence why RWBY wasn't chosen. JNPR meanwhile was because of a missing person, not even the Council could budge the headmaster on that.

"Did you say something?" Weiss asked since she was lost in her thoughts.

"Nothing," Ruby replied with a small smile. The doors opened and they saw Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha already there. They were standing in front of the headmaster's desk while Ozpin sat there and with Glynda right behind him. Both adults looking rather grave.

"Ah, thank you all for making it," Ozpin said evenly. "I have some news for you all."

All the students stood there standing at attention. "As you know, three months ago, three Bullheads went missing," Glynda started speaking. Nora and Ruby instantly perked up, as did Ren. "Yesterday, we had gotten a call from Mantle. They had found the missing people within the wilds of their continent."

Nora was about to ask when Ozpin slid over a piece of paper. "Please read this," he said. Nora grabbed the paper first since she was the most excited. Everyone looked at her as the smile on her face vanished. Her eyes going down further and further before she gasped.

"T-This can't be true," Nora said with tears in her eyes. She threw the paper behind her as she slammed her hands onto the wooden desk. "That's not true!"

"I'm so sorry…" Glynda said. Even she had some tears in her eyes.

Ruby grabbed the paper and her silver eyes looked at what was written.

"Report: List of people who died or are still missing from the incident from three months ago," she read aloud. Her eyes gazed at the various names and faces listed. She went down and saw a familiar face. It was one that looked like Pyrrha.

"Nikos, Atlanta. Age 18. Missing."

Further down she saw another one. And that one made her heart stop and her stomach hurt even more. Letting go of the paper, she turned her head and began to vomit. On the piece of paper, she saw the goofy smile she missed.

"Arc, Jaune. Age 18. Dead"

She felt so delirious from reading that she completely missed Pyrrha fainting from reading the paper. And soon she has joined her. The shock of seeing that paper had her also fainting, the last image she saw was her team going to her, with Nora trying to attack Ozpin. The only thought in her mind was…

"It's all my fault. I'm sorry Jaune."

Thousands of miles away, a pair of blue eyes looked around. Brushing his silver hair damp with sweat, Jaune Arc looked confused.

He had a new change of clothes. He had on a black compression shirt that showed off his new muscles that had appeared post-transformation and showed off his arms. On his legs were black jeans that were loose, thankfully, since he wasn't used to any tight pants. Lastly, black leather shoes.

This was only half his usual outfit, the rest of it back at the home he and Atlanta lived at. After all, he wasn't training nor fighting at the moment, so why wear armor or need to look fancy?

"Something wrong Jaune?" Atalanta asked.

Jaune looked to his right where she was sitting on a stump She was dressed far better than he was, that was for sure.

First was a sleeveless white shirt that was covered by the rest. The vest she had on was black with some blue accents, diamonds on top with a design just under her bust that looked like an eye. Next was a white skirt with a black design going along the spiky hemline. And just on top of that, connected to the vest with some subtle sewing, was a sort of overskirt that had the same coloring as the vest, with blue arrows pointed up at her torso.

On Atalanta's arms were sleeves, disconnected from the rest of the outfit and sharing in the black and blue. On her hands were silver gloves, with segmented finger sections and purple lining to keep her limbs warm. Black leggings lead down to a pair of short boots, continuing the blue and black from on top. Their heels were thick, allowing for good movement in combat and every day.

The leather belt she had around her neck confused him, along with the broken chain that hung at Atalanta's back. Jaune picked it up curiously, bringing his eyes up to ask when the former redhead turned her face away. Her cheeks burned while his face showed confusion.

Today her hair was neon pink and the animal part she had from her Grimm right now was some pink and green feathers in her hair on the left side of her head, right behind her ear. Right behind her was a black longbow with neon pink details on it.

"Oh, uh, nothing. I thought someone said my name," he replied. He grabbed his pile of wood and turned to her his partner. The two of them had been traveling for a month. Sadly, they didn't have money, any identification, nor their Scrolls. So they were down on their luck. They had run into a small city where a guy was willing to take them on until they were back on their feet.

"Shall we go back?" he asked. "I'm sure the grump is wondering where we are."

Atlanta just laughed. "You're just annoyed Mr. Muram decided to teach you how to use a sword and is kicking your ass...even in Grimm form." The girl grinned and her hair turned back into dark pink. The lion ears appeared on her head and she gave him a Chesire grin.

"S-Shut up!" Jaune blushed as he carried the firewood. "It's not my fault he's had years of experience and can still beat me!"

"Please, you even used your Imperial Privilege to get better at swordplay and he still kicked your ass." His part Grimm friend laughed and he could only groan.

"Still, we lucked out on meeting someone who knows your family out here in the boondocks of Mantle." Jaune frowned. "I'm still suspicious of him but Muram is nice, to say the least. Hasn't tried to kill us, even after finding out we're part-Grimm."

"He's also bought us clothes, provided us shelter, and food." The two shared a nod, they did owe this odd old man for that.

"That's why we're working for him." Jaune then turned to Atlanta as they waved at the various people in this small city. After a month, the two were known as the new "couple." Jaune and Atlanta did everything together and were rarely ever away from one another. Hence the couple remark. Jaune was too embarrassed to try and deny it, while Atlanta milked the situation to get discounts.

"Did you remember any one's phone number yet by the way? To help us say we're alive?" he asked. Atlanta shook her head.

"Sorry. I blame our age for never memorizing anything anymore and relying on our Scrolls." Jaune couldn't disagree. He too hadn't memorized his home number nor any of his family members. Then he tried to call Beacon. It was redirected over and over again to the point that it didn't work out at all.

"I swear Ms. Goodwitch is having trouble there if Ozpin doesn't update that phone system," he thought to himself.

"Well, we're stuck at this place until we have enough money for a Scroll each and then tickets to get to the right place," Jaune said. They got to the store they were currently living in and he opened the door. The sign above it was had said the place's name was "Ayime Forge."

"Old Man! We're back with the firewood for the forge as well as the coal," Jaune shouted.

"I heard you, you punk!" an elderly voice shouted. Atlanta chuckled as she headed up to the second floor to where the living quarters were to put away the groceries. Meanwhile, Jaune entered the forge to see an old man sitting there.

He had short grey hair and golden eyes. In his left hand, he had a hammer and in the right was a sword in the process of being forged. Slamming the hammer down, he was straightening out the blade. Over his shirt was an apron to protect him from the sparks, and he had on black pants and boots.

This old man was Muram Ayime, supposedly he knew Jaune's great grandfather Carl. He had taken in Jaune since the old man said he owed the Arcs his life.

"Just put it down there boy," Muram said as he took the sword and placed it in some water, steam coming off of it before he placed the now cool blade on a table, intent on finishing it later. "You ready for some sparring? I mean your form is rather bad. If you want to survive in the world, you'll need to make it better."

Jaune placed his package where all the other coal and firewood was and nodded. "Yes, let us get to it."

Three months since the incident, two months of torture and a month after that, and Jaune was finally feeling that he was getting somewhere in life again. He doesn't know where it was heading just yet but at least he had Atlanta by his side and this old man helping him.

For now, Jaune grabbed a practice sword, a katana since that was what Muram was teaching him in, and walked outside to get some practice.


So that was the chapter. I'll get back into the nitty-gritty next chapter. This was just to see the reaction of some people who are not Jaune or Atlanta. Which, I will be doing from time to time. So please leave a review to know how you feel!

Also, most people who appear while maybe OC a lot of people were going to be based on people from Fate. As you can see Atlanta is Atalanta Alter in looks but personality is completely original. Hence why Muram Ayime is also based on someone there. Given the name I'm sure you guys can guess