Would that I could forgive you, brothers. But, no. Neither of you ever cared in the end. Give them my regards, will you?

Jaune's eyes cracked open with the coming of dawn, sneaking beneath the thin curtain of their balcony window. He could see, from the fact that the alarm clock next to time still showed 6:43 in red analog, that Nora, at the very least, had not woken up early like he had.

Gingerly he pulled himself up to a sitting position. Nora's gentle snores carried across the small room, the only sound outside of the birds singing to one another outside on the edges of Beacon Academy's tiled roofs. His head, Gods be praised, now only hung from grogginess. His headache had long passed and as he gently picked himself out of bed, his pyjamas on his skin didn't irritate him in the way they had.

Saturday. At least for a couple days he could enjoy himself. Maybe he could dedicate the time to trying to make progress on the upcoming tests, so he might be able to form a plan to get good grades for himself as well. He smiled ruefully as he entered the walk in closet to dress knowing full well that he planned to simply take it easy. After all, after everything he put up with, he really needed to wind down.

It wasn't until he'd stepped back out into the room that he noticed Pyrrha's bed was empty. Jaune adjusted Crocea Mors on his belt, checking it was snug and wouldn't embarrassingly come loose or tangle in his legs, he left the dorm before the clock could reach 7AM and bring Nora to bear down on him again.

"Jaune!"

He jumped, slamming the door shut behind him. That would piss Nora off. Turning, his anxiety boiled at a fever pitch. Pyrrha faced him, hands on hips and expression stern, dressed in her neatly ironed school uniform. "H-hey, Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha sucked in a breath. From the hard look in her eyes, and the way her jaw was set, Jaune wasn't sure he wanted to hear whatever she might say. "I want to help you."

Jaune groaned internally. More pestering, more prodding and pushing him. "Look, you guys are worrying over nothing. It's just a lot of stuff-"

"You faked your way into Beacon. You're barely passing tests, your swordsmanship still hasn't improved one bit, and the team is suffering for it." Jaune wilted, his protests never passing his lips. "Come eat breakfast with me."

Her green eyes held him. No matter how he might want to get away, go lounge around team RWBY, maybe, he knew there was no getting out of this. An Arc holds themselves to their duties. As Momma Arc had always said.

"I could use something to eat, I suppose."

Pyrrha held him a moment longer, studying him, then nodded briskly. At least the smile she gave him was friendly. As he walked with her to the cafeteria, he tried to push his anxiety back in the box.

As they passed the elevator that rose to the headmaster's office, listening to Pyrrha chat idly over some fact about dust she found fascinating and how he might be able to use it to compliment his fighting style, which he wasn't sure he really had, Jaune felt something tug at him. Hard enough that he was suddenly veering to one side, balancing on a foot as he windmilled with his arms to keep his balance as he lost the last bit of his footing.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha caught him before he could crash into the elevator doors. She looked down, face open in worry. "Are you feeling dizzy?"

Jaune, head spinning, feeling his stomach lurch like he might throw up, nodded carefully. "Yeah, uh, just a little bit of vertigo." He let Pyrrha help him to his feet, trying not to think too hard about how nice she smelled. Like strong, musky flowers with a harsh undercurrent of earth. It was fitting for her.

She had her arms wrapped around his waist, a hand to his chest, checking that he could support his weight and stand properly on his own. For a moment, when their eyes met, Jaune suddenly felt loneliness and regret smothering him, like balloons bursting. Those beautiful, green eyes. How he missed-

Then it was gone, and he was left blinking, confused. "Pyrrha, er, you can uhm…" He swallowed. Too close. She was too close and it was making his thoughts turn to sticky mush.

Pyrrha stepped back hastily, hands dropping to rest by her thighs, cheeks showing a hint of red. She turned her eyes to the side. "Sorry! You're okay? Breakfast?" Even in her flushing, she kept her grace.

Pretending to check that his uniform was smooth in order to not look at her, Jaune nodded. "You know what they say, the most important meal of the day!" He grinned at her. She smiled back, as if she actually thought it was funny or something that he rhymed.

Jaune looked over his shoulder, though, as they left the hallway. It had felt like he'd been pulled but that was impossible. He must have just lost his balance, he reasoned. It had to have been his balance. He really sucked at balance.

That's what he told himself as he sat down at a table, breakfast tray in hand, across from Pyrrha. The cafeteria was less full on the weekend, most students either still asleep or choosing to go out of the academy grounds to find food not on the menu. He liked that, today. Glad there was no team RWBY to watch him flounder in front of his team again.

Pyrrha sat calmly with her hands to either side of the tray, not touching her food. Her expression was open and friendly, but Jaune only saw how pretty she was today. Her crimson hair, a feature he still wasn't sure was natural. Emerald eyes that shone with a deep wisdom and fondness and care. Lips curled in a soft, gentle smile. He found himself unable to look away.

"Jaune, you're… Er, a-are you yawning? Are you okay?" She looked down at her tray, brushing a strand of hair from her pace with a thin finger. Jaune snapped his mouth shut.

"Sorry, just uhm, didn't sleep very long last night. You know me, always studying, working hard, studying, doing, uh, team stuff…" He trailed off, sounding an idiot even to his own ears. With extra, jerky force, he speared a chunk of pear with his fork and stuffed it into his mouth to shut himself up.

Pyrrha hmmed, glancing up at him with knowing eyes. "Jaune, I… I overheard something yesterday." She watched him expectantly. He hadn't the faintest idea what it might be. His blank expression seemed to tell her as much, by the way she smiled sympathetically. "Jaune, look, I… I know the troubles you've been having. You told me about… About your difficulties with the entry tests."

Jaune swallowed roughly, wincing and regretting that he didn't chew the fruit. He coughed lightly, ignoring Pyrrha's worried looks. "It's okay, Pyrrha. I'm working hard to make sure that it's okay, I promise."

Pyrrha nodded, smiling gently. "Yes, I can tell; Cardin is suddenly getting high enough grades to put him in the top thirty percent of most classes."

Oh. Jaune licked his lips, feeling like she'd just brained him with a rock. Shame made his stomach flutter, frustration prickle. "Pyrrha, I asked you to-"

"You're a part of my team, Jaune. If you wont be our leader, at least be a part of our team." She said the words with all the care in the world, like she might be breaking the death of a beloved family member to him, but it still stung regardless. For all his efforts to keep his shame from them, she knew. Did any of the others?

"I-"

"Let me help you, Jaune. We can work this out together. I know we can. You're such a great person and I can see the potential in you. Let us help." She slid a hand across the table to him, fingers outstretched for his.

He wanted to reach out and touch them, to feel her skin against his. He was inexplicably filled with the desire, the need for it. Hot, fierce desire. He tentatively reached out, hand shaking, confused by his feelings but not caring. Something screamed caution in his mind, as if some disembodied voice was warning him that it was too soon. Things weren't right.

He hesitated at the last moment, the tips of their fingers only inches apart. He looked up at her, meeting her glossy eyes with his own. He felt like the mountainous weight of eternity had suddenly shifted to nestle on his shoulders. "Jaune?" He saw her mouth, but didn't hear the words.

Instead he found himself standing in the middle of a soon-to-be-battlefield. Wind howled down off the mountains on the horizon, carrying the death knells of her forces' battlehorns, their blares fell and grating to his ears.

He gripped the reins of his horse tightly, glaring up at the frost capped peaks of Atlas that seemed spear points to the black slate below them. The army around him milled about with fervor, carrying massive planks of wood, stones for catapults, giant bundles of ballista bolts to and from where they were needed to finish setting up for the upcoming slaughter.

The sun shone down on them, making the snow crust of the field sparkle and glisten and make his eyes hurt whenever he looked down at it. He took one hand off the reins and rubbed the thick stubble on his chin, feeling a familiar scar. A nervous battle tick he'd picked up somewhere along the way.

The men were tired. Beaten after tens of little skirmishes over the last week. It showed in the way they carried themselves, eyes dull and shoulders slumped, their armour too well worn and unpolished, dented in some places.

He heard the sounds of Ruby Rose and Oscar Pine approaching before he saw them. Ruby brought her black stallion to rest next to his own brown gelding. "Jaune, the General wants to keep pushing ahead. He thinks we can outnumber them if we manage to push up the mountainside without losing too many." The sound of her voice said she didn't agree, nor did the sad look in her eyes as she stared up at the looming mountains.

Jaune grit his teeth, angry. He could do nothing if Ironwood wanted to run the Atlas military into a wall of death. Nothing. "Damn him." He spat.

Oscar brought his horse to the other side of him, leaning in the saddle with his arms crossed. He smiled humorlessly out at the battlefield. "He's attempting a crazed gambit. A man who spends all his life running from demons has to turn and face them eventually. He thinks we've lost. Thinks we're going to die." Jaune eyed Oscar wearily. They'd known one another for such a long time. But he still didn't know if he was looking at Oscar or Ozpin or Ozma or whatever he called himself. Not anymore. Not since Oscar had supposedly made peace with it.

But, yes. Ironwood seemed ready to simply throw lives into a meat grinder and be done with it.

Ruby sighed. Her red cloak was pristine as always, and her eyes practically glowed with the power that she held. Power that she held and mastered. If there was anyone Jaune was afraid of Salem getting her hands on, it was her. Despite her air, she looked just as tired as the rest of them. Dark bags underlined the brilliant silver and her hair was a little more unkempt than usual. She hid it better than some, he supposed, but the fight was wearing her down, too. "I wish Weiss could be here for this." She said, grinning. "Instead of dealing with aristocrats and trying to keep… whatever kingdom is left, together."

Jaune couldn't help but agree. Weiss' semblance could have been incredibly useful. He turned his attention back to the mountains, thinking that Ruby had finally started to wear her age. "Do you think you can do enough to keep us alive if Ironwood goes through with his plan?" He asked her.

She seemed thoughtful for a moment, though he saw her eyes darting across the field, to the mountain. Taking it in, trying to calculate. Ruby was a brilliant strategist. Almost as good as he was. "I don't know," She answered, sounding worried. "We've pulled off some crazy plans before, but this… This is…" She trailed off sadly, shrugging her shoulders. The light in her eyes seemed to dim a little, as if someone had blown out one candle out of twenty. "Maybe we should try and convince him to fall back. Or at least to hold."

Jaune nodded. He was thinking the same. Ozpin- Oscar, grunted in agreement. "We've seen too many angry, scared men throw lives away before. We can't let it happen again." Jaune wasn't sure if by "We" Oscar meant the three of them or him and Ozpin.

This is going to fail, Jaune. You can't win this. It's over. You have to try again.

He tightened his grips on the reins of his horse, grinding his teeth together. She'd been telling him this for months, yet they kept on fighting and kept winning. You're wrong. We don't have to. Not this time. He thought back.

If it gets to be too late, then you'll throw everything away. Is that how you want to end this? This great fight of yours? By being stubborn?

Feeling like he wanted to punch something, he jerked on his reins. "Lets go try and convince Ironwood!" He shouted, already galloping back towards the command tents. Ruby and Oscar fell in behind him.

Jaune blinked. Pyrrha sat across from him, waiting for an answer. Jaune let the fork in his hand drop with a clatter. He shivered, as if he could still feel the wind. Could still hear those horns in the air. The fork bounced off the tray and onto the floor below.

Pyrrha jumped as Jaune jerked his hand back. Who in all hell was Oscar and what was his relation to Ozpin? Jaune hardly even knew who Ozpin was aside from the guy who let him stay at his school. Pyrrha watched him questioningly, face stark with worry. Again, that feeling of gratitude that he was able to see her, speak to her in person.

Shaking, he stood up from the table. "Pyrrha, I- I'm sorry, okay? I just… I need some time to think. To figure out…" He shook his head. He didn't have an excuse. Whatever that was, it had felt so real. Too real. He shivered.

Shoulders tight, he left Pyrrha sitting alone in the cafeteria with her food. He tried to pretend that it surely wouldn't hurt her much, but he knew it would. He didn't know what to tell her.

He had started walking with no real direction, but he found himself standing outside the elevator doors to Ozpin's office again, with no desire to keep going forward. He felt half crazed. Maybe it was all the extra stress of dealing with Cardin, his team poking their noses into his business and just making it worse. Maybe that's what was causing these strange feelings, that… That vision. He laughed, feeling nervous. Maybe stress was making him crazy.

Yet, as he turned his back from the elevators, he found he couldn't take a step. Not a single one. He had to get in them. He had to. He had to. He turned back, brow furrowed. "Okay. This is… This is too much." He mumbled, ordering the elevator to come to his floor. "This is really, really stupid, Jaune. What are you gonna do, head up to see Ozpin and ask him 'Hey, I'm going crazy and seeing things. Who's Oscar?'" He shook his head, laughing. Trying to ignore that he was talking to himself.

The elevator dinged, the doors sliding open. "No, yeah. That's real smart, Jaune. Why not bring attention to yourself. Have the headmaster himself check into your credentials. If he doesn't just kick you out on the spot anyways." Jaune shook his head, feeling foolish as he punched in the numbers into the pad he knew would take him down.

"Maybe," He began, leaning against one side of the elevator and staring up at its ceiling. "After you get yourself kicked out, you can spend more time trying to woo Weiss. Wouldn't that be kind of cool? I'm sure you could find work enough to stay in the city, avoid going home. I bet she loves the kind of guy with a little bit of cash to spend."

The elevator dinged a second time, doors opening to a long, dark cavern. Jaune stepped out casually, still talking to himself in the third person. "I bet if the Weiss thing didn't work out you could try talking to Yang. She's pretty chill and-" His words cut off. The elevator doors closed behind him.

"Wait!" He shouted, turning to the carriage. There was no pad, no button to press to make them open again or call it back. His voice echoed, bouncing off of tall, stone cliff walls.

He turned back, feeling cold. He saw a long pathway that winded out before him like a snake, a thin walkway that seemed to stretch out and grow thinner until it just disappeared. He turned back to the elevator, hoping he might find the door were open. They weren't. Suddenly he was afraid. What if they found him down here? He was certain he wasn't meant to be here. Certain that if they found out, Glynda Goodwitch, Ozpin's right hand, would switch him and make him pay for it. Some way or another.

Maybe they'd expel him. He whimpered, turning back to the winding path. He took a step forward.

The world lurched with his step and he almost fell over. Only then did he notice the drop. His eyes widened in thoughtless terror as his center of balance shifted over the edge and he saw an endless drop. He almost felt like he saw stars down there, but he couldn't tell, nor did he care. Shouting, he windmilled his arms, leaning back as much as he could.

"I don't want to die!" He screamed. He really, really did not want to die.

He fell back, landing on his ass with a thud. To his surprise, the ground beneath him was smooth, almost like glass. Swallowing harshly, he stood back up on his feet. He glanced back at the elevator. Maybe he should just wait for someone to come down here. Surely someone would. Right?

He looked back out at the winding path and was walking before he even knew it. The world no longer lurched with the steps he took. "You're crazy Jaune. Crazy." He mumbled to himself. Yet he kept walking. He didn't know why, didn't even think to question it. He simply had to walk.

He didn't stop until, looking back, he could no longer see the end of the path in any direction at all. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, his knees wobbly. Peering over the edge of the sideless path, all he saw was an endless fall looking back. He tore his gaze away quickly and shouted with a start, hastily taking a few steps backwards.

His foot nearly stepped off the stone. He almost fell again, that time, but once again he caught his balance by the throat and kept himself upright. A few meters in front of him, a slab of grey stone had materialized out of the air and placed itself before him. He waited for it to jump at him and then realized how stupid that was.

Wheezing, he doubled over with his hands on his knees and tried to bring his breathing back to normal. It was an effort but he managed. Despite his hopes, when he looked up the slab of stone was still there.

Gingerly, he stepped forwards, unsure of what he was afraid of happening but knowing it was good sense to be afraid of things that tended to just appear. Especially in creepy, hidden basements like this one at the bottom of a really old building owned by even more ancient institutions. Nothing happened to him as he drew closer and his concern started to morph into cautious curiosity.

Upon closer inspection, the stone black seemed almost like two different pieces, a thick frame around an inset slab of stone, both made of the same material. Almost like a door and a frame. He felt drawn to it, so he drew closer. "Woah there, Jaune. Be careful." He warned himself even as he brought a doubtful hand up with the intention to touch it. He paused, that feeling of doubt and cautiousness taking a center position in his thoughts. What was he doing? Why wasn't he scared out of his mind; why had he walked out here?

He attempted to withdraw his hand, but like when he'd tried to walk away from the elevator that had brought him here, he could not. His hand hung in the air as if held by some invisible force, except the force was him. He licked his lips, noticing for the first time that this place had no feeling. No sounds, no frightful breeze that threatened to push him just enough to make him teeter off the edge, no smells…

Yet, despite knowing these things, he stood there. Wanting to touch it. He felt as if his hand was tethered to the door, like there was the subtlestest sensation of it pulling him forward yet also with such strength that he couldn't pull away. His eyes widened as he inched ever closer, unsure if it was because he wanted to or if he simply had no choice at all. He felt like he was caught up in a whirlwind but his feet had been nailed to the ground.

He knew then, that if his fingers touched the door, he would die. He knew it and it terrified him, yet with all that knowledge of his own demise, he was only a hair's breadth from finding out what it would feel like. Even then, he also knew. Knew that it meant death.

"Not yet."

The tether was broken. The feeling was like a rubber band snapping, the tension that forced him to move gone. He stumbled backwards, crying out, his feet slipping out from under him. Heart in his throat, Jaune realized he didn't want to die. Not anytime soon.

His fall to death was abruptly interrupted by a pair of arms on his shoulders. He blinked, still reeling. The arms wrapped around him, pressed him close in an embrace. They lowered him to the ground and he let them; he knew these arms. They were familiar to him.

"It is good to see you like this again." The voice told him. It sounded otherworldly, too full and rich with some beautiful sound he couldn't possibly describe and too hollow to be human. But they were warm arms. "It has been too long. Always it is too long." Somehow the sound of the voice was sad to him.

Looking down, Jaune saw the arms that held him. They looked human in shape, long and slender across his chest, but they glowed in the purest silver and he gasped in shock when he realized the glow seemed to waft off the arms in a thick mist. The voice laughed and it sounded like wind chimes. They squeezed him for a moment; just a second, but he would have stayed there for as long as they let him. At least, part of him would have. A part of him that he wasn't even the least bit aware of.

Too soon the arms let go, but they remained to help him stand up. Jaune knew part of him was in shock by the way he could hardly think, by how normal everything felt when he should, in fact, be terrified. As he turned around to face his surprise savior, a little bit of that shock found its way to his psyche.

He thought in the depths of his shock that the woman before him was a goddess. She hovered inches away from him, long silvery hair that flowed like woven silk tapestry fanning out over her shoulders, her chest, her back. Her sharp, angular face, deep black eyes that sparkled as they watched him, their depths too deep for him to know anything that might be found within them. The thought that he was seeing into the universe itself skidded dully across his mind, like a leaf in a wind that bore it away as soon as it had come.

He couldn't tell if she wore clothing, though he didn't think it mattered either way. Every inch of her body glowed fiercely, obscuring most of her form, making her seem ghostly in the way the mist formed around her like a miasma. "Everytime, for you, it is so soon. Yet I must wait eons." She sighed. Her voice made his knees weak and her sigh made him want to cry. "It is good that we meet again. Good that you came." He got the impression that she smiled at him.

Jaune tried to form words with his tongue, yet nothing came out. She made a sound that was almost like laughing, he thought, and her eyes like deep oceans of stars glittered with a thousand wondrous lights. "It is often we have met like this. How I do adore them." She rose a hand towards his face and despite his infatuation he jerked away. She didn't pause. When her fingers gently brushed his cheek, raising to trace the edge of his face, fingertip along the ridge of his eye, he shivered as if he'd fallen into a frozen lake in the dead of a winter night. "It pained me so much to see the suffering you endured last time. I'm so sorry." Her voice came like a whisper of wind between trees." He didn't know why a tear rolled down his cheek. He didn't know why he couldn't think.

She gave off that impression of smiling again. "There. It is done. My Wielder, it has begun again. I am sorry that you do not remember now but you will. I will be here to guide you." She stepped close to him and she felt like heat. His lips trembled as she embraced him, moving what seemed to be her lips to gently kiss his ear. "It is time for you to go."

He blinked and was alone. He felt… cold. Sick to his stomach. "Hey!" He shouted out, nearly frantic, spinning on the spot. He was somewhere else, now. The…

The elevator hall?

Jaune backed away into a wall, searching blindly with his hands just to see if the wall was real. It was. Had that been another… another daydream? Like he'd had in the cafeteria with Pyrrha?

Yet, he could still feel the tingles on his skin where her fingers had touched him, the warmth of her lips on his face. Jaune shivered. "What's happening to me?" He muttered, clutching at his stomach. "I'm crazy." He decided. Only a crazy man would see things like this, experience the things he'd suddenly started to experience. He chuckled nervously.

But Ruby and Oscar needed him to convince-

"No!" He snarled, pushing off the wall. Oscar didn't exist. He barely even knew who General Ironwood was supposed to be, or what Weiss' semblance could do, it- It didn't make any sense. Just a vivid dream he must have remembered from last night. There was no battle in Atlas. There was nothing but his efforts to stop himself from being booted out of Beacon.

He dove into that sea of thought, letting its current pull him back to reality. It worked. He found himself standing with steady breath soon enough, feeling foolish for letting himself get so worked up over dreams. He laughed, relief washing over him. Pyrrha must be right; he really wasn't doing well. Suddenly deciding today was probably better spent catching up on sleep he'd missed, Jaune made for his dorm.

When he opened the door, Pyrrha was there. She turned her head up when he entered, pausing in shining a shin plate, or maybe an arm guard. "Jaune, are you alr-"

"Sorry, Pyrrha. I need to rest." He told her, cutting her off.

"Jaune, where did you go?"

He kicked off his shoes and flopped onto his bed, groaning as he pulled the cover over himself. "Here. I went here."

Pyrrha stayed silent a moment and he tensed, waiting to hear more. Then he heard the rhythmic soft sounds of her greased cloth against metal and let out a breath. "You've been gone for six hours." She said quietly.

Beneath his covers, Jaune was cold as ice as he tried to fall asleep. Tried to ignore Pyrrha's words.

Thanks for the kind reception!