-=-=-=One Month Later=-=-=-

Jaune took a long drag from his cigarette, eyes rolling over the lush green forest landscape; it reminded him of the Emerald Forest, Initiation, and his Friend-

"Oi Sarge, come get a look at this!" Jaks said aloud, a pair of binoculars held to her eyes and pointed down the road ahead of them.

The blond now Sargent shook thoughts of the past from his mind and stood by Jaks side, plucking the Binoculars from her hands and peering through them.

"What am I looking at Jak," Jaune said simply, his eyes rolling over a fallen over sign, a small log cabin just off the left of the road, and the burnt out husk of what could have been a car.

Jaks let out a huff and spoke tiredly, "We've got to hunker down someplace before it gets dark."

Jaune put away his binoculars and true to the female medic's words, the sky was beginning to dim and the only place nearby for them to stay with any sense of security would be the cabin. They'd be rolling the dice and taking a risk but it was better to the burnt out car, or Emperor forbids, roughing it under the twin moons and getting cut up by heretics in the dead of night.

The blond nodded before raising his voice, "I want this place locked down for the night Val, Aeris, clear out the inside, Jaks and I will clear the outside, get it done."

The squad echoed out a 'Yes sir' as they readied their weapons and got into a loose single wedge formation, Jaune taking point, Val and Aeris about five meters behind him on either side and Jaks taking up position behind Aeris.

Jaune's own Lasgun, no sporting a few more dents and scratches, was brought up to a low ready, barrel sweeping over the surrounding forest. Each member of the squad doing the same.

The moment they approached the cabin, Val and Aeris broke off from the rest of the squad and silently entered the primitive building, their weapons covering each corner and crevice as they moved from room to room.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the squad cleared the surrounding area of the building, eyes scrutinizing every little detail of the outside.

Behind the back of the cabin, Jaune noticed a couple of auto-gun impacts in a couple of trees, and the main log building itself, along with two relatively freshly dug graves, one looking to be of average size, and the other hauntingly small.

Jaune let a frown form on his face before moving on, his eyes continuing his scan of the area for any threats, when he found none; he signaled Jaks to follow and entered the cabin from the back.

The first thing he noticed was the smell, the scent of blood and death permeated the building in a way only chaos could. The second was the mess, furniture was upturned or broken altogether, and any personal belongings that may have held any value were either smashed or missing.

"Building's clear Sarge, Just one corpse," Val said in a grim tone, her face going dark, "Poor guy offed himself."

Jaks grimaced, "We found two fresh graves out back."

"Heads up, Sarge!" Aeris warned before tossing a small leather bound journal to Jaune, A stenciled wolf's head with two crossed swords on the cover.

The blond man nodded to the Grenadier before flipping the journal open and reading the most recent entry.

One of daddies friends brought him home today, a short fat man, Mommy told me to go to my room and stay there, I don't get why daddy and his friend yelled at each other about mommy so much though, it got quiet for a long time so I came out to see if daddy was okay but he said they took mommy, but that she'd be right back so I didn't need to worry.

Daddy made me a big dinner after, he even let me have a bunch of the sweets he saved up for special rewards, and they were so tasty. He let me have as many as I wanted!

Then Mommy came home, she looked sad, and when she looked at me or daddy she'd cry, I didn't know what to do but daddy said I should leave her alone and let mommy sleep.

Mommy won't come out of her room, and daddies friend keeps coming over to try and help her, he stays in her room with her for a long time but me and daddy always leave when he does, I hope mommys getting better, daddy said that soon everything will go back to normal. I cant wait to see mommy again, I miss her so much

It happened. I wanted to ignore it, to pretend it wasn't true, or that it was impossible, but it fucking happened.

First that fucking bastard Montague took my wife, used her for his own twisted fantasies that piece of shit, spouting self-righteous bullshit about how I was to bow to him because he was the fucking governor.

I wanted the taint not to be there so badly, I wished it away and pretend it wasn't there.

But what he did to Eve!

What that sick son of a bitch did to my daughter? My baby!?

I made him pay. Simple as that.

I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, Eve, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you and Mommy from the bad man.

I'll be seeing you soon baby,

The Emperor Protects

Jaune clamped the journal shut, his hands shaking and eyes clamped shut as he tried to rain in his emotions, all eyes were on him, looking to him for guidance.

The blond took a deep breath before pulling out a cigarette from the inside of his flak vest and lighting it, taking a shaky pull from the white stick. A moment later, Jaune

opened his eyes.

"Where is the body?" Jaune asked Val simply.

"Kids room Sarge."

"Hunker down and set up here for the night, I'll take care of the body."

"Yes, Sir"

Wordlessly, the other three members of Phoenix squad got to work setting up camp while Jaune retrieved the corpse and carried it out the back door.

It didn't take long for camp to be set, so as soon as it was, Jaks left the building out the back and found Jaune digging a man-sized hole beside the two other graves, his flak vest and uniform top discarded to the size, lasgun leaned against a tree just within arms reach of the blond man.

"Why are you digging that man a grave?" Jak asked simply.

"The man deserves to rest with his family," Jaune replied without pause, his focus never leaving his current objective.

"I see."

A silence fell over the two as Jaune continued to wordlessly dig, cigarette in his mouth and knuckles white.

Eventually, Jaune paused in his digging, assessing his grave in progress before nodding his head and climbing out and motioning for Jaks to help him lift the now covered body gently into the grave.

With that done, The blond sergeant mumbled something Jaks couldn't quite make out before picking up his shovel again and start filling in the hole.

"If you're going to just stand there and stare than get inside," Jaune said pointedly, "Or you can grab a shovel and help."

Wordlessly Jaks pulled her E-tool from her belt and began shoveling dirt herself, by the time the sun had fallen behind the trees, painting the sky a beautiful mixture of blue purple and orange, the grave had been filled and marked.

With his job done, Jaune collected his gear and returned to the rest of the squad, leaving Jaks to pay her own respects, and read the inscription on the grave.

A simple 'Julius' had been scratched into the horizontal plank.

-=-=Remnant - Beacon Academy=-=-

Pyrrha woke with a jolt, sweat soaking her sheets. For the third night in a row, the same dreams haunted her sleep.

Dreams of what she could only describe as utter chaos, a cacophony of whispers so jumbled she couldn't make sense of anything, booming explosions, screams of terror, of complete and utter agony.

But just as quickly as she awoke, the dreams faded into the void, Pyrrha scrunched her brow, her mind focusing on the dream she had just had, but to no avail.

With a heavy sigh, Pyrrha silently got up from her bunk and slipped from the dorm, muscle memory bringing her to the one place that brought her comfort.

The rooftop.

A/N

Oh hi, didn't see you there, pretty crazy to run into you here-

Yeah, I'm not even gonna try that shit, I've been gone for an unholy amount of time and the only excuse I have is I bought my first 40k models and have been building and painting pretty much every night since.

But it is the will of the Emperor that this story continues.

Mostly on account that I have no money and three armies worth of painted minis.

I've also made a discord for my stories so you guys can kick my ass and get me to write a bit more, as well as talk to me in real time about the stories or just yell at my lazy ass.

https : (forward Slash x2) (Forward Slash) Jc3M7kc