I do not own RWBY or any of the characters.

Breaking

Fox stared at Jinn, now once again in her lamp form, and in Ruby's hands again. Then, he turned to Ozpin, as did the others.

"Salem can't be killed!" Yang said. "You all heard that too, right?"

"Yes," Fox nodded. "Jinn wouldn't show just one person anything." Except for telling me who I am, he thought. "We all saw."

"What exactly is your plan for defeating Salem?" Yang demanded.

"I...I don't...have one," Ozpin said, tears running down his face.

Fox opened his mouth to speak, only for Qrow's fist to crash into Ozpin's jaw, hurling him backward into a tree. Qrow shouted in rage before the anger left him, Qrow's shoulders slumping, a defeated, empty look on his face.

"No one wanted me, because I was cursed," Qrow said. "I came to you because I thought I'd be doing something good."

"But you are-" Ozpin began.

"Meeting you was the worst luck of my entire life," Qrow said.

"That's not fair, Qrow," Fox said. "Ozpin's-"

"You may be right," Ozpin interrupted.

Then, his irises shown gold and Oscar was left in charge, groaning and rubbing his jaw where Qrow had punched him.

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

"He's gone," Oscar said.

"That bastard!" Yang spat. "Tell him we're not done yet!"

"No, this is different," Oscar said. "I mean he's gone. It's like he locked himself away deep inside my head...our head?" He groaned, clutching his head. "I hate this! I want it to stop!"

"He just left us!?" Weiss asked.

"That sone of a bitch!" Wulfe growled.

"What are we going to do now?" Blake asked.

Yang growled in annoyance and Fox's patience finally broke.

"All of you calm down!" Fox finally snapped, one hand to his head as it throbbed painfully, his memories trying to blend together again. "Your negativity isn't going to help anything! All you're going to do is get us attacked by grimm again. Our situation isn't as bad as you're all thinking. At least not yet. We aren't wading through an army of grimm, so we can assume that Salem doesn't know where we are yet. My guess is that Hazel and the others haven't reached her to report in on their failure and on where we're going."

"How would they know where we're going?" Weiss asked.

"Atlas has the most powerful army," Fox said. "It's safest for us to take the relic there. Plus there's a CCT tower there that we can use to call for help from the other huntsmen academies if we need to. Which I have no doubt we will. I also assume we'll be seeing Cinder again soon."

He stopped, gritting his teeth as a wave of pain flooded through his head, knocking him back several steps. After a moment it faded and he found Ava and Blake beside him, both worried.

"I'm fine," Fox lied. "As I was saying, the sooner we get to Atlas the better. And we'll need Ozpin again."

"Why, so he can lie to us again?" Yang spat.

"Firstly because he's a deadly fighter," Fox growled, eyes starting to shimmer. "Secondly he's my friend, and thirdly, despite being unable to truly stop Salem, he's been keeping the relics and the maidens safe from her for hundreds of years, and trying his best to unite humanity despite Salem's interference. He's been actively fighting against the love of his life, watched his children die in front of him, and anyone he cares about grows old and dies in front of him while he is unable to join them, so how about a little fucking respect!"

As he finished, a pulse of energy shot out his back, ripping the ground apart before pain flashed through his head again, dropping him to his knees.

"Fox!" Blake gasped.

"He needs to rest," Ava said. "His memories are starting to overlap and tear his mind apart from stress, negative emotions, and exhaustion."

"How do you know?" Blake asked.

"Long story," Ava said. "We need to get moving now."

"There is a path over there," the elderly woman said. "I was about to suggest it, but your friend beat me to telling you all to calm down."

"Lady, I don't now who you think you are but-" Yang was cut off as the woman slammed the end of her staff into the ground.

"No buts!" the woman snapped. "I know you're all upset. Honestly I'm still coming to terms with the fact that this is humanity's second time around. But if we don't move, we die, and I'll be damned if I've lived this long just to die out here in the cold! And if what the girl says is true, if we don't get moving quickly, your friend will die, if he's lucky, long before any of us. If he's not lucky, his mind will be destroyed and he'll be left broken and insane, if not worse."

"She's right," Ruby said. "We need to move. And we need to find Fox somewhere to rest quickly."

"He can't walk like this," Blake said.

"I'll carry him," Qrow sighed. "Let's hurry."

They all nodded, Yang and Wulfe quickly digging out her motorcycle before they all started along the path, the old woman sitting on Yang's bike. They moved quickly, Blake and Ava remaining at Fox's side, Blake out of worry, and Ava to monitor his condition, watching as he rapidly deteriorated. Finally, just as Yang was about to complain that there was nothing there, they found an abandoned village, Brunswick Farms. They quickly found an inn and Qrow found a usable room, setting Fox on the bed and pulling the blankets up over him.

"I'm going to check on the others," Qrow said. "Come an get me if anything happens."

Blake nodded and Qrow left. Ava felt Fox's forehead and sighed.

"I need a rag and a bucket of lukewarm water," Ava said.

Blake nodded again and quickly left the room. Ava sighed, turning back to Fox and resting a hand on his hair, stroking her thumb over his forehead.

"Really now, Fox," Ava sighed. "You really are causing a lot of trouble this time around. You should have listened when I tried to tell you to stay close to your anchor." She sighed. "Let's see about those memories, shall we?" She leaned down, gently kissing his forehead, a small flash of white light shooting out from the contact before she sat back, watching as Fox slowly relaxed.

Blake walked in, kneeling beside Ava, who took the rag, dipped it in the water, and rested it on his forehead.

"He looks calmer now," Blake noticed.

"I guess his memories are starting to settle," Ava said. "I think I know why this happened."

"Why?" Blake asked.

"Aside from being tired, I think it has something to do with his anchor, or rather, lack thereof," Ava said.

"Anchor?" Blake asked.

"Someone important to him that keeps him centered on this lifetime," Ava said. "Someone that can keep him...him, so to speak."

"I'll do it," Blake said. "What do I need to do?"

"Just be with him," Ava said. "Constantly, I mean. You've heard of codependency disorder? Where you constantly need someone there to show you they love you, or else you get depressed and start hating yourself? Well, think of this like that, except that instead of hating himself, he loses track of which version he is. He'll get them confused and mixed up, this version of himself, the one in love with you, and friends with all of us will die, and then his mind will shatter."

"How do you know all of this?" Blake asked.

Ava was silent for several long seconds before responding. "Jinn."

Blake watched her silently for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I'll be his anchor."

Ava nodded and stood. "I'm going to go and choose a room. If it seems like he's getting worse again, come and get me."

Blake nodded and Ava left, Blake remaining where she was, her hand in Fox's, watching him worriedly.

Leave a review.

I'm accepting applications for any OCs to have either cameo or maybe join the group for a while, depending on how detailed the description of them and how the story progresses. Don't forget, Fox's team still has an open spot. I'll keep the best one as a replacement. Oh, also, any original Grimm you want to appear in the story, feel free to leave that in a review as well.