Hospital
Another swing of her sword and another charred, smoking corpse falling to the ground. Needless to say, the Grimm didn't know what hit them.
When the village West of Sector 3 called in a massive Grimm presence heading towards them, only team JNPR remained available to cover the inhabitant's evacuation.
This attack was not the typical result of a mindless horde of the nightmarish Grimm creatures attacking out of physcotic rage, but was disturbingly well organised, with the monsters tricking the local militia into pursuing a feint retreat, only to be completely overwhelmed by the true pack.
With no local defences left for the civilians and the Grimm advancing closer to the village, it was vital that General Ironwood have hunters on the ground to assist his men.
And that, was where JNPR came in.
Not even a few minutes in and the team had successfully slaughtered three waves of the fiends.
But each wave was worse than the last. The bulk of this pack is still out there
But if her team was worried, Pyrrha couldn't see it.
Ren was as quiet as ever, cleaning bit of dead Grimm ash off of his beloved StormFlower. Nora was swinging Magnhild around, swatting the many "broken" Grimm around them to clear the battlefield for the team.
And Jaune?
Jaune was scoping the area ahead for incoming Grimm forces. It was hard to picture him as the goofball "Vomit Boy" when he was standing atop three dead Ursai with an unusually confident grin on his face.
He's really stepped up as a leader
"Hey Ren, how many did you get? No never mind, probably like a gazillion or something like that knowing you", the hyperactive hammer wielder babbled.
"Nora, there were only about fifty attacking us", Ren replied, in his ever calm monotone.
"Only fifty gazillion!? Wow! I could have sworn there was a hundred gazillion! How much lien do you think we could make selling them as rugs? It would probably be a lot, like ten lien a rug. Hey! That would give us five hundred gazillion Lien to spend!"
Nora cocked her head in a daydream.
"Think of all the pancakes…", she sighed, drooling at the mouth.
Ren merely rolled his eyes and smiled at his partner's enthusiasm.
If Remnant offered a pancake for every dead Grimm, Nora would've ended these monsters a long time ago
"Hey Pyrrha, come take a look at this!", Jaune called out.
She climbed atop the makeshift lookout tower they'd made out of the fallen Grimm and stood beside him.
"Here, take a look and tell me what you see", Jaune said passing the binoculars to Pyrrha. By the tone of his voice, it was not good news.
Pyrrha looked through the binoculars to find what was bulk of Grimm host, apparently being led by a very large Beowolf Major. They were only a few klicks away and were moving fast.
"I see", she said, a mixture of bewilderment and fear present in her voice.
"Yeah, that's our target", Jaune responded.
"Nora, Ren, we have a plan to make", Jaune called out.
The four of them huddled up together, hunkered down on their knees as Jaune traced a battle plan in the dirt with his sword.
"Okay guys, were headin for the alpha wolf. There's no way we'll be able to take the whole horde, but if we take out the leader, they'll go back to be dumb and angry instead of clever and angry".
"Nora, you're the tank on this one. Draw their attention away us".
Nora cackled.
"Another wave of Grimm are gonna get broken", she grinned eagerly.
I can't believe I feel sorry for the Grimm
"Ren, you and me are gonna give Pyrrha cover. We'll flank her and help carve a path to the alpha.
"Understood".
"Pyrrha, you're up against the alpha, Ren and I will keep the others off you. Once you take it out, the Grimm will panic and General Ironwood's androids will wipe out the rest".
Pyrrha nodded.
This plan had to succeed. If JNPR couldn't take out this horde, then Ironwood's androids would be wiped out and that village would fall. That wasn't something Pyrrha was about to let that happen.
"All right guys. Let's go kick some Grimm butt!", Jaune yelled, holding his sword in the air.
The team raised their weapons high and charged into battle.
The front line Grimm beasts consisted of Creeps and Beowolves, with Ursai serving as the heavy infantry. Now, they'd been all but smashed by Nora's hammer. She'd managed to secure a well-fortified position in the forest, that allowed her to use the trees to stop the Grimm attacking her from either the sides or behind her. That left only a tight, bottleneck for them to charge at her, allowing her just pummel them up, one by one.
That had allowed Pyrrha, flanked by Ren and Jaune to charge past the first few waves of the Grimm and smash through the unsuspecting remaining Grimm. Ren took out the Nevermore scouts and disabled the vulnerable chinks in the Deathstalker's armour, crippling them, while Jaune held back and Boarbatusks and Ursai with his shield and striking at their unprotected underbellies.
And Pyrrha?
Well, she was Pyrrha. Nothing in her way really lasted that long.
They'd reached the alpha. It was easily three times taller than the rest of its kind and was made noticeable by the various protruding bones covering its body. It instantly recognised the team as the ones who'd been foiling its attack and unleashed a blood curdling howl as narrow red slits locked one to them, pulsating with rage.
Pyrrha raised her guard and pointed her javelin towards the beast.
"Cover me", she called to Jaune and Ren.
As her friends held back the guards, Pyrrha leapt towards the commander. The frist strike wasn't intended to hit the Beowolf. She knew it was far too clever to fall for a basic attack, so instead employed a feint. It dodged, but Pyrrha anticipated the reflex and positioned her shield for a brutal bash to the face, knocking teeth straight out of its jaws.
Enraged, the Beowolf responded out of irrational anger rather than calculation and used a blunt but powerful swipe. She took the hit, rolling with the blow and ending up underneath the creature. She then shortened Milo into sword form and sliced at the alpha's ankles, causing it to collapse.
The monster dropped on all fours for support. The young gladiator saw the vulnerable space between the shoulder plates and raised her sword for the killing blow.
Before she could plunge her blade into its back, the alpha leapt away from the sword, instead heading towards…
No. Jaune!
He was currently occupied fending off an Ursa and wouldn't see the alpha until it was too late.
Her heart racing, Pyrrha changed Milo into its rifle form and fired off shots at the alpha. The bullets merely bounced off its skeletal armour.
Petrified, Pyrrha tried to reach Jaune in time, but a flock of angry Nevermore chicks had homed in on her. She batted away the shrilling birds but there were too many.
The alpha was almost upon him now. All Pyrrha could do was call out to him.
"Jaune, look out behind you!", she yelled.
In that moment, Pyrrha didn't know if it was because the din of battle drowned her out, or in her haste to reach the beast she didn't call out in time. Either way, Jaune didn't turn around and for that mistake, he suffered a dire consequence.
Through teary eyes, Pyrrha watched on in horror, as the alphas claws pierced through Jaune's back. His face contorted in agonising pain, his eyes shut tight and his mouth wide, howling in pain and coughing up blood.
That's when it all came rushing back to Pyrrha.
My nightmare
The horrible dream she had over a week ago. This was the alpha she saw in her nightmare.
He wasn't hurt because I was quick to fight. He was hurt because I wasn't fast enough. It's all my fault
On a scale of one to ten of excruciating pain, Jaune was pretty certain the feeling of a Beowolf stabbing him in the back was at fifty.
It raised him up high, then tossed him violently to the ground.
Jaune groaned in pain, his ribs cracking upon impact with the floor and blood spewing from his mouth.
He tried desperately to crawl to his sword, but with every effort, his suffering increased.
With a heavy stomp, the alpha brought Jaune to the ground. If knocked the wind right out of him. He wasn't getting back up any time soon.
A cold hand griped his shoulder. Its razor sharp claws digging into his flesh and puncturing his skin.
The alpha turned Jaune over to face it. It raised its paw, stained in Jaune's own blood, gaining momentum for the killing blow.
Before Beacon, Jaune would've looked away and screamed.
Hell, he was still tempted to.
But he wasn't the boy he used to be. He was Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR.
If he was going to die, it would be as a Huntsman.
He focused his blue eyes right back at his enemy's crimson ones and spat right in its face.
It snarled. He smiled.
Its paw hurtled towards his head at lightning speed, until it was cut short by a flash of red and bronze steel. In a movement faster than reason, the paw and its owners head toppled to the ground, severed from the body. The space were the wolf's head used to be revealed a very tired and sacred Pyrrha, covered in scratches and ash, her emerald eyes shimmering with tears at the sight of Jaune's broken body.
As the blonde boy fell, she dived to catch him, breaking his fall.
She cradled him close to her, her eyes pleading with his, begging them not to close.
"Jaune…", she just about said, a clear hitch in her voice.
No Pyrrha. Please don't do this to yourself. Not for me
It had been his own damn fault. It was his plan, he'd left her alone and left himself exposed. And now he knew that if he didn't stay with her, Pyrrha was going to blame herself for his mistake.
She was like that. Sometimes he would wish she would stop thinking about everyone else. For her sake. But that was Pyrrha for you.
Incredible.
Jaune could feel himself slipping.
No don't you dare. Don't dare leave her like this! You can't do this to her!
"Jaune", she whimpered. "It's…it's okay Jaune. Look, the Grimm are falling back, see? Ironwood's androids are wiping them out, we saved the village. We're going to…", she swallowed a lump in her throat.
"We're going to get you some help. You'll be fine Jaune. Just please…please stay with me".
Jaune's heart was being torn apart with every word she said.
He used all of his might to stay awake. He strained to talk, but managed to form the words he needed to say.
"Pyrrha…"
"No, don't talk. Just breathe. You need to stay…"
"Pyrrha….want you to know…being your partner…your friend…best thing that's ever happened to me in my whole life. Don't ever…ever blame yourself…."
He reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"Pyrrha…I should have said this to you at the dance…been an idiot waiting this long…"
"Jaune please just hang on! Please", Pyrrha shrieked.
Ren and Nora walked towards Pyrrha and Jaune as Ironwood's force cleared the Grimm.
"Well I think victory pancakes are in order. Dibs on the syr-…",
As soon as the pair caught sight of Jaune, they hurried towards their leader. Nora frantically called for a medic, demanding someone help them.
"Medic! Medic! We need help NOW!"
"Jaune, Pyrrha, what happened?"
Pyrrha looked to Ren. She knew what to say but her heart just didn't want the words to be said.
"I'll get help", Ren said, as he dashed to the nearest shuttle he could.
"Pyrrha…I…I…I lov…"
His eyelids became so heavy. Too heavy to fight any more. His muscles gave out and the lack of blood had exhausted him. As his vision faded, the last sight Jaune caught was Pyrrha's tear stained face.
Only one thing came to his mind before all faded to black.
I love you Pyrrha Nikos.
Then silence fell and all was dark.
Three days.
Three days, Pyrrha waited outside those horrible, white doors.
Three days her mind haunted her with images of her partner under the scalpel in the operating theatre.
Three days hauned by what he said.
Or rather, what he never got to say. What she was robbed of.
He was going to say it. He was going to say he loved…
Pyrrha was pulled back to reality be Nora patting her shoulder. She offered a supportive smile and a hot coffee.
The red head gave her the best smile she could.
"He's going to be fine".
"He was going to say it Nora. He was going to tell me…he was so close".
"And from what I heard he also told you not to blame yourself".
Nora placed her hand on Pyrrha's trembling one.
"So please. For Jaune, for the team and for you, please get some sleep or eat something. You've been here for three days. Me or Ren will tell you if he wakes up".
Pyrrha was tempted to.
God she hadn't had a good meal in a while.
And her eyes were so, so sore from staying awake.
But she couldn't.
I have to be the first person he sees when he wakes up
I have to know he was serious
"Thank you Nora. But I…"
The doors swung open, revealing a doctor with long chocolate brown hair and a large pair of faunus ears.
The girls looked up at the woman in white, Pyrrha clasping Nora's hands for support, bracing for support.
"Miss Nikos", the doctor said.
"Yes?"
"I have good news", she said through a smile as warm as a Summer's day.
"Your friend is alive and is on his way to recovering. Though he will need quite a bit of rest for the time being".
"May I go see him? Please, I just want a minute".
"Normally we don't allow visitors after the patient has just left theatre. Especially seeing as this particular case involved such…severe damage".
Pyrrha looked down at the floor , gloomily.
The doctor then approached Pyrrha.
"I seem to recall however, that my niece Velvet spoke quite a bit about you two. And that it was you and mister Arc who helped her deal with that dreadful lout Cardin Winchester".
"You know Cardin?", Nora interjected.
"He's three wards down with broken legs screaming about sharks".
Nora looked pleadingly at Pyrrha.
"Yes Nora, you can go".
"Whoo hoo! I'm gonna practice on the way there. Duh dum. Duh dum. Duh dum, duh dum".
The doctor smiled.
"Well, seeing as I just broke patient confidentiality to ruin my niece's tormentor's day, why don't we see if we can't get you that minute you asked for".
"Thank you so much doctor…"
"Scarlatina. Doctor Maisy Scarlatina. And you'll never need to thank me. My niece has been so scared of thugs like mister Winchester for too long. It's people like you and mister Arc, people who don't see an outsider but a person that has made her happy".
That's Jaune. He always see's what no one else can
"Your friend is in the Gray Wing".
Pyrrha nodded, appreciatively and hurried down the corridors to find Jaune.
Pyrrha looked Jaune, his body unsettlingly still.
It pained her to see him like this. So lifeless. A shell of the wonderful, goofy, oblivious kind boy she was proud to call friend.
She placed a hand to his face, shuddering at how cold to the touch it was.
Then, she knelt down and whispered to him, in hopes of reaching him wherever he was.
"Jaune, I don't know if you can hear me, but I need to say this anyway. If I never get another chance and I don't do this now, I'm going to go insane".
She moved a little closer, insuring only she and Jaune could be party to this moment.
Just us. For once just us
"I want you to know Jaune, I'll be waiting for you. No matter how long it takes, when you wake I will be here for you. Because…"
Her voice hitched, but she had to say it.
"Because I love you Jaune Arc".
Nora arrived shortly to walk Pyrrha out.
Reluctantly, she parted from Jaune's still unconscious form.
Had she stayed a moment longer, she may have noticed a single tear, trickling down the face of Jaune Arc.