26

Alone in the Woods

Jaune was cold, very cold, and a little numb but he could still feel the shaking. Something sounded in the distance but he tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. He hurt to much to wake up, it was too early.

"Jaune!" Ruby sounded desperate and it was that thought which kick started his mind. In a flash it all came back to him, snapping open his eyes as they focused on the only other person in the dim light, his friend Ruby Rose. The last thing that happened was that they had fallen off the train. Or rather he had, Ruby tried to catch him and guide him back on with her semblance but it had seemed the the strain had been too much for her. Snowflakes dusted her hood and he could feel them landing, and melting, on his face.

The young woman looked like she was about to burst into tears when he groaned and sat up, "Ruby? Are you okay."

"I should be asking you that! You hit your head!" So that was why he felt like he had a rail spike through his head. Jaune managed a weak smile at Ruby's fierce pout as he reached up to feel the not so little bump on the back of his head. Luckily it seemed his aura had protected him mostly.

"I think I'm okay Ruby, there's no blood."Ruby opened her mouth to protest, "I know, It doesn't mean much but it's gonna have to do. We can't exactly stay here."

He stopped and looked at his surroundings, there was a light layer of snow and it had started coming down from the grey clouds. The sun itself was three quarters of the way across the sky which was a problem, it was about one o'clock when the grimm had attacked the train, they'd been out for hours.

"Ruby, how long was I out?"

"I don't know, I only woke up a few minutes ago. Jaune, I'm so sorry!" Her silver eyes watered as she squeezed them shut, hands trembling in her lap. The blond sat up and ignored the sudden bout of dizziness to put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's not your fault Ruby, if anyone should apologize it should be me. I'm the one who lost my balance. You tried to save me. Thanks for that by the way."

"But I didn't I couldn't and now we both fell off the train."

"And you shouldn't beat yourself up about that. You tried and that's what's important. If you hadn't I'd have been left to fall of by myself. So maybe you didn't save us," He made sure to look her in the eyes, "but you saved me."

Ruby didn't look like she liked it but she nodded in acceptance of his logic. Jaune stood up, dusting the snow off of himself and trying desperately to ignore the seeping cold that was threatening to make him start shivering. The girl next to him, as he held his hand out to help her up, looked even colder than he was. As she stood he saw her wince and favor her foot.

"Ruby what's wrong?!"

"It's nothing Jau-" She saw his face and winced again, no doubt deciding not to play it off, "I think I hurt my ankle when he fell. I don't know, I was unconscious and my aura wasn't up."

"Right, lemme see it."

Kneeling down Jaune held out his hands and Ruby tentatively put her left foot in his hands. The knight concentrated for a brief moment and felt his aura pouring into hers.

"Ohhh!" Ruby mumbled and inhaled sharply when she felt the semblance being poured into her. He looked up at her face and she flushed and looked to the side, "It feels weird okay?"

Jaune looked up at her and chuckled, then paused finding it weird that he found anything funny at the moment. The situation was dire, here the two of them were, stranded in a forest probably filled with Grimm. It was winter and the snow would make the trek back to civilization that much harder. By foot he estimated they were probably days from Argus and they had fallen without so much as a ration between the two of them, their packs still on the train.

After a minute of using his semblance on her, Ruby's foot was fully healed and she gingerly put it down before putting her weight on it, "Thanks Jaune. That's pretty handy."

Jaune gave his friend a smile, "Yeah. What's next? Should we sit still? Maybe they'll send someone to find us."

"I think we should head for Argus, follow the tracks North. If someone comes looking they'll find us there but I don't want to risk it with the Grimm."

"Right. It'll be dark soon and we'll need a shelter but most importantly a fire. Warmth is gonna be our biggest problem."

Darkness descended fast as they made their way along the tracks, making sure to use the treeline as cover. Jaune's breath crystallized in front of him and out of the corner of his eyes he could see Ruby's breath in the air. Without thinking he sidled up next to him, their sides occasionally bumping together. It was cold the occasional warmth he got from her was welcome and he could tell the same for her. They could feel the temperature going down steadily with the sun and he couldn't see much of a spot to rest along the tracks. Talking it out they decided to head slightly more into the woods to see if they could find something. They decided to 'make camp' at a downded, half rotted tree, It wasn't much but it was doubtful they'd find something like a cave and making a fire would be dangerous underneath one of the numerous conifers.

Using their weapons they decided to cut some branches from nearby trees and worked quickly to strip them of their needles. Jaune used the flat edge of his shield to scrape away the snow in a large area around where they would be staying. Cutting the branches down they laid them together and that was when Jaune cursed.

"I don't have any flint." Ruby looked at him with a small smile and a raised eyebrow before producing a shell from one of her magazines.

"I thought we were gonna use this anyways." The magazine she had pulled it from had a flame printed on it and she carefully pulled the bullet out of the casing and poured the dust from the cartridge onto the small pile of wood. Jaune took the hint when she gestured at it. He slammed the tip of Crocea Mors into the dust and it ignited instantly engulfing the wood. When the flames died down they found the wood was burning nicely. Ruby grinned at Jaune and he grinned back, with a whoop they high fived each other and sat side by side, shoulders touching, against the log.

As if in after thought Ruby undid her brooch, taking her cape off and draping it across the both of them. When he looked at her funny she chuckled, "For warmth."

"Yeah but it's your Mom's."

She shook her head, "Mom would be disappointed if I didn't use it like this in an emergency, not that I don't want to, I do. I don't mind. Honest."

Jaune couldn't bring himself to really disagree, the cloak was surprisingly warm even if it didn't cover them completely. With the fire there it warmed them up enough. By the time they had lit the fire the sun had fully set and they could spy the fractured moon through the canopy. They stayed side by side like that, Jaune losing himself in the flickering flames for a good while.

"Hey Jaune?" He tore his eyes from the fire to look at the girl trapped in the wilderness with him, "Did you ever imagine we'd be where we are?"

He returned to staring listlessly at the fire while he thought of an answer to her odd question. Did he think he'd be on a quest to slay some Queen of the Grimm? The short answer was no. Being a hero was what Jaune had wanted what seemed like forever ago. He'd been a hopeless optimist when he'd started attending Beacon. No training and no aura he was lucky he hadn't died when Ozpin had launched them from the school's cliff. He'd survived, though, and became the partner of the strongest student in their year, if not the whole school. Again that was his luck and he was surprised it wasn't his semblance seeing as how he should have been outed. Numerous times his lack of skill and training had reared their heads and time and time again he was saved by friends he didn't deserve. He'd realized quickly enough that being a huntsman wasn't the same as being a hero, far from it in fact. The life of a hunter was incredibly dangerous.

"I didn't expect I'd make it this far, honestly. Did I think we'd be chasing down magical relics? No. But if it's anyone it would be you guys. You guys could do anything. Maybe, " He looked to the side, away from her, "Maybe I'm holding you back."

To his surprise he felt something on his chin as his face was moved to stare her directly in her furious eyes, "That's crap and you know it Jaune! My sister would be dead if it wasn't for you. They Tyrian guy might have even kidnapped me and taken me who knows where." Her hand covered his mouth when he made to argue, "It's not a question of slowing us down. We need to stay together to survive what's coming."

Her silver eyes searched his sapphire ones and her hand stayed over his mouth until he nodded, "If you say something like that again I'll tell Yang, and she'll kick your butt." She pouted cutely for a moment until it dropped and a worried look took over, "Because of my silver eyes, the legends say I'm destined to become some kind of warrior. I got into Beacon two years early. Of course I want to help people but this is too much. I'm not some legendary warrior, I'm just a normal girl. I don't want these expectations."

"Nope." The unexpected answer made her look at him, eyes watering in the night air a small sound escaping her lips, "Ruby you don't need to worry about any of that stuff. Like you just said we need to stick together. None of us, your friends, want you to do this alone. Besides, your sister almost left you to do this herself."

Ruby snorted, "She didn't know about Salem or the relics back then. She just wanted to find the person who did this to me." She lifted her prosthetic arm up and waved it vaguely, "I came with to be there with her. She doesn't need me to protect her but if I'm not there and she dies…." She trailed off, struggling for words and Jaune could guess what she wanted to say.

"You want to be there just in case there's something you can do." She nodded, "I get that."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, "You've been thinking about your eyes a lot haven't you?"

"How could I not? I'm told I have some sort of superpower but nobody can tell me more than that. I petrified a dragon, Jaune. And you saw what happened to Cinder. How did I do that?! And I'm expected to do it again? And then there's the fact that Ozpin knew about my eyes. He commented on them when we first met. Is that why I got in early? My eyes?"

Her chest was heaving and Ruby looked again on the verge of tears and before he could think about it his arm was around her shoulders, drawing her in closer underneath the cloak, "I may not know the answers but I can promise I'll be here for you. And I'm sure Yang and the rest of your team and even my steam will stand beside you."

The girl was shivering as she sidled even closer to him as if trying to mold into his side for more warmth. Leaning his head over he noticed the cloak wasn't covering her entirely, she had given him a larger portion. Rolling his eyes at her selfless stupidity he reached his other hand over. It was probably a testament to how distracted she was that she didn't notice until both hands came in under her armpits. With a squeak she was dragged over onto his lap, her face matching her cloak as he readjusted it over the both of them.

"Sorry Ruby, I know it's embarrassing but please bear with it. We need to share more body heat."

Ruby merely nodded and stiffened even further when his arms wrapped around her waist because he had nowhere else to really put them. His face was flushing a bit too, knowing how embarrassing this was and praying that Yang never heard a word of this, he didn't think he'd survive it.

Ruby's heart was threatening to pound it's way out of her chest and into the fire in front of them. Everything inch of her was hyper away of the man whose arms were wrapped around her waist.

I need to calm down. This is for survival! Though it did feel nice. No! He's Yang's, I can't enjoy this!

She turned her head slightly trying to escape the breath on her neck, it was even and constant. Ruby thanked the stars that he was asleep. They'd decided on a watch rotation, Grimm still inhabited the area. Ruby had volunteered first watch if only because she wouldn't have been able to sleep like this, not with her heart hammering away at the close contact with her sister's boyfriend. That alone brought all sorts of problems for her because she found that it was way more comfortable than she'd have thought it was.

No! Bad brain!

She knew she had to give him up but how was she supposed to do that when he did things like this? She almost let out a low whine at the unfairness of it all, and then cursed her brain for thinking things like that in a potentially life or death situation. However as the minutes passed the thoughts faded and she got used to being in his lap, the warmth very welcome, as she waited for her watch to end, occasionally feeding wood to the fire.

Yang was almost pulling her hair out with worry, and that said something about the girl as she paced back and forth in the car they had taken over. It had taken them a bit to figure out Jaune and Ruby were missing and even longer to search the train for them, when that came up empty they realized that the two had never come down from the roof of the train.

"I'm gonna go search for them." Her eyes lit up red as she was slammed against the wall by her partner. She glared at Blake.

"No! I know you're worried about Ruby and Jaune but Qrow went out to look for them. You know that, please stop asking every five minutes."

Instead of responding she merely huffed and looked aside, Blake releasing Yang's collar. Everyone else was on edge too, Weiss promising retribution under her breath if Jaune got Ruby hurt and Nora mumbling about the ex-heiress not being able to with broken legs. Ren reined his partner in with a steadying hand on her shoulder but the man looked as on edge as she had ever seen him.

Her mother stood in a corner, arms crossed and calm but that would be typical, she didn't care about anything but the tribe. Oscar looked agitated, sitting there like he didn't know what to do with his hands. His back straightened and his voice changed when he stood to address her.

"Miss Xiao-Long please try to restrain yourself. Qrow will find them and hopefully Raven can open a portal, bringing the three of them to us." Raven nodded when they looked over to her, "However it is imperative we get the lamp to Argus, I fear it being in the open like this."

"The open? You mean on a train speeding through Anima?"

"Yes, it is safer behind the walls."

"Wouldn't being in a city that big make it worse?"

"It is not people I am worried about Miss Xiao-Long."

It didn't take much for her to put things together, he meant Grimm. But they could handle a few Grimm, though without the firepower of Raven they probably would have had a tough time against the Manticore she still couldn't see why it made such a huge difference. If it had to do with the grim, however, then that meant Salem as well. She still wasn't too sure about the dread queen but if Ozpin was this worried about the Grimm then she must have been able to track it somehow, or maybe the Grimm recognize it.

"What do you mean Ozpin? Why Grimm?"

If it was possible it looked like he was uncomfortable, "Well Miss Xiao-Long that is because the Lamp attracts the Grimm passively."

The only sound in the car was that of the train itself, the occasional clunk as the train moved closer to it's destination. However everyone could tell the temperature went up a few degrees and was continuing to go up. Yang's hands were clenched at her sides, her hair was almost luminous, her eyes crimson. Raven stood a little straighter and placed her hand on the hilt of her weapon.

"You didn't think to tell us this before?" She spit out through grit teeth, "That maybe we should have been prepared!"

No one else made a sound, no one else could as they watched the scene unfold before them, afraid that moving might set the girl off.

"Please Miss Xiao-Long, you have to unders-"

"No! You understand that by your actions you have put Ruby in danger! Those Grimm were only here because of the Relic, weren't they!?"

"Not necessarily."

"But you can't prove they weren't." Her voice lowered to a growl, "You put every single one of these people in jeopardy."

"And how else would you propose we move the relic, hm?"

"I don't know! But maybe we could have found a better way if you had told us anything! If you want us to be a part of your little quest then you need to trust us Ozpin!"

"I do trust you but there are some things that I just don't think you should be burdened with knowing."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" Behind him Raven was smirking from her spot in the cabin, "Tell us everything, now!"

"Things just aren't that simple Miss Xiao-Long."

"No, I believe it is."

The two stood there staring at each other, one seething and the other radiating calmness. The calm mask was broken by a wince, "Oscar, no!" Ozpin shouted to his host.

His body contorted, like the act was bringing him physical harm, "Yang." He- Oscar- grit out, "The lamp! Take it! Her name is Jinn!"

Raven moved instantly by his side before anyone could process what the boy was say, she sweeped by him snatching the golden lamp in her hand as he writhed in pain against Ozpin. Casually, she tossed the object to her daughter.

"No! Yang you-" He was interrupted when a red blad tickled his throat, Raven's other hand on his shoulder holding him still.

Cautiously Yang stared at the lantern in her hand, the glowing blue pulse of it's light feeling almost warm in her hands. She stared at it for a moment and looked back at Oscar, now Ozpin as he desperately reached out to her.

"Yang, please give the relic back!"

That is precisely what she decided not to do. She was done following his orders, not if he was putting them all in danger.

"Jinn?" The relic reacted letting out a large pulse of energy as smoke the color of it's light began billowing out of the vents in it. Worried for a moment Yang covered her mouth with one hand but let it drop when the smoke coalesced into the shape of a large, blue, floating woman. Gold accessories hung from her as she leaned on one hand.

"I am Jinn of the Relic of Knowledge. I know everything, past and current." Her eyes flickered to Ozpin who now had a hand clamped over his mouth as well as a blade at his throat, Raven nodded towards her, "Ask me your question, I still have two answers this century."

Yang's eyes hardened as she listened to the being, Ozpin even lied about that huh? If he won't tell us the truth…

She looked up and met the thing's cerulean eyes, eyes deep and jaded, "What else is Ozpin hiding?"

As the world exploded into whiteness she heard the echo of the old man's shout.

A/N: My internet went out for a while there so this got uploaded late.

Anyways here's a doozy of a chapter that I struggled writing with but hopefully you are satisfied with this.