A/N: Noooo! I had this oneshot finished! It was perfect! I accidentally deleted instead of uploaded! Well, I'm rewriting this on my phone, my tablet is broken and I'm waiting on the replacement. Such is life, I guess. Excuse any mistakes or weird formatting problems this laptop is mega laggy. I saw a similar fic and liked the concept so put my spin on it.
Jaune panted heavily, his back to a tree, he was working up the nerve to peek out at the destruction of several dozen trees his pursuer had downed in an effort to bring him into the open. It had been ten years since he had betrayed them, straying to the dark side and joining Salem's minions. This was only the third time he had crossed paths with Ruby. He had his reasons for leaving the light, reasons he knew they would never understand, but reasons none the less. She was shouting at him again, words of hope and promise, she still wanted him to rejoin the light, she never had given up on him, something he learned through brief encounters with his exteammates across the years. His goal, his reason for joining Salem was moving father and father out of his reach as the days, weeks, months, and years trudged by. In all honesty his conviction was near the breaking point, as such he hadn't spoken a word the entire encounter, a vat difference from their first meeting years back.
He was on one of his first solo missions for the queen, an odd job at an out of the way little village. He had been there for a few days, acutely aware of the unwanted presence of a lone huntress, he hadn't known that huntress was Ruby until he called down the first swarm of grimm. The dazzling silver flash that decimated the first wave was a dead giveaway. Though he wouldn't say he was even remotely sorry that the first wave was eliminated, he always secretly hoped every mission failed, well at least he hoped no one was hurt or killed because of his missions. He had joined the dark, sold his soul to the devil herself, but he still had a heart. When the two inevitably crossed paths in the chaos he had been met with her righteous indignation and fury, she came at him with all she was worth demanding to know why, angrily lecturing him about the hurt he caused his friends, and soon enough the façade of anger fell and she was quietly crying. Begging him to come back, there was still time, everyone would forgive him, words full of truth and heart. This was the first time his conviction cracked and wavered, it took everything in him not to crack. He had only one choice to get back on mission, he called down another wave of grimm. She agonized for several long seconds before flitting off in a burst of petals to do her job as a huntress and he escaped like a thief in the night back to his mistress Salem. Her words of hope haunted him for months.
A few years later he was on a simple recon mission in Minagerie, he had been there for a few weeks when he ran into a small child sobbing his heart out. He still had a heart, he was still human after all, so he comforted the little one, took his hand and walked through the town looking for the kids parents. His head was turned, scanning a group of people behind him when the child tugged his hand free and took off, shouting "mama". Jaune smiled, at least he did one good dead, he could hear the little one telling their mom about "the nice man". He turned to wave goodbye when his jaw dropped, Blake flattened her ears and pulled the child into a protective embrace. Yang... that was the first time he had ever had the displeasure of being the focus of the fiery brawler's fury. She shouted him down for betraying the, asked him if he knew how badly his leaving hurt everyone, demanded to know if he was proud of himself or of the damage he had done in the name of Salem. There may have been more but he had to focus on escaping, thankfully the town was huge and the chaos of a brawl in the streets brought enough onlookers a well-placed punch from Yang sent him into a large crowd where he stayed low and managed to slink into the shadows. His mission was only half done, but he had no choice but to do a tactical retreat. He learned the meaning of disappointing Salem, he would never forget the punishment for disappointment.
A few years later his path finally crossed that of Ren, Nora and Oscar. Secretly he was glad to see Ren and Nora as strong together as ever, and Oscar had grown into a fine young man, but this encounter was one of the most draining. Ren had fought him bitterly, though Nora's heart was only half in it. Weren't they family? Didn't he know how hurt they would be by his betrayal? Didn't he care? Weren't they brothers? He was nearly at his breaking point, nearly ready to give in and tell them everything, this had been the meeting he had most dreaded, other than crossing paths with Ruby again, Ren and Nora WERE family, they could sense the cracks in his conviction and the softening of his heart. Ozpin ruined it all starting in on a sanctimonious lecture of right and wrong and forgiveness, his words sounded hollow, it was till so very easy to tell when Ozpin and Oscar were in control. The subtle differences in their words, tone, ect, he very much sounded like a father scolding a petulant child. He would have to thank Ozpin for reminding him why he turned his back on all of this all those years ago. That wasn't true, honestly Oz had nothing to do with his decision. Nora very nearly killed him when he knocked Ren unconscious with a sucker punch to get away. Still it was kind of nice to know one of the core truths of their group remained "If you mess with the Ren, you get the Nora" H iui s jaw took three days to heal, even with his abundance of aura.
He had wizened up and began using a disguise when in public, ironically a blue hooded cloak was his go to. It came in handy, especially on his spying missions in Atlas, Salem was after any news on new mine locations the SDC was scouting. Weiss tended to frequent the same few restaurants for meetings, she had spent years working to reorganize the SDC with her mom and siblings. She almost always got a phone call from one of his exfriends, he was always glad to hear they were all doing well, though he was always as worried as Weiss was to learn Ruby was still working alone. He knew why, Salem had sent people after her numerous times over the years, though in the last three years there hadn't been a single attempt to increase the chances of the next attack being successful. The silver eyes were a thorn in her side, and with good reason. He was hidden in the corner of a little cafe watching and listening to Weiss talk over the possibility of a remote island having dust resources when she suddenly cut the conversation short. Her gasp and subsequent panic making it obvious Ruby had been attacked. Jaune cursed under his breath, they were setting plans in motion without him, thankfully he managed to overhear Weiss instruct that Ruby be brought to the Atlas hospital.
He had become quite good at sneaking around truth be told, so it wasn't a surprise when he made it to Ruby's room undeterred in the middle of the night. His breath hitched at the crisscross of stitches across her face. He sighed in relief when he noticed none of the marks were too near her eyes. Thank the gods Salem still had some inept lackeys. Still, scars just wouldn't do anything for her look. He took her hand and allowed his semblance to flow through her, frowning at how depleted her aura truly was. The new kid was terrifying if he were being honest. He scolded her sleeping form, complaining that she wasn't being a hero working alone as she had been. He knew she had resorted to that behavior to spare any of her companions the guilt if the worst happened while she was with a group. She was being selfish, if she was seriously injured or killed while alone the rest of them would just blame themselves. It was a classic case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't." he knew that scenario all too well. He had gotten so lost in his scolding and rambling he hadn't heard the door open. He managed to jump out the window and glide to safety, Weiss shouting after him to stay away. The news the net morning was singing the hospital's praises, claiming their state of the art technology completely cured aura depletion in only a few hours. He smirked at Mercury's accusations when he returned to the lair, it was the hospital, not him, it was even on the news after all.
That had been a few years ago, he didn't regret healing her those years ago, but, man had she gotten stronger. She was still pleading for him to come out and just talk to her! Talking was off limits, his fragile conviction couldn't handle her words of redemption and forgiveness. He would remain silent, he closed his eyes and made a decision. He would rejoin the battle, if he won he would remain on his dark path, if she won, he would take her offer and work on repenting for his sins. It was a gamble, his aura was very low, hers had broken, he took a breath and shouted as he ran out sword and shield drawn. An hour later he fell to his knees sobbing as his last hope lay unconscious, defeated. Days after later he returned to Salem, gave his report and headed straight for Merlot's lab. A tube of bubbling purple met him as always, inside floated a being more grimm than human, but if he were to believe the mad doctor, bits of Pyrrhas soul and aura had been maturing inside if all these years. He didn't care about the specifics of how or why, she was his final hope now and he had to believe one day she'd open her eyes. He slid down the wall, staring past the tube at nothing in particular. "Pyr, I'm home" he sighed, finally deciding he was too far gone to call anywhere home but here.
A/N: Not as happy with attempt 2, will revisit eventually.