Author's note: My writer's block is becoming more severe, and I'm having a very hard time moving this story along. On top of school, life and just getting sick today (as in the day that I posted this chapter) it's very hard trying to stick to a schedule. Well, on to write some oneshots until I fall asleep.
Her lungs burned, her muscles ached and her heart felt like it was being torn out. The remains of the last training bot fell to the floor before she collapsed. 'I didn't mean it,' the Spartan thought to herself.
'If I die on this mission, it's as if the world corrects itself…' his words rang clearly in her mind.
"When I told him to disappear, I didn't mean for him to die!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she aimlessly threw her spear, impaling itself into the wall moments later.
"It's not your fault," a deep voice came from the entrance of the training room. Pyrrha turned to see Ren standing walking towards her. "We all saw Jaune's depression, but most of us made no effort to help him. Even after he started dating Weiss, he only seemed to get worse."
"It may not be my fault, but we're his team," Pyrrha started, "he only got more and more depressed and I pushed him away when I know he needed us the most."
"So what are we going to do?" Ren asked.
"I don't know, Ren," Pyrrha timidly replied, "I've been so lost, and I just can't help but blame myself."
"You have to stop blaming yourself, Pyrrha," Ren tried to comfort the young prodigy.
"How could I not?!" Pyrrha screamed, "Before he left, I told him to disappear. What if he intentionally died while fighting? And if he did, what if he did it because I told him that?"
"Pyrrha, it was a recon mission and the outpost closest to him was attacked," Ren reminded Pyrrha, "if he died, he most likely stumbled upon something important and was caught by the enemy."
Pyrrha stayed silent, pondering on what her teammate had said.
"So, what are we going to do?" Ren asked once more.
Steeling her nerves and quickly forgiving herself, she firmly stated, "We're going to find the ones responsible and we're going to make them pay."
"Our team needs leader in place of Jaune, Pyrrha," Ren smiled.
"And Nora needs to shatter some kneecaps!" their last teammate exclaimed as she came flying through the entrance of the training room, "Forget the legs, the kneecaps don't heal."
"So where do we start?" Ren asked in a knowing tone.
"I'm sure team RWBY is still investigating the White Fang on their own," Pyrrha thought out loud. "Maybe the White Fang and Roman Torchwick are related to Jaune's disappearance."
"Great, Pyrrha you should go meet with Team RWBY, Nora and I will meet with Professor Ozpin and find out what we can," Ren suggested.
"We should probably leave Ruby out of this," Nora spoke.
"Why's that?" Ren answered.
"Ruby's not really taking it very well, and between trying to comfort Weiss and her own feelings, she's a mess," Nora worriedly said.
"I guess I'll just meet with Blake and Yang," Pyrrha said before walking off.
"You're saying they're connected?" Blake skeptically asked.
"Think about it, Jaune's mission was just recon, so he shouldn't even be fighting and not only that, the closest outpost was attacked," Pyrrha explained.
"It does make sense," Yang chimed in. "First the White Fang is attacking more often, then the train incident, and now Jaune stumbles on what might be going on. Maybe whoever's behind all this attacked the outpost so he couldn't call for help, then kill him to shut him up?"
"So what should we do? Roman's in jail and we have no leads," Blake reminded them of the situation.
"We find someone and we make them talk," Yang suggested, "We'll eventually find someone who'll tell us who to hunt down."
"But what should we do about Weiss and Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, "They're both pretty shaken up about losing Jaune."
"I wouldn't say Weiss is affected as much as Ruby, but I say we should let them sit this out for a while," Yang said, "I don't think Ruby could even fire Crescent Rose without flying from the recoil right now."
"I guess Nora's right," Pyrrha muttered. "So where do we start?"
"I have a few connections we can exhaust," Blake said.
"Great, we'll meet up with Ren and Nora after they finish getting some information from Ozpin," Pyrrha said.
"It's exactly as I told you," Ozpin wearily said, "Vale outpost 17 was attacked, and we've lost contact with mister Arc. We're working on borrowing reinforcements from Atlas to locate him, but at the moment he's missing in action."
"Then can you tell us if this is connected with the White Fang?" Ren asked.
"There's not enough evidence to prove it is," the headmaster answered, "but judging by the firepower and dust they've collected, I've got a sneaking suspicion that someone's preparing for something bigger."
"What do you mean?" Nora asked, "Like war?"
"It seems so," Ozpin said, "thousands of Atlesian mech suits have been liberated, several tons of dust propellant stolen from the Schnee dust company, and not to mention the train incident."
"Is there anything more?" Ren pressed.
"I'm sorry, but there isn't," Ozpin replied. "I know you two and Miss Nikos are upset about your leader's disappearance and want to do something about it, but there isn't much I can do. I'd love you to give you a mission, but to Vale's council, there doesn't appear to be an objective and it would never be approved."
"Thank you headmaster, I'm sorry for wasting your time," Ren apologized before leaving with Nora.
"You know, if I were to investigate it myself, which I would encourage against it, I would start with finding out who's behind all the attacks," Ozpin said before the door to his office closed.
"What do you think he meant?" Nora asked her partner, "We already know it's the White Fang."
"He means that someone's coordinating these attacks," Ren said. "The members of the White Fang probably don't even know what they're planning, thinking that these attacks are violent protests against the Schnee Dust Company."
"Ooh, I get it," Nora said as she put together the pieces, "We need to tell the others!"
"Jaune, wake up," The blonde knight felt water splash against his face, causing him to jolt from his unconscious state.
"What the hell, Bedlam?!" Jaune exclaimed.
"You were out for days and I tried everything I could think of to wake you up," the dust mage said as he handed Jaune a plate of potatoes and sliced chicken and a towel.
"Anything interesting happen while I was taking a nap?" Jaune asked as he dug into the food.
"Well," Bedlam twiddled his fingers nervously, "Kane, the most powerful one of my brothers has just woken up, and I'm pretty sure whoever released him from his seal is working on finding the others."
"And suddenly I'm not hungry anymore," Jaune put the plate down and continued to dry himself, "Hypothetically, what would happen if the surviving devil grimm wake up and are released?"
"Let's not think about that right now," Bedlam avoided the subject.
"It's that bad, huh?" Jaune spoke to himself. "Well, if they were released, how would one fight back?"
"This time it's different, Jaune. When Beltran defeated them, they were caught off guard and were defeated one a time," Bedlam explained. "They're waking up now, and are probably preparing for war."
'It's probably the White Fang, or whoever's coordinating the attacks,' Jaune thought to himself.
"A large number of grimm are being created, yet none of them have mindlessly attacked any humans yet," Bedlam continued, "they're waiting."
"How did Beltran kill any of your brothers?" Jaune asked.
"Besides the sword to subdue them and the semblance to protect himself, I gave him a spear to locate the others and a scythe to dissipate their aura," Bedlam said.
"But this is the only thing that was passed down in my family," Jaune said, holding up his family heirloom. "I have never head of a spear or a scythe being used by any of my family members."
"That's because the scythe was destroyed by Kane and the spear was hidden so nobody would be able to find the ones that couldn't be killed," Bedlam said.
"I'm barely proficient with a sword, you expect me to use a spear and scythe too?!" Jaune yelled in frustration. As Bedlam opened his mouth to answer, he was cut off, "Don't, I already know what you're going to say. I've read too many fantasy books and watched too much anime to know where this is going."
"Try me," Bedlam raised an eyebrow.
"You're going to ask if I know anyone 'skilled enough to wield these weapons of great power' or something like that," Jaune replied.
"Actually I was just gonna say, beat the crap out of them and behead them with the scythe," Bedlam laughed. "But your idea sounds better."
"Oh, seems easy enough," Jaune chuckled, "but you said the scythe was destroyed, are you gonna give me a new enchanted scythe?"
"Actually, I was just gonna give you a mixture of dust that you could mix into a metal alloy," Bedlam pulled out a metal canister of what Jaune assumed was dust. "Be very careful with this, this dust doesn't explode, but it is very potent. I don't want it falling into the wrong hands. As for the spear, last I checked, the Nikos family bought it several generations ago."
"That means I need to get back to Vale yesterday," Jaune spoke to no one in particular.
"About that," Bedlam said, "I was playing around with your scroll and it seems that the communication channel with this 'outpost 17' went dead."
"That means I'm stuck out here," calmly stated, "are there any other kingdom outposts nearby?"
"The closest one is about nine hundred miles west of here," Bedlam said as he marked the location on the device. Handing the knight his belongings, the dust mage bid him one last farewell, "Crocea Mors, it means yellow death in Latin, fitting for a knight named Jaune Arc, which means yellow protector in French. I wish you the best and if you ever need my help, don't hesitate to call, Ash knows how to get here."
"Thanks Bedlam, for everything," Jaune said as he walked to the front door. Calling for Ash to join him, the pair left and the door dissolved behind them.