Hello all! This is the fanfic about a fanfic I mentioned in Flickering Beacon, and as such, I'll open with two disclaimers. Number one: I don't own nor claim to own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth, and this is just a fan made, not-for-profit story based off of it. Number two: I also don't own Relic of the Future, another RWBY fanfiction by Coeur Al'Aran. This story was very directly inspired by it, and since it had a bit of an ambiguous ending, I wanted to try my hand at a continuation/sequel. It's not official in any capacity, just the product of my idle and wild imagination. Without further ado: here we go.

Jaune Ashari-Schnee- or was it Arc again now?- carried the battered but breathing Ruby Rose from the site of the final battle with Salem. The smoldering tower where the rest of his friends now lay dead, alongside Hazel, Tyrian, Salem, Cinder, and Ozpin. He coughed as he stumbled through the ash and dust floating in the smoky air, past the wrecked Bullhead in the crumbling walls of blackest stone, into the barren gray of the Grimmlands. His white plate was streaked with ash and soot, and punctured where Cinder had tried to spear his lungs with her blade. His gloves were worn and sported several holes, but still he wore them to cover the faded outline of Salem's mark on his left hand. A landing transport saw his approach and landed a mere twenty feet away. Soldiers and medics rushed from the back of the vessel towards them. He gently handed Ruby over to the rushing paramedics. They quickly pulled out a stretcher and laid her atop it, then moved with him as the soldiers ushered him back to the waiting ship.

His mind was racing and torn. He was back. Back in his body, back to 21 years old, and back in the world he'd left behind. It was a strange feeling to say the least. That Ruby yet lived was his only solace for the task ahead of him. Doing this alone might have been too much for him, even after everything he'd been through as both Arc and Ashari.

The revelation that the gods had brought him back came as a shock, but perhaps it shouldn't have. He'd been so selfish as to abandon the world his friends had died for, and karma dictated he'd have to face the consequences eventually. Fortunately, he'd been gone mere minutes, and Jinn had been kind enough to tell him that Ruby had yet lived. Though the world was on the brink, it could yet rise from the ashes, and with Ruby beside him he dared to hope it might even come back stronger.

The gods appeared to have learned from their mistakes. The afterlife was real, Ozma and Salem had finally gotten the peace they deserved, Ruby wasn't actually dead, and the gods would no longer meddle so brazenly with human affairs. Time would tell if that last promise was kept, but he couldn't stop them if they went back on their word anyways. They were gods. Besides, he had more imminent things to worry about.

Like saving the world.

Salem and her entourage lay dead, but the world was far from safe. The Grimm would be less intelligent without her control, but the kingdoms were in shambles. The CCT was down or outright destroyed everywhere.

According to the hunters who'd come from Vale, the kingdom had been swamped by refugees. It was facing famine and unrest, and the walls had fallen. Parts of the city had been entirely lost to the Grimm, and the huntsmen and VPD fought desperately against hordes that would not end as food and ammunition ran low. Goodwitch was leading the bloody defense as head of the Council.

Mistral… Mistral was in chaos. A vast number of hunters had been sold out by Leonardo Lionheart before his death. With no reliable communications in and out, all they had were rumors, ranging from crime lords ruling the streets to a desperate emergency government to civil war to bandit invasion to a ghost town prowled by Grimm. Jaune had next to no clue what was actually going on over there, and he was working off memory from ten years back. Well, ten years back for him. For these people, it could have been hours ago. Time travel logistics. Still hadn't gotten used to expressing them.

He was sure he remembered that Vacuo was half-dead. The hunter casualties there weren't as bad as Mistral, but much of the city had become buried under feet of sand in their battle for the Relic of Destruction. Many of the people were still alive, but homeless and running scared around a ruined kingdom. When they left, downtown Vacuo had been the scene of a desperate urban war in skyscrapers rising above the monstrous dunes, with no one able to consolidate enough power to take control of the survivors.

Atlas was technically safe from the Grimm, but not stable. Jacques Schnee had led a coup against General Ironwood. Ironwood had been assassinated, and the troops loyal to him had decided to follow team RWBY after Jacques began executing his political enemies- first Robyn Hill, then anyone who stood up to him, and eventually his own family. Winter and Whitley had both been executed under Jacques' orders when they tried to confront him, and now he ruled Atlas with an iron fist. The mines ran around the clock as Jacques used violence to frighten people into mining the very Dust that kept them subservient.

Menagerie he knew even less about than Mistral. He'd never even been there in this timeline, and the communication to and from had been slow and limited before everything went to hell. Guessing at what was going on there was not productive, but they'd need to brave that unknown minefield at some point.

Where to start? Thought Jaune Ashari-Schnee- no. Jaune Arc. Here, he was called Jaune Arc. He had to remember that. On that topic, did he dare tell Ruby about what had happened? Time travel was hard to explain and harder to believe.

Jaune shook his head. Questions for later. Right now I need to find out how many of our men are still alive. Idly, he turned on the microphone on his earpiece. "This is Jaune… Arc. Salem is dead. Returning to the Faith in Technology." He turned it off.

Jaune had barely even registered that he'd entered the Bullhead and sat down. He was jolted out of his stupor by the plane taking off. He shot a "Thank you." to the squad of Atlesian soldiers and medics with him. They merely saluted. Their uniforms were scuffed, and a few were tattered. They were fresh from the battle, and these were probably the best uniforms they had left since Jacques had seized control of Atlas. They looked worn and incredibly tired. The soldiers sunk into their seats as the medics took to Ruby's wounds with a dogged determination, despite the blood, sweat, and ash marring them. They refused to let themselves rest until their job was done.

As soon as he acknowledged that, the same exhaustion washed over him. The adrenaline was wearing off. He was injured, he'd just been reminded of his best friends' deaths, and he was in a body that had just finished an hours-long push on foot through hordes of Grimm before a fight to the death with some of the deadliest people on the planet. He willed himself to stay awake. He had to at least make it through the debrief.

There was a blur of memories- arriving back at the ship and a medical check-up that confirmed his injuries as non-critical and then he was entering a meeting.

As Jaune plopped down in the black office chair with a bandage slapped over the stab wound from Cinder's blade, he was relieved to see at least one familiar face. Marrow sat quietly at the opposite end of the conference room table. A few officers sat around them- a couple captains, a few lieutenants. The higher ranks had either joined Jacques' revolt or been assassinated. Jacques' cold, calculating, and amoral mind had proven deadly when applied to war. Most of Atlas command was killed or captured in the very first hours through a combination of bombings, ambushes, and betrayals by trusted staff.

The officers deferred to Jaune for the moment. They had run away from home to follow Ruby after all, and he was the only one left of that inner circle able to speak. He'd have to handle this carefully though- there was no telling how long his position of authority would last with Salem and most of their party both dead.

"What's the situation Marrow?" He asked, voice dry and weak, nearly cracking.

The Faunus placed his hands on the table and began to speak. "All told, better casualties than we expected." Going unsaid was the fact that none of them expected to be walking out of here. "We still have seven airships operational. Faith in Technology is our last remaining battleship. Most of the ships have superficial damage, and a few have some moderate problems, but we've got enough parts and staff to repair them. Our ships are actually operating well above minimum crew capacity because of survivors from the wrecked airships."

"It's looking like we've got about sixty surviving Hunters, a hundred Hunters in training, and two thousand Atlesian soldiers, plus about three thousand five hundred navy personnel. Watts' virus isn't out of our automated Knight and Paladin systems, so for now they're offline. Pietro is working on them as we speak."

Marrow looked pointedly at Jaune. "So, I think I speak for all of us when I ask: what next?"

Technically, Jaune didn't even have a rank, and Marrow was probably far more qualified than him to lead, but he couldn't fault the guy not wanting to take this responsibility on his shoulders. Fortunately for them, the answer, even in Jaune's state, was obvious.

"We have to go back to Atlas."

Obvious, however, did not mean easy.

A few of the officers immediately spoke out in protest.

"We're severely outnumbered!"

"The anti-air will tear us to bits!"

"We can only sustain combat viability for three weeks, a month at most!"

Jaune held up his hand and they fell silent. He drew in a breath, and stabilized his broken voice as much as he could. "I'm looking at this very simply. Our airships cannot refuel anywhere but Atlas. Every kingdom is struggling, but right now Jacques is the man I'd bet on making things worse for everyone the fastest. We want to beat him because we need a supply base to refuel and re-arm, and if we don't oust Jacques quickly, there will be a full-blown revolution in Atlas. Jacques... will turn his guns on the civilians. Then it won't matter if he wins or not, because so many people will die that the kingdom won't outlast the Grimm."

Nobody else spoke up.

Jaune pushed on. "My vote is that we stay here for- let's say a week or two. Give the engineers time to repair the ships and weapons, give the wounded time to recover from light injuries, and send some patrols to scan the downed ships for survivors. The Grimm will be a lot less threatening without Salem controlling them, so if we keep our patrols on alert, they should be relatively safe. Now, anyone got critical questions for me?"

Silence.

"Good. Most of my friends just died, the last living one might be comatose, and I've got a day long combat to sleep off, as do you. Oh, and a stab wound. More in depth planning can come tomorrow, when we're not dead on our feet. Dismissed."

Jaune stood, and to his none-too-small relief, they followed his lead. He vaguely remembered where his room was, and the room number was on the keycard, so he found it with relative ease, slipped in, and crashed on the bed. His body was wounded and exhausted, so sleep came over him quickly. That much was a mercy.

He woke not to an alarm or screams, but drifted back to consciousness gently. In the distance, Jaune could hear the sound of power tools working on metal. He rose from his bed with a stretch and a yawn. The stab wound was healing nicely- benefits of a large and well-trained aura. He tidied up as he prepared to leave- he'd woken up just in time to throw on a spare set of clothes and armor and make it to another meeting with command.

Fortunately, no one raised any further concerns about returning to Atlas. None of them liked it, but the fact remained that if they didn't retake the city then they'd inevitably run out of supplies. Jaune didn't actually do much, as the planning had progressed into strategy and logistics for an entire army, topics he was woefully underequipped to handle. He offered offhand comments when prompted, which was more often than he expected, but the officers talked mostly amongst themselves. He was really there to keep up appearances and hear the completed plan at the end. He took the time to ponder the task at hand.

Jacques Schnee. A deeply flawed man, no question, but a man who'd been a force for good the other time around. It had even hurt Jaune a little to talk about him as a madman. No. I can't let myself think like that. This Jacques is not the same man.

This was the Jacques that killed Winter.

With that thought, his sympathies for the man froze over in a heartbeat.

The conversation at the table began to die down, and Jaune tuned back in as finishing touches were made. Marrow was the one to present the summary.

"We'll have to strike fast. Jacques will likely notice the change in Grimm behavior and guess that our mission was a success. We have to assume they're expecting us to return to Atlas. We've got a good number of soldiers, but not enough to win a prolonged fight, certainly not without massive casualties. Additionally, we've got limited ammo and rations. We burned a lot coming here, and we'll have about one month's supply left by the time we arrive, assuming no heavy fighting or accidents on the trip back. We're going to need to win this war quickly. The key to that is killing Jacques. His subcommanders are mostly driven by fear or just as mad as him. They're likely to lose unit cohesion and may even turn on each other without his orders, which would leave them easy pickings."

"But, killing Jacques will be easier said than done. He was known to move his command center often before we left, and he always seemed to be one step ahead of us whenever we tried to pin him down. Now, we may have a solution to that problem." Marrow tapped a button on his scroll, and a few seconds later, the door to the conference room slid open to reveal a man with weary, downcast eyes and a thick white beard in a large chair with spider legs. Pietro Polendina entered, and began to force out words from a clearly tired frame.

"As of yet, I have been unsuccessful in removing Watts' code from our androids. However, I have made some progress. I've achieved control over the virus. Theoretically, we could reactivate our machines safely now, but until the virus can be removed from their systems entirely, it would be trivially easy for any decent hacker to turn them on us again."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "I'm not hearing the good news doc."

Pietro stared him in the eyes, but there was no light to his glance, no smile on his face. Shit. I forgot. For him, Penny died like a week ago. "There is good news. The virus used here is similar to the virus Watts used to hack the Atlesian CCT. It's technically intact, but since all the other CCT stations are down, it only provides signal in and around Atlas. As of my tests this morning, the virus is still in the CCT. As long as we return before it's removed, I'll be able to use it to trace Atlesian communications back to their origin. If we can find out which messages come from Jacques, I'll be able to track him down."

There was a cold fire in Pietro's eyes now. Anger was a look Jaune had rarely seen on the man.

Jaune nodded to Pietro. "Thank you Doctor Polendina. Your work has been invaluable. And trust me- we will make Jacques pay."

Jaune had expected him, almost hoped for him, to smile, or to balk at the comment, to say something to him. Pietro just nodded slowly. Jaune's heart sank a little further. He hadn't really known the man, in either timeline. But to see him like this… Penny's death had ripped his heart out. He was still a brilliant man, and one doing his best to help save the world, but it was clear that he wasn't all there.

Add it to Jacques' butcher's bill.

As soon as the meeting ended, he rushed to the medbay to see Ruby. He'd meant to go before the meeting, but he'd woken up too late to make the trip. He stepped through the doors and spotted her at the far end of the room, her flowing red cloak folded neatly on a bedside table as she sat with an IV in her arm. Ruby was awake- that was good. He'd half expected her to be comatose, but it seemed that even now she was tougher than she looked.

Ruby was reading a loaner novel from Blake as she sat up in bed, her legs covered by the pristine white hospital sheets. She didn't see him approach, and so he stood next to her for a few seconds, then cleared his throat.

Ruby looked up with tired silver eyes that lit up when they recognized him. "Jaune!" she exclaimed, jubilant.

She started to leap for a hug, but slumped back onto the mattress, clearly weak. "Oof. Sorry, I just got excited. You're here!"

The gods had said they didn't intend to reward him for staying in this world, but having Ruby alive certainly felt like one. Even though she was bedridden, she was still so lively and excited. She'd recover in no time, and they'd be able to work together to overthrow Jacques and pull the world back from the brink.

Ruby looked to Jaune and raised an eyebrow. "I just woke up a couple hours ago. That fight really was something, but we beat her in the end, me and Osca-Ozpin. I can't wait to celebrate with everybody."

Jaune's lungs felt like they'd been crushed by the weight of a black tower at the end of the world. Ruby must have noticed his face shift from joy to pain, as her eyes widened. "Jaune? What happened?"

/-/

There weren't a lot of conversations in Jaune's life that compared to that one. He'd take the stupid Vytal festival planning with team November over it any day. There were only a few contenders for the top spot- contacting his parents for the first time since running away, learning that his family had fallen to Tyrian…

And telling Ruby Rose that everyone but them had died. SSSN wiped out to a man, the rest of Jaune's team finally following in Pyrrha's footsteps, and Ruby's best friends- and her sister- gone. All slaughtered in a lonely fortress at the ass-end of hell. Even Oz, that damaged, half-insane ball of hypocrisy and once noble intentions. Jaune had no idea if he'd managed to reincarnate before Salem bled out. Maybe that was for the best. He didn't know what he'd do if he had to face the man again.

Currently, he was leaning very strongly towards giving the bastard a final death. Ruby Rose clung to him, wrapping her arms around him sideways as she curled into a ball, weeping. He eyes flashed silver as she shook and shuddered. Jaune found, to his surprise, that he was crying too. He'd thought he was over the loss. Then he was ripped right back to that dark and crumbling monolith, surrounded by bodies that hadn't aged a minute, and never again would. He'd been sent back to pick up the pieces, and hold Ruby tight as she writhed and choked out sobs, mourning her friends and her sister.

They were all that was left. Of their friends, of their family. So many lost, gone, so many lives cut short.

Jaune didn't know if he stood there comforting Ruby for ten minutes or two hours. Only that at the end, his chestplate was streaked with tear tracks and Ruby looked almost as exhausted as when he'd carried her barely breathing body to the medics.

She looked up to him, and with a raspy voice, whispered "Why? Why us?"

"Because we were the only choice. Nobody else knew how to kill her. Nobody else could. They needed us."

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment, then looked back into Jaune's. "We- we need to bury them."

"I know. They're- their bodies are safe. I had them- picked up. I was going to bury them myself, but I figured-"

"I want to help." Ruby's rasp faded as she interrupted.

"Alright. We'll wait till the doctors say you're ready. They'll be ok that long."

Ruby nodded. Jaune wanted to say something, anything, to cheer her up, but what was there to say? They were good friends, sure, but how was he supposed to console someone who just lost her last family, and all but one friend, in one fell swoop? How was he supposed to help when the pain was now nearly as raw and fresh in his heart as it was hers?

He nodded back, turned, and left.

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It was a chilly day one week later when they buried their friends. Not freezing, just chilly. No snowstorm or monsoon, not even a stray Grimm. Just the quiet, the cold, and the slow digging of eight graves deep in the ashen soil of the Grimmlands. Jaune's new scar protested gently, and he could've sworn he caught Ruby wincing and clutching her own wound from the corner of his eye, but neither complained. They were, after all, still alive.

They'd brought shovels, headstones, and a small security detail in an Atlesian cargo truck. The guards stood a respectful distance away as the hunters worked, mostly in silence. They lowered the bodies into their final resting places one by one, left to right.

Ren, then Nora, Weiss, Yang, Blake, Sun, Neptune, and last Oscar.

Ren and Nora had died as they lived: at each other's side. Died the same way too- one of Tyrian's blades to the heart for each of them. Though his heart cried out, Jaune supposed that they would have wanted to die together. In the end, they'd finally confessed to each other, and he'd never seen someone more committed to 'til death do us part' after one date than Nora.

Ruby hadn't even seen Weiss' body, and Jaune counted that a mercy. There was a reason she was in a closed casket. He'd only seen it from a distance in the tower, but what he'd seen was a neck at a jagged angle and a bite wound so deep he could see the bloodstained floor through her.

Yang looked almost as good as she ever had. The place where her ribs had caved in after Hazel's last strike had been expertly concealed. She'd died with a smile, though the blood that had leaked through her teeth had been wiped away for the burial.

Blake and Sun had died together too, and though Tyrian's stinger had pierced Blake's throat, her last katana swipe had split several of his organs beyond repair. She'd most likely died trying to protect Sun, but had been just too slow to stop Tyrian carving out the boy's heart.

Neptune had survived the melee, but succumbed to Tyrian's venom not long after, dying with a bitter smile on a still unblemished face.

And Oscar. Not Ozpin, because for all he knew, Oz was still out there, reincarnated one last time like he had been back in the other world. The grave had Oscar's name, and it was his body they buried, though Ozpin's last smile still haunted his face.

The headstones were simple affairs. Though Neptune, Yang, or Nora might have joked about wanting monuments in their names, they weren't truly that ostentatious, and that's not what they got. What they got was a name, date of birth, and date of death chiseled in blocky text by the inexperienced hands of their last living friends. When all was said and done, the bodies buried, headstones set, and shovels cast aside, Jaune and Ruby stood together in front of a line of graves, solemn. They stood in silence for a time. At some point, Ruby took his hand. He didn't object. The girl wanted comfort, solidarity with the only other person left who really knew the meaning of these simple stones and mounds of dirt in the middle of nowhere. They stood in silence a while longer then, hands together, fidgeting and shivering in the chilly southern air.

Eventually, they gave short eulogies for the dead. Jaune for Ren and Nora, Ruby for Yang, Blake, and Weiss, and both said a few words for Sun, Neptune, and Oscar. They were short, and though they were sweet, the words slipped in and out of his head immediately. None of those words could bring them back or make this right.

After a third hefty silence, Ruby turned to him, looking up into his eyes. He turned to her, and an unspoken understanding passed between them. It's time to go. They made their way back to the truck. The Atlesian soldiers filed in, their uniforms stitched together hastily from the rents and holes caused by the Grimm and the civil war besides. Those rifts may have been covered up, but they weren't truly healed.

They couldn't be healed until Jacques Schnee was dead.

/-/

Ruby and Jaune had taken to working together at strategy meetings. Honestly, he didn't think she needed his help. She'd always been the better commander, but both she and the Atlesian officers seemed to humor his input time and again. The meetings blurred together in Jaune's head, a whirlwind of questions, plans, revisions, and re-revisions. He knew what he needed to know, and had his job and role down pat. Jaune and Ruby would be heading a small, elite team to lead the raid on Jacques' HQ when it was found. They'd be allowed to handpick their squad, which would be supported by another team of hunters while their main forces attempted to disable Jacques' anti-air weapons and remaining airships.

Simple enough on paper. In practice? Not so much. He wasn't super worried about the specifics of the wider operation. He trusted these commanders. He was worried about who would be joining them on their strike team. Marrow was a shoo-in on skill and experience alone, but beyond that it got sketchy. They didn't really know any of the Hunters present, and the rogue fleet was already critically low on them. With one team already being arranged to support their assault, and some of the Hunters still recovering from critical injuries, almost a third of their most powerful and experienced fighters wouldn't be available for deployment on the front line. Ruby and Jaune had no idea who else to add to the team.

At least the conversation with Marrow went well. That was a mercy.

"Yes."

Jaune was, in fact taken aback by how forceful the man's response was. "Wow. That was easier than I thought. Eager to get back at Jacques?"

Ruby side-eyed Jaune with a frown, and Marrow's eyes took on a peculiar mixture of amusement and a cold steel. "You could say that. I have a score to settle."

Marrow smiled as he spoke. "You can count on my support for this mission. I was a specialist anyways, not an officer. I trust these officers- they'll manage fine without me." The smile was, on the surface, genuine, but it didn't take a genius to notice that something was off. There was an edge to it, a scarcely-concealed anger that forced his expression to toe the line between comforting and chilling.

Jaune noted it, but seeing that rage mostly under control and lacking other good candidates for this mission, he shook Marrow's hand firmly, and the guy stepped out of the room. Ruby's concerned gaze didn't abate, so he shot her a smile. "How about we go help with some weapon repairs?" Ruby perked up, and Jaune turned to exit, not noticing the eyes still very much tracking him.

/-/

Nine days after the death of Salem, the fleet was preparing to move. The plan was to depart tomorrow morning, and Jaune and Ruby were still a bit worried about their strike team. They weren't afraid of fighting Jacques himself, but they might have to face rogue huntsmen to get to him, and as such more manpower would definitely be preferable. They weren't going to pull anyone they didn't know for the mission- they just didn't have experience fighting together. Marrow wasn't perfect in that regard, but at least they'd run several missions with the guy before. If it came to it, they'd just have to go in with three of them. Four would be preferable, but it'd be better to have a cohesive three-person unit than a disorganized full team.

In the last couple days, search teams had stopped going out to the wrecked Atlesian ships, the debris scoured of survivors and supplies. The functioning warships were about as repaired as could be managed in the middle of a wasteland, and nearly everyone who didn't need an extended hospital stay was back on their feet. They were almost ready to leave, certain that they'd done all they could do.

Which was why Jaune was so surprised when something squawked onto the radio as he stood on the bridge discussing the route and travel time with the captain. The speaker was female, but the transmission was distorted and choppy. Jaune could barely make out the words she was saying

"This is destroyer Dust to Dust sending out a distress signal. Does anyone copy?"

Jaune's mind went right back to his days with the specialists. He pointed to a woman wearing a comms tech pin. "You. Get a trace on that transmission's location."

Pointing to another tech: "You, get me patched through to them."

He headed over to the man's workstation, and about thirty seconds later, the tech handed him a mic. "It's extreme long range sir. I can't promise a completely clear message."

Jaune nodded to the man and shot a thumbs up before tapping the microphone and speaking into it. "Hello. This is Jaune Arc of the Atlesian Loyalist Army. What is your position?"

There was about a half second delay before she responded.

"Oh thank goodness, we finally reached someone. Hello, yes, this is the surviving crew of the Atlesian Loyalist destroyer Dust to Dust. We have crash landed in the Grimmlands, but some of us are still alive. The ship is surrounded by Grimm, and we've got a good killbox set up, but we're running out of ammunition and we've got no way out. We need extraction."

Jaune looked to the captain. "Get me whatever we know about the Dust to Dust and where it went down."

Back to the radio.

"Can you tell us your location?"

"No. Our GPS went down, along with most of the electrics. It's taken forever just to get this radio working. All I know is that we're on the coast."

"Sir! Radio trace coming through! It looks like the signal's coming from about thirty kilometers northwest of here. Still narrowing it down."

Jaune nodded. "Alright folks. Our schedule just got moved up. Whatever small things we had left to fix can get done after we evacuate the Dust. Send the message to the rest of the fleet, and get ready for takeoff."

He turned back to the microphone.

"You hear that Dust? We're firing up the engines. Hold out just a little longer."

"We- we will."

"And keep the radio running, at least for now. It'll help us pinpoint your location faster."

"Yes sir."

With that, Jaune set down the mic and made to find Ruby. They were about to run their first mission together… alone.

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Fifty minutes later, the Faith in Technology sat hovering above the Dust to Dust alongside the rest of the armada. The fleet's last Bullheads strafed the horde of Grimm surrounding the ship, supported by the smaller armaments on the warships themselves. The big guns ran the risk of damaging the downed ship if they were fired this close. Even without their support, swathes of Grimm were being cut down.

As Jaune and Ruby waited for the order to deploy, they stood on the bridge, looking down on the swarm of shadows around the fallen ship. Jaune could see why the analysts had written it off- the Dust to Dust had been gouged nearly in half, a giant rent biting deep into the midsection of the hull and three of the four engines mangled into charred scraps.

Hundreds of Grimm fell with every salvo, but more rushed into the punctures in the side of the once proud warship. They died in droves.

It wasn't fast enough, and the next radio message confirmed it.

"Appreciate the fire support Jaune, but we're running on fumes. Most of us are down to our last few mags, and we don't have enough hunters to win a melee. We need immediate assistance!"

Jaune picked up the microphone, and set it to transmit on all channels.

"Alright fleet, initiate emergency landing. Our friends down there are on their last legs and we're the ones who need to pull them out of the fire. All huntsmen and students prep for immediate deployment, all ground troops prep for cordon and supporting fire. The huntsmen are gonna push hard, through that horde, to get to the survivors ASAP. We need the rest of you to contain the remaining Grimm and pour fire into them from range to whittle them down until we can secure the crash site. Move!"

Jaune slammed the microphone down and nodded to Ruby. The two stormed out of the bridge and down the hall towards the armory. Throwing the door open, Jaune strapped on a spare utility belt under his armored chestplate and slipped three grenades and some pistol magazines into the pouches. He added a dual holster, placing a service pistol on each hip. He loved his flashbangs, but against the Grimm they weren't much use, and would also likely blind his allies in the heat of battle. For now, he went without. Ruby snapped Crescent Rose back together from a quick inspection, then turned to Jaune with a sad smile. She cocked her head to the side and frowned when she saw the guns and grenades at his side. "Since when were you a ranged fighter?"

"Pays to be prepared and all that." He could explain himself later. Right now, there were people who needed saving, and he wasn't going to gimp himself when lives were on the line. He'd have to come up with a good excuse for why he didn't pull out these tactics earlier, but that could be done once everyone was back to the fleet safely.

The altitude alarms began to ring, and Jaune and Ruby bolted to the hangar. They grabbed onto the metal crates piled against the walls as the ship touched down, the entire vessel shuddering. Some of the other huntsmen fell to the ground from the force of the jolt. The room had tilted at a fifteen degree angle, the result of the ship's forced landing on uneven terrain. As the hangar doors opened, Jaune and Ruby charged forwards onto the ramps descending from the side of the ship. They reached the ground before the ramps, dropping the last few feet from the partially deployed walkway. In but a moment, they were pushing forwards again. Ruby held Crescent Rose up to her shoulder, and Jaune held both hands on one handgun as they prowled towards the horde of Grimm from the rear. A few other hunters and students fanned out behind them, and Jaune could see other small parties exiting their fellow warships, closing a noose around the Grimm horde. Already, the dirty white of the Atlesian loyalists advanced in file behind them.

Jaune smiled.

/-/

Ruby Rose was taken aback. Jaune felt… weird. She had time to think about it as they approached. For now, the Grimm were still focused on the ship, and she could fire off a round just about anywhere near the giant gash in the side and hit something useful.

He was acting out of the ordinary for sure though. Cagey, trying to divert her attention in a way she hadn't seen in a long time, since- since Cardin, really. On top of that, he moved and spoke with confidence. Jaune had always given off an air of determined desperation, but this- this was different. He smiled as they marched into battle, seeming almost relaxed, almost comfortable. He was landing hits from a pistol at long range and reloading with speed that was a bit scary. She'd never even seen him train with a gun before.

And whether or not he realized it, with that sort of confidence he was taking charge of their little army in a major way. The fleet's commanders had deferred to him on battleplans and followed his orders for an emergency takeoff and landing without hesitation. Honestly, he'd surprised her with how much he knew about the military and tactics. I guess people really do rise to the occasion.

If they survive.

No. Bad thoughts. Not now. They had a battle to fight, a war to win. There was no room for that. No room for Yang smiling as Hazel ripped her guts-

No. No.

Ruby had known they were dead. She'd known even before she asked Jaune, but she'd clung to the hope that somehow they'd survived, that the medics had gotten there just in time and they'd recover in the hospital together before heading back to Atlas and hunting Jacques down, and someday when the world was safe they'd laugh about how close they'd come to losing each other. She'd clung to the hope that they'd get their storybook ending.

Hearing the truth had nearly broken her. If Jaune wasn't there...

Ruby refocused on the world around her as the Grimm assaulting the ship finally began to turn on the army advancing behind them, and realized that they were trapped between the ship, the soldiers, and the sea lapping at the Dust's tail. With that, they turned and charged, hundreds falling to the withering hail of blue fire from thousands of Atlesian rifles.

Ruby dumped rounds at the oncoming horde. Supporting fire poured in from the ship's guns above, and the cadre of hunters pushed forwards into the river of black. Though this pack was large, they were mostly weaker Grimm. Many Beowulves, and a few Ursa minor and young Nevermore. Sustained fire from an Atlas service rifle could bring most of them down. Compared to the assault on Salem's tower, this was child's play.

As the Grimm approached, she switched her magazine for a fresh one and then launched herself forward with a combination of high caliber recoil and her semblance, popping back into a solid form just in time to cleave through eight Beowulves with the momentum behind her blade. Barely a second later, Jaune was beside her, slashing through Grimm after Grimm with Crocea Mors in the left hand and spewing bullets from the handgun in his right. It was way more economical and precise than-

Ruby ducked under the claw swipe that had aimed to smash her skull. She snarled and fired Crescent Rose at point blank range, the round blowing a hole the size of a pot pie clean through the offending Ursa Minor. She carved a path through the mob with simple, repeated swings, her blade sweeping left, then right over and over, and the Grimm throwing themselves forwards only to get cut in half again and again.

Jaune wasn't far behind, and the rest of the hunters and students fought in clusters, punching a dozen pathways through the chaotic sea of hateful, mindless monsters.

Aside from the near miss with the Ursa, the fight was pedestrian. With a few small uses of her silver eyes and her years of training, a horde of even dumber lesser Grimm was a cakewalk. In ten minutes, she and Jaune had reached the rent in the hull, with the other hunters not far behind and a third of the Grimm already decaying into dust.

But this was still a race against the clock. If they slaughtered the Grimm only to find a ship of the dead, it would be for naught.

Quickly, Ruby tapped her earpiece and announced their entry into the ship. They didn't wait for a reply, plunging into the darkened hallways lit only by red- the eyes of killing machines and the swirling emergency lights, giving just enough clarity to fight through halls stained with dried blood and littered with armored corpses.

Jaune and Ruby prowled through the hallways, scything through the Grimm like chaff. The range was too close to aim Crescent Rose well, but in the confined corridors Jaune's pistol worked wonders. Their pace was rapid, but slowed by the congested passage in front of them and the Beowulves that continued to charge at their backs, forcing one of them to play rear guard. Ruby dispatched each monster with a single well-placed slash. Calling it a slog would be giving it too much credit. This was an annoyance at best.

They made it to the final corridor outside the bridge in record time- fifteen minutes after entering the ship. They could hear the shriek razor-sharp claws on metal, the pounding of false muscle against unrelenting steel. As Ruby approached the corner, she became aware of a slight drowsiness in her mind. She tried to force it down as she approached the corner.

The moment she turned around it, a wave of exhaustion crashed into her, threatening to bring her to her knees. She stumbled back, gasping. "Apathy. A-a-apathy."

The Grimm were rare, but apparently the Dust had been unfortunate enough to run into a pack of them. Ruby remembered that cellar at Brunswick Farms where they'd all nearly died to those things draining their will to fight. She steadied her breathing. "I don't think they saw me. Alright, Jaune, if you cover my back, I can step out and use my silver eyes-"

"No need." He shot her a grin, took a frag bomb in his hand, and shouted "Grenade out!"

The only responses were otherworldly moans and the howls of demon wolves. He pulled the pin and whipped the bomb around the corner. Ruby heard it clang off of a wall before falling to the floor with a tinkling sound, and then-

Her ears were ringing. She blinked and stumbled as her hearing stabilized, while Jaune, undeterred, stepped around the corner and opened up with his handgun. When she followed, mere seconds later, the horde lay dead, half blown to charred pieces and the other half sporting bullet wounds. Most of them had fallen to a single shot to the heart.

Jaune patted Ruby on the shoulder, and they approached the door to the last known position of the ship's surviving crew- a section of the ship holding bunkrooms, offices, the cafeteria, and the bridge. The blast doors were shut, but heavily deformed, deep gouges cut into the dented metal. Jaune tapped at the door controls, but the slabs of metal did nothing but shoot sparks. With a sigh, Jaune grabbed onto one of the doors, slipping his fingers between them, and waved Ruby over. They pulled with all of their might, and with a screech the door slid open just wide enough for them to slip through sideways. The room beyond was pitch black. Ruby stepped forward, but Jaune blocked her with his arm and shimmied through the gap first. Ruby rolled her eyes at the babying and followed suit.

As Jaune slowly stalked forward, he stopped just before his foot impacted something on the ground. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make out the vague shape of a body laid flat on the floor. "Shit." He said.

"They got through somehow. We weren't fast enough."

"I wouldn't quite say that." A voice came from the darkness, deeper into the room.

Whose voice was that? It hadn't been Ruby or Jaune. It sounded familiar... and friendly?

"We've taken losses, but the casualty rate would be one hundred percent if you hadn't scrambled to pick us up."

The figure stepped forward into the half-light of the rays peeking through the open door, and Ruby saw a girl sporting long brown hair and two tall, furry ears with a weary grin on her face.

"Velvet?!"

The girl's brown jacket was torn, her golden spaulders dull and ashy, but the rabbit ears and the smile were unmistakable.

"Uh, Yep. That's me."

"Oh my gods It's been so long! Where have you been? What-"

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, I really do, but maybe we should talk about the past later, when we're out of here and safe. I don't suppose we're extracting yet?"

"No. Not yet." Came Jaune.

"Ruby and I are good, but we're two people. We don't have nearly enough ammo on us to get everyone back in fighting shape. We just wanted to find you guys and help you hold out until the place was clear. On that note, could you do the honors and call it in Ruby?"

Ruby radioed in that they'd located the crew, and were holding until the all clear was given. From the sound of it, the battle was going well and the other Hunters were scouring the ship of Grimm easily. The three of them turned to watch the door into the darkened room.

"Oh yeah, Velvet," queried Jaune, "Where is everyone else? And how'd the Grimm get in if the door was closed?"

"The rest of the survivors moved further back into the barracks hallways. We were holding this door until the Apathy got here, but the power's been cutting in and out, so the doors wouldn't shut, and the Beowulves were still rushing in. I managed to get the door working long enough to close it, but a few of the Grimm slipped through and scored a few kills. This wasn't a safe place to hold anymore with Apathy outside. We were going to wait them out if we could- I was just here to report back when the doors broke."

"How many?"

"We've got a little under ten hunters, a dozen students, a hundred soldiers and sailors. Good numbers considering the ship nearly split in half."

"And that you've been holding out for a week and a half. Impressive work Velvet."

The girl's mouth opened in shock. "M-me? I didn't do anything. We would have died if you hadn't shown up."

"And who was leading these people while I was off repairing the fleet?"

Velvet merely blushed.

"That's what I thought. Give yourself some credit."

"We were dead men walking! I failed."

"You made the most out of a terrible situation. There's no shame failing when the deck is stacked against you. And you have an interesting definition of failure. I suppose next time I should punish someone who managed to save half a ship's crew when the analysts left them for dead?"

The blush intensified.

"You did a good job. Accept that. Go tell your friends the news. Get some rest. We'll watch the door until the rest of the Loyalists arrive."

Ruby stared at Jaune with wide eyes as Velvet stepped backward into the shadow. He watched Velvet leave, then turned to face Ruby. "What's wrong Rubes?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing. Just lost in thought."

Had Jaune always been that confident?

He shot her a smile. "I can tell you're lying to me, it's not that hard."

Or that perceptive!

Jaune had been completely oblivious about people when they arrived at Beacon, and though he'd gotten better at reading people, he hadn't gotten that good. Had he?

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Was just curious."

Ruby took the opportunity given and stayed silent, and to her relief Jaune smirked, shook his head, and whispered something under his breath.

It remained quiet and dark, but she could just make out Jaune's form beside her.

For a few minutes, she could pretend everything was normal.

/-/

As it turned out, they didn't have to play sentry for long. Only a few small groups of Beowulves came to challenge them, and fifteen minutes later the first of the other hunters made it to their position. About an hour later, they had all clears across the board, and they gathered up the survivors and filed out of the wreck of the Dust to Dust. All in all, a successful operation. Casualties were miniscule. Though their uniforms might be tattered, almost everyone here was a hardened veteran of Grimm combat by now. Adding the fact that without Salem to lead them or even an ancient Grimm like the Wyvern to point them in a general direction, the horde was disjointed- completely incapable of acting as a group, merely pursuing the closest signs of life. The Grimm had been worn down by sustained fire because they weren't cognizant enough to use their numbers to their advantage, attack a weak point, or attempt retreat.

Jaune plopped down into the seat at the head of the conference room table and relaxed with a sigh. They'd just finished up the debrief, and he was relaxing after the fight and the subsequent hours of meetings. Velvet had agreed handily to join the strike team, and that had left him breathing a little easier. Velvet was shy, but when it came down to the wire, the girl was experienced, powerful, and one of the most versatile fighters he'd ever seen, up there with... Weiss. He let the wave of loss wash over him for a minute before he took a deep breath and moved past it. He needed dinner, and some sleep for whatever meetings he'd no doubt have to lead tomorrow.

/-/

The fleet stayed "docked" around the wreck of the Dust for a few more days. Most of it was spent repairing the light damage that hadn't been fixed before their emergency takeoff, treating the wounded, and scrapping everything of value from the fallen ship. Fortunately, they hadn't eaten through too much of their ammo supply in the fight, but with a couple hundred more soldiers to supply and the Dust nearly out of small arms ammo, they'd probably still lost a day or two of peak combat effectiveness. If everything went to plan, that wouldn't be an issue, but it still bothered Jaune. They couldn't afford to bleed supplies like that all the way to Atlas.

No. This was... ok. Not amazing maybe, but definitely worth it. They'd traded ammo for human lives. At the end of the day, more people coming home in one piece instead of a coffin outweighed some boxes of bullets.

Still, if they had smooth sailing all the way back to Atlas, Jaune wouldn't be complaining.

It was thirteen days after the fall of Salem that Jaune watched the remnants of the Atlesian Loyalist Army lift off from the final resting place of the Dust to Dust. A fleet of the battered but unbroken sailed through the southern sky, Atlas bound. Few were those among them that did not bear some scar of conflict. Even their ships were marred with soot and gouges, their uniforms hastily patched, their very flesh bearing reminders of a thousand gruesome pains. He felt honored to be a part of it, this last army of the hopeful, the damaged but undefeated, those who had walked into hell and come out stronger for the chance that their world might yet be saved.

And they'd put their faith in him.

Jaune shivered.

Though they may never know it, he had failed them. In his own grief, he had left this world behind, left them all alone. It was luck that he wound up back here soon enough to fix it.

He would not make the same mistake again. These people had come from around the world, fought and bled, seen friends die, because they believed in him and Ruby and Oz. He would not be so callous as to discard their sacrifice, the sacrifice of so many he knew and so many more he didn't. They needed a leader, and apparently he was one of the best people left for the job. He was with them to the end. Do or die.

Warships streaked through the polar sky and prepared for the final gambit of humanity.

That's a wrap. Chapter 1 done and dusted! What do you all think? Ashari was a good fighter, but he said himself he'd never learned much about how to run an army. What happens when circumstance forces him to do just that?