The smell of death hit Jaune like a truck, the smell wasn't particularly new to the blond, but the putrid mix of blood, sweat, and rot permeated the air in a way he'd never experienced before, and it took all the blond's remaining willpower to not puke up the little remaining water in his system, he couldn't afford to lose any moisture, no matter how bad it smelled
The gunfire had stopped some time ago, there was little to no sound and after a while, Jaune was being guided by nothing but the overpowering stench of death.
The blond knight kept his eyes on the horizon in front of him for any clues to the location of the firefight he'd heard, and after a few more minutes of shuffling Jaune's eyes settled on at least seven columns of thick black smoke rising lazily just over the crest of the dune he was currently on.
The blond blinked, 'How the hell did I miss that?'
Jaune began the arduous task of shuffling up a giant hill made up entirely of sand, but when he got to the top his eyes widened in absolute, total horror.
Down the other side of the dune, there was what Jaune could only describe as a dusty and old road, of course, it wasn't the road that was filling his mind with abject terror, no it was the sheer number of corpses.
No, 'corpses' was the wrong word, these people were turned into fucking effigies.
Pikes were everywhere along the battlefield, the bodies of what Jaune recognized as deceased guardsmen adorn their shafts, large sigils of blood and gore scattered the ground as well as the sides of charred and smoking vehicles.
Jaune doubled over and emptied what little was left in his stomach. After a few moments of gaining whatever composure he could, the blond knight put on a determined face as the Emperor's words echoed through his head again.
'Will I be able to save them?'
'Some of them, but not all.'
Jaune took a deep breath and drew his weapons, crocea mors in one hand, and his shield in the other, the blond knight started to make his way onto the long deserted battlefield.
The closer he got to the road the worse the smell got, and as he drew closer, Jaune made the executive decision to tie his hoodie around his face to mitigate the smell of death with his own sweat.
It didn't do much, but it was a clear improvement.
The first thing Jaune did was check each and every body that was still intact which much to his disdain was only a handful, his fingers resting on the wrists or necks of corpse after corpse, each of their faces burned into his memories forever.
Two hours later, and the Blond had fourteen shallow graves, each of their bodies having been stripped of their gear and lowered into their hastily dug graves with a burial prayer he'd found in a book labeled 'The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer'. Jaune pocketed the book to read more thoroughly later.
The blond knight sat in front of the other gear he had 'acquired' that he'd layed out on a ratty tarp, A Lasrifle and pistol, ammunition belt, six full charge packs, two Frag grenades, one Krak grenade, a Bayonet, E-Tool, a handful of rations, and what amounted to three whole canteens of water.
Jaune took a long sip from one of the canteens before letting out a long and satisfied sigh, he may not have completely approved of looting the dead, but he didn't have all that much of a choice in his current situation. The only thing he needed to find now was something to hole all the extra gear he'd scavenged.
Jaune looked around for a moment before his eyes fell onto a relatively intact Chimera, scorch marks and small holes covered the vehicle, but apart from that, it was mostly intact.
Jaune grunted as he stood up from his sitting position in front of his gear, and made for the Chimera, he could smell the blood and gore within the vehicle before he'd even reached it.
Jaune took a deep breath before climbing into the mess of a troop compartment, dried blood and guts coated every surface, chunks mangled flesh and metal littered everywhere.
Jaune grimaced, he'd not find anything of use back here, a look deeper into the transport told the Blond that wasn't the case for the rest of the vehicle, however. To the left, there was a rack of ammunition boxes labeled 'Bolter' and to his right, there was a door that no doubt led into the Gunner's compartment.
Jaune opened the door and found his eyes widening in surprise for the umpteenth time that day.
There, on the floor of the compartment, lay a woman, a set of golden blond cat ears set atop her equally vivid colored hair, her petite face was coated in a layer of sweat and blood, her button nose had a thin line of blood trailing from it, and her thin yet full lips were somewhat open, revealing a set of distinctly sharp k-nines. She was a beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that.
A beautiful woman with a large jagged hole in her right thigh. Jaune dropped himself to her side in a second, his fingers searching desperately for a pulse.
*Ba-Bump*
Jaune's face split into a grin as he ripped off his undershirt and wrapped it tightly around the woman's wounded thigh. His eyes wandered the compartment in search of anything that could be of help.
Jaune grimaced when he found nothing. From what he could tell the woman wasn't in the best of shape, and it was clear that if he didn't do something soon she'd die.
Jaune closed his eyes and swallowed hard, no one else was going to die today.
-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-
Val woke up with a gasp, her lungs burned as they tried to take in as much oxygen as they could, the smell of death permeated the air, but the world around her was silent, the only sound being here own rough and labored breathing in the tight confines of what surely should have been her tomb.
Bright shafts of light shining into the gunner's compartment through a number of jagged holes in the plating of the chimera, the floor was coated in a layer of dark and flaky dried blood, the bolt shells that littered the floor of the compartment reflecting the light from the outside all around the compartment.
Had she not been in the situation she would have said it was beautiful, in a sort of fatalistic kind of way.
Val shifted her weight to sit up but immediately hissed in pain as her hands shoot to her injury, to her surprise, the flow of blood had halted completely by a simple bandage tied tightly to the wound.
The woman tried to wrack her brain and remember exactly what had happened prior to her injury, but all she could recall was a Chaos ambush and her injury, anything other than that was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
The sound of heavy footsteps caused Val's eyes to widen in fear, did one of the cultists come back to finish the job, or did they want to pass her around before they ripped her apart and strung her up? Just thinking about what those filthy heretics would try made her stomach churn in fear.
The footsteps were closer now, right outside the gunner's compartment, Val's wide eyes stared in fear at the small metal hatch that separated the compartment from the rest of the vehicle as the latch was opened.
The blond felinid clamped her eyed tightly, no doubt the cultist would wish to spill her blood slowly and painfully, to hurt her in every way imaginable before killing her and disgracing her body.
A second passed, and then another, followed by another, much to Val's surprise nothing happened, no one struck her, the smell of death didn't get any worse, and the only sound within the room was that of metal clinking together gently. Slowly the woman opened her eyes to see a man with golden blond hair dressed in strange clothing with his back turned to her.
From what she could tell, there were no chaos runes, there was some blood on him but it didn't look like he'd put it there purposefully, and when she looked at him her head didn't hurt, which was always a plus.
Val let out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding in, causing the blond man to perk up and turn around. Deep blue meet bright yellow, and much to Val's surprise the man smiled kindly at her before kneeling by her side with a canteen in his hands, he brought the canteen to her lips and motioned for her to drink.
The felinid woman forgot her fear in an instant and began greedily gulping down as much of the water as her dry throat would allow, she hadn't realized how thirsty she had been untill she'd been presented the vessel of water.
Val let out an involuntary whimper the moment the blond man pulled the canteen from her lips.
"Sorry, but there's not much water so we'll have to ration." The man said with a nervous chuckle, "My name's Jaune by the way, it's nice to see I could save at least one of you."
Val could see the young man's demeanor change from kindly to distraught, the felinid woman brought a hand to Jaune's shoulder and put on the best grin she could muster, although all she could manage was a small pained smile, "Thanks, I thought I was a goner for sure."
"Of course," Jaune said with a small smile, "Nothing a little Aura can't fix."
"What?"
"I unlocked you're Aura," Jaune stated again simply, "You would have died had I not."
"What's Aura?" Val questioned suspiciously, her voice taking on a sudden edge that wasn't there before.
Jaune paled.
"Of course she doesn't know, you dunce," Jaune muttered to himself as he tried to wrack he brain to make aura not sound like unsanctioned psyker powers, "It's a sort of.. blessing."
"What kind of blessing?" Red flags were flashing within Val's mind as she tried to make sense of what he meant, what the hell kind of blessing healed those on death's door? The only blessing she'd ever heard of that did that was the Emperor's blessings, but even those were just rumors.
Jaune noticed the woman's growing concern and put his hands up in front of him as nonthreateningly as possible, "It's nothing bad, A.. friend taught it to me, he told me I could use it to help people."
Val stared at the blond for a good moment, her eyes searching for any foul play but came up with nothing. "Who told you that you could help people?"
Jaune's eyes darted around the compartment nervously, the memories the Emperor had shown him told him everything he needed to know about his subjects, especially the fact that they'd probably kill him for heresy if they suspected a hint of a lie when talking about the Emperor, and it was almost a guarantee she'd think he was lying.
"That's not important."
"I beg to differ," Val stated coldly, as she felt the familiar handle of her laspistol in her hands, the barrel shoved into the blond's chest as he nervously glanced between her and the weapon. "Who. told. you."
"T- The Emperor."
Val's eyes narrowed
"It's true!" Jaune stammered out, his mind running a mile a minute as he tried to find a way out of this with them both breathing.
"Bullshit!" Val yelled as she jammed the barrel of her laspistol deeper into his chest, she wasn't exactly sure why she hadn't just shot him already, something was holding her back, almost as if her body knew more than her mind would allow her to in the moment.
"If I prove it to you will you put the gun down?" Jaune bargained.
"Like you could prove the mighty God-Emperor himself gave you the power of his blessings, the only people who are ever graced with such power are Canoness of the Sisters of Battle." Val chuckled to herself before looking him up and down with a cocky smirk, "And you sure as frak don't look like a Canoness to me."
Val watched Jaune in confusion as he sat down a foot in front of her, her laspistol remained trained on him, but all the blond did in response was close his eyes and breath deeply through his nostrils, and let out an equally long exhale from his mouth.
The felinid woman's eyes widened and her mouth fell open as the small compartment was filled with a white glow that originated from Jaune himself. A coating of bright golden flames intertwined with white, covering the blond from head to toe. Val could feel the air around her become purer by the second, a wave of calm washed over her as she stared at Jaune in utter disbelief.
Val gasped as memories flooded back to her, The explosion, the hand on her shoulder, feelings of calm, the visage of the mighty God-Emperor himself smiling down upon her, and the visage of bright blond hair and striking blue eyes.
A hand was placed on her shoulder and another wave of calm washed over her, yellow meet blue again, the laspistol slipped from Val's hands and hit the ground with a loud clang, she finally understood.
-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-
Pyrrha Nikos stared at the empty bed beside her own with wet puffy eyes, the yellow and white blanket was still haphazardly thrown aside just as the owner had left it, an adorable blue onesie was neatly folded up and placed on the pillow of the bed.
Rubbing her face, the red-haired spartan sat down on her now lost partners bed, a black hoodie with the imprint of a bunny on its front clutched to her chest.
Like a damn breaking, hot tears streamed down Pyrrha's face, her shoulders racked violently as she tried to comprehend why. Why did he have to be taken from her?
Pyrrha barely registered the door to her dorm being opened, as the two remaining members of now team NPR entered, Nora was doing about as well as Pyrrha, rivers of tears were rolling down her face, but instead of the violent sobbing of her red-haired friend, she held a blank thousand yard stare, here eyes lacking the normal spark of energy one would normally associate with the girl.
Ren held a blank face, his aura giving off a dull muted glow every couple of seconds, no doubt negating whatever feelings of anguish he'd try to feel at the loss of the person he was proud to call his brother.
They were, in a sense, a family. They lived together, ate together, laughed together, and fought together. But the loss of their leader pained them all more than they could have ever imagined.
It took Nora an hour to regain her own composure, she tried to put on a brave face for Pyrrah, but even the orange Valkyrie knew she wasn't fooling anyone.
After another 30 minutes, Pyrrha had calmed down some, her violent sobbing having turned to quiet whimpers as she curled up into a ball on her former leader's bed, her face blank and eyes empty.
A series of polite knocks caused everyone in the room to tense.
Ren responded and opened the door a crack, his body positioned in a way that whoever was on the other side couldn't see into the room. Surprise etched across his face for a moment before he corrected himself.
"How can I help you, Weiss," Ren spoke politely.
"I've- I've come to give my regards." Weiss spoke, a slight tremble in her voice, "And return something."
Ren swore Weiss's eyes weren't normally that red.
Weiss pulled an olive green heavy jacket from behind her and handed it to Ren, the boy arched an eyebrow, he'd recognized it as Jaunes, but he seemed to recall the blond saying something about having lost it on one of their field trips.
After the end of their first years, Jaune had apologized to Weiss for his constant attempts at courting her and offered to start over. The white-haired heiress accepted and they both became fast friends. It always baffled Ren how one second Jaune could be a stuttering nervous mess, and the next be talking economics with Weiss at the speed of sound.
Weiss noticed the look on green ninja's face, her face morphed into an uncharacteristic look of nervousness before speaking, "Jaune gave it to me, last winter during our field trip to Atlas."
Ren nodded his head and muttered a silent 'goodbye' to the Schnee heiress before closing the door once again.
Ren folded the jacket neatly and placed it at the foot of Jaune's bed.
A feeling of sadness welled up inside the black-haired boy before his semblence negated it once again, with a heavy sigh, Red layed down in his bed and stared blankly up at the ceiling above him.
-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-
"Are you sure it was wise to tell the student body he's dead?" Glynda questioned, her eyes never leaving her scroll, "We still haven't found a body."
Ozpin sipped from his mug and sighed, "And we hardly ever do Glynda, the chances Mr. Arc survived that mission even with the support of RWBY and Qrow are slim to none."
"I suppose you're right then," Glynda sighed, "The town mayor has already commissioned a statue in his honor, Without Mr. Arc's distraction the town would have fallen."
"I believe we have a name to add to the monument Glynda," Ozpin stated simply as he opened a drawer and withdrew a hammer and chisel.
"I agree."
Ozpin took a final sip from his mug, before setting it down of his desk, one hand picked up the hammer, the other the chisel. The headmaster stood up from his desk and left his office under the supervision of Glynda.
ten minutes later and the Headmaster was standing in the main plaza of the academy, in front of him sat a long solid stone wall about eight feet tall, names were etched across its surface, some were in different languages, others were so old they could hardly even be made out. But the recurring theme was they were all heroes of mankind, all of them had given the ultimate sacrifice to protect humanities from the tides of darkness that wished for its destruction.
"Rest in peace Jaune Arc," Ozpin whispered to himself before engraving the boy's name and years into the wall.
"Thank you for your sacrifice."
A/N
I mashed together the Emperor's Blessing that would normally be given to a Canoness, and Jaune's Aura. He's effectively got an on and off switch for the Emperor's Blessing which will definitely come in handy in future endeavors. *Whisper* Definitely not against the inquisition *Whisper*
Also, I probably should have prefaced this earlier, Jaune was in his third year at Beacon when he 'died', ie. no Breach, no Fall of Beacon, no dead P-Money.
I made this decision primarily because I wanted Jaune's disappearance to have a bit more of an impact on those left on Remnant, and the way Canon goes, he's just not close enough to anybody but Pyrrha to really get what I wanted to go for. (Also what's all this spicy stuff with Weiss, eh? ( ✧≖ ͜ʖ≖) )
And finally, I uploaded a cover for the story, it's Jaune and Val in the uniform for the 143rd Valyen Desert Raiders.
As always, if you enjoyed drop a review and tell me what you think I did right or wrong, throw your ideas my way, or just make a prediction on what'll happen next! I'll see ya'll next chapter. :)