I OWN NOTHING

Ruby walked through a city that burned. The plants burned. The animals burned. The buildings burned. The streets burned. The people burned. Ruby burned. Everything was pain and orange flame and hate and rage and sorrow and one thousand despicable curses and Shirou burned.

But still she walked forward. Even as he burned she walked forward. He saw the broken and cooked remains of her family and so she left that part of herself behind to burn as he continued to walk forward. She continued to walk forward and came across another survivor pinned under rubble, but there was nothing Shirou could do for them. So she continued moving forward as he let her empathy burn. He moved forward and burned and realized that there was no hope in this place that might as well be hell, so she let hope fall to burn as well as he continued moving forward.

Everything was given to the fire. Everything of him/her. Everything that made Shirou/Ruby who she/he was, was sacrificed to the fire that was fueled by one thousand curses. Then the nature of the fire changed but it was still hell and hate and pain as her second home burned. Beacon was on fire and creatures made of that hate and rage and one thousand curses against creation rampaged through it. She fought to save an enemy and he was consumed. She fought to warn a friend and she was torn asunder by her own weapons. He fought to save a teammate, a sister in all but blood and she was turned to ash in front of her eyes. Then hate and rage and pain were wiped away by a new sensation. It was like a fire so hot it froze her or an ice so cold it burned him. Blinding light became everything, and then everything was the darkness behind Ruby Rose's eyelids.

Yes, she was Ruby Rose. Her mother was Summer Rose. Her father was Tai Yang Xiao Long. Her sister was Yang Xiao Long. Her uncle was Qrow Branwen. Her best friend was Weiss Schnee. Her hometown was Fuyuki- no, Patch. The one she loved was Jaune Arc. The one she grieved was Pyrrha Nikos.

She could feel tears prick her vision at the memory and the recurring nightmare and she stubbornly fought them back. That would do no good and help no one. Still, it had been a rough few months since the Fall of Beacon and things had been slow to improve. Yang had left for Menagerie as soon as the gash in her side had mended with the intent of finding her girlfriend Blake, the leader of team BRNX. Weiss had managed to survive the burns from the wreckage crashing into her but hadn't been the same since her partner's death. Pyrrha's death had been rough for everyone on team RASN and none of them had really recovered from it yet.

Jaune had come back quiet and sullen by the time they found him. He wouldn't tell them what she had said in the end but the picture he had painted of the vault below Beacon with the scarred woman and whatever the headmaster had tried to force Pyrrha to do painted a worrying picture. With her family's blessing each of them now wore something of Pyrrha's to remember.

The remains of her weapon had been melted down and incorporated into a new dust mechanism for crocea mors. Weiss had replaced her previous ever present tiara with Pyrrha's and now held a modified version of Akouo in her right hand as a buckler in Mistrali bronze with the Schnee snowflake with a spear run through it emblazoned across the front. Ruby herself wore a modified version of their friend's bracers and leg armor. Each now had a bolt of red fabric tied somewhere as well to remember. Whether it be Weiss' scarf, Jaune's sash, or the red wrappings Ruby now wore on her hands and forearms beneath the bracers.

Even now Ruby felt as if she would go to sleep one night and wake up and the last terrible six months would have never happened. They would be late for class, Jaune would be fitting in either training or food, Weiss would be nagging them over something, and Pyrrha would be calling for- "Jaune."

Ruby's eyes snapped open. What was that? That couldn't be real, it had sounded like… "Jaune."

There it was again. Pyrrha's voice calling out. Ruby's eyes snapped open and she scanned the clearing they were camped in. Weiss was still asleep and in her bedroll and so were Ren and Nora, blessing that they were on this trip to Haven for answers. No, the problem is that the bedroll right next to hers was empty when it really shouldn't have been. Jaune Arc wasn't next to her or in the clearing. A quick bit of reinforcement, what she had previously called focus, to her ears and she could make out the sounds more clearly.

A gentle voice and the tell tale grunts of exertion that indicated someone was training greeted her. Quietly Ruby got up and moved away from the camp, a short stroll through the forest as she followed the sounds and she found the current source of her worry. Jaune was training again, Crocea Mors held out in front of him and pointed away at an angle towards an invisible foe and Ruby took in the new shape of the sword. Crocea Mors had been modified with the remains of Milo Jaune had received as well, the blade was wider and heavier, the grip extended to a hand and a half, the cross guard was much wider with a blocky curve and colored in mistrali bronze the stretch halfway up the blade's fuller, and most telling were the new wind dust crystals in the sword. Ruby no longer had access to Unlimited Bladeworks or Structural Grasping but even then she could never forget the sword she saw before her now. It was no noble phantasm, and obviously made by human hands but it was clearly Excalibur.

For a moment they weren't in a starlit clearing anymore but a warm, well lit dojo and rather than a tall knight, she was staring at a beautiful, petite woman with blonde hair and piercing eyes. The vision of the memory filled Ruby and then flowed past. It had become more common since their awakening the night of the dance and Ruby had grown used to the odd moments of deja vu as time passed. Each memory was a treasure to relish and be stored away gently but not to lose herself in, she was Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose and Tai-Yang Xiao Long and little sister of Yang Xiao Long and she refused to throw anything of herself in the fire when she could pull people from it instead. The train of thought was broken though when that same familiar voice cut through again.

"Arms up Jaune," Pyrrha's voice gently commanded. "Feet shoulder width apart. Now let's begin the set." Ruby watched as Jaune moved but he didn't follow the instructions on the scroll. Intricate slashes flowed as she watched Jaune practice movements that she knew came from Arturia. Soon the small clearing was a miniature tornado as Jaune slashed and great gusts of wind flowed out from where it coiled around his blade building into a storm as he used aura burst to become a whirling dervish of steel, his shield forgotten at his hip. And then, as suddenly as he began, he stopped.

"That's good Jaune," cut in the gentle voice of Pyrrha once again. "Now, provided you haven't been cheating, you can go ahead and take a break. Jaune I just want to say how proud I am of you. I've never met anyone so driven to succeed before or to improve at the rate that you have. Jaune…. I… I…" Pyrrha trailed off and her voice cut out to the sound of the recording rewinding. "Arms up Jaune."

"So this is where you were," Ruby cut in as she made her presence known.

"H-hey," Jaune stuttered, clearly surprised, as he turned to face her. "What are you doing up?"

"Just a bad dream," Ruby brushed him off, her problems weren't the point right now. "I had intended to go back to sleep but then I opened my eyes to see my boyfriend disappeared. Thought maybe Caster had tried to steal you away again." She teased as she smiled up at him.

"Heh, no, just getting in some extra practice." Jaune assured her as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "You head on back first. I'll be right behind you." Jaune promised as he looked down at her eyes low.

"Hey," Ruby gently insisted as she held his gaze. "It's okay Jaune, I miss her too. But she wouldn't want to see you tear yourself up like this. Come back to bed? Please?"

"I will," He assured her, eyes still low and trying to avoid meeting hers. "Like I said it'll be just a moment. I'll be right behind you."

"Alright," Ruby hedged, "I love you."

"I love you too," Jaune responded, a more genuine smile covering his face as he said it. And with that Ruby went back to their bedrolls.

-When The Search Ends-

Arturia sighed internally as she watched Shirou head back to bed. The enhanced training regiment had been paying dividends. She wasn't where she needed to be but she was much better off than before, her mastery over this new version of mana burst had grown and though it was no Excalibur or even Caliburn, Crocea Mors had become a fine weapon with the addition of wind dust to allow her to use Hammer of the Wind King and the additional material had allowed her to get it the proper weight and shape.

Arturia felt her mood sour as she thought of how exactly she had acquired the materials. A memory of soft lips on her own but not belonging to her lover. A whisper of apology and gratitude. The tight dark confines of a locker with rockets attached to it and the pain of the sudden crash. The phone call to Pyrrha's partner to warn her of Pyrrha's mistake. The flash of light that could be seen from Vale. An apology from Ruby's uncle as he carried back an unconscious Ruby, a burned Weiss, and the remains of Pyrrha's equipment not counting the spares in her room.

That was why Arturia trained. That was why Arturia took Jaune Arc's ancestral blade, noble in its own right but unable to keep up with what came next, and changed it. That was why Arturia took the fore. Jaune Arc was weak and couldn't be trusted. He was a fine young man, good enough to be her squire, but woefully ill prepared for what was to come. He wasted time on frivolity that could have been spent on training. Maybe then he would have been kept by his teammate to fight together. Maybe then he could have saved a life. Maybe then he could have prevented a second Camlann.

So now it was time for Jaune Arc to go away for a little while. Maybe someday the little boy could have his time in the sun, but now the King of Knights needed to do her work. Work that would need to continue tomorrow, she sighed to herself. Shirou had grown concerned. It wouldn't be right for her to make him worry or lose sleep, so Arturia sheathed her blade and slowly walked back to camp.

Arturia had lost more than any person living or dead. Friends, lovers, children, home, kingdom, country, and her life. She refused to lose anything else to the monster that clawed at the gates. No more teammates, no more friends, no more family, and it would be a cold day in every single hell before she let anyone hurt Ru- SHIROU… Shirou.

This was the promise Arturia made to herself as she lay down next to her lover staring into that angelic visage. This was the promise Arturia would KEEP, after all an Arc never goes back on their word.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hey everyone! Here's the new chapter, sorry it wasn't terribly long but while this scene felt key when I was picking them all out it also didn't have a lot going on. I managed to stretch a minute and a half or two minutes out to two thousand words? I think that's decent enough lol. Don't worry though the last three chapters should all be significantly longer and I just realized we're at the halfway point of the story lolol. I hope you've all been enjoying it and I am genuinely honored that all of you like this small little story so much. In lighter news I've finished the rewrite for Huntsman of the Digital Hazard and posted chapter 7 the first arc of the story should finish next week and then we'll be moving into an original arc from yours truly so if any of y'all wanna sample some of my other stuff now is definitely the time. Also don't worry Huntsman of the Hazard doesn't actually require and digimon knowledge to enjoy.

That should be it, thank you all for coming on this fun little ride with me and I hope you all have a wonderful day. Don't forget to love each other.